First Timers to Disneyland - Day 2, Part 2

[Magic Smiles]

Just as we left Disneyland Park, DH was heading through the security check. I thought, along with millions of others, that we would take a picture of us in the letters to CALIFORNIA. http://i904.photobucket.com/albums/a...1030606web.jpg My goal at the time was to get a photo with at least one of us in each letter. As we entered through the ticket turnstiles there on the other side was a photopass photographer. That’s right, I grabbed the opportunity. http://i904.photobucket.com/albums/a...1030609web.jpg I have to get as many as I can early on in the trip as DS and DH tire of the photos. They say I take and want too many. Never too many in my eyes.

We headed over to the Hollywood Pictures Backlot area http://i904.photobucket.com/albums/a...1030614web.jpg and decided on Monsters, Inc. – Mike and Sulley to the Rescue. http://i904.photobucket.com/albums/a...1030623web.jpg In the queue there were all kinds of neat signs and stuff, which of course I had to take photos of. http://i904.photobucket.com/albums/a...1030633web.jpg http://i904.photobucket.com/albums/a...1030635web.jpg I have pictures of the attraction, but I really don’t remember it. http://i904.photobucket.com/albums/a...1030652web.jpgWe wandered around the Hollywood Backlot area for a bit when we happened upon this little guy trying to get a drink. http://i904.photobucket.com/albums/a...1030658web.jpg I always felt sorry for the birds when we were in Las Vegas. It was so HOT (well over 100F everyday) and I would wonder where they could possibly find food and water. These little guys in the Disney parks have it made. Okay I digress. I thought it was strange that there is so much unused space back there, but then who am I? We decided to head on over to The Tower of Terror to get fastpasses. http://i904.photobucket.com/albums/a...1030672web.jpg I forgot to mention that almost every time I would put my ticket in a fastpass machine, I would get 2 fastpasses and anywhere from 1 to 3 “not a valid fastpass” tickets. The machines would just keep spitting them out at me. This actually continued for 3 days. Some we used and the rest will end up in my scrapbook whenever that gets done. Now with our fastpasses in hand what would we do? We headed back out and towards Disney Animation and decided to go in and see Turtle Talk with Crush. The wait was maybe 15 minutes. I think that this is one of the most awesome shows in the Disney parks. http://i904.photobucket.com/albums/a...1030695web.jpg Don’t you agree Dude? As we left the building, right outside was Goofy, so we stopped to have our pictures done with Goofy. He is such a character! http://i904.photobucket.com/albums/a...1030702web.jpg After more browsing in shops and photo taking we headed back to The Tower of Terror. http://i904.photobucket.com/albums/a...1030726web.jpg I was all excited because we were going to be in the front row. That is my favourite spot. I love how my purse gets suspended in the air as the elevator drops. DL’s version is different from WDW, but my complaint isn’t with the ride, but when the photo’s are taken on it. There is such delay in the drop and the photo being taken that the thrill of the second has gone and so are the looks. http://i904.photobucket.com/albums/a...1030731web.jpg Didn’t buy one of our photos from ToT the whole trip. That is so not like us.
From the ToT we started towards the Paradise Pier area going by soarin’. There we came across Lightening McQueen and Mater and a Photopass Photographer! Guess what we did. http://i904.photobucket.com/albums/a...1030744web.jpg

Onward bound, while checking out a few shops and lots of scenery we finally made it to the Paradise Pier area. That is a long walk with nothing to look at. Hope that when the construction is done, the walk won’t seem so long. Humm, that almost seems like I am thinking that I may return to Disneyland some day. Mickey’s Fun Wheel does not look like FUN to me. I wasn’t even on it and it terrified me. How people can actually go on the swinging baskets is beyond me. I would never make it through the loading. http://i904.photobucket.com/albums/a...1030763web.jpg By now it was after 2:00 (all my photos have times on them) and we were all getting hungry for some lunch, so decided to eat at Pizza Oom Mow Mow. DS had the Extreme BBQ Chicken Pizza, DH had a Surfin’ Grilled Chicken Caesar Salad and I had Totally Marinara Pasta. http://i904.photobucket.com/albums/a...e1534/Food.jpg We were all pleased with our meals and feeling full again. We looked around, but all the waiting times were too long so we decided it was time to move on back to the hotel. http://i904.photobucket.com/albums/a...1030772web.jpg

