Lots of Completed Trip Reports....Nov 2009 - April 2014

[tksbaskets]

OK, first WAY too much to comment on so I'll probably forget!

Loved the way you were able to flow seamlessly from one great attraction to the other before your break. I was getting a bit worried when I didn't see any pictures but you came through!

Laughing about Robert and the Ice Cream cone! Once again, two places I've never been - The Ice Cream Cone Shop and the First Aid Station. Who knew? Now I think your choice of double dipping there was fine. How else to get TWO sugar cones which IMHO is the best part of the cone. Well almost...

I SOooo want to be on that bench with you, D, and Buddy listening to the music. I used to get an online radio service that had Disney Mainstreet Music. I could listen to that for hours. Add in Robert of the Dapper Dans...

Can't wait to see what happens when Buddy get up from his snooze. Do I see a third dip in your future. "No hunny, we didn't have ice cream WITHOUT you!"

 

[deejdigsdis]

So I'm sitting here with Buddy right now, scrolling through the pictures on this page of the TR. I showed him the ice cream cones and asked, "Which one do you think looks better? The first one or the second one? I think the second one looks better. It looks a little bigger to me."

He looked at them both a few times and then said, "The second one. Was that yours or Aunt D's?"

"Uhhh...they were both mine."

Silence.

"Wait. You got two ice cream cones? How come you got two ice creams and I got none ice cream cones?"

"Well, you were asleep."

"No I wasn't. I was awake. I could have licked one."

"You were asleep."

"No I wasn't."

"How do you know?"

"Because I know stuff about me."

"OK. The next time we go to Disneyland you can have 2 ice cream cones."

 

[tksbaskets]

SO sweet! You'll have to keep that conversation for your scrapbook! Makes me remember when my boys were that young....sigh.

 

[mvf-m11c]

On Friday almost all the ride wait times were not that long, but RRCS at an hour wait. Great to see that photo of the POTC Premier stage setup during your time. It is always neat to see something out of the ordinary when you are at the parks. The chocolate ice cream that you got and D got the chocolate strawberries all look very good to eat during a busy Friday. Great pics of MS during your break.

 

[deejdigsdis]

SO sweet! You'll have to keep that conversation for your scrapbook! Makes me remember when my boys were that young....sigh.

I like to write things down exactly how they come out. It's fun to go back and read things the kids said when they were younger. You can almost hear those sweet little voices again.

On Friday almost all the ride wait times were not that long, but RRCS at an hour wait. Great to see that photo of the POTC Premier stage setup during your time. It is always neat to see something out of the ordinary when you are at the parks. The chocolate ice cream that you got and D got the chocolate strawberries all look very good to eat during a busy Friday. Great pics of MS during your break.

That wait time for Roger Rabbit seemed a little odd to me, considering the shorter waits for the other rides. I have no memory of ever going on Roger Rabbit. D said I have ridden it with her. It had to have been in either 1994 or 1996, because I know I haven't ridden it during any of my recent trips.

I agree. It's fun to see stuff out of the ordinary while you are in the parks. We saw something really fun that was out of the ordinary on our last night. That will be coming up soon.

 

[deejdigsdis]

After I finished eating Single Scoop of Chocolate on a Sugar Cone #2, I once again left D with sleeping Buddy...to go get my 3rd cone of the hour. Just kidding. I went over to the Partners Statue to admire the flowers. They were beautiful.

They were so pretty. I wish these pictures did them justice.

Time to head back to Coke Corner. Random Main Street shot.

When I got over there, I couldn't resist sneakily taking some pics of D while she ate her chocolate covered strawberries. I know...how very stalker-ish of me. That was my intent. Earlier in the TR I mentioned that D and I like to tease each other occasionally. So...this was too good to pass up. I held up the camera behind some iron-work, or whatever it's called, to take some pictures that would look a little creepy in a stalker-like way. Like this:

My plan was to not tell D, and then mail the pics to her a few weeks later in a manilla envelope. Creepy and stalker-ishly. I wouldn't let her go on and on thinking she had a stalker. The joke would pretty much be over once she saw the pictures and told me about them. But...when it came down to it, I just couldn't go through with the entire plan. The anonymously mailing of the pictures in a manilla envelope, specifically. I ended up taking about 5 pictures of her eating her strawberries and emailing them to her later and telling her what I was going to do. She thought it was a good one.

OK, enough about my stalker-like tendencies. Let's enjoy a chocolate-covered strawberry...

