Brian Bennett -- March 1999 -- Disneyland

Frankly, I'm very surprised to be going back to Southern California this year at all. I found out that I was being given a lateral promotion, from our test and validation lab organization to our engineering systems group, on the day I returned to work from our May 1999 WDW trip. I thought my annual trips to Santa Barbara (where I've attended various classes in measurement and test engineering principles) had come to an end. Well, I had a major surprise in September (the day I returned to work from our tenth anniversary trip, see a pattern here?) when I returned to the test and validation organization, but with a promotion! Just to expand on this pattern of coincidence here, I've been in seven job positions (all but the last one lateral moves) between October 1997 and October 1999...I found out about four of the seven moves on the day after returning from a trip. You don't care, but to me they're interesting personal statistics.

Well, as part of my performance planning process for the upcoming year, I recommended that I take a handful of classes in Santa Barbara over the next few years. Thus, this trip to Southern California (and another tentative one in September) was born. The trips were approved, and all that was left were travel arrangements and details.

Our company has a policy that trips can be extended for personal reasons as long as the extension saves at least a total of $100. Well, I did some work on checking airfares and such, and found that I could extend the trip by a total of five nights and save over $500! However, I felt a bit uneasy in taking that much time, so I suggested to my new manager that I take vacation days for the extra work time I'd miss. That way, I get my trip, my company saves money, and the company doesn't take a loss on my time. The company will pick up the motel and meal costs and airfare and car rental. I just have to use some vacation time and pay for my entertainment costs (i.e. tickets). I went ahead and booked my airfare and arranged for the rental car through the corporate travel office.

The plans are to fly out to LAX on Sunday. Attend class in Santa Barbara on Monday and Tuesday, then drive to Anaheim on Wednesday. The return to Michigan will begin on Monday morning from John Wayne (Orange County) Airport.

One cool thing is that, unlike the last couple of trips I've made to the West coast, I'm able to take Barb and Allan this time. That is a story in itself...

About a year ago, we switched long-distance service to a company that was giving frequent flyer miles for Continental Airlines. The only reason why we decided to do that is that Continental and Northwest (the outfit I normally fly on) have a reciprocation deal. We could use the 20,000 Continental miles on select Northwest flights. The key word is select. More on that one later. We also had over 20,000 Northwest miles accumulated, so the plan was to use both sets of frequent flyer miles to get tickets for Barb and Allan on the same flights that I was already booked on.

It turned out that the use of the Continental miles was extremely restricted. After multiple iterations, gyrations, irritations, and five hours on the phone and an hour (roundtrip) drive out to our airport to try and coordinate these things, Barb was finally able to get her and Allan booked but on completely different flights through completely different hubs than me. We would be leaving our local airport about 45 minutes apart, and arrive at LAX within a half hour of each other (at least on the schedule), then on the return we'd be leaving John Wayne a couple of hours apart and arrive at home within a half hour of each other again. Workable, but a pain (especially since Barb would have to deal with Allan herself on the planes...not something she was looking forward to). Furthermore, the departure from John Wayne will be at 6:45am! It will be early, but one advantage will be that there will be smaller crowds to deal with at check-in :)

The next morning I called the corporate travel office and asked if they could void my ticket and send me on the same flights as Barb and Allan. Bingo, they could do that! and at no extra cost to the company or to me.

One drawback is that the flights in both directions go through Minneapolis, not Detroit. I won't get to have one of my Cinnebon cinnamon rolls on the way through the airport. That's a disappointment, but a worthwhile exchange for having Barb and Allan with me on this trip. (Note: A friendly emailer contacted me later and pointed out that there are several Cinnebon shops in Minneapolis, so maybe I'll get to have my cinnamon roll and eat it too.)

I still had to make motel arrangements. For the Anaheim stay, I'm torn between the Holiday Inn at the Park which requires a shuttle bus to the park, or another motel closer to the park that we can just walk to. I like the idea of being within walking distance, especially with Allan, but we've enjoyed the Holiday Inn at the Park so much in the past. It has a nice pool, the shuttle service has always been excellent, and I can get "Priority Club" points by staying there, too.

I made the call to Holiday Inn at the Park after discussing things with Barb. We really liked the idea of just walking back to our motel, but the nice experiences at the Holiday Inn at the Park overrode them. Unfortunately, when I called the Holiday, they wanted $179 per night! I talked them down to their lowest $159, and they wouldn't budge from there. I passed, and started making other calls.

I must give serious credit to "Steve's Disneyland Area Walking Distance Hotel and Restaurant Guide" website. The URL is http://members.aol.com/wdhotels and it is a fantastic resource if you're looking for a well-located motel in the Disneyland area. It gave me several good choices to check into as I continued my research.

Based on feedback at Steve's site (and a handful of reviews at my own site) I tried the Anaheim Park Inn International and they couldn't give me a room for all five nights that I wanted. Finally, I called the Best Western Park Place Inn. This place is right across Harbor from the pedestrian walkway to Disneyland. That's a big positive since we'll have a three-year old with us. I was able to get a rate of $89 per night, so I booked it. I don't expect that the place will be as nice as the Holiday Inn, but it is definitely closer to the park, and much less costly.

Finally, there is the ticket issue. On the last trip, a year ago, I was dismayed to find that the Flexpasses have changed. Now there is a three and a five day pass, the three day pass costs $76. The five day pass costs $99. We can spend up to five days in the park, but that price bugs me. We might take that money and go to Knott's for one day instead, keeping another day (probably Wednesday) as a travel, wind down, relax day. The other point of view is to go ahead and spend the money for the five day passes and enjoy shorter stints in the park over a longer period of time.

Also, since I'm probably coming back to California in September, I would get to use an annual pass over both trips. A Deluxe AP, though, is "blacked out" for Saturday, March 25th. It looks like the best overall deal, when the September trip is considered, will be for me to get a Deluxe AP and for Barb and Allan to get 3-day Flexpasses. That way we can spend parts of three five days in March at the park (leaving when we're tired and/or the crowds get bad) and I can spend parts of all five days I'll have in September, too. If it turns out that the Deluxe AP is NOT blacked out on the 25th, AND we really decide we'd like the flexibility of spending some parts of all five days in the park, we might go with a Deluxe AP for me and five day passes for Barb and Allan.

In any event, the Premium AP doesn't make sense at all. It will cost me $1.00 more than two five day passes, and I risk losing that $99 if for some unforeseen reason the September trip is cancelled.

	3-days	5-days	Deluxe AP (for Brian), 3-days for others	Deluxe AP (for Brian), 5-days for others	Premium AP (for Brian), 5-days for others
Brian	$76.00	$99.00	$129.00	$129.00	$199.00
Barbara	$76.00	$99.00	$76.00	$99.00	$99.00
Allan	$57.00	$75.00	$57.00	$75.00	$75.00
Total	$209.00	$273.00	$262.00	$303.00	$373.00
total usage days (including five days in September on the APs)	9	15	14	17	20
cost/day	$23.22	$18.20	$18.71	$17.82	$18.65

A funny thing happened on the way to the airport...Well, it wasn't quite that close our departure, but on March10th, we were contacted by our adoption agency because a birthmom had chosen us to adopt her baby! This is very similar to what happened when we adopted Allan three years ago. The birthmom's name is the same as Allan's is. The baby will be born in the same hospital as Allan was. We'll be at Disneyland just a few weeks before the due date (which, this time around, is April 9th). Quite a set of coincidences...

