Boozin’ It Up 12/5-12/7 coming ASAP

[kaoden39]

That is so cool to see someone else from squarefield
Moved out when I made it in to college but I still visit my parents all the time.

It's funny we moved here on my fifth birthday. I cursed my parents my whole teenage years. And where do I pick to raise my family?

 

[cinderella-princess]

It for sure has a good location - in between San Fran and Tahoe. It's just so windy!

I love the trip report - we are going for my husbands (docter419) birthday in September and I'm so excited! I was on the fence about the whole "celebrate" theme because I love the year of a million dreams...but your pictures of the decorations are so cute!

 

[merrrydeath]

Oh my gosh! I have been without a computer for so long. I had to send it in to Dell to fix the motherboard and now it’s back thankfully! So sorry to leave you all hanging(if you even remember this report). This is becoming a pattern. Well, let me get right to updating. I’ll try to post the rest of Friday in as few posts as possible so we can get through this trip quickly.

So this is Friday March 6th(still) and it’s just after a wonderful time in Fantasyland, Critter Country, and New Orleans Square, followed by a delicious lunch at Carnation Café. Our next stop was Toon Town!

The first thing we did was get FP’s for Roger Rabbit. We had seen the queue before so we wanted to use the wait time for wandering around Toon Town. If you haven’t wandered before, it’s so much fun. You miss out on a lot of details like door pulls and buttons.

Mom took the time to workout a little..

When we went to Disneyland when I was a kid, my oldest brother was not very enamored with Toon Town. He so lovingly called the Jolly Trolley the Jolly Stupid Trolley. So this picture is for you, Evan!

We went to Mickey’s house to see him, but he must have been in his garage, because I had to answer the phone for him!

We made sure to find him though,

My mom said she was leaning away because she thought his ear was going to bonk her in the head

Next was Minnie’s house. I didn’t need to answer her phone but thought I would stick by it for a bit just in case..

Mom really wanted to try the ice cream..

We looked everywhere but unfortunately no Minnie(this is the second time she’s gotten away from us).

.

After we had wandered, the wait time on our FPs was up so we went and walked right onto the ride. Not exaggerating. We walked in, showed our FP’s and she had us sit right in a taxi. Mom got a little crazy with the spinning. It was a little too soon after lunch so I just sat there looking a little bit green like the slime. She was cackling so much I thought she might not be able to ever stop spinning!

After Toon Town, we had a bit of a predicament. I guess I gave us too much room in the schedule that I had made. We had finished lunch early, and we had no problems with crowds or lines. So we had managed to get ourselves an hour and a half ahead of schedule. We had really liked our schedule. I had used Ridemax a little as a guideline and then changed some stuff that I thought was silly(like riding Pooh and then dashing all the way to toontown). So when we were ahead of schedule, we got a bit flustered. I had tentatively put Aladdin down for Saturday, but I hadn’t been sure we’d make it, so I didn’t tell my mom about it. Well, it was around 1pm and I knew there would be a performance at 1:50pm, so I asked if she would like to do that. She was very excited and of course said yes. We had plenty of time to get to DCA and get seats, so we decided to do our next rides in Disneyland ahead of schedule. We rode Space Tours(one of mom’s #1 favorites) and after lunch and the spinning on Roger Rabbit, I felt a little queasy and had to shut my eyes for a lot of it. Yuck. I usually love it. Before we headed over to DCA, we grabbed fast passes for Buzz Lightyear(a ride we had not been on yet!)

We got into the Hyperion Theater right before 1:50 and chose seats in the Mezzanine. Here is our view:

I didn’t take any pictures while watching because I wanted to enjoy it, but what everyone says is true. This show is wonderful! We both loved it and laughed a lot at the Genie. Our seats were great for the carpet scene, they were right in front of us.

