What separates Disneyland from the average theme park is their all-encompassing theming and atmosphere. From the rides, even the ride queues, to the general decor, to even the food offerings, all these things works together to create a magical experience. After all, isn't Disney the most magical place on Earth? We know it can feel a little kitschy or "touristy" to give into the food carts and themed food while visiting Disneyland. On the other hand, if you want a fully immersive experience in the land of Disney, how can you possibly say no to some mickey-shaped food?! Honestly, some of these snacks ARE all they're hyped up to be and we're here to show you 13 eats you CAN'T miss while visiting Disneyland.
MONTE CRISTO WITH POMMES FRITES
DOLE WHIP
BAO BUNS Also at Tropical Hideaway, you can find bao buns and lumpia! We tried the pork lumpia, beef bao bun, and chicken bao bun and in our opinion, the chicken bao bun was the best! The lumpia was okay but a little too greasy for our taste. Next time, we're interested to try the sweet lumpia! So if you try it, let us know how it is. MICKEY PRETZEL
RONTO WRAP
churro
The Grey Stuff
SCHMOOZIES If you're looking for a good on-the-go breakfast over in Disney's California Adventure, we recommend a stop at Schmoozies in Hollywood Land! We got their basic "Mango Madness" smoothie and the "Strawberry Banana Sensation". They were pretty good! And they hit the spot as we walked around Avengers Campus. If you're feeling adventurous, you could try their Mangonada Smoothie, with tropical fruit juices and chili-lime seasoning. We weren't huge fans of this flavor combo over at Tropical Hideaway but we may be in the minority so if you try it, let us know what you thought! JACK JACK COOKIE NUM NUM
COZY CONE
Splitsville Luxury LanesOutside of the parks, in Downtown Disney, one of our favorite places to grab a bigger dinner is Splitsville Luxury Lanes. For one thing, the pizza is delicious! But for another, this was the only place that gave our kids plastic straws :D Haha no, but honestly, we found food here for everyone to enjoy which makes it the perfect place for family travel. CRAZY SHAKE Another great place to grab a snack in Downtown Disney is Black Tap. Their "crazy shakes" are insane and delicious! Tip: as one of the other parents in line said to me, these are definitely big enough to share between multiple people, something he found out a little too late, haha. Have you tried any of the treats on this list? Let us know your thoughts or if you have any questions in the comments below. Planning a trip to Disneyland? Don't forget to pin this post to refer back to! Follow us on instagram for our day-to-day adventures and until next time, get out and enjoy where you live!
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Okay, to say we hate Disneyland *might* be a little harsh. In the past 10 years, we've been to Disneyland 6 times, with the last trip being last month. We got tickets to Disneyland for Christmas and we were all so excited to relive our favorite memories and create new ones at the "happiest place on earth". Little did we know just how much this trip would change our view of Disney! If you've been around for a little bit, you know we try to keep things fun and positive around here, but we also like truthful reviews. After reading about how "great" this new system was we felt an honest review was needed out in the "blog-iverse". We were a little leery of the new Genie+ system because it already costs so much to get our family to the parks. Because we travel as a family we tend to travel on a budget and aren't fans of spending extra money unless we see the value of it. Before arriving to the parks, we were having a hard time seeing the value in the new Genie + system and had pretty much made up our minds to see how far we could get in the parks without giving in to the extra cost. TL:DR - Did we purchase Disney+? Yes. Did we like purchasing it? No. Here's how it went: We spent 3 full days at Disneyland property. We had a 1-year-old along with our 4 and 7-year-olds so we knew we were going to need nap breaks. We also made made a challenge for ourselves that we weren't going to wait for a ride for longer than 30 minutes. Day 1 was spent solely in Disneyland. We got up early enough to get into the park at rope drop, which was awesome! On our Instagram, we got a lot of questions about what rope drop is, so for those that don't know, here's a little explanation: "Rope drop" is when Disney employees "drop" the literal rope that ropes off the park before it officially opens. The gates to the park open about 30 minutes before official opening. On the day we were there the park opened at 9AM so the gates opened at 8:30AM. We got to the rope, which was at the end of Main Street USA, as crowds started forming for the opening of the park. The advantage to rope drop is that you can get to rides before big lines start forming for the day and this is exactly what happened for us. We got on back-to-back rides all morning with little to no wait time. We stopped for an early lunch and then walked around Star Wars Land to scope it out. Both rides were well over 60 minute waits but it was still fun to explore, even without the goal of getting on a ride. We slowly made our way back to the front of the park and got on some rides in fantasy land that were less than 15 minute waits. After a nap break, we headed back to the park and hung around Fantasy Land and Tomorrow Land before calling it a night. Day 2 was spent solely in California Adventure. This is the day we learned some hard lessons about Genie+. We started the day with rope drop and got on quite a few rides with minimal wait time. But we did decide to use Genie+ to get on Web Slingers since we knew that one was going to be pretty impossible to get on without waiting for 60-90 minutes. This is when we realized that there are two different Genie+ "tiers" if you will. With the first option, the Individual Lightning Lane pass, you pay per ride. This pass only includes the following rides:
