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SarahJanet
03-31-2005, 10:12 AM
I'm in LAX right now passing the time with some overpriced laptop access, so this isn't going to be my full blown (sure to be ridiculously lengthy) trip report yet - I'm just putting in a place marker for myself. I just wanted to say that you guys made our trip absolutely fantastic. We were there over the entire Easter weekend and we didn't wait in line for more than half an hour for a single solitary ride. In five days. Both parks. And we hit every ride!

So. Thanks a MILLION for all the awesome tips. Stay tuned for the lengthy update!

yellowrosedtxn
03-31-2005, 10:25 AM
I can't wait to hear it. I am living through all of you until I go in June!

rentayenta
03-31-2005, 11:54 AM
Tease ;)

SarahJanet
04-03-2005, 10:03 AM
Ok! Sorry about the delay.

Friday night we spent in Downtown Disney, after getting into Anaheim at around 5:00. We were totally giddy with the closeness of our hotel (the Del Sol Inn - super convenient location!), and when we walked into the esplanade we both started skipping around to the music. I love hearing that music when you first walk onto the property. We made a beeline for the pretzel store, a personal favourite, and each got a pretzel and a frozen lemonade. Yum. We wandered through Sephora and Build a Bear, and then went in to check out the Grand Californian, which we hadn't been to before. Wow. There was a wedding on while we were there, so we had fun admiring the dresses and deciding that we needed to be millionaires so we could stay there every year. Gorgeous.

After wandering around in there for a while, we headed back out to DD and went to World of Disney. We drooled over a lot of things but ended up buying a visor each. Mine is yellow, with Tink on it, and it says "Looking for Lost Boys." My best friend's is pink, and says "Princess," which is very unlike her and thus quite hilarious.

We then went to the Rainforest Cafe for dinner, which was super neato and the food was very tasty. Attempted a volcano for dessert and made it through MAYBE half of it before admitting defeat. I particularly enjoyed the fish tank archway and the elephants. We also got really excellent service while we were there, so we stopped to tell the manager that.

As we left, there were people dancing in the street to the salsa music! That was really awesome - I've taken salsa lessons, so it was fun to watch. Plus, it was awesome to be somewhere where people just bust out dancing in the streets - like being in a musical!

We stopped in at the bakery to buy a loaf of bread, and then headed for the Esplanade to watch the fireworks. No music piped in, but the fireworks, though no Believe, were very enjoyable with some neat effects.

We then walked down to 7-11 to pick up a few things, and then headed back to our room to go to bed in anticipation of our 7am early entrance on Saturday.

SarahJanet
04-03-2005, 10:27 AM
We arrived at the park on Saturday at 6:50AM - the gates aren't even open yet! I can't believe I got up this early - only for Disneyland, let me tell you! They open a new line shortly after we arrive and we make a beeline for it, so we're front of the line and two of the first to get into the park. Yeah! We run for Buzz, but the cast members there tell us that Buzz overslept, so we take a picture to prove that we were first in line, and then head for the Matterhorn. Line is unbelieveably short, so we ride after about three minutes in line. Matterhorn was great - much more fun than I remember. (Fantasyland side.) We get off and head for Peter Pan, but get distracted by the teacups. My best friend refused to go on them last time, because spinny rides make her sick, but I convinced her to go this time, promising that we wouldn't spin much. Took some great pictures, but the ride is definitely slower. Bummer. We then made it to Peter Pan, where we hit the longest line of the morning - about ten minutes. Great ride - I really love that miniature London. Not convinced it's worth the usual immense lines, so glad to get it done early in the morning. We then head for Dumbo and get our own elephants, which is excellent. Another five minute line - we're going to get very spoiled!

At that point, we went to check Buzz again and lo and behold, he was open! Race through the line - no more than two minutes - and get on board. What a great ride! We had a fantastic time on it and did relatively well for our first time, but we enjoyed it so much we went again straight away, again with virtually no line. Did way better the second time but our picture didn't turn out. Rats.

It was past 8 at that point, so we headed for Big Thunder, our favourite. But it was closed! Woe. So we kept on walking and went to Pirates, which was closed last time we went so my best friend had never been on it and I hadn't since high school. Line is once again almost non-existant, and we can't believe how long the ride is! So that was a fun one.

