Why DisneyLand is truly "The Happiest Place On Earth"...

It is FUN!  There is always something going on, besides the attractions. They have 
arcades, Mickey and Minnie driving around, a parade, a light show, and fireworks.
If you are not riding, you are eating or shopping. You can tour various parts of the
park on a train, a carriage, a trolley, a monorail, and even on a steam-powered 
riverboat.  There are also plenty of nice places to just sit in the shade and watch
the people.  Wild rides, tame rides, kiddie rides.  You name it, they have several.

It is so well-organized, it's scary.  Everything is orchestrated and super-efficient.
Restaurant tables are cleaned seconds after people leave them.  Wait times for
attractions are posted and constantly updated via walkie-talkie.  Lines that would
overwhelm most places are tucked into spaces that defy description.  And (you know
we liked this) there are constantly-cleaned bathrooms everywhere.  We had actually
printed a map of all the bathrooms off the internet, so we never had to search for
one either.

You are NEVER bored.  You would think that a one-hour line would be intolerable.
But while you are in the line you are actually in a separate attraction.  For
example, the Star Tours line winds through a space port filled with things to look
at.  Announcements are constantly coming over the loudspeaker about droids needing
passport and visa checks and ships leaving for Endor, etc. 3CPO and R2D2 are doing
their act in a space ship scene, and a Johnny-5 robot (from the movie Short Circuit)
is operating the space port controls in a somewhat eccentric manner.

It is super clean.  There are waste cans every 25 feet all over the park (even in
the ride lines), and in four days I did not see one that was unattended and
overflowing.  You just feel guilty not using them, so everyone does.

The employees are well-trained and very friendly.  They all chat with you, and they
seem very happy to be there.  I would guess they are well-paid compared to most
theme parks, because even the most menial jobs seemed to be staffed with competent
people.

The technology is awesome.  They have life-like robots manning many of the attractions
which you can't tell from humans at a distance.  When you are in a ride the lighting
and special effects make you feel like you are really in the setting of the attraction.
They especially have jungles and outer space down pat.

Top Ten Attractions at DisneyLand as compiled by the Fitts family during a post-trip
dinner at Ninfa's:

1.  Indiana Jones and the Temple of the Forbidden Eye.

Or as we re-named it...Indiana Jones and the Temple of the Two-Hour Line.  This was
one of the most heavily-traveled attractions and actually did have lines which at
times exceeded one hour. We only waited forty-five minutes though, and the last
thirty minutes winds through a cave filled with the usual Indiana Jones stuff.

The ride itself is aptly described in the warning disclaimer as "a high-speed
off-road trip filled with sharp turns and sudden drops". Yep, that's it all right.
You are in a jeep like Indy would use and you go through all the stuff he does in
the movies (on two wheels at times). At the end there is a boulder like the scene
in the movie which you seemingly cannot escape.  An Indy robot is there hanging by
a rope screaming at you to GO BACK!  At the last second the floor opens and you
plunge down a roller-coaster ramp at high-speed to safety.  Great stuff...everybody
loved this one. We rode it twice in one day.


2.  Pirates of the Caribbean

This is a boat trip through a robot-manned pirate adventure which is mostly
underground.  You go through a building that's on fire, end up in the middle of a
battle, and the robots are doing funny things on the side too.  The technology in
this one is fascinating, and the lines were pretty short because each boat held 16
people and there were a lot of them.  This was Rosann's favorite, but we all liked
it.


3.  Star Tours

You are allegedly taking a space trip to the moon of Endor, but the pilot is an
inexperienced droid who has other ideas.  After a harrowing side trip through the
maintenance bay and a jump to hyper-space, you end up in the battle scene from
Star Wars where Luke goes through the trench to blow up the battle star.  And
you do it.

The G-force and turns/spins/drops make you feel like you are really in the battle.
You see everything on the ships' viewscreen so that looks real too.  The neat thing
about this one is the whole thing never moves! You are in a room, and the room goes
up and down.  I don't how they did the G-force, but it was very realistic.  Eric's
favorite.


4.  Jungle Cruise

Yeah, it's a boat cruise through a jungle.  But the boat drivers are comedians and
they are quite funny.  It's shady and cool, and there are robot-animals all over
the place.


5.  Space Mountain

This was Sara's favorite.  We all liked it to varying degrees, but none of the rest
of us would do it again.  It is a high-speed roller coaster which Sara says is pretty
tame but I didn't think so.  You are in space while you do it and oh yeah one more
thing...it's in the dark!  Yep, pitch black except the stars.  Whoa, Nellie.  Eric
and I screamed the whole way, Rosann got a queezy stomach, and Sara sat with her
elbow out the window like it was a Sunday drive after church.

We passed on the other three roller coaster rides after this one.


6.  Roger Rabbit's Car Toon Spin

This was in Toontown, which is basically, well, Toontown.  You get in a two-seater
car (the movie taxi) and drive through the Roger Rabbit attractions including barely
missing getting sprayed with The Dip by the villian.  The car spins around, goes
backwards, and all the crazy stuff you would expect in Toontown.  LONG lines for
this one (which was the kiddie favorite) so we only did it once. But the line wound
through stuff from the Roger Rabbit movie set so that was neat too.


7.  Mickey's House and Minnie's House (they don't live together you know...this is
a family show)

You got a personal session with Mickey and Minnie where you can take pictures with
them.  Eric loved this.  Mickey doesn't say much, but he sure knows how to treat
his guests.  Also Goofy, Donald, and the rest of the gang are walking around outside.


8.  Haunted Mansion

Yeah, it's a haunted mansion.  The hologram ghosts dancing in a ballroom are worth
the wait. While in line you end up in room with no doors or windows that gets your
attention for a while.


9.  Autopia

You drive go-cart cars around a winding road-race type course.  Eric had a ball
driving and, as you might expect, he was a natural.  I think he could drive a car
if he could reach the pedals.  Sara drove behind her mother and kept crashing into
her from behind on purpose.  What a card.


10.  Peter Pan's Flight

You ride in ski-lift type cars that go through an ingenious miniature city at night.
So you are not high enough to scare the little kids, but it looks that way.


There was more, but those are the highlights.  We rode all the good ones twice,
and could have ridden some a third time.  We also maxed-out our credit cards at the
many souvenir shops, and ate several $30+ lunches. The food was good though, and
the restaurant lines weren't too bad.