A Churro a Day Keeps the Doctor Away - First TR Ever! DLR July 2019 (Completed 12/10/19!)

7/19 Day Three - Part One: Another day, another churro...

Phew! Sorry for the delay, I have been so busy with work lately and am training for a 10 mile run in October, so my free time has been pretty limited. I’ve been perfecting my plans for my WDW trip in a few months, and I am getting so excited. Anyways, back to Disneyland and on with Day Three!

My first picture is of us in our matching outfits in the room at 9AM. I was so excited to wear this shirt and hopefully meet Groot! :lovestruc

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And of course, our first FP of the day was Guardians! I cannot get enough of this ride, clearly. Good thing Shannon likes it too!
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Aww, such a cutie. Can I take him home?

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10 points to Gryffindor if you can find us.
Look how much people love this ride!
No smiles like this on ToT!

We stopped to check out the meet and greets, a little too early and lines were always so long all day. We got our picture in front of the backdrop, and I swear this was the surliest CM I’ve ever encountered, ever. She didn’t say a single word, snapped three pictures, scan, and moved on. I’m not a morning person either but good grief! :mad:

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Also please just laugh with me over how terrible and distorted this picture is.

Oh Spidey...did anyone see the memorial someone put out for him at D23? :rotfl2:

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We headed to Pixar Pier for a snack (guess what) and had to stop and say hello to Forky, of course.
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And our morning snack was, you guessed it, a churro from Señor Buzz! We tried the Caliente churro this time, it had sweet and spicy cinnamon on it like red hot candy. We shared it and both really liked it.

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Plus the churro selfie, of course.
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I’m guessing we rode Midway Mania on a FP, which is nice since they have a separate area for FPs I think. We saw Bo Peep, she is very...interesting looking.

We didn’t have a reservation for lunch until 3PM at Lamplight Lounge, so we decided to have pre-lunch around 11AM. Shannon eats seafood, so we decided to get Clam Chowder bread bowls!

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I thought this was just as good as from Boudin in SF. I grabbed some butter pats but obviously didn’t need to use them. I think we both ate like 3/4 of our bread bowls, it was so satisfying. The weather was really great this trip so it wasn’t too hot to enjoy our soup.

I think we might have done a few more rides such as Ariel and Monsters Inc. Both cute rides, we got stuck on Ariel for a few minutes but didn’t mind that one bit.

We had another Cars FP, I’m not sure for what time, but I remember that it had been down a lot that day so the line was pretty long from anytime FPs. I think we waited around 30-40 min! The ride photo timestamp is 2:46, so just in time for our lunch reservation.

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This is what it looks like to be a winner, again!

What a fun morning at California Adventure! Next up will be our much anticipated lunch at Lamplight. Anyone want to guess what we ordered? :scratchin

Continued in Part Two!
 
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7/19 Day Three - Part Two: 5...4...3...2..1...GO!

Looking through my notes, I realized I totally forgot that we saw Frozen at noon on this day, prior to our LL lunch. I don’t know how I forgot because it was absolutely amazing! I haven’t seen the sing-a-long version in WDW in a while so I can’t compare them, but I can say that it is a must see at the Hyperion. The singing is top notch and the hour will fly by.

We got there about 15 minutes early and got aisle seats in the center section about 2/3rds back. It was nice since we didn’t have to wait around before the show, but if you have a group or are going during a busier time of the year, I would get there at least 30 minutes early.

We caved and purchased a popcorn box that a CM was walking around selling, and heavily regretted not buying a soda popcorn::. The entire show was so good and Olaf really stole the show for me! I would definitely take the time to see this next time I go to Disneyland.

Back to lunch! We arrived at Lamplight Lounge and it was fairly empty (being 3PM) but we didn’t want their brunch menu, so we took the later reservation time. Not sure we would have needed a reservation, but we got a really nice spot by the water that I’m not sure walk-ins would get.

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This was such a great place to sit and relax. A momma duck and her duckling kept stopping by to entertain as well. The water looks kind of gross but it didn’t smell so that’s what matters!
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Our waiter was very nice and took our photo. Feels like we got the best seats in the house!
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I of course had to try Mickey’s Fun Wheel, which is not on the menu but they will still make it.
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Beware, this drink packs a punch! It was very delicious and went down easy. A much better value compared to our tiny drinks at Oga’s, if you know what I mean ;). I’m not sure what all is in it, but I think it’s basically a very sweet Long Island.

Shannon got the Opean Ocean based on our waiter’s recommendation. This is “a Frozen Cocktail made with Bacardi Raspberry Rum, Bols Blue Curaçao, Liquid Alchemist Orgeat (Almond), Agave Nectar, and fresh Lime Juice.” Basically a grown-up’s blue raspberry Icee! We both liked this one, again very easy to drink.

Surprise, we shared the famous Lobster nachos!

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These were very yummy, lobster is definitely cheap and honestly nothing I’d have to eat again, but we were glad to have tried them and it was plenty for us to share given all that we were eating and drinking that day. We got the crema sauce on the side since I hate soggy and overdressed chips.

I love the fresh serrano peppers, much better than pickled jalapenos. I’m the type who would love to have one pepper per bite :hyper:.

