DisneyWHAT?? - oh, DisneyLAND - 3/16-20 - COMPLETE!!
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MAria R · 03-22-2006, 05:23 PM

Great start, love your ears. I really like the picture on the swing, it looks so cool. How do you do that?

**Caldercup** · 03-22-2006, 05:24 PM

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That one on the Stinger is awesome though - who took that? The effect on it is excellent. [img]/ubb/images/graemlins/waytogo.gif[/img]

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Bob took that - he was in a swing behind Calder and snapped and snapped and snapped. He even took some movies. He's the real photo hound of the family and we always have tons of great stuff when he's on hand!
Eileen

DawnDenise · 03-22-2006, 06:12 PM

Very cool Eileen!! Defintiely some AWESOME photos!! We did not get to go into the Grizzly area unfortunately. Keep it coming!!

loobyoxlip · 03-22-2006, 06:45 PM

[img]/ubb/images/graemlins/rofl2.gif[/img] That is one of the best pictures I've ever seen! [img]/ubb/images/graemlins/waytogo.gif[/img]

Great updates...you are too funny [img]/ubb/images/graemlins/wink.gif[/img]

**Caldercup** · 03-22-2006, 07:02 PM

<font color="blue"> We walked over to A Bug’s Land and completely fell in love. The theming was spot on – every little detail brought you into the world of the bugs – the large-leaved plants, the tall bamboo blocking your view of the other parts of the park. Even the benches were themed to bug-size.

Calder liked this cereal box in the entrance:

I adored the lights – they were the lightening bugs with cups over their blinkers (just like in the movie.)

The rides were ones that Flik would’ve designed if he’d been in charge. Right down to using buttons for the signs!

Bob loved the juice stand that was built to look like a juice box – with straws and everything! The bathroom was a large Kleenex box on it’s side (which made me crack up after the airplane bathroom experience!)

The rides were for the youngest set so Calder wasn’t interested in riding them, but he loved Heimlich’s Chew Chew Train. (It made me sad to remember that we lost Joe Ranft last year. He was one of my favorite people at Pixar and I loved his voices.)

The benches had seats from old tractors:

And we had to snag this!

Bob and I were both entranced with the large leaves that adorn the sky of this entire area – they really made one feel tiny. They had an internal glow that was hard to capture on film, but they were enchanting. (I also loved that they had tiny spikes on the upper surface to keep birds from landing on them and ruining the perspective!)

It was at this point that I realized Calder was starting to flag. It was about 8PM East Coast time and he’d been up since just after 6AM. We tried to motivate him to go on the new Monsters, Inc. ride, but – when he saw that the wait time was 45 minutes – he said he couldn’t stand up for that long. <sigh> Well, since I really wanted to come back that night for the fireworks with Karen and Zack, I figured that the better decision would be to head back to the hotel for some rest. Bob was very taken with the sky at this point and took lots of great pictures.

We stopped in one store and Calder brightened up a bit – he loves to shop [img]/ubb/images/graemlins/love.gif[/img] I even found a sweatshirt with Minnie that actually fit me, but it just wasn’t my style, so I didn’t buy it. Bob was trying to convince me to get some earrings with Minnie on them, but they were a base metal and would’ve turned my ears green.

As we walked to the park’s exit, I remembered the FPs for Soarin’ – oh well, there was no way we’d make it back in time. I looked for the first threesome I could find and offered them up. At first, they looked at me like I was nuts and then one of them yelled “SCORE!!” and they took off, yelling their thanks back to us. [img]/ubb/images/graemlins/zwavin.gif[/img]

At this point, Bob started regretting his decision to eat onion rings for lunch and he hustled us out of the park. We got to the stop light just as it turned red again – so we waited the two minutes for its cycle to be complete. Man, that’s a long time to wait when your feet hurt!

