Mom and Me at the Happiest Homecoming on Earth! - COMPLETE! About This Page:

[PrincessSharon]

Mom and Me at the Happiest Homecoming on Earth
August 11 – 15, 2005

Last winter, my DM and I decided to take a trip to Disneyland for the 50th Anniversary, just the two of us. We decided we’d like to stay on property and chose the Grand Californian Hotel. I began to do research and considered the best/cheapest way to take this vacation. I eventually settled on booking a package with AAA, mainly because that’s the only way you can get the best benefit of all: multiple Fastpass (more on that later). This was really important for us because we’d be among big crowds in the middle of the summer. It was a good decision and we put it to good use. Also, booking through AAA saved me about $60 over the same package through the Disney Travel Co. at the time I booked.

We also wanted to visit somewhere else in Southern California while we were on that side of the country. We’d both visited Hollywood before on our only other trip to California in 1987, so that was out. I strongly considered San Diego, but then we decided we’d like to spend some time in Santa Monica at the Pier and on the beach. I booked us in to the Loews Santa Monica Beach Hotel for the final night of our trip.

When we finally got our stuff in the mail, about two weeks before our trip, I was excited to receive two golden Tinkerbell luggage tags with our travel documents, as well as the park map that was handed out on July 17, with the current map on one side and the opening day map on the other. Our package also included a voucher for a lanyard and pin for each of us, reserved seating for some shows at Disney’s California Adventure, a fun book with coupons, and a $10 game card for ESPN Sports Zone Arena.

I also booked the Fantasmic Dessert Buffet as a surprise for DM. It is an expensive indulgence, but Fantasmic is my favorite nighttime show at WDW and I really wanted to make sure I saw it at DL. I also didn’t want to waste a lot of time getting there really early for a spot because we only had three days in the park, so I decided to splurge on the Dessert Buffet.


Fantasmic Dessert Buffet balcony

The balcony, where the Fantasmic Dessert Buffet is held, only seats 20 people and Fantasmic is only held once or twice a night in the summer, so you can imagine what a hot ticket it is. It’s tougher to get than Cinderella’s Royal Table. A few weeks before my calling date (30 days ahead), I read on the boards about Disney Vacation Planning Services. VPS will make all your tour reservations, Priority Seatings (they’re still called that at DL), and they will also book the Dessert Buffet for you, if you have ressies at one of the three Disneyland hotels.

I called that day and gave my three choices for the Dessert Buffet. That way I wouldn’t have to remember to call at 10:00 a.m. (my time) when I was 30 days out and hope to get the seats. At 30 days out, I got a call back that they had been able to secure the tickets ($56 each). We ended up going our first night, but I would have preferred our second night. I wanted every chance to get it so I chose the first night 9:00 show as my first choice, the 10:30 show as my second choice and the 9:00 show for the second night as my third choice. I got my first choice (even though it wasn’t really my first choice ). I didn’t tell my DM about it until it was time to pick up the tickets.

Our trip went very well and we both enjoyed ourselves immensely, but I did have various problems with my camera throughout the trip. I came home with 597 pictures, so there weren’t that many issues, but after this trip, I’m shopping for a new camera.

The weather was great our whole trip. It was sunny and hot, in the low 80s with low humidity. We found that it would be cooler and cloudy in the morning, but the clouds/fog would burn off by about noon and then it would be bright and sunny. At night, it was cool enough that we would put on a light jacket.

Also, I found that there was a lot less information out there for planning a trip to Disneyland than there is for Walt Disney World. Most of the information I gathered was from reading trip reports, so I’ll do my best to write a thorough trip report with lots of pictures. My apologies to those of you on dial-up.

[PrincessSharon]

Day One – Thursday, August 11

I stayed up until midnight to print out our ‘A’ boarding passes for our flight on Southwest Airlines. Then I went to bed. You know how some people are so excited the night before a vacation that they can’t sleep? I’m not one of those people! I went to bed just after midnight and was asleep shortly after my head hit the pillow. I slept like a rock until my alarm went off at 5:30.

We were out the door at about 6:30 for our 8:10 flight. DF drove us to the airport, which took all of about 15 minutes. We were checking baggage but already had our boarding passes. Our airport has just installed kiosks for printing baggage claim checks and there wasn’t anyone in line ahead of us. The airport wasn’t busy and we were through security and at our gate about 10 minutes after arriving at the airport.

When we boarded the plane, we were able to get the exit row with only two seats, so neither of us had to take the middle seat. We didn’t have a direct flight, but would have a stopover in Las Vegas.

