My happy thought, my laughing place - short trip 1/3/04-1/4/04 DAY TWO

[cuterlt]

We are:
me, Lisa, 42 year old kid at heart.
DH, Kim, 49 year old who puts up with me!
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I had made ressies for Storytellers for 8 am even though Disneyland opens at 8 am and this was our MK day. I knew we'd be tired from the travelling and from the day before and from DCA. And I knew how hard it would be to get DH out of bed. Thankfully our room had a coffee pot, so I was up early brewing coffee and getting ready. I got DH moving and we were at the ART stop way early. The trolly came within a few minutes of us being at the stop (even though it's 20 minutes between pick ups), and we were off!
We got to the park, walked thru Downtown Disney and it was deserted. We found where we needed to go (after a little reassurance to DH) and got to Storytellers. It was EMPTY! We had been there on our last trip and just loved it. We got there early, as usual, and were seated immediately. I had the luxury of the view of the characters at the front and just loved it! I had tears in my eyes several times I saw the kids playing hide and seek with the characters, and keep away. It was a blast. As always, the food was wonderful! DH loved the omellete bar. The service was excellent - nice waitress, wonderful folks all over. I couldn't wait to get to the Magic Kingdom. We stuffed our faces and headed over to Disneyland. Once again, the minimal search and into the park. There was a little bit of a line - but I think that was more because of the "search".
I wanted to head over to Indiana Jones before it got crowded. We got our map (although I remembered where it was pretty easily). I get pretty easily confused between DLand and DWorld. They are set up somewhat differently, so I get lost between Adventureland and New Orleans Square. Thankfully DLand is small so walking around is not that big a deal.
We get to Indiana Jones, and walk through that horribly long que and get right on our jeep! It was a blast, as always! I laugh so hard on that ride. We did it again as soon as we got off. Probably a five minute wait after getting through the que.
After those long ques, I needed a rest so we went on the Jungle Cruise. I really enjoy this ride - but it is so dependent on the CM. No wait onto this ride either. And a FANTASTIC CM! I wish I had remembered his name, because I was very impressed. It was a nice rest and enjoyable.

 

[cuterlt]

It was kind of a chilly day, and we walked around for a while, enjoying the scenery. We walked by Matterhorn, but saw a huge line and decided to skip it. No fast pass there. I missed being able to get on Space. It's always been a favorite ride for me. We headed over to Star Tours - not much of a wait to get on, so we went ahead and did it. And had fun. We did it again right away since there was no wait.
I was surprised at how little wait there was most places because it seemed pretty crowded. I'm not sure where everyone was (in line at Matterhorn?), but we were really lucky to be able to do the rides we liked. We walked over to Splash to get a fast pass for later. The line was huge - outside the mountain, so I thought it would probably be too long. We saw Tigger, Pooh and Eeyore out and stopped for a pressed penny. We headed over to Haunted Mansion - it was still decked out for Christmas. Again just a few minutes to wait and got right on. Very nice - the bad part was that the que was too short in the mansion area and they had a lot of people out in the general walking area blocking the way. They should have done a better job of fixing that. It was the same way when we went by later.
I wanted to do POC, and enjoyed that quite a bit. We talked about doing the Bayou for lunch, but I really didn't want to eat (still full from Breakfast!!! but DH wanted to eat again!) and didn't want to spend that much money for the view. We had done it before and I wanted to try something new. We ended up going back to Splash for our fast pass time by then and got on in less than 10 minutes - WHILE a bizillion people were waiting forever! I cannot believe people don't use fast pass for rides like this. We had a blast - I liked the new seating arrangement - I actually prefer the side by side at Disneyworld, but I really didn't like having to sit in DH's lap. The individual seating was much better. No tickling, no feeling like I'm gonna fly out. It was great fun, of course.
We headed out and again saw Tigger and Pooh and Eeyore. Because of the line of kids, I decided not to wait for a picture.
DH was hungry so we decided to head to the train. I really wanted to try Whitewater Snacks at GCH, and convinced DH that it would be worth it. We took the train to Main Street station and went to DCA. I kind of wanted to walk down main street but we didn't. I wish we had - I love the stores there. But I was pretty pooped out by this point.
We went through DCA to get to Whitewater Snacks - very easy to find. We grabbed a Soarin Fast pass on our way.... I ordered the french dip, DH had the burger. I loved my french dip, and I am extremely picky about my beef. No fries were included though and that was disappointing. DH said his hamburger was tough, but he enjoyed it.
It was getting early afternoon by now and we were supposed to have dinner with DH's Uncle. We had to go back to the hotel soon to get cleaned up for dinner. DH told him after 6. He called back at about 4 and said between 5 and 6. So we decided we needed to start heading back. One more ride on the sunwheel, and then we went by Soarin. It wasn't our fastpass time yet, and the wait was 60 minutes, so we had to skip it unfortunately. We went to our trolley stop, got to our hotel. And as we got to our hotel, DH's uncle called and said he was on his way. Not much time to clean up, and a way too short day at Disneyland and DCA.
Next post - what I wish we had time to do - and some tips.

 

[Annie&Hallie'sMom]

Thanks for all the great details!

 

[WebmasterMaryJo]

Great report! Thank you so much.