Category Archives: Everything Else

Sister Wives at the Disneyland Resort

4 Comments Posted by on May 8, 2011

So only tangentially related to MYWTM, it’s Sunday and Sister Wives is on! So I can’t believe I forgot this picture in the Picture Roundup! Back in Mothers in the Mouseland, Kristin the troublemaker announced that she had an amazing celebrity sighting in California Adventure–Kody and Christine from Sister Wives! Sadly, while Kristin did make eye contact with Kody and he did his trademarked hair flip, she did not get a picture.

Luckily we ran into Janine and Brianne Kingston from Atlanta, and they also saw Kody and Christine. They even got a picture! I tried to take a picture of their picture, but, well, here’s how that worked out:

It's really hard to take a picture of a camera screen, apparently

Fortunately, Brianne emailed me the picture she got. Okay, it’s of Kody and Christine’s back, but it’s proof people! PROOF! Both that Kody and Christine were at California Adventure and that Kristin isn’t as big of a whackadoodle we all think she is.

They actually look quite sweet

Don’t get me wrong–Kristin is still a whackadoodle. Just slightly less of one now that photographic evidence has been verified.

Everything Else , ,

Sadly, Something at Disneyland I Won’t Be Doing

6 Comments Posted by on May 7, 2011

Well this is just going to blow my entire blog here, but I have some unfortunate news. I won’t be attending the “Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides” movie premiere on Saturday, May 7th.

I know, I know, I hope you will still follow me.

Move premieres are a big part of Disneyland history, so when I heard that PoTC:OST (dontcha love how I just slipped into the lingo there? I’m so cool) was opening right in the middle of my year with the mouse, I thought “man, I gotta go to that!”

Except for the part where tickets cost $1,000. Each.

I love you people, but I don’t love you THAT much. To be fair, the ticket price goes straight to the Boys and Girls Club so it IS a tax-deductable donation, but that would require you to have a thousand dollars to tax-deductibly donate, which I do not. And you do get dinner and access to some rides and you get to hang out with some celebrities and you get a goodie bag, but that goodie bag better be filled with ten $100 bills for me to pay that kind of money to go to this premiere. And it’s not.

But wait! You can also go and stand next to the red carpet, which is black this year, and snap pictures of the celebrities. And I’d totally LOVE a picture of me and my favorite mulleted undercover cop of my formative high school years.

I was as straight-laced as they come in high school, but if you showed up as a "new student" looking for trouble, I TOTALLY would have found some drugs to sell you

I wouldn’t even mind that my favorite character from previous movies, the guy who WOULD have won a gold medal in archery at the Olympics if the stupid committee had stopped insisting that “Elves don’t have an official delegation,” isn’t actually in this one.

Hey South Korea, you may have dominated Olympic archery for over a decade, but Legolas can wait. He's immortal, and when Elves are recognized, he's taking you DOWN.

And hey, it’s free to just hang out next to the red black carpet. What’s there not to love about free? So I was all gung-ho to do that, but then I found out that you literally have to camp out there in your spot all day, starting at like 5am.

Yeah, I don’t think so.

BUT, I will throw you all a bone here. I went to the park earlier this week and caught some shots of the PoTC:OST setup.

"Pardon our dust"??? This thing is frickin' HUGE!

Over at the hub, there are giant posts with lights and stuff attached. They are so cleverly camouflaged, I also ran into one before I saw it.

Are we supposed to believe this is a tree?

But the real action is over on the Rivers of America. According to the LA Times, PoTC:OST will be projected on a bigass 3D movie screen on Tom Sawyer Island, which is only fitting because they replaced every single Tom Sawyer-ish thing on the island with pirate stuff. Poor Tom, he’s lucky he even gets to keep the island name.

Anyway, so they’re showing it on this screen, and they built the huge bleachers to sit everyone.

Bleachers are larger than they appear. No joke.

I guess they needed divers to put in supports for the bleachers, since they had to extend out into the river due to something about 3D needing a narrowing viewer area than 2D or something like that.

It looks like you could practically walk to the island

And the island itself was under massive construction.

This looks so cool I almost wish I'd dug into the couch cushions a little deeper and come up with $1,000

But the real question is–what are they going to do with all of this stuff on Sunday?

And all of you 21 Jump Street fans, check out Johnny’s PSA from 1988. Boy, those were the days.

