The Widow, the Spinster, and the Missus take on Disneyland - Back at DL - A F&W Soft Opening 5/7

[franandaj]

Makenna was so sure she was going to show Maria up hehe...

I told her to hang on to the handles, but that was lost in the madness I'm sure She claims she liked the first few drops, but as they carried on, the novelty wore off

We'll have to see how she does next time.

Makenna loved the band on this trip- we watched them every day I believe

Next step she needs to learn an instrument.....I have plenty of clarinets! and and extra flute.

Me neither

Everything was as excellent as always. I do remember that the shortcake was quite yummy

I'd had it back in May and it was so good, I was pleased to see it on the menu again.

Yup, she came for a hello and hug and such

She is indeed, our calm, quiet, agreeable child she is such a good sister as well. Well I suppose she's an adult now

She was well on her way to becoming an adult when I first met her.

She never stops talking, other than at Disneyland it seems- this year Disneyland really overwhelmed her.
Literally never stops talking about it now though

She was definitely more herself when I visited in September.

This was such a score, how we managed to get on with very little wait!

I think J said she didn't think she'd been on in like 10 years!

I don't remember when I rode it last!

She did ride it the year before, and I don't remember her getting too upset, she's also such a rebel, that she couldn't possibly like a ride the rest of us love!

She does love Rey though!

I guess she still couldn't get over whatever terrified her.

She was indeed! Sensory overload!
Well thanks! We try...we always tell Maria that she did not prepare us for a more normal child like Makenna!

Good thing she got a few naps in that weekend.

That was so cool that the CM who was working the Falcon was able to explain the buttons for us and help the girls! It was so fun to do it!

I'm pretty sure he just pushed everything and told us not to touch anything until he was done.

I was shocked that we got one, but it was hilariously fun!

As I said, I've never hit so much stuff. We barely got behind the train.

She was so happy she got to meet characters and loves to read through her autograph book

I always wondered about kids who filled out those autograph books and if they just went into a drawer never to be seen again.

where am I looking and what am I doing

Dorian had my phone, and I think he was taking picture of us too.

This was another score, yay for managing a short line moment! I love this ride so much!

Did Makenna ever figure out your misspeak about having been on the ride before?

Yay happiness! Makenna loved this part as she loves dancing! I think this is the dancing with Daisy part?

Yes, it is.

Ya level 4!!

Now I need to try and get to level 5!

Def not enough, we were filling a water bottle and drinking it, and I think you had a drink here and there, but def not enough!

I'm going to carry a tiny bottle in my pocket from now on.

You were not making sense indeed, it was pretty hot by the afternoon as well.

I couldn't even realize it. I thought I was just fine.

He's pretty useful that guy

I'm so glad you shared this sport as a great spot to hang and get out of the sun, it's so handy!

Spoiler alert- we had an amazing time, what a blast!

I didn't take any pictures, so no pool party update.....

 

[franandaj]

First I heard of it.

I guess when it's your local team that loses the World Series because of it, you get pummeled by it in the news.

Huh. I learned something.

It's always a good day when you learn something.

 

[franandaj]

So the last day here was Thursday. On Friday I know Allyson and her family signed up for the “Rogers, the Musical” package, and did a few other things at the park. However, since I wasn’t there, I can’t report on it. On Saturday they came to my house and we had a fabulous pool party. Their visit prompted me to clean up my backyard, and fix the thatched roof on my Tiki Bar. But I really didn’t take many pictures so I’m just going to move on to Sunday when I met them back out at the park.

Their day started off with Makenna visiting the Bibbity Bobbity Boutique, and then she visited the princesses again once she was all dolled up. I arrived somewhat late in the afternoon. Allyson and I had been texting back and forth. They were in Disneyland and I wasn’t sure exactly where they were at the time, so I popped into the gallery next to Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln. There was a display from the Haunted Mansion movie. Here is Jamie Lee Curtis’s dress as Madame Leota.

About this time I got her text and we agreed to meet up near the Blue Bayou. I don’t like to wait for characters, but I like to stalk them from afar. Here’s Donald.

And I caught this one of Redd. I think Allyson and her daughter were taking pictures with her.

Makenna wanted to meet with Mickey and Minnie, so I took advantage and got a picture as well.

