....OK not really a “fight” actually, just the opposite; more like many hours of swimming and relaxing.
8:00 AM - MY GOD THESE BEDS ARE COMFORTABLE. We have breakfast reservations for 9:30 so I will let the wife sleep in a bit more while I enjoy my last “Morning of Zen TM” for this trip. Given that is is Sunday, there is no activity at the construction sites, no pounding of hammers, so the Zen is of a much higher quality today. Depending on when we come back here, Downtown Disney is going to be either somewhat different, or TOTALLY different. Lots of shops have closed in preparation for new shops and the new hotel.
I go outside of the room for a minute, and there it is, hanging on our door: The White Envelope Of Dispair.
The folio.
We are, indeed, going to have to leave.
9:15 AM - We are ready, sort of, so we head down to our cabana to drop off our luggage and then to Storyteller’s cafe for dinner with Mickey and his buddies. This used to be Chip N Dale’s thing, with their critter friends (raccoons, bears, etc), but it now features Mickey, Minnie, Pluto and the Chipmunks, all dressed in their Adventurer’s outfits. The characters are always fun and engaging, but make no mistake, we come for the food. It is a top-notch breakfast buffet. I have said it before and I will say it again, they manage to find a way to keep the food tasting completely fresh even after it sits for a few minutes. Always delicious.
After breakfast, back to the cabana to meet our cabana host and get a key to the gates, since we have checked out our room keys will not get us into the pool after 11 AM. After we get that, we are off into DCA for one last ride: The Grizzly River Rapids. Dressed in our bathing suits, who gives a shit if we get totally drenched?
And we do, sort of. We have been wetter, but we are wet enough to be glad that we were wearing our bathing suits.
Out of the park for the last time this trip, and I am overwhelmed with melancholy, as I always am when these vacations are winding down.
Tracey points out, quite correctly, that this place should actually be called “The Saddest Place On Earth” - at least on the day you leave it.
We have a wonderful day at the pool and our cabana. What a difference a month makes, though. Last time we did this, which was just after Labour Day, 2015, we basically had the pool to ourselves. We joked it was our private pool, as there were no more than 6 people in the pool at any one time all day. This time, it was kid-a-palooza in OUR pool, for the entire day. This is Disneyland for chrissake, don’t these parents want to take their little monsters into the freaking parks or something??
I have become the “Get those kids off my lawn” guy, and I’m fine with that - but I don’t have a lawn, so THIS POOL is my lawn!
Anyway, it’s still a great day, a relaxing way to end a fantastic, but hectic, 5 days.
4:30 PM - We are waiting for our driver to pick us up and I check out the app to confirm everything is on time expected and I notice that the app has tracking, and he is about 2 minutes away. We grab our stuff and head outside, and arrive just as he is pulling up. Into the car and it’s off to SNA for our flight home.
Since we know we are only getting a snack on this flight, we stop at McDonald’s for a quick bite. Good thing we are not in a hurry, as they are so incompetent. They take forever to get our meal, then give mine to the guy behind me. Thankfully he had not yet left so we were able to switch, but if he had been a bit faster to leave the restaurant they would have had to re-do our order and we would probably still be there. Clowns. And not the “Ronald McDonald” type.
6:45 PM - Our flight takes off, right on time, and we settle in for the flight home. We were right to have a small snack, I think, as the meal choices are identical to what we had on the way down: a protein plate, or a moderately sized salad. Again, we choose one of each and will share.
The fragrant salty nuts arrive. MMMM I have to start warming my nuts.
Flight is underway and let’s assume (hopefully) there is nothing particularly newsworthy during the flight or the drive home, so I will upload this and call it a day. It will be after Midnight by the time we pull into the house so I will be heading right to bed, not updating the blog.
What a trip! Great food, great wine, new friends, and Disney. What could be better?
And although this trip was way too short and we can’t believe we are headed home already, we have to remember this is not our big vacation this year. Next up: November, Hawaii. One week at a resort and a Norwegian cruise around the Islands*. Can’t wait!
Thanks for reading and hope you had a chuckle or two!
* At least, the Islands that are not buried in lava by that point
Sunday, 5 August 2018
Saturday, 4 August 2018
Vacation Blog IX, Part V, are we really going home tomorrow???
....I think I may just bar the door to our hotel room and refuse to leave.
6:30 AM - Up a bit earlier today for no particular reason, but feel like I slept well. We have no specific plans today until lunch at the Blue Bayou at 12:50, but we intend on heading into Disneyland to finish up a few things we haven’t yet done....and there are still a few things on our list for DCA as well, so today is likely to be a busy day.
Off to the parks to hit a few more rides that we have missed so far, take another ride on Space Mountain, and do a tremendous amount of shopping. We are doing our part for the economy, that is for sure. I guarantee we are better for the US Economy than Donald Fucking Trump is.
12:50 - We get seated at a table near the water at the Blue Bayou for our lunch reservation. The ambiance here is unparalleled, but it wouldn’t be the success that it is if not for the food. Tracey orders a chicken dish which is very tasty (albeit just a tad spicy for her admittedly). My lunch, a salmon dish with a tomato and caper relish, white cheddar mashed potatoes and a basil beurre blanc, is perhaps the best salmon dish I have ever eaten. If not, it’s in the top 2-3. Sublime.
3:15 PM - Back to the room to rest a bit and decompress from a busy morning. The wife is having a nap. I tried to nap too, but it didn’t take. One of those instances where I feel like I’m tired enough to sleep but my body says “not so fast, fat boy!!!!”.
I will let the wife sleep for a little while, we still have a ton to do tonight but the more rested she is, the better chance that Grumpy Bear stays hibernating tonight.
5:00 PM - She is up and we are getting ready to go back to Carthay Circle. We are not going to be able to sit down for dinner but we aren’t that hungry anyway so we don’t care, we are going to go to their lounge and have some nibbles and wine. We have a Fastpass for the Radiator Springs Racers at 7:10 so we don’t have a ton of time anyway.
We get a great table and perhaps the world’s best waiter, Kevin. He could not be friendlier, could not be more efficient, even bringing us a couple glasses of Chardonnay as samples to compare against the Chardonnay we had ordered to accompany our cheese plate. We had intended to partake in some more Opus One but honestly we were out of time and didn’t want to be rushed. Perhaps next time! Actually not “PERHAPS”. DEFINITELY next time.
This was a great experience, and at the end of it, Contented Bear was out in full force. Our favourite member of the Bear family! :)
For the first time ever, I lost at Radiator Springs Racers. It means exactly nothing, of course, I am sure it is just a random finish, but we were 5-0 before tonight. I am pretty sure I’ve never lost at ANYTHING before, in my life, EVER. So this is what it feels like. I don’t care for it much. I will make sure I never lose at anything again.
