We're back from DisneyLand! Trip Report DONE! *Day 3 Part A and Part B Added*

Sorry for the delay! We were moving, and the boss has been in town..busy busy!!

Now on to Day 2 - DisneyLand!!!

As DisneyLand Resort guests, we had Magic Morning hours, which is the equivalent of Extra Magic Hours. So we got to enter the park an hour before opening. I think we hit the slow week, because the park's normal opening hour was 10:00 am, and with the Magic Morning, we could get in at 9:00 am. The nice part is less of a rush to get there super-early in the morning!

Never trust a weatherperson " it was supposed to be sunny by 10:00 am! It was cloudy and cold and the sun never showed until about 4:00 pm. (I know, I know....yes, I am still complaining and whining about the cold)

The Main Street railroad station was under renovation and covered in a facade (this picture is from Wednesday, which was alot nicer than Tuesday!):

No Rope Drop ceremony - boo!

We whizzed through the turnstiles and worked our way down to the end of Main Street, where we waited, along with a few of our closest friends, until park opening.

My strategy for DL was to try and focus first on rides that were somewhat unique to DL (and that were open during Magic Morning hours!) and known for long waits. And for me, that has us making a bee-line to...Finding Nemo " the yellow submarine ride!!

Quit laughing. I wanted to do this.

So as the masses raced towards Space Mountain, the Matterhorn, Star Tours and Indiana Jones, a few of us made our way over to Nemo. And we were on the first sub ride of the day!

This was loads of fun. A really nice sub ride just below the surface. Our captain had a very dry sense of humor. If you are claustrophobic, this may not be a good ride for you. It's very closed quarters.

Everyone is seated such that you get a little portal window:

...and the scenery was really cool:

Next, we headed over to Space Mountain. This one has a relatively long queue line, just like it's counterpart at WDW (though not as exciting). It was not overly busy and just a 5-10 minute wait.

Impression: Loved it! Sorry, but I loved it better than the WDW version! Primary reason " the cars. I have come to the conclusion that I just don't enjoy the bobsled-type cars. And the DL Space Mountain ride is NOT a bobsled-type car. It was much more enjoyable for me like this. It's still pretty jumpy/bumpy, but we really enjoyed it.

From there we headed over to Buzz Lightyear " another 5 minute wait.

I think I like the DL version a little better, simply because the laser guns are not mounted; they are detached so you can pull them out and have a bit more control.

Not that it helped me much " my score was still pathetic.

We decided to FastPass Star Tours and head over to New Orleans Square and hit up PotC.

Impressions: PotC is very cool. And longer, I think, than the WDW. There were 2 short boat drops too.

Right next door was the Haunted Mansion:

There was nobody else in line. So as I was taking a picture of the horse-drawn hearse, a CM came out and asked if we would like a picture together!

YAY for Cast Members!! Loved the ride. No interactive queue like the new one at WDW, but still the stretch room and then off to your Doom Buggy!

We headed back to Star Tours as our FastPass window was up, and then decided it was time for lunch. Since it was cloudy and cold, we decided to just go with the Tomorrowland Terrace for burgers and fries. They only had outdoor seating, so we took our food over to Red Rocket Pizza Port for some inside tables J Nothing to write home about, pretty average.

So we headed over to AdventureLand and stopped by the Tiki Room!

Right outside the Tiki Room is the Dole Whip stand.

It was not too busy " maybe because it was too cold! Ha.

I am not sure what it was about the DL Tiki Room, but we really, really enjoyed it. I know I've posted elsewhere here that I did not really care for the refurbished version at WDW " I thought it was kinda boring and timid.
I have no recollection if this show is much different than the WDW one, but it was really a relaxing, enjoyable show.

Next on the list was FantasyLand " and first up was Mr. Toad's Wild Ride!

I really wanted to check this out because it's one of the few remaining original DL rides still around from opening in 1955, AND it was closed (under massive protest, from what I've read!!) in WDW in 1998.

It was just a 15 minute wait as well. We really lucked out with crowd levels, despite the weather.

Impression: Joe and I both got off the ride and said "What the hell just happened?". Truly an odd ride. Maybe bizarre is a good word It was very colorful though! Haha.

I wanted to do the StoryBook Canal boats, but it was just too chilly for us to want to do it. And the line was already pretty long.

Next we backtracked to it's a small world!

YAY! Go ahead " get the song in your heads now!

The wait was 10 minutes at most.

Once we boarded our boat, the adventure began!

What was really cool about this attraction was how many Disney characters have been incorporated into the ride. It was really fun.

We were in the very front seats, and behind us was a family with 2 small children. The little girl kept yelling "Mommy look at that!!!" at every turn. Joe actually counted " she yelled it out 47 times! You could tell after the 20th time Mom was getting a little tired. We thought it was funny.

We headed over to Mickey's Toontown after that, and for no particular reason, got on Roger Rabbit's Car Toon Spin. You can use the steering wheel of the car to spin yourself about, similar to the Tea Cups. But not as "robustly".

There were no nighttime fireworks at all during our stay, so once the sun went down, we called it an evening and headed back to EoS for dinner, and went back to the room to rest, relax and warm up.

This time I had the Montague (no pics, sorry!) and it was fantastic. I also finally got around to trying one of their brownie sandwiches! They had 3 types " chocolate filled, vanilla filled, and peanut butter filled. I opted for the peanut butter.

OMG! This was SO good! It's not a peanut butter cream or frosting " it's peanut butter! YAY! I ate half of it (because I also had caramel corn. And cotton candy. And half an Apple Pie Caramel Apple.

Who said there's such a thing as too much sugar?!?

A few general observations that we made on this day:

• I think it was Brad who said it in an older post about the Castle at DisneyLand: Um, where's the rest of it?! Do not expect to see the same thing you would see at WDW.
• It's incredibly cool to imagine Walt walking through that castle. And around the park. The picture in our room includes a photo of him doing just that, and it's truly awe-inspiring to imagine being at the same spot he was as you walk through it.
• Where are all the cupcakes?!?! I think AJ has posted about this before on the Disney Food Blog, and it's true " you don't have nearly the selection and presence at DL. Most we saw were pretty plain and simple " white or yellow cupcake with white or blue frosting. We did see a few more exciting variations, along with some cookies, at the Starbuck case at Fiddler, Fifer and Practical Cafe over at DCA:

The best advice was from Kristen though " don't go into it trying to compare the 2 parks " just enjoy! And we did. But it is fun to compare and contrast the 2 afterwards!

All in all, a great day!

Coming soon " Day 3: Park Hopping Galore! And the insanity called Race to CarsLand!

Day 3 Installment A

Last Full Day! Park Hopping, CarsLand MADNESS!!!!

Grab a chair. This is a long post....if the website crashes, it's all my fault....

On our last full day, we had the relaxing pleasure of doing whatever we wanted, since we were so productive with DCA on Monday. No rush to hit rides, just a carefree day with plans to park hop and hit stuff we missed, do some shopping and take more pictures.

We lucked out with some sunny weather, and started out by heading to DCA for Early Morning hours.

We got to the park around 9:15, and there was already a substantial line for people awaiting the 10:00 am opening. Lucky for us, we could use the early morning entrance line " and there was nobody there, so we were in the park in a snap! The guys in front of us were telling the ticket taker person that they originally were at the Grand Californian entrance into DCA (you can enter the park directly from that hotel!) but the line was sooooo long, they decided it would be quicker to walk to the outside entrance.

Once inside, it was pretty quiet (assuming the masses were there before 9:00 and made their bee-lines to CarsLand):

We decided to do Soarin' again, since we enjoy it so much. By the time we were done, it was about 9:50, and when we looked back towards the entrance, we saw the regular crowds had gathered!

We decided to head back over towards CarsLand to get some more pictures before it got too busy. Smart idea!
As we got to CarsLand, we found Lightening McQueen and Mater waiting:

And then we looked up to where they were faced " Oh. My. Gawd. There was the largest mass of people I ever saw, being held back by CMs until the park opened to the non-resort public at 10:00.

We heard there were two strategies to getting a ride on Radiator Springs Racers. One was to head right to the ride itself; the other was to head right to the FastPass line and get a FastPass, because they run out very quickly. Based on what we saw, I think I would choose to pour battery acid in my eyes instead.

We headed back to RSR for some pics, and noticed the standby wait time right at 10:00 was about 35 minutes.

I think that would be the last time we would see anything remotely close to that!

CARSLAND/RADIATOR SPRINGS RACERS MADNESS BEGINS!!

We were not prepared for what we witnessed next. And in the words of Mr. T from the A-Team, I pity da fool that has to deal with this.....

We decided to wait near the entrance to RSR and observe. We figured there would be a big rush to RSR. That, is an understatement.

We heard the announcement over the loudspeakers that the park was officially open, and in less than a minute, we saw this headed our way:

This picture does NOT do justice to the mob scene! Behind Lightening McQueen was THEE LARGEST mass of people we have ever seen. Ever!

There was a group of CMs marching with a rope stretched across the entire street to hold he crowd back. We repositioned ourselves to right outside Flo's V- Cafe. Right in front of us, Mater turned off, and Lightening McQueen pulled into the Cozy Cone Motel, and then the real fun began!

The CMs started funneling the mob into single file!!

And within 1.352 seconds, the entire line stopped because the queue was already backed up! Look!!

We went over to the other side of the street to snap this picture of the mass of people all the way back to the CarsLand entrance, and beyond.

We could only imagine their wait time. Suddenly the hour we waited on Monday afternoon did not look so bad at all! I am SO glad we decided to knock that off our list that day and not wait till today.

