adSimba’s Impossible trip

Darn real life getting in the way, I've finished editing and cropping and picking from over 400 photos, now I need to sort them before I can start that report, this really is a lot of work...

It really is hard work! I look forward to reading along and seeing your photos!
 
A quick note about my report;

When I was younger I took tons of photos of Disneyland scenery, when I was older I really regretted not having people in those photos. There are a nearly endless supply of amazing photos of Disneyland landscapes and well photographed food items, so I did not feel the need to add to the supply, unless I had a particularly noteworthy experience.

If there is anything I mention that is not pictured, be assured that they can be easily looked up on Google, and better photos than I could take will be plentiful.

Also, for the 10 months that I have been planning this trip, I have been dreading eating restaurant food for over a week. As a rule, CinderellaLove and I hate restaurant food because nearly everything we can get anywhere is reheated from Cysco or US Foods. This may be important to understanding why CinderellaLove and I were really surprised to enjoy nearly everything we ate on our trip.
 
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Chapter 6: Field Trip Day!: Friday May 8th

OK, Technically, very late the night before, CilderellaLove went to our neighbors house to do fun Disney nails, I think they turned out amazingly...
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These nails however were a big commitment, once we got to the park, I don't think a day passed that she did not need to touch them up.

So, originally CilderellaLove and I planned on taking 'C' out of school at noon, we had been planning this for months, then a week before we left for our trip, we overheard his teacher explaining something about a field trip on the day in question. We both planned on being available anyway, and have been waiting all year for him to get to go on a field trip, so we just had to make it part of the vacation!
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The field trip actually only lasted about an hour and forty five minutes, but it seemed like forever. It was great though, they went to the local natural history museum, which is in the local university, and the university students created a fun interactive 'murder mystery' about 'who killed a baby woolly mammoth' the kids looked at a 'crime scene' and checked on clues, like an arrow head, and animal prints. In this next photo from the trip is a replica of a giant sloth skeleton, it just seemed interesting, but was not related to his field trip really.
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I was going to take a few photos of the things they talked about on the field trip, but 'C' was so mad at us for taking him before he could go on the bus again that he wouldn't cooperate any further. We tried to make it up to him with a McDonald's ice cream cone, and that worked for a little while, until it started dripping and he had a second melt down himself because there was food on his hand. (He is very particular about that)

The funny thing is we were waiting for him to ask where we were going, because he thought we were going back home, but he was so annoyed with how bad his day was, and then complacent about the driving that it did not occur to him to ask why it took hours to get home, when it only took 5 minutes to get to the field trip.

Eventually we got to Longhorn Steakhouse Salt Lake City
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This photo is actually from Wikipedia, but the building looks exactly the same.

As we got to those pillars, we couldn't contain ourselves any longer, we told him that we were going to the aquarium trip a day early, finally, after hours of his moping, he was very happy, and ready to take more photos.

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This dinner was my Original Mothers Day dinner plan. I looked up reviews on multiple sites for the best steakhouse in all of the Salt Lake Valley, and this was by far the highest rated. I got almost $100 in gift cards months and months in advance (from ABCgiftcards.com at an 11% discount) we are usually very tight with money, but I told them to be sure to get anything that the want, because we wouldn't be coming back any time soon.
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Both of them ordered a hamburger...
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I ordered a porterhouse
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I also ordered a side of Shrimp because CinderellaLove was agonizing about wanting that too. I think they ended up costing $1 each on a skewer, there were only 5 (the other reason we don't often eat out)

one thing about me, is I don't use nutrition information like most people (claim to) do, I saw a dessert that was listed as being 2500 calories, so I really wanted to try it, because with that many calories it had to be really good!
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It was, and it was HUGE!

The chocolate stampede had 6 kinds of chocolate and was two large slices, and two large scoops of ice cream, between the 3 of us we ate a little more than half. This was definitely the best thing we ate that night. and at $8.50 as much a bargain as the shrimp weren't.

Afterwords we drove to our Salt Lake hotel,
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and got ready to go swimming!
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The indoor pool was wonderful.

When we got back in we noticed some nice touches
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Silly things make a big difference when there is nothing wrong with the room, which there wasn't.

One of the best things about the hotel (the Super 8 Salt Lake City Airport) is that if you stay, you can leave your car for $10 a week, with a free shuttle. We were very glad to take advantage of that.
 
