Disneyland post #6: memories and magic

I intended to publish this post a year ago, then life went crazy and has stayed crazy ever since.  I pulled it out of my files and put it on Blogger today to honor a promise I made to myself to complete the Disneyland posts.

1.  Disney Hotels: We stayed in the Grand Californian solely for the option of Anne-Marie being able to go back to the room and rest whenever she needed to. The hotel is spectacular and deserves its own post.  Early admission every day, impeccable service, rooms with park views, exclusive gate to the park, etc. If you're in a similar situation as us, the GC is your best bet. (Or you just want the best experience and cost is no issue.) If not, I would recommend that you stay somewhere within 15 minutes walking distance to the gate at most. Use that money you didn't spend to get a suite and maybe some extra souvenirs if you want to spend that much. We actually stayed at one of the very close hotels after flying in (Anabella) the first night  to save money and found it to be serviceable. Next time (whenever that is) we will likely stay off site. There's much more to be said. Contact me if you want to know more about the early admission thing, check-in at the Disney Hotels or switch between hotels or anything.

2.  Snacks: In order to keep everyone in a good mood, I recommend getting one of those small drawstring backpacks with a first aid kit and a bunch of non-perishable snacks. Nuts, granola bars, fruit snacks, etc. Disney will let you bring in your own food as long as it's not in a glass container. We saved a ton of money on in-park-priced snack pit stops by filling one of our allowed checked bags (thanks SW!) completely with snacks from Grocery Outlet and using that same bag to carry all our souvenirs home.

3.  Pressed pennies: The most well-known things to collect at Disneyland are trading pins (look it up).  These things start at $10. You can trade up at various stations around the park, but if you want a collection, you might as well fork over $100 to start. I put the brakes on the idea before we even left home. My alternative plan was to collect elongated pennies from those smasher machines in the gift stores. They're fun to collect too and they only cost 51 cents! Did you know Disneyland Resort has 127 penny smashers on site?  We spent $40 or so collecting about half the ones available and had just as much fun hunting them down.

4.  About those souvenirs: Many tips and tricks books/websites are out there that are much more helpful than this post concerning all things Disney. One tip that's pretty common is to buy your souvenirs ahead of time from Amazon or Walmart to avoid paying the Disney Resort prices. It's a good idea, but we found that there are items you will never see in person in the shops at Disneyland. If it is an option for you, nothing will replace walking through the store with your child and letting them pick something out. We made them wait a few days before buying, but our kids made their final and, yes, costly choice on Wednesday of our trip. (Our kids had their own Christmas/birthday money saved for over a year.) However you make it work for your family, the stores are fun to look through and you should probably buy at least a little something to remember your trip.

5.  Our souvenirs of choice: Anne-Marie bought a shirt with a sketch of Marie from The Aristocats. Buddy got a Lego version of the Millennium Falcon spaceship. Sissy chose a music box with Anna and Elsa from Frozen, a Tinker Bell dress and a stuffed Marie from Aristocats. I went with a coffee mug with Cars Land postcard art and a pressed coin (see #12) depicting balloons carrying away the house from Up. I keep the last one in front of me at my desk. Every time I think life would be better if we made it to Paradise Falls, I just look down and remember it's as much about the journey as it is the destination. At least in this life

In conclusion:
One final thought about "magic": One of the words I heard time and again when people heard that we were going to Disneyland is "magical".

"Have a magical time!"

"Disney for six days? That sounds magical."

Two of my greatest character qualities are being cynical and being analytical. For years we've talked about doing this trip, but to me doing Disney seemed more like a way to get our money to magically disappear. And we all know the truth, right? It's expensive. Too expensive.

We did almost everything thing you could do at Disneyland.  We all had fun (even Mom!) and are planing to go again in 2021.  From walking out of the main gate, to sitting in John Wayne Airport, to arrival back home to a early February frozen Portland, we kept talking about how great it was.  A lot of it went into these six blog posts.

Now that it's a year later, the kids will still talk about their favorite memories and rides and times in the hotel.  They get excited when they talk about 2021 and what it's gonna be like when we go back.  Who knows what could happen inside the next three years, but you know what?  I'm kind of looking forward to it myself.

And I guess that's magical enough for me.

Disneyland post #5: surprises and survival

1.  Biggest Surprise: Frozen: Live At the Hyperion. This stage play is only an hour but very efficiently tells the entire Frozen storyline, complete with singing, dancing and special effects. All of which are done at a very high level.  I went for my daughter's sake but actually found this much more bearable than the film itself.

