California and Vegas Pt 9: Las Vegas
- Thread starter gavin
- Start date
Re: California and Vegas Pt 2: Magic Mountain
I actually think it's quite a nice park as well. Well, the front half anyway. The back part with coasters just lining the perimeter is a bit "concrete slab", but the area around the entrance and on the hill is actually pretty pleasant.
I actually think it's quite a nice park as well. Well, the front half anyway. The back part with coasters just lining the perimeter is a bit "concrete slab", but the area around the entrance and on the hill is actually pretty pleasant.
Re: California and Vegas Pt 2: Magic Mountain
^Yeah, there was no queue as such, never a full train's worth at any rate, so the ride op wasn't asking how many riders etc., just letting people on. He either assumed I was with the people in front of me, who had kids with them, or just didn't give a ****.
^Yeah, there was no queue as such, never a full train's worth at any rate, so the ride op wasn't asking how many riders etc., just letting people on. He either assumed I was with the people in front of me, who had kids with them, or just didn't give a ****.
Re: California and Vegas Pt 2: Magic Mountain
I said that the next part of this report would be Knott’s Berry Farm, but I’m a filthy liar since there was actually another park (well kind of) and some other LA stuff to shove in here first.
Saturday
I’d decided to avoid major parks at the weekends as much as possible, and was going to use this day to do the Hollywood touristy crap around Hollywood Boulevard, but since I’d done that already I had a bit of a lie in and then took the bus down to Santa Monica, which was stupidly cheap and easy and took about an hour.
This was a combination of cred run and seeing a different part of LA, but I wasn’t overly impressed with the area and was back on a bus shortly after arriving. Santa Monica Pier was the main reason for bothering. Just going to shove a bunch of pictures in.
The coaster wasn’t up to much, but you get two circuits for your money – I can’t remember if it was $6 or $8 now – and the double down bit had a little pop of airtime in the back seats at least. Just a +1 though.
I didn’t bother with any other rides there, but had a quick walk along the beach. It all looks very grey, and it was, but the weather was still really warm. It wasn’t particularly nice though, and was just full of homeless people.
There was a pedestrianised shopping street close by which was quite pleasant, but didn’t warrant more than a quick walk up and down, especially as most of the time was spent dodging the Jesus freaks with their “You’re All Going To Hell” placards.
Done.
It was early afternoon, so I thought about trying to join a tour of one of the studios. I got to Paramount a bit late as the tours had already finished for the day by the time I got there – it was close to my hotel but quite far from Santa Monica.
The Hollywood Forever Cemetery was right behind it though, so I had a wander around there for a bit to try and spot some famous people.
Hattie McDaniel <3
Mel Blanc’s tombstone was awesome.
Cecil B. Demille = legend.
Vampira = FABULOUS.
That was pretty much it for that day. I wanted to head out that night, so was back in my hotel by around 6 to get ready and have some cheap drinks before hitting some bars/clubs around West Hollywood. I also booked myself onto a studio tour for the next afternoon.
Sunday
I woke up late, not feeling great, but headed out to Warner Brothers’ Studios to go on one of their tours. I’d also arranged to meet up with an old friend from university who I hadn’t seen in years and who had just moved to LA, close to Warner Brothers, so that all worked out quite well.
The tour was excellent, lasting a couple of hours and taking in all of the outdoor sets as well as a few indoors. I can’t remember now what most stuff was.
Because it was a Sunday and they weren’t filming, we were able to go inside a couple of the studios, but weren’t allowed to take pictures. We went into the studios for The Big Bang Theory, which I don’t watch so meant nothing to me, and Two Broke Girls, which I do watch so that was at least more interesting. It’s kind of weird to see all the different rooms/locations basically lined up in a row next to each other and actually being MUCH smaller than they look on TV.
There’s a museum partway through the tour. One floor had a bunch of costumes from the various Batman films. It was really cool actually; especially the older stuff from the Burton films.
The upstairs room had a bunch of Harry Potter s**t that I had no interest in having only seen the first film when it first came out.
A separate building further along the tour had another Batman exhibition, this time with a bunch of Batmobiles spanning the whole series of films.
In one of the prop houses, they’ve moved the old Central Perk set from friends. Obviously it’s not used for filming anymore, but they’ve left it for people to see on the tour.
So yeah, it was definitely worth doing really. It was very different to the Universal backlot, which is also a working studio, in that you were driven around in a small group, frequently getting on and off the carts to go inside studios and have a proper look at stuff. It was much more “real studio” than theme park attraction, since that’s what it is.
I had a bit of time left before I was meeting my friend for a couple of drinks, so I walked around – about a half hour walk – to the Forest Lawn Cemetery, hoping to find the greatest actress of all time.
Google maps took me over the LA River, which I thought would be nice. Actually no more than a storm drain.
The cemetery was huge, but really nice.
It took me quite a while to find, mostly because I walked way too far from the entrance and it was actually much closer, but eventually managed to find it.
ALL HAIL!
My friend picked me up from here and we went out for a couple of drinks, later meeting one of my favourite people, Deven Green, who was doing a little music gig in a Hollywood bar. We've been "friends" on Facebook for a few years, so I'd messaged her to see if she was performing over the time I was in LA. She was fab.
She’s best-known these days for the Betty Bowers videos on YouTube, and has also been a guest judge on Rupaul’s Drag Race. She’s brilliant.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OFkeKKszXTw[/youtube]
That was it for Los Angeles. I headed down to Anaheim the next morning, so Knott’s Berry Farm will be next up.
I said that the next part of this report would be Knott’s Berry Farm, but I’m a filthy liar since there was actually another park (well kind of) and some other LA stuff to shove in here first.
Saturday
I’d decided to avoid major parks at the weekends as much as possible, and was going to use this day to do the Hollywood touristy crap around Hollywood Boulevard, but since I’d done that already I had a bit of a lie in and then took the bus down to Santa Monica, which was stupidly cheap and easy and took about an hour.
This was a combination of cred run and seeing a different part of LA, but I wasn’t overly impressed with the area and was back on a bus shortly after arriving. Santa Monica Pier was the main reason for bothering. Just going to shove a bunch of pictures in.
The coaster wasn’t up to much, but you get two circuits for your money – I can’t remember if it was $6 or $8 now – and the double down bit had a little pop of airtime in the back seats at least. Just a +1 though.
I didn’t bother with any other rides there, but had a quick walk along the beach. It all looks very grey, and it was, but the weather was still really warm. It wasn’t particularly nice though, and was just full of homeless people.
There was a pedestrianised shopping street close by which was quite pleasant, but didn’t warrant more than a quick walk up and down, especially as most of the time was spent dodging the Jesus freaks with their “You’re All Going To Hell” placards.
Done.
It was early afternoon, so I thought about trying to join a tour of one of the studios. I got to Paramount a bit late as the tours had already finished for the day by the time I got there – it was close to my hotel but quite far from Santa Monica.
The Hollywood Forever Cemetery was right behind it though, so I had a wander around there for a bit to try and spot some famous people.
Hattie McDaniel <3
Mel Blanc’s tombstone was awesome.
Cecil B. Demille = legend.
Vampira = FABULOUS.
That was pretty much it for that day. I wanted to head out that night, so was back in my hotel by around 6 to get ready and have some cheap drinks before hitting some bars/clubs around West Hollywood. I also booked myself onto a studio tour for the next afternoon.
Sunday
I woke up late, not feeling great, but headed out to Warner Brothers’ Studios to go on one of their tours. I’d also arranged to meet up with an old friend from university who I hadn’t seen in years and who had just moved to LA, close to Warner Brothers, so that all worked out quite well.
The tour was excellent, lasting a couple of hours and taking in all of the outdoor sets as well as a few indoors. I can’t remember now what most stuff was.
Because it was a Sunday and they weren’t filming, we were able to go inside a couple of the studios, but weren’t allowed to take pictures. We went into the studios for The Big Bang Theory, which I don’t watch so meant nothing to me, and Two Broke Girls, which I do watch so that was at least more interesting. It’s kind of weird to see all the different rooms/locations basically lined up in a row next to each other and actually being MUCH smaller than they look on TV.
There’s a museum partway through the tour. One floor had a bunch of costumes from the various Batman films. It was really cool actually; especially the older stuff from the Burton films.
The upstairs room had a bunch of Harry Potter s**t that I had no interest in having only seen the first film when it first came out.
A separate building further along the tour had another Batman exhibition, this time with a bunch of Batmobiles spanning the whole series of films.
In one of the prop houses, they’ve moved the old Central Perk set from friends. Obviously it’s not used for filming anymore, but they’ve left it for people to see on the tour.
So yeah, it was definitely worth doing really. It was very different to the Universal backlot, which is also a working studio, in that you were driven around in a small group, frequently getting on and off the carts to go inside studios and have a proper look at stuff. It was much more “real studio” than theme park attraction, since that’s what it is.
I had a bit of time left before I was meeting my friend for a couple of drinks, so I walked around – about a half hour walk – to the Forest Lawn Cemetery, hoping to find the greatest actress of all time.
Google maps took me over the LA River, which I thought would be nice. Actually no more than a storm drain.
The cemetery was huge, but really nice.
It took me quite a while to find, mostly because I walked way too far from the entrance and it was actually much closer, but eventually managed to find it.
ALL HAIL!
My friend picked me up from here and we went out for a couple of drinks, later meeting one of my favourite people, Deven Green, who was doing a little music gig in a Hollywood bar. We've been "friends" on Facebook for a few years, so I'd messaged her to see if she was performing over the time I was in LA. She was fab.
She’s best-known these days for the Betty Bowers videos on YouTube, and has also been a guest judge on Rupaul’s Drag Race. She’s brilliant.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OFkeKKszXTw[/youtube]
That was it for Los Angeles. I headed down to Anaheim the next morning, so Knott’s Berry Farm will be next up.
Re: California and Vegas Pt 3: Santa Monica and Random LA
I was up early the next day to get down to Anaheim, getting a train from Union Station down to Fullerton. I wanted to get to Knott’s as quickly as possible, so got a taxi from Fullerton Station to my hotel near Disneyland, got him to wait while I dropped the bag (too big for most park lockers), then take me to Knott’s, arriving a little after 11am.
Knowing what I know now, I could have afforded to spend a bit more time and a lot less money getting buses between the station, hotel and park, or got a bus directly from LA to the Disney transit centre (took a lot longer than the train from what I could find out), instead of rushing to get to the park as it was open until 10pm anyway.
