Disneyland Novice on a Solo trip - Thursday 26th to Saturday 28th March 2015

[kaoden39]

What an exciting birthday! Happy 1st Birthday!!

 

[Ms Poppins]

I'm on catch up as usual Ann, and loving your TR Disneyland looks amazing Love the birthday cake too, did you make that yourself? Look forward to hearing more

 

[heaven2dc]

Just discovered your TR and am having fun reading about your days in DL and DCA! That Glowtini looks yum-cious! And your grandson's 1st birthday - wow!!

 

[Anemone]

Thank you Julie and heaven. Yes, Julie, I made the cake.

 

[ShellB8585]

Great updates Anne and thank you for finding out about the breakfast cones!

The cake is fantastic!!!

 

[TheMaxRebo]

great job with the cake - very cute!

 

[Anemone]

Thanks Shelley and Max.

Now I'm all for a good looking cake but how it tastes is also important. Unfortunately my son's GF thinks it's too nice to cut so nobody has been allowed a slice! Next time I swear I'll be icing styrofoam cakes rather than going to the trouble of baking real ones.

 

[Anemone]

So Day 3 of my California Disney adventure dawned very early when my alarm went off at 5.30. I wanted to be at DL for magic morning at 7am. After 2 very long and full days in the parks it wasn't easy dragging myself out of bed that early but I managed and was soon showered, dressed and packed. I skipped the hotel breakfast, it wasn't worth the wait, and was at bag check dead on 7am. Now unfortunately as had happened on Thursday I wasn't allowed to take my case to the picnic area lockers without a CM escorting me and the guy had just left to escort someone else somewhere. Not sure what they thought I was going to do with the bag but I had to wait 10 frustrating minutes until the CM came back.

I finally got into DL park at 7.15 and headed down Main Street and through the castle to Fantasyland. I walked on to Dumbo which was half empty. I think the ride is identical to the one in Paris but is on ground level so you don't seem quite as high above Fantasyland. I loved it as I always do though.









Saw Captain Hook doing a meet and greet


and when I got off I also saw this chap


Sadly the Peter Pan ride was closed for refurb - I love it in DLP.

I popped round to Small World - I had to do it once! - and it was lovely! Was on a boat with a mum, dad and 2 little girls in the row behind me and I think they thought I was a bit mad as I sang the song the whole way round. Well you have to, don't you?

Lovely topiary at IASW






I went on Pinocchio's Daring Journey and Mr Toad's Wild Ride before heading over to Tomorrowland to do Buzz. Not keen on those - find them very jerky.

The Sword in the Stone is also at ground level - in one way it makes it less impressive than Paris - but then I realised I have never been able to get a photo of Catherine at the DLP version because it's up a flight of steps so the Ca version is much more disabled friendly.


Over at Tomorrowland I had a go on Buzz


I got some posey photopass photos at the partners' statue.




then went over to Frontierland for a ride on Big Thunder Mountain. There was a 20 minute wait so I just had time to ride before I went for my breakfast reservation at Plaza Inn. Yeehaw

I checked in at the restaurant - it's similar to the Plaza Gardens at DLP but there is loads more outdoor seating. First thing they take a family photo - yes, that was just me , then I went to the till and paid then was shown to a lovely little table outside but on the covered veranda so nice and shaded. The cost was $32ish inc tax and was well worth it for the character interaction alone.



It's a buffet with hot and cold items and I had a little bit of everything I liked the look of. I remember having sausage and bacon and potatoes, Mickey waffles, fresh fruit salad, danish pastry, french toast, yogurt and granola, orange juice and tea. It was a long spread out meal interspersed with plenty of lovely character interaction.

First up I had Chip come to visit me - thought he was going to stay for breakfast


and he was closely followed by Dale



Winnie the Pooh


Captain Hook who kissed my hand


Max


Rafiki - I told him he is my eldest boy's favourite Disney character and he seemed really chuffed.


