My wife and I took our 4 kids to a trio of California theme parks last week and we had a fantastic family time. We also visited a trio of zoos (Wildlife Safari, Sacramento Zoo, California Academy of Sciences) and I already posted mini-reviews of those establishments on their respective threads. This time around, I'll not even be talking about zoos, which is a surprise for anyone who's met me! I've been to plenty of theme parks in the past, such as Busch Gardens Tampa Bay, Six Flags Magic Mountain, SeaWorld San Diego, SeaWorld San Antonio, Disney's Animal Kingdom, and several others. In almost every case, I was there for the captive animals and avoided almost all the rides. My wife and I are simply not rides people, as that queasy feeling that you get in the pit of your stomach while on an exhilarating ride is not for us. We are both in our forties and before last week, neither of us had been on a rollercoaster in decades. Nevertheless, we drove 20 hours south and spent two days at Disneyland, two days at Disney California Adventure Park and one day at Universal Studios. A spectacular time was had by all. Keep in mind that my wife and I have one daughter (14 years old) and then three younger boys. Therefore, it should surprise no one that our family's most popular attractions at each park were Star Wars, Avengers and Harry Potter. For each day, I'd set an alarm for 5:40 a.m. and we'd get all the kids up and dressed by around 6:10. Then we'd walk to McDonald's and fill up on pancakes and sausage muffins for breakfast. After that, we'd be at Disneyland at 7:00 where there would be security guards going through our backpack and going back and forth through metal detector machines. We'd then line up at the ticket booth and get into the actual park at 7:20 each morning. From there, it was then another 40 minute wait at 'rope drop' until 8:00 when the ropes would be pulled back and the hordes unleashed. Disneyland: Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge is by far and away the best part of Disneyland. No other area is even in the running in my opinion. As a Star Wars geek, although not nearly to the extent of those visitors walking around in costumes (!!), this area was sublime. It's probably the most expensive, largest Disney production of any theme park in the world, costing an amount so staggering that no one can determine the exact price. Rise of the Resistance is a spectacular ride and a real experience. It's not a 2 or 3 minute rollercoaster like Space Mountain, where it's over before you even really begin, but instead Rise of the Resistance is an 18-minute ride where you feel as if it's worth the time spent waiting in line. By contrast, Millennium Falcon: Smuggler's Run is a typical modern theme park ride, meaning that it's a standard simulator ride that is good but not conducive to repeat visits. But the whole Star Wars area, especially when Chewbacca, Rey, or some Stormtroopers were walking around the themed land, is incredibly immersive. Adventureland was another huge hit with our family. The Indiana Jones ride is terrific and we rode it twice. Jungle Cruise is quite slow and dated and wasn't worth the hour-long lineup, but I'm glad that we saw those iconic animals. Frontierland has the Big Thunder Mountain Railroad rollercoaster and we rode it 3 times as a family. Here is a rollercoaster that my wife and I can handle, as it's fast but not too death-defying. The Disney attention to detail is extraordinary, whether it is a rattling rattlesnake or mock explosions in a dark tunnel. We didn't do the slow-moving Mark Twain Riverboat ride, but we did have lunch at The Golden Horseshoe restaurant and my kids enjoyed the gift shops with old-fashioned wares. Splash Mountain (soon to be Bayou's Adventure) and Haunted Mansion were both surrounded by high wooden fences and closed off for refurbishment. Nearby is New Orleans Square with the slow-moving, 16-minute Pirates of the Caribbean ride. It's old and dated, but enjoyable to do once. Critter Country had a handful of people taking canoe trips, but like the riverboat there was never a lineup and therefore it shows that those 'rides' are not very popular at all. It would have been easy enough to just walk right onto a boat or canoe, while everywhere else had enormous lines. There's a Winnie the Pooh area here and we ate dinner at the Hungry Bear Restaurant. Chicken tenders and fries for our picky kids! Fantasyland and Mickey's Toontown is where we missed the boat in not visiting Disneyland a few years earlier. This section of the park had some adult couples on dates, but was overwhelmingly small toddlers and extremely young kids. There were hundreds of strollers in all directions, babies in diapers everywhere, tantrums, baby soothers left on the ground, and it's obviously all geared for very young ages. Our 14 year-old daughter wasn't interested in any of the rides, while our trio of boys (aged 9, 11 and 13) complained about us even visiting this part of the park! Did they want to see anything involving Pinocchio, Sleeping Beauty, Snow White, Alice in Wonderland or Dumbo? Nope, they did not. They've seen all the movies, but where were the Avengers? Oh, that's right, they are in another park. Where's Chewbacca and Darth Vader? Where are people getting stabbed with lightsabers? Going from Star Wars to the kiddie section was a bit of a shock, but if my kids were younger then they would have adored Fantasyland and Mickey's Toontown. The