A little of this, a little of that....

Disneyland < Disneyworld

What a busy week!  Last Saturday night started our CHA preview parties, then the tradeshow was Sunday, Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday (1/2 day).  Wednesday we moved hotels from the Anaheim Hilton to around the corne and then went to Downtown Disney.  We woke up early on Thursday to get ready and then pack all of our stuff up again.  I'd realized Thursday morning I'd left some clothes back in the closet of our Hilton room.  This was a bummer because my jeans and hoodie I'd pack to wear to Disneyland were amongst the things I'd left behind.  :(  I called the Hilton to check to see if they'd found them, and they called back a couple of hours later to say they did find everything.

We did have some good luck... on Wednesday, after checking at the Hilton Disney kiosk to buy our tickets (we didn't buy them because they didn't sell one-day tickets), a guy came up and asked if we were going to Disneyland.  He had a Park Hopper that still had two days on it and he was going home, so he gave us the ticket!  What a nice guy!  So on Thursday, we just had to buy one ticket!  So we got into Disneyland for only $33 each!

After a cold and damp Thursday morning, plus Disneyland's disorganization of letting people in with reservations for "Minnie's Breakfast at the Park", we were ready for breakfast and for some fun.  It eventually warmed up and the sun came out around 1pm.  Although Disneyland has eight 'lands' (two more than Disneyworld), it still seemed so much smaller than Disneyworld.  Plus, Sleeping Beauty's castle seemed so small.   Disneyworld is definately greater than Disneyland.  My favorite part of Disneyland was the Finding Nemo submarine ride.  We waited in line about 45 minutes and it was worth it- it was the old 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea converted to Finding Nemo.  It was awesome.

After the 7pm parade was over, we walked our tired and exhausted selves back to our hotel.  I kept on walking back to the Hilton to pick up my left-behind clothes.  I walked back and met up with Stephanne and all of our luggage to get our 8:45pm shuttle van back to LAX.  Now, I truly believe one of my nine lives was used on this van ride to LAX.  It was about a 35 minute ride and the driver weaved in and out of lanes, plus the ride was incredibly bumpy- we were constantly riding with at least one tire on the reflectors and over into another lane.  Maybe this is how everyone drives in LA, but I let out a huge sigh of relief when we pulled up to the check-in curb at LAX.

After reorganizing and repacking my two suitcases at the curbside check-in, I had to find room in my carry-ons for 22 pounds of stuff.  I finally got my two suitcases to 50 pounds on the dot (they were 60 and 62 pounds before).  Our flight left at 11:55pm and was completely full.  We never would've guessed a redeye from LAX to Atlanta would've been packed full.  There was another Delta flight going to Cincinnati leaving 20 minutes before ours in the next terminal and it was completely full too.  Anyway, our two rolling totes we had as carry-ons were so packed full, they wouldn't hardly fit in the overheads.  After some frustration, we finally crammed them in the overhead bins.  Stephanne and I were both in middle seats, with Stephanne sitting in the row in front of me.  Plus, the plane was so hot and stuffy.  I was able to sleep the entire way to Atlanta, all four hours and fifteen minutes (thanks Zanax!).  I'm not sure if I would've made it otherwise- I couldn't even get to my book or anything in my other carry-on.

Our flight got into Atlanta around 7:20am and then our second flight to Columbus left around 8:20am.  Stephanne and I were able to sit in our own rows on this flight and we both slept the entire way.  We got into Columbus around 10am, got our heavy luggage and then caught the FastTrack shuttle bus to get my car.  Whew- what an exhausting twelve hours! 

After I dropped Stephanne off, hauled all of my luggage upstairs, I was finally home!  The cats were glad to see me and after smelling and sniffing everything, they went back to sleep.  I ended up sleeping too for almost six hours.  So Friday was pretty much shot!   But, I'm glad to be home and looking forward to things getting back to normal.

