We walked out of the hotel room at 7:35 AM. We got through security and
into the park just after 7:50 AM. By the time we bought Genie Plus and reserved
our first Lightning Lane for Guardians of the Galaxy, it was 7:54 AM. We got to Soarin’ by 7:59 AM. There was already
a line built up but it wasn't bad at all. We had to wait in the standby line. Resort
guests were already able to go in but we had to wait until 8 AM and then they
started letting us in. It was awesome because we were able to sit in section B
in the first row which is the perfect viewing spot because you're in the middle
and nobody's feet are hanging down in front of you.
After that, we headed over to the Monsters Inc.
ride. We walked around the backside of the park in the corner and spotted Mrs. Incredible/Elastigirl
so we got a picture with her.
I showed the kids the menu at Pym’s Test Lab that
is a phone screen so that was cool. Then we went over to the checkerboard floor
that's an optical illusion and we took a few pictures. The guy who was sweeping
over there was excited to tell us some info and show me exactly where to stand
for the best picture.
Then we realized Doctor Strange was out so we
got some video and pictures with him.
Then we went and took a couple more pictures of
the checkerboard.
We thought about going to Web Slingers because
the line was 25 minutes but we decided to head over to Pixar Pier instead. We
got a picture in front of the Ferris wheel and Incredicoaster and then headed
over to Silly Symphony Swings.
Emily wanted to go to Bing Bong’s Sweet Shop so
we went to the store and they had a bakery counter so we were all pretty
excited about that. Andrew had wanted a Cookie Numb Num but he chose a double
chocolate chip cookie instead. Jonny got a Mike Wazowski Rice Krispies crispy
treat, Emily got a Rice Krispies treat, and I got a churro toffee and a peanut
butter bar. We sat on a bench near the Ferris wheel and enjoyed our treats. We
scheduled our next Lightning Lane for Web Slingers and then got in line for Incredicoaster
since the standby wait was only 40 minutes but it actually only took us 30
minutes.
Andrew got some water from the Cookie Num Num
counter and we headed over through San Fransokyo Square. I saw the line
building for Baymax and it was short so we decided to wait. It was 10:50 AM and
he was coming out at 11 AM so we waited for that. It was fun to hug him.
Then, it was already time to go to Guardians so
we headed there next. We got to sit in the front row this time. It was annoying
because I didn't have a handle on the left side but there was a place you could
grab but it wasn't the same.
Andrew wanted a big pretzel so we got a pretzel
for him and Jonny again and I got myself the Choco Smash cake and we all got
some drinks and we sat and enjoyed it for a little bit and made our plan. Then
we decided we should go wait in the Web Slingers line because the wait was
relatively short at only 30 minutes. The wait time seemed to go up while we
waited in line but we decided it was still the best use of our time. Nobody
else had any better ideas and Jonny loves to be in California Adventure and he
really wanted to ride Web Slingers so I said we should do what he wants because
he doesn't ask for much. The wait was only 30 minutes for Web Slingers so that was nice. Jonny
beat us on the score.
Next, we headed over to Disneyland. I wanted to
take the kids to lunch at Plaza Inn so that's what we did. Jonny ordered pasta
with no sauce. We tried to convince him to get it on the side but he said no.
Then he didn't finish the pasta. It was time to get the order I had made at
Jolly Holiday for a Raspberry Rose macaron for Andrew, Jonny, and me and
another cherry vanilla macaron so I went and picked that up and came back. We
decided we would go back to the hotel and take a break and come back later.
We even took an Uber to make it easier on
ourselves. I stayed up long enough to make
the next Lightning Lane selection and then I took a nap. Our plan was to leave the hotel room by 6:30 PM and we left by
about 6:45 PM. The line at security was longer than it was this morning. It took
us a little while to get over to Pirates. When we were almost to the point
where they would load us, the ride stopped. They told us they were having some
difficulties. Then we were glad that they started back up but they weren't
loading anybody. Within about five minutes of the announcement, it was up and
running again so that was good. Emily had switched one of our Lightning Lanes so
we wouldn't miss it. After Pirates, we went straight to Indiana Jones and
rode that. It was kind of cute because as we were leaving, there was a little
boy in front of us complaining and he said, “That was the worst ride I've ever
been on in my entire life!” We had a good laugh about that. They were setting
up for Fantasmic so it was kind of hard to navigate but we made it over to Big Thunder
Mountain in plenty of time. We rode it just as it was getting dark.
They wanted to go ride Guardians again with our
multi experience that we got from Web Slingers but I didn't want to ride it
again so the three of them went over to ride it.
I raced over to red Rose Tavern so I could get
the gray stuff but they were sold out so I was pretty bummed about that. I still got a picture there.