We wandered over to Splash with the intention of getting fast passes, but we saw the covered machines at the entrance to the line and thought they weren't distributing them yet. Whoops. So we went and got a fast pass for Indiana Jones instead, and then hit the Haunted Mansion. Again, no line whatsoever, amazing given it's Saturday of Easter. I like the ghosties. Music is also very catch on that ride. We wandered down to go on Pooh, but poor Pooh got into a sticky situation while we were in line so they closed it down. That led us to head down to Pooh corner, at which point we discovered the single rider's line for Splash, which I'd totally forgotten about! So we headed in there (the line for Splash was two and a half hours at this point - no thanks!), and hardly anyone was ahead of us, so it was about ten minutes until we got on a log. My best friend was two logs ahead of me, and then I got into the back seat of a log (something of a rarity now, I'm sure!). Had a very friendly family from Chicago to ride along with. Man, that ride was great! I forgot how fun it was. I especially like the little drops inside the ride- they take you by surprise! I laughed through the whole ride, and realised that the laughing place featured large technicolour mushrooms, which cracked me up. (We later realised there were also large bottles of moonshine. Hmm.)

We went back to check out Big Thunder at that point, and to our great glee, it was open! We waited for about twenty minutes, and requested the back, which we got with no extra wait. We got the back every time except one, when we rode in the front, and we probably went on that ride 20 times. The goat trick was awesome! I can't believe how giddy that makes you. We just laughed and laughed through the whole ride.

We then headed for the Tiki Room, which neither of us had seen before. It was...bizarre, but sort of weirdly entertaining. Has the unfortunate side effect of leaving you humming all day long. After that, we wandered over past the castle and saw Belle, my absolute favourite. She was leaving, though, but her cast member told us she'd be back in half an hour. We wandered over to Roger Rabbit, but the line was kind of long so we figured we'd go back later. We checked out a few stores and then went back to meet up with Belle. First in line, even! She was very friendly and extremely well chosen to be Belle. So we took pictures with her - one of only three characters we waited to meet. I love her dress!

Our Indiana fast passes were good by then, so we went over there. Waited maybe ten minutes, and then got on a jeep. It was a particularly bumpy ride that time, and I didn't enjoy it quite as much as I did last time we were there, but it was still really fun. By this point it's one o'clock and we haven't waited in line for more than half an hour. On Saturday of Easter. That is really incredible.

We headed out of the park for a nap at that point, and on our way past the ticket booths we saw a sign for the Lion King Musical at the Orange County Performing Arts Centre. !!! Both of us have been dying to see this, so I immediately call the box office and book tickets for the next day's matinee. Eee! We take a nap and then wander down to Target, but along the way we pass the car rental place and it occurs to us that we could rent a car to go to the musical, since cabs are pricey and the bus would take forever. So we figure out the details of that and are told to call back the next morning to see if they have a car for us.

We wander around Target for a while and then take the bus back to our room and drop off our stuff. We then picked up our Fantasmic! buffet tickets and head into California Adventures. We rode Soarin' in the single riders line - same flight, just different rows - and it was so awesome. I love that ride. It left me with a big stupid grin on my face the whole time. The lines were pretty long so we went on the Orange Stinger, got some pizza, and then headed back to Disneyland.

We wandered around Main Street for quite a while, and then settled in down by the castle to watch the Fireworks. Music was great, and I really enjoyed the fireworks. So glad they had them during Spring Break - definitely one of my favourite things! We then wandered through the immense crowds to the Fantasmic area, and got our seats up at the buffet. Wow! Front and center - awesome. The dessert was delicious and the show was fabulous. I particularly liked the pirates and the princesses dancing on their rafts. We really, really enjoyed the show and our seats were awesome.

We wandered back down Main Street and I picked up Mickey and Minnie bride and groom hats for me and my fiance, and then took some pictures of the California letters. Then we went back to our room and collapsed - we'd been up since 6! Packed in a lot and went on a ton of rides - no line longer than 30 minutes all day on what we anticipated would be the busiest day. Excellent!

CrazyTrain
04-03-2005, 11:28 AM
Great report so far!!!

rentayenta
04-03-2005, 11:33 AM
Love it! I can't wait to hear about the musical.

tink's mom
04-03-2005, 11:41 AM
Sounds like my dream trip, glad you had fun. Can't wait to hear more

Maleficent's goon
04-03-2005, 10:44 PM
I especially like the little drops inside the ride- they take you by surprise!
Something I've wanted to ask of everybody who's ridden Splash since it reopened...
Does this possibly mean--the leaping waters are back? :eek:
In the section before you enter the 7 gates of hel- full of starving rodents?? (or whatever its called)

SarahJanet
04-14-2005, 11:17 PM
Phew! I've been slacking off.

