Holly on Main Street.
Sleeping Beauty's Castle!
One of my all-time favourite rides - it's a small world!
"Merry Christmas" in Hawaiian!
Holly loved the Little Mermaid section because they were singing "Jingle Shells", which she thought was really funny.
Another of Holly's favourites - the Toy Story characters!
This was a new experience for us - the new Finding Nemo Submarine Voyage, that replaced the old submarine ride. Kris told us about finding Mickey Mouse heads around Disneyland that I never knew about. Apparently, Walt Disney hid little Mickey heads on all the rides and attractions at Disneyland, and Disney World. The Nemo ride had 1 or 2, but we didn't find any! The ride attendant said it took him 5 months to find one!!! You can also buy a book that tells you where they all are! We didn't find a single one all day - the ones we did find we cheated on!
Another of my favourites from when we were little - Autopia!!!!! Holly loved it, too.
She didn't love the Star Tours ride so much - this is the one that simulates a roller coaster and moves around quite quickly. There were some tears and an "I want to get off!", but of course we had to tough it out!
While I was getting us some lunch, Holly, Paul, Kris & Jim were watching the Star Wars stage show "Jedi Training Academy" where kids could learn to be Jedi knights. They were standing at the back of the stage, but every once in a while, a storm trooper would walk by on patrol and check out the crowd. Apparently, Darth Vader came over and gave Holly the "stare", which scared her a bit!
Cinderella's Fairy Godmother talked to Holly and told her she could tell that she was a true Princess!
We nearly got eaten alive by tigers on a Jungle Cruise!
Then, we had to survive hippos . . .
. . . and cannibals! All on the same trip - what an adventure!
A new attraction we climbed through, was Tarzan's Treehouse.
We had quite a wait for Pirates of the Caribbean. This has been changed a bit since I was here as a child - they have included Jack Sparrow from the movie. Holly looks happy here - this was BEFORE the ride started and we dropped down in the water (in the dark!). Not so happy after that . . .
The Haunted Mansion was decked out for the holidays, also - in the theme of The Nightmare Before Christmas! I've never seen the movie, but the decorations looked as I'd expect from clips I've seen. It takes about 3 weeks to transform the mansion for the holidays (and the Small World, also!).
It turned out to be waaayyy busier than we expected. Jim and Kris came on his birthday about 3 years ago and it was nearly empty! I guess the good weather has brought out the locals as well as any tourists that might be visiting! Because of the long waits, we only ended up going on or seeing around 10 attractions. After taking a ride on the train, we came back to Main Street to watch the parade.
After the parade, we went to a nice restaurant at the Grand Californian Hotel, called Napa Rose, to celebrate Jim's birthday. We even got served by Jim & Kris' favourite waiter there, whose nickname is "Saucy" (it's even on his name tag!).
