December Trip: Last Day at Disneyland

We’ve got 2 videos for you today, so we’ll try to keep the text to a minimum. Tuesday was a little drizzly here and there, and we brought the ponchos with us just in case, but hardly used them (except on the Grizzly River Run whitewater rapids ride). As always, you can click on any of the images to see a larger version.

7:45: Left our hotel
8:05: Entered Disneyland. It was another Early Entry Day. Here’s a view you don’t usually see: The crowd waiting to enter Disneyland from the OTHER SIDE of the rope!

8:10: Alice in Wonderland
8:15: It’s a Small World
8:45: Buzz Lightyear
9:00: Haunted Mansion Holiday
9:25: Amanda and Joel rode the Indiana Jones ride while Maddy, Abe and I climbed Tarzan’s Treehouse.

Here’s a Hidden Mickey we found in the treehouse, on a wooden chest:

9:45: We ate breakfast at the River Belle Terrace in Frontierland—delicious:

10:15: We headed over to California Adventure
10:40: Toy Story Midway Mania (which we again rode twice within 20 minutes—gotta love light crowds!)
11:15: We rode King Triton’s Carousel

11:35: Maddy and Joel rode the Orange Stinger, a spinning ride.
11:50: Maddy, Joel and I rode the Grizzly River Run
12:15: We got Fastpasses for the Tower of Terror, though we ended up not going on it.

12:20: We headed over to A Bug’s Land and rode Heimlich’s Chew-chew Train
12:30: Amanda and the kids rode Tuck and Roll’s Drive ‘em Buggies (Bumper Cars)
Now is a good time to show you the first video for today. This video shows:
**holiday décor on Main Street
**a couple minutes from the Holiday Version of Small World (I especially loved the Mexico section, and Maddy loved the mermaids, who sang “Jingle Shells")
**a couple minutes from Haunted Mansion Holiday (The ballroom was awesome--and smelled like gingerbread, and the gingerbread coffin and corpse is really made of gingerbread—with some robotic enhancements—and I love the snowy graveyard covered with jack o’lanterns. )**Abe (and the rest of us) on King Triton’s Carousel
**Amanda and the kids on the bumper cars—you’ve gotta watch that part and see Joel’s devilish laughter.
**The snowfall near It’s a Small World
**The video ends with the Peter Pan Bedroom in Innoventions. Inside Innoventions (in Tomorrowland) there is a “house of the future” which has a kitchen, living room, and some bedrooms. The boy’s bedroom has a Peter Pan theme. We were looking around in there and one of the cast members cam it to show off the room. Abe was sitting on the pirate ship bed at the time, and was recruited to helm the cannon. The room interacted with the book as the cast member told the story. Be sure to watch—it’s pretty cool, and Abe loved shooting the cannon.
Back to our schedule:
We did some shopping, then at 1:35 we left DCA and ate lunch at the Rainforest Café. The sat us near a creepy monkey:

Amanda was scared:

So was Abe:

But eventually, he got the courage to defend us from the beast:

For dessert, we ate the “Volcano”:

We went back to the hotel until 4:30, then took the monorail back to Disneyland. We did some more shopping, then waited around for the snowfall near Small World (see video above).
5:40: Autopia—note, the kids were horrible drivers.
6:15: We headed into Innoventions, exploring the House of the Future. See above for video of the Peter Pan Bedroom. You’ll notice I kept turning the camera to look at the wall where Abe had shot the cannon. Cannonball holes were projected on the wall, but I couldn’t capture them on camera.
Upstairs at Innoventions, we played some of the games and looked at some of the Healthy Living exhibits, including this display of fat amounts:

7:15: We took turns riding Star Tours and did some shopping.
8:00: We rode Pirates AGAIN
8:25: Winnie the Pooh ride
8:45: Haunted Mansion Holiday
9:15: We watched the Holiday Fireworks, enjoyed the snow on Main Street, then headed back to the hotel.

Despite the rainy start on our second day, we had a really great time at Disneyland, and were so happy to be able to visit it at Christmastime. We’ll never drive there during December, unless we maybe live in AZ or something. And while the Holiday Small World was fun, it wasn’t nearly as enjoyable as the Haunted Mansion Holiday, which runs from October-December. So next time, we’re planning for an October visit, especially since this year, Abe and Amanda can get in free on their birthday as part of the What Will You Celebrate promotion—plus, by October, Amanda will have racked up even more free passes from her job at the Disney Store!
We’ll end here with the last video, which features the Castle at night, a little of Pirates, the Haunted Mansion building at night, and a couple minutes of the Fireworks display (as well as snow on Main Street.)


