TR: Pacific Duality Pt. 2: Disneyland and Bonus Parkdom (8/27/11)

Another day dawns and it is another day to be spent with the Mouse. Prior to the trip, my wife had specifically requested that I bring Cedar Fair season passes along with us in case we got some spare time to go to Knott’s. On some level, I really wanted to go ride Windseeker, their new for 2011 attraction, because I hadn’t been on Cedar Point’s yet nearest to me. I won’t lie. In the back of my head, the idea was percolating to go there. So when we woke up early and decided to just hit Disneyland 8AM opening rather than wait for DCA at 10AM, the window seemed to be somewhat open. Meredith was very clear though: No Knott’s on this day. Just not to happen. We tasked ourselves with breakfast at Mimi’s and proceeded with action.

We were off to Disneyland and went about collecting visits to many of the key e-ticket attractions. We rode Indiana Jones (which is still fantastic), Big Thunder (ditto), and Splash Mountain (ditto, even with my fear of a wet and damaged camera at times) in fairly short order. I love being able to do that. We had started the day by grabbing a Star Tours fastpass and then circled back after a quick tour of the park’s western side back into Tomorrowland. I demanded a brief stop at the good Buzz Lightyear before boarding the redone Star Tours as well. Hey, you can pick up the gun! How novel!

TR: Pacific Duality Pt. 1: Disney’s California Adventure (8/25-26/11)

Over the last 7 months, my wife and I have embarked on scheduling a trip that, was for us at least, the most exotic and difficult we’ve yet put together. The idea was hatched on an otherwise boring January Saturday earlier in 2011 thanks to a trip report on a general purpose message board my wife lurks on (the name of which I do not remember and is frankly unimportant). The exotic and strange nature of the trip will be revealed later on when we actually get around to arriving there – this was a multi-stage trip, I suppose you could say.

The first stage of this trip was to get to where we needed to go for the second stage – that being the enormity of LA’s greater metro area. In doing so, a large part of our plan was to visit a long-time favorite amusement area of ours in the Disneyland Resort area. We unabashedly love Disneyland. In fact, we like it more than Disney World. For example, the Downtown Disney in Anaheim serves an actual need for guests and is thusly not abandoned and pathetic. The off site hotels are more convenient than 2/3 of the onsite facilities and generally don’t suck. The rides are generally better than their Disney World counterparts, cramming in a sort of greatest hits and then upping the ante in other ways. I refuse to get into a “The way Walt wanted things!” sort of discussion because that always ends badly and with lots of fanboyism, so I don’t include that, and I don’t need to either. The rides speak for me.

TR: Disney/KBF & Arce/Darchinyan (2/7-10/2009)

A couple weeks ago happened and wifey and I had decided to make a run to the West Coast to get away from lousy weather here in the midwest. Naturally, it followed us west while Michigan warmed up and melted down, but hey, you can’t win every battle, right? The boxing section gets the usual separation by “######” symbols too.

PARKS:

-DISNEYLAND-

Last time I was here, I think I forgot to write a TR. Which is fine, I suppose, because there’s not much I can add to what’s already been written about the park and its attractions. Here’s what I can add right now: