Tag Archives: annual pass

And Another Year Of Disney (or I Need To Get Back To The Parks)

Posted on February 12, 2020 | Comments Off

For quite a while now, I’ve had a Disney pass. This has been something that is a bit of a splurge for me, but it’s a worthwhile splurge. Going to Disneyland isn’t cheap and getting an annual pass makes it much more affordable for me. And pretty much every year that I’ve had my pass, I have added up every time I went during the year to confirm that I got more than my money’s worth.

I have both my annual pass for the parks as well as a parking pass (I don’t think the parking pass is available anymore, but I was grandfathered into being able to add it on). Getting my money’s worth on the pass is easy because I think I only need to go 3 or 4 times. The parking pass ends up usually being the equivalent of having to pay for parking 10 or 11 times, so that’s a bit harder. Sometimes, I just look at the overall cost and not split it up, which means I need to go about 6 times to make it worth it. But being worth it is also a subjective thing.

If I had to pay for parking every time, I might not go as often. So while I might spend more over the year by pre-paying for a parking pass, I go more knowing I don’t have to pay $20 or $25 each time to go. So for me, it’s worth it no matter what.

But as you might have been able to tell by my lack of Disney posts on here, I haven’t been to the parks in a while. I actually haven’t been there since before the summer pass blackout. I haven’t seen the new Star Wars land at all. Obviously I haven’t been on either of the new Star Wars rides either. I think this may be the longest time I’ve gone without going to the parks since I started getting my pass again. And I do miss Disneyland a lot. My schedule just hasn’t necessarily allowed me to go. I’ve been busy with work and other things. Plus, my friends that I normally go with haven’t been able to go and I don’t necessarily want to go by myself. Even though I used to do that all the time, I do really prefer going with a friend.

But even though I might not have gotten my money’s worth on my last annual pass, there is no question to me that the pass was worth it. The few times I did go were awesome and I had a great time. And I don’t feel like I wasted money or anything because I got more than my money’s worth several years in a row. So I guess I’m just balancing things out.

And I’m extra grateful this time for renewing my pass because a day after I did it, the prices went up! There have been a few times that the price increase happened right before my pass was up for renewal or I knew I needed to renew it and didn’t do it before they had a price increase. Since they don’t announce when the prices are going up and it just happens overnight, it’s a matter of luck to get the renewal done before it happens. And this time, I guess I was lucky! I didn’t save a ton of money, but it went up about $50 which is something. And I’m glad I saved that money because I know it will go to use for something else.

Now that I’ve got another year of Disney ahead of me, I just need to figure out when I can get there! I still have no clue when I’ll be able to go, but I’m hoping soon because I need my Disney fix! I’ve been trying to find some more friends that have Disney passes so I can have more people to go to the parks with. I also love having fun adventures with new people in the parks because you discover new things that they know about or love in the parks that might be something I haven’t noticed before. Hopefully, I’ll have another Disney day coming up soon and I can do another park recap post on here!

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Tagged annual pass, Disney, Disneyland, theme park

Disneyland Bucket List (or One Last Visit Before The Summer Blackout)

Posted on June 24, 2015 | 2 comments

I went to Disneyland on Monday with my friend June. She and I both have annual passes that are blacked out for the summer starting at the end of this week, so we wanted to get in one more Disney adventure before we can’t go back until the end of August.

We got down to the parks around 1pm (we both had workout classes that we went to in the morning), and we started things off right away.

Our first stop was at the Haunted Mansion. The Hatbox Ghost was recently brought back to the Haunted Mansion after disappearing soon after the ride opened in the 60’s. I hadn’t had a chance to see him yet, so I was beyond excited to check him out!

As we were getting close to his spot in the ride, I mentioned to June that it would be so amazing if the ride broke down or stopped right in front of him so we could check him out even longer. And about 3 feet before we got to him the ride did break! But it was just before we would have been able to see him, so our view was of the bride instead of the Hatbox Ghost.

Once the ride got started again we finally saw the Hatbox Ghost, and he was totally worth it! I wish we could have ridden that ride over and over again, but we had more Disneyland things to get done.

Next was a stop to get my favorite treat: Dole Whips!

It was the perfect refreshing treat on such a hot day and we were able to find a bench in the shade to relax on while we ate.

