Disneyland Everyday

Even though we won't see it, Disney does the park up nice for Halloween!  I've never seen the Christmas decorations, but I can say that the Halloween decorations are pretty deluxe!

You will get wet riding Grizzly River Run.  Since it will be a bit chilly in January it might make sense to wear ponchos!  In the SoCal heat, though, it feels good!  It looks like I peed my pants...maybe I did, maybe I didn't.

Cafe Orleans is a Cajun-style restaurant located in New Orleans Square.  It serves much of the exact same food at the fancy restaurant inside the Pirates of the Caribbean ride, but at half the price...and half the ambiance.  The restaurant is known for two things: the Monte Cristo Sandwich and the Pomme Frites.  The sandwich was just okay.  It was a bit heavy and I was hot.  Plus, one of the kids had a serious breakdown, which detracted from my experience.  The fries, however, were awesome!  The fries are tossed with Parmesan, garlic, and parsley and they are served with Cajun Spice Remoulade.  I will eat two or three baskets in January!!!  Also, the Mormon Mint Juleps are great!

Once when we went to Disney we celebrated Brandon's birthday the morning before making the 10 hour drive home!  Happy Birthday Brandon!

The Casey Jr. Circus Train is based on the circus in the 1941 movie Dumbo.  It was part of the Disneyland grand opening on July 17, 1955, but was closed the very next day for safety testing.  It reopened several days later on July 31, 1955.

One time we went to Disneyland all by ourselves.  It was not the best trip.  The main thing we learned is that Disney is MUCH BETTER with cousins!  We stayed at the Rsidence Inn Anaheim Resort Area hotel and it was pretty good. 

This really is an iconic ride at Disneyland, even if it does bring me to the brink of disaster and embarrassment.  As you watch this video see how many family members you can identify.

This is a nice family picture!  All of the Diaz Family with Mickey Mouse.  Don't look now, but Christian is totally jacked!  Which way to the weight room, bro?

 Here are some tips on how you can score high: Point values: circle 100, square 1,000, diamond 5,000, and triangle 10,000 As soon as you get in the ride test the accuracy of your gun by shooting the wall.  If it's not accurate try to convince the small child sitting next to you to trade! The left side gun is better situated to get a high score Once you find a good triangle, keep shooting it over and over again instead of wasting time looking for the next target The ride stops pretty often to help folks with disabilities get on so when it does stop keep right on shooting! In most rooms there is at least one high-value target Backside of the robot's hand in the first room Behind the moving saw blade of the spaceship in the first room In the alien planet room there are triangles on the back of the circle of moving aliens, right as you enter the room Shoot the target on the outside of the jack-in-the-box to open the box, then hit the triangle on the alien that pops ou

Does anyone know what ride this is?  Does anyone know what Roman is looking at?  Does anyone know why Lissa is smiling like that?

The Cars ride is great fun.  It starts out nice and casual, but then once the car is prepped and ready it's time to race!  This video depicts the leisurely part of the ride.  The ride opened during the spring of 2012 and has been a fan favorite ever since.  People will wait up to 80 minutes to enjoy the 4 minute 22 second ride!

Every once in a while you can get a good picture of the Disney statue without any people in it...of course, there are A LOT of people by the castle. 

King Triton's Carousel of the Sea WAS the carousel that the small kids rode over and over again while the big kids rode California Screamin'.  The carousel closed March 5, 2018 because they are going to rework it into Jessie's Critter Carousel, which will open some time in 2019.  Look close to see Gage hiding behind Zac.

I've said it before and I'll say it again, Disney does good Halloween decorations.  Here we have the entrance to Disney California Adventure in it's "natural" state and also dressed up like Halloween.

The Winnie the Pooh ride is a good one to do once you get off Splash Mountain.  It's close by, the line is short, and the ride has the catchy Heffalumps and Woozles music.

In my best Cliff Claven voice with Boston accent: Here's a little known fact.  chewing gum is not sold anywhere in Disneyland!  Makes sense to me.  Can you imagine stepping in gum only to then track it onto a ride?

For some folks it's a big deal to get the character autographs.  It can be a lot of fun to get an autograph book and see how many characters you can meet during your time at Disney.

Splash Mountain is a log flume ride inspired by a Disney show nobody's ever heard of: Song of the South, a live action animated musical film released in 1946.  The ride itself is pretty long, around 10 minutes, with about two seconds of that being very exhilarating.  The other 9:58 is fine...

It's A Small World made its debut at the 1964 New York World's Fair.  It's the longest ride at Disneyland, clocking in at over 15 minutes.  I just have to say, the HVAC system in that building is on point!  The decorations are okay too. Look out for the Asian photo-bombers!  Is that Jackie Chan?

"I know.  Let's get all of the kids to sit still and quite on the couch so we can get a good picture."  Easier said (and typed) than done.  The nice thing about this picture, besides the kids, is this is one of the only pictures I have of this house we rented on West Chanticleer Road in Anaheim.

Disneyland is made up of 85 acres and Disney California Adventure is 72 acres.  Long story short, you walk A LOT at Disney!  Here's one day's worth of steps according to FitBit and the Apple Health app.  Yikes!  I recommend everyone start getting into walking shape now!

There have been several iterations of the Astro Orbitor ride.  It opened in 1956 as the Astro Jets.  Then, in 1964 it was changed to Tomorrowland Jets, but that only lasted a year before they shut the whole thing down to make room for Tomorrowland renovations.  Long story short, the current version has been around since 1997.

Look at these two!  Maybe someone should watch their kids so they can go to Disneyland by themselves and actually enjoy it!

Can you believe we've made it this far without a churro post?  That's crazy!  You know what else is crazy?  Churros-they're crazy delicious!  At $4 each they taste about four times as good as the ones you can get a Costco for a measly dollar!

Everyone I know likes Star Tours!  It will be interesting to see if they move the ride over to the new Star Wars Land when it's finally up and running.  For now, just remember that Star Tours is located across the way from Buzz Light Year, has a boring line that gets long and hot, and is a lot of fun once you finally get in!

Everyone thinks that the sun always shines and it's always nice weather at Disneyland.  The times I've been there it has been warm, bordering on hot.  However, it does get quite cool in the winter.  Don't believe me?  Just look at this picture.  One of the kids seems to be freezing while everyone else is wearing jackets!

How great is Toy Story Mania?  Is it a ride?  Is it a video game?  It's both!  I don't have a picture of the family high score, but I know Big Christian holds the record.  I believe it is 161,900.  That record will go down in January!

This is the very beginning of the Winnie the Pooh ride.  It's a good ride to do right after Splash Mountain because the entrance to Pooh is right by the exit from Splash.  I just typed splash and pooh in the same sentence.  Anyway, it seems like there are a lot of adults on this kid's ride!

I like the Hungry Bear.  The burgers are good, the fries are good, and I got a strawberry funnel cake there one time that was great!  It's a good place to relax in some shade and the Rivers of America add to the atmosphere.  I recommend that we eat here in January!

The Nemo ride used to be a generic submarine ride.  It's quite lame!  Ha ha!  It's not particularly popular with our kids and do you know how I know that?  Because I only have one picture of the dang ride!  I stole one picture off the internet to bulk up this post!  The other is a picture of the back of my kids' heads as they enjoy the ride!  Since we are buying a 3-day pass I suspect we'll go on it, but maybe not.

Don't forget that we are going to Disneyland!  On Monday January 28, 2019 we will spend the night in Anaheim California so that on Tuesday January 30-Thursday January 31 we can be at the park!  Then, on February 1 we will make the long haul back home!