Bryan Walton's Disneyland/Cirque du Soleil Trip Report
February 5-8, 2004 
The cast :Bryan, Former Disneyland CM,Elizabeth,
my wife and Disney park fan
The plan:
The purpose of the trip was actually to go to Orange County and see
one of Cirque du Soleil's latest touring productions, Varekai. We
love the Cirque shows and have seen them when they visit the Seattle area.
We have recently bought all the Cirque DVDs and particularly like Varekai.
However, no Cirque show of any kind is scheduled to come to Seattle this
year, but Varekai is currently showing at the Orange County Fairgrounds
in Costa Mesa, CA. I suggested to my wife that we could go down
to Orange County to see it, and use our Disney Vacation Club points to
stay at Disney's Grand Californian Hotel and visit the parks at the same
time. The only catch was that we were already booked on a 10-night
trip to Disney World for February 12-22 and it might be a bit much.
Elizabeth seemed excited by the idea and the next morning announced she
wanted to go. Since we were taking the kids to Florida, we would
be able to justify not taking the kids to California, which would cut
the cost of the trip nearly in half. Moreover, my niece had generously
offered to come stay at the house and watch the boys (age 12 & 14)
anytime we felt we wanted to get away alone together.
I checked the airfares for the last weekend in January and they were
around $350 a piece, but the first weekend in February they were still
only about $250 each. Cirque tickets were plentiful. I checked
with Disney Vacation Club member services and rooms were available at
the hotel. I won't go into the details of switching from promotional
rates at the hotel, a pre-planned exchange to Vancouver that we couldn't
confirm, a mixed points/cash stay, etc. Suffice it to say that by
the time the trip was finalized we would be spending three nights in a
theme park view room at the Grand Californian. The hotel is blessedly
a non-smoking hotel and I requested a Grizzly Peak view - I had no desire
to overlook Paradise Pier. We bought 2 3-day passports in
advance at AAA, saving $5 each over the price at the Disneyland ticket
booths. The hotel itself does not sell passes.
We would arrive at the hotel around 8pm, have dinner at Catal in Downtown
Disney. Friday, the plan was to spend the day at Disneyland, and
have dinner at the Blue Bayou. Saturday morning we had breakfast
reserved at Storytellers Cafe, would spend the morning and early afternoon
at California Adventure, go to see Varekai at 4pm, and dine at Napa Rose.
Sunday would be Disneyland in the morning, California Adventure in the
afternoon and the last flight from John Wayne to Seattle at 8:45pm.
Day One
Check in to Disney's Grand Californian Hotel
Dinner at Catal
I needed to leave work at 1pm to get home in time to make last minute
arrangements so we could leave the house at 2pm and get to the airport
in time for the two-hour wait before our 4:45 flight to John Wayne.
Of course, someone scheduled me at the last minute for a 12-2 meeting
but I gave them fair warning that I'd only be able to attend half of it.
Sure enough at 1 I was able to sneak out and go home. Oh, the blessed
lack of rush hour traffic when one leaves work early! Stopped for
gas on the way home, finished up last minute packing and we were on our
way at 2pm. Traffic was light to Seatac, where we were trying out
a new parking lot, ShuttlePark 2, because we got a discount coupon in
the mail. The place was fairly easy to find and the shuttle picked
us up right away. The driver gave us each a bottle of water - nice
little perk, which meant we wouldn't have to buy any for the plane.
In no time we were at the terminal where there was not a soul waiting
at the Alaska self-checkin counter. We had already checked-in on
the web and so just had to register our luggage. The agent helpfully
pointed out that if there had been a line we could have gone to a special
web checkin counter. This hint would save us a lot of waiting on
our Orlando trip, where the checkin lines would be the longest I'd ever
seen. We breezed through security, took the airport subway to terminal
N and settled in to wait for our flight.
The aircraft was a 737-400, a tiny little thing with only 23 rows.
Since we started flying Alaska I've decided I like it better than Delta.
One of the reasons is that Alaska gives you more legroom, so the flight
is more comfortable. According to
legroom it's only an inch more, but it makes a difference to me!
