Missouri to DLR - Take 2 - Oct 2013 - Updated: Trip Report Complete

so I guess the toy box mode isn't hard to make your own world?? It sounds like it would be hard

I'm not sure how old your kids are, but for DS10 and DD13, it's quite easy. (After spending an hour or two with the learning curve. They are lots of youtube videos to watch if anything is confusing.) Pickle at 6 years old, still needs a little help to get a Toy Box world set up (you can have lots of them). You basically start with a flat tile in the sky, and then start adding "ground" tiles to it (sort of like patching a quilt together). Once you get a good "base" area, then you can start building stuff on it. If I spend 5 or 10 minutes with Pickle getting a new world set up, then she's good to go until she gets bored. (You can also play with "starter" Toy Box worlds, where start with the "sample" and just start adding/changing it. It's actually a lot of fun...
 
Whoops, I noticed your kiddos are 4 & 5. They'll probably have a little difficulty with Toy Box mode on their own. But, if you help them get a world set up, they should have fun exploring it, and should be able to help on their own a bit too.
 
So, I'm currently laying in the same position in bed as when I started page 1 of this report :faint: 4 months after reconstructive surgery, I went in yesterday to have the screws removed... Well, at least to have 3 of them removed. The doc decided to leave one in permanently for added stability. The surgery went well, but I'm still a bit dazed and confused from the pain mades :rotfl2:

They let me keep the screws as souvenirs. That's some serious hardware, no wonder it hurt so much when they went in!!! LOL.



Looks like I've got about 4 or 5 weeks left until the doctor releases me from his care. Yeehaw!!!
 
Day 7 - Friday, October 18 - Continued....

OK. We left off with Pickle and Buddy eating their giant pickles. The rest of us wanted something a bit more substantial, so we decided to hit Bengal Barbecue and get Dole Whips. Buddy and I decided to get in line at Bengal and the girls headed over to get the Dole Whips...



Bengal Barbecue is a weird thing for me. I think the idea of it is a lot better than the reality of it. Everything sounds incredible, and looks amazing, but the food isn't outstanding. Very good, but not outstanding. The smells coming of the grill were amazing though!!



We decided to meet up at Alladin's Oasis to enjoy our treats. This place is sort of hidden out of the way and makes for a nice relaxing area to have a break.



I went with the Banyan Beef Skewer. It said that it was hot and spicy, and it was indeed spicy. Stephanie and Ninja each went with the Chieftain Chicken Skewers.



And we also ordered a Tiger Tail. They spray oil on it and then place it on the grill for the tiger stripe marks. The grill/oil gave it a funky "chemically" flavor (not sure how to explain it). I had one of these a couple of years ago and really enjoyed it. I wonder if my taste buds changed or if they just messed it up. This is pretty much the only food item on the while trip that I regretted purchasing...



But who cares when you have a Dole Whip Float all to yourself!!!!!!!! This is one of my all time favorite treats that you can get inside of Disney or anywhere else... So good!



Everyone else had regular Dole Whips.



Refreshed and relaxed!!! Happy Campers :)



In the meantime, Jasmine, Alladin, and Genie all came out for photos and autographs. Awesome!!!





We still hadn't taken Pickle inside the castle yet, so we headed that way next. I stopped to snap a shot of one the Halloween decorated light posts.



We decided to stop by Snow White's wishing well on the way to the castle, and look who we found!







I love the moat and drawbridge! (And my cute little Pickle too!)



We did the walking tour inside the castle. So awesome! I grabbed a few photos as we passed through:





We decided to check out the princess gift shop. Look at all that cool stuff! Pickle was in heaven :)



And a quick photo in front the the Sleeping Beauty and Prince Philip Statue





At that point, we decided to go over an explore the Princess Fantasy Faire area.

Stopping for another snapshot of the castle. Love it! I wish I had one of these in my backyard.







They had just started the Fantasy Faire show, and it was very crowded, so we opted to just look around for a few minutes and then move on.

To be continued....
 


uugghh the Castle walk thru, i don't know if I was getting low blood sugar or what when we went thru but I made me nauseous there were a ton of people in there and it felt so claustrophobic, i didn't think we were ever gonna get done with it lol
 
Those screws are HUGE! What an amazing souvenir to have. :sad2:
Glad you're getting back on your feet (so to speak) and that the doctors are starting to talk about the "go away".


Great update. I'm pretty upset with myself .... that dole whip float is my favourite as well. I didn't end up getting any; either at DLR nor at WDW. :sad:
 
Did anyone ever tell you you had a screw loose? :rotfl2:

Mmmmm, Dole Whips!

Jill in CO
 


Great pictures. Some of the best of Pickle. She is sooooo cute. Here at WDW and wishing you all were here with us. How's the foot pain going? Get well fast.
Hugs, Mimi
 
Nice to hear that you are doing well.

Very nice update at DL. It is always nice to see a picture of the Dole Whip Float. That reminds me that I will have to get one during my upcoming trip.
 
