Hidden Mickey: Disneyland: Tomorrowland: Buzz Lightyear Astro Blasters

On our trip to Disneyland last week, we found a new Hidden Mickey that we had not seen before. This Hidden Mickey was found at one of my favorite rides, the Buzz Lightyear Astro Blasters in Tomorrowland. The interesting thing is that we had been told there were several Hidden Mickeys inside the Buzz Lightyear Astro Blasters ride, but we had not been able to find any.



Where did we find this Hidden Mickey?

Ashley gets credit for finding it, but we were rushing through after we got our FastPass for Buzz Lightyear. As you walk through the 2nd room that has Buzz Lightyear inside of it, there is a glass pane with some etching on it as you exit the room. If you look at the etching (which says "Green Planet" next to it) you see a spaceship.

Look very closely at the ship and if you are facing it on the right side there are three swirls inside the spaceship that form a Hidden Mickey Mouse. You can also see this Hidden Mickey from the backside of the glass by looking at the left side of the picture.

This is one of the harder to find Hidden Mickeys. Have you seen it before? Let me know with a comment!

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Buzz Lightyear Astro Blaster Tips & 100,000 Point Target

Sunday was the last day that our season passes for the Disneyland Resorts were valid. Of course that meant we had to spend the day at the park, since we usually only get passes every other year. Not to mention some of the price hikes that Disneyland season passes and blackout passes have seen.


In terms of favorite rides, one that has to be up there for me is the Buzz Lightyear Astro Blasters ride. Probably because it is part video game, part lazer tag -- it really appeals to me. I always make sure I get on the ride at least twice, where my goal is to end up in the top 10 on the scoreboard for the day.

While I have gotten some high scores before -- the highest being above at 1.6 million -- I did not know that there is a secret target that is worth 100,000 points ever time you hit it. However, while in line to get into the park in the morning -- we overheard someone discussing the ride and giving a couple of tips.

To our surprise, we learned that there is a hidden target that is worth 100,000 points every time you hit it. That's a great way to get on the scoreboard and get in that elusive million point range.

Where is that target? Well, the secret target is on Zurg's chest. (see the picture below) There is a little black circle in the middle of his chest where the arrow is pointing. If your Buzz Lightyear Astro Blaster shoots into that hole, you will get 100,000 points -- and you can hit it many times in a row. Note, that unlike other targets there is no "Z" around it, thus making it hidden.

What happened on my first try? Well, not a very good game for me compared with my 1.6M point race -- but I did hit the secret target on Zurg's chest twice while in quick passing for 200,000 points. The rest of the game was not so great -- although I did end up on the scoreboard! I found out that the tip for the hidden 100,000 point target really worked!

Interested in how the scoring works on the ride?
Regular Targets (Multiple Hits Allowed)
============
Circle - 100
Square - 1,000
Diamond - 5,000
Triangle - 10,000

Also, you very often have to hit a circle target to get a higher value target to "pop-up".

Lighted targets (The first person to hit gets bonus points, after that goes back to regular scoring)
============
Circle - 500
Square - 5,000
Diamond - 10,000
Triangle 100,000

The bottom line and other tips and straties? You should target only Triangles and you will come out with the highest possible score. Do not waste you time on the circles or squares! Also, not that if you hit a million points, your score will set itself to 999,999. While it will not show additional hits, you are still accumulating points. Good luck and make that scoreboard!

Do you know of any other hidden target or Buzz Lightyear Astro Blaster tips that I missed? Let me know.

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The Ultimate Hidden Mickey Guide - Disneyland, California

As mentioned in my “Ultimate Hidden Mickey Guide” post, the secret of the Hidden Mickeys is an important part of our family’s obsession with Disneyland. In this post, I’ll show all the areas we know of or have found a Hidden Mickey at Disneyland in the Walt Disney Resorts in Anaheim, California.

We’re sure there are others that we missed. Let me know with a comment below.

Here are all the locations we have found Hidden Mickeys.

Hidden Mickey – Disneyland – Mickey & Friend’s Parking Structure
Daisy Level
Daisy Level 2
Direction Sign
U-Turn Sign
Lamp Post

Hidden Mickey – Disneyland – Entrance Plaza
Ticket Booth
Entrance Booth
Signage Post

Hidden Mickey – Disneyland -- Entrance
Entrance
Entrance Gates
Strollers & Wheelchairs

Hidden Mickey – Disneyland – New Orleans Square
Pirates of the Caribbean – Armor
Pirates of the Caribbean – Fort Wall
Pirates of the Caribbean – Gun Powder Barrels
Haunted Mansion – Place Settings

Hidden Mickey – Disneyland – Tomorrowland
Buzz Lightyear Astro Blasters – In line, room with Buzz Lightyear

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Hidden Mickey: Disneyland: Entrance: Signage Post

One of the newer Hidden Mickey's that we have been spotted at Disneyland is the signage post in the entrance area of the Disneyland Theme Park in Anaheim, California. While not truly "Hidden" this sign pole design mixes a number of variations of the Hidden Mickeys in the design.

