Business Trip to San Diego? I'M GOING TO DIDNEYRAND!!!!!-April 2013 TR*Update 11/18

[DVCWDWMEMBER]

Hopefully when we put our heads together, we don't bang them together.

I'm game. I can jimmy just about anything if you give me the chance.

HAHAHA no banging of the heads..... jimmy away my girl

 

[IheartDDuck]

6 am on vacation IS tough; don't you just hate the guys when they get to sleep in because they don't have hair and makeup to do?!

Your food at Flo's looks really good!

6am is hard for me on a normal day. On vacation, I feel a little better about it, but not much.

Yes! Men are so fortunate. They don't have all of the beautifying to contend with.

HAHAHA no banging of the heads..... jimmy away my girl

I will try my best.

 

[IheartDDuck]

So we had successfully checked out of the Grand Californian at that point and had them holding our luggage. We weren't going to check into the Paradise Pier until later that day, so we headed back out and towards Disneyland!

This particular trip was timed really poorly. I say that because about two weeks before I left for the trip, it was announced that Disneyland took Space Mountain and the Matterhorn down due to an OSHA issue with hand railing. Not guest hand railing remember, it was hand railing that is used by maintenance associates. The Matterhorn reopened. Space Mountain stayed closed for a week after my trip as well.

This devastated me!



Space Mountain in Disneyland specifically is my favorite mountain. And I hadn't been back to Disneyland for 6 years.

No Mountain for you!



How did I console myself on this fine morning?

I walked down Main Street.



Took a left at Adventureland.



And got myself a Dole Whip!



Yes, it was 9:30am. But the Dole Whip line at Disneyland gets INSANE any later in the day. Like droves and droves of people insane. And I was depressed still about not being able to ride Space Mountain. And this made me feel much better.

Since we were in Adventureland and all, we decided that it would be a good time to ride Indiana Jones again.



That kid photobombed that picture and he didn't even know it.

Indiana Jones is one of my favorites in all of the Disney parks I've been to.



Okay, it was me. I was the one who looked into the eyes of Mara and I messed everything up. My bad!



I now would like to bring a challenge to everyone, and this can be used on Indiana Jones and Dinosaur. Don't hold on. At all. Like, the entire ride.

Jason accepted my challenge.





Yup, I did it. I looked again. Dangit!



Holy smokes! Let me tell you. Not hanging on makes the ride that much more fun. You basically just get jacked around all over the place. Jason and I were laughing maniacally the entire time.



After our enjoyable ride on Indiana Jones, we headed into Fantasyland to ride a classic that we can now only enjoy in Disneyland.





J. Thaddeus Toad.....I miss you.







At the end of the ride, Jason turns to me and says "okay....now we're dead".

Yup, because that's essentially how that ride ends. And I love it!

We were getting close to our reservation time at the Blue Bayou, but we had been hemming and hawing a little about whether or not we were going to do it. I'm gonna tell you why.

Blue Bayou is pretty expensive. AND while I wanted the Monte Cristo, what I REALLY wanted was the Monte Cristo from Cafe Orleans. Oh yes folks, I had done my due diligence, and they are very different. Very very different.

The boys were down with saving money (I mean honestly, most times we all are), so we headed over to Cafe Orleans to see if we could cancel Blue Bayou and get in there. The very nice CM at the hostess station helped us, cancelled our reservation, and put our names down. I think we waited only about 15 minutes and they let us in to seat us.

I'm going to tell you right now. I am so glad that we decided to change, because this food was RIDICULOUS! Like, gah! I can't even quantify the beauty of their Monte Cristo. So I'll just show you our pictures!

I got french onion soup. It's a favorite of mine.



Jason got Pomme Frites with Remoulade. So very yummy indeed.



Dad got gumbo. Man loves his gumbo.



My lunch. The Monte Cristo.



I think my arteries are clogging right now just by looking at it. What makes this one superior to the others for me is the berry puree. I'm a fan of sweet and savory together, and this just nails it. Like, so perfect. And of course, I asked for more puree, so that I could bathe in it if I wanted to.

Dad got a seafood jambalaya crepe.



And Jason got the chicken jambalaya crepe.



They both enjoyed theirs, but Jason agreed with me that mine was insane. And yummy. And that he should have just gotten mine. However, he lucked out, because I was only capable of eating half of that beast, so he was able to finish the rest.

I'm saying it again, that sandwich is EPIC!

Up next: A Submarine!