I’ve flown to Vegas before, but I’ve never been on the party plane like this one seemed to be. There was a big group of guys in front of us, drinking beer and standing up almost the entire flight. One woman who wasn’t traveling with them was trying to pick one of them up (don’t think she cared which one ). She was sitting across the aisle from the guys, and at one point in the flight, the pilot announced that you could see Hoover Dam out the left side of the plane. She was on the left side of the plane so she actually stood up in her seat and stuck her butt out to look out the window. DM and I were laughing about that. I know the commercial says what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas, but does that apply to your flight as well? Watching her antics made the flight go faster at least. DM says she got a bunch of phone numbers, but I must’ve been in the bathroom when that happened.

The flight itself got a little bumpy and we ended up changing our route to get around the turbulence. The route we took was over the Grand Canyon and I snapped a few pictures of the scenery.


Looking out the window of the plane

I tried to get more pictures, but my camera batteries died. I thought that was a little strange because I’d just charged them the night before. The spare batteries were in my suitcase, so I figured I’d change them when we got to the hotel.

We landed on time in Vegas and most of the plane cleared out. The flight to John Wayne airport was only about half filled, and it only takes about an hour to get there. We landed in Orange County right on time.

Our bags were among the first out and we went over to Hertz to pick up our car. I’m a #1 Club member (regular, not gold), but there is a special line for #1 Club members (gold members don't even have to wait on line), so we were waited on right away. The rental agent asked me if I was over 25, which made my day (that should give you a clue as to how old I really am ). I had reserved the cheapest car I could because I’d been lucky getting upgrades from Hertz before, and I figured if we were stuck in a matchbox car, we wouldn’t be using it all that much anyway.

The rental agent told us about the manager’s special and we decided to take it. So we got upgraded to a Mustang convertible, and it only cost us $110 total, including gas (we prepaid)! The agent asked us what’s the traditional color for Mustangs and right away I said red. DM was like “umm … white?” Yeah, OK, I’ll drive.

My camera was still having issues, so we didn’t take a picture of the car, but we put the top down right away and set out for the GCH. It was a gorgeous sunny day, perfect for riding in our cool red convertible. The only drawback was that it only took us about 20 minutes to get to the Grand Californian from the airport. We would’ve enjoyed more cruising!

Once we got there, we valet parked the car and went to check in. The lobby was huge and reminded me very much of the Wilderness Lodge, but I didn’t get the same exhilarating feeling I get from the WL. I can’t really explain it. It was really a beautiful place, though. There wasn’t a line for check in and we were happy to hear our room was ready.

We were in room 3003, which was a standard room. The room key has Mickey on it instead of Tinkerbell.



You can have charging privileges, but you don’t use the key card. You get a slip of paper instead. I never used it because I didn’t want to have to keep track of a slip of paper.

Once we got to our room, I changed the batteries in my camera and took some photos of the room.


The seating area outside our room


View of the lobby from our floor



















When we checked in, Ella, the CM, warned us not to touch anything in the minibar. Everything is on a sensor and if you even move something, you’ll be charged for it.


Scary minibar

The backup batteries on my camera died after this, so I started getting nervous. I was worried it was my camera and not the rechargeable batteries I use for it. I decided to make the photo shop on Main Street my first stop to buy new batteries.

So we unpacked our things while watching Megan go through the Top 7 things at the Disneyland Resort, and then we headed out to Disneyland.

We’d both been to Disneyland once before, but it was nearly 20 years ago and much has changed since then. I don’t really remember too much from my first trip, so it was almost like the first time for me.

We followed the signs in the GCH to Disneyland, but once you get to the Downtown Disney District, there’s no sign to tell you whether to go left or right. We chose left, which was the wrong way. We checked out some of the shops in Downtown Disney on the way, then went through the bag check (where there was absolutely no line) and got on the monorail.

We entered Disneyland through Tomorrowland, which I didn’t like as much as the main entrance. Our first stop was to grab Fastpasses for Space Mountain.

DM does not do thrill rides, but I got her Fastpass anyway for myself so I can ride twice. By this time, it was 3:00 and the standby line was 2 hours long. I got Fastpasses with a return time of 10:20-11:20.