boys, in particular, couldn't really care less, although they were happy to meet many of the characters. We did do the Mickey & Minnie's Runaway Railway ride and it's a slow-moving, kiddie ride but I still enjoyed it because there's some really cool backdrops that are like comic book pages come to life. It's as if the background is animated in a modern, hip style. The lineups for Peter Pan were always 45 minutes to 60 minutes in length, with no Genie+ option, so that seemed like a waste for what is literally a 2-minute ride. Try lining up with 4 kids for an hour and then see how much hair you've pulled out in that timespan. We ate at the Red Rose Taverne (with an 'e' at the end) for lunch one day. This part of the park does have one spectacular thrill ride for older kids and that is the Matterhorn Bobsleds, a rickety rollercoaster that shoots people around a snow-capped mountain with a Yeti howling in the shadows. My kids loved it. Tomorrowland is all about Space Mountain, which was pretty much an hour-long wait at all times throughout the day. Here's where the Genie+ pass was worth every penny, as we used it to wait perhaps only 10 minutes. I'd say that half the family liked this ride, but the other three of us found it mildly terrifying as you are basically on a rocket of a rollercoaster speeding into darkness and hanging on for dear life. I did it once but if you paid me $500 then I would not go again. For a thousand bucks, then I could pull it off as it's a short ride. In Tomorrowland, we also did the Star Tours - The Adventure Continues, which is a decent simulator ride that can hold around 40 people and it's the THIRD Star Wars themed ride in Disneyland. Each time you ride, there's a 'Rebel Spy' image that flashes on the screen (a photo of someone on the ride) and once it was me! The kids didn't want to do Autopia as the lineups were incredibly long and it is another juvenile-focused ride. Main Street, U.S.A. is the 9th and final themed 'land' and it's basically all gift shops and characters. We actually spent hours here, as my wife and daughter were more than happy to skip the rides and just really soak in all the movie memorabilia and cool stuff for sale in the multitude of stores. The two youngest boys didn't receive Christmas presents from grandparents a few months ago, as instead they had a whole whack of Disney spending money for Xmas. Therefore, they bought several lanyards and went from store to store purchasing a lot of collectable Disneyland pins. There's whole walls dedicated to these metal pins that you place on lanyards around your neck, and we even saw some adults wearing them with 30 different pins hanging off them like Mr. T in the 1980s A-Team television show. "I pity the fool!" Recap: Disneyland was a blast, even with noisy music pounding out of speakers in all directions. There's some negatives for sure, such as the fact that it's not quiet anywhere in the park. One has to be practically yelling at all times. The cost of everything is exorbitant, as even with discounted teacher admission prices, it cost us more than $1,000 Canadian per day for 6 tickets to a single park, including the Genie+ pass. That's not counting renting a room at a nearby hotel a 15-minute walk away, or the $100 Canadian we dropped on lunch and then another $100 on dinner every day. Some people gave us advice to leave the park for meals, but we didn't do that as even the local McDonald's across the street was expensive and the lines to get back in through all the security were incredibly long. It's totally not worth leaving the park until the bitter end. The Genie+ is an absolute gem to purchase, as we used it 15 times in the 4 days at Disney parks. Instead of an hour-long wait at a ride, it could be a 10-minute wait instead. That costs extra and can only be used once per specific ride per day, which was a royal pain. So, the first time you do a ride it's a short wait and then you have a massive wait later on if you choose to do that same ride again. The characters were a huge hit with our kids and we purchased autograph books. They filled all 25 pages with autographs and also had their photos taken with loads more characters, as some didn't sign at all but would only pose for photos. For example, all the Star Wars characters we saw didn't do any signing at all, while generally the Mickey Mouse/Goofy/Donald Duck crew would patiently sign everything and wait for photos with kids. Lastly, it's quite a workout at these Disney parks. It's not even the 25,000 steps each day, or the days of arriving at 7:00 a.m. and leaving at 10:00 p.m., but those 15 hours involves a LOT of standing around. Waiting at the entrance gate, waiting in lineups at rides, waiting for food, waiting to meet characters, waiting for the spectacular night-time fireworks show. Our feet became numb to the pain. I would personally choose a midsized, half-day zoo over Disneyland any day of the week and in fact if I didn't have kids then I'm quite certain that I'd never go back to Disneyland ever again. But, because we have 4 lovely children then I'm already looking at when we can next afford to head back to the 'Mouse House'. Haha! The things we do for our kids, and in truth I had fun through their fun and it was a great family holiday. Next up: Disney California Adventure Park
This sounds like absolute horror and madness to me. I count 'wait' 14 times in your text. But then again, I completely understand why you go there with your kids.
