Disneyland Trip Report - Day Three
On day two, we would be starting our day at Disney California Adventure. Having only spent an hour or so in it the previous day, I wasn't quite sure what to expect as it's not comparable to any other Disney park. It took me some time to warm to it, but it's a pretty great park, with a high proportion of really good rides.
Anyway, the crowd calendar predicted it would be a 3 out of 10, but the lines to get through security at opening, and into the park, and then the rope drop crowd, seemed really intense. We were going to use a touring plan again, but that fell to pieces when Web Slingers began not using its virtual queue while we were there. So upon finding that I could not book a virtual boarding pass for it, we quickly changed our plan to rope drop Web Slingers instead of whatever it was we were going to do.
Web Slingers, even when rope dropping it, was about a 40 minute wait, which was worth it. This was a super fun ride, kind of like Toy Story Mania without guns and with your hands instead. Our arms were tired after, though, and continued to be sore the next day! It's quite the workout. I later learned they sell devices on Avenger's campus to help you even more on this ride, and people are quite serious about it.
The boarding area of Web Slingers
I was impressed with how Disneyland had made the majority of their queue for almost every ride outdoors. I'm not sure if this is how Disneyland normally operates or if this was a pandemic related change, but I was glad to be outdoors most of the time when queueing. Cast Members allowed you to have your mask off in outdoor queues but reminded you to put it on as you entered the indoor portion.
Exiting Web Slingers, we had quickly decided that we liked Avenger's Campus a LOT. So instead of leaving, when we saw Guardians of the Galaxy: Mission Breakout was a 30 minute wait, we decided to go for it. I was terrified, and I'm not sure why. I'm always terrified of thrill rides and then end up loving them... I can't think of a time I rode something and said "Nope, that was too much". Anyway, that was the case with this. I thought it would be like Twilight Zone Tower of Terror (same ride building, anyway), and it operates on the same mechanism, but it's also not at all like it, in that it is downright FUN. The drops are much smoother and the music and scenes add to the experience and I think we both agreed this is one of our favorites. Mom hates Twilight Zone Tower of Terror, but loved this ride, too.
Part of the indoor queue for Mission Breakout
We wanted to stay longer and see a show, but most didn't start until 10 o'clock or so, so we headed to Soarin' in the meantime. This was also a 30 minute wait and this queue, sadly, did not have any shade that time of day, so it did get quite hot. The high today would be 91 degrees, which is crazy compared to the day before. Soarin' is always Soarin' and always pleases. Got a little hangry after Soarin' so I grabbed a mediocre churro again. I don't know, y'all. I think I'm done with Disney churros for a while. I get much better churros at a local restaurant where I live.
We went back to Avenger's Campus to catch the Amazing Spiderman show. This was very fun. Here's a video we took.
We had some time to pass before our brunch reservation at Lamplight Lounge, so we shopped a bit and strolled around Cars Land. Brunch at Lamplight was nice. While it was warm, the covered patio down by the lagoon was nice and cool. If there had been water in the lagoon, this would have been very special, but instead we got a view of the construction folks working on the fountains and things that run World of Color in the drained lagoon. We had some nice draaaanks. I had a Final Cut and my mom had a Big Blue Ocean (I think?) that tasted like a blue Icee. She was pleased with it and I with mine. We split some lobster nachos since we'd heard good things, and they were fantastic. As mentioned, I was hangry, so I also ordered a Salmon PLT, and mom ordered some potato skins. Her potato skins were also very tasty and my Salmon PLT was very good. Everything was yummy. I would eat here again, if the lagoon had water in it.
Our drinky drinks at Lamplight Lounge
After this, we shopped a little bit more. We were looking for two things in particular, neither of which we ever found. I wanted a pin that said Disneyland California Adventure. You would not think that would be hard to find, but alas. And mom and I both had been seeing the Festival of the Holidays signs with the different mickey shaped flat ornaments with cool patterns on them, and thought they must sell those ornaments somewhere. Turns out they do not. Get on that, Disney. We would totally each buy a set!
At about 1:30 we decided to hop to Disneyland, particularly to visit the Christmas store. I think mom still had those Festival of the Holidays ornaments in her mind. We had another touring plan that started at 1:30 and I thought we'd be doing that (Again, on the errant belief that pushing through and leaving by evening was the best strategy). It took us a while to learn a Disneyland appropriate strategy, unfortunately. Unlike Walt Disney World, it is hard to find strategic advice for Disneyland online, in my opinion, because it is more of a local park, and local guests don't worry too much about "doing all the things" like we were doing. Anyway.... after some arguing, we did decide to take a midday break.