 

[DVCWDWMEMBER]

Here I go drooling all over my laptop again..... Awesome food pic..... I miss the Dole whip..... I am getting one or maybe two or three in January

 

[IheartDDuck]

Here I go drooling all over my laptop again..... Awesome food pic..... I miss the Dole whip..... I am getting one or maybe two or three in January

Two or three dole whips, look at you! I'm thinking one for sure and a plethora of other treats.

 

[DVCWDWMEMBER]

Two or three dole whips, look at you! I'm thinking one for sure and a plethora of other treats.

You are right I need to keep room in my stomach for other treats.

 

[IheartDDuck]

You are right I need to keep room in my stomach for other treats.

Yes, yes we do.

 

[emmysmommy]

Definitely Dole Whips are medicinal - they make you feel better! After years of going to Disneyland and WDW I finally had a DW this last trip. O.M.G. What have I been missing??? I'm an addict now. Bad thing since DLand is so close to my house. I can't even calculate the miles I will need to run.

Since you have me started on food... Pomme Frites at Café Orleans - simply remarkable! They have two kinds of monte cristos and I've had both - definitely prefer the ham and Swiss. You have to have two ramekins of that berry puree - you must I say!

Em and I split the Monte Cristo at Blue Bayou this summer and honestly, paying $8 more just to be inside the PotC attraction restaurant, not really worth it.

Argh! Too bad about SM not opening back up while you were there. Total Bummer!

 

[Poolrat]

So sorry about missing SM. Last year IJ was down for me so I have to go back....

I am not a big ham eater but I might have to just to try the Monte Cristo.
The submarine!!!!! I just got out of there.

 

[IheartDDuck]

Definitely Dole Whips are medicinal - they make you feel better! After years of going to Disneyland and WDW I finally had a DW this last trip. O.M.G. What have I been missing??? I'm an addict now. Bad thing since DLand is so close to my house. I can't even calculate the miles I will need to run.

Since you have me started on food... Pomme Frites at Café Orleans - simply remarkable! They have two kinds of monte cristos and I've had both - definitely prefer the ham and Swiss. You have to have two ramekins of that berry puree - you must I say!

Em and I split the Monte Cristo at Blue Bayou this summer and honestly, paying $8 more just to be inside the PotC attraction restaurant, not really worth it.

Argh! Too bad about SM not opening back up while you were there. Total Bummer!

Dole Whips are absolutely medicinal! You just had one for the first time?! I'm glad you're converted. Let's not even think about the miles we would need to run to burn them off.

The price was actually the main reason I switched it up. It was much more affordable at Cafe Orleans.

I was very depressed about SM. It's my favorite SM EVER!

So sorry about missing SM. Last year IJ was down for me so I have to go back....

I am not a big ham eater but I might have to just to try the Monte Cristo.
The submarine!!!!! I just got out of there.

Darn! We have to go back, such a shame.

I am not a huge ham eater either, but the Monte Cristo is insanely yummy.

 

[RGirl]

Whoa!!! I totally missed that you had updated.

Okay, the Dole Whip does look good. I have never tried one - they just don't seem that interesting to me. The DIS has rarely led me wrong before, however……

I SO want to try the Indy ride! DD was not tall enough last time. I think there is a VERY small chance that she might make the height cut-off in January. Fingers crossed!!!!

Cafe Orleans is near the top of my lists of places to try in January (saving Blue Bayou for July when my mom will be with us) - your pictures and descriptions just solidified that placement! YUMMMMMMMY!

 

[IheartDDuck]

Whoa!!! I totally missed that you had updated.

Okay, the Dole Whip does look good. I have never tried one - they just don't seem that interesting to me. The DIS has rarely led me wrong before, however……

I SO want to try the Indy ride! DD was not tall enough last time. I think there is a VERY small chance that she might make the height cut-off in January. Fingers crossed!!!!

Cafe Orleans is near the top of my lists of places to try in January (saving Blue Bayou for July when my mom will be with us) - your pictures and descriptions just solidified that placement! YUMMMMMMMY!

Ooohhh, you definitely have to get a Dole Whip. I like the swirled vanilla/pineapple one. Sometimes the pineapple flavor can be a bit on the strong side, and the vanilla adds a nice balance. But it's super refreshing.

I'm going to cross my fingers that Willow is tall enough to go on Indy this time!

Definitely go to Cafe Orleans, it is so so good. The food was amazing.

 

[IheartDDuck]

After completing our yummy yummy yummy (did I forget to say yummy?) lunch at Cafe Orleans, we headed over to Fantasyland to ride the Finding Nemo Submarine Voyage. Since this is something that is not at any other Disney park, I figured it would be appropriate.

