Day 4-Monday and Disney thoughts

Written by Emily on Tuesday, New Year's Eve, while riding in the car on the I-5 heading for Redding.

Note: Monday morning, J and K adventures was sleeping in.

It was to be our last day at Disneyland and although we were all exhausted, especially Fred and Ruben who helped mom close the park down on Sunday, we were up and at the park gates by 7:30am. We were admitted immediately and went to Main St in Disneyland where we had to wait for the 8am official opening. We watched the rope drop and took off with the crowdfor Space Mountain.

Once I found the right line in all the chaos I got us fastpasses and we wandered over to ride Buzz Lightyear Astro Blasters. Its kind of a shoot em up game based on the premise of keeping the evil emperor Zurg from taking over. Having stopped the evil one with our excellent marksmanship we went into Fantasyland.

We rode some dark rides we missed earlier such as Pinocchio's Daring Journey and Snow White's Scary Adventure. We also rode the carrousel and the less claustrophobic of us went through Sleeping Beauty's Castle. I dragged Freddie and Ru on to Small World because... well because its Disneyland and Fred had to experience it. Twenty minutes later we gratefully disembarked and walked around the corner to Toon Town.

Toontown opens a little later than the rest of Disneyland so we were at the gates just before it opened. We got escorted into Toontown by Mickey and Minnie. It was super sweet, they were holding hands.

Fred is a big fan of classic cartoons and LOVES Roger Rabbit so we rode his ride first. Then we took the opportunity to take silly pictures with all the sight gags and Goofy. We walked around a little bit and realized that Toontown has very little to offer big kids and adults so we went back and rode Space Mountain using our fastpasses from earlier.

Meanwhile J and K slept on, with the plan to meet at IHOP for breakfast later...

Disneyland was filling up, and Ru really wanted to ride a water ride at California Adventure called Grizzly River Run. Its like a whitewater rafting adventure. You have to time it right though because you WILL get wet, probably soaked. You don't want to ride it too early or too late or you will freeze. Even though the weather was sunny it was cold in the shade and being wet and cold is never fun. We had gotten fastpasses for it the day before but it was closed and drained when we got there, so we went elsewhere.

We got to the ride intending to ride single rider to save time, but we changed our minds and decided to ride together and waited the 20 minutes. We had a good run and got pretty wet, but we had time to go again. I asked one of the cast members if we could ride from the fastpass line because we were denied yesterday and she said sure. So we got on fast the second time and got absolutely soaked. At least I didn't have to worry about my mascara like the poor teen we were on the boat with, or my new spendy sneakers like the teen boy on our raft.

It was time to meet up for breakfast so we met at the hotel where we got dry then along with J and K went on to IHOP for pancakes and eggs. Note: IHOP sucks for people with food allergies.

Jeff was in football mode and went back to the hotel, Mom joined Ru, Fred, and I at the pool for sun and splash. When we felt sufficiently baked Ru and I started our nap, and Fred took off for some exploring.

J and K adventured to ESPN in Downtown Disney for what sounded like an awful meal and a football game which the Ducks won, but played only slightly better than their lousy opponents. (Note this football commentary was written by someone who knows little about the game and possibly cares even less, and was based on commentary heard later from mom.)

At 7pm Jeff went back to the hotel to recover from ESPN food, and Mom ventured onward with us to California Adventure park. We went immediately to the hand dipped ice cream where Ru got a chocolate chip mint in a waffle cone that was dipped in chocolate and sprinkles. He'd been looking forward to ice cream all day!

Next we went off to ride California Screaming and Mike and Sully's Adventure. We also learned how to talk like a turtle (with Crush from Finding Nemo) and mom and I watched Fred and Ru spin around on the ladybug ride. Mom took off for the hotel to rest up for her long drive tomorrow, and Fred and I finally got Ruben on the trolley he'd been wanting to ride for days.

We got back to the hotel around 10, and were all utterly exhausted. I wore my pedometer and I had walked about 7 miles. I know I had walked more than that on the previous days. We all had sore legs and feet, even the kid.

