The Happiest Place on Earth! (Thoughts on Disneyland Part 1)

 Hey friends! I'm really excited for what I'm talking about today! I have now been to Disneyland and while I wasn't sure how long we would be able to stay (after driving about an hour and a half from San Diego where I've been staying, in addition to the 3 hour time change that was still hitting pretty hard), we ended up staying until the park closed at Midnight! Today I'd like to give some thoughts, mostly about new things that I hadn't experienced before, though I may have to give some impressions about what I'm thinking about Disneyland attractions that also have a version at Walt Disney World. I hope you'll enter this original park with me, as I talk a little bit about Walt's original vision, as well as some thoughts just about the use of "innovation" in the parks.

Let's Start From the Top!

    This trip marked my first time going to a Disney Park since they swapped to the Genie+ and Lightning Lane model, and I will say that it worked well after I begrudgingly agreed to pay the extra bit to get the multilane pass. It does annoy me that it's essentially the same thing as what the old FastPass+ system was, but you have to pay for it now. Fortunately, it did help out a good bit, since the park was pretty busy while we were there. It had been pretty rainy the last few days, and Valentine's Day was the day before we went, so it was understandable why so many people were there. That being said, Disneyland was nowhere near as crowded as the Magic Kingdom at Walt Disney World is sometimes, which somewhat surprised me, considering how many different parks Florida has, versus Disneyland which only has two, right next to each other. We got to the park around 8:30 and had to sit in traffic for a good little while before actually being able to get into the gates around 9:30 or so. Once we were inside, however, things moved pretty smoothly. I ordered a Lightning Lane pass for Haunted Mansion that would be good in about 45 minutes, and we began walking around the park.

    The shock of seeing Sleeping Beauty's castle when we walked on Main Street for the first time was palpable. I've only ever been to Magic Kingdom, home to Cinderella's Castle, which is much taller and visually more impressive, but I really liked how they used the space in Sleeping Beauty's. I'll get to that in a bit, but let's talk about some of the parks lands first. We have almost all of the same lands from Magic Kingdom, but instead of Liberty Square, they have New Orleans Square. One of the few additions is Bayou Country (which used to be called Critter Country until they replaced Splash Mountain with Tiana's Bayou Adventure). This land is also where the Disneyland version of the Winnie the Pooh ride is, which we will also get to in due time. We also have Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge, which is in Hollywood Studios back in Walt Disney World, and Mickey's Toontown, which used to be in Magic Kingdom before it got changed into different areas, and finally destroyed before making the expansion of Fantasyland. Within these different areas, the theming is pretty similar, but the attractions, and the presentation of them are very different between the parks. 

It's All About the Rides!

    I suppose I'll go around the park in clockwise order, starting with the park entrance. Main Street U.S.A. didn't have any attractions open when we visited, but normally they have Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln, which is similar to Hall of Presidents, but only with President Lincoln. The Disneyland Railroad is also typically running here, but it was closed for refurbishment when I visited. Adventureland was the first entrance you come across off of Main Street, and it has quite a few attractions. We have the Enchanted Tiki Room, Jungle Cruise, Indiana Jones Adventure, and the Adventureland Treehouse. I didn't check out the Tiki Room, but I do love the version in Florida, which I would assume is about the same, and the Treehouse is basically the same as in Magic Kingdom as well. Jungle Cruise felt a bit shorter than the one in Magic Kingdom, because it didn't have the section in the middle where you go through a dark temple, but it was just as full of hilarious jokes as always, so I was happy with it. Indiana Jones is a ride that isn't on the east coast, though Dinosaur in Animal Kingdom is a very similar ride, with an almost identical ride vehicle. Indiana Jones Adventure felt more high octane than Dinosaur, and it was the last ride I was able to go on, and was one of my Dad's favorites from the whole trip.

