The TCD Gang Goes to Disneyland!

[GaDawgFan.....Kelly 799]

That post made me miss Toon Town. Z would have liked it.

Pictures of the Teacups without a roof always look strange to me, pretty though.

[h2odivers...Ray 952]

Great update. I too was surprised by how big Toon Town is.

I'm glad to hear that you got to ride the train all the way around the park.

I hope you got a chance to ride the monorail also.

I loved Indiana Jones. But I'm old school and POTC (DL) is my all time favorite ride.

.

[Tri-Circle-D 2,059]

That post made me miss Toon Town. Z would have liked it.

Pictures of the Teacups without a roof always look strange to me, pretty though.

 

Yes, Z would have loved Toontown.  My girls loved the WDW version, and it was just a fraction of what they have at Disneyland.

 

It was always packed when we stopped by there.  It's an easy way to meet a bunch of characters, too.

 

I thought the teacup ride looked really nice with no cover, but that would be bad in Florida.

 

Great update. I too was surprised by how big Toon Town is.

I'm glad to hear that you got to ride the train all the way around the park.

I hope you got a chance to ride the monorail also.

I loved Indiana Jones. But I'm old school and POTC (DL) is my all time favorite ride.

.

 

Of course I rode the monorail.  There was no way I wasn't going to do that.  Rode it twice, as a matter of fact.  But, that comes much later in the report.

 

Our first ride on Disneyland's Pirates was marred by some idiotic guests.   That's the only time we ran into idiotic guests this trip, but unfortunately, it was on Pirates.  We rode it a second time, and I liked it.   But I wish our first ride had gone differently.

 

TCD

[Tri-Circle-D 2,059]

Wow, page 6 already.

 

At this point, we have only been in Disneyland for about four hours.  We've seen a show and experienced part of the Disneyland Railroad and Indiana Jones.  Not a lot, so far, but we have FP's for Roger Rabbit's Car Toon Spin, and we're fixing to get some for the Haunted Mansion.

 

They had to squeeze the Indiana Jones ride in between the Jungle Cruise and the Haunted Mansion.  So, you can see the Jungle Cruise ride through the plants as you exit Indy.  See the tiger?  There's a Jungle Cruise boat right below:

 

 

We headed over to the Haunted Mansion, and scored some FP's with a not too far off return time:

 

 

And then we walked back toward Toontown.  Here's another look at Tom Sawyer Island and the crowds walking around:

 

 

We made an unscheduled stop on the way to Toontown.  As we walked past the Tiki Room, we saw that a show was about to start.  Twin #1 struck up a conversation with the CM on duty, and they had a nice conversation about the differences between the WDW Tiki Room and Disneyland's.  I was in the Dole Whip line while that conversation transpired, so I don't know all of what was discussed, but it was pretty cool how the girls could speak peer to peer with the Disneyland Castmembers.

 

The Disneyland Tiki Room has a very heavily themed courtyard where guests can sit and wait for the next show.  There are statues of various Polynesian gods and goddesses around the courtyard, and lots and lots of flowers:

 

 

 

There is also a Dole Whip counter that is open to the courtyard, and we decided to give Disneyland's Dole Whip a try:

 

 

The twins have become Dole Whip connoisseurs, and now enjoy Dole Whip floats, which they used to not like.  At the MK, they get vanilla and pineapple Dole Whip mixed together for the float.  That's not an option at Disneyland.  You can just get pineapple Dole Whip in your float.  No vanilla.  Also, the Disneyland version is served with a maraschino cherry and paper umbrella.  You don't get those at WDW.  The only problem for us is that they had run out of cherries and umbrellas, so we didn't get those in our floats.

 

And to make matters worse, the Dole Whip floats we were handed were from a batch that the CM's had premade and had sitting there to hand out to the crowds.  They were a little melty.  This is what is called a bad show.  The Dole Whip was a little different too.  It had a more creamy consistency, more like a smooth sherbet, as opposed to the coarser and more icy consistency we are used to at WDW.  It wasn't bad, but we all agreed that we liked the MK's Dole Whip better.

