A True Rookie Family's Take on Disneyland

[nrichards]

Loving the TR so far! It's cool to hear about the parks from a first timers perspective

I'm loving doing it! I have to admit, I'm a little sad that there'll never be another first time. I had so much fun exploring and discovering, the next time there won't be as much discovering (although there's definitely stuff we didn't do!).

Rookie or not, your TR is great. I'm looking forward to more. You remind me a bit of one of my nephews, and for some reason he does the arm in the air picture pose quite a bit as well! Makes me laugh.

Thank you so much for your kind words. It's so much more involved than I thought it would be before I started it.

Great Trip Report. I am heading there for 2 days in October before a cruise! I love reading this!

I'll bet Southern California in the fall is amazing. It was great in August, but so very hot! Have fun on your cruise!

 

[nrichards]

We were ready to head out to California Adventure, but we still had the matter of the Star Tours fast passes in my wallet. We decided we should take advantage of them before we headed over. After about 10 minutes or so, Darth Vader was informing everyone of my status as a rebel spy - a fact that my family was shocked (shocked!) by. I personally had no idea Darth Vader knew about me, but C-3P0 piloted me to safety.

As soon as we headed over to California Adventure, Stephanie simply had to seek out the Starbucks coffee at the Fiddler, Fife and Practical cafe. Once there, she waited in what was easily the longest line of the day...probably 20 minutes. Meanwhille, ds and I went next door to Clarabelle's to get some ice cream. DS wanted an ice cream cone, and I opted for a hand-dipped ice cream bar, but when I ordered, the cast member started asking if I was sure I didn't want a sundae in a souvenir trolley. All I was thinking was "Really? Disney's going for the hard sell now?" But then she finished her sentence, saying it was free because we were guests of the hour! I felt really awful thinking such bad thoughts. So that was neat...I still got my ice cream bar, and ds got a souvenir sundae and they added a bottle of water and a large Sprite onto the order for me. All told, the two ice creams and two drinks would have been almost 30 bucks. We sat at the bar in the window to wait for Steph and watched Chip and Dale cavort with park guests in the courtyard outside. It was bizarre: I'm not used to being singled out - it just doesn't happen to me, and here it had happened twice in an hour.

From here, we really had no plan at all - we weren't even really planning on going to California Adventure until the next day, but we had a large chunk of time to kill before our afternoon/evening plans at Disneyland. So we turned left off of Buena Vista Street and started to explore Hollywoodland. We wandered through the animation building, but were really confused by it - it wasn't at all obvious what we were supposed to do there, so we watched the zoetrope for a couple minutes and headed out. I have to say, the giant backdrop at the end of the street was one of the absolute coolest looking things in either park, and I really wished I had gotten a picture of it. We had a seat in the courtyard where the Mad T Party takes place in the evening, and enjoyed the quiet of the area while we finished our beverages.

The last Disney movie we had watched before we left for our trip was Monsters Inc., so we were of course going to partake of the dark ride at some point on the trip. Plus, at some point we had decided it was our quest to go on every dark ride Disneyland had to offer. We were in the area - in fact, right in front of it, so away we went! Monster's Inc. is really the perfect movie to make a dark ride for. There are so many iconic scenes that translate so well to the technology, like the door room scene. Plus, monsters make for great animatronics, since their fur and scales do a great job of hiding joints and whatnot. There are so many great little touches, especially in the queue area that make it really feel like you're at a monster transit station. Like the vending machines with bags of Sugar, Salt and Fat.

From there, we headed across the way to check out the Muppets 3d extravaganza, or whatever the heck it's called. I'm in love with the Muppets, and I don't really care who knows it. I thought the new movie was just absolutely a love letter to Jim Henson. So I, of course, insisted on seeing this show at some point. Unfortunately, at this point in the day, sitting in a cool air conditioned theatre wasn't such a great idea and I started to fall asleep (just a little bit). And I don't really remember a lot. I do remember Bean Bunny showing up in a balcony. That made the show feel a little dated in my mind, as Bean Bunny just hasn't been a focal point of the Muppets in many years (yeah, I follow them that closely). Having Sweetums run through the theatre was a blast, though, and all the corny jokes were very much in the Muppets spirit.

We then meandered through the park, not really sure where we were going to head next. We ended up at the back end of the park in Paradise Pier. This part of the park is a little infuriating to me: I absolutely love the theming of the Victorian boardwalk amusement park, but the World of Color viewing area bisecting it in two makes it so hard to get around in. It just makes it feel like two very separate areas.

As we got there, we noticed that Little Mermaid was basically a walk-on, as most of the Omnimover style rides had been for the duration of our trip. We of course had to give it a try. Stephanie loves the movie, and ds and I figured we'd have to do at least a couple of "girly" things for her sake. I have some mixed feelings about this one - the songs are among the catchiest of all the Disney movies, and the "Under the Sea" section is so lively and colorful, it's a lot of fun to ride through. And the seagull is pretty funny. But the Ariel animatronics look cheap. They look like robots with a layer of skin slapped on - you can see it really obviously around her mouth when she sings and her belly button when she's dancing. The rest of the animatronics are class act, though. It was also unusual to see so much of Ariel - all the other dark rides had very few instances of the actual protagonists.

After a few rides, it was time for a break - this time for lunch. We were near Boardwalk Pizza and Pasta, so we got...surprisingly, pizza and pasta. I also got another Mickey Pretzel. I'm a sucker for a soft pretzel - it's my go to ballpark snack.

As we were eating, the Pixar Parade started, effectively blocking us in. It was fun to stop and watch the parade, though. DS definitely enjoyed watching it - quite a few Pixar movies number among his favorites. In fact, his first favorite movie as a baby was Finding Nemo.

