![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
alias_sqbrToday was actually really great! And TIRING, but in a good way. Photos to be added once I post them to tumblr.
Everything is super commercial and fake but I have decided to try and just roll with it and enjoy it for what it is. It's authentic to it's own culture of inauthenticity! And the Disney Corporation got it's claws into my id young enough that even when part of me is thinking "this is silly/cheesy" another part is going "AHHHHHHHH DISNEYLAND :D :D". I'm not sure if it's because Halloween is approaching or if it's like this all the time but there's lots of people of all ages in costume or themed outfits. Every time I see a little Rey my heart grows three sizes.
It's interesting thinking about how things are set up having worked at a museum aimed at kids. And everything is wheelchair accessible. It's great.
So, the setup of Disney is Disneyland to the north, California Adventure to the south, with a wide footpath between them. We have 5 day passes including entrance to both. Our hotel is to the north east of the entrance to the footpath. On the west side of the footpath is a bunch of shops and restaurants called Downtown Disney.
This morning we both woke up at 5am feeling SO MUCH BETTER THAN yesterday, if still a little sore and jetlagged. We sat around eating breakfast and creaking towards getting dressed then walked to the entrance for a little after the opening at 8am. The lines were super long so we kept going to Downtown Disney, which was fun! Mostly merchandise stores selling stuff you can get online, but good for trying on clothes.
We went to a nice hat store and both got the same stupidly expensive hat in different sizes (but both in black) because they are broad brimmed, comfortable, and look neither feminine nor ugly. The hats were pretty great at keeping the sun off without getting floppy or uncomfortable.
Then we looked at the Lego store, I didn't buy anything but had fun poking about the "build a minifig" buckets and staring covetously at the Ghostbusters set. Cam made himself a cup of interestingly coloured pick and mix pieces. He ended up being too lazy to do the meticulously designed Most Efficient Lego Cup Packing he'd looked up online in advance.
Then, at last, into a park! Specifically, California Adventure, because it has The Only East Asian Food in Disneyland.
First we went on the Monsters Inc ride. Well, no, first we spent half an hour in the line, which was mostly pretty dull but did have some fun stuff near the end to make you feel like you were really visiting Monsteropolis. The ride itself is not wheelchair accessible but the queue is and you can get right up to it then transfer into the car. Then it's a trip past animatronic monsters acting out scenes from the movie and general setting, which was cheesy but fun, especially when what looked like infinitely many doors wheeled around you (mirrors helped, but there were quite a lot of actual doors)
After this Cam wanted to go to the Tower of Terror because it's closing down soon, but I'm not into anything with "terror" in the title so went looking for somewhere nearby to charge my chair. I found an animation themed hall with a power point and aircon which was perfect and lay there with my feet on my chair playing games on my phone. Two different attendants made sure I was aware that if my device shorted out the park wasn't liable. I tried the "interactive show" Turtle Talk I was in the waiting room for when it came around. It was basically a puppet show except with a digital image of the turtle from Finding Nemo with someone voicing him and setting off his limited set of movements offscreen. The lip syncing was pretty convincing but I guess turtles are easier because their lips don’t move. The show itself was, well... a guy with a turtle puppet asking the audience silly questions, so I left early to charge my chair some more.
The path to The One Asian Place was through a Bugs Life themed area designed to make you feel bug sized which was fun. The One Asian Place is a crappy hole in the wall that offers three meats and three sauces, I got mine on the side and ate it plain, it was the sort of peppery cheap greasy beef I associate with food courts plus a very small amount of vegetables. There was also yet another of the legally mandated disclaimers we keep seeing everywhere, this time about how food containers that contain BPA can have side effects. The one at the previous restaurant was that raw meat can kill you.
There was a fun little tour through the bakery for a nearby cafe and free samples of their bread, and a pretty walk across a fake pier to get to a fake but pretty forest. We were getting tired so left the park through the again quite pretty Grand California Hotel. There was a wood fire in a huge airconditioned lobby and a pianist playing Disney songs who looked like he wanted to be put out of his misery.
We were now back at Downtown Disney so caught the monorail into Disneyland (it doesn't stop inside California Adventure). It was a slight squeeze for me and the other wheelchair user in the one wheelchair accessible carriage but sitting and watching the park go by was really fun. We had to get out at Tomorrowland, which is now Star Wars themed. Lots of tiny adorable children in jedi robes being taught how to wield lightsabers by a actors dressed like movie characters. Tomorrowland is now like a Star Wars museum with (fake?) props, a store, and character shows, pretty dull but airconditioned.
