When I came out of the ride, I browsed the shops in the area for a bit. I noticed that in the area across from Toy Story Midway Mania, Woody was out. I always thought that this area is just stroller parking. Anyway, I decided to get in line for a photo with Woody. It was nearly my turn when the character escort announced that Woody would go for a break, but would be back later and Buzz would be out shortly. I would have preferred a photo with Woody, but decided to hang around for a photo with Buzz. He turned up about 10 minutes later. Once I had my photo, I decided to have another go at Toy Story Midway Mania. The posted waiting time was still 45 minutes and I waited a bit longer this time, but still only about 30 minutes.
When I finished with Toy Story Midway Mania, I took a stroll along the boardwalk area of Paradise Pier. When I came up near The Little Mermaid: Ariel's Undersea Adventure, the green army men came past. I don't know why I did not take a photo of this. I headed over to The Little Mermaid: Ariel's Undersea Adventure, but either it was still down or it was down again. In any case, I did not get to ride it this time. I headed over to the gift shop near Ariel's Grotto in the hope that Duffy may be in his photo spot. I got plenty of photos with Duffy last year, but he was wearing his Halloween outfit then and I was rather hoping to get a photo with him in his sailor outfit. Alas, that was not to be either.
I decided to have a wander around the Pacific Wharf area. I was still living in hope that the new Ghirardelli Factory Tour and Soda Fountain may be open. Unfortunately this was not the case. They were making good progress, but it looked like they were still a little while off. By that time I was quite thirsty. I went over to Rita's Baja Blenders and had a Blue Raspberry Tropicool, which was non-alcoholic. Essentially it was a glorified Slush Puppy, but it was tasty and very refreshing. It was relatively hot and I could not believe how many people were having alcohol that early in the day. I was actually quite hungry so I headed across to the Lucky Fortune Cookery. I had a Teriyaki Beef Rice Bowl, which was very nice.
After lunch, I cut through A Bug's Land on my way to Hollywoodland. I really wanted to see Turtle Talk with Crush, which is located in the Animation Building at California Adventure. On my way in, I saw that they were offering various classes to draw characters. The next class on the schedule was Pluto. Even though I cannot draw to safe my life, this appealed to me. So I decided that Crush could wait and I would do this class. I did not have a long wait until they were starting to let people in. The seating was similar to that in a theater, but on each seat they had an oversized clipboard with a pencil and at the end of each row were piles of paper. The cast member taking the class essentially broke down the character into various shapes and lines and all over sudden it did not feel so daunting anymore. I would have to lie if I said I created a masterpiece, but the fruits of my labours actually somewhat looked like Pluto. Once I finished the class, I headed over to Turtle Talk with Crush. This was as funny as I had remembered and I was glad that I had made the effort. I browsed in a couple of shops and then I decided I had enough for the day. I took some photos on the way out and then I returned to the hotel.
Since I had spotted the Dooney and Bourke iPad case on the first day, it had never really left my mind. I decided to have a look in the hotel gift shop on the way to our room. They only had two of the iPad cases left, one of which had the perfect placement of the different elements of the design. I just knew that I had to have this. I had been given a Disney gift card by somebody on the cruise, which paid for a nice chunk of this. So I decided to just go for it. I went up to our room and collected the gift card before returning to the shop to get my iPad case. Fortunately nobody had snapped it up while I was gone. I have to say I am getting plenty of use out of this.
I decided to check out Downtown Disney for a bit. There were a lot of changes happening at the time with some shops that were there last year being closed and about to be replaced by other shops. The big
Lego shop that was closed last year had now reopened and I decided to check this out. I also checked out the big World of Disney shop and the shop where they are selling all the Vinylmations. Even the Pin Trading shop did not prove any temptation. I would have been fine if I had resisted the temptation to check out Vault 28. In this shop they sell quirky Disney fashion, but also Dooney and Bourke bags. As soon as I entered the shop, I spotted a small selection of lilac handbags with purple Tinkerbells and pink hearts on it. Those bags were also the perfect size to take to work and they were significantly cheaper than other Dooney and Bourke bags that I had seen in this size. Still, I decided to resist. One of the staff realised what was going on and came over. He told me that this bag really suited me, took one of the shelf and told me to take it over to the mirror. It took every ounce of restraint that I had to hand it back to him.
At this point, I had done more than enough walking for the day. I decided to return to the hotel. As we were now strictly speaking hotel guests, we were getting daily housekeeping. As the room looked nice and tidy, I decided to take the opportunity to take some photos of the room. I have to say I prefer the two bed set up to the bed and sleeper sofa. This is another reason why Old Key West is such a good fit for us as it has two beds in every studio. Once I had taken my photos, I just settled down with my book for a bit.