Once it passed, we went across the bridge to check out the far side of Paradise Pier. The Midway Games immediately attracted ds's attention. Of course - the one thing that costs money to do. But what the heck, we were on vacation. I do remember as a kid loving the carnival games, so I do understand why ds wanted to do them. I found it weird that they were in Disneyland, though. Anyway, Stephanie had been planning on buying a stuffed Dumbo on our trip, but I managed to win her one. Yes, I am that chivalrous. DS had won a stuffed Timothy Mouse, but a kid about his age didn't want the Dumbo that he had won so they traded and I had to find a way to fit two Dumbos into our luggage.

Everything else on the pier had wait times that were too long for our tastes - 45 minutes for Toy Story, half hour for the ferris wheel. I don't think we checked California Screamin', because we didn't want to go on it, or the carousel, because we didn't notice it.

It was getting pretty late in the afternoon, and we figured we should head back to the hotel for a little while to recoup our energy for the evening. We decided to take a bit of a detour through Carsland just to check it out. It's really a nicely done area, but it's just so packed with people it's too hard to enjoy it at all. We did see Mater motoring about, doing what he does. The back of Carsland empties into a Bug's Land, so we ended up going through it too. We were pretty tired, so we hurried through it, but I do remember it being cute and remarking that it reminded me of being at the zoo. Stephanie doesn't remember it at all, and swears that we never even set foot in the area.

On the way out, Pluto was hanging around and taking some pictures in the courtyard. There were only a couple of people waiting, so we figured now's as good a time as any - up until this point, we had only had a chance to meet a couple of characters. Unfortunately, our camera's battery had died, so we only got pictures on our phones.

I really like the costumes the characters wear on Buena Vista street. Very dapper.

Oh, and the Newsies show was playing *again* - seriously, every time we walked past where the trolley stopped, it was playing. We saw parts of it at least four times that day.

So off to the hotel we went. As ds and Stephanie went off to the room, I headed down the street to Carl's Jr. It took all the energy I had - we had been doing so much walking by this point! But I really wanted some. It sounds silly, but Carl's Jr. is probably my favorite fast food place, probably just because there aren't any near me.

I got back to the hotel, ready to sit for the rest of the night. But I couldn't - we had more to do in the evening at Disneyland!

 

[auntiegem]

Rebel spy and free stuff? That's great!

 

[LVdisneyChick]

Excellent trip report. Sounds like you had a blast!!!

 

[Goldeelox9]

More More!!! Great update!!

 

[sevenmotions]

I'm loving your report so far! So lucky that you were the guest of the hour

 

[nrichards]

We found ourselves having a hard time making our way out of our hotel room; it had been a long day! But we needed dinner, and we needed to get back to Disneyland! First things first, we headed to the lobby and ate at the cafe attached to the hotel. It wasn't our first choice, but kids ate free and it was by far the closest place. Hotel restaurants are always hit or miss; unless it's a top tier hotel, it's usually a step down from places like Denny's. This one really was no exception, but the server there was really quite nice.

By the time we got to Disneyland, time was slipping away. I'm not sure exactly when we got back, but it had to have been after 6, since the parade was over. So we were ready to jump right into some excitement! Our plan for the evening was mostly to hit some of the favorites of the previous day and a half - we were planning on doing some new rides, but they seemed to be quieter in the mornings so we would have to try to get to them later.

Up first, I had gotten fast passes for Indiana Jones much earlier in the day. I wasn't sure if we were going to go on it, but I didn't want to be without any fast passes. Since we already had them, we figured we should put them to use. Even with the fast passes, this queue seems to take a really long time. It's one of the nicest queue areas in the park, though, so I didn't mind too much. Except when I kept getting stopped on the stairs. It makes me a little nervous - I can be a klutz, and can only imagine the carnage that would ensue should I fall down the stairs onto dozens of people.

The ride was maybe better the second time - we knew what to expect, movement wise, so it was easier to pay attention to what was going on outside the jeep. DS handled it better too - his eyes were open for most of the ride, but he was hanging on for dear life. It was this time on the ride that I finally noticed the boulder. I assumed there had to be a boulder on an Indy ride, but didn't see it on the first ride through. The projection was just really dark and hard to see, plus I was looking up at Indiana Jones trying to get into the jeep for the most part.

Next, we headed next door for a nice relaxing Jungle Cruise. The waiting time was posted at 20 minutes, which seemed like too long to wait for this ride, or any ride for that matter. But this was one of the rides that I had put on my "must do" list, and the line didn't look like a 20 minute wait. Plus, it was just reaching dusk and it sounded like a fun ride to do as twilight approached. As soon as we got into the line, I realized our error - the queue snakes upstairs and then back down. We couldn't see that from the street level. Oh well.

The ride itself was a lot of fun - our skipper was throwing out terrible jokes left and right. Most of the boat didn't seem to get them, or weren't willing to play along. So the skipper ended up picking on us quite a bit - he asked if anyone liked zebras, and I nodded (yeah, I like zebras). Right as we came up to a pride of lions uh, hanging out with a zebra. And then lamenting the difficulty of carving such a creature (I mean, it's light meat then dark meat then light meat then dark meat...). When we came up to the man-eating piranhas, Stephanie whispered to me that she was glad she was safe - half a beat before the skipper made a joke along the same lines.

As we waited to disembark, he asked if anyone was from out of town, and we were the only ones to respond in the affirmative. I said yes when he asked if we took a plane, and then he wanted to know if we gave it back. It occurred to us then that most of our boat was made up of foreign tourists, and may not have understood that the jokes were supposed to be terrible. But wonderfully terrible, they were.

