Aloha, Happy Birthday and Merry Christmas

[Pinkocto]

I'm so glad you had DL to look forward to after Aulani. That would have been sad to go home just then.

Great that you had the car insurance, sorry you had to deal with that though.

I'd like to see the dress too.

Dinner sounded delicious even though the wait was a bit off putting. Good that the manager tried with the dessert.

 

[PrincessInOz]

Shame about the accident. But at least your insurance covered it, right?
Lovely views from the airport.
YAY for being back at Anaheim.

 

[dolphingirl47]

Oh gosh,...that sucks about the car, but good thing you had insurance.

It was definitely not how I wanted to end this magical part of the trip.

Those kind of days are hard when you lose so much time in the air. But you probably needed a short day to catch up pn some sleep.

I don't mind travelling, but it was surprising for me just how much of an impact the time zone change had. Our flights in both directions left around the same time and yet it was a completely different experience.

That's ridiculous it took so long to get you seated.

Yes, it was especially as when we got our table, there were a lot of empty ones.

I'm so glad you had DL to look forward to after Aulani. That would have been sad to go home just then.

I don't think I could have dealt with going straight home.

Great that you had the car insurance, sorry you had to deal with that though.

That handled that really wonderfully. I was well impressed with Thrifty.

I'd like to see the dress too.

Tomorrow.

Dinner sounded delicious even though the wait was a bit off putting. Good that the manager tried with the dessert.

Yes, I did appreciate this.

Shame about the accident. But at least your insurance covered it, right?
Lovely views from the airport.
YAY for being back at Anaheim.

We took out the insurance because of the breakdown cover and us going to some pretty remote areas, but it was more than worth every penny. I think Honolulu is the most beautiful airport I ever experienced.

Corinna

 

[Paula Sedley-Burke]

You can never be over insured right? Takes the stress out of it as much as it can. The rental staff sounded very helpful. Checking if you were both ok.

Sorry you had to say goodbye to Hawaii but wow what a trip. Sounds like you really scored some brain cell memories for life. Roll on LA I look forward to hearing about that. The curtain has not fallen for the final farewell yet. One more encore to go..

 

[dolphingirl47]

You can never be over insured right? Takes the stress out of it as much as it can. The rental staff sounded very helpful. Checking if you were both ok.

This was the first time we ever took out the extra insurance. I am so glad we did. The Thrifty staff were amazing.

Sorry you had to say goodbye to Hawaii but wow what a trip. Sounds like you really scored some brain cell memories for life.

It was an absolutely amazing trip. I will treasure those memories forever.

Roll on LA I look forward to hearing about that.

The first update will come up on Sunday.

The curtain has not fallen for the final farewell yet. One more encore to go..

As far as I am concerned as long as I can go on holiday, the curtain will not fall. It is merely an intermission. Having said that, the present intermission is way to long for my taste. By the time I leave for Disneyland, it will have almost been 10 months.

Corinna

 

[dolphingirl47]

As promised, here is a photo of the dress:



Corinna

 

[Pinkocto]

That is so pretty! I love it!!!

 

[dolphingirl47]

That is so pretty! I love it!!!

Thanks. Royal blue is my favourite colour so I just had to have it.

Corinna

 

[Mrs Doubtfire]

That's a lovely dress. Perhaps we'll see it in a future trip report

 

[dolphingirl47]

That's a lovely dress. Perhaps we'll see it in a future trip report

Thanks. I am absolutely certain that it will feature in a future trip report.

Corinna

 

[Paula Sedley-Burke]

Ohh super frock in a dashing deep blue for the sea. Lovely!

 

[dolphingirl47]

Ohh super frock in a dashing deep blue for the sea. Lovely!

Thanks.

Corinna

 

[dolphingirl47]

I am going to post the next instalment tomorrow. This is going to be quite photo intensive and will take time. I was working this weekend and have barely seen Graham all week so we are going to spend some "us" time this evening.

Corinna

 

[Paula Sedley-Burke]

Enjoy your evening!

 

[dolphingirl47]

Day 16

Before I get started, I wanted to mention that for this day, we had a guest photographer, who provided the majority of the photos: my dear friend Jennifer of Jennifer McNeil Photography (www.imajenn.com). I really appreciate it that she not only shared this magical day with us, but also took so many great photos.

