Photos
Thursday, December 5, 2013
We were both awake about 6am again. We got upstairs to the 5th
floor a few minutes after 7am which is when breakfast begins here at the Desert Palms. It was about 7:05am before they opened the doors. We were behind about
30 people. Today was a Magic Morning for park hopper ticket holders. That means
that Disneyland was open an hour early at 8am for us. Evidently there were a
lot of us here and anxious to get to the park early. Breakfast was a little
different today. There were no sausage patties. There was ham in scrambled
eggs, and biscuits and gravy and strawberry yogurt, for example. So, the same
breakfast in essence but a little different.
We were over at a line outside the
turnstiles of Disneyland proper a little before 8am but they did not open the turnstiles until
exactly 8am. They took everyone’s photo as we entered today and said it would
be used to ID us later with our tickets. We headed straight back to Fantasyland
and a cluster of early opening rides that we had chosen earlier. We passed
Peter Pan’s Flight because the line was filled and estimated at 40 minutes
already! We went to Snow White’s Scary Adventure and walked right through and
on it in about 5 minutes. We did the same thing at Pinocchio’s Daring Journey.
We checked on Peter Pan again where we found the line even longer and the projected wait at 45 minutes. We left and waited about 10 minutes to ride Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride. We still couldn’t see waiting for Peter Pan and walked by
Alice in Wonderland but the wait was 45 minutes. This is a mystery to me. That
Peter Pan ride is in Orlando too, but Snow White and Mr. Toad are gone from
Orlando, so you would think those lines would be longer, but they weren’t. Go
figure.
We went on over to Tomorrowland to ride Buzz Lightyear’s Astro Blasters before 9am and the general public opening. We just made it. We saw where they had the horde contained on the other side of a rope now, instead of outside the park turnstiles where we waited to entered. Clay outscored me during a stop in the
ride when the guns were still working. (I told him this as I tried it! My mistake! When
TSMM stopped, the scoring stopped too. Anyway, he caught up to my score and
whipped me then!) Unbeknownst to us in advance, this ride/game took photos of everyone and you could email
them from kiosks at the end of the ride. Clay was so thrilled to have a memento
of his victory.
After 9am Disneyland was packed and the ride lines were all
more than 45 minutes. We did get onto Jingle Cruise (a holiday updated Jungle Cruise) and had a Dole Whip Float (and got 1st pins for it because
Clay did not remember having one in DW!) and we sat through the Enchanted Tiki Room. While we were in the area, I asked about Indiana Jones since it was broken and I was assured it
would not make me motion sick. So, we’ll try that later.
It was after 10:30am now and we were both stressed by the
crowds. We walked out of the park and got our hands stamped. We crossed over to
DCA and went straight to Chase Disney Visa’s private character photo op. We got
through the line just in time for Stitch to leave and to have our complimentary
photo taken with Minnie Mouse. She was a sweetie and lavished kisses on Bob
after I asked her to hold him. When we left she gave me a big hug.
Clay wanted to return to Ghirardelli for free peppermint
bark again and ice cream. I was willing to try one of the other 4 hot
chocolates. So we went on over because DCA was so completely empty! On the way
we wandered through Bug’s Land sharing a Mickey head pretzel, but after we put
mustard on it and nearly finished it, I dropped it on Clay’s pants and then the
ground! We went on to Ghirardelli and Clay had a cone and I got the classic hot
chocolate with whipped cream. Clay asked which was better but they were both
delish.
Clay then proposed a rematch over at Toy Story Midway Mania since DCA
seemed so empty. It was empty until we got to Paradise Pier and everyone was
there! It was another 45 minute wait to ride. He beat me again. He really held
a grudge about me outscoring him yesterday. I think he just didn’t get that it
was keeping score while we were on the ride. I don’t know why because it was
almost the identical ride as the one in Orlando and he rode it 3 times in a row
the last time we were there. He loved that ride and couldn’t get enough. I
insisted at that point that we return to Disneyland because there were so many
rides I wanted to do over there and the lines were long. We saw Goofy on our way out and picked up our complimentary photo (a $10.92 value).
