"um, let's just get a fas' pass for it!" (photopass pix pg 5)

[CardinalsFan]

we were right there at the Fantasy/Tomorrowland bathrooms, which I've heard are great for parade-watching, so...we decided to wait for the parade! And he was actually really good, waiting for almost an hour.

I believe this is where we watched the parade last week! We just stumbled upon it on Thursday, around 5:50pm for the 6:30pm parade.

Is it the little alcove on one side of the parade route, with some trees and bathrooms, directly across the parade route from the Matterhorn? So, when looking across the street, you're seeing the posts-and-chains which are used for one of the Matterhorn's queues? Just "down the street" from Alice in Wonderland?

If so, I also highly recommend this location for parade watching. Having the bathrooms right behind you is convenient, although we took a seat on the bricked pavement right next to the street (for front-row viewing), and during our wait for the parade, lots of people needed to get by us to get to those bathrooms, but we didn't mind scooting over momentarily so they could go in/out.

 

[bumbershoot]

Yep, that's the place! It was really great to watch from there, though in the future I might not plant us with a tree smack dab to the left of us. Made watching the floats come down the street difficult, as foliage was in the way!

 

[bumbershoot]

Day 2, the 6th!

Well, let me digress a bit...I was reading other trip reports, and noticed that someone had spotted Gwen Stefani on the 4th. Can I tell you how painful it is to think I was just a day and a half late to maybe see her in person? I adore her and her music, and would have loved to spot her. Oh well.



Back to the 6th.

DS slept 10 hours, all through the night. Yay, little one!

We got to the park and headed straight for the stroller line. While in the long line, I was spotted...I don't know the exact username and I forgot the name-name, but she was lovedisneyland, or iluvdisneyland? She recognized us from my avatar...probably helped that I was holding DS and therefore we were posed almost like the avatar picture, LOL. It was fun to see a Dis person, even if our placement in the lines made it hard to have an actual conversation.

Decided at the last moment to get a length of stay stroller pass. It doesn't save you money, but it saves you time, because you just waltz up (yes, you have to *waltz*, you can't just walk ), give them one of the slips of paper they hand you in a little envelope, and take a stroller. It's even faster if you kept your name"tag" from the first day, like I did. If you know you're going to need a stroller for more than just one day, it's worth it in the time-savings.

I don't know what I had planned, but DS refused it all. Sigh.

So we headed out to ToonTown, thinking he'd love Roger Rabbit, since he loved it in September! I forgot that TT doesn't open with the rest of the park, and we had about 10 minutes standing in a stroller-filled crowd outside the gates.

Parked the stroller and headed into RR, but Eamon just flipped out. We were in front of a family with a littler girl, and they totally understood that kids change their minds AND that sometimes it's OK to keep a kid in line b/c you know they'll enjoy it...and they tried to get him excited for the ride, but that queue is long even when empty, and NOISY, and by the time we were almost to the ride vehicles, he was almost screaming, there was an easy way to exit right there, and I just left. With him, of course.

He decided that he would much rather mess around with the various noise-making things outside, so we spent about an hour with him pressing doorbells, opening the door to the power plant, trying to pick up the dumbbells, getting into other peoples' pictures in the "jail", and so on.

Went into the gift shop to check out their Mr Potato Head selection. ooh boy is it pathetic, compared to EnginEars! Along with wrangling Eamon away from all the souvenirs I wasn't going to buy him (at least not that day), I bought a gift card. Not for anyone else, just for me...both as a souvenir and as a way to sort of budget myself. It worked out pretty well, using the giftcards, though in the future I would make sure I only had one "going" at a time. Maybe buy them ahead of time in maybe $100 increments (I like the different cards you can get, otherwise I'd just get one huge one), and if I run out of money on one, supplement with another...and so on.

Decided to go to Minnie's house, and it was very cute!

He had a blast, especially in the kitchen, twisting knobs and making the dishwasher go, causing the cake in the oven to fall, and so on.

We left there at long last and went to Mickey's.

We went to Mickey's in September, and on that day (which was MTTMM, so that might be the reason for the difference) they had MANY characters throughout the house, and I actually thought that's the way it would be this time!

