A Solo Adventure Down to the Land of Magic!-Updated 6/5!!

[ronnmel]

Haha, so funny that Roz thought you were ignoring her.

That Monsters Inc ride is yet another Disneyland attraction that I would like to experience.

 

[katt789]

Haha, so funny that Roz thought you were ignoring her.

That Monsters Inc ride is yet another Disneyland attraction that I would like to experience.

I just want any kind of Monster's Inc attraction at WDW....whether its the same ride, or some kind of door rollercoaster. Something!!

 

[katt789]

With my adventure through Monstropolis done with, I figured hey, Tower of Terror was right there, so why not head over that way?! Well…because it was a 30 minute wait, so I grabbed a fast pass for it (Hey! I made it work this time! Not sure if I mentioned it, but the last time I tried to something didn’t work properly and it wouldn’t spit out a fast pass!)

I decided to head through Bug’s Land, kinda just wandering through.

I thought the themeing was totally awesome! They had some cute rides, like the swings, but they were all like, match boxes and such. Super cute, I didn’t go on any of the rides, I feel like it’s DCA’s version of Dinoland.

On my adventure through the mini insect land, I realized that the Aladdin show was closed, and it was because of the cheer competition, they were clearly competing in there. Which was an odd thought, they must have not had a lot of tosses, I figure the ceiling would never be high enough.

I walked over to Ariel’s Grotto (which is different from WDW, as it’s a restaurant in DCA) they were accepting reservations for right that moment! Gah! SO WEIRD! However I was planning on making the ressie for the next day, which I did! With that done, I headed back over to Cocina Cucamonga Mexican Grill for some delicious lunch time om noms! I got the Fire-Grilled Citrus Chicken.

All the plates are served with Mexican rice & refried beans, Pico de Gallo, Guacamole & sour cream. (You can substitute sautéed veggies for the rice or beans). It’s a 1/2 a chicken seasoned in a savory marinade of cumin, garlic, cilantro, lemon & lime. Served with warm flour tortillas (and yes, I’m getting all this food information from my DLR app). It was delicious, the beans were even really good! It was a LOT of food, and I was super glad that I got an AP discount now!

While I was eating, I made the observation that DLR is just not built for solo travelers, especially with the way the tables are set up, they’re all 4 tops, no 2 tops anywhere! It just made it awkward and I felt bad for taking up a whole 4 top when there was only 1 of me. It was also super awkward too to just ask if I could sit with someone, that’s just weird, but I was totally up for someone sitting with me, which is what happened this meal. An older couple came and ate with me, but no chit chat at all. I just feel like not only are there 2 tops in WDW, but people are much more apt to chat to everyone else.

My lunch was finished, and I realized that my fast pass window was now open, and hey, I may have just eaten, but it would be ok, right?! Haha, I headed over slow enough to kind of digest, and then got in line for Tower of Terror!!

I made sure to grab some pictures inside the broiler room, as things are set up differently in DLR, one thing that I superbly liked was that when you’re in the library and the video’s playing, there’s lights flashing like the lighting in the windows, and it appears that the thunder is also right outside, it really immerses you into the feeling, I totally loved it!

Hoooly fantastic! It was all different from WDW, and I had NO clue what to expect so it really kept the nerves up, especially that I didn’t know when the drops were going to be! Eeek! One thing that I love is even though the drops are randomized at WDW, I always know about when the first one is coming, as you go through the hotel, and it kinda “clicks” in before it drops, and in DLR, you just go up & down while it’s doing it’s spiel, and then you just drop. Super awesome.

On my way out I made sure to stop and talk to the Aladdin cm’s and find out if the show would be back up the next day, and it would be! Yay! I would be able to see it this trip! I had ventured around DCA, and done basically all I wanted, and figured I’d jump back over to DLR and see what I could get done over there!

 

[Merida]

I had a whole list of things going in my head as I was getting caught up, but I think I've forgotten some of them, haha.


- I like reading the comparisons between WDW and DLR versions! I think it's odd whenever the DLR ride is resoundingly better than the WDW ones - wouldn't they want to improve from DLR to WDW?