I had expected that I would struggle to wake up that morning between our body clocks finally adapting to USA time and the fact that there is a two-hour time difference between Hawaii and California. However, excitement got the better of me and we were up by about 8:00. This was a rather special day and what I referred to as my birthday party. I made some coffee, as we had nowhere to go so early in the morning that day and we just relaxed in the room for a while. At around 9:00 our stomachs started to rumble and we made tracks to get some breakfast. On the way, we took some photos of the Christmas decorations at the hotel.





I had my mind set on IHOP that morning and fortunately there is one right opposite the entrance to the Disneyland resort. So we headed in that general direction. Considering the location and the time of day, it was actually surprisingly busy. There were people waiting by the podium and there were even people waiting outside. I started to wonder if a Plan B would be needed. We decided to check at the podium anyway and were advised that there would be a wait of 5 to 10 minutes. That was no problem at all. We were called 5 minutes later. We actually waited longer for our server to come by with the menus than we had waited to be seated. Still, we had plenty of time so that was not an issue. At some stage somebody came by to offer coffee and asked if we wanted any juice. We had some coffee and also both ordered some orange juice. I was pleased when I spotted some French Vanilla Creamer for the coffee. I developed a taste for this on our last Orlando trip. Eventually we got the menus, but we both knew what we wanted anyway. Graham went with the steak and eggs, which came with a side of pancakes. I had the sirloin tips, which were served with hash browns and an egg and a side of pancakes. We both enjoyed our breakfast.

Despite the slow service, we still arrived at the Grand Californian Hotel about an hour ahead of schedule. We had arranged to meet our friends there at midday. I was quite happy about that proposition. I love the lobby of the Grand Californian anyway and we usually end up spending some time just sitting in the lobby and watching the world go by on every trip to Disneyland. This time there was the added incentive of the Christmas decorations. Although the parks had been decorated for the Christmas season before we left for Aulani, the hotels had not. I could not wait to see the Christmas decorations at the Grand Californian, especially as I had read a few weeks before the trip that they would have a gingerbread house in the lobby for the first time. The decorations did not disappoint. I wandered around for a bit and took it all in. We then went to find somewhere to sit. It was quite busy in the lobby, but we found a couple of seats.





We had not been there very long when our friend Sue arrived. I was very happy about this. We had not seen each other since May 2013 so I was very happy that I got the chance to catch up with her before the rest of the group arrived. I had a lovely surprise as well. Sue had a present for me. Before I even opened it, I had idea what it may be. While we were at Aulani, Sue ran the inaugural Avengers Half Marathon at Disneyland. They had released three different Dooney and Bourke bags for this event. I had seen them online and was quietly relieved that they did not really grab me, as it would have annoyed me to literally just miss them. Sue knows that I like my Disney Dooneys and had got me the wristlet. The photos had not done this justice at all and in real life, I absolutely loved this. This came in really handy as well. I did not want to carry one of my bigger bags around all day and decided to just put my annual pass, ID and my debit card in a lanyard and carry my camera separately. So now I had something to put my things in. I have a couple of wristlets that close with a snap closure. This one is longer and slimmer and has a zip. It also nylon and therefore very lightweight and comfortable. I was delighted with my present. Sue offered to put this in her handbag for me, but I was only too happy to carry it.



A little while later, the second of our friends arrived. Jennifer and I had only just missed each other in Orlando the previous year and I was delighted that we finally got to catch up in person again. Jennifer knows Graham and she and Sue seemed to hit it off straightaway. I was very relieved about this. Although I know all of them and Graham knows Sue and Jennifer and has met the last person in our merry gang, the rest of them did not know each other and I was a little nervous on how they would get on with each other. I need not have worried. Everybody seemed to get on right from the get go. While the 4 of us were chatting, I noticed a bunch of VIP guides hovering with intend nearby. I decided to head over there to check if one of them was waiting for us. They were not, but one of them told me that he knew who our guide was and that she had arrived. He checked where we were sitting and advised that he would point her in our general direction. Kayla arrived shortly afterwards. Again, she seemed to hit it off with everybody straightaway. She asked if anything had changed since we have made the booking. I mentioned that I had requested VIP seating for World of Color – Winter Dreams when we made the booking, but that I had since seen it and felt it was not worth our while to hang around for this. She agreed with this. She asked if we wanted to make any reservations for a restaurant, but we decided that we would just go for quick service and play this by ear. I think she was quite surprised about how easy going we were. She checked if there are any must do attractions for us and I shared with her that we each picked two attractions and in most cases they were one in each park. I shared those attractions with her. Graham had originally chosen California Screamin as one of his attractions, but he no longer fancied this. Nobody else really wanted to do this either so we substituted Soarin for that. The last member of our merry gang, Alison arrived shortly afterwards. Unfortunately she came bearing bad news. Something had come up and she needed to leave us at some stage to attend an appointment, but would rejoin us later on. For now we were all there and raring to go. Kayla suggested that we should head to California Adventure first as we could just use the private entrance from the Grand Californian. We set off and headed in that direction.

 

[dolphingirl47]

I think it is time to take a step back for a moment and actually explain what we were up to that day. So far I have been pretty vague about this referring to it as my birthday party and hinting that I had something amazing planned for that day. It was truly amazing and something that I would never even in my wildest dreams have imagined that I would ever experience. I am blessed with friends all around the world and it turned out that some of those friends know people that are incredibly well connected. So when I started talking about coming to Disneyland for my big birthday, one of them contacted me and told me that she knows somebody who has access to a limited number of complimentary VIP tours to Disneyland each year. This could include both parks and last up to 8 hours. The only caveat was that we would need tickets for the parks that we would visit. I had to pinch myself a few times to make sure that I was not dreaming. I then checked if the contact is really sure about this. I was told absolutely as this was kind of a use it or lose it scenario and the person in question would not be able to use up all the tours before the end of the year and rather than losing the entitlement, would rather give it to people who appreciate it. Appreciating it does not even begin to cover it. So I quickly confirmed that I would love to. I was advised that I could have up to 9 people in the group. This provided me with a perfect opportunity to gather my Californian friends together to celebrate my birthday. Apart from Graham, we are all really into Disney so this was perfect. Arranging this was a bit more of a challenge with us being at Aulani for 10 days in the middle of the trip and it being Thanksgiving the week we came back. In the end this day was the only day that worked for all of us. Initially I was not too sure about this, but in the end this worked for me, too.

When we got to the entrance, there was nobody there so we breezed through bag check and we were in. We headed to Soarin over California first as this was kind of on the way. Essentially being with a VIP Guide is like having a human Fastpass. Where there is a Fastpass line, you enter through this. For a lot of other rides, there is still a way to access the ride quicker than the standby line. Unfortunately something must have gone terribly wrong with Soarin that day, as the Fastpass line was 30 to 45 minutes. That is longer than it is often for the standby line for this ride at California Adventure. Kayla had noticed that I really like this ride and asked what I wanted to do. We agreed that we would push on and try again later. So we headed to Radiator Springs Racers next. I was a bit apprehensive on two accounts. If Soarin was that busy then I did not dare think on how bad Radiator Springs Racers would be. Graham also had watched some You Tube videos of this ride shortly after it opened and pronounced it mediocre. So I was not sure what he would make of it, but this is a ride that I really enjoy. In the end I did not need to worry about either. Essentially our wait was pretty much as long as it took us to walk to the loading dock. As soon as we got there, a car pulled up and we got in. Our group was the perfect size. The cars take 6 people so that meant that Kayla could ride with us, too. Fortunately Graham seemed to enjoy the ride. Once we were done, I had the ride photo added to my Photopass+ and then we moved on.



As we were walking to our next destination, Kayla asked if we wanted to see Aladdin. I had never seen the show although I had heard that it is really good. I kind of loosely planned to maybe give it a go this time if it fit in with the rest of my plans on one day. If I am honest, I am not sure if this actually would have happened. However, when Kayla offered, I figured that this might be as good a time as any. It was surprisingly hot for late November and suddenly the idea to sit in an air-conditioned theater was quite appealing. I checked with the rest of the group and they were all up for it. Kayla made a couple of phone calls and we were confirmed for the 14:45 showing. We then headed to our next destination. On the way we saw Mater dressed up for the Christmas season.





