Saturday, June 30, 2007

Disneyland - Day 05 ..... Last Day

Well, this is it, the last day at Disneyland. We woke up bright and early at 6:15AM because Disneyland was on Early Admission again.

Since checkout wasn't until 11:00AM, we planned on going for a couple hours, then come back to the hotel to pack and check out.

We got to the parks right when they opened and headed to Space Mountain. But, we weren't going to be that lucky. Space Mountain wasn't open.

Alice in WonderlandSince Storybook Land was still left unchecked off our "to do" list, we decided to go ride Storybook Land. But, it wasn't running either. So, we decided to do Alice in Wonderland. This was the first time I had the pleasure of riding this attraction. I must say that it's a nice dark ride in the traditional sense. But it has a nice twist, you actually go outside for a brief spell during the ride then back into the dark.Mr. Toad

After Alice, we hit Mr. Toad's Wild Ride. This is a wonderful classic ride, albeit, quick. If you make it to Disneyland you should ride this because it is no longer at Walt Disney World.

PinnochioFrom Toad, we went to Pinocchio. This is also another one of the classic dark rides that made Disney famous. I have to admit that I have a hard time getting the "Hi-Diddle-Dee (An Actor's Life for Me)" lyrics out of my head after riding this attraction.

Snow WhiteAfter Pinocchio, we popped on over to the Scary Adventures of Snow White. This ride scared the heck out of me as a child. It, along with The Haunted Mansion, were rides that I only heard and didn't watch since I rode them with my eyes closed. As an adult, I can still see what about these rides scared me as a child, but it is kind of humorous to think that it is scary now. I have to admit, they love to have that wicked witch pop out at you while on the ride.

Space MountainAt this time, we swung back to Storybook Land and it was still closed. So, it was on back to Space Mountain. This time it was open and we walked right onto the ride. This was our second trip onto Space Mountain for this vacation. It is always a crowd pleaser for my wife and me.

After getting off Space Mountain, we went again to Storybook Land. This time it was open and it was the only DSC_3216attraction we waited a significant amount of time to enjoy. This ride was on our list of "must do" attractions because we both have always managed to miss it and wanted to see what it was all about. Apparently, they only had two boats running and that made the line move slow. It was a really nice ride. The level of detail in the miniatures was amazing. I would recommend it for a nice distraction. According to the fine Cast Member who was piloting our boat, this attraction is one of the most popular to "pop the question".

From here, we decided that we wanted to ride Pirates again. This would be my second time and my wife's 3rd (she rode it with her mom while I was waiting to check us in for Fanstasmic! priority seating). We had already done Haunted twice so we could leave feeling good about that one.

Geographical Center of DisneylandOn our way to New Orleans Square, we cut through Sleeping Beauty Castle so I could get a picture of the golden spike that represents the geographical center of the park. We also got a Photopass photographer to take a picture of us on the backside of the castle.

On our way to New Orleans Square, we found that the Tarzan's Treehouse was finally open (it was closed our entire trip). So now we can mark this always missed attraction off Hidden Mickeyour list. It was cute, but the views are what I'd recommend it for. But my wife did find a Hidden Mickey while hiking through it. We also saw the reference Beauty and the Beast. Mrs. Potts and Chip were in one of the scenes that you walked through. If I remember correctly, this was a hidden nod that was also in the movie.

After climbing down from the tree, we quickly moved through the line to ride Pirates again. This time, I wasn't looking Capt. Jack Sparrowthrough the lens of my camera and got to enjoy it from a not photographic standpoint. I was prepared this time and put my camera in a Ziploc bag, but we didn't get a drop of water on us this time. This time, I was able to get a picture of Captain Barbossa and Jack Sparrow that are painted on the walls of the line queue.

On our way back to Main Street USA, my wife decided that she wanted to see what all the fuss is about Dole Whips. As we were passing the Enchanted Tiki Room, we saw there was absolutely no line for Dole Whips so my wife got one. This was amazing since there was an phenomenally long line for the dole whips every time we passed by.

I hate pineapples so I wasn't interested, but I did take a "no thank you" taste of hers to reassure myself that I didn't like it. The Cast Member at the Dole Whip cart was nice enough to give me the DVC 10% discount even though we weren't really sure if it applied.Grumpwurst & Goofy

As my wife sat at a bench eating her Dole Whip, I took some more pictures.

