Yo Ho Yo Ho A Pirate's Life for We Halloween *2012* PTR has begun!

[6Smiles]

Storyteller's looks like a lot of fun. My DD6 was standing behind me but didn't recognize anyone in your pictures. I even had to remind her who Meeko was. But I like the look of the room.

After reading so many of the reviews I am leaning towards Minnie's Breakfast if we do decide to do a character meal. It sounds like great interaction with the most characters.

We have done Goofy's - got cut in line twice, so many people were there, we waited 40 minutes for our reservation (not told they were running behind) and we saw 6 characters but only 3 came and interacted with my kiddos (I was very disapponted). Ariel's was really good and the face on my little one when Snow White bent down and gave her a hug and allowed her to put a sticker on herhand saaying "I will always treasure your gift" still brings tears to my eyes when I think about it.

Your trip report is so informative.

 

[TheColtonsMom]

We are doing more counter service restaurants and sharing so we get to do MTOTP. Blue Bayou always looks wonderful and I wouldn't mind experiencing it once, but the thought of paying for 6 people . We'll patiently wait til we go by ourselves.

I'm glad you got to celebrate your anniversary here, and Colton once again knew just when to fall asleep!

Like I said early on I always begged to eat here as a kid but my parents always said no. Now as an adult I totally understand! there were 4 kids. I cannot imagine paying for 6 people, something else would have had to go like souvineers or something. I couldn't even afford it when my other 3 were little. A nice perk of having just 1 at home now. Am trying to talk my three older kids and their respective spouses/fiances to join us for one of the 3 trips we will be making in the 2011 - 2012 year we will have APs but as they are young couples money is the main issue and there is no way I could afford to pay for 7 adults and 3 kids.

 

[TheColtonsMom]

Storyteller's looks like a lot of fun. My DD6 was standing behind me but didn't recognize anyone in your pictures. I even had to remind her who Meeko was. But I like the look of the room.

After reading so many of the reviews I am leaning towards Minnie's Breakfast if we do decide to do a character meal. It sounds like great interaction with the most characters.

We have done Goofy's - got cut in line twice, so many people were there, we waited 40 minutes for our reservation (not told they were running behind) and we saw 6 characters but only 3 came and interacted with my kiddos (I was very disapponted). Ariel's was really good and the face on my little one when Snow White bent down and gave her a hug and allowed her to put a sticker on herhand saaying "I will always treasure your gift" still brings tears to my eyes when I think about it.

Your trip report is so informative.

We are considering doing Ariel's next trip even though I have a boy we found out on this trip he likes to play the prince and kissed the hand of many female characters both animals and face characters and he has real crushes on Belle and Daisy Duck.

I am so glad you are getting info you can use and the best part is I am having fun doing it too.

Don't forget while you are leaning towards Minnies that I still have one more character breakfast to go.

 

[BellaBaby]

Great update! Thanks for all the reviews on the character meals. I think since we'll only do 2, that they will be Minnie's since they have soooo many characters and Ariel's Grotto because my DD7 LOVES Ariel and both girls love the princesses. Although my older one is slowly leaving that stage which makes me sad--but they have to grow up right?

Sorry to hear your MM was so crowded, we will experience it for the first time in early June.

I really want to try BB-hopefully it will be in the budget...

 

[TheColtonsMom]

Great update! Thanks for all the reviews on the character meals. I think since we'll only do 2, that they will be Minnie's since they have soooo many characters and Ariel's Grotto because my DD7 LOVES Ariel and both girls love the princesses. Although my older one is slowly leaving that stage which makes me sad--but they have to grow up right?

Sorry to hear your MM was so crowded, we will experience it for the first time in early June.

I really want to try BB-hopefully it will be in the budget...

Don't worry in my experience (with three grown kids & 2 granddaughters) they grow out of it and are too cool for that stuff for a while...then they grow back into it and then they grow a little more & become big kids like their parents and the cycle starts again with the grand-kids LOL

Like I said that particular type of MM will likely never happen again and now it is a memory.

I hope you get to try BB but it is a budget cruncher. In order to do 4 character meals & BB we saved for almost 2 years. Will probably never get to do anything like that again. Mostly because I don't see anymore LONG stretches without DL. This was my husband's 1st trip with a little one in tow. He went once as a child and once with my DD as a teenager, going with a little one has converted him to a DISneytragic like me. He can't wait to go back again and we have three upcoming trips planned oct 2011, spring 2012 and fall 2012 and I will get to have my first AP ever to cover these 3 trips

 

[6Smiles]

Don't worry in my experience (with three grown kids & 2 granddaughters) they grow out of it and are too cool for that stuff for a while...then they grow back into it and then they grow a little more & become big kids like their parents and the cycle starts again with the grand-kids LOL

Like I said that particular type of MM will likely never happen again and now it is a memory.

