The Miscellaneous Thought Thread

Phroobar

Phroobar

Well-Known Member
J4546 said:
Xcellerator is fun, maybe if they went all out and themed it to a mountain or volcano that's take it up a notch, but that'd cost 10s of millions. That being said if they got rid of it and the hang ten whatever coaster and redid all of thay I'd be ok with it
Click to expand...
Knotts used to have a volcano run by a little devil. It was removed when Ghost Rider was put in. I believe there is a firepit there now.

iu
 
PiratesMansion

PiratesMansion

Well-Known Member
Adventures at Disneyland on a recovering ankle (with Mother in tow), part 1:

-A bit surprised that they've swapped out the park opening song again. No recollection of what the current song is, but I didn't mind starting the day not being told to 'put my ears on.'
-So far I'm really enjoying the Disney Parks-centric Espalanade loop (even those who don't care for it would probably agree that it's still eons better than the Pixar loop during 2018).
-I really like the look of the 100th celebration. It works and pops much better in person than it does in photos.
-Did ROTR for the first time using Standby, around 7 PM. It was advertised as a 55 minute wait, but we got to the first preshow about 25 minutes in. It was great that so much of the queue is kinda sorta lined with benches-they were much appreciated after a long day (Mother liked the ride a lot, but probably would have liked it more if we got on the ride faster).
-Mother opted out of Smuggler's Run shortly before our time to ride, so I ended up going solo. Originally, I was assigned Engineer (sigh). However, I was sharing the ride vehicle with a family of four with two young children. Clearly whoever designed this ride was not thinking about the needs of very young kids, because both kids wigged out (with one starting to cry) upon seeing that they would be away from Mom and Dad (both of whom had been assigned Pilot). Mom quickly asked if I would switch with her, and so I inadvertedly got to co-pilot the Falcon with Dad. So now I can officially confirm that the ride is indeed MUCH more fun as Pilot vs. Engineer.
-That said, Smuggler's queue felt like it took FOREVER even with Genie (incidentally, I've decided that if people can keep calling DHS MGM that it's not a big deal if I just keep calling Genie FP. It's too engrained in me to switch at this point).
-Several rides were either darker than I remembered, or perhaps had their lighting intentionally dialed down (the digital parts of Alice especially were dim; it just reopened for refurb yesterday, so maybe a mistake they can easily correct? Don't know.
-Both of us loved Magic Happens. Beautiful floats and costumes, and some films represented that aren't 100% flavor of the moment, so that was good. Neither of us have any idea who the colorful lion-like creature is or where they're from. Anyone know here?
-Rogers: The Musical. It was very easy to use the virtual queue and switch times when we needed to. We largely avoided the pre-show chaos unintentionally because we took a lap on the train and so made it to the theater just before showtime. On the actual show: the performers were quite strong, but it just didn't quite work for either of us. Maybe that's because neither of us really are into Marvel, but we do love live theater and see musicals quite a bit, so who knows. The audience seemed to enjoy it but didn't seem to be reacting to it as though it was life changing. So I think it's a fun show, but I hope it doesn't stick around because I don't have any desire to see it again.
-Got stuck in a sub-optimal spot for Wondrous Journeys in the hub, but was impressed with what I was able to see (though that did not include the Blue Fairy-not sure if that was my position or if she just wasn't part of yesterday's performance for whatever reason).
-Mother has enjoyed all of the new-to-her rides that we've done so far (ROTR, Webslingers, GOTG). At first I thought she was miserable during GOTG because she was covering her ears the whole time, but she said that even though it was a little loud, she thought it was more fun and had better drops than TOT, and so it was a better ride to her.
-Something new to both of us: Animation Academy. We got Oswald, which was probably for the best as neither of us have any artistic ability, but we both drew passable (for us) versions of him. Fun souvenir too!
-While waiting at DCA for rope drop this morning, my mother overheard someone talking about Ravinia (Chicago music festival). I turned to look and see who it was: it turns out it was someone from my college fraternity there on vacation! It was fun to catch up with him for ten minutes or so while we waited for the park to open.
-Based on our ROTR experience yesterday, I was hopeful that the RSR queue would be reasonably fast-moving first thing in the morning. Not so, in part because the ride opened late, and in part because neither my mother nor myself are in the position to move very fast to the ride for rope drop. The line was crawling and they were announcing over the intercom that single rider was only a ten minute wait. We called an audible and switched, and we were very happy we did-it sure looked like the queue was full from the SRL. So perhaps RSR ILL's are selling like hotcakes after all.

