Our “California Adventure” a Road Trip to the West (Update: Day 17 - There and back again)

Although I am bummed that the Matterhorn is now so jerky I do agree I LOVE the theming of it and we always try to go at least once. I used to go several times but I just can't take it anymore LOL. But they have improved the Yeti scenes on the inside and that part is really cool. It used to be too that they opened both sides and each side is different but I think now they just have the one line. It stinks because you used to always be able to get into the shorter line and it would go quicker LOL. I have been to Switzerland/Zermat once as a teen many years ago and we got all the way there but you couldn't see the Matterhorn because of the weather. When you are lucky enough to be there on a sunny day I hear it is amazing but sadly I missed it. Would have loved to have seen it in real life. Maybe some day. :)

We loved those photo ops too and took pics with all that were there and I am bummed we missed the haunted mansion one. I guess they didn't put that up till after we had left. They are cheesy but lots of fun!

I agree about French Market. It is OK but not spectacular. Honestly there are only a few restaurants in both parks that I think are AMAZING, one being Carthay and the other the Napa Rose. There are def plenty of GOOD places but those are the only ones I think are amazing. Even Blue Bayou is more about the ambiance then the food. I would LOVE to eat at Club 33 someday but don't know if that will ever happen.

Nice update!! Look forward to more. :)
 
You're really ticking off a number of rides this morning.

Glad that the Matterhorn opened up for you and your family all got on it. Are you planning a trip to the Swiss Alps to go see it someday?
And I totally agree. The teacups at DLR has so much more charm than the teacups at WDW because of the backdrop. Still a cool attraction in any park, though.
I like the French Market. Shame that it was just only okay for you.
 
Love the Matterhorn for the the ring and water parts and also the history of it being the first steel tubular roller coaster - also the fact the skyway went through it always fascinated me.

We didn't get to do the BTMRR cutout picture spot but did get to some others - I though ghtvtheybwere really cool. Blocked the effects in the last lift hill or the ride!
 
You are making me want to go to Disneyland so bad!! My husband loves Mr. Toad so we definitely need to go ride that. It has been too long since I have been there. Looks like such a fun day so far.

I'm making me want to go to Disneyland too. Haha!

I cannot wait to get to DL and see the 60th stuff next month! You got a lot done that morning!

Jill in CO

You are going to LOVE it!!!

Although I am bummed that the Matterhorn is now so jerky I do agree I LOVE the theming of it and we always try to go at least once. I used to go several times but I just can't take it anymore LOL. But they have improved the Yeti scenes on the inside and that part is really cool. It used to be too that they opened both sides and each side is different but I think now they just have the one line. It stinks because you used to always be able to get into the shorter line and it would go quicker LOL. I have been to Switzerland/Zermat once as a teen many years ago and we got all the way there but you couldn't see the Matterhorn because of the weather. When you are lucky enough to be there on a sunny day I hear it is amazing but sadly I missed it. Would have loved to have seen it in real life. Maybe some day. :)

We loved those photo ops too and took pics with all that were there and I am bummed we missed the haunted mansion one. I guess they didn't put that up till after we had left. They are cheesy but lots of fun!

I agree about French Market. It is OK but not spectacular. Honestly there are only a few restaurants in both parks that I think are AMAZING, one being Carthay and the other the Napa Rose. There are def plenty of GOOD places but those are the only ones I think are amazing. Even Blue Bayou is more about the ambiance then the food. I would LOVE to eat at Club 33 someday but don't know if that will ever happen.

Nice update!! Look forward to more. :)

Another Matterhorn fan. Yahoo!!!

Yeah, we missed the haunted mansion photo opp one too. Bummer!

We haven't been to Carthay or Napa Rose, but I agree that most places aren't amazing at Disneyland. But I had higher hopes for French Market to be one of the "Good" ones. No worries though, because at Disneyland, "It's all good." (even when it's not) Haha.

You're really ticking off a number of rides this morning.

Glad that the Matterhorn opened up for you and your family all got on it. Are you planning a trip to the Swiss Alps to go see it someday?
And I totally agree. The teacups at DLR has so much more charm than the teacups at WDW because of the backdrop. Still a cool attraction in any park, though.
I like the French Market. Shame that it was just only okay for you.

