Disneyland Hotel: Day at Disneyland!

This month, Disneyland is celebrating AP Days! Each week there's a different theme celebrating different aspects of the park, as well as activities at 3 locations in both Disneyland and California Adventure. 

The first week's theme was Main Street to Mickey House, followed by Live For Adventure, and then the week we attended the theme was Fantasy Fun.

We went first to the one at Blue Sky Cellar in California Adventure. The line tended to get backed up because they had to scan your AP pass in order to go in, and then scanned it again in order to give you pins. It was cool of them to give us the previous weeks' pins in addition to that weeks, plus another pin advertising Snow White being released on Blu-Ray.

Once inside, there was a place for kids (and adults!) to color, as well as some cell phone charging stations. They were pretty much just outlets, though, so you needed to bring your own charger. Oh, they also handed out recipe cards. That was pretty much it for that location.

From there, we went to Stage 17, also at California Adventure. I guess this area is typically used as event space. It's back around the Monsters Inc. ride. They also gave you pins there too, but they were the same ones as every location. There was a lot more activity happening here. In addition to coloring areas, there was a pin-trading station, plus they were handing out small bottles of water and bags of popcorn! A bunch of chairs were set up facing a stage where various characters came out for photo ops. When we were there, Roger Rabbit took the stage. It would have been cool if they played his movie while he was out there, but oh well.

Overall, I found the whole AP Days thing to be somewhat underwhelming. I mean, I guess I don't know what I was expecting, but it was just kind of... lacking in content? Pins and recipe cards are nice, I guess. The water and popcorn was a nice afternoon treat. Maybe if there were different pins at each location, or if there were more locations included. I don't know.

While we were at California Adventure, we went to Turtle Talk with Crush, which I'd somehow never been to before! It's in the underrated Animation Academy, where Beast's Library and the Sorcerer's Workshop, where they teach you to draw Disney characters, are. We still need to do that one.

In Turtle Talk, Crush the turtle from Finding Nemo actually interacts with the audience. It's pretty cool, and I kind of don't know exactly how that works. I'm sure someone can see the audience and is responding accordingly, but Crush is also making facial expressions and moving around, so it's gotta also be some kind of computer magic!

We also went to Beast's Library, because my boyfriend hadn't gotten to see it yet. I took the Disney character quiz again, and this time...

I got Ariel!

Pretty much.

Disneyland Hotel: Dining Edition!

We ate at several of the restaurants at the Disneyland Hotel during our stay there! 

Our first night, we decided to check out Trader Sam's, a really cool Tiki-themed bar. The previous time we'd been there, it was too crowded to sit down, so we left. This time, though, we were lucky enough to find a table hidden away in the back! We ordered a couple Shipwreck drinks, which came in a cool collectible mug and prompted a mini-show to start. A bartender rang a bell, lights went off, and our waiter yelled SHIPWRECK, and then gave us our drinks.

We ordered the Hawaiian flatbread and pulled pork sandwich. Trader Sam's shares it's kitchen with Tangaroa Terrace, so you can also get these items there.

The next day, we had lunch at the Tangaroa Terrace, and tried a couple different things.

This time, we tried the bacon cheeseburger and the pork flatbread.

That night, we went to a fancy dinner at Steakhouse 55, also located at the Disneyland Hotel. We had a drink there in the lounge on a previous trip, but had never had dinner there before.

I got a huge steak, and we ordered some mac and cheese and a baked potato as well!

They even gave us a special dessert, on the house, since we were celebrating a belated Valentine's Day!

The next day, we had lunch at the Blue Bayou, the restaurant in New Orleans Square which you can see while floating by on Pirates of the Caribbean! I haven't eaten there in probably like a decade. I remember how hard it was to read the menu, as it's pretty dark in there. Since that last time, they've added a backlight to the menu, so you can very easily read it!

They are famous for their Monte Cristo sandwich. Unfortunately I forgot to take a picture of it, but it was really fancily presented, and it was very tasty!

They gave us a special dessert here as well! Check out that flare from the candle, no editing there, that's just how the picture came out!

Tomorrow, I'll post about our day at Disneyland, along with the AP Day activities we participated in!

Our Stay at the Disneyland Hotel!

This weekend, I did a thing that's been on my bucket list since I was a wee-Disneyland fan - I spent the weekend at the Disneyland Hotel with my amazing boyfriend!!

