Soarin Over California: Complete! Disneyland, Hollywood and San Diego!

[OhioStateBuckeye]

Its amazing how they dress up regular parts of the outdoor Studios to look like outdoor scenes in the shows filmed here.

The moveable trees

Around the corner they were filming a commercial (I think for Kellog's?) It had a bunch of people in bear suits who had wrecked the zoo truck and escaped into the streets of New York, they even had a fire hydrant gushing water into the air. The security guard was telling us about it as we peeked around the corner, he told us the commercial reps had to tell the bears to tone it down a bit because they were acting way too exuberant. I'll be interested to see if this airs.

This pony was there for an episode of Big Time Rush, which was the only show being filmed at this time in late May. We got to walk onto their set (no pictures) and it was super cool to see how they make all these false hallways and walls look like a real hotel. Our guide also told us that this was one of the biggest sets because they had an actual real pool inside the studio (I've never seen this show, I'll need to watch).

This building was a part of their 'streets of New York', it was Angelina Jolie's office building in Mr. and Mrs. Smith

costumes being walked along.

The parking lot that is also their water stage. I think Bruce Almighty, the water walking scene, was filmed here, as was Master and Commander.

The outside of the closely guarded Glee set, our guide told us that some of the smaller sets are just packed up onto little moving platforms and they just wheel them in and out.

Generic looking back city alley. Think this was used for some NICS? scenes

The old entrance to the Studios, the upper left hand corner office belonged to the most famous Hollywood costumer, she is the one that Edna Mode from the Incredibles is based after.

The famous Hollywood sign is right to the left of stage 4 back there.

One of 4 Forrest Gump benches in existence. Guide told us one day Tom Hanks came into the studios and sat on the bench and handed out chocolates to everyone who wandered by. Told us that Tom Hanks is considered the mayor of Hollywood and is the nicest guy you could meet.

This is Paramount's private screening theater that is on the studio lot, proving once again that they will use any building available for a shot, this was also used in a Harrison Ford movie to stand in as the lobby of a downtown building.

This is the Studio Cafe, it also stands in for the coffee shop and Breadsticks in Glee (the interior)

 

[OhioStateBuckeye]

After the excellent tour we headed to our hotel, The Magic Castle.

I had learned about this from DISer Spartangirl, and am very grateful to her as it was a highlight of the trip. The Magic Castle hotel is located in the heart of Hollywood, it is only a couple block walk from Grauman's, the well known Yamashiro restaurant is right above it on the same hill, as is the famous Magic Castle Club.



Now, the Club is the main reason we stayed at the hotel. The Magic Castle Club is an old building in the style of a Victorian mansion that houses an exclusive club for magicians. The only way to attend the Magic Castle Club is to be a member (they have magician members and non-magician members, both have to appear before the board to qualify as a member, and the yearly dues are quite a bit larger for the non-magician members), to be the guest of a member, or to stay at the hotel.

Spooky picture of the Club from their website.

Neil Patrick Harris is also the current president of the Club, you might be surprised how many famous actors/actresses actually practice some kind of magic and are members or perform at the Club.

Googling the Magic Castle Club is probably the best way to learn more if you are interested (I promise it is a very awesome place with an otherworldly feel). Anyway, more about the Castle later when we actually get to go inside.

Anyway, upon check in we were treated with a cool, complimentary beverage (some fizzy non alcoholic orange drink). Oh, if I haven't
mentioned it yet, the Magic Castle Hotel usually wins an award for best hospitality/customer service for California hotels. The front desk guy (who I wish I remembered his name) was amazing. He chatted us up and asked about our day so far and what else we planned to do.

He then provided us with a list of complimentary snacks and beverages (we are talking high class people, brand name pop, full sized candy bars, the works), and a list full of dvds we could borrow from their library. I was already feeling like we were at a Disney hotel, especially when he gave us even more pixie dust and informed us he was giving us a complimentary upgrade to a suite. sweet! There is a little underground garage where we got to park our car (who I had named Lil' Miss).

The lobby, when we left later to go sight seeing they had complimentary cucumber water sitting out

Armed with our first complimentary beverages we explored our room (upgrade wooo!!!). The room was so sweeet, and huge.

View from the balcony, the hotel was actually real small, there weren't too many rooms.

Me looking...weird


We found an armload of complimentary swag on the table, including a map that was marked with all our destinations for the day!

Told you these guys have awesome customer service!

