Cosmic's coming to the land of Queen Calafia!

[Californian Elitist]

Yay for more accomplishments! Checking more things off the list

Seeing as I'm terrified of heights, I'd probably never be able to drive on slim, winding roads like that. You're brave.

 

[Cosmic Commando]

Got to see A Christmas Fantasy Parade today! It seemed pretty darn crowded since it was opening night (this year), and there were definitely some opening night jitters! Tigger and Pooh came sledding by us sans Eeyore, and then Eeyore showed up like ten minutes later, his sled broken down right at the edge of the hub. Of course it would happen to Eeyore, right? They even made him pull it the rest of the way! Pooh would never put up with stuff like that. Then Belle and the Beast were powerwalking to catch up with the princess float well after it had gone by us... someone slept through their alarm? Just minor things that didn't tarnish a good show.

 

[Californian Elitist]

Got to see A Christmas Fantasy Parade today! It seemed pretty darn crowded since it was opening night (this year), and there were definitely some opening night jitters! Tigger and Pooh came sledding by us sans Eeyore, and then Eeyore showed up like ten minutes later, his sled broken down right at the edge of the hub. Of course it would happen to Eeyore, right? They even made him pull it the rest of the way! Pooh would never put up with stuff like that. Then Belle and the Beast were powerwalking to catch up with the princess float well after it had gone by us... someone slept through their alarm? Just minor things that didn't tarnish a good show.

Poor Eeyore!!!! Hopefully the next showing will be a little more successful.

 

[Cosmic Commando]

Finally settled into our vacation groove I think. An easygoing few days at Disneyland, including meeting up with @raven24! Lots of fun!

We're slowly crossing more things off of our "To Do" list, including the Aladdin musical at DCA. It was one of the biggest regrets of the trip. No, no, no... not regret because it was bad; regret because we've been to DLR for two weeks total in '07 and '08 and about two weeks in 2012 before we saw this show! Even from my first trip, this show was always the "next" thing, the thing that you want to do but you forget about or the schedule just doesn't line up. It was the "we'll try to catch the next show" thing or the "we'll see it next time" thing. It's kinda tucked away in the corner of DCA, we don't often walk by it to remind us, you have to time it right with the schedule, etc. If you are going to DLR for the first time or if you've been before but haven't seen Aladdin, GO!

Saturday was dolphin watching. We used Captain Dave's, which is in Orange County not terribly far from Disneyland. It was amazing! There were literally hundreds of dolphins in the waters around us! Plus, there were two features on this boat that made the trip extra special. One, there was an area where the floor was nylon netting and you could actually lay down with just the net between you and the dolphins a couple of feet away swimming next to the hulls.

Then, the bottoms of the two hulls had glass panels in the walls so you could be under the water with the dolphins swimming right next to you. My family is really thinking about doing this again even though our schedule is so tight!

 

[Californian Elitist]

Aahhh, great picture! Why didn't we take more?!?! Ugh!!

Aladdin is such a great show. I remember the first time I saw it, I was amazed because I wasn't expecting the show to be like a broadway type of show. I wasn't even expecting the theater to be that huge! The jokes in the show just make it even better!

I'm really jealous you got to see all those dolphins! I went whale watching once and I didn't see one whale! I saw nothing but seagulls, pelicans and ducks. It was a waste.

 

[Laura]

I've been whale watching 3 times so far. Once in San Diego and twice in Dana Point. All 3 times I saw tons and tons of whales and dolphins. The best experience of my life was the one in San Diego where a humpback whale put on a 30 minute show right off the side of the boat - jumping out of the water and doing all kinds of acrobatics like it was Sea World. I'm dying to do it again.

I've been following Captain Dave on facebook for a while because I want to try that one next. Do you have any more pictures? I was curious how many people are on the boat (the boat looks kind of empty in your picture, which would be great!) and how difficult it is to get down into that pod thing (is there a giant line of kids? I'd be worried about missing something awesome while waiting in line to go into the pod).

 

[Cosmic Commando]

I've been whale watching 3 times so far. Once in San Diego and twice in Dana Point. All 3 times I saw tons and tons of whales and dolphins. The best experience of my life was the one in San Diego where a humpback whale put on a 30 minute show right off the side of the boat - jumping out of the water and doing all kinds of acrobatics like it was Sea World. I'm dying to do it again.

I've been following Captain Dave on facebook for a while because I want to try that one next. Do you have any more pictures? I was curious how many people are on the boat (the boat looks kind of empty in your picture, which would be great!) and how difficult it is to get down into that pod thing (is there a giant line of kids? I'd be worried about missing something awesome while waiting in line to go into the pod).

I would definitely recommend Captain Dave's! They sell 49 tickets for that boat (Manute'a) and I would guess there were about 30 people onboard. Even if it were full, it wouldn't be quite as cool obviously, but I don't think it would be crazy. They say on the website that they sell fewer tickets than the boats are rated for and I believe them. You can stalk their reservations page; if you hover over the time each day, it will tell you how many seats are available and which boat is going out. I have a feeling it's relatively uncrowded when it's not peak whale season. Unfortunately, I didn't grab many shots of the actual boat, but there's the front where we spent pretty much all of our time, a pretty big "inside", plus more area in the back with benches at the very back and more standing area along the sides.

The front is three of those net thingys wide with standing space all along the outside.

You can see the entrance to the pod here right behind the blue nets. There's one on either side. When the pods aren't open, the hatch is closed so there's even more standing space up front.

