Tag Archives: Characters

Love & Hate – Glass Slipper

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[Over 2025, the Sip Family will use their Magic Key year passes to attend the Disneyland Resort frequently. Therefore, I think a lot of my content will be Disney based, while also presenting a Disney-themed cocktail recipe.]

To be clear, Disneyland is my happy place and when I’m there, I feel like I’m in my most comfortable tourist bubble. That said, the happiest place on earth isn’t perfect and it does have flaws. After countless trips to my mecca, here are the elements I love and hate about the resort, starting with those I appreciate:

Rides and Attractions

At the root of visiting these parks is experiencing the rides and attractions that are world famous. It’s always hard to select my favourite ride, as there are too many contenders. Sometimes, it’s a case of my favourite ride being whatever one I’m currently on! Among my preferred experiences are the Matterhorn, Space Mountain and Radiator Springs Racers.

Themed Lands

No company in the world does theming better than Disney. When you walk through Cars Land, for example, you feel as if you’ve stepped into Radiator Springs and the Cars movie universe. Even lands I’m not thrilled about, such as Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge, truly immerse you in the fictional universes you’ve come to love (or sometimes hate!).

Characters

While I’m no longer seeking autographs and pictures like I did as a kid, it can still be exciting to see various characters around the park. It’s fun to watch the Sipplings meet and interact with today’s breadth of costumed creatures, whether they be from Disney classics or newer properties, such as the superheroes of Marvel. Particularly entertaining are the likes of the Cruella DeVille, the Mad Hatter and Gaston.

Food and Treats

As I’ve often said, the resort has really upped its food and beverage game since I was younger. Prior to each trip now, I go through all the options available around the park and make a wish list of what I’d like to try or experience again. There’s so many options now that the Sipplings have enjoyed treat marathons, where we try as many goodies as we can over our stay.

Cast Members

Most of these folks work very hard to keep guests happy. It can’t be the easiest job, so kudos to those that go the extra mile to enhance the Disney experience.

Beers and Cocktails

I am still floored with how different Disney World and Disneyland are with ideas around booze. Disney World seems flush with drinking establishments, while at Disneyland only one of the two parks offer a variety of beverages, while the other only has beer, wine and cocktails at their sit-down dining options. Still, lineups are much more tolerable with a drink in hand and roaming the park with a beverage is now commonplace.

Family Time

Walt Disney created Disneyland to provide a place for people, particularly families, to enjoy together. Our trips to the resort with the Sipplings provide focused time with each other, minus the typical distractions you find at home. We get to experience the thrills, chills and spills of the park as a unit and build up core memories that we’ll all appreciate for the rest of our lives.

Getting Away From Life

When I’m at Disneyland, no matter how briefly, my outside world challenges melt away. Work concerns, bills that are due, etc., are all pushed to a space in my mind that is locked for the duration of our stay. Sure, those adult problems come back in a hurry, but it’s nice to silence them for a short period of time.

Being a Kid Again

Disneyland provides me the opportunity to feel like a kid again… but this time I have my own money to enjoy the parks as I see fit. You can be goofy and carefree and throw around cash like you’re Scrooge McDuck!

It feels almost sacrilegious to talk about the negatives of a place that has brought me so much joy over the years, but here we go:

Reservation System

Before you even get into the park nowadays, there are many annoyances. Tops among them, is the reservation system, which limits visitors to four reservations at a time. This means, if you plan to be in the area for longer than four days, you have to add more days as you go along. That can be stressful, as you never know if things will work out as you hope. Also annoying – and seemingly unfair – is the fact Disney World has removed their reservation system, while it remains at Disneyland.

Crowds

The resort is never not busy. Sure, some days and times of the day can be lighter, but there is always a mass of humanity strolling through the park gates. It’s certainly not a place to be if you hate larger gatherings. I can get uncomfortable in these situations, but for whatever reason, I’m able to largely put that aside for the sake of being at Disneyland.

Lineups

These crowds I speak of can create long lines, meaning you spend the bulk of your day snaking through extensive queues. Thankfully, Mrs. Sip and I know the park so well that we can tell whether a lineup is worth doing or if it’s better to head somewhere else.

