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.
