Sharing the Disney Magic with Family & Friends-DL Diamond Anniversary-DCA F&W Fest Kiosks & The End!

[mvf-m11c]

Nice to see you go back to Launch Bay and it looks like nothing much has changed. I haven't been in there for a while not even during the last two trips. Can never get tired of the fried chicken from the Plaza Inn.

 

[Steppesister]

It's mostly the part between Critter Country and Toon Town. They have to make the Rivers of America loop smaller to accommodate Star Wars Land. As a result the train track has to come in a little smaller as well. From the artist rendering that I saw they will be brining the train right up on the water's edge and adding some "falls" like effects next to it.

This makes me so incredibly sad; at the same time "falls effects" are pretty cool! It'll be very interesting to see how it all pans out.

Thanks for stopping by! Sorry I've been so lax on this thread.

No worries. It's hard to keep up everywhere and stay afloat.

 

[Pinkocto]

I thought the Launch Bay was so cool. All those awesome outfits and replicas. Both Rey's outfit and speeder are at WDW. The Cantina at DL is much better than at WDW, it was much too small I thought, and the 'bar' was very small with only two glasses on it.

 

[jedijill]

Launch Bay is Star Wars heaven! That candy cane ice cream looks delicious too!

Jill in CO

 

[dolphingirl47]

The Launch Bay looks really cool. I am glad you got your lamp.

Corinna

 

[afwdwfan]

Thanks for the tour of the DL version of Launch Bay. They definitely appear to be very similar experiences.

I like your lamp! I'm glad you posted a picture after talking about them in your other TR.

 

[kaoden39]

I'm glad to see you stop by. We're doing OK, hope all it well with you too!

Thank you. I'm kind of blue and I knew that Disboards just might pick up my spirits and it has. I'm glad to hear you're okay. My husband Scott is in a cast for his plantar faciitis so he's been off work. He's going nuts being stuck at home and basically immobile. The kids are great, which is good! I'm enjoying your thread like I usually do. Thank you for it.

 

[rentayenta]

Great update! Plaza Inn always looks soon good.

 

[dgbg100106]

ok the candy cane ice cream and that cake looks amazing.

 

[PrincessInOz]

Catching up!

Launch Bay looks like my kind of place. I love looking at all that memorabilia.
Hope I get to visit the Cantina at some stage.
YUM! For lunch.

And I LOVE those lamps.

 

[ACDSNY]

Cool Launch Bay update.

 

[franandaj]

Oh wow those lamps are awesome! Do you remember how much they were?

I think that they were $99 each.

I like the way you think! Thanks for the photo tour.

You're welcome!

The best way to see it!

You're funny!

Makes total and complete sense.

Thank you.

I sense a conflict brewing...a disturbance in the Force.

As the lights are in our bedroom, I'll just leave it at that!

Love your reports, so much so I'm going to plan a trip to Disneland, I've gotten such great information from your reports - thank you!

Well thank you very much! Please feel free to ask any questions, I'll give you the information if I ca help.

 

[franandaj]

Nice to see you go back to Launch Bay and it looks like nothing much has changed. I haven't been in there for a while not even during the last two trips. Can never get tired of the fried chicken from the Plaza Inn.

Well that was back in January, but I can't see how they are going to change it much until the next movie is about to come out. You're right the Plaza Inn Chicken never gets old!

This makes me so incredibly sad; at the same time "falls effects" are pretty cool! It'll be very interesting to see how it all pans out.

I'm sure it will look pretty good, but I also hate to see the original stuff go.

No worries. It's hard to keep up everywhere and stay afloat.

Tell me about it! Now that we're serious about getting out of the old house, we have not time.

I thought the Launch Bay was so cool. All those awesome outfits and replicas. Both Rey's outfit and speeder are at WDW. The Cantina at DL is much better than at WDW, it was much too small I thought, and the 'bar' was very small with only two glasses on it.

Funny, I thought WDW's Cantina bar was better!

Launch Bay is Star Wars heaven! That candy cane ice cream looks delicious too!

Jill in CO

I hope you get to see it! The ice cream was so good! I love peppermint flavor ice cream!

The Launch Bay looks really cool. I am glad you got your lamp.

