CandyMouse
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Mar 21, 2008
- Messages
- 555
Looks like a fun time! Love all your cute and fun pictures! How was the cookie?
"It's been 84 years..." (Finally returning to Disneyland after 16 months - end of July 2021)
- Thread starter Jaina
- Start date
Jaina
Actually, my name is Sara. It's a long, VMK story.
- Joined
- Jul 22, 2005
- Messages
- 2,363
It really was a great time!
I know, I love it! I would have so many more loungeflys if they were a little more comfortable and held a little more! The backpack I was wearing that trip is actually a Loungefly too, but a full-size nylon one, which I find a lot more useful for how prepared I like to be!
As good as always!
So glad there were friends to split it with though; too rich to eat one by myself. Let me be clear, I -would- have eaten the whole thing if they weren't there, but I also would have felt a little sick afterwards...
Jaina
Actually, my name is Sara. It's a long, VMK story.
- Joined
- Jul 22, 2005
- Messages
- 2,363
I meant to hurry and finish this, but I've been fighting with Imgur (photo hosting site) a little bit lately. I finally figured out that even though I specifically said it was allowed, my filtered router has been blocking it. Not that I don't agree with it for my kids, but I need access to my pictures! 
I'm annoyed though, because I had this next part all typed up, but it took me too many days to figure out Imgur, (because I kept just expecting it was a site issue, and that it would work later) that the window got closed and I lost it.
Anyway.
We still had time to fit in one more quick-loading ride before our 1:30 reservation at the Lamplight Lounge (which I'd never been to before - yay birthday lunch!) so we got in line for The Little Mermaid at 1:03. Plenty of time, right? We were on by 1:10 and thought we were home free, but then the ride stopped. Multiple times. For like 5-8 minutes each time. It was crazy. By the time we got out, we had 2 minutes to make our reservation (thankfully it was close, of course) and we had been a bit stressed out. But it all worked out.
We got seated inside, which was wonderful since it was a warm day. I absolutely loved all the Pixar art and memorabilia. So fun! We decided we definitely had to get fun (non-alcoholic) drinks in celebration of my birthday, and all 3 of us chose the 2319 with Sprite. The waitress suggested we get it on the side so it didn't melt the slushy part of the drink so fast. We decided to split three things, and got cheddar bruger, the potato skins, and the lobster nachos. I just have to say I'm not a fan of the lobster nachos. The lobster part was just too salty for me. But J and K both liked it. Everything else was delicious, including the nachos without any lobster...
Lines were pretty long at this point in the day (almost 3 PM) so we wandered a bit, doing some shopping, and taking some Photopass pictures. We took a nice air-conditioned break and saw Mickey's Philharmagic (3:30), since neither of them had seen that. We saw Minnie, Anna, and Elsa, and got some popcorn. Then we decided it was time to stand in another line, and we headed for Soarin' Over the World.
Man. That was not a fun line. It was all over on the west? of the building and it was HOT. Even with our umbrellas and my cooling cloth, it was kind of tortuous to stand over there (for about 20 minutes starting at 4:05) until we got over in the shade of the canopies by the building. We asked to wait for B1 and were on the ride by 4:50. So about 45 minutes, but felt longer!
Speaking of long lines: After that, we decided it was time to ride Grizzly River Rapids. The line had been at 60-75 min most of the afternoon. It was currently at 60, but we definitely wanted to do it, so we decided to settle in, especially since so much of that line is in the shade. The line didn't go through the canoe/office area, but stretched all the way down around the waterfall walkway to the entrance to Pixar Pier, and wrapped back up the other side quite a ways.
Oh well. We were good until the ride broke down 15 minutes in! And it took it a while to get back up. We took the opportunity to do some sitting, as our feet were pretty tired by then! It took 80 minutes total, which is one of the longer Disney lines I've ever personally waited in (2 hours for the X coaster at Six Flags is my record when I was 21). It was a good ride though, and not hot and miserable like the Soarin' line. We rode at 6:20 PM, and some of us were wetter than others afterwards! The lockers were actually closed, so we had to be creative to try to protect out stuff.
Since it was my birthday, I was up for a Monte Cristo, but we weren't that hungry, so J sad she'd be happy to share one with me. K ordered some chowder, so we carried our food all the way over to the Pacific Wharf to eat there together. K had been dying for some cotton candy, but hadn't been able to find any, even after asking some cast members. So when a cart of it started wheeling past us while we were waiting for her food, she followed it all the way to where it was being sold, and finally fulfilled her craving!
Here she is enjoying it fully on our next ride, Mater's Junkyard Jamboree, which was almost a walk-on at 7:30 PM. I always love that ride in the evening or at night.
Another great ride at night: Radiator Springs. We did single rider again and waited about 30 minutes to ride at 8:15 PM. J and I got put in the same car again.