I'm really pleased to hear that you enjoyed the food. Poor DS thinking he was missing out on something. Kids are so funny! I'm glad to see that his mood improved so well.

That's a great deal on the parking!
 


Chapter 7: Aquarium Day! (in the rain): Saturday May 9th

The Super 8 motel had a serviceable breakfast, nothing spectacular but good enough, (things like hard boiled eggs, and pre-wrapped 'cinnamon rolls') and great for our budget. The maple cinnamon make your own waffles were rather cloying but the plain ones were just fine.

we made it out of our hotel by 10am and headed to the City Creek Mall. Why is it called that? Well I'm glad you asked...
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There is literally a creek, with fish, that runs throughout the entire mall, it is beautiful. (Most of the mall is indoors, but this section is outside, which is why you can see all the rain drops on the water.)

Not only that! they have a Disney Store, and because it was the last day of the week of May the 4th, 'C' got an awesome souvenir for half of what it would cost at Disneyland, and I got to make him leave it in our car and not lug it around the park for at least half a day!
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Look at that gorgeous view, and the scenery is nice too :teeth:

We had lunch at the mall, and I know I am a glutton for punishment because I really wanted Chinese food, but for the most part I haven't had good Chinese food in over a decade. My wife succumbed the same as I did and also ate at Chang Chun, the food was mediocre but mostly edible, 'C' got a slice of pepperoni pizza from Sabarros, which was better.

To add insult to injury here was my fortune cookie fortune:
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Gee thanks.... Then my wife got her fortune:
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Clearly Chang Chun does not like us... No matter; now it was finally time for 'C's whole reason to go on this trip, the Living Seas Aquarium (no not the Disney World one)
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I wish this was my picture, It was raining for us too, but when we were there there were thousands of people (at least many hundreds) but it was this wet, also for reasons beyond my comprehension, this is not the front, it is the side closest to parking, the front of the building has a field and no road or parking. For fun though that smaller gray box toward the front is the outdoor part of the otter enclosure.

For not fun, we had no coats or umbrellas, because even the day before we were told the weather would be clear, and in Anaheim, we have been assured it never rains in May, especially during this drought.

We got there just in time to see the sharks get fed.
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again this is not my photo, this was probably taken at opening on a Wednesday school day, the day we went there were probably 80 people in the tube and employees rushing people through.

I did manage some cool shots though:
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It is very difficult to describe the aquarium without sounding very contradictory, it was really crowded and only had about 2 hours worth of exhibits to look at, even with the crowds; on the other hand there were a lot of really neat exhibits:
Here is a recreation of a sonar schooner bridge:
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(Gotta push ALL THE BUTTONS!!!)
a river otter enclosure which was half in/half outdoors:
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a 4-D theater which shows family friendly cartoons about why humans are evil:
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a Penguin habitat:
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and a death fear inducing rope bridge,:
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I told 'C' that if he wanted to wait 15 minutes to get a turn to cross it he was going alone, CinderellaLove wouldn't make him though and went as well
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She deeply regretted that decision, 'C' of course was perfectly fine, of course...
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Still, 2 hours was not much time for a $50 entrance cost to the Aquarium, so we elected to pay $3 more to let 'C' spend an hour in 'Tuki's island play place':
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he had a blast, and the strangest thing, I can't believe I didn't get a photo, but the couches in the play area for old people to hang out on were the exact same couch we have in our living room, except in red. so it was nice to take this last chance to be comfortable before a week of non stop walking.


CinderellaLove and I also made a new friend Honny, from (I believe she said) Eagle Mountain Utah,
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Honny was very excited for us and our surprise the next morning (also this is not an unfortunate photo of her, she is quite pregnant, we started talking after I made her room and found her something to put her feet on) I told her I would put her in the report, so there you are Honny I keep my promises:hippie:.

By the time we got back to the car we were frozen, soaking and exhausted, not a particularly auspicious way to begin a Disneyland Trip, but we persevered. It was only about 4:30, and there was an IKEA less than 2 miles away! On to Swedish Meatballs!

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yep, still raining, but such a happy sight!

The children's area was full, of course, but in due time we were able to get 'C' in there, it was bittersweet, he really wanted to play in there, but when there was finally room, it was because a friend from his 20 kid kindergarten class, almost 200 miles away left to make that spot.

after getting him settled CinderellaLove and I shared a delicious meal of meatballs
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We also got an untold number of glasses of Lingonberry juice mixed with sprite, the perfect punch.

