Off-set Vacay #2: First Visit to Disneyland!
For the first time since March 2020, I finally went on another "Off-set Vacay"! Which basically means, I travel in between my sets. I work three days and get five days off. There is a lot one can do in five days. And this time around I had one shift switched which gave me six days off. Many of my family had been to Disneyland California, so I decided that I would like to visit the original park for myself, as I am a huge Disney fan (I was supposed to run my first half marathon in Disney World in April of 2020). I was prepared to make this venture solo, though Disney is always fun with someone else. My dad was able to get the time off, and the time that worked best for us was May 1-5th. Which meant we could see Galaxy's Edge together for the first time on Star Wars day!
May 1st
This was a very long day. Travel days always are. It is not easy to get to L.A from Halifax. After working until 1900, getting my rapid test done at 1930, it was a late night before a early 0615 flight. Our first layover was eight hours in Calgary. Neither of us had been there so we decided to take a bus to downtown. We stored our bags at the luggage storage (when returning my dad had this thought "what if they put drugs in our bags", it was fine, no drugs 😂) and hopped on the city bus. In about 30 minutes we were in downtown Calgary. We decided to check out Calgary Tower to get an over view of the city. It was a fairly clear day so we could see the mountains far in the distance. We could also see the Saddle Dome where I believe the Calgary Stampede takes place. After that, it was time for food! We had not eaten in hours and I am always nervous about missing flights so we just went to a A&W to ensure it did not take too long. We walked around for another 20-30 minutes and then caught our bus back to the airport to ensure we were three hours early for our international flight. The funny thing with our next flight was that they did not even check us for previous proof of having Covid or for a negative result in the past day. I did check us in online the day before so I am unsure if that is why. But, flying from Calgary to L.A, no one checked that I had a negative Covid test. Maybe everyone is just tired of Covid, I know I am. I am ready for things to go back to normal.
At 2015 we finally landed in L.A (0015 back at home). We grabbed my dad's luggage (we had to check his carry on bag as the plane ran out of room. This is happening more and more often with airlines and carry on luggage). Just outside where the baggage carousel was located, was the area for buses transferring to rental car lots. We spotted ours quickly and were off... not so quickly. Probably took about ten minutes to exit from LAX airport. What a busy place! We grabbed our Chevy Spark got my google maps all set up and set of towards our hotel at the Sonesta Resort Area.
Fast forward an hour or so and we grabbed some sunscreen from a nearby Target, along with some muffins for future breakfasts, and stopped at a Jack in the Box for a late night supper, then checked into out hotel by 2250. Now time to rest up for our first full day at the Disney Parks after being awake for almost a full 24 hours!
May 2nd
Finally, the day I have been waiting for. My first visit to the original Disneyland Park! Or rather California Adventure. We would park hop to Disneyland after 1300. We got up early to make it for rope drop at 0800. We were able to walk from our hotel in 30 minutes to get to the park. We got there just after 0700. Many people were already lined up. They let us into the lobby area between the parks at 0720 ish and then let us into the actual parks around 0740. We then waited outside the rope for the park to officially open. Our first target was Radiator Springs Racers. We knew before hand that the wait for this ride could easily reach above an hour and the only way to lightning lane it was to pay for the individual lightning lane (which we had no intention of doing). The countdown began at 0800 and the rope was collected and we were off at a hasty fast walk to our first ride. The plan for today was to knock out as many rides as possible, so we could have a more relaxing second day without any stress of trying to do rides we missed. Radiator Springs had a few minutes of technical errors but was quickly up and going and we were on and off the ride by 0830. The people in front of us had their hands up so we did not get to enjoy our photopass for this ride (and we sadly did not get to return for a redo).
Next we hiked across the park back towards Avengers Campus for our first lightning lane of the day: Guardians of the Galaxy: Breakout. I had booked this fastpass once they let us into California Adventure. This was basically a walk on ride, we only waited about 5-10 minutes. This may be a controversial opinion, but I think I almost prefer the Guardians makeover than the original Tower of Tower. Blasphemy I know!
As soon as we scanned our lightning lanes for Guardians I had immediately booked our next one for Toy Story Mania, but once off the Tower we noted Web Slingers only had a 30 minute wait so we decided to head there next. Web Slingers is another pay for ride we did not want to pay for and the wait time is usually 50 minutes plus. We were moving fairly quickly and then the ride broke down for 10-15 minutes. It still was not working properly when we got on (the screens were not aligning properly), so we got to line back up and try again. The ride worked much better when we could shoot at a properly aligned screen! The web shooting aspect is really fun but also quite the workout.