Adventureland, Everything Else , , , ,

Shelby’s Guide To…Getting Into the Park

15 Comments Posted by on May 5, 2011

Picture this:

You’ve driven to the Disneyland Resort, you’ve waited behind a bunch of cars to pay your ridiculous $15 parking fee, you’ve groaned when you’re the last one in the row in the furthest corner of the parking garage (btw, I’ll do a separate post on parking–just stay with me here), you’ve walked through the parking garage and if you have a deployed stroller, you’ve waited for one of two dinky elevators servicing all 5 floors, you get to the tram area and wait for the next available tram–maybe one or two trams fill up before yours. Your sentence gets really long so you start a new one. You board the tram (“all children must be removed from strollers before boarding”) and wait for everyone else, you drive to the tram stop, you prepare to get off but have to wait for everyone else in your row to do so (“please exit on the driver’s right-hand side, and the driver’s right-hand side ONLY”), you lower your head and watch your step, and HUZZAH! You’re ready to play at the park!

Wrong.

I mean, not totally wrong. Just that after you get off the tram, you still have to go through bag check (hint: don’t bring a weapon) and then you have to get in the gate. And it all seems simple and straightforward until you end up in some line again and are so done with waiting you want to take a nap and you haven’t even made it past the Flower Mickey yet. Well, my friends, you can maximize your park-entry strategy, and I am now going to tell you how.

And I don’t want to ruin the surprise here, but basically it boils down to this:

1) Avoid strollers

2) Look for teenagers

When you reach bag check, look for the line that has the fewest strollers, preferably no strollers.

No

Yes

Strollers are not good at bag check, because anyone pushing a stroller ALWAYS has at least one bag, often more, and often they are quite large. The bag checker usually will make them open each pocket (unless you get a slacker), and if you’ve ever seen a diaper bag, you know that most diaper bags have about 734 separate compartments. Which is awesome if you want to keep your sippy cup separate from your diaper cream, but it’s not awesome when the bag checker has to paw through all of it. Thrice for three separate bags. And even though people are mere minutes away from parking their car and packing their stroller, they often forget they have another bag in the basket and they have to pull that out and get that checked too.

According to my completely non-scientific, observation-based calculation, it takes approximately 1.5 to 2 times longer for a stroller person to get through bag check than a regular person with a bag. And naturally, it take about ten thousand times longer for a stroller person compared to a person who doesn’t have a bag at all.

Which brings me to my next point–teenagers. Now there are times when teenagers are the bane of Disneyland’s existence (speaking as someone who was once a teenaged bane of Disneyland’s existence), but when it comes to getting into the park, teenagers are pretty much your best friend. Why? Because they don’t carry diaper bags. In fact, most of the time they don’t carry bags at all. And if they do, it’s usually like one or two backpacks per group, as opposed to 5 or 6 bags per Stroller Person.

Yes, I know I’m usually a Stroller Person. Believe me, the irony of this situation is not lost on me.

So when you approach the bag check, look for strollers and get in a different line. Even if the line has more people–mentally calculate 1.5 to 2 times longer per stroller than per regular person. If those regular people are teenagers, all the better!

And also, feel free to break from the herd and look for the lines at the far ends of the tables. As you can see in the second picture above, the cast member to the far right has no line at all. That means that they are available to check your bag. Don’t just wait in line because it seems like that’s something you should do and everyone else is so they must know better than you. Resist the temptation to be a lemming! If you see an open gate, go for it! And go ahead and take the opportunity to unzip your bag BEFORE you get to the bag checker, and then everyone will be happy.

Disneyland usually has lovely things decorating the area between the parks, which probably has an official name but I don’t know it. This year’s theme is memories and something something, so the park decoration is retro-styled to evoke all of those positive feeling you had when you were a teenaged bane of Disneyland’s existence.

These are the smiles of people who avoided strollers at the bag check

The old entrance sign! Serious nostalgia here. I'm not being snarky.

Okay, you’ve made it through bag check! Congratulations! If you need to buy a ticket, your next stop is the ticket booth, but I really can’t offer you any help on that front given that my ticket is good for a year.

Then you get to the entrance gate. You’re almost there! Here are your two strategies for the entrance gate:

1) Avoid strollers

2) Look for teenagers

See how easy this whole post is? You only have to remember two things!

At the gate, strollers cannot go through the turnstile. There’s a little swinging gate between turnstiles that the cast member has to physically open to let them in. That means that they have to turn away from their awesome efficiency  to scan the stroller-holder’s ticket and then let the stroller through. This takes a lot of time–the 1.5 to 2 times longer estimate holds here–so don’t get behind them.