This meal (two drinks and nachos) was about $60, so pricey but worth it for the location! I could have sat here all day if my wallet would allow it.

Pleasantly full from lunch, we made our way out of Pixar Pier.

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I stopped by for a photo of Walt’s statue, so cute!
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There were a bunch of meet and greets near the DCA entrance, but the lines are always so long so we decide to head into Disneyland for some cute PP photos by the train station.
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The CM was so fun, she really took her time and got us our first magic shots of the trip. I clearly had no idea what was going on here :rotfl2:!
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This is one of my favorite pictures from the trip. I feel weird asking for magic shots, so I was happy that the CM offered them. She kept them “secret” and just gave us cues, but this time I was prepared since I knew what this shot would be!
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I wish I had gotten her name to submit a compliment, but I forgot in the moment.

I’m pretty sure we only made it this far into Disneyland, and then headed back to the hotel for a quick break. I just loved being able to walk five minutes and be back in the room! At WDW I always feel like I’m missing out on valuable park time.

Our evening continues in Part Three: Do the Mickey leg!
 
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7/19 Day Three - Part Three: Do the Mickey leg!

I decided to change since I brought about 30 outfits to Disneyland :rolleyes1 . It was starting to cool off for the evening, so I wore a short sleeve T-shirt. I also wore my new Millennial pink ears, which are much comfier than my rose gold pair!

We headed back to DL around 6PM, and much to our surprise, Snow White was posing for photos! She didn’t have an attendant, which I hear is much more common in DLR compared to WDW. I don’t usually wait in line for princesses because I’m way too awkward, but Shannon and I decided to wait in her short line.

The lighting was dreadful but she still manage to look perfect! Excuse my terrible hair…

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There were a few little girls in line, so we pretty much exchanged a few words, posed for the camera, and moved on.

We wandered into the hub and noticed that Mickey Mouse was meeting! It was the shortest line we had seen yet, so we hurried to get in line. The CM actually cut the line off after us, so we really lucked out. :woohoo:

I told Shannon to stand with her foot up like Mickey always poses, and I think Mickey was a little confused. Not sure he can see very well so he might have had no idea what I was trying to pull off. It turned out pretty cute though!

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I’m definitely a Mickey girl! :earsboy:
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We snagged FPs for our favorite, Hyperspace Mountain. Having ride photos to look back on is so funny.
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On our way by the castle, we stopped for some more castle pictures. To our surprise, our PP photographer from in front of the train station was now in front of the castle! Disney must put the best CMs in these spots since they’re so popular.

She remembered us and was just as fun the second time. Since I failed at the Peter Pan magic shot, she had me just do a princess pose this time. princess:

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And of course, we had to do every photographer’s favorite pose, back-to-back!
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Last but not least, she got us our balloon magic shot again. We’re experts on this pose now!
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We stopped by the Storybook Land Canal Boats for a peaceful evening boat ride. Our group was pretty quiet, so I felt bad for our CM as I think she was trying to get more of a response for us.

I saw some cute baby ducks and had to get some photos as usual.

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I keep wanting to type Storybrook because I watched once season of Once Upon a Time and can’t get that out of my head now!

I’m going off of receipts at this point, but we decided it was finally time to get our Dole Whip and head to the Tiki Room. The line at Tiki Juice Bar is always crazy long, so we mobile ordered and got ours instantly. So convenient!

The portions are really tiny, I’ll have to compare to what I get on my next WDW trip. I think you get a lot more in a float, but I prefer just having the Dole Whip itself.

Shannon enjoyed the Tiki Room, it’s always a fun place to cool off. That song gets stuck in my head for days after every time!

I think we meandered around Adventureland and rode Indiana Jones and Pirates. Indy was quickly becoming our favorite ride in DL! I think this day our ride vehicle got really off sync and we missed some of the special effects. It’s definitely worth riding multiple times so you can catch more of what’s going on since it’s very fast and jerky. The front row is for sure the best spot to be.

Shannon wasn’t feeling super great but I was getting hungry, so we stopped at Tropical Hideaway so I could try the sweet lumpia.

I forgot to take a picture, so here’s the official Disney photo.
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The description is “Cream Cheese, Pineapple, DOLE® Pineapple Dipping Sauce.” They basically tasted like a fruity deep fried spring roll with a melted Dole Whip sauce to dip them. Very sweet and tasty, but fairly small and overpriced. You can share them but you only get two and each is like three bites. It was worth a try but I think there are other treats I’d rather spend my money on, such as the Pixar Parfait in DCA!

I think we had a Haunted Mansion FP that turned into an anytime FP, so we used it on Splash Mountain. This was my first time (that I remember) riding Splash, and it was a lot of fun! The song is so catchy and I love the build up of anticipation. I’m not very brave in this photo but it was pretty warm so we were nervous the water would be turned up a lot. We didn’t end up getting wet at all!

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Funny story about the group in front of us. We smelled a little something :rolleyes1 during the ride, and the guy dropped a certain device on my foot mid-ride. LOL. :rotfl2: And then, the girl lost her yellow hat on the drop. We were confused about what she was so upset about until we saw this photo with her hat still on her head.

