Category Archives: Everything Else

Soarin’ Over California

6 Comments Posted by on March 29, 2011

People ask me a lot if I’m going to do Disney’s California Adventure for My Year With The Mouse, and I say no because there’s tons of stuff to do in Disneyland alone to keep me occupied for a year. But I do occasionally go over to California Adventure to hit a few rides, and on my Mom’s Night Out we went on Soarin’ Over California, so I’m going to blog about it.

Also, I just learned via the Standard Research Methodology that the actual name of the park has changed to Disney California Adventure Park. Which, quite frankly, is kind of lame. D-CAP? That sounds like some kind of nutritional supplement. What was wrong with Disney’s California Adventure? Well, a lot was wrong with Disney’s California Adventure, but that’s a whole other blog or something. Anyway, for the purposes of THIS blog, I’m going to call it the Mouse-Next-Door (MND).

The MND has a small handful of cool rides, and Soarin’ Over California is one of them. Now let me just get a personal pet peeve out of the way. The Mouse-in-law also has Soarin’ Over California in Epcot, but they just call it “Soarin’.” For some reason, this makes me irrationally irritated. It’s Soarin’ Over California because the film is you flying in the air over California. The ride at Epcot is exactly the same. That is, in Epcot, you are still Soarin’ over California.

Every time someone says Soarin’ without the California part, small blood vessels explode in my brain that, over the long term, might cause some real problems for me. Yes, I know that’s actually the name of the ride in Florida, but I can’t help it.

Let’s just get on with the post, shall we?

Okay, Soarin’ Over California was the first ride the mom friends decided to do after our dinner.

Notice the part where it says "Over California" underneath "Soarin'." I know it's tiny, but it's there. Trust me.

Soarin’ Over California is basically a ride where you sit on a seat and are dangled in the air, and then they show a movie on a hugely ginormous screen of various place in California from the air and your seat moves around like you’re actually flying over the Golden Gate Bridge or Yosemite or whatever.

First, you queue up outside and zig-zag for a while. This is also where we met Janine and Brianne.

It started to drizzle a little

Once you get inside, it’s pretty cool. The building is supposed to be like a big airplane hanger, and they give you lots of interesting things to look at.

The first time I saw this sign I thought it said "Wings of Flame" and I was like oh, famous plane crashes? Tacky.

There are banners with seminal moments in aviation as well as pictures lining the walls.

That wacky Kristin models the interior design

As an aside, I took the following picture because there was an adult in the line with a full face-paint job. Face painting is popular and expensive, and very very rare on an adult. I tried to hide the fact that I was trying to get a picture of the face paint guy by pretending to take a picture of my friends. Sadly, my aim wasn’t all that great and I just ended up with a picture of my friends.

Lesson learned--when you're trying to take a picture of someone, make sure they're actually in the picture

Kristin nearly got us kicked out by flashing a gang sign.

I'm kidding

At the end of the Wings of Flame part, you get funneled into either Concourse 1 or Concourse 2. The flashing sign cycles through the various airports in California.

I've actually flown out of the Palm Springs airport before. It's quite nice.

We were on Concourse 1. Shhhhhhhh–it’s the same ride either way.

You zig zag for a while more and then you are cleared for takeoff

Once again, I'd like to take the opportunity to point out the "Over California" part under "Soarin'"

You go inside the big giant room with the pretty blue screen

The cast member is here in case you get lost

You then sit down in your designated row

SIT DOWN, CARISSA! YOUR BUTT IS BLOCKING MY PICTURE!

There’s a simple seatbelt to keep you in your seat. There’s also a loop between your legs and if you’re under a certain height, you thread the seatbelt through the loop. This confused some of us.

There we go--group picture!

I laughed as I realized that, being a big group of moms, we were all leaning over and checking to make sure everyone else’s seatbelts were on properly. You can leave the kids at home, but you’re still going to feel horribly guilty if someone falls off the ride because you didn’t double-check their seatbelt.

Just sayin’.

Once everyone is belted in, the ride lifts up so that every row is equally facing the screen and you feel like there’s nobody else around you (except for the people whose seatbelt you just checked).

The screen looks like this, but it's much, much bigger

The movie itself is super cool. There are fun effects like when you’re flying over an orange grove, there’s an orange scent, and your seat gently tilts when you’re turning. Your flight ends over Disneyland at night during the holiday season with the fireworks.

And make no mistake–no matter how hard they tried to take the California out of Soarin’ in Florida, you’re still Soarin’ Over California.

Everything Else, Mouse-Next-Door , , , ,

Mothers in the Mouseland

14 Comments Posted by on March 25, 2011

As you no doubt know, I am the stay-at-home mother of a two-year-old, Theo. This lifestyle offers many advantages–one of which is having the time to go to Disneyland frequently and blog about it. However, there are some drawbacks, like being limited by the rides only 2-year-olds can go on. And outside of Disneyland, motherhood can become rather monotonous.

