Lots of Completed Trip Reports....Nov 2009 - April 2014

[deejdigsdis]

Love your pictures! I was just telling DH last night that I really want to take the time to enjoy all of the details because this may be our only trip to DLR.

Can't wait to hear about Blue Bayou!

Thank You! And there are so many details to enjoy. I really missed my kids but at the same time I kept thinking about all the details that would have gone unnoticed if they had been with me. It's hard to take the time to enjoy those details when you're pushing a stroller around. It was like I was seeing some parts of Disneyland for the first time. I would highly recommend slowing down if you have the time.

The Blue Bayou part of the trip will be in the next installment.

 

[deejdigsdis]

OK, I lied. Blue Bayou won't be coming up in this installment. I didn't mean for the TR to drag on like this. I'm having a hard time sitting down and doing huge chunks all at once.

So...during my alone time I decided it would be a good time to pull out my Hidden Mickey book and search for some Hidden Mickeys. DS10 was expecting some pictures as proof of my promise to him!

This one didn't seem that hidden to me, but it was mentioned in the book. I guess it was hidden from me, as I've never noticed this window before.

I thought this one was cute. I wonder what the fruit-selling CM thought when I crouched down and took a picture at this angle.

The book mentioned a Hidden Mickey on Matterhorn Mountain that could be seen from Tomorrowland. This is the only thing that looked like it could be it...but it seems likes it's stretching it a bit to refer to this as a Hidden Mickey. So maybe the real H.M. is somewhere else and I missed it.

No Hidden Mickey here, I just like the picture.

Not one mentioned in the book...just thought DS10 would like this one.

Another one from the book...found in Star Trader.

OK, Blue Bayou up next. Hopefully Wednesday.

 

[tksbaskets]

I love your hidden Mickey posts! We can wait to hear all about the BB. Don't make us wait tooooo long

 

[deejdigsdis]

I love your hidden Mickey posts! We can wait to hear all about the BB. Don't make us wait tooooo long

Thanks. My favorite Hidden Mickey is coming up in a bit.

So after lots of wandering and picture-taking, I decided to hop on the train in Tomorrowland and ride over to New Orleans Square. I had a bit of time before I needed to meet DH outside of Pirates for lunch at BB, so I decided to fit in a ride on Haunted Mansion and Pirates.

I love riding the train around. Stopping at the Main Street Station:

I chatted with a lady who was riding with her 1 year old. She was a local who had gotten an AP for a combined b-day/Mother's Day/Christmas present all rolled into one. She said she likes to head to Disneyland with the 1 year old to break up the monotony of the day while her other 4 children are in school. This made me laugh a bit. Breaking up the monotony in my day with DS4 means heading to the library or something. I told her she was a lucky lady to have some one-on-one time with her little one at Disneyland. I just can't even imagine "Go to Disneyland" being on my list of things to do every week!

So I hopped off the train at NOS and rode Haunted Mansion. I was glad I had the waiting area before the stretching room all to myself so I could look for the next Hidden Mickey on my list. I wanted to take a pic with the flash before anyone else came in. (And yeah, I really was in there all by myself. Waiting for other people to come in. Strange.) I give you my favorite Hidden Mickey sighting...

I thought this one was so cool. A REAL Hidden Mickey, unlike some of the others. In order to see it you need to stand underneath one of the candle holders coming out of the wall, with your back against the wall. Look up and there it is. I wish I would've stood slightly more to the right to have it lined up a bit better. Anyway, this was the first time I've ever ridden a doombuggy by myself. My sisters and I used to talk about how creepy that would be to ride alone, but it was fun. There were 2 more Hidden Mickeys that I was on the lookout for. One was supposed to be on a dresser in the attic, but I never saw it. The other one was supposed to be in the party scene on the table. 3 plates arranged on the table to form a classic Mickey. I didn't see that one either, but the book also said the CMs seem to change that one around regularly. If it was there, it wasn't obvious to me.

