Just back from my first trip to Disneyland in about 10 years prompted in part by a trip my wife had as a chaperone for a band trip with our youngest in April 2017. While they were there she noticed that some of the guests were... well... a bit more MORE and that's how she found out about Dapper Days. Down the rabbit hole of finding out more about that and Disneybounding and it's on the "We have to do that!" list. This year's dates ended up close..ish enough to my birthday that it allowed me to meet my goal of celebrating my 50th birthday in a Disney park... 2 years late (to be fair, literally every Disney park around the world was shutdown on my 50th birthday... and, I am in fact, using 'literally' correctly in this context).
We leveraged the Dapper Day hotel and ticket discounts to stay at the Disneyland Hotel and do 5 day park hopper tickets. Picked up tickets for the Dapper Day Expo and packed our outfits (kept it relatively basic for our first run at this which included a white vest and bow tie celebrating Mickey Mouse that my wife sewed for me paired with grey pants and a light blue shirt and a light blue dress and pearls for her). Flew down from Vancouver to John Wayne Airport (via Seattle) on Friday, April 22nd and cabbed over to the Disneyland Hotel to check in and were in our room 2975 on the 11th floor of the Frontier Tower with a majestic view of the parking lot by 6 PM. Did a quick trip over to CVS to grab a flat of 24 water for the week and walked that back through security to the hotel and made a note -- never again, sore arms / maybe again, lasted the week -- before having a late dinner at Ralph Brennan's Jazz Kitchen and checking out the stores in Downtown Disney.
Saturday ("first day in the park!") started well -- so, this was a bit of a lessons learned trip with a few boo-boos but overall a good experience -- got to the Disneyland park for 8:00 AM and managed to do Indiana Jones and Big Thunder Mountain before hitting a bit of a line at Smuggler's Run. Spent the rest of the morning wandering around Galaxy's Edge and then Small World before taking the Monorail back to the hotel around noon for a short rest and checking out the Dapper Day Expo. We weren't fully sure what to expect and just went in our park clothes but about 80% of the people there were fully Dapper and taking advantage of the backdrops for photos that were set up. So, we missed out on that but picked up some pins and a pair of white gloves for my wife's outfit with the plan to pop back in on Sunday in our outfits. From our room's view of the parking lot we could see that things were picking up ("First weekend with regular fireworks?" "Yep." "Might be busy?" "Yep.") and we took the Monorail back into the park with the hope of doing some rides in Tomorrowland but "Oh my, Jiminy Cricket!" lines were long.
We managed to do Winnie the Pooh and then checked in a bit early for our reservation at Cafe Orleans (there were 3 points in our trip where things kind of broke down a bit and this was the first of those events which ended up being a bit of a spiral of bad luck) but ended up getting seated late. Was excited to try the Monte Cristo sandwich based on the reviews but it didn't land well (greasy and doughy) but the fries were really good. Based on the crowds we were seeing we decided to try and take advantage of the shorter wait time on Rise of the Resistance instead of trying to pack ourselves into the hub for MSEP and the fireworks. Unfortunately, the ride went down just as we got to the storm trooper room and they dumped the queue ("No Pictures!" "Who was trying to take a picture of the cast members break room?"). Ended up getting on the wait list for Oga's but didn't realize the best place to view the fireworks while we waited was by the Millennium Falcon until the blocked off area was chocked full and bursting with people. Made it into Oga's and got seated with a group that had been there for more than 45 minutes and enjoying a fair number of drinks and a couple in the middle of a relationship breakdown ("Oh right, I'd forgotten about that part of the Disney experience.") just to the side of DJ Rex so he was hard to see. Not the best experience but I can chalk that up to just bad timing/luck.
"Don't worry, things get better." "What?" "Things get better, I just wanted to let you know because you looked nervous." "I wasn't nervous. Maybe I was a little bit concerned, but that's not the same thing."
Things did get better as we were able to use the anytime pass we got from the ROTR queue dump on Space Mountain and basically walk on plus do short lines for Star Tours and Buzz Lightyear before catching the tail end of MSEP as we were walking out which made for a better end of the first day. Overall, if I had remembered about the Millennium Falcon viewing area for fireworks that might have made things a bit better but then again being caught up in crush of people might have just added to the accumulated stress at the time. Basically just a bit of bad luck on the Saturday evening.