After I ate the strawberry that D saved for me, I sat there looking through the recent pictures I had taken on my camera, deleting ones that I knew I didn't want, etc. Then D said, "I know you like to take pictures of your food and all, but isn't taking a picture of a crumb going a little too far?" Or something like that. By the way I was holding the camera, she thought I was taking a picture of this little crumb of chocolate that had fallen off the strawberry. I was really just flipping through my pictures. We had a good laugh about that, then of course I had to take a picture of the crumb of chocolate to document this memory.

The other day I randomly emailed that picture to D. The chocolate crumb memory lives on.

By this time we had been camped out at Coke Corner for 2 hours! 4:30 - 6:30. We loved every minute of it. I knew D had wanted to watch Captain EO, so I told her that when she was ready, I'd walk over and get Space FPS while she was in the show.

We were off to Tomorrowland. D pushed the stroller (Buddy was still asleep) while I took a few pics.

D continued to push the stroller, following me up the walkway to get Space FPs. I grabbed the FPs and turned back toward them. I noticed Buddy was now awake. Apparently D had accidentally crashed the stroller into a garbage can, and that woke Buddy up. Better a garbage can than the ankles of a DIS'er.

So Buddy was awake. He was a little drowsy, but he perked up immediately when I asked him if he wanted to ride Space Mountain. I guess I had gotten Space FPs earlier in the day as well, so we used a set of those and hopped in the FP line while D watched Captain EO.

 

[skiingfast]

Chocolate ice cream cones. IOne made me desire ice cream realy bad. The second almost made me run to the grocery store. I aim to break my trend and have a sundae next time.

 

[smile4stamps]

I love your pictures... And chocolate covered strawberries YUMMYYY!!!

Those daisies by the statue really are gorgeous!

What kind of camera do you use? Is it a P&S or SLR??

 

[tksbaskets]

Fun update Great flower pictures especially of the flowering tree. Now I ask you who wouldn't want to ride SM immediately after a nap.

I'm glad you told us what the slightly bizzare picture was (chocolate crumb) Kind of looked like a tenticle from a space alien....

We saw Captain EO when we were at EPCOT in December. It was fun to see Michael Jackson before his transformation into .....

I must say I'm impressed with your FP gathering strategy this trip

 

[deejdigsdis]

Chocolate ice cream cones. IOne made me desire ice cream realy bad. The second almost made me run to the grocery store. I aim to break my trend and have a sundae next time.

Funny thing...I have Dreyers Chocolate Ice Cream in my freezer right now and it doesn't taste nearly as good as the Dreyers Chocolate from the Main Street Cone Shop.

I love your pictures... And chocolate covered strawberries YUMMYYY!!!

Those daisies by the statue really are gorgeous!

What kind of camera do you use? Is it a P&S or SLR??

Thank you. I have a Point and Shoot camera -- it's a Canon PowerShot SD780 IS. But I also use Picasa for photo editing on a lot of pictures. You can download it for free.

Those strawberries were so good, but SO expensive.

I wonder what flowers will be out by the Partners statue when you go next month. There were some really pretty pink tulips there when my SIL's family was there the month before us.

Fun update Great flower pictures especially of the flowering tree. Now I ask you who wouldn't want to ride SM immediately after a nap.

I'm glad you told us what the slightly bizzare picture was (chocolate crumb) Kind of looked like a tenticle from a space alien....

We saw Captain EO when we were at EPCOT in December. It was fun to see Michael Jackson before his transformation into .....

I must say I'm impressed with your FP gathering strategy this trip

Yes, Space Mountain was a good way to get Buddy fully awake and ready to go again.

That chocolate crumb does look a little weird. When I was going through my pictures after we got home I had to give that one a double-take. When DS11 saw the picture he thought it was a "gross chipmunk's head."

 

[deejdigsdis]

Heading off to ride Space with our FPs...

Buddy and I were excited to be assigned to Row 1.

We were all ready to get in the next coaster that came in to the station. Then it happened. The lights came on and the ride was shut down. I texted D and told her the ride was down, but we were planning to wait. It was Row 1, after all. Random waiting-while-Space-was-down pictures:

Looking at my pictures, I see that a total of 7 minutes passed between the time we were assigned to Row 1, and the time we were sitting in Row 1. Not bad at all.

It was kind of weird. The people who were in the coaster that was ready to pull out when the lights came on were shifted across the track and then asked to get out. Then they had us get in and sit and wait for a while. The lights were still on. There was a bit of rushing around by the CMs. More while-we-waited pictures:

I was getting a little nervous. Typically I would not be the one to volunteer to go first to see if the ride was running properly or safely. It appeared that we would be the test run for exactly that. It just seemed like that anyway. Finally the people in the "control center" started their different checks and calling out "clear" for the different areas. (I guess that's what they were doing. Saying specific areas of track were "clear" and ready?)

