It's a California Adventure! (with added Las Vegas) Day 12

[Lizzybear]

Pre-trip
Day 1
Day 2
Day 3
Day 4
Day 5
Day 6
Day 7
Day 8
Day 9
Day 10
Day 11

28th September 2008

Up early today as we wanted to set off handy for Six Flags Magic Mountain, so at 8:45am we were on our way and arrived at 9:20am (the traffic isn't bad at all going out of LA, plus it was the weekend) We had to queue for a bit before the park opened at 10am so, armed with maps, we made a beeline for the Flashpass pickup point as soon as we were through the turnstiles. Now would be a good time to mention that it was 99 degrees farenheit today! Six Flags is basically in the middle of the desert and there is very little shade in the park itself so the heat is intense to say the least. We decided to go on X2 first which already had quite a queue built up. I have to say that I hate how Six Flags force you to pay $1 per locker rental for every single ride, plus you have to exchange 4 quarters for a stupid token which is inconvenient when they only have one machine and the person in front can't follow simple instructions (not that this happened or anything, hmm!) I know they charge much less for admission than Disney but in my opinion there's just something nice about not having loads of hidden extras once you're inside a park (I don't count souvenirs as they don't affect if you can go on rides or not!) Another thing is that the Flashpasses aren't valid on most of the 4 very popular rides and in hindsight I wouldn't have bothered buying them as I only used one ticket for Tatsu but of course you live and learn! Six Flags is only open at weekends during 'off season' but it wasn't horribly busy on the Sunday we visited and I get the impression from others that this is pretty usual. We ended up giving the rest of our tickets away to a family with 7 kids who were arriving as we were leaving so hopefully they found a use for the remaining 7 tickets..! Right, back to X2: We rode this (awesome and really different to any other coaster i've been on) and then Scream before Steve started to feel ill. We decided to stop for a drink and a brownie as we hadn't had any breakfast and also to plan which rides to do (to be honest in the excitement of Disneyland planning, Six Flags sort of fell by the wayside) Steve felt the same in Busch Gardens last year, I think it's the combination of intense heat and coasters. I rode Colossus and Riddler's Revenge on my own and queued for Deja Vu but it started having technical problems so it wasn't to be. After that I used a Flashpass for Tatsu and since Steve thought he was feeling better we rode Viper together but afterwards he felt ill again. Although it was only 2pm at that point we decided to just call it a day.. Steve said he didn't mind waiting while I went on more rides but my heart wasn't really in riding coasters alone and if i'm honest the promise of Disneyland later that day was almost more than I could stand! Six Flags hadn't originally been planned for this day as I didn't know about the weekend only opening but this ended up being the only day I could swap it to, not ideal but since the tickets were nonrefundable it seemed a shame not to use them. On the way out I went on the Carousel and we both got a T-shirt from the gift shop (only $10 each and good for smug wearing purposes at Alton Towers!) and I got a California state magnet. Hopefully we can return at some point and really do the park justice.. I know not every day of a holiday is going to be perfect and a total success so I try to include the good, so so and bad in my reports. We stopped at

for some lunch/dinner (meatloaf and mash for me and veggie burger for Steve, really lovely and the bill was $36) before driving to Anaheim. Traffic was variable.. If you hit this route at the wrong time you can be at a standstill for ages so I was pleased that we did the drive in just over an hour. We arrived at our hotel for the next 4 nights (Fairfield Inn) and checked in, freshened up and headed back out to Disneyland (yay!) Even some very rude people with no 'lift etiquette' didn't dampen my spirits!

Picture in the hotel room

Disneyland is unlike Walt Disney World in that it's right near a main road, not tucked away in the least!

Crossing the road, so excited!!

We queued at the ticket window to exchange our vouchers for 3 day hoppers and the man who served us was very nice, even when some woman pushed in to ask a question he politely put her in her place and rightly so! Since Steve works in customer service aswell they had a little rant about 'some people' and the man gave us both 'honorary citizen of Disneyland' badges, yay!

The Halloween decorations were fantastic

We're definitely here now

The parade was actually due to start at 6:30pm and as it was 5:50pm we decided to stake out a good spot. Whilst it was busy it wasn't unbearably so and certainly not 'peak season bad' Steve got us some drinks and a CM came anc chatted to us for a bit which all passed the time really quickly and it was soon time for the parade which was very cute..

