Cass, Rob & Kira - Disneyland June 2023 - "Our lights! Our watches! Our bands!"

June 24th, Part 1

After a very long, exhausting day yesterday, we all came to the conclusion that we needed to sleep in today. ::yes::
We had done so much yesterday, so we were totally okay with this. We were inside the park by 9:45am, using the Grand Cal entrance to DCA.

We stopped in at Rushin' Rivers Outfitters before we headed off for some rides. I love this store, it is themed so well!

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This store had mostly general Disneyland merch with some odd Star Wars-themed merch as well. I almost bought this same shirt at WDW. :rotfl:

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Rob tried on some ears. :laughing:

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I'm sure you can all guess where we were headed to, right? :rolleyes1

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As I was getting closer to Guardians, I spotted a familiar face. He was wearing a hat, very low on his face and was hiding in his phone a little but I knew instantly as I passed him that it was Owen Wilson. Rob and Kira were behind me so once he had passed me by, I turned around and pointed to him and quietly said "That's Owen Wilson".

The people in our immediate area heard me and turned back. One of them yelled out to him "I love your movies" and he replied back with a quiet "Thanks."

I found out later that he was here to do promotional interviews, along with the rest of the cast, for the new Haunted Mansion movie. :hmghost:

It's funny because Rob and Kira are always pointing out other people to me, usually a funny shirt or a cute hat and I NEVER notice because I enjoy looking at my surroundings, not people. And once I spotted him, I did notice that he was with a "plaid", which is Disney geek speak for VIP Tour Guide. Usually when I spot a plaid, I will check out who they are with because it is often someone famous, especially over here in California but I didn't notice the plaid until later so I'm not sure what drew my attention to him.

We spent the next 15 minutes talking about his movies, as I reminded Kira and Rob of all the awesome movies he starred in.

Kachow! ⚡🚗

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Back to Tivan's place. :thumbsup2

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Here's a closer look at Harold and the Xandarian paint.

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Kira was still nervous but she was loving it. :woohoo:

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At the exit to Guardians we found Antman! There was a small line and it was in the shade so we joined the line.

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Kira gave him a big hug and then I noticed that he was holding Bug's Land in his hands!

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Good Lord, I love Disney and their little details! They shrunk A Bug's Land, which explains the whole shift to Avengers Campus! Flik's flyers were even spinning around!! OMD!!! :worship::love:

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So, another little detail I wanted to point out to Rob & Kira was the sign. You can see some of the letters missing from the top line, where Rocket stole them to make a new word, "mission" down below and then he used that Xandarian paint to write "breakout"! And then you can see his paw prints. Genius! :lovestruc

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On our way through Avengers Campus, we spotted one of Kira's faves Black Widow! 🕷️

She was totally fangirling!!! :p

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While Kira and I were waiting in line to meet her, Rob headed for the bathroom. Just as we were approaching the bathroom, we got a text from him that said "I found a jacket!" Kira and I just looked at each other and we knew we were thinking the same thing.

"In the bathroom?" :rotfl2:

Just then he popped his head out from the little cart that was sitting right in front of the bathroom. :lmao:

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He had found a black jacket with the Avengers Campus logo on it. It wasn't very thick but it was water and wind proof, which is what he needed. He tried to convince me he needed the hat too but I kiboshed that immediately! :rolleyes: :p

The jacket worked great though and if he turned it inside out, he could also wear it to an '80's disco dance party. 🪩 :rotfl2:

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While we were here, I wanted to show R & K one more little detail. Tough to get a pic of but we will try! See these three trees? Well, the two outside ones look pretty normal but the one in the middle is larger and fatter. Well, if you take a closer look behind the middle tree, you will see a small detail to explain why.

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Clever, right? :worship:

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Next up was another spin on Spidey's Webslingers. Kira wanted to crush her dad this time. :p

So many cute little easter eggs on this ride!