I am not sure why my wife is laughing so hard at that.
9:15 PM - The Paint the Night Parade, which started at 8:50, finally makes it’s way to us. We have seen a variation of this parade before, but it has been altered and updated and it is really quite spectacular.
After the parade, one more ride, our 3rd experience with Soarin’ Around the World, and then it is time to say goodnight. We will be back into this park tomorrow morning for one more ride, maybe two, if plans work out.
10:30 PM - Back in the room and ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ time for sleep. Thankfully these beds are incredibly comfortable, making a good night’s sleep almost a certainty. And we need it. I need it. I am too old for this shit.
While I update the blog and prepare for sleep, Tracey is finishing up the packing. And by “finishing up”, I mean “undoing everything I have already done and re-doing it to her satisfaction”.
Tomorrow we are going to take the relaxation up to 11, with a nearly full day at a Cabana before we fly home tomorrow night. And first, breakfast with Mickey at Storyteller’s Cafe!
6:30 AM - Up a bit earlier today for no particular reason, but feel like I slept well. We have no specific plans today until lunch at the Blue Bayou at 12:50, but we intend on heading into Disneyland to finish up a few things we haven’t yet done....and there are still a few things on our list for DCA as well, so today is likely to be a busy day.
Off to the parks to hit a few more rides that we have missed so far, take another ride on Space Mountain, and do a tremendous amount of shopping. We are doing our part for the economy, that is for sure. I guarantee we are better for the US Economy than Donald Fucking Trump is.
12:50 - We get seated at a table near the water at the Blue Bayou for our lunch reservation. The ambiance here is unparalleled, but it wouldn’t be the success that it is if not for the food. Tracey orders a chicken dish which is very tasty (albeit just a tad spicy for her admittedly). My lunch, a salmon dish with a tomato and caper relish, white cheddar mashed potatoes and a basil beurre blanc, is perhaps the best salmon dish I have ever eaten. If not, it’s in the top 2-3. Sublime.
3:15 PM - Back to the room to rest a bit and decompress from a busy morning. The wife is having a nap. I tried to nap too, but it didn’t take. One of those instances where I feel like I’m tired enough to sleep but my body says “not so fast, fat boy!!!!”.
I will let the wife sleep for a little while, we still have a ton to do tonight but the more rested she is, the better chance that Grumpy Bear stays hibernating tonight.
5:00 PM - She is up and we are getting ready to go back to Carthay Circle. We are not going to be able to sit down for dinner but we aren’t that hungry anyway so we don’t care, we are going to go to their lounge and have some nibbles and wine. We have a Fastpass for the Radiator Springs Racers at 7:10 so we don’t have a ton of time anyway.
We get a great table and perhaps the world’s best waiter, Kevin. He could not be friendlier, could not be more efficient, even bringing us a couple glasses of Chardonnay as samples to compare against the Chardonnay we had ordered to accompany our cheese plate. We had intended to partake in some more Opus One but honestly we were out of time and didn’t want to be rushed. Perhaps next time! Actually not “PERHAPS”. DEFINITELY next time.
This was a great experience, and at the end of it, Contented Bear was out in full force. Our favourite member of the Bear family! :)
For the first time ever, I lost at Radiator Springs Racers. It means exactly nothing, of course, I am sure it is just a random finish, but we were 5-0 before tonight. I am pretty sure I’ve never lost at ANYTHING before, in my life, EVER. So this is what it feels like. I don’t care for it much. I will make sure I never lose at anything again.
I am not sure why my wife is laughing so hard at that.
9:15 PM - The Paint the Night Parade, which started at 8:50, finally makes it’s way to us. We have seen a variation of this parade before, but it has been altered and updated and it is really quite spectacular.
After the parade, one more ride, our 3rd experience with Soarin’ Around the World, and then it is time to say goodnight. We will be back into this park tomorrow morning for one more ride, maybe two, if plans work out.
10:30 PM - Back in the room and ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ time for sleep. Thankfully these beds are incredibly comfortable, making a good night’s sleep almost a certainty. And we need it. I need it. I am too old for this shit.
While I update the blog and prepare for sleep, Tracey is finishing up the packing. And by “finishing up”, I mean “undoing everything I have already done and re-doing it to her satisfaction”.
Tomorrow we are going to take the relaxation up to 11, with a nearly full day at a Cabana before we fly home tomorrow night. And first, breakfast with Mickey at Storyteller’s Cafe!
Friday, 3 August 2018
Vacation Blog IX, Part 4, let’s try this Napa Rose thing again shall we?
A novel concept: Show up for dinner on the day you actually made reservations for.
7:30 AM - Up and refreshed after a pretty good sleep. We will see if the wife feels the same when she gets up. I guess I was snoring again, even with my CPAP mask on, which is unusual. I know this because I was awakened by a pillow shot from Grouchy Bear during the night and told to “fix (my) fucking mask” or something along those lines. Perhaps I had mistakenly turned down the flow of oxygen, I am not sure, but hopefully when I turned it up and went back to sleep the snoring was gone and she could get some sleep. As I sit here and type this, I honestly don’t know which member of the Bear family is going to emerge from hibernation this morning :)
I’ve said it before and it bears repeating, no pun intended: How can my snoring be such a bother to someone who wears earplugs to bed and can sleep through a fire alarm?? I guess I have to find a way to make my snoring much, much louder and more like a siren.
8:45 AM - She is up and we are, sadly, greeted with perhaps the worst of the family, Dizzy Bear. Another unfortunate, albeit rare, side effect of the medication. This could definitely put a damper on some of our plans today, as Dizzy Bear ain’t going on any rides, but hopefully this will subside. I head down to the lobby to pick up our packages from yesterday, which we had shipped back to the hotel, and to pick up some pastries for breakfast. It behooves us to have a light breakfast today, with lunch at the Carthay Circle and dinner at Napa Rose on the itinerary.
Our plan for the morning is to go into DCA and check out the Fastpass situation. Perhaps will we be able to take in a show and enjoy the sights from the comfort of an Air Conditioned building. It is going to be flirting with 100 degrees today so neither of us is going to want to be in the bright sun for long stretches of time.
After Dizzy Bear made it through a repeat-experience of Soarin’ , which is still awesome, we head up to the Hyperion Theatre for a performance of Frozen Live! It is really good, and they managed to get all of the main plot points of the story condensed into 60 minutes. The girls playing Anna and Elsa are not going to make anyone forget Idina Menzel and Kirsten Bell, but they were still very good.
1:20: We check in for our lunch reservations at Carthay Circle. While waiting in the lounge, I notice they have an extensive “by the glass” wine list, and a special page of 4 high-end wines that you can get by the ounce! Yes, BY THE OUNCE! For $21, you can get an ounce of 2014 Opus One! For $66, you can get 5-ounces, and it is only $330 for a bottle! Now, some of you are saying “What do you mean ONLY $330, you moron?” . Well, you could not possible get a bottle of Opus One FROM THE WINERY for less than that, and to get it at less than retail on a restaurant menu? IN DISNEYLAND? Unheard of!!
