Our West Coast Adventure - May 2017 - Day 2: More Disneyland Fun!

[Lisa_Lollipop]

Index can be found here

Friday 12th May 2017
Steps: 31,272
Miles: 13.25

The alarm went off at 7:45am and I finally managed to get myself out of bed by 8:10am (all those steps from yesterday had taken their toll!). We were ready to go and leaving the room by 9:15am but on getting all the way to outside the front of the hotel I realised I had left the sun lotion back in the room, whoops! Back Paul went to retrieve it! There was no sunshine this morning so it felt a little chillier than it had the day before but going by the forecast it was due to be out later in the day so we wanted to be prepared!

We made it to the queue for security and bag check by 9:40am and noticed how much busier it was today; with the weekend in sight clearly everyone had come for their Disney fix! We seemed to pick the wrong line as it was really slow moving (always the way!) but we eventually made it through by 9:55am.

Our first stop today was going to be DCA and on entering the park we made a beeline for Paradise Pier so we could pick up some FPs for Toy Story Midway Mania (just like in DHS this always seems to have an insanely long standby line so getting a FP really was the only way to go!). On getting to the kiosks we asked the CM nearby what the return time currently was and were happy to hear it was at 10:45 so not long to wait at all (for some reason there doesn’t seem to be any display telling you the FP return time!).

With some time to spare before the FPs opened up we thought we would seize the opportunity to grab some breakfast. Looking on the park map there didn’t seem to be too many quick service options in regards to breakfast food so we opted on Fiddler, Fifer and Practical Café… an overly fancy name for a Starbucks if you ask me! This was back over near the entrance of the park so we headed in that direction.

Being early in the day the queue inside was quite long, it seemed everyone was after their caffeine fix! On finally making it to the front we both went for a chocolate croissant and I had a hot chocolate too (nothing like a nice sugary breakfast to get you going in the morning!)

With food gobbled up we headed back outside and popped over to the toilets opposite Soarin’. A post-toilet break selfie also seemed necessary at this point!

Whilst over there we spotted a PP photographer in front of a lovely plane, not ones to miss out on a photo opportunity we headed on over to get a few snaps. This little shoot did include an awkward hugging shot but I have refrained from including that (it was awful!) and instead will treat you with us doing our very best plane impression!

It how now passed 10:45am so it was time to hot step it back over to Paradise Pier to cash in our TSMM FPs. I can’t remember what the standby time was but the queue certainly looked pretty damn long, we were on within about 5 minutes though.

True to tradition Paul of course beat me… in my defence though I did start off quite strong I just don’t think I have the stamina to keep it going through to the end!

As we left TSMM Paul couldn’t help but be tempted to give Bulleye’s Stallion Stampede another go (don’t forget he was armed with new tactics following his defeat yesterday!) and would you believe it they totally worked as he won! We were now the proud owners of Woody!

A fantastic victory but we were now faced with the issue that we had to carry around the little fella for the rest of the day… but not a problem, I was happy to step up and take Woody under my wing!

With Woody safely tucked away in my bag we continued to make our way round Paradise Pier stopping at the Golden Zephyr which only had a 5 minute wait time. For those unfamiliar with this all I can liken it to are silver capsule-like boats that fly out and around over the water! A nice relaxing ride with lovely views of the pier!

Feeling slightly dizzy we alighted from our flying silver capsules and decided to head away from Paradise Pier and explore further into the park (stopping for a few more photos of that gorgeous view!)

We found ourselves over in the Grizzly Peak Recreation Area and on spotting a fantastic bear statue outside of Redwood Creek Challenge Trail I demanded Paul stand in front of it for a photo… as I did this a very friendly CM came over and offered to take some photos of the two of us… in reality I think he just wanted to embarrass us by getting us to do bear impressions! Not ones to back down to such a challenge we gave it our best shot! Grrrrrrrrr….

Wanting to get a closer look at Grizzly River Run (DCA’s version of Kali River Rapids) we wandered over to Frog Jump Falls, a beautiful area set amongst the trees with a beautiful waterfall! I absolutely fell in love with this whole area and it further cemented by awe of DCA and how spectacular the theming is there.

On the bridge in front of the waterfall we spotted a PP photographer looking at a loose end so we wandered over to ask him to take some photos of the two of us, it was impossible to resist with such a beautiful background!

