Hey everyone, mskate and I have our 5 year anniversary this month and we wanted to do something special. We've both been to Disneyworld in Orlando many times, but mskate had only been to Disneyland Anaheim once and I have never been. Mskate is a major Disney vacation fan and loves to do all the planning. We were going to go over our actual anniversary but our anniversary falls during Disney Christmas, which like doubled the price of the tickets, so we ended up going right between Halloween and Christmas, which was significantly cheaper. She also looked into the Disneyland hotels, but they were significantly more expensive than the "good neighbor hotels" (local hotels that partner Disney) and since Disneyland is far more condensed than Disneyworld it's much easier to stay at the good neighbor hotels since they're all within walking distance. For the past many months we had been saving up gift cards from family and minor discounts from BJs. We packed up everything in 2 carry on backs and back packs, which saved a fair amount of money on checked bags. Yay. Mskate did a lot of planning of things to do, and one of the things that was pretty cool is the characters just kind of walk around, and there are a lot more. There is also this "key to Disneyland" thing, where if you put your key into 10 different key holes throughout the lands, collect lights for the lands on the key, and you get a special mystery pin at the end, and this was something that I thought was really cool and I wanted to do.
First day was the travel day. We loaded up the van and got to the airport. No real difficulty there. The TSA wasn't that big of a deal (unlike the next time, which you'll see at the end). We got on the plane and watched some movies. I watched Karate Kid Legacy, Smurfs 2025, and Eternal Sunshine on the Spotless Mind. Karate Kid was really good, merging the original with the Jackie Chan-Jaden Smith reboot. I need to review it. We got an uber and went to our motel, the Castle Inn and Suits. It was a pretty nice motel, lots and lots of theming to medieval castles. There were lion statues on the entry, a suit of armor in the lobby, a stained glass window, turret tower style stairs, and such. There was also an outdoor pool with a hot tub and kiddie pool, so that's great for all the toddlers. We got this motel with a good neighbor package that included a pin trading lanyard and discounts on some vendors at Downtown Disney, but the main thing was the lightning lane fast pass and professional photo pass.
We unpacked everything and got set for the trip, and then went to the local stores to get some stuff we didn't bring. Something really cool about Disneyland is that it's "in the middle of a city," with like actual stores and restaurants close by, unlike Disneyworld which is "the parks and hotels separated by large sections of empty undeveloped land." One thing I forgot was my sunglasses; when I got in the terminal I realized I forgot my sunglasses in the car, which is kind of a problem because my eyes are sensitive to light. We walked a block to the "souvenir store" (it just said "souvenirs and sunglasses"), and I bought myself a $10 pair of sunglasses. Normally I wear cheap plastic sun glasses that we get as booth swag, but this trip I wore sun glasses with a metal frame and either glass or acrylic lenses. After the souvenir and sunglass store we walked another block to the Walgreens on the corner. We picked up juice boxes for mskate's diabetes, distilled water for mskate's cpap, diet coke, small bottles of wine, and stick sunscreen because lotion gives me sensory problems. That was really convenient. We went back to the room and dropped off our stuff, and did a little extra unpacking and sorting.
Now for the first "real trip thing." We were kind of hungry so we went down to Downtown Disney to explore the area and get lunch-dinner at one of the Disney hotels. It was super weird "just walking to Disney from a non-resort hotel;" like, Disney Contemporary and Disney Polynesian are within walking distance to Magic Kingdom, and Animal Kingdom Lodge is within walking distance to Animal Kingdom, but every other hotel requires transportation to get to, especially the good neighbor like Swan and Dolphin. However, we just walked like a quarter mile down the street and we were at one entrance to "Disney Way." Then with Disney there's a security checkpoint and after that you can choose Disneyland, Disney's California Adventure, or Downtown Disney. It was pretty similar to Universal Studios in Orlando in my opinion. We walked past the park entrances and went to Downtown Disney. We took note of where the churro stand we got a discount was and where the wetzels pretzels where we also got a discount was. One thing that was kind of cool is throughout the downtown area were these signs saying "Disneyland 70th Birthday" with different characters. We also got our lanyard from the pin trader stand.
After walking the whole of Downtown Disney we went to The Disneyland Hotel for our meal. It was right outside Downtown Disney, which was pretty neat and convenient. When I say "right outside," I mean literally "here is the edge of the resort building, an exit from the outside walk ways" and then in less than 100 feet "here is the security check point for Downtown Disney." Even with the Disneyworld hotels that neighbor the parks require a fair bit of walking. We went to the quick service at Disneyland Hotel, Tangaroa Terrace. TT is a Hawaiian themed restaurant, where I had a Hawaiian "platter" with brazed short rib and sides and mskate had a chicken and rice bowl. I use sarcasm quotes because it wasn't exactly big; 2 chunks of meat, about 2/3 cup of rice, steamed vegetables, and grilled bok choy. It was really good, like the meat was exceptional and the vegetables were cooked to the way I like, but for $25 it was kind of not much; like $15-$20 would be more reasonable in my opinion. Mskate liked hers as well. After our meal we went to the front desk of the hotel and got our free celebration buttons. Mskate and I each got an anniversary button where the front desk said "5 magical ears," and I got a first visit button. I also asked about the find the resort character button and the front desk clerk didn't know what I was talking about, so I explained what they do in Disneyworld and she said "that's so cool, I wish we did something like that." Dang, I wanted to fill the strap on my camera bag with buttons like I did at Disneyworld, but unfortunately it was just my celebration buttons. After the buttons we went to the hotel gift shop and hotel cafe to do a little shopping. We got mom-in-law her coffee present since she loves Disney coffee. We also got some pressed pennies and the 70 year penny book for the collection. It was a good way to finish off the little trip.
After the hotel we went to Downtown Disney to do the shopping. Downtown Disney has some weird stores. I guess Disney Springs in Orlando does too, but I just found it odd that there was an entire store for Pele the soccer guy. We went to a fancy card store where they do pop-up cards and such, and mskate got a card for her college friend since she gave her a card from the store once and we had a discount for it. We also went to the world of Disney store where we got some pressed pennies and medallions. We were going to get my key to Disneyland here, but then the cashier told me about how they were selling the old revision and that if I wanted the new pin I would have to buy inside the park, so we put it back and said "we'll get it tomorrow." We also went to a Disney Home store, where they sell things like kitchen stuff. We checked out the candy store where I hoped to get a cool candy tin since I kind of collect them, but alas they didn't; there were some tins but they were all really big and I like the little pocket size tins. We also went to the lego store, which was a pretty standard lego store, except for the Disney themed murals. I bought a pretzel to have later for dinner in the motel room. On our way back we stopped at cold stone for desert. I had vanilla with heath and a kitkat, and mskate had vanilla with sprinkles. The rest of the night was just calm, getting ready for the following day and dealing with the plane ride. Later in the evening I had my pretzel and one of my ramen bricks for dinner (because I brought ramen for saving money on food).
