A Tale of Two Trips: Disneyland and Hawaii July 2014 Long Way Home: The End 9/13 p.40

[DisneyKid4Life]

I bet being walking distance from the parks helps make pool time a lot less of a "time waster" if you can call it that. Such an added convenience.

OMG yes, the hand stamp. Such a throwback in this age of Magic Bands. I can't remember if I ever actually had to show it or not, but I sure do remember being completely thrown by it.

I LOVED Paradise Pier. Just the open-ness about it was so different and unlike anything else at a Disney park. Of course being home to California Screamin' doesn't hurt.

Still bummed I missed Radiator Springs by a few months. Such an amazing job Imagineers.

That was definitely a big difference I noticed in Disneyland Resort. LOTS of unsupervised kids. Not saying they are all bad by any means, but just lots of them. I guess when local parents can easily drop them for the day, that's the result. Just a completely different beast.

 

[petals]

They are both delish!

The thing that was striking to me was all of the matching costumes- similar but different patterns and colors.

I have a story about a group of students striking terror into the hearts of fellow travelers. Every year, the 8th grade in our middle school has an end of year trip to Disney World (pretty cool, huh?)

We have two different Jet Blue flights. One for the boys and one for the girls. I guess last year, when other passengers got to the gate and saw the large group of boys, they all changed to the next flight that day.

And ended up on a plane with teenaged girls!

That's brilliant I'm not sure how bothered people were by our group. We got stopped alot in the parks and asked were we the dancers and told we were amazing so I guess they were ok with us. I think large groups just look daunting at first but then we always split up when we got in to the park so it wasn't 129 of us trying to get on Small World all at once or something

 

[JanetMom]

Oo-Oo. I edited the post

"I can row. Canoe?"

"Glad you appreciated the joke- thought I would float it out there. I was shore someone would like it. Oar not."

You shore did push those puns over the brink.

 

[HockeyMomR]

You shore did push those puns over the brink.

LOL.

Rebecca

 

[tiggerfan77]

Wow! What a fantastic first day! Thanks for all the info on Indiana Jones. I'm a big fan and have always jealous that WDW doesn't have the ride. Also I love that way the Haunted Mansion looks at Disneyland. The way the decorate during the holidays is so cool!
I like how Nate thinks. I would love to do a Dole Whip a day too
Also love your pics from CA. The ferris wheel is so pretty. I bet it's gorgeous at night!

 

[ProudMommyof2]

So glad you got to enjoy the pool. It kills me how your family stays at these awesome hotels and never enjoy the pools! I know, it is all about how I feel

 

[glennbo123]

Great idea to get a lay of the land before you plan to actually attack the park. I'm sure you were exhausted though!

 

[natebenma]

I bet being walking distance from the parks helps make pool time a lot less of a "time waster" if you can call it that. Such an added convenience.

OMG yes, the hand stamp. Such a throwback in this age of Magic Bands. I can't remember if I ever actually had to show it or not, but I sure do remember being completely thrown by it.

I LOVED Paradise Pier. Just the open-ness about it was so different and unlike anything else at a Disney park. Of course being home to California Screamin' doesn't hurt.

Still bummed I missed Radiator Springs by a few months. Such an amazing job Imagineers.

That was definitely a big difference I noticed in Disneyland Resort. LOTS of unsupervised kids. Not saying they are all bad by any means, but just lots of them. I guess when local parents can easily drop them for the day, that's the result. Just a completely different beast.

The Grand Californian really was in a convenient location, and like you said, it didn't seem to take a lot of time out of our day to take a swim break.

The hand stamp thing was weird.

Paradise Pier was an awesome area- Great attractions and SO GORGEOUS!!! And we loved it at night! One of our personal goals was to ride California Screamin' with the lights on.

I didn't know you just missed out on Carsland

This was the worst instance we encountered with unsupervised kids, so I guess that is not too bad.

That's brilliant I'm not sure how bothered people were by our group. We got stopped alot in the parks and asked were we the dancers and told we were amazing so I guess they were ok with us. I think large groups just look daunting at first but then we always split up when we got in to the park so it wasn't 129 of us trying to get on Small World all at once or something

Our school group does the same. We have walking groups of between 6-12 kids, with a pretty high teen-to-chaperone ratio. We don't have matching shirts or anything, so you don't necessarily know we are part of a group except when we are traveling together.

You shore did push those puns over the brink.

LOL.