Dorian took Makenna back to the room for a short nap, and Allyson Maria and I did some rides. Here we are on Indiana Jones.

I’m not exactly sure what other rides we did, in between, but they had really enjoyed the shows in the theater several days before and wanted to catch one last one before they went back home.

Makenna had a short nap, and they returned in time for us to see the show. The show was Tangled and it was a lot of fun.

It was a fun show, I really enjoyed it. Makenna really loved sitting with all the other kids up in the front section of the show.

Then we went over to the parade route to grab a spot to watch the parade.

Now I can’t believe I didn’t get one picture of Makenna today. She looked dazzling in her Princess Tiana outfit and when Tiana saw Makenna, she gave her a big smile and a wave. Allyson tells me that Makenna loves watching the video that Allyson took of her at that moment.

After the parade was over, we said our goodbyes, but I would be seeing them all again in just a couple weeks!

 

[jedijill]

Fun day! Love the dress you are wearing!

Jill in CO

 

[pkondz]

I guess when it's your local team that loses the World Series because of it, you get pummeled by it in the news.

Whoops!
And yes, I would think so.

It's always a good day when you learn something.

I know Allyson and her family signed up for the “Rogers, the Musical” package, and did a few other things at the park. However, since I wasn’t there, I can’t report on it.

Until I hear otherwise, I'm not gonna believe a word of this!

On Saturday they came to my house and we had a fabulous pool party.

Nice.

Their day started off with Makenna visiting the Bibbity Bobbity Boutique

There was a display from the Haunted Mansion movie.

Oh! Geez, thanks for the reminder. I still haven't watched it. Should do that tomorrow night.

Here is Jamie Lee Curtis’s dress as Madame Leota.

Whoa! Not at all what I would've envisioned. Pretty cool, though.

And I caught this one of Redd.

What's her character like?

You look really nice. Lovely dress.

This float cracks me up!

I need to watch that again.

Now I can’t believe I didn’t get one picture of Makenna today. She looked dazzling in her Princess Tiana outfit and when Tiana saw Makenna, she gave her a big smile and a wave.

Shame about missing the photo, but really great about the interaction with Tiana.

 

[Flossbolna]

Love the pictures from the parade! Those floats look stunning, especially Moana and Coco. I think when we were there last year there were no parades at all. Which makes for a very strange Disneyland experience. I didn't think I would miss it as much, but it does give the day a structure somehow.

 

[franandaj]

Fun day! Love the dress you are wearing!

It was fun! Thanks! I like that dress!

 

[franandaj]

Until I hear otherwise, I'm not gonna believe a word of this!

That's your prerogative.

Oh! Geez, thanks for the reminder. I still haven't watched it. Should do that tomorrow night.

You'll have to let me know what you think. Jill and I thought it was very good.

Whoa! Not at all what I would've envisioned. Pretty cool, though.

The whole movie wasn't what I expected.

What's her character like?

I don't know, I only stalked her from afar with the camera.

You look really nice. Lovely dress.

Thanks, you'd never know that it had Pooh on it. Eeyore too! That's better delivered aurally instead of through the written word.

This float cracks me up!

Me too! That's why I always take that picture.

I need to watch that again.

I've been thinking the same thing.

Shame about missing the photo, but really great about the interaction with Tiana.

Allyson got a bunch, she even got video. Makenna asks if they can watch her video all the time.

 

[franandaj]

Love the pictures from the parade! Those floats look stunning, especially Moana and Coco.

Disney is getting better and better with their floats!

I think when we were there last year there were no parades at all. Which makes for a very strange Disneyland experience. I didn't think I would miss it as much, but it does give the day a structure somehow.

Huh. That's odd, even during the pandemic, they would have random floats go down the parade route one at a time so people wouldn't gather for a parade, but you still got the float experience.

 

[franandaj]

 

[pkondz]

Not again!

And yes I can see the turtle if I quote your message.

 

[pkondz]

That's your prerogative.

You'll have to let me know what you think. Jill and I thought it was very good.

Still haven’t watched. Soon I hope.

Thanks, you'd never know that it had Pooh on it. Eeyore too! That's better delivered aurally instead of through the written word.

i got it as soon as I read it.

Allyson got a bunch, she even got video. Makenna asks if they can watch her video all the time.