For our day at disney: with the first part of the day being gray and cloudy, half of my pics aren't too great.  Plus, my camera battery was almost dead by the time the parade came around, so I didn't take as many parade pictures as I wanted.  One of the coolest things about this trip to Disney was seeing Minnie dressed for the Chinese New Year (The Year of the Mouse!).

Greetings from not-so-sunny California!

Hello!  I'm still out in California!  The CHA tradeshow ended today, but Stephanne and I are staying an extra day to go to Disneyland tomorrow!  Yippee!  It would've been torture to be this close to Disneyland and not go!  Our tradeshow was good, but man oh man, are our feet tired!  We're in our hotel room now resting and trying to gain some momemtum back for a full day of Disney fun tomorrow.  Here's where our tradeshow was- the Anaheim Convention Center...

After our tradeshow was over, we checked out of the Anaheim Hilton and moved around the block to another hotel.  Once we got our room, we walked to Downtown Disney for some lunch and to take in some sights.  The weather today wasn't so great this afternoon- it was really gray and cloudy and chilly.  We're hoping for good weather tomorrow, although we heard it's supposed to be windy and cloudy.  Here are my pics from Downtown Disney...

And what could be better than Disney AND Sephora in the same place?  It's my dream come true!

We spent some time shopping in the World of Disney...

Mom- hidden Mickeys... can you find them?

It's almost 7pm here, so we're going to head out to find some dinner.

Disney Day #5 Cinderella's Royal Table

So back when I was planning our Disney trip, I did my Disney message board research and plotted and planned all of our ADR's  (that's Advanced Dining Reservations for those not hip on the Disney message board lingo...).  All the posts about CRT (Cinderella's Royal Table) had said it was so hard to get reservations.  You can make ADR's 180 days in advance and people literally count down the days and start getting geared up on the 181st day.  So, when I called and actually got reservations for Cinderella's Royal Table actually on Granny's birthday, I was so excited!  I learned later people actually sell their reservations to CRT because they're so hard to get!  Scalping CRT reservations?  Sounds a little dark and devious for Disney!

When we got to CRT, we walked into the lobby and got our picture taken with Cinderella inside the castle- all decorated for the holidays.  When it was time to go to our table, we walked up a spiral staircase two flights of stairs.  The dining room was awesome- tall stained glass windows and very castle-y (is that a word?).  We were visited by Snow White, Sleeping Beauty, Jasmine, and Belle (in her blue and white everyday dress).  They all made a big deal once they saw Granny's birthday button. 

Our food was really good... Granny had pork tenderloin with vegetable couscous...

Mom had shredded beef, julianned vegetables and mashed potatoes with puff pastry...

I had salmon with ginger glaze, jasmine rice and asian slaw...

We also had chocolate with cream cheese buckle with ice cream and raspberry sorbet for dessert.  We had a great time.

After CRT, we walked over to TomorrowLand and walked around.  We rode the TomorrowLand Transit Authority and did Stitch's Great Escape.  We walked around for awhile more, but it was dark now and it was FREEZING!!!!  We decided to call it a day and head back to our hotel.  Here's one last picture on our way out...

Our Disney trip was awesome- lots of fun and lots of memories.  Granny wants to go back on her 80th birthday.  I guess we'll get in line first at Soarin' then, make ADR at CRT and get Granny some snorin' strips. 

Disney Day #5 at Magic Kingdom...

After we had breakfast, we walked over to Magic Kingdom.  The Contemporary is next door to Magic Kingdom, but this short walk wasn't so pleasant... it was FREEZING!  With the wind chill, our last day at Disney was 23 degrees (32 degrees without the wind chill).

Despite the cold, the sky was blue and there wasn't a line to get into Magic Kingdom!  This was so much better than New Year's Eve day!

