D-Day

[pyat]

Today was the "Big D." Disneyland. Walt's living shrine.

It was crowded, though apparently not as bad as it usually is. After the experience of waiting 40 - 80 minutes for rides at the theme park earlier in the week, we decided to stick with kid rides and shows, and didn't end up waiting in line more than 10 minutes for anything.

Disneyland rides are suprisingly scary, even the ones in the kiddie-themed "Fantasyland." ELizabeth's new favorite ride, BTW, is "Mr. Toad's Wild Ride," and she wants me to read the story so she can "learn about all the characters." I assure you, readers, I did not attempt to indoctrinate her before or after the ride.

Back to my point about it being scary... the ride ends with Toad's descent into Hell, where fiery blasts of air buffet the riders, and devils pop out of the rocks, Satan cackles, and the riders are consumed by a dragon.

So, nothing like the book, really. It seems a bit hard on the four-year-old girls who have been pointing out to their mommy and daddy, for days now, that they don't want to go near "the spooky house at Disney" or on any scary rides. Nice inviting replica of a country house with a warm and friendly British narrator on the PA, charming little car replicas, descent into Hell.

Sigh.

To say nothing of being a four-year-old girl who was told about "the friendly pirates" in the Disney proganda DVD, and begs all day to go and see them... only to go on the Pirates of the Carribean ride to meet dancing skeletons, to ride through a menacing Cthulhoid facde projected on a sheet of mist, and (worst of all) to have your boat stop for several seconds next to a repeating scene of an animatronic pirate being mean to a cat.

So, a somewhat trying day for Elizabeth in some regards. However, that all said, she had a blast. At the end of the day she said it was the most fun she'd ever had. And even the pirate ride at its scariest more just vexed her than really scared her. And Mr. Toad's Wild Ride was her favorite part of the day.

I really enjoyed the pirate thing, partly because it was one of the longest rides, partly because it was cool and dark inside, and partly because... hey, robot pirates.

Claire was generally too overheated and overtired and bored to get much out of things, though she really enjoyed the Jungle Boat tour and seeing the characters, and the fish in the restaurant aquaurium at the end of the day.


I succeeded in drawing the sword from the stone, BTW. I'm totally king.










I also noodled around the campus here, taking pics. One of the corridors here is haunted by a nun. Haven't seen her yet, but tonight is creepy and dark and foggy enough... maybe it'll happen!


Last night.


Tonight - the fog has rolled in.

Comments

[mrs-dm.livejournal.com]

Wow. That last picture really does look like Starfleet Academy...um, from what I've heard. I'm not a geek. Really.

[pyat.livejournal.com]

I'm sure you're not!

Would you be interested in playing a Star Trek RPG after Warhammer is done, perhaps? ;)

[mrs-dm.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I've always said I'd be up for Star Trek

Hmmm...when Warhammer is done. At the current rate that would be, what, about 5 to 6 years?

[summerfields.livejournal.com]

uhoh, someone is going to get heck for not taking down the flags! :)

[pyat.livejournal.com]

BTW, I added a bit about how Elizabeth had a lot of fun - as did Erin and I. I ended earlier in midpost when Mom and Dad came in downstairs so I could get my laundry, and it sounded like it was all - "OH NOES! Scary!"

[bodhifox.livejournal.com]

Disney (the corporation, not the man) is the dev-il.

Descent into hell

Sweeet.

[pyat.livejournal.com]

Just like in the book! :)

[easyalchemy.livejournal.com]

By far, those scary rides were my favourite as a kid.
Oooh, did you do the Peter Pan ride?
Also, the Haunted House is not all that scary, though I understand if the girls wouldn't want to go. I rode it when I was about Claire's age (the next time we went it was closed, boo hiss), and really loved it.

[easyalchemy.livejournal.com]

And Cassie and I rode Mr. Toad's Wild Ride about a dozen times.

[pyat.livejournal.com]

We didn't - it had broken down.

[mar2nee.livejournal.com]

That's why I love the guides (Fodor's). They got rid of the Aliens ride at DW before we went - but we already knew not to go on it. One of the reviews: "There's scary and fun, and there's scary, scary. This is scary scary."
Glad you had fun. Man, I love Disney, and can ride Peter Pan and Mr. Toad (who isn't at DW anymore! I'm surprised he's still at DL) all day, myself. My kids are too old to find it fun, which is a bunner.
I'm going to go without kids one day.

[mar2nee.livejournal.com]

Or with grandkids, which would be excellent.

[pyat.livejournal.com]

Or with grandkids, which would be excellent.

I was going to say "THat's some long term planning!" Then I realized you could well have grandkids of Disney-visiting age in, what.... 12 or 15 years?

[mar2nee.livejournal.com]

Well, if Syd starts at the same time as I did, that's 6 years. And, 21 isn't completely crazy - she can even finish a degree first!
Though, I guess I wouldn't take a newborn, so 10 years is about the earliest I'd be comfortable with, so the kid would be at least 4 (and so she wouldn't be younger than at least 21).
Scary when you add it up, you know. She'll be done high school in 3 short years. And Adam only 2 years after her. Yikes!

[mrs-dm.livejournal.com]

I'm going to go without kids one day.

Yeah, just go! My friend went to Disneyworld for her honeymoon 12 or so years ago. And they had no kids then.

[hillarygayle.livejournal.com]

You guys look like you're having such fun! I'm so excited for you all.

I like the last picture a lot.

[pyat.livejournal.com]

It's been tiring, but fun. :)

[commanderteddog.livejournal.com]

Mr. Toad's Wild Ride is a bit of an oddity. It's closer in spirit to dark rides outside of Disney like Pretzel rides. If the Disneyland is anything like the Disney World one, there's a scene where it looks like a train is coming at you. It's a fairly common stunt in older dark rides, be it an oncoming train, truck, bus, etc.

As other people noted, the kicker is that the Haunted Mansion is anything BUT like this. The Mansion is actually pretty classy and more based on visual tricks than shock factor.

Boo on them working in the movies into Pirates of the Carribean ride. :P

Glad you had a good time, though.

[pyat.livejournal.com]

Or with grandkids, which would be excellent

The Jack Sparrow robots were creepily real. I'm half convinced they had some actors in there.

[mar2nee.livejournal.com]

Did they really alter the PotC? We were there (DW) about 2 years ago, and they hadn't changed it.
What I liked was how much of the RIDE they put in the MOVIE.

[halfelf.livejournal.com]

I remember going on that when I went out there in the 90s. I also was in the Pirates ride, before it was modified into its current incarnation, which was neat - it wasn't scary at all, then, not even for little kids. Oh well. At least everyone had a good time!

[pyat.livejournal.com]

Yup! Even on the teacup ride. :)

[athelind.livejournal.com]

...whoa. That's odd. I just realized that I had a dream set in the Haunted Mansion last night. That came out of nowhere. Surreal.

Growing up in Orange County, Disneyland was a regular trip for us. I confess that, while I loved Pirates and the Haunted Mansion... Mr. Toad's Wild Ride was one that I avoided. The Descent into Hell bothered me more than dancing skeletons and hitchhiking ghosts.

Okay, it scared the willies out of me.

I think that, even at the tender age of 5 -- yes, I remember the Mansion's opening, and on some level, still think of it as a "new ride" -- I was geeky enough to be more intrigued by the TECHNOLOGY of the effects than scared by them.

I think Commander Ted Dog has it right: the Mansion is classy and classic Imagineering. Mr. Toad's end-sequence is old-skool carnival. The gaudy black-light colors and the jack-in-the-box effects were, for me, pure Nightmare Fuel (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/NightmareFuel).