In summary I'd say we hit all the Disney highlights, did the best that we could with the INSANE crowds, and that we all did our best to have a good time even though none of us (perhaps with the exception of Ruben) were even close to 100% to begin with.

Fred's overall Disneyland impression: He could tell that Disney is the standard that all other theme parks are basing their ideas off of. He really liked that you didn't need tickets for the rides, and the fastpasses and single rider systems really saved a lot of time and made it more fun. The train is invaluable for trying to get around when its crowded. He liked that there were two parks with different feelings and he could go back and forth between them. It was neat to see the classic rides and the brand new rides. He was glad that they kept some of the old classic rides. He was impressed with the staff and felt that they were helpful and friendly. He also noticed that everything was very clean. His favorite ride was the California Screaming Coaster, and he also really liked the Toy Story 3D arcade game. The shows he liked were Muppet Vision 3D and Bugs Life. Bugs life especially because of the effects. (bug spray, stink, water). He feels it was worth the money, and would surely visit again someday.

Ruben's overall impression of Disneyland:

He loved the rides. His favorite ride was Splash Mountain, and his second favorite was Space Mountain. His third favorite was Tower of Terror. He thought world of color was amazing with the fountains and he liked that they used Olaf from Frozen. He said that was pretty girlie. (I took him to see Frozen and he said it was a girl movie.) He feels that he got to do everything he wanted to do. He says he doesn't need to ever go to Disneyland again because he's done everything there is to do there. He wants to go to Yellowstone on our next vacation.

Update: Waiting for the ball to drop at the Red Lion in Redding, I uploaded ALL of Fred and my pictures from Christmas and DLand to:

https://plus.google.com/photos/106050256545946650438/albums/5963766164714239329?authkey=CMakxbqwx8jd9gE 

if you want to see them.  

A few more pictures from Saturday night and Sunday

In front of the tree at DCA

Enjoying corn dogs

At the Blue Bayou

Jeff examines the crotch of a huge grizzly

Beautiful flowers everywhere

Lots of people waiting in lines

It was a great day for spying stupid shoes

Day 3, Sunday, by Emily (with additions from K)

I'm typing this from the fastpass line for Radiator Springs Racers.
We were expecting California Adventure to open at 8 so at 7 :30am we arrived at the gate only to find they had early entry today. Our first stop was to get fastpasses for Radiator Springs Racers, in the new Cars land. Well the fastpass line was already huge! And not opening until 8am.Being the footsore woman I am, I volunteered to stay and get fastpasses, while Fred and Ru went on the California Screaming coaster.

Saturday evening we all went to California Adventure Park for the first time. (this trip). We rode California Screaming, Soaring over California, and the Tower of Terror. We also watched the Muppet 3D movie. In between we managed to find the hand dipped corn dogs, which were consumed with mixed reviews.

Although I had grabbed fastpasses earlier in the day for Splash Mountain, we didn't make it. I was cold and didn't want to get wet. Thankfully it didn't take much to convince the group. We got back to the Tropicana at around 10, and my boring meal of plain rice and veggies never tasted so good.

Update: written poolside at 2:30pm

What a busy morning for those of us who ventured out. Fred and Ru finished with the coaster and we went to explore Cars Land. Radiator Springs is AMAZING! It's so detailed, and HUGE. They rebuilt the cliffs of Sedona, a 1950's town, and it's all car related. Christmas wreaths were constructed of tires. The decorations were traffic signals, and the music was all driving themed holiday tunes. We rode TowMater then Louigi's flying tires. Since the fastpasses we got weren't good until 11:50 worked out the Toy Story themed Midway Mania. It was fun, we hadn't done it before. It was like a 3D shooting gallery from a moving car. It is undecided whether it was worth the hour wait in the cold. We continued down the boardwalk and rode two spinning swing rides, the jumping jellyfish, and then Little Mermaid. Aerielle is so sweet, and Ursala is so bad. We rode a odd uncomfortable little coaster called goofy's sky school, which should not exist. 

