A Very Happy Disneyland Weekend

This weekend Alison and I met two of our friends at Disneyland. We also celebrated Alison's birthday. There are few better ways to spend a birthday than at the happiest place on earth. Initially, we were going to fly out on Friday night and just spend the weekend, but my uncle and aunt live near Disneyland so we decided to extend our trip and fly out Thursday night so we could spend some time with them on Friday. 

We took a late flight to California Thursday after work. Lately the most reasonably priced Delta flights into the Los Angelos area fly into LAX. We don't love flying into LAX. It is almost always a cluster. We landed at 10:15pm and it took about an hour to get to our rental car. We rented a car for one day so that we could meet up with my family. It actually turned out to be a pretty good deal because the rental car cost less than the cost of Uber from LAX to Anaheim. A lot has changed about traveling to Disneyland since 2019. We arrived at our hotel and made it into bed a few minutes after midnight. 

We were staying at the SunCoast Park Hotel Anaheim. This hotel was recently purchased by Hilton and we have wanted to use it for a Disney trip since last year. This hotel is exactly one mile from the Disneyland gates, but it is a great walk because you only have to cross two streets so the walk is quick and easy. When we woke up on Friday morning I noticed the hotel is right across the street from the old Residence Inn Anaheim Maingate. This is where I stayed with my family the first time I came to Disneyland in 2008. Alison and I walked past that hotel and I had a nostalgic moment remembering standing out under the white wooden stairs and calling Alison on my cell phone. I stood outside under the stairs because I didn't want my family eavesdropping on my phone calls. They still gave me a hard time about all the phone calls. Alison and I hadn't even started dating yet, but I had asked her out on our first date - Junior Prom, which took place the day I came home from Disneyland. Back then I had only owned a cell phone for a few months and at that time you paid for usage. I had to increase the number of texts I had in my plan because Alison and I were texting so much. Disneyland will always be a part of our love story - maybe that is part of the reason we keep coming back here. 

On Friday we worked remotely from our hotel. This is one of the best things about working remotely - Alison and I have the flexibility to work from other locations and extend our time on vacation. Since Utah is an hour ahead we were able to wrap up work a little early on Friday and get an early start on our vacation. 

When we were done working we headed to downtown Disney. We ate a big breakfast (and we ate it somewhat late) so we held off on eating lunch until we got to downtown Disney. We ate at the GCH Craftsman Grill located in the Grand Californian. Some of the Disney bloggers we follow highly recommended this place, but it is a little off the beaten path. It did not disappoint. I had chicken kabobs and Alison went with the cauliflower truffle grilled cheese sandwich. I thought that was a bold choice - both meals were quite tasty. We couldn't be in Downtown Disney without sharing a couple scoops of our favorite ice cream - Salt & Straw - so good. We walked around Downtown Disney, soaking in the ambiance and doing a little shopping before heading back to our hotel. 

Jason and Camilla live in Altadena, which is ~40 miles from Anaheim. It took a little over an hour to drive to their home with the California traffic. They have a beautiful home. They laid out the welcome mat and gave us the grand tour. We enjoyed looking at the art they have displayed, both Camilla’s art and pieces they have from their friends. We visited for a bit and then headed to a nearby street, York, to grab dinner. Jason and Camilla enjoy many of the restaurants and shops in this area. There were also many food trucks and pop-up dining options. We got some Bang Bang Noodles. They were delish. Then we found a place to sit and talked the night away. When we were ready to head back we stopped by Donut Friend and we each picked out a donut. We headed back to their place and visited for a while more before driving back to Anaheim. We had a fabulous time visiting Jason and Camilla. 

We arrived back in Anaheim, returned our rental car, walked back to our hotel, and headed to bed. 

The parks open at 8am right now. We left our hotel at 6:45am. We arrived at the park around 7am. They held everyone in line ahead of security and at 7:10 they allowed us to go through the security checkpoint. Alison and I claimed a spot right near the front of the line to get into California Adventure. Since Disneyland has switched to Genie+ we were trying out a new strategy. We wanted to be near the front of the crowd to rope drop Radiator Springs Racers. This ride is one of the individual lightning lane selections, meaning to get a fast pass you have to purchase it à la carte for $12-$20 per person. This ride understandably develops a long standby queue. With our position near the front of the line, we were on the ride in less than 10 minutes and most of that time was us walking through the empty queue. Right after Racers, we headed to Spiderman WEB Slingers. We have been watching the Disneyland app for a few days and noticed the wait for this ride tends to spike immediately when the park opens and then drops off quickly. Our analysis was spot on. We waited in line for ~20 minutes. I really like this ride. The tech is pretty cool and it is so interactive. When we got off WEB Slingers the return time for our first Genie+ selection was up and we got to skip the line at Guardians of the Galaxy: Mission Breakout. Within the first hour of the day, we were able to ride three of our favorite rides with minimal wait times - it was a resoundingly successful rope drop. 