We had decided that we would watch the Electrical Parade that night BUT….we had been, especially me, freezing every night in California. When I always thought about California I always figured it was warm. That is warm both day and night. To our surprise it is NOT. We had not brought any warm clothing with us and I was getting tired of being cold at night so we had decided we would go and try to find me some warmer clothes. DS stayed in the room – there is free Internet – and we had the laptop. We drove down the street and could only find Big K. Went in and was able to find 1 pair of Capri’s, but I needed more than just that. We tried searching on the GPS and finally found a Sears. Headed over there, wherever over there was and looked around Sears. They had nothing for me. We had just about given up when we saw that the Sears was attached to a mall. I’m in Heaven. There was a JC Penney’s and so I was able to get a couple of warmer items. I would have loved to have been able to shop longer, but by now we had been gone over 2 hours.

We headed back to Disneyland Park around 7:00 pm and decided to ride the train ALL the way around and then head over to California Adventures. We parked ourselves in our viewing spot http://i904.photobucket.com/albums/a...1030799web.jpg at a little before 8:30 pm. As we had not had any dinner, DH went to search out some popcorn. As the popcorn place was getting ready to close, he was only able to snag 1 box of popcorn for the 3 of us. It was going to have to do. The parade started to pass us at 9:02 http://i904.photobucket.com/albums/a...1030804web.jpg http://i904.photobucket.com/albums/a...1030808web.jpg http://i904.photobucket.com/albums/a...1030810web.jpg http://i904.photobucket.com/albums/a...1030818web.jpg http://i904.photobucket.com/albums/a...1030822web.jpg Those guys spun so quickly creating a blur..... http://i904.photobucket.com/albums/a...1030839web.jpg http://i904.photobucket.com/albums/a...1030878web.jpg http://i904.photobucket.com/albums/a...1030883web.jpg http://i904.photobucket.com/albums/a...1030889web.jpg http://i904.photobucket.com/albums/a...1030897web.jpg
We really enjoyed it, but then again, what is not to enjoy about a Disney Parade?
We all decided to call it a night as we had an early day tomorrow. We were booked for Cruisin’, the Segway Tour of California Adventures.
If anyone noticed, yes, my DH is wearing an Universal Studios shirt

[nicster]

Yes, all of you DL virgins, California is gets much cooler in the mornings & in the evenings than during the day. Sometimes a 20-40 degree drop depending on what time of year it is! ........ glad you had a good time!!

[Disneymom4ever]

Wow, who would of thought, I think California, and I just think warm!! (especially in the summer). Thanks for the heads up. Sounds like a great day, can't wait to hear about the segway's.

[tinkwest]

...We wandered around the Hollywood Backlot area for a bit when we happened upon this little guy trying to get a drink. http://i904.photobucket.com/albums/a...1030658web.jpg...

Cute

...I forgot to mention that almost every time I would put my ticket in a fastpass machine, I would get 2 fastpasses and anywhere from 1 to 3 “not a valid fastpass” tickets. The machines would just keep spitting them out at me....

Funny

...we were all getting hungry for some lunch, so decided to eat at Pizza Oom Mow Mow. DS had the Extreme BBQ Chicken Pizza, DH had a Surfin’ Grilled Chicken Caesar Salad and I had Totally Marinara Pasta. http://i904.photobucket.com/albums/a...e1534/Food.jpg ...

Yummy!


Your reports are a joy to read. So personal and detailed. I'll be sorry to see them end.

[pdrlkr]

Thanks for the Report!

[mouseketeer mom]

Very good to know about the weather!! I don't want to be freezing next year!! Again, love the report.

[FRANKTASMIC]

Great Report, can't wait to read about the tour..