My first Disneyland experience happened on the third day of my Tokyo trip. I got on the app as soon as I got through the gates and booked a pass for the Haunted Mansion an hour away, and I passed the first hour lining up and getting on It's a Small World. The exterior of it is really beautiful and I love a good boat ride no matter what, but what I noticed more than anything was how strong the A/C was inside.
My exit from the ride was perfect timing, allowing me to saunter on over to the Haunted Mansion so I could scan my pass and skip the 45-minute wait. Super convenient! We headed right into the foyer, then into the elevator that I've come to know as the stretching room.
I don't talk about this often, but I'm very interested in theme parks, reading up on all kinds of histories and lore. The artistry, effects, and storytelling are incredible to me. I have this whole list of rides I want to try, and the Haunted Mansion has been near the very top. But here's the thing: I didn't expect it to be so dark! I've watched videos online to see what it's like and somehow I never thought the real thing would be so poorly lit by design. It definitely heightened the ambiance of exploring an old, decrepit mansion that had long gone out of electricity, and I began to feel actual dread set in when we walked across the hall that would take us to the loading station. (Everyone around me had a pal to laugh the jitters off and hold hands with and I was alone, okay!)
When I got on the Doom Buggy and got to see all of the silly-creepy effects I've come to know by heart, though, I only felt excitement. The seance room was gorgeous, and of course the ball scene was magical. Panic set in a little again when we got to the part with the beating-heart bride, because we took forever to pass by and she was literally right next to me, staring into my soul. Another thing I could never account for from just watching on-ride videos was how much movement and twisting and turning the vehicles actually did around the house, especially the little lift hill that would culminate in a "drop" beside the caretaker and the dog—in fucking reverse, like you're being buried alive.
My next stop was the Peter Pan ride. I was really looking forward to seeing the London cityscape and little Neverland surrounded by stars, and it didn't disappoint. The suspended track system was really cool and did add the tangible sensation of soaring. I was a little worried about the life-size Jolly Roger scene at the end, because I have automatonophobia and there were like a dozen human figures on it, but I realized that a quick fix was just to remove my glasses. Honestly, my horrible eyesight has been a godsend for certain parts of my life.
And then it was time to brave Beauty and the Beast. Not the ride, but the 120-minute wait under the bright, blazing sun. I'd tried to buy a pass on the app to avoid it, but it rejected my debit card, so I had to suck it up, because this was the one part of my day that I could not miss.
Crazy that there was hardly any shade for the outdoor part of the line, but at least it was still cold. It really was just that I could feel the rays seeping into my skin. It had me ordering a Tocobo sunstick as soon as I got home. (I never go out into the sun around Metro Manila so I've never had a need for it, but I'm a brand new person who is also planning on going on more Japan trips with a lot of walking.)
I learned another thing in line: it's so much more exhausting and painful to stand around and move very slowly than it is to walk. The supposed two-hour wait time ended up being a little less than that, though, and soon enough I was front and center for the staircase scene before finally getting on the teacup-shaped vehicle.
There's so much life injected into this ride. And it's not just the amazingly smooth and vivid animatronics. I'm realizing just now how fitting that is, how they made inanimate objects feel human for a story that's about characters retaining their humanity even as they become objects. The "Be Our Guest" scene was chaotic in the best way, and the "Something There" scene was really sweet and had me humming the song for days after. I'm also very in awe of the Beast transformation effect, along with the way the castle was brought back to life, leading into the grand ballroom where Belle and the Prince are forever entwined, dancing to their sweeping soundtrack.
The engineers (I refuse to use the corporate word!) have said that the trackless ride system is meant to feel like the vehicles are also dancing and moving, and they really were gliding across the floors. They were surprisingly fast in a really fun way, and it showed me again how strong the A/C is in Disney rides from how the cool wind kept getting in my face. Anyway, all this to say: As Belle and Adam swayed around and around, our oversize teacups circled the room and gently but firmly tilted this way and that like we were waltzing right along with them. The song crescendoed, all those gorgeous layered harmonies, and of course I fucking cried.
Beauty and the Beast has never even a strong part of my life the way The Little Mermaid or The Lion King or even Toy Story are.
More than how worth it the wait was and how breathtaking the ride is, it was everything that had led me to that moment, going on this trip, the grief I'm carrying on top of the one I've carried for almost three years, the way depression makes every good thing feel like something you've held on long enough to see. (I've written about that before, so let me self-plagiarize.) The way the scariest, worst possible things have happened, but the life I'm trying to live beyond that doesn't feel like a consolation prize at all, and the way I'm letting myself be okay with that.
The way I sat with my mom four years before, watching a video of the ride when it first opened, and the way we were both so entranced. It felt so impossible at the time that I would ever get to go on it, and I had no idea about anything that was to come.
Time for the funniest, stupidest segue ever after all of that emotional navel-gazing: Lunch. It was 2 p.m. by the time I exited the Beast's castle, and I wound up at the Pan Galactic Pizza Port for a calzone, a cold drink I desperately needed, and the classic alien mochi balls. It was crowded like every theme park restaurant ever on any given time on any given day, but I was lucky to find a table.
The only ride left that I really wanted to go on was the Roger Rabbit ride, because of this actually quite pretty sequence where it looks like you're falling down a building among the clouds, but you're moving horizontally across them and it's really just a cool 2D perspective effect.
I was bummed because the app said that morning that the ride wasn't available, but I had checked ride unavailability dates weeks in advance (#JustINFJThings) and there wasn't any mention of it, so I decided to check one more time just in case. And by then it was open! I had spent an hour resting while eating, so I had just enough time to line up and get on it before I had to exit the park and go back on the road.
It seemed at first like a short wait, but the line actually snaked all around these queueing areas that reminded me of what I've learned about Disney's forced perspectives and their techniques for hiding long lines and wait times. The areas are very elaborately themed and interactive, looking and sounding like back alleys and streets in nighttime Toontown, and I was glad I got to see them. The ride itself was fine and the fake-falling set piece was the highlight for me, like I knew it would be, along with Jessica Rabbit.
Trying to get the most out of Disneyland is impossible to do in a day like I've read—but they had very clean and convenient toilets and you can always find a place to sit, I'll give them that.
All in all, I had a good day. The drive to and from the park was full of views of pretty buildings, and I got to see Tokyo transform from tiled apartment buildings with looping fire-escape staircases and cozy rooftop gardens into shiny, modern office buildings making up a business district as we kept going on the elevated expressway. I'd been missing my parents extra lately, and it reminded me of falling asleep in the backseat on the road, lulled along while they laughed together up front.
Dinner was really delicious steak with demi-glace and fried rice, with these cute lightly flavored mint cakes for dessert.
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