Just the 3 of us almost. Nov '09 TR ~ Update 7/10

[Sunset Cliffs]

We headed back to the parks and decided to go back to DCA for the evening until it closed. Once inside we took a left and went straight to ToT. On our way there I had to keep stopping to take pictures of the beautiful Christmas lights. When it finally gets dark, you can see how amazing some of the displays are!

Our walk to ToT.

The wait time for ToT was 45 minutes so we got a FP. The next closest ride was Monsters, Inc. and we haven’t been on it in a while so we headed in that direction. We stopped at the taxi outside so that Dylan could play on it for a few minutes. This area of the park was totally dead. As in, hardly another person around at all. It was so quiet that it felt like we were the only one’s there. I think everyone was over at ToT. LOL

We finally got in line and had a 10 minute wait. I really like this “vending machine” that you see right before you get on. The items are so funny, but they are so true. My favorite one was “Sugar, salt & fat”.

Getting ready to get on.

This ride is really cute if you know the movie. I have only seen it once & it was a long time ago. The monsters were a little scary for Dylan (who has not seen the movie). Cute ride, not worth waiting for if there is any line at all.

The outside of the ride is really pretty when it is all lit up, so I took a few pictures in this area.

We were getting hungry so we looked for food for dinner. We did not want to pay $7.00 for a hot dog (which did not come with a drink!!) so we wandered over to the Pacific Wharf area to see all of the restaurants there. So many choices! We ended up in line at the Pacific Wharf Café & we both got our own bread bowls. Todd got clam chowder & I got corn chowder. They are pretty big & we probably should have split one, but there was more than enough for all 3 of us. Can I just say…YUM!!! This was SO good. As I was eating it, I was already trying to figure out how to come back and get another one later in the trip.

After dinner we walked back over to ToT so that Todd could go on ToT while I entertained Dylan. I took him shopping in the Greetings from California shop and I found him this cute Buzz Lightyear light up toy that I had seen earlier by TSM. It was $13.00 but I thought it was a good value because it is a full size Buzz toy in addition to having all of the whirling lights on it. It was a good choice because we just brought it with us each night to the parks & he never asked for any of the other light up toys that we saw. That is a pretty good store! It has a little of everything in it.

I took him back by Monsters, Inc to let him play in the taxi while we waited for Todd to finish riding ToT. He came & found us & we took a few pictures before I went to ToT.

Happy little guy.

I walked right on to ToT. There was no line. I rode next to 2 teenage girls who hugged each other through the whole ride. It was pretty funny. Another really great ride that I could ride over & over again. When I got off, the posted wait time was only 5 minutes.

I went to find the boys. It was getting close to closing time. We took a few pictures by the Aladdin theater.

We were going to take turns going on ToT one more time, but Dylan started complaining about his diaper being wet so we left to find a bathroom instead. This is one of the prettiest bathrooms in all of DLR. I have no idea why they made it look so nice, but I really like this area whenever we walk by it.

Have you noticed the total lack of people in these pictures? I kept saying, “It’s Thanksgiving, right? Isn’t it supposed to be busy?” It was so nice & relaxing to not have to fight through crowds of people. How often can you say that going to a park is relaxing?

Diaper change was done & we walked towards the front of the park. We stopped to have a Photopass picture taken & she took one with our camera too.

There are not nearly as many PP opportunities at DLR as there are at WDW and we never take enough pictures to make it worth it to buy the CD. I’m glad that they are willing to take pictures with your own camera too.

More Christmas lights as we were walking out.

Right as we were leaving the park, the fireworks started at DL. We were standing in the area between the 2 parks and had a perfect view. There were people everywhere watching the fireworks so we just picked a spot and stood there to watch the whole show. It was great because Dylan never got scared, and I think it was because we were far enough away from them that the booming wasn’t right overhead. He kept saying, “Wow!” whenever any of the big fireworks would go off.

It was 9:45 when they ended & since Dylan had taken such a late nap, we headed on over to go into DL.

 

[*dreamit*doit*]

How cute! A Monsters Inc. ride! It's neat to see all the different things in DL.

The bread bowl looks yummy!

 

[Craftsman Revival]

The outside of the ride is really pretty when it is all lit up, so I took a few pictures in this area.

How cute! I've never seen this ride at night before.

It looks like a monster-y version of IASW.

 

[Sunset Cliffs]

How cute! A Monsters Inc. ride! It's neat to see all the different things in DL.

The bread bowl looks yummy!

Yeah, I love the differences in the parks too. And the bread bowl was SO good. I wish I could have it for dinner tonight.

How cute! I've never seen this ride at night before.

It looks like a monster-y version of IASW.

Yeah, it's amazing how much cuter it is at night vs. day time. The lighting adds a lot to it. I had never noticed that fountain before either.

 

[LilAnn]

Hi! We just got back so I just got caught up on your updates. It was soooo hot and pretty crowded in WDW so your pictures look soo relaxing! It looks like the perfect walking around weather and low crowds!

I still can't get over how big Dylan is getting! Your pics really make me want to visit DL one day. It looks so pretty!

I always thought a Monsters Inc ride would be fun - although I imagined a roller coaster type ride (as if you were one of the doors moving on those tracks). The park looks so pretty at night all lit up. They have Mater and Lightning at WDW too at DHS. They were our only must see when we went back in August since Lily loves that movie.

 

[LilAnn]

Oh - I forgot to mention that we tried out Boma for dinner one night and LOVED it! Lily enjoyed it also. We are definitely adding it to our future trips - whenever that will be. Your TR review helped convince me to try it out.

 

[Dugette]

How cute! A Monsters Inc. ride! It's neat to see all the different things in DL.

The bread bowl looks yummy!

Sorry to be so completely uncreative in my comments, but I second this one!

 

[tinkgurl]

Oh wow! Everything looks so neat all lit up at night!!

I wish they had the Monsters, Inc. ride at the MK instead of the Laugh Floor.

 

[Sunset Cliffs]

Hi! We just got back so I just got caught up on your updates. It was soooo hot and pretty crowded in WDW so your pictures look soo relaxing! It looks like the perfect walking around weather and low crowds!

I still can't get over how big Dylan is getting! Your pics really make me want to visit DL one day. It looks so pretty!

I always thought a Monsters Inc ride would be fun - although I imagined a roller coaster type ride (as if you were one of the doors moving on those tracks). The park looks so pretty at night all lit up. They have Mater and Lightning at WDW too at DHS. They were our only must see when we went back in August since Lily loves that movie.

Welcome home! I saw some of your pictures on FB. Is it normally crowded this time of year at WDW?

Your idea for a roller coaster Monsters ride is much better that what it actually is. The ride was originally something different (something about movie stars) that failed miserably, so they overlayed the track with the Monsters Inc stuff. Definitely an upgrade, but I think if they weren't limited by the ride that already existed they could have come up with something better.

Where is the Mater & Lightning at WDW? I have never seen it there...

Oh - I forgot to mention that we tried out Boma for dinner one night and LOVED it! Lily enjoyed it also. We are definitely adding it to our future trips - whenever that will be. Your TR review helped convince me to try it out.

Yay! I'm so glad to hear that you liked it. I was so scared to try it the first time & I'm so glad that we did. You are so sweet to take my advice. I'm happy you didn't totally hate it and decide to never read my TR's again.

Sorry to be so completely uncreative in my comments, but I second this one!

Ha, ha. That was really funny.

Oh wow! Everything looks so neat all lit up at night!!

I wish they had the Monsters, Inc. ride at the MK instead of the Laugh Floor.

We have never been to the Laugh Floor. The timing is never right when we are there. The Monsters Inc ride is pretty cute, but nothing too exciting. It has the same feel as Snow White or Pinocchio. A car on a track going through different scenes. But it is much bigger & more detailed than those other ride. The doors scene is pretty cool.

