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

[Sherry E]

Bread is not a treat!!!!! Sorry, I just had to say that so J knows you are not alone in that belief.

Too bad the DIS doesn't have a nifty wild scarf-waving emoticon!! Just a little Smiley waving a scarf like a maniac could speak volumes in many trip reports!

 

[deejdigsdis]

While we were eating our soup, the CMs began roping areas off for Fantasmic. We were sitting right by some ropes. The CM assumed we would be staying at our table for F! and was quite shocked when we got up to leave. Snow was my priority this trip, so we were off to brave the crowds of Main Street before the fireworks started.

I honestly don't remember anything about the fireworks as I sit here typing. I was there for the snow.

It's kind of funny...these pictures make it look more like it was snowing Silly String!

OK...now THESE are the crowds I remember from that week!

The snow was just as magical as I remembered from my first time to see it 2 years ago. Just magical! Even though I was sharing it with a million other people.

After frolicking in the snow, we decided to go use our Haunted Mansion FPs. It took some work to get over there, trying to make our way through the Fantasmic crowds.

We waited less than 10 minutes in the FP line.

We were given one of these things. This is probably our 3rd time to carry one of these things through the line.

After Haunted Mansion, we backtracked and went to ride the Jungle Cruise. It was a 15 minute wait. I remember a line cutter. He wasn't pretending to be with anyone, he was just moving through the line, cutting in front of people as they stepped aside to let him through. I haven't seen much in the way of line cutting like others report. Yeah, I know he was only 1 person, and we probably would have ended up on the same boat anyway. But I didn't move aside to let him go by. I didn't make a big deal about it, or even give him the eye. I simply didn't step aside. Anyway, we had a good skipper. Can't remember any of his jokes though. Up next we did Indy with FPs. Twelve minute wait. Love that ride! I always sport a goofy smile. When we got off we noticed that Jungle Cruise had a less than 5 minute line, so we rode again. It's just relaxing to me at night.

After our second cruise through the jungle, my sore throat was really getting to me so I downed a pineapple juice outside the Tiki Room.

We had 2 sets of FPs to use for BTMR. No better time like the present! We rode twice in a row. We spent less than 10 minutes in line the first time and less than 5 minutes in line the 2nd time. This is how I feel about FPs... The standby line was reminiscent of an 80s line.

After BTMR we made our way toward IASW.

Trees near the ranch area.

 

[deejdigsdis]

So we enter Fantasyland. King Arthur Carrousel was coming to a stop and there was no line, so I wanted to ride. J patronized me and went along for the ride.

I glanced around and checked out the other Fantasyland ride lines. Peter Pan was still quite long, as was Mr. Toad. We decided to keep heading toward IASW. As we passed Storybook we noticed a VERY short line. I wanted to ride at some point to check out the teeny tiny wreaths, so we went ahead and took advantage of the short line. Just as we got in line, they put a couple of boats to bed for the night. We still only waited for 10 minutes, though. My camera just wasn't picking up the cute little Christmas decorations in the dark, so no pics of those.

Finally, really making our way toward IASW.

It was dead back there! We walked right on.

I don't even know what this is. A firework?

I don't remember this from 2 years ago. Is it new? I liked it.

I love the bulbs on these wreaths. They look like colored bubbles that might poop at any moment!

Back with more later.

 

[deejdigsdis]

Bread is not a treat!!!!! Sorry, I just had to say that so J knows you are not alone in that belief.

Too bad the DIS doesn't have a nifty wild scarf-waving emoticon!! Just a little Smiley waving a scarf like a maniac could speak volumes in many trip reports!

I would love that! I can see it now... I'm picturing a red scarf since that was what I was wearing at the time.

 

[Sherry E]

I don't remember this from 2 years ago. Is it new? I liked it.

I love the bulbs on these wreaths. They look like colored bubbles that might poop at any moment!

Back with more later.

Yes - the giant snowman in IASWH is brand new this year.

As for the bulbs on the wreaths...did you mean to say that they look like colored bubbles that might POP at any moment? Or did you mean to say "poop"? Either way (whether the "poop" was intentional or unintentional), it's hilarious!

 

[deejdigsdis]

As for the bulbs on the wreaths...did you mean to say that they look like colored bubbles that might POP at any moment? Or did you mean to say "poop"? Either way (whether the "poop" was intentional or unintentional), it's hilarious!

