DCA officially opened at 10am on Tuesday but the turnstiles opened at 9:30am, so my hubby and I decided to head down at 8am. First we filled our mugs with hot cocoa at Whitewater Snacks and then headed over to La Brea Bakery in Downtown Disney for breakfast. We both had toasted bagels and cream cheese and took our time eating while people watching on the patio. My hubby was still hungry after the bagel so he also got a brownie, which was very rich and chocolately 
The Grand Cal has its own private entrance into DCA (near Grizzly River Run), so we headed back to the hotel. If you go outside behind the fireplace in the lobby, there is an outdoor fireplace with wooden rockers. We relaxed there for awhile, then headed back over to refill the mugs and wait for the gate to open.
They let us in right at 9:30am and we headed straight to Soaring over Cal and walked right on. We sat in the center section row 1 The rope to Grizzly River Run was going to drop at 10am, so we went back over and walked right on as soon as the rope dropped. We wore our ponchos on Grizzly and got some pretty strange looks going onto the ride, but getting off a few people who were soaking wet commented that we had the right idea
We looked through the Grizzly gift shop and then headed over to Paradise Pier.
There was no one waiting to ride Mulholland Madness or the Golden Zephyr, so we rode both. Mulholland is just about the worse Disney attraction I've ever been on. It's just a series of switchbacks on a very tight track, you ride around in little 4 seater cars and basically feel like the car is going to fly right of the track on one of the switchback turns. I can't imagine waiting more than a few mintues to ride this thing.
We did some shopping in the Paradise Pier shops and then rode the Sun Wheel. We ride the red car since we're big chickens and can't handle the moving cars. I don't even like it when the red car rocks a little when you're on the very top. After that, we rode King Triton's Carousel, which has a really cute theme (you ride fish instead of horses).
We don't ride California Screamin or Maliboomer, since we would both turn about 10 shades of green, so we went over to the Pacific Wharf area and did the Tortilla Factory tour (the samples are now half tortillas instead of a whole one) and the Boudin Bakery tour (I don't remember the cute video last time).
Next we headed over to Bountiful Valley Farm and saw It's Tough to be a Bug. We've seen this about a dozen times, but it's still cute. I love the cue area with the movie posters. There always seems to be at least one child who gets escorted out by a parent when it gets dark and the giant spiders come down from the ceiling. That's actually pretty scary for the little ones. On the way out we spotted Flick with no one around him, so the CM took our photo with him.
We went over to the Hollywood Backlot area and since the Soap Opera Bistro wasn't open for dining, they were giving little tours through the restaurant. I'm a big All My Children fan, so we walked through. We were getting hungry for lunch and Hollywood and Dine was closed, so we went to the Taste Pilots' Grill. We both had cheddar burgers with waffle cut fries. They have a condiment stand with all the fixins for your burger and the bar-b-que sauce was delicious. We were using that instead of ketchup for our fries
After lunch we went back over to the Backlot to go through the Animation attraction. I love the Sorcerer's Workshop and the magical storybooks that tell you which character you are most like (I was Belle and my hubby was Lumier - I thought it was cool that we were both from the same story). We also saw the two shows and looked through the gallery. We looked through the gift shops in the Backlot (I love Off the Page) and then headed over to Burrr Bank Ice Cream for a cone. I had mocha almond fudge in a waffle cone dipped in chocolate and then butterfingers and my hubby had cookies and creme in a sugar cone (plain and simple). Both were yummy!
We shopped in the Greetings from California store and then rode Soarin again (this time only a 5 minute wait in the middle of the afternoon). After that, we saw Muppet-Vision (were I ended up taking a little cat nap) and then Who Wants to be a Millionaire. I was surprised how much it looks like the actual show set when you see it up on the monitor. This was fun, but any longer and I would have been getting bored. I think it ran 1/2 hour to 45 min. and that was plenty long for me.
We decided to head back to the hotel and stopped at the guest services desk. They made us a priority seating for dinner at Hooke's Pointe at the DL Hotel for 8pm. After relaxing at the hotel for a couple of hours, we left for dinner at 7pm and did some shopping in Downtown Disney on the way. We got to the restaurant at 8pm and were seated right away. We had a wonderful dinner! We started with an appetizer called Roasted Garlic, it was a beautiful plate of bread, two kinds of olives marinated in Balsamic, baked brie, and a whole head of roasted garlic. It was delicious. For dinner, I had the Kansas City porkchop with garlic roasted mashed potatoes and veggies and my hubby had firecracker fetticine. The food was wonderful and the total bill was about $60 and worth every penny.
