The Happiest Place

Copyright, Walt Disney Corporation

I know, I've been very lax on getting anything posted. Right now, we're looking at still posting reviews of the final two seasons of Battlestar Galactica (in fact, I blame this whole hiatus on Colonel Adama and friends), I Love You, Man, and Duplicity. We'll get that all done by the end of tomorrow, I promise. Then, we'll be back on track, yes?

Until then, I wanted to talk a little bit about my recent trip to the happiest place on Earth, Disneyland. The wife and I are big fans of Disney movies, Disney music, and, most of all, Disney parks. We spent our honeymoon in Walt Disney World only nine months ago. The nine days we spent in Orlando were...OK, maybe we spent one day too many, but can you forgive us for wanting to spend as much time as possible in Epcot, Hollywood Studios, and so on?

This trip to Disneyland was a belated birthday gift for my wife, given by her parents (yes, I am a moocher). I hadn't been there in nearly two decades, so I knew that my memories as a 5-year old would be a bit outdated. My in-laws warned us that things would be vastly different in Anaheim as opposed to Orlando; even though I knew they were trying to just calm us down in case we got a bit disappointed, I didn't need their advice. I wouldn't say I expected bad things, but I was fully prepared to be underwhelmed, at best. We entered Disneyland on a Sunday and spent three days. On that last day, the Tuesday, my wife and I ended up getting annual passes to the parks. No disappointment here.

Yes, Disneyland is different from Walt Disney World, but only when you're not in Anaheim's version of the Magic Kingdom, called Disneyland Park. Most of the rides in Anaheim can be found in Orlando; there are subtle differences and striking ones, but the fact remains that the rides are similar. Moreover, some rides in Disneyland Park can't be found at the Magic Kingdom, such as Mr. Toad's Wild Ride, Pinocchio's Daring Journey, and the Matterhorn Bobsleds. Also, some of the rides in Disneyland are from separate Disney World parks, such as Star Tours and the Indiana Jones Adventure (which is similar in its track set-up to the Dinosaur ride at Animal Kingdom).

I don't, however, want to bog down you with some of the intricate history of Disneyland versus its siblings in other places. I won't be trying to explain here why I love Disney parks so much; I find it hard to put into words. The best way for me to quickly sum that up is this: when I entered Disneyland Park, I entered a different world. Reality has no place in Disneyland, or Disney World, for that matter. The plaque at the entrance to Disneyland Park says it best, equating the park to something from the past, present, and future, something fantastical instead of commonplace.

No, I won't spend any more time explaining my love for Disney because, like other pop-culture icons, you either get it or you don't. If you're not already enamored with Disney in some form, it's hard for me to sell you on my fervor. I just wanted to spend a bit of time highlighting the good and not-so-good of the trip. First off, if you do decide to go to Disneyland soon, take my advice and buy your tickets at Safeway, if you've got one nearby. For whatever nice reason, their 3-Day Park Hopper passes feature one Magic Morning admission. The Magic Morning admission is akin to Disney World's Early Magic Hours. In Disney World, the Magic Kingdom could be open one hour early or three hours later than the normal park hours, as long as you're a resort guest (and if you're like me, the idea of being at the Magic Kingdom at or past midnight is incredibly cool). At Disneyland, if you have a Magic Morning admission, you get to enter the park an hour early and leave the regular schmoes in the dust.

The facts are these: we had Magic Morning admissions on our first day at Disneyland and, within a span of only 160 minutes, got through 10 rides spread out across the park. Unfortunately for us, neither Space Mountain nor Indiana Jones were among those rides, but let me tell you what we could do in that short time, by 10 in the morning: Mr. Toad, Snow White, Pinocchio, Alice in Wonderland, Matterhorn Bobsleds, Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, Splash Mountain, Star Tours, Buzz Lightyear, and one ride I'm currently blanking on. Our last ride of that morning was Splash Mountain, our only time on the ride in the three-day period. My wife has an inexplicable fear of log flume rides, but the reason we avoided it afterwards was for saner reasons: we ended up in the front row, got drenched, and would have frozen our asses off if we hadn't changed clothes at the hotel.

Still, the fact that we got on the ride without ANY line (and even in the middle of March, a zero-minute wait is amazing) blew my mind. Granted, the rest of the trip was filled with lines and people, thanks to spring break and St. Patrick's Day. No matter; we got to do every ride we wanted to at least once. Rides like Matterhorn and Roger Rabbit's Car Toon Spin we only did the one time and, in the latter case, we won't do again. But, there were rides we rode a lot. The two winners were the original and great ones: Pirates of the Caribbean and the Haunted Mansion. The former of those two rides is longer at Disneyland, and far better. The structure and story of the ride don't make any more sense now than they did before the ride was revamped to reflect the famous film series (why would we see skeletons of pirates before we saw the real thing?), but the atmosphere is unmistakable, the drops are great, and the animatronics are still fascinating to look at.

With The Haunted Mansion, atmosphere is also king. In Disney World, the mansion is far more foreboding, whereas the Disneyland version looks, on the outside, more inviting, which lends an air of surprise. The ride itself is slightly shorter, but awesome all the same. As I said earlier, it's hard to explain why these rides are so great, as it's also hard to explain why the whole park works so well. But, a place where you ride a safari cruise next to an archaelogical adventure with a quintessential film hero is a place I want to be as often as possible.

The Annual Passports we got are the deluxe kind, which means we can go to Disneyland any time we want for the next year, we get discounts on hotels, discounts on food, discounts on merchandise, and free parking. It's hard to pass up that kind of bargain, especially since we may potentially be going back to Anaheim four times this year...potentially, I said. The low end is probably two times (August and either October or December), but it's hard to pass up going as often as I can.

Lastly, a few words about Disney's California Adventure, which we spent less than a day in. A few of the rides are unbelievably great: Soarin' Over California, which is the simplest ride ever made; Toy Story Midway Mania, a 3-D carnival ride; and The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror, queasy but hard to pass up. Some of the other attractions, such as Muppet-Vision 3-D and It's Tough to Be A Bug, are charming to sit through and put a smile on my face, but aren't as eye-popping. Moreover, you may notice, if you're an aficionado, that none of the rides I've listed can't be found elsewhere. Yes, Soarin' originated in Anaheim, but it's in Orlando now. The best unique aspect to California Adventure was the wine tasting in the Pacific Wharf. Still, without having done the Grizzly River Run and considering the construction going on within the park grounds, I don't want to prejudge the place completely. We'll go back there soon, and I'll make my final judgment then. In the end, though Disney World has Epcot, with its many countries, Animal Kingdom, with its Expedition Everest coaster, and Hollywood Studios, with...well, just the Great Movie Ride, I think I love Disneyland as much, if not more.