jodyb
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Oct 15, 1999
Liav and Jody's Excellent DLP Adventure 2005 Part 8Cast:
Liav (13)
Jody (Old enough to be her Mom...)
Part Eight – Friday and Saturday – January 14 and 15, 2005….
Friday morning was VERY foggy. I opened the window of our room, but could not even see several inches out! The hotel was enveloped in a warm cloud…. And this was the day we'd planned to spend in Paris! What to do….?
Well, in the end we decided to go into Paris after all, hoping the cloud would lift, and – it did! By mid-morning the sun was shining, and we ended up having a glorious day in the city. I will spare you the details on that since this is a DLP report, but here's one photo:
Liav took this photo because she thought it would stop me from singing… (ha!)
We got back to DLP at around 6:15 PM, and went straight to Annette's diner. We were seated upstairs, and after we ordered (same thing as always – Rock'n Roll Burger and Chicken Fajitas) we heard a commotion from downstairs. We went over to look and the waiters were up on the counter dancing and singing. Later there were two birthdays – ALL the waiters ran in a group behind the cake to the birthday person and sang for them. It was very cute. After supper we still had time to catch Fantillusion from just inside Main Street. The perfect end to the day. On the way back to the hotel we stayed mostly in the shops because it was really really cold, AND because we wanted to check if the CMs had acquired any new pins while we were gone! Liav was able to trade her last Tinkerbell starter pin for a really cute Dumbo.
Back at Sequoia Lodge we watched another movie on the Disney Channel before turning in.
SATURDAY, January 15
Saturday morning we slept in a bit (until about 8) and were on our way out of the hotel at about 8:30. The lines for breakfast were the worst we had ever seen. People were lined up all the way up the stairs and then some! It was horrible! I would never ever wait for breakfast like this – I was amazed that people stood there so patiently with their children! Even if they were giving away the best food in the world I would not do it! I think people figure that since it's included in their room price they hate to pay money somewhere else for breakfast. I understand this… but on the other hand, my holiday is for FUN, and waiting like this can't possibly be any fun! Okay enough ranting on that…
So we got out of there as fast as we could, and started the nice walk around the lake to McDonalds. We took our time since McDonalds opens at 9. When we got there it turned out that McDonalds was having some sort of technical problem, and was not opening after all. Several disappointed families waited until about 9:15, when someone came out to tell us that they still could not open up…. So we went across the village to the New York sandwich shop and had a nice donut and coffee for breakfast. I love the Broadway posters in this restaurant. It was almost completely deserted at that hour, so breakfast was extremely pleasant, and worth every penny in my opinion!
We decided to start the day in the Studios, and as we walked through the turnstiles, just outside Studio One – there was Donald Duck!!! Liav and I started running toward him, and just as we got to him he turned and started hamming it up for the crowd. I looked for the camera…. Oops… NO CAMERA. Did we forget it at the restaurant? Nope. In the hotel room. Oh well. We had already gotten a good shot of Donald the other day (thank goodness) but a day without camera was not going to fly, so we walked all the way back to the hotel to get it. Actually this was not so terrible. When you are in DLP for a whole week you can afford to take things in stride – there's time for everything, even an occasional mishap…
After retrieving the camera, we decided to grab the yellow shuttle bus back to the park entrance. I don't know why. I really do not like the bus – and the walk is always so pleasant. But I guess it was just a lot of back and forth that morning!
By the time we got back, of course Donald was gone, but that was okay.
We saw Stitch and some bear characters whose names I forgot. Inside Studio One we bought yet another pin lanyard with the idea that these 4 starter pins would be for the NEXT trip…(stay tuned). This time we wanted to get the Minnie and Mickey starter set, but it turned out the price for this one was 20 Euro, and the Tinkerbells were only 10 – Liav didn't care which ones she got since she would trade them all anyway, so we ended up getting MORE Tinkerbells…
We rode the flying carpets, saw Animagique, and played around again in Animation Courtyard.
The line for RnR was really long and they were not using Fast Pass, again, because of Magic Unlimited. We rode once, but didn't want to join the whole mess trying to go again. I personally do not think Magic Unlimited is very "magical" – it's disorganized… just MHO.
For lunch we went to McDonalds which had sorted out whatever the problem had been, and then back to the hotel for a rest – it was going to be a very late night tonight and I wanted us to have the energy for lots of rides on Space Mountain when we attended the special fan sendoff for the ride!!! (hmmm…. Keep reading…)
Liav watched Disney Channel and I worked on my trip notes. I noted that in the entire week we'd been there I had yet to hear a single word of Hebrew (other than between Liav and me). I guess I am the only Israeli mother Disney-crazed enough to take her child out of the middle of a school term for this!!