But nope, this time the house was much more obviously a queue, and we ended up in that screening room with the old cartoons playing. The CM at the exit to the room didn't believe in speaking up, so even though she did her spiel 3 times while we were in there, I never actually *heard* what on earth she was saying. They let people through the exit one small group at a time, and even when she was letting us know that we would be the last of the next group and was right in front of me, I still had to ask her to repeat herself, b/c she had such a tiny little voice.

We were finally let through (she had actually told us we would be first in the next-next group, but then when we got there, she let us in last ahead of that), and it turned out to be a "private" meeting with Mickey. Since we were last in, we were last to have pictures, and the Photopass guy got some cute pictures of Eamon and Mickey. I especially like the one where Mickey had the two of them touch noses. I can't wait to get in and start messing with the Photopass pictures, but I did something very very stupid with one of the cards (re-used a card, which is OK, but it was linked to the sept photopass "share" account that is NOT my own account, so the site won't accept it...I have an email in, and if they don't reply in 4 business days thanks to bradK I have their phone number to get it moved off of that now-defunct account) so I don't want to edit ANY of my pictures just yet. But even without editing, we already have 40 photos without that other card, so I think I'll get my money's worth with the pre-purchase of the photopass CD!

We left there and went to....chip and dale's treehouse.

Oh. My. Buddha. I had read disparaging things about it. I had I had! But I, for some reason, thought people were wrong. Thought "what could be so bad? Treehouses are fun!" Oh man I was wrong.

You walk up narrow spiral stairs (DS liked that), you go out, and then you go down, either a ramp or stairs, I don't remember, and that is IT. There isn't even a place to play, or a place to hang out like in Donald's boat. You just go up, and then down. Even DS, who is easily amused by the simplest of things, had no urge to go back through, and walked easily and quickly away from it. It is soooooo ridiculous, and now I understand the disparaging comments!

I tried to get us to leave at that point, but he desperately wanted to play at Goofy's, so, OK, fine, we went. And the kid just went nuts in there! He loved the piano in there, and I had to work all my diplomacy skills with the other kids that he kept asking to leave b/c they were interfering with his piano-playing. He takes turns, in general, better than the only children I knew while growing up (sniffle sniffle, I don't want him to be an only), but when it's something that he LOVES, I gotta step in.

Got him out of there (I know, I know, I must find a way to be more Zen at Disneyland, but I am so stinkin' excited to be there that it's hard to meet both of our needs, ya know?) and he ran and ran and ran around the outside area. He made a friend with another kid, and they chased each other. The other mom didn't seem to care that they were running, but I don't like it when DS runs into other kids, so I looked like the worst helicopter mom ever, trying to keep him from slamming people to the ground. The other kiddo was a bit older, so steadier on his feet, and not in as much danger of doing harm to others... So if you saw me, I was trying to keep *other* kids safe, not DS (the kid can hurt himself while trying on clothes, literally, we got an ambulance trip to the ER from trying on gloves and a winter hat, so I know that it's almost impossible to keep *him* from hurting himself, LOL). I'm hovering over your kids.

We finally had enough of that land and went to a favorite of both of ours....It's A Small World!

I think I'm running out of smilies for this post, so I'm going to end this reply here and continue in another.

 

[bumbershoot]

There was a photopass photog in front of IASW, and I hovered, waiting for her to be done with the person she was working with. I was looking around, and when I looked back, a group of people had formed a line on the opposite side from me. Grr. And since I hadn't looked like I was officially waiting, looking around and all, they seemed to be quite settled in to their line. The photog had never seen me, so I decided we'd have pix taken after the ride.

I didn't expect SO many changes with the holiday version! I liked it, though. Then again, I just flat-out like the ride. I used to have the album of the song, and I played it so many times I nearly drove my then-new-stepmom to stepkid-icide. Didn't know that until I was over 30...she was good at keeping those feelings hidden.

I wish I knew the ride better, so I could figure out what is behind the black curtains, though!

