In her last cityseekr post, our intern Ayeon Song reflects on her time here and what she will miss most about the City by the Bay.
Night Views
San Francisco has the most beautiful scenery in the world! The view from Twin Peaks is my favorite.
Tag Archives: Disney
Postcards from Disneyland
Leave a reply
Cue our second Disney-related post! Ayeon, our intern from Korea, is back with a few snapshots of her recent trip to Disneyland and Disney California Adventure Park. For her, it was a slice of her childhood.
What’s one place in the USA that people from all over the world can’t wait to visit? I think it’s Disneyland, the happiest place on earth! I was lucky enough to have a long vacation from work over the holidays, so I decided to make it special by spending the first day of 2012 in Disneyland. Disneyland is one of the main reasons why I wanted to come to the USA.
I’d love to introduce a few tips on how to really enjoy Disneyland.
Tip No.1: Enjoy the benefit of the Fast Pass
Disneyland is too huge to experience in only one day. It consists of Disneyland Park and Disney California Adventure Park. You should take advantage of the Fast Pass system to spend your time effectively so you can visit as many spectacular attractions as possible. First, pick one from the list. When you insert your admission ticket into the Fast Pass machine next to the line for the attraction, it creates a Fast Pass ticket. If you visit that attraction at the written time on it, you could be the very first person in the long line.
Tip No.2: Place your luck on the game table
Forget fortune cookies for today and try luck your at one of the game tables. I think we need to return to the innocence of childhood sometimes, so be a kid again at Disneyland. Play, talk and love! At Disneyland California Adventure Park, there are some game booths where you can fish, shoot a target with a water pistol, or score a goal. You can be a superman in front of many people, so claim the spotlight and win the prize! Continue reading
Parisian Disney Magic
Disney’s plan to build a theme park just a few miles outside of Paris was met with opposition from those who feared cultural imperialism from an American company. However, today Disneyland Paris and the accompanying Walt Disney Studios receive over 15 million visitors each year, which makes it the most popular tourist destination in Europe.
I recently visited the park with a few friends; we figured that Paris + Disney + Christmas = MAGIC. Despite our enthusiasm and optimism, the idea of visiting Disneyland Paris made me feel a bit uneasy. In my mind there could only be two dramatic results: complete disappointment or utter exhilaration. Would Disneyland Paris be an exact replica of Disneyland Anaheim? Or would it be completely different? I was determined to see what made the park unique from its American cousin, and whether or not the park planners made any cultural accommodations.
Disneyland Paris good: Getting to Disneyland from Paris is a breeze! Paris’ RER commuter trains make several stops in Paris and continue to Marne de la Vallé, the suburb where the park is located. Trains come roughly every ten minutes; the ride takes about 35 minutes and costs approximately 22EUR round trip. The train station is located at the gate of Disneyland, right next to the awesomely pink Disneyland Hotel. Besides the RER trains, there is also a SNCF station that receives French national trains and high-speed TGV trains. There is even a shuttle that brings visitors to the park from Charles de Gaulle Airport and Orly Airport. Already, Disneyland Paris’ transportation options put it far ahead of its Anaheim counterpart, with its enormous parking lots and massive parking structures.
Walking into the park, everything looks eerily like the U.S. version. In fact, the layout for both Disney parks is almost exactly the same. A cheery and nostalgic Town Square greets visitors and behind that, Main Street USA with its charming old-fashioned candy shops, boutiques and arcades leads the crowds to a central plaza and the foot of Sleeping Beauty’s castle. Compared to Sleeping Beauty’s castle in California, the castle in Paris is not quite as wide, although the towers definitely appear to be taller. Shiny gold accents and stained glass give the castle a rich look, while cube-shaped trees add an air of whimsy.
Stained glass and brilliant gold accents on Sleeping Beauty’s castle.