The FastPass line was up and to the right of the CarsLand entrance " I was in such shock that I totally forgot to take a picture. That line was just as massive, and it was not long before they were telling people in line that they might run out of FPs before they get to them. And sure enough, shortly after they announced RSR FastPasses were sold out for the day.
I kind felt bad for the kids in line, knowing how long they would have to wait. The queue itself is pretty long once you get to the actual ride, so it had to have been a massive wait beyond that.

Our thoughts on strategy: Stay on-property if you can and take advantage of the early morning hours to ride it. Otherwise, I'd probably do the exact opposite of everyone else and do everything else in the park first, and come back over to RSR later in the afternoon. We hit the ride about 3:00 on Monday afternoon and the wait was an hour. But at least it was only an hour, and we got a ton of other stuff done before that. Crazy!!!!

To get away from all that madness, we headed over to Pacific Wharf and did the Boudin Bakery Tour. That was fun! The video that goes with the tour is hosted by Rosie O'Donnell and Colin Mochrie. It was about 10-15 minutes, and you get to see the dough mixed, proofed, formed into rounds and baked.

And you get free samples! YAY!

From here we headed over to Paradise Pier for a ride on Mickey's Fun Wheel!

The Fun Wheel is big! Here's a pic looking up:

...and from inside our car:

You can choose an outer car, which stays stationary, or a moving car, which moves about as the wheel turned. We went with a stationary car. Good choice " at my advanced age, stationary is good. Ha!

Here's Joe having fun on the Fun Wheel!

Next was a stroll over to Bug's Land. The rides in Bug's Land were cute and fun and reminded me exactly of the movie:

And Flik was taking visitors:

This area was really well-themed. These lamp-posts were a great example:

We also spotted Slim right outside the entrance:

We didn't notice this until we were on Mickey's Fun Wheel, but the rock crop visible as you exit Bug's Land is in the shape of a wolf!

By now we were done with DCA, and decided to hop on over to DisneyLand for the rest of the day. I'll add that as Installment 2 in the next day or so

DAY 3 - INSTALLMENT B

DISNEYLAND!!

Around lunch time, we hopped our way across to DisneyLand. As you walk down Main Street, you come across a statue of Walt and Mickey, right in front of the Castle.

We decided to have lunch at the Jolly Holiday Bakery, which is right at the end of Main Street and to the left of the statue.

They had a variety of sandwiches, and we both went for the Turkey on Focaccia, and home-made chips:

Overall, really good! They also had a grilled cheese and tomato soup combo that looked really good. It seemed to be pretty popular based on what the other tables had.

As we sat eating, we had a great view of the Castle:

And we got to see a horse-drawn trolley pass by too!

As we headed back towards FantasyLand, there was a bit of activity at the new Fantasy Faire area. It was scheduled to open a few days after we were leaving, but they were holding a Cast Member event there this day:

One of my favorite little things about DL is the really cool popcorn carts. Each of them has a different popcorn turner! They are hilarious. This is the Yeti:

And this is the clown:

There's a pin set of these, and I managed to trade for 2 of the 5.

I wanted the Yeti one but could not find it.

We snapped a pictures of City Hall back in Mickey's Toon Town:

...and then boarded the train and took a nice leisurely ride around the park. I spotted this along the way:

The Sailing Ship Columbia was calling us as we walked on by, so we took a nice leisurely ride around Tom Sawyer Island.

Back over at TomorrowLand, we took a picture of Astro Orbitor. The thing I liked about the DL version is you don't have that elevator queue to the ride. Ya just get in line:

We spent the rest of the day just walking around, taking in the sights and sounds, and hitting the shops. I picked up a few new pins:

...and got the Disney Rewards Visa pin for this year as well:

We finished the evening by shopping through Downtown Disney District (Hello World of Disney!!) and exploring the hotels. Oh, and trying this Peanut Butter Sandwich treat:

Yum!!!!

When we got back to the room, we got ourselves all packed up, and prepared for our departure early the next morning.

All in all, we had a fantastic time, despite the chilly weather. The crowd levels were pretty low (I think we got in before Spring Break, and it was probably too chilly for a lot of the locals). This was a bucket list item for me, so I was very pleased to be able to check it off.

On a grander scale, we both thought that in many cases the WDW CMs seemed to be more "into it" than the DL CMs. Not always, but in a lot of cases.

For example, when you walk down Main Street or Hollywood Blvd at the opening of WDW, there are usually a bunch of CMs outside their stores on the sidewalk, waving with Mickey hands and greeting everyone. That was not so much the case at DL. I'm curious if anyone else had the same feeling.

With that being said, we certainly ran into our share of incredibly amazing CMs. This was especially true for Pin trading. In many cases, before I even could make eye contact, CMs were coming over to me to show me their pins. One actually called me over because he saw my pins and wanted to know if I was interested in the popcorn turner pin he had!

And without a doubt, DL is just classic Walt Disney, and not to be missed if you have the chance.

A few bonus pictures! My World of Color souvenir popcorn bucket, and Glow with the Show ears:

And my buttons:

You can pick up the Honorary Citizen button at City Hall.