We headed over to Guardians and got in line at 8:40. We waited about 30 minutes and rode at 9:10 PM. I am really sad that on my last two trips, we haven't been able to get one Guardians Photopass picture, because someone (or several someones) always has their mask down. So frustrating. But, on my most recent trip (this last week) we got a RSR pic where one person had their mask down, so I don't get it! Maybe because that could be more accidental, and was technically outside at the time? Anyway. Guardians is always stellar. (Ha. ha.)
We had fun checking out Avenger's Campus at night. I hadn't noticed all these fun little spider bots stuck all over campus when I visited in June, and they're kind of my favorite.
I guess the park had closed at 9, because we headed out at that point. Loved this sign on Carthay:
It was time for our last line of the night: Lost and Found. K got up there after a few minutes and asked about her ears. They came back with some that looked just like hers, and she was like, "but how do I know they're mine and not someone else's? Where were they found?" And they told her they were all basically just thrown into a big bin... So she took those ears (which were not hers, technically, since hers had a tiny black hair tie on them for attaching them to her backpack) and we wished we would have just come out to "look for them" earlier in the day so she could have had them for more pictures. C'est la vie. She was just glad to get "them" back, since she'd just bought them the night before!
Well, that was the end of our trip! We were excited to have a short walk back to the Desert Inn & Suites. We had done 26k steps on our Disneyland day and 22.5k on our California Adventure day. I have noticed my step count is definitely lower without MaxPass, but also lower when I stay closer, and not a block away. This trip report is complete, but I will try to post a video from it soon!
I'm annoyed though, because I had this next part all typed up, but it took me too many days to figure out Imgur, (because I kept just expecting it was a site issue, and that it would work later) that the window got closed and I lost it.Anyway.
We still had time to fit in one more quick-loading ride before our 1:30 reservation at the Lamplight Lounge (which I'd never been to before - yay birthday lunch!) so we got in line for The Little Mermaid at 1:03. Plenty of time, right? We were on by 1:10 and thought we were home free, but then the ride stopped. Multiple times. For like 5-8 minutes each time. It was crazy. By the time we got out, we had 2 minutes to make our reservation (thankfully it was close, of course) and we had been a bit stressed out. But it all worked out.
We got seated inside, which was wonderful since it was a warm day. I absolutely loved all the Pixar art and memorabilia. So fun! We decided we definitely had to get fun (non-alcoholic) drinks in celebration of my birthday, and all 3 of us chose the 2319 with Sprite. The waitress suggested we get it on the side so it didn't melt the slushy part of the drink so fast. We decided to split three things, and got cheddar bruger, the potato skins, and the lobster nachos. I just have to say I'm not a fan of the lobster nachos. The lobster part was just too salty for me. But J and K both liked it. Everything else was delicious, including the nachos without any lobster...
Lines were pretty long at this point in the day (almost 3 PM) so we wandered a bit, doing some shopping, and taking some Photopass pictures. We took a nice air-conditioned break and saw Mickey's Philharmagic (3:30), since neither of them had seen that. We saw Minnie, Anna, and Elsa, and got some popcorn. Then we decided it was time to stand in another line, and we headed for Soarin' Over the World.
Man. That was not a fun line. It was all over on the west? of the building and it was HOT. Even with our umbrellas and my cooling cloth, it was kind of tortuous to stand over there (for about 20 minutes starting at 4:05) until we got over in the shade of the canopies by the building. We asked to wait for B1 and were on the ride by 4:50. So about 45 minutes, but felt longer!
Speaking of long lines: After that, we decided it was time to ride Grizzly River Rapids. The line had been at 60-75 min most of the afternoon. It was currently at 60, but we definitely wanted to do it, so we decided to settle in, especially since so much of that line is in the shade. The line didn't go through the canoe/office area, but stretched all the way down around the waterfall walkway to the entrance to Pixar Pier, and wrapped back up the other side quite a ways.
Oh well. We were good until the ride broke down 15 minutes in! And it took it a while to get back up. We took the opportunity to do some sitting, as our feet were pretty tired by then! It took 80 minutes total, which is one of the longer Disney lines I've ever personally waited in (2 hours for the X coaster at Six Flags is my record when I was 21). It was a good ride though, and not hot and miserable like the Soarin' line. We rode at 6:20 PM, and some of us were wetter than others afterwards! The lockers were actually closed, so we had to be creative to try to protect out stuff.
Since it was my birthday, I was up for a Monte Cristo, but we weren't that hungry, so J sad she'd be happy to share one with me. K ordered some chowder, so we carried our food all the way over to the Pacific Wharf to eat there together. K had been dying for some cotton candy, but hadn't been able to find any, even after asking some cast members. So when a cart of it started wheeling past us while we were waiting for her food, she followed it all the way to where it was being sold, and finally fulfilled her craving!