We had already decided to head around the corner and check out a couple of other favorites - Pirates of the Caribbean and Haunted Mansion. This time, both rides were a little bit busier than the night before, but not a lot. Pirates was a maybe - maybe 10 minute wait. And it was just as cool as the night before. Last time, we were in the front of the boat and got more wet than expected. This time around, we were in the back and stayed nice and dry. DS loves the drops in this ride, which I found surprising. They're much smaller than the large drop on Splash Mountain of course, but probably about on par with the smaller drops on that ride. And one of them is in the pitch black. Even I was a little bit scared the first time I went on the ride.

On Haunted Mansion, ds wanted us to pick our favorite ghosts. Unfortunately, I can't remember which one he said was his favorite, and apparently neither can he. I just asked him, but he can't remember what he said. Stephanie's favorites were the dancing ghosts, and I said I liked the part where all the ghosts are rushing from the ground to the ceiling, mostly because I like the song that plays during that part.

Between the two rides, we spent a little bit of time exploring New Orleans Square. I got a souvenir Pirates of the Caribbean pressed penny. I don't really collect pressed pennies, but I still find myself getting them far more often than a grown man should.

I think I've said before that I'm really impressed with the theming of every part of Disneyland, but New Orleans Square really is a cut above, I think - even the shops feel like classic New Orleans. I've never been to New Orleans, but it really is how I feel the French Square would look in an idealized world.

We walked past the throngs of people waiting around for Fantasmic, which was about to start. We thought about staying to see it, but the only spot to stand was really far away and kind of behind a tree. Instead, we just walked from New Orleans Square to Fantasyland, by way of Frontierland. We were able to see a little bit of Fantasmic this way, but not very much and not very well. DS was excited to see Sorcerer Mickey, though.

Our plan was to go to Fantasyland to catch the only dark ride we hadn't been on yet - Snow White. Unfortunately, it and basically everything else in Fantasyland was closed. We were tired and frustrated at this point, so we headed toward the exit. We wanted to get up early to catch some of the busier/more popular rides at California Adventure - Friday was originally going to be our main DCA day, after all.

This was by far our most "successful" day, if success means riding as many rides as possible. The rest of the trip, we still did lots but definitely had a bit less pep in our step. You'll hear about that soon enough, though!

 

[nrichards]

Alright, back to work!

On Friday, we once again awoke before the sun. We simply found it easier to get to the things we wanted to get done if we got to the parks as they opened. We once again popped into the cafe downstairs, this time for breakfast. As the night before, it wasn't fantastic but at least it was close and convenient and not particularly expensive. This morning, we opted to take the ART from the hotel to the parks - the Toy Story lot wasn't open yet, and walking just didn't seem like a good option this time around.

The plan for the morning was to head to California Adventure first, and do anything we didn't the day before. The big question was whether or not to even bother trying to get to the Cars Land rides. We had discussed it as a family, and even though we wanted to check them out - especially Radiator Springs Racers, we decided that if it meant waiting in extensive lines, it wouldn't be worth it. After all, Cars Land is brand new to most of you, but all of both parks are brand new to us, so we figured the best bet would be to hit as much as possible, but if the opportunity presented itself, we'd try to go on the new rides.

With that in mind, we headed into DCA a couple of minutes past 8. I noticed a display of Oswald the Lucky Rabbit merchandise at the gas station at the front of the park, and had to stop for a second to take a look. I love the history of American popular culture, and so I find the story of Oswald particularly interesting. I started to talk to ds about him, and he became fascinated, peppering me with questions throughout the day - "so did Oswald really come before Mickey?" "Is Oswald upset with Mickey because he should be more famous?" That sort of thing.

As we walked down Buena Vista Street, we took a gander at the fast pass line for Radiator Springs. It was, as has been described by park-goers all summer, absurdly long. We didn't even see the end of it, just the length that ran around the Carthay Circle. Naturally, we skipped that line and made our way to another ride we had seen crazy long lines for the day before - Toy Story Midway Mania.

Instead of the 45+ minute lines we encountered the day before, we were treated to a line of maybe 15 minutes at the most. I've got to say, all three of us became pretty enamored of this ride. It's like a more elaborate version of the Buzz Lightyear ride next door, but all of the charming little touches they add to it make it just that much more appealing. I loved the Victorian atmosphere, and especially the little room that you walk through at the end, showing the midway mania game set up in someone's living room. As with most of these shooting-based rides, I beat the rest of my family. I just can't help myself, I guess! I also got the high score of the car. I don't remember what my score was, but I seem to remember getting a beaver. But I could be wrong.

When we got off, we were right next to King Triton's carousel with no line, so we figured we had to ride it. Stephanie really wanted to ride a sea horse. I had been eyeing the otters - they're freaking adorable - but somehow ended up on a seal instead. DS was acting weird and just wanted to sit on the bench. I don't know what the deal was, but for some reason he just really didn't want to ride it right then. It's cute that it's all sea themed, but the location next to the bathrooms kind of leaves something to be desired. Even though it's near several very popular rides, it just seems like it's in its own little no man's land.

We figured we were done in Paradise Pier for a little while, and Steph got a coffee from an espresso stand right on the other side of the Pier. She of course needed to drink it, and I thought I wanted to try Soarin' Over California. This was another ride I wasn't too sure about with ds, so I wanted to preview it first. As we were headed to that side of the park, we walked past the Redwood Creek Challenge Trail. We figured it'd be a good idea to let ds blow off some steam while Steph could sip her coffee, so in they went as I headed to Condor Flats. I walked right past the World of Color fast pass machine, and since I wasn't sure if we would go or not that night, I got some fast passes just in case.

