The TCD Gang Goes to Disneyland!

[Beckers 1,136]

Giant creepy heads will probably haunt me in my sleep tonight.

Swings scare me, I'm always worried the bottom will fall out.

[mouseketab.....Carol 1,261]

The swings and the zephyr are something that I won't go on. Don't do circles well, but glad you enjoyed them.

 

Looking forward to seeing the Streetcar show in person!

[AC in A2......Aaron 693]

Giant paper mâché heads? Not a fan. In fact, they are creepy.

[lklasing 16]

Still loving this report.  Really, really makes me want to go out there soon.  

 

I'm with everyone else on the giant head people.  Eek.  

[Tri-Circle-D 2,059]

Rumour is that they will have a much larger outside area at the WDW one, so while you're right that the inside will likely be mobbed hopefully the outside patio will be more open. I've also heard April/May for the rough opening date.

 

An outside area?  I didn't know about this.  I thought that Trader Sam's was going in the space where the art studio was.  That's not a very big space.  I must be mistaken about that.  Now I'm wondering if Trader Sam's is going to be somewhere around the pool.  Like under the volcano maybe?  That would be cool.

 

I'm anticipating some great shots of World of Color!

 

The WOC shots are coming in the next update.  Unfortunately, I don't think we got any great shots.  You'll see.

 

Once upon a time I could ride those rides without a care in the world.  And then I got old and my equilibrium got lost.  I feel like I am falling out of Soaring and I do use that middle strap cause I am chicken now.  I could not flap my wings on that swing.

 

The only rides that I have a problem with as an old man are spinning rides.  I am still fine on things like the Golden Zephyr and Silly Symphony Swings.  And I love Soarin'.  No problem at all.  But, I do not like to spin much on the Teacups. 

 

This trip report is awesome!!  We have never been interested in Disney beyond Disneyworld, but thanks to this report are talking about how quickly we can get out to California.  

 

Love all the photographs and seeing you with your daughters.  Miss those times with mine.  Don't sweat holding on the when the swings were in motion, it stabized you to take the photos1

 

Thanks.  As I have said already, I was surprised by how much I liked Disneyland.  I now share my daughters' dreams of visiting all the Disney parks around the world.  I have no doubt they will.  I hope that I can tag along.

 

Thanks for posting. I haven't been to Disneyland since we've moved away from California in 1992. Needless to say I've never seen Disney Adventure. It is fun to see how the area has changed since living there.

 

It would be neat if you could go back now and see it after all those years. 

 

Giant creepy heads will probably haunt me in my sleep tonight.

Swings scare me, I'm always worried the bottom will fall out.

 

I am also not a fan of giant heads.  And I am especially not a fan of giant creepy heads.

 

Didn't they have swings like this at Great Adventure (which you probably know as Six Flags Great Adventure)?   I distinctly remember someplace I used to go as a kid that had these swings.  Nobody was big on safety back in those days, and we all used to try to grab on to each other and spin our swings around.  That was perfectly acceptable back then, and maybe it still is in Jersey.

 

The swings and the zephyr are something that I won't go on. Don't do circles well, but glad you enjoyed them.

 

Looking forward to seeing the Streetcar show in person!

 

You won't be missing much by skipping those attractions.  They aren't unique.  I did like the view, though.

 

The Streetcar show is a must see!  As you know, the performers in the Trolley show at the MK don't sing.  These performers in California sang, and they did an outstanding job.  Plus, it is really cool how they tie Walt's story into the show.

 

Giant paper mâché heads? Not a fan. In fact, they are creepy.

 

Agreed.

 

Still loving this report.  Really, really makes me want to go out there soon.  

 

I'm with everyone else on the giant head people.  Eek.  

 

You need to take those DVC points of yours and book yourself into the Grand Californian!  We are heading there soon, and I have lots of pictures.

 

I don't think anyone likes the giant head people.  The good news is that they only come out for the Viva Navidad festival, which I believe is now over.

 

TCD

[Tri-Circle-D 2,059]

Update time.

 

It's still Saturday, December 6.  This was our day to do California Adventure, and we were doing it.

 

We had been here since rope drop, and only left briefly for our excursion through Downtown Disney to check out the Disneyland Hotel.  We hadn't been back to our own hotel room, and weren't planning on it.

