When you’ve been up until 12:30am, six in the morning comes awfully early, but awake (well somewhat) we were. We had early morning reservations for Character Dining this morning, which meant being at the gates nearly two hours before they opened so that we could make our reservation time without getting caught in the crush of the waiting crowd.
The upshot of this is that we were only steps from the entrance turnstyle when the lone cast member standing in front of the station called out to the crowd:
Okay everyone, help me out here! 10! 9! 8! 7!
And by the time he got to 6 ever voice in the queue is raised,
6! 5! 4! 3! 2! 1!
And as one, the entry turnstyles all unlock and the line surges forward, riding the crest of pure positive energy.
The character breakfast was an absolute flashback to or trip here when I was little more than a toddler. In fact, it was the same characters – and Captain Hook is still an amazing actor, whoever he was behind that mask! I can’t imagine how difficult it must be to stay in character when you’re not only completely mute but don’t even have your own facial expressions to rely on.
Once we’d laughed (and cried) our way through breakfast we were able to wend our way through a near empty park – tat early in the morning on a Sunday the throngs haven’t started to arrive yet.
Case in point? We walked onto Splash Mountain. Since it’s the only operating water ride in the entire resort where you actually get wet enough to cool down (Grizzly Peak over in California adventure is closed for maintenance), it usually boasts a foolhardy long line, but not this morning.
Note to self (and all others who are thinking of riding Splash Mountain at any time in the near future): if you’re going to ride on Splash Mountain don’t sit in seat #3! Y’see, my Dad thought he would be safe by not sitting in the front, when the truth is the front seat is the driest part of the ride! So he got soaked wheras Mum and I, comparatively, barely got damp.
It took two hours for his jeans to dry.
Mum and I laughed – hysterically.
He was not impressed.
Since it was still quiet we made our way back to California Adventures where, again, there were no lines.
Another case in point? I walked onto to The Tower Of Terror.
I have been waiting to ride this thing for years, ever since I saw the documentary of how it was put together. I even suffered through the (rather terrible)movie version. I’m really pleased that it lived up to my expectations.
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And the cast member slams the elevator doors shut with a big rattling “clang”
Yup, I screamed. Not at the door closing of course, but at the drop. Because it’s one heck of a drop. The view from the top is pretty amazing though.
And then I immediately wanted to turn around and go through it again!
Mwahahahhahaa
At about noon or so the heat was once again getting to be too much for us and we were all starting to feel more than a little bit woozy. So we took a hotel break, and then I went back to brave the character line ups.
The line for the main princess faire was only 20 minutes, so I got my snapshots with Tiana, Ariel (who said she was keeping her balance quite well on her new legs but was still working on her dancing), and Snow White (always an honour to meet the one who started it all), and then I went next door to figure out what to do next…and saw that the Frozen line up was just over an hour…
Instead of five hours…
Shortest it’s been in ages…
So…
I caved.
What? The line was in the shade and I had nothing else I particularly “needed” to do! And the chances of the line being that short again were extremely low.
Do not judge me on my Disney geekiness, it’s part of my charm. It’s part of my charm because I say so, so there!
Honestly, I feel sorry for the girls playing Esla and Anna, they’ve got one of the most difficult parts in the park simply because they’re the most popular. Their smiles were still in place when I reached them, but there was definite exhaustion behind those carefully made up eyes.
Near impossible photo finally obtained I met back up with my little group and we headed over to New Orlean’s square to use the super-fast Pass that we’d been given at the gate (they made a mistake with our breakfast reservations, they gave us the pass as an apology). And that was one heck of a backstage pass! Took us in through the exit, bypassed not only the standby line but the entire fast-pass line! Super pass! No wonder they don’t give them out very often!
Which brings us to now, as the sun starts making its way down over the horizon and the skyline of Paradise Peir starts to glow like a giant carnival. We made the reservations for World of Colour yesterday, but the restertaunt is overbooked and so…we wait. For what feels like a very long time. Good thing we had that hot dog earlier!
That said, World of Colour was well worth the wait; and so was the dinner that we were eventually served before showtime (actually that’s an understatement, that was the best pasta I’ve had outside of Italy). I’d seen little clips of the show online over the years, but there’s rather a difference between seeing something on a little tiny screen and actually seeing it from the front row. Of course, since we were standing in the front (preferred seating, it’s so the only way to see these things), when the wind changed we did get rather a little bit damp but…definitely worth it.
So so definitely worth it.