OOPS! No, I didn't mean to say that the colored bubbles-looking wreath bulbs look like they might poop at any moment! "POP" is the word I was going for!

 

[deejdigsdis]

Continuing on with IASWH...

I noticed they didn't have the different Christmas cards displayed in the ride this year (like they had in 2009).

Love this one:

It was 11:45pm when we got on the ride. The clock struck midnight when we got off. It was nice to see the thing open and have the clock come out once again. It didn't open my last few trips, at least.

Hmmm...I thought I had a picture showing the time. I guess not.

Midnight. Closing time. I took a few more pictures as we made our way toward Main Street.

Now it was time to take care of one of the things on my Priority List...sipping hot chocolate in my favorite spot (that would be the Main Street Front Porch) while listening to Christmas music. Just soaking in that Christmas Time at Disneyland atmosphere.

My plan was to stay until 1:00am, but we got up to leave at 12:45am. It was cold! Plus J had fallen asleep.

A few more pictures as we left...

And that concludes our first day! We spent 11 hours in the park and rode a total of 12 rides, took a long lunch break at BTR BBQ, watched Billy Hill, watched the fireworks and frolicked in 1 snowfall.

 

[tksbaskets]

What a great day! My favorite photo in the last group is the close up of the tree with the red ornament with the gold bow.

I'm dreaming of being on MS right now...unfortunately I am unable to replicate it in my office but I have your trip report to keep me going~

 

[mvf-m11c]

It was great to hear that you got to stay at the park until it closed that night. Just like how I do my pictures of finding where I have been during my trip, I like all those pics where you were during your trip. I really like your IASWH pictures and just as Sherry said about the Snowman in the last part of IASWH is new. It was originally a Christmas tree.

Nice job Deej.

 

[deejdigsdis]

What a great day! My favorite photo in the last group is the close up of the tree with the red ornament with the gold bow.

I'm dreaming of being on MS right now...unfortunately I am unable to replicate it in my office but I have your trip report to keep me going~

It was great to hear that you got to stay at the park until it closed that night. Just like how I do my pictures of finding where I have been during my trip, I like all those pics where you were during your trip. I really like your IASWH pictures and just as Sherry said about the Snowman in the last part of IASWH is new. It was originally a Christmas tree.

Nice job Deej.

Thanks TK and Bret. More coming right up!

 

[deejdigsdis]

Day 2! The plan was for me to go to the 7am Magic Morning. Did that happen? Hint: This TR seems to have a lot of me saying "The plan was...BUT..." This was no exception, unfortunately. I don't think I actually fell asleep until the 4am hour. I was up hacking the night away. My husband slept right through it, but I'm not sure about our neighbors. I decided to just turn off my alarm and get up whenever I was ready to greet the day. Ugh - this was so hard for me. I didn't want to make things worse (the sickness) and push myself too hard, but I also wanted to be in Disneyland.

So I slept. And slept. And arrived at Disneyland at 10:30am. I went over before J. He decided to check out the Ramada's breakfast and then shower. I decided to shower and then head to Blue Ribbon Bakery for a chocolate chocolate chip muffin.

Arriving at Disneyland:

I recently developed a desire to ride the Main Street vehicles several times per trip. This desire was nonexistent in my teen years. Anyway...I tried the Omnibus, but they were about to put it away. Here comes the Trolley, so I tried that. Same deal...about to be put away, but would be out again soon.

So I just sat in Town Square for a bit and texted my sister. AKA "D." AKA CB Jamboree. "Good Morning! Got a 3 1/2 hour late start. This cold/cough is really knocking me down. Just sitting in Town Square enjoying it all. Lunch at C.C. at noon."

The line in the bakery was too long, so I missed out on my muffin. I did grab a locker, though. I've never seen it so crazy in the locker room before. People people everywhere.

I decided it was a good time to take a few window display pictures. I would guess I grabbed some FPs first.

Can't forget the Sewing Machine Display!

I'll have to go back and look at my 2009 picture of this display. It seemed a bit more plain this year, but I very well could be remembering wrong.

I was ready for a rest and was surprised to find an empty seat on the Front Porch. J was in the park by now, and I think he might have gone to see Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln. He loves this, but I've never seen it myself. I got a text from him: "How come you keep disrespecting President Lincoln by not visiting?" My reply: "I wanna visit. FPs were more pressing at the moment. Star Tours return time to use FP is after 9pm. Sitting on the front porch now."