Knott’s Berry Farm
Like I said, I arrived a little after 11, finding the park to not be too busy at all. It obviously got busier later on, but was still pleasantly quiet for a day in August.
I should have gone straight to Silver Bullet – more on that later – but decided to pick up some of the lower capacity coasters first, starting with Sierra Sidewinder.
It was better than it looked really, but obviously nothing special. I’ll take it over a Reverchon or Golden Horse clone any day though.
The kiddy coaster had an upper height limit of 69 inches, or 5’9. I guess I could’ve tried but figured if they’re posting a height limit outside the station, they’d be checking so I didn’t even attempt it.
The Schwarzkopf shuttle loop was decent enough. I hadn’t been on one for years and they’re not bad coasters at all. It’s a pain in the arse to get a decent picture of though since it’s crammed in on all sides by other crap.
Jaguar is easily the best Tivoli coaster I’ve done. Not that that’s saying much, but it was much longer than most and was decent fun.
The station theming was also pretty decent. Not mind-blowing immersive by any stretch of the imagination, but decent for a Cedar Fair park. It must have been built before they got their hands on it.
Accelerator was up next. I was expecting a huge queue, but it was only twenty minutes – queues had been minimal up to this point – and didn’t go much above that for the rest of the day from what I saw.
I really liked it. The launch and top hat are excellent and it’s got a bit of a layout afterwards without trying to do too much other than focus on speed. It’s definitely up there with some of the better accelerators.
The wild mouse was clearly just a +1, which luckily only needed a 10 minute wait.
The Boomerang was pretty gross, too.
It wasn’t the worst I’ve done, but it was probably way down the list.
There was a walk-on observation tower that I didn’t think I’d be riding – I had it in my head that the park would be really busy and I’d just be collecting creds – but since I was getting things done really quickly I decided I could afford to spend time with some other stuff.
I did one side of the S&S tower, which was fine. There’s nothing wrong with these rides really, but I’ll take an Intamin drop tower over them every time.
The log flume was excellent, with some great theming. In fact the whole area towards the back of the park was really well-themed. Yes, the whole Wild West thing has been done to death, but this place was one of the better examples, especially with the huge train and horse-drawn carts. I’m surprised Cedar Fair hasn’t ripped it all out as it all goes against their own company aesthetic of “sterile and bland”.
Upcharge screaming swing can get to f**k.
Calico Mine Ride was a great dark ride. The low, narrow tunnels were really claustrophobic, but then you’d get some large caves/caverns in there as well with waterfalls, animatronics and great lighting. I loved it. I don’t think I’ve heard any “Is it a cred?” discussions either, which is strange. It seems to coast under gravity, with the driver controlling a brake, before hitting a lift hill to get it back to the station. I haven’t counted it, but there’s a definite ambiguity to it if you ask me.
The rapids were ok without being anything special. I got wet enough to make them interesting without being over the top stupid.
Mystery Lodge was something I’d been interested in seeing since finding out that a couple of shows I’ve seen in China have ripped it off. I have to be honest and say that the original is vastly inferior.
Fantawild, the park group that have taken the ideas from this show, haven’t just tried to copy it, but have developed and bettered it. One of many examples is that at Knott’s the actor is a guy wearing a very cheap, obvious, old-man mask. It looks **** ing ridiculous. Fanta wild actually use an old man. They’ve also updated the effects and made it far more interesting to watch. They’ve developed different stroris at different parks and made the invisible screens bigger. This one was just really, really boring.
Pony Express was just a +1 really. It was ok, and fitted the style and theme of the area, but was very short and didn’t do much.
I eventually got around to Silver Bullet after thinking it best to leave a B&M (reliable with high throughput) until later when a longer queue wouldn’t matter as much.
Unfortunately:
It was running only one train, meaning the the waiting time was around 45 minutes. It’s still not horrendous, but was more than double the longest wait I’d had at the park all day.
I was expecting it to be awful since it really doesn’t get much love around here, but it was actually pretty good. Is it among the better inverts? No, but it’s far from the piece of **** I’d been expecting. It’s not forceful, but it’s a smooth and fun ride. Maybe when you’ve got a park full of crap (not including Accelerator) it helps it to stand out as something better than it might actually be though.
The last ride I did here was Ghostrider, deliberately leaving it until last in case it was as brutal as people say.
Yeah, it wasn’t the best coaster, but again wasn’t as bad as I’d thought it was going to be. It was a decent length, and had some decent airtime. It was a bit rough, but I’ve been on much worse.
I think I left the park around 6 after having done a lot more than I thought, including some rerides, and not feeling the need to stick around until the park closed at 10. Instead, I got a bus back to my hotel and then a walk into Downtown Disney (about 10 minutes away) to have a bit of a look around and grab something to eat.
This Disney store was huge, crowded and generally a **** ing nightmare.
I don’t do theme park tat, but I did like these though:
I would’ve bought them, but had absolutely no luggage space and had a bit more travelling to do yet anyway. I’ll have a look for them at Hong Kong Disney. They’re just cheap s**te made in China anyway, so they should be available and will likely be cheaper.
I had dinner at Rainforest Café which was ridiculously tacky and therefore fab.
It was a nice area in general actually, with plenty of food options. I think I headed back relatively early though since I imagined the next day was going to be quite a tiring one.
Next: Disneyland
I was up early the next day to get down to Anaheim, getting a train from Union Station down to Fullerton. I wanted to get to Knott’s as quickly as possible, so got a taxi from Fullerton Station to my hotel near Disneyland, got him to wait while I dropped the bag (too big for most park lockers), then take me to Knott’s, arriving a little after 11am.
Knowing what I know now, I could have afforded to spend a bit more time and a lot less money getting buses between the station, hotel and park, or got a bus directly from LA to the Disney transit centre (took a lot longer than the train from what I could find out), instead of rushing to get to the park as it was open until 10pm anyway.
Knott’s Berry Farm
Like I said, I arrived a little after 11, finding the park to not be too busy at all. It obviously got busier later on, but was still pleasantly quiet for a day in August.
I should have gone straight to Silver Bullet – more on that later – but decided to pick up some of the lower capacity coasters first, starting with Sierra Sidewinder.
It was better than it looked really, but obviously nothing special. I’ll take it over a Reverchon or Golden Horse clone any day though.
The kiddy coaster had an upper height limit of 69 inches, or 5’9. I guess I could’ve tried but figured if they’re posting a height limit outside the station, they’d be checking so I didn’t even attempt it.
The Schwarzkopf shuttle loop was decent enough. I hadn’t been on one for years and they’re not bad coasters at all. It’s a pain in the arse to get a decent picture of though since it’s crammed in on all sides by other crap.
Jaguar is easily the best Tivoli coaster I’ve done. Not that that’s saying much, but it was much longer than most and was decent fun.
The station theming was also pretty decent. Not mind-blowing immersive by any stretch of the imagination, but decent for a Cedar Fair park. It must have been built before they got their hands on it.
Accelerator was up next. I was expecting a huge queue, but it was only twenty minutes – queues had been minimal up to this point – and didn’t go much above that for the rest of the day from what I saw.
I really liked it. The launch and top hat are excellent and it’s got a bit of a layout afterwards without trying to do too much other than focus on speed. It’s definitely up there with some of the better accelerators.
The wild mouse was clearly just a +1, which luckily only needed a 10 minute wait.
The Boomerang was pretty gross, too.
It wasn’t the worst I’ve done, but it was probably way down the list.
There was a walk-on observation tower that I didn’t think I’d be riding – I had it in my head that the park would be really busy and I’d just be collecting creds – but since I was getting things done really quickly I decided I could afford to spend time with some other stuff.
I did one side of the S&S tower, which was fine. There’s nothing wrong with these rides really, but I’ll take an Intamin drop tower over them every time.
The log flume was excellent, with some great theming. In fact the whole area towards the back of the park was really well-themed. Yes, the whole Wild West thing has been done to death, but this place was one of the better examples, especially with the huge train and horse-drawn carts. I’m surprised Cedar Fair hasn’t ripped it all out as it all goes against their own company aesthetic of “sterile and bland”.
Upcharge screaming swing can get to f**k.
Calico Mine Ride was a great dark ride. The low, narrow tunnels were really claustrophobic, but then you’d get some large caves/caverns in there as well with waterfalls, animatronics and great lighting. I loved it. I don’t think I’ve heard any “Is it a cred?” discussions either, which is strange. It seems to coast under gravity, with the driver controlling a brake, before hitting a lift hill to get it back to the station. I haven’t counted it, but there’s a definite ambiguity to it if you ask me.
The rapids were ok without being anything special. I got wet enough to make them interesting without being over the top stupid.
Mystery Lodge was something I’d been interested in seeing since finding out that a couple of shows I’ve seen in China have ripped it off. I have to be honest and say that the original is vastly inferior.
Fantawild, the park group that have taken the ideas from this show, haven’t just tried to copy it, but have developed and bettered it. One of many examples is that at Knott’s the actor is a guy wearing a very cheap, obvious, old-man mask. It looks **** ing ridiculous. Fanta wild actually use an old man. They’ve also updated the effects and made it far more interesting to watch. They’ve developed different stroris at different parks and made the invisible screens bigger. This one was just really, really boring.
Pony Express was just a +1 really. It was ok, and fitted the style and theme of the area, but was very short and didn’t do much.
I eventually got around to Silver Bullet after thinking it best to leave a B&M (reliable with high throughput) until later when a longer queue wouldn’t matter as much.
Unfortunately:
It was running only one train, meaning the the waiting time was around 45 minutes. It’s still not horrendous, but was more than double the longest wait I’d had at the park all day.
I was expecting it to be awful since it really doesn’t get much love around here, but it was actually pretty good. Is it among the better inverts? No, but it’s far from the piece of **** I’d been expecting. It’s not forceful, but it’s a smooth and fun ride. Maybe when you’ve got a park full of crap (not including Accelerator) it helps it to stand out as something better than it might actually be though.
The last ride I did here was Ghostrider, deliberately leaving it until last in case it was as brutal as people say.
Yeah, it wasn’t the best coaster, but again wasn’t as bad as I’d thought it was going to be. It was a decent length, and had some decent airtime. It was a bit rough, but I’ve been on much worse.
I think I left the park around 6 after having done a lot more than I thought, including some rerides, and not feeling the need to stick around until the park closed at 10. Instead, I got a bus back to my hotel and then a walk into Downtown Disney (about 10 minutes away) to have a bit of a look around and grab something to eat.
This Disney store was huge, crowded and generally a **** ing nightmare.
