Welcome to the Rainforest Cafe at Downtown Disney, Disneyland! I’ll be honest. The Rainforest Café has never been my favorite Disneyland restaurant. When I’m looking for a relaxing table service meal while visiting the parks, I’m not really in the mood to be serenaded, loudly, by audio animatronics whose cousins are entertaining guests at the…
Author: Kristina Valcarce
My first Walt Disney World vacation was in 1976, and my first Disneyland experience was in 1995, when I moved to Los Angeles. I am a bi-coastal Disney nerd and proud of it!
The Science Behind Pixar Exhibit at the California Science Center
Welcome to the California Science Center! So, you’ve come to Southern California to experience Disneyland. You’ve had a wonderful time, but still have a couple of days left on your vacation. And you want to put even more Disney into your experience. If you time your visit right, you could visit Walt’s Train Barn. And…
The Villas at the Grand Californian Hotel
Welcome to the Grand Californian Hotel! My parents recently became Disney Vacation Club Members, and made it no secret that a major reason they did this was to be able to enjoy Disney vacations with their kids and grandkids. They recently booked a five night stay at the Grand Californian at Disneyland. Since I live…
An Ode to The Enchanted Tiki Room
Walt Disney World’s Enchanted Tiki Room. Photo courtesy of Kelly Nobles I barely remember anything from my very first Walt Disney World visit way back in 1976. I was just about to turn 6, and my parents were so excited to take my little sister and me to Walt and Roy’s last great project. I…
Dinner at the Jolly Holiday Bakery Cafe
Welcome to the Jolly Holiday Bakery Cafe The Jolly Holiday Bakery Café is a fairly recent addition to Disneyland Park’s lineup of quick service eateries. I am especially fond of this place because of it’s themed to Mary Poppins, which I consider to be Walt Disney’s masterpiece. In case the name didn’t give that fact…
Rogue One: A Star Wars Story
official movie poster for Rogue One: A Star Wars Story My love affair with Star Wars began just a year after my love affair with Disney theme parks. There I was, a 7 year old girl in the movie theaters with my family, about to see this new film that just came out from that…
The Castaway Cay 5K
On your mark….get set….go! One of the things that intrigued me about our Disney Dream cruise to the Bahamas was the Castaway Cay 5K. This is the most informal of the Run Disney races, in which anyone on board the cruise aged 10 and up is welcome to sign up. I don’t run, not unless…
The Oceaneer Club and Lab on the Disney Dream
The Kids Only Oceaneer Club The Oceaneer Club and the Oceaneer Lab are two sections of the supervised children’s activity center on Deck 5 of the Disney Dream. These are meant for children ages 3 – 12. The Club is aimed towards younger children and the Lab is aimed towards older children, however, children are…
Christmas Time at the Disneyland Resort
Sleeping Beauty Castle dressed up for the holidays Ask my 11 year old daughter to list her favorite things, and “Christmas” and “Disneyland” will be on that list. Of course, if you put those two things together, you get a magical experience rivaled on few other places in the world. When the winter holidays arrive,…
Our Atlantis Shore Excursion
The Atlantis Resort on Nassau One of the few things not covered in the price of a Disney Cruise are the myriad port adventures you can choose. On our recent Bahamian cruise aboard the Disney Dream, my family and I decided to book one of these in advance. We would be spending a day at…
Meet and Greets Opportunities On Board the Disney Dream
Our first meet and greet of the vacation One of the fun things to do on your Disney Cruise is to meet and take photographs with the many Disney characters, both onboard and on Castaway Cay. Recently, Disney has introduced a timed ticket system for some of the meet and greets. Like FastPass at Disneyland…
A Day at the Kennedy Space Center
Welcome to the Kennedy Space Center! Our Disney Dream Cruise ended quite early in the morning. As in, we were back in our hotel room in Cape Canaveral at 8:20 a.m. With the whole day in front of us, my husband suggested that we spend the day at the Kennedy Space Center. I had not…