Christmas, a Birthday, Dick Van Dyke, and an Engagement in Disneyland *Complete*

[RAPstar]

Day One: Flight and Disneyland

So, as with any time I go on a trip mostly, I barely slept the day before, maybe 2 hours of sleep? But I wake up and walk the dog, shower, and get ready/double check packing. My roommate Adam gave me a ride to the airport, and I got there around 6am for a flight right at 8. I was feeling funny, so much so that I didn't want anything to eat while at the airport. But when in the air, I did get on of the snack packs Virgin has. The flight felt like it took forever, even while reading my book (the biography of Jim Henson). Flight went well, but we were a bit late. I was able to get off quickly enough to be able to catch the 9:45ish Disneyland Resort Express.

I actually had to wait about 10-20 before it got there. There was a small group of women on board already, a sort of bachlorette party for one of them on a trip they won on the radio. After stopping at the terminals, our mostly empty bus was on the way. The first stop was my stop, the Disneyland Hotel.

Luckily, my friend Mike added me to the reservation so I was able to check us in. Our room wasn't ready yet, and there was a line at bell services, so I just took my bags and me over to Tangaroa Terrace for an early lunch.

pulled pork sandwich

By the time I finished eating, Trader Sam's was about to open, so I headed over there, cause I'm on vacation and I can drink at 11:30 if I want to, lol.

It was snowing lol

Tropical Snowstorm

Jungle Bells

Drunk selfie

I also had the Shipwreck drink, mainly for the souvenir glass. Before I even really got into the third drink, I was pretty smashed. I'm a lightweight and I didn't know how strong they make their drinks, lol. After I finished the last one and cashed out, Mike and Jonathan were arriving. As I walked to the lobby to meet them, I ran into some other friends.

Goofy was helping keep the secret I was drunk, tee hee

We checked all our luggage into bell services since our room wasn't ready yet, and headed over to Disneyland, by way of the monorail

After we got off the monorail, we walked around a bit, and ended up by Small World, just in time to grab a great seat for the Christmas Fantasy parade. Right after the parade, it started to drizzle on us. Which was weird, cause there was also plenty of sunshine, well at moments. Parade pictures in next post.

After the parade, there was a showing of Mickey and the Magical Map about to start, so we headed over there and waited for the theater to open.

After the show, we headed over to Big Thunder to get fast passes, then over to New Orleans square to see about riding Mansion. As we were getting in line, I inquired about where Jack and Sally were meeting, and the CM told me where and that we should head over as it was their last set of the day. Luckily we were some of the last people in line.

Playing dead

After our meet, we headed over to Mansion, which took about 40 minutes altogether.

By the time we got out of the ride, we were just in time for our reservation for Big Thunder BBQ. Which was good, cause we were all starving and ready to eat.

OMG, it was sooooooooooo amazing. We were stuffed to the gills. By the time we finished eating, paying, washing our hands, and such, it was time to go ride Big Thunder. We were all very impressed with how smooth it is compared to the Florida one. Plus the new explosion effects were really cool. Also, by this time I realized that I was in trouble as it was getting pretty chilly out, and all I packed was shorts and t-shirts. So we headed to Main Street so I could buy a jacket/hoodie. We also grabbed some hot chocolate from Coke Corner, and grabbed some spots for Paint the Night. We still had an hour or so to kill for the parade, so we took turns holding the spots and looking in the stores and the new windows.

Mike surprised me with a Baymax balloon

Paint the Night was spectacular. Pics in next post. After the parade, we were going to get spots for Disneyland Forever, but it was cancelled due to wind. Boooo!! So we decided to head back to the hotel and get some sleep (and some more hot chocolate on the way back, we were cold).

 

[RAPstar]

Christmas Fantasy Parade

[/URL]

 

[RAPstar]

 

[RAPstar]

Day 2: DCA

We woke up around 6am to get ready for DCA day.

As we were waiting to get in, we struck up a conversation with this super nice family from Phoenix; Kari, her daughter Candace, and Candace's kids Madison (12) and Joseph (4). We clicked immediately and chatted until park opening. They also told me about how amazing the Disney candy canes were, which I was on the fence about. But with they're prodding I decided to try and get one.....which then turned into me being the first person to buy 2 of them for the day, lol. Afterwards, we got to the other rope drop line, and we all gave our tickets to Madison to get RSR fastpasses. As she was doing that, we headed to the ride.

Kari took this pic as we were getting back to unload.

After we rode, we headed to Flo's to eat as our family (as we grew to call them during the day) went to ride Toy Story. When we got to Flo's, Mike realized he left his phone at the photo kiosk (he got the Photopass+ thing) so he went back to get it while Jon and I went to eat. I had extolled the virtue of the amazing brioche french toast at Flo's, which Mike and Jon both got, while I went a different route and tried the breakfast tamale. We then went to ride Mater's Junkyard Jamboree, which is actually my favorite ride in Cars Land lol.

We then headed over to Paradise Pier to get FPs for Screamin', and then headed over to the Fun Wheel to ride that, in the swinging gondola of course.

We had fun, until Mike stood up to take a picture and the car moved right after, which made the force of him being pushed back into his seat send the gondola on a major swing. I was fine, but Jon got pretty nauseous. He was ok, but it took him a few to get back to normal. As we walked around the pier to go say hi to our family (they were over at Goofy's) to kill time before out Screamin' FP, we ran into a character I'd never gotten to meet before.

Also, notice I picked up a second jacket/hoodie.

After we chatted with our family a bit, we headed over to ride Screamin'. After that it was time for our WOC lunch at the Carthay. We got one of the swanky corner tables in the main dining room.

Mike and I each had the soup starter, while Jon had the salad. I got the pozole which was really good, Mike had the turkey pasta (which the turkey, or sauce, or both had this really good smoky flavor), and Jon had the meatballs. For dessert, the other two had the cake, and I had the peppermint thing, and I also got the Carthay truffles. All in all, an amazing meal.

After our meal, we headed over to the Hollywood section and went to the Frozen sing along, because of reasons, lol.

After the show, we headed over to meet Olaf.

By this point, we were all pretty tired, so we headed back to the hotel. On the way out we ran into this lucky guy.

After our midday break, Mike and I headed to Steakhouse 55 for his birthday dinner. I forgot to take a pill I needed, so I headed back to the room. On the way I snapped a pic with the big guy himself.

We were seated just inside the entrance. We didn't have an appetizer to save money. Mike had the filet mignon, I had the prime rib.

We were both amazed by our meat, but the real star of the evening was the truffle mac and cheese. Mike and I almost had to fight over it cause it was soooooo amazing. We also got the asparagus and hollandaise, but it was lackluster. We had the 24 layer cake.

As we were eating, Jon texted me to let me know he was having ice cream with his family, lol.

After paying (thank goodness for Mike's 50% certificate), we headed back to the park via the Grand Cali entrance, and headed towards Clarabelle's to meet Jon and the family.

After chatting a bit, and saying goodbye to the family (with lots of hugs), we headed back to get in line for the second World of Color show. We caught most of the winter one while walking around and waiting. We enjoyed both for the most part.

After World of Color was over, we took our time walking back to the hotel, then went straight to bed cause we were all exhausted.

 

[Disney127]

I enjoy reading about your trip, sounds like you had a lot of fun. Love the photos - they say so much! We are 5 days away - just really looking forward to getting away

 

[RAPstar]

We woke up a little later today, but still made it to the gates of Disneyland about an hour before opening.

After the let us in the gate, we headed directly to the area in front of Tomorrowland.

waiting for rope drop

We headed towards Hyperspace Mountain and got FPs for the first slot. We then headed towards Fantasyland. Peter Pan's line was already ridiculous and we didn't want to wait, so we headed to Alice in Wonderland instead. Then over to Storybook Canal. Followed by Matterhorn, and then Small World.

After Matterhorn, we doubled back to Mister Toad and Snow White.

As we were walking around Fantasyland, we also ran into Alice and the Hatter

By that time, it was good enough to go ride Hyperspace Mountain.....WHICH WAS AMAZING!!!!!!!!

After HSM, we decided to head over to New Orleans Square to ride Pirates or Mansion or both before our 11:30 reservation at Cafe Orleans. Along the way we decided to visit Pixie Hollow. I'm so glad we did, cause my favorite fairie was meeting there that day!!!

Then we rode Pirates, which is soooooo much better than the WDW one.

The line for Mansion was at 50 minutes so we skipped it. Then I had the bright idea to ride Splash Mountain, which was horrible as it was so cold out. After Splash, it was time for our reservation at Cafe Orleans. Apparently, the Disney higher powers were smiling down on me cause we had a perfect view of Dick Van Dyke as he came out to perform for his birthday!!!!!!!

It was amazing, I was in tears the entire time. It was very much the highlight of the trip.

After lunch, we went back to the hotel to put on dry clothes, and I changed hoodies.

We headed over to use the second FPs we got for HSM, but the line was really long, even for FP, and we also had some for Indy we needed to use. But it turns out we should have waited, cause Indy was down (and remained down most of the day). While we were walking around, we decided to go meet the princesses.

Since Indy was still down, we headed over to Toontown to meet Mickey and ride Roger.

