Socal Stuff: Reviews by Donna Schwartz Mills

Holiday Fun at Disneyland

(Continued from my main blog, SoCal Mom.)

The "Magic Kingdom" was even more magical during the holidays. A gigantic tree dominated the Main Street entrance with the most beautiful Disney-themed decorations you could imagine, and all the shops on the street were decked with boughs of holly and lights. There were holiday parades, special holiday shows and fireworks. Best of all, in those days, the park was fairly empty and lines for the rides were short. 

Now that I have a family of my own, I don't need to run to Disneyland to enjoy the Christmas spirit. I married outside my faith, and we honor my husband's traditions with a tree, decorations, gifts and all the trimmings. But December remains my favorite time of year to visit the park (something I've written about in the past).

So I made an exception to my "no holiday music before Thanksgiving" rule and accepted an invitation to the park's Parent Blogger Holiday event last month. On top of that, I laid down the law with my husband (who professes to HATE all things Disney) and informed him he was coming with us. After all, this is one of the ways MY family always celebrated the season.

I do understand where my guy is coming from. He gets anxious on rides that go really fast or have an awful lot of ups and downs (like roller coasters). It's not much fun for him to sit on the sidelines while the rest of us do Space Mountain.

My husband quickly discovered that visiting the park is a different experience with children who are teenagers (like my daughter and the friend we brought along with us). We arrived early and discovered there was no wait for the Indiana Jones ride. So Gareth and I grabbed some coffee while the girls went without us. Thanks to cell phones, we easily reunited when the ride was over.

It was helpful that the event invitation was also extended to one of my readers and her family. As it turned out, the winner of the random drawing for the tickets was a friend who regularly reads the blog. Her husband is also a reluctant Disneyland guest... and we figured the two of them could keep each other company while we women enjoyed the attractions.

Thus, I was able to keep both my daughter and my husband entertained while he only rode on the attractions he likes: Pirates of the Caribbean, the Haunted House, Soaring over California, Mickey's Big Wheel and the Toy Story ride (the latter three at California Adventure).

Before we arrived, the Disney folks asked me if I wanted to test drive "Mobile Magic," a new phone application that helps you navigate the parks. Now, I've been visiting Disneyland for something like 50 years and I know the place pretty well. But I'm always game to try out a new tech toy... and I was surprised at how useful this one turned out to be.

Mobile Magic uses GPS to help you map out your visit. It also connects with Disney's own computers to give you up-to-the-minute information on wait times and FastPass schedules for all the attractions. Hungry? Mobile Magic will offer you a list of all the restaurants in your vicinity and the type of food they offer. You can use the app to find out where and when the different shows are scheduled in both Disneyland and California Adventure. It will even help you find the nearest rest room.

We found ourselves checking Mobile Magic throughout the day, and even got a second pass at "Pirates" because we knew it was only a 15-minute wait. It was incredibly useful.

My only gripe with the app is that it is only available to Verizon customers as part of an exclusive deal between the wireless provider and the Disney company. However, I'm told that if you have a smartphone with a different carrier, you can access much of the same information on Disneyland's mobile website.

This year, the Disney parks are celebrating the debut of Princess Tiana, the star of the studio's animated feature, The Princess and the Frog. Much has been written already about Disney's first African-American princess, so I'm not going to go into that (at least, until I've seen the movie). But we did catch the park's Princess Tiana Showboat Jubilee, which features actors and singers in character costume and some of the Randy Newman-penned songs.

Disneyland has always employed an army of professional entertainers, from musicians to singers to actors to dancers. This show was no exception. The cast member playing Tiana was not only beautiful, she had an exceptional voice.

While we parents all enjoyed the show, our bored teenagers were looking for bigger thrills. Their days of carrying an autograph book for Mickey Mouse and friends are long gone. At the end of the show, we let them go off on their own with instructions to meet us at 6:00 for dinner.

