March 9th, Part 2

I really enjoyed the Napa Rose. However, both Chris and I were pretty under the weather, and not very hungry, but we knew that we had to eat something. We ended up ordering the hot rock appetiser... Between us... The waiter tried desperately to convince us that we’d want more then just that, so Chris told him that we’d just arrived in the US that day, and we were jetlagged, very tired and not hungry...

That seemed to satisfy our waiter. We enjoyed the appetiser, and believe it or not, it filled us up... Well, you know, what I mean. It’s all we wanted.

It was lovely, but we’ll have to go back next time, and have a proper meal there.

We strolled through DTD and headed back into DL. We spent a bit of time looking around. I’m not sure what happened here, because I wanted to catch the first showing of Fantasmic! And then watch the fire works afterwards, but somehow, we missed the beginning...? So change of plans, fireworks first.

I finally bought a Dole Whip. Yes it was yum! I was originally going to buy a float, but chickened out at the last minute. :sad2:

We then found a neat little posy to watch the fireworks from. I wanted to video tape them this time. And look who made a proper appearance tonight!!



This really is an amazing show!

So next we headed over to watch Fantasmic! :mickeyjum :maleficen This time we managed to get a position right in front of the stage, but back from the water a little. Everyone was seated waiting for the show to begin. I mentioned to Chris how good it would be if everyone stayed seated throughout the show, because it was a lot easier to see over everyone’s head. I doubted it would happen though, as there was one bloke at the very front of the group who was standing while he waited. I have a feeling that he may have suffered from back problems or something like that, because his family were all seated, and there was enough room on the ground for him to sit, but still he stood. I didn’t mind, because of this thought, but I figured it would mean that everyone would stand eventually.

The show was about to start, and just as I predicted, the crowd all started shifting as to get up. One fella in particular was motioning to all of his friends for them to stand up... But no one did!! The bloke from the front sat down, and although there was shifting to stand up, no one made that first move, so everyone stayed down! It may not seem like much, but this made my night! So I got great footage of the whole show, from my seated position! :banana:

After the show as everyone dispursed, I dragged Chris over to Fantasyland. No we were not going home until they made us! We rode Toad’s Wild Ride, Canal boats, Pinocchio, and I think something else... It wasn’t Alice or Dumbo though, we didn’t end up riding either this trip... Then we finished the night off riding Casey Jr. This ride was more fun then what I thought it would be! I was pretty disappointed with the Canal boats, and had a feeling that Casey Jr. Would be the same, but I really enjoyed it!

After that, it was time to go back to the hotel... Damn. So we walked as slowly as we could back down along main street. I would have liked to have shopped a little, but was a bit sleepy. So back to the hotel, to fall asleep watching the Disney channel.

Read more »

Posted in: casey jr.,dole whip,down town disney,fireworks,napa rose,tinkerbell

March 9th, Part 1

We woke up bright and early – compared to the rest of the trip for today. I told Chris I didn’t care what he said, we were opening and closing the park today. I jumped up to get ready and Chris asked me what the time was. I glanced at the clock and in doing so, remembered that Day Light Savings had either started or finished that night. I don’t remember which one it is, but it meant that it was an hour later then what the clock said... Damn! The park was already open!

So we scrambled in to breakfast grabbed stuff quickly and headed out the door. We were almost at the crossing for the park when Chris realised he’d left something vitally important in the hotel room. I say this with sarcasm, but in reality I think he forgot to take his blood pressure pill, so it was a good idea to head back and get it. So we grabbed that and took off back towards the park again. We didn’t get quite so far this time when Chris realised he’d forgotten his cap. Too Bad!! We continued into the park. Almost at the ticket booths and I realised that I’d forgotten my Mickey Ears that I’d purchased the day before. I wanted to get them embroidered. But this was also Too Bad!! We’d be back in the park again tomorrow.

I wanted to do as many Fantasyland rides today, and early, because we hadn’t really done any yet. So we took on Snow White and the Tea Cups.



They didn’t make Chris feel too good, so we grabbed a drink and I had a pineapple stick and we took a stroll around the back of BTMRR and bought Chris some McDonalds fries. Then we sat and talked to the ducks for a little.

We then rode on the Haunted Mansion – the longest line we’d seen for it so far and it took maybe 20 minutes. And then POC again.

It wasn’t long before it got really busy again. Being the first Sunday of Spring Break in the area. We headed over to DCA, mainly just to hang around. I’d brought my video today, and we planned on riding in the front of Screamin’ and taping it.

