A Very Merry Unbirthday April 2014 Trip Report COMPLETED 6/23

[MotoWifey185]

After our late dinner we had some time to walk around before heading over to get our spot for World of Color, so we headed out to Buena Vista Street.

We heard the loud music so we headed over to the Mad Tea Party to see what it was all about.

We stopped to watch these two do their little show...

We didn't stay long here and headed back out towards Tower of Terror. I stopped and saw this and I had never noticed before that the sun sets on this backdrop. I thought that was neat.

Then of course I had to get some pictures of Tower of Terror at night!

We cut through Bugsland and headed to Carsland for a few night pictures.

From here we went over to the yellow section to grab a spot for our first time seeing World of Color! This was our view, we were right up next to a fence and I thought it was a pretty great spot.

We had to wait a while but I am pretty short so I like to get a good spot for the shows, otherwise I am looking at the back of someone's head and even with music to listen to that isn't very much fun!

Finally, it was time for the show to start! Here are a few pictures I took!

So pretty!

Aw, the Cheshire Cat!

Wow, World of Color was AWESOME! We were both so glad we decided to watch it! I really liked the Brave part and of course the Pirates of the Caribbean part. My favorite part of the whole thing was "Did everyone see that because I will not be doing it again!"

At this time it was about 10:20 and the park had already closed. We thought it was cool we also got a little more time being there because of the show as well! We followed the masses out of the park and made our way back to our hotel.

Our first park day was seriously amazing... Everything kept going right for us, crowds were low, and the weather was so nice and cool! We were happy that we tried something different and stayed at one park all day, taking the time to do things we would have skipped before and just having a nice relaxing time. Up next... we have TWO FULL DAYS of Disneyland to look forward to!!

 

[Daisybelle]

I never noticed that the screen in Hollywoodland changed either! That is so cool. I'll have to pay closer attention on our next visit!

 

[MotoWifey185]

After a wonderful day at California Adventure, this next morning was our time to sleep in! But only because Disneyland didn't open until 9. I did not sleep in, however, I was just way too excited. I was pretty much up at least once every hour, and finally I just decided to get out of bed. It was then that I found I forgot to charge my camera, so I plugged it in right away to hopefully get a decent charge to it! It said the battery was still full, but I didn't want to take my chances. Finally it was time for us both to get up and start getting ready. The hotel breakfast opens at 7 so we were able to take advantage of it today, so we headed there after getting ready. It was nothing special.

My outfit for the day... but the Haunted Mansion shirt ended up being too hot so I didn't get to wear it. The high today was 90 degrees!

We left our hotel at 8:15 and headed to the parking garage, but the normal one was closed! We followed the signs and wound up on the other side of the DLH in an outdoor parking area. Instead of walking to the trams from there we just headed to the DLH and went through the DTD area. We got to Disneyland at 8:45 and they were letting people in for rope drop. Finally we were at Disneyland!

DH made sure I took a photo of the sign for him. He has it as his profile picture for work and for Facebook!

I got a picture of the Haunted Mansion poster.

The crowds were heavier than they were at DCA the day before, but still not as bad as we expected for Spring Break.

We reached the end of the line of people waiting for Rope Drop. Our plan was to go right to BTMRR to ride it and grab FP's. I took some more Main Street pictures while we waited.

Soon they made their little announcement that Disneyland was opening, and we followed the heard. We did turn left too early and went through Adventureland first, so I got this picture.

There weren't as many people as I thought were going to be doing the same thing!

The wait time said 15 minutes but it was much less than that, and soon we were ready to board our train! I was so excited to see the changes.

It was awesome! Bug Thunder Mountain has always been a top favorite of mine, but it was way better now! I loved the explosion towards the end. Before this, DH had never noticed that the trains tilt on that last lift hill, so I told him to try and pay attention to it when we rode this time. It actually seemed like it didn't tilt as much as it used to, but he did say he noticed it this time.

We grabbed our FP's and went to our second ride of the morning...

Space Mountain! We always do the biggest rides first thing so we can take advantage of the minimal wait time.

It was a ten minute wait.

This is one of those rides that I always say "Yep, I am finally back!" I just love it.