Clouds were gathering

By this time we were starving again, so we headed over to Blue Bayou to eat. While we ate, it rained, but it was pretty much done when we were done, but the park was empty. It was close to firework time, so we headed to Main Street to see if they would go on, but they were cancelled again, as was the first performance of Fantasmic. Since the park was empty, we went to ride Mansion again.

When we exited Mansion, we walked over to the Fantasmic area to see if the second show was going on, since we had FPs for it from Blue Bayou. Luckily, they were still doing the second show.

We started to head out, but Mike checked the Disneyland app, and apparently Indy was back up. He and Jonathan headed towards that, but I headed out of the park since my BF, who I only found out was going to be there a week or two before we left, was over in DTD.

Aidan wanted to go to Build-A-Bear, as they were having a special on Star Wars bears. He got Chewbacca and I got the Storm Trooper bear. We then headed to Trader Sam's for a drink, and then we parted (he was at a different hotel) since it was 1am and we had reservations for Storyteller's in the morning.

 

[RAPstar]

https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=10153322971483693

Dick Van Dyke video

 

[RAPstar]

So after the briefest of sleeps, I was up and on my way to the Grand Cali for breakfast at Storyteller's Cafe. Since Aidan was staying at a different hotel, I had to wait for him to walk over.

Kenai waving to guests walking by, lol.

After a very filling breakfast (all you can eat eggs benedict for life please), we headed back to the Disneyland hotel so I could check my bags in for later and meet up with Mike and Jon, since Mike needed to main gate me into DCA. Aidan went ahead on into the park (you'll find out why in a bit). When Mike, Jon and I got to DCA, we headed over to the gift shop by Clarabelle's and the Starbucks (I'll never get the name of those pigs right) to get Disney Starbucks cups (I got the cold cup one). Then we said our goodbyes as I headed over to meet up with Aidan by Ariel, also stopping to get a quick FP for RSR. Aidan and I headed over to get a FP for Aladdin, but we ended up not making it to the show. The line for Tower was short so we rode that and then over to MI since that too had a short line and we had time to kill. I also, unintentionally, ended up in the line for Sofia as we were looking at the OUAT costumes in the window right by where she meets.

Aidan hadn't seen the cosmetic work done to the area by Soarin, so we went that way. I must have an addiction to uncomfortableness, so we decided to ride GRR while there as well. I didn't get as wet as Splash, but it was still terrible. So we ducked into the Grand Cali for some warm drinks. I had a hot cocoa with peppermint schnapps, Aidan had a hot toddy.

As we went back into the park after our drinks, Aidan told me he wanted to go back over to the animation building, and then took me back to the Beast's library section, and literally forced me to take the quiz in there. I ended up getting Sully. Aidan kinda disappeared while I was taking the quiz......cause next thing I knew he was proposing!!!!!!!!!!!!! Apparently he arranged the whole thing while I was at the hotel, cause there was a Photopass photog and everything. I was shocked, but happily so.

To celebrate our event, one of the hosts in the building filled out a form for us to use as a FP for literally any ride, so we chose TSMM. As we headed over there, we saw one of the custodial CMs doing a water portrait of Scrooge McDuck.

We then headed over to TSMM and rode that. I think I beat Aidan, but barely. I was hungry by that point, and Aidan needed a smoke break, so we headed over to the Corn Dog Castle. I got in line while Aidan went to the smoking section. I got the hot link corn dog which was amazing. I was also able to catch the tail end (no pun intended) of the Viva Navidad show thing.

We then headed over to Cars Land to use our RSR FPs (Aidan got one as he was walking over to meet me). Then we headed over to the Carthay to have a toast to the engagement before I head back to the hotel to catch the Super Shuttle back to the airport. Our first "date" was actually at the Carthay.

On our way out of the park, we stopped at the photo store so I could get one of the engagement pictures printed, which I now need to get a frame for. We got back to the Disneyland hotel with just enough time for me to get my bags, and have a big goodbye (he was staying on after I left, and he lives in Seattle, where I will be moving some time next year). Then off to the airport. I flew back on Southwest, luckily I remembered to check in before I left and got group A43. I snagged one of the seats literally at the very front of the plane, and pretty much slept all the way home (those Carthay drinks are strong).

 

[RAPstar]

So, since things are pretty much complete, here's one last update with some of the Photopass pics Mike got from the photo CD.

 

[azdisneylover]

CONGRATULATIONS on your engagement!!!! I love your rings. I love reading trip reports to keep me from missing Disneyland too much. The proposal brought a tear to my eye. On New Years Eve, I will be married for 32 years. Wishing you guys a happy life!

Great trip report.

 

[woodynjessiesmomma]

Congrats!!! How exciting and what a sweet way to get engaged Best wishes for your future!

I'm going to DL with a friend on Saturday and your TR is great for getting into the DL spirit.