Spring Break 2022 - A Trip to Disneyland - Day One

We got up early for our first day which was going to be at Disneyland. The park opens at 8:00a but if you want to get in one of the big rides early you need to be there by about 7:00a. The park is fully open with no mask restriction but things aren't quite back to normal. You had to sign-up well in advance and the days we are here are actually 'full'. The one restriction was that you had to stay in your designated park until at least 1:00p. They opened the gates at 7:30a and we made it down to Main Street and waited for full opening at 8:00a.

Our first ride was 'Rise of the Resistance' and it did not disappoint. The line up starts off fairly normal but there are several staging areas before you even start the ride so it felt like the ride was over 10 minutes long. The staff are all in character and we were quickly taken over by the 'First Order'. At one point you get to walk through the hanger bay of a Star Destroyer. Those are life sized storm troopers ushering you on to your destination. My favorite part was the battle scene where you are flying under life sized Imperial Walkers. We definitely want to make it back on that ride.

Disney has gone a direction I'm not trilled about. I always liked that they had a 'Fast Pass' option that was open to everyone. There was no pass that allowed you to buy your way to the front of the line. That has changed with their new 'Genie' pass that 'opens doors'. I don't like it but of course we had to get it. It allows us to sign up for the shorter line throughout the day. We figure we'll get to use it about 4-6 times each day. Our first ride was 'Smuggler's Run'. Still a great ride but paled in comparison to 'Rise of the Resistance'.

Callie insisted our next ride be Pooh Bear. At least we didn't have to there first like on previous trips. We would ordinarily go to Pirates next but it was closed for refurbishment. We're somewhat surprised at how many rides are closed right now. I had hoped they would have used their one year of downtime to do all this maintenance work but maybe they didn't get as much done as they wanted or maybe it was all done and they are just all due for maintenance at a similar time. Instead we went over to Tom Sawyers island which we often don't make it to.

We finished up Disneyland with Star Tours and Splash Mountain. Splash Mountain is going to be rebranded in the next couple years so this will probably be the last time we get to ride it as it was originally designed. It's based on 'Song of the South' which is wildly racist and although none of that comes across in the ride, Disney has still decided to change things up. I don't recall what they plan to do but it doesn't hurt to refresh things. They do that on many of their rides. I kind of hope they keep 'Zippity Do Dah' but that might go too.

After a rest at the hotel we headed back to the park. This is where you have the option of going back to the park you started at or switching. We decided we would switch to California Adventure. The weather is absolutely perfect for me. It's been about 12 degrees in the morning which is just warm enough to not wear a jacket until it warms up. It gets up to 25 or 28 during the peak of the day which we spend by the pool and then it cools down again when we return. There is also no risk of rain while we are here.

Although we weren't planning on any rides, we were excited to be checking out the new Avengers Campus which is where Disney is setting up their Marvel rides. It took over the old 'Bugs Land' which is a bit sad. I miss the Heimlich Chew Chew train. The new area looks great. We saw Thor, Loki and Ant Man and the lighting was great at night. Our plan is to go to the new 'Web Slingers' ride first thing tomorrow. We noticed there are new rules for interacting with characters. All hands off which is why Thor and Lok were on a balcony and Ant Man was in the back of a truck.

We took advantage of our special pass to book the Toy Story ride. I was surprised when Callie said she didn't want to ride with me because I was too competitive. The ride involves shooting imaginary balls at targets to get a score. I'm happy to say I managed to get high score for the family. Having said that I was no where close to high score for the month or even the hour. Not sure how they do it. I think I need to up my accuracy and find more of the bonus plates. Carter had to ride with me and he wasn't happy he couldn't beat me. He wants a rematch.

Disneyland has a great policy for the end of the evening. All rides are open right up until the minute closing. If you can make it to the line in time, they will let you finish the ride regardless of how long it takes to get through everyone. We managed to get to the Cars ride with only a couple minutes to spare. At one point there was no one in line behind us though a few did show up a bit later. The Cars ride is a lot of fun at night and the weather was great for it. It gets quite fast and is outside. Wouldn't want to do it in the rain.

Day one ended with us being some of the last people to exit the park. We got to walk through Avengers Campus with no one around and got some fun pictures of the park empty. Close out is only 10:00p for California Adventure so I think we were leaving around 10:45p. Disneyland is open until midnight which might be too late for me. Tomorrow we switch things up and start in California Adventure and end in Disneyland. 