We finished the ride and rushed across the park to Disneyland where we had a lunch reservation at Blue Bayou. We met J and K there. They had visited Mr. Lincoln and were just getting started on their day. I'll let them continue the lunch story. 

We knew we would  be a little late for our fastpasses to Radiator Springs Racers but went anyway, as quickly as we could. 

From Kathy:  J and K could not get out of bed on Sunday morning.  Correction......K could not get out of bed.  J was up and ready to get into the shower, but I could not envision moving/walking/riding.  My knees felt like aching knots and my body felt like concrete.  We slept in to about 9 and prepared for our day in a leisurely fashion.  We knew we had to meet Em, Ru and Fred at 11:30 for lunch at the Blue Bayou and we stopped in for a visit with Mr. Lincoln beforehand.  He was decidedly presidential and I was filled with patriotism after our visit.  

Our lunch at the Blue Bayou was a wonderful experience.  After all their running around in the morning, the Pearson/Talbot family was dragging a little.  But after some time in the hushed, dark and peaceful BB, everyone felt better.  The menu was intriguing, but what impressed us the most is that they actually took Emily's dietary needs into account.  In fact, she had a conference with the chef who came out to make sure they could prepare something that she could enjoy without fear.  We all enjoyed our wonderful selections and they took off to make their fastpass time to the new Radiator Springs Racer (that Emily waited an hour to get).  

Meanwhile, Jeff and I caught the train around the park and walked to DCA.  We met our companions.  They were happy they got to Radiator springs in time for that ride, but sad that Grizzly Mt. Rafts were closed (they drained all the water for some reason--Em postulated that perhaps somebody had polluted the water with ashes, per a final request to be buried at Disney)  Anyway, they went home for swim, sun and nap and J and I decided to try single rider lines.  We went on Soarin' over California again and then walked over to the raft ride.  They had refilled the river and soon riders were getting wet, so we decided to join them.  We got in the single rider line and both ended up in the same raft with an Asian family from San Francisco.  We all got soaked, but after that we sloshed home for a nap too.  I must say that single rider lines are the way to go!!!

The night and the morning after

After our nap we snacked and got ready for another attack on the mouse.  When we arrived at about 5:30, the sun had set and the place was packed.  And I mean packed.  I haven't seen so many people at Disneyland since I was once there in August.  Thank goodness we had fast passes!  We rode Indy and Pirates and then made it over to Space Mountain and then watched the fireworks and enjoyed the Haunted Mansion and ended the evening with a trip down Splash Mountain.  After that, we caught the train and rode around to main street and limped on home.

We all got to bed sometime around midnight.  And the next morning, Saturday, was our one early entry day.  We knew we had to bite the bullet, get up early, and hit it.  So we did!  We were at the gates at 6:50.  But so were many other hearty souls.  The lines were long, but Fred found the shortest and fastest and we were soon inside and headed for Ruben's favorite.....Space Mountain.  What a wake up call!  Then it was over to Adventure Land and we rode the "Jingle" cruise.  The ride was the same but the lame jokes were holiday related.  Emily wanted to ride the canal boats (one ride she had never done) so we went over to Fantasyland and also rode the teacups and then went back to adventureland for Indy.  Buy then, Jeff and I were dragging our asses so we bailed and we went to the IHOP for lots of coffee and pancakes.  Em, Ru and Fred rode Splash Mt. and got fast passes for the evening, and got to the hotel just a few minutes after us.  We all met at the pool for swim and sun and then retired for naps.  Here are some pictures of last night and this morning.

The big tree

The castle at night

Wheeeee!

Princess's and their protection in the morning line.

Em and Fred hold each other up.....note how empty at 7 am.

Waiting for space mt.

We miss the "wildest ride in the wilderness".  They are remodeling it.

photo opportunity

about to be swallowed

before and after spinning teacups

The real thing

Ahhhh the hot tub for my aching knees

Sun in large doses

Roses in December in SoCal

Our rooms at the Tropicana side by side.