 

We left off about that Jumping Jellyfish ride, and here's another photo from there.  You can see Bear Rock and Tower of Terror off in the distance, and the Golden Zephyr ride below:

 

 

This area of the park was called Paradise Pier.  I guess this is the paradise part of it:

 

 

There's a large area along side of this part of Paradise Pier with several different food service locations and seating.  Kind of like the area with the different food service locations on the street by Tower of Terror in DHS.  This whole area was taken over by the Viva Navid celebration.  They had live music:

 

 

And they were serving a special Mexican menu.  We had thought about having dinner here, but this turned out to be some hard core Mexican food:

 

 

We are more on the level of Taco Bell/Moe's when it comes to Mexican food.  A burrito is as exotic as I get. I seriously have never heard of some of the things on the menu here.  So we passed on that.

 

We knew that there were a bunch of food service locations in another area of the park called Pacific Wharf, which was also near Radiator Springs Racers, so we planned to grab a bite after we cashed in our second set of RSR FP's.

 

They had a cool meet and greet opportunity back here with the Three Caballeros:

 

 

The twins are all about the rare characters, but they had already met Oswald today, and the line looked like it would be 30-45 minutes.  We passed on that.

 

This is the entrance to Goofy's Sky School, which was down the entire time of our visit.  From what we could see, that was no big loss:

 

 

From here, we headed back toward Toy Story.  We needed to cash in that bonus FP I got that morning from Guest Services.  Here's a blurry picture of it.  I haven't seen anything like this at WDW- and nowadays they can just put extra FP'+s right on to your Magic Bands:

 

 

Since there is no FP entrance at Toy Story here, we were directed to go in through the exit.  There was a plaid vest group in front of us, but they looked like a normal non-celebrity family.  Just regular rich people. Then another plaid vest group came in behind us.  This was 6 or 7 young people- like in their 20's- all dressed in trendy clothes with lots of piercings and tattoos..  The plaid vest guy was giving all of his attention to a young, skinny African American kid who was dressed like someone in a rap video, complete with dreads, a gold tooth or two,  and sunglasses in the dark.  He was someone.  But none of us knew who.  I wanted to take a picture, but the twins insisted that I couldn't.  So, I have no photos of the rap star/gangsta who rode Toy Story with us.

 

The entire queue for Toy Story here is outside, but it is covered:

 

 

The ride itself is identical:

 

 

This was one ride where there were no stairs to enter.  We all commented on that, since there are stairs in the DHS version.  But, we found the stairs when we exited.  They led us past this weird scene with Toy Story props:

 

 

After that, we headed toward Cars Land so we could cash in those RSR FP's.  It was 5:17 when I snapped this photo- and it was already pretty much dark:

 

 

The lighting at Radiator Springs Racers is beautifully done.  We were excited to ride it at night:

 

 

 

This was a cool detail. They had an overlook built along the walkway, and an informational sign pointing out all the rock formations and their names.  Just like you might see at a national park. Very clever:

 

 

 

From there, we hit the RSR ride, and enjoyed it as much at night as we had during the day.  We lost our race again.  So, we were now 0 for 2 on RSR.  Bummer.

 

The Cars Land Christmas decorations were better at night than they were during the day.  They have a special lighting ceremony each night.  The Times Guide said it was at dusk.  We missed dusk today:

 

 

We headed to the Pacific Wharf area for dinner. They have a bunch of food service locations here, including a place that serves Chinese food, and another Mexican place.  Someone told one of the twins that we should be sure to check out the Pacific Wharf Café, so we did.  There is a big bakery here, and they serve freshly made bread.  They have sandwiches and soup. The bread smelled great:

 

 

We all ended up with soup in a bread bowl again.

 

It stinks that there is no place like this in WDW.  Even the bakery in France at Epcot doesn't actually bake anything.  At WDW everything is made off site, and there's no place where you can get something fresh like they have here.

 

We took our time with dinner.  The FSU/Georgia Tech game was going on, and my oldest DD was texting us updates.  We also were studying our California Adventure map, and figuring out what more we needed to do tonight, and we discussed our plans for the next day too.  As we were sitting and eating, a young couple sat down at a table next to us. The guy had on a Gators hat.  Twin #1 gave him a Go Gators, and he responded properly.  They struck up a conversation. It turned out that he was a UF grad who then went on to med school at FSU.  He was now in the Navy and stationed in San Diego.  Really sharp kid.  Too bad he had a girlfriend.  I would have fixed one of the twins up with him.

 

After dinner, we headed over to the World of Color area to scout things out.  It was just past 7, and no one was in the seating area.  We asked a CM where the entrance would be for those with FP's for the blue seating area, so we knew where we would need to come when it was time.  We posed for a group shot there on the bridge to Paradise Pier:

 

 

The girls wanted to do some shopping, and there was a shop that they had seen some things they liked over in the Paradise Pier area, so we headed there. Their holiday 40% off merchandise CM discount worked here, which was awesome.