To start with...pictures! All you crazy picture demanding people are going to love me today, because I've just spent the last hour and a half uploading pictures. I have a million of them, and they're about half uploaded. So if you're really fanatical, there are about 200 of the 483 pictures that I have available for perusing here (http://sarahjanetpictures.blogspot.com). I will now be attempting to finish up the actual report!

Note that they are in reverse chronological order, so if you want the proper order, start at the bottom.

SarahJanet
04-14-2005, 11:48 PM
Sunday morning, we headed to the park for a few hours before we had to pick up our rental car and head for the Lion King. We went in via Adventureland and grabbed a Fast Pass for Indiana, which was good for about an hour and a half later. Being the fanatics that we are, we headed straight for Big Thunder at that point, and rode it without a wait. (In the back, of course. Which we did every time except one, every time we went!) We then headed over to Fantasyland to get in a few more of those rides before the lines got too long. We went on the Carousel, which was a huge improvement over the last time I rode it – I had an AWFUL sunburn right on the inside of my thighs, and the carousel was absolute agony. So this was delightful compared to that painful experience! (I didn’t sunburn at all this trip, and it made for much faster walking. I had a pretty hilarious mosey for a couple of days after that brutal burn.) We then went on Mr. Toad and were amused by the weirdness, as per usual, and then hit the teacups again simply because the lines were non-existent. (We are good at taking opportunity when it knocks.) Then on to Alice, which I quite enjoy, though it’s a challenging one not to sing along to. I managed to do so only very quietly.

We then steeled ourselves and headed for Small World. Upon riding it (no line still – woo!), we decided that we actually kind of like the ride itself, it’s just the freaking SONG that drives us insane. Fortunately, the Lion King served to get that out of our heads. We then headed over to Toon Town to ride Roger Rabbit. We took separate cabs, because I love to spin and my best friend doesn’t, but that always lends itself to excellent photos, assuming we can manage the hail mary pass of the camera between the cabs!

Our fast passes were good at that point, so we hit Indiana. It is definitely not one of my favourites, but it was fun. Glad we didn’t wait two hours for it, though!

At that point, we headed out of the park and went to pick up our car from the extremely nice and helpful guy at Dollar Rent-A-Car. I highly recommend them. After a few freakouts about driving in California, we were on our way to the Lion King! (We left with a ridiculous amount of time in hand so we would have time if we got lost.)

The drive was quite pleasant – our car had a CD player and I had one lone CD with me, which just happened to be a Disney CD! (I have an iPod, so I don’t usually carry CDs.) So we had a great time cruising and singing at the top of our lungs. We arrived with plenty of time to spare, found parking with no trouble, checked our camera (rats), bought a program, and found our excellent seats.

This show was absolutely amazing. If you have a chance to see it, go. It’s worth the money. The costumes are incredible, the puppets are mind-blowing, and the singing is absolutely gorgeous. Rafiki and the grown up Nala were two particular highlights, but everyone was really, really good. Man, that was so great. I sniffled through Mufasa’s death and totally loved every minute of it. The new songs were also really cool – I really liked the way they took the instrumental stuff from the movie and just wrote lyrics for it.

So. That was pretty fantastic, and really added something special to our trip that we hadn’t really been expecting! It’s going to be a long time before that show gets up to our neck of the woods, so I’m really glad we took the chance to see it.

Sunday to be continued in the next post! (I warned you these would be long.)

SarahJanet
04-14-2005, 11:57 PM
Since we had the rental car, we took the opportunity to hit the beach for a few hours. Last trip, we took the bus, which was about two hours each way, so this was definitely living the high life! It wasn’t super warm that day, but we’re Canadian, and it was March, so the idea that we could wade in the ocean was still pretty incredible! We had a great time splashing around in the surf and playing in the sand, and we hit the boardwalk for some ice cream and generally had a great time. We didn’t stay too long, though, and headed back to Anaheim after about an hour and a half.