One of the flight attendants, based in Seattle with her flight-attendant
husband, did nothing but work this Seattle/Orange County shuttle, making
1 round trip flight each working day and sleeping in her own bed every
night. She loved it. The fellow sitting next to us on the
flight was a young gate supervisor for Alaska Air who had just been transferred
to Orange County - he's in the management training program at Alaska and
expects to get transferred quite a bit before he settles down. I
asked the gate agent, the flight attendant, the check-in agent and this
young man if they had seen the new reality series Airline"on A&E
and none of them had watched it but felt that it was extreme. I
responded, Of course it is, that's what makes interesting television.
In any case, the series has made me a lot more sympathetic to what airline
personnel have to put up with every day.
In Orange County we rented an Avis economy car and shot up the carpool
lanes on 55 and I-5 straight to Disney Way, which has its own dedicated
carpool exit- very convenient. We drove around the south side of
the resort and up Disneyland Drive to the Grand Californian. The
security booth was manned and we were offered valet parking at $12 per
night by the valet. The self park is just across the street next
to the Paradise Pier hotel and is included in the cost of the stay, so
we opted for that. We left the car under the porte cochere and went
through the beautiful stained-glass entry doors into the Great Hall to
check in. There were 3 clerks behind the counter and only one guest
waiting so I thought we'd be waited on right away but two of the CMs were
so busy in their personal conversation that they didn't notice us waiting.
I finally gave up hoping that they'd notice us on their own and asked
for their assistance. Then they were very courteous and gave us
our room key, parking pass, hotel charge card (which also can be used
as an express-boarding pass at the Tomorrowland monorail station), event
schedule and hotel map. The charge card is not coded on the room
key, as at Walt Disney World, but is a separate, small piece of paper.
We were assigned to room 5351, in the east wing overlooking the entrance
to Grizzly River Run. Elizabeth waited in the Great Hall while I
drove the car across the street to the hotel parking. I hadn't realized
I needed my room key to open the parking lot gate and had just brought
my parking pass, which I expected to show to the guard. However,
the guard only deals with you on the way out. Fortunately, there
was a phone at the gate, so I called. No one answered but the gate
did open. On the way back to the hotel I found a sweatshirt that
someone had dropped right in the middle of Disneyland Drive, so I picked
it up and took it to the guard at the hotel gate.
We settled into our room and freshened up. I went out on the balcony
and admired the view of the Golden State area of California Adventure,
with clear views of Grizzly Peak, the Hyperion Theater, the Golden Gate
Bridge, the Main Street Railroad Station and Space Mountain. Of
course there was the overarching hum of Anaheim traffic, too. It
would be better during the day when the waterfalls on Grizzly Peak were
turned on, effectively masking the city noise. We also called the
boys to let them know we'd arrived safely and to see if they were having
a good time.
We headed down to Downtown Disney, stopping briefly at Acorn Gifts to
see if they had some new pins that I didn't have. I bought a couple,
but unfortunately, they probably won't be getting in the lovely stained-glass
Grand Californian pin that I've been coveting. There are none available
on e-bay either, sadly. In Downtown Disney we turned left and headed
to Catal where we went upstairs to the main dining room. At first
I thought we might try to eat outside on the balcony as we had in November
2002, but it wasn't warm enough so we opted to stay inside. I should
have taken notes to remember what I ordered, but I neglected to do so.
I'm pretty sure I had a roasted lamb shank with garlic that was delicious,
I can't remember what my wife ordered, but we were both pleased with the
meal and the attentive service.
After dinner we headed over to the World of Disney store to see what
they had. Unfortunately, if you're not a child there was nothing
much of interest in there. I bought a few pins and looked at the
ties. Shopping at Disneyland was so much more interesting years
ago, with the China Shop, the Candle Shop, the One of a Kind shop, Le
Gourmet and so forth. Now it's all Christmas shops, candy shops,
plush and t-shirts. Just at the time when I can afford all the neat
stuff they used to sell, they don't sell it any more! Well, I figure
Disney has saved me thousands of dollars that way,
After the shopping we headed back to the room and went to bed.
Day Two
Disneyland All Day
Dinner at Blue Bayou
Didn't get up too early (my usual hour for arising is 5 am so that I
can take my oldest son to early morning seminary at the LDS church) but
it was about 7. Elizabeth was still asleep so I took a shower and
then went out on the balcony to read. The sun is up a lot
earlier here than in Seattle. There were CMs down below, cleaning
the walkways, driving trucks around and getting California Adventure ready
for a new day. After Elizabeth arose and was ready we headed over
to Downtown Disney to see what the breakfast offerings were. We're
both on the Atkins diet so we hoped to find low-carb offerings.