For social activities, one can join a mom’s group. I happen to really like mine–the Gen X Moms of North OC. We’re all moms born in Generation X (1965-1980) and we have kids roughly the same age. The best thing about a mom’s group, other than that I have something to do with my time and my kid gets to play with someone other than me and the television, is that they have Mom’s Night Out events. MNO are as they sound–leave the kids at home, moms get together on their own and have a good time.

Alcohol is often involved.

Our latest MNO was at Disneyland. We met at La Brea Bakery in Downtown Disney for dinner. Well, for dinner, and for the people who didn’t want to park in the garage, so they could get their Downtown Disney parking validated.

Half of the group--the drinking has started

Clockwise starting at 9:00, this is Monica, Ruth, Renay, Kelli (a repeat MYWTMouseketeer), Kristin, and me.

The food is actually quite good. I’d never eaten there before.

This is Ruth and Renay

Ruth had been to the park earlier in the day with her kindergartener and passed him off to his daddy to join us. Renay’s husband is a Disney employee so she has a special awesome pass that gets her and three of her closest friends in for free.

If I didn’t have an annual pass, Renay would be my closest friend.

Actually I just met her last night, which is another fun thing about a mom’s group that keeps changing so you keep meeting nice people.

Kelli and Kristin

You many remember Kelli from the Churro cart post. Kelli is the mother of Princess Katie, my go-to rental princess when I need to write a post about something involving a little girl, like the Princess Fantasy Faire.

Kristin also spent the earlier part of the day at the park with her husband and her three kids. She greeted us with some joyful news–she had a “minor celebrity sighting.” And living in LA, it’s not a huge deal to see celebrities and you try to act all nonchalant or whatever, but Kristin argued that when it comes to, like, celebrities who are actually on reality shows on TLC, that’s different than a regular LA celebrity and you can be all weird and want to get a picture or whatever when you see them.

I had to agree when she said that the minor celebrities in question were Kody and Christine from Sister Wives, a TLC reality show about a polygamist family.

Self portrait of me and the woman who saw Kody and Christine from Sister Wives

Kristin was also the one who said, “Is anyone else having another glass of wine?” which prompted me to naturally say “I will if you will,” which lead to a new round for the whole table.

It got darker and we added a few people

That's Bex in the white hat

And after we finished up our drinks and paid the bill and got out our rain gear, it was time to head into the parks.

Bag check without a stroller!

We went on Soarin’ Over California, Space Mountain, Matterhorn, Indiana Jones, and we stood around in some confusion for a while. I’ll post separately about the first two.

CJ, Renay, Carissa, Kelli, Bex, Liz, Me, Melanie, Kristin, Monica, and Ruth

CJ, Renay, Carissa, Kelli, Bex, Liz, Me, Melanie, Kristin, Monica, and Ruth

While we were in line for Soarin’, we met two ladies in front of us who had ALSO seen Kody and Christine from Sister Wives.  We got to chatting and they actually got a picture, so I took a picture of their picture of Kody and Christine. Obviously it turned out well. They promised to email the actual picture to me, so I hope they do!

This is Janine and Brianne Kingston from Atlanta. They’re an adorable mother-daughter duo who were very fun to talk to while we were in line. Everyone say “Hi Janine and Brianne!”

Leave me a comment if you know Janine and Brianne!

After Soarin’, we headed over to Disneyland. Sadly, as so often happens when a large group attempts to do something at the Mouse, we ended up getting split up, when those of us who usually tote kids around really wanted to go on Space Mountain and the one of us who was pregnant could not. Ah well, you do what you can.

Last big picture before we parted ways and pretty much never saw half the group again

I almost panicked because by the time I decided I really needed to eat a churro RIGHT NOW, the carts started closing. Fortunately Main Street still had one open.

Churros in the rain

And we ate them in line for Indiana Jones

Me and Carissa, right before waiting approximately 35 minutes for Indiana Jones

We met at 6:00 and it was quarter to midnight when we got off of Indiana Jones. Poor Kristin was like, “Haunted Mansion? Anyone? Anyone? Jungle Cruise? ANYONE???” but the rest of us decided to call it a night and schedule another mom’s night out another day.

All in all, it was awesome. Particularly where we’d pass other mothers dealing with their kids in strollers and we’d look at each other like, “isn’t it nice that our own children are home without us?” Although I did spend much of the night feeling like I left something behind. Like you know that feeling when you walk away from somewhere and you feel a little bit naked because maybe you forgot your purse or your phone, or maybe you left the gas on? I kept having to remind myself that no, I did not accidentally leave Theo alone in the stroller at the bag check, and that I was, in fact, there without my child and was already carrying around everything I needed.

Everything Else ,

Newer posts →