Chapter 14: Quiet down, you Tiki Room Reject!
After we left the Animation Building, we noticed that the next performance of Aladdin was starting to allow people in to the theatre. I’d heard so much about this show prior to our trip, I knew we had to stop in and see it.
This isn’t the best picture, but for reference here is the entrance to the Hyperion Theatre, where Aladdin is performed.
I laughed pretty hard because after you go through the doors, you turn to your right to queue up for the show…and this is the view.
Gotta love Hollywood!
We were near the end of the line, so our seats were in one of the last rows of the theatre.
This was such a cute show! The actors and the dancers were both fantastic, and they did a great job turning the film version into a stage show (speaking of – I can’t WAIT to see it on Broadway!)
The highlight of the show, as I’m sure you can guess, is the Genie. The Genie’s lines change on a regular basis to reflect different things going on in pop culture at the time (there was at least one Honey Boo Boo reference in our show).
I laughed hysterically at one point when the Genie called Iago a “Tiki Room Reject” (in reference to being taken out of the WDW Enchanted Tiki Room during its post-fire refurbishment a few years ago.
After the show, we wanted to back to CarsLand to see if we could redeem our Radiator Springs Racers fast passes, but it was still down. However, there was a hidden Pixar tribute in the area that I wanted to search for and see if I could find for myself – and was successful! If you go to the main building of the Cozy Cone Motel (you know, the one that isn’t cone-shaped) and take a close look at one of the shelves, you’ll see…
Buzz Lightyear! I didn’t see references to any other Pixar movies while we were there, but I wouldn’t be surprised to hear if there are some. If you know of any, be sure to leave a comment!
This might be one of my favorite photo-op places in CarsLand, simply because I’m really corny like that.
Hey Scott – I can still see you!
Another great photo spot, just outside of CarsLand
We had to leave the park to get ready to meet a friend of mine for dinner in Downtown Disney, but first I wanted to pick up one of the coolest free souvenirs you can find at any Disney park.
If you go to the DCA Chamber of Commerce on Buena Vista Street (and occasionally, some of the other shops in the area), you can pick up a copy of the Buena Vista Bugle, a newspaper that is updated regularly with things happening at the park. I hope this is something they keep around for awhile!
For those of you not familiar with Disneyland, you’ll be happy to know that Downtown Disney is also connected to the Disneyland Esplanade. It’s actually what links the Disneyland and Paradise Pier Hotels to the parks.
The above picture made me really excited because I spotted someone in it wearing an Orioles shirt. I’m a huge baseball fanatic. I actually went down to Sarasota a couple weeks ago, hoping to watch a spring training game - but the one we were supposed to go to was rained out.
At least I have a ticket to go to the Orioles opening day game tomorrow!
I didn’t take many pictures during this part of our evening, so I’ll give you a brief summary. I was going to be meeting up with my friend Samantha and her fiancé (she actually had just gotten engaged at Disneyland a few weeks earlier!). We hadn’t really discussed where to eat for dinner other than Downtown Disney, so we wandered around for a couple minutes trying to decide. Eventually we settled on Naples, a pizza place which is actually owned by the same people who run Via Napoli at Epcot in WDW. The food, service and company were all fantastic!
We wanted to spend some more time in Disneyland, so we decided to take the monorail! For those of you not familiar with Disneyland’s monorail, it goes from Downtown Disney into Tomorrowland and back.
Whoops…looks like someone lost something…
The main thing that stood out to me about Disneyland’s monorail…there was no Jack Wagner!! Nobody telling me to Por favor mantenganse alejado de las puertas! I’m not going to lie, I definitely missed having that on the monorail, haha. At least I got to hear him on the Matterhorn. Permanecer sentados por favor.
Once in Tomorrowland, we decided to do another ride on the Buzz Lightyear Astro Blasters before heading into Fantasyland.
Here’s Scott’s score – I’m not going to even bother posting mine, because it was BAD. I don’t know why I always have so much trouble on this ride!
This is the one ride that takes an on-ride photo, but isn’t liked to PhotoPass+ (or Memory Maker – I know that’s what they’re calling it at WDW, not sure if they’re using that name at Disneyland yet or not).
However, you can e-mail the photo to yourself. I don’t have a copy of the picture in my e-mails so we must have sent it to Scott’s account – I’ll post it here if I can get it from him!
Continued in next chapter
classic Disney.....love it! OOOH the Matterhorn! We are so looking forward to this ride in July for sure! That is interesting that the two sides are a bit different in how they ride. That is good to know! That stinks that RSR was down again! But on the plus side yay for more Carsland pictures
Great Update! Cannot wait to hear more 
!
And that you enjoyed our visit to the Animation Building! It wasn't something I expected to love as much as I did, since I don't feel like I hear many people talking about it, but it really was a highlight of our trip. 