No real plans to visit the Swiss Alps to see it someday. I visited Chamonix, France a couple times in the past, and I'd probably rather see Mt. Blanc again first, but if the opportunity to go back ever comes up, it would be fun to visit both mountains :-)

Love the Matterhorn for the the ring and water parts and also the history of it being the first steel tubular roller coaster - also the fact the skyway went through it always fascinated me.

We didn't get to do the BTMRR cutout picture spot but did get to some others - I though ghtvtheybwere really cool. Blocked the effects in the last lift hill or the ride!

The skyway part fascinates me too. Pretty cool stuff.

Looking forward to seeing your cutout pictures soon on your TR too!! :thumbsup2
 


Day 13 - Wednesday, June 24 - Disneyland - Part 3

It was now a little bit after noon, and after a nice break, we were all ready to get moving again. Since Pirates of the Caribbean is so close, we decided to hit it next. Pickle was dragging behind a bit, so Stephanie decided to give her a lift :-)



I love this part of DL. It's just too darn cool!



So yeah, rounding the corner and entering the line...



Unfortunately, the line was a bit slow and as it split into two, we ended up in the longer line. :crazy2: It took about 35 minutes to get inside, and then a few more to get on our boat.



This is one of my all time favorite rides too. And here's another example where the DL version truly outshines the WDW version. It's substantially longer and I LOVE going through the Blue Bayou. (Stephanie and I ate there on a solo trip in 2010 and I thoroughly enjoyed it. Not the most amazing meal ever, but it was close enough to be worthwhile.)

After it was all said and done, we spent about an hour getting Pirates knocked off our list. Definitely worth it, but the long line really makes you appreciate those FastPasses. Speaking of which, we were up for Splash Mountain next!!!



This is probably Stephanie's favorite ride at WDW. And contrary to some of the other attractions at DL, we like the WDW one better. Regardless, this is still lots of fun. Once you get those songs in your head, they are stuck there for the rest of the day. No worries, because they are fun to hum along. :-)







"Time to be moving along..."

Buddy was still a bit hungry from his non-existent lunch, so he got a giant pickle. Pickle passed on a pickle this time around (she usually gets one with him) because she wanted cotton candy.







It was now a little bit after 2pm and we decided that it was time to head back to the room for a break. So we headed back to swim and relax for a couple hours.

Since this was going to be Angie and Dave's only day at the parks, they decided to push on with Nanny and Grandpa. I'm not sure what all they did while we took a break, but they added their PhotoPass cards to our account, so I have a few pictures that they had made.







After we had a nice break at the hotel, we arrived back at DL around 5:15pm. And we stopped for a few PhotoPass photos too. (Pre-purchasing the CD option is such a great deal!!)







Pickle and Buddy wanted to ride Autopia, so we headed that way first. Princess wasn't feeling it, and need a few minutes to chill, so Stephanie stayed back with her while I took the other two. Unfortunately, they were having issues and the line took forever. Great for Princess's chill time, but no fun for us. Oh well, we still enjoyed ourselves and would have done it again if we had to.



So yeah, Buddy drove himself, and then Pickle and I rode together.





None of us are big fans of this ride at WDW, but the Autopia version has such a pretty drive. Really top notch landscaping and theming over here!!!

We head FastPasses for Indiana Jone's, so we decided to start heading that way next.



But we had to stop for the Enchanted TIKI Room on the way!



The Dole Whip line was too long, so we decided to come back for those later!



One of my favorites!!!





The TIKI Room is dated and corny, but I truly LOVE it!!! (I'm glad they never ruined this one with that stupid parrot from Aladdin likey the did in WDW.)

Time for Indy!







Another awesome ride!!! A bit jerky, but super fun. I love that this one is truly unique to DL. Makes it extra special.

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Nice update. I meant to say last time that the Thunder mountain is different in that it is now much smoother and they added the exploding dynamite in the tunnel whereas before it was the earthquake scene. I love this ride and just found out it will be down the entire time we are at DW next June. :(

I totally agree about pirates and splash. Our pirates is WAY better and when I went to DW the firs time I was like WHAT half of it is missing LOL. And I agree DW's splash is better and seems to be longer and tells the story better. I also love Tikki room and it is funny because as a kid we only went to DL once every 5 or so years so in my entire childhood I only went maybe 4 or 5 times. Once I had kids though we went almost yearly and I have done so much more that I NEVER did as a kid. I didn't step foot into the tikki room until I had kids but now we love it and it is a must do every trip. Esp in the summer when it is hot ;) and I agree they ruined it at DW. :/

Indy is one of our faves and I miss it when we go to DW but we are "hopefully" going to Europe in 17 and I am hoping to do DLP and looking forward to their version. Looks pretty cool!!
 
