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Old 7 Dec 16, 11:28 PM  
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nanasamboy
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Halloween, Haunted Mansion Holiday and Happy Birthday! - day 5, Disney's California Adventure

Halloween, Haunted Mansion Holiday and Happy Birthday! - day 4 Disneyland & Mickey's Halloween Party

Almost done! I took a lot of pictures this day! I didn't realise quite how many until it took me about 5 hours to get them all from photobucket into my text document!

Ok so I took absolutely no notes this day, so I’m piecing together what happened from the photos. Luckily I took hundreds!

I managed to sleep a decent amount of time and woke up somewhere around 6.30 am. I’d set an alarm for 7 am anyway, as we’d arranged with my mum to Facetime Alice. I woke G up just before 7 and we called my mum. Alice was excited to see us I thought she may have gotten upset, but she was fine. She hadn’t seen us for days and she wasn’t bothered haha! We had a brief chat to ask what she’d been up to, then she got bored of us (rude!) so we said our goodbyes. We then both went and got ready for a day at California Adventure.




Behind Space Mountain





I’d booked the Surfs Up! breakfast at the PCH Grill in the Paradise Pier hotel for 8 am, so we had to get a wriggle on. Once we were ready and left, we headed towards Downtown Disney as we knew the Disney hotels were nearby. We tried to follow signs for the Disney hotels, but got a bit lost. For some reason, all the signs for Paradise Pier seemed to take us nowhere near the hotel. Eventually we found it though and checked in, just before 8 am.










How amazing is this tv room!?



We were taken to see Mickey on the way in and took a few photos with the big cheese

We were sat in the corner of the restaurant and our server told us about the buffet. He arranged to send the chef out to see me to see what food options I had. Minnie came right over to see us. Look at her little playsuit!









The chef came out and told me what was ok on the buffet and asked if I wanted some waffles. I said yes please and went up to get some food.


Not bad! The breakfast potatoes were really good

Stitch came along next and made a big fuss of me because of my birthday badge My server came out with a cupcake and a candle, flanked by 2 other servers who clapped and sang to me. Stitch did a little dance and it was adorable G had put the camera down, so I shot him a look that said “why aren’t you taking pictures of this?!” and he resumed the photographer role haha!


















I asked the server for peanut butter and this is the ridiculous amount he brought me

Pluto came along next and we grabbed some more photos. We’d finished breakfast and were full as eggs. As G was taking my photo with Pluto, Daisy crept up behind















Once we’d settled the bill, I grabbed my cupcake to go and we had a little look in the Paradise Pier Hotel shop. I bought a super cute Steamboat Willy Mickey pin, although I could have bought loads more as it was a really nice shop. Being the loser I am, I wanted my picture taken with the surfing Goofy statue. So we headed out via Goofy. A family were nearby saying their goodbyes, so I had to loiter until they were done before taking a picture. They eventually noticed me and moved, apologising. I told them not to worry, that their goodbyes were more important. I genuinely didn’t mind, as it looked like they’d had a wonderful big family holiday and wouldn’t see each other again for a long time. So I got my cheesy photo and we walked back through Downtown Disney, towards California Adventure.



I carried the cupcake, but G told me to throw it away. He said he was too full and he wasn’t going to eat it. I didn’t want to throw it away, so said I’d look out for someone with a birthday badge and give it to them. He told me that was weird, but I didn’t care. I spotted a woman with two kids and one had a birthday badge, so I sidled up and offered the cake, telling them I couldn’t eat it. The kid was pleased and I wished them happy birthday G looked at them the whole time with a look of “sorry about her. I know... she’s so weird. Please throw it away.”

Once we were in through the gates, we headed straight to Paradise Pier so we could ride California Screamin’ before the park got too busy. We grabbed some fastpasses for Radiator Springs Racers as we walked past Cars Land.


*heart eyes*


Mickey’s Death Wheel™







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Old 7 Dec 16, 11:37 PM  
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Continued

When we got there, California Screamin’ was closed and the cast member standing outside didn’t know when it would open again Nothing else on the pier seemed to be open yet, so we headed to the Holywood Pictures Backlot so we could ride Monsters Inc, Mike and Sulley to the Rescue. This was one I absolutely had to make sure I did!



On the way there, I spotted Sofia the First outside one of the shops. My autograph book was almost full, so I stopped in a shop to buy a new one, before joining the queue to see Sofia. I did feel a bit guilty at this point, as Alice is a big Sofia fan. Oops!





