Tag Archives: Disneyland

A Sunday At Disneyland (or Pin-ups And Food and Wine)

Posted on April 19, 2016 | 5 comments

I’ve had a Disneyland day planned with my friend June for next week in my calendar for a while. It’s been a long time since we had gone together because our work schedules weren’t matching up, but we have been really excited to go at the end of the month. But while I was in Santa Barbara last weekend, June texted me to see if I wanted to go this past Sunday to check out the Food and Wine Festival happening at California Adventure. Since the festival was really only on the weekends, when we were planning on going soon wouldn’t have the cool food and drink options. I checked my calendar and since it was free I decided to go (we’ve still got our original Disneyland adventure scheduled soon too).

This past Sunday was not only during the Food and Wine Festival, it was also the Pin-up day at the parks. June and her friend Kris (who joined us) both have amazing pin-up clothes. I have one fancy dress that is sort of pin-up (I wore it to the SAG-AFTRA gala), but that’s not really appropriate to wear to a theme park. So I decided to wear cropped jeans, a t-shirt, and cute sneakers and claim I was doing a casual pin-up style. But next to June and Kris I looked a bit sloppy.

Pin Up Day

Since it was a Sunday and not a Monday like I’m normally at Disneyland, the parks seemed really crowded to me. It wasn’t unbearable like I’ve seen it before, but between the crowds and the really hot day none of us were feeling like we needed to rush around and try to do a lot of stuff. But we did get in a couple of fun rides.

Our first stop of the day was Peter Pan. It’s still one of my favorite rides and I haven’t ridden it too much since it was redone. So going on it made me pretty happy (plus we were out of the sun on the ride). Our next ride was Winnie The Pooh, which I’ve only ridden maybe 3 or 4 times ever.

Winnie The Pooh

I had forgotten how cute the ride was and how cool the effects are inside (my favorite is the rainstorm). But the thing that made us all so happy in that ride was that it was air-conditioned and we got to cool down a bit!

On our way to the next ride, we saw one of the photo set ups that they have around the park. I don’t remember if I had ever noticed the Haunted Mansion one before, but since there was no line we went up to get our picture taken.

Haunted Mansion Heads

Between the sun in our faces and the fact that we are all pretty pale, I think we all agreed that we looked pretty ghost-like in the photo.

Our final ride before heading over to California Adventure was Indiana Jones. Again, we all loved the air conditioning and how cool and shady it was waiting in line. But the ride is super fun and even thought the boulder at the end was acting a bit glitchy, it was still a good ride.

After walking over the California Adventure, our first stop was to get food since it was way past lunchtime. June and Kris had been to the Food and Wine Festival another weekend so they shared with me some of their favorite things they ate. They all sounded good to me so June and I waited in one line and Kris waited in another so we could get all the things we wanted to try.

Food and Wine Festival

We shared some artichoke chips that had a pesto type dipping sauce to them. Then we each had a pork belly bao taco (which I think was my favorite!) and some chicken mac and cheese. And for dessert we shared a milk chocolate caramel tart and a bacon maple whoopie pie. The servings were a nice size, but it wasn’t so much food that we felt crazy full or sick afterward. I think all the things we ate were pretty amazing and I wish that some of them would be offered year-round at the park!

After eating all that good food, we decided to try to do a ride that wouldn’t be too crazy. I hadn’t checked out the new Luigi’s Rollickin’ Roadsters yet (this replaced the flying tires that used to be there) so we headed over to Cars Land for our next ride.

Cars Land

We had watched the ride before it was our turn so we had an idea of what we were in for. It’s a trackless ride that has a bunch of little cars doing a synchronized dance. Some cars get to be in the middle at times and sometimes all the cars are moving together. But it’s pretty random so you never know what your car is going to do.

I thought it was a pretty good ride! The motions were a bit jerky at times, but even though I know it wasn’t going that fast it felt like it was! At at the end of the dance the cars all spun around and it felt faster than you go on the teacups!