They also had these super cute 'do not disturb' signs.

We ate some of our complimentary candy bars and headed out to explore Hollywood! Or Hollyweird, as our front desk friend called it.

 

[OhioStateBuckeye]

It was a very short walk to our first stop, Madame Tussaud's.

We had pre-purchased our tickets online and saved about $10 each off the
gate price. Our online tickets also allowed for a free second visit, which we did not use. I would recommend a visit here, its pretty fun to
run around and get your picture with the statues, some are very lifelike. Some have props you can use to pose with the statues.

We took a ton of pictures, but I will spare you and only post a few.

Conan! Wax figure not as awkward looking as Conan in real life!

One of the more real looking figures

heart Thor

Master Chief!!

I think this pic is pretty funny

 

[OhioStateBuckeye]

We spent about an hour to an hour and a half in here then walked about a minute down the sidewalk (which was covered with all the stars)

and explored the Grauman's Chinese Theatre.

I love movies, I've worked at movie theaters most of my life so I was very excited to see this place. We paid for a theatre tour and got to go inside the theatre and walk around the giant screen. You cannot imagine how big this screen is, its amazing.

The amazing women's powder room.

Each butterfly is hand painted.


The tour guide also told us a few celebrity stories, she had the chance to meet a lot of them since so many movies premiere here. In fact, Johnny Depp had just been there a few days earlier to premiere Dark Shadows.

The tradition is to rub the mannequin's shoulder for luck.

Then she took us outside to tell us stories about the hand prints. If you are into movies, this tour might be a good activity for you.

 

[OhioStateBuckeye]

You can see some of the costumed people wandering around in front of Grauman's

We were starving by this point, so we walked the few blocks to Mel's Diner.

Along the way we passed the El Capitan Theater,

the Kodak Theater

and the Disney Soda Shop.

The food here was pretty good, I had a Reuben and I forget what kind of sandwich Brian had. The milkshakes were incredible and it wasn't expensive.

After we paid our bill, we got handed coupons for the next door Hollywood Museum! Score! This was another activity on my list, and I hadn't been able to find any discounts beforehand. So we each got a few dollars off admission.

 

[OhioStateBuckeye]

This museum was just ok, most of the displays were costumes and I would have liked to have seen more props.

Christopher Reeves' Superman costume.

I really like Moulin Rouge and they had a lot of costumes from that movie.

Peewee's bike!

Beautiful dress.

The Harry Potter trio's shoes they used to put their footprints outside of Grauman's! That I just saw! neat

Costumes from Van Helsing

Loved all the detailed Indiana Jones props, they even had his school diploma

Silence of the Lambs cell block

Johnny Depp's costume from Sweeney Todd

Jodie Foster's chair from Silence of the Lambs

The old Max Factor redhead makeup room

There were also rooms for Brownettes, Brunettes and of course Blondes

These guys were just hanging out in the museum

The museum did have a nice display of Indiana Jones props in the basement that I loved. The basement was also sweet because they had the entire cell block from Silence of the Lambs.

Also, the building used to be the Max Factor Makeup studio, and they had preserved some of the makeup rooms that you could walk into and look
around. I am glad we went here, but I probably wouldn't do it again.

 

[OhioStateBuckeye]

We were pretty wiped out by this point and we needed to get back to the hotel to change for our evening at the Magic Castle Club, so we started the
short walk back to the hotel. There was some sort of event happening on the sidewalk, it looked like people who were just sitting at a table for maybe a book signing? But there was a camera crew and people crowded all around them. Guess stuff like that is pretty normal in Hollywood.

We made a brief stop at McDonald's to get a drink, and who did we see inside getting some food?!

Guess Wookies like chicken mcnuggets

heart Donald

This star made me think of our dinner that night in the Magic Castle Club

Our view of the Magic Castle Club from in front of the hotel

We crashed for a bit longer than I would have liked in our room before we got ready. The Club opened at 5, I don't think we were ready to go til 6. Our dinner reservation was at 8 pm.

The week we were there it was the 'Women of Magic Week'. There were three stages open, the smallest one seats about 20, the middle stage seats maybe 50, and the largest stage was probably around 100.

There were 2 different shows on the smaller stages before and after 8 pm. So the smallest stage had 2 different women and so did the medium stage.

The main stage had the same act (3 magicians and the host) for the whole night.