 

Dole seems to have a bigger presence here than they do at WDW.  On our side of the Dole Whip stand, there was a video monitor playing Dole propaganda:

 

 

The twins in the Tiki Room courtyard with their sub-par Dole Whip floats:

 

 

Per Marty's earlier request, here is a blurry zoom in on one of the Citizen of Main Street buttons we got when we first arrived to the park:

 

 

Just before the show was to begin, those Polynesian statues outside began to move and talk.  Each one was introduced, and there were some minor special effects which accompanied the introduction.  Here, the hanging flowers from one of the trees were moving up and down:

 

 

The inside of the show is set up the same as it is at WDW.  Jose was there:

 

 

Twin #1 posed for a photo with her imaginary stick:

 

 

She would have talked the CM into letting her wake up Jose, but the CM's don't wake up Jose in Disneyland.  There is no stick.  Instead the CM asks the audience to shout "Wake up Jose!" on the count of three.

 

Lame.

 

But the rest of the show was not lame.  For one thing, the audio in this room was far superior to how the show sounds in WDW. And, they still have their fountain, which adds tremendously to the show.

 

This was our first attraction at Disneyland where we could make a direct comparison to WDW.  And, despite the lack of a wake-up stick, Disneyland won this one hands down.  The attraction was cleaner, brighter, and had superior audio to WDW's.  Plus it still had its fountain. The way Walt intended.

 

After the Tiki Room it was time to go see that Rabbit.  We went through the castle and cut through Fantasyland this time.  They have a bunch of dark rides concentrated here.

 

They still have a Snow White ride:

 

 

Do you see that window up there above the Snow White ride?  The curtains periodically open to show the Evil Queen looking down.  We didn't notice that detail on this trip through Fantasyland, but we did later in the trip, and I think I have a photo of the Queen to share.  For now, just use your imagination.

 

They have Peter Pan, which has no FP and always has a long wait.  We planned to hit that one at rope drop tomorrow:

 

 

Their carousel is called King Arthur's Carrousel (with an extra "r"), but the murals on the carousel depict scenes from Sleeping Beauty, so I'm not sure what's gong on there:

 

 

And, they still have their Mr. Toad.  The girls and I were looking forward to riding this.  They remember riding the MK version when they were little, but couldn't remember much about the scenes in the ride.  I told them I really couldn't explain what the heck is goes on in that ride, and that they'd just have to ride it to see:

 

 

We made it back to Toontown with time to spare.  The posted time for the standby line for Roger Rabbit was 5 minutes, and there wasn't even a CM at the FP entrance.  We were about to just get in the standby line when the CM materialized, and admitted us to the FP return line.  We were the only ones in that line, and there couldn't have been more than 20 people in the standby line.  That told us all we needed to know about what we were about to experience.

 

The ride was your basic dark ride with a lot of fluorescent painted plywood, and some plastic Roger Rabbit movie characters.  You could spin your car like a teacup, which, in hindsight, I should have done more than I did.  At least then the ride would have been interesting.

 

But, they did have a nice Jessica Rabbit statue in there:

 

 

And Roger too:

 

 

I have seen the Roger Rabbit movie once, and have no plans to see it again.  I don't remember who these characters are with their names on the lockers, but I assume they're from the movie:

 

 

The twins have seen the movie one less time than I have, and were simply perplexed by the whole thing:

 

 

We all agreed that this is Disneyland's Stitch's Great Escape.  Only maybe worse.

 

We will not be repeating that ride.  Ever.

 

Now it was time to head to the Haunted Mansion.  We were doing good with our FP management.  Although Roger Rabbit was a waste of a FP, we didn't know how bad it was, so that's excusable.  And even if someone had told us it was bad, we still needed to see it for ourselves.  At least we didn't wait in line for it.

 

We found a path we had not yet taken to get back to New Orleans square.  Here at Disneyland, you can walk all the way around Big Thunder Mountain, which is pretty cool:

 

 

 

This brought us right to the Haunted Mansion.  Here at Disneyland, the Haunted Mansion looks like an actual Mansion, with columns and everything:

 

 

Right before Halloween each year, and continuing through the Christmas season, they do a Nightmare Before Christmas (NBC) overlay on the Haunted Mansion.  Thus all the extra pumpkins and other props.

