We woke up early on Wednesday, our second and final day at that park, and Jean and I were up and awake thanks to our normal weekday routine that we scooted out to let Ryan sleep a little later. We went down to the hotel restaurant for breakfast.
A note about hotels restaurants: I have joked on occasion that my idea of roughing it was when you had to leave the hotel to get to the bar. So it was nice to be able to get a real breakfast, instead of some crappy stack of bagels and stale doughnuts. If only the food had been better...
Jean had a mediocre eggs Benedict and I had something utterly forgettable and a fruit plate. I had forgotten that California is where the fruit comes from, so it was a pleasant surprise, but not enough to make up for the rest of the meal. As I said to Jean at the time, it was a breakfast, but it wasn't a $30 breakfast. It reinforced my previous position that nowhere but Portland knows how to do breakfast properly.
We headed back up to the suite, and then Ryan and Jean and I walked over to Disneyland again to meet our friend Donna again, and Donna's dad most kindly signed us in again, this time to Disney's California Adventures, which we hadn't managed to cover the previous day. A pleasant 30 minutes of strolling and then the park opened officially, and we headed over to California Screamin', which is in my opinion the only true roller coaster in the park (Space Mountain and Big Thunder Mountain are both technically coasters, but they're basically Steel Wild Mouse coasters, which are all about the small footprint and the fast turns, but rarely do anything exciting; Screamin' is in turn a Steel coaster, which uses tubular steel tracks which allow for things like the one, single loop). The mid-ride linear launch was awesome, and Donna and I rode the coaster twice in quick succession while Jean and Ryan did some shopping and wandering.
We met up at Muppets 3D and enjoyed the show, and then we all headed over to the Tower of Terror, which was awesome as it was finally a ride we could all ride together, like Star Tours. The wait was quite a while, which sort of made sense as it was Wednesday, which was busier than Tuesday, and it was a rather popular ride, and we hadn't bothered to grab fast passes. It was pretty fun, as linear drop rides can be, especially as I learned that Jean has a SERIOUS set of lungs on her. We ended up grabbing a photo of the ride, and it was noted that in all of the pictures taken of me on the several rides, I have a look that seems to be made mostly of bemusement.
After that, we made our way to the best corndog in Disney, which is the Corn Dog Castle. And there was a line for that.
A note about lines: I don't know why I was so surprised at lines at Disney; I knew they were going to be there, Jean and Ryan and Donna and everyone who had ever been had warned me, and I thought I had expected them. But it turns out, I wasn't ready for them all. I'm glad we went on a Tuesday, since even the lines on Wednesday were too long and annoying, and it only gets worse the closer to Saturday you get.
We did finally get our corndogs and chips and soda, and as we were eating, the Phineas and Ferb float wafted by, blasting music. We took pictures, and then Ryan and I went to ride on Mickey's Fun Wheel while Donna and Jean went hat-shopping. I had deliberately picked the "swinging" cage, and we were in the line for nearly 45 minutes, but what the heck, it was a ferris wheel, right? I had forgotten something important since moving to Portland: I'm afraid of heights. This was not the best place to remember this fact, but since they lock you in a cage, it's not like I could bail out.
So after taking a moment to live down the jitters, and admiring the fabulous hats Jean and Donna had found, we got in line for Toy Story Midway Mania.
Which, after an hour in line, just as we got to the front of the line, broke down.
We were given free passes to other rides, but it was pretty frustrating, and I was getting very, very tired from the crowds, the noise, and the constant over-stimulation. So we took a moment in the Disneyland Spa lobby to relax and chill, and then headed back over to Disneyland proper to hit Space Mountain again (and again) as well as Star Tours another couple of times. At this point, the park becomes a serious blur, because I was entirely zoned out, so we bailed out and went to the Cheesecake Factory for dinner, mostly to avoid fried food. It was pretty good.
I went back to the hotel to crash, while Jean and Ryan and Donna went back to the park to do some last-chance shopping and ride Star Tours again (and again). Then everyone met up again in the bar, and we spent the evening decompressing and drinking.