Our next destination was Toy Story Midway Mania. This is a ride that I really enjoy, but even in California it draws medium sized crowds. It also has no Fastpass. We entered through the exit and had about a 5-minute wait. Again due to the size of the group, Kayla got to ride with us. She is seriously good at this, but then I suppose she gets plenty of practice. I really enjoy it, but I am no good at it. I just adopt the Olympic spirit: “It is the taking part, not the winning that counts”. We all had fun. When we walked past The Little Mermaid: Ariel's Undersea Adventure, Kayla checked it we wanted to do that ride. It had not been on our to do list, but even the standby time was only 10 minutes and we would enter through the exit again so we agreed. This was a bit of a novel experience for me. Normally I am by myself when I do the ride so I have a clamshell to myself. This time we were told it would be 3 people to a clamshell. I was not quite sure about this as they don’t look all that big, but we did fit. I enjoyed the ride.

We then headed towards Hollywood Land as it was starting to get closer to the time that we needed to report to the Hyperion Theater, as they wanted us there about 30 minutes before show time. We had a quick bathroom stop and bought something to drink as it was really hot and we started to get thirsty. Once everybody was back, we still had a bit of time and Kayla suggested that we could do Monsters, Inc. Mike & Sulley to the Rescue! before we had to head over to the Hyperion Theater. I like this ride, but have not done it very often, as it is prone to breaking down. Again, everybody was up for this. We all enjoyed this. I noticed something that I had never noticed before. At the end of the ride, there is an auto-animatronics version of Roz that speaks to people while they are waiting for their cars to head back to the loading dock. I had always thought that she was just using pre-recorded phrases as when I have done this ride previously, what she had said was fairly general. This time, she addressed Graham directly and actually flirted a little with him. I got the giggles. They must be using similar technology for her as for Turtle Talk with Crush.

 

[dolphingirl47]

Once we finished the ride it was time for us to say goodbye to Alison temporarily and then Kayla took us over to the Hyperion Theater. Before she handed us over to the cast members there, she showed us where she would be waiting for us once we were done. She would not join us for the show, but would use the time to get some lunch. Once we knew where to meet her, she took us through the Fastpass entrance. Before she left, she gave us some tips on where to sit. She recommended the first row in the second section. This was all very mysterious, but we followed her advice when we were let in. There was still a bit of time until the show. I ended up sitting next to Jennifer and this was a welcome opportunity to catch up with her. We chatted for a while and then the lights dimmed. I have to say that the show absolutely blew me away. It was funny, well choreographed with great performers. I also understood why Kayla recommended that we sit where we ended up sitting. When “Prince Ali” arrived with his “Royal Court” we were so close to the action that we could have reached out to touch them. We were also in a prime location to see the flying carpet. I was so glad that we made the time to watch this.

























After the show, we met up with Kayla again. She checked if we wanted to give Soarin another go and I was keen. However, if anything, the Fastpass line had got even longer. So we decided to give up on this one. Kayla did give me some pointers for things to look out for the next time I would get to ride. One thing that was very neat is that in the desert scene with the military aircraft, the planes in the middle were on their last flight when the film was shot. This is such a fitting tribute. We had done what we had come to do at California Adventure so we decided to head over to Disneyland. Graham had mentioned that he would quite like to meet Oswald. If Graham shows interest in meeting a character, I jump on that very quickly. This is a very rare occurrence indeed. So I asked if we could stop where Oswald meets people if the line is was not too long. We headed over there and unfortunately Oswald’s line had just closed. Kayla suggested that we head over towards the entrance to the backstage area where Oswald would head once he had finished. She explained that although we would not be able to meet with him, we should be able to get a couple of photos of him without having too many people in the way. So we headed in that direction and waited. Of course, once Oswald came in our direction, he had other ideas. He made a beeline for us and we both got a hug. Jennifer was prepared and snapped some quick pictures. This was a lovely surprise and a little bit of unexpected Pixie Dust.

