Disneyland day 4: Spending the last day with characters and the Court of Angels.

Our last day at Disneyland was a short one. The last day is always a sad one. We started out at the Matterhorn and my dad got FASTPASSES for the Haunted Mansion. We found Marry Poppins and Bert hanging out near the Matterhorn so we had to take pictures with them. The rest of our group left for New Orleans while we waited to meet characters. The meet and greet line closed a couple of people after us. We got lucky!

Since we were in the area we decided to look for Silver Mist at Pixie Hollow. Before we entered we asked the attendant which fairies were in there. He said he didn't know but asked who we were looking for. My sister mentioned Silver Mist the attendant said we should take our chances and wait in line. When we got to the front guess who was there? Silver Mist! I don't think cast members are allowed to tell us who's in Pixie Hollow but they still drop hints. We conversed and took pictures with Silver Mist. She also taught me how to pose like a fairy. Tinkerbell was just around the corner so we chatted with her and got pictures with her too.

Since we were in character hunting mode we continued to the Royal Hall to see which princesses were there. Cinderella, Ariel and Aurora were there. Not anyone we were particularly interested in seeing at the time so it was off to meet up with the rest of our group.

We met up with the rest of our people at Haunted Mansion, just in time to use the FASTPASSES. While we were on our tangent the rest of our group had already went on Pirates of the Caribbean and Haunted Mansion. They rode both of the rides again with us.

We passed by Club 33 again and I realized that the door I found yesterday was indeed a new entrance to the club. They expanded past the Court of Angels and made it the main entrance. I think that Disneyland is using it as a waiting room for members who are waiting to eat dinner there. I wanted to take pictures in the courtyard because I think it's one of the most beautiful places in the park. It's also a good place to rest during a long day. This place may not mean a lot to some people but it's been photographed in many family photos and hosted numerous marriage proposals. To me, it's a spot I've hung out at that's now a part of Club 33.

We ordered Gumbo and Clam Chowder at the Royal Street Veranda for lunch before we left for California Adventure. It was pretty good.

We traveled back to Cars Land for Luigi's Rollikin' Roadsters, the ride that we found yesterday. They referred to the dancing cars as 'dancing cousins.' Since floorless technology is pretty new to Disneyland glitches and hiccups are expected. But did it really need to go down on a hot day, after a super long wait, right before we were going to get on! We were next group in the line cue and they had to shut the ride down to test some things before resuming operation. They told us our dancing cousins were taking a little siesta. Good thing it only took about 15 minutes. The ride was super cute but a lot rougher than I expected. Lots of sudden direction changes while the dancing cousins were dancing.

Before we left for home I tried to take grandma to Downtown Disney but we barely made it past World of Disney before she wanted to turn around and head back.

What a fun trip! Here's to many more!

Disneyland Day 3: Lots of rides, Mark Twain Riverboat tips and the Disneyland Dream Suite

Today was such a busy day! We started out at Radiator Springs Racers in Cars Land on the California Adventure side to grab FASTPASSES and headed straight to Soarin' Over California because we weren't able to ride it yesterday. Soarin' Over California takes you on a simulated hang gliding tour of California in less than 5 minutes.

Our next stop was Toy Story Midway Mania at Paradise Pier. At this attraction you ride through a collection of interactive midway games. We didn't have much to do after that so we went on Micky's Fun Wheel, Golden Zephyr and the Silly Symphony Swings. The next couple of rides were designed more for pairs and I needed a break so my sister and grandma when on Goofy's Sky School and Jumpin' Jellyfish without me.

It was almost time to use our Radiator Springs FASTPASSES but we still had a little more time to kill so we went back to the Boudin Bakery and walked around A Bugs Land for a while. On our way to Radiator Springs Racers we discovered a cute ride on the edge of Cars Land, Luigi's Rollickin' Roadsters, where cars dance on a trackless surface to upbeat Italian music. We'll ride that tomorrow.

By the time we made it to Radiator Springs Racers it had just broken down. We were told that we can use our FASTPASSES anytime throughout the day. Good stuff! Since we weren't able to get on the ride we thought it might be a good time to get lunch and try again later. On the way out my sister and grandma went on Mater's Junkyard Jamboree.