We went back and there
was no line outside City Hall now. We went in and asked for 1st
Visit pins and a Birthday Pin for me. She wrote my name on my Birthday Pin. The
rest of the day, people were wishing me Happy Birthday. It was great. I’m
wearing that pin again tomorrow! They were giving Fastpasses for Indiana Jones Adventure when
we got back, so we got one to come back from 4:15pm to 5:15pm. We got in line
for Pirates of the Caribbean and after about 15 minutes they announced the ride
was broken. It stayed broken for the rest of the day.
We looked at a menu at the French Market since I thought
they had Mickey Beignets, but we didn’t see them and so left. We went and got
in about a 45 minute line for Haunted Mansion where they had the Jack
Skellington Nightmare before Christmas theming and Jack’s character out.
We got on the next train out of New Orleans Square and rode
it to Toontown where we got off and walked to It’s a Small World which also had
holiday theming. (It was funny waiting for the train there because the station had a telegraph thingy that you tap on sitting outside the window to the fake office and they were loudly playing the sound of the Morse code tapping. I am not sure that most people even recognized the sound, since probably no one knows Morse code anymore. But, the tapping was quite loud and intrusive to me, so I was looking around to figure out why and found the little telegraph tapper, whatever the actual name of the thing is, sitting there so obviously placed. I nudged Clay and pointed to the speakers and then the device and we both had a good laugh.) We got to see the clock at IaSW go off at 3:14 for 3pm. We were in
line about 40 minutes. Then we checked Alice and Peter Pan again, but Clay
refused to get in a projected 40 minute wait for either. We walked on over to
New Orleans again and put on some extra layers as it was getting cold.
Then we went to Indiana Jones with our Fastpasses. Even with the fastpasses, it was
still about a 25 minute wait. It was a rough ride and neither of us really
liked it. There was too much rough motion in the dark for me and I kind of lost
my horizon and felt bad for a while after. We had agreed to skip lunch and just
snack until fried chicken at the Plaza Inn for dinner. People were camping
along the Christmas parade route already for 5:30. We were hoping to eat and
get to one of the rides while everyone was at the parade. Clay had the fried
chicken and found it disappointing. I had the penne marinara and some of his ½
chicken. We shared a Yule log slice. The food was good. It was kind of like a
buffet.
We got out and walked into Tomorrowland. I saw Captain Eo
and it was going to start in 11 minutes so we went in. It is a 3D movie with
Michael Jackson from 1986. I remember seeing it back in the 1980's in Orlando but I
didn’t remember the seats moving! Anyway, that caused us to be trapped by the
parade and we couldn’t get out of Tomorrowland. We should have just found
something else to do in there, but I was too obsessed by missing Alice and
Peter Pan. So, we saw part of the parade
anyway. It was crazy the difference in the size of the crowds between yesterday’s
Pixar Parade and today’s Christmas Parade, or even the crowd size difference
between the 2 parks today.
We went back to check on Pirates, but it was still closed.
The hub area in front of the castle was crazy crowded, so I told Clay we needed
to just stay there to stake our places for the 7:40pm fireworks. We bought a little
Christmas Mickey-shaped bucket of popcorn and stood there for over an hour. (I thought this would be a good souvenir because I could use it as a Christmas cookie jar. Not so. It was cheaply made of a bunch of snap together pieces and leaked popcorn even. I don't think you could really use it for storing any food.) The crowd
was insane. We watched a few of the light shows on the castle while waiting and that was great. So was the fireworks
show, but what a crowd and we were so sore and tired. Clay said he thought that
was probably the biggest crowd we had ever been in the middle of before. I
don’t know. They blew fake snow on us afterwards. It was a madhouse though. We
decided to just try to leave. I wanted to revisit a shop to check on a sweater
I was thinking about. We made it to the shop, but it won’t work.
We walked back down
Main Street and Clay got more smashed pennies and then we saw Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln while waiting out the crowds. It was a mostly empty theater
but we were almost paralyzed by then and the sitting just made the walking on
to the hotel impossibly painful!
Tomorrow we have to finish up what we can in Disneyland
because it is our last day here.
Photos
