Disneyland smackdown – California v. Paris v. Hong Kong

           Yep, I’m a dork.  Let’s just get that out of the way right off the bat.  I unabashedly love Disneyland, have been more times than I care to admit - and counting.  It’s pure fun.  Hell, just hearing the Disney music playing as I wait to enter brings a huge grin to my face.  Through my travels I have been lucky enough to visit parks on 3 continents (Disney World in Florida and Tokyo Disneyland are still on my hit list, but I’m sure it won’t be too long before I have them chalked off, too.  I’ll keep you posted) and am qualified to compare them head to head in this, my first Disneyland Smackdown.  

           For the purposes of this smackdown, I’m going to stick with just the “Disneyland” and not include the California Adventure or MGM Studios Paris, as they are  each so unique, and would put Hong Kong, a place with only one park, at a disadvantage right off the bat.  Also, I’m going to focus more on the differences between them than the similarities.  This is because, to have the “Disneyland” title, there has to be a huge amount of similarities to keep the Mousketeers happy.  If the formula ain’t broke, don’t fix it, right?  Every park has a Main Street, Tomorrowland,  Fantasyland, etc. and honestly, if you need a bathroom on Main Street, they’re in the same place in all three countries.  And so it begins…

          The first major difference any guest would notice is the Castle.  It’s smack in front of you and will undoubtedly require a photo stop at least once in every visit.  In California, the castle was intentionally built smallish and done in pastels as to be friendly and unintimidating to visitors.  In Paris, where the guests are going to be accustomed to insanely large and ornate realcastles in their home countries, the castle is much larger, more gothic in it’s architecture, and bright pink.  Oh, and it has a giant animatronic dragon beneath it.  Hong Kong tried to recreate the cuter California castle, and they did a good job, but it’s small-scale is highlighted by the mountains surrounding the park, making it seem, well, dinky.

           The coolest things to compare are the coasters.  Big Thunder Mountain in California is big and classic with the focus more on the animatronic goat chewing dynamite and bat-filled mines than the speed or the drops.  You just enjoy this ride, it’s not particularly thrilling.  Paris once again took this idea and cranked it up to the extreme.  Their Big Thunder is hands-down my favorite Disneyland ride in any park, as it takes up the entirety of the island in the middle of the Rivers of the Far West, and the start and end involves a dark, fast tunnel right underneath the water before you pop up on the other side. The “danger” factor is upped, too, as if you speed off the rails, you end up in the water.  They have the goat, too.    Hong Kong, unfortunately,  doesn’t have a Big Thunder yet, but I’m sure one’s in the plans somewhere.

                All three parks do have Space Mountains, though.  And all three are thrilling, fast and whip you around crazy turns in the dark.  For years the California one made me dizzy, as so many of the twists were in the same direction, but about five years ago they overhauled it, introducing new ride cars, a better soundtrack and new track configuration.  It made a huge difference in my books, as the dizziness is gone and it’s just a crapload of fun.  This is a great ride people who like the coaster experience without giant drops to contend with.  Hong Kong’s Space Mountain is a close counterpart here too, and the screamometer level is about equal to California, although this one, most likely due to the fact that it’s technology is only a few years old, feels faster and darker.  And then there’s Paris.  I went on this ride expecting it to be as simplistic (for lack of a better word) as the other two.  In hindsight, the over-the-head locking seatbelt should have tipped me off, but it didn’t.  This ride really goes up the screamometer right from the start, where they actually shoot you out of a cannon on the roof, going from zero to feaking fast in seconds.  Inside there’s also a full 360 loop and a corkscrew.  The intensity caught me so off guard that I bruised both knees bracing them on the back of the seat in front of me!  Once I knew what this ride was like, it’s great (still no big drops.  I don’t do big drops), but if you’re unprepared, look out :) 

