When the alarm rang the next morning, I had NO IDEA where I was! I hate that feeling! As soon as I remembered, I was up like a shot and we drove to DL!
I was quite surprised to park in a PARKING GARAGE!!! COOL!!
We took the little space age tram thingy to the park.
Space age tram thingy
There I met my first character of the trip - HOOK!!!
Captain Hook!
The excitement of Hook was quickly gone when I ran into my BUD GOOFY!!!!
My BUD!!
WOW. LOTS of guests were already there! We made our way in and I have to share this sign with you I LOVE IT!!
Classic Walt
We stopped at the bakery to get a bite. DH got a cinnamon apple messy bun thingy and I got something that I won't confess.
DH was NOT eating fast enough for me!
I was READY TO GO!!!
THEN, all of a sudden, I HEARD IT!!!! WALT HIMSELF!!!! They play the Walt's dedication of DL at opening!!! You know - "To all who come to this happy place - welcome! ........." It was TOTALLY AWESOME!!!!! I was choked up completely. Tears in my eyes, the whole deal. It's details like this that make Disney what it is, you know?
We headed towards the castle.
THAT took some getting used to! But Tink said it best - "We've got a mountain. You can't have a castle that is bigger than your mountain!"
I now feel that size is unimportant with regards to castles.
Craig and I, as homage to a goof, I mean a good friend, went straight for Toad. I LOVE THIS ATTRACTION!!! No wonder people were so POed! Then we made our way to Snow White, hehehe.
Look Bud! It's TOADY!!
We then quickly left FantasyLand (getting a bit crowded) and headed to New Orleans Square to find PotC!!
Apparently there was some type of pin event going on. WOW. What a lot of people!
We found Pirates with a short wait of about 10 minutes. What can I say??? Those of you who know understand my lack of words. PotC is just incredible. I love the way you float past Blue Bayou and you REALLY feel like you are outside!!!! It seemed much longer than WDW, too. DH and I really like DLs version much better. YO HO!
After Pirates, we made our way to the Haunted Mansion. Of course I had to stop and admire the Mark Twain and the Columbia. I think that they are both absolutely fascinating. I wanted to ride on the Columbia, but it didnt appear that it was sailing that day.
So, on to HM. It seems that we missed the classic HM by one day. It had now been redone a la Nightmare Before Christmas. Now, I am sure that it has its fans, but I am not one. I love the classic HM and was looking forward to experiencing it at DL. DH, however, was happy. He loves Nightmare, so I just smiled and nodded a lot while trying to look past all the froo froo at the REAL HM.
Oh yay, Jack has decorated the Haunted Mansion. I sure hope he plans on cleaning this up!
Now on a classic Walt kick, we made our way to Adventureland to the Enchanted Tiki Room.
More Walt stuff!
I love the Tiki Room!!! Made me want to go to the Polynesian and get Tonga Toast!
I LOVE THIS!! I felt like I was back in the day, like that Disneyland DVD set with all the classic footage of time gone by. We left with large satisfied Disney smiles on our faces!
Mindful of the time since we had a lunch date, we started heading back to New Orleans Square. We were able to catch up with Woody, though, beforehand.
WOODY!!
When we got to Blue Bayou, I realized that there was no way I was going to recognize the DISers we were to meet. So we got out the trusty cell phone to call TheLionKing. As it was ringing, a man close by picked up his phone and answered! Turns out that they were right next to us!!! We had quite a laugh over the irony of that! We made our introductions and waited for Tink33 and Mary Jo to arrive.
Thelma and Louise. Louise and Thelma. I get 'em mixed up!
They arrived in short order and we went in. I was completely in awe!! It looked even better than it did from the Pirates boat! Craig and I both had the blackened chicken Caesar salad YUM while enjoying casual conversation with our lunch company. Best of all DH could see that my Disney friends are not complete and total freaks! (Thanks for behaving, y'all!)
DumboOrBust, Mary Jo, Tink33
Kiddos and TheLionKing
TIGGER!!!
After lunch concluded, we assembled for the obligatory group picture.
Thanks for meeting with us, y'all. Craig and I really enjoyed it!