We got back to the hotel around 6PM and got our keys. We were in room 723, which was a nice room, but faced a major highway and not the parks. It was relatively quiet and very large. The nicest thing was that it had a fold-out bed for Calder and two doubles – one each for Bob and me. (Bob is very tall and has to sleep diagonally on small beds – so we hate to share anything less than an extra-long king.) They were also Tempur-Pedic mattresses, which I’d never tried before. Although they felt weird when I first sat on them, they were quite comfy to sleep on. I HATED the pillows, though. They were down and I like foam pillows. Bob and I kept complaining about them, but I never took the initiative and called the front desk to inquire if they had firm, foam pillows! [img]/ubb/images/graemlins/crazy.gif[/img]

At this moment, though, I was so tired that I collapsed face-first on the bed. Calder tried to watch a little TV, which made it impossible for me to sleep. Bob sat on the bed with his laptop. At first I thought he was trying to get work done and then I realized that he was checking stats on the Cubs, his favorite baseball team. I gave up trying to sleep and ended up unpacking our stuff. I think Bob realized that I needed to sleep so he finally made Calder switch off the TV and climb under the covers for a quick nap. That was all I needed! With a quiet room, I managed to fall asleep.

Around 8:15, my phone rang – it was Karen and they were about 40 minutes from Anaheim. Yay! [img]/ubb/images/graemlins/thewave.gif[/img] I popped up and tidied myself up again. Then I tried to wake Calder – who was out cold. It was a testament to how much he wanted to see Karen and Zack again when he managed to shake himself awake. His eyes were all bloodshot and bleary, but he managed to get his coat and shoes on. Bob shut down the laptop and grabbed his sweatshirt.

On the elevator ride down, we stopped on several floors and picked up a gaggle of teenage girls. When a “mom-like” person got on, we discovered that there was a national cheerleading competition going on and that’s why all of the hotels were booked up. [img]/ubb/images/graemlins/rolleyes.gif[/img] Good grief! Can’t we ever escape the cheerleaders at Disney?!

<more in a minute>
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MAria R · 03-22-2006, 07:31 PM

Your cheerleading comment made me laugh, ready for more!!!!

**Caldercup** · 03-22-2006, 07:46 PM

<font color="blue"> We headed out to the parks – and ONCE AGAIN had to wait for the blasted stop light! Then it was through security and we got to a spot near the turnstiles (that was better lit) and waited for Karen and Zack to show up. I was looking for them to come in the direction we had just walked, so I was totally surprised when I heard Calder call out their names. I turned around and there they were. Karen and I gave each other a big hug and I think we both cried a little! Then I realized how much less of Karen there was to hug – she lost a good amount of weight since December - [img]/ubb/images/graemlins/waytogo.gif[/img]

Karen had brought presents – Happy St. Patrick’s Day Mickey ears for everyone. They were green with little leprechaun hats on top of them. Very cute!

Then it was time to enter Disneyland. I have to say that it was a weird experience to see a place that was very familiar and yet very different from what I was used to. It was like seeing a beloved grandmother wearing her dress backwards – everything looked similar and yet not quite right. The scale is much smaller at Disneyland than it is at WDW. And some buildings were in different positions. City Hall looked EXACTLY like it does at WDW, but the other side was not at all what I was expecting – no Tony’s…

I looked off to the left and saw the Fire Station. In the window above was the lamp that is always on in memory of Walt Disney. I got quite verklempt looking at it and I caught Karen’s eye – she was misting up too. We gave each other a little hug – it’s so good to have someone who “understands…”

Then we turned down Main Street and I was struck by how pretty Sleeping Beauty’s castle was. Small, but very pretty and princess-like. We had about 5 minutes until the fireworks were to start, so we walked down to the end of Main Street (where there’s a hot dog counter-service in the spot where Casey’s is at WDW, but the other side is a photo store and not the ice cream parlor like in Florida. Weird!) We talked about Zack’s hair, which has gotten quite long and my hair, which I just chopped off two days before. Then we started jabbering about the Disney Cruise Line’s European ports-of-call for summer 2007 and how much we’d all like to do it. (Bob is psyched that I’m willing to go overseas again – even if it’s within the velvet handcuffs of Disney.)

