California Adventure: Hollywood Land

For this one I am going to just quote from the letter I wrote to Aaron, because I think I covered it pretty well.

Into Hollywood Land. One of our favorite attractions here is MuppetVision 3D, which was unfortunately also closed for renovation. Obviously, it is a 3-D film of the Muppets, but it is also interactive, with some animatronics. So, there is a balcony with Statler and Waldorf in in, and an orchestra of penguins pops up, and Sweetums comes out for a while. It’s a lot of fun, and it got Julie addicted to the song “Dream a Little Dream of Me”, which is Miss Piggy’s big number.

We were ready for lunch now, which we had at Award Weiners. Their logo is kind of a cross between an Oscar and a hot dog. Their hot dogs are really good. Our next stop was Monsters Inc: Mike and Sully to the Rescue. It starts out with you getting in a car as if you were going for a tour of Monstropolis, and then the screen switches to an emergency broadcast about a child loose in Monstropolis, and you go through scenes from the movie as Mike and Sully try to get Boo back to her bedroom. It’s really cute. At the end, the slug-like woman who was an undercover agent, Roz, is there, and she talks to you and it is interactive. The first time we rode it, she asked “Did you have fun girls?” and we were so surprised we just laughed, and she turned her head and said “Whatever.”

There are a lot of things here that relate to making movies and to entertainment. So you can watch the Aladdin Musical, and a Playhouse Disney show. Aladdin is a regular show, but the Playhouse one is all about kids jumping, dancing and singing. There is another show based on the new Alice in Wonderland too, though we did not see it.

The behind the scenes things are interesting, but we have only done them once. With the Animation Academy, you go in and they give you a pencil and paper and someone leads you through drawing a Disney character. It was Mickey Mouse when we did it. With the Sorceror’s Workshop, you can practice dubbing your voices into cartoon scenes. For speaking we did a scene from Bambi, where Bambi meets Flower and Thumper, and then for singing we did “The Bear Necessities” from The Jungle Book.

Actually, what is especially funny in that section is you can go into another section where there are these books set up, and you can take a short quiz to see which Disney character you are. We each took them a few times. I got Cinderella once, I think, and then Lady from Lady and the Tramp. Julie got similar results. Maria got the Wicked Witch and the Evil Queen. Clearly, it recognized something.

There is also Turtle Talk with Crush. That is the adult turtle from Finding Nemo, and he is on a screen and will talk with the audience. It is pretty interactive, like Roz in the Monsters Inc ride. I don’t know if they have a certain amount of stuff pre-recorded and one person controlling it, or if there is some automated voice recognition, but for the kids it must be like they are really talking to the turtle, so that’s kind of cool.

Now clearly all of this sounds pretty child-friendly and educational, but as you keep penetrating further into the land you reach the Hollywood Tower Hotel, which has burn marks on the outside, and vines crawling over it, and creepy doormen saying they have been expecting you. This is the Tower of Terror ride.

It is built around a Twilight Zone episode where five people disappeared from an elevator when it was struck by lightning, and then you follow their path. You wind through an old hotel lobby, that is dusty and abandoned, because after the mysterious disappearance no one wanted to go into the haunted hotel. Then you go through the pipe rooms, and into a service elevator (that happens to have seats and seat-belts). You see a short video, and the ghostly figures of the original people who disappeared, and then you are in front of a mirror, so you see you and your fellow passengers reflected, and then there is light, and the mirror is still there, but reflecting empty seats. Then you fall.

The idea is to give the idea of a plunging elevator. You drop and get sent back up three times. They have worked it out so that it is a different number of “floors” each time, in different combinations, so the ride is never exactly the same. You do always get to the top floor at least once though, where you can see over the park.

It is really cool. I remember last time on the one bounce, I was seriously floating over my seat for a moment. There was just enough lag that I was defying gravity.

Califronia Adventure: Buena Vista Street

 

I feel like there is a definite flow to the Magic Kingdom, and California Adventure is more disjointed. However, there are parts that flow together, and if Buena Vista Street is the embodiment of what Walt Disney found when he came to California, then Hollywood Land is kind of what he did when he got there, so those will be our first two lands.

As you enter California Adventure, you are in Buena Vista Street, and the first thing I saw was Oswald's. It looks like a tire shop, but is a souvenir shop. There are several shops, and most of them connect to each other. One of the shops across is where you can pick up photos taken by park photographers. The customer service there was great.