Princess curtsies over, I went to find Monsters Inc. The ride was really cute and the attention to detail was amazing The animatronics were really good too, even though they were pretty simple.






Vending machines in the queue

Once we’d been on Monster’s Inc, we had a nosey at the theatre next door that was showing an “exclusive preview” of Doctor Strange. The CM outside said the next showing was in a few minutes, so we went inside. It was starting to get a really hot day so the air con was nice


As worn by Cumberbum



The preview was really great and the 3D and screens running alongside the walls really added to the experience. We had a quick looksee when it was released as we wanted to see it in the cinema, and spotted it was already out in the UK. Preview, my bum! I know it had been there for a while and it wasn’t out in the states yet so was still technically a preview, but I felt a tiny bit cheated!

When we got out, Nick Wilde was just walking over to a shady spot for a meet and greet! I ran over like an excited small child. He didn’t have Judy with him, but Nick would do!





As we were right by Olaf’s meet and greet spot, we jumped in the queue to see him. The queue was really short - I LOVE DCA! He pointed to my Ursula shell necklace and mimed that I’d stolen someone’s voice, although it took me a while to figure out what he was on about! Sometimes it’s really hard work to figure out that the head characters are trying to say!






Dawning on me and my six chins…









Warm hugs given, we headed to A Bug’s Land for a look around As we walked by the Tower of Terror, we couldn’t resist some pictures at the limited time photo area - another great Photopass photographer who wanted to have fun























Even though it was mainly little rides for little ones, we had a good look around before queuing for Francis’ Ladybug Boogie. I’m not a fan of spinny rides, but this one was cute







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Old 7 Dec 16, 11:49 PM  
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We had the option of a fixed or spinning car and for some reason, I picked spinning. That was silly for someone who suffers with motion sickness… The ride wasn’t too bad, but there were a few moments when there was a hard, fast spin and my head spun along with it. Bleurch. I didn’t fancy any of the other little rides, but couldn’t pass up a go on the frankly ridiculous Heimlich’s Chew-Chew Train It was pretty lame and we queued far longer than it was worth, but oh well! He basically goes round a short track really slowly, burping his way through giant food haha.






Just look how stupid it is!












Bye Heimlich!





Our Radiator Springs Racers FP was opening up soon, so we headed over to Cars Land for a proper look around this time. I had the perfect view of Grizzly Peak as we wandered over, so stopped to take a picture.





Cars Land is AMAZING and the attention to detail is second to none, even by Disney’s standards! Even though I’m not the biggest of Cars fans, I absolutely loved the area and enjoyed wandering around and looking at everything. It was really busy in this area as there were (understandably) lots of families with small children.







We ambled over to RSR, but when we got there it was closed CMs out the front said to keep checking back to see when it would open. Bah. We tried to go on Luigi’s Rollickin’ Roadsters but that was closed too! So we wandered back to the Cozy Cone(s) and picked up a frozen lemonade and sat in the shade. The lemonade was really bloody cold and we both had instant, really bad brainfreeze. Urgh. I got bored sat on the bench, so had a little wander around to take some photos.








Not a cloud in the sky! Such a change from the previous two day’s weather!


Took a picture of these cool cactuses and then noticed…


Hidden Minnie! Well done, nature!


Sad, very much not rollicking roadsters
















I had no idea the cars drove around Cars Land! I was so excited to see this big red dude! *Googles* Oh, he’s actually called Red haha!




And Lightning McQueen too! (I know that one haha!)

I went back to join G on the bench and could see that Luigi’s was back up and running. So we headed over and joined the queue. We could hear RSR still wasn’t working, so joined the 30 minute queue for Luigi. I was really excited as I’d been listening to the Disneyland Resort album on Disney Life and was excited to hear Funiculi Funicular was on it. My grandpa’s choir always sang that when I was little, so it makes me smile. So I’d hoped to hear it when we rode. We didn’t, but it was an excellent ride. So clever and super fun to ride and watch when the cars all dance together. It’s some clever technology!












This made me chuckle!






