Amy and F1gment's return to Disneyland 2013

[Thumper1]

I've enjoyed looking at your trip report so far, Amy!!! I don't think we'll ever make it out to Dl , so it's neat seeing your photos!!! Club 33 looked amazing!!! glad you enjoyed the food,I'm not really a big gourmet food fan either but I think I'd have liked some of your family's choices!! I'm so glad you and your mom enjoyed your trip!!!!!

[ImagineerWannabe]

If I haven’t completely worn y’all out, there is more to come ~ Thursday we headed to the San Diego Safari park so if you are looking for more Disney, join us again for Day 6

Nope, not worn out at all. I've never been to Southern California, so I'm quite enjoying your report. Looking forward to more and posting to provide some friendly encouragement

[Amy]

I've enjoyed looking at your trip report so far, Amy!!! I don't think we'll ever make it out to Dl , so it's neat seeing your photos!!! Club 33 looked amazing!!! glad you enjoyed the food,I'm not really a big gourmet food fan either but I think I'd have liked some of your family's choices!! I'm so glad you and your mom enjoyed your trip!!!!!

The menu wasn't very extensive which helped make the choices easier

If I haven’t completely worn y’all out, there is more to come ~ Thursday we headed to the San Diego Safari park so if you are looking for more Disney, join us again for Day 6

Nope, not worn out at all. I've never been to Southern California, so I'm quite enjoying your report. Looking forward to more and posting to provide some friendly encouragement

Thanks! I hope to work on it this weekend ~ really!

[daluke]

Hi Amy, just read this trip report all the way through. Love the pic of f1gment with her hands up for ears!

How did you get such clear pictures in the HMansion? I tried but it was too dark...I LOVE HM with the Skellington overlay. One of my favorite things of my trip (last October).

D

[Amy]

Hi Amy, just read this trip report all the way through. Love the pic of f1gment with her hands up for ears!

How did you get such clear pictures in the HMansion? I tried but it was too dark...I LOVE HM with the Skellington overlay. One of my favorite things of my trip (last October).

D

Thanks ~ My secret is taking a TON of pictures and hoping that a few of them come out good ~ especially in the dark rides! HMH is one of our favorites too, and Figment's favorite character is Jack, or Figment, depending on where we are at the moment!
There is more TR to come, I just ran into a bit of a snag uploading the photos to Flikr....hoping I can get back on track yet this week.

[Amy]

Cali Trip ~ Thursday 12/5/13
Another mostly non-Disney day, although there are several Animal Kingdom references and a trip to DTD in the evening.

Dirk went for his swim in the Pacific this morning. Even with a wetsuit he was a bit chilly when he got back.


I thought this was a funny sight, although I’m guessing wet suits in hotel rooms in California are probably not all that unusual.


The original plan for today was to head to a taping of Let’s Make a Deal. We had sort of finalized our costumes, but none of us were thrilled with the prospect of waiting several hours in line with no guarantee of being picked to be on the show. Mom was the one who had really wanted to go see the show, but she was ok with the alternate plan, which was to head back to San Diego and go to the Safari Park.

We took the time to eat breakfast at the Inn. There really was plenty of food to choose from.


We stopped at the California Welcome Center again in order to purchase discount tickets for the park. I couldn’t resist another few photos of the gorgeous bird of paradise flowers out front.



We arrived at the San Diego Safari Park around 9. It was a beautiful, mostly sunny, and chilly day

One of our first stops was in the lorikeet enclosure. I was only a few steps in before I had a new friend. Turns out that Rosie the lorikeet really likes camera straps. That led to my dubious free souvenir from the Safari Park, beak prints all over my strap The keeper in the lorikeet enclosure came over to be sure I was ok with her being on me and the camera and I said it was ok. (I might not have been so happy with her explorations if I had a fancy Mickey Mouse strap ) He then told me to be sure to tell him when I was ready to have her off as once she starts checking out camera straps, she becomes quite possessive and isn’t too nice about moving off of them Sure enough, when we were done and he came over to take her off, she was quite peckish with him, but she eventually moved off and we were on our way once again.