There is only one ride in Buena Vista Street: The Red Car Trolley. It is exactly what it sounds like. You can ride from Buena Vista Street through Hollywood Land, with a total of four stops. It terminates near the Twilight Zone Tower of Terror, and one of the stops is a central point from which you can head to any land.

I would take it more for the experience than as an actual mode of transportation, but the cast members on board did act as tour guides, pointing out interesting things and answering questions.

Now, when I said there were gift shops that look like other things, that is an important part of the architecture of all of Disneyland, and that comes into play here too, especially in the centerpiece of Buena Vista Street, the Carthay Circle Theater.

No, it is not a theater, but it is designed after the theater where Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs premiered in 1926, starting an amazing and still growing legacy of animated films.

I admit to thinking it would be kind of cool if it actually was a theater, and you could go there and watch Snow White, however, that's impractical for a couple of reasons. One is that there are such strict rules for showing films that I'm sure it would be a nightmare, but also, it's an amusement park; people want to be moving around and doing things. That creates some issues with a few of the attractions in Hollywood Land, but we will get to that later.

What it is instead is a restaurant and lounge. We did not try them, but I do think the atmosphere would be pretty cool. Even without going in there, the visual impact of the structure and the nod to the history is important.

There are two other restaurants there. We did not try Fiddler, Fifer, & Practical Cafe. There will be a lot of restaurants we cannot comment on. There are so many, and we have our favorites that we want to get back to, where we are not always trying new ones. There are options for a wide variety of different tastes, and you can probably find something that will work for you. That being said, we did try Clarabelle's Hand-Scooped Ice Cream.

We had to, really. First of all, we saw them talking about it the last time we had been at the Blue Sky Cellar. We appreciate the appropriate nod to Clarabelle Cow, and the designer was really excited talking about it, and we had to try.

What I said in the Snacking at Disneyland post stands. It is not significantly different getting ice cream there or at Gibson Girl on Main Street. The ice cream tastes about the same either way, and it's good, but to a large extend you are choosing atmosphere. This atmosphere was great.

I can't remember exactly what I was thinking. I believe I was feeling like there was a combination of Art Deco with some Mission Style influence, which would be right for that time and place. I only remember thinking that it was perfect. It looked exactly like it should.

Buena Vista Street is primarily an entrance into California Adventure. It's a gateway. As such, it functions well. It tells you that what is coming is going to honor traditions, and find beauty and coolness, and with an eye for detail. You have a good view ahead. Welcome.

California Adventure

California Adventure has been all about change. 

The first time we went to Disneyland as adults was spring vacation in 1996, and at the time they were talking about building a West Coast version of Epcot, with more science and international, and they ended up running into problems with that. Instead, they ended up deciding to celebrate California.

The first time we went to California Adventure we thought it was really cool, but it didn’t get a lot of attention. At the time there was the Hollywood Backstage Lot, focusing on film-making; the Pacific Wharf, which looked very much like the San Francisco wharf; Grizzly Peak, which is kind of the hiking-outdoorsy part; Paradise Pier, which was like a boardwalk with old style carnival rides and game; and Condor Flats, which was devoted to the history of flight. (Those names may not be exactly right.) There was also A Bug’s Land.

Those are all important aspects of California history and culture, and there were cool things about all of them, but I believe part of the problem is that is was not Disney enough. For example, there was a movie about the history of California, hosted by Whoopi Goldberg. It was interesting, but not something people would do over and over again. That building is now the Little Mermaid ride. The first round of changes was to go through the Pier and make it more Disney, and they kept a lot, and they let some things go. I will get into that more as I go over the different lands.

Sadly, California Adventure has just never been as popular as the Magic Kingdom. There has been a lot worth doing there, from the very beginning, but attendance has been low, and it has kind of been the butt of jokes.

One of the more recent changes has been an update to the entrance, with Buena Vista Street.

In the Magic Kingdom, you enter into Main Street, and that is sort of like the Main Street of Any Town USA, with an arcade and a fire department and city hall, for anyone who grew up in middle America.

Buena Vista Street kind of gives that type of entrance to California Adventure, but instead of Walt Disney’s childhood, it is like what California was like when he went there as a young man, in the 1920’s. So there is a trolley that goes up and down the street, and there is a replica of the Carthay Circle theater where Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs premiered.

There is kind of a park-like circle in Disneyland right before the castle, with a statue of Walt and Mickey, and there is a corresponding one in Buena Vista street, but it is with an old-fashioned Mickey, more like he looked in the old black and white movies. 

