National Park Road Trip: Disneyland & Galaxy’s Edge (Part 11)

August 7, 2019InACents Leave a comment

Normally for a trip to Disney requires months of planning ahead to make sure you get some value out of an extremely expensive vacation. However, in our case, we literally decided to go to Disneyland in California less than 48 hours prior to stepping through the gates of the park.

We have visited both Disney World (Florida) and Disneyland (California) quite a few times, and Disneyland reigns supreme as our favorite park to visit. Having not been back since 2016, quite a bit had changed since our last visit, so we were extremely excited to be returning.

When the addition of Star Wars land was announced at both Disney Parks in the U.S., we had vowed not to return for years until the crowds died down. Disneyland’s Galaxy’s Edge had just opened about a month or so prior to our visit and was restricted to reservations to access the land. However, just days before our visit, the reservations had been lifted, giving us a golden opportunity to get to see Star Wars.

The other key factor was that during our visit, the passholders were blacked out from visiting the park, giving us the perfect storm to experience Batuu with way less crowds than anticipated.

Our game plan for visiting Disneyland was crammed all into one day, so to make the best of it, we purchased one-day park hopper tickets plus MaxPass so we could make Fast Pass reservations on the mobile app.

The first stop of the day was to get into Star Wars land.

Disneyland Galaxy’s Edge

Before doing that though required us stopping in Guest Services to get a Disability Access Service Card for our son who is diagnosed with ADHD and has trouble waiting in lines for an extended period of time. This proved to be our longest wait of the day, as they only had 1-2 people working Guest Services and a huge line outside. Regardless, we got our pass and were on our way.

It should be noted the Disability Access Service Card does not allow us to cut the line. We wait in line just like everybody else, we just do it virtually. We tell the cast member what attraction we wish to ride, they look at the current wait time, and then tell us to return at that time.

The Disability Access Service Card is the only reason we were actually able to ride the Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run within Galaxy’s Edge since they do not offer Fast Pass/MaxPass currently. As we waited for our return time to board, we checked out various parts of Galaxy’s Edge. The land is quite stunning with so many little details of the Star Wars storylines.

Of course we had to check out the frozen blue and green milk drinks, which we all preferred blue. We also picked up one of each of the specialty Coke, Diet Coke, and Sprite Galaxy’s Edge bottles as souvenirs. Not cheap at $5.50 each, but a cool keepsake.

We rode Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run, and it was interesting, but I am not personally sure why there is so much hype. It is a motion simulator that does not quite bring anything new to the table that we expect with Disney. Each guests has a role on the Millennium Falcon, but do their button pushing capabilities really impact the ride experience? Overall, it really was not too much of a departure from Star Tours.

I am not sure what I was expecting with Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run, but having visited Avatar last year at WDW, and riding Flight of Passage, it was a ground breaking attraction, and certainly a memorable experience.

I am really hoping once Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance opens it changes the face of attractions not only for Galaxy’s Edge, but also the parks in general.

Disney’s California’s Adventure

Following our ride, we bounced on over to California’s Adventure where we immediately took in Guardians of the Galaxy – Mission: BREAKOUT! We always enjoyed Tower of Terror, but the new Guardians version was a nice and well done upgrade. It was also the first time ever for our youngest son.

We later used our Disney Visa for an exclusive meet and greet with Pluto, at the best corn dogs on the planet at Corn Dog Castle, checked out the new Pixar Pier, and rode the unbelievable Radiator Springs Racers before heading back into Disneyland.

Disneyland

There is no need to rehash every ride we enjoyed on our day at Disneyland. We will say the MaxPass with PhotoPass at $15 per person was a great upgrade we found well worth it to make mobile FastPass reservations throughout the day.

Using the MaxPass system paired with the Disability Access Card allowed us to ride pretty much everything we wanted within one day.

At the end of the night, we ventured back into Galaxy’s Edge, and got lucky to experience the nightly park fireworks over Batuu.

However, the most impressive thing was just moments away. As we were casually walking through Batuu, we saw Rey roaming the area and no one really interacting with her. Our boys approached her in a moment of awe and asked for a photo, which she gratefully obliged.

Then, as we walked along with her, another guest (who we presume may have been a cast member), starting taunting her. She then made a plan with our 3 boys to run and hide. What proceeded was the most amazing 15 minutes or so of storytelling that capped off an unforgettable experience in Galaxy’s Edge.

Sure it was dark and a lot of the video is hard to hear, but that is what you get with a spontaneous cast interaction.

As you see in the video, we were pulled into an immersive storyline using the mobile app of the previous “taunting” guest to solve a mission. As we scoped out Galaxy’s Edge, we eventually recruited Chewbacca to leave his meet and greet and join the mission. We were in aww!

It was funny because when we first encountered Rey, we felt like the only people within Galaxy’s Edge. However, when our mission was going on with Rey, the land suddenly filled up and more kids joined in the adventure. It was pretty surreal and a fantastic way to end our day at Disneyland.

Also to note, typically we like to enjoy at least one sit down meal when visiting Disney parks. However, due to the spontaneity, we opted to just snack our way around the parks, and it really worked out well.

