Today I wanted to experiment with a different kind of post – one that involves taking a break from anime and blogging about one of the most popular overall blog topics: places traveled to. I’m not much of a traveler and haven’t been to many interesting places. But there are some I would like to share at some point, besides Japan and anime conventions, which I’ve already shared quite a bit of here on the blog. So what better way to start than with the “happiest place on Earth”…
I never went on any family vacations as a kid, mostly because my mom had to raise me as a single, working parent, and we never had the time or the money to go traveling. But as I got older, more opportunities for day trips to fun places with friends came up, and I’ve been to a lot more places here in Southern California in the past few years than I ever had before. While I had been to Disneyland a couple of times as a kid – once when I was too young to remember it and once in 2000 – it wasn’t until 2007 that I started going there somewhat regularly, usually for my birthday. It is indeed one of my favorite places to go ^_^
There’s way too much to see and do at Disneyland to cover in a single post. So I’m just gonna share my favorite things. All the photos on this post are mine that I took during the past six years I’ve been to Disneyland, while the videos are from various YouTube users with better cameras than me XD
Main Street is, well, the main street that goes through the center of Disneyland and leads to all the different areas. There are lots of gift shops and places to eat there.
One of the ways to get around Main Street is to ride a trolley pulled by a horse like this one.
Main Street gets fully decked-out at Christmas time. If you’re there at night during the holiday season, artificial snow will even fall.
They even have one of the tallest Christmas trees you’ll ever see XD
Usually when I go to Disneyland, I head to Tomorrow Land first to get in line for their fastest and most popular roller coaster, Space Mountain.
The Astro Orbiter ride is the first thing you see upon entering Tomorrow Land. I’ve never been on it since it’s kind of a kiddy ride…but it looks cool.
Above is a video of the full Space Mountain experience (the actual ride itself is rather boring to watch since it’s all dark). The great thing about Disneyland is how fun they make the architecture and immersive feeling of the waiting area of each ride, while the ride itself is only a few minutes long. You can see how well they create that “boarding a spaceship” feeling for Space Mountain.
The Finding Nemo submarine is a gentle ride where you get in the submarine, go underwater, and look through a port hole that projects video of the Finding Nemo characters, giving the illusion that you’re seeing them underwater. It’s a great ride for the kids and a good one for us older folks to relax with XD For those of you who’ve seen the movie, they even have a buoy in the water with the seagulls on it that shout “mine” at random intervals.
If you’re a Star Wars fan – or even if you’re not – Star Tours is a must see. You sit in a theater-like room with seats that rumble as you watch a thrilling 3-D movie through space with 3-D glasses. The above video is the newly revamped version of Star Tours they stared last year, where each time you go the events in the 3-D video will be different =)
This is part of the architecture of Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, another fun roller coaster.
There’s a big lake in Frontier Land where you can ride around in a canoe, pirate ship, or the big Mark Twain Riverboat.
This is the extremely popular Pirates of the Caribbean ride. It pretty much just involves you sitting in a boat going down the dark waters, with a few drops, and seeing the amazingly realistic pirate puppets and props. Unfortunately it’s another dark ride that can’t be seen well with a camera, but you can get a good gist of it with the video above. There’s also a restaurant right along the waters of the ride, but I’ve never been there since it’s expensive.
The Haunted Mansion is another ride where it’s more about seeing the impressive visuals rather than being on an actual ride. During the holiday time, the Haunted Mansion gets a complete makeover with a Nightmare Before Christmas theme.
Here’s the Haunted Mansion experience during the holidays with its Nightmare Before Christmas version.
The above video is Splash Mountain, Disneyland’s big water ride that features a fifty-foot watery plunge with a Song of the South theme (kudos if you remember that old relic of a Disney movie). A good ride to go on in the summer, not so much the winter. If you don’t want to get wet, you can buy a Disneyland poncho…for like, five dollars XD
Fantasy Land as a lot of the smaller, kid-friendly rides. As such, I don’t care for them except…
…It’s A Small World. This is the most visually incredible ride in my opinion. If you can put up with that painfully catchy song, it’s a must-see XD
The clock tower outside Peter Pan’s Flight, which is another visual-focused ride. It’s not my favorite since it’s kind of short and not that impressive, but it’s good if you like Peter Pan =P
The only attraction I’m interested in here is the Indiana Jones ride. Along with Space Mountain and Splash Mountain, it’s the ride that tends to have the longest wait time.
Tarzan’s Treehouse is located right next to Indiana Jones, with jungle sounds constantly playing. If you’re waiting in line for Indiana Jones, chances are you’ll hear Tarzan scream about fifty times before you actually get on the ride XD
Here’s the full Indiana Jones ride. Unfortunately it’s another dark ride that can’t be seen well via camera. But yes, you do have to escape the famous boulder at the end.
