Disneyland Trip Report - November 2021 - Day Two

Today was our first park day. We had made park reservations for Disneyland park this morning, and had a hopper ticket, so that meant that after 1 PM, as long as parks weren't at capacity, we would be able to hop back and forth between Disneyland park and California Adventure as much as we wanted.

Throughout the trip, we alternated which park we had a reservation at, and we definitely hopped. In fact, this first day was the day that, although we technically hopped, we could have just stayed in one park since our brief foray into DCA did not last long. Overall, there are more attractions at Disneyland park, so I would recommend more park reservations there, and more time overall, than DCA.

Anyway, let's get to it! We woke up quite early. The time difference definitely impacted this, and also the fact that we really were unable to stay awake past 8 PM the night before. Mom was awake, reading her book, by 4 AM. I woke at 5:30 AM. Yes, before the sun was up.

Because of my pandemic slothery, I was realizing right about now that I was already out of shape just from walking around airports and Downtown Disney the day before. I was already sore. (Don't worry - I'm in training for my next trip to Walt Disney World as we speak to prevent this in the future!).

Took a shower, and had plenty of time to log into the Disneyland app and attempt for my 7 AM virtual boarding bass for Rise of the Resistance. This ride, and all others, have since gone to Genie+ functionality, so no more virtual boarding groups at this time. However, it was a lifesaver for us with Rise of the Resistance. For my first attempt, I didn't do amazingly. I got group 122 with an estimated wait of 360 minutes. Yes, six hours. But truly, that was only 1 PM or so.

By 7:30, we were headed across the street, through the main gate, and security, and to the entrance queue for Disneyland. From our hotel to security, I would say is about a 5 minute walk. Security to entrance is another couple minutes. We were always at whatever entrance we wanted before the gates were opened, often amongst long-ish lines of other folks. But unlike the bus system at World where you sort of take a chance whether you time your bus correctly, walking and being there when you wanted to was easy.

Main Street was very charming

Upon opening at 8 AM, we headed directly to City Hall for maps, fist time buttons, and accessibility information. We were redirected to another umbrella further down the street, off the hub, where there was a sort of unorganized line. Still, we got what we needed, though it did become evident this time and many other times during the trip that crowd control tactics by Cast Members weren't really what I expected them to be, and it's hard to say whether this was a Disneyland culture thing, or a pandemic related thing. We'd heard that there were fewer Cast Members and many of them were new and not fully trained yet. But Disneyland, itself, also lent things being more crowded because the paths are narrower and there is just less space, so perhaps part of my perception was being spoiled for space at Walt Disney World.

We attempted a touring plan from TouringPlans.com. While I love this site, and it's helpful in so many ways, our touring plan sort of fell apart swiftly. It's probably as much our fault as it is the crowd level prediction being way off. With an ECV, it's not like you can just charge between rides and enter queues quickly. You are often cut off by others walking, so you make your way between things more slowly. Then, you have to figure out what to do with your ECV (take it on with you? Take it through the queue and park it inside? Park it somewhere now? If parking outside, where IS the parking? If you have to enter via the exit, where IS the exit, which is almost always unmarked?) so it did take some time.

Anyway, the touring plan had us start at Jungle Cruise at rope drop. Odd choice, we thought, but the line was already significant, so we did wait about 10-15 minutes to ride. Then, we crossed the park to Mr. Toad's Wild Ride, Pinnochio across the way, then Buzz Lightyear's Astro Blasters.

And this is where I must pause and extol the virtues of Disneyland. One major one is on Buzz Lightyear, which is basically Buzz Lightyear's Space Ranger Spin at Disney World, but with a different name, and better guns. Yes, better guns. See, these laser guns can be REMOVED from the vehicle and held in your hand so you can swing them around more easily. This made a ride which is already one of my very favorites super, super fun! 3/4 of the way through the ride I was beating my mother's score so badly, she got mad and stole my gun. So I took hers and made the mistake of shooting Zurg, pushing her score to victory. Either way, we were both laughing the entire time, and this is why I love this ride.

The other major virtue of Disneyland is the pure charm. This park oozes with charm. Yes, Main Street is smaller, as is the castle. But that just means more charm per square inch. Main Street, all decorated for Christmas, was adorable. And the castle was a sight to behold, just dripping with Christmas decorations. I did not want for a different castle at all, like I thought I would. I saw Sleep Beauty Castle for the fantastic castle it is in its own right.

Sleeping Beauty Castle with the morning crowds

Somewhere in here I attempted my first churro of Disneyland and, y'all, I was not impressed. I had better churros later on, but nothing to knock my socks off and I expected more of the park's iconic treat. Again, the Cast Member at the churro cart was not great. I went to get a churro and the first thing she said was "It will be a while. Is that all right?". So I asked "How long is a while?" and she said "7 minutes". So, I wasn't going to stand around for 7 minutes, so I said I'd come back. About 10 minutes later, I came back hoping for a piping hot fresh from the oven churro and the churro I got was cool and stale tasting. 2 out of 5.

The next step on the touring plan was Mark Twain's Riverboat. I had to admit, this was charming. I don't remember this being fun at Disney World, but it was lovely and relaxing and the boat itself is really nice. After this, the plan called for Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, but that was down. We attempted heading toward Splash Mountain which was posting a 25 minute wait, but by the time we approached, it climbed to 40 minutes. Nope.

Our boarding group was estimated to come up in 60 min (it was around 11 AM at this time), so we decided to ride the railroad, then get food. By this time, my feet were mighty tired and the area by New Orleans Square and Adventureland, where we were, was getting quite crowded. We would soon learn this area was seldom not crowded. I think there's a traffic flow problem here was basically everyone who wants to move between the hub and Frontierland and/or Galaxy's Edge must funnel through this bottleneck. It was not pleasant.

Anyway, I was now riding the ECV because mom had heard you can take it on the railroad but was nervous about getting it on there. That was not the case, actually. You park your ECV at one of the stations and must do the full loop to return to it. That disrupted our plan somewhat. So after waiting about 25 minutes in the hot sun, I parked, and we got on the railroad.

Disneyland's railroad is better than Walt Disney World's. There is this huge building between Tomorrowland and Main Street station that houses several dioramas, including the Grand Canyon diorama and a prehistoric dinosaur diorama. Now, I knew the Grand Canyon diorama was a Thing, but I had no idea how large and detailed it would be. We also passed behind It's a Small World where several seemingly random characters were there waving at us, which was really cool.

When do you ever get to see Mulan, Ariel, and Hook having a conversation?

While on the railroad, I put in an order at Docking Bay 7 thinking we would have time to eat our lunch and then still be within our virtual queue window when it was called. Then, our queue was called a little earlier than expected (while we were still on the train), so change of plan. We picked up the ECV and high-tailed it to Rise of the Resistance.

It was my first time, but mom had been on it before and she was just a little chatterbox of spoilers-not-spoilers. "You might want to hang on because something might happen on this transport ship", and such. This ride is overwhelming. There's just so much happening. I'm really glad we were able to ride it a second time later in the trip so I could focus less on what I was supposed to be doing and more on the details of the ride itself that second time. The first time, I just didn't want to let down the Resistance or get yelled at by the First Order! I do love that this experience makes the Cast Members part of the attraction. Without them, it would not be as immersive. Loved it, but it's not my new favorite, as it is for many. For that, Flight of Passage still takes the trophy.

While on Rise, our mobile order window had expired. I didn't know what was going to happen with that, but it turns out, you can just renew your order for a new time, so that's what we did. Docking Bay 7 was great, and it was here that I ordered I think the most pleasing dish I had all vacation: The plant-based Kefta wrap. Now, I try to avoid meat, especially red meat because I tend to feel yucky after eating it. I will still eat it from time to time, and eat chicken occasionally, and fish often, but when I can, I like plant-based, and I was skeptical whether Disney would treat me right with the plant-based things. But mom and I both agreed, this was delicious. It was even better than her chicken tip-yip, which was also really good chicken. With my kefta, I had a moof juice, which was basically pog, and quenched my thirst, but was just okay for the price. What was best about this was eating outside on the patio overlooking the Millennium Falcon.

