We Are Adult(ish) Now!

Alex Coleman

Mouseketeer
Joined
Nov 4, 2017
We Are Adult(ish) Now!


This trip report will be slightly different than normal. Instead of focusing exclusively on our Disney Parks travels, we will be talking a bit more about our personal life! That is because WE ADOPTED THE INTENTIONAL DOG! Little Mowgli is a beautiful, energetic, and sometimes frustrating black Cocker Spaniel who we brought into our lives on February 4, 2018.

I won’t get fully into the details here, but having a puppy has significantly changed the way that we tour Disneyland. For us, we are more than willing to make the sacrifice for our Mo Mo.

This doesn’t mean that we abandoned our park tour entirely. We still had a lot of fun spending time in the parks! We did days in exclusively California Adventure and Disneyland and days at both parks. I also did another solo adventure, which was really fun (but would have been better with Sarah :))!

February was a very short month, but we packed plenty of Disney expeditioning into it so I am excited for you to read this report. This also may be a good report to read for anyone who does not have time to read a report like our November 2017 Trip Report, which reads like an epic novel and contains roughly 1,000,000 words. If you do have time and are interested in Walt Disney World touring, read it! It is probably our best work.

In this report I will cover our 4 visits to the DLR during the month of February. I will give you a step-by-step look at each one of our visits. I will also give a quick review of the restaurants at which we dined. Don’t worry, there will be plenty of pictures to go along with this report; I can’t help myself!

We had a great time and I am excited to share all of our adventures with you! This trip report will have several parts, so stay tuned. Click the links below for each part of the report.

 
Solo Rope Dropping


This is the first installment of our February 2018 Disneyland Trip Report. In Part 1, I will walk you through yet another solo adventure at the Disneyland Resort, this time with rope dropping! We were back and so happy! Part 2 will feel slightly different because it is more personal, rather than park business. We got a puppy and I want to gush about how amazing he is! In Part 3, we rope dropped at Disneyland and found some really creepy Angels in New Orleans Square. In Part 4, we will cover two days of shorter touring and lots of nighttime spectacular fun. Read on and enjoy!

February 3rd


The night before my solo, rope-dropping, California Adventure adventure, I dropped Sarah off at Ontario International Airport. She was headed out to see her mom as she was recovering from double hip replacement surgery in the San Jose Bay Area. She was going to spend the weekend resting with her mom, I was going to spend it at Disneyland.

I got up early on February 3rd and headed down the 605 freeway towards Anaheim. This journey takes us about 45 minutes from our place in Azusa. I got to the Mickey and Friends Parking Structure about 30 minutes before rope drop. I had a bit of time, so I decided to take pictures from the top of the structure. The infamous Southern California smog created a really cool look.



Once I was done walking through downtown Disney, I arrived at Disney’s California Adventure. I was about 15 minutes early to rope drop, so I wandered. I took pictures of the park with my long lens in the smog. It made for a really interesting effect.



Being that I was by myself, I decided that my plan of attack would be to use the Standby queue for Soarin’ Around the World immediately. The next stop Guardians of the Galaxy - Mission: Breakout! to get a Fastpass. After I grabbed a Fastpass, I would head to Cars Land to ride Radiator Springs Racers using the Single Rider queue.

This seemed like a logical enough strategy, given that I was by myself. If I was not, I would rope drop Radiator Springs, then go to Mission: Breakout for a Fastpass, then ride Soarin’. While I pondered this, I took a picture of Grizzly Bear Peak.

First up was Soarin’. While I was wandering around pondering the complexities of park touring, I lost a few places to other guests who were waiting. I was not concerned with this, I figured I would still be in the first group. It turns out that I was wrong. I just missed being in the first group.

No big deal! Our glider flew around the globe and I was very happy. The advantage to being the first person in the second loading group was that I ended up in Row 1. Hot tip: the best place to be on Soarin’ is Row 1 in the second loading zone. This section ensure that you do you have people’s feet dangling in your view and you are in the center of the screen.

