I didn’t sleep well on the night before Disneyland. I was too excited about finally going to the place where it all started. On top of that, 7 of my friends who were staying in Palm Springs, CA were coming to spend the day in the park with us. The day ahead of me seemed too perfect. And it did not disappoint; we had a great day.
Somehow we made it to the gates of Disneyland early, at 8:35 that morning. It was probably because we skipped breakfast for financial reasons (we are a group of college students on a budget, some priorities had to be made). Good thing we got there early because one of my friends left his ticket in the hotel room. One of my friends went with him back to the hotel room while another friend and I stayed at the gates. As expected, the gates opened at 8:45 and we went in to find that Main Street was roped off near the hub. Shortly after the ropes drops at 9:00 AM, I got a call from my friend saying that they had finally made it through security and through the main entrance and they were on their way to Main Street. That’s the beauty of DLR; they made it to the hotel and back in less than a half-hour. If we were at WDW, that would’ve taken over an hour, easily.
We darted right for Space Mountain, where there was only a 10 minute wait. It is extremely different from the Space Mountain at Magic Kingdom. Everything from the queue to the loading area, to the ride experience was different. While I thoroughly enjoyed Disneyland’s Space Mountain and I thought it was definitely better in some aspects, I vastly preferred Magic Kingdom’s. The theme and on-board audio of Disneyland’s was far superior. I liked the countdown until “blast-off”, I thought that added a lot to the ride. However, the things I like about WDW outweighed what I liked at DLR. For one, I like the bobsled style of the cars. I also like how it whips you around more; it seems more thrilling than the one at DLR. I don’t mean to knock Space Mountain at DLR because it is a great ride and we rode it three times. I just am going against the general consensus and saying that I enjoy WDW’s more.
The pictures in this section have a terrible quality because my camera was dead so I had to use my iPhone 4 camera, which is not too great.
Next, we did Star Tours. While walking through the queue, I noticed that one of the droids was definitely voiced by Patrick Warburton. They had edited his voice to make it squeaky, but I could still tell it was him. My friends didn’t believe me, but Google helped me prove it to them. After waiting about 15 minutes, we boarded our StarSpeeder. This is a fantastic ride. I got the pod racing scene for the first time! It ended with Jar-Jar Binks’s world, which is not my favorite but it didn’t matter, we enjoyed the ride all the same. Plus, I was the Rebel spy! I’ve always wanted to be the Rebel spy.
To finish off Tomorrowland for now, we crossed the street to Buzz Lightyear Astro Blasters. Basically the same ride as Magic Kingdom’s although I liked the final scene a lot more (where Buzz is shooting Zurg). My score was awesome, and I think I beat everyone else.
It was now just after 10 and the park was now open to the public. Our other friends weren’t estimated to arrive until about 11. Knowing our friends, they wouldn’t have much interest in the Fantasyland rides so that’s where we headed. First on the agenda was Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride. I miss this ride so much in Disney World, it used to be my favorite when I was little. However, I did not remember the ride being as wild as it was (see what I did there?!). The cars moved quickly and there was not too much of a story that I could understand from the ride. Also, the ending of the ride is disturbing for a kid’s ride. You get hit by a train, die, and then go to Hell. That’s the end. I’m surprised it has never been a source of controversy (maybe it has been, I don’t know). That all being said, I loved the ride and it reminded me why I used to like it so much when I was younger. It’s a fun ride!
Pinocchio’s Daring Journey was a walk-on. I liked this ride a lot too since I’ve never been on it or seen a video of it. It was brand-new to me. Nothing special to note about it, just that it was an enjoyable ride. After that, we waited about 5 minutes for Snow White’s Scary Adventures. Another ride that I miss in Disney World. Again, nothing special to note about it. Another enjoyable dark ride!
I noticed that there was an attraction inside the castle, which I thought was very different. It was a Sleeping Beauty walkthrough, and it just told the story of the movie. Since it only took about 5 minutes to walk-through, it was worth it.
We received a call from our friends and they had made it and we went to meet them in front of the castle. Now we had a squad of college boys roaming around the park, probably the type of group that families and employees don’t enjoy but I think we contained ourselves fairly well. First, we went to Space Mountain and got FP’s. Then we rode the Matterhorn. It’s a very unique ride and I enjoyed it. I thought it would be slightly more thrilling, but I liked it all the same.
Here’s where the first bit of drama occurred. Half of us wanted to ride Alice in Wonderland while the other half wanted to ride Space Mountain before the FP (they ended up riding Buzz Lightyear since the line for Space had already gotten up to 30 minutes). We were a little disgruntled that our group had already separated, and it would not be the last time we separate during the day, but we got over it. We waited for Alice and I really liked that ride a lot too, it’s a little different than the typical dark ride.