Rebecca

Wow! What a fantastic first day! Thanks for all the info on Indiana Jones. I'm a big fan and have always jealous that WDW doesn't have the ride. Also I love that way the Haunted Mansion looks at Disneyland. The way the decorate during the holidays is so cool!
I like how Nate thinks. I would love to do a Dole Whip a day too
Also love your pics from CA. The ferris wheel is so pretty. I bet it's gorgeous at night!

IJ is such a great ride. I know you would love it!!!

I hear the HM Nightmare Before Christmas layover is out of this world!

Stay tuned to see if we accomplish a Dole-Whip-A-Day

California Adventure is amazingly themed! Radiator Springs is just like being in the movie and Paradise Pier is incredibly beautiful and fun.

I'll have some night pictures from PP later in the report.

So glad you got to enjoy the pool. It kills me how your family stays at these awesome hotels and never enjoy the pools! I know, it is all about how I feel

Yes, it bothers me at times, too. I will make a lot of solo trips to the pool while the rest of the family has downtime. But seriously- we were at Beach Club for 4 days in July 2013 and I was the only one who visited SAB?!?



I spent HOURS at SAB during my recent 2 day trip to the Beach Club!!!

Great idea to get a lay of the land before you plan to actually attack the park. I'm sure you were exhausted though!

Yes we were running on fumes by the time we got back to our room, but it was really nice to have an intro to CA. I liked that we didn't really plan on doing any attractions so we could just take in all the scenery (and perhaps snap a picture, or two!)

 

[MEK]

Yay for getting checked in and grabbing some grub for breakfast. Smart move on the bagels!

Thanks for taking me on a quick tour of CA. I love the secret entrance.

Boo to the tweens on Soarin, but yayayayayay for an unheard of 20 minute wait. Nice! I was only a girl's trip once when I got stuck in a row of middle school boys who were he%% bent on rocking the glider. Yup, that was fun!

Your pizza looks yummy!

What a fun and exhausting day!

 

[luvpoohandcompany]

We had an awesome day 1, and day ain't over yet- I'm working on my post for the rest of the day- pool time and a visit to California Adventure. And of course, the bleary-eyed fireworks display.



Do you like the flavor of pineapple? Dole Whips/Floats are very refreshing, but I won't turn my nose up at a Mickey Bar, either!

I still honestly don't know if Jack Sparrow was a CM or guest. Based on the behavior I observed, I would say CM, but the shopping bag he is holding throws me off.

Cute girls and they were headed in the right direction. Away from us.



Oo-Oo. I edited the post

"I can row. Canoe?"

"Glad you appreciated the joke- thought I would float it out there. I was shore someone would like it. Oar not."

Love pineapple (favourite soda growing up was pineappleade). Lemonade man delivered every wednesday and us kids got to pick 2 flavours while my dad always got a bottle of appleade as his choice Thoroughly enjoying all the corny jokes/puns

 

[jenseib]

That pizza looks so good.
My husband brought up the fact that if I wasn't going away later this month we could've worked a family trip to CA yet this year. I think he was really trying to make me feel bad about going away with my Mother, but in all honesty, this is business, with a little pleasure thrown in....for my Mom it's all pleasure though.

Getting the lay of the land was a good idea!

 

[KatMark]

Dee, I got behind on this one as I got hooked on your other one and trying to get mine done since Mark and I leave so soon.

If nothing else, I want to go to DL for that Radiator Springs area in Carsland...it just looks so cool.

I enjoyed seeing all of your pictures around the two parks.

What is it with tweens and the language? I just don't understand it.

The pool looks really nice.

And that pizza now has my tummy grumbling.

 

[elphie101]

Aaaaaaand caught up! Not too shabby for a Disneyland afternoon and I enjoyed your mini-tour through CA. I can definitely appreciate adding some pool time in your day, we almost never seem to fit it in either. That pool looks like a ton of fun!

Oh my goodness that pizza looks delicious. It actually made my stomach grumble from here. I'll take a slice!

 

[natebenma]

UGH!!! I am having so much trouble keeping up with this report, and even making it over to this board to reply for comments. Hope to have a new update, our first morning at California Adventure tomorrow or Saturday.

Thanks for sticking with me!

Yay for getting checked in and grabbing some grub for breakfast. Smart move on the bagels!

Thanks for taking me on a quick tour of CA. I love the secret entrance.

Boo to the tweens on Soarin, but yayayayayay for an unheard of 20 minute wait. Nice! I was only a girl's trip once when I got stuck in a row of middle school boys who were he%% bent on rocking the glider. Yup, that was fun!

Your pizza looks yummy!

What a fun and exhausting day!

The bagels were a real bargain when compared to getting a single bagel. It was the perfect amount for breakfast on a few days.