Since we were in DCA on a whim at this time(love those park hoppers) I thought we should grab some fast passes for Soarin’ for after our dinner that night and before we go back to Disneyland. It was almost 3pm and we needed a break but mom wanted to go back into Disneyland to buy some things she saw earlier but hadn’t wanted to carry around the park. On our way to the store there was CRUELLA! I definitely wanted to be in that line. I was very close to the front, but people kept cutting! One family just walked up and stood right next to her and the dad took a picture… they completely bypassed the line and didn’t even say anything to Cruella. She gave them the evil eye(though I think for real). Right after that, another family did the same thing and Cruella said nastily, “there’s a line!” and pointed to the back of it. Then I was finally able to come up and she said, “oh it’s your birthday huh? I like your two-toned hair”. I told her I liked hers as well.

Amazing.

So mom went and bought some cute kitchen items for my brother’s girlfriend and herself, lots of pens for her coworkers, pencils and notepads for herself, and a photo album for me. I was still browsing around for what I wanted to get my friends. After that we went back to the hotel for a lovely nap. So glad that Desert Inn is soo close.

I’ll let you peruse this and I’ll be right back with the rest of Day 1 in the park.

 

[merrrydeath]

Meredith, I wanted to tell you that I ended up getting the same Canon you got, and yesterday I was trying to get into reading the User Manual. First of all, I have to figure out if I have the right version of Windows to support the software. It said it requires XP or Vista, and I have XP on my PC, but the Canon info says something about XP 'second version' or some such thing. I don't know if mine is the second version!! My friend loaded XP on this PC for me a few years ago so I have to ask her if the this version will support the Canon software! I love the look of the camera and how it fits in the palm of your hand. I love the big screen. But once I saw that there were 3 manuals in the box that I had to read, I was daunted. I mean, as it is, the User Manual is something like 130 pages or more. Then there are two more manuals to contend with after that! I couldn't even get through the first manual. Do you find that it is 'information overload'? I can see now why a lot of people don't get terrific photos with some point and shoot cameras. It is probably not the fault of the camera; it is the fact that no one wants to do that much reading, and even if you did, who would remember all of those features at the time you are using the camera? People just want to point and shoot and move on! That is a big reason or getting a P&S as opposed to a DSLR or something - because they are easy to use and figure out. That is one of the reasons I got a P&S rather than a DSLR (aside from cost). I am too impatient and don't have the time at the moment to really study all the nuances of the camera and take advantage of all it has to offer. It would be good if the Canon case I also bought for the camera had room to accommodate the User Manual - then I could just take it with me and whip it out when I wanted to look something up. But there is no room for the manual in the case.

So I am not sure how in depth I will get with the picture taking features at this stage of the game. Maybe in the future. But for now, I will literally just be pointing and shooting!

Sorry it took me so long to respond to this! Yes it is a lot of information to take in. I wish I had a little bit more time to look at the manual before my trip, but despite that I was still really pleased with my pictures. I had never had any so crisp before. It was amazing in the sunlight and not bad at night(would have been better if I had studied that prior to leaving). I'd say if you are feeling daunted, go slowly. Look over the basics, get really well acquainted with the buttons, and then slowly move onto more technical stuff(starting with what you want to know most). I'm really glad I chose this one, and I hope it doesn't let you down.

Merideth!!!

I just spent about 25 minutes reading your TR and you and your mom are sooo adorable and I LOVE LOVE LOVE your hair and glasses SO CUTE ! Oh & I thought it was so funny to read your pre-tr because I bought the same shirt at the Disney Store (the white mickey mouse one)! IT was too cute to pass up, but I'm soo jealous about your polkadot flip flops So adorable.

I know I'm so behind on this post and you're probably going to get a lot of the same remarks from me that you've gotten from everyone else, but I want my chance to gush at your TR!

How wonderful that your mom set up goodies for you on your birthday! I've heard of that bakery in Los Gatos, my co-worker keeps wanting to take me there! I took him to a new place in Santana Row in San Jose that just opened up, Kara's Cupcakes. It made me so envious. I so want a cupcake shop of my own!

Its so wonderful that you walked on to so many rides! Its really fantastic. Oh and I HATE it when teenagers go on rides and get all immersed in their drama at DL. People pay so much money to go there and they just ruin it by being obnoxious and rude. It really drives me nuts!

I can't wait to read more about your adventure in toontown!

