Tuesday and Wednesday Disneyland Re-cap

I know you were all distraught to not see a new post for Tuesday. Sorry, I was busy with family-related stuff. So here's the Tuesday and Wednesday re-cap, then I'm taking a blogging break for a couple days. I've got 4 movies here at home waiting to be watched ("Guess who's Coming to Dinner?" from Netflix, "Officer and a Gentleman" and "Clash of the Titans" from the library, and I just bought the "Cloverfield" DVD--sorry, Jana, you can't borrow it!)

Our last day at Disneyland. It was also the coldest. In fact, the kids had sweaters with them most of the day, although they didn’t necessarily wear them. It was our second Magic Morning/Early Entry day, but instead of going to see Nemo again, we visited some of the Fantasyland attractions we hadn’t seen yet.
We rode Peter Pan’s Flight first, since that tends to have the longest line of all the Fantasyland dark rides. Then Dumbo, of course (another long-line ride):



Next it was the best/worst double punch of the Alice in Wonderland ride (my favorite of the dark rides) and Mr. Toad (my LEAST favorite). While Alice is full of detail, creativity, and is a thoroughly unique Disney ride, Mr. Toad is flat, obnoxious, and disjointed, and the only thing memorable about the ride is the trip to Hell—rather appropriate, in my opinion.
We had a bathroom break, then took another ride on Autopia. Then it was time for the Jedi Training Academy. We sat down in the seating area at 10:00, ½ hour before the show started. (I took a bathroom break during the wait). We sat up close (you sit on the ground in front of the training area) and when they got ready to pick people, I gave Joel the sign he and Maddy had made before the trip. I wish I’d gotten a photo of the sign beforehand. It was a big, neon-green posterboard with Star Wars Coloring Book pictures taped to it (which the kids colored). I wrote “The Force is strong with me!” on it, and Maddy and Joel wrote some other things on it, such as the names of several characters, “Pick me you must!” “Skywalker rules; Grievous drools,” etc. Joel was the 2nd person picked, and not long after, a Disney employee asked me if she could have the sign because the Jedi Master collects them, or something. Here’s a highlights video of his experience:

As we headed out of Tomorrowland, Amanda spotted a familiar face: Joel’s Kindergarten teacher! We talked to her for a minute, and she mentioned that she saw another teacher from their school earlier that day. If I didn’t mention it before, we saw a LOT of people wearing BYU/ Utah shirts on Monday and Tuesday…and people dressed a lot more modestly too (which I’m sure is partially due to the slightly cooler weather those days).
We rode Pirates of the Caribbean again (in preparation for our lunch at the Blue Bayou), took ANOTHER bathroom break (I should’ve pointed out earlier that we didn’t ALL go at each bathroom break. Sometimes it was just one or two of us that needed to go).
At 11:40 we got in a few minutes early for our reservation at the Blue Bayou. We got a nice table, pretty close to the water and we could see the boats going by really well. Joel and Maddy noticed that this restaurant was a lot quieter than Goofy’s Kitchen. The service was excellent. They were really nice, even by Disney standards, and our waitress somehow knew I’d dropped my fork on the floor and suddenly appeared and replaced it for me. The food was really good. Amanda and I got gumbo with our meal as an appetizer:


SOOOOO good. The kids got carrots and celery, which they didn’t enjoy much. We also got some rolls to eat. For the main course, the kids each got a plate of chicken legs and noodles, which they didn’t eat much of:


By the way, Abe's trying to blow out the candle in the picture above.

I got the Monte Cristo, of course. It came with a raspberry jam that actually tasted pretty good on the sandwich:


And Amanda got the Tesora Island Chicken:

The potatoes that came with it were great, too.
It was a great experience, but not something I’d do very often. First of all, it was pretty expensive, and I’d rather have had my kids actually eat the food we ordered for them. Plus, Amanda and I, being seafood-haters, don’t have much to choose from there.
Another bathroom break, of course, then Amanda and Maddy rode Splash Mountain while the boys rode Pirates AGAIN (Joel decided he REALLY liked this ride partway through the trip, insisting that riding in the 2nd or 3rd row made the waterfall drops shorter…hmmm…)
ANOTHER bathroom break, then we all rode Winnie the Pooh.
By then it was 2:15, so we headed back to the hotel for a rest. During that time, I took a short nap, and for me I guess the combination of the greasy Monte Cristo and laying down for a nap didn’t mix, because I had an upset stomach for the rest of the night. This is something I’m actually used to: whenever I take an afternoon nap, I always wake up nauseated.
At 4:30 we headed over to DCA, where Joel took a bathroom break. Then Maddy and I rode the Grizzly River Run, where we got SOAKED. I sat close to the opening on the raft, assuming I would be blocking some of the water from Maddy. As it turns out, there were a couple times when giant walls of water shot right over the top of Maddy onto us.
At this point it was about time for the Pixar Play Parade to start, so Amanda and the boys picked a spot on the parade route to sit while Maddy and I rode Mulholland Madness. In line in front of us was a girl from our ward, along with her mother.
After being tossed to and fro on that ride, we sat with Amanda and the boys to watch the parade. It was actually pretty fun and Abe especially loved it. But I’ll warn you that each parade float has several methods of squirting the viewers with water (and some of the performers have water guns, too). You WILL get wet if you watch the parade (I cracked up when I saw a guy taking a photo of a float, then the float suddenly got him—and his camera—with a spritz of water). Oh, and there’s bubbles.
Joel, increasing his bravery, said that HE wanted to ride Mulholland Madness now, so he and Amanda and Maddy rode it while I watched (I videotaped it, too, but there’s not much to see of them on the ride).
Another bathroom break.
We rode the King Triton’s Carousel again, tried to peek into the Toy Story Midway Mania building, then Maddy and Amanda rode the Orange Stinger, which seems to be designed for people under 125 pounds.
Then Amanda used the “Single-Ride Entrance” for California Screamin’ and rode that finally, although I’m sure she wished Maddy was with her.
At 7:50 we headed over to Disneyland and Amanda and the kids bought some corn dogs:

I was still not in the mood to eat anything. And the corn dogs ended up making Amanda sick all night.
Yet another bathroom break, then we checked the line for Nemo—it was a half-hour wait, so we decided to skip it. Amanda and Maddy rode the Matterhorn, and the rest of us rode Buzz one more time.
By then it was 9:05 and time to leave Disneyland for the last time this trip. Joel got teary-eyed.
And so we said goodbye to Disneyland for another trip.
Total Bathroom Breaks: 8

Wed. 4/16/2008

And let’s get caught up with the Wednesday highlights (or LOW-lights, since it was a lame day)
(all times in the following are Mountain time)
9:45: Leave Anaheim: 61 degrees
2:15: Leave Henderson, NV(after having lunch at Burger King) 66 degrees- -bathroom break
5:30: Beaver, UT: treat at Dairy Queen (including a banana split for me…delicious!) bathroom break
5:50: Leave Beaver, UT
8:00: Orem, UT: trip to Dr. Office for Abe to get his ears checked and get a prescription for his infection.

Right before Henderson, Abe had been napping then woke up screaming and didn’t stop til we got out at Burger King. Then he had another fit or two during the last part of the trip. I’m sure the changes in elevation didn’t feel good on his stuffed-up ear.

Abe really enjoyed when I would pull up the armrest on my chair, sing into it, then start biting the end of the armrest. Unfortunately, one time I was a little too rough and injured my lip:


Hope you all enjoyed reliving the trip with us!

Monday Disneyland 2008 Re-cap!

After the first two days, we felt like we’d already seen everything, but it turns out we still had plenty to do. On Monday, Disneyland didn’t open until 9, which meant we got to sleep in until 7:30 or so.
Monday was also the day I’d arranged to meet one of the other Disney CMO contestants and her family at DCA. Here’s the link to her video/page: http://www.dreamcmo.com/amy
She emailed me a couple weeks ago via a Disney forum, where she’d read that I was coming out to Disneyland. She and her husband had wanted to meet me and my family ever since seeing my CMO video. So we’d arranged to meet at the Animation Building in California Adventure on Monday at noon.
That’s also the day I wore the awesome shirt Amanda made for me (it was quite a surprise). It was a shirt featuring my animated self-portrait. Here’s me wearing it—note the similarity to the Mickey banner above my head:


We still hadn’t seen any of the “big” rides at DCA yet, but that park didn’t open until 10. So from 9-10, we spent a little time at Disneyland. Joel went on Indiana Jones with Amanda while the rest of us climbed Tarzan’s Treehouse (let me mention here that I got REALLY tired of carrying Abe in the line for rides, and often had to take a break where he had to walk for a while).
We rode Snow White and Pinocchio rides, and by then it was 10:00, time for California Adventure to open.
While in line to enter DCA, I heard the lady right in front of me ask the ticket-taker lady, “Have you heard of the Chief Magic Official contest?” I looked up and said “I HAVE!” and pointed to my shirt. Amy Kate and her family were right in line in front of us! So we said hello and chatted for a minute. They were on their way over to Grizzly River Run and we were heading over to Soarin’.
Maddy and Amanda went on Soarin’ (We got a Baby Switch Pass so Joel and I could go after they finished) and I headed over to Grizzly River Run to get Fastpasses. While there, I ran into Amy and her husband again, and he told me they’re not doing Fastpasses for that ride today cause it’s less-crowded and the park closes at 6 that day.
After Joel and I rode Soarin’ (which he was really scared of, for some reason) we went on the Monsters Inc. ride again. At the end of the ride, Roz (a character from the movie/ride) talks to people in the ride vehicle. She told Maddy that if Joel was naughty, Maddy should come tell Roz. It was funny.
Then it was time for a quick bathroom break, then we waited in line for the Playhouse Disney stage show, which we thought Abe would really like, but I guess his earache was making him grouchy, because he wasn’t that enthused. And our mature Madison thought the show was boring and childish.
By then it was noon and we went over to the Animation Building. They have a fun zoetrope made of Toy Story characters. Here’s a video (not filmed by me):

It’s a turntable covered with sculptures in animation poses that spins around. A strobe light flashes, letting you see the animation come alive. Pretty cool.
We met up with Amy Kate and her husband and daughter. We went through the Sorcerer’s Workshop and did the various activities in there (though our kids were too shy to talk/sing at the Ariel’s Grotto exhibit, where you add your voice to a Disney movie). After that, we took a couple pictures together:


Then Amy and family headed off for more adventures. We were going to head back to the hotel, but decided to get a turkey leg and a chimichanga for lunch:


The turkey leg was really huge and hard to eat (and tasted like ham) and the kids ate almost all of the chimichanga themselves! We took another bathroom break (mostly so I could clean the sticky turkey greases off my hands) then we let the kids go play in the water fountains in A Bug’s Land:

We bought some fudge at the candy shop on the way out of DCA:

And I got myself a chocolate-covered smore treat. Here it is half-eaten so you can see the innards:


At 1:50pm, we left DCA and headed home for a rest (and so the kids could change out of their totally-drenched clothes). While we were home for a rest Abe decided to bite Joel on the back:


For some reason, Abe really likes to bite things lately. Kind-of annoying.

At 4:00 we headed back to Disneyland. We went into the Innoventions building again, this time with Abe and Amanda. It was a little more crowded this time, but Joel got to play Guitar Hero and we got to go see the ASIMO show, which they were HEAVILY promoting to the point that they were walking around handing tickets to the show out to anyone who would take them. We decided to go ahead and see it, cause we didn’t have anything better to do at the time. It was actually a pretty cool show. ASIMO is a robot (designed by Honda) who is advanced enough to walk up stairs and do tasks around the house. After the show, the kids (and Amanda) played a cool video game that doesn’t use controllers; it’s projected on the floor and somehow responds to your movements. Here’s a video clip with a little of the ASIMO presentation, followed by some footage of the fam playing the game:

Then of course, we rode Buzz Lightyear AGAIN. Then Maddy and I rode Star Tours while the others rode Buzz yet another time.

We were getting hungry, but couldn’t decide where to eat. We weren’t really in the mood for Plaza Inn and we finally decided on rancho del Zocalo in Frontierland (next to Thunder Mountain). The food there is good, not great. Maddy didn’t want anything, but finally decided on a bowl of fruit. We got a seat right next to Thunder Mountain, and Joel kept waving at each train that came into the station. It was very cute—he was counting how many people waved back at him from each train.

We had a post-dinner bathroom break, then the girls rode Thunder Mountain. We watched them and took some video of them. While waiting for them, we watched the small pond across the way. Above the pond is a cave (which used to be part of the Mine Train through Nature’s Wonderland ride, before thunder Mt. came about). Next time you visit, if you watch the pond for a while, you’ll notice a “swish” in the water—a mysterious jumping fish.