I've been to Disney World, and it wasn't super fun for me. I hate waiting in lines, and as such I don't find it worth it to ride anything that has a wait longer than about 20 minutes. The only exception to this was Kilimanjaro Safaris. I'm sure I would have enjoyed some things - especially Rise of the Resistance - but just not worth the wait IMO. I'm so glad (most) zoos don't have an equivalent thing I have to wait for.
The Star Wars area would sound more enticing if there was like a group of Gungans wandering around the area. I would have enjoyed seeing JarJar Binks or any Gungan for that matter.
Disney California Adventure Park: During our two days at Disneyland, as soon as there was the 'rope drop', it seemed as if 90% of all the thousands of visitors rushed off towards Star Wars. I read that Disneyland averages more than 50,000 visitors per day, which is more than some small zoos I've been to get in a year! For those that are not aware, Disney California Adventure Park is a separate park from Disneyland. They actually face each other, with a large visitor plaza in the middle. The California park sees 90% of visitors race towards this zone: Cars Land was a shock to see on our first of the two days in the California park. Everyone dashed over there and the lineup was an hour and 15 minutes right out of the gate. Whoa. That's with us being pretty high up in the line. Genie+ passes (the old Fast Pass extra charge) are not allowed on the Radiator Springs Racers ride and the only way to skip the line is to pay $21 U.S. ($28 Canadian) per person to zoom up to the very front of the line. That would have been an additional $168 Canadian for my family, on top of the $1,100 we paid to walk through the entrance gates. Holy smokes, these parks know how to gouge visitors and yet 50,000 people per day have no problem piling inside. We obviously did not pay the extra cost, so we waited an eternity and in the end the ride was quite spectacular and it was a huge hit with our 4 kids. On the second day in the park, we really speed-walked towards Cars Land and our kids even jogged ahead of us, but it was still a 45-minute wait for the 4-minute ride. There's two other rides in this general area, which we didn't do as they were very kiddie themed and no one was interested. However, the vibe of Cars Land is amazing, with all the themed gift shops and we ate in a 1950s/60s era restaurant with gas pumps next to tables. No one does theming like Disney and this zone is by far the most popular area if one judges the morning panicked rush in this direction. Pixar Pier shows that the California park, along with the Cars Land, leans heavily into Pixar in a big way. Here there is the Incredicoaster, based on The Incredibles movies, and my kids loved it and rode it at least 4 times. I was way too scared to even attempt the ride! Pixar Pier is a nice wander through an area with a 'country fair' vibe, such as the Inside Out Emotional Whirlwind kiddie ride (new in 2019), a carousel, booths where you can win stuffed animals, the hugely popular Toy Story Midway Mania! ride that had massive lineups (but we booked a Genie+ slot instead). There's also a ton of dining options here, giving everyone different choices for food. Paradise Gardens Park is sort of a continuation of Pixar Pier, but with rides called Goofy's Sky School, a big swing ride, a huge Ferris Wheel where the gondolas rock back and forth, a Little Mermaid Undersea Adventure slow-moving kiddie ride that we all skipped, and a few more juvenile rides that the kids tried like Golden Zephyr and Jumpin' Jellyfish. Avengers Campus is where we probably spent the most time at this California park, as remember that 3 out of our 4 kids are boys. They were truly elated to meet and chat with Black Panther, Iron Man, Captain America, Ant-Man, Loki, Ms. Marvel, Black Widow, Spider-Man and many Avengers. It's impressive that these 'actors' stay