I was feeling pretty exhausted after that (the sun was really taking it out of me), but I decided to join June and Kris for one more ride. This time, it was Soarin’ Over California which has been one of my favorites since it opened! The ride will be changing eventually to a new film (Soarin’ Around The World), so we want to get as many rides in before this version is gone forever. We had a nice ride as always, but the biggest disappointment for us was all the scents that are normally sprayed during the ride weren’t there! No pine trees, oranges, or salt waters smells at all! The movie still looked great, but the scents really do make it special and it didn’t really feel like the same ride without them.

After the final ride, I headed home and June and Kris went to a movie and then were planning on going back into the park for fireworks. But I’m glad I went home when I did because the next day was going to be another full adventure! I’ll tell you all about it in tomorrow’s post!

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Posted in Food, Fun Stuff

Tagged California Adventure, Disneyland, festival, food, theme park, wine

Another Year Of Disneyland (or No More Ink Money)

Posted on February 5, 2016 | 1 comment

I just renewed my Disneyland pass for another year! I’m so happy because I think you all know how much I love Disneyland. And because I have a double grandfathered pass (my pass level is only available if you are a renewal now and I have the parking add-on that doesn’t exist anymore), I have to make sure I renew before the pass expires each year. I don’t mind having to do that each year, but I do make sure to get to Disneyland before the expiration date because of this.

I knew my pass was expiring soon, but I didn’t have a Disneyland day planned before the expiration date. And since paying for my pass is complicated (more on that in a minute), I can’t renew over the phone. So on Monday after my workout, I drove down to Disneyland with the only purpose to renew the pass.

I’m glad that the drive was super easy this time. I was on the tram from the parking lot to the parks in under an hour after leaving my house. It was so empty at Disneyland that I was a bit sad that I really didn’t have time to stay and go on rides (I had errands to do at home that afternoon).

Once I got to the ticket counter, it was time to deal with the complications of paying for my pass. Because I recycle ink for my mom, I was able to get a bunch of Visa gift cards and Disney gift cards from Staples. I also had gotten some gift cards for my birthday from friends. All together, my parking add-on was totally paid for by the cards plus about $50 of my pass. It’s a bit weird to pay this way because the cast member helping me has to set up the payments to be as if it was on a payment plan so they don’t accidentally charge one of the Visa gift cards the full amount of the pass (since they are each only worth about $25). It took a little bit of time, but I got everything taken care of and I was on my way.

I was super tempted to go into the parks because of how ridiculously empty it was, but I figured that if I did that, I would stay there too long. So I just took a photo at the gates and headed back toward the parking lot tram.

Disneyland

I made a stop at the Disney store since I never really go in there and of course I got distracted by all the really awesome Disney stuff. There were some kitchen things I was super tempted to buy, but I didn’t have the money to spend $60 on something. Then, I was intrigued by the dog toys and found the perfect thing to get for Tucker!

Disney Dog Ties

They only had the ties in XS/S, but I saw that all the girl dog things also came in M/L (which was the size Tucker needs), so I grabbed the ties and brought them to the register to have them order the larger size for me (Disney is usually awesome like that). Sadly, they only make the boy dog things in XS/S and there is no way that our 70 pound dog could fit in something that tiny. So I left Disneyland empty-handed (well, I guess I did have my renewed pass to bring home with me).

While I’m super excited for another full year of Disneyland adventures, I’m a bit sad because this looks like it will be the last year I can use my ink recycling money to help pay for my pass. You used to be able to use Staples Rewards for gift cards online (but not in stores), so that’s how I got my gift cards. But sometime recently they changed the rules (or started enforcing rules) and you can no longer get gift cards with Staples Rewards money. I understand the reasoning behind it now that I’ve done some research on how gift cards sold from third-party retailers work, but it still stinks for me.

Having a few hundred dollars in gift cards really helps to make my pass affordable. I have no plan on letting my pass expire in a year. There are other options for me to pay for my pass. I can use the Disneyland payment plan which doesn’t have interest and can be paid off in advance if you have the money. Or I can figure out other ways to save for it (or just ask for only Disney gift cards for my birthday or Hanukkah). I’ve got a year to figure it out.

But I can’t let the end of the ink money bring me down. I’ve got an entire year to make more Disneyland memories and I have a feeling that my park adventures are going to keep getting more and more amazing!

