Back in 1981 I went to Disneyland in California and it seemed like a magical place.  We went during the week and I only remember waiting in line for a few rides, but even then the lines weren’t exceptionally long. Last weekend I went back and the average wait was about an hour to over an hour for the popular rides.  Yes, I know it was a Saturday, but wow! I did a search and found out that weekends average around 80,000 people (at approximately $100 each…add that up!), so I went in knowing their would be a ton of people.  It was wall to wall people, but a great time.  I don’t think I need to go back for another 30 years.

“Space Mountain” was still my favorite ride with “Splash Mountain” a close second.  The biggest let down was “Indiana Jones” – long wait and just a jerky ride that didn’t last long or seem very well done.  “Small World” was mostly the same, with a few new characters added.  We did quite a few rides, but those two really stand out as my favorites. Since we were there only one day it didn’t make sense to do the park hopper pass…perhaps in 30 years I’ll go back and do that one.

We stayed in Laguna Beach at a place called “14 West“.  It was a neat little boutique hotel that was setup like little apartments with on site parking and was about a 2-3 minute walk to the beach.  Very clean, small kitchen, fireplace in the room, hot tub within 10 feet of the room, deck area with chairs, grill, etc.

It was a fun and relaxing weekend and so good to get away from the day-to-day normal stuff here at home.“