Space Mountain and other Anaheim, CA Things to Do Tips

The first ride of the day was Space Mountain. This is a roller coaster type ride which takes you through a reasonable facsimile of the darkness of space and all the distractions. I previously rode Space Mountain approximately 15 years before, but this seemed a lot slower than the one in Florida. Maybe the ride seemed faster at 11 years old than it did at 26.

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Unique only to Disneyland, this ride is a replica of the mountain in Switzerland. It takes guests to the top of the hill inside the mountain and gradually descends in corkscrew fashion at moderate speed. One gets a cold sensation at seeing imitation ice crystals and the abominable snowman. I imagine this ride has long queues during the hot summer months.

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Great Thunder Mountain is a replica of a runaway mine train which is of the roller coaster type. There were no dramatic dips, just going moderately fast on one's side.

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The Pirates of the Caribbean is a water ride that takes you through the life and adventures of the pirates through animation. One sees pirates auctioning off women to marry, having shooting wars with the cannonballs appearing to just miss the boat we were in, to a fake fire in a town. Note: I've heard that due to protest by certain women's groups with nothing better to do protested the pictured auction, so, naturally Disneyland caved in.

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The Haunted Mansion was different from the one in Florida. This one was of New Orleans style architecture while the one from Florida was brick and of a more northeastern sort of architecture. The interior was the same as the other one. First, we entered a room that appeared to stretch, then we boarded doom buggies through the house. There were all kinds of so called scary things such as ghosts carrying candlesticks, a seance, and other things. They projected the queue for this to be 45 minutes, but I was in and out in 23.

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In order the settle our stomachs after the aforesaid bill of fare (see first restaurant tip), Clint and I agreed on decidedly tamer rides in the section called Fantasyland. The first fantasy ride we took was Mr. Toad's Wild Ride, a reckless joy ride to nowhere in particular with strobe lights used for added spice. The second in the series was Pinocchio's Daring Journey (similar to the aforementioned). The third one of the lot was Peter Pan's flight, an overview of the Peter Pan study. The last of the storybook fantasy lot was Snow White's adventure. The queues proved to be long for even these tame attractions.

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The queue was not only long, but it didn't make sense. We started out downstairs, then we went upstairs, and then back down to embark. This queue must have been designed by Rube Goldberg. Once we finally got on board the captain of the cruiser told jokes as cheesy as a Wisconsin dairy farm. I admit openly and without shame that I am a bad comedian, but I'm not that bad! The jungle cruise consisted of a so-called adventure down the tropical rivers of the world with dangerous animated animals such as crocodiles, elephants, hippos, etc.

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From the Jungle Cruise, it was back to Tomorrowland for Star Tours, a look into the future of airport travel. The ride is basically a flight simulator that pilots use for training purposes. However, this portrayed an inept robotic space pilot taking us through a detour of the spaceport, through a comet, and being beamed up by a spaceship. The ride made you feel the experience as well as see it. It was comical as well as fun.

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From the heights of outer space (Star Tours), Clint and I decided to explore the depths of the deep blue sea. We rode the submarine voyage- an underwater cruise to the North Pole and back showing the flora and fauna typical of the oceans in the world together with some things not so typical.

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We decided to queue up for the Indiana Jones Adventures, full speed ahead and damn the torpedoes. Because they were still projecting a 2-hour wait, we went to the loo before queuing up. By then it was 10.16 and the park would close at 1.00, so we could not have waited much later to make a decision. While we were still in queue, we saw both Disneyland's famous fireworks display and the Main Street electrical parade. It turned out the queue was only an hour long- just half the projected length. We boarded the ride which was in the shape of a Land Rover which took us through a death defying encounter with snapping cobras, poisonous darts, and rolling boulders. This ride was well worth the wait and I am glad Clint and I decided to queue up for it.

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