Our little car


Right spot, at the right time!
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Old 7 Dec 16, 11:55 PM  
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nanasamboy
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Continued

We tried our luck at Radiator Springs Racers and they were now letting people on. Hurrah! The queue was quite long as there was a backlog of people, but there was plenty to look at







The ride was AMAZING! It was so much fun and both the interior and exterior parts of the ride were beautifully done. The technology on the indoor portions of the ride was just crazy! Our little car won the race too! Woohoo!



You’ll be glad to know we left Cars Land after this ride, so there will be no more pictures of road signs and hubcaps! We headed to Grizzly Peak as it was hot and getting wet sounded delightful!

















We grabbed some fastpasses for Soarin’, as there was a window opening soon. We went to the loo and mooched around for a bit, before joining the FP queue. I was excited, as this was the first time I’d have ever done Soarin’! It was closed for refurbishment when we went to WDW in 2013, then was closed while they added the extra screen earlier this year. The fastpass queue was really short and it wasn’t long at all until we got to the loading area. I’m not quite sure what on earth Patrick Warburton has to do with Disney or flying, but hey ho. I know lots of people are fans of the pre-ride video, so I was obviously missing something! I had absolutely no idea what the ride layout was like, so was a bit shocked when we got into line and got ready to “board”. We were in the middle row so we had dangly feet above us, but we were on the end two seats so it wasn’t too bad. I wasn’t a fan of the ascent and tried not to look down. The ride was cool, but it made me feel a bit sick if I looked around too much. If I looked dead ahead at all times, it was ok. The new ending was really lovely and I felt a little bit emotional I was glad to be back down on the floor though!

We went over to Grizzly River Run next, put our stuff in a locker and joined the queue. We were lucky and didn’t have to queue for too long. We were in a raft with a lovely bunch of people, all adults. I always love the sense of camaraderie on raft rides. We’re all in this together, we’re all going to get wet and yes we’ll laugh at you when you get soaked And get soaked, we did. Not really badly, but lots of water down the back of the seat and soggy pants! It was good fun, if a little short. The drops were fun and wet, but there wasn’t much else to the ride. Still, we enjoyed it!


Soggy!



We stood in the sun for a bit to dry off and then grabbed G his first ever Disneyland churro. I just had to snack vicariously through him!



I wanted to go find Anna and Elsa, but hadn’t seen where their meet and greet area was. As we ambled over towards Monsters Inc in search of Sulley, I spotted the fancy cinema/theatre where Anna and Elsa were hiding. We went in and I joined the queue while G went for a sit down. The queue was only about 10 minutes long - unheard of in WDW, even when you have a fast pass (from my experience, anyway!). I went into their room with two little kids and their grandma and it was nice to see them so excited It was really lovely to be able to see Anna and Elsa at the same time, as I’d seen them separately in WDW. When it was my turn, Anna and Elsa walked forward to greet me and wished me happy birthday. We chatted about chocolate and they told me to visit Ghiradelli and queue up over and over again for the free chocolate and tell them Anna and Elsa told me to, if I got told off haha They wished me happy birthday in my autograph book, then it was picture time. I warned them not to hug me as I was still soggy - I’d have felt terrible if I got their dresses all wet and gross!





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Old 8 Dec 16, 12:02 AM  
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nanasamboy
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Continued

I skipped back out to see G after my meet and greet and we headed over to try and find Sulley out by the Monsters Inc ride. He was just walking out as we got there - yay! A swarm of children descended, so we quickly got into something resembling a queue. We didn’t wait long, then I ran up to Sulley for a hug. I love that big, blue, fluffy kitty We took a few photos, then he beckoned for G to come join us. G loves Sulley, but was enjoying letting me have all the character interactions this trip.





We also saw Spiderman and Captain America doing meet and greets just across from Sulley, but the queues were enormous so we didn’t bother. We headed over to Paradise Pier again, in the hope that California Screamin’ was open. It was! Yay! There was only a 30 minute queue, so we jumped in. The queue passed really quickly, as I was so excited. Soon we were getting into the coaster and I was trying to tuck my glasses and ears away safe before we whizzed off. It was so fast and fun! It felt like a “proper” rollercoaster, not a Disney one. I know that sounds silly, as there are lots of bigger coasters in Disney parks, but as it was just a fast coaster with no real theming to speak of, it seemed more grown up and exciting. We both absolutely loved it

Next, we headed to Mickey’s Wheel of Death. Just watching the swinging gondolas from a distance made me feel sick, so there was no way I’d be on one of those! We joined the stationary gondola queue, even though it was a lot longer than then swinging queue. The sun was really hot and there wasn’t any shade in the queue.