A note about hotels restaurants: I have joked on occasion that my idea of roughing it was when you had to leave the hotel to get to the bar. So it was nice to be able to get a real breakfast, instead of some crappy stack of bagels and stale doughnuts. If only the food had been better...
Jean had a mediocre eggs Benedict and I had something utterly forgettable and a fruit plate. I had forgotten that California is where the fruit comes from, so it was a pleasant surprise, but not enough to make up for the rest of the meal. As I said to Jean at the time, it was a breakfast, but it wasn't a $30 breakfast. It reinforced my previous position that nowhere but Portland knows how to do breakfast properly.
We headed back up to the suite, and then Ryan and Jean and I walked over to Disneyland again to meet our friend Donna again, and Donna's dad most kindly signed us in again, this time to Disney's California Adventures, which we hadn't managed to cover the previous day. A pleasant 30 minutes of strolling and then the park opened officially, and we headed over to California Screamin', which is in my opinion the only true roller coaster in the park (Space Mountain and Big Thunder Mountain are both technically coasters, but they're basically Steel Wild Mouse coasters, which are all about the small footprint and the fast turns, but rarely do anything exciting; Screamin' is in turn a Steel coaster, which uses tubular steel tracks which allow for things like the one, single loop). The mid-ride linear launch was awesome, and Donna and I rode the coaster twice in quick succession while Jean and Ryan did some shopping and wandering.
We met up at Muppets 3D and enjoyed the show, and then we all headed over to the Tower of Terror, which was awesome as it was finally a ride we could all ride together, like Star Tours. The wait was quite a while, which sort of made sense as it was Wednesday, which was busier than Tuesday, and it was a rather popular ride, and we hadn't bothered to grab fast passes. It was pretty fun, as linear drop rides can be, especially as I learned that Jean has a SERIOUS set of lungs on her. We ended up grabbing a photo of the ride, and it was noted that in all of the pictures taken of me on the several rides, I have a look that seems to be made mostly of bemusement.
After that, we made our way to the best corndog in Disney, which is the Corn Dog Castle. And there was a line for that.
A note about lines: I don't know why I was so surprised at lines at Disney; I knew they were going to be there, Jean and Ryan and Donna and everyone who had ever been had warned me, and I thought I had expected them. But it turns out, I wasn't ready for them all. I'm glad we went on a Tuesday, since even the lines on Wednesday were too long and annoying, and it only gets worse the closer to Saturday you get.
We did finally get our corndogs and chips and soda, and as we were eating, the Phineas and Ferb float wafted by, blasting music. We took pictures, and then Ryan and I went to ride on Mickey's Fun Wheel while Donna and Jean went hat-shopping. I had deliberately picked the "swinging" cage, and we were in the line for nearly 45 minutes, but what the heck, it was a ferris wheel, right? I had forgotten something important since moving to Portland: I'm afraid of heights. This was not the best place to remember this fact, but since they lock you in a cage, it's not like I could bail out.
So after taking a moment to live down the jitters, and admiring the fabulous hats Jean and Donna had found, we got in line for Toy Story Midway Mania.
Which, after an hour in line, just as we got to the front of the line, broke down.
We were given free passes to other rides, but it was pretty frustrating, and I was getting very, very tired from the crowds, the noise, and the constant over-stimulation. So we took a moment in the Disneyland Spa lobby to relax and chill, and then headed back over to Disneyland proper to hit Space Mountain again (and again) as well as Star Tours another couple of times. At this point, the park becomes a serious blur, because I was entirely zoned out, so we bailed out and went to the Cheesecake Factory for dinner, mostly to avoid fried food. It was pretty good.
I went back to the hotel to crash, while Jean and Ryan and Donna went back to the park to do some last-chance shopping and ride Star Tours again (and again). Then everyone met up again in the bar, and we spent the evening decompressing and drinking.
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