Spring Break 2022 - A Trip to Disneyland - Our Final Day

Today was our last day and we were back to starting at Disneyland and Rise of the Resistance. The lineup never dropped below 90 minutes that we could see, so going first thing was our best option. We got a bit unlucky with the lineup because although we got to the gate early and were near the ropes at 8:00a we took the wrong way into Galaxy's edge. There is one near Frontierland and the one we took near Critter Country. By the time we got to the entrance the line was already snaking in the direction of Frontierland so we had to run backwards against the lineup. Lesson learned for next time.

The ride was even better the second time because there is so much going on. The line up starts as if you are part of the Rebellion and you are on one of their secret bases. You get ushered onto a transport ship and an Admiral Ackbar like character attempts to get you off the base but everyone is captured. You are still in the line up but the transport moves as if avoiding enemy ships. At this point the First Order captures you and you go through the hanger of an Imperial Star Destroyer and are lead into a prison cell where a Jedi frees you and you get on the actual ride.

The ride itself is on an 8 seater cart that moves you through various scenes that include Imperial Walkers, canons on the ship, views of the fight going on outside and even an elevator that drops you fairly suddenly. At this point it turns into a ride much like Star Tours where you are flying in a simulator and they get you back down to the planets surface. Even leaving the ride is interesting as you are back in a rebel base with damaged equipment from the battle. We really loved the Millenium Falcon Smuggler's run ride and but if we had a choice we would pick Rise of the Resistance every time. 

Our goal continued to be to hit all the rides that we hadn't been to and this included the Tiki room. We got lucky and were the last few people in the door and the show started almost immediately. I'm sure this ride was cutting edge when it first started and I do wonder about the technology/electronics that goes into getting the bird movements timed with the singing but I think I fall asleep most times watching it. The room is dark and you are sitting down so sleep is only a few seconds away. It doesn't take up much space so I think they will always keep it around. Plus it's where you get the Dole Whips so we always head in that direction.

We had a Genie Pass to Space Mountain and on our way out I finally found R2 however I was quite disappointed in his construction. Now that I'm trying to build one there are quite a few details that I never noticed before that this one didn't have. The most glaring one for his setup is that his shirt is on backwards. by that I mean that he is leaning the right way but his head should be pointed in the other direction. There are also some details on the shoulder that are missing that I only know about because they will be a pain to recreate. The version they had in the gift shop of Galaxy's Edge was much better. We won't be going for 100% screen accurate because there is no such thing since they had multiple versions in the movies but we will try to include as many details as we can.

As we headed back into Frontierland we saw that the Mark Twain paddle wheeler was leaving so we hopped on for a trip around the park. I'm trying not to always jump on the 'cancel culture' band wagon but we are wondering how long they will have the natives on display. Disneyworld got in trouble for a cheer leading team that was doing an Indian themed war chant about scalping their opponents and they don't have any other scenes with people like this. Also, they don't really say which tribes are represented and it's mostly just stereotypical native scenes. They could at least say which bands are represented.

Out last ride of the morning was the canoes. We often don't get to these because they are closed and I think it's because it can get too hot, both for the passengers and the guides. The weather today was cooler with rain forecast for the afternoon so it was perfect paddling temperature. We decided to take the monorail to Downtown Disney on our way out since it does sort of count as a ride. It only has two stops in Disneyland though they are planning on adding a new large hotel so perhaps they will add another stop as part of that work.

On our way back to the park in the afternoon we had to stop by the lobby of the hotel for pictures in the tree. We've been to this hotel several times so we have many pictures of the kids through the ages. Today was somewhat comical because the kids suddenly found it much more difficult to fit between the branches and get up higher. Callie eventually just gave up and Carter was stuck behind a branch and didn't want to try to get farther. There used to be two trees but it looked like one was cut down and this one might be too big for it's space. Hopefully they replace it with the same type of tree. They are fun to climb.

For the start of the evening we went back to California Adventure Park for dinner and choose Flo's Diner. I had the fried chicken and it was quite delicious. You got three big pieces and it wasn't greasy and the chicken was moist and the spices were perfect. I might only eat there every time we go now. It also came with garlic mashed potatoes with gravy and a side of vegetables. I am not a gravy fan but it was still good. Although we didn't take advantage of it we also discovered a nice quiet area on the back side of Flo's where you can sit. We decided we'd enjoy people watching instead.

