In the house of the mouse
DL
WOW!
Each time I go I think it must be hard to get any better! This time without Shawn was different but just as thrilling and fun.
Nicole and I got on the road at 4:30 and drove through to Anaheim with one stop for gas and snacks. At 10am we rolled into Mickey & Friends parking lot and jumped on a tram. Nicole asking “are you sure I need to bring my over shirt, aren’t we going to check into the hotel, or at least go back to the car?” “Yeah, I seriously doubt it, bring your shirt, put it in my bag, don’t worry about it, we’ll be back to the car after midnight.” “What, What, What???” Nicole is alarmed! She has never been to Disneyland without a break in the middle of the day to go back to the hotel to nap!
First stop…the bank to see if Robin is working…not there, will try again later.
Next, buy a hat as I left mine at home and man do I burn. Pink looks like the ticket today, no embroidery, not enough time to wait! Off to Buzz Lightyear, no Chrissi working ACK I really wanted to see Chrissi! Then on to Space Mountain to obtain a fastpass…what the wait is only 15 minutes? Walk on baby! Front of car for Nicole…WOOT. Off to the Matterhorn. Again 15 minute wait. Along the way I spot Pat making Magic for some folks on the side of the line…I hop out and run over and say I just want a little love and I have to go back into line, she is excited because we already booked an appointment with her for Monday at 11:30am. Matterhorn we ride together to be able to jump the line. After the Matterhorn, we see a young teen get pulled from line to be awarded a “major” gift that she doesn’t have a parent or guardian with her to sign for…DREAM SUITE!!!!! They call her parents to come down and sign the paperwork and the parents will return later in the evening to stay the night with her!!! How EFFIN cool is that! We go to ride Winnie the Pooh and look at Splash Mtn. Splash is just too crowded at 35 minutes to wait in line so we decide to get a re-ad from a friend for that one. We get lunch at hungry bear a bacon cheese w/rings to share! Yummm. Off for Mansion, Pirates and Indy. All along the way I show her hidden Mickeys. Then over to DCA for Tower Of Terror! On the way we stop to watch the lowering of the Flag. I , of course can’t not cry when they play the Marine Corp hymn, after the ceremony she follows me as I go up and Thank as many of the Service men and women for their service and wich them luck and peace. Nicole is now crying as she sees how touched our soldiers are at a simple Thank You! We make it over to DCA and head to Tower, she is very apprehensive about this ride, I literally have to talk her into it all the while pointing out little kids who are riding and loving it! Finally we get to the room with the TV monitor and she says she’s okay and excited after the video. We go and she’s good, it may not be her favorite, but she’ll go again…tomorrow not now. We meet up with DJ at Turtle Talk and make plans for him to play with us Monday after he gets off shift. Then we go over to the Train in DL to see Justin and that boy let out a giant SQUEE when he saw me and he was a bit in a snit that Shawn wasn’t there, but he loved on Nicole anyway! We rode the train with him and he said he’d get us VIP for the fireworks! After once around on the train we headed back over to DCA to go to dinner at The Storytellers Café in the California Grand. Awesome buffet and they made us fabulous Mickey Mousses for our birthdays! I made sure to tell Adan’s manager that he was great! Then back to DL for the Fireworks. We pick our seats and chat with Justin…about 15 minutes later here comes Bob Saget to sit about 4 feet away, his GF was very pretty and they were really lovey together, it was sweet. Fireworks were awesome as always. Down to the Bank again to see if Robin is there…Hurah! She there and she bursts into tears as she realizes it’s me at her window! She flings herself out the gate and into my arms. I tell her we love her and we exchange emails as Friday is her last day at DL, her husband has been transferred to Idaho in the Military. She says “ I’m so glad you came tonight I brought a gift for you, I just had a feeling you’d be here!” She runs in back and get a bottle of Pixie Dust she’s made for her special friends, this of course makes me cry and there we sit in the middle of the bank balling like little girls, then we clean ourselves up and have to say goodbye as her manager is pissed and wants her back to work…oh well she only has one working day left, what are they gonna do? Then back to Buzz…is Chrissi working? NO! Damn!!!! Mansion again…then I walk up to the Dream Squad and say, my friend at the bank tried to call the cloud but no one answered, it’s my BFF and my birthday, can you squeeze us into VIP for Fantasmic? For Sure! In we go and sit down on the stairs…then who sits next to Nicole??? Dog the Bounty Hunter and his whole family! She is beside herself, but wont look at them or talk to them, I laugh at her! Silly girl. After the 10:30 showing of Fantasmic, we hit Pirates again and then head down Main Street to shop on the way out. Out to the car at 12:10 and check into the Ramada at 12:30 shower and asleep by 1am.
