I thought the changes made to the Pirates of the Caribbean ride at Disneyland a few years ago were pretty good overall. The pirate ship battle scene area is particularly improved, with the thicker fog, improved lighting, and new audio track completely transforming the scene.

Everybody probably already knows about this, but you can apply what you paid for the tickets you’re currently using towards an Annual Pass if you buy it while you’re still in the park. This summer, Disneyland ran a deal where you could buy a three-day park-hopper pass for $99 that had no blackout dates but had to be used within a set time frame. On our third day we applied the full $99 to SoCal Select passes for only $50/pass additional cost. Not a bad deal, considering pretty much the whole summer is blacked out if you buy the SoCal Select passes up-front.

The Bug’s Life themed kids area at Disney’s California Adventure is about twenty-eight-thousand times better than the Toon-Town area at Disneyland. The giant plants that tower over you are eerily spectacular at night when they’re lit from below and cast a greenish glow over the area. Heimlich’s chew-chew train is easily the best ride I’ve been on at California Adventure.

Angie caused every young, childless couple within 100 meters to immediately decide to have children. She’s at her best when well-rested and surrounded by amusing things to look at. There are lots of amusing things to look at when you’re at Disneyland.

Disneyland is getting a whole load of people taking them up on their free birthday admission deal. There are birthday buttons all over the place there. If you go on your birthday using an annual pass, you can get a gift card worth $72 instead. Nice. Spend $149 for a year of amusement and if your birthday happens to be on a non-blackout day you get $72 of free merchandise in the deal.

Ana surprised me with her fearlessness, begging to go on Splash Mountain for the first time and being completely unfazed by the drop at the end. It’s now tied with Jungle Cruise for her favorite ride. Shortly after surprising me with her fearlessness she reverted to five-year-old form and stared wide-eyed during the entirety of Small World. I love this age.

The Grand Californian is a really pretty hotel. The design is amazing, I could sit in the lobby for hours. The beds are so comfortable it’s ridiculous. But sitting on the balcony, surrounded by the upper-reaches of pine trees having a late-night conversation and glass of wine with Julie while the kids slept inside was worth it all by itself. Just the thought of fighting our way out to the parking structure and driving home after a late night at the park has been enough to keep me from staying too late with the kids in the past. It was really nice to get to see Fantasmic and the fireworks show this time.

When we took the kids to Disneyland a couple times over the last few years, they were definitely less than thrilled. I think this was due to a number of factors, including overly-warm, overly-crowded days and too many itinerary concessions made to people who weren’t the same age as them. This time, I was delighted to see that they have completely changed their mind. I’ve missed being a Disney fan boy who goes multiple times per year. Looking forward to spending lots of Furlough Fridays (aka “F-days”) at the park this year.

Categories: entertainment, kids and parenting, los angeles, travel
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During our week-long winter holiday we originally had several day trips planned, but the kids got sick, so we took it easy. Aside from shopping and seeing family, we didn’t do anything until New Year’s Eve, when both kids felt healthy. That’s when we all hopped on the train and rode it downtown.

The greater Los Angeles area has some nice public transit systems, but neither Kevin nor I have ever ridden a bus, and I’m the only one who’s ever used the Metrolink train system (once). The reason is entrenched in LA’s history. This place didn’t had the geographic limitations that caused many cities to grow upward, so it grew outward. For instance, the city of Angels is 1.5 times the size of New York City but has less than half the number of inhabitants.

To get on the train here in east Los Angeles County, we couldn’t even use the station closest to us because it only runs during commuter hours, i.e. early morning and late afternoon. A few years ago it stopped running midday because it had so few riders during those hours. We caught the 11:30 out of a station that was not only farther away but on a different route. And it wasn’t cheap. Total cost of round trip tickets for two adults and two kids was around $30. But our train was impressively full for midday, and the ride was very pleasant. It took us 45 minutes to arrive at Union Station.

From Union Station we walked to Olvera Street. Next to the gazebo at the entrance we saw a Mexican TV station setting up to film the NYE celebration. We also watched three performers in Native American garb doing traditional dances. We strolled down its entire cobblestoned length, then headed over to Chinatown.

In Chinatown we enjoyed a lunch of fried rice and dumplings, then had fun window shopping on Broadway. I was pleased that neither of the kids whined for any of the toys that caught their eye, so the only things we were taking back from this trip were memories and full tummies. We headed back to Union Station via Olvera Street, where we listened to church bells ringing out holiday tunes and ate snow cones for dessert.

Alex’s favorite part of the trip? Playing navigator using one of the two new compasses he got for Christmas!

Ana’s favorite part of the trip? Snow cones!

Tomorrow I’ll post about good intentions – I mean new year’s resolutions!

Categories: kids and parenting, los angeles
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