Tag Archives: rides

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

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.

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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).

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

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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.

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

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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.

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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.

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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!

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

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.

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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).

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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).

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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!).

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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).

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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.

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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!

More Disneyland (or The Post With The Ride Photos)

Yesterday I went to Disneyland (yes, again). I met up with Jennifer, who I went to high school with. We actually hadn’t seen each other since our high school graduation (12 years ago!), so it was pretty awesome to get to see her again.

Besides Jennifer, her friends Hope and Jen were also there. Yes, in our group of 4 there were 3 Jens.

I met the group in California Adventure and we started our day on the Tower of Terror. I love this ride, but I don’t have many friends who do. So I usually either go on this alone or skip it so my friends don’t have to wait. But the 4 of us all went on and of course we took a silly picture on the ride.

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If you can’t find us, we are in the last row pretending to be asleep.

Our next stop was at Toy Story Mania. This is a 3D shooting game, and I’m pretty decent at it. Jennifer beat me, but I had better accuracy so I say that we were both winners.

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Next was California Screamin, the big upside down roller coaster in the Paradise Pier section of the park. We got to sit in the very last rows which is my favorite (you go a lot faster there than you do when you sit in the front). Since I’m at Disneyland a lot, I know where most of the cameras are on the rides. So even though it’s not all of us doing a silly pose, it’s still a cute photo.

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Then Jennifer and Hope wanted to go on Grizzly River Run which is a water ride. I hate having wet clothes while I’m walking around the park, so Jen and I sat off to the side and had some strawberry lemonades while we waited for the others to ride the ride. They came back pretty soaked so I think I made the right choice for me.

We then headed over to Soarin Over California, which is one of my favorites (one of the songs from the ride is actually the ringtone on my phone). Finally, we did Tower of Terror one more time, but when we went to see our photo, there wasn’t one there.

Then it was time to head across the plaza to Disneyland. We had some lunch and then went on Space Mountain (I love the Halloween overlay!). Again, we had to take a fun picture.

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As we were leaving Space Mountain and heading toward the exit (Jennifer, Jen, and Hope had to drive back up to Northern CA so they could all go to work/school today), I saw someone who I had to take a picture of. I’m not making fun of her size or shape, but I have to say that when I first saw this person, I thought she was walking around Disneyland without pants.

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No matter how much or little you weigh, you should never wear pants (especially yoga pants) that are almost the exact same color as your skin. I think if she was wearing bright colored yoga pants or even black ones (which is what I happened to be wearing yesterday), it would be a cute outfit. But with the nude colored pants, everyone was looking at her to see if she was naked in the park.

Our last stop before heading back to the parking lot was one of the stores on Main Street. The others had some things that they wanted to buy and I wanted to see if there was anything I wanted (you never know). I had seen this scarf when I was in the park last week and it was on sale yesterday so I got it. The pattern is very subtle so it won’t scream Disney if I wear it out and about.

And then I saw something that I had been searching for since I was at Disneyland with my mom and aunt in the beginning of the year!

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It is a plush Minnie Mouse hooded scarf! I saw someone walking in the park when I was with my mom and aunt wearing this and I’ve been looking for it in the stores ever since. I even looked last week and didn’t see it there! But yesterday, there it was. And of course I had to get it since I’ve been wanting this for over half a year and didn’t know if I would find it again. I’m now looking forward to wearing this to the park when I go around Christmas time!

Finally, it was time for all of us to head home (30 minutes away for me, 7 hours for the others). It was really great getting to see Jennifer again. I haven’t really seen too many people from high school since graduating and while I stay in touch with a lot of people on Facebook, it’s so different hanging out in person.

I’m hoping that the next time that Jennifer, Jen, and Hope are at Disneyland that I can meet up with them there! I had such an amazing time!

Some After Work Fun (or I’m Definitely Getting The Most Out Of My Disneyland Pass)

After my first full week back at work, I was ready for some fun. So when I found out that my friend Kate was planning on going to Disneyland with another friend, I decided to join in.

I headed down to Anaheim after my work shift on Saturday. I actually got out an hour early because I worked some extra hours on Friday. I was at the park at about 2pm, and met up with Kate and her friend.

Our first stop was to get some Dole Whips. I do love my Dole Whips, but it was also so hot there that the soft serve was nice and refreshing!

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Since this was the only day that Kate’s friend had to go to the park (he’s from out-of-town), we sped through the rides. Right away, we did the Matterhorn, rode the monorail round trip, went on Star Tours, did Buzz Lightyear’s Astro Blasters, and then took the train through the Grand Canyon diorama to get to New Orleans Square.

The next ride was Splash Mountain. I am not a huge fan of this ride. First of all, I don’t like getting wet (or having to be wet the rest of the day). Secondly, the last time I rode it, I got stuck for a very long time and had to be evacuated. This was when I was on crutches and we got stuck at the top of the main drop, so it was not good.

But since it was so warm I decided to go on it. The three of us went through the single rider line since the main line was well over an hour. I ended up in one log and Kate and her friend were both in another log.

At first, I was nice and dry, and then as soon as we did the first little drop, a wave went through the log I was in. My shoes and jeans up to my knees were soaked. I mean dripping wet! I didn’t actually get wet at all on the big drop, so once I was off the ride, I was only wet from my knees down.

You can’t really see how wet my pants are in this picture, but you can see my cute new shirt I bought on my last Disneyland trip!

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Since my pants were so wet, I ended up rolling them up so I didn’t keep tripping on them. Then we were off to keep riding all the rides. We did Winnie the Pooh, Peter Pan, Snow White, Pinocchio, Mr. Toad, and Alice all before stopping for dinner.

We went to Cafe Orleans near the Haunted Mansion for dinner. We wanted some nice food and a sit down restaurant, but didn’t want to spend a ton of money.

I ended up getting the veggie ragout with blackened chicken.

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It was so delicious and filling! And I don’t think that this was a bad food choice at all! For dessert, the 3 of us split an order of beignets.

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I love that they are Mickey shaped!

After dinner, we did a quick ride on Pirates of the Caribbean (where some annoying teenagers behind us spent the entire ride trying to throw pennies at the various animatronics), and then we decided it was time to head home.

I was at Disneyland for 7 hours, and managed to do 12 rides plus dinner. Not bad considering that this was just a quick after work trip!

I’m going to be going back to Disneyland on a Sunday late next month, but I don’t know if I’ll go back before then. But I have been able to go 4 times in the 2 months I’ve had my pass. That’s pretty darn good!

PS: don’t forget you still can enter my “Cougar Town” contest! Comments must be in by midnight on Thursday to be eligible!

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

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).

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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).

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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.

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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).

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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.

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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).

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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.

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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!

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

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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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

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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.

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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!

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

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.

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(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!

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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.

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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!

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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!

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