Farrell's Ice Cream Parlor

 

 

  

 

 

http://www.farrellsusa.com/

Farrell's? But you were reviewing Disneyland!

Indeed I was, and I still am. Next week should be some basics for getting ready to go, and then I will start going over rides and foods in the different lands, plus the World of Color. However, Farrell's was an important part of this trip. This trip had been scheduled to celebrate birthdays, and even if most of that was centered around Disneyland, when Julie found a Farrell's in Brea, that quickly became part of the plan. The funny thing was, as we mentioned it to people, everyone who knew of it had been to the one in Mission Viejo, which would have been about the same distance. I guess the one in Brea is newer and less known.

I should give some context. Growing up, we would see commercials for Farrell's all the time. It looked amazing, with huge sundaes, drums, sparklers, and sirens - exactly the sort of thing that makes kids' eyes go wide. It may also be the sort of thing that gives parents headaches. I just know that we never went. When we had birthday parties, they were always at home, and when we were invited to birthday parties, those were at homes too.  (I did make it to Wunderland once, for a birthday party in junior high, but I don't think Chuck E Cheese even really started to catch on until I was in high school.)

Perhaps that is why the local Farrell's closed, but it has been gone for a long time. A few years ago there had been stirrings that they might bring it back, and nothing happened. However, while researching that, Julie found the web site, and that is how she knew there were locations in Southern California. That is how we knew that we could in fact be part of a birthday celebration there.

It was actually better than the commercials. In the ads, the restaurant looked a lot darker. This was bright and colorful. There is a shop with old fashioned candy in the front. Video screens flashed photos of people having a good time there, including such luminaries as Tony Hawk and the Aquabats. (I did not see a picture, but my understanding is that Bill Clinton won a Pig Trough contest once when he was Arkansas attorney general.)

They do in fact start the sirens and bang the drum every time they take a birthday person their order. This happened roughly fifty times while we were there, because everyone goes for their birthday!

The restaurant was packed, and there seemed to be a birthday at every table. There was a party room that more and more people kept entering like the proverbial clown car. (Actually, seeing them all leave would have probably been more interesting.)

Granted, this means that Farrell's is not the place for your quiet, romantic evening. They had a dinner special geared for that on the menu, and a picture of a cozy couple, but it would not, in fact, be the most intimate setting. Every minute or so, you have the siren, the beating of the very abused drum (the head was peeling off a little), and then the staff gathers around the table and sings a birthday song, and they know many! Every table was a different song, and they went through several.

I have to give a big kudos to the staff here. We had talked about how it could be hard working at Disneyland and having to be "on" all the time, and there is a similar thing going on here. You have to be cheerful and energetic, and it's just easier if you are someone who enjoys it. This group seemed to be having fun, as were we.

In time it was our turn, and the Zoo Sundae came to us, carried on a stretcher between two people, just like we used to see on TV. (There were no sparklers, but someone else got a sundae with a jet of flame shooting out the top, so it does depend on what you order.) In addition, Julie and Maria each got the free birthday sundae, with a candle that was lit and blown out.

I admit, the Zoo was not exactly how I pictured it. I though of a mound going above the bowl, like a mountain, with 3-D animal figures around it. This was actually more practical (and sanitary), with flat plastic animals and pipe cleaner animals stuck in it. (And they were all kind of ocean-themed, so it was more of an aquarium.) However, our server very responsibly served everyone a big dish and stuck at least two of the animals in it. (So yeah, we were not all eating out of the big bowl. Still more practical and sanitary, I guess.)

The Zoo serves 5-10. There were five of us, and we ate about half, so we got that about right.

I'm not saying that I will never try and create an ice cream mountain with 3-D animals posed around it, but I feel pretty safe in saying that we will go to Farrell's again, with it possibly becoming something we do every time we go to Anaheim. Maybe we'll try out that one in Mission Viejo.

The Candy Cane Inn

 

http://www.candycaneinn.net/

We made three trips to Disneyland when I was a kid, and then we were always driving down and staying in campgrounds. Our first time back as adults (spring vacation, 1996), our brother and his wife recommended the Candy Cane Inn, and that's where we went, and that's where we have stayed every time we have gone back.

