On Wednesday 9th April, we arrived in Anaheim from Vancouver for the final leg of our holiday. We have been away from Australia since 20 February and have managed to fit in so many great sights and visits and now we are at Disneyland.  This is a smaller theme park than the Disney World theme park in Orlando and as we have 5 days here we intend to take advantage of the time to fit in as much as possible.

There is a special on Theme Park passes and we are able to purchase a 5 day pass for $174.00, which is usually the price of a 3 day pass.  We brought the passes at the Holiday Inn & Suites reception area which was really convenient.

There are two theme parks – Disneyland and California. We have decided to start at Disneyland, so after going through the bag check and picking up a map at the entrance gates we take a moment to plan what we are going to do.

Okay we’re off maneuvering skillfully through the crowd towards Space Mountain to pick up a Fastpass. After getting the ticket we realize that we have made a boo-boo. We can’t get on the ride until 3:10pm which effectively stops us from getting another fastpass until that time.

Oh well not to worry, it just means we will have to queue for the other rides. So we head to Frontierland and the first ride is the ‘Matterhorn Bobsleds’.  This ride is okay, lots of twists and turns but lacks any of the drops that would make it spectacular. More a ride for kids moving up in the scare scale before tackling the more advanced rides.

Okay, next comes the ‘Big Thunder Railroad’. This is better, definitely has a scream factor. This is followed by ‘Splash Mountain’ which is a favorite and is situated in Critter Country. We went on the similar ride a number of times in Disneyworld last year and it is well worth the hour wait even though Paula complained continuously. This ride has a couple of teasers where you are pulled up a hill and expect a long drop only to continue gently down the waterway, there are a couple of turns and some splashing of water. Then you continue through a twisting waterway where animated characters sing and send you on your way to a 50 foot drop which is the really exciting part. Lots of laughter and screaming and we are at the bottom of the drop. An excellent ride.

Then it’s a cruise around the ‘Rivers of America’ on the Mark Twain Riverboat. The boat takes you around Tom Sawyer’s Island where there are all sorts of things to do including a pirate show. We spot Captain Jack  from’Pirates of the Caribbean’  not Johnny Depp unfortunately), swaggering around entertaining the crowd on the island.

We have lunch at the River Belle Terrace and order roast beef sandwiches which are enormous and so they should be for $12:95 each. I had ordered smaller portions at $:95 each but the serving staff didn’t feel that would be enough for us and gave us the larger serving.  The sandwich came with a side salad and was very tasty and filling.

Deciding not to take another turbulent ride after having just eaten we head to ‘Tomorrow Land’ to see the ‘Honey I shrunk the Kids’ 3D show followed by ‘Star Tours’ where you take an animated 3D ride with R2D2 into space and around the Death Star from Star Wars.

At last it is time to head off to ‘Space Mountain’ and as we have the fastpass we are able to walk past all the people waiting in the regular queue, to the head of the line.  This ride is amazing. You are on a very large roller coaster with lots of drops, twists and turns and the whole thing takes place in total darkness so you are unable to anticipate when the drops will come.  Awesome.

As we are here for 5 days we decide to take it easy and not try to do everything in day 1 as we usually do.

So we head off back to the hotel. Even though we have taken it relatively easy we have still managed to cover everything except Mickey’s Toontown.

But before we do leave we come into Main St where crowds have gathered to watch the ‘Walt disney’s Parade of Dreams’ which is led out by Tinkerbell.

This parade makes it’s way from “It’s a Small World’ to Main St every day at 3:30pm and  back from Main St to ‘It’s a Small World nightly at 6:30pm.

Be sure to keep hydrated by drinking plenty of water in the warm weather and wear comfortable shoes.

The Olympic Torch for the games to be held in Beijing in August passed through Canberra today. 

 The capital is the only Australian city that the torch will be going to.  So we set off nice and early because the roads into the city center are all being closed off to through traffic.

