Pathing Around The Park: Tomorrowland to New Orleans Square

It's that time! Time to start "pathing" our way around The Park again. When we last were strolling, we had just finished winding our way from Fantasyland to Tomorrowland by one of our favorite routes.  It's another month, and time for another one of our favorite paths; this time we'll be picking up from where we left off at the entrance to Tomorrowland and carrying on to the next stop on our usual route, New Orleans Square.

Few of our trips into Tomorrowland are complete without stops at the following attractions.  They are "must-dos" in our book and most Days In The Park will find us riding almost all of these, especially now that we've become halfway decent at Buzz Lightyear Astro Blasters.  Mr. Lightyear has an amazing attraction named after him in which you sit in your very own XP-40 Star Cruiser, armed with nothing more than a badly-sighted laser gun, charged with tackling and taking down the Evil Emperor Zurg (sworn enemy of the galactic alliance) and all of his Double-A battery-stealing minions.  It's an awesome ride, and a great way to get out of the heat on hot summer days, and an even greater way to show your kids just who's the boss around here.  You point your laser gun and shoot; simple, right?  But totally awesome!  Who has the highest score in your family?

Now that Star Tours is once again open, all is right inside Tomorrowland.  "Star Wars" fanboys and fangirls, unite!  It's worth a trip into this Land if for no other reason than to give this new, updated attraction a spin.  Almost everyone is familiar with the older Star Tours attraction, so the premise is much the same.  But add in a new 3D-HD version, a new pilot, and up to 54 different ride possibilities made up of 11 different attraction elements (planets and characters), and it's a party in your Star Speeder!  But be warned, this one is known to cause some motion sickness.  If you're able to handle turbulence well, though, you can't afford to miss it.  We never do!

And what trip into Tomorrowland would be complete without a stop at arguably the galaxy's greatest store?  Welcome to the Star Trader, your one-stop place to shop for all of your "Star Wars" paraphernalia.  You can find everything from caps, t-shirts, plush all the way up to creating your own light-sabers.  A perfect place to stop and shop for souvenirs for the kiddies, or maybe that adult in your group who just refuses to grow up like Mark does with us.  And who could resist a life-size replica of an X-Wing Fighter?  Not us, say we!

And we've only just scratched this surface of this particular Land O'Plenty.  There is tons to do inside Tomorrowland, and we enjoy almost every bit of it.  Looking for a bit of Michael and some 80s cheese (oh, it's so gouda)?  Then check out the Captain EO Tribute.  Looking to blast through the galaxy and see the stars?  Hop on board Space Mountain, always a popular ride with everyone.  Hungry?  Head on over to Red Rockett's Pizza Port for, you guessed it, pizza or pasta.  Innoventions is always a great place to beat the heat with tons to see including the House of Tomorrow (today!) and Asimo the scary robot.  Not had quite enough "Star Wars" yet?  Check out the Tomorrowland Terrace and catch the Jedi Academy show, where your kids can be the stars and get actual Jedi lessons from actual Jedi and then fight an actual Darth Vader.  How cool is that?!  Not quite out of breath yet?  Take a ride and see if they ever find Nemo on the Finding Nemo Submarine Voyage, or teach your kids the meaning of the phrase "burn rubber" and "eat my dust" on the fastest racing attraction in Tomorrowland, Autopia.

click on any of the photos for larger versions

Right about now we've sampled all of the best wares that Tomorrowland has to offer and we're ready to move on to our next adventure.  Where some people might think that Fantasyland might be the next logical stop (since we missed so much there before), we say nay!  Our next favorite place to unload ourselves is in actuality New Orleans Square.  And our favorite way to get there?  By hopping on board the Disneyland Railroad at the Tomorrowland Station, of course!