We met with the birthmom and her mother a couple of days ago. She seemed to really have her head together about what she was doing and why. I don't mean to make it sound like this will be an easy thing to do...or easy to follow-through on (we're still a bit gun shy, since we had a birthmom change her mind last Spring), but she seems to be carefully considering all of the issues that she's faced with.

Now we'll end up taking our cell phone to Disneyland again. We don't really expect the baby to come while we're out of town, but if necessary we'll hop a plane and come home early. Whether or not that becomes necessary remains to be seen, but either way, it will add some suspense to the trip.

I received several emails after I posted the pre-trip report on the site. One emailer strongly suggested that I contact the Magic Kingdom Club to see if I could get a package deal that would end up saving us money. I procrastinated for far too long, and when I finally did call the MKC, I wasn't able to work out anything that was better for us. We really didn't want a package with too many frills, plus I need a fairly vanilla receipt from the motel for my expense report, so it's not really too bad for us to go as we are.

Pat Edaburn contacted me a couple of days ago, and he and Lori are trying to see if they can come on down for a day or two while we're in town. I hope they can work things out. If not, we'll just see them in October in Florida (Pat and I are planning to go on the Architecture Tour at WDW in the Fall).

One last thing...we finally decided to bite the bullet and buy five day passes. That will allow us complete flexibility in the park throughout our stay in Anaheim. With the new baby coming soon, we want to do whatever we can to enjoy this last (we hope) trip with Allan as a single child. Besides that, I'm not really feeling warm and fuzzy about the September business trip being approved, so I'm not planning to get an AP this time around.

We expected our travel days and time in Santa Barbara to be uneventful. For the most part we were right. However, Northwest and Continental Airlines teamed up to make our travel day a bit more exciting (and I don't mean that in a good way at all) than we'd planned.

The sub-story actually started on Saturday night, when Barb and I were finishing packing and accumulating the last of the travel information. We found the "e-ticket" airfare numbers for Allan and I, but Barb didn't have one for her. (Barb's ticket was the one we got with the Continental "partner" miles.) I strongly suggested that she call Northwest, and she did. Northwest assured us that the booking number that she DID have was all that would be needed the next morning at the airport.

We arrived at our airport in plenty of time. The check-in starting well...but when they realized that Barb's ticket was booked through Continental, they told us that they wouldn't even let her board without a paper ticket. Unfortunately, the first flight out on Continental at our Podunk airport wasn't scheduled until two hours after ours, so the Continental ticket booth wasn't even manned yet.

The best that the Northwest folks suggested was to call Continental and work it out with them. Not a good prospect, because even if Continental agreed that they would provide the needed ticket, they couldn't provide one since there was no one local that could print it out.

Barb got on the nearest payphone with Continental while I generally made a horses-patoot (a little Colonel Potter M*A*S*H lingo there for you) of myself with the Northwest folks. I was absolutely livid and my boiling blood spilled over a bit more than it should have. After spending forty-five minutes on the phone with Continental (toward the end of which time, the Continental guy actually got on the phone with the Northwest people twenty feet away at the counter we'd been evicted from) and somehow he worked it out. The Northwest people were finally convinced to let us all fly together, provided we stopped in Minneapolis and got the hardcopy tickets that were so precious to them.

We got on the plane with just a few seconds to spare (literally), but not before I did apologize to Dawn and her boss about my behavior. I didn't want to apologize, but I was, after all, wrong...and I certainly didn't think it a bad thing for Allan to see me correct a mistake on my part. To their credit, they readily accepted my apology...as they verbally prodded us toward to jet way of the waiting airliner.

We arrived in Minneapolis without too much trouble, got the ticket (again, without trouble). The whole episode was inconvenient and irritating -- but at least we were all together and a third of the way to California, so I guess there was good in all that.

One other thing that I didn't mention yet, was the fact that Allan had a rather high fever late Saturday night (actually, Sunday morning). We were very concerned, and Barb even contemplated not going on the trip. As it turned out, the little guy hemmed and hawed, he wasn't sure if he wanted to be sick or not. Most of Sunday he was fine (and a perfect angel on the plane...although the lady next to Barb thought he talked too much -- lucky for her it was just talking and not screaming, crying, yelling, or outright disobedience of an unpleasant sort.). By Monday afternoon he seemed to be quite a bit better. Tuesday, though, he took a turn for the worse with another fever. We took him in to a medical service station place and the doctor prescribed an antibiotic, although he wasn't sure if Allan was coming or going with the ear and bronchial infection that he diagnosed. We felt better to be doing something about his cough and fever, though, so we didn't care which it was.

The business portion of my trip worked out well. I was able to review some material that will help me tremendously as I'm now back in the noise and vibration business (a role I was in a few years ago, but had left back in 1998).

We got up a bit late this morning and moseyed on down to the motel restaurant after packing the car. We had a small breakfast (one adult and Allan for free...so breakfast cost us less than $8.00). After we checked out, we drove over to a local orchid grower that Barb had heard about. It was quite a neat place (it reminded me of the old Miyogi's bonsai place in Southern Georgia that we used to visit on the way to WDW). There was a huge variety of orchids -- most of them blooming -- in various colors and varieties. We spent a good hour or so there, before jumping back in the car for our drive South.

We arrived in Anaheim around noon. Check in was painless, so we parked our car and moved in to our room. The room is located in the very front of the motel, third floor, facing Disneyland (Space Mountain is right outside our window). it's quite a view. I'd recommend room 379 to anyone for the view! The drawback, though, was that the elevators are located halfway from Harbor to the back of the very lengthy motel (near the pool). Whenever we needed to use them, we had to walk half the distance of the motel from our room...then down...then halfway back. It was worth it to avoid the walk up six flights of stairs with a stroller, but we usually just walked down when we had gravity on our side.

After getting settled, we walked back downstairs, bought our five day passes at the motel front desk, and walked to the park. When we got into the square, we saw a double-decker bus just sitting there, so we climbed aboard and rode it to the hub, I wondered aloud if it was the bus that the Osmond's had ridden...but no one seemed impressed with my contemplation.

We walked back into Fantasyland into a huge crowd, and walked into the toy shop to catch Belle's story time (it was just about 1:30pm when we got off the bus at the hub), but Allan didn't like the big crowd of kids that were there, so we ended up leaving shortly after Belle arrived. Instead, we walked back out into Fantasyland. Allan wanted to ride Dumbo, but I vetoed it because of the crowds. Casey Jr., though, had a reasonable line, so we did that instead. It was a big hit with Allan, who promptly declared this his "new favorite one ride".

We then made our way back to the Gibson Girl Parlour for ice cream. I had a wonderful mocha almond fudge sundae and Barb and Allan both had mint chocolate chip. It was very good, and we ate it as we sat at a table at Rod's corner. Rod was there tuning the piano, but didn't play.

At 5:30, we were back walking the plaza to get over for dinner at the Disneyland Hotel. We walked all the way back to the Pinocchio Tram area, because I figured we could just walk through to the Hotel (perhaps that will be possible when construction is complete, but that's not possible now).

Sooooo, we had to walk all the way back to the Timon/Pumba Tram (which we walked right by on the way ten minutes before). Fortunately, Barb and Allan weren't vindictive and forgave me for my ignorance. The tram ride was a very slow one. It made several parking lot stops, the last of which was right behind the Disneyland Pacific Hotel. From there we had to walk from the Southern end of the Disneyland Hotel through the water gardens and past the dancing fountains area before arriving at our destination, Goofy's Kitchen.

There was a brief wait, but even though we were two or three minutes past our reservation time we were seated in quick order. Before going to our table, Allan was given the opportunity to have his picture taken with Max, Goofy's son. He got a kick out of that, then we were seated.