Next time, we’ll re-cap the trip home…if I feel I can confront that ghost from my recent past…

Monday, Dec. 15th2008: Rainy Day at Disneyland

Alright, our second day at the parks. We woke up to a whole lot of rain coming down outside. At 8:45 we left the hotel, all wearing our supposedly-waterproof coats. We got to the monorail station and discovered that the monorail was temporarily closed (due to the rain, I assume). So we kept walking. We saw lots of sensible people turning back or wearing rain ponchos. We forged on, and by the time we got to the ticket booths, the kids were shivering and crying and we were all totally soaked to the bone. We stood under the monorail beam to get out of the rain a little and discuss options (though I unknowingly placed Abe—in his stroller—right under a heavy drip from the monorail beam). By 9:30, we were back in our hotel room, changing into dry clothes and trying to figure out what to do.
Amanda went down to one of the stores in the hotel and bought us all ponchos, and by 10:30, the rain had let up enough that we felt like braving the weather again, better-prepared and in better spirits. However, we left the cameras back at the hotel, since I was worried they’d get soaked. Therefore, photos and video today are all focused on our hotel room. So before re-capping the rest of the day, let’s look at the hotel:

We stayed at the Disneyland Hotel’s Wonder Tower, which is the southern-most building at the hotel. While the hotel room was good, and the hotel itself was very cool-looking with some fun perks, it was definitely NOT worth the money. The room had 2 balconies we could look out from, which was nice. And the hotel elevator had some serious gut-wrenching g-forces.
The beds all had Sleeping Beauty Castle on the headboard:

And the bedspreads were decorated with images of Disneyland attractions:

Art on the walls were also of Disneyland rides:

The dresser/TV stand had the original concept of Disneyland etched into it:

The bathroom lamps were held by Mickey hands:

Things I didn’t get pictures of: The top of the room is circled with pixie dust and an image of Tinkerbell. When we turned off the lights at night, the pixie dust glowed in the dark. The design of the wallpaper in the bathrooms included drawings of topiary plants which looked like Disney Characters.
Outside our building was a collection of waterfalls, which you could walk around. I’ve included some video of them below. There was also an old-time, British-looking telephone booth, which Maddy got in, hoping it was an entrance to the Ministry of Magic (that’s a Harry Potter reference for you Muggles out there).

In the lobby of the Wonder Tower was a Christmas tree:

And out by the pool they have miniature Jungle Cruise boats that you can pilot if you buy tokens (We chose not to spend the $ on it):

OK, so really, except for some light sprinkles, the rest of the day wasn’t so bad, and we put the ponchos away later in the afternoon. But it sure did scare away the crowds. On Sunday, we spent almost 45 minutes waiting in line for and riding Toy Story Midway Mania; On Monday, we rode it twice within half an hour! We then rode King Triton’s Carousel three times while Amanda rode California Screamin’ twice within 15 minutes!
At noon we visited the Blue Sky Cellar, where they have displays showing the changes/new rides coming to California Adventure in the next few years. Then we headed over to Disneyland.
We had made Priority Seating reservations at the Carnation Café on Main Street a few weeks before the trip. We’d been wanting to eat there for a while (since we’d never been before and they supposedly have an awesome chicken pot pie). However, when we got there for our reservation, we found that the restaurant was closed due to the rain. Something about an open-air eatery not wanting to serve people at wet tables…oh well. So we went over to the Plaza Inn, where we enjoyed their delicious Fried Chicken meal. Here’s a picture I got off the internet of the meal (since we didn’t have our camera, remember?):

