March 17-22 2012 trip report!

[BretJMiller]

Day 3

We woke up on the following day right around 7:15, well Morgan did, I hit the snooze a couple more times and got up around 7:30. So for those of you interested, we stayed at the Eden Roc Inn and Suites. It was pretty bad from the get-go and we weren’t all too please, but hey, you get what you pay for, and I have to admit, it was a great deal, and I would probably do it again (only because we make a point of spending as little time in the room as possible). We ended up with a two bedroom suite with a kitchen(ette). The drains in the kitchen were rusted, and I was certain that there had to be mice living in the cabinets. I checked just to be sure. (There weren’t...at least when I checked.)

We headed to the park just early enough to get in by about 8:03am and we were planning to have our most productive day yet. It definitely was, as we did our most attractions and I ended up with about 700 pictures. Granted, not all of them were unique or even turned out, but overall, it was a fantastic day.

We started off by heading “straight” to Fantasyland. But it was such a beautiful morning that straight to Fantasyland meant straight to the hub, then straight to the castle...on each side, and THEN straight to Fantasyland. Since the wait shoots up to 20 minutes when the park has been open only for 10 minutes...we had to to Peter Pan’s Flight first. I remember texting my brother to tell him that we had been in line for 7 minutes and shortly after, we boarded our ship. While the ride itself is pretty awesome as far as the ride vehicles are concerned, I would not consider it my favorite dark ride, and I don’t understand how it always has such a long wait. We always make sure to get it done first thing in the morning because neither of us think it is worth the outrageous waits it turns out as you get later into the day.

We then jumped across the street and rode Snow White’s Scary Adventures followed by Pinocchio’s Daring Journey. Pinocchio is among my first memories of ever visiting Disney when I was a wee lad of almost only 4 years old, so the movie and now ride, hold a special place with me.


The Sword in the Stone by BretJMiller, on Flickr

We went from there back across the street to Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride, which, like the previous 2 rides, had absolutely no wait, and we were in our car almost immediately. Even though I had gone to Disney World a couple times when I was younger, I don’t recall ever riding Mr. Toad until my first Disneyland trip in 2010. Morgan on the other hand had only gone to Disney World once as a wee lass (when she was 5) - but she remembers this ride as being one of her favorites - she must have loved Hades as a child, who knows. It is a fun ride that continues to grow on me. I am a sucker for any dark rides and could probably ride them over and over if lines allowed.

Next up was a quick walk over to ride the Alice dark ride which is another fun one except for the outside portion that lacks any sort of theming or story overall...unless I am completely missing something?

By this time, it was about 8:40am, and we finished the rides in Fantasyland that we KNEW we wanted to get done early, but we were not done yet! Storybookland Canal boats were up and they are pretty awesome in the fact that they have the miniatures of all the great fairy tales and Disney stories. It is also nice to see another attraction like Jungle Cruise in that it is personalized by the cast member for each boat.

it’s a small world came next and I decided I wasn’t going to ruin it with any mediocre pictures, but instead I decided to ruin it with some mediocre video. Video ride-thru’s of attractions are something I would like to do more of - eventually. I must say, I do love the facade of this ride especially when compared to the Disney World version and Morgan and I always have some fun trying to point out each of the Disney characters that were incorporated with the refurb.

Next we headed back into the heart of Fantasyland for an attraction I could definitely do over and over: Casey Jr. Circus Train. We were getting pretty hungry at this point, and we hadn’t grabbed any fastpasses yet. Morgan went over to get fastpasses for Space, but I decided to take advantage of that time to take a few more pictures. I made my way around the castle and noticed that Ariel was out and I knew that Morgan would be excited so once I found her, I brought her right over to meet Ariel. Unfortunately, she did not have a cast member with her so we could not get one together. The little girl before us may have even been more excited to meet her than Morgan was...we’ll never know.

We made our way to the Jolly Holiday bakery for our planned cinnamon roll which was a lot smaller than last year, but we didn’t care enough to go elsewhere (on any day). I love eating cinnamon rolls, but eating them on Main St. is even better (but not as good as eating them at Walt Disney World’s Magic Kingdom).