I went to Pirates next. I had just enough time before meeting DH at 11:00. Love, love, love this ride! As I set sail I glanced over at the empty Blue Bayou. I was really excited about eating there. When I was growing up I remember looking longingly at those lucky people eating there -- they just seemed like they were part of the ride. It was never something in the budget with our family of 8! When we finally did eat there our one and only time it was a disappointment. This was back in 1996, my last trip before my long Disneyland drought. We had 12 people in our party and we just walked by and decided on a whim to eat there. We were seated near the kitchen and the atmosphere was killed with all the comings and goings and banging pots and pans. Anyway, I was hesitant at first to try it again this trip, especially after reading a lot of not-so-great reviews, but then I decided I wasn't really going for the food at all. I was totally going for the atmosphere. I would wait for however long it took to sit by the water. So -- back to the ride -- I miss seeing the flower pots break when that lady looks out the window and then closes the shutters. The flower pots would break when she closed the shutters, and then they'd come back together again. That was always something I'd look for when I was growing up. I didn't see it happen this trip or in Nov., so I don't know if the mechanism happened to be broken both trips, or if it just doesn't happen anymore. It seems like an odd thing to cut out to me.

I got out of Pirates right at 11:00, found DH waiting and we headed over to Blue Bayou. Our seating was for 11:30 (first seating) but decided to go a little early, in hopes of maximizing our waterside seating chances. They gave us a menu to look at outside.

Another light picture...taken while we waited to be seated.

Finally... we were the first ones seated. Yay! A waterside table!

Table light...

Hanging light...

Bowl of bread...

We both ordered the Gumbo...

I ordered Pomegranate Lemonade and the Tesoro Island Chicken...

My husband ordered the Monte Cristo, of course!

And our review...



I was so happy with our waterside table and the atmosphere of it all, I would have been happy if I'd been served saltine crackers. And I don't even like saltine crackers! So to have really great food was a bonus. The chicken was so good and tender. The potatoes...yum! My mouth is seriously watering thinking about them right now. Someone might need to enlighten me on what that white vegetable is. There were 2 sticks-worth but I only ate one. It didn't have any flavor to me. I guess that was better than it being gross. The reason I didn't eat the other one was because I was full. I just didn't want the meal to end. The whole experience was so much better than what I was expecting. Granted, I did have kind of low expectations after my other experience and after reading the non-glowing reviews. But we really liked it. I wish I would have tried a bite of the Monte Cristo. I guess I was too busy devouring my own food and by the time I thought of it DH had already finished eating it.

More later.

 

[Karenann*]

Just a quick note to tell you that I love the pics and posts and got a little magic this morning to start what may be a difficult day at work! Thanks for the sharing!

 

[tksbaskets]

I'm seriously hungry now I must admit your food pictures are excellent! I'm so glad you had a wonderful lunch at the BB with your sweetie.

The hidden Mikey at the HM was GREAT

You rode two of my favs before your lunch too! Thanks for sharing/

 

[deejdigsdis]

Just a quick note to tell you that I love the pics and posts and got a little magic this morning to start what may be a difficult day at work! Thanks for the sharing!

Thank you and you are most welcome! There's more to come.

I'm seriously hungry now I must admit your food pictures are excellent! I'm so glad you had a wonderful lunch at the BB with your sweetie.

The hidden Mikey at the HM was GREAT

You rode two of my favs before your lunch too! Thanks for sharing/

Thanks TK. I think I remember a thread talking about the BB potatoes. I wonder if the recipe is in there somewhere. They were so good!

 

[Karenann*]

OK now I'm ready for more of your trip...

Got back from my most difficult day and on to Mega-planning!

 

[Sherry E]

I'm here too! I don't always have time to comment, but I still read along with the updates and look at pictures.

It's so interesting to me to see how those of us who LOVE LOVE LOVE Disney and DLR in general can find endless things to photograph or notice on every trip, and every time we go back to DLR we see new things we have never noticed before. And those folks who are not big Disney fans - or maybe only enjoy it because it's a fun place to go now and then to ride Space Mountain - can't possibly understand what could be there that's so interesting to us! I just thought of that while looking at all of your photos. Those non-Disney folks - or the "unenlightened," as I secretly call them behind their backs - just don't get it. But the rest of us can be infinitely entertained by the smallest things because there are just SO many things and details everywhere around DLR, including DCA and the 3 hotels and DTD.