It may be totally old school, and we may in fact be able to walk faster than the train can carry us, but we absolutely love to ride the Railroad and we do so every chance we get.  Not only is it a great way to get around The Park and rest those weary feet of yours should you need to, but there's a show included.  We love "two-fer"s!  If you're riding the rails between Tomorrowland and Main Street, USA (the stop before New Orleans Square) you get a sneak peek at the Grand Canyon, Disneyland-style!  But wait, there's more!  You also get a sneak peek at the Grand Canyon, Jurassic-style with Primeval World.  Any time we're with the kids, they love hopping the train and seeing this particular part of The Park which, astoundingly enough, many people don't know about.  A ride and a show at the same time?  Can't be beat!

Next stop, the Main Street, USA station, but we're just going to sit tight and move right on through.  Still, while you're here, take a few minutes while you're waiting for the new passengers to load (and the old to unload) to stare down Main Street and just soak it all in.  It's one of our favorite vantage points inside The Park to just sit and people-watch, and you never know who (or what characters) you might see roaming around.

Next and last stop, New Orleans Square!  And that's where we quit pathing for this trip.  Next time, we'll roam around a bit and explore some of our favorite "haunts" (get it?) inside the Square, and who knows where we'll wind up next?  Well, we do, but you'll have to come back to find out.

Got a path of your own that you like to take from Tomorrowland?  Let us know because we'd love to discuss it with you.  And let us know if you enjoyed our little path.  That's the beauty of The Parks; so many different things to see and experience, and so many different ways to do it.

Until next time, keep pathing!

Pathing Around The Park: Fantasyland to Tomorrowland

We know it probably seems like we completely forgot about continuing our "Pathing" articles... okay, you got us!  We totally forgot about continuing our "Pathing" articles!  After we posted our first little "path" a couple of weeks ago other things kept cropping up and it totally slipped our minds.  D'oh!  Luckily for you though (perhaps), we came to our senses and remembered there's almost an entire Park to see still.  So without any further ado, we gladly pick up from where we left off before.

If you recall, last time we had entered Fantasyland through what we think of as "the back way" (by the Carnation Plaza Gardens).  If you don't remember, feel free to run back and check our our last post.  We'll be here when you get back!

As you cross under the "You Are Now Entering Fantasyland" sign (you can see it in the picture below, only of course the opposite side of the sign now says "Frontierland"), if you hang an immediate right you will find the entrance to the Sleeping Beauty Castle Walk-through.  For the longest time we had no idea this was even here.  Why?  Because it used to be closed all the time.  Now, it's seemingly open all the time, which is a great thing as far as we're concerned.  It's just what it sounds like it is, a "walk-through" of the Castle.  Inside, the story of Sleeping Beauty (at least, the Walt Disney version of the movie) is told through various storybooks set along your path, each telling a different part of the story as you walk through the Castle.  In addition to the storybooks, there are also tons of pictures (some moving), doors and windows with scenery, sound effects and more to tell you the story from start to finish.  If you haven't had a chance to walk through the Castle yet, it comes highly recommended.  It's something that we always enjoy doing no matter how many times we see it, and it's just plain neat to be able to walk around in there in some shape or form.

We'll bypass the rest of Fantasyland (insert "awwwwwww...") for right now and continue on past where the drawbridge enters Fantasyland, where straight across the way from where we entered, another sign heralds our entrance (or at least the way to) Tomorrowland.  Alternately, if you took our advice and went through the Castle, the exit to that attraction will dump you out right next to the sign.  Either way will get you to the same place!

If you continue on under the sign, you will be led straight to Snow White Grotto.  You can't miss it! 

We won't lie, we love this little area, complete with its Wishing Well. We always tend to gravitate here at some point during our Days (many times late at night when there aren't a lot of people around), and we like to hang out and watch the water spouts jump around and listen to Miss White proclaim, "I'm Wishing" over and over again. Heck, sometimes we even try to sing along with her, much to the laughter of those around us. But we love this little tranquil part of The Park right next to the Castle.

