Tuesday, January 25, 2011

Disneyland Trip Report: The Perfect Day, Pt. 2



After a fun trip through the mansion, the gang was ready for a little pirate adventure, so we headed over to Pirates of the Caribbean. Not even the warnings of the Jolly Roger could keep us away.







Any sharp-eyed readers know where this painting is located?



Indiana Jones called to us, and we couldn’t resist the invite, especially since the wait was so short. None of us took heed as Sallah asked us to; we just stared into the eyes of the idol.





After all that rugged adventure, we decided to take a leisurely journey with The Jungle Cruise. We boarded the Zambesi Miss and set sail for fun:



Our skipper, Garian, was excellent—plenty of bad puns to make us wince!





Our time was running short before we had to get ready for dinner, so we decided to cross over to California Adventure. We all craved Dole Whip, but wouldn’t you know it had the longest line of any attraction! Our cravings went unfulfilled.



Welcome to Disney California Adventure—check out all the cool signage in the entrance construction zone! I was in hog heaven with these vintage-style graphics.











Although the tile murals were beautiful, what will eventually replace them is going to be so much better.



We made a bee-line for The Tower of Terror; Karen had never been on it before and she was ready to give it a try.



Crazy-hair was the result, but she definitely loved every minute of it.



The Toy Soldiers were outside of The Tower; we figured it was a divine message to head over to Toy Story Midway Mania.



This was our longest line of the day, but with this fun group (and the entertaining Mr. Potato Head), the wait was no problem.





Janet had better accuracy, but I took top honors for the score that day. Boy, was my arm tired!



Laurie and I took front row for California Screamin’; Brennan & Janet documented our ride:



Talk about hair-raising...



and some awesome views of the park, including Cars Land:



Speaking of Cars Land, here are a few other construction photos of the hottest spot-to-be at DCA:









Progress on The Little Mermaid attraction, opening this spring:



This is the life—the very definition of a f(ph)at cat!



After a fantastic trip on California Soarin’, we went back to The Ramada Maingate to get all gussied up for dinner. Stay tuned...more to come!

See more Disneyland photos at my main website.

8 comments:

Christopher A. Klingler said...

FUN post & pictures!

I noticed that Walt Disney World's Pirates of the Caribbean ride is fashioned after the new Johnny Depp movies when I was there in October '10. I like the original Disneyland version better.

Popping in 4 a belated howdy 2!

Chris >:-)

Katella Gate said...

The painting is credited to Gerard ter Borch and I believe it's in the Captain's Cabin.

Katella Gate said...

By the way, the construction signage for DCA is excellent.

Daveland said...

Katella - The painting is in the scene where the maidens are chasing the pirates.

Katella Gate said...

:-/

Anonymous said...

Dave, nice photo of Indy! That's a tough shot as you make the bend to the left and I never seem to have my flash with me when I go on that attraction. I've wanted to see for a while if the Imagineers bothered to put the correct shoes on Indy. It looks like they just gave him black shoes, not even brown! Guess there's not much point in cutting through the soles of three pairs of $500 Aldens for the AA figures when it's too dark and fast to notice.

Jim said...

Interesting to compare the pirate skeletons to old pictures, Cause when you do you can see that they're way different.

I noticed a stray cat the last time I was at DL too, but he was outside the park in downtown disney.

JG said...

Wish I could have a day like that. Lots of fun, thank you Dave.

I'd give a lot to be scolded by that pirate ghost right now.

@KG, good call on that picture, I've never noticed it before. Good to know there are some old touches surviving.

JG