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Ready to crush each other! :laughing:

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This was the one time that I didn't film, just played. Rob beat Kira but a 60-something old lady beat us all! :rotfl:

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Upon our exit from the ride, Kira ran into another familiar face. He was looking for someone so Kira told him she would help and that he should go one way and she would go the other. It was so cute! :goodvibes

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We also caught some of the show on the Headquarters building, which we stopped and watched for a bit. It was very cool!

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Next up was lunch and I wanted to try Pym's Test Kitchen. ::yes::

The gimmick here is that they were using Pym particles to either shrink or enlarge some of the food items. You can see them shrinking and enlarging some pretzels while waiting in the line to order. I put a mobile order in so Rob helped me with that while Kira tried to snag a table. It is very popular here and hard to get a table, especially one in the shade.

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We got the giant pretzel, chicken sandwich and the Choco Smash dessert to share.

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It was all very delicious, surprisingly. My only complaint is that they need to use a bigger bun on the sammich. It was only a two-bite bun, which Rob and I shared, so one bite each. The chicken was delicious and the slaw was the same yummy slaw they used on Ronto Wraps but I really would have loved some more bun. :rolleyes:

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The dessert was also amazing but super rich and thick. We couldn't even finish half of it, same with the pretzel but thankfully, I always carry ziplocs with me and we took the rest back to our hotel to finish in the following days.

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Oooh looking at this pic, I could really go for this right now! :love:

I especially liked the beer cheese, I'm so glad I ordered an extra one! 🤤

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Super cute condiment area. But no salt, no pepper and no mayo! :eek:

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They had these on both sides of the restaurant and if you look closely at the bread clip, it has a date on it. This one is Evangeline Lilly's birthdate and the other one is Paul Rudd's birthdate, Details! :worship:

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We were very full and very satisfied! :goodvibes

Stay tuned for our next adventure, something off the beaten path. :rolleyes:
 
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Haha we all knew Guardians would be the first stop lol Your expressions in the ride photo are awesome 😂😂 As for us the theming if Avengers Campus is top notch but we are not huge Marvel fans and I dunno....Webslingers....just didn't do it for me 😬 We did it three times on our last trip I think but the friends we traveled with are huge Marvel fans so...next trip we might skip it depending on the wait time lol. I really did enjoy Pyms test kitchen though so interested to see if you ate there are all during your trip (though Flos is great always consistently had good food there too). 👍

I think it really helps when you're a Marvel fan. ::yes::

Funny, I hate Flo's! That's why I went to Cocina Cucamonga. :rolleyes:

I think it also depends on your individual visit. We ate at Pym's one more time and the chicken sandwich wasn't nearly as delicious as it was on this first visit. :rolleyes2
Oh my daughter’s (15 and 17) were beyond traumatized by that movie. My 17 yr old can handle horror, but the animal cruelty aspect had her clinging to my hand for most of the movie (which she never dies at this age).

Yep, which is why old lady me carries salt at all times now :rotfl2: :rolleyes1

https://www.amazon.com/Redmond-Real-Sea-Salt-Unrefined/dp/B07X1TQC1L/ref=sr_1_2?crid=12GFEHK1YL82&keywords=Real+salt+travel&qid=1688946835&sprefix=real+salt+travel,aps,123&sr=8-2

Awww, it was a tough movie for animal lovers! Kira cried throughout 80% of it and she was trembling the whole time. Even the funny, happier scenes, she couldn't enjoy because she was still recovering from the animal abuse scenes. :sad:

It was the first Marvel movie where we all agreed that we didn't ever need to see it again!

This old lady will be carrying her ziploc bag of condiments on all future theme park visits. :p

Good to know for the future! We always get them for vacation and eat them as a snack in the room or on the plane. I like them, Claire loves them. Not something I can eat all the time, but it has become part of our vacation ritual now.

I really need to get to Disneyland! It's been several years and even Claire mentioned she wants to go there instead of WDW if we can manage it sometime. For use the flights are just so high.