It was getting dark so we decided to hit up Fantasyland again. I’ve never ridden the tea cups since my mom has motion sickness, so I was very excited to go for a spin.

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Almost everyone riding was just taking photos and lazily spinning around! :rotfl:
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This is such a cute area at night. I didn't get dizzy, but this is one of the few rides where I can see why some people do.

I think we rode Alice again, and most likely Snow White. So *spooky* at night! :scared1:

We were pretty tired and decided not to watch a show this night. We looked for food during the first showing of Fantasmic, and ended up at the Golden Horseshoe.

I got the super overpriced chicken nuggets and fries (is it really a trip to Disney if you don’t have these at least once?) and Shannon had the Vegetarian Pepper Jack Chili Mac topped with vegetarian chili. I think these were more like fried mac and cheese bites, and she really enjoyed them.

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Photo courtesy of DFB.

I thought about getting the wings, but I read online that the serving is really tiny (four?), and I was hungry so I thought the nuggets would be more filling.

We were able to catch a lot of the fireworks on the bridge walkway by Pirates, and they played the same projections (I think) on the Rivers of America as they do on the castle. No fighting for a spot and just as good of a view in my opinion! We decided we probably wouldn’t go out of our way to watch the fireworks the next evening.

I’m sure we rode a few more things this night and probably headed back to the hotel around 11PM. 23k steps for me on this Day Three!


Continued in Day Four - Part One: Minnie made me breakfast!
 
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7/20 Day Four - Part One: Minnie made me breakfast!

Sorry for the delay, but here is the first part of my experience at, you guessed it, the Plaza Inn! I have never done a character meal at any park, and could not say no to a breakfast with some of my favorite characters.

I made our reservation for around 10:30AM so we could sleep in and ride a few rides prior to breakfast (aka brunch). Shannon and I had to resist another breakfast sandwich at the hotel, I think I had oatmeal that morning.

We headed into Disneyland and got photos in front of the Partners statue.

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I think we did a few Fantasyland rides this morning, since the lines usually didn’t start getting too long until after 10. We also got a FP for Hyperspace Mountain (anyone keeping count?) which was a blast as usual.
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I promise I was having fun! :rotfl:

And it was time to check into breakfast! There were three other groups lined up to check in, which was kind of slow. I think they were both trying to walk up which I think worked, since it wasn’t that crowded during our trip and it was towards the end of breakfast.

I got a little annoyed because they were all lined up in the hot sun, whereas the queue was supposed to be under an umbrella in a roped off section. When we were up next, we went around the ropes to get in a proper line (and under the umbrella) and the people behind us followed. Woohoo for orderly lines and shade!

We got checked in and got our photo with Minnie, one of my favorites.

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When we went inside and paid, Captain Hook was outside and banged on the window by the register to get our attention. Shannon didn’t notice, it was so funny. Hook was up to a lot of shenanigans during our breakfast! pirate:

Our spot ended up being in a corner by the window, not the most ideal but because the place was half empty I wasn’t too worried. We were next to a family with two little girls who had clearly been camping out for a while, so I knew that characters would at least stop by them so there was no way we could be missed.

Here’s a creeper shot with my absolute fave, Pooh! :cool1:

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We went and got our food so we could eat between character interactions. There were so many stations, I knew there would be no way for me to try everything.

Look at how much food we got to start!

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I am the bottom tray, with the huge bowl of bacon. Some things were self serve, but a lot had stations with CMs that dished stuff up for you. We both got Diet Coke because it was practically lunch time, so that’s acceptable. :drinking1

The waffles were delicious, I missed them a lot because I usually stay on site in WDW and have them pretty much daily. The bananas foster was unique but very tasty. I love bacon, and this bacon was nice and crispy. Nothing is worse than limp bacon!

The croissant was a little crispier than I prefer, and I only had one bite of the cinnamon roll before opting not to waste the calories. It was pretty dry and I’d rather eat more waffles. The fruit was wonderful and a nice palate cleanser (lol) between everything else. I ended up going back for another waffle and more fruit, but I don’t think I was able to squeeze in anything else. Next time I’ll have to try the omelettes, but I didn’t feel like waiting in line. I think they also had stuff like potatoes and build your own breakfast bowls?

Anyways, on to the main event, the characters! :goodvibes

Rafiki was up first! I have a lot of photos with this lovely guy in WDW, but it was nice to see him on the West coast this time.

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Next up was the lovely Chip! I taught Shannon that Chip is the one with the chocolate chip nose! We tried to take a selfie with everyone, with varying degrees of success.
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Next up was good ol’ Max Goof! I confess I only know him because I watch a lot of vlogs. Max was a lot of fun and had some silly poses. I’m not sure why I look scared, I was just trying to channel my inner cool kid. :cool:
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Hook passed by a few times, he was trying to scare guests who weren’t paying attention! When he stopped by, I told him no funny business!

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Finally, I got to hug my fluffy favorite Eeyore. What a sad Donkey, I sure can relate to this fella. Growing up is tough! He is probably the most huggable character I know.
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The characters usually stopped by our table before the kids next to us, which was nice. It was getting late and the place was emptying out, so we mostly were getting our photos and keeping the interactions fairly short. Plus, we’re both just awkward adults so there’s only so much miming I can handle in the morning.