The next stop on the tour was Mission: Breakout! for a Fastpass. Even including Twilight Zone Tower of Terror (RIP), I only remember using the Standby queue for this attraction once. It was the very first day that Sarah and I ever had Annual Passports together in October of 2010. We waited for an hour and swore to never wait that long again. That time-honored approach cotinued during this solo day. I grabbed my Fastpass and walked to Radiator Springs where I had a very strange interaction with another guest.



I had completed the relatively short Single Rider wait and we were both standing waiting to board our cars. He turned to me and asked if I was ok with switching rows because he got carsick. I immediately agreed, but thought about it more and it was perplexing. Why would this person decide to experience this attraction if he gets carsick? What would the difference be in the front row versus the back row? Whatever the case, we completed the race without him getting sick. Win-win?

After I was done I wanted to take some more pictures of Grizzly Bear peak with my long lens so I wandered through Radiator Springs and took some head-on.



I wandered over to Paradise Pier and walked directly onto Goofy’s Sky School. Sarah and I both unexpectedly love this ride. When we were young and the world was new, we used to go all-out playing Jello. If you aren’t familiar with the game, what did you do during bus rides in elementary school?! For anyone who isn’t, it is a game where you let your body go limp and crash into the person next to you.

Currently, Sarah and I play a slightly watered down version of this game. After several times smashing heads on Goofy’s Sky School, we have decided it the watered down version is better for our long-term health. Now we simply push each other into the side of the ride car. Hot tip: if you want to win this game, you cannot be a gentleman. Make sure you are the first person to load the vehicle. You will be grateful!

After I was done, I decided to wander over to Disneyland. It was more crowded than I expected, so I decided to just take a couple shallow depth of field photos.



After I was done, I headed home. At the time, I fully intended to return to rope drop Disneyland the next morning. Stay tuned for more!
 
The Intentional Dog


This is the second installment of our February 2018 Disneyland Trip Report. In Part 1, I walked you through yet another solo adventure at the Disneyland Resort, this time with rope dropping! We were back and so happy! Part 2 will feel slightly different because it is more personal, rather than park business. We got a puppy and I want to gush about how amazing he is! In Part 3, we rope dropped at Disneyland and found some really creepy Angels in New Orleans Square. In Part 4, we will cover two days of shorter touring and lots of nighttime spectacular fun. Read on and enjoy!

February 4th


On February 4, 2018, I was fully expecting another normal day with Sarah out of town. I slept in slightly (we have fully transitioned to morning people so sleeping in is like 8am) and prepared for a late night at Disneyland. The previous day I tackled Disney’s California Adventure for rope drop, so I wanted to make sure I did some night shooting at The Happiest Place on Earth. I got out of bed and started doing some photo editing. This is, quite possibly, the most cathartic ritual I practice. I find a great deal of joy in tinkering with the photos and trying to squeeze every last ounce of quality out of each shot.

I was going to edit and write for the morning, go play pick-up soccer, nap, and then plan on staying at the parks late into the night. Sounds like a great Sunday, right?! That plan changed when my phone rang at 11am. Normally, I would not have answered a call from a number I did not recognize. However, I had a feeling I should pick up the phone. I was glad I did!

It has been a lifelong dream for Sarah and I to own a dog. Being that I worked in college living areas before we moved back to Southern California, we were not able to own one. When we moved back home, Sarah had a friend who told us about some cocker spaniel puppies that were recently born in a shelter. We went and visited and I knew that once Sarah saw the puppies that she was dead-set on getting one. Sarah and I were destined for it!

We talked with the shelter and they explained that there would probably be a great deal of competition for the puppies. We agreed that we would submit the application and see what happened. I had incredibly low expectations, but I was hopeful. When I picked up the phone I nearly jumped through the ceiling with excitement. We were getting a male cocker spaniel puppy!



When I arrived at the shelter I asked the owner about the process and how it came to be that we were selected for this puppy. Apparently, there was a lot of competition for each one of these puppies. We were originally selected much earlier in the process, but when the shelter called our landlord they never got a response. They moved on from us, but several families decided to withdraw their application for different reasons. We ended up getting the very last puppy in the litter. It was destiny! My heart melted and I fell in love with this little fur ball as soon as they brought him through the door and he jumped into my arms.