Oh, my one problem with the holiday version is that they have the Korean dolls hidden! And they are being hidden by a big dragon apparently made of ice...according to my half-Korean DH, that sort of symbol is Chinese, not Korean, so it really doesn't have anything to do with anything. I liked seeing the Korean dolls in their wedding outfits, so to have to crane my neck as we go *past* the ice dragon just bugged me.

When we were done with the ride, the photopass person was gone.

I have *no* clue what we did next, and that is bugging me! Last trip, I took notes. Literally, took notes on a little notepad, even while walking. But this trip I didn't and it's bothering me. Oh well!

I know that I stopped at the coffee and cookie cart in the hub, I suppose it's called. They told me that they are the only cart that accepts cards, so that was lucky! However, I guess we were chatting so much that they gave DS an oatmeal and raisin cookie rather than the chocolate chip he requested (he ordered it, he just loves ordering things!). But I didn't know that then.

I noticed he was just nibbling at it, but I was so enamored of my latte that I didn't question it. I was *really* surprised at the coffee during our stay! I kept hearing "nescaca" and the like, and figured I'd just drink it to stave off the caffeine-withdrawal headaches, but I actually liked it.

We decided to go to DCA, and it was as we were on our way towards the gates (passing under the train track bridge) that DS finally spoke up, asking why there were so many raisins in his cc cookie. He didn't mind the oatmeal (note to self, start making oatmeal choc chip cookies), but he's not big on raisins right now. I looked at it, and yep, not the right cookie. Promised him we'd fix the problem, and tried to get him to understand that the CM didn't mean any harm, she didn't *choose* to give him the wrong cookie, but that mistakes happen. Ah, life lessons at Disneyland...

Hopped over to DCA, and I decided that I wouldn't mind an oatmeal raisin cookie, so I just got him a cc cookie at Baker's Field Bakery. And a water.

I figure we *must* have gone to Bug's Land at that point, because I know we rode Heimlich's Chew Chew Train approximately 8000 times during our trip.

But maybe we didn't. Hmm. Maybe getting my photos off the memory card and onto the computer would be good at this point...hmm. Might have to take a break in the story to get the pictures squared away!

Well, the basics of that afternoon/early evening (it was early in the week so the hours were shorter) is that we had a late lunch at the Pacific Wharf Cafe, where DS had an uncrustables kid's meal (and we realized they have high fructose corn syrup and corn syrup, which DS can't have) and I had the very lovely vegetarian chili in a bread bowl. YUM. DS also noticed that they had a Woody "souvenir sipper", just like the Buzz sipper he talked me into at Tomorrowland Terrace. I told him that he'd have to take his father aside, once he joined us, about that, but that I wouldn't be getting it for him.

It was getting colder and threatening rain, so we stopped to by "just in case" ponchos.

I know that we went back to the hotel to get into warmer clothes, which meant we had to leave our stroller. On that day, I didn't realize that we could leave the stroller in the esplanade, near the bag-check, so I turned the stroller in with the intent to get another one later. The guys at the stroller place in DCA were hilarious. Eamon had gotten nervous about leaving "his" stroller behind, so when we went into the stroller place, I gave the CMs a significant look as I told DS again that we would leave it there, they would take care of it, and he would get the "exact same stroller" when we returned. They took the hint and went with it, and I found that VERY nice of them.

And then DS wouldn't get out of the stroller. Even warm clothes wouldn't convince him. I finally managed it, and we went back, changed, walked back to DCA, and even though there had been a shift change while we were gone, the new CM totally got it too, and told DS that he was indeed getting the same one, that the other CMs had told her about it, and it was all good.

I like DCA. I like bug's land!

I think that we went on Heimlich's 8 times that night. About 3 times in a row, then we got off and did other things, then another 5 times in a row. I now know the "can we go around again" hand signal, and they were VERY gracious about it. The only thing they asked was that we sit in the back, and I found that to be totally reasonable. I also learned that Heimlich's vocal track changes. The first round through he burps only once. Second time he burps twice. And the third he burps three times, and then it goes back to the first version. I *think* there are other differences, but the burps were the most obvious for my poor beleaguered mind to take notice of.

We also rode Flik's Flyers, Francis' Ladybug Boogie, and Tuck and Roll's Drive'Em Buggies.