I don’t do theme park tat, but I did like these though:
I would’ve bought them, but had absolutely no luggage space and had a bit more travelling to do yet anyway. I’ll have a look for them at Hong Kong Disney. They’re just cheap s**te made in China anyway, so they should be available and will likely be cheaper.
I had dinner at Rainforest Café which was ridiculously tacky and therefore fab.
It was a nice area in general actually, with plenty of food options. I think I headed back relatively early though since I imagined the next day was going to be quite a tiring one.
Next: Disneyland
Gazza
Giga Poster
Re: California and Vegas Pt 4: Knott's Berry Farm
Timberline Twister would basically be impossible for anyone over 5'9"... the seats don't really have a foot well to speak of, it basically feels like you're sitting on the floor of the car.
I'm 5'7" and I only fit by having my legs yoga style.
Timberline Twister would basically be impossible for anyone over 5'9"... the seats don't really have a foot well to speak of, it basically feels like you're sitting on the floor of the car.
I'm 5'7" and I only fit by having my legs yoga style.
IntaminToWin
Mega Poster
Re: California and Vegas Pt 4: Knott's Berry Farm
Knott's is just a mess near Montezooma's.
Knott's is just a mess near Montezooma's.
Re: California and Vegas Pt 4: Knott's Berry Farm
The next morning I walked the fifteen minutes to the park entrances, deciding to do Disneyland on the first day and California Adventure on the second, though I don’t think it would have made a difference which way I’d done it.
Welcome to Disneyland, the happiest place on Earth:
The sign’s not as alarming as it first seemed; it’s just California being ridiculous with health and safety. Basically, the pedestrian path which runs alongside the tram from the car parks and behind some of the Downtown Disney shops and restaurants, which is little used by members of the public, cuts through a staff smoking area. A public smoking area needs to have signs warning of dangerous chemicals. I only found this out due to seeing one at my hotel which actually explained it properly. Run around with a .22 calibre and no f**ker flinches, but God help you if you unleash a Lambert & Butler. Stupid place.
Anyway, have an obligatory station picture:
I’ll try and keep the pictures and report in a logical order, keeping areas together, but there was actually quite a bit of zig-zagging across the park throughout the day, mostly down to taking advantage of fast passes and so returning to the same areas later, so in terms of the order I rode stuff, it’s completely off and some pictures would’ve been taken hours apart in some cases, but makes more sense as a report to keep things all together rather than jumping back and forth.
I arrived at opening and stayed right up until closing, making it a really knackering day. I wasn’t rushing around to trying to cram everything in at all, but there was a lot of walking and it was a really long day. Combinations of fast passes, single rider lines and generally excellent operations meant that I got everything done easily, with rerides on some major stuff, but I can totally see why people want to spend more than the one day here, especially when you’re in a group and single rider isn’t an option.
I actually popped in here right at the end of the night on the way out of the park, but took the picture right at the start of the day:
What a load of old s**te. Out of respect I was trying not to laugh, but luckily it was quiet since it was the end of the day. The only people less impressed by the overt display of patriotism were the large group of Mexicans who made up 95% of the remainder of the audience.
Walking up Main Street then.
I headed into Tomorrowland first, and went straight for Star Tours since the queue was short and I hadn’t done any of the upgraded ones.
It was very good. Sure it’s “just” a simulator, but it’s definitely one of the best out there.
I grabbed a fast pass for Space Mountain so that I could get a quick reride a bit later and then just went in through the normal queue, which was only around 15 minutes at that point.
It's the same as Hong Kong's though I slightly prefer that one. It could be an age thing though I guess. Don’t get me wrong, it’s still a great ride and I really enjoyed it, just not as much as Hong Kong’s. They both have the same AMAZING soundtrack though.
That Innoventions thing is utter gash. There was some Iron Man thing in it, and some Captain America and Thor things which both had a bit of a queue, so I skipped them.
The whole “house of the future” thing downstairs is also such a waste of time and space. There was a show about to start that I went into and wished I hadn’t, showing off one of those Asimo robots.
The robot was cool. It didn’t need a tacky 20-minue show with an annoying-as-f**k presenter. A lot of people were walking out after five minutes since they’d seen the robot and it was just overkill. Thank **** I hadn’t waited for it or gone back to it later due to various showtimes.
Buzz Lightyear was the same as the others I’ve done. They’re decent enough for a shooter, and the throughputs are amazing, so there’s never more than a 5-10 minute wait. Hong Kong really dropped the ball by adding Fast Pass to this thing when other rides could do with it a lot more.
Matterhorn Bobsleds had a REALLY long line (not sure on length of time, but there were a lot of people waiting), but luckily a single rider system, meaning I walked straight on. It seems that they only usually use one side for single riders – the queue splits off much further back and the official single rider entrance bypasses this and dumps you right in the station on one side – but just asking was enough for them to shift me over to the other track.
It was fun, and very different to anything I’ve ridden before I think. Yeah, it’s tame by today’s standards, but it’s a cool little ride. I didn’t notice any discernable differences between the two sides. The "Remain seated please. Permane ser sentados por favor" announcement at the end was fab. One of my favourite ever songs is Tragic Kingdom by No Doubt, basically their Disneyland protest song (they’re from Anaheim), and I never knew that the “remain seated” announcement was from an actual ride. I thought it was just a general “theme park” thing, but they’ve actually used the recorded announcement from Matterhorn, which makes me love the song even more. A bit off topic, and very goony, so sorry about that.
The Finding Nemo thing was down for scheduled maintenance, but I think I knew about that – I knew something was down anyway – so it wasn’t a big loss. I decided to knock off all the Fantasyland dark rides, starting with Alice in Wonderland, but skipping the tea cups.
I really liked this. Alice in Wonderland is up there with my favourite Disney films, partly because they stuck with the original story much more closely than with most of their stuff and didn’t “Disneyfy” it too much, and the ride was a decent representation of it. It’s been updated recently apparently, but I hadn’t ridden it before to be able to comment.
All of these dark rides looked to have pretty long queues since they were spilling out of the buildings. The reality is though that there are only very small indoor queuing areas. They were also hammering people through really quickly, meaning that the waiting times for all these rides were only in the 10-20 minute mark.
Mr Toad’s Wild Ride was quite fab really. There was a definite sense of humour to it and it’s different to anything else at the other Disney parks.
I don’t think there was any difference between this version of Pinocchio and the rides in Tokyo and Paris, which was fine since I like this ride as it’s a lot darker than a lot of Disney’s stuff .
Snow White is also really dark for a Disney attraction aimed at young kids, and is probably my favourite, traditional-style dark ride of theirs out of all the Fantasyland stuff scattered over all the parks. Hong Kong is really lacking in these kind of nostalgia rides; I'd actually like to see them try and include a couple, but to update them and give them a different spin.
Peter Pan had the longest wait of the bunch. Here comes the sacrilege: I’ve always found this ride to be incredibly overrated.
It looks gorgeous from the outside though. Actually, all of the rides in this area have stunning exteriors, making this easily the most attractive Fantasyland of the bunch. I need to revisit Florida, but the ride entrances and stations for the same attractions in Paris and Tokyo are all really bland from what I can remember, and Hong Kong doesn't have them at all.
Frozen meet and greet. Wait for two hours to have your picture taken with a failed actress in a blue dress. Yeah, no.
I liked the castle walkthrough. It was small and cramped, but luckily not many people were actually going though it and it was something different.
How apt:
It’s a Small Annoying World had to be done since it’s such an iconic attraction.
The outdoor loading and unloading, in that sun and heat, was pretty unpleasant really, especially given the stacking that was happening.
I also don’t think that retrofitting Disney characters has done the ride any favours. Hong Kong’s version was designed with them specifically in mind and they blend in really well with the ride as a whole. On this one, they just seem plonked in, which is because that's exactly what they are.
Mickey’s Magical Map was an ok show.
The map itself was impressive - one of those big LED screen things - but otherwise it was just pretty much a bare stage with a few songs from Disney films.
It kind of felt like a bit of a wasted opportunity to be honest; it could/should have been a lot better given that it has a large capacity and is the park’s major daytime show. It’s the equivalent of Hong Kong’s Golden Mickeys show, something which I never liked first time around but have come to appreciate, in that it’s basically a collection of songs loosely based around some crappy story/concept. The songs are presented so much better in Hong Kong though.
Yes, I know I’m comparing things a lot here, but when you’re talking about a chain of parks with similar/identical lands, rides, shows, characters and themes, I think it’s fairly inevitable.
I did the same thing with BTMR as with Space Mountain, grabbing a fast pass for a later reride and then joining the queue which I think was at about half an hour.
As a coaster, it’s a bit bland, but as with all of these rides the theming is top-notch and turns a crap coaster into something very enjoyable. The new special effects on the final lift hill were excellent as well.
Riverboat thing is pleasant enough. I don’t think I’ve actually ridden any of the others before this one. Possibly Florida’s I guess - I don’t remember - but definitely not Tokyo’s or Paris’s.
Toontown reminded me a lot of Tokyo’s version: a nice enough looking area with nothing to really do.
There’s a +1 cred though, which I think I waited close to half an hour for.
There’s also Roger Rabbit’s Cartoon Spin, which, let’s be honest, is a bit s**t.
I think the problem is that it doesn’t hold any of the nostalgic qualities of the Fantasyland dark rides, which are actually technically inferior since they’re so much older. However, it’s also not new and innovative enough to elevate it into the high-tech category either.
I’d popped into the area earlier and grabbed a fast pass, which saved me what appeared to be a 45-minute queue. The Tokyo version has a really cool queue-line, which is actually the highlight of the whole thing. I don’t know if this version has the same thing, since the fastpass line just shoves you directly into the station.
There was some Disney/High School/College band playing at some point as I was walking past. They were really good and popped up at California Adventure as well.
I decided to watch the parade since I was right near the route about 10-minutes before it was due to start. There were people already sitting behind ropes etc, but I figured out that if I hung around on one of the connecting paths leading up to the area, it would get roped off right before the parade and I’d be right at the front. I was right.
They had a pre-parade Frozen float, which was just a **** ing stupid idea executed in a way unfitting of Disney.
After a massive announcement about the pre-parade “special guests”, they sent this one float and then there was a 20 minute gap until the proper parade started. This meant that you had hundreds of people crammed and needlessly waiting, in very, very hot weather. Yeah, there was separate music – I bet you can’t guess what it was – so the float couldn’t have been quickly and easily integrated into the main parade, but they could’ve easily had a gap of a couple of minutes rather than the twenty, which was absolutely horrible due to the crowds and heat.