A few minutes later, the fireworks began. The show is called “Remember Dreams Come True” and starts out with music from Wishes, but with a narration by Julie Andrews. Then, instead of it being about wishes and Disney characters, it’s about Disneyland and its rides and attractions.

Tinker Bell is the true star of the show, though. Instead of a single flight down from the castle, she flies back and forth and up and down, spreading pixie dust and posing in mid-air. I don’t think I stopped saying “WOW” the whole time she was out.

The fireworks themselves were really cool and I loved the pseudo-perimeter fireworks that went off all around the castle and Main Street. I kept spinning around to see them. Since the scale of the park is so much lower than in Florida, the fireworks are lower in the sky – making it very intimate, if a little less awe-inspiring. (Easier on the neck too!)

I loved the Star Tours sequence because they had what looked like a lightsaber and blaster battle going on all around us. Totally cool!

Then Tinker Bell came out again and I was entranced! She was so lovely and dainty, flying all around the castle. It was magical. (Disney won a Thea award for the technology and design of this show the same night that Bob won his award. I can totally see why it won – it was spectacular!)

The only bugger was that we had tons of people trying to stand in front of us. They’d hunch over as they walked across our path and then would stand up straight once they were in front of us. Real classy! Well, I’m no shrinking violet, so I’d just tap them on the shoulder and they’d move off. Eventually, Karen and Bob just stood in such a way that no one could walk in front of us.

When the show was over, this sea of people came rushing at us. We barely had time to move to the right and stand in front of the camera shop. Calder mentioned that he was a little hungry but that he didn’t want to do any rides. Neither did Zack, so we concluded that we should head over to the hot dog place. Easier said than done – the crowd was intent on moving out of the park. We finally decided to walk up into the hub a little and then join the ‘tide’ and ride the wave down and to the right until we were at the hot dog place. Phew, that was difficult, but we eventually managed it. Karen’s AP would get us all a 15% discount, so she picked up the meal and would later subtract if from a deposit I’d already put down on our June trip to the AKL.

We sat at one of the tables and munched on hot dogs and pretzels. We laughed and told jokes and it was lovely to reconnect with each other. Zack was interested in learning about our research on customizing Lego mini-figures with water slide decals. In fact, whenever Bob and Calder and Zack were together, Lego was the main topic of conversation.

When it was time to go, we headed out of a nearly empty Main Street, taking in the sights and smells. And what smells! The street lamps had these gorgeous flower baskets filled with real lilac branches and sprays of bleeding heart. They were lovely and smelled sooooo good!

Karen offered us a ride in her car, which was parked in the Disneyland lot. She drove us over to our hotel and, when I stepped out, I asked what time we’d be meeting up the next morning. When she said 7:15AM, I know that my eyes totally bugged out! Well, hopefully my body would forgive me!

We got to our room without any cheerleader incidents and were in bed by 11PM (which felt like 2AM to us East Coasters.) I was asleep for about 5 minutes when this crazy “WHOOOP, WHOOOOP!” sound practically smacked me out of bed. I stumbled around a minute trying to figure out what it was when Bob grumbled from his bed – “It’s the fire alarm. Probably a prank.” A second later it shut off. I collapsed back into bed and lay there stunned. Then it started up again – “WHOOOP, WHOOOOP!” and then shut off quickly. I couldn’t just ignore it and let my whole family burn up in flames, so I opened the door to our room and peaked down the balcony. Another door opened up and a bleary-eyed man and I rolled our eyes and shrugged. “False alarm, ya think?” He nodded and shut his door. I fell back into bed and pulled the covers up. About a minute later, this man’s voice starts speaking above my head, “The siren you just heard has been determined to be a false alarm. Repeat, it was a false alarm. That is all.” My instinctive reaction was to flip the bird to the general population before sinking back into sleep.

