Orange County: Disneyland
The closest location Abby could take the second part of her Step Two exam was down in Los Angeles. Inconvenient for her, yes, but a very convenient excuse for me to go down to SoCal for a few days.
After her test and my depressing week at Otay Mesa Detention Center, it felt necessary to splurge on a feel good outing. And where else could we go but the happiest place on earth, Disneyland?:
Somehow the park felt smaller than I remembered. We managed to get in all the rides we wanted all before lunch. Having done extensive research beforehand, we knew exactly where we wanted to eat and that was Cafe Orleans:
Since we were treating ourselves that day, I ordered a pomegranate lemonade:
In my excitement, I totally missed the "light" part, so the diet-y taste of the first sip completely threw me off. And deeply saddened me.
The two of us split an order of pommes frites ($8):
It came tossed with an abundance of parmesan, garlic, and parsley and was served with cajun spice remoulade.
The entire reason why we chose Cafe Orleans was for this, the Monte Cristo ($21):
I was expecting a sandwich like the one at Mama's, but instead, this one was fried and dusted with powdered sugar, much like a beignet. The savoriness of the turkey, ham, and Swiss cheese was delightful against the sweetness of the batter, sugar, and berry puree.
Call me biased, but I still prefer the one at Mama's.
We filled the afternoon with some repeat rides and some filler ones (you know, the kiddie rides) before stopping by the Tiki Juice Bar for some Dole Whip. We got the Dole Whip float ($6.49), which was pineapple juice topped with Dole Whip soft serve:
Pricey, yes, but when in Disneyland...
After a bunch more rides, we took a much needed break at the Mint Julep Bar:
I just wanted to sip on a mint julep ($4.49):
Whereas Abby was there for the Mickey-shaped beignets (three for $4.99):
I wasn't a huge fan of the beignets, so I stuck with my beverage.
Our last few hours at the park were dedicated entirely to beating our own records on the Buzz Lightyear Astro Blasters ride. We would go through the ride, run out, grab a FastPass, and then immediately get back in. We started in the same car, but once we got more competitive, we each got into our own. (Pro tip: there are more targets if you sit on the left.) Abby was so intense that she even Googled Astro Blasters strategy and tried to figure out where the hidden targets were.
One time, after we'd boarded and were waiting to start the ride, a ride attendant commented on how excited we looked. To which we both yelled giddily, "IT'S OUR SIXTH TIME!" I guess we made an impression because as we were disembarking after our eight ride, she asked us how it went. We told her the park was closing soon, so we probably wouldn't be able to ride again since FastPasses were closed already. She looked around and then shuffled us over to the handicap entrance so that we could bypass the line and get immediately on our ninth ride.
Score! Hooray for awesome Disneyland staff!
Disneyland tickets are ridiculously expensive these days, but I would totally pay again. Next time, my game plan will be to ride all the major rides and then spend the rest of the day at Astro Blasters. I need to perfect my game so that I can get close to the mystery guy whose high score was two million.
Yup. TWO MILLION. Isn't that insane?
Disneyland
1313 Disneyland Dr
Anaheim, CA 92802
https://disneyland.disney.go.com/
After her test and my depressing week at Otay Mesa Detention Center, it felt necessary to splurge on a feel good outing. And where else could we go but the happiest place on earth, Disneyland?:
Somehow the park felt smaller than I remembered. We managed to get in all the rides we wanted all before lunch. Having done extensive research beforehand, we knew exactly where we wanted to eat and that was Cafe Orleans:
Since we were treating ourselves that day, I ordered a pomegranate lemonade:
In my excitement, I totally missed the "light" part, so the diet-y taste of the first sip completely threw me off. And deeply saddened me.
The two of us split an order of pommes frites ($8):
It came tossed with an abundance of parmesan, garlic, and parsley and was served with cajun spice remoulade.
The entire reason why we chose Cafe Orleans was for this, the Monte Cristo ($21):
I was expecting a sandwich like the one at Mama's, but instead, this one was fried and dusted with powdered sugar, much like a beignet. The savoriness of the turkey, ham, and Swiss cheese was delightful against the sweetness of the batter, sugar, and berry puree.
Call me biased, but I still prefer the one at Mama's.
We filled the afternoon with some repeat rides and some filler ones (you know, the kiddie rides) before stopping by the Tiki Juice Bar for some Dole Whip. We got the Dole Whip float ($6.49), which was pineapple juice topped with Dole Whip soft serve:
Pricey, yes, but when in Disneyland...
After a bunch more rides, we took a much needed break at the Mint Julep Bar:
I just wanted to sip on a mint julep ($4.49):
Whereas Abby was there for the Mickey-shaped beignets (three for $4.99):
I wasn't a huge fan of the beignets, so I stuck with my beverage.
Our last few hours at the park were dedicated entirely to beating our own records on the Buzz Lightyear Astro Blasters ride. We would go through the ride, run out, grab a FastPass, and then immediately get back in. We started in the same car, but once we got more competitive, we each got into our own. (Pro tip: there are more targets if you sit on the left.) Abby was so intense that she even Googled Astro Blasters strategy and tried to figure out where the hidden targets were.
One time, after we'd boarded and were waiting to start the ride, a ride attendant commented on how excited we looked. To which we both yelled giddily, "IT'S OUR SIXTH TIME!" I guess we made an impression because as we were disembarking after our eight ride, she asked us how it went. We told her the park was closing soon, so we probably wouldn't be able to ride again since FastPasses were closed already. She looked around and then shuffled us over to the handicap entrance so that we could bypass the line and get immediately on our ninth ride.
Score! Hooray for awesome Disneyland staff!
Disneyland tickets are ridiculously expensive these days, but I would totally pay again. Next time, my game plan will be to ride all the major rides and then spend the rest of the day at Astro Blasters. I need to perfect my game so that I can get close to the mystery guy whose high score was two million.
Yup. TWO MILLION. Isn't that insane?
Disneyland
1313 Disneyland Dr
Anaheim, CA 92802
https://disneyland.disney.go.com/
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