Anyway, main parade. Have a bunch of pictures, including the ugliest Aladdin I’ve ever seen.
I didn’t venture into the tree house.
The Jungle Cruise ride at any of the parks is always worth a go.
The tongue-in-cheek narration of the skippers really make a rather dated attraction into something that’s good for a laugh. Technically, Hong Kong has the best version I’ve ridden since the effects are better and there’s a night ride – the updates on some other versions might well mean it gets beaten in that department soon – but the narration is bland and uninteresting, with failed attempts at humour that the “proper” English-speaking skippers get right on the American versions.
Indiana Jones had a single rider queue which was being somewhat abused by some small groups. Still, it meant that a 60-80 minute wait turned into ten minutes both times I rode it.
It’s an absolutely brilliant dark ride, way up there with my absolute favourites. It has a different name, station and queue in Tokyo, but from what I could tell the ride itself is pretty much identical. The fact that it uses actual sets just makes it that much better, for me at least, than the Spiderman and Transformers type of attractions, although they’re also fantastic.
Splash Mountain was fab.
Again, a single rider queue enabled me skip what would’ve been over an hour-long wait. It was a bit burdenous in the way it was run though. Obviously, the ride wasn’t designed with a single rider queue in mind, meaning that you sort of go through an exit and get stuck in a cramped little exit area. There were quite a few people using it, and the ride ops – they’re not “cast members”; they’re not in a **** ing film – really weren’t being too attentive and quite a few boats were being sent with empty seats. It was still much better than having to wait in the regular queue, but it was the most “undisney” way of doing things that I’ve come across.
It’s a great though, easily one of my favourite flume-type rides.
Winnie the Pooh was a bit gash to be honest. Obviously I wasn’t expecting Pooh’s Hunny Hunt, but I thought it would at least match the mediocrity of the Hong Kong version, and it didn’t even do that.
Pirates of the Caribbean is another classic must-ride attraction which I really enjoy.
I waited about 20 minutes for the first ride I got on it, but managed to walk on for a second ride after the Fantasmic show finished later.
One criticism/comparison is that the Jack Sparrow animatronics, while decent, didn’t seem to be anywhere near the quality of the ones in Tokyo. I would’ve thought they’d have been identical, but I really don’t think they are. I’m guessing that they must be manufactured in different places and that the Japanese ones are just of a higher quality. I’ve mentioned in an earlier post that the Osaka dinosaurs in Jurassic Park are better than LA’s, and it seems that the quality in Japanese Disney follows the same pattern.
Whenever I’ve seen pictures, I’ve never really liked the look of California’s Haunted Mansion.
However, in person, it really works with the area and I loved it. Why does a haunted house always have to be a gothic mansion after all?
The ride was good as well. Pretty sure it’s the same as Florida and Tokyo once you get inside.
I hadn’t done a Tiki Room since Florida when I was a kid.
It’s naff, dated, but fab. It wasn’t getting large numbers of people, but when I was there it was good to see that people were enjoying it for nostalgia value, singing along with the soundtrack etc., and just enjoying it for what it is.
There are no more pictures now since I took very few at night and they turned out crap, so feel free to stop reading.
I caught Fantasmic towards the end of the night, getting myself a decent spot just in front of Pirates about half an hour before it started. The crowd situation was a bit of a nightmare to be honest, but was handled as well as it could be I guess. One thing that annoyed me was that a staff member tried to move me because some entitled bitch on a mobility scooter wanted my spot. Absolutely not. If I was in a designated disabled spot, fine. If I hadn’t claimed that space half an earlier, fine. There’s no way I’m moving when somebody who’s been sitting on their fat arse all day rocks up right before the show starts and expects to be accommodated at the expense of other people. Get. To. F**k.
The mobility scooters at both Disney parks were a joke. There were just a ridiculous number of them. Apparently about 10% of adults visiting Disneyland are “disabled”.
I’m all for people in wheelchairs, and also with less-obvious medical conditions, having special access; not a problem at all. I also, in theory, have no problem with people choosing to use mobility scooters if they don’t want to walk around a park all day. I can understand why some older people, for example, may want to use one, especially given the size of the park and the distances covered.
However, plonking yourself on a mobility scooter ISN’T, for the vast majority of people choosing to use them, the same as actually being disabled, so they shouldn’t be automatically awarded the same “privileges” and can stick their sense of entitlement right up their (in 95% of cases) fat arses.
Anyway, rant over. Fantasmic really was excellent. I’ve got no photos of it, but I’m sure it’s on Youtube a million times over. The whole scale of it was really impressive and I liked that it was a pretty dark, scary (for kids anyway) show without too much of the Disney glitter.
Overall thoughts then. I know that this report has come across as quite negative in a lot of aspects, and that I must’ve been walking around in a s**ty mood the whole day, but I wasn’t at all. I actually really liked this park as a whole package and had a great day there. It’s huge, has got absolutely loads to do, is amazingly themed and has a fantastic atmosphere. The negative vibe of parts of the report is mostly because when you’re discussing individual attractions, and looking at them in hindsight, there actually is quite a lot not to overly like.
This park is obviously the blueprint for all the others that followed, but in terms of rides and attractions, if you’ve been to the parks in Florida, Tokyo, or Paris – Hong Kong not so much since that’s a different animal altogether really - there’s not much here that you wouldn’t have seen before. If you're looking for the quintessential Disney park though, then this is absolutely it, hands down.
It’s not the park’s fault that I’d already been to those other places, but it does have an effect on how you view the rides if you’ve, essentially, done them all already. It also doesn’t help that the newer parks have taken the original concepts and subsequently, for the most part, bettered them.
Like I said though, the park as a whole is much more than the sum of its individual parts; it really is an amazing place for so many reasons. It’s just that when you’re critiquing rides on an individual level, which is inevitable during a trip report, you lose sight of the whole.
The next morning I walked the fifteen minutes to the park entrances, deciding to do Disneyland on the first day and California Adventure on the second, though I don’t think it would have made a difference which way I’d done it.
Welcome to Disneyland, the happiest place on Earth:
The sign’s not as alarming as it first seemed; it’s just California being ridiculous with health and safety. Basically, the pedestrian path which runs alongside the tram from the car parks and behind some of the Downtown Disney shops and restaurants, which is little used by members of the public, cuts through a staff smoking area. A public smoking area needs to have signs warning of dangerous chemicals. I only found this out due to seeing one at my hotel which actually explained it properly. Run around with a .22 calibre and no f**ker flinches, but God help you if you unleash a Lambert & Butler. Stupid place.
Anyway, have an obligatory station picture:
I’ll try and keep the pictures and report in a logical order, keeping areas together, but there was actually quite a bit of zig-zagging across the park throughout the day, mostly down to taking advantage of fast passes and so returning to the same areas later, so in terms of the order I rode stuff, it’s completely off and some pictures would’ve been taken hours apart in some cases, but makes more sense as a report to keep things all together rather than jumping back and forth.
I arrived at opening and stayed right up until closing, making it a really knackering day. I wasn’t rushing around to trying to cram everything in at all, but there was a lot of walking and it was a really long day. Combinations of fast passes, single rider lines and generally excellent operations meant that I got everything done easily, with rerides on some major stuff, but I can totally see why people want to spend more than the one day here, especially when you’re in a group and single rider isn’t an option.
I actually popped in here right at the end of the night on the way out of the park, but took the picture right at the start of the day:
What a load of old s**te. Out of respect I was trying not to laugh, but luckily it was quiet since it was the end of the day. The only people less impressed by the overt display of patriotism were the large group of Mexicans who made up 95% of the remainder of the audience.
Walking up Main Street then.
I headed into Tomorrowland first, and went straight for Star Tours since the queue was short and I hadn’t done any of the upgraded ones.
It was very good. Sure it’s “just” a simulator, but it’s definitely one of the best out there.
I grabbed a fast pass for Space Mountain so that I could get a quick reride a bit later and then just went in through the normal queue, which was only around 15 minutes at that point.
It's the same as Hong Kong's though I slightly prefer that one. It could be an age thing though I guess. Don’t get me wrong, it’s still a great ride and I really enjoyed it, just not as much as Hong Kong’s. They both have the same AMAZING soundtrack though.
That Innoventions thing is utter gash. There was some Iron Man thing in it, and some Captain America and Thor things which both had a bit of a queue, so I skipped them.
The whole “house of the future” thing downstairs is also such a waste of time and space. There was a show about to start that I went into and wished I hadn’t, showing off one of those Asimo robots.
The robot was cool. It didn’t need a tacky 20-minue show with an annoying-as-f**k presenter. A lot of people were walking out after five minutes since they’d seen the robot and it was just overkill. Thank **** I hadn’t waited for it or gone back to it later due to various showtimes.
Buzz Lightyear was the same as the others I’ve done. They’re decent enough for a shooter, and the throughputs are amazing, so there’s never more than a 5-10 minute wait. Hong Kong really dropped the ball by adding Fast Pass to this thing when other rides could do with it a lot more.
Matterhorn Bobsleds had a REALLY long line (not sure on length of time, but there were a lot of people waiting), but luckily a single rider system, meaning I walked straight on. It seems that they only usually use one side for single riders – the queue splits off much further back and the official single rider entrance bypasses this and dumps you right in the station on one side – but just asking was enough for them to shift me over to the other track.
It was fun, and very different to anything I’ve ridden before I think. Yeah, it’s tame by today’s standards, but it’s a cool little ride. I didn’t notice any discernable differences between the two sides. The "Remain seated please. Permane ser sentados por favor" announcement at the end was fab. One of my favourite ever songs is Tragic Kingdom by No Doubt, basically their Disneyland protest song (they’re from Anaheim), and I never knew that the “remain seated” announcement was from an actual ride. I thought it was just a general “theme park” thing, but they’ve actually used the recorded announcement from Matterhorn, which makes me love the song even more. A bit off topic, and very goony, so sorry about that.
The Finding Nemo thing was down for scheduled maintenance, but I think I knew about that – I knew something was down anyway – so it wasn’t a big loss. I decided to knock off all the Fantasyland dark rides, starting with Alice in Wonderland, but skipping the tea cups.
I really liked this. Alice in Wonderland is up there with my favourite Disney films, partly because they stuck with the original story much more closely than with most of their stuff and didn’t “Disneyfy” it too much, and the ride was a decent representation of it. It’s been updated recently apparently, but I hadn’t ridden it before to be able to comment.
All of these dark rides looked to have pretty long queues since they were spilling out of the buildings. The reality is though that there are only very small indoor queuing areas. They were also hammering people through really quickly, meaning that the waiting times for all these rides were only in the 10-20 minute mark.