in character and they talk and look very much like their big-screen images. There's daily free shows around here involving female warriors from the Black Panther movies, and Spider-Man dangling from rooftops in another free performance. The two oldest kids went on the ride called Guardians of the Galaxy - Mission: Breakout! (which seems like a convoluted title) and it is a repurposing of the old Tower of Terror ride. The second ride in this area, called Web Slingers: A Spider-Man Adventure, was one we did 3 times and it's a repurposing of a ride based on A Bug's Life film. The real bonus to the Avengers area was not necessarily the rides, which are okay, but the characters walking around on a regular basics. Plus, the Avengers Campus is in a central location and a thoroughfare to other areas of the park. Grizzly Peak has a massive airport hangar type building with the Soarin' Over California ride, which is a flight simulator attraction that's fun and had enormous lineups all day long. So many people were content to wait an hour for a few minutes of a ride, which baffles me. We were thankful for the Genie+ option, which cost around $25 U.S. per person per day extra, but it allowed us to walk on rides after 10 or 15 minutes max. The downside, as I mentioned in my Disneyland review, is that you can only choose each specific ride once per day, so if you really enjoy a certain ride then you have one quick wait and then a gong show hour-long wait. But we did use the Genie+ pass 15 times during our 4 days in the 2 parks and it's definitely worth the extra fee. This area has the Grizzly River Run ride and my kids did it 3 or 4 times but my wife and I sat it out. The reason why is because it's a water-based attraction, with 8 people in a giant inner-tube type thing and at least a couple of riders get soaked every time. It's a roll of the dice as to who gets the wettest! The nearby Redwood Creek Challenge Trail, up on the treetops, was closed during our days in the park. Buena Vista Street has a plethora of characters wandering around signing autographs and posing for photos, as well as many beautiful gift shops. This is the main entrance area to the park and it's all stunningly themed as a 1920s road. There are even characters here who are based on regular 1920s-era people, and several even came over and chatted with us while remaining in character the entire time. Hollywood Land is a great segue from Buena Vista Street, because Hollywood Land is set during the 1930s and the 'Golden Age' of movies. We spent an hour in the Disney Animation building, where there's yet more lineups to meet characters, some massive screens continuously showing clips from animated classics, and other odds n' ends. In this general area is a ride called "Monsters, Inc. Mike & Sulley to the Rescue!", which makes me question why so many of the rides have such wordy titles. It's a cute kiddie-style ride that was pleasant, but it was not engaging enough to do a second time. But, the kids thought it was neat and so we did in fact ride it twice. Performance Corridor has no rides and is literally 4 different restaurants/wineries. In fact, the California park really pushes different food options and the park is currently in the midst of a 7 week 'foodie extravaganza' that ends on April 22. There's food everywhere here. San Fransokyo Square is the 9th and final themed 'land' (the same number as Disneyland) and it has zero rides, although there is a tour of a Bakery that proved to be popular. This area was renovated and overhauled in 2023 and has loads more food options such as a chocolate shop (old-fashioned and delightful with sundaes), Mexican, Italian and Japanese cuisine all available and my wife and I had a delicious taco lunch here. It's loosely themed on the movie Big Hero 6. Next up: What's the best park? I'll do a comparison of Disneyland and Disney California Adventure Park.