 

They both bought blankets that they wanted to have embroidered.  We rode the carousel while we waited:

 

 

I kind of wanted to ride the Fun Wheel again- but this time in a non-rocking car.  The posted wait time was 45 minutes, and we passed.  I forgot to mention that we had picked up another set of California Screamin' FP's before we rode Toy Story, so we cashed those in too, and rode it again.

 

Before we knew it, it was time to check in for World of Color.

 

The FP's told us that we could enter beginning at 8:45 for the 9:45 show.  After sitting on the ground for an hour before Fantasmic the night before, I suggested that we wait at least until after 9 before checking in.  We had FP's, and everyone said we were in the best area, so I didn't see the point of getting there an hour early.

 

Big mistake.

 

We found a huge mob all with Blue area FP's when we showed up at a bit past 9.  We were herded like a bunch of cattle into the blue area.  We were on the second level just like we hoped to be, but there was a solid mob of people already in place in front of us.  This was the situation:

 

 

We were in the center of the viewing area, and there were a lot of people behind us:

 

 

So, I thought we had done pretty good.

 

Then the show started.  The show basically is a bunch of synchronized fountains.  We could see the top of what was going on fine, but not anything at water level:

 

 

We saw the show great through the screens of all the guests with electronics in front of us:

 

 

There was a part near the end where some boxes behind us opened and some giant snowflakes made out of soap bubbles flew up in the sky.  That was kind of cool:

 

 

Twin #1 got a couple of photos of the show:

 

 

 

I've seen videos and photos of the World of Color show, and it looks cool.  But, we were disappointed.  I imagine that if we had showed up earlier and snagged places closer up we would have liked it better, but we were supposedly in the middle of one of the best viewing areas, and we couldn't see a lot of the show.  If you look at the promotional photos and videos Disney puts out, they are taken from an elevated view which is not consistent with any of the actual viewing areas.  So what Disney shows to entice people to come and see the show is a fraud.  And the whole FP thing is a fraud too.  Maybe if we had shown up at 8:45 for the 9:45 show we would have had a better view.  But, why should I have to sit around for an hour to see some stupid show?  So, WOC isn't as great as we or you may have heard.  Phooey.

 

It was past 10:30 before we got out of the mob after WOC.  The park was open until midnight, but the Paradise Pier area was packed with all the WOC guests.  Plus, we had done all we wanted to do in this area.  So, we headed to the front.

 

The girls checked out some more shops, and we ended up in the California Adventure Starbucks.  You know what they have there that we don't have?  Seating.  Lots and lots of seating.  Look:

 

 

That was really nice.  We sat there and studied our park map.  The girls a counter in there were they were making custom ice cream bars for people.  You could pick the coating and the toppings.  Kind of like the make your own rice krispie treat place in Downtown Disney.  We all got one of those:

 

 

One of the toppings was Pop Rocks.  That was interesting.

 

Here's a map of California Adventure.  There were some things here we hadn't done, like the Muppets 3D show and the It's Tough to Be a Bug show, but we have seen those plenty at WDW.  The only major thing we had not done was Grizzly River Rapids.  But, we had a plan for that:

 

 

There was just one more thing that we wanted to do that night- ride one of the Street Cars.  Luckily for us, there was one right outside.  I found a newspaper in the Starbucks, and put on a Newsies type show for the girls:

 

 

It was just past 11 when we finished with that.

 

That was good enough for us.

 

We headed out.

 

We had originally had very ambitious plans for the morning.  We would be moving over to the Grand Californian, and there were EMH's at California Adventure at 7 am.  The original plan was to check out of Park Vue and get to the Grand Californian in time for the 7 am EMH.  That is allowed.  But, we were all pretty tired, and that really early wake-up did not sound like fun.  Plus, it really wasn't necessary.  We had done fine with FP's and short wait times, and there was no need for us to push for a 7 am EMH.  So, the plan got revised.  We would still get up kind of early, and head over to the Grand Californian at a more civilized hour.  Like maybe 8 or 8:30.  We could check in, hit up the concierge lounge, and then head out to the parks.  Our plan for Sunday, December 7 was to hit both parks and do the things we hadn't gotten done yet, plus repeat some of the things we wanted to.

 

Also, Sunday morning was when we had the celebrity sighting at the Grand Californian.  We will get to that in the next update.