Ah! You're back! Amazing! I've been gone for a while since my computer was sick and it was soo difficult. The Dis on my phone is not very fun.

MMM Icing on the cake is so good. I really suggest you try it sometime. I've heard of Kara's Cupcakes and was JUST there last Monday but forgot to go. I also heard Sprinkles in Stanford Shopping Center was amazing, but I don't find many chances to go to Palo Alto.

The schedule I made really helped. I liked Ridemax but some situations it put you in were weird, so I'm glad my changes still worked. I'd really like to see how it works during the peak season.

Awesome trip report. When I go I have to booze it up at Uva and ESPN. Great pictures too, I love the pics of the drive down. Growing up in Fairfield, I know the I-5 very well.

I had thought about trying ESPN if there had been a Shark's game while there, so that my mom wouldn't miss it, but we really like Rainforest Cafe(which I'll get to in my next update).

I love the trip report - we are going for my husbands (docter419) birthday in September and I'm so excited! I was on the fence about the whole "celebrate" theme because I love the year of a million dreams...but your pictures of the decorations are so cute!

I loved the decorations! The balloons were adorable. My mom really wants to go back for her birthday in September, so hopefully we can do that with more of the family. Crossing our fingers.

 

[merrrydeath]

Just like I said, I'm finishing Friday.

After our nap, we were quite refreshed and we changed clothes for my celebratory birthday dinner at Rainforest Café.

I didn’t realize how far down the restaurant was in Downtown Disney. It was a good walk from our hotel to the end. Ok, one complaint about Rainforest Café: The waiting for a table is very confusing. We were a bit ticked off that no one would explain it to us very well. I went up and said that we had a reservation for 5:30pm and they handed me a white piece of paper with some numbers on it and said that I was checked in…what does that mean? They called us 5 minutes later and said we would be seated soon…ok…so then 10 minutes later our name was called again, they took our white paper, gave us another and said to go to the fish tank. At the fish tank, we were told to go to the podium upstairs, where we were finally taken to our table. It was very confusing. We shook it off though and perused the menu.

Shawn was our waiter and he was very nice and attentive. He and my mom made each other laugh a lot. Awkward, mom..

We both ordered the Cheetah Rita which was tasty tasty. First legal drink in a restaurant:

YUM.

We both ordered the Primal Steak. Mmmm…I forgot to take a picture until halfway through and that was after I had got primal on it and it wasn’t so pretty anymore. The steak was delicious and so were the potatoes. There was also this little cucumber salad with gold raisins that was yummy. I highly suggest it. We cleaned our plates.

Since it was a celebration, we got dessert. Bananas Foster. BOY WAS THAT HUGE!

Shawn singing happy birthday(creepy mom):

Blowing out the candles:

Mmm...we ravaged that.

With full stomachs, we waddled out of Downtown Disney so that we could use our fast passes for Soarin’

Not quite like the real one…

Next we used our fast passes for Buzz Lightyear(our first time)

Not amazing scores…

We had a lot of time left for the night so we walked around slowly, enjoying it. We did the castle walkthrough which was interesting but felt a little disjointed. Plus these two grown men would stand at the little viewing windows for the LONGEST time. Slowed down the line.

While we were in fantasyland, of course our favorite Dumbo was next:

We were on the purple elephant this time.

Here’s a funny little video:


Next was It’s A Small World. Word to the wise, the left line goes really slow. Try the right one. Lots of opportunities for pictures like this though

Pretty pretty. I liked the additions to this ride. The little characters were adorable and really blended well with the originals. I don’t understand the complaints. The little peter pan flying above was my favorite.

Mom was excited for her favorite ride ever after this…MAD TEA PARTY. She got to spin to her heart’s content again. Ready to go:

Concentrating:

It was really getting chilly after this, so our ride on Casey Jr. was interesting. Huddled next to each other in the brisk air. Thankfully it doesn’t go too fast.

It was delightfully warm in the queue to Pinocchio but it didn’t last long enough. This ride is kind of dark and creepy.

Snow White’s Scary Adventure really is scary… just sayin’.