I got really nervous when we were queuing and G kept saying I could duck out if I wanted. But I couldn’t visit DCA and not go on the fun wheel! So I nervously jumped in our gondola, along with another young couple. As it started to raise up, I didn’t like it at all. It stopped a lot on the way up, as it loaded and unloaded other passengers. Once we got to the top, I calmed down a bit and enjoyed the view. We did a few full rotations before disembarking and I was glad to be on solid ground again! We had a wander along the boardwalk, took a few photos and had a browse in the shops. We bumped into the short and tall lady from the tour the day before and said hello I didn’t buy anything in the shops, but was very tempted by some Duffy and ShellieMay toys which I might just end up buying in Disneyland Paris.







We were absolutely starving by this point, so stopped at Boardwalk Pizza as I’d heard they did a vegan pizza. G went to find a table and I went to get us some food. I spoke to the server at the pizza counter and she said they could do a vegan cheese pizza, but it would take 10 minutes or so. That was fine, so I grabbed a veggie pizza slice for G and two drinks and went to pay. I was soooo excited to finally get a halloween cup! I was very tempted to bring it home, but I knew I’d end up squashing it.







I went back in to collect my pizza and tucked in. It was SOOOO good! And I was feeling kinda smug too, as mine as the same price as G’s and I had a whole individual pizza, where he just had a slice





After pizza, we decided to head back to the hotel to have a little rest and freshen up. We’d done everything we wanted to in DCA and we had maybe 3 hours until World of Colour later than night.








I had to take a photo of this sign, as the first time we walked by it I thought it said ‘ERMEHGERD gifts’ bahahahahahaha!







I found Goofy!





As we were on our way out, I spotted a witch Minnie plush toy in the window of the toy shop. Eek! I rushed in and had a quick look around. I couldn’t see any, so I went to ask behind the till. The girl serving was lovely and said she’d do her best to find me one. She said she normally worked in World of Disney and knew if anywhere had one, it would be there. So she phoned WoD and asked if any were left in stock. They said no, they’d sold out about a week ago. Boooo. I was cheeky and asked whether I could have the one out of the window, because I really wanted to get my paws on one! She said she’d call the manager and she did, bless her. But she was told they don’t have the keys for the window display. Worth a try though! Sad, I sloped off to go meet G and wander back home.

After a quick stop at the hotel, we headed to Disneyland to see if we could see any halloween costumed characters before we went back to DCA. And there was Goofy and Minnie! Yay! There was a load of hoo-ha about meeting Minnie, as she’d gone away for a break and a CM had told people where to stand. When she came back, she came back to a different spot and a new queue had formed. I was in the new queue that formed as she walked back to her spot. Minnie started meeting people for photos and the people from the other queue rushed over and started shouting at the cast member. It was a little bit mortifying for those in my queue, as the shouters were really making a scene and the poor CM had obviously forgotten about the other people (I don’t know how long Minnie had been gone as she walked up just as I arrived). The one dad even walked up to the CM all tough and menacing and said ‘come here’ and beckoned him away :/ I think he was trying to go find a manager. So poor Minnie was left all on her own! The CM and angry-dad finally returned and he didn’t seem any happier. I told the CM that the remaining people could go in front of me. He said no, it was ok, but it was a pretty embarrassing situation for lots of people. The mums were really grateful and the dads all stood around being grumpy. It added about 5 minutes extra onto my wait, but it made things easier for everyone. Sorry, people behind me! The CM took some photos for me and Minnie was super cute





I went over to meet Goofy next (I think G was on a bench somewhere) and joined the short queue. The CM with him disappeared, so realised I’d have nobody to take my photo. I asked the people behind me if they’d be so kind and we chatted and I said I’d take their photo too, so they could all be in the picture. I played with my camera first to try and get a foolproof setting, but the pictures didn’t turn out too great as it was starting to get dark and there wasn’t enough background lighting. Goofy liked my tattoos though





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Old 8 Dec 16, 12:06 AM  
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I left G on his bench and went to the Gibson Girl ice cream parlour to try and get a poison apple cup, as I’d not seen one anywhere on the trip, despite seeing people with them. The guy behind the counter said they’d sold out resort-wide. Boooo. They also didn’t do any dairy free ice cream, so I had a massive pout on. They do entire vegan sundaes in WDW, why not in Disneyland!? I got G an ice cream though while I was there - a waffle cone with a scoop of butter pecan and rainbow sherbet. The sherbet ice cream smelled so good, I could have cried! I knew that Clarabelle’s in DCA sold vegan ice cream, so decided I’d call there later after World of Colour.