We have one interesting little tidbit for all of you trivia lovers from this spot as well.  Did you know that Snow White and her Dwarves (at least in the Grotto) all are the same height?  We can't remember where we picked up this little nugget, but apparently when they were made there was a mistake and the creator made them all exactly the same height.  You can see how this would complicate matters a little, but word is that rather than have them cut down (Walt loved how they turned out and feared compromising the originals in any way), the Grotto was set up in such a way with its levels as to give off the perception that the Dwarves are in fact in their proper proportion to Snow White.  Kind of cool, huh?  Some of that Disney Magic in full effect, we think.

We really enjoy just standing around in this area and staring up at the Castle, as well. There are some great photo opportunities back here and well worth your time to take advantage of.

As you continue on past the Grotto, if you look straight ahead you'll see the Astro Orbiter peeking over the treetops and Tomorrowland off in the distance.  We're almost there!  At this point you can continue straight across the path, turn right and head onto Main Street, USA, or turn left and head into a different part of Fantasyland.  We'll continue straight across and stick in Fantasyland for one final attraction before we hit our destination.  

We won't actually go into Pixie Hollow, but this is nonetheless one of the places we enjoy just standing around and checking things out.  There's an awesome pond right outside the Hollow with lots of fountain jets shooting water in the air, and and we think the flowers and plant life here is just gorgeous.  And at night, it's its own little World of Color show with lights, music and water fountains going off periodically.  Our kids love to stand here and watch, and would for hours if we let them.  Again, like so many other times, it's just those nice little touches that make all of the difference to us.  We're always looking for a tranquil-feeling place to hang out and this is definitely a great spot to do just that!

Once you're done hanging out at the pond, we're done with this segment of our "Pathing" series.  If you continue on the way you were walking when we stopped you, you'll walk right into Tomorrowland,  just behind the large sign in front of the area proclaiming that you are in fact in Tomorrowland).  You'll just have to take our word for it that we got you there safe and sound.  Maybe the fact that the Astro Orbiter is now staring you in the face will help prove our case to you.  While you're at it, why not hop on and take a ride?

We hope that you've enjoyed finishing up your stroll with us from Frontierland to Tomorrowland.  We plan on continuing this little series every so often mostly because we enjoy sharing with our readers what we do inside The Parks, and how we enjoy moving around, and what we enjoy seeing, is a big part of that.  Let us know what you think!  Any opinions?  Anything we've missed?

Next up? Tomorrowland to New Orleans Square. We hope you'll be back with us for that one too!

Pathing Around The Park: Frontierland To Fantasyland

We pride ourselves around here as knowing a lot about The Parks, and especially the geography and locations of everything. The awesome thing about hanging out though, is that the more frequently you do, and the more time you spend you doing it, you begin to do things a little bit differently than the average tourist would (no knock meant on them whatsoever). We've been doing it long enough now that we have our own favorite ways to "Path Around The Park", as we like to call it.

For example, in today's offering, we're going to show you how we enjoy traveling from the main thoroughfare of Frontierland (or at least what we like to think of as the main thoroughfare) out and into Tomorrowland. We eschew the norm, so whereas many people might simply leave Frontierland and walk into Tomorrowland through "The Hub" by the Partners Statue, not so with us! We have our own way we like to do it. Over the course of the next few weeks, we'll continue our way around The Park and show you all of the attractions we like to do and the way we like to get there, too. Ready to come along with us? Let's mosey!

One of our first stops in Frontierland is always into Westward Ho Trading Co., our favorite place in The Parks to buy Vinylmation. It's your one-stop place to shop for all manner of Vinyl or Pins if you're a pin collector (when we did collect pins, this is where we went for those, too). Other than candy, Vinylmation and pins are all that you will find here. While it might be true that there are other places in The Parks to buy these items, Westward Ho nonetheless rises to the top for us because of its Land, theming, particularity and focus. And if you catch it just right, there are plenty of pin stations outside where you can trade your own pins or Vinyl with others, but it's all a little too much for us.

