We flew out to Disneyland on Sunday, way freakin' early in the morning. We got to the Disneyland Resort area around 9:00-ish AM. The hotel (The Grand Californian—absolutely gorgeous) didn't check people in until 3:00 PM, so we went straight to Disneyland and spent most of the whole day there. The very first thing we did was go on the Matterhorn Bobsleds, which had been revamped, althought I can't in any way remember the ones from when I was a kid so I have no idea what's different.
We went on Space Mountain, which I had never been on before, and which has a really groovy retro soundtrack that kinda matches the action of the coaster (a very good idea). Oddly enough, it is a new soundtrack that was written to sound retro. Very cool.
Almost all of the attractions that were closed last year were open this time. Everything except the Haunted Mansion, which closes the last half of every September to gear it up for October, the hauntedest month of all. I guess if we want to see that we'll have to go sometime either earlier or later than we've been going these last two years.
We wanted to go to Blue Bayou for lunches, but they were all full up. So we put down a reservation for Monday with dreams of deep-fried Monte Cristo sammitches in our heads. Instead we ate at some cafeteria-style place just a few paces away.
This trip to Disneyland was interesting in that it seemed we always ended up in New Orleans Square. It was kind of like our base of operation. It was a bit surreal seeing as how New Orleans basically doesn't exist right now in real life.
At one point while we were walking through Adventureland we heard the announcement that there was less than a five-minute wait for the Jungle Cruise. So we looked at each other and made a hard left and basically walked right onto a boat. The guides this year weren't nearly as good as they have been. They make up their own scripts and they're mostly not any good. But the first guy did have a W.C. Fields style way of speaking that was most entertaining. They actually made some changes to Jungle Cruise, the biggest one being piranhas. You'll see.
We went back to the hotel when our room was available and totally took a big ol' nap.
By the time the evening rolled around we had really covered almost the entire park. I think there were maybe a couple of rides we didn't get to hit, but for the most part we got everything. So we bought some hush puppies and settled down to watch Fantasmic (unfortunately the new fireworks show was only showing Fri-Sat, this being the off-season). Carrie had seen it years and years ago, but I never had. There are actually some rather impressive giant costume effects, and the Steamboat Willy touch was very, very good.
Fools Play Island 
Sin City 
Xoc: SMW 
