Disneyland Everyday

 Let's all pour a little out for Splash Mountain.  The ride opened on July 17, 1989 and made it all the way to May 31, 2023 before it was deemed to be too racist.  It will come back later as Tatiana's Bayou Adventure. This ride lasts 9 minutes and 18 seconds, but only about 6 of those seconds are exciting. But man, they are exciting!

Toon Town has been closed for a long time, and just reopened earlier this year. They added a new ride and redid a bunch of other stuff.  We haven't spent a whole lot of time in Toon Town.  The Gadget's GoCoaster is fun, but short.  Roger Rabbit's Cartoon Spin is similar to Mr. Toad's and is fun, but that is really all there is worth doing in Toon Town. The "tour" of Mickey's house is dumb because there's no ride, just a lot of walking and waiting in line.  And, seriously, does anyone really believe that Mickey lives there?

 Toy Story Midway Mania! is one of the best rides at Disney California Adventure.  It's so much fun! The line is pretty dang long, even with the old FastPass or Genie+, so we have a lot of pics of us waiting in line.  Luckily, they give us glasses so we can have something to play with while we wait. The ride lasts 8 minutes, but it doesn't seem that long because there's a video game element to the ride.  As we all know, our concept of the passage of time gets all messed up when we are fully immersed in a video game. I don't know for sure, but I think Big Christian holds the record for high score.  Perhaps you all could post your personal best high score in the comments and then prove it in our family group text.

  The  Disneyland Railroad  is a 3-foot   narrow-gauge   heritage railroad . Its route is 1.2 miles long and encircles the majority of Disneyland (and none of DCA) with  train stations  in four different park areas. The rail line  operates with steam locomotives originally built by  Baldwin Locomotive Works . The ride takes roughly 18 minutes to complete a round trip on its  main line  when three trains are running, and 20 minutes when four trains are running. Two to four trains can be in operation at any time, three on average. This is a good ride to take when we get tired.  Maybe it's late afternoon and our legs are starting to get tired.  We could easily grab a churro and then hop this train for a lap around the park.  There's lots to see along the way and you get to sit down!

Riding the tram from the Mickey and Friends parking garage to the park is SO FUN!  We are finally at the park and about to get on Pirates!  We always seem to take a pic or two on the tram ride.  It’s funny though, we don’t really take a lot of pictures when we ride the tram from the park back to the parking garage! The tram isn't really fun.  It's just nice to feel like we're nearing the entrance to the park.  If the trip hasn't felt real yet, it always feels real on the tram-it's like the first ride at Disneyland! One thing that we've discovered recently is that the Toy Story parking area is better.  The security line is shorter, for sure. It's a bus, instead of a tram, but still good.  I might post a pic of the Toy Story parking area later, but for now, here's one more Mickey and Friends pic:

Turkey legs are famous at Disneyland. There is a persistent myth that the turkey legs are actually emu. Here's an emu: That animal does not look delicious.  However, cows don't look very appetizing either, but I sure do love beef! Anyway, the turkey legs come from actual turkeys, not emu. They are huge because they come from male turkeys.  We're all used to smaller female Thanksgiving turkeys, hence the misconception that a turkey leg cannot be as big as what Disneyland serves us.  The other thing about the legs is the flavor.  Lots of people will tell you they taste like ham.  That's not because they come from an ugly, flightless bird called the emu.  They taste that way because the brine is similar to what we would use for ham. So, the turkey legs do come from an ugly, flightless bird: the turkey. The Disneyland turkey leg weighs in at roughly 1.5 pounds, which is important because the Thanksgiving rule of thumb is 1.25 pounds of turkey per person.  ...

 Everyone knows, but won't admit, that we walk a lot at the park!  A LOT! We try not to talk about that part of going to Disneyland because it's a bit off-putting. It's a reality, though, that the part requires some walking. Here is one of my days at the park: Here's another one: My advice?  If you don't like walking you better get to training.  I recommend walking some everyday, and a lot on Saturdays!  Get those legs in shape so that we can really enjoy it when we go to the park this fall! Oh, and if anyone can beat my 9.7 miles in one day at the park I'll buy you a turkey leg or two churros, your choice!

When the park is crowded and we have a big group it's sometimes difficult to make our way around.  I was raised to be courteous to others, but if you do that while walking in crowded Disneyland you will get separated from your group, for sure. When it's not too crowded it's great fun to walk around the park.  You see, hear, and smell a lot of things! Sometimes, when walking around, you see a bit more than you want!

Today is Kaiden's birthday.  Happy birthday!  Kaiden loves the parks, no question.  I was there the first time he rode the Incredicoaster.  He was young and none of us were really sure how he would do.  He was not scared, but maybe a little nervous.  When the ride ended he could be heard to yell, "AGAIN!"  He loved it and the rest is history!

 Disney made $56.2 billion in merchandise sales in 2021.  That is a crazy amount of money.  I think it's a good idea for all of us to contribute to 2023's number when we go this fall. Here are a few pics of the kids checking out some of the merch: When was this and what is the stuffed animal? Here's an oldie, but goodie.  Those hats hung around for several years! Here's a nice sword fight with some Pirates of the Caribbean swords: What's this thing?

 This post is just going to be a bunch of random pictures of the family at Disneyland.  These are older pics, back when we were all younger! Make a comment in the comments section of this post about your favorite of these pics!

 I can't believe we have made it this far without a post about the mansion! I love the mansion.  There's a scene where a shadow is playing the piano.  I think that is really cool. This ride opened in 1969!  Walt Disney originally intended this to be a walk-through attraction.  The guests would walk through the mansion and see ghosts along the way.  Can you imagine walking any more than we already do?  That woulda been a big swing and miss.  Thankfully, someone had the great idea to make it a ride, which led to the birth of the Doom Buggies. To get to the mansion we have to walk through a pet cemetery, and walk by a carriage led by an invisible horse. If you listen closely you can sometimes hear the horse snickering.  The ride lasts 9 minutes and almost all of it is in a climate controlled building.  It's a great place to be entertained and get some rest!

 Monster's Inc. is a ride in DCA.  It's fine.  I might ride it when we go, if there's nothing else to do.  It's slow and, unless you really like the movie, it's kinda boring. We tend to go on it about every time, but if someone asked me why I don't think I could give a good answer. Anyway, here are some pictures from the ride: We might as well put a short video:

Yes, this is a post about ducks.  And I know this is a blog about Disneyland, but these ducks live at Disneyland! There are quite a few ducks at Disneyland.  In fact, there is an Instagram account called @ducksofdisneyland.  Now, I haven't been on Insta in a long time, so that account may not exist anymore.  Maybe drop a note in the comments to tell me if it does or does not. These ducks are NOT scared of humans.  This first picture is of Jenna trying to take a selfie with a duck! The ducks don’t always have it easy, though.   Sometimes they get trampled by people.   Sometimes they get got by the feral cats that roam the park at night.   Sometimes other, larger birds, attack the ducklings.   But, these ducks totally live at Disneyland!   Small price to pay to actually live at the park! In case you really like ducks, here are some videos: