First visit to TDL - September 2013

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Actual magic happens in this room

Our second ride on the Tower was just as brilliant, the views of the park are absolutely stunning and the airtime is insane. I don't think I'll ever figure out how the trick in the pre-show works though. Attractions Magazine posted a video of it earlier in the year...

Spoiler

[youtube]

We then browsed a couple of stores before having to leave the park. I love DisneySEA, it's just incredible, even more elaborate and exciting as I had imagined it would be. I was really looking forward to our third and final day at the Disney resort, crossing everything in the hope that we'd be able to get to see Fantasmic....

 

[Laurenciaa]

Wow I've seen many pictures of WDW that I really liked but these of DisneySEA... How NICE is it there?? Really pretty !

 

[dennis-in-ct]

thanks for a wonderful trip report !!

 

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Day 7 - 13th September

It was yet another early start to catch the other eager Disney guests at the long queues waiting to get into the Disneyland Park.

So gross

Once in a queue we were able to spot loads of people dressed up again.

Before long we were back inside the World Bazaar being told to not run. We had a different approach to our last day at the park, it felt a lot more relaxed with half a day in each park. We were able to really explore both parks a bit better, it's the way I like to experience Disney parks. Anyway, we started by going off to the left and into Adventureland.

We started our day by walking straight on to Pirates of the Caribbean. It's still fun despite my minor issues with it and it's always nice to walk straight onto any ride.

Moving our way up the left hand side of the park we then came across Big Thunder Mountain. It was advertising a small wait despite the area looking rather busy. We joined the ever-moving queue and before long we were on board. As I mentioned previously, this Big Thunder Mountain is really good fun.

We then ventured to the back of the park for Splash Mountain.

 

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I can't remember how long we queued but it didn't feel too long once inside the mountain (just being out in the heat of the Sun can just make a queueline feel really long and horrible). I really loved the one in Florida and was expecting this one to be a complete replica. I think the only thing that was different was that loading was indoors and the indoor queue was more interesting.

I think the only other difference was that everything worked and just looked great. Yay for Splash Mountain and it's ridiculous amount of drops.

We then headed into Fantasyland where we decided to do Haunted Mansion again. Most of the queue is in the sun which is rather burdenous considering how hot it was out. (No idea on specifics but from what we gathered from weather reports on the trains it was reaching mid-30s every day). The queue felt like it was taking forever too, pretty sure it kept breaking down. Anyway we finally made it on the ride and it was still pretty cool.

We then went back over to Splash Mountain to use the single rider queue. Not only did we get to by-pass a massive queue but I was then put in amongst a group of 3 girls. Hilarity then ensued as they fought amongst themselves as to who would get to sit next to the English guy. Lots of school-girl giggling then happened for most of the ride. I couldn't stop smiling, I found the whole situation hilarious. After we got off the ride they all turned round to me, smiled and kept saying "thank you" and then as they were walking up the ramp one of them shouted "thank you" and they all waved goodbye and giggled away. Made my day.

We decided to use up the rest of our time in the Disneyland park in the Tomorrowland area. As we headed over there we got distracted by more amazing costumes...

Lovely castle

 

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I really like the design of their Tomorrowland

Oh yeah, it was time to visit the classic Captain EO. It was just as amazing and cheesy as always. The seats didn't dance though which was a shame.

Another 30th anniversary interactive thing

We went in search of food and we were going to try one of the more expensive places in the Bazaar but we found them a little lacking in interesting food and the queues were quite long. We ended up at the Refreshment corner. Nothing too exciting, just hot dogs. I had a world of cabbage, cheese and avocado. It was actually pretty spectacular as hot dogs go lol. Look at some pictures...

Snow White and her twin were also thinking of eating there

Umm, so, Sulley, Mike and Boo were just mincing around the bazaar

 

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The World Bazaar also has an old school penny arcade which we thought was pretty awesome.

They also have a magic shop filled with Disney-themed magic trick items. I loved it. The man behind the counter was also awesome and got out his puppet as soon as he noticed my camera.

We then headed back into Tomorrowland for Star Tours II. It's still awesome and this time we had my favourite ending (the one that totally makes it worthy of the 3D projections).

On our way over to Space Mountain we bumped into some storm troopers...

It was then up the escalator towards once more go on Space Mountain.

I spot awesome things on the horizon

So Space Mountain was still cool. And with that we had to say goodbye to Disneyland and make our way over to DisneySEA.

Going to leave the report there for the moment, will continue soon.

 

[Disneysea05]

I'm loving this report. It's an interesting perspective from a visitor who has been to WDW and DLP but not the original Disneyland, which is where elements like the small world and Pirates facades originated from. Essentially, Tokyo's Pirate ride is a duplicate of Walt's original in California, with one less drop.

If you want Haunted Mansion Holiday in English, it's waiting for you in California!