SoCal & Disneyland trip day 2

The next morning Linda and I headed out to Disneyland. The forecast said it was going to rain, even though it was cloudy the sun was out. My friend Son lent us his car to get around town while he was working. Here we are waiting in line to pay for parking at the Mickey and Friends parking garage.



We are parked on the Mickey floor. Lot 8F. Easier to remember when you take a picture of it.


It was an early Monday morning. The park was not busy at all.



The tram dropped us off at Downtown Disney.




The park just barely opened. I love going to Disneyland on weekdays. You can get on most of the rides with little wait time.






I love the feeling of walking into Disneyland for the first time on each trip. It really helps you transition from the regular work life to a fun and magical vacation.

I usually stop off for some coffee at Carnations Cafe on Main Street, but it looks like Disneyland is doing some construction. So I was detoured to Jolly Holiday Bakery Cafe.


I have walked by the Jolly Holiday Bakery Cafe many times, and have never really noticed it. I just thought it was a dinning place. This was my first time ever stepping foot inside. I was pleasantly surprised that this was here all this time and I walk past it.





A Caramel Macchiato and Berry Danish later to start my vacation binge eating.

We fast passed Star Tours


Then headed straight to Space Mountain. 20 minute wait.








Linda caught a picture with a Stormtrooper on our exit from Space Mountain. Oh and by the way I can believe Linda wore heels to Disneyland. She said they were comfortable, but I bet they weren't as comfortable as my New Balances.


After Space Mountain we headed over to Adventure Land. My favorite part of the park, but on our way it was time for binge eating stop #2. Corn Dogs.

Instead of chips I got apples though. Like that's going to do anything.


On our way to Indian Jones we happened to cross these little guys.

I love ducks. I used to have one as a pet when I was a kid. They are awesome. If I was a duck I would live in Disneyland too.


My brothers and friends would always buy a pickle at Tropical Imports. Linda has never had one before and I'm not a huge fan of pickles.

Linda loves pickles so we got one.


and it was delicious.

After the pickle it was time for an adventure on Indiana Jones.






I remember visiting Disneyland when Indiana Jones was still relatively new to the park. We would ride it over and over trying to hopefully get our Jeep to go through all three doors. Each door had a slightly different theme/scene as you entered, but now that the ride is much older. It only goes through one door now. Since I only go on the weekdays. Maybe the ride goes through one door on the slow days?






The next ride on the list was Pirates. On the long hot summer days I love this ride. It's so relaxing and it's nice to get off your feet.

Out of courtesy for the other people in the boat I don't use flash photography. Pictures are a bit blurry.






Not sure if you know this, but the popcorn carts in Disneyland have different characters rotating the popcorn wheel. So far I have seen Oogie Boogie from Nightmare before Christmas (Only during the Halloween & Christmas Season) Clowns, Rocketeer, Sasquatch, and this Mortician pictured below. It's a minor detail that it probably overlooked many times, but I notice it.

Haunted Mansion was a 5 minute wait.


My favorite part of the ride is the hangman in the rafters.


It was too cold to ride Splash Mountain :(

Churro. binge #3




It was 12:45p now and our fastpass for Star Tours was ready. On our way there Linda wanted another pickle.





Ever wonder how Disneyland predicts the wait time for rides? They had a random rider this card pictured below. This time it was me!



After Star Tours we headed out of Disneyland to DCA.




Another Handsome fellow.

DCA is still under major construction and it has for some time now. DCA wasn't doing as well as Disney had hoped for. So they decided to do a major overhaul a few years ago. Check out the video below. You can see what Disney had planned a while ago and it looks like everything has been coming along nicely. I think this is a great move for DCA. I'm hoping that it will revive interest in the park.

I visit Disneyland at least once a year and it nice to see how far they have come. Do you remember when DCA didn't even exist?







The Grizzly River Run was drained and it looks like it was under construction or maintenance. I wonder how many people would have rode it that day. It was freezing and unlike splash mountain. There's no chance that you could get off this ride dry.


This playground was called something else in the past, but I can't remember what exactly.





Corn on the Cob, Roasted Turkey Leg, and Chimichangas.

My favorite ride at DCA is Toy Story Mania. I would buy a hopper ticket just for this one ride. Linda had never ridden this ride before. She was wondering what the big deal was.





Even on a slow day the wait was 30 minutes, but since it was slow I was able to set the highest score of the hour. 201,000. Linda loved the ride also. Not bad of a score for a first timer. She wanted to know how I got a high score. I revealed some of the hidden bonuses on the ride, but not all. :)

After Toy Story Mania it started raining. What a bummer. At least we were able to enjoy most of our day. We stopped off at a nearby shop to buy an umbrella.

It was only a light drizzle, but it was still slightly annoying.


Last time I didn't get to ride the new Little Mermaid ride. So we stopped by. There was no wait.












I'm not going to lie. The ride sucked. I will never ride it again.










Tower of Terror was next.





and after Tower of Terror the rain had stopped for a bit. We had a bit of time to kill before our reservation at the Blue Bayou. So we headed back to Toy Story Mania. Linda wanted a rematch.


Binge #4. We originally had planned on getting soft serve, but when we found out they had Rootbeer Floats. We couldn't pass it up.

The rain had scared away a lot of people. This was the first time that I had ever seen Toy Story Mania close off the inside line.

Linda didn't stand a chance!, but major improvement from her first ride.

I dont' know how, but someone got 598,100! That is just ridiculous.

I told Linda that Disneyland has dinosaurs. She didn't believe me. So a ride on the train was needed. The light on the map tells you where the trains are in the park.









After the train ride it was time for Dinner!






A non-alcoholic mint julip.

Gumbo with some dirty rice.

I had the Surf and Turf.

Linda had the crab cakes.

It was around 6pm when we were finished with dinner. We had rode everything that we wanted and it was cold and wet. We decided to call it a day. I would have loved to stay at the park until closing like I usually do, but the rain just made it uncomfortable. I can't remember when the last time that I left the park early.



The lights were starting to turn on as we were leaving. I love how Main Street looks at night.




We stopped off at some of the shops, but didn't find anything worthwhile to buy.




One of my brother's favorite thing when we visit Disneyland is an ApplePie Apple from Marceline's Confectionery in Downtown Disney. So I picked one up for him.


Son was actually surprised when we arrived back at his place around 6:30pm. He has gone to Disneyland with me once and knows that I love to stay in the park all day. We rested for a few hours and head out for drinks that night. It was a really mellow night. I left my camera at his place so I didn't get to snap any pics, but after we got back we had a few more drinks before going to bed.


Son fell asleep first. I was being a drunken moving target on Call of Duty.


That's a glass of Whiskey and ice. Good night.