Adventures at Disneyland (Part I)

Disneyland holds a special place in our hearts, and did long before we met. Erin became a Passholder almost as soon as she arrived in LA nearly 20 years ago. I, on the other hand, grew up out here, and have been coming to Disneyland since I can remember. Between us, thanks to Disneyland’s annual passholder tracking, we estimate we’ve probably been to Disneyland a combined 500 or so times.

So with that in mind, you might see why we decided to do something so utterly asinine as to attempt the Parkeology Challenge. In short, we attempted to ride every single open ride at both Disneyland and its neighbor park California Adventure. When all rides are up and running, it’s a 53-ride challenge in under 16 hours, depending on the operating day; when we were there, three rides were down for refurbishments, so we were limited to a nice, round 50, in a 15 hour day–9 am to midnight.

Now, it should be noted that only 18 people have managed to complete this challenge since 2017 per the rules on the Parkeology website… and as of now, we are not among them. We came up just short–we knocked out 47 rides of the 50 in a day that can only be described as neither a marathon nor a sprint, but both–a marathon sprint?–literally from start to finish.

A quick word from your authors: we would NEVER recommend this challenge to anyone who’s “just visiting” or is in their first 10 or so trips to Disneyland. Disneyland is not and has never been just about the rides. Disneyland has exceptional food options, tremendous shows, characters, and just general atmosphere worth slowing down and enjoying. If you’re a passholder with time to plan and research and you want to take a shot at this, be our guest. But again, if you’ve traveled to Anaheim for Disneyland and think this sounds like a good way to experience the parks, we urge you to reconsider.

However… such recent experience with nearly every ride in the park gives us an interesting window on what every ride at the Disneyland Resort area has to offer. And so, over the next several posts, we present to you our rankings of EVERY* ride at the Disneyland Resort.

*Caveat: We did not include the Monorail in this list, though Disney lists the Monorail in California as a ride/attraction. The Monorail in Florida is considered simply “transportation”, and due to the ride’s primary nature as the best way to get from the Disneyland Hotel to Disneyland Park, despite its location in Downtown Disney, we feel that calling it a “ride” is… an overstatement.

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