If i'm honest i'm disappointed with our Disneyland pictures.. I let Steve take them all as he has the better camera but now I wish i'd taken them instead, lesson learnt I suppose!

 

[Lizzybear]

Typical Disneyland Sunday

Once the parade had finished it was time for some rides! Some had long waits and Pirates of the Caribbean was down, much to my horror, so we decided on a couple which had shorter queues: Jungle Cruise and Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh (where I bought my long-awaited Tigger Tail -basically marshmallows on a stick coated in caramel and orange chocolate- and a chocolate caramel pretzel thingy for later)

I actually had a coffee cup in my pocket here because I thought you needed to keep it to have free refills, yes you may all laugh now!

Next we went on the Carousel, where Steve spotted a minor celebrity, probably won't mean much to most people reading this but it was one of his favourite holiday memories!

Hey look a hidden Mickey (or something!)

 

[Lizzybear]

This picture and the next few were taken earlier, in case you're wondering how it got light again so fast!

It was getting close to fireworks time so we got a coffee refill and and staked out some seats (well, bits of pavement!) for waiting on before they began. I'd been listening to the Remember Dreams Come True theme on mp3 for ages before our trip and knew it off by heart but it goes without saying that it's totally different with the fireworks in the background, definite goosebumps!

After the fireworks we headed towards Tomorrowland and went on Buzz Lightyear's Astro Blasters and the Finding Nemo Submarine Voyage (both had rare short waits!) I also bought a Boo doll and 2 pins and managed to trade some of my lanyard pins for some really cool ones. The rest of the evening was spent wandering around taking in the atmosphere as well as more night time pictures, since we had two more full days at Disneyland yet and didn't feel the need to rush around at this point. At about 11:30pm we called it a day and Steve got an IHOP meal to take out on the way back to the hotel (pancakes, hashbrowns and scrambled eggs.. Or brinner as they would say on Scrubs!) First impressions of Disneyland were excellent and I couldn't wait to return.

Just a few more pictures I found from this day but forgot to include earlier...

Apparently these letters will be going soon in the DCA overhaul, aww =[

There's no S in California!

 

[natalielongstaff]

ok so know i need to know what happened in the lift !!!

 

[Minniespal]

Another great report with lovely photos.

 

[Lizzybear]

ok so know i need to know what happened in the lift !!!

There was quite a few people waiting for a lift, many with luggage, and a group of people who had just arrived walked straight in to the next empty lift when it was clear that others had been waiting longer

 

[natalielongstaff]

There was quite a few people waiting for a lift, many with luggage, and a group of people who had just arrived walked straight in to the next empty lift when it was clear that others had been waiting longer

Tut Tut

 

[fizz13]

wow!! I just managed to get through all your reports, what a fantastic adventure you guys had, so glad I stopped by to have a read. You must have so many fav memories to choose from, and have made me a tad green eyed has to be said. cant wait to read more

 

[mark&sue]

so many great photos. such a shame steve felt so ill in the morning


susan

 

[cap'njack.]

Disneyland looks amazing...I have no idea who the minor celeb was that you saw though

 

[florida sun]

Great day, who was the Minor Celeb??

 

[SusanEllen]

Lizzy, you might have taken more or different photos than Steve, but his are really very nice. I especially like the black and white shot of the Blue Ribbon Bakery--very arty and appropriately spooky for the Halloween theme. Like cap'njack I'd like to know who the celebrity is.

And one more thing--you said in the first segment of this day's report "Disneyland is unlike Walt Disney World in that it's right near a main road, not tucked away in the least!" Just want to point out that when Disneyland was built in the mid 1950s it was in the middle of acres of orange groves. All of those buildings, roads and assorted urban development encroached on that precious piece of Disney property after the fact (but rapidly we can be sure). Walt and Roy were mortgaged to the hilt just getting Disneyland open and could only watch as developers snapped up the land surrounding the park. By the time they recovered financially, the price of real estate in the neighborhood of Disneyland was out of sight. That's the reason that the farmers in Florida weren't told that it was Disney that wanted to buy all that swampy land in Orlando, so that the Company could get the land at the going rate--not rates hiked because it was Disney! That mess around Disneyland is also why Walt insisted on the enormous green area between WDW and the outside world, so that couldn't ever happen again. It is jolting to slide off the freeway and right into Disneyland without a transition, isn't it? I think the Imagineers have done an admirable job once you get in the CA parks of shielding you from the world that's just on the other side of the fence, wall, trees, etc.