Anyway, we were finally all dressed up (there is a pretty strict dress code, jacket and tie for men and dresses for women), we failed to get a picture here because we left our cameras in the room (no cameras allowed in the Club, and I think they do a real good job, I tried to look through Google and find some pictures of the inside of the Club and I found very few).

We walked to the front desk and there was a van waiting to take us up the hill (with my shoes, I was very thankful).

They dropped us off right in front of the door and we were ready for our experience!

Which I will post about in my next post

 

[OhioStateBuckeye]

And now, ladies and gentlemen, I present to you, the most Magical part of the trip.

Yep, that was a bad pun.

So where we last left off we were about to enter the exclusive Magic Castle!

We entered a small entrance parlour and checked in with a girl behind the counter. We paid our entry fee ($20 each) and she motioned us over to a bookcase.

*all the pictures of the inside of the Castle I found on the Magic Castle's website or on google

We had to speak the magic word to the owl statue (the Castle kind of has a thing about owls) and the wall slid back to allow us entry into the main part of the Castle.

The Castle is exactly how you would expect a really old Hollywood mansion to be: a weird, eclectic place with lots of hidden rooms and surprises.

http://www.magiccastle.com/about/virtualtour.cfm
This site has a breakdown of all the rooms

One of the many bars

We went to the Parlour of Prestidigitation first, this was the medium sized theater. This show was based on old (as in antique) magic props. This was probably my least favorite of the shows, I was pretty sure I could see how one of the props worked. I did get picked to go on stage and help with a trick where the magician wrapped a bit of lace around herself and then 'escaped' from the lace.

After this it was time for our dinner reservation. The dinner menu is pretty expensive here, and while I thought the food was very good, I'm one of those people who will constantly think about how expensive it is while I'm eating it, so that kind of took away some of the charm. My favorite restaurant is also Texas Roadhouse, so my tastes aren't too sophisticated.

It was while we were eating that we first heard a rumor about another guest seeing Ryan Reynolds checking in. I was very excited, as I had not yet seen a celebrity, and I hoped I would be able to catch a glimpse.

After our meal we wandered around for a bit and checked out the Museum, Library and the classroom that was downstairs.

We got in line for the main show and were shortly seated...we got seats one row back from the stage and were waiting patiently for a few minutes when I got to have my Hollywood celebrity experience and spotted Ryan Reynolds coming in from the corner of my eye!

Wow this guy is hot when you are face to face with him. He was looking very rugged, sort of like this...

I wanted Brian to sneak a pic with his phone, but we figured this is the sort of place that will probably kick non-members out real quick for bothering celebrities.

He was with a few other people, and it looked like he was probably there with a tall, pretty blonde girl. I was later informed by my friend that this was most likely Blake Lively, who Ryan Reynolds was dating at the time. So I actually saw 2 celebrities, but really, can you blame me for not seeing past Ryan?

Liberty Larson, the granddaughter of the founders of the Club, was the MC for the main stage show and she had some incredible stage presence. She also had a very cute rabbit hand puppet named Peterkin who performed some adorable card tricks for us.

There were 3 magicians that entertained us, one was the reigning Women's Champion from the top magician awards contest

Her show involved just constant cards shooting out from her hands, even after she rolled up her sleeves.

I am not even going to try to describe the kind of magic these women performed, my words wouldn't do it justice.

After the main show, I made sure to focus on my show schedule by the door so I could walk out right next to Ryan Reynolds. Obvious? Maybe, but at least I didn't bother him.

Then we went to wait for the show in the Close Up Gallery. The woman here, once again, was amazing. Even more so since it was such an intimate setting. I had a nice older man sit next to me during this show, and we made a few remarks to each other.

We lined up for the final show of the night (a seance) at the Parlour of Prestigiditation stage and the nice older man sat next to me and we continued to talk while waiting. I learned that he was a member of the Club and was a magician himself. I asked him if he'd show us a trick but we were interrupted by one of the employees telling us the last show was cancelled because there were not enough people to fill the room. Apparently most of the remaining guests were crowded around the piano playing ghost and the bars.

Our new friend offered to give us a private show, and led us downstairs. He took us into the Albert Peller theater. The theater was dark save for a single spotlight that he shown down on the performer's table on stage. Brian and I sat right in the front room and were shown the most amazing card tricks I will probably ever see.

We even got to participate in the tricks while he informed us that he learned his magic from a one armed magician from South America.