We rode Pirates of the Caribbean again after that, took another bathroom break, then headed over to Fantasyland. We usually tackle Fantasyland first thing in the morning, so there was something extra special visiting it in the evening, when it was all lit up. We rode the King Arthur Carousel

and the Tea Cups (where we BARELY fit into one cup and spun as fast as we could—yeah I wanted to puke).
At 8:45 we headed home for the night to rest up before our last day at Disneyland.

Total Bathroom Breaks: 4

Disneyland 2008: Sunday!

Sunday was our longest day at the parks (and will probably be the longest blog entry, too!). Because it was a “Magic Morning”/Early Entry day, the park opened at 7:00, meaning we were up and out of the hotel by 6:40am. Let me make special note here of the hotel shampoo: it smelled like Andes chocolate mints—I can’t decide if that’s a good smell for shampoo or not. What’s next, pumpkin pie scented shampoo?
Anyway, once we got to Disneyland, we headed over to the Finding Nemo Submarine Ride first thing, but they didn’t let us enter through Tomorrowland. We had to walk through Fantasyland, around the Matterhorn, and into the line set up north of the submarines. I don’t know if this is the normal routine, or if it was just because the ride wasn’t quite ready to open.
The ride itself was OK, but nothing I’d wait very long for. Not worth more than a 20-30 minute wait, for sure, although I think the kids liked it quite a bit. It’s definitely an upgrade from the original Subs ride, but while they got rid of the cheesy fake fish, they’ve been replaced with video screen projections, leaving me with the feeling that I just watched a movie underwater. But like I said, I’m sure that kids--who don’t see the technology behind the magic—find it a lot more fun.
Then it was time for Amanda and Maddy to go on Space Mountain. While they did, Joel, Abe and I rode the Buzz Lightyear ride 3 times in a row. Here are a couple pics:



You’ll notice that in both images, Abe's score is actually not too bad, compared to Joel's. Abe had been talking for weeks about how he was going to go on Buzz and shoot Zurg (that’s the bad guy in the world of Buzz Lightyear, for those of you that don’t know). He definitely made good on his promise. Really, I think he just had better technique: he just kept shooting the whole time, whereas Joel would only shoot while aiming for specific targets.
After that, Amanda and I each took turns going on Star Tours with Maddy and Joel. Then I went over and got Fastpasses for the Indiana Jones ride for Joel and myself. By now, it was about 8:30, and the park was open to everyone, but being Sunday morning, it was still pretty uncrowded. Really, I didn’t even need to get the Fastpasses, since the regular line was only a 10-15 minute wait.
We took our first bathroom break of the day, then went on the Jungle Cruise. I like when we get a good skipper that’s actually funny and uses some new jokes occasionally. One year we had this old guy that just WASN’T funny.
At 9:05 it was time for Joel and me to ride the Indiana Jones ride. He was a little nervous, and shed a couple tears while in line, but he went through with it and conquered the ride (luckily he wasn’t required to keep his eyes open during the ride). For his reward, he picked out a Pirate Mickey Mouse stuffed animal.
By then we were getting hungry (we’d had breakfast at 6:15 or so, after all) so we had another first: a Dole Whip (as well as a Dole Whip float). I forgot to take a picture, but Dole whips are kind-of an airy, soft-serve pineapple sherbet treat. The float is the sherbet in pineapple juice. It was good, but again, not something we HAVE to get every visit.
Conquering his “challenge ride” must’ve done something good to Joel, because his next ride was the “Gadget’s Go-Coaster” in Toontown (with Amanda and Maddy, while I watched Abe and refilled our water bottles—we must’ve filled those things 50 times during our trip—gotta keep hydrated!)


