(I promise I’ll upload some pictures. Mobile makes it a bit of a pain)
Here’s how I’m thinking of structuring this report. I did a lot of back and forth during the trip. That seems a little boring to read about. And, truthfully, it all blends together at this point. So, I’m gonna talk about things the first time I experienced them. And then, I’m not really going to talk about them again. You don’t want to hear about the three times I sucked at Buzz Lightyear, right? The timeline won’t make much sense because I’ll be talking about all three times I did Buzz during the only time I talk about Buzz. Sounds weird, but let’s run with it! It makes sense in my mind.
Thursday: First day at Disneyland!
First, can we talk about how crazy close the resort is to Anaheim? I’m staying at the Anaheim Hotel and it was literally two blocks from the resort entrance. The city basically surrounds the resort and you can forget that really easily.
Aside about my hotel - very (very!) lightly themed in a 50s style a la Cabana Bay, ridiculously close to the parks, and the rooms were alright. I don’t care a ton about the rooms, so it got the job done. If you’re looking for a cheap place close to the parks, check out the Anaheim Hotel. I think they renamed recently, so it’s hard to find them.
Now, security. Boy, security at the parks is a pain! The lines go on forever. If you have a bag, the longest line in the parks is the security line. They don’t advertise the super short no-bags line well, so keep a look out for it.
I thought I loved Universal’s layout, but Disneyland has them beat. It’s so easy to go from one park to another. They’re a couple hundred feet apart tops. The walk to between Universal Orlando parks is a hike by comparison. Plus, the parks share ticket booths which makes the walk even shorter (why doesn’t Universal do that?)
I spent most of Thursday at California Adventure because of my Carthay Circle reservation.
Buena Vista Street
The first thing I noticed was how small the park is. Pictures make Buena Vista Street look really spacious. It’s a beautiful entrance land, it really is. But, it’s a lot more compact than Main Street or even Port of Entry.
It’s a beautiful entrance land though. The shops have a great 1920s department store vibe. The street car is great and adds a fun dynamic to the area. The front of the land - in front of the theater - works amazingly for street parties and DCA has a bunch of them. The Theater may not be as photogenic as a castle, but it’s the perfect icon and I love it.
Dinner wasn’t for a couple hours, so I did what Touring Plans told me to. Beeline straight to Guardians.
Hollywoodland
Hollywoodland is to the left of the theater. It’s...alright. I see what they were trying to go for. It just doesn’t feel as fully-formed as many of the other lands in the park. The Marvel construction has made it super hard to navigate around.
The land has some nice Hollywood facades (like DHS) but also has a lot of boring soundstages. There’s a small theater at the end with a large blue-sky mural that seems like it was supposed to be the weenie of the land. Guardians has obviously overtaken it.
Guardians
I ended up riding Guardians twice on my trip.
First, the dance party! They do a cute show right outside the ride. The crowd is really big. If you time the line right, you can get some views of the show from the line.
Now, the building. I remember how much the forums complained about it. It’s not that bad. You can get some nice close-up pictures of it. It’s a weird building, but it’s not as disgusting as many fans would have you believe.
The queue is split into two parts. Orlando’s E-tickets have spoiled me with long queues. The Guardians queue is super short. The vast majority of it is outside and not really themed. The inside part is cool, but short. I don’t understand why everybody loved the DCA Tower of Terror so much. There’s just not enough space to make a fantastic queue like Orlando. The Guardians queue has a lot of cool Marvel references nonetheless. If you Fastpass, you’ll probably miss the inside queue. That’s how fast Fastpass goes.
Aside - Get MaxPass. I don’t care what the price is. I went through 6-8 FPs a day. It’s worth every penny. Changed the way I theme park. Disney, please bring it to Orlando. I’ll pay whatever you want.
The pre-show is fantastic. Probably my favorite theme park preshow. The Rocket AA is great, the script is funny. There’s a small joke at the end where Rocket steals a Walkman. It involves a robot hand and everything. Blink and you’ll miss it. I love the little details like that. That preshow made the ride worth it.
After the pre-show, you’ve got one more small queue segment before you hit the ride. That part of the queue has the old Matterhorn Yeti in it (fun detail, thanks rando in line for telling me that!) but otherwise kind of boring.
The ride itself is fun! The sheer terror of the plummet kept me on afraid the whole time, but the short scenes are fun. Very Guardians.
There’s an on-ride picture that you can download for free with MaxPass. Have I mentioned how amazing MaxPass is yet?
Cool, I did Guardians. Still had time to kill, so time for a FastPass: Incredicoaster!