As I got to Soarin', there was no line outside but the sign indicated that the stand-by queue started over by the fast pass machine, so over there I went, only to encounter a dead end. I made my way back to the entrance, and headed right in. I figured Patrick Warburton would've been able to find some acting work after Seinfeld - I didn't think he'd have to stoop to becoming a flight attendant. I'm not hugely afraid of heights, but I will admit it was a bit frightening at first, being suspended in air like that. Once I got over it, though, it was really cool soaring over, well, California. Some of the footage was clearly pretty old though and not shot in Imax format, so it was real grainy and kind of took away from the realism. But so many of the scenes were amazing - like flying right over the whitewater rafters and the fireworks at the end. Again, leave it to Disney to take something as simple as a nature film and turn it into an experience!

I made my way back over to the Grizzly Peak area, only to discover ds had gotten all of his wilderness explorer badges and had a blast! This was our first time in this part of the park, and I really loved the scenery of it. I'm a huge fan of our national park system, and between the Redwood National Forest and Yosemite, California has two of the most amazing parcels of land in the west and this area of California Adventure recreates them so lovingly.

Somehow, we ended up near Paradise Pier once again, sitting on a bench looking at the Little Mermaid ride. As we sat, we noticed that no line was forming there at all, so since we were there, why not do it again? DS put up a small protest, but I reminded him that it was everyone's vacation so everyone needs to make the occasional concession for the sake of the group.

Once we got off, California Adventure was starting to get a bit on the busy side, so we headed across the esplanade to get some Disneyland favorites in. Our first order of business, since I promised ds after the Little Mermaid issue, was to get fast passes for everyone's favorite from the day before: Star Tours.

DS and Stephanie had been itching to get back on the tea cups since the day before, so they hopped in the non-existent line while I held up the railing waiting for them. Yes, I still refused to go on them. I tried to get some pictures of them, but they were just moving too darn fast for my poor phone to keep up with.

Since we were in Fantasyland, we decided now would be the perfect time to go on the only dark ride that we hadn't been on yet - Snow White. There was a very minimal line that we immediately got into. The scenes in Snow White are really well done - very colorful, and the effects are really quite good. But it's a weird little ride. Steph pointed out that Snow White appears only once. And I was a little perturbed at the ending - the last scene shows the dwarfs cowering in terror as the queen towers over them, and then a scroll shows "And They Lived Happily Ever After." I fail to see how that's possible, given the queen's clear upper hand. Unless maybe the queen is the one that lived happily ever after?

When we got off, there was no line at Peter Pan, with a cast member holding court at the entrance to the queue. He explained that it was down, but they expected to start loading again in about 10 minutes. We figured this would be our best shot at getting on the ride again this trip, so we headed into the line. It was a little less than ten minutes before they started loading again, and another 5 or 6 minutes for us to get to the front of the line. Stephanie was very happy - she wasn't sure if we'd get to go on one of her favorite rides again this trip. Sometimes, a ride breakdown can work in your favor I guess!

It wasn't quite time to use our fast passes, so we headed over to Buzz Lightyear first. There was a small line, but nothing too terrible - better than the first time we went on it, to be sure. Stephanie was going to try to make use of the spinning functionality of the car this time, but she completely forgot about it.

The Star Tours line ended up being a somewhat long wait, which was ok because it gave us a chance to listen to the droid checking the luggage for a little while. I was impressed that it didn't once repeat itself in the 5 or 10 minutes we were standing there. It was also pretty funny. We got to see a couple of new scenes in the actual ride - Boba Fett attacked us, and we hung out on the ice planet Hoth.

After the ride, it was close enough to lunch time, and we went to the food place I had been interested in trying ever since I heard of it - Bengal Barbecue in Adventureland. I got the bacon wrapped asparagus - the two most amazing foods, combined in one and put on a stick. What's not to love? And it was everything I had hoped for, to be sure. I see people on-line divided on whether or not it's a good value, but for my money 4 bucks won't go any farther in the park. Stephanie got the chicken in Polynesian sauce, which she assured me was also terrific. We didn't eat at very many places in the park, but Bengal Barbecue was definitely the best park food we had.

After a quick break to eat, we were in the area of another favorite - Pirates of the Caribbean. How could we not? This time, it was during the day though, and lines were a little longer. Still not too terrible, but longer than we were used to. It also, I must admit, was the first time I realized that the first scene - with the guy in the cabin and the Blue Bayou - was simulated night time. I was a little embarrassed to admit that fact, I'm afraid.

We decided that the last two days we had been getting back to the parks a little late after our breaks, so we decided to take today's break a bit earlier so we could make it back to the parks at an earlier hour.

 

[auntiegem]

Cute! --

I started to talk to ds about him, and he became fascinated, peppering me with questions throughout the day - "so did Oswald really come before Mickey?" "Is Oswald upset with Mickey because he should be more famous?" That sort of thing.

Funny! --

Re Snow White -- And I was a little perturbed at the ending - the last scene shows the dwarfs cowering in terror as the queen towers over them, and then a scroll shows "And They Lived Happily Ever After." I fail to see how that's possible, given the queen's clear upper hand. Unless maybe the queen is the one that lived happily ever after?


Funny, again --

Re Pirates of the Caribbean -- It also, I must admit, was the first time I realized that the first scene - with the guy in the cabin and the Blue Bayou - was simulated night time. I was a little embarrassed to admit that fact, I'm afraid.

Thanks for another installment.

 

[nrichards]

I apologize for the tardiness of this next installment; sometimes real life just gets in the way!

We made it back to the park right as the parade was ending, as we have tended to do many times this trip - we always seemed to catch the very end of the parade with Peter Pan and Mary Poppins; I'm still not sure who else is there in the parade. This time, though, we were there for the first of the two parades.

