Day 11 - DCA and Disneyland
Right, where was I? Oh yeah - we had arranged to meet Wayne and Jennifer outside DCA before opening this morning. After leaving the hotel, we headed over the road to the Esplanade - only to see and unusual site - there was an large set of construction walls set up in front of the DCA entrance. Wayne and Jennifer we walking around them, looking very bemused. We greeted each other and were talking about the walls, thinking they may be the first signs of construction for the new entryway - we've since learned it was just some pavement work and they were taken down after week left - oh well, not DUD scoop there!
Anyway, after checking out the wall, we decided to head over to the Grand Californian DCA park entrance - we thought that would get us closer to Toy Story Mania so we wouldn't have to wait so long. So we passed through the GC lobby and out towards the park gate. Once through, we got to the internal rope drop with about 15 minutes to wait. We were all pretty excited - ready to charge down to TSM to ride it for the first time. The rope went down and off we went. We get to Paradise Pier and...uh oh...cast members were at the ride - it was broken down and wouldn't be up for another hour...nuts
And to make it worse - California Screamin' was also down! So much for our clever plan to ride those two rides early!
So we split up and Della and I headed over to Grizzly River Rapids. Now many of you would be aware that Della hates these types of rides, and I love them. You see - Della always gets drowned...and I don't. Della HATES getting wet - even on nice warm days like this one was. So, in anticipation, I took a "before the ride" photo of Della.
See - she's looking pretty confident this trip - she is thinking she'll survive okay...you can't possibly drown EVERY time you ride this? Can you?
...Of course - this is Della we are talking about...and yes, she got drowned - and here is the result:
As you can imagine - I got in trouble again for making her go on the ride. She has told me she'll never ride it ever again...
(At least without a poncho!)
Anyway, after the drowning, a very grumpy Della and I headed back towards Paradise Pier - and Toy Story Mania was up! Even better, Wayne and Jennifer had just joined the back of the queue in front of us! We only waited about 15 minutes before we were laughing and pulling the string - throwing hoops, firing darts, and breaking plates. This ride is so cool - you have to try it! At the end of it, I think even Della had forgiven me for the Grizzly River drowning!
Earlier in the day, I had sent Gerard a text anticipating his arrival in LA, and around this time we got a message from him - he had just touched down and was taxiing towards the gate at LAX! The fifth member of DUD was on US soil!
Afterwards - we headed over to Tower of Terror, The Hollywood Backlot (Drawn to the Page show), Taste Pilots for lunch, and watched the High School Musical 3 show (surprisingly good - they were singing live, not mimed, and they sounded very good). After that, we did some more DCA rides and It's Tough to be a Bug (love hearing adults and kids scream in this one - especially first timers!) then it was time to head over the Disneyland for the remainder of the afternoon.
In Disneyland it was really quiet, so we ran around getting onto our favourite rides and having Dole Whip in the Hub. We also took the horse-drawn tram down Main Street to Town Square. While on the tram, I was speaking to a cast member and gave her one of our DUD cards - she wants to come and visit Australia, and she was a great Disney fan - I told her to look us up on the web (I hope she reads this!) Gerard also sent me a text asking where we were. I said we were in Town Square but about to head to Downtown Disney. He said he was outside the park heading to DTD as well. So we went out the gate and saw him standing outside waiting for us. I always find it really cool meeting friends in overseas locations - so it was great fun greeting Gerard and getting him up to speed on what was happening.
We all headed over to Downtown to do various shopping - we wanted to check out all the shops thoroughly, and Gerard was looking for soap before heading to the hotel for rest (that's what a long flight does to you...!) while I bought some books and Della did a big shop in World of Disney - our last major pre-Expo expenditure!
I think we finished the day eating at Dennys - but I'm not too sure, all these days begin to roll into one! That night however, the anticipation was growing - because the following day was EXPO DAY 1