- Pinnochio is the most terrifying movie in the entire world. SERIOUSLY. It is messed up. I refuse to rewatch it even though there are parts I really love (hello Blue Fairy!).

- I go back and forth on the castle! Like, you can walk through it and there's all sorts of cool stuff - points to DLR. No pretty mosaic? MINUS 5000 POINTS. Characters everywhere? ++++++ points. Being overall adorable? MORE POINTS.

- Disney needs to stop trying to be cool. Mickey Dance Crew?? Really? And without trained hiphop people (unless So You Think You Can Dance has lied to me and there aren't plucky street stylers in every large city in the U.S) even? So much secondhand embarrassment.

- Monsters' Inc, on the other hand, is so cool! More things like that, Disney!

- Haha, I always have wretched luck with FPs. Glad it worked out eventually.

- I was just reading how Bug's Life Land is supposed to be the lawn for the Hollywood Hotel and now I really want to explore there! I thought that was such a cool idea for thumbing. Then again, I really love Dinoland.

- Yay for the Aladdin show! It looks so amazing from stills I've seen.

 

[katt789]

I had a whole list of things going in my head as I was getting caught up, but I think I've forgotten some of them, haha.


- I like reading the comparisons between WDW and DLR versions! I think it's odd whenever the DLR ride is resoundingly better than the WDW ones - wouldn't they want to improve from DLR to WDW?

- Pinnochio is the most terrifying movie in the entire world. SERIOUSLY. It is messed up. I refuse to rewatch it even though there are parts I really love (hello Blue Fairy!).

- I go back and forth on the castle! Like, you can walk through it and there's all sorts of cool stuff - points to DLR. No pretty mosaic? MINUS 5000 POINTS. Characters everywhere? ++++++ points. Being overall adorable? MORE POINTS.

- Disney needs to stop trying to be cool. Mickey Dance Crew?? Really? And without trained hiphop people (unless So You Think You Can Dance has lied to me and there aren't plucky street stylers in every large city in the U.S) even? So much secondhand embarrassment.

- Monsters' Inc, on the other hand, is so cool! More things like that, Disney!

- Haha, I always have wretched luck with FPs. Glad it worked out eventually.

- I was just reading how Bug's Life Land is supposed to be the lawn for the Hollywood Hotel and now I really want to explore there! I thought that was such a cool idea for thumbing. Then again, I really love Dinoland.

- Yay for the Aladdin show! It looks so amazing from stills I've seen.

It is odd to think that they'd want to improve for WDW, and some of the rides honestly did, but then you have to think, was the ride in DLR first? And which park had it refubed more recently? I dunno, it's odd.

-I always want to go back & forth on the castle, but Cinderella's will ALWAYS win! It's the centre piece for me, and I want to be able to see it from everywhere, you can never have too many castle pics, it's awesome.

-I'm totes cool with the dance crew, but I honestly was dissappointed in the dancer that wasn't the greatest, and I mean, it should be fantasticly easy to find hip hop dancers, but finding female dancers who "look the disney part" i could imagine being hard. Wait...I take that back..this is DLR...they're in LA...really?

-You'll defs hear my review on the Aladdin show coming up!

 

[katt789]

Hey friends, just needed to jump in and give everyone the link to all upcoming TR's.
I'm going to do them all under 1 name, and just have sub TR's inside of it, I figured it would just be easier that way...who knows?!

Here's the link:
http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?p=44447970#post44447970

In other news, I've just gotten SO excited for our upcoming trips, and I'm still seriously debating a solo trip down in May/June, so if any of you have plans to go at that point, let me know and maybe we can meet up for a Dole Whip!

I still haven't heard back from Disney about the Tink auditions, although that might end up not being until the submission deadline is past, who knows?!

In life news: I'm still searching for a new/day job (though, not very hard) but seriously need some more cash on my hands, it would help if we made more than $25 a night in tips... but hey, it's a fun job. I'm dancing twice a week with ballroom, and apparently am getting better, so that's awesome! And today marks the start of a cleanse for me as well, today until Disney, all health all the time. Then Disney hits and calories and fat don't exist (am I right?)

So...yeah...that's my life. Feel free to tell me about yours!!