I sat down and figured out what I wanted to eat. It's kind of hard to navigate and figure out what restaurants are
open at a certain time. You have to just go into each individual thing and find
out when it closes and that was annoying. (Update: I should have clicked the
Dining tab in the Tip Board, which I found out after we got home.)I've
always been curious about Bengal Barbecue so I did an order there and got a
chicken and a beef skewer, a breadstick, and a pineapple spear. It was a little
while before it was going to be available to pick up so I went by the Mint
Julep Bar to try and get some beignets but that line was too long so I just
went over to pick up my food and carry it over to Galactic Grill to meet the
kids. They were already there. I had asked them to pick up a pineapple coconut
churro from Willy’s Churro Cart in California Adventure so they had that
waiting for me along with some water so that was nice. We sat and ate our food
for a while.
Andrew used my multi
experience pass to ride Matterhorn. Emily and Jonny and I sat at the table and
waited for him and relaxed a bit. Michael called and I got to talk to him and
Daniel. I hadn't talked to Daniel yet. He ended up having his friends over
tonight instead of tomorrow night. He was supposed to have an afternoon shift
today but he gave it away and was glad about that and now he doesn't have to
work tomorrow either. I stayed at the table and watched bags while the kids all
went with our Lightning Lane on Autopia. Next, it was time to head over to Runaway
Railway to use our Lightning Lane there. By the time we left that ride, it was
11:49 PM. We looked it up and it said that the railroad goes until midnight so
we headed over to the Toon Town station. The sign said it comes every 20
minutes so once we had been waiting 20 minutes we almost gave up. Thankfully,
we hadn't left the line yet and it came just after 20 minutes. We hopped on and
took that to Main Street and walked back to the hotel.
We left the hotel by 9:30
AM. We arrived at Knott's Berry Farm at about 9:50 AM. The Uber only took two
minutes to arrive at the hotel to pick us up so that was easy and cost less
than $20 which is what parking was gonna cost. We got in with our passes and
somehow bypassed security. I don't know if it was random or what. We went
straight to the Ghost Rider roller coaster after rope drop but somehow the wait
still said 120 minutes even though there couldn't have been that many people in
front of us at rope drop so we were really confused, but there was a line inside
the building where you load and there was a long line weaving through so we
gave up and went to the Silver Bullet instead. I watched the bags while the
kids went on that.
After that we went to the Sidewinder which kind of looks like Crush’s Coaster
in Disneyland Paris. Then we decided we better get the fast passes. We
had to go to the general store for that and then I watched the kids’ bags while
they went on Ghost Rider and it still took an hour.
After that, we had to
figure out what to do for lunch and it took a long time because it's not easy
to navigate on the app and it doesn't tell you what the actual menu is and the
place we wanted to go to was closed. So, I went to a barbecue place and Emily
and the boys went to the Coaster Diner and got chicken and fries and shakes and
I had a rotisserie chicken and everybody was happy.
After lunch, Andrew and Jonny wanted to ride the Coast Riders and Emily
and I went on the Scrambler. Then we went on Sky Cabin and I loved it! It slowly takes you up and revolves slowly and it is a really
cool view from up there.
Then they went on Xcelerator and Hang Time while I sat
at the tables by the diner.
The kids came back and got sodas. Emily and Jonny
went on Wipeout and then La Revolucion and I watched bags like usual while
Andrew went to buy a funnel cake.
They all rode Silver Bullet again. We thought about going on the mine
ride together but the wait was over 30 minutes so they went on Ghost Rider
again.
By then, it was around 7:30 PM and everyone was tired and wanted to go
back. I asked multiple times to make sure they were done and they were.
We took an Uber and the driver dropped us off at Denny’s.
Andrew wanted Subway
so he walked over there and then back to the hotel. It was nice to get back
relatively early so that we could be up and ready to rope drop at California
Adventure.
Our whole job today was to get to our hotel, the Desert Palms Inn and Suites. I've always wanted to stay there and it's pretty nice but the only problem is the sound travels into our room way too easily. You can see light through the door so they really need to seal it. Anyway, Michael and Andrew went to the temple this morning. They got home a little after 10 AM and Andrew still had to pack. It was close to noon by the time we left the house and we got there in 30 minutes. There was no wait to tag and check our bags so we had plenty of time to eat. The flight was pretty miserable. As we took off, the plane was shaking back-and-forth and even did that in the air for a little while. Eventually, it straightened out. The people in the row behind us had three babies, all under age 3, I think, two parents, and two grandparents and they could not keep them quiet. I felt terrible because Andrew got stuck next to the crying baby. Luckily, it was a short flight. They didn't even do a drink service. We got off the plane, got our bags quickly, and got an Uber quickly. We got to the hotel easily and got checked in. The kids went to the pool for about an hour. I hung out with them a bit and then went back to the room and did some organizing.
The room was really nice. It was like two hotel rooms in one, with the bathrooms in the middle.