Sorry for the lack of pictures here. I guess I was too cold to bring my hands out of their pockets. By this time it was 10pm. The park didn’t close until 12, but we were getting pooped and we still had another full day ahead of us, so we decided to get in line for Nemo and have it be our last. The line was long and slow like everyone has said. It about 30 minutes but the cold made it seem more agonizing. Our mantra became, “churro, hot chocolate, fudge, repeat” for what we were going to do when we got off.
So at 10:40pm we were off the ride… I don’t think I’ll be riding that again. Very disappointed, unfortunately. At least it was a little warmer in there.

We raced right to the churro cart near the partner’s statue for our warm and delicious churros, and then to coke corner for some hot chocolate. On our way down Main Street, mom bought fudge for my dad, and then we made our way out of Disneyland for the night.

Before bed, I took a billion Ibuprofen because my knees were not liking me at that moment… hopefully that wouldn’t be when I woke up on Saturday…

 

[DizNee Luver]

Glad you made it back!!!!! Loving the pics again!!

 

[Belle Ella]

So glad you're back. Love your TR. I totally feel you on the lack of night photos, it gets too cold and your hands hands. I had to do the ibuprofen before bed too. It really wrked wonders for me and was always feeling great the next morning. Can't wait for more.

 

[merrrydeath]

Glad you made it back!!!!! Loving the pics again!!

Me too! Wow, it's kinda hard to get back in the swing of things when you have to play catch up. Love you report(s) too!

So glad you're back. Love your TR. I totally feel you on the lack of night photos, it gets too cold and your hands hands. I had to do the ibuprofen before bed too. It really wrked wonders for me and was always feeling great the next morning. Can't wait for more.

It's good to be back. Ibuprofen did help a lot!

 

[Sherry E]

Yay, ibuprofen! I never go anywhere without my Motrin. I have too many problems with my back and legs to NOT carry it with me wherever I go! It is bad for the tummy if taken without food, but it is good for pain!

I wanted to agree with you about the details in ToonTown that you notice if you really take the time to stroll. I think ToonTown is underrated in terms of having that Disney magic we all love. Many people look at it as only being for kids or being located too far back in the park, or simply don't want to deal with the crowds that are packed into TT, so they miss out on a lot. Roger Rabbit's Car Toon Spin is one of my favorite DLR rides, actually. I love it. I can handle the spinning on that much more than I can handle the spinning on the Teacups. But when ToonTown is not crowded and you can walk through comfortably, you catch so many little hidden gems and jokes inside of jokes, inside of other jokes. Even at Christmastime, the wreaths in different sections of TT have different little decorations specific to that section. It is very well-thought out and executed. I love the Goofy plant/topiary that is over by the ToonTown park, I love the mini-Christmas trees that Mickey and Minnie have during the holidays - I love it all. And it is bright and colorful and god for photos. (A Bug's Land is also good for finding hidden gems and cute little details.)

Speaking of photos, since the Canon camera arrived I have not been able to fiddle around with it. I have been too busy working so it has been sitting in a box. Finally, today, I took the camera out, charged up the battery and began taking my 'test' photos on the handy Memory card supplied by Canon. I quickly mastered the art of zooming in and zooming out. I have to get used to this shutter, though. I am so used to using my old 35 mm camera that I could just click once and take a photo, and now with this new Canon, I had to press the darn thing a few times before it would snap something. I also get distracted by all the icons around the sides of the screen. I like a nice clear screen, except to see how many photos I have left. I don't like all that other business all around the screen. Also, I found it difficult to avoid hitting some functions while I was installing the battery, and the On/Off button is hard to push down. So it will all take some getting used to. I realize this! I am anxious to get outside and take some pictures in the sculpture garden over at LACMA, at the Tar Pits and around The Grove/Farmers Market. But it is currently in the 90's this week, and that is TOO hot for me to be out, roaming around. No way. I have to wait for the weekend, when it is supposedly going to drop to 70 degrees. But, I will agree with you on the clarity of the pictures. The 3 or 4 test pictures I snapped in my apartment were of various knick knacks and Mickey sculptures I have on this one shelf, and things of that sort. When I viewed the pictures in the camera (not on the PC yet), I was simultaneously pleased and aghast at the clarity of the photos - because they showed all kinds of dust collected on my Mickey statuettes - much more than I realized was there! The photos really illumninated that dust! So I definitely give the Canon SD880 a for clarity!! Maybe the clarity of the pictures is a little TOO good! My friends may not like it if I start snapping photos that show every blemish and wrinkle!