After dinner CinderellaLove and I went downstairs to do a little shopping, we were only a few feet into the store when we saw rectangular dinner plates, CinderellaLove has been wanting to find these for years, but nobody makes them
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These cost less for a 4 pack than most similar plates like this cost each (because they are always sold as serving plates)

I found perfect pasta bowls!
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apparently we have very simple needs...

The novelty of finding our new dishes, somehow, nearly completely made up for our discomfort we had been feeling.

Don't worry, we fed 'C' a hot dog which is what he really wanted, before we left, he did not go hungry.

In fact on the way home we stopped to get grocery store ice cream, and strawberries to make Mothers day breakfast (hotel) waffles more special.

We also spent more time in that Spa...

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It was nice to finally be warm
 
Brr! I'm cold and terribly jealous looking at the rain! What I wouldn't give for a lovely rainstorm! I haven't been to an aquarium for years. We live about 20 miles from Six Flags Discovery Park and they have some decent aquarium features. We used to take the kids.
 
Brr! I'm cold and terribly jealous looking at the rain! What I wouldn't give for a lovely rainstorm! I haven't been to an aquarium for years. We live about 20 miles from Six Flags Discovery Park and they have some decent aquarium features. We used to take the kids.

In Vallejo?
 


I used to live in Sacramento, How have you not been to the Monterrey Bay Aquarium in so long? it is wonderful, Monterrey is one of the things I miss most about California
 
We live in Fairfield. I'm not sure why we haven't gone down there except I'm not really fond of the drive down there. We usually either had towards Disneyland or up towards Mt Shasta.
 
Chapter 8: Surprise! : Sunday May 10th

I woke up earlier than everyone else, and slipped down to the breakfast to get food for everyone so my wife wouldn't need to brave the crowds we saw the day before, I was pleased that they had a different specialty flavor of waffle, this time it was blueberry, but instead of having berries in it it was a purpl-ie pink color, and fortunately was very good with the strawberries we bought the night before.

We then packed up, got bathed and waited in the hotel lobby, where we had this moment with 'C'
Besides my child jumping around and asking if we would be at Disneyland 'today' all day long, the day was fairly uneventful, we made it to LAX with no incidents
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(It's the best photo I could come up with) and after waiting almost an hour,
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(which provided a lot of time for selfies)...
got aboard to Disneyland Resort Express
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It was the most amazing bus 'C' had ever seen and totally made up for missing the second ride on the School Bus.
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The movie that played when we headed to Disneyland was Finding Nemo, and provided some assistance in containing his excitement on the drive.

It dropped us off next door at the Anabella, so no big deal that they didn't directly hit our hotel.

We got to our hotel, The Best Western Stovall's around 5 or so (6 for us) and were beat
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Our room faced other rooms and not the park:mad:,
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but I guess that's OK since it was at least close to the elevator.
As a whole the room was nice, if cramped
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The way it was situated meant that only 2 people could easily get out of bed, and since I wanted to be as close to the air conditioner as possible, I was against the bathroom wall. I had about 1 foot of clearance to get out to use the bathroom in the middle of the night. It is clear that the room is not big enough for the table and chairs which are up against the window, but people want a table in room so they crammed it in.

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as a whole, I have no real complaints, the hotel is very clean and the finishes are nice, our cost of about $100 per night seemed totally fair.

We knew we would be wiped out for dinner, so we simply brought some fancy Hillshire farms meats and cheeses to snack on for dinner, we went to bed as early as possible, but it probably wasn't that early.
 
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I love your sons reaction and excitement! Wonderful!

We stayed at the Stovall in 2010. The rooms look the same. Yes, they are cramped and I think that the room is really dark too. But, it is clean. Clean is good!
 
Chapter 9: DISNEYLAND!!! : Monday May 11th

Finally! after 8 chapters of introduction, we get to the main event!
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we were very eager to get started.

For our trip, based on a lot of advice I have read on this board, I told 'C' 2 things,

1) With little exception, (such as reserved meals, going back to the hotel, and first ride of the day) he would be in charge of our activities.
2) He could eat as much or as little of anything he wants all week.