Corinna

It was pretty cool. I enjoyed seeing it.

Thanks for the tour of the DL version of Launch Bay. They definitely appear to be very similar experiences.

I like your lamp! I'm glad you posted a picture after talking about them in your other TR.

They are pretty similar, so I'm glad that I got to see the one at DL taking my time and not having to rush through it.

 

[franandaj]

Thank you. I'm kind of blue and I knew that Disboards just might pick up my spirits and it has. I'm glad to hear you're okay. My husband Scott is in a cast for his plantar faciitis so he's been off work. He's going nuts being stuck at home and basically immobile. The kids are great, which is good! I'm enjoying your thread like I usually do. Thank you for it.

Sorry to hear about Scott but I hope everything else is going well. Just counting down the days until my WDW trip!

Great update! Plaza Inn always looks soon good.

I wouldn't mind some of that today, but instead I'm roasting a turkey.

ok the candy cane ice cream and that cake looks amazing.

The ice cream was so good! I would love some peppermint flavor ice cream right now!

Catching up!

Launch Bay looks like my kind of place. I love looking at all that memorabilia.
Hope I get to visit the Cantina at some stage.
YUM! For lunch.

And I LOVE those lamps.

It's a neat display and gift shop. I like the lamps too, and the give good light!

Cool Launch Bay update.

Thanks!

 

[kaoden39]

Sorry to hear about Scott but I hope everything else is going well. Just counting down the days until my WDW trip!



I wouldn't mind some of that today, but instead I'm roasting a turkey.



The ice cream was so good! I would love some peppermint flavor ice cream right now!



It's a neat display and gift shop. I like the lamps too, and the give good light!



Thanks!

I'm looking forward to your WDW trip too! Everything is okay, as long as I can keep Scotty healthy. He got his cast off yesterday and we were back at the ER not 5 hours later. He was doing yard work and almost cut off a couple fingers.

 

[rentayenta]

Mmmmmm......turkey. What's the occasion? Full freezer?

 

[franandaj]

I'm looking forward to your WDW trip too! Everything is okay, as long as I can keep Scotty healthy. He got his cast off yesterday and we were back at the ER not 5 hours later. He was doing yard work and almost cut off a couple fingers.

Mmmmmm......turkey. What's the occasion? Full freezer?

Just eating down the freezer, got to have all the turkeys gone by November!

 

[kaoden39]

Just eating down the freezer, got to have all the turkeys gone by November!

I need to invest in bubble wrap for him. But, my chances are he'd suffocate. Turkey sounds wonderful! Must look when I go grocery shopping!!

 

[franandaj]

So I’m going to combine February and March visits in to one update because other than the different company, it was almost the same dang trip!

In February @skier_pete was visiting Southern California with three generations of his family and we had been planning for quite some time that I would come out to the park and meet them. We could do a few rides, catch the parade and fireworks and everything would be hunky dory. Right?

Well he and his family had kind of a long day before I even arrived, but if you want to read about that you can head over to his TR and check it out. I’m picking up the story where I came into it.

They had just got back to their lovely one bedroom villa at the Grand Californian and were doing laundry, getting comfortable and all that fun stuff. When I arrived, the weather apps were saying that rain was approaching. In fact while we were chatting in their hotel room, I got a text from Fran saying that it was pouring rain in Long Beach. (In California, weather systems normally move from West to East and travel South from the PNW and Northern California.) It wouldn’t be long before it hit Anaheim.

Pete’s Teen Age daughter did not want to go back to the parks and preferred to chill out with the iPad, so we decided to take advantage of some adult time. Our first stop in the park was Big Thunder Mountain. It was just starting to sprinkle at this point and it was kind of fun to feel the soft raindrops hit your face as we whipped around the tracks. However once we got off the ride, it started to really come down so we decided that maybe it was a good time to have a couple drinks, and I knew just the spot!



I got my usual Diamond Martini.



I ordered the Beef Tartare, it was excellent. They even brought me additional crostini so I didn’t have pile it on.



Pete and his wife split the sliders, which I’m sorry to say are no longer on the menu.



