DISNEYLAND – who’s the leader of the club that’s made for you and me?

Monday – Disneyland – the happiest place on earth – we wake up in our room at the Disneyland Hotel – yep the original hotel at Disneyland with the Peter Pan Pool!  This is the hotel I remember from all the early Mickey Mouse Club and Disneyland TV shows way back in – – well let’s just say a long time ago.

Last night we checked in late so didn’t get a chance to have a really good look around but we are in the Wonder Tower which as we find out is the furthest tower from the Disneyland Park – just our luck.  This is a photo of the light in the bathroom.  Everything is on a Mickey Mouse theme – the light, the taps, the soaps etc – it’s enough to make you jump for joy!

One thing we did discover was our view. Yep – the car park!  Is there any hotel in the USA that has any other views?  I am beginning to think not.  Maybe I should start saying ‘I come from 10,000 miles away down under and I know what a car park looks like because we have them in Oz so please give me a room with a proper view!’ but as we are not planning in staying in our room 24/7 I suppose it doesn’t really matter although it would have been nice to have a view of the park.

Last night when checking in we received the rest of our “We are staying at the Disneyland Hotel” goodies.  Our Disneyland lanyard which we wear round our neck and which holds our Disneyland passes etc – our special Disneyland Resort pin – and our Disneyland First Visit badge that we pin to our lanyard so everyone knows we are First Timers.

This badge is just in case they do not recognize the open mouths and look of childish excitement on our faces!

As Tyler is getting into the spirit of things and doing his Brer Bear impersonation by just coming out of hibernation and ambling around, Kylie and I are keen to get going so we decide to head on out for our great Disneyland Adventure – not forgetting to wear our special lanyard and badges – and Brer Bear can catch up with us.

We have a 3 day Park Hopper Pass which also incorporates one early entry and also the Toontown Parade.  It is a rather long walk from our Wonder Tower to the entrance but the walk is enhanced by water features like waterfalls and little bridges over running streams when you leave the Tower, to Downtown Disney with all the shops full of touristy things not to mention eating establishments.

This is exciting to see for the first time – but after 3 days of it – it is nothing but one great big pain at the end of the day.  But I digress, we are on the first day so off we go.

This is the Peter Pan Pool – unfortunately all my grand plans to swim in it never come to fruition because we are too busy seeing everything else – and there just didn’t seem to be enough time or when there was it was closed.

Oh well, we get to the entrance in about 20 minutes and on one side is the original Disneyland Park and on the other side is the California Adventure (more about that later).  As we are going to Disneyland we flash our pass and go right through.  When you enter the park it’s like little fairy bell music when your pass is scanned.  Love it – just love it!

The first sight that greets us is the image of Mickey Mouse in flowers and the Disneyland Railroad.  Walking under a sign that says ‘ Here you leave Today and enter the world of Yesterday, Tomorrow and Fantasy’ we proceed through the entrance tunnel and emerge on Main Street!

This street is designed to be in a small town around the time of the early 20th century.  Old fashioned lamp posts – horse drawn vehicles – early horseless carriages etc.

It is all too exciting and I can feel myself starting to shake because of it.  I am finally here – I am finally at Disneyland.  Walking down Main Street we come to the statue of Walt Disney and Mickey Mouse. There is a plaque that reads –  ‘To all who come to this happy place – Welcome!.’

I just do not know where to look first – it is the ultimate dream come true! It’s just like I remember it from the TV – except that a TV screen in those days was in black and white and about 50cm and this is in a world of living colour with 360 degrees of vision!

You will have to indulge me a moment or two as I remember the opening of the Walt Disney’s Disneyland shows. Jiminy Cricket singing ‘When you wish upon a star’ and then the announcers voice – ‘each week as you enter this timeless land one of these many worlds will open to you – FRONTIERLAND – tall tales and true from the legendary past : TOMORROWLAND – promise of things to come : ADVENTURELAND  – the wonder world of Nature’s own realm : FANTASYLAND – the happiest kingdom of them all.’  It’s all there right in front of my eyes – SO EXCITING!

