arieljasmine
<font color=magenta>Who says these things pass you
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Laurs, Andy and bump do LA and Vegas, baby Day 13
Laurs 29
Andy 29
Bump 14 weeks
Wednesday 2 April 2008
We had a lie in this morning until 8.45 am as we were going to the California Adventure park which didn't open until 10 am. Andy went down to the lobby to fetch coffees for us and we got ready and set out to DCA at 9.30 am.
We arrived at the park at 9.45 am and found that they were letting people in, but none of the rides were open yet. This didn't bother us as we needed some breakfast first anyway.
We went to the bakery which was the only place we could find and ordered an apple juice and a ham and cheese sandwich each. It would have been OK except that it was made with this awful herby bread which made us both feel sick until we eventually gave up on eating it.
Our first ride of the day was Monsters Inc, Mike and Sulley to the Rescue which I was very excited about. It didn't disappoint. It's an excellent dark ride, done in the style that Disney do best and the detail in the queuing area is extremely well done too.
Next was Muppets 3D which is identical to the one in Florida except for the nice touch that a CM welcomes you to the show and gives you your 3D glasses. I love this show.
We still had a nasty taste in our mouths from those horrible sandwiches, so we stopped at a shop to buy a fanta and something which we thought was a cupcake - but was actually solid chocolate in the shape of a cupcake, covered in m & ms (we did wonder why it was so expensive!). We could only eat a little bit for the time being as it was so hard it hurt our teeth (!) so we put it in my bag in the hope it would melt a little.
We picked up a fastpass for Soarin' and then had a look round the Bug's Life area. Since there weren't many rides in this park that I could go on, I insisted on us riding Heimlich's Chew Chew Train!
We had our picture taken with Minnie Mouse - a familiar face in an unfamiliar outfit. We also had our picture with Max.
We went over to Paradise Pier and rode King Triton's carousel, got Andy a fastpass for California Screamin' and then made our way back to Soarin' which we loved as always.
Lunch was next and we (unwisely) chose Taste Pilot's Grill. I had a fanta (which was flat so I had to change it), Andy had a diet coke, and we both had chilli cheese burgers (which were full of beans and salt), one with lattice fries and one with vegetable salad. I thought the food was barely edible and we were glad we still had our chocolate fake cupcake thing to fill up on.
We went back over to Paradise Pier after lunch but California Screamin' was broken so we sat down to decide what to do next. A CM approached us to do a survey and he was really friendly and we talked for a while about WDW as he has never visited (?!) and he told us that the only time he had ever been on a plane was to England when he was a teenager. He also gave us each a sticker for having visited the most attractions in one trip of anyone he had ever surveyed!
After finishing the survey we went to watch the Drawn to the Magic show at the Hollywood Pictures Backlot. I think kids would probably love this show, but it was a bit too cheesy for adults (and I am the queen of cheese!)
We went into the Disney Animation building next and looked around the Snow White exhibit. We also took in Turtle Talk with Crush which is in this building. In contrast to Florida, this was a walk on and they kept announcing the show starting and encouraging people to attend. We both love this show but don't often bother with it because of the queues.
We went on the Monsters Inc ride again and Andy used his fastpass for California Screamin' which he loved. Next stop was the Aladdin show which was amazing. Why Aladdin isn't a Broadway musical is anyone's guess - this show really demonstrates how well it would work as one. We sat right at the back which was a great spot to see everything.
The Pixar Play Parade was about to start after the show kicked out so we waited to watch this. I wasn't so overenamoured with this parade - the floats and characters were great, but it was a cool day and every single float squirted water at the crowd. On a hot day this parade would work really well but when you were already freezing, not so much. I spent most of the parade hiding behind Andy. Oh, and definitely mind your cameras because it isn't just a trickle of water either.
We bought a sprite after the parade and went to pick up another fastpass for Soarin'. We went to the Muppets show again and this time it wasn't very busy so we got to sit on the floor and watch the preshow which I think is hilarious.
We finished off our day with one more trip on Soarin' before leaving the park.