Spring Break 2022 - A Trip to Disneyland - Travel Days

It's been over two years since the Schwab family left Canada for a vacation. Our last planned trip was to New Orleans with a road trip to Orlando for Spring Break in 2020. Unfortunately that was cancelled at the last minute for reasons I'm choosing not to mention here. This Spring international travel remained confusing so we had two trips planned. A local trip to Tofino and an out of country trip to Anaheim. We weren't able to decide until late February when it looked like testing requirements for getting back into the country had eased enough that it wouldn't be too much of a hassle. Disneyland was our destination.

It was Day Light Savings Spring Forward so it was going to be a very early rise for us. We got up at 4:00a which was technically 3:00a and were on the road by 5:20a. Our plan was to drive because we didn't want to risk testing positive for anything and not being able to get on a plane. Crossing the border was easy with no lineup though we were a bit rusty and got in trouble from the border guard for not pulling up to the line properly. Our day one destination was Redding California where we stayed at the Holiday Inn Express. Carter and I went down to the pool where we realized he had grown about 8 inches since the last time he was in a pool. Touching bottom was a lot easier.

We got up earlier for our second day of travel with Anaheim being our final destination. The hotel provided breakfast which wasn't too bad. The guy making the food did not have the demeanor of a professional chef and the bacon had been deep fried until it was black but it was surprisingly good. We got on the road and made our typical stops at random fast food places and rest stops. One noticable difference for the rest stops was that they were no longer the manacured lawns that I remembered. The water shortage is hitting California bad with signs indicating they were no longer watering. The right decision but still a bit sad.

We got into town around 5:30a and had plenty of time to check into our hotel, buy groceries and make a trip to Downtown Disney which doesn't require a ticket to get in. I noticed a few things;

1) I've not seen this many people in one place in over two years.

2) Most people weren't wearing masks.

3) There was no snide remarks from either side. People that wanted to wear masks could and those that didn't want to wear them didn't have to.

4) The Disney staff was generally wearing masks even thought it wasn't mandatory.

After a dinner of pizza, pretzels and churros we headed back to the room to rest before day one. 

Callie's Dance Competition

It has been over two years since we were last able to see Callie dance as part of her after school dance lessons. We have managed to see a school recital and she often brings her dance home with her but this was the first full costume dance in a while. This year Callie has joined the competitive dance team with Panorama dance school. It means at least an extra dance night each week and often some additional practices as they get closer to the competition. (It also means a few more costumes to purchase.)

We didn't see the actual competition and instead got to see all the dancers that were scheduled to compete for Panorama. Barb and Reg were down to visit and I had to put on real pants. (We don't leave the house for formal events very often these past few years.) It was an enjoyable experience. They had the competition a few weeks later and her Jazz team came in third and her lyrical team came in first!

Omicron Christmas

Christmas was almost going to be normal this year and then it wasn't. Covid numbers were stable, the in-laws were planning on coming and then chaos erupted. We had a significant rainfall event in the fall that took out every major highway in southern BC. There was no way for Barb and Reg to get from Oliver to Surrey and it looked like it would be January before they could travel here again. By mid December they managed to open Highway 3 for non-essential travel however the Coquihalla was still only for trucks so it was going to be very busy. They decided to postpone their trip until the new year so we had a quieter Christmas than we were expecting. 

We started in late November with a trip to the Christmas Tree farm. This is the fam in many of the Hallmark movies and this year there was an expected shortage of trees so we made sure to go on the first weekend. They had a new lot which was good because it was full of Noble Firs however it was bad because they hadn't put down proper trail materials. It was very muddy. We found the perfect tree in the farthest corner of the farthest lot and it took at least 5 minutes to cut it down. I think the saw was dull. I may have also tried to cut it very low to the ground at its thickest point. Still a fun experience.

Christmas was on Saturday this year so I worked the week before. On one of my days I met the family at the Christmas Market downtown. This is the annual German Christmas Market. It's always very busy so with Covid, you had to book a time to mange the crowds. This worked out quite well because you didn't have the same peaks as you normally would. They might book like this for future years too. We never buy anything but food. It's a very expensive dinner. The only problem this year was it was one degree and raining. The other event we went to was Glow in Abbotsford. One of the  greenhouses sets up an assortment of Christmas lights and with Covid, you get to drive through. Donuts included.

