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Amy Gourley -- June 2000 -- DisneylandJune 25-July 2, 2000 Cast:
Resort: Disneyland Hotel Pictures: Some pictures from our trip are at http://www.photoloft.com/view/allalbums.asp?s=plft&u=572040 Background info: Jason and I are big Disney fans. He has visited Walt Disney World over 20 times and I have been there 5 times, twice with Jason. Jason proposed to me on June 24, 1999 and I said yes. :) We began planning a honeymoon trip and Jason suggested California and Disneyland. Fast-forward a year later: June 24, 2000-our wedding day in my hometown near Pittsburgh, PA. (By the way, we live in the Washington D.C. area) Jason surprised me with the first dance song by using "When You Wish Upon a Star." After the song was over, the DJ said, Amy and Jason you just got married, what are you going to do now? Jason yelled, "We're going to Disneyland!", which was kinda cute. We planned our Disney vacation by reading Birnbaum's and various Disneyland websites. We are also including our days off site. DAY 1 Our flight to LAX was supposed to leave from Pittsburgh International Airport at 9:55 AM but when we got to the airport we found out it was delayed until 10:45 AM. So we left Pittsburgh an hour later and arrived at LAX around 12:45 PDT. Jason looked out the window most of the time, watching America go by and trying to guess where we were with little success. I mainly read my book. We were planning to eat at the Encounter restaurant at the airport, but didn't want to go there with all of our luggage, so we just decided to get our rental car. We rented a car from Dollar and had to wait for its shuttle. It seemed as if every other rental shuttle and hotel shuttle pulled up at least twice until the Dollar shuttle came. No problems getting our rental car. Jason had a coupon for a free upgrade. Jason expected the upgrade to be to a Dodge Stratus, but we got a Daewoo Leganza instead, which I never heard of before but it was an ok car. We decided to tour a little bit in L.A. before we went to Anaheim so we drove around some in Hollywood and Mulholland Drive. L.A. was so different for us, being from the East Coast. Everything looked dry and yellow and flat. Also, Jason noticed that many of the houses were single story, rather than the multistory homes typically found on the East Coast. It was also weird to see the highways being called freeways. We ended up later in the day in Santa Monica and walked along the Third Street Promenade and had dinner there at Teasers, Santa Fe chicken for Jason, and salmon for me. Their nachos appetizer was really good. We then went to walk on the beach for a little bit for our first glimpse of the Pacific Ocean. The view was really pretty there. After the beach we left for Anaheim! We arrived at the Disneyland hotel around 8:15 P.M, just as it was getting dark, about an hour early than it did in Pittsburgh the day before. It was neat to finally see the DCA construction site. Oh, and the parking structure. That thing is huge! We had a room in the Sierra tower, 7th floor, facing the park. The room was similar in size and amenities to the luxury resorts in Walt Disney World. It had two queen-sized beds, a writing desk, a couch and plenty of drawers. The bathroom had two sinks, and the toilet was in its own separate small room. I love all the prints in the rooms and scattered throughout the hotel of Disney rides and such. The left third of our view was of the trees of Disneyland, with the each of Disney's mountains poking out. It was not nearly as nice of view of the park as we got at the Contemporary Resort (tower, 11th floor) last time we were at WDW, but still gave us the sense of being near the park. The rest of the view was of the DCA and DD construction sites, the Disneyland Pacific Hotel, residential Anaheim, and the mountains in the background, perpetually obscured by smog. We were able to watch construction workers every morning building the AMC theater, and the new landscaping of the Disneyland Hotel where it will transition to Downtown Disney. Jason was worried after we made reservations to stay here that it would not be worth the extra money because people on the internet described the hotel as "No better than your average Holiday Inn", but we both agreed that was clearly not the case. It felt just like staying at the resorts at Disney WDW. I really wanted to go swimming, but found out that the pool closed at 9 PM, so we watched the fireworks from our balcony instead, which was a great view. The people in the room above us were apparently watching them too, as we could hear them give a narration to them as they videotaped them. DAY 2, June 26 Our first full day in California. We were up bright and early at 6:30 AM, I think mostly because we were still on East Coast time. Jason was really sweet and bought us bagels and muffins at the Coffee Shop while I was taking a shower. We caught the tram to the park around 8AM, to take advantage of early opening. It was neat to see the DCA construction site up closer. Walking into Main Street was, this looks familiar, I thought...looking down at the end of Main Street, wow, the castle is small! Main Street itself also looked smaller than at WDW (Jason disagrees). We spent some time looking at the castle and had our picture taken in front of it. We headed first to Fantasyland. We really like the look of FL and think that WDW should do the same. I love how each attraction has its own separate facade that make all of FL seem like a little village. We wanted to do rides that aren't at WDW first. Our first ride was Pinocchio's Daring Journey. I don't have much to say about it but I pretty much like all dark rides. Next we rode Mr. Toad. I had never ridden it at WDW but Jason had plenty of times. Jason says it was different, and really liked the queue theming. I liked it but I'm also glad they put Pooh in WDW, since Pooh is one of my favorite characters. Next we rode Alice in Wonderland. This was my favorite dark ride at DL. I especially love the effect of the marching cards. I also like how the ride has an "upstairs". By this time it was 9 and we went to make a dinner reservation at the Blue Bayou. I love the look of New Orleans Square. It became my favorite land at DL. We wanted 7 PM reservation for the Blue Bayou and ended up with 7:10. Next we decided to get a fastpass for Splash Mountain which was for only about an hour later. We next went to the Haunted Mansion. It's weird how it's just right there and not set back like in WDW. In the stretch room, we could feel the elevator going down. We liked the little walk through before you get to the doombuggies better than WDW's version. However, I still like WDW's HM better for some reason. Next, we decided to ride Pirates of the Caribbean. We were amazed with this too, that the ride was just right there and that you didn't have to walk a ways like at WDW. Unfortunately, we didn't get to ride it then as it broke down and they sent everyone out. The boats were backed up and some people just jumped right out of their boats before getting back to the dock!. We decided to find the famous mint julep bar. We got a mint julep and a chocolate chip cookie. I love the mint juleps! They are so good! We saw the train go by and were surprised to see the cars facing forward not straight ahead. We thought all the trains were like that at DL until we saw a front facing one later. After finishing the delicious mint julep we headed for Adventureland. It was so crowded there! It seems so small and compact compared to WDW. Our fast pass time for Splash had come up so we decided to see if we could get a fast pass for Indiana Jones even though we hadn't gone on Splash yet. The answer is you can. We next went to Tarzan's Treehouse. I liked it, especially the interactive section at the end. Onto Splash. We really got wet! I think I got the wettest before the big drop, as lots of water splashed into the flume at the smaller drops. I like the WDW version better, here it seems to be missing something. Jason thought Splash is much better at WDW because the audio animatronics in Florida are of a much higher quality. We next went to see if POC re-opened; it had. The line was long but it moved pretty quickly. I like the beginning passing through the bayou; I love the fireflies effect. The longer version is great! My favorite parts are the treasure rooms and caves at the beginning, up to the battling ships. The effect is very real. After POC, we went to the Disney Gallery. The exhibit on the history of Tomorrowland was really neat. I love stuff like that and I've always loved the idea of TL. The concept art was really cool and also the few models, especially Space Mountain, which held the engineer in Jason in endless fascination. I also liked how they played the music from old TL attractions in the exhibit area. The hallway area of the gallery was showing some prints and later in our trip showed a collection of DL maps. We also saw the Autopia exhibit which told about the new ride and the history of the ride. By this time, it was time to use our Indy fast passes. Jason noticed that ride actually has three lines, which unfortunately contributed to the congestion in Adventureland. The first line was the regular stand by line, which was pretty much out of the way. The second was the fast pass line, which was always inside the building, so it was no problem at all. The real cause of the congestion