Chef Oscar was making his rounds, came by to say ‘hi’ and see how we were and then moved on. In retrospect, I wish we would have gotten a picture with or at least of him since he is a Disneyland celebrity himself! We finished up and headed over to Adventureland. As we were passing through, we noticed that Tarzan’s Treehouse was open for the first time since our March 2010 trip, so we had to take a walk up and around. It is always nice to go up there and enjoy the higher vantage of the park and get those views you wouldn’t see otherwise.

Tarzan's Window by BretJMiller, on Flickr

 

[BretJMiller]

Afterward, it was time to check the wait for Pirates, which was still fortunately a walk on. At that point, I guess I had already worked up an appetite from sharing the smaller cinnamon roll...and besides, I can always go for some Mickey shaped beignets! On our way over to the Mint Julep Bar, we stopped at the pin shop there to see if they had any St. Patrick’s Day pins left. They did, but there was only 1 there and it wasn’t the one that I wanted and I wasn’t going to give up the search so easily and we pressed on!


Dead men tell no tales. by BretJMiller, on Flickr

We ordered a half dozen beignets, even though Morgan only wanted 1, and took a seat in the French Market seating area there to nosh. As Morgan was finishing up, I took the short walk over to Indiana Jones to get a couple fastpasses for us to use later. Next up was Winnie the Pooh, and after that, we took one of many walks across the entire park to grab another fastpass for Space Mountain and ride it. Well, since I am behind and am not sure if I talked about this version of Space Mountain because of how long it has been since I wrote the first two parts, I will bore you with those details again (or not if I haven’t!). Disneyland’s Space Mountain excels over Magic Kingdom’s in that it is a very smooth ride. The side by side seats don’t bother me as much as they do Morgan, but it isn’t something that ruins the ride for her - or even threatens to. We love Space Mountain and if I had to pick one bad thing out about this version - It always seems to be turning in the same direction! However, as I said, this doesn’t taint the experience for us as it is still one of our favorites on each coast.

Fastpass return yonder.. by BretJMiller, on Flickr

Since we hadn’t yet checked out Mickey’s Toontown on this trip, we decided to run over there to see what the wait times were looking like. Of course with it being the middle of the day at this point, the wait for Roger Rabbit’s Car toon Spin was only growing so we decided to pass on it for now and on to Mickey’s house to see if we could get lucky in meeting him. I don’t even think we got a quarter of the way through his house before we hit the line to see him so we passed on that as well. As it turned out, it was not yet our time to visit Toontown and we took the train over to Main st. so we could stroll on over to Pirates of the Caribbean, but more importantly, to our lunch reservation at Blue Bayou.

 

[BretJMiller]

Day 3 - Part 2


A glimpse of tomorrow by BretJMiller, on Flickr

It may seem like we had just eaten, but it was only a couple of snacks! Don’t worry, a couple hours had already passed as well. This was to be our second time eating at Blue Bayou and our first time eating there for lunch. The first time was the previous August and we both made the mistake of ordering the jambalaya and starting with the gumbo. Neither of which were bad, but since we both had the same thing AND the two dishes are very similar in taste - or as Morgan likes to put it - they were “too much of the same.” We were determined to not make the same mistake this time. We arrived about 20 minutes early for our 1 o’clock reservation, but we figured we would be waiting since we wanted water side seating. We only waited about 15 minutes, which worked out well, but then again we ended up being only 2 tables away from the kitchen (which was better than last time - the table right next to the kitchen...one day we’ll make it over to the big kid tables).

Even though we were so close to the kitchen, being on the water still makes up for it and it is well worth the wait. We took some time to decide what we each wanted, and to make a long, boring story short, Morgan went with the steak and I went with the crab cakes. Blue Bayou definitely redeemed itself for me, as the crab cakes were light and fluffy and not overwhelmingly fishy. Quite delightful, I must say, and certainly the better of the two dishes. There were sides upon sides piled even onto the steak itself, which I think was to hide the unimpressive taste of the steak itself. Morgan described it as tasting like McDonald’s beef. (Which leads me to wonder - is that before or after the pink slime debacle?) Overall, however, lunch was good, I enjoy the gumbo to start it off and it was nice to try something new. I’m sure we will go back for dinner again, and I’m sure the filet will not disappoint.

