"Do Over!" Avalon and LizKitty Meet the Mouse! FINAL DAY POSTED: Update page 6

[bonita_babe232]

Love ur trip report and all the good pics!!!! looks like u guys had a great time!!!!!!!!!

 

[bumbershoot]

So that's why Eamon is so well-behaved jk!

Actually he's immune to the face! Very very annoying.

But if hubby frowns at him, he snaps back into shape immediately. And then I complain about it.

 

[avalon451]

Day three got off to a little bit of a rocky start, but nothing us Disney chicks couldn’t deal with. We got up in plenty of time, but somehow we just weren’t moving our butts fast enough, and we didn’t get out of the hotel until 7:55. Big no-no for those fans of the Magic Morning Super thread. However, we weren’t very worried, since Nemo was not on our priority list, and we had another MM on Thursday if we missed out on anything on this one.

I was diddling around and taking pictures from our balcony:

I took a video, too; I don’t think the video will work here, but I’ll try to just post the link. The audio is nearly drowned out by the rumble of the freeway.

http://s296.photobucket.com/albums/mm193/avalon451/?action=view&current=101_2541.flv

So, we finally got going and were just about 100 feet from the security tables. Liz starts feeling around in her pockets for her ticket, which I’d handed to her in the hotel room. “Uh, Mom? I can’t find my ticket.” Pat, pat, unzip the fanny pack, check all pockets again… “You know, I think I put it down on the dresser to comb my hair and forgot to pick it up again.” ARrrggghhh! But if you know my perfectionist eldest child, you know she is already going to be beating herself up about it and feeling bad, so no need for me to do so. Ah, well, I said cheerfully, turning around, we’ll just have to head back and get it. No big deal. All the way back to HoJo, she was apologizing and saying, “I feel so stupid!” and all the way I was saying, “Naw, no biggie, it’s fine.”

So… back to HoJo where the ticket is lying innocently on the dresser, and I dumped my sweatshirt, which was already a burden. The day promised to be hot and sunny. So we finally got through the gates about 8:25 a.m. Over in Fantasyland, the rides had already picked up pretty good lines. Of course Peter Pan looked to be around a half hour already, as did Alice. So we hopped on Snow White, which we’d both missed last time. That is the weirdest ending!

And then it was time… for the dreaded Teacups. *tones of doom* Dum dum duuuuummmmm….

They were walk-on. So I gritted my teeth and said, “Let’s get this over with.” Liz is saying, “Oh, come ON, Mom, they won’t be that bad!”
These pictures are actually from Thursday. Yes, she eventually talked me into them again… because they really weren’t that bad!

First, I was dreading it.

Then, I was philosophical about it:

Then, Liz was laughing at my fussing over it so much I had to take a self portrait of the two of us before the whirling yuckiness began.

All in all, it was smoother than I’d hoped, since Liz did not spin the deadly chalice of dizziness. And it was over pretty quickly. I found if I focused on distant things, or on just one thing like Liz’s smirking teenaged grin, I did ok. I guess I will spoil the suspense by telling you now, that when she talked me into it again on Thursday, I got bamboozled, because they accidentally ran it twice as long! Liz wanted to spin it so bad, so I said, “Ok, just ONCE.” But then, they just kept going as we heard the whole safety spiel again, and after that I really was pretty dizzy. Luckily, the dizziness wore off quickly.
Ok, so that was my Teacups adventure. But I got my own back on Liz with Screamin’. More on that, later.

Next we went on Pinocchio. Cute. I was going to say that the Pleasure Island section is creepy, but compared to Haunted Mansion Holiday, it’s a picnic. Then it was 8:55, so we headed over to Space Mountain and got FPs. The FP machines were up and running, and my FP was time stamped at 8:57! So we actually got a little jump. Here’s an interesting thing, though. All week, whenever I was able to get a FP right at opening, usually within 5 minutes, the return time was always at least 55 minutes later. It used to be you could count on a return time of 35-45 minutes, but for the first one, I was never able to get that short of a return time. The second FP, however, DID have the short return time. Twice, when I was able to grab my second FP, right at the next window, it had a return time of 35 minutes. Odd.

So anyway, we grabbed the Space FP and of course, rode it. When in Rome, and all that jazz. If it had a 10 minute or less standby, we rode it, every time.

Here’s Liz in line for her favorite ride:

Next we did Star Tours, which was new for both of us. I was worried about this one, because it was the only one my sister had done at DL that had made her nauseated. It didn’t bother me, though. A couple of times I squinched my eyes a bit, to reduce the sensation of swooping around in a stomach-churning manner, but other than that, it was fine. It’s a fun ride, but kind of dated.

Then we did Buzz. I like Buzz, but Liz got kind of tired of it on our last trip, and she’s so dang competitive that she feels like she sucks at it. So we only went this one time. Since they have construction walls up in the Tomorrowland walkway, the FP return line for Buzz is closed off, and FP is turned off. Despite that, the standby time was almost always 5-10 minutes the whole time we were there. I never saw much of a line at all, even on Thursday.

We headed over to the left side to get a FP for HMH, of course. That was getting to be a prerequisite for every day’s plan. On the way, I just couldn’t resist that neat drum music coming from Tarzan’s Tree house. I really love that music when you’re walking around that area! We just took a stroll through, and I loved the sensation of being in a jungle way up there.

