Disneyland

Friday, August 11, 2006

Up early to get there in time for 8am opening. Did the normal fastpass collection routine. The one odd thing was our second ride on Splash Mountain. Our first ride was normal although there were only the two of us and we were in the front. We got a little wet, but no big deal. The second ride was an entirely different story. We were again seated in the front, but this time with a family behind us. We thought this was a good thing and would help keep us dry by balancing out the boat. I guess it doesn’t work like that because we got wetter than any other time we had been on that ride. Through the ride, we got splashed on both sides fairly heavily, and then on the drop, everything else got soaked. I couldn’t believe it. Fortunately, I was wearing board shorts, but still. I had to spend the next hour or two drying out my top half. Not fun. We decided not to get a fastpass for that.

We had lunch at the new Café Orleans. We aren’t impressed. They charge the prices that used to be charged at Blue Bayou, but it has none of the atmosphere. I was competing with flies for my food. There’s no bread basket provided, the menu is very limited and overall, it just isn’t worth the prices. We had a monte-cristo, a crab sandwich, and the pommes frites appetizer. The fries were great, covered in garlic. Everything else was so-so, definitely not $15/plate food. We don’t plan on going back unless it’s just for appetizers.

After lunch, we went back to the hotel (Anaheim Inn and Suites) and took a nap. Back to the park around seven to ride a few things and then we went over to DCA to watch the Electrical Parade. We stood at the point closest to the park entrance/exit and part way through the parade, after I had my “fix,” we left and went over to Disneyland to catch the fireworks.

We stayed in the park until 11:30 or so, when we realized the lines weren’t really shrinking and decided to go get some dinner. We had checked earlier in the day, and the sign on the menu posted in the front of the menu said they were open until 1AM. We know that wasn’t accurate in the past, but we figured that since this was a Friday in high season, surely it would apply today, if ever. We were wrong. When we got there at 11:45, they told us they were closed. We questioned about the posted hours, and the guy started to say something about how it varies depending on the season, etc. He shut up when I pointed out it was a high-season Friday. Stupid people. I think I’ll write a letter to tell them to take the hours off the sign as it’s full of &@*%. If the hours weren’t posted, we would have asked and all would have been well. Instead, we got screwed.

Instead, we ended up going to the Napoli Restaurant for pizza. We each had a slice and were preparing to leave the now-closing restaurant, when the guy behind the counter asked us if we wanted free pizza as they were just going to throw it away. Thinking another slice each may be nice, we said ok. They gave us an entire large pizza! We each ate a slice and then gave the rest away to people we saw around Downtown Disney. We noticed an interesting phenomenon. Men will always take pizza. Women are apparently too bashful or afraid of looking piggish to take it, even if the men they are with eat some. So the night ended with no Margaritas, but at least the pizza was good and was an interesting experience.