We headed off towards RSR, and I really enjoyed all the decorations in Carsland! I loved the bats coming out of Carthay. Those were cool. My friend was a little disappointed that I had already seen most of the Carsland stuff on different boards and Youtube videos, but it was still super fun to see them in person.
It took us about 15 minutes to get on RSR with our fastpasses, but the standyby line said it was 105 minutes at 2:30 PM, in that heat!! I enjoyed the ride, and once again, my one friend had never been on it! Her older two girls (that are tall enough) aren't that into Cars I guess. Her son would love it, but he's only 2, so... I always look dumb in the pictures on RSR because my hair is everywhere with all the wind. Another ride that's more fun with cool air. I really meant for us to go back and ride it single rider line after dark, because I've still never ridden it at night, but maybe next trip.
We stopped for a photo op on our way out of Carsland as we tried to think of some cool things to do to combat the heat.
We decided on Ghirardelli, and split a brownie caramel sundae thing. It was pretty, and tasty, but not as good as our pizookies at BJ's. We decided it needed more brownie (which was divine) and less whipped cream.
We decided now was a good time to do a little shopping, so we could enjoy the a/c of the shops and since none of us have had time to browse without kids in like 6 years... And because we were waiting on some 4:45 fastpasses on Splash Mountain while it was still hot. We ran into Daisy and Donald toward the front of CA inside the shops and the line was short, so of course I wanted pictures!
After doing some more browsing, we hopped back over to
Disneyland and ended up inside the Opera House to look at some of the displays in there. And guess who I ran into - this guy! I was just a tiny bit starstruck, but my friends thought I was somewhat crazy when I asked a cast member for a picture and called him by name...
That was fun! I love to look at the history and the art they have in there, and the a/c was wonderful. I also took a selfie with another famous cast member, haha. A little more shopping and we headed towards Splash Mountain!
Splash Mountain was another one where the fast pass line wasn't as short as you'd hope, but it definitely beat the standby. It seems like it was close to 20 minutes before we got in. My friends were determined not to get so wet when they were just finally dried off, and voted me to sit in front when we got sent to the first half of the log... I definitely got extremely wet, and there was screaming! ;-) It was a fun ride though, and they got pretty wet too, including their tennis shoes, which they had managed to keep dry on the first water ride.
We walked around the back of New Orleans to use the bathroom (and grab a picture here - I miss the Court of Angels!) on our way to a little shop where one friend wanted to spend enough on Nightmare Before Christmas paraphernalia to also qualify to buy the AP Mickey Mouse backpack.
We grabbed a FP for Big Thunder Mountain while waiting for her, and served as group photographers for at least 5 different sets of people with this backdrop before grabbing our own.
We were holding a fastpass for Guardians of the Galaxy: Monsters After Dark, as well as one for Big Thunder, so we weren't able to get another one even though our BTMRR time was already available within 10-15 minutes of booking it. Can you only hold two at once? I need to read more MaxPass guides.
BTMRR, which we always called "The Runaway Railroad" growing up, is one of my happy places. I was hoping to ride it after dark, but almost dusk was good too. It already wan't nearly as hot, and we had a good ride, towards the very back of the train like I asked for.
I love doiong the goat trick, and tried to explain it to my friends, but they didn't get it.
After we got off, we stopped in for some more shopping in Frontierland where my friend could purchase her backpack (the other store was out) and where I could pick a pin as my souvenir. I don't really collect them, but I have a few from a visit to WDW in my teens, and my kids have done a little pin trading in the past. I thought a 2017 Minnie Mouse pin was the perfect reminder of this fun trip with my friends and with our matching shirts though.
I also enjoyed getting to see the Halloween tree.
(pic of the pin isn't mine)
After BTMRR we saw that a Star Tours FP was available almost immediately, so we grabbed that and then went to ride it after shopping was done. I always enjoy Star Tours, even though, again, the FP line was 15-20 minutes, and my friends didn't realize that it is random and different each time.
Is it a faulty memory, it did it used to be faster to get on with FP? Or does it just depend? I looked on the character map and saw that Chewie was receiving admirers, and convinced my friends that we needed a picture if the line wasn't too long. It was 10 minutes, and totally worth it, though the Photopass photographer didn't manage to get a non-blurry picture of me with my eyes open. What the heck? Chewie was super fun though, and we had fun waiting in line after a little 5-year-old who was there on her birthday that was -quite- entertaining. It was fun to watch her meet and greet.
On our way out BB-8 was spinning around and my selfie with him also failed, but the pic my friend took is kind of cute.
Our Guardians FP (that we were excited to get, though one friend and I were a little nervous about how "scary" the Halloween overlay might be) was almost up, so it was time to park hop yet again! I grabbed another non-line pumpkin picture on our way out.
I was hoping to get a corn dog, because at 7 PM I was finally hungry after the nachos and ice cream from earlier, but the cart was closed. So sad!
And loved the pics with Chewy. Thank you for sharing you and your friend's fun!
