ohmaigawd, STOP stepping on me: a July DL trip

[wingedjojo]

We found a seat with plenty time left until the parade started so there was ample time to nap. At least there was enough for Kevin. I’m too paranoid to nap in public when I have expensive things with me. So I just played fruit ninja on my phone (like Tiny Tower, another VERY addicting game).

Kevin surprisingly fell asleep pretty quickly and yes, there was some snoring.

During his nap, I saw a showdown between three cotton candy vendors. I was playing Fruit Ninja and when I just happened to glance up they were just there, forming a giant triangle in the middle of the road. It was kind of a funny sight to see and it really made me want cotton candy for some reason.

I totally regret it now but I really wish I had bought some cotton candy; maybe not quite at that moment but at some point during the trip. I love eating cotton candy and I feel it’s a type of special treat that only comes when one is on vacation; or at a state fair or something. Neither of which I’m on/at very often. Oh well. I guess it’ll go on the “next time” list.

I also saw so many balloons! I particularly like the one where there’s a Mickey head balloon inside the regular shaped balloon.

I remember back when I was way young (like elementary school young) and we were on a family trip to Disneyland, I had begged and begged for a balloon. I eventually got one of those metallic Mickey head ones and was super happy about it. I should’ve listened to my parents and not have gotten one though. We had driven down to Anaheim so that meant we had to drive back up to go home. Well, when balloons meet changes in atmospheric pressure, bad things tends to happen. Long story short, the balloon popped and I would not stop crying because it was broken and it had scared me half to death. Moral of the story: don’t give me balloons. And listen to your parents, I guess.

Soon enough the parade began and overall, it was pretty decent. I loved all the vibrant colors and while it wasn’t spectacular, it could’ve been worse. Here are some highlights (very picture heavy):

Mickey is a surprisingly good drummer and HE BLINKED!!! It’s so weird to be able to see his face actually contort and make different expressions. It’s kind of surreal. And so so so so unnatural. I’m just too used to my non-expressive characters.

As much as I find monkeys creepy, Abu is acceptable.

Every time I look at the next picture, I get SO UPSET. It’s perfectly framed, lighting is good, she’s actually pretty and everything about the picture looks balanced to me. EXCEPT IT’S NOT IN FOCUS!!!

AAAARRRRGGGHHHH~

I am so upset. I need a redo.

Then I only get the backs of Cinderella and Belle. No good at all.

 

[wingedjojo]

Look! It’s Kevin’s alter-ego!

The horses that Mary Poppins and Bert were riding were super cool. They actually moved up and down like in a real carousel and I can only wonder how it works and where I can get one. Forget the bus; I would ride that to school every day.

And that was the end of the parade; sort of anticlimactic.

Then we wandered around some.

Although I’m not a big fan of the Tinkerbell franchise, we went to go check out Pixie Hollow.

Fate was trying to tell me something (probably to keep being indifferent about fairies) because nobody was home. Oh well.

 

[wingedjojo]

According to the next few pictures, it looks like we rode Space Mountain…

…then left through Main Street…

…to go back to California Adventure to ride Grizzly River Run.

The sun was setting but it was still warm so we decided to air dry by playing around at Redwood Creek.

Those rope bridges are scary. I kept having the fear that I would lose my flip flop through one of the bigger holes and now and then I’ll lose my footing. I feel so old knowing that back when I was really young I could run up and down these things no problem.

After we were sufficiently dried, we went to ride the fun wheel. We opted to do the non-moving gondola though because the line was shorter.

I’m excited for the Cars land to finish. I watched Cars for the first time a couple of months ago and I liked it more than I thought I would. I wonder if the ride they’re building is going to be similar to the Test Track concept in Epcot.

Before the day ended, we had two more things to check off on our list of things to do: 1) watch the fireworks in front of the castle and 2) watch Fantasmic!

I guess we were a little bit late in getting a spot in front of the castle because it was PACKED and there was no way we were going to be able to find a space there. Darn it.

We did eventually find a place to sit in an area to the side of the castle. My view was partially blocked by trees and other stuff so my pictures weren’t as great as I wanted them to be.

