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"Women - can't live with 'em, can't stuff 'em in a sack." - Larry, "Newhart"

On Friday, April 20, 2012, I was able to complete the ultimate North American Disney parks experience by visiting Disneyland. Believe it or not, I actually had visited both Disneyland and Walt Disney World within the span of one week back in 1992. But this trip slightly altered the milestone, by occurring in the same calendar week and with a visit to all six of the parks. (Animal Kingdom and California Adventure were not in existence in 1992). In actuality, with this visit, I visited all six of the parks within three days. And there were four rides that I rode one day in Florida and then the next day in California. Finally, it represents the only time that my family was at one Disney park on the same day that I was at the other.

So those are the stats. Now here are the facts:

After the long week of visiting Walt Disney World and fighting off my cold, I had to get up at a very early hour on that Friday to shower, get my gear ready, and head down at 6am to catch the Magical Express from the All Star Movie Resort to the Orlando Airport. I got there with plenty of time to spare (and was pleased to use the free wireless internet), to catch my flight at 9:15 am. This one was a direct flight, and more importantly, I had an empty seat between me and an Asian gentlemen that still required that I get up twice so that he could use the lavatory.

I arrived at LAX at 11:35am, gaining three hours. Jimmy picked me up in the white jeep rather quickly and we headed back to his office so that he could finish some last minute items before we headed out. I greeted Big Jimmy there as well.

Soon we were on the road heading for Disneyland. We arrived at around 2pm and quickly met up with David and caught the tram to the parks. David used his special pass to get us in free and we started out on the Disneyland, just to get a locker to drop off our long sleeved shirts for later. Then we headed over to California Adventure. Technically, this completed my mission as I had stepped in both parks, but hey, who’s being that granular…?

David chooses a locker at Disneyland

Outside Disney California Adventure, which now bears an uncanny resemblance to the Disney Hollywood Studios at Walt Disney World

It was a little after 2:30 and none of us had eaten, so that was our first order of business. We walked back to the rear of the park to the quick service restaurants of Paradise Pier and I got a giant corndog at the Corndog Castle. Since we were right by it, we went ahead and boarded the walk-on new dark ride The Little Mermaid: Ariel’s Undersea Adventure. It is pleasant enough fare, but what I really wanted to concentrate on was finding the non-Disney character Mr. Limpet among the undersea creatures. Thanks to David, I scored.

Jimmy and David – under the sea

Mr. Limpet emerges

David considers a style change as we make our way toward Muppet Vision 3-D

Next up was Muppet Vision 3-D, the first of four attractions that I had just experienced the day before at WDW. This particular screening was unique in two ways, the first being that when we got in line, there wasn’t a single soul in the pre-show area, so it was easy to explore the room AND see the entire pre-show for the beginning. The second was that we sat in the front row for the first time ever, mostly so that we could see the reactions of the penguin orchestra – but we also found the sights and sounds to be bigger and louder than ever before! The ‘cheap 3-D tricks’ work just fine in the front.

Re-creating the wacky 3-Deee pose from the day before

Checking out the hidden key under the mat as we enter the Muppet Theatre

We had the pre-show area all to ourselves

We were already in the Hollywood Pictures Backlot area, so David and I rode The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror, while Jimmy sat that one out. This was the second of four rides that I had just ridden the day before at WDW. David and I searched in vain to see if we could find the To Serve Man book in the library, but apparently it is only found at Disney World. The wait was pretty long for this ride, taking about 45 minutes. It was our last ride at California Adventure.

Preparing to enter the Twilight Zone Tower of Terror

Our group takes the plunge. David is visibly distressed about it.

We made our way out of the park at around 5:15, stopping to pick up the obligatory ice cream sandwiches on the way out. There was a lot of construction still going on as the Imagineers work to re-tool the park, so we had to take a very convoluted path just to make it to the exit.

