The happiest place on earth…
My lovely wife and I had a lovely time this weekend in Disneyland. Our plan was to hit the usual stuff if we could, California Screamin’, Space Mountain, Indy etc. But we also wanted to go on a few rides and see some shows that we have done before…
On Saturday it rained slightly so the park was very quiet, as most Americans think that they react to rain just like the Wicked Witch of the West (Or so it seems). This really worked out for us, as we pretty much walked onto every ride, and never waited more than 20 minutes. In fact we never even used the vaunted fast pass scheme as there was no point!
We saw a few shows we had not seen before during the time we had scheduled for waiting in lines. We saw the Aladdin stage show in California Adventure which I recommend as the Genie was fantastic, and as funny as Robin Williams in the move. We also saw the Bugs Life show in “A Bugs Land”. I am not going to say too much about this other than, it is one of the best at the park, and somehow we have missed it all this time. This is a must if you have not seen it before.
We also discovered one of the most boring rides: “Heimlich’s Chew Chew Train”. Admittedly, if I was about about 3 years old this would be amazing, but well, I am not…
Despite the low attendance the line for the new Finding Nemo ride was very long (in comparison). We did indeed wait the hour and 10 minutes required to experience this ride (Why oh why Disney, did you not make this one a fastpass?). I enjoyed it, but my lovely wife was not too enthralled. Its basically a remake of the old Submarine Voyage ride, with underwater views of coral reefs interspersed with cartoon action projected onto underwater screens. For a full description see the wikipedia entry, as its pretty accurate.
I think one of the greatest things we saw was the Jedi Academy, which is in Futureland. Basically Mace Windu from the Star Wars movies uses the Force to pick willing volunteers (all under 15 I am afraid) to be taught ways in the force. Each of the lucky participants gets a lightsaber and a Jedi padawan cloak to wear, andf they get schooled in light sabre combat. This is very amusing in itself, as some of the kids are actually smaller than the light sabres!
But the best bit by far is when stormtroopers , well storm the stage, and point their blasters at everyone and then the stage lifts up and Darth Vader and Darth Maul appear to try and convince the young padawans to turn to the dark side. Pretty cool huh? Well get this, each of the chosen kids have to fight Darth Vader to prove they can resist the dark side. Yes, I will say again. They get to fight Darth Vader. HOW COOL IS THAT? (For a geek this is a dream come true, trust me). Of course not all of the children chose to stay and fight, some chose to cry and run back to the audience (I can’t blame them, Darth Vader is pretty scary). But this was one of the most entertaining things I have watched in long time.
Anyway, fun was had by all, and it turns out we will be going back again in 3 weeks time!