We were off! It was less than 15 minutes from breakdown time to blastoff time. Such a fun ride! (Once I got over my paranoia that the ride was just broken and here I am on the test run and what if I go flying off the track and...)

When we got off, Buddy couldn't wait to go see the picture. He knew no one would be covering him up this time. He had specific plans for his pose, but I don't think he got the timing quite right because he was disappointed. "But that's not what I did! THIS is what I did!" So he had me take a picture of him doing the REAL pose he had done for the camera on the ride. Combine those arms with his teeth sticking out like a rat and his eyebrows raised.

We met up with D after the ride and headed over to Autopia for one last spin around the track. Note to self: Don't let Buddy scream like crazy this time.

Oh, here's one of those edible plants in Tomorrowland. It looked like little red peppers carved into flowering shapes. Not sure what they really were.

A bunch of Autopia pictures.

Do you ever end up with a few pics on your camera that leave you thinking, "I don't remember taking that." One of those pictures that weren't taken on purpose? Here's one of mine.

Continued in next post...

 

[deejdigsdis]

Continuing on with our ride on Autopia...

Crazy little driver!

After Autopia we headed over to BTMRR to use one of those sets of FPs. We passed this along the way. I don't think I've ever taken a picture before.

 

[mvf-m11c]

You got D in the picture from the railing and I can't believe she didn't notice or did she? Great pictures of the flowers and the chocolate strawberries.

Very interesting to hear that you and Buddy were in row one on SM and all of a sudden the ride breaks down for awhile. Then you have to wait until it gets back up. I always want to ride SM while the lights are on, that would be really neat if you were on the track when the lights were on.

Great photos from Autopia. Looks like you and Buddy got back alive from his driving. Very good update on your TR.

 

[deejdigsdis]

You got D in the picture from the railing and I can't believe she didn't notice or did she? Great pictures of the flowers and the chocolate strawberries.

Very interesting to hear that you and Buddy were in row one on SM and all of a sudden the ride breaks down for awhile. Then you have to wait until it gets back up. I always want to ride SM while the lights are on, that would be really neat if you were on the track when the lights were on.

Great photos from Autopia. Looks like you and Buddy got back alive from his driving. Very good update on your TR.

I was surprised D didn't notice me peering at her either. I guess she was too busy concentrating on those strawberries.

Riding with Buddy on Autopia is a bit jarring, that's for sure. Lots of fun as well.

 

[deejdigsdis]

On our way over to BTMRR, we were distracted by this:

There was a small crowd gathered by the rope. (That entire area in front of the castle was roped off.) I asked a security-looking guy what was going on. He said they were doing some filming for America's Funniest Videos. Well that sounded interesting, so I decided to stick around for a bit to see what I could see. Meanwhile D kept pushing Buddy in the stroller toward BTMRR and I lost track of where they were. Eventually I got a text from her asking what happened to me. I told her what was going on and she came back. (Wonder how that situation would have been handled in pre-cell phone days?)

I heard low voices in the gathering crowd saying, "That's Tom Bergeron!" He is in the suit in the bottom right corner.

He had his back toward us most of the time, going over some stuff with the crew. At one point he did make his way over to the rope and spoke with some guests. We were right up against the rope. He approached the person that was about 5 people away from us, and then headed down along the rope the opposite direction from where we were standing.

Buddy was getting a bit impatient after sitting there in the stroller for about 20 minutes. He thought he was on his way to BTMRR, so this wasn't very interesting to him.

This CM was holding the balloons, waiting for her cue to give them to the guests that had been selected to casually walk through the castle during the filming of Tom Bergeron's AFV blurb. I know they selected some girls that had been to the Bippity Boppity Boutique or whatever it's called. (I have all boys, so not a big draw for us. ) I don't know how the other guests were chosen. Anyway, we stood at the rope for a total of 30 minutes and saw the filming, but we couldn't hear a single word that was said. Still a pretty cool experience. I'm glad we stopped and checked it out.

I texted my husband and told him to tell the other boys that I saw Tom Bergeron filming a piece for AFV. They were very disappointed that they missed out -- they love that show.

It was 8:15pm by this time. Our final day was winding down. We headed over to BTMRR to finally use the FPs as promised. Bad news...it was down.

 

[deejdigsdis]

Once we found out that BTMRR was down -- -- we moved along to use our Indy FPs. We walked on.