But enough reminiscing  – it’s time to move on.

First stop – Adventureland.  This is the land of the Enchanted Tiki Room – Indiana Jones Adventure – Tarzan’s Treehouse and the Jungle Cruise.  Tyler has still not called us so we decide that we will go on the first ride – The Jungle Cruise.

We line up to get on our riverboat that looks a lot like the African Queen sans Bogart and Hepburn, however it is skippered by a great lady with a sense of humour!

She points out elephants in the water who are all ‘wearing their trunks’, chimpanzees raiding the trader’s store and firing guns at us, a pride of lions ‘protecting a sleeping zebra who is dead tired’, vultures waiting for a free feed, a safari party up a tree with the guy on the bottom of the tree whose name is Juan, so pretty soon we will see a ‘hole in Juan’,  menacing hippos with gaping mouths and natives who will only attack boats that have people who are wearing red shirts – but not to worry – our trusty guide fires her pistol and scares them away.

It is at this time that a mobile phone starts ringing – Kylie and I look at each other – look around at the other people and think how rude – and then Kylie realises it is hers!

 It is Brer Bear letting us know he is ‘in the park’ – but this conversation must take a back seat as we are soon being attacked by piranhas.  We are in very peril of our lives! This is  a great first up ride and we know that we will go on it again. Arriving safe and sound back at our starting point we meet up with Tyler so – we decide to go on the ride again now.  It is just as good as it was the first time.

Safely returning once again from the darkest wilds of the jungle we head on over to the Indiana Jones Adventure.  We board a rugged troop transport deep inside an overgrown ancient temple for an unbelievable adventure filled with supernatural forces, screaming mummies, giant snakes and the heroics of famed archaeologist Indiana Jones!

The jolting and turning of the vehicle – the large stone ball rolling towards us – the perilous journey over the very narrow bridge – the sharp corners etc – not a ride where I was able to take photos or film – but no matter.  After regaining our sense of balance – we decide to give Tarzan’s Treehouse a miss due to the fact that we have to climb a huge amount of stairs to get to the top – no thanks.

Next stop New Orleans Square where resides the Pirates of the Caribbean and the Haunted Mansion.  Pirates first – this is an incredible ride that was the basis for the Pirates of the Caribbean movies that starred Johnny Depp as Captain Jack Sparrow. When the movies were just an idea it was thought that it was just too incredible to base movies on a Disneyland ride – little did they know and as they say – the rest is history!

There are a lot of people waiting in line but it seems to be moving fast so we get on the end of the queue and in no time it is our turn.  We are in the front seat of the boat and off we go into the darkness of the caverns where we are told ‘dead men tell no tales’. Ok so far – then whoosh down into the depths and splash into the river – we get wet but it’s not too bad and it’s all great fun.

On our journey we see the Pirates raiding the town and Jack Sparrow hiding in a barrel while all the mayhem is going on – yo ho ho ho a pirate’s life for me!  Next it is past the gaol where the pirates are trying to get the cell keys from the dog so they can escape and then onto pirates shooting from one side of the river to the other and we are caught in the middle!

Last sight is Jack Sparrow sitting in a huge chair with lots of treasure and rum singing in his best Johnny Depp voice –  ‘we’re devils and black sheep – really bad eggs; drink up me hearties yo ho’ and then he say’s ‘there’s treasure enough for all; I shall take this paltry sum and start to cover my expenses’.   Our little boat climbs a steep incline and then it is over – but this is another ride for a repeat – next it’s off to Frontierland and Mark Twain’s Riverboat.

This is a wonderful old paddle steamer that goes around Tom Sawyer’s Island.  Whilst waiting for the riverboat to arrive we can see the Pirate’s Lair show going on over at the Island.  At this distance you could swear it really was Johnny Depp as Captain Jack – I like to think it was him (it’s the imagination in me). Our riverboat arrives and we proceed to get onboard and go upstairs where we get the best vantage point.