We are shortly escorted upstairs to our table where we are presented with the full wine menu and OH MY GOD THE WINE IS SO CHEAP!! I think I had forgotten how reasonable the wine prices were here. We end up ordering a bottle of 2013 Almaviva, a high-end red blend from Chile. It costs $116. For comparison sake, I just bought a bottle of this wine (the 2015 vintage) from wine.com for $129.99! And to get this back home would cost $199.99 or more. How can a restaurant sell wine for less than retail??? What a spectacular deal.
In addition to the Almaviva, we order two 5-ounce glasses of Opus One, and we drink both wines side by side paired with our lunch, which is a lovely Thai Sirloin steak dish. Both wines are just fantastic. For full details on them, you will just have to read my wine blog when I am home and do a full report.
After lunch we stop at the front desk and try to see if there is any way we can get in here for dinner tomorrow night. They are booked, but they give us a couple of good ideas to try. We will be back at 5 PM when dinner service starts to try to get a table, and worse case scenario we will just sit in the lunch with a cheese plate and a bottle of Opus One. There are worse ways to spend a “dinner” !!!
Let me tell you, Napa Rose is going to have it’s work cut out for it to try to come close to matching the wine that we just had for lunch! What a treat! And, as a bonus, the wine actually took away the last lingering bit of dizziness that Tracey was experiencing, so Dizzy Bear has been fully replaced by Contented Bear. That is quite an upgrade :)
5:30 PM - Back in the room and time for a short nap before Tracey has to get up and begin “The Process - Fancy Dinner Edition, Take 2 TM”.
8:00 PM - At Napa Rose and it’s actually time for our reservation this time. We are seated at the Chef’s Table, with two other people, a young half-Vietnamese girl who lives in Florida and her male ex-co-worker, who lives here.
Wait, you may be asking, how the fuck would Dean know that the random stranger sitting next to him is half-Vietnamese? More on that later.
The food begins coming and the wine is flowing. Our excellent waiter has been informed what they are serving us (we didn’t order anything, they asked us what we liked and didn’t like and they are setting the menu from there), and he is pairing the wines with that.
As the evening starts, we get to talking with our table mates and we quickly find out that Carolyn, who is sitting next to me, seriously knows her shit when it comes to wine. Her friend is a self-described “beer guy” so the wine is newer to him. She is from here but lives in Florida, and you KNOW that Trump came up and she has some issues with people working for her who are supporters of the Cheeto In Chief. We mentioned that
Anyway, as dinner wears on we get very friendly with them, even tasting each other’s wine (and I know that grosses some people out, but honestly it doesn’t bother me in the least unless the person I am sharing with is showing obvious signs of the flu!!!) and chatting throughout. The entire evening was terrrific, made even better by the company of our new friends. What a delightful evening.
I will have full food and wine details, including pictures, on my wine blog when I am home and have time to upload the pictures and review the wines. One of my courses was Filet of Buffalo, with Buffalo tongue as an accompaniment. Carolyn, who loves that kind of thing, was desperate to taste my tongue, and told me my tongue was amazing. That actually happened.
Her friend, Donovan, also thoroughly enjoyed my tongue.
That also actually happened.
Oh, and did I mention that Donovan is a hockey fan? His favourite team?
THE FUCKING NEW JERSEY DEVILS!!!!!
What are the odds, do you think, of us sitting next to a guy from California who is a fan of the Devils, and Martin Brodeur specifically? Fuck my password for almost everything was Brodeur30 for like a decade (don’t test that, it is NOT currently my password for anything).
Back in the room and I am updating the blog before it is time to try to get a good sleep. Tomorrow is our last full day here before we head home and we want to make sure we get to everything we have yet to tackle. Another absolutely fantastic day!
7:30 AM - Up and refreshed after a pretty good sleep. We will see if the wife feels the same when she gets up. I guess I was snoring again, even with my CPAP mask on, which is unusual. I know this because I was awakened by a pillow shot from Grouchy Bear during the night and told to “fix (my) fucking mask” or something along those lines. Perhaps I had mistakenly turned down the flow of oxygen, I am not sure, but hopefully when I turned it up and went back to sleep the snoring was gone and she could get some sleep. As I sit here and type this, I honestly don’t know which member of the Bear family is going to emerge from hibernation this morning :)
I’ve said it before and it bears repeating, no pun intended: How can my snoring be such a bother to someone who wears earplugs to bed and can sleep through a fire alarm?? I guess I have to find a way to make my snoring much, much louder and more like a siren.
8:45 AM - She is up and we are, sadly, greeted with perhaps the worst of the family, Dizzy Bear. Another unfortunate, albeit rare, side effect of the medication. This could definitely put a damper on some of our plans today, as Dizzy Bear ain’t going on any rides, but hopefully this will subside. I head down to the lobby to pick up our packages from yesterday, which we had shipped back to the hotel, and to pick up some pastries for breakfast. It behooves us to have a light breakfast today, with lunch at the Carthay Circle and dinner at Napa Rose on the itinerary.
Our plan for the morning is to go into DCA and check out the Fastpass situation. Perhaps will we be able to take in a show and enjoy the sights from the comfort of an Air Conditioned building. It is going to be flirting with 100 degrees today so neither of us is going to want to be in the bright sun for long stretches of time.
After Dizzy Bear made it through a repeat-experience of Soarin’ , which is still awesome, we head up to the Hyperion Theatre for a performance of Frozen Live! It is really good, and they managed to get all of the main plot points of the story condensed into 60 minutes. The girls playing Anna and Elsa are not going to make anyone forget Idina Menzel and Kirsten Bell, but they were still very good.
1:20: We check in for our lunch reservations at Carthay Circle. While waiting in the lounge, I notice they have an extensive “by the glass” wine list, and a special page of 4 high-end wines that you can get by the ounce! Yes, BY THE OUNCE! For $21, you can get an ounce of 2014 Opus One! For $66, you can get 5-ounces, and it is only $330 for a bottle! Now, some of you are saying “What do you mean ONLY $330, you moron?” . Well, you could not possible get a bottle of Opus One FROM THE WINERY for less than that, and to get it at less than retail on a restaurant menu? IN DISNEYLAND? Unheard of!!
We are shortly escorted upstairs to our table where we are presented with the full wine menu and OH MY GOD THE WINE IS SO CHEAP!! I think I had forgotten how reasonable the wine prices were here. We end up ordering a bottle of 2013 Almaviva, a high-end red blend from Chile. It costs $116. For comparison sake, I just bought a bottle of this wine (the 2015 vintage) from wine.com for $129.99! And to get this back home would cost $199.99 or more. How can a restaurant sell wine for less than retail??? What a spectacular deal.
In addition to the Almaviva, we order two 5-ounce glasses of Opus One, and we drink both wines side by side paired with our lunch, which is a lovely Thai Sirloin steak dish. Both wines are just fantastic. For full details on them, you will just have to read my wine blog when I am home and do a full report.
After lunch we stop at the front desk and try to see if there is any way we can get in here for dinner tomorrow night. They are booked, but they give us a couple of good ideas to try. We will be back at 5 PM when dinner service starts to try to get a table, and worse case scenario we will just sit in the lunch with a cheese plate and a bottle of Opus One. There are worse ways to spend a “dinner” !!!
Let me tell you, Napa Rose is going to have it’s work cut out for it to try to come close to matching the wine that we just had for lunch! What a treat! And, as a bonus, the wine actually took away the last lingering bit of dizziness that Tracey was experiencing, so Dizzy Bear has been fully replaced by Contented Bear. That is quite an upgrade :)
5:30 PM - Back in the room and time for a short nap before Tracey has to get up and begin “The Process - Fancy Dinner Edition, Take 2 TM”.
8:00 PM - At Napa Rose and it’s actually time for our reservation this time. We are seated at the Chef’s Table, with two other people, a young half-Vietnamese girl who lives in Florida and her male ex-co-worker, who lives here.
Wait, you may be asking, how the fuck would Dean know that the random stranger sitting next to him is half-Vietnamese? More on that later.
The food begins coming and the wine is flowing. Our excellent waiter has been informed what they are serving us (we didn’t order anything, they asked us what we liked and didn’t like and they are setting the menu from there), and he is pairing the wines with that.
As the evening starts, we get to talking with our table mates and we quickly find out that Carolyn, who is sitting next to me, seriously knows her shit when it comes to wine. Her friend is a self-described “beer guy” so the wine is newer to him. She is from here but lives in Florida, and you KNOW that Trump came up and she has some issues with people working for her who are supporters of the Cheeto In Chief. We mentioned that
Anyway, as dinner wears on we get very friendly with them, even tasting each other’s wine (and I know that grosses some people out, but honestly it doesn’t bother me in the least unless the person I am sharing with is showing obvious signs of the flu!!!) and chatting throughout. The entire evening was terrrific, made even better by the company of our new friends. What a delightful evening.
I will have full food and wine details, including pictures, on my wine blog when I am home and have time to upload the pictures and review the wines. One of my courses was Filet of Buffalo, with Buffalo tongue as an accompaniment. Carolyn, who loves that kind of thing, was desperate to taste my tongue, and told me my tongue was amazing. That actually happened.
Her friend, Donovan, also thoroughly enjoyed my tongue.
That also actually happened.
Oh, and did I mention that Donovan is a hockey fan? His favourite team?
THE FUCKING NEW JERSEY DEVILS!!!!!
What are the odds, do you think, of us sitting next to a guy from California who is a fan of the Devils, and Martin Brodeur specifically? Fuck my password for almost everything was Brodeur30 for like a decade (don’t test that, it is NOT currently my password for anything).
Back in the room and I am updating the blog before it is time to try to get a good sleep. Tomorrow is our last full day here before we head home and we want to make sure we get to everything we have yet to tackle. Another absolutely fantastic day!
Thursday, 2 August 2018
Vacation Blog IX, Part Three, we start with some Zen and end with some Zin.....
....OK as I write this I have no idea if there will actually be any Zin at dinner tonight, but we are eating at the Chef’s Table at Napa Rose, and there will be wine pairings with dinner, so I figure there is a pretty good chance.
7:15 AM - That’s a decent sleep-in for me...of course it was probably around 1 AM before I fell asleep, but whatever. Thankfully my body didn’t force me up at 5 AM like it does so often.
But now, the problem of getting up and out without waking the wife.
In my mind, I’m hearing the theme from Mission: Impossible.
“Your’re mission, if you choose to accept it, is to get out of bed, get to the bathroom, pee, wash your hands, go to the fridge and grab a tasty beverage and somehow open the patio door, all of this without waking up Exhausted Bear. Should you choose to accept this mission and fail, the consequences will undoubtedly be the appearance of Grumpy Bear, and quite possibly even Bitchy Bear, so choose wisely”
Clearly the smart thing would be to lie here, and not move a muscle, for another 3 to 4 hours. But nobody ever said I was smart.
7:30 AM - I manage to succeed in my mission and let me tell you, finding a way to get out to the patio without opening the curtains and letting in the bright California morning sun was quite a challenge. Out on the patio with my Diet Coke and enjoying my morning of Zen. Admittedly there is slightly less Zen than there usually is as I sit here overlooking Downtown Disney, as there is a ton of construction going on as they make several significant changes to the shopping district. Even at this hour, the silent tranquility that usually exists here is replaced by construction workers on the roofs of the buildings directly across from me. They are completely renovating the pizza joint right across the “street”, and adding a famous craft beer location called Ballast Point next to it. Our favourite ice cream place, Haagen Daaz is closed as well, being replaced by a different ice cream joint later this year. Several changes have already been made, including the addition of a Splitsville Luxury Lanes bowling alley and eatery, and a Disney Home store. Looking forward to checking those out over the next couple of days.
Oh, and if that wasn’t enough, construction on their fourth Hotel, a Four-Diamond property, starts this year and should be completed in 2021. Given what we pay for rooms at the Grand Californian, I cannot even imagine what those rooms will go for. What I do know, however, is that I guarantee we will pay whatever it is. Staying on property is a must, at any price.
At this point in my story I.....how can I put this delicately......I notice an “impending intestinal requirement”, as George Costanza would put it, that is going to require another mission. I manage to leave the patio, satisfy my requirement (in TOTAL DARKNESS) and get back to the patio without waking up any member of the Bear family. This is, honestly, one of the great accomplishments of my life.
8:23 AM - The patio door starts to open. I immediately grab a patio chair to fight off this obvious intruder, who must have already fought his or her way through the family of bears to get to me.
Wait, it’s the wife. Good thing the patio chair was too heavy for me to pick up and swing. She is up wayyyyyyyy earlier than anticipated. She looks a bit tired, but says that she had a good sleep and is ready to start our day. We still don’t know exactly what today will look like, but I guess we will start with breakfast and go from there. So much to do still, so much to see, so much merchandise to buy, and so little time.
