jenseib

You are thinking right!

You are correct! It really didn't seem that much less crowded to me either.

It was only slightly less busy, I don't think people cared. LOL

Out the back door was the DVC building and a model room for Aulani and we were going to tour that next. Since we had a big group, half went over first and as they came out the rest of us trickled over. I sure wish I had that view right now! Awwww! These rooms didn’t totally wow me, but I am sure I would have no complaints if I got to stay there either. As we came out of the model room……you guessed it, it was POURING!!!! Ugh. Really hard once again. Cass took a video of it too. I pulled out my rain poncho and put it on. There was no way I was walking through this crap without it. And I wanted to protect my camera as well. We ran when the rain slightly let up, but even with a poncho, I was still very wet and looked like a drowned rat…and I HATE wet shoes! We settled into the conference room in the Frontier Tower and the last meeting began. I was really hoping this would be a fun meeting, but I was dead wrong. It was really long and boring. I think the lack of sleep was now catching up to me and I was doing all I could to stay awake. They then had a drawing and were pulling business cards out of a bowl to win a few things. Cass goes…that looks like your card…and sure enough it was me. I never win anything. I won a 2 night stay at a Best Western in San Diego. The sad thing is ..it is only good for a year and I won’t be back in time, so I have offered this to Stacy so her and Mark can have a weekend getaway sometime. We were then given our certificates for attending the conference. I was disappointed as traditionally Mickey gives those out. Finally we had a break and I stood up and stretched. I went outside and was talking to the one guy and then we came back in and I was going to use the restroom, but they flagged us in the conference room and told us to hurry back for the surprise. OK, it HAS to be Mickey! And it was. Woohoo!!! Many people were leaving today and in fact some had left already to catch the Disneyland Express while the meeting was still going on….this made me really happy that we chose to stay an extra night….and then one came back and told everyone who had flights in the next few hours that they better go wait for the shuttle as it was an hour behind already. OMG! This should NEVER happen. I don’t know if anyone missed their flights or not, but this would’ve put me in a panic! Some still had time though and we let those who needed to hurry to go and get their pictures with Mickey first. Cass and I waited till the line died down a bit and then got our pictures taken. After we all visited Mickey it was time for him to go. We finally wrapped up everything and were allowed to leave. The majority of the people at the conference were flying home today. Cass and I were so happy that we had decided to stay one more night. We walked back to the GC and got changed and headed off to Disneyland. I decided to just take my point and shoot so I wouldn’t get my nice camera ruined in the rain today. Yep, it was still raining off and on and I had my poncho on, which wasn’t perfect, but did help. This is definitely duck weather.

Friday, Feb. 28, 2014 This was our last full day. We were going to have breakfast together this morning as a group at Goofy’s kitchen and then some meetings and an official graduation. This was going to be held at the DLH today. One thing I did not tell you was that we had been watching the weather forecast all week long. Sunny California had actual rain predicted for today. Now Cass loves rain, and was hoping it would. She also hoped it would make the parks less busy. I prefer it to not rain on the other hand. I just hate being wet, and I really hate wet shoes. Knowing that rain was in the forecast, I did bring a WDW rain poncho along with me though. We woke up bright and early and it looked like rain. I went outside and it was doing the on and off rain at that point in time. I called Skip and he wondered if I would be stuck in CA as they were expecting more snow at home on Sat. as well. I would not have been disappointed if I was stuck another day in CA, but the thing was, I had a connecting flight in Nashville and that is most likely where I would end up getting stuck if it came down to it. Stacy also texted me and told me that if my flight was canceled due to the rain storms, I could stay with them till I could get home. I must say, I really liked this idea. I did ask her if flights would cancel because of rain and she said in CA they sometimes due as they can’t handle the rain and it floods. Ok, here’s hoping! Cass and I both did a little extra primping today since it was our last day and in the hopes of getting our picture taken with Mickey later on. Cass said there was no way she was walking to DLH in a dress and strappy shoes in this rain, so we were getting a taxi, which sounded fine by me as well! Once we were ready we headed down to the lobby to catch a cab and we saw another girl who was at our conference and we told her to join us and she did. The 3 of us got in a cab (van I believe) and stated where we wanted to go and laughed. It was probably the shortest drive this guy has ever made, but oh well, we didn’t want to get soaked. Within a few minutes we were at the Disneyland Hotel. We gathered around Goofy’s and waited for everyone. Pluto was out taking pictures. He wasn’t there very long and then Baloo took his place. Before we were seated we decided we would take a group picture. I don’t know what happened for sure, but people went up and then I think some girls wanted their own because they had bought photopass. It ended up that only 4 of us were in our picture. I blurred out their faces though. And then we headed to our seats. The had a few tables for us by the windows, but they had it set up poorly and wanted so many of us to sit at one table and there was just no way. Some people grabbed another table and there was a little bit of fussing, but finally they let them sit there. This place is a buffet, you have to be able to get in and out and it was really stupid on their part to stuff us at just a few tables. Characters came around pretty fast! Evidently Cass must’ve said something pretty darn funny. I made a trip up to the buffet and got a few things. My buddy Pluto was next. Again!!! Cass must be cracking jokes or something. And while Cass was at the buffet, Chip came around and another girl was nice enough to take my picture. She obviously wasn’t cracking jokes! I made a couple of trips up to the buffet. At one point it just started pouring rain outside. UGH. The really hard stuff too! We never had all the characters come back to our room, though I have heard this is typical at Goofy’s. I know the Mad Hatter and Goofy himself were in other areas, but we never did see them in our area. We left and luckily it wasn’t raining much as we went outside to the next building we were heading to, The Frontier Tower I believe! I didn’t know it before, but there is a conference room in this tower as well. But that wasn’t where we were going first.

As the ride ended, we were stopped right before the unloading area and I snapped this picture. She then looked at me and something along the lines of “I forgot to smile”. And I laughed, I wasn’t sure if it was coincidence or if it was really interacting with us. She then started making comments about other people in the car, so definitely interactive, which was pretty cool. Back into the night we went, and I took more pictures as we walked. One thing that was weird, was it got dark early. Now in Feb, yes it does get dark early, but it really seemed weird to me that it got dark early in such nice weather. Most of the time when we go to Florida, it’s right around the time change…and I guess a few weeks makes a difference too. Off we headed to Carsland once again. We decided to check out the single rider line for Radiator springs as we wanted to ride it in the dark. It was longer than we had hoped it would be, but we decided we would chance it. We seemed to be at a standstill for quite some time and now our ADR time was fast approaching. We decided to see if we could change it, well I tried on my phone and it was taking forever to work and it wouldn’t let me move it that way. I tried googling the direct number, but couldn’t find that. I think I called dining as well, and they couldn’t help me either. We just decided that we would show up late and hope for the best. We inched our way along. We finally got into a line up for our cars. There goes Cass! Now I should’ve been in the car in front of her, but for some reason they didn’t let anyone in that car, so I guess there must’ve been something wrong with it, but I did get in the next set. And off I go! At one point you go in one direction or the other on the ride. I had always gone into the paint room and thought that was what was in the other room too. This was the only time I went the other direction and lo and behold…it was different. It was a tire changing room. I was excited to see it…and didn’t take any pictures. LOL I got off the ride and did a super-fast walk out the exit. I didn’t even stop to look at my photo. Cass was waiting for me and wondered where I have been since she thought I was in the car in front of her. I told her for some reason we weren’t allowed on it so I had to wait. And then we did the fast walk. A SUPER Fast Walk. It was our ADR time now, so we were officially late. We walked so fast that our legs were killing us. At times Cass was in the lead and then I would take over the lead for a bit, but neither of us were ever too far behind the other. I have no idea when, but at some point I took this picture. It was like we were in a race and our life depended on fast walking. I was surprised but instead of my thighs burning, my calves were. I put every drop of energy I had in that walk! As we approached DLH I started to slow down, I just couldn’t go as fast anymore. Cass passed me and asked if she should slow down…..and I was like “NO…go on…..get there….I’ll make it….win it for me!!! “ LOL! She arrived before me, but I wasn’t too far behind and we checked in and had no issues. I think we were about 15-20 minutes late? I don’t remember now for sure, but they didn’t seem to care, which was good. And it wasn’t long at all and we were seated. It seems like there was a special menu we could order off of too this night, though I could be wrong. I am pretty sure there was though and we got a prix fixe meal. We started out with bread! Cass had ordered soup and we just busted out laughing when we saw how big the bowl was. So we took a goofy picture. I got the Shrimp Cocktail. And we both got the steak, but I can’t remember which kind it was???? Perhaps Filet Mignon. The potato casserole with it was heavenly!!!! We both wished the helping was bigger. I believe we had a couple of dessert choices and I was just so full that I really didn’t want one, but it came with the meal so I ordered the same that Cass had, which I think was described as a mousse cake. I am not a big fan of chocolate cake normally, but I usually like Disney’s and I figured if it had some sort of mousse filling with it, it would be ok to nibble on. This is what we got. It was basically a chocolate shell filled with mousse. This made me happy and yes I ate the whole darn thing, however, this is not what Cass thought it would be (nor I for that matter) and she wasn’t too thrilled with it. This meal was darn good! I am so glad we went here. It was expensive, but with the prix fixe meal we got, it wasn’t too bad for what we got…..and we had vouchers, so those covered our meals. We rolled ourselves out and wobbled back towards the GC once again. Of course I took pictures along the way. The long way to our room I believe we did go to DTD for a little bit and shopped at World of Disney. I know at some point Cass bought the same sweatshirt that I had bought, but not sure if this was the night or not. We did finally go to sleep, but of course we laughed and talked first. It was like one big slumber party this week, but we did eventually go to sleep.

Wow!!! I had no idea! how cool is that!

Continuing my walk through Bugs! Love the “lightening” bugs. Do you really want to use a restroom in an area infested with bugs???? Doesn’t a giant band aid just give you the heevy jeevies? On to our next destination. Monsters U! I took a few pictures of the Tea Party area. And then we headed to Monsters Inc. …. Ok, I thought this was just like the Laugh Floor at WDW and was surprised when Cass told me it was a ride! How have I not heard of this before? I guess I probably have and it just didn’t stick in my brain. The indoor queue here was really themed well. I have a confession to make! I have never seen all of Mosters Inc. I have seen Monsters U though. I have seen Monster’s Inc. on TV, but just never sat through the whole thing….really only watching bits and pieces of it…..but I do have a good idea of what it is about, but I guess I better actually watch the whole thing someday. While in line, Cass filled me in on some of the story, and with the small bit of knowledge I have from watching pieces, I could understand a bit more of it now. The line moved quickly and it didn’t take too long before we were ready to load in our car. I took several pictures while on the ride, but many turned out super blurry. Here are the ones that were somewhat decent.

California Screamin was down and they told us our FP would be good if it started running again tonight, but the way they said it made it sound like it may be down for the night. We never did go back and check. We had a second FP and for the life of me, I can’t remember what it was for or if we even used it….maybe I’ll remember later…. We kept moving on. Me~ Hey! I bet this is where Toy Story Characters meet. Cass~ Yes and you took a picture of Buzz there the other day! Oh yeah!!!!! Snack time! I got the jalapeno and cheese filled pretzel and it was VERY good. I actually thought it would be spicier than it was, so I was pleasantly surprised and it filled me us just nicely. I think Cass ran off to find a corn dog. We were now working our way back towards Carsland, as I think we were getting close to the lighting ceremony time. But wait…a parade is coming through! I took a few pictures as we walked. If you haven’t guessed…..this is a Pixar parade. We actually did stop for a little bit and watch it go by and so it would be easier for me to take a few pictures. I think I would get dizzy swinging around on that bar after a while. We then cut through near Flo’s. This is part of the outdoor eating area…isn’t it so cute? So we’re walking and talking…we still have a few minutes yet. We decide to walk back a little further to get better pictures of the whole thing and all of a sudden I see Flo’s lights turn on. I quickly turn around and sure enough, Radiator Springs just lit up as well. No music, no announcement…..no fanfare whats so ever. What a bummer. We then cut through a Bug’s Land. I took some really quick pictures on the go. Sadly I didn’t get back here again and do not have too many pictures of this area at all. I like this picture of ToT rising out of Bug’s Land.

LOL, I guess you don't like what we eat? Thats OK, I probably don't like stuff in other countries too. It's all how we grow up. I need to get busy on this as I have another TR to write from March and 2 more small trips this year yet as well.

Most of the areas he took us around to were outside areas. It really is a beautiful hotel. We finally did see a room and WOW….these are huge. I want to say that most of the rooms here are not this big, but these were the only ones we were shown, but I might be wrong. Of course I have to check out the bathroom. We then headed back to the lobby area to wait for the rest of the groups. There was a quick service type food place and a gift shop area as well. And then we were done! We all loaded back onto the bus and headed back to the GC and we got instructions for the next morning and were let free to do as we wished after that. Cass and I went back to the room and freshened up and I think she called home…I probably did too. I know at one point she was talking to her daughter via skype and I walked by and I put my fat head in front of the screen and said hi and waved and she was so darn cute and waved back to me all excitedly….just like we have known each other for years. It was so cute. I think we also then made a dining reservation for tonight. Did not want to chance it this time! We selected Steakhouse 55 and I think we made it for around 8:30, but I could be off on time…it might have been 8. Tonight we were heading off to California Adventure as they gave us a couple of FP’s for there, and of course, they were to be used in the 5-6 PM hours. We headed towards Carsland because Cass had heard they have a lighting ceremony each night and we wanted to find out what time it was. We found a CM and asked and he looked on his schedule and we were given a time. We also ran into this party going on. We had a FP for California Screamin, so I believe we headed that way next. But first we decided to watch the racers a bit.

That sounds like a good deal!!! I think if I went more often (you know more than just once in my lifetime so far. LOL), I would be more open to staying further away, but I am still getting my feet wet there.

thats funny because as an adult...I still am attracted to things that look like castles too.

I think by now, many of us were getting tired and acting a little silly while we waited. Once everyone was on the right floor, we headed off to see some rooms. I was obsessed with these pictures over the bed. I just thought they were so pretty….and then I had a thought….I took similar pictures to these on my day at Venice Beach, so I decided I would see what I had and possibly make some for my home. And a few weeks ago I did just that. This first one is blurry, but you get the idea…(that picture above them is the bridge at Pop Century ..now leading to AoA…that I took several years ago.) And while I am on the topic of pictures, I also had this one made into canvas print as well. Back to more room pictures. This room had the pictures too, but just put up differently. I believe this is another hallway picture….probably while I was waiting for another elevator. As our tour was coming to an end we went by the arcade. And took a peek at the 2 work out rooms. And the arcade area once again…out that window you could see the pool. Some of us wanted to see the pool; we could either go down the stairs or take an elevator down. By this time most of us were feeling done for the day. But we still had one more place to go. I think when they make the schedule for these things they estimate how long people can handle it and then add an hour. LOL! So the next stop is the Sheraton Anaheim. I have it circled on the map, up towards the top. As you can see, this one is fairly close, but still borderline walkable. We had a few minutes to wait so we explored the area and used the restrooms. They also had drinks and snacks waiting for us as well. I just never took a picture… We started our tour and I believe our guide was the manager. This guy was telling us all about the hotel and it was very nice, but there were some drawbacks for me, and Cass agreed too. They charge for wifi….and not just a flat rate, it’s per device…and I think it was like $9 or 10 per device per day. That just seemed outrageous to me and it would be a reason for me not to stay. They also had a parking fee, but most off site hotels in this are do, so that wasn’t a shocker.

We then made our way to tour some rooms. We toured a lot of rooms here and most were pretty much the same. This one had a small closet sized area that had a small bed with a TV for kids. It was really kind of weird to me, but the lady sang its praises. The room number signs were cute. I believe this was a suite. This seemed to take forever here. It was a nice place, but just too far away for my tastes and I didn’t like how pushy the makeup lady was. The cookies were a highlight though! On again we went to the next stop, The Marriott Suites! Here it is on the map….way at the bottom. We all piled into the lobby. It was huge! This place really is nice, but again, not very close. This was in the lobby and really pretty. We had arrived at the Marriot VERY early and they were not ready for us at all. We did a lot of waiting around and I walked around and took pictures. Fruity water must be the big thing in this area. I am not sure if you can tell by the picture, but this had water running down the sides and the lights changed on it. The restaurant. I am not a patient person and I was getting antsy. We really did wait quite a while before they were ready for us, but eventually they did and they gave us each a little Marriott bag. I think it might have had a pad of paper in it too, but really it was too small of a bag to use at the grocery store. (It was like the ones you use to bag your own stuff, but a much smaller version) We headed up and again, we were in smaller groups, but not everyone can fit in one elevator, so I waited at the top. Nice view.

I noticed a few walked out to the pool area, so I did too. Back into the lobby to wait. I love this picture and I am actually thinking of making it bigger to put on my wall at my house. On to the room tours. After we toured a few rooms we headed back to the lobby to wait for the rest. I was talking and one of the head guys of the Courtyard asked me if I was from Michigan. I said, no, Ohio, and he said he was from Ohio too and he recognized my “accent”. I laughed, as I am told this often. I told him I never really think I have one, and one of the girls in our group said she had noticed I had a l’il bit of one too. Of course, I think she was from Texas, so I noticed hers as well. LOL. As we waited, I took a few more lobby pictures. Back on the bus we went to our next destination, The Hampton Inn and Suites. Again, I circled where this is located and it is further away. I personally would not want to stay this far from the parks. We all gathered around in the lobby. We had been making good time and were a bit early, but they soon got tour guides ready for us. We had some head lady as our guide. Let’s just say she needed some make up tips. I looked at her and I swear it was the scariest thing I ever saw. Way too much eye liner and lip liner. I thought it was just me, but Cass said the same thing and she said she saw others looking at her strangely too. Our first stop, the workout room. Business center. The patio. With pool behind it. I think we had to go down this hallway to get to the pool. The pool. This room is off the lobby, but closed off during the day. They have breakfast here. And cookies were brought out for us. YUM!