We wanted to head back to Toon Town once we got into the park to see Mickey and Minnies houses.  Since we'd just had a nice brisk walk, we walked upstairs to the Train Station to take the train back to Toon Town.  While we were waiting, Mom found a piece of Mickey confetti and we created our own "hidden Mickey"...

Mom then threw all caution to the wind and went on..... "The Brainstormer."  When Mom decided she was going on it, she handed me her bag.  At the same time, Granny's trying to hand me her bag.  Granny was going to go on it too!  Mom and I decided maybe Granny better keep her ticker in check and wait with me!

After Mom's crazy adventure on "The Brainstormer", we walked over towards TomorrowLand to ride the racing cars.  The line was too long, so we took a break to warm up inside Cosmic's Rays with coffee and hot chocolates.  We walked over through FantasyLand towards Ariel's Grotto, but didn't stand in line to get pictures with the Little Mermaid.

We walked over to AdventureLand and then took a break.  At this point, it was our fifth day of Disney, it was windy and cold, and we just weren't moving too quickly.  We needed a lot of coffee and hot chocolate breaks! 

We headed back towards to the castle and I got what I came for... my postcard picture of Cinderella's castle...

In addition to Chef Mickey's, we had reservations for Cinderella's Royal Table for a late lunch at 2:45pm to continue Granny's birthday celebration.  Stay tuned for pics!

Disney Day #5 Breakfast at Chef Mickey's...

Our last day at Disney started off celebrating Granny's 76th birthday with breakfast at Chef Mickey's at Disney's Contemporary Resort.  Granny was given a "Happy Birthday" button when we checked in at Caribbean Beach, but had waited for her actual birthday to wear it.  Once we got to our table at Chef Mickey's, they gave the birthday girl a placement with autographs of all of the characters- they were really great with making a birthday special. 

Chef Mickey's was a breakfast buffet (of course, complete with Mickey waffles) while Mickey, Minnie, Donald, Pluto, and Goofy visited the tables.  About every half hour, all of the characters would dance around while they played this loud music and everyone would twirl their napkins in the air.  We cracked up! 

Here's the birthday girl's cupcake...

The picture above is the "Party"... and yep, that arm on the left is Mom's.   

Disney Day #4 at Epcot...

We left Animal Kingdom and caught the shuttle over to Epcot.  The last time we were at Epcot, we didn't really like it too much, so we didn't plan on spending too much time here.  We got to Epcot around 5:00pm.  We had two things we wanted to do- go on Soarin' and see the IllumiNations fireworks show. 

We headed over to Soarin'.  The line was long, so we went to get Fast Passes.  There was a sign that all of the Fast Passes had been distributed for the day and also the in-line wait was 2 1/2 hours!  So, we didn't get to go on Soarin'.   We headed over to go on "The Seas"...

We walked around and scoped out a spot to watch IllumiNations.  It was getting dark, so we decided to get some dinner.  We took the ferry boat over to Germany to get bratwurst and sauerkraut (it was really good, plus Granny wanted to eat sauerkraut since it was New Years Day).   While we were over in Germany, I used the sidewalk rail to rest my camera so I could get a couple of night shots. 

We took the ferry boat back and waited for the fireworks show.  It had gotten windy and much cooler- we had jackets, hoodies and sweatshirts on and it was still cold!  The IllumiNations show was neat, but I thought some parts of it was boring.  I guess I'm glad I saw it once- I won't put it on my list to see again at Disney!  Stay tuned for our last day at Disney- back at Magic Kingdom.

Disney Day #4 Parade at Animal Kingdom...

The holiday parade was really cool at Animal Kingdom.  Lots of fun music and colorful floats.  There are these big 'animals' built on bikes or carts (look at the elephant and the monkey).  There is a person pulling the bike or driving the cart all the while also making it move like a puppet... lots of coordination.

We ended up following the parade around the park to get to the exit.  Our day at Animal Kingdom was a good one- we were able to see and do a lot, all before 4:00pm!  We left the park and caught a shuttle bus over to Epcot. Stay tuned for pictures from Epcot!