was the masses of people who had fastpasses for times in the future, who all stood in a big clump blocking the entrance to the fast pass line. Don't these people have something better to do? Overall though, Fastpass is great for this ride and you hardly have to wait at all. However, going through so quickly you miss a lot of theming. Also, it's a shame to waste that with having a line outside. This ride is definitely one of my new favorites! All I can say is wow! The effects and theming are great and it really feels real. The best effects are the skull and the bridge and the rolling stone. The ride is fun and not bumpy. I wasn't too enthralled with Countdown to Extinction at the Animal Kingdom but this ride is great! We decided to head to the Big Thunder Barbecue Ranch for lunch. We asked for the Magic Kingdom Club discount and they had it here. Later we checked the official list of where the discount is offered, and this place was not on it. Moral of the story, always ask for the discount (see other examples later). We got the beef BBQ sandwiches and Cokes. They were pretty good. I like how DL themes the paper cups to every land as we first noticed here. We next wandered around the Main Street shops for a little while and I bought a DL lanyard for my pins, which was much better for displaying pins than our tiny camera strap I loved pin trading at WDW. DL didn't seem to be that big into pin trading (except on Sundays, see Day 8). I didn't trade too much during the trip but I did meet some great people when looking at pins. We took the train to TL (Jason wants to know why the train stops in Tomorrowland as it doesn't fit the theme) for our first look there. I don't like the colors of TL. Everything looks rusty. I like the look of TL much better at WDW. The colors especially are so much better there. We saw the infamous Rocket Rods. They never broke down that we saw but the line was always long. Autopia was a soft open that day. We went to the Premiere Shop in TL to get our "commemorative gift" that came with our DL package. It was a commemorative coin which I wasn't too impressed with. We looked at the DL Forever machines for a while. The selection at these are so much better than at WDW! We decided to take a break from the park and go to the pool to cool off. We took the monorail to get back to the hotel. Because of the DCA construction, the part of the track that goes through it was closed. They have two monorails running at the same time. The first one would arrive at Disneyland, drop off passengers, and move farther down the track, out of site. The second on would then arrive, unload passengers, pick up new passengers, and head off to the Disneyland Hotel area. The first one would then come back, pick-up passengers and head off to the Disneyland Hotel area too. They would do the same type of thing at the Disneyland Hotel. The whole cycle took about 20 to 25 minutes. The line to get back to the Disneyland Hotel was so long at this time that we had to wait through a whole cycle, and were in line for about 30 minutes. Jason doesn't remember seeing this type of monorail ever run at WDW. They looked like the classic monorails where the cast members walked around slamming the doors to close them type he remembers from his youth, but the doors were electrical like the area at WDW now. But these monorails were seating room only, no standing since the roof was too low. The current WDW monorails will probably never be used at Disneyland because the clearances in Tomorrowland where it swoops around giving a tour are too low. The pool was really crowded but it felt really nice. We rested up a bit and headed back to the park for dinner at the BB. We only waited about 5 minutes before we were seated towards the back of the restaurant. The atmosphere is great here. Jason got the prime rib and I got the bronze chicken. I got also got the Mardi Gras salad which was really good. I liked the chicken but it was too much to eat. I, of course, had a mint julep to drink! I wanted to try a dessert but we were too full. The mint chocolate candies were good though! We headed back to FL and did the Sleeping Beauty walk through. It was neat to wander through the castle. The different sizes of Sleeping Beauty in the dioramas was noticeable. Sometimes she was really small and then big. The last SB looked like a Barbie doll. We then went on Snow White. Like all the Fantasyland dark rides, Jason noticed it was quite different than the WDW version. We headed back to TL to see Innoventions. It wasn't too bad but the Innoventions at EPCOT is better. We liked playing Who Wants to Be a Millionaire and a Disney trivia game. Upstairs, we played a Honeywell game against other contestants which reminded me of the World Bank game at the Millennium Village in EPCOT. Jason won and I was in second place. We next rode the Matterhorn (left side). I really didn't like it and it was not a smooth ride at all. I wasn't really interested in riding it again but I did want to ride it in the daylight, as we rode it at night. I really wanted to try a churro and we got an apple churro in Frontierland. It was really good. We took the tram back to the hotel at 11:30 and called it a night. DAY 3, June 27 Today we spent most of the day in Hollywood. We walked Hollywood Boulevard looking at Mann's Chinese theater, Capitol Records building, Hollywood sign, and lots of tacky souvenir shops. We also went to the Hollywood Entertainment Museum. You take the tour with a guide and you get to do some interactive stuff like sound editing (like Disney-MGM Studio's old Monster Sound Show) and walking in the sets of Star Trek and Cheers which was pretty neat. The museum exhibit area, that was unguided, was pretty small and had a few costumes and an interesting exhibit about Max Factor. I collect pins from the Hard Rock Cafe so we decided to head to Universal's City Walk where the HRC Hollywood is. City Walk reminded us a lot of Downtown Disney at WDW, but without the really cool clubs. I liked the 50s and 60s theming of City Walk and there were some cool shops. We ate at the Camacho Cantina Mexican restaurant there. I wasn't too hungry and just had the taquitos appetizer and Jason got a burrito. The meal was very good. DAY 4, June 28 We took the monorail to the park today. From there, we headed towards Main Street to get breakfast at the Blue Ribbon Bakery. I got the lemon bundt cake and Jason got a sticky bun. The cake was good but very rich and Jason enjoyed the sticky bun. We planned to take the 10AM Walking in Walt's Footsteps, but it was actually scheduled for 10:45, so we decided to hang around the Main Street area until then. We went to the Walt Disney Story. I liked the pictures of the building of DL and reconstruction of Walt's offices. We didn't look too closely at the U.S. Capitol model since being from the D.C. area we see it all the time. Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln reminded me of a combination of the Hall of Presidents and American Adventure since they use part of the film from HOP and music from AA. I found the show to be interesting. By the time we did this, it was time to meet for our tour. There was a large group so we were split up into two groups, I think there were 10 in our group. Our tour guide's name was Maria. She began by telling us some interesting facts about the building of the park and the early days of DL. We went to the Walt Disney story (again for us) and she told us some things that we didn't learn in our walk through. We headed up to the castle and learned about the castle and Fantasyland. Someone asked about the closing of the submarines and she told us the latest she heard was an E ticket ride dealing with the new Disney movie Atlantis. We went to TL only briefly and then went to FL and NOS. In NOS we went up a back entry to the Disney Gallery that guests would have used if Walt had the opportunity to entertain in the apartment. We ended our tour there. We enjoyed the tour very much and recommend it to all. We had lunch in NOS. Jason went to the Royal Street Veranda to have the steak gumbo (MKC discount neither advertised or accepted) and I got a roast beef po boy at Café Orleans (MKC discount not advertised, but was accepted). The food was pretty good. We next walked over to Toontown to get a fastpass for Roger Rabbit's Toon Spin. We headed out of Toontown and decided to do It's A Small World. IASW is amazing here! It's practically its own land with all the themed kiosks and even trash cans. I love how the train goes right past the ride! I am still amazed how big it is compared to WDW. I don't mind IASW and liked the ride. We saw people at Autopia and learned that Chevron employees were riding and a commercial was being filmed so we hung out and watched for a little bit, but really didn't see anything. We later learned that the monorail and Rocket Rods were closed for the filming though. Our fastpass time for Roger Rabbit had come up so we got a fastpass for Space Mountain and then headed back to Toontown to use our fastpass. I was surprised how big the line area was inside and all the neat things to see. The ride was pretty cool with some good effects. Our first impression of Toontown was how huge it was! We were really amazed. We joked that it was so big it needed its own form of transportation, the Jolly Trolley. We explored a little in TT and went up Chip and Dale's treehouse. We took the trolley back to the other