Moving along in our tour. I believe this area was being prepped for a party. I love these trees….remember, its February here!!! Some rooms had a little patio. It must’ve been a cooler day as I noticed I am wearing a sweatshirt. That’s our guide in black with her hair up. I thought she just radiated “classy”. She seemed like one of those people who would be in jeans and a t-shirt and still make it look good. Another pool! A few last pictures. As we came to an end of our tour we were each offered a tangerine drink, so I grabbed one. It was decent, but seemed to have an aftertaste to me. Cass then says to me “I thought you didn’t like tea?” and I told her I don’t. And she says “Well that’s tea you’re drinking”. UGH, it instantly tasted yucky after that. LOL. It was OK, but once she told me it was tea, I knew the funny off taste I tasted was the tea part of it and I couldn’t finish it. We had to wait a few minutes for the rest of the group to be done before we headed off to the next destination. In case you were wondering where the Annabella is located in terms of distance to the parks, I have circled it on this map. Once everyone was done with the tour we loaded back on the bus and headed to the Courtyard. In case you want to know where the courtyard is, I have circled it on this map. As you can see, this really is not that close in terms of walking to the parks. For me personally, I would not want to stay this far away. Construction was going on next door. I believe it was here, that while walking in, Cass whispered to me “So and so looks like she is wearing a diaper”. OK, how do you not totally crack up laughing at that? So I take a peek really quickly and reply “L’il bit”. Cass just totally cracked up at my reply. Of course through the rest of the trip she would say “l’il bit” whenever she had the chance. I guess I never realized it, but I say l’il bit quite a bit. HAH! The Lobby was very nice. As you may remember, I stayed at a Courtyard the night before my flight out to California and the lobby was very similar to this, though I never took pictures. Courtyards have been remodeling their hotels to this new look. Again, we had some waiting around before we got started, so I took pictures.

It has been such a running joke now with my co-workers. The funny thing is one girl is really obsessed with it and wants a list of places. She's one of those people who REALLY likes free stuff...I mean we all do, but she will walk a mile out of her way for free stuff! They had tiny jelly jars too but I never snagged any of those.