    Frontierland had a lot of attractions, but as I'm looking at the park map, I actually didn't ride any of them. There's Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, two boat rides (the Mark Twain Riverboat and Sailing Ship Columbia, which looks like a pirate ship), and Tom Sawyer Island. Basically it's about the same as it is in Magic Kingdom, though the pirate ship is not something that you can ride there. New Orleans Square is home to Pirates of the Caribbean and Haunted Mansion, which are located in Adventureland and Liberty Square respectively in Orlando. Haunted Mansion was a nearly identical experience, though some of the scenes were changed slightly, such as the attic scene with Constance, and the addition of the Hat Box Ghost, which was added as part of the 50th Anniversary to Disneyland. The Graveyard scene at the end was also a bit different, featuring a band that I don't remember seeing in Orlando, but it has also been a few years. Pirates of the Caribbean, on the other hand, is a pretty drastic change. The ride is a lot longer and thematically, I felt like there are a lot of cool ideas that you don't see in the version at Magic Kingdom. There are two drops instead of the one at Disneyworld, and also it includes a whole section where you're traveling through caves, and of course, the meat of the ride when you're going through the town is much longer, featuring more scenes. The sequence where a woman was being auctioned off to be a bride was changed a few years ago, and now we have a cool lady pirate in her place, with a few voicelines, which was a pretty cool addition.

    Next up, we travel over the bridge into Bayou Country, which has two rides, Tiana's Bayou Adventure and The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh. I didn't ride Tiana's ride, since I'm not big on log flumes, but I am happy that Princess and the Frog has a ride, and I'm more interested in riding that than I was Splash Mountain at least. I wish it was an original ride instead of a reskin of a ride that was already there, but I'm happy to have something at least. The Pooh ride is a bit of a weird one I thought, it's essentially the same ride as the one in Orlando, but the ride vehicle is different. This vehicle rocks around the whole time, and it makes sense to do that at the beginning, since it begins with the blustery day sequence, but for the entire ride, it does the same sort of motion. I think Magic Kingdom's version of this ride is better just because of the ride vehicle having some changes in movement and it doesn't seem to go by quite as fast, but both are pretty comparable. Past Bayou country, you walk a little ways and get to some of the new stuff, namely, Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge.

    I'm going to say right away that I should have spent more time in this section of the park, since there is a lot of cool world-building and scenery that went into this part. In this area, there are two rides. Rise of the Resistance and Milennium Falcon: Smuggler's Run I didn't ride Smuggler's Run, but I was able to ride part of Rise of the Resistance, at least, and I was amazed by what I saw. The ride begins as you attend a briefing for a Resistance meeting, attempting to get to a secret rebel base that Leia set up. The meeting is really cool, complete with BB8 setting it all up, and a hologram of Rey giving you the message, followed by a message from Poe Dameron, who is right outside and ready to escort your shuttle just in case the First Order tries to stop us. You go outside and see Poe sitting in his X Wing, and everyone files onto a transport shuttle. The ship takes off (which you can feel, as well as see through windows on the front and back side of the ship). The ship gets attacked by some Tie Fighters and drawn into a Star Destroyer by a tractor beam, and a First Order officer comes on and makes you get off. I don't know how they did this, but the shuttle doors open up, and you're on the First Order ship, being guarded by rows and rows of Stormtroopers. From there, you're taken to an interrogation room where Kylo Ren and General Hux try to get the coordinates out of you for the secret base, but they then leave the room and a panel is welded off of the wall, which you're ushered through by a resistance worker, and the real ride begins! It's a trackless ride, meaning that there are no tracks on the floor which allows for some pretty exciting situations happening. There are Stormtroopers firing at you as you're discovered, a hanger full of AT-AT's await you, then you're suddenly launched up on a hydraulic lift, but unfortunately, the ride broke down shortly after that point. I would love to tell you how it felt to ride the full thing, but we had to be evacuated off the ride because it just completely stopped working. It's a shame, but I am looking forward to some time in the future when I get to ride the full ride and have the complete experience.

    Friends, I've covered a lot of ground today, but I think I have a good bit more in me, so I'll cut this post off there, and next time, I'll get started from Fantasyland, which probably has the most attractions in the whole park. I had a great time at Disneyland, and I hope you'll come back next week to hear about the rest of my experiences.

    Thanks so much for reading this post, friends. I hope you're doing alright and have been able to do something fun recently. I really appreciate your support as always, and I hope you're not going to be sick of me talking about my trip for a few weeks! Until next time, I'm Jonathan, a Self-Proclaimed Disney expert, and I'll see ya real soon!