The male lion Iko was upset because his mate was in labor and he was separated from her and the other lioness. It was sort of funny as he kept closing his eyes and he was obviously fighting taking a nap, but he was so upset that he had to keep voicing his displeasure with chuffs and outright roars.



I thought he looked very Scar-like in this photo


Right after we had turned away from the glass and started to move on he let go with a huge yawn...and I missed capturing a photo of it But I took one more picture for good measure. It was definitely a challenge getting a good photo of him as the sun was right behind the rock he was by (right outside the door to the back of the enclosure where the lionesses were), and the thick glass walls of the enclosure were very scratched from their paws and claws


Most of the eateries were closed but we had a nice lunch at the Oasis where the real world intruded with the person fixing our tractor calling me and wanting to know when I would be home to have him deliver it. We hadn’t told him we would be on vacation as he tells everything to everyone he comes in contact with and we didn’t want people to know we were gone. I don’t know about you, but it is always quite jarring to me to have to deal with “real life” when I am on vacation!


Figment and I split this turkey sandwich and potato salad


Dirk had a caprese sandwich with some sort of gumbo on the side


They had keepers with various animals giving talks in a little area near the entrance. Here is one we watched a bit of with a pretty cockatoo. We also saw an echidna which was pretty neat, but I never got a good picture of that as it was pretty squirmy


One of the many beautiful cacti scattered about the park. So pretty and different from any I’ve seen before. Does anyone know if the stalks with the brown seedy looking things are flowers? Or the remnants of flowers?


A black duiker ~ so cute!


Red Knobbed Hornbill ~ the eyelashes on this bird were amazing!


Love these flowers ~ I’m pretty sure I have seen them in WDW Animal Kingdom as well


I wouldn’t mind having this job The two on the right are baby Thompson Gazelles, but I’m not sure what the one on the left was.


One of Figment’s favorite ~ the bats


Another of Figment’s favorites ~ the lemurs. There were 5 all piled up and it was difficult to get a good picture with the lower level lighting and the fact that they kept jockeying around for a good spot in the lemur pile!


Duly noted...although it was more the fact that the signs were on a very steep grade that helped enforce my compliance


The tram had animal pictures a la the Animal Kingdom safari trucks! Mom and Dirk huddled together for warmth. It was a chilly day even with the sun out.



These animals were right across from the tram loading area so I have a ton of photos of them. Can’t tell you what they are though ~ sorry...


And now, some photos from the tram ride. Much like AK’s safari, it keeps moving so you have to be on your toes to get photos. They did stop a few times to talk about a couple of the animals, but mostly they kept moving.



We were in the front car so as you can see it was a pretty good sized tram


Black or white rhino ~ forgot which one was which. I’m pretty sure this is the black one though...pretty sure...




Sadly I didn’t catch what type of animal this was either. So interesting with the zebra-like pattern on their legs and the rest looking like a donkey. Don’t they look like they would be super soft if you could pet them? Such pretty colors!


I believe the rhino taking a nap in the background of this picture is the endangered white rhino.



One of my favorite animals as they remind me of Florida and visiting my grandparents ~ pelicans



The tram ride really had a nice overview of the park



Not sure where the giraffes in the back of this picture were heading, but even though these giraffes in the foreground were getting treats from the people on the tour vehicle, they were very aware of what else was going on around them ~ in the series of photos I took, you can see them tracking the other giraffes’ progress across the enclosure.


This little elephant was hanging out and eating by himself...as well as posing quite nicely


The rest of the elephants in this enclosure were busy browsing from interactive feeders, and the littlest one was also still nursing from his Momma at times.



Cheetah




The highlight of the afternoon was seeing the cheetah run. I don’t remember who they have to have permission from, but the park actually has to have some sort of permission to have this animal out of a more secure enclosure. I remember them mentioning something about the barriers, but I can’t recall the specifics at the moment.
During the program, the cheetah’s companion dog runs first to test the mechanical lure and give people an idea of how long it takes an animal to traverse the 100 meters. The dog is actually pretty speedy, but not nearly as quick as the cheetah! The cheetah ran twice, once each way, which I guess is the norm although she won’t run twice if the keepers feel she is too tired or not interested. If I figure out to include a video I will, although I’m sure you can find better videos online. The one thing I found interesting is that even though the cheetah isn’t a big animal, it sounded a bit like a horse galloping as it passed by!