The heat while in amusement parks typically keeps us from eating too much, as we stay very hydrated drinking continuous water all day. However, snacking allowed us to grab some ice cream bars, skewers from Bengal Barbecue, and even late night sandwiches at Galactic Grill. Overall, we likely saved a ton in dining costs with this method versus are typical Disney dining protocol.

We ended up capping off our night with a ride on the monorail and were lucky enough to sit up front with the engineer. I had thought they stopped allowing this benefit, but we were excited to still see it happening at Disneyland!

As in typical fashion for our family, we rope dropped until park close at Disney to make it a worthwhile adventure. Time to do it all again tomorrow at Knott’s Berry Farm.

National Park Road Trip: California or Bust (Part 10)

August 5, 2019InACents Leave a comment

What do you do when your wife says, maybe we should go to California? You scramble to find cell phone service and rebook the whole back end of your trip in a hurry.

Our family typically visits California for Disneyland and Knott’s Berry Farm approximately every 2-3 years. Seeing as our last visit was in 2016, we were due to head back. So when my wife mentioned we were only approximately 14 hours drive away from Los Angeles from the Grand Tetons, while it seemed like a monumental task and cost, the incremental cost to do it now versus flying all of out there again in the future began to make sense. The tough part would not really be the 14 hours+ of driving to get there, but the backend where it meant 4 straight days of driving to get back to Ohio and my work obligations for Monday.

In order to make the drive from the Grand Tetons to California in one day, it meant an early start. So we got on the road around 4-4:30 am. While the surface that might sound crazy, considering it was really 7-7:30 am back home in Ohio, it was totally feasible.

Around 3:00 pm we approached Las Vegas, and I knew we had to at least show the kids a quick view of what the city was like. I had not been back to Las Vegas since my bachelor party in 2008. While I have never been much of a gambler, I had no real intense desire to return to the city of lights since having kids and adulting responsibilities.

However, as I found myself approaching Las Vegas, the lights, the glitz, the glamour, the FUN! I found myself caught up in wanting to see and do it all.

Knowing our journey was still hours ahead of us though, we had to make a decision and what to see, and I knew the right choice would be Circus Circus.

Growing up, my grandparents were frequent guests of the Circus Circus casino, and I knew they might be proud to see our kids in front of the marquee. Plus with the circus acts, games and rides, it was the perfect hotel for the boys to see.

Going into an amusement park or anything being surrounded with everyone trying to get into your wallet, I warned the kids ahead of time that we were going to show them something really cool, but only if they promised not to beg to do and see anything, and remind them we were extremely limited on time.

Upon getting into Circus Circus, their eyes were wide with excitement of all the sounds and smells of nightlife in Las Vegas. They walked around and saw the resort without asking any questions, taking it all in. So I did what any good dad would do…I walked over and bought them each a $10 game card to enjoy. They each played a couple games, won some prizes, and we were out of there after a quick walk through the Adventure Dome.

By the time we got into the Knott’s Berry Farm Hotel, it was approximately 8:30 pm, meaning we traveled a little over 16 hours in one day! Surprisingly, it was not too bad, as getting a really early start always helps tremendously with no one on the roads while the family sleeps.

Knott’s Berry Farm Hotel

We have stayed at the Knott’s Berry Farm Hotel on previous visits, so knew what to expect, thought this time would include a surprise for the boys on the last night of our stay as we switch from a standard 2 queen room to a Snoopy suite!

Our 2 queen room was your typical room, and we had a room on the 8th floor overlooking the pool.

Since us adults had not eaten, my wife took the kids to the pool as I dashed into the Mrs. Knott’s Chicken to Go in the Marketplace to grab some buckets of fried chicken and their amazing mashed potatoes and gravy for the win!

After an exhausting long day of driving, we needed to head to bed relatively early for a full day of Disneyland tomorrow!

National Park Road Trip: Grand Teton National Park (Part 9)

August 5, 2019InACents Leave a comment

Before diving into Grand Teton National Park, I wanted to briefly recap some thoughts on the Yellowstone portion of the trip. Planning for the trip, we had no idea what to fully expect when visiting Yellowstone. Having had booked overnight accommodations so far in advance and being locked into them since most places were sold out well in advance, we needed to fit everything in within a limited time frame.

My initial trepidation was we were not going to get to fully experience the full breadth of Yellowstone within two days. Were we going to regret not spending more time in the park?

In the end we spent about a day and a half within Yellowstone. By getting a very early start in the morning and using the Gypsy Yellowstone app, looking back, we felt we really did get to experience everything the park had to offer. Could there have been more time hiking and exploring? Certainly. However, we felt we crammed a lot into our time with Yellowstone, which probably felt the most hustled of all the parks we visited on this trip since there were so many sites to see.

We were very happy doing the upper loop in one day, and then the lower loop on the second day.

Looking onward to Grand Teton National Park, with no really plans on what to do or see, we felt this would be our time to relax and casually experience the park before heading home…or so we thought.