Kevin had a craving for popcorn so popcorn he got. He was unable to get me cotton candy though. The poophead.

For the first time, I actually saw Tinkerbell and Dumbo fly across the sky!

Too bad I couldn’t properly capture it on film.

I think this picture is supposed to show Tinkerbell flying. I’m not sure. Or...it might actually be a picture of when I saw a balloon slowing floating away. It’s probably a balloon.

Despite the visual obstacles, I still managed some decent shots.

This looks like the castle is on fire.

]

And this is the aftermath once the fire was put out.

Once the fireworks ended, we, along with 500 of our closest friends, hoofed it over to the Fantasmic! viewing area. Boy that was a fun time.

This is the part where I finally explain the title of this trip report.

For most of this trip I wore flip flops and for some particular reason, every time I wear flip flops, someone always steps on the back of it. It doesn’t matter if there’s ample space around me or whether I’m walking fast or slow. If I wore flip flops that day, I would get stepped on at least once.

It has gotten so bad that one of my flip flops is all deformed. Its straps are more stretched out than the other and now it just fits weird on my feet. I don’t want to get rid of them either because they are the most comfortable flip flops I have ever owned.

Anyway, so all day I have been getting stepped on; mostly by little kids and Kevin so while they can be forgiven, it’s still annoying. The straw that finally broke the camel’s back was during our speed walk from the castle to the Fantasmic! viewing area. Some girl my age or maybe a little older totally steps on my flip flop. She stepped on it so hard that the force exerted by the straps onto my foot (as a result of her pinning the back of my flip flop to the ground) hella left a mark. I’m surprised the straps didn’t come straight off. Normally I’m not one to draw attention to myself and make a big scene of things like this but I couldn’t help but say “ow.” The whole stepping on my shoe isn’t the part that made me mad though; it’s the part where she replies by saying: “that’s what happens.”

“That’s what happens”???

What kind of response is “that’s what happens”? It’s not like I asked for that to happen; I didn’t go out of my way to make you step on me like that. At least an “I’m sorry” would’ve been nice. What a jerk.

In the end, I didn’t make a big deal out of it and karma rewarded us with an excellent (if not the best) view of the show.

 

[wingedjojo]

We stood right behind a roped off section. I’m not sure why they get such a special section but I guess they did something to deserve it.

We were also quite central to the stage since the control board/lights were also right next to us.

Nobody blocked my view and I was able to get great pictures! Best viewing of Fantasmic! ever!!!

And now, random pictures:

 

[wingedjojo]

I love the part where the boat comes around with all the characters. I love how all the costumes of the characters bring pops of color to the otherwise monochromatic vessel. It’s pretty.

Show over, we decided we had time for ONE more ride before we headed back for the night.

Of course if we began our trip with Indy, we had to end it with Indy.

Granted, we still had half a day tomorrow before we had to go home but it didn’t really count since we couldn’t be in the parks from opening to closing.

For some reason, Kevin and I both agreed that despite the ride being indoors it felt more awesome at night. I’m pretty sure it’s all in our heads. Or it’s MAGIC.

Two more nighttime shots…

…and we made our long way back to the hotel.

When we got back, we had a small surprise! Whoever had fixed our room that day had rearranged our Mickey ears so that they stood greeting us on top of the television set.

They also made a little caddy for our toothbrushes. So cute.

And with that, Kevin and I slept like bricks.

 

[WDWJonasGirl]

Love it!!

 

[smiles33]

I love your photos! My DD5 caught sight of them over my shoulder. We both miss DLR and I didn't take many real photos (all on my iPhone and mostly of us at character meet and greets).

I can't believe how rude and snarky that woman who stepped on you was! Wow, talk about being un-Disney!

Can't wait to hear about your last morning.

 

[wingedjojo]

Just like I promised, here's the final installment(s) of "ohmaigawd, STOP stepping on me." Thanks for reading and enjoy!

~*~*~*~

Wednesday, July 13

Today we woke up bright and early at 6:45am for our half day at the parks before having to drive all the way back home.

