Tracey and Scott meet Chef Dale
A very "Goofy" breakfast!
Another early wakeup call at 6 am – as we had to meet the group in the lobby at 7 for a character breakfast at Goofy’s Kitchen at 7:15. Remembering how warm I was yesterday, I started the day with shorts & a t-shirt, with my denim shirt for the cooler AM temps. While we were grouped together, Scott made the offer to copy all our photos from the trip (as well as our pre-stay) onto a DVD for anyone who wanted a copy - all we needed was a mailing address. We got about a dozen people taking us up on the offer and giving us some money to cover postage as well, which was quite thoughtful.
The group headed out in a timely manner and arrived at the restaurant just after opening – we were escorted to a semi-private section where the tables were all ready for us – this time Steven, Helen and Nick joined the four of us for breakfast. Many yummy selections on the buffet – including lunch items. Just to be silly, Scott had a hot dog along with Mickey pancakes and other good stuff. We had visits from Goofy, Chip and Dale and Alice this morning.
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Tracey and Scott meet Chef Dale |
A very "Goofy" breakfast! |
Our tour was to start in DCA this morning, so we walked back to the Grand Californian to enter through the “secret entrance”. The gates were still locked, but this gave a great photo op of Scott and Brock pulling frantically on the gates to try to pry them open! We joked about grabbing one of the benches as a battering ram, but a CM with the Keys to the Kingdom arrived just in time!
Diana and Quinn led us over Soarin’. Once again, we split into the Mickey and Minnie groups – with the Mickeys going in to ride and the Minnies going back behind the screen to observe and chat with CM’s Danny and Renee. I was pleasantly surprised at how open and enthusiastic all the cast members were during our backstage visits. Part of me wondered if they would be protective & perhaps a bit resentful of “intruders”, but it was quite the opposite; they were happy and proud (rightfully so!) to share their experiences with us. As we squeezed into the rather small room behind the IMAX screen, we found that it’s actually quite porous from the rear. We could see the ride structure (not really “vehicles” as they don’t travel anywhere!) pretty clearly as it rose up & up into the theater. I was surprised at how little it actually moves during the experience – the visuals add a lot to the overall sense of swooping back and forth, up and down.
After the ride, we joined back together outside the attraction and Danny told us a little about the attraction – the film is 70 millimeter (he showed an example) and runs at 48 frames/second – (twice normal film speed) in front of a 15,000 watt bulb! He also passed around several cups with the orange scent pellets so we could smell them – they’re placed in canisters about a foot and a half long and air is forced thru them during the ride. The canisters get replaced about once a month to ensure the scent levels stay fairly consistent.
 Soarin' Over California's sent pellets |
 Condor Flats Area |
He also shared some stories about the film itself: the Yosemite sequence was only the second time a helicopter had been allowed to fly in so close to the falls – the other time was several decades back, after a serious flood, when it was the only way to check the area for damage. The river scene was also very closely managed – all the boaters are actually US Park Rangers, ensuring that the shoot didn’t cause any damage or interfere with the wildlife. The film clip through downtown LA almost didn’t happen – after the test run, the city controllers changed their mind about letting Disney fly over the highway… fortunately, they’d loaded and shot film during the test run!
We crossed Sunshine Plaza about 9:20 to visit the Animation Building. We posed for a group photo in front of the marquee, which read “Welcome to Adventures by Disney!” It took several tries to get the sign photographed just right. We then trooped into “Turtle Talk with Crush” Ken and Philip were our CM’s for this attraction and had a lot of fun with us and the turtle-dude. Finally got to ask Crush whether he’d ever met a mermaid – I think we surprised him with that one! He said that he thought mermaids were a myth, but he’d heard stories about a red-haired princess from his crabby friend, Sebastian. He interacted with several other members of our tour, including Barb, Nate, Nick and Helen, if I remember correctly. This is such a great experience and I’m looking forward to further “living character initiatives” from Imagineering!