           It’s a Small World (come on, you knew it was coming) is so synonamous with Disneyland that all three parks feature one.  You either love it or hate it, but everyone rides it.  Hong Kong was the first to deviate from the Small World mold, mixing animatronic characters from Disney movies (Aladdin riding his carpet in the middle east, Lilo and Stitch surfing in Hawaii, etc) with the ubiquitous singing dolls.  As someone raised on IASM(my mobile played the music when I was an  infant, no joke) I was worried this would detract from the simple joy of this ride, but it surprised me by being very seamlessly integrated into the classic format.  Now it’s kind of a “spot the movie characters” game as you go.  Especially great for the little ones.  As recently as June 09, California took a page from Hong Kong’s book and debuted their own new IASM, complete with the ”hidden” characters.  Paris, as of writing this, was still using the classic format.

           Naturally, the language is going to be different from country to country, but the Disney people do a great job of putting signage in multiple languages, and what isn’t translated is accompanied by pictograms to remove any confusion.  There is something that makes me giggle uncontrollably at hearing the PeeWee Herman voice of the robot in Star Tours entirely in French, though.  The Jungle Cruise in Hong Kong found a simple solution to the language issue by just running boats in Mandarin, Cantonese and English simultaneously.  All you have to do is make sure you get into the right line and you’re golden.

           Food is an essential part of any theme park experience, and, coming at it with a very westernized palette, I found this aspect a ton of fun overseas.  Sure, all three parks have the standards: hot dogs, burgers, fries, Mickey-shaped ice cream bars, etc. but the regional specialties make this interesting.  Hong Kong, for example, sells fish balls and Korean squid on a stick at the street carts right along with the hot dogs.  The Plaza Inn here sells wonderful Dim Sum meant to be shared in a lantern-lit restaurant.  Paris has frog’s legs and sells alcohol pretty much everywhere, so you can wander around with your wine and frog’s legs to your heart’s content. 

              In conclusion, the castle is bigger and the rides are more intense in Paris;  Hong Kong is smaller and newer with more of a focus on regional food and the smaller family-friendly rides;  And California is the original, so nothing can compete with that.  Plus, due to their age, they have the most rides per square foot.  But despite all their differences, Disneyland is still Disneyland, regardless of what country you’re in.  If you have kids or just like feeling like one, it will always be worth the price of admission.

Tags: BlogSherpa, California, China, Disney Specialist, disneyland and anaheim, France, Hong Kong, memories, Paris, roller coasters, theme park, USA

Spain reloaded 3:PortAventura soaking

          I wanted to cry this morning as we left Barcelona.  I didn’t want to leave, there was so much more I wanted to see.  Damnit, make me come back again on my personal vacation, why don’t you?

          An hour and a half drive got us to the Costa Dourada, where we toured the Hotel Cala Font (great ocean views from the pool), Hotel Las Vegas, H10 Salou Princess (conveniently located beside a doctor’s office, in case of emergencies) and H10 Europa park.   We had now officially entered beach-and-buffet land, and it felt like another planet compared to the old world charm of Barcelona.  Here it was pool noodles and sunscreen during the day and karaeoke bars and British/Dutch/German pub food at night.   That is, if you weren’t filling up on your hotel’s free buffet breaky and dinner (all the hotels here offer that).

             We stayed at the H10 Salauris Princess.  The hotel was fine, our room was directly over the nightly entertainment stage, which wasn’t a problem as long as I was awake until 1130pm, and the pool was funky with a big flashy waterfall. 

             This part of the trip is not my usual cup of tea, as I am way too pale to sit at the pool/beach and lounge, plus I have the attention span of a gerbil, so after ten minutes of that I’d be all like “okay, so what are we doing now?”  Luckily, a short ten minute walk from the hotel is the PortAventura theme park.  Now this I like.  As the resident Disney specialist in my office, I feel it’s my duty as a responsible agent to visit every theme park I see (plus, I really like rides and more cheezy souvenirs.  What can I say, it’s fun to occasionally act my age).  I recruited two other agents and, with our swimsuit-clad coworkers thinking we were crazy, headed up.