Once we had checked out using the handy dandy television set, I decided it would be a good idea to document the fastest way (that we found) to get to the parks from our hotel.

If you forgot, we had stayed at the Holiday Inn Anaheim on South Walnut Street. If you were looking at Google maps in an aerial view, it would be above and to the left of Disney property. We were basically behind Disney’s parking structure.

Step 1 and probably the most important step to getting to the parks from your hotel: exit room.

We were right next to a stairway and just had to go down the stairs and exit the doors to get outside.

Conveniently, we got the closest parking space possible to our room and just left it there the entire time we were in Anaheim. We walked by it every day going and leaving the parks so it was easy to check to make sure nothing happened to it. Talk about good luck! Ours is the blue car.

Once we stashed all our stuff into the car, we continued onwards to the parks and with our picture documentation of how to get there.

See, told you we were right behind the parking structure.

Say you’re starting from the main entrance of the hotel, you should be on South Walnut Street and from there you’ll want to go left. You’ll be heading down this long sidewalk.

Eventually you’ll come to an intersection.

The intersection of magical walnuts to be exact.

You’ll want to go left and head down Magic Way, another long sidewalk.

At some point you should pass by the entrance to the Disney hotels to your right, a sign that you’re going the right way.

You should also see this weird entrance that’s blocked off to your left. It’s connected to a path that leads into one of the Disney parking lots.

Eventually you’ll walk pass this odd little crosswalk with a break in the foliage to your left. You’ll be able to clearly see the large parking structure.

You’re getting close now and you’re almost there! Another intersection will cross your path once again. You should now be at Magic Way and Downtown Drive. Don’t ask why that van is parked in the middle of the street…I have no idea.

The view to your left should be this:

To the right is this:

You don’t want to turn left or right but instead continue going forward.

Down another long-ish sidewalk.

Then you’ll come across a break in the bushes again but this time there should be a path leading to a gate.

Going through the gate you’ll enter a parking lot.

It’s the Pinocchio parking lot where all the trams go to sleep at night!

To your right you should see an entrance to the tram pick-up/drop-off area.

Cross one more crosspath…

…and you’re ready to ride a tram right to the park gates!

This is the fastest route that Kevin and I found that doesn’t require scaling a wall or paying the $2 that we’re too cheap to pay to ride the bus. The Anaheim bus does stop right in front of the hotel and takes you straight to the park entrance (not sure if they stop at other bus stops though). BUT! If you’re able bodied and not afraid to spend approximately 10 minutes walking to and from the parks, then this is the way to go. Of course, this is all assuming that they don’t change these roads/paths/landmarks any time soon. If they decide to get rid of that gated entrance, then you’re on your own.

 

[wingedjojo]

Anyway, back to the good stuff.

We decided to start the morning off by doing a classic.

What did we do? Here’s a clue:

Does the song start playing in your head whenever you think of this ride?

It does for me.

It does for you too??!!

Well, let’s all sing it together now!

It’s a world of laughter…

…a world of tears.

It’s a world of hopes…

…it’s a world of fear.

There’s so much that we share…

…that it’s time we’re aware…

…it’s a small world after all.

IT’S A SMALL WORLD AFTER ALLLLL~~~

IT’S A SMALL WORLD AFTER ALLLLLLLLLLL~~~~~

IT’S A SMALL WORLD AFFFFTTTEERR ALLLLLLLLLLLL~~~~~~~

IT’S A SMALLLL SMALLLLLLLLLLL WORRLLLLLLLDDDDD!!!!!

That was lovely, everyone. Good job with the harmonizing.

Besides trying to cram as much as we can into our half day as possible, we had one other mission: to hunt down Alice and the Mad Hatter. Prior to our early morning shenanigans, we had stopped at the town hall to ask about finding the pair. With a quick phone call, we were told they would be near the tea cups ride around 9am. So after our Small World ride, we began loitering in Fantasyland. We still had some time to kill before 9am so we rode the carousel.

We also stopped to take a picture with that lone cup in front of the Mad Hatter’s hat shop.

Where’s the door?!

9am rolled around and we were circling the tea cups ride looking for the duo like vultures at a dying animal.

