New Things I Did in Disneyland

The last time I went to Disneyland, I wrote about how you can never do everything there. Sure enough, even though this was my tenth or eleventh trip to Disneyland (I'm not sure exactly how many times I went as a small child), I still did things I'd never done before! Like:

1. Rope drop
Rope dropping is going to the park before it opens. You squish into a mass and wait for the rope to drop…literally. As soon as the rope is down, the eagerly waiting people diffuse into the park. We rope dropped on both the second and third days. Happily, the parks weren’t too crowded until Friday night, and combining that with our getting in early for the rope drop, we walked onto quite a few rides during our day in California Adventure.

2. See new shows
Little Brother was quick to inform me that the Christmas parade was the same one that had been going the last time we were in the park for Christmas, but neither of us had ever seen the Paint the Night parade, which is essentially a more finessed version of the Main Street Electrical Parade. If you haven’t seen the Main Street Electrical Parade, you can look it up. It walks a fine line between being very cool and very annoying. The first time I remember seeing it was at the tender age of two. We’d gone to Disneyland for Older Sister’s birthday. Older Sister fell asleep before the parade started, but I was awake for the whole thing, munching on the lavender bag of jelly beans our grandmother had bought me. At two, I found the parade to only be very cool. The very annoying part didn’t register until years later, when I listened to the parade song on a Disney soundtrack and realized that the music is a) very repetitive, b) lasts forever, and c) is synth. I don’t care much for synth unless it’s Owl City-style synth. Happily, the Paint the Night parade takes the electrical concept of the Main Street Electrical Parade but pairs it with a much less repetitive Owl City song.

California Adventure also did a new thing this year called the Festival of Holidays. This consisted of performances from all kinds of winter holiday traditions. There was a Jewish band called Mostly Kosher and Diwali dancers on the pier. There was also a street show called Viva Navidad that featured the three caballeros. It was mostly Spanish and Spanish-speaking holiday traditions…with a little samba thrown in as a nod to caballero Miguel. Not quite tapas and samba, but still somewhat culturally confusing.

3. Try new foods
Let me offer you some sound advice: if you’re going to go to Disneyland, you’ve got to shell out the money for the food. Don’t be a cheapskate. If you’re not going to eat, you might as well not go. Most of the food there is amazing, and it’s all part of the experience.

Because of the Festival of Holidays, there were temporary food booths all over the pier at California Adventure. These booths offered food from countries around the world. For lunch on the second day, we all dispersed and grabbed crab cakes, lamb and rice, turkey pot pies, sliders with cranberry sauce, tarts…all kinds of things.

We also tried lots of food at other locations. We went to a few of my family’s tried and true favorites, but overall we tried to go new places. This meant getting bacon-wrapped asparagus skewers at Safari Skewers; sandwiches, soup, hot chocolate, and pastries at the Jolly Holiday (a place my parents have never taken us because it looks pretty fancy, but it was actually cheaper than some of the burger joints in the park); and chowder and bisque at Harbour Galley. We grabbed churros with caramel dip at the Cozy Cone Motel. Little Brother tried a pickle and a corn dog. The Seamstress told us that she’d never had a Dole whip; she wanted to try one. So we avoided the super long Dole whip line by instructing her to purchase one from inside the Tiki Room waiting area.

“This is a Dole whip?” the Seamstress asked, surprised. She hadn’t realized Dole whips are an ice cream treat!

Also, on our last night, we had reservations at Café Orleans…and everybody ordered his or her own plate of beignets.

”…you guys do realize that each order comes with five, right?” our waitress asked.

We assured her that we did. It wasn’t until we actually each had a plate of five beignets in front of us that we realized maybe this wasn’t the best idea. Luckily, our waitress kindly (and without saying, “I told you so,”) provided boxes so that we could carry the fried cakes throughout the park with us.

4. Go on updated/new rides
Peter Pan, the Little Mermaid ride, Space Mountain, Haunted Mansion, Star Tours, the Matterhorn, Soarin’, Alice in Wonderland, Jungle Cruise, Big Thunder Mountain…all of these rides had been updated since last we were there. My favorite updates were 1) the temporary Star Wars update to Space Mountain and b) the updates to the Peter Pan ride! John, Michael, and Wendy actually flew!!!

In addition these updates, we checked out a few rides we’d never tried before. The Golden Zephyr, a little bullet plane-type ride, was one of them. We also tried Luigi’s Rollickin’ Roadsters, a ride where cars dance to Italian music.