 

[dolphingirl47]

Once we said goodbye to Oswald, we crossed over to Disneyland. Our timing for this was not perfect as we arrived just as the parade was about to come through. We were planning to head over to New Orleans Square and Kayla suggested that rather than trying to fight our way through crowd, we should just hop on the Disneyland Railroad for the short journey over to New Orleans Square. We were up for this. Graham loves the trains at the parks so he was definitely happy. That part we had timed perfectly. We did not have to wait long until a train pulled in the station. We got on the train and got to New Orleans Square without having to worry about the crowds. Once got there, we headed to Haunted Mansion Holiday. At Disneyland Haunted Mansion gets a Holiday overlay every year that is based on A Nightmare Before Christmas. This is in place from the beginning of the Halloween season in mid-September and stays until the end of the Holiday season at the beginning of January. Although I have never seen the film, I love the overlay and it actually feels strange to me if I am at Disneyland at a different time of year and get to see the original version. So this was one of my choices. The line for this ride was impressive so it was nice to just breeze through the Fastpass line. I enjoyed this ride again and even more so as we had next to no waiting time.



When we came out, Kayla asked if we wanted to do Pirates of the Caribbean. We were in the general area so we figured that we might as well. As this ride has no Fastpass line, we entered through the exit. We did have a slightly longer wait for this, but that was fine. Kayla used this time to tell us a bit about the ride. What I had never noticed before is that in area where the Blue Bayou restaurant is located, there is a shooting star every few seconds so that everybody has a chance to wish upon a star. In future, I will always look out for this (and yes, I did wish upon a star and yesterday I found out what I wished for is about to come true). This ride ended up being longer than usual. We were stopped for a while twice. This was followed by an announcement that people please remain seated. So I assume that those delays were caused by people standing up in the boat during the ride. It will never seize to amaze me how much trouble some people have to stick to rules. We still enjoyed the ride.

By the time we had come out of Pirates of the Caribbean, we were all ready for something to eat. Breakfast was but a distant memory and for the others; it was at least as long ago. Kayla asked what we fancied. Neither of us really had a preference and my only stipulation was that it was somewhere that is not too crowded. Initially she suggested that we could head over to the Golden Horseshoe, but then she suggested that River Belle Terrace is usually nice and quiet as well. I got my counter service restaurants mixed up and thought River Belle Terrace is where they serve the meatloaf. So I was all for this. Unfortunately the meatloaf is actually served at the French Market Restaurant. Still, I was more than happy with this turn of event. I must have walked past River Belle Terrace hundreds of times, but it never was on my radar. It is a bit of a hidden gem. It looks very regal like a conservatory in a stately home. It also was not too busy considering that the park was heaving. We had no issue finding a table to fit all of us. The food was nice as well. Graham had the Tennessee Turkey Breast Sandwich, which came with a salad. He also had an ice tea. I went with Huck's Slow-Roasted Beef, which was served with horseradish gravy, roasted potatoes, southern seasonal vegetables and a buttermilk biscuit. They also had orange soda so I was happy.

While we were having our meal, Kayla got a call from Alison to let us know that she was back at the Grand Californian and wanted to check where we were. Kayla updated her and told her that we would wait for her at River Belle Terrace. This ended up perfectly timed. We were just finishing up with our meals when Alison rejoined us. She had picked up something to eat on the way back in so we were good to go. We headed to Big Thunder Mountain Railroad next. This was on the must do list for a few of us. I have always enjoyed Big Thunder Mountain Railroad in every Disney park I have been to, but the one at Disneyland had an extensive refurbishment fairly recently and is something special. The Fastpass lane was quite busy so we had a bit of a wait, but that was fine. We were quite happy to wait our turn and chat. Soon it was our turn and we all thoroughly enjoyed the ride.

We still had a good two and a half hours left and we had come to the end of what we had wanted to do. The only thing left on our list was Matterhorn Bobsleighs. Kayla asked what else we wanted to do. She specifically asked if we wanted to do It’s A Small World Holiday. I love It’s A Small World at any time of the year and I had fallen in love with It’s A Small World Holiday when I was able to experience this before we left for Aulani. Graham on the other hand hates this ride with a passion. I had promised him that he would not have to do It’s A Small World during the tour. So I was really torn when Kayla suggested it as on the one hand I really wanted to do this again, but on the other hand, I wanted to keep my promise to Graham. I did explain to him that it is a very different experience than the normal ride and that Christmas carols have been substituted for the normal song for the most part. He said that it was my birthday and if I wanted to do It’s A Small World Holiday, we could. He did not have to say this twice. We ended up with our own private boat. Even though I sincerely doubt that this would ever be Graham’s favourite ride he did say that he thought this was well done.