I hope you get to try BB but it is a budget cruncher. In order to do 4 character meals & BB we saved for almost 2 years. Will probably never get to do anything like that again. Mostly because I don't see anymore LONG stretches without DL. This was my husband's 1st trip with a little one in tow. He went once as a child and once with my DD as a teenager, going with a little one has converted him to a DISneytragic like me. He can't wait to go back again and we have three upcoming trips planned oct 2011, spring 2012 and fall 2012 and I will get to have my first AP ever to cover these 3 trips

YEAH for hubby loving Disneyland! I hope you get to do a family trip with your older kiddos and grandchildren sounds like that would be a blast! Your MM was unbelievable, I just couldn't imagine 1 ride in over an hour... simply crazy. You will definately have to have a do over just for the MM experience.

 

[TheColtonsMom]

As we walked through DTD Colton spotted the lego store and asked if we could go again. With an inward groan I went over again that we would be buying his lego set on our last day but if he wanted to go do the pictures with the models now that would be OK. He agreed and I said a silent prayer that this time would be better.

Playing on the giant lego

With Darth Vadar (note the dreaded Death Star on the shelf in the background.

Bionicle

Woody

The GIANT Giraffe

See how teeny tiny colton looks standing on it's hoof!

This time the Lego store was fun and we played with all the hands on activities and had no incidents. Oh the joy of a good nights sleep.

Due to the detour we reached DCA about 11am. There were at least a few hundred people in line waiting to take a last pic with the CALIFORNIA letters (It has been this way at 8am, noon, 12 midnight literally every time we passed them)

1st impression upon walking into DCA...polar opposite of the first moments in DL.
I know every sight and smell contributes to the experience but as we walked under the Golden Gate bridge we were hit with a wall of smell and the smell was early american brewery. I am not a tee totaler. We drink, there is alcohol in our home, we play both pool & darts in bar leagues and I am not even adverse to having a drink at DLR but this was NASTY! Colton wrinkled up his nose and said yuck!

I do not know if it is always like this, I have nothing to compare it to. Maybe it was contributed to by the wall to wall people threading their way through the solid construction walls that did not allow ventelation but it was a cloud of awful.
At this point I was wishing for a strong Montana Prarie wind to come along and blow the smell away.

Since the bulk of the crowd was headed straight ahead we turned into the Hollywood Pictures backlot where it seemed if not uncrowded at least less crowded than where we were.

At this point DL had closed for the day and the overflow was all in DCA it was difficult to move. There was a CM calling for people to come to Playhouse Disney which was about to start well this was on our DCA agenda so off we went. Living in Montana very few of the live stage shows for kids including Disney come anwhere near us, for example the closest Disney on ice show would require us to drive to Seattle or Portland. Colton has never seen anything like this.

He jumped up and down participated in everything..By the time we go again the show will be Disney Jr instead of Playhouse Disney since it is undergoing changes now. I am very glad we got to do it before they changed it. Not sure how different it will be Disney Jr replaced Playhouse Disney on Disney Channel mornings just today and alot of it is the same as it always was just re-branded and adding a new show called "Jake & the Neverland Pirates" which I have not had a chance to check out yet. So we shall see.

Next up we hit Mike & Sully to the rescue...

There was a kid playing in the back seat of this car at the photo spot. Every time I set up a shot the kid ducked down in the backseat. The parents tried to coax the kid out but it wasn't going to happen.

Brant ran over to TOT to get FPs and Colton & I went over to a snack stand across from the Anamation Academy to get drinks and a snack I believe we got some kind of fruit plate or something like that might have just been bananas or something. When Brant returned we headed into the Anamation Academy.

Well we did not do the actual Anamation academy although we had planned to. There were enough people in line at all times to make it so the wait would have been at least until the third academy and they only have them every 30 minutes So decided to save this for next trip. We did go through the sorcerer's workshop, Did Character close-ups, The Beast's Library and Turtle talk with crush. We had fun with all of them although we did spend over an hour in line for Turtle Talk. However the BEST attraction in this building by far for us this trip was the Toy Story Zoetrope. Colton was totally mesmerized! We watched it 4 or 5 times then drug him away from it. I had read about this and seen similar animation displays but this is a work of art. Don't miss it (and hey no line!)

The line for the Aladdin show was huge and we couldn't see any signs of where priority seating was really it was just kind of a disorderly mob not really a line, we decided to come back between shows and actually read where to go with our PS passes so we would get in the right place within the mob. Sadly we never did get back. I know this show gets rave reviews on the DIS and I was really looking forward to it hope it is still there next time.

