Sir D's Summer DAYtastic Trip Report Featuring Food, Friends, and FUN!

[Sir Didymus]

Howdy, Micechat!

I just flew in a few hours ago from my mini-vacation in Lake Havasu and boy, are my arms tired.............
But really folks, I got back earlier today covered in sunburn, carrying four bags of luggage, and smelling of lake water. I had a really great time and I can't wait to go back to the river again, but that's not why you're here, is it? You're here because on friday, before I left for the desert, I took a mini-mini-vacation out to the Disneyland Resort for the debut of all the super-cool summer stuff the good folks at TDA cooked up for us. I had originally planned on cranking out this trip report while I was at the river, but due to a faulty internet connection in my hotel room, you all get to read a 5-day-old trip report!
Enjoy!


By the way, after trying to put this thing together in my hotel, I realized that i didn't take a single picture of myself all day long. So to help compensate, I rushed to the bathroom and took a massive amount of self-portraits with varying emotions in the hopes of maybe helping to illustrate a story or two.

Example: Me trying to decide whether I want to splurge for the buffet, or suffer the consequences of eating at the sketchy-looking taco stand.


So try not to be confused when I suddenly teleport from Paradise Pier to behind a bathroom mirror, just go along with it and have fun!


So, as most of you know, this particular friday was somewhat special. The new marketing scheme dubbed "Summer Nightastic" was officially launched that day......and gosh darn-it, I wanted to be there! Now since this was a special day for the resort, I knew it was gonna be a madhouse if I waited too long to get going. So my day started bright and early at 7:00 AM with my iPod alarm set to wake me up to this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W69WTnqa6gQ

Waking up to this song is one of the greatest feelings in the world because I know that it means I'll be at Disneyland soon!

After a few morning rituals, I'm all ready to go. I always have just one stop to make after I leave the house.........the breakfast of champions, a Jack in the Box breakfast burrito.


I made it through the morning rush hour in one piece and had a stroke of luck when I finally got to the resort. I just happened to be driving down Disney way at the exact time the Pumbaa lot was opening for business. I got the absolute, very first spot available in that lot....I felt so special!
The view from Pumbaa wasn't much different than it was back home.


It seems June-gloom can attack even the happiest place on earth. Oh well, I wasn't gonna let some crappy weather ruin my day!
The view down the enjoyable walkway towards the resort:




Yay! I'm here!


After arriving in the esplanade, there were a couple new things to take notice of. Namely, these:




The Honda exhibit looked pretty interesting, so I headed in for a closer look:


The rules of the game:






Since I was in a lucky mood already, I decided to enter. But alas, I never got called back Well, it was time to be on my way, so one last look around the esplanade shows the crowds at around 10:00 AM




Hmm, y'know what? Disneyland doesn't look like it's gonna be too bad today.....



CRAP


Oh well, I knew what I was getting myself into from the start so i decided to make the best of it. I didn't have to wait very long for my personal coach to arrive to whisk me above all the madness.










One final look down Main Street.


The Astro Orbitor(Orbiter?) was most definitely open today and I finally got a chance to see the spiffy new paint job up close.




I've gotta say, it does look purdy!


After a bit of aimless wandering through Tomorrowland, and seeing that Space Mountain had a 55 minute wait after being open for just barely an hour, I decided that I needed to give Harold some love. The line was almost nonexistent so I hopped right in.




I felt like being brave so I brought my camera along for the ride.


Accidental flash


ROAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRR!!!!


There's nothing better than actually getting to race your bobsled against the other side, it's just so awesome!










Phew! That was fun!
After the ride, I felt like doing a bit more wandering. This time, through Fantasyland.
Obligatory teacups shot:




These flowers were just hangin' out right outside Peter Pan.


Ok, how long have movie quotes been playing outside the facade? I kept hearing the familiar voices of Wendy and the kids and it was driving me crazy! Only then did I see it was a speaker in the wall right next to the faux play-room above the exit. It was kind of neat after i thought about it, and it made me wonder if there were any other little scenes like that hidden around the other rides....something new to look for!

Aurora could use a bit of a cleaning.


A bit of magic pierces the cold, dark sky...


They had the little section of bridges in front of the castle blocked off for a wedding, supposedly.


But that didn't stop the flowers from looking so pretty.


I breezed on by Big Thunder since it's line went past the rock overhang.


I did a bit more walking around without a purpose and eventually stumbled upon this lost campsite.


With only a 25 minute queue, I could've waited...

But screw it!


Some pretty shots along the way:










Some sort of cruise through the jungle....




















Ok, break time! It's getting late....I'll finish the rest tomorrow.
There is still MUCH more to come........MUAHAHAHAHA
Goodnight!

[aaronpaulcustoms]

Awesome TR so far!

[Micoofy Duck]

Wow, loved the trip report! Especially loved the Matterhorn ride photos from inside the ride! Brought a smile to my face.

[Kritter]

yay!

great pictures!

[MonstersGoBoo!]

I love your CRAP face picture, Marcus. Hahahaha.

Buuuuut omg! Wake up already and give us the rest!

[hurricanefreak]

Awesome my camera broke on June 12 so I could not do a pic report but Luckily Im GETTING A NEW ONE YAY!! and again awesome

[lou_mom]

nice to wake up to this. Thanks for a great morning start with Disneyland. It's better than coffee, or in my case Pepsi.

[WheresMickey]

Nice report so far!

[Sir Didymus]

Ok now, where did I leave off?
Let's see....I just had my butt saved by Indiana Jones, and all that fire and asplosions got me pretty thirsty. The perfect remedy, of course, would be a tasty mint julep! So I was on my merry way through New Orleans Square in search of that delectable drink.

As I was snaking in and out of the dark alleyways of NOS, I came across this poor soul perched atop a certain fortune-telling pirate.


He was cursed to be in a state of LOL for all eternity...

At first I was like


But then I was like


I seriously was cracking myself up for like the next 10 minutes

Doing some more snooping around, I saw the Court of Angels was looking rather summer-y.


These planters looked amazing.


The band was just setting up, so I stuck around and enjoyed a few songs.


More pretty flower beds in front of the train station.


For anyone trying to get a unique up-close view of the DLRR, head on over to the Haunted Mansion fastpass area. You are at eye-level with the huge engine, you can see/feel the flames of the boiler, and you might get a little cooled steam in your face! Here's an idea of what it looks like:


Ok, after all this time spent making my way to the mint julep bar, I finally get there to find out they haven't opened yet....


Not one to be deterred, I headed straight to Splash Mountain to cool off in a more "in your face" sort of way. After that, I was in desperate need of a bathroom. To Hungry Bear I went to take care of bid'ness. I then stuck around for a while and took in some of the waterfront atmosphere.

...And besides, what trip report would be complete without ducks?


This guy's been around the river a few times...


Just a bunch of old farts hanging out...probably whistling at the younger duckies.


The Columbia firing at invisible pirates.




Ok, seeing the canoes open got me thinking. What a freaking bizarre theme park attraction! It's probably one of the most "actually" dangerous experiences there are, and yet you also get a chance to sweat your butt off and work yourself to the point of exhaustion. It doesn't exactly scream "tourist friendly" but hey, it remains a popular draw when it is open and the views it offers can't be beat. Heck, you'll probably see me out there paddling for dear life some days.

Time to move along now, just one more shot of me playing with my zoom.


Heading back to the hub to meet up with MonstersGoBoo and her posse, these roses caught my eye.


Coming back through Adventureland, I was crowd-dodging through the stores when I saw this neat looking sign above all the glow-y nighttime stuff.


Being as I was still thirsty, I went through with my backup plan......100% pure unadulterated perfection:


I omm nomm'd the crap out of that baby while i finally met up with MGB and EliteGCunit and a few other MC'ers who's names I forget and a few non-MC'ers.

The vote went up and it was time for me to take my second trip through the temple of the forbidden eye today. Funny, you'd think I'd be a little more "doomed" by now...go figure.