While we are waiting to up anchor so to speak – one of Davy Crockett’s Explorer Canoes goes past – yep definitely hard work out there.  We cruise past Lafitte’s Tavern on Tom Sawyer’s Island, where it is said that treasure is buried – we spy Mike Fink’s  (I’m Mike Fink – King of the River) Gullywhumper – Deadman’s Grotto – Huck Finn’s Cabin – a Native American tribe – past the wobbly walkways made of planks over barrels – that looks like a lot of fun I must say – and back again to dry land.

Next stop is the Haunted Mansion – Kylie’s favourite.  The line again is long but moves quickly so we enter this charming New Orleans Mansion only to be told by a rather dubious character to ‘enter, mortals, if you dare!

The Haunted Mansion is the elegant home of 999 ghosts, ghouls and goblins who are just dying to meet you!  Could you be their 1000th gloom-mate? Climb aboard your Doom Buggy for an eerie tour of the place where a most spirited celebration awaits!’ Once inside we are transported to a room where the ceiling is going up or we are going down – who knows.

This is an adventure of ghostly tales and spine chilling information on all things spooky.  At the end of the tour – we are told we are most welcome to return but ‘don’t forget your Death Certificate’.  This is yet another to go on the ‘we will return’ list.  Back into the fresh air we look at some of the restaurants in New Orleans and they seem really nice except for the fact that there are now loads of people and screaming kids – so we trek on.

Next stop – Critter Country.   We decide to get the Disneyland Railroad so that we can rest our tired tootsies.

HISTORY LESSON : The Disneyland Railroad, originally the Santa Fe & Disneyland Railroad, is a narrow gauge railroad that was inaugurated on the park’s live television preview on July 17, 1955. The railway was constructed for $240,000; each of the original two locomotives cost $40,000 each.

Riders use it as transportation to other areas of the park or simply for the experience of the “Grand Circle Tour”.  It is during this journey that you can experience the Grand Canyon / Primeval World diorama.  In 1966, the diorama was expanded with a prehistoric theme to become the “Grand Canyon/Primeval World” diorama, with Audio-Animatronic dinosaurs from Walt Disney’s Ford Magic Skyway attraction at the 1964 New York World’s Fair.

This is very exciting but after a brief but relaxing ride we arrive at our destination – Critter Country.  This is the land of Splash Mountain and Winnie the Pooh.  We decide that Winnie is the best option.   Walking through Critter Country we see characters out of ‘Song of the South’.  Brer Bear (no, not Tyler) Brer Fox and Brer Rabbit.

I start to hum Zip-a-dee-do-dah – zip-a-dee-ay – my oh my what a wonderful day! until I get one of those looks.  This was a great movie but unfortunately due to modern day restrictions the Song of the South has been withdrawn by Disney due to presure from certain groups.

But it is Winnie that we have come to see and we are lucky because today is Winnie the Pooh’s Birthday and we are invited to the party. Hopping into our beehive carriage we journey into Winnie’s house and all his friends are preparing for his birthday with balloons and lots of ‘huney’

There is Tigger, Piglet, Eyeore, Christopher Robin and of course Winnie the Pooh.  It is a great ride that takes you back to childhood and innocence and how  friendships are of the utmost importance.  We even manage to have our photo taken with Pooh outside the ride.

These photos are taken by the Disneyland Photographers and they give you a Photo Pass which they scan every time they take a photo of you so you can view the photos on line at a later date and then order if you wish.

It’s great because then we can have all three of us in the photo at the same time without doing the camera samba.  I think that Pooh was only there for about 15 minutes and then he was away – so we were lucky to get this.

Now a word about the characters of Disneyland.  Of course there is Mickey, Minnie, Donald, Pluto etc but I did not realise just how life threatening an experience this could be when they appear.

Parents and children stampede at the mere mention of an appearance – this is not a time for manners or goodwill and after being nearly trampled to death on more than one occasion – it is a case of being either the stampeder or the stampeded!  We choose the former so leaving parents and children in our wake on our three days here we have photos of us with most of the Disney Characters.