After lunch, we grabbed another fastpass for Indy, and noticed that the line for Jungle Cruise was not very long at all, even during this busy time of the day. Since we hadn’t yet done it, this would be the perfect opportunity. Growing up, the Magic Kingdom version of the Jungle Cruise was always our first ride of the trip, so the attraction holds a special place in my heart. The ride is unique in that the skipper makes or breaks it, and this particular time was a good experience. Nothing exceptionally memorable though, but good nonetheless. We were still in the area and had old fastpasses, so we went for a drive through the Temple of the Forbidden Eye, which was thrilling as usual.

It was about this time that we really started to notice how nice it was outside. Not because of the weather itself, but because of how busy the park had become. There was hardly any room on the paths and there was no way to go without bumping into another couple people. Since it was the first time in three days that it was really nice out, and being spring break, I’m sure more people started to make it out. Lines for most of the rides were skyrocketing, and we decided to slow down our pace a little to accommodate.

I wanted to head to an attraction that I knew would not have a wait or heavy traffic. Off to the castle, we went! The walkthrough is one of those hidden gems. Even though it is basically just a bunch of cardboard cutouts, the effects and bright colors make it that much more enjoyable and it is a nice place to spend a bit of time. The fact that is in the castle doesn’t hurt either! We went for a quick ride on Pinocchio, and strolled through Fantasyland and toward the pathway leading past Big Thunder.

As an aside - the stand in that particular pathway that sells hot and frozen beverages, among other things, had an awesome travel mug on our August trip (I collect them) and through a tragic occurrence, the lid was lost and then we never got a chance to see the mug again (though we did end up with a broken lid). Anyway! By chance, I mentioned to Morgan that was the place that had it last time and told her we should take a look. Low and behold, they had it again! Needless to say (but I will anyway), I bought it and don’t you worry - the lid made it home with me. (I was probably even too excited to get a picture)

I was in such a state of joy that I had absolutely no care what we did. Though I did prefer that we find somewhere cool to walk since I now had a hot chocolate in one of the hotter parts of the day. We meandered around the park and ended up watching a couple of shorts at the Main St. Cinema. We did some shop scouting for later and the trip and I needed to cool off. The line was short for a dole whip, which meant it was a perfect time for me to get my first of the trip!

We took a walk over to BTMRR to get a fastpass, over to Haunted Mansion for another ride, and wouldn’t you know it, we were hungry again. We brainstormed a few places and had to think of some of the meals we wanted to try and the pastrami burger sounded like it would fit in here. Off to Pinocchio’s Village Haus we went. I don’t normally do burgers in Disney, and this was probably why. Not that it was bad or anything, but it was basically your average fast food burger at your not so average fast food price.

 

[BretJMiller]

We headed over to Astro Blaster’s, which I always tend to have trouble with. There are just so many red dots flying around that it is sometimes too hard to find yours! On the bright side, I beat Morgan (as tends to be the case) 65200-41900. We went around to take a few photos and rode Big Thunder. The nights seem to be a bit more photo heavy, though this report may not end up showing all of them, but we then waited for and watched Remember...Dreams Come True. This happens to be my favorite fireworks show. I get excited every time I hear it and the ride segments get me every time. This was the first fireworks show I saw in Disneyland back in 2010, and it blew me away then and I could watch it every night and not get bored of it.

The court. by BretJMiller, on Flickr


Disneyland's Splash Mountain! by BretJMiller, on Flickr

She can fly! by BretJMiller, on Flickr

We headed over to it’s a small world to prepare for Magic, Memories and You. I have not done well in the past with the nighttime shows like this that require using a higher ISO and wider aperture so I decided to take a video instead and otherwise just enjoy it. We strolled around a bit more and waited for Fantasmic! to start. The seating for Fantasmic! fills up hours before the showtime so we always wait until the very last minute and stand in the back, right in front of Pirates. This works well for us so we can head straight into Pirates right after and be one of the first people on right after the big show.

grrrrrrrowwl....I’m sorry, was that your stomach or mine? We headed over to get a cream cheese filled pretzel, but since Morgan isn’t really a big fan, we also shared a corn dog. We had to set it on the garbage as a table for when we were here last August, which is how and when we met Lou Mongello!

