Thursday, December 22, 2011

The Wonderful World of Disney!


We spent Sunday at Disneyland!
I went to Disneyland when I was 15 (and also Tokyo Disney when I was 1) so I knew how good it was going to be. But, the thing that struck me most as a grown-up is the incredible detail they go to in everything! I thought the magic would be a little lost a 29 year old, but instead I had new respect for the lengths gone to, to make such a creative and fun experience.
Disneyland was also decorated for Christmas... and they do Christmas really well!

The highlights of my day were Space Mountain (super fast rollercoaster through the stars), the Toy Story ride (where I got to play against Tracey to shoot lasers at Zurg), the train ride... I forget it's real name, but it was a train that wemt around a mountain (and there was even a goat), Indiana Jones (because I got to be the 'driver' mwahahaha) and the night show that we saw completely  by accident, with really good seats!! They used fireworks and snow and characters and water! It was amazing what they did with water! At some points they sprayed it up to make a kind of screen and projected scenes from Disney movies on to it. I think I might trade my tv for water jets. So much cooler!

Probably the things that weren't as fun were the lines and the walking. We were both exhausted by the end of the day from the walking that had to be done to get from ride to ride. And if you didn't have a fastpass for a particular ride sometimes the lines could take over an hour.

On Monday the magic continued (for me anyway). Tracey decided she needed a rest day so the days of self-portrait photography began at California Adventure Park. I accidentally discovered at the first ride of the day that there was a 'Single Rider Line' at some of the rides. This meant that I could go in a fast lane and whenever there was a spare single seat on a ride (like if there was a group of odd people...um... or an odd number of people) then I could slot right in! Easy! I saved myself over 45 minutes of waiting a whole bunch of times.

California Adventure Park is nowhere near as big as Disneyland, but the rides were still fun! My favourite two were California Screamin' - a huge rollercoaster, and Toy Mania - another Toy Story ride where you get to shoot things, only this time wearing 3D glasses and shooting digital ammo that changes from eggs, to darts, to cream pies and such. so fun! (though the line for this was at least an hour long and had no single rider lane). I also saw a few cool 4D shows - Muppets and Bugs. The scariest ride was the Hollywood Tower Hotel. It was impossible to know if the next move was going to be up or a sudden drop. eeek! Once was enough on this ride!

The only down side of Monday was losing my phone. But it was funny trying to explain to the Lost and Found guy that I leave the country in the morning and that I have no permanent address until January 20th...and now that my phone is missing I am only contactable by email. (since then my phone has turned up, so don't panic everyone, and is in the hands of my sister. Hopefully it will find me soon!)

The night show was brilliant again! It mostly used water and colour and movie-projectioning, with a few fireballs and bubbles thrown in for extra effects! The creativity and skill amazed me!

Disney once again lived up to it's magical name!

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