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Mouseketeer
Group: Forum Members
Last Login: 3/26/2008 6:08:14 PM
Posts: 278, Visits: 359 |
| Day 3 –
We scheduled a 6 am Mickey wake up call. Man it was early! We heard a knock on the door about 6:15 am and it was birthday buckets for the kids! They loved them. We got Phillip ( the birthday boy) a Sorcerer Mickey bucket – it had a sorcerer mickey plush key chain, a nice mickey birthday pin and some stickers, plus a little birthday cake. Sarah got the (what else) Princess birthday bucket which had a magnetic “paper” doll Sleeping beauty set, a brush and comb and a princess birthday pin plus the little cake. We lit the candles, sang to Phil and then popped the cakes into our fridge for later. We ate breakfast in the room (we brought those little cereals and had bought milk at White water the day before plus some fruit ).
We were at the gates for EE at 7 am. This time we walked in and went down mainstreet. The view of the castle is amazing… of course at this time of morning there were very few people around, so it was awesome to take some photos in front of. First thing we did was go over and ride on Buzz Lightyear’s Astro Blasters. What fun! We tried emailing us our pictures, but for some reason they never showed up at our email addresses, oh well. After that we headed over to Fantasy Land. We rode on Peter Pan first, since it always is so lined up, even at EE it was. We rode on Mr. Toad’s Wild ride. Not a fave of anyone. We rode the carrosuel again, and Sarah got the gold horse – and there was no line to get back on, so we stayed on for a second go around. Since we didn’t go on the Storybook canal boats the day before, we went for a ride on them and enjoyed that. Sarah and Phil got to be the “whale watchers” and sit up on the front of the boat. We rode the Teacups again and then went to It’s a Small World once again. We decided we should head off and see another “land” before it got too hot and busy, so off we went to Adventure Land. We went in to the Tiki Room first and really enjoyed that! Sarah was a bit scared when the storm started, but everyone really liked the flowers and birds. Next was the Jungle Cruise. Dad and Jim went to grab FP’s for Indy, then we all headed into what appeared to be a pretty short line for the Jungle Cruise (we went up and down the stairs, etc). Anyways it was wonderful and just as I had remembered it.
Next, we walked to Critter Country and rode on The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh. Cute ride, the kids enjoyed it a lot. Pooh, Eeyore and Tigger were available for autographs, so we stood in line and met them all. It was just before 11, so my mom and dad waited at the Hungry Bear Restaurant while we shopped a bit in the store there and we were the first in line. Lunch was not too bad, lots of shade and it was pretty fast. After that Mom and Dad went to ride on Indy and we took the kids to the Princess Storytelling in the Princess store in FL. We just missed the Aurora storytelling and ended up using both strollers to block off the area for the poor CM who was trying to tell people they had to be at the storytelling to get in the line to meet Aurora. She was so kind later, she gave Sarah a pin for helping out (it was one of the 7 dwarfs). As soon as Aurora was done, we sat down and waited for the Snow White storytelling. It was great! Even a month later, Jim commented on how well done the storytellings were. Anyways Snow White and Brian, the keeper of the books told and acted out a superb story and we waited to meet with her and get her autograph. Jim and Phillip left during the storytelling since Phil was getting a bit restless they went around and took photos of the many characters and headed back to the hotel for a nap). Snow White was so great with Sarah and they had a nice chat. After we left, we walked around a little in the hub to see some characters ( but didn’t wait in any lines) on our way back to the hotel. We ended up seeing Genie by himself, so we went to meet him. Everyone had a little rest and maybe the girls even went out to do some shopping at DTD while the boys slept.
When Phil woke up, we headed to ESPN for dinner. It was great, we had 3 coupons (Jim’s didn’t work because he had web graphics turned off on his email and it was missing a confirmation code or something), the portions there are HUGE. I would consider sharing the next time. None of us were able to finish our meals. It was fast and not busy ( we were there around 4 or so I think). Next we walked over to the monorail and took it over to DL. Dad, the kids and I rode in the nose cone… how cool is that! Once at Dl, Mom and Dad walked over to the hub to save spots for the parade. Jim, the kids and I went over to meet Ariel ( we were the second last people allowed to meet her! – she had to get ready for the parade I guess).