Off to the parks! We use the special entrance for hotel guests and are into DCA where we sit down for a couple of minutes to get our Fastpasses for whatever is available. It is already incredibly hot, so we figure we might as well start with Splash Mountain because if we get soaked, we will dry off almost instantly. On our way to Disneyland we stop at a little cafe which turns out to be a fucking Starbucks to grab a simple breakfast. I have a couple of breakfast sandwiches, and they are the best thing I have ever had from Starblows. One of them is good and the other one is excellent. As we exit through the main DCA gate we notice an INSANE lineup to get into Disneyland. Wow, the longest line I have ever seen. We have about 45 minutes to get into the park and over to Splash Mountain, and Ifeel like there is a reasonable chance we might not make it, but I am wrong. The lineup really doesn’t take that long and we get to the ride in plenty of time to redeem our Fastpass. As always, a terrific ride, and we get damp, not soaked. It is pretty random, because the young girls in the front of our log get absolutely drenched.
We hit a couple more rides, have some ice cream and do some shopping, and at this point I am tired and need to rest a bit.....so it is time to leave the park and head back to the room. Tracey mocks me as I am supposed to be the one that can Disney all day and night, and here I am needing to hear back to the room. The mocking is probably fair.
2:00 PM - Back to the room and we need to have a little lunch, so we order a couple of sandwiches from room service. We are both tired and I suspect there may be a nap coming up but we have to eat first, we can’t make it to our dinner at 8 PM on two breakfast sandwiches and 2 scoops of ice cream.
5:55 PM - Awake from my nap and enjoying a tasty beverage on the patio while the wife catches a bit more sleep. I made the mistake of trying to wake her up to get ready for dinner and was harshly rebuffed by Fuck You Bear.
It seems as if I was snoring pretty good during my nap, making her attempt at a nap less than successful. My wife is a treasure, but I will never understand how she can sleep through a fire alarm, twice (TRUE FUCKING STORY!!!!), but the sound of my snoring makes it impossible to sleep.
I will let her sleep for a few minutes but she has to be up soon to begin “The Process - Fancy Dinner Edition TM” for our dinner at Napa Rose.
8:00 PM - So excited to arrive at Napa Rose. They are less excited to see us because it turns out our reservation is actually for tomorrow. Clearly, I am an idiot. Anyhoo.....since we already have reservations for dinner at Cathay Circle tomorrow, we are going to have to get creative. We are certainly not missing THIS dinner, so we stop by the front desk and get them to cancel the Carthay Circle dinner for now, and we head into Downtown Disney to have tonight’s dinner at Catal, our favourite DD restaurant.
Everything happens for a reason. And THANK CHRIST this happened, because Tracey’s medication is making her nauseous while we are eating dinner, and she eventually has to high-tail it back to the room. Thank GOD we aren’t sitting at our awesome dinner at Napa Rose while this happened. She will be feeling better tomorrow so this turned out to be a really positive development. Her medication doesn’t usually make her nauseous, but it did today. We dodged a bullet here.
While sitting at Catal, I book lunch for tomorrow at Carthay Circle so that we don’t totally miss out on one of our favourite restaurants. We are determined to make sure we don’t miss anything this trip, even if we have to adjust on the fly.
We get back to the room just in time to watch the new fireworks show, dedicated to Pixar. It is a great show and this is one of the reasons we pay to stay in these rooms.....pretty awesome to get to watch the show from the comfort of our patio.
Time for bed and tomorrow we have the two meals planned and nothing else. Hopefully the wife feels better, and we will have another great day!
7:15 AM - That’s a decent sleep-in for me...of course it was probably around 1 AM before I fell asleep, but whatever. Thankfully my body didn’t force me up at 5 AM like it does so often.
But now, the problem of getting up and out without waking the wife.
In my mind, I’m hearing the theme from Mission: Impossible.
“Your’re mission, if you choose to accept it, is to get out of bed, get to the bathroom, pee, wash your hands, go to the fridge and grab a tasty beverage and somehow open the patio door, all of this without waking up Exhausted Bear. Should you choose to accept this mission and fail, the consequences will undoubtedly be the appearance of Grumpy Bear, and quite possibly even Bitchy Bear, so choose wisely”
Clearly the smart thing would be to lie here, and not move a muscle, for another 3 to 4 hours. But nobody ever said I was smart.
7:30 AM - I manage to succeed in my mission and let me tell you, finding a way to get out to the patio without opening the curtains and letting in the bright California morning sun was quite a challenge. Out on the patio with my Diet Coke and enjoying my morning of Zen. Admittedly there is slightly less Zen than there usually is as I sit here overlooking Downtown Disney, as there is a ton of construction going on as they make several significant changes to the shopping district. Even at this hour, the silent tranquility that usually exists here is replaced by construction workers on the roofs of the buildings directly across from me. They are completely renovating the pizza joint right across the “street”, and adding a famous craft beer location called Ballast Point next to it. Our favourite ice cream place, Haagen Daaz is closed as well, being replaced by a different ice cream joint later this year. Several changes have already been made, including the addition of a Splitsville Luxury Lanes bowling alley and eatery, and a Disney Home store. Looking forward to checking those out over the next couple of days.
Oh, and if that wasn’t enough, construction on their fourth Hotel, a Four-Diamond property, starts this year and should be completed in 2021. Given what we pay for rooms at the Grand Californian, I cannot even imagine what those rooms will go for. What I do know, however, is that I guarantee we will pay whatever it is. Staying on property is a must, at any price.
At this point in my story I.....how can I put this delicately......I notice an “impending intestinal requirement”, as George Costanza would put it, that is going to require another mission. I manage to leave the patio, satisfy my requirement (in TOTAL DARKNESS) and get back to the patio without waking up any member of the Bear family. This is, honestly, one of the great accomplishments of my life.
8:23 AM - The patio door starts to open. I immediately grab a patio chair to fight off this obvious intruder, who must have already fought his or her way through the family of bears to get to me.
Wait, it’s the wife. Good thing the patio chair was too heavy for me to pick up and swing. She is up wayyyyyyyy earlier than anticipated. She looks a bit tired, but says that she had a good sleep and is ready to start our day. We still don’t know exactly what today will look like, but I guess we will start with breakfast and go from there. So much to do still, so much to see, so much merchandise to buy, and so little time.
Off to the parks! We use the special entrance for hotel guests and are into DCA where we sit down for a couple of minutes to get our Fastpasses for whatever is available. It is already incredibly hot, so we figure we might as well start with Splash Mountain because if we get soaked, we will dry off almost instantly. On our way to Disneyland we stop at a little cafe which turns out to be a fucking Starbucks to grab a simple breakfast. I have a couple of breakfast sandwiches, and they are the best thing I have ever had from Starblows. One of them is good and the other one is excellent. As we exit through the main DCA gate we notice an INSANE lineup to get into Disneyland. Wow, the longest line I have ever seen. We have about 45 minutes to get into the park and over to Splash Mountain, and Ifeel like there is a reasonable chance we might not make it, but I am wrong. The lineup really doesn’t take that long and we get to the ride in plenty of time to redeem our Fastpass. As always, a terrific ride, and we get damp, not soaked. It is pretty random, because the young girls in the front of our log get absolutely drenched.