Before we left to go to the park I remembered that we were supposed to wear the DIS Lime Green Ribbons!!! We were going to meet SmilingMouse and her Mom!!! I ran back up to the room and made Liav cut the lime green ribbon off her suitcase so I could put it on my backpack so Smilingmouse would recognize us!! Then we walked to toward the park, but by the time we got to the Disneyland Hotel we were so freezing we needed a warmup... and we ducked into the hotel. We sat down on the second floor Fantasia lounge and had a hot drink, which came with pretzels and dried fruit...
A few days before our trip, a fan event for the closing of Space Mountain had been announced and we were very excited to have gotten tickets to it. We knew that our trip coincided with the final closing of Space Mountain, and we'd already planned to ride it a lot that final "historic" day, but we were even more excited when we heard about the event. It was advertised as a meeting with the Imagineers who worked on the original Space Mountain, followed by unlimited riding for patch-holders. The patch would be given to ticket holders of the event, would allow them to be in the park after closing on the 15th, and would work like a VIP FastPass that night and the next day.
So we left the warm refuge of the DLH, and entered the park. At City Hall we exchanged our tickets to the Space Mountain event for the special commemorative patches. We then walked to Auberge De Cendrillon, where our meeting with Becky and Karen was to happen!! We arrived exactly at the appointed hour of 5 PM, and sure enough there was a reservation in SmilingMouse's name, so we sat down, telling the waiters to let Becky and her Mom know that we were already seated. (I assumed they would also inquire about the reservation and then be told we were already there). We waited and waited, and several times I went outside to "flash" my lime green ribbons, looking for a mother –daughter pair, but never saw them…. Finally Karen came in and found us!! Yay!!!
It was great to meet them! They are from Minnesota, which is where I grew up and my Mom and siblings still lived, so their accent is very familiar and it felt like "home" talking to them!
Auberge was offering an all you can eat buffet, which Karen ordered and pronounced very delicious – it did look wonderful. The rest of us just ordered the dessert buffet and hot chocolate and coffee. Also wonderful! After a very calorie-full time and some great conversation, Liav and Becky left the Moms and went for a spin on Indiana Jones. Karen and I continued our conversation until it was time to meet them to line up for Fantillusion. It was Karen's first time, so we got our favorite spot just to the right of the castle to be sure she caught the stops. The parade was excellent as usual, although the weather was VERY cold. An adorable little girl about 5 years old was sitting on the curb next to us, and I noticed she had no mittens – her poor hands were freezing and red! I fished Liav's extra gloves out of my backpack and gave them to her – they were big on her but at least they kept her hands from getting frostbite!! I wanted her to keep them for the long walk out of the park, but her mother insisted she give them back to me after the parade....
The park closed at 8 PM and the fan event for SM was to start at 8:15.. we had just a little while to kill after the parade so we went into the shops in Discoveryland. At 8:15 we lined up with about 200 other people outside the Honey I Shrunk the Audience theater. It was VERY COLD and windy. They did not start to let people in until well after 8:30… By then our toes were frozen!!
The program turned out to be a bit boring for us – most of it was in French – even the videos they showed which were originally English were dubbed over in French… and the live discussion with the Imagineers was 90% in French. Needless to say we were disappointed… but we assumed it would be a short program, after which we would ride SM. But… it dragged on… and on… and when two hours later we were still being subjected to French videos… we left.
We were too tired at that point to ride anyway….
Well, yes, we were disappointed, but who can be depressed when you are in Disneyland at 11 PM and the park closed 3 hours ago, and there is NOBODY around, but the park is all lit and there is music piped in JUST FOR YOU!! We really enjoyed walking through Discoveryland, and when we got to the main square it became almost too magical to stand! I kept saying "I love this!!". The only thing missing was the castle lights, but Main Street was totally lit up… (did I mention the music?) I said something like shoot me now I will die happy….
Karen had already gone back to their hotel, but Liav, Becky, and I slowly ambled down the deserted Main Street enjoying every moment!!
When we finally tore ourselves away from Main Street and left the park, we all realized we were hungry… so guess where?? Yup, Annette's again! And yup! Same food…. Yum!
Back to the SL and to bed…
Can it be? Tomorrow is our last day????