Plant based kefta at Docking Bay 7, seriously one of the best Disney meals I've ever had

It being the pandemic, still, I was pretty concerned about eating inside and wanted to eat outside as much as possible. The prospect made me a little nervous because I know at Walt Disney World that easting outside can be uncomfortable because of the heat and humidity. However, while we were in Anaheim, the weather cooperated beautifully. We ate outside for all but one meal, and mom was actually a bit chilled a couple times, but I was perfectly comfortable. And some outside dining spots were just lovely, like the one at Docking Bay 7. I was surprised at the number of people eating inside and waiting at counters instead of using mobile order. Mobile order always worked like a charm for me, though sometimes I had to put in an order earlier than the window I could pick up the food.... that was ok for me because I'm a planner and I just kept an eye on return times.

Anyway, I digress..... Batuu was great! We spent a lot of time there over the course of our vacation, and I could have spent more time there. I loved the sounds of machinery and ships landing and taking off. It felt more real, surprisingly, than the rest of the park with the piped in music and everything. In Batuu, many guests were dressed in their gear and interacting with their "datapads" doing things. It felt like a story was being played out here, and it was a real community with real things happening. Kudos to Disney on this. I can't wait to see the Walt Disney World version (which, based on maps, should be exactly the same, but still...).

After lunch, it was about 2:00 PM. It was getting crowded in Disneyland, but we were eligible to hop over to Disney California Adventure (DCA) and we were excited to see it, so despite being really tired at this point, we did. We were quite disappointed when we saw the World of Color lagoon was drained. Not only was it drained, but drained, it is UGLY, y'all. So unfortunate. I had to imagine how pretty the park would be if this were actually a full body of water.

Rides were posting pretty long waits at this time, so the only thing vaguely reasonable was the Pixar Pal-Around, so we went on it (20 minute wait, which was the lowest in the entire park at the moment). This was a nice ride. We rode with a local couple who had been to Disneyland many times, but not DCA.

Pixar Pal Around

After this ride, I needed a break because I was getting cranky. Yes, I had forgotten rule number one: Take the break BEFORE you get cranky. In fact, you might be wondering why we didn't take my usual advice and take a break from about noon to 4ish. Here's why: My mom had heard somewhere that midday was a reasonable time to be at Disneyland and the evening was worse. I agree with half of that. The evening does get bad, but midday is in no way reasonable, and the break makes so much of a difference. We should have done it this day too.

So we walked all the way around the lagoon because I thought I had seen some umbrellas indicating a cafe or something, but as we got to where I thought it was, it disappeared. We ended up at Sonoma Terrace, which certainly wasn't bad. I wished I was in the mood for wine, but what I needed was a cold soda, so I ordered a Diet Sprite and we sat there a bit. While sitting, we noticed the Festival of the Holidays booths appeared to be open as there was one across the way that was taking orders. These weren't supposed to open until Saturday, so this was pretty cool. Mom went over there and got a cold hibiscus tea drink of some sort that she was very pleased with.

Looking back, when these booths opened early unannounced, we should have taken advantage of them then and there because later on, when the Festival of the Holidays was in full swing, these booths were quite crowded and although we'd set aside a Monday evening to do them, I guess it wasn't enjoyable that evening because of the crowds. This was really too bad.

Anyway, the crowds weren't abating, and the crankiness wasn't either, so after some cranky miscommunication, we landed on going back to the room for a little rest. It was good we did. We both needed it, but we should have rested much earlier.

We had a reservation for Cafe Orleans that evening which I was really looking forward to because of beignets. We returned to Disneyland around 5:20 and headed directly to the restaurant. Again, we were seated outside. I was sorely disappointed when I asked about beignets and was told the only place to get them was the Mint Julep bar. Our other food was just ok. Mom had crostini which came to her looking more like a salad for all the greens on it. I had shrimp and grits which was delicious, but small. We wanted to get said beignets at the Mint Julep bar after our meal but the return window for mobile order was an hour out, and we didn't want to hang around New Orleans square that whole time, so we passed.

My shrimp and grits at Cafe Orleans

Exiting out into the crowded New Orleans square was overwhelming and our night went downhill from here for a bit. We wanted to ride pirates and this was a ride where the accessible queue is via the exit, which is very unmarked. We bounced between the entrance to this and the entrance to Haunted Mansion (these two queues are practically on top of each other at Disneyland) asking Cast Members how to get there and we kept being sent back and forth. Finally, we gave up.