2.  Runner up: Storytellers Café. This restaurant was in the bottom floor of our hotel and offered a buffet that was fully stocked with fresh roasted meat, salads and bakery items late into the night. Delicious.

3.  Uber/Lyft: We didn't rent a car. If you're going to Disneyland, whether flying into LAX or SNA, and mostly staying at the park, it's a little less costly and way less hassle to use a ride share service when you need it. (Using basic math it would have cost us about $350 for a rental w/parking compared to about $200 spent on ride shares including two rides offsite to other places in Orange County. Mostly that was for a minivan or SUV that seats 6+. Plus not having to be behind the wheel in LA traffic.)

4.  Lost and found: Among the several times Disney went stratospheric with their service was on the second-to-last day when my daughter lost her shoulder bag with her character autograph book. They hadn't found it by the next morning, but said they would keep looking. They took down our info. A week later a purple shoulder bag arrived in the mail. Disney paid $4 to send it to our house.

5.  Time of year and weather: we were in Anaheim in the middle of winter. The coldest day was 65 degrees; the warmest was 85. All with a slight breeze and a trace of rain on the last day only. I guess it rained pretty bad off and on in the few weeks following Christmas, but that weather is not typical. I would say in general that any time of year is a good time to go to Disneyland as far as weather, but with the summer potentially being very hot. We set our trip up with Disney and SW Airlines' help to be able to cancel within seven days, whether due to a medical situation or another freak set of storms. The weather ended up being perfect for our original January/February dates. We're glad because the crowd was half the size of the busy season.

Disneyland post #4: characters

1.  Characters: Wondering what to do between fast passes? The Disneyland app has GPS on all the costumed characters in the parks. (If you have young children) find one and get in line. The character will take about 1 minute with each person/group, so count the people in the line. It's a good way to burn 20 minutes before the next ride. Our kids met about 30 characters (really). For posterity, here's the list: Mickey, Minnie, Goofy, Pluto, Mary Poppins & Bert, Darth Vader, Chewbacca, a Stormtrooper, Woody, Buzz, Flik (Bug's Life), Snow White, Ariel, Cinderella, Donald, Chip 'n Dale, Cruella, Fairy Godmother, Belle,  Tiana, Rapunzel, Olaf, Daisy, Anna & Elsa, Fawn (fairy), Tinker Bell.

2.  Fine print concerning characters: If you take the time to buy an autograph book, characters at Disney will sign it with very unique signatures. Ballpoint pen is awkward for someone wearing big Mickey gloves, so think more along the lines of a Sharpie. Star Wars, Cars and Zootopia characters do not sign autographs. Characters with masks and "mascot heads" do not talk, but will respond non-verbally to anything you say. The exception is the Star Wars characters. They have masks, but still talk. Except Chewbacca who growls.

3.  One more thing about characters: Is it just weird to me? Or does waiting in line for a grown woman to stop fawning over a costumed Disney character seem a bit troubling? (This happened multiple times.)

4.  The only rude person in Disneyland: We were impressed repeatedly by the level of service we received over the phone while planning, at the hotel during off times and in the parks during the main part of the day. Everyone was very patient and pleasant. This was with one exception. Cruella de Vil was completely condescending and pompous to everybody.

5.  Most Seriously Underrepresented Franchise: The Incredibles. I saw about two Incredibles-themed items in a gift shop. That's it. Others who got ignored: Ratatouille, Aristocats, Uncle Scrooge.

Disneyland post #3: the bad

1.  Missed out on: Almost nothing, but Hollywood Tower of Terror, Grizzly River Run and Enchanted Tiki Room were not options. First two were closed and the last serves all stuff I'm allergic to.

2.  Biggest Disappointment: ESPNZone. After hearing about this amazing sports place for a decade, I had to go see it for myself. It's like going to Big Al's down the street from my house but with a bunch of surly Golden State Warriors fans. Don’t get me wrong, Big Al's and ESPNZone are both cool, but not enough to waste my time and Disney money (and Disney loves charging Disney tax).

3.  Runner-up Biggest Disappointment: Hyperspace Mountain. Disney StarWarsified this ride in ridiculous ways. Please just switch off all the lights and call it good. It's better than the uneven mess of projected clips and LED lights scabbed on to this otherwise classic roller coaster.

4.  Biggest Waste of Time and Money: The Disneyland Resort Express Bus. We took this special Gray Line bus as the "official coach service from terminal to resort". The exterior was decorated for Universal Studios. It got us there, but was slower and more expensive than Uber.
 