We started with the hotel breakfast

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This is probably the most impressive 'hotel breakfast' I have ever seen,
Every morning there were scrambled eggs
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and a crazy vat of breakfast meat
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That morning was actually bacon (they switched back and forth between the two) the sausage was much better than the bacon, which seemed to be the exact same bacon everywhere we went :worried:

Being the first morning we got a lot of bacon
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OK so he already ate some before I took the picture, and I took a lot more, silly me,

Finishing breakfast by 8am allowed us to rush to the ART shuttle
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and get to the esplanade by 8:15 where we met our Disney angel, who signed us into the parks for free for our trip.
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(she asked to be anonymous, so no photos, she did have long hair though)
After getting in, we rushed to City hall for our pins
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Our anniversary isn't until August, but being 10 years, we figured it was close enough (especially since we had our honeymoon here too)
I cannot believe how many people wished us a happy anniversary on that trip, (we wore the pins all week) basically every ride and restaurant had at least one person say it, and sometimes random people would call out as we walked by. The best part was when the costume characterless would pantomime it, and ask things like how long etc... the three who expressed the most excitement were Mickey, Minnie and oddly, the White Rabbit from Alice in Wonderland.

We wanted to get the PhotoPass+ card first thing, but the photo shop on Main Street wasn't open before rope drop, and we weren't willing to lag behind, we rushed to Space Mountain, and were on within 5 minutes (most of that was running through the long queue area)

Unfortunately we did not get the photo from Space Mountain, so no picture there, This was the first roller coaster that 'C' had ever been on, that was bigger than the kiddie train ride at a local pizza place
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so it is understandable that he found it to be rather jarring. In fact, CinderellaLove and I felt the same way, it seemed darker than before and while I LOVE the music and the look of the building, I don't love to be thrown in random directions...

We then rushed over to Star Tours, where sadly my request that 'C' be the rebel was denied, but that's OK because he had no idea. And CinderellaLove and I found the new videos and effects to be spectacular, really improving an already good ride.

After that, and some time looking around Star Traders, the park had been open for over an hour, so we went ahead to get our PhotoPass+ card
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Upon exiting I implored my family to head over to Jolly Holiday, which was completely new to us (and in my opinion a better use of the space)

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'C' requested a croissant and I got a Mickey macaron, I have dreamed of getting a fresh macaron for years, but always seem to get to the bakeries that sell them when they are out.

I got the pistachio macaron, it was incredible, I am now as hooked as I thought I would be.
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It was very soft and had a meringue like texture, the cream felt like butter cream but tasted so much better, the pistachio flavor was pronounced but not overpowering and definitely not too sweet.

'C' then decided that we should head straight to ToonTown, but first we saw our first photographer, so we stopped for pictures
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Because of our anniversary pins, everyone thought we should do kissing shots, but this one was by far my favorite
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and we got our first of sadly only two magic shots
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I asked almost everyone we did photos with, but almost nobody said they had any.

Because he was in charge 'c' changed his mind a lot, as expected, we proceeded into the Castle walk through, and on our way to ToonTown 'C' noticed the Storybook Land Canal Boats,
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it was one of the few rides I showed him a POV video from before we left. (I didn't want to either spoil rides or raise suspicions)

I was highly amused by this mom in line
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she was feeding her kids Easy Cheese and Ritz crackers, but it was 11 am by this time...

Finally we made it to ToonTown
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'C' absolutely loved Rodger Rabbit's Car Toon Spin

Then we went to meet Mickey himself, but first we had a rest in his arm Chair
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and a...whatever... in his other chair
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and got ready to watch some of his home movies
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But then we finally got the green light to go into his movie barn where he was aparently re filming a few scenes for "The Band Concert"
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It's nice to know Micky always has time to hug a fan.

After we got out we saw Goofy just outside of his house
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He was quite taken with CinderellaLove's Parasol, in fact
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He decided to take it away himself...
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Fortunately he brought it back.

We also stopped at Donald's Boat, and went on Gadgets Go Coaster which was much faster than I thought it would be, and well themed.

Then after a semi-quick cotton candy and turkey leg, I hoofed it over to DCA to get a FastPass for Radiator Springs Racers, I got the last set, they closed the FastPass queue between when I got through and when I found my way past the front again.

On my way back I saw another photographer, and I had the photopass so....
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While I was away, CinderellaLove and 'C' hit up Mr Toads Wild Ride,
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And I got back just in time to parent swap for Dumbo (it can work both ways)
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Coming soon: The rest of our first Day!
 
