| J: I wanted to take a photo of the Disneyland parking lot. Imagine my surprise when I found out they built a new park in that space. It's called Disney's California Adventure. |
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| J: Another Disney mountain - Grizzly Peak. It's supposed to look like a natural rock formation that resembles a bear. |
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| J: The California Screamin'
rollercoaster is the feature of the Paradise Pier section of DCA. Look, I caught it just
as the cars were going through the Mickey Mouse loop. Pretty good, eh? P: I guess. J: A little more enthusiasm, please. P: I GUESS! J: That's better. |
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| J: The Sun Wheel Ferris wheel and
the Maliboomer. The Maliboomer shoots you up in the air really fast. It's built to look
like those strength games at the fair where you use the big hammer to try to bang the puck
all the way to the top and ring the bell. I guess there's a name for those things, but I
don't know what it is. Pablo? P: Nope. J: You're a big help. Anyway, there are a lot of off-the-shelf attractions in this park and not many Disney originals, but the theming in the Paradise Pier section makes it work. |
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| J: The Hollywood Pictures Backlot
is like a small version of Disney-MGM Studios at WDW. P: Are those the same elephants who were stuck in the tar? J: Yeah, that's it. In this section of the park is... |
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| J: ...the Hyperion Theatre. P: Is this special in some way? J: Well no. But I did get to see a scaled-down Blast. P: Alright, what's Blast? J: Oh yeah, I forgot. It's not P. Diddy or DJ Quik. Blast is basically drum corps in a box on steroids. It was a great show. They even ended with "Malagueña", the stereotypical drum corps closer. They did a cool version of Chuck Mangione's "Land of Make Believe" as well. P: Chuck who? J: AAAAAARRGGHHH!!! |
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| J: Look, it's the monorail crossing the Golden Gate Bridge. |
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| J: The Pacific Wharf section of the
Golden State area. Visitors are treated to such exciting attractions as the tours of a
bakery and a tortilla factory. I did the tortilla tour. P: You didn't fill up on free tortillas, did you? J: No, I had just had a couple of delicious fish tacos for lunch. |
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| J: The original Disneyland Hotel.
On Tuesday, I got away from the hustle and bustle of the park and had a nice quiet dinner
here. On this day I went to the new Paradise Pier Hotel and relaxed while enjoying a
delicious four-cheese pizza at the PCH Grill. P: Do you think people actually care what you ate? J: Hey, this is the internet. What else is there to do with it? |
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| J: The classic is back at Disney's
California Adventure. Yes, the Main Street Electrical Parade. Except it's not the Main
Street Electrical Parade any more since it's not on Main Street. Now it's just Disney's
Electrical Parade. Disney's California Adventure gets a lot of criticism from Disneyphiles for being fairly boring and unimaginative. To some degree that criticism is not unfounded, especially if you are a local who might visit often. Also there is separate admission for the two parks, which seems a little out of bounds. Disney should put together a Park Hopper-type ticket that allows admission to both the Magic Kingdom and DCA for less than the combined regular ticket price for both. But for a first-time visitor, it was an enjoyable park. It just might not be worth the price for a return visit. |
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