The CM was fab and seemed very keen to turn this into our very own little photoshoot and had us posing in all sorts of different ways, some slightly cheesy but at least there weren’t any hugging or kissing shots so no complaints from me!

He also spotted Woody in my bag and insisted on taking a couple of shots of us together! Haha!

Feeling worn out from all that cheesy grinning we waved the lovely CM goodbye and made our way round to Soarin’ to see if we could pick up some FPs for later in the day. On getting to the kiosks we found we were in luck and secured some for 1:45pm. Perfect!

Next up was another area of the park we had yet to venture to… Hollywood Land! On our way there we walked past the Walt and Mickey statue and I insisted that Paul pose with it (I did have my turn yesterday after all!)

This area of the park very much reminded me of Hollywood Studios in WDW, well the old DHS anyway before they took away Streets of America (sob). Again, such beautiful theming and lots of photos opportunities!

We also stumbled across a kid’s orchestra playing which we stopped and had a little listen to (I always feel slightly envious of the kids I see performing at such things in Disney parks… what an amazing opportunity for them!)

Paul had to stop in front of the Captain America building for a few photos to send back to our nephew Reece, he is a huge marvel fan and Captain America is his absolute favourite!

We soon found ourselves in front of Guardians of the Galaxy – Mission: BREAKOUT! (What used to be Tower of Terror). It was due to be opening up in two weeks’ time so from the outside looked all but ready. I am most intrigued about this one as I can’t help but be a little dubious of them moving away from the Hollywood Tower Hotel theming (for any of you have read my previous reports you will know I have a love/hate relationship with ToT!). All I will say is that I hope WDW and DLP don’t follow suit and make the same change!

Walking past Guardians of the Galaxy we were led through to A Bugs Land, a very cute area themed around A Bugs Life. I would say this section of the park is very much reserved for younger children so after a quick look around we headed on out without stopping to ride anything (I am sure in future visits we will be stopping for longer!).

Coming out the other side of A Bugs Land we found ourselves at the entrance to Cars Land and we couldn’t resist another walk through! I also couldn’t resist taking a whole load more photos too; the time of day was completely different to when we were there yesterday so it looked a whole new type of beautiful!

We also made our way back behind Radiator Springs Racers so we could see the cars doing their final sprint (Paul once again was telling me what an awesome ride it was, talk about rubbing salt in the wounds eh?!)

We were both feeling pretty thirsty at this point (the sun was out in full force now!) so we nipped into Flo’s V8 Café to pick up a large Coke to share ($3.69). We grabbed a table outside to soak up the atmosphere and watch the world go by as we re-hydrated ourselves (and I also allowed Woody out of my bag to stretch his legs!)

As we were getting up to leave a PP photographer strolled by so we asked if she could take some photos of us in front of Flo’s, I am most impressed with how well my t-shirt matches here!

Just as I was getting my PP card scanned we spotted another photographer standing around nearby so not feeling quite smiled out just yet we asked for a few more shots with him (if we were going to be buying the PP package we might as well get our money’s worth right?!)

As we were stood right outside and it was only showing a 15 minute standby wait time we decided to give Luigi’s Rollicking Roadsters a try. I had seen this ride on one of Tim Tracker’s DLR vlogs a while back and was very happy when I found out it was expectant-mum-friendly! The little cars doing their synchronised dancing looked so cute and I loved the music! Such a great ride! (Paul of course made a beeline for a blue car what with it being his favourite colour – an Evertonian through and through!)

By now our FP for Soarin’ had opened up so we left Cars Land and headed straight there. Now I have only ridden Soarin’ at Epcot once and I must admit I wasn’t exactly blown away… DCA’s offering totally won me over! I think it might have helped being in the first row and not having legs dangling above our heads, much easier to allow yourself to be fully immersed in the experience! I also thought the smells were much more noticeable, but again this may be down to where you are sat (perhaps we had duff seats when we rode it at Epcot!). It has made me super excited to ride the newly-refurbished version on our next trip to WDW I have to say!

With Radiator Spring Racers still fresh on his mind Paul was keen to head back into Cars Land and have another ride so on leaving Soarin’ that’s where we headed. It was 2:20pm when he headed into the single rider line and he was back out after 35 minutes, not too bad considering the standby line was at 95 minutes! Whilst he was on there I had a little mosey around the shops, there was so much to look at that I had no problem keeping myself entertained!