Finally an employee came down to tell us the Castle was closing up (it was after midnight). We headed back upstairs and finally asked the man's name, he was Norman Gillbreath, we googled him later that night and he is a famous magician and mathematician. He wrote numerous treatises on number theory and Brian made a point to tell me that he is more famous than Ryan Reynolds (I guess it depends on what circles you run in).

So anyway we thanked Norm and he wandered off to the Owl Bar to talk to some other Member magicians (not sure if the Castle was only closing to guests, though I wouldn't be surprised if the Members just do what they want). We stopped at the tiny gift shop, I wanted to get a pack of cards as a remembrance. As I was making my purchase, a few Russian girls came inside and said they had an entourage of people from Hustler outside who wanted to come in and use the bar. Go figure, guess it really is Hollyweird.

We stumbled back down the short walk to our hotel and practically fell into bed.

But not before I took this picture of the pool at night.

UP NEXT: We check out of our beloved Magic Castle hotel and head back to DL for our last day, boo!

QUOTEABLE QUOTES: 'Darth Vader smells like weed' (he totally did outside the Grauman's Theatre), 'I saw Ryan Reynolds while I was checking in!' and 'Would you 2 like to follow me? And I will show you a few tricks I know'

LOWLIGHTS OF DAY 4: Utter vacation exhaustion is starting to settle in.

HIGHLIGHTS OF DAY 4: My Hollywood celebrity experience and our own private magic show!

 

[julsmom]

Loving all the pictures!! Thanks for posting!

 

[Khiori]

I'm really enjoying this TR. Thank you so much for putting it together!

 

[OhioStateBuckeye]

Loving all the pictures!! Thanks for posting!

I'm really enjoying this TR. Thank you so much for putting it together!

Thanks guys! Hopefully I will be updating tomorrow!

 

[Khiori]

Thanks guys! Hopefully I will be updating tomorrow!

yay!!

 

[OhioStateBuckeye]

Friday morning dawned bright and early. Too bright and early. Gosh, I am getting tired just writing about all our early morning wake ups. At this point I knew Brian's energy was pretty much non-existent, but I really wanted to make it back to DL in time for opening. So I let Brian sleep almost 45 minutes later while I packed and got everything ready to check out.

Even though he got more sleep than I did, he was still not happy about getting up. I was running on nothing but in-explainable Disney magic, and Brian was running only because I asked him to.

buh bye room!

We checked out and grabbed some complimentary breakfast as we waved goodbye to the Magic Castle then headed out into rush hour traffic once
again.

I think I forgot to talk about this before, I know a lot of people are scared to drive in LA traffic. It didn't bother me so much, I didn't feel like the drivers were any more aggressive than they are in Ohio, the only thing that did bother me was the motorcycles who made lanes for themselves and drove on the white line in between the traffic lanes. The first time one drove by we were both terrified and thought someone was about to crash into us from behind. But, seriously motorcycles? Wait with everyone else, geez.

Yesterday during our afternoon break I had booked a night at the Camelot hotel. I'd left this til the last minute because I was really hoping that one of the DL hotels may show up on some discount site, of course that didn't happen. We were super tired (as you already know) and our feet were hurting a bit, so we booked Camelot because we wanted one of the hotels directly across the street from the DL entrance.

They weren't ready for us to check in at 9 am, so we just left our car there and headed off to the parks. I think by the time we got inside DL, it was around 9:30, so we didn't do too badly on time.

Hurry up! We're in Disney! Walking slow is simply not allowed!

We got to knock out one of Brian's must dos: ride in the horse drawn carriage down Main Street!

We got Eddie the horse, I thought it was so cute how he got his own CM name tag.

Eddie! Its another horse in your territory! We must fight to the death, get him!! Er, lets just smile and wave instead.

Bye Eddie! Thank you! Yep, we like horses.

Look! Real fruit! Nice touch.



We headed to Star Tours and walked right on, right onto vomit that is. We were in the last row and there was a giant splatter of vomit all over the row. I told a CM and headed straight out back into line. Vomit doesn't really
bother me, I used to work at a movie theater, but there is no way I was sitting in it for a ride. They ended up clearing out the entire ride vehicle/theater and we all go to board a new 'spaceship'. This time we got Vader again, Hoth and Boba Fett. We walked onto Buzz,

then grabbed a FP for SM and rode again. Can I just say again I love love love the DL Sm! I don't think I'll want to ride the WDW one, it'll just make me sad/annoyed.