The Indiana Jones ride is right up there with Peter Pan for my favorite ride at Disneyland. I love it!
It has been so long since I have been there that I didn't even remember that the Pirates is different at Disneyland. I really need to go.....
 


You all are definitely making good use of the Fast Passes!

I knew going in that the general consensus is Pirates is better at DLR but I was surprised how much more I liked it. The beginning part in the caves is just so cool .... definitely shows that they did the WDW Pirates on the cheap/quickly to get it done ... or rather, shows how much better a Disney ride can be when they have the time and space (and money) to go all out

One thing I did like better about the DL version of Splash is it felt they really crammed the animatronics in on the inside portions - some you even had to look backwards to see!

Autopia is so much better than the raceway at WDW. Love all the details, especially the mouse crossing part!

Indy is a very cool ride ... someways I wish it was a little less jerky as I think it if was smoother it would feel more like a complete experience than as series of rooms, but still, very cool! Also one of the better queues!
 
Another great set of pictures and rides; even if you did have some down time during the middle of the day.

I'm in agreement with you. Love the PoTC and Autopia versions better at WDW. The Tiki Room is pretty special at DLR as well. And whilst it's the same ride technology, Indy is far and away a much more awesome ride than the Dinosaur ride at Animal Kingdom. Funny how much theming and a great back-story can make a ride, isn't it?


So....enquiring minds wanna know. Angie and Dave. Did they wish they had more than 1 day at DL?
 
Just read your whole trip report over the past few days and am really enjoying it!! Can't wait to read more! We're doing a similar trip next July--starting in San Francisco, doing Yosemite, driving down the coast to Santa Barbara, then doing DL (first time!) for a few days and San Diego. Your report is so helpful!
 
Nice update. I meant to say last time that the Thunder mountain is different in that it is now much smoother and they added the exploding dynamite in the tunnel whereas before it was the earthquake scene. I love this ride and just found out it will be down the entire time we are at DW next June. :(

I totally agree about pirates and splash. Our pirates is WAY better and when I went to DW the firs time I was like WHAT half of it is missing LOL. And I agree DW's splash is better and seems to be longer and tells the story better. I also love Tikki room and it is funny because as a kid we only went to DL once every 5 or so years so in my entire childhood I only went maybe 4 or 5 times. Once I had kids though we went almost yearly and I have done so much more that I NEVER did as a kid. I didn't step foot into the tikki room until I had kids but now we love it and it is a must do every trip. Esp in the summer when it is hot ;) and I agree they ruined it at DW. :/

Indy is one of our faves and I miss it when we go to DW but we are "hopefully" going to Europe in 17 and I am hoping to do DLP and looking forward to their version. Looks pretty cool!!

Disneyland Paris would be awesome! I never even considered that they would have a third version. How cool is that!!!

The Indiana Jones ride is right up there with Peter Pan for my favorite ride at Disneyland. I love it!
It has been so long since I have been there that I didn't even remember that the Pirates is different at Disneyland. I really need to go.....

Time to refresh your memory!!! :cool1:

You all are definitely making good use of the Fast Passes!

I knew going in that the general consensus is Pirates is better at DLR but I was surprised how much more I liked it. The beginning part in the caves is just so cool .... definitely shows that they did the WDW Pirates on the cheap/quickly to get it done ... or rather, shows how much better a Disney ride can be when they have the time and space (and money) to go all out

One thing I did like better about the DL version of Splash is it felt they really crammed the animatronics in on the inside portions - some you even had to look backwards to see!

Autopia is so much better than the raceway at WDW. Love all the details, especially the mouse crossing part!

Indy is a very cool ride ... someways I wish it was a little less jerky as I think it if was smoother it would feel more like a complete experience than as series of rooms, but still, very cool! Also one of the better queues!