So, we went on our way and got HMH FPs. HMH was always pretty busy while we were there. Then we strolled back through NOS. We stopped by the Court of Angels to sit on the steps for just a minute. Some of those tiny brown birds, that like to hang around looking for crumbs, landed quite close to us, and then hung out on the balustrade just above our heads. I was cracking up Liz by singing to them like Gisele in Enchanted, when she wanted something done. Surprisingly, they didn’t seem to mind, although they didn’t come and help me fix my hair or anything, either. I scrambled to get my camera out, but they took off before I could.

We walked over to BTMRR and rode with a 15 minute wait. Liz really loved that ride. Then, it was time for our character breakfast at the Plaza Inn.

You may remember my posting about this. I really wanted to try a character breakfast, but with a cool 13 y.o.? I posted, “Eye-rolling adolescent + character breakfast = bad idea?” I got a lot of positive feedback from people saying that their teenagers had warmed right up to it. So I went ahead and booked PS’s. Liz was sort of like “Ooooooh-kay, whatever.” But once we got in there and got our food, she was much more enthusiastic, because she really loved the big breakfast. When we first sat down, Minnie was over by in the room next to our table, and Liz was cowering a bit in embarrassment. Minnie might have seen that, because she didn’t stop at our table, and that was fine with Liz. However, pretty soon Captain Hook came sauntering by. He just looked at Liz’s bowed head as she was pretending to be busy with her scrambled eggs, raised his hook, and slowly dragged it over the top of her Jack Skellington bandana. Well, that did it. She was laughing and giggling, and she posed willingly with him:

We saw lots of characters, but Liz wanted to scarf her delicious breakfast and go ride more rides, so we didn’t linger, and only 3 actually stopped at our table. That was fine with Liz, she said she actually enjoyed it better that way—some characters, but not too much. Winnie the Pooh waved at us but didn’t stop. Our favorite, though, was Fairy Godmother. She walked right over, plopped herself down opposite Liz and said, “You’ve got Jack Skellington all over your head, dear!” She went on for awhile about how Jack wanted to change Christmas, and wasn’t that frightful, and then asked her name. “Liz… would that be short for Elisabeth? Oh, and what’s your middle name, dear? Ann? Oh, lovely, and do you only hear that when you are in trouble, dear?” And she raised her perfect little English accent so the entire restaurant turns to look, and she shrieks, “ELISABETH ANN! GET OFF THE PHONE!”……”ELISABETH ANN! PICK UP YOUR ROOM!” By this time Liz was practically in stitches! It was so funny. And thus we got one more of those amazing smiles she’s capable of , but so rarely see:

So we toodled on out of there, full of Mickey waffles, eggs, sausage, and chocolate croissants (yum) and decided to hit DCA and fulfill Liz’s side of the horrible rides bargain: California Screamin’.

First though, she said, “Mom, I think these shorts are rubbing. I feel like the inside of my thigh is all blistered.” Well, that was no good. It was only going to get worse. But I didn’t want to walk all the way back to the hotel again, and by that time the chafed spot would probably be bleeding. So, what to do, what to do… oh, I know! SHOP! We stopped on Main Street and found a really cute pair of cream-colored, light weight sweatpants, very soft, and she swapped them out in the changing room for her denim shorts. Yep, they were expensive, but it could have been worse, and she can wear them for her dance class, too. She rolled up the cuffs to below the knee, and was comfy and ready to go again.

Next, we got our hand stamp and strolled over to CA for the first time on this trip. We went straight to Screamin’ with our dream FPs. “Might as well get it over with,” I told Liz. “Really, you’re going to love it.” She was pretty apprehensive. Guess what. She LOVED it. She got off whooping and grinning. “That was the BEST! That was SO AWESOME!” …. “And DON’T say ‘I told you so,’ Mom!” However, she agreed with me that it kind of bangs up your head a bit, and we were both a bit woozy when we got off. Shaken baby syndrome, like someone has been rattling your brain around in your head. So, no twice-in-a-row runs on that one, although we did pick up a FP since we would be back later.

Next, we went over to Soarin’ over California. We asked if we could ride front row center, and we got on the next “flight”. It was fun to do it without the feet dangling above you! I really sniffed for the scents this time and got them clearly. I love the scene over the river best. Woods and rivers are my favorite—I loved Redwood National Forest when we went 2 years ago.

Then, we were getting pretty tired, so we headed back for our break. When we got to the hotel, I went to get online, but the modem wasn’t working. One call to the front desk. Within 10 minutes, a maintenance guy showed up, checked it out, disappeared for another couple of minutes, and returned with a new modem … with a longer Ethernet cord, yay! The first one was like, 2 feet long. It is very odd that the Ethernet connection is on the nightstand between the beds (convenient to the phone jack, I guess) so unless you bring your own extension cord, you have to use your laptop balanced on your knees, sort of shifting it around awkwardly with the power cord and the Ethernet cable trying to tangle. Ok, well, duh, that’s why it’s called a LAPtop, right, but I kind of prefer to have it on a tabletop or desk. I’m surprised HoJo has not figured out a way to get a phone jack put in over by the DESK instead of the just the bed. But, anyway, we had a new modem and were back online within a half hour of calling, so that was pretty good service!

We napped and read again, and then we headed over to DCA again. I wanted to see the Pixar Play Parade at 5:15. We found a great spot right over where it comes out next to Hollywood Backlot. We stood on the side of the walkway going into the center (currently billed as Candy Corn Acres), and when it started, we were allowed to go sit on the ground right at the edge of the main street.

