Disneyland's Hyper-Spazz Mountain 1/16

Now that the holiday crowds have died down, we thought it would be nice to check out the new Hyperspace Mountain overlay as well as the new Star Tours Jakku scenes at Disneyland on Saturday. At opening, the line for Space Mountain fastpasses was longer than the standby line, but we joined in the fun anyway as we could see the return times ticking away pretty quickly. The line went quickly though (Tip for guests: if you see an employee at a kiosk helping distribute passes, get in that line.)

To prepare, I decided to go with the flow and downed a 5-hour energy drink while waiting in line. I was adequately spazzy for "Hyper" Space Mountain. In line, Admiral Ackbar got us pumped for our mission and on one of the lifts, John Williams' score had us all prepped for Hyperspace. After making the jump, we see a Star Destroyer and Tie fighters for a moment, only to disappear. Did they jump to hyperspace because of our arrival? I don't know. All I know is that it was loads of fun. The graphics weren't the highest quality, and the whole cheesiness factor had me rolling. We couldn't wait to use our passes for a second round. The whole thing is really silly and a lot of fun. I mean come on, how can a ride through space, ducking and weaving through projections of Tie and X-wing fighters not be fun?

We rounded out our morning with a nice tour of the Star Wars universe that took a sudden turn for the worse when something went terribly wrong. My 10 year-old pointed out that it was strange to see Darth Vader try to detain a spy on our ship followed by participation in an event 30-something years after his death. But who's counting? It was fun. I was a little woozy afterwards and we ended up dropping a wad of cash in the exit gift shop. Marvel has released Star Wars comics now that they are all one big happy family and Disney has them for sale there. I'm wondering if we'll see more Marvel comics for sale in the park soon? Good idea methinks.

Thoughts on Star Wars Land? Judging from the sheer number of Star Wars shirts I saw in the park this weekend, I'd say they could have easily pulled off an entirely new gate (or gates for both coasts?) And judging from the lines of people, myself included, eating up the cheesy Star Wars overlay for Space Mountain, they have a cash cow with this IP.

Almost forgot to mention that some girls behind us in line for Hyperspace Mountain pointed at the Matterhorn and said, "I think that's Splash Mountain. It's a wooden rollercoaster. It has the 'abdominal' snowman."

For it's one, two, three strikes you're out at the old ball-gaaaaaame!