OMG
When I left you last in January I was going off to feed the kids and now here I am in JULY (and helping DD12 and her best friend cook a 3 course meal for eight tonight). As you can tell food is just fabulous at our place.
We are up to the Thursday December 22.
This morning we headed to DL for opening and made it. Yippee. Off to ride Matterhorn again three times without hopping off, Fast passes for Star Tours, rode Space Mountain, Buzz and the main focus for the morning, meeting Tinkerbell at Pixie Hollow. We were second in line and DD2 was just about jumping out of her pants with excitement.
Pixie Hollow
We met Rosetta and Tink much to the delight of DD. We weren't there for long but another job off the list. Our aim was to make it over to DCA for park opening and get onto Toy Story Mania. After a quick run through Soarin during early entry we made it too rope drop at the bridge for our dash to Toy Story Mania. In
Disneyland it had felt a little windy, well in the open expanses of DCA it was a gale. Hats, scarves, children(well not off the ground...) were flying away with the wind.It was not pleasant. We made for Toy Story Mania as on our last visit in 2007 this was only 6 months away from opening (a bit like Carsland this time). We have the Wii version and have been in training. We enjoyed it, but even going straight from rope drop we waited for 50 minutes. Noone (except me) wanted to stand in line again for this one. We headed further round and rode the Mickey Fun Wheel (I went for TOT Fastpasses, it makes me feel green). The girls went on Goofy's Flight School, Symphony Swings and the Jumpin Jellyfish (DD2 loves it).
Grandpa and DD1 ready for battle!
The wind was really awful. I had made reservations at the Carnation Cafe for lunch which we were going to abandon to spend most of the day at DCA but we were all miserable and decided a nice seat tucked out of the wind for lunch sounding pretty fine. So after a quick detour to use the the Tower of Terror tickets we headed back to Disneyland. After trying to split the group of us and sit us at opposite ends of the Cafe we were finally seated at two tables near each other. We had different waiters and of course DH and I got the one that seemed a tad clueless. But, her would not ruin my experience. I had heard about the baked potato soup and I was determined. It was just divine and I was devastated that it had to end. DH had the Shepherds Pie which he also enjoyed. After a couple of coffees and hot chocolates the girls and Grandpa went in search of ice cream. Grandma and I ventured into the shops and DH waited as a meeting point. He is such a good sport.
We had at this point just over an hour to kill before we had to meet for the Holiday Tour. We headed to the Jungle Cruise. DD2 was complaining that her legs were sore because of her pants rubbing. We had the same problem in Europe. She has really sensitive skin which reacts in cold weather. She had problems with the pool water in Hawaii as well. OT Found a great relief cream in Sephora. Anyway, now with only 25 minutes I start out at a run back down to Downtown Disney to the surf shop to get a pair of Roxy tracksuit pants. Into the toilets next to City Hall and YEAH we are ready for the Holiday Tour in comfy pants.
While I was running down Downtown Disney she did manage to meet Donald outside City Hall.
So the tour started at 3pm, I had collected our tickets early that morning from City Hall and we had to meet at around 2.30 at the gazebo in the Tour Garden to the left of City Hall. People began assembling. This was around the time of the first parade of the day.
Three separate groups departed on the day with around 15 people in each group. We were the last of the three groups to head off. Each of us received a special tour tag that identified us as part of the group. We all also received earphones to hear instructions from our tour guide along the way. Our tour guide had a magical candle that would be powered by our Christmas spirit. We had to yell out Happy Holidays to make it work. DH hates anything were group participation is involved and the tour was just within his limits.
Whilst walking music also played in our ears. As we walked down Main Street special Christmas traditions were pointed out at Walt's Apartment, Hannukah in one of the stores on Main Street. As we walked passed the candy store we all received a sample of fudge. The air vents that send out the smells to Main Street were also pointed out. We wandered through Fantasyland, past Reindeer Roundup, through Frontierland to New Orleans Square. In each land we spoke about Christmas traditions in Europe, in the new Frontier and in New Orleans. We learnt lots of different ways to say Merry Christmas or Happy Holidays.
We then went to the front of the line at Haunted Mansion all decorated for the holidays. This was my only time for the whole trip. My youngest DD is not a fan, however because it was part of the tour she went along which was great. Was happy to ride again.
We then boarded our private reserved carriage for our train ride from New Orleans Square to Toon Town where we were encouraged to join in a Carols sing a long which got the whole train bopping along. Very nice.
On disembarking we made our way to Its a Small World were again we went straight to the beginning for our magical tour through Christmas around the world. I do really love this ride at Christmas.
From here we headed back to Toontown to collect our Hot Chocolate in Souvenir Cup and a Christmas decorated Mickey Gingerbread Man. We took these with us back to the promenade outside Its a Small World where the three row of chairs were waiting.
Each group had a set of seats around 8 across. Grandpa was not having his girls miss the front row (as they were the smallest) and walked briskly at the front to reserve our front row seats. He was not nasty or mean, just determined. There were no bad seats but he is a Grandpa after all who adores his only two grandbabies. He would have taken the back row for them to sit in front.
We sat and shortly afterwards the parade began. Just as good a view of waiting in the gutter. The dancers and characters all came over to dance and high five us (including Woody!). It was truly enchanting.
The tour concluded here and we handed back our headsets and received our special Holiday Tour Pin. We then continued to enjoy our evening at the park.
Would I do it again? Probably not for DH and the kids as we can brave the gutters but for my parents it was a great way to spend time and save their weary bones waiting for the parade. Also knowing that we had it planned we did not have to worry about when to put the tour into our plans. We could also make the most of the slightly shorter queues whilst the parade was going on.
Am I glad we did it? Sure am, it is a must do just once and it was a really special memory of the trip.
We headed back to the Hotel through Downtown Disney. Grandma and Grandpa took the girls ahead and DH and I stopped and grabbed Pizzas from Napoli and did some last minute shopping which we wrapped that night. We still had not found the Diagon Alley Harry Potter from way back in Hawaii, we had checked at the
Lego Store in Anaheim the first day and had been ringing them, and also the store in Hawaii who were holding one for my brother to collect. As we walked past they were unpacking boxes and out popped a Diagon Alley, DH grabbed the pizzas and I ran to get it.
With smiles on our faces we headed back for a nice night in. We had planned to watch the fireworks from the balcony. This was the last night they ran until Boxing Day due to an workplace health and safety issue.
Tomorrow: LA and Warner Bros Studios.
DH just wanted to enjoy the parade go by.