 

[katt789]

I had just entered DL again, and didn’t really have a plan, so it was nice that I had nowhere to go when I walked into Town Square, and saw characters just EVERYWHERE!! Seriously. Everywhere. I looked around and was debating if I was going to get in line for anyone, and saw Cruella. HECK YES. She wasn’t someone who was out often in WDW, so it was obvious which line I was getting in, and honestly, the wait in line ended up being far more entertaining than the actual meet & greet. Cruella saw Pluto on his way back into the back for a water break, and started shouting to the handler (I say the handler as he seemed to be in charge of most of the characters that were out) to bring her the doggie! He eventually brought Pluto over and Cruella began measuring him, figuring out if he’d make a good coat, and saying that she’d use the ears for earrings! Hilarity!

Eventually the handler took Pluto away (as he quivered, he didn’t want to be a coat!) And on his way out of Town Square now was the main mouse himself! Who made a point to stop & point (as menacingly as he could) at Cruella, telling her to stop being so mean, then he JUMPED on her hugging her, she was pretty disgusted. Again, hilarious! I attempted to get a picture, but this is the best I got:

I got to the front and she commented on how I was a little model when we posed for the picture.

She was great, I probably could have stood there and watched the rest of the interactions all day! I headed down Main Street, and there were just HUGE crowds EVERYWHERE! Booooourns! This weekend stuff was really crazy. However, I figured, why not kill time by waiting in lines, and getting the rides done during the week, so where else to go but the Tangled meet & greet! The cm’s were telling everyone that it was going to be 1.5 hour of a wait, and they were also having to tell everyone in the line (about every 4 minutes) how long the wait was from “this” point, and that this was a line for pictures & autographs with Rapunzel, NOT a Tangled ride, there is no Tangled ride. And then tons of people would leave the line, how did they not know that it wasn’t a ride?! SO WEIRD. I had my fingers crossed for Flynn (as did some cm aged looking girls who were a bit behind me, and a mother with her family ) While in line, I definitely noticed how entertaining chains are for kids to play on, and I seriously give HUGE props to anyone who doesn’t SCREAM at their children at Disney, or someone who just has their kids nicely behaving. There was a young mom trying to keep track of both of her kids, her daughter started crying, and she was way too distracted to notice that her son was (once again after being told not to) playing on the chain, and of course, he swung backward and smacked his head on the cement. Major ouch.

The wait ended up being only around 30 minutes for me, and soon I was inside the tower. There was no Flynn, but I was ok with it just being Rapunzel!

I had met one Princess, so I figured, heck, why not go meet some more? Back to the Fantasy Faire I went! The wait was still posted at 60 minutes, and I wasn’t sure how much time I waited, I realized that I had games on my Iphone that I can play without the internet connection, so I played Life & Diner Dash the entire time!

I got to the front, to find my next top 3 Princesses! Ariel, Belle & Tiana! Yay!! Just as it became my turn, Ariel’s photopass photog ran off, no clue where he went, and she was kind of baffled by it too. She did mange to get the handler to grab a pic for us though, she was cute, not the greatest, and definitely my first “blah” meeting with an Ariel, but I’ve had some pretty awesome experiences with Ariels.

Next up was Belle, and the first thing I noticed (although you can’t really tell in the pic) was that she had bathing suit tan lines. Like…really!? That just surprised me, I get that sometimes you tan or burn when you don’t mean to, but throw some bronzer & darker concealer on there to disguise it. It probably stood out thanks to the yellow, who knows. She was good.

Before me in line was a small child, and thus, Tiana was kneeling on the ground, and I noticed how “squished” her dress could go, it looked like it didn’t have the whole hoop in it. I commented on this when I walked up, and she barely acknowledged me. Aside from that, she was ok.

I get where it comes from, I’m someone their age, traveling alone, but still, you should give everyone the same experience, whether they’re 6 or 60, but whatevs. On my way out of Fantasyland I took the back route over to Critter Country. The wait time for Splash was 95 minutes! Heck no! It may have been hot out, but it was not that hot! I grabbed a FP with a return time of 6:50-7:50, and then looked through Critter Country. There were some friends out & about!