After our snack, it was time for another ride that was recently updated. The Matterhorn!

I don’t love the Matterhorn because of how bumpy it is and how it hurts my hips while riding it, but they just added a new animatronic on the ride and I had to see how it looked. I had seen some videos online so I had an idea of what to expect, but June hadn’t and she got a good scare on the ride. And since I decided not to put my hands up like usual, I was able to brace myself a bit better and only hurt a little after the ride.

After those two upgraded rides in Disneyland, we headed over to California Adventure to see the newly upgraded Soarin’ Over California. They had upgraded the screens and cleaned up the film (which desperately needed it). The upgraded ride looked very nice, but we did have a bit of a scare at the beginning of the ride. When the ride was moving up into the screen area, our seats jerked forward and we all had a little moment of panic. But the ride was smooth sailing after then.

After those 3 rides, we had checked off all the rides that we really wanted to do before we were blacked out for the summer. So we just did some fun rides after that. We checked out The Little Mermaid (mainly for the air conditioning) and then watched the Aladdin show (again for the air conditioning).

Our final ride for the day was Tower Of Terror. We tried to do a silly yawning photo this time and I think it came out pretty cute.

After those rides, we walked through Downtown Disney to the Disneyland Hotel for dinner. We got dinner somewhere where I’ve never gone before, Trader Sams!

They don’t have a huge food menu, but I got a really delicious pork sandwich. June got a fun drink (that came with the zombie mug that she got to take home) but I was just drinking water.

After our fun dinner, we did a couple of silly things around the parks like take advantage of the fun photo ops.

And take photos in front of the decorated castle.

And finally a little bit of shopping. We found this ceramic Dole Whip and I knew I had to have it!

And since it was getting close to the fireworks time and there were a couple of spaces right in front of the castle, we decided to suck it up and wait about 2 hours for the new fireworks show.

We got a pretty awesome spot to watch from. Where we were, you were required to stay seated, so that was almost better than having to stand and watch (and hope that you aren’t behind a really tall person). The new show has lots of cool projections on different spots in the park like the castle, the Matterhorn mountain, Main Street, and It’s A Small World.

Sorry for the random Cast Member in my photos. He was there the entire time making sure that nobody stood up or went under the rope. The fireworks were a bit shorter than I expected, but I’m glad that we waited it out. I rarely do that and when I do, I usually am much farther back. So being almost right in front of the castle was a real treat for me!

It was also a great opportunity to take a castle picture at night with nobody behind me in the photo.

After the fireworks, it was time for us to head home (I had to work the next morning). The funny thing was that it took us longer to walk from the fireworks spot, get a tram, and get to my car than it did for us to make the entire drive home!

And as soon as I got home, I found my Dole Whip a place in my living room to live.

Both June and I kept saying on the drive home how perfect this Disneyland day was. We got everything done that we wanted to and we really maximized the air conditioning opportunities and stayed out of the heat and sun for a good chunk of our time there.

I’m sad that I can’t go back until the end of August because of my blackout dates. Especially because the Peter Pan ride is supposed to open in a week! I have to wait it out for my time to go back. But June and I are already planning our return to Disneyland in August and hoping that it will be just as epic as this visit was!

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Posted in Celebrations, Food, Fun Stuff

Tagged annual pass, bar, California Adventure, Disneyland, rides, theme park

A Friend Filled Afternoon/Evening At Disneyland (or Missing Some Ride Pictures)

Posted on April 29, 2015 | 3 comments

I’m really happy that I have Mondays off from my main day job. This way I can go to Disneyland for the afternoon (after my Orangetheory workout).

I had been meaning to go to Disneyland for a couple of weeks now so I decided that this Monday I was going to go no matter what. I put it out on Facebook that I’d be going and a couple of friends said that they would be there and we could meet up.

I got to the parks around 2pm (there was lots of closures plus a bad accident on the freeway so the drive took forever for me) and as soon as I arrived I messaged my friend Justin. He was in the parks with some friends and we were all going to hang out as a group. We all met up and headed over to our first ride, which was going to be Star Tours.

After the ride (where sadly none of us in the group were chosen to be the rebel spy) a couple of Justin’s friends had to leave and our group was down to 3. Next, we rode Buzz Lightyear where I got one of my worst scores ever. But I guess I was lucky because for some reason our photo from that ride didn’t come out.