I love me some vacation rituals. :goodvibes

Well, I'm going back in November. Just sayin'. :rolleyes1 ;)

And I hear you on the flights! For us, Florida is roughly $800 each or more! California is much less!

Thrilled to see another Trip Report from you! And from Disneyland! Haven't been in probably 35 years (yikes) but older daughter will be there next week and she and son in law are so excited to go after also many years not going out West. We got spoiled with the 2-1/4 hour flight to Orlando so go there a million times.

But DLand is in a special category and I'm so excited to read all about it. Especially because it's from you and your family.
PS: I think Kira is lovely and adorable. I was shocked to read about her insecurities, but then again you would never guess my younger daughter had same insecurities and we had some mighty difficult times while she was in school.
She still is very sensitive and emotional but wonderful.

On with the Trip Report!

Oh wow, 35 years! It has changed a little since then. :rolleyes:

I hope your daughter and her husband have a great time!

Thanks for the kind words. Kira is an amazing young lady, so very proud of the person she has become. I feel so sad for her with everything that she deals with, it has held her back from doing so much in life. I hope as she gets older, things will become easier for her!

Sensitive, emotional and wonderful...sounds like both of our girls. :goodvibes

Ugh, kids on shoulders is a huge pet peeves of mine during fireworks and parades 😈 I'm sorry the night didn't end how you had hoped :(

Yeah, mine too! :furious:

Not what we had hoped but we made the best of it. :upsidedow
 
That chicken sandwich can be great or just....off. I think because of the size of the chicken it can end up being dry. Our first time it was delicious, second one the next day not so good. We were a group of 6 on that trip, 4 adults and 2 teens and we all shared that darn chocolate bar lol

You are really great at noticing all the details!! :love:

Glad Rob found a jacket! Those ears did look pretty darn adorable on him :rotfl2::rolleyes1:love:
 


Fun updates!

Pirates was closed when we were there so we missed out on that one. Some sort of refurb or repairs, I forget why. It closed only a couple days before we got there.

I wanted to try the Matterhorn but my hubby won't go near most roller coasters or thrill rides of any kind. I'm not a huge thrill person but I will go on a regular coaster if it doesn't go upside down.

I didn't realize there were other flavors of Dole Whip there. I have had other flavors locally but not at Disney. Strawberry sounds good right about now (or a Mango/pineapple swirl... :love: )

We really enjoyed the Webslingers ride it was pretty fun.

That bun is so tiny, LOL Is that the gimmick, with the enlarging and shrinking? Enlarge the chicken, shrink the bun? You need 3 or 4 buns for that one. :rotfl:
 
June 24th, Part 2

Our next goal was to see the Spiderman show, which was coming up in about 10 minutes, so we grabbed a front row spot and waited for it to start. We spied a few spiderbots on the way there. :magnify: These are what you shoot at in Webslingers. I'm not going to tell you why, it would spoil the ride for you. :rolleyes:

That reminds me, I have a funny story about the spiderbots to tell you later on. ;):laughing:

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There is no shade here and it was hot and sunny but thankfully the show is short.

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It's a really cute show, nothing spectacular but definitely see it if you can. :charac4:

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Love this!

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Stopped to take a few photos along the way out.

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Speaking of which, we had stopped at the Storytellers statue to take a few pics when we had first arrived and there was a photopass photographer there so we got some family pics. :goodvibes

Notice I'm wearing my DIS Unplugged shirt? :p I love this shirt, it's one of my faves! So comfy and a v-neck! I've had it forever and I wear it often and it's still in great shape. :thumbsup2

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This one is my fave and it's now my Facebook cover photo. :goodvibes

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Kira wanted to head back to the room so off she went on her own. Pretty darn easy from where we were. Rob and I went into a few shops.

They even have Stars Wars Pride merch! :darth::thumbsup2

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I was really loving this purple WoC shirt and Rob was eyeing the black hoodie but they didn't have our sizes.

