Published
Travel Log 12: Disneyland Or Bust
We traveled across the country to escape winter
We traveled 2,500+ miles from Pennsylvania and finally got to perfect weather in California!
Table of contents
- Gamer Airbnb
- Disney California Adventure Park
- Boating Around
- Disneyland Park
- Tide Pools with Friends
- On the Road Again
Gamer Airbnb
Our stay for a week in California was at a Gamer-themed Airbnb. It was really cool as each room was themed after different games: Pokémon, Minecraft, Pacman, Mario, and more. It had a ton of arcade machines and a theater room where we watched Sonic 3.
When the weather was nice (which was all week), the house had a great outdoor space with plenty of activities for the kids. The kids had a blast staying there. Plus, it was only minutes from Disneyland.
Disney California Adventure Park
The main point of our stay near Los Angeles was to visit Disneyland. We’ve been to Disney World in Florida, but wanted to check out the differences between them.
Disneyland is smaller than Disney World and the two parks are only a few steps away from each other. We started our adventure at the Disney California Adventure Park. We wanted to “rope drop” the Radiator Springs Racer ride first thing in the morning, but apparently everyone else had the same idea. So instead we went to some of the other rides while the wait times were lower in the morning. We did eventually pay extra for a single lightning lane for the Racer ride. It was worthwhile as the line tends to be long and it was a worthwhile ride in general.
We did have the lightning lane multipass, but depending on how busy the parks are, it may not be necessary. In contrast to Disney World, only a handful of rides actually have a lightning lane in Disneyland. During the morning when we went the lines were pretty short, but lengthened significantly in the afternoon and evening.
Anticipating crowds we bought some Suds2Go handwashing bottles. It is our understanding that hand sanitizer doesn’t kill all germs like norovirus, but washing with soap does. The bottles actually work better than I thought they would and we were able to wash our hands without having to locate a bathroom.
The food we had at the park wasn’t all that notable other than the slushes we got from “Bing Bong’s Sweet Stuff”. Their Rainbow Unicorn Frozen Refresher was a hit with our family!
As for the rides they do have several unique rides compared to Disney World. Of those, Gideon (7), Eli (11), and I really enjoyed the Incredicoaster, while Emalyn (9) and Arabelle (5) enjoyed the Goofy’s Sky School coaster. Adeline (2) thoroughly enjoyed Jessie’s Critter Carousel.
We wrapped up everything we wanted to do early afternoon so we decided to upgrade our tickets to park hopper. With some slight difficulty getting into the other park, we were able to enjoy a few more hours at Disneyland. It was pretty busy in the evening so we didn’t accomplish much. Thankfully we were planning to come back later in the week.
Boating Around
Between our days going to Disneyland, we decided to rent a boat and take it around Alamitos Bay near Long Beach. Some of the kids verbally expressed concern that I’ve never driven a boat before, however, it was a great experience and the kids even got a chance to drive for a few moments.
Gideon got real serious about his new position as captain for a minute 😂.
We had prepared for nice sunny weather since that is what the weather was outside our Airbnb. But that wasn’t the case when we got down to the bay. It was foggy and a bit windy. But that didn’t stop us from having fun (as long as we didn’t drive into the wind!) We even got a chance to see some jellyfish floating around in “Jellyfish Cove”.
Disneyland Park
After our break day, we headed back to Disneyland for the main Disneyland Park.
Since we were able to ride a few rides due to our park hopper ticket on the previous day we had a smaller list of rides we wanted to make sure we hit on our second day. This worked out nicely because the wait times became really long as the day went on. And we had a hard time finding a spot for our stroller before getting into lines.
Of the rides we were able to hit, Gideon and Adeline really enjoyed the Alice in Wonderland ride. Katie and Arabelle loved the Pirates of the Caribbean ride which is a slightly better version of the one in Disney World. Emalyn and Eli liked the Big Thunder Mountain roller coaster. None of us really enjoyed the Matterhorn Bobsleds, especially Arabelle who got scared by the yetis jumping out at the rollercoaster cart.
As with the other park, we didn’t get any noteworthy food other than their “Raspberry-Rose Mickey-shaped Macaroon” which Katie really enjoyed.
Tide Pools with Friends
On our last day in CA Eli turned 12! It is pretty crazy how old the kids are getting. We celebrated with pizza and cheesecake.
Later that day we had an opportunity to meet up with the co-founder of my company and his family down at the beach in Newport Beach. Working remotely I don’t often get the opportunity to see the people I work with in person. We had a lot of fun hunting for animals and shells in tide pools at the beach.
Before we left the beach we got to witness a beautiful sunset over the ocean. Coming from the other side of the country we’ve only been witness to sunrises over the ocean. After we left we all had dinner at a local diner. It was quite rowdy with 10 kids between the two families, so thankfully they sat us in a more secluded section of the restaurant!
On the Road Again
After a lovely week in California, we set off for Arizona. Our plan got a little messed up after our original Airbnb in San Diego canceled on us (apparently they were selling the house). But we’ll be back in CA after a few weeks stay in AZ.