 

The wagon got the NBC overlay too:

 

 

They sure do have a lot of NBC props on the HM:

 

 

The FP came in handy here- that mob you see there is made up with folks heading to the standby line:

 

 

The Disneyland Haunted Mansion is located in New Orleans Square, and the architectural details on the building are consistent with that:

 

 

More NBC stuff:

 

 

As I mentioned earlier, I expected to see lots of beautiful people in California.  So far, that wasn't happening.  I also expected to see some dirty hippies.  Check:

 

 

That dirty hippy sensed my fear, as she was staring me down.  I'm glad she wasn't closer to me in the queue.  She looked friendly enough, but you just can't trust those dirty hippies.  And that was clearly an old school dirty hippie.

 

Another shot of the crowd milling around the entrance:

 

 

Even with FP's it took us a while to get inside, but we finally did.

 

I'm sure you would like to hear what we thought of the Disneyland Haunted Mansion.

 

And I want to tell you.

 

But, it will have to wait until the next update, as we are at the photo limit for this one.

 

TCD

[Beckers 1,136]

Something worse than Stitch? That's just sad.

[dvccamper 32]

The evil queen opening the curtains in that window is seen in the Disneyland Fun singalong video, which I watched endlessly with my kids when they were little. Nice to know from your report just where it can be found.

I think I want to go to Disneyland just to ride Indiana Jones. Although I'm sure I'll find many more reasons throughout your report.

[twiceblessed....nacole 433]

Toon Town... I was bummed when they took that out of WDW.

 

Indiana Jones, that's a good one.  I remember when it first came out; not that I like standing in line...but I did like the building leading up to the ride (great attention to detail!).  

 

Mr. Toads!!   Man, I had forgotten about that ride!  Dang, that's a fun one too :)

[DaveInTN 3,247]

408 1/2. 

 

:rofl2:

[The Troll 67]

I have to say the facades for the Fantasyland rides are much, much better at Disney Land than at Disney World. The facades at Disney World are not convincing that what lies beyond the facade is just a warehouse. The Disney Land facades do look much, much more convincing that way. Plus all the Fantasy Land rides at DW seem all "connected" while the ones at DL seem more stand-alone and autonomous, if that makes sense. It's done better at DL, I must say. Surprised to see that. It's like they went a chintzy route when they built DW, surprisingly.

 

The DW Haunted Mansion is way better...at least the outside. The distance of the mansion from the guests create a separation of mystery and foreboding.

[parrothead7368 aka Norm 101]

I have the same Sing A Long video and my girls watch it evry day. It neat to see things that I've seen on the video "personally" through the pics.

 

Best Regards,

Norm

[CCIntrigue...aka Gwen 547]

Something worse than Stitch? That's just sad.

 

I agree!

 

Toon Town... I was bummed when they took that out of WDW.

 

Mr. Toads!!   Man, I had forgotten about that ride!  Dang, that's a fun one too :)

 

I was bummed about Toon Town too.

 

Mr. Toad's Wild Ride ... I still miss it.

[The Troll 67]

This has the potential to be the best TCD trip report in a long, long time. And that's saying a lot.

[GaDawgFan.....Kelly 799]

DL's Stitch... That's funny stuff. How does that ride still exist? I'm guessing it's because of the small footprint.

I prefer vanilla mixed with my Dole Whip too.

Love the picture with Jose!

[Beckers 1,136]

I have the same Sing A Long video and my girls watch it evry day. It neat to see things that I've seen on the video "personally" through the pics.

Best Regards,

Norm

We have a collection of them that we rotate between. Currently still on the camping one.

[parrothead7368 aka Norm 101]

We had the camping one and it disappeared. I have Santa bringing another.

 

Best Regards,

Norm

[LONE-STAR 370]

Looks like it would be 500 miles further. But our plan was to fly out to Aulani in Hawaii and on our way out do a 2 day lay over in LA to see Disneyland. But I wanted Miley to be older for Hawaii more then Disneyland. It was going to be a big Family trip and my sister was going to use her DVC points.

