So Friday is our VIP day. Being a DL veteran, I never even considered a tour before this trip. Then I read some reviews on here and had to try it!!! I chose the VIP tour since we had a pretty large group (8) and it came with added beneifits of reserved spots for parades and nighttime entertainment throughout your stay. I found this to be a big plus. There's not seats set out like if you did the Fantasmic! riverside seating, but it's a reserved spot and you don't have to worry about camping out an hour ahead of time.
So we got a great night's sleep at the Carousel in those super comfy beds! Hooray!! And there was lots of nice hot water too. Since the place was full, I was a little worried, but it wasn't a problem.
Park opens at 8:00 today and we go to Carnation Cafe first for breakfast. While we're waiting to get seated, DD14 runs for Space fastpasses. We have a great breakfast. I had Oscar's special, with eggs, bacon, potatoes and a croissant. Very yummy. DD14 ordered the cinnnamon roll French toast. This is sugar overload and she was regretting her order, so I shared some of mine with her. Oscar comes by and says hello, and even remembers us from yesterday.
Our guide is meeting us at CC at 9:00, so since we have a little time, DD14 runs now to get Fastpasses for Splash.
Our guide arrives and we head out. We all get Incredibles family reunion buttons. Okay, so we live 10 minutes away from eachother, but it's a family reunion at
Disneyland. She was very pleased that we had already started gathering Fastpasses! She informed us that the rain is supposed to hit DL around 5:00, so we should do as much outside stuff as possible. Sounds like a great plan to me. She also already switched our parade reservations from the 6:30 p.m. one to the 3:30. Wow, she is on it!!!
The VIP guide and my son hit it off. He's full of questions for her, and she's ready with lots of answers! We talk more and find out she's from Maui... how cool, even more in common with her. I can't quite remember the order of everything we did, but it was great. It was fast paced, and yet we still stopped for little bits of trivia and history about the park. While we were on rides, she would be getting us more Fastpasses or checking on where we could see more characters. She helped my son make a sign for Jedi Training, and he was picked!! He was so excited. His sisters were really cheering him on as he battled Darth Vadar! Another great thing about the VIP tour is not having to wait for characters. My kids love characters, so we usually spend a lot of time in line waiting for them. Not today, though!!!
We also did stuff I usually don't do, like the canoes. If you've never done them before, add them to your list for next time. We had a ball! DS6 kept splashing my backside, though, and announced to the whole canoe that he was getting his mom's underwear all wet. Dang low rise jeans!!! Here we are before we set off:
http://i150.photobucket.com/albums/s...s/DSC00149.jpg
We ended our tour with a ride on the Lilly Belle. What a treat! Even my kids appreciated how special that was. Here's me and DH right by the photo of Walt and Lillian:
http://i150.photobucket.com/albums/s...s/DSC00175.jpg
The bad news is we only had a 4-hour tour, so we really missed her when she left us But when the tour was done, we still had several fastpasses left, so we were set!! Oh, and one other thing I almost forgot about. DH told her he was planning on watching the national championship game on Monday at ESPN Zone, so she offered to make him a reservation. Well, at first it was no luck. Whole place is booked for private parties. She puts in another call and gets us in, table for 5, be there at 4:30. Cool!!! More on this later!!!
So it's 1:00 now and our guide suggests we spend some time out on TSI before we head to the parade. My son loves it out there! We meet up with Jack, and he's great. He took my son's pen, took the cap off with his mouth and then spit the cap out about five feet. DD5 found this very amusing too. Since DD5 kept giggling, she got a lot of attention from Jack. She's supposed to introduce him to her princess friends. The Photopass guy snapped a ton of great pics too!! Here's one I took of DD taking her pen back, since Jack tried to keep it:
http://i150.photobucket.com/albums/s...s/DSC00206.jpg
So it's time for us to head to the parade. At this point DD5 is getting very tired! We've managed to lose the stroller (and silly me, I put the receipt in the pouch), so we're stuck carrying her. We usually would have napped at this point, but we wanted to see the parade and do as much as we could before the rain hit. DH had enough at this point and went back to the hotel for a nap.
The temperature is starting to drop and we feel an occassional rain drop but the rain isn't here yet, so we decide to press on. The little ones are getting their second wind and we've got a pocketfull of fastpasses, so we split up. I get to take the teenagers on Indy while the grandparents hit Jungle Cruise and Aladdin's Oasis.
As we get off Indy, we're tempted to go again, but it is officially raining now. I pretend I'm part of the Dream Squad and give away our remaining fastpasses . People were totally excited, since the standby wait was 45 mintues.
We meet back up and head to the Carousel. We arrive wet, cold and tired, but we all agree it was a great day!!