For anyone that can't speak Maran, it says:

"Beware the eye of Mara
One look will lead
through the tunnel of torment
to the gates of doom"

....Oh God, I can read Maran *facepalm*


After the ride, we unanimously decided it was lunch time. Our food stop of choice is always Whitewater, so we began the trek across the esplanade.

I got all excited when I saw all the radio booths hyping up the big night.




Little did they, or anyone else know how much trouble would be run into that night

Lunch was great as usual, downed my chicken sangwich in like 2 minutes. Afterwards, we noticed it was getting close to 2:30 and we needed to see the the 3:30 Celebrate! because we knew we weren't gonna be able to watch the 6:30 one as well as see the Nightastic stuff. So we booked it back to DL to stake out our spot early.

We did have some spare time, so some of us did some shopping on Main Street while I suck around and played a little "Spot the Magical"






I did some more snapping around the Cinema.














We decided Main Street wasn't gonna work out, so we migrated again to the small world plaza.

On the way, I saw that something that has been missing for quite a while has finally returned:


OMG it's 5:00! We missed CASP!!!
Oh wait, it's just a picture...lame.


Random spooky-looking pink stained glass lantern.


Ok, we made it to our spot with plenty of time.


Hello Mr. Clockface!


The lovely retro-looking MGB is ready to get her CASP on!


So, we're all set to wait for the show when one of our group members and myself get the great idea to go on Autopia! Makes perfect sense, right? Well thanks to a couple awesome CM's, we were able to do just that.


My chariot awaits.






Whee!




Zoom!




I seriously love this ride to death




Bye Autopia!


Yup, still dreary and gloomy.


While on our way back, we stopped to chat with a Nemo CM. Then I noticed something totally awesome. Check out this planter at the entrance of Nemo, it's a coral reef!


How cool is that!



Well I guess this is gonna have to be a three part'er.
Still to come: Celebrate!, PPP, Kritter, more rides, and Electrical Parade!!!
See 'ya soon!

[ICe101]

Great pictures! The colors seem so vibrant!

[Kritter]

Yaaaaaaaaay!!!!!

It just makes me want to get up an daaaaaaaaance!

[NeverNeverland]

Very fun TR!

[Sir Didymus]

Ok, time for the final installment!

When I last left off, we were rushing back to our spot on the parade route so that we could get our groove on with the cast of CASP! As I recall, we just barely got back to the Small World plaza when "HEEEEYYYYYY, GET UUUUUUPPP, GET LOOUUUUUUDD" started to pump up the party.

Anyways, here's CASP!


Have I ever mentioned that I LOVE Clarice? She is pretty much the greatest character ever featured in the park. You know why I love her so much? Because she's so freaking random! I mean, she was featured in ONE cartoon in the 40's and I just don't understand how she's relevant to anything at all! This is why I love her!






Shake dat booty!


Uh oh, looks like Donald got caught looking at the dancin' girls.


I caught Red in mid-backflip.




Ok....sexy-pose!


Now.....air guitar!


Woah, watch where you're pointing that thing!


Haha, it looks like Purple just told Donald a dirty joke!


A little celebration can brighten even the gloomiest day!


Confetti people doing the knee-wobble.....it doesn't get much better than this!


Celebrate!


Thanks for having us, Mr. Clockface!


CASP always leaves me feeling super pumped.


But unfortunately it was time to say goodbye to everybody, because It was now time to go on the hunt for Kritter. I was supposed to meet up with him for the Play Parade.

I decided to skip the wave of confusion being left by CASP on Main Street at the moment and chose to take the DLRR out of Tomorrowland. While I was waiting, I spotted this little guy perched all alone on a guard rail.


Uh oh, he saw me!


My ride arrives


I zoomed through the Grand Canyon as fast as I could.


As I made my way back across the esplanade, I noticed this little detail on the "UP" display:


I nearly teared up right there!