Thursday, Feb. 27, 2014 As I started every other day, I was up early. Today was another full conference day though, so I was soon getting myself ready for another day and heading over to the conference area. Oddly though, our conference was scheduled at the Paradise Pier today. Our guess is that the conference was thrown together so last minute that they couldn’t get space in the GC for every day, but honestly, who knows for sure. We walked over and once again they had a breakfast buffet out for us. The food was similar to what we had the day before with a few variations. It was all very good. I was very impressed with it. Usually buffet eggs can be iffy, but they seemed to know the trick and they were moist, yet not runny. I don’t think they had the cute little bottles of ketchup here today…but never fear. At one point in our trip, Cass and I were walking down the hall of the GC and we saw a room service cart sitting out in the hall waiting to be taken away. They had little bottles of ketchup, Mayo and Dijon mustard left on it that they had not opened or used. Cass told me I should take them, and who am I to argue. LOL. We kept laughing about it and she shared with me that her first little bottles she had taken were off a room service cart too! After we filled our bellies, it was time to get started once again. Another productive meeting and then we took a break. I guess I stepped outside during the break because I have this picture. I had to make a potty stop too and the one downstairs was full, so I ran to the one upstairs and this guy was working and I thought it looked funny. Now, before my trip, I was talking about it to one of my friends and she told me that she found out, quite by accident, that DL resorts have free tampons in the machines in the bathrooms. We had laughed over this, because Disney charges and arm and a leg for everything, but this little item is free. Of course I checked this out and found this to be true. I grabbed a couple and the night before I whipped one out of my bag and said to Cass “Guess what? Free Tampons” (You don’t know how badly I wanted to use that as my TR title. LOL) Cass died laughing and told me a story how another friend had done almost the exact same thing to her on another trip. Yes, it doesn’t take much to amuse us, and we had a lot of fun with this. So of course, I had to take a picture. I then posted this to my company’s social facebook page. (We are all girls, with the exception of one guy who is good spirited) This became such a funny joke. Questions were asked and we just kept laughing over the topic. It has since been a running joke at our company and when each of us travel, we now look for free tampons and post when we find it. Just a tip, I knew from a previous trip, that the Disney Magic also has free tampons, when my friend Lisa and I just played with the machine and they came pouring out. LOL…and I did investigate in March and it is still true. You will see that I find a few others on my March trip when I post that TR. Ok, enough of the silliness!!! I headed back downstairs and took a couple of pictures on my way. Next up for the morning was a vendor fair. The nice thing about vendor fairs…..free stuff! Cass and I went to all the booths and everyone gave out something. Some were better than others….we liked the ones that gave candy out the best. And of course those were little treats to take home to our girls. Some gave out bags, magnets, pads of paper, pens and a few other odd things. We loaded up a bag each. We wondered if we put on glasses if we could go back to the candy ones and get more. LOL. After we were finished with the vendor fair we headed yet to another conference room where lunch was being served. And I did not take a single picture. This lunch was very good. They had this big pan of steaks. You know when steaks are in bulk like that, they usually are not very good, but I took one anyways, along with many other yummy options. Wow, was I ever wrong. This steak was fabulous! Very thick and tender, and cooked the way I like it. Cass and I tend to be loners more. We did mingle with the others at the conference, but when it came to sitting down to eat, we preferred to be at our own table, or with just a few people. We found a corner table and sat down. After a bit, 2 of the vendors sat down with us and they were so nice and friendly and we had a good time with them. They found out that Cass had never had avocado before and were just amazed. I think they thought because she lived in Canada that she just didn’t have access to it, but it really was because she never just had an urge to try them. It was also funny, because one of the girls asked what our profession was. She said she was just told to do a vendor fair that morning and had no clue who she was selling to. LOL. We also had some big wig guy sit with us and I believe Rita sat with us once again too. We did talk a little bit of business, but we enjoyed talking to the other girls more. Lunch eventually ended and it was time to move on once again. Today we would be doing more touring, but this time we were heading offsite. We had a bus to take us around today, so we all loaded up and set off. I swear we only went just around the corner and we already had reached our destination, The Annabella Hotel. We were dropped off at the corner and walked the rest of the way. We had to wait a few minutes once we entered, so I took a few pictures. I spotted the pool out the window. It looked so pretty. We broke up into 3 or 4 small groups and soon were heading off with a tour guide. And we made our way right to the pool. They also had a small workout room. We also toured a few rooms. Housekeeping!

yeah, I wasn't all that impressed either. I guess it didn't look Disney enough for me. After knowing what the kids clubs look like on the Disney ships, this was a huge disappointment. Now I know they don't get that many kids, but it was still not that impressive. Claire can take a shower/bath on her own....but when she takes baths she'll never turn off the water because she wants to swim in the tub. And she can wash, but she just hates to shampoo and rinse. And honestly when she does do it, it's not very good. So I usually put the shampoo and conditioner in and tell her to scrub it some more...and then I hand her the nozzle to rinse and then I come back and do a final rinse to be sure it's all out. She would probably like to be hosed down outside though. At least in the summer.