You know, the Astro Orbiters are hard enough to get into with a kid, but MAN are those buggies a pain! The way the bar comes down is so difficult, when you have a child who wants to steer but isn't tall enough to push the petal down.

That's all I remember, and we went back the the Anabella, got take out from Coco's (veggie burger and kid's grilled cheese, and a slice of cake).

DS slept all night again.

 

[bumbershoot]

I'm adding a couple pictures to my posts above.

 

[DorkyDisneyMom]

Those are great pictures. Your son is adorable. I read your last trip report. I can't wait for more.

 

[bumbershoot]

Right now I've been focused on Yule (we'll open the presents from our Christian friends and family on Christmas 'cuz we're sweet like that), on entering all our disney movie rewards from the Yule goodies, and on editing all my Photopass pictures.

Photopass, ah, glorious Photopass...how I love you so. And how I love the cast member, Deborah, who helped me today. She added the missing Stitch to my cutesie "point at Stitch coming out of the ground" picture, and she moved my pre-used, on another account, card over to my current account. Lovely lovely person!

 

[bumbershoot]

12/7

At around midnight, DH (Robert) arrived. Yay!

We got up and running to DL. As we walked through, heading to Fantasyland, I saw an official looking person. I gave her a big smile, and we all got to talking. She then asked if we liked Billy and the Hillbillies, and if we'd like to see them. We let her know that we had not seen them, but had heard good things, and would like to see them at some time. She gave us a Magical Moment certificate (not quite a Dream, LOL) for special seating at the 4pm show that day. That was very cool!

We went on from that to FL, and we were official "I'm doing this for your own good and you'll thank me for it" Mean Parents who "forced" DS to go on Peter Pan. He loved it in September, he's loves pirates, loves Peter Pan, and we knew he was just weirded out by being tired, and that he would like it. He did, indeed, like it. We were glad for the relatively short line of the morning, because any longer with him insisting that he "hates" PP would have driven me (and those around us) utterly insane!

After that, Dumbo. And Alice..no, he opted out of that one, too, at the last minute. For some reason I insisted that Robert go alone on Alice, and for some unknown reason he agreed, even though he didn't really want to. Our communication is bizarre like that, and his upbringing made it hard for him to say "no" when he wants to say "no".

Realized hunger was overtaking us, and went to Tomorrowland Terrace for breakfast. The CMs there were great, because they actually asked each guest if they had an AP for the discount! I liked that, b/c sometimes I feel like a goof asking "do you do the AP discount?"

Got the french toast sticks (no syrup or meat) for DS and the croissant sandwich (no meat) for DH, and I was an idiot and didn't get food. Though I did get coffee. Both breakfasts were quite good! I snacked off of their plates. I also got DS a Stitch straw to match his Buzz straw from last year, and even though I would call it merchandise, the CM gave me the 10% AP holder discount as though it were food.

The reason I didn't get food was because we had 11:50am reservations for Blue Bayou. We were just going to get dessert, so we could enjoy the ambiance, but not have to deal with the horrid kid's meal like last time (nuclear orange, plasticy mac and "cheese") or the bleah portabello mushroom dish. But then, we were all in funky moods, and while DH and I can control ourselves, DS was having a hard time with his emotions. We decided that in close quarters like BB, especially since Eamon wasn't enjoying even being in proximity to the POTC line, it just was too nerve-wracking to keep our PS. So we stopped by to let them know we were canceling. They were snotty, not b/c they don't like cancellations (from the line, I'm quite sure they would fill our empty spot!), but because it seemed like they would have just preferred that we not show up, and be considered a no-show, rather than telling them at any point inside of an hour from the PS. It was odd.

Then we did another bit where we looked like clueless, internet-less guests, of just wandering wondering what we were going to do next. Someday I'm going to get a Plan, go by myself, and follow that plan absolutely. Just so he disney universe knows that I DO know what I am doing, even if I'm not actually doing it at the time.

I have in my notes that we tried to shop, but that didn't work. However, I do notice in my pictures that a Stitch light chaser showed up at that point, so I think DS made out yet again (two presents, Stitch-based, before noon!).