I'm pretty upset with myself .... that dole whip float is my favourite as well. I didn't end up getting any; either at DLR nor at WDW. :sad:

Well, that just gives you something to plan for in your next trip. Right?!?! :thumbsup2


Did anyone ever tell you you had a screw loose? :rotfl2:

Mmmmm, Dole Whips!

Jill in CO

Yes, both before and after the foot injury :rotfl2:

Great pictures. Some of the best of Pickle. She is sooooo cute. Here at WDW and wishing you all were here with us. How's the foot pain going? Get well fast.
Hugs, Mimi

The foot pain is negligible when I'm sitting still. Hurts a little if I walk or bump it, but not bad at all compared to when the screws first went in!!!

If you liked those photos of Pickle, stay tuned, because I have a couple of her with Pluto that are beyond cool!

Nice to hear that you are doing well.

Very nice update at DL. It is always nice to see a picture of the Dole Whip Float. That reminds me that I will have to get one during my upcoming trip.

Thanks! Yeah, Dole Whips and Mochi. Almost worth making a trip to SoCal for those two items alone :rotfl2: I wonder if anyone has ever tried making a pineapple mochi? I bet that would be really tasty!
 
Day 7 - Friday, October 18 - Continued....

After we explored the Princess Fantasy Faire, we decided to head over to the Big Thunder Ranch Petting Zoo area.

We stopped at Frontierland along the way. The skeletons over by Rancho Del Zocalo are awesome!!!





We didn't really tell the kids that they had a petting area at DL, so they were excited (especially Pickle) to see the animals when we arrived at Big Thunder Ranch.





But it didn't take Buddy and Ninja too long to decide that they'd had enough. They went to sit by the stroller and scooter while we explored a little bit longer. After visiting with the animals, we headed over the the tent area in back.

They were carving pumpkins and had a bunch of other activities set up. I love the Heimlich caterpillar that she was making!



A couple other cool carvings...





We spotted Chip n Dale. I can never tell which is which, but I think one of them has a red nose and the other doesn't. I think Dale has the red nose, so this must be Chip?



They had the stage set up for Billy Hill and the Hillbillies, but they weren't performing any time soon, so we just moved on.

We explored around a little while longer and noticed that they had a ring toss. Pickle wanted to get it a try. And guess who joined in to help her?



So cool!



Pluto played with her for several minutes and tried to impress her with fancy shots. LOL



I have the experience on video, it was one of my favorite memories of the whole vacation :)

We met back up with Ninja and Buddy and decided that it was snack time!!! We headed over to Jolly Holiday Bakery for some treats!

I love sugar cookies, so I went with the cute Mickey pumpkin



Buddy and Pickle went with the green versions. I don't really get what the green was supposed to mean. Maybe they just had an extra green sugar sprinkles and decided to use them up here?

They didn't really like theirs. Picky eaters, I guess. Oh well, they made good snacks for me later ;) Yum!



Ninja went for the flourless chocolate cake. Incredible!!! She was in heaven.



Stephanie went for the Lemon Strawberry cupcake, which she enjoyed too!



After a few minutes, the afternoon parade started. Cool, we can watch the parade while we eat and relax for a little while!



We decided to head over to the Matterhorn and ride it one last time.



The line was going to be about 45 minutes, so I volunteered to take everyone's tickets and cruise over to CA for Soarin' fast passes. Seemed like a great idea, except for it was very crowded down Main Street, with a line to exit, and there was a line to get into California Adventure. And then a LONG line to get back into Disneyland. As I was making my way through Main Street, Steph called and said that they were getting to point where I wouldn't be able to squeeze back into the line with them. Luckily, I drove up to the front entrance area and I could see them. I asked the cast member at the entrance if I could squeeze in with them (I only had to butt in front of a few people.) They were were fine with it, so hurray, Iwas able to get fast passes and also ride the Matterhorn. Mission accomplished!



Getting off the ride, we decided that Disneyland was getting too crowded (as the Halloween Party guests were now entering the park), so we decided to make out way out of Disneyland and hop over to California Adventure. Getting one last look at the Nemo Submarines as he headed out.



We still had some time before Soarin' fast passes were ready, so we decided to shop at Elias & Co. for a while. Ninja was able to get her hats. Too cool!





It was then about 5:15pm and we headed over to ride Soarin' one last time. Always a crowd pleaser!!

Continued....
 
Love the skeletons! How cool.....the petting zoo and the pumpkin carving area are so fun when the characters come out to meet and greet. :thumbsup2

The Lemon Strawberry cupcake looks amazing!
 
Loving your trip report! I had to comment on this picture though as I was there the same time you were as were my coworker and her family. In fact, the two boys behind your kids in this photo are her sons! Crazy how small the world really is!

 
Loving your trip report! I had to comment on this picture though as I was there the same time you were as were my coworker and her family. In fact, the two boys behind your kids in this photo are her sons! Crazy how small the world really is!