Anyway, we were reaching the end of our night and Morgan was getting to be a little bit cold again so we did one last attraction and it was another ride on Space Mountain. I wanted to get some more pictures, so I took my time and we decided to make our walk back to our hotel. We HAD to make our way through the Grand Californian and sit by the fireplace for a few minutes just to tease ourselves and then made our way back to get some sleep for our last day at DCA for the trip.

 

[BretJMiller]

Day 4

Well here I am, fallen completely behind on this trip report and so much has happened out in California since then. Now I know, since this trip report is very outdated, it loses a lot of its relevance, and I thank those of you who stick with it and keep going even though it has not been very timely. Anyway, here goes:

We were off to a late start, but since California Adventure was opening at about 10 those days, it was expected. We left the room at about 9:15, and after a nice, easy stroll through the Grand Californian to the park, we were there about 9:40, and as our usual first stop, we went over to Soarin’ Over California for fastpasses. Since we were hoping to get into a different zone, other than the blue zone for the first showing of World of Color.

We went down to see the line forming for getting into Paradise Pier and glanced to the side to see - as usual - that the Little Mermaid was a walk on. As usual, I saw it as a photo-op until we could move over to the line that was now huge and waited the 5 or 10 minutes we had left to get into the Pier. Just like many others, we made a beeline for Toy Story Midway Mania. As I write this, I’m not sure if I took pictures of our scores for Toy Story, but I’m like 99.9% sure that I won. What can I say, I have some mad skills with the cannon. I still say that I love the attraction for what it is, a game, and I don’t understand how people wait so long to do it. It is fun and all, but with how all the waits shoot up in time, it becomes much too long, so getting it done right away, makes it essential. Even with heading straight there with rope drop, we still ended up waiting just under 10 minutes, which is a pretty long time, considering. (Now, I imagine it is nowhere near as bad due to the huge lines forming right away at Radiator Springs Racers.)

Our fastpasses for Soarin’ were already up by like 10:15am so we went over to California Screamin’ to get a Fastpass. As usual, stomachs began rumbling. Since we didn’t eat breakfast before getting into the parks, we headed over to Pacific Wharf for breakfast. I’ve realized, with how much time has gone on, these smaller meals have escaped my memory, and I can only remember the cinnamon roll and guess at what else we got, so I have to give in and look at some pictures. Just as I suspected, we shared a croissant breakfast sandwich along with that cinnamon roll, and what better than a Coke for breakfast?!

Up next, we made our way over to a bug’s land to see It’s Tough to be a Bug. I very much enjoy this show, especially in DCA compared to Animal Kingdom. I don’t know what it is, but it seems like kids over in California are a lot more terrified of bugs than in Florida. We were going to do Heimlich’s Chew Chew train but it was an extremely long wait for an attraction that is hardly worth it to be a walk on. (I can just wait in the exit queue just to hear him speak in spanish and that would be enough for me). So we headed through a bug’s land and grabbed fastpasses for Tower of Terror.

I was quite thirsty at this point..or maybe I was hungry? I don’t know, but either way, I wanted to stop at Schmoozies and get a Dynamic Duo, which ended up being quite delicious. Under these extraordinary time constraints (I want to finish this before I leave for Disney World in 2.5 days), I don’t quite have time to look up what was in the drink. Delicious, nonetheless.

While I was drinking my smoothie, we made our way through the Animation building, looking at the Character Close-up and the Sorcerer’s Workshop. I really do enjoy spending some time in this building, but I did find myself spending less and less in it this trip in order to get in some more pictures.