We went past Haunted Mansion, and the line was nonexistent. Robert urged me, almost pushed me in, to go on it. We knew that DS wasn't going to go (despite promising me for months), so he took Eamon to Critter Country (is that what it's called?) while I went on HMH. First time I'd been on HM at all since I was a child! And I've never seen Nightmare Before Christmas.

And...I kinda hated it. I look forward to going on the "real" HM, without the NBC overlay.

Meanwhile, the boys went on Pooh, then got in line to meet some characters. Same ones DS met in September, but he doesn't care, he loves them.

While we were apart, Robert texted me something about "another pass", and I thought "OMG he got dream fastpasses", but then I got a second text and he meant the Photopass cards... They had PP people with the characters, and he figured out that he could just get another card from them, rather than all the pictures being on ONE card.

I got over there as they were finishing up, actually, just as they got to Tigger. Tigger didn't have a PP person, so I was just in time to take some pictures!

Then the three of us went on Pooh b/c we all like it.

Caught these while still on the hunnypot vehicle.

We then went on Jungle Cruise, and it was fun, but our skipper was an older guy who did this really weird fake-voice spiel, and while it was all right, I preferred the hilarious guy that DS and I rode witih the first night!

And then we hopped over to DCA for some lunch. Our intention was to introduce Robert to the vegetarian chili, but that didn't quite work out.

 

[Hedy]

Eamon is adorable! And we had that chili in August 05, and were just comparing WDW's to DCA's.

 

[bumbershoot]

So we crossed to DCA and took some pictures with Goofy. The statue of Goofy, that is, attached to the letter (whatever letter that is).

It was getting rather cold, and we had some shopping to do, so we stopped in at Greetings from CA. Picked up a sweatshirt for DS (even though he had a sweater, various hoodies, a windbreaker, and a warmer coat), a cute purple zip-up for me, some pins for DH and DS, and I think some other things. I had the AP coupon giving me $20 off a $100 purchase, and I wanted to use it! Bought them, she took off the tags, and after she rang me up, I questioned the total. She asked if it was too much, and I am a basically honest person, but not one to just scream "no, charge me more!", so I said something like "um, no, not too much, but different, oh no, never mind" (putting on a Jon Lovitz Liar voice to make it CLEAR that I was being silly) "no, you've overcharged me, here's a dollar to pay for it". Or something like that. She didn't look closely at the receipt, and I was frazzled and didn't either, and I paid and we left.

We went outside, where we were stopped by that HSM thing that seemed to happen every single time we were in that area. Stood next to the building while I put on my sweatshirt, and while DS absolutely REFUSED to put on his new sweatshirt. And we realized what a silly purchase that had been, because he doesn't like over-the-head sweatshirts b/c his head is always a bit too big to easily go in to the necks (DH's head is the same), and because he had so many Disney gifts and so many warmer clothes that we already owned.

I pulled out the receipt in preparation to return it, and noticed that the sweatshirt was NOT on the receipt. She hadn't charged us! No wonder it was so low. I realized even later that it was more bizarre, because we hadn't reached the $100 threshhold of the AP discount, but she had given me the discount anyway. WEIRD.

For a millisecond we thought about just running away gleefully with our free sweatshirt, but alas, we are honest folk. And, of course, it being free wouldn't have made DS wear the ding-dang thing. So we went back in, and the CM was still there. I told her that we were going to return it and buy a blanket, but we noticed that she didn't charge us, so "here you go, here's the sweatshirt". She just about fell over. I'm serious, I don't think she had seen such an honest person in a long time! Or maybe SHE was a dishonest person and thought we were chumps. Either way, she got on the phone to her manager and told us to wait, and then bemoaned the fact that she had taken off the tags for us and now had to find them. OK, that last bit sounds like I think she was whining at us, and it didn't feel like that. Just that she had done that for us, and now needed to find them, and it was FINE for her to talk about that in front of us, it wasn't weird.

Meanwhile, Robert went off to find a blanket (geez those are overpriced) and came back, and we bought that. I'll admit here, and only here, that, well, I did expect *something* like a little discount. But it was not forthcoming. However, we had gotten the $20 discount when we hadn't bought $100 worth of merchandise (it would have been over 100 if she had included the sweatshirt...that was not our fault that it was under)...but on the other hand we did end up meeting that b/c we bought the almost $40 blanket. So yeah, I sort of thought that maybe she'd through a 5%, or a 2%, or a free poncho, or *something*.

