September Trip Day 4.1

A brand new day means brand new adventures to be had, including the third and final character meal of my stay. With all the fun fun between Ariel's Grotto and Goofy's Kitchen it was bittersweet to make our way to the Park for breakfast with Minnie & Friends. Back in March 2009 Minnie's became my first character meal experience and we had so, so, so, so much fun that we had to add it on the 'menu' again. But let's just say the morning didn't go so smoothly. Andrea had a very hard time getting up in the morning which led to a rather stressful morning between the two of us. Without going into all the sordid details, because I was at my breaking point that morning, I left the hotel all by my lonesome to get in line at the gates for Minnie & Friends for our PS. I prefer the earliest time that we can get so it doesn't take too much time away from enjoying the park, and getting a fix in of having the Park all to myself for just a moment. I wasn't in any mood to compromise that morning, so like I said, I was off on my own and she either got there in time or she didn't. I honestly didn't care, even if it would mean a lonely breakfast and possibly no photos.

Because this particular meal takes place inside Disneyland it has it's own special entrance gate in the morning so those of us with a PS time before the park opens can get inside.
The wait wasn't even that bad. I love chatting with other Disneyland-lovers while waiting to get into the Park. Sometimes you even learn something new that you didn't know or remember something that you always wanted to do, which is never a bad thing when you are always forgetting your previously made mental to-do lists. Having others in line to talk to made up for the fact that I was there by myself. And did I mention how much I like unobstructed views of Disneyland? When they started to let us in through the gates I managed to take some photos on the walk down Main Street to the China Closet where we would line up again at the little red door at the end of the street and wait for the cast member who would let us through the door to walk over to the Plaza Inn and check in for our meal. An empty Main Street is not something you get to see everyday.


After checking in I got my photo taken for the photo op and paid for the meal. The funny thing about my table is that I was seated in the exact same spot as we were back in March, just on the opposite side of the restaurant. Instead of going to the left, I was seated on the right. At least I found it funny. I had enough time to grab myself some food and get a solitary visit from Tigger and Dale and Pooh Bear too before Andrea showed up. I tried my best not to be in a grumpy mood, but sometimes my best just doesn't cut it.
Unfortunately it made for a tense breakfast and as soon as I was done eating I was ready to high-tail it out of there rather than wait for any more characters, which meant that I didn't get the wide variety that I saw my first time. In fact I only got visits from Captain Hook, Winnie the Pooh, Eeyore and Minnie Mouse. It's a far cry from the insane amount of characters that we saw back in March but I couldn't sit there much longer or I think I would have exploded. If I remember correctly Andrea was sill eating when I left, but I do know we spent most of the day doing out own thing with plans to meet back up to save ourselves some seats for Fantasmic! which we weren't going to miss for the world, especially with the debut of the new dragon just a week or so before we arrived. But before I forget, here are the photos:

Now I remember. Since we planned on catching Fantasmic! later that night we were going to need a few extra things from the hotel with us for the night in the Park. Mainly, needed my tripod if I expected to get any photos worth keeping. And since this is me, that would be a definite yes, please! I didn't want to bring bulky items with me the breakfast without anywhere to put it all so when I left the Plaza Inn I made my way back to the hotel and grabbed my tripod along with a change in clothes. The black bermudas were already a little too warm for my taste so I knew I wouldn't last the whole day. When I got back to the Park and stowed my tripod and a sweater for later in a locker I started to make my way towards Fantasyland and got side tracked by a couple of things, one being Mickey Mouse and the other proving to be a fun distraction that Andrea would have killed me over if I hadn't gotten a hold of her. She was a little bummed about my little encounter with Peter Pan the previous day and was determined to see him at some point before we left. Well, I did happen to spot him off to the side of the Castle and had to give her a call.

What ensued was probably the funnest 30 minutes I have ever spent at Disneyland, even if it sounds a little silly to anyone else. We went on a little adventure with Pan and an adorable little girl dressed as Wendy who were trying to set a trap for Chip & Dale. Sitting there and watching the interaction between the two really made you want to be a kid again and get to experience the magic of Disneyland like that, because I sure as heck don't have stories like that to tell when I was her age. I mean, I don't see how it can get much better. I don't think anyone who witnessed it would doubt the Disney Magic. I'll try and give you a run-down of what happened, but it was one of those "you had to be there" moments for me.
only the best acorns for the sticker trap...

too bad the weren't good enough...


step quietly away from the trap and let's catch a chipmunk...

too bad it didn't work. we hid and watched groups of people walk by and not touch the trap. well, darn! A new plan was needed...

brainstorming...

new plan: we have to capture a princess. with a pine cone. and what does a princess like? flowers, jewelry ... and pretty boys...


after failing to capture a princess a new plan was needed...

and we were off to seek the aid of an evil witch...i mean queen!

dear evil queen, please cast a spell on this acorn to make a princess fall asleep so as to help us capture chip & dale...

but we should have known better, time to be off again...

perhaps a wishing well will end our quest...

alas, no such luck. but a new plan has been formed. we shall find alice and have her shrink us to chipmunk size...

someone got a little side tracked looking for new recruits...
Eventually he managed to find Alice and brought her out to say hi to the little Wendy. It was a fun half an hour to spend watching the interaction and going on an adventure to capture a chipmunk or two (even if we were unsuccessful). You really had to have been there. And some other things we learned straight from the mouth of Pan ... He can speak Whale (he must be friends with Dory), spit isn't sticky and he has no boogers, girls aren't that smart, the best way to attract a Princess is with flowers, making traps takes too long and hunting is better, and where is the fun in capturing Hook if you don't release him in the end so you can capture him once again?