Next was a stop for a treat. Because it was warm out (and I thought it might make my sunburn hurt a little less), we got Dole Whips!

You can definitely see how bad the sunburn looks by the color difference between my face/chest and my arms (also, you can see the burn line on my chest).

The Dole Whip did revive me a bit and next we headed over to the Haunted Mansion. They will be adding a new animatronic in the ride soon that I’m very excited about so I wanted to make sure to ride the ride one more time before it gets busy with the crowds when the new character is installed.

After that, Justin and his friend had to head out (there was a private Annual Pass party that night and they needed their wristbands and wanted to get dinner). So I hopped on the Disneyland Railroad and texted my friend, June, who was on her way down to the parks.

I love riding on the railroad at Disneyland. First, it’s such a great way to see a lot of the park while relaxing.

And of course, I love the Grand Canyon/Primeval World dioramas between Tomorrowland and Main Street (I tried to get pictures of those, but they were all too blurry).

I had just enough time to do a lap on the railroad before June arrived and we were off to ride some more rides. We did ride Buzz Lightyear were I got a better score and our picture worked.

I look so serious!

Next, we rode Space Mountain. Fortunately, June is like me and likes to take silly pictures. So we decided to try to do the comedy/tragedy faces for Space Mountain.

I’m not sure if we succeeded in doing that, but the photo is pretty funny! After Space Mountain, we knew that we wanted to get some dinner. But before eating, we made a quick stop at the castle to get a picture in front of it now that it is all decorated for the 60th anniversary.

After dinner we headed over to California Adventure. Right near the entrance of the park we saw Goofy in his dapper outfit so we made a quick detour to get a picture with him.

Our first ride was Radiator Springs Racers (I’m unsure if our car won or not).

While in line for Radiator Springs Racers I was telling June how I was only in Cars Land once when they turned on the lights for the evening. I said how I wished that I could see that again because it was really cute.

And perfectly on cue, as we are exiting Radiator Springs Racers, all the lights in Cars Land turned on.

Seriously, we couldn’t have timed it out better.

California Adventure was closing early that night, so we wanted to make sure we got one more ride in for the evening.

I love Tower of Terror, but so many of my friends don’t want to ride it! So I was more than happy to go on. I wish I had taken a picture when we were at the top of the ride about to drop. It was so gorgeous with the sun setting and California Adventure and Disneyland all lit up.

After the ride, we went to look for out picture and sadly our elevator did not have a picture that came out. So that’s 2 of my ride photos that failed.

It was time to head back home after that last ride. I was in the parks for about 6 hours and got quite a bit done and hung out with a lot of people!

I’m going to try to make at least 1 more Monday visit before the craziness of the 60th anniversary starts. And of course, once the anniversary starts I’ll have to go see all the amazing things that they will be doing in the parks, but it will be insanely crowded then as well.

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Posted in Celebrations, Fun Stuff

Tagged annual pass, California Adventure, Disney, Disneyland, friends, theme park

Disneyland Afternoon and Evening (or Spending Time With My Evil Twin)

Posted on February 26, 2015 | 4 comments

I recently renewed my annual pass for Disneyland. The level of pass that I have is only available for renewals, so I wanted to make sure that I renewed in time. I also made the decision to pay for the parking add-on, so I don’t have to spend $17 to park every time I go. I’m super glad I made that decision because just the other day, Disneyland eliminated the option to do a parking add-on (it’s only available now with the highest level pass which is about double the cost of my pass).

Right after I renewed my pass, I got a text from my Evil Twin Shey asking if I still had an annual pass. I told her I did and she said that she had been invited to an annual pass holder event and wanted to see if I wanted to be one of her guests! It was on this past Monday, which worked out perfectly for me!

When I got to the park, I took a few moments to enjoy the lack of crowds inside.

Good to know that Monday afternoons are pretty empty. I’ll have to go to Disneyland more often then!

Shey and her friends who were joining us weren’t at the park yet, so I decided to do a trip around Disneyland on the railroad.

I love the circle tour around the park. It’s so nice and relaxing and I get to see how crowded different areas of the park are that day. And my favorite thing is between the Tomorrowland and Main Street stations. They have the Grand Canyon and Primeval World dioramas! The Grand Canyon diorama was looking great. But when we got to the Primeval World section it was dark and covered by tarps. I guess that they were doing some work back there, but it was sad that we still were hearing the audio for the dinosaurs without getting to see them.

