Close to Ideal Disneyland Day
We went to Disneyland yesterday and I was surprised by the lower crowd levels. In October? One of the most crowded times of year? Was it because we went on a Wednesday? We were initially going to go on the 19th, but found out it was going to be really hot that day, so we moved our reservation to yesterday because my mom had a “bye” day for her tennis. It turned out to be perfect. The weather was nice. Just 70 degrees and overcast. It was pleasant and we took advantage of the shorter lines. It really turned out to be close to my ideal day at Disneyland, and those are so rare anymore.
So, I wanted us to get out earlier than last time because last time was pretty disastrous. This went much better. I don't recall when we got into the park. 9:30 maybe? Oh, I forgot. We did have to use DCA as our starter park because Disneyland was unavailable, but that was fine. I wanted to get to Cars Land first and head over to Radiator Springs Racers. I heard Fresh Baked is going to be doing recon on that ride. I didn't see him there though. I never really know when he's going to be in the park. Riding RSR was fun though. It had been a while since I had been on it last. And then when I went to look at the photos after the ride, I noticed mine wasn't coming up. I saw my mom's pop up, but not mine. I continued to wait and wait and wait and it never popped up, so we eventually gave up. I don't know what happened there. I wanted to go on Mater after because he's got the Halloween songs going on. That ride's always a fun time. Finally, we went into the Grand Californian Hotel to check out the confectionary construction they have in the lobby. I was surprised to see it wasn't Oogie Boogie this time, but Coco. It still looked cool and hard to believe it was edible.
Then we were both hungry early, so it was time to cross over to Disneyland for lunch. My plan was to go to Rancho del Zocalo because they were supposed to have this mole half chicken there, but they were out of mole, so we got enchiladas instead. The restaurant worker thought my mom said chicken, when she said cheese, so they fixed that, but they were with the slasa verde sauce instead of salsa roja, but it was OK. They still tasted fine. After lunch, my other big plan was to ride Runaway Railway. They recently added the ride to Genie+, so I wanted to see how that would have affected the standby wait. From what I saw on a Fresh Baked video, it hasn't really affected standby much. You could say that Fresh Baked inspires me a little to do my own recon. However, the ride of course broke down while we were in line. Yesterday was a bad day for breakdowns, which I'll get into a little later. We waited a little while, but decided to get out of line.
Then I remembered talking to my mom on an earlier trip about getting in the Peter Pan line, and just waiting. I figured it would be a good day to do just that. The wait time said 30 minutes, which is really unheard of for Peter Pan. It's usually 45 minutes. We even overheard a guest say it was the shortest wait he had seen for Peter Pan. Actual wait time was exactly 33 minutes lol. I was so happy to be on that ride. It's one of my favorites, but I never go on it because the line is always so long no matter what. I only wish the ride was longer. It's too short. I think all of the Fantasyland rides are longer than Peter Pan.
After Peter Pan, I thought we'd check out what the Haunted Mansion Holiday looked like. Maybe with all the shorter lines we'd be lucky. Nope. It looked like a mess. Maybe next month will be a bit better. Then I thought maybe we'd check out Indy. Nope. It was down. So, a side comment on breakdowns. We also checked out Grizzly River Run earlier just to watch the people go down the drop, but it was down, and then it was broken down again when we came back later in the afternoon. Two breakdowns of the same ride in one day? Disneyland really needs to get it together with all the breakdowns. Do they still not have enough maintenance crew? I really want to know why that's happening so often. It was never like this pre-pandemic. There must be a reason. While I still enjoy Disneyland very much, it's not the park it once was.
So, setting aside that mini-rant, we opted for the Jungle Cruise instead. We were sitting in the bad spot for seeing things again, but our Skipper had some fun science-y jokes. Then I had to think about what I wanted to do next. Yes, so many rides in a short period. It was great. Star Tours was our next ride of choice. The wait time said 15 minutes, but we only waited for 8 minutes. We basically cruised through the line. There was a tall guy sitting in front of me though and I didn't get to see much of the screen. Oh well. My mom nearly bought a Star Wars Christmas sweatshirt in the gift shop, which was really cute with funny comics. Next, I thought we'd check out the subs. Wait time said 20 minutes. Again, extraordinarily short for the subs. We waited about 15 minutes I think. It's another ride I almost never do because waiting in the line for it is usually grueling, so that was great.
Now I was ready for dessert, which we would get across the way in DCA. This was my other plan, to get the Coffee and Doughnuts churro. It had coffee sugar, chocolate sauce, whip cream, and sprinkles. It was pretty good. I didn't really taste the coffee though. After dessert we just had to get a sourdough bread sample at Boudin just because. Then we were just killing a little more time looking in a couple shops, including the World of Disney store. My mom was wanting a new backpack, but she specifically wanted Alice in Wonderland. It's hard to find any Alice in Wonderland anything though, so there was nothing. We brought home Earl of Sandwich for dinner. I got me a Cuban sandwich. I've always wanted to try it. I've come to like pickles and mustard more than I used to. The pickles didn't really have a flavor, but the sandwich is still good. Going to finish the second half for lunch soon, but that's not really relevant. :P This was a great time at Disneyland. Even though a couple of my plans didn't work out, it was still near perfect and very pleasant. We got to ride rides we wouldn't normally ride. I wish every day at Disneyland could be like that.
So, I wanted us to get out earlier than last time because last time was pretty disastrous. This went much better. I don't recall when we got into the park. 9:30 maybe? Oh, I forgot. We did have to use DCA as our starter park because Disneyland was unavailable, but that was fine. I wanted to get to Cars Land first and head over to Radiator Springs Racers. I heard Fresh Baked is going to be doing recon on that ride. I didn't see him there though. I never really know when he's going to be in the park. Riding RSR was fun though. It had been a while since I had been on it last. And then when I went to look at the photos after the ride, I noticed mine wasn't coming up. I saw my mom's pop up, but not mine. I continued to wait and wait and wait and it never popped up, so we eventually gave up. I don't know what happened there. I wanted to go on Mater after because he's got the Halloween songs going on. That ride's always a fun time. Finally, we went into the Grand Californian Hotel to check out the confectionary construction they have in the lobby. I was surprised to see it wasn't Oogie Boogie this time, but Coco. It still looked cool and hard to believe it was edible.
Then we were both hungry early, so it was time to cross over to Disneyland for lunch. My plan was to go to Rancho del Zocalo because they were supposed to have this mole half chicken there, but they were out of mole, so we got enchiladas instead. The restaurant worker thought my mom said chicken, when she said cheese, so they fixed that, but they were with the slasa verde sauce instead of salsa roja, but it was OK. They still tasted fine. After lunch, my other big plan was to ride Runaway Railway. They recently added the ride to Genie+, so I wanted to see how that would have affected the standby wait. From what I saw on a Fresh Baked video, it hasn't really affected standby much. You could say that Fresh Baked inspires me a little to do my own recon. However, the ride of course broke down while we were in line. Yesterday was a bad day for breakdowns, which I'll get into a little later. We waited a little while, but decided to get out of line.
Then I remembered talking to my mom on an earlier trip about getting in the Peter Pan line, and just waiting. I figured it would be a good day to do just that. The wait time said 30 minutes, which is really unheard of for Peter Pan. It's usually 45 minutes. We even overheard a guest say it was the shortest wait he had seen for Peter Pan. Actual wait time was exactly 33 minutes lol. I was so happy to be on that ride. It's one of my favorites, but I never go on it because the line is always so long no matter what. I only wish the ride was longer. It's too short. I think all of the Fantasyland rides are longer than Peter Pan.
After Peter Pan, I thought we'd check out what the Haunted Mansion Holiday looked like. Maybe with all the shorter lines we'd be lucky. Nope. It looked like a mess. Maybe next month will be a bit better. Then I thought maybe we'd check out Indy. Nope. It was down. So, a side comment on breakdowns. We also checked out Grizzly River Run earlier just to watch the people go down the drop, but it was down, and then it was broken down again when we came back later in the afternoon. Two breakdowns of the same ride in one day? Disneyland really needs to get it together with all the breakdowns. Do they still not have enough maintenance crew? I really want to know why that's happening so often. It was never like this pre-pandemic. There must be a reason. While I still enjoy Disneyland very much, it's not the park it once was.
So, setting aside that mini-rant, we opted for the Jungle Cruise instead. We were sitting in the bad spot for seeing things again, but our Skipper had some fun science-y jokes. Then I had to think about what I wanted to do next. Yes, so many rides in a short period. It was great. Star Tours was our next ride of choice. The wait time said 15 minutes, but we only waited for 8 minutes. We basically cruised through the line. There was a tall guy sitting in front of me though and I didn't get to see much of the screen. Oh well. My mom nearly bought a Star Wars Christmas sweatshirt in the gift shop, which was really cute with funny comics. Next, I thought we'd check out the subs. Wait time said 20 minutes. Again, extraordinarily short for the subs. We waited about 15 minutes I think. It's another ride I almost never do because waiting in the line for it is usually grueling, so that was great.
Now I was ready for dessert, which we would get across the way in DCA. This was my other plan, to get the Coffee and Doughnuts churro. It had coffee sugar, chocolate sauce, whip cream, and sprinkles. It was pretty good. I didn't really taste the coffee though. After dessert we just had to get a sourdough bread sample at Boudin just because. Then we were just killing a little more time looking in a couple shops, including the World of Disney store. My mom was wanting a new backpack, but she specifically wanted Alice in Wonderland. It's hard to find any Alice in Wonderland anything though, so there was nothing. We brought home Earl of Sandwich for dinner. I got me a Cuban sandwich. I've always wanted to try it. I've come to like pickles and mustard more than I used to. The pickles didn't really have a flavor, but the sandwich is still good. Going to finish the second half for lunch soon, but that's not really relevant. :P This was a great time at Disneyland. Even though a couple of my plans didn't work out, it was still near perfect and very pleasant. We got to ride rides we wouldn't normally ride. I wish every day at Disneyland could be like that.