That is a very cute parade! Liz didn’t appreciated getting squirted. You can get pretty wet; most of the floats have some kind of water action going on. I started out taking pictures of the amazing floats, but I got kind of worried about getting my camera wet, so I eventually put it away and just enjoyed:

Anyway, Liz looked annoyed at the water spots but seemed to enjoy the rest of it. I loved the intricate choreography!

After that we ran and got on California Screamin’ once more, Liz’s NEW favorite ride, with the FPs we’d picked up earlier. We then wandered over past TSMM, but the wait time was 45 minutes and the standby line was not open. We thought about doing Maliboomer, but it just didn’t look appealing to us. We never did do it, and I don’t really mind. For drops, I’d rather do ToT, with all the cool theming. We thought about doing Mulholland Madness, but it was closed for some reason.

I was getting kind of hungry, although Liz was not, so when I saw Corn Dog Castle, I thought immediately of Hound 109, and went to get one. Ok, YUM!

The thing about these are, they are not only really big, so that they are hard to hold cause they’re so top-heavy. They are also really really yummy. I noticed right away that the corn bread coating tastes much more like a really good corn muffin, not just like some thin gritty coating on a hot dog like most corn dogs are. And I like corn dogs. This was by far the tastiest I’ve ever had!

So while I was sitting there eating my corny dog, the park closed at 6 p.m. We wandered over to DL to spend the last couple of hours before the 8 p.m. closing there. Time to use our FPs. So we did Space, of course, and then HMH (by this time Liz was chanting along with the narration). I think I posted this picture before, but this was when I really took it. You can see Liz’s new comfy sweatpants. The HMH decorations were fabulous:

We did Splash Mountain. Liz said, “Mom, don’t bother getting out the ponchos, I don’t mind getting wet and anyway, we’re almost done.” So I didn’t. BwaHaHah. Guess who got the first seat in the log? That’s right. And guess who just happened to hit all those little dips just right? Bingo. I was completely DRENCHED this time! We got off and Liz was a little wet on one leg, and she was very inclined to guffaw at my drowned-rat appearance. “Mom, you’re so old and creaky. What’s the matter, can’t take a little wetting? Huh?” So by this point we’re stumbling along the bridge over Pirates, shoving each other and laughing, and she slings her arm over my neck and says, “I love you, Mom.”

I thought she must be hungry by now. It was 7:45, the park was closing in 15 minutes. We were right by the French Market, so I remembered my DISboards recommendations and asked her if clam chowder sounded good. She said that sounded really good all of a sudden. So we went into the deserted restaurant and got clam chowder in a bread bowl, with salad on the side, and we couldn’t resist a slice of brownie-bottom chocolate dreams cake. We took it outside and found a table right next to the railing. The place was mostly deserted. There were a couple of big families in the middle, lingering over their meal while their toddlers chased each other around the tables. It was dark, but the lamps overhead were dim and glowing. The air was still warm and fragrant, and we sat there and shared the food while watching the reflected lights off the Rivers of America. Liz was suddenly ravenous and found everything delicious.

It was a very good end to a very good day.

On our way out, we walked down the quiet side of the shuttle driveway. I couldn’t resist taking a few snapshots of the OTHER side, and of the HORDES of people waiting for the shuttles and ART. Unfortunately it came out really blurry, but you can still sort of see the masses of people waiting:

I said to Liz, “…and THIS is why you stay at a hotel within walking distance!”

 

[mommaU4]

Love the update! That pic of Liz with Captain Hook is a real keeper.

 

[pixleyyy]

We got off and Liz was a little wet on one leg, and she was very inclined to guffaw at my drowned-rat appearance. “Mom, you’re so old and creaky. What’s the matter, can’t take a little wetting? Huh?” So by this point we’re stumbling along the bridge over Pirates, shoving each other and laughing, and she slings her arm over my neck and says, “I love you, Mom.”

OK, that one moment makes the entire trip so special.

 

[10stime]

What a fun trip update, I kept thinking liz reminded me of someone. Do you remember the movie My Girl (one of my faves), she reminds me of the main character in the movie.

 

[davidsprincess]

AWWWWWWWWW! I love it! And what is more important than a stranger loving it, is you and your DD loved every moment too.!

 

[travelmel]

Great update!

You guys are just hitting ALL The magic moments! Good for Fairy Godmother! I am also a HUGE hook fan and he is the one who always makes me feel like a kid again when I get the opportunity to stand next to him or chat with him at DL.

Man it sounds like you two are really having a great time. And that's an understatement. Thank you for sharing, again.

 

[SeattleTink]

Avalon, such a great report!

That picture of the corn dog is downright evil! That is my FAVORITE thing at Disneyland. I am not a "junk food" kind of girl, but I tell you what, that corn dog is worth every calorie and gram of fat!

This trip with your daughter will forever be a highlight of her childhood for her and you!

Can't wait to see what is next!

 

[Yakety76]

Love the pics of your daughter with Hook and the Fairy Godmother. Sounds like a wonderful trip.

 

[bumbershoot]

The fact that you left your *room*, got all the way almost to the tables, went back, to the room, found something, left something, and all the way back inside of a half an hour shows how close hojo's is.

Leaving from a room in GCH, going out the pathways to get to the DTD entrance, through the half of DTD you have to traverse, back, and back again, would probably take the same amount of time, now that I think about it. And PPH, forget about it.

(of course Desert Inn, Tropicana, and the other *right there* hotels would be shorter than hojo, but some people seem afraid of the distance of HJ and it's just not THAT far)


"So we hopped on Snow White, which we’d both missed last time. That is the weirdest ending! "

Doom, gloom, fear, eek, happy ending, bye!

