Monday Disneyland 2008 Re-cap!

After the first two days, we felt like we’d already seen everything, but it turns out we still had plenty to do. On Monday, Disneyland didn’t open until 9, which meant we got to sleep in until 7:30 or so.
Monday was also the day I’d arranged to meet one of the other Disney CMO contestants and her family at DCA. Here’s the link to her video/page: http://www.dreamcmo.com/amy
She emailed me a couple weeks ago via a Disney forum, where she’d read that I was coming out to Disneyland. She and her husband had wanted to meet me and my family ever since seeing my CMO video. So we’d arranged to meet at the Animation Building in California Adventure on Monday at noon.
That’s also the day I wore the awesome shirt Amanda made for me (it was quite a surprise). It was a shirt featuring my animated self-portrait. Here’s me wearing it—note the similarity to the Mickey banner above my head:


We still hadn’t seen any of the “big” rides at DCA yet, but that park didn’t open until 10. So from 9-10, we spent a little time at Disneyland. Joel went on Indiana Jones with Amanda while the rest of us climbed Tarzan’s Treehouse (let me mention here that I got REALLY tired of carrying Abe in the line for rides, and often had to take a break where he had to walk for a while).
We rode Snow White and Pinocchio rides, and by then it was 10:00, time for California Adventure to open.
While in line to enter DCA, I heard the lady right in front of me ask the ticket-taker lady, “Have you heard of the Chief Magic Official contest?” I looked up and said “I HAVE!” and pointed to my shirt. Amy Kate and her family were right in line in front of us! So we said hello and chatted for a minute. They were on their way over to Grizzly River Run and we were heading over to Soarin’.
Maddy and Amanda went on Soarin’ (We got a Baby Switch Pass so Joel and I could go after they finished) and I headed over to Grizzly River Run to get Fastpasses. While there, I ran into Amy and her husband again, and he told me they’re not doing Fastpasses for that ride today cause it’s less-crowded and the park closes at 6 that day.
After Joel and I rode Soarin’ (which he was really scared of, for some reason) we went on the Monsters Inc. ride again. At the end of the ride, Roz (a character from the movie/ride) talks to people in the ride vehicle. She told Maddy that if Joel was naughty, Maddy should come tell Roz. It was funny.
Then it was time for a quick bathroom break, then we waited in line for the Playhouse Disney stage show, which we thought Abe would really like, but I guess his earache was making him grouchy, because he wasn’t that enthused. And our mature Madison thought the show was boring and childish.
By then it was noon and we went over to the Animation Building. They have a fun zoetrope made of Toy Story characters. Here’s a video (not filmed by me):

It’s a turntable covered with sculptures in animation poses that spins around. A strobe light flashes, letting you see the animation come alive. Pretty cool.
We met up with Amy Kate and her husband and daughter. We went through the Sorcerer’s Workshop and did the various activities in there (though our kids were too shy to talk/sing at the Ariel’s Grotto exhibit, where you add your voice to a Disney movie). After that, we took a couple pictures together:


Then Amy and family headed off for more adventures. We were going to head back to the hotel, but decided to get a turkey leg and a chimichanga for lunch:


The turkey leg was really huge and hard to eat (and tasted like ham) and the kids ate almost all of the chimichanga themselves! We took another bathroom break (mostly so I could clean the sticky turkey greases off my hands) then we let the kids go play in the water fountains in A Bug’s Land:

We bought some fudge at the candy shop on the way out of DCA:

And I got myself a chocolate-covered smore treat. Here it is half-eaten so you can see the innards:


At 1:50pm, we left DCA and headed home for a rest (and so the kids could change out of their totally-drenched clothes). While we were home for a rest Abe decided to bite Joel on the back:


For some reason, Abe really likes to bite things lately. Kind-of annoying.

At 4:00 we headed back to Disneyland. We went into the Innoventions building again, this time with Abe and Amanda. It was a little more crowded this time, but Joel got to play Guitar Hero and we got to go see the ASIMO show, which they were HEAVILY promoting to the point that they were walking around handing tickets to the show out to anyone who would take them. We decided to go ahead and see it, cause we didn’t have anything better to do at the time. It was actually a pretty cool show. ASIMO is a robot (designed by Honda) who is advanced enough to walk up stairs and do tasks around the house. After the show, the kids (and Amanda) played a cool video game that doesn’t use controllers; it’s projected on the floor and somehow responds to your movements. Here’s a video clip with a little of the ASIMO presentation, followed by some footage of the fam playing the game:

Then of course, we rode Buzz Lightyear AGAIN. Then Maddy and I rode Star Tours while the others rode Buzz yet another time.

We were getting hungry, but couldn’t decide where to eat. We weren’t really in the mood for Plaza Inn and we finally decided on rancho del Zocalo in Frontierland (next to Thunder Mountain). The food there is good, not great. Maddy didn’t want anything, but finally decided on a bowl of fruit. We got a seat right next to Thunder Mountain, and Joel kept waving at each train that came into the station. It was very cute—he was counting how many people waved back at him from each train.

We had a post-dinner bathroom break, then the girls rode Thunder Mountain. We watched them and took some video of them. While waiting for them, we watched the small pond across the way. Above the pond is a cave (which used to be part of the Mine Train through Nature’s Wonderland ride, before thunder Mt. came about). Next time you visit, if you watch the pond for a while, you’ll notice a “swish” in the water—a mysterious jumping fish.

We rode Pirates of the Caribbean again after that, took another bathroom break, then headed over to Fantasyland. We usually tackle Fantasyland first thing in the morning, so there was something extra special visiting it in the evening, when it was all lit up. We rode the King Arthur Carousel

and the Tea Cups (where we BARELY fit into one cup and spun as fast as we could—yeah I wanted to puke).
At 8:45 we headed home for the night to rest up before our last day at Disneyland.

Total Bathroom Breaks: 4