Sunday morning started a bit rough (I'm looking at you Monte Cristo or maybe the Jet Juice or the maybe... the combination <light bulb>) and required a bit more set up time for getting our Dapper Day outfits together. We stopped for a light breakfast at Le Brea and made our way into the Disneyland park for around 9:00 AM. Spent our time in Fantasyland hitting up Alice in Wonderland, Mr. Toad, Snow White, Pinocchio, the carousel and Storybook Canals while looking out for other Dapper Day participants. They were out and about but it felt like maybe 2-3% of the crowd. Talked to a few people about it, saw a few groups of coordinated outfits that were creative and then caught the Monorail back to the hotel. Ended up skipping going back to the Expo to have a moment off our feet before making it over to DCA for the McBride Sisters wine tasting at Sonoma Terrace for 2:45 which was a nice experience with four wine samples. After that finished around 4:00 we had some time to kill before our dinner reservation and did Luigi's Rollickin Roadsters (seemed like a better choice than Junkyard Jamboree in our outfits) and Ariel's Undersea Adventure to cool down. Coming out of that we stumbled across the Phat Cat Swingers playing on the stage across from Mickey's Fun Wheel and grabbed a spot to listen to the rest of their set which was a serendipitous moment before doing another run on Ariel's for the air conditioning before making our way to dinner at Wine Country Trattoria. Tried both wine flights along with the chicken parmesan and spaghetti and then decided to call it an early day due to sore feet ("The first rule of Disney Foot Club is to break in your shoes before your trip."), the heat (88 degrees) and knowing Monday was going to be a long day.
So... a bit a Dapper Day lessons learned. Next time (already planning for next time), I would have made the Saturday a non-park day and just slept in a bit, done some time at the pool and then gotten dressed up for the Expo and experienced a bit more of that with a nice dinner outside of the park in the evening. Then Sunday could have been the same basic park day (Fantasyland rides in the morning) with a short break and then coming back for the afternoon riverboat and evening carousel meet ups. Our first experience of doing Dapper Days was fun/enjoyable/memorable but we did miss out on a few things and probably tried to pack in more than we should with the wine tasting pushing us over to DCA for the afternoon/evening.
Monday was our Universal Studios Hollywood day using the Anaheim Tour Company to shuttle us there and back which worked out extremely well (comfortable ride, enjoyable conversation on the way there and back). The trick with this one was that we knew it was all day affair with no afternoon break and similar temperatures to the day before. We ended up sticking to the upper lot and spending a fair bit of time in the Wizarding World section along with enjoying the backlot tour. Spent some time in the City Walk area before meeting up for the ride back at 6 PM. With traffic we were back at the hotel for 7:30 PM. Here was the 2nd breakdown of the trip, we had lunch at The Three Broomsticks but I hadn't planned anything for dinner since I wasn't sure when we would be getting back and worse I had grabbed a Trader Sam's reservation for... 10:50 PM. We're hungry, tired and while trying the set up a mobile order I kept getting the "mobile order not available at this location at the moment" so that became a frustration. In the end, I was able to walk down and pick up a couple burgers at Tangaroa Terrace and we got a bit of needed rest before the Trader Sam's reservation but probably could have avoided the frustration if I knew the mobile order system a bit better (used it more over then next three days and got more familiar) and hadn't overbooked our first three days of the trip. Trader Sam's was nice, I grabbed a few tiki mugs (Shipwreck on the Rocks, Piranha Pool and Zombie <reviewing vacation check list - large check mark applied>) but it was a subdued experience on a Monday night after 11 PM which was probably okay given our own energy levels at this point.
Tuesday was planned as a bit more of rest day with us grabbing a light breakfast at La Brea and getting into DCA for around 8:30 for the last day of the Food & Wine Festival. Started with Soarin' Over California as the must-do before it disappeared, then over to Pixar Pier for Toy Story Mania, Emotional Whirlwind and my first time on the Incredicoaster ("So... that's what an inversion feels like... that was a bit weird..."). Caught the Spider-man show at Avenger's Campus and grabbed food and drinks from the D-Lish food booth (all good and made us regret not taking time for more of the food booths) before catching Philharmagic and doing a bit of shopping (whoever is making the current pins is hitting some of my weak spots... "A V.I.N.CENT pin, seriously?! Bunsen Honeydew and Beaker! Squee!") before heading back to the room for a crash... I mean, a longer rest.