The cheetah got a treat after it’s second run


Not the best photo, but a good comparison of the size between the cheetah and her doggie companion.


Once again, not sure what type of bird this was, but I had to snap a quick picture on the way out as it was so beautiful! Dirk and Mom were cold and tired so there wasn’t time for me to scope out the informational boards that were sure to be by some of these exhibits



Red River Hogs having fun with a piggyback ride


We got back to the Inn just in time for the late afternoon nibblies spread


We were back on our way to DTD at 6:30. I exchanged the sweatshirt with the weird shaped hood and we looked through a few shops. We stopped for dinner at Earl of Sandwich ~ yum!

Olaf’s skating rink was right by EoS and was quite popular.


Dirk and I ran down to Trader Sam’s Enchanted Tiki Bar to have a quick look around the bar and the DLH monorail pool while Mom finished up her sandwich. It was too cold and late for either of us to really want to sit and have a drink though. Something for the next trip’s to-do list!




Back to the inn a little before 11. Kudos to you if you made it all the way through in one sitting. Sorry it was a bit long...you shall be rewarded if you come back for Day 6 though as that is the DL/DCA/DL day!

[MmeLeota]

Great pictures, Amy (as usual)!
We love making comments for all the various animal pics. They just lend themselves for great conversations...
Glad you at least got to take a peek at Trader Sam's. It was so packed when we were there in August (it's the primo hangout during Expo after hours, and you never know who you might run into), that we ended up in the overflow area over by where Fantasy Waters used to play. But on the plus side, we got a cool show with Polynesian dancers.

It's great that you guys had a really nice breakfast and afternoon goodies (when you were able to take advantage of it, anyway).

Looking forward to more!

[Amy]

Great pictures, Amy (as usual)!
We love making comments for all the various animal pics. They just lend themselves for great conversations...
Glad you at least got to take a peek at Trader Sam's. It was so packed when we were there in August (it's the primo hangout during Expo after hours, and you never know who you might run into), that we ended up in the overflow area over by where Fantasy Waters used to play. But on the plus side, we got a cool show with Polynesian dancers.

It's great that you guys had a really nice breakfast and afternoon goodies (when you were able to take advantage of it, anyway).

Looking forward to more!

Thanks ~ yeah we walked right in, looked around a bit, used the bathroom to see what it looked like, and back out again. Didn't think to look to see if anyone famous was there...
My brother was very excited about the goodies at the Inn. It was one of the reasons he chose that particular place to stay. We weren't there for a lot of the breakfasts or snacks, but we ate well when we were! And my brother almost certainly ate his weight in cookies while we were there ~ those were out all the time along with some variation of flavored water. The one night manager was quite impressed by Dirk's commitment to working out and found it amusing that he liked to eat the cookies as both pre- and post-workout fuel

[MmeLeota]

Nice pre and post workout fuel!
It's not often that we are able to stay at places nice enough to have the fancy flavored waters, but love it when we do. One place we stayed had orange/lemon/lime, and another had cucumber/lime/and something else, I can't remember. They are so tasty and refreshing! I try to recreate them at home, but never have luck getting it to taste the same.

[boilerbabe]

Bravo! I loved all of your pictures! That is super cool you got to see the cheetah run!! The wetsuit hanging is a familiar site for me Granted, we use it for a different purpose than Dirk, but always wetsuits hanging when we are in Largo and in our basement. I love the smell of neoprene!!! Reminds me of diving!

[mjmcsl4me]

Great trip report Amy! Love, love, love your pics!!! Great job! They look awesome! I think it's on page 6, there looks like a hidden Mickey among the cactus plants

[Amy]

Great trip report Amy! Love, love, love your pics!!! Great job! They look awesome! I think it's on page 6, there looks like a hidden Mickey among the cactus plants

Thanks mjmcsl4me Figment wanted me to take that photo specifically for the hidden Mickey
And there will be more to the report, I just need to get back to it!

[Amy]

When we last left off, we were just ready for Day 6 ~ December 6, 2013
A Disney Parks day again ~ hooray!

