Tuesday, 15th January
A third warm, sunny day. Walked to Disney Land (about 20 min) through Down Town Disney – a shopping mall, arriving at 8:40. Our ticket allowed one morning’s early entry at 9:00 instead of 10:00. Tomorrow Land and Fantasy Land rides were open so we went on Space Mountain – an indoor roller coaster through starry skies which was much too fast and jerky (once again I found you cannot trust your family’s assurances). We then went on Buzz Light Year again and had morning tea. Michael and Matthew went to the California Adventure Park while Chris and I went on the Fantasy Land rides and Small World again. We were each given two Disney Land collectors badges – happened to be in the right place at the right time.
This rollercoaster began at full speed and then came to a sudden stop (where the photo was taken) before launching into the rest of the ride. After the initial terror, Chris apparently enjoyed the ride, came out smiling, and lined up 3 more times.
At 12:20 we went to a 45 min stage show of Aladdin which was a musical with excellent costumes and special effects. It was also quite funny. We went on “Soaring Over California” which was like a huge IMAX theatre and you sat in a kind of moving swing that made you feel as if you were actually flying over the scenery. We went to a Muppet 3D movie in a theatre that looked like the Muppet Show Theatre. We also saw a 4D movie about insects which was really good. The boys went on the rollercoaster 3 times and Hollywood Tower of Terror. We spent some time in a giant Jungle Gym play area with rock climbing, flying fox, ropes and swing bridges. We went to a Turtle (Crush) show which was interactive. The turtle on the screen had conversations with members of the audience. There were also appearances from other characters from “Finding Nemo”. It was very clever.
When California Adventure closed at 6pm we went back to Disney Land and Chris and Matthew went off on their own and we all did a few more rides and met up at 8 pm, when the rides section closed. We stayed in Main St until it closed at 9pm. Michael and I looked through a collection of old photos, maps and a model showing Disney Land’s history and then watched a movie of the construction and opening of the park in 1955. We walked back to our motel and spent a couple of hours packing up.