Once reunited with Paul we decided to make our way out of DCA, leaving Cars Land through the back entrance and stopping for some photos on the way (a very kind couple offered to take a photos of the two us together which was very kind and much appreciated… we of course returned the favour!)

Leaving DCA we made our way directly opposite and into DL. By now it was 3:10pm and as we hadn’t eaten anything since those croissants that morning we were rather hungry so first on the agenda was finding some food!

With a craving for burgers we made our way round to the Hungry Bear Restaurant in Critter Country. We both went for the cheeseburger meal, mine with lemonade and Paul’s with a Coke.

Whilst waiting for our food I spotted a basket of ‘First Visit’ badges on the counter so I asked the CM if we were able to get a couple (I had been meaning to stop by the City Hall on Main Street to pick some up but as yet we hadn’t had a chance, this seemed like a much easier opportunity!). The CM was more than happy to oblige and also let me use their sharpie pen so I could write our names on there. Paul didn’t want to wear his (spoilsport!) but mine went straight onto my bag, wearing it with pride for sure!

The burgers were really good and definitely did the trick in filling a hole. As we were finishing up we were saying it would have been a cute keepsake to have an extra badge for baby, what with this being its first Disney trip of sorts (even if it was in utero, surely it counts right?!). So as we were leaving I popped back up to the counter and asked if I could get another badge, it was a different CM this time and she offered to write the name on for me, luckily when I explained it was for our unborn child she didn’t think I was completely crazy and instead remarked on what a cute idea it was 

With three badges now in our possession there was only one place I wanted to head… straight to the castle for some absolutely necessary photos! Somewhat cheesy, but I’m not ashamed!

It was now approaching 4:30pm and Mickey’s Soundsational Parade was soon to be beginning so we headed up onto Main Street to find a spot to watch. Luckily it wasn’t too busy and we found a great position behind a group of people who were sitting down so we had a lovely view of the floats as they came past! It was so nice to be watching in the sun and feel comfortable; I have been known to nearly pass out watching Festival of Fantasy in MK in that blistering Floridian sunshine!

With the parade disappearing off into the distance it was now 5pm and the video camera had run out of charge so we took this as a sign that now was a good time to head back to the hotel for a pit stop! We were back in the room by 5:20pm and not wanting to waste any precious time we decided to pop out for a little bit of exploring why we left the camera charging!

By 5:30pm we were in the car and heading out of the hotel car park, soon finding ourselves at Anaheim Garden Walk. I had never heard of this area but basically it is a small shopping area with a variety of restaurants. It was very pretty and appeared to be relatively new as everything felt very clean and shiny! They also have their own car park so we parked up and went to have a little explore.

As we made our way around we found a Bubba Gump which always delights me as it is one of my favourite places to eat both in Orlando and in London. We obviously had to stop for the Forrest bench photo opportunity… the first of many this trip so keep your eyes peeled for more coming up in future installments!

Also for all you Cheesecake Factory fans… there is one here too!

On leaving Anaheim Garden Walk we made a stop at the Chevron gas station opposite our hotel as my blister was causing me a bit of pain and I needed some plasters (can you believe I didn’t pack any?!). With these bought we were back in the room by 6:50pm and then after a quick freshen up and packing of a jumper for later (I was going to be prepared for the colder evening today!) we were back out by 7:15pm and on our way back down to the parks.

We had already planned that we would watch World of Colour this evening so on making it through security we headed straight into DCA. Our first stop was back down to Hollywood Land as Paul had spotted earlier that they were showing an exclusive preview of Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell no Tales and he was keen to have a watch. It lasted about 10 minutes and was enjoyable enough!

Directly opposite the theatre was Monsters Inc. Mike & Sulley to the Rescue! which only had a 10 minute wait so we headed on to check it out (I was particularly keen to ride this as I love Monsters Inc.!)

It was a very cute, family-friendly ride that basically tells the story from the movie. I particularly liked the end as just before unloading from the car you come across Roz (the slug-like monster) who makes direct comments to the riders… I was most thrilled when she piped up “Young lady in the third row, you have nice hair… for a human” to me! (I would absolutely love to do the voice of one of these characters that get to interact directly with guests like this!)

Leaving Hollywood Land we wanted to make our way to Paradise Pier, which gave us a perfect opportunity to have another walk through Cars Land (have you got a sense of how much we loved it yet?!). Seeing it at night was like a whole new experience and it looked just beautiful all lit up. Once again I can’t quite put into words just how much I love this park!