We went to IHOP and had dinner and then came back and rested for a bit and got ready for bed. I think we were all in bed by 10 PM. We wanted to get up early to do rope drop the next day so that was our goal to get to bed early.
June 19, Wednesday
Our goal had been to leave the hotel at 7:15 AM
but it was more like 7:25 AM and that worked out fine. We sailed through security and the turnstiles and
we even had time for a quick picture at the entrance.
We
headed to the Tomorrowland rope drop area and waited a few minutes and then it
was time to go in. We decided to do what we always do and rope drop Space
Mountain. I should've remembered how badly that worked out when I went with
Jonny and his classmates on the band trip because we had a similar experience
today. There wasn't early entry for resort guests so I'm not sure how, but when
we got to the line it stopped and then it said it was a 35-minute wait which
didn't make any sense. The kids wanted to try it anyway but I had a bad feeling
about it. The guy at the spot where you do the Lightning Lane and they said
they don't actually know what the wait is and they were just guessing. As
we started going up, I told the kids I don't think we should wait there because
we're losing time to rope drop other things that are only a five minute wait.
The boys really wanted to try and Emily started understanding what I was
saying. Then we got to that little room that's inside that has a lot of
weaving in it and that's where I told them we really should go. That actually
moved pretty quickly and we were about to go in and we stopped for quite a
while. I finally told everybody let's just go and Emily was on board. We went
straight to Autopia. They were recruiting people to go on that ride, the wait
was so short. Andrew was glad to ride that. Andrew and Jonny rode by themselves
and Emily and I were in the front and Emily drove me. Andrew kept complaining
that he didn't want somebody in front of him to be slow so we made sure he
never even caught up with us. I was able to take some pictures and video while
Emily drove.
Next,
we went to Buzz Lightyear. I won but I only got like 306,000 so it wasn't that
impressive. I taught Andrew a couple of tricks.
We
originally had a lightning line booked for Indiana Jones because that was the
first one we chose because we thought we would be rope dropping Space Mountain,
but then when we realized we weren't going to go on Space Mountain first, I
changed the Lightning Lane to Space Mountain. So far, everything we were riding
was standby and we were doing great. Emily realized that Mickey and Minnie's Runaway
Railway had only a 15-minute wait so we raced over to there and got right on
that ride pretty easily. She loves it! We all agree it's basically the same one
as Disney World.
After
that we couldn't resist going on Roger Rabbit because it was only a 20-minute
wait. On the way to Roger Rabbit, we saw Pete! Emily and I were so surprised
and Emily said, “Mom, remember when Jonny always wanted to meet Pete and we
never could and there he is!” We were so excited. I even talked to the
character like it was a real character and I said, “Pete, my son always wanted
to meet you and now he's he thinks he's too big to meet you.” Jonny had just
told me not to embarrass him and I guess I did anyway. So, he stopped and waved
to Jonny to come over and get a picture with him so we got a picture and it was
awesome. That was really fun. Jonny had a genuine smile on his face in the
picture and I loved it.
We
went on Roger Rabbit and went through the whole long line, which is always deceptive
because you think you're almost about to get on the ride and you're not but it
was fine. It was only about 25 minutes. By then, it was already time to use our
Space Mountain Lightning Lane so we did that. It was weird because when the
ride ended, they didn't stop us in the normal place and they went further and
it seemed like they were going to take us on the ride again. I said, “What's
going on?” And the guy said, “You're not going again, they're just rerouting
the other way.” So instead of going to the right to go on the ride, it went to
the left and they had to use a ladder to let us out of the vehicle/spaceship.
We had to go backwards through the single rider line to get out of there.
After
that, we decided it was a good time for Andrew to get his churro. He thinks the
ones in Tomorrowland are the best ones in the park so he got a regular one and
I got a blackberry one which I shared with Jonny and Andrew. Emily didn't want
anything. We chilled for a few minutes and decided what to do next.
Emily
had the idea that we could go on the Monorail and do a round-trip so we thought
that was a great idea and that's what we did. Andrew loves the Monorail and
wants to go on it every time we go to Disneyland or Disney World.
We headed over to Big Thunder Mountain to use our Lightning
Lane. Somehow, I was able to have more than one Lightning Lane booked at a time
and I just kept setting an alarm all day to tell me when I could sign up for
another one. After that, we realized that Rise of the Resistance was back up
and running so we went back over there. The individual Lightning Lane line was
pretty long and it was frustrating, but understandable since they had broken
down. I was glad to get that done because we were somewhat close and it's a
long walk to get there. I had made an order early this morning for Jolly
Holiday to get a coconut Matterhorn macaroon and two raspberry rose macarons,
one for Andrew and one for me. I think I had to change the pickup time about
five times as our plans changed. It worked out well because we had two Lightning
Lanes booked at California Adventure so we went past Jolly Holiday to get the
snacks, sat down and spent a few minutes eating those, and then walked over to
California Adventure.
