Updated 8/27/04~ FINALLY FINISHED ~Looby & family take on Disneyland! About This Page:

[luvnwdwgal]

Great update Tina!! LOVE the pictures of the boys with the bears!! Adorable!!

[DrDolphin]

Great trip report!! I just caught up with all the details. Now that Cheryl and I have settled on Feb 2005 for DL I can't wait and am reading all I can - more please!!

[Wondcat]

Great report, can't wait for more. We are planning a trip next year!

[loobyoxlip]

Day 2 Part 2



It was so incredibly hot when we got back to the hotel. We were sweltering and the pool was definitely calling our name. We left grandma in the air conditioned room and ran over to the refreshing pool. I've never in my life been so happy to get into water. Usually I inch my way in getting used to the water. Not today. I walked right on in and immediately dunked my whole body under. Ahhhhhh...instant relief. There were only a few people in the pool - I guess most folks were bearing the hot weather at DLR (or hiding in their air conditioned room a la my mom) We stayed in the pool for a good hour before drying off and heading back to the room. My mom was starving, so I took a quick shower then we headed across the street to Subway. No choice of bread at this Subway, so I didn't get my regular herbs n' cheese bread, just the boring old Italian. But they did pile on the lettuce, which makes me now ask for extra lettuce at every Subway I go to. YUM. Ugh, time to go back out in the heat. Just walking the 1/4 mile back to the hotel was hot. Upon getting back to the room, I immediately fell into bed and was asleep in a few minutes. When I woke up the room was empty. My mom had taken the boys back to the pool. They came back shortly after I had awoken and we made a plan to go back to DL. My mom said the sun wasn't so bright and it didn't feel quite so hot.



Waiting for the shuttle:

We hopped on the empty shuttle back to DL and she was right, the temperature was much more condusive to being outside. Thank goodness. The first thing we did upon entering was going right into the air conditioned Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln theatre. I love this show, I think it is Disneyland's most underrated attraction. I really wanted to share this with my mom, as I knew she would really enjoy it. Before the show starts, you can wander around and look at photos, etc. There is also a recreation of Walt's old office with a lot of the original things - there was a CM standing by the window doing a commentary on Walt's life that I only caught bits and pieces of as the kids surely did not want to stand and listen to that. My mom did catch the whole thing, though, and said it was very interesting. After that, you pick up your headphones and watch a brief clip about the Civil War. Then the doors to the theatre open to reveal beautiful plush red seating. We went 3/4 of the way down and prepared to become a Private. The premise of this show is you are a private in the Army. It's a 3-D audio show like Drew Carey's show in WDW - but, in my opinion, this show knocks the socks off of 'Sounds Dangerous'. I like history, too, so that might have something to do with it. Without giving too much away, there's one part where you (the private) get sent to the barber for a haircut. Needless to say, the scissors clipping that close to your ear is a really weird sensation. At the end, an audio-animatronic Abe Lincoln gets up and recites his Gettysburg Address.



My mom loved the show, as I had hoped she would. As soon as we exited the theatre, Mickey and Minnie came out for pictures. Yay!! The boys got through both short lines very quickly.





It's about time for the 'Snow White' musical to begin at the Fantasyland Theatre, so we trek on over that way. We took some seats further in the back that ended up having a great view except for the people continually walking in front of us. There are some great looking goodies sold at the concession stand here, too. Somebody passed by us with what looked like cinnamon covered crips with a huge mound of whipped cream in the middle. YUM! The show itself was OK. Nothing to write home about, but it was all right. I swore I took a picture here, but again nothing on the negatives to confirm that. What the heck was up with my camera (or me?!? )



Since we were way in the back we were by the exits and luckily got to beat the crowd exiting the theatre. Since we were so close to Toontown, we decided to head that way. The standby line for Roger Rabbit's CarToon Spin was only 5 minutes, so we trekked through the very long queue to hop right on. Jalen so far has gone on almost every ride with me. Since this is a ride like the teacups where you have to turn yourself, Kylor really wanted me in there to help him out. Jalen through a mini-fit just b/c Kylor had said this. I'm sure had Kylor not said this, he wouldn't have cared if he went with me or with Grandma, but y'know how that goes. In the end, he happily went with Grandma. Go figure. Kylor and I had a great ol' spinning time in our car.



