Happy new year everyone! Only 13 days left until our cruise!!!! 11 days until we fly out to Orlando!!!!!
So without further ado, I am finishing my
Disneyland miniTR! Please forgive, my memory is a bit faint for this final day since it was 5+ months ago. So details are a wee bit fuzzy lol Also, I don't have a ton of photos, most of them are of the PTN parade.
Thursday September 1st.
Most of us woke up in a foul mood. For me it was due to the fact my monthly visitor showed up 2 days early
Luckily I had brought provisions with me so there was no need to spend $40 in the gift shop of the Howard Johnson for supplies! Youngest DD woke up in a foul mood for no apparent reason and eldest DD woke up with a stomach ache. Good start.
We had plans to meet up with Katy and her entourage for lunch at Aladdin's as we had preordered the PTN lunch package and then spend the afternoon and evening together so this morning we were on our own. The park opened at 10am and we had an 8:45am breakfast reservation at Rainforest Grill. Forgot how long it took to walk there and so leaving the hotel at 8:30 was late. By the time we got to the restaurant (of course security had to be busier that morning than the morning before
) it was nearly 9am. The restaurant was EMPTY so no problems with honouring our reservation lol Also, nearby is the line up for the monorail and we saw our friends in line so said a quick hello. Eldest DD had perked up so tucked into her waffles with ease but youngest DD was still grumpy and spent most of the time at the aquarium tank behind us.
After breakfast we looked in the gift shop for a few minutes and then got in line for the monorail to take us to Disneyland! I LOVE the monorail, love that it stops right in the middle of the park. So convenient when you are down that end of Downtown Disney already!
Got off and started to head straight towards Peter Pan when eldest DD whispered that she had to go the bathroom RIGHT NOW and I knew what that meant. Hustled her to the nearest bathroom where she proceeded to not have a great time
But said she felt better afterwards. And luckily after some water she perked right up and she was fine for the rest of the day.
Anyway back to Peter Pan and the posted wait was 50 minutes
I think we waited a bit less but not by much. Honestly it's a good ride but it's not GREAT FABULOUS mondo....bah. Humbug.
After that we did the carousel....no sorry I think we did Mr. Toad then the carousel. Then teacups!
DH and youngest DD:
Moi
Look up
After that we hit the Matterhorn. Posted wait I think was 20 minutes? Was less. Man I forget how bumpy that ride is lol Several times my butt got air. If you've seen the size of my rear, you'll know that's no easy feat!
So at the end we are pulling in to the station and they pull our track/bobsled over to the right. Um.....ok. In the bobsled was the four of us and one other couple. Did someone do something wrong? Did they hear me all the way down below while I swore as my butt slammed down?
We sat in the hot sun, roasting, for a good several minutes until they pulled us over again and a CM asked us if we all wanted to ride again! Now, I would've been happy to get out. By this time I was getting a little cramped but everyone else said yes so off we went! BOOM went my butt again
After that we stretched our legs and started heading over to New Orleans square where we rode Pirates my FAVOURITE RIDE in ALL OF DISNEYLAND!!!!
In case you missed that, I LOVE POTC!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
After pirates we texted our friends as it was nearing our lunch ressie. They were also nearby so after a quick stop in the Pandora store (which is so ridiculously tiny) we met up at Aladdin's for our lunch and PTN fast passes!
Here's a pic of the lunch boxes that both of my girls had ordered:
And a group shot of the kids table, with the adults in the background:
After lunch dh and I had fast passes for Indiana Jones for ourselves and our eldest while the rest of the group went on Jungle Cruise and took our youngest with them. Love Indy!!! After the ride we met up with the group and Katy's oldest boy (who is 9 days older than our eldest) said that he'd like to try it as he'd never been so we got 4 more fast passes (return time was only half an hour away!) and we all went to the Tiki Room to kill some time before going back on Indy. Woohoo!!
After that our groups split up as they had tickets for Jedi training so we made plans to meet back up again at dinner for our Cafe Orleans reservation.
My family and I headed to BTMRR where there was a 10 minute wait - if that! Decided to do that ride again before doing POTC again. Haunted Mansion was closed that week because they were putting on the Halloween overlay.
