US Grand Tour 2010: Sea World San Diego

With the rains falling heavily from our first day in Disneyland and the next 2 days, we have postponed our supposed consecutive trips back for Disneyland for after the new year.  Instead we were left stay mostly at home and hoping for the weather to go better.  And even with 2 days lost in our hectic 2010 grand tour, we had to proceed with our itinerary.  This is our trip to San Diego for the Christmas feast and to check out San Diego attractions.

So the day before Christmas eve, we departed the Los Angeles area to drive south to my aunt's place in San Diego.   The drive south takes about 2 hours long but we took more time as we were caught in a heavy traffic jam which I think cost us about an hour longer.   The traffic jam basically started from Carlsbad exit where a lot of cars are headed to the outlet center there.

And so upon arrival at may aunt's place, we just dropped our belongings and headed for SeaWorld San Diego.  My two cousins AC and Alyk are joining us.

SeaWorld has a variety of rides for kids and young adults that are mostly waterbased for fun and thrills.  Also, there are different marine animal shows around the park for everyone to enjoy.  And since we got kids with us, my sister and cousins Angel, AC, and Alyk opted to separate from us so they can enjoy the thrilling rides around the park while we go to kiddie rides for the kids.

And so we first took their brochures to check out the times of the shows around the park.  The we walked around to try out some of the kiddie rides.  And well nearest to the entrance of the park is Sesame Street's Bay of Play area.   So we took pictures around it and we queued up for one of its rides, the Elmo flying ride.   There were quite a number of kids queueing that day that it took us quite some time to have our turn.

Then we headed for one of the shows in the Dolphin Stadium.  The stadium was huge and the seats rose up so high and yet it was filled up that we already sat on the stairs along the aisles.  The show basically starred a number of dolphins doing all their tricks and jumps to wow the crowd.  Also they had acrobatic stunts performed by flying trapeze and trainers.   It was a facinating show and Janine liked it.

Then we took our lunch in Mama Stella's Pizza Kitchen.   But man, the queue was very long.  It seems like there were not that many food shops inside the park and with too many visitors, the queues were crazy.  It took us about an hour to actually get our order of pizzas and pasta.  We ordered a cheese pizzas for the kids.  It was quite a late lunch though.

After lunch we proceeded with going around the park.  We met up with my cousins near the Cirque Stadium.  And while there, we left the kids to them for us to try Shipwreck Rapids.  This basically reminds me of the Rio Grande ride of Enchanted Kingdom.  We basically ride this big round boat that run through a rapids with splashes of water and waterfalls along the path.  Also at one point, there were waterguns along the path where people can shoot you with water.  Well my cousins did that.

And lastly, we went to watch the main attraction of the night at the Shamu Stadium.  Shamu is an orca or a false killer whale and the star of SeaWorld.  They had a Christmas special show where they had a small choir that sang and a guy on a saxophone that serenaded the guests.  And of course it featured Shamu performing along with two other orcas and doing some stunts and splashes of water.   It was a beautiful presentation, but it was not as beautiful as the first time I've seen the show 3 years back.  Maybe that 2010 presentation is just not as good.

Grand US Tour 2010: Rainy Christmas Time in Disneyland

In continuation of our theme park tours in the Los Angeles area for our 2010 US Trip, we took our opportunity of going to Disneyland in Anaheim.  We got tickets for 3 days of visiting Disneyland or California Adventure within 14 days the we used our first CityPass ticket in Universal Studios.

But then since we went to Knott's Berry Farm, the weather has gone worse.  The rains were more frequent than when we were in Knott's Berry.  And since we only have limited time to spare in the next days as Christmas is very near, we decided to go and try our luck.

We drove to the park with 2 cars as there were 8 of us that day.   My dad drove for us to Disney while we drive the second car with them.   Unfortunately when we arrived at Disney, the rain still poured. 

With the rain we tried to find shelter and see what we can do.   We stayed mostly in the Main Street section of the park that day.  Fortunately, we saw that some of the mascots were also taking shelter at the Opera House located just behind the Main Street train station. We also both an autograph book to have the characters sign up after we take photos with them.  This was the same thing we did in Hong Kong Disneyland.

And so for about an hour or two, we queued up with the different Disney characters for some photo time.  I think most of the characters came out there since there is no dry place outside.   So we had photos with Mickey, Minnie, Pluto, Goofy, Donald, Chip and Dale, Snow White, and with the Mad Hatter and White Rabbit.  We got photos with them and had them sign up in Janine's signature book.

