The Beginning of Today’s Adventure
Today’s focus would be on Treasure Cove and Adventure Isle. I had familiarised myself with the layout of the land yesterday, so today I just headed straight there. On my way down Mickey Avenue, I ran into the Disneyland Band just leaving the backstage area. I got a few waves while they were setting up, then they were off down the street.
I didn’t stay to watch the show, as I was keen to get my hands on a FP for Roaring Rapids, and I suspected I would have to be fairly quick. It was kind of strange turning right at the end of Mickey Avenue to enter Adventure Isle!
Turns out that I’d left it too late for FPs in Adventure Isle. The FP distribution there was for Soaring as well as Roaring Rapids, and Soaring was just ridiculously popular. The CM holding the sign was marking the end of the queue for FPs, moving along as more people entered. The queue went pretty much all the way to the entrance to Adventure Isle before doubling back to the FP kiosk. I estimated the wait time to be close to an hour.
With that being the case, I decided to head straight to Treasure Cove and ride Pirates before the line got too long there. I didn’t stop for many photos along the way, wanting to make full use of this relatively quiet time in the park. Treasure Cove and Adventure Isle are pretty much one huge land, set around the shores of the large lagoon in the middle. Because of this layout, it was possible to just walk in circles around the lake and see nothing but those two lands. It was actually really immersive!
Luckily for me, Pirates was quite near the entrance to Adventure Isle, so I didn’t have to walk far around the lake and it didn’t take long to get there. The wait time said 30 minutes, so I jumped in line. The SR line didn’t seem to be in operation yet, with a CM blocking the entrance to it. 30 minutes wasn’t so long that I was willing to waste time trying to figure out what the deal was with the SR line.
The wait time was probably closer to 20 minutes anyway, and the queue was so well themed with lots to look at along the way, that time went pretty quick. I found myself starting to get familiar with the local way of queuing, and actually starting to do some ‘queue squeezing’ of my own! I didn’t get a second glance, and certainly no dirty looks, which was really just confirmation for me that it was just how it was done over there (later on I would see a fist fight nearly break out over queue jumping, so I’m pretty sure I would have heard about it if people thought I was doing the wrong thing!).
Towards the end of the queue, there were some little ‘rooms’ off to the side full of detail. There was also a little section where we were directly above the end of the ride and we could see the boats passing underneath us.
The boats are larger than their Anaheim counterparts, with about 30 people fitting onto one boat. Despite its (well-deserved) popularity, this was one quick moving queue that never really did get insanely long. Looking back, I really should have used this time to do Roaring Rapids, or perhaps even the Challenge Trails (remembering that I had already decided not to bother with Soaring)!
OMG this ride is everything you’ve heard about and more! It is insanely good! I’m sure you have already seen the youtube videos if you’re interested, so I won’t go into too much detail here, but the effects are just incredible, and the immersion is fantastic. The underwater scenes are stunning, and it really does feel like you’re going down under the sea then coming back up in those scenes. The combination of projections on huge domed screens, animatronics, and static props really gives a whole new depth to this ride. While I did miss the old ‘Yo Ho, Yo Ho’, the new score based on the movies is compelling and I think more appropriate for the more dramatic scenes in this version of the ride. It’s easily the best dark ride I’ve experienced.
There is a gift shop at the exit, which is also beautifully themed and has a huge array of unique Pirates themed merchandise. Later, I bought DH a beer stein from there – I thought he’d appreciate it more than a t-shirt lol!
The ride had been so good that I immediately went back to the line to ride it again! The wait time still said 30 minutes, but this time it was closer to 40.