After dinner we looked around the DL Hotel and then headed back to the Grand Cal to call it a night.
Tomorrow, heading back to DL to catch what we missed and DCA again too....
The Grand Cal has its own private entrance into DCA (near Grizzly River Run), so we headed back to the hotel. If you go outside behind the fireplace in the lobby, there is an outdoor fireplace with wooden rockers. We relaxed there for awhile, then headed back over to refill the mugs and wait for the gate to open.
They let us in right at 9:30am and we headed straight to Soaring over Cal and walked right on. We sat in the center section row 1 The rope to Grizzly River Run was going to drop at 10am, so we went back over and walked right on as soon as the rope dropped. We wore our ponchos on Grizzly and got some pretty strange looks going onto the ride, but getting off a few people who were soaking wet commented that we had the right idea
We looked through the Grizzly gift shop and then headed over to Paradise Pier.There was no one waiting to ride Mulholland Madness or the Golden Zephyr, so we rode both. Mulholland is just about the worse Disney attraction I've ever been on. It's just a series of switchbacks on a very tight track, you ride around in little 4 seater cars and basically feel like the car is going to fly right of the track on one of the switchback turns. I can't imagine waiting more than a few mintues to ride this thing.
We did some shopping in the Paradise Pier shops and then rode the Sun Wheel. We ride the red car since we're big chickens and can't handle the moving cars. I don't even like it when the red car rocks a little when you're on the very top. After that, we rode King Triton's Carousel, which has a really cute theme (you ride fish instead of horses).
We don't ride California Screamin or Maliboomer, since we would both turn about 10 shades of green, so we went over to the Pacific Wharf area and did the Tortilla Factory tour (the samples are now half tortillas instead of a whole one) and the Boudin Bakery tour (I don't remember the cute video last time).
Next we headed over to Bountiful Valley Farm and saw It's Tough to be a Bug. We've seen this about a dozen times, but it's still cute. I love the cue area with the movie posters. There always seems to be at least one child who gets escorted out by a parent when it gets dark and the giant spiders come down from the ceiling. That's actually pretty scary for the little ones. On the way out we spotted Flick with no one around him, so the CM took our photo with him.
We went over to the Hollywood Backlot area and since the Soap Opera Bistro wasn't open for dining, they were giving little tours through the restaurant. I'm a big All My Children fan, so we walked through. We were getting hungry for lunch and Hollywood and Dine was closed, so we went to the Taste Pilots' Grill. We both had cheddar burgers with waffle cut fries. They have a condiment stand with all the fixins for your burger and the bar-b-que sauce was delicious. We were using that instead of ketchup for our fries
After lunch we went back over to the Backlot to go through the Animation attraction. I love the Sorcerer's Workshop and the magical storybooks that tell you which character you are most like (I was Belle and my hubby was Lumier - I thought it was cool that we were both from the same story). We also saw the two shows and looked through the gallery. We looked through the gift shops in the Backlot (I love Off the Page) and then headed over to Burrr Bank Ice Cream for a cone. I had mocha almond fudge in a waffle cone dipped in chocolate and then butterfingers and my hubby had cookies and creme in a sugar cone (plain and simple). Both were yummy!
We shopped in the Greetings from California store and then rode Soarin again (this time only a 5 minute wait in the middle of the afternoon). After that, we saw Muppet-Vision (were I ended up taking a little cat nap) and then Who Wants to be a Millionaire. I was surprised how much it looks like the actual show set when you see it up on the monitor. This was fun, but any longer and I would have been getting bored. I think it ran 1/2 hour to 45 min. and that was plenty long for me.
We decided to head back to the hotel and stopped at the guest services desk. They made us a priority seating for dinner at Hooke's Pointe at the DL Hotel for 8pm. After relaxing at the hotel for a couple of hours, we left for dinner at 7pm and did some shopping in Downtown Disney on the way. We got to the restaurant at 8pm and were seated right away. We had a wonderful dinner! We started with an appetizer called Roasted Garlic, it was a beautiful plate of bread, two kinds of olives marinated in Balsamic, baked brie, and a whole head of roasted garlic. It was delicious. For dinner, I had the Kansas City porkchop with garlic roasted mashed potatoes and veggies and my hubby had firecracker fetticine. The food was wonderful and the total bill was about $60 and worth every penny.
After dinner we looked around the DL Hotel and then headed back to the Grand Cal to call it a night.
Tomorrow, heading back to DL to catch what we missed and DCA again too....