We headed over to it, but noticed a large group of people heading back towards us. As we approached Screamin’ we noticed that one of the trains was stopped right up the top of the track, and another one was stopped further along. For some reason Chris was fascinated by this, so he insisted we watch them fix it... I think it has something to do with the fact that he works on air compressors, and they’re what run the ride. So we stood by the railing and watched them get all the people off the ride. We felt sorry for the poor people who were stuck in the train that was right near the platform. So close to being able to get off, but so far away! They had to wait until the train was able to move again to get off. Unlike the people who were stuck up the top, who just had a long walk ahead of them.

I left Chris to watch the inaction, and I went a bought a nummy frozen drink, and a packet of chips. I took a little longer getting back to Chris. The fact that Screamin’ was broken down did hold a bit of interest for me, but not enough that I could sit and watch it doing nothing. So I got back and Chris and I sat and watched Screamin’ and ate chips and drank the nummy frozen drink. Finally they started testing the ride again, and it started getting interesting again.

We decided to head a little closer to see if perhaps it would be worthwhile to line up for yet. We noticed that a line had formed, and it wasn’t very long. So what the hey, we lined up for it. It somehow felt like it had more purpose, then just sitting watching the ride...

Some cast members told us that it could be upwards of an hour before the ride started again, which made the line halve in size! Very handy. Note to self – Next time, befriend a CM, and see if they’ll follow me around announcing this to the people in line for rides that I’d like to go on.

It would have been less then ½ an hour and they started loading the ride. Yay! Not long at all. So we asked to be seated at the front, and had a great time video taping the whole ride. It may sound weird, but my most favourite part of the ride is the start, and I don’t mean where you zoom off into the distance. I mean where the announcement comes over “Get ready screamers! Head back, face forward...yada yada yada”

We then wandered around the park, taking in the sites and people watching.





We found a nice shady spot, as it was getting pretty hot and busy, and just watched everyone walk by.



We spent some time in one of the shops, and I bought a few little whatnots for me. Then we headed back over to DL. I decided that I wanted to go on Jungle Cruise again, and video tape it.

Now keep in mind, it’s been several months since we got back from our trip, so I’m a bit lost here as to what else we did this afternoon. I think we did some shopping... I don’t think we spent too much time back at DL, because we had a PS at Napa Rose tonight. So we must have headed back to the hotel for showers and changing.

Read more »

Posted in: california screamin',Disney's California Adventure,Disneyland

Saturday March 8th

This was a scheduled day off. We slept in late, had a late breakfast and headed over to DTD.
We had souvenier shopping in mind, because really, we’d bought nothing for anyone back home. I love the stuff I bought for everyone. It was nothing special, but it all had that special little Disney something about it.
I bought a bunch of glass and crystal stuff for my mum, and was advised to take it as carryon. The lady who served me told me that I shouldn’t have any trouble with the glass stuff, but apparently you can’t see through crystal with the air port’s x-ray like things, so they may pull me aside with it... I found this really interesting...

We caught a taxi down to a chemist to get some stronger cold and flu stuff for me. None of this stuff works though. Our taxi driver was a lovely bloke with a very hard to decipher accent. Had a good laugh with him. Don’t remember what about... I may not have even known what I was laughing at, at the time...
Any hoo I really don’t know where the day went. We spent some time doing laundry at the hotel, and for some reason sat around the pool for a little bit. Fair enough it wasn’t as cold as it had been in NY, but there was no way we were going swimming, but for some reason we sat there...

I’d seen some sort of soup ad on the TV during the day, and decided that I was dying for soup for dinner. So we headed down to the 7 Eleven to see what they had. I stocked up on soup, Chris on Beer, and then we headed across the road to get Indian for Chris for dinner. While waiting for dinner I sat mesmerised by an Indian music channel that the restaurant had on. We don’t have anything quite like that in Australia.
Then it was time to walk back to the hotel, and watch the Disney Channel... We also watched the fire works from our hotel room, we had a pretty good view of them, and enjoyed guessing which sequence of fire works were for each part of the show. It was nice to sit down and watch them.

Apparently we didn’t take any photos today... Weird because pretty much for my whole trip my camera was an extension of my arm... I lie, we took a couple, but nothing of great importance, and not like the 200 per day that I had been taking...

Read more »

Posted in: anaheim,down town disney,holidays,travel

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.

Read more »

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!

Read more »

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