After this, we headed back over to the other side of the park.

Next stop? Haunted Mansion... and I get a little picture crazy!

After we rode it I wanted to go back to get a few more shots of it before the queue filled up with people.

I am going to leave off there for now! Glad to have you all along to read my report. It has been fun to relive and I look forward to reliving the memories with every update!

 

[MotoWifey185]

I never noticed that the screen in Hollywoodland changed either! That is so cool. I'll have to pay closer attention on our next visit!

It is pretty amazing how many times you can go there and still not notice certain details! Disney never ceases to amaze me.

 

[Misskitty3]

Loving your trip report!! Your photos are awesome and many of them could be post cards!

 

[hsquared]

I love how detailed your report is! And the pictures of all the food. We're taking our daughters in January and it will be their first time and my husband's! Looking forward to hearing about the rest of your trip.

 

[MotoWifey185]

Loving your trip report!! Your photos are awesome and many of them could be post cards!

Aww thank you! Glad you are enjoying it.

I love how detailed your report is! And the pictures of all the food. We're taking our daughters in January and it will be their first time and my husband's! Looking forward to hearing about the rest of your trip.

Haha yes remembering to take the pictures of our food before chowing down is hard but I definitely wanted to for the report! And how exciting! January is our favorite time to go with the low crowds and cooler weather. That will be a great trip for you and your family!

 

[MotoWifey185]

Alright, so when I last left off I was taking a few pictures of the Haunted Mansion! It was already getting pretty hot out so after I got done with my little Haunted Mansion photo shoot DH and I went to cool off by riding Pirates of the Carribean!

Unfortunately, we were sitting front of a family that talked loudly during the whole ride about what they were doing that day and other unrelated to Pirates stuff. We rolled our eyes at each other because it was our first time on Pirates in such a long time, and we had to listen to them talking but we knew at least we'd be on it again that day. That ride always seems to have the most talkers. I feel like some people say "What do you guys want to do for dinner? Let's go on Pirates and figure it out." Arrgg...

Anyway, after Pirates we were getting pretty hungry, and it was really close to 11. We headed over to Tomorrowland to grab some lunch from Red Rockets Pizza Port.

We decided to share the Count Down Chicken Fuscilli. We were going to get an order of breadsticks to share but didn't so we could get a snack somewhere else later.

It was good, but it was already kind cold by the time we sat down. Not bad though!

After lunch we headed back over to Frontierland. Our next destination was Splash Mountain to get some Fast Passes for later.

After getting those we went into the "secret" bathroom spots. Always empty! We love to sit here and watch the canoes (although they were not running today) and relax in the shade.

DH took these pictures of the ducks.

We had FP's to use at BTMRR (we rode this so many more times then I thought we would! The line was never too crazy and FP's were running out very slowly!) So we went there next!

From here DH suggested going to the Ranch to pet the goats!

He looks like he is smiling!

We said goodbye to our new friends and headed out into Fantasyland, which was a complete mad house! We got out of there quickly and headed over to the train at the Toontown Station. The plan was to ride the loop plus one more and get off at Tomorrowland and use our Space FP's after.

We waited in a pretty long line and it was cut off right as we walked up, and we were relieved! We didn't want to have to cram in there. So another 15 minutes and our train arrived, and this is where we sat!

It was cool to sit right in the front and watch what goes on. Soon we were off!

Looking behind us at the Main Street Station.

When we stopped at the New Orleans Square station, they had to "fuel" up again so we got to watch that!

Continued in Next Post!

 

[Misskitty3]

Alright, so when I last left off I was taking a few pictures of the Haunted Mansion! It was already getting pretty hot out so after I got done with my little Haunted Mansion photo shoot DH and I went to cool off by riding Pirates of the Carribean!


Unfortunately, we were sitting front of a family that talked loudly during the whole ride about what they were doing that day and other unrelated to Pirates stuff. We rolled our eyes at each other because it was our first time on Pirates in such a long time, and we had to listen to them talking but we knew at least we'd be on it again that day. That ride always seems to have the most talkers. I feel like some people say "What do you guys want to do for dinner? Let's go on Pirates and figure it out." Arrgg...

