Vacations are not always relaxing. They don’t always go as planned. Ours didn’t. But it was a success! We got along well, no one got desperately ill, and we got to do everything we wanted.
Going into it, we were aware of the current events of the day. The news of the minute was the beginning of a global pandemic called Coronavirus 2019 (Covid-19). The pandemic began in Wuhan China in November 2019, and by March 2020 it had spread into the United States, mainly on cruise ships and through nursing homes. This made my brother in law (bil) hesitant to travel, as he closely follows current events (including all the theories), but we pushed on. Neither the airport nor the Los Angeles highways were overrun, but Disneyland was still the place to be.
Disneyland security is no joke, but Kevin made it fun when he pretended to abscond with someone’s box of Cheezit crackers. Unpacking all of my food items, camera gear, and prep for everything was a chore every morning. We had a slight delay when the guard stopped to ask a supervisor if we could keep the canvas banners my sister, K, packed for collecting character signatures. When I got through K was afraid we wouldn’t get in the gate in time to get reservations for Rise of the Resistance, the new Star Wars ride that was all the rage. It required riders to reserve a riding group and only guaranteed the first 71 groups. We were assigned 118 and would have to wait and see how their queuing went.
We had to take the iconic picture in front of the Mickey flowers and get our ducks in a row, then we started in Tomorrowland.
Lines are notoriously long for rides, but between our Megapass and bil’s disability accommodations, we rarely had to wait long. I never used the activities I brought to keep the kid busy in the case of a long wait. We selected rides based on assigned return times, length of wait, and location, so we started with Buzz Lightyear’s Astroblasters, which involved a track car and using a laser to shoot Zerg’s ‘Z’s to win points. I lost.
After this and Star Tours we were feeling optimistic that my nephew, N, would be a good sport on the rides. Years past at the local fair made us nervous he would wimp out, but K prepared him by watching YouTube videos. He wasn’t exactly prepared for Space Mountain, though, which was his first roller coaster and dark to boot. When I saw his face at the end I was sure he would cry. He didn’t but he did say, “I hate that ride. I hate the ups, I hate the downs, I hate when it goes this way…” There would be no getting him on that one again.
I remain impressed, though, at the great bravery and maturity he showed during our trip. He tried everything except two. More on that later.
In Tomorrowland, we did Autotopia and Finding Nemo Submarine Voyage, then headed to Adventureland to enjoy The Tiki Room, Jungle Cruise, Indiana Jones Adventure, Tarzan’s Treehouse. Then we were lucky that our group for Rise of the Resistance was called.
Walking into the new land Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge was breathtaking. This land was a contingency for bil agreeing to take this trip now. I am not a Star Wars fan, per se. I did make an effort to have a Star Wars marathon in preparation but only made it through the original trilogy and Episode One. Even so, passing through a tunnel into another planet gave me goosebumps. The buildings looked accurate, wires were hanging, droids were throughout, and even the ambient music was authentic. 
This is where we attempted our first character signature when we found Rey. She told us that there was no written language on her planet, but we could take a face scan. Side note: There are some cute videos of this cast member on YouTube.
As for Rise of the Resistance, I found it totally worth it. The ride was unique, the technology impressive, and the AT-ATs made me gasp.
Also on Monday, we watched the Magic Happens parade down Main Street and danced in front of Sleeping Beauty’s castle. Then we rocked out to the Mickey’s Mix Magic light show, though the fireworks were canceled due to sky conditions. We also made a point of collecting squished pennies.
The weather Monday was great and the day a success. Tuesday was about to get a little more interesting.
Unsinkable 