Here she is enjoying it fully on our next ride, Mater's Junkyard Jamboree, which was almost a walk-on at 7:30 PM. I always love that ride in the evening or at night.
Another great ride at night: Radiator Springs. We did single rider again and waited about 30 minutes to ride at 8:15 PM. J and I got put in the same car again.
We headed over to Guardians and got in line at 8:40. We waited about 30 minutes and rode at 9:10 PM. I am really sad that on my last two trips, we haven't been able to get one Guardians Photopass picture, because someone (or several someones) always has their mask down. So frustrating. But, on my most recent trip (this last week) we got a RSR pic where one person had their mask down, so I don't get it! Maybe because that could be more accidental, and was technically outside at the time? Anyway. Guardians is always stellar. (Ha. ha.)
We had fun checking out Avenger's Campus at night. I hadn't noticed all these fun little spider bots stuck all over campus when I visited in June, and they're kind of my favorite.
I guess the park had closed at 9, because we headed out at that point. Loved this sign on Carthay:
It was time for our last line of the night: Lost and Found. K got up there after a few minutes and asked about her ears. They came back with some that looked just like hers, and she was like, "but how do I know they're mine and not someone else's? Where were they found?" And they told her they were all basically just thrown into a big bin... So she took those ears (which were not hers, technically, since hers had a tiny black hair tie on them for attaching them to her backpack) and we wished we would have just come out to "look for them" earlier in the day so she could have had them for more pictures. C'est la vie. She was just glad to get "them" back, since she'd just bought them the night before!
Well, that was the end of our trip! We were excited to have a short walk back to the Desert Inn & Suites. We had done 26k steps on our Disneyland day and 22.5k on our California Adventure day. I have noticed my step count is definitely lower without MaxPass, but also lower when I stay closer, and not a block away.
This trip report is complete, but I will try to post a video from it soon!
Last edited:
FeistyDisneyMom
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Jan 17, 2019
- Messages
- 1,225
Great report as always Worth the wait!
Worth the wait!
Jaina
Actually, my name is Sara. It's a long, VMK story.
- Joined
- Jul 22, 2005
- Messages
- 2,363
Aw, thanks! I feel like I'm scrambling to even try to keep up. But my husband just found out the "little flu" he's had for the last 5 days is actually covid, so I should have some downtime this next week, haha! Well, other than still having 5 children somewhat underfoot... Hoping I don't get it, but if anyone's going to, it will be me. No one else has had contact with him since he got sick, but I've been taking care of him, so I've had a little...Great report as always
Thanks! We bought it on eBay for my DD9 to wear on her 10th birthday at the parks, but that would have been in June of 2020... Someone needed to wear it, and it matched my shirt! That child is now DD11.5, and she just finally got her solo trip last weekend, so stay tuned for that TR after I do our late September one next!Looks like a wonderful birthday day! Your birthday ear hat is super cute.
noodle73
Mouseketeer
- Joined
- Aug 23, 2019
- Messages
- 105
Sorry to hear your husband has Covid! Hopefully none of the family gets it.
It makes me sad how much time we missed in the parks with the kids while DLR was closed but glad you made it back for a solo trip with DD11.5. Love your TRs, keep 'em coming!
Jaina
Actually, my name is Sara. It's a long, VMK story.
- Joined
- Jul 22, 2005
- Messages
- 2,363
Thankfully, no one else got it! Worth sleeping on an air mattress for 2 weeks, haha.
I did, however get stomach flu after being with my extended family Thanksgiving weekend. That was no fun at all!! No one had it going into the weekend or while we were together, but somehow like 8 of us did within 24 hours of getting home (several people in several families). Ridiculous. Hoping everyone stays well this week, because my solo Christmas trip (well, day) is coming up this Friday!And I'm trying hard to get caught up on my reports!
-
More New STAR WARS LEGO Sets for May the 4th!
-
Four Recipes for Your 'May the 4th' Star Wars Celebration
-
FIRST LOOK at Disney's Pop Century Resort Guest Room Refresh
-
Disney Debate: Are the Parks Better With More or Less IP?
-
Every Restaurant & Menu in Celestial Park at Epic Universe
-
Last Days for Loungefly Star Wars 'May the 4th' Savings
-
Get a FREE Make & Take Grogu at Disney Springs LEGO Store!
Save Up to 30% on Rooms at Walt Disney World!
Save up to 30% on rooms at select Disney Resorts Collection hotels when you stay 5 consecutive nights or longer in late summer and early fall. Plus, enjoy other savings for shorter stays.This offer is valid for stays most nights from August 1 to October 11, 2025.
CLICK HERE