We got back to the park in the early evening, and grabbed some very tasty skewers from the Bengal Barbeque. Yum! They were really good. We had fast passes for Big Thunder from earlier in the day, so we went back over there. This ride was the one we tried out in the front row, and it definitely did NOT measure up to the back! Also, there is a lot less leg room up front. I’m 5’10”, so that’s an issue. So we vowed to remain loyal to the back from there on in. We grabbed a fast pass so we could take another trip later in the evening.

The Matterhorn line was quite manageable by that point, so we spent about 20 minutes in line and rode it on the Tomorrowland side. (I think – I’m not 100% sure which side is which.) Whichever side it was, we didn’t like it quite as much as the other side. Nonetheless, a good ride, and a really great view in the dark! I love seeing the park all lit up at night. Last trip, it was May, so it got dark later, and the park closed earlier, so we didn’t get so much of the park in the dark. We really enjoyed that. Especially CA, actually – it’s really pretty at night. I have some great pictures of it.

After the Matterhorn, we were kind of pooped, so we took a roundtrip on the Monorail. Very relaxing, and fun to see the views. I really enjoyed riding this one at night!

We caught the fireworks from over by Small World, and we had a great view that was totally unobstructed by anyone. Super loud, so I wouldn’t recommend it for people with small kids, but we could sit on the ground and see really well. (Obviously, this wouldn’t work for Remember, since it involves the Matterhorn and stuff.) We then rode Big Thunder one more time (in the back, natch), and then headed for our hotel shortly after 10:00. We wandered down Main Street for a while and picked up one or two things, but we were pretty beat – up since 6:30 with no nap!

SarahJanet
04-15-2005, 12:18 AM
Monday morning, we got to the park right at opening and made our way in. This was our one morning with rain, which lasted for about an hour, and our hotel was so close that when it started raining at 7:50AM while we were in line, my best friend had time to run back to our room and get our raincoats before I got into the park! Very handy. So we planned to hit the indoor rides as much as possible. We grabbed Fast Passes for Indiana, since we liked it but not enough to wait in line. We headed for Buzz, and found him awake and ready to go, so we rode him twice in quick succession. Our photo only worked once, though – out of the four pictures we attempted to send home, only two got through. And our last ride of the trip, with our significantly improved scores – the scores didn’t come through. Grr! Anyway, we both really liked Buzz, although it was easy to get snippy with each other if one of us turned our ship when the other was aiming at something else. We did a bit of shopping in Tomorrowland and I picked up some very cute earrings which I’m thinking of wearing to my wedding, actually.

We then went over to Fantasyland to finish up the rides there, and rode Snow White and Pinocchio, both of which had virtually no line and had the benefit of being dry. By the time we exited Pinocchio, the rain was pretty much stopped, so we did pretty well, weather wise! We rode Indiana and then made a beeline for California Adventure right at 10:00.

My best friend ran over to Soarin to get Fast Passes while I headed for Tower of Terror. There was already quite a mob (we weren’t there right at rope drop), so she caught up with me just as I was heading through the gate. (That gate is not very convenient for first thing in the morning!) We were psyching ourselves out pretty badly at that point – both of us get very nervous about drop rides! I managed to TOTALLY freak my friend out by telling her that it was just like a regular elevator – no seats, no seatbelts – and I was very entertained by that for a while. She was much more nervous than I was in line, but then as soon as we got on the elevator I totally freaked out!

Man, that ride is SO FUN. It was hilarious to ride, because everyone screamed perfectly simultaneously and then as soon as we started going up again, everyone started laughing. Then another drop, and synchronized screaming again! I don’t think I’ve ever screamed that much on a ride in my life, but it was so much fun! My hand hurt for a good half hour afterwards, I was gripping my handles so hard, and my best friend had a death grip on ME!

Sigh. That was really really fun. We couldn’t resist buying our extremely hilarious picture afterwards.

By then, it was coming up on 11 and we had to return our car, so we headed back to the hotel to do that. Back to being pedestrians, sigh. Still, I’m very proud of driving in California with no mishaps! And next time I go I won’t have to pay the underage driver fee. (I’m 24.)

SarahJanet
04-15-2005, 12:18 AM
We took a pretty lengthy nap at that point, which was much needed and appreciated. We’d booked in makeovers at Sephora, because I’m getting married and wanted some makeup advice. We headed over there post-nap, and it was absolutely AWFUL. The woman who helped me totally ignored everything I told her after she heard the word “bride,” and I ended up with makeup that I hated. I didn’t even look like myself. So that whole experience was sort of a bust, and I was kind of crabby. We grabbed pretzels (actually, a pretzel dog for me) and frozen lemonades from Wetzel’s, which cheered me up somewhat.