After getting back to the Main Street station, I realized that the parade was about to start. Since none of my friends were at the park yet, I decided to see if I could find somewhere to sit and watch it. And there was actually a bench right on the parade route with one seat left! So I sat back and watched the entire parade (I can’t remember the last time I did that).

The parade was pretty cute and as soon as the last float went past me, Shey texted me to say that they were all outside the gates of the park ready to get our wristbands for the event that evening! So I headed out to meet them and get checked in for the private event.

Since the private event in Disneyland didn’t start until 8pm, we decided to spent the first part of our time at California Adventure. Most of us wanted to ride on Tower of Terror, so that’s where we headed first. 4 of the 5 of us went on and I think we got a pretty funny photo (we are in the first row).

Next, we headed over to one of my favorite rides, Radiator Springs Racers. Again, only 4 of us rode and I think 2 of the girls in the group had never been on the ride before. We all had a great time, and our car tied in the race.

We also rode The Little Mermaid and Toy Story Mania. I rode alone on Toy Story Mania, so I couldn’t do some of the cool Easter Eggs on the ride (you really need 2 shooters for those), but I did get the second highest score in our vehicle.

Before getting some dinner, we went on California Screamin’. To make the wait shorter, we all went in the single rider line. I sat next to a guy who didn’t seem as enthusiastic about the ride as I was.

For dinner, I got baked potato soup in a bread bowl. It isn’t the healthiest thing I can get at the parks, but it’s definitely far from the worst. Plus, I kept my calories low for the beginning of the day and I know that I usually walk over 5 miles during a day at Disneyland. So the splurge was worth it (plus it was getting cold so soup warmed me up)!

Then we headed over to Disneyland where there was only about an hour before the private event started. Our first ride was Space Mountain. I decided to tell all the girls about my mom’s rule how you have to ride with your hands up the entire time. They all decided to try it and I think we all had a great time on the coaster.

After that, the park was starting to clear out. Only guests who had reserved spaces for the party could stay, and it was shocking how few people remained in the park! Our next stop was Star Tours, where we basically walked right on.

Followed by Buzz Lightyear’s Astro Blasters. I don’t know if I’ve ever walked on a ride as quickly. Shey and I rode together, and this was her first time on this ride. So I tried to help guide her to find the good targets, and I’m super impressed by her score! I never did that well on my first few times on the ride.

After Buzz Lightyear, I wanted to get an evil photo with my Evil Twin. So we found some pretty awesome evil hats for a quick photo.

One of the features of this private party were some awesome photo ops with characters that aren’t always out. We decided to check out the villains photo-op but the line was pretty insane. We guessed it would take us about an hour to get through the line, and since we wanted to maximize our time, we didn’t wait. Instead, we went on some more walk-on rides.

I love Big Thunder Mountain Railroad and I haven’t had a chance lately to ride it at night. So of course, that was next. The ride instead is already amazing, but what made it magical was what happened at the top of the mountain. The fireworks for Fantasmic were going off as we were on the ride! It was a super cheesy and magical moment that I loved!

We followed that up by riding Pirates Of The Caribbean where we got stuck for 5-10 minutes in the very beginning of the ride. It was right next to the Blue Bayou restaurant which is usually pretty busy. And it was closed during this event so it was completely empty and quiet. That was a little creepy. We finally got moving again and by the time we got off the ride, I realized that I only had time for another ride or two before I wanted to head home.

I really wanted to ride the Storybook Canal Boats at night to see all the buildings lit up. Plus, they recently added a “Frozen” section and I wanted to see how it was done. As soon as we got into the main part of the ride, I gasped. It looked amazing and beautiful!

The archways were all lit up with fairy lights and I really enjoyed the new “Frozen” castles.

I was planning on leaving then, but as we walked by Dumbo we realized that nobody was in line! I’ve never seen Dumbo without a crazy line, so of course we went on Dumbo!

I got my elephant all the way to the top and just spent the ride up in the air checking out all the amazing lights and sights of Fantasyland.

And as we were leaving the park, we noticed a dance party going on with a princess DJ and a guy walking around with a glass slipper. So we got a final group picture with the glass slipper.