My wheelchair was looking seedy at this point so we asked a line of staff where to charge it and finally found a "charging station" in a Starbucks on "Main Street" pretending to be a themed coffee shop. As we sat resting a parade went by full of cheery floats and groups of dancers managing to smile despite the heat. Staff had a complex system involving ropes to get groups of pedestrians across the street without banging into the parade. And then we went home again! The chair battery got a bit sad looking by the end but got me home ok.
Cam has gone out to get dinner from Panera Bread but I wasn't up to moving. I gave him my order, since their website lists literally every ingredient of each sandwich, down to the individual ingredients of the bread and mayonnaise, so I could feel confident of being able to eat it. Assuming he can get them to MAKE what I want (A turkey avocado BLT minus mayonnaise) and it's not all preprepared. EDIT: He did and it was delicious :D And they sell french baguettes with no sugar and are close to the hotel, woo.
The plan for tomorrow is more of the actual Disneyland park, there's a petting zoo I want to see. And cam REALLY wants to go the Cheesecake Factory so I may keep him company and eat steak and lettuce or something.
Also! The almond and cashew milk I bought really does make me feel too gross due to vegetable gums, boo. But the peanut butter powder I bought out of curiosity makes a surprisingly adequate milk powder, and I may do a grocery order from the more health food oriented supermarket Vons later.
Everything is super commercial and fake but I have decided to try and just roll with it and enjoy it for what it is. It's authentic to it's own culture of inauthenticity! And the Disney Corporation got it's claws into my id young enough that even when part of me is thinking "this is silly/cheesy" another part is going "AHHHHHHHH DISNEYLAND :D :D". I'm not sure if it's because Halloween is approaching or if it's like this all the time but there's lots of people of all ages in costume or themed outfits. Every time I see a little Rey my heart grows three sizes.
It's interesting thinking about how things are set up having worked at a museum aimed at kids. And everything is wheelchair accessible. It's great.
So, the setup of Disney is Disneyland to the north, California Adventure to the south, with a wide footpath between them. We have 5 day passes including entrance to both. Our hotel is to the north east of the entrance to the footpath. On the west side of the footpath is a bunch of shops and restaurants called Downtown Disney.
This morning we both woke up at 5am feeling SO MUCH BETTER THAN yesterday, if still a little sore and jetlagged. We sat around eating breakfast and creaking towards getting dressed then walked to the entrance for a little after the opening at 8am. The lines were super long so we kept going to Downtown Disney, which was fun! Mostly merchandise stores selling stuff you can get online, but good for trying on clothes.
We went to a nice hat store and both got the same stupidly expensive hat in different sizes (but both in black) because they are broad brimmed, comfortable, and look neither feminine nor ugly. The hats were pretty great at keeping the sun off without getting floppy or uncomfortable.
Then we looked at the Lego store, I didn't buy anything but had fun poking about the "build a minifig" buckets and staring covetously at the Ghostbusters set. Cam made himself a cup of interestingly coloured pick and mix pieces. He ended up being too lazy to do the meticulously designed Most Efficient Lego Cup Packing he'd looked up online in advance.
Then, at last, into a park! Specifically, California Adventure, because it has The Only East Asian Food in Disneyland.
First we went on the Monsters Inc ride. Well, no, first we spent half an hour in the line, which was mostly pretty dull but did have some fun stuff near the end to make you feel like you were really visiting Monsteropolis. The ride itself is not wheelchair accessible but the queue is and you can get right up to it then transfer into the car. Then it's a trip past animatronic monsters acting out scenes from the movie and general setting, which was cheesy but fun, especially when what looked like infinitely many doors wheeled around you (mirrors helped, but there were quite a lot of actual doors)
After this Cam wanted to go to the Tower of Terror because it's closing down soon, but I'm not into anything with "terror" in the title so went looking for somewhere nearby to charge my chair. I found an animation themed hall with a power point and aircon which was perfect and lay there with my feet on my chair playing games on my phone. Two different attendants made sure I was aware that if my device shorted out the park wasn't liable. I tried the "interactive show" Turtle Talk I was in the waiting room for when it came around. It was basically a puppet show except with a digital image of the turtle from Finding Nemo with someone voicing him and setting off his limited set of movements offscreen. The lip syncing was pretty convincing but I guess turtles are easier because their lips don’t move. The show itself was, well... a guy with a turtle puppet asking the audience silly questions, so I left early to charge my chair some more.
