Day 192 - Disneyland, Los Angeles - 14th February, 2005

I can't really find the word to describe the disappointment that today was for me. It went something like this:

Tell the boys for 5 years that I would promise to take them to the original and best Disneyland there is; California.

Tell the boys for the last year that the highlight of our trip would be our Disneyland visit.

Tell the boys that the best ever roller coaster ride was Space Mountain.

Get to the park at 11:00am and line up for 30 minutes to buy a ticket.

Find out that Space Mountain is being refurbished and won't be open until May.

Get ticket and line up for 10 minutes to go through the turnstiles.

Go to Jungle Cruise tour. Line up 30 minutes to go on tired ride of 2 minutes that hasn't changed since I was in Disneyland 30 years ago. You can see better animated animals in the Rainforest Cafe.

Go the Pirates of the Caribbean tour. Line up 20 minutes for a reasonable (to me anyway - boys not really impressed) ride of 3 minutes.

Go the the Indiana Jones ride and line up for 20 minutes. Then told ride is broken and told to go away. This ride is regarded as the next best one after Space Mountain (when they are both working).

Find a food joint (either pizza or burgers - what a surprise) that does not have half an hour wait and pay $22 dollars for 3 slices of pizza and 2 drinks. Better Pizza can be had anywhere.

Lined up 5 minutes to go on a Star Trek simulator ride. This was actually pretty good.

Line up 25 minutes at the Bob Sled ride. Realise that no bob sleds are going around after 20 minutes but decide to hang on to see if they can fix it. They finally do and get to go on a ride of 1.5 minutes at about 12 mph. Boys really not impressed by now.

Line up another 25 minutes to go on Big Thunder roller coaster ride of 1 minute duration. Ride about as good as our journey to the airport in Las Vegas in our RV.

Go back to the Indiana Jones rides and the wait time is listed as 70 minutes.

Decide the whole thing has been a giant waste of time and $149 (for 3 of us - Julie sensibly declined to come) and we leave at 5:00pm.

Just miss the free shuttle bus that would take us back to the RV park so we have to pay for a taxi.

Don't do it folks. It's a scam. I worked out that it must be in the region of $350 per hour to ride second rate roller coasters.

The park was so packed (yes even in the off season) that you couldn't see the ground under your feet. It was just a heaving mass of not very pleasant people, trying to find a ride they could persuade their child it would be worth waiting for. I couldn't persuade mine.

At least 50% of the park is just shops and concessions. So once they have fleeced you of your $149 dollars, they attempt to try to steal more money from you by selling you a pile of cheap junk and rubbish food at 2 times normal prices.

30 years ago (Ay those WERE the days!) when I first went there I was amazed and stunned. I was 18 or 19 and had never seen anything like it. Today it just does not work. The boys both would have prefered to stay in the RV park playing on their bicycles and on the computer and watching a little TV. I spent an enormous amount of effort attempting to "keep them going" as we waited and waited in those horrible lines. You know they design them to wiggle all over the park. You think the line is pretty short. Then you get to where you think the end is and turn the corner to find it goes on anther half a mile. Drives you insane.

Nope not impressed. I came home and fired off an e-mail to the Disney organisation which really must be contravening the trades descriptions laws by using the strapline: "Where all your childhood dreams come true". Nightmares more like. I heard several of the employees use the line "This is the happiest day of your life". Retch.

Shame really. Spoiled an otherwise perfect trip. Anyway the boys were pretty good. They took it in their stride and were pretty happy when they got back on their bikes. They did not really have anything like the expectations that I had although they thought it might at least be as good as Universal Studios.

If I had done my research properly I would have ended up taking them to Knotts Berry Farm or Six Flags. Proper themes parks, real roller coasters. Oh well next time.