Magical Disneyland – Part II

When we left off yesterday, we had already seen quite a bit of the park. We are efficient in our Disneyland attendance, after all. Let’s see what we accomplished during the second-half of my wonderful day in Disneyland with Mama!

My Mama found this waiting on her luggage when we woke up this morning. A little birdie (thanks, Thithter!) told me that Mom had always wanted to eat here but never had. I called and made reservations for lunch so she could finally experience The Blue Bayou in person!

We decided to mosey back towards New Orleans Square for our surprise lunch. And our desired trek took us back through Adventureland. When we came by this morning to ride Indiana Jones, it was broken. So we decided to check on our way to The Blue Bayou to see if it had been fixed.

It didn’t hurt that we had grabbed Fast Pass tickets this morning when it was closed. We now had immediate access to one of my favorite rides. Yes, they are all my favorite rides. So what?

We walked past all those people waiting in line like suckers. I am pretty sure we laughed and pointed at them, just to make it sink in even more. We literally walked up the the front of the line and hopped on board!

Fast Pass is sure the way to go on these busy and popular rides!

Because there was no line as we walked to the front of the ride, we stopped to take a few pictures along the way. They did such a great job making this ride look like it’s an old excavation site!

The excitement of being here still hasn’t worn off, for those wondering.

See? Being on the actual Indiana Jones actually increased our joy and happiness.

After we got some Indiana Jones out of our system, it was time to wander over towards New Orleans Square for our lunch. We were early, so we took our time getting there. And enjoyed the Mark Twain paddle boat as it went by.

When I was a kid, I wanted to be a pirate. So I always loved this pirate ship at the park. Luckily, I mostly grew out of that phase.

It’s not our fault…but when we walked past The Haunted Mansion, it still had no line! So we went in for a quick ride before lunch time. Nothing gets your appetite going like a bunch of ghosts, eh?

And, since we were close, we decided to grab some Fast Pass tickets to Splash Mountain for later today. Because once on that ride simply isn’t enough.

Though we arrived by noon and simply wanted a cool place to rest our feet, we were sat at our table at The Blue Bayou almost immediately.

What a magical restaurant! We sat on a patio right next to the Pirates of the Caribbean ride!

 

It was fun to peruse the menu, though I had already decided what to have. And, of course, I had to get the punch so I could get a Tinkerbell light pin. Thanks for the suggestion, Charloe!

Hallelujah! I got to have gumbo because they don’t put fish or shrimp in it! They discovered that they could sell a whole lot more gumbo, especially to kids, if they only put chicken in it. And it was delicious!

Our server took this picture for us. We really enjoyed our special lunch here.

 

Mama got the Monte Cristo sandwich, and it was pretty stinkin’ good. I know, because she shared with me. I got the grilled chicken with asparagus and cheesy potatoes. Yummy!

Here is our final say on The Blue Bayou. We are glad we went, but it was expensive. And because of the prices, we felt obligated to try to eat as much of it as possible. Thus, we were very full when we left. I think next time, if I ever went again, we would each get a cup of gumbo, then split one of their huge entrees.

It was a treat, though, and I’m glad that we went. I’m just trying to give advice to anyone considering this place for a meal at Disneyland. Split the food!

We waddled out of the restaurant and decided that a trip around the park on a train would be a perfect solution for our full bellies and tired feet!

It was packed, but what a wonderful way to see Disneyland!

We even got to see the park entrance in action. It felt really nice to be off our feet but still feel like we were seeing lots of fun things.

Here we are at the main station! Now you know the elevation for Disneyland!

We got off at the stop next to New Orleans Square after making a full loop. I just think it is so neat that this is a real steam engine train!

 

We were, once again, very close to Splash Mountain. So we decided to put our passes to good use and go to the front of the line! We made all sorts of good decisions like this!

And, again, we enjoyed our trip through the mountain. This is certainly one of my favorites! Surprise!

While Mama rested near Splash Mountain, I made a mad dash to Indiana Jones to grab our next Fast Pass. And then, when I got back, we made the executive decision to have a treat. First, we watched them make some of these adorable caramel apple Mickey Mouse ears.

 

And then we decided to share a pecan caramel roll and some walnut fudge.

Now you know where I get it, huh? These were actually both of our choices!

Then we went for a walk and happened upon the show Billy Hill and the Hillbillies. Oh my goodness, this was wonderful. In fact, I wish I would have had time to go back for a second show because I laughed so hard. The guy put in false hillbilly teeth and then incorporated it into his fiddle playing with jokes.

It was hilarious and one of my favorite moments of our two-day trip to Disneyland.

Goofy was even there to enjoy the show. He was probably laughing, too.

Next, we walked through Fantasyland (yes, again!) to get to Mickey’s Toon Town. We stopped for a picture with a large whale, of course.

This is one of my Mama’s favorite places in the entire park, so I knew that she would have fun here.

 

And, like the adults that we are, we played with all of the gags and read all of the fun things on the buildings. It was fun to walk through and point out so many intricacies in this area of Disneyland. So cute!

 

I loved this sign of the roasted chicken crossing the road. And then we saw City Hall!

This is actually what my Mom always looks like when she drives. So look out.

Then we walked through Mickey Mouse’s adorable house. It was a little crowded, so we didn’t have time to stop and admire things like we wanted. But we did have time to enjoy some more chickens.

We attended the Disneyland Main Street Parade (which deserves a post on its own) and then went back to Toon Town to ride Roger Rabbit. It broke just as we were about to get on. It wasn’t worth it to us to try to go back later. Wop wop.

   

So, the obvious thing to do was to ride Peter Pan again! It was just as good this time around, and I actually bumped into some people that I know from church! Small world, again!

Then we walked past the Castle and took a few more pictures. Mama really loves Fantasyland and told me things about it that I had never known before!

Like this spike near the Castle is the geographic middle of the entire Disneyland park. Did you know that?

 

And then, during some photos taken at the Castle, I lost my cell phone. It was terrible and wonderful all at once. I didn’t need to worry about who was trying to contact me any more, but we spent a few hours of our precious Disneyland time over the two days trying to track it down in Lost and Found.

It never showed up.

We celebrated the loss of my cell phone by eating a Dole Pineapple Float from the Enchanted Tiki Room. Holy smokes, talk about one of the best things that I’ve ever eaten. And I’ve already tried to mimic making it at home and failed miserably. I guess I’ll just have to go back to Disneyland and get one in person.

I went out to the Lost and Found to let them know about my phone. They find over two-hundred phones a day, so I didn’t have high hopes of ever seeing it again. But I did like this picture of the main gate!

 

We went back to ride The Haunted Mansion and Pirates of the Caribbean…again. No, we do not have a problem. It was so much fun that we couldn’t resist!

It might seem unbelievable, but we were hungry when evening came around. So we decided to check back with the Jolly Holiday to see what their dinner offerings were. And, since we had learned our lesson at lunch, we split a sandwich.

What a great idea! It was just the right amount of food!

We got the roast beef and cheddar on an onion roll with a horseradish aioli. Their homemade potato chips weren’t too shabby, either!

And, despite killer performance for hundreds of pictures throughout the day, my camera battery decided that it had had enough. I got this last picture of lit-up Main Street before losing the chance to take pictures of the rest of our wonderful evening together.

But we watched the fireworks and then walked with fourteen-million people to Indiana Jones to ride our Fast Pass. We didn’t get back to the room until 11:30 PM after a very fun and perfect day.

More Disney action on the way tomorrow!