Archive from December 2004

11:54 PM - Disneyland pics (including the Mansion's Monkey Bride)... (posted by Allen )
I'm back from a whirlwind trip to Disneyland. By being at the park each morning for opening, we did pretty much everything in the park (certainly everything we wanted to do) within the first few hours, then when crowds grew we played the FastPass game to ride Indy and Haunted Mansion Holiday (neither are linked together right now, it seems), and made use of the single rider line of Splash Mountain to ride it multiple times with no waits, too. It was a very successful trip, ride-wise.

For those interested, the game plan we used all three mornings went like this: At rope drop, go directly into Fantasyland (lines grow long later) and ride (in this order) Peter Pan, Alice in Wonderland, Mr Toad, Snow White, and Pinocchio. (Pan and Alice get long lines later in the day). Then we headed over to get a FastPass for Indiana Jones and then hit the Jungle Cruise (no fast pass, and slower/longer lines later) and Big Thunder Mountain (is FastPass till being used there?). After this, we could either ride Indy (if time was there) or hit the Mansion Holiday (grabbing a pass now, or earlier if needed) and do Pooh (no wait anytime) and Splash in Critter Country (use the single rider line).

We did not do anything in Tomorrowland (Autopia, Star Tours, or Honey 3-D), and skipped things like Dumbo, Rocket Jets, Casey Jr and Storybook Canal Boats. We did hit (once) Small World Holiday (fast moving line, even when long thanks to no more FastPass) and hopped on the train to go through the Grand Canyon. During higher crowd times we did Mr. Lincoln.

Basically, we got to hit big things like Splash, Big Thunder, Indy, Pirates, and the Mansion tons of times during very little time, and also got our fill of the dark rides.

For FastPass, you can currently have an Indy and Mansion Holiday pass, so get one of both. As soon as your time on Indy (or mansion) comes, get another FastPass before going into the FastPass return line. This lets the time you use in line go towards when you can ride again. Using this trick, even on the BUSY Saturday morning we still took in the Mansion and Indy several times before we had to leave the park around 1pm to head for the airport. By that time, the lines were HUGE going out and around the Mansion.

And speaking of dark rides... The Haunted Mansion Holiday still has a bride in the attic... just not the one you are used to. Click [more] below to read the article.