Cast of Characters:

Jane (aka ChipDale)
Ron (my husband)

Trip Dates:

Wednesday, September 18 – Monday, September 30

Resort:

Disney’s Grand Californian Hotel

Day Ten, Friday, September 27

Up at 7:00am again today. Made coffee, showered and woke Ron up. We stopped at Guest Services to pick up our reserved Fantasmic balcony tickets for tonight and were at Disneyland right after the 8:30am opening. We got our usual coffee and mocha and browsed the shops on Main Street. We found some really neat Main Street U.S.A. items by Jane Wooster Scott (note cards, gift tags, notepads, mug) for my mom in the Disneyana Shop, along with a really cool Disneyland Railroad denim shirt for my dad. We also got a new hardbound coffee table book about Disneyland. We had everything shipped home again. [img]graemlins/thumbsup.gif[/img] After our little shopping expedition, we stopped in at the Carnation Café for a nice sit-down breakfast. Desiree was our server and brought us coffee and milk. I had the Mickey Mouse waffle with bacon (yum!) and Ron had the Café Scramble. [img]graemlins/tasty.gif[/img] We enjoyed our breakfast, watching the people walk by on Main Street. The park already seemed more crowded today than the past three days.

After breakfast, we rode It’s a Small World and Alice in Wonderland, then Pirates and the Mark Twain. Walked back down Main Street to see the Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln show. We were lucky and caught the beginning of the Walt Disney Story, browsed the exhibits, then the show started. I don’t care for the headphone portion of this show - they really dumbed it down. The part where Lincoln delivers the Gettysburg Address is excellent though, so we wanted to see it once. After this show, it was time to line up for the 11:45am Billy Hill show. [img]graemlins/blush.gif[/img] We enjoyed the show and left Disneyland for DCA. Caught the 12:30pm set of the Barncats, then hit the beer truck in the Pacific Wharf area for a “refreshment” and came back for the 1:30pm set. After that we went back to the room to take a nap. Napped until about 5:00pm, took a shower, ironed some clothes and got ready to go back over to Disneyland for our Fantasmic balcony reservations. We arrived back in the park about 7:30pm, stopped at Rod’s piano to say hi, then walked over to the Disney Gallery to line up for our 8:30pm seating time. Ron and I were the first ones to arrive, guaranteeing that we’d get first choice of the seats. We spent the wait time talking to a really nice family from Minnesota and one from Northern California who also had balcony tickets. At 8:30, a CM came down and led us upstairs where we got to see part of the brand new Haunted Mansion exhibit that wasn’t opening until the next weekend. [img]graemlins/smokin.gif[/img]

Ron and I were seated first (front row) and another CM took our drink order. We helped ourselves to the dessert buffet. Tonight they had a few kinds of cheesecakes, tiny strawberry tarts, tiny éclairs, cheeses and crackers, and a couple kinds of cake. They really do a nice job on this and it’s so much fun sitting up there watching the crowds. We listened to the pre-show music, then the lights dimmed and it was pitch black! They’ve recently refurbished Disneyland's show and it looked absolutely fantastic! We loved it as always, and it was fun to see it alongside people who had never been to Disneyland before (the family from Minnesota). They were enchanted by Fantasmic and told us it was worth every penny to do the balcony seating (I agree). After the show, we hung around a little on the balcony until the crowds thinned out, then walked back thru Fantasyland to get to Rod’s piano on Main Street. Rod had a huge crowd tonight and everyone was singing along with his playing. We stayed until park closing and chatted with Rod, then said goodnight and slowly walked out of Disneyland. Since we had a good nap this afternoon, we walked over to the Disneyland Hotel and had a couple of [img]graemlins/beer.gif[/img] at the Lost Bar before heading back to the room. Watched some TV, then went to bed, very happy from another perfect day at the Disneyland Resort! [img]graemlins/mickey.gif[/img]