Now it's day 2, our day at Disneyland park. We woke up pretty early, like 5AM since that was 8AM home time and we went to bed at like 9PM local/midnight home (this is going to be a bit of a running theme). I had a cup of pancakes that I brought from home. We went in about an hour early since we could go into main street and buy things before going into the main park. We had a small problem with the magic bands so mskate went to customer service to get it sorted out. While she was waiting I walked around the front of the park to see what kind of things we could get into (because about half the stores were closed, only opening once the park opens at 8AM) and found the first place to do the key, the fire station. I also came across a locked memory, The Disneyland Main Street Magic Shop shorts on The Disney Channel back when I was a toddler at my grandparents house. Between episodes there would be a little short where a magician would do a magic trick at the Main Street Magic Shop in Disneyland. I took some pictures of it because this was so cool. Mskate got the magic band sorted out, so we were ready for use with the lightning lane and photo pass. I also bought my key, so that was good, but we decided to save the fire house key hole for when we were going back to take our break. We walked around main street to see what kind of things we could find, and there was this theater where they were showing a Disney plus special about the brothers who wrote the Small World song. It was in a little theater thing where they showed it on 6 different screens, and there was a ticket booth where if you scan your magic band you get a ticket souvenir (which we did and I stored them at the bottom of my camera bag, like all the small souvenirs we acquire on our vacations). We also found that they had real US post office mail boxes in the park, so we had the idea to buy post cards and send them to family from inside the park.
The park had now opened, and we were at the front of the park. One thing that was really cool is that right when the park opened officially Micky in his 70th outfit came out to main street as there was a small parade of vehicles. We weren't really planning on trying to get a picture with Micky since we've gotten loads of pictures with him, but there was basically no line so we got in and met him. I like to play with the characters and Micky is always so extra animated, so I was waving my arms and doing poses while talking to him, saying like "you're always so animated, so I'm going to be animated too." He thought it was funny and did the laugh gesture. I also asked the handler where the pickle cart was so I could get the pickle button, and she said they didn't do that, so mskate must have gotten some bad information. Oh well. I got some pressed pennies and color Christmas medallions at one of the stores as we were going in. While walking down main street after things opened we found the Main Street Penny Arcade. I assumed it was just a store with the old timey theming, but there were like actual penny arcade machines in there that for the price of a quarter would play. I would have maybe done that, but I could get penny arcade things at Marvin's, so we just made our way into the rides part of the park.
We started with fantasy land after going through Sleeping Beauty's castle to Fantasyland. I kept calling it Cinderella's castle since I'm so used to that in Disneyworld, but that was wrong. After getting through we did the walk on ride Pinocchio's Daring Journey. It was a fun dark ride that went through the story of Pinocchio. Right after Pinocchio we ran into Peter Pan who was just walking around by the castle. We went to him and had him sign our autograph book and get our picture with him. I asked if he knew how to write his name and if he went to Neverland after learning that. He said "actually Wendy taught me how to read and write, she said if I would be walking around Disneyland I should work on my...pen-man-ship if that's the word. Wendy likes the big words." Great little bit of character immersion. It was getting close to time for our first fast pass, Indiana Jones Adventure in neighboring Adventureland. But first, there was a magic band thing at the castle where you scan your magic band and a little cut out animation thing plays behind shields. It was cool. Indiana Jones is one of those rides where the vehicle rocks around as it takes you through a story, very similar to Dinosaur in Animal Kingdom, but that ride is completely dark so the fact that the track is flat is much better hidden than here where it's pretty light. After the ride I got some pressed pennies and did my first key hole for Adventureland. It was pretty cool, the key lights up and makes noises, and the key hole plays some sounds and either blows bubbles or projects lights. This one projected lights.
Next we went to New Orleans Square where we were going to ride our 2nd fast pass, The Haunted Mansion Holiday Retheme, but first mskate did the New Orleans Square key hole. This one blew bubbles, BUBBLES! So funny story, on my first trip to Disney World when I was 6 I went on the Haunted Mansion "because it's not that scary, it's just fun optical illusions," but it was really scary and I was mildly scarred from it and refused to ride it since. Since this was Nightmare Before Christmas rethemed I was like "OK I'll do it." It was pretty good, Nightmare isn't a scary movie, so all the retheme was the fun of Jack Skellington and wanted to be funny and not scary. IRA loves Nightmare Before Christmas, and he would have absolutely loved this. I took video so he'll be able to watch it later. After Haunted Mansion we went to Bayou Country where we rode The Many Adventures of Winnie The Pooh. It's a dark ride that goes through the Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh movie. It was kind of the same as the one in Disneyworld, but it was still fun to ride. We were going to meet the Winnie the Pooh characters, but they weren't coming out for another hour. After the ride we did the Bayou Country key hole where mskate did it and it was Winnie the Pooh themed where it projected lights that were bees, and the light on the key was a honey pot. We then walked our way through Star Wars Galaxy Edge to get our key hole. Galaxy's Edge is kind of lame; it has 2 rides with only 1 that's really worth it (Rise of the Resistance is pretty cool, but Smugglers Run is lame), and then it's themed after a planet that isn't even in a movie. Even the key hole was kind of lame. Every other key hole was projected lights or bubbles, but this just made a screen playing static show millennium falcon blue prints.
After Galaxy's Edge we went to Frontierland where mskate did the key hole that was right by the entrance to Galaxy's Edge. This was a stage coach and when the key was inserted bubbles came out of the barrel labeled soap. Frontierland was pretty close to Fantasyland, and Snow White's Enchanted Wish was a walk on and we had time before our fast pass in Toon Town, so we rode that. It's a fun dark ride that takes you through the story of Snow White. As we were going to Toon Town, we ran into Gaston. This was kind of my big event. I have been trying to get a picture with Gaston as I give him an egg for years, but I never got the chance. Well, now's my chance, I pull out my plastic egg and get my picture with him with it. I said "I've been trying to get my picture with you with an egg for years, but I always miss you." He said "yes, today I ate 5 dozen and 1 eggs." It was fun.
Now we go to Micky's Toon Town. Our fast pass was for Roger Rabbit's Car Toon Spin, but we had some time for the ride. As we were walking to Toon Town we saw some toys that IRA would be interested in. We also found a pop corn cart, and mskate really likes Disney pop corn, and at Disneyworld you can get paid refills for life if you bring your popcorn bucket, so we brought our Disneyworld popcorn bucket to get refills. Unfortunately they don't do refills at Disneyland. At first I thought maybe it was just the bucket since they were selling buckets like what we had, so I asked if I buy a new one will we get refills and she said no. Dang, the popcorn is a great deal at Disneyworld. Toon Town was really cool. The back drop is like a background of a sky that fades into the real sky, which was really cool. I did the key before the ride, it gave out bubbles and sounded like cartoon sound effects. Roger Rabbit was really fun. It's a dark ride that takes you through a unique story in the Roger Rabbit universe, basically just going through crazy situations, and the queue is the production of dip (the substance that kills toons). After the ride we went to some shopping to see what kind of things might be interesting, and we found a shirt for my mom. I guess now's as good a time as any to mention, but I forgot our $500+ gift card at the room, so we were just taking note of where we wanted to buy things later after the break (except for my key, we didn't want to back track over the whole park and carry it around at the end of the day). Anyway, onto the next land.