Mike n Sully to the Rescue was next, and we got right on as usual. It seems as though no one likes this ride, but I still say it is really fun and enjoyable, and as you can tell, Morgan agrees or else we would not go on it as often as we do. We got out and noticed that the Disney Dance crew was about to start and this would be a good time for me to get a video of Mickey bustin’ a move. It seemed like this time around though, Mickey was with the crew of rejects and it left me wondering why these cast members were in this role, but oh well, video down. I just watched for Mickey anyhow.

 

[BretJMiller]

We thought it would NOW be a good time to go back for a World of Color fastpass in hopes of getting into a different zone, so off we went and it turns out, we were in the blue section of the later show this time. Oh well, we’ll try again next time. After that disappointment, we needed a nice mood lifting ride and Soarin’ is right there so we figured it would be a good time to use our fastpasses.

So, when aren’t we hungry? I promise you, a lot of time went by before this because it is now lunch time. Morgan got some food from Boardwalk pizza and pasta and I basically just got meat on a stick. The pasta, we had the previous August so we knew it would be a reasonable choice but the beef that I got was very reminiscent of some turkey meat loaf that I had been making on and off for the weeks prior to this vacation so it was kind of a let down. Overall, it wasn’t bad, but I think I would choose something a bit different the next time around.

We saw the Aladdin musical at 2:20pm and as I said before (or at least I think I did), it is a must see each time we go to the park. Right now, I cannot remember if it was this show, the previous show, or both that we had a different Genie, but I like our “original” genie better, but it is nice, either way, to get a different mix sometimes. Next up, we decided to walk across the entire park (as we tend to do for some reason, all the time) and use our California Screamin’ fastpass. I do get motion sick from time to time so those last bumps before picture drop really do get me every time.

I don’t know if it was just because it was hot, or if it was because it was busy, or because Morgan makes us walk back and forth through the entire park all the time, but we decided it would be a good time to get in some relaxing and try to get a few pictures of us, that I think turned out pretty alright. We were underneath Silly Symphony Swings, so we had a pretty clear view of the rest of the park across the water, and there was hardly any foot traffic under there so it was quite a peaceful half hour or so and for anyone looking to relax in DCA, definitely a great spot to do so.

Our reservation for Wine Country Trattoria was coming up so we had just a little bit of time to do a couple attractions so on our way over, we stopped at the Golden Zephyr, and it was running as pretty much a walk on, so we rode. Even during busy times of the day, Ariel seems to be a walk on so we took the chance and sure enough, we were on in less than 5 minutes. There were the couple of rides we had time for and then we headed to Wine Country for our 5 o’clock reservation.

I must say that I very much enjoy the relaxing outdoor atmosphere of this restaurant and my only complaint happens to be with service that we didn’t get. Don’t you worry, it was only the fact that we weren’t brought any bread until the second time that I asked for it. What can I say, I love bread. However, we decided that our server was just trying to save us from yesterday’s bread because it seemed to taste very dry or stale.

The rest of the meal, however, was quite good. We started with a breaded seafood platter. There were mussels, calamari and some sort of bean. I found most of it to be kinda chewy but it was still pretty good. The pasta was delicious and handmade, the shrimp were delicious and the only thing I could say about my main dish was that it was maybe a little bit too oily, but that is going to happen when you choose scampi. Morgan enjoyed hers very much as well, but the pasta in her dish was obviously not handmade and something you would be able to get from a grocery store, but it did not make hers bad, it just was not as delicious as mine. I actually am looking forward to going there again since I love my carbs.

 

[BretJMiller]

I guess neither of us were hungry for a dessert from there. I don’t know about you, but I can always go for some ice cream. We went to get a swirl cone instead. As we ate, we made our way over to listen to and ride heimlich. It was amusing, as always, but not one of those rides you go on because you have to. It’s made for killing some time. From there was a nice ride on ToT and then I made the mistake of waiting for a little while to get a few pictures while Morgan went to learn how to draw another character at the Animation Academy.

The Hollywood Tower Hotel by BretJMiller, on Flickr

From there we went for a walk to and around Paradise Pier to decide if we were going to watch World of Color that day, and we decided against it. Instead, we walked right back over to ToT to get one last ride in and left for the day to make our way over to Trader Sam’s for one last time before our trip was over.

