Wednesday, February 21, 2007

Disneyland After Action Report

Met the mouse.  Lived to tell about it.  Disneyland is a lot of fun with young children.  I'm also a fan of fast roller coasters but not super big fan of the drops involved in most coaster.  Disneyland has a lot of the merely fast coasters.  Space Mountain is the best IMHO.  A few things we learned should you be considering a trip there soon:

  1. Don't go over President's Day weekend if you can help it.  We were hoping for off-season and didn't consider that President's Day was a school holiday.  The park was quite busy.
  2. Fast passes are your friend.  In case you haven't been recently, Disneyland has this system called a "Fast Pass" which lets you basically get a ticket for later in the day.  At the appointed time, you can just walk up and get on the ride.  No need to wait in (most of) the line.  Very cool.  On busy days, they run out fast.  Get them early if you can.  You can always not use them later.
  3. If you have young kids, do lunch in Ariel's Grotto.  The food is good.  The price isn't terribly insane (considering a cheeseburger and a coke will run you nearly $12 in the main park).  You get to meet lots of the characters (currently the princesses) without having to wait in a lot of line.  Note that if things are at all busy, you need to make reservations ahead.  You can apparently call 60 days in advance.
  4. Honda has a really cool robot called ASIMO.  You can see ASIMO in action in the Innoventions exhibit.  While a lot of the show is mocked up to make ASIMO seem to have more AI capabilities than he really has, the ability to walk up/down stairs and kick a ball is very cool.
  5. On weekends, there is a fireworks show at 9:30.  Most people gather in front of the castle/Main Street to see it.  This is where it is best viewed because the music is broadcast there, etc.  The truth is, however, that 80% or more of the fireworks are actually shot from Toon Town.  If you stand right by the entrance to Toon Town, you'll get a better view of the fireworks and have a lot fewer people to fight with for a good seat.  We saw the show from Toon Town and from the end of Main Street.  It's a marginally better show from Main Street but probably not worth fighting the crowds for.  Next time I won't bother. 

I'll add more as I think of them.

3 comments:

  1. No one called me from It's A Small World.  I can't tell you how pleased I am.
    Of course, this may mean that you didn't go into the small world.  All the better for you if that's the case.

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  2. Hi Need help.   Coming with my husband and daughter 6.  Bummed because we won't be able to go on the rides.  But that's okay because it will be a magical time for her..  Need a great hotel!

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  3. Not sure why you wouldn't be able to go on the rides.  At 6 years old, she'll be able to go on all but a handful of rides.  There are even some parent passes you can get if you all wait in line until the front and then one of you goes.  The other gets what is basically a fast pass to go later.  I'd say pick any of the hotels near the entrance.  You won't be doing much but sleeping in it.

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