Our next land was Tomorrowland, where our next ride was Space Mountain. On our way there I got some pressed pennies and mskate met Geppetto. After Geppetto we met Pinocchio. He pointed at my anniversary button and I told him "actually, it's my 10th anniversary" and then gestured that my nose grew. The handler liked that, and mskate got a picture of me gesturing that my nose was growing. Space Mountain is a very iconic ride in both Disneyland and Disneyworld. The rides are very different though, like this ride train is a double seat train instead of a single seat train. It was really fun. After Space Mountain we went to Pizza Planet for lunch. Here's the thing, I knew it wasn't going to be great, but when I was little I loved Toy Story and Pizza Planet was so cool, and when I went to Disneyworld Pizza Planet I was too young to REALLY remember it (but do remember it was like a real arcade but wasn't able to really play it "because we were already paying a lot to be here and we can play arcade games at home," which was true but "it was pizza planet like in the movie I love"). I don't remember a lot from Disneyworld Pizza Planet, but I do remember them having a real claw machine for LGM stuffed animals. Before we went in I took video of the outside like my grandpa did when I was little, but for some reason he didn't film the inside. The inside was...well...REALLY uninspired. In the movie Pizza Planet is an arcade, like chuck e cheese, but this was just a place that was selling pizza. There was theming for planets and the LGMs going to different topping planets, but it wasn't anything like the movie. The pizza was also quite mid. Oh well.
After lunch we went to meet Tinkerbell. She did a meet and greet at Pixie Hallow, her own little place to meet people. It had some really good theming, looked like we down to her size and such. Since this was a dedicated meet and greet we were hoping this would be a place for photo pass, but for some reason it wasn't. The handlers agreed that this should be a photo pass location, but not their call. Tinkerbell was really fun, very expressive. She asked how we were doing and what we've been doing, and I said "we saw Peter Pan earlier." Her face then lit up "you saw Peter, that's so great, how's he doing?" because in the movie she was in love with Peter, and then I told her how Peter said that Wendy taught him how to write and then she started pouting because she's jealous of Wendy. Really fun. Afterwards we walked out to the front of the castle since Pixie Hallow was right by the castle, and we were going to try to get photo pass photos in front of the castle, but unfortunately for us there was a show going on. It was pretty cool, it was a marching band with the fab 5 dancing with the music. We did get our picture in front of the statue of Walt and Micky, so that was good. After that we went back to toon town since our fast pass for Micky's Runaway Railway was coming up, and before then we went to meet Clarabelle Cow since her line wasn't long (unlike Micky and Minnie). We also looked around toon town some, but nothing else of interest. Runaway Railway was pretty cool, the queue had all kinds of posters for different shorts, from Silly Symphonies to the modern Micky shorts that the ride was based on. We watched the opening short, entered the cartoon screen, and got in line for the main ride. Unfortunately for us, the ride broke down, like really bad, and they kicked us out and gave us a free fast pass multi-pass. We had already set-up our fast pass for the Matterhorn right after we got through the line, so we went over to the ride. I kept making jokes about Fairly Oddparents and how "it was the only adults matter horn." Mskate also kept talking about how when her mom rode it she lost her glasses. This is a ride with a little bit of water, and I don't like water rides outside of a water park. I had mskate sit up front so I wouldn't get wet. Other than the potential for getting wet, it was a pretty fun ride. Really fast, lots of twists and turns going really fast. Neither of us lost anything on the ride, so yay.
I'm not exactly sure of when this happened, but I think it was around this time. We were walking by the castle and we saw Anna. We just followed her as did a mob of kids. It was kind of funny, we saw her and went to her, and then other kids saw us and her and joined in, and she's all "oh hello friends, let's just go with this," and then when it was our turn she had to tell a girl "I'll be with you but I need to see another friend" and then she was a little thrown off by 2 millennials just having fun, but since she was also a young millennial or old zoomer she seemed to appreciate being able to look in the eyes of the guest without having to crouch down, and not having the guest get grabby, or it was just being able to interact with a happy adult instead of an exhausted parent (or it was just acting). Fun little interaction.
After the Matterhorn we finished up our key before our break, or so we thought. We went up to the front of the park and did the key hole at the fire station, which was a fun thing with bubbles. We then went to the front where they had the final key to unlock the door on the key to get the pin. Well, we did the key and it blew bubbles, but the key wasn't opening. I took it to a place selling the keys and they said we missed one. It was in like fantasy land, somehow we missed it. We went back into the park to find the final key hole, and then went back and did the actual ending. We got a cool pin, it was all sparkly and was a Disney D. I was hoping to get the one with the key, but oh well. Around this time I also went into the Main Street Magic Shop and it was actually a place that sells magic tricks, so that's cool. Also as we were walking out Minnie in her 70th outfit was taking pictures and we got there before the line took up. We weren't planning on doing so, but when presented with the opportunity we took it. After that we went back to the motel and took an hour break (just hanging out at the motel and watching youtube and TV). It was also when we dropped off our key and picked up our gift card.
When we got back to the park there was another marching band performance, this time right at the front of the park. Pretty fun, and we were going to ride the train so we watched it while walking up the train stairs. The train took us to New Orleans Square, and it was a fun little ride, and I saw some backstage. The first big ride we did was Big Thunder Mountain (which meant some walking since that's in frontier land), a roller coaster with some story, and a new goat (which was a big deal for the big fans). Then since Mirabel meet and greet was close and almost time, we met her. I told her to tell Lucena I know the pain of people just piling responsibilities on me, she said "yes I will." The funny thing is afterwards we showed IRA our picture and he was like "the actress is so old" and I'm like "yeah dude, they're not going to have an actual child play a character in the park," and he was like "oh yeah, that's a good point." We then went back to New Orleans Square to use our multi-pass to ride Pirates of the Caribbean. The cast member monitoring the line said "our line is so short, just go in and save the multi-pass for something else," so that was a little bit of "pixie dusting" as they say. It was pretty fun comparing it to Disney, with this one being like "more constrained" and there being a rather big drop (not huge, but noticeable and worth talking about). I held my camera up high just in case. There were also more skeletons from what I remember in Disneyworld. Great ride. After Pirates we did the Swiss Family Robinson tree house; it's just a little walk through thing, with a lot of water powered contraptions. We also saw Jack Skellington walking to his location, which was fun. He has this very floaty walk, which is very in character. We then had dinner at Bengal Barbecue. We had some meat skewers with different sauces, really good, except they ran out of rice. Mskate's diabetes also went low while we were having dinner because she was kind of counting on the rice to stabilize her glucose, so I explained the situation to the cashier and they gave her a cup of sprite. Great customer service right there. While mskate was waiting for the food I met Jack Sparrow. I commented on his rings and showed him mine, he said "how about I trade you none of mine for all of yours, how does that sound?" and I said "that sounds like a pirate deal."