An empty Pier by BretJMiller, on Flickr

This time around, we didn’t have room for anymore souvenir cups so we elected to peruse the menu a little bit more. I went with the Tiki Tiki Tiki Tiki Tiki Rum, and Morgan got the Piranha Pool. They were both pretty good, and I’m willing to bet that just about any drink you can get from there is delicious. Which is also what I am starting to think about the food. We decided to try a couple more of the appetizers. They were both delicious. I’m not a big fan of flatbreads, but we had the pork flatbread and I thought it to be good, a little sweet with the barbecue sauce, but it worked with the little bit of pork that was on there. Morgan only tried one piece - she didn’t seem to like it because of the barbecue sauce was just so different. The Ahi poke was our second dish, and it was really good, but hard to eat at times. We didn’t realize right away that the tuna was sitting on top. Both of us thought it was tomatoes or something of that nature at first until we really started to taste it.

After taking our time to eat and drink, we almost decided to call it quits for the night, but decided to spend a little bit more time out and head over to Disneyland. We didn’t do much, just got a dole whip, caught the end of the second show of Fantasmic! and headed into Pirates for the last ride of the night.

We made our way back for some much needed sleep until we would wake up for our last full day of the trip!

 

[BretJMiller]

Day 5

Considering that this is the last day that I’m writing (the second to last day of the trip), I’m sorry if it ends up being a bit light on content and heavy on lists! I’ll try to make up for it with some decent pictures to look at, but decent is in the eye of the beholder, so you just let me know!

We were off to a good start, and into Disneyland by 8am and I didn’t have my camera out at all. Since this was to be our last full day for a while, we wanted to ride and do what we could there and I didn’t want to be easily distracted as I tend to be with any little detail or photo opportunity that could put us a couple minutes behind on rides.

Since we’ve done just about everything (except not really) by this point, I’ll cut out some of the repeats. We headed straight for Fantasyland to knock out the important rides first and instead of heading back to it’s a small world early on, I decided we should head over to the Nemo subs and have Morgan go get us a fastpass for Space Mountain. I very much prefer Nemo at night, but this attraction is a very slow loader so it gets busy fast. Even getting to it as early as we did, we still ended up waiting probably 15-20 minutes. It’s a very fun ride, but it does get taken down a notch when the small child next to you is crying because she is scared the entire time.

Between the length of the line and length of the ride, we were able to get another fastpass at this point and headed over to get one for Indy before we got breakfast. Breakfast on this particular day was a bit of a challenge to decide, but in the end I’m sure you could guess:

If you didn’t guess correctly, you should probably go back and read the first few days again. This time, however, we opted not to get the coke in favor of the Practically Perfect Punch, which was practically perfect in just about no way. It seemed to be a bit too sour or tart and I’m pretty sure we didn’t finish it because neither of us enjoyed it very much.

Partners! by BretJMiller, on Flickr

We made our way over to use our Space Mountain fastpass and then - since I am always on the lookout for a new mug - I saw a Space Mountain themes travel mug! And this one got plenty of photo ops for you all to see what it looked like.

We actually stayed on this side of the park for a little while and hit up the usual attractions on this side until we could not take it anymore and had to eat a snack. The snack in this case ended up being a couple of kababs from Bengal Barbecue. One of these days, I’m going to have to get the bread from there - I am a sucker for some good bread. This time we went with one beef skewer and one chicken skewer, both were good, but I found that the chicken was a little more moist and a little more delicious.

We headed over to toontown for some looking around, and decided we would try to meet Mickey and maybe we would get lucky and have no line like we did before. Nope! We got pretty close before we realized how long the line actually extends, so we took the out and made our way back over to Splash Mountain.

 

[BretJMiller]

We finally decided to do Splash for this trip and we made our way through with our fastpasses only to get to a point where it broke down, so we took some time before we finally decided we did not want to wait, and left the line to get lunch (you can now see how much I’m glazing over things - sorry about that). This was probably the only meal of the trip that neither of us enjoyed, we at at french market, I got the chicken, Morgan got the beef - the rest is history. I can honestly say though, the saving grace was definitely the cheesecake. I love dense cheesecake and however they get it at Disney, they get it or do it well, because I always love the cheesecake.