After we finished It’s A Small World Holiday, we went over to the last ride on our list. This was quite a task as the parade was in progress. However, I have to admit that Disneyland is much better at crowd control than Walt Disney World is. They had this all worked out with cast members at regular intervals and people being directed via different routes depending on where they wanted to end up. So it did not take us too long to get to Matterhorn Bobsleighs. This has always been Graham’s favourite ride and this was his choice for our must do list. When we had been at Disneyland together in 2013, this was closed for refurbishment. Unfortunately the changes that had been made where not for the better. They had changed the ride vehicles and they now have next to no legroom. We made sure that Graham was at the front as there was a bit more legroom there. For some reason the ride also felt a lot rougher than any of us had remembered. So the changes that been made were not for the better. Graham even said that he would not do this ride again. Recently Matterhorn Bobsleighs has been down for an extended period of time. I know that they installed all kinds of special effects, but I am also hoping that they also worked on the track and the ride vehicles while they were at it.

 

[Pinkocto]

I'm sorry if I'm jumping in the middle of an update, but what a fun day!!! And I'm sure it's far from over.

The deocorations in the GC lobby are gorgeous, wow!

I think you just posted another update, I need to come back and read that

 

[dolphingirl47]

Once we had finished with Matterhorn Bobsleighs, Kayla asked us if we wanted to do Space Mountain. I was in two minds about this as the ride does scare me a little, but the rest of the group was keen so we headed in this general direction. I originally had planned to sit this one out and let the rest of the group go ahead, but in the end I decided to give it a go. I got on OK with this at Magic Kingdom in 2013 so I figured I would be OK here. This ride provided us with the longest wait as they had some technical issues. After a while Kayla asked us if we wanted to continue waiting or wanted to leave. As we had nowhere where we needed to be, we opted to wait. We were in the exit area and there were handy benches to sit down on so we were quite happy. It did pay off as shortly afterwards they let us in through the exit of the ride. We still had a short wait while they completed some final tests, but then it was our turn. We got to experience something really neat. The track is set up that in this area they can switch out the ride vehicles to make it easier for disabled people to board. We got on our ride vehicle on a platform off to one side from the normal loading area. Once we were seated an empty train pulled up alongside us and we the trains changed position. This happened again in reverse when we were done. This was fascinating. We all enjoyed the ride and I was actually OK with this.





We headed to Buzz Lightyear Astro Blasters next and this was virtually a walk on. I actually for once managed to beat Graham, but not by a lot. Once we were all assembled again, Kayla asked us if we wanted to do Star Tours. By this time we all had enough and had hit a wall. We also had one last treat to look forward to. So when we mentioned to Kayla where we were headed, she offered to walk us over there. Although I had an absolutely amazing day and would not have wanted to miss a single minute of this, I had been looking forward to this part all day. Our benefactor who shall remain nameless had offered to meet us in the park at the end of our tour and take us to Le Salon Nouveau for some drinks. Le Salon Nouveau is a jazz lounge that is attached to Club 33. This is a recent addition and only opened last July. This was part of Walt Disney’s original plans in the same way that the apartment that is now the Dream Suite was, but after he passed away, this went on the backburner. So I was very curious about this and very grateful that we would be given the opportunity to experience this. Why we were waiting, Kayla took a group photo of us. When our Fairy Godparent arrived, we handed the cameras over and got some group photos with Kayla in it as well. Then it was time to say goodbye to Kayla.









Once we said our goodbyes, she pressed the magic bell and were admitted. When Club 33 was refurbished, the entrance was moved from where it used to be to the area that used to be the Courtyard of the Angels. I was glad that I got to see this area again. We then went up in the lift. Even though it was lacking the charm of the old French lift, as far as lifts go, this was something special. We soon were in the upstairs lobby. We were lucky enough to have brunch with friends in Club 33 in May 2013 so we were able to appreciate just how much it had changed. For the most part, I actually really like the changes. As we went past, I had a quick peek at the merchandise cabinet and I was delighted. When we visited in 2013, I really wanted a pair of Club 33 Mickey ears, but at the time they were about as common as hen’s teeth and sold out just as soon as they got a new delivery. So I was over the moon to see Mickey ears on display. Better still, they had changed from black to blue and blue is my favourite colour. So I knew I would get a pair before we left.