Yay Disneyland! OK, so. It was awesome. We flied in an airplane and got to Disneyland in the middle of the day on Tuesday. We decided that Pirates of the Caribbean was an excellent choice for our first ride to go on, since 1} it’s one of our favorites (possibly my #1 favorite, but I’m not quite sure) 2} we hadn’t been on it since they added Jack and 3} the line was short. I thought the animatronic Jacks were incredibly awesome, but the changes to the dialogue so you hear him mentioned every freaking second were really annoying. Davey Jones was SO FREAKING COOL too. This new thing they’ve figured out of how to project images onto water is amazing and so useful that I’m a little surprised they weren’t using it decades ago. But more on that later. Pirates was so much fun that we went on it again. It broke down when we were in the burning town part, and we sat there for several minutes listening to them sing the same three lines of the song over and over and over XD

Next we went to see about the new Buzz Lightyear ride. Mostle and I both loOoOove Buzz. It broke down in the middle, which meant we were able to sit there and shoot at the targets for a lot longer than usual… but still my score was only 297,100. Mostle got something in the 400,000’s, but even so we were like O_o wondering how anyone could possibly get some of the scores they list on the board at the end.

Then we went on the teacups. The line was oddly short. Teacups are awesome. After that, because it was nearby, we went on the Mr. Toad ride. Hell was a lot cooler than it used to be, which puzzled us. Next we went on Snow White, which of course is just across the way. The girl running the ride was supa cute.

After that it was time for the Aladdin show, which was as cool as it was last time. We still can’t agree on whether/how much they’re lip-syncing. I swear some of the songs are not actually being sung on that stage, but they’re obviously really speaking the dialogue. At one point, when Aladdin told the Genie he couldn’t wish him free, the Genie’s next line was something about how Aladdin was just like all the rest and not to be trusted… but just then some baby in the theater started wailing and the Genie was like, “You know what, Al? That baby’s crying because of you.” Which made the audience laugh harder than any other line in the show. The best part, though, was that it also made Aladdin laugh, and he kinda couldn’t stop. And the Genie was like, “Oh, you think this is funny, do you?” and had to wait for him to compose himself.

The Hollywood Tower Hotel is right next to the theater, so we went to that next. Though the building’s been there as long as the park has (California Adventure, that is), we’re fairly sure the ride has not been running any previous time we’ve visited… you can see it running when it is, and we never have before — and we’ve always been extremely curious what the hell the building actually was. So now we were able to go on it, and I must say I found it very strange. The “story” that’s presented doesn’t make much sense, and the decrepit abandoned hotel look is incongruous wis the behavior of the staff and some of the dialogue. Also it’s really annoying that the “wait time” sign only tells you the wait time ’til the stupid video intro, after which it may be another twenty minutes before you get onto the actual ride. However, once you do manage to get onto the ride, it’s really fun… though it needs to be about three times longer (especially if the line is long).

It was dark by then, so we went on the teacups again. Aside from the fact that the ride is made of love, the lanterns are just so pretty when they’re lit. Then we finished off the day wis Indiana Jones (which is my other candidate for Favorite Ride Ever), and noted that some holographic rats (one of which falls onto the hood of the car!) have been added since the last time we were there. Or maybe they just never worked before XD Anyway, that ride wins. The god’s eyes never worked properly the entire time, though, and his “Infidel!” was always oddly quiet.

On Wednesday we did the Hollywood Tower again first because the line was short, and Soaring Over California after that. We were shocked to realize that Pookster had never been to the Bug’s Life theater or the Muppets theater, so we went to both of those. Next door to the Muppets we found the new Monsters, Inc. ride, so we went on that. Roz told me she liked my glasses. Then we visited Ursula’s Grotto, where we assisted the seven dwarfs to sing I-E-A-I-A-I-O and laughed our asses off.

Parents had obtained fast passes for that stupid Roger Rabbit ride, so we went on that next, and after that it was terribly important to get some refreshing ice cream. The line for ice cream was as long as any ride line. Then we went on Pirates again twice. Once it stopped just at the end so we got to watch Jack sitting there for, like, ten minutes. Awesome.

Splash Mountain is fun. It was my absolute favorite when I was, like, twelve, and I remember going on it ten times in a row back then XD However, I agree wis Mostle’s opinion that they ought to tear out all that retarded obnoxious terrible-looking Song of the South crap and re-theme the ride for The Emperor’s New Groove. It would be relevant, fun, and referencing a movie that most of the parkgoers have actually seen.

Next we stood around for, like, an hour and a half waiting for the Fantasmic show. We were worried it wouldn’t be worth the wait, but HOLY CRAP it was such an awesome show. The premise (Mickey Mouse’s amazing imagination) was retarded, and the song that they’d written for it was positively worthy of Barney and Friends. But I mentioned before the awesomeness of this projecting-stuff-onto-water-spray thing? Imagine a water spray the size of a movie theater screen and stuff projected onto it!! SO COOL. Also glowing dancing monkeys. Very very awesome. After that we went on Indiana Jones one more time.