The "After Lunch" report will follow soon.
I was quite surprised to park in a PARKING GARAGE!!! COOL!!
We took the little space age tram thingy to the park.
Space age tram thingy
There I met my first character of the trip - HOOK!!!
Captain Hook!
The excitement of Hook was quickly gone when I ran into my BUD GOOFY!!!!
My BUD!!
WOW. LOTS of guests were already there! We made our way in and I have to share this sign with you I LOVE IT!!
Classic Walt
We stopped at the bakery to get a bite. DH got a cinnamon apple messy bun thingy and I got something that I won't confess.
DH was NOT eating fast enough for me!
I was READY TO GO!!! THEN, all of a sudden, I HEARD IT!!!! WALT HIMSELF!!!! They play the Walt's dedication of DL at opening!!! You know - "To all who come to this happy place - welcome! ........." It was TOTALLY AWESOME!!!!! I was choked up completely. Tears in my eyes, the whole deal.
It's details like this that make Disney what it is, you know?We headed towards the castle.
THAT took some getting used to! But Tink said it best - "We've got a mountain. You can't have a castle that is bigger than your mountain!"
I now feel that size is unimportant with regards to castles.
Craig and I, as homage to a goof, I mean a good friend, went straight for Toad. I LOVE THIS ATTRACTION!!! No wonder people were so POed! Then we made our way to Snow White, hehehe.
Look Bud! It's TOADY!!
We then quickly left FantasyLand (getting a bit crowded) and headed to New Orleans Square to find PotC!!
Apparently there was some type of pin event going on. WOW. What a lot of people!
We found Pirates with a short wait of about 10 minutes. What can I say??? Those of you who know understand my lack of words. PotC is just incredible. I love the way you float past Blue Bayou and you REALLY feel like you are outside!!!! It seemed much longer than WDW, too. DH and I really like DLs version much better. YO HO!After Pirates, we made our way to the Haunted Mansion. Of course I had to stop and admire the Mark Twain and the Columbia. I think that they are both absolutely fascinating. I wanted to ride on the Columbia, but it didnt appear that it was sailing that day.
So, on to HM. It seems that we missed the classic HM by one day. It had now been redone a la Nightmare Before Christmas. Now, I am sure that it has its fans, but I am not one. I love the classic HM and was looking forward to experiencing it at DL. DH, however, was happy. He loves Nightmare, so I just smiled and nodded a lot while trying to look past all the froo froo at the REAL HM.
Oh yay, Jack has decorated the Haunted Mansion. I sure hope he plans on cleaning this up!
Now on a classic Walt kick, we made our way to Adventureland to the Enchanted Tiki Room.
More Walt stuff!
I love the Tiki Room!!! Made me want to go to the Polynesian and get Tonga Toast!
I LOVE THIS!! I felt like I was back in the day, like that Disneyland DVD set with all the classic footage of time gone by. We left with large satisfied Disney smiles on our faces!
Mindful of the time since we had a lunch date, we started heading back to New Orleans Square. We were able to catch up with Woody, though, beforehand.
WOODY!!
When we got to Blue Bayou, I realized that there was no way I was going to recognize the DISers we were to meet.
So we got out the trusty cell phone to call TheLionKing. As it was ringing, a man close by picked up his phone and answered! Turns out that they were right next to us!!! We had quite a laugh over the irony of that! We made our introductions and waited for Tink33 and Mary Jo to arrive.
Thelma and Louise. Louise and Thelma. I get 'em mixed up!
They arrived in short order and we went in. I was completely in awe!! It looked even better than it did from the Pirates boat! Craig and I both had the blackened chicken Caesar salad YUM while enjoying casual conversation with our lunch company. Best of all DH could see that my Disney friends are not complete and total freaks! (Thanks for behaving, y'all!)
DumboOrBust, Mary Jo, Tink33
Kiddos and TheLionKing
TIGGER!!!
After lunch concluded, we assembled for the obligatory group picture.
Thanks for meeting with us, y'all. Craig and I really enjoyed it!
The "After Lunch" report will follow soon.