They ended up back at California Adventure, where they rode the Tower of Terror three times. They may be almost all grown up, but there's still plenty for them to enjoy.

In the meantime, my husband and I selected the much tamer "It's a Small World," which undergoes a holiday transformation every December. The ride is not only adorned with Christmas lights and decorations, but it gets a mash-up of "Jingle Bells" and "Deck the Halls" along with its dangerously catchy theme tune. The result is a ride that truly celebrates the seasonal theme of "Peace on Earth." 

The evening ended with Disney's celebrated fireworks show above Sleeping Beauty's castle. The spectacular effects were choreographed perfectly to some of the most beloved music of the season. We Jewish visitors were delighted that they had even slipped in The Dreidel song.

The show concluded with "snow," which fell along the entire length of the Plaza and Main Street.

In the end, Gareth told me he actually had FUN on our holiday visit to Disneyland. That's a good thing... because he's going to have to take me there, even after our daughter is grown up and gone. It's one of the ways I like to celebrate the season.

DISCLOSURE: The opinions and recollections in this post are my own. I received no monetary compensation for this post, nor did I promise that it would be a positive one. We did receive four free one-day park-hopper tickets to Disneyland and a buffet dinner as part of the event (as did my reader and her family). We were lent a Verizon phone with the Mobile Magic app for the day.

A Whale of a Good Time at Dana Wharf

Poor California. The October storm that passed through this week just seemed to emphasize how gloomy things have been this year: Our unemployment rate is somewhere around 12%, our state budget is a shambles and the experts say we will lag behind as the rest of the country recovers from the recession.

But the weather this morning was glorious. The sun was shining, the rain washed away all the grit and I could see the beauty of our mountains. Our economic woes cannot obscure the beauty of this state.

We are blessed to be near mountains and oceans and deserts... all within driving distance. And now that the storm has passed, the weather forecast for this weekend is sunny and warm... perfect for enjoying all California has to offer.

That includes surveying the rich marine environment on our shore. I've written before about our visits to the Monterey and Long Beach Aquariums and attractions like Sea World, where we were entertained by trained whales and dolphins.

A couple of weeks ago, we went one step further and embarked on a two-hour cruise off the shore of Dana Point, with the intent of seeing sea mammals in their natural habitat.

This is something I'd only done once before (before my husband and I started dating), and I've always wanted to take him and Megan along. So when the kind folks at Dana Wharf invited us to go on one of their daily whale watching excursions, I couldn't say no. We packed up our family (and one of Megan's friends) and headed south to Dana Point.

This time of year, humongous blue whales are ending their migration, while gray whales are just starting to show up off the SoCal shore -- so we were told we had a good chance of seeing something (even if it was just dolphins -- which are crowd pleasers in their own right). But with animals in the wild, it's hard to predict anything, as you can see from the video I took of our trip:

The cool thing about this kind of activity is that it's fun for the whole family - even jaded teenagers. My daughter's friend told her parents she had a blast. And Megan enjoyed it, too (even if she acted oh, so blase).

I have a feeling we'll be doing this again - we want to see more whales (and are especially anxious to get a shot of one "fluking"). And the next time we go, we'll probably head out early so we can enjoy a leisurely meal at one of Dana Wharf's many restaurants (there was even a jazz combo playing in the courtyard).

Diclosure: No monetary compensation was received for this post. No promises were made that the post would be positive. I did receive four comped tickets for the whale watching excursion - face value $44 each.

My Disneyland survey is still open! If you take the survey and live in Southern California, you may be able to join me at the park's holiday blogger event on November 21 - details in this post.

Halloween Time at Disneyland

There are two kinds of people in the world: Those who love all things Disney, and those who don't.

I am one of the former. My parents were married in August, 1955 -- just weeks after Walt opened the theme park that forever changed the game for everyone else. They visited on their honeymoon... and four years later, they initiated their toddler daughter (ME!) into the wonders of the Magic Kingdom.

