Mousekingdom Blog

Well… I’ve finally got a laptop back (not my old laptop, but a shiny brand new one thats better than my old one.. hooray!!) And I have had some time to write another 2 days reports, so here I finally have another installment for you all.. Sorry for the Delay It’s time consuming doing this hehe!

Thursday 1st June 2006

Today Jon and myself were heading down to San Diego Zoo. We got up at about 8:10 and were ready to leave at 8:40.

After getting a little lost on the way (read as missing the junction we had to come off at and not realising it) we arrived in the car park for the Zoo at about 10:40am. We headed over to admissions and purchased our tickets into the Zoo and then went in.

At this point neither of us had eaten or had anything to drink today so we headed to the first place we could find to eat. I had a Veggie Burger and Fries with a refillable drink. The veggie burger was awful and the Fries weren’t much better if I am going to be honest, but the drink certainly came in handy, I had it refilled 3 or 4 times that day at a cost of $1 a refill, not a bad deal

I’m not sure really how you can do a detailed trip report of a day at a zoo, but needless to say we saw lots of Animals. I’ll go into a few of the highlights, the first of which would have probably been the show we saw first thing, which had Wolves, Bears and Eagles in it amongst other things, it’s cool seeing the animals that you wouldn’t normally get to see up close or at all in the wild.

We also got to see Polar bears up close in their enclosure, we could view them from underwater which was quite cool. The Zoo has a Sky Ride allowing you to see the whole zoo and some of San Diego from a height, which was quite cool

We took the Bus tour of the zoo which takes you around a large number of the enclosures, you only get to see some of the animals very briefly, but with the zoo being so big it can be very difficult to see everything in one day, so the bus came in handy

After the bus tour we got to see the end of the Sea Lion show which my brother quite enjoyed as he works with Sea Lions at Longleat. We also got to see some Pandas which was cool, I’ve never seen them before, and also some Koalas, I’ve also never seen those before and I have to say they do look very cute

We were ready to leave the Zoo at 5, so we looked around the shops, which unsurprisingly Jon was more interested in than me, and we then headed back to Anaheim. We arrived back at 7:15pm, getting back much quicker than getting there! We ordered Pizza for Delivery for when we got back, and then headed into Disneyland.

By the time we arrived in the park it was 8pm, and park close was 9. We didn’t really have time to do anything so instead of trying to do anything, we just found a spot and watched Remember… Dreams Come True. This was a nice Disney ending to what had been quite a fun and different day!

We walked back to the Hotel after the fireworks, we arrived back at 9:30, and the Pizzas arrived from Pizza Hut at about 9:45. We enjoyed our pizzas, watched a little bit of television, and then headed to bed for a reasonably early night. We knew we’d have a long day tomorrow.

http://photos.tpruk.com/010606

Friday 2nd June 2006

Today, after our early night the night before I woke up at 7am, but laid in bed til 7:30. There had been a Disneyland Gradnite the night before so the park didn’t open til 9, we made our way over to the park leisurely, arriving at 8:40.

When entering the park, there was a band playing, with characters dancing, this was a nice touch as we’d not been in the park so long before opening before. We watched here for a bit before walking up Main Street to join the crowd waiting for rope drop.

Eventually rope drop happened, we headed to Tomorrowland first (though I think everyone else had the same idea) we grabbed Space Fast Passes first (everyone else was going straight into the queue) and then headed into the queue, it was only just over 10 minutes. Enjoyed Space as usual. Wanted to go into Innoventions to meet up with Stitch, but it was closed til 10, so we’d come back.

Next up we went on Big Thunder Mountain RailRoad. At this time they were only running one train, so although there was no queue, it still took us over 5 minutes to get on. Not sure why they were only running one, would have worked well with 2. Our fast pass time expired, so we then picked up an Indy Fast Pass and went onto Indy through the standby queue (first time I’ve ever been through the standby queue, but it was only a few minutes so I wasn’t too fussed) Still love Indy, what more can I say without repeating what I’ve already said?

We then headed over and visited the Haunted Mansion, as usual we had a spook follow us home! He never made it back to the UK though, perhaps they don’t like flying? We then grabbed a Splash Mountain Fast Pass and headed back to Town Square to watch the 50th Anniversary Re-Dedication of Disneyland.