Our first order of business was to do one of the things I had insisted we do at some point: Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln. We absolutely enjoyed (ok, I was enjoying) all of the exhibits in the lobby. The miniature capitol building is amazing, as are all of the little pieces of Disneyland history. I especially loved seeing all of the old ticket books. It's so weird to think that they used to charge for rides - the appeal of Disneyland has always been, for my entire lifetime, the fact that you pay just one price for admission. I remembered my mom talking about using ticket books when she had gone as a kid, and it was cool to see them in person.

Stephanie and ds were getting a bit impatient for the show to start - it did seem to take an excessively long time. I think that the Voices of Liberty pre-show has made the wait time between shows longer. Maybe not, I have no real first hand experience obviously. It made for one of the longest waits of the trip - something like a half hour. It wasn't as bad as waiting in line, though, since it was more like wandering about a museum. I spent some time playing with this computer kiosk that had various Disney art prints for sale. I was enamored of the vintage looking ride posters that were displayed as you entered the park. I absolutely love those old travel advertising posters. We have one for Las Vegas hanging in our living room. I didn't buy any of the ride posters, but I have been thinking about getting one ever since. Maybe this one:

Or this one:

Anyway, after watching the Steve Martin video and reminding me we hadn't gotten into the magic shop yet, we were finally ushered into the theatre. The Voices of Liberty were really quite good - I have no musical ability at all, but I can definitely recognize their talent. Then Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln started. I don't think I realized that there would be a video before hand, and I was getting nervous that ds would be getting antsy. It was a lot of sitting and not much activity for much longer than I had thought. But he did amazing - he sat and watched, rapt. I think he knew a little bit about President Lincoln from school, but I don't know how much. The animatronics were of course classic Disney. I mean, he stands up! How cool is that? And the words he speaks are just so meaningful and moving. Anyone with even a passing interest in American history should see the show. It's practically a part of American history in and of itself. Even the usher was really cool - you could tell he felt like it was an honor to introduce and run this show.

So after lots of sitting, we knew it was time for rides! We headed over to Fantasyland, by way of Tomorrowland - we wanted to check out the Astro Orbiter line to see how bad it was. It looked pretty long, so we skipped it and headed over to Fantasyland. DS wanted to go on Dumbo, and who were we to say no? The line was kind of long, but not terrible. Maybe 15 minutes.

I was ok with not being a grown man alone in an elephant again, and didn't want to take up a seat that a kid could be in, so I opted out and got a frozen lemonade from the stand that's there on the way to the back side of Frontierland. I seem to remember it being amazing, but it's hard to mess up frozen lemonade.

I watched from the railing as Stephanie and ds boarded their elephant. They were confused by the feather they were given and then immediately had taken away. From what I could tell, it was so that nobody tried to ride it twice in a row - you had to have a feather to ride. They didn't do that when we rode the first time, but there was no line, so there was no need. Stop me if I'm completely wrong, though.

As they had fun going up and down in circles, I tried to take their picture and failed spectacularly. We don't own particularly amazing digital cameras, and my phone is actually a better camera. But the time it takes from clicking to the shutter actually engaging is agonizingly slow. So this is the result:

DS also wanted to ride the teacups yet again. And once again, we walked down there and there was no line. DS and Steph rode the teacups four times this trip, and there was never a line. Amazing! I obviously sat out again, content to sip my lemonade (by this point, after ten minutes it was no longer frozen).

It was getting mighty close to dinner time at this point, and there was a whole section of the resort we hadn't even gone to: Downtown Disney. So we headed over to the Monorail for a quick trip. We live in Seattle, so we've ridden the monorail many times. But DS for some reason decided that this was the ride he was going to freak out about. We assured him that it was in no way a thrill ride, and in fact was simply a mode of transportation. Bizarre; he'd been on a monorail at least 3 or 4 times.

We got off the monorail, and right there is a ginormous Lego Store. Thanks, Disney. We were trying to get some food, but we had to stop and check out the Lego store. If there's one thing ds loves, it's legos. He is, after all, an 8 year old boy. We also took several pictures of the amazing lego sculptures. There's a really cute one of Stephanie and I recreating Beauty and the Beast, but she won't let me post it. She's embarrassed. Eh, I'm gonna do it anyway.

So after lego-ing for a bit, we found a directory to try and find an at least somewhat inexpensive dinner option. We opted for the Tangaroa Terrace at Disneyland Hotel, and sat out by the pool. OK, above the pool. The fish and chips there were really, really good. Except they were sweet potato fries, which I like but can never eat very many of. Probably a good thing.

We wanted to go on the Mickey Fun Wheel as the sun was setting - we thought it would be a really cool view. So we tried to head over to California Adventure. We had heard about the entrance to the park at the Grand Californian, so we headed over there. But we didn't know that it was only for hotel guests, so they wouldn't let us through.

So we took the long jaunt back through the hotel and Downtown Disney and the esplanade to get to the other side of the place we were about ten minutes before. By the time we got to the ferris wheel, though, the sun had already set and they were closing it down until after World of Color. By this point, we were getting seriously frustrated with rides closing in the evening. This was the third night in a row that they were closing rides as we got to them.

So we had about an hour to kill before World of Color. There were already a very large number of people waiting for the show, but we weren't willing to wait around for that long. I had heard that occasionally the wait time for Mater's Junkyard Jamboree isn't terrible. So we decided to check out the neon of Cars Land.

When we got there, the wait was about 40 minutes, which is just way too long for us. So we just took some pictures and wandered about. It was very crowded, there, though, so we couldn't do much. As we were about to leave, we caught a glimpse of Lightning McQueen and his entourage. He drove right past us, but there were a number of people already waiting to get pictures with him.

