Matt's May/June 2016 DLR Trip... A bunch of firsts...PIC heavy.

After spending some time in Bug’s Land Victoria wanted to do Monster’s Inc, so we decided to head over to the North side of Hollywood Land. I don’t think we have EVER had to wait in the outside queue, and barely ever had a wait even in the inside queue, but when we rolled up a few minutes before two, we were going to be spending some time outside.

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A LOOONG for Monster’s Inc. twenty-seven minutes later, we were off and headed towards Buena Vista Street and the shops. On the way, I spied the AP buckets they were selling at the Popcorn cart outside of Elias and Co. For those who don’t know, you buy these for $15 (including popcorn), and you get $1 refills all summer (you have to show your AP every time, which is a little bit of a pain). In Elias and Co, we did some heavy shopping, which thankfully my Premium AP took the sting off of. I got a few shirts the girls got some baby plushes. On our way out, we saw Mickey and jumped in line for some pics..

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I had wanted to swing over to Humphrey’s Service and Supplies over at the Airfield to see if they had any of the coffee cups with the Bearpaw Basin Smokejumpers logo on it which I had seen in Smokejumper’s Grill. On the way I took the time to admire the pull-out tray with the camping gear in the Rambler Wagon. The wagon had always been closed prior, so I don’t know if that is a new addition, but it sure let you see the absolutely GREAT accoutrement which makes Disney theming second to none.

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Sadly, they must have been fabricated solely for the restaurant because they didn’t have anything of the sort.

Since we were in the neighborhood, I wanted to swing through the Grand and see if they had any new Grand Californian Swag in the gift shop. Unfortunately, I had all the GCH swag/clothing they were offering already. In hind-sight, I wish I would have picked up a second Grand Tile to frame out the other side of my Grand Display which has one of the framed prints you find in the room flanked by one of the tiles.

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One thing I noticed when entering into the Grand was the DCA entrance hand metal detectors set up and they were sending everybody through them. That is going to SUCK on a daily basis. I’m not a fan of this approach for security at DLR and it really doesn’t stop anything, just inconveniences everybody.
 
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We decided to exit via the DTD exit from the grand as we wanted to swing by World of Disney so the girls could continue their quest for Attractionista dolls. Katherine was searching for Celeste. Alas her quest was in vain, but at least we had some nice air conditioning to cool us down. We rolled up to the Disneyland entry lines at 15:40 and made our way into the park. We split up at the hub. Amy go the girls some frozen lemonade/strawberry treats while I hopped back to toon town to grab the pressed nickels we had missed on our October trip…. A COMPLETE SET now using only pre-1965 silver for nickels, dimes, and quarters, and pre 1981 pennies which are nearly pure copper..

We met back up by teacups. I decided a frozen lemonade sounded good for me too, so I got one and ate it while the girls went on tea cups over and over. Once done, we made the decision to jump in the REDICULOUSLY LONG queue for Dumbo. We were at the gate, given our feather card when Vic peed herself.. UGH!!! Horrible timing. Amy darted out of queue, and the girls and I were about 20 seconds behind. We had assurances from the CM manning the queue we could go to the DAS queue and be re-admitted vs. waiting in line for another forty minutes, but when we got back, a different CM was manning the attraction and we barely were readmitted.

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Nearly an hour after we had first got in line, we were off, and had just enough time to make our way through the ever-filling park and make our way to Café Orleans for our Dinner Reservation. The park was a MAD HOUSE. It was a grad night, and the place was filled with droves of teenagers practicing sailor-blushing curses. Oh… how… I… DEPLORE… Grad Nights!!! Please stop Disney!

Amy and I ordered some Pommes Frites and Gumbo to start while we waited for our Monte Cristo. The girls were each ordered the salmon kids meal with broccoli or noodles. A few Mint Juleps rounded out the table.

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Our meal lasted about 45 minutes and we decided to call it a night. The park was packed (mostly with unruly teenagers for Grad Night), every queue was overflowing and it was just miserable. On the way out, I stopped at the Port Royal shop, grabbed Charlotte the Gracey Attractionista, and Amy the updated Haunted Mansion Dooney Letter carrier with the leather reinforced corners (happy anniversary babe). Her previous one hasn’t held up so well.. (on the list to send it into Dooney for repairs.)

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We met back up by City Hall because I wanted to inquire about Katherine’s lost purse. No such luck. We left the park, and headed back to the room arriving at 18:23

Because it was still early, we decided to go down to the fourth floor to try out the roof-top pool. The main pool was cold, and there was garbage everywhere. The hot tub, tiny, and older. We didn’t spend much time down there before retiring back to the room.

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Before I get into Day 3, I realized I forgot to pull the pics off my iPhone. In doing so, I saw some I had missed for the end of Day 1 and beginning of Day 2. I amended Day 1, but this next part I thought I better just pull out into its own post.

