Day 5 was our down day, so we took it easy. We had Priority Seating at Goofy’s Kitchen for 7:10 pm, so we left our room while it was still light to see some of the flowers on the walk from the Paradise Pier Hotel to the Disneyland Hotel. We also saw some posters of the new slide that is being built at the Disneyland Hotel pool. However, we also saw some of the construction taking place. I really feel sorry for people who have paid lots of money and planned their vacations for a long time to show up at a hotel that is in such state of construction.
After some wandering around, we went for our late supper at Goofy’s Kitchen. This is where it gets weird and somewhat “un-magical.” When we arrived, the lobby was FULL of people, more so than I have seen before. I don’t know how they could have overbooked so horribly! I know that it was the Saturday night of the weekend before Valentine’s Day, but this was beyond extreme! We waited quite awhile to be taken to our seats. I talked to a family from the East coast who had been waiting for an hour or so. I really felt sorry for them! We have never had to stay the allotted 90 minutes to see all the characters before, but this night, we were there TWO hours! It was a 30 minute wait for just the last character. The server kept coming back saying that Alice would come to our table next, but she didn’t. We watched as Alice went to a table in the next section and interacted with them for 10 minutes or so. Then, two other characters joined her in interacting with this one family. After a few more minutes, she came to the table next to ours. After that table, she went back and interacted with the previous table and other characters. She eventually came to our table and spent ONE minute before going back to the previous table. I know it was ONE minute because I videotaped the whole thing. The reaction from the lead cast member was “Thanks for letting me know.” This was our second not-so-magical experience at Goofy’s Kitchen in a row, and we have decided that we will not go back. The food was not as good as previously, either. I think that we will stick with Surf’s UP! with Mickey and Friends at the Paradise Pier Hotel and the character meal at Storyteller’s Cafe at the Grand Californian Hotel from now on.
We had timed things so that we could get back to our room to see the fireworks and World of Color, but it took so long at Goofy’s Kitchen that we missed every nighttime show that night. The kids were so upset!
The next day was Magical Mornings early entry at Disneyland, and we planned on taking advantage of the extra time. We made it to King Arthur Carrousel, Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride, Peter Pan’s Flight, Pinocchio’s Daring Journey, Mad Tea Party, Alice in Wonderland, Casey Jr., Storybook Land Canal Boats, It’s a Small World, Roger Rabbit’s Car Toon Spin, Gadget’s Go Coaster, many of the homes of Toontown, Snow White’s Scary Adventures, and to see Buzz Lightyear before eating lunch at La Brea Bakery in Downtown Disney. La Brea is one of our favorite places to sit down, eat, and people watch.
After we ate at La Brea Bakery, we did our shopping for Charlie’s birthday. We had been looking all over the resort, so we had a pretty good idea of what we wanted to get him. We headed for the World of Disney! I have to admit that my shopping bag got pretty full. I had told the kids that we should wait to shop until late in our trip so that we got just what we wanted. I know how it usually works… They spend their shopping money during the first couple of days, and then they get upset at the end of the trip when they see things that they want but are out of money. The rule this trip was to wait until the end to spend the money. My birthday is coming up, too, so DD11 slipped a couple of things in my shopping bag. She said that I had to let her hide them in her closet and that I have to forget what she got. Hmmm. This may be my best birthday ever!
This is now where I admit my bad habit… I take my purchases and some of my dirty laundry to the conference office at the Grand Californian Hotel and ship them home. This happens every time we go to Disneyland. It is not very expensive to ship them, and it makes my bags easier to handle going home. This is especially important if you are flying. Then, it is like Christmas when the box arrives home with Disneyland purchases in it.
After shipping our stuff, we headed through the hotel guest entrance into Disney California Adventure. We were quite happy to see Goofy, the aviator, there. Then, we wandered around hoping to find the one character that DS8 had really been looking for. Every time we had passed his meet and greet area, he was gone.
After Duffy, the kids wanted to go over to Disneyland. Since Saturday night was a bust for seeing nighttime shows, we decided to try to catch the Magic, Memories, and You show in front of It’s a Small World and the fireworks and World of Color from our room. I asked a cast member at the Star Wars merchandise stand if the monorail would operate after the Magic, Memories, and You show, and he assured me that it would.
It was still early, so we went into Innoventions. The kids love the Peter Pan story in the boy’s bedroom, so we headed there first. DS8 was chosen to help with the story. He had such a blast! Then, because DS8 is so obsessed with robots, we went to see Asimo. While there, we Skype’d Charlie so he could see the show, too.
ASIMO is a humanoid robot developed by Honda, and it is SO amazing! By now, it was getting dark, so we decided to get some supper. Unfortunately, we chose to go to Redd Rocket’s Pizza Port in Tomorrowland. I could have hammered a tent stake with my pizza crust. It was that hard!
After supper, we went to get some hot chocolate and Mickey pretzels before going to wait for the Magic, Memories, and You show. On the way to It’s a Small World, I snapped this picture of the lagoon. We love to wander through Disneyland at night just soaking in the atmosphere.
After the Magic, Memories, and You, we headed to the monorail. Remember that I had asked a cast member if it would be running… Well, he obviously didn’t know what he was talking about. Now, I had about 30 minutes to get the kids from the farthest reaches of Disneyland (with the middle of Main Street walled off for paving and people beginning to scope out places for the fireworks) through Downtown Disney to the Paradise Pier Hotel and up to our room before the fireworks began. I began mentally planning my route. I took a child’s hand in each of my hands, bent over slightly, and pretended to be a line backer. I am here to tell you that we weaved our way through the park, out to the esplanade, through Downtown Disney, through the Grand Californian Hotel, and across the road to the Paradise Pier Hotel. We got to our room with 5-10 minutes to spare.
The kids went off to bed while I finished our packing. The next day, Day 7, was to be our last day. Because of the change in our Amtrak itinerary, we would have until 3:30pm in the parks. Up next will be Day 7…
Leave a Reply