side of TT. The Jolly Trolley is a cute idea. We next took the train to Main Street so we could see the dioramas. The dioramas were interesting and reminded me of old time exhibits in natural history museums. On Main Street, we saw our first mega pin traders, which we would see a lot of later. They weren't really interested in my small pin collection so we admired their collection and left. We decided to get a fastpass for Indy since our SM pass time had come up. First though, we found the Dole Whip booth and both got one. It was so hot though that it almost starting melting immediately. The pineapple spears looked good too and I was tempted to get one later but didn't. We got the Indy fastpasses, and went back to use our SM fast passes. It was interesting how the line went on top of the building at SM. We were doing pretty good time wise until the rode broke down (Jason thinks they stopped it because somebody lost something, because cast members kept walking out of the place where the cars come from). We only waited about 10 extra minutes though. Wow, SM in DL seems to be so much faster than at WDW! I love the ride there but here it seemed kind of scary. I vowed that one ride was enough for me but then realized that we didn't hear the soundtrack so I had to ride it one more time to hear the soundtrack! We next did Big Thunder Mountain. I've only rode it once at WDW and wasn't too impressed. I liked the ride better at DL though. Jason was very impressed with the theming of the queue as compared to the WDW version and took lots of pictures. Next we headed over to the Enchanted Tiki Room. Almost every seat was filled for the show. I have never seen the original show so I was excited to see it. I really enjoyed it; it was charming. The new version at WDW is good but I think I prefer the old version. The birds and room looked good to me and I did not notice any dust or any birds that didn't work. We next went on the Jungle Cruise. I noticed the line had an second level and that there was a live parrot there. We didn't get to see that level though. I always love the jokes on the JC and we had a good guide so it was enjoyable. We next did our Indy fast pass and again were amazed at the ride. We took the tram back to the hotel for a quick swim before dinner. We decided to have dinner at Goofy's Kitchen which turned out to be a great choice! We loved the buffet. I especially liked the pizza, salmon and mashed potatoes and Jason liked the citrus ribs. The desserts were great too. We were going to go back to the park but it was already after 9 PM and we were both tired so we headed back to our room and I was asleep by 10! DAY 5, June 29 We got a little bit of a late start today. We started to walk towards the monorail but learned that it wasn't working (again) so we took the tram. Today was the grand opening of the new Autopia so we went and got a fastpass for it first thing. While waiting for our fastpass time to come up we decided to go on Rocket Rods since the line wasn't too long. I must admit that the wait time didn't bother me as there were interesting things to see in the queue. I liked the old ride vehicles and sketches of ride vehicles. I also liked the film loops about futuristic transportation since I like futuristic kind of things. Jason and I liked the ride! I think it's a good ride and see no reason to take it down. I think it is worth the wait since the line area has neat things to look at. We next did the Storybook Canals. I love miniatures so I loved this ride. It was so cute. It would be nice if they added some tiny characters to the scene. We next headed to the Tomorrowland Terrace (no MKC discount advertised or accepted) for an early lunch. We had cheeseburgers, fries and apple turnovers. It was pretty good for fast food. Next we went on Autopia. Fastpass works well here too. I liked the little scenes in the line with the cars talking. We got our "licenses" and away we went; Jason drove. I have never been much for the cars you drive yourself rides but this was ok. I liked the small off road section. We next went to the Emporium to buy a few souvenir T-shirts and then left the park for the afternoon planning to go to the Richard Nixon Library and Museum in Yorba Linda. I love reading about presidential history and am trying to visit all the presidents' homes and museums. The brochure we had said only 15 minutes from DL but we really didn't have good directions and it took us about 30 minutes. There was an exhibit there I wanted to see, Barbies dressed in First Lady dresses. That was really neat. The museum itself was really interesting with a lot of information mainly about Nixon's political career. I would have liked to see a little more background