Adventures in Public Transport - Day 15 - Surfs Up Breakfast & Disneyland Park

[Disney Wishing]

Day 15 - Surfs Up Breakfast & Disneyland Park

So after a relaxed day yesterday today was going to be a busy one. It was DS 12th Birthday.

The day started with a wake up call from Mickey. This was followed up by another call from Goofy with a a special birthday message and him singing Happy Birthday. If you ever have a child celebrating a birthday just ask guest services for this and they will set it up.

After opening up some cards we quickly got washed and ready as we had a 7.40am character breakfast booked at Surf’s Up in the Paradise Pier Hotel. DS had picked this one as it features Stitch.

We checked in at the desk and then went for photos with Mickey. It was then that I remembered I hadn't yet set up photo pass but the luckily staff here could do it.

We had great fun at the breakfast. Stitch was really on form with lots of messy around and we had a really sassy Minnie who told DH off for not having his camera ready. We also saw Daisy & Pluto; in fact in the hour we were there most characters came around twice. They also have this mini dance party where they get the children up to the Beach Boys.

The Buffett had a really good selection with all the usual american fare plus a few different items like a breakfast pizza, banana fosters french toast, chilaquiles and various smoothies. Character meal are always overpriced really ($35 each) but nice for a birthday treat.

We finished up here around 8.50am and headed to the Disneyland Park. There was no line for security so we made it to the park gate just after 9am. We had brought our tickets ahead of time through attraction tickets direct so could head straight to the gate. We were so excited!

The first plan of action was to get fast passes for Hyperspace Mountain. We had been watching times on the app and knew this built really quickly. We got a return time of 10.50 -11.50am. From here we heading to Autopia, the Matterhorn & Buzz Lightyear.

DS & DH went on Astro Orbitor before we headed for Hyperspace Mountain. We loved this and put this on the list to ride again. From here we headed to Big Thunder Mountain, we loved all the new effects on, Next was Pirates. Again the effects on this version are brilliant. After a quick meet n greet with Tiana on the Mark Twain we picked up a fast passes for Indie before grabbing a snack. I had Begal BBQ on my list so we tried that. We shared between us the Zulu Beef Skewer, Chicken Skewer, Safari Skewer (bacon wrapped asparagus) and a tiger tail. I wasn't a a fan of the tiger tail as it was fairly dry but everything else was delicious. Tiana had switched out with Dr Facilier so we went to meet him. We’d never met him before; he was good fun.

From here we went to see if we could we could pick up FP for Splash but we weren't quite in the time range so we headed to Winnie the Pooh which was a walk on in the middle of the afternoon. This was really cute, from here we went to pick up Splash FP’s before heading back to Indie to use our fast passes there. This was an another great ride and feels so different to Dinosaur in Animal Kingdom, I thought they are suppose to be the same ride layout? We had a little time to kill before we could use our Splash FP so went for a look around the little shop near here and grabbed some more water. (Tip if your not already aware that you can get a cup of free ice water from any quick service).

By now it was 2.35pm and time to use our Splash Fast Past. It was really hot by now so we thought it we be good to cool off. Well we got totally soaked! The joke of splash mountain being name soak mountain stayed for the rest of the holiday.

The video footage I took is so funny. We sat in the sun for a bit to dry off but decided we really needed to go back and change so dripped our way over to the monorail and hopped on. From the DTD station to the DLH its a quick 3 minute walk so it didn't take long.

By 5pm we were back on the monorail and heading back to the park. We headed to pick up a fast past for Star Tours before riding the Carousel and Mr Toad. I don't think I've ever rode this before and it was really fun.

DS & DH then rode the teacups before heading to the Galatic Grill for diner. DS had picked this out for birthday tea. We had the First Order Burgers that came with fries and tried the Dark & Light side special drink they have that come with special glow cubes.

DS also wanted to pick up one of the special BB8 sippers with some of his birthday money so we went to grab that before heading to used our Star Tours FP. DS then asked to ride Thunder again so we headed there. The sun was started to set and the lighting was lovely on here.

As we were heading there we noticed a lot of the locals were already lined up for Paint the Night & the firework. I gave DS a choice of whether he wanted another ride on something or get a good spot for the fireworks and he decided to get a spot so we headed off to Main Street. We managed to get a space near Gibson Girl so settled in for the wait. After all the walking we had done that day it was quite nice sat there.

The Paint the Night parade started at 8.45pm. It starts at the other end of the park so took a few minutes to get to us. Wow this parade was amazing, so bright, amazing floats and I loved the music. It ws certainly worth the wait! As soon as this finishes we stepped out into the street ready for the fireworks. We’d had the sneak preview from our room but seeing the main thing with all the projections was amazing. I think Frozen is little overdone in the parks but the snow in let it go was beautiful. We said it was the first time DS had had snow for his birthday. I totally teared up at the end, I’m such a sucker for Disney Nighttime shows.

We waited a bit for the crowd to disperse before heading back to Tomorrowland. We thought about a ride on Hyperspace Mountain but the queue was still long so instead headed back on the monorail to the hotel. We asked to see if we could ride in the from but someone was already waiting but they offered us to see in the back instead. This was really cool and a great ending to DS birthday. I think I was asleep as soon as my head hit the pillow!

[anji]

Fabulous day and a lovely birthday. You certainly packed a lot in to celebrate!

[Guest]

What a brilliant birthday celebration. I adore Disneyland. To think its where Walt walked and envisaged his park and its development.

[jocat]

Sounds a lovely way to spend a birthday.

[nanasamboy]

Glad to see PCH Grill is good fun - we're going next month

Thanks for sharing