March 7th, Part 2

I didn’t really know what to expect with Dreams and Fantasmic!, because I purposely hadn’t allowed myself to watch them on the internet before I got to see the real thing. I’m so glad that I didn’t too!

I loved the fireworks!!! They were great! I couldn’t believe how much trouble they go to! Tinkerbell was all set to fly down from the Matterhorn, but must have gotten stuck, so they turned the spot light off her, and somehow pulled her back to the mountain. I’m actually watching video footage of the show as I’m typing, it’s so great!

(NB: The photos without dates are screen shots from my video camera.)











We then somehow made our way over and watched Fantasmic! This is also a great show, but not quite as good as the fireworks were. I really liked the whole Dragon thing and the flames, but the hyper coloured monkeys dancing at the beginning was really good too, I just really enjoyed the beat to the music that was playing.











We were standing over to the right, behind one of the lights. It was a really good uninterrupted view, but I got sick of standing pretty quickly.

As much as I would have liked to have hung around after the show, because I knew the park was open until 12am, I was marched home. Apparently still too sick.

So, once again found myself back in the hotel, eating left overs, and watching the Disney Channel.

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Posted in: Disneyland,fantasmic,fireworks,remember dreams come true

March 7th, Part 1

Back to Disneyland today!
Still deemed too sick to be allowed to have an early morning... But we got there relatively early still.
I was excited to discover that the Jungle Cruise was open! It wasn’t scheduled to open until the following day, so on we toddled.









I love the corniness of this ride. I get a good chuckle out of the jokes. Chris wasn’t as impressed with it though.
Unfortunately they hadn’t completely ironed out all the wrinkles and we got stuck just before the end of the ride. Next to the head shrinker... whatsis name... We sat there for ages. It got a little embarrassing for the poor skipper. He asked us if we had any questions after he ran out of all of his skit, a few people had questions, but it sort of ruined it for me. On the Jungle Cruise you’re supposed to be out in the Jungle, but the skipper told us that during the 6 weeks that it had been closed, he was just working on Splash Mountain. He could have lied, and made something up about being on safari or something...
He did redeem himself a little when a little girl asked him why the head hunter had stopped moving. He simply said “Yeah, his arm gets tired”

We then rode BTMRR again, and then spent a little bit of time in Big Thunder Ranch. I was hoping to take a photo of “The Happiest Turkey’s on Earth” but they weren’t there...

We spent a bit more time in Disneyland before heading over to DCA. I wanted to see Aladdin.
This was a really great show. I was a bit disappointed that it didn’t follow the exact same story as what the movie does, but I got over it enough to enjoy the show. But I ask you!? What is Aladdin without Abu?!?! It just didn’t sit just right with me.

After the show we stumbled on where you buy the Turkey legs from.




Chris really wanted one of these. We come from a family where every Sunday we have a baked dinner. Since we were on holidays, we hadn’t had one for a month. This was the closest we could find.

We then headed back to Disneyland. Yes I know, we bounced around a lot.

We somehow ended up at The Hungry Bear, I grabbed some lunch, and enjoyed a little while with some of the Disney cats.



This cat was really friendly, and was more then happy to sit and stare blankly at me while I talked to it.



This one wasn’t nearly as friendly (or as pretty) but I love white cats, so I’m obliged to like him too.

After lunch we looked around NOS, I wanted to find the Jewel of Orleans because I thought there might be some really nice jewellery there, but despite them being one offs, they weren’t exactly all that different to what you’d find in any jewellery store.

We then caught the train around the park and got off at Main Street and headed back to the hotel to rest. I had been once again deemed too sick... *sigh*

When we headed back to the parks it was night time. We went into DCA because I wanted to go on the sun wheel at night, and Chris wanted to go on Screamin’ at night. So we did.

We eventually headed back into Disneyland, tonight we were going to watch the fireworks and fantasmic! No illness would stop me from seeing these shows!

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Posted in: disney,disney cats,Disney's California Adventure,Disneyland,jungle cruise

Thursday March 6th – Day off.

We slept in today. I’d completely lost my voice... I knew it was coming, my voice had been crackly all week because of my cold, but I was at Disneyland, so I couldn’t really be bothered to do anything about it. Chris made me take the day off though. He told me that we could go to Disneyland on Monday instead of today. We weren’t originally planning on going to DL that day, because it’s the day we fly out, but our flight wasn’t until after 10pm...

When we eventually got up we caught a taxi to The Block to do some shopping. This is a nice shopping centre, but not as good as I was expecting. We bought lots of lollies – or candy, whatever you want to call it – from the lolly shop, and spent the day wandering around the shops.