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Posted in Celebrations, Fun Stuff, Saving, Shopping

Tagged Disneyland, gift card, savings, theme park

Some Disneyland Goodbyes (or Animation, Rides, and BBQ)

Posted on January 7, 2016 | 1 comment

I went to Disneyland this past Monday with my friend June. She and I had this trip planned since our last Disneyland trip because we had a very specific mission. A bunch of things will be closing down starting on the 11th for the construction for the new Star Wars land. Many things are only closing temporarily, but some are closing forever. So we wanted to make our round of goodbyes to some of our Disneyland favorites.

We got to Disneyland around noon and started our day over at California Adventure. We had planned on riding Radiator Springs Racers, but as soon as we got in line the ride broke down. We didn’t really feel like waiting to see how long it would take to reopen, so we headed over to the Animation Academy for some drawing fun. I don’t know if I’ve actually ever done the Animation Academy at California Adventure before (I did it at Disneyworld when I went a long time ago), so I was excited to check it out. We were drawing Sally from Nightmare Before Christmas. And I did try my best to draw her, but clearly I have issues drawing circles. June was able to do a pretty great drawing!

Animation Academy

After that, we headed over to Disneyland for what we considered the main event of our trip. We went to the Big Thunder Ranch to get all you can eat BBQ!

Big Thunder Ranch

I’ve actually never been to the BBQ and sadly it’s closing on the 11th because it’s turning into Star Wars Land. June and I tried to go the last time we were at Disneyland, but we couldn’t get a reservation. So we made this one a few weeks in advance and planned our trip around it. It was really good and I’m sad that this trip was my first and last time getting to go. I loved the coleslaw (it was vinegar based) and the cornbread. And the BBQ ribs were messy and yummy.

BBQ

When we were done eating, we made our rounds through Big Thunder Ranch to say our goodbyes. We went over to the petting zoo and said goodbye to the donkeys and goats. All of the animals have been adopted already so we wished them the best in their new homes. I’m sure as a kid my parents took me to the petting zoo at Disneyland, but as an adult I really never went in there.

While we were saying our goodbyes to the goats (a lot of people were doing that and it was really crowded), we saw Pluto and how upset he is that the Big Thunder Ranch was closing.

Sad Pluto

All of Big Thunder Ranch is closing permanently and I think that we spent a decent amount of time admiring what we sadly did not take advantage of for many years. And hopefully Star Wars Land will have some sort of reminder of Big Thunder Ranch inside (many rides that take over other rides have Easter Eggs that are about the original ride).

Goodbye Big Thunder Ranch

After our big lunch, we went over to ride the Haunted Mansion. First, we didn’t want to do an extreme ride on a full stomach and second because we were inspired by drawing Sally earlier in California Adventure. It’s probably the last time I’ll be in the parks before Haunted Mansion changes back from the Nightmare Before Christmas overlay, so it was nice to see that one more time before it goes back to the normal Haunted Mansion.

Next on our list was to ride the train around. The Disneyland Railroad will be closed for at least a year to be rerouted during construction, and I really do love the train. We rode around the entire loop to check out the view and see the Grand Canyon and Primeval World dioramas and animatronics. I’m sad that I won’t be able to see those things again for a while and I’m going to miss having the railroad to use as transportation on busy days.

Next on our list was to ride Star Tours. This isn’t going away, but it was the first time I got to ride the ride since seeing the new Star Wars movie! I heard that they had added things to the ride that are from the new movie, and we got to go to Jakku as our first location on the ride and BB-8 was the hologram that appeared in the middle of the ride offering help. That was pretty awesome.

After the Star Tours ride, we decided that we should head over to Innovations where there are some Star Wars photo setups. The lines were too long so we took advantage of both Star Wars photos and the one Avengers one that was still open.

Character Photos

And since we have no idea how long the Hyperspace Mountain overlay will be at Space Mountain (I hope for a long time because I love it!), we rode it again. The ride is so wonderful with the overlay and the new effects that were added for it. We sat in the front row and it felt so fast that for a bit I couldn’t ride with my hands in the air. We tried to do a cute pose, but I almost had a quick wardrobe malfunction so I wasn’t quite into the pose when the photo was taken.