At this point we checked the time and then made a plan for what we wanted to do before closing. Buddy's priorities were Matterhorn, Space Mountain, BTMRR and Pirates. D's priorities were IASW, Haunted Mansion, BTMRR, Disneyland Railroad and Pirates. My priorities were Space Mountain, Matterhorn, BTMRR, Haunted Mansion, and Pirates...and maybe another Indy ride since we had 1 more set of FPs, as well as watching the "Remember...Dreams Come True" Fireworks show.

We headed to the Matterhorn first. 10-15 minute wait. I remember trying to really soak up this last ride on the Matterhorn with Buddy, as I knew this would most likely be my last ride ever in the bobsleds as they are now.

We were cutting it really close as far as finishing up before the fireworks started, which was at 9:30. Of course when you walk up 10 minutes before the show starts you are often left with a not-so-good view. That's OK...we had a lot of rides we wanted to do, so staking out a fireworks spot wasn't a priority for us. We ended up behind a light tower with a group of non-stop talkers behind us. ANNOYING. They seemed to be people who had seen the show a million times and weren't all that concerned about actually watching/enjoying it again. They were just there. Taking up space. I had only seen this fireworks show one time and I missed some of my favorite parts due to the inconsiderate people behind us.

I don't know if my camera just doesn't do well in low light, or if it's that I don't know how to use it correctly in low light (because I'm not patient enough to actually sit down and read the whole manual), or if it's a combination of both those things. I think it's probably a combination. Anyway, here are the only 2 pictures I got.

I'm noticing that I have very few pictures left. Sometimes I just need to set the camera aside and enjoy.

After the fireworks we went back over to BTMRR to see if it was up and running again. It was. We used our FPs, but we didn't need them. A train was waiting for us to just hop into when we reached the platform.

At this point I dashed over to Stage Door Cafe and grabbed a Kid's Power Pack for Buddy to snack on as the night wore on. We didn't make an official dinner stop tonight.

From there we headed back over to Space Mountain to use our FPs. I can't remember what D did while Buddy and I rode Space. And lucky us...we got Row 1 once again! Loved it.

Oh, now I remember what D did while we rode Space. She rode the train around and got off at the ToonTown station. The plan was to meet her at IASW after we got off Space Mountain. I'm so glad Buddy still likes IASW and didn't reject it the way he rejected Dumbo.

It was 11:15 when we got off the ride. I was waiting for the clock to make its appearance but it never did.

45 minutes left. Remaining priorities: BTMRR (again...even though we had ridden a bit earlier), Haunted Mansion, Pirates, and Indy if we thought we could squeeze it in. It wasn't looking very likely. We came to BTMRR first. When we got off it was looking like we had enough time to do just 2 more rides, so we scrapped Indy and went to Haunted Mansion.

My attempt to get a pic of the hitchhiking ghosts. I apparently didn't time it very well.

A very dead NOS.

Pirates of the Caribbean. Always last. Gotta end the trip right. When we got in our boat, the CM pointed to this sign:

He said, "You are allowed to hold hands during the ride, but you are not allowed to dance during the ride. Once again folks, feel free to hold hands during the ride but do not dance during the ride."

When our boat was in "zoom 'n' bounce" mode as we neared the dock I quickly checked my phone to see if we could go again. Nope. It was a couple minutes after midnight. It was over. Sigh. That heavy pit in the stomach feeling took over as we made our way toward Main Street.

 

[tksbaskets]

He said, "You are allowed to hold hands during the ride, but you are not allowed to dance during the ride. Once again folks, feel free to hold hands during the ride but do not dance during the ride."

When our boat was in "zoom 'n' bounce" mode as we neared the dock I quickly checked my phone to see if we could go again. Nope. It was a couple minutes after midnight. It was over. Sigh. That heavy pit in the stomach feeling took over as we made our way toward Main Street.

Is it just me or does your firework picture look like a picture of Mickey Mouse? White bursts for ears, colors for eveybrows, cheeks, and chin. Perhaps I find hidden Mickeys in every picture. Better not ever do an ink blot test....

Speaking of hidden Mickey's - LOVE the pic in the car at SM. I was reading along and said to myself 'oh no' when you were in the first car and the lights came on. SO glad you were able to ride. I may have to pull a Bret and do a car # quest. I never really noticed how unique they are in every attraction.

ROTFL about the clever interpretation of the arms and legs inside the ride vehicle. SO funny but now that the CM brings it up, they could be dancing. Perhaps the artist has seen my hubby and boys dance??

I'm sad your last ride has been chronicled for your DIS trip report....sigh...when do we get to go back??

Thank you for taking the time to post. I know it's time consuming but I enjoy the heck out of your trip reports!

