Cosmic's coming to the land of Queen Calafia!

Cosmic Commando

Well-Known Member
I wish there were some type of educational movie somewhere in Disneyland where I could learn more about this Queen Calafia! How interesting! ;)

Well, with a lot of running, I made it out of work at a decent hour. Too much stuff for one car trip, so I dropped the family off at the airport and then had someone drop me off next. When I was almost at the airport for the second time, I got the text: "forgot the kids' swimsuits". Oh well, they sell those in California, right? First flight was a little late and after a sprint through Chicago-Midway, we made it on our flight to LAX. A little scary though: we knew we got in late, and then when we went to the departures board to check the gate... no Southwest flight to LAX! :eek: We were the last ones on the plane, so my wife has the two kids and I'm squished into the middle seat a few rows behind. $5 for four hours of wi-fi so I won't fall asleep on the strangers next to me seemed like a pretty good deal! And now we're caught up... currently flying over Red Oak, Iowa at 37,963 ft.

My goal is to upload pictures overnight to photobucket and to keep up with a "picture of the day" just to give a little flavor of what's going on on a semi-recent basis. Since I only took one picture today, it was an easy choice (even if it's not the greatest picture); the kids watching the planes while waiting at the gate at the airport in Buffalo.
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Cosmic Commando

Well-Known Member
Today was a quiet day, filled with boring stuff like grocery shopping and unpacking and Church. We did go to a Day of the Dead party, though! There is a Disney "easter egg" on the altar.

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Tomorrow's forecast: 100% chance of Disneyland!
 

Cosmic Commando

Well-Known Member
Woo boy did we hit Disneyland today! A little bit of a rough start and rough finish: our day began when we forgot my wife's ID at home and our 40 minute drive turned into a 70 minute drive. It ended when baby girl started running a fever and we cut out a little earlier than I planned. We weren't gonna let that get us down, though. It felt a little crowded in the parks, but I think we had a pretty productive day. My daughter rode her first "big kid" rides: Soarin' Over California, Tower of Terror and Radiator Springs Racers (right at dusk... very cool!). I rode Ghost Galaxy, Mermaid, saw Mickey and Minnie at their respective houses, did the grand circle tour on the Disneyland Railroad, enjoyed some Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln, had a Franken-fusion Lemonade, saw Soundsational, and more. The sleeper hit of the day, though? Animation Academy. J.J. liked it, my wife liked it, and I loved it.
My Donald:
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Christa's:
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J.J.'s:
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and Sydney's:
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Tomorrow's plan: another Disneyland day as long as baby girl is feeling better. I was actually encouraged by the Radiator Springs Racers FP situation. We got there around 9 when the parks opened at 8 and there was early admission to DCA, but we still got a FP for the middle of the afternoon with no waiting in line to get said FP. I think if we show up first thing on a weekday, we can probably march right to the standby line and get a FP for the afternoon after our first ride.
 

Californian Elitist

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Oh no, I hope Sydney doesn't become more sick! That would be a total downer.:( I must say, I'm very surprised she did the big rides, especially Screamin'! She's a brave girl. Did J.J. ride those too? Great Donalds! How did you like Soundsational and Racers?
 

Cosmic Commando

Well-Known Member
Oh no, I hope Sydney doesn't become more sick! That would be a total downer.:( I must say, I'm very surprised she did the big rides, especially Screamin'! She's a brave girl. Did J.J. ride those too? Great Donalds! How did you like Soundsational and Racers?
J.J. and Sydney are just very different. When I took Sydney on Tower, I told her,"There are going to be some pretend ghosts and it will be a little spooky, and then there's the big dropping part. I will hold your hand so you don't get scared" "OK, Daddy." Then, she was shooing me away when I tried to hold her hand on the actual ride. J.J. just gets spooked by a ride and you can tell him it's safe and it's pretend and he just doesn't care. His list of big rides so far is Soarin', Test Track/Radiator Springs Racers, and BTMRR. He loves all of those. I got him on Splash at WDW somehow once, but he swears never again. He doesn't even want to do Pirates becuse of the "slides". :rolleyes:

Cars Land and Radiator Springs Racers... what can I say that hasn't been said? It just felt good to be there. The Cadillac Range isn't the tallest landmark, but it feels like it just surrounds you. It's incredible the way it feels like the queue and the ride are part of the landscape; to think that all of that was parking lot and every contour was cast from concrete... WOW. I made sure to enter Cars Land from Pacific Wharf, and it was totally worth it. The animatronics were great, even the projection mouths. We got stuck for about 30 seconds in the tractor tipping scene and we saw the second Mater do his spiel 4-5 times... I didn't even care because I could just stare at this animatronic and just watch the way his mouth moved. We got the tire change scene; the effect was very convincing. They were thinking of details when they built Cars Land. For example, the on-ride photo is in a good spot for Racers. My wife's and daughter's long hair was going crazy because of the way the car was moving at the second the photo was snapped. On Tower, I was expecting the photo to be in a big drop and to see my daughter screaming with her hair straight up. Instead, it was during a spot in between drops where the car was just sitting still; everyone was just staring ahead and smiling. How... photogenic. The forced perspective of the rockwork and the atmospheric perspective of the paint job are just incredible. I was standing somewhere in the queue, and I saw an evergreen tree on the rock wall and one above it that was about 1/2 to 2/3 the size of the one below. I could logically look at them and say that they must be about 15-20 ft apart from each other, but even when I was trying to see past the illusion, it just looked like that little tree was way up on a mountain.

Soundsational I'm very biased in favor of. In the summer of 2011, I started listening to the Epcot entrance loop at work. When I went to WDW in October 2011 and I walked into Epcot, it was incredible! The background music that I had pretty much always ignored all of a sudden was like hearing my favorite song. I resolved to listen to Disneyland music before this trip and the two things I listened to the most were Soundsational and the new Main St loop. When we walked onto MSUSA, the Up music from the loop was playing. My wife and I both picked it out immediately. It just creates a connection with a place/show when you already know the music. So about Soundsational... I totally knew all the words before I even walked through the gate. Yeah, I'm that cool. :cool: One thing I really love is when performers have props to play with and/or get to something outside of a run-of-the-mill dance routine. The Boo to You parade at WDW is good at this and I think it's why I love that parade so darn much; I don't really consider myself a "parade guy". I loved the drummers at the very beginning, hearing that live drum sound and the way they played with the drum sticks. The chimney sweeps with their brooms, the stilt walkers, the pirates... all very cool. Everyone I saw looked like they were having fun (see my post in the pic of the day thread today), from the drummers to the guy in the banana-inspired costume pushing the giant Abu wind-up toy. The characters did a good job "selling" their role in the soundtrack, too. On the PatF float, I saw Louis the alligator jamming out on his trumpet right on cue and Tiana lip syncing along with her part, too. It's a little thing that makes the characters seem alive. The music is great; I don't think there's a float with a bad loop.
 

Californian Elitist

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Wow, Sydney is so brave! Poor J.J.:( He'll get over those fears. Probably best not to take him on Matterhorn. Guess he probably won't ride Space, either. I'm also guessing J.J. won't be going to Universal?

Couldn't agree more on Cars Land. Nothing else needs to be said.

I can't believe you got the Soundsational soundtrack memorized before you got to the park. LOL, wow!
 

Cosmic Commando

Well-Known Member
Wow, Sydney is so brave! Poor J.J.:( He'll get over those fears. Probably best not to take him on Matterhorn. Guess he probably won't ride Space, either. I'm also guessing J.J. won't be going to Universal?

Couldn't agree more on Cars Land. Nothing else needs to be said.