Ice cream on the ‘backlot’

We entered Disneyland again around 5:30, and went straight toward the castle for the traditional photo ops. I noticed the Golden Horseshoe Saloon nearby and realized that I had never been inside. This place was rather legendary, having opened with the park in 1955. I even own an episode of The Wonderful World of Color that highlight’s the original Golden Horseshoe Revue’s 10,000th performance. The original show is long gone, but we were able to catch about ten minutes of the current show: Billy Hill and the Hillbillies. After the show ended, we explored the interior and checked out the once-private box that Walt himself had had built in the saloon.

Disneyland with my pals

Outside the classic Golden Horseshoe

Billy Hill and the Hillbillies take the stage

Then I take the stage

In Walt Disney’s former personal box

It was around 6pm and we decided to give the Blue Bayou a try for dinner. I put our names in and they gave us an estimated 45-minute wait. This gave us enough time to board both the Pirates of the Caribbean (the third of four rides that I had ridden the day before at WDW) and the Haunted Mansion, both of which were located in New Orleans Square.  

The west coast singing pirates and donkey

Carl and the pirates in Cali

The less-ominious of the two North American Haunted Mansions

Although we made in back in 30 minutes, our names had apparently already been called. Finally, I was able to get them to seat us. As we waited, David noticed TV star Joey Lawrence and his brothers Matthew and Andrew, along with a group of family members and friends, standing in front of the Pirates. I came very close to going over to him to get a photo, but decided against it at the last minute because he was holding a child.

Dinner at the Blue Bayou was great as usual, and I ordered the Royal Street Seafood Jambalaya once again. Our waiter seemed like a character from a sitcom with sort of a whiny, yet friendly voice. David purchased a glowing pirate head that was meant to be put in the drinks and enjoyed it immensely.

Dinner in the Blue Bayou

Too thin?

After dinner, Jimmy decided to take off as he had a commitment to participate in a 5K walk the next morning. So David and I bid him goodbye and headed over into Fantasyland, where we first rode David’s favorite ride Pinocchio’s Daring Journey and then moved on to it’s a small world. I must say that after riding the WDW version of small world twice just four days earlier, the Disneyland version is vastly superior, not just because of the added Disney characters, but because of the bolder colors and crisper sound. While waiting in the queue, we once again saw the Magic, Memories, and You show projected on the outside of the small world building – as we had in February 2011.

David’s favorite ride in Fantasyland

He’s got no strings to hold him down

It’s a small world illuminated by the Magic, Memories, and You presentation

Alice and the white rabbit in it’s a small world

It was about 9pm, and I was utterly exhausted by this point – fighting a cold and going on about my 20th waking hour – but I still had enough oomph to get my butt on Space Mountain, the fourth and final ride that I had ridden the day before at WDW. The audio improvements that had been made at WDW, and the fact that all of the music and sound effects completely stopped midway through our ride at Disneyland, put this slightly more on an even keel with its typically-inferior WDW counterpart. It was a shame that after all the waiting, we didn’t get a little bit better ride-thru on this.

Ready for the thrills of Space Mountain

Our rocket takes a plunge. I am visibly distressed about it.

My mission complete, we made our way toward the exit at around 10pm, stopping off in one of the shops to get my Disneyland 2012 magnet, which looked exactly like the WDW 2012 magnet, save the name of the park. We grabbed the tram, found the car in the parking garage, and headed back to David’s place in Burbank.

As completely bushed as I was, I was able to stay awake for about a half-hour to talk and laugh with David before turning in. The pace wouldn’t really let up much the next day, but I was expecting another good one.

The California leg of the trip will continue

Bypass the trip and continue with 2012

One Response to “Rounding Out the Ultimate Disney Experience in California”

  1. This particular posting is a fun read, to be sure, but it’s very sad that it’s the last posting in over a week. I knew that once the commitment to regularly scheduled postings ended, it meant trouble for loyal Catsafterme readers. I’m sorry to have been so right on that point. The Terrible Cat appears to have been Terribly abandoned…

    Peter

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