People ask about where to stay a lot, and this is the place I always recommend. A lot of people think we are crazy, and that you are missing out if you are not staying at one of the resort hotels. I admit, the Grand Californian looks amazing, and has a great location, and I get the appeal. It would also add at least another $1000 to our trip. The Disneyland and Paradise Pier hotels are not quite as expensive, but they are still pretty spendy. We're not willing to spend that much extra money.

At the same time, we do sometimes look at possibly finding a cheaper place, and there are some, but we always decide against it, and go back to Candy Cane. So, what I am going to do in this post is talk about what we like about it. Even if that does not convince you, it covers a lot of the issues that you should think about when picking a place to stay.

Standard Amenities: It is not unusual to have a continental breakfast, but it is handy to have, and theirs is good. It gets us started on the day, and means we only have to worry about lunch and dinner. Pools and hot tubs are common, but theirs is nice, and they do have a regular pool as well as a smaller one for children, which I think some parents find comforting. There are definitely children around, but I have never found it to be noisy. Also, they have a laundry room, and I really appreciate that, as it means we can pack less. Their is WiFi, as provided by iBahn. It had a few snags on our first two days, but they worked it out.

Price/Quality balance: They are not the least expensive place in town, but there are others that are much more expensive, and for the less expensive ones, the money that you save probably does not adequately compensate for the drop in quality. We have always found the Candy Cane to be clean and comfortable.

Location: They are really close to Disneyland. You can see the back of Ornament Valley in Cars Land rising up behind the hotel. They are easily within walking distance, in fact. We rarely do walk, because you do so much walking within the park, and because they have such a good alternative to walking (which we will get to in the next item), but it's nice to be close.

Also, for other convenience, there is a combination convenience store/souvenir shop, the ABC Store, right next door. We usually get our bottled water here. Right next to it is a 7-11. Across the street there are some convenient fast food places, including a Subway and a Chinese place similar to Panda Express, and just a little beyond that is the Garden Walk, which is basically a mall, but you have more restaurants and shopping.


Transportation: A lot of hotels mention being close to Disneyland, but they mean driving yourself. We were talking to another family on our way to the airport (Supershuttle), and she said that between hotel parking and Disneyland parking, having a car there would have cost $25 per day.

The Candy Cane Inn has it's own shuttle that goes back and forth every half hour. It is not the only one that does. I remember seeing two other hotels that did (yes, it would be helpful if a remembered which; maybe Sheraton and Hyatt), but that is rare. There is a shuttle bus that goes around to different resorts, but that takes a lot longer, and is not as nice. Our ride was very short, due to the convenient location, and our shuttle was always clean and comfortable, and rotating among the same drivers.

Consistency: Speaking of the same drivers, we are always recognizing people there. This is most obvious with the hotel manager, James, but he is not the familiar face. That consistency tells me that they are good to their employees, and I feel good about that. The staff has always been helpful and responsive. They also tend to be enthusiastic about Disney, so you can ask them questions and they will know.

Oh, one thing that has not helped us is that they always give us a certificate for a discount if we come back within a year. We have longer than that between trips, but if you manage to go yearly, you may find that helpful as well.

When to go to Disneyland

In a recent episode of The Big Bang Theory, Amy, Bernadette, and Penny planned a trip to Disneyland, and they decided to blow off work, because the weekends are too crowded, but they just went on Friday instead. Friday is part of the weekend.

I wish I had taken some pictures of the crowd to illustrate my point better. Yes, I am sure Saturday and Sunday are worse than any of the weekdays, and this is especially going to affect local attendees. However, for people who are traveling there, even if they are not traveling far, they are probably going to combine some days. So, it would be completely reasonable to expect that a lot of the people there on Saturday and Sunday either were also there Friday, or will be there on Monday, and maybe Thursday or Tuesday will factor in too.

Based on this, it seems reasonable to assume that Wednesday will be your least crowded day. Wednesday was so amazing!

