A Quick Trip to DL before the big one to WDW Day 2

[meldan98]

After making 3 trips from our room to the breakfast bar, we finally finished breakfast at the hotel. Come on, Hampton Inn, get trays!!! At least the DD and DH got hot food and crunchy cereal. I got cold sausage and soggy cereal. What moms sacrifice...

We decided to drive because I absolutely loath the ART (Anaheim Resort Transportation). It's never on time and in warm weather, the AC has always been iffy. Maybe things have changed, but I'm not up for testing it again. Twice was enough for me. We made it to the park before the 8:00am official opening and got in line. It was an EE day, but we didn't get EE with our tickets. Our goal was to get to Nemo as quickly as possible. My DH walked quickly ahead to check out the line while I pushed DD's stroller down Main Street. My DH got to the Nemo line at 8:04...the wait was already 2 hours...ugh!!! Oh well. We walked on IASW and then on to Buzz, then made our way over to the princess walk and lined up prior to it opening. That was wonderful. My DD got to spend a few minutes with Aurora, Cinderella, Minnie, and Jasmine. My DH and I weren't all that fond of Jasmine...she seemed to have woken up on the wrong side of the magic carpet. Did you know that they have a BBB area set up by the Princess walk? It's not really advertised and no one was using it, so I'm not sure how new this is.

We were then off to ToonTown. My husband took our DD on her first roller coaster ride. I didn't have the guts to take her. I rode behind them. I guess she was absolutely terrified, and screamed the entire time. After the ride, she told me that the ride was scary, but fun. We then went to visit Mickey then went and had a snack. We through the Chip and Dale tree house, and went to a few of the shops and then headed over to Tomorrowland to have lunch. My DH and I split an order of Chicken Fusuli and my DD had the PB&J lunch box that I picked up on our way over to Tomorrowland.

After lunch we headed over to Adventureland and rode the Jungle cruise, walked up the tree house, then rode Pirates. My DD freaked out about the drops and didn't really enjoy the ride from there on, but really liked seeing the treasure room. This was the first time we have rode since the Jack Sparrow updates, and I was amazed at how realistic some of the Jack Sparrow figures were. We then headed over and rode Pooh to get DD in a better mind frame. Then it was nap time. DD climbed into her stroller and was out in about 15 minutes.

While DH pushed her in the stroller waiting for her to fall asleep, I went up to the gallery to get one last look around and to see if there was anything I wanted. Unfortunately, they were out of the Grotto figurines, but I did find a print that I wanted. Some of the artwork was so beautiful. I just wish I had $10k to plop down on some of the art work. I am truly going to miss the gallery and the wonderful staff there. This is one treasure that I will miss! Next was hubby's turn in the gallery, so I walked through some of the shops and sat and rested for a while. By the way, what happened to the Xmas store? I'm so disappointed. I'm hoping that this is just a temporary change. I was waiting in New Orleans Square, right next to Cafe Orleans and noticed that they had a Ratatouille themed menu for kids and I new my DD would love that and I love the fact that they had the Monte Cristo on the menu. I asked the woman at the stand if they had reservations for dinner, and I was able to pick my time. Yippee! After my DH got done in the gallery we headed over to the Pooh store and then over to Frontierland to visit the shops. That store used to carry such neat and unique things. I'm really disappointed in the idea that all the stores now carry pretty much the same stuff. Then, I happened to discover a new Xmas shop in Frontierland next to the shooting gallery. They don't carry as much as the old store did, but it was still really neat.

DD finally woke up at this point so we headed to the front of the park for the afternoon parade. We usually site in the front of the park, so we headed down Main Street. The odd thing was, everyone was sitting in the shade, which I can't blame them. It was really hot that day. But the parade was about to start and the entire left side of the street was empty. We still headed for the front of the park and sat in the center by the flag facing the theater and had the entire side of the street to ourselves. Talk about an interesting perspective. My DD got lots of attention from the parade performers.

We headed over to Tomorrowland to get a fastpass for Buzz and then went back to Toontown to ride Roger Rabbit and DD didn't like that ride at all. We then hit a few shops and met Minnie and played around in some of the interactive stuff. We hit a few of the stores in Fantasyland and got DD a princess doll. She had been so good about trying new rides. I was so proud of her. Then it was off to dinner. Dinner was really good. We got Pom Frites (sp?) and those were so yummy and DH and I both got the Monte Cristo and DD got Mac n Cheese. Next time DH and I will just split the Monte Cristo. After dinner, we then headed over to Fantasyland. DH ran over to Nemo and the ride was at 3 hour wait. DD and I rode Dumbo, then all three of us hoped onto the carousel, tea cups and then rode Peter Pan. After Peter Pan, we walked over to Nemo on our way to Buzz, and we noticed that the line was moving really fast. We asked the cast member at the entrance and she smiled and said, it's about an 1 1/2 hour wait. Of course we hoped in line. We told DD to climb into her stroller and get some rest. She listened and was so excited that she was going to get to ride Nemo. We got to watch the fireworks from the line while we waited and it really helped pass the time. We also met a great family from Wyoming and I new DD was so tired that we would not use our fastpasses for Buzz, so we gave them to the family. Of course just before we go to get on DD tells me she "got to go". We were only a couple of minutes from riding so, we talked her into waiting. We got in the sub and she just loved the ride. I think that this ride made her whole trip. Of course, as soon as we get stopped, she tells me, "Mommy, I really need to go". As soon as we got off I scoop her up and RUN to the RR. We made it just in time. We then hop on the monorail and head back to the car. We had just a fun day!

[disneydrmr]

So glad you finally got to ride Nemo! And your dd was such a brave little girl trying out all those new rides! What a great time you guys had! Thanks for sharing!

[ChipnDaleGal]

I'm just back from a Disneyland trip myself, so your report pops all these images into my head. I love that! Sounds like you had a great day. It is sad the Gallery is closing. It is really nice up there. I am glad that you and your husband were able toi visit it one last time.

[Lizzie]

Sounds like a great day. I was just there last week and made sure to walk through the gallery. I think its my favorite thing to look through. I wonder if they will carry some of these items somewhere else.