I got an annual pass to go to Disneyland in January and I’ve been about 3 times already. I go once a week. I bought some of the 50th anniversary merchandise like the golden mouse ears, a golden mouse pen, magnet, and a statue of a large Tinkerbell with a castle. The last time I went I went to California Adventure and Disneyland. California Adventure is like how they described it. Crappy. Although I did like the new Monsters Inc. ride and The Tower of Terror. At the end of the ride at Monsters Inc. there’s a statue of one of the creatures in the movie with a microphone and she commented on my mouse ears and said “Do you think those are ears?” That was cool. There’s some guy in a booth doing commentary. Tower of Terror scared the crap out of me with all those drops, and I didn’t know they take your picture when you’re at the top. The Haunted Mansion was closed. it opens again on Mar.11. Pirates of the Caribbean closes on Mar.6 for refurbishment to turn it into the Johnny Depp movie “Pirates of the Caribbean.” I took video and pics of most of the rides to remember them by. I ate at the Plaza Inn and had Penne Pasta and carrot cake. It was about $17.00 for my food. I have a Deluxe pass so it’s a step down from the Premium pass that allows you to go everyday. The Deluxe pass doesn’t let you go holidays and Saturdays and maybe a few Sundays. I go weekdays anyway. I don’t like crowds so if it’s busy one day I’ll just go home. Every ride had no wait basically. Some rides you waited 5 minutes to get on. What’s everyone’s opinion on California Adventure? Anyone have a year pass before? I found out it costs $59 dollars to get in Disneyland now. That’s insane! I paid $240 for my Deluxe pass. So if I go one more time my pass is paid for. Do you know they are turning that submarine ride into a Finding Nemo attraction? The Ferris Wheel in California Adventure has cars that rock back and forth because they are on a track that turns as the wheel turns. Tell me about your trip to Disneyland or California Adventure. 
You definitely put this in the correct forum.
I’m glad you’re having so much fun! If I lived anywhere near a decent theme park, I would buy an annual pass too.
Hey welcome to the club! My mom gave my husband and I APs in '04 and we just got new ones a few weeks ago. A very generous friend of ours had us upgraded to the deluxe passes (W00t!). I’m going this saturday for my birthday and to get my ToT fix.
Didja get sucked into pin trading yet? I’ve got quite the collection going on between my Villains and AP stuff.
Oh and a good site is MiceAge for all your Disney news.
How fun for you! I love Disneyland!
I miss my annual pass! We let our passes expire this past fall after having them several years in a row. Even though it’s a 6+ hrs drive, we averaged 3 week long trips to Disneyland a year for the last several years. We are taking a year off and will get new passes this coming fall.
We got one a while back, though we live in Northern CA. It was still worth it, and we did go enough to save money. I believe you can get in an hour early - anyway not standing in line to buy tickets is great.
Have fun!
Does anyone know a website I can go to to see all the benefits I get from having an annual pass, such as what discounts and other things? I went to Dsineylands site, but found nothing. Maybe I’m looking in the wrong place? Is it true I can get in an hour early with a pass? If that’s the case then w00t! Where can I get info about how many people go to Disneyland on a daily basis? I want to see the number count of bodies that go through Disneyland everyday and comapre it so I can go on those days to avoid crowds.
Here is the AP site. No idea where you can find the other data, though anecdotally I find weekdays in September to be optimum.
For the Disney World passes, it comes in a little ticket holder that has a booklet explaining all of the discounts you can get. I was surprised at the number of things that get discounted when you have an annual pass. I would assume that Disneyland also has several discounted prices.
I had an annual pass once. Just the basic one (which was $99 at the time). I think it just paid for itself. Basically I went for a couple of hours after work. Disneyland just isn’t any fun when there’s no one to go with.
If I end up back in SoCal, and if I had an S/O, then I’d probably get another.
Are you friggen kidding me? Please say you are. Are they doing the same thing in Florida? They already destroyed the Tikki Room. PotC is the best ride there, they can’t ruin it like that!
Asimovian bought us annual passes for my birthday this past December. We’ve only gotten to go twice so far, but I know that we’ll more than break even on them. By far, our favorite time to go is on Sunday morning, and then leave before it starts getting busy.
I do enjoy California Adventure if for nothing else, Soaring over California. It’s not a particularly thrilling ride, but the illusion is so good (especially if you’re right in the middle). I haven’t yet ridden on the inside tracks of the ferris wheel, but I guess I’ll have to try that sometime just to say that I have.
I’ll check out the Pirates of the Carribean next time I go, but I can’t say that the changeover surprises me. I mean, they change over the Haunted Mansion to a Nightmare Before Christmas theme each year, and it’s terribly popular. Besides, they revamped Pirates a few years ago. If I recall, there was a big bruhaha about them making it PC and changing it so the pirates were chasing the wimmenfolk because they had food instead of chasing them for their… ahem… booty.
Oh, and if you are looking for a great Disney message board check out the MousePad.
You’ll find me there from time to time.
I’m also in the minority, but I rather enjoy California Adventure. Soaring Over California is cool, I really like the river raft ride (Jakeline and I did that three times in a row one Sunday morning because no one was there, and they offered us a fourth time, but, well, we were pretty wet), I like the swings, I like the ride that shoots you up in the air really fast, and I think the roller coaster is one of the smoothest I’ve ever been on. The take-off is fantastic. I’ve even enjoyed going over to the movie lot area and doing the Who Wants To Be A Millionaire show (although I haven’t done that since we got our new passes).
I can understand why someone paying full admission just to go to California Adventure might poo-poo it, but I don’t know why any annual pass holder wouldn’t enjoy ducking over to the other side for a little bit. Granted, it’s a very, VERY different feel, so if you’re a die-hard Disney fan, it’s not why you’re there. But on it’s own, I geniunely feel it’s a fun place to hang out for a few hours.