Our last ride at California Adventure Park was Luigi's Rollicking Roadsters. It had been closed when we tried previously. The ride itself is quite fun. It's like the teacups but instead of being on a fixed track, the cars are free to move anywhere. This doesn't mean you get to control them. The fun part is that it starts off random and them moves to a choreographed dance where all the cars move in unison. They even throw in a 720 degree spin at one point. 

California Adventure Park closes at 10:00p and Disneyland at 12:00p so we headed back to Disneyland to close out our trip. Unfortunately it had started to rain. I don't think I've ever experienced rain on any of our trips here. The good thing was it slowly cleared out the park. The bad thing was that certain rides like Alice in Wonderland closed. There is a hill on this ride and apparently it gets too slick to run it. Too bad because this was the only ride we didn't do. I headed back to the hotel and Kerry and the Kids stuck around for Splash Mountain to finish out a great trip that was long overdue.

Spring Break 2022 - A Trip to Disneyland - Day Four

Day four had us starting in California Adventure Park again. We had no desire to get in line for Web Slingers and instead planned to go to 'Soaring Over California'. Although this is a popular ride during much of the day, it's apparently not one of the rides people run to first thing in the morning. There was no rope blocking us from getting to the ride and instead we were able to walk right into the lineup at 7:30a. Even by 8:00a there was no more than two full 'flights' lined up. If not for the fact that you can't Genie Pass Web Slingers and Cars I think I would pick some less popular rides to run to.

Kerry and Carter headed over to Guardians of the Galaxy while Callie and I wandered around Hollywood Studios. There isn't actually much to do in Hollywood Studios and hopefully they just take the whole thing over for Marvel which I think is what they've started to do. There are a few 'movie sets' set up and each of them is starting to get the Marvel touch including an area dedicated to Stan Lee as well as the Avengers Super Store. As I say this I still don't think there is enough room. Better that Disney dedicates a whole park to Marvel in the future. Could be a whole land just for Wakanda.

Our mission for today was to wrap up the final rides that we hadn't done. This included Emotional Whirlwind, Jesse's Carousel, the Swings and some repeat rides on the Incredicoaster and Goofy's Sky School. Emotional Whirlwind used to be Flicks Flyers from Bugs Land. I'm not typically too nostalgic but now that they've eliminated Bugs Land entirely I miss some of the rides since we often took the kids there when they were little. The most traumatic ride missing is Heimlich's Chew Chew train. 

Kerry and Carter were on another ride that Callie and I didn't want to do so we decided to park ourselves in front of Web Slingers hoping we could catch Spiderman. He gets the most 'amazing' entrance for when he comes out for photos. They have developed an animatronic version of the character that they sling into the sky. The actor then crawls down the side of the building for pictures. It looked way more realistic than I was expecting. (If you can accept the premise that a radioactive spider created a man who can fly through the air on spider string.)

We started to head back to the hotel but did our traditional walk through the kids area in front of the Grand Californian before walking through the lobby of the hotel. There are currently only three Disney hotels at Disneyland and the high end one is the Grand Californian. Several years ago we stayed at the Disney Hotel and decided we couldn't afford this one even though at the time the difference was only about $100. We should have taken advantage of that price as it's now a much bigger difference and the price is usually about $800 US. Will have to win the lottery or wait for a really good exchange rate.

Now for a quick travel tip. Take pictures of anything you take on vacation so you have a picture of it in case you lose it. I lost my glasses on the Indiana Jones ride and they called with a possible hit and asked me a bunch of questions about them. I couldn't remember anything, not the brand or any real details of what they looked like. I was lucky enough to have pictures of me wearing them so I could claim them if they do find them. So far no luck but I've taken pictures of my new ones. They had a possible hit but they weren't mine. (And I didn't like them enough to claim them as mine. :))

After the hotel and a trip to the Lost and Found to check on our hats and glasses we went back to Disneyland and went on the Jungle Cruise to see the 'back side of water'. Corny jokes were all the same and I didn't notice if they did anything to work in the movie like that had done with Johnny Depp and Pirates of the Caribbean. I'm not sure what they would do but they could at least get his pet panther in somewhere and perhaps include the Rock in the line up somewhere. Maybe they've done something but it was too subtle for me to find. 

We were still marking rides off our list and this included the Train which circles the park. We stopped off at New Orleans Square for some beignets including some sort of 'cookie' version. I didn't notice anything different but it might have been they just had it on the coating and it all fell off. Just tasted like regular beignets. We managed to get right on the train without much of a wait in line and took it to Tomorrowland. We considered getting off at Toon Town but it's closed and almost no one got off at that stop.