Up at 8am…hit DCA at 10sharp and do Soaring over California…always disappointed by the lack of “Pug” Southerland (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pug_Southerland ) in the Aviator’s wall of fame during entry, but the ride is fantastic! By this time is almost 11:30 so we head over to FantasyLand for our visit with Pat. Nicole realizes she hasn’t been into FantasyLand since she was little, so this is really starting to excite her. Pat meets us and tours FL with us, giving us history and trivia about each ride. She takes us to the front of every ride’s line (except Tea Cups which we do not like), as she puts us on the ride she says Jen you look for this this and this and Nicole you look for this this and this. When we get off we tell her what we saw and if we get everything, she gives us a fast pass for a ride of our choice for anytime during the day. She also shows us some hidden Mickeys and as we move about FL there are rides that go down and we get to see the inner workings, how she deals with guests and how guests are offloaded when a ride goes “105” (off line). It was an eye opener for Nicole and she said “I wish everyone here could see this so people didn’t act so craptastic when a ride goes down.” All in all Pat sent us off with 5 fast passes and a hint for a special ride. We meet up with DJ at Westward Ho Pin Traders and go for Splash Mountain with or FP and get ENTIRELY soaked. We then go to the Dole fruit stand and get a whipfloat…OMFG yummy! Stand around in the sun to dry a little then, we head over to the Mark Twain to see about that “special ride” Pat told us about…I approach Michael as he is about to close the exit gates and say “I have heard it is feasible to make Magic in the wheel house, it’s our birthdays, can you help with that kind of Magic?” Michael grins really big as if I have just propositioned him and say right this way ladies (in his best Val Venis impersonation). And up we go the where they drive the Paddle Boat. We get to toot the whistles and ring the bells. It was really cool. Then we went to see Pancho the donkey at the petting zoo. DJ suggested a place for dinner…Café Orleans, Nicole and I split the Monte Christo and the Seafood Crepes and the 3 of us shared a basket of Pomme Frites, too good, this is a new favorite restaurant. Then off to use a few Fastpasses. DJ hooks us up with a girl working the Electrical Parade and we get VIP seating for that too…and it at the VERY end of the route so we see them all going into the gate and they all wave to us or blow us kisses or run over and hug us. As Nicole said over and over we were feeling like Princesses for sure! Back we went to DL for last minute shopping and then a midnight snack of a hot dog for me and a pretzel for her, then back to the hotel for sleeping.
We got up yesterday at 10am and headed back leisurely toward home stopping for gas and lunch at IHOP. I dropped Nicole off and then picked up Shawn and met Puppy for dinner at Dennys. Then went home and dropped dead!
LOVE DISNEYLAND!!!!
WOW!
Each time I go I think it must be hard to get any better! This time without Shawn was different but just as thrilling and fun.
Nicole and I got on the road at 4:30 and drove through to Anaheim with one stop for gas and snacks. At 10am we rolled into Mickey & Friends parking lot and jumped on a tram. Nicole asking “are you sure I need to bring my over shirt, aren’t we going to check into the hotel, or at least go back to the car?” “Yeah, I seriously doubt it, bring your shirt, put it in my bag, don’t worry about it, we’ll be back to the car after midnight.” “What, What, What???” Nicole is alarmed! She has never been to Disneyland without a break in the middle of the day to go back to the hotel to nap!
First stop…the bank to see if Robin is working…not there, will try again later.
Next, buy a hat as I left mine at home and man do I burn. Pink looks like the ticket today, no embroidery, not enough time to wait! Off to Buzz Lightyear, no Chrissi working ACK I really wanted to see Chrissi! Then on to Space Mountain to obtain a fastpass…what the wait is only 15 minutes? Walk on baby! Front of car for Nicole…WOOT. Off to the Matterhorn. Again 15 minute wait. Along the way I spot Pat making Magic for some folks on the side of the line…I hop out and run over and say I just want a little love and I have to go back into line, she is excited because we already booked an appointment with her for Monday at 11:30am. Matterhorn we ride together to be able to jump the line. After the Matterhorn, we see a young teen get pulled from line to be awarded a “major” gift that she doesn’t have a parent or guardian with her to sign for…DREAM SUITE!!!!! They call her parents to come down and sign the paperwork and the parents will return later in the evening to stay the night with her!!! How EFFIN cool is that! We go to ride Winnie the Pooh and look at Splash Mtn. Splash is just too crowded at 35 minutes to wait in line so we decide to get a re-ad from a friend for that one. We get lunch at hungry bear a bacon cheese w/rings to share! Yummm. Off for Mansion, Pirates and Indy. All along the way I show her hidden Mickeys. Then over to DCA for Tower Of Terror! On the way we stop to watch the lowering of the Flag. I , of course can’t not cry when they play the Marine Corp hymn, after the ceremony she follows me as I go up and Thank as many of the Service men and women for their service and wich them luck and peace. Nicole is now crying as she sees how touched our soldiers are at a simple Thank You! We make it over to DCA and head to Tower, she is very apprehensive about this