5.  Most Overrated Experience: Early admission. "Magic Morning" or "Early Magic Hour" lets you into one of the parks an hour before the gates open. Guests at Disney Hotels and holders of special tickets are offered this special privilege. The thing is, crowd at the gate is almost as big for the early opening as it is the normal one. No Fast Pass machines are available and no characters are out yet, so pretty much after you ride that first ride (which pragmatically should be Star Tours, Space Mtn. or Radiator Springs Racers), you're stuck standing in a line for 30 minutes anyhow. So run to that high demand ride and enjoy it. It's likely all the magic you'll get out of that morning.

Disneyland post #2: 5 more things about rides (or, Why don't people use Fast Pass?)

1.  Fast Pass: Fast Pass is a genius system for making ride queues manageable. Basically you scan your park admission ticket and a machine sets an appointment for you to come back in an hour or two and cut straight to the front of the line. I have no idea why half the visitors in the park have no interest in using this system. Apparently people like standing on concrete in the blazing sun for an hour. The only catch to Fast Pass is that you can only check into one ride at a time. Disneyland's network tracks that you used the system and will deny you if you try to get two Fast Passes at a time. Bummer. Wish they could make an exception. But that brings us to…

2.  Buzz Lightyear Astro Blasters: This ride is the exception. Buzz lets you check in with a Fast Pass anytime (it's apparently not hooked up to a network and just prints passes out like Monopoly money). So if you're about to go to lunch, check in at Buzz first and after lunch you can slowly walk in the express lane past 200 people that have been waiting for an hour to the front of the line. Good filler for when you got nothing else going. However, there is one other way to get on rides really quick.

3.  Being In a Wheelchair: (or in Disney terms "having visible need of assistance") Now, I am not recommending fraudulent behavior, but if you are injured or disabled you get to cut in line. The biggest qualifier for this is that you need to be "visibly" disabled (in a wheelchair, cast or boot or on crutches). Anne-Marie was too tired to walk around after three days, so the last two I pushed her in a rented wheelchair ($12/day). Most rides at Disneyland just let you right on through the exit, since 90% of the park is too old to offer ADA accessibility. Occasionally the staff at Disneyland will check you in and tell you to come back in an hour, similar to a Fast Pass. California Adventure, because it is built to be fully ADA compliant and has wider spaces in the waiting areas, will many times just make you wait in line.

4.  The Every-Ride Challenge: Our kids rode every ride at Disneyland Park and California Adventure. That's right. Every single one of them. We weren't making it a goal at first, but after 3 1/2 days, they only had about eight more to go. Then we started putting them on every carousel and kiddie ride left. With one hour left to go, our kids rode the 45th and final ride: Jungle Cruise. (Grizzly River and Hollywood Tower were closed. Mariah was too short for Screamin'.)

5.  Scariest Ride: Probably California Screamin'. It looks like an old-fashioned wooden roller coaster. It's not. Twice as fast and with one extremely tight loop. If we're going to talk about most frightening attraction? (I can't call it a ride.) It's Tough To Be a Bug. This A Bug's Life three-dimensional stage play/augmented reality whatever is terrifying. Sit in the middle at right about the 4th or 5th row. You'll see what I mean.

Disneyland post #1: rides and food

This is my first post about our 2017 trip to Disneyland Resort. Instead of giving a blow-by-blow of everything we did in chronological order, I decided to throw out a bunch of random stuff and some photos. Here is the first 5 of 30 random things about Disneyland:

1. Favorite Rides:

• The kids liked Goofy's Sky School (at DCA Paradise Pier) 
• Mom liked Pirates of the Caribbean (in DL New Orleans Square) 
• Anne-Marie has always been partial to Big Thunder Mountain Railroad (at DL Frontierland) 
• My favorite was Radiator Springs Racers (in DCA Cars Land) 

2. Consensus Favorite Ride: Soarin' Around the World (at DCA Grizzly Peak). This was awesome because our hotel room overlooked the "hangar" that houses Soarin' and we ALL loved this one. We only went twice, but could've gone every night.

3. Best Food: (maybe besides Storytellers Cafe, which I'll talk about later):

• Stage Door Café's corn dogs for me, which I hear are the same as Little Red Wagon and Corn Dog Castle 
• Anne-Marie liked the French Market in New Orleans Square 
• Kids freaked out over Beignets from Ralph Brennan's Jazz Kitchen (Downtown) 
• Mom loved Earl of Sandwich (also in Downtown) 

4. Runner-up Best Food: Flo's V8 Café and the giant smoked turkey legs.

5. Worst Food: The two pizza/pasta cafeterias (Redd Rocket and Boardwalk). These places actually weren't terrible, but just not very memorable.

Next post: 5 more things about rides