DL, USH, and SFMM 7/1 - 7/4

Well, my friend Adrian from Buffalo made the trek out here to sunny California for a weekend of fun and sun, and I think it was accomplished. We hit Disneyland, Universal Studios, and Magic Mountain in the 4 full days he was here as well as a trip out into Riverside County and a day at the beaches. Since moving to LA, this would be my first trip to both Disneyland and SFMM, trip number 3 for USH, also been to Knott's twice since moving.

Adrian came in on Wed. night into LAX. Picked him up around 10:30 and headed
back to my place in Torrance via the roads along the beach. Can't see much at night, but the breezes were fantastic, especially with the top down on my jeep. Got home and chatted for a while, managing to get to bed by 1:30 or so.

Thursday morning we got up around 7:30 and headed out to Disney around 9ish. Stopped for some breakfast on the way and got to the park around 10:30. Traffic was hideous as usual. Luckily we had free vouchers for the day from his last trip out west. Everything was closed that day (Matterhorn, Indy and Space Mountain half the day, Small World, half of Fantasy Land, and to make it worse haunted mansion wasn't haunted mansion), and they wouldn't let us go over to California Adventure after entering Magic Kingdom (no signs warning of the closures either). Anyways, this day was going to be free. We got to guest services to redeem our vouchers and check into upgrading it to a park-hopper (for the extra $20). No go, they would only let us back into Magic Kingdom for the day, with no possibility of upgrading since the ticket had no cash value. Oh well, I love MK, so no big loss. Eventually I'll have to make it out to DCA though.

Luckily crowds were light, and everything but Space Mountain (obviously) was open. First thing, Matterhorn for my first time (was closed the time before). We rode the right side first; it was decent but kind of disappointing. No real speed or airtime or even surprises, it just seemed to meander around. Splash down was a bit weak too. Got back in the 5 minute line and did the left side. So much better, the thing had some great speed going for it, and a couple spots of airtime (best was going under the archway in the mountain). Splash down......well let's just say it got us way wetter than it should have. We hit the water and it was like a tidal wave, wetter than I usually get on rides like thunder canyon at CP. Op seemed surprised we got that wet as well.

Headed over to first aid next, I had scratched my head on a screw on the tram, but didn't realize it until the Matterhorn water made it burn. I thought it might be a good idea if I got some antiseptic gel to put on it.

Next we headed to Fantasy Land and hit almost every ride there, most I had never been on. We even did the Storybook Canals. First trip on Peter Pan's Flight. IT was fantastic, I just wish it was longer. On to Toon Town, rode the Roger Rabbit Toon Spin or whatever it's called. Good ride, fun sets and the spinning was decent too.

At this point we decided to make reservations for a meal at the Blue Bayou....luckily Adrian remembered that you can call for reservations at Disney World, and as we found out, the same holds true out here. We got the number from a gift shop and made reservations for 4:10. We jumped on the train and got off in New Orleans Square. The dinosaur and Grand Canyon scenes on the train were pretty lame, but I guess some scenery to look at is better than the back of a bunch of buildings.

The next rides were kind of a blur in the order we hit them. I know we did Haunted Mansion twice, grabbed a fast pass for Splash Mountain (for 5 hours later), rode Pirates, rode Thunder Mountain, and made a round on Indy. But I can't remember when we did what. Haunted Mansion remains my favorite ride with Pirates close behind. All I could think of on Big THunder was the possibility of an accident (and now with the recent accident, maybe I had reason to), and I finally got the bug room on Indy. Good times.

AT some point we had rescheduled our dining time at Blue Bayou for 3:20. That way we could have the lunch menu, which seemed to have some better options on it that ran much cheaper. We got there at 3:12 and they told us to come back in 10 minutes because they were behind in seating. So at 3:22, we came back and checked in. At 3:45 they still hadn't called our name. Just as I was getting ready to go ask, we hear our name called, but two other people get up to take the reservation???? Well, after 5 minutes of shuffling around, they booted the other two back to the lobby and sat us at that table (not sure if they even had a reservation). I would have rather waited for another table. Our table was right in front of the entrance. So rather than a dark candlelit table next to the water, we got a table next to the sunny door in the area that all the waiters stood around in. Not exactly what I was hoping for, but the food was really good and the service was prompt as well. Their scalloped potatoes are simply awesome, the prime rib was good as well.

Through the rest of the day, we hit Matterhorn another 3 times, Haunted Mansion again, Pirates again, Tarzan's Treehouse, BTMR again, and Star Tours. On the way out we grabbed some cheesecake and watched the new parade that goes down Main Street. It was rather amusing to see park guests dancing along the route in tutus (even the guys), but overall I thought the parade wasn't up to the usual Disney quality. We left the park around 8:45 and headed to LAX to pick up my significant other....

Day 1 done, and it was a much better time this time around. However, I did notice that the guest service isn't quite up to par with the guest service in Orlando. Still way ahead of the other parks though. Day 2 ..... Universal Hollywood. *** Edited 7/9/2004 9:35:59 PM UTC by Blaster_1578***

Oh yeah.......Day 2/Day 3 and Day 4 will be in seperate topics....this was getting to long to continue