The wait time was posted at 45 minutes, but we figured we had nothing else to do with ourselves, so why not?



So.........the wait was definitely 45 minutes. Oof. It was pretty bad though, because it's a lot of standing still.

I ALSO got sunburned while waiting in line. It may be because I was stupid and didn't put sunscreen on because my pea brain convinced itself that California sun is totally different than Florida sun.

I forget about this fact about me sometimes....



Eventually my burning skin made it aboard this.



Darla!!!







It was cute. Not necessarily worth 45 minutes for us, but I'm glad that we did it. You know, since I was still bitter about SPACE MOUNTAIN and all.

We headed into Innoventions at that point because they had the Iron Man display going on, which Joaquin LOVES. Too bad he wasn't there with us.







It was pretty crowded in that area.

I have to confess something at this point.

I almost lost my Popadon.



I know I know! Listen, this is my story, and I'm sticking to it. Pop was tired of waiting around Innoventions, so he said that he was going to head out and meet us at the exit. So Jason and I said "okay!"

Well when we finished, Jason and I got confused in Innoventions. There was some construction going on, and then they wanted to send us through this house model (I can't remember what it was called). So, we decided to avoid the house model and just go outside. Which we did. And Pop was no where to be found.

If you've been reading my July TR, you know that the men in my family don't answer their phone. Oh no, they carry a phone. They just don't answer it when you call them.

So I call Pop to find out where he is. And he doesn't pick up. I text him. He doesn't respond. We look around outside for him and he wasn't there. Jason heads back inside Innoventions and doesn't find him.

I ended up calling my Mom because I wanted to apologize in advance for losing her husband.

Finally, like 20 minutes later, my Dad comes out from inside Innoventions.

Yes, he did get this look from me.



Where was he and why didn't Jason find him in Innoventions? Remember that house model? That we decided to avoid.......

He was sitting in there the entire time.

Meeting someone "outside" does not mean sitting "inside" the house model that's still in Innoventions. But, everyone who loves my Pop will be happy to know that he was unharmed during this little snafu.

We decided that the best way to get over almost losing our Pop was to go on another spin on Buzz Lightyear. I was still smarting over the fact that my Pop won the last time.

Who won this time?

ME!



And what did Jason score?



Hahahahahahaha!

He only cried a little bit when his face scraped across the floor.



At this point, we decided that we would go and check in to Paradise Pier for our last night. One our way out we picked up FPs for Star Tours. Now, checking in at Paradise Pier meant that I needed to head back to the Grand Californian, get the car out of valet....

And drive it across the street. I know. Man, what a journey I had to go on.



This is literally the only picture I got of Paradise Pier. I don't know what my deal was! We got checked in fine, but our luggage still wasn't there from the Grand Californian. Bell Services had to call over to find out where it was. In the meantime, they gave us a ticket to take and said that as soon as it came over, they would bring it up. They actually managed to bring it over about 30 minutes later.

We all relaxed and I actually snoozed a little bit. I think I was pretty tired from the business trip I had at the beginning of the week. Plus, being on the West Coast and 2 hours behind my normal clock definitely didn't help.

At about 6:30pm, we headed back out of the room and back to Disneyland. Straight to Star Tours, because our FP window expired at 7:05pm.



We made it!



There was a teenage couple in front of us that loved my Dad. Like literally, they loved him. I don't know how it happened, but she was teasing her boyfriend, and my Dad chimed in on the conversation. She was like "why can't you dress nice like he does?" to her boyfriend and stuff. It was so funny. My Dad clearly makes friends everywhere. It also helps that the man is sarcastic. Wonder where I get it from, right?

This time around on Star Tours we ended up on the Wookie Planet and battled Boba Fett. Much better than a stupid pod race.

We were hungry at that point, so we headed over to the Corner Cafe to get some hot dogs.

Mine.



Jason's mac and cheese hot dog.



I just mentioned this on another TR, but I'm just not down with this complicated hot dog stuff. It's just weird to me. I am a Chicagoan, and while some would argue that because I put ketchup on my hot dog that I'm not a true Chicagoan, but here is my list of acceptable, Chicagoan approved toppings for your hot dog:

Relish
Mustard
Onions
Ketchup
Pickle
Sport Pepper
Celery Salt

Done. The way it should be eaten! You can use any of those combinations you would like.

We also got this lovely lemon strawberry cupcake from the Jolly Holiday bakery.