While around that back there, I noticed the single rider line for Splash, which was still far too long, so was the Winnie the Pooh character line. I browsed through a gift shop back there, deciding on a Tigger onesie to buy (I ended up getting a different one) and considered a snack.

I was really looking for some munchies, or maybe some ice cream, but even every ice cream cart had what looked like a 15 minute wait! (And THEN there’s the dole whip stand! Geeze! That line was HUGELY long all week!) On my way out of the park, I noticed Mary & Bert hanging out!

And before I knew it, I had given up on the parks for now, I wandered down Harbor Blvd, where I found an ice cream snack & some sweet tea, along with a cheap lanyard to start pin trading with next trip! I headed back to the hotel for a break, watched some tv, and browsed through the Disney Dining.

After a little break, I chose where to eat, and headed back into the park. I find it SO weird that they don’t do ADR’s, I walked up asked for a table for 1, and they said it would be a 15 minute wait (and I’m pretty sure it was less than that!) Where was I? Well, New Orleans Square of course! Gah! My favorite place! It’s SO themed & jazzy & awesome & fantastic (WAAY better than Liberty Square at WDW).

Where I was for dinner was Café Orleans! The wait was super brief, and it helped that I had decided on food before coming in. I was seated at a table in the back corner of the restaurant, which was ok with me, better than being in the middle of the room. I ordered the pomegranate lemonade; but I wasn’t a huge fan, it tasted aspartame, like bad crystal lite. No thanks! Thankfully, I also had a water!

I ordered the French Onion Soup to start! It came out super fast too! At first I had written down that the service wasn’t the greatest, but it turned out that she was just super busy with a very high demand table right beside me. I could tell they were pretty high maintenance. Her name was Stephanie and she was awesome!

Oh my hoooodness! HOLEY MOLEY! (that’s what’s written in my TR journal) Delicious!! It’s seriously the best onion soup I’ve had! Ever! (I want some now…maybe I’ll go into Boston Pizza’s before work…get some there…hmmm) Although it was absolutely LOADED with cheese, so I kinda had to pick around it to get to the soup & onions (which also, there wasn’t quite enough onions, but it was super delicious) I ate a bit of the cheese, but picked most of it off (thanks to being lactose intolerant, it wouldn’t be a grand idea) so you guys could get an idea of just how much cheese there was, here’s a picture of the rest of the cheese after I finished eating.

Wow. Cheese. Wow. I had the Crescent City Salad with blackened chicken on top of fresh spinach and mixed baby greens, tossed with caramelized pecans, red grapes, navel orange segments, caramelized onions, chopped green onions, roasted sweet corn and orange cilantro vinaigrette.

The salad was great!! Nice & light with a citrus kick, some spicyness but just enough, nto too much fruit provided a nice balance of sweetness. Chicken & pecans gave some nice protein, overall, great!

The inside of the restaurant didn’t really have a New Orleans feel to it, but it was still super good, and I would definitely recommend Café Orleans to anyone, seriously, SO GOOD. It was super quick in & out, but not too rushed. I ducked out on dessert, thought maybe I’d grab some more beignets later, who knew. I got an AP discount as well! Whoop Whoop! With dinner done, where would I head next?!

 

[KittyKat1978]

In other news, I've just gotten SO excited for our upcoming trips, and I'm still seriously debating a solo trip down in May/June, so if any of you have plans to go at that point, let me know and maybe we can meet up for a Dole Whip!

I am going to DL in May (20th-26th) also solo. If you decide to go then, let me know and we can met up for a Dole Whip

 

[Merida]

I love the Cruella attraction! I wish they included more 101 Dalmations in the parks; I love the animation in that movie. The live action ones are kind of meh, but the original is truly classic. I guess it's hard to include animals as meetable characters? Maybe?

Maybe they're not supposed to talk about their costumes? idk - this is why I'd be a terrible face character! I'd be miserable in those dresses in the heat. I think, also, when the lines get super long, it raises expectations. In a 'I hope I picked the right 60 minute line! It should be worth it' kind of way. And then it's a double edged sword because the characters have seen so many people and are (I'm guessing) getting tired and the people in line are expecting more, so everyone ends up disappointed. I wish there was a better way for the system to work!

