Jeff's Disneyland Memories: Trip Report

		DL Trip Report January 10, 1998
		DL Trip Report January 10, 1998

All photos were taken on an Olympus D-600L digital camera, at a resolution of 1280x1024 in HQ mode. The large pictures are quite large, but you'll find them to be worth the download in many cases. A few were downsized, and some were edited in Photoshop as well. But they're pretty raw, overall.You can click on the thumbnails to see the larger pictures!

My roommate and I went up on Saturday, hoping the rain had kept the crowds away. After all, it was the first weekend of the $28 resident salute. On the way I joked about my wish that Imagineering would be testing the Rocket Rods XPR on Saturdays.. yeah.. right.

Yeah, right! In fact, we saw the rocket rods zooming around 7 or 8 times! We planted ourselves in many strategic places to see it specifically. One time we heard something like this on the P.A. system: "Attention on the Rocket Rod track: high speed run beginning now." And it would pull up to the lights on the track, and ZOOOM off it went before slowing around the curves. We couldn't see it pop a wheelie though. We also saw it in several other areas, including about 3 feet away while on the monorail. It was awesome. It does make a pretty loud whining noise, but it's not that bad. I did manage to take a picture, but it's pretty lousy.

Above: The Rocket Rod XPR vehicle (circled in red), headed from left to right. It's about to turn hard left for a FAST run down towards the station.

Another thing that was cool was the new entrance to Tomorrowland.. we saw them lower the rockets on the Astro Orbitor, so we saw them both up, and down. They look super!

Left: The entrance to New Tomorrowland, with the sign, alien rock, and Astro Orbitor. (SHQ shot at 1280x1024!)
Right: A close up of the rocket on the Astro Orbitor (SHQ shot too-very clean!)

After some more wandering around watching Rocket Rods, we did our usual run of rides: Thunder Mountain (x2), Splash Mountain (x2), Matterhorn (x2), Indy (x2), Pirates (x1), Haunted Mansion (x1), and of course, Mr. Toad! (WDW Toad fans should check out the Save Mr. Toad site!)

Above: The entrance to Mr. Toad's Wild Ride

Once it got really dark, it was back to Tomorrowland for a look at the skyline-- and what else, Rocket Rod watching! The spire on the Rocket Rod side is coming along well.. the Star Tours one has been finished for a while.

Above: The Star Tours spire, with rocket rod track at right, Astro Orbitor in the background.

One of the other big things we did was Fantasmic (of course!), which was shown once only at 8:45pm. The only thing missing was the Ursula float--everything else worked without a hitch, though the fireworks at the end were a little off cue.

Above Left: Maleficient works her magic, lighting the rivers on fire. (This shot was reduced in size, but is still nice)

Above Right: A very crisp shot of the finale: the river is on fire, and fireworks are blowing up all over the place.

Left: The Mark Twain comes around in the finale. Reduced in size for better quality.

We left the park at about 11:30-- overall, uncrowded.. . but we had a great time!

I'd love to hear what you think about my pictures! Just drop Jeff a line!