Next up (moving towards the Rivers of America) is the Frontierland Shooting Exposition, which we recently talked about. We enjoy stopping off here for a little target practice. 50 cents will get you roughly ten shots with the old musket, and there are plenty of western themed targets (and even a Hidden Mickey) for you to take aim at. Word of warning: this attraction can be very busy, especially during the day time and there are lot of kids playing. It can be a lot of fun standing around and watching everyone else have their shots (we've done it many times), but for what it's worth, our favorite time to play is much later in the evening after the shows and The Park has cleared out some. You can pretty much have your pick of any spot that you want and there's just something different about playing it at night that can't be beat!

You may or may not be hungry at this point, but if you are, why not make a stop off at Rancho del Zocalo for a quick bite? It's right next door to the Shooting Exposition, and is one of our favorite restaurants (casual dining and quick service) in either Park. There are plenty of great options to choose from: our favorites include the Red Chile Enchilada & Carne Asada Platter and the Sonora Burrito, but they also have tacos, salads, and a kid's or toddler's meal. Vegetarian? Not a problem as there are options for you here as well! There is plenty of seating here, the atmosphere is pretty darn cool (themed Mexican of course), and it's one of our favorite places to sit down, have a meal and kick our feet up and people watch. If you're not in the mood for food, though, feel free to hang a right at the entrance to the restaurant and we'll move on to the next spot we see in our Path.

Yes, we frequent these restrooms and fairly often. You can never have too many options at your disposal when you're in desperate need of a place to relieve yourself or the little ones. The restrooms themselves are a little on the smallish side, but we've rarely seen them unkept and that counts for a lot in our books (of course, your mileage may vary). When it comes down to it though, they're just bathrooms! They're not perfect (we've yet to find the complete restroom in The Park that is that all of the time) but we like to keep our options open and pass them on to you should you need them. And like we said, you can never have too many options where those are concerned; especially later at night when the crowds are less so of course the lines into the restrooms are less, so we like to use these a lot later in the evening. Since they're in our Path we're passing them on should the information be useful to you.

Restrooms aside, though, we do love this area here. It has the air of a covered bridge to it, and there's just something about it that we like, simple as it is.

Walking through brings us to one of our favorite places in The Parks to just sit and hang out (heck, even watch the fireworks from time to time): The Carnation Plaza Gardens. It's a huge open area with tons of places to sit, relax, snack and just enjoy the atmosphere of things around you. It offers a beautiful (if not slightly obscured) view of Sleeping Beauty Castle and there always seems to be something to enjoy back here. The stage often has bands playing (and swing dancing on the weekends) so there's usually music of some kind to listen to, and there are plenty of tables around for you to sit at, relax and have a snack or a cold beverage on a hot afternoon.

There's also plenty to stand around and look at. We love standing on the bridges which lead back to The Hub and the Partners Statue and look at the stream, gardens and ducks which populate the area. It's peaceful, tranquil and wonderful in it simplicity. When you're ready to move on, let's back up a little bit (don't go into The Hub or in front of the Castle) and let's take a left here instead of a right across the bridge to where we'll stop for this week.

In addition to proffering a peaceful view of the Castle from here, it also leads us into Fantasyland on the west end of the Castle. Exciting, isn't it? Next week we'll continue into Fantasyland for a brief stop on our way into Tomorrowland and beyond.

Hope you'll keep taking this virtual Path with us. Are there particular Paths you like to take around The Parks? Let us know; we'd love to hear!

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We would just like to stress that this article (and those coming) is just for fun and nothing more. There are obviously scores of ways in which you can move around The Park, based on preference, and we are by no means implying that ours are the best in any way, shape or form, just as we're sure that others have their favorite attractions, etc. They're just meant to be an entertaining look at some of our favorite things with some information that might come in handy to you at some point in the future thrown in for good measure.