Anyway, I am eagerly awaiting the next installment of the TR!

 

[merrrydeath]

Yay, ibuprofen! I never go anywhere without my Motrin. I have too many problems with my back and legs to NOT carry it with me wherever I go! It is bad for the tummy if taken without food, but it is good for pain!

I wanted to agree with you about the details in ToonTown that you notice if you really take the time to stroll. I think ToonTown is underrated in terms of having that Disney magic we all love. Many people look at it as only being for kids or being located too far back in the park, or simply don't want to deal with the crowds that are packed into TT, so they miss out on a lot. Roger Rabbit's Car Toon Spin is one of my favorite DLR rides, actually. I love it. I can handle the spinning on that much more than I can handle the spinning on the Teacups. But when ToonTown is not crowded and you can walk through comfortably, you catch so many little hidden gems and jokes inside of jokes, inside of other jokes. Even at Christmastime, the wreaths in different sections of TT have different little decorations specific to that section. It is very well-thought out and executed. I love the Goofy plant/topiary that is over by the ToonTown park, I love the mini-Christmas trees that Mickey and Minnie have during the holidays - I love it all. And it is bright and colorful and god for photos. (A Bug's Land is also good for finding hidden gems and cute little details.)

Speaking of photos, since the Canon camera arrived I have not been able to fiddle around with it. I have been too busy working so it has been sitting in a box. Finally, today, I took the camera out, charged up the battery and began taking my 'test' photos on the handy Memory card supplied by Canon. I quickly mastered the art of zooming in and zooming out. I have to get used to this shutter, though. I am so used to using my old 35 mm camera that I could just click once and take a photo, and now with this new Canon, I had to press the darn thing a few times before it would snap something. I also get distracted by all the icons around the sides of the screen. I like a nice clear screen, except to see how many photos I have left. I don't like all that other business all around the screen. Also, I found it difficult to avoid hitting some functions while I was installing the battery, and the On/Off button is hard to push down. So it will all take some getting used to. I realize this! I am anxious to get outside and take some pictures in the sculpture garden over at LACMA, at the Tar Pits and around The Grove/Farmers Market. But it is currently in the 90's this week, and that is TOO hot for me to be out, roaming around. No way. I have to wait for the weekend, when it is supposedly going to drop to 70 degrees. But, I will agree with you on the clarity of the pictures. The 3 or 4 test pictures I snapped in my apartment were of various knick knacks and Mickey sculptures I have on this one shelf, and things of that sort. When I viewed the pictures in the camera (not on the PC yet), I was simultaneously pleased and aghast at the clarity of the photos - because they showed all kinds of dust collected on my Mickey statuettes - much more than I realized was there! The photos really illumninated that dust! So I definitely give the Canon SD880 a for clarity!! Maybe the clarity of the pictures is a little TOO good! My friends may not like it if I start snapping photos that show every blemish and wrinkle!

Anyway, I am eagerly awaiting the next installment of the TR!

Ibuprofen is my life saver. I'm pretty tall(5'8") and I reached that height in 7th grade...so I had a lot of crazzyy growth spurts that unfortunately left my knees kinda bad. They are a little too loose and my cartilage slides around a lot. Walking a lot hurts them.

Okay, I'm going to address your problem with the shutter button. It took some explaining for my mom to get it. When you take a picture, you want to point at your main subject and then hold the shutter button down halfway so it can focus. When it's focused on the main subject, you can go ahead and push the button down completely and it will snap a picture immediately. If you don't want the subject to be in the middle of the picture all the time(rule of thirds) you can focus on the main subject in the middle by pushing down halfway, and then when it is focused you can move the camera so the subject is somewhere else but still in focus. Then push the button down all the way and your subject will be focused but it won't have to be in the middle all the time. Sometimes if you go ahead and push the button down the whole way, the camera gets a little confused and tries to focus, which may be why is seems like it takes a while or doesn't take.