I heard you about Indy being jerky. But in my mind, the ride itself sort of reminds me of the Dinosaur ride at Animal Kingdom wish is way beyond my threshold for what I'll put up with for an entertaining ride. Sort of makes Indy seem a bit smooth in comparison. :rotfl2:

Another great set of pictures and rides; even if you did have some down time during the middle of the day.

I'm in agreement with you. Love the PoTC and Autopia versions better at WDW. The Tiki Room is pretty special at DLR as well. And whilst it's the same ride technology, Indy is far and away a much more awesome ride than the Dinosaur ride at Animal Kingdom. Funny how much theming and a great back-story can make a ride, isn't it?


So....enquiring minds wanna know. Angie and Dave. Did they wish they had more than 1 day at DL?

Funny you should ask about Angie and Dave. Yes, they did wish they had more than one day at DL!! They hadn't really considered doing California Adventure, but they cancelled their previous LA touring plans for the next day and bought CA tickets!!! :rotfl2:

Just read your whole trip report over the past few days and am really enjoying it!! Can't wait to read more! We're doing a similar trip next July--starting in San Francisco, doing Yosemite, driving down the coast to Santa Barbara, then doing DL (first time!) for a few days and San Diego. Your report is so helpful!

That's awesome. Thanks for reading along. If you end up doing a similar "California Adventure" trip, you'll love it!!! :thumbsup2:thumbsup2
 
Day 13 - Wednesday, June 24 - Disneyland - Part 4

I apologize for the slowness of updates. Things have been been really busy lately, but I think I've turned a corner and should be able to crank out the last few days of the trip here over the next week or so. Anyway, let's get back to the TR.

After riding Indiana Jones, we decided to grab a bite to eat and then stake our claim for the Paint the Night Parade and Fireworks. We headed over to the central hub area, and even at around 7:30 it was starting to fill up. (Parade started at 9pm.) So we picked a spot and then made trips for food. I ended up grabbing food from Tomorrowland and bringing it back to the family. It was pretty hectic and challenging to get the food and then wade my way back to the family, so the food itself was forgettable. I think we had some chicken fingers, fries, and stuff.

We ended up with a decent spot to watch the parade. We were near the Astro Orbiter, which was fun to watch spin through the night....





So after we ate, we still had about an hour before the parade started. We were packed like sardines, but the energy in the crowd was high and we all had a great time just hanging out and enjoying the atmosphere. Well, everyone except for Grandpa. I think he shot us an evil eye a couple times... he's not a crowd person and it was pretty clear that he was thinking, "what in the world have you gotten me into?" :crazy2:



And finally the parade started. I didn't really take any photos with my camera, but I did get a fair amount on my camcorder. So here are a couple gifs.

First, looking back at the orbiter. So cool at night!

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And then a couple from the parade:

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So yeah, I'm not usually too much into parades and shows. The rest of my gang likes them and I usually just go with the flow, but this one was certainly worth going out of your way to see. Truly spectacular!!

We thought we had a great spot for both the parade and fireworks, but it turned out that they cleared the sidewalk after the parade, so we had to rush out into the street with everyone for the fireworks. Which meant we were too close to the tree in front of the castle and it sort of blocked our view a bit. Oh well, not the end of the world, but a mistake we won't make next time!







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The fireworks were pretty cool too. Not quite as cool as the parade, but still awesome. The tree blocked our view of the projections on the castle quite a bit, but we could see the projections on the Matterhorn really well. And when we looked back, we could see the ones on Main Street fairly well too. All in all, not a great spot for the fireworks, but not terrible either.

After the fireworks finished it was almost 10pm, Pickle decided that she was pretty much done and wanted to go back to the room. Buddy and Princess wanted to ride Haunted Mansion still, so we all parted ways. (I know Steph and Pickle headed back to Candy Cane Inn by themselves, but I have no idea what Nanny, Grandpa, and the others ended up doing.) Anyway, On the way over to HM, I took advantage of the castle still being roped off to snap a pretty cool photo



It took us about 45 minutes to get over to HM and through the line. We've ridden this a bunch before, but we wanted to see the new hat box ghost.



He was awesome, but to be honest, it was sort of anticlimactic as in, "Hey look, it's the original hat box ghost. Oh cool. Moving on..."