-New-to-me food thoughts:
Chicken Fried Chicken & Baked Potato Soup at Carnation Cafe: Delicious (especially the soup).
Bengal BBQ (believe it or not, first time): I got the platter to try and make more of a meal out of it. LOVED the spicy beef skewer and would 100% order it again. Rice and coleslaw were fine, about what I expected. I didn't care for the chicken, primarily because of the sauce-it was a little too reminiscent of spicy ketchup for me.
Carne Asada Fries: Kept seeing these all over California over the past three weeks, so finally bit the bullet and tried them from Award Weiners. Life changing might be hyperbole, but sounds about right.
Various cookies: My mother has a bit of a sweet tooth, and so she's ordered several to snack on. All have been incredibly disappointing (even accounting for my already low expectations) and fake tasting. Dishonorable mention to the strawberry one from Trolley Treats here. Hoping the Cookie Num Num is still just as good as it was in 2018, but I'm skeptical.
Lucky Fortune Cookie & Cocina Cucamonga: We split the Beef Bulgogi and the QueBirria. Both impressed (thugh the garlic fries did nothing for us). If I had to pick just one, I'd probably go for the Bulgogi.
 
PiratesMansion

PiratesMansion

Well-Known Member
Californian Elitist said:
@PiratesMansion Thank you for taking the time to share your experiences with us! I think you said you got to the Walt Disney Studios… Right? If so, how was your visit?
Click to expand...
It was a wonderful experience! It was the last day of the heat advisory at 2:30, so it was quite hot, but we were mostly inside or in the shade, so it wasn't a big deal.

Getting to see Walt's two offices was the highlight.

Didn't get to see the soundstages, but given the heat, nobody minded! Not that Soundstages are super interesting anyway. We got to go into the Archives instead, which was also very cool.

Based on what I had heard, I was expecting super cool exclusive merchandise in the employee only shop, but it was basically variations on what was already in the main shop.

Really happy I got to take the tour! Hopefully some day I'll get to see Imagineering too!
 
waltography

waltography

Well-Known Member
PiratesMansion said:
Adventures at Disneyland on a recovering ankle (with Mother in tow), part 1:

-A bit surprised that they've swapped out the park opening song again. No recollection of what the current song is, but I didn't mind starting the day not being told to 'put my ears on.'
-So far I'm really enjoying the Disney Parks-centric Espalanade loop (even those who don't care for it would probably agree that it's still eons better than the Pixar loop during 2018).
-I really like the look of the 100th celebration. It works and pops much better in person than it does in photos.
-Did ROTR for the first time using Standby, around 7 PM. It was advertised as a 55 minute wait, but we got to the first preshow about 25 minutes in. It was great that so much of the queue is kinda sorta lined with benches-they were much appreciated after a long day (Mother liked the ride a lot, but probably would have liked it more if we got on the ride faster).
-Mother opted out of Smuggler's Run shortly before our time to ride, so I ended up going solo. Originally, I was assigned Engineer (sigh). However, I was sharing the ride vehicle with a family of four with two young children. Clearly whoever designed this ride was not thinking about the needs of very young kids, because both kids wigged out (with one starting to cry) upon seeing that they would be away from Mom and Dad (both of whom had been assigned Pilot). Mom quickly asked if I would switch with her, and so I inadvertedly got to co-pilot the Falcon with Dad. So now I can officially confirm that the ride is indeed MUCH more fun as Pilot vs. Engineer.
-That said, Smuggler's queue felt like it took FOREVER even with Genie (incidentally, I've decided that if people can keep calling DHS MGM that it's not a big deal if I just keep calling Genie FP. It's too engrained in me to switch at this point).
-Several rides were either darker than I remembered, or perhaps had their lighting intentionally dialed down (the digital parts of Alice especially were dim; it just reopened for refurb yesterday, so maybe a mistake they can easily correct? Don't know.
-Both of us loved Magic Happens. Beautiful floats and costumes, and some films represented that aren't 100% flavor of the moment, so that was good. Neither of us have any idea who the colorful lion-like creature is or where they're from. Anyone know here?
-Rogers: The Musical. It was very easy to use the virtual queue and switch times when we needed to. We largely avoided the pre-show chaos unintentionally because we took a lap on the train and so made it to the theater just before showtime. On the actual show: the performers were quite strong, but it just didn't quite work for either of us. Maybe that's because neither of us really are into Marvel, but we do love live theater and see musicals quite a bit, so who knows. The audience seemed to enjoy it but didn't seem to be reacting to it as though it was life changing. So I think it's a fun show, but I hope it doesn't stick around because I don't have any desire to see it again.
-Got stuck in a sub-optimal spot for Wondrous Journeys in the hub, but was impressed with what I was able to see (though that did not include the Blue Fairy-not sure if that was my position or if she just wasn't part of yesterday's performance for whatever reason).
-Mother has enjoyed all of the new-to-her rides that we've done so far (ROTR, Webslingers, GOTG). At first I thought she was miserable during GOTG because she was covering her ears the whole time, but she said that even though it was a little loud, she thought it was more fun and had better drops than TOT, and so it was a better ride to her.
-Something new to both of us: Animation Academy. We got Oswald, which was probably for the best as neither of us have any artistic ability, but we both drew passable (for us) versions of him. Fun souvenir too!
-While waiting at DCA for rope drop this morning, my mother overheard someone talking about Ravinia (Chicago music festival). I turned to look and see who it was: it turns out it was someone from my college fraternity there on vacation! It was fun to catch up with him for ten minutes or so while we waited for the park to open.
-Based on our ROTR experience yesterday, I was hopeful that the RSR queue would be reasonably fast-moving first thing in the morning. Not so, in part because the ride opened late, and in part because neither my mother nor myself are in the position to move very fast to the ride for rope drop. The line was crawling and they were announcing over the intercom that single rider was only a ten minute wait. We called an audible and switched, and we were very happy we did-it sure looked like the queue was full from the SRL. So perhaps RSR ILL's are selling like hotcakes after all.