 

[tinkgurl]

Where is the Mater & Lightning at WDW? I have never seen it there...

They are at DHS...usually back over at Streets of America.

 

[LilAnn]

Welcome home! I saw some of your pictures on FB. Is it normally crowded this time of year at WDW?

Where is the Mater & Lightning at WDW? I have never seen it there...

Yay! I'm so glad to hear that you liked it. I was so scared to try it the first time & I'm so glad that we did. You are so sweet to take my advice. I'm happy you didn't totally hate it and decide to never read my TR's again.

We went in May the week before Memorial weekend 3 years ago and it was great. Hot, but not too hot and low crowds, the crowds got bigger the closer to the holiday weekend that we got. However, I thought it was pretty crowded this time around and apparently it was hotter than normal. It felt like August! I haven't posted most of our pics from the trip on FB yet, but once things quiet down I will. I think I might take more of your advice and do a TR too! I don't know how interesting it will be though, we didn't do much!

Mater and Lightening are at Luigi's Garage at DHS, it's basically at the back end of the Streets of America - kind of near the Muppets. It's kind of tucked away and the wait isn't bad at all.

Oh my gosh, we loved Boma. Definitely going there again one day. The hummus - yumm! Lily loved the cous cous there - she kept calling it baby rice.

We'll totally keep reading your TRs, Lily sees pics of Dylan and said "I like Dylan!"

 

[Sunset Cliffs]

We went in May the week before Memorial weekend 3 years ago and it was great. Hot, but not too hot and low crowds, the crowds got bigger the closer to the holiday weekend that we got. However, I thought it was pretty crowded this time around and apparently it was hotter than normal. It felt like August! I haven't posted most of our pics from the trip on FB yet, but once things quiet down I will. I think I might take more of your advice and do a TR too! I don't know how interesting it will be though, we didn't do much!

Mater and Lightening are at Luigi's Garage at DHS, it's basically at the back end of the Streets of America - kind of near the Muppets. It's kind of tucked away and the wait isn't bad at all.

Oh my gosh, we loved Boma. Definitely going there again one day. The hummus - yumm! Lily loved the cous cous there - she kept calling it baby rice.

We'll totally keep reading your TRs, Lily sees pics of Dylan and said "I like Dylan!"

That is a bummer that it was so hot. I remember that our trip last June was miserable at times due to the heat. I hope that it didn't alter your trip too much.

Awww, that is so sweet about Lily.

 

[Sunset Cliffs]

After the fireworks, we headed into DL. A huge crowd was leaving and it was really crowded near the entrance & down Main Street. We decided to shop for a little while on Main Street until the crowds went down so we went into the art gallery. This place was so cool! We had not been in this shop before (not sure if it had recently been located here?). It is right next door to Mr. Lincoln (only this wasn’t open yet). I could spend a lot of money in this store, if I would let myself. There was a shadow box that had the word Disneyland spelled out in a bunch of unique things. I think I remember it having an anchor from a pirate ship as one of the letters. I loved it, but it was $95.00 and I just couldn’t justify the money.

About 15 minutes later and there were a lot less people in the park. We wanted to go on rides that we could all go on together, so we walked over to PotC. There was only a 5 minute wait to get on, so we basically walked through the line & right onto a boat.

Getting on the boat.

It was a great ride, as usual. Dylan is starting to understand all of the different modes of transportation and he thought riding on the boat was pretty cool. The only scary part were the 2 drops, especially the first one since it is almost pitch black when you go down. The second isn’t so bad since it is shorter & a little more light. It’s so cute because we always hold him close during the drops, and I can feel his little hand squeezing mine really tight. Such a brave boy.

My blurry pictures from the ride.