Leaving through the back entrance of Cars Land we walked through Pacific Wharf to get to Paradise Pier and seeing this area lit up at night for the first time certainly didn’t disappoint, it was just stunning!

It was now 9:20pm and we headed down to the area by the water in front of the fun wheel to find a spot to watch World of Colour. We found a nice area that didn’t seem too busy and I took the opportunity to sit down, my feet and back were feeling pretty achy at this point… all this walking was starting to catch up with me!

To kill the time before the show started they invited the crowd to play along with the ‘Fun Wheel Challenge’ which is a memory game (similar to Simon) that you play by watching the colour sequence on the Fun Wheel and then attempt to replicate on the website that they direct you to. As we all know Paul and I love a good competitive game so we were super keen to get involved… and yes, Paul beat me in both games (although I only seem to have photos of the first match!)

World of Colour started soon after and it was just stunning… amazing music, beautiful projections and so many gorgeous colours. I would liken it slightly to Fantasmic, but in my opinion so much better! I took countless photos but they of course will never do it justice so here are just a few to give you an idea!

Once the show was over DCA was closing for the day and of course we weren’t ready to call it a day so off to DL we went! Arriving at 10:20pm we still had a whole 1 hour and 40 minutes of Disney fun to take advantage of (sleep is for wimps!)

Our first stop was over to Buzz Lightyear to pick up a FP, which had a return time of 11:05pm.

Photos all get a little sparse now as being dark it was hard to really capture what we were doing! But as the park was now pretty quiet we took advantage by ticking off some of the rides that we had yet to accomplishment.

First stop was Finding Nemo Submarine Voyage which was only a 10 minute wait (it was always super busy in the day time!). I really liked this ride, you are loaded onto a submarine and sat on a long bench in front of your own little porthole and then you are transported around in the water with various things becoming visible outside your window. I must admit being quite late and it being rather dark I did find myself having very heavy eyelids at several points!

From there we headed over to Fantasyland and made a beeline for Snow White’s Scary Adventure. We couldn’t see a wait time anywhere outside but according to the app it was only 5 minutes so we headed on in (it ended up being about 10 minutes but I can make my peace with that!). Following that we went straight over to Mr Toads Wild Ride which took just over 5 minutes to get on to.

By now our FPs for Buzz Lightyear had opened up but on getting over there we found they were not needed as the ride was a walk-on! We hit a technical glitch quite early on and the cars stopped moving which meant I had a chance to bump my score up above my normal level but despite that I still lost to Paul! (I only seem to have taken a photo of my score, clearly I was feeling quite bitter about his victory!)

By now the park was soon to be closing so we made a slow walk up Main Street towards the exit, leaving at 12am. Our tired feet managed to get us back to the room by 12:20am and after a quick snack on some Pringles we were soon in bed and sound asleep!

So that’s it, we are two thirds of the way through our Disneyland days… tomorrow sees us meeting Mickey Mouse, gaining a new friend for Woody and very nearly missing out on seeing the fireworks!

Day 3 can be found here

[HelenJNT]

Fidler. Fifer & Practical Café? Have I missed something there? Very strange name for a Starbucks!

Love your plane impressions! MUCH better than a hugging shot, hahaha.

And Paul got Woody! (sorry, couldn't resist a dirty joke). Snort.

Frog Jump Falls looks beautiful - what a great place to have a private photo shoot - love those pics!

Those cheeseburgers you had look really good - must say, better than the WDW counter service efforts (dare I say that?)

And awww at the badges, that's a lovely keepsake. And I am thrilled that Roz liked your hair, that's MUCH better than ET maybe saying your name!

Carsland really looks fantastic at night - and World of Colour is definitely on my bucket list - looks amazing. Can't believe how much you got done in that last critical one hour and 40 minutes too - good job!

Fabulous day and super photos xxx

[Guest]

What a fab day. You guys fitted loads in. Love the badge idea I love having keep sakes like that! Looking forward to the next instalment

[vics18]

Such an awesome day lisa!

I was reading an article earlier about what a disaster DCA was when it first opened. Seems hard to believe when you see how beautiful it is now in all your photos.

Heart eyes for bump's 1st visit badge , seriously cute.

Fun idea to have a game while waiting for World of Colour. Nice to have something to pass the time while you wait!

