Greeting from Anaheim!

Greetings from SoCal!

I made great time on my travels for this year's Disneyland trip. In fact, I gained a whole day! Go figure. Originally I wasn't going to leave/arrive until tomorrow morning by leaving at the crack of day (not even, it would have been more like 2 in the morning) and arriving before Disneyland opened. Then, as I was sitting at home yesterday taking a well deserved break from the packing saga, I was browsing through the HoJo website (HoJo of course meaning Howard Johnson, the hotel I am staying at) looking to see if any of my previously chosen dates were available ad their discounted Entertainment Rate when I saw that the night before I left had popped up. $57 seemed well worth a full nights rest as far as I was concerned so on a whim I went ahead and booked another room for the one night. Instead of trying to make it through day 1 on very little sleep and after a 6 hour drive I left at 9a this morning after a pit stop by my Credit Union to cash in on Miss Piggy (a grand total of $127.00) and after hitting the briefest of L.A. traffic I managed to check in and get myself situated into room number one before 3p in the afternoon!

Did I mentioned I made great time? And because I know you're thinking it, I did not drive like a bat out of Hell.



After checking out my room itself, I think I may have a hard time giving it up in the morning for my original reservation. Tomorrow night I'll be in a room with two Queens, but for tonight I get a King all to myself -- no space hogging cats for five whole nights! The poor things, I'm sure they'll miss me though. No sense in actually unpacking though. I got out what I would need and then left to go walk over to Downtown Disney and just relax, have some food, and possibly do some shopping. I even got a sneak peek at what I get to experience for myself tomorrow.
That's enough for now! I'm off to relax a little, get some sleep, and be fresh for a full day at Disneyland tomorrow!!

The end of my September '09 trip

As much as I would have loved to stay another few days and just relax in all things Disney, our little pit stop on the drive home was something that I was really looking forward to. And we finally got to sleep in since we weren't trying to get to the park at opening. We were finally rounding up all of our things for check-out sometime around 10 a.m. so we could hit the road and cross our fingers that I wouldn't get lost along the way (because I'm usually real good at that). I had no problems until we got of 101, though. But once we got off I managed to do what I always do no matter where I go, take a wrong turn and spend the next 10 minutes trying to figure out just where I made my mistake. But hey, I figure it out eventually and found our way onto Hollywood Blvd.
Our destination was the Disney Soda Fountain. It was a fun pit stop and our chance to do the tourist-y thing in Los Angeles before finally heading home. We got a little food, did a little shopping and then we also had to stop at Grauman's Chinese Theatre and take a look for a few of our favorites. I've always thought it was a silly thing to do, but it was a lot of fun. And yes, I took my photo with one and since I was not going to be wearing heels (the imprint in the cement sure makes me giggle a little) I went for the hands instead. Julie Andrews is an all-time favorite of mine, so it was a no brainer that we had to search hers out (and her star as well).

And somehow, some way, my next trip will be even better than last years!1

September '09 Trip Day 5.3

Unfortunately in the year that has passed since last year's birthday extravaganza I seem to have lost a few details. But this was my last day and I know I spent the majority of it going to the places I hadn't been quite as often over the previous days so I could get some photos. Ride signs, things like that. Given a couple hour time gap I can't say what I did for sure anymore, but I somehow found my way back in front of the Main St. station where I found a couple of characters that I hardly ever see - from Pinocchio! And the worst part was when I completely forgot the name of Honest John's scraggly looking tag-along. You know when you have a word or name right on the tip of your tongue but you can't spit it out? It was one of those moments.

By the way, I did finally remember his name, although it was an hour late!! Gideon, of course!! One of these days I would love to see Honest John outside of a parade. By getting those photos I just missed out on seeing Cruella de Ville, but a CM suggested I be near the Fire Station a little later if I wanted to see her. So I made note of the time and went off to take some more photos.

This was my first little teaser of a Halloween trip that at the time I could only dream of making!

I even did some wandering around Tomorrowland to get some photos since it is usually the least visited on my itinerary.


I made sure to get back to the Fire Depot with plenty of time to spare, just as I always do. This way I could take my take and get some photos of everything inside. I really love going in there, no matter how many times I have before.