Strollers

Nothing spills my drink more than when I’m trying to get to a certain place and I have a double-wide stroller slowing my progress. And don’t get me started on electric carts, especially those being operated by people who seem to have no malady whatsoever. Another thing to hate about the mass of strollers in the park is the designated stroller parking areas, which take up what used to be real estate that was dedicated to walking lanes, congesting the park even further.

Slow Walkers

In a similar vein to strollers, I hate slow walkers or walk-blockers as I’ve tried to coin as a phrase. I can let it pass for an elderly folk, but if the person is younger and seems fit, why the hell are you walking at a snail’s pace?

Genie Plus/Lightning Lane

I was a huge fan of the FastPass system the parks used to use. It was free to all and allowed you to get on a couple rides each day with minimal lines. Today, after you’ve already drained your life savings to visit the resort, the only way you can get some front of the line action, is to shell out another wad of cash and buy the Genie Plus passes, giving you access to Lightning Lane queues. If it was a modestly-priced add-on, I’d get it, but you have to pay another $30-$40 (per person!) on top of your exorbitant park passes.

Ride Breakdowns

I’m shocked with how many and how frequently rides seem to breakdown around the parks nowadays. I don’t remember things being like this in my younger days. I’m not sure if it’s because standards are higher now or, as Mrs. Sip theorizes, they don’t have the maintenance crew they once had, but you can often look at your park map on your phone and see multiple attractions closed at a time. It almost seems like the rides are on a rotating breakdown schedule with how frequently they occur these days.

Ride Refurbishments

It sucks when one of the rides you enjoy or were looking forward to going on is closed for refurbishments. If it leads to updates or something new with the ride, I’m all for that, but improvements/advancements don’t seem to happen as quickly as they should and rides coming off a refurbishment seem to breakdown just as frequently as others.

Walking and Sore Feet

At the end of each very long day, you’re bound to be physically and mentally exhausted. Sure, you feel a sense of accomplishment with your day and falling asleep – as well as sleeping soundly – is helped by all that you’ve endured, but when your alarm goes off the next morning, you kind of wish it wasn’t another day in the parks.

Expensive Items

Disneyland is not cheap. You know you’re signing up for a costly vacation when you book it, but some elements of the vacation are ridiculously overpriced now. Most beers will set you back $16. For Canadians like us, that’s like $20. I know what you’re saying: “Just don’t drink.” But come on, it’s a vacation. There will be time to worry about the bills later.

Lack of Express Lines

Aside from cost, one other complaint I have for the Disneyland drinking game is that there are no express lines for drink orders at certain food stalls. I was recently in a 30-plus minute lineup to get cocktails for Mrs. Sip and myself because they were only sold at a location that had a massive line for food orders. A streamlined process for those who only want to grab a quickly filled cocktail would be appreciated.

Security Lineups

In the before times, pre 9/11, there was no such thing as going through security to access the parks. Today, you can experience an immense lineup before even queuing for your first ride of the day. One fix I recently though of – though I’m sure I’m not the only one – was to have a couple lines for folks without bags or anything that needs to be checked more thoroughly. A couple express lanes would help, I believe. People with strollers should also have their own dedicated lanes, so they’re not holding everyone else up as Mr. Security has to go through every pocket of a diaper bag.

Expensive Hotels

There was a time when Mrs. Sip and I could get a hotel on South Harbor Boulevard, right outside the park, for $100 per night. And this wasn’t that long ago. Today, you’re looking at $300 per night easy and that’s if you can even get a room. We’ve tried some other areas because of this and are still working to find the perfect balance of location and price.

WAY Too Much Star Wars

I know some people love the Star Wars additions, even Mrs. Sip. This has made me more disappointed in her than I ever thought possible. I’ve never been much of a sci-fi fan and didn’t grow up watching the movies, so I always find it hard to get jazzed up to enter the Galaxy’s Edge area. If just that existed, I could make peace with things, but the fact there’s another large dose of Star Wars in Tomorrowland is just excessive.