I quite enjoyed the re-dedication, a marching band came out accompanied by characters, the Mayor of Disneyland then re-dedicates the park playing Walt’s dedication day speech (a touching moment for any Disney Fan!)

At 10:45 we headed to Innoventions so I could try and meet Stitch, but after waiting outside and then watching the presentation (we entered into the Sports Zone) I only found out Stitch doesn’t arrive til 12 I was a bit disappointed as we were now leaving the park til later in the day! And I wouldn’t have another chance to meet Stitch without long queues

We left the park, I picked up my Fantasmic! Tickets and I then wanted to try and buy an Anaheim t-shirt so headed to a shop over the road, successfully found one, and it was only $8. We then headed back to the Hotel and took the car to the Block @ Orange shopping complex I had visited previously. This time I purchased my Bose iPod Sound Dock at the bargain price of £175 (compared to £249 in the UK) and we had a look around, Jon bought some Trainers. We then headed back to the hotel til about 2.30pm to avoid the heat of the day

We headed back to the parks and went into DCA first, first up was the Tower of Terror, grabbing a Fast pass before joining the queue. After dropping into the Twilight Zone it was time for one of our traditional trips to White Water Snacks where I had another of the Delicious Grilled Cheese Sandwiches I had previously sampled.

When we headed back into the park we went on Soarin’ for a flight over California, and then grabbed a Grizzly River Run Fast Pass. We then headed over and watched the Aladdin show.

After enjoying the Aladdin show, we found a spot up near Golden Dreams to watch the Block Party Bash, we both enjoyed it, and got pulled up from the crowd to dance, I didn’t mind but Jon looked a little disgruntled to start with LOL. We followed the parade at the end, and caught one of the Nerf! Balls they fire over the gate at the end.

We followed the BPB with a ride on Screamin’ using Single Rider (no sound!) and then used our FP’s for Grizzly River Run, much to my amusement Jon got soaked, I came off a little damp on my back! We then re-rode Soarin’ using Single Rider, and then rode Tower of Terror again using our FPs (not that they were needed but nevermind) We then headed back over to Disneyland Park.

First up in Disneyland we rode Space Mountain using the Fast Pass we picked up many hours ago, we followed this up with a ride on Indy again using the Fast pass from earlier, and then we went on the Jungle Cruise. I was a bit disappointed with this trip on the Jungle Cruise, the skipper was really unenthusiastic, she wasn’t too great at all. Real shame

We headed back to Central Plaza to watch Remember… Dreams come True. We watched it in the small section near Tomorrowland again, its quite a nice viewing spot The show was as awesome as ever, going to miss this Firework Display But next up is something very exciting, we headed over to New Orleans Square for our Fantasmic! Balcony seating that I managed to book

It was a battle to get to New Orleans Square, but once there we headed to the Disney Gallery where we had to wait to get onto the Balcony. The girl on the door sent us straight up, but once in the Disney Gallery we were told we couldn’t go through til 10 and to wait back downstairs. We went back out and now there were people queueing.

We waited outside, and were eventually taken back upstairs, we had to wait in the Disney Gallery until they were ready to seat us. Myself and my Brother were the 3rd group to be called through, much to the disgust of another woman who claimed she thought we’d be seated in the order we arrived… well A) We were here before you, but we got sent upstairs so stop your moaning and B) It says on your ticket you are seated in order of reservation… guess she couldn’t read (I wasn’t bitter lol)! We had seats at the very front of the balcony, it was a really cool viewing spot. The desserts as part of the buffet were really nice, and we were offered plenty of drinks! Soon enough Fantasmic! started and the show was as awesome as ever! There’s no use me explaining it again as I’ve been through it before, but lets just say the view was amazing and I’ve never enjoyed a Fantasmic! showing so much before, usually cos I am sat on a cobbled floor with a sore bottom!!!

After Fantasmic we slowly headed out of the balcony and over to Space Mountain for one last ride before leaving the park at 11:30 and heading back to the hotel for a bit of sleep!

http://photos.tpruk.com/020606

This entry was posted on Wednesday, June 28th, 2006 at 12:40 am and is filed under Trip Diaries. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.