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We headed out of the park and spotted these guys. They were wearing almost every Disney shoulder pal available, on their hats! :joker:

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Rob and I had a plan. We needed toothpaste and a few other things so we decided to head over to Walgreens. Although it would have been faster to walk, it was hot and sunny and I figured we could take the Toy Story Parking Lot shuttle and walk from there, save our feet a little and get out of the sun for a bit. Plus, I've never done this so it would be a good learning experience. 8-)

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We passed right by the hotel that I had almost booked for us. I had all of my information in the form completed, I was just adding my credit card and then something stopped me. I told Rob about it when he came home about 10 minutes later and explained to him about my inner struggle between this hotel and the Grand Cal and he said "Just book it!" I knew that he was talking about the Grand Cal. :rolleyes::laughing:

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So once we got dropped off we headed over to Harbor Blvd. We spent a few extra steps here as I was thinking that there was a pedestrian walkway over near the Hyatt House, where the Walgreens is located, since it literally backed this lot but I was so wrong and we ended up backtracking. I was a little mad at myself, not gonna lie. :rolleyes1:lmao:

It was really hot out now and very sunny and my scalp was starting to burn. :scared:

Whose stupid idea was this, anyway??? :rolleyes2 :laughing:

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At least we got to see the cute manhole covers. :flower:

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Remember how I said I loved how pretty the area is that surrounds the parks? Well despite the fact that was I really hot and sweaty, I really did enjoy our walk back, Look at these gorgeous trees! :love:

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We stopped at the Walgreens and grabbed a few supplies. They had these cool cooler doors with digital displays on them. Which was not very practical sometimes because they flipped between showing you what was in each case and playing ads, so when I went to get some water and it flipped over to a commercial, I didn't know which door to open. :rotfl2:

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We then crossed the street and headed for 7-Eleven.

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When my brother watches my dogs and I head south, I always grab him some Powerball and Mega Millions tickets and this was probably my only opportunity to grab them for him. This was not the nicest or cleanest 7-Eleven I have ever been to, that's for sure. :crazy2:


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Back to Disneyland we go! Thankfully it is mostly shaded. :flower:

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This is the entrance from Harbor Blvd.

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And back through security we went!

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I remember seeing these benches back in 2004 and thinking how awesome they were. Almost twenty years later, they still are! :goodvibes

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We made it back to the room and I downed so much cold water! :rotfl2:



Here's the anniversary buttons that I was given at check-in. Super cute!

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We all enjoyed some rest for a few hours.

I ended up taking a nap, or at least snoozing through the piano music a little. :rolleyes2

Stay tuned in the next chapter for our evening adventures in DCA. :-)
 


Love your report. We stayed two night at the GCH back in Dec and had a corner room in the same hallway you were on. We may have been a floor higher? We didn't have any trouble with noise but it was COLD when we were there so there really wasn't anyone in the pool and I don't remember hearing piano. Also it was supposed to be a theme park view? I mean we could see the ferris wheel but that was really a stretch for theme park view.

I loved GCH for how easy it was to pop in from the parks. I do wish we stayed CL because DH is kind of over disney in general and he was in the room a lot. Plus it would have been easy to pop back quick. The only thing is that it is huge compared to the WL which is what we are more used to.

We only had one park day as part of larger Cali trip but DD12 and I really want to try it again. My brain could not comprehend the paper ticket thing not using your hotel card thing, every time I had to tell myself what I needed to get in. :confused3 :rotfl2:
 
Is it easier to get on that parking lot bus from Suncoast or is walking better? You know...just research purposes. LOL
 
June 24th, Part 3

After my snoozefest, Kira's chill time and Rob's balcony reading time, we headed back to DCA.

Happy Rob. :cloud9:

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We noticed that they were evacuating people off of Grizzly River Run. :scared:

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We headed to Toy Story Midway Mania.

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Rob and Kira did this one on their own, way too hard on my wrists.

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Next up was our fave, Incredicoaster! The line for Lightning was very long! :scared:

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We figured out on the last trip that the numbers here are the trains that are currently running so since there were only three trains on one track, it made sense why it was so busy.