We hit a couple more rides, have some ice cream and do some shopping, and at this point I am tired and need to rest a bit.....so it is time to leave the park and head back to the room. Tracey mocks me as I am supposed to be the one that can Disney all day and night, and here I am needing to hear back to the room. The mocking is probably fair.
2:00 PM - Back to the room and we need to have a little lunch, so we order a couple of sandwiches from room service. We are both tired and I suspect there may be a nap coming up but we have to eat first, we can’t make it to our dinner at 8 PM on two breakfast sandwiches and 2 scoops of ice cream.
5:55 PM - Awake from my nap and enjoying a tasty beverage on the patio while the wife catches a bit more sleep. I made the mistake of trying to wake her up to get ready for dinner and was harshly rebuffed by Fuck You Bear.
It seems as if I was snoring pretty good during my nap, making her attempt at a nap less than successful. My wife is a treasure, but I will never understand how she can sleep through a fire alarm, twice (TRUE FUCKING STORY!!!!), but the sound of my snoring makes it impossible to sleep.
I will let her sleep for a few minutes but she has to be up soon to begin “The Process - Fancy Dinner Edition TM” for our dinner at Napa Rose.
8:00 PM - So excited to arrive at Napa Rose. They are less excited to see us because it turns out our reservation is actually for tomorrow. Clearly, I am an idiot. Anyhoo.....since we already have reservations for dinner at Cathay Circle tomorrow, we are going to have to get creative. We are certainly not missing THIS dinner, so we stop by the front desk and get them to cancel the Carthay Circle dinner for now, and we head into Downtown Disney to have tonight’s dinner at Catal, our favourite DD restaurant.
Everything happens for a reason. And THANK CHRIST this happened, because Tracey’s medication is making her nauseous while we are eating dinner, and she eventually has to high-tail it back to the room. Thank GOD we aren’t sitting at our awesome dinner at Napa Rose while this happened. She will be feeling better tomorrow so this turned out to be a really positive development. Her medication doesn’t usually make her nauseous, but it did today. We dodged a bullet here.
While sitting at Catal, I book lunch for tomorrow at Carthay Circle so that we don’t totally miss out on one of our favourite restaurants. We are determined to make sure we don’t miss anything this trip, even if we have to adjust on the fly.
We get back to the room just in time to watch the new fireworks show, dedicated to Pixar. It is a great show and this is one of the reasons we pay to stay in these rooms.....pretty awesome to get to watch the show from the comfort of our patio.
Time for bed and tomorrow we have the two meals planned and nothing else. Hopefully the wife feels better, and we will have another great day!
Vacation Blog IX, Part 2, the vacation begins for realz!!!
6:15 AM - Yeah that’s about as late as I ever sleep these days. Here’s the problem with this hotel, or others like it: What, exactly do I do now? This bed is comfortable enough but if I move around a lot, Tracey will wake up. If I turn on any of my devices, the light will wake Tracey up. There is nowhere for me to go....it’s not a suite so I can’t adjourn to another room, there is no balcony for me to escape to....so basically, I will just lie here and stare at the ceiling until she wakes up.
This, then, is another reason to always make sure we are staying in high end hotels with a suite or balcony. I am ALWAYS up many hours before she is (although she is getting up much earlier these days), and I need somewhere to go. Sometimes I can seek refuge in the bathroom and just sit in the bathtub and read, but this particular hotel has no light inside the area where the bath is - the light is outside, with the vanity, which has no door - so if I do that, I either sit in the bathtub in the dark, or turn on a light that will wake her up. Oh, the horror.
And, it happens, I move slightly in the bed and my poor wife wakes up. I think I made the mistake of scratching my balls or something.
We gotta get her some serious sleeping pills for our trips. Several months ago we bought a new bed - a huge, awesome King sized bed - and now, ANY other bed is lacking. I could play 9 holes of golf in our bed and she wouldn’t wake up, and now anywhere we go, the bed doesn’t measure up and I can’t move much or she wakes up. This bed is fine, and it’s also a King, so the size of the bed isn’t a problem, but she has become used to not feeling any movement at night (insert your own joke here). It will be interesting to see how she is at the Grand Californian, where they always have very comfortable beds....but I bet they still won’t compare to ours.
The wife gets up, in a pretty good mood given that I just woke up Sleepy Bear from hibernation prematurely, and begins The Process (TM). It doesn’t take quite as long these days - she claims she is no longer “High Maintenance” but only “Medium-High” - and while she takes care of that, I pack up our stuff and get ready for breakfast. It is included in the price of the hotel, of course, and it is one of those little breakfast rooms with waffles and sausages, the kind of thing you see in almost all of these moderate hotels these days. It is fine, and it will do until our flight takes off.
10:15 AM - We get through security with TSA PreChek in about 30 seconds, no exaggeration. The airport seems really busy today but there is hardly anyone at security right now. Timing was excellent. Tracey is carrying needles onto the plane for the first time, which she tells them about, but they gave exactly zero fucks, not even taking them out of the bag or examining the liquid in them at all. I guess that’s a good thing?? Not totally sure about that.
We spend an hour at Vino Volvo tasting 5 wines, ranging from “pretty good” to “very good” (I will report on them on my wine blog after we are home). Wine tasting at 10 AM? No judgement, we are on vacation!!! The guy working here says they open at 7 AM and get people drinking wine all day, so that’s good enough for me!
11:30 - Waiting at our gate for them to call us for boarding. They call ‘pre-board’ first of course, and they announce that is meant for those travelling with kids under 2......then they go and let everyone with a kid under 30 board anyway. Not that it really matters, but if you are going to
announce over the loudspeaker that you are boarding kids under 2, why not try to, I dunno, stick to that policy at least a little? I swear they boarded 1/3 of the flight under “pre-board”.
1:20 PM - Updating my blog from 35,000 feet and was just served a Chardonnay and a plate of warm, salty nuts. Fuck I love First Class....especially on a flight full of kids.
Shortly thereafter they serve us lunch, and Tracey and I get one of each of the two choices: a Protein plate, featuring eggs, nuts, veggies and pita bread, and a steak salad with a sensational Miso Ginger dressing. I will admit I could have used something a bit more hearty - by this time I am pretty hungry - but certainly no complaints about the quality of the food, which is universally excellent on Alaska. Love this airline.
We have a superb flight attendant taking care of us; she knows I want a refill on myddddd Chardonnay before even I know I do. If this keeps up I’m going to be too drunk to keep righting this glob. *HICCUP*
Oh, and while I am sitting here, I turn on a few of our air conditioners at home so that the kids get a bit of relief from the heat. That’s right, we are now a “Smart Home”. Partially, at least. It almost seems natural these days, but think about that for a minute - I am on a plane, 35,000 feet in the air over Northern California, and I just turned on the air conditioners in my house in Chilliwack, with the touch of a button. That really is pretty remarkable.
