Club 33 (No, Not that Club 33)-A Trip Report -1/21 Bonus! (Club 34)

[Eight]

Part Two:

I was kind of feeling down about life and other things a few nights ago, so my mom suggested we take a look at planning some stuff to do when we're at Disneyland.

I'm going to make an analogy here, because I'm pretty good at them, and was a little upset when they took them off the SAT. Because I probably would have aced them. I mean, I still did pretty well, but anyway.

Rachel : Disneyland :: Dumott : Car ride

Let me explain. My dog, Dumott, absolutely loves going on car rides, so whenever you say the word "car ride" to her, she perks up. Her ears go up, her tail starts wagging, and she starts doing this little wiggly dance or as much of a dance as a dog can do. It's pretty cute.

I'm the same way when you say the word Disneyland, except my ears don't have that sort of mobility, I have no tail, and I don't dance as I would embarrass myself. But I'm pretty sure what's going on in our brains is pretty similar.

"Car ride? I get to go on a car ride? YES! LIFE IS AWESOME!"

"Disneyland? I get to go to Disneyland? YES! LIFE IS AWESOME!"

So despite the fact that I had been feeling kind of depressed, I cheered up some when my mom suggested planning stuff for Disneyland.

And once again, it was my mom who suggested making a dining reservation, because as she said "We never do that".

Which you now know is true because I spent like a page explaining that.

We looked over the menus of all the restaurants in the parks, the hotels, and Downtown Disney.

And somehow, we decided we should do a breakfast, which also totally out of character because I really, really hate getting up before 9. Though I'm willing to do it at Disneyland/Disney World.

We thought the breakfast at Storyteller's Cafe sounded the best, because banana stuffed french toast? I am so there. Plus, it's at the Grand Californian, so we wouldn't have to go too far.

But then I saw the link for character dining on the Disneyland website. And even though I'm twentyone, and probably should have outgrown this by now, I love seeing characters. And getting my picture with them. And even though I knew I would already be seeing characters at Storyteller's Cafe, I could not resist clicking the link. I'm just cool like that.

And then I clicked the link for PCH Grill, and the picture with Stitch handing a card to a little girl came up, and I was sold. I love Stitch. He's one my favorite characters, well actually, he's probably my absolute favorite. So how I could I resist the allure of a character breakfast where I could probably see Stitch? Besides, according to the Disneyland dining website, it said "Join the lively Chip 'n Dale Critter Breakfast for an unforgettable experience filled with music and lots of interactive fun featuring some of your favorite woodland friends." What does that even mean? Who are my favorite woodland friends? Besides Chip 'n Dale. Who I'm not a big fan of anyway.

You can see the dilemma here. Storyteller's Cafe had the better sounding breakfast, but PCH Grill had Stitch. What is a person to do?

The answer?

Book both of them. Why not? We never do this kind of stuff, so why not go all out? Why not do two character breakfasts even though I'm twentyone? Why not?

We also decided on having dinner at Cafe Orleans. I would have liked to have eaten at Blue Bayou, simply for the ambiance, but there's really nothing there that sounds like something I would eat. I'm kind of a picky eater. Even Cafe Orleans is a bit iffy, I think I'll probably just end up having a salad and their fries. Although now I'm debating whether or not I should change that reservation to Storyteller's Cafe for dinner, as their four cheese ravioli sounds really good. We'll see.

So here's what our dining schedule looks like.

Tuesday at 6:30 - Dinner at Cafe Orleans
Wednesday at 9 - Breakfast at PCH Grill
Thursday at 9:30 - Breakfast at Storyteller's Cafe

And so not to leave this completely picture-less, here's a photo taken from our room the last time we stayed at the Grand Californian. I don't think we'll get a good of view this time, but I can dream.

 

[Eight]

To be honest, there's not too much to update about. So here are a few mini updates.

-We reserved our picnic meals, although that was a rather annoying ordeal that took several days and involved much swearing at my computer. I won't go in to it. My mom is getting the American and I'm getting the European.