Okay, generally no matter how good the time of year is, Tomorrowland will still always have lines, and it is just something that you expect. We started there Wednesday, and it was so dead. We didn't even strategize! We just went to rides as we came to them. Space Mountain said a 10 minute wait at the entrance, but I'm not sure it was even that. I mean, yes, we probably spent ten minutes making our way through the area of the line, which is set up to accommodate a much longer wait, but we didn't really find an actual end of the line until we were already inside the building.They were all like that. There was a brief wait for Autopia, but compared to what it normally is, that was nothing.

I know short waiting times is not the only thing to consider when planning a vacation. If you have children in school, that limits when you can go. There are special events at different times of year. We got to see special things for Mardi Gras and for Lunar New Year, and we chose that specific week simply because it was Julie and Maria's birthday on that Wednesday. On our last trip we had been asked many times if we were celebrating anything, and we got the idea that we wanted to say yes, and that's how they ended up with the birthday buttons. (Now everyone asks if you are an annual pass holder. Okay, perhaps next time we will be.)

For us, we look at crowds and weather. We are not warm weather people. In the past, that has led to us going in October. It was on the list of uncrowded times, and it's not too hot. We would die in August.

So, the problem with that is that the park would really rather not have times when no one comes. The last time we were there in October, they had started a new thing with Halloween parties, where people can come in costumes, and trick-or-treat and go on rides in the dark. Apparently the candy haul is pretty impressive, and it sounds great, but I don't think that week in October will still be one of the lower capacity times, because these parties are becoming quite popular.

So, February was supposed to be low, and it is, but Friday was really crowded, because the next Monday was going to be President's Day, and a lot of the schools had Friday as an inservice day, so parents took work off and were going for the four day weekend. It was packed.

So, I think the data on time of year may be changing, but I believe Wednesdays will continue to be the best days ever, so if you live there and are skipping work, skip on a Wednesday. If you are spending a week there, save your Wednesday for the longer lines. Tomorrowland tends to have long lines, as well as Toon Town and Fantasyland. New attractions tend to be more busy. The Magic Kingdom gets more people than California Adventure, but Cars Land and Toy Story Midway Mania get packed.

Really, we should have started in California Adventure from a line point of view, because Monday still has the weekend traffic, but we were anxious to get to the Magic Kingdom, plus, we got our picture with Louis, with everything working out right for that. You know, you're still in Disneyland, regardless of what else happens.

There is one more thing that we do that is worth mentioning. We go left.

Apparently psychology causes people to go right, so they will start in Tomorrowland, and then work their way over to the left. Knowing that, we do the opposite. It seems to be becoming more known, but we still do it and it still seems to work. Our other thing is that we pick up a park map at each entrance and mark things off, so we can be thorough. Some people just focus on the big ticket rides, but we know we want to ride everything, and if we see a good opportunity at any point we take it, and we stay organized. I can't even review the Fast Pass process because we never use it, and we never need to.

Going to Disneyland

This is kind of a new venture for me. I have thought about writing about Disney before, but I had not been there recently while working on the blog, and now I have. Also, there is so much to cover, and being able to do anything coherent with the material is worrisome, but I am going to try.

The first thing I want to do is go back to a saying that has been going around on social media in recent memory, that goes something like this: I don't care how big and tough you think you are; if a toddler hands you their ringing toy phone, you answer it!

The point is that there are times when it is wrong to be too cool. A trip to Disneyland is one of those times.

Yes, Disney is commercial and expensive. That is true. Yes, there are other opportunities that are more educational or adventurous or any other adjective you want to use, and I say that as someone who has traveled a lot of places and intends to travel a lot more. That being said, I really love Disneyland. You can decide you are above it, but you are missing out.

For my own family, there are probably two big factors that contribute to our love. One is that we love rides. Especially, I love rides. Yes, I love the fast shaky ones, but even the mild ones just make me happy. This came into stark relief on the Thursday of our trip, when we went several hours without going on any rides. (More on that when we get to Downtown Disney.) Once I got on one, it turned the day around.