Mr Toad’s Wild Ride was quite fab really. There was a definite sense of humour to it and it’s different to anything else at the other Disney parks.
I don’t think there was any difference between this version of Pinocchio and the rides in Tokyo and Paris, which was fine since I like this ride as it’s a lot darker than a lot of Disney’s stuff .
Snow White is also really dark for a Disney attraction aimed at young kids, and is probably my favourite, traditional-style dark ride of theirs out of all the Fantasyland stuff scattered over all the parks. Hong Kong is really lacking in these kind of nostalgia rides; I'd actually like to see them try and include a couple, but to update them and give them a different spin.
Peter Pan had the longest wait of the bunch. Here comes the sacrilege: I’ve always found this ride to be incredibly overrated.
It looks gorgeous from the outside though. Actually, all of the rides in this area have stunning exteriors, making this easily the most attractive Fantasyland of the bunch. I need to revisit Florida, but the ride entrances and stations for the same attractions in Paris and Tokyo are all really bland from what I can remember, and Hong Kong doesn't have them at all.
Frozen meet and greet. Wait for two hours to have your picture taken with a failed actress in a blue dress. Yeah, no.
I liked the castle walkthrough. It was small and cramped, but luckily not many people were actually going though it and it was something different.
How apt:
It’s a Small Annoying World had to be done since it’s such an iconic attraction.
The outdoor loading and unloading, in that sun and heat, was pretty unpleasant really, especially given the stacking that was happening.
I also don’t think that retrofitting Disney characters has done the ride any favours. Hong Kong’s version was designed with them specifically in mind and they blend in really well with the ride as a whole. On this one, they just seem plonked in, which is because that's exactly what they are.
Mickey’s Magical Map was an ok show.
The map itself was impressive - one of those big LED screen things - but otherwise it was just pretty much a bare stage with a few songs from Disney films.
It kind of felt like a bit of a wasted opportunity to be honest; it could/should have been a lot better given that it has a large capacity and is the park’s major daytime show. It’s the equivalent of Hong Kong’s Golden Mickeys show, something which I never liked first time around but have come to appreciate, in that it’s basically a collection of songs loosely based around some crappy story/concept. The songs are presented so much better in Hong Kong though.
Yes, I know I’m comparing things a lot here, but when you’re talking about a chain of parks with similar/identical lands, rides, shows, characters and themes, I think it’s fairly inevitable.
I did the same thing with BTMR as with Space Mountain, grabbing a fast pass for a later reride and then joining the queue which I think was at about half an hour.
As a coaster, it’s a bit bland, but as with all of these rides the theming is top-notch and turns a crap coaster into something very enjoyable. The new special effects on the final lift hill were excellent as well.
Riverboat thing is pleasant enough. I don’t think I’ve actually ridden any of the others before this one. Possibly Florida’s I guess - I don’t remember - but definitely not Tokyo’s or Paris’s.
Toontown reminded me a lot of Tokyo’s version: a nice enough looking area with nothing to really do.
There’s a +1 cred though, which I think I waited close to half an hour for.
There’s also Roger Rabbit’s Cartoon Spin, which, let’s be honest, is a bit s**t.
I think the problem is that it doesn’t hold any of the nostalgic qualities of the Fantasyland dark rides, which are actually technically inferior since they’re so much older. However, it’s also not new and innovative enough to elevate it into the high-tech category either.
I’d popped into the area earlier and grabbed a fast pass, which saved me what appeared to be a 45-minute queue. The Tokyo version has a really cool queue-line, which is actually the highlight of the whole thing. I don’t know if this version has the same thing, since the fastpass line just shoves you directly into the station.
There was some Disney/High School/College band playing at some point as I was walking past. They were really good and popped up at California Adventure as well.
I decided to watch the parade since I was right near the route about 10-minutes before it was due to start. There were people already sitting behind ropes etc, but I figured out that if I hung around on one of the connecting paths leading up to the area, it would get roped off right before the parade and I’d be right at the front. I was right.
They had a pre-parade Frozen float, which was just a **** ing stupid idea executed in a way unfitting of Disney.
After a massive announcement about the pre-parade “special guests”, they sent this one float and then there was a 20 minute gap until the proper parade started. This meant that you had hundreds of people crammed and needlessly waiting, in very, very hot weather. Yeah, there was separate music – I bet you can’t guess what it was – so the float couldn’t have been quickly and easily integrated into the main parade, but they could’ve easily had a gap of a couple of minutes rather than the twenty, which was absolutely horrible due to the crowds and heat.
Anyway, main parade. Have a bunch of pictures, including the ugliest Aladdin I’ve ever seen.
I didn’t venture into the tree house.
The Jungle Cruise ride at any of the parks is always worth a go.
The tongue-in-cheek narration of the skippers really make a rather dated attraction into something that’s good for a laugh. Technically, Hong Kong has the best version I’ve ridden since the effects are better and there’s a night ride – the updates on some other versions might well mean it gets beaten in that department soon – but the narration is bland and uninteresting, with failed attempts at humour that the “proper” English-speaking skippers get right on the American versions.
Indiana Jones had a single rider queue which was being somewhat abused by some small groups. Still, it meant that a 60-80 minute wait turned into ten minutes both times I rode it.
It’s an absolutely brilliant dark ride, way up there with my absolute favourites. It has a different name, station and queue in Tokyo, but from what I could tell the ride itself is pretty much identical. The fact that it uses actual sets just makes it that much better, for me at least, than the Spiderman and Transformers type of attractions, although they’re also fantastic.
Splash Mountain was fab.
Again, a single rider queue enabled me skip what would’ve been over an hour-long wait. It was a bit burdenous in the way it was run though. Obviously, the ride wasn’t designed with a single rider queue in mind, meaning that you sort of go through an exit and get stuck in a cramped little exit area. There were quite a few people using it, and the ride ops – they’re not “cast members”; they’re not in a **** ing film – really weren’t being too attentive and quite a few boats were being sent with empty seats. It was still much better than having to wait in the regular queue, but it was the most “undisney” way of doing things that I’ve come across.
It’s a great though, easily one of my favourite flume-type rides.
Winnie the Pooh was a bit gash to be honest. Obviously I wasn’t expecting Pooh’s Hunny Hunt, but I thought it would at least match the mediocrity of the Hong Kong version, and it didn’t even do that.
Pirates of the Caribbean is another classic must-ride attraction which I really enjoy.
I waited about 20 minutes for the first ride I got on it, but managed to walk on for a second ride after the Fantasmic show finished later.
One criticism/comparison is that the Jack Sparrow animatronics, while decent, didn’t seem to be anywhere near the quality of the ones in Tokyo. I would’ve thought they’d have been identical, but I really don’t think they are. I’m guessing that they must be manufactured in different places and that the Japanese ones are just of a higher quality. I’ve mentioned in an earlier post that the Osaka dinosaurs in Jurassic Park are better than LA’s, and it seems that the quality in Japanese Disney follows the same pattern.
Whenever I’ve seen pictures, I’ve never really liked the look of California’s Haunted Mansion.
However, in person, it really works with the area and I loved it. Why does a haunted house always have to be a gothic mansion after all?
The ride was good as well. Pretty sure it’s the same as Florida and Tokyo once you get inside.
I hadn’t done a Tiki Room since Florida when I was a kid.
It’s naff, dated, but fab. It wasn’t getting large numbers of people, but when I was there it was good to see that people were enjoying it for nostalgia value, singing along with the soundtrack etc., and just enjoying it for what it is.
There are no more pictures now since I took very few at night and they turned out crap, so feel free to stop reading.
I caught Fantasmic towards the end of the night, getting myself a decent spot just in front of Pirates about half an hour before it started. The crowd situation was a bit of a nightmare to be honest, but was handled as well as it could be I guess. One thing that annoyed me was that a staff member tried to move me because some entitled bitch on a mobility scooter wanted my spot. Absolutely not. If I was in a designated disabled spot, fine. If I hadn’t claimed that space half an earlier, fine. There’s no way I’m moving when somebody who’s been sitting on their fat arse all day rocks up right before the show starts and expects to be accommodated at the expense of other people. Get. To. F**k.
The mobility scooters at both Disney parks were a joke. There were just a ridiculous number of them. Apparently about 10% of adults visiting Disneyland are “disabled”.
I’m all for people in wheelchairs, and also with less-obvious medical conditions, having special access; not a problem at all. I also, in theory, have no problem with people choosing to use mobility scooters if they don’t want to walk around a park all day. I can understand why some older people, for example, may want to use one, especially given the size of the park and the distances covered.
However, plonking yourself on a mobility scooter ISN’T, for the vast majority of people choosing to use them, the same as actually being disabled, so they shouldn’t be automatically awarded the same “privileges” and can stick their sense of entitlement right up their (in 95% of cases) fat arses.
Anyway, rant over. Fantasmic really was excellent. I’ve got no photos of it, but I’m sure it’s on Youtube a million times over. The whole scale of it was really impressive and I liked that it was a pretty dark, scary (for kids anyway) show without too much of the Disney glitter.
Overall thoughts then. I know that this report has come across as quite negative in a lot of aspects, and that I must’ve been walking around in a s**ty mood the whole day, but I wasn’t at all. I actually really liked this park as a whole package and had a great day there. It’s huge, has got absolutely loads to do, is amazingly themed and has a fantastic atmosphere. The negative vibe of parts of the report is mostly because when you’re discussing individual attractions, and looking at them in hindsight, there actually is quite a lot not to overly like.
This park is obviously the blueprint for all the others that followed, but in terms of rides and attractions, if you’ve been to the parks in Florida, Tokyo, or Paris – Hong Kong not so much since that’s a different animal altogether really - there’s not much here that you wouldn’t have seen before. If you're looking for the quintessential Disney park though, then this is absolutely it, hands down.
It’s not the park’s fault that I’d already been to those other places, but it does have an effect on how you view the rides if you’ve, essentially, done them all already. It also doesn’t help that the newer parks have taken the original concepts and subsequently, for the most part, bettered them.
Like I said though, the park as a whole is much more than the sum of its individual parts; it really is an amazing place for so many reasons. It’s just that when you’re critiquing rides on an individual level, which is inevitable during a trip report, you lose sight of the whole.
Martyn B
CF Legend
Re: California and Vegas Pt 5: Disneyland
I agree with the mobility scooters, the Magic Kingdom was really bad for it. I remember seeing 3 girls using them and trying to get on Space Mountain as 'disabled guests' but the guy told soon told them where to go!