The California Disney parks have really gone through massive changes over the years. Regarding the security at the entrance, that was all put in place after the 9/11 terrorist attacks. Prior to 2001, there was no security booth to go through and people just bought their tickets and walked in. Also, the last time I visited in 2011 there were no metal detectors. Security is obviously essential in this day and age, but it does detract a little from the "Happiest Place on Earth." As today is Easter, I'm reminded of the time I went to Disneyland on Easter Sunday in 1988. It might be of interest to ZooChatters as the center of holiday festivities was at the petting zoo called Big Thunder Ranch, which opened in 1986. Yes, there were actual farm animals at Disneyland, but this area was all torn down in 2016 to put in the new Star Wars Galaxy's Edge land. The ranch was located just above Big Thunder Mountain Railroad in Frontierland and had a restaurant with outdoor dining called Big Thunder Barbecue, which is where I had my Easter dinner that year. There was also an Easter egg hunt at the ranch, but I was past the cut-off age to participate, which was very disappointing to me at the time. Thumper, the rabbit from "Bambi", was there to greet visitors, along with various Disney characters in holiday-themed attire. In those days, there was a huge parking lot where California Adventure and Downtown Disney are now. There was also no Toontown and Star Tours was still a new attraction that had just debuted a year earlier in 1987. Imagine no cell phones, Genie+, or security lines -- those were the days! Happy Easter to all who celebrate!
Looking at the two establishments, it's almost inconceivable that anyone would drive or fly all the way to Anaheim, California, and not visit both Disney parks. They are literally right next to each other and compliment each other well with a variety of different attractions. Yet, Disneyland will likely receive around 18 million visitors this year, while Disney California Adventure Park will have 9 million, exactly half of its older, more established sister park. I think that part of the reason is that many families will spend 2 days in the older park and 1 day in the newer park, or at least one extra day in Disneyland during their holiday week. And yet, to my surprise, my family rode 10 rides at Disneyland and 12 at California Adventure Park, although both Splash Mountain (soon to be called Tiana's Bayou Adventure) and Haunted Mansion were closed for refurbishment at the former. So, in terms of rides, it would have been a 12-12 tie if those two were up and running. Also, while the quantity of rides was dead even for my family, in reality Disneyland has many more rides overall. Remember, there's a whole swathe of kiddie rides for toddlers in the Fantasyland and Mickey's Toontown zones that we admired from a distance, but didn't want to fight our way through the Great Wall of Strollers to the entrances. If my children were younger, then we would have sat next to the babies on the Snow White or Chip n' Dale rides. The fireworks show at 9:30 pm. each evening at Disneyland is spectacular, and without a doubt it's up there with the best fireworks performance I've ever seen. Vancouver's annual summer Celebration of Light might be the only thing that tops it. But, as a family we actually preferred California Adventure Park's amazing 'World of Color: One' show that's shown each night and this particular version is new as of 2023. Instead of 10 minutes of firework explosions, California Adventure Park has a 24-minute show that involves a stunning display of shooting water from 1,200 water fountains, with video clips of loads of classic movies shown during the demonstration. There's everything from Star Wars to Pocahontas to Lion King to dozens of other clips and scenes from movies. It's spectacular and we saw it twice, although you do need to book a free slot in the 'virtual queue' in order to reserve a place in the standing room only designated zone. It's well worth doing so. Our 4 kids all ranked the rides and they are basically in agreement that Rise of the Resistance, Radiator Springs, Incredicoaster and Indiana Jones are the 4 best rides, which means that there's two for each park. The two areas we spent the longest in (Star Wars and Avengers) means that each park has one significant zone. In terms of food, there's a bounty of options and more than a dozen major dining stops at each location, although California Adventure Park does seem to push food more and the brand-new San Fransokyo Square has a lot of options beyond the typical burger, chicken tenders and fries menus. For characters, which is a huge thing as loads of kids were like ours with their 2024 Disney collectable autograph books, again it's fairly even. The classic characters (Mickey, Minnie, Goofy, etc.) and the Avengers were all incredibly considerate and willing to spend time with children, chatting with them and posing for photos. In Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge, there's no time to barely even get a single photo with characters, as the Mandalorian, Chewbacca, Rey