Cali Vacation 2011: Day 4

Hello All,
This is the last blog for our California vacation. Stacy and I decided that we wanted to spend our last day of vacation at Disneyland since it was only a couple blocks down the street from our hotel. We got up early that morning so we could get there as soon as the park opened. We took the shuttle from our hotel to the park. Hope you enjoy the pictures.
We got to the park shortly after they opened. When we walked up to the gates the guy that took our tickets was all bundled up with a scarf and everything while Stacy and I were in t-shirts. While we were talking to him about coming from Wisconsin and how wonderful their weather had been the time we were there, he ended up giving each of us a button that says we're Honorary Citizens of Disneyland. It was a pretty aweseom way to start the day.

Then we walked a little further and who do we see....Alice and the Mad Hatter. Of course we had to get our picture with them. After getting our first character picture of the day I had to get a pair of Minnie ears to wear for the day.

As we got to Main Street USA there was the Queen of Hearts so I got my picture with her.

Walking up Main Street we could see Sleeping Beauty's Castle. Stacy kept saying throughout the day how small it was compared to Cinderella's Castle at Disney World. Our goal for the day was to ride as many of the rides we wanted.

As we continued to walk down Main Street I took a picture of the Astro Orbitor that is at the beginning of Tomorrowland.

Just had to get a picture of Walt and Mickey in front of Sleeping Beauty's castle.

From Main Street we headed to Adventureland that is home to Indiana Jones Adventure, the Jungle Cruise, and Tarzan's Treehouse.

The first ride we went on for the day was Indiana Jones Adventure. It was a fun ride. You end up riding in a "jeep" through the Temple of the Forbidden Eye. The thing I like about the majority of the Disney rides is that fact that the ride tells a story.

This is just a picture of the things they have out in front of the ride.

This next picture is Tarzan's Treehouse...well at least the back of it.

As we left Adventureland we could see the Rivers of America and in this picture you can see the Sailing Ship Columbia...

...And from this one you can see the Mark Twain Riverboat. We didn't go on a ride on either of these boats but they were cool to see.

At the entrance of New Orleans Square is the ride Pirates of the Caribbean. The first two times we walked past this ride it was closed. After we went to the Haunted Mansion and walked through Critter Country we were able to ride this one. We ended up getting there right as they opened it so we were on one of the first few boats that went through for the day.

We walked through the doors in the middle to get to the boats for Pirates. It was nice to see that they had incorporated parts from the movie into the ride.

These were all the shops in New Orleans Square. Everything here is decorated for Mardi Gras.

Just up the walkway from the Pirates ride is the Haunted Mansion. Now this ride has a funny story because we got in line and I noticed one of the guys in front of us was wearing an HPU shirt. So after we were done we happened to run into them so I asked if he happened to be a student at HPU. Turns out his brother is one of the deans of one of the colleges at HPU and he was going to go to HPU but decided not to. Seeing somebody wearing an HPU shirt outside of Hawaii was pretty cool especially since one of the last nights at home when we were driving in Madison we ended up driving behind someone with an HPU bumper sticker on their car.

After the Haunted Mansion we walked through Critter Country where we found a shop that had a nurse Minnie pin. I just couldn't pass that up. It was a good thing I got it there because we didn't see that pin anywhere else the whole day. I also got a lanyard and a 2011 Disneyland pin.

Critter Country is home to Splash Mountain. We decided not to go on this ride because we didn't want to be walked around all wet the rest of the day.

Here's some people ready to get wet.

After leaving Critter Country we headed back to Frontierland.

We decided to ride Big Thunder Mountain Railroad roller coaster.

As you wait in line you go through the town of Big Thunder Mountain.

This roller coaster goes up 3 different times throughout the ride. And there it goes. After that ride we went around the corner and ended up running into....

...Woody and Jessie from Toy Story. I just had to get my picture with them. We also found out from the cast member that was standing with Woody and Jessie that just around the corner was Mickey and Minnie. So we went around the corner and found out that there were several characters that were out as part of Disney's Family Fun Weekend. They were having a fiesta so....

...we got our pictures with Donald Duck....

....Mickey and Minnie....

.....Goofy....

....Pluto....

.....and finally Chip'n'Dale. We just happened to be at the right place at the right time. We didn't really have to wait in line that long either because no one really knew they were there.

After getting lots of pictures with the Disney characters we walked into Fantasyland where Peter Pan skipped past us. It happened so fast I wasn't really sure it was him but it was. This was the best picture I could get of him because he was occupied talking with the girls in line for a ride.

This is the picture of some of the shops in Fantasyland.

In Fantasyland we decided to go on Snow White's Scary Adventure. Each car you rode in was named after a dwarf.

There was also a cottage in the front of the ride. After Snow White's Scary Adventure we decided to walk back to Main Street to get something to eat. Stacy and I got a sandwich to share and a Mickey cookie. We had only been in the park for an hour and a half...we had met 13 characters and rode 5 rides. It was a really good morning.

After our mid-morning snack we were heading back to Fantasyland when we ran into Mickey's Music Parade.