As it was, her manager came out and bestowed "you did a nice thing" Tinkerbell pins on us. Though they only gave us the set, and one is supposed to be kept and the other given to another guest who you "catch" doing a nice thing...well, us going back in was a mutual decision made by me and DH, so I felt that we both deserved them. Therefore, I "caught" Robert being an honest guy, and gave the other pin to him.

We went from there and were off to feed ourselves. The line for Pacific Wharf was insane, and it was well after lunch, so that was annoying. Well, Cucina Cucamonga was right there, and they had decent offerings, so DS and I sat down while DH got into line. Ok so DS and I sat down in the baby center there, because DS needed some quiet time and their rocking chairs were perfect for that.

Ah, lunch. I think DH had the veggie tacos, and I had the veggie burrito or enchilada, and DS had the bean/cheese kid's meal. DH was a sweetheart and also bought Eamon the Woody souvenir sipper, which made him a very happy camper!

However, the pictures we have from that lunch do not look like he was so happy.

We really spent our time eating , which was nice.

We must have done *something*, because an hour after that picture we were wandering and I snapped this picture.

But then we realized that time was short until Billy and the Hillbillies.

We tried, we really did. But we found ourselves getting into DL after 3:30, which of course meant we were slow-going with everyone waiting for the parade to get to that area. And, ultimately, we knew we were going to be late. So instead of fighting the crowds to go to a show for which we would be late (and we doubted they would seat us after 4 with the Magical Moment special seating), we decided to take the bird in hand (parade), and we ducked under the handy rope designating watching vs walking areas, and watched the parade. Remember, Robert hadn't seen it, and since our day had been so weird already, we didn't want to pass it up thinking we would catch it later, b/c the chances were strong that we wouldn't be there to see the 6:30 parade.

 

[bumbershoot]

DorkyDisneyMom and Hedy, thanks for reading! Eamon says "dank you", because he has a head cold. Otherwise he'd say "thank you". Poor little thing; yesterday while getting our Yule stuff together, he randomly sneezed, and I thought "uh oh"...and of course over the course of the day, he got a cold! Last night was rough. I've never been big on the OTC stuff for colds, and since the FDA talked about their danger, I'm even more worried about them. And the last time we all got sick, I gave him some Triaminic so he could sleep, and when he woke up at 2am after it wore off, his cough had changed into a croupy cough...that was awful. So last night I refused to give him any medicines, and we all just had to get through the many wakings. If it were anything but a head cold I would bring out my homeopathic stuff, but colds usually are best if left alone with lots of TLC and vitamin C.

Anyway, poor munchkin is busy blowing his nose (thankfully he hated having nose-blowing help so much that he learned to do it himself when he was something like 2, and an early 2 at that) and snorfling, all while playing with the gifts he got for Yule. He really seems to love them all, and I'm so happy. He's even happy about the pajamas and new underwear, just as happy with them as with the vtech camera and other toys! Feels so much better than it did while we were at Disneyland, where every single purchase we made for him was focused on for about one minute, and then he saw something else that he asked for (one starts having nasty thoughts about one's ungrateful, spoiled, bratty little russafrussa, when the kiddo does that).

OK, enough about that. More of the 7th to come!

 

[bumbershoot]

The kid can turn *anything* into a blaster. Even the straw from his new Woody cup.

Also, looking at the attitude on that face, don't you think we made a good decision to skip out on Blue Bayou? That's pretty much what his attitude was the whole day. Zoiks!

And then the parade started.

This float is what inspired first Eamon, and then the Loud Lady, on our first night to call out "Goofy!" and then realize their mistake.

Look at Aladdin here. I would have done the same thing, the way Genie was driving!

And then the following is all we saw of their car, because Genie either knew, or wanted desperately to know, a woman on the other side of the street, parked the car and seemed to flirt madly with her (you can't see her here).

It was weird and annoying, and the people around her were reacting strongly to whatever he was doing or saying (can the Genie character talk?).