The buffet itself was a pretty good spread. The prime rib was excellent, as were the cream puffs. The strawberries were perfectly ripe, perfect in texture...Barb loved them especially. Allan had pizza and sampled several deserts, but he pretty much wanted to stay near our table because he figured that was where the characters would be.

The character interactions were great! Jasmine was just wonderful, and told Allan to keep an eye out for Abu, who likes to hide under the table and steal food. We also saw Goofy, Pluto, and Rafiki during the course of the evening. At one point, Barb took Allan out to use the rest room, and when they returned, Allan saw Minnie in the lobby and gave her a big hug. As they were returning to the table, Barb heard that the wait was an hour and a half.

One thing that we noticed here for the first time during this trip, but far from the last, was the woman who pushed her four big kids in front of Allan and another little girl that had been standing in line to see Rafiki. Both Barb and the little girl's mom were irritated. Common courtesy must be obsolete.

The character dinner at Goofy's Kitchen had a fixed price of $24.95 each for adults and $8.95 for children -- much too pricey for what we got, but this is a Monopoly afterall.

After dinner we returned to the park via monorail, this first time riding in front (Allan got a co-pilot's license). We waited for the 45th Anniversary parade over in Small World Plaza. At one point, I walked across the "street" to buy some popcorn, but the CM running the pushcart had just used the very last of the boxes. There was plenty of popcorn, but no containers, so I was out of luck. We really didn't need popcorn after our big dinner, but Allan had asked for it...and I was still sensitive to him feeling bad the last few days (although he was starting to improve today).

The parade itself was ok. The characters were good and did a great job of projecting friendliness. The major drawback was that the music was boring and not Disneyish at all. I wish we'd been able to see the parade with the new soundtrack they're working on now. Perhaps I'll have that opportunity in the Fall.

After the parade, we took a whirlwind tour of Fantasyland. We rode Casey Jr. again (Allan wanted to ride in a cage this time, and we were able to oblige by sitting in the money cage). Then we rode Dumbo followed by the Carousel, when Allan said, "We need talk 'bout it. We need ride horseys." It was at this moment that we discovered that the Carousel in Disneyland loads in the "wrong" place (the entrance faces Dumbo, not to the West like in WDW's Magic Kingdom). Mr. Toad's Wild Ride was next, Allan thought it was scary and loud, but enjoyed "driving" the car. Then we finished up with Peter Pan, a ride that our whole family just enjoys.

The park was going to close soon, so we made our way to Main Street and strolled through the East side stores as we went. We saw Executive Collection pieces that I don't yet have, so we'll have to decide if we're going to buy some more on this trip. Then we returned to our motel, very pleased once again with it's great location!

After I made some notes about our day and Barb finished unpack our stuff, we crashed for the night.

We didn't get up this morning until just after 7:30am. It was a late start for a Disney park day, but we didn't knock off last night until after 11:30, a terribly late time for Allan whose bed time is usually 8pm. We got moving and over to the park by about 8:45. The park didn't open until 9, but we were allowed into Main Street and took advantage of a few minutes of quiet shopping time in the Emporium. We're looking for a Spring jacket for Allan, but the only ones we found were either a bit too big or a bit too small and a bit too expensive in either case.

We waited at rope drop, then made our way around the West side of the Matterhorn and back into Toontown. This was Allan's first experience here. The corresponding Toontown Fair at WDW is a poor comparison to this Disneyland-exclusive area. We spent some time just enjoying the area. Allan had fun with the interactive things including the mailboxes, the cars (he enjoyed driving all of the toon cars that are scattered about the area), and several of the packages and other things that make noises and stuff when the kids push the buttons or pull on the handles or whatever.

As soon as we got to the far end of Toontown, Barb noticed a line over by Mickey's house. As it turned out, the Big Cheese was posing for photos at the entrance to his house (instead of back in the barn where he's usually seen). The wait wasn't too bad, but when we got to the front of the line, we had to endure quite the photo session by the group just ahead of us. They posed as individuals, various groups ("all the kids now"), and the whole big group ("everyone closer together now"). It was as if we'd stumbled into a family reunion or wedding or something and Mickey was the guest of honor. After literally ten minutes or so of this family's monopoly, they finally cleared out and Allan ran up to Mickey and gave and got a big hug. We all posed (just once -- all together) with the Boss, then moved along for the others in line.

We enjoyed Mickey's and Minnie's houses, Allan loved "Dongles" (Donald's) boat, and we were sad to see that Goofy's Bounce House didn't seem to be open (we'd planned to go back and check it later, but never made it).

After all that, we took a brief walk over to see Gadget's Go Coaster. Allan decided he wanted to try it...even with quite a bit of discouragement from Mom...so we got in line. He wasn't too happy about the loud noise of the Coaster (he still hates loud noises, even at 3 1/2) but didn't seem to be too concerned about how fast the train moves. When it was time for us to board, Allan and I got in the very first seat (a good move, because it doesn't have as severe a ride) with Barb right behind. The ride itself wasn't too wild. It was quick, and there was a bit of respect in Allan's face for the fastness of the ride (especially toward the end), but he didn't panic or get too very scared. When we got back to the station, he was beaming, smiling from ear to ear. But as I got out of the car, and Barb took his hand, the look on his face got really serious and he said, "Wow...that was scary one." He says he wants to ride it again later, so we'll see if that's just bravado, or if he really did enjoy it (again, we never did make it back to Toontown, so we'll have to see if Allan wants to ride the Barnstormer at WDW in October or not).

Next, we walked over to Roger Rabbit's Cartoon Spin. The CMs out front were metering guests into the queue. We're not sure why, because when they did let us in we ended up walking through a bunch of empty queue area to get to the line. Allan didn't like this as much as the Go Coaster. He was more frightened of the dark imagery (especially the electrical effects in the power company rooms) than he was of the speed of the Coaster.

Next, we walked back out of Toontown and enjoyed a leisurely ride on the "Happiest Cruise That Ever Sailed." It was a good happy ride for Allan to get over the trauma of Roger Rabbit's weasels and dip. We all really do enjoy It's a Small World...although we usually only catch it once or twice per trip.

It was getting close to eleven by now, and we hadn't had any breakfast, so we decided to find a place to get some hot dogs for a bite of lunch. We tried the Village Haus, but it wasn't open yet. Instead, we took a stroll along Big Thunder Trail and toward Frontierland. We ended up getting some fast food at the Stage Door Cafe. The burger was bland, the fries greasy, and the hot dog plain...but it was food and we were hungry, so it did what it was supposed to.

After lunch, we made our way back to the hub. We stopped for a brief time at the boots hill shooting gallery, then continued on out to the hub and down Main Street. We strolled through some of the shops on the way. I love walking through the candy shop, but refrained from buying anything there. Also, there's a CD of Rod Miller and Alan Thompson that I'm planning to pick up (the two play incredible duets on the piano up on the corner...I'm already looking forward to it).

We continued on through the square (stopping briefly to listen to the band and watch a horse-drawn trolley) then returned to our room for our break.

During the break, Barb called our social worker to get an update on our birthmom's progress. Vicki had nothing more to share, but our birthmom was supposed to be going to see the doctor in the next couple of days, so we'll probably learn some more soon. We did find that Vicki scheduled a meeting with the birthfather for the week of our return, so we'll get to meet him, too, soon.

