Disneyland! Part 2

June 21, Friday

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.

 

Knott's Berry Farm

June 20, Thursday

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. 

Disneyland! Part 1

June 18, Tuesday

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 took the railroad over to Toon Town so we could get to Rise of the Resistance to use the individual Lightning Lane I had booked. It's too bad it doesn't let you off at New Orleans Square anymore but that is closed because of all the construction they're doing so we ended up taking it to Toon Town and then walking over to Rise of the Resistance which is actually really far. So, the railroad didn't really save us much time but it was still fun. We got to Rise of the Resistance and we got on the ride and on the first transport, and the power went off. The whole thing just shut down. They got us to where we get off and see all the storm troopers, but the ride was down so we just had to stand in a line to wait to get out. Then they scanned our passes so that we could come back another time but I was so frustrated because we had already wasted all that time but there wasn't much we could do. After that, we walked as quickly as we could over to Café Orleans for our reservation. We were about 13 minutes late but they took us and didn't say anything. I checked in on the app and they got us right in. I think we had to wait a whole two minutes to get to our table. Emily got the blackened shrimp Alfredo and a side order of the Parmesan frites which she had been excited about eating. She said they were different but just as delicious as before. Jonny also got the blackened shrimp Alfredo but he got the Alfredo sauce on the side. It worked out great for me because I ate some of his leftover noodles in that sauce and it was delicious. Andrew got the Monte Cristo sandwich with fries. I got the kids shrimp which was only like four pieces of shrimp but it was fine because I ate some of the kids’ leftovers. I wasn't interested in anything else on the menu and I'm surprised they let me order it but our waiter was really nice about it.

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.

Father's Day Weekend and a Surprise Visit from Emily

This afternoon, I picked Emily up at the airport. Then we went to Walmart and got her some shoes and I got a few things. She also got a dress. By the time we came home, Daniel was home from work and we surprised everybody. Nobody knew she was coming and they were all pretty shocked, especially Michael. He was super happy that she was here. She had called me earlier in the week to tell me that her class on Monday is canceled so that's why we made the switch. I changed her flight to be from Provo to Mesa and then put her on our flight from Phoenix to Orange County airport on Tuesday to go to Disneyland. We went to dinner at Sage and Barrel because the wait at Texas Roadhouse was too long. We came home and read two chapters of Alma since it will be hard to read scriptures while we're at Disneyland and because Daniel is working so much. We had Texas sheet cake that I had bought for Michael and we watched Better Off Dead. That movie was even funnier now than it was when I was younger. After that, Michael went upstairs and I watched a two-hour episode of Don't Forget the Lyrics with the kids and then we all went to bed.

Today was a great day! We came home from church and I spent two hours in the kitchen making meatloaf and homemade mashed potatoes and Andrew was the only kid who ate meatloaf. We cleaned up and read scriptures. Then we all did our own thing for a while. I had a bunch of tasks to do. We had a FaceTime call with Nathaniel and Audrey at 7 PM. We opened gifts with Michael. I got him a fan to clip onto his clothes when he rides his bike, car air fresheners with pictures of us, and a 100 years of BYU football book from Deseret Book. Apparently, a bunch of other dads on Cougarboard got the same gift so that was pretty funny. We had a long family home evening and then played two games of Trivia Murder Party and game of Quiplash. Daniel went to bed because he's got to get up pretty early and it's almost midnight and Andrew, Emily, and Jonny are playing cards.

Happy Father's Day to my sweetie and my dad!