 

TCD

[CCIntrigue...aka Gwen 547]

I'm sorry to hear that you were disappointed with WOC.  That would have been one of the main things I would want to see at DL.  I'll stick to YouTube videos of it.

 

Looking forward to your report on the Grand Californian.  Have a great weekend!

[Momof6....aka Marty 769]

Ugh!  Is it Friday again?  That's means enduring another long weekend with no TCD updates.  I shall just have to hang on to the knowledge that in two short days, it will be Monday!!!

[mouseketab.....Carol 1,261]

Thanks for the update! I think one of our splurges for our Disneyland trip will be in the restaurant with the seating with a view for World of Color. Cause mob scenes even with FP are absolutely not my style. We would be miserable!

[Katman1356...Jason 1,140]

We really loved WOC. We had the Fastpasses from having dinner at wine country trattoria. I don't remember what section we were in but we were there early enough to grab a spot right on the rail and had a great view. One of the most memorable parts of our trip.

[Tri-Circle-D 2,059]

I'm sorry to hear that you were disappointed with WOC.  That would have been one of the main things I would want to see at DL.  I'll stick to YouTube videos of it.

 

Looking forward to your report on the Grand Californian.  Have a great weekend!

 

I'm sure WOC is a great show. The problem was the spot we got to watch it.  Before we go back, I'll need to figure out how to get a better spot.

 

Ugh!  Is it Friday again?  That's means enduring another long weekend with no TCD updates.  I shall just have to hang on to the knowledge that in two short days, it will be Monday!!!

 

Not so fast.

 

I'm about to post another update!

 

Thanks for the update! I think one of our splurges for our Disneyland trip will be in the restaurant with the seating with a view for World of Color. Cause mob scenes even with FP are absolutely not my style. We would be miserable!

 

Yeah, that FP area was not ideal.

 

I think they give the dining package guests better spots- which isn't necessarily the case in WDW for Fantasmic.

 

We really loved WOC. We had the Fastpasses from having dinner at wine country trattoria. I don't remember what section we were in but we were there early enough to grab a spot right on the rail and had a great view. One of the most memorable parts of our trip.

 

Good to know.

 

We were far back from the rail.  I thought it would be good to be on the rail.  Next time, we might need to go for the dining package.

 

TCD

[Tri-Circle-D 2,059]

Here's a bonus update to carry y'all through the weekend.

 

It's now Sunday, December 7.  This will be our last night staying in California, but we will be in the parks all day today, and will be doing rope drop at not one, but two parks on Monday morning and going hard until it is time to go to the airport.

 

That's right- two rope drops on the same morning.  Have you ever?

 

For now, though, we got up at our normal early hour and hit up the free breakfast at Park Vue.  That wasn't the original plan.  We thought we'd be allowed in the concierge lounge over at the Grand Californian, but I wasn't 100% sure how they did things there, so we ate before we left.

 

Then we threw our stuff in the car and drove around the block and we were there. 

 

The Grand Californian!

 

A bellman took our luggage and explained the parking.  There is no free parking at the Grand Californian.  I could valet park for I think $25, or self park for $17.  I'm so cheap, I went for the self parking, even though the valet would have been much better for us.

 

So, I headed across the street to the self parking lot.  Yes, across the street.  California is a strange land.

 

My rental car is on the other side of that red SUV.  That movie theater you see there is part of Downtown Disney, and the building on the left is one of the Disneyland hotel towers:

 

 

The Grand Californian is yonder:

 

 

I had to walk back via this walkway:

 

 

 

And then I had to cross the street before I got back to the entrance:

 

 

None of that was a big deal. That was a two minute walk, according to the time stamps on the photos.

 

This place is pretty nice- and very much like the Wilderness Lodge.  Without the free parking:

 

 

This is how we drove in to drop off the luggage:

 

 

That's the drop-off over there:

 

 

The architecture and décor here is in the craftsman style:

 

 

 

I think I already mentioned that we had booked a concierge room.

 

You get the royal treatment when you do that.

 

When we walked up to the lobby desks, I told the CM there that we would be checking in to a concierge room.  She asked my name, looked up our information, and then personally took us to an elevator and escorted us to the 6th floor, where she led us to the concierge desk and introduced us to the CM's there.

 

Our check in was handled there. The CM gushed over us, and the subject of the girls being CM's came up. They had a long chat with the CM, and she provided all kinds of special information and tips about things we should do. She even told the girls how to get to the Human Resources offices at Disneyland, as she thought there were additional discount coupons they could pick up there.