At 1:20, we walked through the re-done Sleeping Beauty Castle Diorama Walkthrough. It was alright—a minor diversion, to be sure. And the new Goons Corridor scared the kids, which is always fun.
1:50: It’s A Small World. Not only is the outside of the building decorated, as you saw in the previous post; the whole ride is decorated in native decor and costumes from the various countries, and the characters sing “Jingle Bells” along with singing the original Small World song. I’ll have video of some of that in the next post.
2:15: Roger Rabbit’s Car Toon Spin
2:40: We took the train from ToonTown to New Orleans Square
3:05: Haunted Mansion Holiday
3:20: Pirates (again)
4:00: We got some snacks from the bakery—I got a giant cinnamon roll; Maddy got a pumpkin muffin; Abe and Joel each got a snowman cookie; I can’t remember what Amanda got, but the kids are thinking it was a brownie…
4:30: Amanda and Maddy rode Space Mountain while I took the boys on Buzz Lightyear twice.
5:05: We rode the Storybookland Canal Boats. Here again, they’ve decorated a few of the little houses with lights and Christmas trees, as well as a few poinsettias here and there.
At 5:30, we were near Small World and suddenly the lights went down and they projected snowflakes on the Small World building. Then it began to snow all around us. Now, this is Disneyland snow, made of finely-chopped soap bubbles, but it was so fun and spontaneous. (Again, we’ll have video of that next time—since we did it again on Tuesday). You’d think, coming from Utah, a snowfall wouldn’t be that cool, but it felt magical and Christmassy there at Disneyland.
5:35: Casey Jr. Circus Train
5:45: King Arthur Carousel
5:50: Snow White’s Scary Adventures
6:05: Maddy and Amanda rode Thunder Mt. while the boys and I rode—you guessed it—Pirates!
6:40: The Jungle Cruise. Let me tell you, I never thought the Jungle Cruise at night could be fun, but it really was. With it being dark, the skipper has to point a spotlight into the jungle to show the different sights, and it made it feel more like an adventure into the deepest regions of the jungle. I recommend it.
7:15: We got some chimichangas from a food cart, and ate them over at the Plaza Pavilion, next to Sleeping Beauty Castle. While there, we got to watch the castle light up, icicle lights draped all over the castle.
7:45: We took the monorail back to the hotel and went to bed.
Well, that does it for the 2nd day at the parks. Here’s a video of the rainy morning (and its results); then some video of the hotel waterfalls, lobby, and hotel room. Enjoy (and forgive my sniffling—it was cold and wet, ok?) , and we’ll be back next time with lots more Disneyland video, photos, and adventures!

December 2008 Disneyland Trip: Day 1 and 2

Man, a lot of catching up to do. Disneyland trip, Christmas, New Years, Watchmen, etc. Well, now that I have some free time…lots and lots of free time…I’ll get caught up on things. Plus, everyone’s been asking when I’d do a new blog entry—including my wife, who knows everything that happened anyway!
Today we re-cap the drive down to California as well as the first day at Disneyland. I’ve set up the blog entry like this: I’ve got pictures and description of the events, then I’ve posted a short video compilation of the highlights of that day’s events.
Now, before the trip, we’d packed the kids’ suitcases while they were at school, and bought them some Disney Gift Cards to use for buying souvenirs at the parks.

Saturday, Dec. 13th, we got the kids up really early—like 6:30am or so. They were really tired, but definitely got excited once Amanda brought out the suitcases—well, except Maddy, who was still pretty unemotional—as she told us later, “I can’t really get excited for anything at 6 in the morning.”
The drive down went quickly and smoothly (much better than the drive home—but we’ll save that for another day). Went through a few stinky patches:

And Abe made himself a fort in the car:


It was REALLY windy through a lot of the trip, and there was a long stretch when we saw tumbleweeds flying across the freeway—including one giant tumbleweed that we totally almost crashed into.
Somewhere in Southern Utah or thereabouts, Maddy got gum struck in her hair:

I told her to bite the hairs off, and Amanda said “You can’t bite through a chunk of hair!” I quickly proved her wrong by biting off a big chunk of Amanda’s hair. True story, and that kept us laughing for quite a while. Later, Amanda cut off the gummed-up chunks of Maddy’s hair with nail clippers.
We arrived in Anaheim mid-afternoon, and we made our first stop at the new Anaheim Gardenwalk outdoor shopping mall, which is just a little east of Disneyland. There we ate Cinnabons (it’s been soooo long…) and we tried to decide where to stay the night. You see, originally, Amanda was supposed to work Saturday, so we were going to drive halfway Sat. night, then the rest of the way Sunday and check into the Disneyland Hotel on Sunday afternoon. Because we drove the whole way on Saturday, we were a day early for the reservation. We drove by the nearby Motel 6, but it looked rather scary. We called the Disneyland Hotel to see how much adding an extra night would be, but couldn’t commit to spending the $$. We went to a Days Inn, but it was booked, then finally, we went ahead and decided to go ahead and spend the extra dough for another night at the Disneyland Hotel. Really, it made it a lot more convenient, and gave us an extra day of Early Entry to the parks.
We checked in, then drove over to nearby Shakey’s Pizza. It was pretty good, (especially their fried potatoes) but kind-of made us sick.
We went back to the hotel for the night: Maddy and Abe sharing a bed, Amanda and I sharing a bed (a double bed—it will never happen again) and Joel on the sofa bed.