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Before I post our ride pic from this ride, I realized that I forgot to mention yesterday that we rode Incredicoaster twice :rolleyes:

Soooo, here's the ride pic from our second go-round yesterday, where Kira and I rode the very last row.

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And here's our first ride today, where we rode in the middle. We definitely all prefer the front but it was very busy and we didn't want to wait that extra time for the front row.

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And once again, Kira and Rob had dessert before dinner. :teeth:

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I placed a mobile order for Corn Dog Castle but somehow accidentally hit the "I'm here, prepare my order" button when we were most definitely not there yet! We were going to stand in line to meet a character but instead we moseyed on over to pick up our corn dogs.

I don't know what Disney does to them but they make the best corn dogs ever!! :worship:

The one thing I noticed about Mobile Order that's different here than in Disney World is that here they don't let you make any substitutions of customizations. In WDW, you can remove things, or add things, to an extent but here, no changes are allowed! The way a dish is prepared, that is how you're going to get it. For example, we didn't want the chips and if we had stood in line to order them, we could have asked for no chips and the price would decrease a little but since we mobile ordered, we had no choice, we got the chips! We left them on the table for someone else to enjoy and devoured our corn dogs! YUM!

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Kira had spotted a few Grogu shoulder pals around the parks and so when we saw one here, we asked where they had gotten it. They couldn't remember exactly but said somewhere on the pier. We finally spotted him just past Corn Dog Castle and we bought him for Kira.

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This made her very happy! :teeth:


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She took some pics of them together and sent me this one, along with one of her and Groot from our last trip. :love:

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Next up was Mater's Junkyard Jamboree. Always a fun ride on this one! :p

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Next, we headed back to Incredicoaster. :woohoo:

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The crowds had cleared a little so we waited so Rob and Kira could ride the very front this time.

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And our second ride pic...I was trying to give them bunny ears but the seats are too far away to do that, soooo peace, man! ✌️☮️🕊️ :laughing:


No one sent me the memo that we were doing weird tongue pics. :rotfl2:

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The sun was setting and the lights were all coming on. I love being in the parks at night, such a different atmosphere. ::yes::

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It was now time for World of Color: One. This was a new version of the show, so we were excited! We had gotten the Virtual Queue when it opened at noon. Actually, funny story, we were just finishing lunch at Pym's when my alarm for noon was going off. As we were clearing off our table, a lady came up and asked if we were done. I told her "Yup, all yours, just gotta get our virtual queue for World of Color and I will be out of your hair!" She replied "Oh my god, yes!!! Thank you!! I totally forgot! THANK YOU! Your table AND a great reminder, you're awesome!" :lmao:

Hey, I'm just here to help! :p

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We wanted to get as close as possible. We didn't mind getting sprayed a little, we found out last trip that up front and close was what we liked best. We only arrived 25 minutes early so we didn't get the front row but we were right behind some young girls so it worked out.

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About five minutes before the show, they played a little preview of the new movie Elemental for us.

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And then the show began! I LOVE how it opened with scenes of Walt and Roy and the beginning of their journey with Mickey Mouse. I was tearing up a little. 🥹

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To be honest, the beginning was my favourite part. Don't get me wrong, the whole show was fabulous but I don't think that it was much different or any better than the previous shows. I was just hoping to be a little more blown away this time, I guess?


Still amazing though!

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The crowd went absolutely insane at this part, it was awesome!

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Rob hid behind us in his new jacket but Kira and I were pretty soaked. We totally didn't care! 😝 Rob's jacket was really wet but it dried in no time. Great purchase!

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We headed over to Carsland to finish our night. I only have a few photos and I am already at my photo limit here so I will post a quick chapter to finish off our day. :thumbsup2
 
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June 24th, Part 4

This is a good time to tell you why I named this trip report what I did. I meant to tell you about it yesterday but my brain doesn't work as well as it used to sometimes. :rolleyes:

During the World of Color show (and a few times yesterday that I forgot to mention) our bands would vibrate and light up with tons of different colour schemes.