I hope that helps!

 

[Sherry E]

Ibuprofen is my life saver. I'm pretty tall(5'8") and I reached that height in 7th grade...so I had a lot of crazzyy growth spurts that unfortunately left my knees kinda bad. They are a little too loose and my cartilage slides around a lot. Walking a lot hurts them.

Okay, I'm going to address your problem with the shutter button. It took some explaining for my mom to get it. When you take a picture, you want to point at your main subject and then hold the shutter button down halfway so it can focus. When it's focused on the main subject, you can go ahead and push the button down completely and it will snap a picture immediately. If you don't want the subject to be in the middle of the picture all the time(rule of thirds) you can focus on the main subject in the middle by pushing down halfway, and then when it is focused you can move the camera so the subject is somewhere else but still in focus. Then push the button down all the way and your subject will be focused but it won't have to be in the middle all the time. Sometimes if you go ahead and push the button down the whole way, the camera gets a little confused and tries to focus, which may be why is seems like it takes a while or doesn't take.

I hope that helps!

Yes, thanks, Meredith! The shutter explanation (in layman's terms, not the terms of the Canon engineers!) does help. I was starting to get the hang of it but I can see that anyone I hand the camera to for photos - like a friend or a stranger - at DLR may screw that whole shutter thing up if they are not used to that function. People want to just press the shutter and go. It seems like everyone who handed me their digital cameras at DLR to have me take their picture had it already ready to go and all I had to do was click once. So maybe they did the whole shutter half-press deal first and got it ready for me to shoot? Well, I will cross that bridge when I get to it, I suppose! I know it is going to take good photos if I can see Mickey's dust that clearly!

 

[merrrydeath]

Yes, thanks, Meredith! The shutter explanation (in layman's terms, not the terms of the Canon engineers!) does help. I was starting to get the hang of it but I can see that anyone I hand the camera to for photos - like a friend or a stranger - at DLR may screw that whole shutter thing up if they are not used to that function. People want to just press the shutter and go. It seems like everyone who handed me their digital cameras at DLR to have me take their picture had it already ready to go and all I had to do was click once. So maybe they did the whole shutter half-press deal first and got it ready for me to shoot? Well, I will cross that bridge when I get to it, I suppose! I know it is going to take good photos if I can see Mickey's dust that clearly!

Well unfortunately, when you press down halfway you have to hold your finger there so the people who's cameras you have used might just be different. I'm sure it will be fine when handing your camera off. If they press down for a good few seconds it should take. I don't think you'll have to explain anything to them.

 

[DizNee Luver]

More.....More.....

 

[Belle Ella]

Well unfortunately, when you press down halfway you have to hold your finger there so the people who's cameras you have used might just be different. I'm sure it will be fine when handing your camera off. If they press down for a good few seconds it should take. I don't think you'll have to explain anything to them.

I would second that. Not to mention I think it's standard on most cameras to begin with, although I guess I cold be wrong. It's been so long since I've used a P&S or even an auto focus that I could always be wrong.

I'm waiting for more too!!

 

[merrrydeath]

Oof why does Saturday have to be so blurry? I’m lucky I wrote notes and had an itinerary to help remember. Otherwise I might have had to stop the report with Friday.

So Saturday was an early morning for us. I had planned on waking up at 6am but didn’t really get out of bed until 6:30. It was a MM so I figured the park will already be a bit crowded by the time we are allowed in, so I didn’t rush. I had breakfast of muffins/croissants and cold cold milk. Today my mom and I decided to wear our matching Mickey shirts that I bought us.

Despite the slow pace in the morning, we still managed to leave the hotel at 7:20am and we ended up having a bit of a wait at the gate until 8am when the park opened. When we were allowed in we walked up to Manny the photo pass photographer we had the day before and got our pictures taken in front of the Mickey head flowers and then slowly walked down Main Street. We’d had a fast-paced, full day on Friday so we needed a little rest. When we got to Fantasyland I was surprised to find it not nearly as busy as everyone claims it to be after a MM. The line for Peter Pan was incredibley short so we got on!