on him before he started his political career though. We also toured his childhood home there. We next drove to the town circle of Orange because I heard that Watson's drugstore there was used in the movie "That Thing You Do!", one of my favorite movies. Orange is such a cute little town with so many antique shops! Unfortunately, it was after 6 PM and all of them were closed! I would have loved to explore them if we knew about them sooner! We headed back to DL and I was surprised, and made Jason stop, when we saw the Crystal Cathedral. I knew it was around the area but I didn't know where. It is an amazing piece of architecture. We only got to look around briefly inside but wow, it's amazing looking inside with all the glass. We found a Target on the way back to DL and stopped to get some aloe lotion for my sunburn which was really painful. We were also looking for a restaurant for dinner but couldn't really find one we wanted to eat at so we ended up eating at Goofy's Kitchen again, which was good but two nights in a row there is enough! We headed back to the park just in time to see the fireworks. I was surprised to see so many people standing in the middle of Main Street, we got a spot right at the end of Main Street. I loved the fireworks! We had seen them a few times from our room but it's better in the park with the music. After the fireworks we started heading to get a spot for the second showing of Fantasmic. We found a spot standing just to the right of center stage, a few rows back in the crowd. We liked the pre show entertainment with the band playing on river on the raft. We really enjoyed Fantastmic and agreed it's better than at WDW. I felt much closer to the show at DL. The Peter Pan sequence on the Columbia is great (Jason thought it alone was worth the price of admission to the park) and the Columbia appears to have come from nowhere! The crowds weren't too bad after the show as we headed for another cruise on POC, another ride through HM and another cruise on JC. Our JC guide, Santiago, flashed his flashlight over the waterfall and said Jungle Fantasmic! By this time it was midnight so we headed to Main Street, looked in a few shops and then left the park. DAY 6, June 30 Today we spent the whole day off site. We headed up the coast to go to the beach. We went to Venice Beach. It was a lot of fun playing in the waves there but I got really burnt again even though I wore sunscreen. We walked up the ocean front and looked at the shops, Muscle beach, etc. We had chili cheese fries which were pretty good. We wanted to eat dinner at a restaurant on the beach and headed up towards Malibu. We ended up a restaurant called Duke's right on the Pacific Coast highway. They serve Hawaiian style food. I had clam chowder and grilled mahi-mahi and Jason had teriyaki prime sirloin steak. For dessert we shared a huge slice of macadamia ice cream pie(Hula pie) with hot fudge topping. The great thing about this place, besides the food, was the view. We were seated by the window which was right on the water and rocks. Waves came and crashed right up to our window. Huge waves that looked liked they engulfed the building. It was neat. We recommend this restaurant for food and great atmosphere! I found their website at http://www.hulapie.com/dukesmalibu/ which includes pictures of the view, their menu and a picture of a piece of hula pie! We then drove up into the mountains a little bit which was kinda scary with narrow roads but great views! We wanted to go to the observatory at Griffith Park but something was going there and we couldn't go so we headed back to the hotel. DAY 7, July 1 We spent the day off site and the evening at the park. We started off the day by going to the Beverly Center to find the Hard Rock Cafe Los Angeles so I could get my pin from there. We then headed down to Wilshire Boulevard to visit some of the museums on Museum Row. We were hungry first and found Marie Callender's restaurant nearby. It turned out to be pretty good. We both had the fresh produce bar; I had a chicken sandwich and Jason had jambalaya. We shared a piece of German chocolate cream pie for dessert-yum! We next headed right next door to the La Brea tarpits. I didn't realize how much they would smell, it is tar though! We went into the George Page La Brea museum and through my membership to the American Association of Museums, we got in for free instead of paying $6 each. :) The museum was really fascinating. I never knew how many animal bones they found in the tar pits. They even found a woman who lived 9000 years ago. I didn't know much about the history of the tar pits so that was great too. I next dragged Jason across the street to the Museum of Miniatures, no discount