Disney Day #4 at Animal Kingdom

We continued our trend of getting up early to catch an early shuttle bus to get to the parks early.  We got to Animal Kingdom around 8:00am.  The weather went from 85 on Saturday, 83 on Sunday, 70 on Monday, and then mid-60's on Tuesday. 

We made a beeline back to the Kilamanjaro Safari.  We wanted to get there before the crowds hit and also while the animals were waking up.  We were able to walk right through and immediately got on a tour bus.  The animals were up and about and moving around, but with the constant movement of the bus, I wasn't able to get decent pics.

We then stopped for breakfast and then headed over to Camp Minnie Mickey to see the Festival of the Lion King.

HIDDEN MICKEY ALERT!!!

I didn't take any pics of the Festival of the Lion King... it's indoors and the lighting made it hard to take pictures.  After the show, we had our pictures taken with Mickey, Minnie, Donald and Goofy.   At this point, it was only around 10:30am- we already did the Kilamanjaro Safari, had breakfast, saw the Festival of the Lion King, and had all of our pictures taken with four characters.  This day was MUCH better than rainy, crowded, Magic Kingdom the day before!

After our photo shoot, we headed over to the Tree of Life to see "It's Tough To Be A Bug", a 3D show under the 'root system' of the tree...

After "It's Tough To Be A Bug" show, we walked around over to DinoLand and then headed to get a seat for "Finding Nemo" the musical.  This pic is taken on the left side of the park- Expedition Everest is clear on the right side of the park...

"Finding Nemo" the musical was awesome- the actors who were also puppeteers and singers were amazing.  They would sing and act while operating these giant puppets.  Very cool.  After the show, we walked around back towards Africa.  We stopped off near Expedition Everest- the new roller coaster featuring the Abomidable (sp?) Snowman.  It was fun to watch, but even watching it, my stomach dropped.  We ate lunch at Tamu Tamu and then picked our spot for the parade.  We got to our spot early so we could rest (there was a smoke spot nearby for Mom).  While Mom and Granny waited at our parade spot, I walked through the Pangani Trail for a little while and got some good pics... a silverback was out and in clear sight.

Waiting for the parade...

Stay tuned for pictures of "Mickey's Jammin' Jungle Parade".

Disney Day #3 at Magic Kingdom

After our breakfast at The Grand Floridian, we hopped on the Monorail to go to Magic Kingdom...

Out of our days at the parks, we planned on spending two days at Magic Kingdom.  I'd become addicted to disboards.com (the biggest un-official Disney message board site) and read up on Disney during the holidays.  Over and over, I read about how the parks fill to capacity frequently during the holiday season, many days from Christmas to New Year's.  New Year's Eve day was also said to be the worst.  Everyone posted online that for New Year's Eve day- get to Magic Kingdom early and don't plan on leaving.  Since I'd anticipated the crowds, we planned to spend our entire day there, celebrating and ringing in the New Year at the most magical place on Earth.  With the anticipated crowds, I knew ahead of time that we probably need a second day to see everthing we wanted.

We got to Magic Kingdom about 10:00am and the lines to get your purse/bag checked were long, and then the lines to actually get in the park were long.  We knew we were in for a crowded day!  We also had followed the weather forcasts and knew there was a 60% chance of rain today (boo!).  So we were ready with ponchos and an umbrella.

We headed down Main Street to watch the Castle Forecourt show, but it started raining and was cancelled.  We walked around the back of the castle and Granny and I had our pictures taken with the evil stepmother and evil stepsisters...

Dressed in our finest rain ponchos, we made our way through the crowds back to Toon Town.  There was lines to get into Mickey and Minnie's houses, so we didn't go in.  Since we knew we'd have a second day here, we only did things with the shortest lines.  To keep out of the rain for awhile, we went inside the Judges' Tent to get our pictures taken with Cinderlla, Belle, and Sleeping Beauty...