There are the lights and light fixtures.
There are the Hidden Mickeys.
There are the assorted gorgeous flowers and plants
There are topiaries all around DLR (including the DLH and other spots).
There are the edible plants all around Tomorrowland.
There are assorted kinds of Christmas trees (during the holiday season) all around DLR.
There are the window displays.
There are the bathroom signs.
There are the weather vanes.
There are the the fountains.
There are the statues and statuettes.
There are the attraction signs.
There are the shop/store signs.
There are the restaurant signs.
There are the pressed penny machines.
There are all the different types of frogs & toads inside Mr. Toad's queue.
There are the popcorn-turning dudes/characters in the popcorn carts around DLR, themed to their different lands.


I am sure I am forgetting other things. And this stuff is all not even including riding rides, eating, shopping, enjoying entertainment, etc. How could anyone ever be bored? You could literally pick one thing to search for or focus on and spend all day doing that one thing, and the pick another focus for the next day, and on and on.

Anyway, I'm looking forward to the next installment!!

 

[deejdigsdis]

OK now I'm ready for more of your trip...

Got back from my most difficult day and on to Mega-planning!

I hope you have a less difficult work day -- keep your eye on the mega-planning that is in store for you!

I'm here too! I don't always have time to comment, but I still read along with the updates and look at pictures.

It's so interesting to me to see how those of us who LOVE LOVE LOVE Disney and DLR in general can find endless things to photograph or notice on every trip, and every time we go back to DLR we see new things we have never noticed before. And those folks who are not big Disney fans - or maybe only enjoy it because it's a fun place to go now and then to ride Space Mountain - can't possibly understand what could be there that's so interesting to us! I just thought of that while looking at all of your photos. Those non-Disney folks - or the "unenlightened," as I secretly call them behind their backs - just don't get it. But the rest of us can be infinitely entertained by the smallest things because there are just SO many things and details everywhere around DLR, including DCA and the 3 hotels and DTD.

There are the lights and light fixtures.
There are the Hidden Mickeys.
There are the assorted gorgeous flowers, plants and topiaries all around DLR.
Theer are the edible plants all around Tomorrowland.
There are the window displays.
There are the bathroom signs.
There are the weather vanes.
There are the the fountains.
There are the statues and statuettes.
There are the attraction signs.
There are the shop/store signs.
There are the restaurant signs.
There are the pressed penny machines.
There are all the different types of frogs & toads inside Mr. Toad's queue.


I am sure I am forgetting other stuff. And this stuff is all not even including riding rides, eating, shopping, enjoying entertainment, etc. How could anyone ever bored? You could literally pick one thing to search for or focus on and spend all day doing that one thing, and the pick another focus for the next day, and on and on.

Anyway, I'm looking forward to the next installment!!

Hey Sherry! You are so right. The exploring is never-ending. And weather vanes? Guess I missed those! Another reason to go back. And you know, I actually thought of you while I was taking pics of some of the lights! (I realize that must sound creepy, given that you wouldn't know me if you passed me on Main Street! Or maybe you would...just look for the lady that is crouched down by the fruit cart trying to take a picture, or the lady that has her back shoved up against the wall in Haunted Mansion while looking up and lining up a photo, or the lady who is staking out the benches on Main Street waiting for someone to leave... ) I remember thinking that you would appreciate a good light fixture picture, because that is something I imagine you to notice yourself.

Off to upload some more pics to photobucket...

 

[deejdigsdis]

So after our better-than-expected lunch in the Bayou we reluctantly forced ourselves back outside. Ernie was playing so we parked ourselves on a bench and just enjoyed...

I decided to go grab Splash FPs while DH continued to chill to the tunes of Ernie. I took this picture after grabbing the FPs.

Heading back to NOS...

And lots more picture-taking...

Oh look...it's a 4-light shot!

And just because I really like this area...again in sepia.

After our relaxing time listening to Ernie and wandering around the area, I had to ride Pirates 1 more time before heading over to use our Splash FPs. I never get tired of that ride. I could just go around and around. Afterward we went over to Splash and bypassed a very long stand-by line.

We ended up getting soaked! Way more than yesterday.