-New-to-me food thoughts:
Chicken Fried Chicken & Baked Potato Soup at Carnation Cafe: Delicious (especially the soup).
Bengal BBQ (believe it or not, first time): I got the platter to try and make more of a meal out of it. LOVED the spicy beef skewer and would 100% order it again. Rice and coleslaw were fine, about what I expected. I didn't care for the chicken, primarily because of the sauce-it was a little too reminiscent of spicy ketchup for me.
Carne Asada Fries: Kept seeing these all over California over the past three weeks, so finally bit the bullet and tried them from Award Weiners. Life changing might be hyperbole, but sounds about right.
Various cookies: My mother has a bit of a sweet tooth, and so she's ordered several to snack on. All have been incredibly disappointing (even accounting for my already low expectations) and fake tasting. Dishonorable mention to the strawberry one from Trolley Treats here. Hoping the Cookie Num Num is still just as good as it was in 2018, but I'm skeptical.
Lucky Fortune Cookie & Cocina Cucamonga: We split the Beef Bulgogi and the QueBirria. Both impressed (thugh the garlic fries did nothing for us). If I had to pick just one, I'd probably go for the Bulgogi.
Click to expand...
I think the new opening song might be Be Our Guest? I actually can't remember anymore as I'd forgotten the last time I was at the parks right at rope drop.

The lion-like creature is an alebrije named Pepita from Coco, so she is part of that unit.

I keep forgetting Bengal BBQ exists but I remember enjoying the beef skewers too the last time I ate there (maybe last year?). Will make a mental note to eat there next time.
 
Rich T

Rich T

Well-Known Member
Is there a specific term for this new breed of park restaurant— the table-service-but-all-orders-and-payment-are-done-via-app (or-the-little-desk-off-to-the-side-trying-very-hard-to-be-invisible) type?
 
Phroobar

Phroobar

Well-Known Member
Rich T said:
Is there a specific term for this new breed of park restaurant— the table-service-but-all-orders-and-payment-are-done-via-app (or-the-little-desk-off-to-the-side-trying-very-hard-to-be-invisible) type?
Click to expand...
Isn't it just an offshoot of the QR codes restaurants for menus during covid?
 
PiratesMansion

PiratesMansion

Well-Known Member
WOC Dessert Party is 100% worth it if standing for minimum 45 min. isn’t a good idea for you. The ankle appreciated the rest.

People are amazingly bad at using their phones to actually *do things* despite how much they use them in their everyday life. Every Lightning Lane is a huge backup. I know it's not a perfect app or the most intuitive one in the world, but if people still can't figure out how it works by 10 PM, you start to wonder.

Disney should just give up and go back to paper. If it's no longer a free system, I imagine they now have a monetary source to pay for some paper.

Speaking of paper...to my surprise, I got a paper ticket at the turnstile when I first entered the park, but my mother did not. We bought tickets from two different authorized brokers. Not a big deal, but the inconsistency was odd.
 
TP2000

TP2000

Well-Known Member
TP2000 said:
I'm calling it now. The Barbie Movie is going to be huge. It's going to bring America together. It's going to be the hit of the summer.
Click to expand...

Digging up this post of mine from over a month ago, because I have a Barbie Pop Culture Anecdote to share:

Last night I picked up my little sister and her husband at Lindbergh field, and her two sons and their wives arrive tonight to begin our big Summer Pow-Wow at the beach house. While waiting for all their luggage at the baggage carousel, she didn't talk about her sons arrival or meal planning logistics or tennis court reservations for our hugely important Family Doubles Generational Smackdown Tournament. And she didn't even really ask how I was doing in my old age. 🤣

Instead, she first and foremost wanted to know that I had confirmed we still had reserved seats for Barbie, and wanted to see on my phone the exact time and seating arrangements in the theater.

Priorities, apparently.

And still, no one has shown any interest in going to Disneyland this summer. We'll skip it this time.
 

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