We had a great day at California Adventure. We rode everything and hit up most of our favorite rides a couple of times. Right now DCA is doing a throwback and Soarin’ is running the California version. We weren’t too excited because we love the World version, but we were pleasantly surprised by how much we enjoyed the throwback. The smells on the California version are far superior. Flying over the orange grove is such a fun experience. 

DCA has the food and wine festival running. For lunch, we bought a sip and savor pass and tried a bunch of the offerings. Our favorites were a Chile Relleno Empanada. Our neighbor gave this a 10/10 YUMS and we concurred. The cheese in this offering really puts it over the top. We also enjoyed Chicharron-crusted Fried Artichoke Dip this was 9/10 YUMS in our opinion. The Carbonara-Garlic Mac & Cheese was also really tasty. We rated it 9/10 YUMS it would have been 10/10 except it was a little too garlicky. The hands-down best treat 12/10 YUMS was the SNICKERS Caramel-Peanut Milk Chocolate Mickey Macaron. This is an all-time great Disney treat. Alison hopes it somehow finds its way over to the menu at the Jolly Holiday. 

We spent the afternoon eating food, riding a few rides, and enjoying the park. It was a very lovely day in DCA.

At 6pm we headed to Downtown Disney to meet Casey and Amanda. We were so excited to see them! We enjoyed a meal together at Naples Ristorante E Bar - delish. We sat and ate and talked and I was a little worried the waitstaff might be annoyed we were taking a table, but we were having such a great time we did not want the moment to end. When we finally wrapped up our meal, we walked around the corner and introduced them to Salt & Straw. We are great ambassadors for the Salt & Straw brand and there is a reason - they have the best ice cream. 

After our treat, Casey and Amanda headed out and Alison and I headed back into DCA. We considered riding WEB slingers again, but the line was ~45 minutes and we didn’t really feel like waiting that long in line. I did want to purchase a Spider-Bot. I bought one on our last trip to Disneyland, but I quickly realized that two Spider-Bots are better than one. Two Spider-Bots can battle, which makes them much more fun. Alison just laughs at all the toys I buy. She likes to tell people I am reliving my best childhood by buying all of the toys I would have loved as a kid. Of course, I couldn’t just get a Spider-Bot, I also bought an Iron Man overlay to distinguish between the two Spider-Bots. 

After I made my purchase we decided to take a jaunt through Cars Land. Cars Land looks great at night with all the neon lights. I love that aesthetic. As we stood there soaking in the scene, there was a Johnny Cash song was playing in the background, I just wanted to live in that moment for as long as I could. That really is the Disney magic - we love the rides and shows and all of that, but sometimes it is the little moments that bring immense joy - if you take the time to savor them. 

We headed back to Avengers Campus intending to leave the park. On our way, we passed by WEB slingers. The sign said 20 minutes but the line looked even shorter. It was too good an opportunity to pass up. We jumped into line and made this our last ride of the day. We were finished with the ride in less than 20 minutes. Then we walked back to our hotel and called it a night. 

Sunday morning rope drop started out similarly to Saturday. Alison and I arrived early enough to be right at the rope blocking off Tomorrowland. The rope came down and we quickly walked toward Space Mountain, but right as we were entering the people in front of us turned back saying the ride was temporarily down. We pivoted and headed to the Matterhorn. Meanwhile, Casey and Amanda arrived at Disneyland and headed to Space Mountain. They headed right into Space Mountain and rode it. The thing was on the Disneyland App it showed Space Mountain was down. We waited for them at the exit of the ride and then we all rode it again. There was no line since the app still showed it was down - it was quite fortuitous and greatly assisted our rope drop strategy. 

That was just the start of a great morning in the park. Between the low morning crowds and Genie+, we would ride the Matterhorn, Big Thunder, Indiana Jones, Haunted Mansion, Millennium Falcon, Astroblasters, Star Tours, and It’s A Small World with little to no wait. It was one of those great mornings in the parks where everything is easy and goes according to plan. We walked from ride to ride, having a grand time. 

The best part of it all was spending time with Casey and Amanda. They are such great friends. Due to the pandemic, we haven’t seen them for three years. Getting to spend time with them was the highlight of our trip. I came home without a voice because we were all talking so much.