The price per lightning lane pass can vary between $7-$20 per person per ride depending on the time of day and crowd levels. The other "tier" is the Genie+ lightning lane pass for a flat rate of $20/person per day. This second option includes the following rides:
So to clarify, we thought it was EITHER a "pay per ride" option OR an all encompassing pass of $20/person for all the rides. This is, unfortunately not the case. So we paid $7/person to get in the Lightning Lane for Web Slingers. Such a cool ride but honestly, bummed that we had to pay extra to get on it. Day 3 was our last day. We spent the first half of the day in Disneyland and this was when we broke down and bought the $20/person Genie+ Lightning Lane pass. We definitely had a strategy of holding off until the last day so we could get on all the rides that we weren't able to get on for the first two days - rides like Space Mountain, Millenium Falcon, and Guardians of the Galaxy. This saved us from having to purchase the pass each day, especially since we split the day between the two parks but it still stung to have to buy it in the first place. We truly felt it was the only way we were going to be able to make the most of our trip and get on some of the more popular rides without waiting an obscene amount of time. It really felt like a lose/lose situation. To sum it up, we miss the fast pass system. We loved the strategy with fast pass and the ease of use. We feel that the fast pass system was the best way to maximize a Disney trip and get on all your favorite rides, and why fix something that isn't broke?? The fact that the choice now is to either pay to get on a ride or wait in an obscene line is so frustrating and rather maddening. And it's not like it's just the "popular" rides that have long lines, either! It seems that somehow, this new system has caused lines all over the park to be longer than normal when crowds in general don't seem larger than normal. The day we went to California Adventure, the wait time for Monsters, Inc was consistently over 45 minutes long almost the entire day! (We were able to walk onto this ride by getting on close to closing.) But the worst thing about Genie+ is that it's not an "all or nothing" system. It truly felt like Disney got their think tank together to figure out the best way to price gouge park goers and make it feel inevitable for them to give in to. Some other things to know about the Genie + system:
In the end, our kids had a blast and never knew the difference, so I guess we should chalk that up to a win! As parents footing the bill, though, it may be awhile before we can stomach another Disney trip for the future. So what do you think? Do we sound like a bunch of whiney kids? Or do you think Disney should bring back Fast Pass? Let us know if you have more questions about the Genie+ system that we didn't answer. If you've used it, how was your experience? We'd love to know! Don't forget to join us on Instagram to come with us on our day-to-day adventures! And as always, make sure to get out and enjoy where YOU live!
We had a good time exploring San Francisco which you can read all about in our last post, but this next part of our trip was going to be mostly off the beaten track, which we were pretty excited about. We were also about halfway to our final destination which was a pretty big deal!
We left San Francisco in the morning and about 3 hours later pulled into Ukiah, CA for our first pit stop of this leg. We grabbed some lunch and some gas but not before checking out the World’s Largest Redwood Tree Service Station/Museum!....
...which was closed (sad face). But it was still really cool to see and walk around and it piqued our interest in the area we were entering: Redwood country.
After getting back on the road, we ventured a little bit out of the way and got off highway 101 and onto the 1 and detoured over to Fort Bragg. This coastal town is rich in history and would be a really cool place to take some time to explore, but we really narrowed it down to one stop - Glass Beach.
Glass Beach is a true trash to treasure story. These beaches were actually used as city dump sites from 1906-1967. Cars, batteries, bottles, etc. were dumped over and the cliffs and into the ocean. Now what remains is smooth colored sea-glass mixed into the natural rocks and sand that make up the beaches.
We spent way too long - with no regrets - sorting through and finding pieces of amber, green, blue, and clear sea glass. We also had fun exploring the tide pools and jumping off the big rocks ;)
Reluctantly, we hiked back to the car to continue on our adventure.
