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 Trip Day 3.2

Have you ever been to a shooting gallery? Well, I have. That is only if you could the Shootin' Exposition in Frontierland. I don't have any photos to share from that, but it was one of the things on our mental to-do list as added by Andrea that we actually remembered to do. Will I ever do it again? Probably not! But it turned out to be the last thing we did together in Disneyland for the rest of the afternoon. After a couple of hours in the Park since opening we were going to take full advantage of our Park Hoppers and actually park hop so next up was Disney's (although it is now officially Disney) California Adventure. One big draw over there is the Aladdin Musical Spectacular that takes stage at the Hyperion Theatre. It truly is spectacular as anyone who has ever seen it could tell you.

So we made that long trek across the esplanade and we're back in DCA for the second time this trip with a couple of hours to kill until Aladdin was set to start. It probably wasn't even noon yet and I could see that Andrea didn't look so well to put it mildly and it seemed pretty obvious to me that she needed to head back to the hotel. I tried to talk her into it or into taking a resting break but she kept on insisting that she'd be fine and she kept pushing on. So we did a photo op in the Sunshine Plaza with everyone's favorite Mouse.
It didn't take long, but right after we finished getting our photos with a vacationing Mickey Mouse Andrea finally decided she needed to step into one of the air conditioned shops to cool off and rest and I just took my time taking photos around the Hollywood Pictures Backlot.


After my little photo spree I checked back in with Andrea to see how she was doing and she finally made the call to head back to the hotel for a little while. I knew it was bound to happen eventually. After having some alcohol out by the hot tub the night before, barely getting any sleep, the heat, and not having enough water what else was bound to happen? It was nice to finally have an answer however, and I was able to go off on my own for a while. I do just fine at Disneyland all by myself, birthday or no birthday. I don't know why anyone would ever think a solo trip couldn't be fun. You get to call all of the shots without having to conference over what to do next. And to top it all off, I get around a lot faster on my own and I guarantee you I was hauling you-know-what. I'm not usually a leisurely walker. I know what I want and I'll barrel towards it, full-steam ahead. So the first thing my speed-walking-demon self did was take a full but brief self-tour through DCA stopping to visit a few friends along the way.

I even stopped by for a walk through the Mission Tortilla Factory and got some free tortillas for my birthday. Nothing satisfies a grazer like me like food to munch on!

I didn't end up staying in DCA for too long. The one ride that I was interested in, Toy Story Midway mania, was shut down and I wasn't going to sit around waiting for it for to be back up and running for forever. I also had a date with the Lilly Belle at 3 so I needed to make sure I was back at Disneyland before then. I thought about riding Indiana Jones until it was time to head back to Main Street but by the time I got there that was closed down too! It was funny listening to people waiting around. They actually had turned the lights on inside the ride and the people who got stuck on it were able to walk through all the different scenes. I think that would have been a pretty neat experience!
Rides go down, it's to be expected. So I just made the decision to got to Main Street regardless of how early it was. I figured I could get some photos and shopping done, and of course watch some candy being made!