No

For the love of God--NO!

But where do teenagers come in at the gate? Well, this is more another “avoid” than anything, which is to avoid families with children (as opposed to families without children? I don’t know. whatever), particularly families with lots of young children. This is because it’s quite often Daddy who holds all of the tickets and for some bizarre, unknown reason, it doesn’t occur to Daddy that he will need to show these tickets in order to get everyone in, so he does not have them out beforehand. And then he gets to the turnstile and he has to dig into his wallet and say “oh, here you go,” which is frequently followed up with, “oh, you need ALL of them?” Dude, yes. EVERY person needs a ticket unless they are under 2. That’s why you BOUGHT all of those tickets for everyone over 2. This should not come as a surprise that you need to show your tickets–ALL of them.

Teenagers, on the other hand, generally carry their own tickets. And because teenagers are used to those newfangled entrance requirements like producing your ticket, they almost always have them out and ready. So, vote YES on a line with a bunch of teenagers.

Sometimes you will see a family, even with young children, who all already have their tickets out, one per person, and are ready to go. Feel free to line up behind those families. But seriously, if I had a dollar for every time I’ve seen a family get to the front of the line only to have Daddy start digging through his pocket and wallet to produce tickets like he’s never heard of having to do something like this before, I’d be a very rich woman. Rich enough to be able to scream “THIS ISN’T THAT HARD!” and get away with it.

Line to the right? YES!

Also, special bonus tip! Frequently the gates at the far right of the entrance have fewer people in line.

And there you go. Have a magical day!

Everything Else, Shelby's Guide To... , ,

Disneyland Kid Essentials

19 Comments Posted by on May 3, 2011

So it should come as no surprise that I’ve been going to Disneyland with some degree of frequency this year. The vast majority of the time I’ve taken Theo. And having done that so many times, I’ve more or less developed a system of what I bring.

And you, lucky readers, are going to hear all about it.

Now most of the time we go for short periods–3 hours or less, so I keep my bring-alongs to a minimum, but I’ll address longer visits at the end.

So here you go–Disneyland Essentials for a 2-year-old.

1) Stroller. I love my stroller. It’s a Baby Jogger City Mini and if I could marry one baby item, it would be my City Mini. There are only a couple of very small things I’m not fond of, and the updated version fixes some of them, but for the price, it’s all kinds of awesome. And incidentally, the Disneyland rental strollers are a stripped-down version of the City Mini, so it gets the official thumbs-up from Disneyland too.

2) Parent console. The City Mini does not come with a parent console, but they will generously sell you one for $29.95. Or you can get a generic Sunshine Kids one for $9.98 that works amazingly well. Here’s my stroller console:

10 bucks? Sign me up!

And what’s IN my parent console? Good question! Uh-oh, it just occurred to me that I was using a numbered list (or in technical writing terms, an ordered list, but I have turned my back on that aspect of my past–farewell, technical writing!) for the above part and now I need another one. So I’m going to use letters. Because letters are nice like that.

A) Refillable water bottle. I have to say that this is my #1 essential item for Disneyland. If you bring nothing else, bring a water bottle. It doesn’t have to be all shiny and pretty and BPA-free, but for the love of God, water is free in the park. FREE! Do you know how many free things there are in the park? Not very many!! So take advantage of as many freebies as possible. Like water.

B) Chapstick. It’s the little green thing next to the water bottle. Chapstick with some SPF is preferable.

C) Snack for the kid. In this case these are leftover pancakes from breakfast. Not with syrup or anything–I’m not crazy. Pancakes with applesauce. And yes, Theo ate the breakfast portion about an hour before I gave him these, but waste not, want not!

D) Camera case, with or without camera. Now this one gets a little bit tricky. Since I’m constantly taking pictures, I keep my camera here where I can grab it easily. BUT, you have to remember to take it out of the console every time you leave the stroller. If you’re a forgetful kind of person, then don’t put your camera here. Also, if you have another person with you, the $10 Sunshine Kids console has another cup holder, just perfect for your second refillable water bottle.

E) Extra napkins. Once again, something you can get for FREE! FREE!! FREE!!! Now I’m really of the mindset that you can’t have too many napkins. I mean, you CAN, so let’s not go overboard here, but in general, it never hurts to have a few extra napkins handy. Especially if you’ve gotten food and didn’t end up using them–don’t throw away those clean napkins! A tree cries every time you throw away a perfectly good napkin! Anyway, napkins come in extremely handy, so keep them handy. Hey, that’s kind of catchy!