From Pirates, we walked to the Haunted Mansion. It was all done up in the Christmas overlay (Nightmare Before Christmas). We have taken Dylan on this before when he was younger & we thought the Christmas overlay would be less scary than the real ride. We started to get in line when a group of guys walked in front of us. They were really obnoxious and I’m pretty sure that they were drunk. One guy had a HUGE balloon animal thing that he was wearing on his head, and he kept screaming, “Look, I’m a dragon!!” at the top of his lungs. It was kind of funny at first but they kept yelling & it was obvious they were making others uncomfortable. I did not think it would be a good idea to be in the stretching room with that group because I’m sure that Dylan would have gotten really scared.

When we got to the entrance of the ride, I asked the CM if there was a way to skip the stretching room. She said yes and that she would call for “the key”. She asked us to wait with her and about 5 minutes later another CM showed up with “the key”. The original girl said she had never done it before, so another guy told her to come along and we all walked together. We walked all the way back out the entrance of the ride and took a right towards the railroad entrance. There is a little side area and we entered it. The path we were on took us right past the wall of tombstones. The guy was using his flashlight to show us all of the different names. Now I have stood in line a lot for this ride, even at night. But on this night there was no one around (the line was really short) and it just felt creepy. Even Todd said how creepy & weird it felt since it was so dark & quiet.

We finally got to a door in that wall and he used the key to open the door. Inside was a grey tunnel with some very steep metal stairs. The we went around a corner and walked down a ramp that switched back & forth. It was interesting because there were signs all over the walls, giving directions to the CM’s as to where to go. They were saying things like go left to get outside or right to backstage, etc. It was neat because all of the signs were done in the Haunted Mansion theming…same font, same colors. They looked like signs that would be out for the public to view.

We got to the bottom of the ramp & we walked right behind the displays for the windows that you see right when you get out of the stretching room (the windows are on your left). The windows look like it is showing a storm outside, but the displays are actually very shallow and the wall behind them looked like a piece of cardboard or a really thin board. I was surprised by how minimal it was, considering how real it looks from inside the attraction.

They opened the door and it let us out right near the point where the line goes past the bust statues that look at you. We just merged right into the crowd & we were on the ride in just a couple of minutes. That whole experience was so cool!! When we asked to skip the stretching room, I thought they might just have a different elevator to ride on. I didn’t think they would take us backstage!! The ride itself is so fun when it is done up for the holidays. We have ridden it many times when it is like that, so it was not a new thing. But there is always something new to see, and it feels odd to have everything so bright & lit up (either from the snow or the neon colors everywhere) compared to how dark the normal ride is. I guess I didn’t take any pictures on this ride…

When we finished we walked out and the 10:30 showing of Fantasmic was in progress. There was barely a crowd and we were able to walk right to the middle section and watch for a little while. I love the section where all of the princesses dance with their men. The music is so moving!!

We stayed until it started getting to the scary part and then we left. I’m not ready to have Dylan see the dragon & all of the fire. We decided it was time to start heading towards the front of the park. When we got to Main Street it was not very busy. I took a few pictures to try to capture all of the Christmas lights, but only one came out.

Todd loves to get ice cream on Main Street, so we went in & got in a very long line for ice cream. I’m not a big ice cream person so I went looking for a different snack and found the huge rice crispy treats that had white chocolate on top. Oh my goodness!! It looked so good, & I was not disappointed when I tasted it. Todd was still in line for his ice cream sundae so I took Dylan and found some chairs in the back of the ice cream parlor. We sat next to the big elephant (which is so cool, by the way) and enjoyed our treats. Mine was so huge that I could only eat a portion of it, and it took me a few days to finish it off.

Todd was very happy w/ his ice cream.

The big elephant that stood on our table.

We walked down Main Street and left the park at 11:00.

We were walking back to our hotel & I realized that we had a pretty good shot of the California sign without a ton of people in the way so I had to stop & take some pictures. I tried a bunch of different settings on the camera, and these are the 2 that I thought turned out best.

It’s so pretty. I am going to miss the candy cane decorations when they change the front of the park. It is one of those things that has become a staple when we are visiting at the holidays.