By then, I had been at Disneyland for about 10 hours. It’s not the longest I’ve been there, but it was almost midnight so it was the latest I’ve been there. Plus I still had a drive home and had to work the next morning. But even though I left before the rest of my group, I felt like I had a super wonderful and full day at Disneyland!

I’m so grateful that my Evil Twin invited me to this event. It’s a rarity to see the parks so empty and I got to ride pretty much all of my favorite rides! This was the perfect way to start another year of having an annual pass!

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Posted in Fun Stuff

Tagged annual pass, California Adventure, Disneyland, event, rides, theme park

Happy Birthday Justin (or The Most Epic Disneyland Adventure Where We Conquered The Park)

Posted on February 26, 2014 | 1 comment

Yesterday was my friend Justin’s birthday. For his birthday, he wanted to go to Disneyland and he put out an invite on Facebook. One of the joys of being out of work is being able to go to Disneyland on a weekday, so I told him I’d meet him at the park.

We actually both got there at pretty much the same time, so we met at the trams that took us from the parking lot to the theme park. After a snafu with my annual pass (which ended up taking an hour at the ticket booths at the end of the day to fix), I ended up getting a free ticket for the day so I was able to go into the parks before dealing with the issues with my pass.

Since both Justin and I are annual passholders, we didn’t feel like we had to rush around the park and do a ton of rides. We started in California Adventure at Toy Story Mania, where Justin ended up beating me, but not by a ton. Next, we rode Radiator Springs Racers. This is really one of my favorite rides in the park. We did the single rider line, so we didn’t end up riding together. But that’s ok. While my car was waiting to go, I took a quick photo.

The ride was great as always. Then Justin and I decided to head over to Disneyland and do some of the rides over there. While walking through Main Street, we noticed Cruella de Vil just standing there with no line to take photos. So we took the opportunity and got some photos with her (I took one for Justin and he took one for me).

Then, right next to her we saw Pluto with almost no line! We figured we had to do another photo.

I was trying to give Pluto a kiss in the photo but now looking at it it just looks awkward.

Next, we were going to ride Star Tours, but on the way we saw Peter Pan and Captain Hook coming out from a backstage area. We figured we should see if we could get pictures with them too. They said we could, but only if we walked with them. So I ended up getting a picture with them toward the end of Tomorrowland.

Finally, we went into Star Tours where finally Justin and I got a picture together (wearing the awesome 3D glasses for that ride).

For the last ride of the day, Justin and I went on Buzz Lightyear’s Astro Blasters. Earlier in the day, Justin mentioned that his dream was to max out the counter on the ride. In order to do that, you have to get over 1,000,000 points. Justin was super motivated to beat me in this ride, and check out what he did.

I don’t know why his score is above my head and my score is above his, but he got over 1,000,000 points! And not only that, he had the 33rd highest score for all of Disneyland! And this was done on his 33rd birthday!

After that awesomeness, there was no way that the day could be topped. We declared that we conquered the park and headed out.

Justin was going to go straight back to his car and I still had to go to the ticket booths to deal with my annual pass issue (thank goodness it’s all fixed now), so we took one last quick picture together to remember this epic day.

I don’t know how future Disneyland adventures are going to top this, but I’ve got almost an entire year left on my annual pass to try.

Happy Birthday Justin! I hope the rest of your day almost lived up to the awesomeness of Disneyland! And thanks for letting me be part of your celebration!

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Posted in Celebrations, Fun Stuff

Tagged annual pass, birthday, California Adventure, Disneyland, rides, theme park

Another Year Of Disneyland! (or Paying With Ink Recycling)

Posted on February 11, 2014 | 1 comment

It’s been almost a year since I got my Disneyland annual pass. And if you remember, last year I paid for a little bit of it by recycling ink that my mom gave to me (she doesn’t want to have to deal with going to recycle 10 inks every month).

Well, I saved all my ink recycling money for the past year so when it was time to renew, I had quite a bit more in gift cards than I did last year. I actually had enough to pay for almost half of my annual pass! So the balance that I had to pay on my own was only a little bit more than a one day park hopper ticket. Not too bad!

I’m really excited to have another annual pass. As you’ve all seen in my posts about Disneyland, I like to go to the parks. I have fun there and I do get a ton of walking in.

With not having a job right now, I’m going to try to take advantage of the free time and do some more mid-day park adventures. I’m actually thinking of paying the extra money for a parking pass so I can do that more often (it takes 10 visits to pay off the parking pass, and I went 9 times last year).

I’m spending an hour every morning and an hour every evening applying for jobs (if I spend more than 2 hours job hunting I start to go a little crazy). That leaves the middle of the day open for me right now. I’ve been going for walks or planning on going to spin classes (I’m going to the 10:30am one today!) in my mid-morning through afternoon free time. But I think I’m going to start going to Disneyland maybe once a week.

I don’t always ride the rides, especially when I go alone. But it’s such a gorgeous place to walk around and if I don’t have to pay the $14 to park there, it pretty much makes it a free outing (not counting the gas to get there).

I’m a little nervous to spend more on my annual pass because I don’t have a job right now and I’m pretty much living off my unemployment (which barely covers everything). So I’m going to spend this week trying to budget and plan it out (I don’t think I’ll have time for Disneyland this week so I don’t have to worry about it yet).

But at least for now, I know that I can go into the parks almost any time I want and not have to pay a penny! And this will come in handy because in the spring I have a multi-day Disneyland adventure planned! But more about that when it gets closer to the date.

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Posted in Celebrations, Fun Stuff, Saving

Tagged annual pass, Disneyland, savings, theme park

Getting In My Disneyland Fix (or One Last Bit Of Christmas Time In The New Year)

Posted on January 8, 2014 | 2 comments

This past Sunday, I made a trip down to Disneyland with my friend Lupe and her son Diego. Lupe and I have been trying to get together for a Disneyland trip for a long time, and finally our days off matched (and our annual passes weren’t blacked out)!

We got to the parks just before 10am. It wasn’t too crowded, which surprised me since it was a Sunday and the last day of the Christmas decorations at Disneyland. Some of the seasonal rides (like Haunted Mansion Holiday) had huge lines, but most of the other rides had pretty reasonable wait times. I use a pass at Disneyland that allows me to wait off to the side while waiting for my ride (standing for a long period of time without moving really aggravates my hip). But our wait times for most rides were about 30 minutes (after waiting our time, we are led onto the ride, but it’s not instant access).

A lot of our day was just looking around at how gorgeous the day was. We couldn’t have asked for better weather.

But of course, we went on a bunch of rides. We did Haunted Mansion Holiday and got stuck on it for a minute at the graveyard scene. But that did allow me to take this pretty cool picture (and for those of you who hate people who take pictures in the dark rides, this was done without a flash).

We also rode the train around the park, only to get stuck at the train station in Tomorrowland (there was some issue with the trains and they couldn’t keep running).

I wanted to ride the submarines, but they are closed down for a long refurbishment. They haven’t drained the lagoon yet, but the waterfall stopped running and you could see a little bit inside the show building (I dream of getting stuck on that ride inside the show building so I could look around and see behind the scenes!).

We rode the monorail around as well. Lupe and Diego had no idea that you could ride in the nosecone with the driver, so we did that. They used to give you a co-pilot’s license as a little souvenir, but now they give you a boarding pass (I actually think the boarding pass is better).

We also went on Star Tours, Space Mountain, and Pirates of The Caribbean before heading over to California Adventure to ride my one of my favorite rides, Radiator Springs Racers. Our car won the race in case you cared.

This was the first time I had been in Cars Land during Christmas time. They have so many cute Christmas trees decorated in Cars themes in that area. I had to get a picture with one.

At this point, I was starting to be in a lot of pain and I forgot to bring my painkillers with me. So we decided to head back home.

It was a great trip with a great friend. I’m glad I made it to the parks before all the decorations were gone. And of course, I love getting to go on the rides.

My pass expires pretty soon. I know I’ll be renewing it, it’s just an issue of when. My original plan was to wait until the spring when my parents are here (we are going to spend a day in the parks). But with my (f)unemployment probably starting in about a month, I might want my pass to be good then so I can go on those free days. I haven’t had the chance to recycle enough ink to pay for a new pass, so I’ll have to see how to budget it. I know that Disneyland does monthly payment plans, but I don’t know if I want another monthly bill.

Either way, I know I’ll be back in the parks soon. I’m hoping to fit in one more quick visit before my pass expires!

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Posted in Fun Stuff

Tagged annual pass, budget, California Adventure, Disneyland, rides, theme park

Yup, Back At Disneyland (or This Time It Was A Pretty Happy Place)

Posted on April 12, 2013 | Comments Off

If you’ve been reading this blog for a while, you know I love Disneyland. And you may recall that they last time I was there, it wasn’t too fun. I got stuck on rides, unable to go on rides, and it just kind of stunk.

Well, this is supposed to be my last week of unemployment (unless my start date gets moved for the 4th time), so I wanted to get in one more Disney trip before I was very limited to when I could go. Once I’m working, unless I have a random weekday off, I’m pretty much only able to go after my shift ends at 1pm on Fridays.

So I was fully prepared to make yesterday another solo trip to Disneyland. But then I noticed that my friend Piper was there with her mom. So I sent a quick message on Facebook and I was off to the park.

I met Piper and her mom in California Adventure and we rode The Little Mermaid ride (I finally made it on there!) and Soarin’ Over California.

Then we headed over to the Disneyland park and we did a lot of other rides. We started by going to the Tiki Room so we could get a Dole Whip (one of my favorite treats).

I really like the Tiki Room. It’s a nice place to sit and watch a cute show, plus it had some of the first audio-animatronics in the park (and they still look good).

We then made it on The Haunted Mansion, Pirates of the Caribbean, and Indiana Jones. Although on Indiana Jones, we got in our Jeep, it made a jerky motion when trying to leave the load station, and the ride broke down. Fortunately, since we were still in the load area, we were let off of the Jeep. So we waited while the house lights came on.

And after maybe 20 minutes, the ride started back up again.

After that ride, we headed over to Tomorrowland where we rode the new Star Tours ride. It’s not new new, but new to me. This ride was something that I was terrified of as a kid. I remember my dad and brother would go on it, and my mom would take me on the People Mover. But thankfully I’m over that fear now, because it was an amazing ride (with some amazing looking 3-D glasses).

Next was Buzz Lightyear’s Astro Blasters. Another favorite ride of mine. I rode by myself, and got one of the highest scores I’ve ever gotten (somewhere in the 400,000 range). But when I looked at my picture after the ride, the scores were not right at all.

As you can see, the gun that I wasn’t using at all scored 252,600 points and it shows me with only 10,000. Oh well. And the reason I have a silly face in that picture was because I was testing exactly where the camera is on it. I now think I have it figured out.

After all those rides, we made a quick stop for some dinner, and then we conquered the Fantasyland rides. We did Peter Pan, Snow White, Mr. Toad, Pinocchio, and Alice in Wonderland. Then it was back to Tomorrowland to ride Autopia (I joked that I had a British car).

Then it was off to catch the Disneyland Railroad though the Grand Canyon diorama and the dinosaurs to Main Street.

Seriously, in 8 hours, we did 15 rides, had a snack, and had dinner. I’d say that was pretty successful!

And I did buy one thing there. I stopped at the Disney store at Downtown Disney and saw this shirt.

It’s a cute color and it has one of my favorite princesses on it. Plus, I was so excited to see that I didn’t have to buy the biggest size! I got the next to biggest size, but to me that’s a big improvement! Maybe all the hard work I’m putting in is finally paying off!

I’m so glad that Disneyland is back on my good side now! And thanks Piper and Piper’s mom for letting me hang out with you all day!

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Posted in Fun Stuff

Tagged annual pass, California Adventure, Disneyland, rides, theme park

Not The Happiest Place on Earth (or My Solo Trip to Disneyland)

Posted on March 13, 2013 | Comments Off

I used to go to Disneyland all the time by myself. When I was at my old day job, I only worked 3 days a week. And if I didn’t get a substitute teaching job on a day off, I’d be free to do whatever I’d like. Also, I paid for the parking pass on my old Disneyland pass so I could come for a few hours and not have to spend a cent.

This past Monday I had a completely free calendar. So I decided to take advantage of my new Disneyland pass and go to the park for a bit. I checked around to see if any of my friends wanted to come with me, but the ones who did don’t have an annual pass and didn’t want to spend over $100 for a few hours, and all my friends with passes were busy.

I got to Disneyland around noon and decided to start my time in California Adventure. It was such a gorgeous day that I spent almost a full hour just walking around the park and looking at the sights.

