On February 18th I was at Disneyland in Anaheim CA. The park opened at 8am, but they let people into the main street plaza at 7:30. Both parks have an Opening ceremony for the Park when they let people enter, and it usually involves a family that gets selected, and sometimes includes a character. The opening on Sunday had three characters, Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck, and Pluto for the opening.
We immediately went to Tomarrowland and lined up for Space Mountain. By 8:12am we had completed the first ride of Space Mountain, and what a fun ride to start the day with. Although it jerked us around quite a bit (we were seated in the middle. When we rode it later in the day and got the front cart it was a lot smoother. Space Mountain is amazing from the front of the train.
From there we went to Buzz Lightyear Astro Blaster, this ride is similar to the Midway Mania ride in Disney California Adventure park. The main difference is that this ride is not in 3D and instead is more of a laser tag. You shoot the targets with your laser gun to score points. It is neat that there are actual moving targets and that you can rotate your cart. The gun on the other hand is harder to aim and it is more chaotic because there are multiple people aiming at the same targets. Ultimately I scored 92,700 points, the next highest in the group was 57,000, then 35,900 and lastly was 11,400. In other words, I smoked them.
Next up was Star Tours, that I have been looking forward to riding again after the new updates to it. This is a ride that in total I went on five times total throughout the day. The first ride through was Kylo Ren opening, then onto Jakku, with a secret mission from BB8 and onto Crait to carry out our mission, finally landing at Galaxy’s End spaceport. This was really neat to see and is a fun ride, but upon further rides It was always Jakku and Crait. The opening changed between the imperial droid, and Kylo Ren. The secret mission changed between BB8, Poe Dameron, and Maz Kanata. I would have liked to see more variations between the planets and have some legacy moments with Darth Vader, or the podrace on Tatooine. I’m not sure if it being a Sunday they just had it set to the newer content or if I just had bad luck.
Next we went to ride the Matterhorn Bobsleds, a iconic mountain in Disneyland. It is themed after Bobsleds and snow, with a bit of water mixed in. it was a fun ride, but nothing like Space Mountain is.
From there we went to Indiana Jones. It is a jeep ride through a ancient rune in search of lost treasure. It was fun, but not enough to ride it again.
Then we rode Big Thunder Mountain Railroad. It was a fun ride, and there was a goat with dynamite.
Haunted Mansion, was good fun and a classic Disney ride. I really like the simple effects that are still in use on a lot of these rides.
Pirates of the Caribbean is one of those classic rides. It was one of the last rides at the park that was overseen by Walt Disney. It is interesting to see how the ride has evolved over the years and that the animatronics are still able to look as good as they do.
Riverboat Tour, was a good bit of fun for the snarky comments and a good change of pace in comparison to the rest of the park.
From there we rerode a few rides, and at 3:30 we headed to the Blue Bayou restaurant that is connected to the Pirates of Caribbean ride. This is a full table service restaurant that reservations are recommended for. We had a great table right up in the front overlooking the bayou section of the ride. The food was really great, I had the Surf and Turf, a fillet mignon with a Lobster Tail. The steak was cooked perfectly and the side dishes were really good. We also had the Louisiana Lemonade and that was good, plus we got our Souvenir glowing ice cube.
After we ate we went over and rode Space Mountain for the 2nd and last time of the day. Then the rest of my party wimped out for the night at 7pm. I decided to stay and ride a few more attractions…well mostly Star Tours. It was during this time that I rode Star Tours two more times.
I also rode Autopia, this is one of the very few rides that was in the park when it opened in 1955 in one form or another. The current version is larger than the original. But they still use Honda gasoline engines to power the cars.
Its a Small World is another Classic ride. They change up the props every once in a while. This time they had some classic Disney characters such as Donald, Woody, and Ariel in the sets. Then I went for an Mint and Chip Ice Cream Sunday from Gibson Girl Ice Cream Parlor. It was tasty ice cream,although I’ve had better waffle cones.
I left the park around 9:20 after picking up some souvenirs from the Star Tours shop. I had to get my Porg to go next to my Ewok (from 2008 Star Tours in Disney World) I also pick up a t-shirt, metal Tie Fighter model kit, and a random vinyl figure from Rogue One that turned out to be Admiral Raddus.