Disneyland: part 2wo

Soooooooo it turns out we couldn't wake up as early as we thought we could.  Turns out we did party too hardy the day before.  :(  When we finally got over to the park we made a beeline for the Star Tours fastpass line hoping there'd be some left, and we just barely made it - return time: 11:20 PM and the park closes at midnight.  This was another instance of our amazing luck this trip, we often were the last people to make it on a certain ride or got in lines before everyone else decided to get in line too.

Anyway, we basically did everything we thought we could possibly want to do the day before, except for one little thing - Roger Rabbit's Car Toon Spin.  On the first day of madness we didn't want to wait in a line and just got a fastpass, but when we went back the ride was down.  Later on we tried one more time before they closed Toon Town (the part of the park where the ride is located for those who have yet to be initiated) but it was down again (apparently there was a glimmer of happiness and functionality somewhere between).  Already long story short we made the ride our second stop in hopes of getting it out of the way early.

Andrea had second thoughts once we got inside.

You know they mean business when they have "DANGER" AND a skull and cross bones!!!  We kept out, not wanting to test our luck too far.

With the ride ridden we were now free to wander/adventure at our leisure.  One stop along our journey with no destination was a little animation exhibit/attraction where we drew Winnie the Pooh and found the Beast's library.  In case you can't tell, this made Andrea pleased as punch since Beauty and the Beast was one of her favorite movies as a littler girl.

And now a guest speaker:  Andrea here - please don't mind the horrendous ankle socks throughout the pictures from this day - Andre made me wear his extra pair when I couldn't find my normal micro-size no shows (I'm going to go ahead and take this opportunity to plug the most perfect socks in the whole world - Vans no shows, the ones with checker print under the front part and with no-slip rubberization on the inside of the heel and that only barely cover your toes, yeah those ones... they're awesome).   All day long I was so embarrassed of myself, I kinda felt like the episode of Ugly Betty when Wilhelmina was caught wearing crocs.  Not quite as severe, but still. OK, bye!


At the gift shop (of COURSE they had a gift shop) we found all sorts of things we never knew we needed.  One such treasure was a fancy Micky Mouse ears hat fashioned after my new favorite spot - MILK!  What a coincidental little find that was.  Sadly they were astronomically overpriced, hence them on display under glass, because if they weren't you know I'd be wearing them all over the place.

I was very happy that we waited until after we had marked everything off our to-do list before we rode this particular ride - Heimlich's Chew Chew Train.  It wasn't awful, just disappointing.  It lasted all of 7 seconds but had such a great concept: a hungry caterpillar eats his way through his favorite foods, genius!  They even dripped WATERmelon on you and wafted the scent of animal crackers as you rode through an enormous box of said crackers.  I just HAD to get a picture of Andrea with this huge cupcake since she IS the cupcake queen.

Since we were just hanging out having a grand ol' time we didn't stop to take very many pictures, so I made Andrea pose in front of the Haunted Mansion.

If I worked at Disneyland and could choose where to be stationed based on the costumes, I'd choose the Haunted Mansion.

One of the coolest things we saw at Disneyland was Honda's ASIMO robot.  To see it you had to sit through a very Disney-esque act (we are in Disneyland, after all) where an audience meets a guy from the future who can video phone from his computer (see Skype) and introduces you to his new robot.  I give it an A for effort, but it was a little too corny for me.  Anyway, I read a little bit about them before but never expected to see one with my very own eyes since they they seem to only make appearances at conventions or expos.  On second thought, I guess it makes perfect sense that they'd have one at Disneyland.

Here's a video of it running.

They claim it's "running" because it is actually airborne for a fraction of a second.  I know the video isn't that great of quality so you may not believe the entire thing came off the ground (frankly I'm skeptical myself), but I find the fact that it was moving that fast simply amazing.

I was glad that we saw this little demonstration because at one point he (it?) kicked a soccer ball.  Now, that may not sound impressive to you (it didn't to me), but if you stop to think about all the calculations that had to be made so this thing doesn't fall over when it kicks something you realize how fantastic that really is.  If you then want to take it another step further and really blow your mind, think about how amazing our bodies are.  Bravo human body, bravo.

In the evenings part of California Adventure was transformed into Tron land (or elecTRONica, as they call it) and we found our new favorite couches.  However, I think if we got some we might have to turn our living room in to a club.

What do you think, are they too in your face?  You don't really see lights in people's furniture these days... or any days really.  I think if we got these couches we'd need a smoke machine whether we turned the living room into a club or not.

