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Mark P. Hodge -- May 1998 -- Disneyland

Dates: May (of the complete trip) 26-29 (at Disneyland) 27^th, 1998

Cast of Characters:

• Gina - my wife
• Mark - that’s me!

My wife and I bought some discount tickets off of her sister and had been waiting to use them for some time. Finally, deciding that we would finally take advantage of my wife’s other sister’s place in LA for a free room, we took off to LA to see Disneyland and the New Tomorrowland. The beds were hard, the place was small, but heck, it was free.

My wife and I were both a little excited and a lot uncomfortable so we got up REALLY early and got ready, hopped in car by 7:00 to get to the park. We arrived (after little traffic surprisingly) at 8:00 to the new parking area and took our tram over to the park. We were so excited, we were singing songs to ourselves and bouncing up and down. Finally, the tram pulled up in front of the park and we were there.

We were too early to enter the park so we waited outside the special entrance for them to start taking tickets and letting us onto Main Street. We waited for a while, but not long. they opened the gates and people went rushing in like herds of cattle. It was quite a sight.

Knowing that we were just going to have to wait at the end of the street, my wife and I meandered over to the Blue Ribbon Cafe and bought a sticky roll to share (yumm!) and a couple of mochas, then wandered to the line waiting to enter. We ate our food and started to get tense as people around us started telling horror stories of three hour waits for the new Rocket Rods, that started only minutes after park opening. We made a solemn pledge to haul our butts over there first thing and get in line.

When that magic moment came and the voice of the park welcomed everyone to the park, my wife and I were glowing. Then, we were off. We raced through the crowds, getting shoved...sometimes shoving, but made our way to the Rocket Rods...only a 20 minute wait...PHEW!

First things first, the New Tomorrowland looks incredible. I have seen the new Tomorrowland at WDW and find the two to be quite different in the way they carry them out. WDW was more sci-fi hi-tech, whereas DL seems more inspired by DL Paris. They have repainted everything including Space Mountain to carry through a new color scheme that is quite breathtaking. I was highly impressed.

The first thing you see is the model of the celestial bodies that makes up the Astro-Orbiter ride. My wife and I did not ride this because I have never really thought it was all that interesting and the revamp of it brings it closer to the ground and makes it even less interesting.  On the right of that model is Star Tours and on the left is the Rocket Rods. Further in, orbiting around the new highly cool but very wet fountain from left to right is the shopping area, Starcade, Honey I Shrunk the Audience, Red Rockets (a pizza and pasta place), a coca-cola mock up that includes a really cool rocket that (I believe) came from the original Tomorrowland, Innoventions, and on the opposite side of the fountain from Red Rockets is the rather interesting set of satellite dishes that acts as the center piece of New Tommorowland and the staging area where you end up for the Rocket Rods. Out of sight of these attractions are the Submarine Voyage (which received a new paint job and revamped subs a while ago), Autopia (which also got a nice paint job), the Tomorrowland Train Station, and the Monorail. There is also another snack bar (whose name escapes me at this minute) behind the Rocket Rods staging area that has been beautifully repainted and has a very nice celestial model as part of it.

The First Part of our Day (some spoilers)

The first thing we rode on was the Rocket Rods. Although the queue area for this ride starts out kind of neat, with a celebration of the many ideas Disney has attempted in the area of future transportation, it quickly got boring and looked as if it was still very much in need of work. The ride itself is extremely fun. It moves pretty fast and goes for some time through all the various areas that the old People Mover used to go. All in all it’s very fun, but I wouldn’t wait 3 hours for it.

Next we headed to Space Mountain, which has received an exterior face lift and, has the music in the space-ships. I love the music. It adds so much to the ride and, in addition, happens to be really fun music. As always, Space Mountain was a blast, if you’ll pardon the pun.

After Space Mountain we wanted to ride on the Matterhorn, since it was closed for some reason the last two times we were there. Although this is a fun roller coaster, I couldn’t help but notice that it is the tamest of the the three. I love the themeing, I love the Snowman, I just thought the ride was a little slow for a roller coaster. Not only that, but they changed the voice of the ride from "an exciting bobsled ride down the icy slopes of the majestic Matterhorn" to "a thrilling bobsled ride down Matterhorn Mountain" I didn’t think it was as good an opener.

