California, Vegas & NYC - Dec 2008 - DAY 2

[kirst_al UK]

Day minus 1 & 0

Day 1 - Heathrow & Anaheim

Me - Kirsty (23) - planned, booked and organised the whole trip; itinerary boffin that loves America.

T'other half - Alex (23) - cause of my Disney addiction, planner of our Disney holidays, pretty much just left this one to me and just went wherever I told him to go... and oh yes... how can i forget - paid for the majority

Day 2 - DISNEYLAND !

December 15, 2008

‘Rain rain go away, come back on another day’….. didn’t listen ! Headed across the road for some breakfast at Mimi’s and got soaked – not happy ! Wasn’t just rain, it was rain rain !


View of freeway from HOJO

I had my first US version EVER of one of my favorite meals - corned beef hash - ok granted i've never had it for breakfast but with some scrambled egg, a bit of toast and the god send that is tomato sauce it was gorg ! Alex had french bread with one thing or another and we both had the freshest OJ in the world ! Really enjoyed Mimi’s and would certainly head back again for breakfast...the atmosphere and waiters etc were really nice too.



First stop upon entry to the park – poncho shop ! Ok so I looked a sod but I didn’t care.


In the majority of our photos it looks like were the only ones in the park !

Walked up the very empty main street (that was because all the sensible people were still at home/in their warm dry hotels!) gutted because we couldn’t really take any pictures of the empty streets because of the rain. Headed down towards the jungle cruise but was closed due to the rain, headed down to Pirates of the Caribbean but that too was closed due to the rain- it was flooded apparently – day didn’t seem to start off that good really eh?! So we went on the Haunted Mansion. Really liked the way they change it when it comes to Christmas – have never seen anything Disney at Christmas so to be honest I thought everything thought looked great.


Its A Small World

After Haunted Mansion we walked to the nearest shop to get me some plastic bags for my feet – yes you read right….I nipped into the toilet, put wet paper towels in my shoes to dry them off, took my socks off, put the plastic bags on my feet and put my socks back on. Yes I’m weird but it felt a lot better than it did and my feet weren’t as cold ! We then headed over to Big Thunder Mountain which again I thought was really cool but had to wait there longer than we anticipated because there was rain on the sensors or something. We headed back over to Space Mountain and as you probably guessed walked straight on. Think we also did a few other rides around that area inc Honey I Shrunk the Audience just to dry off – same with Star Tours. Went on Nemo too which I thought was really cool – was a bit scared I would feel chostrophobic but I was fine. Come of Nemo and the rain had really slowed down – thank goodness !


Finding Nemo


Finding Nemo

Camera out – was able to start taking some pictures. Headed over into Toontown – which again looked really cool all done up for Christmas and then back over to the area behind the castle (Toad in the Hole etc).







Went back around to the Jungle Cruise and Pirates (both now open). Really like Pirates a lot more than the Florida one – I think it was the two drops mainly but absolutely loved the feel of being outside at the beginning floating along side the restaurant.


Restaurant inside Pirates of the Carribean

Headed back around the Lagoon area towards the castle in preparation of the parade – a guy at Big Thunder had commented earlier that he doubted that the parade would be on because of the rain and it might be something along the lines of ‘Mickeys Rainy Day Parade’ something like that. Unfortunately he was right – Mickey and co just came around on the bus with Father Christmas – oh well fingers crossed the night one will be on.


Mickey's Rainy Day Parade


Mickey's Rainy Day Parade

Continued below...

[kirst_al UK]

Because there was no parade and done a fair bit of the Disneyland Park itself we decided to head over to California Adventure.





Really like CA – headed over to the Hollywood backlot area to take a ride on the brilliant Tower of Terror en route taking in the fantastic ‘hollywood’ surroundings. Made me even more excited that in a few days we were going to see the real Hollywood !









Went around to Monsters Inc and Muppetvision exiting the area just in time for the parade.







Because we were due to visit CA the following day too we just took a nice stroll through the rest of the park (however we did have a ride on Soarin’).





Loved the paradise pier section of the park – it was very non-disney-fied in my opinion which wasn’t a bad thing it just made you feel like you were so not in a park owned by Disney. They were taking down the big wheel whilst we were there – are they planning to put anything in its place at all does anyone know? They had also drained the river which I would’ve liked to have seen full to be honest – is this something to do with the removal of the big wheel?





Headed out of the park just before closing I think and headed over to Downtown Disney.



Loved DTD - very different to the Orlando one - alot smaller but really nice. Its more of a strip and even thought i've never been from pictures i've seen i imagine its more like the Boardwalk in WDW rather than their DTD. We had planned to go to the Rainforest Café that night but there was something like a 2 hour wait when we got there around 8.30 ! It didn’t matter though we ended up with front row seats at ESPN – was cool sat in front of a movie screen watching sports in a lazy boy chair whilst being waited on ! I had a jacket spud and a burger and Alex (going by the picture) i think either also had a burger or a chicken salad type thing. Might sound sad to some people but this was one of the highlights of our holiday; atmosphere was fab & food even better….loved it !


ESPN Zone







Had been a long day and hadn’t helped we had been soaked for the majority so we decided to head back the hotel, get some kip and get up bright and early the following morning for our extra hour in the park

Day 3 - Last day at Disney

[purple myra]

Awww what a shame you had rotten weather to start the day You certainly packed a lot in though!
Love your photos

[Mazzy]

LOL at you putting plastic bags in your shoes, well done for soldiering on and lasting the day. We've only ever seen Disneyland packed so it was weird to see it looking so empty. We must visit ESPN next year, we didn't make it last time, I love the look of those comfy chairs, is all the seating like that or are there tables as well?

Loving your reports, keep them coming!

[kirst_al UK]

Originally Posted by Mazzy

LOL at you putting plastic bags in your shoes, well done for soldiering on and lasting the day. We've only ever seen Disneyland packed so it was weird to see it looking so empty. We must visit ESPN next year, we didn't make it last time, I love the look of those comfy chairs, is all the seating like that or are there tables as well?

Loving your reports, keep them coming!

See more...

There are tables aswell - i think in one of the pictures you can see a table of 4 behind us yet that is right in front of the screen and will pretty much get the same effect as we did i guess.

[Guest]

Loving the report I can't wait to visit next year! The parks looks fab!

[Sarah84]

oh no shame about all the rain, but good on you for carrying on. I hope the weather gets better for you

[Guest]

Another great report with lovely photos.

[Guest]

Espn sounds great!