We walked the back way out of the park so we could have a quick look at the Grand Californian Hotel which is really beautiful - the lobby is very similar to those in the Animal Kingdom Lodge and Wilderness Lodge. We got back to our hotel at 7.10 pm and had baths.
We headed out to Downtown Disney at 8 pm and arrived at the House of Blues at 8.15 pm. We both wanted to eat here, so even though there was a 45 minute wait and we were really hungry, we decided to wait. The good thing was that the pager worked all around DTD so we could have a look round the shops. We went to Sephora where we bought some eye cream for Andy, and also visited the Disney Vault, Department 56 and the HoB company store.
Our pager went off at 9 pm which was good because I could have eaten the table by then. Andy had two bud lites and short braised ribs with mash, broccoli and cauliflower and I had a coke and the Elwood sandwich. Finally today we had managed a good meal! Andy's ribs were amazing and I enjoyed my Elwood as always, though I didn't think it was as spicy as the ones I have had in Florida. To finish we shared our favourite dessert in the world, Key Lime Pie, mmmm, amazing. Our server was really nice and she was telling us about the festivals she had been to in England and the ones she was going to this summer.
We left at 10.30 pm and headed to the World of Disney where we had some serious shopping to do. We came away with a Boo plush and scrapbooking kit for me, a Jessica Rabbit t-shirt for Andy, a Donald Duck bath toy and Winnie the Pooh ornament which have joint ownership, a baby Pluto plush for my sister, a Tigger ornament and Winnie the Pooh magnet for my mum, a Toy Story alien for my brother, a princess hairbrush for a friend's daughter and a specially requested sweatshirt for a family friend. Phew. We were talking to the CM at the till and when she found out it was our first visit she went and got us first visit buttons which we had been meaning to go looking for all week. We had asked in City Hall on our first night but they didn't have any, but we did get ones which say Honorary Citizen of Disneyland instead.
Loaded down with our purchases, we headed back to the hotel. We stopped in at the bar to get Andy a beer and a gin and tonic and a coke for me and then got back to the room at 12. We were in bed by 12.30 am.
Laur's
Laurs 29
Andy 29
Bump 14 weeks
Wednesday 2 April 2008
We had a lie in this morning until 8.45 am as we were going to the California Adventure park which didn't open until 10 am. Andy went down to the lobby to fetch coffees for us and we got ready and set out to DCA at 9.30 am.
We arrived at the park at 9.45 am and found that they were letting people in, but none of the rides were open yet. This didn't bother us as we needed some breakfast first anyway.
We went to the bakery which was the only place we could find and ordered an apple juice and a ham and cheese sandwich each. It would have been OK except that it was made with this awful herby bread which made us both feel sick until we eventually gave up on eating it.
Our first ride of the day was Monsters Inc, Mike and Sulley to the Rescue which I was very excited about. It didn't disappoint. It's an excellent dark ride, done in the style that Disney do best and the detail in the queuing area is extremely well done too.
Next was Muppets 3D which is identical to the one in Florida except for the nice touch that a CM welcomes you to the show and gives you your 3D glasses. I love this show.
We still had a nasty taste in our mouths from those horrible sandwiches, so we stopped at a shop to buy a fanta and something which we thought was a cupcake - but was actually solid chocolate in the shape of a cupcake, covered in m & ms (we did wonder why it was so expensive!). We could only eat a little bit for the time being as it was so hard it hurt our teeth (!) so we put it in my bag in the hope it would melt a little.
We picked up a fastpass for Soarin' and then had a look round the Bug's Life area. Since there weren't many rides in this park that I could go on, I insisted on us riding Heimlich's Chew Chew Train!
We had our picture taken with Minnie Mouse - a familiar face in an unfamiliar outfit. We also had our picture with Max.
We went over to Paradise Pier and rode King Triton's carousel, got Andy a fastpass for California Screamin' and then made our way back to Soarin' which we loved as always.
