December 2011 Outings - Disneyland/The Grove + NOTD (pic heavy)

DISNEYLAND

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Let me get this out of the way.... NEVER go to Disneyland on those 5 days after Christmas/ before New Years. You will regret it. Disneyland was packed, which was unfortunate since this was the first time in years that we as a family, the four of us, had gone to Disneyland. These past couple of years, it has usually been my mother and I or my boyfriend and I who have made trips to Disneyland/California Adventure.

First ride of the day, the newly renovated, Star Tours! The last time I visited Disneyland, it was the day after Star Tours reopened. Therefore, I was not able to go on the ride due to the 160 minute wait, and the fast passes had been sold out since early that afternoon. This time around, fast passes had sold out again but there was an 85 minute wait. This was the best we were going to see the line all day so it was the first ride we rode. It was worth it. During the ride, we ran into Darth Vader, invaded the Wookie planet, and almost got eaten by a sea creature. And that is one of the many possible ride experiences you could have as there are 54 different ride experiences.

The Star Tours ship is redesigned with red stripes and no fake damage like before.

3-CPO has been re-polished to blinding perfection.

A new LCD screen that shows the flight statues and video.

Spotted the old pilot robot from the old version of Star Tours.

I thought this was a funny little touch to the bathroom signs in Tomorrowland.

What you see here is a portion of the line to Pirates of the Caribbean ride. I say "portion" because the people in the roped area are in the line while the rest are people passing by, walking around the park. It was bad. Just to put things into perspective, the line for PotC is usually 15 minutes. The wait this day was 45 minutes, but thankfully, it went by pretty fast.

The Christmas tree in Disneyland Main Street.

Disneyland Main Street at night.
The Christmas tree in California Adventure.

View of the California Adventure pier where the World of Color show takes place.

Overall, even though we spent the entire day switching from Disneyland and California Adventure On any normal day, a family with hopper tickets would have time to at least go on every major ride from both parks once. But because of the tremendous amount of people, that was impossible. Some of the rides such as Screamin' and Haunted Mansion closed early while the rides that remained open, such as the Indiana Jones ride, had wait times up to 100 minutes. I'm thinking of getting an annual pass for 2012 for sure.


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THE GROVE
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The next day was our family's visit to The Grove. It's a well known shopping center with some high end and common stores that go in a short loop. In all honesty, it was nothing to write home about. There weren't as many stores as the malls I go to in San Diego or in other parts of LA. It's just mostly the decoration that makes it stand out to me. Also, the movie theater sold matinee tickets for $11 ... that's a deal? I'd suggest going to the Del Amo mall in Torrance, CA or the Fashion Valley mall in San Diego, CA.

Right next to The Grove is the Farmers Market.

Probably one of the only redeeming things about The Grove is that Extra is filmed here where there is always a celebrity guest.

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NOTD - TEENAGE DREAM
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And finally, A NOTD! "Teenage Dream" was what I wore during the December outings. It is apart of the Katy Perry OPI collection. As if I need to go into much detail about this extremely popular nail polish. It's beautiful!

The sparkle on this nail polish is fantastic and I love the actual color of the nail polish which is a pale pink. Having "Teenage Dream" be a pale pink helps to keep the polish from being too loud since that is what the hologram sparkles are there for. "Teenage Dream" is surprisingly wearable and goes with most anything.

The only cons are what is expected for these type of polishes. First off, it is a NIGHTMARE to take off. And second, you will have to shake very well in order to keep the hologram sparkles from settling towards the bottom.

Two coats + One top coat of Seche Vite

Phew! That was one long post! Thank you for bearing with me as I got all my thoughts and experiences out for the last month of 2011 outings. Stay tuned for more.
Thanks for stopping by!