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View Full Version : My Disneyland Vacation *Spoilers* (HM)



Jon Vincible
12-15-2001, 05:54 PM
Ah, just got back 2 hours ago from my weeklong Disneyland vacation. What a trip, i enjoyed most every minute of it. So much to say, where to begin, ah yes, with the trip there i suppose.
It was a bright and sunny day in San Jose CA, we had rented a Ford Windstar minivan for the trip down. It was a fairly smooth ride down, 'cept it was a little icy in the mountains. A van skidded out and nearly clipped our van, very scary. Eventually we arrived at the Paradise Peir Hotel (the lobby smells funny to me, my family didn't seem to notice) Floor 10, room 1010, parkside view. I was satisfied with what i saw in the 10 minutes we were taking our luggage up to our room. It was neat seeing DCA for the first time from up above. We had a great view of Paradise Pier. I conked out not so long after.
The next day was exciting to say the least, i would get my first glipse of Disneyland in over 2 years in about 2 hours. We got up early and drove down to Millie's Resturaunt. I like this place, though their buffet isn't very good. After a filling breakfast we made our way back to the hotel (after getting stopped to ask to see the back of the van, proper driver's liscence, and credit voucher) parking garage. We followed the little signs to the Downtown Disney monorail station. We waited in line (after getting our backpacks inspected) and eventually boarded the monorail. A nice ride, i saw for the first time the Indiana Jones show building (big green building with painted trees on it) and this just got me more excited. In a few short circles we were leaving the monorail, i was in Disneyland, for the first time in 2 years. Since half the park is closed during early admission we headed over to Fantasyland, rode a few of those rides until 10 o'clock roled around, then we headed for indy. The line was outrageous due to the opening rush so we decided to wait a bit, so we headed to the Haunted Mansion. I had already seen exterior shots of the Haunted Mansion Holiday but i was still very intrigued. We walked right on, the speil had already begun so i missed a little bit. I was kinda dissapointed in the stretching room because the pictures, well, didn't really look like they were stretching. The bottom halves aren't lit up 'cuz they don't match the rest of the picture, the skull lights were neat and so was jack. The Hallway to Limbo was neat too, the picture of the mansion changing from normal to holiday was my favorite. I liked the Merry/Scarry Christmas deal as well as jack and the major. One thing i never noticed though, i always knew there was a giant painted spided above where the doom buggies come out, but i never noticed that staircase before, ah well. So i'm on the ride, i really really enjoyed this ride. Having Zero replace the floating candalabra was neat, as well as the massive killer wreath. The replacement madame leato was done very well, but perhaps what i enjoyed most about this ride, was the ball room. The tree was awesome, as well as the floating Christmas tree of books (was there anything there before?). I did however miss my gun toating friends but they tastefully blocked where they once were. The attice was nicely done as well as the graveyard. Animatronic jack was outstanding, so vibrant and expressive. I like how the little spikey teeth doll thing replaced the raven in most of his scenes. My one and only complaint about the actual ride, was that in some places they made the mansion too bright, and you can see the ceiling. An example would be the very beginning where you see the little spikey tooth demon doll thing dangling a spider, you see the ceiling, i didn't like that. I realize with the sort of "cartoony" atmosphere the ride has it had to be a little brighter, but i think they could have dimmed the lights a little more. All in all a great ride, 4 stars, truly imagineering at its best.