I picked up little Mowgli and we exited the shelter. He was so tiny and full of energy I could not stand it. I immediately called Sarah on FaceTime and she almost broke the speaker on my phone with her high-pitched scream of excitement on the other end of the call. He spent the entire drive nestled deep into my lap and sleeping. SO CUTE!

While driving home, I realized that we hadn’t been quite prepared at that moment so we didn’t actually have anything needed to raise a puppy. Sarah talked with her mom and we compiled a list of things that I needed to buy from Petco. I stopped and brought him into the store. Of course, he was the most popular dog there. How could he not be?! We got him a harness, food, ID tag, and lots of toys. We also have dedicated to crate training him, but Petco’s crates were astronomically expensive. I stopped at Walmart where the prices were much more reasonable. He spent the entire afternoon exploring and sleeping. We have an Intentional Dog!

Life After February 4th


Something that my parents warned me about but Sarah and I never really seriously considered is how much responsibility comes with raising a puppy. Classic Sarah and I holding onto our youthful optimism! Raising a puppy has definitely resulted in a lifestyle change. Fortunately, this is a change we would always welcome!

Other than our new strange obsession with monitoring another living thing’s bathroom usage, the way we spend our time is the biggest lifestyle change. Sarah has fully become a dog mother. She is fully bought-in. She is obsessed with our little Mo-Mo. When it comes to Disneyland Resort visits, they have definitely become shorter and less frequent. For more info and tips on visiting the Disney parks and resorts, check out our upcoming post!
 
Have These Creepy Angels Always Been Here?


This is the third installment of our February 2018 Disneyland Trip Report. In Part 1, I walked you through yet another solo adventure at the Disneyland Resort, this time with rope dropping! We were back and so happy! Part 2 felt slightly different because it is more personal, rather than park business. We got a puppy and I want to gush about how amazing he is! In Part 3, we rope dropped at Disneyland and found some really creepy Angels in New Orleans Square. In Part 4, we will cover two days of shorter touring and lots of nighttime spectacular fun. Read on and enjoy!

February 11th


Sarah and I decided that over Valentine’s Day weekend we would go to bed early and wake up before dawn to rope drop Disneyland. No fancy dinner and drinks, just a couple of twenty-somethings going to bed at 8:30pm to get up to go to Disneyland. See how cool we are?! We got to the parks just as the crowd was forming for rope drop. We walked towards Tomorrowland and prepared to grab a Fastpass for Space Mountain.



When the rope dropped, we rushed back to the Space Mountain queue with the rest of humanity. We arrived just in time to be behind about 50 people who broke the rules and ran, rather than walking. This is usually policed by Cast Members, but this Saturday morning it was like the wild west. People were everywhere. Oh well, t’is life! We got there and realized it would be more expedient to just jump into the standby queue.

After we were done flying through space, we jumped aboard a bobsled and raced down the icy slopes of Matterhorn Mountain. There was, basically, no wait for this attraction. When we would visit several years ago, we could not remember a time when Matterhorn was as crowded as it is now. There was also not a Fastpass available for the attraction. It seems like there is constantly a long wait. Maybe it’s the fancy new(ish) yeti!



After we were done with our ride, we wandered down a rabbit hole and into Wonderland. Sarah and I really like this attraction. It is fun and interesting for the whole family. It is not overly surprising that there is regularly a long wait. I also think it benefits from being at major park intersection. I think Winnie the Pooh at Magic Kingdom at Walt Disney World has a similar draw for this reason.



We crossed Fantasyland and moved our way towards Adventureland. When we arrived at Indiana Jones Adventure, the Fastpass return time was in 10 minutes. The wait was about the same time so I decided we would grab a Fastpass and wander for a bit.

While we were wandering, Sarah and I both hit the rope dropping wall. This happens occasionally when we wake up early and get to the parks. We can ride the high of accomplishing attraction after attraction, but once we slow down we really slow down. This is when the creepy angels showed up. I had never seen these before and they are truly the sculptures of nightmares.



After recovering from the shock of seeing these creepy stone angel babies, we rode through the Temple of the Forbidden Eye. By the time we were done with our adventure, it was time to go home. We were very ready for a nap.
 