We
went to Toy Story Midway Mania. We had fun on the ride. All the kids beat me. We already had a Lightning Lane booked for Incredicoaster
but I was able to get another one for later. After Toy Story, we headed
straight over to the Incredicoaster. That Lightning Lane line was a little bit
long but not too bad. I couldn't resist getting a Cookie Num Num.
Next,
we used our lightning lane for Radiator Springs Racers.
For
the next Lightning Lanes, Emily and I chose the Little Mermaid and Jonny and
Andrew chose Goofy’s Sky School. Emily and I had ours first so we went on Little
Mermaid while the boys went to Ghirardelli and got frozen hot chocolate. Then
we met them over there while they finished up. Then we walked over to Turtle Talk
with Crush. That was fun, as always. We were across the street from Schmoozies
and I wanted to check out the Minnie strawberry shortcake shake. It looked
amazing so I got one. Emily and I
found a place to sit by Mickey's PhilharMagic. One of the Instagram accounts I
follow mentioned that that's one of their favorite spots to find a table. I
think I may have seen that seating area before but I didn't realize what a nice
place it was. Emily and I sat there while I ate my shake and we discussed our
priorities for the rest of the day. She's a really good planner.
We
waited there while the boys went on Goofy’s Sky School. I ate more of that
shake than I intended to but it was actually really good. When I could see on
Find My that the boys were done, we walked over to Pym’s Kitchen because Andrew
wanted a quantum pretzel. It turns out Jonny wanted his own, as well. So, I
ordered two big pretzels and got some ice water for everybody and the boys met
us at that little dining outside of Pym’s Kitchen. The boys shared a little bit
of their enormous pretzels with us and then we ordered tacos from Cocina
Cucamonga in the Port of San Fransokyo. I really like their beef tacos and
Emily got chicken ones. We discussed what we wanted to do next. We mobile
ordered the food and went over there to pick it up and bring it back and we all
ate together. We looked at what was available and decided to head over to the
standby line for Soarin’. The line wasn't moving so we were wondering what was
going on, and sure enough, the ride broke down. So, as we got off, they scanned
our passes and gave us a multi experience pass. I don't know how we lucked out,
but we were able to get one that allowed us to go on Guardians of the Galaxy
and Emily was thrilled! She was actually hoping for that before they even
scanned our tickets. At first, it was confusing because it was only showing us
options for Disneyland but we were in California Adventure and we were hoping
to use it there. There was a bit of a glitch on the screen and Andrew figured
out how to see the options for California Adventure. Another kid was having
trouble like we were. We couldn't find any cast members so I was glad Andrew
figured that out. We went over to Guardians
of the Galaxy. It was funny because right as we walked into the Lightning Lane,
that other kid who was having trouble was right in front of us. He told us he
never got it to work so he explained the situation of the people and they just
let him in. I told him, you sweet-talked them? That was some pretty good sweet-talking! He just said, I don’t know, praise God. Anyway, Emily was so excited to go on
that ride and I had to get a picture of her and the boys because her smile was
contagious.
We
had a great time on the ride! We sat in the back row.
After
Guardians, we decided it was a good time to go to Cars Land and ride a couple
standby lines. We went to Luigi's Rollickin’ Roadsters. I had always been
curious about that ride and never had a chance to ride it and I really wanted
to do it this trip and it was so fun. Basically, you sit in the cars and the
cars move around like they're dancing. I think it was playing a mambo song.
After that, we went over to Mater's
Junkyard Jamboree. Andrew and I were together and he was laughing and yelling, “I
thought this was a kiddie ride!” It does make you pretty dizzy. After that, we
decided it would be fun to go back over to Disneyland. Emily really wanted to
ride Jungle Cruise. I think the wait was about 20 minutes so that wasn't too
bad. He wasn't the best skipper we've ever had but it was still fun. We had Lightning
Lanes to go on it's a small world and Millennium Falcon Smuggler’s Run.
However, by that time we were all kind of tired and felt like maybe we should
just go back to the hotel and that's ultimately what we decided to do. We
thought about trying Peter Pan at that time but I didn't really care that much
because we still had two more days and we all agreed it would be good to get a
good night’s rest tonight. We tried to find the photo place on Main Street and
that's when they told us that it's been moved to outside the park so we stopped
by there on the way out and they easily found our pictures and added them to my
account. I added all the photos to my account for the day so that was fun to
see those. We left the photo counter a little after 11 PM and walked back to
the hotel. They had changed out our towels and emptied our trash but they
didn't make our beds. And there was a random pair of black underwear right
outside our door which was weird but thankfully it was gone by the next
morning. We were exhausted and we quickly got ready for bed and went to sleep.
