Day 6:
Disneyland/DCA Friday 2/5
So all week we had been annoyed about the parks having such short hours of 10 am to 8 pm...well be careful what you wish for.
On Friday Disneyland was open from 8 am to midnight and DCA was open until 10 pm. I will say we 100% missed our shorter weekday hours with getting up leisurely and going to be earlyish.
Anyway back to the day... we had to set alarms for this day as Max wanted to do Jedi Training so we wanted to get there at rope drop. We left our hotel at 7:15 and were maybe 5 groups back at the turnstiles. We were let into the park around 7:40 and went to wait at the entrance to Tomorrowland. The plan was for Roger and Max to go to signups and I was going to go on Hyperspace Mtn and then grab Star Tours Fast Passes (sometime over the previous decided this was the best ride in. the . world.) and then meet up. By 8:20 we were both finished with our stuff (Max was signed up for the 11:15 Jedi Academy) and we met up at Alice in Wonderland (I may have said this before but we all loved this ride, so cute and a little different than most dark rides), went into the Mad Hatter and picked up the sequin Minnie Ears I had been coveting for about 4 trips, took a spin on the Tea Cups, went on the Canal Boats, and then Mr. Toads Wild Ride.
By this time it was 9:15 and we were feeling pretty accomplished for only a little over an hour. Our Star Tours FP was good until 10 as was the Astro Blasters one I grabbed at the same time. I had been wanted to try the Pastry Menace from Galactic Grill so on our way from Fantasyland to Buzzlightyear we decided to stop by quick. I apparently didn't read the description of the Pastry Menace so was unaware of the chocolate CHILI filling...needless to say Max now has serious trust issues with filled pastries. Roger gladly finished our discarded pastry and got a tamale as well. I went and ordered Max a kids meal with the Bantha Bread French toast (he loved it). After we finished our impromptu breakfast we did our Fast Pass rides on Star Tours and Buzz (and then grabbed more fastpasses for each).
My memory and notes for this part is a little hazy...I think I went to Blue Bayou to see if I could make our lunch reservation for a little later (we had it for 2:20) so we would have time to go back and rest beforehand. They were fully booked so unable to get it changed. I also tried to ride Indiana Jones but it was down (seriously, I feel like the rides at Disneyland were down more than at WDW... probably not accurate but I swear Indy was down 60% of the time we passed it) but ended up just grabbing a bench in the hub and waiting until 11:00 am to grab some lunch (the boys ate breakfast at Galactic Grill but all I had was a bite of the spicy doughnut) and a good table to Max's Jedi Training. I have no idea what Max and Roger did for this hour away from me...maybe Star Tours? I do get a little ill from it so perhaps they went again without me?
Regardless, I got my Wicket's Wicked Veggie Sandwich and a Dark Side drink and snagged a great table to watch the Jedi show. The show was really good and Max did a great job fighting the Seventh Sister on the stage (glad he got her as he fought Darth Vadar at WDW last year so this was more exciting for him). There was some confusion at the end with them not letting the parents leave the sectioned off pavement and Max not hearing Roger call to him and then Max wandering off into Tomorrowland (even after this the cast member still tried to stop Roger from running after Max, seriously made me so mad. I get that they can't have parents crowding the kids but then they need to come up with a system that doesn't all a 5 year old to just wander out without a parent).
Okay and there is a good reason that I need to write my trip report live, here I am three days later and I have another 2 hour chunk that is gone completely. I
think I went off again on my own as we knew I was taking Max back for a rest after lunch and I still wanted to do some rides Max didn't want to do...so maybe I did Pirate's? And who knows what else...
We checked in for our Blue Bayou lunch at 2:00 (20 minutes early) and told them I didn't mind waiting longer for a waterside table. We were seated about 2:20 right up by the railing. Roger and I did the split plate on the Monte Cristo, soup for him and salad for me. It was as delicious as everyone says and the ambience was lovely. Max picked at his mac n cheese but gladly devoured the slice of chocolate cake that we split.
After lunch it was about 3:15 and the park was getting crowded and hot...my two least favorite things. Max and I went back to the HoJo with plans to meet Roger at 6:15 pm at DCA. We went on Monster's Inc, Mater's Junkyard Jamboree, grabbed a Nob Hill Chill from Ghiradhelli, and made our way back to Disneyland. The fireworks were only done once so far on our trip (Tuesday) and we were back at our hotel as that was our DCA (pre park hopper upgrade) day, so we really really wanted to catch them.
First we made a bee line (well as much of a bee line as one can make when the parade route is closed off) for Small World. Just adore this ride, always have a top place in my heart thinking of how much Max loved it his first WDW trip. He really loved finding the characters on this one. Right when we got off they made the announcement about winds at higher elevations blah blah blah no fireworks. Max fell asleep in the stroller pretty quickly so Roger and I ended up taking turns doing the Matterhorn, Indy, and Big Thunder before heading back to the hotel around 11 pm.