Before we crossed over to DCA, we had a quick look in the entrance of Great Moments With Mr Lincoln and looked at all the treasures.

s1354.photobucket/user/sa...l?sort=2&o=772













On the way into DCA, I spotted fancy Hollywood Minnie and ran up as it looked like they were ready to retire for the evening. Minnie looked so cute!



We went to the waterfront area to find a good spot and it was already rammed. Uh oh! The show wasn’t starting for ages yet! We found a spot we thought would be ok and set up camp. It was up on the street level and quite far back, but it would do. It was chilly and standing around wasn’t very fun. But the games on the fun wheel were entertaining.



I didn’t take photos during the show though, as I wanted to enjoy it without any distractions. It was absolutely beautiful and I got emotional and cried a little bit! Some of the scenes in the show were so sad too - why bum everyone out on a fun evening in Disney?! It was amazing though! It was a bit of a rush leaving the park, as it was closed. I couldn’t be bothered to fight through the crowds to get to Clarabelle’s, so went with the hoarde towards the exit. I stopped at the Oswald store at the front of the park and picked out a cute Oswald pin for my collection.

As it was only 9 pm and Disneyland was open for another hour, I wanted to squish as much in as I could before we went home. G was happy to plonk himself on a bench as he was exhausted, and I ran off on my own. It was exciting to be on my own in Disneyland I wanted to go on Indiana Jones again, but feared the queue would be massive. So headed to my next favourite Disneyland ride - the Matterhorn. I jumped in the single rider queue and didn’t wait too long, but long enough that I needed a wee by the time I got to the front of the queue. Eeek! Riding the Matterhorn at night was really fun and it felt even faster! But all the laughing and squealing was painful on my full bladder and I had to pretty much run off the ride to go to the toilet haha. My bladder has never been the same after having a 9lb 3 baby!



I went to the Alice toilets, which were cool, then looked around for something else to do. The carousel! I hadn’t ridden yet! :O So made my way there and joined the queue. I only had to wait for one round before I joined the loading area. I really wanted to try and ride Jingles and had been watching where it was as the ride stopped. I was right at the back of the queue, so figured I’d not get a chance to find it. But as the gates opened, I rushed straight to the back and everyone else raced to the nearest horse. And there it was! Jingles! What a beautiful horse! I climbed on, rather inelegantly in my dress and sat there beaming from ear to ear. As I was on my own, I didn’t have anyone to take my photo. So tried to take some really rubbish selfies. But yay! Jingles! I felt quite emotional while riding and it was the perfect way to end our last day in Disneyland





On the way back through the castle, I stopped for some photopass pictures. The photographer was good fun and got me to do a variety of silly poses









I skipped back to meet G and we walked back to the hotel, me with the biggest pout ever as I didn’t want to leave We were in bed by a decent time and we didn’t have to get up really early in the morning - hurrah!
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Old 29 Jan 17, 09:36 PM  
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vics18
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Yay I hadn't seen this!
Minnie has quite the wardrobe doesn't she! Loving some of her ensembles today.
I think that was really cute with your birthday cupcake, not at all weird!
Haha Heimlich coaster. His little voice makes me chuckle in Bug's Life.
You did so much again today! I feel tired just reading about it
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Old 29 Jan 17, 10:10 PM  
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nanasamboy
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Originally Posted by vics18 View Post
Yay I hadn't seen this!
Minnie has quite the wardrobe doesn't she! Loving some of her ensembles today.
I think that was really cute with your birthday cupcake, not at all weird!
Haha Heimlich coaster. His little voice makes me chuckle in Bug's Life.
You did so much again today! I feel tired just reading about it
She really does, she's so fabulous! She had lots of good ones this day

Aww thanks. I'd probably find it weird if someone gave me a cake, I just couldn't throw a perfectly lovely cupcake away!

That coaster is so silly! It's really slow and short, but his little voice as you go around is adorable

It felt like a really chilled day, but we did do a lot looking back. I love Disneyland, it just feels so chilled and relaxed compared to WDW!

Thanks for reading
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