Disneyland Everyday

Here is how the ticket prices have changed over the years.  Part of what makes this analysis so difficult is that the park used a ticket system for several years.  So, I'll do my best! The 1955 "A Day at Disneyland" adult ticket book was $2.50 per person and included park admission and 8 attractions.  You got A-C tickets because D and E tickets were not yet available. For reference, in 1955 the average cost of a new house was $10,950, average monthly rent was $87, average annual salary was $4,130 and the minimum wage was $1.00 per hour. The 1959 Magic Kingdom Club Adult "10" Ticket Book sold for $3.50 and included 1 A, 1 B, 2 C, 3 D, and 4 E tickets. Side note: On August 12, 1965 the 50 millionth guest, Mary Adams (fake name, anyone?) entered the park. The 1970 Adult Big "10" Ticket Book sold for $4.50 per person and included tickets to 10 attractions. In 1985 (two years after switching from individual ride tickets to admission fees only) a ...

This is a great photo of Disney California Adventure, well at least some of it.  You can see Guardians of the Galaxy (formerly known as Tower of Terror), Radiator Springs, the starting point for the Incredicoaster (formerly known as California Screamin'), and a bunch of other stuff.  Lissa can confirm, but it looks like this picture was taken from the Mickey Ferris Wheel.

The Matterhorn Bobsleds ride started out a pile of dirt.  The dirt that they dug out from around the Sleeping Beauty Castle was piled up where the Matterhorn now sits.  Walt Disney covered the hill in snow and let people go sledding on the hill!  He also wanted to call it Snow Hill.  "Cooler" heads prevailed and the bobsled ride was conceived.  The ride opened June 14, 1959 and was the first tubular steel roller coaster to ever exist.  Some of the older readers might recall that the original mountain had holes in it to allow the Skyway ride to pass through.  In case you were wondering, the ride was part of Tomorrowland when it first opened, but then was officially declared a Fantasyland ride in 1972. The mountain is 147 feet tall, making it exactly 100 times shorter than the real Matterhorn The ride was the first thrill ride in Disneyland The yeti's name is Harold If you watch close you might see people climbing the mountain.  Even Mickey h...

The Mickey and Friends Parking Structure is huge!  I remember as a kid the parking was just a giant paved area and there was a tram that took you to the front of the park.  Now that parking lot is known as Disney California Adventure.  By the way, it is $20 per day to park at the park!

The rope drop at Disneyland is how they open the park each, most, or some mornings.  I'm not clear on if they do it everyday.  All I know is I want to do this when we go.  In short, those who arrive early are admitted to a certain point in the parks that are roped off.  When the announcement comes over the speaker welcoming you to Disneyland, the rope drops and you make a mad dash to Pirates!  In order for this to happen we need to be at the gates about 45 minutes to an hour BEFORE the park opens.  Not parking, not going through security, but actually standing at the ticket gate 45 minutes early.  No sleeping in.  Of course, with all of our kids there's no way we're sleeping in anyway. Hopefully it's like this: And NOT like this:

Everybody gets a little cranky when they get hungry, tired, and thirsty.  Now, if you're hungry while at Disneyland you're just not trying.  You could easily consume 7,000 calories a day there, with each calorie more delicious than the last!  However, being thirsty and tired, in my experience, is pretty common while at Disney.  To have a good time it is important to pack good snacks and stay hydrated.  We've found that the best snack to bring into the park is the dried mangoes from Costco.  It's like eating candy and fruit at the same time, but in a good way-the mangoes are a real crowd pleaser!  Hot tip: prepare several baggies with a serving size (whatever that means to you) of mangoes so that you can just pull out a bag and give it to the child who's just about to lose it in a big way!  Other candy like Skittles will be a hit as well.  Just don't be tempted to bring chocolate because that will turn into a melty mess. As for the hydrat...

I hope everyone is having a good Christmas!  I've never been to Disneyland during Christmas.  My beloved crowd calendar uses the phrase, "Don't Even Think About It" to describe what the crowds are like at Disney during Christmas, so we've never even tried it!  So, even though this video doesn't really have anything to do with Christmas, if you listen closely you can hear Jenna scream like it's Christmas morning and she just saw all the presents!

The line for Toy Story is pretty boring.  There's not much to see so we've had to make up our own fun!

By the way, in case you missed it, we cannot handle spinning very well.  Here we have Jenna, on back-to-back days getting sick on the rides!

As a general rule for our family, we cannot handle rides that spin around.  For some reason we keep doing the rides like Dumbo's Circus, Astro Blasters, Flik's Flyers, and the Teacups.  Here we see that Jenna has an aversion to spinning that rivals most of the rest of us!

I posted about the Castle earlier, but here we go again.  The pictures show both the front and back of the castle.

The Disneyland Railroad has a great sign that lets us know the elevation of the park (138 feet) and the daily attendance: 650,000,000.  Hopefully in January when we go the attendance will be down near 450,000,000.

I am not a big fan of parades.  The Disney parade is done really well.  The sights and sounds provide a sensory overload!  The music is loud and there is a lot of action that happens throughout the parade.  Truth be told, the entire parade lasts a mere 10 minutes (give or take), but the crowds sure do turn out to watch!  It's best to try to get on a ride during the parade as the lines are low.  I managed to get on the Alice in Wonderland ride and catch a video of one of the parades.  That is no small feat and I challenge any and all of you to try it!