there though, $7.50 each. I love miniatures and they had a great collection of miniature scenes, houses and buildings. It was really a lot to look at. After the museum, we went to the Farmer's Market to walk around for a while-not really too exciting but I did get a white chocolate raspberry ice cream cone. We next went to find Rodeo Drive because I wanted to see what it really looked like. Unfortunately, Jason wouldn't stop the car so no shopping for me-as if I could afford it! Once we got back to the hotel, we again headed towards the monorail station but it was down yet again! We got to the park just in time for the night time showing of the parade and watched it from up near the castle. I really like Disney parades and this one was good. I loved the guest participation part too! We were starving after the parade and decided to give Redd Rockets in TL a try. I wasn't really in the mood for pizza and got Terra Nova pasta with tomato and basil sauce and Jason got slices of chicken BBQ and cheese pizza. The pasta was really good but I didn't care for the pizza too much. We really like the theming of the place down to the name on the tables and napkins. We weren't really planning on doing Honey, I Shrunk the Audience but decided to since it was right there and we knew that the preshow was different than in WDW. We went right before the start of the fireworks. The CM told us the next show would be starting after the fireworks so we could wait outside and watch the fireworks instead of the preshow. We said we wanted to watch the preshow. She looked at us as if we were crazy and said again about the fireworks. We then said we're from WDW, we want to see the pre-show! I like the pre-show at DL better since it complements the show itself and is not just a big advertisement for Kodak, although the pictures are nice. Jason thinks Amy is crazy, cause he really likes the HISTA preshow in WDW. He thinks the song, the pictures and the words go well together, telling a good story. The first thing we noticed that was different was the way you enter the theater (from the left rather than from the right). We also didn't notice the lights coming so much from the back in WDW. This is the third time I've seen the show and I still close my eyes every time at the snake scene! Next we went to Peter Pan and waited in the longest line we probably waited on the trip, 20 minutes. I always love this ride and how the boat "flies". We next went on Casey Junior. We rode in a car that was like an animal cage. It was a cute little ride and I loved the music with the ride. We next went over to BTM (just after Fantasmic! so the Big Thunder Trail was really smoky) but the ride was broken down so we just decided to head back to the hotel for the night since we both were pretty tired anyway. DAY 8, July 2 Our last day at DL! Coming into the park, I got stopped to fill out a survey. The CM just handed me the survey and said I could fill it out and mail it in later. A few days earlier, we got stopped for a quick what is your zip code survey. I love surveys of any kind though. Our first attraction of the day was Space Mountain. I was determined to ride it and hear the soundtrack although I thought the ride was too fast. Jason thought he heard somewhere that a red light is on at the back of the car, then the soundtrack was working. We saw ones with lights blinking and wasn't sure what that meant. We rode one with a blinking light and heard no soundtrack. Exited the ride and decided to try again! We asked the CM at the beginning of the ride how to know if the soundtrack works and he said there is no way but keep riding it cause it's a great ride! We also asked another CM farther on in the line and he said it's working when the red light is on. We got to the ride and we told the CM that we wanted the hear the music and she was nice enough to let us wait until there was one with a red light on. It took a few minutes but she found a car with the red light on. Yea! We finally got to hear the soundtrack! It was really great! I like the music. Jason said it made the ride seem even faster. We next went over to the Matterhorn cause I wanted to ride it in the daylight and also to try the other side of the track. I actually liked riding it better the second time. Next we went on Alice again since there was no line. We were both hungry and decided to get something for breakfast. We decided to eat at the Riverbelle Terrace (MKC discount accepted as advertised) and have our first and only real breakfast of the trip. We both had pancakes but I had the Mickey Mouse shaped pancake which was cute. We next went on the Mark Twain which was a nice cruise around the Rivers of America. Getting off the boat, we headed