*******
I have just now remembered what else we did over in DCA, and I will be going back to edit my other reply!!!

*******
Nope, I was wrong, I won't be editing anything but this right now.

*******

These little guys were so cute.

 

[bumbershoot]

Who does he see?

Aha! Very cool.

Robert was very impressed by their skating abilities as well. And I didn't tell him, but it was a much more effective, um, effect, and just looked cooler, during the nighttime parade.



Now who?

E oddly decided that those chefs were the chefs from Ratatouille.


The stepsisters were funny that day, but were *hilarious* the night we saw the parade.

At one point during the evening parade, but not that afternoon (at least not where we were), while they were arguing, they suddenly squared off in sumo stances and started stomping towards each other, skirts hitched up. Loved it.

Princes and princesses and ladies in waiting galore.

 

[bumbershoot]

I sure got a few pix of Sleeping Beauty!

I read someone really wanting a picture of Ariel's gown. This isn't perfect, but I hope they see it.

This is the full picture.

And then a Beast showed up!

Phew, he had a chaperone.

I loved these dresses.

 

[bumbershoot]

Awww

Oh now you know the kiddo will have a reaction to this guy!

Yep. This is the 3 year old's version of waving a lighter in the air during a concert.

Ooh, another favorite of Eamon's!

Some of the Dwarves.

 

[bumbershoot]

Oh darn, poor us, we were too close to get one picture of the full tree in the parade.

Strange little standing-up reindeer...

Waving at...

Santa.

Then we got a snack of lattes and cookies and such.

We wanted to just leave at that point, but then Eamon saw the train and asked to go on. I remembered how many times he had already asked for that, while heading elsewhere, so we decided to take a full circle tour. The trains we have previously ridden, or perhaps just the cars in the trains, have been the ones where you sit facing out. But this time we were on a car with the benches that face forwards. Between the main street station and the first stop, we got the fun of some drunken people singing obnoxiously. Thank goodness they got off the train so quickly. Other than that it was fine.

And after that (we went through IASW something like 5 minutes before the normal time for turning on their lights! I never got to see IASW lit up, isn't that a (relative) travesty???) we left.

I have to consult my receipts to see what we did. Odd, I don't even notice a dinner for that night! Maybe we had leftovers (there was a fridge at Anabella). I'm pretty sure we went to bed early!

 

[bumbershoot]

I was going to do some more right now, but I've been sucked into a pictorial trip report of Tokyo's DisneySea, and can't take my eyes off of it! Man that place is beautiful!!!!!

 

[bumbershoot]

December 8th!

We had 11:30 breakfast PS at Storyteller's.

I tried to be reasonable, I really did. I tried to give the guys what they needed; heck, what I needed. I tried to sleep late.

It didn't work.

We had a slow morning and did very little.

First thing I noticed was that there are tour groups at Disneyland. NOt the famed Brazilian ones at Disneyworld, but Korean ones. We got close enough to verify by language, because we were curious. If you notice, that boy in the pic totally caught me.

I think we had intentions of trying Star Tours again, but it was refused. As was Buzz. It's possible we went on Autopia; I think that Eamon and I did, while Robert went on Space Mountain.

But the big thing was that I wanted to visit Innoventions. I had read about some robot in there, and wanted to see it. I couldn't figure out what else might be in there, so really, we were clueless.

Ah...turns out the robot thing, ASIMO?, was not up and running, and all there was in there was videogames. Ugh. If it's not arcade PacMan using my mom's money, I'm NOT interested. However, the boys were.

The one thing that was cute in there, to me, was this projection-on-the-floor sports thing. It went from soccer to hockey, and a girl around 8 was kind enough to play with Eamon. You just pretend to kick the ball or puck, and a computer pays attention to it.

The thing that Eamon liked best, I think, was Guitar Hero. I didn't know if flash pix were allowed, and it turns out I like the effect of these.

He "lost" miserably. Hence the face at the end (he didn't know he lost, but it ended sooner than he wanted). But Robert played, the same song, and he "lost" even worse than Eamon did. teehee.