Actually, the first shop in Buena Vista Street is Oswald’s. It’s designed like an old-fashioned gas station, and they sell magnets and shot glasses and things like that, I think. Oswald was a rabbit Walt Disney created when he was working for Universal, but then he lost the rights when he went independent. I had not known this, but Disney reacquired the rights in 2006, so he can be featured now, and it kind of fits. I like this nod to the past.

California Adventure is also where you get to see the future. I know, you would think that would be Tomorrowland, but I am referring to the Blue Sky Cellar.

Technically, the Blue Sky Cellar is part of the Pacific Wharf, but it looks like Wine Country, and it is not directly connected to the wharf, which has a distinct look and feel. Really, it was a restaurant and winery tour, and no one ever took the winery tour, including us, but that worked with the wharf, because they had a tortilla factory tour and a sourdough bakery tour.

Anyway, the restaurant is still there, plus a place where you can preview coming attractions.

We first noticed this last time, and went in. They had some sketches up of the new Cars Land that was being built. Generally they have some sketches, some models, and a video. The video that time was about Buena Vista Street, and it was interesting hearing the imagineers talk about what they were doing. 

I had mentioned the Cellar before, with the one guy talking about some day sharing the Fantasy Faire with his daughter, but every time we have been there it has been interesting and inspiring. You learn what is coming up, and listening to the people who are making it happen talk about it always makes it more exciting, because you hear their excitement.

So, I hope you will give California Adventure a chance. Maybe it is still finding itself, but there is plenty for you to find now. It is certainly the best place to find Pixar characters.

I think Cars Land will help. They have some great attractions, and once you are over there anyway, you might as well start checking out more of the rides. We'll be covering those for the next few weeks.

Snacking at Disneyland

When I start going through the individual lands, I will point out restaurants that we particularly like or don't like. What I am focusing on now is the snack carts and stands that you can find anywhere, and some of the treats that end up recurring.

In our family the joke is always about frozen bananas. This is because Maria is obsessed with them. Julie and I don't get it. I like bananas, and I like chocolate, but the process of freezing them, in my opinion, makes them too difficult to eat. Maria disagrees. She always says she will have one every day we are there, and it doesn't really end up being quite that often, but she'll have at least two or three.

You will know the frozen treat carts because they will have little representations on the sign. So there will be a replica of a frozen banana, cookie sandwich, Mickey ice cream bar, and so on. The cookie sandwich is good, but very caloric. The frozen lemonade was again one that I found difficult to eat, though tasty. However, I think our individual stances on frozen bananas show that tastes vary, and the wide selection means that there should be something for everyone.For example, my sisters would never do what I did, and get the turkey leg, but I did!

I first heard of this from a friend who would have them at county fairs. I think I was already aware of deep-fried Twinkies and Oreos, so a deep-fried turkey leg didn't seem so strange, considering, and plunging only legs, instead of entire turkeys, into vats of boiling oil seemed safer. It occurred to me, though, that it could be difficult to eat, with all those slivers of bone that a turkey leg has.

I nearly tried it on our last trip - the first time we had seen it there - but it seemed a little expensive. Well, having now tried it, I have to admit that you are getting a lot of meat. This one should probably not be viewed as a snack so much as a meal.

It is actually quite difficult to eat. A plate and a fork would have helped a lot, but you are apparently just supposed to bite into it, caveman style. I was picking bits off with my fingers, which occasionally burned and was pretty greasy. The turkey leg is not for the delicate or faint of heart, but it is pretty tasty.

Turkey legs are frequently sold with other fried treats, including a cob of corn on a stick. That seemed like a weird thing to get, but we saw people with them.

The other thing that I was always tempted by, but held back on, was the giant pickle. I used to see them at a stand with kind of a farmer's market feel over by It's a Bug's Land. At the time, I had discovered a love for dill pickle spears, which I think is closely related to my love of salt. Just looking at the size, though, it seemed awfully messy.

Currently they have these stands in multiple locations, and these are kind of your healthy snack stands. They have fruit cups, and hummus cups with pretzel chips, and they have the big pickles, though I feel like they were bigger before. Anyway, I tried it and found it refreshing, and not as messy as it could have been.

Mickey pretzels are available in different places, but we tend to get them at the Bengal Barbecue, so it feels more like a restaurant food for us. My sisters love pretzels anyway, so putting one in the shape of Mickey's head that you eat while at Disneyland only makes it better.