It's funny... when comparing WDW to DL versions of rides, I usually have a clear favorite. But I think both Haunted Mansions are tied in my book. They are equally awesome! But I do like that it's more of a journey to board your doom buggy on the DL version. (That being said, the new queuing area in WDW is cool too.)

It was now about 11pm. Buddy and Princess were pretty tired at this point too, so we decided to make the long journey back to our room. Especially knowing that tomorrow was going to be our early entry day back at DL.

Our second day in the parks was in the books and it was an awesome one. It was fun touring as a big group and sharing some of our favorite spots and attractions with Dave and Angie's family.
 
Nice gifs!
I actually like the DLR HM version better WHEN the Holiday overlay is present. Otherwise, both versions are really hard to choose from.

And did Grandpa stop giving you the evil eye when the parade started?
 
Nice gifs!
I actually like the DLR HM version better WHEN the Holiday overlay is present. Otherwise, both versions are really hard to choose from.

And did Grandpa stop giving you the evil eye when the parade started?

We saw the DLR HM version with the Holiday overlay in 2013. It was pretty cool, but I think I prefer the vanilla version :-)

Haha! Yeah, once the parade started Grandpa was cool. I think he thoroughly enjoyed the parade and fireworks :thumbsup2
 
Day 14 - Thursday, June 25 - Disneyland - Part 1

Wow, our last full day in California. Hard to believe that the adventure was almost finished! Our goal for the day was to use our early entry option for Disneyland, which opened at 7:00am. This was also our first solo day in the parks, so we didn't waste any time getting there early.

What did the others do? Well, Dave and Angie had originally planned to only visit DL park just the one day, and tour LA the other days... But they enjoyed their DL day so much, that they decided to visit California Adventure on this last day. (We didn't know it at the time.) Nanny and Grandpa continued with their original plans to do some LA site seeing (I don't remember exactly where they went.)

So yeah, since we were slow poke free, we decided to walk from the Candy Cane Inn and arrive about an hour before the gates opened.



Interesting... we made it to bag check before the attendants did. Hahaha! We ended up waiting here for about 15 or 20 minutes. The bag checkers were pretty cheeky and had fun pestering people in line and picking on each other. Made the wait interesting...



So yeah, Buddy was determined to be first in line for DL. Not only first in line for his turnstile, but first for the entire park!!!

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We did it! We made it before any one else. We sort of headed over to the right side, since it would be closer to the tunnel going under the tracks. In hindsight, I wish we had went to the very middle, because I wonder if they would have picked us as the family to "open the park". No worries, we were happy with our accomplishment anyway :-)

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Within 10 or 15 minutes, that vast empty space looked like this:
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Yikes!!!

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Maybe 5 or 10 minutes before they started letting people in, they opened the outer gates. Buddy still happy!

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OK. So they open the park, and everyone is doing the "walk don't run"... but still walk as fast as you can rigamarole. We wanted to start off with a bang and head to Space Mountain, so we booked it!!!!

Funny, about a third of the way down Mains Street, a large man (who looked like Santa) flew past me in his scooter... I was like, "Wow, He's making good time.... I wonder what ride he's cruising for?"

And then I had a good laugh....

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The gif above turned out terrible, but he zipped past and took a hard right... to be first in line for.... (drumroll, please)..... Starbucks!



Yeah, getting up early. Waiting in line. Weaving in and out past people like a race car driver... just to be first in line for Starbucks. LOL. Hahahah!!! Go Santa!

Anyway, we kept up our pace and made it to Space Mountain ahead of the main pack.... Only to find it was closed. Maybe Santa had the last laugh after all.... Ho ho ho!

The kids wanted to ride the Astro Orbiter, so we did that next.



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We ended up riding it twice in a row, as there was no line and the kids were having fun. After the second time, it was about 7:25 and Space Mountain was up and running. Let's go!!!





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Funny! I blinked for the flash. Dork!



All, right next up, let's go hit some of the Fantasyland rides that we missed yesterday. Pickle really wanted to ride Dumbo, but Princess and Buddy didn't. So they just waited for us.



Pickle and her magic feather!



Yahoo! I'll never get tired of Dumbo!!! As much as the "Twin Dumbos" at WDW is cool, I love that this one is now old school!