We stopped at Catal downstairs where they had bacon and scrambled eggs
for $6.50. Then we went over to RainForest Cafe where they had bacon
and eggs for $9.50. Needless to say, we went back to Catal and had
a nice breakfast then went over to Disneyland at 8:45, where they were
already letting folks onto Main Street. One of my goals this trip
was to check out the music store and the new CD soundtracks they were
offering. I had made about 6 or 7 CDs years ago when they still
had the Disneyland Forever music-on-demand system where you pick your
tracks and made up a custom CD. I had thus previously picked up
some music from my favorite attractions when I was a teenager, including
the Monorail Song (original PeopleMover theme), the sound track to the
Carousel of Progress and some others. I browsed the titles and listened
to a few tracks and decided I would definitely come back later to buy
some. The hostess told me that if there was a line at the kiosks
when I came back, I could just request CDs right at the counter.
It turns out they've got a bunch of them already made up and when you
click to buy on the kiosk, it doesn't do anything at all - it doesn't
even print out a list of what you ordered or send a list to the CM's register.
We heard the opening fanfare and walked outside to join the mad rush that
begins every Disney day.
First we headed over to Critter Country to ride Splash Mountain and
Winnie the Pooh. I got in line by myself for Splash Mountain as
Elizabeth doesn't want to risk getting wet. For some reason, even
though they were cycling logs, they didn't let us in until 9:15.
The ride was somewhat of a disappointment because I had the impression
that a lot of the animation was missing. There were spots in the attraction
where I'm pretty sure there was supposed to be animatronics but they were
empty. I hope they're just off getting repaired. None of the
jumping water effects were on in the laughing place and the works lights
were on down there in an adjoining room. When I got off, there was
still hardly any line and Elizabeth told me I could go again. Usually
I would take advantage of the lack of a line but I didn't want to go again
so we went for our first ride on the new Pooh ride. It was pretty cute,
with some nice special effects. The pooling and dripping water effects
in the blustery day sequence was very effective. I was almost sure
there was real water there, but it was totally an illusion. The
CM at the exit assured me that the effect was even more convincing when
the attraction just opened. When we left the ride, there was no one in
the queue so we asked the CM if we could just stay in our beehive and
ride through again.
After that we went on the Haunted Mansion, where naturally people were
talking loudly in the stretching room and hallway. Don't they realize
that these are part of the attraction and not part of the queue?
It's very annoying. Next was Pirates of the Caribbean. We
went to the Boutique de Noel where they had some very beautiful Mardi-Gras-themed
ornaments, but I almost fell down when I saw the price - most were over
$30 each. I won't be covering my tree with those! I also admired
and examined the blue cut glass vases in the Crystal Shop. I've
been wanting one of these for a long time and as these were bought before
the fall of the dollar against the euro, they were very reasonably priced.
Ultimately, reason prevailed and I didn't pick one up. Still, if
I change my mind, I may pick one up next week at Disney World.
I thought we'd better head over to Fantasyland and do the dark rides
before their lines got too long, so we hit Peter Pan, Snow White, and
Mr Toad's Wild Ride in short order. While we were waiting in the
Toad queue, I noticed that the Mad Hatter thatched"roof was looking pretty
shabby. Still, I hope they'll be getting to it. It seems there's
a lot of work going on to restore Disneyland's former splendor.
There's new pavement being installed in Tomorrowland, City Hall is shrouded
in tarps, Toontown was just repainted and looks great, etc.
Then we did both sides of the Matterhorn,
where the line for the left side was considerably shorter than the line
for the right, Alice and Storybookland. Finally, we headed to Toontown
and did Cartoon Spin and then the now-restored-to-its-pristine-original-gold-and-white-colors
It's A Small World, with original soundtrack, too. We both agreed
that we had liked the pastel look on the outside better. We were
starting to get hungry, but decided to call the boys first, as they only
had a half day of school and we wanted to see if they had gotten home
safely. After the call we headed over to the Village Haus restaurant
in Fantasyland for some burgers. Elizabeth held a table outside
while I went in to get the order. Since we didn't want fries, I
asked if I could order the burgers a la carte. Upon receiving an
affirmative reply, I proceeded to do so. When the order came, there
were fries with it! They said the meals always came that way, even
if you order it without. Oh well, Disneyland's loss I suppose, as
long I didn't pay for them. We enjoyed our burgers (without the
bun) and Diet Cokes in the very pleasant and warm sunshine.