*&%$ cheerleaders…

The weather was chilly in Philadelphia, cool in California.
The best thing today was hugging Karen and getting to talk with her, face-to-face.
The worst thing today was the fire alarm (*&%$ cheerleaders…) and the tiny airplane bathroom.
The funniest thing today was realizing that I had no clue what to do in California Adventure and feeling like a “tourist!”
Today we tried Dreams
And the result was totally enchanting and [img]/ubb/images/graemlins/woot.gif[/img] a big shout-out [img]/ubb/images/graemlins/woot.gif[/img] to Tinker Bell! [img]/ubb/images/graemlins/woot.gif[/img]
The most magical moment today was walking into Main Street and seeing Walt’s lamp-in-the-window.

[Up next: Bobsleds, cinnamon rolls and Indiana Jones!] </font>

**chezp** · 03-23-2006, 01:51 AM

I'm loving every word of this report - thank you for posting so much so quickly. [img]/ubb/images/graemlins/waytogo.gif[/img]

It's great to hear you talk about how good the theming is at the Californian Adventure. That seems to be a lot of people's views in their trip reports and it's really encouraging, as so many guidebooks that I've read just knock the park. I really can't wait to see it for myself.

It was also fascinating to read your observations about Disneyland and its differences and similarities to WDW - I loved the comment about a "beloved grandmother wearing her dress backwards". Great way to put it. [img]/ubb/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

More please! [img]/ubb/images/graemlins/082502yes_prv.gif[/img]

**Colexis Mom** · 03-23-2006, 07:06 AM

What a fantastic day Eileen [img]/ubb/images/graemlins/zwavin.gif[/img] Love all the picture! Boy, did you get a lot done! How great to meet up with Karen and Zack again [img]/ubb/images/graemlins/woot.gif[/img]

Can't wait for more [img]/ubb/images/graemlins/laugh.gif[/img]

DawnDenise · 03-23-2006, 08:33 AM

You are just rockin' on getting these updates out!! You are puttin' me to shame girl!! [img]/ubb/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img] Just kidding of course.

You know, I went to that bathroom in Bug's Land and didn't even notice it was a kleenex box!! One of those duh moments I guess! [img]/ubb/images/graemlins/smirk.gif[/img]

YAY!! You've met up with Karen and Zack!!

Can't wait to read more!!

CindyD · 03-23-2006, 08:35 AM

I [img]/ubb/images/graemlins/love.gif[/img] your TR so far. I got the chills when you saw Walt's lamp in the window and saw Sleeping Beauty's castle. I am remebering the trip we took to DL last August and how I felt walking into DL for the first time! Thanks!!

lauren-roxy · 03-23-2006, 12:39 PM

Great updates Eileen!!! You guys are having such a wonderful time!!! Can't wait to read more and see more wonderful pictures!!!

PrincessSharon · 03-23-2006, 02:24 PM

Great updates, Eileen! Your reactions to DL are a lot like mine! Please hurry back with more!

Jennifer2003 · 03-23-2006, 04:30 PM

Great report Eileen!!!

Jennifer

**Caldercup** · 03-24-2006, 10:49 AM

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It's great to hear you talk about how good the theming is at the Californian Adventure. That seems to be a lot of people's views in their trip reports and it's really encouraging, as so many guidebooks that I've read just knock the park.

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Cheryl, the only thing I *didn't* like was the Paradise Pier section. I grew up going to the New Jersey shore boardwalks and (although I know it's modeled after California beach communities) it just has a tacky and "junky" feel to it. The rides are piled on top of each other like cast-offs. That area didn't interest me at all. But the Golden State, Bug's Land and Hollywood are well done. I think you'll like them.

I'll try to write more this weekend. I want to do it while I'm "fresh" and not let it drag like I did with my MouseFest one [img]/ubb/images/graemlins/blush.gif[/img]
Eileen