We made our way down towards the kids club and no one answered the door and I gave a silent cheer, but then someone opened it up for us. Now I was interested in seeing it, but I was just done for the day. I did however, take a few pictures while in there, but being so tired, most of them came out blurry. I was really surprised how small it was in here. I expected it to be much bigger. Finally we were done and allowed to go. We raced back to the room and changed and got ready for some park time. At some point during the day I had talked to Skip and I had also talked to Claire. It was so funny…because both conversations talked about the bath! Skip says in a disgusted voice “I had to give Claire a bath last night”. I said, good, she needed it and I am sure it wasn’t too hard. But of course he acted like it was the biggest task he had to tackle all day long. When I talked to Claire she said in an even more disgusted voice “Dad HAD to give me a bath last night”. Again I said, well good at least you are clean and I am sure it was fine. She went on to tell me he had no clue what he was doing. LOL. Of course later when I got home the tune changed and I heard how dad did everything right, from washing her hair much more gently than I do to making her fabulous breakfasts every day. Oh well, no skin off my back. LOL Disneyland….here we come!!!! First on our list was to use the Fastpasses before they expired. I also decided to go with just the point and shoot camera tonight so I would feel less weighted down. Our first stop was Indiana Jones. The FP for this is really only good if there is a line outside. The FP entrance just has you merge into the inside line and you still have a wait in there. And tonight there wasn’t much of a wait outside if I remember right, so we really gained next to nothing using them. The ride was great once again though. After that fun ride, we made our way over to use our next FP. I think on the way we picked up a FP for Roger Rabbit. We wondered what this area was. It was themed to Small World in structure, but kind of looked like it was an abandoned area now. We did see meet and greets there later in the trip, but my guess is it was used for something else in the past. We were now heading for Space Mountain! We got in line and it didn’t take too long to get us through. WoW!!!!! This ride is soooooo much better than the WDW version. This is smooth too. I could ride it over and over. Well except the one part where it makes me a bit motion sick with the strobe type lights. But this was just such an awesome ride. It makes me never even want to go on WDW version again because this is so much better. We then headed back over to Toontown to use our Roger Rabbit FP’s. I attempted pictures once again, and once again failed. I believe we headed over towards the Fantasyland area then to see if we could once again ride a few of the rides in the area. The Storybook Canal boats were closed for the night. I do believe we may have gotten on Alice in Wonderland. It appears I took no pictures of the ride the whole trip, but I do know we rode it once and I think it was at night. I do know I did not ride these however…no desire to either. LOL I did take a peek inside the BBB there while we were in the area. At some point I believe we rode Buzz. And we may have rode Star Tours this night as well, but if we did, again no pictures. During the day while we were touring Cass asked if I wanted to go to Steakhouse 55 tonight for dinner. Sure! I’m game on that and I asked if we should make a reservation. She said no, it doesn’t fill up too fast and we should be fine. Well it was now getting close to park closing time and we were getting hungry, so we decided to make our way over to Steakhouse 55 and see about eating. We decided to take the monorail over. We had quite a lengthy wait to get on. And the queue was right next to the Nemo submarines, which were closed for refurbishment, but we could peak through some of the canvas that was blocking our view and I took a few pictures. Finally we got on the monorail and it was full. We did cram in and took off. It was dark, so my views were not the best, but it was interesting to see the offsite hotels as we went by and Cass pointed out a few. I also talked a bit with the lady sitting next to me, who was a local. We arrived at DTD and I attempted a picture as we got off, but this is what I got. We walked over to Steakhouse 55 and asked if they had anything available. They said it would be like an hour before they could seat us. Honestly, it didn’t look that busy, but what do we know. We debated on waiting, but we were hungry and getting tired. We decided to just head back to White Water Snacks at the GC and find something there instead. As we headed out, we saw Goofy out at Goofy’s Kitchen and I snapped a quick picture. They asked if we wanted a picture….heck yeah, so I jumped in and got one. I had now fulfilled my duty. My friend Janet had told me I couldn’t come home without at least one character picture. I told her it might be hard because I wasn’t with Claire and we were not going to make a point to stop at characters for the most part. I believe I texted her this picture to prove I finally did get one. I guess we were not thinking, because Goofy’s was practically empty, but they were still open. We could’ve gone there and ate. I heard the next day that several people had walked up and got seated immediately. I guess with our Steakhouse 55 disappointment, we just were depressed and gave up. We walked over to the GC then. I have this picture and I assume it’s from our walk back, but not sure. I am thinking it’s from DTD somewhere, but I could be totally wrong. We went into White Water Snacks and tried to decide what to eat. I decided on the chicken nachos because Craig, our tour guide from the day had mentioned they had the best nachos ever. Cass decided she would get those too. We made our orders and sat down to wait. We had thought we would eat right there, but we noticed the other orders being brought out were in to-go bags. We also then noticed them locking the doors. I think it was only around 9 PM at this point. Wow, things close early at DLR. I also had bought a rice crispy for a snack later, but I think I ended up bringing it home for Claire. We chatted as we waited, but now both of us were pretty darn hungry. Finally our food arrived and we were let out and we cut through the pool area to get to our room. I was starving and forgot to take a picture. I just dug right in once we got to the room, so I never took a picture of them. Cass was a little more restrained and did get one, so I am stealing her picture to post. These things were soooooo awesome!!!! I still crave them here at home, and I know Cass does too. Did you notice they have guacamole on them? Remember how Cass said she never had avocado before earlier in the trip at Storytellers Café? Well I thought she just meant plain, but surely she has had guac before, right? Nope, this was a first for her too and she loved it. I was just amazed she had never tried it before now. We devoured our food, but the portion is huge and there is just no way we could eat it all. This would be a great thing to share with family members. I don’t think we hit the hot tubs tonight. I think we just chilled in the room, caught up on emails, and we turned the TV on, which was pointless as we kept talking over it anyways. Eventually we went to sleep and once again I knew I would be up in a L’il bit because my body was still on East Coast time…eh?