We headed back towards World of Color. The Little Mermaid across the street was a walk-on, so we figured: why not? That marks the second time this day and third time on the trip for the ride. Mostly because it was there, and there wasn't a line. When we got out of our clam, there was about ten minutes left before the World of Color show, so we headed into the viewing area.

It was packed, and we were stuck at the very back next to a pole. When the show started, ds could barely see because of the pole, and people were holding up their cameras and ipads right in front of us. And then the people behind us kept taking flash-lit photos. We were all tired and grumpy, and when that happens people start to irritate us. We couldn't enjoy the show at all, and after about ten minutes we decided it wasn't worth it and headed out. It's too bad, because the show is similar to the fountain shows at the Bellagio in Las Vegas, which always make me happy when I watch them.

On the way out, I had to get another pressed penny at the candy shop. I had done some research to find the penny I wanted before we left the hotel - this one had the seal of the "Radiator Springs Chamber of Commerce" on one side, and Disney California Adventure stamped on the obverse. It was, to put it bluntly, too cute.

As we walked back from the parking lot to our hotel room, we watched the fireworks over head. As we had done the two nights before as well. It was a shame we couldn't watch them in their entirety, but we were all getting tired too early. I guess we could have chosen to get up later, but then we wouldn't get as many rides done.

 

[Goofy_Mom]

I'm loving your trip report. The Anaimation Academy can be a bit confusing. For your next visit: After you walk it the main enterance, to your right is Turtle Talk with Crush. Crush the turtle asks you questions and you can ask him questions, very enjoyable for little ones. He'll even give you a "turtle name" if he talks to you. It's usullay a surfer -term that begins with the same letter as your names; Radical Ryan, Bodacious Brittany, etc. To the left and near the zoylatrop is where you learn to draw a disney character. Straight accross from the entrance of the Academy is the Sorccerr's Workshop. Highlights include the Beast's library where you learn what Disney character you most resemble based on some questions asked by Lumier and Cogsworths. The last question determines if you're more like a villian or a hero. In the next room is a Grotto where Ursualla borrows your voice and puts it in a Disney cartoon, you can choose between four different cartoons and you follow the prompts on the screen. My DH's deep voice for Bambi was hilarious. All in all, a good way to cool off for an hour.

I agree with you about Mickey's house, defentaly Time Lord technology in there

 

[nrichards]

I'm loving your trip report. The Anaimation Academy can be a bit confusing. For your next visit: After you walk it the main enterance, to your right is Turtle Talk with Crush. Crush the turtle asks you questions and you can ask him questions, very enjoyable for little ones. He'll even give you a "turtle name" if he talks to you. It's usullay a surfer -term that begins with the same letter as your names; Radical Ryan, Bodacious Brittany, etc. To the left and near the zoylatrop is where you learn to draw a disney character. Straight accross from the entrance of the Academy is the Sorccerr's Workshop. Highlights include the Beast's library where you learn what Disney character you most resemble based on some questions asked by Lumier and Cogsworths. The last question determines if you're more like a villian or a hero. In the next room is a Grotto where Ursualla borrows your voice and puts it in a Disney cartoon, you can choose between four different cartoons and you follow the prompts on the screen. My DH's deep voice for Bambi was hilarious. All in all, a good way to cool off for an hour.

I agree with you about Mickey's house, defentaly Time Lord technology in there

Thanks so much for the information! I'm hoping next time we go, we'll be able to slow things down just a bit and enjoy some of the things that Disneyland has to offer that don't involve, you know, rides. I think it's so cool that Disney has so much different stuff with so many different focuses.

 

[nrichards]

We awoke to our final day in sunny Southern California bright and early, as with every day thus far. I must say, I was impressed with my family's ability and desire to get up before the crack of dawn!

This time around, we walked to the Denny's across the street from the park. It was pretty decent for Denny's, and a better value than a lot of the restaurants right around the park (I understand, for example, that the IHOP jacks their prices terribly).

The plan for the day - we had a 5:30 flight, so we had to leave the parks around 2 or so - was to hit California Adventure first for a little bit, then spend the bulk of the day in Disneyland and hit the favorite rides of the trip. We got into the park just a few minutes after 8, so our plan was working well so far.

As we got into the park, Goofy was holding court in the little courtyard on Buena Vista Street, looking dapper in his green checkered suit. Goofy is my absolute favorite - I love the old Goofy shorts, especially the training video style ones. And he was all alone, with nobody there saying hi to him. So of course we had to make a quick stop to say hello!

Up first was Toy Story Midway Mania. The day before, we were wavering back and forth between Toy Story or Peter Pan, as those are the two rides that we wanted to do again that were vital to go on first thing in the morning. We had good fortune the afternoon before, though, and got on Peter Pan a second time. So Toy Story it was.

Toy Story What What?

Toy Story was, as the day before, pretty darn neat! I really like this ride a lot, and I did quite a bit better than I did the day before. Line-wise, it was pretty similar to the day before - maybe 10 or 15 minutes. It's amazing how quickly lines can build up on specific rides.

Up next, we walked across the way to hit up the ride that had been disappointingly closed the night before - Mickey's Fun Wheel. I love me a ferris wheel, but those swinging gondolas looked just terrifying. So we opted for the non-swinging variety, and walked right on.

It took DS a little while to get used to being up so high, and pointing out specific landmarks seemed to help a lot. He was putting on a brave face, but he was pretty clearly a little freaked out at the beginning, asking if it was over yet a couple of times. It is a really pretty view, though. We just got a ferris wheel here in Seattle on the waterfront, and it's really transformed our skyline quite a bit. We haven't been on it yet, but will probably play tourist and check it out one of these days.

Those were the two things we were determined to get done in CA, so off to Disneyland we went. I got a random hankering for some soft serve ice cream, but the stand was closed due to it being 9 in the morning. Who are they to say I can't have ice cream for breakfast?