So Val (husband) and I are in my car and are following Varinia (daugher) my three grandaughers – Ayla, Demelza and Ce’Nedra, in her car. Well what a wild drive this turns out to be. I don’t think Varinia is aware that there are speed limits or that crossing lanes at a manic pace is probably not really acceptable.  However, we finally arrive at her work to park and set off down towards King Edward Ave. Our Grandson Sebastian was a no show having missed his flight from Brisbane to Canberra due to a heavy night on the town last night.

We are among the first to arrive at this particular spot and it’s not long before we are joined by a Chinese contingent in full national costume waving large flags and beating a large drum.

We have a photo taken with them and they are very obliging to everyone who requests photos.

An elderly Italian gent arrive and tells us that he ran a leg of the relay for the last Olympic Games when the torch passed through Bundaberg in Queensland.  We are then joined by a Chinese gent who keeps us entertained with tales of his life in China, Thailand and Malaysia along with his view on the Tibet situation. 

There aren’t any protesters along our stretch of the route, simply lots of supportive fans and lots and lots of police. 

There is an extremely large police contingent, in fact when the runner finally arrives with the torch it’s almost impossible to see her because of the large number of police surrounding her.  Fortunately, Demelza manages to get a clear photo of Fiona Stanley, former Australian of the Year and leading epidemiologist from Subiaco WA.

The route for the Olympic Torch Relay, known as the Journey of Harmony, is the longest route measuring an impressive 137,000 kilometres. That is enough klms to cross the globe three and a half times. Other host cities for the torch relay includes san Francisco, Paris, London and Buenos Aires.

The ancient Chinese trade route -The Silk Road- inspired the global route. It was the Silk Road that opened up cultural and trade transactions between China and the West in 114BC. Canberra was never part of The Silk Road, but is included in the torch relay route as recognition of it’s sister city relationship with Beijing, and it’s status as the Australian national capital.

Not only is the route the longest torch relay in history, but the torch had been especially created to burn at high altitude as it ascends Mount Qomolangma, (Mount Everest).

There were pockets of protesters along the way and a number of scuffles broke out in other sectors of the relay route which resulted in 7 arrests in Canberra. However, we did not see any of this from where we were standing. We enjoyed standing on the sideline watching the torch go on its way. When the relay had passed us and we started to make our way back to the car the Chinese around us began chanting ‘One China’ as some of the ‘Free Tibet’ protesters came past.

There were a number of activities such as hot air ballooning and the relay was followed by a concert at Stage 88.

 Here is a list of the Beijing Olympic Torchbearers for 2008 in Canberra, in the order in which they carried the torch.

1. Tania Major
2. Elizabeth Patrick
3. Megan Marcks
4. Jonathon Welch
5. Qiaobo Ye
6. Jacquelin Magnay
7. Neale Lavis
8. Rachel Imison
9. John Mackay
10. Changbin Yu
11. Carol Keil
12. David Bussau
13. Heath Francis
14. Robert Innes
15. Christian Williams
16. Gerrard Gosens
17. Libby Trickett (Lenton)
18. Phillip Cameron
19. Paul Narracott
20. Robert De Castella
21. Matt Welsh
22. Adam Pine
23. Jodie Henry
24. Nova Peris
25. Lee Kernaghan
26. Alice Mills
27. Fiona Stanley
28. Ian Frazer
29. Mark Beretta
30. Peter Sharp
31. Michael York
32. Louise Sauvage
33. Karyn Reis
34. Katrina Fong Lim
35. Louise Padgett
36. Sophie Bowen
37. Janelle White
38. Andrew Heslop
39. Aaron Fleming
40. Andrew Behrndt
41. Jai Taurima
42. David Dickson
43. Petria Thomas
44. Fiona Wood
45. Matthew Vincent
46. Julius (Judy) Patching
47. Jake Warcaba
48. Marjorie Jackson-Nelson
49. Heather McKay
50. Judith Clarendon Cox
51. Matilda House
52. Craig Wallace
53. Ian Ruff
54. Raymond Smee
55. Emma Beadsworth
56. Michael Hellessey
57. G.Q. Max Lu
58. Alby Woolmer
59. Don Whitbread
60. Hanna Lord
61. Margaret Scott
62. Susan Zhuang
63. Tim Cuddihy
64. Donald Stanley
65. Kerry Saxby-Junna
66. Edmund Thomas
67. Gilian Hicks
68. Amanda Fraser
69. Jo Brown
70. Ngaree Ah Kit
71. Michael Milton
72. Stasia Dabrowski
73. Michael Gallagher
74. Daria Joura
75. Howard Gilmour
76. Clementine Pickwick
77. Doug Hall
78. Wolford Parsons
79. Ron Clarke
80. Ian Thorpe