Our next stop was drive-thru tree park in Leggett, CA. This was a fun place to stretch our legs and get acquainted with those amazing redwoods we were driving by.
Our only disappointment was that our van wouldn’t fit through the tree because of the rack we had on top. Would’ve been cool to say we drove through a tree haha, but walking through was still pretty cool!
Nothing to make you feel small like sitting in a giant tree trunk! This little park was really fun to walk around and find all the wood carvings. A very good stop to get out and stretch for a little bit.
Our next stop was actually a few minutes down the highway, called One-Log House.
This 2000+ year old Redwood one log house was really only created for a tourist attraction, but it is one of the coolest ‘tourist traps’ we’ve ever seen! I mean, really, I wouldn’t mind having one of my own if I ever happen upon a fallen Redwood ;)
We pulled into our Airbnb in Eureka not too far from here. This was our first and only stay in an Airbnb this trip and our digs were very comfortable and quaint! 10/10 recommended. We checked in for the night to rest up for our next leg of driving, which would end in Yachats, OR!
Comments or questions? We'd love to hear them! Make sure to pin so you can come back to this post! Don't forget to follow us on Instagram for some of our day-to-day adventures and until next time, get out and explore where you live!
If you've been following along (and doing the math), we left Anaheim on Day 7 of our road trip up the west coast. We had been having a blast, but we were really looking forward to this next part of our trip because we were passing by areas that we had never been before!
This next leg of driving ended in San Francisco where we would play a little bit of tourist again, but we made a few stops in between that were really fun! 1st stop: Stearns Wharf, Santa Barbara, CA
Our first stop was impromptu - for potty breaks really - but we're so glad we did stop here. We get a kick out of historical places and this pier has quite the history. Stearns Wharf is one of California's oldest piers, the oldest working wooden wharf, constructed in 1872. At the time, it was the longest deep-water pier between LA and San Francisco.
The pier made Santa Barbara accessible to the outside world by sea as it was long enough that ships could tie up at low tide. It was pretty amazing to wander around the pier and realize the impact that it had back in the day. There are restaurants, shops and even a marine museum located on the pier. But one of the coolest parts about this stop was actually driving on a historical wooden pier and hearing the wood creak under our tires.
2nd Stop: Avila Beach, San Luis Obispo, CA
This stop ended up with surprises as well. It was a planned stop on our itinerary, but once we arrived, we realized some sort of street fair was going on! Food trucks galore, live music and dancing....it was all much needed excitement after being in the car for a little bit. But even without all of that, this was the first time this trip of putting our toes in the ocean and it was THE BEST hearing those little giggles and screams as the waves came in. We had so much fun here that it was a little hard to drag ourselves back to the car.
Destination: San Francisco
We checked into our hotel that evening, did much needed laundry in the morning and then set out to explore the city that afternoon. We tried to see as much as we could in the little time we had and I think we did pretty good!
Just driving around town was our first thrill. As we drove up and down the steep hills, the girls giggled that it felt like we were on a roller coaster while Dad was a tiny bit white-knuckled in our over-burdened van. He was pretty relieved once we got to Fisherman’s Wharf ;) We explored Museè Mèchanique, Pier 39, and had dinner at Boudin Bakery.
After dinner we walked (hiked!) up and down the streets of San Francisco to see Lombard street and the sites along the way. If only I had a decent picture from that famous street. The flowers were gorgeous and walking up the street was a feat in and of itself :D
We then walked to Ghirardelli Square, feeling we had earned a little bit of dessert. And when you find yourself at the center of origin for Ghirardelli...can you really deny yourself a scoop of ice cream? Or three...;)
On our way back to our hotel, we of course had to do a drive-by of the Painted Ladies. The girls may never know our excitement but we had all the Full House vibes going on at the end of our trip. Even blasting the theme song on our way out the next morning as we drove across the Golden Gate Bridge.