We still may do it but it would be a few more years down the road.

[BradyBzLyn...Mo 2,023]

From what I understand, registering for one class at a local community college is all it takes.  And if your 19 year old won't do it, you can.  There is no age limit.

 

Oh really?! 

 

Something worse than Stitch? That's just sad.

 

I do not question TCD's report, but holy crap I would not have thought that was possible.

 

Bummer about the melty, premade, sub-par Dole Whip floats.  Adding a cherry and an umbrella seems about the only thing besides rum that would make them even better.

 

Very much looking forward to HM.

[AC in A2......Aaron 693]

This TR is beyond the typical awesomeness that you provide.

The Mansion looks pretty cool even though I am not a NBC fan.

The Rabbit ride reminds me of the "new" Journey into Imagination ride.

Those rides SMMB.

It would have been cool if they would have let T1 wake up Jose.

Two rocking TCD TRs at once. Nicely done sir.

[JaimeN 8]

This is great! I have to admit to quickly skimming and scrolling past the pictures as i don't want to see everything before our visit. This is not helping contain my excitement... two weeks until the RV rolls out of the driveway and heads west!

[Grumpy and Grandma 740]

 

The DW Haunted Mansion is way better...at least the outside.

We prefer the outside of the DL Mansion and did you know that in DL you actually go down on a lift (elevator) it's not just the simulation which is used at WDW.

[Momof6....aka Marty 769]

Thank you for the button picture!

 

Bummer about Roger Rabbit Ride.  

 

To my mind, the HM fits in a New Orleans area.  All that mumbo jumbo stuff.  

 

I am figuring on a late lunch tomorrow, because everyone was up late tonight.  Maybe, just maybe, if I sleep with my toes crossed just right, there will be another update for me to read by then. :)

[momof3kids-Yvonne 595]

I am a huge Roger Rabbit fan. Sad to hear the ride isn't that great. I would probably want to ride it anyways just to see how it ties into the movie.

[Big Kahuna aka John 71]

On yeah...  In on post #123...  I am paying attention....  This is pure intelligence for our upcoming trip....  Keep coming with all those great details...  the good. the bad, the ugly...    Your report will be the basis for my DL plan....   Thanks for the all the hard work on this one.

[Tri-Circle-D 2,059]

Something worse than Stitch? That's just sad.

 

Upon further reflection, I retract that statement.  Nothing is worse than Stitch's Great Escape at WDW.

 

But, the Roger Rabbit ride is still Disneyland's Stitch.  Not worse than Stitch, but the lamest attraction in the park.

 

The evil queen opening the curtains in that window is seen in the Disneyland Fun singalong video, which I watched endlessly with my kids when they were little. Nice to know from your report just where it can be found.

I think I want to go to Disneyland just to ride Indiana Jones. Although I'm sure I'll find many more reasons throughout your report.

 

We also watched those Disney Sing-a-Long videos over, and over and over.  And over.  I kid you not- "I'm Walking Right Down the Middle of Main Street, USA" way playing in my head as we first entered Disneyland.

 

I don't want to spoil the fun of the Indiana Jones ride for anyone, as we really didn't know what to expect, and it made it more fun, but there's a special effect in that ride that is simply awesome.  It is worth going to Disneyland just to experience that ride, but there are many other reasons as well, which we will get to as we continue along.

 

Toon Town... I was bummed when they took that out of WDW.

 

Indiana Jones, that's a good one.  I remember when it first came out; not that I like standing in line...but I did like the building leading up to the ride (great attention to detail!).  

 

Mr. Toads!!   Man, I had forgotten about that ride!  Dang, that's a fun one too :)

 

I can't tell you how many times the girls repeated that they should not have taken Mickey and Minnie's houses out of the MK.

 

You are right about the queue for Indiana Jones- it is very well done, and very detailed.  And long.  Looking at an aerial of the park, I see why- the ride building had to be placed pretty far from the entrance in order to fit in where they put it.

