Day Six, Part Two: Finishing up at
Disneyland
Off Indy and onto Big Thunder,
where I booked Hyperspace Mountain for Dan and Ches. Before we went that way, we went over to Haunted Mansion and took pictures of Chesney’s HM outift.
I don't actually remember that we rode it at this time and it's not in my notes that way, but I got this photo so I think we got stuck in the bride room. I do remember getting stuck and taking this picture because it was such a perfect place to be stuck and I was alone in my doom buggy and I just practiced taking pictures. I just don't remember that it happened at this point in the timeline.
By this time, I was pretty done with sitting around while they rode things, so I peeled off at the Tiki Birds and went and watched some birdies sing while they rode the Mountain.
And then they got lost coming out of Space Mountain and ended up walking through Fantasyland and through the castle to where I was waiting at the hub near Adventureland. This is why I almost always waited for them at the exit of a ride. They get lost.
Also, I don’t have it in my notes but I’m guessing that while I was watching Tiki, I booked them onto Guardians. I know we were wanting Racers but we needed it for a specific time period after our lunch reservation and it wasn’t available yet, so I took a chance and booked Guardians hoping that by the time they rode, Racers would be available for the time I wanted.
As we walked back down Main Street to head to California Adventure, we ran into Chip and Dale, and oh, they’re just the cutest things.
They pointed out Chesney’s Just Graduated button and “asked” about it and then when she told them we were from Kansas, they started flapping their arms and laughing about how we flew out from Kansas. It was fun and made Ches and I happy.
This one we had printed on a canvas and it's currently hanging in Chesney's bedroom. One of my favorite character interactions. They are so. much. fun. And our smiles are so genuine. The best.
And then as we crossed into California Adventure we bumped right into Oswald with no line and got that picture as well.
It was time for Dan and Ches to ride Guardians and I just could not sit out there and wait for them again, especially with the drizzle. I told them I was going to meet Anna and Elsa, which would make me a super popular with the pre-K crowd, but not my personal favorites. I have concerns about the whole locking your special needs child in a room thing.
This is seriously the best part about that big room where you wait for Anna and Elsa. I had no love for any Disney princesses going into this trip, and I came out a true, blue Punzie lover. I sing "At Last I See the Light" on the daily for one my students. And me. I sing it for me. I really try not to regret missing anything during our trip -- we made the right decisions to do what was right for us at the time -- but dang I'm sad we didn't meet Rapunzel. I'm so happy to finally have a favorite Princess. And when they put this scene up on all those 360 screens in that huge room, it's just awe inspiring. How I did not start singing and twirling, I don't know.
Side note -- there was a male CM that was doing line control and he was singing and dancing to every song and I loved him so much and I was texted Ches while I waited and I was like, "You need to come over so we can dance with this guy" and then by the time I was through the line, he was no longer dancing. But we did see him later that day doing parade crowd control and he was still dancing. I can't imagine any grander life than working at Disney and dancing to songs.
So back to the Frozen girls... it turns out the line was so slow that Dan and Ches rode their ride, walked over to where I was and Ches scooted right into line with me just as I went in to see them. This was the only time we had anyone join us when we were ahead in line and we let so many other groups meet up in front of us that I didn’t feel too bad about it. In general, I think that if you’re in a group, you should wait for everyone in the group to be there before you get in line and start moving, but that apparently is not the norm at Disneyland so I wasn’t going to feel too guilty about doing it once. (Although obviously I still feel guilty because I just wrote a whole paragraph about it.)
I actually kinda like Anna. She's got spunk.
Funny story... I was pushing a little girl on a swing the other day and her name was Something-Ana and I asked her if I was pronouncing her name correctly. Because you can do Ah-na or Ann-a, you know. And she looked at me and said, "You can just call me Elsa."
Anyway, obligatory photo of us with the girls:
The CM who took the photo was great, loved my outfit and took a bunch of photos in that very bad lighting. That was a bit of Disney magic right there.
And with that, I'm at my photo post limit and we're about to have the best meal of our trip (I still think about it randomly) so I'll just end this for now. More to come soon!
And I LOVE your Small World outfit!