What a fun trip update, I kept thinking liz reminded me of someone. Do you remember the movie My Girl (one of my faves), she reminds me of the main character in the movie.

Ooh, good call.

Actually with the huge Hook smile I finally realized the no-smile/smile thing reminds me of the Royal Caribbean commercials about how cruising can bring the elusive, rarely seen, pre/young teen smile out of hiding.

 

[Hound 109]

Day three got off to a little bit of a rocky start, but nothing us Disney chicks couldn’t deal with. We got up in plenty of time, but somehow we just weren’t moving our butts fast enough, and we didn’t get out of the hotel until 7:55.






Big no-no for those fans of the Magic Morning Super thread. However, we weren’t very worried, since Nemo was not on our priority list, and we had another MM on Thursday if we missed out on anything on this one.

.......So, we finally got going and were just about 100 feet from the security tables. Liz starts feeling around in her pockets for her ticket, which I’d handed to her in the hotel room. “Uh, Mom? I can’t find my ticket.” Pat, pat, unzip the fanny pack, check all pockets again… “You know, I think I put it down on the dresser to comb my hair and forgot to pick it up again.” ARrrggghhh!











.....And then it was time… for the dreaded Teacups. *tones of doom* Dum dum duuuuummmmm….







They were walk-on. So I gritted my teeth and said, “Let’s get this over with.” Liz is saying, “Oh, come ON, Mom, they won’t be that bad!”
These pictures are actually from Thursday. Yes, she eventually talked me into them again… because they really weren’t that bad!



Yeah right.



......Ok, so that was my Teacups adventure. But I got my own back on Liz with Screamin’. More on that, later.



That'll teach them. With age we become more sneaky.




.........Then, it was time for our character breakfast at the Plaza Inn.

You may remember my posting about this. I really wanted to try a character breakfast, but with a cool 13 y.o.? I posted, “Eye-rolling adolescent + character breakfast = bad idea?” I got a lot of positive feedback from people saying that their teenagers had warmed right up to it. So I went ahead and booked PS’s. Liz was sort of like “Ooooooh-kay, whatever.” But once we got in there and got our food, she was much more enthusiastic, because she really loved the big breakfast. When we first sat down, Minnie was over by in the room next to our table, and Liz was cowering a bit in embarrassment. Minnie might have seen that, because she didn’t stop at our table, and that was fine with Liz. However, pretty soon Captain Hook came sauntering by. He just looked at Liz’s bowed head as she was pretending to be busy with her scrambled eggs, raised his hook, and slowly dragged it over the top of her Jack Skellington bandana. Well, that did it. She was laughing and giggling, and she posed willingly with him:

Great Story & Great Pic.

Great stuff Avalon!

But did you say Disney Chicks!!!!???? Is that allowed??? Should we change the name of the crazy long thread on the first page of the DL board to the Disney Chick Trip Report Thread???

 

[hurleysweety]

I've really enjoyed reading your trip report and seeing all the pictures! Because of reading through this I'm really look forward to one day spending some quality mother-daughter time in such a magical place as DL. (Oh yeah, p.s. I don't even have kids yet... )

 

[avalon451]

Wednesday morning, again, we were running just a tad late, but not too late. It was our more leisurely day, since the park opened at 9 and there was no MM. We left the hotel about 8:35, and got onto Main Street about 8:45. We saw Goofy posing in his Halloween skeleton costume:

It was pretty packed up to rope drop. Here’s the crowd behind us just before rope drop:

Since we’d missed Peter Pan the day before, and I was wondering just how early we’d manage to be up, packed, checked out and ready to hit the parks for MM at 8 a.m. the next morning, I decided to hit PP first (always first!). We headed straight through the castle and walked onto Peter Pan. I love that ride; it is so cute! I love floating above London and through the stars.

Then we had to go do our usual Space FP and ride it. Next we hit BTMRR again; Liz really liked that one. She ended up calling it a nearly three-way tie between BTMRR, Space and Screamin’. But I think Screamin’ won out.

After BTMRR we walked the back path (again, always looking for the Dream Team!) and went on HMH. By the time we were done we were able to snag a FP for it, too, so we could come back to it later. Next we hit my favorite, PotC. I know you’re not supposed to ride it early in the day, but the fact is, with our FP supply and our priorities, we just didn’t need to save it till later. We had 5 days and enough time to do everything when we felt like it. It was a good feeling!

After PotC we were starting to meander toward DCA to spend the majority of our day, really exploring it thoroughly today. We were passing under Tarzan’s treehouse, when I spied several people gazing in wonder at DREAM FASTPASSES AROUND THEIR NECKS!!! My head snapped to the right, and I saw them, the elusive DREAM TEAM in their white vests, standing in the exit area of Tarzan and happily handing out dream fastpasses! I gasped, and yanked Liz the couple of steps to the entrance of the treehouse. We were not the only ones. The solid line ahead of us did not pause, but moved steadily through, just trying to get to the exit. Alas -- we were too late! When we rounded the corner to the exit, the dream team had just left. Liz was so excited on the trek through the treehouse, and she was trying not to show her disappointment when we missed them. But the arms came up folded, the shoulders slumped, and the walk became a trudge as we made our way disappointedly through Adventureland.