In Tomorrowland we rode the Monorail.
Both Monorail Orange and Monorail Red were running. It was apparently
the last hurrah for Monorail Orange as only two days later it would be
irreparably and permanently retired. Then we went on the Autopia.
Since the main entrance is blocked off by the repaving of Tomorrowland,
both the entrance and the exit are by the same ramp, with a white stripe
painted down the middle and arrows on either side to indicate the direction
of traffic. Apparently, many people are blind, as we encountered
lots of folks going up or down the wrong side. The line split into
two at one point and we rode on the inside track, as this had not been
opened on our last visit. Innoventions came next. I like to
see the Carousel Theater turning and listening to There's A Great Big
Beautiful Tomorrow The pre-show with Nathan Lane as Tom Morrow
is pretty good but the only area they ever seem to have open when we go
on is the Entertainment section. The rest of Innoventions is pretty
boring and not nearly as good as its Epcot counterpart and we didn't linger
very long.
On to Adventureland. We visited the Tiki Room, also looking shabby,
with thatched roof bare and rotting in some places, and some animatronics
not working, but due for a long rehab this fall. There was a Walking
in Walt's Footsteps" tour going on and they took them in first and made
us wait outside for 5 or 10 minutes before we could go in. Then
it was the Jungle Cruise, with practically no wait and a laughing guide
who had a few new jokes (new to me, anyway). Briefly explored the
shops. In one of them, I thought I recognized a CM I had worked
with in Fantasyland years before. His name tag read Hector"and
I asked him Not the Hector who's been here forever? He recognized
me from way back when and told me that he had now been at the Park for
28 years and brought me up to date on a few others I might have known
who were still around after all this time. I asked him what he thought
about Matt Ouimet, the new president of Disneyland and he said that he
was sorry to see Cynthia go, because she was very nice.
We then decided to make our way back to the
hotel to get our coats before it got too cool. The 45th
birthday parade, held over by popular demand I guess, was just starting,
and since we'd never seen the whole thing, we stopped to watch.
It was fairly nice, but poor Tarzan was almost completely naked without
even a body stocking and I don't know how he kept warm, as it was almost
4:30 and the temperature was dropping steadily, with a little breeze to
boot.
After the parade we stopped at the music store where I picked up CDs
for Great Moments With Mr Lincoln, The Country Bear Jamboree, The
Golden Horseshoe Review, Totally Minnie" (a great dance and workout
disk and whose main theme accompanied a parade tribute to Minnie herself
back in the 80's) and The Enchanted Tiki Room. I already had made
an America Sings disk when they had Disneyland Forever. They had
a Walt Disney's Disneyland CD, but as far as I could tell, it was only
narration (by the master himself) and I wasn't sure I wanted it.
Armed with my new purchases we headed back to the room via California
Adventure and the private entrance. As we passed Burrr Bank Ice
Cream, Route 66 was singing. This is a group of men and women who
sing a cappella harmonies and we caught the last of their set. They
were very good and attracted quite a crowd.
At the room the housekeeper had turned down the beds and laid out some
chocolates, which we put away for the boys. We freshened up and
I went out on the balcony again to watch the goings on around Grizzly
Peak. Lucky for me, the Barn Cats, a sort of bluegrass group, was
playing down below and I got to enjoy the last of their set. They've
got fiddle, banjo, base and guitar. The lights were on all over
now and the waterfalls glowed white in the deepening evening. Storytellers
Cafe was full of families with young children taking an early dinner.
We stopped at Napa Rose to check out the menu. We had
looked at the latest posted menu at http:\\www.mouseplanet.com, for Winter
2003 and liked it very much. However, the menu was not as interesting
to us this time and we decided we would cancel our reservation for Saturday
evening.
