Impressions of Disneyland: the happiest place on earth? I don’t think so – just ask the millions of cranky, tired families we saw and heard after spending another long day in the massive queues, dodging double strollers (prams) and enduring the hot sun. Well, that’s not entirely fair. The happiest thing I saw was little girls and boys, brimming over with excitement, sporting Mickey Mouse ears, Disneyland T-shirts and wearing multitudes of pins. The little girls wearing princess dresses and sparkles, taking in the whole Disney experience. People watching (a personal favorite of mine) was at its peak in the Disneyland Park. Hilarious to see ‘cool’ teenage boys with tattoos and baggy pants, wearing Mickey Mouse ears! The most remarkable sight was a group of 3 adults, a man and two women. They wore matching tie-dyed T-shirts, adorned with colourful lanyards filled with souvenir pins. Okay, not so remarkable – we saw many families wearing matching clothing (I supposed to make identification easier in crowds). The wonderful part was the man – a tattooed ‘biker’ looking guy. He was wearing….a skirt! Yes, a skirt!
As for the rides, I can report that Space Mountain (rollercoaster in the dark) is still the number one best ride I have ever been on. Even after 10+ years. Other standouts included Soarin’ over California (Mark’s favorite), California Screamin’ (rollercoaster), and Tower of Terror. Of course, the 1-hour waits for a ride took some of the shine off, we were able to score Fast Passes to a few rides but otherwise the massive crowds were a huge turnoff. We had one early pass (enter the park at 7am) and were amazed to see the huge crowds forming just around daybreak, chanting the countdown to the gates opening. We were foreseeing a stampede…but we ended up getting two whole rides on Space Mountain in just an hour!
As I am somewhat familiar already with American culture, having visited the US many times, it was interesting to hear Mark’s take (his first trip to the northern hemisphere). Here’s what he said: BIG. Everything is big. The cars are big. The people are BIG, women speaking loudly, huge meals and portions. He finds the restaurants hilarious: ‘Good evening, folks! I’m Dwayne, I’ll be your waiter this evening. Can I get you a drink, some water, some appetizers?’ (spoken at a million miles an hour), so many choices, what kind of bread, what kind of dressing, did you want any sides with that? Any extras? Dessert? We have laughed so hard while eating out at Denny’s, IHOP, and other chains. Mark’s dinner tonight at Denny’s was a simple sounding meal, steak and eggs. The meal came out on 3 plates – one for the steak, one for eggs and potatoes, and one for toast. We have only been eating twice a day. Today I bought the most delicious red apple in the hotel shop, it was about 4 times bigger than what we can get at home. (it took me an hour to eat it all!). Breakfast this morning was another giant meal. Mark had eggs and pancakes: 2 eggs, bacon, FOUR huge pancakes…I had a giant breakfast burrito and didn’t even get through half. What a waste! The meals are fairly cheap but way way too much.
We are weary and ready to leave for Las Vegas in the morning. Bring it on!
