Well Mark has posted a bit and I'm sure he'll add more today but here is my recap of the trip so far - sorry very long so skip if you want.
Thursday night was one of those nights that nothing seemed to go right. From the flight delays to the wierd neighbors. Just didn't get the trip off to the best start. Friday, however, was an awesome day.
Started the morning by heading down to the front desk and explaining that we would like to change rooms. I prefaced it with the girl by saying she might need her manager. Nope she heard what I had to say, looked us up in the system (where we are assuming the notes about the noisy neighbors and non working phone were) and assured us she would find us another room. Only problem is we would have to check out of our old one and then check back in later that day. She did not have a room we could move right into. No problem.
We then head over to Goofy's Kitchen. It is a character breakfast buffet that in the past we have been able to just walk into. Same at most (but not all) of the breakfast buffets at WDW. Wrong - without a reservation the wait was 90 minutes! Not to worry Grandville's was open. No characters and no buffet but the food was good and we were seated immediately. Then up to the room to pack (no problem - we are traveling light) and down to Bell Services to check our bags.
First stop was the Disney Travel company office in Downtown Disney. We are on a package and got a voucher for a nice travel bag from them. Then off to
Disneyland. For those who haven't been here you can easily walk from the hotel, through Downtown Disney and to both parks. It is much more compact than WDW.
We get lockers and stow our jackets since it is now warming up. First ride was Storbook Gardens. You right in these little boats past miniature villages from all the Disney stories. We even got the golden boat. All of the original rides here at Disneyland have one Golden vehicle in honor of the 50th. Mark checks his phone and sees he has a message from Todd saying he was calling because Cheryl told him to call at 8. Cheryl and Todd are friends we met in 2003 on the DVC Member Cruise. We've gone to just about every DVC event with them and when we found out they would be out here the same time as us (they are from Orlando) made plans to get together. Todd didn't say they were in the park. So thinking they were still on their way we decide to head over to Small World. Out here they redo it for the holidays and it is awesome! We watched the outside show at the top of the hour and then road the ride inside. While inside we got another call. Mark's ringer is hard to hear so we keep missing these calls. Mark calls back and gets Todd's voice mail (turns out they were inside riding Small World. We head over to New Orleans Square and finally at about 11 am we finally connect and hear they are on their way over by train.
They get in about 11:25 and we go check in for our 11:30 lunch. We only had a short wait for a table and then had a very nice sit-down lunch at Blue Bayou. After lunch we stayed together and rode Pirates. Then walked over and did Haunted Mansion. This is another ride that Disneyland revamps for the holiday season. This one with a Nightmare Before Christmas theme. Excellent! After that we did the Winnie-the-Pooh ride (you ride in beehives out here not honey pots), then a short break for some candy shopping. Splash has a 90 minute wait so we skip that. We head over to Mr. Toads wild ride since they don't have that at WDW any more. By this time it is close to 3 pm and our room should be ready (and our feet are tired). We invite Cheryl and Todd to come back with us and relax for a while.
On the way out we find a DVC kiosk and have a great conversation with a CM there named Lowell. DVC seems to be selling really well here in California. As we go past another DVC kiosk in Downtown Disney Cheryl spots a CM with the "I know a secret" DVC pin and asks if i have it. I don't and would love it but didn't bring any trading pins. Not to fear - Cheryl has and trades for it and gives it to me. Thanks Cheryl! We then pass a pin booth where I insist on buying Cheryl a replacement pin and pick up about 7 more of our own including the one for Narnia that just came out that day. Finally at the hotel and we have a new room. Same tower, same location, just two floors up. Pick up our bags and off we go. Wonderful room!
After relaxing and talking a bit we decide to head out to dinner. We chose Storyteller's Cafe over at the Grand Californian. We only had about a 15 minute wait. Food was great (Cheryl and I ordered off the menu while the guys did the buffet). They do a character breakfast here with Chip and Dale and we made plans to join Cheryl and Todd here Monday morning. Then it was off to Downtown Disney to catch the monorail.
Mark and I had tickets for the dessert buffet for the Fantasmic showing at 9 pm and it said check-in was at 8 so we said good-bye to Cheryl and Todd and made our way over there. By now my ankle was really bother me (way too much walking) so when we got there we sat in the cute little second story coutryard and waiting for check in. There are only about 20 seats on the balcony and they seat you by when your call comes in for the tickets. We didn't call for ourselves. We found that since we were staying at the Disneyland Hotel vacation planning there could take care of it. We were the second ones seated and had front and center seats. A lavish display of desserts were available and we both had some but not a lot. To be honest the fact that we could walk right in and sit down without staking out a spot on the ground 2 hours before was worth it.
After Fantasmic we got to stay in our seats for the firewoks. Really nice. Part of the soundtrack is from Wishes and the rest is narrated by Julie Andrews and hightlights the major rides in the park.
It is now after 10 pm so we head back to the room, unpack and go to sleep. We had a great night with no noisy neighbors. Yeah!
All in all a wonderful day and I'm happy we got to share most of it with friends. Today is much more relaxed. Going to Disney's California Adventure and maybe to see Narnia.
Sorry this was so long but if you read it all - thanks!
TFD
Grand CALIFORNIAN. My favorite place, a lot like the Wilderness Lodge...no where near like the Grand Floridian....you'd have to go to San Diego to find something like the GF...or rather, the GF is made after the Hotel del Coronado in San Diego.