All the characters that had been dancing with Mickey and the band they loaded up in the firetruck. We were again in the right place at the right time.

Then Mickey lead the band down Main Street.

As we got in line for our next ride we saw Princess Aurora (Sleeping Beauty) come out to greet guests by her castle.

Our next ride of the day was Peter Pan's Flight.

There was a beautiful painting of Neverland along the back wall.

And of the Darling children and Peter Pan.

We rode on boats through the flight. This flight was from London to Neverland.

After Peter Pan's Flight we went to the next ride which was Mr. Toad's Wild Ride.

I had to get my picture with the statue of Mr. Toad while waiting in line.

After Mr. Toad's Wild Ride we walked a little further down the way to the Mad Tea Party.

We had to get a purple teacup and as Stacy put it "I don't care if you have to throw elbows I want a purple teacup." She was just kidding but I did get her one of the two purple teacups. After the teacups we were walking towards Matterhorn Mountain when we came across Pixie Hollow.

While we were waiting in line to see the fairies we got to see all the fairies houses.

Fairies Welcome...just a little bit further.

These are the coolest lights. As you enter Pixie Hollow you become fairy size so the flowers and blades of grass tower over you.

The first picture opportunities was with Terence as he welcomed us to Pixie Hollow.

After talking with Terence we got to meet Tinkerbell and Vidia. All three fairies liked my ears but kept asking Stacy why she didn't have any ears.

After leaving Pixie Hollow we got in line for the Matterhorn Bobsleds. They have two tracks that take you up into the mountain and you get to see the Abominable Snowman along the way.

Here's a view of the Matterhorn Mountain from further away.

After the Matterhorn Bobsleds we walked past It's a Small World and we found out later in the day that it had been all decorated for the holidays.

Before walking through Mickey's Toontown we got some ice cream and sat down in the Princess Fantasy Faire. Stacy got a Mickey ice cream bar and I got a Mickey ice cream sandwich.

While we were enjoying our ice cream Princess Aurora came out for storytime.

At the Princess Fantasy Faire they have all kinds of performances thus the reason they have a huge stage. You could also meet several princesses here but we didn't feel like waiting in that line.

We then went into Mickey's Toontown where you really feel like you are walking into a cartoon.

The first big thing you see as you walk into Toontown there is Roger Rabbit's fountain and his ride.

This was the longest line we had to stand in but we both thought it was worth it.

These were the cabs we rode in for the ride.

This was Jessica Rabbit's room we saw while we were walking through the line.

The buildings in Toontown are the coolest because everything fits a cartoon.

It was appropriate for Toontown to be written in the hills behind Mickey's house.

The lines to go through the houses in toontown were long so we decided to get pictures of the outsides. Minnie is up on the porch greeting her guests as they go for a tour of her house.

Here's Mickey's house. I think he was in the backyard to greet his guests.

This is how Mickey gets around Toontown.

Next to Mickey's house was Chip'n'Dale's Treehouse.

Donald Duck lives of course in a boat.

Goofy's house has to be just as goofy as him.

I just loved Goofy's scarecrow so I had to get a picture of him.

We decided to ride the Disneyland Railroad around the park a couple times in order to take a break from standing since we spent so much time standing in line for Roger Rabbit's ride.

After our ride around the park we got off at Tomorrowland and went to have an early dinner at Redd Rockett's Pizza Port. After pizza we wanted to go on Space Mountain but after we got in line they told us that it was going to be temporarily closed. So we went and hit up some gift shops. We got in line for Buzz Lightyear's Astro Blasters ride and while in line we saw that Buzz had come out to greet the fellow space commanders.

Buzz told us that we'd each have our own laser gun to hit all of Zurg's "Z's" to earn points. I totally kicked Stacy's butt for this ride. I ended up with 112,000 points and Stacy had about 5,500 points.

This is just another picture of the Astro Orbitor.

We decided to go back to see if Space Mountain was open again and it was. After our wait we finally got to blast through the galaxy. That is a fun ride.

This is the loaded bay for Space Mountain.

After Space Mountain we went to ride Finding Nemo Submarine Voyage. We found out that the submarine fleet used were actually made for WWII. We got to go along with Marlin and Dori as they follow Nemo and Squirt's trip along the EAC to a ship graveyard and finally to the hidden volcano.

As we waiting in line we could hear the seagulls and their classic line "Mine, Mine, Mine."

Stacy got a lightsaber from the Star Tours gift shop.

Here's the castle all lit up.

These were the coolest balloons because they had a light in the middle that changed colors. Its funny because when I took the picture they basically all ended up being blue.

Here's Main Street USA at night. We went back to the hotel for a couple hours and then I headed back to the park to ride some more rides. I ended up riding Pirates, Indiana Jones, the Jungle Cruise, Big Thunder Mountain, Matterhorn Bobsleds, and Space Mountain all again before heading back around midnight. This was definitely a memorable vacation and I know I had a great time. Lots of memories. Hope you enjoyed the pictures. Sending you warm wishes and aloha kisses.