We had a short walk back to the hotel and we were all in bed by 11:45. Before he fell asleep, Dylan was playing on our bed. We were talking to each other & we looked back at him and he was fast asleep. It was so cute because he NEVER does that. I picked him up & moved him to his air mattress and he did not open his eyes or budge at all. We had wiped him out!!

 

[sharonW]

Great update as always! I'm enjoying this TR especially since
its the california park which I've never experienced. Love the
christmas decos! Looking forward to more!!

 

[tinkgurl]

Oh I want to go to DL so bad so I can compare to WDW AND so I can know what you're talking about exactly.

I am trying to decide if the little guy would like POTC or not. I don't know how he'd do on the drop. I know it's little, but still, it's a drop.

Ugh, I hate it when there's drunk/obnoxious people! I'm glad you were able to skip dealing with them for much longer! How cool you got to do all of that!

Wow, the ice cream place looks neat! And that elephant is beautiful!! How'd you keep Dylan from playing with that?!

 

[Dugette]

What an awesome evening at Disneyland! Can't go wrong with Pirates...I love the double-drop they have there. How awesome that you got to see the secret route into the Haunted Mansion! Very cool that you got to catch part of Fantasmic! And yummy treats to end the day!

Looking forward to more!

 

[Sunset Cliffs]

Great update as always! I'm enjoying this TR especially since
its the california park which I've never experienced. Love the
christmas decos! Looking forward to more!!

It is fun writing about DL when most of the people reading have never been there. It makes me look at the pictures in a different way.

Oh I want to go to DL so bad so I can compare to WDW AND so I can know what you're talking about exactly.

I am trying to decide if the little guy would like POTC or not. I don't know how he'd do on the drop. I know it's little, but still, it's a drop.

Ugh, I hate it when there's drunk/obnoxious people! I'm glad you were able to skip dealing with them for much longer! How cool you got to do all of that!

Wow, the ice cream place looks neat! And that elephant is beautiful!! How'd you keep Dylan from playing with that?!

I hope that you get to go to DL someday. The layout of DL is very similar to MK. The biggest differences are in the area by BTMRR, HM, Splash MTN, etc. I used to get lost at MK when we would go there because I was so used to DL!

The thing about PotC is that the ride is pretty dark overall. We have taken Dylan on it every time we get the chance, just because we don't want him to be scared of it. We just really pump up the fact that we are going on a "boat ride" and we don't tell him about the drop until we are almost going down it. It has worked so far & he has never cried or been too scared.

The elephant in the ice cream place is huge. I remember seeing it when I was young and it felt gigantic. Dylan liked it but he was preoccupied with eating ice cream.

What an awesome evening at Disneyland! Can't go wrong with Pirates...I love the double-drop they have there. How awesome that you got to see the secret route into the Haunted Mansion! Very cool that you got to catch part of Fantasmic! And yummy treats to end the day!

Looking forward to more!

The walk through HM was the highlight to me this evening, since it was new & we weren't expecting it. But overall, the entire evening at DCA & DL was very low key & non-crowded. Perfect!!

 

[Dugette]

Ooooh, I see you have a new ticker! You're going back in a month? Awesome!

 

[LilAnn]

Ooooh, I love your updates since I have never been to DL (and of course, Lily loves looking at Dylan ). Your pictures definitely make me want to visit Disney (Dl or WDW) once during the holidays so I can see the pretty decorations.

That is awesome about your impromptu visit backstage of the HM. I never knew you could skip the stretching room. I'll have to try that when I think Lily is finally ready to try it. She was freaked by PotC this time around so it kind of spoiled many rides for her. She was so scared of everything after that.

Those rice krispie treats are the best. For some reason, everything just seems to taste better at Disney! Particularly when it's mickey shaped and involves chocolate!

 

[Craftsman Revival]

I didn't know they would let you skip the elevator on HM! Too bad you couldn't take pictures backstage.

I love that photo of Todd and Dylan before POTC. Dylan is making his "fake" smile or his "good boy" smile. Its cute that he has learned how to pose for photos so early. When Elijah was that age he would do a really weird fake smile that looked something like this LOL