or Kylo Ren stroll through but don't stop for more than a few seconds before they are off again. Star Wars is such a global phenomenon and I suppose that each character would be stampeded by visitors if they hung around one area for too long. Essentially, the two parks are very similar in terms of overall quality. There's more to see and do at Disneyland, and without a doubt it takes two full, 15-hour days to see everything that one wishes to see. That includes hours in gift shops and also hours with characters. Disney California Adventure Park is also a two-day theme park, but on our second day I felt as if we had more time on our hands and we repeated a few more attractions. Disneyland is approximately 100 acres in size, while Disney California Adventure Park is 72 acres. Both felt as if they were at bursting point in terms of the congestion of visitors, even though we went in March and in July/August there's FAR larger crowds. I'd probably never go then. I can't imagine standing in all the various lineups for hours each day, in scorching temperatures and with bigger crowds! Lastly, on a side note, even Disney is not flawless. On our second day in Disneyland, the Star Wars ride Rise of the Resistance broke down first thing in the morning. We hung around in line and it paid off because after 30 minutes they had it up and running again. It's such a complicated, 18-minute ride experience and apparently it's not uncommon to have glitches on a weekly basis and the staff (called 'cast members') were very transparent about what was going on. Later that day, we were deep in the underground tunnel of the Indiana Jones ride and again we had a 30-minute wait and occasionally an announcement came over the loudspeaker telling visitors to hold steady in line while the ride was getting repaired. Also, Matterhorn Bobsleds, a rickety rollercoaster ride, was out of service for at least 4 hours on our first day in Disneyland, and when it opened it had several of its 'vehicles' not working and thus was running at only 50% capacity with enormous lineups. And finally, while riding the Web Slingers Spider-Man ride at Disney California Adventure Park on our first day, the ride actually broke down right in the middle of the experience. We were trapped in our 'vehicles' for perhaps 15 minutes until staff members came around and unlocked the big bars that keep visitors secure. We then all had to climb down and the lights were on, which destroyed the Spider-Man illusion for my kids. It was essentially a big warehouse with broken-down cardboard boxes in one corner, piles of wires in all directions, a lot of odds n' ends piled up in storage containers, and it was like pulling back the curtain on the Wizard of Oz. We went from being involved in Spider-Man's dark, night-time adventures to trekking through a dusty warehouse with all the lights on. Next up: Universal Studios Hollywood
As always, these are some excellent reviews, snowleopard! My older sister and my brother-in-law went to Disney's California Adventure, and I may have the chance to see it for myself relatively soon! Your description of San Fransokyo actually sounds intriguing. I never thought I'd find myself looking forward to trying out the food. Past that, I've been to Disney World quite a few times as my sister's an avid Disney connoisseur. Incidentally, when she and my bro-in-law were in California, she jumped at the opportunity to see Disneyland for the first time. Hell, she even had her bachelorette party *at* Disney World! On a side note, I had a dream a long while back where Disneyland actually opened a Kilimanjaro Safaris (not the entirety of Animal Kingdom, literally *just* Kilimanjaro Safaris), and the layout was slightly different while still keeping the name "Kilimanjaro Safaris." Sort of like the different layouts between the different Jungle Cruises or Haunted Mansions.
Universal Studios Hollywood: The 3rd and final theme park that we visited was this one, approximately an hour north of the two Disney parks. Universal Studios is not as impressive as Disney, but there's still some great themed areas and with a projected 8 or 9 million visitors this year it receives almost the same number as Disney California Adventure Park. We felt compelled to do the Mario Kart: Bowser's Challenge ride first, as it just opened in 2023 and was where everyone seemed to go right out of the gate. It was a wet, rainy morning and we shelled out money for ponchos and rushed through the rain and down to the Lower Lot (this theme park has Upper and Lower Lots) and did the Nintendo World area first. The theming is staggering, but the ride is a boring simulator ride that makes it seem as if you are inside a video game. My kids didn't even love it. The Wizarding World of Harry Potter opened in 2016 and it is brilliant. My 4 kids are huge Harry Potter fans and we ended up spending FIVE HOURS just in this area. Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey is a crazy ride, part simulator and part dark ride with old-fashioned props bursting out of the walls at you. Flight of the Hippogriff is a speedy rollercoaster that is only a 48-second ride, which is a bit of a kicker after one has lined up for close to an hour! Elsewhere is a gloomy tavern, some amazing giftshops where we spent a ton of time, a candy store (closed during our visit - arrggh) and Ollivander's Wand Show where one of our kids was chosen and he was able to use the magic wand to turn lights on and off and ring bells. Hogwarts and Hogsmeade are recreated here and it's all spectacular, but apparently not as large or impressive as the similar setup in Florida. Jurassic World is a deceptively slow-moving water ride past escaped dinosaurs in a raft. It's not very memorable until the fantastic climax when the boat is plunged down a steep drop and everyone in the first couple of rows gets soaked. We did this ride twice and were sure to sit near the back, where we only had a little bit of water on us. Highly recommended. The Secret Life of Pets: Off the Leash! is a kiddie ride that's cute and it debuted in 2021. Visitors sit in mock cardboard boxes and get a full 'pet spa' treatment, before being adopted at the end. It's a slow, juvenile ride with great theming and a 3rd film in the Secret Life of Pets franchise is due in the future. A comparable ride would be Monsters Inc. at Disney. We all relaxed for the hour-long Studio Tour ride, which has a narrator talking most of the time as visitors are driven around on a tram past the Universal Studios Hollywood backlot. There are enormous buildings where movies and television series are shot, and if one is lucky they will see a celebrity. Most of this ride is at a leisurely pace and the film history was great for me but my kids were bored. However, there is also a Flash Flood sequence that is cool to watch, an attack from 'Bruce' the shark via a Jaws-themed moment, and two major simulator rides. One is a King Kong 3-D ride that's terrific, while the other is a decent Fast and the Furious ride. (There's a lot of promotion at Universal Studios right now for the upcoming Fast and the Furious rollercoaster that opens in 2025) One of our kids did the Revenge of the Mummy ride and he said it was a fast-paced, spooky, crazy indoor rollercoaster ride. It wasn't appealing to the rest of us. We watched the Waterworld live show and it's 16-minutes of spectacular stunts and mayhem. A team of perhaps 7 actors recreate some of the famous scenes from that Kevin Costner flick, complete with explosions, pyrotechnic blasts, flames in all directions, a plane that comes crashing into the pool and lots of fun. My kids adored this show and I'd definitely love to see it again one day. We looked through lots of giftshops, had a couple of great meals, spent 15 hours inside the park, and still didn't do the Simpsons, Transformers or Despicable Me rides. Overall, Universal Studios Hollywood isn't as impressive as the two big Disney parks. That's my view as a first time visitor. Having said that, we spent more time in The Wizarding World of Harry Potter than any other area at the three huge theme parks (Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge would be in second place), so perhaps we would one day be enticed back to once again experience the world of Harry Potter. Maybe on a second visit we would check out the Simpsons and Transformers rides, even though none of our 4 kids really know any of those characters.
But... You didn't visit the LA Zoo. We're crushed. But it sounds like you and the family had an amazing trip!! I'm a Disney Studios "cast member" in my 9-6 job, so it was really interesting to hear your perspective on the parks. Oh, and a quick plug for "my zoo," our visiting male snow leopard is getting along wonderfully with Georgina. With any luck there will be kittens in their future...
Another tour of the L.A. Zoo was tempting, but it wasn't to be. I've visited more than 60 different zoos and aquariums in the state of California, including the L.A. Zoo twice (2008 and 2017).
I've been to Disney World twice, but never to Disneyland, so I was definitely interested in your thoughts on attractions seen at both parks. These two both hurt! Disney's Hollywood Studios is by far my least favorite of the four Florida parks, and I had a really bad experience on my 2022 visit. I was unable to get on Rise of the Resistance as it was down for large parts of the day, and after waiting 90 minutes Mickey and Minnie's Runaway Railway broke down when my family was at the front of the line! If I ever am back in Orlando (which I don't foresee happening in the next few years, at least), I'd probably return to the other three Disney parks, but skip Hollywood Studios, as it has simply too high of crowds for too few attractions. Now Space Mountain is a personal favorite of mine! If it wasn't for how long the wait usually is, I could've easily ridden it over and over again, and love it. I get roller coasters aren't for everyone, but on my first family trip to Disney this was my first "big" roller coaster, so holds a special place in my heart. I really like Thunder Mountain too- and in 2022 did a night ride of it during the fireworks- probably one of my favorite roller coaster experiences ever!