I guess they were running a little late so we just continued standing around and admired some ducks. I like ducks.

 

[wingedjojo]

Then finally we spotted them across the way and we were off! Apparently a bunch of other people had the same idea as us because we could see several families quickly making a bee line for the characters. When we approached them, we were maybe 3 families deep into the line. Not bad.

This pair was quite funny and played their characters pretty well. They took their time with each group so the line was slow moving but it wasn’t as if we had any place important to go. Plus the interaction they had with each group was unique and comical to watch. For this one group, the Hatter was trying to convince Alice that to best position herself for a picture with them was for her to be completely out of the frame. It’s pretty funny to me and I’m laughing right now just thinking about it but it might be one of those “you have to be there” kinds of things to fully understand why it was so funny.

When it was my turn, the Hatter had everybody shake hands.

I forgot exactly what our conversation was like but it had to do with school and learning stuff.

Does my body language seem a bit awkward? It’s probably because I was feeling awkward. I’m always conflicted when it comes to meeting characters because while I LOVE them, there’s this voice in the back of my head that’s always telling me I’m too old for things like these. I hate getting older.

With one last posed shot, we had accomplished our goal for the day.

While walking around and trying to decide what to do next, we came across the Matterhorn Bobsleds. We were so bummed that the ride was out for refurbishment because it was one of our more favorite rides. Well, there’s always next time, right?

We ended up deciding to ride the Storybook Land ride.

We got the Faline boat.

This ride is always fun and cute. I love all the little details that they put into each part of the ride and I always seem to notice something new.

It wasn’t until this time around that I saw the pumpkin coach rolling towards (or away? can’t really tell) Cinderella’s castle. I don’t know if you can see it but it’s a little round orange thing near the line of trees.

I loved seeing the Peter Pan statue in their mini version of the Kensington Gardens in London. My mom and I had visited London back in 2003 and at the time I knew this statue existed and we had a vague idea of where it was but it took us FOREVER to find it. It was kind of drizzling that day and a bit gloomy but I was determined to go see it. Once we finally found it, we were so tired that we only snapped one (and an ugly one at that) picture of it. I wish I had my iPhone back then; life would have been so much easier and we would’ve found it in no time. I need to go see the real thing again one day but for now, this mini version is the next best thing.

AHH!!! GIANT DUCKS ARE TAKING OVER!!!

I believe that this next picture is supposed to be Pinocchio’s village and I love how the Matterhorn is right above the mini mountains of the village. It’s so cute.

 

[wingedjojo]

Next thing we did was go back to Toontown. We only really wanted to ride Roger Rabbit’s Car-toon Spin but we decided we should have a good look around Toontown while we were there.

We found some Goofy water!

Kevin was scared to drink from it because he really thought there was something goofy about it. If only they really had different flavors.

So after we rode the ride, we were done with Toontown for this trip.

Somehow we wandered over to the shooting gallery. I’m almost 100% sure that it was 50 cents for a certain number of shots (I want to say 100 but don’t quote me on that). I haven’t done something like this since elementary school and that was when I could hardly even hold up the guns. Those things are REALLY heavy. Even now they’re a bit hefty. We blew through the shots in no time. Some of the targets are pretty hard but for the most part they weren’t too bad.

Kevin wasted a lot of shots trying to get this skeleton to pop out and when it finally did I made it a point to take a picture of it.

The wait for the Haunted Mansion was super short so we took a quick ride on that too.

We wanted to watch the Aladdin musical because neither of us had seen it before and we heard good things about it. So back to California Adventure we went after a quick farewell to Disneyland.

 

[wingedjojo]

First impression of the theater was that it was HUGE!!! It was way more ornate and fancy than either of us had imagined. It was crazy cool!

We managed to obtain pretty good, central seats on the ground floor. Not a bad view at all.

Overall, we both LOVED it. Kevin and I thought it was an excellent show and we both loved the Genie and his popular culture references. We were surprised to find that when the show ended, it had lasted a good hour. It didn’t feel that way at all; in fact, it felt like it was over way too soon. I would totally want to watch this again.