Our next lightning lane was initially for Toy Story Mania, but since Web Slingers broke down, our lightning lane timed out. On the way to Pixar Pier I booked the Incredicoaster instead, in the hopes of attempting Toy Story afterwards. We were on the line within 10 minutes and also found out from another guest that you can redeem your lightning lane five minutes early. Some useful info to tuck away. I really enjoyed this one. It was a fairly simple rollarcoaster, but the Incredibles refacing was neat, though minimal. After the coaster we walked by Jack Jack Cookie Num Nums. I made note to return at somepoint, as the cookies looked delicious!
I soon discovered Genie + was not letting me rebook Toy Story. It said we had it booked. We spoke to the castmembers at Toy Story and they said to try scanning our actual park tickets. It did scan, but it said we were late in redeeming. Thankfully, they still let us on. Another good tidbit. If you are going to miss your time frame, cancel and book for another time rather than let it time out. Though I would think most castmembers would still let you through a few minutes late, but better to not risk it. My arms were still a little trired from Web Slingers so doing Toy Story so soon after may not have been the brightest choice. It was still a lot of fun. My dad and I both love the Disney Parks shooting games. I may be biased with Toy Story as I have done it multiple times and Web Slingers only 1.5 times, but I would say Toy Story is the better shooter ride.
Walking back through Pixar Pier I scanned Genie + for our next lightning lane. At this point it was about 1030 or so and we had done nearly all of them in California Adventure. We could soon start looking at Disneyland. Though all there lightning lanes were still before 1300, so no good for us yet. So, I booked us another one in California Adventure for Soarin'. We walked through Grizzly Peak to get there. I saw a figure of the characters from Brother Bear and snapped a photo. I always get excited when I see things in the park from lesser loved movies!
Soarin' is always a neat experience. I think it was closed last time I was at Disney World in 2016, so it has been a while since I was last on it. I do not recall there being smells associated with the different locations, but my memory may have faded. It really stood out as we were flying over the savanna and I could smell grass and dirt. Just before we had gotten on I tried out the mobile ordering through the app. We ordered the Not so Little Chicken Sandwich's from Pym Test Kitchen for around 1145. We soon discovered that Disney's mobile ordering is amazing. I had already paid through the app, so once we got to the restaurant after Soarin' I tapped the "Prepare my order" button. Within five minutes I received an update that it was ready. Amazing! There was good sized line up and we did not have to wait at all! We went inside to show them our confirmation and grabbed our seats to enjoy our really cool Sandwich. The chicken along with the tater tots were some of the best food I think I've had at a Disneypark. Would definitely eat it again. At the time we were eating one of the stunt shows was happening on Avengers Campus so we even got a little dinner and a show. At this time I also managed to secure a lightning lane for Hyperspace Mountain for just after 1300 and paid for the lighting lane for Rise of the Resistance for after 1330.
After refuling, we decided to head to the Pixar Pal-A-Round. It would be closed on the 4th, so if we were going to do it, today was the day. Normally neither of us would care about a ferris wheel, but both of us had read numerous comments about this ride being the most frighting non intentionally frightning ride at Disneyland. So we had to see for ourselves what this was about. Unlike a normal ferris wheel, most of the carriages are set to swing while the wheel turns. A unique take on a classic ride. While we did not find it as scary as other made it out to be, the swinging effect did succesfully make this a much more fun version of the ferris wheel. Plus, it did prove to have some fantastic views of the park from above.
Now nearing 1300, we made our way clockwise around the water and through the more "kiddie" area. There was not much to see and it was mostly rides we had no interest in, but it was nice to walk through all areas of the park. Then, walking through Grizzly Peak we noted the line to Grizzly River Run was only 15 minutes. It was was not quite 1300 yet and the temperature was starting to get a little warm. My dad mentioned that it was a fun ride that he did not remember getting that wet on. It should have been a nice refreshing ride to end California Adventure. I really enjoyed the rapids, I think it is an even better river ride than the Kali River Rapids at Animal Kingdom. Though I did not get "a little wet", I got a lot wet. At one point a huge splash of water came over the side and drenched my entire right side including my right foot. My bag also got soaked. So, very refreshing and very fun ride. We laughed nearly the whole ride.
8 rides done at C.A (4 LL)
Now, onto Disneyland! Our first stop was Space Mountain, or as it was nearing May the 4th, the ride was re-theamed as: Hyperspace Mountain. I was really looking forward to this. Space Mountain is one of my favourite rides, so having it re-theamed for Star Wars sounded amazing. Just before heading to the lightning lane, we grabbed a photopass just outside the ride with a Mandalorian themed background. I just so happened to be wearing my Mandalorian T-shirt!