 

[deejdigsdis]

We slowly walked toward Main Street, making our way to Candy Palace to buy our usual fudge. I always get the same fudge when I leave. (Which, by the way, remains unopened in my pantry. I guess it's my crazy way to prolong things.) I also bought one of those s'mores things for me and Buddy to share. And some small Mickey truffles for me to not share.

A bit of Spring in Candy Palace.

I also bought a hot chocolate at Coke Corner. My last official purchase with my AP discount. (My hands were a little full so I didn't quite steady things well enough to get a non-blurry shot. I didn't need a "Hot Chocolate of Death" situation on my hands...shout-out to Sherry. )

So it looks like tonight's dinner for me consisted of hot chocolate, Mickey truffles, and half of one of those s'mores things.

A few parting shots...

Goodbye my friend. See you in 2012.

Ordinarily I would try to linger on Main Street for as long as possible, but I really wanted to catch that last shuttle back to Candy Cane Inn at 12:45am so I wouldn't have to carry Buddy back to the room. I went ahead with Buddy and returned the stroller while D made a few more purchases. She met up with us by the stroller return area and we hurried to the shuttle pick up area. We made it just in time.

The next morning was a little depressing as I was leaving Anaheim with an expired AP. No more thoughts of "Well, it's possible that I'll be back soon..." Even if a trip isn't really in the works, it's still fun to carry a valid AP around. And take it out of your purse once in a while just to look at it...

So I guess that's it. I returned to Disneyland after a 13 year drought in November 2009 and cried when I left because I honestly didn't know if/when I'd be returning. It was a horrible feeling. But I did return a mere 5 months after that...and that trip resulted in upgrading to an AP because I was planning on returning with my mom and sisters at Halloweentime 2010...and then my sister D invited me to go along with her in January...and then again in April. Wow. Talk about the Disneyland Snowball Effect.

Thanks for reading along. I'll meet you back here in 2012.

 

[tksbaskets]

2012 seems so far away. We'll have to lurk on other trip reports to get our fix. Good thing Bret is there now and Sherry has her holiday trip all planned.

Now if only my winter break plans would ever come together....we don't have DH school schedule for 2011/2012 yet. Don't want to book DVC points and not have the hubby able to join us. I'm worried that Mickey won't be a part of our Christmas Holiday this year (and not just because Santa would have to buy gifts for Grumpy and Donald then) That part does get easier when the kids are of a certain age...

GREAT report!! I'd still carry the AP and pull it out once and a while to remember the magic.

TK

 

[deejdigsdis]

Is it just me or does your firework picture look like a picture of Mickey Mouse? White bursts for ears, colors for eveybrows, cheeks, and chin. Perhaps I find hidden Mickeys in every picture. Better not ever do an ink blot test....

Speaking of hidden Mickey's - LOVE the pic in the car at SM. I was reading along and said to myself 'oh no' when you were in the first car and the lights came on. SO glad you were able to ride. I may have to pull a Bret and do a car # quest. I never really noticed how unique they are in every attraction.

ROTFL about the clever interpretation of the arms and legs inside the ride vehicle. SO funny but now that the CM brings it up, they could be dancing. Perhaps the artist has seen my hubby and boys dance??

I'm sad your last ride has been chronicled for your DIS trip report....sigh...when do we get to go back??

Thank you for taking the time to post. I know it's time consuming but I enjoy the heck out of your trip reports!

Yeah, it does look like a Mickey. Maybe it was? Buddy sees "Hidden Mickeys" everywhere he looks. We'll be out and about and he'll ask, "Is that a Hidden Mickey?" As if all the stores are purposely placing random Hidden Mickeys here and there.

Bret had a good quest with the vehicles. Good thing he'll be there soon because I will need a DLR pick-me-up now that my TR has come to an end.

I thought that was clever of the Pirates CM as well. We had a good laugh about that one!

Thanks for reading TK. We're going back in 2012. That's all I know at this point. It will be a trip that includes my 2 sisters, 1 brother and his family, and my mom. I wish my dad would go, but if he thought he was too old to go last October, I doubt he'll all of a sudden think he's young enough to go in a year and a half! So we have multiple schedules to work around for the next trip. D is a retail manager so November and December are out for her. I would like to go in October because I think the kids would enjoy Halloweentime. I don't have a problem taking my kids out of school for a week, but I don't know my brother's stance on that. If he doesn't want to pull the kids out then it will be a summer trip. My husband really hates the heat and crowds so I would rather avoid summer. I don't want to turn him off DLR completely and end up in another drought. A family trip drought, that is. No more droughts for me.