Love & Hate: Glass Slipper

  • 2.25 oz Gin
  • 1 oz Blue Curacao
  • Garnish with Edible Glitter

For all that can be frustrating with the resort, I still treasure every moment I have within its walls. I hope to live to the day where I’m strolling the park in an electric cart, annoying the younger folk with slow speeds and dangerous maneuvers!

Disneyland Memories

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[Over 2025, the Sip Family will use their Magic Key year passes to attend the Disneyland Resort frequently. Therefore, a fair bit of my content will be Disney based this year, while also presenting a Disney-themed cocktail recipe.]

Disneyland means a lot to me and my history. I mean, one of the biggest moments of my life took place within its limits. Other unforgettable stories occurred there and with each trip, more remembrances are being created, especially with the Sipplings now joining in the memory making. Here are some of my favourite personal moments in the park:

Humble Beginnings

People are always surprised to hear that my and Mrs. Sip’s relationship began in Disneyland. It’s not a common story for two folks who don’t live local to the ‘happiest place on earth’. When we were both 18, our respective families were on vacation at the resort. Cousin Sip was friends with Mrs. Sip back at home and played matchmaker for us. On Mrs. Sip’s last night at the park before driving home with her family, we met up for that evening’s fireworks spectacular. Fully aware it was now or perhaps never and this was the best chance I was going to get, as the show reached its climax, I asked her out for a future date and she replied ‘okay’. My neurotic brain would later question if that was actually a yes or if she was still processing my query. I mean, she had to at least give me a chance given my romantic timing. Upon getting home after flying back days later, I had barely entered our home when I gave the future Mrs. Sip a call to make first date plans for the following weekend. And, the rest they say, is history!

Indecent Proposal

While Mrs. Sip and I were already engaged, in a perfect world, I would have popped the question where it all began. When I did ask Mrs. Sip to marry me, we had no plans to head to Disneyland anytime soon, so I just couldn’t wait. 10 months later, we were SoCal bound for a trip to the resort, as well as to catch a Vancouver Canucks-Anaheim Ducks game. I figured, what’s wrong with getting engaged twice, so I formulated a plan that included a nice little ring from one of the many Disney shops and as we exited Peter Pan’s Flight, as we had done nearly a decade earlier as our first ride after I asked her out, I dropped to a knee and popped the big Q a second time. Mrs. Sip was taken aback, as other Disney guests cheered us on. Wouldn’t it have been hilarious if she said no this time!?

DisneyBANNED

Some park memories, especially as we got more and more into the resort’s booze offerings, are of the fuzzy variety. The first time Mrs. Sip and I ever attended a California Wine and Food Festival at California Adventure park was completely unplanned. We were in town for brief mini reunion with folks I had met while going to school for a semester in England and the festival just happened to be going on at the time. After our tasting passport was filled, we decided to continue the revelry with 10% ABV festival beers. Let’s just say we all got a little goofy on the way out of the park, with plans to head over to Disneyland, which was open later that night. Without realizing it, park security began tailing us with the goal of ending our evening early. We may have been drunk, but we were still clever, splitting up so the poor security person could only follow half our foursome. Mrs. Sip and I made it into Disneyland, while our pals joined later, helped by the fact one of them forgot their backpack in California Adventure and had to go back to retrieve it. The rest of that night lives somewhere in my brain, but only photographs viewed the next day (ala The Hangover style) helped me piece together what actually happened.

FastPass Fun

On that same trip, when we weren’t being drunkards, we were having a much more innocent brand of fun. When we went to the Big Thunder Mountain FastPass machines and it spit out multiple blank tickets, we decided to try our luck. After writing “Right Now” onto the passes, we approached the cast member guarding the queue entrance. After looking over the tickets, he flashed a smile and gave us front of the line passes to two attractions of our choice. We chose to use them on the Finding Nemo Submarine Voyage (at that time, a new and popular attraction) and Space Mountain (an always popular attraction).

Last Ride

With the extended Sip Family in Disneyland to celebrate Ma Sip’s 60th birthday, we knew the Twilight Zone: Tower of Terror would soon be closing for good. On our last night at the parks, as we were running around trying to get on one final ride before park closing, we jumped into the queue for the ride. Our timing was just right as our group of five boarded the last run of the night in a car all to ourselves. Our photo is pretty epic, but we weren’t able to purchase it, as I put my feet up on the safety rail, causing the pic to “disappear into the fifth dimension”.

