Tomorrowland (Thoughts on Disneyland part 3)

     Hey friends, as I strive to recount all of the experiences from my trip to Disneyland, I appreciate your patience. I started off thinking I could do it in one, and this is the third. Honestly I wouldn't be too terribly surprised if I wrote some more about it in the near future! It was a great experience and I'm so excited to be talking about it again today!

Space Mountain is beautiful at night, but I didn't have a chance to ride it this time!

There's a Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow (but not in California)!

    The last area on this tour of the first park that Disney built was Tomorrowland, and this may be the area that is the most changed from the Magic Kingdom. Two of my absolute favorite attractions, the People Mover (or Tomorrowland Transit Authority), and the Carousel of Progress just aren't at Disneyland anymore, which was a real shame, and something that I had to prepare my family for. Because of that, I have to deduct 200 coolness points from this version of Tomorrowland, and really my hands are tied there. However, we do have Pizza Planet (or Alien Pizza Planet) at least in Tomorrowland, which is pretty cool, even though it's just a fairly generic pizza restaurant tucked in right next to Space Mountain. There are a few attractions here, it's definitely not quite as stacked of a lineup as Fantasyland has. They have the Finding Nemo Submarine Voyage, Autopia (which is essentially the same as Tomorrowland Speedway in Orlando), Space Mountain, Star Tours, Astro Orbitor, and Buzz Lightyear Astro Blasters. We actually only rode Star Tours and Buzz Lightyear Astro Blasters in this section of the park, which is a bit of a shame looking back, but we used our time better in other areas. Both of these rides are essentially the same as Star Tours and Buzz Lightyear Space Ranger Spin in Walt Disney World. This version of Buzz Lightyear's ride doesn't have the guns mounted on the dashboard of your ride vehicle however, you actually pick them up out of their slot and hold them freely. This definitely added some challenge, I never knew exactly which laser was mine, but when my light flashed, I just tried to shoot as much as I could to help my score go up. It's always nice when a ride like that stops for a minute, because it lets you really rack up

    I know what you're thinking, "Jonathan, are you sure that Star Tours is in Tomorrowland? Didn't you just say a few weeks ago that there's a whole area devoted to Star Wars? Why isn't this attraction over there?" Well, the simple answer is that Star Tours has been a thing for a long time, long before Disney bought out Lucasfilm back in 2012, though they did make some pretty substantial refurbishments to the ride shortly after that, leading to the new title, "Star Tours- The Adventures Continue." The same thing happened with the version of the ride at Hollywood Studios in Walt Disney World. Along with the new name, the ride now has three different sections that can be changed at random, Almost assuring that you'll never have the same experience twice. There is an exception whenever they add something new, and then you'll get that experience every time, which was the case for us. We rode it twice, and they just added a transmission that you get from the Mandalorean and Grogu, then transitioning into a new section where you're flying around with the Purrgils which is inspired by the new Star Wars show, "Ahsoka." It's a really cool ride, and one that apparently breaks down a lot, because the first time we rode it, we had to go to three different ride vehicles before the ride would actually work for our group, it was kind of funny. 

    Unfortunately, we didn't have time for the other rides there, though I do want to make one note about the Astro Orbitor. This ride is the same basic ride system as Dumbo, but you fly around in rocket ships instead of elephants. On the East Coast, at Magic Kingdom, this ride is the same, but it's located on top of the People Mover instead of just being on the ground, which means that the ground is much farther below your ride vehicle. Another weird thing that I discovered about these two rides while I was doing research before going to Disneyland is that despite being the same ride, they have a different spelling. In Disneyland, it's the Astro Orbitor, and at Magic Kingdom, it's the Astro Orbiter. I really don't know if there's a reason for this change in name, but I thought it was a pretty interesting distinction.

    As I wrap up this little mini-series, I'd like to make a little note about the only park that Walt Disney was able to give the opening address himself. Main Street USA may seem like nothing too special, especially since whenever I visited recently, the attractions there were all closed, including the Disneyland Railroad, but along these streets, there's so much history. If you look up in the storefront windows, you'll see a lot of different businesses and names being put up there. Each one of those windows has been dedicated to some important member of the Disney Company who contributed extraordinary things to the world. One of my favorites has to be the one dedicated to the Sherman Brothers, and it stuck out to me specifically since Richard Sherman passed away over the past year. It's incredible to think about all of the incredible people that these windows are dedicated to, and I hope that it's a fitting enough tribute to see these fun little easter eggs for their family members. Of course, right before you leave the park, you come across the old fire station. There's always a light on in the upstairs apartment, which used to be used as Walt's secret place. You could always tell when he was in the park because that light would be on in the window. Since Walt passed away in the 60's, they always keep his light on, to keep that idea alive, and that he would hopefully be proud of how these parks still operate today. I had to take a picture with the light, because there's something really special about that tradition. It's cheesy, I know, but It's just a cool thought, and something that I was happy to see right before the end of the day.

    Thanks so much for reading, everyone. I hope you have enjoyed these few posts about Disneyland. I was so excited to be able to go, and I feel so fortunate that it worked out as well as it did. I really love the theming of theme parks, and since it's been a long time since I've actually been to a park, I really did my best to absorb all of the "magic" that I could while I was there. Many people have asked if I like this one better than Walt Disney World (which I take to mostly mean Magic Kingdom), and I think I like both of them about the same. I'm less familiar with Disneyland obviously, but I was glad that by the end of the day, I was able to understand more or less how everything was laid out. I am embarrassed to tell you all that I left the park without getting a picture of the Club 33 Door, but it's fine, it gives me a reason to hopefully go back there again some day. Thanks so much for reading, friends, I so appreciate all of your support, and I hope you're all doing alright. Despite the Carousel of Progress not being in this park, I can't help but think about the theme from that ride, "There's A Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow." I know things are tough right now for so many people, but I'm just hoping for that great big beautiful tomorrow shining at the end of every day. Always remember that tomorrow is just a dream away. Until next time, I'm Jonathan, a Self-Proclaimed Disney Fan, and I'll see ya real soon!