Lunch was next and we (unwisely) chose Taste Pilot's Grill. I had a fanta (which was flat so I had to change it), Andy had a diet coke, and we both had chilli cheese burgers (which were full of beans and salt), one with lattice fries and one with vegetable salad. I thought the food was barely edible and we were glad we still had our chocolate fake cupcake thing to fill up on.
We went back over to Paradise Pier after lunch but California Screamin' was broken so we sat down to decide what to do next. A CM approached us to do a survey and he was really friendly and we talked for a while about WDW as he has never visited (?!) and he told us that the only time he had ever been on a plane was to England when he was a teenager. He also gave us each a sticker for having visited the most attractions in one trip of anyone he had ever surveyed!
After finishing the survey we went to watch the Drawn to the Magic show at the Hollywood Pictures Backlot. I think kids would probably love this show, but it was a bit too cheesy for adults (and I am the queen of cheese!)
We went into the Disney Animation building next and looked around the Snow White exhibit. We also took in Turtle Talk with Crush which is in this building. In contrast to Florida, this was a walk on and they kept announcing the show starting and encouraging people to attend. We both love this show but don't often bother with it because of the queues.
We went on the Monsters Inc ride again and Andy used his fastpass for California Screamin' which he loved. Next stop was the Aladdin show which was amazing. Why Aladdin isn't a Broadway musical is anyone's guess - this show really demonstrates how well it would work as one. We sat right at the back which was a great spot to see everything.
The Pixar Play Parade was about to start after the show kicked out so we waited to watch this. I wasn't so overenamoured with this parade - the floats and characters were great, but it was a cool day and every single float squirted water at the crowd. On a hot day this parade would work really well but when you were already freezing, not so much. I spent most of the parade hiding behind Andy. Oh, and definitely mind your cameras because it isn't just a trickle of water either.
We bought a sprite after the parade and went to pick up another fastpass for Soarin'. We went to the Muppets show again and this time it wasn't very busy so we got to sit on the floor and watch the preshow which I think is hilarious.
We finished off our day with one more trip on Soarin' before leaving the park.
We walked the back way out of the park so we could have a quick look at the Grand Californian Hotel which is really beautiful - the lobby is very similar to those in the Animal Kingdom Lodge and Wilderness Lodge. We got back to our hotel at 7.10 pm and had baths.
We headed out to Downtown Disney at 8 pm and arrived at the House of Blues at 8.15 pm. We both wanted to eat here, so even though there was a 45 minute wait and we were really hungry, we decided to wait. The good thing was that the pager worked all around DTD so we could have a look round the shops. We went to Sephora where we bought some eye cream for Andy, and also visited the Disney Vault, Department 56 and the HoB company store.
Our pager went off at 9 pm which was good because I could have eaten the table by then. Andy had two bud lites and short braised ribs with mash, broccoli and cauliflower and I had a coke and the Elwood sandwich. Finally today we had managed a good meal! Andy's ribs were amazing and I enjoyed my Elwood as always, though I didn't think it was as spicy as the ones I have had in Florida. To finish we shared our favourite dessert in the world, Key Lime Pie, mmmm, amazing. Our server was really nice and she was telling us about the festivals she had been to in England and the ones she was going to this summer.
We left at 10.30 pm and headed to the World of Disney where we had some serious shopping to do. We came away with a Boo plush and scrapbooking kit for me, a Jessica Rabbit t-shirt for Andy, a Donald Duck bath toy and Winnie the Pooh ornament which have joint ownership, a baby Pluto plush for my sister, a Tigger ornament and Winnie the Pooh magnet for my mum, a Toy Story alien for my brother, a princess hairbrush for a friend's daughter and a specially requested sweatshirt for a family friend. Phew. We were talking to the CM at the till and when she found out it was our first visit she went and got us first visit buttons which we had been meaning to go looking for all week. We had asked in City Hall on our first night but they didn't have any, but we did get ones which say Honorary Citizen of Disneyland instead.
Loaded down with our purchases, we headed back to the hotel. We stopped in at the bar to get Andy a beer and a gin and tonic and a coke for me and then got back to the room at 12. We were in bed by 12.30 am.
Laur's