We went to Target for snacks and had lunch at a Mexican restaurant. When we got back to California Adventure the Radiator Springs Racers FASTPASS line was wayyy to long! So out to Disneyland we went.

While we were in Disneyland we went on It's a Small World, Alice in Wonderland and we made it on Peter Pan's Flight. New projection effects have been added to Alice in Wonderland and Peter Pan's Flight

After we explored Fantasyland a little more we headed out to one of the new Star Wars attractions, Path of the Jedi, in Tomorrowland. Path of the Jedi takes place near Space Mountain in the theater where Honey I Shrunk the Audience and Captain IO was. It was a compilation of clips and a narrative about Star Wars history. They even included clips from The Force Awakens.

The Disneyland app said Pirates of the Caribbean was a 20 minute wait. When we got there the line did not look like a 20 minute line. It was way to long! We decided to go to the Mark Twain Riverboat instead.

When we got there the Mark Twain was docked and they were allowing people on and off as they pleased. While exploring the riverboat I overheard the Mark Twain won't be sailing for another year. During normal operating conditions you can commandeer the Mark Twain! All you have to do is ask a Cast Member if you can see the wheelhouse and they'll lead  you  and your group up there and allow you to hang out for the duration of the voyage. They might even let you steer it around the Rivers of America!

The Tiki Room never has a big crowd so we went there next. The host this time was hilarious! I can't quite recall what he said but he was funniest host I've ever seen.

We decided to check out the line at Pirates of the Carribbian again. It wasn't too bad so we decided to get on. This ride hasn't changed or been updated since I've last seen it. The most recent addition to this ride was Jack Sparrow and Davy Jones. I'm not sure how well known the Disneyland Dream Suite is but it's located above the Pirates of the Carribbian. The Disneyland Dream Suite is a luxurious apartment that was completed for part of Disney's Year of a Million Dreams event. While New Orleans Square was being built Disney wanted an impressive facility to host VIP guests. He assembled a team of designers and named the project The Royal Suite. The name was influenced by it's location on Royal Street. After Disney's death the project was abandoned and the space was used as the Disney Gallery. It was revived for the Year of a Million Dreams event and turned into the Dream Suite that stands there today.

Since California Adventure was closing soon we went back to Radiator Springs Racers. The FASTPASS line was still long but now where near as long as it was earlier today. We got through the line in about 20 minutes which is quite long for a FASTPASS line. I recently read that If everyone in the car leans into the turns during the race portion your car will win... Guaranteed!

Afterwards we headed back to Disneyland and saw the fireworks show, Forever, and the Paint the Night parade from the same place-- the Main Street railroad depot. We still had Star Tours FASTPASSES so we headed to Tomorrowland to use them. Since we had time before our passes were valid we went on Buzz Lightyear Astro Blasters to kill some time. I was never good at Astro Blasters. Star Tours has also been updated with content from The Force Awakens.

At the end of the day we dragged ourselves back to the hotel. Today also our last full day at the parks.

Disneyland day 2: FASTPASSES, park hopping and the exclusive Club 33

We started our first day in the parks at Hyperspace Mountain to get FASTPASSES. Disneyland temporary re-did Space Mountain with a Star Wars theme and called it Hyperspace Mountain. The line was unusually short so we rode the ride after we got our FASTPASSES. The new and improved Space Mountain launches you into the middle of a space battle and navigates you out. It was pretty awesome!

After Hyperspace Mountain we left for Fantasyland. We went through Sleeping Beauty's Castle, went on Pinocchio's Daring Journey and Snow White's Scary Adventures. I wanted to ride Peter Pan's Flight but the line was too long. It's one of my favorite rides at Disneyland. On our way out we ran into The Mad Hatter, one of my favorite characters! During our short chat learned that the Hatter's favorite color is green, like green tea, and Alice still keeps in touch with the Queen. They couldn't make it to Disneyland today because they were off playing croquet in the garden.

