11/3/09
We were up early this morning for our Magic Morning. We were going to try to do as much of FL as possible and hopefully some other slow-loaders like Nemo Subs (again), Astro Orbiters, and the Autopia.
If you recall a little tidbit from earlier, I mentioned that we had decided to add a park day to our tickets so that we could see HalloWishes and F!, however by the time we had decided to do this, it was too late to do so over the phone and so we had to add the day at the Disney Travel Co. in DTD. Well, we had forgotten to do so on our other days and this day was our last chance, or we weren't going to have a ticket left for the next day. So we reminded each other that this had to get done today.
The prior 2 days, we had been greeted by this at DL entrance:
and these decorations in the park:
So imagine our surprise when overnight we were met with this:
Now I love Christmastime, but the quick transition from Halloween to Christmas at stores and such makes me crazy. Mostly it starts to stress me out as I starting thinking about all that needs to be done for Christmas which I haven't even thought about by that time. So, I was not thrilled with the quick change in DL - I thought, "Does no one celebrate Thanksgiving anymore???"
Anyways, since there were few people in the park, I finally got an unobstructed picture of this:
We quickly made our way through FL, although the one sticky spot was Peter Pan. The line for this one was well outside of the queue and so we skipped it for the time being. We really liked the Alice in Wonderland ride (although were a bit worried that the raised part would collapse under our combined weight in the car - it doesn't look too strong!) and how the Tea Cups are outside.
About to head up with Dumbo
IASW was closed for the holiday installation, so were the Story Book Canals and Train - I was so disappointed about IASW because again, I just think it is so neat how it starts outside and in general, we just really wanted to ride it at DLR because who knows if we will ever be back?
We made our way out of FL and waited in line for Autotopia. There was a long line for this but they finally opened the second side while we were waiting. There were just stacks of the little drivers licenses laying around on the ground so we grabbed some for the boys. After this we decided to ride the monorail. Our DS5's favorite WDW ride is the monorail. We rode it to DTD and back and then headed to SM.
Now, SM had been closed the day before to take down the Ghost overlay. I mentioned how I'm a chicken right??? Well, I thought this would be my big first ride ever on SM. We decided to go to the restrooms and headed to the ones near the SM exit. I was waiting for Ralph and looking at the ride pictures and saw one with a woman looking just terrified. Then another woman came out and looked so ill. With that, I just couldn't do it. I was so afraid of big hills and not knowing that they were coming in the dark. I totally chickened out! But I was brave enough for this:
It's really too bad that AstroOrbiters here is on the ground. Being up on the building at WDW really adds something.
We watched Honey I Shrunk... which we had been avoiding in WDW thinking that it would be scary for the boys, but it really wasn't scary at all - I don't know what we had been thinking. We totally forgot that the floor moves.
We looped around back to FL and finally found Peter Pan to have a reasonable line and so rode that. Then I set out on my search for the entrance to Sleeping Beauty's castle.
Me heading up the steps into the castle
I loved
the dioramas and other fun stuff in the castle! I so wish WDW had this in Cinderella's castle (well, with Cinderella's story of course). I cannot tell you how many times I went through the castle that day and the next! This was one of my favorite things at DLR!
Soon it was lunchtime and we had reservations at the Blue Bayou. We had read a number of recent bad reviews about this place on the DIS, but in the end, it just seemed like one of those things to do in DLR if you may never be back. I thought it was a nice atmosphere. Our server was very interesting. She was this incredibly sweet, motherly like lady (but not very old) with an incredibly soothing voice. She gave us very good service, but we overheard the man at the next table (he had been there with his wife and pre-teen son) telling her that she was absolutely the very best waitress they had ever had in their lives, that this was the best service they had ever had. I think he left her a doozy of a tip!
I had the gumbo - very good with a bit of a kick...
...and the Monte Cristo. This was very good but way too much food. I took at least half back to the room and we had it for breakfast the next day, cold Monte Cristo is not too good. Note the broccoli here again - don't get me wrong, I LOVE broccoli and I know it is a staple crop in CA, but it just seemed odd that "seasonal vegetable" all week was broccoli at every DLR TS we went to!
Ralph had the Cajun salad - he really liked this but said he could have done with less dressing...
...and the jambalya. He said this was a bit spicy but he ate it all.
We went back to the room to put the Monte Cristo leftovers in the fridge and then decided to head to DCA to check out the Animation building and use our priority seats at the Animation Academy. There were only like 15 people in our drawing class so the priority seating was really not necessary, but I ended up picking the character we were going to draw (my favorite, Pluto). We finished our drawings and wandered through the rest of the building. We did the thing were you answer questions and the computer tells you what Disney character you are most like. Ralphie was Hades
and I was Mulan, who happens to be my favorite female Disney character!
We decided to go back to the room again to drop off our drawings so they wouldn't get ruined and then headed back out through the DCA-GCH walkway. I decided that this would be a great time to ride GRR as it was mid-day and warm. We got on the raft and promptly got absolutely soaked. Then we headed back to the room yet again to change. Ralphie was not happy!
Back out to DCA for more TSM which we rode a few times. Soon it was late-ish afternoon. That's when we remembered the park ticket deal! We had been told that the DTD Travel Co. office closed at 4pm so we were running to make it there! We did finally make it and added the park day, but we really did cut it close to their closing time!
We went back to DCA for more TSM and ITTBAB - another movie we had been avoiding at WDW because of the boys (this one really did freak out our older son a few years ago and we haven't tried it since) so it was fun for us to see again. We did the tortilla factory tour (OMG - the free tortilla was totally disgusting!) and then the sourdough bread tour. The bread tour was really interesting to me. I loved the Mickey loaves! We wandered around DCA some more and went through the Blue Sky Cellar display which was really neat. We may have to come back with the boys when the Cars area is complete as DS3 LOVES that movie!
A few more rides on TSM and we headed out for the evening.
Parting shot of DCA
By the time we were back in the room and had relaxed a bit, we decided to get dinner at Whitewater Snacks. First we stopped at the concierge desk as we had decided that we were going to do the character breakfast at Storytellers on our very last morning before we checked out. No problem getting this reservation. Whitewater Snacks was totally empty - I almost felt bad to have the CM make us our food! We both got the pizza and salad combo. The salad was gross. Not sure if it was the dressing or what but I did not eat it. Pizza was ok.
We watched some TV and made our plans for the next morning: Toontown Morning Madness!
They need some REAL cajuns over there cooking for them!!! 
I still can't get over that RED Jambalaya!!! 
you are cracking me up! Have you ever eaten at WDW Boatwright's at POR? Their "cajun" is the same! I have had jambabalya there as well...it was red too! I think the salad had andouille sausage on it - I don't know if that makes it cajun? I don't think the rice on the gumbo was red - I think it's just my camera (however these were taken with the "cuisine" setting), I think it was white, or maybe yellowish???
Most of us are pretty nice and open. 
). This was so good!
- no kidding. I loved how everything was in walking distance - no need to wait for the bus or the monorail and then jam into either like sardines. So easy to go back to our room when we needed to and the GCH is so gorgeous! I loved how it seemed that DL and DCA had all of the best WDW rides in those two parks. I loved how many of the rides had lines outside or boarded outside. I am not proud of chickening out on Space Mtn again, but I really enjoyed Matterhorn and of course BTMRR! I loved how relaxed we were - of course that may have something to do with being there without our kids! 
(it was horrible), so it looks like 
(I guess that's the ultimate in bad news-good news huh?)