Neither of us remember if we had gone on the Carrousel together or not and since it was practically empty, we decided to head over there. We had to stop along the way though…

Neither of us was worthy apparently.

I think she is clapping, how adorable.

I had major issues with my bangs this day, I hope you can ignore them.

After the Carrousel, we were surprised to look over and see an empty line at DUMBO! What luck! I had no idea what was going on, where was the crowd of people that I was told to expect? Were they all really sleeping in? I don’t know, but if Dumbo has no line, we get on Dumbo.

We were feeling pretty lucky so we wandered over to get on Teacups. A very short wait! So the group before us was going and their turn ended and they got off. The CM in charge of the line comes to the gate and tells us the ride is down for the moment so if we can please exit…. What? It was just going…did someone puke? Oh well, we cross the way and get in line for Storybook Land.

About 5 minutes after getting in line… Teacups goes back up….um ok? We thought about getting out to go over there, but since we were already in this line we’ll just wait. Turns out they only have 1 boat out right now so it’s verryy slow going. Finally we see a CM go off and he returns with a second boat and the line was able to move quicker. It was adorable as always.

Next was a walk-on to It’s A Small World

I still liked the additions. I thought they were cute cute cute.

At this point, it was around 9:30 and we wanted to go to DCA when they opened, so since we were near the Toon Town train station, we figured we’d just get on the train to Main Street and walk over to DCA from there.

Waiting for the train to come,

It was a peaceful trip to the Main Street Station, if not a bit windy. Those wood seats are so slick my butt kept sliding down it. Weeird.

When we walked across the esplanade to DCA, it was already opened so we went right in and made our way to Condor flats for Soarin’. We got fast passes and then got in line for a 10 minute wait. I was sitting next to a girl who was going for the first time. It was really fun hearing her gasp and then giggle insanely. I still do the same even though I have ridden it many times.

Next we made our way to Hollywood Backlot which my mom had never really spent time in. First was Monsters Inc.

I had never ridden this either. We both found it very cute and fun.

Outside of the ride there was this wall that I fell in love with(yes you can fall in love with a wall).

I walked the length of it for a bit, looking at all the little details.

We were way ahead of my “schedule” so I knew we now had plenty of time to Disney Animation.

We both put our voices in a scene from Aladdin and into the song Heigh Ho. We felt a little embarrassed when people came in while we were listening to it. Hehe…blush.

We got caught by the Zoetrope for a bit and sat and watched. Very neat.

We occupied our time there waiting for the Animation Academy to begin…where we drew Mickey!

Oh mine was bad. My mom practices drawing this every once and a while. I find little Mickey doodles all over the place. Too cute.

Since soon enough my mom was going to see the construction walls and drained pier, I thought we should stop into the Blue Sky Cellar so she could see what they were planning for DCA to look like(and maybe so I could convince her for us to come again in the near future to see more updates to the park). I liked all the drawings and I like the idea of the trolley. I scored a perfect score on the little quiz thing!

It was about 11:45 am now and we were verryyy hungry so we made our way over to Taste Pilots Grill. I liked the way you order your food here. Seemed to make it very efficient(you get into one of many lines and give the cashier your order and pay, and then you continue in line to the counter where they bring your food right to you. No waiting for a number to be called or anything. I liked it.) I also liked the food. I had the B-2 BBQ Chicken Sandwich with the Flyby criss-cut fries. Mom had the Aviator Chicken Sandwich with the fries, and we both had ice tea. It was nicely filling and tasty. The fries were delicious. We sat outside in the shade and the weather was lovely. It was so relaxing, we stayed there for a little bit longer even after finishing our meal. But soon enough we were on our way to Bug’s Land.

 

[DizNee Luver]

You had great luck in Fantasyland!!!!! That's awesome!

Taste Pilot's Grill is a must every trip for us........very, VERY good!! Yum.....now I'm craving it!!

 

[Sherry E]

I also love the BBQ chicken sandwich at Taste Pilots Grill. Too yummy!

