Disneyland: Adventureland

 

In the last post I mentioned that as you head up main street there is Central Plaza and Sleeping Beauty's Castle right in front of you. The natural instinct is to go through the castle to enter Fantasyland, but there are three other entrances here. If you turn left you can enter Tomorrowland. On the right is Frontierland and to the right of that is Adventureland, which is where we will start.

Walking underneath the torches, Adventureland may seem small. There is one path, and you don't have to go very far before you have passed through it completely and entered New Orleans Square. However, in that space, you have four attractions, three places to get food, and some great shopping.

Many of the rides exit into gift shops, and most of them are fun to look in, but the theme is carried through very well here. So leaving the Jungle Cruise you find plush jungle animals and rubber snakes, and across from that you can get hats, whips, and jackets like Indiana Jones, and we have always enjoyed ourselves here.

The first stop is the Enchanted Tiki Room, and you get a good idea of the way the entertainment and the purchasing opportunities go together here, because the Tiki Juice Bar is adjacent to the courtyard where you wait for the next show, and so you can enjoy refreshment while you wait (and I believe take it in), but you can also make purchases from outside.

Enchanted Tiki Room: Listen to animatronic birds, flowers, and the building itself sing, and sing along yourself during one part. It's pretty cute. There is only one showroom, so you may have to wait for the next show, but that wait is not lengthy, and as showtime approaches the courtyard tiki figures from Hawaiian mythology begin to move and speak. 

Tiki Juice Bar: Sponsored by Dole, you can get pineapple whip here like you would get at the Dole Pineapple plantation. This should be especially refreshing in hot weather.

Jungle Cruise: This and the Tiki Room are both older attractions, relying heavily on animatronics. In this case, instead of listening to them sing in a room, you are going past them in a boat while your guide tells corny jokes. It is fairly predictable, but the animals look great for the most part, and every now and then they add things. Those piranha did not used to be there.

Tropical Imports: This is another one of those spots where you can buy the healthier snacks, like fruit cups. However, it may be one of the best examples of how they make the individual stops fit in well with the overall design. There is a definite look and feel to the land, and it works with what you are doing there.

Indiana Jones Adventure: Speaking of design, one Disney specialty is giving you a lot to look at while you are waiting in line, and this may be the best example of that, as you work your way through an ancient Bengalese temple. Once you work your way through, you board cars that look like old military transports, and take off through the temple, where after you look in the eyes of Mara, a goddess depicted there, well, everything goes wrong, from darts shooting out of walls, rats, bugs, a giant snake, and a big boulder rolling towards you. Every now and then Indy pops back up to help. The ride is exciting. The cars do jerk a lot, so it is not as smooth a ride as the Matterhorn or Thunder Mountain, but not as shaky as Space Mountain.

Tarzan's Treehouse: This used to be the Swiss Robinson Family Treehouse, and it was a pretty good model of the one from the movie. I was initially not keen on the change, but one thing they have done is turned it into another attraction where your children can tire themselves out. In addition to the steeper climb, there are ropes to pull on and sand pits to dig in, and the occasional scene from Tarzan. You do get a pretty good view from the top.

Bengal Barbecue: This is one of our favorite restaurants in the park, and one we always go to. You will notice that the prices for the skewers they sell seem remarkably low. The skewers aren't really that big. You may find that you want more than one. However, since they are sold in single units, if you decide you want a spicy one and then a not spicy, or both beef and chicken, or you want more vegetables, but not all vegetables, this should work for you. We usually each get a single skewer and then two Mickey pretzels to share, or something like that, and it works out.

The Barbecue is very popular, and there is not a lot of seating here, nor any seating for Tropical Imports. It just isn't a very big land. However, there is a building, Aladdin's Oasis, where they have story time with Aladdin and Jasmine, and one of the park workers recommended it for overflow seating when not in use. We found a table so we haven't tried it, but it's something to keep in mind.