I could not leave without seeing my beloved Pooh Bear, so I was thrilled when he waddled over to greet us towards the end of our breakfast! I didn’t really grow up with Pooh, so I’m not sure why he has become such a favorite. I do have a really cute honey pot toy playset that my mom has held onto though, which survived our garage sale cleanout.


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There’s nothing like a hug from Winnie the Pooh! pooh: I actually booked a reservation with my mom at the Crystal Palace for our next WDW trip because I loved this breakfast so much.

I’ll wrap up our breakfast in Part Two, which includes a few nice surprises.

Continued in Part Two: A dance with Pooh!
 
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I'm enjoying your report! It sounds like so much fun!!!

Thank you so much for following along Jaina! It was certainly a trip I will always remember!

I'm hoping to get another post or two done this weekend, the days have really be slipping away from me :rolleyes1 . Planning for my upcoming trip may or not be taking all of my precious free time, but I definitely need to get this TR wrapped up soon! Can't believe it was two months ago already...
 


7/20 Day Four - Part Two: A dance with Pooh!

Eek, I am so sorry for the delay. This summer (now Fall, I suppose) has flown by and the days are just getting away from me. Figuring out the time zones on my photos has slowed me down a lot, I have all of the pictures I want to include all organized, so I apologize if I include things a little out of order for the sake of getting this TR finished faster!

Back to breakfast! The guests were really thinning out, since we were close to the last seating and the Plaza Inn has to transition to a quick service lunch.

Much to our surprise, Minnie stopped by our table around 11:20! She had finished her duties of greeting guests and getting a photo outside, and we had no idea she would make a round before retiring for the morning. We were so excited to get a picture inside, since the photo op outside is pretty quick and posed.

I just love this picture, her apron is so cute and I am wearing my adorable shirt I ordered online. :lovestruc
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And of course, we had to include Minnie in our selfie collection.

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Now, she had a little difficulty, but she ended up grabbing Shannon’s phone and took about a dozen selfies of herself. :rotfl2: (I may have had to help her press the actual button.) Since we are a bit awkward at character interactions, this one was so much fun for us and it was nice since the family next to us was gone and there wasn’t any pressure of holding up Minnie from visiting other tables, since there were only a few people left in the entire restaurant.
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Nothing like a camera roll full of Minnie!

We said goodbye to Minnie and she went into the kitchen to take a well deserved break. Completely stuffed, we started gathering our things.

But wait, Pooh was making one last round as well!

We were so excited to have more time with Pooh, and he grabbed us from our corner table into the center of the room to play around and dance. Look at how silly Pooh is! (And how empty the restaurant is…)

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I got some amazing pictures dancing and twirling around with my favorite character, and there is no one in the background! :cool1:
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If I were an inch or two shorter (and I’m pretty short) I could be even better friends with Pooh, in a different life!
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One last hug for the road! This was a tough goodbye, even though it’s only temporary!
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Shannon took all of these on her iPhone XR. I’m not that savvy on my phone, and it turns out she had live photos on for most of our breakfast. I think I must have turned that off on my phone when I got it, since I had no idea what they were.

Well turns out live photos are three second video photos, and the photo is really just a still. So when I view the photos on my phone, I can click on them and actually watch a little clip of the photo happening! :eek: So I actually have a ton of great mini videos of my dancing and hugs with Pooh. This was such a great discovery when I was back home and feeling the Disney blues.:flower:

To recap our breakfast at the Plaza Inn, this was my first character meal and it will be hard to top. The food was great, and the characters did not make you feel rushed at all. If we wanted to have longer experiences with them, it is totally alright. I recommend doing a later seating like us since we got to experience it in a less busy setting. If you have more people or kids I would come a bit earlier, but we only needed about an hour for the two of us with two trips for food. This was a really special meal and well worth the price, which I think was a little under $40. I could keep going on about it, but hopefully the photos speak for themselves!


After breakfast and a hotel break for me to change, we of course headed into DCA with a FP to ride our favorite, GotG. I’m pretty sure we asked to wait to ride in the front row this time. CMs are accustomed to this request, but it is a pretty hectic job to direct people to gantry lifts, so don’t be alarmed if it’s a bit intimidating. :thumbsup2
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No scared faces, only fun on this ride!

It’s definitely worth waiting an extra 5-10 minutes to ride in the front since screens are an important part of this ride. We agreed that Hit Me With Your Best Shot is our favorite version (we only got it once) but Free Ride is super fun as well, since it ties in really well with the actual ride. All versions are great of course, but it is fun being able to ride as many times as we did to really get the whole experience.

Since it was a warm and sunny day, we had to get the Pixar Pier Parfaits from the Adorable Snowman Frosted Treats at Pixar Pier. I’ve seen these all over social media and let me tell you, they did not disappoint! :tongue:

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This was around $6, so basically the same price as a Dole Whip but like 5x the amount of ice cream. I’m not sure if it’s lemon Dole Whip, but it basically tastes like a lemon version of Dole Whip with blue Icee swirls. If you like Dole Whip and you like a little sour with your sweet, you will really love this.