If you have motion sickness, especially severe motion sickness, this could hamper your enjoyment of the parks. If it is just fast or twisty rides that will get you, there are a lot of rides that you can enjoy, and as we start going over the individual lands and the rides within them, I will cover that. If everything makes you sick, okay, maybe an amusement park is not for you, but this could still be a good place.

That brings us to the other thing that is important for my family. As much as I love being in motion, maybe even more, is how much my sisters love cuteness. I am not against cuteness, but they love it more. There is a lot of cuteness in Disneyland.

There are adorable characters walking around, and cute plush facsimiles, and treats made up to look like the characters, and murals and carvings and statues, and here we get to beyond cute, because there are details in the designs that are amazing. So, let me go over a few areas in which Disneyland is superior to other amusement parks, and why it's worth giving it a shot.

The first point I am going to make is that they do not want you to be bored:

Yes, they are popular, and this often leads to long lines (though we will talk about that more next week regarding when to go), but they try to make those lines interesting. So, as you wind through the line for Mr. Toad's Wild Ride, there are plants, and heraldry, and curious architectural details, and statues, and little figurines of types of frogs, and all of these little touches where there is always something new to look at, no matter how many times you go through. That's not just Mr. Toad. This happens with all of the rides, and with the restaurants, and even the shops are a fun experience.

In addition, they are always changing and looking for new things to add. So around Halloween Space Mountain becomes haunted, or they change around which planets you visit on Star Tours, or they add some different animals to the Jungle Cruise. As someone who tends to shun change, I resist, but often these changes are good, and they find some way to pay homage to the original within.

For my second point, they are really good at making sure you have a good time.

Their customer service is unparalleled. We have tried some other parks, including a Great America, and Bonfante Gardens, and no one else does as good a job of getting their staff informed and helpful. You can ask any person in the park where something is, or how to get something done, and they will know.

They may have to refer you , and this actually leads to one of the most impressive stories. Being there around Mardi Gras, they were doing a thing from The Princess and the Frog in New Orleans Square, which worked well. Maria loves Louis, the trumpet playing alligator. She saw him, and she wanted a picture with him, so after the show, she asked one of the workers. Louis does not wander the park for photo opportunities, but she directed Maria to one of the "Ask me about character photos" people. (Yes, they have special people for this.)

Again, Louis does not do photo opportunities, but he told her to check at the show for the stage manager, who would be dressed in black and wearing a headset, and if anyone could make it happen, it would be the stage manager.

As they were gearing up for another performance, I saw the stage manager and  pointed him out to Maria. She demurred, saying that he would probably not be nice. Was she kidding? This was Disneyland! I was going to go over for her, and then she came and did the talking, and as he started to say that Louis didn't do photo opportunities, and she started to give up, he said "No, I want to make this happen." And he did.

Sadly, Maria insisted on having me use her phone, because she wanted to post it right away, and I got confused, so what we really have is a video, that I think we can grab a still from, but those are personal and technology issues. The park staff was flawless.

When we were standing in line to enter the park, there were some women talking about how awful it must be to work there, and my sisters had said earlier that they could not do it, because you would need to be so friendly. Maybe, and I'm sure the job would not be a good fit for everyone, but the staff does not seem miserable. A lot of the small talk that they make would not be required, and there wouldn't be a point in faking it. And I have two other stories.

Our Wednesday there was Julie and Maria's birthdays, so we went to City Hall to get buttons, and then the park staff is greeting you all over the place and wishing you a happy birthday. We rode Peter Pan that day, and then we rode it again on Friday, and the girl recognized us. "Oh, you were just here and it was their birthday!" Again, I don't think fakers would bother.

The other thing, and this isn't exactly park staff, but we were watching a video at Blue Sky Cellar about the upcoming Fantasy Faire area. This will be where you go to meet the princesses, and admittedly, this is not my thing. But listening to the different imagineers talking about their process is really interesting, and they all seem to have a strong sense of mission, which is how the little details get thought of and filled in.

The one that stuck with me the most was a new father, of a daughter, and he talked about seeing fathers with their daughters in the park, and how excited the girls get when they get to meet the princesses, and anticipating doing that with his daughter, and knowing that he played a part in that.