The cupcakes in the case look amazing. So much chocolate-y goodness! Not right for a hot day, but verrry tempting.

New Orleans Square totally has more personality than Liberty Square! And it's really hard to beat New Orleans in terms of fun and food, so I almost feel bad comparing the two. There's no way Liberty Square could win.

 

[katt789]

I am going to DL in May (20th-26th) also solo. If you decide to go then, let me know and we can met up for a Dole Whip

I will definitely let you know!! I don't know if I'll be back to DLR that soon, but I'll keep in touch!

I love the Cruella attraction! I wish they included more 101 Dalmations in the parks; I love the animation in that movie. The live action ones are kind of meh, but the original is truly classic. I guess it's hard to include animals as meetable characters? Maybe?

Maybe they're not supposed to talk about their costumes? idk - this is why I'd be a terrible face character! I'd be miserable in those dresses in the heat. I think, also, when the lines get super long, it raises expectations. In a 'I hope I picked the right 60 minute line! It should be worth it' kind of way. And then it's a double edged sword because the characters have seen so many people and are (I'm guessing) getting tired and the people in line are expecting more, so everyone ends up disappointed. I wish there was a better way for the system to work!

The cupcakes in the case look amazing. So much chocolate-y goodness! Not right for a hot day, but verrry tempting.

New Orleans Square totally has more personality than Liberty Square! And it's really hard to beat New Orleans in terms of fun and food, so I almost feel bad comparing the two. There's no way Liberty Square could win.

Gah! There's so many movies that I find aren't even acknowledged in the parks! Or that you just can't really find merchandise for, I love 101 Dalmations, its such a classic!!

I dunno, I've always been cool talking about costumes in WDW (and I mean, even if you ask Flynn to show you what's in the satchel, he will) I think it was just in the moment. I do understand that it can be super hard to greet that many people per day, and I get that when someone who is "your age" comes along, it can be harder to care as much as the adorable child that was in front of them, but still, most cm's I've come across have been great. Some of them, must have just been an off day.

If only I had been feeling a cupcake, they looked sooo tasty!! And god it would be so horrible to compare NOS & LS, like, one is obviously going to win, and I love NOS soooo much!

 

[katt789]

With dinner done and eaten and slowly digesting, I decided that it was time for some Haunted Mansion, especially considering the wait time was only 10 minutes!

I walked right on, and so far, I was absolutely loving it! There were so many more details that Walt Disney World doesn’t have, I seriously just wanted to run around the mansion for hours! I found that you could also tell about the fact that you were in an elevator in the stretching room, the feel of it was just different as you hit the lower level to get onto the ride.

Also, on the way to get into your doom buggy, you were still surrounded by mansion, and it was all still super themed! Awesome!!

Those are all with my Iphone (and some edited on photobucket, just with the “auto fix” I find it helps with any of them that turned out too dark) My other verdict; this one was better, but WDW had better hitchhiking ghosts!

I figured now was a better time than ever to use my Splash Mountain fast pass! It was seriously weird that they had the ride photo displayed while you were on the ride, kinda cool that you got to see it right away, but hey, that’s ok. I seriously also wrote “now I am le burr” in my TR journal at this point, dang water making me cold! Haha

I walked through Adventureland, and decided to skip Indiana Jones, I heard it was like Dinosaur, which I really don’t like, it’s dark, jerky & kinda freaky, so I skipped out on it. The Jungle Cruise came up next, and the wait time was only 5 minutes! Thankfully I just walked on! Adrienne was my skipper, she was great, and had a ton of punny jokes that I actually found kinda funny, in the punny way haha! However no one on our cruise laughed! On my way out, I saw this awesome back pack, and had to sneakily take a picture, thank goodness for cell phones and not looking like a total creep!

I tried to check on things in Fantasyland, but they were closing everything for the fireworks even though that was over an hour away! I wandered a little bit trying to find a snack, and was seriously tempted by beignets again, but settled on a Mickey pretzel! I had seen one the previous day, and really wanted it now!