I can't believe you got the Soundsational soundtrack memorized before you got to the park. LOL, wow!
Well, Space Mountain is all about salesmanship. We prodded him onto BTMRR because we figured it was pretty tame. It took a while, but after he got off, he said "it feels like you're flying on a train!". So Space Mountain is "it feels like you're flying on a train... in space!". I knew ahead of time that I wasn't going to take him on Ghost Galaxy, but we're going to try regular Space Mountain at some point... could go either way. I keep trying to tell him that it's my favorite ride. The Matterhorn and Expedition: Everest are no-no's because of the yetis. He doesn't like the roar.
 

Californian Elitist

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Well, Space Mountain is all about salesmanship. We prodded him onto BTMRR because we figured it was pretty tame. It took a while, but after he got off, he said "it feels like you're flying on a train!". So Space Mountain is "it feels like you're flying on a train... in space!". I knew ahead of time that I wasn't going to take him on Ghost Galaxy, but we're going to try regular Space Mountain at some point... could go either way. I keep trying to tell him that it's my favorite ride. The Matterhorn and Expedition: Everest are no-no's because of the yetis. He doesn't like the roar.

I definitely figured he wouldn't like the roaring noise from the ride. Good call on not taking him on Ghost Galaxy! I hope he's up for trying regular Space.
 

Cosmic Commando

Well-Known Member
I self-plagiarized these lists from my quasi-PTR thread. I'm going to try and keep it updated to keep track of what I've actually done.

The Ultimate To-Do List

I've been kinda tinkering around with the idea of a big to-do list for a little while now. The reasoning is I'm going to be spending a lot of time at the Resort, so I want to do everything. Not EVERYTHING, but everything. Hmm, now "everything" looks weird to me. Anyway, I want to do all of the official attractions plus some of the special extra things, too. I don't want it to be anything to expensive or exclusive, just something the average person can show up and do someday without too much cost or planning. A good example is that I love to get a mint julep in NOS. It'll never be on a map or commercial, but people watching while drinking that mint julep is heaven! On the other side, I'm not going to do something like Blue Bayou... it is a quintessential Disneyland experience, but a little too pricey for me. I'd love any input or suggestions and I'll try to come back and edit these posts to make a true mega list. Musical chairs on Main St is something that I had never heard of before One for Disneyland, one for DCA, and one for DtD or stuff that I can do in multiple locations.

Disneyland Ultimate List

Main Steet, USA
-Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln
-Disney Gallery
-Main St. Vehicles
-Disneyland Railroad
-Main St. Cinema (this is actually listed as an attraction? It got turned into a shop in FL)
-Musical Chairs with Alice and the Mad Hatter
-Dapper Dans
-Piano Player at Coke Corner
-Flag Retreat Ceremony
-Soundsational Parade
-Remember... Dreams Come True Fireworks (n/a)
-A Christmas Fantasy Parade
-Believe... In Holiday Magic Fireworks

Adventureland
-Enchanted Tiki Room (Dole Whip in hand!)
-Jungle Cruise
-Indiana Jones Adventure (n/a)
Tarzan's Treehouse

Critter Country
-Splash Mountain
-Davy Crockett's Explorer Canoes
-The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh

New Orleans Square
-Pirates of the Caribbean
-Haunted Mansion Holiday
-Have a mint julep
-Fantasmic!
Frontierland
-Pirate's Lair on Tom Sawyer Island
-The Golden Horseshoe
-Frontierland Shootin' Exposition
-Mark Twain Riverboat
-Sailing Ship Columbia
-Big Thunder Mountain Railroad
-Big Thunder Ranch
-Billy Hill & the Hillbillies

Fantasyland
-Pinocchio's Daring Journey
-Snow White's Scary Adventures
-Sleeping Beauty Castle Walkthrough
-King Arthur Carrousel
-Casey Jr. Circus Train
-Dumbo the Flying Elephant
-Mr. Toad's Wild Ride
-Peter Pan's Flight
-Mad Tea Party
-Alice in Wonderland
-Pixie Hollow lights at night
-Matterhorn Bobsleds
-Storybook Land Canal Boats
-It's a Small World Holiday (regular one will close before we arrive in CA)