OK, here we go.. this is the face of a girl who’s bubble gun was CONFISCATED by Disneyland Security. That’s right… a bubble gun… CONFISCATED

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It would be one thing if they outlawed bubble generating devices in general, but they sell these new bubble wands (which aren’t cheap). When questioned on it I was simply told… it all changed on December 2nd after San Bernardino. SERIOUSLY? He said anything with a trigger is banned. I guess nobody told him about the storm troopers and Frontierland Shooting Gallery (I bet they’ll rip it out before too long in the name of PC garbage).

Now I’m not diminishing the horrible acts perpetrated by a radical terrorist, but to ban BUBBLE guns because of it is pure stupidity. A clear device not shaped like any real gun in existence real or imagined which could not be mistaken for a real firearm because… why?

Now as you’ll see as we start Day 3, Victoria loves her bubble WAND… which is actually dangerous as children wave it side-to-side ready to clock people with it… brilliant decisions here Disney management…. Really brilliant…. Ugh.
 
Loving the trip report, Matt! Can't wait for day 3! It makes me excited for my next trip in 18 days! :D
 


By 8:21 we walked right up and onto a caterpillar to visit Alice in Wonderland. Victoria has been hit or miss on this attraction in the past, but was all about it this morning!

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Katherine and Charlotte have been asking about Matterhorn non-stop by this point, but the wait has always proved too long. A quick check confirmed this was still the case and the taller members of our group quickly joined Victoria and Amy on a spin in the teacups after an opportune photo opportunity.

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Upon exiting our teacups, we noticed there was practically no line for Storybook Canal Boats. We walked past several people who were waiting for the rest of their groups to be first in line for the next boat. Our second bit of Disney magic of the morning: Katherine and Charlotte got to be Whale Watchers and sit on the bow of the boat!

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A quick check of the time indicated we’d be able to hit one more attraction of opportunity before the girls’ very special appointment at 9am. King Arthur’s Carousel would fit the bill perfectly!

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I must spend too much time on facebook. I keep finding myself trying to hit the "Like" button for all your pics! LOL!! Love the teacup pics, and the one of Amy on the carousel is sooo sweet!! :)
 
I must spend too much time on facebook. I keep finding myself trying to hit the "Like" button for all your pics! LOL!! Love the teacup pics, and the one of Amy on the carousel is sooo sweet!! :)
I look forward to November when we can have some FB pics together. Katherine loved you last year at the Grand. Such a great time.
 
I love all the ride pictures! They are very colorful and vibrant. Especially the pre-drop Splash Mountain one, you can see little Victoria was soooo close to keeping her hands up! But I've seen plenty of adults default to hand holds at the last second!
 
After I left the gals at BBB, I knew I had to do a few things. First off, I had to boogie it down to the tour pavilion and find out when we were supposed to do our Walk in Walt’s Footsteps tour on Friday. Given that I don’t recall EVER having ridden any of the Main Street vehicles, I chose to take a horse-drawn trolley from the hub to town square. Many cities had these streetcars in their infancy, including Phoenix. Streetcars are making a comeback, but not like this…

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Eddie was pulling the trolley today…I wonder where they relocated Circle D to. Hope the horses don’t have too far to go.

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I confirmed our tour time as a 9:30 reservation and noticed the jazz band was walking out of back stage. I followed them over to the train station steps and watched them play while I waited for my next vehicle to take me back to the hub.

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Goofy was out..

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Flowers were perfect as usual.

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For my return trip, I chose… the Omnibus!!! Second level of course. The views of Main Street sure are different 10 feet up.

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I forsee one of these windows being changed the way Disneyland is going...

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For this trip, Charlotte was allowed to choose the girls’ special splurge in honor of her birthday. Generally the girls decide to have lunch with the princesses at Ariel’s Grotto while Dad gets lobster nachos and a fair number of turns on California Screamin’. This time Charlotte decided she’d rather go all out and do Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique. Katherine and Victoria eagerly agreed to join her. Much thought and preparation went into the visit, with a trip to the Disney Outlet Store months ago during a costume sale providing the fashions. Although the costumes sold in the parks are lovely, it isn’t something we’ve splurged on in the past. We were able to get three dresses and accessories at the Disney Outlet Store for the price of what one would cost in park. And although we knew Victoria will wear her Minnie dress daily (more like 24/7, 365) the older girls will likely not wear theirs in the park past lunch and only rarely at home.! For this trip we’d have a Minnie Mouse, Mulan and Rapunzel.

It had been three years since our last visit to the boutique and not much has changed. After being welcomed by our lead Fairy Godmother, we were shown to a dressing room where the girls could change into the outfits we’d brought with us. Once the girls had upgraded their outfits, individual Fairy Godmothers assisted the girls to their chairs, asked which hairstyle they would like (with approval from mom, which was appreciated) and the coiffing began. The girls all had the crown package, with Victoria and Katherine choosing the more classic Fairytale Princess and Charlotte choosing the showier Disney Diva. In addition to the updo, each girl was blessed with shimmering makeup, a face gem that would last 15 minutes for one sister and several hours for the others, nail polish and a sash and bag to carry away all their extra beauty supplies. Bonus: they do an AP discount! Between that and what was left of our Disney Visa reward dollars, this was a reasonable birthday celebration in lieu of hosting a kid party.

The entire process takes about 30 minutes and Matt was back just in time to snap some after pictures.

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What’s a princess to do once she’s done up to the nines? Meet other princesses, of course! Matt was less than thrilled at the prospect of waiting in line to meet princesses, but it gave the girls a chance to load up on some granola bars and fruit leather. They must have been doing a change-over for all the princesses because the line WAS NOT MOVING, and then all of a sudden… it just started. Weird.

Me trying on my best “I’m Grumpy” face to match my shirt.

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Charlotte striking a pose or two

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We really wanted Rapunzel, but they were running Cinderella, Ariel, and Snow White today. Up first was Cinderella:

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And on to Ariel who LOVED to spin:

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And lastly Snow White

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Thirty-five minutes after getting in line to meet the princesses, we were done. We had some Space Mountain FP which were going to mature soon which I had grabbed while the girls were getting dolled up, so we headed over to Tomorrowland. I really love Disneyland for its attraction density/size. You can land-hop in minutes. A quick meal at Pizza Port (the kids split a large slice of cheese pizza and Amy and I split a count-down chicken fusilli. Katherine discovered the joy of packets of parmesan cheese and wolfed down three or four of them after here pizza. Then at 10:52 it was time for Space!! Victoria’s first time… not sure if she liked it or not.

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Here is the infamous bubble wand. We were asked probably 10 times every day where we got it. The Security must have been doing a bang-up job confiscating bubble guns to drive sales of their Politically Correct bubble wands through the roof. I would later learn we must have got one of the rare restocks because the bubble wands were not to be found for sale or even seen` at any other point during the trip.

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A quick refill of our AP popcorn bucket and it was time to head over to It’s a Small World.

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Once we departed the former World's Fair Attraction, we hooked a right and headed up to Toon Town. After walking into the Roger Rabbit Cartoon Spin, we made a 180 and grabbed Fast Passes instead. I LOVE the queue here, but we really weren't up for a full-queue wait. As we were exiting, Goofy was just coming out, so we made a B-line over for the forming line.

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Afterwards we headed West and noticed Gadget Go Coaster had next to no wait… so we went for a spin. Starwars Land has REALLY torn up back stage.

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A quick bathroom break for the kids combined with some fun at Goofy’s house and it was finally time for a spin with Roger Rabbit.

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The kids LOVE Toon Town and all the practical hands-on gags which it affords. It would be a real shame if they ripped it out…if anything they should expand it with Duckburg/a DuckTales attraction..

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A quick refill of popcorn with that amazing AP popcorn bucket and it was lunch time, so clearly that means beignets and mint juleps… did I previously mention how you can hit one end of the park to the other in short order?

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I noticed Amy’s sunglasses reflected Victoria’s beignet (and Amy’s). Kinda neat.

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It’s the little touches which make Disneyland great… like the 1912-2006 Louisiana State Flag flying over New Orleans Square… There’s some sails up there too showing how close we are to the ocean..

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After a lunch of sugar, sugar, and sugar… with a helping of liquid sugar, it was time to go see Sleeping Beauty.


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My favorite of the illuminated manuscript..

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The girls were an unstoppable force

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And it was time for a trip on Snow White’s Scary Adventures. I never noticed all the great details on the buildings before. Disney really knows how to do it.

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I swear I saw this fellow on a video of Disneyland Paris’ Phantom Manor

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:D8-):-) Congratulations on great trip. You have some Fantastic pictures of both Disneyland and your family! Hope the next trip is even Better!pixiedust:
 
We exit Snow White and who do we find? Fairy God Mother!!

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And up next Mastro Geppetto. You almost never see him out.

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After meeting Geppetto, what were we to do? Take a trip on Pinocchio's Daring Journey of course.

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I’ve never noticed all the small details as you near the end of the attraction..

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Our adventure complete at nearly a quarter-past-two, it was time for the girls to take a bathroom break while I scoped out the Swiss Chalet which housed the Fantasyland side of the Skyway. Sadly this would be no more mere days after our trip concluded… Always sad to see a piece of Disneyland gone especially when you don’t care for the IP which is replacing it (which belongs in its own park in my opinion, not as a land of Disneyland… I digress)


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Being a bit hot, what better thing to stave off the heat than some Dole Whips and the Tiki Room!

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Beautiful pictures and beautiful family!! I particularly love the pictures inside of the rides.. I have rarely taken any, and the ones I have aren't very good, but yours are amazing! I have 4 boys, so I don't get to do any of the girly things at Disneyland, so I enjoyed getting a little peek at some of those activities. Looks like you had a great trip... I look forward to seeing the rest of your report. :)
 

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