That's it for now. Kind of an awkward stopping point, but motherhood calls.

 

[tksbaskets]

Motherhood does come before DIS...we won't say what things don't I love your pictures around NOS. My family won't go on splash - bummer...may have to do it solo some day. I enjoyed the picture of the briar patch.

Thanks for the installment!

 

[Sherry E]

Hey Sherry! You are so right. The exploring is never-ending. And weather vanes? Guess I missed those! Another reason to go back. And you know, I actually thought of you while I was taking pics of some of the lights! (I realize that must sound creepy, given that you wouldn't know me if you passed me on Main Street! Or maybe you would...just look for the lady that is crouched down by the fruit cart trying to take a picture, or the lady that has her back shoved up against the wall in Haunted Mansion while looking up and lining up a photo, or the lady who is staking out the benches on Main Street waiting for someone to leave... ) I remember thinking that you would appreciate a good light fixture picture, because that is something I imagine you to notice yourself.

Off to upload some more pics to photobucket...

The weather vanes are something that don't really surprise me, knowing Disney's great attention to detail, and yet I never noticed them either - until coming to The DIS!! I guess that so many times, I just don't think to look up! Someone had a TR somewhere which showed a few of the weather vanes and that clued me in. As far as I know, they are mostly located in Fantasyland. For example, there is a pirate ship-themed one on top of the Peter Pan ride, if I am not mistaken. BUT, I think I saw one in ToonTown as well - so if there is one in ToonTown, there is probably another one somewhere around ToonTown as well. In any case, they are themed to their given "land" or attraction, just as the bathroom signs are. Everything is so well thought-out with Disney and theming is so detailed! Even things like the trash cans next to IASW have coloring that fits in with the coloring around that attraction or on its facade!! I love it!!

I do enjoy a good light or light fixture, but I must say I think I inadvertently stole the idea of taking photos of them from Molly (Bumbershoot). I didn't set out to do that - I never said to myself, "I'm going to copy what Molly did." But I saw all of the light pictures in her TR and I guess it must have unconsciously sunk in, because, all of a sudden I was taking pictures of the cute lamp with the heart shape in FL (near the Alice ride) or I was snapping pictures of the lamps in the GCH lobby!!

Love the New Orleans Square photos - with almost no people in them! That's one thing I never get to do. Whenever I am at DLR, it is always a busy holiday time (whether it is Halloweentime or Christmastime), so NOS is always packed with people in its narrow alleyways. I would love to get in there on some early morning when there aren't 1000 people in my way and just snap photos of everything, because it's so ornate and cool-looking back there.

 

[deejdigsdis]

Motherhood does come before DIS...we won't say what things don't I love your pictures around NOS. My family won't go on splash - bummer...may have to do it solo some day. I enjoyed the picture of the briar patch.

Thanks for the installment!

Yes, motherhood does come before DIS. My kids wanted to make "Cookie Pops" to sell at a community yard sale today, so we -- or rather I -- was up way too late in the wee hours of the morning making them. They are basically chocolate chip cookies on a popsicle stick. There is a bite-size Milky Way in the middle that holds them to the stick. Anyway, they've been selling these at our neighborhood community yard sale for a few years now. I just got started on them a bit later than I should have. They are very good, though.

So am I right in assuming that you've NEVER ridden Splash Mountain?!? Oh, that's one of my favorites! (It seems like I've been saying that about every ride...except TOT! ) It's so fun.

The weather vanes are something that don't really surprise me, knowing Disney's great attention to detail, and yet I never noticed them either - until coming to The DIS!! I guess that so many times, I just don't think to look up! Someone had a TR somewhere which showed a few of the weather vanes and that clued me in. As far as I know, they are mostly located in Fantasyland. For example, there is a pirate ship-themed one on top of the Peter Pan ride, if I am not mistaken. BUT, I think I saw one in ToonTown as well - so if there is one in ToonTown, there is probably another one somewhere around ToonTown as well. In any case, they are themed to their given "land" or attraction, just as the bathroom signs are. Everything is so well thought-out with Disney and theming is so detailed! Even things like the trash cans next to IASW have coloring that fits in with the coloring around that attraction or on its facade!! I love it!!