The AAA multiple Fastpass feature allows you to get a Fastpass for everything at once. You can hold one Fastpass for every attraction that offers it at the same time. You do have to wait for your window to open to get a Fastpass for anything that you’re already holding a Fastpass for. In other words, I can get a Fastpass for Space Mountain then walk right over and get Fastpasses for Star Tours and Buzz Lightyear, but I can’t get another Space Mountain FP until the time opens or two hours have passed, just like the regular Fastpass system. This works well because at DL, you can use your FP even after the time on it has passed.

After getting the SM FPs, I went over and got us FPs for Buzz. I was really worried about my camera, so we went to the camera shop next. The CM there was very helpful and helped me pick out the best batteries for what I needed for my digital camera. They have two kinds, one was a regular strength that he estimated would last me about a day without using the LCD. There was a stronger battery, but I decided to get the cheaper ones because I was hoping I could recharge my batteries. A 4-pack of AA batteries cost me about $6, which I thought was a decent price for Disney. My camera needs 2 batteries so I figured that would last me two days at the very least.

I put the new batteries in and my camera seemed to be working, but I was still worried about how long they would last. The problem turned out to be my rechargeables, which we think were discharged when they went through the x-ray at the airport. After charging them up again, they worked OK, but I think I’ll just go with the Energizers in the future instead of my rechargeable AAs.

OK, so back to our day. We were hungry by now, so we decided to get hotdogs right across the street. We sat down outside and Walt Disney’s Parade of Dreams was just starting. We didn’t have the best spot, but we could see the tops of the floats as we sat and ate.

I wanted to pick up the tickets for the Fantasmic Dessert Buffet so we headed down Main Street after the parade. My camera was working now, so I took a bunch of pictures.















I made sure to seek out the Fire Station. Walt Disney’s apartment was upstairs and whenever he was in the park the light in the window would be on. Ever since his death, the light has always been on, which I think is a cool tribute.



I had the voucher for our pins and lanyards from our package, so we went to the AAA kiosk and picked them up. The pin we got was pretty cute!

We had been in California for hours without shopping, so we had to stop in the Emporium. We ended up getting a bunch of stuff (I got a Goofy pen, a Disneyland scrapbook kit, a tiny Mickey icon punch (they also had Mickey, Minnie, and Stitch silhouette punches), a 50th Anniversary magnet, and an album for my pressed pennies. DM got a t-shirt, a coffee mug and some other stuff. We used the 10% off coupon from the AAA coupon book that came with our package and saved about $13 between the two of us. We had it shipped back to the resort and were told that we could pick it up the next day after 7:00 from Bell Services.

When I made it to Guest Services, my Fantasmic tickets weren’t there. The CM asked me for my confirmation number and I told her I’d gotten them through VPS, so she said they would be at the hotel.

A train was pulling in the Main Street station so we jumped on it. We decided to get off in Tomorrowland and take the monorail back to the GCH so we could see the entire monorail loop. I peeked through a hole covering up the construction for the new Nemo submarine ride, but there isn’t much going on in there.



Back in the Downtown Disney District, we checked out Department 56 and World of Disney. I had a 10% off coupon for WOD from the Official Guide, but we decided to save that for our last day and just remember what we want to buy.

I stopped in Acorns and bought a GCH magnet and pin for my collections. Then I went to the front desk and picked up my tickets for the Fantasmic Dessert Buffet (yup, they were there in case you were worried ).



Now that my camera was working, I took some pictures in the lobby.

















Then we freshened up and put on warmer clothes for our big night.

Up Next: A Fantastic Fantasmic!

[kimdisneynut]

Great start
Thanks
Kim

[Colexis Mom]

What a great trip you're having Boy, that plane ride sounds interesting Love all your pictures of Disneyland!

More please

[gwugirl03]

Great so far! Can't wait to read more!

[snoozy]

Wonderful, I can't wait to hear all about Fantasmic. What's up with the mini bar at the GC. We are going to stay there this Feb. We want to be able to stock a refrigerator with our own drinks. Can you get a refrigerator that is empty?

[DebiDebiDebi]

Keep this great report going!

[arielrocks]

Thanks for the post. But after reading it, I thank my lucky stars I have a travel agent who does all the calling for me. Doing a 30 day count down waiting to get a once in a lifetime ticket, seems like something a TA can do better. Glad you got what you wanted. We aren't going for another year. We can't wait either.

[dsnytina]

Wonderful start!
What a special time for you and your DM!
Tina

[PrincessSharon]

[ QUOTE ]
Wonderful, I can't wait to hear all about Fantasmic. What's up with the mini bar at the GC. We are going to stay there this Feb. We want to be able to stock a refrigerator with our own drinks. Can you get a refrigerator that is empty?