We waited for a while for the parade (our seats were great, on the tomorrowland side of the hub right beside the walkway). The CM’s doing crowd control were extra nice to the kids, got the crowd to sing happy birthday to Phillip and the kids did some dancing. Cinderella was walking and did a bit of dancing/playing with the kids.. I think they did Ring around the Rosie. Then they also pulled many of the kids and played some games/danced with them in the street. A really nice CM named Steve took extra special care of Phillip while they were doing it. The kids were also given Honorary Citizen stickers. The parade was great, the Alice and Wonderland float stopped in front of us, so we watched them dancing. It was a beautiful parade. Afterwards, we kept our spots and waited it out until the fireworks. Phil needed to wander a bit so he walked around the hub a few times until it got too packed to walk it anymore. We chatted with the people around us.
DL closed right after the fireworks that night since it was a grad night, so we moved with the other cattle out to the gates to leave. It was an early night that night J .
Day 4 – A non Disney day. We again had breakfast in the room – we went down and got coffee and drinks in our mugs from Whitewater snacks and bought some cinnamon buns and a fruit plate and some yogurt to supplement our cereal. Afterwards, we went walking around in Downtown Disney (DTD).
Sarah got a hair wrap done, not cheap but it looks great and is still going strong after a month. Then we went and spent way too much money in the Lego store. We kept wandering and walked over to the Disneyland Hotel and wandered through the grounds and found a neat picture op at the front entrance. While wandering back, we decided to stop at Tortilla Jo’s for lunch. It was very quiet – again it was a bit early like 11 am . The server apologized to us in advance, letting us know it was his 2nd day. The margaritas were great and the kids drinks were HUGE. The fresh guacamole was AWESOME and there was soo much. They have free chips and salsa which were also very tasty. The meals were HUGE here and great. They did forget one of the kids meals, but of course we had so much food it didn’t really matter. We went back to the hotel for Phillip to sleep and Sarah, Mom and I went out shopping some more. We went to Libby Lu’s, like Claires only way more girlie ( if you can imagine that). It was ok, then they cranked up the music and it was SOOO loud I sent mom and Sarah out so I could pay for the couple of items we bought. We really liked the store across the way with all the Christmas village things in it.
After the boys woke up, we went down to the pool. The kids both loved the little slide and we spent a while in the pool. That night we went to Storyteller’s for dinner. No reservation, we just walked in. They have a buffet or you can order off the menu. Jim had the buffet, the rest of us ordered a meal. Mom and I were smart enough to share a meal this time, and it was lots of food! Phil ate off the buffet for free. We had another early night.
Day 5 – We were at the park gates for opening and even helped with the countdown. This time, I went over to Critter Country to get fast passes to Splash Mountain and the others all went to Autopia. I took advantage of the fact there was no one around and went solo on Indy – it was ok, but I didn’t LOVE it. I met up with everyone and we walked over towards the Plaza Inn for our PS’s for the Princess Breakfast. We were still a bit early and I really wanted to get the Silhouettes of the kids, so we walked to the shop, but they were not doing them until 12! Anyways, we were first for our seating and sat outside. The food was ok, but certainly nothing to write home about. The kids met Belle, Snow White, Mary Poppins and Bert, and Cinderella. There were others around, but we didn’t really see them outside. Sarah and Jim went for a little walk and met the Fairy Godmother. We thought it was still worth it because of the interactions the kid had, even though we didn’t see everyone.
After breakfast we wandered over to Aladdin and Jasmine’s storytelling. Another awesome little show! Afterwards the kids can line up to meet Aladdin and Jasmine… Sarah was so excited since she says Jasmine is her favourite these days. Next we headed to Splash Mountain. Sarah, Jim and I rode it while my mom and dad took Phillip on The Many Adventures of Pooh ride again. Sarah was a bit freaked out about Splash, but she tells people she really liked it. Mom and Dad headed back to the hotel (via DCA) with Phillip to put him down for his nap and Jim and Sarah and I headed over to the animation building to see what Princesses might be around since we still had not met Aurora ( the only princess we didn’t meet). We met Mulan in there and saw Stanley and JoJo and her lion wandering around in the street, Max was there as well. Afterwards, we got FP’s for Soarin and went back to the hotel. After a sleep and swim, we headed into DCA to watch Aladdin the Musical (John from VP was able to get us advance seats – or whatever they are called). The show was great and the kids really liked the parade part of the show. We ran into Sulley on the street and stopped to get photos with him.