Oh and a tangential but somewhat related story–in my family, we are in the habit of keeping extra napkins in the glove compartment of the car. In my dad’s car, the napkins almost explode out of the compartment when you open it. Kevin was mocking me for developing the same habit until one day, he had to make a sudden stop and a soda with a loose lid flew into the dashboard. And guess who had all kinds of napkins handy for instant cleanup? That’s right! Me! WHO’S LAUGHING NOW, BUDDY? Although there was payback since I was kind of mocking him for carrying a fire extinguisher around in his trunk and then this one time he actually used it to put out a fire on someone else’s car. So no more mocking.

Okay, did we cover the console? Yes. Now we have:

This netting has gotten kind of saggy

Oh wait, I’ve completely lost track of my numbering system here. Let’s go with Roman numerals.

I) Autograph book with pen. The autograph book came with this little dinky pen and when Goofy was trying to use it (successfully, much to my amazement) I felt really bad, so I stuck in my own regular-sized pen. I’ve also heard it’s a good idea to put in one of those clicky Sharpies for maximum character ease, but honestly I haven’t really gotten around to it yet.

II) Sunglass case. If you’re cool like me, yours will have really ugly flowers all over it. The reason is because I have prescription sunglasses that I swap off with my regular glasses and because I have a funny-shaped head, they don’t fit in regular glasses cases.

Don’t laugh. It’s not polite.

In the basket we have:

Nice, big, empty basket!

A mini diaper bag, containing a couple of diapers and wipes. If your child is no longer in diapers, this is optional. Also, this mini bag pretty much lives in the stroller basket. Next to the extra napkins.

Moving on:

A cute child. Or an ugly one, if that's all you have on hand.

If your child will wear a hat, bring that. It’s really helpful. However, if your child is like mine, the hat is pretty temporary. It’s always worth a try though.

Because kids get dehydrated too!

Child’s water bottle. I can’t think of anything else to say about that.

But I do love this item–the Sippigrip:

Sure, buddy, throw that water bottle as far as you want

The Sippi Grip attaches to your water bottle and your stroller and if your child is prone to tossing water bottles in a fit of pique like mine is, it’s very handy.

And then:

My calves aren't actually this big. I swear.

Tennis shoes. There’s some debate on this subject, but I still maintain that a good, supportive set of athletic shoes is your best footwear for the park. Particularly if you need arch support. I’m not going to argue this point except to say that the worst footwear option is Crocs clogs. Well, actually the worst footwear option is high heels, but Crocs are a close second. Not only because they are a fashion horror show, but because when they get wet, they really chafe. I can’t even tell you  how many kids I see walking around with bleeding blisters from Crocs. Gross. And also, ouch.

So since I pretty much abandoned my numbering scheme up there, I’ll wrap it all up here for you.

1) Stroller

2) Parent Console

3) Kid tray if your stroller doesn’t already have one (I know, I just snuck that one in there)

4) Water bottle

5) Chapstick

6) Snacks

7) Napkins

8 ) Autograph book

9) Sunglasses

10) Camera (out of order, but whatever)

11) Mini diaper bag where applicable

12) Child’s water bottle

13) SippiGrip

14) Child’s hat and also child’s sunglasses if they will wear them

15) Child

Also,

16) Car key, money, park tickets. I carry these in a small backpack/purse but you can put them somewhere else convenient.

I usually put sunscreen on at home if we’re only taking a short trip, but if you’ll be there all day, add these items:

16) Sunscreen

17) Snack for adults

18) Extra socks

19) Backup outfit for kid

20) Sweatshirts for everyone

So there you go–my minimal essentials for toddlers at Disneyland.

And because these pictures were boring, I’m going to add some gratuitous cuteness.

Have you no shame, Shelby? Nope.

ADDING TO ORIGINAL POST: I had originally intended this post to just be a list of items that I bring with me for my situation (Disneyland, not the Mouse-in-Law, and a child who is too young to leave my side) rather than general tips for bringing kids to Disneyland. I could write a tip post if people are interested? Also, there are some GREAT tips from readers in the comments below. Thanks for sharing!! And feel free to add your own tips in the comments too!

And I forgot to add that I use a small backpack as my purse and that’s where I keep my credit cards, pass, etc. so I added that.

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