3:00 p.m.—We are allowed to enter the line for Pirates of the Caribbean. Loading goes slowly, but it’s still much better than it would have been if we’d stood in the standby line. A few minutes later, we’re climbing aboard our sailing vessel.
3:08 p.m.—The whole feel of Pirates is completely different than the WDW version. The Disneyland ride eases you into things with a trip around a Louisiana bayou, a great extension of the New Orleans Square theme. We float along, slightly jealous of those customers eating at the Blue Bayou restaurant across the way, to the sound of crickets and soft banjo plucking. It takes a couple of minutes before you leave the bayou and hit not one, but two drops (my kids thought it was fantastic, having an extra drop) and then enter the familiar pirates world we all remember. It’s a much longer, much more immersive experience that blows away its WDW counterpart.
[\QUOTE] But the DL version does not cut the tips off fingers...
—So we’ve crossed a few of the must-see rides off of our list. Time is starting to run short, as we have a 4:20 return time for Space Mountain, a 5:20 dinner reservation, and a 5:50 return time for Radiator Springs Racers. Crowds are still bad everywhere we look. I take a quick peek at the Indiana Jones ride as we go past, and it’s a 45-minute standby wait. Can’t get another FP yet, either—and by the looks of things, they’re going fairly quickly. I start to worry that they’ll run out before I can get one.
that is some timed schedule, if I did not know better I would say that you and Princess In OZ, have been taught by the same planner...
3:35 p.m.—We’ve made our way back to the central hub of the park, and Alison asks if we’d like to have our obligatory family photo in front of the castle. Seems like as good a time as any. So we hand her the camera and set up our pose. As you can see, Alison knows how to properly frame a picture, as well as take multiple shots with different zooms so you have options. At the very least, she’s been reading my TR’s where I complain about poor amateur photography from random strangers. If memory serves, she even made a crack about me being too demanding while we were taking our photos. I probably deserved it.
Once that’s done, the kids move away and we ask Alison to join us, since we kind of don’t have any photo record of our visit with her yet. Better late than never!
[\QUOTE] Love the pictures and I believe Alison might have complained about a photo or two before. I have almost given up on people taking ours. Unless of course I see them with a DSLR, then they are fair game.
—The line for the monorail is a bit longer than we’d hoped. And once again, we’re outside in the heat with no shade. Poor Alison looks tired—we’ve been running her ragged back and forth across the park all day. At this point, she probably thinks we’re the most psychotic vacationers ever. And she might not be wrong.[\QUOTE]
The monorail looks so different in DL. I have only been there once and it was many moons ago. I think it was 1987 or 88... I am sure a lot of things have changed since then.
4:35 p.m.—Once again, I have to give the edge for the ride to Disneyland. Space Mountain here has 2-seat vehicles instead of the single-rider versions in Florida. So you can ride with a buddy. It also has a custom musical score timed to give the ride a perfect soundtrack, written by top-notch composer Michael Giacchino (who has written the scores for the new Star Trek and Mission: Impossible movies as well as being Pixar’s go-to guy for music: The Incredibles, Ratatouille, Up, Cars 2, etc.). And it somehow manages to be a smoother ride than the WDW version while also feeling incredibly fast. I have no idea if it actually is faster than the Florida counterpart, but it sure felt that way. Even better: all of the kids loved it. We’re blossoming into coaster junkies![\QUOTE]
I like that new moniker "Coaster Junkies"
4:50 p.m.—Another ride conquered, we wait a bit for Julie to show up with Baby Drew. When we do find her, she informs us that the monorail wasn’t air-conditioned, and it was packed with people, so the ride wasn’t necessarily as relaxing and enjoyable as she thought it would be. This is professional-level guilt tripping, and it’s working like a charm. But she also says we never would have made it to dinner on time if we’d ridden it, so I’m feeling better about the decision to bail.
[\QUOTE] no air conditioning.... UGHHH That would be rough. On a hot day like that with the crowds.
We’re here for one reason. We want the Monte Cristo sandwich. Julie and I are suckers for Monte Cristo sandwiches. We’ve even knocked our own kids out of the way just to get a few extra bites for ourselves.
Hey they are your kids. So you got to do what you got to do.
Truly, the best father award goes to you
Amazing magical powers!