After dinner we went to do Buzz Lightyear Astro Blaster. It's one of those target shooting rides, where you fire the laser at the Z targets. I did quite well, scoring 81,500 points at a level 3, while mskate got 4,300 for only a level 2. It was basically the same ride as Disneyworld, but this time the guns aren't on a fixed pivot on the ride vehicle and instead are handheld tethered to a wire. After that we did Finding Nemo Submarine Voyage, it used to be 20,000 leagues under the sea but now is Finding Nemo themed. It was pretty cool, the way the ride vehicle worked reminded me of the semi-sub I rode in Mexico. The bubble effects to simulate diving and surfacing was pretty cool, and and then it was all about the theming of Nemo characters showing up in the coral reef, with Darla snorkeling. After this we went to the Sleeping Beauty castle walk through, which is where you just walk through a hall in the castle that tells the story of Sleeping Beauty. Pretty neat.
Now for the big ending event, Paint the Night light parade. There was about an hour before the parade started, but camping out for an hour was the only way to get a good seat, and even with an hour before the parade there were not many open spaces. We were able to find a place on the curb though, right next to a light post (which was nice to lean against). Mskate and I took turns securing the spot, I did a little walking around main street and went to the bathroom, and mskate went to the Marry Poppins restaurant and got a gluten free raspberry macaroon in a micky shape. I had a bite and it was pretty good. While we were waiting we just watched videos on our phones. We were right outside the Starbucks and someone spilled their coffee, which was getting to us. We still had our spots and someone came out to clean it up. The parade was really cool. People were dancing in light up costumes; fairies, tron guys, cars, jellyfish, cowboys, and others. Then there were parade floats with characters; Sully, Woody and Buzz, Little Mermaid, and others. Then one that was pretty cool is that Lightning McQueen came driving by, followed by Mac with lights showing up with things playing on his side. Also music that matches the characters that were walking. I recorded the whole parade, and my video camera died with like 3 minutes left in the parade, so I pulled out my phone and recorded on that. It was actually at a pretty good time, there was a break in the floats so it was a good time to transition. While I was recording I zoomed in too far as an in joke to family videos. When we went to Disney when I was a kid my grandpa recorded the light parade, but it was super zoomed in and you couldn't tell anything in it, because he wasn't great at understanding how zoom works. Then at the end the fab 5 were driving around on little ball carts all lit up, with Micky in his sorcerers outfit waving to everyone. Afterwards we wanted to ride the monorail out of the park since the monorail goes inside to outside the park, but they were closed for some reason. We went back to the motel and just went to bed.
Day 3 was a rest day with some resort exploration. I had a pancake cup for breakfast. We went to Pixar Place as our first stop. We went through Downtown Disney to get to it, and when we went through we did a penny press in Downtown Disney, and someone left 3 pennies in the machine so instead of spending $4 to get all 4 I only needed to spend $1 to get the missing penny. Pixar Place was pretty cool, lots of Pixar stuff with Luxo on the Pixar ball. The hotel was really cool. They had wire frame renders of characters on the wall (like Mr. Incredible) and then they had murals on the wall with concept art of the movies (like Luka), and clay reference models of the characters that are regularly seen in bonus features of Pixar movies (like Monsters Inc). In the middle of the lobby there was a statue of Luxo Lamp jumping on the Pixar Ball, really cool. We went to the Sketch Pad Cafe, the quick service restaurant at the hotel, where mskate got breakfast, an egg thing with breakfast meats. The restaurant was pretty cool, the wall was full of concept art sketches of different Pixar characters, really cool. After breakfast we met bingbong, who unfortunately didn't sign autographs. I asked the handler if this was because he was imagined before Riley could read and write, and she said "yes that's right, you must be a Disney adult," yes but I'm not one of the bad ones (I just know my childhood), and if I'm going to go on a Disney vacation I'm going to get into it.
After Bingbonb we explored the 30 years of Toy Story displays, because apparently Toy Story is 30 years old now. This was really cool, because as I said earlier, I was a major Toy Story fan when I was little. The first bit was a modeling chocolate display of toy blocks spelling out "toy story" with different toys on the 1st floor outside the cafe. The 2nd story was where it got really cool. They had concept paintings, story boards, early concepts of Buzz and Woody (back when he was a ventriloquist dummy), a model sheet of how Bopeeps cape works in Toy Story 4, and others. Really cool. There were character names on doors so maybe there's a meet and greet we didn't get to experience. We explored the 2nd floor some more, and saw some more clay models, which was cool.
We then explored the pool deck. There was a pixar ball on the astroturf section, which was fun, and then there were "pool deck activities" like shuffleboard and "follow the path" boards that had some pixar theming after the shorts. The snack bar had mozayic pictures of characters in the wall, which was neat, and by the pool deck they had fire pits that were the heads of different characters that are fire (Anger from Inside Out, Jack Jack from Incredibles, and Ember from Elemental), that was fun. Then the slide theme was Crush the turtle from Finding Nemo. It was a pretty cool hotel.
After Pixar Place we went to The Grand Californian, sort of. We left from Pixar Place and walked to the Grand Californian "from main street," but there was a guard that only let hotel customers in, which was a problem for us since we weren't guests there. Not a big problem though, we went to the hotel from inside Downtown Disney. It was a pretty cool lodge style hotel with rustic like chairs and fire place, similar to Fort Wilderness. We just hung out there a little, sitting in the chairs, and looking to find the restaurant we were going to eat at that night. Nothing super exciting, but it looked cool. Afterwards we walked around Downtown Disney some more. Mskate was going to get her Disneyland Starbucks mug at Downtown Disney since she didn't get it in the park, but didn't since it was really crowded and "I'll just get it at Downtown Disney," but that didn't end up working, dang. While we were out I got a churro with our discount, and here's my food review. We then went back to the motel and just watched TV and youtube, mskate probably watched some skating since that's her thing.
Now it's evening, and we went to Storytellers Cafe at Grand Californian for our character buffet anniversary dinner at. First, the atmosphere. It was based on reading stories and telling stories with books coming to life. There were silhouettes of people reading books and deer, murrels of children reading books, a mosaic of someone reading, books on posts, all cool. Since it was Grand Californian there was a rustic theme, but that was kind of it. Second, the food. Oh man, was it great. There were cookies and pumpkin pudding, tarts, pizzas, fancy dinner rolls, popcorn shrimp, french fries (the fancy kind with the crispy breading), macaroni, lobster ravioli (at least that's what I said in the video), prime rib, carved turkey, grilled vegetables, beef brisket, salmon, braised pork belly, salad, shrimp cocktail, and charcutier (the meat and cheese plate thing). I got brisket, pork belly, prime rib, and fries to start. After that plate I got more prime rib and fries, and some Brussel sprouts from the grilled vegetable pan. I got another plate and asked the carver for the thinnest piece of prime rib he could give me since I was nearing my end, and he enthusiastically said "yes I can, sharpen my carving knife, here's a real thin piece how about that," and I said "that's perfect." I then had some tarts. Mskate had a gluten free pizza and some of the meats, and some deserts.
