Our family took a trip to Disneyland and Disney's California Adventure over the past weekend. I've written about previous trips to Disneyland here and here, and we have been going about once a year during this time.
We took advantage of Disney's current promotion for Southern California residents-- $99 for a ticket (normally $76 for adults or $68 for children under 10) good for two visits to either Disneyland or California Adventure between January 2 and May 14). For $10 more per ticket, you could visit both parks on the same day (the "Park Hopper" ticket).
Two or three years ago, when our daughter was younger, we would be sure to visit the Disney Princess Fantasy Fair in Fantasyland near Small World, where you can meet three Disney princesses for about two minutes each, talk with them, get your picture taken, and get their autographs. It seems our daughter is starting to outgrow this. They have a separate "meet and greet" now for the Rapunzel and Flynn Rider characters from the recent Disney movie Tangled. Our daughter loved the movie, but it wasn't a matter of life and death to meet the Tangled characters during this visit. For our son, he has almost no interest in Disney princesses (although it might be more interesting for him in, say, ten or fifteen years from now).
Lately, we have been spending more time on rides like the Finding Nemo Submarines, Autopia, the Buzz Lightyear ride. The Alice in Wonderland dark ride in Fantasyland is now a must-ride for our daughter (someone will have to explain to me the attraction of Alice, as compared to Peter Pan, which I think is far superior and always has long lines). On this visit our kids discovered the kids' roller coaster at the back of Mickey's Toontown, which was a little scary (even for my wife), but they wanted to ride again and again.
We also recently discovered Disney's California Adventure, the sister park to Disneyland which opened ten years ago and was much maligned in the press and by park-goers in the first few years of opening. Disney executives have realized the shortcomings of the park, and have been gradually adding top-level attractions there over the years, like the Twilight Zone Tower of Terror (imported from the Disney Studios park in Florida), A Bugs' Land area for children, and a fantastic, almost Broadway-quality stage show based on the movie Aladdin.
This summer, a dark ride based on the Little Mermaid will open, and under construction in the back of the park is a whole new land based on the Pixar movie Cars scheduled to open next year. Major renovations are in the works for the longer term, making California Adventure reflect the golden age of Hollywood that Walt Disney first encountered when he arrived from the Midwest in the 1920s.More thoughts about Disneyland in my next post...
