Disneyland for beginners

[Tri-Circle-D 2,059]

Wow, what an update.

 

You get finding at TCD twin at Disneyland bragging rights.  I don't think any other Fiend ever found one, and the opportunity has now passed, as they have returned to Florida.

 

Good job paddling the canoes.  They will be shut down for at least a year now as they work on the addition of Star Wars Land to the park.

 

That long walk in the Indiana Jones queue wasn't your imagination playing tricks on you.  Space is at a premium at Disneyland, so the ride building is actually a 1/4 mile away from the ride entrance.  That is the longest queue of any Disney attraction at any Disney park in the world.  But, that ride is awesome.  They ought to bring it to Hollywood Studios.  But, I know they won't since it is so similar to Dinosaur.

 

TCD

[Ivy 36]

Great trip report! 

[CCIntrigue...aka Gwen 547]

What is that last item in your pood forn?

[ependydad...Doug 176]

What is that last item in your pood forn?

It's called a Monte Cristo sandwich. It's a giant fried bunch of dough with ham and cheese in the middle. A little powdered sugar on top and some kind of jelly on the side. I'm sure it has a much better description, but that's my story and I'm sticking to it!

[ependydad...Doug 176]

Great trip report!

Thanks!

[ependydad...Doug 176]

Wow, what an update.

You get finding at TCD twin at Disneyland bragging rights. I don't think any other Fiend ever found one, and the opportunity has now passed, as they have returned to Florida.

Good job paddling the canoes. They will be shut down for at least a year now as they work on the addition of Star Wars Land to the park.

That long walk in the Indiana Jones queue wasn't your imagination playing tricks on you. Space is at a premium at Disneyland, so the ride building is actually a 1/4 mile away from the ride entrance. That is the longest queue of any Disney attraction at any Disney park in the world. But, that ride is awesome. They ought to bring it to Hollywood Studios. But, I know they won't since it is so similar to Dinosaur.

TCD

HS would be a great place for this ride, but I worry that Indiana Jones might be a little outdated. I know that they have the show- but isn't that closing down?

I did actually find another TCD Twin, but the store was busy and I felt a little stalker-ish by that point. :)

[ependydad...Doug 176]

What is that last item in your pood forn?

 

 

It's called a Monte Cristo sandwich. It's a giant fried bunch of dough with ham and cheese in the middle. A little powdered sugar on top and some kind of jelly on the side. I'm sure it has a much better description, but that's my story and I'm sticking to it!

Ok, I looked this up. Here's the restaurant page on the Disneyland web site, but it features the Monte Cristo:

https://disneyland.disney.go.com/dining/disneyland/cafe-orleans/

Café Orleans is a favorite for a reason: the delectable deep-fried sandwich, hands down the house specialty. Adapted from the classic French croque-monsieur sandwich, this battered turkey, ham and Swiss treat dusted with powdered sugar and served with berry purée is truly a slice of heaven. Pair it with our garlicky Parmesan pommes frites served with Cajun spice remoulade, and you’ve got yourself a meal! We also serve a meatless 3-cheese Monte Cristo made with Swiss, mozzarella and double-cream Brie.

(The fries weren't anything special.)

[CCIntrigue...aka Gwen 547]

The Monte Cristo sounds great!  Thanks for the explanation.

[mouseketab.....Carol 1,261]

The Monte Cristo sounds great!  Thanks for the explanation.

Gwen, if you have a Cheddar's nearby, they serve a decent Monte Christo

[ependydad...Doug 176]

Ok, looks like I left off and we were about to head back into the Haunted Mansion. I don't know if I mentioned, but it started to rain. A CM helpfully moved our stroller from where it was nicely covered to out in the open all by its lonesome self. I guess there's a reason... but the stroller was out of the way.

Anyway, Haunted Mansion. I can't say how much I love the Nightmare Before Christmas overlay. Love, love, love, LOVE it. Jack greets you in the stretching room:

Being in the handicap line and not wanting to walk any more than she needed to, we had to wait for a couple of special handicap buggies. Which is good, because this scene has more going on than you give it in the first pass. We stood there and studied it, pointing things out to each other:

I have more, so click on a picture and go to Flickr. As a random aside, if you've ever wondered about the # of steps that a day at Disney is, here's my iPhone chart:

We aren't huge Fantasmic fans at WDW. We like it, but it's one of those things that we've seen and don't need to see over and over. We were going to pass on it here at DL (especially with hearing how awful the "seating" is). But, we decided we were here and should. So we did- and I'm glad that we did. Pretty neat seeing it done on their "river".

It was an enjoyable show and I'm glad that we saw it. But the "seating" is terrible and a huge detraction from the experience.

We made our way back to Pirates. We actually lucked into the ride just opening up, so we had even less of a wait in the handicap line.