If you're going to road trip up the west coast, is it even worth it without stopping at Disneyland?? The sad part about this post is that it's already outdated! Star Wars Land opened the week we were here and they were only letting people in if they had tickets....which we weren't able to get. But, as it was still part of our road trip to Alaska, here we are. After leaving San Diego, we spent the night at our friends' house and left the next morning for Anaheim. Where We StayedI can't even count how many times I've been to Disneyland, but in our married life we've been three times and since having kids, we've been twice. Three years ago, we stayed on property, which we definitely recommend, however, this time we needed to be a little more budget conscious as we still had two more weeks of road trip left. We stayed at the La Quinta on Clementine St. We get reward points through them as well as a military discount. It was about a 10 minute walk to the park and I think it worked out pretty well! What We DidDisneyland, obviously!! First, and foremost, we arrived at the park and, SURPRISE! Grandma and Grandpa were there! It was so fun to surprise the kids with that, but so hard to keep the secret. Even as we were walking up, Hayden mentioned how she wished Grandma and Grandpa were there like "last time". It was probably the best part of the trip seeing that all unfold :) While planning our trip, we looked into the new FastPass system, MaxPass. With the FastPass system, you can essentially hold your place in line by visiting the FastPass kiosk at available rides with your park ticket. You use your ticket to get a FastPass, which gives you a time to come back and get in a shorter/faster line, usually an hour after you receive the FastPass. This service is free to use, however, you cannot have more than one FastPass out at a time. Disney MaxPass was a new service since we had last been to the park. It costs $15/day per ticket and gives you the ability to procure FastPasses through the mobile app instead of having to physically go to the kiosk. It also includes unlimited PhotoPass downloads, which is actually pretty cool. In the end, we decided to "pass" on the MaxPass ;) , at least for the first day and add it later on if we felt like it was worth it. In the end, we didn't end up adding it and we didn't feel like it took anything away from our trip. One tip: make use of the child swap if .you have kids not big enough to ride some of the rides. One adult will ask for the child swap at the beginning of the queue and after riding, the second adult can bring up to three passengers into the FastPass line. Don't forget, this can double up with actual FastPasses! So you can definitely get some mileage out of that. We also rode the Guardians of the Galaxy ride for the first time since it had been changed from Tower of Terror. I gotta be honest, I was skeptical, because Tower of Terror is the best! But the change was actually really fun and next time we go, Marvel Land should be up and running! What We AteWe've been to Disneyland enough to know where to get some good eats. These are our top 5 favorites in no particular order, except this first one. Because it's always at the top of the list :D Lunch at Cafe Orleans!! The Pommes Frites are finger lickin perfection. Come to think of it, one visit we just shared the fries for lunch haha. This trip though, Jon and I shared a Monte Cristo and an order of Pommes Frites. Drooling just thinking about it. #2 Out of all the Mickey treats, the beignets are my favorite. I just can't get behind the pretzels and when we tried the churro ice cream sandwich, is wasn't as good as it sounded. We had actually been to Disney World a few months prior to this visit and seeing as how you can't get the mickey beignets in the parks in Orlando, I was craving them! You can get these yummy little guys around the corner from Cafe Orleans at the Mint Julep Bar. #3 Another tasty treat that you can't exactly get at Disney World is the Grey Stuff. From Beauty and the Beast, in Lumière's song "Be Our Guest", you'll hear him invite Belle to "try the grey stuff, it's delicious! Don't believe me? Ask the dishes!" At Disney World, we were only able to find the grey stuff topped on a cupcake, so we definitely had to try it all on it's own when we were at Disneyland. You'll find this at the Red Rose Taverne, formally the Pinnochio-themed Village Haus Restaurant, and I gotta say, the Grey Stuff is better at Disneyland! Maybe it's just better off the cupcake. At any rate, the Red Rose Taverne is a really fun little place to stop and explore. The decor is interesting with murals and details honoring the original animated film but if you look closely, you'll also find the Mrs. Potts, Lumière and Cogsworth versions from the live-action film, which is kind of fun. Bonus: Our second day, we had breakfast at Flo's V8 Cafe. This is a counter service restaurant but it had a really cool atmosphere being right next to the Radiator Springs Racers. The American Breakfast, the Brioche French Toast, and the Chicken Tamale Breakfast...okay, well I'm pretty sure that's everything on the menu, but it was all so good! So you literally can't go wrong. #4 Another hit over in the Cars Land area was from the Cozy Cone Motel. Bacon Mac N' Cheese in a bread cone. Need I say more? We may or may not have gone back for a second serving. #5 It is our personal opinion that no visit to Disneyland is complete without a dole whip! And while the original pineapple dole whips are delicious (we definitely wouldn't turn one down...or didn't, I should say ;), the raspberry swirled dole whips at Tropical Hideaway in Adventureland are highly recommended by this family! We may have had two or three of those babies. Even if we weren't able to offer any insights on the new Star Wars Land, we still experienced a lot of personal firsts. In addition to everything else, we were able to see the updated castle! Super digging the new paint job. All in all, one could spend two days in Disneyland and be mostly content though we can't promise that a small part of you won't be wishing you could stay just a little longer! We made a lot of memories along our road trip, but I think this one was a highlight for the girls. Maybe it had something to do with Grandma and Grandpa ;) but getting to spend some quality time before moving farther away was such a good experience. Here it is, 5 months later and Colbie regularly plays pretend that she's going to Disneyland and I love it. But alas, like stated before, we had 2 more weeks of traveling to do! Our second night, we watched the fireworks from Grandma and Grandpa's hotel room before saying goodbye. The next morning we departed for our next stop, San Fransisco! Make sure to follow us on instagram for more of our day-to-day adventures! But until next time, get out and enjoy where you live!