Like the rest of Disneyland, the hotel is meticulously detailed and themed. Even the lobby is beautiful. Check out these amazing teacups chairs!

The lobby also had gorgeous purple chairs to sit in while you watch some Disney cartoons.

The entire hotel had tons of Disney artwork literally everywhere. I wish they sold prints of some of these.

Our room was SO SO COOL!! Everything was Disney themed! I love the pillows on each bed that say "A Dream Is A Wish Your Heart Makes... When You're Fast Asleep."

Look at this amazing headboard! There's a button on the lamp on the nightstand that triggers an instrumental 'A Dream Is A Wish Your Heart Makes' song, and causes little stars and fireworks on the headboard to light up. This is known, as I learned from the A Walk in Walt's Footsteps tour, as a Goodnight Kiss. 

 This is what it looks like lit up. IT IS AMAZING.

This picture is up on the wall next to the bed, as well as in the Main Street Opera House, right above the actual bench Walt Disney sat on when he thought up the concept of Disneyland.

There's a cute desk area with a lovely mirror above it, plus...

...when you look into the mirror from the other bed, the portrait is in the center of it! I know this can't be a coincidence.

Even the bathroom is themed! Check out Mickey's gloved hands holding the lights!

There's a Dumbo portrait hanging in the toilet room (what do you even call a room off the rest of the bathroom where the toilet resides?).

The sheets have almost hidden Mickey's on them! And they were sooo soft, probably some of the best sheets I've slept on.

It turns out there are a couple tours we actually haven't taken yet! The Happiest Hotel on Earth tour is available exclusively to people staying at the Disneyland Resort. The small tour group met by the giant map of Disneyland by the front doors. It had little light up animations popping up all over the map, pretty awesome.

The tour started out with a video on the history of the hotel, and all it's incarnations. The hotel once included a marina and a golf course! Those are long gone, but there are remnants that remain, if you know where to look. The hotel consists of 3 towers, Fantasy, Adventure, and Frontier, and each tower has similar theming to the corresponding lands in Disneyland, down to the trees and landscaping. The Fantasy Tower, where we stayed, is the main one, which has the lobby and Small World theming throughout. 

The Adventure Tower features some maquettes of animals found within the Jungle Cruise ride. 

I love that picture of the opening to Adventureland. It looks like it was taken in the early days of the park.

Next up, Frontier Tower! The walkway entrance to this tower is in the shape of a giant horseshoe!

The lobby in this tower has an incredibly detailed scale model of the Big Thunder Mountain Railroad ride. It was a lot of fun to look around at every single part of it and see all the small details!

It even had the goat! Ever tried the Goat Trick? It's never worked for me...

I don't think I would have even seen this beautiful waterfall area if we hadn't taken the tour. Apparently there's a geyser there, but we never saw it go off.

Our room had a great view of the fireworks show at night. There was even a channel on the TV that played the accompanying soundtrack, so it was like you were right there! Speaking of the TV, it had every Disney-owned channel possible, as well as channels dedicated to Radio Disney, Star Wars commercials, and the soundtrack to the park itself!

Next up, all the restaurants we dined out during our Disneyland weekend!

Marvel Collector Corps - February Deadpool Box Unboxing!

I just got my latest Marvel Collector Corps subscription box! This month's theme was Deadpool, appropriately enough since the movie just came out! I saw it last week and really enjoyed it a lot! I wasn't really that familiar with Deadpool prior to the movie, aside from all the Deadpool cosplayers I've seen. Having seen the movie now, I think I'd like to read some Deadpool comics!

I love the shape of the box, and how when you first open it, you see comic panels and a flap with a patch and pin on it. It keeps the anticipation going!

There were a lot of Funko items in the box this month! I was very pleased. Check out this cute Deadpool Dorbz, dressed as a cowboy, complete with wooden stick pony.

And you got your obligatory Funko Pop, of course! This one is pretty cool looking because there's a clear thing at the bottom, making it look like Deadpool is midjump!

This is the first Mopeez I've gotten in a box yet! It's a super cute red on black Deadpool!

And here is a Deadpool Funko Pop comic book! Deadpool seems to be in top of a big pile of chimichangas!