The line for Hyperspace Mountain was the longest lightning lane we had faced yet. We probably waited somewhere between 15-20 minutes. Still much better than the standby of 90 minutes. The castmembers were really trying to get people through. Anyone they deemed too slow getting off the ride they would start to say "keep moving" and usher them out of the seats. Those going on to the ride were told "sit down" and again "keep moving". It was quite comical. I have never seen guests ushered on and off a ride in this hurried of a fashion. This is a very popular ride in general, so add in the Star Wars theme, and I can see why they want to go as efficiently as possible. Still funny to witness. I now know that there is one thing better than Space Mountain, and that is Hyperspace Mountain. It was so cool to go on one of my favourite rides with Star Wars music and audio/video clips. I would love to go back around this time to do it again one day.
Now the moment we have been waiting for. We finally headed to Galaxy's Edge... kind of slowly, since Disneyland was much buisier than California Adventure and there were a lot of people. And people walk so slow and no one keeps the middle open for fast walkers, because that just makes too much sense, and people with strollers and scooter bikes think they own the place. Sorry for this little rant, people in crowds just suck because walkways should run like roads but humans don't do that when on foot for some reason. Not just a Disney problem, this is an issue anytime there are large crowds. Like, why are slow walkers so obnoxious. Stick to the right!
So yay, finally in Galaxy's Edge! I have to say, entering for the first time from Fantasyland verring to the right, before Frontierland where the tunnel is, is so amazing. You walk through a tunnel then you exit out into Galaxy's Edge and there is this slight music in the background. It was really magical. With our timing, Kylo Ren and the Stormtroopers were out around his ship. The castmembers were clearing a way for them, but of course Kylo Ren makes his own path. He ignored the castmembers path and moved towards the crowd, motioning people to move out of the way. So cool! We still had some time before our ride so we explored a bit to just take everything in and take some photos. Though, my soaked right foot was started to irritate me. I worried I would get a blister. I thought "there must be Star Wars socks somewhere here". We looked, and did not see any. My dad finally asked a worker and they replied with "not in this galaxy". So we ventured back to frontierland where I did find a store with socks. I bought a 3-pack of rainbow Mickey socks just in case I had to change them again. Then back to Galaxy's Edge to do Rise of the Resistance! I also managed to book Smuggler's Run for after Rise.
The lightning lane for Rise of the Resistance was about 15-20 minutes, not terrible, just a bit longer than what we were used to at California Adventure. I won't say too much on the ride itself, but it was an amazing expereince. It is the type of attraction that you wish you could forget so you could experience it for the first time again.
Smuggler's run was up next for lightning lane. Again, another one I don't want to spoil too much of. The queue for this one and Rise are both really cool to walk through. The end waiting area is especially awesome! We got to be pilots for this time around. Myself being on the right I got to pull the Hyperdrive lever!
We then took the time to wander around Galaxy's Edge for a bit, checking out the shops. We were both still full from Pym's Kitchen, so we decided we would try the blue milk on May the 4th. Even the bathrooms were really cool, and themed for Galaxy's Edge. We did grab a drink of the cool detonator looking coke and sprite bottles they sell, before moving on.
Our next lightning lane took us on Big Thunder Railroad. Always a fun time, especially when getting on so quickly. We had about 40 minutes before our Indiana Jones lightning lane, so we wandered back to Tomorrowland and did the standby for Star Tours. It said the wait was 20 minutes but it ended up being more like 30-35. I had forgotten how cool Star Tours is. I love that they can change up which flight pattern you do. It adds some variety. This time it featured Kylo Ren and Poe Dameron.
I was also quite excited for Indiana Jones. This ride is not at Disney World. It also has a really awesome queue. The outside is jungle themed with some rope bridges and bamboo looking vegetation. Then on the inside you walk through a temple. This queue was not set up very well for lightning lane. The inside could hold a lot more people than they let in. But they have to have the standbys wait outside or else the lighting lane would not work. It was a really cool ride, it reminded me of Dinosaur at Animal Kingdom with how bumpy and rough a ride it was.
The time was now around 1730 or so. Time for some supper. We headed back to Tomrrowland to grab a slice of pizza from Pizza Planet. The line looked a bit long so I checked the app for mobile ordering. The next window was in 5 minutes or so. So, rather than wait in line, I ordered our meal online and had our pizza likity split. While eating I was able to book our next lightning lane for the Madderhorn. Another ride not at Disneyworld. Though I soon discovered that this must have been the inspiration behind Expedition Everest. It had a very similar feel, minus the bobsled style cars. Expedition Everest seems like a Madderhorn glow up.