First up, I have no idea if her knickers match her WDW's fancy knickers:

The drunken pig guy is still drunk:

And that dog listens as well as my kids- he just isn't giving up the keys:

Here's a map from the regular line:

We left there and the park was closing. So we made our way out. It looks like I lucked into a Mickey Head bar:

And here's their tree:

And lastly, I don't have pets- but as we were returning the wheel chair, we did come across their kennel:

And with that, we headed back to the hotel. Within minutes of laying down, the kids were out like lights.

Monday, December 7

We have caught up to Monday and it was time to say goodbye to the hotel and hello to the camper. But first, some last hotel shots.

First up, I wanted to highlight the shower head. Unlike most hotels, it doesn't come out of the wall and point directly down. Those kinds are always 4-5" short for me and I have to stoop under to wash my long, luxurious mane. This one had a loop upwards and gained some extra height from it. Bonus points to the hotel for it.

As I mentioned before, we had a "Cars"-themed room. This is the shower curtain:

And, I think I mentioned the characters on the roof. Donald looks pretty good:

But poor Minnie- clearly a bad unauthorized drawing AND her ear is missing.

Here's the view out of one side of the hotel. You can see TOT on the one side and the pier rollercoaster near the middle.

Looking another direction, you can see Space Mountain:

We first swung by the campground to tell them that, yet again- we weren't making our planned arrival date. This was when I first saw the Sleep Number box. Did I share this story yet? It might need a flow chart, it's so convoluted. Longest story shortest- a new computer system equals complete and total incompetence at SN. But, now that we finally have the bed, it's great to sleep on.

Leaving there, we want and talked to the camper people. It still wasn't going to be done, but they could have it "travel ready" so that we could pull it out to the road and plug in to the front of their shop. Clearly we gave the boy some kind of chocolatey treat:

Tuesday, December 8

The next day (now we are up to Tuesday), once we got out of the camper - they took us over to their "RV Park" which is really a storage lot. But, they had a nice building on it with some comfy sofas and very basic kitchen amenities. Here's a rare treat in our world- being in the same room, but not on the same furniture!

They sprung us in the late afternoon and we headed for the RV park. Here's their gathering room where they offer free muffins in the mornings.

We learned something in Anaheim. And that was that Marie Callendar's isn't just a frozen foods company. Apparently they also have diners. The food was decent and the desserts were amazingly yummy. I'd eat there again.

Wednesday, December 9

Life happens and the highlight of the day was doing laundry that evening.

Peak a boo, I see you!

We could see and hear the fireworks from the campground. We had to walk out of our site to get a good look.

(That rig on the left was pretty awesome.)

But, duty calls- we all pitched in to finish up laundry:

Here's our site. Not bad and very nicely treed.

I'll pickup on Wednesday in the next update.

Thanks for reading! :)

[CCIntrigue...aka Gwen 547]

Carol -- Cheddar's?  Never heard of it, so we obviously don't have one nearby.  But thanks for the tip.

 

Doug -- more great pictures!  That looks like a nice campground.

[keith_h 420]

Marie Callendar's, the restaurant where my sister had the chance to learn a very important lesson about her two boys yet still doesn't understand to this day why they were asked to leave. They turned out ok but were real hellions when they were little.  

[mouseketab.....Carol 1,261]

Carol -- Cheddar's?  Never heard of it, so we obviously don't have one nearby.  But thanks for the tip.

 

Doug -- more great pictures!  That looks like a nice campground.

http://cheddars.com/

[CCIntrigue...aka Gwen 547]

Thanks, Carol.  We do have one here.  It's on a side of the city that we never go to, so I'd never heard of it.  Will have to try it out.

[ependydad...Doug 176]

Carol -- Cheddar's?  Never heard of it, so we obviously don't have one nearby.  But thanks for the tip.

 

Doug -- more great pictures!  That looks like a nice campground.

I can vouch for Cheddar's. It was pretty good stuff- we went to one in Pennsylvania.

Thanks for the kind words. And it was pretty decent- I'd stay there again.

 

Marie Callendar's, the restaurant where my sister had the chance to learn a very important lesson about her two boys yet still doesn't understand to this day why they were asked to leave. They turned out ok but were real hellions when they were little.

Heh, I have those kind of stories with my sister and her son. Heck, I'm probably not far away from having those with my boy....

[ependydad...Doug 176]

Apparently I lied about picking up on Wednesday. Wednesday has 0 pictures which tells me that it was a "regular life" kind of day.

Thursday, December 10

The morning started with riding the shuttle in. Heading in at 11am means an empty bus.

This morning the bag-check line was greeted by a police dog.