The funny thing was, we didn’t need them. As I mentioned earlier, we actually had 4 sets of almost complete dream FPs that a friend had given us, and we didn’t even end up using them all up. And it hadn’t been busy enough to even need them for the most part—we used up Screamin’, Space, Soarin’ and BTMRR, but that was about it. But, it was just the idea of being dreamed, really dreamed, our ownselves, that was so thrilling, and a disappointment when we missed out.

Anyway, I pointed out that since the next day was our last, we’d never have used them all up anyway; and that it was pretty cool just to have seen them. Liz agreed, and the arms unfolded, and she cheered up by the time we hit the Esplanade again.

Here’s a couple of shots I took of Main Street on our way out: pretty quiet for around 11 a.m.!

The first thing we did at CA was to go get a FP for Screamin’. Then we walked over to check out the Mania at TSMM. The line was 40 minutes, but the standby was open, so we tried standby. Boy, that’s the way to go! We were on in less than 10 minutes, just a car or two apart from each other. Liz went first and waited at the exit for me. That is a fun ride! Very cool and much easier to see your results than Buzz. Liz was in with a kid who looked to be about 6 years old, and he scored much higher than she did, so she was all disgruntled. However, when we rode it again the next day, we got on together, and she beat me by a mile, so that made her decide it was ok!

Coming back up off the Pier area, I saw the sign for Avalon Cove (Ariel’s restaurant) and had to get a pic. Because… well, I’m Avalon!

Next, we walked over to the Wharf and grabbed a frozen treat. Liz had a frozen lemonade, and I had a frozen banana. They were really rock hard, so we sat down in the shade at a table and waited for them to soften enough to gnaw on. The banana wasn’t great. I might have liked it better if I’d had the patience to let it soften more.

While we sat there in the relatively deserted area, I said I’d like to go do ToT. Now, Liz has maintained for months that she would never do this ride. I don’t force any of my kids to do anything, but today, I looked that kid in the eye and said quietly, “You know, Liz, so far you have loved every thrill ride. There’s been nothing that you hated or was too scary. If you go home without trying Tower of Terror, you’re always going to wonder if you missed a really great ride.” Well, that got her thinking; I could see in her eyes that she was wavering, so I pushed it a little: “I really didn’t think it was as scary as Screamin’. It’s not that bad, and the drops only last maybe 60 seconds.”

Finally she said, “Well… . ok. But I’m telling you, Mom, if I like it, you absolutely have to promise NOT to say “I told you so.’ “

So I jumped up happily and towed her over there. “No time like the present!”
We stopped first at the tortilla factory and looked around, and tried a fresh tortilla. Then it was on to face our fears!

We didn’t have to use our FPs. There was no wait. Liz was impressed by all the elaborate theming, but she looked preeeeeettty scared. This picture had too much flash, so her face is washed out.

I’ll give you one guess.

Yup. She hung on like grim death, shrieked along with the rest of us, and when the elevator started jolting back toward the exit doors, turned in amazement to me and said, “That was IT?? Aw, that wasn’t bad at all! That was kind of fun!”

“… but I still like Screamin’ better.”

An aside: when we got home, she was describing the ride happily at the dinner table. Her father looked at her sideways, grimaced and muttered “You LIKED it?? It didn’t bother you at all? Huh.” Because, let’s face it, people, he was sweating bullets when we got off it the first time.

As we did the triumphant walk back down through Hollywood backlot, we saw Governor Williams out near the false street front across from the Hyperion. (from Pocohontas, and boy, I couldn’t remember his name till after we got home!) Then on the other side of the street, whom should we see but that divinely nasty Cruella DeVille! She looked great, and was really hamming it up. There were only a couple people in line, so I dashed over there. There was a CM nearby who offered to take a picture of us, so when it was our turn and she turned to us, I decided to ham it up myself. I threw out my arms and swept toward her, trilling, “Cruella, daaaaahhhhling!” Liz looked at me like I was insane, but Cruella was great; she jumped right in. “Daahhling, how ARE you? How MARVELOUS to see you!“ I replied in my best snotty English accent, “Dahling, you look simply FABULOUS! However do you do it?” and she gushed, “Oh, stop, dahling, stop. I’m blushing.” She told us to pose with our hand on our hips. I’m afraid I just can’t compete in my khaki shorts and Tinkerbell t-shirt, but I tried, dahling, I really did.

Afterward Liz was going, “Mom, you were great! I couldn’t believe you did that, it sounded like you really knew her! All the other people in line were laughing, too!” She forgets that I used to do a lot of acting in high school. Hard to imagine your ol’ mom on a stage hamming it up.

Next I wanted to do Animation Studios. Liz is an artist, as I’ve stated before. She took a blue ribbon at the State fair this year for her pencil sketching. (not that I'm proud of her, or anything! ) She goes through professional artists’ pencils and quality drawing paper faster than we like to really supply her, but hey… it’s a good pasttime for her age. So we hopped in there, and Turtle Talk with Crush was just about to start. Liz thought it would be lame, but she was laughing her head off by the time we got out of there. Our favorite part was when somebody’s phone went off. Instead of looking annoyed, Crush said, “Shell phone! Answer it, dudette!” So they made her answer her phone and put it on speaker while she told her caller that she was talking live with Crush. It was pretty funny.

Then we wandered through the rest of the building while waiting for the next Animation Academy to start. We were in the Beast’s Library:

We went to Ursula’s Lair and sang and talked a few scenes (rather badly) but we really enjoyed a group of young teenaged guys behind us who were singing “Hi Ho!” Funny! They were bellowing it.