Another beautiful day ~ the view on the elevator going down. There were stairs at the inn, but it was so pretty in the elevator that I was sort of rewarded if I wanted to be lazy.



We got a relatively early start and arrived at the parks @ 8:30 ~ love the little details like this Mickey on top of the lamppost



Beautiful day!



Ok, it might have been a little chilly yet as evidenced by Figment’s full winter gear in Southern California



Yay ~ we’re back at the parks!!



Mom had a bit of difficulty choosing just the right ECV to rent, but finally decided on one...but was it the right one? Hmmm?

By the time we actually got into the park it was already 9:30 How does the time go so fast out in Cali? I thought it was supposed to be a laid back sort of state!




It’s the fun-size castle!




Dirk headed off to collect some FP and ride a few things in Tomorrowland while Figment and I headed to Fantasyland.

Still didn’t really know anything about Frozen at this point, but I did snap a quick photo of Olaf hanging out on the roof...think this was where Elsa and Anna were hanging out for meet ‘n greets.



Dumbo





Figment and her favorite pachyderm



Mr. Toad!







Pinnochio



Snow White






Didn’t get to take a spin on King Arthur’s Carousel on this trip




Peter Pan w/ FP ~ this isn’t the best photo, but I laugh every time I see it because it looks like we are launching at light speed. Plus Figment’s face is so happy to be on Peter Pan’s ship again.





Alice






The rabbit’s footprints but also some construction markings?




So weird to have the monorail so close overhead while waiting in the queues



Off to Buzz where we met up with Dirk ~ long line already at 10:46 ~ out by 11:09 though with a few hits on Zurg under our space utility belts!







Mom explaining in detail how she takes names while in the Buzz Lightyear attraction Actually this is one of her favorites at WDW, and I think she was telling him how the guns are attached at WDW unlike these at DL which are loose. Better for aiming, but harder for her to handle.



Game faces on



Space Mountain with Dirk ~ and then he went back around and used Mom’s FP. The DL version is so smooth and has great music too. Wish I could have gone twice but he was so excited I let him take the extra FP.



I need to be taller or sit in the front row!



Love the restroom sign



It was at this point we realized we had lost our Mommy



We looked in the bathroom, we looked outside Captain EO, we looked around the Jedi Training, we sent her a few texts and looked some more. We finally decided to go on Autopia and give her a chance to reply to our texts. This CM was having an awesome time loading guests.



Love, love, love Autopia at DL. I can skip the Speedway at WDW but the track is so much more fun here at DL!





It even put a smile on my brother’s face who spends a lot of time in Chicago traffic!



We finally found Figment after we got off Autopia, she evidently had been inside the counter service restaurant there getting some water while we were looking for her. We finally met up at Tomorrowland Terrace and headed off to see Mickey’s Magical Map.




[url=https://flic.kr/p/piyJSN]

The skies were not looking very promising over It’s a Small World but we got a return pass for a later time, and headed for the Haunted Mansion Holiday which was down




We decided on the French Market for lunch ~ with live entertainment. The nice thing here was the one group that was playing finished up shortly after we sat down, and another group came and started playing just a few minutes later.



Figment and I shared the chicken. Dirk had the Cajun meatloaf and we all shared the Jack Skellington mousse. Then I remembered the beignets! So I got an order of those to share. Not at all what I had expected them to be, but they were good and I’m glad I got to try them.





It was sort of a long-ish wait so I got bored and took a lot of photos and of course I like to share Feel free to scroll on ahead...



I thought they would be fluffier ~ guess not.




By the time we were done with lunch it was already after 2!

We headed back to HMH and got a return pass. This poor service doggie did not want to go to the HMH!



This is what the return passes looked like. The wait time was the same, but we didn’t have to stand in the queue or try to negotiate the cramped queue with the ECV which was such a blessing. Plus they stopped the moving walkway for all the people that loaded in these parties which was really nice for Figment. Much less stress and worry for her, as well as being much safer.



