After a day flat out at Universal we were supposed to go to Disneyland on the 9th. Right! The alarm went off at 6:30 am (it’s an hour and a bit away from LA) we looked at each other and said “Nah” and went back to sleep. That was a good move as when we did get out of bed we discovered new aches and pains we have never had before.
So a quiet day it was going to be. By lunchtime we were bored so we jumped in the car and drove into Hollywood. There wasn’t much happening there except the main part of Hollywood Drive was closed as they were building a huge stage/structure in the middle of the road for the release of the newest Star Wars episode. If you have a close look at the photos you may pick out the ‘bones’ of the Millenium Falcon being put together. After a few photos of famous foot/hand prints in the cement outside Grauman’s Chinese Theatre and a late lunch at Hooters we headed to Wahlburgers on Sunset Blvd. Owned by the actor Mark Wahlberg we were told if he was in LA he’d be there and he’d chat with you. Lo and behold… he wasn’t there but the burgers were fantastic.
All that done we drove home and prepared for the next day in Disneyland.
Up nice and early the next day (Thursday as indicated in the Disney website calendar is a good day to go with fewer crowds – yeah right!) and down to Anaheim. First problem; unless you’ve been before and know your way about the signage is pathetic. We ended up in some car park where you weren’t allowed if going into DL. U-turn out and look for another carpark. Finally got into the “Mickey and Friends” carpark. Just had a half mile walk to the tram that takes you to the gate. Second problem: before boarding the tram you have to go through a search worse than that at an airport. Understandable, but without any warning they wanted my collapsible selfie stick. Apparently they are banned. No way as with our Huawei phones these sticks are hard to find. So another half mile walk back to the car, lock selfie stick up and walk the half mile back to the tram to catch up with Shane. (Aside: My step counter went off at around 11 am telling me I’d already done 10000 steps!)
So we board a tram to the drop off point but again being novices we have no idea where we are going. Third problem; What is it with no signage here? We got our tickets and just followed the masses. Fortunately most were going to the original section which is what we wanted. Did I say ‘fortunate’? Forth problem; the minimum wait for ANY ride was 30 minutes. Some had queues lasting 75 – 80 minutes according to the signs. However if you checked their ‘reliable’ phone app these lines of people were almost non-existant. I have wanted to do the Captain Nemo ride since I was a kid. Then we saw a sign that said “30 minute wait from this point”. Trouble was there was a 1 hour queue just to get to that point! At the “Small World” lines one woman was complaining that even with a “FastPass” she had given up after 40 minutes. At that we realised that we would have to be lucky to get on any rides or waste 90% of our day in queues.
We did get to go on three rides, one of which (“Star Tours” – a Star Wars effort) was terrific and not unlike the Transformers ride at Universal. We tried for 6 rides in all but while waiting in the lengthy queue we hit problem 6 as three rides packed up faulty and were closed and we were turned away. Even at the Grand Parade one of their mobiles broke down and held up the parade mid-stream for 20 minutes while mechanics rushed to try and fix it. Getting a feed was no better. More long queues everywhere so we grabbed some dried out chimichangas that were disgusting.
I’m sorry for being so frustrated and cranky but after waiting 60+ years to finally get to the legendary Disneyland was I happy? No flaming way! Unless you have big bucket loads of money, oodles of time and infinite patience I would highly recommend Universal Studios Theme Park over Disneyland any day. Things were so expensive at Disneyland I was expecting to be grabbed by the ankles, held upside down and shaken for the last of my money. Walt Disney would be turning in his grave to see what they have done to his dreams, our dreams.
At least I can say I have been to Disneyland but never again.
Watch out for more news on the blog in days to come. I promise you they won’t be negative like this post. In fact we’ve just returned from an outing which we enjoyed greatly but more on that in the next post.
Oh yeah. I never even got to see Mickey there either!