From that point on, I visited Disneyland on a regular basis -- sometimes two or three times in a year (and even got to shake hands with Walt Disney himself after he followed us off the Monorail). As an adult, it became a family tradition to celebrate my parents' anniversary at the park. It's just the way our family rolls.

And then I married a man who doesn't share my Disney love. He'll go - but only because it's something the family is doing (especially when my sister and her brood come down from Northern California specifically to do Disney).

To be fair to him, he doesn't enjoy the attractions (he describes Dumbo as a "scary ride"), so I understand why he's not all that enamored with the place. When our daughter was little, they would patiently hang out in the Tomorrowland arcade while I rode Space Mountain alone. And now that she's a teenager, he's stuck at the arcade alone, because Megan loves fast roller coasters as much as I.

That's why I left the hub at home last weekend when I attended a blogger event to enjoy Halloween Time at the Disneyland Resort (running through November 1). This allowed my daughter to bring a friend in his place. And it was a relief to enjoy the scary thrills of my favorite ride in its October incarnation: Space Mountain Ghost Galaxy, where you not only speed up and down in the dark, but you get chased by a fiery ghost. The girls and I ended up going on that one THREE times. I shudder to think of how much money my husband would waste in the arcade if he'd been around for that.

Both Disneyland and California Adventure are festooned with orange and black Halloween decorations. I especially loved the whimsical "candy corn" farm at the newer park, featuring the ubiquitous orange and white triangles growing as grapes, tomatoes and (yes!) corn. 

While at California Adventure, you can get into the spirit of the holiday over at the Tower of Terror... but I am unable to tell you much about that one. I rode it on a visit to the park four years ago and vowed I'd never do it again, because the fast drop made me worry I'd have a heart attack. (This is the only type of fast ride I'm afraid of.)

Much more copacetic were the California Screaming roller coaster with the awesome Mickey Mouse loop, and the whimsical Toy Story ride where you can compete against your ride-mates in an old-timey round of target practice. These are not especially Halloween-y... but loads of fun.

Beginning tonight visitors to California Adventure can attend Mickey’s Trick-or-Treat Party, where you and your kids can dress in costume and enjoy 25 Treat Stops located throughout the park. (This is a separate-ticket nighttime event. See more information here - click on "Tickets and Offers.")

Back at the original Disneyland park, it wouldn't be Halloween without a trip to the Haunted Mansion. Once again, the Disney creative team has modified its classic "chill" ride with elements from "Nightmare Before Christmas": Jack Skellington, Sally and Zero are all there, as well as a real gingerbread house for the ghosts to feast upon. (This really made me hungry, for they piped in the smell of the gingerbread, too.)

And do plan to stay into the night for a special Halloween-themed fireworks show. I admit that I have always looked at the park's live entertainment as an opportunity to get on rides (the lines aren't as long when so many people are angling for a good view of the shows). So I guess that's why when I do stop to watch, I am always amazed at how GOOD they all are. The Halloween show is beyond brilliant, and employ all kinds of cool technology: lasers, projection, lighting and yes - amazing fireworks.

As long as you're watching the entertainment, do mosey on over to the Rivers of America (Frontierland/New Orleans Square/Haunted Mansion) for Fantasmic!, which the Disney folks describe as "a special effects spectacular," featuring most of your favorite Disney characters, clips from some of their classic animated films and a 45-foot, fire breathing dragon.

Find out more about Halloween Time at Disneyland on the park's special events website here.

DISCLAIMER: All the opinions expressed in this post are my own. I received no monetary compensation for writing this post, nor did I promise a positive write-up. I was comped 2-day park-hopper tickets for my family and an overnight stay at the Paradise Pier hotel, and the bloggers in attendance were treated to dinner at the Big Thunder Barbecue. My parents really did visit Disneyland on their honeymoon in 1955 and buried somewhere in storage, they've got a home movie of our chance meeting with Walt Disney circa 1962.