At this point we had done most of what we wanted to do. We still had a lightning lane for Star Tours availble, so we did that for the second time of the day. We got a different flight pattern which was cool. This time Boba Fett was the main feature.
Next was lightning lane for Haunted Mansion. Having watched the video on Disney + showing the history of the ride, it was a bit more impactful this time around. Though it is sad Walt never got to see the finished product. This was the one ride he had always pictured in his park.
Later while the parade was going on, we decided to check out a long time fan favourite of the parks: Peter Pan's Flight. As a huge Peter Pan fan, it boggles my mind that after three visits to Disney World, I have never done this ride. So now I have. Though, I do not really think it lived up to the hype. It is a slow ride, and it is cool to "fly" over London and then into Neverland, but I found it very short. I don't know what I was expecting. Still neat to see at least once.
Next stop was It's a Small World. Another fan favourite that neither of us had ever done. The line up had no people in it, though I did not realize that at the time while I struggled to get our lightning lane out. Kind of embarssing to use a lightning lane when it was a walk on regardless. Another let down, though I was not expecting much anyway. There is a reason I never sought this ride out. The song is also quite irritating. I see why Scar hated it in the Lion King.
With the dark skies, we elected to return to Galaxy's Edge to see the land lit up at night. My pictures did not turn out great but in real life it looks amazing, especially the Millennium Falcon! At this time people were bringing out the light sabers as well, making me envious. We had decided to hold off on the lightsabers and droid until the family trip to Disney World next March.
Then we decide to do Rise of the Resistance again in the standby line. It said only 40 minutes. At one point in the ride we were standing on a gray space. Another castmember said it was gray's turn and my dad urged me to go. Little did I know that there were two gray areas and mine wasn't actually the one called. The castmember for us told me to "only obey orders from me". Then when it was finally our turn to go they said "don't get lost this time". It is so awesome when they play into the roles! Then we experienced this amazing ride for the second time! And that was how we ended our night. Not quite midnight, but we had gone on all the rides we wanted. On the way out we stopped through some stores on Main Street. One thing I saw that I kind of wish I bought was the Hercules travel mug. Hercules is one of my favourite Disney movies and the mug looked so nice. Oh well, I don't actually need anymore mugs... I guess.
Disneyland: 12 rides, (7 L.L, 1 paid for)
Total: 20 rides (11 L.L)
Another 25 minute walk and we were back at the hotel and went straight to bed to rest up for another eventful day!
May 3rd
Today was not a park day. I had never been to California so I wanted to see something outside of the parks. After an hour and a half to two hour drive through L.A traffic, we made it to our first destination: the Getty museum. Tickets were free, and I booked ahead of time to get the earliest 1000 time. The museum sits on a hill overlooking the city, so we had to take a tram to the top. The views were spectacular. Beautiful weather so we could see for miles. The museum itself was also stunning. It looked very Greek/Roman inspired. Everything was just so clean and pristine looking. A marble looking white stone covered the ground and the buildings.
One of the special exhibits going on showed old books of early drawings of anatomy. As a nurse, I thought it was pretty neat. The other main exhibits showcased French paintings, Christin artifacts, and my favourite: Greek sculptures, and many more. We grabbed a bite to eat at the cafe and took some time to just admire the architecture of the buildings and landscape. There were beautiful cactus gardens and a garden surrounding a little pond that even had a few ducklings. The whole area felt very "zen" and peaceful. Such a sharp contrast to the hustle and bustle of Disneyland. Also, much less kids at this musuem!
Alas, the relaxing could not last forever and it was time for us to head back to the car and pay our gastly $20 in parking. Next stop was our Paramount Pictures studio tour which we had booked for 1330. We parked across from the lot (another $20 gone) and went into the main office. This was the only place on our trip that actually asked for proof of vaccination. They gave us both lanyards with our names printed on them. Inside we could wait until our tour. There were movie costumes featured from Rocketman, The Addams Family, and Sweeny Todd. One of the guides let us hold a real Oscar (I can't remember from which movie), which was really cool. It is a lot heavier than it looks. They said it weighed close to 8 lbs.
We met our tour guide and the other members of our group. We were joined by a family from Turkey and a girl from Germany. Inside the room there was a life size replica of the terminator built to Arnold Schwarzenegger height and a list of projects curently ongoing. On the wall was a piece of the cube from one of the Transformer films. We then hopped on a little golf cart and were off.
