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.

September Trip Day 3.1

happy birthday to me,
happy birthday to me,
happy birthday to me-e,
happy birthday to me!
Another morning, another breakfast at Disneyland! But who am I kidding, there's no such thing as "another morning" when your birthday is involved. September 10, 2009 meant happy 23rd birthday to me! And as it turns out, my 23rd birthday was easily on of the best birthdays ever and it all started with an amazing birthday-breakfast at Goofy's Kitchen! "What is Goofy's Kitchen?", you ask? Oh, nothing much, just another of the five character meal choices at the Disneyland Resort, hosted by none other than Chef Goofy. We had a 7 o'clock breakfast (the earliest we could get in) so we would have time to make it to the gates before the park officially opened with plenty of time to spare while we diddy-dawdled at the restaurant. The only downside to breakfast that early (other than a rather long walk from our hotel to the restaurant) is that it's pretty cold outside! I never actually thought about how long of a walk it would be from the HoJo to the Disneyland Hotel and it wasn't until we were on our way, marching along, that we realized we didn't know exactly where we were going. Sure we knew it was located at the Disneyland Hotel and we've both seen it before but we couldn't actually visualize where we needed to be headed. Luckily for us we ran into someone we had met the day before who was on her way to the Anaheim Convention Center for the Expo who was able to point us in the right direction as she was staying at the Disneyland Hotel and had eaten at Goofy's the morning before. We arrived at Goofy's Kitchen with plenty of time to spare so I took to exploring the wonder that is the Disneyland Hotel (to be more specific the DLH Convention Center). It's like walking into a world sprinkled with pixie dust. To top it all off we were the first party there to check in when they opened.




Unlike our breakfast at Ariel's Grotto the day before Goofy's Kitchen is a buffet with so many options for food it can make your head spin - they even have a PB&J pizza, whoddathunkit?! We were barely settled into ourseats when we got our first visitor ... Baloo, from the Jungle Book!! Later on during our meal Baloo succeeded in scaring me half to death when I didn't realize he was right behind me. I am not joking when I say I let out a little (or maybe loud) scream with a jump out of my chair to match. The character meals stand out a little more for me when you get to see characters that you wont have the chance to see in the parks. I think they should always have at least one exclusive character at each meal. Then I'd be sure never to miss one - ever (although that could prove to be a potential bad, bad, and expensive thing)!

Before settling down to eat for a few moments we were also visited by Chef Goofy himself! There was a lot more fun with Goofy shortly thereafter as he gave an impromptu cooking demonstration full of laughter and a little dance session with the kids in the restaurant. I may not be a little kid anymore, but I still got a kick out of it. Especially when he dropped the cake the first time trying to unveil his masterpiece. That is totally something I would do (and have done) in the kitchen!

Next up was a visit from Cinderella. She was the start of the name/face recognition that turned up everywhere on Thursday. She remembered us from Ariel's Grotto the morning before. That put an even bigger smile on my face - I'm beginning to wonder how I can even feel my face anymore! So we went ahead and did a different Princess pose this time.
But what was the highlight of the meal? Or my highlight of the meal, at least. I kind of made the mistake of leaving my sweater back at the hotel, stupid, right? Knowing how cold I get when I eat. Maybe I was thinking that I didn't want to be carrying it around if we were going into the park right afterward when it was just going to get hot again, who knows? But as I said, I get cold when I eat - very, very, very, very cold! So there I was, feeling like I was freezing with nothing to keep me warm. My solution was to keep getting up and getting more food since it was warmer there than at our table and upon returning Dale came by with a little present: a tablecloth! And of course where there is Dale, there is also Chip!

And last but not least was Jasmine! Both of the Princesses remembered at least one of us from the day before, only this time Andrea had seen Jasmine in Disneyland at the Aladdin meet & greet at Aladdin's Oasis in Adventureland.
Goofy's Kitchen was very filling and a very fun way to kick off my birthday!

After breakfast I made the decision to go ahead and head back to the hotel before up with Dre again at the gates for our regular entry. Heck, we could have gone ahead and done Magic Morning on Thursday, but we had already decided that we were saving it for Saturday when we would also do Mickey's Toontown Morning Madness. Really, I just wanted to go back to the hotel so I could drop off the photo that we had purchased from Goofy's Kitchen. I didn't want to ruin it, carrying it around the park all day. On the way I also stopped off to get what inspired the whole trip in the first place - my birthday Fun Card!
The Fun Card was a gift card worth one day's admission costs that I could use at pretty any shopping destination within the Disneyland Resort which worked out to be roughly $72 dollars for me to spend. It was all part of the year's promotion of free admission on your birthday, only since I already had 5 days (for the price of 3) worth of park hopping and the gift card was one of two other options available to me and the one I opted for rather than special fast passes. I loved getting the chance to pick up a few birthday extras.