At this point we had gotten times for the green army men show and it was coming up soon at the mini hub between Golden State & Paradise Pier. So we fast walked over just in time for Colton to get picked for the show. There were 3 green army men by the jeep doing percussion on giant blocks and the like and there was the "sarge" who was facing the jeep he lined the kids up facing him with their backs to the jeep. Colton promptly turned around to watch the 3 on the jeep, He followed all the Sarge's other instructions but he was not turning around he thought the percussion thisng was so cool that is what he wanted to see.

The shirt Colton was wearing today was specifically to do with his hope to see the green army men. My mother made it for him. Here is a close up of the fabric.

Lots of CMs noticed the pattern and one even said "Hey my boss is hiding on your shirt" which made Colton laugh.

Once the show was over we turned towards Paradise Pier. There was a literal Wall of people we waited for about 20 minutes thinking this would disperse after awile but no such luck we were not getting on the pier today. We literally did not get on the Pier at all that day so no TTMM and no Screamin' after all Colton's work at growing tall enough.

As you looked out over the pier you could not tell where the lines began & the mob ended. This was not the same crowd we had encountered yesterday at DL nor did I see a single soul directing traffic or trying to control this crowd. Due to the construction walls everywhere the crowd was squashed into narrow passes with little or nowhere to exit the crush. In my opinion they let far too many people in DCA this day. In it's current state this park cannot handle a crowd like what was there that day. The crowd included several people who had passed too much to drink a long time ago there was a lot of pushing, shoving & yelling. We left PP without ever stepping foot on it.

We decided we were hungry and headed for the Lucky Fortune Cookery and/or the Mexican Grill to get some food. This was also not to be the alleyway between the mission factory and the Bakery Tour was filled with people sitting in the middle of the road up against the walls all over with plates on their laps eating their food You would literally have had to step on these people to get through to the CS restaurants. A Bakry tour was about to begin so we went - they were passing out bread and we were hungry! After the tour we went across the way and did the Mission Tortilla tour as well...they were doing flour today and since Colton was wearing his birthday button he got a bag of 6 tortillas and we each got one. Colton shared. So with some carbs on board we
headed over to the Blue Sky cellar to see what would become of this land of construction walls and crowds.

Next up Blue Sky Cellar, It's tough to be a bug, and Grizzly River Run

 

[DizNee Luver]

Yea for a successful Lego store stop!!!! Really cool to see all the big models in there....fascinating! The prices on the other hand ...... Yikes!

Very awesome shirt Colton had on.....did you make it or buy it??

Still amazed at the crowds you're dealing with. We were there in 2005 for the 4th of July (during the 50th Anniversary summer) & I thought that was bad....but you may have us beat or at least a tie. Only the 4th was horrendous.....but sheesh....they needed to put up FP machines for the bathrooms!!

 

[6Smiles]

Love Colton's shirt! Wow, the crowds were really something else this day. Looking forward to reading more.

 

[TheColtonsMom]

Yea for a successful Lego store stop!!!! Really cool to see all the big models in there....fascinating! The prices on the other hand ...... Yikes!

Very awesome shirt Colton had on.....did you make it or buy it??

My mom made that shirt for Colton we found that fabric in a remnant bin at Ben Franklin's and fell in love with it! I wish they had more but at least it was enough for a shirt for the trip.

Still amazed at the crowds you're dealing with. We were there in 2005 for the 4th of July (during the 50th Anniversary summer) & I thought that was bad....but you may have us beat or at least a tie. Only the 4th was horrendous.....but sheesh....they needed to put up FP machines for the bathrooms!!

We will hit DCA again we did have fun with what we got too do, but overall I have to say it was not being well managed during the construction at Christmas and the crowds were crazy. Why oh why when DL has such a good crowd control plan does DCA has what appears to be absolutely none? I did not see even 1 crowd control CM at this park! Well maybe they got lost or trampled by the crowd

 

[TheColtonsMom]

Love Colton's shirt! Wow, the crowds were really something else this day. Looking forward to reading more.

I don't think there could have possibly been more actual people at DCA than there were the day before at DL. However the crowd control was not as good (it seemed to not even exist) and the construction walls above your head all over made it seem much more "stuck in the crowd" than it did even in Adventureland and NOS at DL.

 

[Funball]

Great TR sherri! i skimmed through it, but i did read it, and i saw the photos.great photos!!

 

[TheColtonsMom]

Great TR sherri! i skimmed through it, but i did read it, and i saw the photos.great photos!!