Anyway, after Pirates we were getting pretty hungry, and it was really close to 11. We headed over to Tomorrowland to grab some lunch from Red Rockets Pizza Port.




After lunch we headed back over to Frontierland. Our next destination was Splash Mountain to get some Fast Passes for later.

Continued in Next Post!

Where were you when you took this picture? Right by Indy? Beautiful!! I have never seen this view before!

And I agree about Pirates, such a bummer when people chat through the whole thing....

 

[MotoWifey185]

We arrived at the Tomorrowland Station after our loop on the train, and headed out to use our Space FP's.

After Space we headed out to grab fast passes for BTMRR again, we definitely alternated between these two rides more than anything. After getting those, DH said we should ride Jungle Cruise, but when we got there it was a 30 minute wait and he changed his mind, but since it was so hot I convinced him to so we could get out of the sun. It was a long wait and we went upstairs so we got a good view of Adventureland.

Ewwww.

Finally we were on our boat ready to go!

Snakes... you guys are on your own!

After Jungle Cruise, we were in the need of something refreshing and delicious on a hot day... so what other than a Dole Whip Float?

We waited in line here and had intended to go in and watch the show for the first time, but it was so crowded. DH jokingly said "get me out of here before I go insane!" Haha! We got our Dole Whip and headed out to find a place to sit and eat.

YUM.

After we got done eating, we STILL needed to go somewhere to cool off. By this time it was about 4pm and we had just a little longer before the sun would go down and it would finally cool down. I suggested we just go ahead and ride Splash Mountain because our FP's weren't until 6pm. DH reluctantly agreed even though the line was 60 minutes!

After what seemed like the longest line we've ever waited in, we got to the front and we were put in the two back rows. We didn't get too wet but at least the sun was not on top of us anymore at that point. We made our way out of the craziness that is Critter Country (certain times of the day that area is just JAM PACKED!). And went to check out Tarzan's Treehouse.

I wanted to get some good pictures but I should have waited until the sun set a little more.

After this, we decided to go on Pirates for a hopefully more pleasant ride! I was hoping to get the back row to get some pictures (I don't use flash obviously but also don't want the screen from the camera to be in anyone's face) We hopped in line, and I took this picture...

And then boom... "BATTERY EXHAUSTED" comes on the camera and it shuts off! All because I forgot to charge it the night before! Awww shucks! What will I do now!? I will leave off there for now! Up next we try a new place for dinner and finally enjoy Disney during my favorite time of the day!

 

[MotoWifey185]

Where were you when you took this picture? Right by Indy? Beautiful!! I have never seen this view before!

And I agree about Pirates, such a bummer when people chat through the whole thing....

That was actually looking over at the Adventureland entrance from the Frontierland entrance! Thank you!

 

[WDWJonasGirl]

Very impressive Ashley!!

 

[petals]

joining in

 

[MotoWifey185]

Very impressive Ashley!!

Thank you!

joining in

Welcome! Glad to have you along.

 

[MotoWifey185]

Sorry it has been a while, I've been busy with work and other boring non-Disney related things in life. Boooo. But today is my day off and I'm back! I am also going to take this time to relax and read some of my other favorite trip reports that I need to catch up on. Sounds like an awesome day off to me!

Now where were we.... When I last left off my camera had just died! I could have cried but I was in Disney so I laughed and put the camera away and went with it. I had DH's phone to use (his iPhone 5 takes way better pictures than my Samsung Galaxy s4 Mini... just in case you were wondering!) so it wasn't too bad. We got to the front of the line in Pirates of the Caribbean and we got the back row this time. I like that because I can take a few pictures with our phone without bothering anybody else in the boat (with just the screen, never flash obviously!)

This was my first picture. The beautiful Blue Bayou. We ate their once by the water and it was great but we split a Monte Cristo and weren't fans... Sorry haha!

Don't tell them Carlos.... Don't be cheeeeekin!!

One of my favorites.

When we got off the ride we decided we were hungry, and we wanted to try a place we hadn't eaten at before. Since it was right there, we hopped into Riverbelle Terrace after looking at the menu and thought it looked like a good place to eat!