Grand Teton National Park

Using the Gypsy app, we casually were routing to our accommodations at the Colter Bay Village. The app is a fantastic tool for experiencing the parks. During our experience using the app, only one time did the guide recommend we stop for a meal, and that was at Leek’s Marina and Pizzeria just north of Colter Bay.

The cute little marina was home to a great view of the Grand Teton mountain range, Jackson Lake, and a fantastic array of fresh made pizza. We highly, highly recommend the buffalo cheese bread!

When booking accommodations in the Grand Tetons, we booked the tent cabins at the Colter Bay Village resort because they were a reasonable $76 per night. Our initial plan was to try and “rough” it as much as we could on the trip, so getting a minimalist tent cabin with pull-down bunks seemed like a decent option. However, by this portion in the trip, we had gotten pretty fortunate to stay in some really nice cabins, and the idea of sleeping on a thin mattress over a concrete floor did not meet our families needs.

We checked into the resort and while we could have made it work, it was not ideal. The tent cabin was likely ideal for those young campers who were out hiking all day and happy to have a place to crash for the night. It just was not ideal for our family, as all I could think about was one of our kids rolling out of their bed onto the concrete.

So we immediately went to see if we had other options. Shockingly, we were able to get two nights in a cabin down the road at the Jackson Lake Lodge. I figured there would be no way to get another room given things book so far in advance and this was the weekend before the fourth of July. So we quickly switched our reservation to a Classic 2 Queen Cottage, which was perfect!

The only problem we had to contend with was the sticker shock, which at that point was what it was. The room was over $300/night, by far the largest cash outlay we had ever paid for accommodations.

In the end, the accommodations at the Jackson Lake Lodge were probably one of my personal favorites the entire trip. The cottages surround the lodge and are a short walk to the great outdoor pool area, which our family used on both nights of our stay.

The lodge also offered various dining options, which we really enjoyed the Pioneer Grill, which in its diner setting, offered a more casual, and family friendly variety of menu options. We considered trying their Pool BBQ, but it was a tad too pricey to be worth it.

After a good nights rest, we set off the next morning to start exploring the Grand Teton National Park.

Grand Teton National Park

Shortly after getting on the road the next morning, my wife decided to put the bug in my ear of what would change the direction of the entire trip. Her casual dropping of “it is only 14 hours to drive to Los Angeles” and get to see Disneyland and Knott’s Berry Farm, immediately changed my focus, and I knew if we were even slightly serious, we were going to have to jump on canceling future overnight accommodations and rebooking new ones. Plus, the whole idea of 14+ hours in the vehicle further west when we were supposed to be headed towards home.

Our first stop of the day was on top of Signal Mountain to get some good panoramic views of the Grand Teton valley. So there I was trying desperately to get a cell phone signal (despite standing next to a tower on the mountain) to call our campground for the next night to see what our options were for cancelling. We got very fortunate that they worked with us and allowed us to cancel without a fee despite being last minute. All other accommodations for the remainder of the trip were still outside of the cancellation deadline, so we could easily do those within their apps.

So now, to plan for the next portion of the trip…this was supposed to be a relaxed day in the Grand Tetons, wasn’t it?

Without much of a cell signal, we had to find another location to find our options near Disneyland and Knott’s Berry Farm. So we ventured further down the road and eventually made our way to Jenny Lake Lodge, which gave me the wifi I needed to make some calls and get everything else booked.

Were we really doing this? Were we really going to push our travels out all the way to the west coast? My wife had already figured out what one day park hopper tickets would cost for Disneyland plus the added cost of MaxPass to help get us on everything we wanted. Ouch!

We will dive more into that portion of the trip in detail in subsequent trip reports, but long story short, when we visit the area we prefer to stay at the Knott’s Berry Farm Hotel. It offers a great location and accommodations adjacent to the park, and an easy drive down the street to Disneyland. So they were able to get us 3 nights in the hotel, including one night in their Snoopy Suite as a surprise for our boys. This was also quite surprising given it was the week of fourth of July, but it worked out in our favor in the end.

So now with the future of our trip traced out, we were on to enjoy our day in the Grand Tetons.

The mountain range was stunning, and we casually drove throughout the region, enjoying various views. The highlight for all of us was we eventually made our way back to Colter Bay to do some laundry and enjoy a day relaxing on the Jackson Lake beach on the west end of the property.

While the beach consisted of stones and not sand, it provided terrific and relaxing views of the mountains and the waters were calm and fantastic for the boys to enjoy. We ended up spending several hours here which was well worth it to relax after such a great trip and with so much new ahead.

After a fantastic day in the Grand Tetons, we opted to grab a nice dinner at The Ranch House Restaurant at Colter Bay Village, which I was delighted to get the vegetarian Curry Cauliflower Toss.

Tomorrow we get up bright and early for the longest continuous car ride for our family in one day.

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National Park Road Trip: Disneyland & Galaxy’s Edge (Part 11)

Disneyland Galaxy’s Edge

Disney’s California’s Adventure

Disneyland

National Park Road Trip: California or Bust (Part 10)

Knott’s Berry Farm Hotel

National Park Road Trip: Grand Teton National Park (Part 9)

Grand Teton National Park

Grand Teton National Park