Glad to know you are around. Thanks for the great on the photos, hubby did most of them this trip and while we did get alot of good shots of our son I hope next trip we get those and some more of the park itself.

 

[kaoden39]

I get the biggest kick out of Colton. The sleeping at Blue Bayou is so amazing to me. Every time I have been there it has been so noisy in there that there is no way I could sleep.

 

[TheColtonsMom]

I get the biggest kick out of Colton. The sleeping at Blue Bayou is so amazing to me. Every time I have been there it has been so noisy in there that there is no way I could sleep.

I get a kick out of him too believe me. He keeps me from feeling old. No way I could have fallen asleep but gotta love a kid who can sleep anywhere as my oldest daughter would only sleep in her own bed so we never got to go anywhere overnight.

 

[kaoden39]

My oldest daughter never sleeps the whole night through. Not even as an almost adult. And I cannot remember either girl sleeping the stroller or anything. My son on the other hand once fell asleep on the garden retaining wall in the DLH grounds. We sat there and let him power nap. He woke up so refreshed. I can't help but wonder if it is a male thing.

 

[TheColtonsMom]

My oldest daughter never sleeps the whole night through. Not even as an almost adult. And I cannot remember either girl sleeping the stroller or anything. My son on the other hand once fell asleep on the garden retaining wall in the DLH grounds. We sat there and let him power nap. He woke up so refreshed. I can't help but wonder if it is a male thing.

It might be to a point. However my 2nd daughter was her sisters polar opposite , still is as a matter of fact!
They are both getting married this year one in black tie and candle light and one on Halloween with a Nightmare Before Christmas Wedding cake.

 

[kaoden39]

That is funny. My girls are similar as they are different, if that makes sense.

 

[TheColtonsMom]

So we loeft off with our little carb load and we were headed for Blue Sky Cellar another must on our to do list.

Really cool models of The new little mermaid ride, a movie that is the same one that they have on the DL website, some concept art for Carsland & that was about it. I was pretty disappointed really. They are making over a WHOLE PARK!

We were really hoping for MORE on carsland and since they are re-doing the whole park I would have really liked the models to have been of the NEW PARK as it is visualized once done. That would have been really fun to see. BSC was not crowded and I think I know why.

We did have fun with the interactive trivia game and I did miss a couple, Shocking I know Also Colton spotted Duffy up on a shelf...maybe he has something new coming up?

We popped over to Bug's Land and did the It's tough to be a bug show. No spoilers but this show is really quite cool. The que was really quite good as everything slowly gets bigger as you head underground until you are bug sized when you get to the theater waiting area. Some really clever posters in this area. We liked the show except for one thing..

( SPOILER ALERT when the spiders drop from the ceiling it was all I could do as an adult not to run screaming from the theater. I don't like spiders and spiders my size even when not real are not OK.) Other than that we enjoyed the show and especially the little surprise at the end. Wish we could have kept the silly bug glasses though

When the show was over we decided to head for Soarin' and Grizzly River Run it was time for a couple of rides.

Soarin' was closed but the FP machine was up so we grabbed fastpasses and headed for the Grizzly River Run.

There was only a 5 minute wait in the standby line!!!!

Do not ask me why this was maybe it was too cold for the locals to want to get wet???? But likely everyone was in line for WOC.

Brant hit the lockers to get rid of the camera equiptment. While Colton & I waited for him a group of young adults were coming out of the ride and asked us if we wanted rain ponchos for the ride and gave us 3 of the clear Mickey Ponchos since they were done for the day. How very nice this was to pass on something to help make someone's day better.

They explained that the previous day someone had given them a whole bag of Ponchos about 8 so they had used them all day and were now passing them on. Pay it forward! Since they found out we were from out of town they gave us 2 extras to pass on to someone else so we could keep our 3 as souvineers and that is exactly what we did we gave the 2 extras to a mother and her teenage son and kept our three (thankfully as you will find out later).

Grizzly River run was a lot of fun and since the line was so short we did it again!

Now we hadn't eaten since breakfast except the food on the tortilla & bakery tours and we were starving it was about 7pm and we had to eat. Our dinner plan was Taste Pilots grill. Crossing our fingers we headed there. Soarin was still closed.

The line was long but appeared to be moving fast and since there was no way we could go any further without some kind of sustanance we hopped in line. It did move fast and we ordered burgers and chili fries to share for brant & I and a kids meal burger & fries for Colton and headed for the toppings bar.

This is a description of Taste Pilot's from DL website...

Taste Pilots' Grill
Locationisney California Adventure ParkCuisine Type:American, Vegetarian.Feast on items like top-your-own burgers, gourmet ribs, chili fries, chicken sandwiches and onion rings. This comfort food restaurant is built inside an old rocket-test laboratory in Condor Flats.