What a pleasant day that was!  We didn't quite end the day with the fireworks show (we partied for another 3 hours or so), but it was nice to watch them as we let Disneyland tell us 'thank you for coming and giving us your money!'

Stay tuned for our glamorous ride pictures!

Disneyland: part 1ne

As a resident of Southern California, it is one's civic duty to go to Disneyland and take advantage or the incredible discount offered to the local yokels.  We were more than obliged to do our part.

We started the day EARLY!!!!!! I think we got up at like 6 something!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1!!!11!!!!!1!1!!!!!!! (to put that in perspective we hadn't really gotten up before 8 or so for quite a while)

Almost an hour after we finally got out of our apartment we were finally there, a Magic Kingdom all shinny and ready to wear us out.  First things first, we rushed over to get our fastpasses for the brand-spankin-new Star Tours ride (now with FIFTY different "tours").  We couldn't run there because Andrea got in trouble with a "cast member" who told her to slow down and gave her the "I'm watching you" two-finger-from-the-eyes-to-pointing gesture.  Thus having been kept down by the man we were forced to power walk all the way there.  It's probably for the best that we didn't get winded right off the bat because we had to pace ourselves, for surely, to quote Ke$ha, "Tonight we're going hard." - ie. we're going to close this place down - ie. we're not leaving until they kick us out. (ps, let me know if you want me to point Andrea and I out to you in the crowd for the Ke$ha concert)

This is the face you make when the line for the fastpasses are longer than ride lines are supposed to be.  OK, it wasn't THAT bad, and we did get on the ride maybe an hour and a half later.  I'm glad we made it a point to get the fastpasses first because they went quick and probably ran out before 11 AM and the line for the ride was nearly two hours long at one point.

Never the less we made use of our wait time and went around the park and WALKED ON to many of the rides!  All I can say is it was WELL worth waking up early so that we didn't have to stand in a line for such fan favorites as Space Mountain, Splash Mountain, Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, INDIANA JONES, Pirates of the Caribbean, and the Haunted Mansion.

That was fun while it lasted but we couldn't just jump on other rides all day, we HAD to try out the new Star Tours!  So with fast passes in hand we were off.

It was fun, I don't know about waiting in a two hour line for it, but it was fun.  After our interplanetary trip we headed over to California Adventure to get fastpasses for the "new" (year old) fountain show "World of Color" (who knew you would need a fastpass for a water display).  While we were near by we checked out the new Little Mermaid Ride.

Once again we had great timing because RIGHT after we got in line it got about 30 people longer and we only noticed it grow as we passed it throughout the day.

We didn't just go on rides all day, we made sure to stop and smell the roses.

On the walking tour of Sleeping Beauty's Castle I found a surprise - if you forget for a second that you're in Disneyland and touch a doorknob to a goon's dungeon you may hear a loud noise while the door jerks back to scare you!  Of course that didn't happen to ME, that would be ridiculous...

We also stopped by Toontown, which would have been nice if it weren't for all the kids...  I felt right at home in Mickey's laundry room as I am Andrea's manservant.

Even though we had fastpasses for the fountain show, we still got there a little early to get some good seating.  But apparently we didn't get there early enough because we were pretty far back :( but we weaved our way up a little and had a pretty good view :).  I'm really glad Disney goes all out and makes their parks look so great because looking around and enjoying the beauty gave us something to do while we waited.  I almost wonder if they have the night shows so people have a chance to stop, look around, and appreciate all the work they put into it.

The show was great, but there was one BIG downside to the show - they shut down California Screamin' early.  That sure was a sad discovery; it's one of our most favorite rides :(  But alas, we still were able to go on Andrea's favorite, the Twilight Zone Tower of Terror! :)

After a few more elevator rides we made our way back to Disneyland because it's open two hours later than California Adventure.  On the way back we saw a Tron Legacy 3D movie thing was about to start and decided to check it out because they only had it at night.  WHAT A WASTE OF TIME! It was basically the extended trailer and it ended RIGHT as the "games" began - the only part that would have been cool to actually see in 3D.  But we wouldn't let a little thing like that keep us down, we rushed back to Disneyland to get a few more rides before the park closed - Buzz Lightyear's Astro Blasters, the Finding Nemo sub ride, and the Matterhorn Bobsleds like four times.  And then the park closed, what a fun day!

Was it good to spend 16 hours running around?  We'll definitely find out tomorrow.