Las Vegas/Disneyland Vacation Day Two (Part One)

 Sunday June 28

We packed A LOT into Day One so I need to divide it into two parts...

MORNING

This day was an early one.  We were all up and assembled in the lobby by 7:10.  We began a long walk to enter Disneyland through Downtown Disney.  It was a gorgeous morning; slightly cool to begin the day but the sun was out and warmed things up quickly.  

We walked along a beautiful palm tree lined street. The first thing that shocked me was that they still manually check every single bag instead of sending it through a machine.  It slowed things up, but the number of people going through security is not nearly as high as Orlando.  

We got there in time for rope drop and it was so worth it - we got on 12 things before leaving about 1:00. Cinderella's castle was pretty underwhelming compared to Orlando. 

My very first Disneyland ride was Alice in Wonderland. I was glad it was a ride that is not in Disney World and is new to me. 

                              Ride through from Attractions 360

Then we walked over to Toon Time and went on Mickey and Minnie's Runaway Railway.

POV ride through from TPM Vids

Next up was a short walk to Storybook Land Canal Boats

I was interested in this ride because it is not at the Magic Kingdom.  It wasn't an exciting ride which I already knew, but I would much rather that seats were in a row so everyone could face forward,  Instead, the seats were around the edge of the boat which meant there Had to be a lot of the turning completely around to see the things your back was facing.  

POV ride through from DocumentDisney. 

After getting off the boats, we walked over to Buzz Lightyear Astro Blasters. 

I suck SO bad at these aim and shoot games so......moving on. 

POV ride through again by DocumentDisney

We did Finding Nemo Submarine Voyage

I am not including a ride through video.  It was a cute ride but at times, pretty hard to see through the bubbles. Next up was another ride that is not at the Magic Kingdom - Pinnochio's Daring Journey.

POV ride through from DocumentDisney

Then it was time for CJ's favorite ride - Indiana Jones: Temple of the Forbidden Eye. It was a similar ride experience to Dinosaur at Animal Kingdom.  It had a good story line and great effects, but was very jerk (showing my age).  

POV Ride through from Disney Parks

Another ride I was looking forward to was Haunted Mansion. The facade was completely different than the one at the Magic Kingdom, but for the most part, the actual ride was similar.  The big difference was the transition between the party scene and the graveyard scene and I highly preferred the Magic Kingdom one.  But still, a favorite because of the nostalgia.  

POV Ride through from DocumentDisney

Believe it or not - we were not done yet!  

For a while now, CJ has been telling us that Pirates of the Caribbean is far superior at Disneyland when compared to the Magic Kingdom and he was right.  In Disney World, you are just launched into the Pirate's experience.  Here, you begin by floating along a deep woods bayou when you are suddenly dropped into the middle of the pirate's story and shenanigans and ending by raised by a ramp back into the bayou.  Very well done. 

DocumentDisney again for the ride through

Picture credit: Orange County Register

Picture Credit: Disney Wiki

As an added interest, there is the Blue Bayou Restaurant overlooking the ride - similar to El Rio del Tiempo in EPCOT.

Picture Credit: SFGate

Still going strong we hit up It's a Small World. The boarding for this ride is outside and the facade is far superior to the Magic Kingdom.  However, it would not be workable in Orlando with the amount of summer rain the area gets. The ride itself was similar in some aspects and completely different in others, but the theme remains the same of course. 

Beautiful Facade

Ride through credit: The Small World Fan Cat

For our final ride of the morning, we hit the Matterhorn for the bobsleds. Another very jerky ride, but fun and probably pretty accurate to being on a real bobsled.  

After a very busy morning we took the monorail back to Downtown Disney, picked up some Wetzel's Pretzels, and walked back to the Marriot for a little rest and recharge for the evening. 

 

We left at 7:10, arrived back at about 2:00, and were able to get on 11 rides.  The Lightning Lane option was worth the extra money (as we would discover time and again over the four days we were there).