On Thursday we got in a little early due to the nature of our tickets and hurried to get in line for Peter Pan before it filled up. I ran to grab us fast passes for Space Mountain, and got delayed on the way back by Buzz Lightyear (I mentioned my crush, right?) so the line had filled up behind my peoples. So I went on Pinocchio while I waited for them (it was less stupid than I remembered), and then we all went on that again together when they were done wis Peter Pan. Some of them rode the carousel (which is spelled “Carrousel” on the ride itself) and I took pictures; then I dragged Pookster through the Peter Pan line wis me, since I really freaking love that ride even though I think they botched the book just like they do every book they try to adapt.

We went to redeem our Space Mountain fast passes after that; Space Mountain is much more fun than I remembered, though I’m aware there are multiple tracks and I’m fairly sure we got the more interesting one. Outside, we found Buzz again and took more pictures wis him. He let Mostle kiss him. In honor of that (actually in honor of Damien), we went on the Buzz Lightyear ride again. That time it only broke down briefly, but I wasn’t shooting because I wanted to actually see what was in the ride instead of only watching the Z’s XD Then we went on Star Tours, which I find rather boring.

My biggest Disney crushes are Jasmine and Jafar (oddly enough), and of course I was keeping an eye out for either of them for picture purposes the entire time. I’d caught sight of Jasmine once, but she was gone by the time I got to the oasis. Anyway, on our way to the Tiki Room we saw her (and Aladdin, of course) coming toward us. So we followed them, not harassing them but to see whether they were going to do pictures and such or whether they were (as they somewhat appeared to be) attempting to escape from all the hangers-on. Some little girls ran up to them asking for autographs, so they stopped and signed. It was totally adorable the way they interacted; they really seemed like a cooperative married couple. Anyway, after the autographs, they saw us watching and asked if we wanted pictures. We were all by one of the Main Street restaurants at this point, the one wis the ragtime piano player. This gentleman started playing A Whole New World, and Jasmine was like, “Oh, that’s– he’s playing our song!” and it was soOoOo cute. After we got our pictures and they walked off again, they danced for a bit before continuing, and that was also soOoOo cute.

The Tiki Room was either broken or vomited in or something, so we got some pineapple ice cream items and sat around wis those for a while until they let us in. The Tiki Room is charmingly stupid. Every time that bird tells us to sing along and then starts saying the words we’re supposed to sing really fast just before we’re supposed to sing them, I crack up so much that I cannot sing along. EVERY TIME.

Next we went on that dorky jungle cruise thing to hear what manner of bad jokes the “tour guide” would tell. The real attraction was the tour guide himself, because he was incredibly hot. The piranhas seemed to be new; at least, none of us remembered them from past Disneyland trips… and we remember these things pretty well, since they are important. Then we went on Indiana Jones and the teacups again.

We probably wouldn’t have gone back to California Adventure at all, but Mostle had found a Jack Skellington hat she wanted to buy in a shop there and I wanted to look for a Jafar doll I’d seen in the toy store during our last visit. She got her hat and I failed to find my Jafar, and then while she and Lester went on the boring roller coaster I went to the Monsters, Inc. ride again to attempt to confirm my theory about Roz’s comments being customized for each car. I came out vindicated, and we all headed back to Disneyland to watch Fantasmic again. It was still awesome and Mickey Mouse was still stupid and flailing. He’s been inducted into the King Joe Club just for flailing. The (irritatingly nameless) Wicked Queen flailed too, but she had the excuse of being a villain.

After the show, we went on Indiana Jones again as a fitting conclusion to our Disneyland trip. We have debated much about the layout of the first few rooms of that ride… the three doors (supposedly) leading into three different rooms where three different gifts may be bestowed by the god… Lester suggested that the floor rotated, and eventually I suggested that the doors probably rotated too and there was really only one room beyond. What is my joy to find, if Wikipedia is to be believed, that this theory is correct ^__^

Damien liked the slow-moving, brightly-colored rides like Peter Pan and some horrible Winnie the Disney Sucks Pooh ride. He also loved meeting characters wis big bright faces; at one point, I had taken him out of his stroller to meet Jessie (Toy Story 2 Jessie), and she was tapping his nose and making kissing noises at him… and he started just shrieking wis laughter. If you have not met my nephew you don’t know the loud and engaging way he laughs… the whole street stopped and crowded around to watch him. It was freaking awesome.

We got lots of good pictures, but as they are dispersed among various cameras I cannot post them at this time. I shall do so when I am able. It was a great trip and telve million fun. I love Disneyland forever. Today, though, my entire body is sore, stiff, and exhausted. I slept almost twelve hours, but still I am soOoOo tired, and work was somewhat miserable XD Ah, well. It was worth it. I never did find Jafar, though.

Oh, yeah, one more thing I forgot to mention. I think The Nightmare Before Christmas is a very boring movie, and it pisses me off that they have to go and screw up my beloved Haunted Mansion for it. If we’d gone a week later, we could have gone on the real Haunted Mansion; if we’d gone a week earlier, we could have gone on the stupid Nightmare Haunted Mansion. But it was closed this week to remove all the stupid Nightmare stuff. Stupid Nightmare.