It was good, a little too much, and a little to salty, so I only really ate half of it, but it was a good investment haha. With my water, and Iphone games ready, I staked a spot for the upcoming fireworks over in the hub, and prepared to wait. It was in this time, that I witnessed a family pull up beside me, they had the top to their stroller down, and the little girl inside was just hacking up a storm, you know that long killer cough you get before you vom? Well, apparently the parents weren’t paying attention, or didn’t care, or didn’t notice. The poor girl kept coughing, vommed all over herself (I can only assume as the stroller top was covering her) and all over the pavement (not so conveniently located rather close to my feet…eww…) it took the family another few minutes before anyone even realized. Luckily, they soon noticed & decided that it was time to go, and another lovely woman grabbed a cm and got it all cleaned up.

And, I leave you with that! HA! Just kids, but not really, it was time for fireworks, and I’ve got over 40 photos from that alone, so that’ll have to be a separate update!

 

[Disneydreamsdancer]

Loving yor TR so far!! Especially your references to performers and dancers. Im a musical theatre performer and always find it interesting to watch the castmembers and performers technique etc, till whoever i'm with tells me to can it at least! I like how many character photos you got, I am usually too embarassed to queue, Im 25 and never know what to say to them, I was at the parks in Jan and my castmember friend took me to PH and the tangled meet & greet, luckily I just let him introduce me and chit chat with his colleagues!
Looking forward to reading more

 

[katt789]

Loving yor TR so far!! Especially your references to performers and dancers. Im a musical theatre performer and always find it interesting to watch the castmembers and performers technique etc, till whoever i'm with tells me to can it at least! I like how many character photos you got, I am usually too embarassed to queue, Im 25 and never know what to say to them, I was at the parks in Jan and my castmember friend took me to PH and the tangled meet & greet, luckily I just let him introduce me and chit chat with his colleagues!
Looking forward to reading more

Thanks!! I'm glad you've been enjoying! It's been so so so nice to have a couple of solo trips in which I can realy sit and I almost wanna say "analyze" things involving performers, as it's definitely something I want to do, and then I know what I need to be able to do to get there! Haha!

Thanks! Characters just make the trip, and I tend to have some hilarious moments (so far, more in WDW than DLR, but!) it does feel a little weird sometimes when I'm solo and in line by myself for characters and everyone else in line has a small child with them, but it's still awesome!!a

 

[katt789]

ALRIGHT! I feel like I have seriously been resizing photos for FREAKING EVER (this is probably somewhat my fault as I now have 3, yes, read that 3, TR’s on the go at once…) Well, now, I have finally finished the Firework portion of the night, which is also the end of the night, which will be being done in 2 updates as I have just too many pictures!

The Show is called “Remember, Dreams Come True” Fireworks. My verdict on it…WOWOWEEWAWA!! Seriously, it was amazing, I guess that when you only have 2 parks to budget firework shows for, and you only do Fantasmic & the Fireworks on the weekends, I guess that helps a lot. I hadn’t really thought about it, but that’s really all DLR has to do for their evening shows. Then over at WDW they’ve got Wishes, Fantasmic, Illuminations (some of which have more than 1 showing a night!) add on the Dream Along With Mickey & Lights Motor Action fireworks, and that’s a whole lot of money. Granted, WDW probably makes more money, but still.

The show was narrated by JULIE ANDREWS!! No biggie…just Julie Andrews, oh hey. I died, seriously, in that moment could not have been happier. I thought it was super awesome to that the fireworks happen all around the hub, kinda like how Illuminations is done, it really entraps you and is just so awesome magical. Overall, the show was absolutely incredible. Now, here are half the pictures:

Oh hey…did I mention that there’s FIRE BALLS no biggie…

Continued in Next Post!

 

[katt789]

Yayayaya!! Applause all around!! It was a great show, I really did enjoy it, after a day of hesitant fun, it really put the topper on it. The magic was re-instated, and I was happy!! Now, I was debating Fantasmic, I knew there would already be people who had staked out spots for it hours ago, and I didn’t really want to fight with the rush of people who were heading that way. I had seen the show in DHS (and yes, I do know it’s different, I had seen DLR’s back in 1997, and remember liking it way better than WDW’s version) however, the tired-ness and being done with being in the parks won over. Plus, it looked like this crowd wise:

So I headed out of the park and back to the hotel, after a quick shower and some tv, I was off to dream land. I had some time to even sleep in the next morning, as DCA didn’t open until 10!!