Well it's not every day you see a blue bum.

Tigger


Perla told me Suzy was still asleep - I love it when they have a ready answer.


Minnie


Eeyore


I waited ages then as I'd spotted the Fairy Godmother but she hadn't made it over to where I was sitting. I had arranged to meet my cousin's wife at 11 in DCA so when 10.30 came and went I asked one of the character CMs if it would be ok for me to go say hello to the Fairy Godmother. She was lovely and took me over to meet her and took a few photos of us together as well. I was absolutely made up to meet Fairy GM - I've never seen her in Paris and have since read that she's very rare there. I told her slightly tongue in cheek that I'd been waiting such a long time to meet my Fairy GM and she said "My dear, you have no need of a Fairy GM with such a beautiful smile" What a fab character! Well worth the wait.



I had to leg it then for DCA and when I got to Fiddler, Fifer and Practical Cafe, just a little late, Tina was waiting for me.

Going to break off now and come back to finish this when it's not so late and I'm not so tired. Thanks for reading if you've made it this far.

 

[ShellB8585]

Another great update Anne!

As a baker myself I know where you're coming from - the most important thing is the taste! hopefully it will get eaten!

Glad you enjoyed your breakfast! we went to Plaza gardens on our first day last time and thought the character interactions were fab - far better than Cafe Mickey. We were only going to do QS when we go in Oct but after a great experience in the table service restaurants at DLP last week I am now having a rethink. I am thinking we will do a character breakfast at Storytellers Cafe for the rarer characters this time.

You have also gotten some great photos with the photopass which has now been added to my ever extending list of things to sort out!

 

[Anemone]

Thank you Shelley, look forward to reading about your DLP dining. I haven't heard of a lot of the characters at Storytellers - look forward to reading about them in your October TR.

Seriously, photopass was worth every penny - Tina and I had a ball with them on my last day. She lives in Ca and has an annual pass and had never had a photopass. Talking of my last day, I'd better get on with it.

 

[Anemone]

So I met up with Tina in DCA.

First up we did single rider for RSR. We got in lines for the same car and the family who we joined offered to move so we could sit together which was really nice of them.



Then we got some photopass photos in Cars Land.











Tina has a Disney Visa card and there was a character photo opp for card holders so we went to see who the character was. It was Stitch who I've never met before so we joined the fairly short queue.



Next Tina really wanted to see the Frozen singalong and Aladdin shows so we went round to see what the queue was like for Frozen. It wasn't bad so we joined it and watched the show. I enjoyed it but am a bit overloaded on Frozen at the minute after our December DLP trip so it wasn't "wow" for me.

It snowed in the theatre.






Afterwards we went on Monsters Inc. Mike and Sulley to the Rescue which was fun.

There was no Aladdin show for a while so we decided to go over to DL then and see if we could get on BTM.

First things though we saw the photopass photographer in front of the Railway Station when we arrived so we asked for some pictures.









The queue for BTM was about 40 minutes so we decided to come back a bit later.

Next we found yet another photopass photographer and stopped for more photos.







We were having a ball with the photos so over to the Castle we went and asked politely for more.







And then down to Central Plaza for some more.







We did the Sleeping Beauty walk through at the castle and I wasn't impressed - compared to DLP's it isn't great.

We walked over to Tomorrowland and did Buzz. Can't even remember which of us won but I decided I didn't want the photo it was so awful. We also went on Finding Nemo which I found a bit claustrophobic and was sorry we'd taken the time to do.

We wandered then and in chat Tina said she'd never been on Jungle Cruise which I'd loved so I suggested we do it. There was a queue but not a long one and somehow queuing is easier when you've got someone to natter to. Well, we got on the boat and our guide [Camilla] was brilliant. We were laughing along with the commentary when all of a sudden the boat stopped and wouldn't start again. Initially some of our passengers thought it was part of the show and the rest of us were killing ourselves laughing at the irony of it. We encouraged Camilla to continue with the tour and she did her best but the boat was going nowhere without help. The craic was great and we eventually got a tow back to the landing and were presented with a ticket to allow us to go on another ride of our choice via the fastpass or the exit. No photos sadly.