Here’s a bunch of pictures!

Love the Genie!

I love this picture; I think it’s so funny. It’s the part right after the Prince Ali song and he’s basically going “TA DA!!! Here I am!”

Somebody is not amused.

 

[wingedjojo]

This is the part where they’re flying over the audience on the magic carpet and singing the Whole New World song. I wasn’t able to capture them on the carpet very well.

With the end of the show, we made our way out of the parks; thus marking the end of our trip.

On our way out and back to the hotel to pick up the car, we saw a poster for the Phineas and Ferb movie. As Kevin loves the Phineas and Ferb show, we had to take a picture.

We eventually got back to the car, got settled in, and began our long journey back home. It was a fun trip and I’m pretty sure Kevin and I have had our fill of Disneyland for a while. Things are just getting way too expensive and quality (at least in terms of the crowds) isn’t any better. We love Disney but until they’re done with the expansion and all that jazz, I don’t think we’re going to go back any time soon.

Disney World, on the other hand, is a completely different story.

Thanks for reading everybody!

 

[maggieb9975]

Thankyou sooo much for a wonderfull ,funny , entertaining ,full of pictures GREAT trip report. I appreciate all the time and effort it took to do this so fellow Dis's could enjoy. I am going to Disneyland next July for the first time so your report really helped me a lot!! You take great pictures! What kind of camera do you have?

THanks again

 

[Minnie Sue Oz]

Have just read your report from start to finish on what would have been an otherwise Saturday evening in! ( it's very hot here in Australia at the moment so we stayed in!!! )
My DD and I are back to DL next year for halloween and one of hers ( and just a couple of others !!! ) favourite things to do is have character pics and exeriences. So, just imagine her delight when she saw you with none other than Dug!!!
She has a plush one here that we bought last trip and he talks! She is very excited at the prospect of having a pic with him and has just added that to her "to do" list.

Thanks for a great TR

 

[Dizzy4DL]

I just finished your report, loved it!

By the way, the WOC bracelet can be worn by adults. If you turn it over there is a section near the on button that pops loose with a little force.

 

[SnowWhite09]

Excellent trip report! Thanks for sharing your holiday with us!

 

[DisneytheKid]

Thanks for the Great trip report! You did an excellent job!

 

[wingedjojo]

Thankyou sooo much for a wonderfull ,funny , entertaining ,full of pictures GREAT trip report. I appreciate all the time and effort it took to do this so fellow Dis's could enjoy. I am going to Disneyland next July for the first time so your report really helped me a lot!! You take great pictures! What kind of camera do you have?

THanks again

Thanks for reading along and the lovely compliments! I have a Canon t2i. It's a DSLR and I'm also using a Tamron lens (18-270mm if you want to know all the nitty gritty).

Have just read your report from start to finish on what would have been an otherwise Saturday evening in! ( it's very hot here in Australia at the moment so we stayed in!!! )
My DD and I are back to DL next year for halloween and one of hers ( and just a couple of others !!! ) favourite things to do is have character pics and exeriences. So, just imagine her delight when she saw you with none other than Dug!!!
She has a plush one here that we bought last trip and he talks! She is very excited at the prospect of having a pic with him and has just added that to her "to do" list.

Thanks for a great TR

Thanks! You have NO idea how excited I was to finally find Dug. When I first found out that they were introducing the character to the parks, I was super excited but got super depressed when I found out it was only in Disney World back in 2009. SO GLAD they decided to put him in Disneyland.

I hope your DD gets a million great pics with him!!!

I just finished your report, loved it!

By the way, the WOC bracelet can be worn by adults. If you turn it over there is a section near the on button that pops loose with a little force.

NO. WAY.

I must find my bracelet now.

Excellent trip report! Thanks for sharing your holiday with us!

Thanks for reading!

Thanks for the Great trip report! You did an excellent job!

Thank you so much!

 

[skiingfast]

Great to see the finally to your TR. Sorry to hear no more DLR for a while. Hopefully that means only until Carsland is open. But maybe you should wait for WDW until Fantasyland is done or even Avatarland?