We met up in Town Square. I forgot to mention that when I got FPs for Space...the line to get FPs was so long! I don't recall EVER standing in line to get an FP for any ride. Not the case this trip.

OK, you'd think I would have looked for a light that was clean and shiny...instead of soiled like this one.

I know at some point I did make it in to see the Lincoln show with J. That Lincoln audioanimatronic is SO impressive! I enjoyed the show as well.

I remember taking a bunch more pictures, and not doing any rides before our noon reservation at Carnation Cafe.

Now that I think about it, I don't think I got FPs for just myself when I got there. I'm sure I waited for J to come in so I could get them both at the same time. Anyway...long lines to get FPs at Space and BTMR. That area by BTMR was so clogged.

 

[tksbaskets]

Day 2! The plan was for me to go to the 7am Magic Morning. Did that happen? Hint: This TR seems to have a lot of me saying "The plan was...BUT..." This was no exception, unfortunately.

This is not a negative, this is a sign of a very flexible DISer!

 

[Sherry E]

Well, I am very glad to know that the colored bubble bulbs on the wreath were about to pop and not about to poop! There would have been a whole different kind of scene going on in IASWH if they had been pooping.

It gave me a huge laugh, though. I must have laughed for a good 5 minutes over the idea of pooping bubbles last night. I knew how easily a typo like that could happen - I could easily end up with words like "poopcorn" or "soda poop" in my TR (or much worse, with other words) - but I couldn't help but laugh at the idea of bubble bulbs that were about to poop. In fact, it still makes me giggle now.

Oh, too bad you already picked your TR title because I'm sure there's got to be a title hidden somewhere in the pooping bubble bulb theme!

Anyway, as for the window displays....I can't recall offhand what your 2009 photos looked like, but I was noticing little subtle changes between the 2010 version of certain displays and this year's versions.

It's kind of interesting how the overall look and color schemes of particular windows stay the same each holiday season, or each Halloween - most of the items in the window displays stay the same (some are removed, but not too much extra is added in); they use the same faux cakes and cupcakes, the same faux candy house, the same Santa's Sweet Shop sign, etc.,etc.....BUT they arrange them slightly differently. I suppose that the rearrangement may not be by design but, rather, the window dressers/decorators can't quite recall where they put which items last year or the year before, so they just kind of try to get them looking artful and striking.

I could tell certain things were in different spots in the window scenes even though the general look was the same. But other little details - that no one else would notice unless they visited the windows every year - had changed.

For example, the basket o' cookies in your photo above (my 2011 shot of that same basket was one of my Christmas countdown photos last week).....there was a basket o' cookies last year, but the cookies were different cookies (I looked at my photos from 2010 to double check) from this year's. Now that makes me wonder if they are freshly baked and then preserved for extended display? I was certain the cookies in the basket were merely "prop cookies" - not even real. I originally thought they were glued to the basket! But I would assume the decorators would trot out the same cookies again each year if they were fake (and glued to the basket), and they didn't. The 2010 cookies are definitely different from the 2011 cookies. Hmmm....something to ponder.

I am still convinced that a couple of random items that used to be part of the display in certain windows have been relocated to different windows. I thought I noticed this strange phenomenon back during Halloween Time - certain items seemed like they had been in different windows in the past - but I convinced myself that I was losing my mind and losing my bearings on where the windows were situated.

But when I was going through the window displays a couple of weeks ago, I said to myself a couple of different times, "Okay, I know this was not the window where I first saw this [tree]..." (Or cookie...or whatever the object in question was.) I really think that the decorators are 'borrowing' certain items from certain displays and moving them to other displays, as needed. It's not happening on a massive scale, thank goodness, but a couple of things have definitely been moved to new homes! I am way too detail-oriented to be wrong about my observation on all counts!

 

[kaoden39]

Oh thank you for the window displays. They are some of my favorite parts of Disneyland. I can spend hours on Main Street looking at them. I love the fact that there are always the basics in the window like the sewing machine. They switch out what is with it but it is always there. Beautiful!!

 

[deejdigsdis]

Well, I am very glad to know that the colored bubble bulbs on the wreath were about to pop and not about to poop! There would have been a whole different kind of scene going on in IASWH if they had been pooping.

It gave me a huge laugh, though. I must have laughed for a good 5 minutes over the idea of pooping bubbles last night. I knew how easily a typo like that could happen - I could easily end up with words like "poopcorn" or "soda poop" in my TR (or much worse, with other words) - but I couldn't help but laugh at the idea of bubble bulbs that were about to poop. In fact, it still makes me giggle now.

