Canucks Roadtrip 2018

It's always nice when your wife surprises you with a great Birthday gift, this year she went overboard and got me tickets to go see my favourite team, the Vancouver Canucks. The hitch was, they would be in Anaheim and Los Angeles, and we were staying at a Disney Resort hotel, which we have never done before. All I had left to do, was wait for November to arrive.

Finally the day arrived, and we left YVR for John Wayne Airport just outside Anaheim.

We grabbed a cab to the hotel, as the Disney Shuttle was the same cost and would have taken way longer with it's scheduled stops at every hotel in the entire Southern California region. We arrived at Disney's Paradise Pier, but it was too early to check-in, so we left our bags and walked over to Downtown Disney, as explained to us " just follow the red brick road".

Downtown Disney

Downtown Disney was all done up for Christmas, even if it was November. It has changed a little since the last time we were there, as a lot of the shops and restaurants were closed down. Apparently it was to build a new adjacent hotel, but there were some 'Coming Soon' signs, and they brought in an assortment of Food Trucks.

No trip to Disney is complete without a stop in the bakery. With a few bags of souvenirs and goodies, we headed back to our hotel.

There is three resort hotels at Disneyland, the original Disneyland Hotel, the beach themed Paradise Pier, and the exorbitant Grand Californian Hotel. Norine chose the middle one, and once we got to our room the view was amazing, looking across at Pixar Pier (formerly Paradise Pier), with Cars Land and The Guardians of the Galaxy ride in the background.

The room was nice, clean, and with a few Disney touches, like artwork and lamps, and a giant pixar ball pillow. There was specific instructions that we could not keep the pixar ball pillow. Turns out though, they gave us the wrong room, and we would have to change the next morning. A little inconvenient, but we got to enjoy this view for the first night.

We made reservations for dinner at the Storyteller Cafe across the road at the Grand Californian hotel. The Lobby was really impressive with all of it's Christmas decor, a giant tree, a giant gingerbread house, and carolers singing.

Although pricey, the dinner buffet and drinks were very very good, a mix of something to appeal to most people, and attentive staff. We probably could have skipped the dessert, but we didn't, and left there feeling very full.

The finale of our first evening was the fireworks. From the pool deck on the 3rd floor of our hotel you can watch the fireworks and they pipe in the music so you get the almost full experience. (I'll tell you more about the full experience later)

California Adventure

One of the great advantages of staying in a Disney Hotel, is the extra access you get to the park. 1 hour before the general public can get in, at 7am we are walking through the gates. A great opportunity to rush to the most popular rides and avoid the huge lineups that are coming later in the day, especially being American Thanksgiving.

A new element of Disneyland for us, is their Disney App and the Maxpass feature, if you are going, you need to know about this. On your Smart Phone, you download the app... it contains your Park entrance tickets which you can just scan on entry, and has an interactive map, so you can easily navigate the park, see how long ride lines are, and find food or bathrooms.

There is some features that were especially useful to us; first was the MaxPass add-on, it costs $10 per person, but gives you a tool, where you can book a Fastpass as soon as you enter the park, and avoid the regular waitlist lines by going to the ride at the assigned times. Once you have checked-in at the Fastpass kiosk for that ride you can book another one, or after a set period of time. This allowed us to plan for the busiest rides, go on less busy rides while waiting for our time, and then plan the next long line avoidance right away. At one point we had 3 fastpasses cued on my phone. Included with the Maxpass purchase was free downloads of all the photos that are taken of you on the rides.

The second cool feature was the 'Order Food' feature, since it was Thanksgiving the park was very busy, and we could rarely get a reservation at the popular restaurants, so this worked out really well. You had a long list of food vendors in the park, you could peruse their menu, and make your order for a specific time window (say 12:15 - 12:45). When you arrive during that time period, you punch a button that says "I'm here, prepare my food", and just walk up to a special Mobile Service window to get it. Let's just say we walked past a lot of frustrated families in line for the Dole Whip, and went right to the counter for our tasty tasty pineapple bowls.

Our first day was a partial day, and our Magic Hour was for California Adventure, so we put on our walking shoes and headed straight for Cars Land. Next to Main Street Disneyland, this is one of the most decorated areas of the park.

First stop is the hugely popular Radiator Springs Racers, a short lineup during Magic Hour, and we Fastpassed the Midway Mania, which always has huge lines. RSR is a great ride as you travel through the scenic Radiator Springs and race another car full of tourists.

The last picture is me, while we sit near the end of the ride, and it has broken down. we waited 15 minutes here, but at least had Tow-Mater and Lightning McQueen to keep us company. This would be the start of a bunch of ride issues at the park.

