Valerie and I's plan for this visit was to get to the turnstiles a few minutes before park opening. We left the hotel around 7:30, but ran in to traffic on our way in. Since I was on vacation I forgot it was Monday and I would have to deal with rush hour traffic. Between traffic, parking, and riding the tram to the entrance we didn't arrive at the gates until 8:30. When we got to the turnstiles we handed the cast member our Walt Disney World Park Hopper tickets with the no expiration option on them. The cast member called someone else over and that person took our tickets and said he would be back in a few minutes. Ten minutes later he came back with our original tickets and a set of Disneyland/Disney's California Adventure 1 day Hopper tickets. This was a tip I found on MouseSavers.com. The difference in cost between what we had paid for our WDW tickets and what the 1 Day Disneyland Hopper tickets would have cost saved us around $100.
Once we were in the park I took advantage of the relative emptiness that you only see the first hour after opening, and I took the obligatory pictures of Main Street and Sleeping Beauty's Castle. Originally I was going to try to follow the touring plan that was in the Unofficial Guide to Disneyland, but when I reached for my photocopied version in my back pocket it wasn't there. When we got back to the hotel I found it sitting on the desk. Without the plan we just decided to wing it and I tried to re-create the plan as best I could from memory. We decided to head over to Space Mountain first, and it was a short 15 minute wait. I had remembered this one being better than the WDW version, but honestly after having just rode that one 3 months ago I am gonna have to change my opinion. Even without the upgraded visuals and music the Alpha side at WDW is much better than the Disneyland version. Valerie and I both were a little disappointed by this. I have since read that the effects are different at night, but I didn't take a night ride on this trip so I'm not sure what the differences are. I know that most people will disagree that the WDW version is better, but for the time being I am sticking to this.
Since Matterhorn Bobsleds was just a hop, skip, and a jump away we decided to stop there next. Unlike Space Mountain, I was not disappointed with my experience. It was about like I remembered. It is nicely themed and you never really know what to expect is coming up next. While there are better coasters out there, it is always nice to enjoy what is probably the predecessor to Everest. At least I would like to think that had the technology been available Uncle Walt would have designed it that way.
Next we took a short walk over to It's a Small World. While we were waiting in line we got to see clock strike 10am. It was kind of neat to see the giant animated clock with the children walking across the front. This Disney classic ride recently just finished having a major, and controversial refurbishment done to it. It was controversial because it was one of the few remaining rides left at Disneyland that was the same as when Walt commissioned it. To be perfectly honest, I was a little worried on how it would turn out after seeing what has been done to Pirates of the Caribbean. I don't like how a ride that inspired a movie franchise has been changed to better reflect the movie, but enough about that. With the refurb It's a Small World looks like a brand new ride. The colors are vibrant again, and the animatronics seem to be in better shape. One of the additions that worried me when I read about it was that several classic Disney characters have been inserted into the ride. However, the way it was done was very clever. As an example, Woody doesn't look like he would fit in Toy Story any more because he has been stylized to fit in with the other characters of this ride. Because of this it actually made the ride more fun to try and spot all the new characters. This has definitely breathed new life in to the ride and it will continue to remain popular for years to come.