-Then there was the fact that we wanted to do the Premium Viewing for Fantasmic! only to call and find out that it won't be playing when we're there. Whoops. My mom and I both swear we saw it on the entertainment calendar on the Thursday we're there, but I guess we were both just hallucinating. Or more likely, looking at the wrong day. I'm crossing my fingers that they extend it, because didn't they do that last year?

-I was pretty excited to get the mail one day, and find something from Disney. It was the vacation planning DVD. I haven't watched it though, as I'm pretty sure it wouldn't tell me anything I don't already know.

-I was sorting through old photographs last week, and I found several from Disneyland trips when I was a kid, which made me excited. Here's one of them.

There are two things I would like to mention about this photo.

1) My mom is still able to spin the teacups faster than anyone I know
2) I still always try and get a yellow teacup

-I went to the bookstore and concluded that there really wasn't any Disneyland books I didn't already have. I did, however, buy a mini notebook to keep in my bag so I can take notes for my trip report.

And I think that's all I have to say. I'm actually leaving for another trip on Tuesday, so I probably won't be updating when I'm gone, and when I get back, it'll only be a week until I leave! I'm excited.

 

[DizNee Luver]

Loving all the little updates & old pics!!

You picked 3 good meals!! Loved both of those character meals.....and age doesn't mean a thing at Disneyland. Also Cafe Orleans is one of my favorites.....soooooo good!!

Your doggy is so cute!!

Keep the old pics coming.....absolutely love seeing the changes Disneyland has made over the years!

 

[Eight]

Loving all the little updates & old pics!!

You picked 3 good meals!! Loved both of those character meals.....and age doesn't mean a thing at Disneyland. Also Cafe Orleans is one of my favorites.....soooooo good!!

Your doggy is so cute!!

Keep the old pics coming.....absolutely love seeing the changes Disneyland has made over the years!

Oh good, I'm glad to hear I picked good meals. Like I said, I've never really done dining at Disneyland, so I'm excited!

Thanks! She's a pretty sweet little dog.

I have some more old pictures coming up. I absolutely love old photos, especially seeing what people were wearing 15 years ago!

 

[Eight]

Man, it's been almost two weeks since I last logged on.

My family along with some friends of ours went to Maui for a week, which was so nice. I had a really great time. I can't resist sharing a few photos while I type up the next update, so hopefully you'll enjoy them.

Coming up next: I'm leaving in 3 days? Wait, what?!

 

[deejdigsdis]

GREAT PICTURES! Love the beautiful sun.

 

[Eight]

GREAT PICTURES! Love the beautiful sun.

Thanks! The sunsets were so gorgeous. It's been pretty disappointing to come back to Seattle where it's been pretty grey the past few days.

 

[Eight]

I have a big confession to make.

Despite the fact that I leave in two days, I don't feel excited at all.

What's up with that? I was so excited before, but lately, it's been a little like, "eh, I'm looking forward to going, but I'm not exactly excited.." I'm almost certain that once I land at LAX, if not as soon as I get on the airplane, I'll be completely thrilled, but until then...

Well, until then, here's some old photos.

This is from my second trip to Disneyland at age 3. As you can see, just like I always wanted the yellow teacup, I also always wanted the yellow Dumbo.

I'm not sure where this one was taken. I know it has to be Disneyland, but I don't know where this cutout was. Anyone know?

Haven't seen the Beast out in Disneyland in quite some time. You can still see him at Disney World, right?

From my third trip at age 4. I'm the one making the Home Alone face. I love this photo, because I think it still really represents who I am. You know, that weird girl who makes silly poses, while everyone else pretends not to know her.

Also from that trip. I look a little scared of Mickey Mouse. I remember not being too fond of the characters as a kid.


If I have time later today or tomorrow, I'd like to write a list of all the things I want to make sure I do.

 

[Eight]

In about three hours, I'll be on a plane to California!

Now I'm getting excited.

But first I have to go finish all the last minute packing stuff.

Take care!

 

[Eight]

Alas, I am back home.

And exhausted.

It was a really, really great trip though. I had a wonderful time. Granted, there were a few not so great moments, but luckily, the good far outweighed the bad.