After the phone call, we knocked off for a brief nap. We didn't get moving again until almost 5pm. After freshening up, we walked back over to the park and into town square. Allan decided he wanted to check out the firehouse, but when he saw that there was no firetruck or horses (as there is at Walt Disney World) he decided it wasn't that big of a deal. Then we made our way down Main Street to the hub. As we got to the corner, I saw Alan Thompson and Rod Miller at the piano and asked Alan if and when they would be playing this evening. He told me they would be after about 7:30pm so we continued on into Adventureland, but I planned on coming back to catch the duet later in the evening if possible.

We made the Jungle Cruise our first stop. Barb remembered to go to the left when we hit the top of the stairs, so we shaved several minutes off our wait as we were able to walk past at least fifty to a hundred folks that were standing in the right side line. The cruise was fun as always. Allan was amazing Barb with how much he knew about the ride. I'm not sure how much of it is similarity to the WDW version and how much is due to the fact that we were looking over my old Disneyland books for several weeks prior to the trip (and there were several Jungle Cruise pictures in them).

The Pirates were our next adventure. I love this attraction, although Allan wasn't quite so sure about the waterfall drops (especially the first one, in the dark). The new fight shadows and some of the animatronics were new since I was last here.

Dinner was served over at the French Market. I had the jambalaya (which I would have liked better with less fish and more chicken or shrimp), Barb and Allan shared the fried chicken (although Allan didn't know that, because Barb prudently asked that the meal be split "behind the scenes" even though the normal procedure was simply to give an extra plate). We also shared a couple of deserts and a fruit plate. Dinner was good, but I must say that I wish the beverage portions were larger. A large iced tea at lunch and at dinner lasted me about three quarters of each meal leaving me to strictly ration myself for the end of each meal.

After dinner we made our way to the Haunted Mansion, but Allan was quite set back by the creepiness of the entry hall. Rather than risk ruining the effect for the other guests, we decided to retreat. Perhaps we'll try it again sometime when it's not dark outside, too.

Instead of the Mansion, we jumped on the railroad there at New Orleans Square, and rode around to the Toontown station. We got off and made our way toward the Storybookland Boats, but they weren't running. We decided to go to Alice instead. Just as we arrived, though, the announcement for the parade started and Allan decided that he wanted to see it again. Barb dutifully put the little guy on top of her shoulders, and we watched, for the second time, the 45th Anniversary parade. I have a couple more observations. First, the music is really boring for a Disney parade. Second, the addition of a bunch of guests into the parade is an idea that really worked well at WDW for the 25th Anniversary, but which is getting old now. For my money, I'd much rather see costumed characters that my son (and I) will recognize and enjoy versus a bunch of middle-aged men in tutus prancing about the parade route like keystone cops in drag. I'm sure that the people that are invited to be IN the parade have an experience they'll not soon forget. For the rest of us, it's one we'd like to forget as soon as we can.

As soon as Mickey's float passed by, we walked right into the queue for Alice. Apparently it was a good idea because we were the third group in line when we got to the front of the queue, but upon our return to the unload area at the end of the ride, the entire queue was filled.

After Alice we enjoyed Pinocchio, although Allan was a bit taken back by the sudden appearance of Monstro. By this time it was getting to be close to 7:30 and I wanted to get to the corner.

I was in luck! Alan and Rod were just getting started. We grabbed a table across from the piano, turned the chairs around, and got situated...just to have Rod tell us that we needed to move some chairs right up to the piano. We did, and had a great time watching the two pound out some incredible four hand work on the keyboard. I had a pleasant time listening and talking to the two gentlemen, but our Allan was starting to feel really bad (upset stomach thing). Barb took him to the restroom, and upon their return, I left briefly to pick up the Rod Miller and Miller/Thompson CDs at the music shop down at the Southeast end of Main Street just South of the Cinema. When I returned, Rod and Alan signed them for me. Due to Allan's discomfort we decided to leave the park. Since Alan Thompson has just been hired as a Disneyland CM, we'll be able to enjoy their work tomorrow and Saturday as well as the usual Sunday night, too.

We made our way back to the motel, Allan still wasn't feeling great, but we did put him down for bed after a brief play time. After Barb and I caught up on our morning Btible reading (that we'd straggled on during the trip) and I caught up the trip report, we all settled down for the night.

We got up this morning at about the same time as yesterday (around 7:30am) and left the room right about 8:30am. Before walking across Harbor Boulevard to enter the park, we went next door and upstairs to Mama's Restaurant, where our motel provides a free continental breakfast. They had a pretty decent spread of pastries, toast, cereals, juices, coffee, and such. It was a good way to start the day, because we'd been planning to take Allan over to Tom Sawyer Island for awhile this morning.

When we first got to the park, just five minutes or so after rope drop, we made our way to the hub and asked about the Island. The CM there told us that it was, indeed, supposed to be opening at about 11:00am (it had been down for rehab, and today was the first scheduled day of reopening).

Then we walked into Adventureland. Allan made a strong case for seeing "the animals" (Jungle Cruise) so we got into the queue and within just ten minutes or so, were enjoying a much better captain than last night regale us with information on the wondrous sites on the Amazon, Nile, Congo, Titabawassee (no, I'm just checking to see if you're reading...that's a river near our house in Michigan), and other wild rivers. Our captain's gun failed to fire at the hippos, so she just said, "Bang, Bang. That should scare them away."

After we exited the cruise, we continued on toward Pirates. In fact, we got in the queue for pirates, but Allan made it very clear he was afraid of it. When we asked him why, he said that he was afraid of the waterfalls...the drops that you go down early in the ride. Rather than press the issue, we decided to hold off...perhaps he'll be more confident later in the trip or next Fall at WDW.

We had a similar situation at the Haunted Mansion. This was pretty unusual for Allan, but he's just at that age where things that are supposed to be scary really are. Again, we decided to not press the issue. No sense in scarring the kid for life here.

Instead, we continued on our way back into the depths of Frontierland. Allan was fascinated with the plummeting logs on Splash Mountain, but we had to wait there for quite some time (probably seven or eight logs worth) before we saw a log with passengers go down into the briar patch. We continued our walk, and found ourselves (by design) at the Country Bear Playhouse. The show was to begin in just a couple of minutes (to a mostly empty house) but it was just the thing for Allan. he really enjoyed the bears, and had the biggest grin for Max, Buff, and Melvin when the threesome starting talking and moving on the wall to our left.

After the bruins ended their serenade with a rousing rendition of "I'm glad I'm a Country Bear," we made our way out of the playhouse and bumped into Pooh! Allan wanted to go hug him so bad, but there was a crowd of other kids that were there before us, so we made him wait. The little guy was absolutely crushed then, we Pooh suddenly started to back away and left a trail of kids holding their autograph books in their hands...and Allan standing among them. Many of the other kids kept following Pooh, holding out their books, running up to get give him a hug or try to get one...but Pooh's departure was inexorable.

Allan just turned around and looked like he was ready to burst into tears...but as I turned around, I saw a CM rushing by and I was able to ask when Pooh would be back. I was told that he would return in just a few minutes, but over at the "Thotful Place" just a few feet away, but where a proper queue was established to put some organization into the audience (I meant the meeting with Pooh...as in "an audience with a member of royalty", but if you thought I meant the PEOPLE IN the queue, I suppose that's not far off my meaning, either.)

We've seen a lot more incidents of pushy parents and rude kids flailing around to get at the characters than we've ever seen before on our previous trips to the Disney parks. The cause may be several: For one, we've never had a three year old that was so interested in the characters before, so perhaps we've just never experienced the syndrome before. Another may be that the crowds in Florida are really more polite than they are in California. A third possibility is that the CMs at WDW are just better trained or more experienced in crowd control around the characters. It almost seems like politeness and courtesy don't pay...