We went back into Disneyland, and wandered around in there for a while. Lines were a big long at that point (Easter Monday), so we just sort of meandered. I think I bought a couple of things, although I can’t remember what! I lasted about twenty minutes until I couldn’t stand it any more and I scrubbed all the makeup off in the bathroom in Adventureland, which made me look like I’d been crying for the rest of the day. Super. We decided that the lines in Disneyland were all pretty insane, so we headed back over to California Adventures.

Fortunately, Soarin over California perked me right up. I love that ride an absolutely ridiculous amount. I grin like a loon through the whole thing. It never takes long for a bad mood to wear off in Disneyland! I really love the music they have playing in around Condor Flats, too – a lot of it is music I’ve played before. It’s definitely my favourite area in DCA.

We set off for California Screamin, and discovered that the lines were quite reasonable. So, because we’re crazy like that, we rode it twice in a row with a brief break in between. We strolled through the park a little bit in between, getting the use of our legs back! That is a really great roller coaster, though. Just the right amount of everything!

By then, the Electrical Parade was about to start, so we quickly crossed the park to get into the Animation Studio. We were kind of tired at that point, and my friend wanted to call her husband, so we just hung out in the lobby for probably close to an hour. It’s so relaxing in there! I had a great time singing loudly while my friend was on the phone. We then went into the Beast’s Library, where I was DELIGHTED to find out that I am most like BELLE, my absolute favourite! And my best friend got Ariel, who we’re also very fond of. So that was immensely satisfying!

We then went to our favourite spot, Ursula’s Grotto. We met because of a mutual love of Disney music, so we really love getting to sing. I wish they’d put in some new scenes, though! We did all the scenes and all the songs, hogging a grotto but not really caring. It was great. (I took little movies of it.)

By that point, DCA was closing and we’d missed the fireworks, so we decided not to bother heading back into Disneyland and just headed back to our hotel room. We were both pretty tired and we wanted to get up early the next day to have breakfast at IHOP. (The continental breakfast choices were not terribly inspiring.) So we hit the sack!

Note: At this point, it was Monday evening, and we still had not waited in a single line longer than half an hour. I remain extremely impressed by that. (Although we didn't go on as many rides that day.)

Hmm. Do I want to keep going tonight or write the rest later? Decisions, decisions. I've still got two more full days to write about! (This is why I took notes.)

Don't forget you can check out my pictures! About half of them are uploaded here (http://sarahjanetpictures.blogspot.com), the rest to follow, uh, eventually.

yellowrosedtxn
04-15-2005, 05:06 AM
THANKS For writing this trip report! I am enjoying it a LOT!!! Sorry about the makeup thing though. I hate it when they just won't listen and do what they "Feel" is good for you. (Kind of like a parent sometimes.)

CrazyTrain
04-15-2005, 07:55 AM
Great report. Love the pics, too. Sounds like a really fun time! :D

CoasterChickie
04-15-2005, 08:58 AM
What fun reading a trip report to DL through the eyes of two wild and crazy fun-loving gals!! All of your pictures are great!! And that's so cool that you got to go to the Lion King and the beach!! Thanks for sharing your report!! Fun read!! :)

SarahJanet
04-15-2005, 12:12 PM
Ok, folks, all four hundred or so of my pictures are now up here (http://sarahjanetpictures.blogspot.com).

Rest of the trip report to follow.

SarahJanet
04-15-2005, 01:26 PM
Ok! Up to Tuesday. We had breakfast at IHOP that morning, having gotten tired of the continental breakfast. It was very tasty. We got to the park shortly after 8 that morning and rode the horse-drawn streetcar down Main Street, which was fun.

As soon as we got into the park, we headed for Toon Town to visit Mickey. We waited around at the gates into Toon Town for a few minutes, and then made a quick beeline for Mickey, where there was already a reasonable line from Morning Madness. Actually, that was probably our longest wait - I think we were waiting for about half an hour. Fortunately, a delightful family from the same city as my best friend were right behind us, and we had a great time chatting with them. We were the last two to see Mickey before he took a break, so we didn't get to hang out with them any longer after that.

