Disneyland and Me

I don't know how young I was the first time I went to Disneyland. I know I went to Disneyworld when I was very very little. There are photos of me at Disneyland from around four or five, but I don't remember that trip. What I do know is that we went often, like once a year, through high school (although at that point I was going with my high school band class).

I would be lying if I said that Disneyland being nearby wasn't part of the reason I wanted to move to Southern California after high school. I knew I wouldn't go that often, and I've never really been inclined to purchase a pass, but I still liked the idea of it being a 'day trip' instead of a 'vacation.'

But I still usually only go about once a year. And I've been to California Adventure maybe a handful of times. That place is okay, it has some good stuff, though the main attractions of the Tower of Terror and roller coaster and even the Ferris wheel are too droppy/fast/high up for me to want to go on them. My boyfriend did convince me to go on Tower of Terror and I can say with certainty that I did not enjoy it all. I much more enjoyed learning about the ride via the Internet afterward, and I guess it was helpful to have gone on the ride to find out what they were talking about. I found it particularly fascinating that the Imagineers decided that dropping people didn't produce fast enough speeds just using terminal velocity, and so when you "drop," the elevator is actually being accelerated downwards.

My favorite ride has always been Star Tours, even before I'd seen the movies, but especially afterward. I just went on Sunday and was able to go on the new Star Tours ride. It was quite fun and it's exciting that it's going to be different each time, but I'm sad to see Pee Wee's voice and all the other familarity go.

More recently, being into Tiki, I have loved the Tiki Room. My ex boyfriend bought me a record with the Tiki Room song on it after he saw me pine after it in a store that wasn't selling it. It was easily the best gift he ever got for me - unfortunately, it got lost in a move. Sigh.

So far Disneyland has kept up a nice balance of nostalgic with new and exciting. So long as they do, I'll head down every so often.