We rode Splash afterward and as usual, we were put up front. Don’t worry, I use my camera gear excuse to have her sit in the first seat so I could protect myself behind her. It wasn’t as bad as it could have been but Morgan got a nice misting on the drop into the briar patch. I have to tell you though, the Magic Kingdom version is way better than Disneyland. Not only do I prefer the double wide seats, but I feel like the ride takes so much longer and you actually get to experience each of the different areas telling the story. In Disneyland, you just seem to blaze through it and before you know it, you’re soaking wet and you’re trying to figure out where the rest of the ride went!

A busy Fantasy(land) by BretJMiller, on Flickr

This must have been our time to get in attractions that we hadn’t done yet on the trip because we used our Roger Rabbit fastpasses for a ride that is otherwise a very long wait. The ride itself is amusing. It is a very dark ride, but fun overall. I don’t care much for spinning around in circles so I’m perfectly content with just taking it as a dark ride.

Next up, Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln. What can I say about this attraction? Well, it is an attraction that we can only handle once a trip because it is just so meaningful. Well maybe I am just not old enough to appreciate it fully yet. For now, those attractions just make me feel like I am back in grade school watching a history channel type movie. I know, I know, it’s terrible, but like I said: maybe I just need to get a bit older and a bit more wise.

We knocked out Captain EO, which is always a fun time - rather amusing show. Then we were off to get another “meal.” Basically we just wanted to get some pommes frites, which are probably our favorite salty snack to get in Disneyland, and we wanted to try a couple of the crepes, so we got the seafood crepe that I completely forgot to get a picture of, so instead you can see the remnants of what Morgan did not eat. Overall, it was good, but nothing special. We finished with the - oh so delicious - Bananas Foster crepe. Basically, it was a mix of delicious caramel, bananas and crepe. I don’t know what to say about it, besides that it was good. Morgan wants to get it again, and she is the picky one between the two of us.

 

[BretJMiller]

We spent some time wandering before heading to the Enchanted Tiki Room, which is a very fun attraction and I don’t know why we waited so long to do it, as it is one of the more fun songs to listen to and a great attraction overall. I cannot wait to experience it over in Magic Kingdom and see how close it compares to the original. I took my usual time in the Court des Anges during blue hour before dinner.

des Anges. by BretJMiller, on Flickr

We had a delicious bowl of soup from Harbour Galley. It was good as usual and the bread bowl was as well, even if it was a bit on the stale side. It was a bit late for us to rush over to see the fireworks but we made it and had plenty of time to set up. I didn’t like just about all of the shots, probably because of how I set up, but that fine, I enjoy watching more than photographing anyway (at least that’s what I tell myself when I end up with nothing good).

I decided to hit Casey Jr. so I could listen to that fun tune for a little while until we needed to make our way over to see Magic, Memories and You! I got a delicious churro and headed over. It is too bad I decided not to record it this time because as Morgan tells me (I must have been looking elsewhere) that we were in it! That is always exciting, even if I did miss it. We took advantage of the short line and rode it’s a small world.

This is pretty much where the photographic night ended as we hit up our last few attractions including Fantasmic! Pirates, Indy and Space, before getting a yummy dole whip and heading back for the last night to pack...or sleep.

 

[BretJMiller]

Day 6

We got off to a late start on our last day because we were much too lazy to pack the night before so we got that done in the morning, and didn’t get to Disneyland until about 8:25am. We took this morning pretty slow in order to soak in the last bit of atmosphere that we could take until our next trip (which we leave for tomorrow).

We started off the day grabbing fastpasses for Indy. We weren’t sure if we were going to be able to ride it this morning since it always seems to be closed when we want to ride it. We didn’t even get to on our last trip back in August. The Disney Gods were out to get us I guess. Next up was Pirates which was a short wait as usual during this time of day. We also were fortunate to be able to walk onto Alice. I do not know why we went on this ride, but there must have been some reason behind it.