First stop was where the classic Paramount Pictures archway was located and then onto a building that used to be where they used to hold premiers. At each location we went our guide would show clips of various films filmed in the areas we were. More into the lot we saw buildings that used to host celebrities and their changing rooms. One building once had Alfred Hitchcock stay. I guess he used to spend a lot of money so they placed him in a spot with huge windows to keep an eye on him. To counter this he just placed booksheleves in front of the windows. I learned a lot about Hitchcock on this tour. I guess on one of the soundstages he wanted to take out the ceiling but Paramount refused, so he dug a deeper basement instead (which is still present). He build entire sets and wanted them as relaistic as possible and wanted real cars driving. Which led to too much CO. The studio did not approve but Hitchcock wanted his cars moving, so he ended up having extras push the cars to make them move.
We came across a bench from Forrest Gump, drove through the false fronts of New York, featuring, Brooklyn, the financial District, and Soho. Saw a few places Brooklyn 99 was filmed. NCIS has pretty much used all locations as filming locations. One of the brick walls (fake bricks of course) was where the scene from the first Captain America movie filmed, the part were Steve Rogers gets pushed into the wall and he says his famous line "I can do this all day". The wall has a little give so that being slammed against it does not hurt the actor. I thought that was pretty cool.
One of the parking lots was like a giant pool, with blue painted on the pavement. For some water scenes they fill the whole lot with water (letting the L.A water commission know in advance). A scene from the 10 Commandments was filmed there when the water gets split. To film it they had to do the scene backwards then cut the strip in slices and glue it back the other way since technology was not like it is today. They also filmed a scene from Star Trek in the blue parking lot when they are falling from a plane. The actors were on solid ground standing up straight having air blown in their faces from above. Neat how they make things look so relaistic. Our final stop was the old prop room that housed some items from the Star Trek films, the car from Grease, Optimus Prime, amongst others. Optimus Prime can still drive.
Next stop was Hollywood blvd, but first, something for lunch or rather; lupper. As part of the "California expereince" we stopped at a In n' out Burger for well, burgers. I am not a huge burger eater, but it was pretty good. The fries tasted like plain chips to me. Quick service for being so busy.
We parked at a mall parking lot near the TCL Chinese Theatre and walked along the Hollywood Walk of Fame. It was neat to see the names of some of my favourite actors along the ground. Notably, I saw Mark Hamill, Benedict Cumberbatch, and even Mickey Mouse. The TCL Chinese Theatre was also really neat to see in real life. It still had a banner of Doctor Strange and the Multiverse of Madness draped over it. While it blocked some of the building, I do love Marvel movies, and it made the photos a bit more unique. The premiere had just been on the Monday. If I had realized earlier it would have been so amazing to be there for the premiere of Doctor Strange! Though, time wise, it probably would not have worked anyway as I went during my time off and did not want to use any vacation days. Along the ground in front of the theatre, there were hand prints and signatures of some actors from famous franchises. Notably, I saw the cast from Harry Potter, Star Wars, and even Twilight.
We then checked out a few shops before returning to the mall. I stopped at Hot Topic and bought myself a couple Hunter x Hunter shirts. I love visiting Hot Topic on my travels, as we don't have one in Nova Scotia. They always have really cool stuff for nerds. Funny enough they had a little section of items for Moon Knight. I found it odd, that Disney had no merch (that I saw) for the show themselves.
Now around 1800 or so, we wanted to start heading back. We did not want to drive in the dark along the highway. There was a bookstore I wanted to visit, but they did not have their own parking lot, and I did not feel like paying another $20 or so in parking. So sadly, no bookstores visited on this trip. We aimed to head to the outlets in Anaheim if our timing was okay. When we were nearly there, my dad and I had some miscommunication. He wanted to drive along the road in front of Disney to check out restautants, I thought we were going to see if anything promoted Star Wars day. So I was a bit confursed as to what we were doing. It was not imputed into the GPS. We accidently went down a wrong street that led us to a Disneyland parking garage that we had no idea existed and had no way to turn around once heading towards it. A bit silly really. So we had no choice but to join the line of cars leading up to the worker booth. We told them we had no intention of parking and how could we get out. They placed a hot pink "Exit" sign in out window and we were then ushered out by another worker who moved some pilons for us to go back out the exit. They clearly have done this before with others driving down by mistake.