 

We were never huge fans of the Mr. Toad ride.  It's weird that the ride even exists, as Mr. Toad is hardly a big Disney star.  But, it is an entertaining ride, and they should have kept it in WDW.  Disneyland found a way to keep it and still add a Pooh ride in another location.  WDW could have done that too.

 

408 1/2. 

 

:rofl2:

 

I hope the Imagineer who came up with that gem is reading this report.  You might be the first one to ROFL at his little joke.

 

I have to say the facades for the Fantasyland rides are much, much better at Disney Land than at Disney World. The facades at Disney World are not convincing that what lies beyond the facade is just a warehouse. The Disney Land facades do look much, much more convincing that way. Plus all the Fantasy Land rides at DW seem all "connected" while the ones at DL seem more stand-alone and autonomous, if that makes sense. It's done better at DL, I must say. Surprised to see that. It's like they went a chintzy route when they built DW, surprisingly.

 

The DW Haunted Mansion is way better...at least the outside. The distance of the mansion from the guests create a separation of mystery and foreboding.

 

Now you are seeing the light.  Those in charge of Disneyland seem less prone to cutting corners and doing things on the cheap than their counterparts in Florida.  Keep reading and you'll see more examples of that.  I didn't expect to like Disneyland as much as I did.  There were several times when I asked "Why can't we have nice things like that?"

 

When I have seen photos of Disneyland's HM in the past, I agreed with what you are saying- that the MK's is obviously better.  But, the Disneyland HM fits in New Orleans Square with its theming, and it has a very prominent and visible location.  With all the trees and landscaping grown up around it, I have a hard time seeing the MK HM exterior.  To me, the mystery and foreboding is lacking.  My takeaway on the HM topic is that both are well designed for their locations in each park.

 

I have the same Sing A Long video and my girls watch it evry day. It neat to see things that I've seen on the video "personally" through the pics.

 

Best Regards,

Norm

 

Wow. Every day.  I watched that same video 15+ years ago with my girls.  They ought to come out with a new one.

 

I was bummed about Toon Town too.

 

Mr. Toad's Wild Ride ... I still miss it.

 

I really wasn't a fan of Toontown at WDW.  It felt cheap to me.  But, now that I've seen the replacement, I'd rather have at least Mickey and Minnie's houses back.

 

I was originally in favor of Pooh replacing Toad, but now I'm not.

 

This has the potential to be the best TCD trip report in a long, long time. And that's saying a lot.

 

Thanks, Norm.

 

We'll see how it turns out, but it was an epic trip, so it should be an epic TR.

 

DL's Stitch... That's funny stuff. How does that ride still exist? I'm guessing it's because of the small footprint.

I prefer vanilla mixed with my Dole Whip too.

Love the picture with Jose!

 

As I said above, I was too harsh in my assessment of the ride.  A Roger Rabbit fan would like it, and as long as you don't have to wait long to ride it, it's a totally acceptable (but extremely boring) dark ride.

 

I am not even sure if they have vanilla Dole Whip at that stand.  Maybe they will mix it together for a float when they're not busy.  When we were there, they were swamped, and they had CM's at the machines making the Dole Whip Floats and lining them up on top of the machine to keep ahead of the orders.

 

It's funny how much Twin #1 loves the Enchanted Tiki Room.  You'd think after working there all this time, she'd be sick of it.  But the opposite is true.  She likes it more now than she did when she started.  Maybe they play subliminal messages in there?

 

We have a collection of them that we rotate between. Currently still on the camping one.

 

Awesome.  The camping one was my favorite, followed by the beach party one.  It's funny that you are enjoying these now kind of old videos with your kids, when I did too.  Back in the VHS days-we didn't have any of them on DVD.  I actually bought a DVD copy of the camping one a couple of years ago, because I wanted one to keep in the camper.

 

TCD

[Tri-Circle-D 2,059]

We had the camping one and it disappeared. I have Santa bringing another.

 

Best Regards,

Norm

 

I hope that you've been good this year and that Santa brings it. You and the kids definitely need to watch the camping one.

 

Looks like it would be 500 miles further. But our plan was to fly out to Aulani in Hawaii and on our way out do a 2 day lay over in LA to see Disneyland. But I wanted Miley to be older for Hawaii more then Disneyland. It was going to be a big Family trip and my sister was going to use her DVC points.