Dinner at Carthay Circle that evening was the rib-eye with an old fashioned and a chance to take some photos of the photos on display. Overall, a nice dinner but still a limited menu. After dinner we ended up in a longer than expected line for Webslingers but still enjoyed the chance to try the ride and we finished just in time to catch the Doctor Strange show which was entertaining. Went to Cars Land after dark for photos and a chance to ride Junkyard Jamboree now that we were more appropriately dressed for being thrown about like loose socks in a dryer. Next we went to find a spot to watch the late show of World of Color having missed the virtual queue sign up ("2 PM... oh yeah, I should check if... oh... all gone.") and had our 3rd and final down point of the trip which could have been prevented if we had packed our hoodies. After a couple of extremely hot days, temperatures had started to drop and being next to the water the wait became a chilly affair as our feet started to murmur and plan the Great Foot Rebellion of 2022. We enjoyed the show but were happy to fall into bed after the walk back to the hotel.
Wednesday ("It's my birthday! It's my birthday! I'm a year older and I don't care 'cause I'm at Disneyland!") was an early start and my wife had picked me up a Happy Birthday button which resulted in birthday wishes from cast members and other park guests. This was also the first day we used Genie+ since the other days had been planned around getting in rides in the morning and at the end of the day with other events or rest in between. La Brea was closed when we walked by so we ended up in the park a bit earlier with a plan to rope drop Rise of the Resistance but on the way there through Frontier Land reports came back of it being down so we jumped on Big Thunder Mountain instead, grabbed a LL for Matterhorn a bit further out and put in a mobile order for breakfast at Red Rose Tavern. Coming off of Big Thunder Mountain we saw that Rise was up with a 45 minute wait so made a beeline for that and managed to ride ("Please don't break down again... please don't break down again...") all the way through with some small elements not working (Kylo Ren's lightsaber effect) but enjoyed the opportunity to experience it. Then off to the Matterhorn for the roughest ride in the wilderness, which was just opening up after being down at park open. Took a moment to eat breakfast and pick up a LL for Space Mountain before heading over to Tomorrowland to do Star Tours and Buzz Lightyear while we waited for our time to come up. It felt like the LL for Space Mountain made it pretty much a walk on. Grabbed a LL for Haunted Mansion and made our way over via the Tiki Room and a dole whip break before visiting Madame Leota. Grabbed a LL for Indiana Jones a bit further out and took the time to grab beignets and a mint julep for a loop around the park on the Railroad before standing in a longer line for Jungle Cruise and doing Indiana Jones. Knowing the trip was coming to an end soon we did a bit more shopping on the way out for a bit of a break before dinner.
Stand out dinner of the trip, was at Napa Rose. We ended up in a section with two other tables of 2 celebrating birthdays so it seemed like the place to be. Shared the herb gnocchi with lamb ragout as an appetizer and had the filet mignon for the main which was excellent. For drinks I tried the Central Park West and the Smore cocktail with the carrot cake dessert. Just a very relaxed and enjoyable meal with good food and drinks. Went back to the park for few rides (Big Thunder Mountain, Smugglers Run -- engineering is 100% less stressful than piloting -- and Star Tours) before finding a spot for the late show of the Main Street Electrical Parade ("We have 10 chances to see it... wait, down to 3 more chances... should probably catch it tonight") which was a nice way to end my birthday.
Thursday was our last park day starting in DCA a little later at 9:30 after a light breakfast at La Brea. Caught Soarin' Around the World now that it had switched back, a couple runs on Radiator Springs Racers using the single rider line (2 runs in under 30 minutes on a posted wait time of 60 minutes for stand by), another try on the Incredicoaster ("Maybe the inversion won't feel so weird this time... nope, still feels weird.") and Toy Story Mania with LL before a quick lunch at Pym's Test Kitchen and back to back runs on Grizzly River Run before leaving the park for a pool break back at the hotel.