Some of the rides at Disneyland are so popular that the regular queue can have a waiting time of up to 100 minutes. Waiting in long lines means you have less time to spend on other activities that you may want to see.  So make sure you take advantage of Disney’s FASTPASS to cut down your waiting time.

Check your park map for the attractions that have FP marked next to them. In Disneyland these attractions are:-

• Big Thunder Mountain Railroad
• Splash Mountain
• Indiana Jones Adventure
• Autopia
• Buzz Lightyear Astro Blasters
• Space Mountain
• Roger Rabbit’s Car Toon Spin

So decide which of the attractions you want to get a fastpass for and do this first.  Either check the Times Guide located in Main St for a list of the waiting times for the Fastpass attractions or simply go to the attraction and check out the clocks that show what time you need to return to take the ride.

There is a clock that shows the time for the regular queue to reach the ride from a pre-ordained entry point  and sometimes you may be lucky enough to find that there is only a 15-30 minute wait in which case it is just as easy to join the queue.

However, if you find the wait is going to be too long, find the FASTPASS kiosk for the ride you are interested in and make sure each person in your party who is going on the ride, inserts their Park ticket into the Fastpass kiosk. A green light will come on and a FASTPASS ticket showing what time you need to return by, will be dispensed.  Now you can go and play in the Park instead of waiting in line.

You will find that the FASTPASS ticket will give you an hour in which to return to take the ride. You may obtain the FASTPASS ticket at 10am and it may show a return time of between 2:00pm-3:00pm, so this is the time you need to get back to take the ride.

On your return to the ride you go to the FASTPASS return line and hand over your ticket. Now you walk into the ride with little or no waiting, right past all the people standing in line and once you are at the head of the queue you board the ride before the people in the regular queue.

On the bottom of the ticket will be a time printed that lets you know when you can obtain another FASTPASS ticket. This is so easy and convenient and allows you to get the most out of your time in the Park.

We arrived late last Wednesday night so it was too late to go over to Disneyland, however we were up bright and early the next morning.  Breakfast was taken in the hotel, nothing special, couple of eggs and 2 slices of bacon with toast.

Before you head off to the Disneyland park check if your hotel is on one of the bus shuttle routes, if it is then one of the first things you should do is purchase a shuttle pass from the hotel before boarding the bus.

You cannot purchase a shuttle pass ticket on the bus and if you don’t purchase a pass it will cost you $3.00 for a single trip for adults and $1.00 a single trip for children 2 years and over.

An Anaheim Resort Transport (ART) pre-purchased Day Pass allows you to travel on any of the shuttle buses. This means that once you reach the drop off point at Disneyland you can then board any of the other shuttles to visit other points of interest such as one of the many shopping areas such as Target or the Block at Orange, the Convention Centre or Crystal Cathedral. 

A pre-purchased shuttle pass gives you unlimited travel on the shuttles for as long as the pass is valid and will cost you the following:-

Adults                              Children 2 and over
1-day        $3.00               1-day   $1.00
2-day       $6.00                3-day  $2.00
3-day       $8.00                5-day  $4.00
5-day       $12.00

Children under 2 years of age travel for free.
Chilren 12 years and under must be accompanied by an adult.

If you do not have a pass remember that trips to the Disneyland Park will cost you for each time you travel on the shuttle. Drivers do not carry change so be sure to have the correct fare when you board.

The shuttles are all painted in different colors and themes. There are also Disneyland Cast Shuttles for transporting the many, many staff.