The Terrible Catsafterme

It was my distinct pleasure to be visiting the parks at Disneyland again for the second time in 2010. In fact, this visit came just five weeks after my previous one before I embarked for London. Even more of a pleasure was that this time I had my girlfriend Erin with me. We had stayed in the Best Western Park Place Inn the night before, which was literally located just across the street from the park. This is quite different than anything I’ve ever experienced at Disney World. So on the morning of Friday, April 30, 2010, Erin and I were up early, leaving our room at 9am.

We had our free continental breakfast next door at Captain Kidd’s Buffet. For me, this consisted of an apple and a hard-boiled egg. I didn’t want to eat too much as we had a relatively early reservation for lunch. Although I had tried to get several people to join us for the day – including Jimmy, Ellen, David, Bob, Stacey, Rick, Adam, and Lori – no on was available on this weekday. David kindly gave us a free pass and I used one of my days that I had purchased back during my 2007 visit to Walt Disney World.

My hard boiled egg for the day – and some disturbingly flat morning hair

We experienced quite a lot of both Disneyland and California Adventure during our 10 hours at the parks. The weather was nice and the lines were mostly short, so I’d have to say that this is one of my best experiences at Disney. We hit the ground running after entering the gates around 9:30am, getting our photos at the train station, down Main Street U.S.A., and in front of the castle. The we headed right over into New Orleans Square for Erin’s initiation to The Haunted Mansion. She had been to Disneyland once before and Disney World once before, but remembered very little of it. The Haunted Mansion was a complete walk-on.

The pathway to Disneyland, right across the street from our hotel

Along the way, we found this ominous warning. I’m sure Disney didn’t like having to post this.

At the gates of the Happiest Place on Earth

Main Street U.S.A. I’m glad to be here.

Erin kindly steps in for my friend Jimmy for this classic pose

So was our next ride, my favorite attraction Splash Mountain over in nearby Critter Country. Erin liked that one, but liked the Haunted Mansion even more, so as we passed it on our way to Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, we decided to ride it a second time. The journey to Big Thunder Mountain was fruitless though, as it was closed for refurbishment – which means that we didn’t get to ride anything in Frontierland.

A great shot of us heading out on our Splash Mountain adventure

In front of the Haunted Mansion

In nearby Adventureland, we went ahead and queued up for Indiana Jones Adventure: Temple of the Forbidden Eye. I hadn’t actually ridden this ride at Disneyland since 2005 (and it is completely different than the Indiana Jones roller coaster attraction at Disneyland Paris). It’s a fun dark ride, in the vein of Animal Kingdom’s Dinosaur ride, even if its not one of my favorites. Erin and I also went up into Tarzan’s Treehouse (the former Swiss Family Robinson Treehouse), which can only be found here and at Hong Kong Disneyland.

In line for the Indiana Jones Adventure

With a playful cat in Tarzan’s Treehouse of Horror

We had already seen a great deal after just an hour and a half, but it was 11:15, time for our lunch reservations at the Blue Bayou, back in New Orleans Square on Royal Street – just a few doors down from Club 33. I had eaten here back in 1992 and again in 2005. During the 2005 visit, Bob and I were both heartbroken that they weren’t serving the Monte Cristo sandwiches, but this time it wasn’t a problem. Erin and I were seated in a nice romantic spot next to the water, where boats from the Pirates of the Caribbean floated by next to our table. We could hear the guitar from the animatronic old man strumming all through dinner. The decor and lighting were in the style of old New Orleans. This complemented the Le Special de Monte Cristo and the Royal Street Seafood Jambalaya that we ordered and shared. All in all, a most excellent lunch.

Entering the Blue Bayou restaurant

Amidst the New Orleans style ambiance of the Blue Bayou

Erin and I and our delectable dishes. Note the Pirates of the Caribbean boat passing behind us.

After lunch, we browsed one of the nearby shops so that Erin could find Nate a shirt from The Nightmare Before Christmas. I was coaxed into trying on one of the hats. It was getting close to 1:00 by the time we shopped and got our Pirates of the Caribbean ride fix. I missed getting a photo of my favorite jail pirates, so grabbed a shot of the explosive pirates that aren’t found at Walt Disney World.

Forced into a Nightmare hat

These aren’t the prison pirates, but they’re nearby

Then it was back to Critter Country once again quickly hope on The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh. I made sure to show Erin the hidden animal heads of Melvin, Buff, and Max, which pay tribute to the building’s former attraction, The Country Bear Jamboree.

Back in Adventureland, we picked up the two final attractions, the Jungle Cruise, where we enjoyed the typical cornball jokes on our boat the “Orinoco Adventures”, and The Enchanted Tiki Room. This is still the old Tiki Room that has not been placed under the new management Zasu and Iago, as the attraction at Walt Disney World has. We enjoyed a Pineapple Dole Whip and Erin got a nice foot massage during this show.

The monkeys on the Jungle Cruise

We made it to Fantasyland on the other side of the park at about 2:15, talking a walk through Sleeping Beauty’s Castle. We only did two of the rides here, starting with it’s a small world. This had kind of become our ride, since I had given her a cell phone ride-thru during my March visit (although the Three Caballeros were looming over my head in my picture from then).  Of course since I was on the phone last time, I scarcely had noticed the 29 Disney characters that had been added to the ride. This time I made sure that we kept an eye out for them.

The unbroken spell

One moon, one golden sun

Finding Stitch in it’s a small world

Erin and I were ready for somewhat of a rest as we entered Tomorrowland. I had never browsed Innoventions here, although I had seen its counterpart at Epcot many times. We didn’t do too much in here other than plop down in front of the 100-inch TV and nearly fall asleep to the movie Ratatouille for about 30 minutes. The coolest thing about this circular building was that it was where The Carousel of Progress was once housed from 1967-1973.

We realized that we were running pretty short on time as it was about 3:45. We still had major things to see at California Adventure and we had dinner plans for that evening at Downtown Disney. We limited our last rides at Disneyland to Star Tours and Space Mountain, which never fails to impress me now that it has been refurbished. We said goodbye to Disneyland at about 4:45, hoping that we might have the chance to return and ride the Matterhorn Bobsleds and see the Captain Eo Tribute. It didn’t happen, but I must say that we packed in quite a bit for being there just over seven hours.  

The blue eyes of Space Mountain

Erin wasn’t actually playing the piano during our Space Mountain ride; she was making sure her bag of souvenirs weren’t going to fly out of the rocket ship

We only planned on the major attractions at California Adventure. Naturally enough, we kicked it off with the granddaddy of all of the rides, the Twilight Zone Tower of Terror in the Hollywood Pictures Backlot section of the park. The lines were a little bit longer at this park, although we only waited about 20 minutes for this one. I begrudgingly passed up Muppet Vision 3-D to head back to Paradise Pier so we could hit the other biggies.

Adventurers at California Adventure

The Tower of Terror, once again looming over me

Rock, rock, ’til you drop

There was only about a 15-minute wait for the rollercoaster California Screamin‘, and another 20 minutes for Toy Story Midway Mania. I got my best score ever on this ride, nudging out Erin 154,700 to her 109,800. This brought my record to 3-1. To be fair though, this was Erin’s first time and her score beat both my first and second attempts at this game. We planned for a rematch.

Reluctantly putting up our hands on California Screamin’

Cocky in 3-D

We were waiting for Erin’s sister Kerry to make it to Disneyland to meet up with us for dinner. My friend Stacey Lannak (who had joined us for a day at California Adventure last year) was already waiting with her kids Ashlyn, Branson, and Chloe at the ESPN Zone restaurant in Downtown Disney. They were in no hurry though as they were being entertained with games for the evening. So Erin and I hit one last attraction, the amazing 3-D movie It’s Tough to Be a Bug. We left California Adventure at about 7:45.

Kerry met us out in front of the park and we made the long trek through Downtown Disney (to the last possible restaurant no less) and met up with Stacey and her kids. Over smoke house burgers, Stacey and I caught up, while Erin and Kerry got to spend more time together. Everyone got along swimmingly and Kerry had fun playing with Stacey’s youngest girl Chloe.

My favorite quote from Stacey after showing us her new haircut that she didn’t like: “OK, so I don’t always look this retarded”

The sisters meet again for Round 2. The talent show would be the next day.

Stacey’s daughter Ashlyn gives the most expressive look I’ve ever seen

Kerry and Chloe have fun with traditional menu oragami and crayon destruction

The closest we came that night to doing shots. Our photographer Kerry likes the Dutch Tilt as much as her big sister.

Beauty, no matter which way I turn

After dinner at about 10pm, we bid farewell to Stacey, and Erin, Kerry, and I walked back to our hotel to hang out for a while a listen to some music on Erin’s laptop. After an hour or so, we escorted Kerry back on the long, long walk – which was made more fun by my game ‘Snippets of Conversation’ (in which you walk by unsuspecting parties, giving them only one sentence that will baffle them for hours to come…)

Once we got Kerry to her car, she drove us back to the motel – which was not as easy to locate as one might think. We actually had to whip out the GPS. It had been a grand and glorious day of Disney fun, and seeing both Stacey and Kerry again.

The California trip will continue in the next posting…

This entry was posted on Thursday, July 8th, 2010 at 6:49 am and is filed under 2010's - Early, Disney, Vacations. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.