Mom’s First Flash Mob

Last week I spent about 24 hours at Disneyland for their annual summer presentation to the press. It is not as you would expect. It was no vacation. I was alone (until I met up with my fellow mom bloggers, WHAT UP?!) so that made it slightly easier but a little strange when I had no agenda because who goes to Disneyland alone?

But when I did have an agenda, I had to be at opposite corners of Disneyland or California Adventure with little time to take breaks in between. There was a lot of hustling after which my back is still recovering.

Besides being present for the flash mob, which was pretty cool, I discovered that Disney California Adventure has this thing called the Single Rider option. If you are not insistent upon riding the rides with other people, you go up the fast pass entrance and the workers stick you in where you fit. This helps you avoid long lines. Not every ride has this option, but it worked for the Grizzly Rapids ride (yes, I got soaked, but my phone didn’t die this time!) and Soarin’ Over California. I continued facing my fear of heights by riding the Tower of Terror – holy effing buffalo balls that was scary. There was only a 20 minute wait for that ride and I can see why. No need to go on that one again, ever. And then I decided that since I was there anyway and I wanted an ice cream cone and I had almost 100 emails to read on my phone I could stand the 45 minute wait for Toy Story Midway Mania, which was not really worth that long of a wait if you have antsy children with you, but it was super fun because essentially you just get to shoot stuff at things. Awesome!

I stayed at the Grand California hotel, which was lovely and had 80 pools and a water slide and a nice hot tub near my room and a spa where I got a $100 25-minute massage. Yeah, pricey. They didn’t even have a ladies’ quiet room or a private jacuzzi in there, either.

Look for my articles at CBS Los Angeles and ShePosts.com about my visit, or if you are interested in the nitty gritty and super serious Disney fan version, check out this blog that goes into way more detail than I will ever have energy for. But hey, she’s probably not that interested in pustulating poison ivy. To each his own.

Before you go, take a look at these choice photos I selected to show here:

This one is for my sister, Laura.  As Jodi Benson, the voice of Ariel from “The Little Mermaid,” sang “Part of Your World” before the unveiling of the new attraction Ariel’s Undersea Adventure behind her, I thought of Laura and how she sang the song as a little, little girl at our grandmother’s memorial in Florida in 1992.  I got a little teary.

This one is for my friend and former boss, Laura.  Right before this picture was taken I chatted Benson up about Waking Sleeping Beauty, the documentary film about the renaissance of Disney animation that was heralded in by The Little Mermaid – Laura’s company produced the DVD version which won Best DVD of 2010 by Home Media Magazine.  Benson said she loved the film and was about to go on but then we were ushered along by the PR staff.

And this one is for my kids.  Because what is more badass than a mom who hangs out with Storm Troopers?  (Okay, yes, a mom who hangs out with Darth Vader or Darth Maul but all he does is stare at you and look creepy, so that’s actually just sad.)