After we explored the pool area we headed back to the lobby to wait for the rest of the group. Well doesn’t he look familiar? Hello Pop Century Goofy. See???? Same guy! Well I had to get my picture with him, so Cass took it. Umm, wow! I look like a freaking bag lady. Note to self…..lose 50 pounds!!! I took a picture of the mat, but it was upside down from the way I was walking, so I have flipped it over so we can all read it! And again, outside the resort you can see the backside of the parks….that still just seems so strange to me. Time to walk back to the Grand now. We would be touring a few things here as well. We were taken up to a suite. No need to check out the regular rooms since we were all staying in one already. A look at the bedroom through the window of the verandah. Nice view from the balcony!!!! As nice as it was touring all these places, we were all getting tired and ready to be done for the day. We headed back down and were supposed to end the tour now, but someone asked if we could look in the kids club. Craig said if someone was in there to let us in, we could, otherwise we wouldn’t be able to get in. I have to admit, I was hoping we couldn’t get in. I just wanted to change into comfy clothes and head to the parks at this point.

The Theme Park View rooms were just stunning!!! Hey!!! I can see our balcony! And there is the death trap! ( I swear I see a body flying through the air!) Again, the views from many of these rooms are just spectacular. I want a lamp like that. We then headed out to check out the pool area. We peeked through the fence/gate. We then found out we could actually go in, so we did. This slide closes at 5 as well. I guess if you can’t get a theme park room, these rooms wouldn’t be too bad!!! Now the pool here was nice, but compared to the other 2 resorts, it wasn’t that great. This one had more of a hotel feel rather than a resort pool.

And another stop on our tour. Again the lobby was decorated to the theme. There was something special that Craig wanted to show us in this building…the Concierge Lounge. Holy Cow!!!! I want to get a Concierge room now just for this perk! The view from here was spectacular!!!! Fireworks can be seen from here. You have views of BOTH parks!!! I zoomed in here because our room at the GC was right there on the 2nd floor. Not only do you see DL parks, but you see Anaheim as well and Craig pointed out a few things, which I no longer even remember. And a look at the lounge itself. Lots of goodies to snack on. Even the tables are magical!! We left and passed some of the special suites. Sadly I had my camera on a bad setting and couldn’t get very good pictures of the doors. I know some tours have been able to go in the rooms if they are not currently in use, we were not so lucky. We were done with DLH now and moving onto Paradise Pier. We entered and I think we had to wait for something before heading up, so I of course took a picture or 2. LOVE the carpet here!!!! Check out this view!!!!! Now I had heard from a few that this is the least desirable resort on property. I had low expectations and I was pleasantly surprised.

After everyone was done eating it was time to move on again. We were spending the afternoon touring the Disney Resorts. Rita told us to split back into the same groups we were in yesterday. Cass quickly turned her name badge over so no one could see her character and joined my group. LOL. We did notice a few other girls did the same things as well and one said that Rita had said that if some wanted to join a different group they could. Our leader this afternoon was Craig. Craig works for Disney and is in charge of the call center basically and he has several CM’s who handle the phones under him. He said basically if you call, there is a good chance you are talking to someone on his team. He was very knowledgeable about DLR as a whole and I was glad he was our leader today. Since we were at DLH, that is where we started our tour today. We toured several rooms and found out that not all the rooms are set up like what we had. Actually we really liked the layout we had better than most of the other rooms. This is obviously a suite. I believe that is the parking garage for the parks. I am going to admit now that we went in a lot of rooms and I didn’t take pictures in every one and I can’t tell you off hand by looking at the pictures which was which kind….but these are all from the suite I believe. And we moved on once again. Next stop! I had no clue that each of the lobbies were decorated differently in each building. This had the frontier theme going on. Super cute! Since our group was fairly large, we had to take 2 elevators each time we went up or down and I typically was on the first one. While I waited I took this view picture. On to a room…See I knew that couch could be made into a bed!!!! Back down we went and while we were waiting I was looking out the back door window. We were all trying to figure out what the sign said off in the distance, so I zoomed in with my camera and took a picture so we could read it. Disney Vacation Club!