We looked at Mater's Jingle Jamboree (a Tilt-a-Whirl style ride), but visions of sugarplums being vomited danced through my head.

From Cars Land we walked over to Pixar pier, which has been renamed and slightly decorated from the old Paradise Pier. From this area, you can clearly see our hotel behind the Ferris Wheel.

It's always fun to take in some of the themed rides with no lineups, like Ariel's Undersea Adventure based on The Little Mermaid.

When we arrived at the scheduled Fastpass time for Midway Mania it was shut down due to troubles, but re-started just as we entered the line. So we had to wait longer than we should have, at least we could book our Fastpass for the Incredicoaster while waiting.

It's a silly but fun ride where 2 people take control of pull string pop guns and shoot targets as you go through a Toy Story themed Midway. For whatever reason, Norine always beats me on this ride!

With a little time before our Incredicoaster Fastpass time, we headed over to Goofy's Sky School. It's very similar to the Mad Mouse type ride at the PNE, small car, lots of abrupt twist and turns.

This was my reaction when I found out that the Incredicoaster (formerly known as California Screamin') was broken and shut down. When you have a Fastpass for a ride, and it breaks down, it becomes a Multi-Pass, and you can use it on any ride. So we walked through the Hollywood area to the re-wrapped Twilight Zone Tower of Terror ride.

I wasn't sure what to expect with the new Guardians of the Galaxy Breakout ride, as we really enjoyed the Tower of Terror. There is a certain Nostalgia that goes along with these rides, but I have to say, we enjoyed the GotG ride more... there is more setup and movie elements to it, the ride has more action involved, and the scenes between stomach dropping and weightless drops were entertaining.

According to the App, the Incredicoaster was going again, so we booked a Fastpass, then looked for short line rides. Hidden off the main Hollywood Blvd is the Monsters Inc based, Mike and Sully's Adventure. Another silly ride, but it's a fun scene to scene ride through the movie.

As we are walking back towards Pixar Pier, we get stopped by a Streetcar, and all of a sudden we are front row for a Newsies Streetcar show of a bunch of different songs... and I don't know where he was hiding, but all of a sudden Mickey was there!!!

As soon as the show was done, the app changed our Fastpass into a Multi-Pass... Incredicoaster was broken again. I guess we'll start re-riding our favourites, back to the Guardians Breakout.

You have to keep your eyes open here, you never know who you might see.

We had booked a Fastpass for the Midway Mania so I could try and beat Norine's score for a change, but while we are waiting in the lineup, the ride is closed down, aaaarrrgggh. We have never seen this many problems in all of our previous visits to Disneyland combined, and it's only our first day.

I guess we'll go check out the Pixar Pal-a-round (Ferris Wheel), there is two types of cars, the stationary ones that just go around, or the swinging ones that loop around as the cars make their way up and over the top... we chose the swinging ones. Great views over the park, and we rode with a super nice family from Oklahoma. When asked what we should see if we go there, their daughter said "Don't go there, there is nothing to see"... alright cross that off our list.

With the closure of the Incredicoaster (not sure it was ever really open) it was back to Cars Land to use our Multi-Pass. It was a little busier there than it was during Magic Hour, but we had a Multi-Pass to go on the Radiator Springs Racer ride again.

Tucked away inside the tire shop is one of our new favourite rides, Rollickin' Roadsters. I'm not even sure if this ride was there before, but it was hilarious. A group of little Fiat like cars do a synchronized parade/dance to a mix of Italian Cars Christmas songs. It looks like a kids ride, but you damn well better have your seat belt on.

We had a Hockey game to get to, so we left Cars Land and headed back through Downtown Disney to see what our new room would be like. We were on the 12th floor, and the views from the elevator were amazing, but we were facing the other way, so we just enjoyed the quieter room with the King Size bed.

We grabbed an Uber to the Honda Center for the Anaheim Ducks vs Vancouver Canucks game. Learned all about our drivers hate for Trump, and how his hatred has affected her as a 12 year immigrant. It's a very nice arena, a lot of empty seats, it was a fun game, but we ended up coming short in a 4-3 loss.

Disneyland

Our first full day at Disneyland, and it would be a long one. Magic Morning access was for the Tomorrowland side of Disneyland today, so at 7:00am we were making our way towards Star Tours while getting our MaxPass for the Matterhorn.

Main Street USA is fully decked out for Christmas, once it got dark it was even more noticeable.