The secret entrance, and even the regular Downtown Disney entrance to DL and CA made getting around so convenient. Location! Location! Location!

Soarin' was funny. The longest wait we ever saw there was 25 minutes. So this became the go-to ride when we needed to kill a little time. Nate kept asking to go on Soarin' whenever we had some downtime.

Our next ride on Soarin' would have another fellow rider who was even more annoying than the tweens!

The pizza was yummy. And EXPENSIVE!!! It was $28 for the pie. We paid less for pizza in Hawaii the following week!

It was a fantastic day!

Love pineapple (favourite soda growing up was pineappleade). Lemonade man delivered every wednesday and us kids got to pick 2 flavours while my dad always got a bottle of appleade as his choice Thoroughly enjoying all the corny jokes/puns

I love the sound of a lemonade man. All we ever had was a milk man. The pineappleade sounds yummy.

Don't encourage me on the corny jokes!

That pizza looks so good.
My husband brought up the fact that if I wasn't going away later this month we could've worked a family trip to CA yet this year. I think he was really trying to make me feel bad about going away with my Mother, but in all honesty, this is business, with a little pleasure thrown in....for my Mom it's all pleasure though.

Getting the lay of the land was a good idea!

The pizza was really good, but I'm glad that most of us were not very hungry from our big lunch at Blue Bayou.

I hope you do get the family to CA sometime.

I think you did something similar on your first night, just popping into a park to meet a friend and find your way around.

Dee, I got behind on this one as I got hooked on your other one and trying to get mine done since Mark and I leave so soon.

If nothing else, I want to go to DL for that Radiator Springs area in Carsland...it just looks so cool.

I enjoyed seeing all of your pictures around the two parks.

What is it with tweens and the language? I just don't understand it.

The pool looks really nice.

And that pizza now has my tummy grumbling.

I know what it is like trying to keep up with everyone's reports (and my own). You do a great job!!!

Carsland is fantastic! Probably the best themed area in any theme park (although the Harry Potter stuff at Universal is pretty darned good, too)

#$%@$ tweens!

The pool was nice, but not deep enough- it was less than 5 feet in most places and I like a pool that is over my head in places.

The pizza was delicious and probably worth the price$$$

Aaaaaaand caught up! Not too shabby for a Disneyland afternoon and I enjoyed your mini-tour through CA. I can definitely appreciate adding some pool time in your day, we almost never seem to fit it in either. That pool looks like a ton of fun!

Oh my goodness that pizza looks delicious. It actually made my stomach grumble from here. I'll take a slice!

We had a fabulous, fabulous day!

We rarely fit in pool time and I think we went to the pool 3 of our 4 days. Definitely a record for us. And it wasn't even that hot!

Fortunately, you could get the pizza by the slice, which we did later in the trip.

 

[natebenma]

Sunday July 13

In my last update, I described how my family spent the evening of our arrival in California Adventure so that we could learn our way around and be ready for when we would actually be “doing” the park.

Today was early entry at California Adventure, so our goal that morning was: Radiator Spring Racers in Carsland!

We decided not to use the private entrance from the Grand Californian because we heard that the bag check there can take a little while. Here is how it looked at the DTD Main Entrance to CA at 7:05 am







Since we were there a little bit after rope drop, we didn’t experience the “running of the bulls”.







A little more crowded as we reached Radiator Springs












The Stand-by time for RSR was around 25 minutes. I took a couple of pictures in the queue, but it was moving along quickly so I didn’t have too much time to stop and snap.







I wanted to fully “experience” the ride for the first time, so I vowed I would not take any pictures.

Mission Accomplished!


Almost






This is a very cool ride. You ride in your car through different scenes with life-size “auto”animatronic figures from the movie. My favorite scene here is the Tractor Tipping. At one point in the ride, the cars break off into one of two scenes, either Ramone’s Paint Shop or Luigi’s Casa del Tires. Then, your car speeds out onto the outside track through Monument Valley and you race the car next to you on the parallel track.


It was 7:35 when we finished with the ride. Since CA was still not open to the general public, we headed to the Paradise Pier area to enjoy some of the attractions there.




Our destination was California Screamin’.





We didn’t know how Ben would react- on our last trip the prior summer to Disneyworld and Universal he was on the threshold of enjoying thrill rides. Most coasters are ok, but the ones that go upside-down had been iffy for him.

We rode.





And we rode again!




Ben loved it and declared it his favorite ride after the trip was over.








It was still a few minutes before 8, so it would be a great time to go on Toy Story Midway Mania. Unfortunately, as we walked by, the ride was down.

Where to next?