Casey and Amanda took a break from Disneyland in the middle of the day. While they were gone Alison and I mobile ordered lunch at our favorite place in Galaxy’s Edge - Docking Bay 7. Alison loves their impossible meatballs and hummus while I enjoy the chicken salad. After lunch, we rode Smugglers Run since the line wasn’t very long at all. 

I was still kind of hungry so we went to the Golden Horseshoe where I got some mozzarella sticks. While we were there the line for Rise of the Resistance was showing 45 minutes (about as short as you will see it these days) so we headed straight there. We got into line and our wait ended up being right about 45 minutes. By the time we got off the line had ballooned to 90+ minutes. We love that ride and were glad we caught it at the perfect time. 

We wandered down Main Street going in and out of a few of the shops. We found ourselves in Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln. We like to do this once a trip or so if we get the chance. I find it amazing that they created such a lifelike animatronic back in 1965. 

Our Genie+ reservation was ready for Splash Mountain so we rode Splash Mountain. It had turned into a hot day so we didn’t mind getting wet. Casey and Amanda arrived back at the park and we rode Splash Mountain again with them. Splash Mountain is Casey’s favorite ride - Amanda is not such a fan. She didn't really want to get wet, so we made sure she could sit at the back of the flume to try to avoid the water as much as possible. 

We had been accumulating Genie+ reservations throughout the day. After Splash we were able to skip the line on a few more of our favorites - Big Thunder and Space Mountain. 

After hanging out for a couple more hours Casey and Amanda were ready to call it a day. We walked them to the gates and then we headed back into the park. Main Street and many of the main thoroughfares through the park were packed. This weekend was the return of the Main Street Electrical Parade to Disneyland. There was a huge demand for the parade - people staked out spots hours before. Alison and I weren't that excited about the parade - we were at Disneyland 5 years ago when they "retired" it only to bring it back again. On that trip were really prioritized watching the parade. With all of the craziness this weekend, we just didn't care enough to try to fight for a spot. We wanted to ride the Matterhorn so we headed in that direction. The Matterhorn is a fun ride at night. We love the views of Disneyland lit up all around us while we ride. We also had pretty great views of the parade while we were waiting in line and on the ride. That was cool and unexpected. When we got off the ride we waited nearby and watched the rest of the parade. They did add a cool new float at the end and we do enjoy the Electric Light parade music. 

We wanted to follow the end of the parade to get a premium spot for the fireworks, but they blocked the pathway disrupting our best-laid plans. Instead, we had to race around the Matterhorn and through Tomorrowland. We made it just as the end of the parade passed the castle and snagged a great spot. This weekend Disneyland also brought back the Disneyland Forever firework show. This was the firework show during the Disneyland 60th celebration and is Alison's favorite. It was a must-do activity for us. 

A strange thing happened with Genie+. When a ride goes down, if you have a lightning lane reservation, they change the reservation to be a multi-experience attraction. This can be used on your choice of ride later in the day. It is somewhat complex because there are multiple tiers Space Mountain, Indiana Jones, and Matterhorn are in the higher tier and most other rides are in the lower tier. Anyway, we quickly realized that if a ride went down you could get a multi-experience fast pass, but you could also choose to get a lightning lane for that ride again. This is a nice loophole because you can only get one lightning lane selection per ride, per day. Because you can still get another lightning lane selection for the ride that went down these multi-experience passes are really a bonus. We could book lightning lanes for a ride that was down and get multi-experience passes and still book a new lightning lane almost immediately after. We did this a few times. We used our multi-experience passes to skip some lines with Casey and Amanda. However, they did not disappear from the app after we used them. So after the fireworks, we decided to try using them again - and it worked. This glitch meant we had a pile of lightning lane passes we could use to skip the line on some of our favorite rides. It made for a great evening. 

Monday was Alison's birthday! I was excited to celebrate with her at the happiest place on Earth. We were up and at 'em early again for rope drop. Once again we were at the front of the line to head toward Space Mountain. We were among the first people on the ride. Casey and Amanda arrived a little after us and they headed right to Space Mountain. We waited for them at the exit. When we were finishing our ride we were looking at everyone standing in line knowing Casey and Amanda were around somewhere and I noticed one of my neighbors growing up, Tianna Maxwell, was waiting to get on the ride. I tried pointing her out to Alison, but she thought I was saying I saw Amanda and was confused. As we were exiting the ride and Tianna entered the ride I got her attention and congratulated her on her wedding. Alison was so confused wondering why I was congratulating random people on their weddings until I explained who I saw to her. Once we met up with Casey and Amanda, we all rode Space Mountain together and then continued on to other rides. 

