Trying To Make The Best Of A Packed Disneyland
We went to Disneyland yesterday, although it was a big pile of nope. Felt like a preview of what's to come once Galaxy's Edge opens very soon now. Yeah, not really expecting I'll actually get to really enjoy that section or even the rest of the park for a while now. And Disneyland is just so tiring anymore. I'm not that old, so I can't imagine how tiring it must be for my mom, although she's probably in better shape than I am. I'm not quite willing to surrender my annual pass yet though. These days I just try to make the best of our visits even if we didn't do much like yesterday. It is what is. I actually spent a lot of the time goofing off and cracking jokes more than usual. Plus taking pictures of plants and dirt because this is what you do when you can't do anything else. I don't know if it was just the mood I was in or my way of coping with insane crowds. It wasn't horrible, but I also wanted to go home fairly soon. We only did three things really, but here is my trip report.
Right away we saw how bad this was going to be when it took twenty minutes to get to the parking booth. It took us fifty minutes total to actually get into the park, which is ridiculous when you think about how the park is only 25 mins away from where I live. :/ Looking at the crowds, we decided to just walk this time and take the Monorail into the park. I had a plan to get Fastpasses for Indy and then go across the way to try the new Jessie's Critter Carousel. Well, the return time wasn't until around 3pm, which meant we couldn't get another until after that time, so there went that plan. My mom said we could just wait in line for Indy later, but that didn't happen. The line got longer anyway. So I had another idea to get a Fastpass for Soarin' instead, but then quickly changed my mind to Big Thunder because there's a chance of seeing Galaxy's Edge from the top of the second hill. A bit silly really since I could see as much as I could see the previous times. Probably should have just stuck to getting a Fastpass for Soarin'. Well, maybe next time, if there is a next time. Our return time for Big Thunder was for 1:45. So we headed across the way to Jessie's Critter Carousel.
The line wasn't too bad actually for a "new" ride. I put new in quotes because it's just the King Trident's Carousel reskinned and themed to Woody's Round-Up. Jessie's critters are what you ride on. I recently watched Toy Story 2, otherwise I probably wouldn't have quite understood what they were going for here. I got on a vulture while my mom rode on a snake lol. The ride seemed slower than I remembered, but that's OK since it's mostly for young kids. Not that adults can't enjoy it like for instance, me. After that it was lunch time. We had walked through Adventureland earlier and the smells of the Bengal Barbecue enticed us. I was really in the mood for it, but unfortunately the line was longer than I wanted to deal with. Yes, you know the crowds are bad when even the lines for food are too long. Again, maybe next time. So my mom said we should just go to a restaurant where we could grab the food and go with trays. We ended up at Pizza Planet. I was definitely not in the mood for that, but I got the pesto chicken pasta anyway. My mom got a salad since she's trying to diet again and eat less sugar. We'll see how long that lasts.
After lunch it was time to ride Big Thunder. Once we did that I had this plan to ride the train in a loop once starting from New Orleans Square so maybe we could try to see Galaxy's Edge again. But the best hope for that was if we got a train with forward facing seats. I think there's only one train like that though, and we didn't get it. Still we tried straining our necks and could kind of see the buildings lol. My plan after that was we'd go to the Tropical Hideaway to finally try the new flavored Dole Whips. They have raspberry and orange and you can either get them swirled with pineapple or just the one flavor. We each got raspberry swirl with pineapple and they were yummy. I might try orange sometime.
I just remembered there was a moment where I was trying to head to a lunch place (It was the second place we tried after Bengal Barbecue and this also had a long line), and something happened where I got ahead of my mom and I just assumed she continued following behind me. Nope. I looked back and found she wasn't there. I stopped by the Adventureland bathroom. And my mom went somewhere else apparently because she didn't know where I was going. So, I whipped out my phone expecting my mom would text me and she did so I told her where I was. My mom told me if we hadn't had cell phones we'd probably never find each other again lol. She's probably right. She said maybe we should have place to meet if we get separated. I first suggested the hub where Walt and Mickey's statue is. She didn't seem to want to go with that. So I started suggesting more and more ridiculous things saying "I will meet you in...Roger Rabbit's Cartoon Spin, the Matterhorn, Space Mountain, in the fire station, on top of the old People Mover track." :P This is just one example of my silliness that day. I don't think we ever came up with a definitive meeting place, but it's not like we ever get separated anyway. This one occasion was a rarity and we found each other again quickly anyway because of our cell phones. But maybe it's a good idea to have a meeting place anyway. My mom said if we hadn't heard or seen from each other after five minutes then we could go to that place. We still haven't decided on a place though...