After that we headed to It’s a Small World. The nostalgia of this ride is immense, not to mention the nice cool, soothing boat ride. The train was our next stop, and we rode it clear around the park to New Orleans Square Station. I love New Orleans Square. We wanted to go on the rides in the Square but the lines were all immense so we headed over to Thunder Mountain. This is a fun roller coaster. I love everything about it. From the kooky voice of the hats and glasses guy to the themeing of the old west mining car. I love it. It never fails to make me smile. We went back to New Orleans Square and went on POC (which, I have to say, I like much better at DL. The whole ride is carried through with more finesse and the Blue Bayou ride-by can’t be beat for a mood setter) and Haunted Mansion. These are my favorite rides at DL. I think they are just the coolest.

For dinner we headed over to Red Rockets and ate pasta, a salad, and some bread sticks which came out to a hefty price. The food was good and you got a HUGE portion of everything so I was not displeased, however. We ran into one of the nicest cast members I have ever met at DL here. Her name was Regina and she was extremely kind and an extremely hard worker. Gina and I both wondered if there wasn’t a way to let the Disney Company know how helpful she was to us and everyone else in the restaurant. She went out of her way to ask everyone on the floor of the restaurant how their day was going and how she could help them...when all she had to do was clean tables. Beyond the call of duty in the extreme. Thanks Regina.

The rest of our day was spent on rides. We headed first to Honey, I shrunk the Audience. This is the same attraction and WDW, funny, amusing, and very cool. I love this thing. It’s so extremely clever.

Next we headed over to Splash Mt., hoping the lines would be somewhat mellowed. They weren’t, so we waited and hour to get on, but it was worth it. Talk about a ride, this one has it all. From the very classy and cute animatronics to the intensely fun drop. This ride has it all.

Then we made out way through the many shops, stopping to take in the magic that is a Disney theme park, and ending up at Indiana Jones. This is one incredible ride. Although a bit jarring, and a lot loud, this ride is so exciting. I love this ride, the real reason that I was so excited to ride it this time is that I FINALLY GOT TO RIDE THROUGH THE FOUNTAIN OF YOUTH!!! Yippee! I have been on this darned thing so many times but have never gotten to ride through that door. Now I have been through them all. I was so thrilled. After that we headed over to Fantasyland, in hopes that the lines there might have calmed down. Luckily, they had, so we cruised through Snow White (a very strangely stilted telling of the movie tale), Pinocchio (a perfect telling of the story, I think this is one of the better rides in Fantasyland), and Toad (I love this ride!!! The end is so weird and surreal...it’s awesome).

The park was closing (only three minutes to nine) so my wife and I made a mad dash to Space Mountain to get one last ride in. We hauled it up the stairs, getting there a few minutes after nine) but the very nice guy at the gate let us in. We thanked him (thought a little short of breath) and took our last hurrah on our favorite roller coaster anywhere.

After that, feet very sore and spirits soaring, we headed to our car, making sure to linger in each shop, looking at all the merchandise. We were slow to get out because we knew it would be insane to leave the place. We were right.

Getting on the tram was a mad dash. Fifty people waiting for carts and NO ONE respecting the lines. After getting passed up two times (even though we were at the front of the line both times) my wife and I shoved back. A woman came from behind us and practically shoved us out of the way, declaring a row to herself. We simply apologized and sat down. She yelled at us the whole way back to the parking lot about how her husband had to wait behind because of us. I felt badly for her, but she was clearly behind us. Man was that a mess! That wasn’t the half of it. We got out onto the street and got some lousy directing from a traffic cop who sent us into a waiting game around the entire area surrounding Disneyland that took an hour to get out of. By the time we got back to my sister-in-laws we were so tired that we crashed hard.

1. Go see the new Tomorrowland if you are near to Disneyland and can make the trip. It’s cool.
2. DO NOT wait the two hours to go on Rocket Rods.

Thanks for sharing my trip with me. It was fun sharing it with you.

Mark Hodge

alcimedon@mindspring.com

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