We left Australia with no real intent of going to Disneyland. We thought that with it being the start of the American school holidays and with the 4th of July falling in the week that we would be there, the whole place would simply be a mad house and something to avoid, an impression backed up by the fact that when I was looking for accommodation, there didn’t appear to be any room for us in any of the Disney resort hotels.
Better to just relax around the hotel pool and get some down time, though we stayed in the Anaheim area so that if we changed our minds it wouldn’t be too much of an issue. We were only a couple of blocks away and could see elements of the park from certain windows of our hotel and as it turned out, could see the nightly fireworks from our hotel window.
Of course, being so close, the lure was too much and we decided to give the whole thing a go and see just how busy it was, after all, we could always fly down and try it some other time, right?
And of course, we were then sucked in by the discounting and decided that if it was really really really busy, we wouldn’t get to see everything and so bought a three day pass.
Day one was probably the worst day. Tired kids, tired us and in some cases, ridiculously long lines that meant at one point we were there for an hour and a half before getting our turn on the finding nemo submarine ride. Thankfully it was worth it, though there were times when standing in line with four kids for insane amounts of time almost brought the patience to cracking point. I lost count of the number of times that we had one or more of them in tears or refusing to move because they’d had enough.
And yes, we did see Mickey Mouse.
Day two saw us explore the adjacent Disney park, California Adventure World, the one that Michael and Sam were particularly keen on because that was where the scary rides were.
There was one ride in particular that they were really keen to go on – The Hollywood Tower of Terror. Now my understanding of this ride was that it was similar to the Giant Drop at Dreamworld on the Gold Coast, a ride that I’d been on and that had scared the living crap out of me the first time that I’d done it. Where the similarity ended in my mind was with the fact that the Hollywood Tower of Terror did the same thing (free fall some 120 metres) but that it did it in the dark.
I said no. Man, was Michael pissed. I offered that if they were prepared to go on the ride without me, they could. Sam said no, Michael said yes. In the end we didn’t go on it. We did go on the Malibooma Zoomer (or some such) which you sit in before getting launched some 100m into the air before falling back down again. I loved that one. I have no trouble with going up and even the coming down doesn’t worry me when you can feel the deceleration before you fall. What I hate is the unknown time before a drop like that created on the Gold Coast.
One of the highlights of Day 2 were the 4th of July fireworks that were put on. They had the usual nightly run and then extended them even further. I have truly never seen more fireworks lighting up the sky in my life. The following day the sky was murky and overcast as it apparently is every 5th of July from all the fireworks that are let off on the 4th.
Day three was split between the two parks and was absolutely the best day that we had. We had a good understanding of what we wanted to do, a better understanding of the fast pass system that would get you near the front of a line quickly and managed to cover a number of things that we hadn’t seen on the two previous days.
We even managed to get Emily in to have her photo with three princesses and attend the ‘royal court’.
One of the highlights would have been the hour long live stage presentation of Aladdin. It was truly spectacular.
And on day 3, I even conceded and took Michael and Sam on the Hollywood Tower of Terror. I survived and it wasn’t what I expected. I won’t tell you exactly what happens because you might find yourself there one day and I’d hate to deprive you of the almost pant-wetting terror that I suffered waiting for the line.
I had built it up so much in my mind that by the time that I reached the gate, I was almost ready to walk out. There was an American girl in the line that had been on it numerous times before and she didn’t help things when she said that although she enjoyed it, she was never quite ready for it and was petrified every time that she walked in. She didn’t tell me how the ride worked, so I had to live with my fear as we went in.
But I did survive. And of course Michael and Sam wanted to go straight back on the end of the line … but time pressed us too much and we weren’t able to do that.
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