I got the Messy Mississippi BBQ Pork sandwich with a side of pasta salad (not even sure if I had the option for fries or anything though) It was really good, and they were not kidding when they called it "Messy!" Seriously more meat fell onto my plate then inside my sandwich haha.

DH got the Tennessee Turkey Breast sandwich. His was really seriously good. I liked his a lot more than I liked mine! It was the sauce they put on it that I liked a lot. Next time we go to DLR I will be getting this sandwich.

After our dinner we headed over to BTMRR to use some MORE FP's that we had for there. Dusk is my favorite time to ride any outside ride as I've mentioned a few times. Dusk is my favorite time of day too. It seems to be less crowded in some areas and it's not too hot but also you have the whole night still to look forward to. Perfect. After nearly losing our hats n' glasses, we headed over to Autopia which is another night time favorite.

"It's green.. it's finally green!"

This picture would have been cool if that old Peoplemover track wasn't in the way! They realllllly need to bring Peoplemover back.

Soon we got our car, and we rode together. He steered and I pressed the gas.

That ride always makes us laugh. We love the off-road section!

Next up we decided to wait in line for the Matterhorn! We don't ride this that often because it hurts and it scares the heck out of me. I always think the train is going to fly right off the tracks!

We got off safely and I took one of my "must-take" pictures of any trip.

By this time it was passed 7 and we had another FP to use for Space Mountain, so we headed there next. After Space we kinda just walked around for a bit. Soon we ended up on Main Street and found a good spot to watch Remember... Dreams Come True. We hadn't planned on watching this, but since MS crowds were pretty light and we were tired, we decided to go for it.

Soon the show was starting.. and this lady pulled out her iPad to record the whole show. First off, it is a big screen and it blocked anyone behind her vision of the castle. But second I was thinking wouldn't you rather just see it in person? iPads take terrible videos of it anyway, and you can just watch one of the many videos on Youtube later on! It was a tad annoying!

After the show, we were pretty tired and decided to check out early. It was ok because we had to get up early the next morning to use our Magic Morning and get my free birthday Starbucks drink! Score! Stay tuned, a new update may not be too far behind.

 

[MotoWifey185]

I'm back! After recharging the camera's batteries as well as our own, we were up early this morning and ready to celebrate my birthday! What a great way to celebrate my 24th birthday. I was feeling pretty lucky! After getting ready, we headed to the nearest Starbucks to get my free birthday drink. I decided to try the Vanilla Macchiato. It was sooo good.

After parking in the regular lot again and taking the tram over, we got to the gates a little late for our MM (8:10 or so) and were let in. It didn't seem too crowded walking down MS, but definitely more so than our last MM we've ever had, which was January 2010!

We got to Fantasy Land, and.. just... nope. It seemed like everybody had a MM so it was completely crazy packed with people! Peter Pan was over 45 minutes long already. We didn't think we got there that late. We got out of there pretty quickly because other than Peter Pan there's not much else we feel the need to ride there! We headed over to Tomorrowland to start our "how many times can we ride this in one day" count for Space Mountain. Haha! It's a fun game we think.. but we never DO keep track once it gets later on in the day!

After Space x 2 or 3.. we were done there for now! We went into the store right there (drawing a blank on the name) and looked around a bit. Then we walked out of Tomorrowland and saw black smoke in the sky.

I looked it up later and there was an apartment complex under construction that caught on fire. Thankfully, nobody was injured!

We headed over to the Frontierland Entrance to wait for the park to officially open, taking these pictures along the way.

One of my favorite pictures of us!

And soon... we were off! This is what I saw most of the way to BTMRR.

Funny story here... I took this picture..

.. and put my camera down while walking past a CM. He said "Oh sure put your camera down when you walk by me!" We laughed and then he offered to take our picture for us. Nice guy!

Soon we were preparing to board our train! Despite the crowds the wait was minimal.

We played the goat trick a time or two during our trip!

Having a blast!

And I will leave off there for now!

 

[hsquared]

Looks like your birthday was off to a great start!

 

[MotoWifey185]

Looks like your birthday was off to a great start!

It was a great start to pretty much the best birthday ever.