5. Disney bound
Disney bounding means casual cosplay. You wear normal clothes that are reminiscent of a Disney character. On our last day, we all Disney bounded. I was the sorcerer’s apprentice in a red dress, blue tights with stars and moons, and yellow sneakers. Little Brother was Peter Pan, the Seamstress was Kim Possible, and Pepper was Moana.

6. Meet new friends
We met Moana! In case you were wondering how adorable she is…she’s very adorable. Although she took over the Aladdin’s Oasis area for her meet and greet, which was strange, but I suppose it’s only fair payback after Iago took over Disney World’s Enchanted Tiki Room.

We also met someone who frankly was almost more special. See, my parents have this VHS that we Obnoxiouses watch whenever we need a Disney fix. It’s called A Day at Disneyland. It was filmed in the early 90s, I think. There’s a segment at the Big Thunder Mountain Barbecue where a man dressed in an Old Western outfit plays the fiddle and sings a song that goes, “Turkey in the straw, ha ha ha. Turkey in the hay, hey hey hey!” He’s only in about 30 seconds of the whole show, but he has such a distinct voice and makes such funny faces that it’s an iconic moment for us.

A few years ago, when Little Sister went on a trip to Disneyland (with the Ladies’ Man family no less; Little Sister and the Ladies’ Man’s little sister are friends), Little Sister saw a guy playing the fiddle in Frontierland and mentioned the video to him. He said that he was the same guy and even played the song for them! Then he asked where they were from. When they said, “Utah,” he asked them if they knew any “Utah songs” and started playing Primary songs (songs that LDS children sing at church). It seemed to be his way of sharing that he, too, was LDS…since cast members aren’t supposed to talk about religion with guests and vice versa.

After that experience, we found out that this fella’s name is Farley. Farley the Fiddler.

On our first day in the park, we were walking through Frontierland on our way to Adventureland when we noticed a man with a fiddle talking to some other guests. He looked vaguely familiar…

We convened in hushed whispers. Was that Farley? Was it not? Should we ask him? Should we ask for a picture with him?

He could probably hear us, because he walked over and started talking to us. Sure enough, it was Farley! He asked us where we were from. When we said “Utah,” he asked, “Have we ever sung the Utah songs together? Let’s sing the Utah songs together.” Then we sang “Popcorn Popping on the Apricot Tree” and “Once There Was a Snowman.”

Then Farley invited us to help him do a rendition of “Twelve Days of Christmas” on his fiddle. He fiddled. We sang and did the silly actions he told us to do.

After we were over, he said, “You had fun with Farley! So what do they get?” he asked the guests he had been talking to before we came over.

“A sticker!” they cried. Sure enough, Farley gave us his own themed stickers. Wow!

7. Explore nooks and crannies
I got to see a couple new areas of the parks that I’d never seen before. For one thing, I’d never had to get fast passes before, because my parents usually do that. I hadn’t realized that the fast pass areas were like little themed grottos. At one point, I left the rest of the group to grab fast passes for Haunted Mansion Holiday.

Guess what? The fast pass area for the ride is legit creepy! There’s a wrought iron fence around it…tall shrubbery…and cemetery-style statues enclosing the fast pass kiosks. There’s also weird chiming music. I got in…got my fast passes…and got out!

We also found something that not even Little Brother knew about. First of all, you should know that my family has one particular Disneyland tradition that we honor above almost any other: Splash Mountain at night.

Hardly anyone goes on Splash Mountain at night. Getting soaking wet late at night is a cold experience, even in California. Plus, Fantasmic is usually playing on the Rivers of America, so the rides in the Frontierland/Critter Country/New Orleans Square area tend to be empty. Fantasmic wasn’t playing right now due to construction. However, as it was December (and a frigid fifty-something degrees), Splash Mountain was still empty. We went on it three times in rapid succession. My roommates, who initially seemed hesitant about the idea, seemed to be loving it by the time we slogged off the ride. (You have to slog when your shoes are that wet.)

It was ten minutes to close at that point. On our way out of the park, we stopped at bathrooms on New Orleans Square. While we were there, we heard a pre-recorded conversation that was playing from one of the false apartment fronts over the shops. Little Brother had told us that a lot of the buildings had recorded noises coming from them. However, during the day it’s too busy and loud in the park to hear most of them.

Well, we could clearly hear this conversation in the quiet of the closing park. It seemed to be a dramatic exchange between two people cooking a chicken. And it was hilarious. We’ve been quoting it ever since: “…the chicken that I entrusted to your care!” Little Brother has researched it since we got home, but he hasn’t found anyone online who has reported hearing that same conversation.

So there you go. Even I, a person who has gone to Disneyland many, many times, did things that I’d never done before. I’m telling you, you’ll never run out of things to do there. It’s simply not possible.