 

Then she led us to the concierge lounge and explained when it was open and what would be served in there throughout the day.  She took us out on the terrace so we could see the view:

 

 

If you look closely there to the right of center, you can see the tip of the Matterhorn, and over to the far right is Space Mountain.  The mountains you see in the background are real mountains.  Guests can watch the Disneyland fireworks from this terrace, and there is another deck on the other side of the building that provides viewing for World of Color.  The concierge told us that tonight was a night that we could watch both the fireworks and World of Color.

 

The concierge lounge was nice.  It was on par with the one they have at the Contemporary, Wilderness Lodge, and Animal Kingdom Lodge.  There are drinks on this counter, and fridges below stocked with all kinds of soft drinks.  All of it is "free":

 

 

On the other side of the room there was a similar counter with coffee urns and fixings. I went over there to get myself a cup of coffee, and was fixing my coffee when a familiar looking guy in a Hawaiian shirt came and stood next to me.  I said good morning to him, and he returned the greeting.  You know, that's how we do it in the concierge lounge.

 

When I got back to our table, I handed my camera across to Twin #1 and told her to take a photo of the guy behind me.

 

She did:

 

 

But she told me he had turned his back.

 

Try again, I asked her.  And she did:

 

 

There we go.

 

That's Beau Bridges.

 

The TV and movie star.

 

He was here at Disneyland because he was the celebrity narrator for Disneyland's Candlelight Processional.

 

He was staying at the Grand Californian along with the TCD gang and other dignitaries.

 

So there you go.

 

A real celebrity.

 

Hanging out with us in the concierge lounge.

 

I wanted to take more photos and maybe go and say hello, but the girls told me to leave Beau alone.  They were right.  So, I did.

 

By the way, the twins weren't impressed. They had never heard of Beau.  They liked his eyebrows, though.

 

When we checked in, we were told our room wasn't ready, and they would text us later with the room number.

 

That was fine.

 

We wanted to head out to the parks anyway.

 

We headed out to the private California Adventure entrance.  All their pools here are fenced off, and they keep the gates closed:

 

 

The Grand Californian entrance to California Adventure is right near the Grizzly River Run attraction.  We picked up some more WOC FP's while we were here- we were thinking about giving it another chance.  We got the blue section again.  We would decide about that later.

 

There's a big gift shop next to the ride. They were selling some of the same generic t-shirts that have shown up at the Fort trading posts in here:

 

 

We had spent the whole day in California Adventure yesterday, so we wanted to hit Disneyland first.  So we headed that way.

 

We admired this statue of Walt and Mickey near the California Adventure entrance:

 

 

Note how Mickey is holding a suitcase, and standing on a suitcase.  This plaque explains the significance:

 

 

That's a pretty amazing quote if you stop and think about it.  What if Walt didn't follow his dreams?

 

The Disneyland entrance didn't look as busy as it was on the other mornings we were here.  People get a slow start on Sundays:

 

 

To show you how close the two park entrances are, I turned and took this photo of the California Adventure entrance from the same spot I had just taken that Disneyland entrance photo:

 

 

It was 10 am as we walked in.  The train had just pulled up to the station:

 

 

Remember how the twins wanted to meet Christmas Chip and Dale?  Guess who was right there?  Here's my photo with them.  The girls' was taken on one of their phones, and I don't have a copy:

 

 

I saw these stickers several different places around the park.  I don't know what they are all about.  It looks like something they would stick on to show that something had been inspected.  But who was doing this and why?:

 

 

We were able to catch the train, and the plan was to ride it completely around the park so we could see the Grand Canyon and Dinosaur displays.

 

The first stop we came to was New Orleans Square:

 

 

That restaurant over there is famous for its mint juleps.  They are non-alcoholic, of course.  We wanted to try one on this visit, but never got back here:

 

 

The Disneyland train has a view of the finale scene of Splash Mountain, just like WDW's:

 

 

There's their Pooh ride. In Critter Country:

 

 

They have plenty of plastic deer here just like us:

 

 

They have a plastic Indian Chief.  They win:

 

 

These props are out back of the Big Thunder Mountain area.  The train doesn't actually pass Big Thunder Mountain here- and they don't have a guy floating in a bathtub:

 

 

We were approaching the Toontown Station, which is where we got off of the train the last time we rode it.  We will be staying on the train this time, and finally seeing those dioramas we had heard so much about.  I have photos of them to share, but you will have to wait until the next update for them, as we have reached the photo limit.