It was pretty good. But I did find that the DLR cupcakes aren't as good as the WDW ones.

I wanted to see the fireworks and they were going to be starting fairly soon. So, rather than waiting for a long time for things, we hung out in Tomorrowland.

And rode this again.



We may or may not have some issues with being competitive......

My score was shameful this time.



Jason's was far superior.



I just don't like this version. I'm all discombobulated when I ride it. I like my WDW one. I'm sad. Haha!

Seeing as though Space Mountain wasn't open (think I'm a little bitter?), we headed into the arcade.

Where we found Fix It Felix games that were free!!!!!!



Of course we had to play the games for a while! It was so cute. And such a good idea that the games were free.

We wandered around Main Street for a little while to waste time before the Remember Dreams Come True fireworks started. I was looking forward to them. I only took pictures of Tinkerbell.



Because I wanted to enjoy the fireworks. And Tinkerbell flies so much more during these! I forgot about that point. But my absolute favorite thing about this? Is the fact that when you leave the park, they play Remember When, which is my absolute favorite Disney song.

For your own good, please click the link below.

REMEMBER WHEN

It makes me tear up. Every time. The first time they released this was during the 50th anniversary of Disneyland that my Mom and I were fortunate enough to see. And it made me cry like a baby back then. This may or may not be on my iPod loop often.

Up next: Our last morning on our short little trip.

 

[emmysmommy]

First I have to say that if you only inherited sarcasm from your dad that's all good because I love it!!!

I'd say you were only slightly competitive for Buzz! You guys are hilarious! I'm the opposite of you, I much prefer the Buss laser blasters at D-land since you can pick them up and aim better. Perhaps that is just a statement regarding how poorly I actually do with that attraction.

Your poor dad, was he waiting "outside" the Dream Home in Innoventions? (If you happen to catch the Peter Pan story telling time that is always fun with all of the magical touches.) You need to get a tracking chip on him!

Ahhh the hot dog debate! I'm a mustard only gal myself. I don't need anything else. Award Wieners across from the Animation Building at DCA has some "plain" dogs.

Love the Remember When as well.

 

[IheartDDuck]

First I have to say that if you only inherited sarcasm from your dad that's all good because I love it!!!

I'd say you were only slightly competitive for Buzz! You guys are hilarious! I'm the opposite of you, I much prefer the Buss laser blasters at D-land since you can pick them up and aim better. Perhaps that is just a statement regarding how poorly I actually do with that attraction.

Your poor dad, was he waiting "outside" the Dream Home in Innoventions? (If you happen to catch the Peter Pan story telling time that is always fun with all of the magical touches.) You need to get a tracking chip on him!

Ahhh the hot dog debate! I'm a mustard only gal myself. I don't need anything else. Award Wieners across from the Animation Building at DCA has some "plain" dogs.

Love the Remember When as well.

Mom is sarcastic too, but not to the degree that my Dad is. So I attribute it mostly to him.

I thought that I'd like the whole removable laser part, but I just can't score as high on that as I can on the one in WDW. Hence the reason I like it less. Haha!

We do need to install a tracking chip in that man. He does tend to disappear at times.

Totally okay to like mustard only. My Dad only takes mustard and onion on his, and when there's no onion around, it's mustard. But man, it can certainly create some debate, the hot dog toppings.

Ach, Remember When just kills me.

 

[CarolynK]

I agree about the Blue Bayou, plus I never did like the darkness in there!

Your food does look good!

 

[IheartDDuck]

I agree about the Blue Bayou, plus I never did like the darkness in there!

Your food does look good!

I like the atmosphere of the restaurant, because it's kind of like the San Angel Inn at WDW, but the prices just were a little steep for the budget we were trying to stay on, so I made an executive decision. Plus, the food was really good.

 

[DVCWDWMEMBER]

I don't do hot dogs too often but when I have on it's mayo for sure .
I am a mayo freak..... love it, love it

 

[IheartDDuck]

I don't do hot dogs too often but when I have on it's mayo for sure .
I am a mayo freak..... love it, love it

You don't have to tell me you're a mayo freak, you know I'm pretty much with you all the time.

And that although I am also a mayo freak, it just doesn't fit on my hot dog.

 

[TinksThree]

I am on a roll catching up tonight!!

My iphone so DOES NOT take pictures like that!! My pictures are always so bad...but I do only have a 4S so maybe that's it. But those night pictures are great!! I would be bummed about Space Mtn with you! If you are there often then it being down isn't too terrible but when you don't get there for years at a time...