Disneyland and our very own Mr White Rabbit…

Disney today from dawn to dusk. Oh my goodness my feet are killing me! Talk about sensory overload… so much to see and do. I can’t imagine visiting here in peak season. We barely had to queue longer than about 15 minutes but still that was enough to try my patience! By about lunchtime I had dubbed Mark as the ‘white rabbit’ due to his behaviour closely emulating that of the white rabbit from Alice In Wonderland – darting about the place, constantly in a hurry and worrying about being ‘late, late for an important date’… As annoying as it was to be rushed, it was actually good to have someone organising us, reading maps, checking schedules and running here there and everywhere to get us fast-passes on different rides! From the time we arrived it was a constant stream of characters and rides…. These are the rides that we managed over our 3 days at Disney:

·         Mad Tea Party – the iconic tea-cups that spun around under the trees looking very much like a scene out of Mary Poppins as the light danced through the tree tops and large coloured lanterns hung low over the ride… it was actually no surprise to glance up and see Mary Poppins skipping along the street next to the ride… of course we had to quickly run to get her autograph.

·         Roger Rabbit’s Cartoon Spin – a quick ride that allowed everyone to spin their own car as they travelled along… well, everyone but me since I have an absolute aversion to any spinny type rides that are even vaguely like the teacups!

·         Space Mountain -  sheer thrill as you zoom around in the pitch black on a high speed roller coaster…

·         Astro Orbitor – what a cool way to experience centrifugal force as you control your own space craft up and down as it spirals quickly – sort of the elephant Dumbo ride on steroids!

·         Autopia – here we were, all in our cars on the start line, Paris in the lead… ready, set, GO…. Um, Paris?.... GO…. Oh no, the accelerator is too hard… Go.. stop… putt putt… never mind, one of the ride assistants jumped on board and got her car revving! We all enjoyed zooming around, with Bryn being my driver and fastidiously adhering to all the rules and ‘impressing’ me with his driving aptitude (he was sure to point it out several times, just in case I missed it!).

·         Star Tours – got my Star Wars fix (and a few motion sick moments) on this simulation ride. Khi experienced a very lucky moment when about 20 minutes after completing the ride (and several hundred riders had also had their turns), Khi realised he had left his dog tags safely stowed in the netbag under his seat -  I couldn’t believe that they were still there when he went with Mark to retrieve them – Langridge luck at it’s best!

·         Buzz Lightyear Astro Blasters  - one of our first rides – lots of fun as we ‘lasered’ objects to earn points – Khi was amazing at this ride – outblasting us easily.

·         Splash Mountain – as the name suggests, this is a log style ride where everyone gets suitably drenched after a massive drop which forms the finale of the ride. Paris was quite concerned that there were no seatbelts on this ride (well, can you blame her?)

·         Big Thunder Mountain Railroad – a favourite with the kids, they chose this as one of their return rides… too much clickety clack for me… I like the faster, less time to think types!

·         The Pirate Lair – Tom Sawyer Island. Can’t wait to read this story to the boys so that they relate the cool little spots to a physical space. After catching the ‘raft’ over to the island, the kids (Mark included) were free to roam and explore while the mum’s had a brief moment to relax – momentarily…

·         Pirates of the Caribbean – a favourite with everyone. A boat drifts lazily on the water taking you on a journey through the dark, cool, underground caverns filled with scenes from the movies complete with animated robotic characters and holograms and passing by an underground

·         Mark Twain Riverboat Cruise – a very slow passage around the circular lake pretending we were old timers on a steamboat.

·         Jungle Cruise – an entertaining ride with lots of ‘wild’ animals to observe including trumpeting elephants.

·         Tarzan’s Treehouse – after climbing to the top it was pleasant to look out from the branches and observe the park from up high, refreshing ourselves by sipping on a frappe latte and letting the breeze blow through our hair…

·         Finding Nemo – lowering ourselves into a yellow submarine, we were ‘submerged’ and set off in an underwater world in search of Nemo. We spied many of the characters from the movie and enjoyed the sensation of being below the surface.

·         Captain EO –  A 4D experience of the 1980’s video film clip by Michael Jackson.

·         It’s a Small World – nothing has changed since we did this ride 8 years ago with Khi as a 3 year old and yet the animated characters and cheery tune still managed to uplift us all into a chirpy happy spirit.

·         Pinoccio’s Daring Journey, Mr Toad’s Wild Ride, Snow White’s Scary Adventure and The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh rides were all variations on the theme of small cars taking you on a passage through various rooms from each of these classic stories. The visuals were fun and colourful, but unfortunately these rides are much, much too quick and it is sometimes hard to take it all in.

·         Peter Pan’s Flight – lifted up in the air in flying ships we soared through the sky visiting Never Never land and all the well known characters including one of my favourites - Tinkerbell.

·         King Arthur Carousel – a lovely old-fashioned carousel that even grown-ups were allowed to ride on and return to the wonderful childhood place of magic.

·         The Haunted Mansion – following a photo shoot with Jack Skellington came an absolutely spectacular visual experience inside and out. The mansion was decked out with all the fall and Halloween decorations on the outside and inside was a narrated ride through psychedelic scenes from the movie The Nightmare Before Christmas.

·         Disney Train- only managed a short ride between two stations as the park was technically closed! Would like to do this next time as there were some amazing life-sized statues and dioramas of dinosaurs and northern hemisphere wildlife.

·         Aside from walking down Mainstreet a few times, we didn’t really get a chance to visit any of the shops but we did sit there to watch the nightly parade of Disney characters.

·         We visited Downtown Disney a few times… Terrina did her own personal tour at the end of the first day when she took a wrong turn out of the park and ended up in the Lego store in Downtown Disney… I have my suspicions that she was not really lost, but simply doing a bit of window shopping on the sly while we had all the kids waiting at iHop across the road from the park! She does deny this vehemently, but I still have my doubts! When we all got the chance to visit, we were amazed by the fantastic Lego store complete with larger than life Incredible Hulk, Aladdin, a gigantic dragon and many, many displays that have been constructed for you to view. The window dressings were an amazing assortment of tiny lego men forming large motifs…. very impressive. The main Disney store itself was gigantic… just when you think you are leaving the building you actually discover that you are simply entering yet another room of merchandise for sale…. OH MY GOODNESS!

And that was just Disney!… now for the whole other place of stimulatory overload…. oh yes, there is more (are you starting to get why my feet are SO VERY SORE?)… introducing…. California World….no, I think I will wait til the next post to plunge into that…