For the first time in several years we also had a white Christmas.  I think I've only had a couple since I've moved here from Prince George. Usually our snow comes in the January/February timeframe but there was a deep freeze across Western Canada and we were down to minus 15. We had 10 cm in the week leading up to Christmas and then got another 20 cm on Christmas Day. I don't mind shovelling when I only have to do it a few times a year. The cold also meant this years snow was very fluffy. Ordinarily Lower Mainland snow is very wet and heavy.

Christmas was subdued with only immediate family. Oliver was not super thrilled about his Christmas sweater. This one had four legs and was a big too short for him. He didn't like having his rear legs in the sweater. For the first time in many years we went to Corey and Carmen's house for Christmas dinner. We usually host but this year they volunteered to host. Might have been because there were less people. :) We also hosted our annual fondue. It went well however we were short one pot because Barb and Reg didn't come down so I had to buy one last minute. Unfortunately it didn't perform so we all had to share one pot. Still fun!

 

Kids Recitals

Carter signed up for band in grade seven which meant he has the opportunity to take the band stream in high school. They do band every second day alternating with PE. His instrument is the tenor saxophone which is one of the larger versions of a saxophone. His teacher is Mister Ho who runs a jazz club in non covid years and he likes having saxophones available. Callie had a flute which doesn't really lend itself well to jazz. We got to go to the winter recital before Omicron hit. Always fun to see how Mister Ho interacts with the kids. He really enjoys teaching them.

Callie has dance classes 5 days a week and still finds the time to be a student teacher on Saturday's and do school dance twice a week. That's on top of the fact that she is a dance instructor at school to the grade nine class. She's very good at the dancing as well as the choreography. Covid cancelled the 2020 version of the winter dance festival but we managed to get it in for 2021 before Omicron hit. Callie was in one live dance and they also showed her dance from 2020 on video. Both were excellent. Looking forward to hopefully having a proper recital in May for her studio dance classes.

 

Carter's Basketball

Covid hit kids sports fairly significantly last year. Most schools weren't even able to have teams let alone play other schools. Grade seven is usually when kids get into basketball and Carter's school didn't have a team at all. This made for a different kind of try out period for Grade 8 as most kids had never played formal competitive basketball. The tryouts lasted almost two months and I was glad to see that the high school coach had a plan to give more kids than usual a chance. Twenty-five kids made the team with fifteen being on the playing roster and another 10 being on the practice squad. This gives them a much bigger pool of players to pick from for future grades.

Carter made the A team! I was quite excited about this because Carter hasn't had much interest in organized sport. He's quite good at whatever he does but outside of PE class he doesn't play any team sports. Basketball was the first sport he really tried out for. My excitement relates to the fact that he gets to travel to games and tournaments. It's January and he's already been in a few weekend tournaments and some games with other schools. Unfortunately the Omicron variant has hit and tournaments are cancelled but at least they can continue to play other teams. We'll have to find a way for him to compete during the Spring/Summer so he can try out again for Grade 9.

 

Callie's Birthday

I am admittedly quite delinquent in my family blogging for 2021. We thought 2020 was bad but 2021 had the same feeling. We weren't able to do any trips which is usually something that triggers my blogging. It's 2022 and I have realized I haven't blogged since the summer. I will aim to do better in 2022.

There were memorable events in 2021 including Callie's 16th birthday. If not for Covid we might have planned a trip for her since it happens in the summer however we had to stick to local events. Luckily the Van Gogh Experience was in Vancouver for the Summer and was something Callie was interested in.

I wasn't sure what to expect so I can't say I was over or underwhelmed by the experience. It was quite well done and I enjoyed being able to see his paintings on such a large scale. My disappointment came once I understood what I was getting for $50 a ticket. For that price I was expecting some sort of travelling Van Gogh show where they brought in paintings and the cost was for bringing in the art. As it turns out the show was really just a PowerPoint presentation in a big room. There were no paintings. There was only one room and the money didn't even go to any sort of art fund. It was pure commercialization of Van Gogh. I will be watching out for future similar experiences.

The 'exhibit' was downtown which is about a 45 minute drive for us so Callie had a few other items planned while we were down. Some of her friends were also downtown so she met up with them for bubble tea and some sort of French pastry shop. The macaroons were quite tasty. We finished up the day by  heading back to Surrey to meet with Uncle Ronnie at Snowy Village. Their shaved ice deserts are great to look at but I find that trying them once is enough. They are more show than taste.

It may sound like I was grumpy the whole day but I did enjoy everything we did. Hopefully we can do something bigger for her 18th birthday.