Jeff here with my take on Disney.  There are so many different levels to examine that I feel like I am looking at a bermuda onion.  My first thought is whoa!!!!! Too many people.  People stopping in front of you, people cutting in front of you, people being rude, crass and vulgar - in other words people being people.  After the initial dunk and emersion into this witches cauldron, you suddenly feel yourself caught up in the Disney magic.  No expense has been spared on the rides.  The experience is as real and vivid as it can possibly be.  Autotronic people look like real live people, jungles feel like jungles with the cloying sweetness of lush growth surrounding you, night birds cry out as blasts of hot air encompass the vehicle which delivers us to our grand adventure.  Adrenaline flows freely as we sit on a ledge between life and death, giant boulders rolling towards us, space ships on a certain collision course, giant cobra's reaching out to bite us and then suddenly breaking free to safe haven where we scuttle over to our next sensory overload.  I find myself deep into the fantasy and singing at the top of my lungs, "Zippity doo dah, zippitty day" with my fellow adventurous souls.  Yes, there is truly Disney magic and it resides right here in Anaheim, California. Yes, everything is outrageously overpriced by a factor of four but somehow, it doesn't matter to us adrenalin junkies, just give me another crack at "Space Mountain".

More pictures from our first morning

We made it

Exhausted already

Tomorrowland

Full of people

Cheap tickets were cheaper, but I had to go back and get them validated at the ticket booth.  This was a very nice lady, but the slowest on earth.  Just had to commemorate her slowness while I was waiting.

New bobsleds....comfy

At the lagoon

looking for Nemo

At the character breakfast...spendy but lots of fun

Jeff and his favorite character.....Pluto

Meeting Mr. Pan

Eeyor's mood was infectious

First stupid shoes of the trip.....she was going REALLY slow.

Sneaky post by Emily the guest blogger

The drive down the valley was arduous and thick with traffic. Fortunately we made it to the grapevine with no difficulty. Although we were fading fast at 5pm we headed over the mountain and down into traffic. It was stop and go for a little bit, but then it cleared out which allowed J and K to get some tasty ribs. Fred and I decided to ditch traffic and we zigged and zagged all over the California freeway system. With no small amount of irony we had no rib dinner and arrived only 15 minutes before J and K.

Our room was only on the second floor (we had requested third) and Freddie cut his hand trying to fix the leaking toilet in our room. We settled in, watched the repair man replace the toilet, and slept well.

After a quick cereal breakfast we were at the Disney gates. We had a ticket snafu which delayed us a little, but we still had a great time. We started with Peter Pan's flight and soared over Neverland. Then we did the Matterhorn bobsled, and afterwards recovered in the calm of the finding Nemo submarine voyage. That being over we had a few minutes before our breakfast reservation so we watched Captain Eo. That dripped with awesome. I was super glad we had a breakfast reservation, because they weren't taking walk ins. I was delighted that they had gluten free waffles, the cook made them for me special :-D. Jeff was delighted that they had coffee. After a few minutes I ran off in search of fastpasses for Indiana Jones, and as a bonus was also able to get some for Space Mountain much later in the evening.

At the character breakfast you eat a delicious buffet style breakfast while various Disney characters come visit you at your table. We saw Dale (but not Chip) Minnie, Pluto, Eyeore, Rafiki, the mouse from Cinderella, Peter Pan, and Pooh. Jeff was happy they had coffee, and
Freddie made up for the small amount Ru and I ate. As the diner emptied the park filled. We with the strongest stomachs rode Star Tours, which convinced me that a 3D flight simulator directly after breakfast is Not a good idea. Then we all found our way to the Tiki room (Where the birds sing words and the flowers croon). Some cotton candy and Dole whip was consumed during the crooning. We parted company with J and K and while they went in search of a souvenir we rode the train around the park. As we headed back to the hotel for a siesta, we saw that they had started turning away Disney guests, the park was full.
Just now I'm laying on a lounge chair watching Ru and Fred frolic in the otherwise unoccupied pool. A nap is soon to follow.

The weather is clear, with a light southern breeze, and in the upper 70's.
Sweet.

Glutten Free Mickey Waffles