We still may do it but it would be a few more years down the road.

 

Aulani and Disneyland in one trip?  I like how you think.  That would be a sweet trip.

 

I think you're right to wait for your daughter to be older for a trip like that.  You want her to be able to enjoy everything. 

 

Oh really?! 

 

 

I do not question TCD's report, but holy crap I would not have thought that was possible.

 

Bummer about the melty, premade, sub-par Dole Whip floats.  Adding a cherry and an umbrella seems about the only thing besides rum that would make them even better.

 

Very much looking forward to HM.

 

Yes, really.  Are you going back to college now?

 

As I said in my comments above, I have retracted my statement that Roger Rabbit is worse than Stich.  You are right- it is not possible for an attraction to be worse than Stitch.  But that Frozen makeover of the Maelstrom or Avatarland might change my mind.  Time will tell.

 

Yeah, we had a dud Dole Whip experience, and didn't get our cherries.  But per the TCD Law (of the Universe), that slight was made up for later in the trip.

 

Hang in for some HM pics-those are coming up next.

 

This TR is beyond the typical awesomeness that you provide.

The Mansion looks pretty cool even though I am not a NBC fan.

The Rabbit ride reminds me of the "new" Journey into Imagination ride.

Those rides SMMB.

It would have been cool if they would have let T1 wake up Jose.

Two rocking TCD TRs at once. Nicely done sir.

 

Thanks, Aaron.

 

Comparing Roger Rabbit to the new Journey Into Imagination ride might be more accurate than comparing it to Stitch. 

 

Glad you like the dueling TR's.  It's fun working on two simultaneously.

 

This is great! I have to admit to quickly skimming and scrolling past the pictures as i don't want to see everything before our visit. This is not helping contain my excitement... two weeks until the RV rolls out of the driveway and heads west!

 

Awesome.

 

I tried to do a little research before we went, but the twins fussed at me if I told them any details that I uncovered.  They did not want to know everything in advance, and wanted to be surprised where possible.  That ended up being a great strategy.  Time and time again, we were surprised by little (and sometimes big) details that we discovered.  It was really neat to be able to explore two huge theme parks that we knew very little about.

 

Where possible, I am trying not to spoil some of these little details, but because this is a TR and I have photos, some of them are going to be revealed.  So you should read with one eye closed or something.

 

We prefer the outside of the DL Mansion and did you know that in DL you actually go down on a lift (elevator) it's not just the simulation which is used at WDW.

 

I don't think I have a strong preference of one HM over the other.  As I said above, they are both well themed for their locations in each park.

 

I am going to cover our reaction to the stretching room in the next update.  I didn't know it was an actual elevator- and that was a fun thing for us to discover.

 

Thank you for the button picture!

 

Bummer about Roger Rabbit Ride.  

 

To my mind, the HM fits in a New Orleans area.  All that mumbo jumbo stuff.  

 

I am figuring on a late lunch tomorrow, because everyone was up late tonight.  Maybe, just maybe, if I sleep with my toes crossed just right, there will be another update for me to read by then. :)

 

Yeah, the DL mansion works well with the New Orleans theme.  The girls also reminded me that the mansion looked like the DL one in the Eddie Murphy HM movie.

 

Things look favorable for you to have an update to read with your late lunch.  And if things go well, maybe there will be a second one to carry you over the weekend.

 

I am a huge Roger Rabbit fan. Sad to hear the ride isn't that great. I would probably want to ride it anyways just to see how it ties into the movie.

 

I wish that you could go on the ride and let us know what you think.  Maybe a huge Roger Rabbit fan would love it.

 

On yeah...  In on post #123...  I am paying attention....  This is pure intelligence for our upcoming trip....  Keep coming with all those great details...  the good. the bad, the ugly...    Your report will be the basis for my DL plan....   Thanks for the all the hard work on this one.

 

Post 123 bragging rights.  That works.

 

I hope my report helps you to plan your trip-but as I said above, you might prefer to be surprised by some things the way that we were.

 

TCD