I'm a little surprised about the lack of pictures, but we headed into California Adventure and made our way to the Boardwalk/Pier area. My daughter wanted to ride the rollercoaster there but my son was too little. We did the rider switch and my daughter and I went first. This was actually a very fun rollercoaster- and pleasantly long. While we did that, my wife and son went on Toy Story. Once the 4 of us were back together, it was my wife's turn to ride the roller coaster so off they went. What else was there to do? Why eat a hot dog and snack on corn on the cob, of course!

So messy, but so yummy. This was easily my kids' favorite snack.

Watching the Ferris Wheel and the crazy cars and remembering TCD's review of absolute horror made me want to ride the wacky cars all the more. I started second guessing that when I took notice to the attendant putting something into each car after letting people out:

What is this, you ask? Why, let me show you...

This is the first ride I've ever been on that stocks barf bags. From watching the other cars, I started turning purple myself. But we got on. Well, not my wife.. she was all like, "lol, I'll watch from here":

Pretty neat view of the lake with the color/water show's fountains under the surface:

Here's that river rapids ride:

We were all smiles:

We were actually very lucky. My wife was telling me that our car didn't rock and swing anywhere near the other ones. We had one good slide down, but that was it. And frankly, I was happy about that! 

As we wrapped up, my wife jumped into the Buzz Lightyear Meet & Greet line. I was pretty sad to see some of the tired-ness of the costume.

But the kids were still excited:

And then we found the Shellie Mae bears. Fortunately we already own one of these, so I could turn down the pleas for another.

Moving along, my son asked for another ride on Goofy's Flight School ride. So we did that:

And then made our way onto the lady fish ride:

We walked out of that and found the News Boys (aka Newsies, but they aren't called Newsies).

Next up was the big show. I'm VERY thankful that we made it in time to see the Aladdin show before it got the ax for those silly cold chicks.

I'll pickup on more from the remainder of our evening in the next update.

[CCIntrigue...aka Gwen 547]

You were brave to ride the ferris wheel!

[fladogfan aka Gretchen 259]

I rode that ferris wheel and wished I had thought to take a motion sickness pill or two.  Vertigo and that ride are interesting.  I would ride it again if I ever get the chance!!  It was fun :)

 

[Tri-Circle-D 2,059]

Y'all got a lot done in California Adventure!

No fair that you didn't get the full Mickey's Death Wheel experience.

I'm glad that you got to see the Aladdin show. I'm sad that it's being replaced by those Frozen sisters.

TCD

[CCIntrigue...aka Gwen 547]

7 minutes ago, fladogfan aka Gretchen said:

I rode that ferris wheel and wished I had thought to take a motion sickness pill or two.  Vertigo and that ride are interesting.  I would ride it again if I ever get the chance!!  It was fun :)

 

I don't think a motion sickness pill would help me.  Me and heights don't mix.

[fladogfan aka Gretchen 259]

Nope Gwen, you'd better stay off that one.

[ependydad...Doug 176]

21 hours ago, CCIntrigue...aka Gwen said:

You were brave to ride the ferris wheel!

The kids wanted to- so we did. Nah, I'm lying- I wanted to, also!

 

20 hours ago, fladogfan aka Gretchen said:

I rode that ferris wheel and wished I had thought to take a motion sickness pill or two.  Vertigo and that ride are interesting.  I would ride it again if I ever get the chance!!  It was fun :)

 

My wife takes motion sickness pills for rides and still wouldn't get on it. Glad you rode it and liked it enough to want to ride again!

 

20 hours ago, Tri-Circle-D said:

Y'all got a lot done in California Adventure!

No fair that you didn't get the full Mickey's Death Wheel experience.

I'm glad that you got to see the Aladdin show. I'm sad that it's being replaced by those Frozen sisters.

TCD

I literally thought of you often while we were on the Death Wheel. I kept thinking, "Man, I don't know what his big deal was." And then my wife clued me in...

The Alladin show was a lot of fun. I can't imagine Frozen having that kind of staying power. Olaf is fun, but he's no Genie.

 

20 hours ago, CCIntrigue...aka Gwen said:

I don't think a motion sickness pill would help me.  Me and heights don't mix.

If it's heights, yeah- this isn't the ride for you. Here are 2 more pictures to help cement your decision:

:)

[CCIntrigue...aka Gwen 547]

I can't look at those photos too closely, or I'll get sick staring at them!

[Ivy 36]

On 1/29/2016 at 1:34 PM, ependydad...Doug said:

 

:)

That is a very scary view! Not sure I could ride that, lol!  I have enjoyed all of your photos, thanks for sharing.

[ependydad...Doug 176]

That is a very scary view! Not sure I could ride that, lol!  I have enjoyed all of your photos, thanks for sharing.

Thanks for the kind words. It was a good time.