Disneyland Anniversary Trip (Part 1)

Every year, Annie and I usually go on an overnighter to celebrate our anniversary. Sometimes we get on a plane, sometimes a long drive, and sometimes a short one. Over the last 8 years, we've gone to Seattle, Monterey, Jack London Square, Los Angeles, Napa Wine Country, Santa Rosa, and other fun places.

This year, because of our busy schedules, we weren't able to go somewhere too far for too long. We ended up going to Ruth's Chris Steakhouse in Walnut Creek.

The food was a 3.5 stars out of 5. Not terrific, but not bad. The prices were a little steep for the quality of food, but the ambience and service made up for it. Personally, I think a good ol' Texas Roadhouse ribeye steak beats the fancy Ruth's Chris version. But I digress.



After we celebrated our anniversary, we realized that we still had two tickets for Disneyland that were set to expire by the end of the year. One thing led to another and we decided to make a weekend trip to Anaheim with the kids and call that our anniversary trip.



The first ride we got in line for was the brand new Finding Nemo ride. Disney has revived the old submarine ride and gave it a modern twist. Much like the movie this ride is based upon, it's much ado about nothing.

The lines were long (although, our 60-minute wait was nothing compared to Annie's cousin, Peter's reported 150-minute wait) and the ride was hardly worth it. I was expecting some sort of new animatronics technology that would allow cute and cuddley clown fish to swim up to your porthole and interact with you.

But no, it's pretty much the same, pseudo-3D, reflected screen technology that's been around since 1976's "Sea Wolf" arcade game by Midway. (Think ballroom dancing ghosts at Disney's Haunted Mansion.)

At least the park managers thought enough about madenningly long lines to give people activity worksheets with which to occupy themselves during the wait.



Honestly, we couldn't complain too much. Amusement parks are partially amusing because we are amused by the length of each line. It's part of the self-depricating fun.





Here's us enjoying our time in line:





And here is us in the submarine:



Stay tuned for my next post where I reveal which famous television actor was also at Disneyland!