Category: 2024 California

Left the park at 2:43 PM to go back to the hotel for nap time.

Apparently the kids were not as tired as yesterday as they just watched TV instead.

We had to leave the park anyway to pick up the rental van.

Skewers of meat and veggies on rice with coleslaw.

Harry wanted an Indiana Jones hat, so he bought one at the Adventureland Bazaar.

Grandma got them free buttons that a cast member was handing out. They say, “Honorary Citizen of Disneyland.”

After a quick ride on Alice in Wonderland we braved the crowds and found a spot to watch the fireworks. We arrived at our spot by about 8:40 PM. Fireworks start at 9:30 PM. We are all very tired.

Apparently six-year-olds need a little more sleep than adults. Poor Maggie has been getting up at 6 AM every day and going to bed after 10 PM. She is exhausted but still manages to be her sweet little self most of the time.

Today we are going to Universal Studios Hollywood. We had to rent a car as that was the cheapest transportation option to get there. We have to leave at 7 AM as that is the earliest we possibly can leave if we want our free breakfast at our hotel. It is only 60 km to Hollywood however, due to traffic, it could take us up to an hour even on a Saturday to get there.

We purchased early access for Super Nintendo Land, which should give us access to the new Mario Kart ride in the land for an hour before the park is open to the rest of the public. We need to be there by 8 AM. The timing will be tight.

We arrived promptly at 6:30 AM for breakfast, grabbed a quick bite and then rushed down to our rental minivan around 7 AM.

It took us 5 to 10 minutes to get the scooter disassembled to put in the back of the minivan but then we were off around 7:10 AM.

Current arrival time is 7:54 AM. That’s a little late, but it could be much worse.

So far traffic seems very reasonable and Leanne is using the carpool lane because there is six of us in here. 

Finally made it into Super Nintendo Land around 8:35 AM. It took quite a while to park and go through security and then walk all the way to Super Nintendo Land.

Super Nintendo Land is on the lower lot which meant we had to take multiple escalators down to get there. Grandma had to take an elevator and then a special shuttle took her to the lower lot. She received a private tour from the shuttle driver.

We are in line for the Mario Kart ride. We probably won’t have too much time to do anything else in this land. 

Very, very unique ride. They mixed augmented reality via a headset with steering controls on a dark ride track. It’s a little disorienting and very confusing in the beginning, but probably the coolest tech I’ve ever experienced in my life. 

Almost met Princess Peach but the line was way to long and already closed to more people.

Exited Super Nintendo Land at approximately 9:30 AM and entered Simpsons queue. Waited around at the upper lot for mother as she needed her special transport again.

The kid’s like to entertain themselves in line with Rock-Paper-Scissors.

In the queue at 10:50 AM.

Our Super Nintendo Land early entry gave us an Express Pass for this.

It’s apparently about an hour long.