Still hanging on to the touring plan for dear life, I rewrote the touring plan on the fly to begin at 4pm, still hanging onto hope that we could get these to work. The good news is, on this particular evening, I believe it did work pretty well. We returned to Disneyland at 4pm and rode Pirates. The posted wait was 35 minutes, but we timed it, and actually boarded within 10 minutes, which was very encouraging. Pirates is yet another ride at Disneyland that is superior to Walt Disney World. Very detailed, lengthy, and worth a wait, even if it were 35 minutes.
After Pirates, we saw Jack Sparrow and Red hanging out at different times.
Next, the touring plan called for Haunted Mansion, which we had seen yesterday was pulling long lines all the time due to the special Nightmare Before Christmas overlay that begins around Halloween and lasts through Christmas. Overlays are another thing Disneyland does that really have no equivalent at Walt Disney World.... basically, the ride is redone. Not the mechanics, but the scenes are all, well, overlayed with something different. In the case of the haunted mansion, it was blacklighting and colorful Nightmare Before Christmas sets. The ride felt totally different than the orignal.
The wait for this was posted at 30 minutes, but the line, a miserable and unorganized line at that, took 55 minutes. There is a point where the line splits, and then a merge point as you near the building, and then once you go inside, just a huge room where you kind of throng together, not in a line at all anymore, toward the ride entrance. It was very strange, unorganized, and also did not feel pandemic-safe. I did not like being in this room, indoors, shoulder to shoulder with other guests at all. And there was next to no Cast Members directing or organizing things at all, which was disappointing. What a zoo. At least I got some nice pictures while waiting in line.
The ride itself was ok. The overlay was impressive, but what we took away from the experience was the 55 minutes in line including a kid throwing up, and the couple of newlyweds in front of us who were making out and needed to get a room, stat. I did use the time in line to put in an order at the Mint Julep bar for a mint julep and some beignets because darnit, I was going to get those beignets! So, after Haunted Mansion, we headed over there. Sad to say, the juleps, being non-alcoholic, just tasted weird. I make a mean mint julep at home and I'm sticking with that. The beignets were ok. I think I get better beignets at Port Orleans Riverside at Walt Disney World.
Having done the two rides that consistently pull the longest lines at Disneyland, the touring plan was falling apart, but that was ok. We were getting tired of the crowds, and a little bucky with each other. Our next planned attraction was Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, but as we neared, we could see the line growing exponentially before our eyes and soon a 30 minute wait became a 40 minute wait, and looked longer than that, so we decided we did not want to do this and instead wanted to get out of the crowds.
We headed to Tomorrowland and after some trial and error (again, Disneyland does not mark things very well), we found the entrance to the monorail and took it to Downtown Disney. The Disneyland monorail operates on the premise that it's an attraction (you need a Disneyland ticket to ride it and you must get off at the next stop), but it moves too fast to really enjoy the view. Very confusing premise. It's more updated than Walt Disney World's monorail, though.
Got to Downtown Disney and the station was practically empty. Earl of Sandwich is right across from the monorail station, and that's where I wanted to go, having been to the one at Walt Disney World. I wanted to have my holiday turkey sandwich. The line for Earl of Sandwich was incredibly long, and again, a teenage couple in front of us was being annoying. Not making out this time, but flirting. The boy had no mask on, inside, and the girl was doing the confusing thing I saw so much of where she had a mask, but it was on her chin. I mean.... why even? Yes, I did get a little hung up on mask behavior. And before we make this about masks, it's not even that so much as I always get hung up when there is a pretty clear rule and guests do everything they can to the point of ridiculousness to try not to follow the rule. That's what was happening here.
Anyway, after a 45 minute line behind Mr. Mask? and Mrs. What Mask?, my mom and I were now both Done with a capital D. We walked with our hot sandwiches back through Downtown Disney and back to the room, arriving there at 7:30, where we proceeded to argue with one another about whose sandwich was the best. Needless to say, mom was impressed with Earl of Sandwich. When they staff back up and the line isn't 45 minutes, would go again. 4/5.
I know this particular report and yesterdays sounded like some complaining and bad times. I'm going to be honest in my reports, and while a lot of great stuff was happening and we were happy to be there, we were not yet following a good strategy, nor were we in shape for Disney. In the next few days, our strategy would improve. Basically, this day was the final straw and we both agreed we were going to take nice long afternoon breaks from here on out, and we did. That helped a lot. And I started wearing my second pair of shoes, which was a lot more comfortable, and that helped too. We also decided to discard the touring plans. They were not working for us, which would then disappoint us. We began instead to use the wait times and wait predictions from touringplans.com instead of the plans themselves, and this helped us be more flexible.
Disney can be awful without a strategy that works for you, and that's what we're seeing here. The next two days, however, really improved as we began to figure out how best to do Disneyland. Hint: It is different than Disney World, but not completely!
Next week: Doing the classics at Disneyland, a 97 degree day, and a wonderful late night at Disney California Adventure.
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