[/ QUOTE ]

There is a small space left in the minibar for you to put stuff, but it wouldn't even fit my bottle of water (it was too tall). If you buy cans of soda, it would probably fit maybe 4 cans. I saw them bringing an empty fridge to a guest, so you can request one.

[PrincessSharon]

[ QUOTE ]
Thanks for the post. But after reading it, I thank my lucky stars I have a travel agent who does all the calling for me. Doing a 30 day count down waiting to get a once in a lifetime ticket, seems like something a TA can do better. Glad you got what you wanted. We aren't going for another year. We can't wait either.

[/ QUOTE ]

I agree! That's why I was so glad VPS took care of it for me. I think VPS has an advantage even over a TA, because they are actually run by Disney. I got the first two tickets sold that day.

[PrincessSharon]

Day One Part Two – A Fantastic Fantasmic!

Once we were ready for our evening out, we walked over to Disneyland. We went the right way this time, and the walk only took about 5 minutes. There was no line at the bag check and also no line at the turnstiles.

We had to be at the FDB by 8:30 for our 9:00 show, so we figured we’d stay in the area of New Orleans Square. We headed that way and our first official attraction at Disneyland ended up being Walt Disney’s Enchanted Tiki Room.









We both enjoyed the show. When I watch the Tiki Room Under New Management at Walt Disney World, I always feel like most of the birds aren’t even used. I was happy to see all the birdies singing again.

After the Tiki Room, I decided to try for a ride on Indiana Jones Adventure. I wasn’t really surprised to see a wait time of 120 minutes and no more FPs. I had heard that there was a single riders line for Indy, but the CM said the only ride at DL with a single riders line anymore is Splash Mountain.

Next, we decided to check out Pirates of the Caribbean. The standby line was 90 minutes long (no FP for Pirates), so we decided to pass on that as well. In retrospect, I think this part of the park was so crowded because the throngs of people had the same idea that we had: be close to Fantasmic.

So we walked over to the Haunted Mansion and were thrilled to find a 10 minute standby line.





I thought that it might be too good to be true, but we got in line and were in the stretching room in only 5 minutes. Disneyland’s HM is similar to WDW’s, but the biggest differences I noticed were the couple on the see-saw in the graveyard scene (which I loved) and the bride who says “hurry baaaack” is after you get off of the ride. WDW’s cemetery with the Madame Leota tombstone is much better than DL’s.

Once we got rid of our hitchhiking ghost, DM and I decided it was time to do some more shopping. I really loved looking in the shops in New Orleans Square, but neither of us bought anything.

At about 8:15 we headed up to the Gallery to be ready to check in for the FDB. We really enjoyed looking around in the Gallery. There was a CM waiting near the balcony so I asked her about the FDB. She made sure we had Balcony tickets and not riverside seating, then told us to have a seat inside and they’d seat us in order of how we booked, not in order of how we showed up. When we sat down, there were already two other families waiting. One of the families grumbled a bit when DM and I were seated first.

You are seated in groupings according to your party size. DM and I were seated at the leftmost table and told to help ourselves to the desserts and a CM would bring us our drinks.


Fantasmic Dessert Buffet offerings

DM and I totally ate light.





Heh. Yeah, we made pigs of ourselves. We tried almost everything, but neither of us like cheesecake so we didn’t get that. And we split that giant piece of chocolate cake and still couldn’t finish it. DM had coffee (which she said was good coffee) and I had a mint julep!



DM really loved it and was very surprised. She had been reading the Official Guide in the airport and commented that the Dessert Buffet sounded nice, and I was smiling to myself because I knew we’d be doing it!

I had my camcorder with me and I recorded Fantasmic so I can watch it as much as I want to now. It was awesome! I loved it so much, but my favorite part is the Peter Pan scene. I think the Sailing Ship Columbia is absolutely gorgeous and it was so cool seeing Hook and Peter Pan fighting it out on it.

Although this was an expensive buffet, we really enjoyed it, and I thought it was worth every penny. We didn’t have to fight crowds for a seat, our view of the show was phenomenal, and the desserts were all super yummy. I would certainly recommend this to anyone, though the more people you have, the harder it is to justify the cost. For small groups, it’s definitely worth it!

Once Fantasmic was over (which felt like 30 seconds), we were able to stay seated and watch the fireworks from Remember Dreams Come True.

