Pixar Fest At Disneyland and TV Time
Pixar Fest is going on right now at Disneyland. I was actually pretty excited about it. However, we didn't get to stay very long and my mom didn't want to leave the house until later. Part of that had to do with the dog. There's a big problem with my dad being home alone with her because she behaves differently than if my mom or I were around. She won't go outside for him and he has no success with luring her with treats, so that means she is stuck inside. Luckily she can hold her bladder for a long while, but it's still not good. Even worse was that my dad had made a doctor's appointment for Grammy without telling us first, which meant he would have to leave her in the house and take the chance she might chew stuff up. Fortunately she didn't. However, while we were still at home she was chewing up the rug we lay out for her outside. I don't know why she would do that. :(
That plus getting to the park late, not having the down escalator working at the parking structure, a long line for bag check, which meant we decided to walk to the Monorail instead meant I was feeling a bit distressed. But, the first thing I wanted to do was hit up Star Tours to see if we got any more new scenes or characters. The line was in the extended portion of the queue though, so I opted out of that. Seeing as it was Pixar Fest, I thought we'd do Pixar themed rides, which is exactly what we did. Every ride we went on was a Pixar ride. The first was Buzz Lightyear Astro Blasters. The wait time said 20 minutes and that was accurate. Not too bad. Afterwards we were pretty hungry. It was nearly 11 by the time we got into the park, so we just crossed over to DCA.
They really went all out for Pixar Fest actually having food carts, so that was exciting. However, I will say that the stuff we tried seemed to be a mixed bag, and not quite up to the standards of the other food festivals. The first thing we got was the Supper Club Chicken and Potato Waffles, which was inspired by the movie Soul. Each cart was inspired by a different Pixar film. This was basically chicken nuggets with peach cobbler and waffle fries. I thought it was going to be an actual waffle (like a chicken and waffle), but no, it was fries. It was surprisingly good. I never thought to pair peaches with fried chicken, but somehow it worked. My mom also already wants to try to recreate this meal at home lol, but I think I'd add some bbq sauce to it. The next thing we got was the Portorosso Pesto Pasta inspired by Luca. It's pesto pasta with fried potato pieces and these freeze dried green beans on top. The green beans really didn't need to be there. It was just weird. The pasta itself was good though.
Next, we returned to the Soul cart and got the Half Note Jazz Cake. It was a red velvet cake with what looked like paper piano keys on top. It was edible, but the texture was also like paper, so it was weird and we didn't eat the rest of it. I liked the cake itself. My mom thought it was OK. The texture was kind of dense and not fluffy. After that I really needed a drink, so we went back to the Luca cart and got the Sea Monster Lemonade. It's made with lemonade, grape juice, peach syrup and mango jellies. I'm not going to mince words here. This was awful. The syrup was way too strong, and I forced myself to drink it. Can't stand the texture of the jellies either. I knew I wouldn't.
Our last stop was at the food cart called Hanger Management, which is Inside Out inspired. It was unfortunately at this point my mom's back was going out and we wouldn't be able to stay much longer. We ordered the Joyful Yellow Comforting Mac & Cheese. Basically it was probably Kraft macaroni and cheese with some Cheetos on top. They give you a generous portion and it was simple, but good enough for me. I just had to finish it and of course I became overstuffed. Then I showed my mom the little Drive-In theater they had in the Hollywood Backlot. They had old cars you can sit in to watch Pixar shorts. It was a cute and fun idea. Then we got the buddy pass to ride Monster's Inc.
After that, I asked my mom if she thought she could make it to the Pixar Pier. She said she could and we checked out Toy Story Mid-Way Mania. The wait time said 55 minutes, but it didn't look like it, so we got in line. The wait actually turned out to be 25 minutes. Not bad at all for that ride. I rarely get to go on it because the line is usually always long. There were a couple slow parts in the line, but it wasn't too bad. I tried to focus on the higher point targets this time. I've never been good at these shooting rides though. That was fun, but now we were ready to go back to Disneyland because there were a couple more things I wanted to do.
The Fantasyland Theater had a kind of Pixar party mostly for kids where there are photo ops and character meet-and-greets and dancing, so that's kind of fun. I also thought that maybe we'd get a drink from the Troubador Tavern. They had two Pixar themed drinks and one of them was lemonade. I wasn't about to get that again, so we ended up getting the Adventure Is Out There Cold Brew, which is inspired by Up. I had never tried a cold brew before and it was quite good and refreshing. I did get coffee induced anxiety later though. It came with I think a butterscotch whip cream, sprinkles, dark chocolate coffee, and a straw shaped wafer cookie.
The last thing we did was head to Galaxy's Edge to pick up the Polystarch Puff Bread to take home because we didn't get it last time. I actually ate that at home and it was good stuff. A croissant with streusel on top, and a little bit of cream in the center. A good dessert. But backing up again, there are also fifty hidden Pizza Planet trucks around the park. We only got to see one of them which was on the conveyor in the droid shop. We went home after that. It's a bummer we didn't get to stay very long because of my mom's back, but the Pixar stuff was kind of fun. I like how they've gone all out for Pixar Fest. I'm not sure when I'll be back to Disneyland. I usually don't go in the summer, however if there's a not so hot day in July, we might go then. Certain passes are blocked out then. On the other hand, they're also going to be doing the discounted tickets then too, which will inevitably draw in crowds, so I don't know.
One last thing I wanted to talk about that's completely unrelated to Disneyland. After writing that blog about TV shows and thinking about how there's so much I watch and so many shows that are always coming out that I started making a list of backlog shows. I don't know why I didn't think of this before, but there are apps that can help you track TV shows, so that's exactly what I've decided to do. I downloaded the app TV Time since it's the most popular one, and at first I was just thinking of using it to add shows I plan to watch, but then because I'm a nerd who likes lists and the idea of marking things off on a “to do” list I decided why not just track all the shows I watch? lol It could be kind of fun.
I usually just talk about streaming shows on here, but I also do watch a lot of linear TV too. Frankly, it's a lot to keep up with. But the app can also tell you when the shows are coming on too, so that's kind of handy. Too many shows and you start to forget. I do also have to remember to mark the episodes as watched as I go through my various series. I'm not going to be adding shows that I've already completed from the past, as that would be just too crazy. Also, there are some shows I haven't seen every season of, like American Idol. I don't remember which seasons I've watched, so that's a bit harder to track. I think I'll just mark the most current season for those. I don't know maybe having the app will end up being more stressful than fun, but at the same time I'm a little obsessive, and so far I like it. I can always remove it if it becomes too much, but I do like that I can add shows I plan to watch. That's the most useful thing about it for me. Yep, another obsession. There's also stats like how much time I've spent watching shows and how many episodes I've seen, which may or may not be embarrassing. Anyway, we'll see how it goes. I think I'll enjoy using it. At least, I hope.
That plus getting to the park late, not having the down escalator working at the parking structure, a long line for bag check, which meant we decided to walk to the Monorail instead meant I was feeling a bit distressed. But, the first thing I wanted to do was hit up Star Tours to see if we got any more new scenes or characters. The line was in the extended portion of the queue though, so I opted out of that. Seeing as it was Pixar Fest, I thought we'd do Pixar themed rides, which is exactly what we did. Every ride we went on was a Pixar ride. The first was Buzz Lightyear Astro Blasters. The wait time said 20 minutes and that was accurate. Not too bad. Afterwards we were pretty hungry. It was nearly 11 by the time we got into the park, so we just crossed over to DCA.
They really went all out for Pixar Fest actually having food carts, so that was exciting. However, I will say that the stuff we tried seemed to be a mixed bag, and not quite up to the standards of the other food festivals. The first thing we got was the Supper Club Chicken and Potato Waffles, which was inspired by the movie Soul. Each cart was inspired by a different Pixar film. This was basically chicken nuggets with peach cobbler and waffle fries. I thought it was going to be an actual waffle (like a chicken and waffle), but no, it was fries. It was surprisingly good. I never thought to pair peaches with fried chicken, but somehow it worked. My mom also already wants to try to recreate this meal at home lol, but I think I'd add some bbq sauce to it. The next thing we got was the Portorosso Pesto Pasta inspired by Luca. It's pesto pasta with fried potato pieces and these freeze dried green beans on top. The green beans really didn't need to be there. It was just weird. The pasta itself was good though.
Next, we returned to the Soul cart and got the Half Note Jazz Cake. It was a red velvet cake with what looked like paper piano keys on top. It was edible, but the texture was also like paper, so it was weird and we didn't eat the rest of it. I liked the cake itself. My mom thought it was OK. The texture was kind of dense and not fluffy. After that I really needed a drink, so we went back to the Luca cart and got the Sea Monster Lemonade. It's made with lemonade, grape juice, peach syrup and mango jellies. I'm not going to mince words here. This was awful. The syrup was way too strong, and I forced myself to drink it. Can't stand the texture of the jellies either. I knew I wouldn't.
Our last stop was at the food cart called Hanger Management, which is Inside Out inspired. It was unfortunately at this point my mom's back was going out and we wouldn't be able to stay much longer. We ordered the Joyful Yellow Comforting Mac & Cheese. Basically it was probably Kraft macaroni and cheese with some Cheetos on top. They give you a generous portion and it was simple, but good enough for me. I just had to finish it and of course I became overstuffed. Then I showed my mom the little Drive-In theater they had in the Hollywood Backlot. They had old cars you can sit in to watch Pixar shorts. It was a cute and fun idea. Then we got the buddy pass to ride Monster's Inc.
After that, I asked my mom if she thought she could make it to the Pixar Pier. She said she could and we checked out Toy Story Mid-Way Mania. The wait time said 55 minutes, but it didn't look like it, so we got in line. The wait actually turned out to be 25 minutes. Not bad at all for that ride. I rarely get to go on it because the line is usually always long. There were a couple slow parts in the line, but it wasn't too bad. I tried to focus on the higher point targets this time. I've never been good at these shooting rides though. That was fun, but now we were ready to go back to Disneyland because there were a couple more things I wanted to do.
The Fantasyland Theater had a kind of Pixar party mostly for kids where there are photo ops and character meet-and-greets and dancing, so that's kind of fun. I also thought that maybe we'd get a drink from the Troubador Tavern. They had two Pixar themed drinks and one of them was lemonade. I wasn't about to get that again, so we ended up getting the Adventure Is Out There Cold Brew, which is inspired by Up. I had never tried a cold brew before and it was quite good and refreshing. I did get coffee induced anxiety later though. It came with I think a butterscotch whip cream, sprinkles, dark chocolate coffee, and a straw shaped wafer cookie.
The last thing we did was head to Galaxy's Edge to pick up the Polystarch Puff Bread to take home because we didn't get it last time. I actually ate that at home and it was good stuff. A croissant with streusel on top, and a little bit of cream in the center. A good dessert. But backing up again, there are also fifty hidden Pizza Planet trucks around the park. We only got to see one of them which was on the conveyor in the droid shop. We went home after that. It's a bummer we didn't get to stay very long because of my mom's back, but the Pixar stuff was kind of fun. I like how they've gone all out for Pixar Fest. I'm not sure when I'll be back to Disneyland. I usually don't go in the summer, however if there's a not so hot day in July, we might go then. Certain passes are blocked out then. On the other hand, they're also going to be doing the discounted tickets then too, which will inevitably draw in crowds, so I don't know.
One last thing I wanted to talk about that's completely unrelated to Disneyland. After writing that blog about TV shows and thinking about how there's so much I watch and so many shows that are always coming out that I started making a list of backlog shows. I don't know why I didn't think of this before, but there are apps that can help you track TV shows, so that's exactly what I've decided to do. I downloaded the app TV Time since it's the most popular one, and at first I was just thinking of using it to add shows I plan to watch, but then because I'm a nerd who likes lists and the idea of marking things off on a “to do” list I decided why not just track all the shows I watch? lol It could be kind of fun.
I usually just talk about streaming shows on here, but I also do watch a lot of linear TV too. Frankly, it's a lot to keep up with. But the app can also tell you when the shows are coming on too, so that's kind of handy. Too many shows and you start to forget. I do also have to remember to mark the episodes as watched as I go through my various series. I'm not going to be adding shows that I've already completed from the past, as that would be just too crazy. Also, there are some shows I haven't seen every season of, like American Idol. I don't remember which seasons I've watched, so that's a bit harder to track. I think I'll just mark the most current season for those. I don't know maybe having the app will end up being more stressful than fun, but at the same time I'm a little obsessive, and so far I like it. I can always remove it if it becomes too much, but I do like that I can add shows I plan to watch. That's the most useful thing about it for me. Yep, another obsession. There's also stats like how much time I've spent watching shows and how many episodes I've seen, which may or may not be embarrassing. Anyway, we'll see how it goes. I think I'll enjoy using it. At least, I hope.