We noticed Splash Mountain was posting only a 10 minute wait, so we thought "Wow, let's do Splash!" and headed over there. There was NO ONE around. It was basically a walk on. This should have tipped us off. As our log departed, the Cast Member said "Watch out for water" and I laughed at him, but turns out this ride is a soaker. Yes, I've been on Splash Mountain at Disney World before. And yes, you do get wet at Disney World, but that wet is basically, you know, splashed. Some drops of water on you. A bit of a spritz. Sometimes the back of your shirt gets wet or your bum gets wet. But at Disneyland, this ride begins to soak you from the first drop. It was like gallons of icy water being dumped into your lap over and over. The bottom of our log was a pool of water. We had to wring our clothes out as well as we could while wearing them. Did I mention it was about 65 degrees outside now?

My mother's camera, which was in her bag in the bottom of the log, was submerged and stopped working. Not to mention, she was freezing. I was sort of laughing at our misfortune (and not freezing), but she was in no mood and wanted to leave. So after some cajoling (she wanted me to go with her, but we had reservations at Oga's Cantina and I really wanted to do that), she went back to the room on her own to warm up.

My plan was to buy a sweater in a shop, but darned if I could find a single shop between New Orleans Square and Batuu selling sweaters! So I ended up poking my head into every little shop in Batuu, which was actually a really cool experience since the shops are so varied and have a slightly less theme-park-y feel to them. They feel more like local shops. But alas, no sweaters in the local shops. Just exotic animals, and antiquities, and real garb.

I ended up having a nice amount of time in Batuu after dark, waiting for my reservation, and it was really cool. Chewy came out by the Millennium Falcon for a bit, and then Kylo Ren came out by the TIE Fighter on the other side of Batuu and was ridiculing guests who had green lightsabers. So then, a bunch of guests starting revealing their red lightsabers, including a kid who had a double bladed one and Kylo was no impressed "WHERE did you get THAT," he demanded of the kid.

Kylo Ren, antagonizing guests from his perch above us

When my Oga's reservation came up, I joined what looked like a long line at the door, but a Cast Member soon arrived and I learned it was a standby line. I was directed to the door because I had a reservation, and was shown a place at the bar near the "live entertainment".

The bar at Oga's. You can see there are things in tanks, foam, myst, and all sorts of weird things happening.

My feelings on Oga's are mixed. It was a neat building, and the drinks were good. The bar is kind of fun to look at the details on it. I had a jet juice which was tasty and strong. But it was not as immersive that night as I'd hoped. I thought perhaps being alone I could find a story to get myself roped into. Maybe interact with some characters. But none of that was happening. Instead, it was just a crowded bar. A crowded bar with some cool drinks, to be sure, but still, a crowded bar... during a pandemic. And I soon found I did not want to be there anymore, so I gave up on my thoughts of trying a second drink and left well before my 45 minutes were up. To be honest, I'm not sure what happens at 45 minutes, but I hear that's how much time you have so that they can keep moving guests through, so I was mindful of that. I stayed maybe 20-25 minutes. I don't think I would go again if it remains as popular and crowded as it currently is. It was too much fuss seeking a hard to get reservation for a drink.

On the way out of the park, I wanted to get a treat to bring back to the hotel as a peace offering to my mom who was kind of sour that I had decided to stay in the park when she left. We are different that way... she does not like being in the park alone, whereas I don't mind it one bit. I got quite used to it during my internship. But anyway, I mobile ordered some cookies from Pooh's corner and got a little lost trying to find it. It seems Disneyland dead-ends here and the dark and the crowds made it hard to get a sense of direction. I debated riding the Winnie the Pooh ride too, but could only find the exit, not the entrance. Disneyland could do much better marking the entrances to their rides. So I gave up on that and brough the cookies back to the hotel, calling it a night at about 9:30.

I'll leave you with this slideshow of Galaxy's Edge at night. I felt it was really beautiful during the evening.

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Stay tuned next week for Web Slingers, Guardians: Mission Breakout, Lamplight lounge, Haunted Mansion: Nightmare Before Christmas, and the night we gave up early.

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