I also agree on the whole Peter Pan hype, I dont get it. It's good, but nothing special.
I agree with the mobility scooters, the Magic Kingdom was really bad for it. I remember seeing 3 girls using them and trying to get on Space Mountain as 'disabled guests' but the guy told soon told them where to go!
I also agree on the whole Peter Pan hype, I dont get it. It's good, but nothing special.
Re: California and Vegas Pt 5: Disneyland
The next day followed the same pattern in the morning, walking from the hotel to the parks for around opening time.
Disney California Adventure
I’ve heard very few really positive reports on this place, so I was kind of expecting something akin to that s**thole studios (hey, where’s your studio?) park in Paris. It was a lot better than I’d been expecting really.
What was great about this park is that the vast majority of their major attractions had single rider lines, which, unlike at the other park, had been designed into the system at the time they were built rather than trying to squeeze them in later, meaning that they worked really efficiently. Of course there are also fast passes for most stuff as well, so by using both I pretty much didn’t have to wait longer than 15 minutes for almost everything all day, being able to walk-on to most things.
I headed straight for Soarin’ first, seeming to remember that it got some long queues, though that might be the Florida one I was thinking of. Anyway, single rider meant that I was straight on anyway.
What a load of old s**t. No word of a lie here, the Chinese knockoffs are of either equal, or in a couple of cases, superior quality. I’d enjoyed the Chinese versions and was looking forward to this, thinking that if the Chinese knock-offs are that good, then the original must be fantastic. Not so. They’re pretty much the same. Thank **** I didn’t waste my time having to queue for it.
Some general theming. I couldn’t quite get my head around the need to theme a park to California when it’s sitting in California.
Tower of Terror was, obviously, amazing. It seemed basically identical to Paris from what I could tell. I’m still to ride the Florida version, but these are, by quite a long way, the best drop rides anywhere.
There was no single rider on this, but I got a bunch of fast passes for it over the course of the day since I didn’t need to get them for most other stuff. I didn’t see the main queue get above about 30 minutes for the whole day anyway.
Muppets 3D is really dated now. Back when I did the one in Florida in 1991, it seemed really impressive. I was a kid obviously, but still. Now it’s just a bit pointless, especially in a newer park.
Monsters Inc. was pretty decent. I knew nothing about the ride and hadn’t even realised it was here, but I enjoyed it. The “doors” scene is very well done especially.
I walked through the Bugs’ Life area a couple of times without actually doing anything there. I kept meaning to go back to that Tough to be a Bug thing, but never bothered in the end.
This jazz band – can’t remember the name – were pretty fab. They seemed to be performing pretty much constantly throughout the day.
The area I was most familiar with through seeing pictures was Paradise Pier, modelled on a traditional seaside pier area.
Before heading around the lake to that side of the park though, I tried some other stuff first.
Cars Land was absolutely f**king stunning. I haven’t seen the film, and have no desire to do so, but it made no difference at all. The “town” area as you walk up the “street” to the ride actually has a really authentic feel to it. It was still early in the day at this point, but fast passes had almost gone. I grabbed one for 8pm in the evening (must’ve been around 8-hours away) and got into the single rider queue.
The main queue seemed to be around the 2 hour mark for the whole day, meaning that quite a few groups were doing the sensible, annoying-for-me-as-an-actual-single-rider thing and using the single rider line. It was still fine, with the single rider queue never being more than 15-20 minutes long. Thanks to seats being in rows of three, a lot of single rider spaces were constantly opening up.
I absolutely loved this ride. The indoor sections before the race are really well done, with some absolutely amazing animatronics. The race itself is a lot of fun, and the theming is possibly/probably the most impressive, from both on and off-ride, of any ride I’ve seen. I have no idea how much this thing cost to build, but it has to be one of the most, if not the most, expensive rides ever constructed.
Over the course of the day I rode it three more times using single rider, and used the fast pass later that night too. It’s absolutely incredible and one of my new all-time favourite attractions, despite knowing absolutely nothing about the film it’s based on.
Some Phineus and Ferb street show. Never seen it, have no idea what it is, and have no desire to find out after having seen this.
The Little Mermaid ride was quite fab.
It’s up there with my favourite Disney films, apart from the bulls**t Disney ending, and the ride itself was very well done, with some great sets and animatronics. The Sebastian animatronic seemed especially good. Being an omnimover meant that there was only ever a 5-minute wait for it.
One of the best Disney villains ever:
Getting around to Paradise Pier then.
Stopping off for the Goofy’s Sky School cred.
A single rider queue again meant just a 5-minute wait. Thank Christ because I wouldn’t have had to want to wait for this:
Dreadful, dreadful, dreadful choice of ride executed appallingly which has absolutely no place even being considered for a Disney park. Shockingly bad on every conceivable level.
California Screamin’ then:
This was a really decent coaster, the best across the two parks really. The single rider line here was a bit burdenous as you had to basically use the disabled entrance, meaning that you had to go in a couple of lifts to get across to the loading platform. The queue never exceeded 20 minutes anyway.
Toy Story Midway Mania was my longest wait of the day, at around 45 minutes.
I’d never been impressed from pictures or video, but it’s actually really good. As an actual ride, yeah it’s a bit rubbish since you’re just facing a bunch of screens the whole time, but the shooting mechanism is excellent and really accurate.
Grizzly River Run was excellent for a rapids ride. It certainly didn’t feel like the longest in the world (is this still true?), but that could be down to the fact that it’s actually pretty fast as well. Single rider on a rapids ride is excellent, too, since they can often get some of the longest lines in a park and so many boats get sent around with empty seats.
The band from the other park were here, too. At least I’m assuming it’s the same band.
The Aladdin show – which should be renamed “Hey, That Guy’s Not Arabian” - was absolutely fantastic. It’s an hour long, which might be off-putting for a theme park show for a lot of people, but at a park like this, you can really afford to take an hour out. It was basically a full-on (shorter) Broadway/West-End show, and is one of the best park shows I’ve ever seen.
They had a parade. Some water got squirted at guests which was about the most exciting thing about it; it was rubbish really.
It was only about 4pm, and I’d already done everything at the park thanks to not having to really wait for anything. I had a fast pass left for Radiator Springs Racers at around 8pm, and had also picked one up for the World of Colour show that night, but I wasn’t really in the mood to hang around that long. Instead, I just headed back to the hotel for a couple of hours, threw some laundry in while I monged out for a bit, and headed back into the park at around 6:30, getting some rerides in before the show at the end of the night.
.
Radiator Springs is, predictably, even better at night. This is mostly because the indoor section is actually themed to a night-time drive through the town. It jars a bit during the day since you’re going from bright daylight, into the night scene, and back into bright daylight again. At night, it all flows a lot more seamlessly.
Mad T Party looked cool because of the lighting, but just seemed to a bit mismatched and out of place really.
A few other nighttime pictures:
My spot for World of Colour was a bit off to the side, so it was fine for the fountains and fire effects, but a bit crap for the projection work.
It was good, but not a patch on Fantasmic next door. The section with the genie from Aladdin got a massive cheer since Robin Williams had died just two days before.
And that was it for LA/Anaheim. I really liked this Disney resort, and found California Adventure to be a lot better than I thought, though still one of the weaker Disney parks. Because I was by myself, a day at each place was enough – more than enough for CA – to get everything done plus get rerides (loads of them at CA thanks to excellent single rider lines on almost everything). If I was to go back with someone else though, I’d probably look at a three-day park hopper as there would have been a LOT more waiting involved if using the main queues.
I had a shuttle booked to take me to the airport the next morning – I’ve been to airports in developing countries that are ten-times better than LAX, which has to be the absolute worst major airport outside of Moscow – to take a quick flight to San Francisco.
Next – Six Flags Discovery Kingdom
The next day followed the same pattern in the morning, walking from the hotel to the parks for around opening time.
Disney California Adventure
I’ve heard very few really positive reports on this place, so I was kind of expecting something akin to that s**thole studios (hey, where’s your studio?) park in Paris. It was a lot better than I’d been expecting really.
What was great about this park is that the vast majority of their major attractions had single rider lines, which, unlike at the other park, had been designed into the system at the time they were built rather than trying to squeeze them in later, meaning that they worked really efficiently. Of course there are also fast passes for most stuff as well, so by using both I pretty much didn’t have to wait longer than 15 minutes for almost everything all day, being able to walk-on to most things.
I headed straight for Soarin’ first, seeming to remember that it got some long queues, though that might be the Florida one I was thinking of. Anyway, single rider meant that I was straight on anyway.
What a load of old s**t. No word of a lie here, the Chinese knockoffs are of either equal, or in a couple of cases, superior quality. I’d enjoyed the Chinese versions and was looking forward to this, thinking that if the Chinese knock-offs are that good, then the original must be fantastic. Not so. They’re pretty much the same. Thank **** I didn’t waste my time having to queue for it.
Some general theming. I couldn’t quite get my head around the need to theme a park to California when it’s sitting in California.
Tower of Terror was, obviously, amazing. It seemed basically identical to Paris from what I could tell. I’m still to ride the Florida version, but these are, by quite a long way, the best drop rides anywhere.
There was no single rider on this, but I got a bunch of fast passes for it over the course of the day since I didn’t need to get them for most other stuff. I didn’t see the main queue get above about 30 minutes for the whole day anyway.
Muppets 3D is really dated now. Back when I did the one in Florida in 1991, it seemed really impressive. I was a kid obviously, but still. Now it’s just a bit pointless, especially in a newer park.
Monsters Inc. was pretty decent. I knew nothing about the ride and hadn’t even realised it was here, but I enjoyed it. The “doors” scene is very well done especially.
I walked through the Bugs’ Life area a couple of times without actually doing anything there. I kept meaning to go back to that Tough to be a Bug thing, but never bothered in the end.
This jazz band – can’t remember the name – were pretty fab. They seemed to be performing pretty much constantly throughout the day.
The area I was most familiar with through seeing pictures was Paradise Pier, modelled on a traditional seaside pier area.
Before heading around the lake to that side of the park though, I tried some other stuff first.
Cars Land was absolutely f**king stunning. I haven’t seen the film, and have no desire to do so, but it made no difference at all. The “town” area as you walk up the “street” to the ride actually has a really authentic feel to it. It was still early in the day at this point, but fast passes had almost gone. I grabbed one for 8pm in the evening (must’ve been around 8-hours away) and got into the single rider queue.