Hyperspace Mountain

By this point, we had been at Disneyland for a long time. But we had 2 more stops to make. First was to ride the Jingle Cruise, which is the holiday overlay for the Jungle Cruise. I had never seen the overlay before and it was really cool at nighttime with a bunch of lights strung around the ride. The jokes were as corny as always, but it was fun to see what they changed for the overlay.

And no trip to Disneyland is complete for me without a Dole Whip. So right after the Jingle Cruise, we got a Dole Whip and enjoyed it right next to the Enchanted Tiki Room.

Dole Whip

It really was a full day at Disneyland. There wasn’t really anything that we missed that we wanted to go on. I would have like to have taken the boat around the Rivers of America because that will also be closed for a year or so, but between riding the train around plus walking all over we got to see a lot of the river.

I know I’ll be at Disneyland again in February and I need to go to the parks soon to renew my pass (I might do a quick trip into the parks when I go to do my renewal). But I don’t think I’ll be there again before things closed down or go back from their holiday overlay so I’m glad that June and I were able to make it on Monday.

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Posted in Celebrations, Food, Fun Stuff

Tagged BBQ, California Adventure, Disney, Disneyland, friends, lunch, photos, theme park

An Epic Disneyland Day (or VIP Status and Mini High School Reunion)

Posted on December 10, 2015 | 2 comments

I’ve had some pretty awesome Disneyland adventures over the years, but I have to say that my Disneyland trip this past Sunday was pretty amazing! This Disneyland outing had been planned for a while because I knew my schedule was crazy, but I had no idea how great it was going to be until it was closer to the date.

I went with my friend June again (it’s very easy to plan a trip together since she lives 2 blocks from me). We had a couple of things we wanted to do because so many things will be closing either for a long time or permanently soon, but we actually didn’t end up doing most of them.

The first thing we wanted to do was see the Aladdin show again. I love this show and it will be closing permanently in the new year. We had known for a while that we would be seeing the show no matter what on Sunday, but I found out that my friend was playing Aladdin in the first show of the day! So we decided to do that first!

Because my friend was in the show, he was able to get us VIP seating. That meant that we could go into the theater first and get whatever seats we wanted. I typically like to sit toward the middle, but since my friend was Aladdin I wanted to be in the first row to be able to see him. When we sat down, I got to see the entire audience from the front and I never realized how huge it is in there!

Aladdin Theater

I’ve seen the Aladdin show dozens of times, but this was such a special experience. It was a bit weird seeing my friend in the show, but he was the perfect Aladdin!

Aladdin Aladdin with Jasmine Aladdin and Genie Aladdin Finale

At one point in the show, Aladdin comes by in an elephant. June and I tried to get a selfie with him as he was behind us, but it wasn’t the most successful photo.

Selfie with Aladdin

As my friend came right in front of us in the elephant, he winked at us so we knew that he knew we were there. When he winked, the girls sitting behind us thought it was for them and they were all so excited and giggly that Aladdin wanted them and thought they were cute.

After the show ended, my friend arranged for us to be able to be a part of the post-show meet and greet. We got a picture with a lot of the cast and I got a quick photo with my friend before he had to go backstage again to get ready for his next show.

Aladdin Cast With Aladdin

After Aladdin, June and I rode on Tower of Terror. We tried to do a pose inspired by my friend in Aladdin (doing a pose that he did when he was impressing Jasmine with the flying carpet), but the people in front of us kind of blocked us with their hands in the air.

Tower of Terror

After Tower of Terror, we headed over to the Disneyland park to ride some of the rides over there. Our first stop was the Haunted Mansion. We got stopped a couple of times in the ride, but it gave us a chance to look around and check out all the little details that they put into the ride.

Next was something pretty cool. I saw on Facebook that a girl I went to high school with, Amy, was going to be at Disneyland with her family that day. I hadn’t seen her since I graduated high school in 2001, but it worked out pretty well to meet up! So June and I met up with Amy, her husband, and her kid for the last couple of rides of the day.

First as a group was Small World. I love seeing it at the holidays and they make the inside so beautiful (and the songs are better too).

Small World

After Small World we headed to Tomorrowland to go on Space Mountain. The ride is themed for Star Wars as Hyperspace Mountain and I hadn’t had a chance to check out the themed ride yet.

