19th Dec, Tuesday - Disneyland

It was an interesting start today. We were waiting for the bus to come and fetch us at Holiday Inn. This is the hotel we first stayed in LA at the start of this 6 days tour package in LA and San Francisco. We waited for sometime and was rather worried as the bus still have not arrived. Apparently, the tour agencies worked together, they just randomly dumped people into the hotels available in the area, and when there is a venue that everyone wants to go, they will book a bus and travel around the various hotels to pick the people up. Very good coordination.

However, there wasn't anyone waiting in the lobby going to the Disneyland that day. So Becky and I were afraid that the tour guide actually forgotten all about us. Later, a man who we met on the first day came to us and we thought he was going to bring us to the bus. As we turned to a corner and followed him, he brought us to his car. His car! A small red one! We were like, "Where's the bus?"

It was so funny as it seemed like a personal service. Anyway, he drove us for sometime, we passed by Orange County and then he brought us to another carpark where we transferred to another car! Apparently, our hotel was on the outskirts of LA and it was not worthwhile to use the coach to fetch us. The driver then brought us to another hotel to fetch 2 other Indian girls. They were students from Dallas and were going to Disneyland and like us, they thought that the tour guide forgotten about them. After that, the driver drove us to another venue where the coach, full of tourists, was there. So we continued our way to Disneyland.

We started a small ride into Disney's California Adventure Park. We took our tickets and had to listen to the tour guide's instructions. The group was big and the tour guide(our driver) walked very fast too. It was so hard to catch sight of him as there also many people in Disneyland (DL). The first section that we went in DL was the AdventureLand.

First, we took the Jungle Cruise ride. Nothing much. Just fake animals mimicking the Safari. It looks pretty real but we knew that it was still fake.
Then we went to Tarzan's Treehouse. Just a small treetop walk, nothing compare to the Capilano treetop walk. All the stuff here are kids friendly. The next ride was Indiana Jones Adventure. Just entering this ride was super long. I guess this is an interesting ride, the walk to get to the ride itself was really long, it was like never ending. Anyway, the queues were super long but our guide manage to get us Fast Pass for most of the rides so we did not have to queue so long, we just took another queue which moved at a much faster rate.
Then we headed to New Orleans Square section of DL. Took a ride in the Haunted Mansion Holiday. Just look at all the machines moving here and there, with the sound effects and animation effects. Most of the rides here are like that.

We headed to the FrontierLand section of DL to sit the Big Thunder Mountain Railroad. This one was fun, sitting on a carriage zooming down the tracks. Then we walked to TomorrowLand section of DL to sit the StarTour ride. It was just a simulator ride.

The next ride, Buzz Lightyear Astro Blasters was cool. I never sat in this kind of rides. You sit in the little carriage and take a gun and try to aim and shoot the red circles. It was pretty hard to use the laser beam to hit the center because your partner and you might be aiming at the same place and you don't know which red dot is yours. Once you hit the circles, your score will increase.

We saw Buzz Lightyear but we didnt' take any photos as the queue was long. The tourguide handed us the last fast pass and told us to take the ride in this section of DL during 4 to 5pm.

We went to Fantasy Land of DL. That's the place with the beautiful castle. Apparently, the fireworks will be played just behind the castle in the night. We had to head to the airport so we couldn't stay longer. We sat the Pinocchio's Daring Journey ride. This one was a huge disappointment. This ride was really meant for kids. Just look and see. Nothing really interesting.We went to "it's a small world" holiday ride. I sat in this ride before. And I didn't like it. It kept blasting the 'its a small world after all' song. And showing dolls from all the famous countries. Mexicans, Japanese, Europeans, Malaysians, Koreans' doll.

Anyway, the last piece of instruction by the tour guide was that we had to meet the group before 5pm so as to leave the place. Finally, it was free and easy time.

We headed towarkds Mickey's Toontown of DL.

Had a great time taking photos in Mickey's Toontown! The whole area was so cute! So fun to pose with all the stuff there. But we didn't take any photo with mickey or minnie or any of the disney characters. The queue was just too long and full of children. The picture below depicts Minne's House. The house is exactly how it looked like 10 years ago. I remembered seeing the rising cake in the oven and the illusion cookies.
Then we went into Mickey's House. The last picture above shows a Pluto outline, apparently, he crashed into the door. Haha.. And I was pretending to close the door which seems to be bursting its seams.

Tried out the Mickey Mouse hats. Then we decided to take one more ride, Autopia in TomorrowLand. Oh.. It was just a Kart racing. I never got to try it when I was in South Korea. My height didn't meet the requirements. At least, Disneyland was more forgiving about my height. However, the queue was really really really long! We queued for more than 15 mins. Finally, I got to play my Kart racing. It wasn't exactly racing as it really depends on the person in front of you. If he or she was slow, then you can't really do much. There's a track to follow.

After that, we were basically walking around the whole of DL. We walked to Critter Country section of DL and saw the huge boat. Then it was back to New Orleans Square as the decorations were really nice. Since our poor feet couldn't walk anymore, we decided to take the monorail around DL.

It was pretty good as we get to rest our feet and see the surrounding area. We got down at one stop and found out that there was a Christmas Parade going on.
The parade was good as most of the characters from DL was in it. So we sat through the entire time and took videos and pictures.

We stopped by in FantasyLand again to go into a shop. Apparently it sells the princesses' costume and the price tag was hefty. US$89 for a costume. Hope I remembered the price correctly.

We were left with 30 mins to take the last ride - space mountain. We were so looking forward for the ride. It seems good. And that's the start of our chain of bad luck. The ride broke down while we were in the middle of the ride. How unlucky! The first couple of minutes of the ride before it broke down was super good. The effects were good and the ride was thrilling. It was really in space. You seemed to be travelling in a galaxy of stars!

Suddenly, our carriage just stopped in the middle of the rollercoaster track and the lights came on. Becky then said," Is this part of the ride?" And I replied," No! It broke down!" Then the announcer told us that the ride had broken down and we were to wait for the staff to come release us from the carriage and to climbed the steps to exit the ride. During this time, we just snapped photos and lamented why we were so unlucky!

We had to run all the way to the exit to meet our tour guide once we were released so as not to be late for our meeting time. 5 minutes left! It was so bad as DL is really huge. We were sprinting so fast but we still stopped to take some photos of the light up town of Main Street U.S.A. So disappointed! Space Mountain really seem good!

Anyway, between Universal Studio and Disneyland, I think Universal studio is much much more fun. I guess I am no longer very young. More interested in mild rides than kiddy rides. And the queues for all the rides were just so long. All the excitement was slowly eroded by the queue time.

I was amazed at how people were willing to spend in Disneyland. Most of the visitors there were wearing DL related merchandise like shirt, cap, lanyards. In fact, the revenue that an entertainment-amusement park gets is actually from selling the merchandise and food. The ticket prices are just not enough to even cover the overheads.

As we wanted to save money, Becky and I took the free transfer to LAX airport after our disneyland tour and decided to spend the night at the airport. Since our flight the next day was at 7am and we had to check in 2 hrs before, we figured there was just no point in staying at a hotel. We were so broke so we needed to be a Cheapo!

So we reached LAX airport around 8 plus, found a corner with electric sockets, and got comfortable by entertaining ourselves with our laptops. I spent my time watching my anime which were so long due.