Happily, though, we got in line and after a brief wait, Allan had his chance to give Pooh a big hug and receive one in return. It was such a pleasure to see Allan so happy after being so disappointed just a few moments before. We told him that he was able to see Pooh because he had been so polite in waiting his turn and not chasing after Pooh when he had to leave earlier. Although that might not be technically true, certainly Barb and I were pleased to take the time to wait in line after he had behaved so well.

We left Critter Country, and watched the crew working on Columbia. I supposed the ship was being readied for an afternoon sailing, but since we ended up leaving the park before getting back to Frontierland, that is just conjecture on my part. We continued walking along the river side, and as we got back toward the Stage Door, Barb spied Goofy in cowboy garb just walking around the area. We took Allan over, and he was in his glory again (Goofy is a big favorite, ever since he doused Allan's head with water at a play fountain at Epcot back in May of 1999).

After hugging Goofy, we turned around and started walking toward the Mark Twain, when we saw Chip and Dale greeting folks. We joined the crowd for that meeting too. As we walked up toward the chipmunks, Allan stated that he would "not hit him," a reference to an incident, again in May of 1999, when Allan hit one of them at Liberty Tree Tavern at WDW. He was severely reprimanded for that fault, and wanted us to know that he had no intention of repeating the crime. He didn't...and in fact, was quite cute with the rodent we ended up seeing (Chip, I think, but I may be wrong...even though I have a 50/50 chance of getting it right each time).

We then walked into the queue are for the Mark Twain, which was just steaming into view to the Northwest. We'd planning to make our way up to the captain's cabin and ask permission to "come on up." But Allan chose this particular moment to have an attitude. Barb had to correct him, but he put his hand over her mouth and announced that she couldn't tell him what to do. Of course, he was quite mistaken. I told him that because of his disobedience and rudeness to his Mother, we were NOT going to ride on the big boat that he wanted so much to "drive." We left the queue (I think the CM on station there was quite confused by our departure, because Allan wasn't making a big scene to all appearances, but he was certainly having a struggle with the dark side.)

Instead of boarding the Twain, we found some benches across from the landing and watched everyone else board the sternwheeler. I told my son that because he was naughty and rude, we would just wait there and watch everyone else ride the big boat. Maybe later, after he obeyed, we would return for a ride. It took him awhile to realize that we were quite serious. He's now at the age where we are starting to use natural consequences for his own actions to provide discipline. It's important, we believe, to let him see that wrong behavior and attitudes has negative results besides the more direct kinds of punishment he used to get as a toddler. It took some time out of our day, but a little time here and there will pay off handsomely as this boy grows into a young man. I'm already very, very proud of Allan...and I want to make sure I am just as proud of the decisions he makes as he becomes a teen and adult. Of course, at the age of three and a half, I'm jumping ahead of myself, so...

After our brief break, we walked back out to the hub. The horse-drawn trolley was just arriving, and that was a mode of transportation that Allan had said he wanted to ride (he points out the trolley and the horse on my Disneyland/Walt Disney World coffee mugs at home). We jumped on, and rode down to the square, where we saw Minnie and Pluto greeting folks and giving out autographs. We made our way over to them, and Allan was able to get a hug with Minnie. Pluto, though, was just about to leave (very much in the same manner as Pooh had earlier). When Barb told Allan he had to back off so Pluto could go, and Allan was clearly obeying, the CM nearby smiled and told Allan to go ahead and give Pluto a hug. Allan beamed, and ran forward to give his favorite cartoon canine a hug. I suppose sometimes politeness and courtesy does pay off at Disneyland :)

Next we walked upstairs and caught the train to Toontown. We got off there, and walked around into Fantasyland and caught a bite to eat at the Village Haus. Total cost came out to $21.16 for a typical fast food meal for two adults and a child.

During lunch, it was sad to see a Mom there, with two very little children (both probably under two years of age), all by herself. Barb wondered (after we'd left the restaurant) how much fun that woman and her kids would have this day. I'm just glad to enjoy the parks as a family. It's a privilege we need to not take for granted.

Next, we got in the wait area for the Animazement show. We waited for a good thirty minutes or more before being allowed into the seating area. Ten minutes later, some late comers were going up and down the aisles asking people to "move in" so they could sit down. We heard one gentlemen suggest that the group just go past him and sit in the interior seats, but they wanted the aisle seats for some reason. I don't know where they ended up sitting, but there were six or seven empty seats to Barb's left during the whole show.

Animazement is a stylized show, I think it's been around for almost a year, so I suspect it will probably cease it's run sometime this summer. It really doesn't have a story, rather it's more of a revue of many well-known characters singing well-known songs in a long-running medley. It's well done, and Allan enjoyed seeing so many of his favorites. I'd recommend the show to anyone.

After the show, we walked back to Main Street where I bought some Executive Collection pieces that I didn't have (a spring pencil holder and a Mickey's pants paperclip holder). Then we returned to the room only to find it not yet made up! I called the front desk and asked that they take care of that for us. As they did so, we went down for a brief swim then returned to the now-ready room for our nap.

We were up and at 'em around 5:30pm this afternoon. We walked down to the transportation area, and caught the Timon/Pumba tram to the Disneyland Pacific Hotel. It's the only North American Disney hotel that I hadn't been in before. We didn't do much, just checked out lobby and the menu at Yamabuki (we decided that it was far too pricey, with entree's in the upper $20's and $30's and food descriptions that sounded far too authentic for us ugly Americans, for dinner tonight). We also considered the PCH grill, but it just looked more formal than we wanted tonight.

So, we walked over to the Disneyland Hotel and caught monorail back to park, riding in the "back seats" this time.

Upon our arrival in Tomorrowland, we walked over to Redd Rocket's for dinner. The crowds were really big and there seemed to be a shortage of tables. Unfortunately, lots of people without food were saving tables. If they'd just go get their food first, I'm sure that there would be plenty of tables, but the every-man-for-himself attitude is apparently too prevalent around here.

The food was very good. I had the penne pasta, Barb had the spaghetti with meat balls, Allan had pizza. He didn't eat much of it, and complained about being cold, so I put my jacket on him. He just beamed as he sat there with the far-too-big jacket over his own. As he shared our chocolate chip cookie (cut like a pizza, very good, and two pieces for each of us) he got crumbs all through my jacket sleeves, but he wasn't too concerned about it. Total cost was $31.06 for all three of us.

After we finished eating, we walked back to Main Street and down to the Clothiers shop to buy Allan the Spring jacket that we decided earlier to not buy. Unfortunately, it was so cold tonight that Allan needed more than the thin jacket he had on and his heavier coat (back at the motel) would have been too much anyway.

After making the transaction, Allan announced that he wanted to ride "Poinke-in-oink-eio's ride" (literally translated, "Pinocchio"). As we made our way toward the castle, we saw that the walk through the castle itself was blocked with tons of people because of the parade. We made our way around by Snow White's Grotto, then into Fantasyland.

We decided to ride Snow White's Adventures, since we were there. We'd planned for him to ride with Mom, but he vetoed that and jumped in with me. During the ride, he was quite taken back by the imagery -- especially the witches' dungeon and the haunted forest. Next, we walked back to Pinocchio. Again, Allan wanted to ride with Daddy. Allan was pretty much ok with this one, but jumped when the Fox hit the hammer on the bell ringer thingie at Pleasure Island.