ride, I literally have to talk her into it all the while pointing out little kids who are riding and loving it! Finally we get to the room with the TV monitor and she says she’s okay and excited after the video. We go and she’s good, it may not be her favorite, but she’ll go again…tomorrow not now. We meet up with DJ at Turtle Talk and make plans for him to play with us Monday after he gets off shift. Then we go over to the Train in DL to see Justin and that boy let out a giant SQUEE when he saw me and he was a bit in a snit that Shawn wasn’t there, but he loved on Nicole anyway! We rode the train with him and he said he’d get us VIP for the fireworks! After once around on the train we headed back over to DCA to go to dinner at The Storytellers Café in the California Grand. Awesome buffet and they made us fabulous Mickey Mousses for our birthdays! I made sure to tell Adan’s manager that he was great! Then back to DL for the Fireworks. We pick our seats and chat with Justin…about 15 minutes later here comes Bob Saget to sit about 4 feet away, his GF was very pretty and they were really lovey together, it was sweet. Fireworks were awesome as always. Down to the Bank again to see if Robin is there…Hurah! She there and she bursts into tears as she realizes it’s me at her window! She flings herself out the gate and into my arms. I tell her we love her and we exchange emails as Friday is her last day at DL, her husband has been transferred to Idaho in the Military. She says “ I’m so glad you came tonight I brought a gift for you, I just had a feeling you’d be here!” She runs in back and get a bottle of Pixie Dust she’s made for her special friends, this of course makes me cry and there we sit in the middle of the bank balling like little girls, then we clean ourselves up and have to say goodbye as her manager is pissed and wants her back to work…oh well she only has one working day left, what are they gonna do? Then back to Buzz…is Chrissi working? NO! Damn!!!! Mansion again…then I walk up to the Dream Squad and say, my friend at the bank tried to call the cloud but no one answered, it’s my BFF and my birthday, can you squeeze us into VIP for Fantasmic? For Sure! In we go and sit down on the stairs…then who sits next to Nicole??? Dog the Bounty Hunter and his whole family! She is beside herself, but wont look at them or talk to them, I laugh at her! Silly girl. After the 10:30 showing of Fantasmic, we hit Pirates again and then head down Main Street to shop on the way out. Out to the car at 12:10 and check into the Ramada at 12:30 shower and asleep by 1am.
Up at 8am…hit DCA at 10sharp and do Soaring over California…always disappointed by the lack of “Pug” Southerland (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pug_Southerland ) in the Aviator’s wall of fame during entry, but the ride is fantastic! By this time is almost 11:30 so we head over to FantasyLand for our visit with Pat. Nicole realizes she hasn’t been into FantasyLand since she was little, so this is really starting to excite her. Pat meets us and tours FL with us, giving us history and trivia about each ride. She takes us to the front of every ride’s line (except Tea Cups which we do not like), as she puts us on the ride she says Jen you look for this this and this and Nicole you look for this this and this. When we get off we tell her what we saw and if we get everything, she gives us a fast pass for a ride of our choice for anytime during the day. She also shows us some hidden Mickeys and as we move about FL there are rides that go down and we get to see the inner workings, how she deals with guests and how guests are offloaded when a ride goes “105” (off line). It was an eye opener for Nicole and she said “I wish everyone here could see this so people didn’t act so craptastic when a ride goes down.” All in all Pat sent us off with 5 fast passes and a hint for a special ride. We meet up with DJ at Westward Ho Pin Traders and go for Splash Mountain with or FP and get ENTIRELY soaked. We then go to the Dole fruit stand and get a whipfloat…OMFG yummy! Stand around in the sun to dry a little then, we head over to the Mark Twain to see about that “special ride” Pat told us about…I approach Michael as he is about to close the exit gates and say “I have heard it is feasible to make Magic in the wheel house, it’s our birthdays, can you help with that kind of Magic?” Michael grins really big as if I have just propositioned him and say right this way ladies (in his best Val Venis impersonation). And up we go the where they drive the Paddle Boat. We get to toot the whistles and ring the bells. It was really cool. Then we went to see Pancho the donkey at the petting zoo. DJ suggested a place for dinner…Café Orleans, Nicole and I split the Monte Christo and the Seafood Crepes and the 3 of us shared a basket of Pomme Frites, too good, this is a new favorite restaurant. Then off to use a few Fastpasses. DJ hooks us up with a girl working the Electrical Parade and we get VIP seating for that too…and it at the VERY end of the route so we see them all going into the gate and they all wave to us or blow us kisses or run over and hug us. As Nicole said over and over we were feeling like Princesses for sure! Back we went to DL for last minute shopping and then a midnight snack of a hot dog for me and a pretzel for her, then back to the hotel for sleeping.
We got up yesterday at 10am and headed back leisurely toward home stopping for gas and lunch at IHOP. I dropped Nicole off and then picked up Shawn and met Puppy for dinner at Dennys. Then went home and dropped dead!
LOVE DISNEYLAND!!!!