 

[MotoWifey185]

After getting off our BTMRR train, we decided to walk around a bit and do some shopping. We headed over to Main Street and went to all of the different stores there.

We didn't end up buying anything though, I liked a lot of different items but it was hard to narrow it down! DH wanted to put on some sun screen so we walked over to a place to hang out and put some on.

This area had NOBODY in it for a second. It was a cool photo op and I was going to take a picture but figured "I'll take it in a minute..." and when I got my camera it was packed again. We waited and this was the best I could get! I knew I should have taken the picture before!

At this point it was getting very hot! It was the hottest day of our trip. Before our trip we were soo annoyed that it was going to be so hot in April in California but since we were prepared we didn't let it bother us too much. Today was 95 degrees and the hottest day of our trip. Right before our trip and afterward the temps were in the usual 70's. We always seem to go to CA during their record heat waves! We did the best we could to stay hydrated and do the things that kept us indoors during the hottest parts of the day.

We headed over to this nice shaded area of Frontierland..

And out to sunny New Orleans Square.

We stopped in for a restroom and water fountain break here at the Hungry Bear, where I got this picture.

Our next mission was to get FP's for Splash for the middle of the day, since the ones we got for the day before were so late in the day (when the lines aren't that long anyway). We ended up getting passes for only about 11am, but it is still a pretty hot time of day so we took it.

We didn't ride this but I took a pic of it anyway. It is a cute area!

I thought the acorn lamp was adorable.

It was time for my DH's favorite treat so we stopped in to Pooh Corner. I always like watching them make the different treats!

I love the "hunny" pot caramel apple!

We ended up getting the plain chocolate Tigger Tail. I loved the actual Tigger Tail when the chocolate was orange flavored but now that it is just Sprinkles it's a lot of money extra just for the sake of it being orange colored.

We sat back at the Hungry Bear to eat our Tigger Tail, where the ducks get awfully close. In this pic I zoomed in but in the original you could see my chair and leg in the picture haha!

We made our way out of the incredibly crowded Critter Country, stopping in at the Haunted Mansion, and then back to New Orleans Square.

We had Fast Passes to ride BTMRR yet again so that was our next stop!

After that, we headed out this back way so I could get another one of my favorite pictures.

Continued in Next Post!

 

[MotoWifey185]

From there we went around to Fantasyland to see what the crowds were like. It was still crazy. This area is almost never slow!

When I play the Mad Hatter Tea Party song my dog always tilts her head and wags her tail so we always like to come here to listen to "Sophie's favorite song!"

We headed over to RRPP to get a couple of water cups to drink, and after we finished them we headed into Innoventions to escape the sun.

It was actually really crowded because of all the action character things they were doing. We have only seen Iron Man so I knew who that was but we didn't really care to be in there, so we didn't stay long.

By now it was about time to go over to Splash and use our Fast Passes we had so we slowly walked over there.

I always take an unnecessary amount of pictures of this area. This and over by GRR in DCA always seem to be my most photographed areas!

The food here actually sounds very good. BBQ chicken on a baked potato? We didn't eat here but we may check it out next time!

Gool ol' Splash Mountain...

We were sat in the front this time... so needless to say we got pretty soaked! I put my hair back in a pony tail so it didn't get all frizzy but it was so nice to have a wet shirt on to keep me cool!

Bye Splash!

DH suggested we check out Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln since we had never done that before, so off down Main Street we went!

Love this picture!

This picture is too adorable!

They were opening the theater just as we walked in.. perfect timing! So we went in and sat down. The show was pretty neat! Now I don't remember much of it but I do remember being glad we saw it.

After that we headed back out and decided to go grab some FP's to use for BTMRR later, and then went over this way... where we made "pouty" faces at Idiana Jones..lol!

We've never been in here before so into Aladdin's Oasis we wondered. This would be a nice place to sit and eat some yummy Bengal BBQ.

At this point it was pretty late in the day.. around 3pm and we were very hungry since we didn't eat anything for lunch yet. We decided to head over and have my bday dinner early to get out of the heat and crowds for a bit. So we headed over to Tomorrowland to ride the monorail.

And I will leave it off there. Next up we get a delicious late lunch and then drinks to follow. Yummm.