That's so awesome! I had noticed the boys in the photo and thought it was cool they they were on the same wavelength with Ninja and Buddy. Party on!!

"It's a small world" indeed :)
 
Day 7 - Friday, October 18 - Continued.... and wrapped up.

We wanted to use or Radiator Springs Racers fast passes around 6:45pm, so we headed over to Carsland to explore, shop, and watch the neon lights come up.

While we were waiting for the neon lighting ceremony (or whatever you call it), I decided that I just "had" to have one of those Chicken Verde cones from the Cozy Cone stands (Smoked Chicken and Salsa Verde topped with Queso Fresco in a Bread Cone.) I didn't get a photo, but great call. It was REALLY good!!! I look forward to getting another one of those on our next visit!

The others decided that they wanted a snack too, so then we headed over to the cones for Popcorn and Stephanie got a "Red's Apple Freeze". It was basically a frozen apple juice with some foamy sweet stuff on top. It reminded me a bit of a Butterbeer from the Wizarding World of Harry Potter. That would be a good thing if you hadn't made yourself sick drinking too many butterbeers in one evening a couple years ago while back. I can't stand the thought of drinking another one now, but Stephanie didn't have the "too much of a good thing becomes a bad thing" experience, so she really liked it :)





We enjoyed the ambiance and let it get a little darker before we headed over to Radiator Springs Racers





Such an awesome place!

So, around 6:50pm or so, we headed over to the ride. Unfortunately, they had issues and the fast pass return line was still going to be about 40 minutes. Yikes!!! We had the option to leave and come back later (they would honor the fast passes for the rest of the evening), but we decided to just wait. I feel bad for the people without fast passes, it was like a 2.5 hour wait...

We really enjoyed seeing the everything at night. It's a different experience, and totally worth it!







Turns out that we had to wait about 25 minutes in line, so it really wasn't that bad. That ride is just so cool! You owe it to yourself to ride it in both the morning and after dark!





After the ride, we decided to head back out through the back of Carsland, and we found another photopass photographer. Cool!





It was then about 7:30pm and it was getting VERY crowded. We all agreed that we'd had a great week in the parks, had a long day, and were getting tired, so we decided to head out to Downtown Disney for dinner and head back to the hotel for the night.

We decided to get a pizza from Napolini and bring it back to the room. After we ordered the pizza, it was about a 30 minute wait. No big deal, we waited outside and enjoyed the atmosphere. They called our name, and then we grabbed the pizza and made a dash back to the room.



I have to admit that I wasn't as impressed with the pizza as much as I hoped. It was certainly a good pizza, but I had heard such good things about them making these in the Neopolitan style with San Marzano tomatoes, fresh mozzarella, oven fired, etc. I think maybe it wasn't cooked quite enough because the the underside of the crust wasn't as charred as it should have been. Oh well it was still a well above average pizza, I had just hoped that this was going to be the best pizza ever. :)

We stuffed ourselves and relaxed for a while and then everyone was in bed around 9:30pm. I guess the others were super tired, because I was the only one who went to the window to watch the Disneyland fireworks :yay:

Well, that's the end of our last full day. Stay tuned for our morning activities, the trip back to St. Louis, and a few wrap up comments :)
 
Such wonderful PP pictures at night with CL. That photographer did a great job.

Pizza looks great to me. :thumbsup2
 
Great trip report! Approximately what time did you get your fast passes for RSF in order to get an evening return time? I could go back and read but I'm feeling pretty lazy here at work in my lunch break :)

We leave Friday evening for our trip. I'll be happy to leave the StL cold for the California warmth! If we had rented a car for our whole trip we thought it would have been fun to drive to Staples Center Monday night to see the Blues beat the Kings but alas, we are only renting for one day this Saturday to go to the beach.
 
Thank you MarbleBob for your TR. I was doing some searching into Disneyland reviews over Halloween and stumbled upon yours. You have taken great pics and captured your lovely family so well. It sounds like you have also spent Halloween at WDW and I am curious how you would compare the 2 experiences. We were in Florida during Sep/Oct this year and loved it. We are travelling to Disneyland next year over the same time period and are hoping it will live up to all the fun we had at WDW. It sounds from your TR that Disneyland was quite crowded during the Halloween party?
 
Thanks for the feedback!

We've been to the WDW Halloween party twice. The first time was in the rain, so it wasn't as fun as it could have been. The second time had great weather and it was a blast. From my perspective, the WDW/Disneyland parties were comparable, but there were some pros/cons at each place. The parade at WDW was REALLY good (and I'm not much of a parade person.) I thought that the Disneyland parade was lame in comparison. Disneyland was significantly more crowded than WDW. I think we ended up with about the same amount of candy each time. I think the Disneyland party had a better vibe to it. More people (especially adults) were dressed up and there seemed to be more energy all around. All in all, they were both lots of fun and I'd do either of them again if the opportunity was there!!!!
 

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