Oh, too bad you already picked your TR title because I'm sure there's got to be a title hidden somewhere in the pooping bubble bulb theme!

I know this was a while ago...but I randomly laughed out loud about this plenty of times after you brought the typo to my attention.

Oh thank you for the window displays. They are some of my favorite parts of Disneyland. I can spend hours on Main Street looking at them. I love the fact that there are always the basics in the window like the sewing machine. They switch out what is with it but it is always there. Beautiful!!

I love the window displays too. It's funny how the way you want to spend your time changes as you get older. I kind of sound like an old lady wanting to ride the Main Street vehicles up and down the street and browse the window displays instead of hitting Space Mountain 8 times in a row!

More window displays coming right up...

 

[deejdigsdis]

Time to get rolling on this thing again!

So things were busy Tuesday morning in Disneyland. I spent the morning taking a bunch of pictures before our noon reservation at Carnation Cafe.

Christmas Cheer picture overload ahead!

Finally...lunch time!

 

[kaoden39]

I love how vibrant everything looks. The shops in Frontierland look like they have been painted recently.

 

[deejdigsdis]

I love how vibrant everything looks. The shops in Frontierland look like they have been painted recently.

I hadn't noticed that, but they do look like they have a fresh coat of paint.

By the way, I love the Mickey and Minnie with your name. Very cute!

Off to work on another post...

 

[kaoden39]

I hadn't noticed that, but they do look like they have a fresh coat of paint.

By the way, I love the Mickey and Minnie with your name. Very cute!

Off to work on another post...

Oh thank you. Andrea(DisneyStitch626) made it for me in honor of my trip next month.

 

[deejdigsdis]

Where was I??? Ah yes...lunch! I really wanted to eat at Carnation Cafe one last time before the remodel. I love the quaintness of this restaurant. I hope it doesn't lose it's charm once the expansion is done. I also hope they don't lose the Loaded Baked Potato Soup -- or Chef Oscar, for that matter.

One last picture with the famous Chef Oscar Martinez.

We didn't get to visit too long. They were busy. I did ask him about his retirement plans, though, and he was still unsure. He gave me the same info that he gave me in April: "I still need to talk to them." Meaning, DL would like for him to stay on after the Carnation Cafe remodel, but he wasn't sure if he would. In April he talked as if he'd like to come back. When we visited this time, he shared that his wife has 2 kinds of cancer. He told me what she has, but his voice is so soft and I have a hard time understanding him at times. I didn't want to ask, "What did you say?" and have him repeat what was going on with his wife cancer-wise. He said he is thinking of coming back 3 days per week. I hope things work out well for him and his wife.

{Off topic...but I mentioned here a while back that my dad was diagnosed with a rare, incurable cancer in Sept. He had a follow-up scan a few months later and was told the cancer hadn't grown/spread noticeably. We were so happy to hear this news. In fact, he'll be getting a much needed hip replacement this month. We thought for sure he wouldn't be approved of such a procedure given the cancer situation. It was expected to spread more quickly. Anyway, just thought I'd share. }

Back to lunch at Carnation Cafe! I also hope these umbrellas get to stick around after the remodel. They just fit in with the charm of Main Street so perfectly! (I wish I would have gotten a better picture of that wreath in the background. So big and so pretty!)

Lunch is served!

OK, I don't remember what this is that my husband ordered. If Sherry pops in (rather than "poops" in... ... sorry, just couldn't resist!), I'm sure she could tell us what it is. He liked it.

My usual. I don't need a menu here. I always get the half Turkey Sandwich with the Cup of Loaded Baked Potato Soup, and upgrade to a bowl, and wash it all down with a Pomegranate Lemonade.

One last picture of Chef Oscar in action. Just in case this really is it.

Moving on...

After lunch I would have gotten FPs. Probably for Indy and BTMR.

I'll miss Blue Ribbon Bakery, but I really am excited about this as well.

Wait times. Another example of how my mind is remembering crowds being much higher than they actually were. I don't know if it was because I was sick and was a little "off" or what. I mean, the crowds were definitely much higher this trip compared to other recent trips. There is SO MUCH we didn't get to. But I am shocked when I see these wait times because I would have said they were much worse. If I had been asked. And they definitely were worse at times. OK, I'll stop "talking" now...

Up next...views from the Omnibus.