For anyone who is interested: here’s a video of the fireworks!!:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kSgpPRNWhJI

 

[abbie13_15]

Great trip report...have you heard anything back about a job there??? I think that would be soooo much fun!

 

[wiscbugs]

Great to see a couple of updates. Your trip reports are some of the best!!!

 

[katt789]

Great trip report...have you heard anything back about a job there??? I think that would be soooo much fun!

Thanks! I heard back from when I applied to the national search for Tinkerbell, but have to go to another audition anyway, so fingers crossed!!

Great to see a couple of updates. Your trip reports are some of the best!!!

Thanks!! I'm glad that you enjoy them that much! Yay!!

 

[katt789]

Today started off with a later start than I was used to at Disney, but California Adventure didn't actually open until 10am, and I wasn't too worried about getting there RIGHT at rope drop. I was up probably around 8am, and jumped down to the continential breakfast over at the hotel, there wasn't much selection, but there was fruit, hard boiled eggs, toast & bagels & some muffins (there was also a toaster). It was pretty good considering it was a tiny room at the Ramada.

I headed over to DCA right for 10am, and grabbed a World Of Color fast pass on my way in, it was definitely something I was interested in, and I thought it was kinda weird, but hey, whatever works, right? They were still holding people at the ropes past the fast pass machines, so I staked a spot to head straight to TSM and waited. I watched California Screaming for a while, and thought that I might do it, hey, it didn't look that bad...oh wait...there's the loop...if I do any looping roller coaster, it would be RnR with Tyler for the first time in April, so I wrote that off.

Soon enough the rope was dropped, and I headed straight to Toy Story, I thought it was amusing that they had some characters out along the way to distract from the race, especially since TSM has no fast passes here. The wait was a walk on, I wouldn't say I waited more than 5 minutes in total, and I got to see Mr Potato Head!

I have no clue if that's a good score or not, but hey, it's an awesome ride, and I seriously love it. I had missed it on the previous couple of trips thanks to park hopping and not being at DHS right at the start of the day, and not wanting to really wait, and forgot how much I really do like it! Yay! I spent some time wandering the gift shop, they’ve got some awesome toys in there, and I have such a love for all of those toys, my appreciation for the movies has grown so much in the past little bit, Gah, so much love!

Since there wasn’t anything else on that end of Paradise Pier that I was interested in at all, I headed back the way I came, and figured, hey, Sailor Mickey was out, and he had practically no line! I managed to catch him right before he was going in for a break, and I love, love, love the result, a great picture!

Next up was of course, Tower of Terror again!! I made sure to grab a fast pass before jumping right into line to brave the worst elevators in Hollywood!

I have to say, I was still so nervous about riding, as I didn’t know what was coming, it still shocked me every time and kept the nerves up!

It was so much fun, I jumped right back in line again! (the line was virtually non-existent both times) a mom & son pair decided that it was time to go again (see if you can spot them in both pictures!!)

I figured I would head over to the Monsters Inc ride, and Muppets next, and found a very scary friend along the way who I jumped in line and made some monster’s faces with!!

Monster’s Inc ride was up next!!

Yay! They save the day again! Such a super cute ride, love love love it, Boo is just the cutest thing!

Next up: Muppets 3D!! Yayayaya!! (picture Kermit doing the muppet yaya dance here…) There was lots of stuff to take pictures of along the way in, so be prepared for that!

GAHAHSDNASNF Yet another thing that I seriously LOVE. I love the Muppets, I have seasons on DVD, the movie was fantastic, I have a toque on the way, and I love them all. Favourite quote from the show: “It’s a tribute towards all nations, but mostly America!”

 

[shan23877]

Sailor Mickey might be the cutest thing I've ever seen. I'm glad you got on TSM! I do love that ride.

I hope that you'll try RnRC. It's awesome!