Stephanie had been wearing long pants because she didn't want to change in the airport later - she gets cold very easily - but she was sweltering in the Southern California heat (ironically, I heard from my parents that Seattle was in the midst of a similar heat wave while we were gone). So she went shopping as soon as we got into the park for some shorts or a skirt or something like that. While she did that, ds and I headed to the right to Tomorrowland for some Star Tours fast passes. The stand by line was maybe 10 or 15 minutes, but we didn't have time to wait. We opted instead to walk onto Buzz Lightyear one last time while we waited.

As we got out, Steph was walking right up to our location! Perfect timing! She had gotten a Jack Skellington dress. Apparently she didn't realize who was on it, she just grabbed it because it was her style and she knew it would fit without having to bother trying it on. She wanted to mention that the service was very good at the Clothiers. The gentleman there also gave her a "First Visit" pin for her son and a "Happily Ever After" pin for herself. She had been envying that exact pin on a 4 year old girl earlier in the day, so she was ecstatic! We had already gotten ds a First Visit pin, so she gave the extra one to me. And, yes, I wore it. Being at Disneyland definitely made me feel like a kid again.

We took a seat and figured out what we wanted to do while we waited for our Star Tours fast pass time. I decided at the last minute that I really wanted to give Space Mountain a shot. DS and Stephanie wanted to do the teacups. Again. So we split up once more. I headed up to Space Mountain, and waited in what felt like a too-long line for as early in the morning as it was, but in reality was only maybe 20 minutes. Still longer than most lines in our trip.

Holy cow, I wish I had done Space Mountain earlier! That ride is awesome! It does an amazing job of tricking you into thinking you're traveling in space. The air they blow at you makes you feel like you're going way faster than you really are. When I was a kid, Space Mountain was always the thrill ride at Disneyland, so that had colored my impressions and made me a little more scared of it than I should have been. But it really is a pretty tame ride while being exhilarating at the same time.

As I met up with my family, I found out they had ridden both the teacups and Mr. Toad again while I was gone. This is going to be a shorter than usual update, although still excessively long. Time seems to have slipped away from me!

 

[auntiegem]

I didn't know Seattle got a ferris wheel. How does in compare in size to Mickey's Wheel of Death, er, Fun Wheel?

 

[nrichards]

I didn't know Seattle got a ferris wheel. How does in compare in size to Mickey's Wheel of Death, er, Fun Wheel?

It was advertised as the largest ferris wheel on the west coast; I think it goes about 10 feet higher than Mickey's Fun Wheel. And since it doesn't have the swinging gondolas, has nearly twice as many gondolas. It extends out over the water, and it looks like a neat ride. But like everything aimed towards tourists these days, the cost is not insignificant. We just went to the Pike Place Market at night the other day, and I tried to get some shots of it with my phone:

 

[auntiegem]

It was advertised as the largest ferris wheel on the west coast; I think it goes about 10 feet higher than Mickey's Fun Wheel. And since it doesn't have the swinging gondolas, has nearly twice as many gondolas. It extends out over the water, and it looks like a neat ride. But like everything aimed towards tourists these days, the cost is not insignificant. We just went to the Pike Place Market at night the other day, and I tried to get some shots of it with my phone:

I'm from Seattle, but living in the Portland area now. I was just up there a couple of weeks ago, and had no clue. Looks cool!

THIS is a great picture -- it makes it look like a string of pearls or something. Good job.

 

[nrichards]

Greetings and welcome to another installment of our trip report! This will most likely be the final portion detailing our time at the park. I plan on putting up a couple of epilogue posts, though, one detailing our adventure home and another discussing our favorites and best/worst parts - that one will probably be done in list or Q&A formats.

Last time, we left off as I met the family in Fantasyland. From there, we had maybe 3 or 4 hours left and had to plan accordingly. We already had fast passes to Star Tours, but we needed to figure out what were the other "can't miss" rides that we absolutely had to go on. We decided on Indiana Jones, Pirates of the Caribbean and Haunted Mansion. With Star Tours, these were the rides we hit almost every day, and were the ones we enjoyed the most. It was also nearing lunch time, and we wanted more of the food on a stick from Bengal Barbecue. It was like a greatest hits version of the rest of the weekend!

We were going to get food first, but when we got over there, Indiana Jones had a short stand by wait time of 10 minutes, so how could we not do it first? We were thinking about grabbing fast passes, but the short wait time rendered them unnecessary.

By this time, we were old hats at Indiana Jones: the first time, we were hanging on for dear life and ds definitely hid his head at a couple of times. This time around, I was putting my hands up and ds was watching the whole way through. It helped that he had a mission: to show his mom where the boulder that Indy was being chased by was. He was the only one that saw it the first time.

After Indy, we walked across the way to Bengal Barbecue for a light lunch. I think we got the exact same thing as the day before. What can I say? I'm a sucker for bacon and vegetables. Nothing like cured meats to turn a healthy lunch unhealthy in a heartbeat!

Since we were in the area, our next course of action was to do the New Orleans Square Rides, Pirates and Haunted Mansion. The wait at Pirates was actually pretty substantial, but since it was ds's favorite ride and we only had a couple hours left, we braved it. It's such a fast loading ride, though, so we were on after 15 minutes at the most. I got to sit on the right side of the boat for the first time, so it was kind of interesting checking out the scenes from a slightly different focal point. You definitely find yourself watching the right side much more closely. They do a good job of making both sides interesting to look at, though.