Since Amy’s son is too small to ride, we did the child swap for the ride. So June and I both got to ride twice (Amy and her husband each got to ride once).

Space Mountain Space Mountain Photo

Again, we tried to go with Aladdin themed poses, but it wasn’t the biggest success.

Hyperspace Mountain was pretty incredible! I’m not always a fan of ride overlays, but this one was so great and I’m so grateful that I got to ride it twice! The projections and lasers that they added to the ride made it super exciting and the music fit perfectly! I know that the next time I’m in the parks I’ll be riding it again and hopefully will get a chance to ride it several more times before they change it back to regular Space Mountain.

After those two rides on Hyperspace Mountain, we got some dinner at the Plaza Inn. Even though they are famous for their fried chicken, I’m not a huge fried chicken fan. So I got pot roast and it was very yummy.

Disneyland Dinner

By that time, Amy and her family needed to get over to Fantasmic because they had Fastpasses for the show and June and I were ready to head back to LA. I had to get one more photo with Amy before saying goodbye.

With Amy

I didn’t go to my high school reunion and I’m rarely at my parents’ house, so it’s pretty rare for me to see people from high school. I seem to always see people from high school at Disneyland and I’m happy to keep up that tradition.

Even though this wasn’t a day full of rides, it was a day full of amazing experiences and is definitely one of my favorite Disneyland days ever! I might be back in the parks next week and for sure one more time before so many rides and experiences close down in the new year. I love that Disneyland keeps getting better and better, but I’m also getting sad to say goodbye to so many things I love in the parks.

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Posted in Celebrations, Fun Stuff

Tagged California Adventure, Disneyland, friends, musical, rides, theme park

A Speedy Disneyland Day (or Getting My Halloween Rides In)

Posted on October 8, 2015 | Comments Off

When I’ve got a free Monday, I go to Disneyland. It’s one of the advantages of having an annual pass. And since I won’t have a free Monday again until December (I’m going to be in a class on Mondays for a while), I had to take a trip to the parks this week to see all the Halloween fun.

I went with the same friend that I’ve done my past few trips to Disneyland with since she lives around the block from me and we have similar attitudes on being laid back in the parks.

We got the parks around noon and it was really crowded. I wasn’t expecting a Monday during the school year to be that bad, but it reminded me of a Monday in the middle of the summer. Maybe some local school districts had the day off?

As soon as we got into Disneyland we knew our game plan was pretty much to do the Halloween rides first and then see what we want to do after that. But first, we had to make our traditional first stop and get a Dole Whip!

It was nice to be able to enjoy the Dole Whip and not have to eat it super quickly because it was melting. We sat in the shade and enjoyed our treats before heading to our first ride of the day.

Even though the Haunted Mansion has their holiday overlay of The Nightmare Before Christmas from Halloween until Christmas, I try to go on it once during Halloween and once during Christmas (at least). We ended up getting stopped on the ride a couple of times, so I was able to get some pictures of the ride without worrying too much that I was ruining someone’s experience on the ride.

Our next ride was going to be Space Mountain to see the Ghost Galaxy overlay, so we rode the train around from Haunted Mansion to Tomorrowland. The train is going to be closed for at least a year starting in January, and I love it a lot so I’m going to try to ride it each time I’m in the parks before it closes down.

I’ve missed going on Space Mountain Ghost Galaxy most years, so I’m glad I got to ride it this week. I swear that the ride was so much faster than it usually is and it was a lot darker so I couldn’t see the track at all even though we were sitting in the front of the ride.

And of course, we had to do a silly pose for the photo (we were trying to hula dance to celebrate our love for Dole Whips).

After that, we decided to head to the Disneyland Hotel for some lunch at Trader Sams and rode the monorail over to Downtown Disney (I was feeling a bit lazy that day). This was my second time at Trader Sams and it was just as fun as it was last time. I still didn’t get a drink, but one day I will try one of their fun and festive drinks.

While we were sitting and enjoying our lunch, we both realized that we were exhausted. I had found out while at Disneyland that I had an audition with 7 page audition and she had a class that she was thinking of attending that evening. So even though we only rode a few rides and we would potentially be hitting rush hour traffic home, we decided to call it a day.