for the raft to Tom Sawyer's Island! We explored a bit (I love the caves) but we both were a little tired just from the past few weeks and since we saw most everything we wanted to in DL we decided to take it easy for the rest of the day. We decided to go the mint julep bar and have another mint julep! One of my favorite things at DL now! We next wandered over to Frontierland and found tons of pin traders at the FL pin stands! The last day of out trip and the day I see the most pin traders! We talked with a few people and saw a few collections but made no trades. We headed over to the Blue Bayou for our lunch reservation. This time we got a table right by the water which was neat. I had the famous Monte Cristo sandwich and Jason had the jambalaya and of course I had another mint julep! The Monte Cristo sandwich was good but rich. Next we went and bought a few things we had been looking at for a while, a praline at Port D'Orleans (not as good as the ones I had in the real New Orleans) and castle stationery from the Disney gallery. I begged Jason to go back to the pin trading stand and he agreed. Somebody there saw my CM Animal Kingdom pin with Mickey and Goofy and asked if I was looking for anything particular. I said I was looking for a Carousel of Progress pin and he had one to trade! This is a pin I have been looking for a while so I was excited to get it. He was also interested in my CM AK pin with Pooh but I like it too much and didn't see anything I really wanted to trade it for. I was so excited about my trade. All the other pin trades I made up to this point had been with Cast Members so I was happy to make a trade with another guest. We tried to get in line for Woody's Roundup but found out they already seated the next showing and decided to come back for the next showing. We then headed over to get an Indy Fastpass to ride one more time. Back to Main Street to walk around. I went in the Candy Palace and saw a Mickey pretzel with mini M-ms which I hadn't seen before so I bought one and ate it while waiting in line for Woody's Roundup. I was surprised at how long and how early the lines formed for the next show. We both enjoyed the show a lot. We next headed over to go on the Explorer canoes. While we waited in line, I got out my survey to fill out which turned out to be where are you from, how many days, where did you stay etc. My free gift for taking the survey was a Mickey survey sticker. The canoes were fun and a good way to cool off on a hot day. Our guide John was funny. Some of his jokes were similar to JC jokes. From the Mark Twain and the canoes, I had noticed the Hungry Bear restaurant and how far back the seating extended towards the water which I thought looked neat so we looked at the that after the canoes. We next rode Indy for the final time in the trip. We next searched the park for a strawberry churro. We had seen apple and cinnamon churros at almost every churro stand but no strawberry. I had seen a few strawberry stands when we took the tour but of course didn't remember where they were. We finally found one by IASW. I like the churros too but not as much as mint juleps! We next decided to hang out in Innoventions for a bit since we only had about an hour and a half left until we had to leave for the airport. We stepped onto it into the future kitchen scene which was similar to the kitchen part in the House of the Future in Innoventions in EPCOT. We played a few games and then left. Walking down Main Street one last time, we noticed something between the hat shop and Walt Disney story that we hadn't noticed before-a DCA preview center! I asked a CM if it was new and he said it just opened the day before-no wonder why we hadn't seen it before! (Especially because, as Jason pointed out, we walked right through that space on the way out of Mr. Lincoln on Day 3). We saw some neat concept art that we haven't seen before. Amazingly, we never noticed until now that the California Screamin' has a loop! We looked at the coaster construction as we left and there it was! I had traded for a DCA pin with a CM the day before but didn't see any DCA pins in the preview center or any other pin stations or shops. I don't have much of an opinion of DCA yet. It sounds interesting to me and I'm going to wait until it opens to give an opinion. We made one last stop at the pin station to buy pins to keep and pins to trade at WDW in December. We got two free souvenir Disney maps and tiny Autopia car pins with the purchase. We had a great trip to southern California! We were sad to leave but yet happy to come home to start married life together! Amy Gourley amy@pressroom.com Mail a Comment to Amy Gourley |
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