Golden State of Mind

I was super quiet on this blog for a while recently, but that's because I was in California! My husband and I flew out to the Golden State for a little over a week to experience some of the things we've heard so much about.

Pixar Pier and Pixar Pal-A-Roundl

Our first stop was 4 days at Disneyland. As a former cast member, I love all things Disney, but had never made it out to the original park. We stayed at the Paradise Pier hotel on property, and had park hopper tickets to both Disneyland and Disney's California Adventure. I was pretty amazed at how much they have crammed into such a small space here. They have multiple attractions that WDW doesn't have that I really enjoyed, like an Alice in Wonderland ride and a Monsters, Inc. ride. The Guardians of the Galaxy: Mission Breakout ride is my new favorite Disney ride by far. It was so much fun! I wasn't sure how I would feel about it since I love the original Tower of Terror, but I was pleasantly surprised. I finally got to see World of Color, which I have been hearing about for ages, and it really was as beautiful as everyone says.

I absolutely loved the Pixar Pier area and was super impressed by Cars Land. I do think a few areas of the parks were underutilized, but I find that to be pretty true with most theme parks. I was pretty disappointed because Sleeping Beauty Castle was still undergoing refurbishment. This had been going on since January and I had really been hoping the walls would be down by the time we got there, but no such luck. Overall we had a fantastic time, but I still have to say I think I like Walt Disney World better than Disneyland! #sorrynotsorry

The Queen Mary

After Disneyland, we spent a night aboard the haunted Queen Mary ocean liner docked in Long Beach. I was actually a little disappointed by this piece of the trip unfortunately. The ship was cool, and there were some areas where I definitely felt wrong and super spooked, like the isolation ward and the engine room, but I had hoped for more than what it ended up being. Also, the walls between rooms are super thin, and people were moving furniture in the restaurant above our room all night long. There wasn't much to do, and a lot of areas were closed off for a conference happening on board.

The gorgeous Hollywood Roosevelt

Finally, we headed to LA for a few days, where we stayed at The Hollywood Roosevelt. This hotel was everything old Hollywood glamour should be. The pool area was absolutely gorgeous, and we had a room with a balcony overlooking it. There was surprisingly less to do in LA than we realized, and actually flew through our list of must-dos pretty quickly! We did the Santa Monica Pier, Rodeo Drive, Griffith Observatory/The Hollywood Sign, the Hollywood Walk of Fame, and saw Marilyn Monroe's grave. We also went to two amazing themed bars: Scum and Villainy Cantina (a Star Wars bar) and Beetle House (a Tim Burton bar) which were some of my favorite parts of the trip. On our last night, the cast of Criminal Minds actually had their series wrap party at our hotel, so it was fun getting to watch all of that happening from our balcony.

Mr. Mayor inside Beetle House

We also ate a lot of incredible food on our trip (yes, I did throw Keto out the window while we were away, but I'm back on it now!) and had a really amazing time. It was so nice to get away from real life for a while, even if we had to adjust to a new time zone to do it! Now we're looking forward to our next upcoming adventures, and I can't wait to share them with you here! Any guesses where we're going next?

My Most Recent Walt Disney World Trip (December 2018)

I wanted to start doing more Disney-related content on this blog, so I figured why not start with a recap of my most recent trip to Walt Disney World! My husband and I spent 2.5 days at the resort at the end of December as an early birthday trip for me, and we had an absolute blast!

I actually used to work at Walt Disney World (which is a story for another post!), so I am all too familiar with the parks. My husband on the other hand hadn't been since he was a kid, so this was the first time he was able to experience everything as an adult. We split our stay between two on-property hotels: the Coronado Springs Resort and the All Star Movies Resort. Being that we were there at pretty much the busiest time of year, the week between Christmas and New Year's, we weren't able to get a reservation for the same hotel (at least not one in our budget, anyway!) for all three nights.


Having only two park days, we knew we would have to do some serious park hopping to get everything in. The first day, we hit Disney's Hollywood Studios and Epcot. DHS was one of my work locations, so walking back through the gates I absolutely felt like I was home. I was so excited, because this was the first time I got to experience Toy Story Land! We had been able to get some great Fast Passes at DHS, so we were done with that park around noon and took one of the Friendship Boats over to Epcot. 


I love Epcot, because it's such a relaxing park. You can stroll through the countries, peruse the various shops, and eat (and drink!) a ton of delicious things. We were able to ride Mission: Space and Journey Into Imagination (I know, I know, yes this ride is crap but I love Figment ok?!). I spent way too much money in the Japan pavilion (as usual), and savored my Grand Marnier slush. I also got to meet Baymax and just about died! Talk about the most awkwardly hilarious but adorable meet and greet ever! Somehow I managed to trick my husband into trying the Beverly at Club Cool, even though I think he knew deep down what I was trying to do.


The second day was split between Animal Kingdom and the Magic Kingdom. It was extra magic hours (early park opening for resort guests) at AK, so we knew we had to try to get there as early as possible to experience the rides in Pandora. This was my first time seeing this land as well! Flight of Passage was AMAZING! You could actually feel the banshee breathing as you rode it. Na'vi River Journey was beautiful, but a little anticlimactic in my opinion. Of course I tried the Night Blossom drink (very sour!) and a Pongu Lumpia (INCREDIBLE) in the Pandora area.


Magic Kingdom was our last stop. Just being there had me feeling giddy, as this was my other work location when I was a cast member! The park was still all decked out for Christmas, and if you've never seen it, the Magic Kingdom is absolutely STUNNING around Christmas time. This was by far the most crowded of all the parks. We were only able to get on our Fastpass rides: Big Thunder Mountain, Space Mountain, and Haunted Mansion, plus the PeopleMover and Carousel of Progress, but that was fine with me! I will always be a PeopleMover snob, so as long as I get on that ride I'm happy!

We had so much fun and can't wait to go back. Disney is an absolutely an amazing time, even if you're adults without kids like us! I've always known I'd never outgrow the Disney magic, and now my husband knows he's the same way.

Still riding our Disney high, we just booked a trip to Disneyland for this coming spring! I've never been there, or even to California at all for that matter, so we can't wait to head to see the mouse out west. I'll be sure to do a recap of that trip for you guys as well after it happens!