There are restaurants and stores that have some strong similarities. I would say that getting a sundae at Gibson Girl Ice Cream Parlor on Main Street in Disneyland is not terribly different from getting one at Clarabelle's Hand Scooped Ice Cream on Buena Vista Street in California Adventure. A lot of that is atmosphere.

So, when I want to watch them making candy apples and dipping pretzel sticks and marshmallows, I like to do that in Critter Country, even though that is not the only place I can do it. And when the time comes to buy Minnie's Bakery Blue Ribbon Chocolate Chip Cookie, which must happen at least once on every trip since having discovered them the first time, because those are some really amazing cookies, I tend to do that on Main Street. That is also where I finally succumbed to the sucker bundle.

You know, you only live once, but I will get to Disneyland again.

Downtown Disney

I did post a little about my disappointment with Downtown Disney on the regular blog, some of which was not its fault. If the day had gone differently, it would probably have been better.

http://sporkful.blogspot.com/2013/02/it-was-not-quite-best-valentines-day.html

We have joked before how Disneyland is like Las Vegas for adults. Downtown Disney is kind of the Disney version of Vegas. That is partly because it is all about the entertainment and shopping, Also, everything is huge.

We started at the very large Rainforest Cafe, right by the mammoth ESPN Zone. I had been to a Rainforest Cafe in Las Vegas, and I admit this one was better. There were more animatronics and we had at least one simulated thunderstorm there. However, the food was expensive and indifferent, and there are way better animatronics all over the park. If you are not right near Disneyland, it probably is a treat; I wanted to go ride rides. Julie and Maria did like it, though only one of them liked the food she ordered. It may be best to stick to appetizers or desserts.

Our next stop was the Lego store. This was probably the coolest to look in, because they have all of these amazing Lego creations, inside and outside of the store. If you are into Legos, the ability to build your own figs and have an amazing selection of all sizes, shapes, and colors of pieces that you can buy in your specific desired quantities, that's probably pretty cool too, though I bet it's expensive.

On to Build-A-Bear! As a kindergarten teacher, Maria visits the local one on a regular basis, but this one was exciting because they carry the Build-A-Dino line, which is not everywhere. It was a tough choice, but Maria decided to build a woolly mammoth.

Right next to Build-A-Bear is Ridemakerz, which seems to basically Build-A-RC-Car-or-Truck. It seems like a cool idea, and I guess it's convenient if your children follow strict gender stereotypes.

The only other store we went in this time was the DisneyQuest Emporium, which I think you at least need to look at. It is huge, and has all kinds of things. It did not have any comics though. I had read somewhere Downtown Disney had a cool comic book shop, and could not find proof, and something else online seemed to indicate that there was a Marvel section in the Emporium. That is also not true. However, you can find any type of Disney clothing, toys, accessories, and collectibles. All of which would have been great if I was into shopping.

If you like shopping, Downtown Disney does have cool and interesting stuff, and there certainly is a larger than life aspect to it. I would just rather ride rides.

It does take on a different aspect at night. They will have live bands playing, and suddenly without the glaring of day, the flames and spotlights give things more of a carnival atmosphere. I would probably do that again, and get funnel cake, or ice cream, and just listen to the music.

We have also gone to the movies there a few times, and we always check the House of Blues schedule to see if something we want to see will be there while we are. So far it hasn't worked out, but you never know. There is always another trip. (But we go for the parks!)

The World of Color

 

The previous time we were at Disneyland, we thought about trying to see the World of Color, which everyone said was really good, but we did not feel like hassling with the lines and the people. There isn't really seating, and it generally starts about a half an hour after California Adventure closes, which means that you have had a whole day in the park, and then you are waiting, and standing. We had doubts about how much we would even enjoy the show.

Still, everyone tells you how great it is, so we decided this time we should make an effort. We looked into things to make it less painful, and one thing you can do is pre-order meals and get your tickets there. Normally you have to go get a FastPass by the Grizzly River Run. This is more of a crowd control issue. There is no extra charge for seeing the show, but the tickets give you an area to stand in, and that adds some order.

We ordered a picnic dinner, where our tickets came with that. I accidentally ordered the wrong thing, and had to fix it via email. Customer service was wonderful. That should be no surprise, but I was grateful for it. We picked up our dinner around six, ate while the parade went by. Our tickets were for 8:30, yellow area.

We gradually worked our way over to the area, going on a few more rides on the way. They recommend getting there early, but we did not want to be in front, so we did not end up arriving until about 8:10, and it was fine. We were finally going to see the show. And, we were unimpressed.