I tried to take lots of notes and pictures so I could remember it all for the trip report. I think I took around 800 pictures, though a lot of those are blurry firework and ride photos. But I think I got some pretty decent ones too.

I'm really looking forward to writing this trip report, I just hope I can remember everything!

 

[Eight]

Alright, let's get this trip report started!

At first, I thought I should make some sort of disclaimer, as if to apologize for this being my first trip report and maybe it won't be any good and etc. But hey, if this is terrible, it's terrible. It's an experiment, and the great (or not so great, depending on how you look at it) part about experiments is that you never know what the end result will be. So I'll do my best, and hopefully we'll end up with a good end result. Or not so good.But there's only one way to find out.

Er, so much for not having a disclaimer. Sorry about that.

Um, anyway.

Let's start, shall we?

I began my journey at 6:00 AM on the morning of August 31st. It was a grey, overcast Seattle morning, and I was happy to know that I would soon be in warm California sunshine.

Well, I was as happy as one can be at 6 AM in the morning. So maybe I wasn't that happy. More like mildly pleased.

I don't remember much about this morning, except that I took these pictures of my Vinylmation collection. I planned on trading my duplicates, and I wanted to have a reference to make sure I didn't trade for any I already had. This ended up being a really great idea.

Soon we were on the road to the airport at about 8:15. We had allowed extra time for traffic, but luckily we didn't encounter much. If this were some book you were reading for a school class and I was the teacher, I would tell you to make note of that fact, as this theme would come up again. Oooh, foreshadowing.

Not much to say about the airport. Check in went quickly, though security was rather slow. I remember I was a little annoyed because just when I was about to put my bags through the x-ray machine, not one, not two, but three pilots got in front of me. I told my mom I would have been okay with two pilots cutting, but three was pushing it. Hey, I've got places I need to go too, man!

Maybe not as important as flying the plane, but still pretty important. Didn't they know I was going to Disneyland? Hm. Apparently not.

Anyway, we got through security, bought some bagels for lunch on the flight, and headed to our gate. We figured we'd timed it perfectly, so that when we got there, they'd be almost ready to board and we wouldn't have to wait too long.

Of course, we all know happens when you figure you time things perfectly.

We arrived at our gate, only to discover that there was no plane there. Hm. Weren't we supposed to board in like two minutes?

So we waited. And waited. And I went over and took some pictures of this cool sculpture thing they have in that terminal. I've always loved it, and I rarely get to see it since I'm rarely flying airlines that fly out of this end of the terminal.

And then we waited some more.

Okay, we really didn't wait all that long. Maybe 20 or 30 extra minutes? Not as bad as some delays I've had, like the time I was stuck at LAX for eight hours. That was killer.

Eventually our plane arrived, and we watched them load the baggage as we waited to board. I felt bad for some random people, as their bags were left on top of the luggage car in the rain. Hope they were waterproof!

The flight was pretty uneventful, although there were a ton of noisy little kids around us, and I'm sure you know how fun that is. The good part was that we were flying Virgin, which I love because they have those TVs in the back of the seats. I actually hate flying, so they're a pretty good distraction for me. And the other good part was that we landed not much later than we would have if that plane hadn't be late due to strong tailwinds.

I wish I had had my camera when we flew in to Los Angeles. I could see the Getty and the Hollywood sign.

And the smog.

Oh man, it was pretty smoggy.

It was rather bittersweet flying in though. I went to school down there last year, and I'm taking a break right now for a variety of reasons. So it felt pretty weird flying to this place where I used to live, knowing I wasn't coming back. I'm pretty sure we flew over my school, though I was on the wrong side to see it, and I'm slightly grateful I didn't see it, as I think it would have made it harder. I hadn't told any of my college friends that I was coming down, though I really debated it. In the earlier stages of planning, I had thought about inviting one of them to come or trying to visit them on Friday. In the end, I decided that as much as I wanted to see them, it would have made my decision of not coming back this semester more difficult.

We landed, got our baggage, and took the shuttle bus the Advantage to get a car. I was excited to see that our licsence plate was 6HUN###. I immediately starting singing I'll Make a Man Out of You, and named the car Shan Yu. After making a quick stop at Trader Joe's to get some bottled water and snacks for the room, we were on our way to Disneyland!

