Dave, Jimmy, and I spent Thursday, February 15 at Disneyland. It was my fifth time there and 2007 was now being touting it as “The Year of a Million Dreams.” Since Dave is an employee of some merit at Disney (remember the great tour?), he is capable of getting in his guests free of charge. This is a great perk for him…and us as well. Of course, it wouldn’t matter. Spending the day at Disney with Dave is treat enough, as he knows many of the ins-and-outs of the parks.
When Disney built California Adventure in 2001, it was placed right on top of the original Disneyland parking lot. A garage was then built for parking. Disneyland is a far cry from Walt Disney World, in that the parks are right next to each other – literally – where Disney World is spread out over miles of land. Jimmy and I met up with Dave in the courtyard right between the parks and went into California Adventure first, the least impressive of the two.
That’s us in front of the “N”
There are certainly a few staple rides at California Adventure, such as The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror (which we rode first, minus Jimmy), Muppet Vision 3-D 
(I called Denise from inside and let her listen to some of it), Soarin’ Over California, and It’s Tough To Be a Bug! (3eee-Deee!). But mostly the park is a glorified amusement park of yore. We caught a couple of the unique rides there, namely Rockin’ California Screamin’ (that’s us at left, and me at top at the ride), Monsters Inc. and Golden Dreams, a film about California hosted by Whoopi Goldberg – all of these for the first time. We tried to ride the Mulholland Madness mini-coaster, but it broke down while we were in line. I grabbed a couple of souvenir magnets and we headed for the exit before noon.
Dave and me…oooh, scary!
Once at Disneyland, we grabbed lunch at Cafe Orleans (monte cristos all around). While we were waiting for a table, we rode Pirates of the Caribbean (and saw the new Johnny Depp animatronic inclusion), browsed the Disney art gallery, and snuck a peek at Club 33 (the foyer anyway). Of course, we gravitated to one of my favorites, The Haunted Mansion, after lunch. When I last rode this in 2005, it was decorated for Haunted Mansion Holiday, so it had been nearly ten years since I had rode the original Disneyland version of the Mansion at this park. Stupidly, I spent too much time trying to take a video inside the ride, so didn’t take the time to enjoy it in all its glory.
For close to twenty years, I always take a photo of this trio on the Pirates of the Caribbean ride. For a long time, the pirate in the red stripes looked like my friend Carl, but then they gave him a full beard and changed his hair – the animatronic, that is
We had a great day at the park. It was not very crowded and we were able to hit nearly every ride in the place: Big Thunder Mountain, Splash Mountain, Winnie the Pooh, it’s a small world, the Matterhorn, Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride, Snow White, Pinocchio, The Enchanted Tiki Room, and Rockin’ Space Mountain (with the new, improved rock music from the Red Hot Chili Peppers – seen at right). Another highlight was seeing the major display of Disneyland: The First 50 Years. I remember talking to Lisa on the phone inside the attraction; she was talking about meeting us at Disneyland, but never made it.
Jimmy and I re-create the Disney/Mickey statue pose in front of Sleeping Beauty’s castle
We grabbed a late dinner inside the Disneyland hotel at the Storyteller’s Cafe and then made our way back to the parking garage. I swapped my luggage from Jimmy’s car to Dave’s and then Dave and I headed back to his place. He has a great little house in Burbank, chock full of Disney paraphanalia in every room. I didn’t look around too long before crashing in the comfortable guest bed.
To be continued…
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