Our next stop was the Twilight Zone Tower of Terror at California Adventure. I love that ride but my grandma didn't care for it too much. When we got to the highest point in the ride my sister and I yelled, "Hands up!" and my grandma threw her hands up... little did she know what was going to happen next. It's like my sister and I operate on the same wave length. While we were in the area we made a stop at Monsters Inc. Mike and Sully to the Rescue and Ariel's Undersea Adventure.  On our way out we paid a visit to the Boudin Bakery at Pacific Wharf. There was also a tortilla factory in the area at one time but it closed down. During our time in California Adventure we acquired FASTPASSES for Soarin' Over California, Radiator Springs Racers and World of Color.

Lunch today was amazing! Right outside Disneyland's property lies Tony Romas. The night before my grandma told us about Tony Roma's $10 lunch menu. She discovered this with her friends at the restaurant in Elk Grove. The lunch menus differed between locations. The menu at the Restaurant in Elk Grove consisted of mostly pasta and salad but the lunch menu here had chicken and salad. Grandma enjoyed the selection at the Anaheim location better. I ordered the ribs and they were amazing as always! Way to go grandma!

We did a lot of hopping back and fourth between parks today. Good thing we got Park Hoppers! Last time we were here the Mad Hatter hosted musical chairs at the Carnation cafe at 2:00. We happened to be in the area and waited for a bit but he didn't show up. The Dapper Dan's arrived and did a show with their piano playing friend, Eric, instead. We continued through the park and grabbed Indiana Jones fast passes.

Club 33 in the french quarter was renovated last year with a new entrance so we had to find the new door. Club 33 is an exclusive, secret club in Disneyland that isn't so much of a secret among Disney fanatics... the wait list is about 10 years long and the annual dues are insane! I'm not quite sure about the "33" in Club 33 but some say it's because the club is located at 33 Royal Street, others say it's for the 33 initial investors of Disneyland. I've also heard that if you simply turn 2 pairs of mouse ears on it's side it creates the number 33, so Disney used 33. Quite frankly they could all be right... Disney could have intentionally had 33 initial investors because he realized that if you turn a pair of mouse ears on it's side it creates the number 3 and built a club for them on 33 Royal street. In regards to the quest for the door, we found another door! But I don't think a new entrance was made during this renovation. Club 33 has been renovated a couple of times since it's establishment and I think I found the main entrance that they currently use and have used before the renovation. The door I had thought was the main entrance was probably the original that was used when the club first opened.

My sister wanted to ride Splash Mountain so my mom and grandma went with her. The wait was 70 minutes but they did it anyway. While they were waiting in line I killed some time at the gift shop near the Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh. That didn't take up all of the time so I used the rest of my time wisely and rested.

As we were heading out to California Adventure to ride Soarin' Over California we stopped at the Haunted Mansion. We found a new haunt inside the mansion, the hat box ghost. He's placed inside the ride right where you enter the graveyard. He's a funny looking ghost holding a hat box who's head transfers between his box and his shoulders.

We weren't able to use our FASTPASSES at Soarin' Over California because we were 3 hours late. Normally they allow you to use your FASTPASS even though you're late and outside of your time frame, just not early. How disappointing!

Since we weren't allowed to use expired FASTPASSES anymore we made sure we were in time for our next ones at Radiator Springs Racers. This ride has 2 possible story outcomes before the race. Every time I've went on this ride I've always gone to the side where your car gets a new paint job. This time my car got new tires. It was pretty interesting and very cool.
We had one more FASTPASS to use before we went back to the hotel to grab dinner. Indiana Jones hasn't been updated since the last time I was there. They did take out the section where your car stalls right before you drive into the hallway of skeletons. I'm not sure if they did that because it was busy or if it was a permanent change.

After we rushed back to the hotel to eat dinner we rushed back out to California Adventure to watch World of Color. We ended up arriving an hour before it started so there was no need to rush. World of Color was a "Fantasmic" type show in the past, now it's more of a biography about Disneyland and how it came to be. There's also a lot of scenes from Disney movies and Disneyland rides both modern and classic with super cool effects.

We dashed out of California Adventure to Disneyland to catch the Paint the Night parade. I thought it was cool that The Paint the Night Parade paid homage to the original Electric Light Parade. They used the Electric Light Parade melody and some of the characters during the parade. Of course the new parade had better technology, visual effects and newer characters. I absolutely loved it!
After the parade we were exhausted and headed back to the hotel for the night.

Disneyland day 1: The first post.