Star Tours is a Star Wars themed ride that has a combination of a waiting area where you see C3PO and R2D2 interact in a space port, and then board an enclosed transport ship where you are taken on a wild ride adventure through the Star Wars universe. The lines were really short first thing in the morning, so we may have done it twice in a row (that's 2 separate pictures). The great thing is that each trip had variations so it wasn't the same.

We still had some time to spare for our FastPass, and having lost my Midway battle with Norine, we went to the similarly designed Buzz Lightyears Astro Blasters ride. This time firing laser guns at Evil Emporer Zurg led enemies.

The ride photo looked like it was taken through a piece of wax paper, so we didn't bother, but I did win the battle (Norine 1- Dave 1).

When we got to the Matterhorn for our Fast Pass, and surprise! the ride was broken. This ride has been redone and was closed the last 2 times we had visited Disneyland in previous years, so that was disappointing. So we used our new Multi-Pass to jump on the pitch black rollercoaster Space Mountain.

Our next FastPass was set, so we needed to kill some time... nothing better than a Finding Nemo themed submarine ride to do that.

Then magically as we were walking past, the Matterhorn re-opened, so we jumped on before the lines got too big. The main change that was made was replacing the old sled-style sit between the legs of the person behind you ride, it now had sleds with separate seats. The Yetis hiding in the mountain were a little more realistic and in surprise locations for the scare.

Oddly, the one ride we had seen break down in previous trips, was working just fine, the Thunder Mountain Railroad.

New Orleans Square seemed to have a more Mardi Gras feel than Christmas, but it was very festive.

Of course, no trip to Disneyland is complete without going on the Pirates of the Caribbean ride. No real changes here, a few years ago they added more Johnny Depp Jack Sparrow animatronics through the scenes, and they removed the Davy Jones Octo-face introduction.

The one ride that is done up for Christmas (kind of) is the Haunted Mansion, with it's seasonal 'The Nightmare Before Christmas' theme. I know some people don't appreciate it as much as we do, but having been many times, it is a fun change to a classic ride.

In the distance, where the Ranch area and Country Bear Jamboree used to be, you can see the peaks and structures of the new Star Wars land which is opening next year.

At the far end of the Rivers of America is the get-wet ride Splash Mountain, we just didn't feel like getting wet.

What we did feel like was some old classic Disney, and the Tiki Tiki Room never fails to hit that Nostalgic note. As the birds and the flowers come to life in classic Disney animatronics style we are serenaded with an assortment of island style music and song.

The corniest ride in the park is the Jungle Cruise, mostly made entertaining by the comedic stylings of your ship captain.

Disney Parades are always fun, and the Christmas Parade floats were spectacular. What's not fun is people camping out on sidewalks hours in advance, and trying to find a spot to watch the parade. These pictures of almost all the Disney characters are courtesy of me having long arms to lift my camera over the heads of all the people in front of us.

When it started getting dark, the park become a whole other world. Sleeping Beauties Castle was stunning!

Front Back

Now, one of my true Pet Peeves at Disneyland is the 'It's a Small World' ride, it's enough to make a sane man go crazy riding through that repetitive cacophony of puppets. BUT, I have to say it was one of the most visually stunning displays I think I have ever seen. Norine describes it as Billions of lights. When those lights turn on, a simple drab blue and white facade becomes magical!

Inside the ride, it has been changed to Christmas and Holiday celebrations from around the world so it's not the same monotonous song.

We walked away from there with our jaws dropped and headed over to the Haunted Mansion again for another ride and a less than memorable dinner at the Riverbell Terrace. Being Thanksgiving, most of the sit down restaurants are all booked up, but we got a table at the restaurant sitting on the edge of the Rivers of America. Thinking I had scored, there was a table placard detailing their Thanksgiving dinner special of Turkey and mashed potatoes with an over-easy egg. I asked if they could turn the egg over so the yolk is cooked, and was informed there was 'no substitutions', erm, cooking the egg isn't a substitute, but ok. 2 minutes later he comes back to inform me, they don't have any left (it's only 6:15). So I ordered a BBQ chicken plate instead, 2 minutes later he comes back, sorry they are out of that too. So on Thanksgiving our Disney Special dinner is sandwiches with Tater Tots. When the food comes, the tater tots are beyond a golden brown, so I pick one up to show Norine how overcooked they are, and it literally explodes in a spray of dust all over the table. You have to laugh at these moments... so we did, and I'm pretty sure many people in the restaurant thought we were crazy. Zero Tip tonight.