 

[OhioStateBuckeye]

We took a leisurely stroll over to FL and rode IASW. I made it my mission to get a pic of all the Disney characters, gotta catch em all gotta catch em all, Pokemon!

er, small world.

Oooh, the clock is running!

Brian loved this guy and claimed he was the creators' of South Park's inspiration for their Canadian characters. Not sure if that is true, but they certainly do look similar (the small world Canadian's mouth moves straight up and down back into his chin like the South Park Canadians do)

aaaanyway back to our regularly scheduled ride...

One Disney character, one! ahahahah

Two Disney character, two! ahahha

Three Disney characters...ugh you get the point.

a two for one deal with...

my favorite amigos!!

almost missed these two! so tricksy!

Look how clean the water looks! Last time I was at WDW the water looked super gross

 

[OhioStateBuckeye]

I liked this sign

Next we needed to ride Splash so I could do another...

RIDE COMPARISON: SPLASH MOUNTAIN. I found the ride to be pretty similar to the WDW version, you ride side by side though.

EDGE: WDW. Its longer and has a lot more scenes.

We took our time walking around and found a local glee club performing at a stage that was set back a bit in its own little area. Best part about this?!

Characters were roaming the area in western wear (feel like that belongs in a runway show, and now we have Chip, he is wearing a lightweight vest which is perfect for those hot summer days and look at his cheeky hat! my that does add a touch of color and fun to his ensemble, doesn't it?).

There were Mickey and Minnie,

Chip and Dale,

and some weird mule looking thing with a horse collar? (weird looking mule thing not pictured, I did not want to draw attention to myself from it). The mule looking thing was scary so I avoided him like the plague and we got out of there in a hurry.

Then we headed out to DCA.

Brian was convinced we were supposed to have moved the car at the hotel, he thinks we were parked in the temporary check in parking. So of course I get to go and move it, while he relaxes. He promised he would find me a snack though, so I'm ok with it. I move the car and meet him between the 2 parks to find he has no snack Must be tough to find a snack if you don't look (he claims he couldn't find anything I'd like...I like EVERY snack).

I felt a little better as our first stop in DCA was to get hot dogs. They were pretty good, and we had a discussion about DL food vs. WDW food. Brian was convinced that DL food is healthier, he said they give smaller portions and less snacky items to go with CS meals.

We sat next to the Muppets ride, so we had some fun stuff to look at while we ate.

 

[OhioStateBuckeye]

I was keeping my eye on the show time for Aladdin, and we had some time to burn so we headed into the Animation Academy building.

This place is pretty sweet, I love the lobby, I could probably sit there for hours just watching/listening to all the Disney movies.

We stopped in Beast's library and discovered which characters we were most like. I got Cinderella? I wouldn't think so, but I do spend a lot of time cleaning up Brian's messes so maybe I am.

We found the Toy Story gyroscope? Is that what its called? The carousel like thingie that makes your eyes see things all wonky?

Then we explored the rest of the place.

It was almost time for the next drawing class to start so we got in line. Wow, the drawing area here is a loooot bigger than the one at WDW, this is a freaking amphitheater while WDW gets about 30 desks.

We got to draw Pluto, I think I did fairly well, at least he didn't look like a zombie like my poor rendition of zombie Dale from WDW.

Next we headed over to watch the 12:40 Aladdin show. The line was super long, but we got pretty decent seats up at the very top level.

I was prepared to be wowed by this show, instead I spent the whole time trying not to nod off. Brian did fall asleep, and I think I dozed through Aladdin's parade. It was a real good show, just wish I coulda stayed awake.

After Aladdin we were wearing pretty thin and needed nap time. There were still a few things left on the 'to do' list though. I gave up on riding TOT, Brian doesn't like it so it would have been just me anyway. We got right into a Muppets show (which is one of Brian's favorite things at WDW).

RIDE COMPARISON: MUPPETS. The show and the theaters are exactly the same, the only distinction I could find was in the queues,
and I have to say I like all the little gags in the waiting area at WDW.

EDGE: WDW, for the queue.

I was pretty bummed to find Monster's Inc was closed, this was near the top of my must do list since it was a dark ride I'd never been on.

We really should have taken a nap at this point, but we still had several things in DL that were not to be missed. So we trooped back to
the DL side (easy/painless to park hop my foot, no really my poor, aching foot).