After RRCP, we spent a lot of time checking out the fun little gadgets around Toontown (the talking mailboxes, the electricity company door, etc) We eventually wandered over by Gadget's Go Coaster (DL's version of Goofy's Barnstormer) The posted wait time said 45 minutes! Gasp. Toontown looked empty. Luckily a lady came along as we said this and assured us it wasn't anywhere near that. We ditched Grandma, and surely enough the wait was only about 10 minutes. The boys decided it was time to explore Minnie's house, which is always a good time. Her house is so fun with the 'cheese' grocery list on the fridge, the oven that lights up to show a baking cake, the plate of cookies on the table, etc. They spent a good 10 minutes checking out everything her kitchen had to offer, then we went over to Mickey's house. Mickey's house is fun, but just not as whimsical as Minnie's house. Jalen played Mickey's piano for a while, and we explored the rest of his house, then back outside.



We were set to go to another area of DL when Jalen's saw Goofy's Bounce House. This is cute - the kids take off their shoes and have 1 or 2 minutes to bounce around Goofy's all inflatable house. There are inflatable lamps, couches, chairs, etc. The parents get to watch through the living room "windows" He had a great time.



We were ready to head back to the hotel and rest up for an early day tomorrow, but we had to take a quick pit stop at Mr. Toad's Wild Ride, since there was no line.

Man, these inside rides get hot and start to smell!! P-U. But, as always, a great ride.



As we are walking down Main Street, Jalen again tells me that we have to ride the horses (the horse drawn carriages). I promise him tomorrow (again!)



We are out of the park by 8. Jalen crashes almost as soon as we are back in the hotel (sunglasses on and everything) :

We didn't set the alarm as DLR doesn't open until 10 tomorrow and we figure we'll be up in plenty of time for that.



Coming up: Day 3 - Over 100 degrees and we finally get on Splash Mountain!! (what a great day for it!)

[ilovelilo]

Thanks for another great update (and adorable pictures!!!)! I'm sorry it was so hot for you all, though--I would have been ecstatic to get in the pool, too! Looking forward to more!

[Colexis Mom]

Great update Tina Love the picture of the boys with Mickey and Minnie, and the one with all of you together. I was watching the news when they were having that heat wave and thinking of you guys, boy was it hot

Looking forward to more

[luvnwdwgal]

I can just imagine how good that pool felt! Ahhhhhhh!!!! The picture of Jalen sleeping with his shades on is cute......it's hard work park touring! Looking forward to your next installment!!

[statelady01]

Another great installment and the pics were adorable!

[Jennifer2003]

Great update...keep it coming!

[DreaminDizney1002]

What a wonderful TR, Tina! I have never been to DL and I hope to make it there someday - so reading your TR is like a wonderfully welcome preview! The pictures of Jalen with Koda & Kenai are prize winners!

[BritDisFan]

I'm just catching up on your TR Tina, it sounds like you are having a wonderful time, I'm still loving the pictures.

Karen

[Grammy Grumpy]

Just getting caught up with this report and I must say it's great!

[loobyoxlip]

Day 3, Part 1 - Tuesday, April 27



We had a great nights sleep and were up and at 'em at 7 am. Unfortunately the parks don't open until 10. We had a light breakfast at the hotel's continental breakfast bar again then went back to our room to get ready.



Since we have a good amount of time, we decided to enjoy the walk this morning. It is only 9:30 but it is getting hot already! We decide Splash Mountain has to be the first ride of the day b/c if this heat keeps up, the lines for this ride will be unbearable at any other time of the day.



We are allowed into the park right away and make a beeline towards the back of the park and into the already 15 min. long line. Jalen doesn't want to go, so my mom took him over to Many Adventures of Pooh. There was NO wait here and they hopped right on. We were still in the outside part of the queue when they got off the ride. I saw them, but they didn't see me. Pooh, Tigger and Eeyore were out right by us and I wanted to get my moms attention so she could take the camera from me and get some pictures with Jalen. Finally right before we had to enter the inside part of the line she saw us and I handed over the camera. She is not much of a photographer, but did get some cute pictures of Jalen:



The line did indeed take about 15 minutes. I love the DL version of Splash. It is so fun. But, I love the WDW version, too. You just can't go wrong on a ride this great! Kylor and I made some silly faces for the picture, but apparantly they take it the picture when you are about 1/2 way down the hill. By then we had already quit our silly face, so we didn't get to see the cool picture.