The traffic was a little heavy in places, but definitely not too bad for LA, as we made it in pretty good time.

Soon signs for Disneyland started popping up, and I grabbed the camera.

We made it!

I love the balloons they have in front of the parking garage.

And I love the palm trees.

And I really love this sign!


Coming up next: Wait, did something happen? Where is everyone?

 

[Belle Ella]

You're off to a great start if you ask me. Then again, I don't know how a TR could go wrong when photos are inlcuded. I can't remember if I asked you this before, but what kind of camera did you use on your trip?

That's pretty cool to see all of the things it's made out of (especially Mickey Mouse)! Although I'm still scared of the cymbal monkey guy. Seeing TS3 gave my nightmares, I wont lie.

 

[Eight]

You're off to a great start if you ask me. Then again, I don't know how a TR could go wrong when photos are inlcuded. I can't remember if I asked you this before, but what kind of camera did you use on your trip?

That's pretty cool to see all of the things it's made out of (especially Mickey Mouse)! Although I'm still scared of the cymbal monkey guy. Seeing TS3 gave my nightmares, I wont lie.

Thanks. I love trip reports with pictures, so I tried to take a lot. I only brought my Canon PowerShot G9, which I really like. It does pretty well for a point and shoot. I thought about bringing my Canon 50D, but I'm glad I didn't, because I was in the parks all day, and just carrying my tiny backpack hurts my shoulders after a while. Although staying at the Grand Californian, it would have been really easy to drop off, but maybe next time.

The cymbal monkey is pretty creepy, and I think the flash makes him look even worse. The sculpture used to move back and forth and all the parts would move (including the cymbal monkey clapping his cymbals!) but I haven't seen it do that in a long time.

 

[Eight]

Ah yes, we had arrived at the Grand Californian.

I had mentally prepared myself for crowds at Disneyland, but I was still a bit shocked at how many cars were pulled up in front of the hotel. I didn't get a picture, but I think there were three lanes, with several cars in each lane. My excitement at arriving suddenly turned to fear. If all these people were checking in, then surely the parks must be jammed. I mean, I was sure there were going to be crowds, but something about all these people in front of the hotel had me worried that it might be even more crowded than I had anticipated.

Upon stepping in to the hotel, my mood changed once again. There is something so wonderful about walking in to your hotel to check in on your first day of vacation. For me, it feels as though I've finally arrived, and there's so much potential to be had! I had two full days ahead of me, and who knows what could happen during those two days! It's such an exciting feeling.

Not much to be said about check in. It was pretty standard, but as I wrote down in my trip notebook, everyone was so friendly. I had definitely arrived at Disney.

Although, I must say, can we please stop with this whole "Disney's best kept secret" nonsense? My mom and I have to joke about it every time, it's not a secret if you keep advertising it everywhere!

Anyway.

While my mom went to park the car, I took some pictures of the lobby. I must admit I had a rather hard time getting decent pictures. I blame it on the lighting.

We then headed up to our room which was on the 6th floor. Our room was at the end of the hall, and we were told we would have a view of the courtyard, but it really was more a view of the roof.

But you could see the monorail if it passed through!

The crazy part about our balcony was that you could very easily climb on to the roof from it.

See? Weird, right? My mom and I both thought that was really strange. What if you had children prone to climbing and exploring? Luckily we had no children prone to climbing and exploring, but I don't know, it seems like it could be dangerous.

I lined up all the Vinylmation duplicates I had brought to trade.

And here's my trusty park bag. I bought it when I went last summer for five days, and I love it. It's the perfect size for me, I can fit a sweatshirt, my camera, my wallet, my phone with plenty of room to spare. And of course, I have some Vinylmation Jr. attached to a zipper, as well as my Honorary Citizen of Disneyland button. I'll admit it, I love that button.

We didn't stay in the room too long, I'm sure I don't have to explain why.