 

TCD

[shoreline99 137]

An outside area?  I didn't know about this.  I thought that Trader Sam's was going in the space where the art studio was.  That's not a very big space.  I must be mistaken about that.  Now I'm wondering if Trader Sam's is going to be somewhere around the pool.  Like under the volcano maybe?  That would be cool.

 

Check out this page at Tikiman's web site. http://www.tikimanpages.com/poly/the-resort/dining/item/205-trader-sams-grog-grotto , where I cribbed this photo from.

 

 

Something that will be improved over the bar out west will be the outdoor patio. The outdoor seating at the Enchanted Tiki Bar is a great place to relax and enjoy drinks and live music but can often get crowded. The one at the Polynesian will be larger and hopefully not fill up as fast. It will also have its own outdoor bar to support the guests enjoying the patio. This patio will be just outside the old arcade (where the bar is going) and will have views of the marina and lagoon just beyond the new Nanea pool deck that will go through a renovation starting in Summer 2014 and finish by April 2015. The patio will be mostly covered with tables of 4 and a few padded loungers near the doors into the bar. The loungers have seating for about 9. The tables are across a patio that merges into a seating area for Captain Cook's. This is similar to how the Enchanted Tiki Bar seating runs up against the seating for Tangaroa Terrace but as some point they do not serve alcohol past certain tables. It looks like about 72 seats are on the bar side and 64 seats are near Captain Cook's. Total Seating on the outdoor patio looks to be 145.

[okgirlie...Brandy 6]

My goodness... I have to stop having a life so I can read trip reports.  Been reading this one for the past few days and am finally all caught up.

 

We have been talking about taking a trip out west for a while now -- big road trip so that the kids can see the Grand Canyon and other sights along the way to California.  It wouldn't be until summer of 2016 or 2017 but reading this report makes it something I really want to do now.  Disneyland is now a must do.

 

Everyone seems to hate on the Stitch ride but my kids loved it.  They rode it 3 times last time we were there.  I didn't find it all that bad, either.  When my oldest was 2 Lilo and Stitch was his favorite movie.  I guess the movie is kind of special to me since it reminds me of when he was so little.

 

Carsland looks amazing.  I am so excited to be staying in the Cars area of Art of Animation in a few months.  My littlest is going to love it. 

 

I was going to say more but now I can't remember anything so I guess I'll just say Thanks and am enjoying this report.

[Momof6....aka Marty 769]

Beau Bridges? Too cool!   :bravo: for getting the discreet picture.

 

Thanks for the extra update.  I will now try to wait patiently for lunch on Monday.   :waiting2-smiley:

[lklasing 16]

Fun updates.  Love a good celebrity sighting, even if the twins had no idea who he was!

 

I had no idea it got dark so early out there!  Obviously in the winter the days would be shorter, but still - that seems so early to have the sun go down.  

 

Looking forward to seeing your room at the Grand Californian!

[disney4dan 68]

Great updates!  Wish I had more time to follow during the week.  Beau Bridges!  Seems like he would be a fun guy to hang out with, maybe at a bar with some scotch or something. 

 

Concierge level at the Grand Californian - now that's moving on up in style!

[disney4dan 68]

Got caught in the double post conundrum .....Dang it all!

 

Hoping the viewing spot for WOC is better the second time.

[disney4dan 68]

 

 

I had no idea it got dark so early out there!  Obviously in the winter the days would be shorter, but still - that seems so early to have the sun go down.  

 

 

 

I think that is one of the things I remember about trips to WDW that I enjoyed as a kid. Being from the northeast, our sunsets are early in winter as well.  But travel to Florida in the winter and the sun would set much later.  I really dislike the short daylight around here in winter.

[momof3kids-Yvonne 596]

Caught up again.

Really wishing California wasn't so far away.

I asked my daughters if they knew who Beau Bridges was. They didn't, but they were familiar with his brother Jeff Bridges.

[Tri-Circle-D 2,059]

Check out this page at Tikiman's web site. http://www.tikimanpages.com/poly/the-resort/dining/item/205-trader-sams-grog-grotto , where I cribbed this photo from.

 

 

Thanks for that information.  I made the wrong assumption about where the new bar was going.  The actual location is better than where I was thinking.

 

I love the idea of hopping a boat at the MK and heading to the Polynesian for a drink at Trader Sam's.

 

My goodness... I have to stop having a life so I can read trip reports.  Been reading this one for the past few days and am finally all caught up.

 

We have been talking about taking a trip out west for a while now -- big road trip so that the kids can see the Grand Canyon and other sights along the way to California.  It wouldn't be until summer of 2016 or 2017 but reading this report makes it something I really want to do now.  Disneyland is now a must do.