But we did make one more stop before going back to the car. The last time we were there, we saw these churro ice cream sandwiches in Downtown Disney and thought they looked yummy. We didn’t get them then, but we decided to try them this time.

What we didn’t realize is that the churro ice cream sandwiches need to be assembled by you and the ice cream is just a container of it (and not easy to scoop out with a plastic spoon).

I ate one part of the churro and tried to brush the cinnamon sugar on to the ice cream to have that second. It wasn’t quite an ice cream sandwich, but it was pretty yummy. I just don’t think that I’ll be getting that again (it was also way too much food!).

Even though this was a super short trip to Disneyland, I got my Halloween rides in and had fun with a friend. And while I won’t be able to make it back on a Monday until December, I might try to go on a Sunday sometime in the next month or two. I’ll know going into that trip that it will probably be very crowded but at least I know I can have fun when I only do one or two rides. It gets me my Disneyland fix.

Comments Off on A Speedy Disneyland Day (or Getting My Halloween Rides In)

Posted in Celebrations, Fun Stuff

Tagged Disney, Disneyland, Halloween, rides, theme park

“The Wisdom Of Walt” (or Time To Win An Amazing Book!)

Posted on September 17, 2015 | 18 comments

I’ve covered almost everything from the Entertainment New Media Network Conference in my past two posts. But I did skip talking about one of the speakers. And it’s not because I didn’t enjoy it. It’s because it was my favorite speaker of the entire event!

Jeffrey A. Barnes is a professor, an author, and a Disney fanatic. And as a fellow Disney fan, I was super excited to hear what he was going to talk about.

Without giving away a ton of Jeffrey’s story, he had always dreamed about writing a book about Walt Disney and Disneyland. Then he was diagnosed with a brain tumor. He put off having surgery for a while because he was teaching a college class on Disneyland (where was that class when I was in school?!?). After having the tumor removed, he had mentioned that he had the life regret of never writing his book. His wife told him that he still had plenty of life to live and encouraged him to write the book he always wanted to.

The book “The Wisdom Of Walt” was written as both a story about the history of Disneyland as well as leadership and self-help through the lessons that Walt Disney went through while building his park.

When Jeffrey was speaking at ENMNCon, he talked about how we needed to be the hero in our own stories. Every story needs a hero who is willing to fail, willing to act, and willing to dream. And to get your dreams accomplished nobody can be that hero except for you.

His talk really connected with me. I try not to be the victim in my story, but sometimes that’s tough. I need to focus as much as possible on being my own hero and making sure that my dreams are my priorities.

Obviously as soon as the conference was done, I bought “The Wisdom of Walt”. To say that I’m devouring the book is an understatement! I’m putting off watching my favorite TV shows to read more and more of the book! I’m getting close to the end of it and I’m already planning on re-reading it because I know that there is so much to absorb in the book.

I love the history of Disneyland parts. I do know a lot of Disney history but I’m still learning new things. And I love the lessons that are in each chapter. The book is such a great mix of learning Disney history and leadership skills with fun facts about the parks.

Why am I sharing this all with you? Because Jeffrey A. Barnes is super amazing and is giving away a copy of “The Wisdom Of Walt” on my blog! Not only is he giving away a copy, the winner will have their copy signed and personalized!

All you have to do is enter at the bottom of this post. There are a bunch of ways to enter including commenting on here, following me on twitter/Facebook/Instagram, and tweeting out the contest (you can do that every day and earn extra entries!). The contest goes until midnight on Thursday September 24th so you have lots of time to enter and earn extra entries!

And if you don’t want to enter (or if you enter but don’t win), Jeffrey has decided to give all readers of Finding My Inner Bombshell $5 off his book if you order it through his website! All the books ordered through his website will be signed (just not personalized) and if you enter the code “blog” in the notes, you will get a $5 refund after purchase! If you would prefer the Kindle version, you can get that on Amazon (but no discount and obviously it won’t be signed).

Good luck to everyone who enters! And I hope that even if you don’t win, you get this book because it is truly amazing!