So, after a little misadventure we made it to the outlets. It was nearly time to close so we only went into Marshalls. We thought they may have some Allbirds, but did not find any. For a super healthy supper, we stopped at Krispy Kreme and grabbed a six pack of donuts before heading back to the hotel. They were very good donuts, I have to say. Very light and fluffy. Then, time to rest up for Star Wars day!
May the 4th be with you
We woke up early for another rope drop start. Today we would start in Disneyland and than later hop over to California Adventure. Yesterday and today had the Star Wars after hours, which meant Disneyland would close at 2000 to everyone else. Another downside to planning a little last minute is missing out on cool events like that.
Last night we had seen the voice actor of Ahsoka promoting the new legacy hilts that would be limited addition at the park and online. The antique store: Dok-Ondar's, was to be my priority this rope drop. I rushed there along with everyone else. Cutting towards Frontierland before veering off to Galaxy's Edge. Mostly people went straight to Rise of the Resistance which made the store fairly empty at first. I was probably the 8th person or so in line. Unfortunetly for all my excitement and rushing to get there, they did not have the Ahsoka leagcy set. They only had Asajj Ventress. While I think Ventress is cool, I was not expecting hers to be there. I could have just gotten the normal Ahsoka hilts but decided I can think about it more and always buy them when we return to Disney World. In the end it may have been good they were not there. The price tag was somewhere around $400!
After that little rush, we went over to Oga's Cantina to see if we could get in as a walk-up. I got us a slot in the app for "now" and we were in within minutes! They even allowed us to sit at one of the booths that is usually kept for reservations, but since we were so early, they had space. Lucky us! The detail and the decor was all so cool. You really felt you were on another planet. While the food is not the best (which we knew ahead of time), the experience was amazing. I ordered a blue milk which came with a sugar cookie (great breakfast). My dad got the Hyperdive drink and when they brought it over, rather than place it on the coasters, the waiter placed it on the table where there was a flickering light. It made it look like when they go into Hyperdrive in the movies. We also got the Banto bites for a little bite to eat. When we were ready to go, my dad asked if we could have more of the coasters, our waiter was kind enough to hand us a handful (later we discovered we still were missing a couple designs). We walked around a little bit taking some photos around the Cantina before exiting.
Since everyone was at Rise of the Resistance, the wait time for Smuggler's Run was only 25 minutes. We went standby, which is nice sometimes because you get to apprecaite the unique queues Disney crafts. We got to be pilots again, only we swapped our seats this time. Afterwards, the wait time was still only 30 minutes so we got in line again and this time got to man the weapons. While in line we noted the wait time increasing so I booked our first lightning lane of the day for Smuggler's Run, so when we got off this second time we could go right back on. And we did, Smuggler's Run three times in a row and we got to try each of the roles as we were able to be the engineers this third time. Our first two times as pilots we thought we did a bad job, but after experencing the other two pilots we soon realized we were the best ones. Our last two flights were quite bumpy!
We then took the time to bask in the fact we were in Galaxy's Edge on May the 4th; Star Wars day! We grabbed some more photos. Today we wanted to take advantage of photopass. We did not do many on day one, as we wanted to knock out as many rides as possible. As a result for today, we did not feel the need to rush as we had acomplished all the rides we set out to do. We got photos in front of the Falcon and at the entrance area to Galaxy's Edge.
We then went to the line up at the Milk Stand. The line was a decent size so I checked mobile ordering. Again, there was a time within the next 10 minutes. I ordered my dad the special May the 4th blue milk and got myself the green milk that came with the take home cup. We walked around a bit more waiting for our time slot and then received our order very quickly. While the blue milk looks better, I would say I prefer the taste of the green milk. The special Star Wars day blue milk had gummies at the bottom, and reminded me of bubble tea tapioca bubbles.
Drinks in hand we headed towards Tomorrowland, to ride Hyperspace Mountain again and to track down the May the 4th merch. They had a whole set up at the Launch Bay along with the new Star Wars merch they had launched last night at the first Star Wars after hours. The pins were all sold out but we both got ourselves a T-shirt. This years theme seemed to be Bounty Hunters. There was a really cool design online with Boba Fett and the Mandalorian that my dad wanted, but they did not appear to sell it in the park. Just outside the Launch Bay we grabbed some photos in Boba Fetts throne, a little set up they had in honour of The Book of Boba. I was a little disappointed in the lack of promotion for Obi-Wan. His show literally comes out later this month and yet I saw nothing promoting it and no merch related. I would have loved to buy something as he is one of my favourite characters, along with Ahsoka who also seemed to lack in merch. Anyway, with our new shirts in hand we did Hyperspace Mountain again, and same as last time, it was amazing! On the way to the ride we snapped some photos in front of the "Hyperspace Mountain" sign, and when I went to take a photo of my dad he got photobombed by another park guest. She went up and joined him in the photo. Very amusing, and makes for a fun memory.