We had a lovely lunch at the Alcatraz Brewery. I had some sort of hamburger with pineapple relish. Chris had something that was really spicy. I can’t have spicy stuff, because I’m a sook.

When we’d looked at just about everything there was to see at The Block, we caught another taxi back to the hotel.

We then spent the afternoon in DTD shopping and getting souvenirs for the people back home. We had a PS at the Rainforest Cafe that night so we just spent our time looking around and buying unhealthy food. We did a bit of people watching and waited for our dinner time.



I really enjoyed the rainforest cafe. It was difficult trying to order my dinner, mainly because it’s noisy in there, plus every time the waiter came to our table it just happened to be in the middle of a thunder storm...





I had the chicken Caesar salad, which was nice, but I didn’t even come close to finishing it because I still wasn’t feeling well. I also had several of these yummy drinks.



I can’t remember what they’re called though...



Once again we strolled back to the hotel through DTD, people watching, buying souvenirs and deserts. Mainly fairy floss.

My description of each day seems to be getting shorter as I go, and trust me it felt that way too. Sleeping in late and being forced to go back to the hotel early was starting to get annoying. But I was sick, and I suppose I needed it, but it was really annoying!!!

So, back to the hotel to watch the Disney chanel...

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Posted in: anaheim,disney,down town disney,rain forest cafe

Wednesday 5th March – We finally make it to L.A!

So, we were up and early and ready for our tour of L.A. We breathed a sigh of relief when the bus turned up too.

This tour was ok, but nothing special. I really expected that they’d let us off at Rodeo Drive so we could look around. I really wanted to buy 1 thing from there, that’s all I could afford of course. But they wouldn’t let us off the bus! We did go to garden grove, but it’s not the same. We also stopped at Santa Monica. This is nice, but it’s got nothing on the Aussie Beaches.
This photo was pretty anyway.

We also went and saw Grauman’s Theatre, and all of the stuff around it.







Hey! This looks familiar!



And we stopped at this place!



Best decision ever!



That night we had Yamabuki for dinner. It was nice, but a little over priced... We didn’t eat in though, so we didn’t get the full ambience that would have made the meal... Nice though...

On a side note, I'm really disapointed that this place has since shut down. Compared to Disney World there just isn't as much variety at Disneyland, and I felt this restaurant gave it some of that variety. Hopefully there are plans in the works to bring another similar eatery back.

Then we fell asleep watching the Disney channel. Notice a pattern here? I now love watching Hannah Montana, Cory in the House and Witches of Waverly Place.

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Posted in: disney's soda fountain,graumann's theatre,hollywood,los angeles,santa monica pier,yamabuki

March 4th, Part 2

Next we must have watched the Enchanted Tikis. This is cute. It has a very catchy song. Probably worth only one watch a trip for me...

Then we went on IJ. The line was pretty quick, it was great to see this ride in detail, as opposed to slightly fuzzy! I still missed the skeleton with the Mickey ears though!







Next we did a quick run up Tarzan’s Tree house. This was cool.

Notice how I say everything is either cool or cute? I don’t have much variety to I?

Nice views from up there!

We then rode POC again. Another thing that was good to actually see. I think we must have ridden Splash Mountain here, possibly even HM as well... Then I got my photo in this area. It’s such a pretty spot!



We headed over to Tomorrow land and rode Space Mountain again. Then we decided to have a look in Innoventions. I wasn’t too impressed with the computer stuff that was about, but I was delighted with the fact that you could test drive a Segway!! I’m really happy that I did this, because it was great fun! Chris didn’t do it, and I spent the rest of the day telling him how much he would have loved it. I had even forgotten about the fact that you could do a Segway tour of DCA! I wish I remembered that when it mattered!



Chris wasn’t feeling well so I said that we could go back to the hotel to rest for a bit. Secretly thinking “I’ll put him to bed, and then come back!” Unfortunately he can read me like a book, and told me no, I had to stay! The Nerve!! Despite the fact that I’d been sick for weeks, and hadn’t put a dampener on our trip at all, or stopped Chris from doing anything, Chris had a sniffle, so we both had to sit at the hotel and do nothing... Pfft!

So from now on when Chris complains that I don’t love him, I simply remind him about this day, when I sat with him... In a hotel... Across the road from Disneyland...

No idea what we had for dinner...

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Posted in: anaheim,Disneyland,enchanted tiki room,holidays,indiana jones,innoventions,segway