Lost and Found

The chances of losing something at Disneyland are high and those odds only increase with children. On our most recent voyage to the resort, both Girl and Boy Sip managed to lose their MagicBands. We were lucky though, as dear ol’ dad, along with some great cast members, were able to bring a happy ending to both missing band cases. The first disappearance occurred as Boy Sip was in one of the park washrooms. I ran around a number of locations, finally having the band returned to me well after the parks had closed for the evening by the Lost and Found Office. A couple days later, Girl Sip managed to lose her band on the Haunted Mansion ride. Once we realized it was gone, I rushed over to the attraction and spoke to one of the cast members. Minutes later, the band was returned and superglued back onto Girl Sip’s wrist.

50th Anniversary Anxiety

The whole entire Sip Family attended the parks 50th anniversary in 2005. Unfortunately, as we made our way through a chaotic crowd, we got separated. This was decades before the park had wifi and many of us didn’t even have cell phones yet, so we couldn’t just send a message or make a call to meet up. Not sure what to do, our splintered crew hunkered down at a place in the park we all liked for its serenity. After waiting only a brief time, we were all reunited and from that point forward, we were very careful to make meeting spots throughout the day, should anyone from the herd get disconnected.

Meeting Minnie

They say you should never meet your heroes, but that wasn’t the case for a young Girl Sip. When she was two years old, we had a single day to enjoy the park, following a coastal cruise to celebrate both my and her birthdays. Our first order of business was to get the kid an autograph book, in case we ran into any characters. Sure enough, who should appear after the purchase but Minnie Mouse. Girl Sip had already been indoctrinated into the Disney cult, thanks to episodes of Minnie’s Bow-Toons. When it was her turn to meet her idol, she clenched her little fists and was literally shaking. Minnie was kind to spend some time with her admirer and give us all a lasting memory.

Milestone Moments

There was really only one place to properly celebrate Mrs. Sip’s 40th birthday. So, we packed the Sip Family up and journeyed to Disneyland for a week of fun in January 2024. Ma and Pa Sip even managed a surprise cameo appearance for the big day. Another element that made this trip so great was it was the first one where both kids were old enough (at six and almost four years old) to fully appreciate the experience.

Breakdown Bonanza

Ride breakdowns have become a regular part of the Disneyland experience. While most are purely frustrating, the odd interruption can actually be kind of neat. Take the issue that happened to Mrs. Sip and I during one riding of Space Mountain. When the attraction suddenly stopped, we weren’t sure what to make of the situation. Then, the lights came on, illuminating the usually pitch black rollercoaster for a rare glimpse of what it actually looked like inside. When the ride thankfully started up again, we were offered a second go through, even though we had already completed the majority of the track. Of course, we accepted and our car chanted the section we got stuck near and all flashed a ‘Z’ hand sign for the ride photo. Another interesting breakdown occurred for Mrs. Sip and Girl Sip on Indiana Jones. After a delay, they were asked to walk off the ride and got to see the attraction from a whole different point of view.

Scavenger Sights

When I went to school in England, I was able to meet some fantastic fellow exchange program students. One was from San Diego and, like me, had a great affinity for Disneyland. For his birthday each year, he put together a Disneyland scavenger hunt for friends and family to enjoy and Mrs. Sip and I travelled to the festivities in back-to-back years to try our hand at the challenge. The hunt allowed us to experience the park in much more detail, looking out for hidden elements that otherwise often go unnoticed. To this day, we’re still on the lookout for touches the Imagineers snuck into attractions.

Disneyland Memories: Hakuna Matata

  • 1.5 oz Spiced Rum
  • 0.75 oz Coconut Rum
  • 0.5 oz Banana Liqueur
  • Dash of Maraschino Cherry Syrup
  • Top with Pineapple Juice
  • Garnish with a Maraschino Cherry

I could go on and on about my preferred Disneyland tales. Each trip adds more magical moments to the memory bank. What are some of your favourite experiences from trips to the happiest place on earth?