I've finally been there - the promised land :D Before going I wasn't that enthusiastic... Disney for me isn't a big thing (I've probably seen all the films but I'm not obsessed with them like some people appear to be) - I don't think that disney is my childhood and end of. Maybe for the brits and americans it is... But since there was a sale on the tickets (nearly half price) then I agreed to go (I do like theme parks and rides in general - it's just the huge queues that kill the mood). Needless to say Mr. Special was acting like a little kid jumping up and down in anticipation :D.
The morning started with a slight panic about the tickets. You had to print the tickets out you see and we don't have a printer. Since we bought the tickets a couple of weeks prior to the visit we decided Mr. Special (who went to the UK for a couple of days) would print them at home. He/we forgot... (I was supposed to send the tickets to his e-mail but he already has the tickets on his e-mail!) So he's back without the tickets -.- Luckily he went and asked the tourism office where he could print and voila problem solved - you can print at the tourism office free of charge :) So where's the panic you ask? Well since I trust him I didn't check the tickets before that morning and when I did guess what I found... He'd printed one ticket out twice -.- (I checked the barcode numbers and then compared to the electronic tickets I had saved on my laptop). We can't both get in with the same ticket! And you HAD to print them out before going there! And the tourism office opens at 10AM which is sooooo late since Disneyland opens at 9.30 and it takes an hour and a half to get there. Lots of googling and going through tripadvisor forum to see if there was any chance of going there with electronic tickets when Mr. Special finally had an idea to see if the post office could print it. And very reluctantly they did thank god :) On top of everything it was a cloudy day with a chance of showers every now and again :(
Finally we got there a little before 11AM :) There was a slight queue to security check before the entrance gates where they check your bags - with an x-ray machine and no queue whatsoever at the entrance gates to the Disney Studios park. We ran in like headless chicken because we hadn't really planned what we'll do. And first wasted about ten minutes trying to get a fast pass to the Tower of Terror (the next fastpass slot was half one) but failed at that because we didn't have a proper barcode on our tickets - just the little square thingy that's scanned by phones etc. and the machine didn't want to recognize it :( And we saw that others had proper barcodes... Oh well never mind, we'll just have to join the queues then. (A fastpass is a free way to jump the queue at certain attractions, the machine will give you a ticket for a timeslot when you can return. You can only hold one fastpass at once though and as soon as the timeslot on that has expired you can go get a new fastpass to another ride - totally free). We must be the only dummies in the world who know that these exist but won't use them :D We're just too cool for that :D (later we asked about it and the lady said that our tickets should work at the machines... so it turns out we're just useless and play life in hard mode :D).
So the first attraction we went to was the studio tram tour that had a queue of 14 minutes - or so it said... we waited for atleast half an hour... And for a first ride it was great :) You could see different props (like the cars in 101 dalmatians etc) and then see how they make it rain (Mr. Special thought it was actually raining -.-) and make you think a big lorry is sliding down the hill right towards you. That was cool :) And then we went to a destroyed London and saw an explosion - you could feel the heat of the flames! When it was over I checked the queue time and now it said 45 minutes :D
Next was a 35 minute (I'm stating the times on the boards, we didn't actually check ourselves how long we were in the queue) wait to the Rock'n'Roller Coaster with Aerosmith. In the queue we had a bite do eat (and we weren't the only ones!), so I'm glad I convinced him to take sandwiches with us - a perfect use of time :). When getting inside the building there were guitars and records signed by different artists for you to look at. It started with a sneak peek in the studio with Aerosmith singing and then they were designing a rollercoaster but it was unfinished - people would just fall off the end :) That was probably meant to scare us. When we took our seats we heard someone say that the first part is the scariest :) And it was! It's an inside rollercoaster so everything is in the dark - different colour lamps are scattered around so you're not completely in the dark but you can't see what's coming next. And it was FUN, I'm a big lover of rollercoasters (a fun fact: in estonian they are called american mountains, in french they are russian mountains). The official description: Rock and roll up to 100km/h in less than three seconds, then ride the music like a riffing, rocking road trip with 120 on-board speakers – all set to the driving beat of Aerosmith.
Next something a bit less racey :D : Armageddon special effects. Didn't wait too long maybe 10 minutes or so. First you were shown a clip of Armageddon and told to act like you're afraid - we were supposed to be auditioning. Then we went to a room that looked like the inside of a space shuttle and suddenly there was a meteorite coming towards us. So everything started breaking and you could see fire again, a little kid beside was afraid but for me it was a bit meh... Official description: Join the filming of 'Armageddon' from inside the space craft's control room before being bombarded by incoming meteor showers. Will you ever see Earth the same way again?
A little food break - decided to try the onsite facilities and bought a box of pasta - my 4 cheese sauce was amazing but his bolognese was quite awful :D Then went to see on the information board where to go next - it tells you all the queue times in one place :) And decided to take on a challenge - a 75 minute wait to Crush's Coaster. It was long but doable! And it was worth it :) another one of my favourite rollercoasters :) Inside again with a quick glimpse of the outside where it was raining. 4 people in one "car" back to back so it turned around a bit so everyone would get a chance to go through it backwards (I cant' remember if it was as dark there as in the Aerosmith one or not). Less scarier than Aerosmith but fun nonetheless :) I thought it would be a water ride but unfortunately it wasn't. Official description: A whirlpool of adventure awaits thrill-seekers as you're swept up in the struggle against the East Australian Current. Hold on to your shell! Inspired by Disney•Pixar's Finding Nemo
It was about 3 o'clock by now and we still had to make the most out of the other Disney park so we decided to leave this park - a little look at the new Ratatouille section that isn't open yet :( but looked great from afar - lovely Parisian architecture :) We saw Mickey and Goofy? the orange dog, meet and take photos with the kids. And with a heavy heart we left :( So didn't do the Tower and didn't see any shows :( - my two things that I kinda regret but by now I'm already convinced that this is an awesome place and I need to come back :) And on the plus side we hadn't really seen rain yet :) - all the queues are sheltered :) and it was only dribbling a bit when we were walking around.
I'll do another post on the other Parc :)
Ttyl ;)
Jazzz...
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