 

[OhioStateBuckeye]

On the way in we spotted Donald, my favorite! Shame I wore my Donald shirt Wednesday I got in line to get my picture with him, and when it was my turn he opening his arms for a big hug! (I didn't see him hug anyone else, he musta known how huge a fan I am haha).

Yay for the cool looking windows!

We watched Alice and the Mad Hatter interacting with some guests at a restaurant. Sounded like the kids were voting on whose act they liked better, and the Mad Hatter was being a giant jerk and telling them to tell Alice she was boring. Jerk.

Next we got onto Jungle Cruise with about a 10 minute wait.

Cool chess board

I thought the piranhas were totally cool! And WDW doesn't have them so they were a nice surprise.

I love your bar Trader Sam!!



RIDE COMPARISON: JUNGLE CRUISE. I like DL's two story queue, but the queue at WDW is pretty interesting too. Both of the rides
are very similar, DL is missing the dark Temple part. I'm not really sure if the Temple even adds that much to the ride (unless you have a
very entertaining skipper who makes it fun, live we've had in the past at WDW).

EDGE: Neither, think they are both pretty similar.

 

[OhioStateBuckeye]

I got my fortune from this guy

I don't think this parrot could physically survive in the real world, but he was sooo cute

sweet Indiana Jones pin ball game, a revolver shoots the ball up to start the game.

I just love all the little details, this guy was at a drink/snack stand.

We got some FPes for IJ then took some time to explore Tarzan's Treehouse.

RIDE COMPARISON: I do like all the little Tarzan elements like the jaguar, but I loved the Swiss Family Robinson movie since I was little,
so its really no question for me here.

EDGE: WDW, since it still has the Swiss Family Robinson theme.

rock a bye baby in the tree tops...indeed

This picture reminds me of the family guy episode where there is a guy watching a nature show, and there is an animal similar looking to this on the show. The guy is scared of the animal and says 'if that comes up to my house, I kill it. Damn nature, you scary'. (love family guy).

We made the short, but excruciating, walk to the castle so we could do the castle walk through.

This was really cute, and I wish WDW had a Cinderella story walk through. Don't get me wrong though, I love the beautiful mosaics inside the castle, but we can have both

moving spear! so cool!

The little store next to the castle was sweet, look at this awesome pirate sword...

It was way past time to take a nap at this point, but we decided we should have dinner then go back and nap. I had read good things about
the Hungry Bear so we headed over. I finally decided to ask a CM along the way what the deal was with the Explorer's Canoes (it was on
our must do list) and he told us it was only open over the summer. boo.

Brian got the Fried Green Tomato sandwich and I got the Crispy Chicken
sandwich.

Both were pretty good, but I fell in love with dessert. I got a lemon bumblebee cupcake, and oh my gosh was it just sooo adorable!

I didn't even want to eat it, but we finally did and it was pretty refreshing and tasty. RIP, little bumblebee, sorry I ate you, but if it gives you any
consolation, you were delicious.

Finally we made our way out of the parks and checked in at the hotel! I think it was about 5 pm at this point. Of course our room was about as
far as you could get, but still. We needed our rest because it was our last night at DL and we had a fistful of FPes and some sensational
nighttime shows to see!

NEXT UP: Our epic DL conclusion spectacular!!

 

[OhioStateBuckeye]

When last we left off our intrepid heroes were wiped out and resting up at the fabulous Camelot Inn.

Its high time for a photo tour of the hotel:

The lobby is off to the right and across from it is a little gift shop.

Our room, about as far from the parks as we could get hahaha

the bed was not great, but not bad

jacuzzi tub, my poor feet very much appreciated this


I would highly recommend Camelot, it was a bit pricey at $100 a night with $9 for parking, but it is sooooo close to the entrance to the parks that I think its worth it. If I were only going for a 2 day or less trip, then I'd definitely stay at Super 8 again (I actually think I liked the Super 8 room better anyway). But just like in New York City, you can't beat location.

Oh, before I forget to mention it, Camelot also has a sweet rooftop pool, that I am pretty sure you'd be able to watch the fireworks from. Don't take my word for it...we never made it up there of course because my vacations are go go go busy busy busy (yeah, I'm a little bit sad we didn't get to relax
and visit the pool).

I think we headed back out to the parks around 7.

fastpasses!



Our feet were really hurting and Brian just wanted to sleep forever, but it was our last night and we still had a few things on our 'must do' list. Speaking of must dos, we decided to try DCA first and see if Monster's Inc. was up and running.