This was another lessons learned moment when we realized that some of the those afternoons we had been taking naps in the room could have been spent lying out in the sun and soaking in the hot tub area. Missed opportunities but something to remember for the next trip. After relaxing a bit we decided to turn the dial up to 11 using a LL on Mission Breakout and another on the Incredicoaster for our 3rd and last ride on it ("Okay, two drops... with the second drop slightly more intense than the first, then the loop... still feels weird... and the third drop which doesn't seem so bad now and the last little bit... hands up for the picture instead of clenched around the handholds like the previous two photos... and we're good.") before dinner at the Lamplight Lounge. A nice burger along with the potato skins and a couple drinks (the Mickey's Fun Wheel and Scream Canister) before heading over to Disneyland for a few more rides.
Started with the Matterhorn at night which was still rough but manageable (Point of Order raised by my back... "I would call upon this esteemed Body to make a ruling on this statement."), one more time on Star Tours before wandering back to Fantasyland to see if we could fit in Peter Pan before our last planned ride of the trip on Big Thunder Mountain. A 40 minute wait and very tired feet said "we'll catch you next time" when a cast member walked up and asked if we wanted to ride it and escorted us to near the front of the ride. An unexpected and magical moment that was perfectly timed ("It's our last day and would have missed out on it otherwise.") that stands out in the trip. From there we did one last ride on Big Thunder Mountain and headed back to the Disneyland Hotel for one last night before flying home.
Friday, April 29th was our departure day but we had enough time to grab breakfast at Tangaroa Terrace which was excellent, pack up and check out with a last minute check that our bags were under 50 lbs ("How much are you bringing back?" "About 15 lbs of souvenirs... oh, you mean cash value..."). Cabs were available at the front of the hotel and the overall trip from John Wayne airport to Seattle to Vancouver was fairly smooth and straight forward (some initial glitches with ArriveCan and the process of getting validated at Seattle airport was amusing) and I had time to jot down about seven pages of notes on what worked and what didn't work for the trip because as you know if you've made it this far, I clearly like to write lots of little notes.
Overall, a good experience with a bit of learning curve (mobile order, Genie+), some lessons learned (pool breaks >= nap breaks), some missed opportunities (seeing the fireworks, the Dapper Day meet ups) and even a magical moment or two (stumbling upon the Phat Cat Swingers, the cast member who helped us get on Peter Pan's Flight). It feels like it went by too quickly, a blur of perpetual motion, and I'm still at the point where I'm taking a moment here and there to walk through each of the days in my memory to hopefully solidify them a bit more and separate out the experiences. Ideally we'll get a chance to come back again for Dapper Days in the future and experience that a bit more fully with this trip as a foundation but even if we don't we'll have this one to look back on and remember.
We leveraged the Dapper Day hotel and ticket discounts to stay at the Disneyland Hotel and do 5 day park hopper tickets. Picked up tickets for the Dapper Day Expo and packed our outfits (kept it relatively basic for our first run at this which included a white vest and bow tie celebrating Mickey Mouse that my wife sewed for me paired with grey pants and a light blue shirt and a light blue dress and pearls for her). Flew down from Vancouver to John Wayne Airport (via Seattle) on Friday, April 22nd and cabbed over to the Disneyland Hotel to check in and were in our room 2975 on the 11th floor of the Frontier Tower with a majestic view of the parking lot by 6 PM. Did a quick trip over to CVS to grab a flat of 24 water for the week and walked that back through security to the hotel and made a note -- never again, sore arms / maybe again, lasted the week -- before having a late dinner at Ralph Brennan's Jazz Kitchen and checking out the stores in Downtown Disney.
Saturday ("first day in the park!") started well -- so, this was a bit of a lessons learned trip with a few boo-boos but overall a good experience -- got to the Disneyland park for 8:00 AM and managed to do Indiana Jones and Big Thunder Mountain before hitting a bit of a line at Smuggler's Run. Spent the rest of the morning wandering around Galaxy's Edge and then Small World before taking the Monorail back to the hotel around noon for a short rest and checking out the Dapper Day Expo. We weren't fully sure what to expect and just went in our park clothes but about 80% of the people there were fully Dapper and taking advantage of the backdrops for photos that were set up. So, we missed out on that but picked up some pins and a pair of white gloves for my wife's outfit with the plan to pop back in on Sunday in our outfits. From our room's view of the parking lot we could see that things were picking up ("First weekend with regular fireworks?" "Yep." "Might be busy?" "Yep.") and we took the Monorail back into the park with the hope of doing some rides in Tomorrowland but "Oh my, Jiminy Cricket!" lines were long.