We had a 6:50 Priority Seating at the Blue
Bayou, so we needed to be heading back over . We chose to go through
Downtown Disney this time. A musician was holding forth in front
of Naples restaurant and doing a brisk business in CDs. We made
our way through Frontierland where the early preparations for the 8:30
showing of Fantasmic were underway, with the CMs in their honey bee costumes
gathering to organize the crowd control. The foyer to Blue Bayou
was crowded with diners as we checked in at the podium. In fact
the restaurant was so congested that when the hostess came to take us
to our table, we had several false starts trying to find a path to the
table. Unfortunately, we were not by the water side, but the atmosphere
was pleasant in the perpetual moonlight. I started off with a salad
with roasted pepper dressing. The dressing had a kick to it and
was delicious. I ordered the New Orleans chicken, stuffed with spinach
and Elizabeth had a delicious filet mignon with mushroom sauce.
We both had double vegetables in place of the rice or potatoes our dinner
normally would come with.. The desserts were not sufficiently tempting
to lure us off the wagon. By the time we left the restaurant, it
was about 8:15. I had assumed that that late there would be no place
left to watch Fantasmic and was planning on the 9:30 showing. Still,
when we went around the front of the French Market we could see plenty
of standing room with an unobstructed view on the middle walkway (la moyenne
corniche?) and decided to stay. It was a delightful show, missing
Ursula and the Mark Twain finale, however, the paddlewheeler being in
drydock for a much needed overhaul.
At this point, we decided to call it a night and head back to the room.
We checked in on the boys again - they had gone to Quizno's for dinner
and Coldstone Creamery for dessert and were settling down to watch a DVD.
Day Three
Visit California Adventure
See Cirque du Soleil's Varekai
Go back to California Adventure
Dinner at Storytellers Cafe
Early sunlight again this morning with an 8:30 reservation for breakfast
at Storytellers Cafe. Since California Adventure didn't open until
10am we were in no rush. We were seated fairly quickly and had an
enthusiastic waitress who was thrilled to work at Disneyland and couldn't
imagine anyone leaving. When I told her that I had worked in Fantasyland
Merchandise for several years in the late 70's and early 80's, she asked
me again"Why did you ever leave? We both ordered the Denver Omelet,
no toast with a side of fresh berries. We asked for cream and the
server brought us a little pot of what I think was only half and half
(which as you low-carbers may know, has more carbs than cream).
The omelet was very good, moist, with plenty of stuff in it and the berries
were fresh and flavorful. We went back to the room to brush our
teeth and get my poncho for Grizzly River Run. At 9:30 we headed
down to the private entrance to CA, which was open and headed to Soarin'
Over California, our favorite ride in the park. In the line with
us was a woman, also from Seattle, who was visiting CA for the first time.
She had left her husband outside with their child who was either
too young or too afraid to ride, I can't remember which. She
enjoyed Soarin' very much and on our way out, told us that her husband
was going to ride next. When I saw the now very long ride, I asked
if he had requested a child swap. He hadn't so I suggested she explain
to the CM what had happened to see if he could get on without waiting.
Elizabeth and I then picked up Fast Passes to ride again later.
We then headed to Grizzly River Run where I put on my poncho and rode
twice. Unfortunately, the second time through, I took off my hood
prematurely and was drenched by the midstream geyser near the end.
Since I had my hood off, water ran down my back, too. Oh, well,
the best laid plans .
We now headed through the San Francisco area of the Golden State.
What a waste, nothing but empty store fronts here and a stripped down
film, Golden Dreams, which was originally going to be an American Adventure
style spectacular. Anyway, we skipped this and headed to California
Screamin, which I rode alone. It left me verging on dizzy and nauseous.
Unfortunately, as I get older, I'm more and more susceptible to motion
sickness.. I suppose eventually, I won't be able to ride these things
at all. When Tower of Terror opens up at Disneyland, I'll ride it once
to try it out and see the special effects, but then that will be it, especially
with the way they've programmed the drops at Disney Studios these days.
When it was just one predictable drop, I could ride but now it just makes
me sick.
For the same reason, we next rode the stationary gondolas on the Sun
Wheel and got a wonderful view over the park. By this time our fast
passes for Soarin' were ready so we rode that again and then headed to
the Hollywood Pictures Backlot to wait for the Aladdin show, which had
not yet opened during our last visit. The show started at 12:45
and we were advised to be in line no later than 12:15 if we wanted a seat.
At 12 we showed up in the waiting area and opted for orchestra seating.