We headed down to the entrance to California Adventure, where I had the most thorough security inspection of my bag I've ever had. Normally they just shine the flashlight in, and call it good, but this woman asked me to move items around and looked under my sweatshirt. It seemed in general that security around California Adventure was heightened. I feel like I saw more security people at California Adventure than normal. Later I saw what I assume were bomb sniffing dogs around Paradise Pier and on my hotel floor one time when we were coming back to the room. That was a bit weird. I didn't notice anything like that at Disneyland though, so I wonder if it had anything to do with World of Color? Just thought that was interesting. But let's change subjects since thinking that there even needs to be security at Disneyland is kind of a mood killer.

Once we were in the park, we went to the left, toward Soarin', as we planned on getting Fast Passes. As we rounded the corner, we noticed something that seemed a little bit off.

Where was everyone?

 

[where's_my_prince]

subscribing!!! fellow vinylmation lover!!

 

[Eight]

subscribing!!! fellow vinylmation lover!!

Yay, welcome!! You can expect more Vinylmation pictures, because of course, I had to take a photo every time I got one. I'm a little addicted... It's nice to meet someone who else who loves them too. Do you have a favorite one?

Also, would it be safe to guess you're also a Princess and the Frog fan?

 

[Eight]

Alright, another chapter! Just ordered my Photopass CD today, and I made a calendar using the photos from this trip, plus some old ones. I'm excited for those to arrive, and you can be sure I'll be sharing them when they do.

So where were we?

Ah, yes.

Where was everyone?

The area around Soarin' was empty. It seems like this area never feels as crowded as, say, Adventureland, but this was a little weird. There was no queue outside, in fact, the sign said the line was only 5 minutes. I've seen 10 minute waits before, yes, but never 5.

Of course we got in line. We walked straight in to the building, and let me just say, I have been in Fast Pass lines for Soarin' longer than the line I was in right then.

Although, I'm pretty sure we ended up waiting more than 5 minutes. You know how Soarin' is, it takes forever, even with a Fast Pass. You have to wait in the first line, then you have to wait in the next one before you get to your terminal, then you have to wait for the video to start in your terminal...

I'm pretty sure we waited, I don't know, 5 whole extra minutes.

Anyway, as we were waiting in the second queue area, I was trying to figure out where we'd be seated. Guessing by the number of people in front of us, I figured we either be in the last row of the side section, not so great, or the front row of the center section, fantastic.

Guess what.

We got front row center!

I was thrilled. I think I've only ridden in this row once before, and my mom had never (and this is one of her favorite rides), so we were both excited. I think I was way more excited than my mom, but then, that's normally how it is. I get so excited about the littlest things at Disneyland.

Side Story: I used to refuse to go on Soarin' for the longest time. Not because I have a fear of heights or anything like that, I just thought it wasn't thrilling enough. Which is kind of funny, because it's not exactly like any rides at Disneyland are really thrilling compared to some of the roller coasters I've ridden. Then I was listening to music on my iPod one day, and I fell in love with the soundtrack. So I suggested we go on it a couple of years ago, and my mom was like "who are you, and what have you done with my daughter?" And ever since then, I've like it. I'm not really sure what the point of this story was except that Disney music is amazing and can influence me way too easily?

Have I ever mentioned how much I love Disney music? I really, really do. In fact, I'm listening to my Disney playlist right now. It just makes me feel so happy.

Anyway, enough talking, let's see some pictures!

As you can probably tell from this picture, after Soarin' we headed over to the Backlot, and it was pretty empty.

My mom and I kept looking at each other and asking "did something happen in the world that we don't know about, and that's why there's no one here?"

Because we were expecting crowds. Big crowds. And this? This was not a big crowd. I could walk around without dodging strollers and small children. So you know, pretty uncrowded.

Our first stop was Off the Page, since that's probably my favorite store at Disneyland. I'm not sure what we did there, all my notes say is "Off the Page". So we went and looked around? Probably. That would make sense.

Next was Muppet Vision 3D, which for the longest time I used to insist on viewing every time we came, but then I guess I got tired of it or something, because I hadn't seen it in probably two years.

I found the key!

I love the Muppets, I really do, but I kind of wish they would update this movie. It's cute, but it's getting a bit old. Plus, Waldo annoys me. A lot. And Animal is not in it at all! What's up with that? So sad.