We legged it over to BTMRR and joined the fastpass queue. Result!!!

That done we went back to DCA for a late lunch at Flo's with hopes of seeing the parade afterwards. We both chose the roast beef and cheddar rolls and a beer. Tina got AP discount on the food. Dessert we got from Cozy Cones - huge ice cream cones.
There was no queue for photos with Red so we went and got our photo taken again. The photographer took 1 photo - think he thought we were a bit crazy.



Mater and Lightening had also had meet and greets here.

Without thinking of the timing we went to the next Aladdin show - I had raved about it to Tina and was more than happy to watch it a second time. We were in our seats waiting for it to start when I realised we were going to miss the parade. There was nothing I could do - it would have been rude to leave at that stage - but I was pretty disappointed. Couldn't stay disappointed for too long though as the show was fabulous and Genie had an entirely new raft of jokes from the ones he'd told the day before. I loved it all over again!

I was flagging by that stage so we left and picked up my bags from the picnic area lockers and walked through Downtown Disney. I went into World of Disney and bought my grandson a T shirt I'd been debating getting for him then we got the tram to the parking lot where Tina's car was. I was getting a lift back to my brother's rather than the train.

 

[ShellB8585]

Another lovely update Anne! you girls sure had a blast with those photographers!

Sorry you missed the parade. If it makes you feel any better I missed a lot of the offerings at DLP too this year which is such a shame when they are offering so much for swing into spring! Can't fit everything in!

We might only get 2 Disney days on Oct so may have to forego parades for ride time. If I do happen to catch them I will, of course, share

Sad to see the Disney trip come to an end. Would you go again?

 

[kaoden39]

It's so much fun to play with the photopass photographers and I love seeing the results!

 

[Anemone]

Another lovely update Anne! you girls sure had a blast with those photographers!

Sorry you missed the parade. If it makes you feel any better I missed a lot of the offerings at DLP too this year which is such a shame when they are offering so much for swing into spring! Can't fit everything in!

We might only get 2 Disney days on Oct so may have to forego parades for ride time. If I do happen to catch them I will, of course, share

Sad to see the Disney trip come to an end. Would you go again?

Thanks hun - I keep meaning to have a look on Youtube for a video of that parade.
We missed a lot of things on our Christmas trip - there just isn't time to see and do everything in a few days.
Yes, I will definitely go back the next time I'm in California. My brother has said they will try to visit Ireland next year and I'll try to get back to LA the following year and will definitely schedule a little "me" time in Anaheim when I'm there.

It's so much fun to play with the photopass photographers and I love seeing the results!

Thank kaoden - those photos were loads of fun. There are no roaming photographers in the Paris parks yet - something I really hope they will fix soon.

With the photopass you get a CD with some very high quality stock photos of the parks and characters. It is fabulous value for $69.99.

 

[DiggleBelle]

Very much enjoyed reading your trip report. Thanks for sharing!

 

[Anemone]

Thank you Digglebelle. Glad you've enjoyed it.

 

[ShellB8585]

I'm glad you have a visit in your near future! I think Walt Disney World is still my favourite though - if you haven't been I highly recommend!

 

[Anemone]

I'm not ruling WDW out Shelley but I'm in no rush to visit it. I don't think I could manage a fortnight of theme park visits even with the variety Orlando has to offer. I also couldn't see me doing that trip solo. DLP and DLR will suit me fine for a while anyway.

 

[ShellB8585]

Maybe when you're grandson is old enough ;-)

 

[Anemone]

Great minds Shelley.

Baby steps though - I'm taking him with his parents and uncle to DLP in January. Then I'll offer to take him for a few days, just me and him for some quality bonding time. Once we've been to DLP together a few times then maybe a US trip will be on the cards.