If you look back at the last few years of my posts on GeekDad, you will invariably find that I post something about a trip to Disneyland after the holidays are over. We have become a Disneyfied family, visiting the parks in Southern California at least a couple times a year, especially at the holidays. Disney just does the holidays really, really well, and we love it.
There are many, many good Disney blogs out there, written by folks who are even more into Disney than we are, and which will do a better job at elucidating the finer points of vacations at the parks than I can. What I can do, however, is throw some interesting tidbits at you here - little things that, if you go to the parks, might help you have an extra special bit of fun.
Actually, the first two things aren't even about the parks, but rather about getting there. We travel from the SF Bay Area. If you count prep time, transfers, and other joys of air travel, it's almost a wash with making the drive instead, and at least on the drive the seats are more comfortable. Plus, it's a bit cheaper for a family of four, even with gas prices the way they are. So, we drive. Which means I-5 down the central valley which, save for a few places like Harris Ranch, doesn't offer a lot of choice in good food at the pit stops.
However, this time, after a quick visit to Yelp, we tried a little place in Buttonwillow (about 30 minutes North of the start of the Grapevine - the big hilly drive through the Tejon pass that separates Central from Southern California), called Tita's Pupuseria. Tita's serves Salvadoran and Mexican cuisine, including delicious pupusas, which are basically cheese-stuffed flour tortillas. They're not quesadillas - they're something different and delicious. They also have delicious carnitas tacos, amazing baked goods, and the freshest horchata I've ever had. Makes for a great stop on the way.
The second travel tip has to do with the route itself. The bane of any drive to Disneyland is the traffic through LA, specifically I-5 as it goes past downtown. There are invariably slowdowns which, when you're 4/5 of the way to the Happiest Place on Earth, will always cause aggravation. So, after checking a few recommendations and poring over the maps, we tried a new route, getting off I-5 just as it descends into LA, and taking I-210 (the Pasadena Freeway) to Route 57 (the Orange Freeway). In short, this adds between 15 and 20 miles to the trip, but (almost) guarantees staying at speed, with carpool lanes, the entire way. Both going and coming, we checked Google Maps and saw red on the I-5 route, so we know we actually saved time doing this alternate.
We ended up spending more time in California Adventure park this time than ever before. This is due in large to Cars Land. I was invited to the grand opening earlier this year, but didn't get the chance to go, so this was my first time. It's wonderful. Everyone looks just right, and the recreations of Radiator Springs and the Ornament Valley are just wonderful. They have also changed the balance of power in the park. Used to be, on early opening mornings, people would be making a bee-line to Toy Story Mania. Now they head to Radiator Springs Racers, the Cars-themed ride that anchors that corner of the park. I wish I could review the ride for you, but it's still so fresh and popular, we didn't get a chance to ride it! Basically, if you're not in the part at 7am for early entry to get in line or get Fast Passes, you're largely out of luck. Fast Passes sell out by 9am, and the line runs to 3 hours long. Maybe next time!
One new thing we were able to enjoy, though, was the new Carthay Circle restaurant, near the park's entrance. It's patterned after fine LA restaurants of the '40s, with bar and waiting area downstairs, and dining upstairs. Indeed, for our party of six, we ended up in one of the small private nooks that makes you feel like a special guest. The food was wonderful (the Thai Winter Soup was amazing), and the price comes in at or below other park eateries like the Blue Bayou. They also make a mean Manhattan, with special spherical ice cubes and Bulleit rye whiskey. Yes, they serve alcohol in CA Adventure park (but not Disneyland).
As I've written about before, if you're interested in watching the World of Color water/light show (which is totally worth seeing), but you'd rather have a seat underneath you and a drink at your hand, the Cove Bar behind Ariel's Grotto is the perfect spot. If you get there before 8pm, you can secure yourself a table or a seat at the bar, order some food and drinks, and then stay for the 9pm show.
As for Disneyland park, there haven't been any big changes this year, but we did discover a couple neat little things you can keep an eye out for.
It is currently all the rage to look for the "Hidden Mickeys" around the parks and hotels. What this means is that the designers of various constructs all through the various Disney locales have a habit of weaving the simple head-and-ears three circles shape into just about anything they can think of. You can spend your whole visit looking for these hidden Mickeys. Well, we found one in an unexpected place:
Can you see it? Also, I'll hand out bonus points for the first person who can tell me where this is located (bonus points are virtual, and of no real value).
Lastly (at least inside the parks) was something I discovered that's a bit of park history. If you have some knowledge of the parks, you know there are still the remnants of rides that were discontinued still lying about. For example, the People Mover, which still exists at Walt Disney World, but which was discontinued at Disneyland. However, the structure upon which it rode is still there in Tomorrowland. Likewise is this structure we noticed while walking through Fantasyland:
This building is hidden in the trees up on a hill at the back of Fantasyland, to the left of the Casey Jones' train ride. I'd never noticed it before, but it looks wonderful and mysterious. My wife asked the woman running one of the carts nearby, and it turns out it was the endpoint for the Skyway ride, an air tram that traveled between Tomorrowland, through the center of the Matterhorn ride, to Fantasyland. It closed in 1994, but the station is still there.
There's a bit of fun to be found in Downtown Disney (the mercantile district between the parks and hotels) as well. The first is a piece of art I found at one of the stores:
Now here's the miracle of Twitter. I took the above picture, and tweeted it, because I liked it so much. Within a few minutes, the wonderful Jen from Cakewrecks had informed me that the artist is one Jerrod Maruyama, who does a bunch of wonderful Disney and other pop culture-inspired art, and not long after, I was trading tweets with the man himself. Go check out his work - it's wonderful!
One more thing that's become something of a family tradition on our trips to Disneyland is a Thursday night visit to see the Blazing Pianos at Ralph Brennan's Jazz Kitchen. The show is simply two very talented, very funny piano players taking requests all night from the audience for great pop songs from the last 40 years or so. In many cases, even if neither of them know the song specifically, they'll look it up online and improvise it, along with a lot of fun interaction with the audience. Plan on coming for dinner around 8pm, and sticking at the table through the show from 9pm to 11pm or so. The video above was near the end of the night, and we were tossing out whatever we could think up to try to stump them. Scott Doyle was totally gracious and made the night wonderfully memorable.
If you have any questions about the above items, or about traveling to Disneyland, I'd be happy to try and answer them, or point you in the right direction. Just catch up with me on Twitter.