Then we headed back towards the castle...

It had stopped raining for awhile, but once we got in front of the castle for wait for the next Castle show, it started pouring again.  Ponchos on.  The rain stopped.  Ponchos off.

Here we are waiting...

It started raining again.  Ponchos on.  It stopped raining right before the show- we thought they'd cancel again, but the Disney folks came out with mops and squeegees and dried off the stage for Mickey's Holiday Celebration...

After the show, we headed over to get a spot for the Christmas Parade at 3:00pm.  It was CRAZY crowded at this point.  We'd learned later Magic Kingdom closed at 11:00am because it'd filled to capacity.  That's just nuts. 

The next couple of hours weren't very enjoyable.  We found a good spot, but it started pouring- I mean POURING rain.  We stood waiting for the parade for what seemed to be hours while the rain poured on top of us.  Our spots for the parade were right up against the ropes, but it was so crowded there were so many people lined up behind us.  They announced the parade would be 'postponed'.  We had enough and decided to head out.  But with the crowds, we couldn't even hardly get to a sidewalk.  Finally, we got out of the madness.  Mom took a smoke break and Granny and I shopped in the Christmas Shoppe.  We started walking again, and then the parade started.  It was still raining, but not hard enough to stop the parade.  We walked back through AdventureLand and ended up finding a table at Pecos Bills for lunch (Granny and I had a long-awaited turkey leg..).

At this point, we're tired of the crowds and tired of the ponchos on/ponchos off game.

We walked around and then we back to the castle to see the "Cinderella's Holiday Wish" show.  This was at 5:45pm and this was the show where they would light the castle.  While we were over in AdventureLand, they were handing out black top hats and blowhorns for New Year's Eve.  Here we are waiting (again!) in the rain (again!)....

"Cinderella's Holiday Wish" was to have the castle decorated for the holidays.  Cinderella liked the way her glass slippers twinkled in the light.  So the Fairy Godmother waved here wand and bippity, boppity boo- it was lit to look like it was covered in ice.  It was really cool to see when the lights came on.  There was a giant "ahhh!" from the crowds when the lights came on....

There was a parade at 8pm.  Main Street was beyond crowded.  We found a spot off Main Street towards TomorrowLand and waited for the parade to end.  Once it ended, we planned to head back towards the castle to get a spot and just wait for the fireworks.  Once the parade ended, we couldn't even get to Main Street.  It was so crowded, they started turned whole walkways into one-way sidewalks.  We ended up having the walk completely BEHIND Main Street to get back to the beginning of Main Street in order to walk TOWARDS the castle. 

Oh, and then it started raining again.  We decided we'd had enough.  We were tired, sick of the rain and sick of not even being able to walk the direction we wanted to.  Plus, with the rain, we weren't even sure the fireworks would happen.  Also, after midnight, the exit crowds are so bad, it probably would've taken us two hours to get our shuttle bus and then get back to our hotel.  So, we left and went back to our hotel.  We were prepared for the crowds (somewhat) and prepared for the rain, but an entire day of withstanding both was just a little too much. 

We didn't get to see fireworks, but we heard them (or maybe it was Granny snoring...)  Happy New Year! 

Disney Day #3 Breakfast at 1900 Park Fare

Day three of vacation (New Year's Eve day) started off with getting up early to catch the shuttle bus, going to Magic Kingdom to catch the Monorail to go to The Grand Floridian (the shuttles do not run from resort to resort).  We had Supercalifragilistc Breakfast reservations at 8:30am at the 1900 Park Fare restaurant.  It was a breakfast buffet, complete with Mickey waffles.  We were visited by Pooh, Alice, Mary Poppins, Mad Hatter and Tigger...

We were trying to keep occupied while waiting in the lobby for our table....

After breakfast, we hopped on the Monorail and headed over to Magic Kingdom.  Stay tuned for pics.