Disneyland
ORANGE COUNTY
IF YOU have a child, Disneyland and its younger sibling, Disney California Adventure, are about as irresistible as sugar. For many without children, the Disney brand promises magic and happiness in a way no other entertainment company has managed.
My favorite new thing at Disneyland is also one of its oldest: the Jungle Cruise, born in 1955, formerly freighted with colonial-era stereotypes. It has been updated to make fictitious tourists the butt of most jokes. Happily the new version is just as full of godawful tour-guide puns as the old one, and it gets more laughs out of animal antics. As Times critic Todd Martens has noted, the updating follows in the revision tradition of “Pirates of the Caribbean” (changed in 1997 and again in 2018). Jungle Cruise also re-opened (in July) as Disney’s “Jungle Cruise” movie was entering the world. I can’t speak for the movie, but the new cruise, still only about seven minutes, kept me grinning, right down to the line your fifth-grader will love, when the guide points to the elephant and says, “A lot of people think it’s water coming out of her nose. But it’s … not.”
The Disney people really want you to devote multiple days to covering Disneyland, Downtown Disney and Disney California Adventure, but it will cost you. My one-day, onepark admission on a summer weekday was $139, plus $25 for parking, both higher now after a price hike in October.
Pro tip: Reservations are booked until the new year but sometimes open up. Info: disneyland.disney.go.com