The trip to Disneyland was relatively short but it was hard to find!  The signs weren’t that great and my GPS seemed not to be able to find the entrance (which you can’t drive to) or the car park.  Disneyland is so well organised their designers should design cities!  You pay and drive in, are directed to a park on the highest level closest to the escalators.  You then go down to a tram that takes you to ‘Downtown Disneyland.’  Downtown had some sort of food and wine exhibit (sadly closed by the time I left), some food outlets and more Disney stores.  We then had the choice of going to Disneyland, Disney’s California Adventure or both.  Would people really choose Disney’s California Adventure over Disneyland?

I walked into Disneyland and it was a little different to Tokyo Disney (my obvious bench mark), I don’t remember the big row of stores on the walk into Tokyo Disney.  However they were well placed as I needed to get a hat.  I didn’t have a hat the previous day on my visit to Hollywood in the open top bus and whilst my skin was fine, my scalp had burned making it feel like I’d hit my head!  I also found a great souvenir for my dad – Snow White and the Seven Dwarves themed merchandise featuring Grumpy.  I made a bee line to get a Fast Pass for a couple of rides but was disappointed to find out that in the US you can only hold one at a time!  I hit the big rides first – Splash Mountain (log ride with Brer Rabbit), Indiana Jones (same as Disney Sea in Tokyo – waste of time), the train ride (forget the name) and then visited the Haunted Mansion before heading to Tomorrowland.  On the way I found an area where little girls were made up as princesses – parents could pay to get their hair and make up done as well as have costumes thrown into the deal.  It was a little over the top, but in the interest of being inclusive little boys could get made over as pirates or princes.  I then headed to Space Mountain – I’d forgotten how awesome this roller coaster is.  It’s completely in the dark with tiny lights that don’t give you a clue of what’s coming next.  I then finally got on the Star Tours – I’d been looing for the Star Wars ride and forgotten what it was called – which is the simulated roller coaster.  When you get out there is a shop full of very cool Star Wars stuff including a wookie back pack and life size replicas of Star Wars guns and helmets.  The other thing you can do is have a custom made light sabre, and they have pictures of different characters weapons for you to model them on.

I tried to get lunch in the New Orleans Quarter but there was nothing on any of the menus I could manage (ie no chilli, no pepper, no capsicum) and ended up having a hot dog back near the entrance in despair.  Ew.  But I did have a rag time pianist to play whilst eating and I got to see a little ‘princess’ decide the best way to manage her food was to put her face in her dish and eat that way – Princess school really worked!

I was tired by this point, and overwhelmed by fighting my way through a see of people and more bizarrely parked prams.  I originally thought that going on a Monday = less school children before I realised that the Monday was a public holiday.  I made it to the Pirates of the Caribbean ride, which was a bit different to the one in Tokyo, and also due to the popularity of the movie they had added in some robotic ‘Jack Sparrow’ figures to the ride as well as Davey Jones.  From there I got to explore sleeping beauty’s castle, watch the Jedi training school and see the  3D movie, “Honey I Shrunk the Audience.”  I also got on the jungle cruise at some point where  you go on a boat with a guide and manage to visit Cambodia, the Nile, Africa, the Amazon and then head back to Africa all without leaving the one jungle…  …very culturally aware!  I headed off at about 5.  I didn’t want to leave too early as my flight was not until 11pm.

I finally returned my car, got to the airport and spent hours waiting around before flying 12 hours back to Brisbane!