It must have been fear of oversleeping that had me up at 5 am on Tuesday June 28th. We had a lot to do today, and I really wanted to get to Disneyland at opening. Before leaving home, we packed our suitcases so that we only had to bring one in for our night at Howard Johnson. In addition to that one we brought in the camera, laptop and DVD player for Alex. We did use the Internet connection at Howard Johnson the night before, and it was incredibly easy to go online.
Since I woke up at 5, I decided to try to sleep some more, and at 6, when I heard loud music from Disneyland, I gave up completely, and got out of bed. Before our 7 am wake up call I had showered, dressed, and repacked everything to make checking out easy. Andy got up at 7 to shower and get ready. I called Alan’s Wheelchairs to cancel my scooter rental. My back, while painful, was livable with the use of painkillers, and even with blisters on my feet I would rather walk. We let Alex sleep until the last possible moment, getting him up around 7:30. After bathing him in sunscreen, we dressed him, and were off to Disneyland. We were actually going to be there when the park opened. We were already ahead of our last trip!
On this day we had a mission. We were going to do the Mickey’s Morning Madness, so upon entering Disneyland that first morning, we did not delay. Entering through the left tunnel, making one stop on Main Street for a banana for Alex, we were off to ToonTown. Here, we had to surrender our vouchers to gain entry into this land of characters. Upon entering, we saw lines for the characters everywhere. Mickey and Minnie were in the street, not at their houses.
Within minutes of arriving the Cast Members began announcing a show that was going to take place at ToonTown’s Town Hall. We decided to skip that and ride Gadget’s Go Coaster. We wanted to take Alex on this, to test him out for the Matterhorn. There was a very short wait before we got on, and Alex rode with Andy. During the ride, he fussed a little, but when it was over, he was smiling, so we decided to do it again. That was a HUGE mistake. It turns out that Alex really was not enjoying the ride. Okay, our mistake, we were sorry, and immediately got in line to see Mickey. The line was already long, and they were just finishing up the show. I found out later that the only way to get the ToonTown Honorary Citizen button was to watch the show. That was my goal for the next day we could do early entry into ToonTown.
It was finally Alexander’s turn to see Mickey. So, I set him down and told him to go to Mickey. Last year, he would RUN to Mickey and hug him before sitting down in front of him for a picture. Before leaving for Disneyland, he would sit with Mickey and Minnie every day, playing with the plush dolls. So, I was very surprised when Alex pretty much bypassed Mickey to go into the house. Was he sick?? He ignored Minnie the night before, and now Mickey today. I was heartbroken. How could Alex not like my most favorite character??? We waited in the long line for Minnie next and got the same reaction. By this time, we were not sure what to think. We left ToonTown after only one visit with each of the Mice. We figured we could ride It’s A Small World before leaving to check out of Howard Johnson, so we did that, and Alex seemed to enjoy the ride. After this, Alex and I headed out, while Andy made the Fastpass run. He got them for Autopia, Buzz Lightyear Astro Blasters (BLAB), and Indiana Jones Adventures (Indy). It was wonderful having the unlimited Fastpasses that came with our AAA package. After he caught up to us, we realized how late we were, and had to once again hurry. At this point my blisters from the night before were much worse. My tennis shoes were in our other suitcase.
We hurried back to Howard Johnson and checked out. After putting our luggage in the car, we then had to hurry back to Disney’s California Adventure (DCA) for our 12:30 lunch at Ariel’s Grotto. We got there on time and were quickly seated outside (our favorite place while at Ariel’s Grotto). We had numerous encounters with characters before our orders were even taken. It turns out we sat there for 20 minutes with nothing because our server didn’t know we were her table. After all the apologies, she took wonderful care of us, and everything went well.
One thing about Ariel’s Grotto is that the characters to come by often, but don’t spend a ton of time at the table. We especially noticed this with Minnie, who basically stopped for a quick picture and was gone. We were not sure if this was standard, or just because Alex didn’t seem to care when she came by. He was a little better with Mickey. It was also very cute, because Alex did notice that all the character’s here were wearing hats. So, each character was shown the hat that Alex was wearing. The interaction with Mickey, Chip, Dale, and Pluto between Alex and that hat was absolutely wonderful. Goofy and Max got Alex to have fun, and while dancing, which Alex absolutely loved, Goofy taught Alex some very bad habits! Later, when dancing, Alex thought it was okay to jump on the booth seats, because that is what Goofy did. I never saw this happen, it was told to me by Andy. He will probably tell it better in his trip report.
Anyway, Alex did have a great time at Ariel’s Grotto, but once again, didn’t touch his meal. And to our surprise, he quickly learned how to say the word Dance, and asked to do it frequently. The characters at Ariel’s Grotto for lunch were Mickey and Minnie, Chip and Dale, Goofy and Max, Donald Duck, and Pluto. They all came to our table many times.
Our car had to be returned by 3:00, so while I paid the bill for lunch, showing my AAA card for 10% off, they headed to Howard Johnson to pick up the car. They were going to meet me at the Grand Californian Hotel. I ended up beating them there, and waiting in the wonderful lobby for them to show up.
They finally arrived, and Andy had giving all of our luggage to the bellboy to be stored. The problem was, our tickets to check into the hotel were in the luggage. I quickly went to the bell desk and let them know I needed one of our suitcases back. Once I had it, I realized Andy had put beer in the case, so I moved out of eyeshot of the bellboy to get the documentation I needed to check in. Once I had that, Andy left me with Alex, and he went to return the car. We would meet back at the hotel when he was done. I quickly found out that our room was not ready, but I was able to pick up our schedule from John in Vacation Planning.