The line was always crazy long and not shaded, but we quickly realized that they make the treats super fast but people just seem to be slow at ordering. :rolleyes1 We waited for close to half an hour in the early afternoon for these. This was actually the only time I got close to sunburnt, since we weren’t moving much and were in the full sun. I think mobile ordering became available the week after our trip, classic!

Here is a selfie for scale.

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Just be careful because your mouth will turn orange from this treat! We decided not to share and were very glad we had our own, since it was so refreshing on a hot and sunny day.

We enjoyed our treats while sitting on the benches to watch the Pixarmonic Orchestra. I heard that they have cancelled this show, which makes me really sad, since they are fantastic musicians and really added to the vibe of the Pier. :sad: I will try to remember to submit compliments or feedback for stuff like this in the future. There were a lot of people watching both times I saw this show, so I don’t know why Disney needs to cut something that probably only costs the amount of a few admissions daily.:confused3

We rode Incredicoaster again with a FP and I was ready for the photo!
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Just a so so ride for me, the new overlay is cute but it's not a particularly thrilling coaster. If I am here for a shorter trip again I would probably just skip it to save time.

Continued in Part Three: The fight at Fantasmic
!
 
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Looks like a fun character breakfast! We've never done that before, even when our kids were little, but it looks like a fun time! That lemon parfait also looks really good on a hot day, we might have to try that on our next trip! Great pictures and trip report!
 
Looks like a fun character breakfast! We've never done that before, even when our kids were little, but it looks like a fun time! That lemon parfait also looks really good on a hot day, we might have to try that on our next trip! Great pictures and trip report!

Thank you for reading! I was deciding between this and Storyteller's Cafe, and ultimately decided on Plaza Inn because we love the WtP characters. We missed seeing Fairy Godmother but I imagine she would be a hit with any age. This is really a character packed breakfast and I'm sure I will be back again some day!

I still think about that parfait, it was probably my favorite new treat of the trip. :thumbsup2
 
7/20 Day Four - Part Three: The fight at Fantasmic

Can you believe it’s October already? At work we receive a weekly email summary of our “vitals” which includes days since our last time taking PTO. Mine said 72 days, I can’t believe it’s been that long since Disneyland! :sad:

A bit of a life update, but I’m running the Twin Cities 10 Mile race on Sunday, which I’m excited and nervous for. I’ve only ran one 5k before but training has gone really well and my longest run (nine miles) last week went really well so I’m feeling hopeful! There are like 20,000 people who run this race though so it’ll be packed. I think this is around how many people run the Disney Half Marathon, so that is a LOT of runners!

I’d like to run a runDisney race some time, the regular half or Princess would be ideal weather wise but that is busy season at work so I’m not sure it’s in the cards.

I also made all of my FPs for my November/December trip to WDW with my mom, and got everything I wanted! I looked at availability ahead of time and knew I didn’t need to get up early, but when I went to make them yesterday morning, I realized my mom did not have a ticket yet. I bought it from UT and saved a little over $50 compared to directly from Disney.

The best part was that the confirmation page brought me to a special deal that let me purchase 1-day anytime park-to-park tickets for Universal Orlando for $50 off each! 1-day tickets are never on sale for much so this was a super awesome surprise and I bought our tickets right then and there. I saved $100 and was a very happy camper. :cool1:

Anyways, back to the DLR trip report!

Shannon and I must have picked up another GotG FP because here we are again. I’ve lost track of what # ride this is. The guys on the front right are so funny. I saw a picture the other day where all of the people on the ride were playing dead, so funny!

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We picked up another FP for Cars, I think that we waited quite a while for this one. It’s fun at night and during the day, but I think it’s best as the sun is starting to set.
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We decided to get in line for Luigi's Rollickin' Roadsters since we hadn’t done that yet and it's trackless, and the line said 30 minutes. This was pretty accurate, but we had a job to do as we waited so it went by very quickly.

I had seen a really cute hat in the shop after GotG and I decided I wanted to go back and get it. Usually I’m an ear gal, so I decided I needed to branch out a bit.

This meant we needed another FP for GotG (obviously) so we spent our 30 minutes in line refreshing the app. We got in line around 6:30 and were both refreshing. We found that if you see a FP click on it right away without looking at the time, and then you can decide if you want to keep it or not. Once you click the FP time it will let you keep it, but if you wait and look at the list of all the FPs and their times it might get taken by someone else.

Shannon and I both saw a Guardians FP pop up at the same time but I clicked on it faster. :hyper: It was valid immediately! Score! It only took about 10-15 lazy minutes of refreshing so we enjoyed the rest of the queue for Luigi’s, which is quite hidden and features some nice gardening abilities.

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Luigi's ride was just okay, definitely fun for kids but not sure I'd wait for it again as an adult.

Here we are taking advantage of our hard-earned FP. I got my hat and Shannon got a cute Groot mug for her dad. You’ll see the hat on Day Five, which is next up!
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I believe this is our third ride on GotG on Day Four?

It was getting colder and we decided to get sweatshirts as a souvenir. We liked the gray vintage “Dad” sweatshirt we saw everywhere and after going through a few shops, and we each decided to get it. A picture will be included later in this post.