Liz loved Animation academy but she was hoping for something a bit more challenging than Dopey to draw. Still, hers came out looking like she oughta be working there, in my opinion:

If you can see the signature, that’s R.N-Z, which stands for her pseudo-Japanese signature, Rizu Neku-chan, which translates roughly to Liz Kitty. She’s a fan of all things Japanese, largely because of her Manga and Anime obsession. She’s picked up quite a bit of the language just from watching videos.

Mine was ok, but definitely not as professional looking as hers:

Now our Screamin’ FPs were valid, so we went and put them to good use. Liz liked it better every time we rode it!

When we had been on the pier the day before, Liz was watching the face painting and thinking she’d like to do that. Not butterflies or fairies, mind you. Maybe a dragon or something. So we walked over there, and there was no wait. Looking at the pictures, she immediately picked out the half-face design in red and black that looked like a tribal/aboriginal design. Sissy, she’s not. What the heck, I can’t deny her, so onto the stool she went, and on went the face paint. Here’s a video link of the artistry in action:

http://s296.photobucket.com/albums/mm193/avalon451/?action=view&current=101_2573.flv

She was inordinately pleased. It really looked pretty cool, and was a bit of a show-stopper. Lots of kids staring and saying, “Mom, I want that!”

Then it was getting a little late, and I was thinking about starting back to the hotel for our break. Our big special meal was this evening, at Napa Rose, chef’s counter. When I mentioned the break, Liz seemed kind of disappointed to lose some of her face display time in the parks. I wanted to do GRR before we left, but she said, “Aw, no, Mom, my face will get wet and it will ruin my makeup!” So we ditched that idea. She said, “But even if we go back, I can’t nap, because my face will smear on the pillow.”

I said, “You do remember we’re going to Napa Rose tonight? Did you want to wear your face paint into the restaurant?”

She gasped in horror and was all like, “Oh, no, no way, I can’t do that, it’s too fancy, but why did I get this done now—I just got it done and I’ll have to wash it off!” I told her I thought she could get away with it just fine, but she was too worried about looking nice for the nicest restaurant she’d ever been to.

Dejected now, and loath to leave and wash her face off, even though it was getting late and we were tired, we wandered over to Redwood Challenge Trail, which I’d always wanted to see. But she wasn’t into it now, so we didn’t go far inside. I talked her into Soarin’ again, and she was still pretty glum.

Well, time for super mom to fix things. It was our second-to-last day, we were capable of going till our legs gave out, so why rest? I told her, “Ok, come on, let’s just go back over to DL and do more stuff. We’ll only go back to the hotel in enough time to change for dinner.” She seemed ok with that. So we headed back over to DL.

I wanted to do Toontown, which she’d missed last time. So, slowly, slowly, we walked all the way back there and did Roger Rabbit. Cute, but not our favorite. I don’t like wrestling with that heavy wheel, trying to keep it from spinning crazily! Then we took a walk through Mickey’s house. I didn’t tell her my object—to meet the Mouse himself—because I suspected she was in no mood for it. However, she enjoyed leaning on the railings in the studio barn and watching old cartoons, and when she figured out we were waiting for our private audience with Mickey, she was like, “Ok, whatever.” It only took about 15 minutes' wait.

It’s pretty magical, though, to be in the presence of the Big Cheese himself. I really loved meeting him. Liz warmed up, also. And Mickey blew me a kiss!

On our way back down toward Main Street, we came through Tomorrowland, intending to pick up another Space FP. Well, here it was, 4 p.m., and Space was a walk on! So we rode it, of course, in addition to getting our FP!

Now it was time to head back to HoJo and get out our nicer clothes for our special dinner. I told Liz, “I really think you ought to keep your face paint on. It will look great, and they are used to all kinds of little kids and face paint and whatever, there. C’mon, it’s Disneyland! You can have a nice dinner in face paint if you want to!” Eventually she was convinced.
I was wearing sandals with heels, and I know better (thanks, Bumbershoot!) than to walk from HoJo through DTD in “cute shoes.” Besides, we’d been going straight through since 8:30 a.m., and our legs and feet were really feeling it. So, we called down to the front desk and they called us a cab. It cost about $10 with the tip to hop over to the front entrance of the GCH. Well worth it.

Ok, so you're asking, “You’re taking a 13 year old to the most expensive restaurant in the resort? How does she get any worth out of the fact that every server is a master sommelier, when she doesn’t drink?” The story with Napa Rose is this. When we went last time, DH Al and I planned to go downstairs and enjoy a romantic dinner for two while the three daughters stayed in our room upstairs with a pizza and a video, and our built-in babysitter, Liz. (who has taking a babysitting course with first aid/CPR, and was experienced by this time). However, Liz was sick, so we canceled and ordered room service instead. Well, I still wanted to experience it. I knew that Liz would enjoy the atmosphere, and that it would add one more special time for us to remember this trip by. When she heard we were sitting at the chef’s counter, she was excited: “It’ll be like our own personal Iron Chef!” Well, I was right—it went really, really well. She loved it, and the staff were SO nice to her. The head chef came over and introduced himself, shook our hands, and told her all about who did what in the kitchen, and he told her all about the ingredients in what she was eating. She was fascinated. It was so interesting to watch how well they synchronized in their work, like an intricate dance.

Everybody commented positively on her face painting, till she was practically glowing. The host, the waiter, a couple of other random waiters, and two different chefs all commented on how cool she looked. When she told them she had been nervous to keep in on, they assured her that it was great and they loved to see stuff like that.