Mickey was right on the front porch that day, so we took our picture with him and then went on our way. I'm still weirded out by being taller than Mickey. We walked across the park to grab Splash Mountain fast passes, and then wandered down Main Street. (You can see from this report that we did a lot of zigzagging! I can’t believe how much we walked. Just as well, given how much we ate!)

After that, we did some wandering around for a while, having decided that this was going to be a fairly low key day. By then, it was already well after 9, so we headed over to the gates of California Adventures. We split up upon getting into the park, and I got fast passes for Soarin while my best friend went to get in line for Grizzly. The line was nice and short at that point, about fifteen minutes. Boy, I like that ride a lot. I got REALLY wet that time, much more than on any previous times through the ride. But it’s so fun I don’t mind in the least. And it was a beautiful sunny day, so I wasn’t ever cold.

We decided that the Golden Zephyr would be a good ride to dry off on, since you get a nice breeze on that, so we headed over there. Very short line, maybe five minutes. A nice cast member took our picture, and we had a very relaxing ride. After that, we decided to go brave the Sun Wheel, a ride that actually freaks both of us out because of the lack of anything to hang on to. We ended up with two really nice kids in our cage – who were also from the same city as me! I can’t believe how many people from here we ran into.

So we panicked on that ride a little bit, but did manage to enjoy it for the most part. Great views! By then, our Soarin fast passes were good, so we headed back over there. We didn’t get front row that time, alas, but we decided we’d just get the front row on our last ride the next day, and that would be fine. (We got the middle front row the day before, which was awesome.)

After getting off Soarin, we wandered over to Engine Ears toys, where I found the PERFECT present for my sister – the Mr. Potato Head! We had a great time packing as much as humanly possible into the box, and I totally cracked up at some of the stuff they had for him. I think the teacup was my favourite! My sister really likes him, so he was a good purchase. Then we walked back over to Disneyland to ride Splash Mountain (with Mr. Potato Head carefully stowed under my feet where he stayed nice and dry), which was one again fantastic and made even better by the ten minute wait compared to the two and a half hour standby line!

We then did some major shopping – I bought some excellent pajama pants and a couple of picture frames, along with various and assorted other things. We then went back to our room for a brief nap, and had some lunch in our hotel room as well.

After lunch and nap, we went back into Disneyland to hit Snow White. Cute show, though nothing thrilling, especially after the Lion King! Still, nice to sit down for a while, and the sets were gorgeous. We then hustled across the street to California Adventures to see Aladdin. However, we got sidetracked by Mickey scaling the Matterhorn, which was absolutely hilarious. The announcer was great! It was much funnier than I would have expected. I have a great picture of Mickey setting off the streamers at the top which I got totally by accident.

We were pushing it for Aladdin, though, and had to wait outside while everyone else was seated so they could see if there were any seats left. Whoops. Fortunately, there were, and while we didn’t get great seats, we’ve seen it before so it wasn’t the end of the world. Aladdin was very enjoyable, although again suffered from the recent Lion King. The genie was great. I got some little movies of a few sections of the show, which was good.

We then did some more shopping in California Adventures. (There was a lot of shopping this day, you’ll notice.) We went into Downtown Disney for dinner, and ended up at the pasta place (the counter service one, not the sit down restaurant.) We had quite a tasty dinner, and made it back to the Esplanade in time for the fireworks. (It’s not quite the same without the music.) We then went back into Disneyland to ride Big Thunder (we had fastpasses) and to watch Fantasmic again. We watched from the very end of the bridge into Adventureland, which wasn’t a great spot, but we didn’t want to wait for two hours for a good spot, so it did the job. We were pretty beat by then, and luckily we had a great spot for making a beeline and beating the insane crowds, which almost made the mediocre view worth it! We went to bed straight away, knowing that we wanted to be at the park before opening the next day – our last.

mkcbunny
04-15-2005, 01:42 PM
Wow. Very fun to read all about it. More, please. :)

SarahJanet
04-15-2005, 02:07 PM
More you say? Oh, there's more! Wednesday was packed.

Wednesday was a good day for our last day, since it’s a non EE day and we could be among the first in the park. So we made it to the gates well before opening – at about 7:40. There was already a pretty crazy long line, but once the gates opened it moved pretty quickly. We had a list of things we wanted to get to, so we headed straight for the Matterhorn and once again enjoyed the complete lack of line!

