Disney 2022: Once Upon A Time.

It's our first day of our 2022 return to Disneyland, and we're off to a good start. A change in hotels from our previous trips has put us a quick 13 minute walk from the park entrance, and we join the usual entry lineup at 7:00 AM, well in advance of the 8:00 AM opening. Following the standard entry procedures (sad that it's necessary for the Happiest Place on Earth to have airport-grade security) we line up on Main Street USA and wait for the park itself to open.

Our three-day Parkhopper pass restricts us to the Disneyland Park until 1:00 PM, but that's not too much of a trial, there are lots of things to do: old favourites like Toad's Wild Ride, Snow White and Peter Pan's Flight, Indiana Jones and the Temple of the Forbidden Eye, and of course Black Spire Outpost's immersive Star Wars experience, with the Rise of the Resistance and Smuggler's Run.

There are some minor disappointments: Toon Town* is closed for "reimagining", as the Disney web site euphemistically describes it, and there are reports that the Indiana Jones ride is suffering from serious reliability issues, with refurbishment down time scheduled for November. However, there have also been some major changes since our last pre-COVID visit, and I'm eager to take a look at the new Avengers Campus, which replaced A Bug's Land in the California Adventure area of the park. 

We use the dwell time on Main Street to our advantage: using the Disneyland app, we pay the $25 USD Genie+ fee, which gives us full access to the Lightning Lane ride reservation system, and includes downloads of any photos taken of us by the Disney photographers scattered around the park.  The app is a necessity for navigating the park: it displays your schedule for the day, lets you purchase Genie+ and Lightning Lane passes along with food and merch, shows you an interactive map of all the park attractions along with wait times, and alerts you to upcoming Lightning Lane reservations and food order readiness - as well as storing your tickets for access to the parks.

Karli has a nostalgic affection for the Haunted Mansion, which has a Nightmare Before Christmas overlay for the course of the extended holiday season, and we're able to get an 8:05 time slot for entry, an excellent start to the day. We also reluctantly pay an additional $25 each for Lightning Lane access to the superb Rise of the Resistance experience in the Star Wars Galaxy's Edge section of the park at 9:25 - normally you can't double up for Lightning Lane reservations, but due to the additional fee, Rise of the Resistance is an exception to the rule.

Regardless of the cost, Genie+ proves its worth instantly: we're in and out of the Haunted Mansion almost immediately after the rope drops, and when our time slot opens up we literally walk into the start of Rise of the Resistance without ever stopping to admire the movie-set environment of Black Spire Outpost. 

Rise of the Resistance is just as much fun as we remember, although I discover that I've been ruined a bit by the interactive Doctor Who Time Fracture experience in London, I have a terrible desire to defiantly confront the Disney cast members who are playing the First Order troops.

We almost immediately roll over into Smuggler's Run, where we crew the Millennium Falcon for a supply hijacking mission for the Resistance - and a bit of plunder for Hondo Ohnaka, the cheerfully corrupt owner of Ohnaka Transport. A quick snack, and we’re on to the first of three visits to Star Tours, where C-3PO and R2-D2 offer 54 different mishap-ridden 3-D tour adventures in the Star Wars universe, followed by some hazardous temple exploration with Indiana Jones.

By the end of the day, our feet are sore and we’ve walked over 18 kilometers, but we’ve done 11 different rides and experiences, enjoyed Dole Whip Floats and Mexican food, and generally gotten a great start on our trip. It’s good to be back.

- Sid

* As with the replacement of A Bug's Life with Avengers Campus, it's easy to look at Toon Town, which finds its origins in the 1988 Who Framed Roger Rabbit movie, and think that it may well be time for a different theme.

And we still found love together.

I rarely just post things that I find online, but this is such an unusual example of a thread that crosses over between my interest in the Doctor Who franchise, and my wife's interest in the Bachelor franchise* - my thanks to everyone involved.

- Sid

* This is more significant than you might think. Given that my wife watches The Bachelor, The Bachelorette, The Bachelor in Paradise, Survivor, The Circle, Love Island, Temptation Island, and Too Hot to Handle, and I watch Andor, She-Hulk**, Discovery, Picard, The Rings of Power, Strange New Worlds, and Doctor Who, it's easy to describe our viewing habits as being the extremes of reality TV versus unreality TV (for want of a better term), and as such there's generally not a lot of connection.

** Okay, we both watch She-Hulk, because it's a Marvel superhero show/procedural legal dramedy.

If you can't beat them.

As time goes by and retirement creeps closer, I find myself wondering about downsizing - which, in my case, means editing down my library, a daunting prospect.  I fully admit if I didn't have so many books we could probably get away with a one bedroom apartment, although I'd still need a spot for my iMac.

But what's the most profitable way of going about this?  I realize that I could just donate them all to a charity of some sort, but to be honest, if possible I'd like to get back some of the money I've invested over the years - money also being a useful thing for retirement.

I know that used bookstores have to get their inventory from someplace, but I can't help but feel that they want to pay as little as possible for the privilege. As such, I'm not sure that's the best solution.  Hmmm...I wonder whether it would be feasible to set up a store online?  I know there are options like Abebooks, which I believe would charge me a minimum of $25 USD per month depending on how much stock was listed online, along with 8% of every transaction (minimum 50 cents) and associated service fees.

I finally realized that what I really want to do is set up a little book stall like the ones by the Seine in Paris*, just sit there with a mug of chocolat chaud and a suitable book from the stock to read while I keep an eye on the traffic and hope for some sales - how sad that there's nothing like that in Vancouver!

- Sid

Postscript:  A quick Google™ search revealed that a non-food street vending license in Vancouver costs almost a thousand dollars annually - plus liability insurance.   Suddenly $25 USD a month doesn't seem exorbitant.

* I've seen something similar in New York, come to think of it.