Next lightning lane was booked for Star Tours. At this time Captain Phasma and her Stormtroopers were out and walking among the guests. When she spotted my shirt (which was a Captain Phasma tank top) she said that "you have chosen your alligience wisely". A pretty cool moment.
Then on Star Tours we got yet another variation. This time we were pursued by Darth Vader. We were pretty lucky to go three for three with different variations of the ride! Coming out into the store, I bought myself a long sleeve top that said in small text: "use the force": and my dad got a mug that when hot, showed the Princess Leia hologram from A New Hope and a Mandalorian shirt.
The next lighting lane I had booked was for Indiana Jones. As it is not at Disney World I wanted to do it a second time. On the way over we stopped at the castle to finally take the time to take a photo of the iconic castle, and got another photopass. It is much smaller than the Cinderella Castle at Disney World but still beautiful.
Since we were still early for Indiana Jones, we walked through some stores and went up to the Port Royal store. It looked like Haunted Mansion had completely taken over. The only actual Pirates merch I saw was the odd necklace or earings. I wondered if this was beacuse the Pirates ride was down for refurbishment. I was so sad when I heard that, I love Pirates of the Caribbean. I was able to find a nice birthday present for one of my cousins. Then we ended our Disneyland day with Indiana Jones and started heading for California Adventure.
Before heading off to the next park, we decide to check out the Star Wars store in Downtown Disney. It was at the very end, (Downtown is a lot longer than I initially realized). In the front they had Rey's speeder. I was surprised to find they had the newly launched merch at the store. I would have thought for the first few days you would only be able to purchase it at the Launch Bay. No May the 4th merch though. Outside the lego store they had children helping put together a giant R2 D2 lego figure.
Our first stop at California Adventure was a return visit to Pym's Kitchen. This time we got the Quantum Pretzel, to split, because that thing is huge and there was no way we were finishing one each. At the time, the waitimes were not crazy so we decided to standby Guardians. Plus, it was around 1400 and getting quite hot, if we waited a little in line out of the sun, that was a good thing. This time around I got to appreciate the Collectors artifacts they had on the inside. The attention to detail at Disney is always spectacular. They had a bunch of weapons and creatures, and an outfit that looked like it belonged to Loki.
We then lightning laned Incredicoaster and bought a Jack Jack num num cookie to split. They warmed it up and everything. Nothing beats a warmed chocolate chip cookie! We took some time to wander around the park taking in the sites as we were zig zagging the last visit. Grabbed some photos in front of things at Avengers Campus, checked out some stores at Pixar Pier. We ended up buying a Forky (from Toy Story) shirt for my mom and I got to see first hand the horror that all the Toy Story toys have in fact replaced "Andy" on the bottom of their foot with "Bonnie" (so sad!). There was one really cool looking travel mug from Monster Inc. that looked like the scare canisters (very tempting to buy one). I wish I enjoyed the Cars Franchise more, as that land is really amazing to walk through. Second only to Galaxy's Edge (well maybe third to the Wizarding World of Harry Potter, but that is Universal).
We then returned to Avengers Campus to check out one of the live shows. We missed all the showings of Spider-Man, but were on time for Doctor Strange. We sat to the right of the Sanctum. We were approcahed by a man named Arthur and apparently he almost went to school in Nova Scotia (small world) and who perfroms in L.A. He used to sing and play instruments but since an accident only sings now. Gave us a buisness card and everything. Look at us, meeting a celeb without even trying, haha. While waiting the Warriors of Wakanda show was going on. Then we realized just as the show was 10 minutes from starting that we were on the wrong side to wait. While we sat for an hour waiting for Doctor Strange there was an actual line along the left side that was very, very long and most likely we would not get in. Very frustrating. While waiting on our side we did get to see Loki walking through the park, so one good thing at least.
With only one more showing for Doctor Strange we had one last chance. In the meantime we snatched up a lightning lane for Guardians. Two of the elevators were down but luckily they still priortise lightning lane. They even made an announcement to the standby's that lightning lane would be top priority. Once we finished our third time at Guardians we went to the line for Doctor Strange. This time we got in! There was no seating so they got everyone to sit on the ground. The show was actually pretty entertaining. Our Doctor Strange had a good stage prescence and made some amusing jokes. My dad suspected he must be a magician outside of Disney. I think having the last show was actually a good thing, as the darker sky made the lighting seem even better.