Following along. Poor you have been tHrough so much these past years and am happy to hear you're ok.
Looks like a great family vacation do far. You son is so sweet.
 
..I narrowly escaped a root canal this morning, that's what I had to look forward to after Disneyland... I'll work on the next installment as soon as possible
 
Chapter 9b: (MORE) DISNEYLAND!!! : Monday May 11th

It was around 2:30 in the afternoon when I got off the Dumbo Ride with 'C' We knew we planned to head to DCA by 5:30 (to beat any crowds since DL closed at 7:30 that night) so we didn't head to the other side of the park, instead we picked up a couple more Tomorrow Land rides:
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'C' had been really looking forward to "driving his own car" on the Autopia, of course, he was still a little too short to reach the pedals, so I held down the gas, and he didn't really get the idea of steering, eventually he decided it was more fun to hod down the gas as far as possible and not steer, rather letting the car bash against the guide rail over and over.

This is the first ride I have vowed to not go on with him again..

at least we had CinderellaLove behind us, so we didn't get bashed over and over like I have in previous trips.
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We also went on the Finding Nemo Submarines. It has been so long since CinderellaLove and I have been to the park, this wasn't even open yet, and they had a long referb before this trip because it had been open so long.
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Alas, although we got a lot of really bad photos, I'm not sure it is possible to get a good one from this ride. (this one was touched up considerably)

Now it was 4 and CinderellaLove and I were annoyed because all of our favorite Disneyland foods were all the way on the other side of the park. We had no intention of walking past lots of stuff 'C' would want to look at and do, just to eat and walk past all of it again.

Unfortunately the only 4(and 1/2) real restaurants between us and the front gate were overcrowded or undesirable (to us).
Ultimately it came down to one factor, where could we get unlimited drink refills? (we had filled and refilled our water bottles many times already and were tired of water) the only restaurants that had unlimited refills (and didn't require a 20 minute wait) were Plaza Inn (where I really wanted to try the Chicken) and Redd Rockets Pizza Port (where I swore I would never go back because it was vile, 15 years ago)

CinderellaLove asked what 'C' would get to eat at Plaza Inn (she had no interest in the chicken) and when I told her it would be grown up food like pasta with marinara or baked chicken, she implored me to re-think, since he was sure to eat very little of either. I acquiesced and we went to the Pizza Port.
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Both CinderellaLove and 'C' got the pepperoni pizza, (she also got a salad) I got the chicken fusilli, I had heard it was the only good thing they have, but it certainly did not look very appetizing.
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Turns out it was the only good thing the had (besides unlimited drinks...PowerAid only seems to taste good when I am dehydrated). The salad was....fine, nothing special. But the pizza was awful, and it cost $8 a slice, 'C' ate about a third of his slice, and CinderellaLove soldiered through most of hers, but it was really bad. I shared a lot of my pasta with her, because it was plentiful.

In total we paid about $60 for two pieces of pizza, a dish of pasta, a salad, and two drinks. I think I did really good being OK with crazy Disney food prices, but it was still really hard for me....

The funny thing is, I might stop by again for more of that pathetic looking pasta. It was really good, and a surprisingly large portion for $10.

Since we were tired, and it was fairly empty, we got a good rest in at the Pizza Port, after stopping at the silhouette shop on the way
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and using the restrooms, it was suddenly 5:45,
We had really been hoping to see the Aladdin Show at DCA. :genie: The last showing is at 6:20, so fueled by dinner and rest, we rushed to the Hyperion theater and got a decent spot in line for the Aladdin show.

Before we went I had been very confusingly told that the best seats were in the front of the second lower section, here is a photo from the Orange County Register that would have been really handy.
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We managed to be one row behind the wide center walkway, it was almost perfect seating, and we got an excellent view of the Prince Ali parade.

I must say, I purposefully did not bother to see this show for 15 years; but because of still raving reviews and also the fact that it is now Disney's longest running stage production, and mostly because it was a temperature controlled soft indoor seat for an hour, I gave in and planned a visit.
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I was amazed at how well done the production was, and the contemporary humor of the Genie was actually funny, a rarity these days. CinderellaLove and 'C' loved the animal puppetry and flying magic carpet scenes. We agreed that this Jasmine was a much better character and the Aladdin was not as good as in the movie.

This left us at a quarter after 7.