The rest of my day was basically running from ride to ride enjoying myself. The next day however, was my first experience at DCA. My first impression of DCA came as we walked down DCA's answer to Main Street. It stunk, it smelled like baked paper (if you've ever had an experience where you left a McDonalds bag in the oven while cooking a casarole you know what this smells like), i dunno what i was, but it wreaked. Having taken the advice of many DCA goers i went to the Hollywood backlot first. We rode SuperStar Limmo which left me feeling very confused, i didn't hate the ride, but in no way did i like it, i just thought "what the heck was that? what just happened?". We then saw the muppet thing which was very entertaning. I didn't get a chance to to the Millionaire attraction, did i miss much? We then ate at that big place at the end there, nice food, i had a ceaser salad. So i left the Hollywood backlot w/out going to the Disney Animation place (wish i had tho) and proceeded to get fastpasses for Soarin'. After getting fastpasses we headed over to It's Tough to be a Bug. Now, to anyone who has experienced this attraction, you know what it's like. It's perfectly friendly and pleasent until Hopper takes over the show. They say this attraction may be frightening for young children, I WAS SCARED. It's downright terrifying, first i get jabbed in the back with something, then there's spiders all over the place, i'm covered in fog, my glasses are all wet, i was scared! So i saw it two more times right after, ya ya. Anywho, it was time for Soarin'. This ride rocked! It was so much fun! Such a simple idea but done so well. Despite the fact that there's some 5 smells, and i kept smelling only Oranges, i still loved it, great ride. The Grizzly River Run was fun too although the rubber handle in the center smelled very bad. All the rides in paradise pier were enjoyable but i didn't feel any Disney magic there. I had pretty much seen the park so we went back to our hotel through the Pardise Pier hotel exit and rested. The next day we went to Universal Studios which is all well and good but this is a Disneyland forum so i won't talk about that here. The next two days weren't quite as enjoyable as the first. It was much more crowded Thursday but i still got a ride on Indy. Now Friday was a bad day gone good. It rained horribly around 10 o'clock and it didn't really stop till around 5. However, Anehiem suffered a blackout and half the rides in Disneyland didn't work. I was sitting in the Toontown Gag Factory when it happened, the lights dimmed and flicked but then came back on. There was a good hour or so where NO RIDES WORKED! It was horrible, being our last day we didnt' want to just get our money back, or anything, so my brother and i stayed while my parents went back to the hotel to rest. We ran from ride to ride and eventually made it to splash mountain, no wait ofcourse. However, as you make the drop down to the "laughin' place" none of the animatronics were working, nor the music. It was kinda neat seeing it like this, but as we left the ride they said it was closed for inspection. Anywho, the day roled by and eventually all the rides were back up. That day pretty much sucked until i rode the haunted mansion. We were approaching the treadmill when i looked at the CM helping people into their "sleighs". I thought to myself... "hey, he kinda looks familiar...AHHHHHH It's MAYNARD!" Having never been successful at finding Maynard in the past this was very exciting. I got a quick photo with him (while on the treadmill) and i proceeded, awestruck, through my second to last ride on the Haunted Mansion Holiday. My brother hadn't realized who it was when he took the picture so we rode it again. For some reason (probably cuz of me) he had swapped places with the guy who was checking to make sure people were properly in their doom buggies before you ascend the stairs. I got another quick picture then proceeded down to Main Street to write my compliment. Meeting Maynard was definately the highlight of my trip. Now, to just get those pictures developed...

LIMANDL4EVA
12-15-2001, 06:17 PM
wow, glad you had so much fun!:D

Jon Vincible
12-15-2001, 07:46 PM
So, what did you guys think of the "new" stretching room? You know my opinion but i don't recall any major thoughs about it. Oh yeah, btw, the Jungle Cruise was closed for a refurbishment while i was there. They had tarps and wooden walls put up to completely block the view of it. I peaked through the tarbs however and saw that they had completely emptied the canal, should've taken a picture.

tjrj
12-16-2001, 08:10 AM
Good job on the trip report. We've been back for almost 2 weeks and I still haven't done ours. There's this little thing called "Christmas" that has me booked! I too was a bit disappointed in the stretch room for HM-but the rest of the attraction is just the best! I would say that you missed something not doing Millionaire-I bragged that I got up to 9th on the board so I was pretty happy, don't think I'd have the courage to actually be in front of people. Also you didn't mention "Blast"-did you see it? Not-to-be-missed in my book.

Jon Vincible
12-16-2001, 09:09 AM
I didn't get a chance to see Blast, i really wanted to though. The day we were in DCA it wasn't playing, though it might've been on thursday or friday.