I can't believe you managed such a long day again. When we did DLP I was 16 weeks preggo and was asleep for 9 every night haha.

Love all your PP pics, seem to have been lots of photographers bobbing about which is so good, especially when you visit as a couple and don't want every pic of the 2 of you together to be a selfie!

Looking forward to more Disney fun x

[i love jack]

Another great day, I love all the photopass photos, especially by the Rapids ride. And the first visit badges - cute!

[MrsSilverStar]

You have seriously impressive stamina for a pregnant woman

I'm absolutely sold on Disneyland after your report, it looks fantastic.

[clochette]

Another great day. I love the photos of Cars land at night.
I can't believe how much you pack in. Surely you don't keep this pace up for the entire "holiday!"

[Lisa_Lollipop]

Originally Posted by HelenJNT

Fidler. Fifer & Practical Café? Have I missed something there? Very strange name for a Starbucks!

Love your plane impressions! MUCH better than a hugging shot, hahaha.

And Paul got Woody! (sorry, couldn't resist a dirty joke). Snort.

Frog Jump Falls looks beautiful - what a great place to have a private photo shoot - love those pics!

Those cheeseburgers you had look really good - must say, better than the WDW counter service efforts (dare I say that?)

And awww at the badges, that's a lovely keepsake. And I am thrilled that Roz liked your hair, that's MUCH better than ET maybe saying your name!

Carsland really looks fantastic at night - and World of Colour is definitely on my bucket list - looks amazing. Can't believe how much you got done in that last critical one hour and 40 minutes too - good job!

Fabulous day and super photos xxx

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Paul looks very happy with his Woody eh?!

I can confirm we definitely do plane and bear impressions better than we do hugging and kissing on camera... I think we will have to adopt these poses more regularly going forward!

Ah ET, he is a lazy little git... he seems to get half way through the front row and gives up! 10/10 to Roz and her witty banter!

Thanks as always for reading and gold star for being first commenter xxx

Originally Posted by orlandolover04

What a fab day. You guys fitted loads in. Love the badge idea I love having keep sakes like that! Looking forward to the next instalment

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Was so pleased we got the baby a badge, definitely will be going in it's keepsake box

Originally Posted by vics18

Such an awesome day lisa!

I was reading an article earlier about what a disaster DCA was when it first opened. Seems hard to believe when you see how beautiful it is now in all your photos.

Heart eyes for bump's 1st visit badge , seriously cute.

Fun idea to have a game while waiting for World of Colour. Nice to have something to pass the time while you wait!

I can't believe you managed such a long day again. When we did DLP I was 16 weeks preggo and was asleep for 9 every night haha.

Love all your PP pics, seem to have been lots of photographers bobbing about which is so good, especially when you visit as a couple and don't want every pic of the 2 of you together to be a selfie!

Looking forward to more Disney fun x

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Haha as I am writing these days up I am surprising myself with just how much we did... I must have some sort of reserve tank of energy when on holiday... back here I can barely make it through a day at work without needing to nap on my keyboard!

I was really impressed with how many PP photographers there were around the parks, I was expecting DLP levels and it was so much better... definitely made buying the package worthwhile!

Thank you so much for reading and your lovely comments as always

Originally Posted by i love jack

Another great day, I love all the photopass photos, especially by the Rapids ride. And the first visit badges - cute!

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I was so pleased with the PP photos we managed to get, soon as I saw them all I new I had to buy the package... I'm such a sucker for a photo!

Originally Posted by MrsSilverStar

You have seriously impressive stamina for a pregnant woman

I'm absolutely sold on Disneyland after your report, it looks fantastic.

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Haha its the Disney magic... it totally gives me a whole new lease of life!

I cannot recommend Disneyland enough, we totally loved it (if you haven't guess already! )

Originally Posted by clochette

Another great day. I love the photos of Cars land at night.
I can't believe how much you pack in. Surely you don't keep this pace up for the entire "holiday!"

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Haha it's funny as in comparison to our standard WDW holidays we really thought we slowed the pace down this time... I am sure we will have no choice but to calm it down a bit once we are doing these holidays with a little one in tow!

[Jaty]

Oh wow, DCA looks amazing! I can see why you love it so much and I'm just getting more excited! Another Feb day, thanks for sharing. X

[twinkleshmoo]

Lovely day, so many great PP shots and that was such a sweet idea with Bump's badge 💗

Cars Land really does look fab xx