Please make sure you enter through the Rafflecopter below even if you just enter by writing a comment. I will be selecting the winner randomly from the Rafflecopter entries on Friday the 26th!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

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Posted in Celebrations, Food, Shopping

Tagged author, blogging, books, contest, Disney, Disneyland

My Return To Disneyland (or Being Lazy And Enjoying Air Conditioning)

Posted on August 27, 2015 | 3 comments

It’s been a long summer blackout for my annual pass at Disneyland, but I was finally able to return to the parks this week! I had this on my calendar since my last Disneyland day, so I’ve been looking forward to it for a while.

I went again with my friend June (who went with me for the last day before our blackout). June lives 2 blocks from my house, so it’s pretty convenient to go to the parks together. And since I have parking on my pass and she doesn’t, we like to carpool.

Just like our last day in the parks, it was another super hot day. We got there at about noon (I had my workout early in the morning) and we were off and running as soon as we parked. First on the list was to get our favorite treat: Dole Whips!

Last time, we enjoyed our Dole Whips in the shade outside of the Enchanted Tiki Room, but since it was so ridiculously hot out we decided to go inside. I usually don’t go into the Enchanted Tiki Room, but the air conditioning was totally worth it!

Next on our list was something we had both been waiting on for a while. The Peter Pan ride had a pretty big refurbishment and had opened over the summer when we were blacked out. So we wanted to go on and see how the refurbishment looked. I’ve seen several videos on what they worked on so I knew to look for particular things in the ride. Overall, it looks pretty cool. I’m not too happy with the scene where you are flying over London. To me, it looks too bright and not as three dimensional as it looked before.

Next on the list was another ride that we knew would have some air conditioning: Indiana Jones. This is definitely one of my favorite rides and it didn’t disappoint. There was a weird technical glitch where things weren’t syncing up properly with the ride vehicle (the boulder scene was delayed and the Indiana Jones animatronic at the end didn’t come alive until we were driving away), but I actually thought those technical issues were pretty cool. I go on the rides enough that when I get to see things not show perfect, I’m pretty exciting. It doesn’t top when I rode the Finding Nemo submarines and all the computer imagining failed, but this was a pretty fun glitch to watch.

After Indiana Jones, we were feeling pretty overheated and a little hungry so we rode the Monorail into Downtown Disney for a late lunch/early dinner. We went to Tortilla Jo’s because we both were craving ice-cold margaritas (mine was a virgin since I am still on painkillers for my torn calf).

I had a pretty amazing steak burrito for my meal. While there are some good food options inside the parks, I have to remember to go to Downtown Disney too because they have a lot of variety for meals.

After the food, drinks, and air conditioning, we were ready to go back on some more rides. Next on the list (after riding the Monorail back into Tomorrowland) was Space Mountain. We waited for the ride and just as it was our turn the ride broke down. There was no set time for when it would re-open, but we decided to wait it out a bit. Just as we were getting close to the time deadline we had set for our wait, the ride started back up. We got to ride in the front of the car and it felt so much faster than it ever has. I’m not sure if I just forgot how fast it feels or after it’s shut down for a while somehow the ride gets faster. But it was perfect!

The last ride in Disneyland was Star Tours. That was a relatively uneventful ride. Except the guy sitting next to me was grabbing the outsides of the armrests so he was almost holding onto my leg instead of the seat and I wasn’t able to hold on on one side.

We headed over to California Adventure next where we had hoped to get some Fastpasses for World Of Color. Sadly, those had gone pretty quickly that day so there was no way for us to see the show. We were a little disappointed, but decided to just ride a few more rides before heading home. We rode Soarin’ (one of my favorite and the music from it is the ringtone on my phone). That ride will been changing the movie in the future so we want to get as many rides on it as we can.

Then it was time for another cool down break inside of Starbucks where I got a strawberry smoothie. After that, we were feeling pretty lazy and didn’t want to walk over to our next ride, Tower of Terror. Honestly, it isn’t that far away but we just didn’t want to walk it. And California Adventure has a little trolley that goes through a couple of parts of the park. So we waited longer than it would have taken us to walk to ride the trolley to what was going to be our final ride of the night.