And the t-shirt! Apparently this is the only item that had variations between boxes. There are also yellow and black, and gray shirts. I like the classic red and black one I got. I'm thinking about wearing this one to Wonder-Con this weekend! I'll be curious to see how many other people will be wearing it as well!

Here's the whole kit and kaboodle! This was a great box this month. I'm really pleased with what was in the box, and how many items there were!

Friday Faves - TurbieTwist, OJ, & Valentia!

Here's a few of my favorite things recently!

TurbieTwist!

My fellow thick-hair-havers know what it's like to try to wring out your hair after you wash it. You basically get a second shower with the amount of water that your mane still contains! And then it takes forever to dry, even if you're using a blowdryer! And don't even get me started on how frizzy it is until I straighten it. 

A year or so ago, I started using old cotton pillowcases to dry my hair, after reading that rubbing thick/coarse hair with a normal towel causes more frizz. It worked pretty okay, but then a couple months ago, I read a blog that recommended the TurbieTwist for thick-hair girls. All you have to do is flip your hair over, place the rounded section over the back of your head, gather your hair in the tail, twist, and put the end into the rubber band in the back. Voila! It's an easy way to let your hair dry out a bit while the TurbieTwist absorbs the excess moisture, so that your shirt or couch doesn't take the brunt of it. I usually end up changing it out after a while as it gets pretty soaked; luckily I bought a two-pack!

Every time I use the TurbieTwist, my hair is much less frizzy, and it's even less wavy, which means less time wielding a straightener against the madness that is my hair. 


The People vs OJ Simpson!

This probably dates me, but I remember the OJ Simpson trial fairly well. I think I was in 3rd or 4th grade, so I was old enough to sort of mostly know what was going on. The People vs OJ Simpson premiered a couple weeks ago, and it's giving me a whole new perspective on the saga. 

The show began with the murder of Nicole Brown and Ron Goldman, but it doesn't immediately leap into the trial. All the episodes thus far have been exploring the days after the murder, leading up to the trial. We see OJ learn about the murder, his friends reacting to his being named a suspect, and of course, that infamous Bronco chase. It's funny, I remembered that it ended up pre-empting the Houston Rockets NBA finals playoff, and they actually show that during in the show, with producers saying that the car chase was more important than the playoffs!

The casting on this show is great. David Schwimmer is perfect as Robert Kardashian, one of OJ's many attorneys and his close friend. I thought it would be hard to see him as anything but Ross from Friends, but he is killing it (oh god, poor choice of words, take it back) as the emotional center of the story. He and OJ were long-time friends, and we get to see the story from his perspective, as a guy who is blind-sided by the bewildering situation of his famous best friend being accused of murdering his ex-wife. 

John Travolta is another casting I was surprised by, but he is great in the role of Robert Shapiro, OJ's main attorney. He has a particular way of talking that really resembles the actual person, and helps immerse you in the story as you see him as more of Shapiro and less as Travolta with really thick eyebrows.

Sarah Paulson is a great actress, of course, and plays Marcia Clark, the head prosecutor (is that even the right word, I don't know legal jargon that well), rocking that that 90's hairstyle fierceness as she demands that justice be paid for Nicole Brown, a former battered wife turned murder victim in a crime that wouldn't have happened if OJ had gone to jail for domestic abuse much sooner.


Valentia!

I love getting skincare products to review! It's only been in recent years that I've really tried to actively take care of my skin, and I've been lucky enough to get some amazing products to try out that I might not have otherwise heard of. I recently got two of Valentia's products, True Glow Eye Cream and Ultra Plumping Hydration Mask

I love the True Glow Eye Cream! I'm super paranoid about lines around my eyes, because that's a sure sign that will make you look older than you are. This eye cream made my under-eyes feel plumper. At first I was just putting it on at night, but now I've also been putting it on in the morning, before makeup. It's perfect because it goes on so smooth, and feels silky when it dries, not flaky or tight or oily, and it keeps my makeup from collecting in those fine lines and making them look worse than they are!

The Ultra Plumping Hydration Mask was unlike most masks, with more of a jelly consistency than creamy or oily like most face masks. It smelled quite nice though, and had a great array of beneficial ingredients, like protein amino acids, hyaluronic acid, buckthorn oil, green tea, and aloe vera. My face felt so refreshed afterwards, it was like getting back from the spa! This mask is definitely going into my regular skincare rotation.

Disclaimer: I received Valentia products in exchange for my honest review.