The main queue seemed to be around the 2 hour mark for the whole day, meaning that quite a few groups were doing the sensible, annoying-for-me-as-an-actual-single-rider thing and using the single rider line. It was still fine, with the single rider queue never being more than 15-20 minutes long. Thanks to seats being in rows of three, a lot of single rider spaces were constantly opening up.
I absolutely loved this ride. The indoor sections before the race are really well done, with some absolutely amazing animatronics. The race itself is a lot of fun, and the theming is possibly/probably the most impressive, from both on and off-ride, of any ride I’ve seen. I have no idea how much this thing cost to build, but it has to be one of the most, if not the most, expensive rides ever constructed.
Over the course of the day I rode it three more times using single rider, and used the fast pass later that night too. It’s absolutely incredible and one of my new all-time favourite attractions, despite knowing absolutely nothing about the film it’s based on.
Some Phineus and Ferb street show. Never seen it, have no idea what it is, and have no desire to find out after having seen this.
The Little Mermaid ride was quite fab.
It’s up there with my favourite Disney films, apart from the bulls**t Disney ending, and the ride itself was very well done, with some great sets and animatronics. The Sebastian animatronic seemed especially good. Being an omnimover meant that there was only ever a 5-minute wait for it.
One of the best Disney villains ever:
Getting around to Paradise Pier then.
Stopping off for the Goofy’s Sky School cred.
A single rider queue again meant just a 5-minute wait. Thank Christ because I wouldn’t have had to want to wait for this:
Dreadful, dreadful, dreadful choice of ride executed appallingly which has absolutely no place even being considered for a Disney park. Shockingly bad on every conceivable level.
California Screamin’ then:
This was a really decent coaster, the best across the two parks really. The single rider line here was a bit burdenous as you had to basically use the disabled entrance, meaning that you had to go in a couple of lifts to get across to the loading platform. The queue never exceeded 20 minutes anyway.
Toy Story Midway Mania was my longest wait of the day, at around 45 minutes.
I’d never been impressed from pictures or video, but it’s actually really good. As an actual ride, yeah it’s a bit rubbish since you’re just facing a bunch of screens the whole time, but the shooting mechanism is excellent and really accurate.
Grizzly River Run was excellent for a rapids ride. It certainly didn’t feel like the longest in the world (is this still true?), but that could be down to the fact that it’s actually pretty fast as well. Single rider on a rapids ride is excellent, too, since they can often get some of the longest lines in a park and so many boats get sent around with empty seats.
The band from the other park were here, too. At least I’m assuming it’s the same band.
The Aladdin show – which should be renamed “Hey, That Guy’s Not Arabian” - was absolutely fantastic. It’s an hour long, which might be off-putting for a theme park show for a lot of people, but at a park like this, you can really afford to take an hour out. It was basically a full-on (shorter) Broadway/West-End show, and is one of the best park shows I’ve ever seen.
They had a parade. Some water got squirted at guests which was about the most exciting thing about it; it was rubbish really.
It was only about 4pm, and I’d already done everything at the park thanks to not having to really wait for anything. I had a fast pass left for Radiator Springs Racers at around 8pm, and had also picked one up for the World of Colour show that night, but I wasn’t really in the mood to hang around that long. Instead, I just headed back to the hotel for a couple of hours, threw some laundry in while I monged out for a bit, and headed back into the park at around 6:30, getting some rerides in before the show at the end of the night.
Radiator Springs is, predictably, even better at night. This is mostly because the indoor section is actually themed to a night-time drive through the town. It jars a bit during the day since you’re going from bright daylight, into the night scene, and back into bright daylight again. At night, it all flows a lot more seamlessly.
Mad T Party looked cool because of the lighting, but just seemed to a bit mismatched and out of place really.
A few other nighttime pictures:
My spot for World of Colour was a bit off to the side, so it was fine for the fountains and fire effects, but a bit crap for the projection work.
It was good, but not a patch on Fantasmic next door. The section with the genie from Aladdin got a massive cheer since Robin Williams had died just two days before.
And that was it for LA/Anaheim. I really liked this Disney resort, and found California Adventure to be a lot better than I thought, though still one of the weaker Disney parks. Because I was by myself, a day at each place was enough – more than enough for CA – to get everything done plus get rerides (loads of them at CA thanks to excellent single rider lines on almost everything). If I was to go back with someone else though, I’d probably look at a three-day park hopper as there would have been a LOT more waiting involved if using the main queues.
I had a shuttle booked to take me to the airport the next morning – I’ve been to airports in developing countries that are ten-times better than LAX, which has to be the absolute worst major airport outside of Moscow – to take a quick flight to San Francisco.
Next – Six Flags Discovery Kingdom
rtotheizzo17
Hyper Poster
Re: California and Vegas Pt 6: Disney California Adventure
Great pics. I agree I had heard nothing but bad things about DCA but I loved the park, even before Radiator Springs.
Great pics. I agree I had heard nothing but bad things about DCA but I loved the park, even before Radiator Springs.
Re: California and Vegas Pt 6: Disney California Adventure
^ I think it's because I've been really impressed by the Chinese knockoffs, especially at the Happy Valley park in Chengdu, and so expected the original to be something on a whole different level, and it's not.
^ I think it's because I've been really impressed by the Chinese knockoffs, especially at the Happy Valley park in Chengdu, and so expected the original to be something on a whole different level, and it's not.
Re: California and Vegas Pt 6: Disney California Adventure
^Yeah, I forgot to mention it in the report. It had a consistently long line any time I went past it, especially for the swinging cars which are the only ones I wouldv'e bothered with. Admittedly, it wasn't ridiculous at around 40 minutes, but when I'd been used to waiting a maximum of ten for everything, I really didn't want to wait for a ferris wheel. There was no single rider or fastpass option either.
After a quick flight I landed in San Francisco and go to my hotel sometime in the early afternoon. The airport is connected to the metro system, making it really easy to get into the city. The metro station, and hotel, were in a pretty sh**ty area though. I’d chosen it based on being close to nightlife and transport, but it was really sketchy and basically full of homeless drunks.
San Francisco Sightseeing
I wasn ‘t too far away from the City Hall area, so I had a quick walk down there. City Hall itself was impressive, but was again not in the nicest area.
I hadn’t really planned to do much beyond that, but just thought **** it and carried on walking downtown. The further away from the area I was staying in, the nicer it got.
This was a ballache to get to as it was completely uphill from where I was. There’s plenty of public transport around, but since I’d walked for ages anyway I decided to just keep going on foot and get a tram back later.
Back down and I got to the Fisherman’s Wharf area, which is now basically just shops and restaurants. The San Francisco Dungeon is down that way as well, but I never tried it.
You also get a great view of Alcatraz, which I hadn’t realised was so close to the mainland. I wanted to go out to the island, but you can only do it as part of a tour and it was all sold out for the whole time I was there when I’d looked earlier.
The weather here was really weird, and very cold compared to LA the day before. Looking out to sea it was really misty and grey, but turning around inland and it was bright sunshine.
There’s a bunch of boat docks that the local sealion population have taken over.
Pier 39 has been redeveloped and is a bunch of shops, bars and restaurants. It was really nice actually.
I got something to eat there and that was it for the afternoon/evening. It might not seem like much, but the distances were pretty big and I was walking for ages. There was a tram that went right from the entrance of Pier 39 and straight to the door of my hotel, so I headed back there and called it a night.
Six Flags Discovery Kingdom
The next morning I headed to Discovery Kingdom, taking the metro up to a bus terminal (El Cerrito Del Norte), then a bus from there to the transport centre in Vallejo and another quick bus from there. I’m making it sound complicated, but it was actually pretty easy and took around 2 hours, getting me to the park for around 11.
I knocked off one of the kiddy coasters, Cobra, first.
+1, but no queue. The park was actually pretty quiet. I had to make a decision which park out of this one and California’s Great America would be done on this day, a Friday, and which one I’d have to visit on a Saturday. I made the right choice I think as even though the park the next day was a nightmare – next part of the report - the park I preferred was quiet and I got plenty done.
Something that annoyed me at first was that you had to use lockers for pretty much all the coasters, which I didn’t find out until I was actually sitting on the next one, Kong, and a ride op picked my bag up off the side and made me leave to find a locker. Luckily, it had been a walk-on, he was polite and apologetic, and he told me to just come back up the exit ramp. I just got one of the “all day, multiple locker” things for $5, meaning that I could get my stuff between rides and move into other lockers without having to pay each time. It’s actually a pretty decent system to be fair and not a total ripoff when you think what some places charge for a single use locker.
Anyway. Kong.
It was f**k ing dreadful: waaaaaaayyyyyy down on the list of worst SLCs, with possibly only that thing in Canada below it and about equal with Happy Valley Chengdu. Absolute piece of s**t.
Medusa was right next to it, again with a very short queue thanks to few people and still running two trains even though they weren’t getting filled that early on.
I really liked this. It was much bigger than I’d thought, with a huge vertical loop and an excellent first drop. It was also one of the smoothest coasters I’ve ridden. It’s definitely up there as one of the best floorless coasters I’ve done.
The small splashboat thing was only done because it was a walk-on, it was early enough in the day to dry out quite easily and the weather was getting pretty hot.
This is new. Didn’t bother.
There are also quite a lot of animals here, including a few animal shows.
The dolphins in a small pool – one of a few dolphin pools scattered around – were a bit depressing. You could pay to play with them and stuff, which I guess could be argued as being “stimulating”, but it’s all bollocks.
Kiddy Coaster number 2 was a proper cred whore +1, but no issues getting on. No idea if you officially need a kid to ride, but I just walked on with the other people in the queue.
The newish Superman coaster was something I’d been looking forward to this whole trip.
I really enjoyed this one as well. I figured that it would just be something similar to a Maurer Sky Loop, but it was soooooo much better. The capacity was much better than I’d thought as well, with the ride ops getting people on and checked really quickly. Again, it was quiet though, so I don’t think it would work quite as well on busier days or at a bigger park.
The woodie, Roar, was ok but nothing special really.
It threw you around a bit, more in a fun way than a rough way, but there wasn’t much in the way of airtime.
The Intamin impulse, V2, was another one that I’d been looking forward to given how unique it it. It’s the one where the twisted spike had to be set at an angle because of planning restrictions, meaning that you actually get inversions on it.
It was alright really. I don’t think it was really any better or worse than any of these rides. They’re decent fun, but they’re never going to be a particular favourite of mine. I still think the straight spikes are the best part on these.
Some more animals, the vast majority here being sealife, including dolphins, seals, sealions, walruses and a shark tunnel. They also had some big cats, giraffes, elephants etc.