Here are just a couple to tantalise – I will add some more on the next two days. It really is an experience and I bet that some of these characters have had enough by the end of the day.  They do not roam around all day but only at certain times for half an hour or so and I bet that half hour is enough what with some of the antics of parents and children.

Of course, us being of such high character – we were well mannered and always said thank you!   I must also  mention that during the day we had breakfast and lunch of course but I cannot for the life of me remember where.  I will hope that Kylie does – and then I will add it in.

As it is late in the afternoon by this stage we decide to head to Main Street for the Parade of Dreams.  This is the parade of Disney Characters that starts at the top of Main Street and marches down to the Fantasyland Entrance.

We are still a bit early so we visit the Main Street Cinema where Mickey Mouse is appearing in the original Steamboat Willie.

It is a fabulous cartoon that made Mickey Mouse a star. The cartoon is made in black & white and gives us an insight what Mickey looked like when he first appeared on the screen.  I think he mellowed with age.  We enjoy watching it and walking around looking at all the paraphernalia from the early days.

Back out onto the footpath to take up our spot before all the good spots go and we seem to wait for ages before the parade begins.  During the day Disneyland selects a Family to be the Grand Marshals of the Day and they get to lead the parade. Unfortunately it was not us.  Nevermind – the parade is starting.

First up are the characters from Ratatouille and then the Grand Marshals.  These are closely followed  by Winnie the Pooh and friends; Mary Poppins and Bert; the good fairies out of Cinderella and then characters on their own specifically designed magical floats – Peter Pan and Tinker Bell – Beauty and the Beast – Pinnochio, Gepetto, Jiminy Cricket – Ariel, the Little Mermaid.

While these floats pass by more characters associated with them are walking and dancing along the street.  There is Alice in Wonderland with the Mad Hatter and Tweedledum and Tweedledee in their tea cups and the Queen – all wishing us a very merry unbirthday.  There are characters from The Lion King dancing around his majestic float.

Last but not least are the Disney treasures and favourites – Goofy dressed as a court jester, Pluto, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs and then Donald dressed as a Prince with King Mickey and Queen Minnie on their own castle float with Chip ‘n’ Dale as court attendants – and then all of a sudden it is over and we are waving them goodbye.

I think to myself I would love a job in this place – – and then I see there are people everywhere and it is only around 7pm and Disneyland doesn’t close until midnight – I have second thoughts.

 It is still early so we venture on over to see Jack Sparrow and the Pirates of the Caribbean again and there is also another visit to the Haunted Mansion.

From there we go to Tomorrowland  and see the Star Tours exhibit. This is based on the Star Wars movies and it is great to see all our old friends like C3PO and R2D2 again.

On this ride we are told to expect the unexpected when we take off for a leisurely tour of the Moon of Endor!  Our plucky but inexperienced pilot accidentally plots a course for disaster, sending our intergalactic expedition to a harrowing encounter with the Dark Side.  It is great.

When we leave the ride the Disneyland photographer pounces so we just give in and smile and hope for the best. As the night is getting on we head back to take up our position for the fireworks.

We cannot decide where to stand – is this too close – is this too far – so we end up in Main Street looking down towards Fantasyland and it is an OK spot.

I decide to take a video of the lot which turns out to be more trouble than it’s worth as people keep putting their kids on their shoulders, which I do understand but it would be nice if they thought of the people behind them and I have to move and my arms get sore etc etc – but I don’t give up.

Unfortunately I also don’t get any still photos of the fireworks – bummer.  I’ll have to investigate to see if I can get still photos off the video.  Anyway when the fireworks finish we decide it’s time to head for home –  it has been a long day and there is still so much to see.

We discover there is no shuttle service (bad mistake Disneyland) back from Disneyland Park to our hotel as I suppose they want you to walk through Downtown Disney and spend more money so walking, walking, walking by the time we get back we are dead tired.

We fall into bed and certainly don’t need any pixie dust to help us sleep.

 Highlight of the day : just being here!