Sam loves to go to Disneyland; I’m not sure if it’s the idea of being a kid again, the rides, or what.  I’m not as big a fan (I grew up on steel roller-coasters  not teacups), but I know that Sam will really enjoy it, so I end up going with her every other year or so (she goes with friends in between our visits). This year I took Sam for Valentine’s Day.

I rushed through the gate and we ended up going into the wrong park.  They said we could get our tickets exchanged at guest services to get into Disneyland.  However, since we were already in California Adventure Land, we decided to ride the Tower of Terror first.  Sam says it’s the only ride in that park she likes.

When we got to Disney proper we rode a lot of rides that I’d never been on before.  Some were new and some were just classics that we’d skipped before like Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride and Pinocchio   Two of the newer rides were  disappointing.   Star Tours  was a big LCD screen with 3D and a jostling cabin of seats.  It sounds like a good idea, but after seeing The Hobbit in 48 frames per second (and many other 3D movies in 24 frames) it seemed like a really long wait to see a really really short CG sequence in 3D.  The last ride we went on before the park closed was a submarine ride based on Finding Nemo.  It was bizarre   Riders are forced to board a real submarine and view the ride through portholes.  The “ride” is essentially the same thing as the train ride, but underwater.  There were vignettes of scuba divers exploring poorly lit fake coral reefs that are barely better quality than the dinosaurs on the train ride.  Interspersed were projections of characters from Finding Nemo, but the screens were visible and the very luminous projections contrasting with the dull water-worn plastic props was more confusing than anything else.  Because the view out of a single port-hole wasn’t very wide often things were going on on one side or end of the submarine that weren’t seen on the other.  Or maybe we were just too tired to appreciate it.

Sam rode the carousel at one point.  I did not board a horse, despite repeated requests. (from Sam, not the horse)

We rode the teacups twice, once during the day and again later at night.

We left shortly before midnight.  I realized that with no traffic I actually can get home from Disneyland faster than I can from my day job.  Let me reword that: If I had a night shift job at Disneyland I’d have an easier commute than I do now.  Of course, the Disney corporate office is just around the corner from our condo… but I digress…

Here is a photo of main street USA actually looking like main street USA, but with more lights.