This happens on certain rides or at certain areas of the park and yesterday when Kira was wearing her band for the first time and the colours started flashing and the band started vibrating, she yelled out in excitement "Our lights! Our watches! Our bands!" :lmao:

Sometimes her mouth doesn't work so well either. :rolleyes::rotfl2:

I say the wrong thing ALL of the time so when she said that, I told her that she pulled a "me". :teeth:

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We headed over to Carsland, as did half of the park. It was crowded!

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Very pretty though! My iPhone does weird things with bright lights sometimes. :rolleyes2

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We waved to Mater as he drove by. :wave2:

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The lightning lane was crazy long when we got there! :crazy2:

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We got to watch some of the Disneyland fireworks while we waited though.

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So pretty at night!

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Rob let me wear his hat because my half-wet hair was bugging me.

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So much fun!

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You can't beat Carsland at night. It looks amazing during the day but at night, there's a whole new look and feel to it! ::yes::

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We walked the scenic way back to our hotel. They are in the midst of turning Pacific Wharf into San Fransokyo and we love it! We're massive Big Hero Six fans so that makes us happy! There's even going to be an Aunt Cass Cafe! :thumbsup2

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The day after we got home, they closed this bridge in order to put the top on it.

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They still have to paint it and put the finishing touches on it but it's going to look fantastic!

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Kira was done and wanted to be in bed already so she went ahead of us. :rotfl2:

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Grogu found a little spot on the headboard watching over Kira. :goodvibes

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Another long, fun-filled day.

Stay tuned tomorrow for more fun at Disneyland Park. :earsboy:
 
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Dessert before dinner!! That is one of the things my kids remember the most about our vacation... while on vacation, you can always have dessert first if you feel like it. Making great memories!

I also blurt out weird things sometimes... while in Alberta last month I was looking at the beautiful mountains around Moraine Lake and thought: oh how beautiful to see rocky mountains that have some trees here and there. I wanted to share that thought with my family and instead I said: isn`t it beautiful how in Alberta rocks grow on trees? 🤦‍♀️ You betcha the rest of my family had great joy pointing out the "rocks growing on trees" each and every day for the rest of the trip!
 
Nothing beats Carsland at night, so gorgeous!!! :love:

haha thanks for the background on the title, seems very fitting now ;-)
 
June 25th, Part 1

We all decided against getting up at 6am again. We had done lots already and didn't think we needed to take advantage of the early entry. :rolleyes:

Rob headed down to Craftsman Grill to grab himself something to eat and Kira was now out of chocolate croissants so she asked him to pick one up for her. He was on strict orders to document it all. :earboy2:

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He grabbed himself a yogurt parfait and got Kira her $5 croissant. For comparison, the 4-pack from Alberton's was the same price as one croissant from CG. :rolleyes2


He said the area near the park entrance was an absolute zoo! I later found out that they had to close the Napa Rose kitchen for some reason. That is where they hold the $125 per person Princess Breakfast so there were a whole lot of unhappy people waiting around. :scared:

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Kira said her chocolate croissant was really good! Rob didn't get himself one though, he said they looked too sweet.

Big mistake. Huge!

More on that later. 😝

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Kira was having a problem keeping Grogu on her shoulder, he didn't stay very well so she said she was going to "pull a Jen" and put her Eeyore bag like this with him sticking out. Our friend Jen had worn her bag like this on Space Mountain in April when we rode together and when she got off the ride she said "Don't ever wear your bag like that!" as she kept getting hit in the face with it. :rotfl:

It didn't last long because it was uncomfortable so she eventually flipped it around and I kept an eye on Grogu for her.

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We headed through security by 9:30am, so not too late and we missed that big crowd. We passed by the new Earl of Sandwich. They have a regular counter service here now as well as a Tavern.