             This place is total fun.  It’s actually a Universal park, with Woody Woodpecker and Betty Boop everywhere, and it’s only 10 years old, so everything’s still in perfect condition.  The themed lands (Mediterranea, Polynesia, China, Mexico and the Far West – the US southwest) are really well done, and I particularly loved China, with it’s great wall, forbidden city pavillions and dragons.  Started off on the Furious Baco speed coaster, and it rocked.  This is my type of coaster, freaking fast, but with no major drops. 

           Most of the other guests were in their bathing suits, which I thought was just because this is the Spanish Costa and that’s what they do.  Nope.  It’s because if you ride any of the three water rides, the Tutuki Splash,  Silver River Flume and Grand Canyon Rapids, you get “wring your underpants out” wet.  And in 35 degree heat, it felt awesome! 

          China is home to Dragon Khan, the largest roller coaster in Western Europe.  No freaking way.  Uh uh.  No thank you.  I stood at the bottom and held everyone’s stuff.  My coworkers even talked some french guy, who was scared stiff, and his girlfriend to go on with them.  They all had a great time.  I got some great pictures, and am just as proud of myself!   There’s also a very innocuous-looking teacups ride undoubtedly geared for children, but that doesn’t limit how fast you can spin your cup.  With three adults pulling, we had that cup flying, and when the ride ended I couldn’t walk straight.  I was so dizzy I accidentally locked my coworker into the cup as we exited, because I missed the door in my nauseous stagger.  Get this, I can handle the launching of the Furious Baco, but the kiddie teacups will cause me to loose my lunch

        We closed down the park at 9, cheering, and in the end probobly got as much sun and just as wet as the people at the hotel pool, but we had so much more fun doing it!

Tags: BlogSherpa, Costa Dourada, PortAventura, Salou, theme park

Southern California so much fun!

            As a long-overdue Girl’s Week Out this past January/February my Mom and I vacationed in Southern California, seeking sun, sand and surf.  We were hoping for pure fun and boy, did we find it.  Not ones to lie on the beach all day, we packed our trip with all the stereotypical tourist haunts, beginning in San Diego.

            There we took in the exotic San Diego Wild Animal Park; admired the stunning views (and gale force winds) from Cabrillo Point, where Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo discovered San Diego in 1542; saw hunky lifeguards, low-flying military planes and the famous Hotel Del Coranado; and shopped for souvenirs in the tourist-oriented Seaport Village.

            From there we drove up the Pacific Coast Highway to Anaheim.  As a Christmas gift I had given Mom a Beach Boys CD, thinking that it would put us in the sunny California mindset.  No one could have guessed how perfect it turned out to be.  With songs such as “Surfin’ USA” and “Surfin’ Safari” we were driving through places such as La Jolla, Huntington and Redondo Beach when they were mentioned in the songs!

            Our final destination was, of course, Disneyland and it’s sister park, the California Adventure.  We couldn’t travel all that way without spending some time with the Mouse.

            Undoubtedly, the winter is the best time to visit the parks, with lineups so nonexistent that you could finish one ride, walk back around to the beginning and get right back on it again.  And the best part was that there weren’t millions of kids there.  Sure, there were plenty of toddlers and some older ones (those that we met hailing mainly from Australia on their summer vacation), but there were tons of child-free adults, too.

            We’d thought that we’d stick out, being two adults who couldn’t claim that “we’re only here for our kids”, but we were far from alone.  Couples, honeymooners and groups ranging from their 20’s to their 80’s were running from ride to ride, just as eagerly as the preschoolers.  How can you not be happy in a place where everyone – staff and guests- have permanent joyful grins on their faces?

            Our trip was exhausting, busy and full of all the tacky tourist stuff: absolutely perfect.  The people were all unbelievably nice and happy to talk or take a picture, and the sky was endless blue.  Coming home was hard, and both of us would go back in a heartbeat.

- As originally published in the Vancouver Province

Tags: Anaheim, beach, BlogSherpa, Disneyland, published, San Diego, Seaworld, sun, theme park, zoo