Day two:
Our tickets for Disneyland included a “Magic morning”, which
means we got into the park an hour early. This is cool in concept, but it means
most of the rides and park itself was closed, so we didn’t have much to do. We
did get to see the flag raising ceremony and check out Disney’s latest
attraction, the Mideval fair, which featured a little air conditioned room
where you could meet princesses. So Andrew Katie and I met Arial, Cinderella
and Aurora.
We spent the day much like the first: Going on rides and
meeting characters. After a riverboat ride, Haunted Mansion, Pirates of the Caribbean,
Buzz Lightyear’s Astro Blaster and Indiana Jones we found ourselves in line to
visit Pixie Hollow, I having a niece in love with the modern interpretation of
Tinkerbelle. The problem though was that the line was 45 minutes long and had
little to no shade, so my fairer skinned traveling companions got a bit
sun-fried before the end. When we finally got in to meet Miss Belle, we found
that she wasn’t alone. Now I know I said that I’m a huge Disney fan, but
forgive me for not being acquainted with Tink’s new circle of friends. Who did
we meet? I honestly have no idea. All I know is that he was a boy fairy who
really liked Katie’s shiny hat. Tinkerbelle was nice enough to not only give me
her autograph and photo, but to let us videotape her saying hi to my niece
Bella. 
As I said earlier, Katie and Andrew didn’t do too well in
the sun, so they went somewhere to cool off while I checked out some sort of
animal land with Winnie the Pooh. It was fun to explore Disneyland on my own,
as I made my way back to Fantasyland and ran into Repunzel and Flynn Ryder, two
more of my niece’s favorite characters. More pictures and another video later
and I was ready to meet back up with companions.
We decided to hit Downtown Disney to find dinner and the
legendary Lego Store, a must-see for a Lego fan. After a brisk exploration
through the outdoor mall, we found a massive Lego model of Malificent, as well
as giant Lego Buzz Lightyear and Woody and Belle and Beast. Inside was a
paradise where I got to build my own minifigures and pick up a Lego Superman
key ring. I was like a kid in a candy store, but with candy you probably don’t
want to eat.
The next two days we hit the other parks on our tickets:
Namely Universal Studios then Sea World. Overall: Universal was pretty cool and
Sea World was kind of disappointing.
Let me explain:
It may be that I’d been spoiled by two days at Disneyworld,
but Universal Studios was fun but kind of disappointing. The high points
included the Simpsons ride, which felt like we had been catapulted right into
an episode of one of my favorite childhood cartoons, Jurassic Park ride, which
had enough animatronic dinosaurs to make my inner child squee, and the
Universal back lot tour, where we got to see the Mule from Serenity as well as
the world’s biggest 3D screen and a murder at the Bates motel, all very exciting.
The down side was the “big” prop museum, which for a studio that kept harping
on how they’ve been making movies for 100 years, you’d think that the prop
museum would be bigger than a 711. 
Day four brought us to Sea World, home of the giant fish
monsters. I honestly thought we’d sit in an audience while some marine
biologist taught me about whales and dolphins while they splashed around and
did flips. What we got was something much… different. The killer whale show was
whales jumping around while a video taught us about saving the oceans, the
dolphin show was a 20 minute water ballet with about 2 or 3 minutes of
dolphins, and the sea lion show… Well… I don’t think it’s a good sign when a 6
pound sea otter chases off a 400 pound sea lion and the trainer looks embarrassed.
The highlights were when we actually got to see the animals without the useless
trainers trying to “entertain” us. We saw penguins and a baby whale that was
beyond cute.
Wanna hear about the last day at Disneyland when we hit
California Adventures? Check out Mormongeeks Monday for the thrilling
conclusion!
-JOE
No comments:
Post a Comment