This was the one place I didn’t have the nerve to get out my camera and take food porn. Oh, boy, was it GOOD! I had a lovely glass of Syrah to go along with my heirloom beet salad, and crispy duck, which was perfectly grilled and presented. Liz had mushroom bisque (called a “cappuccino” and served in a large coffee cup and saucer!) to start and then the beef short ribs. She was simply amazed and said it was the best thing she’d ever tasted.

So that was definitely one of the highlights of our trip.

Now we wandered out back through the gorgeous lobby, remembering how nice it had been to stay here in March, even though Liz had spent so much time in the room! We had brought a bag with our tennies and Liz’s enormous Jack Skellington hat, and left it with the bell desk. So we retrieved that, and changed our shoes, and were ready for more fun. We walked back down DTD and into Disneyland, and went over to Indy to use one of our dream FP tabs there.

Liz and I in the Indy line:

Throughout the trip, I had a lot of luck by just asking nice-looking people ahead of us, if they would mind taking a picture. Everybody was more than happy to do so, and I often stopped myself, and asked if I could take pictures for people. You know, like when the dad is obviously the one taking the picture and being left out?

Just Liz:

After our exciting ride on Indy we used our HMH fastpass. By this time, when we were in the stretching room and the first faint strains of the NBC music were sounding, during the beginning narration, Liz and I were singing along... “La la LA LA la….” And up a half-note: “La la LA LA la…”
Then it was time to do Space for our final ride of the night. Hmmm. That made 3 times today.

It was 8 p.m. and we stopped in Star Traders and picked up a couple of souvenirs we knew we would want to pack in the morning. DD6 had asked for a Stitch hat, and DD10 wanted a light sabre (I will happily buy my daughters light sabres over anything Hanna Montana, any day. They hate MIley Cyrus and also High School Musical, and I have to say I’m glad!). I also saw a Mickey Pirate antenna head, and picked it up for myself. It turns out that was my only souvenir I got for myself on this trip, but that was all I wanted! The memories were more than enough!

One more nice moment on the way out. I wanted to get a night picture of Liz outside the gate, with the decorations overhead. Unfortunately (as I’m sure you’ve noticed) I’m camera challenged, and I don’t know what half the buttons do on my camera. Ok, maybe more like 80% of the buttons. I did know how to put it on “night time pictures” but it still was blurry. Well, while I was posing Liz and trying some pics of her:

A nice looking lady came up to me and said, “Hi, I’m (can’t remember), I’m from Canada. Would you like me to take a picture of the two of you?” I introduced myself as Gail from Seattle and thanked her. She took several pics for us (which also didn’t turn out great, but you get the idea):

After that, she said, “So, you’re from Seattle? And, you’re a mom… so can you tell me, what would you think about this?” She went on to explain that her oldest son, who had just turned 21, wanted to take a trip to meet some friends in Seattle, by himself, for a visit. She wanted to ask what some possible transportation might be from Seattle back up to BC, where they live, and also, as a mom, how I would feel about how safe Seattle is for a young adult. She said he’s a good kid, not a partier, and she trusts him, but was worried about the city, since he’s from a more sheltered rural area up there. So we talked for awhile and I assured her that the areas he was likely to hang out as a tourist were pretty safe. I said, “Judging by your concern as a parent, I’m guessing he’s a good kid and not a troublemaker, and not likely to hit the wild scenes downtown in the middle of the night. I think he’ll be fine.” She thanked me sincerely and shook my hand.

Funny how you meet these nice people and can feel an instant kinship with them.

That was our last full day. It, like the others, turned out very good, despite a few minor flaws. Evidence of this can be seen on this video back at the hotel, when Liz just HAD to jump on the bed, just a *little* bit. She was pretty jazzed!

http://s296.photobucket.com/albums/mm193/avalon451/?action=view&current=100_2585.flv

(If this shows up sideways, I apologize—I tried to rotate it, but I don’t think it took!)

Tomorrow—Disneyland Swan Song!

 

[travelmel]

another magical day

 

[mariezp]

More fun stuff!

Shame on you for taking food pics while someone is eating! I've been caught like that myself! Not one's most flattering pose. On the bright side, the food does look yummy!

I got a visual picture of you holding Liz's arm and the two of you racing through Tarzan's Treehouse! Gotta get faster shoes next time!

Love Liz with Hook and Fairy Godmother and love you in the teacup! The shot with both of you and Cruella is a good one too. Great mom and daughter one on the teacups.

Wow! Liz is a fantastic artist! I hope she sticks with it! Dopey looks great!

 

[Hound 109]

“Liz… would that be short for Elisabeth? Oh, and what’s your middle name, dear? Ann? Oh, lovely, and do you only hear that when you are in trouble, dear?” And she raised her perfect little English accent so the entire restaurant turns to look, and she shrieks, “ELISABETH ANN! GET OFF THE PHONE!”……”ELISABETH ANN! PICK UP YOUR ROOM!” By this time Liz was practically in stitches! It was so funny.

That's funny!

However, she agreed with me that it kind of bangs up your head a bit, and we were both a bit woozy when we got off. Shaken baby syndrome, like someone has been rattling your brain around in your head. So, no twice-in-a-row runs on that one, although we did pick up a FP since we would be back later

Yep....you gotta keep the head back against the head rest.....especially when it takes off.

I was getting kind of hungry, although Liz was not, so when I saw Corn Dog Castle, I thought immediately of Hound 109, and went to get one. Ok, YUM!