I do enjoy a good light or light fixture, but I must say I think I inadvertently stole the idea of taking photos of them from Molly (Bumbershoot). I didn't set out to do that - I never said to myself, "I'm going to copy what Molly did." But I saw all of the light pictures in her TR and I guess it must have unconsciously sunk in, because, all of a sudden I was taking pictures of the cute lamp with the heart shape in FL (near the Alice ride) or I was snapping pictures of the lamps in the GCH lobby!!

Love the New Orleans Square photos - with almost no people in them! That's one thing I never get to do. Whenever I am at DLR, it is always a busy holiday time (whether it is Halloweentime or Christmastime), so NOS is always packed with people in its narrow alleyways. I would love to get in there on some early morning when there aren't 1000 people in my way and just snap photos of everything, because it's so ornate and cool-looking back there.

Well now I have to take a peek at Molly's light fixture pictures so I can see all the ones I missed out on! And yes, it was wonderful to wander around NOS and not be squishing into other people. I've been so spoiled with my Nov. and April trips crowd-wise. I'm in for a rude awakening when I go back in October with my parents and sisters.

I forgot to mention the medical personnel that were "guarding" one of the walkways in NOS. There were 4 in a row blocking a pathway and they had a gurney next to them. Then I noticed someone was on a bench hooked up to oxygen, so I'm not sure what was going on.

TR to be continued later...

 

[deejdigsdis]

After we got soaked on Splash, I was ready for a sweet treat!

This caught my eye...but I knew I wasn't going to down the whole thing in one sitting and I didn't want to carry it around.

So I got this instead...

We decided since we were so wet we'd go for another ride on Splash. Single Rider this time. We hadn't ridden that way before. We walked up and ended up in the same log. Nobody wanted to sit in the front. They tried pulling people farther back in the line and NOBODY was interested! We were more than willing to ride up front and got soaked again. It was still somewhat early in the afternoon so we decided to go Single Rider again. We couldn't possibly get any more wet than we already were. My hair was splashed totally down over my face. I kind of looked like Cousin Itt -- except my hair isn't anywhere near that long. So here we go again. Single Rider is the way to go! We weren't lucky enough to get in the same log this time, though. When my husband was waiting to get in his assigned log I saw him talking to another man that would be sitting in front of him. He was pulled out of the stand-by line as a party of 1. I could tell from afar that my husband was filling him in on the existence of the Single Rider line, as evidenced by the man standing there looking down and shaking his head back and forth. He had just waited in a 45+ min. stand-by line.

So after Splash we were talking about whether or not to head back to the hotel and change. We were soaked to the bone. You know we had a serious soaking if we were talking about going back to the hotel to change, given that there was a shuttle involved and we only had 2-ish total days in the parks. There was no way we'd dry off before nighttime -- it was mid to high 60s. In the end we decided to stay in all of our wetness. I was already feeling bad for the person who would have to ride the doombuggy after us. That's where we headed next -- the Haunted Mansion.

We tried to sun ourselves a bit while watching all the activity going on in the empty Rivers of America.

My husband noticed they were letting people go beyond the wall and enter the empty area near the Mark Twain dock. There were people that were dressed normally and people that were obviously CMs coming from their regular posts. We headed over to see if we could go in too. The CM that was manning the gate said the tours were for CMs only -- so obviously the plainclothes people were there during time off. So the CM asked if we were CMs. My husband told them that I was for about 15 minutes back in November, trying to get us in on my stint as a performer in the Tiana's Showboat Jubilee Show. That didn't fly, so we didn't get to go in and explore.

Since Single Rider worked out so well for us with Splash Mountain we decided to give Indy's Single Rider a chance.

This time things didn't work out so well. We hadn't done SR before on this ride. We got separated into different groups, no matter how hard we tried to act like we didn't know each other. He ended up going in the elevator and I ended up being directed to the stairs. We were separated for about 30 minutes. I was on the very last section of stairs, ready to make that last turn and go down to the platform. Then it happened. The ride broke down. We were given the indication that it would be up and running in no time, and when it was, the people that were riding would get to go through again since their ride was interrupted. That's totally fine -- that's how it should be. So we waited. And waited. And finally they announced that it would be at least an hour, so everyone had to leave. We went through the exit. I wish I had gotten a picture of that crazy mass exodus. Crazy! ONE CM was giving each person who was leaving the line a HANDWRITTEN pass to come back later. We still had our FPs from earlier so we bypassed that crazy line.