We didn’t have the best vantage point (you can’t see the castle at all), but we could see all the fireworks very well. During the show, which is all kinds of amazing, there is a tribute to many of the attractions in the park. And something I never would’ve noticed had I been on Main Street is that when the HM tribute comes, a huge fog rolls in over the water, which was cool to see.

I had my camera with me, but I didn’t even attempt to get any pictures of Fantasmic or Remember, because my camera isn’t really the best with night shots. After the fireworks, we made our way down to join the rest of the masses. DM was beat and decided to go back to the GCH. I had Space Mountain FPs that were almost active, so I wasn’t about to leave the park!

As we walked past Indy, I could see that there was only a 25 minute standby, so I bid DM goodnight and jumped in line. The standby ended up being only about 20 minutes. The queue for this ride is amazing, surpassed only by the actual ride. Indy ROCKS!

I made my way over to Tomorrowland and by the time I got to Space Mountain, my FP had become active. The standby line was 150 minutes long. Something funny I noticed: a lot of people would see 150 on the sign and think that meant 1 hour and 50 minutes. Aren’t they in for a nasty surprise!

I used one of my FPs and ended up waiting about 25 minutes. The outside looks a lot like WDW’s, but the inside looks completely different.


Outside picture taken at another time




Inside Space Mountain

Space Mountain rocks! I liked it better than WDW’s. It was smoother and seemed faster, and it was really dark. Fun!

I wanted to use my Buzz FPs to let the SM line die down a little, so that’s where I headed next. Buzz Lightyear Astro Blasters is a lot like the one at WDW (and I stink at it just as much), but you can actually take the gun off of the ride vehicle which helps you aim better. The standby line was 60 minutes long, but with my FP, I only waited 5 minutes. The first time I rode it, the ride stopped for a minute and I ended up with 77,500 points.

The second time, the standby was down to 30 minutes, but I used my other FP and was on in 5 minutes again. This time, I got my more typical score of 18,000 points. I told you I stink at Buzz!

After Buzz, I headed back over to Space Mountain, where the standby time was down to 90 minutes. This time with my FP I only waited 10 minutes. I loved the ride just as much the second time.

I was starting to wilt a little (it was like 2:45 a.m. my time and I’d been awake since 5:30 that morning), so I slowly made my way back to GCH. It took me about 20 minutes to walk from Space Mountain back to our room.

Back at GCH, we’d had turndown service and some yummy chocolates.



Whenever I am away from home, I find that the first night I have trouble sleeping. I fall asleep right away, but I keep waking up during the night and am usually up for good before the sun rises. Tonight, I figured I would take a Tylenol PM, which would also relieve my tired feet. I set a wakeup call for 7:00 a.m. and turned in for the night. It had been a completely magical first day.

Up Next: Old Favorites and New Favorites

[Colexis Mom]

Another great update! What yummy desserts at that FDP Glad you had a great time and your Mom enjoyed it!

Hurry back with more

[RobDVC]

That is one LONG day! you sure packed a lot into it, though!

[PrincessSharon]

Day Two – Friday, August 12

I was delighted to get a wakeup call from Mickey at 7:00. It had been a long time since I’d gotten the original “Up and atem” from Mickey. It seems like the Stitch/Mickey wakeup call at WDW has been there forever. It’s very cute, too, but the original is my favorite. I wish they’d alternate at WDW so you can hear both.

Anyway, we had plans to hit DCA today, which didn’t open until 10:00, so we took our time getting ready this morning. I got in the shower and when I got out, DM got up and showered. We left the room at about 8:30 and headed out in search of breakfast.

We wandered down to Whitewater Snacks where we both had cereal for breakfast. There was no one else in there the whole time we were eating. When we were finished, it was still early and DCA wasn’t open yet. We checked out the private entrance for GCH guests.



Since it was only about 9:10, we decided to head over to Disneyland for a bit. There was no line at the bag check, and we got through the turnstiles right away. We just wandered around for a while. I checked out the line for the Matterhorn, but it was 40 minutes, so I passed. We saw the wall covering up the construction for the new Nemo ride, which was very cute.



It is opening in 2007, so I decided that would be a great time for my next trip to Disneyland!

We went into Fantasyland and saw that It’s a Small World had no wait at all. There was only one other family on the boat with us.



I took a bunch of pictures, but they all came out blurry because I didn’t use the flash and I’m not very good at holding the camera still.

Once we came off of IASW, it was 9:40 so we decided it was time to make our way over to DCA. We got our hands stamped when we exited DL and walked across to DCA. It wasn’t open yet, but they were allowing people to enter the turnstiles and wait in the entry plaza, where I took a few pictures.
