I wanted to go on Monsters, Inc next but alas, it was closed.

I really liked these posters that were on the wall blocking off the entrance to Aladdin and Tower of Terror.

According to my notes, we went to Off the Page again. Yes, again. This was just the beginning of the many stops I would make there. I told you I loved it. Though I'm not totally sure why we went back a mere 20 minutes later, but okay. I'm sticking with my notes. I do know I did a blind Vinylmation trade, and got this Urban 4.

As you can see, he's pretty beat up, which I didn't notice at the time (this photo was taken later). Eh, what can you do? Luckily, I didn't get any more beat up ones in the trades I would make later.

Wait.

Now I remember why we went to Off the Page again. It was because we were waiting for the next showing of Turtle Talk with Crush. Aha. Now it all makes sense, right? Kind of.

This was the first time I'd seen Turtle Talk with Crush in, I don't know, forever! I think I've only seen it once, maybe twice before, and I honestly don't remember when that was. I think it might have been 7 or 8 years ago. I just never feel like waiting for the next show, as the waiting area is usually crowded with a ton of little kids. Yeeah.. I'll be honest, little kids make me nervous. That doesn't sound mean, does it? I mean, I'm fine with them most of the time, but I can't stand it when they start yelling or crying or doing the loud things that little kids tend to do. It kind of freaks me out.

But anyway.

Turtle Talk with Crush was soo cute! Why hadn't I done this sooner? I loved the interaction with the audience, cause I'm a sucker for that kind of stuff, but the animation, and the voice, and everything was just so cool! It was hilarious, because near the beginning of the show, Crush was talking about how fast turtles could swim, and when it came to the part where he let the kids ask questions, not one, but two kids asked how fast he could swim. Very funny.

We decided then we'd head back to the room to put on long pants, and then go over the Disneyland. If you remember (which I don't expect you to ) we had a reservation at Cafe Orleans at 6:30.

Well, we got distracted.

We passed by Storyteller's Cafe on our way back to the room, and "let's just look at the menu" turned in to "wow, that looks really good" which turned in to "hey, it's pretty uncrowded", which then turned in to "why don't we see if we can eat here instead?"

It was around 5:30, I believe, and the place was empty. You see the theme here? We were able to get a table with no problem.

See? Empty.

The service was great, and our food arrived very quickly. Sorry, I don't do food porn, so I don't have pictures of the food, but I think I have a picture of something even better.

Oh yes, the Magical Star Cocktail. It was pretty amazing, mainly because it came with a glow cube in the drink that changed colors. I was so entertained by that. Seriously. I still have it. The drink itself was good too. It was my favorite type of alcoholic drink, you know, the kind that doesn't actually taste like it has alcohol in it.

Here's a video of the drink changing colors, so you can see how truly awesome it was.



The food was delicious too. I had the ravioli, while my mom has the chicken quesadillas and the corn chowder, I believe.

My conclusion of Storyteller's Cafe: Why in the world have we not eaten here before?

Seriously, it was probably one of the best meals I've had at Disneyland.

With our stomachs full, we went back to our room to change and go to Disneyland. For real, this time.

Coming up next: Short lines and fireworks

(Hope I'm not dragging this out too much. I just have a tendency to ramble, and focus on unimportant details.. )

 

[SurfinTX]

I love how you flew out of the dreary weather and into sunny California.

Looks like a great start to the trip!

<Edit> Argh! You ninja posted on me!

Wow! You're right! The place seems really deserted considering. School is starting up and the locals are pretty busy I guess.

I have one of those light cubes from Ohana right next to me. Still going after 3 months. :thumbsup1

and don't worry about rambling. It's the small details that make a memorable trip report I think.

 

[Eight]

I love how you flew out of the dreary weather and into sunny California.

Looks like a great start to the trip!

It was definitely a welcome change in weather. No matter how much I fly, I always think it's weird that I can start in one place and in a matter of hours, end up somewhere else in the world miles away. And it's even weirder when the weather's completely different.

 

[BecomingObsessed]

More trip report, please! I'm wildly entertained by your writing style