2:57 PM - We land, exactly one minute early, and taxi to the gate in about 3 minutes....one of the advantages of flying into a smaller airport (SNA). We are met at baggage claim by our limo driver and we are off to the Grand California Hotel! They have recently finished a total renovation of the hotel, so we are looking forward to the changes.
4:00 PM - We are at the hotel, checked in and up in the room. Given that this is the middle of summer, and we arrived right at check in time, I am stunned it went so quickly. As always, the staff is as friendly as they could possible be. Love this hotel.
Our room is gorgeous, they have done a nice job of updating the decor, modernizing it a bit, without losing the Disney charm.
No time to lose, we don’t even bother to unpack, it is time to hit the parks!! First I have to go to a ticket booth and pick up my Annual Pass, which takes no time at all, and we are into Disney’s California Adventure. We never start in this park, but we have dinner scheduled here tonight and there is so much new here, we are expecting to spend a ton of time here while trying to hit all the new stuff. We start off with a quick lunch, just a couple of hot dogs, to tide us over until our dinner which isn’t until 8:15.
They now have an app that allows you to book Fastpasses from anywhere in the park - no longer needing to go to a specific ride and get a paper Fastpass (although that option is still available). We pick up Fastpasses for the Incredicoaster, which is the new theming of what used to be called Screamin’, but since they aren’t redeemable for a couple of hours, we have some time to hit a few other rides.
We notice that the stand-by lineup for Guardians of the Galaxy: Mission Breakout is only 40 minutes, which in Disneyspeak is probably 30ish, so we head down there to see what it is like. This is the re-theming of the Twilight Zone Tower of Terror. The basics of the ride are the same, up and down and up and JESUS CHRIST it is still going up and down and OH MY GOD this needs to end soon......
But it’s pretty cool. Beautifully re-themed with a cool little story and all of the Guardians make an appearance.
From there we headed to the brand new “Pixar Pier”, which has been totally redone in the theme of the many Pixar films. Brand new midway games, lots of new eateries, and re-theming of all of the major attractions (with more to come). While waiting for our time to come up for the Incredicoasted, we wander around, hit the Littie Mermaid ride (an underrated attraction which usually has a short lineup, and a bonus: it’s realllllly hot outside, and realllllly cool inside the ride!), and shop through all of the stores. As you would expect, they have done a fabulous job of capturing the spirit of Pixar. Can’t wait to see it when it is 100% done, sometime in 2019.
The Incredicoaster is a blast. Obviously the track is the same as it used to be, but they have added the story of the Incredibles and their baby boy, Jack-Jack: If you haven’t yet seen the Incredibles 2, I won’t go into too much detail, but it is a better ride than it used to be. Tons of fun.
8:15 PM - Time for dinner at the Lamplight Lounge, which used to be Ariel’s Grotto. They have taken a small menu and nice cocktail list and turned it into something special at a very (for Disney) reasonable price.
Neither of us is all that hungry, so we both order fairly small meals. Tracey orders a Chicken salad....and gets this:
That is a full grilled chicken breast, on a bed of grilled romaine lettuce, served with a Papiqullo-Pepper fueled hummus. She loved it.
My meal, simple Potato Skins, looks like this:
Ever seen Skins that look like that? The sauce on the left was a Brown Butter Caper Yogurt. On the right, Smoked Paprika Aioli. They are supposed to compliment each other, hence the “Yin and Yang” diagram on the plate. Ever seen anything like that for $14? Oh, and it was delicious too.
What a terrific meal, we will definitely be back here.
While we are eating, we are able to book Fastpasses for Soarin’ Around the World, which has replaced Soarin’ Over California. Another re-theming, and another home run. Terrific, so good that we are going to make sure we get on it at least one more time this trip.
10:00 PM - DCA has just closed and we walked across the promenade to Disneyland. We have entered these gates countless times, but I can’t remember the last time we did it in the dark. We immediately hop onto the Disneyland Railway, which has also undergone some significant changes. We will see all of those later this trip; for tonight, it is just a mode of transportation for us to get to Pirates of the Caribbean, our traditional first ride on all of our visits. We also have time to do some shopping and take our first darkness-filled ride on Big Thunder Mountain Railway, and then it is time to get out of Dodge before the crowds who are currently watching Fantasmic swarm the exit gates.
11:37 PM - Back in our room and I am updating this blog before bed. Yes, we really did go crazy today and we are going to pay for it tomorrow. By the time we got back to the room, Tracey was limping like she had been shot in the leg - both legs, in fact - several times. She never complained once. She is so incredibly strong. If I was in that much pain I would be lying in a corner whimpering, begging someone to shoot me and put me out of my misery.
Tomorrow we have fantastic dinner plans, but nothing before that, so we will sleep in and see where the day takes us. Today was long and tiring, but it was a fantastic day.
This, then, is another reason to always make sure we are staying in high end hotels with a suite or balcony. I am ALWAYS up many hours before she is (although she is getting up much earlier these days), and I need somewhere to go. Sometimes I can seek refuge in the bathroom and just sit in the bathtub and read, but this particular hotel has no light inside the area where the bath is - the light is outside, with the vanity, which has no door - so if I do that, I either sit in the bathtub in the dark, or turn on a light that will wake her up. Oh, the horror.
And, it happens, I move slightly in the bed and my poor wife wakes up. I think I made the mistake of scratching my balls or something.
We gotta get her some serious sleeping pills for our trips. Several months ago we bought a new bed - a huge, awesome King sized bed - and now, ANY other bed is lacking. I could play 9 holes of golf in our bed and she wouldn’t wake up, and now anywhere we go, the bed doesn’t measure up and I can’t move much or she wakes up. This bed is fine, and it’s also a King, so the size of the bed isn’t a problem, but she has become used to not feeling any movement at night (insert your own joke here). It will be interesting to see how she is at the Grand Californian, where they always have very comfortable beds....but I bet they still won’t compare to ours.
The wife gets up, in a pretty good mood given that I just woke up Sleepy Bear from hibernation prematurely, and begins The Process (TM). It doesn’t take quite as long these days - she claims she is no longer “High Maintenance” but only “Medium-High” - and while she takes care of that, I pack up our stuff and get ready for breakfast. It is included in the price of the hotel, of course, and it is one of those little breakfast rooms with waffles and sausages, the kind of thing you see in almost all of these moderate hotels these days. It is fine, and it will do until our flight takes off.