So time came, and we went back over to GCH and checked in. I vaguely recall being almost late, and I was quite worried about it for some reason.

We were fine, but I learned that 11:30 is when they stop serving from the menu, and you can only get the buffet. Not a problem for the boys, but a problem for ME! I reallyr eally wanted their huevos rancheros, b/c I love that dish. Oh well, I got over it; I mean, what choice did I have, right?

 

[bumbershoot]

I really need to figure out how many pictures one can put in a post.

This morning and the next morning (talking about the trip here) I took pictures of my coffee. Yum. OK well, the cups, but coffee cups make me happy. My mom had these wonderful restaurant mugs she got from a supply store, and although they were tiny, compared to the massive mugs sold now, they kept the coffee just perfect. Wonder what happened to them...

Anyway, the breakfast was good! We're veggie, so we didn't partake in everything. But they had a platter of veggie "sausage" patties, and that was just lovely. The eggs were odd, but odd in a way I could handle, rather than odd in that nasty eggy way eggs can get odd and nasty. Do forgive the way of "speaking"; I've just been watching POTC3, and I *might* be talking like Jack Sparrow.

DH and I started watching it last night (it was a gift I bought for us, from DelivEARS at Disneyland through a link from the AP website, and it included a picture of the Asian ship, a bit of the sailcloth from it, and a coin in a mat) and so when Eamon woke up all sick and yucky at around 1am, the only thing I could think to sing to him for soothing purposes was the pirate's song from the beginning (that is repeated in refrains all through the movie). I'm watching the credits as I type and it was just in the refrains from the orchestral piece.

I went to the buffet first, and I handed over My Precious (wrong movie!), er, my camera (Canon S3, brand new) to DH, just in case. Even though it has image stabilization, I think Robert swings it around while taking pictures. Even though Eamon moves fast and tends to come out all swirly in pictures, I'm not sure he's THAT fast!

There's a super-cute pictures Robert took, showing that Eamon was first to get to the "ranger" and the bear, but I'm uncomfortable with how identifiable the kids on the other side of the picture are. Back of my kid's head, full body and face of strangers...just not comfy doing that with people I don't know. Ya know?

E just loves the characters! He has a hard time actually posing for pictures, because he just wants to interact and hug them.

I got back from the buffet just after the bears and kids stopped their games.

Then a racoon showed up. I hear it's Meeko? From Pocahontas? We never saw that. But he was a good sport anyway!

Mmm, food.

Eamon ate SO much food at that meal! And you all with 3 year olds, or former 3 year olds, know that that isn't always something that happens! He ate everything but the potatoes, he has some issue with spuds that I'm not quite clear on. The kid's mainly Irish, you'd think he would like them. Maybe it's the Korea quarter in him that's anti-spud-goodness, but then, DH likes them, and he's more Korean than the kid. It's a mystery.

(and right now those of you who have only seen pix of boy-o are scratching their heads and saying "that redhead's part Korean?????" hey, just as long as you don't tell my husband, while he is standing outside a ladies dressing room, holding diaper bag, babysling, baby, and woman's purse, that "it looks as though you STOLE that child," we're fine with the head-scratching)

 

[bumbershoot]

As an aside from that parenthetical thought above, background pictures...

Anyway, we've been dealing with the head-scratching from the second we saw him (or rather, anyone else saw him).

**********

Just so no one freaks out that I'm talking about other stuff....the end of the meal was annoying. Why? Because Disney makes pins for APs who spend $30 on food in certain places. Last September, we ate at the Lilo/Stitch breakfast. Later in the trip when we ate at Blue Bayou and used our new AP discount, we got two pins, and they were of Stitch. Cute! This time, I had looked it up, and it was supposed to be Chip and Dale. Since C&D are part of Storyteller's (though if you want to see them, make your PS for no later than 10:30, b/c they are GONE after that) we thought it was perfect. Well, dangit, after spending all that on the b'fast, we found out that the pins were already gone.

Stop it, fellow APs, leave some for us!




More on December 8 tomorrow. Well, today. Whatever.



Just noticed after taking out a picture in which DH was in his underpants (oops!) that there's a hidden Mickey caused by my left palm, on my old laptop in that picture...too funny!