After exiting the Splash Mountain store, we walked past Pooh and there was still NO line - so we hopped right on for our bouncy (OK, no bounces on this version of the ride) little trip through the Hundred Acre Wood. This is such a cute little ride. I thought while we were on it that this is right up my mom's alley. Well, apparantly I was right. When we met up with them after our ride on Pooh, my mom informed me they went on it 3 more times after they got pictures with Pooh & pals. I guess she really did like it!!



They were waiting for us in some shade down by the Haunted Mansion, which had no line, so we walked over and got right on. The stretch room at DL actually moves down, so you enter the ride at a different level. My mom also enjoyed this ride, so I was glad about that.



We walked on over to check out the wait time for Indiana Jones and it was 25 minutes, so we decided to skip that for now and instead opted for the Jungle Cruise which is right next door. Corny and fun as ever!



Upon exiting the Jungle Cruise we saw Aladdin and Jasmine were out for photos. Jalen really wanted to wait in line, but he also really had to go to the bathroom. The bathroom I know of in Adventureland was closed, so we headed on over to Frontierland where there is a nice bathroom by the Rancho del Zocalo restaurant. There might have been others in between these two, but I didn't even grab a map, and these were the ones I knew of!



We were going to head back to see A & J, but figured they were probably gone, so we walked back through Fantasyland and Jalen saw Alice in Wonderland. He absolutely had to ride. Of course Kylor had no desire, so off went Jalen and Gma. Kylor and I realize we are right in front of the queue for Matterhorn - the side we've never gone on. The line went quickly as it usually does on this ride. Maybe there was some reason why we've never gone on this side before. I didn't enjoy it as much - it seemed jerkier and just not as fun. I was almost glad it was over. We were done and off of Matterhorn before Gma and Jalen were even on Alice, so Kylor and I took a quick spin in the non-spinning teacups. We were done and Gma and Jalen were still on the ride That is one of the slowest moving queues around. We are finally all back together again and it is HOT HOT HOT!!! Phew. I figured now was a good time to head over to It's a Small World and some air conditioning!! On the way, we met the Mad Hatter:

Then we spotted the Queen of Hearts on a balcony with no one around her. She was quite "rude" to Jalen. Kept smacking her hands together to get him to stand in front of her. He didn't get ir and she was getting quite "annoyed" When I finally got the picture, she waved them away with her hand. LOL.

A little farther up the way was Alice. When she saw the boys she said "Oh, 2 fuzzheads".



We waited about 2-3 minuetes for our boat to come for IASW. You board the boats outside here, so we were standing in the sun just roasting! It was SO nice when the boat slipped inside and we were immediately doused with air conditioning. Ahhhhhhh!!! A topiary at the end of It's a Small World :





We are getting hungry and are already hot, so we decided to head over the Rainforest Cafe for lunch. On the way, we took a quick picture by the castle. Our package came with a free 5x7 of a park picture, so we decided what the heck. Then onto RC. You have to walk through all of DTD to get to the Rainforest. It was blistering hot now and my mom was finding any shade she could. She kept saying 'oh my god' and stopping. I thought she was going to pass out. About 1/4 of the way there she asked if were were almost there. Uh, no. Eventually we made it and gave our name. I had barely walked away from the purple elephant when she called my name. We were seated upstairs right by the extremely loud gorilla. I had a coupon for a free kids meal with an adult entree. My mom and I decided to share the Tuscan chicken, which turned out to be VERY good. Kylor got a multi colored freezie in a cup and a pizza. Jalen got his standard grilled cheese. Our meals came out and we divided up the chicken. It was 2 grilled marinated chicken breasts with grilled cucumber, tomato and olives. I wasn't sure how grilled cucumber would taste, but it was great! I was actually very happy with our meal. I'm usually not a big fan of RC, but it's Kylor's favorite, so we always make it a priority to go here.



Coming up: Day 3, part 2: Krispy Kreme doughnuts, a lost backpack, and special mom/son bonding time

[karmic]

I have been waiting for an update to this report- it and the pictures are wonderful. The boys seem to be having a wonderful time!

[MegglesMom]

Ohmigosh Tina, those shirts are sooo cute! Where did you get them?