Continued in Next Post

 

[natebenma]

Continued from Previous Post

We continued on and got in the queue for Goofy’s Sky School, which is one of the rides at CA that has Fast Pass. I think we were the second family in line- the ride hadn’t opened yet so we had to wait.

I would compare this to ride to Primevil Whirl at Animal Kingdom, but not as fun. It was super-jerky and whiplashy. I don’t think any of us really enjoyed it, and we wouldn’t be riding again.













Nate wanted to go to Soarin’ again. We made our way through Grizzly Peak (past Grizzly River Run) past the private entrance to the Grand Californian Hotel to Condor Flats.











We didn’t have to contend with rude, annoying tweens in line this time, but we did have to deal with “Done That Mom”

You know that part of the preshow where they flash all the locations you will be flying over? One of the women in our loading area kept saying “Mama's been there” “Mama's done that” And it didn’t stop once the ride started! I sat next to her and she gave commentary throughout the ride “Mama has skied at Lake Tahoe” “Mama’s done that (ballooning)” "Mama's been there"

Add this to the list: Mama's annoyed her fellow passengers!

I was done with Done That Mama!

We followed up our flight with a stop for some mid-morning treats at Starbucks.





When we had finished with our coffee break, we pulled a FP for Radiator Springs Racers for later that day





Back to Paradise Pier to check out Toy Story.







The ride was running again, and had a 30 minute wait, so we jumped in line. The queue in CA is not much like the one at HS- there is a Mr. Potatohead, but none of the other cute toys throughout the queue. The queue area is covered, but is not enclosed. It is open to the outside conditions.


















Andy’s Room as you exit the ride is really cute, but the picture I took at this time was really blurry. I have a better one coming up later in the trip.


Continued in Next Post

 

[natebenma]

Continued from Previous Post

While we were in the Paradise Pier Area, we decided to try out something we hadn’t done yet:

“Mickey’s Fun Wheel (of Death)”

You have two choices on this Ferris Wheel type ride- Enclosed cars that stay in one position or the swinging cars that move back and forth across a bar:

Who chose




Ben and me!!!

Mark and Nate selected the regular cars




They chose wisely!








Holy Moley! Those cars move fast! We rode with a mom, dad and a boy who was a little younger than Ben and he did not like the ride at all. He was terrified and screaming throughout the whole ride and had a death grip on his mother.

I’m pretty sure they would not be riding that again, and honestly, Ben and I would not be returning to the swinging section.

The views were good, as they were flashing by and I tried to take a few pictures, but these are the only one that came out close to decent.










I would get some better pictures later in the trip (from the non-swinging side)





We didn’t go down into this courtyard, but I bet the pictures you can take of the Paradise Pier boardwalk are really nice from here.



We cut through A Bugs Land to get to Radiator Springs









At this point it was time for the family to split up for a little bit. Ben is not a big fan of Tower of Terror, but the rest of us wanted to ride. So we walked Ben over to Carsland so he could ride RSR via the single rider line and when we were done with ToT, we would meet Ben at Flo’s Café for lunch, before we used our FP for RSR. Mark gave his phone to Ben, and we kept in contact. Ben let us know when he was done with his ride and we let him know our progress through the Hollywood Hotel.























Look how close Space Mountain and the Matterhorn in DL are!




Ben was able to ride Radiator Springs Racers 3 times while we were on Tower of Terror!

And each time, he had the same scene- Ramone’s Paint Shop.

Next up: Go with the Flo’s

 

[dtr_angel]

Wow, I cannot believe how much you did on your arrival day. It makes me tired just thinking about it!

That pizza looks so yummy! So cool you could see the fireworks from your balcony.

I love all the pictures! I cannot wait to see Cars Land in person!
So glad Ben enjoyed California Screamin’! I love the theming in that area of the park.

Very cool to see the differences between attractions in Florida vs. California
I love your picture from ToT! Wow 3 times? That’s awesome!

 

[MEK]

I can't believe how much you have already accomplished in one day. How great that EMH starts at 7am! That is really awesome.

So this Mickey's Wheel of Death you speak of - I have heard of it before but didn't know that you can choose between moving and non-moving cages. Are they located on different sections of the ferris wheel?

ToT looks just like the one at WDW, but I bet there are some difference. Looks fun and woo hoo for 3 rides on the Racers. That's amazing!

 

[jenseib]

I can't believe you rode both of the Death Traps! You really were taking your lives into your hands!

Yay for Ben riding RSR 3 times in a row.
I had the same scene 3 times and only my last ride did I get the other one...of course I no longer which one I had more.