As we went past Soarin, we decided to use our FP’s and split into 2 groups since Phillip was too small. Mom and Dad went first and then Sarah and Jim and I went. We all loved it!
Afterwards we headed over to Paradise Pier so the kids could have McDonalds at the Burger Invasion place. I had Pizza from Pizza Oom Mow Mow. It was Huge and tasty as well. Afterwards, the kids checked out the little fireboat play area. Mom and dad decided to park themselves on a bench to save spots for the Electrical Light Parade. During the wait, Sarah rode the Jellyfish twice (once with each adult) and Kind Triton’s carousel. Jim and I went and rode on California Screamin’ .. the wait was only about 20 minutes (the longest wait we had the whole trip – well the longest we chose to wait). It was a pretty cool ride! It was starting to get dark so we headed back to see mom and dad and the kids… Phil and Sarah had enjoyed playing across from where they were sitting in the little area beside the stingers that has rocks and some water.
We watched the Electric Light Parade and loved every moment of it! I had bought some glow sticks in Calgary before we went so I pulled those out. One of the boys sitting next to us thought they were pretty cool. So I gave him one of the extras we had. The parade was awesome and well worth the wait. We followed it out to the entrance at the Grand, hoping that we might be able to use the FP’s that we had for GRR, but alas it was closed. We will have to do this one first next trip!
We headed up to the room and the kids went right off to sleep and mom and dad offered to stay in so we could go over to DL if we wanted. Jim and I took them up on the offer and went. We decided to take the monorail over (could have walked much faster). We went over to look in the Star Tours shop, but didn’t find what we wanted. We went next over to FL and the mad hatters shop to buy a hat for everyone. I am amazed at the way those CM’s are able to do the names on the hats! Next we walked over and the second show of Fantasmic was underway, so we took advantage of that and went and rode on the Haunted Mansion. I wasn’t as impressed as I thought I might be. Then we rode on Pirates – we had our own boat! We bought the kids some pirate swords, since Phil had asked for one when he saw them. Then we rode on the Jungle Cruise – how cool that is at night, very neat!
DL was closing so we went over to the World of Disney once again and looked around.
Day 6 – We were all but out of cereal, so we headed down to Storytellers for breakfast, again just walked in. We all ordered off the menu and Phil ate free off the buffet. Dad ordered a grapefruit which was so amazing and sweet! We saw Chip and Dale, Pluto, Meeko and Turk at breakfast and Ranger? Mike who did some amazing tricks for us.
Afterwards, we packed up and ended up buying a couple of DL tote bags from the gift shop to get everything in. We had asked about late checkout, but they said they were not doing that for any room that day. The Bellman came up and got our luggage. We killed some time wandering a bit and then found a spot to sit and play near the outside of the big fireplace at the Grand.
We took the Super Shuttle back to LAX, there was a family of 3 already in the backseat, so it was a direct trip. Flight to Seattle was ok, we had to run to catch our boarding flight to Calgary, in the other end of the terminal, which ended up being canceled due to a mechanical problem. They were able to secure another plane but not until 11:30 pm (it was 9:30 or so at this time). We finally got a plane and everyone slept to Calgary. We arrived and cleared customs, but then were told they couldn’t open the luggage door on a 6 month old plane, so we ended up leaving our luggage and coming home. We finally got home at 3:30 am. Our luggage came the next morning via courier.
It was an awesome trip. Everyone loved it and the Grand was a spectacular place to stay!
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Sorcerer Mickey
Group: Administrators
Last Login: 11/17/2008 5:38:21 PM
Posts: 10,885, Visits: 6,229 |
| Great report! I have to tell you, Andy also really likes Pizza Oom Mow Mow, but I prefer Burger Invasion. I am a fool for McDonald's but rarely eat there because it is so bad for me. This trip, we never made time for Aladdin. I do regret that, but am very happy I saw it the year before. Like the kids, the parade scene is my favorite, as it is in the movie. Thanks again for posting! Leanne
 
May All Your Days Be Filled With Magic! And your nights full of Disney Dreams! |
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