Best Disneyland moment by far.

September Trip Day 2.3

It's really, really hard to say which Land of Disneyland is my absolute favorite. I've mentioned before how much I simply love the atmosphere of New Orleans Square, but Fantasyland is right up there at the top for what I hope are obvious reasons: I am a Princess! I didn't spend any time in Fantasyland on our first day, but I did get the chance on our second. It's hard for me to ride hop in Fantasyland during the day because it gets so crowded. Fantasyland is best saved for first thing in the morning and on Magic Mornings. Luckily for me, however, my favorite Princess has her own ride which tends to stay uncrowded through the day.



We were doing a little browsing in one of the shops in Fantasyland only to realize someone (as in not me) didn't have any cash on her. Which meant a quick stroll back to the ATM at the end of Main Street where I spotted some old pals of mine, hehe. In my old Disneyland days I hardly ever saw Mickey or Minnie Mouse. Now in my new Disneyland days I seem to run into them just about everywhere!
It turns out we went off on our own a lot on day two. Andrea was gung-ho for getting on Space Mountain but if you know anything about me at all it probably wouldn't surprise you that I went off in search of other things to do and at Disneyland I'll always find things something, even if it's in Tomorrowland, my least favorite Land in Disneyland. I've just never found much that appeals to me there. That is until I discovered the Buzz Lightyear Astro Blasters! They aren't horrible to do on your lonesome.



After more than doubling my previous score on the Astro Blasters I was making my way over to Frontierland when I got side-tracked by quite literally my favorite character to spy on at Disneyland: Peter Pan (and I promise, by the end of this September report you'll understand why). For some reason we kept forgetting to ask at City Hall when and where peter Pan would be out during the day and there he was at the Carnation Plaza Gardens, which are semi out of the way if you normally stick to the Hub and the main Land entrances, along with Captain Hook and barely any other people just messing around. Between scaling fences, climbing trees, endless fascination with spider webs, and a never-ending contest to see who was taller this was definitely a highlight of the day for me. And while I tried to call Andrea over because I knew how badly she wanted to find Peter Pan I never could get a hold of her.



By the time all of that fun was done I didn't get the chance to explore Frontierland as I had originally planned. I may have forgotten to check with City Hall earlier in the day to find out exactly when Peter Pan would be out, but I did remember to find out about one character we wanted to find: Br'er Fox! There had been a minor debacle at a character breakfast we had on a previous trip where I accidentally deleted some photos of us and Br'er Fox so I needed to make up for it. As it turned out Dre was nowhere in sight by the time I got over there but Br'er Fox and Br'er Bear were so I gave her another call so she could make her way over. Luckily she made it in time, I don't think I would have lived to see my birthday if she missed Br'er Fox, Br'er Bear, Captain Hook and Peter Pan while I got to see all four. Nope, pretty sure I wouldn't have.


We hadn't been to Pirate's Lair at Tom Sawyer's Island so that was our next destination. We never made that hard journey across the River's of America when we were at Disneyland back in March and before then the last time I had been there was before the Pirate invasion had happened. I think ... Anyways! It was really a spur of the moment decision. We were walking back towards New Orleans Square and noticed that another raft was just moments away from departure so it was perfect timing really. I spent a lot of time over there simply photographing things since there was so much to see and it's not nearly as crowded as the rest of the Park. I didn't realize that the bone cage from Pirates 2 was back in the Smugler's Cove area ready for photo ops. But I had a lot of fun with that one, although it was reminding me just how tired and worn out I was. How I was lead to that thought I'm not quite sure, but it did. We took the raft back across the Rivers of America not long after that. But we did go play in the Crows Nest, although I believe Andrea has those photos as it appears that I have none!












Since we were in the vicinity as we left the Pirates Lair we hit up Pirates of the Caribbean before using Fast Passes that we collected earlier in the morning for Indiana Jones for where waited for quite literally the longest time of any of our Indy rides: a whole 22 minutes!
I have never been much of a night person to be honest so as the sky started to get darker I made my plans to say goodbye to Andrea and make my way back to the hotel. So I took myself along Main Street, stopping for a quick bite to eat and something to drink. I have never had a cream cheese filled pretzel before, and honestly I had never even though about using cream cheese as a filling but it was so delicious that it wasn't the only one I ended up eating during the week. I had to wait about 5 minutes because they didn't have any ready, but that was alright. I was zoning out as it was. On the way out I did stop and do a quick PhotoPass pose since there was no line.

And that was the end of my second day at Disneyland! Normally day three might have been the end of all the fun, but I still had another three days to go!!