Disneyland 2013 - Day 3

Nice sunset from our room

That's him

Chad spotted a celebrity at Disneyland last night.  He just couldn’t remember the actor’s name, or where he’d seen him, but Chad was 96% sure it was him.  The only description he gave me was: “if Jerry O’Connell and Jason Bateman had a love child, that’s what he looks like.  And he was in one of those space T.V. shows.”  When we got up this morning, Chad Googled “Space Movies” and from that he finally found the guy.  Once he found his name, I got online to verify that this actor was actually at Disneyland last night.  And he was, so, ladies and gentlemen, Chad saw Nathan Fillion at Disneyland last night.  Go ahead and take a moment to Google him because I know you’re thinking, “Who’s that?”

I am always looking for celebrities, or familiar faces.  At one point yesterday, I saw Owen Wilson in line with us for The Haunted Mansion.  I told Chad, “Oh my gosh, there’s Owen Wilson!” Chad looked at him, spit-laughed, and then said the guy looked more like George Bush Sr. than Owen Wilson.  Maybe I don’t have what it takes to spot a celebrity, but why is it that Chad, who can barely remember the names of people in his own family, can spot one in a crowd of a thousand?  This isn’t the first time, either.  About four years ago, we were at a hotel in Los Angeles and as we walked into the lobby, Chad said (as if he were pointing out a vending machine), “there’s Kevin Sorbo.”  Sure enough, Hercules walked right by us.   

Ashley at Monster's University

Chad bought us all Starbucks this morning and then we caught the shuttle to the parks.  The kids are our guides and chose to go to California Adventure first.  After a morning of rides they were ready to go to Disneyland, so we told them we’d meet them later because we wanted to go on Soarin’ Over California.  But first we went on Ariel’s Undersea Adventure, which is actually one of my favorite rides at California Adventure.  You can sing along really loudly, and the music is played at a level where the other passengers in their clamshell carts can’t hear you (you hope).

The kids (in the back) going 0-60 in 5 seconds on California Screamin'

When we were back at Disneyland, we decided to try something new for lunch, so we went to the Hungry Bear Restaurant in Critter Country.  The kids were on Splash Mountain and they came over when they were finished.  We ate chicken sandwiches and watched the Davy Crockett Explorer Canoes go by.  “That looks like fun, we’ve never done that,” said Chad. 

“I think there’s a reason we’ve never done that,” I replied, eyeballing the people who were on the ride, but appeared to be doing all the work. 

And after one last ride on Splash Mountain, we were suddenly boarding the canoe with oars in hand, and I thought, “Well, this is cute.  They actually give you an oar to make you think you have to row.”  Because surely no ride would have the audacity to make guests paddle around the Rivers of America in 80 degree weather.  Guess what?  You actually have to row.  The route is the same as Mark Twain’s river boat, so it wasn’t really new.  We had just never seen it from a 35 foot canoe that we had to row by ourselves.  The Disney website says, “Most of the paddling is more for fun than propulsion… the river guides who sit in the fore and aft of the canoe are capable enough of navigating the waters by themselves.”  Why would they think we would paddle for fun?  Throughout the whole ride, I was under the impression that our jobs were important, and I rowed like I was on my way to save one of my children from a burning building.  Had I known the employees could handle it, I would’ve sat back and enjoyed the scenery.  When the woman behind me said, “I’m going to take a break,” and stopped rowing, laying her oar across her lap, I nearly turned around and beat her with my oar.   

No please

After the canoes, we had had it up to here with exercise, so we came back to the hotel.  Chad and the kids went to the pool and I took a quick nap because of the three hours of sleep I got last night.  For dinner, we walked to Oggi’s, which is a pizza slash brewhouse slash sports bar.  There are 42 TVs in this restaurant and I was so distracted I could barely focus on anything.  It was maximum sensory overload.  But we ate a nice dinner and then caught the 6:40 shuttle to the park.

The riff raff waiting for the shuttle

As we walked down Main Street, a man stopped me by gently grabbing my arm and asked, “Excuse me, how many people in your party?”  I said, “Five.”  He grabbed my hand and slipped a ticket into it as if he were sneaking me the launch codes to America’s nuclear weapons.  It was an Attraction Re-admission pass for up to six guests for the ride of our choice.  I thanked him profusely and then we went straight to Space Mountain proudly holding our ticket as if we were The Buckets on their way to the chocolate factory.  The wait time was over 60 minutes, and we had been avoiding the line, but because of our pass, we were on in 10.  Chad stayed behind, and he ended up missing out!  At the very end of the ride, seconds after the camera takes the hilarious photos of the riders, the whole ride stopped.  All the lights went out and an automated voice told us to stay in our rockets and someone would come help us shortly.  The lights came on and I started taking pictures right after I assured Ashley that it was actually WAY cool—how often do you get to see Space Mountain with the lights on?  Two cast members came over and physically pushed our rocket back to the loading/unloading zone.  All the people waiting in line were there yelling, “What does it look like in there?”  And in case you’re wondering what we saw, here it is:

The ceiling

The tunnel we came out of

We rode the Matterhorn sleds next and then split up.  Chad and I wanted to ride the Storybook Land Canal Boats, and the kids wanted to go back to Splash Mountain.  After the boats, we headed back to Frontierland and watched the last few minutes of Fantasmic and eventually met up with the kids.  We had an awesome view for the fireworks over by the Rancho del Zocalo Restaurante.  There were about 10 people around us and it was so peaceful.  At the end of the fireworks show, Jackson noted, "I bet Disneyland does wonders for the environment."  Hilarious.  But kind of sad.  I don't want my kids to have to worry about that stuff.  But they need to worry about that kind of stuff.

"Believe... In Holiday Magic" Fireworks

Behind Main Street

 When the fireworks were over, and we headed back out towards Main Street, the crushing crowd
started pressing in on us.  We were taking some short cuts we knew about through a couple cafes, when we noticed the Employees Only door behind the Refreshment Corner was opened, and a cast member was directing people through it.  We joined that group, and were escorted out of Disneyland via the Employee’s only area behind Main Street.  Most people were just quiet and moved along like sheep, but to us, well, we may have well had won the lottery.  It was such a fantastic way to end our night.  We were taking pictures and Jackson just kept saying, “Man, this is SO COOL.”

Tomorrow is a Magic Morning at Disneyland where we get to enter an hour before the park opens.  I am determined to get a good night’s sleep.  Also, my rowing arm is sore and typing is just too hard.

Death to Davy Crockett’s Explorer Canoes,

-The Niemeyers