There are things about it that were impressive. There is definitely spectacle, and it is well set up in terms of being able to see and hear well from any position. I was impressed with the film images appearing on the water jets. I had never seen that before, and it was more effective then I would have expected film projected onto water to be. Also, they threw in some pyrotechnics, and I don't think this is generally known, but I love fire.

No, the disappointing part was the content. One of the real Disney strengths is story telling, and I was disappointed by the lack of narrative.

The program was set up as kind of a highlights reel, I guess, with no through-line between the different clips. There were dramatic moments, but they did not connect to the other moments, and that left it feeling kind of empty for me. Also, sometimes it was very illogical.

For example, the starting song goes "The World is a Carousel of Color", and so you kind of expect an emphasis on color, which would make sense - this is the World of Color! However, color isn't really hinted at again, even though you are seeing colors. They have songs that would work for that. They have a clip from Pocahontas, and you would think they would go for "Colors of the Wind", because that would be logical. No, they go with "Just Around the River Bend." Okay, this is a water show, and a river is made of water, but it doesn't really seem to fit.

They use a clip from The Lion King where there is the stampede and Mufasa dies, and while that does have dramatic sounds and excitement, so it seems like a good fit that way, but it ended with Simba going "Dad?" at his dead father's body. They didn't get back to that movie, so there was no payoff. The drama was added with no point. I can't get behind that.

My sisters actually tried to leave a little early. Actually, for safety reasons, once the lights go down for the start of the show, they ask that you stay in your places until the show is over and the lights go back up. This is logical, and I am a rule follower, but also, I had come this far, I was going to stick it out for the end. So, basically, the three of us did not care for it.

That being said, the crowd loved it, and applauded, and there were plenty of "oohs" and "ahs". Again, the spectacle was totally there, and you can be dazzled by that. I just know that they are capable of much more, and I'm surprised that they didn't go that route.

I guess if I am covering disappointing stuff first, maybe next Saturday I should write about Downtown Disney.

Odds and ends for your Disneyland trip

In the posts about when to go, we talk a little about waiting in line for rides, but before you do that you need to get into the park, and there can be three distinct lines for that.

One is the line for buying tickets. We have always gone with tickets, but there have been issues with them twice, that came up at the third line, for park entrance.

The last time it happened, I had not gotten the right dates for our trip. There will often be specific promotions but the travel needs to be within a certain time frame. Check this carefully. Otherwise, if you have perhaps purchased at a discount that has expired, you will need to pay the extra and get the passes reissued.

Obviously, you can simply purchase on site, and the lines don't seem terribly long, but I like having that done, and being able to go straight to the entrance. I have been curious about the packs at Costco. I suspect they are good for a broader range of time, but I would check before purchasing. I always get them at http://disneyparks.disney.go.com/.

You can search for deals here, not just on passes, but on bundles with hotel or meal plans. You can also check out annual passes. I think I mentioned in a different post that at every checkout they asked us if we were annual passholders. We're not, because we only make it every other year. However, there are various discounts, including on hotels, so it might be something to consider, at least for one person.

I look at different deals, but we pretty much always end up getting the 5-Day Park Hopper pass, allowing us to go between the Magic Kingdom and California Adventure, and including on Magic Morning early park admission, which we don't really use, but we totally could, and this works for us.

You can get tickets at the park, you can print passes, or you can pre-order and get passes mailed. If you do this, you will notice a place for a signature on each pass. Do not sign this. We used blue ink, and they needed black.

I don't want any of this to sound like I am complaining. They do a great job of taking care of you, and part of that is that the passes are expensive, and if you lose them, you will be unhappy. They want the passes to be readable, and associated with you, which is why sometimes on entrance they will take your picture. We thought maybe it was a homeland security thing, but they said it was that if you lose your pass, you can get it back. It's just something that happens. My point is, sure, if you use a black pen at home, it may work, but they have the right kind of pens there at the entrance, just wait.

So, you have the ticket lines, which you can avoid, and you have the park entrance, but there is one more line, and that is where they check bags. They're not too picky. People take in food and everything. However, they are looking for safety issues, and again, there are things you might not think about. Someone ahead of us had a football. They didn't confiscate it, but they didn't want it being thrown around the park, which could lead to injuries, so they just stressed it needed to be left in the bag. It goes even faster if you don't bring the ball in the first place. There's not really any good place for playing ball, but there's a lot of other fun stuff to do. It's just common sense.

None of these are huge issues, but if they make your morning run a little more smoothly, that's what I'm here for, whether it's a magic morning or not.