After Tower Of Terror, the trolley happened to be right in front so we hopped back on and rode it to the exit gate of the park. But before we left, I wanted to make one more quick stop.

I never get the buttons at Disneyland, but I wanted to get an “I’m Celebrating” button to celebrate my SAG-AFTRA convention delegate win!

And after that, both June and I were ready to go home. The drive home was pretty quick and we’ve already made plans to go in a month to see the Halloween decorations.

Overall, I think it was a pretty great day at Disneyland. We were much lazier than usual, but that’s one of the perks of being an annual pass holder. We felt no need to rush around all the rides and we took advantage of whatever air conditioning we could find. Hopefully when we return next month, it will be a bit cooler.

I can’t wait to see what the Halloween decorations will look like! I know that that Disneyland day will be another great memory!

3 Comments

Posted in Celebrations, Fun Stuff

Tagged adventure, air conditioning, Disneyland, lazy, rides, 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!

2 Comments

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.

3 Comments

Posted in Celebrations, Fun Stuff

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

Work Time Family Visit (or Already Preparing To Renew My Disneyland Pass)

Posted on April 24, 2015 | Comments Off

My parents have been in San Diego again recently helping my grandma. They drove back yesterday. And since my house is on the way, they stopped by.

They usually don’t stop when they are doing that drive. Their preferred method of driving down goes around LA, so it would be tough for them to make the detour. But this time, there was a reason they drove through LA.

First of all, my mom still had the wine that I bought in Napa. I couldn’t fly it back with me (since I only had a carry on), so the plan was always for my mom to drive it down for me. I was originally going to try to meet them in San Diego while there were down this time, but that didn’t quite work out.

Also, I had gotten my dad his Hanukkah present insanely early this year. I knew exactly what I wanted to get him in January, so I didn’t think I would want to wait until Thanksgiving to give it to him. And I knew that he would want to use it, so their detour to my house was also for my dad to get a gift.

And as always, I had a few things I wanted to fix in my house and my dad is a pretty awesome handyman.

So yesterday during my work shift, my parents (and dog) came over for about 45 minutes. Fortunately, my job was pretty quiet while they were here so I could focus on them.

The projects in my house were pretty simple. There was a drawer that was broken that needed a new screw and my toilet paper holder was falling out of the wall. Both of those things were done within minutes.

Then it was time for me to give my dad his Hanukkah present. I had been giving him hints for a while, but he had no idea that I got him a TRX Strap system! My dad had used TRX straps when he worked out with me at Orangetheory before, but the gym that my parents belong to don’t have straps that can be used without an appointment with a personal trainer. So now he has his own set of straps that he can use at the house (my mom has already said that she wants to use them too).

But one of the coolest things was something my parents brought me.

They brought me ink to recycle! As I mentioned before, I use the money I get from recycling ink to help pay for my Disneyland pass! This will definitely help me when I renew my pass next year. And I’m sure I’ll get more ink from my parents over the year as well (my mom just saves them all for me).

While this visit was only 45 minutes, we really did get a lot done. And since I had just seen my parents a few weeks ago, there wasn’t too much to catch up on (plus, I talk to my mom pretty much every day on the phone). I’ll probably see them again in a few weeks when they come back down to San Diego too.

Even though this visit was super quick, I’m so glad that my parents were able to stop by. Any distractions during my work day are appreciated and this was a really nice distraction.

Comments Off on Work Time Family Visit (or Already Preparing To Renew My Disneyland Pass)

Posted in Family, Fun Stuff, Saving

Tagged Disneyland, family, job, savings, visit, work

Tag Archives: Disneyland

A Sunday At Disneyland (or Pin-ups And Food and Wine)

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Another Year Of Disneyland (or No More Ink Money)

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Some Disneyland Goodbyes (or Animation, Rides, and BBQ)

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An Epic Disneyland Day (or VIP Status and Mini High School Reunion)

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A Speedy Disneyland Day (or Getting My Halloween Rides In)

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“The Wisdom Of Walt” (or Time To Win An Amazing Book!)

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My Return To Disneyland (or Being Lazy And Enjoying Air Conditioning)

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

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

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Work Time Family Visit (or Already Preparing To Renew My Disneyland Pass)

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