Disneyland

$1400 NZD I had very high expectations for this day.  I had assumed that the thrill rides were going to be epic, that we would hit the next level in adrenaline rushes…… but nope.  I was let down by my own lack of understanding of what Disneyland was all about.  By the end of the day, I had made peace with the delta in my expectations.

The lines before 10am were huge, getting through security is always a bottleneck but the sheer size of the place and the level of detail put into everything just can’t be explained by my limited vocabulary.  In short - it's amazeballs.  We lined up with people fully dressed as some kind of Disney character, we were surrounded by Mickey Mouse ears and I was a little perplexed by it all. 

Not having planned the day or a clue were the rides were, we went right to Discoveryland and with no line went first into Hyperspace mountain, where Zach accurately described being propelled into space, down into the dark with so many corkscrew turns you had no idea whether you were upside down or the right way around.  This first ride set the expectation level for the rest of the day.  This is where reality hit.  Disneyland from what I took away is about the whole special feeling and magic it evokes.  It's not about the rides, so I began to appreciate why so many people were dressed up, or kitted out in full Disney merchandise.   And on merchandise, you have to appreciate the marketing team who had the idea of having the exit for a ride come directly into a merchandise store which you had to pass through to get out.

Kaia was 10 cm too short to ride the Indiana Jones and the temple of doom ride, so no one did it in solidarity.  Big thunder mountain in Frontierland was probably second favourite and in a rookie mistake we used our premier pass too early for it, and should have lined up for the 10mins, as after that the line was 60 mins wait time.  I had picked Thursday being the least busy day of the week, and at the end of May when there aren’t school or national holidays.  And yep, heaps of people, but this place is designed to handle way more traffic than the day we were there.

Pizza’s for lunch in the shape of Mickey Mouse were a pretty cool touch, and by afternoon we found the buzz Light year shoot em up ride, and Star Tours which introduced the kids to the concept of motion simulator rides.  The Swiss Family Robinson tree adventure was pretty cool considering it wasn’t actually a ride, but there’s something that sparks the inner child when in a giant tree house.  The kids thought they may want to watch the movie, we had tried to watch it about a year ago, but it has definitely not aged well.

23,000 steps later, it was time to call it a day and go home.  Lesson learned for the day - you come to Disneyland for your love of all things Disney…… not for the adventure rides.