Then I spotted a fine example of parenting skills *facepalm*


Ok, so now I'm staked out in our usual spot for the parade (in front of the Zephyer) and i get a call from Kritter saying that he's running late and probably not gonna make it. So after a brief run-in with some family that spotted me, I was on my way back towards Pacific Wharf to join back up with MGB's posse, which seemed to have doubled in size. So in the end, I was back in a group and waiting to play with some Pixar Pals.

Russel and Carl dropped by say hello.


If you still haven't seen this movie, go do it.......right now!


Ok, here's the real reason we wanted to see the Play Parade so bad today:


The triumphant return of out beloved stilt-walking chefs and their rodent buddies!




It's great to have 'em back!


After the bubbles stopped falling and the energy died down, Kritter finally showed up (with his special friend).


After a quick bout of deciding what to do in the down-time we had before the premiere of the Electrical Parade, we felt like getting bugged out.


If you sit in just the right spot, you'll find yourself getting Pwn'd in the face by the massive fog blasters.....it's fun, trust me!

Alright, we had some more deliberation on what to do next when we totally realized that we needed an adrenaline kick....off to Screamin'!

Because everyone loves POV shots...




I was just a smidge too early.






Brakes....BRAKES.....WHERE ARE THE BRAKES?!?!


Man, that was a good ride.

Ok, I honestly don't remember what happened for the next couple hours or so while it got dark, so I'm just gonna go ahead and skip to the end........ELECTRICAL PARADE!!1!OMGWTFBBQ!!!1!

This picture came out really blurry and weird, but it's a picture of the new Nightastic balloons. Seriously.....they're only light-up mickey balloons......BUT THEY'RE SO AWESOME!


The idea is so simple, and yet it's amazing! I want like, twenty!

Here's Tink in her very first public EP, and she looks GORGEOUS!








Honestly, the new music and effects were a good thing.


They really freshen up this ancient parade.


AWKWARD TURTLE!




The 'shrooms are lookin' good!


You can see a little bit of the pixie dust here.


Fashionable Turtle!


KISS ME HANDSOME!!1!




That stuff'll kill ya, y'know...


Cindy's still getting carried around in a giant vegetable.


The pixie dust in full swing.


I had a rather interesting conversation with these two.... it went something like this:

Me: "I LOVE YOU ANASTASIA!"
Drizella: "WHAT ABOUT ME?"
Me: "I LOVE YOU TOO, DRIZELLA!"
Anastasia: "NO FAIR, YOU LOVED ME FIRST!"
Me: "I LOVE YOU BOTH!"
Drizella: "WELL THAT'S NOT FAIR TO EITHER OF US!"
Me: "YES IT IS!"
Anastasia: "NO IT'S NOT!"
Me: "YES IT IS!"
both together: "WELL YOU'RE STUPID!"

I had our whole section cracking up

Bye Mr. Clockface Jr.!


Captain Hook's ship seemed to be spewing an awful lot of cannonballs......maybe he just didn't like us?


Smee being, well, Smee!


Well howdy, Snow!


The new mineshaft.






Ok, now everything started getting a little freaky. The music changed to an upbeat circus fanfare and there were big scary faces and dancing/fighting boys.


They all had ears coming out of their heads, but in the dark, they looked like growths or something. Then I noticed they were supposed to be jackasses. It was then that I realized I was enjoying a parade of *****







GHAAAA!!! It snuck up on me!


Pinocchio doing his.....chair-dance.


Ok, one thing I'm glad to see made it back, just for the sake of the lawyers not messing with everything, is the tobacco.


I think it's fine just the way it is.

Elliot is looking brighter than ever.


Nico and I made sure to wish both Pete and Elliot a "Razzle Dazzle Day"!

Let's get patriotic up in here!


The new firework effects really look amazing.


See?


It's so purdy




Man, this thing is really bright.


The brightness.....it's not stopping!


Dazzling.....Lights........EVERYWHERE!


GHAAAHHHH!!!! IT'S TOO BRIGHT!!!!


ASPLODE!

The End

[Meettherobinson]

your cute!

I may be looking for a new friend to attend with me in mid August; if available would you be interested in meeting me at the park?

[royaldisneyfan]

Very cool Jungle and Electrical Parade shots.