After the Matterhorn, we headed straight for Big Thunder, which we rode twice in a row with no line. Woo! We also befriended the very nice cast member there, who took our picture and made fun of us for being so fanatical. (This would pay off later!) We rode in the back both times, and had a whooping good time with the goat trick. We then wandered over to Splash to grab a fast pass for later on.

I rode by myself on the teacups once, so I could actually spin. Man, they have really gone downhill. How disappointing. Oh well. At least there was no line!

It was about 9:30 at that point, so we headed over to California Adventures. We made it in before the rope drop this time and headed for the Hollywood Backlot. (We’ve decided that we have to go on ToT first thing or we’ll wuss out.) The rope drop was insane! I can’t believe how many people were there. But we got in right near the front (it helps to be only two, easier to weasel through) and only waited for ToT for about five minutes.

This time, we were in the front, and I was on the end so I only had one handle! I had a complete death grip on the side of my seat, but it was much less comfortable to hold and I couldn’t uncurl my fingers for, seriously, five minutes after the ride. It was a great ride again, though, and the view from the front row was excellent! I’m still getting all freaked out thinking about it, though. I screamed my guts out again and laughed myself silly, almost simultaneously.

We emerged from Tower of Terror and took a picture, and then went back down into the backlot where we saw Elastigirl and Frozone! So we took some pictures of them, and then headed into the Muppets. It was great! Very funny, and the preshow was also extremely funny. I love the Muppets, so I was very partial to this. We then walked across the park to grab fast passes for Soarin and Grizzly, both of which we wanted to go on later in the day. Both lines were already pretty long, so we were pleased to get FP.

By then, it was shortly after 11, and time to head for the Blue Bayou! We got there right on the nose of 11:30, which is when our PS was for, and they immediately seated us by the water as I requested when we checked in. The service was great there. I had the prime rib and my best friend had the pork tenderloin, and they were both delicious. I wasn’t thrilled by the potatoes, but the beef was great. We had the apple thingy for dessert, which was absolutely fantastic. Yum. I’m hungry just thinking about it!

Our lunch was quite leisurely, which was just what we needed. We wanted to ride Big Thunder again, but when we got there, it was CLOSED! Oh no! We were both pretty upset – it’s our favourite, and we wanted to get another ride or two in. We went up to ask if it would be reopening again that day, and to our delight, the same cast member who’d chatted with us earlier was there! He made fun of us for going so many times, but we explained it was our last day. He asked where we’d come from, and when we said Canada, he reached into his pocket and gave us four fast passes! Woo! That was so great. He promised it would be open later that day, and now we wouldn’t have to wait in line! That was so nice.

SarahJanet
04-15-2005, 02:08 PM
We headed for the petting zoo at that point, and had a very enjoyable time playing with the baby goats and the piggy. After that, we rode on the Columbia, which was really neat. I liked it a lot more than the Mark Twain, I think.

By then, our Splash Mountain fast passes were good, so we rode on that. Man, that is a fun ride. It might actually be my favourite, although BTMRR would give it a run for its money. We then went over to Buzz to grab fast passes for that. Before leaving the park, we stopped in at city hall to write a nice review of the super friendly guy from BTMRR.

We figured since we were already wet from Splash, we’d head back over to CA and go on Grizzly. I didn’t get QUITE as drenched this time, which was nice. We ended up on a raft with five other Canadians, two of whom were from our city! They were all super friendly and we had a great ride. I love that one.

Then it was off to Soarin for our last ride. Sigh. We got front row middle, much to our delight, and had a great ride. I got a little sad at the end knowing it was our last time. I really love that ride. Especially the music! (Which, to my delight, I have since found. Yippee! Now I just need the music from Condor Flats.)

I decided I wanted a Mr. Potato Head for my fiancé, so we stopped into Engine Ears toys for that. We then spent some time taking pictures around the Sun Fountain, which we both really like. I took a little movie there as well.

By then, we were pretty pooped, so we went back to our room for a bit. Didn’t nap, but relaxed in the pool and the hot tub, which helped my feet a lot. We headed back for Disneyland at around 7, and immediately went to use our Buzz fastpasses. We did GREAT that time and I got way more than ever before, and then our scores didn’t show up on our pictures! GRR! We then popped into the photo place to look at a few pictures from that day, and ended up buying one in front of the statue and the castle of us looking at Tink in our hands, because it was really cute and we are suckers for good marketing! (We also got a deal because they lost some of our pictures.)