.

Now based on the descriptions of Taste Pilots Grill we were expecting better. Something along the lines of Fudrrucker's toppings bar. Not sure why except if they took the time to make a point of mentioning the top your own burger bar you would think it would have some cool stuff right?

At least better than you can get at any Mc Donalds anywhere, packets of catsup, mustard & mayo, shredded lettuce and pickle chips. I now have to say that the top your own burger bar is us doing their job and everything is out in the open where everyone can cough & sneeze on it. Come on Disney either make the topping bar an experience with some cool or unusual toppings or start asking what we want on our burger and have the employees do it.

That being said the burgers were only so so we ate them (we were starving) but we were disappointed. The Chili Fries were absolutely wonderful thank goodness.

Soarin' had re-opened while we were in line - a bunch of people got out of line and ran for it..jumping rails & such....we were too hungry to do this but after dinner we headed for Soarin to use our FP. Closed again

Well Paradise Pier was out as most of it was closed due to WOC. Colton wanted to do the rides at Bugs Land so we headed there and we rode everything!

There are no pics of Fliks Flyers or Heimlich's Chew Chew train but here are some of Francis's ladybug boogie which Brant skipped as they looked too teacup like for his taste. In my honest opinion they actually seem to spin faster than the teacups do.

After the ladybug boogie I was not feeling well kinda lightheaded, I think it was a combo of the earlier blood sugar drop combined with the then carb overload at TPG and a little up & down on Fliks Flyers followed by a spin on the back of a Ladybug.

So I took a seat on a bench made of popsicle sticks and shot some pics of my boys and the tuck & roll bumper cars.

We headed over to TOT to use our FP. Line was very quick. Themeing of the que was good and the ride started out fine. Colton was in between the two of us and Brant was holding the backpack with all the cameras and stuff. My favorite part of this ride was the beginning and the moment when they open the doors and you see the whole park from above for us it was a beautifully lit up. As soon as the first drop happened Colton lost it he was truly terrified hated it he was screaming in terror I was holding him down so that he would no longer lift out of his seat as this is what frightened him. I was upset by how upset he was. Meanwhile Brant was in his seat with his hand on a backpack now floating over his head with all our camera gear inside. By the time we exited the ride I was having trouble catching my breath and Colton was crying. Colton says he will NEVER ride this again even when he is 12 or 18. I do not feel the need to do it again but might if I was there without my kid. Brant at the time said he didn't want to ride it again but now remembers it fondly and wants to go back, I guess he can go do it while Colton & I go to a bugs land next time.

We went over and checked out Electronica for a few minutes, Colton tried out the new Wii game.

At this point it was time to go, we were tired I was getting a headache from my own personal sugar rollercoaster and the 10 pm closing of DCA was nearing anyway. We headed for the exit. The end of another day.

This whole day soured us on DCA to a certain extent for this trip anyway. We never went back so there are alot of things we will have to return for another trip. I would like to get more familiar with DCA before they open a whole additional land in 2012.

So here is what we did...............................And here is what we missed
............................. Hollywood Backlot
Monsters Inc............................................ Alladin
Tower of Terror........................................ Muppet Vision 3-D
Playhouse Disney...................................... Animation Academy
Turtle Talk with Crush
Character Close up
Toy Story Zoetrope
Sorcerers Workshop
The Beast's Library

............................. Golden State
Grizzly River Run........................................ Soarin'
Blue Sky Cellar.......................................... Redwood Creek Challenge Trail
Mission Tortilla Factory
The Bakery tour

................................ A bug's land'
Tough to be a bug.....................................Princess Dots Puddle Park
Flik's Flyer's
Francis's Ladybug Boogie
Heimlich's Chew Chew train
Tuck & Rolls drive 'em buggies

Paradise Pier we missed EVERYTHING
Toy Story Midway Mania
California Screamin'
Silly Symphony Swings
Golden Zephyr
King Triton's Carousel
Jumpin Jellyfish
Boardwalk Games

All in all I agree that had it not been so busy DCA is no more than a 1 day park. We missed Soarin' and all the attractions on Paradise Pier. We did not plan on doing WOC so I did not count that as a miss. By the next time we are here again goofy's Sky School and The Little Mermaid will be open as well. We will do this the same way again and do a day at DCA then hop back for anything we want to do again. This trip we did not want to hop back, we were done with DCA.

Next up we start day 5 at Mickey's surfs up breakfast at the PPH.

 

[TheColtonsMom]

That is funny. My girls are similar as they are different, if that makes sense.

That would only make sense to a MOM!!!!!!