I guess this is the park icon of DCA: Grizzly Peak.

Then we split up. DM took the tickets and went over to get us FPs for Soarin’ Over California and then she’d come back and get two FPs for Tower of Terror. In the meantime, I’d be riding Tower of Terror.

If you read any of my previous trip reports, you’ll know that Tower of Terror is my favorite ride. There have been trips where I’ve ridden it 15 times. My record for one night is 8 trips on TOT. As I mentioned, DM doesn’t do thrill rides, so I would be able to get two FPs at a time. DM actually offered to suck it up and ride one thrill ride per day (her choice), but I let her off the hook and used her FP instead!

The crowd of people waiting to get in was held at the entrance to Hollywood Pictures Backlot until 10:00 and then we made our way en masse to TOT. My first impression of the west coast TOT: small. It seems much less intimidating than the one at Disney-MGM Studios.



By the time I reached the entrance, there was a big crowd ahead of me and the wait time went from 13 minutes to 20 minutes, and it ended up being just about that long. While I was on line, DM waved to me that she’d gotten FPs for both Soarin’ Over California and TOT. She found a bench to sit outside and wait for me. The lobby is similar to the one at WDW.







The biggest difference between the two is the boiler room. At DCA, the boiler room is actually two levels and whether you load the elevator on the upper or lower level depends on which library you go in. The actual boiler looks different also.



The way the ride is built, there are fewer elevators in operation at once, so the load time is longer than MGM’s. The actual elevator rides are a bit different too. At DCA there is a really cool effect – the first time the elevators open, you see your reflection, which slowly turns into a ghost and then disappears. You don’t move around in the elevator shaft like you do at MGM.

The ride was fantastic, but I will definitely give the edge to WDW’s version. I didn’t buy the ride photo, but I snapped a picture of my first trip on DCA’s TOT.


I’m in the back row on the far right

I guess the little girl sitting beside me never made it back from the ghost stage! Actually, if you look carefully, she is there!

When I came out, DM told me there is no line and to ride it again. There was really no line. I walked right in to the library. The second ride was just as fun as the first. When I came out, there was a line, but a short one so DM told me to ride it again!

When I came out after my third ride, the standby was still only 20 minutes, but I felt like DM wasn’t having any fun, so we headed to Disney Animation.

When we got inside, there was a line to see the princesses, but they had gone on a break so we decided not to wait. Turtle Talk with Crush would be starting in 10 minutes, so we got on line for that. I’d seen Turtle Talk at WDW, but this would be a new experience for DM. The show was similar to the one I’d seen at Epcot. I thought I’d see the updated show with Dory, but this one just starred Crush. DM and I both loved it! Dude!

There wasn’t anything else open at the time in Disney Animation, so we headed out. Our next stop was to catch Muppet Vision 3-D. We had special reserved seating from our AAA package, but we didn’t need to use it. There wasn’t a line.









We missed the entire preshow, which I really love, but the film was great! My only complaint was there was a huge fingerprint on one lens of my 3-D glasses, which I think was the CM’s who hands you your glasses. I was able to wipe it off, though.

Once outside again, we could see the construction wall for the new Monsters Inc. ride coming next year. Something else for me to try in 2007!





After this, my TOT FPs were ready so we headed back over. I didn’t ride at that time, I just picked up two more FPs for later.

What we wanted to do next was Soarin’ Over California. As we walked over, we saw Schmoozies, the smoothies place. We both got one and both didn’t like what we got. I’ve gotten smoothies with lots of strawberry seeds in them before, but this one was just awful. I was spitting seeds in a napkin for about 10 minutes, then just decided to throw it out. DM had strawberries and blueberries and had twice as many seeds, but she suffered through the whole thing. We stopped for pictures at the foot of Grizzly Peak on the way over.



When we got to SOC, DM wanted to finish her seedy smoothie, so I figured I’d get in the single riders line. The standby line was up to 120 minutes. The CM manning the FP entrance told me that the single riders line was pretty backed up, so I used one of the FPs and got two more so we could ride together later.



I used a FP and ended up waiting only about 10 minutes. I’ve never been on this before, and let me tell you, it was all kinds of awesome! Totally different from anything I’d ever been on before. I couldn’t believe how realistic it was! The woman next to me screamed when the golf ball flew by, and then was embarrassed. I really loved it and was sure DM would love it too! SOC rocks!