10:15 AM - We get through security with TSA PreChek in about 30 seconds, no exaggeration. The airport seems really busy today but there is hardly anyone at security right now. Timing was excellent. Tracey is carrying needles onto the plane for the first time, which she tells them about, but they gave exactly zero fucks, not even taking them out of the bag or examining the liquid in them at all. I guess that’s a good thing?? Not totally sure about that.
We spend an hour at Vino Volvo tasting 5 wines, ranging from “pretty good” to “very good” (I will report on them on my wine blog after we are home). Wine tasting at 10 AM? No judgement, we are on vacation!!! The guy working here says they open at 7 AM and get people drinking wine all day, so that’s good enough for me!
11:30 - Waiting at our gate for them to call us for boarding. They call ‘pre-board’ first of course, and they announce that is meant for those travelling with kids under 2......then they go and let everyone with a kid under 30 board anyway. Not that it really matters, but if you are going to
announce over the loudspeaker that you are boarding kids under 2, why not try to, I dunno, stick to that policy at least a little? I swear they boarded 1/3 of the flight under “pre-board”.
1:20 PM - Updating my blog from 35,000 feet and was just served a Chardonnay and a plate of warm, salty nuts. Fuck I love First Class....especially on a flight full of kids.
Shortly thereafter they serve us lunch, and Tracey and I get one of each of the two choices: a Protein plate, featuring eggs, nuts, veggies and pita bread, and a steak salad with a sensational Miso Ginger dressing. I will admit I could have used something a bit more hearty - by this time I am pretty hungry - but certainly no complaints about the quality of the food, which is universally excellent on Alaska. Love this airline.
We have a superb flight attendant taking care of us; she knows I want a refill on myddddd Chardonnay before even I know I do. If this keeps up I’m going to be too drunk to keep righting this glob. *HICCUP*
Oh, and while I am sitting here, I turn on a few of our air conditioners at home so that the kids get a bit of relief from the heat. That’s right, we are now a “Smart Home”. Partially, at least. It almost seems natural these days, but think about that for a minute - I am on a plane, 35,000 feet in the air over Northern California, and I just turned on the air conditioners in my house in Chilliwack, with the touch of a button. That really is pretty remarkable.
2:57 PM - We land, exactly one minute early, and taxi to the gate in about 3 minutes....one of the advantages of flying into a smaller airport (SNA). We are met at baggage claim by our limo driver and we are off to the Grand California Hotel! They have recently finished a total renovation of the hotel, so we are looking forward to the changes.
4:00 PM - We are at the hotel, checked in and up in the room. Given that this is the middle of summer, and we arrived right at check in time, I am stunned it went so quickly. As always, the staff is as friendly as they could possible be. Love this hotel.
Our room is gorgeous, they have done a nice job of updating the decor, modernizing it a bit, without losing the Disney charm.
No time to lose, we don’t even bother to unpack, it is time to hit the parks!! First I have to go to a ticket booth and pick up my Annual Pass, which takes no time at all, and we are into Disney’s California Adventure. We never start in this park, but we have dinner scheduled here tonight and there is so much new here, we are expecting to spend a ton of time here while trying to hit all the new stuff. We start off with a quick lunch, just a couple of hot dogs, to tide us over until our dinner which isn’t until 8:15.
They now have an app that allows you to book Fastpasses from anywhere in the park - no longer needing to go to a specific ride and get a paper Fastpass (although that option is still available). We pick up Fastpasses for the Incredicoaster, which is the new theming of what used to be called Screamin’, but since they aren’t redeemable for a couple of hours, we have some time to hit a few other rides.
We notice that the stand-by lineup for Guardians of the Galaxy: Mission Breakout is only 40 minutes, which in Disneyspeak is probably 30ish, so we head down there to see what it is like. This is the re-theming of the Twilight Zone Tower of Terror. The basics of the ride are the same, up and down and up and JESUS CHRIST it is still going up and down and OH MY GOD this needs to end soon......
But it’s pretty cool. Beautifully re-themed with a cool little story and all of the Guardians make an appearance.
From there we headed to the brand new “Pixar Pier”, which has been totally redone in the theme of the many Pixar films. Brand new midway games, lots of new eateries, and re-theming of all of the major attractions (with more to come). While waiting for our time to come up for the Incredicoasted, we wander around, hit the Littie Mermaid ride (an underrated attraction which usually has a short lineup, and a bonus: it’s realllllly hot outside, and realllllly cool inside the ride!), and shop through all of the stores. As you would expect, they have done a fabulous job of capturing the spirit of Pixar. Can’t wait to see it when it is 100% done, sometime in 2019.
The Incredicoaster is a blast. Obviously the track is the same as it used to be, but they have added the story of the Incredibles and their baby boy, Jack-Jack: If you haven’t yet seen the Incredibles 2, I won’t go into too much detail, but it is a better ride than it used to be. Tons of fun.
8:15 PM - Time for dinner at the Lamplight Lounge, which used to be Ariel’s Grotto. They have taken a small menu and nice cocktail list and turned it into something special at a very (for Disney) reasonable price.
Neither of us is all that hungry, so we both order fairly small meals. Tracey orders a Chicken salad....and gets this:
That is a full grilled chicken breast, on a bed of grilled romaine lettuce, served with a Papiqullo-Pepper fueled hummus. She loved it.
My meal, simple Potato Skins, looks like this:
Ever seen Skins that look like that? The sauce on the left was a Brown Butter Caper Yogurt. On the right, Smoked Paprika Aioli. They are supposed to compliment each other, hence the “Yin and Yang” diagram on the plate. Ever seen anything like that for $14? Oh, and it was delicious too.
What a terrific meal, we will definitely be back here.
While we are eating, we are able to book Fastpasses for Soarin’ Around the World, which has replaced Soarin’ Over California. Another re-theming, and another home run. Terrific, so good that we are going to make sure we get on it at least one more time this trip.
10:00 PM - DCA has just closed and we walked across the promenade to Disneyland. We have entered these gates countless times, but I can’t remember the last time we did it in the dark. We immediately hop onto the Disneyland Railway, which has also undergone some significant changes. We will see all of those later this trip; for tonight, it is just a mode of transportation for us to get to Pirates of the Caribbean, our traditional first ride on all of our visits. We also have time to do some shopping and take our first darkness-filled ride on Big Thunder Mountain Railway, and then it is time to get out of Dodge before the crowds who are currently watching Fantasmic swarm the exit gates.
11:37 PM - Back in our room and I am updating this blog before bed. Yes, we really did go crazy today and we are going to pay for it tomorrow. By the time we got back to the room, Tracey was limping like she had been shot in the leg - both legs, in fact - several times. She never complained once. She is so incredibly strong. If I was in that much pain I would be lying in a corner whimpering, begging someone to shoot me and put me out of my misery.
Tomorrow we have fantastic dinner plans, but nothing before that, so we will sleep in and see where the day takes us. Today was long and tiring, but it was a fantastic day.
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