Friday, September 09, 2011

OUR D23/DISNEYLAND ADVENTURE: PART 3 DISNEYLAND

Oh boy, more vacation photos! Aren’t you thrilled? Don’t answer that.

You can have your D23 Expos and your California Adventures and your other Disney Resort stuff ‘cause all I need is Disneyland. Sure, all that other jazz is fun too, but you just can’t beat the happiest place on earth!!!


We like this new entry sign that’s kind of a homage to the original DL sign.


Yeah, who needs the present day when you can live in yesterday, tomorrow and fantasy all at once at Disneyland!


We usually have a strategy when we visit the park and this time it was a beeline to ride the new Star Tours first thing.


Most updates and add ons to attractions usually fall short or feel out of place. (Pirates of the Caribbean anyone?) This is not the case with Star Tours. As much as I enjoyed the original, this new one is way better. It now has more than 50 different adventures. The queue is also improved and it was a good choice to put the old pilot droid Rex (voiced by Paul Reubens) in mothballs. Now C-3PO pilots the ship.


Our ship was almost taken over by the Empire when two Stormtroopers boarded. Thankfully, someone put the ol‘ Jedi mind trick on ‘em. They went about their business and moved along.



The coolest thing about the new Star Tours are the Fastpass Gonk Droids! I’ll never look at my Power Droid action figure the same!


I always have to check to see if the little Rocketeer popcorn turner is still there. Yep, he’s still working that popcorn!


Howdy! I’m getting ready to drive the streets of Autopia!


We were bummed that the Matterhorn was closed. That’s the “first lady’s” favorite attraction and this sign made her very sad.

At least looking at this, always makes her happy.


This on the other hand makes me scared! Look away! Look away!


I love the work of Mary Blair and It’s A Small World attraction, but I feel like this sun is staring deep into my soul.


With each visit, it seems we always spot something new. I’ve never noticed the nifty stone plaques outside in the queue line for Mr. Toad Wild’s Ride.


Everyone is a big fan of this dynamite chewing mountain goat from Big Thunder Mountain Railroad and we are too!


We met Frontierland’s famous fiddler, the one and only Farley! He entertained us with his rendition of the Orange Blossom Special!


It’s always funny when you spot a real life animal in the park. This big bird was perched at the entrance of Frontierland and I heard many people ask, “Is that an animatronic bird or a real bird?”


I think this pirate might be a zombie pirate. I didn’t ask, but he sure had zombie pirate like symptoms.


How ‘bout that? The line is short for Haunted Mansion. Hey, let’s go!


I think she has the best job in Disneyland!


Zoinks! I broke the Haunted Mansion law and used flash photography. I hope a ghost didn’t follow me home because of it.


This glitchy photo of the bride turned out really spooky looking. This was the first time we saw the new bride. It doesn’t take away from the attraction, but her heart beating was much more creepy. The whole ax murderer thing is kinda silly and feels a bit out of place with the rest of the grim grinning ghosts. Not to worry, HM is still my favorite attraction!


This is the most famous hippo in the world. I wonder how many trillions of photos exist of Mr. Hippo.


Hey, a blurry shot of the backside of water!


Sallah told us to take heed, but we didn’t listen. How could we? The Indiana Jones Adventure is one of our favorite attractions! Too bad the last Indy movie wasn’t based after this attraction. It would have been a better film.


We’ve never been lucky enough to find Shrunken Ned the Jungle Witch Doctor awake. The past couple of visits he’s been out of order. On this trip we found Ned alive and ready. For a half-a-buck, he gave us some witch doctoring advise and a souvenir prescription card.


We had to be brave and walk past this scary tiki to order a Dole Whip. It was worth the risk so we could enjoy the pineapple treat inside the Tiki Room.


We tried our best to cram in as much Disneyland as we could in one day. Time was running out for us.


We did manage to find 13 minutes for another tour of the Haunted Mansion!


After souvenir shopping on a crowded Main Street, we finally had to call it a day...a magical day. Oh man, I did it. I really used the word magical. I promised myself I would spare all of you Neato Readers out there from using the word magical. I guess it proves you just can’t talk about Disneyland without using that word, magical!

Check back tomorrow for Tronland!

1 comment:

Paul Duca said...

If Walt did his job right, Mr. Hippo's sweat should be red (that's a factoid I just learned).