All week there had been no Fireworks or significant parades and we just figured they were temporarily on hold to avoid large crowds congregating so when we got in line for the Storybook boat ride we were surprised when the fireworks started. I guess they are just doing Friday/Saturday. Storybook boat ride is a great place to be when they start. They pause the ride and you can be lucky enough to be sitting on one of the boats when the fireworks start. It's a great view and you get to sit down which is a bonus.

My last ride of the evening was Snow White as well as a walk through Cinderella's castle. I then went on a mission to find my last treat for the day. I have a limit of two per day and for some reason I'm not thrilled with the ones they have available. Many are too big and I prefer chocolate items. I'm also quite disappointed that they appear to have eliminated fudge altogether. I used to bring some back to freeze until they changed their supplier and now it's gone altogether. Bring back the fudge Disney! 

 

Spring Break 2022 - A Trip to Disneyland - Day Three

Kerry and the kids didn't get back to the hotel room until just before 1:00a but that didn't adjust our start time for the next day. Ordinarily Disneyland and California Adventure Park have varying start times where you can sometimes get in to the park early if you have a five day pass or they open at different times from each other. Right now every day is a 7:30a ticket counter open and an 8:00a park open. We were excited for today which is March 17th and St.Patrick's day. We've never been in the park on a holiday date and were looking forward to see what was different. It ended up being fairly low key with lots of green food.

Our first ride of the day was Space Mountain. I think it's my favourite roller coaster ride that I'm willing to do. Perhaps tied with Big Thunder. Both of them are fast but not too many drops. I find my head gets left behind on the drops and it takes a while to recover. We also did Buzz Lightyear as well as the Astro Orbiter. Most Disney rides are sized for adults but this one was not designed for two adults in one rocket. We should have clued in when they asked if we wanted our own rocket. With two people each of you is crushed together for the whole ride. I recommend going solo. 

Our next ride was Autopia which are some gas powered go karts on a track. I really feel they should go battery operated just for the smell but I imagine it's easier to keep cars gassed up during the day than swapping batteries. Maybe they could charge from the road. This was another ride where we realized how big Carter has gotten since we last went on vacation. The last time, I had to do most of the steering and he could just reach the pedal. At least now he can reach the pedal though based on the steering I'm a little worried about driver training in two and a half years.

So apparently Carter wasn't the only one to not heed the "Hang on to your hats and glasses" rule though in my defense, I put them in my pocket on the Indian Jones ride to keep them safe but they still managed to fall out on the ride. I had my reading glasses in one pocket and my sunglasses in the other and unfortunately the sunglasses were the ones to fall out. The reading glasses are dollar store and the sunglasses were not. It was at this time that I learned about the lost hat from yesterday. Apparently it was going to be a family secret but once I lost my glasses the truth came out.

We took another detour to Galaxy's Edge to see if R2 was around but no luck. It was at this point that I was reminded about my Fuzzy Tonton experience from a few years ago. When Galaxy's Edge first opened we went to the Cantina and had strange drinks. One was a drink with a foam that was intended to burn your lips. It did this but I left the foam mostly until last and had it all at once. It made my whole chest go numb and I walked back to the hotel room on my own. In hindsight I probably should have had an escort. Will have to go back there and try something less dangerous.

We took another trip to the Pooh Bear ride and this time the characters were out. Previously my favourite part of character shots were the lead up. The kids would walk up to the characters and I would get plenty of shots as they got to hug and interact before the formal shot. Things are a bit different right now and the Characters are often just in the background. No touching. Probably working out well for the dry cleaning bills for the costumes but not quite the same experience. We got pictures with Pooh Bear and Eeyore. 

We went back to the hotel so the family could recover from their late night before heading back to California Adventure park again. First we stopped by the Avengers Campus where Carter and I had a giant chicken sandwich. It was mostly chicken and not much sandwich. The tater tots were a nice touch. We also stopped by the Pacific Wharf where Kerry and Callie had soup in a bowl. I still don't quite understand how you can have a wharf and not have Fish and Chips as an option. They have fish tacos but not Fish and Chips. 

We're at the point in our trip where we're trying to mark off each ride to make sure we've gone on each one at least once. Goofy's Sky School is like the Mouse Trap ride at the PNE in Vancouver. It's a roller coaster but tries to scare you by seeming to be on the verge of falling off the tracks at all times. The scare tactic works. I refer to this ride as a 'close your eyes' ride. Its got ups and downs and sharp turns. This is as extreme as I'm willing to go. There is also a full roller coaster at the park that I've done once but never again. It goes up side down and is one of Kerry and Carter's favourites. 