When we received orders to Alaska, and looked into a few of the different ways we could get there and different routes we could take from New Mexico, it didn't take long for us to decide on taking a scenic route up the west coast. The entire west coast, from one end to the other. To start that trip, we had to make our way to San Diego, the southern most point of West Coast USA, give or take 20 miles ;) Our first pit stop was Tucson, AZ for a night and onward we went onto San Diego. We did make a little stop right in between the two major cities in Yuma, AZ where we had In-N-Out (something we hadn't had access to in 3 years! :) and a little picnic at Stewart Vincent Wolfe Creative Playground, or "Castle Park". This park is one of the largest creative playgrounds in the country and was such a good pit stop for kids to get out a stretch for a little bit. We arrived in San Diego that night, excited to hang out for a few days. Where We StayedThis stop was the 2nd of two where military lodging gave us the best bang for our buck. We stayed at Naval Base Point Loma, which was a pretty central location as well as a scenic one, as our room was right across the street from the shipyard, which was really cool! This was actually the second time we had stayed there, having taken a trip to San Diego 6 years prior. What We DidOur first day was spent at the San Diego Zoo. Or rather, we planned to spend the day there, haha. It ended up only being a few hours, but with kids, you gotta be flexible ;) We definitely played tourist this visit and took full advantage of all the military discounts at the big attractions, so even if we didn't get our money's worth on this particular day, it was still something we crossed off our list. That evening we went to Children's Pool Beach. It was actually created to be a children's pool, but the Harbor Seals have since taken it over so it's a really fun place to visit. The girls had a blast seeing all the seals up close and we had a blast watching them get so excited! The next day, we met up with some friends at Sea World! Sea World Waves of Honor gives free admission to Active Duty Military and their dependents! With all there was to see and do here, it definitely made up for our short day at the zoo ;) The girls loved the dolphin show but I think my favorite was seeing the Orcas. Especially with that backdrop, it actually made me pretty excited to get to Alaska and see them out in the wild. Hopefully there will be a post on that at a later time, because that's definitely an item on our Alaska Bucket List! Where We AteAfter Children's Pool Beach, we stopped at The Kebab Shop in Little Italy for dinner. Holy smokes, if you like Greek food at all, this is the place to go. The Carved Chicken wrap was so good and the sides of saffron rice and hummus and fresh pita bread- insert drooling emoji- I really am going to go to bed dreaming of that tonight. After picking up dinner, we walked a few doors down to Extraordinary Desserts to grab a sweet treat. Honestly, just walking into this place was an experience just on it's own. The atmosphere most definitely lives up to it's name. With all the "extraordinary desserts" on display, I wanted to come back for breakfast...then brunch, then lunch...you get it ;) We settled for a giant chocolate chip cookie and an enormous rice krispy....which was split four ways, because....well....look how big it was!! Both were good, and satisfied our sweet tooth...though maybe some day we'll be able to go back with a more sophisticated palate, if you know what I mean ;)
After our day at Sea World, we left San Diego and spent the night at our friends' house to hang out with them a little more! Shout out to the Smith's for putting us up for the night! Their place also just so happened to get us a little closer to our next destination....DISNEYLAND! Follow us on instagram for more of our day-to-day adventures! Until next time, get out and enjoy where you live! |
AuthorWe're just a military family enjoying where we live, one PCS at a time. Follow us as we explore our current home, South Carolina, and beyond. The world is our backyard. Archives
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