Sunday, Dec. 14th
The best thing about going to Disneyland in Mid-December (besides the awesome Christmas decorations) is the fact that you can ride tons of rides without waiting in long lines. With a few exceptions, I’m presenting the itinerary as a list, so you can see just how much we were able to do—and on a typically-busy Sunday, no less. (We’ll avoid listing the bathroom breaks this time).
5:45: Woke up.
6:40: Left Hotel
6:55: In line at Disneyland Gates for Early Entry
7:00: Disneyland Opens
7:10: Peter Pan’s Flight
7:15: Dumbo

7:20: Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride
7:25: Sword in the Stone

7:30: Looked for hats at the Mad Hatter Shop
7:35: Finding Nemo Submarine Voyage
8:05: Buzz Lightyear’s Astro Blasters
Score: Andy: 92500; Amanda: 52500; Maddy: 8700; Joel: 7800; Abe: 2500
8:15: Pirates of the Caribbean
8:45: Haunted Mansion Holiday (In case you don’t know, from October through December, the Haunted Mansion is decorated in a “Nightmare Before Christmas” themed overlay, where Jack Skellington and friends have decorated the mansion—totally awesome—we loved it.)

9:00: Amanda and Maddy rode Splash Mountain, while I took the boys on the Winnie the Pooh ride twice in a row.
9:20: We all ride Pooh (no vulgar jokes, OK?)
9:30: Joel and I ride the Indiana Jones Ride
10:00: We all head over to Disney’s California Adventure Park.
10:10: Toy Story Midway Mania (details: A ride where you sit 2-to-a-vehicle and make stops at various midway games (on video screens) hosted by Toy Story characters. You wear 3-D glasses and each rider has a small cannon which you use to shoot darts at balloons, throw rings in a ring toss, throw baseballs at plates, etc.)
Score: Andy: 131800; Amanda: 115000; Maddy: 44900; Joel: 46200; Abe: 1000
11:10: Got Fastpasses for Soarin’ Over California.
11:20: We walked to the nearby Grand Californian Hotel and ate lunch at Whitewater Snacks.

So delicious.

I’d been coveting the nachos, which I’d seen a picture of online. And hey, mine had a Hidden Mickey:

12:00: We each took turns riding Soarin’ with our Fastpasses.
We then shopped for a while, rode the Monsters Inc. ride, and saw Muppetvision 3-D, then at 2:10, we headed over to Disneyland.
2:35: We got a spot for the Christmas Parade (a nice, shady spot between the Castle and the Matterhorn).
2:40: I took the kids to ride the Pinocchio ride while Amanda saved our spot.
3:30: We watched the parade. A lot of fun, but the song got rather repetitive. Before the parade, we saw some high school marching bands, and Prince Caspian rode by on his horse (watch the video to see a special tribute to the pooper scooper lady—she gets her moment of glory).
4:00: We took the monorail back to our hotel for a rest. And to eat dinner (leftover pizza).
6:50: We headed back to Disneyland, via the monorail.
7:10: We took turns riding Star Tours with the kids (Abe’s not tall enough to ride yet).
8:15: We saw the light show on the It’s A Small World Building.
8:30: Pirates of the Caribbean again—the boys’ favorite.
8:55: We found a spot to watch fireworks, but after it got delayed twice, we decided to go back to the hotel. Abe was soo tired—he was screaming, “I just need a place to lay down!!”
We stopped by the World of Disney store on the way to the hotel to get some treats, which made the kids happier, and we wasted money at the hotel buying some really awful burgers at Croc’s Bites.
We got to bed at 11:00.
Wow, a really really long day—but not crowded, not hot, not even that tiring at all.
Here’s a video re-capping the drive down and the first day at the parks. Includes Maddy’s gum-hair, Christmas décor from Fantasyland, New Orleans Square and Main Street, a few short snippets from the parade, and some of the Small World light show—among other fun things. Enjoy!