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[James6]

This was my first trip to Disneyland in 11 years, so there was a lot of new things for me to see, as well as experiencing all those things I could just about remember from my last trip there.

It was an absolutely amazing trip and I loved every second

The first day was travelling, but with a lot of time in the park as well. We arrived about 3 and the Main park was open till 11 with the Studios open till 7.

We decided, as the Studios were completely new to us, to do them first. We did Tower Of Terror first, and it stayed one of my favourite's the whole trip, a truly fantastic ride with immense theming and story telling throughout finishing with an extremely fun and thrilling ride.

Now it was time to head further round the weirdly routed park to try out Armageddon. It was good with some great effects but that was it really. Good but nothing particularly ground-breaking.

We left the ride perfectly timed for Motor, Action Stunt Spectacular which, in short, was amazing. Some amazing stunts and tricks, and the skill of those drivers was great.

After this we made sure we were one of the first to leave so we could get in the queue for Rock 'n' Roller Coaster quickly. The queue said 15 but was actually, about 40. I remember absolutely loving the same version at Hollywood Studios in Florida but really didn't enjoy this at all, the trains and restraints were possibly the worst I've ever seen and really made the ride un-enjoyable. It was also at this time we realised that we'd be taking our bags with us on everything.

After this we headed round the park and saw a few others bits and bobs including the disappointing Stars N Cars parade before finally heading for Crush's Coaster, which was, sadly, another disappointment. The ride gets such good reviews but really I didn't think it was up to much at all. I mean it was good, but the theming in the dark ride section wasn't great, in fact one room was mostly empty. And then the ride itself was "too" smooth, didn't spin and apart from a few lights, was just in the dark. Really wished it had been better.

Overall I think the Studios was "ok" although I'd be embarrassed as Disney to think it opened without ToT, Crush's as well as a few others.

So we left the park as it was closing to head to Disneyland Park. The entrance and the view down main street is simply magical and the attention to detail is incredible.

I've just realised just how much detail I have gone in to, so from here I'm gonna make it a little more brief


Studio 1!



The big Finale to Motor Action



RnR


Tower of Terror! The only reason to go back to the Studios!



Crush's station



Disneyland Park!


The New Generation Festival, must say I wasn't a fan, as it meant that I saw very little of Goofy, Mickey, Pluto and the rest of the gang


Best ride in the world... It's as simple as that. The theming could not be improved, the ride can get through huge numbers of people and the ride itself is the perfect family coaster, and at night especially, it's also very thrilling.  I remembered it being amazing 11 years ago, but yeah new favourite ride



PoTC was also a ride I remembered from all those years ago, and glad to say it was also great.


It's a Small World was a must, and whilst I really enjoyed it I couldn't believe that for a Disney ride, I was so very aware I was in a warehouse, the ceiling was so easily visible.




Indiana Jones was also fantastic! Phenomenal theming and even if the ride was a little bumpy, it was still great and that loop caught me out every time.


Phantom Manor Was also great, although it did pause often which sadly stopped the ride being as enjoyable as it would have been.


You can't go to DLP and not do Pinocchio and Snow White Both great little dark rides.



BTM in the dark, is un-beatable.


The wind seemed to blow all the firework smoke towards to entrance, made for an interesting "fog" effect


So, after RnR I was worried about SM and to be honest, it was much of the same, and was really really painful. We sat at the front and had the whole train to ourselves and even with no-one in the queue when we got off, we still chose not to re-ride even if we could have multiple times. The theming in the building was incredible and I loved the soundtrack, a shame I couldn't really enjoy it because the restraint's made it rough. Again it seemed that the track was smooth, the trains just made it really painful.


Buzz Lightyear's Laser Blast was great Even if the guns were a bit "weak"


Peter Pan's Flight! A bit more jolty than I remember but still great


Dumbo!



Few more of BTM






Casey Jr! Another one of the ones I remembered well and it was great The theme tune was awesome.


Disney's version of Fairy Tale Brook


We went back to the Studios for ToT again and Studio Tour, the queue was advertised as 20 minutes and took an hour. Simply the worst queue I have ever been in, the queue, from the start is split into about 10 different rows so it moves so slowly, add to that the fact they kept playing around with the number of trains in use, it was just awful and then the ride itself wasn't great.






ToT


Captain EO, would have preferred HISTA but this was still "good"


Star Tours!




This boat ride was awesome


It meant I could get some nice views of BTM



Alice's Curious Labyrinth, which was fun, if not quite frustrating  :lol:



Back to the best ride in the world







Then we decided to take to "real" train








Walking back to the hotel for the last time


At least we got free McFlurries! Aha. Funny story, basically we went in, and by the main food ordering bit there are people with machines who take your order first and tell you where to go, really weird system. Anyway so we were told to go to the Desert section with this ticket, told the girl what we wanted and she did them, we waited there with money out and the girl looked at us and waved for us to go, pointing at the McFlurries. Of course we weren't going to argue


Back to ToT for one last ride before a long journey home.

Can't believe I was still at Disney this time yesterday

Aha, anyway it was a great trip and BTM is my new favourite ride.

Ride count

BTM x 18
RnR x 1
SM x 1
ToT x 4
Crush's x 1
Dumbo x 1
Peter Pan x 1
Pinocchio x 1
Snow White x 1
Casey Jr x 1
It's a Small World x 1
PoTC x 3
Phantom Manor x 2
Horse Drawn Tram x 1
Buzz Lightyear x 2
Star Tours x 1
Motor Action x 1
Armageddon x 1
Captain EO x 1
Train x 2

A few others I can't remember Basically, we did everything, and all our favourite's multiple times.

One thing though, as good a trip as I had, Merlin aren't quite as far away from Disney in terms of experience as I had previously thought. (Apart from the obvious thing, Theming)

And actually in some aspects, Merlin actually beats Disney, first ones that comes to mind is food, which at Disney was awful.

Anyway, amazing trip

If you have got to this point, you deserve a gold star!

[norhel]

WOW, 18 times at BTM - I can understand that you really loved the ride.
Anyway, like your report :-)

[toritinker]

thanks for sharing your trip report!! esp all those pics, can really see how much you guys love btm!! haha.
shame you didn't think too much of the studios, i really loved crush when I went on it! i do agree about the waiting system for the studio tram tour, me and the bf aren't really bothered if we don't get on!

thanks for taking the time to share your experience
xx

[tubbsy]

Great report! And love the photos Love the Disneys veriosn of Fairy tale brook -thats what my lad keeps calling it! :lol: Although they dont have the prince on horseback on the mobile phone!

[James6]

Ha, thanks very much guys

Glad you enjoyed the TR, it truly was an amazing 3 days and makes me truly sad that it's over

And you've all picked up on how much we loved BTM :lol: It truly is an incredible ride

[claire2281]

I just got back myself (27th-29th).

You're clearly not eating in the right places because I loved the food - Buffalo Bill's, Cafe Mickey's, Walts and the Main Street Deli. Thanks to some good advice we didn't have one shoddy meal.

I do adore BTM - nice to see the waterfall working on it, although we lost the rocks. My favourite parts are the dip under the low beam and the incredibly long drop in the dark.

And that's so sad you had a bad experience on RnRC. I LOVE that ride. Such a rush and I can't say I've ever hurt myself on it. Maybe you're just an unfortunate body shape or type? It's amazingly smooth when compared with SM. Those seats on that thing need some serious padding!