What coast am I on? Day 2

Morning came too soon, until I remembered we were headed to Goofy's Kitchen for breakfast. :D

I helped my dad and then we headed to the 7:30 am shuttle to the parks. We safely tucked Twinkie into the kennel, rented Dad's ECV and headed towards the Disneyland Hotel. We could only take the ECV as far as the last security checkpoint at Downtown Disney. I think you should be able to take them all over Disney property.

We had a family picture taken with Goofy and were quickly seated for breakfast. My sister and I stopped to ask one of the photo ladies how to get the Goofy Pictures with our Maxpass, so we were a little late arriving at the table. The characters were doing their little show, and I noticed my niece watching them very intently. She is 12 and acts all grown up, but at that moment, she was letting the little kid side of her show. I tucked that info away for future use.

Our waiter, Marco, was a bit grumpy, which was a first for me at Goofy's Kitchen. Shortly after that initial encounter, another waitress appeared and said that Marco had gone on a break. When he returned, he was in a much better mood. I'm sure the mass of crowds on a holiday weekend was getting to all the cast members at some point.

Our first character was Chip. It was only myself and my niece at the table when he arrived. I pulled out Barksy and asked my niece to hold him for a picture with Chip. Her adult demeanor melted, and soon she was a normal giggly 12 year old playing around with a Disney character.

I had mickey waffles, of course. My dad said that breakfast was much more his style than dinner the night before. I checked in with my older sister who was driving in from San Diego. They were just having breakfast, so it was still going to be a while before they arrived at Disney. They brought the picture package of our pictures with Goofy to our table. We had all bought Maxpass, but my sister was the only one who had used it so far that day. She had to prove that she had used it by showing that she could book a fastpass. Then they gave her a paper with a barcode to just scan on your phone. I was able to scan it also after I entered the park.

Dad and I headed back to the kennel to see Twinkie while the rest of the gang went into the park. We also picked up dad's ticket. He had decided to only go to the park for one day, so we had to buy it at the park. Twinkie was calmly waiting in her kennel. We took her to their little outside area designated for dog duty. It had a fire hydrant and a fake grass area. Lady and the Tramp dogs were painted on the wall. Dad sat on one of two benches with his dog for quite a while, and then it was time to head to our reservation at Oga's Cantina

It took us a while to get to Galaxy's Edge from the front of the park. The scooter didn't move very fast (a little bit slower than I was walking normally), and there were tons of people. People would just jump in front of his scooter, and he frequently had to make hard stops to avoid hitting him. It was pretty frustrating. I started just walking in front of him so that people couldn't do that.

I wasn't a big fan of Oga's Cantina. We got a booth, and ordered different drinks to try. I had to give them my debit card in order to open a tab before we could even order anything. The Cantina is loud and small with only one entrance/exit people could use. There was another exit sign, but we found out later only employees could use it. If something were to happen there, people are gonna get hurt.

Our time to build our droids was quickly approaching, so we decided to head out of the cantina. While they waited for the waitress to bring the boxed Porg cups, I tried to get my dad and his scooter out of the cantina. There was only one way for him to pull his scooter up to the table when we walked in and there wasn't room for him to turn around, so we headed for the far exit sign which was in the direction his scooter was facing. That is when we were stopped by a cast member and told we couldn't use that exit. I asked the cast member how he was supposed to turn his scooter around. The guy just gestured to the area we were standing in. Other customers had to move out of the way, but we eventually got it turned around after several attempts. It was very poorly planned out in that respect.

Just as we were entering the building to build the droids, my dad decided he had to go check on Twinkie. I asked him if he knew the way back, and he said no. I had to miss building a droid. The little bit I did see didn't seem that exciting though. It looked like the spot in Disney Springs where you can build a droid by just picking different parts out of the bins in the middle - only this was $100.

Twinkie was doing well. Dad bought some dog food and treats from the kennel and gave them to her. There was always a bowl full of water in her kennel when we checked on her. While we were out in the dog duty area, my older sister texted me and said they had arrived. They were eating ice cream on Main St. My dad said he wanted ice cream, so we tucked Twinkie back in and headed to the ice cream shop.

I was exhausted by that point. It must have been pretty obvious, because my older sister looked at me and said "Go rest. I'll take Dad." They headed to It's A Small World. The one ride my sister really wanted to get on. I found a place to sit and rest near the lockers. It was about 2 pm and started getting really warm. After resting for a bit, I went and got a locker to put my jacket and sweatshirt in. Then I got a text from DS1 checking on me. I headed to City Hall to activate my DAS and got a return time for Smuggler's Run. My younger sister met up with us as I made my way back to Galaxy's Edge again. My son and I got some pictures in front of the Millennium Falcon before sitting down and resting again until our return time rolled around.

My niece and I were the pilots. My younger sister and nephew were the gunners, and DS1 and DDIL1 were the engineers. There was a lot of crashing involved, so the engineers were very busy. After we semi-safely landed, it was time to head to our ADR at Blue Bayou. I stopped on the way to get a return time for Pirates of the Caribbean. I really wanted to ride it with my dad.

Blue Bayou packed all 9 of us into 2 4 person table tops stuck together. It was crowded and not enjoyable at all. I was still full from breakfast, so I just got an iced tea. My older sister ordered a Monte Cristo sandwich. I had heard so much about it, that I tried a piece of it. It reminded me of a McGriddle at McDonald's. Not really my cup of tea, but she really enjoyed it.

At the end of lunch, Dad declared that he needed to go see Twinkie again. He wouldn't ride Pirates with me, so I took him out to the dog kennel. His scooter battery was flashing red also. I was going to get him a new battery, but he decided that he just wanted to leave. My older sister drove him to San Diego in his car, while her husband followed behind them in the truck they had

After relaxing a while, I went and rode Pirates of the Caribbean. As I was getting off the ride, DS1 texted me to check on me. I updated him on my dad, sister and brother in law leaving. Then we decided to do Smuggler's Run again, so that I could do a different job. I texted my younger sister to see if they wanted to go. She said sure, so I got a return time for all 6 of us. DDIL1 got a fastpass for Buzz Lightyear for herself, me and DS1.

We did a little bit of shopping. I got the popcorn in the souvenir droid. DS bought a few other souvenirs. Then I went and rested on one of the "boxes" in front of the Millennium Falcon. While we were waiting, Chewbacca came out. Hordes of people were running at him. Others were yelling his name from around various parts of the land. He needs his own security team.

Our time came up, and I was the engineer. Younger sis and niece were the pilots. I stayed pretty busy fixing our ship. After we landed, we decided we were too tired to do Buzz Lightyear. We headed out to the shuttle pick up area. We timed it pretty well, as I got to see the dragon come out during Fantasmic. After the dragon scene ended, we skedaddled out of their quickly to beat the crowd. We got onto the first shuttle back to the hotel.

I thought I would fall asleep right away, but I was hungry. We went to the little café at the hotel and found chocolate cake, cheesecake and milk. After our little nighttime snack, I fell asleep quickly.