The Shadow of the Mouse

Once upon a time in a land far, far away, a young girl lived in the shadow of the mouse. When eventually, she moved from Orlando to DC, she thought perhaps she was escaping the reign of whatever evil villan had taken over the "Happiest Place on Earth" and turned it into an expensive day of standing in long lines.

But the young girl has learned to stop saying never - because the evil queen looked into whatever crystal ball and casted a spell that has our heroine living, once again, among the Disney obsessed. Just for good measure, the evil queen made sure that just outside our heroine's office door sits a Disney-obsessed co-worker. This character has 2 daughters who both have birthdates close to hers, so they have an annual Princess Birthday party. For ALL of them. I understand that at least some level of dress-up is involved.



The Disney Empire is a little more spread out in L.A. compared to Orlando. Some of the main studios are in Burbank, a ways away from Disneyland's home in Anaheim, but it is as Disney as you would expect. The building has 7 pillars across the front....one of Snow White's dwarf's on each.

Will our heroine ever be able to live happily ever after, co-existing the long arm of the Mouse? Perhaps a few nights of Sing-a-long Little Mermaid at Disney's El Capitan theater in Hollywood will bring her around.

But the question remains....can she survive Disney? Let's take a look...........

Richard has long thought the Happiest Place on Earth was a farmhouse in Remsen, IA. It is located near the 'ice cream capital of the world' afterall, so it's hard to argue with that logic. But we figured we'd give this place a fair shot at changing his mind. We went to investigate the claim for ourselves, and were fortunate enough to have our friend Mark in town - an experienced Disneyland guide - who ushered us through the park and helped keep us sane. Well, only so sane....we did end up buying an annual pass to the place so we can go any time we want...we may have lost our minds.

Apparently my family came to Disneyland when I was very small. I have no memory of it and the only thing I ever really knew about it was my older brother's not-so-glorious description of the place; "Disneyland could fit in Disney World's parking lot."

After years of being dragged to Walt Disney World (WDW) because yet another friend or relative had come to Orlando to visit and having to stand in line for '90 minutes from this point ->' for a ride I'd been on 236 times and I knew was not worth more than a 5-minute wait, I was admittedly apprehensive about just how much I might like Disneyland.

For anyone who has been to Disney World I can tell you one aspect of the attraction is definitely worth the price of admission: Realizing that this was the original, conceived and built in the 1950's, and that Disney World is the 2.0 version. There is fascination in identifying the similarities and differences between the two parks and trying to determine exactly why they thought the original Space Mountain needed to be changed when they built it in Orlando, but the Mr. Toad's Wild Ride had universal appeal the way it was. Or, for that matter, why the Mr. Toad's Wild Ride translated into the new Orlando park while the other carbon copies with different story lines (Alice in Wonderland) did not.

And why (for that matter ;-) Mr. Toad's was replaced by Pooh in Orlando, while the Pooh ride in Disneyland got it's own new area in Critter Country, and Mr. Toad still offers his wild ride to all Anaheim takers. Why is Splash Mountain a 2-person-to-a-row boat ride in WDW, but a sit-behind-each-other log flume in Disneyland? Why did the Mattahorn bobsled, with its secret-yet-everyone-knows-about-it-basketball court, not make the move East? What was Walt thinking?

There are smaller similarities and differences that surprised me. There is a New Orleans-themed street in Disneyland that does not exist in WDW. The WDW Swiss Family Robinson Tree House belongs to Tarzan in Disneyland. The Space Mountain in Disneyland kicks WDW's buttocks.

What did not surprise me - the Jungle Cruise in both parks uses the same terrible jokes, and the Haunted Mansion needs upgrading in both parks. And if you favor the Orlando park, you should petition for an Indiana Jones ride. One of the best rides of the day in Disneyland.

I did learn one very important lesson for the day I'd like to share with you, if you show up in the morning and Splash Mountain is closed for repairs, just stay off the thing all day. Because if they have drained it and then refilled it before you get on, the water must be at a high level that takes a while to even out through evaporation and removal on the shirts of soaked patrons. I know this because we did more than our fair share of removing water from the ride once it was re-opened. I've been on rides like that before, Richard and Mark have too. Never have any of us been so thoroughly soaked as that day. Proof I am not exaggerating for effect? The boat we were in had so much water in the bottom of it, they had to take it out of commission to drain it after we had gotten out. Apparently that 6 inches of water in the bottom was, in fact, not normal. Who knew?

For those of you who have gotten this far and think this all sounds a little mundane for the Los Angeles Crazies.....consider this. There are not one but 2 locations in Disneyland where you can buy McDonald's fries. And no other food. No burgers, no chicken strips, no Happy Meals...just a whole food kiosk devoted to McDonald's fries. So popular, they had to open a second location. Hungry?

As for my brother's assertion about size (why are boys always obsessed with size?), Disneyland is much smaller, though they have added a sizeable (and fun!) Toon Town and Critter Country since he was there as a young boy. But the most striking size difference hits you when you enter the park. Both initial experiences are similar....enter the turnstile and pass through the train station to Main Street USA. The street might be a little smaller in Disneyland, but the thing that will immediately catch any WDW frequent visitor's eye is the castle at the other end. It was shrunk by one of the Disney villians. I'm not lying, I laughed. Apparently Sleeping Beauty ('owner' of the Disneyland homestead) is not doing as well in this economy as Cinderella, who orders servants around in WDW.

For a couple of fabulous side-by-side pictures of similar attractions in each site, visit http://www.disneygeek.com/dland_vs_wdw/.

Our conlcusion is that it lacks the happiness found on the Iowa farm....but, it will do for an occasional day out for us. Unlike the 47-square miles of all the WDW theme parks in Orlando, the only other thing here in L.A. is the California Adventure. We have not been yet, but we have annual passes now...so darn it, we're going! And I can tell you without reservation - California is an adventure. And we're surviving it!!