At 10:00, we rode Roger Rabbit’s Car Toon Spin, but as we got to the very end of the ride, everything stopped, went black, then ALL the lights came up. I don’t know if it’s cause of the spinning of the cars through a dark ride or what, but apparently this ride breaks down a lot. As we sat in our cars for 10 minutes waiting to be escorted out, it was fun to look around and see the “behind the scenes” of the ride. Unfortunately, Amanda had the cameras in the car ahead of us, so I couldn’t get any secret pictures of the groove in the floor that the vehicles follow, or the torn, taped-up black fabric that you don’t notice when going through the “portable hole,” or even the great close-up I could’ve gotten of Roger Rabbit. Amanda did get his arm in the picture, though:


By this point, it was starting to get pretty hot, and Joel kept looking for any spot of shade he could find and sitting down in it for a minute. So we decided to take the Disneyland Railroad for a shady, breezy rest. We took a full-circle journey from the Toontown station, back to Toontown, then to Tomorrowland, where we exited. We got Fastpasses for Autopia, since the kids REALLY wanted to go on that. By then, Abe had fallen asleep in his stroller. Amanda sat in the shade with him, and Maddy, Joel and I went into the Innoventions building.
I hadn’t been in Innoventions for several years because I thought it was fairly boring and too crowded at the exhibits. But this time, it was really fun and not too busy. I’ve got some video I’ll share on Monday from inside Innoventions (we returned again with Amanda and Abe that day). Joel loved it, mostly because there were a lot of video games to play. One annoying thing: because they’re currently building a “house of the future” on the lower level, you have to walk up the very long exit ramp to enter the 2nd floor. Very tiring in the middle of a hot day.
Next we rode Autopia, which gave Amanda and me anxiety about when our kids reach driving age. Although we were each pressing the gas in our vehicles (the girls in one car, the boys in another) Maddy and Joel were steering. I think it was a rougher ride than Indiana Jones. But the kids totally loved it, and we rode it again on Tuesday.
By now it was really getting hot (a high of 102 degrees that day) and since we’d gotten up so early, we were ready for a rest. We shopped on Main Street for a few minutes, then went back to the hotel at 12:45.
After a really long rest, we headed to Downtown Disney at about 4:00pm. Let me mention here how annoying the “bag check” is at the parks. I know they do it to make Disneyland a safe place, but it’s really obnoxious having to unzip all the pockets in our backpack every time we go in. Anyway…
Joel had to use the bathroom twice within about 10 minutes while walking through Downtown Disney. Now, if we were inside Disneyland, this wouldn’t be a problem. I know where pretty much every bathroom is in there, as I’m sure you know. But I’ve NEVER had to use the bathroom while walking through Downtown Disney, so I was looking around for signs and consulting maps—I’ve never been so lost at Disneyland before!
At 5:00 we had our Dinner reservation at Goofy’s Kitchen at the Disneyland Hotel. That was really fun. Abe was a little nervous of the characters at first (and was pretty grouchy, too—this was the day we realized Abe was getting an ear infection: the nastiness oozing out of his ear was our big tip, along with his overly whiny temperament and the fact that he only wanted me ALL the time), but after a while, he started having fun. Here are a few pictures:






The food was pretty good overall. I liked the potstickers a lot, but the chicken was too spicy. Here are some pics:



There were tons of desserts, but I was too full to enjoy them all. Here’s a sampling:


At one point, Joel and I were walking over to the buffet and Goofy dropped a bucket full of plastic measuring cups. I told Joel to go over and help him pick them up, but Goofy started using them to bang on the bucket like a drum. Joel and a bunch of other kids joined in, playing “music” with the utensils. I REALLY wish I’d had my video camera for that one. It was fun.
After a bathroom break, we headed over to DCA. We got Amanda and Maddy Fastpasses for California Screamin’, but Maddy chickened out and said she was definitely NOT going on it, which made Amanda rather upset, as you can imagine. However, it was then that Joel declared that he wanted to go on the Indiana Jones ride again, but this time with Amanda. So we planned that for the next morning.
We rode the King Triton Carousel:




then went up in the Sun Wheel. We went to the Tortilla Factory, but I was still too full to eat my free tortilla (plus it was corn—who wants to eat a plain corn tortilla? Flour tortillas are good, like a slice of bread, but corn? Blech!)
At about 8:00, we headed over to Heimlich’s Chew-chew Train and the Tuck and Roll bumper cars. On that one, Maddy drove her own car and Joel and I rode together. Again, Maddy’s driving skills were lacking and she got stuck pretty quickly. Meanwhile, Joel was heading in the wrong direction and we almost crashed into a whole collection of other riders.
At 9:00 we headed back to the hotel for a good night’s sleep. And Amanda was very excited that we were going to get to sleep in Monday morning.

Total bathroom breaks: 4