And here's one just for fun!
If you ever have the time to do so, I definitely recommend taking time ou of your days to try and see as many of the different entertainment options available to you outside of just the rides - especially when there is music involved. Between the Bootstrappers, the Jambalaya Jazz Band, Disneyland Band - you name it, I enjoyed everything I saw and heard. Especially when said musical entertainment is accompanied by some Disney friends. The Hook and Ladder Company had some help from Cruella and Goofy to Chip & Dale. It was all good fun, and some of the kids got to get involved as well (and some not-so-kids as well).




I couldn't live with myself if I didn't head back to New Orleans Square to close out the final day - my favorite place in the park (outside of the walk down Main Street after walking through the front gates). On the way I managed to add in another ride (SR line) on Indiana Jones as well as Pirates and got to enjoy a little more music courtesy of the Jambalaya Band and Queenie. I even got some more Mardi Gras beads.
I also took some time out to watch the Laughing Stock Co. outside of The Golden Horseshoe. Every time I've ever seen them outside I always happen to be passing during the same skit - the one where they are playing that Bachelor "game" show one, so I figured since I had time to "kill" (do you ever have time to kill at Disneyland? I think not, but I was trying to experience a little bit of everything) so I stuck around the general area to watch all of their little skits. It was pretty entertaining for the most part, although I can see how it's not really peoples style. Plus, when they're doing it outside you're standing in the hot sun!! I believe they also perform onstage as well at TGH, but I've obviously never seen them in there. These were a couple of my favorite photos ...


I can't say with any certainty what I did after that, all I know is that when it was time I grabbed some grub from the Stage Door Cafe and met up with Andrea at our new designated Fantasmic location where we once again found ourselves chatting away with the people around us about anything and everything. I also had to go grab my final-farewell mint julep before I set up my tripod for the night's photo taking adventure. I don't thin we had planned it originally, but we ended up staying through the first showing of Fantasmic, the Magical fireworks, and then the second showing on Fantasmic. It was a great way to end the night and say goodbye to the Land, knowing we wouldn't be coming back the next morning because we had to head home! How sad, right? Here are a few of the photos - which turned out much better than the previous night!!







After Fantasmic, Andrea and I parted ways once more - it feels like I didn't see her at all on Saturday! I spent my last moments in the park simply wandering around and loving everything at nighttime. Sure, we didn't have to get up super early in the morning but I was still going to be the only driver on the way home so I didn't want to stay until closing like she planned on. It was a great 5 days in the park, but I didn't want to leave! Luckily for us both we had one more Disney-filled stop planned on our journey home.

September '09 Trip Day 5.2

So, what is Mickey's Toontown Morning Madness about, anyway? Other than the wonderful perk of getting to see an uncrowded Toontown and hang out with Mickey, Minnie and company they do provide a little entertainment. I would venture to say that unless you have a little kid in your party it probably wouldn't be of interest to many adults but this adult has the heart of a six year old. You get to witness a Toontown Town Hall Meeting with Mayor Mickey Mouse presiding and everyone becomes an honorary citizen.

I enjoyed it, although the 'meeting' itself I can probably live with seeing once. But just being there without huge throngs of people and getting to see Mickey, Minnie, Goofy, Chip & Dale, and Pluto with some very short lines is a draw that I can hardly walk away from. As for Toontown itself, there are all of these little fun touches that you find all over the place that I absolutely love. Things like the brass plaques around Mickey's fountain (when you stomp on them, be ready to listen with your ears) were even fun for me to play around with. Before making my way out of Toontown I had time to stop by Minnie and Mickey's homes, and said good morning to a few other friends.



After I was done exploring all of Toontown that I felt like exploring it was just a few minutes until 9 and as I was walking back towards Fantasyland I happened to see the Princess Fantasy Faire line and it was short, short enough that even though I already had quite a few Princess photos, I hopped in line and waited for no more than 10 minutes. I don't regret the decision. I got photos with the 3 remaining Princesses that I needed: Snow White, Sleeping Beauty (a.k.a. Aurora) and Cinderella - I had seen been Ariel, Belle, and Jasmine the day before. I was told Mulan still comes through now and again, but I had no luck seeing her anywhere during this trip, but I did see her and Pocahontas when I went back in 2007.

Afterward I embarked on the "Happiest cruise that ever sailed 'round the world". There have been some new additions to It's a Small World recently in the form of some beloved Disney characters. Personally, I love the new touches! I even tried to photograph all of them, and while I wasn't successful I managed to get quite a few. There's always the next time. I probably enjoy it more now than I did before they added the characters because the first few times it's been all about trying to spot the new additions which can be a fun challenge in itself until you've memorized them all.