This morning things in the park seemed to get off to a slower start. With wait times rising quickly we knew it would be a busy day in the park. We decided we better buy a lightning lane pass for Rise of the Resistance to ensure we could all ride it together. Rise is the one attraction on the Disneyland side of the park that isn't included with Genie+ you have to pay an additional fee. We really wanted to do this ride with Casey and Amanda so we were willing to pay the fee. I used the app to sign up and it showed me the return time would be 10:45 to 11:45am. This was an ideal window. I got through the entire process and without warning it switched the time to 12:05 to 1:05pm. This was less than ideal. While Alison, Casey, and Amanda went to get Mickey beignets I went to see what I could do about this snafu. I was on my way to ask guest services about my issue when I walked past a cast member. I stopped to ask her where the nearest guest services location was and she asked about my issue. I explained the problem and she said she was a mobile expert and could assist me. She was able to remove the time constraint on our reservation so we could use it to ride Rise of the Resistance at whatever time was convenient for us. She was so helpful. 

After eating some Mickey beignets we headed to Rise of the Resistance. Right as we were walking up the ride went down. We pivoted and rode Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run. I love this ride - mostly because I think the ride system is amazing. I still can't believe how they can make it feel like your group is the only people piloting the Millennium Falcon. It is pretty amazing. We headed back out to Splash Moutain and it also went down just as we arrived. We then stood in our longest line of the day, 30 minutes, for The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh. Splash, Space, Big Thunder, Indiana Jones, and Rise were all down at that moment - causing the other wait times to spike. It was kind of a rough moment in Disneyland.

Splash Mountain came back fairly quickly. It was a hot day so the line went from 0 to 75 minutes in an instant. We were able to use a lightning lane selection to skip the line. My shorts got soaked, but with temperatures in the 80s and rising, I didn't care. We also randomly ran into Alison's cousin, Anna. We seem to run into her in places outside of Utah, which is funny because we both live in the Salt Lake area and rarely see each other. Once again Casey and Amanda headed back to Newport for the afternoon. 

While they were gone Alison and I continued to enjoy being in the park. We ate lunch at Docking Bay 7 again. Alison got her impossible meatballs and hummus while I branched out and tried the very good chili noodles. I would get them again. After lunch, Alison wanted to ride the railroad so we took a loop around the Magic Kingdom. We also rode Space Mountain a couple times, in addition to Big Thunder Mountain, It's a Small World, and Astroblasters. It ended up being a really fun afternoon and we rode more attractions than we thought we would. Alison wanted to get an ice cream treat in the afternoon. We headed over to the Tropical Hideaway and she got the mango and cherry DOLE Whip® Swirl. 

While we were at the Tropical Hideaway, Casey and Amanda arrived at Disneyland. They brought a gift for Alison - a Salt & Straw cookbook. It went along with the ice cream maker they gave us for Christmas. They are so thoughtful - now we can make our favorite ice cream at home!

Rise of the Resistance was up and running again, so that was our first stop. We used the lightning lane we purchased earlier in the day to skip the line. We were so excited to show this ride to Casey and Amanda. They really loved it. It is one of my favorite rides at Disneyland. 

We continued our celebration of Alison's birthday with dinner at Cafe Orleans. It was a lovely meal. We sat and enjoyed our food and continued visiting. It was much easier to talk while eating, we all were losing our voices to varying degrees because we have been trying to speak over the ambient sounds of the theme park. After dinner, our waiter brought out a Praline Cheesecake with a candle and we all sang Happy Birthday to Alison. 

After dinner, Casey and Amanda were ready to call it an evening. We walked them to the gates. We had so much fun with them in Disneyland this weekend. They are without a doubt some of our dearest friends and we are grateful for the time we got to spend with them. 

We had a strategy with Genie+ today. When a ride was down we would make a Genie+ selection for that ride. This would then give us a multi-experience lightning lane pass, and we could make an additional selection pretty immediately. Using this strategy we were able to amass 12+ multi-experience passes. While we used a few with Casey and Amanda, we still had a pile leftover this evening. We were able to ride all of our favorite attractions multiple times without waiting in line. It was fantastic. We could have kept going until the park closed, but after we had ridden everything we wanted to multiple times we called it a night. We stopped at the candy shop to buy a couple of treats on our way out. 

What a fun Disneyland trip! We didn't really know if we would like Genie+, but we found it worked quite well and we did everything we hoped to do and much more. We got to spend time with family and friends and we celebrated Alison's birthday. We left the park feeling very happy. 

Tuesday morning reality hit hard. We were up early and headed to LAX for an early morning flight so we could get home and get to work. We both purchased internet on the plane so we could start catching up on work on our way. These early morning flights are brutal, but it was totally worth it to facilitate our awesome Disneyland weekend. 

View of the Bingham Canyon Mine from the airplane