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Disney and other Theme ParksDisney Stuff (Tours, Rides, Restaurants, Lodging)Disneyland Trip - June 2000
updated May 2, 2001
Monday June 12, 2000
I arrived at LAX at 4:30pm.
I had my rental car by 5:15pm, stopped by the hotel to drop the bags and was on to Disneyland by 6pm.
There is no good way to get from LAX to Disneyland.
I took Sepulveda south to the 105 east to the 110 south to the 91 east to the 5 south to Harbor Boulevard.
This can take anywhere from 45 minutes to 1.5 hours.
I arrived at the DL parking lot at 6:45pm.
They had a special ticket this month called the after 4pm pass.
Here is the poster at the entrance of Disneyland and my ticket
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For the normal ticket price of $41 you get the first day regular admission and then you can return any Sunday through Thursday until June 29th after 4pm for free!
I was also able to convert my $7 parking pass into an after 4pm pass for an additional $4.
Such a deal.
This ticket works great for me since I have daytime meetings at LAX every day but my evenings are free.
The Disney website said that the park was closing tonight at 9pm but they actually stayed open until 11pm with the shops open until midnight.
Here is the train station and flowers for the 45th anniversary
I ordered a Disneyland Forever custom CD at the Main Street music store.
It is to the right of the Main Street Cinema.
Here is a photo of the Disneyland Forever kiosk where I composed the tracks of the CD.
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They also had the Haunted Mansion CD and the Pirates of the Caribbean CD for sale for $20 apiece.
I already had the HM CD so I bought the POTC one.
I found a new quarter press at the Crystal Arcade.
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Dinner was at the Coca-Cola Refreshment Corner.
A hot dog and a Mickey pretzel with cheese.
The piano player was playing ragtime on the outdoor piano.
He is amazing.
I think they sell a CD of his piano playing.
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8:45pm I got in line for the Matterhorn.
The line started in the queue area right by the turnstiles.
Usually the line is snaked halfway around the mountain.
There was about a 10 minute wait.
The ride was great and so was the view of the park at night.
Have you noticed that the Matterhorn beast is making the popcorn at the popcorn cart nearby?
9:00pm I got in line for the monorail to the Disneyland Hotel.
They seem to now be calling it Downtown Disney!
I guess they are adding shops and restaurants to it to make it more like Orlando's shopping village.
I bought some clothes and souvenirs at the Fantasia Shop in the hotel lobby.
By using my Magic Kingdom Club card I saved %10.
The discount only works on orders over $50.
I think the same discount is available with the American Express card.
This discount comes in VERY handy as most transaction seem to be over $50.
It even works at the pin carts.
I found new Minnie Mouse antenna balls!
Back on the monorail for the park at 9:50pm.
10pm - I rode on Pinocchio's Daring Adventure.
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Then on to Mr. Toad's Wild Ride.
This ride is of course not at Walt Disney World anymore.
This makes it a MUST SEE ride in Anaheim.
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My last ride this evening was Pirates of the Caribbean.
The waterfall drops are great.
They are so much better than at Orlando.
The fog machines were really cranked up in the pirate ship battle scene.
The fog covered the water and the boats and just about covered us.
Here are some shots of the Pirates entrance.
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11pm - The rides are closed now.
The shops stay open for another hour.
I found lots of new pins at the pin carts.
Lots of new 45th anniversary pins and 2000 pins
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I left the park at midnight.
Took the tram back to the car.
I made the mistake of trying to take the same route back to the airport that I came out on.
There were "freeway closed" signs on 5.
I couldn't figure out what that meant since we were travelling on 5 at the time.
I soon figured it out.
They merged us from four lanes down to three then down to two then down to one and finally routed us to an off ramp with a stop light at the end.
This of course generated a terrible backup.
The rest of the week I bypassed 5 by taking Harbor Boulevard all the way north to 91 west.
Tuesday June 13, 2000
Tuesday June 13, 2000
Here is a wacky picture I took at the LAX Marriott where my meetings are held.
I arrived at DL at 7pm.
The web site said the park was open until 8pm but based on Monday night's closing time I decided to risk it.
The sign in the parking lot showed a closing time of 10pm.
There were no parking lot attendants to take money at 7pm.
I took lots of pictures with my new Kodak digital camera.
At 8pm I went to the Haunted Mansion.
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There was about a 10 minute wait.
I like Disneyland's mansion better than Disney World's mainly due to the changing painting and following busts in the walk-through part.
At Disney World these are only seen from the doom buggies.
On to the train.
I got on at the New Orleans station.
There was a long wait here.
Maybe 15 or 20 minutes until the train arrived.
Then another long wait while they loaded many wheelchairs onto the train.
Many people got off the train and left.
I wanted to ride just to see the Grand Canyon diorama and Prehistoric World.
These are a blast from the past and not at Disney World.
10:15pm Back to the Refreshment corner for dinner.
This time the piano was covered up since the park closed at 10pm.
I bought more pins and then headed back for the car.
The lines were so long for the trams that I (and many others) decided to follow the signs and walk back to the parking lot.
It was a long walk but not too long.
Wednesday June 14, 2000
This is my last night at Disney.
I arrived at DL at 4:45pm.
Tonight the park is open until 9pm (web site said 8pm).
I went straight to the Disney Gallery.
I had tried to go there Monday and Tuesday but the gallery closes early.
I wanted to see the exhibit on the new Autopia.
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Here is one of the new Autopia cars.
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Here is a map of the ride
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There is also a neat model of the inside of Space Mountain. They show the top speeds at various parts of the ride.
Here are some other things from the the Disney Gallery:
$1000 jacket with fiber optic fireworks, Hitchhiking ghosts bronze, a model of the star tours vehicle and a 1959 poster.
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The gallery has a balcony on New Orleans Square and a courtyard that connects the various gallery rooms
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At 5:30 pm I had a snack at the Bengal Barbecue in Adventureland.
I had the chicken skewer and bread sticks.
The chicken was good but the bread sticks were pretty tasteless.
I stopped at the gift shop near there to buy some souvenirs for friends.
I pin traded with the cast member there.
I traded her for the space goofy (or pluto?) pin on the lower left of her lanyard.
I took this picture of her because she wanted to see how a digital camera works.
I took the picture and let her see it on the LCD panel of the camera.
6:05 got in line for Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom.
There was NO LINE (outside of the entrance).
The indoor queue was about 20 minutes.
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This is a ride that gets better with multiple rides.
There is so much to see and the cars throw you around so much it is easy to miss it.
Frontierland - pins, sweatshirts, pin trading.
I have been pin trading with cast members for the past couple of days.
I should have brought my extra WDW pins to trade but I didn't think of it.
It occurred to me to buy lots of extra DL pins to take to WDW next time.
This was my first ride on the Casey Jr train.
It goes much faster than I thought.
Too fast to take pictures during the ride.
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I also rode on Alice In Wonderland.
Here are some pictures.
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Tomorrowland - I bought some pins and other stuff at Star Traders - it was extremely crowded in there.
Here is the neon sign at night.
8:15 found a seat to watch the fireworks saw tinkerbell for the first time.
The announcement said that the fireworks are sponsored by Compaq?!?!?
Strange.
10pm final pin purchases for future pin trading at WDW this fall.
It is a good thing that they have the %10 discount.
I also got the free canoe pins they give out with $15 purchases.
Last month I think the free pins were hippos.