 

Everyone seems to hate on the Stitch ride but my kids loved it.  They rode it 3 times last time we were there.  I didn't find it all that bad, either.  When my oldest was 2 Lilo and Stitch was his favorite movie.  I guess the movie is kind of special to me since it reminds me of when he was so little.

 

Carsland looks amazing.  I am so excited to be staying in the Cars area of Art of Animation in a few months.  My littlest is going to love it. 

 

I was going to say more but now I can't remember anything so I guess I'll just say Thanks and am enjoying this report.

 

Thanks for commenting!

 

As long as y'all are heading west, you may as well pencil in a trip to Disneyland. One thing that surprised me is that a nice visit to Disneyland could easily be a lot less expensive as a stay at WDW.  The off site hotel options here are so much more convenient than they are at WDW.

 

Beau Bridges? Too cool!   :bravo: for getting the discreet picture.

 

Thanks for the extra update.  I will now try to wait patiently for lunch on Monday.   :waiting2-smiley:

 

I'll be working on Monday's installment right after this.  I hope I make it by lunch time.

 

Fun updates.  Love a good celebrity sighting, even if the twins had no idea who he was!

 

I had no idea it got dark so early out there!  Obviously in the winter the days would be shorter, but still - that seems so early to have the sun go down.  

 

Looking forward to seeing your room at the Grand Californian!

 

I was weird how early the sun set there- it was like an hour earlier than back home.  I don't understand why that is.

 

We will be seeing our Grand Californian room soon.  Maybe in the update after this next one.

 

Great updates!  Wish I had more time to follow during the week.  Beau Bridges!  Seems like he would be a fun guy to hang out with, maybe at a bar with some scotch or something. 

 

Concierge level at the Grand Californian - now that's moving on up in style!

 

Yeah- Beau seemed like a regular guy.  He was there fixing his coffee just like me, and he was sitting with his family at a table close to ours.  They looked like they all enjoyed each other's company.  

 

Yeah, Club Level at a Disney resort is pretty sweet.

 

Got caught in the double post conundrum .....Dang it all!

 

Hoping the viewing spot for WOC is better the second time.

 

The ghost got you!

 

I'll let you know that we ended up seeing WOC a second time.  I'll wait until we get to that before I let you know if I liked it better.

 

I think that is one of the things I remember about trips to WDW that I enjoyed as a kid. Being from the northeast, our sunsets are early in winter as well.  But travel to Florida in the winter and the sun would set much later.  I really dislike the short daylight around here in winter.

 

I also do not like short winter days.  It was good on this trip, though, as we got to see a lot of things in the daylight and then had plenty of time to see them after dark as well.  It gave as a good chance to see all of the Disneyland Christmas decorations.

 

Caught up again.

Really wishing California wasn't so far away.

I asked my daughters if they knew who Beau Bridges was. They didn't, but they were familiar with his brother Jeff Bridges.

 

That's funny that they know Jeff but not Beau.  I doubt my daughters know either.

 

TCD

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Update time.

 

It's Sunday, December 7th.  We checked in to the Grand Californian earlier this morning, and then cut through California Adventure on the way to Disneyland.  We left off about the Disneyland Railroad, taking it all the way around the park.

 

After the New Orleans Square stop, we came to the Toontown stop.  We had exited the train here on our first day, but we stayed on this time around:

 

 

The train continues from here right in front of the Small World building.  Passing over the boats in the outside portion of the ride.  You can see guests in the boats below in this photo:

 

 

That big crowd of people you see in this next photo are in the queue to ride the Small World ride.  It's strange how popular it is here.  Also note the huge topiaries, and, of course, the Matterhorn looming over the entire scene:

 

 

After Toontown, we came to Tomorrowland.  Check out the Agrifuture sign- strange:

 

 

The Tomorrowland station is near the Autopia ride, so we got a good look at it from the train:

 

 

The Matterhorn dominates the skyline here too:

 

 

Those tracks you see above the Autopia attraction are from the Peoplemover.  Even though Disneyland's Peoplemover has been closed for years, the tracks remain.  It's interesting to see that their Peoplemover had inclines:

 

 

Next, we finally came to the Grand Canyon diorama.  I really didn't know much about this before we visited here, but I knew that I wanted to see it.  The diorama was not originally a part of the train ride, and was added in 1958.  Walt apparently was very involved with it, according to this Disney Parks Blog post: http://disneyparks.disney.go.com/blog/2013/03/a-look-back-1958-opening-of-the-grand-canyon-diorama-at-disneyland-park/

 

I encourage you to take a minute and click on that link- it has some really good photos from when the diorama was added, including photos of Walt on the opening day of the diorama.