After Alice, we went to redeem our FP’s at Space Mountain. This time around, the ride was a lot more enjoyable since we were a group of 11 and we got the whole car to ourselves. Our loud, obnoxious, and unnecessary screaming probably ticked off the CM’s but we were just having some fun.
With a large majority of the Tommorowland and Fantasyland rides done, we headed across the park to Adventureland and walked right on to Indiana Jones. I have to say, this is probably my favorite ride in any Disney park. I know it is the same ride system as Dinosaur at Animal Kingdom but the ride experience was just so much more thrilling and enjoyable. Dinosaur is my favorite ride at WDW so Indy is basically a better version of Dinosaur.
After Indy, we walked through New Orleans Square to get FP’s for Splash Mountain, which we later found out weren’t really necessary because it was basically a walk-on (it was cold outside, that’s probably why). After picking up the FP’s we walked back to Pirates of the Caribbean. This was one ride I was most excited for simply because I hear about how much better it is than the one at the Magic Kingdom. Yes, the DLR Pirates was better but I do like the queue better at Magic Kingdom. Good thing we didn’t have to wait too long in the queue because it was only about a 5 minute wait. Things I liked better about DLR Pirates: 1) The New Orleans environment with the fireflies and the restaurant in the first scene. 2) The length 3) The multiple scenes before the boat battle with Barbossa. Besides these 3 things, I felt that the ride was essentially the same thing, but these 3 unique things made for a much better ride.
Since Haunted Mansion is right next door, we got on that next. One of my friends was legitimately scared to go on this ride. I think he thought it was like a haunted house/walkthrough type thing. So obviously, we took advantage of his fear and someone reached out of his Doom Buggy and grabbed our scared friend on the shoulder and I could hear him scream in terror from a couple of Doom Buggy’s away, it was hilarious. Overall, this ride is the same exact ride as in WDW. Except, I really like the new ending they added to the Magic Kingdom version, where the ghosts in the mirror somehow mess with you. For example, they blow up your head like a balloon and it flies away. Also, I really like the new queue for the Magic Kingdom version and the DLR queue was boring (not that we had to wait long in it, it was maybe a 5 minute wait max).
It was now time to redeem our FP’s for Splash Mountain. It is one of my favorite rides at WDW but I just didn’t feel the magic of it at DLR. It was incredibly short and it was noticeably missing some elements that I was used to at Magic Kingdom. Also, I was frustrated because I got drenched on the drop into the Laughin’ Place and I didn’t get a single drop on me from the main drop. I didn’t really want to get wet at all and I especially did not expect to get wet from that small drop. Oh well, water doesn’t typically bother me so I got over it quickly.
Throwin' up our V's! This is what we do at Villanova University to show our school pride.
After this, 6 of us wanted to ride Winnie the Pooh because it was right there and it was a walk-on. Of course, some of the kids in the group may have thought they were too cool for Winnie the Pooh so they went and rode Haunted Mansion again. Whatever, their loss. I liked the outdoor loading queue, it was a nice change. Overall though, the ride was the same as at the Magic Kingdom. I did notice the three heads from Country Bear Jamboree mounted on the wall, I thought that was a nice touch.
After rejoining with the rest of the group, we decided it was definitely lunch time considering it was around 3 PM. We looked around for food in New Orleans Square and while there were plenty of options, the only food I would like was well out of my price range. So while about half of our group found some soup in bread bowls that they wanted, I lead the other half of the group to the Hungry Bear restaurant right next to Splash Mountain. I got the crispy chicken sandwich with sweet potato fries, and it was delicious.
I found the secret club!
After lunch, we walked to Jungle Cruise and waited about 10 minutes. Unfortunately, 4 of our group members thought that the ride would be lame so they got out of line. The positive of this was that they took our tickets and got us FP’s for Star Tours. They really missed out though, the 7 of us who went on had a great time and were laughing the whole trip. I was really bummed out though because the waterfall wasn’t working so the “8th wonder of the world” joke didn’t make any sense to my friends who had never been on it before. That’s my favorite joke!
Once we docked and got off of the cruise, our friends were waiting with our FP’s. We walked in front of the castle and got our picture taken!
Next up was it’s a small world. The façade is fantastic. The ride itself is the same,
boring classic ride that we have in the Magic Kingdom, except I noticed the addition of many Disney movie characters. I’m not sure how I felt about that. On one hand, I liked spotting them and recognizing them. On the other hand, they really don’t belong there. I’m sure there are a lot of people who dislike it but then again, I’m sure the average tourist enjoys those additions.
It was time for Star Tours again. The first part was Hoth, which was awesome. Unfortunately, we got the same ending scene with Jar-Jar but that’s alright. I think Star Tours was some of my friends favorite ride of the day. I’d say it’s top 3, but not the best; Indiana Jones holds that title for me.
We were getting hungry for some sort of snack. I looked everywhere for a Mickey’s Premium Ice Cream Bar and I could not find one anywhere! This was unbelievable to me. At WDW, almost every single snack cart sells them. I didn’t end up finding one until getting back to my hotel 5 hours later!
It was starting to get dark and we had done all the necessary rides already so we waited about 20 minutes for the Nemo subs. I liked it because it was unique but it really didn’t appeal to me anymore than the Nemo ride does at the Living Seas in EPCOT.
With time to kill, we figured we’d get another FP for Space Mountain. While waiting for our time window, we did the other track on the Matterhorn and Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride again. Of course, we had to do Peter Pan’s Flight and it was only a 20 minute wait. As a group, we were collectively disappointed with this ride. It had to be less than a minute long, it was so short. The only part that was worth it to me was flying over London, that’s so neat.
After those 3 rides, it was time for Space Mountain again. We all did this face as a joke to one of our friends back at school. She sent us a picture of herself making this face with the peace sign, so we did it right back to her.
After our 3rd time, it was about 7:30 PM. With the park closing at 8, it seemed as if we only had time for one more ride. It seemed unanimous that we wanted to do Indiana Jones again but as we got there, 5 of the guys went to go do Splash Mountain again; I really have no idea why. But I am so glad that the majority of us rode Indy again because we had a great experience. The woman who was checking seatbelts noticed our Villanova clothes and said to us “What are a bunch of Wildcats doing out here?!” She was referring to the fact that we go to Villanova University and we are called the Wildcats. She told us that she was a Villanova graduate and we were so excited to hear that, that we erupted in loud “LET’S GO NOVA!” chants. I’m sure this seems unnecessary and obnoxious of us, but you have to understand a couple of things about our school. We are a private school 15 miles west of Philadelphia, which is a long way from California. We have tremendous pride in our basketball team and we had a big game the next day against #5 Georgetown (our rivals, and we ended up beating them!) so we had so much school spirit that the chanting was absolutely necessary.
Back to the ride, as we were approaching the big face where you’re not supposed to look in the eyes, the ride shut down. I thought it would be back up and running in a couple of seconds, but nope. The work lights came on and an employee came to our car and told us that they’re going to need a few minutes to check all of the cars. 20 minutes later, the ride started working again. We didn’t mind the wait; it was fun to see the inside of the ride with the lights on. Once we got back to the station, they asked us if we wanted to ride again. Of course we did! So overall, I got to ride my favorite ride 3 times and we got to talk to a fellow Villanova Wildcat. Life was good.
We met up with our friends who went to Splash Mountain and then we headed to the gates and said goodbye and told them we’d see them in a couple days back at school. The original 4 headed back to our hotel room to relax for a little bit and then went to a late night dinner at the ESPN Zone, which I enjoyed very much.
The next morning, we weren’t going to any of the parks so our Disney vacation was pretty much over. However, it’s not a complete Disney vacation without Mickey Mouse waffles. The problem was, we didn’t know where to find them outside of the parks. So we went to the front desk and asked. The man made a couple of phone calls and he found out that Steakhouse 55 in our hotel was selling them for 15 more minutes. We sprinted over there and got our delicious Mickey waffles.
Yeah, we were a little underdressed. We didn’t know we’d end up at Steakhouse 55 for breakfast. Oops, sorry.
After breakfast, we went souvenir shopping at DTD and then packed up and left. Leaving Disney is always the hardest part. Luckily, I’ll be spending all of Fall 2013 semester at Disney World as a College Program participant!
Overall, it was an amazing experience. I’m so grateful that I got to spend a couple days at the place where it all began. It was magical. Referring to Disneyland park specifically, I was a little underwhelmed by some of the rides because they were not as thrilling or as “complete” maybe as some of their sister versions at WDW. However, I really appreciated the atmosphere and the environment. It was so much more relaxed and nostalgic just because you can tell that the park has been around for a long, long time, however, there were no signs of wear and tear. Disneyland is a clean and well-kept park and I’m so glad I was able to visit.
I was disappointed that we were not able to do all of the Fantasyland rides or visit Toontown at all. Also, I was disappointed that Thunder Mountain was down for refurbishment because there was no reason for us to visit Frontierland at all. Lastly, I was disappointed that there was no nighttime fireworks show or Fantasmic! to see. These small disappointed are vastly outweighed by the positive experiences I had. Also, we were so fortunate to visit on days where the crowds were light because we were able to do mostly everything that we wanted to do, even without a park hopper.
I want to thank everyone who helped me plan out our stay at DLR, without you all, my trip would not have been as successful as it was. I also want to thank you all for reading through my trip report. It was fun for me to write and hopefully fun for you to read!