By this point, it was almost Fantasmic’s first show, so we rode on Pirates while the line was delightfully short. We’d bought some postcards to mail each other so we’d get something in the mail once we were home and lonely (we live in different cities), and one of them was for Pirates, so my best friend wrote that postcard while on the ride, which was entertaining. After we got off Pirates, it was about 5 after 9 so we decided we had time for one of our BTMRR fastpasses. Before getting on the ride, we got one more fast pass to use later, which meant between us we had SIX fastpasses! We got in the back again, and it was really fun (I love that ride in the dark), but as we got off we could hear the fireworks music starting. Oh no! So we SPRINTED down Big Thunder Trail, and made it into Fantasyland just as the first firework was set off. We didn’t have the best spot this time, but we could still see relatively well, and at least we didn’t miss them entirely!

After the fireworks, we decided to ride Small World one more time, because we’re crazy like that. I wrote my Small World postcard while on that one, and we took a very amusing series of pictures of what it would like if they did the automated photos on that ride. (Featuring such poses as “Aaaagh, make the song stop!”)

Since we were in the neighbourhood, we went on a round trip on the railroad to relax for a while. We were both getting pretty tired. Five straight days is hard on the feet, especially with the huge amount of crossing the parks we did. After the railroad, I watched a little bit of Fantasmic while my best friend talked to her husband, and then we rode on the Haunted Mansion. At that point, we realised that we were both crabby because we were hungry, but almost everything was closed. Grr! We bought some sandwiches in the bakery, and munched those on Main Street which gave us the energy for the last hour.

We then walked back over to Frontierland for one last ride on BTMRR. We got the back, of course, and it was a really fun ride. We still had one fast pass left, but it was five to twelve, and there were a lot of people waiting still, so we decided we wouldn’t use it. We couldn’t guarantee the back again, and we figured we wanted our last ride to be in the back.

So we’d sort of decided to call it a night, and were wandering back through Big Thunder Trail which was very strange to see so empty. We got into Fantasyland at about four minutes to twelve, and decided at the last minute to have one last ride on the Carousel, which had no line. So we hopped on there and took one last ride. Sigh.

We then wandered around and took a few pictures in Fantasyland – the sword in the stone, the Wicked Queen, the castle. It was strange for it to be so deserted! We then did some meandering down Main Street and did some last minute shopping. (Also known as impulse shopping!) I bought two photo albums and a scrapbook, and got some Disneyland post-it notes and some little fridge magnets which are very cute! Oh, and a little Beauty and the Beast music box, which is super cute.

By that point, it was quarter to one, and although I really really wanted to stay to see the park actually CLOSE, we were both absolutely exhausted and our feet were really sore. So we left the park. Took a few last pictures in the Esplanade and then walked back to our hotel room. Sigh. It was a very sad walk.

And that was that. Our shuttle picked us up at 8:30 the next morning, and we went home. It was a great trip, and I can’t believe how many rides we packed in without waiting in any lines at all (at least no more than half an hour, and even that long was extremely rare.)

Phew! I have no idea when I’ll make it back, so it was great to have such a good trip this time.

Hawaiian Cinderella
04-15-2005, 04:16 PM
THANK YOU...I read it all the way thru and enjoyed reading the report AND seeing the pictures...you took GREAT picrures....We were there right before you, March 17 -- 24 and I can sympathize with you on how SAD it is to leave there on your last night.

My daughter has the Mr. Potato Head and I bought my niece one on this past trip. They both enjoy playing with it. In fact this trip we filled a box up with just the Disney parts so my daughter ended up with a lot of pieces. The CM in the store was really nice and helpful with stuffing it all in and told me as long as she can close just one end of the box it'll be ok. :D

Rhiannon8404
04-15-2005, 05:04 PM
Wow! What a great trip! Great report...great pics! I'm glad you guys had so much fun.

We love the Lion King stage show. We've seen it twice. Once in London when DS was 4½ and again in San Francisco when he was 5½. It's definitely one I could see again.

bradk
04-15-2005, 05:13 PM
another couple of tips re: the mr. potatohead courtesy of mousesavers.com. first, no need to buy the potato, you can always buy one at any other store that sells them. two, if you wish to buy the potato, open him up and fill him with parts as well.