We also figured our last breakfast should be, of course, a cinnamon roll, and I noticed the delicious looking little pies. I decided to ask what kind it was. And by ask, I mean, have Morgan ask. She is the voice in this duo, yet I still find myself writing this. Morgan has bugged me about getting this done, which is probably why it is taking so long, but hopefully it has been worth the wait. After the scrumptious little apple pie and cinnamon roll, we jumped over to grab a Space Mountain fastpass. The time on it was too late for us to use, so we knew we would be getting it just to save.

At this point, we just try to go through and decide which rides we really want to get in again. Unfortunately, it isn’t always based on what we completely want to do, but what is a short wait, and as usual, we figured to check Winnie the Pooh - a walk on as always.

Next up, was one last ride on the Haunted Mansion, and to end our day, we tried for one last ride on Indy. As I said, for some reason we always seem to walk over to it and it is closed, however, this time around, we happened to get lucky and since we didn’t know (and still don’t) when we will get a chance to ride it again, we enjoyed every second of it.

It was nearing time for us to get back to the room so we could check out, so we did a little bit of shopping around the park and eating a last dole whip until then. We made our way out of the park slowly just to savor every second of it. However, every second seems to go by faster and faster the closer you get to the train station. We were out of there in no time and back to the room to finish collecting our things, we took out two minutes to check out and made our way back to the World of Disney store to pass time and get souvenirs for us and others.

We had to get one last meal, and at Magic Kingdom, a turkey leg is usually our first meal, but we have since started making it our last meal at Disneyland. I ran back into the park to get a turkey leg and when I got back, I had Morgan go to the Jazz Kitchen Express because the shrimp po boy there is very good. It isn’t really anything special, but I love shrimp and I love bread, so if you combine them and put a little sauce on there, it is magical. The rest of the day was boredom and waiting and airports.

If you ever come up with any comments, questions about anything, don’t hesitate to stop by or even message me. We are on our way out to the World tomorrow, so maybe I will see some of you there! If you recognize us, come say “hi!”

And that is that for this one, if you enjoyed it, and were patient enough to see it from start to end - Thank you! - and be sure to stop on by when I (eventually) get this upcoming trip report done. I hope to hear from some more of you so I know things I can improve on!

Thanks! and see you real soon!

 

[DisneyFreak06]

Have fun in the world! Thanks for sharing your awesome photography skills!

 

[disneykiwi]

Hi there

I have been following your trip report and I absolutely loved it. Your photos are fantastic!!

We are coming over to Disneyland next June so seeing your photos and reading about the different places you ate was very helpful in planning for us.

Hope you have a great time at the Magic Kingdom.

Looking forward to reading that trip report and the beautiful photos you will take there.

 

[Goldeelox9]

I loved your trip report. We are going tot he Halloween Party in Disneyland then spending a day at the parks after before we set sail on a cruise from LA. It will be our first time on the West Coast.

I loved your pictures. What kind of Camera do you have?

 

[BretJMiller]

Hi there

I have been following your trip report and I absolutely loved it. Your photos are fantastic!!

We are coming over to Disneyland next June so seeing your photos and reading about the different places you ate was very helpful in planning for us.

Hope you have a great time at the Magic Kingdom.

Looking forward to reading that trip report and the beautiful photos you will take there.

I'm glad you enjoyed it! I'm back from the World with plenty of pictures to go through and hopefully I'll be able to get this one out in a somewhat more timely manner. Keep an eye out for it! I'll also try to link to it in here after I start it!

Thanks for reading and I'm glad we could at least be a bit of help!

I loved your trip report. We are going tot he Halloween Party in Disneyland then spending a day at the parks after before we set sail on a cruise from LA. It will be our first time on the West Coast.

I loved your pictures. What kind of Camera do you have?

Nice! Morgan and I would love to do a cruise, but they are just so pricey so we haven't been able to fit one in yet. The west coast is quite lovely, weather-wise and I'm sure you'll love Disneyland - there is so much to do!

Also, I shoot with a Canon T1i right now, and (for this particular trip) used 4 different lenses.