No evening at Disneyland is complete without the Fireworks, and just like the Christmas Parade, we had to stand behind a lot of people, but Fireworks go up, so it wasn't too bad. The Fireworks were great as always going for almost 20 minutes, and at the end, as they are singing 'I'm dreaming of a White Christmas' it begins to snow!!! The Main Street lights come on in a magical blue with real snow falling all around us. Throughout the park they have snow machines creating a perfect Xmas scene.

Then the regular lights come on and 5 Billion people all stream towards the exit.

The Park doesn't close until Midnight, and earlier in the day we happened upon the Fantasmic reserved area ticket distribution, so we aren't going home until after this 10:30 show is complete, even if our feet are begging us to sit down for a while. We get there about 20 minutes early, and as we are waiting the people in front of us leave and we have front row standing right at the fence onto the river are where the show is. Fantasmic is a combination of live action, pyrotechnics and film projected on to sprays of water as Mickey Mouse the Wizard overcomes the evil characters in a show about the power of dreams. So great!

It's now after 11:00pm, I would say a 16 hour day at Disney is a pretty good effort, and our feet completely agree.

Time to head back to the hotel!

Park Hopper day

Our last day at Disney would be a park hopper day, it would start with California Adventure for Magic Hour, and then head back to the Disneyland side. Basically a day of re-riding all of our favourites, starting with Cars Land.

A quick roar through Radiator Springs followed by another Rolicking Ride.

Finally after 2 days of breakdowns, we got to ride the Incredicoaster, formerly California Screamin'. They have rebranded the ride as a chase after Baby Jack-Jack, and it's quite cute with a 360 looping roller coaster ride. We would have gone on the Midway Mania ride again, but guess what, after 20 minutes in line, it broke down again.

and maybe we did Guardians of the Galaxy breakout again, and the great thing is that the scenes were different again!

So many characters on the California Adventure side!

Having filled our re-rides and with Fast Pass delays getting longer, we headed over to the Disneyland side. You know how you always see the videos of people passing out on rides, well, we did Space Mountain again...

Another Disney classic is Autopia, gas powered cars, that let you steer about 3 feet to either side of a rail. I tried to get Norine to reenact our famous photo from our 1987 visit to Disneyland, but she held up 1 too many fingers.

As it was our last day, we spent some quality time in Fantasyland, riding some of the old classics.

The classic tale in a very abbreviated fashion... the dwarves hike to see the evil queen, and... bang 'They all live happily ever after'.

Since it was running, Back to the Matterhorn.

There was this weird thing going on, all over the park was groups of families and friends, sometimes up to a dozen, all wearing matching shirts. It was kind of creepy, so when I saw this guys shirt, I had to take a picture.

More Classics, Mr. Toad's Wild ride, followed by Pinocchio's Daring Journey and Peter Pan's adventure!

and finally, a tour through Sleeping Beauties castle.

With a little character spotting along the way we headed over to the adventureland side.

One last ride on the Indiana Jones jeep, and the Thunder Mountain train.

Before we left, we had to break the tie, so we headed over to the Buzz Lightyear Astro Blaster.

Final tally, Norine 1, Dave 2... time to board the monorail head back to the Hotel, get some room service and rest our feet!
We did get a couple new Christmas additions, a cute Pluto Popcorn bucket, and a Chip & Dale ornament for our travel tree.

We definitely walked a ton!!!

You can't leave Disneyland without having one of these giant Chocolate Chip cookies, so we ate it as breakfast while watching Disney cartoons and packing up.

For the last full day of our trip we Ubered to a Rental Car, and drove the Pacific Highway up to our Airport Hotel in LA. First stop, Huntington Beach for a walk along the warm sand and crashing waves.

Next up was the cute little town of Hermosa Beach, a chance to smell the ocean air, and have a nice lunch overlooking the beach.

Of course I had to stop by the Hermosa Brewing Company, and visit an old friend and colleague from the Distinctive Software Days. Dave Davis and a partner started up this great little craft brewery and restaurant right in the heart of Hermosa Beach.

We had a little time to check in and relax for a bit before heading to Staples Center for the LA Kings vs Canucks game. We had to overcome and befriend a few hostile members of the crowd as we proudly sat amidst a sea of Kings jerseys in our bright blue Canucks jerseys. We had a good time as we watched one of our rookies score his first NHL goal and our hot shot rookie Elias Pettersson scored his 13th goal. One of the rare times we saw our team win on the road, the Canucks won 4-2.

We were xpecting utter mayhem at LAX as it was the Sunday of the US Thanksgiving weekend. it was busy, but surprisingly not too bad getting checked in, through security and on our flight home. The worst part was the slow shuttle ride from the rental car place to the terminal.