We browsed in the shops, visited our go-to restroom and headed over to Town Square for the Flag Retreat Ceremony. (This is sounding just like our afternoon from the day before.)

We had some time to spare so DH saved our seat and I headed down to the First Aid station to refill our water bottles.

Took a pic of this display along the way.

Now we were expecting the ceremony to be exactly like the one from the day before. Not so. This time there was no Disneyland Band marching down Main Street, playing lots of patriotic songs. This time the Dapper Dans were performing. Not as much music, but still very worth scheduling it into our day. One very cool thing was that they led the audience in The Pledge of Allegiance before the flag was lowered. While they sang "America The Beautiful" the same 3 men from the day before marched up behind them.

After the flags were lowered and folded, the Dapper Dans sang "God Bless America" while the men stood in the middle.

Something missing from today's ceremony was the invitation to our current/former service men and women to come forward and be recognized. The military anthems weren't played this time. That was one of my favorite parts from the day before. Two women who had stood up the day before were there again this time, but there was no recognition. We just noticed them in the crowd.

OK, two more pictures before hopping to DCA.

I had meant to go back later when it was darker to get a better picture of the light in the window, but I forgot.

And that concludes this segment!

 

[tksbaskets]

Thanks for posting! It was a great way to start my day

 

[deejdigsdis]

Thanks for posting! It was a great way to start my day

Glad I could help you get a DIS fix in to start the day off right!

OK, my goal is to have this TR done before May ends. Good grief, should it really take this long to cover 28 1/2 hours of park time???

Moving along...We just finished up with another Flag Retreat Ceremony and visited the Fire Station. I love it when I have the Fire Station all to myself -- a nice quiet Disneyland moment.

Time to hop to DCA. And time for a confession. I'm still trying to keep an open mind about DCA. The first time I set foot in that park was last fall and I still kind of have the mindset that it's "stealing" my Disneyland time. Out of curiosity, for those of you who have been going to DCA for years... did any of you just LOVE it from the get-go? Or did it grow on you over the years?

We headed off to find the Delta Daddios again. They said they perform Tues. and Wed., so we caught the end of the show again. I love 60s doo-wop music and I could have stood there for a lot longer listening to them.

They end their performance with the Mickey Mouse Club theme song. Fun stuff.

We headed over to take a spin on Toy Story.

Is my husband the only male that could totally skip this ride? He's just not into it at all. The idea of standing in a long line to ride a ride he wasn't interested in was not his idea of a good time. It ended up being way less of a wait than what was posted -- 20 min. tops -- but he felt like we had been standing there for over an hour.

Can you see it? The Hidden Mickey, that is.

After we got off Toy Story we decided to call the kids again. "Hi kids. We just rode Toy Story, one of your favorite rides...wish you were here." Some rides just weren't the same fun-wise without my kids. Toy Story was one of them. They all just love that ride. DS10 asked if we'd ridden Screamin' yet -- his favorite ride. I wasn't sure if I was going to, given that I still had that dull, lingering headache from my ride on TOT the day before. And riding Toy Story didn't help it any, unfortunately. But, I knew I would regret it if I didn't ride Screamin', so that was next.

But first this. Maybe Sparkle should have gotten their tips copyrighted.

Random standing-in-line for Screamin' picture.

We didn't have FPs but the stand-by line was only about 10 or 15 minutes. Such a fun rollercoaster! DS10 would have liked me to take a pic of the Hidden Mickey you see as you're coming off the loop, but that wasn't going to happen. He just had to take my word for it that I did indeed see it.

We were very close to the 7pm closing time. We meandered over to GRR, taking pictures along the way.

Beautiful!

This area was SO dead. We debated about going on GRR. Sure, we were still wet from our soak on Splash Mountain, but did we want to get soaked again. At 7pm. With the sun about to set. I opted out, but my husband went ahead and rode.

