Through some amazing stroke of luck, we were invited to a press event at Disneyland in December. The Disney folks invited Frank, Alex, and myself to enjoy a weekend at the park with a hundred or so other mombloggers and their families. Frank was skeptical that this was all free, and kept wondering when they were going to start pitching timeshares at us. He morphed into a tall version of Grumpy and went along anyway.
The first evening, the Disney folks invited us to a dinner buffet, and a presentation. Frank was convinced that there would be talk of mouse-shaped condos, but I shrugged it off. The presentation turned out to be nary a word about timeshares, but a very useful demonstration by the pastry chef and his assistant of how to make a gingerbread house, and a slide show on the gigantic gingerbread houses they make every year for the Haunted Mansion, each year with a different theme. This year, the "house" is actually a coffin. It looked cool, but like a lot of work to make a 13 foot long coffin out of gingerbread.
The second presenter talked about the Disney Photopass system, and how you get a card to carry around, and everytime a Disney photographer takes your picture, it's uploaded to their site. You can order prints from there, upload your own photos, and make decorative calendars, mousepads, mugs, and other things with your photo on them. It seemed like a pretty efficient system. Techmama did an excellent write up of it here.
As part of the package, we got a 3 day park-pass, and a fast pass to the It's a Small World ride. After dinner, we were escorted to the park for a special viewing of the fireworks from a roped off plaza. Our escort/guide, Cameron, was a young, enthusiastic park employee who asked us what we wanted to see. We asked what he liked and he said he worked the Indiana Jones ride, and that if we wanted to go over there, he could get us in without waiting. Since the wait is normally about an hour, we jumped on the chance.
Frank, aka Grumpy, is not a big fan of rides that induce vertigo, so he passed. Alex is a huge Indiana Jones fan, and once said that when he grows up, he wants to be an "adventuring guy, like Indiana Jones."
Unfortunately, the introductory movie at the beginning of the ride scared the bejeepers out of him. They warn you not to look into the eyes of the idol or you will be turned into a skeleton or a zombie or some other horrific creature. He took this quite literally, put the hood up on his sweatshirt, put his head down, and did not open his eyes during the entire ride. I thought it was great fun, a very clever interplay between ride and movie.
At the end, I asked him, "Did you see the boulder? Wasn't that cool?"
He replied, "What boulder?"
So much for my son, the future adventuring guy.
After narrowly escaping death on the Indiana Jones ride, we rejoined our group at a special reserved Pavilion to watch the fireworks show. After the fireworks, we headed down to the "It's a Small World" ride to use our special passes and see the holiday display. On the outside, the building was bedecked with a million tiny lights, and an impressive light show on the outside. Inside, the hundreds of dancing dolls sang a mash-up of "It's a Small World" and "Jingle Bells", surrounded by holiday lights, decorations, and ornaments.
The following day, we were up early to try to get a jump on the lines. Disneyland Resort Hotel guests are permitted to enter the park an hour before the general public, so we dragged a sleepy-headed Alex and Techmama's three boys out of bed at 6:30 am to get in early.
Unfortunately, our plans were thwarted when the Monorail broke down and we were left hanging for almost an hour. All four boys were very excited about being there, and at first were quite patient about the wait. After about a half hour, the boys got restless, and all claimed that they needed to go to the bathroom. One asked he could pee out the window, which the other three though was a great idea, but we managed to quell the insurrection. A nice family with a very well-behaved boy and girl cowered in the corner, as if they feared it would quickly turn into "Lord of the Flies" before the thing got moving again. Luckily, we settled the restless natives down and the Monorail got moving once again. Frank said he was going to write a blog post called "Grumpy's Tale" since this all happened prior to his morning caffeine quota. Whatever. These things happen.
The Monorail of Doom dropped us off right outside "Finding Nemo Submarine Voyage." This is the updated version of the ubiquitous Disney submarine ride, that takes you under water. The underwater scenes feature characters from the movie, in both animatronic and holographic form. The sound effects, and water effects make for an enchanting ride under the sea. All four boys were completely quite for this ride, which says a lot for it's ability to hold your attention.
The highlight of the day for Alex was the Jedi Training Academy, an interactive stage-show in which Jedi Masters choose "younglings" from the audience to learn the Ways of the Force and fight Darth Vader and the Sith Lord with plastic light sabers. Luckily, the Force was strong in Alex and Techmama's twins, so they were picked to be among the official trainees, and brandished their light sabers proudly. Alex and TechMama's twins took their training very seriously, and now have certificates to prove that they are, in fact, Jedis.
After the Jedi Training Academy, we split off and went to ride the Pirates of the Carribean and have lunch at the Blue Bayou Restaurant. We rejoined Techmama and the twins after a rest period and spent the evening at Disney's California Adventure, and had dinner at the Wine Country Trattoria (one of the few places that served wine, which we needed by then). If you go to Disneyland, it's a good idea to make reservations for the main restaurants well in advance, since they tend to fill up quickly.
The main event of the evening was waiting for the Toy Story Mania ride, in which you ride in a cart and shoot virtual balls at virtual targets. It was a fun ride, and the technology behind it is pretty amazing. Afterwards, we went off to the Turtle Talk with Crush exhibit. It's an interactive, animated talk with Crush the green sea turtle from the movie "Finding Nemo." Both Grumpy and I were impressed with Crush's ability to take questions from the audience, make everyone laugh, and swim at the same time. It's a must-see next time you're at California Adventure, and worth seeking out.
All-in-all, we had a fun, exhausting, and exciting trip. Don't let Grumpy tell you otherwise.
This year's park theme is "What Will You Celebrate?" and you can get in free on your birthday by signing up on the Disney page. Packages starting at $68 per person are available online for this year. Now, that's a deal even Grumpy would love.
