Disneyland Day 3

The kids were up early again, but on this morning we were going to Minnie's Breakfast at the Plaza Inn in Disneyland (on Main Street).  So we did not go up to the concierge lounge and just hit the park.  Mainly I wanted to get to Nemo's Submarine Ride.  The Monorail did not open until 10AM, so we hoofed it all the way to Tomorrowland and because we were fairly early, we made it on the submarine without too much of a wait.  Both kids LOVED Nemo's Submarine Ride.  Morgan loves the water and fish, but I was kind of concerned that she would feel trapped, but she did not. 

Then we went and got fast passes for Autotopia so we could ride that after breakfast.  After we picked up the fast passes, we went to breakfast at the Plaza Inn (on Main Street).  Minnie's Breakfast was good - a bit chaotic because of the buffet aspect of it, but I think most of the character breakfasts are buffet.  At Minnie's Breakfast we met: Raffiki (monkey from the Lion King), Tigger, Chip and Dale, Eeyore and of course Minnie.  The characters come around to the tables and will pose for pictures as well as sign "autograph" books.  I chose to get the autograph book with the picture inserts (so we can put the pictures with their signatures).  They also just sell the autograph books.  The character breakfast was totally worth it for us because it was where we saw the most characters and had easy access to them.  (Day 4 Mike and Tommy saw a bunch of characters over in "California Adventure", but when we saw characters at Disneyland itself, the lines were really long and with Morgan in tow we were not waiting in them). 

After breakfast, we headed back into Tomorrowland.  We then went to the Tomorrowland Terrace Stage to see the 10:30AM preformance of the Jedi Academy http://disneyland.disney.go.com/disneyland/jedi-training-academy/  The 10:30AM performance was the first of the day and I knew we were not going to get there in time to sit in front/wave our sign so Tommy could get chosen to participate in the Jedi Academy, so we went to Autotopia and Tommy, Casey and Mike rode that ride.  Once they were done with the ride, the 10:30 padawan training session was just concluding, so people were clearing out...I plopped down right in the front with my sign and Tommy and we waiting for the 11:35 AM training session.  We were there about 35 minutes before the show start.  Thankfully we had a spray fan (they sell them in the park) because we were sitting in the bright sun. 

Waiting in front in the sun!!!

Mike, Morgan, Grandma Jan and Grandpa Casey found a table right in the front of the shaded table area that looked down on the training area.

We all had a great location staked out and now we just had to wait to see if Tommy would get chosen.  I was feeling pretty confident, but then more and more people started arriving.  By the time 11:35 AM arrived, I was very nervous.  I was told to have Tommy be loud, clap, jump up and down as well as have a sign. So that is what we did.

Here is our sign - "I was born to be a Jedi"

So Tommy jumped, screamed, clapped his hands and waived the sign and he was CHOSEN!!!  YAY! 

Tommy waiting in line to receive his robe (he is the little one in the red and blue stripped shirt).

Tommy with his robe on...so happy!

Tommy jumping up and down - he was so excited!!

Here is some video because I am sure my words would not do this justice.  It was AWESOME!!!

This is video of Tommy standing in line after he was chosen.

This is Tommy excited that he was chosen.

Tommy is practicing his Jedi moves.

Here is Tommy fighting Darth Maul.

All in all it was my favorite experience during the whole trip.

Tommy, Mike and I went on the Star Tours ride (because the wait was short) while Grandma Jan and Grandpa Casey watched Morgan. Star Tours was a fun ride and Tommy really enjoyed it. 

Sometime around this time, Tommy and Mike rode the Buzz Lightyear ride and Tommy loved it!

We then all headed back to the hotel and went to the pool.  We had some nice adult beverages and snacks.  Morgan and I went back to the room for a nap/down time and Mike and Tommy stayed at the pool and went down the slide. 

After we were done at the hotel, we headed back to Disneyland and took the Monorail into Tomorrowland.  When taking the Monorail, we found out that strollers had to be collapsed to get onto the Monorail.  This was not such a huge deal, but we had some shifting to do because we put a lot of stuff on the stroller.

We then headed to Mickey's Toontown which at that time in the late afternoon/early evening was really crazy!  Then we checked our line-time applications which I will discuss in another blog and It's A Small World was only 15 minute wait, so we went there.  Morgan absolutely LOVED this ride.  She turned around to Mike who was sitting behind us with Tommy and signed "more" while saying "more, more, more."

We tried to catch up with Grandma Jan, Grandpa Casey, Aunt Anne, Uncle Mike and Cousin Emrie to watch Mickey's Soundsational

The park was closing early, so we went over to California Adventure.  I would recommend going through The Grand Californian because going through the main entrance was CRAZY (especially because the "downtown" of California Adventure is under construction, so we were just weaving through brown-barricaded walls). 

We needed to find the group dinner because Mike and I were dining at Napa Rose (in the Grand Californian) at 8:30PM and Grandma Jan was going to watch the kids in our hotel room.  So we went to the StoryTeller's Cafe in The Grand Californian.  If one adult eats the buffet, one kid (I think 2 and under) eats free, so that was helpful for us.  Mike and I did not eat, but everyone said the food was marginal. 

After the group's dinner, everyone went back to the hotel and Mike and I went for a drink in the bar at Napa Rose.  I will write a separate blog about our dinner at Napa Rose, but it was phenomenal!

Cheers to a full day in Disneyland!