The path to The One Asian Place was through a Bugs Life themed area designed to make you feel bug sized which was fun. The One Asian Place is a crappy hole in the wall that offers three meats and three sauces, I got mine on the side and ate it plain, it was the sort of peppery cheap greasy beef I associate with food courts plus a very small amount of vegetables. There was also yet another of the legally mandated disclaimers we keep seeing everywhere, this time about how food containers that contain BPA can have side effects. The one at the previous restaurant was that raw meat can kill you.
There was a fun little tour through the bakery for a nearby cafe and free samples of their bread, and a pretty walk across a fake pier to get to a fake but pretty forest. We were getting tired so left the park through the again quite pretty Grand California Hotel. There was a wood fire in a huge airconditioned lobby and a pianist playing Disney songs who looked like he wanted to be put out of his misery.
We were now back at Downtown Disney so caught the monorail into Disneyland (it doesn't stop inside California Adventure). It was a slight squeeze for me and the other wheelchair user in the one wheelchair accessible carriage but sitting and watching the park go by was really fun. We had to get out at Tomorrowland, which is now Star Wars themed. Lots of tiny adorable children in jedi robes being taught how to wield lightsabers by a actors dressed like movie characters. Tomorrowland is now like a Star Wars museum with (fake?) props, a store, and character shows, pretty dull but airconditioned.
My wheelchair was looking seedy at this point so we asked a line of staff where to charge it and finally found a "charging station" in a Starbucks on "Main Street" pretending to be a themed coffee shop. As we sat resting a parade went by full of cheery floats and groups of dancers managing to smile despite the heat. Staff had a complex system involving ropes to get groups of pedestrians across the street without banging into the parade. And then we went home again! The chair battery got a bit sad looking by the end but got me home ok.
Cam has gone out to get dinner from Panera Bread but I wasn't up to moving. I gave him my order, since their website lists literally every ingredient of each sandwich, down to the individual ingredients of the bread and mayonnaise, so I could feel confident of being able to eat it. Assuming he can get them to MAKE what I want (A turkey avocado BLT minus mayonnaise) and it's not all preprepared. EDIT: He did and it was delicious :D And they sell french baguettes with no sugar and are close to the hotel, woo.
The plan for tomorrow is more of the actual Disneyland park, there's a petting zoo I want to see. And cam REALLY wants to go the Cheesecake Factory so I may keep him company and eat steak and lettuce or something.
Also! The almond and cashew milk I bought really does make me feel too gross due to vegetable gums, boo. But the peanut butter powder I bought out of curiosity makes a surprisingly adequate milk powder, and I may do a grocery order from the more health food oriented supermarket Vons later.
no subject
Date: 2016-10-11 07:27 am (UTC)This may be the best one-sentence description of Disneyland that I've ever seen. :)
And yes, Californians do enjoy our warning signs. The big one is anything that has ever been even vaguely associated with cancer must be warned for. You see them pretty much everywhere. I forget that they aren't a normal thing in other places!
no subject
Date: 2016-10-11 07:41 am (UTC)Anyway, yay Disney! I've never actually been to California Adventure as I am at an awkward distance from Disneyland. Too far to want to drive home and go again the next day, but too close to consider it a "vacation spot" and want to get a hotel room. And I don't really want to get a park-hopper ticket just for one day, but also don't want to skip Disneyland itself and just go to California Adventure. Maybe some day, though!
no subject
Date: 2016-10-11 08:44 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2016-10-11 04:08 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2016-10-12 01:24 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2016-10-14 09:27 pm (UTC)I heard of it for the first time in a tasty looking recipe...and have totally forgotten what for. I can see it making for nice Thai-ish salad dressings.
no subject
Date: 2016-10-14 09:28 pm (UTC)Yeah it was very much what I'd imagined too. Though I got more into it than I expected.
no subject
Date: 2016-10-14 09:29 pm (UTC)It certainly made everything much more enjoyable!
no subject
Date: 2016-10-14 09:32 pm (UTC)Yeah I've gotten mostly used to the warnings everywhere but they were very disconcerting at first!
Disneyland > California Adventure In my opinion, so I can understand that.
waves from closer than usual
no subject
Date: 2016-10-14 09:32 pm (UTC)Yeah I'm getting used to them, though every now and then I am still taken aback.