We were hungry for dinner at this point (8PM ha ha) and stopped at Clarabelle’s on our way out of DCA to ruin curb our appetites. I had seen reviews of the hand dipped ice cream bars and really wanted one.

I got quite the concoction, and the CM taking my order gave me a weird face like “did you really just order that???” Yes I did, and I loved every bite! ::yes::
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I got the berry sorbet with a dark chocolate shell and blue raspberry pop rocks. They were called something else but they are pop rocks. Some of them were popping off the ice cream because of the reaction with the chocolate. It was a weird combo but I loved it. I prefer fruity flavors to chocolate so this was the perfect balance.

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Shannon got a cute Minnie ice cream bar that was the special. It was only half dipped to be cute, but the problem is the ice cream got way too soft without the chocolate shell and the popsicle stick didn’t stay put. So maybe only order that for the ‘gram!

We wolfed down our bars on our way to Disneyland and decided on Lobster rolls from the Harbour Galley. This was a big surprise for us! They were $16 so we were skeptical but we also weren’t feeling typical theme park food so this seemed like a good alternative.

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They look pretty small here and in real life as well, but they were surprisingly filling. I prefer my lobster rolls Connecticut style, but these were light on the mayo and very enjoyable. It was late in the evening but the homemade chips were still crispy and plentiful. We both barely finished ours, although the ice cream bars may have clouded our judgement on how filling this really was by itself...

It was time for the early showing of Fantasmic, which we luckily refreshed and got FPs for. We initially only got the late showing since we are not early risers, but it only took about five minutes of refreshing that morning to get the early showing. We only got to the showing about 20 minutes early and were not allowed into the FP viewing zone for a few minutes. I don’t really get why Disney makes people wait if they don’t show up super early.

Anyways, we got in and were finishing up our sandwiches while sitting. There was plenty of room but 15 minutes before the show they made us all stand up as usual.

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We were next to this family that seemed like two moms and their three kids, maybe 12 years old. And let me tell you, there was some draaaaama!

I’m forgetting all the details, but Maddox and Matteo were the stars of this soap opera. The kids all wanted to get a better view so they snuck up to the railing. Totally fine since they’re short and we can all see over them.

The problem was, there wasn’t room for Maddox at the railing. So he was stuck behind us with the moms. He was starting to cry due to feeling left out by his bud Matteo, and Matteo’s mom called to Matteo to get him to come back and stand with Maddox.

Matteo refused, and this made Maddox cry even more. It was a little sad but mostly funny as an onlooker, poor Maddox. :lmao: I could tell Matteo’s mom was also amused but she was like “Matteo, stop being so mean!” This isn’t as funny now that I’m typing it out, but I promise, it was one of those moments where I think you just had to be there. Kids and their silly drama!

We really enjoyed Fantasmic and only got a slight mist in the faces from the water. I haven’t seen it at WDW since I was a kid so I will have to see how they compare if I made it on my next trip. Based on my receipts, I also managed to fit in a Bengal BBQ beef skewer and veggie skewer as a “snack” at some point on this day. I’m a bottomless pit apparently. :sad2: Looking back photos, I ate so much this day. That's the nice part about splitting these TRs into so many parts, my Plaza Inn breakfast was practically yesterday, hah!

A total of 25,663 steps for Day Four, and a fantastic last full day. We were starting to get a bit of the Disney blues this night even though we had nearly a full day ahead of us.

We packed up at the hotel that night so we could drop off our bags at the desk in the morning. I had to do some clever tetris since I had acquired a sweatshirt and popcorn bucket.

Continued in Day 5!

 
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We slept pretty well throughout the trip thanks to my wonderful white noise machine. I definitely recommend this hotel and your feet will thank you!


Just started reading your trip report and I'm loving it! Looking at making a trip to DLR next year so I'm doing my "research" :)

Just curious, what noise machine do you use for travelling? I NEED one.
 
Just started reading your trip report and I'm loving it! Looking at making a trip to DLR next year so I'm doing my "research" :)

Just curious, what noise machine do you use for travelling? I NEED one.

Thanks for reading! "Research" is my favorite pastime :cool1: .

I use the "Adaptive Sound Technologies LectroFan High Fidelity White Noise Sound Machine with 20 Unique Non-Looping Fan and White Noise Sounds and Sleep Timer" from Amazon. It has around 6000 reviews and is $50. It actually goes on sale for $15 every year for Prime day (when I purchased it) but I'd pay the $50 all over again. It's truly saved my life! My mom and Shannon actually got the same one because they liked mine so much haha.

It's a little bulky, maybe four inches across and a few inches high but I always pack it if I'm traveling, and it stays on the nightstand at home. I'm sure other machines are great too but I got this one based on reviews and will buy another if it goes kaput!
 
Sorry folks, it looks like my photos broke again! :sad: I upload to Google photos and then insert the photo from the image url, but for some reason they no longer show up. The pictures show up if I right click and choose open picture in new tab, so I have no idea why it's like this. If this is a known Google thing, someone please let me know. I didn't like just adding them through drag and drop since my photos are always too big. I don't want the quality to go down either, agh!