I finished the day with a ride on Monster's Inc with Mike and Sully. I still refer to it as the Drew Carey ride because they just repurposed the taxis from the tour of Hollywood ride and added a bunch of doors. Speaking of doors, if you are not a wheel's person I don't think I can be friends with you. Even after seeing all the doors on this ride, which aren't really doors because they don't open, there are clearly more wheels on earth than doors. Every door on the ride had wheels where they we hanging plus there were plenty of wheels on all the roller coasters with no doors. Clearly the answer is wheels. 

Spring Break 2022 - A Trip to Disneyland - Day Two

Our second day started in California Adventure Park which is a second park across from Disneyland. The line up to get in was much more manageable. We really like this park but it does have fewer rides and a very different feel from Disneyland. Entry was the same process as yesterday where they opened the gates at 7:30a and let us get part way into the park for the 8:00a opening. Our destination was the new 'Web Slingers' ride which is based on the Tom Holland version of Spiderman. When we lined up we figured everyone was headed straight there but we were surprised that many headed to Cars instead.

The ride itself was fun but not our favourite. It's based on the premise that some spider bots have gotten out of control and you need to help Peter capture them. The fun part is that you use your hands to shoot webs and you can capture them with a web or pull things around to crush them. The ride senses your hand movements and does a great job of knowing where you are trying to shoot. It's a 3D ride so there are a lot of screens and reminded me of a Universal Studios ride. The thing I ended up not liking was that I was so busy trying to shoot spiders I don't really know what happened.

After Web Slingers we had a bit of time before our next Genie Pass so Kerry and Carter got in line for Guardians of the Galaxy. It's a giant elevator so lots of up and down. I don't mind the up but am not a fan of the down. Unfortunately three of the six elevators were out of order so the lineup was much longer than advertised. They ended up having to give up part way through so we could get to our next ride in time. Callie and I wandered Avengers Campus which has a very different feel during the day and she found Antman. The good thing about the distance to the characters is she gets good selfies.

We wandered the board walk a bit and checked out the Bakery tour which is where Disney makes all of their Sour Dough bread. They referred to the 'starter' as the 'Mother Dough' which apparently is how they do sour dough even on a mass scale. I'm picturing a giant mason jar in a fridge though I suspect it's a bit more sophisticated than that. We also took a ride on the Ferris Wheel. It's 160 feet tall at the peak and a great way to see both parks from the air. There are two types of baskets. One is fixed and the other randomly falls on a smaller loop. We went with the non falling version.

For dinner we went to the Cheesecake Factory which is just outside the park. I had been previously when in San Diego but the family had never been before. Carter indicated their menu had an 'obscene' number of options. Ordinarily this would be risky but it was very busy so hopefully not too much food sitting around waiting to be ordered. Carter was impressed with his chicken burger sliders. We of course had cheesecake for desert. I'm glad we are getting in lots of steps during the day. They ranged from 400 to 1600 calories per slice. 

After our break back at the hotel we headed back to the park and got on the "It's a Small World" ride. I'm assuming Disney has decided it's a 'classic' and will never significantly change. Despite being the slowest boat ride ever and taking up a ton of space it appears to be much like it looked when it was first built. The animatronics are very rudimentary and by the end you don't want to ever hear that song again. Somehow we still go back every time we come. I suppose it helps that the lineup is typically very short, mainly because so many people fit on each boat. 

We took a quick detour over to "Galaxy's Edge" as I wanted to get some close up shots of R2D2. Unfortunately he was no longer in one of the shops like he was last time we were here. The attendant indicated he was 'unavailable' implying perhaps he comes out as a character. Will have to keep trying. I'd like some good closeup pictures as a friend and I are attempting to build one. If he does show up for pictures I'll have to explain why I'm trying to get pictures of his under carriage. There are several similar droids around but none are quite the same as R2.

We did a quick ride on Big Thunder Mountain and I finished my evening with the Matterhorn before heading back to the hotel. 11:00p is about my limit. Kerry and the kids stuck around and did a few rides including Splash Mountain. You want to try to make that your last ride before going back to the hotel because there is a good chance you will get very wet. Also despite us starting every ride saying 'Hang on to your hats and glasses' Carter failed to heed our warnings and lost his hat on Splash. He had it in the picture at the big drop and then it was gone.

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!