The thing about these are, they are not only really big, so that they are hard to hold cause they’re so top-heavy. They are also really really yummy. I noticed right away that the corn bread coating tastes much more like a really good corn muffin, not just like some thin gritty coating on a hot dog like most corn dogs are. And I like corn dogs. This was by far the tastiest I’ve ever had!

So while I was sitting there eating my corny dog, the park closed at 6 p.m. We wandered over to DL to spend the last couple of hours before the 8 p.m. closing there

That's what I'm talking about....3 paragraphs extolling the virtues of the woundrous "top heavy" Corny Dog!!

& you're right....the batter is more of a sweet corn muffiny consistency....but most importantly, it gets the hound easy to grab n go seal of approval.....perfect for Diser Commandos.

I said to Liz, “…and THIS is why you stay at a hotel within walking distance!”

Definitely a Disboard Commandment.


Great trip & pictures Avalon....next time I go, i'm all over those tornadoes of beef & that bananas foster desert at Brennans.

 

[bumbershoot]

"But, it was just the idea of being dreamed, really dreamed, our ownselves, that was so thrilling, and a disappointment when we missed out. "

I so know what you're talking about.



Yay, you got a cab! If I had known what was going to happen to my feet, and if I had known it would have been about 10 bucks....augh, I'm just angry with myself! But glad that MY experience with shredded tootsies helped YOUR trip. I'm all warm and fuzzy now.


I also got all melty when you said how nice the Napa Rose people were about her face paint. They are just so darnit nice there! Not that people in our part of the world are cruel or anything (just a little clueless while driving, I've noticed the last few months...make people stop texting while driving and SEE the mess it causes?), but how many places would the staff come around to see face paint and tell you how much they like seeing things like that?


I agree with Hound...gotta keep the head all the way back for Screamin'. I can't see a thing while on that ride, but that's OK.

 

[Hound 109]

The funny thing was, we didn’t need them. As I mentioned earlier, we actually had 4 sets of almost complete dream FPs that a friend had given us, and we didn’t even end up using them all up. And it hadn’t been busy enough to even need them for the most part—we used up Screamin’, Space, Soarin’ and BTMRR, but that was about it. But, it was just the idea of being dreamed, really dreamed, our ownselves, that was so thrilling, and a disappointment when we missed out.

THAT'S KIND OF MY OPINION/EXPERIENCE....IF YOU TOUR & PROPERLY COLLECT FPs FOR LATER....YOU REALLY DON'T NEED THEM.



...... Then on the other side of the street, whom should we see but that divinely nasty Cruella DeVille! She looked great, and was really hamming it up. There were only a couple people in line, so I dashed over there. There was a CM nearby who offered to take a picture of us, so when it was our turn and she turned to us, I decided to ham it up myself. I threw out my arms and swept toward her, trilling, “Cruella, daaaaahhhhling!” Liz looked at me like I was insane, but Cruella was great; she jumped right in. “Daahhling, how ARE you? How MARVELOUS to see you!“ I replied in my best snotty English accent, “Dahling, you look simply FABULOUS! However do you do it?” and she gushed, “Oh, stop, dahling, stop. I’m blushing.” She told us to pose with our hand on our hips. I’m afraid I just can’t compete in my khaki shorts and Tinkerbell t-shirt, but I tried, dahling, I really did.

THREE VERY COOL DIS CHICKS!!! (I like Cruella & her very close friends above better than those girly girl princesses .

(& Avalon.....you & Cruella really were hamming it up. Look at the shocked faces on the walkers in the window behind you. )




So we hopped in there, and Turtle Talk with Crush was just about to start. Liz thought it would be lame, but she was laughing her head off by the time we got out of there. Our favorite part was when somebody’s phone went off. Instead of looking annoyed, Crush said, “Shell phone! Answer it, dudette!” So they made her answer her phone and put it on speaker while she told her caller that she was talking live with Crush. It was pretty funny.

CRUSH IS GREAT. TO ME IT'S LIKE THE JUNGLE RIDE....A DIFFERENT FUNNY PERFORMANCE EVERY TIME. I'LL ALWAYS DO CRUSH.



....When she heard we were sitting at the chef’s counter, she was excited: “It’ll be like our own personal Iron Chef!” Well, I was right—it went really, really well. She loved it, and the staff were SO nice to her. The head chef came over and introduced himself, shook our hands, and told her all about who did what in the kitchen, and he told her all about the ingredients in what she was eating. She was fascinated. It was so interesting to watch how well they synchronized in their work, like an intricate dance.


ALEC IS AN IRON CHEF (& ALTON BROWN) FAN TOO. HE'D LOVE THAT. ONE OF THESE DAYS I'VE GOT TO DO THE CHEF'S COUNTER AT NAPA.

Yeah!!! I'm caught up.

I hope Alec & I will continue doing DLR as he gets older. I know Haley (26 y/o) still loves it.

Great Report Avalon!

 

[Sleepless Knight]

My parents first took me when I was 2 in '78, and again in 82, 86, 88, 90-92, WDW in 94, Disneyland again in 95, 98, 03-05, WDW in 06, and I bought an AP in 06. I think you can only choose to be too old to enjoy Disneyland.

Avalon, I loved your story about meeting Cruella. I think that the greatest key to having fun with characters is to treat them like the character. They've studied the character to get mannerisms, et all down. I think they have a lot of fun when they get to show off their acting skills too. I think most guests just pose for the picture and move along, so character CMs enjoy it when they get to actually be the character instead of the person inside the costume.