When we went around the corner, Haunted Mansion was closed down, so we headed off to use our Star Tours fast passes. I think by this point, we had lucked out and seen all of the different possible scenes (the odds of that happening in only three visits is 1% if I did the math right - and yeah I just did the math). But as always, we had a lot of fun exploring the galaxy. I know this time around, we got Darth Vader and Yoda, and I think Tatooine and Naboo as well. I was kind of hoping for Hoth again - since I'm in my 30s, I recognize Empire Strikes Back as clearly the best of the films and the scenes on Hoth from that movie are so memorable. Our son, however, being under 30, believes (incorrectly) the Phantom Menace to be the best of the films so he enjoyed the pod racer scenes quite a bit.

After that, we did something I had been strategically avoiding all trip: we saw the Star Wars Jedi Training Academy. I felt terrible avoiding it, because I knew it was something that ds would find really, really, really cool. But I knew that if he didn't get chosen, it would have been incredibly difficult for us to get ds to do anything until he did. And we were on a schedule, man! Luckily, we walked over to the Tomorrowland Terrace about five minutes before the show started, and ds was picked toward the end of the selection process. We definitely had to encourage him to look actively interested in being picked. He is so not shy at all, but get him in front of strangers and he tends to get very quiet. Which sounds like the dictionary definition of shy reading it; you'd need to meet our son to understand, I guess.

The Jedi Master for ds's training session was a gentleman who looked strikingly like Oded Fehr (I know, "Who?") and had some great jedi jokes. ("You will laugh at my jokes.") After a while, Darth Vader and a truly menacing Darth Maul entered. DS got to fight with Darth Maul, and did a pretty good job of remembering the move sequence. I watched a little guy practically pounce on Darth Vader. I know I'd have been scared if I were the scourge of the galaxy!

DS returned his robe, got his certificate and we headed across the park to see if Haunted Mansion had reopened yet. It had, and there was quite the queue - I didn't even realize that the queue wrapped around the side of the mansion; every other time we just walked right into the waiting room area. What a difference a few hours makes!

I sat on the right side of this ride as well, to get a slightly different view from the first couple times. I'll say this: it's a decent ride during the day, but it's a *great* ride at night - same with Pirates. So many people are missing out! It adds so much to the atmosphere knowing you're going to step off the ride onto a bustling, mardi gras-esque New Orleans Square!

At this point, we were just exhausted! We decided we needed to rest some more so we took the train back to Main Street. This was an added bonus, as I had known about the Grand Canyon and dinosaur dioramas, but didn't realize we would get to see them on the leg between Tomorrow Land and Main Street. For some reason, I had it in my head that they were between Main Street and New Orleans Square and we wouldn't get to see them on this trip. I think it's just great that it exists - these dioramas are practically the essence of Disneyland, in that even the tiniest details on the most minor rides are treated with just as much respect as the most popular thrill rides. Disney could have easily covered these up to save on some maintenance and I doubt that many people would complain, but they keep them running and gave my family one last smile before we left the park for the last time on this trip.

Before we left the park, we had some last minute souvenir shopping to do. DS had been given $100 in gift cards by my parents and had a serious hole burning in his pocket. I also wanted to get a group of friends some Disney shot glasses - er toothpick holders. It sure is a fantastic coincidence that they hold about two ounces of one's chosen liquid libation! I also found a fantastic pin of R2D2 with Mickey Mouse ears. It's so incredibly nerdy, but I'm cool with that.

Before we could make it into the emporium, we ran into Goofy again! When ds showed him the stuffed Goofy he had gotten earlier in the day, he engaged in an appalling display of cannibalism. We were shocked! Shocked, I tell you!

It was on this shopping trip before we left when I realized how much four days in the park had completely changed my perspective on cost/benefit! We had anticipated spending a lot of money, of course, but still experienced quite a bit of sticker shock paying over 3 bucks for a bottle of pop. On the last day, $3 seemed like a deal for a Mickey Ice Cream bar, and 7 bucks for a pin and 6 for shot...toothpick holders seemed like reasonable prices to pay for souvenirs.

After we realized we were still at the park an hour after I said we had to leave in order to comfortably catch our flight, we hobbled out to the buses as fast as our poor sore feet would take us.

That concludes the Disneyland portion of this trip report, but I'm hoping y'all will stay tuned for the adventure home and some final thoughts I had on the Disneyland experience!

M-I-C-See Ya Real Soon!

 

[nrichards]

I was going to post about our trip back home, but it's kind of a downer and not all that interesting, to be honest. I'll just boil it down to this: we weren't able to get a direct flight, so we had a stop over in San Francisco. Both flights were late - the one from SFO to Seatac was well over an hour and a half late. We landed in Seattle over an hour late, only to find out that our one checked bag was apparently on the next flight. Why, we still don't know. I was all set to have them just ship the bag to us, until we realized that both sets of our keys were in that bag. Rookie mistake, I know! So we had to wait around the empty baggage claim area for what they said would be 20 minutes but ended up being another hour. We were so grumpy by that point - we were supposed to land around 9 pm, and it was after midnight by the time we got to our car. So that's it in a nutshell. I honestly think we would have been a little bummed no matter what happened, but it was definitely a pretty rough trip back!

I do want to do one more post with lists - favorite rides, that sort of thing. I love lists!

 

[rdkeim]

I loved following along on your trip! Sounds like you had a great time except for the trip home. The trip home is never much fun but you had some real bumps. We arrive in Anaheim on October 13 - we're excited Our first trip was in 2009 but it was pretty brief. We were with a terminally ill family member so this will be a different type of trip altogether. I'll be watching for your wrap-up post!

 

[madmaxx]

Thank you for the wonderful trip report, it reminded me of our first trip in '08. I remember the first time our DD rode Mickey's Funwheel (or whatever it was called then), when she realized she was a bit scared of heights. Great times!