Hmmm. It's been a while since I've taken any light pics.

It turns out that my husband got a raft all to himself. It was funny watching him float all around by himself, spinning around with his arms stretched upward, as if he were King of the Rapids. He's definitely not a go-to-Disneyland-alone kind of guy. (He actually felt a little funny going with just the 2 of us..."Who goes to Disneyland without kids?" he asked. And when he told his co-workers at the prison that it was just the 2 of us going, he got lots of blank stares and "Uh...why?" kind of questions. And the idea of me thinking it would be so fun to have Disneyland alone time...he just thinks that is sooooo odd.) Anyway, so the idea of him being ALONE on a raft was a bit awkward for him. He would just wave awkwardly to the CMs at the checkpoints along the way. It makes me laugh just thinking about it.

DCA is closed now. Time to spend our last 2 hours of the day at Disneyland.

Hopping...

The book listed this as a Hidden Mickey. It doesn't seem all that hidden to me.

More later...

 

[deejdigsdis]

Time to hop to DCA. And time for a confession. I'm still trying to keep an open mind about DCA. The first time I set foot in that park was last fall and I still kind of have the mindset that it's "stealing" my Disneyland time. Out of curiosity, for those of you who have been going to DCA for years... did any of you just LOVE it from the get-go? Or did it grow on you over the years?

Anyone? I really am curious about this.

Heading back into Disneyland...

Dinner time. My husband had been dying to sink his teeth into one of those Turkey Legs scared that he discovered on our last trip.

When DS10 saw the picture of the Turkey Leg when we got home, he asked why we had a picture of someone's leg muscle. Apparently he thought it was a little human leg.

I just got a corn dog. We sat on a bench on the wooden sidewalk in Frontierland and ate our dinner. Then I was off to one of those Frontierland shops to pick up a cute t-shirt that I had originally seen on display in a window on Main Street. It's got Mickey on it, with a part of Walt's opening day speech on the front. I'm pretty sure I have a picture of it in my next batch of pics. Very cute.

We were very tired by this time and just wanted to sit. A trip to the wooden chairs on the Main Street front porch was in order. (I don't even know what it is a front porch to.) Please let them be empty...please let them be empty...

Yay! I grabbed the bench while my husband grabbed a pretzel. (I couldn't believe how available these chairs were this trip!) When he came back I went over to the Candy Palace and picked up some treats for my parents and the kids, and some chocolate for me to enjoy while sitting on the bench.

While we were sitting there we overheard someone say that Siobhan Magnus was the one voted off American Idol. Phew. It wasn't Lee...

It just doesn't get much better than this...

And that concludes Day 2. We caught the 9:20 shuttle back to the Hyatt. Tomorrow would be an earlier day -- our Magic Morning which wasn't so magic...

 

[tksbaskets]

Anyone? I really am curious about this.

Heading back into Disneyland...

And that concludes Day 2. We caught the 9:20 shuttle back to the Hyatt. Tomorrow would be an earlier day -- our Magic Morning which wasn't so magic...

I haven't been going for years but I did find DCA totally different than DL. I'm glad to see the themeing is changing to be more Disney and less carnival. I do like Toy Story and TOT so we like DCA!

Oh noooo...I sense a story coming up about Magic Morning.....

 

[lisalisalisa]

Thank You! I always appreciate knowing that I'm not just talking to myself. I'm glad you're enjoying the pictures. How fun that you've got an upcoming trip with your family! And you have 3 boys too? I love it. If I were to have another child I would hope for another boy! So did you go to Disneyland on your Honeymoon, or just other spots in California? We went about a week after we got married with my parents and one of my sisters. I remember thinking, "I wish we were here by ourselves..."


We did visit Disneyland on our Honeymoon. We stayed in Anaheim and then traveled down to San Diego for a couple of days. I know that we were exhausted after an 11 hour flight and the wedding but we had an amazing time.

I love all your light photos. My favorite Disney light is in Disneyland Paris at the entrance to Adventureland. It is Morroccan themed and is beautiful. There is a bench in the shape of a camel on which I sit and admire the light.
I once visited Disneyland Paris on my own for a couple of days and spent a lot of time on that bench, lol.