After that we noted a 40 minute wait for Spider-Man. We debated whether or not to wait, but as this ride is not in Disney World we thought it would be worth the wait. When the ride does not break down it goes through quite quickly. We both did notably better than our first ride through. Starting to get the hang of this web slinging buisness.
We apparently did not learn our lesson from day one, because the next lighting lane I booked was for Toy Story. Though, at this point there were not many options left. Just as we got to Pixar Pier the World of Color show was starting. I had forgotten to go on the app at 1200 and missed our chance to get seats. We watched from the backside just to the right of the Pal-A-Round. And to be honest, it wasn't terrible. We could still see the images on the water, though I am sure they looked much better and clearer from the front view and we could hear the music just fine. We had front row view from this angle. I got chills when the pirates music started playing, then they had a clip of Jack Sparrow. Between the music, just having rewatched the original Pirates trilogy, and all that is going on with Depp at the moment, I just really loved seeing that section of the show. It makes me wonder how they showed his face in this show after Disney had so disrespectfully dropped him from everything. A bit odd isn't it? Not that I am complaining, like I said, that was my favourite part. I just think it is a little hypocritical of Disney. Just as the final song was playing we went for what would be our final ride of the evening. Even with the break to watch the light show my arms were still tired from Spider-Man. The combo of the two shooters are truly a good arm workout!
Before saying goodbye to Disneyland, we walked through Radiator Springs to take in the views at night. It really is an exceptional land. So many cool details. We debated doing the Radiator Springs ride but the wait was over an hour. Sure, since we would have lined up before the park closed we could have still gotten on, and if our hotel was closer or if this was Disney World and a bus would be waiting to take us right back to the hotel, I may have considered it. But at 2130 at night and with a 30 minute walk awaiting us, neither of us felt like walking back at 2300 or later.
Walking back through Avengers Campus to see it at night we spotted Moon Knight up on the Avengers building. Which was pretty cool, I really loved the show. I had read ahead of time that he only comes out at night. We then checked the wait time for Guardians. Again, over an hour, so sadly not this time. And thus we sad our final goodbyes to the parks and made our exit.
We both talked earlier about the potential of attempting to take the Toy Story bus to the parking lot and perhaps cutting down the walk time to the hotel. This plan did not go according to plan. The parking lot is a lot larger than we expected. Google maps told us to walk one way but my dad thought everyone else was going the other way so we had to follow suit, which added on an even longer walk than if we had just walked from the park, haha. We can laugh about it now. When we walked past the entrance the bus took us in after walking the long way, I pointed out that there was in fact a sidewalk, and Google was not steering me wrong. Oh, well, we made it back. It's about the journey, not just the destination. We packed up everything the night before for our journey home.
May 5th
A fairly uneventful day returning the car, getting to the airport... except that when going through security I forgot to empty my waterbottle. They gave me the option of toss it or take it back through security. I was fully prepared to ditch the bottle, though it was my Stormtrooper shaker, so it would have been kind of sad. We had three hours before my flight so the airport worker took me back to the beginning and I went through all the security, again. This time with an empty bottle. So embarassing, I have never done that before. The real funny part was when I returned to where my dad was I got this notification that our flight had been delayed due to a security reason. I thought "oh no, is that because of me", and my dad started laughing saying I delayed our flight. But how could they have known which flight I was on. There were multiple people on multple flights going through security at the same time. It wasn't my fault.
Smooth sailing from there, though on the plane we hit a section of turbulance that was rougher than anything I had ever flown through. I felt like I was back on a Disney ride. It was actually really fun. Though I am sure my mom would have freaked had she been with us.
In Toronto we got there after 1900. I had hotel booked for us just outside the airport at a Quality Inn. Not as nice as the one in Halifax but it was just a place to rest for our flight the next morning. It really is not easy to get to L.A. from Halifax or vice versa. Hopefully with our growing population that changes soon. We grabbed some Subway and watched the final episode of Moon Knight.
May 6
We made it home without a hitch. No fun airport stories on this day.
This trip was short and sweet. We did a lot in the three full days we had but I would love to go back. California in general has so many beautiful parks I would love to visit, and there is still so much of L.A I missed out on. I am really glad my dad was able to join me. At first I was planning to go solo, but it turned out really great, especially since with the timing we were able to be there for May the 4th. It would have felt weird to visit Galaxy's Edge for the first time without the one that made me into a Star Wars fan! I can't wait for our family trip to Disney in March 2023!
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