While our seats were good, the next time I may go for something higher
to get a better view of the Prince Ali processional and the flying carpet
scene. When you are in orchestra seating the flying carpet is right
over your head. I left the line once to buy a bottled coke (I curse
the proliferation of Outdoor Vending carts clogging the walkways everywhere,
but they sure are convenient when you need them.). The doors opened
at 12:30, when they let in a bunch of folks who I assume had bought Walt
Disney Travel Company packages and so were entitled to priority seating.
Still, once we were let in we got good seats. The show itself is
very high quality - a real treat. The genie was funny and his jokes
were topical, full of references to recent news and events. The
actress who played Jasmine was quite good but seemed a little old to be
convincing as a young princess. After the Genie, I thought Jafar
was the best as he seemed to relish his role as the delicious villain.
There was no Abu but Iago was played by a hand puppet and the actor who
gave him his voice sounded just like Gilbert Gottfried, who voiced the
role in the films. The scenery was made of huge dramatic set pieces and
drop down hangings with elaborate props.
After the show let out at 1:30 we grabbed a quick bite at Award Wieners.
I tried the Caesar Dog, which had a sausage in a bun, topped with chopped
Caesar Salad. It was surprisingly good. By this time we needed
to think about driving down to the Orange County Fairgrounds, as traffic
might be unpredictable. We went back to our room, left still more
pin purchases on the table, picked up coats, as it would be evening when
the Cirque would get out, picked up the car keys and headed down to the
Concierge Desk in the Great Hall. There I made reservations for
Sunday to take the Art of the Craft tour held daily at the hotel at 2pm.
There was more traffic than the night before and the traffic, even in
the car pool lane, slowed down at several points. At the fairgrounds
the weekend swap meet was still in full swing and we were directed completely
around the perimeter to Gate 5 where we entered and parked. The
familiar blue and yellow tent, le grand chapiteau, awaited us and promised
a wonderful spectacle within. Before long we were seated inside
and treated to a wonderful show which I will not detail here. During
the intermission we chatted with one of the ushers, who is actually a
stage manager intern with Cirque and he told us that two of the acts were
out of commission. In one case, one of a trio of aerial artists
had fallen 25 feet to the floor and severely injured herself and in another
case, the man in a male/female acrobatic duo had failed to catch his partner
and she fell and broke her hip and her face. A mighty dangerous
business this and Cirque insists on a minimum of nets and cables to enhance
the sense of danger, which makes the show more exciting for the audience.
At the conclusion of the show, it was night and we drove back to the
park via 55 & 5, with a detour trying to find the northbound freeway
onramp. Parked at the self-parking, crossed the street and dropped
off the La Nouba DVD and Cirque du Soleil t-shirt we had bought at Varekai
and then headed back to California Adventure. Saw Golden Dreams
and wandered around shopping, looking for pins and sleep shirts before
find a place for the Electrical Parade. The street was full of ODV
carts selling lighted toys, etc. and when the parade music started, they
paraded down the middle of the route as if they were the parade itself.
I thought this was a really sorry and distracting spectacle which detracted
from the excitement of waiting for the parade. I love watching this
parade, even if it is 27 years old, as it reminds me of the many evenings
I worked crowd control on it when I worked in Fantasyland years ago.
After the parade was over, we followed it to the San Francisco area
and then escaped the performance corridor"to head out of the park through
our private entrance. By now it was 9:30 so we headed to Storytellers
Cafe for a late dinner. At this time of night, there is no need
to have a reservation, since the families with young children have already
eaten. I ordered the Pacific Northwest Salmon and we cheated
and both ate the jalapeno cornbread muffins the waiter provided, which
were very good.
Back to the room, which where our beds were turned down and still more
chocolates were provided, which we again stowed away for the boys.
Day Four
Morning at Disneyland
Afternoon at California Adventure
Fly back to Seattle
Yesterday we had made reservations for breakfast at Storytellers Cafe
for 8:45 but I decided that was later than I wanted to eat if we were
to get into the park on time to avoid the crowds. So I cancelled
the reservation this morning and hoped we could walk in around 8.
I woke up early again and tried to read on the balcony but it was too
cool and breezy to be comfortable. I cracked the curtains and read
on the bed which had the added advantage of waking Elizabeth up and she,
seeing the light, thought it was later than it was. We packed up all our
gear and then headed down to breakfast where we ordered the Spanish omelets.