While also waiting for the rain to stop we took the time to watch one of the shows in the theater that day.  It was not interesting actually that I forgot what it was all about eheheh...

Around lunch time, the rain mellowed a bit and so we had the chance to go to one food area to take our lunch.  But the rain still continued.  And by the time we arrived at the Tomorrow Land Terrace food area, it was packed with people trying to grab some lunch.  And with the rain, only a few tables were available under its limited roof.  When we got our table, we just made sure the 3 kids have seats and the rest of us just stood.

While we were having lunch, some characters went out and they were two white drones accompanying a very familiar villain.  Darth Vader.   After their short show, they had some autograph session.

After a few minutes, the rain started to fall once more and with more force this time that it's blew some food on other tables.  It was very cold and wet that we decided to cut that Disney tour or the kids might get sick.   So my brother and I queued up the Town Hall in Main Street to ask for reimbursement or something.  And since we already knew that there is rain before going to the park, Disney simply gave us return tickets from 4pm onwards.

Going home, we only had our 7-seater car in the car park with 8 of us.  Instead of calling my dad who is at work to pick us up, we asked Angel to lie down on the floor on our way home and keep her head down all the way. We don't want to be caught in the freeway because of overcrowding hehehe..

In our original plan, we should be going back to Disneyland for 3 consecutive days, but due to the weather disturbance we decided to return after new year.  Hopefully the weather will be better.   Also this week, there is storms all over California and blizzards over New York and Europe.

Grand US Tour 2010: Visiting Charlie Brown

The day after our trip to Universal Studios, we once more headed for another theme park and this time in the city of Buena Park in Orange County south of Los Angeles.  This is to the home of our beloved Charlie Brown and Snoopy of Peanuts in Knott's Berry Farm.   I had never been to this park before and so I made sure that it is part of our 2010 tour itinerary.  And fortunately, my aunt had free passes for 4 of us for that day.  

And so aside from my own family, my mom and sister joined us, as well as Angel and her mom, and my aunt's whole family.   We went there with two cars.   But then even before we headed to the park that morning, we were already having second thoughts if we should proceed or not.   Because like the rainy day ahead, it was also a bit wet that morning.

But since my aunt drove all the way through from San Diego for this and the rain stopped a bit that morning though still wet, we decided to head for it.

The park is huge and it is not easy to find as it is visible from the nearest interstate highway.   And with it's classic style roller coaster where the tracks run on wooden planks that surround the park, it is very eye-catching.   I remember the first time I saw this park was in 2004 when my parents' brought me to Disneyland and we took a public bus which passed through the park.   Disneyland is not too far away from Knott's Berry.   And this time we drove to the park.

Knott's Berry has a lot of thrilling rides like roller coasters.  Well they had 9 roller coasters in the park.  But since the place is mostly wet, we mainly skipped these rides.   Though I feel like I wanted to ride some of them, the occasional drizzle discouraged us.  But this did not stop my 2 cousins and their dad to try the Silver Bullet.  Silver Bullet is the park's suspended coaster which is not like regular coasters that run on rails.  For this one, the seats are attached on an overhead rail and your feet dangles freely throught the twists and turns of the ride.

Like other theme parks, Knott's Berry is also divided into different sections.  They had this section that looked like the wild west, there is this mountain that depicts a miners' mountain, and they have a steam train running through the center of the park.

They've got very thrilling rides like the Screamin' Swing where a swing swings 360 degrees, Rip Tide where guests sit on a platform that is being swirled 360 degrees while being raised and dropped by a lever, La Revolucion which is like a swing and ferris wheel combined.  And among their rides, four were very similar to the rides present in the Enchanted Kingdom in the Philippines.  These are the Dragon Swing, Boomerang, Bigfoot Rapids and Timber Mountain Log Ride which are the same as the Anchors Away, Spaceshuttle, Rio Grande Rapids, and Log Jam rides in Enchanted Kingdom.

Well we didn't ride most of them but we took the opportunity to watch the Christmas show in the Snoopy Theatre.  The show presented Snoopy and Charlie Brown with the gang in a ice skating show.  It was a beautiful show.

And due to the rain, we really have not gone to much of the rides in the park but instead took the time walking around the park while hiding from the rain and take some good pictures.  May one day we'll come back here and I hope the weather is a lot better.