Disneyland

I managed to get from Grand Canyon to Vegas then Vegas to LA. All I’ll say about Vegas is I was there for a few days and did stuff, I’m too far behind and unmotivated to recap it here.

Wandered down the road to Disneyland today. It’s a short walk from my hotel (which is nice) and I arrived just as the park opened. I picked up a two day park hopper pass which gives me plenty of time to go through both Disneyland and California Adventure.

Entering Disneyland I decided to navigate the park clockwise starting with Adventureland. There was no noticeable line for the Indiana Jones ride so I went for that first. The scope and size of the ride was pretty impressive even if it was all a bit by the numbers. There are three paths for the ride, when I’m back at the park early I might try it again to see if I get a different one.

After the Jungle Cruise I skipped Tarzan’s Tree House and went on to Pirates of the Caribbean. I never realised that it was all indoors and animatronic,  always figured it would be outdoors with actors. Whilst it’s showing it’s age I had a lot of fun. Jack Sparrow pops up all over the place in a where’s Wally sort of fashion. I took some photos but none really turned out, movement and low light seem to be my camera’s kryptonite unfortunately.

After meandering through Fantasyland and Toontown I moved on to Tomorrowland. There was a Jedi Training show that made me wish I was 10 regardless of the numerous inaccuracies. Star Tours was ok for one of those rides that moves around without actually going anywhere.

After finishing up in Disneyland I headed over to the California Adventure park. I’m not really much of a scary ride person so there wasn’t heaps to for me to do there. I did go to the Muppets 3D show which I enjoyed a lot and the Monsters Inc. ride which I enjoyed less. I wandered around for an hour or so before I decided to check out Downtown Disney.

After a cup of coffee and a little window shopping it was time to head back to Disneyland for the Christmas Parade and fireworks.

The Parade was the same as they have at Movieworld back home just swapped the Warner characters with Disney ones. They played the same Christmas song over and over again for 30 minutes which got pretty annoying. The Disneyland Castle looked pretty spectacular at night and it was decked out with Christmas decoration. I found myself a good spot and waited for the fireworks. They were very well done, I saw a couple of things I hadn’t seen before including the signature Disney shooting star arching over the top of the Castle.

I’ve still got another day at the parks, but I don’t have to do it tomorrow. So I may do some of the Hollywood stuff tomorrow and revisit the parks later in the week.