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I've always been in love with the two huge trees that flank the entrance of Disneyland. :love:

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We decided to take one of the old time-y Main Street vehicles down to the hub. :car:

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Since we were already here and we hadn't gotten any pics of the castle yet, we decided to do that before heading for some rides.

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Rob had taken some family pics of a nice group of folks and they offered to do the same for us. :goodvibes

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Just then, I spotted some photopass peeps close by. There was a bit of a line but it wasn't too sunny yet and it looked like there were three of them so I knew it would go fast!

Well, I was not wrong about the line being fast but we ended spending the next 10 full minutes or more with our photographer, which normally would drive Kira and I insane but he was so amazing, not only did I not mind but I sent my first Cast Compliment of the trip because of him. His name was David and he was the epitome of what every PP CM should be! :worship:

The first thing he did was ask us some questions, one of them being about what we were celebrating. He was adamant about us needing to celebrate something. :rotfl2:

He asked Kira if she was finished school and she said yes, that she had just finished Grade 11, so he quickly pulled out a Graduation button. :lmao:

I'm just always focused on getting in, getting a photo and getting out, as fast as humanly possible, so after a minute or two, I realized that I was not going to be getting my way here. :rotfl:

He was very talkative, very social, very funny and the whole experience just kind of set the mood for the day. Most PP peeps that we've encountered lately have no social abilities at all and we just pose once or twice, they take the pic and off we go. I'm not opposed to that, being anti-social myself but David was just a breath of fresh air and he reminded me of what Cast Members used to be like and should still be. ::yes::

He made us pose so many different ways, just when I thought we were done, we were definitely not! :laughing:

He took many more pics but here's my faves. Except for the first basic photo, they were all staged by David. He told us what to do and where to go.


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And then FINALLY, when I thought we were all free to leave, he asked us if we had purchased Genie+, which we did of course, so then he told me to open my app, go to PhotoPass Lenses and then he made Mickey appear behind me and took a photo of him and I. :earboy2:

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Now, to be honest, I already knew about these lenses but I had zero interest in them before this. I hate having my photo taken, I usually try to hide in the background if I can so I have never ever played around with these! Well, David changed my mind about these and later on, we would all be playing with them. :rolleyes1:laughing: More on that later. :rolleyes:

I kind of felt bad for the people waiting in line for their own photos, we had just taken what seemed to be an eternity with our little photo shoot but there were three CM's there, so that lessened my guilt a little. We thanked David and finally said our good-byes. :wave2::earboy2:

We headed over to Snow White Grotto.

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We then decided to walk through the castle.

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The Sleeping Beauty Walkthrough is always a great way to spend 5-10 minutes. :thumbsup2

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We headed back towards the Grotto and came across Peter and Wendy! Kira was now a pro and absolutely loved approaching and talking to the characters. :goodvibes

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We were near the Fairies meet and greet area and I asked her if she wanted to go meet a fairy, she said sure!!

The CM at the entrance was also named Kira, spelled the exact same way. :thumbsup2

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Stay tuned in the next chapter for Kira's way too cute meet with Tinkerbell. :tink:
 
"pull a Jen" and put her Eeyore bag like this with him sticking out. Our friend Jen had worn her bag like this on Space Mountain in April when we rode together and when she got off the ride she said "Don't ever wear your bag like that!" as she kept getting hit in the face with it.

It sounds good in theory......but it's not!

Carsland at night is just gorgeous. Those are some of my most favorite pics from when we went together all those years ago.

What an awesome photographer. Back in the day when Claire was little, we had a great one here and there that did some awesome shots...but now a days they just don't seem like they want to play a much. I love the phone ones of Kira. That's hilarious....and accurate!
 
Yes, your photo pass photos are so special! I caught myself smiling as I was looking at them. They are just fantastic! :thumbsup2
 
June 25th, Part 2

Next up we met Tinkerbell.