 

[franandaj]

Not again!

And yes I can see the turtle if I quote your message.

Yup! I tried to post an update this morning on the Egypt TR. Been checking back all day and it's been down.

Still haven’t watched. Soon I hope.

I haven't gotten to much watching either.

i got it as soon as I read it.

 

[pkondz]

Yup! I tried to post an update this morning on the Egypt TR. Been checking back all day and it's been down.

And still nothing there...

 

[BabySteps11]

Subbing in!

 

[franandaj]

And still nothing there...

Yay the turtle finally showed up!

 

[disneyAndi14]

Hi Alison!
Im sorry you have been having trouble posting pictures! I have heard a lot of 3rd party hosts of pictures aren’t working anymore. I do mine from my IPad. I edit and put in a file then I can post. It only allows 10 pictures this way.
I also have an Ad blocker now and once I put that on my Safari all the ads are gone, thank goodness the ads are beyond annoying and make it hard to read, reply, and post

Im excited to read your Egypt TR.
I love learning about Disneyland from you. Andi and I hope to head there at some point in the next year or so.

 

[franandaj]

Subbing in!

Yay!

 

[franandaj]

Hi Alison!
Im sorry you have been having trouble posting pictures! I have heard a lot of 3rd party hosts of pictures aren’t working anymore.

I think what it is, is that I have posted so many external links to pictures that I'm exceeding the limits and every week now they have to up my limit because they think I'm a spammer.

I do mine from my IPad. I edit and put in a file then I can post. It only allows 10 pictures this way.

I link my pictures to my text in a Goggle document. The pictures are housed on Photobucket, this allows me 35 pictures. Often times my updates have way more than 35 pictures so I have to divide them into several updates.

I also have an Ad blocker now and once I put that on my Safari all the ads are gone, thank goodness the ads are beyond annoying and make it hard to read, reply, and post

Ah, you're on a Mac. I'm on a PC and not quite sure how to block ads. Sometimes they're super annoying and other times (like right now), they're not even popping up. So weird.

I'm excited to read your Egypt TR.

I saw that you've popped in over there.

I love learning about Disneyland from you. Andi and I hope to head there at some point in the next year or so.

Let me know when you decide to come visit. I love playing tour guide!

 

[franandaj]

Since I’m so far ahead on writing my Egypt TR, I thought I’d do a little “what I did this summer post” before I get to my next Disney update. This will be a quick little one. Now after Fran passed away, I kind of got out of control on booking travel.

I did a first little trip to Denver back in June. However, I didn’t do much of anything to report on during that trip other than hang out with Jill. We went to dinner a few times and saw the new Indiana Jones movie on the day it was released. But I was just too tired from the past few years, so I caught up on a lot of TV shows, and just chilled out, well she had to work from home during the day while I was there, so I guess I just chilled out.

You heard about my next trip on this TR, (the one where I inadvertently went to Mexico and finally wound up in Anaheim, staying with Jill at the Westin). The following week, I visited my Mom in San Jose. We went to the Egyptian museum, and you can read a little about that in the intro to my Egypt trip.

Here, you also read about my girls day at Disney, and then finally Allyson and her family came to visit and I spent some time with them too.

For the month of September I was gone every other week! I’m not doing that again, but here’s a whirlwind trip report for those visits. I was going to post them all at once, but as I’ve been writing them up, I realized it’s a lot. I’ll give a day or two inbetween each trip. Then I’ll get back to Disney updates again!

For the future, I have out of town trips planned about once a month for the next year, and that’s probably good for me.

My first trip of the September whirlwind was to Denver for my annual band conference. The last time Fran and I attended was 2019 in Orlando. We did a small trip to WDW including an MNSSHP that year. Then we all know what happened after that. The conference was virtual in 2020. In 2021 they held a live conference and most of the people who attended came home with covid. Obviously we did not attend in 2022 due to Winnie. If you need clarification on that statement, read my TR (link in my signature). Taking Winnie on a Wonder Cruise. It’s all in the first post there.

So Fran and I had decided we wouldn’t attend the 2023 Band conference. There were too many other things we wanted to do together. Your time is pretty restricted at these conferences because there are rehearsals and concerts to attend. However, since it was just me, I thought it would be a good thing to reconnect with my band friends from all over the place. So back in May I registered and shortly thereafter booked flights and my hotel room.