Now for the main reason one does a character meal, characters. These were Donald, Daisy, Goofy, Pluto, and Clarabelle Cow, all dressed in camping/adventure stuff. They all came to our table and had a little interaction with us. Daisy was happy to take pictures with us, and she did her eye lashes in my camera view finder. Goofy enjoyed my impression of him. Donald liked my Donald laugh. All fun. Then there was the dance party where they all started dancing around the restaurant with a song, and Goofy kept falling behind. Great fun. We got buttons from the restaurant for the dinner, so I was able to get something for the camera strap. After dinner we just hung out in the lobby of the hotel until it was time for our next thing. I talked some with some other travelers, just a little "where are you from, yeah it's so warm here."
It's now evening and time for our meet up with friends. Mskate has an old friend from skating that got diabetes first that works for Disneyland, and she has a little 2 year old son that shares a birthday with mom-in-law. Mom-in-law bought a little present for him, and we gave it to them when we saw them. They were getting ice cream at one of the ice cream parlors at Downtown Disney, and we would have partaken too but we were very full from our buffet dinner. We had a lot of fun just walking around Downtown Disney with them and having some fun with their son. He was a little shy around us initially (the last time we saw him was his 1 year old birthday party last year), but he warmed up when he saw mom and dad liked us and we were fun people; mskate gets to his level and I could do character voices (he really liked Donald). We went to World of Disney and he liked looking at the toys. We also went to a home goods store where we got my aunt a soap dispenser. We went to the candy store where the little guy liked watching the train in the display. Mskate enjoyed catching up with her friend, and the husband and I enjoyed each other's company getting to know each other. The husband has a full head of hair, and the rest of his relatives on his moms side at least have hair too, so I showed the boy my bald head at one point. I was like "wanna see something funny, (takes off hat), I don't have much hair on my head." He giggled. At one point in the evening we were just sitting out by the fountains and some ducks came up to us. I got a picture with them, really close to them. A funny thing is the boy tried to feed mskate one of his goldfish crackers, and that was a bit of a problem since mskate is gluten intolerant. It was funny and cute though. After about 2 hours together we went our separate ways and went back to the motel.
Day 4, our day at California Adventures. We picked up post cards from one of the stores and bought stamps from our motel to mail to my mom and grandma figure from inside the park, because that would be cool. We were able to get inside the park about 30 minutes before rope drop, and we mailed our post cards first thing in the day. We got as close to radiator springs as we could because we wanted to ride Radiator Springs Racers (the big ride of the park that requires it's own fast pass), but unfortunately it broke down so we went to Mater's Junkyard Jamboree, a ride like Alien Swirling Saucers where it goes around in circles and swings you back and forth. This one's themed is Mater and the trackers, and there was a bunch of junk yard stuff to feed into it. It's a fun ride, and I think this one did more swinging than Alien Swirling Saucers. One of the funniest things for me is the safety instructions; Mater gives the instructions in English and then because Disney always repeats the instructions in Spanish Mater said it again in Spanish, which was just a funny sound since Larry the Cable Guy/Mater is like "perfect redneck sound" that is not really associated with Spanish. The second ride was Luigi's Rollickin' Roadsters, themed after Luigi's tires. This was pretty cool, it's a trackless ride where you sit in a car and then dance with other cars. Like, if you know line dancing and square dancing and ballroom dancing, where there's structure with who dances with whom and where people stand and line up, that was it. I think there were 4 different songs and they all have difference routines, which is cool since it gives reason to ride again. We only rode once though, but it was still really cool. After the ride we spent some time looking around Radiator Springs, which was like walking into the movie. There was Sarge's bunker, Flow's V8 Cafe, Luigi's Tires (which was the ride), the Cozy Cones (which were different food stands that were all cone themed), the firehouse, and the single blinking traffic light.
We had to go to our first fast pass now, Increadicoaster at Pixar Pier. Pixar Pier wasn't too far from Radiator Springs. Pixar Pier was all themed after an ocean pier amusement park, which was really fun. There was a Mr. Incredible meet and greet but we already met him at friends for life so we decided no. There was also a food stand with Abominable Snowman lemon snow cones. I kind of wanted to get one but I decided to pass. Increadicoaster was really fun. It's a fast running roller coaster that has just enough time to see the theming of Incredibles as they're chasing after Jack Jack. Great ride. After the ride mskate got a Jack Jack cookie since they had a gluten free cookie, which was quite good. We walked by Jessie's Critter Carousell since that's for babies, and went to the midway games. This was pretty neat, because I don't think Disney has midway games anywhere else (maybe Animal Kingdom Dinosaur Land). We did a "fish out the star" game, where it was winner every time, and we got a small prize star that said "Pixar Pier." The star is from some short we don't recognize, but that's OK. The interesting thing is that to play it one has to buy a token for $5, and the token has different Pixar characters on it while encouraging you to collect all 4. I have a pretty good size token collection, and I would have definitely tried to get some, but it was a bit too rich for my blood to try to collect them for something I'll just throw in my coin pusher (which is a real arcade machine, yeah I'm just eccentric like that). There were some other games that looked interesting, but they were "you could lose" games or "need multiple people" games. There was also a giant granite Pixar ball on a fountain thing, which was neat. After the midway games we went to Bingbong's gift shop where I got some pennies and medallions, and mskate did some souvenir shopping. The last thing we did on Pixar Pier was emotional whirlwind, a ride where it picks you up in a bucket and spins around. Just a simple fun ride that used to be themed after Bugs Life. The funny thing is the emotions narrate the ride. Before moving onto the next land, we did the Little Mermaid dark ride, where it just kind of takes you through the story of little mermaid with animatronics. They cover going into the water with a decent and lights, part of your world, under the sea, Ursala's plot and Ariel's transformation, Kiss the girl, Ariel's kiss, and the happily ever after. The funny thing is animatronics are a little awkward looking.
Our next fast pass was the Monster's Inc ride, which was on the other side of the park. As we were walking we stopped at an animation thing with turtle talk with Crush and a learn to draw thing. We just looked, didn't do much. It was pretty cool, lots of animated movie clips around the wall. We then got to Hollywood Land, which was somewhat immersive, there was a theater marquee, which was alright. The main thing though was Monster's Inc Mike and Sully To The Rescue. There's a funny thing with this, it was once Superstar Limo, a really terrible dark ride where a bunch of poorly designed celebrities wave to you as you drive through Hollywood to get to your movie premier. The reason the ride was so terrible is because it was originally a roller coaster where you're a celebrity trying to outrun the paparazzi, but then they had to completely change it after Princess Diana was in a fatal car accident for kind of the same thing. Disney were able to change it to Monster's Inc themed while keeping the same ride track, and even keep some animatronics by just putting them in CDA outfits. When I got on the ride I told the cast member "I'm looking forward to riding Superstar Limo" and she was like "oh man Superstar Limo, I was there for it, that was so bad." The ride was pretty fun, it's the general story of Monsters Inc retold with animatronics. I do recommend. The ride queue was also really neat, like walking into the Monsters Inc scream factory.