Finally my mom wanted to look for a gift for Joan's birthday. She decided on fun socks, which are at the shop in Frontierland. She got Joan a pair with teacups on them and a pair for herself which were Maleficent socks. We went home after. So just three rides. Four if you count the Monorail I guess. I think this is it though. I think the crowds are never going to be the same again after this. I guess we'll find out in September or later. Will I have to kiss Disneyland goodbye? :/
Right away we saw how bad this was going to be when it took twenty minutes to get to the parking booth. It took us fifty minutes total to actually get into the park, which is ridiculous when you think about how the park is only 25 mins away from where I live. :/ Looking at the crowds, we decided to just walk this time and take the Monorail into the park. I had a plan to get Fastpasses for Indy and then go across the way to try the new Jessie's Critter Carousel. Well, the return time wasn't until around 3pm, which meant we couldn't get another until after that time, so there went that plan. My mom said we could just wait in line for Indy later, but that didn't happen. The line got longer anyway. So I had another idea to get a Fastpass for Soarin' instead, but then quickly changed my mind to Big Thunder because there's a chance of seeing Galaxy's Edge from the top of the second hill. A bit silly really since I could see as much as I could see the previous times. Probably should have just stuck to getting a Fastpass for Soarin'. Well, maybe next time, if there is a next time. Our return time for Big Thunder was for 1:45. So we headed across the way to Jessie's Critter Carousel.
The line wasn't too bad actually for a "new" ride. I put new in quotes because it's just the King Trident's Carousel reskinned and themed to Woody's Round-Up. Jessie's critters are what you ride on. I recently watched Toy Story 2, otherwise I probably wouldn't have quite understood what they were going for here. I got on a vulture while my mom rode on a snake lol. The ride seemed slower than I remembered, but that's OK since it's mostly for young kids. Not that adults can't enjoy it like for instance, me. After that it was lunch time. We had walked through Adventureland earlier and the smells of the Bengal Barbecue enticed us. I was really in the mood for it, but unfortunately the line was longer than I wanted to deal with. Yes, you know the crowds are bad when even the lines for food are too long. Again, maybe next time. So my mom said we should just go to a restaurant where we could grab the food and go with trays. We ended up at Pizza Planet. I was definitely not in the mood for that, but I got the pesto chicken pasta anyway. My mom got a salad since she's trying to diet again and eat less sugar. We'll see how long that lasts.
After lunch it was time to ride Big Thunder. Once we did that I had this plan to ride the train in a loop once starting from New Orleans Square so maybe we could try to see Galaxy's Edge again. But the best hope for that was if we got a train with forward facing seats. I think there's only one train like that though, and we didn't get it. Still we tried straining our necks and could kind of see the buildings lol. My plan after that was we'd go to the Tropical Hideaway to finally try the new flavored Dole Whips. They have raspberry and orange and you can either get them swirled with pineapple or just the one flavor. We each got raspberry swirl with pineapple and they were yummy. I might try orange sometime.
I just remembered there was a moment where I was trying to head to a lunch place (It was the second place we tried after Bengal Barbecue and this also had a long line), and something happened where I got ahead of my mom and I just assumed she continued following behind me. Nope. I looked back and found she wasn't there. I stopped by the Adventureland bathroom. And my mom went somewhere else apparently because she didn't know where I was going. So, I whipped out my phone expecting my mom would text me and she did so I told her where I was. My mom told me if we hadn't had cell phones we'd probably never find each other again lol. She's probably right. She said maybe we should have place to meet if we get separated. I first suggested the hub where Walt and Mickey's statue is. She didn't seem to want to go with that. So I started suggesting more and more ridiculous things saying "I will meet you in...Roger Rabbit's Cartoon Spin, the Matterhorn, Space Mountain, in the fire station, on top of the old People Mover track." :P This is just one example of my silliness that day. I don't think we ever came up with a definitive meeting place, but it's not like we ever get separated anyway. This one occasion was a rarity and we found each other again quickly anyway because of our cell phones. But maybe it's a good idea to have a meeting place anyway. My mom said if we hadn't heard or seen from each other after five minutes then we could go to that place. We still haven't decided on a place though...
Finally my mom wanted to look for a gift for Joan's birthday. She decided on fun socks, which are at the shop in Frontierland. She got Joan a pair with teacups on them and a pair for herself which were Maleficent socks. We went home after. So just three rides. Four if you count the Monorail I guess. I think this is it though. I think the crowds are never going to be the same again after this. I guess we'll find out in September or later. Will I have to kiss Disneyland goodbye? :/