Now here's where my memory gets hazy. I know dh went and got fp's for him and eldest DD for splash mountain (which they never ended up using but can't remember why
) and then we headed back to tomorrowland. We did buzz light year and then dh did Star Tours....or did he? Seriously....I have the memory of a 90 year old. Just asked dh and I he can't flippin remember either
Ah well. I do remember buying a Star Wars tank top for myself and DH bought a baseball shirt with Boba Fett on it. I'm trying to think what else we did that afternoon
Well let's skip ahead to dinner, shall we? lol We all met up at Cafe Orleans and had a so-so meal. Not fabulous, not horrible. So-so. They forgot my youngest DD's entree so that was 10 minutes of whining until her dinner came (despite her friend offering up her fries for her to share!) I had the fried green tomato sandwich. M'eh. Dh thinks he had gumbo and something else
Then we ordered plates of glorious, yummy , beignets!
Sooooooo goooooddddd.
After dinner we still had a bit of time to kill before getting in line for PTN so we all rode POTC together. Woohoo!!We had the boat to ourselves since we were a group of 9 (possibly another small group at the back). Wheeeee!!!!!!!
Then we made our way over to IASW where the crowds were growing for PTN. We got excellent seats in the sidewalk and a set of stairs. Right across from IASW. I don't think we could have planned that better if we tried!!! We had about a half an hour to 45 minute wait so we chatted with those around us, the kids goofed around and it was a good time just to relax and soak in the fabulous atmosphere of Disneyland. Please, enjoy some parade photos:
We all just loved this parade. It's so well done. The music is great, so upbeat. It's a shame that it's now just on 'limited edition' at DLR. I hope to be able to catch it again in the future.
At the end of PTN an announcement was made regarding the Disneyland Forever fireworks - it was windy (not really but I guess still windy) and they were debating on whether to show them or not. At this point DH was having some issues with his contacts and really just wanted to leave ahead of the crowds. Since we'd seen the fireworks the previous September I was fine with leaving. So we said our goodbyes to our friends and started towards mainstreet. And then a very Disney thing happened.
My eldest, who had just turned 8....miss "mom are we really going to Disneyland again soon?" started to cry. I thought she'd been bumped or jostled in the crowd, maybe someone had bumped her or stepped on her foot. She kept blubbering "I'mgonnaaloaudiouaoudsouasdh" Yes not very understandable. I was able to pull her to one side and crouched down and she finally was able to say "I'm going to miss Disneyland!! I miss it already!!!" and sobbed into my shoulder.
I mean....come on.....how could you NOT stay after that? I told DH to give me one of the room keys, told him to head back to the hotel and we'd meet him there.
Nope he said. I've got my travel bottle of contact solution in my backpack. Give me 5 minutes!
By the time he came out of the mens room it was about 8:45 and they had cancelled the fireworks so the crowds were thick. He had used the washrooms behind Plaza Inn so we were right by Buzz Light Year and Astro Orbitors. We let DD choose, telling her we'd only have time for one before they closed the park. She chose Astro Orbitors since we hadn't been on it this trip. We got in line and at 9:05 we boarded. I didn't take any photos except one as I was too mesmerized by the beauty of the park at night.
I snapped this photo shortly before boarding, not the greatest but I think it's still pretty cool
Both girls had the biggest smiles on their faces as we soared through the night. It was, simply put, a truly magical experience. And a GREAT way to end our latest Disneyland trip.
On the way out we stopped at a couple stores along mainstreet - still flying high from our end of night adventure we let the girls each buy one toy and spent waaaay too much.....
On the walk back to the hotel DD8 kept chattering on about when could our next trip to Disneyland take place? When when when? Filled my Disney heart with glee
Put the girls to bed once we got back and then furiously packed as we needed to hit the road by about 7:30 the next morning.
Friday September 2nd.
I won't bore you with many details about our trip home because it's not Disney and who cares, right? We ran into several runners for the Labour Day weekend marathons as we got a quick breakfast to go from McD's before hitting the highway. Traffic was surprisingly LIGHT (especially compared to the nightmare we'd endured on our Universal day) and we got to the car rental with plenty of time. Got the shuttle. Got to horrid LAX and it's never ending construction. Blah blah blah. Flight was on time but fully booked so we gate checked one or two of our carryons.
Flying over....I dunno.....somewhere lol I took this photo:
Can you spot the hidden Mickey?
Landed on time, blah blah blah. Got the dog from the kennel on the way home, ran into crap long weekend traffic on the drive home and I think we were home about 4:30. Luckily we had the long weekend to recover before it was back to work and SCHOOL!!!
So there you have it. Our next Disneyland trip, while not booked, is planned for February 2018 with my friend L and her family. In the meantime we have Epcot (with a stay at Port Orleans Riverside) and two Disney cruises to get my Disney fix for 2017!!