We managed to do Winnie the Pooh and then checked in a bit early for our reservation at Cafe Orleans (there were 3 points in our trip where things kind of broke down a bit and this was the first of those events which ended up being a bit of a spiral of bad luck) but ended up getting seated late. Was excited to try the Monte Cristo sandwich based on the reviews but it didn't land well (greasy and doughy) but the fries were really good. Based on the crowds we were seeing we decided to try and take advantage of the shorter wait time on Rise of the Resistance instead of trying to pack ourselves into the hub for MSEP and the fireworks. Unfortunately, the ride went down just as we got to the storm trooper room and they dumped the queue ("No Pictures!" "Who was trying to take a picture of the cast members break room?"). Ended up getting on the wait list for Oga's but didn't realize the best place to view the fireworks while we waited was by the Millennium Falcon until the blocked off area was chocked full and bursting with people. Made it into Oga's and got seated with a group that had been there for more than 45 minutes and enjoying a fair number of drinks and a couple in the middle of a relationship breakdown ("Oh right, I'd forgotten about that part of the Disney experience.") just to the side of DJ Rex so he was hard to see. Not the best experience but I can chalk that up to just bad timing/luck.
"Don't worry, things get better." "What?" "Things get better, I just wanted to let you know because you looked nervous." "I wasn't nervous. Maybe I was a little bit concerned, but that's not the same thing."
Things did get better as we were able to use the anytime pass we got from the ROTR queue dump on Space Mountain and basically walk on plus do short lines for Star Tours and Buzz Lightyear before catching the tail end of MSEP as we were walking out which made for a better end of the first day. Overall, if I had remembered about the Millennium Falcon viewing area for fireworks that might have made things a bit better but then again being caught up in crush of people might have just added to the accumulated stress at the time. Basically just a bit of bad luck on the Saturday evening.
Sunday morning started a bit rough (I'm looking at you Monte Cristo or maybe the Jet Juice or the maybe... the combination <light bulb>) and required a bit more set up time for getting our Dapper Day outfits together. We stopped for a light breakfast at Le Brea and made our way into the Disneyland park for around 9:00 AM. Spent our time in Fantasyland hitting up Alice in Wonderland, Mr. Toad, Snow White, Pinocchio, the carousel and Storybook Canals while looking out for other Dapper Day participants. They were out and about but it felt like maybe 2-3% of the crowd. Talked to a few people about it, saw a few groups of coordinated outfits that were creative and then caught the Monorail back to the hotel. Ended up skipping going back to the Expo to have a moment off our feet before making it over to DCA for the McBride Sisters wine tasting at Sonoma Terrace for 2:45 which was a nice experience with four wine samples. After that finished around 4:00 we had some time to kill before our dinner reservation and did Luigi's Rollickin Roadsters (seemed like a better choice than Junkyard Jamboree in our outfits) and Ariel's Undersea Adventure to cool down. Coming out of that we stumbled across the Phat Cat Swingers playing on the stage across from Mickey's Fun Wheel and grabbed a spot to listen to the rest of their set which was a serendipitous moment before doing another run on Ariel's for the air conditioning before making our way to dinner at Wine Country Trattoria. Tried both wine flights along with the chicken parmesan and spaghetti and then decided to call it an early day due to sore feet ("The first rule of Disney Foot Club is to break in your shoes before your trip."), the heat (88 degrees) and knowing Monday was going to be a long day.
So... a bit a Dapper Day lessons learned. Next time (already planning for next time), I would have made the Saturday a non-park day and just slept in a bit, done some time at the pool and then gotten dressed up for the Expo and experienced a bit more of that with a nice dinner outside of the park in the evening. Then Sunday could have been the same basic park day (Fantasyland rides in the morning) with a short break and then coming back for the afternoon riverboat and evening carousel meet ups. Our first experience of doing Dapper Days was fun/enjoyable/memorable but we did miss out on a few things and probably tried to pack in more than we should with the wine tasting pushing us over to DCA for the afternoon/evening.