Actually, f**k it; you all know what a giraffe looks like.
There are two dolphin stadiums here – one used to have killer whales – but I just caught one of the shows as it seemed to be a bit different to the norm.
It was a bit crap really. They had dolphins doing some basic tricks, but the focus was on circus stuff. It was basically going for a Cirque du Soleil vibe, with people prancing around in ridiculous avant garde costumes and some annoying as hell clown-type character.
It did get better towards the end though…
They had one of those “let’s pretend we’re demonstrating natural behaviours and encouraging conservation” tiger shows.
The conservation message was amazing. “Hey kids, remember not to buy tiger products!” Not sure where in California that would be possible, but still.
The rides around that back end of the park were a bit rubbish. I gave the Top Spin and Frisbee a go since it had been aged since I’d done either. I’ll happily never do either one again to be honest.
The last coaster, before heading back down to the front of the park for some rerides on the decent stuff, was just a Boomerang.
I honestly can’t remember anything about it now, so it couldn’t have been too bad. Clearly not too good either.
So a few rerides on Medusa, Superman and Roar and I was done really. It wasn’t too late, but I had a two-hour journey back so didn’t want to hang around too late.
I really liked this place for the most part. It’s got two very good coasters in Superman and Medusa, a decent impulse and an ok woodie as well as bunch of other stuff. The animals made it different to most chain parks, the staff were good and things were all run really well. They could’ve got away with single train operations since it was quiet, but instead chose to keep queues down to basically walk-on with two trains on the floorless, SLC and woodie.
I don’t what it would be like when (if?) it gets really busy, but when I was there, itt was just a nice, chilled-out day. Another +1 to Six Flags not being as bad as a lot of people make them out to be.
I wish I could say the same for Cedar Fair with regards to the next park…
Next up: California’s (not so) Great America
^Yeah, I forgot to mention it in the report. It had a consistently long line any time I went past it, especially for the swinging cars which are the only ones I wouldv'e bothered with. Admittedly, it wasn't ridiculous at around 40 minutes, but when I'd been used to waiting a maximum of ten for everything, I really didn't want to wait for a ferris wheel. There was no single rider or fastpass option either.
After a quick flight I landed in San Francisco and go to my hotel sometime in the early afternoon. The airport is connected to the metro system, making it really easy to get into the city. The metro station, and hotel, were in a pretty sh**ty area though. I’d chosen it based on being close to nightlife and transport, but it was really sketchy and basically full of homeless drunks.
San Francisco Sightseeing
I wasn ‘t too far away from the City Hall area, so I had a quick walk down there. City Hall itself was impressive, but was again not in the nicest area.
I hadn’t really planned to do much beyond that, but just thought **** it and carried on walking downtown. The further away from the area I was staying in, the nicer it got.
This was a ballache to get to as it was completely uphill from where I was. There’s plenty of public transport around, but since I’d walked for ages anyway I decided to just keep going on foot and get a tram back later.
Back down and I got to the Fisherman’s Wharf area, which is now basically just shops and restaurants. The San Francisco Dungeon is down that way as well, but I never tried it.
You also get a great view of Alcatraz, which I hadn’t realised was so close to the mainland. I wanted to go out to the island, but you can only do it as part of a tour and it was all sold out for the whole time I was there when I’d looked earlier.
The weather here was really weird, and very cold compared to LA the day before. Looking out to sea it was really misty and grey, but turning around inland and it was bright sunshine.
There’s a bunch of boat docks that the local sealion population have taken over.
Pier 39 has been redeveloped and is a bunch of shops, bars and restaurants. It was really nice actually.
I got something to eat there and that was it for the afternoon/evening. It might not seem like much, but the distances were pretty big and I was walking for ages. There was a tram that went right from the entrance of Pier 39 and straight to the door of my hotel, so I headed back there and called it a night.
Six Flags Discovery Kingdom
The next morning I headed to Discovery Kingdom, taking the metro up to a bus terminal (El Cerrito Del Norte), then a bus from there to the transport centre in Vallejo and another quick bus from there. I’m making it sound complicated, but it was actually pretty easy and took around 2 hours, getting me to the park for around 11.
I knocked off one of the kiddy coasters, Cobra, first.
+1, but no queue. The park was actually pretty quiet. I had to make a decision which park out of this one and California’s Great America would be done on this day, a Friday, and which one I’d have to visit on a Saturday. I made the right choice I think as even though the park the next day was a nightmare – next part of the report - the park I preferred was quiet and I got plenty done.
Something that annoyed me at first was that you had to use lockers for pretty much all the coasters, which I didn’t find out until I was actually sitting on the next one, Kong, and a ride op picked my bag up off the side and made me leave to find a locker. Luckily, it had been a walk-on, he was polite and apologetic, and he told me to just come back up the exit ramp. I just got one of the “all day, multiple locker” things for $5, meaning that I could get my stuff between rides and move into other lockers without having to pay each time. It’s actually a pretty decent system to be fair and not a total ripoff when you think what some places charge for a single use locker.
Anyway. Kong.
It was f**k ing dreadful: waaaaaaayyyyyy down on the list of worst SLCs, with possibly only that thing in Canada below it and about equal with Happy Valley Chengdu. Absolute piece of s**t.
Medusa was right next to it, again with a very short queue thanks to few people and still running two trains even though they weren’t getting filled that early on.
I really liked this. It was much bigger than I’d thought, with a huge vertical loop and an excellent first drop. It was also one of the smoothest coasters I’ve ridden. It’s definitely up there as one of the best floorless coasters I’ve done.
The small splashboat thing was only done because it was a walk-on, it was early enough in the day to dry out quite easily and the weather was getting pretty hot.
This is new. Didn’t bother.
There are also quite a lot of animals here, including a few animal shows.
The dolphins in a small pool – one of a few dolphin pools scattered around – were a bit depressing. You could pay to play with them and stuff, which I guess could be argued as being “stimulating”, but it’s all bollocks.
Kiddy Coaster number 2 was a proper cred whore +1, but no issues getting on. No idea if you officially need a kid to ride, but I just walked on with the other people in the queue.
The newish Superman coaster was something I’d been looking forward to this whole trip.
I really enjoyed this one as well. I figured that it would just be something similar to a Maurer Sky Loop, but it was soooooo much better. The capacity was much better than I’d thought as well, with the ride ops getting people on and checked really quickly. Again, it was quiet though, so I don’t think it would work quite as well on busier days or at a bigger park.
The woodie, Roar, was ok but nothing special really.
It threw you around a bit, more in a fun way than a rough way, but there wasn’t much in the way of airtime.
The Intamin impulse, V2, was another one that I’d been looking forward to given how unique it it. It’s the one where the twisted spike had to be set at an angle because of planning restrictions, meaning that you actually get inversions on it.
It was alright really. I don’t think it was really any better or worse than any of these rides. They’re decent fun, but they’re never going to be a particular favourite of mine. I still think the straight spikes are the best part on these.
Some more animals, the vast majority here being sealife, including dolphins, seals, sealions, walruses and a shark tunnel. They also had some big cats, giraffes, elephants etc.
Actually, f**k it; you all know what a giraffe looks like.
There are two dolphin stadiums here – one used to have killer whales – but I just caught one of the shows as it seemed to be a bit different to the norm.
It was a bit crap really. They had dolphins doing some basic tricks, but the focus was on circus stuff. It was basically going for a Cirque du Soleil vibe, with people prancing around in ridiculous avant garde costumes and some annoying as hell clown-type character.
It did get better towards the end though…
They had one of those “let’s pretend we’re demonstrating natural behaviours and encouraging conservation” tiger shows.
The conservation message was amazing. “Hey kids, remember not to buy tiger products!” Not sure where in California that would be possible, but still.
The rides around that back end of the park were a bit rubbish. I gave the Top Spin and Frisbee a go since it had been aged since I’d done either. I’ll happily never do either one again to be honest.
The last coaster, before heading back down to the front of the park for some rerides on the decent stuff, was just a Boomerang.
I honestly can’t remember anything about it now, so it couldn’t have been too bad. Clearly not too good either.
So a few rerides on Medusa, Superman and Roar and I was done really. It wasn’t too late, but I had a two-hour journey back so didn’t want to hang around too late.
I really liked this place for the most part. It’s got two very good coasters in Superman and Medusa, a decent impulse and an ok woodie as well as bunch of other stuff. The animals made it different to most chain parks, the staff were good and things were all run really well. They could’ve got away with single train operations since it was quiet, but instead chose to keep queues down to basically walk-on with two trains on the floorless, SLC and woodie.
I don’t what it would be like when (if?) it gets really busy, but when I was there, itt was just a nice, chilled-out day. Another +1 to Six Flags not being as bad as a lot of people make them out to be.
I wish I could say the same for Cedar Fair with regards to the next park…
Next up: California’s (not so) Great America
nadroJ
CF Legend
Re: California and Vegas Pt 7: Six Flags Discovery Kingdom
See I'd always heard that San Fran was fab and like, boho chic with hipsters everywhere, but clearly it's just a dump? That doesn't surprise me because it's in California, but it's so weird when you hear such different things about places.
With regards to Six Flags vs. Cedar Fair, I've always said CF parks are holes. Absolute holes. Six Flags parks tend to suffer from the copy and paste ride range but I've always found the parks to be pleasant to excellent, never dreadful. Looking forward to hearing about CGA, sounds vile
See I'd always heard that San Fran was fab and like, boho chic with hipsters everywhere, but clearly it's just a dump? That doesn't surprise me because it's in California, but it's so weird when you hear such different things about places.
With regards to Six Flags vs. Cedar Fair, I've always said CF parks are holes. Absolute holes. Six Flags parks tend to suffer from the copy and paste ride range but I've always found the parks to be pleasant to excellent, never dreadful. Looking forward to hearing about CGA, sounds vile
Re: California and Vegas Pt 7: Six Flags Discovery Kingdom
^ San Francisco definitely has elements of the whole Boho thing. It is very eclectic and has some lovely areas. It was just the area I stayed in really.
Hotels are sooooooo expensive, and since this was part of a long trip, I had to be a bit careful with the cash, and the area reflected that.
It's a fun city though; the nightlife was good and people were friendly.
^ San Francisco definitely has elements of the whole Boho thing. It is very eclectic and has some lovely areas. It was just the area I stayed in really.
Hotels are sooooooo expensive, and since this was part of a long trip, I had to be a bit careful with the cash, and the area reflected that.
It's a fun city though; the nightlife was good and people were friendly.