Mickey's Toontown
-Goofy's Playhouse
-Donald's Boat
-Gadget's Go Coaster
-Chip 'n Dale Treehouse
-Mickey's House
-Minnie's House
-Roger Rabbit's Car Toon Spin

Tomorrowland
-Finding Nemo Submarine Voyage
-Disneyland Monorail
-Autopia
-Innoventions
-Space Mountain
-Space Mountain Ghost Galaxy
-Captain EO
-Starcade
-Star Tours
-Astro Orbitor
-Buzz Lightyear Astro Blasters
-Jedi Training Academy
 

Cosmic Commando

Well-Known Member
Disney California Adventure Ultimate To-Do List

Buena Vista Street
-Red Car Trolley
-Five & Dime
-Red Car Newsboys
-Get picture with "Storytellers" statue
-Pixar Play Parade
-get the Buena Vista Bugle

Hollywood Land
-Disney Junior--Live on Stage!
-Sorcerer's Workshop
-Character Close-Up
-Animation Academy(Done Donald, Goofy, Oswald, Tigger, Wayne & Lanny)
-Turtle Talk with Crush
-Watch the Toy Story Zoetrope
-Monsters, Inc. Mike & Sulley to the Rescue!
-Disney's Aladdin--A Musical Spectacular
-The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror

a bug's land
-Francis' Ladybug Boogie
-Flik's Flyers
-Tuck and Roll's Drive 'Em Buggies
-Princess Dot Puddle Park
-Heimlich's Chew Chew Train
-It's Tough to be a Bug!

Cars Land
-Mater's Junkyard Jamboree
-Luigi's Flying Tires
-Radiator Springs Racers (day and night)
-DJ's Dance 'n' Drive
-eat at Cozy Cone
-enter at least once from Pacific Wharf
-watch the neon come on

Pacific Wharf
-free chocolate!

Paradise Pier
-California Screamin'
-King Triton's Carousel
-Toy Story Midway Mania!
-Games of the Boardwalk
-Mickey's Fun Wheel
-Silly Symphony Swings
-Goofy's Sky School
-Jumpin' Jellyfish
-Golden Zephyr
-The Little Mermaid--Ariel's Undersea Adventure
-Phineas & Ferb's Rockin' Rollin' Dance Party
-World of Color

Grizzly Peak
-Redwood Creek Challenge Trail
-Grizzly River Run

Condor Flats
-Soarin' Over California
-Minnie's Fly Girls Charter Airline

Disneyland Resort In General/Downtown Disney Ultimate To-Do List
-eat a churro
-eat soup from a bread bowl
-walk through the Grand Californian
 

Californian Elitist

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
These lists are pretty complete. The only things I'd add are the Red Wagon Corn Dog spot on Main Street and Fantasmic! on the Tom Sawyer's island/Rivers of America.
 

Cosmic Commando

Well-Known Member
These lists are pretty complete. The only things I'd add are the Red Wagon Corn Dog spot on Main Street and Fantasmic! on the Tom Sawyer's island/Rivers of America.
Yikes! I can't believe I forgot Fantasmic! Gonna fix that.
Love your pics! :)
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Thanks! I'm planning on doing a fuller trip report when I get home on the WDW Trip Reports board, but I'll still keep up the POTD summaries here.
 

Cosmic Commando

Well-Known Member
So remember how I thought I had the Fastpass for Radiator Springs Racers figured out? Guess again. We got there at 8:45ish for an 8 opening on Sunday, walked right up to the FP machines and got FPs for around 3 in the afternoon. Monday, we got there at 9:30 for a 10 opening and there were giant lines for the FP until they were gone. :confused:

My wife and I were arguing in line: better to get in line for RSR FP right away, go right to standby, or ride Luigi's first (my idea?). Well, guess what? They had a line for FP formed before the rope drop that was probably longer than at any other time during the day, RSR had a football stadium full of people heading there before us, and Luigi's was closed at the beginning of the day. :eek: That meant it was time for bug's land. We did Heimlich's and the Ladybug Boogie before we headed out. I decided it was probably now or never for the RSR FP, so I got in line for that while the rest of the family went on Soarin' (fair, right?) Saw Minnie's Fly Girls Charter Airline, then headed over to DL. Ahhhh... away from the Cars Land crowds! 5 mins for Buzz, 20 mins for Nemo, 10 mins for Star Tours, 5-10 mins for BTMRR. Sydney continues to absorb every thrill ride we throw at her. Couple of Pooh rides later and we were back in DCA to do Cars Land. We did Mater's, Luigi's and Racers... all were a blast. Even Luigi's. Luigi's was about a 20 min wait at 5 in the afternoon, and it was worth it. I really didn't have any trouble figuring out how to get moving. What's my second opinion on Radiator Springs Racers? I love that darn ride. Or was that my first opinion? Oh well. I love the racing section. You don't miss the extra speed at Test Track; the dips and twists more than make up for it. The Imagineers did a great job with the "rhythm" of the road.

Today's theme: live entertainment. I saw two shows of Five & Dime (family saw one), Minnie's Fly Girls, DJ's Dance n Drive, some music on Main St, a little jazz in NOS... I think that's it. I just recently heard a recording of Dick Van at the D23 Expo, so I was craving me some Mary Poppins music:
SDC15541.jpg
 

Cosmic Commando

Well-Known Member
So remember how I thought I had the Fastpass for Radiator Springs Racers figured out? Guess again. We got there at 8:45ish for an 8 opening on Sunday, walked right up to the FP machines and got FPs for around 3 in the afternoon. Monday, we got there at 9:30 for a 10 opening and there were giant lines for the FP until they were gone. :confused:

My wife and I were arguing in line: better to get in line for RSR FP right away, go right to standby, or ride Luigi's first (my idea?). Well, guess what? They had a line for FP formed before the rope drop that was probably longer than at any other time during the day, RSR had a football stadium full of people heading there before us, and Luigi's was closed at the beginning of the day. :eek: That meant it was time for bug's land. We did Heimlich's and the Ladybug Boogie before we headed out. I decided it was probably now or never for the RSR FP, so I got in line for that while the rest of the family went on Soarin' (fair, right?) Saw Minnie's Fly Girls Charter Airline, then headed over to DL. Ahhhh... away from the Cars Land crowds! 5 mins for Buzz, 20 mins for Nemo, 10 mins for Star Tours, 5-10 mins for BTMRR. Sydney continues to absorb every thrill ride we throw at her. Couple of Pooh rides later and we were back in DCA to do Cars Land. We did Mater's, Luigi's and Racers... all were a blast. Even Luigi's. Luigi's was about a 20 min wait at 5 in the afternoon, and it was worth it. I really didn't have any trouble figuring out how to get moving. What's my second opinion on Radiator Springs Racers? I love that darn ride. Or was that my first opinion? Oh well. I love the racing section. You don't miss the extra speed at Test Track; the dips and twists more than make up for it. The Imagineers did a great job with the "rhythm" of the road.

Today's theme: live entertainment. I saw two shows of Five & Dime (family saw one), Minnie's Fly Girls, DJ's Dance n Drive, some music on Main St, a little jazz in NOS... I think that's it. I just recently heard a recording of Dick Van at the D23 Expo, so I was craving me some Mary Poppins music:
SDC15541.jpg
 

Californian Elitist

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Oh man, sorry to hear about the FP situation! Let's hope there won't be any more issues.

I love Racers, too. It's an amazing piece of art, really. Cars Land as a whole is an amazing piece of art.

Kudos on the shows! Really cool Mary Poppins, Bert and Dapper Dans photo!
 

Cosmic Commando

Well-Known Member
How could I forget?!? Sitting on a bench in Carsland with a Red's Apple Freeze and Ramone's Pear of Dice Soda when Shh-Boom starts playing and the lights come on? Nirvana!

This video pretty much sums up the difference between Sydney and J.J. :
 

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