And here some other pictures I took around the park…
Here’s the outside of the Haunted Mansion during Christmas time, with its Nightmare Before Christmas decor.
Some pet tombstones outside the Haunted Mansion.
This is my most favorite non-ride event, the amazing Fantasmic water/light/fireworks/special effects show that takes place every night on certain days of the week.
Here’s the outside of It’s A Small World.
Aladdin and Jasmine signing an autograph for a little girl. Various characters have autograph sessions at various intervals throughout the park.
And I’ll wrap things up with a picture of me and Monstro the whale XD
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That’s all I’m gonna share of Disneyland. Honestly, this is maybe a little over half of everything to see and do there, but I’ve covered all the most popular rides. For those of you who haven’t been there, I hope I was able to give you a second-hand thrill ^^,,,
Anyway, I’m not going to do travel posts like this often – my blog is first and foremost an anime blog. But if you would like to see more posts about my travels in SoCal, please let me know in the comments. If enough people are interested, I may do another one some other time =)
You live in SoCal as well? Awesome! I live ten minutes near Disneyland, but don’t go there often. My mom didn’t take me to places much as a child, so the desire to stay at home traveled with me to this day. XD “It’s a small world” was so creepy before its revamp; mostly because of the abundance of dolls. Some other notable rides are the Matterhorn Bobsleds and Gadget’s Go Coaster. The storybook rides are pretty fun to go on after walking the whole day. Finding Nemo is so boring, but I always have to go through it because of my cousins. One of my cousins is handicapped, so we don’t have to wait in the long lines. I look forward to reading more of your destination articles. :)
Cool, nice to know another SoCal anime fan ^_^ I live about an hour from Disneyland, in the San Fernando Valley.
I’ve only been on Matterhorn Bobsleds a couple of times…I don’t like to go on it because I remember it being kind of bumpy and uncomfortable when I last went (in ’09 I think). Unless they’ve fixed it since then…but I haven’t been on Gadget’s Go Coaster. I’ll have to try that one next time.
Once I’ve been to the European Disneyland in Paris, when I was 15. It blew my mind, considering that the only other amusement park I have been to before was the one in Budapest, and that isn’t even a theme park, unless you count socialist realism as a theme.
The Space Mountain Mission 2 is probably the best ride ever. I’m not sure if that video above just failed to show all the details of the American one, or they really improved it in France, but that one had so much spectacular STUFF inside it, all sorts of platets, comets, stars, supernovas, etc. Probably they did rework it, because that one also had a steampunk theme, imitating Verne’s “From the Earth to the Moon”.
Oh, nice to hear you had a fun time at Disneyland Paris! I would love to go to Disneyland Tokyo one day. For some reason the poncho for Splash Mountain I bought one year at Disneyland in CA says “Disneyland Paris” on it…so apparently I have a souvenir for Disneyland Paris despite never being there XD
Sounds like the Space Mountain you’re talking about is cooler visual-wise than the one here. Ours is pretty much dark the whole time – it’s all about the thrill of the ride rather than cool visuals I guess =P
Glad you had fun! I’ve been to Disney once (In Orlando), and it really is a fun place. Space mountain was lots of fun, even if I do not like roller coasters much :P
It’s cool to have some blogs about stuff from time to time. A little trip into memory lane :)
I’ve heard the one in Orlando is lots of fun and has different things than the one here in Anaheim. But glad to know Space mountain is still fun XD
Why is everyone suddenly going to Disneyland?! I know at least 2 more persons who have done it/will do it!
I have never been to a Disneyland, but it looks fun. :(
It’s an extremely popular vacation destination, so I’m not surprised XD I hope you can make it to one of the Disneylands someday~
If you delve into the origins of anime, it’s still kind of related if you think about it. xD
I’ve never been to Disneyland before, so I am extremely jelly right now. :P I would love to go one day, though.
That’s true…in Japan, the word “anime” simply means “animation” regardless of country, so there Disney would technically be anime XD
Hope you can get to a Disneyland one day!
I have gone to Disneyland a long time ago (I think it was in 2006) so I don’t remember much. Although it’s fun, it’s not on the same level as Disney World in Orlando, which I went three times (2 with the family and one on a Band/school trip in High School). If you have the time and money, I suggest trying to go to that one… there is a lot to see.
I’d love to go to the Disney World in Orlando some day =D While I’m in Florida, I’d also love to go to the Universal Studios there, with its Harry Potter theme park XD I actually have relatives who live in FL, but unfortunately they live hours away from these places at the other end of the state =/ But maybe I can make a trip out there one of these days (I’d like to go to a beach in FL while I’m there too).