National Park Road Trip: Journey East (Part 13)

August 8, 2019InACents Leave a comment

A year of planning and a last minute change to California, meant we had a long, long drive back to Ohio, with not much to look forward towards. Our family’s epic summer road trip took us to several National Parks, amusement and theme parks, and a whole lot of fun.

Planning for spending two weeks in a car comes with its own set of nervousness. How would the kids act in tight quarters for days on end? Would there be epic family meltdowns to go with the spectacular views? How much was this going to cost us?

We planned and saved money as much as we could along the trip, and on occasion, we splurged. Our initial trip was having us heading back home from the Grand Tetons and seeing what we could find along the way. However, when we made a last minute change to head to Disneyland and Knott’s Berry Farm, it meant a monumental task of having to get back across country.

The good news is that having to drive back through some pretty boring parts of the country also meant we were going to get to check off another bucket list National Park we always wanted to see, the Grand Canyon.

Grand Canyon National Park

Ever since we started planning our family National Park trip, it was my motivation to try and see as many parks as feasible, and the Grand Canyon was high on the list. However, initial thoughts would put us way out of the realm of feasibility to diverge all the way down to the south rim and then have to make our way home.

That was until we went to California. Looking at the route back from Los Angeles to Cleveland along interstate 40 put us within striking distance of seeing the giant gorge. So we spent the 4th of July seeing the Grand Canyon.

The scope of the Grand Canyon is astounding and just as beautiful as you see in pictures.

We downloaded into our Gypsy app the Grand Canyon tour to be sure and hear which stops were worth seeing.

Along the way we saw some impressive vistas, gorgeous sunsets on some very windy overlooks, and even saw the Dessert View Watchtower.

Now granted we were only in the Grand Canyon area about 3 hours before having to find a place to stay for the night, but my overall impression was it was cool to see, but not sure I would need to go back. I felt we saw what the Grand Canyon encompassed within a very short time frame.

Perhaps it would be cool to do some tours that go down into the canyon, and even see some of the surrounding sites, but I felt we got a good taste of the Grand Canyon without having to fully experience the Grand Canyon.

What would follow was lots and lots of driving and seeing absolutely nothing for hours and hours. It is quite astonishing how so much of this country is just open space with nothing, including gas stations, for extended periods of time. After our lesson earlier in the trip of almost running out of gas, we made sure to always maintain at least half a tank of gas at all times.

It was also quite interesting when we were driving in Kansas at the mammoth scale of wind farms as far as the eye could see in every direction. It is awesome to see us embracing renewable energy on such a grand scale. The fields could still be used by farmers and the energy created by the wind fills a massive amount of our renewable energy.

The only saving grace coming up is our path would take us to one more amusement park, Worlds of Fun, before arriving back home. Here we come America!

National Park Road Trip: Knott’s Berry Farm (Part 12)

August 8, 2019InACents Leave a comment

It is hard to believe that after a year of planning, and some last minute changes, we were coming up on the end of our family’s epic 2-week cross-country road trip. Part of the appeal to head further west than we initially anticipated beyond the Grand Teton National Park was to visit Disneyland and Knott’s Berry Farm, two of our family’s absolute favorite theme parks!

After a full day at Disneyland, we used our Cedar Fair Platinum passes to get us free admission and parking at Knott’s Berry Farm. On every other trip, we flew to California, giving us limited luggage space to return home with a bountiful amount of Knott’s food products.

The Knott’s Berry Farm Marketplace, located outside of the gates of the park, offer some of the most spectacular food items that are great for us cooks! Since introducing the Berry Market line of products, all of the sauces, jellies, etc. feature premium ingredients with none of the filler colors or HFCS that is found in many other brands. Also, since Knott’s is the home of the boysenberry, they offer a spectacular array of sauces, including boysenberry punch concentrate. Driving all the way to California meant we could try and fit as much as we possible could into our van for the journey home. Jackpot!

We had hoped to grab an early breakfast at Mrs. Knott’s Chicken Restaurant, but despite saying they opened early, the doors were locked, so we headed next door to grab some DoughKnotts, fancy doughnuts, at the nearby shop. We highly recommend the boysenberry DoughKnott, which is topped with a smashed piece of boysenberry pie! Heaven!

We had not been back to Knott’s Berry Farm since the introduction of HangTime to the boardwalk area of the park, so we headed there first thing. Following we also got our first ride in ever on Xcelerator, which is similar to our Top Thrill Dragster at Cedar Point back home.

A large portion of our morning was spent in the area surrounding Timber Mountain Log Ride, since it was down. Little did we know it was the first day of testing our new seats on the logs, so we were excited to be among the first to try them out and this fantastic attraction!

We also got to try our first meal at the Boardwalk BBQ using our dining plan. WOW, what an upgrade! The food was all fantastic, with great portion size and terrific variety of entrees and sides. With a lot of the Cedar Fair parks receiving BBQ style restaurants in the past couple of years, The Boardwalk BBQ might rank up there as our favorite!

We also spent a portion of our day enjoying Ghost Town Alive!, the interactive experience where you become part of the storylines. Our family is big fans of the character driven experience, and our boys fit right in trying to decipher the clues. It was also very interesting seeing props and aspects that are very similar or the same as those at Cedar Point’s Forbidden Frontier on Adventure Island.

Another first for our family was getting to check out the brand new Calico River Rapids. Knott’s Berry Farm overhauled the former Bigfoot Rapids with a new theme and loads of new animatronics that help it tie into the western town of Calico theme. Very cool changes to Calico River Rapids, and it is something we would love to see implemented on tube rapid rides at other Cedar Fair parks. Cedar Point is the perfect example where the overlay would fit in well on the Frontier Trail!

The only areas we did not get to see on this trip to Knott’s Berry Farm were Camp Snoopy and Fiesta Village. I am always shocked how much we did not get to see in our visits to the Farm, as there is so much to see an explore. One of these visits we are going to have to force ourselves to enjoy a couple full days at the park to really take it all in, as I always get home and say, darn, I did not see ________.

Knott’s Hotel Camp Snoopy Room

At some point in the day, I had to sneak out of the park and switch over our belonging to the Camp Snoopy room so we could surprise the boys later in the day.

We had opted to change over the last night of our stay into the Camp Snoopy rooms, which are specially decorated and include plush Snoopy for the kids. Of course the best part about staying in a Camp Snoopy room at the Knott’s Hotel is that Snoopy personally comes to tuck you into bed each night between 8-8:30 pm. Imagine your kids surprise when there is a knock at the door, and the big dog himself is there at the door. After some quick pictures, he tucks each of the kids into bed and gives them a dog kiss goodnight. It is worth every penny!

Well that about almost wraps up all the FUN packed into two full weeks, and in the morning we start chugging along with four days straight driving back to Ohio. There is a long road ahead!

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.

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