 Tour Group at the Animation Building |
 Tracey asks Crush a question |
About quarter til 10, we entered the Animation Academy, where CM’s Kris (male) and Clyde walked us thru drawing the big Cheese himself, Mickey! I’m definitely not an artist, but several of our tourmates did a pretty good job! Quinn & Diana handed out mailing tubes to safekeep our drawings, then collected them to take back to the rooms for us. The members of our group celebrating their birthdays get a special surprise at this point – mouse ears! On the way out of the Animation Building, we stopped to view the Toy Story zoetrope. It’s a circular collection of posed maquettes that when spun up to about 70 rpm, becomes animated. Buzz bounces up & down on the Pixar ball, Woody rides Bullseye, Jessie does lasso tricks, the Green Army Men parachute down from their bucket and the Little Green Men do acrobatic tricks. It’s astounding to watch – definitely a hidden treasure!
We wrapped up the group tour about 10:30, getting yet another set of FastPasses (they were dated, so we couldn’t save them from one day to the next). The Guides had reserved seating for us at the second Aladdin show – we needed to meet back at the Hyperion at 11:45. Since we’d done so much shopping this trip, we decided to look into shipping a box back home. Quinn had checked with the hotel’s business center to make sure we could, so we headed back & packed up our stuff. Jimmy, the business center CM was VERY helpful, even calling us back later that day to let us know that the USPS (our first choice) didn’t pick up packages on the weekend & did we want to use FedEx instead.
We got back into DCA just after 11 & decided to get a viewing of MuppetVision in before we had to meet the group. We arrived just in time for the preshow – Scott took photos of the interior, which is a bit different from the Studios version. The film itself is the same – we enjoyed the AC & cushy seats almost as much as the show itself… I’m a bit embarrassed to say I had a hard time not nodding off during the show – sorry Kermit!
We ended up being a bit late meeting the group, but we found them and spent a bit of time in the shaded portion of the outdoor queue before being escorted to the front of the rear orchestra section. As always, the Genie stole the show – tho I can’t recall all the topical bits he threw in through the show. I’m kind of torn as to where the best place to sit is. In the lower orchestra, you get a good look at the elephant during the “Prince Ali” song; however, the balcony gives you a great view of the flying carpet sequence. If you have time, see the show twice!
 The Aladdin Stage |
 Prince Ali's Entrance |
After Aladdin – Beci talked me into going onto Tower of Terror – I haven’t ridden the WDW version since early 2006, after they replaced the lap bar with seatbelts and went to the random drop sequence – just too intense! The group (Beci, Brent & Brock, Alex & Haydee and Brad) all assured me this version isn’t quite as wild & Beci would make sure I got seated in the front middle, where there’s an extra bar to grab on to. Even with the fast pass, we spent a good 20-25 minutes in the boiler room before entering our elevator. Bellhop Nathan was deliciously creepy – I bet they have as much fun as the Haunted Mansion butlers and maids! Tho I was pretty hungry after the Aladdin show, it was just as well that my stomach was empty for this attraction. It honestly wasn’t as bad as I remembered – tho I looked pretty darned scared in the photo! Beci said she’s expecting me to ride ToT again with her during Mousefest…. we’ll see!
It was about ten til 2 when Scott and I got some lunch at Award Weiners – he got the Italian hot dog & I tried a Food & Wine Festival special – the “Portobello Philly” – mushrooms, peppers & onion and cheese on a bun. It was rather spicy, and pretty good. We found a shady spot in the little auditorium area across from Muppetvision & Monsters Inc. Once you were out of the sun and in a bit of a breeze, it wasn’t too bad – but full sun with no breeze got pretty toasty.
Nothing over on the Midway interests us (at least not until Toy Story Midway Mania opens) so the two of us decided to use up a couple of FP’s on Grizzly River Rapids –Nick, Helen & Steve spotted us as they were exiting – they got soaked! This time we wised up and put everything in one of the lockers before getting in the 20 min FP line. The first time around, we got waved over into the handicap area to sit with 4 teens (one of whom had a knee brace and was in a wheelchair). They were quite friendly – they’d never been on this particular ride before, just similar raft rides. We got stopped for about 5-10 min at the very bottom of the lift hill – thankfully just inside the shack, so we were nicely shaded! They must have had every single raft out on the river that day, as there were backups at each of the drops as well as the exit area. We didn’t get nearly as wet on this ride (even after the second time around) as we did on Splash Mountain the previous day – and I was ready for it this time!
We sloshed our way back to the room about 3 – packed up most of our stuff & rested a bit, hanging out on the balcony & people watching. We were to meet back up at 5:55 for the farewell dinner, and I wanted to get a few more rides in before then (and change into something a bit nicer) so we headed back over to DL a little after 4. The park was QUITE busy – nice weather and a Saturday = throngs of locals. It took us a good 20 min to get thru the turnstiles and down Main Street before diving into the crowds in Fantasyland. Both Casey Jr and Storybook Boats had incredible lines, and even Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride had a 30 minute wait. Since this is one of Scott’s favorites, we gave it another try. I hadn’t had a churro yet on this trip, so we headed over to Frontierland, but partway there, I changed my mind & decided on a mint julep instead, since WDW now has churros.
There was a bit of a line at the Mint Julep bar – Scott took more photos of the New Orleans area while I waited. We spent a few quiet moments in the Court of the Angels before heading back to the room around 5:10 to freshen up before dinner. I also took a few moments to write notes to both Quinn and Diana to include in the tip envelope, as well as a note to Jim – he ended up participating in a lot more of the group activities than I (and maybe even he!) expected, and I wanted to make sure he knew what an absolutely spectacular time we had on this tour – Adventures by Disney has a product to be really, really proud of.
The tour group met back at the Sorceror’s Hat next to the Disneyland Hotel at 5 til 6. Our original itinerary had us eating dinner at Napa Rose, but the Food & Wine Festival had co-opted that location, so instead, we headed into the hotel and the Sleeping Beauty Pavilion – which ended up being an ideal location. The farewell dinner ended up being quite a production – not only did we have a lovely buffet dinner (and a fantastic dessert buffet!), we also had a slide show with many of the photos the Guides had taken over the last several days and a visit from Mickey and Minnie as well! Scott and I were wearing our Anniversary buttons – Minnie noticed them and clapped for us – Quinn leaned in and said “they’re celebrating 15 years together … hasn’t it been almost 80 for you and Mickey?” Minnie turned to Mickey, giving him one of those looks, while pointing at her ring finger… he turned around, looking up into the air… I could almost hear him whistling nonchalantly!
 Two Happy Couples |
 Mickey is ready to lead us to our next adventure! |
We wrapped up the dinner by having everyone share their favorite magical moment or special memory of the trip. I talked about the sense of childish wonder we all shared during the trip & got a little misty-eyed… but I really choked up when Scott said that during the Magical Moment in Walt’s Apartment, he looked at me and fell in love all over again… awwwwwww… David came up to him afterward and said something along the lines of Scott having won the hearts of every woman in the room with that comment – and making things tougher for all the guys!
Dianna and Quinn had arranged a reserved area to watch the fireworks from – so we trooped out there at about 8:20 with 2/3 of the group – we were on the far side of the Plaza Gardens with a good view of the Castle, but the Matterhorn was partially obscured. Since we were off to one side, the fireworks weren’t centered behind the castle, but we still saw all the projections quite well. Before the fireworks, I had a nice chat with Beci about the whole experience, comparing & contrasting it with Mousefest. Most of our tourmates didn’t know anything about Mousefest & we’ve both been talking it up quite a bit – hopefully we’ll be able to do a mini-reunion in WDW this December!
The long, busy days were really starting to take a toll on us, plus we had to be ready to leave at 6:40 am the next morning, with luggage pickup a half-hour earlier! Since we wouldn’t be able to do the last character breakfast at Storytellers Café, our Guides got us a gift card to use at the Hearthstone snack area, which would open at six am. We really wanted to do at least one more activity with the group, so about 9 of us headed over for one last visit with the 999 happy haunts. It was really hard to say goodbye to everyone – lots of hugs were exchanged & promises made to stay in touch. The two of us hiked back to the room about 11 and were off to bed fairly soon after.
Mileage: 22,421 steps = 8.84 miles - heading back to the hotel twice added up pretty quickly!
Attraction Count: 13, including character breakfast, farewell dinner and fireworks.