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Next up? How about Casey Jr. Circus Train?!?!! Everyone was up for it, as it's a fun ride around the Storybook Land area with lots of cool stuff to look at.





We ended up in the Monkeys car. When the cast member came to lock our gate, she looked at Pickle and Buddy and said something along they lines of, "Hey, you Monkeys... No flinging poo in there!". Hahaha!!! We gave her a few good "ooh-ooh...aagh-aagh's" after that!









It was now about 8:30. Still making pretty good time. Next up was Pinocchio.





At that point, the kids were getting hungry as we left too early for the continental breakfast at the hotel. We decided to split up. The bigger kids and I headed back to Tomorrowland to order food for everyone, while Pickle and Stephanie squeezed in a quick ride around the carousel.



And of course, an attempt at retrieving Excalibur!



By the time our food was ready at the Galactic Grill (Tomorrowland Terrace), Stephanie and Pickle had caught up to us.

We all had pretty much the same thing.... Eggs, bacon, and potatoes. And of course, some extra bacon for the kids. For some reason, they are infatuated with Disney bacon. Doesn't matter the location, they just love Disney bacon....





The breakfast didn't really look all that appetizing, but it was actually very tasty. I'd be happy to eat there again in the future.

After eating and relaxing for a few minutes, we decided to head over and ride It's a Small World After All. Stay tuned...
 
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Have been loving your trip report. Need to go back and start taking notes now on your park strategy. We officially booked a villa at the Grand Californian for late June! So excited. But we had a change of dates and as a result lost our room at the Yosemite Lodge at the Falls. I had to book a tent cabin at Curry Village :( I remember what you had said about them so I am checking every day for availability anywhere else.
 
I'm leaving for DL in the morning and so excited to see another update! I love Buddy's motivation to be the first in the park! Go Santa!

Jill in CO
 
It's amazing how early people line up for parades/fireworks at Disneyland. Read that with it being more of a local crowd who can come more often, getting "everything" done isn't as key to them, so they can afford to wait for the best views. Glad you got a good view for the parade - definitely a can't miss. And definitely get what you say about excitement/buzz in the crowd for it! Too bad about having to move for the fireworks and that dang tree - but still not too bad!

I also totally get what you are saying about the Hatbox Ghost ... it is super cool they brought him back and a great event - but he is just kinda "there" with not much warning or anything

How cool that you (well, Buddy) was first in line that day for Disneyland! And whoa, that crowd built up fast!

Haha, funny story about Santa Claus and Starbucks .... though if that is how fast he goes before being caffeinated, I'd stay out of his way after he is fueled up!

Bummer Space Mountain wasn't open - little frustrating to go through all the efforts to be there so early, and then first thing messes up the plans - but seems like you rebounded and things worked out

BTW - absolutely loving all of your gifs, though the one riding the Astro Orbiter might be my favorite as it flows/cycles around pretty seamlessly!

eep! Makes me wonder what happened in the past that the CM felt the need to instruct you not to fling your poo! ;)

Seems like a decent breakfast for just grabbing something.
 
Have been loving your trip report. Need to go back and start taking notes now on your park strategy. We officially booked a villa at the Grand Californian for late June! So excited. But we had a change of dates and as a result lost our room at the Yosemite Lodge at the Falls. I had to book a tent cabin at Curry Village :( I remember what you had said about them so I am checking every day for availability anywhere else.

A villa at the Grand Californian?!?! How cool is that!!! Too bad about the Yosemite Lodge. Even if you are stuck in a tent cabin, you'll still have an amazing time. Curry Village is pretty darn awesome, and if you are like us, you'll want to spend as much time enjoying the park outside anyway. But yeah, be prepared for cramped quarters and lots of people. Some people love it and return to the tent cabins every year, so it can't be that bad :)

I'm leaving for DL in the morning and so excited to see another update! I love Buddy's motivation to be the first in the park! Go Santa!

Jill in CO

Awesome!!!!! I hope you have a blast!