We stopped at Soarin' to use a FP, we waited about 15 minutes. This is where we had our first experience with grad nights (da da duuum). We got the last 2 seats in the front row, but when we went to load there was only one seat left in the front row and there was a magically open seat in the second. I am pretty sure the group of teenagers ahead of us had people switch rows. I was a little bit peeved for a few minutes, and I ended up sitting in the front row and Brian behind me.

After our hang glider ride we hopefully headed over to Monster's Inc. and it was open! Yay! This was one of the longest lines of the trip, pretty sure we waited 20+ minutes. The queue was super entertaining, but our feet were killing us so it was a little excruciating.

Continuing my predilection for taking pictures of ride vehicles

low light pictured

loved how she could interact with everyone!

I loved this ride! Yay for Disney for making new dark rides! More please!

Then on our way out we decided to take one more walk on ride on LM. Also love this ride, the best part is probably when your clam turns around backwards and you go underwater. I am curious to see if the WDW
version is going to be the exact same.

Most of my pictures of this ride are blurry but I'm posting them anyway

 

[OhioStateBuckeye]

It was getting very close to fireworks time so we headed out of DCA for the last time.

DL's Main Street was a madhouse with everyone waiting for the fireworks. This is the first time I started to see a lot of teens who were
there for grad nights. We managed to find some open spaces in the hub, our view was partially blocked by a tree but whatever, we could see most of the castle and were pleased we found a good spot right before showtime.

SHOW COMPARISON: FIREWORKS. I am not sure if its because my feet hurt and I was tired, but I wasn't too impressed by the fireworks and the music at DL. However, I was majorly impressed with Dumbo flying. That was awesome and I'm glad I got to see him.

EDGE: Neither. I think WDW wins with fireworks and soundtrack, but Dumbo is super impressive.

We have no pictures of the fireworks because we had the tree partially blocking our view, and I had decided I'd rather enjoy the show.

At this point we had a problem. The original plan had been to head off immediately to Fantasmic! but with the grad night people in the parks it was majorly grid locked and crowded and we were wiped out. We also had about
4 fast passes that we hadn't used yet. I kind of wanted to head to SM because I love it so much and then try to get a monorail ride and sit in the front. Brian had really been wanting to see the Tiki Room, so we decided to do that instead.

We had a nice leisurely 15 minute wait in the Tiki Room Courtyard before we were let in, it was a pretty enjoyable show, it was the first time I'd seen it without the WDW 'Under New Management'

RIDE COMPARISON: TIKI ROOM. Hey Disney, sometimes rides don't need improvements. Also, the DL version gets a big plus because a grandfather and his granddaughter were sitting by us and smiled through the whole thing
and the granddaughter was singing the songs, and it was real sweet.

EDGE: DL.

We were down to about a half hour of park time. We got into the IJ FP line, which in hind sight was a mistake. I didn't realize that the FP line at IJ merges real early with the regular line? Why does this happen??? We were in line for over a half hour and by the time we got out of the ride (which was super fun again). The park was closed to us non-grad night people.

We were also kind of upset because all the stores not on Main Street were closed. We had wanted to stop at the IJ store to get Brian a hat for MNSSHP, but it was closed. I had wanted to get my mom 2 kids books from IASW for her 'thank you for watching the pets' present. But it was also closed

We were gently herded towards Main Street and the exit. We stopped in a few stores, I picked up a Pirates vinylmation and Brian amazingly found the IASW books in some tiny little camera store (?).

You can't see them too well, but this window had all these little lights in the grass around Merida and it was beautiful

I was super lucky in my vinlymation pick, I only wanted about 4 out of the set and I got the Captain Jack Sparrow himself! I won't show a picture of him here because he shows up later in the trip report

Gotta say, it wasn't a very magical end to the trip. The park was absolute wall to wall people, all the stores I wanted to shop at were closed, and we were tired.

Trader Sam's was once again nixed because of our exhaustion (darth vader ridiculous NOOOOOO). We stumbled back to the room and to the bed.

UP NEXT: We leave Disneyland

QUOTEABLE QUOTES: Don't remember if we had any today

LOWLIGHTS OF DAY 5: Utter vacation exhaustion is officially here, missing a few of our must sees and all the grad night crowds.

HIGHLIGHTS OF DAY 5: Seeing Dumbo fly and sitting by the little girl and her grandfather in the Tiki Room.