Monday was our Universal Studios Hollywood day using the Anaheim Tour Company to shuttle us there and back which worked out extremely well (comfortable ride, enjoyable conversation on the way there and back). The trick with this one was that we knew it was all day affair with no afternoon break and similar temperatures to the day before. We ended up sticking to the upper lot and spending a fair bit of time in the Wizarding World section along with enjoying the backlot tour. Spent some time in the City Walk area before meeting up for the ride back at 6 PM. With traffic we were back at the hotel for 7:30 PM. Here was the 2nd breakdown of the trip, we had lunch at The Three Broomsticks but I hadn't planned anything for dinner since I wasn't sure when we would be getting back and worse I had grabbed a Trader Sam's reservation for... 10:50 PM. We're hungry, tired and while trying the set up a mobile order I kept getting the "mobile order not available at this location at the moment" so that became a frustration. In the end, I was able to walk down and pick up a couple burgers at Tangaroa Terrace and we got a bit of needed rest before the Trader Sam's reservation but probably could have avoided the frustration if I knew the mobile order system a bit better (used it more over then next three days and got more familiar) and hadn't overbooked our first three days of the trip. Trader Sam's was nice, I grabbed a few tiki mugs (Shipwreck on the Rocks, Piranha Pool and Zombie <reviewing vacation check list - large check mark applied>) but it was a subdued experience on a Monday night after 11 PM which was probably okay given our own energy levels at this point.
Tuesday was planned as a bit more of rest day with us grabbing a light breakfast at La Brea and getting into DCA for around 8:30 for the last day of the Food & Wine Festival. Started with Soarin' Over California as the must-do before it disappeared, then over to Pixar Pier for Toy Story Mania, Emotional Whirlwind and my first time on the Incredicoaster ("So... that's what an inversion feels like... that was a bit weird..."). Caught the Spider-man show at Avenger's Campus and grabbed food and drinks from the D-Lish food booth (all good and made us regret not taking time for more of the food booths) before catching Philharmagic and doing a bit of shopping (whoever is making the current pins is hitting some of my weak spots... "A V.I.N.CENT pin, seriously?! Bunsen Honeydew and Beaker! Squee!") before heading back to the room for a crash... I mean, a longer rest.
Dinner at Carthay Circle that evening was the rib-eye with an old fashioned and a chance to take some photos of the photos on display. Overall, a nice dinner but still a limited menu. After dinner we ended up in a longer than expected line for Webslingers but still enjoyed the chance to try the ride and we finished just in time to catch the Doctor Strange show which was entertaining. Went to Cars Land after dark for photos and a chance to ride Junkyard Jamboree now that we were more appropriately dressed for being thrown about like loose socks in a dryer. Next we went to find a spot to watch the late show of World of Color having missed the virtual queue sign up ("2 PM... oh yeah, I should check if... oh... all gone.") and had our 3rd and final down point of the trip which could have been prevented if we had packed our hoodies. After a couple of extremely hot days, temperatures had started to drop and being next to the water the wait became a chilly affair as our feet started to murmur and plan the Great Foot Rebellion of 2022. We enjoyed the show but were happy to fall into bed after the walk back to the hotel.
Wednesday ("It's my birthday! It's my birthday! I'm a year older and I don't care 'cause I'm at Disneyland!") was an early start and my wife had picked me up a Happy Birthday button which resulted in birthday wishes from cast members and other park guests. This was also the first day we used Genie+ since the other days had been planned around getting in rides in the morning and at the end of the day with other events or rest in between. La Brea was closed when we walked by so we ended up in the park a bit earlier with a plan to rope drop Rise of the Resistance but on the way there through Frontier Land reports came back of it being down so we jumped on Big Thunder Mountain instead, grabbed a LL for Matterhorn a bit further out and put in a mobile order for breakfast at Red Rose Tavern. Coming off of Big Thunder Mountain we saw that Rise was up with a 45 minute wait so made a beeline for that and managed to ride ("Please don't break down again... please don't break down again...") all the way through with some small elements not working (Kylo Ren's lightsaber effect) but enjoyed the opportunity to experience it. Then off to the Matterhorn for the roughest ride in the wilderness, which was just opening up after being down at park open. Took a moment to eat breakfast and pick up a LL for Space Mountain before heading over to Tomorrowland to do Star Tours and Buzz Lightyear while we waited for our time to come up. It felt like the LL for Space Mountain made it pretty much a walk on. Grabbed a LL for Haunted Mansion and made our way over via the Tiki Room and a dole whip break before visiting Madame Leota. Grabbed a LL for Indiana Jones a bit further out and took the time to grab beignets and a mint julep for a loop around the park on the Railroad before standing in a longer line for Jungle Cruise and doing Indiana Jones. Knowing the trip was coming to an end soon we did a bit more shopping on the way out for a bit of a break before dinner.