It was touching, yes, but also it reminded me of how Disneyland itself came out of Walt going out with his daughters, and not having a lot of great places to take them. Well, he took that and ran with it, and it does make money, but that is not all it does.

I have one more quote from the video, and it was the guiding principle for one of the imagineers. She said "There isn't much grown up in the average child but there's a lot of child left in the average adult."

Disneyland is a good place to let that kid loose.

San Diego Zoo Safari Park

http://www.sdzsafaripark.org/

For today's post, I am just going to copy in what I wrote to Aaron about the Park, as that covers a fair amount of the experience. Sometimes I organize the material in a less narrative manner, and that we certainly true with the last two weeks, but perhaps because some time had passed it was easier to have a different perspective. In this case, it's really only two weeks since I've been there.

I know the zoo is bigger, and better known, but the Safari Park is pretty cool. We went through the bird area first, and they had some pretty cool specimens. As we came out of there, we saw a demonstration with a kangaroo, and then circled this area with water birds on our way to the gorillas.

Seeing gorillas live was new for me. We have orangutans at our zoo, and lots of other primates, but these were big apes. There was a sign up where you could compare your dimensions. They are usually around six feet, so that isn’t too out of the ordinary for humans. Weight is usually about 450 pounds, which again, a human can do that, and can do it muscularly. That still does not take into account their massive 66 inch chests, their 10 inch hands, and their arm span of 7 feet 8 inches, whereas a human of 6 feet would have about a 6 foot wingspan. There is a lot of raw power.

They had a young one. It was not exactly a baby, more of a toddler, but he was just hanging out in the tree for a while, and then he started exploring, and he suddenly grabbed a large section of tree and tried to drag it, which did not work quite right, then dropped it and zoomed up into another tree. It was fun to watch, though you are not supposed to make direct eye contact.

We worked our way past some other exhibits, including some zonked out lions, to the tram section. Here you take a ride over a larger area and you see some of the grazing animals, like giraffes, zebras, rhinos, and antelope.

The girls had kept mentioning cheetahs, which appeared to be their favorite animal. The cheetah was not visible in his exhibit, but there was a race at 3:30. While we were waiting we went to see elephants and tigers.

The elephants were another first, because these were African elephants, not Asian. We had seen that they had a new baby, but there were two other really young ones too. While we were watching some keepers started calling them over and giving them treats, so that was really fun to watch.

We lined up at about 3:00 for the cheetah run. It fills up really quickly so we went early and picked spots near the end. You can pay for premium seating: $10 to be at the beginning, or $40 to sit in a closed off area at the end, where you meet the cheetah afterwards, and another small African animal before. Meeting the cheetah after would have been nice, though maybe not $40 nice. However, we were right across from them, and I totally got to see the small African animal and hear them talk about it. It was a turaco, which is a kind of bird. Yes, they got to feed it and have it fly to them, but I still got a good look.

It was starting to cloud over and sprinkle a bit at this point. Sometimes they will run the cheetah twice, but if the grass is getting wet, that is a lot less likely. The issue is that cheetahs can get injured really easily, and the one thing they have going for them is speed, which various injuries would kill. Because of this, they are known as cowards, where they will often be run off by other animals rather than risk injury.

This led to something kind of interesting. The cheetah who was going to run, Shiley, has a dog companion, Yeti, an Anatolian Shepherd. This is becoming a more common thing. The dogs help the cheetahs feel safe, and be more playful, and part of helping Shiley run is that Yet does the course first. It is 100 meters, and Yeti did it in, I think, 10.9 seconds, which is not bad, but I think Shiley did it in 5.4. I didn’t even try and take pictures of them running, because I knew I would just have a blur without having been able to see anything. I did take some pictures of them walking back.

It was raining now, but we still took in a few exhibits on the way towards the exit, especially of the smaller animals, like the frogs and snakes and chinchillas. It was pretty cool, but animals are my thing.

Here is a good article on the cheetah and dog:

http://www.windsorstar.com/travel/Dogs+help+fight+save+cheetah+wild+zoos+parks+throughout+North/7952081/story.html