Fun day at Disneyland and California Adventure

Today was a short day for myself walking around Downtown Disney as well as the two Disney parks. I decided to start my very own pin collecting gathering up the Nightmare Before Christmas holiday packs, which had the Halloween Jack and New Years Jack. I traded New Years Jack off for a Stitch. Also I found some buttons of Nightmare Before Christmas that I bought.

I started off in California Adventure about 1pm, figuring that most people would be eating lunch or wandering around Downtown Disney.
I decided to head over to Soarin' Over California to see how long the wait was (15 Minutes) and since I was a single rider there was relatively no wait.

SOARIN' OVER CALIFORNIA---2 Minute Wait
I suppose it was lucky to be placed in the front row, but also a bit scary for a first time ride. I love the whole experience of this attraction, and once I was off, the butterflies in my stomach were there for about 20 minutes. The only other ride I can think of that leaves me with the same feeling is Maverick. 10/10

Next I decided to hit up California Screamin' as well as stop by the new Toy Story Mania attraction. The Toy Story Mania I believe is still in the Cast Members only stage, but when walking by you can still check out the awesome Mr. Potato Head in which the Imagineers did an amazing job!

CALIFORNIA SCREAMIN: 1 ride wait (single rider), 5 Minute Stand-by
I was paired up with someone right in the middle of the train, but still had an enjoyable experience as this ride is extremely fun. I would've preferred to be closer to the front or back, but whatever I still love this ride. 10/10

Since I decided to try my luck for back or front I went on Screamin' a second time and was placed in the back. It was a bit rougher
in the back seat, but still the ride is amazing!

I headed over to ride Soarin' a second time and left California Adventure to go into Disneyland.

First attraction in Disneyland was the railroad going from the Main Entrance Plaza to New Orleans Square. After the train I headed to Pirates of The Carribean.

PIRATES: 5 Min Wait
This ride is very well themed, but I do not understand why people insist on screaming as it is not very scary. I would not wait longer than 20 minutes for this ride however. 8/10

After Pirates I was going to call it a day, but decided to go inside of Tarzan's Tree House and then Jungle Cruise for the last attraction of the day.

JUNGLE CRUISE: 5 Min. Wait
I love the theming for this ride, but the jokes are really corny and lame. Some of them are funny, but I'm sure if you go on this ride then they all get really old really fast. For the first time it was a nice relaxing and enjoyable ride. 9/10

Overall Disney Experience 95/100

I have to admit that DL is one of my very favorite parks. DCA is kinda like an "IoA lite" in that there aren't very many attractions, but those that are there are VERY well done (save the exceptionally meh off-the-shelf mouse). But GRR ranks way up there, almost as good as IoA's rapids....and CS is a VERY fun ride.

Of course, there's NO way I'm going into DL without at least one trip on Matterhorn (take that, Everest, LOL) - and for me at least, the CA Space Mtn. surpasses the FL version (save for the trains, which are FAR superior ion the FL version...IMO).

I've been to WDW far more times than DLR but I far prefer DLR to WDW any day. It just seems like all of their attractions are better than their Florida counterparts (exception: ToT). For example, Pirates is much better at DL, so is Haunted Mansion and Small World. I even would say that Soarin is better as I like the building for it better in California (plus it just fits better as it is Soarin over CALIFORNIA, not Florida). GRR is much much better than it's lame AK counterpart.

Oh, and Gator, I think the Cali trains on Space Mtn are much better than the Florida ones.

Also, no one brought up the awesome Sun Wheel :) One more week and I get to check out the original :D Yay!

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rollergator said:
DCA is kinda like an "IoA lite" in that there aren't very many attractions

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DCA - my only visit was this spring and while I wouldn't say I *disliked* the place, I can certainly rattle off a pretty long list of everything wrong with the place.

That being said though, for me it's all good because the good stuff over there is just like icing on the Disneyland cake.

DCA on it's own? Eh...not crazy about it. Spending a few days at DL and hopping over to ride Soarin' or Screamin' or Monsters whenever? Oh yeah, that's some awesomeness right there. Even better when Disney operations are THE BOMB and it never takes me more than 3 minutes to get through the gates at either park once they've been open a while.

I almost don't even want to say it, but when I made my first trip to DCA this February, I was singularly not bowled over by California Screamin'. If you took out the loop and replaced the remaining layout with wood track, it might make a halfway decent woodie. But as it is, it is a relatively uninspired ride, with little oomph and unsubstantial gees or air time. Even the relative novelty of the lackluster launch and the midcourse chainlift didn't impress me. All the latter did for me was remove what little momentum had been acquired to that point.

What suprised me the most was the lack of theming. The mouse ears around the loop are far more interesting when viewed from off the ride, since you can't even see them when you're on it. I saw a good bit of bare dirt where I had imagined Disney would have invested in landscaping. To me, the theming experience was about a half step above a Six Flags parking lot coaster.

Don't get me wrong, the ride's not horrible. Just uninteresting and mediocre. If it had been built at Cedar Point, it would probably be about the tenth best coaster at the park. At Hersheypark, the fifth. And what this tells me is that this is why Disney doesn't build straight coasters. They have much greater success when the coaster ride can be dovetailed into a greater experience, a la Space Mountain or Matterhorn.

It's also true that Disney had CS built with family ridership in mind, so it might be that comparing it with more 'adult' coasters at other parks might not be fair. Still, Disney is the king of family, and I think they could have done much, much more with this ride while still keeping it family-friendly.

I will agree that Soarin' is absolutely amazing.

I love the ride CS provides so I can't agree with you at all on that, but I do agree some of the areas around the ride, especially the last helix-y area look like ass compared to Disney standards. When you go to DL across the way and everything is perfectly placed, designed, tweaked, and purposeful in sight, it's a bit jarring to see fencing and sand and brush and dirt that makes it look like you're at a nicer SF installation.

^Maybe a few cardboard cut-outs of Steven Tyler and Aerosmith, as a tie-in to RnRC.... :)

NOOOOOOOOoooooo!

/darth vader