I was taking video but also pressing that top button to take a pic here and there. My kid taught me that. :rolleyes:

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But the Photopass pics turned out better so I am posting those too. The cutest thing was that the PP photographer snapped pics of each of us as we approached, which I thought was pretty genius! :worship: Not only were they getting the kid's reactions to meeting the character but they were getting the reactions of the parents watching their kids react to meeting Tink! How adorable! :tink:

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This was the cutest character meet ever! Tink noticed that Kira was wearing her Pirates shirt and exclaimed "Oh no! Are you a PIRATE!???" :rotfl2:

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Kira explained to her that she would never hurt Tink!

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And she pinky promised her that she was a GOOD pirate! :goodvibes

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They went on for quite a while, too stinkin' cute!

Next up, we rode the other side of Matterhorn so that Kira would have the experience of having ridden both sides. One is supposed to be more rough than the other but honestly, to this old broken lady, there didn't seem to be much of a difference. Rob and Kira both agreed with me. :scratchin:rotfl:

They do have the cutest little thing to measure the kiddos with, it has Yeti feet. :laughing:

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And a little stuffed Yeti was watching over everyone. :goodvibes

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Kira's only goal for today was to meet Mando and Grogu. She wanted to show him her little Grogu, so off we went to Galaxy's Edge and we barely made it in before spotting him! She totally stalked him here, no problem! :cool1:

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She asked Mando if he was sure he had the right Grogu because she was pretty sure that she had to the OG one. He assured her he did, it was super cute!

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He is VERY quick so you gotta be on your game if you want a pic! ::yes::

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Next up, we got some coaxium for Hondo Ohnaka. We rode with two very serious dudes who seemed to be very bummed that we didn't get TWO containers. At one point I was busy recording and didn't press my button immediately and the guy on my side turned around and hit it for me. :lmao:

Guess I wasn't fast enough for him. :rolleyes1:p

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We headed over to the Marketplace as Rob and Kira wanted to check out all of the shops. Kira had some Christmas money from her aunt and two uncles to burn so she was now in shopping mode.

I was about to go grab a seat and wait for them when I spotted Boba Fett! Rob is a huge Star Wars geek for anything Star Wars but he loves Boba and was wearing his new Boba Fett shirt that I bought for him on my solo trip to WDW in April.

They had a nice little chat. :teeth:

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It's cute that Rob was just as happy as Kira to meet the characters. :laughing:

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Then it was time for a ride on Rise. :woohoo:

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We kept the location of the secret base a secret and then it was time for some lunch! We headed towards Ronto Roasters but we spied Chewie coming out of the door so Kira gave him the biggest hug! :chewy::hug:

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She was on a real high meeting all of these characters. It was so nice to see how happy it made her. Most teenagers would be mortified, I think, meeting all of these characters but not Kira. It was like a flashback to her first trip in 2015, when all she did was meet the characters because she didn't do any big rides. I had one happy kiddo that day! :cloud9::love:

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I mobile ordered us some Ronto Wraps to share. They don't come with chips like they do at WDW, just the wraps. They were so good and hit the spot! Yum! 🤤

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Back to the Marketplace we went and we spotted our favourite single dad and his kid again. :teeth: We didn't stop to talk, just a quick fly by pic.

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Rob had been eyeing these robes since our first WDW SWGE visit in 2020 but we never really had the space or extra excess weight in our suitcases before. We had room this time so he ended up getting his new costume. He is a part of the 501st, which is a worldwide Star Wars costuming group that dresses up in authentic-looking costumes and attends charity events in their spare time. He has a Clone Trooper costume but it can be somewhat uncomfortable and hard to get in and out of so he figured this would be much easier for him. And he can switch out the kyber crystals in his lightsaber and be either a good guy or a bad guy. :p:darth:

This lovely CM helped him pick the right sized robes.

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On our way over to grab a little snacky-snack, we ran into Red! Sorry, Captain Red, according to her. :goodvibes

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She was quite delighted to see that Kira, herself, was a pirate! pirate:

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Disneyland really does have the best character meets! :hyper:

Stay tuned for the next chapter where we will eat treats and then have some more treats. :rolleyes1:teeth:
 

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