Big Adventure - Day 14 & 15

So this was our travel day to DC but we managed to squeeze in one last trip into the park. You see we had been hunting down Donald Duck for a photo and autograph since arriving at Disney and boy had he been elusive ! Anyway we managed to run into him along with a few others and the autograph bok is full - 13 characters in total. What can we say, we LOVED Disney, it was exhausting but wonderful.

Then it was off to DC, heading back into LA to the airport..... flight to NY. (Note the vending machine - these are at the airports and Andre was impressed with the idea.... forget Apples as food heheh) We had booked into a hotel for the morning - arrived at 2am and so sleep for a few hours was on the menu before the drive to DC.

Drive to DC was pretty uneventful -- busy roads, what with the celebratory weekend ahead.

Arrived at the hotel in Arlington, VA late afternoon. Movie in the park across the road - we didn't attend, long day and the girls refised to do any exploring :(

NOTE

Disney photos will follow - there are just SO many and we are having SO much fun - no time to sit trying to load photos ;)
We're still puzzled how people find the time to go to the movies as Disney ..... there is just too much to see and do - park opens at 8am and closes at midnight.

Big Adventure - Day 13

Highlight of the day - more character huntong and I finally got my ears. Lowlight - waiting in line for more than an hour (in the heat of the day) for the Grizzly River Run only to be told it had broken down and wouldn't be running anymore.
Regular morning in the park - entered at 9ish and headed straight to ToonTown to try and hunt down Donald again.... no luck :( We did see several other characters and could also finally get my ears. After this we headed over to the Princesses - we were lucky enough to have a personal visit with Tiana, Belle and Jasmine and then got to listen to Snow White telling her story. After this we stopped for some liquid refreshement - day was starting to warm up and then it was off to Pixie Hollow to meet Tinkerbell. She was popular and we waited in ine for what felt like ages (only 45mins in total). Pictures Pictures Pictures.... then a stop for lunch on the river ... some more pictures, a little exploring including our Kayak experience (sorry no pictures here - had to concentrate on paddling and not tipping the kayak). Girls enjoyed the Silly Symphony Swings ride - nice breeze helped to cool them down. Then we headed over to the River Run - our first one had cooled us off so well we thought this would be perfect but after standing in line for more than an hour ..... only to be told it had broken down and would not be running for the rest of the day ..... grrrr we headed back to the hotel room to cool off.
A little packing forst and we headed down to the Neverland pool for a bit before dinner. We ate at Goofy's Kitchen which was wonderful - good food, good fun ! Squeezed in a few more character photos and autographs. Meal was expensive but when you look at the package ..... worth it :)
Good end to a great visit, off to bed, up early to try and fit in a few more photos.... have yet to meet Donald !

Big Adventure - Day 12

EARLY start today, after getting back to the hotel a little after 11pm last night we headed out at 6:45am to take advantage of our Morning Madness entry. We managed to get an early start on The Mattahorn and the Finding Nemo Submarine as well as Autopia. Then it was over the road from Disneyland to California to get in line to book our place for the 9pm show - World of Color. From there we went to Soarin' California which was brilliant, some character photos and then off to Grizzly Peak. We enjoyed the Brother Bear park as well as the Grizzly River Run. The Paradise Pier Roller Coaster was a HUGE hit, a few other rides, some lunch and we'd already been in the parks for more than 7hours. We headed back to the hotel room for a snooze to make sure we'd be able to last until closing time. Back into the park at 7, grabbed some food and settled in for World of Color. WOW WOW WOW, absolutely fabulous !!!!
9:45pm we headed over the road to Disney to try and catch the last showing of Fantasmic. Both shows were light/water/fire combinations. The Fantasmic show included human participants though and fireworks. The photos and section of video we managed to film just do not do either show justice.
LATE LATE night, LONG LONG day, it was 12:15am by the time we left the park. Finally managed to get the girls their custom ears before heading out. We couldn't get ears for Andre as no cap would fit :( so he ended up with Goofy ears ;)

Big Adventure - Day 11

This was our moving day - from Hollywood to Disneyland. We ended up leaving the hotel mid-morning and after a shortish stop at Universal Studios for some last minute souvenirs, we headed down to Santa Monca Pier for a last look around. Midday saw us heading out to Disney .... we checked in just before 1pm :) We were a little disappointed with our room as it meant we didn't have a view of the park as we were expecting .... as it turned out we wouldn't be needing one :)
Luggage finally delivered and we headed into the park. A quick look through Frontier Land, a ride on the Mark Twain steamboat, some lunner (lunch/dinner) and then we headed to Fantasy Land. By the time we had gone on a few rides, including first time ever carousel ride, we were heading towards 9pm. We decided to wait around with the crowds and crowds and crowds for the 9:30pm fireworks over the castle....... WOW WOW WOW so worth the wait :)
Tempted as we were to stick around for the 10:30pm show Fantasmic in FrontierLAnd, everyone was tired so we headed back to the hotel ---- would be an early morning Tuesday.... we qualified for the 7am morning madness park entry :)