On our way to the next ride we went through Avengers Campus. Our ride wasn't in the campus, but we were going through it anyway. While we were there we ran into Starlord from Guardians of the Galaxy. He wasn't someone we were really interested in meeting, but he didn't have a line so we decided why not. I showed him my video camera while pointing at his walkman and said "I use old technology too" and he thought that was kind of funny. He asked who mskate was and I said "she is my Gamora" and he liked the reference. He signed our autograph book, and when Groot came out I asked for him to sign but then Starlord jumped in and said "oh no, he doesn't sign after learning what paper is made of," so that was some fun explanation since that's a Starlord thing to do, didn't need the handler to do it. After them we ran into Black Widow who also wasn't a "need to see but she had no line" character. Since her thing is hand to hand combat and acrobatic fighting, I showed her how I can stand on one foot prepping to kick. We took a picture in an Avengers fighting stance, and then I posed standing on one foot ready to karate kick and she did an impressed pose. Afterwards she said "you need to talk to my dad, he could probably use your talent."
Now for our ride, Radiator Springs Racer. It was like an 80 minute wait, but mskate wanted to splurge on our anniversary vacation and since this is "the main ride at this park" we bought the individual fast pass. The ride was...good. It was basically the test track ride system of sitting in a car that moves you really fast, taking you through the story of cars to an extent as you train for the big race, and then at the end of the ride you race against another ride vehicle. It wasn't too high thrill and I was able to record it, but that's because I have a hand strap. There were also some neat animatronics with projected faces that were pretty well blended with the robot body. However, it was only like a 4 minute ride, and it was $20 for the fast pass. I wouldn't say it was necessarily worth it, but it was good to say we did it and not regret not doing it since we weren't about to wait in line for 1-2 hours. Since we were in Radiator Springs we looked around the land some more, taking in the Cozy Cones. One sold churros, one sold ice cream, one sold chili con queso, one sold frozen drinks, and one sold popcorn. We bought a post card for IRA we would send through the mailbox at Radiator Springs. We also got our picture with Lightning Mcqueen. There was a meet and greet where you could get your picture with Lightning or Mater (depending on who was out), and it's a full size car with an animated face that says things. He wished us a happy anniversary when the handler said it was.
After Radiator Springs we went to San Fransokyo Square. There wasn't much to do there, but we did get a Hiro and Baymax medallion. We could have met Hiro and Baymax, but they weren't out. The only thing to really do there was the bakery walk through tour. It was pretty cool, they make sourdough bread, and it is actually a bakery that makes the bread bowls for one of the restaurants. I like factory line kind of things, watching how things are made, and this was one of them. There was also a lot of trivia around the bakery about the bakery and sourdough bread. They also gave out samples of the bread, and it was great. Really fun. Afterwards we did a photopass with the front of Radiator Springs since it was close to the land and there wasn't a line. While we were in line mskate found a little Jesus figure someone hid for people to find. One of her church friends does the same thing around where we live, it's "drop item evangelization."
Our next ride was Tower of Terror, I mean Guardians of the Galaxy Mission Breakout. It's still a drop ride with a story, and I was a little uncertain about retheme to an acquired property that is a retrofit to a ride that's very specifically about a haunted hotel, but it was actually really well done. I've never ridden Tower of Terror in Disneyland (because I had never been before now) but I have in Disneyworld, and I really enjoy it and the whole Twilight Zone thing. This though, it was actually really good. The story is that the Guardians are in prison and Rocket is going to break them out, and he needs your help because you got security clearance and can open the cells. Unlike the pre-show video for Tower of Terror which is just the exposition dump played on a console TV on the wall with a cast member giving you instructions at the end, this is an animatronic Rocket interrupting a training video and then telling you what to do on the screen as he crawls around in the rafters. That's...pretty cool. Then the main ride, you go up the elevator and it jumps you around different floors as you watch the fight scene of the Guardians breaking out. That's also really cool since there's more story and interaction, instead of "just falling down the elevator shaft" in Tower of Terror. There was also a lot of different movie stuff in the queue, which was kind of neat, instead of "just walking into an abandoned haunted hotel." And at the end of the ride there was a dog crate for service dogs, that had one of the characters on it (that I don't recognize).
After the ride we went to Pyms Test Kitchen for lunch. The story here is the lab from AntMan makes normal foods really big or really small. There's a sandwich with a giant chicken finger, a taco salad that's served in a large taco shell, and a giant Bavarian pretzel with cheese (which is what I got). Mskate got a kids meal peanut butter and jelly sandwich with a cuttie orange (which was all small). The line for the restaurant was kind of neat, there was a conveyor chain that brought normal sized soft pretzels into a machine, the machine either enlarged or shrunk the pretzel, and then out came a big pretzel or small pretzel. Then at the drink and condiment station, there were giant bottles of ketchup and mustard from the ceiling with tubes going to the dispensers, and there were these giant cans of soda-pop in the ceiling with tubes that lead to the coke freestyle machine. I was happy for the condiments since the cheese wasn't that good, but mustard is always good with soft pretzels. I wasn't able to finish it all, so we got a takeout box to have later.
After lunch we went back to Pixar Pier to meet some characters. We met Joy and Sadness from Inside Out, which was really fun because we like both of them. The characters were really in character, Joy had the bubbly bouncy demeanor and Sadness had a slow sulky demeanor. They signed and we had some fun banter, and after our "real photo" we took an "imitate the emotions" photo where I was joy and mskate was sadness. Since it was close by and didn't have a line (and was closed earlier), we rode the giant Ferris Wheel. This was a neat set-up, there were gondolas that were on a track and would move around as the wheel moved around, and gondolas that were traditional fixed pivot. I wanted to do the tracked swinging gondola but mskate didn't want to so we did the fixed pivot. That was probably for the best since the gondolas have barf bags and the reason the ride was closed earlier is because someone got sick on it and they had to clean it. It was pretty cool because we were able to see the entire park. While we were on the ride we also saw the Army Men drumline, which was cool.
Now I'm not exactly sure of when this happened, but I think it was sometime around here. At some point we met Rex and Anger, neither of whom signed autographs. I thought Rex might since his arms had articulation, but the handler said "no he's a preschool toy and is still learning to read and write" so I guess his articulation wasn't enough to hold a pen. Anger on the other hand clearly couldn't sign, his arms didn't move and his hands didn't open, so I asked the handler "anger doesn't sign because he'd break my pencil, right?" and she said "yeah something like that." I did some voices and the characters seemed to appreciate it.
After the wheel we went to our next fast pass ride, Soarin' around the World. We had to walk through all the water rides which we didn't have interest in (mskate had some, but I don't like getting wet outside of water parks, so she was fine foregoing). We also walked by the Redwood Creek Challenge Trail, which might have been cool but it was "closed due to bear activity." This is also where the entrance for Grand Californian was, since that hotel has an entrance to California Adventures. I wanted to enter the park through there, but it didn't work out (but I'll save that for later). This left the only ride in Grizzly Gulch for us being Soarin'. I was hoping it was Soarin' over California since I've seen Soarin' around the world at Disneyworld, and it's the same video story as that one, but oh well, still cool. Soarin' takes you on these arial views through different sights, like the great pyramids, the rainforest, artic circle, African savana, and some other places, that ends on going to Disneyland where fireworks shoot over the park, all projected on a 4K/8K screen as you're lifted up, and for some clips they pipe in scents like ocean breeze and dust and perfume. Pretty cool effect. The theme of Disneyworld is...near futuristic travel I guess (it's just part of the life pavilion and is all about nature), whereas here it's all themed after aviation and old school hangers and such. I liked the theming here better. After the ride we went to a gift shop where I got a Tigger jersey for a future gift, and we went to Starbucks so mskate could get her California Adventures mug. After that we went back to the motel for a rest and to drop off our purchases. But first, there was a little show of 1920s music, which was fun to watch since it was like big band instruments. When we got to the motel I did some organization of the souvenirs in one of the suit cases. Mskate also wrote IRA's post card and we bought a stamp at the front desk, to mail from Radiator Springs.