Here are the lyrics for the song.  Make sure you get these memorized so we can all sing along when we go on the ride.  By the way, we will be going on that ride in some 42 days!

Mr. Toad's Wild Ride has been a part of the park since the grand opening.  The ride changed in 1983, but still includes my favorite part: you get convicted of a crime, hit by a train, and then sent to hell!

As I type this I am recovering from a migraine headache.  Anyone who gets good migraines knows that you feel quite nauseous and watching this video, coupled with the migraine, is making my head spin and my stomach churn.  Turn up the sound to hear the great Mad Tea Party music!

Flik's Flyers is just the Dumbo Circus ride, but dressed up in A bug's Life suit.  You get in a cracker or cookie box and it spins you around until you are on the verge of embarrassing your self.  We rode it once because the line was short...

The Mad Tea Party ride in Fantasyland includes about 18 teacups of varying speeds.  The orange teacup with diamonds and the purple cup are rumored to be the fastest spinners.  The two teacups with hearts are the slowest.  I know which one I'm gonna run to!

Everyone (except for those who don't) likes Indiana Jones!

The Little Mermaid ride is great!  The songs are from my childhood, but more importantly the room has top notch environmental control.  The AC blows hard and strong when it's hot out!

Has anyone ever been to refreshment corner?  It's on Main Street and I can't say that I've ever even seen it before.  However, some reading online told me that they have a cream cheese-filled pretzel.  Way back in the summer time Jenna worked at the SCERA pool and they had a cream cheese pretzel that she loved.  I don't know how much she paid for hers, but at Disney they are $5.39 and are only sold at Refreshment Corner.  If Jenna behaves, maybe I'll take her here to try a pretzel!  Also, I looked up Refreshment Corner on the Disneyland app (which you need to get right now, if you didn't get it earlier when I told you to) and it's the last little store on the left side before you hit the famous statue.  I bet I never saw it because I was looking straight ahead at the statue and castle!

Lissa found that they are selling churro ice cream sandwiches in Downtown Disney.  Now, I like churros and ice cream, but this seems especially awesome!  They shape the churros into cookies and then put the ice cream between them, sandwich style.  This is a must-try when we get to the park in January!

The Disneyland Railroad is a dumb little train ride that takes guests around the park.  It's slow and rickety, but people seem to love it.  I suspect we'll ride it in January when we go to Disney and I think the kids might like it...

Disney has made it so easy to spend money at the park.  Most of the rides have a shamelessly placed store at the end so your kids absolutely have to walk through the store, touch everything, break something, and beg for you to buy them something.

It is strange to me that we don't seem to have any pictures of Peter Pan's Flight.  This is a fun ride with a long, hot line.  See if you know anyone in these pictures!

It's just better when you're surrounded by family!  Here are two shots of cousins who are ready to ride it's a small world.  The line isn't bad, they fit a lot of folks on each boat, but if I stay in line for more than a few minutes I will get sunburned!

Mickey Beignets are like regular beignets you would find in New Orleans, which are a lot like donuts.  The ones at Disneyland are shaped like Mickey and taste like awesome!  They sell these by the half or full dozen, along with the delicious mint julep drink, at a walk up window called The Mint Julep bar.  You can get these at other locations, but this little spot is kinda out of the way so the line is typically short.  It's over by the Disneyland Railroad station next to the Haunted Mansion.  I will be eating these in January.

Brandon loves Disneyland!  Also, happy birthday Lissa (not pictured)!

The turkey legs are great!  Salty, hot, and packed with the purest of protein.  You can't tell from looking at Zac and Trevor in this picture, but they love turkey legs!

We all know that celebrities go to Disneyland often.  Why not?  They typically live in Los Angeles or the surrounding area and Anaheim is the surrounding area!  Remember the time we saw Brick Heck?  His real name is Atticus Schaffer.  He has type four osteogenesis imperfecta, which causes fragile bones and short stature.  He's 4'8".

I do a great impression of Goofy!  He's one of my favorites, especially in A Goofy Movie.  That movie is great because it teaches the importance of communicating with your kids.  Think about it.  If Goofy and Max would have just communicated their desires they wouldn't have gotten into so much trouble.  Of course, they would have missed out on a ton of adventure and never got near the Powerline concert.

One time we went to the Rainforest Cafe.  It was great!  The food was good and every 30 minutes a thunderstorm went off inside the restaurant!  I covered my food with a poncho.  Ha ha.  Just kidding.  It was good and a bunch of you missed out big time.  Of course, Zac ordered the $30 seafood stew.  Sadly, the restaurant is closed forever to make way for yet another Disney hotel.  Also, happy birthday Christian!

In case you did know, we are going to Disneyland!  We arrive in California on January 28.  We will spend January 29-31 in the park and then head for home on February 1.  On one of the trips to Disney we stayed the night in St. George.  That was a lot of fun.  If we are feeling flush with cash we could leave Sunday January 27, meet up in St. George and spend the night, and maybe eat at Golden Corral for dinner.  Then, we could eat at Black Bear Diner on Monday morning before the drive down to Anaheim!  Also, happy birthday Dad!