Lunar New Year and Nighttime Spectacular Extravaganza


This is the fourth installment of our February 2018 Disneyland Trip Report. In Part 1, I walked you through yet another solo adventure at the Disneyland Resort, this time with rope dropping! We were back and so happy! Part 2 felt slightly different because it is more personal, rather than park business. We got a puppy and I want to gush about how amazing he is! In Part 3, we rope dropped at Disneyland and found some really creepy Angels in New Orleans Square. In Part 4, we will cover two days of shorter touring and lots of nighttime spectacular fun. Read on and enjoy!

February 18th


On this Sunday, Sarah made a park touring with a new puppy breakthrough. She was looking to see if there were any places that would watch our puppy while we were gone for slightly longer and she discovered that Petsmart has Doggy Day Camp! This was a great opportunity for Mo to go and have social time while we went and enjoyed the parks. We dropped our puppy off at day camp and we drove down the 57 South towards Anaheim.



When we arrived, it was about lunch time. Sarah and I rarely ate at Disneyland while we were Annual Passholders before. We were poor college students! Now that we are not poor college students, we decided we could splurge a little bit from time to time. This particular day we decided to splurge on Chinese food from Lucky Fortune Cookery.



Overall, I think it is really good theme park Chinese food. We both ordered the Asian Rice Bowl with chicken. I got my rice bowl with Thai Coconut Curry and Sarah ordered hers with Mandarin Orange. Overall, the meal was really good! I thought the Mandarin sauce was really subtle, but delicious. Sarah did not like it as much, but she much prefers Panda Express’s less subtle approach to orange chicken. I thought the Thai curry was really good. When we go back, I think the curry will be my go-to.



The lunch experience would have been perfect, but the people in front of me were very frustrating. I am not usually impatient, but this family really tested my patience. How counter service works at Lucky Cookery is that you order on the left side and you pick up your food on the right. The family in front of me completed their order on the right, but decided they wanted more food at the left window.



This clearly threw the Cast Member behind the counter off. They were not sure what to do so they stopped the entire service to get this family more food. This greatly annoyed the entire line behind them. I felt vindicated that there was another man next to me who was even more upset as he watched his food that was ready get passed to the family at the window.

After I finally got back to the table, I told Sarah about my harrowing journey so she could share in my moment of tribulation. We ate quickly and then watched as a couple broke out in dance while the Mariachi played in the center of Pacific Wharf. We watched as the couple danced in time to the music. Sarah and I were both clearly jealous of their skill. We walked away wishing we had any form of rhythm.

When we arrived in front of Little Mermaid, we realized it was one of the last days of the Lunar New Year Celebration at California Adventure. We hadn’t seen any of the performances yet, so we decided to sit and watch the drum show. The show was incredibly entertaining. We were both mesmerized by the artists. Even though it was really warm that day and we were sweating profusely, we were very content.



Being that it was so warm, we decided ice cream was essential. We both headed into Clarabelle’s Hand Scooped Ice Cream in search of Hand-dipped Ice Cream Bars. Strangely, the CM behind the counter let us know that they were out of ice cream bars. I was confused how they could be out of bars by noon on a Sunday. I ordered a scoop of Mint Chip in a cone and we wandered towards the exit.


Even though we did not have our bar, the cold deliciousness was sufficient. We walked through Downtown Disney and towards our car.

February 25th


This Sunday evening we were going to go try a new way of park touring with a puppy. We wanted to be gone for no more than 4 hours. We feel comfortable with him being in his crate for around 4 hours, any longer and we feel really bad for him. This is particularly difficult when our commute takes almost an hour (with resort transportation included). This meant that we went to the Disneyland Resort with one thing in mind: nighttime spectaculars.

Sarah and I decided our plan off attack was to get a good viewing spot for Fantasmic! and then sprint to California Adventure for World of Color. We arrived at the Rivers of America at 8:30pm for the 9 o’clock show. We grabbed a good spot directly in the middle of the viewing area and we stood patiently until the show started. I took a couple of pictures while Mickey explored the arena of his imagination.



After we were done, it was time to run. This is a difficult proposition because of the crowds and the long distance between the two shows. We rarely attempt to make this run because it is rarely successful. We normally arrive 10 minutes into the show. However, we were much more successful this time. We arrived 5 minutes before the show started. We sang along and then left the park quickly to get back to our puppy.
 

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