I'll try and figure something out this weekend, luckily I organized all my photos in order on my laptop so it shouldn't be too hard to re-upload them if I have to. What a pain!

Update: It took me about an hour, but I re-added all of the photos. Apparently Google photos create "temporary" image URL links, and they disappear after a few days/weeks. So I shared the album and opened it in a private browser and supposedly the image URLs via this method will be "permanent." Hmmm. Fingers crossed, because I'd hate to finish this TR and then have the photos disappear again! I'd love to hear if anyone has better options.

(That being said, if anyone comes across this TR at a later date and the pictures are gone, please let me know!)
 
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Love your trip report! What time was your Plaza Inn character breakfast reservation for? We're going to DL in March with some friends and I'm going to make a reservation there.
 
Love your trip report! What time was your Plaza Inn character breakfast reservation for? We're going to DL in March with some friends and I'm going to make a reservation there.

Thanks for following along! I checked my emails and it looks like it was 10:30. I don’t remember for sure but I think that the last seatings were around 11. We spent about an hour there and the characters were heading out and it was pretty empty by 11:30. They have to prepare for lunch so I think most of the food was being put away by then too.

Wirh a group I would definitely give yourself a bit longer since you’ll probably want to socialize a bit more and take more trips to the buffet. We missed a few characters due to being on the late end but still had a blast as the characters spent some quality extra time with us!
 
7/21 Day Five - Part One: I am Groot!

So sorry for the delay! I’m back from a fantastic week long trip to WDW and I’m excited to start that TR, but I figure I need to finish this one first! :hyper:

We slept in a bit on our last day since we had to check out. The annoying thing about going to the parks for a full day after checking out is having to strategically pack your bags. We managed, and we were checked out in time before 11AM.

We decided to get McDonald’s on our last day since breakfast had ended at the hotel. It’s only a few minutes walk down Harbor which is so convenient.

No picture, but I got pretty much the same breakfast sandwich that I was eating at the hotel, except I finally got my bacon. I don’t know why I was so obsessed with these this trip!

We got the tip off the day prior about what time Groot would be meeting after the dance off by Guardians, so we were ready. I even brought along my dirty Groot shirt since I hadn’t gotten a picture with him when I wore it the first time.

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Yay! I am Groot! :woohoo: He is an awesome character to meet and unique to Disneyland. Highly recommend waiting for him! We were actually like second line since there’s no signage and we were waiting before he even came out. This was around 11:45AM so if you miss him but there’s a CM around, they might be able to give you the schedule since he doesn’t meet for very long at a time.

We headed over to Pixar Pier next to get our Jack Jack cookie that we were looking at all week. A healthy lunch, right? :laughing:

Of course, we stopped for a few pictures on the way.

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Here’s the fantastic cookie! I’m not a huge cookie person but I like them freshly baked and this was delicious. Perfect to share along with two milks, which you will definitely need.
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Looks like we went back to Guardians on our way out of DCA, is anyone surprised at this point? Being able to get FPs all the time really makes me wish WDW used this system.
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I was a little sad since I had decided this was my all time favorite ride, and I’m not sure when I’ll be back. ToT is just not as fun or re-rideable for me, even if it is always scary the first time.

On our way into Disneyland we got waffle cones from Gibson Girl on Main Street and ate them on the curb. It was funny because children in strollers kept staring at our ice cream as they were rolled by. :rotfl2:

We did a little shopping around and I got some Goofy Candy Co sour character gummies. Overpriced but these were so good and lasted me a few days after the trip.

We picked up Splash FPs again and this time no hats were lost.

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Look at those wimps ahead of us wearing ponchos! We did not get wet even though it was very warm and I would have welcomed it.

I guess it was some time for some real food because we had Hungry Bear around 2PM. We mobile ordered a kid’s cheeseburger, and Shannon got some sort of sandwich with coleslaw along with a watermelon slushie. She got it without whipped cream, which I’m not sure why it was on a slushie in the first place! The kid’s meal was fine, nothing to write home about but plenty of food for a decent price.

We actually wanted Bengal Barbecue but mobile ordering was down and the line was so long, so Hungry Bear it was.

Shortly after we headed back to Galaxy’s Edge to try some blue milk since it was hot out.

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This was actually so good! It doesn’t taste like milk at all, it tastes like a skittles smoothie if that makes sense. Very fruity but not too sweet, so overpriced but worth it for the novelty. There was a decent line at the milk stand so the CM was shouting about mobile order, so that’s what we did. Our milk was ready on the side counter instantly! So definitely take advantage of this. :thumbsup2

Our last day is continued in the next post.
 
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7/21 Day Five - Part Two: See ya real soon!

We love getting our steps in, so we were off to one last FP for Hyperspace Mountain. It was getting a little predictable at this point with all the turns in the same direction, but we still had a blast.

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Note that I was ready for the camera this time.

And of course we had to get one last FP for GotG to say goodbye! Look at what a fun group we had, I think we waited for front row. Let me see your hands! :banana:

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We crossed back to Disneyland (so nice not having to use buses, which I know I’ve said 100 times) and decided to take a spin on the carousel. Of course this had to go on our Instagram stories, boomerang anyone?
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It actually went around pretty quick, my mom thinks she could handle a carousel but I think not.