The conference was in Denver, so I was able to save a bit of money by staying with Jill the nights before and after the conference. And since it was over Labor Day I stayed for a bonus day since she didn’t have to work!

Remember when we cooked our own dinners at Shabu Shabu in August. Well we followed that same tradition for my first night in Denver, although we didn’t do any actual cooking. We went to the Melting Pot near her house. We started off with the cheese fondue, I think we got a pretty standard one with swiss cheese and wine. They gave us bread and vegetables to dip in the cheese.

Next we each ordered a salad. I mean we need to get our ruffage. I went with the Caesar salad.

Jill went with the standard dinner salad.

If you do “The Big Night Out”, the next course would be a TON of meat and vegetables cooked in either broth or oil, but we didn’t want to be “bring a bucket” full. So instead, we moved right on to the dessert course. We chose the S’mores which was chocolate and marshmallow with graham cracker crumbs sprinkled on top.

The long tray is what normally comes with the fondue, but we purchased the add on with macarons, cheesecake, and creme puffs. We would have been fine with the regular offering.

Thursday morning she dropped me off at the Conference hotel before she had to be at work, like 8-9AM in the morning. Turns out, my room was ready so I dropped my stuff there and went out in search of breakfast. I’m not going to share the nitty gritty of the conference, suffice to say, every day there was a rehearsal, there was one that night until 8PM.

While I was there, I met up with some old friends. Jill and I did meet up for dinner Friday night and we went to a Dim Sum style restaurant, but almost three months later, I don't remember what any of the stuff we ate was, so I'm skipping that meal. Saturday I went to a special dinner for folks who have been charitable to the organization. And on the last day of the conference there was a concert. On the morning of the concert, there was a meeting/presentation where awards were given, people made speeches, and we found out details about the future conferences.

Following that meeting, I had a break several hours long, so Jill picked me up at the theater and we headed to D-Bar Desserts.

I needed more coffee, it was going to be a long day.

Jill got the French Farmhouse Breakfast Casserole with scrambled eggs soaked croissant & brioche, country ham, gruyere, caramelized onions, whole grain mustard mornay, side salad. She was very pleased with it!

I got a lobster roll with handmade chips, which doesn’t appear to be on the menu any longer, so that’s all I can tell you about it. It was good!

But what we really came for was the desserts! Jill got the 'Baked In Alaska!' whole wheat vanilla cake, meyer lemon sorbet, vanilla huckleberry swirl mousse, huckleberry sauce torched Italian meringue, meyer lemon tuile.

I got the Molten Cake Thingy Everyone Has… But Ours Is Gluten Free! 64% criollo chocolate lava cake, chocolate sauce chocolate dentelle, raspberry compote pistachio ice cream. This was super good! I love a molten cake!

See? Ooey gooey inside.

Then back to the theater for the “tech” rehearsal. This would be our chance to do any final touches, and see how the performance space “sounds”.

The ensembles were named for two of the tallest peaks in Colorado.

These are all the people from the Los Angeles band who traveled to the conference.

Here’s everyone in the saxophone section for our band.

Jill snapped this picture of me from the audience.

The Governor of Colorado proclaimed the week of the conference Rocky Mountain Dreams week in honor of the conference.

The concert was a success and both bands performed spectacularly. Following the concert, I went back to Jill’s place where we had labor day plans.

We started our day with a breakfast of champions at Snooze.

I got two kinds of Eggs Benedict with their special hash browns. I think one was traditional and the second one was Italian style with Prosciutto instead of ham.

We split this Blueberry pancake with Blueberry syrup.

Jill got the breakfast sandwich with scrambled egg and sausage on a pretzel bun.

Following breakfast we went back Jill’s place and did a marathon of movies in preparation for the Egypt trip. First we watched Lawrence of Arabia, and then Agatha Christie’s Death on the Nile, the newer version. While we watched the movies, we paused them a few times to make future travel plans. We made arrangements for rental cars, worked out our dining schedule for our April trip to WDW, and sealed up our trip to Napa in February.

So we have all those things going for us in the future! It was a fun and pretty chill way to spend Labor day. I flew home the next day, and got ready for my next adventure which was just one week away.