We sat for probably two hours chatting about all kinds of things and finally decided that if we were going to check and see if the parade was still going to happen that night, we should probably go and check it out. However, when we arrived at the hub, one of the CMs told us that the parade was definitely canceled. By this point it was “Southern California raining”, which means it wasn’t really raining, but there was a sort of a mist in the air. Eventually you get wet, but it takes a while out in the outside to get really soaked.

Earlier in the day, Pete had pulled regular FPs for Indiana Jones, so we decided to ride that, and of course it was fun!

Then we went back to the hub to see if the fireworks would be happening. No one had made an executive decision yet, but it was almost 8:00 and if they were going happen, we would have to wait another 30 minutes, in the rain. It had picked up again and was raining somewhat harder. We decided that we would rather have some tropical drinks from Trader Sam’s instead.

We dropped off Mom at the Grand Californian Hotel and walked on over to the Disneyland hotel and Trader Sam’s in the pouring rain. I met one of the Disneyland cats who was being overly friendly and trying to keep dry.



We pondered the menu.







I went with the Piranha Pool, Pete had the Passionate Python, and his wife I think went with the Lost Safari.



And again we sat and chatted for about an hour or a little more before deciding it was time for bed. It was raining even harder now, and we trudged back to the Grand. My shoes were soaked, the bottoms of my pants were soaked and by this time I was becoming miserable. Pete and his wife were true upstate New Yorkers, he was in shorts, and she had on a mini skirt. Definitely not wimpy Southern Californians! I bid them goodbye and even though it was a wet and crazy day, I had fun!


So it was only about three weeks later when @jedijill came to town on her way Down Under. We hadn’t seen a drop of rain since that fateful day with Pete. I got to the DL Resort at about 10AM maybe a little later and we both decided that taking it easy was going to be the way of the day. We decided to take a spin on Radiator Springs Racers (good thing I have the photographic evidence, otherwise I wouldn’t have remembered!)



We hopped over to Disneyland Park and I was sad to see the train stopped here, not going on any rides for maybe another two years.



And then we decided to hit Hyperspace Mountain.



After that we both decided that was enough adrenaline rush. Plus my Weather Kitty app said that the rain was coming in soon, and we decided that we should get out of the rain before I got soaked like the last time.

We started off with some drinks, my Diamond Martini and she got a Hurricaine.



We both ordered the onion soup with bacon and gouda. Neither one of us expected what we were about to receive, but it was incredibly good. We both wanted to lick the bowl!







Then we both split two appetizer dishes, the Crab au Gratin



And the Charcuterie plate.



At that point when we ordered the sliders were still on the menu, but later that day the new menu was released and instead of three sliders for $20, they now offer a full size burger for $33.

Evidence of our meet.



We both got dessert, mine was calling my name from the moment I saw it on the menu! It was some kind of coffee/chocolate/pecan cake with an espresso sauce. It was so good, but I couldn’t finish it all!



Jill got some kind of Strawberries with Chantilly cream and some sort of biscuit in there, perhaps it was a strawberry shortcake. She really liked it.



We were pretty full by this point and we had ordered more drinks after the initial ones, so we were both feeling somewhat happy. We decided to head out for a bit. Jill needed a few last items from a drug store, so we found a CVS and she got some cold medication and scotch tape. Two necessary items for a trip down under!

After our little trip to the store, we stopped in at Trader Sams. This is where the pictures stop. We wanted to sit inside and see all the whacky stuff that goes on. We had to wait about 15-20 minutes for a table to clear and then we were able to sit down. I’m going to guess I had a couple Piranha Pools, while Jill had a couple drinks that I don’t remember! No pictures, no memory! We were just having fun chatting and enjoying the adult beverages.

Her shuttle to the airport was due to pick her up around 6:20 so a little before 6PM, we packed it up and headed back over to the Grand so that she could pick up her bags and be ready for the shuttle. Another fun and rainy day drinking at DL.

 

[franandaj]

I need to invest in bubble wrap for him. But, my chances are he'd suffocate. Turkey sounds wonderful! Must look when I go grocery shopping!!

Good luck on finding a turkey! We buy them all at Thanksgiving and then defrost about one a month (or every other) so we can have them all year.