We left for Anaheim late this morning. On our way here we stopped for lunch at a truck stop in Coalinga. My mom wanted Burger King because she likes their tacos so we dropped her and my grandma off and the rest of us left for McDonalds. There were 2 or 3 tour buses at the truck stop and everything was packed! We decided to go to Carl's Jr. and we still ended up waiting forever. The Burger King there didn't have taco's either! So much for fast food.

When we got into Anaheim we checked into our hotel, unpacked and left to get our tickets for tomorrow. While my parents waited in line for the tickets the rest of us went to Downtown Disney. We didn't get very far before my parents caught up with us so we left for food! My mom's favorite sandwich shop closed down in Sacramento so she insisted we go to the one here. All of us got sandwiches and some to go!

I wanted to go back to Downtown Disney but everyone was too tired to go back with me. So back to the hotel we went.
 
Tomorrow, we go the parks!!!

Next stop... Disneyland!

It's been a long time since I've been on a trip and it's about time we went on another one.
I have a 4 day weekend coming up and we can't let it go to waste!
We'll be going to Disneyland later this week. Keep your eye on the blog!

Universal Orlando: Day 4, The last day in Florida

Today is our last day in the parks. We woke up later than usual. We entered Island of Adventure and took the Hogwarts Express to the main park to ride Harry Potter and the Escape from Gringots. The ride had not opened yet and there was already a long line outside. My sister and I went ahead to get our belongings in the lockers. The line had moved faster than we anticipated and we had a hard time finding the rest of our party. It was kind of cool getting to walk around the bank while we were looking for them. We wandered around Diagon Alley after the ride until 10:30 so we could get lunch for breakfast at the Leakey Cauldron. 

After breakfast we tried to get on the E.T. Adventure ride again but the wait was too long so we went to the kids area for a little bit. The kids area had a Barney and Curious George theme. According to my mom I was Barney's #1 fan as a kid. 

We sat down in a seating area while my grandma went to see an animal show. She thought it was really cute, comical and surprised that cats could be trained to do certain things. She wanted us to catch the next available show so we went to ride the Revenge of The Mummy and back to E.T. Adventure while we were waiting.

We didn't get out of the ride in time to catch the next showing of the animal show so went back to Hogsmede. There was a Frog Choir show going on and I got to catch the end of it. We did a little more shopping and happened to catch the next show on the stage. This show was the introduction of the 2 other schools participating in the Tri-Wizard Tournament, Beauxbatons Academy of Magic and Durmstrang Institute. Each school did a routine. The choreography was exactly the same as in the movie! 

My sister finally caved in and bought a wand in Hogsmede. At The Wizarding World of Harry Potter you can buy special wands that interact with displays in certain store windows. There are plaques placed on the ground with instructions on how to do a spell and you can try it out in the window. We discovered that some spells are harder than others

It started to storm like crazy as we were heading out of Hogsmede. The rain was so heavy that we had to find shelter. I've never heard louder thunder in my life. When the rain let up we rushed over to Marvel Super Hero Island and rode The Amazing Adventures of Spider-Man again. The storm got worse but it didn't last very long. We got pizza at Cafe 4 to snack on while we were waiting for the rain to let up. It wasn't that great. The pizza resembled Chuck-E-Cheese pizza. 

After our snack we explored Toon Lagoon some more. One of the places we discovered was Popeye's boat the Olive. On the Second floor of the boat there's water cannons that you can use to soak passengers on the water ride below. My sister and I had some fun with that. 

The storm started to come around again so we went to the Comic Strip Cafe to hide for a while. It was getting late so we left for the hotel. 

On our way back we stopped at Red Oven Pizza Bakery, a pizza joint unique to the CityWalk. My mom got us an Alla Benno pizza that had prosciutto, heirloom tomatoes and jalapenos on it. We were originally going to take it back to the room but we ended up eating some of it there. It was a pretty sweet ending to our night. 

Universal Orlando: Day 3, More rides, Seuess Landing and possibly an earthquake

We got an early start in Hogsmede again and rode Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey because we enjoyed it so much last time . Then we tried Flight of the Hippogriff because the lines were really short. It was a short quick ride where you fly around Hagred's place in a Hippogriff. There wasn't much more to it. Maybe that's why the line was so short.

On our way out we went through Poseidon's Fury. Poseidon's Fury is a walk through attraction where you get trapped in an ancient temple with no way out and the only way you can go leads you deeper into the temple. At the end you find yourself in between a fight with 2 gods and are freed by Poseidon at the end.

The lines at Seuss Landing were short so we took advantage of that and hit The High in the Sky Seuss Trolley Train Ride. It was an overhead tour of Seuss Landing. You got to see Seuss Landing from a different perspective. The narrator also told stores about the residents of Seuss Landing 

We wanted to get lunch at the Three Broomsticks for lunch but they don't start serving lunch until 10:30 and we didn't want breakfast food so we made a quick stop to Honeydukes, a candy store in Hogsmede. They sold candy from the movies and the books like Chocolate Frogs, Bertie Bott's Every-Flavor Beans and Exploding BonBon's. In the book Honeydukes is also the entrance of a secret passage between Hogwarts and Hogsmede. By the time we finished, lunch was being served at the Three Broomsticks. 

Lunch at the Three Broomsticks was really good! We ordered The Great Feast Platter which had ribs, rotisserie chicken, veggies and these amazing garlic roasted potatoes. It was hard to take our leftovers out with us because the restaurant didn't have take out boxes. I went to the front and got a few disposable cups with lids to put our food in and had to go to a retail store to get bags to put cups in.   

After all that food we were tired so we decided to go back to the hotel for a quick nap. We also needed to get the food into the fridge. 

When we arrived at Islands of Adventure after our nap we started things slow at Seuss Landing. This time we went on the Cat in the Hat and the Caro-Seuss-el. The Cat in the Hat is a slow ride that narrates the book and the Caro-Seuss-el is a wacky carousel with some of the animal's from Dr. Seuss's books on it.   

We had to pass through Toon Lagoon to get to Super Hero Island. Toon Lagoon is a retail and dining area based off of comic strip characters. Some of the characters represented there are Dagwood, Heathcliff and Betty Boop. Toon Lagoon is a really cool place to take pictures. There's little cartoon speech bubbles suspended around the area that say things like, "It must be Sunday... We're in color!" or, "I'm going to need a vacation from this vacation!"

At Super Hero Island we went to the Amazing Adventures of Spider-Man attraction. This attraction was recently  upgraded with high-tech 3D, lighting and graphics. From what I heard there's also a 400ft. drop somewhere in there too.

We did some more shopping at Islands of Adventure, took the Hogwarts Express back to Kings Cross Station and headed to Diagon Alley. My mom wanted to get pictures of Olivanders wand shop and some other places she missed like the Gringots Money Exchange. The Gringots Money Exchange is a place where you can exchange muggle money for Gringots bank notes. This place is small and I don't think I've ever seen it crowded. One of the coolest things about this place is, you can interact with the head goblin while you wait in line. While we were in Diagon Alley we went back to Knockturn Alley to take a few more pictures.

After Diagon Alley we went to check out the Men in Black Alien Attack attraction, Disaster- A Major Motion Picture Ride and the Transformers ride again. The Men in Black attraction starts off as a training simulator but real aliens arrive and you have to zap them and chase them down. The Disaster ride was pretty cool. A cast of actors is picked from the audience and the stage crew demonstrates how some special effects are made. You end up getting casted and are put to work on a movie as an extra immediately. The scene they put you in is a underground subway train in San Francisco during the middle of an earthquake. While you're in the subway the crew sets off special effects and films your reactions. At the end of filming they show you the movie you've made. My mom thought it was especially cool because the section of subway they replicated was her subway stop when she was living in Oakland, the Oakland West stop.

It was getting late and we still haven't taken the Hogwarts Express from Kings Cross to Hogsmede yet. While you're in line you can see the people in front of you disappear into Platform 9 3/4. I thought that was pretty cool. There was different scenery on the trip back.

While we were in Hogsmede we ate a quick dinner at the Three Broomstics. I ordered shepherds pie, those fantastic potatoes and pumpkin juice. The potatoes weren't that great this time. I'm not quite sure what changed since lunch but it wasn't as good as they were earlier that afternoon. 

After dinner we went to the Hard Rock Cafe for drinks and retired to our hotel room for the night.