It was then that Mom’s carefully selected ECV wouldn’t go. At all. When I called they said it might take awhile as the parade was happening at that very moment. I settled in and was prepared for a long wait, but they must have taken a backstage route as it appeared relatively quickly. We had missed our return window for It’s a Small World though so I asked the CM that delivered the replacement ECV if they could do anything about it and they replaced our IASW pass without too much complaint ~ yay!

We headed off to Toontown ~ Sadly Gadget's Go Coaster was too long of a wait at 40 min so I had to skip that, but we were able to get a FP for Roger Rabbit.




I love the whole feel of Toontown because it really feels like you have been transported into a cartoon, but I especially love these little fishies in the gas station pumps!



And I think it’s really neat that they have these really pretty plants growing under the bridge to Toontown.



Toontown was super crowded and none of us really wanted to tour Minnie or Mickey’s house so we headed back to IASW to use our pass. We still had a good 15 minute wait but the holiday version is so much fun it wasn’t so bad to wait.

[Amy]

Part II ~
Plus we had Figment and my camera to entertain us I’m so lucky she doesn’t really check in on the forums anymore ~ she would kill me for these next two pictures













Love, love, love It’s a Small World Holiday version Not only are the additional decorations fun, the music is fun too!




And I don’t mind the inclusion of Disney characters either





It is kind of weird to have the canal for the boats here at DL rather than the whole lake thing that WDW has going on though. Sure it was much more practical at the World’s Fair for this version.




Not sure what the IASW dispatch CMs were doing when they returned us to the dock on the wrong side for unloading the guests that needed the ramps I tried to talk Mom into another spin around to get us back to the proper side of the dock, but she wasn’t buying it So we had to crawl over the benches of two boats in order to get back to where we should have been returned to. I wasn’t really sure how we were going to safely get Figment up and over the extra benches, but the CMs were super friendly and helped us surround her and give her a helping hand. Not at all like WDW where the CMs won’t (or can’t) help at all.

Then we were off to go use our Roger Rabbit FPs.





More fun details



Um, the back of Anna. I said hello as she passed by, and it took me a minute to realize that she was a character and not just a funnily dressed guest. This was before all the Frozen craziness had really hit as I’m sure the characters could not have walked unaided a few weeks later without being completely mobbed!



We saw lots o’ characters on Big Thunder trail to Frontierland ~ didn’t even realize they were there until we were sort of mired in the crowds. I included a few of the photos although they aren’t the best with it having been right around dusk.
The characters I remember seeing (aided by my photos, most of which are too dark or fuzzy to share) were Beast, Captain Hook, Mr. Smee, Rafiki, Tigger, Tweedle Dee and Dum, Eeyore, Brer bear, Brer fox, Baloo, Gepetto, Gideon the cat and Foulfellow the fox from Pinocchio (had to look the names for both of those up), Genie, and I have king of lion guy in my notes ~ goodness only knows!





We went back to HMH to use our FP








I’m going to have to try to make one of these Man-eating wreaths one day!



MmeLeota is so cool out here in DL ~ not sure if she looks a little different in the holiday version or not. I would think she normally doesn't have the spiky things on top and bottom of her as they look like a Christmas ornament, but I could be wrong.







Behind the scenes on HMH ~ well, not really, but this is the area between the regular unload area and the load area which is where guests who need extra time or assistance in transferring get off. Looks cool though right?



On the way back out of the mansion ~ the lightning would light up the windows...and these characters



It was getting chillier by this point so Dirk headed back to car for his coat, while Mom and I went off to Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln. There were characters doing meet ‘n greets all along the sidewalk and while I was able to scoot past in between guests with no problem, Figment got stuck. I urged her to go ahead and step on it a few times, but she was busy looking at Mickey and never quite would get started before the next guest scampered up for their photo. Thankfully Mickey took the time to cross the walk and hold back the guests so she could finally get through. As you can see in this picture, she is still grinning like Goofy at Mickey and not paying attention to where she was going But again, great service from the DL characters! (The streets were packed too so it wasn’t as easy as going around the character location either in case you were wondering why we were crossing where we were)




Inside the Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln lobby ~ love these Spirits from the Great American Adventure. I think the ones in WDW are the originals and these came later, but I would have to do some research to be sure...unless anyone knows offhand.




My favorite spirit ~ Spirit of Adventure







Me taking a photo of a random guest taking a picture of Miley

[Amy]

Part III ~

We were off to DCA @ 6:40 where Dirk found us and he and I headed off to ride CA Screamin’ in the single rider queue.




Dirk looks like he is ready for a nap here ~ I promise he really likes this attraction



I had Tinker Bell on my shoulder ~ or maybe I was videotaping the ride and the lights caught my sparkly sticker on the back of my phone case...I’m sticking with Tinker Bell



Paradise Pier is so pretty at night. Not the best photo, but it has lots of twinkly lights



The lines for Toy Story Midway Mania were still outrageously long so we never got to ride this one



Next up was Mickeys Fun Wheel. We had talked about whether she could go on the swinging buckets or not while we were getting to the split in the queues and she finally decided she could since we had gone on them on our previous trip. Turned out she got a little worked up though and was freaking out a bit on the first go ‘round. I hollered at the CM as we were coming down that she needed to get off and they stopped it in time for her to disembark. She had a grand time with the CMs while we went around once more while they were unloading all the other guests. It was almost time for the World of Color show so there wasn’t time for a full ride

I took the time to go on the Silly Symphony swings while Dirk had yet another shrimp taco. He really loved those things!


Little Mermaid for me and Mom. Very cute. Sort of short for the length of time spent in the queue though.









Met back up with Dirk ~ he had been checking out Goofy’s Sky School but ended up texting his girlfriend instead and didn’t go on it, so I never got a chance to check and see if he thought it was as rough a ride as I remembered from my last trip.





We made a pit stop at Flo’s for dinner. Mom and I shared the pork loin w bbq sauce and mashed potatoes with gravy and radiator pasta salad.




Back to DL about 10 ~ how did the whole day disappear? It felt like we had just arrived!

Snow on the castle looks a little sketchy here at night, but I suppose it looks pretty good for snow in California!


So pretty at night


We were in the accessible viewing area for Fantastmic ~ all the way to side but up at railing which was great for taking pictures. Dirk and Mom got coffee and hot chocolate, I got ice for my can of coke! You can take the girl out of the frozen tundra, but you can’t make her leave behind her favorite cold beverage




I don’t know that I could pick a favorite between WDW and DL, but I do like Murphy the dragon at DL’s version.




And their boat is definitely better than the WDW version ~ thanks Wizzard for pointing that out...now I definitely notice the barge at WDW




I went on Splash alone ~ it was too cold for Dirk to ride, he didn’t want to get wet. Those of you that are friends with me on Facebook know how much I like finding lucky money...and in my log I found a dime, a quarter, and then another quarter!! Yay!




As you can see, I had a log all to myself ~ made me happy as a clam! And I really didn’t get much Splash at all as they had the canons and other water features turned off.



New Orleans Square RR station but found out the train was only going to Toontown and then it was going out of service. But the conductor told us if we hurried to the Main Street station that the train there would go in a full circle dropping us back off at the Main Street station. Mom had to climb the station steps but did ok as we had gotten there with a few minutes to spare. I was so happy to be able to see the Grand Canyon and the dinosaurs diorama! Yay! Train took off at midnight and park closed at the same time.



I guess they were cold or something ~ wimps





Night, night tiny DL castle




Didn’t get to see the Candlelight Processional as the first performance was the night after we were leaving. Looks like a really pretty setting though.





Left the park at 12:48 and got back to the Inn at 1:30. Commute back wasn’t bad at all.

Brrrr, it gets colder than I thought here in southern Cali


I might have mentioned this before, but I was really impressed with all the DL/DCA CMs. They were super accommodating and always were mentioning “whatever works for you” as far as whether you could sit somewhere or get a return pass to accommodate Figment’s need for less standing or walking.

Sigh, down to just the non-Disney portion of the trip now. Much fewer pictures, and no more Disney ones...at least that I know of, but I’ll wrap things up here and offer a few photos of the Microsoft Campus if anyone is interested.

OH! I almost forget! And I’ve got our visit to the Disney Family Museum in San Francisco too ~ that will likely be of interest to those who haven’t been. Stay tuned...and I shall try to be a little more timely with the rest of the report