The Happiest Place on Earth

So, I wasn't always a hardened horror movie fan. As a child I was actually obsessed with Disney movies. I was given a book titled The Encyclopedia of Walt Disney's Animated Characters which I looked at compulsively and was a fount of Disney related facts.

And I REALLY wanted to go to Disneyland. I just had to wait to the age of 32 to finally get there.

It took about an hour to drive there, and we parked on the Donald Duck level. After a short tram ride we were there.

First up was The Pirates of the Caribbean. The queue moved somewhat quickly and the ride was pretty cool.

Next up was The Haunted Mansion. Not too bad (but probably a lot better than the movie).

Then it was time to leave New Orleans Square and enter Frontierland. We went by Davy Crockett's Explorer Canoes and told there was only a 5 minute wait. This was false advertising. It was OK, but the funniest thing was the guide who basically made jokes about how shit the ride is. Clearly the only way to get people on it is to trick them!

After that was Big Thunder Mountain Railroad. Rollercoaster time. Yeah, the wait was about 40 minutes but it was worth it.

Then it was off to Fantasyland, just as a parade was going by...

Then it was into Fantasyland, which admittedly is aimed more at younger kids (it made me think that this must be what the inside of my niece Millie's head looks like) but we decided to go ahead and enjoy the Mad Hatter's Tea Party.

Mr Toad's Wild Ride, however, was more like Mr Toad's MILD Ride.

So it was off to Tomorrowland.

We went to Star Tours, a 3D interactive ride hosted by none other than C3P0 (unfortunately Space Mountain was closed). The wait here was about an hour. This is the one drawback to Disneyland - the endless, interminable queues. Be prepared to spend a large percentage of your day slowly walking through an intricate maze.
 

Unbeknownst to us though, we saved the best for last. Over in Adventureland is the Indiana Jones Adventure. Again, the wait felt like forever, but by the end of the ride all was forgiven.

Adding to our post-ride high was the discovery of an Indiana Jones store, where Liam found a Indy-style brown fedora that managed to fit his large melon head. He looks pretty rockin' in it too. I'm sure you'll see him wearing it in future blog posts.

It took a helluva long time to get to Disneyland, but the 8 year old in me is finally satisfied.