It was at this time that I decided I would save Andy a trip to the Walt Disney Travel Company (WDTC) office. Since I had paid for our trip with the Disney Visa, I got a voucher for a Disney Tote Bag. Well, there was a picture of this bag on the voucher, and it looked real nice, so there was no way I was going to skip picking it up. So, off Alex and I went. The office is easy to find, at the end of Downtown Disney, behind Compass Books. The people in this office are incredibly nice, and very helpful. I gave Suzanne my voucher, and she gave me the tote bag. It was even nicer than the picture showed. I ended up using it as an extra carryon bag with all of my fragile purchases when we went home. We talked for a while and we left. A few minutes later, I realized that John at Vacation Planning had not given me the extra Mickey’s Morning Madness coupons, so I went back to WDTC. I was a little bit nervous about asking them, but explained the situation, and they were happy to give me 4 extra vouchers. We said goodbye to Suzanne and Gary and once again headed out. Like I said, these are some great people.
When Alex and I got back to the Grand Californian, Andy was nowhere to be found. I was very thirsty after my walk, and headed to White Water Snacks for drinks for Alex and me. We left White Water Snacks, and ran right into Andy. I called again about our room, and it was finally ready. Room 3454, the farthest room from the elevators, and a 10-minute walk from the lobby elevators was to be our home for the next four nights. The next day we found closer elevators near Napa Rose, so when we were going to DCA we took that elevator. When going to Disneyland we took the lobby elevator. We got into the room and called the bell desk for our luggage. In addition, I called housekeeping for a refrigerator. It was only about 5 minutes before the fridge arrived. We waited about 10 minutes and a bellboy arrived with the luggage. We pointed out to him that the phone cord on the phone near the bed was broken, and he made a call to have it fixed.
Our room was good sized. We had a king sized bed, a couch with a table in front of it. There were also two bedside tables, and a circular table, in addition to the large entertainment center/dresser that is in all rooms. The couch was a pullout couch, so the room could easily sleep 4. We never pulled out the couch; just let Alex sleep with us. He was so exhausted each night he slept like the dead, never moving.
It was about 4pm when we left our room and went to Disneyland. We rode Buzz Lightyear Astro Blasters, and Andy let Alex shoot his gun. We then used our Fastpasses for Autopia, riding in 2 cars. Alex rode with me, and almost fell asleep in the car. Disneyland was packed, so we then left and headed to DCA.
Once there, Andy did single rider on Soarin Over California while Alex and I went to Redwood Creek Challenge Trail. Alex first went on the Rock Slide over and over for about 15 minutes. Then we played on the rope climbers, the suspension bridges and just ran around the play area. It took Andy an hour to get through Soarin on Single Rider. This trip they had single riders go down the Fastpass line instead of bypassing and going directly to the cast member at the bottom of the ramp. After Andy got done, we went to the Pier. We finally got Alex to eat at Chips and Strips. Here I picked up a Magic Tinker Bell straw for $6.99. The Cast Member who took my order gave it to me, and showed me how to use it. When the food was done, there was another straw. I gave it to the cm’s telling them I got one when I paid. They seemed shocked, and thanked me for my honesty. We took our chicken over to a table, and Andy went to do single rider on Screamin. Because of my back, I knew I would not be able to ride the roller coaster this trip. We tried then to get Alex on a few rides. He wanted nothing to do with King Triton’s Carousel or the Sun Wheel.
We then decided to survey the parade route and pick seats for the Electric Parade. We got comfortable in seats and patiently waited. Once the parade started, we could hear the music, but the parade was still a ways away. We quickly moved. The problem in our original seats was that we were at the end of the first sections speakers, and at the beginning of the second section. Sitting there, we heard everything twice. So, we moved to the middle of section two, right in front of Souvenir 66, and across from the Zephyr. I was a bit concerned about the lights from the store and the ride, but we wanted to try this location because nobody was there, and it would be easy for 10 of us to fit the next night when we met up with disneydreamer.
These seats turned out to be great. The lights of both the attraction and the store were dimmed for the parade, and a few minutes later, both closed down. Alex was very patient waiting for this parade, because we told him it was ‘E’. That was his name for the Electric Parade, which he absolutely loves. So, all we had to do was tell him we needed to wait for E, and he was very good. Then, once the parade started, our little boy was in heaven.
We left the park right after the parade, since it was closed. Headed back to our room all of us exhausted. I quickly found out that I could see fireworks from our room. For a standard room, our view was not too bad. We had a view of Downtown Disney to the left, the back of Soarin straight ahead, and Grizzly Peak to our right. While I watched the fireworks Andy tried to hook up our laptop. It was very hard compared to Howard Johnson’s set up, and took about 30 minutes to get connected. While Andy was doing this, Alex fell asleep on his own at 10pm. Exhausted myself, I had Andy move Alex, who was lying across the bed. So, Andy set him in the middle with his head on a pillow and I climbed in next to him. I quickly fell asleep myself.
Highlights of Day Two:
Making Opening.
Watching Alex shoot the gun on Buzz
Walking into Disneyland for the first time
Seeing Sleeping Beauty Castle in all its glory.
Coming soon day 3, and our meeting with disneydreamer! How did it go you ask? Wait and see. I will hopefully have that one done tomorrow. Right now, my back is screaming at me to lay down, so I am going to oblige it.
Leanne
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