Casey Jr. was our next stop (third time so far this trip) then the Carousel (second time). I made sure that he sat next to Mommy on the carousel. The little guy came up with another gem after we mounted up, but before the carousel started rotating. He started neighing (making the noise of his horse) then told it (his horse) to "be quiet." He did this several times, either telling his horse to "be quiet" or simply "shhhhh." Unfortunately, Allan is now going through a hyper-morality phase in which he recognizes whenever anyone else is doing something wrong...and doesn't hesitate to point it out to them. I suppose some would figure he's turning out to be a typical Baptist. We've already had a couple of incidents in which he's told kids that they were "being naughty" because they were climbing on the queues to his dissatisfaction. Mostly he's right, but we're trying to get him to concentrate on doing the right thing for himself...not policing the rest of the world.

After our spin on the equestrians, Allan decided that he wanted to ride cars that he could drive (that mean Mr. Toad's Wild Ride), but the line for that attraction was so long, we told him we'd do it another time. Instead, we made our way back to the castle, but around toward Carnation Gardens this time (due to the parade congestion again). Barb got off a pretty good shot of the castle nicely lit up with colored floodlights as we paused for a moment.

We made our way into the hub and around toward Frontierland, and made a quick pit stop. Then Allan announced that he wanted to ride the Pirates. After the fear he displayed earlier this morning about riding this again, we were quite surprised, but went and got in line. As we waited, he laid out the ground rules. First, Dad had to hold him during the waterfalls (drops). Second, Allan was going to scream during them. No problem with either of those conditions...so we waited a brief ten minutes or so, then boarded our boat. Allan was quick to enforce rule number one...and even suggested that Mom could hold him too. He did well with rule number two, too. He let out a bloodcurdling scream a good ten feet or so before the plunge but really didn't seem to be afraid after the drops were done. The buccaneers were a riot, of course, and Allan was quite proud of himself for dealing with the waterfalls.

As we exited the ride, we quickly walked back to the entrance to reclaim our stroller and speed-walked through Adventureland to get back to the hub for the fireworks. As we pulled into the plaza area, we could see all of Main Street jam packed...this time with people standing shoulder-to-shoulder facing the castle waiting for the show. It was a weird sight. I've never seen so many people, waiting so intently, all facing the same direction, and all so closely spaced.

The show was worth it, though. The fireworks were fantastic! I've never seen some of the effects: slowly twinkling golden bursts, bright rows of starshells, explosions of round colors, slowly bobbing and weaving flecks of light. It was masterfully done, and well coordinated with the music. We enjoyed the show very much, and were pleased to see that Tinkerbell is still featured toward the end of the display. This is a not-to-be-missed show. Very well done and very much worth the brief wait time to see.

After the show, we made our way through the multitudes back to the square and under the railroad station. Them we made the now-familiar walk back to our motel and to our room. We got Allan ready for bed, then, as I worked on updating the trip report, Barb read through a magazine. Allan saw us and asked if he could read the Disney book (I had my copy of Birnbaum's on the night stand). I handed it over, and he spent ten minutes or so looking through the book, pointing out the characters, announcing that he was looking at "Small World" (he was) and just enjoying the book. Pretty sad that I've got my three year old already reading Birnbaum's huh? I suppose he'll want to start working on planning our upcoming October trip next.

This morning we got up for early entry, but didn't get moving quite quickly enough to take full advantage, arriving about twenty minutes late at 7:50am.

Now I must confess that the steady diet of Fantasyland and Jungle Cruise was starting to wear a bit more thin than I'd like to admit. I really was feeling the urge to catch a great ride. Unfortunately, Indy wasn't open this morning, but Space Mountain (not one of Barb's favorites anyway) was. So, while Allan and Barb did the Astro Orbiter, I walked back and rode Space Mountain. My ride was absolutely fantastic. I'm not sure if it's because of the soundtrack, or if it was the first fast E-ticket of this trip, or because it's been so long since I've ridden any Disney coaster (it's been since last May!), or if it was because of a combination of all of those things, but regardless -- I loved the trip!

While I was off gallivanting, Allan and mom boarded the Astro Orbiter. While they were waiting for the ride to start up, a kind CM offered to take their picture and did so with Barb's camera. As it turned out, it was a good thing that they took the picture before the ride, because Allan was quite taken back by the Orbiter which spins much more quickly and tilts your body much more so than Dumbo.

After their ride, the two walked back into Tomorrowland and found a bevy of characters walking about. Beast, Br'er Fox, Br'er Bear, and Hook were all right there...in Tomorrowland of all places! Allan pretty much kept clear of Beast, Br'er Bear, and Hook -- but took right to Br'er Fox (which is ironic because he had a really bad experience with Br'er Fox at WDW a few years ago...apparently he's forgotten).

When we were reunited, we all walked back to Fantasyland and did Peter Pan and Dumbo in short order. By now it was getting close to 9am, so we made our way over toward Adventureland to check out the queue for Indy. It was starting to get really big, and I decided to skip it because it was so long...until Barb discovered it wasn't as bad as it looked. The queue didn't go all the way to the Temple, but was stopped at the rope. So, we got in line. With rope drop, we followed the other lemmings to the front of the actual queue, where Barb got a baby swap pass and took Allan off to the side while I walked through the queue. The guy behind me in line asked a bunch of questions about the baby swap concept, apparently he wasn't aware of the concept at all. He was pretty please to find out...I suppose he and his wife will have a better day with their little one then they might have had otherwise.

The walk in to the loading area was a quick one. We had to walk through the entire queue, but there were no stops until we got to the stairs and crossed over the vehicle track to the loading platform itself. I still think that this is Disney's best attraction of all time. I hope that a comparable E-ticket will be built in Florida soon...

After I rode, I swapped with Barb. We all met up at the entrance to the Jungle Cruise where Allan and I had stashed the stroller and allowed him some wiggle time climbing on some rocks and just jumping about in a small area where he wasn't in anyone else's way. Then, for the third time we rode the Jungle Cruise. This time I enjoyed our skipper's serenade over the "sleeping" zebra in the lion's den. "Can you feel the love tonight..." I've heard that one before, but today it struck me as particularly funny for some reason.

After the cruise, we walked back out to New Orleans Square and saw that the Mark Twain was steaming up. We got into the queue area and Allan displayed (not surprisingly) a much improved attitude over yesterday. When we got aboard, I was able to get up to the pilot house and ask the captain for permission to "come on up" which was granted. Allan loves "driving" the riverboats, and did a particularly good job of keeping the Twain on course today. He really did keep an eye on the river and spun the wheel in the right direction as we traversed the waters of the river.

After receiving his Pilot's License, we made our way down from the pilot house and out of the boat. We were the very last to disembark (they were keeping the queue held up for us, and I felt bad that we apparently had dawdled so much).

Next, we walked along the riverfront and made our way to Country Bears. As last time, we walked right on in without any wait at all. Unfortunately, I chose a bad seat for Allan, behind some unusually large people, so we had to shift him from knee to knee and lap to lap throughout the performance so he could see what was going on.

Lunch at Hungry Bear Restaurant was our next stop. It was, in my opinion, by far the best fast food at Disneyland so far this trip. Unfortunately, I bought a side of onion rings that weren't needed because we weren't as hungry as I had thought. My chicken sandwich was much larger than I expected...and even shared part of it with Allan.

After lunch, we floated over to Tom Sawyer's Island. We spent probably forty-five minutes or so walking about, going over the barrel bridge, losing Allan and Mom in Injun Joe's cave, shooting the guns in the towers of Fort Wilderness, and climbing Tom's tree house. (By the way, I highly recommend using the entrance to the tree house as labeled. I almost got permanently stuck coming down the ladder.)