I think I did well on that quiz in Blue Sky Cellar too - I was giving answers to my friend as she pushed the screen. I know I was getting nervous because some annoying children had decided to look right over my friend's and my shoulders as we answered the questions, and I think my friend made the wrong choice at one point because they distracted her.

I know EXACTLY what you mean about the 'Sliding Butt Syndrome' on the train at DL!!! I have never heard anyone else address it until now, but I have had the same thing happen - and you know what I discovered? The seats on that train are different in the different cars. One time, on one of our last couple of trips to DLR, we were on the train (a nice, relaxing ride normally), and we sat on this darn bench that I kept sliding off of. I literally could not rest and stay on that seat. I established it was ever so slightly tilted, but you could barely tell. I was so annoyed because I had to use every muscle I had in my butt and legs to stay on the bench, whch did not make for a comfortable trip around the park. However, the next day, we rode the train again - in a different car - and I was wearing the same type of pants I had on the day before, made of the same material, and I had NO problem whatsoever with this bench and staying on it. I think these seats were not tilted in any way.

I am so glad to know I am not the only one who has experienced the SBS - Sliding Butt Syndrome!! The trouble is - I am not familiar enough with the look of the 'bad bench' to be able to avoid it and head for the 'good bench' in the future.

 

[merrrydeath]

You had great luck in Fantasyland!!!!! That's awesome!

Taste Pilot's Grill is a must every trip for us........very, VERY good!! Yum.....now I'm craving it!!

We did! I was really surprised after you hear all of this stuff about Fantasyland being busy ALWAYS. Especially Peter Pan, Dumbo, and Mad Tea Party

I thought Taste Pilot's was great counter food. The seating outside was also really nice with the weather.

I also love the BBQ chicken sandwich at Taste Pilots Grill. Too yummy!

I think I did well on that quiz in Blue Sky Cellar too - I was giving answers to my friend as she pushed the screen. I know I was getting nervous because some annoying children had decided to look right over my friend's and my shoulders as we answered the questions, and I think my friend made the wrong choice at one point because they distracted her.

I know EXACTLY what you mean about the 'Sliding Butt Syndrome' on the train at DL!!! I have never heard anyone else address it until now, but I have had the same thing happen - and you know what I discovered? The seats on that train are different in the different cars. One time, on one of our last couple of trips to DLR, we were on the train (a nice, relaxing ride normally), and we sat on this darn bench that I kept sliding off of. I literally could not rest and stay on that seat. I established it was ever so slightly tilted, but you could barely tell. I was so annoyed because I had to use every muscle I had in my butt and legs to stay on the bench, whch did not make for a comfortable trip around the park. However, the next day, we rode the train again - in a different car - and I was wearing the same type of pants I had on the day before, made of the same material, and I had NO problem whatsoever with this bench and staying on it. I think these seats were not tilted in any way.

I am so glad to know I am not the only one who has experienced the SBS - Sliding Butt Syndrome!! The trouble is - I am not familiar enough with the look of the 'bad bench' to be able to avoid it and head for the 'good bench' in the future.

Mmm...BBQ.

Sliding Butt Syndrome! Yes! I couldn't understand why I couldn't stay up straight. It was baffling. My pants weren't all that slippery either. This must be a secretly serious problem.

 

[blabbermouth]

haha, I love how you describe the interaction between your mom and the waiter at rainforest cafe!

How nice that you got lucky and fantasyland wasn't busy. But you really shouldn't tell people like me that because now I'm going to be saying "I'll just sleep a little bit longer... Merrydeath says fantasyland wasn't busy!"

 

[merrrydeath]

haha, I love how you describe the interaction between your mom and the waiter at rainforest cafe!

How nice that you got lucky and fantasyland wasn't busy. But you really shouldn't tell people like me that because now I'm going to be saying "I'll just sleep a little bit longer... Merrydeath says fantasyland wasn't busy!"

I wouldn't trust it at all! I'd say it's better to be early to Fantasyland. If you get lucky like we did, then you can speed through it and get to your afternoon nap sooner