'C' was aware there was a Cars Land, because we have been dreaming of seeing it for years, (he is a big Cars fan) but ever since I had learned that we would be going to come, I'd been incredibly careful to not show him any pictures of it, because I wanted it to blow his mind. :eek:

Based on previous reports the 'Sha Boom' moment at cars land would be happening around 7:45, also based on reports I have heard from this site, the best time to be introduced to Cars land is at night. The stage was set and all I had to do was stall until just before the right moment. So 'C' had a stop at the 'Tuck and Roll' Bumper bugs.
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(a little disappointing because once again, 'C' was just a little too short to reach the pedals, also his lack of steering ability mad the ride very stationary, even with pedal help) and we rushed to the Cozy cone for some Ice Cream.
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(Sorry, not my photo we were rushing and not taking extra pictures, but it was about that busy)

Everything was perfect... Until after we ordered, and paid, we knew time was short but figured we could make it with no problems, but then the CM started to make a cone, the machine was out of ice cream, and we had to wait for them to put in more ice cream mix, and for it to freeze. Suddenly the music started, I was incredibly disappointed, but I knew I couldn't ask everyone to wait for me to go watch the 'moment' with my family, so I sent CinderellaLove and 'C' off to enjoy it while I waited (I also knew there was no way she could manage the three cones and two drinks we had ordered by herself)

Our order was finally ready right as the music ended and the lights were all on, I missed it all:sad: and what was worse was I knew there would not be another chance on this trip to try it again. I managed to tuck the drinks under my arms, and hold all three cones while I looked for my family,
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(I think this is the Disney stock photo, it looks about the same, but is much easier to see everything without the people. )

I found them pretty quickly, but the 'fresh' ice cream was melting pretty fast! we tried to eat it quickly but it was surprisingly difficult, Then we saw another photographer, this neon would be a great backdrop, so we got in line. We thought we would finish before we got to the front but it moved very quickly...
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As I mentioned 'C' hates it when he has ice cream on his hands (or any other food, if you give him a piece of BBQ chicken he will try to wipe his hands off between each bite) at first he refused to be in the photo, but with some coercion, we got him
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He is clearly not happy about it.

But, a few minutes of licking and hand washing and we were all set for our FastPass on Radiator Springs Racers! We were on in about 10 minutes, maybe less, and sent to fill out a handicapped car.

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His mind was indeed blown. During our trip we hit RSR four times and every time 'C' saw this
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he stared in wonder, I would have to say it is his absolute favorite spot in the resort. (I asked and he just confirmed it)

Once again we missed out on our ride photo, because the handicapped area is weird, and I didn't have anyone to ask... it's OK we had many more opportunities.

By now it was Oh Gosh Thirty, and time for bed. But first, another photographer!
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Gotta love night shots!
and on our way out one more!
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Then we went back to the hotel, and died, or something like that.
 
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...Sad day... apparently the DIS will only let you leave an unposted post so long (things keep coming up and I've been working on one for 4 days, now I lost it all)
 
Chapter 10 (attempt 2): Disney California Adventure : Tuesday May 12th

Even though DL will always be our truer love, everything seemed to go so well on this day that it was probably the best over all of our trip, even though no one moment really stood out as a top 5 event of our trip.

Today we decided that it was our best shot to start at DCA, because DL had magic morning and opened an hour earlier, that meant that morning crowds had a good shot of all being over there, with people coming to DCA in the afternoon, because once again, DL was closing at 7:30pm

We started, yet again with a hotel breakfast, good enough, and with enough food service sausage to build a veritable log cabin. We than hurried to the parks to meet our Disney angel
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again, still not her real photo
because of timing and things we were a little later to the park than we meant to be, she was wonderful and since she knew what park we were headed to today, she went ahead and got in line, and saved us a spot.

We got in at 9:45 (the park opened at 10am that morning)
I rushed ahead, as much as I could to get RSR FP for our group before heading to Toy Story Midway Mania
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(not my photo, but it was just like this) it was plenty crowded, CinderellaLove and 'C' stayed back to wait till the crowds died down.
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they got some good photos and tried to ignore the crowd pressing in around them.

As the rope drop processional moved forward, I moved in the lump of people to the RSR FP area, I had a FP by 10:05, and it was already for the 11:35 hour. Not a problem for us at all, just shocking how fast those FP ran through.