As we left the tree house area, we saw Columbia backing out of Fowler's Harbor and riding on "Hook's boat" has been on the top of Allan's list since he first saw the tall ship. So, we left the island and walked around the river to ride Columbia for the first time (for all of us).

I must admit, I was a bit apprehensive as they tied up the ship as we stood in the queue, but there were no mishaps. Otherwise, it was a fairly unremarkable ride. I was disappointed to hear the spiel had changed since I was listening for some of the punch lines I had been told about in the past.

Towards the end of the voyage, a CM named Jennifer or "Hawkeye" to the Captain, asked Allan to swab the deck, but the lazy bum declined. A young girl took the opportunity, though, and kept it up for quite some time. Her reward was that she was allowed to ring the ship's bell. Later, during our daily break, I told Allan that had he been more willing to help, perhaps he would have been allowed to ring the bell. I think it's a good thing to point out some of these cause and effect things, since he's still learning to put them together.

After we disembarked, we declared the morning done (it was actually past 1:00pm already, very late for our family on a park day). As we left the park, we made a detour so Barb could check for coloring books (for her scrapbooking habit), then we left park for the afternoon.

A siren woke Allan and I up at 5pm, but he put his head down and feel almost immediately back to sleep. I, on the other hand, decided to take this opportunity to download my email and get caught up with the rest of the world.

This evening should be a shorter tale. We got up and moving (finally) around 6:30pm, but none of us were really hungry. Besides, we needed to make a quick K-mart run to buy some things Allan needed (trying to stretch clothes for over a week was a valiant idea, but we have a little guy in between Winter and Summer clothes and we just didn't have enough stuff to go for the whole time. The choices were either laundry or buying a pair of pants which Allan sorely needs anyway...so we decided on the pants.

After K-mart, we drove back to the motel, parked the car, then walked over to the park for a short evening. We got into the park just about 7:30 or so, there was a huge throng lined up to enter the park (many of them first timers for the day, too). The park was really very crowded. There was already a lot of folks camping out for the parade. he whole Main Street area was jamming up...and the rest of the park turned out to be just about as full, too.

We turned into Adventureland, and intended to watch the Tiki Room show, but when Allan found out that there would be thunder during it, he decided it would be too frightening. We walked through the show room and exited, again figuring that there isn't any point in making Allan deal with a scary situation when his adverse reaction may affect the enjoyment of others. We left the building and I walked around to the front to retrieve the stroller. While I was gone Allan decided that he wanted to see the show after all. We declined, pointing out to him that once he makes a decision like that, we can't just change it.

Instead, we pushed on through the masses of humanity in Adventureland until Allan suggested that we ride Pirates again. He really is adorable as he's being so brave...knowing that the waterfalls are coming, making it clear to us that he's planning to scream on the way down, and wanting so hard to show us how grown up he is. He seems to enjoying being held tight by Mom and Dad during the waterfalls, too, so this has turned out to be one of our favorite attractions just because of that fact.

After we left Pirates, we made our way along the Rivers of America and bought some popcorn. Since we really weren't hungry even yet, we decided to just snack. We enjoyed the popcorn, as we walked out to the hub and saw some dancers at the Pavilion doing some swing moves. We watched them for awhile, until Allan heard Pomp and Circumstance playing off in the distance and asked ever-so-politely if we could go watch the parade. We decided to reward Allan's great attitude and politeness, and made our way through the castle and around to the small area between the Teacups and Alice where we watched the parade on Thursday night before the Blue Fairy arrived. This time, instead of sitting on Barb's shoulders, Allan sat on mine. Thirty-three pounds of child really starts to feel like thirty-three pounds of lead after awhile. Daddy was never more excited to see Mickey and Pluto and Minnie as he was when those characters finally arrived on the last float.

After the parade, we walked back to where we stashed the stroller and sat down for a few minutes to finish the last of the popcorn. Then we steeled ourselves for the walk through the masses of humanity back to the hub. We walked around past Mr. Toad and the Carousel, and up to the castle. There, we were told that the whole castle area was being blocked off, so we had to walk along the path that begins in front of Tinker Bell's Toy Shop toward the Pavilion again. As we made our way forward, a group of girls ran passed, one of which hit Barb on the shoulder. She yelled a quick "sorry" as she continued along, and Barb suggested that she slow down then....but of course, the offender just kept on going.

We watched the swing dancers again, briefly (I was particularly amused by the girl that walked out and just started moving, and literally bowled over a couple as she spun herself around).

After that excitement, we pretty much just made our way down Main Street, briefly considered stopping for ice cream, but the line at Gibson Girl's was intimidating. When we got to the square, Allan spied Goofy, so we got out of the stroller and allowed Allan a chance to give and get a hug from the big guy. Then it was back toward the hotel.

We did make one last stop, at the Mom's Restaurant, we decided to have that ice cream we skipped on Main Street. The atmosphere wasn't quite the same, but the crowd situation was much more to our liking...and we enjoyed the relative peace and quiet. Then, after our snack, it was back to the room for bed.

We arrived at the park this morning right about 8:30am or so. Big crowds had already gathered at the gates. We were soon let into Main Street, where we simply walked up the street to the hub end where we waited until rope drop. I was scanning the crowds looking for some folks, because the major agenda item for this morning was to meet some online friends at the Plaza Inn for the character breakfast there.

This was an excellent character experience. In general, the food was very good (especially the coffee...but again, this restaurant is sponsored by the Columbian Coffee Growers, so that shouldn't be a surprise). The hot food that was offered included scrambled eggs, bacon, sausage, ham, omelettes made to order, mickey-shaped waffles and fruit cobbler (that I had fully intended to sample, but completely forgot to get). Cold offerings included fruits, cereals, pastries, bagels. There was also three different juices, coffee (of course), and milk available.

One negative, though, was that the layout was pretty inconvenient. They had various stations set up, so if you wanted a variety of items you had to wait in line several times. Also, there was no specific children's area (like at the Crystal Palace at WDW) so dealing with our three year old in getting food was a bit more complicated.

On the positive side, the character interactions were simply fantastic! For one thing, the crowds weren't too bad (perhaps because it was a Sunday morning). During our meal, Pooh, Piglet, Tigger, and Eyeore just wandered around the room greeting everyone. Allan was able to talk to each one and give them hugs and have some major interaction time several times. We were actually at the restaurant from about 9:10am until almost 11:00am, and we must have seen each of those characters at least three times each. Cost was $16.99 for adults and $9.99 for children. We were able to get a Magic Kingdom Club discount (10% off) there, too.

After breakfast, we all walked out to the castle plaza for a group picture, then Allan, Barb and I jumped aboard the firetruck for a short drive back to the square end of Main Street. It was the last of the Main Street vehicles that he wanted to ride, so it was cause for some celebration that we were able to get it in.

After a photo of Allan "driving" the fire truck, and a short walk back up Main Street to Adventureland, we hung a strong left turn and waited for awhile to wait for the next showing of Aladdin and Jasmine's Adventure Story (I'm not sure of the formal name for this show). It was held in Aladdin's Oasis building, where the much lamented dinner show used to be held. Now, there is an hourly interactive storytelling of the story of Aladdin and Jasmine. The old dinner show theatre now just has rows of seats, but in the very front, there is an area set aside with rugs and pillows for all of the kids to sit. Allan joined the kids, but I was half expecting him to come sit with us during the show itself...but he did well, and stuck it out.

The story was pretty entertaining. At one point, Allan was selected to play the role of Jafar. He actually gave the storyteller, "Kazoo", his name...but then decided against playing the role. He is a bit young. I was just pleased that he didn't burst into tears onstage...but instead just carefully sat back down in the children's seating area.

