UPDATED February 4, 2022
This is part of a series of trip reports from a 2008 southern California trip. Changes since then are noted with "NOW".
This is the 2nd of 11 posts (10 travel days plus final thoughts) adapted from e-mails I sent to friends and family. This was my 3rd trip there, the previous two being in the early 1980s and 1996. My dad came with me this trip.
My dad and I had breakfast at Mimi's. Food was okay but a bit pricey. This was our first actual day in Disneyland Park this trip. Below I describe the rides/shows in the order I went on them, with mini-reviews the first time I tried a particular ride this trip.
* Finding Nemo: Mock submarine voyage, a revamped Undersea Voyage ride, i.e. the boat pretends to submerge when it’s actually just visual effects. Visually interesting but not having seen the movie couldn't make much sense of it. A lot of people love this but it was probably my least favourite ride.
[NOW: On my 2014 trip I found it to be a good ride for taking photos but there's not much else to recommend it.]
* Space Mountain: Science-fiction theme roller coaster, with lots of visual effects. This one time I found the ride a bit scary, but mainly because I left my ear band at the hotel, so I was hanging on to my glasses the entire ride. Dad didn't go on.
* Matterhorn Bobsleds: Abominable Snowman-themed roller coaster. Fun with the above caveat. My dad didn’t go on this ride either
* Mr. Toad's Wild Ride: Okay minor ride through various rooms. Not really that wild.
* Storybook Land Canal Boats: River ride with images from various fairy tales. Okay relaxing ride, good for taking photos.
* Peter Pan's Flight: Decent ride where the track is above rather than below you, so your feet tough air. Otherwise like Mr. Toad it was a pleasant multi-room ride through surprisingly popular.
* Snow White's Scary Adventures: Another decent multi-room ride, albeit one that punches some young kids' buttons apparently. No real wait this time around.
* Pinocchio's Daring Journey: The last of a quartet of decent but similar minor Fantasyland rides.
* Buzz Lightyear: This was a fun ride where you shook at targets while on the tracks. I beat my dad, in part because I figured out ways of firing at some targets multiple times. Completely new for me. I later realize that the left side seems to have an advantage over the right.
* Star Tours: Motion simulator with the premise of a robot pilot in the Star Wars universe screwing up on its first flight. I understand they’ve changed this since, but I really enjoyed this version.
* Mark Twain Riverboat: Pleasant multi-story boat that travels around Tom Sawyer Island while a narrator tells tales.
* Big Thunder Mountain Railroad: Fun, mild but scenic roller coaster, probably my favourite ride at Disneyland Park. Same caveat as previous coasters and my Dad passed again.
* Tarzan's Treehouse: Decent walk-through diversion with a short suspension bridge. New for me in this incarnation; it used to be Swiss Family Treehouse
* Jungle Cruise: Pun-filled boat ride through a jungle of robot animals. Definitely fun.
* Enchanted Tiki Room: Surreal show performed by singing robot tropical birds. A very entertaining way to relax. We then had lunch at McDonald's using a 10% coupon after I grabbed my ear band for my glasses, then I returned to the park while my dad relaxed at the hotel.
I then rode:
* Space Mountain twice more, then Matterhorn, then Big Thunder
* Splash Mountain twice: Fairly mild (until the end) but wet flume ride based on Song of the South, ending in a 52 foot drop. Some people flash during the drop at the end, as a photo gets taken then; if they do the photo gets ”washed away” and people wanting to buy a photo can apparently redo the ride immediately.
* Pirates of the Caribbean: a fun politically incorrect boat ride. Mild but inventive. I liked it better though before they grafted material from the movies onto the other material, which is decades older. I then bought a Fastpass for Indiana Jones, then visited:
* Star Tours, then Pirates (a boy and his dad sneaked ahead of me and wound up in the back of one boat while I got the start of the next)
* Indiana Jones Adventure (using to Fastpass to save a little time in line): Fun if jerky jeep ride with great special effects.
* Space Mountain, then Big Thunder On my way to the exit I briefly glimpsed a stray cat. A variety of things conspired to screw up dinner plans with my dad, which I felt bad about. A shame because most of the rest of the day went well. Well except that the guy beside me has been on the Internet for over an hour, messing things up for others wanting to use the terminals.
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