Tuesday 27 June 2017

The last morning in Disneyland

Day 10, Part 1:
Wednesday, 26th November

Today was our last day in California. I got up bright and early at 6.30am eager to pack as much in as I could. My trip buddy wasn’t coming to the park with me this morning as she wanted to go check out the Garden Walk Shops so once I was ready I headed up towards the parks. Taking a few pictures around the hotel before I left:
 I never did get to use that pool:
 
When I got up to the Disney area I headed straight to Disneyland and was there on time for opening. They didn’t have a big opening ceremony like in Florida though.
 
First I headed to the train station to see if the Lilly Belle would be running that day and was told to come back at 9.15 to book it so I headed into the Emporium to get the last few bits I wanted with the 20% off vouchers. So many Minnie’s:
 
When I came back out of the Emporium, Main Street USA was bustling with all kinds of transport and a few characters had started to come out in Christmas gear:


I stopped off for a quick picture with Minnie:
 
Then I went up to try get a ticket for the Lilly Belle. They only run it twice a day at 11.30 and 12 and they only allow a maximum of 12 people on it at a time. I managed to get a ticket for myself at 11.30 so once I got that I went back down the steps to meet some more characters. First I saw Donald:
 
I also got a photo with Pluto before I headed to Pixie Hollow. This had a super cute wait area complete with little statues of fairies, fairy houses and boats:
 


Soon it was time to meet some fairies. First was Tinkerbell:
 
I also got some pictures with Silvermist before I headed over to Fantasy Faire for the Tangled show. It was very pantoish but still a fun show:

 Before I went to California I had read that if you hung around after the show sometimes Rapunzel would come out to meet guests so I waited for a few minutes and sure enough Rapunzel appeared with Flynn Ryder with her. They both chatted away for a good while. I had a flower pen and Flynn Ryder wanted to know if it was enchanted:
 
As I left Fantasy Faire I stopped at the castle to take a few pictures: 
I then headed back down a busy Main Street:

I popped into the Candy Palace to get a quick snack. They had so many yummy treats to choose from:

 


I got an Olaf Marshmallow wand and it was super yummy. It had marshmallow, covered in caramel, covered in white chocolate. My only regret was I didn’t get on sooner in the trip:
 After that I headed towards the train station it was almost time to go on the Lilly Belle but first I had a bit of time to meet some more characters so first I got photos with Goofy. Then I spotted this pair coming out:

They were super cute. As the were coming out they spotted a lady wearing a Chip and Dale t-shirt and bag with two Chip and Dale soft toys clipped to it so they took her by the hand and both acted totally in love with her hugging her lots because she was their fan. It was very funny to watch. Once I got my own photos with them I headed up to the train station to take some pictures while I waited for the Lilly Belle:

 

Monday 26 June 2017

The Hungry Bear Restaurant

The last restaurant we tried in California was the Hungry Bear.
Before I went to California I had read a lot about this place mainly because of a certain cupcake they have. They are a counter service restaurant nearby Critter Country. You walk up a kind of ramp into the restaurant and on the way there are little beavers holding signs saying things like “hungry”:
 
We both had a Cheeseburger meal. The food was tasty the only problem was drinks were not included with the meal so were extra cost.
We then of course had one of their infamous Lemon Bumblebee cupcakes for dessert. It was yummy but I think I scooped out some of the lemon as it was very sweet.
 

We both loved the food here. It was tasty for counter service and besides the drinks not being included with the meal we had no problems so would definitely recommend it.



Sunday 25 June 2017

Farewell to Disney's California Adventure

Day 9, Part 2:

When we got to Paradise Pier we decided to have a go on the Little Mermaid ride again. It kept stopping this time and they kept announcing to stay in our shells: 

 We headed towards Toy Story Mania taking pictures along the way:
 

The wait time for Toy Story Mania was 80 minutes long so we decided not to wait and headed back towards Carsland. As we were wandering back into Radiator Springs we spotted DJ coming out and the CM we had been talking to earlier in the day about the buttons was with him. He came over and gave us a button each saying he never breaks a promise.
 
In Radiator Springs we sat outside Flo’s waiting for the lights to come on. We were expecting a show of some sort but they literally were off one minute and next just flashed on and that was it. We wandered around taking a few pictures with the lights on though:


Next we decided to watch the Pixar Play Parade again
 



After the parade my trip buddy wanted to chill out for a bit so she went to find a bench to sit on and I went to meet some characters. First was Pluto who had his ears covered in socks:

I decided to pop into Trolley treats to grab a quick snack for myself and my trip buddy. So many yummies to choose from:

When I came out of Trolley treats I spotted Mickey Mouse in his festive gear so went over to get photos.

After that I went back to my trip buddy and we sat eating cake pops watching the world go by:
 
Once we were finished our snacks we headed to the Animation Academy:

The first character we learnt to draw was Olaf:

We decided to wait around for the next one as well so the second character we learnt to draw was Baymax:

After that we went to check out the Mad T Party. They were a rock band based on the characters from Alice in Wonderland and there was a lot of young peopled drinking watching them. We took a few pictures but didn’t stay very long:
 
 
We decided to go on the Monsters Inc ride again as it was beside us:

 
After that we were pretty much done in the park. We wandered through some of the shops admiring the decorations and merchandise:
 



As we left one of the shops I spotted Goofy out doing meet and greets so hopped in line to meet him but by the time I got to him he was joined by a friend:
 
They were very funny to watch together. Goofy kept coming up with poses for everyone and would move Pluto into whatever position he wanted for the photos. When I got to them they spotted my first visit button and got super excited so did a big group hug before taking lots of photos. After that we said farewell to Disney’s California Adventure:
 On the way back to the hotel we noticed some of the restaurants had put out some Christmas decorations as well:
 
 Once we got back to the hotel we went straight to bed. Tomorrow would be our final day in Disney and we were not ready to say goodbye yet.