After the show, we bid our friends goodbye for now (perhaps we'll see some of them this evening). We left the Oasis and jumped into the line for Jungle Cruise. This time our skipper was a very obnoxious one. His mannerisms were just so annoying, I wish I could put my finger on it...but regardless, we didn't need to deal with him for long.

It was now close to 1:00pm, and Allan was getting edgy. He'd been so good for so long during breakfast and all. He had wanted so badly to ride some rides, but it just didn't fit into today's schedule very well. Now, though, he was making it clear that a nap would be a good idea, so we returned to the room for the afternoon.

This evening was the oddest last Disney day I've ever spent. Instead of going right to the park for those last few moments, we drove over to Knott's for chicken dinner! Even worse, we waited for a half hour for the meal. The food, though, was very good. My last remembrance of Knott's chicken was poor, but this time we received very large portions (the chicken breasts were D-cups, according to Barb) and the soup, rolls, and boysenberry punch were excellent.

Our waitress was even able to provide us with a list of ingredients for the soup, a dish we've been trying to copy at our house for several years. Now with the last few missing ingredients, Barb is hopeful that we'll make a batch that's even closer to the original next time.

After dinner, we drove back to our motel then walked over to the park for one last sortie. We ended up camping on Main Street for the last forty-five minutes or so before the parade (this parade isn't Disney's best by a long shot, but Allan enjoyed it each time we saw it, so we decided to see it one last time the right way.

As Barb and Allan held our place, I ran down to Coke Corner to meet up with some of my online friends for a brief goodbye. It was fun to see Al Lutz and Andy Dannelly again, and to meet (or re-meet in some cases) so many other folks that I've come to count as friends here on the West coast.

Karl Buter joined us briefly for the parade. He was one of the folks I met today for the first time in person, but which I've emailed with several times in the past.

The parade itself was the same as the previous three times we'd seen it. Snow White winked at Allan and he grinned for a mile. He also waved to all of the other characters. It was fun for Barb and I to see the face characters change from night to night. The Ariel tonight was the original one that we saw on Wednesday, but was different from the one we saw during the two intervening runs. After the parade, we walked slowly back toward Fantasyland, but Allan requested a last ride on the Jungle Cruise, so we obliged him. I love this attraction at night.

After that we did get back to Fantasyland. The line for Dumbo was terrible, but we also noticed that the Storybookland Boats were running tonight (for the first time at night all trip), so we got in line (we waited perhaps twenty minutes or so) and rode our boat through Monstro's maw and into Storybookland. It was a brand-new experience for Allan...and one that he seemed to thoroughly enjoy.

After we disembarked, we found that the Dumbo queue had gotten much more reasonable, so we got in line and let Allan pilot the talented elephant one last time.

We didn't do any other attractions during our visit. We did make a stop in the Emporium and allowed Allan to pick out one beany-toy (he has two Dalmatian puppies that he just loves to play with, so we figured this would be a fun toy). He selected a referee Mickey then he "paid" for it and we left the store.

Except for one quick look down Main Street from the foot of the train station, and a wave to the castle that we don't think we'll see again for some time, the remainder of the evening was taken up by a brisk walk back to our room and some time spent typing up today's events and (trying to) help Barb pack for tomorrow's early departure.

Today's travels were tiring, but uneventful. We got up at 4:00am, Pacific Time, and checked out of the motel and hit the road by 5:20am or so (the target was 5:15, so we felt good about things since we were moving so early). Contrary to some advice I received at the breakfast yesterday, I took us North on Harbor to the I-5 South entrance ramp (it's on the left at the top of the hill) and took I-5 South to 55 South to I-405 South to John Wayne (Orange County) Airport. I used this route because I still figured that the traffic wouldn't be too bad that early in the morning...and also because it was a familiar one for me. As we drove along, I started to second-guess my idea about flying out of John Wayne. One of the great advantages of flying out of LAX is the ability to check bags outside, and not have to cart them inside to the check in area. Oh well...

Rather than try to lug our check-in bags from the rental car return downstairs, I decided to drop Barb and Allan off at the departure/ticketing area. I figured they could guard our stuff while I returned the car. As we pulled up to the curb, we saw that we would be able to use a skycap to check our bags curbside afterall! This really made our morning easier because the 29 inch Pierre Cardin suitcase felt like it was filled with lead. The other check-in bag was an oddly- shaped one that had Allan's car seat and some incidentals in it. It was nice to be able to deal with them now, so Barb had less to deal with inside the terminal.

I drove away, leaving all of the carry-on stuff with my wife. I only realized, as I pulled up to the rental return, that the contract information on the car was up in my computer bag...or was it? I checked the pocket in the door of the car. Eureka! I'd left the contract there. This morning was going like a well-oiled machine...even if some of it was by happy accident. I returned the car, it took all of thirty seconds, and went over to the elevator to go up to the terminal. I waited longer for that elevator to come downstairs than I did for the National folks to check the car in and charge the $230+ to my Corporate Mastercard.

Eventually I got to where Allan and Barb were. We walked over to the Northwest counter and checked in. Everything went smooth- as- silk. There were no problems with any of the tickets, our bags were already checked, our seat assignments had all three of us together for both flights. Our plane was expected to depart on time. We still had plenty of time to get to the gate without rushing, but not so much time that Allan would get too antsy...the list just goes on and on.

We boarded our plane, and Allan had a bit of a temper about where we had to sit. He wanted to sit in first class. I didn't blame him, but pointed out that we had special seats that we had to sit in and having a tantrum wouldn't change that. He settled down after that. He had been awakened from a sound sleep far too early and after a very long week of late nights in the park, so a little time of acting like a three-year-old wasn't unexpected. Frankly, except for this brief (less than 30 seconds) of attitude, and the Mark Twain incident, and perhaps a few other short behavior problems, the boy was an angel for the whole week!

We flew on to Minneapolis, had a two and a half hour layover, then caught the last flight to our home airport. Except for a brief delay on our departure, due to a very sudden snow/sleet squall and the need to have the wings checked for ice, everything went well on the second leg, too.

We got back to our happy little airport (it's a much happier place to come home from than it is to leave from when you're being denied your seat on the plane) and waited a few minutes for our bags. Then we gathered them up, I went out and got the van from the long term lot and paid my $28 for parking, and returned to the terminal to get Barb, Allan, and our assorted paraphernalia.

A twenty minute drive home, with a brief drive through at Taco Bell to get some gut-wrenching cuisine to eat at home, and the trip was done.

Clearly this trip was geared right to Allan. With only Barb and I, it's hard to keep him occupied during a baby swap. Besides, since this is a family trip we don't mind just doing things we can do together. On the very positive side, it was a joy to see Allan enjoying so many of the attractions. He loved the Jungle Cruise, Dumbo, and Casey Jr. He enjoyed all of the rides in Fantasyland, really, even though a few had some frightening moments. Tom Sawyer Island was a big hit...and we'll have to make sure we stop over there again at the Magic Kingdom in October. We were disappointed that Fantasmic! was never run, that Tarzan's Treehouse was closed for rehab, and that the Matterhorn and Autopia were still torn up. I'm sure we'll enjoy doing the counterparts (if they exist) at WDW in the Fall. The two character meals were fantastic. Besides that, we really enjoyed catching some of the characters out in the park, too. All in all, it was a very laid-back trip and a fun one that I'm sure we'll all remember for a long time.

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Brian Bennett -- March 2000 -- Disneyland

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