After our rest we went to Micky's Philharmagic, a 3D show where Donald steals Micky's hat and he chases it through various Disney movies. I know there was Aladdin, and I think Little Mermaid, but don't remember them all. Great little show though. After that we kind of wanted to do the Disney Jr. Live show, but we had just missed the last show of the day. We then went to the animation place with an Anna and Elsa meet and greet, Turtle Talk with Crush, the learn to draw class, and Sorcerer's Workshop where it showed animation things. We unfortunately missed Anna and Elsa, and Turtle Talk would have conflicted with our next fast pass, so we just did Sorcerer's Workshop. It was just a little thing where they had animation loops on the mirror things, and showed animation in use. Kind of interesting. After that as we were walking out we found Donald in some kind of outfit; wasn't quite 1920s like the other characters and theme of the land, but it was something. As he was going to his location we started a little parade; we were following him, and then other people joined in, and then more, and it was an impromptu parade. We did a little meet and greet and got our photo taken, which was fun. We went back to Radiator Springs to try to find the mailbox that we swear we saw earlier, but couldn't find it. We asked around and no one knew where the mailbox was and said they only knew about the one at the front of the park. It was kind of cool looking for it, we saw some things we missed earlier, like the model of the town.
Our next ride was Spiderman Webslingers, an on rails shooter ride. The story is that Peter Parker made these spider robot things that are stuck in a self replicating program, and we had these experimental web slingers that we can use to capture robots. What was really cool is that while this is "a dreaded screen ride," the web shooting is just done by slinging your hands in the web shooting gesture, and it actually registers where you aim. That's some really cool tech right there. I did pretty good, getting 2nd in our vehicle. While leaving our magic band plus lit up with reg and blue, for spiderman.
After Spiderman it was getting dinner time, so we went to Flo's V8 Cafe for dinner. What was cool about Radiator Springs is at night they turn on all the lights like in the movie (called the shaboom), and it was really cool, like walking into the movie. I got a pastrami sandwich and mskate got a cheeseburger I think. The restaurant was pretty cool, it was all 50s diner themed, with some car garage theming as well. We considered getting a milkshake since it has a cool cars milkshake cup, but then we saw that the cup costs extra, so we decided against it. I was tasked with finding a seat while mskate ordered, and my camera was almost dead so I prioritized finding a seat with an outlet. In the entire dining area there was a single place with an outlet, and it was the outlet the Christmas tree was plugged into. Funny thing, in my decision of what to order I mixed up salami and pastrami, so I was expecting cured meat but instead I got sliced broiled meat. I'm not complaining, I ended up liking it, but it was not what I was expecting. I also got some charge on my camera, which was great, though we later noticed that we missed out watching Radiator Springs Raceway from the dining area. After dinner we walked around the restaurant some more and they had the piston cups on display, which was fun to see.
It's getting late, but we still had a decent amount of time before our big show and didn't have much else to ride at this point, so we just walked around San Fansokyo and Pixar Pier enjoying the lights. It kind of reminded me of Cedar Point at night. Pixar Pier was the best, Increadicoaster and The Ferris Wheel were all lit up, as was the Golden Zephyr and Goofy's Sky School. We did a lightning lane for Sky School, a small little roller coaster similar to the wild mouse ride if you've ever ridden that; lots of tight unbanked turns and rapid drops and rises. Mskate thought "it's a baby ride," and it is a ride that's "good for kids" but definitely isn't "a kiddie coaster." The theming was also pretty good, with Goofy in various different places as he shows his failure to teach. Next we did Golden Zephyr, a simple ride where it just kind of spins and makes you swing out using spinning physics. It wasn't a really exciting ride, and we probably would have skipped if it wasn't a walk on and we had nothing else to do, but it was fun. After that we rode Little Mermaid again, just because we wanted a calm ride where we could hold each other (which we did) and it was a walk on, and we had a lightning lane as part of our package so even though there was literally no line we still "skipped the line" because we "wanted to get our money's worth." After Little Mermaid we did Toy Story Mania, a shooter ride where one shoots the screen and tries to hit all the targets. We weren't planning on doing it since it's literally the same ride/game as Disneyworld, but we had nothing else to do and it's a fun ride, so why not. I am glad we did it since they had special 70th targets that gave bonus points, so that gave us a little more reason to ride it. After Toy Story Mania we found a place to sit and charge the camera before the show, because the camera was still dying and needed juice, especially if I was going to record the whole show. We found an outlet by a bathroom where I plugged in my camera for about 15 minutes. It was now getting time for the show, but before going to our place, we went on Little Mermaid one last time because I wanted to get pictures of "awkward Ariel animatronic."
OK, time for our big thing, the World of Color desert party. We checked in at the purple section and were taken to our table. We were sat with a father adult-daughter couple and they were good company. I don't remember their exact story, but it was something like "this was a special milestone" thing. Funny thing is the daughter kind of reminded me of my mom from old photos, and she would have definitely done something like this in her mid-30s like I think she was (but in mom's mid-30s she had me and I was a handful). The desert party was pretty good, we got a box of foods, one side was charcuterie and the other side was pastries. We ate the charcuterie first; cheeses, salami, peperoni, freeze dried fruits, and crackers. The funny thing about the freeze dried fruits, with the humidity and temperature they were becoming reconstituted. I saved my deserts for the show; a fruity pebbles rice crispy treat, a macaroon with a micky picture on it, a lemon tart thing, and a cupcake thing. Mskate being gluten free had a slightly different box, like she got an apple crumble instead of the lemon tart, Then we also got drinks with the party. I had 2 small glasses of sparkling wine, a hot chocolate, and a bottle of water. Mskate had a hot chocolate, a diet coke (in a can that she saved for the next day), and a bottle of water (and maybe one other thing, she might have gotten a small glass of white wine). We weren't really panning on having hot chocolate, but one of the waiters came around and said "I have too many cups of hot chocolate, would you like one" and we said "sure." Then in our box we got a special World of Color pin. We could get a full color one, a gold one, or a sparkly one. We got the full color and gold, which was great because it would have been annoying if we had duplicates. It was pretty nice being able to sit in a real chair for 30 minutes, and just watch the Disney Ferris wheel lights. I also had to go to the bathroom before the show, and when I came back one of the cleaners was drawing Disney characters in water using the cleaning wand, which was fun.