I decided to go and ride Radiator Springs Racers since my mom, my aunt, and I had so much fun riding it last month. I went in the single rider line which saved me so much time! I got in a car with a family of 5, we left the loading area, and we stopped.

We ended up being stuck there for a little over 20 minutes. So what do you do when you are stuck on a ride alone in a car filled with a family you don’t know? I made some phone calls, tweeted, and took some self-portraits with the forward facing camera on my iPhone.

You can see how close we were to the loading station in that picture.

We finally rode the ride (but got stuck two more times in the process but for only a few minutes each time). After that ride, another hour had passed in my day. I was starting to get a little hungry, so I headed over to the pier area of the park and enjoyed a fajita salad.

Not the healthiest option, but not a horrible one either.

I then tried to go on The Little Mermaid ride. When I was at Disneyland last month, the ride was broken so we couldn’t go on it. And it’s one of the only rides that I’ve never been on before. So I walked over the ride, and it was broken again!

After that disappointment, I looked at my watch and realized that since it was almost 4pm I either needed to leave the park soon or wait until about 7pm when the traffic died down. I decided to cut my losses and leave the park then.

As I was leaving California Adventure, I noticed this dress in the window of one of the stores.

I know that dress well, because I had it as a kid.

And I’m pretty sure that somewhere in my closet at my parents’ house, it’s still hanging up in there.

As I was leaving, all the after-school crowd was heading into the park, so I was glad to be leaving before it got too crowded.

Overall, this might have been my worst day at Disneyland. But my worst day at Disneyland is still better than my best day at my day job, so it’s a win in my book. And I still have about 11 months left on my annual pass so there’s plenty of time left to have great trips!

Plus, I got a workout in with all the walking I did so there’s always that!

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Posted in Fun Stuff

Tagged annual pass, California Adventure, Disneyland, rides, theme park

Going to The Happiest Place on Earth (or How Recycling Ink Got Me an Annual Pass)

Posted on February 14, 2013 | 3 comments

Yesterday was the last day that my mom and aunt were in LA. And we had our grand finale adventure then as well.

We went to Disneyland!!!

I’ve previously expressed my love for Disneyland (and how I couldn’t quite afford it), but I found a way to get my pass. At Thanksgiving, my mom gave me about 70 or 80 ink cartridges that she wanted to recycle. And since I could use the $2 for each ink, she decided to let me recycle them and enjoy the extra money. You can only recycle 10 at a time, but I had gotten about $50 in coupons since I also purchased some items at the store. And you are able to use your coupons for gift cards online (but not in the store). So I got a $50 gift card, and I ended up using that yesterday to put towards my pass (it was $269 so I only really paid $219).

Disneyland was amazing. I hadn’t been in about 2 years, so there was a lot of new stuff for me to see!

We totally lucked out by going on a gorgeous day.

(that last picture is from the StoryBook Canal Boats)

One of the highlights of the day was going to Cars Land. We rode both the tires and the racing ride. We ended up doing the racing ride twice, once in the daytime and once at night.

I highly recommend going at night. It is gorgeous there!

For our main meal yesterday, we had another linner but this time it was at the Blue Bayou. We had a waterfront table, so we got to see all the boats for Pirates of the Caribbean going right by our table. I had never eaten there before (maybe once when I was 3 but my mom can’t remember).

I decided to splurge on my calories a bit and had the short ribs.

It was so delicious that I forgot to take a photo of my food!

We rode almost everything that we wanted to go on (except Space Mountain which was broken) and spent almost equal time between Disneyland and California Adventure.

We ended our day with seeing the World of Color show at California Adventure. None of us had ever seen the show, so we weren’t sure what to expect. But we were all pleasantly surprised by how amazing the show was!

We ended up spending about 10 hours in the parks. Not my all time record, but after the past few days I’m exhausted!

Today I go back to “real” life and work. I hope I’ll be able to focus.

Mom and Aunt Cindy, thank you so much for coming to visit me and indulging me on these adventures! Thank you for paying for meals and driving around so I didn’t have to! I think we should make this girl’s week a new tradition!

3 Comments

Posted in Family, Fun Stuff

Tagged adventure, annual pass, California Adventure, Disneyland, rides, theme park

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