On our way to TSMM we saw another photographer, so we stopped
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and got our second (and sadly last) magic shot photo.

then we rushed to TSMM, this was new since our last visit, I had low expectations of it, I had been told it is like a longer version of Astro Blasters, which is true enough, but the themeing and game play on this are so much better,

'C' posed with a couple of the attraction posters.
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since it was a first ride of the day we probably only had to wait about 15 or so minutes (I'm sure it would have been faster if we didn't stop for the FP and photo.

as I mentioned the ride was amazingly fun, and the technology was very impressive, here is my score:
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I'm sure it is terrible, but it was better than either of their scores :upsidedow, I probably would not have done as well if I were trying to instruct 'C' After mild debate (and a bathroom/drink break) 'C' and I headed to Mickey's Wheel of death (Mickey's fun Wheel, sliding gondolas)

'C' kept going on and on about how much he needed to go on the Tower of Terror, while CinderellaLove and myself have intentionally kept a very healthy distance from it, since it opened. I have rarely heard of people liking the Wheel of Death, but for some reason have wanted to ride on it since way back when it was the Sun Wheel. I've never been able to convince anyone to go on it with me. (CinderellaLove having had a near death experience on a lap bar only Farris wheel as a child)
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I've herd of countless thrill seekers who swear they will never go on that ride again, and figured that if I told 'C' that this was a lot less scary than TOT he would not insist on riding that.

When we got on, we saw this:
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I imagined that TOT discussion would end with this ride and a thoroughly shaken child.

No such luck. Neither he, nor I found the ride to be the least bit frightening or nauseating (perhaps they would not be necessary if there were no alcohol in the park) this only encouraged him further, as he was not even a little bothered by this legendarily frightening ride.

At least I found a new favorite ride at the park.

by now it was around 11:30 (I don't know where the time kept going on this trip) and our FP were coming up for RSR. We stopped at California Screamin' it only had a 25 minute wait, but we were all eager to return to cars land, and didn't want to miss our FP time, so we pulled a FP for Screamin' and went to RSR,

This time we got the ride photo
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We made sure 'C' got to be the 'driver,' incidentally we won the race. (the night before it was so dark and crazy that we didn't figure out who won)

Since it was already noon, (and our lunch reservations were for 2) we got a quick snack at the Cozy Cone. 'C' got at cone shaped cookie, we got a regular pop-cone, and Doc's Wild Grape Tonic
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Basically it is grape juice mixed with sprite, but the grape flavored foam was really fun on top, like a grape whipped cream!

because of how time had been moving for us, we decided that it would be smart to relocate to Hollywood Land until lunch, we went on the Monsters inc. ride and checked out Off the Page, (where I was sad to not find the disney park attraction poster pack, which I later was told was out of stock on the whole resort)

Suddenly somehow it was 2pm and time for our lunch.
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The decorations were almost all up for the 60th. 'C' was very impressed by the grandeur of the restaurant. It makes him feel important to eat at fancy places. (me too I suppose) I really enjoyed the high level of theaming.
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The frescoes really evoked the feel of Snow White, without being blatant, or childish.
Our World of Color menu was Prix Fixe, so our options were somewhat limited, I felt bad for 'C' who wanted to eat here so badly, the adult menu had a Burger, which his 'C's favorite food, but the child menu did not, and was not in our opinion, particularly child friendly.

He started with the Roasted Creamy Tomato Soup
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CinderellaLove and I both had the Lemongrass Coconut Broth
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we agreed that the tomato soup was very much like my homemade creamy tomato soup, but without garlic or fresh basil, and the Lemongrass Coconut Broth, was nearly the same taste as my homemade buttered yellow curry, just with pork and noodles instead of chicken and rice.

As I mentioned before, we were both very concerned that the food we ate out would be disappointing, finding that it tasted like homemade with fresh ingredients was a pleasant outcome.

For dinner 'C' had the seasonal fish, which was a lightly disappointing citrus crusted salmon. Flavorful, but a bit dry and too much salt in the rub.
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(not exactly kid friendly, even if he did eat half of it)
CinderellaLove got the aforementioned burger
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Which was a phenomenal burger and everything a fantastic burger should be, including hand made pickles (you can tell) and ripe heirloom tomatoes. She ended up sharing a lot of her fires with 'C' I got the short rib sandwich, which also came with fries. The fries were good, all of them crispy, but nothing particularly special. (I will perhaps forever miss the salt and pepper shoestrings from Award Weiners)

Also CinderellaLove and I ordered the Pomegranate Lemonade, (which I am convinced is the exact same thing as the 'Practically Perfect Punch' from Jolly Holiday since they pulled out an Odwalla bottle of Pomegranate Lemonade after we ordered that). CinderellaLove and I both thought it was WAY too strong, so we asked for it to be cut 50% with Sprite, which produced a very good combination.