We explained to our waitress, Charlene, that we were on a low-carb diet
and she went to extraordinary lengths to ensure that we had the meal we
needed. I asked if the tomato sauce had sugar and she said yes,
but that she had seen pico de gallo in the employee cafeteria that morning
that we could use instead, and went to get us some. We asked for
cream again on the berries. She said they had half and half, but
we asked if they couldn't find cream. She made several trips to
the kitchen to find out if they had any, because they usually don't have
it. Lo and behold, when the berries were delivered, a little bowl
of heavy cream came along with it. We complimented her on the hotel
comment card and I sent in an e-mail at Disneyland.com to praise her hard
work and initiative. She even made sure there were no potatoes on
the side, but just some grilled vegetables. I gave her a 40% tip
for her trouble (admittedly not as big a deal on a breakfast check, as
it would be on dinner, but still.).
With that magical beginning to our day, we took the luggage down to
the Bell Services desk and had them check them for the day and headed
through Downtown Disney to the Park. We did Pirates again, tried
to go to the Haunted Mansion but it was 101 with no ETA for reopening,
so we headed over to ride Pooh again. By now the Mansion was open
but the park was getting crowded and the line was already long.
We toured the Disney Gallery and then headed back to Fantasyland to ride
Peter Pan and Toad again. On the way, we checked out Rancho de Zocalo,
closed on our last visit. It looks pretty good, but there were no
lo-carb options for us. They were prepping it for opening. A woman
was in the courtyard to change her toddler's diaper but for some reason,
instead of going to one of the interior tables, she was doing it right
in the doorway, which made it difficult to go in and look around. We
rode the Matterhorn, left track because the line was shorter, then Autopia.
In the line for Autopia there was a group of 3 12- or 13-year-old
boys teasing the girls and us. They weren't mean, though, just squirrelly.
We saw them later in the Hub talking to a woman in a wheelchair, who I
assume was one of the boys' grandmothers. I got the impression that
they were annual passholders and that this was a frequent outing for them.
It was time for lunch, so we decided we'd
have burgers again and went to Stage Door Cafe where we ordered 2 burgers
and Diet Cokes, without fries. Here, if you don't order fries, they
don't give them to you. However, they have no plates, so I asked
for fry boxes in lieu thereof, so we could eat our burgers with a knife
and fork. We're not allowed to do that," the hostess replied, but
relented. We ate outside next to the railing along the main walkway
- a very pleasant location. After that we rode the train once around
and then, after debarking, stopped in Adventureland so Elizabeth
could buy a necklace she'd seen on Friday.
We were now done at Disneyland so we left and went to the hotel, walking
at a pretty good clip to be on time for our Arts of the Craft tour at
the hotel. The tour is an hour long visit describing the essentials
of the arts and crafts movement and showing the elements of the hotel
and how it was designed. There are many touches and elements honoring
various portions of the movement and tributes to some of the major artists.
The tour is free and well worth an hour, although children might be bored.
The hotel is designed around the 3 metaphors of bungalow, forest and garden.
The great hall for example, is like a giant living room, where the enormous
fireplace represents an oversize fireplace you might find in an arts &
crafts bungalow. Even lamps outside are oversized because this hotel
is the largest Arts & Crafts structure ever built and they need to
be in scale to match the giant bungalow.
After the tour we walked through the private
entrance back into California Adventure, hit It's Tough to be A Bug, Muppet
Vision and I took one last swing on Grizzly River Run. We were getting
tired so we spent more time sitting and watching, listening to some of
the live entertainment and doing some last minute window shopping.
Around 6 we headed back through the private entrance to the hotel on
last time, picked up our luggage and headed off to the airport for an
uneventful, and fortunately, not full, flight home.
Summary
This was just a quick trip but since we are quite familiar with Disneyland,
it was enough. The highlight, in deed the whole purpose, of the trip
was our attendance at Varekai, which was sensational. On Bravo they've
got a 13 part series they're broadcasting right now, called, Cirque du
Soleil: The Fire Within"which details the development of the show - very
interesting. It was nice to be just the two of us for a few days and
we very much enjoyed Alaska Air's service to Orange County. I'm not
sure when we'll be back down, but I suppose we should make an effort to
come next year for the 50th
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