brownie
01-24-2015, 05:48 PM
Our youngest son, Mark (14), and I headed to Detroit Metro Airport at about 3:30am EST on Friday, January 16, 2015 for our 6:15am EST flight Southwest flight to Phoenix. It was a little rough getting up since I had to work until 10:30pm EST the night before.
Our flights were on time. From Phoenix we flew to LAX, arriving around 11:15am PST. We made our way to the rental car shuttles and grabbed the shuttle to National/Alamo. We picked up our car from Alamo and drove to the Candy Cane Inn in Anaheim.
We checked in and put our bags in our room. We then walked to the Disneyland Hotel so I could pick up my race packet from the Expo. I picked up a couple shirts from the official merchandise booth.
We walked back to the Candy Cane Inn so I could drop my race stuff off. We walked back to the hotel through Downtown Disney, so we stopped and had churro ice cream sandwiches. The churros are hot and you have to assemble it yourself. It's messy if you don't eat it quickly, which we found out. After getting back to the Candy Cane Inn, I dropped off my stuff, and we were off to California Adventure. We got into California Adventure around 2pm PST.
Our first stop was Car Land, which is awesome! You really do feel like you've walked into the movie. We went straight to Radiator Springs Racers. We used the single rider line since the stand by line was showing about a 50 minute wait. We waited maybe 20 minutes or so. Radiator Springs Racers is a fun ride, we enjoyed it. We went through Ramone's on this ride. After Radiator Springs Racers, we rode Mater's Junkyard Jamboree. There's something to be said about more weight in the trailer-we seemed to be swinging out wider than other people! It was a fun ride.
We left Cars Land and walked over to Paradise Pier. We rode California Screamin' with about a 10 minute wait in line. After California Screamin' we grabbed dinner at Boardwalk Pizza & Pasta. Mark had cheese pizza while I had BBQ chicken pizza and a salad. It was nice sitting outside to eat, and nice to not have to find a place to sit.
After we ate, we rode the Silly Symphony Swings and the Golden Zephyr. We rode the Golden Zephyr in part because of Mark's older brother Justin. When we visited Disneyland in 2007, Justin snuck out of line while we were waiting to ride the Golden Zephyr.
We then rode Toy Story Midway Mania, where I beat Mark, 132,700 to 116,900! After Toy Story Midway Mania, we left Paradise Pier and headed to Hollywood Land.
We saw the last showing of the day of Disney's Aladdin: A Musical Spectacular. It was the first time we've seen it and it was a good show. We then road Monster's Inc., Mike & Sully to the Rescue! It seemed like Roz wasn't making personalized comments like she had on our 2007 visit.
We grabbed a couple hot pretzels and took a ride on the Red Car Trolley. We boarded at Tower of Terror.
After riding the Red Car Trolley, we took a nighttime ride on Radiators Springs Racers. The standby line was still around 50 minutes, so we used the single rider line. It's worthwhile to ride Radiator Springs Racers at night. And, we ended up in the same car both times despite using the single rider line (we were in different rows in the car both times). This time we went Luigi's.
We grabbed some snacks at the Cozy Cone Motel. Mark had a frozen lemonade and I had a chocolate twist. The chocolate twist was just so-so; I wouldn't get it again.
We headed out of California Adventure and walked back to the Candy Cane Inn. We were in bed around 10pm PST. All in all, a good and enjoyable day, even though it was pretty long.
Our flights were on time. From Phoenix we flew to LAX, arriving around 11:15am PST. We made our way to the rental car shuttles and grabbed the shuttle to National/Alamo. We picked up our car from Alamo and drove to the Candy Cane Inn in Anaheim.
We checked in and put our bags in our room. We then walked to the Disneyland Hotel so I could pick up my race packet from the Expo. I picked up a couple shirts from the official merchandise booth.
We walked back to the Candy Cane Inn so I could drop my race stuff off. We walked back to the hotel through Downtown Disney, so we stopped and had churro ice cream sandwiches. The churros are hot and you have to assemble it yourself. It's messy if you don't eat it quickly, which we found out. After getting back to the Candy Cane Inn, I dropped off my stuff, and we were off to California Adventure. We got into California Adventure around 2pm PST.
Our first stop was Car Land, which is awesome! You really do feel like you've walked into the movie. We went straight to Radiator Springs Racers. We used the single rider line since the stand by line was showing about a 50 minute wait. We waited maybe 20 minutes or so. Radiator Springs Racers is a fun ride, we enjoyed it. We went through Ramone's on this ride. After Radiator Springs Racers, we rode Mater's Junkyard Jamboree. There's something to be said about more weight in the trailer-we seemed to be swinging out wider than other people! It was a fun ride.
We left Cars Land and walked over to Paradise Pier. We rode California Screamin' with about a 10 minute wait in line. After California Screamin' we grabbed dinner at Boardwalk Pizza & Pasta. Mark had cheese pizza while I had BBQ chicken pizza and a salad. It was nice sitting outside to eat, and nice to not have to find a place to sit.
After we ate, we rode the Silly Symphony Swings and the Golden Zephyr. We rode the Golden Zephyr in part because of Mark's older brother Justin. When we visited Disneyland in 2007, Justin snuck out of line while we were waiting to ride the Golden Zephyr.
We then rode Toy Story Midway Mania, where I beat Mark, 132,700 to 116,900! After Toy Story Midway Mania, we left Paradise Pier and headed to Hollywood Land.
We saw the last showing of the day of Disney's Aladdin: A Musical Spectacular. It was the first time we've seen it and it was a good show. We then road Monster's Inc., Mike & Sully to the Rescue! It seemed like Roz wasn't making personalized comments like she had on our 2007 visit.
We grabbed a couple hot pretzels and took a ride on the Red Car Trolley. We boarded at Tower of Terror.
After riding the Red Car Trolley, we took a nighttime ride on Radiators Springs Racers. The standby line was still around 50 minutes, so we used the single rider line. It's worthwhile to ride Radiator Springs Racers at night. And, we ended up in the same car both times despite using the single rider line (we were in different rows in the car both times). This time we went Luigi's.
We grabbed some snacks at the Cozy Cone Motel. Mark had a frozen lemonade and I had a chocolate twist. The chocolate twist was just so-so; I wouldn't get it again.
We headed out of California Adventure and walked back to the Candy Cane Inn. We were in bed around 10pm PST. All in all, a good and enjoyable day, even though it was pretty long.