As a rule we found that the service was rather lacking, but we were pleased that the waitress did come back one time to refill our drinks, and had a special pitcher of our drink blend just for us.

For dessert there were only two options, the Valrhona Milk Chocolate Crème Brûlée Tart
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which CinderellaLove got, and the Meyer Lemon and Macadamia Nut Semifreddo
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which I got, lemon being my favorite desert flavor.

'C' got a simple scoop of vanilla bean ice cream.

CinderellaLove and I had mixed feelings about the meal. The restaurant feels completely removed from the theme park experience. besides balloons, backpacks and patrons in tank tops, I might have believed we were eating in an exclusive Napa restaurant on a Friday evening. but the service was rather inattentive, and despite the quality, the prices still felt high. Since we paid with gift cards I left a cash tip. The meal cost more than $100 but I could not see leaving even a 15% tip, nor could I see how that is considered fair, (this person who must have had at least 6 tables in the hour she served us would stand to make $50-75 an hour in tips alone, and for disappointing service) I left $10 feeling both that I was cheated, and that if anyone knew I would be highly scorned.

When we left we headed to the Animation Academy, because that is where our angel works, and we hoped to catch her in action. She was said to be on rotation when we went, but sadly was not on staff for our session.
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still, it was very fun and I was surprised how well our pictures turned out, especially 'C's considering that he is only 6 and has not tried drawing before this.

Alas, this left me in Hollywood Land, and out of excuses. 'C' still really wanted to go on the Tower of Terror.

as we walked to our execution... I mean the ride.... CinderellaLove backed out, with my permission, I don't know what I expected, but there seemed to be very little of the line in the building. 'C' loved the creepy ambiance and I held him up so he could watch the video. In short order we got to the elevator, we were both anxious as it moved around, showing the 'pre-show' and I was very surprised that it was over so quickly .

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When I got off I told CinderellaLove that it only seemed that we dropped a few floors and nothing like what it looks from the outside. Still I was done, glad it was over and had no desire to ride it ever again. 'C' however declared that it was his absolutely favorite ride we had been on thus far. :earseek: o_O

Now it was nearly 4 and we really wanted to get on Grizzly River Run before it got too late for us to dry off. but just as we got to the spinning platform, we were told there was a problem with the ride, and it was shut down, and we had to leave. :confused3

we headed to little mermaid (since that was close and CinderellaLove and I have been interested in riding it since it was diagrammed on the DVD release years ago. (CinderellaLove and I were both glad they got rid of the creepy Woopi Emmy thing) then we headed back to the Raft ride.

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apparently a group had been stuck on the up-ramp for over a half hour and one man in particular was stuck under the 'leaking pipe' for the whole time, unable to move, I couldn't believe his poor luck.

we waited about 10 more minutes in the area and saw the ride finally moving, people were getting free!
We rode it, and CinderellaLove was rather wet, she and 'C' got Ponchos and we walked on it again! It's my favorite ride in the park, so I was glad for the chance.

Then thoroughly soaked and quite foot weary, CinderellaLove waited in like for WOC, it was now 7pm, 'C' and I went to get Corn dogs for dinner, by way of Goofy's sky school. Which had a 20 minute wait.

I found the ride to be much more terrifying than TOT, it seemed that if I did not hold on tight I would be thrown from the car at every (and there were many) turn!

We than grabbed both a traditional corn dog and a Hot Link
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The hot links are a little bigger.

And headed to meet CinderellaLove. The Hot Link was really spicy after more than a bite or 2, but we ate all of them both, shortly after, World of Color began.

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I really tried to love it, everyone says it is the best, and better than Fantasmic! but I found it to be a 30 minute long commercial for Disney movies, if failed to tell any kind of a story that I could see, and made a big spectacle of Mufasa dieing in front of Simba with no resolution, just a change in movie clips.

The only part I really liked was the Jack Sparrow portion and the first use of flame throwers (which I was not told to anticipate) After WOC, we trudged back to the entrance to the park in a block of people, and made it back to our hotel to crash, grateful that the next day was our break day.
 

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