 

Here we go:

 

 

It looked to me like the critters in here were actual stuffed specimens, not plastic ones.  The blog article confirms that these are works of taxidermy:

 

 

So, kids, animals were harmed in the creation of this attraction:

 

 

After the Grand Canyon came the dinosaurs.  This part was added in the '60's, as these dinosaurs were part of a 1964 World's Fair attraction created by Disney:

 

 

This scene apparently shows some dinosaurs dying, but there was no narration explaining what it was we were looking at:

 

 

It was cool when we came to this scene of a Tyrannosaurus fighting with another dinosaur.  I remember seeing this scene before as a child, I think on the World of Disney TV show, but I never knew where it was.  Well, it's here along the Disneyland railroad tracks:

 

 

It was cool seeing the dinosaurs, and amazing to think that these giant animatronic figures were created over 50 years ago.  The sad thing is that there hasn't been very much progress made in animatronic figures in the 50 years since.

 

We hopped off the train at the Main Street Station.  There was something the girls wanted to do near the end of Main Street.  These chairs we see are all set up for tonight's Candlelight Processional, which will be narrated by our new friend Beau Bridges, whom we had just ate breakfast with back at the Grand Californian concierge lounge:

 

 

 

From what I understand, all of those seats are reserved for invited guests.  Regular folks don't get seats at the Disneyland Candlelight Processional.

 

It's hard to believe how much effort they put in to constructing and decorating a stage that will only be used for two performances:

 

 

As we headed in, we were behind two ladies with elaborate hats that they obviously made themselves:

 

 

I thought maybe we had come across some kind of special Disneyland thing, but these were the only two ladies we saw with homemade hats today.

 

So, it's not a thing.

 

These benches here along the side of the reserved Candlelight Processional seating area are apparently open for regular guests to use. It's 10:37 am, and it looks like these folks are camped out here for the show tonight:

 

 

Disneyland gets their Christmas tree up on time every year.  The MK's tree wasn't up as of December 7, as they wait until after the Christmas parade taping to put it up:

 

 

Disneyland still has their Main Street Cinema, and I wanted to go in there and see it. But, we never did.  So, the report on what's inside will have to wait until the next Disneyland trip report.  According to the marquee, they play Steamboat Willie in there, just like they used to at WDW:

 

 

Seahawks fans.  There's a lot of those in So Cal:

 

 

It must be nice to be a Seahawks fan these days.

 

The hub area at Disneyland seems bigger.  Maybe it's just because the castle is so small:

 

 

The Dapper Dans were performing off to one side:

 

 

Look at how young the Disneyland Dapper Dans are.  They were singing Christmas songs, and they were really good:

 

 

Mary Poppins and Bert were meeting right next to the Dapper Dans, and there was a short line. The twins wanted to meet them.  I wanted to go and get us FP's for something.  So, I left them there, and headed off.  We agreed to meet up outside of our next stop.

 

Disneyland still has a good old tip board:

 

 

Note that Indiana Jones was down.  Back in the paper FP days, they would sometimes shut down FP machines when the attraction went down.  That is where I thought I was heading, but I diverted to Big Thunder instead:

 

I headed in to the Frontierland gates.  I turned around and saw the Astro Orbiter from there.  Would Walt approve of that?:

 

 

The Disneyland shooting range kind of dominates this area, unlike the MK one which is hidden away:

 

 

I grabbed the FP's and detoured through Adventureland on the way back. I needed to hit a restroom, and I remembered where one was in Adventureland.  It was funny how we had such a hard time finding restrooms in Disneyland.  They seem to be hidden away here.  I took this photo because they had real fire on their torches here.  I don't think we have any real fire on our torches at the MK:

 

 

I cut back through Frontierland on the way back to the hub:

 

 

Next up, we will meet up for a surprisingly good show.

 

TCD

[The Troll 67]

Isn't this scene straight out of the Ellen Energy ride at Epcot:

 

 

Isn't that where you saw it before?

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Isn't this scene straight out of the Ellen Energy ride at Epcot:

 

 

Isn't that where you saw it before?

 

I don't know.

 

I'm usually asleep before we get to that part.

 

J/K.  But, I don't think it's the same scene.  Similar, I'm sure, but not the same. 

 

TCD

[The Troll 67]

It's awfully doggone close: