Disneyland: "it's a small world"

Date of Visit: March 10, 2011

For years we would skip "it's a small world," but a few years ago I took Mik to Disneyland for the first time by myself and since I cannot transfer him we decided to go on it.  Now we always go on at least once per Disneyland trip.  This time it ended up being our first ride, as Buzz Lightyear Astro Blasters (our typical first ride since we were there when they were soft opening and officially opened it in March 2005) was closed for mechanical difficulties when Disneyland first opened.

Mik does not like "it's a small world" much, but he likes it enough to not mind going on it once per trip.  Usually, though, we pick it for later in the day when we are bored and want to kill some time actually being in a line, as the wheelchair queue can often get longer than the regular queue or at least about the same.  However, going first thing we did not have to wait at all and not even for the wheelchair boat to get around, as we got there just as it pulled up.

We consider the "it's a small world" accessible vehicle one of the coolest, although Jungle Cruise is similar (heard that one is under repair right now, though).  A ramp rolls up to the vehicle, so the wheelchair can roll onto a turntable lift that then lowers the wheelchair down into the boat.  Mik likes that he gets a higher up view of "it's a small world" from his wheelchair rather than being down low in the boat rows.  Plus you get the whole boat to yourself.  We even got to go around twice in a row because there was no one else waiting to go on the wheelchair boat, although Mik usually declines to do that on this particular ride.

Photos by Kjersti
Text by Kjersti with Mik's wheelchair accessibility input

Destination Info:
Disneyland
1313 South Harbor Boulevard
Anaheim, CA 92802

D23 2nd Anniversary Mixer and Meeting Bob Gurr

On March 10, 2011, I took Mik as my guest to the 2nd Anniversary D23 Mixer at Disneyland.  Last year I took Dad, as it was only a special after hours Fantasyland experience and I could only have one guest.  This year I could still only have one guest, but the only in park experience was World of Color in California Adventure, which is a show, so totally accessible unlike Fantasyland mostly not wheelchair accessible rides.

The mixer was at ESPN Zone in Downtown Disney.  I did not expect to like this part of the event, but other than the crappy service from the ESPN staff it was pretty good.  Each of us got $10 game cards for free.  Mik was playing an 1990s baseball video game machine he could actually roll up to and reach the controls when a guy came up to him and asked if he wanted his coupon for the game card.  Of course, Mik said yes and he actually gave us 2 vouchers.  The really cool part though was this just was not a totally random guy, but a Disney Legend Bob Gurr.

I knew Bob Gurr was there, but did not expect to actually meet him.  So it was really cool that he came up to us.  That is not the coolest part, though.  The coolest part was as we were leaving to go to California Adventure for the World of Color show, Bob Gurr stopped us and asked us if we had gotten to use the cards.  Totally a cool experience from the mixer considering we really only did the event for the World of Color part and because I went to the 1st anniversary party it seemed fitting to try to keep going every year that I can and they do something.  Without the meeting Bob Gurr experience the whole mixer part would have been worse than expected due to the poor service.

The Color of Wonder was totally awesome and glad to finally see it.  Giving it its own post when I get around to doing the posts about each attraction we visited on this Disneyland trip, as we spent the day in the parks before the mixer.

Text by Kjersti

Cabrillo National Monument

Date of Visit: February 26, 2011

Mik did not want to go to Cabrillo National Monument, but he decided it was better than hanging out at the apartment by himself for a few hours.  Once there, though, he actually enjoyed it, except for when Dad kept lagging behind taking photos at the lookout area.  Although, he saw enough at the visitor's center and did not care to trek up to the lighthouse (he cannot actually go up this anyways due to it being historical and only stairs, but there is still an accessible exhibit and audio/video tour alternative according to their website.).

The parking lot was kind of confusing, as they seemed to have just repainted it.  There were not blue parking spots or handicap signs.  They did have handicap spots, but they were only marked with white paint that had small HC markings and nothing about fines and such, so there were several spots filled with cars with no handicap placards/plates.  There was still several spots, though, as there were not many people there anyways.  Besides it definitely seems they are just restriping and a temporary thing that might have even been fixed by now.

Mik really enjoyed the one little room in the visitor's center that had an exhibit about Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo and his crew's exploration of the California coast in the 1500s.  He liked the ship diagram that lit up the location of different parts of the ship.

At the gift shop I got my National Park passport stamped and Mik finally decided to get one of his own, especially since we plan to go to the Klondike National Park in Alaska in July.  The gift shop was good accessibility wise for the most part, but the automatic doors were closed off and you had to go through the other doors, which were a really tight squeeze if you did not open both.

The observation area outside the visitor center has a ramped and step entryway.  Mik did not like this part, though, because it was windy and cold.  Hence, mainly why he did not want to then go up to the lighthouse.

By the way Cabrillo National Monument is a pay per car type National Park, so those with Golden Access Passports get their whole vehicle in free

Photos by Kjersti
Text by Kjersti with Mik's wheelchair accessibility input



Destination Info:
Cabrillo National Monument
Accessibility Info on Their Website

Its a small world instead of Buzz first

We ended up having to skip our favorite first ride at Disneyland because it was broken down.  'its a small world' is cool accessibility wise, but sure is not as fun as Buzz Lightyear Astro Blasters. Especially, since we want to see Mik's new wheelchair glow in Buzz.

Sent from my iPhone

Botanical Building at Balboa Park, San Diego

Date of Visit: February 25, 2011

The Botanical Building is a nice garden inside an interesting lath structure building.  We enjoyed walking around it and photographing the flowers.  The garden is accessible with the pathways all being wide enough and the doors to the building were propped open.

Mik had one minor complaint as we approached the building from the lily pond out front.  It was that there were two steps up before you got to the building and he did not think there was a ramp.  Both sides of the pond have the steps and both sides have a ramp off to the side of where the steps are.  It is pretty obvious once you get to the steps.  I noticed the ramp a ways off, but apparently from Mik's position in his wheelchair it was not obvious until we got much closer.

Photos by Kjersti
Text by Kjersti with Mik's wheelchair accessibility input

Destination Info:
Botanical Building at Balboa Park's website
1549 El Prado
San Diego, CA 92101

San Diego Model Railroad Museum

Date of Visit: February 25, 2011

After visiting the San Diego Automotive Museum, we walked over to the San Diego Model Railroad Museum, which is also in Balboa Park.  It was kind of cool to see the model trains, but Mik did not like it at all.  He had several complaints related to the accessibility.

For one, he did not like that they have railroad tie looking plaques in the middle of the walkway through the museum.  It made it bumpy to roll on it and since it was narrow one wheel would be on it and the other not, yet there was not enough room to either side to totally avoid it in most parts.  That was a minor complaint, though, as it still a cool feature.

The more major issue is that most of the exhibits were too high to be seen from his wheelchair.  I get they cannot be too low for the people building them to work on them, but one of them were so high that even Dad could not really see it without going up the step areas (I think it was the Tehachapi Pass one).

At least the Toy Train Gallery is in a separate room that the ramp goes down into, so you started at a high enough point to view everything.  However, when we went all the way down into the room it got kind of hard for Mik to see much.  This room, though, also had windows overlooking it from the main pathway, so it could be enjoyed from a wheelchair pretty well.

He also did not like that we started with the path to the left of the entrance and as we followed it up we ended up at a dead end of stairs.  There is another exhibit continuing on from there, but it is not open yet.  Basically, you have to backtrack through that path to then go do the other area.  Of course, this is the path that leads to the separate room that was the only worthwhile part of the museum to Mik.

The main area to the right of entrance/bottom of stairs from top path has a few different train models.  They were not as high as the main one on the first path we went on.  One of them (Pacific Desert Line?) was actually low enough he could see most of it, but by the time we got there he was frustrated (and ready for lunch!), so he did not really care.

Photos by Kjersti
Text by Kjersti with Mik's wheelchair accessibility input

Destination Info:
San Diego Model Railroad Museum
1649 El Prado
San Diego, CA 92101

San Diego Automotive Museum

Date of Visit: February 25, 2011

I did not realize Mik really enjoyed the San Diego Automotive Museum when we went back in 2009 during our All the Ballparks road trip, but apparently he did.  He has been asking to go every time we have been to San Diego the past six months.  Finally, on our Rodeo Weekend trip we got around to going along with other San Diego museums, as we could go half price with the Museum Month deal.

Mik enjoyed it, but not as much as the first time.  The cars were partially different than before, which was kind of a good thing because it was some new things to see.  However, Mik's favorite from last time, a Lambourgini, was one of the cars no longer there. He also had fun playing with the drawing mode on his new camera.

Accessibility wise it is pretty good.  Mik loved that not only did it have buttons for opening the entrance/exit, but they easily worked.  The entrance and exit to the exhibit area is turnstile like, but they are accessible metal gates that can easily be pushed forward as you roll through.

It is pretty much just a giant warehouse room with cars.  The cars are all spaced with plenty of room in between along with them being roped off.  The motorcycle area seemed a little tight, but we really only seemed that way because someone was photographing them with a tripod when we were there.

Photos by Mik and Kjersti
Text by Kjersti with Mik's wheelchair accessibility input

Destination Info:
San Diego Automotive Museum
2080 Pan American Plaza
San Diego, CA 92101