The line for the underwater pods really wasn't bad at all. I actually went down three times: once with J.J. right when they opened them, and once with each of the kids towards the end because there was no line. Unless a whale surfaced off in the distance, I don't think there's much that you'd miss being in the pod. The dolphins really liked to swim alongside the boat right next to and in front of the hulls where the pods are. The pod is really the place to be, IMO. Most of the time I was up on deck, I was watching the dolphins that were swimming right next to where the pods are. You wouldn't miss anything while you were standing in line for the pod. The boat was comfortably roomy for the number of people on board, but there's still not a ton of extra space. If you're waiting for the pod, you're still basically in that prime viewing area up front.

You also get what I bet is pretty reliable viewing of California sea lions. They like to hang out on the buoys:

 

[Cosmic Commando]

BTW, saw Aladdin again yesterday. After "Prince Ali" when Jasmine tells off Aladdin and all of the attendants run away, the Genie said: "What a terrible week; first, no more Twinkies and now this!"

 

[Californian Elitist]

BTW, saw Aladdin again yesterday. After "Prince Ali" when Jasmine tells off Aladdin and all of the attendants run away, the Genie said: "What a terrible week; first, no more Twinkies and now this!"

HAHAHAHA, that's a great one! I still can't believe Hostess is going out of business.

 

[Laura]

I would definitely recommend Captain Dave's! They sell 49 tickets for that boat (Manute'a) and I would guess there were about 30 people onboard. Even if it were full, it wouldn't be quite as cool obviously, but I don't think it would be crazy. They say on the website that they sell fewer tickets than the boats are rated for and I believe them. You can stalk their reservations page; if you hover over the time each day, it will tell you how many seats are available and which boat is going out. I have a feeling it's relatively uncrowded when it's not peak whale season. Unfortunately, I didn't grab many shots of the actual boat, but there's the front where we spent pretty much all of our time, a pretty big "inside", plus more area in the back with benches at the very back and more standing area along the sides.

The front is three of those net thingys wide with standing space all along the outside.

You can see the entrance to the pod here right behind the blue nets. There's one on either side. When the pods aren't open, the hatch is closed so there's even more standing space up front.

The line for the underwater pods really wasn't bad at all. I actually went down three times: once with J.J. right when they opened them, and once with each of the kids towards the end because there was no line. Unless a whale surfaced off in the distance, I don't think there's much that you'd miss being in the pod. The dolphins really liked to swim alongside the boat right next to and in front of the hulls where the pods are. The pod is really the place to be, IMO. Most of the time I was up on deck, I was watching the dolphins that were swimming right next to where the pods are. You wouldn't miss anything while you were standing in line for the pod. The boat was comfortably roomy for the number of people on board, but there's still not a ton of extra space. If you're waiting for the pod, you're still basically in that prime viewing area up front.

You also get what I bet is pretty reliable viewing of California sea lions. They like to hang out on the buoys:

That looks so amazing. I think you've confirmed my decision to use this company next time. Thanks for posting the pics/videos.

 

[Cosmic Commando]

That looks so amazing. I think you've confirmed my decision to use this company next time. Thanks for posting the pics/videos.

Plus, on a side note, I ordered the tickets online at like 9 AM for a 10:30 cruise. On the order form, there was a spot for celebrating something so I put J.J.'s birthday down (it was the next day). When we got there almost exactly an hour later, there was a sign up wishing J.J. a happy birthday. At 9 o'clock, they didn't know we existed, and at 10 o'clock there was a little sign printed and hung. Seems like a really good company from everything I've experienced and heard.

Did you see Capt. Dave on Ellen?

 

[Cosmic Commando]

Did you know there's beaches in California?!? For some reason it took us two and a half weeks to make it to the beach even though we're staying about 10 mins away from the coast. We made it to the desert before the beach!

After that, we squeezed in a few more hours at Disneyland with @raven24! Pop quiz: One of you has to go home. The rest of you have to run because Aladdin starts in 3 minutes. You only have time for one picture. What are the precise odds of two kids looking at the camera at the same time? Answer: not good.

 

[Californian Elitist]

I still can't believe it took you guys that long to get to the beach. Then again, I do have some understanding. You just simply couldn't resist the Disneyland Resort. Completely understandable.

I had yet another good time with you guys, today! Wish we lived closer together.

 

[Cosmic Commando]

Tuesday was all about the Rivers of America, food and shopping. I think in that order. As we were approaching our last Disneyland Resort day, it became pretty obvious that it was now or never for some of the smaller attractions we had been pushing off. Now ended up being pretty much everything on the left side of the park that we ended up missing. Never ended up being the Storybookland Canal Boats. Oops, below 10,000 ft... gotta go!

Unfortunately, I am writing this as I am travelling 531 MPH at 39,001 ft in the air over Columbus, OH. That's right; We had to wake up at 3 AM to catch a 6 AM flight out of LAX! I tried to convince my wife that the counter probably wouldn't even open until 5 AM and that we should wait to get there until then. That's what it does in our little 20 gate airport, why wouldn't it be the same at LAX? Oh right... it's one of the busiest airports in the world. We got there before 4 AM and it looked like everyone in LA was flying out on Southwest today! And they were all in line in front of us! Yipe! We made it though, and we even made our connecting flight with time to spare. Pretty smooth sailing on our way to our weekend in DC.