Make sure you look for it on your next visit!



Have you seen this Hidden Mickey? Let me know with a comment below!

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Thanksgiving at Disneyland, 4th Annual Trip

Today was our fourth annual Thanksgiving celebration celebrated at Disneyland in Southern California. Four years ago, this all started on a whim. Looking for an alternative to spending all day in the kitchen, that could be better spent with the entire family – we decided to give the Disney Resorts in Southern California a try.

Disneyland for Thanksgiving was great year one, better year two, and still great last year.

We were anticipating a larger crowd this year – Disney had heavily advertised Thanksgiving at Disneyland and California Adventure last year and the crowds had picked up some. While we did not see any advertisements this year, we were thinking the crowd growth could continue.

For that reason, we left the Doubletree Guest Suites just before 8:00am to catch the Anaheim Resort Transit (ART) to the Disney Resorts (an all-day ticket costs just $3 for as many round trips as you need up until 3:00am). After waiting a few minutes, all eight of us arrived at the park around 8:15am. The only item worth of note here is that passes for blackout days for Annual Pass holders are now $40/day rather than $30/day, a pretty large increase over our last visit.

While it was too late to locate a DreamPASS or get in line for Finding Nemo, we started off with the usual collection rides. Luckily, the rides had minimal waits and included Buzz Lightyear’s Astro Blasters, Indiana Jones, and Pirates of the Caribbean. We were also able to grab a FastPass for Space Mountain so we could come back later. By the time we finished the rides, the California Adventure Park was opening.

We headed over there because we wanted a free snack at the Mission Tortilla Factory right near the Paradise Pier, where you can see my personal favorite video. The kids are presenting the importance of the tortilla itself as well as tortilla making. With, of course the dog saying my favorite work – Maseca!

After enjoying some rides at California Adventure we headed over to the StoryTeller Café in the Grand Californian Hotel. Our “reservation” or preferred seating time in Disney-speak was for 2:10pm – just a short time after the Thanksgiving buffet opened. At $29.99, it is hard to beat the meal and options included for their Thanksgiving feast. While the quality of the food (noticeably the Prime Rib and the stuffing) were not as good as previous years, it was still an enjoyable meal and better than many alternatives.

After filling up, we spent a little more time at the park before we sneaked back to the hotel to “rest” and really watch the USC vs. Arizona State game. We all know how that turned out.

Once the game’s outcome was no longer in doubt we headed back to watch the Disneyland -- "Believe...In Holiday Magic" fireworks show. Most impressive this year is the new appearance of the “snow” on the castle as well as the new lighting. And of course a great fireworks show and snow (er, soap) falling from the sky.



Finally, we used our FastPasses at Space Mountain before heading back to the hotel for the evening. Next year we'll need T-Shirts for our 5th year of having a Thanksgiving celebration at Disneyland

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Thanksgiving Travel to Disneyland, Lovely Traffic

This afternoon we headed down from Calabasas, California for our fourth annual family Thanksgiving get together at Disneyland in Anaheim. We decided to head out around 3:00pm in order to “avoid” the traffic, however on a Wednesday before Thanksgiving, it is a given in the Los Angeles area that there would be some sort of traffic.

Of course, the Los Angeles Freeway system would not disappoint. Leaving shortly before 3:00pm, we headed through Malibu Canyon on our way to Pacific Coast Highway. This way, we can avoid the very heavy traffic on both the US 101 and Interstate 405 freeways. And of course through Malibu towards Santa Monica, there was very little traffic.

Then right before we were to get on the Interstate 10 freeway, we checked Google Maps and traffic was the dreaded red in color. Then it became and exercise to work our way through Santa Monica in order avoid it. Things did not get too bad until we hit the Interstate 105 freeway. While not quite a parking lot, it did take the better part of 45 minutes to make it across. Not too much longer, we were pulling into our hotel near Disneyland.

We are staying at the Doubletree Guest Suites in Anaheim – about a 15 minute walk for a couple of different reasons. First, being a Hilton HHonors Diamond VIP member – we’re entitled to some pretty good benefits. Secondly, given the recent price hikes at Disney’s Grand Californian to put it over $400/night – we decided that was too much to spend.

The Doubletree Guest Suites in Anaheim in an interesting hotel. This is the second time we have had an interesting experience and we will most likely be choosing the Hilton in Anaheim on subsequent visits. First, there are two flavors of their “free” breakfast buffet – a continental and a full version. For some reason, Diamond VIP members still do not get the full breakfast – which includes eggs, bacon and more. Only the continental is provided. Finally, and perhaps most annoying is that they do not perform the automatic upgrades that both Hilton HHonors Gold and Diamond VIPs are entitled to. In our case, it was not until after Ashley complained about our “standard” suite that we were upgraded to a full 2-room suite with views towards the pool and Disneyland. Even then, she was given some nasty looks by the receptionist when she exchanged our key cards.