(Funny.... Princess, Buddy, and I will be in Anaheim this Thursday night. Staying just down the street from DL, but we won't have the chance to visit the park, or even DTD. We arrive late (around 10pm) and are heading to a couple skateparks in the morning before heading to Palm Springs on Friday afternoon. Would have been fun to try and say hello for a quick DisMeet if we were staying longer :)

It's amazing how early people line up for parades/fireworks at Disneyland. Read that with it being more of a local crowd who can come more often, getting "everything" done isn't as key to them, so they can afford to wait for the best views. Glad you got a good view for the parade - definitely a can't miss. And definitely get what you say about excitement/buzz in the crowd for it! Too bad about having to move for the fireworks and that dang tree - but still not too bad!

I also totally get what you are saying about the Hatbox Ghost ... it is super cool they brought him back and a great event - but he is just kinda "there" with not much warning or anything

How cool that you (well, Buddy) was first in line that day for Disneyland! And whoa, that crowd built up fast!

Haha, funny story about Santa Claus and Starbucks .... though if that is how fast he goes before being caffeinated, I'd stay out of his way after he is fueled up!

Bummer Space Mountain wasn't open - little frustrating to go through all the efforts to be there so early, and then first thing messes up the plans - but seems like you rebounded and things worked out

BTW - absolutely loving all of your gifs, though the one riding the Astro Orbiter might be my favorite as it flows/cycles around pretty seamlessly!

eep! Makes me wonder what happened in the past that the CM felt the need to instruct you not to fling your poo! ;)

Seems like a decent breakfast for just grabbing something.

You hit the nail on the head with your comment about locals coming just for parades and fireworks. Man, I wish I was a DL local!!!

Watch out for the caffeinated Santa!! Hahahh!

Yeah, that's funny that the cast member's instructions about the poo. As I mentioned in your TR, I've visited the primate house at the St. Louis Zoo a lot through the years, and interestingly the chimps to tend to fling their poo around. Gross, but funny to watch... LOL.
 
Day 14 - Thursday, June 25 - Disneyland - Part 2

So after our break for breakfast, we started making our way over to It’s a Small World. Riding the Nemo submarines wasn't a priority for anyone on this trip, so we decided to just pass it by. Sure is pretty though!







As we turned the corner past the Matterhorn, we stumbled upon another one of the Diamond Celebration photo spots. They all are awesome, but I really loved this one!



It was about 9:15am when we finally made it over to Small World. Pretty short line, which is always nice!


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After It's a Small World, we decided to head over to the Haunted Mansion, as Stephanie and Pickle didn't ride it with us last night.

Unfortunately, it was closed... Bummer!!!! Oh well, let's just ride Pirates again and then maybe it'll be open when we get off...

We went to park the stroller.... and noticed that Pickle had checked out.



Stephanie decided to stay back with her, and I took the older two on Pirates by ourselves.







As we exited the ride, Stephanie had some Mickey beignets waiting for us!!! Yummy!!!



Pickle was awake from her power nap and excited to get a "ballon" popcorn bucket. (We ended up getting two more of these by the end of the day.)



It was now about 11am.... HM was still closed. Double bummer! We decided to go explore Tarzan's tree house. Swiss Family Robinson has been one of my favorites since the first time I visited WDW at the age of 6. I still can't believe that this one is still themed as Tarzan. Lame!!! But still lot's of fun because of all the fantastic views of the park!







Our next FP was Indy at Noon, so we let the kids goof around for a while and then we grabbed a couple dole whips. Yum! I went ahead and picked up one of the souvenir bowls. How could I resist!?!?!



I can't remember if Pickle was too short, or if she'd be too scared, but she wasn't going to ride it with us, so we parted ways again....

Princess, Buddy, and I went ahead and rode the ride by ourselves. Stephanie and Pickle did have FP's but didn't use them, so we had fun picking out a couple to give them too. It's always fun when you can share extra FP's with unsuspecting guests. (Something that you can no longer do at WDW with the magic bands.)

So while were on our Adventure, Pickle and Stephanie went through the Sleeping Beauty walk through in the castle and then they went on Mr. Toad's Wild Ride.









We met up in front of the castle, and took the opportunity to grab a couple more photo pass photos...







I hate photos with sunglasses on, but it was so darn bright and the sun was right behind the photographer, that we didn't have much of a choice. Oh well...

And here's a funny one. They forgot to add Tinker Bell !!!



It was now about 12:30 and everyone was pretty hungry. We decided to head back over to Tomorrowland and hop on the monorail to find some food in Downtown Disney. Here are a few photos from the walk...















And we made it!!!

 

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