We managed to get on Peter Pan as it was down and we saw CMs riding it to test it before re-opening the ride. Others caught onto this as well and we all made sort of a mad dash into line. We only waited maybe 10 minutes which wasn’t bad. A cute ride but I’d never wait that long for it, but I get why it’s so popular with little kids.

We got one final churro from Tomorrowland, the churro to end all churros. We came full circle here.

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It was getting late and we were going to end with Snow White to really end our trip like it began.

Unfortunately for us, Fantasyland was closing down for the fireworks. Oops! We missed the ride by mere minutes, and now I hear it’s being redone! I like the jarring ending, that’s the best part! :worship:

Oh well, we rode Dumbo instead. It was only a ten minute ride and that’s all that was open in that area. It was a fun ride, and again, it’s a ride my mother mistakenly thinks she can ride. I don’t get dizzy but I imagine it catches a lot of people off guard. We got a lovely view of Fantasyland from our elephant and were getting really sad at this point.

We really needed to be heading out of the parks by 9PM so we dragged our feet back to the entrance to head back to the hotel for our bags. We stopped for one last picture in front of the train station on our way out.

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We picked up our bags and repacked a bit and were in our Uber to LAX by 9:30. The fireworks started going off as we drove down Harbor.
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This is the worst part of the trip always, nothing to look forward to. At least when I was a kid it wasn’t a big deal, but going back to work really stinks! :worried:

The ride to the airport was fine until we hit traffic in the last mile. It took an hour to crawl through that last mile and that alone made me never want to go back to LAX ever again. I was getting a little anxious about our flight times and security at this point, especially since Shannon and I were at different terminals and were doing two consecutive drop offs.

To give you some perspective, it took us an hour to get to my terminal after passing these giant AT&T buildings...which I passed while taxiing to the gate after my plane landed at LAX!

We made it in time and both our flights were delayed by half an hour, so it ended up working out. But definitely give yourself like 90 minutes of just travel time from Anaheim to the airport.

TSA used me as an example because I had an empty waterbottle, and the agent was like “NO WATERBOTTLES” to everyone behind me. He handed it back to me and was like “you’re fine” because it was empty. Okay…:sad2:

Pretty much all the food was closed (close to midnight) so I settled for a ham and cheddar lunchable. Brings me back to the good ol’ school lunch days. I always begged for lunchables and my mom usually gave in. :hyper:

Shannon and I made it onto our planes and were exhausted, since we flew out around 1AM we did not land until after 6AM local time with the time difference. I was so glad I had a window seat because I slept most of the flight. Delta provided blankets to everyone, not sure if this was the norm but I appreciated it.

It was weird taking the train back to my apartment with the morning commuters. I felt pretty out of it and though I intended to stay up until like 8PM, I went to sleep right away anyways. I had taken the day (Monday) off work and decided sleep was more important than a regular sleep schedule.

All in all I had around 26k steps on this last day at Disneyland.

It was such a fun trip, and it was even more fun because I got to show the parks to Shannon for the first time. It really helps recapture the magic to bring someone for the first time.

I thought five days was amazing, but you can definitely get most things done in three days as long as it’s not a holiday. I loved having the luxury of repeating favorites though, so take more time if you can. We still didn’t get to everything (like Animation Academy), probably since we were busy riding GotG like 10 times. There’s always next time!

I cannot wait to go back, but I probably won’t until the Marvel stuff is open. I really loved both parks and I honestly think I prefer them to WDW’s Magic Kingdom and Hollywood Studios. Disneyland just feels so much more intimate and magical, and I think the lack of chaotic energy that WDW has due to all the tourists really helps.

Thank you to everyone who has read this report or who stumbles across it! It’s been so fun writing it and I’m sure I will look back at this and be thankful for all of the memories.

See ya real soon! (For my next trip report, which I will link if I ever finish writing it...it’s gonna be a long one since I actually took notes!)

* Updated with a link to next TR (WDW)!
 
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Loved the TR. Makes me want to go back to Disneyland soo bad. Your second photo with Mickey is soo cute. Love the blue tshirt with the gang on it!! Cafe Orleans and Breakfast at the Plaza are on my list! I soo want to meet Max. Great table at Lamplight, we had an ADR and ended up getting sat at the bar :(
 
Loved the TR. Makes me want to go back to Disneyland soo bad. Your second photo with Mickey is soo cute. Love the blue tshirt with the gang on it!! Cafe Orleans and Breakfast at the Plaza are on my list! I soo want to meet Max. Great table at Lamplight, we had an ADR and ended up getting sat at the bar :(

So glad you enjoyed! I definitely miss Disneyland, there's something so special about it. Mickey was great, it seemed like there were so many more character meets in DLR. Macy's junior section is the place to find all the "vintage" Disney shirts! Both of those meals were so good, I'll probably do them again when I am able to go back. I don't even know if Max meets in WDW so that was awesome! We really lucked out at Lamplight, the crowds were just so low since APs were blocked out and I'm sure it'll never be that quiet again. Thanks again for reading! :earsboy:
 

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