For dinner, we headed over to Benihana’s for dinner with my parents. The wait was not too bad given the holiday evening at the restaurant – about an hour total wait. Our Teppanyaki experience was excellent with our cook Nick moving more quickly than we were used to. Given the shortened time to cook, the food was excellent and we left satisfied with our meal.

Once we arrived back at our hotel room, we had just enough time to catch the fireworks at Disneyland -- "Believe...In Holiday Magic" Fireworks Spectacular. It is quite a good fireworks show, of course not as good as when you are actually at the park. Still, it is the next best thing.

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Disneyland – DreamPass, barely missed it!

Ashley and I headed down to Disneyland and California Adventure today since it was the first Sunday in almost three months that our Southern California Annual Pass (passport) was not blocked out. Ashley was definitely itching to go, and hopefully have a chance to ride the new Finding Nemo ride with the submarines.

We arrived just in time for the opening of the Disneyland park, 9:00am since it was the start of the “off” season – if Disneyland even really has one. Our mission was to quickly head over to Space Mountain, and then jump on the Finding Nemo ride. Right as we approached the entrance to Space Mountain we overheard a cast member talking about the Disney DreamPasses being handed out.

If you do not know what the Disney DreamPasses are, then you surely want to know now. Since it is Disney’s year of a million dreams, each morning they hand out DreamPasses to a number of guests. These DreamPasses contain a free FastPass for every ride at both Disneyland and California Adventure, which means you do not have to deal with lines, or the time limits that the FastPass system puts on you. Each DreamPass is stamped with the date that it was handed out and is only valid for that particular day.

There are a few ways to get these Disney DreamPasses. It can be a random location, a cast member may single your group out, or you might just be tapped on the shoulder. Ashley and I had been hoping in our previous trips to get a DreamPass. This seemed to be our chance.

So, based on the Cast Member’s statement we hurried up over to Autopia to see if we could get our hands on a couple. We arrived, however we were quite unlucky. With two people in front of us, one Cast Member signaled it was time and they just went back inside without completing the few remaining folks. Not sure why, but we missed out. Interestingly, they still had several left and one came back out to hand them out to a couple of family members in groups that did not get them. Oh, well.

Denied our Disney DreamPasses, we headed over to Space Mountain to brave the 10 minute wait. While Space Mountain is a great ride, it was much better when they played music from the Red Hot Chili Peppers. After that experience earlier in the year, the ride seems to be missing something. Disney, please bring it back.

By the time we dealt with the DreamPass fiasco and got off of Space Mountain, we went to Nemo only to turn around and walk away. The line was already about 90 minutes long, apparently everyone in the park this morning came directly there. While it seems to be an interesting ride, and no FastPasses are available for new rides, it was not worth waiting in line for 90 minutes for us. We would have done 30-45 minutes, but last time we waited for a ride that long, we were severely disappointed – that was Monsters, Inc. in the California Adventure theme park.

The rest of the day was mainly fun and uneventful. The park was mostly empty and most lines, even for the popular rides were less than 30 minutes. We had a great lunch at the StoryTeller’s Café in the Grand Californian, headed back to the parks and called it a day.

A fun day, without a doubt – however a little bit of a let down due to missing the Disney DreamPasses and the Finding Nemo submarine ride.

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Hidden Mickey: Disneyland: New Orleans Square: Pirates of the Caribbean: Barrels

Hidden Mickeys at Disneyland are a very exciting sight and can downright be addicting to try and find all kinds of Hidden Mickeys. This is another in the series this month that will detail a good number of the Hidden Mickeys in the Disneyland and California Adventure Parks.

This particular Hidden Mickeys is one that you might consider to be questionable. I know that I have seen it a million times and I am still not convinced that it is. However, a lot of folks that I speak to consider this to be a Hidden Mickey at Disneyland. So it must be, right?

Where is it? Well it is in the Pirates of the Caribbean ride in one of the very last rooms where all of the fires are burning around the docks. What you see are groups of priates shooting at each other across the water just before you go by Captain Jack Sparrow's room where he sits with the treasure. As you pass under the soldiers, look up to the right and you will see three barrels hanging from the ceiling by a rope in the shape of the Hidden Mickey. All three are the exact size, thus creating the question as to whether it is a true Hidden Mickey or not.

Have you seen this Hidden Mickey and do you think it should be considered one? If so, let me know below with a comment!

No picture of this one yet, however I plan to get one on my next trip to Disneyland this summer!

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