Stand out dinner of the trip, was at Napa Rose. We ended up in a section with two other tables of 2 celebrating birthdays so it seemed like the place to be. Shared the herb gnocchi with lamb ragout as an appetizer and had the filet mignon for the main which was excellent. For drinks I tried the Central Park West and the Smore cocktail with the carrot cake dessert. Just a very relaxed and enjoyable meal with good food and drinks. Went back to the park for few rides (Big Thunder Mountain, Smugglers Run -- engineering is 100% less stressful than piloting -- and Star Tours) before finding a spot for the late show of the Main Street Electrical Parade ("We have 10 chances to see it... wait, down to 3 more chances... should probably catch it tonight") which was a nice way to end my birthday.
Thursday was our last park day starting in DCA a little later at 9:30 after a light breakfast at La Brea. Caught Soarin' Around the World now that it had switched back, a couple runs on Radiator Springs Racers using the single rider line (2 runs in under 30 minutes on a posted wait time of 60 minutes for stand by), another try on the Incredicoaster ("Maybe the inversion won't feel so weird this time... nope, still feels weird.") and Toy Story Mania with LL before a quick lunch at Pym's Test Kitchen and back to back runs on Grizzly River Run before leaving the park for a pool break back at the hotel.
This was another lessons learned moment when we realized that some of the those afternoons we had been taking naps in the room could have been spent lying out in the sun and soaking in the hot tub area. Missed opportunities but something to remember for the next trip. After relaxing a bit we decided to turn the dial up to 11 using a LL on Mission Breakout and another on the Incredicoaster for our 3rd and last ride on it ("Okay, two drops... with the second drop slightly more intense than the first, then the loop... still feels weird... and the third drop which doesn't seem so bad now and the last little bit... hands up for the picture instead of clenched around the handholds like the previous two photos... and we're good.") before dinner at the Lamplight Lounge. A nice burger along with the potato skins and a couple drinks (the Mickey's Fun Wheel and Scream Canister) before heading over to Disneyland for a few more rides.
Started with the Matterhorn at night which was still rough but manageable (Point of Order raised by my back... "I would call upon this esteemed Body to make a ruling on this statement."), one more time on Star Tours before wandering back to Fantasyland to see if we could fit in Peter Pan before our last planned ride of the trip on Big Thunder Mountain. A 40 minute wait and very tired feet said "we'll catch you next time" when a cast member walked up and asked if we wanted to ride it and escorted us to near the front of the ride. An unexpected and magical moment that was perfectly timed ("It's our last day and would have missed out on it otherwise.") that stands out in the trip. From there we did one last ride on Big Thunder Mountain and headed back to the Disneyland Hotel for one last night before flying home.
Friday, April 29th was our departure day but we had enough time to grab breakfast at Tangaroa Terrace which was excellent, pack up and check out with a last minute check that our bags were under 50 lbs ("How much are you bringing back?" "About 15 lbs of souvenirs... oh, you mean cash value..."). Cabs were available at the front of the hotel and the overall trip from John Wayne airport to Seattle to Vancouver was fairly smooth and straight forward (some initial glitches with ArriveCan and the process of getting validated at Seattle airport was amusing) and I had time to jot down about seven pages of notes on what worked and what didn't work for the trip because as you know if you've made it this far, I clearly like to write lots of little notes.
Overall, a good experience with a bit of learning curve (mobile order, Genie+), some lessons learned (pool breaks >= nap breaks), some missed opportunities (seeing the fireworks, the Dapper Day meet ups) and even a magical moment or two (stumbling upon the Phat Cat Swingers, the cast member who helped us get on Peter Pan's Flight). It feels like it went by too quickly, a blur of perpetual motion, and I'm still at the point where I'm taking a moment here and there to walk through each of the days in my memory to hopefully solidify them a bit more and separate out the experiences. Ideally we'll get a chance to come back again for Dapper Days in the future and experience that a bit more fully with this trip as a foundation but even if we don't we'll have this one to look back on and remember.