So, back to the hotel we go to pack and checkout. Since it took less time to pack than I expected, we took some pictures of the pool area, and a picture with Goofy in the hotel lobby. We gave our bags to the Bell Station to hold until 12:45, when our ride was scheduled to come.

So, it was back to the parks (it was 10:30AM) to kill some more time.

Build your own Mr. Potato HeadWe went to California Adventure because my wife was wanting to see what this Build your own Mr. Potato Head thing was all about. It was all the parts you could cram in a box for $18, but it seemed real cheaply made to me so I politely asked my wife to forget about it.

But, we did find that they sold souvenir drumsticks there (with Animal from the Muppets on them). My wife collects drumsticks from various towns. Typically, they are Hard Rock Cafe drumsticks, but we got a pair from Rock 'N Rollercoaster at MGM Studios and now California Adventure.Toontown

So, now it's back to Disneyland. We haven't gotten to Toontown yet, so that was our goal. We walked around and took some pictures on the crazy cars and various other gags we found.

We looked at their food court but nothing struck our fancy.

GrumpyAs we walked back through the castle again, my wife realized that I didn't get any pictures of the statues at Snow White's Grotto. So, we swung by there to get some pictures (especially of Grumpy) and I got a picture of her at the Wishing Well.DSC_3319

On the way out of Main Street USA, we noticed there was no line at the Gibson Girl Ice Cream Parlor, so we swung in to get my wife a thing of ice cream. I wasn't interested because I didn't want to tempt fate with my gut, but it turned out to be huge, so I ended up assisting her eat it anyway. At least I got the cherry :)

We got back to the hotel and got our bags. This time, I took pictures of our bags so we could give a better description if they got lost again.

Our driver was about 15 minutes late, but we were heading to the airport really early. Everything was going smoothly until we got to the gate to find out that our flight was delayed by 1.5 hours due to storms in the Dallas/Ft. Worth area....great!

We were assured by the lady at the counter that we wouldn't have to worry about our connecting flight (which was now due to take off before we got there), because all flights in and out of Dallas are delayed.DSC_3328

I went and got us some McDonald's while we killed an hour. My wife was calling family members to try and make arrangements if we got stuck in either Anaheim or Dallas. What wasn't assuring us much was the fact the family sitting behind us in the airport had been trying to get out of Anaheim for 3 days and every flight they've tried to get on was canceled.

Our flight boarded and took off on it's new timeline. I passed out cold on the plane. This may not seem blog-worthy, but for me, this is very rare for me to sleep on a plane. I did get a few more of my Disney Podcasts listened to. Now that I've met Tim Devine from the Magical Definition Podcast, I must say that it gives new meaning to listening to that Podcast because one of the hosts is no longer a stranger.

Well, we get to Dallas and land and have no idea what the status of our next flight is. My brother's wife had left a message on my cellphone telling me that the airline's website was still listing the flight as being on time.

Well, we were given the gate number from the flight attendant on the plan and quickly got ourselves to the gate to find that we were delayed by 1.5 hours there too. So, it was McDonald's again for dinner (not many places were open).

Well, that 1.5 hours turned into 3 hours. In that 3 hours, someone decided to play diva and make a stink. What this person was making a stink about, my wife and I couldn't hear, but he got into a shouting match with another passenger shouting expletives and was striking poses that displayed his dissatisfaction. My wife swore he was exhibiting signs of withdrawal. He was constantly running his hands through his hair and making body movements that lead her to this hypothesis. I told her that he was just a model wanna-be (he was dressed in a very male model type of way) and was just a jerk.

Well, the plane showed up, we got on board some time around 1AM and were on our way. The only thing we didn't know was if our luggage was with us. With our luck, it would get lost coming back too.

Needless to say, we got to OKC safely. The final hurdle was to get the luggage. We were there awhile and were almost the last people to get our bags, but they got there safely.

We rode in the parking shuttle to our car and were home and in bed by 2AM......

Thus ends this Disneyland adventure.

I have almost 2600 pictures to dig through and the countdown begins for our WDW trip to Florida in September

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