The show was pretty cool. 10 minutes before the show The Muppets gave a safety instruction video projected on the water screen the main show would be on. That was really fun, it was like a 10 minute video of the different Muppet characters saying "you will get wet if you stand too close, don't enter the lagoon while the show is going on, the lights will be turned off so you won't be able to see" in their own ways. I'm not the biggest Muppet fan, but I do enjoy them and I know Disney has done jack all with them since Muppets Most Wanted, so it was really fun seeing this video (especially since they directly referenced the 70th birthday of Disneyland, so it was a newer video). Then the real show started, and boy howdy was it good. The way this kind of show works is that water is sprayed in the air and that's the screen videos are projected on, and the water screen changes based on what is being projected, and sometimes the water jets are just sent with lights to make dancing color streams. Then something that's extra neat, during the show at some points in the show the the lights on Increadicoaster and the ferris wheel would synchronize with the show. But what was projected? Well the story of the show is the emotions from Inside Out are trying to figure things out, and as they're going through it they interact with different Disney movie characters as they deal with the emotion themselves, like Lucina from Encanto feeling anxiety about everyone relying on her to do things as she sings Pressure. The desert party was a great place to watch the show, we had unobstructed views and weren't so close that we would get wet (like the other VIP groups). I don't know what the price of this was, but the value of it was really good. I also managed to get the entire show on my camera with like 1 minute left of battery left on my camera.
Normally with things like this I would end the last paragraph with "and then we went back to our home base for the vacation, nothing special to say other than a sentence or 2," but there was actually some eventfulness of walking back to the motel. First, we were able to take our boxes home and they gave us a special bag to carry them, which was quite cool. We also left the park by going through the Grand Californian gate since I wanted to use "the unique gate" and this was going to be our final opportunity. This took us to Downtown Disney and as we were walking back to the front to go to our motel we were able to watch some of the Disneyland fireworks from outside the park entrance. We didn't stay long to watch them, but seeing that we didn't see any on our park day (because that was a week day and would make the neighbors angry) it was fun to say "we saw Disneyland fireworks." On our way back there was a street evangelizer, and he was "one of the good ones" that wasn't preaching fire and brimstone and instead was preaching the love and sacrifice of Jesus (I don't disagree with telling people about the fires of Hell and what awaits them without accepting the love of Jesus, but at the same time that it's the whole "you catch more flies with honey than with vinegar" and "repent or face eternal suffering" is only half of the story and unfortunately tends to scare people off). According to mskate this wasn't the only time there was street evangelization, early in the trip we saw some people handing out scripture and like on the first night there were was some event where people were proclaiming the rapture was near at like midnight local time (they woke her up but I slept through it). There was also someone selling empanadas on the corner right outside the resort entry, which was kind of funny. That's all for this, now time for bed.
It is now our final day, our day to head home. Our flight was in the afternoon, so we had some time at the motel to get things all ready. One thing was we ran out of room in our carry on suitcases to bring back all our stuff (even with all the food we consumed). We went to the different stores by us to see what kind of bag we could buy to make our 3rd bag. We first went to the souvenier and sunglass store and they had some backpacks, but they weren't what we were looking for (we wanted more of a hand bag). We went to Wallgreens and it was more of the same. Then we went to CVS and they had exactly what we needed, a rolling duffle that can expand into a full size bag. It was $32, which was $3 cheaper than if we brought and checked a bag on the way here, and now we have a collapsible bag that is perfect for travel. We put all our clothes and stuffed animals in it and made that our checked bag, and I got everything packed up in the suitcases and backpacks. Our motel also had a pool and laundry room in the parking lot. We didn't bring out swimsuits and weren't planning on swimming, but it was still fun looking around. They had a 1 foot kiddie pool, 3 foot hot tub, and 3-5 foot swimming pool, and a sun bathing deck with a shower. Then the laundry room which was just a small room with like 8 washers and dryers.
Before leaving we went to the Disneyland Hotel so mskate can get breakfast. We went back to Tangaroa Terrace where mskate got scrambled eggs and bacon. It was fun, we got some pictures with some things we missed and got one last time for Downtown Disney to make sure we did everything we wanted. After all this we organized everything, checked out, and ordered our uber. The ride to the airport was pretty good, and I got some video of the drive.
Checking the bag wasn't a big deal, mskate bought our bag the night before (if not for the duffle we would have checked one of the carry on bags). It was also a full flight so they offered us to check a carry on bag, and we checked the bag that didn't have all the fragile things. I also got a tag to attach to my camera bag to remember the trip. TSA was interesting. First, the soap dispenser we bought got flagged as a possible liquid. The agent asked mskate if we bought soap and we said "no it's empty," and so she had to open it up a little to verify. Then I got flagged for something on my shoulder and...in my groin. The agent that flagged me was all "I need a male agent, male check, male check." The guy was like "oh this is awkward, do you have anything in your pants" nope, just get it over with. He's all "OK sir, do you have any pain in this location, here is what I'm going to do." I got felt up by the TSA, gotta say it wasn't my type. Once we got through TSA we walked around the terminal and saw what was available. There was this restaurant based on a famous flight attendant or something, and it was kind of cool looking. There was also a Carl's Jr., or as we say on the east cost, Hardy's. It's funny, Hardy's and Carl's Jr. are literally the exact same restaurant, same menu, same mascot, same website layout, but for some reason there's different branding depending on which side of the Rockies you're on. I got fried zucchini from them because we don't really have one around where I live; there used to be one a block away, but covid killed it. There was also a Starbucks, and mskate got an Orange County mug since she already has a California mug. We then just waited for our flight which was a little delayed, but that just meant more youtube videos.
Our flight was kind of interesting. First, there was a problem with the plane that prevented us from taking off, a problem with the GPS and something else, they were able to get it all taken care of but we almost lost our spot in the runway queue. That would have been very bad. The actual flight wasn't that eventful, I watched Lincoln (the 2012 biopic about Abraham Lincoln) and 500 Days of Summer. Once I got to the end of 500 Days of Summer I realized I had watched it before, probably on hulu, but I didn't remember it. Mskate also got the $14 snack box since she wanted to get one on our Hawaii trip but they ran out. I also ended up taking a little nap, which wasn't intentional but felt good. Once we landed we we had to let all the people with connecting flights off first since we were running behind. We've been there (which would normally give a link but I guess I didn't talk about the time when mskate and I had to run across the airport and just barely made it to our plane when we went to her grandma's funeral). We were sitting in the back some and the flight attendant was trying to tell the people with connecting flights to push their way to the front so they could make their flights, but she wasn't able to carry her voice. Me on the other hand, I have practice with projecting and told everyone behind me "if you have a connecting flight, let others know so you can get off the plane," and mskate added "the flight attendant said this is what you need to do." Once I made the announcement some people were like "that's me, let me through." Once everyone had gotten off we confirmed and then we made our way off. Once we were off we made our way to baggage claim and got our bags, then found our way to the yellow bus to get to our car. It was a little cold but not too cold, which made it not too bad to stand outside and get in our car. Overall, great trip, really glad we did it and did it how we did. I'm also really glad that we now have a collapsible bag that we can pack for 1 way and then use on the way back. Well, this has been Pokematic, signing off, and bu-bye.
