2/19/09 Thursday
Breakfast – River Belle Terrace, Disneyland Park
Lunch – Cucina Cucamonga, Disney’s California Adventure
Dinner – Hook’s Pointe, Disneyland Hotel
The day began with – you guessed it – kettle corn and Toy Story in bed. It is amazing the number of times he has watched this movie and is still riveted each and every time. Today was Grandma’s birthday and Emily had arranged a tour for her and Emily’s dad around Disneyland called the “Walk in Walt’s Footsteps Tour” which was scheduled for the entire morning. We did this tour on our honeymoon and it was a really great overview of the park from Walt’s eyes. With our morning free, Emily, Hunter ,and I decided we would hit the ground running and see as much of the Disneyland Park as we had time for.
It happened to be early magic hour where resort guests get to play in the park an hour before the day guests get to enter, which was a perfect opportunity to see some of the park without so many guests. Or so we thought. When we entered the park it was only Fantasyland and Tomorrowland that were open for the first hour so we strategized what we would see and headed to the “tiny train” as we would come to call it. It turned out that the train wasn’t really open at 8:00 but maybe soon after?? So we headed to Pinocchio’s Daring Journey which sounded just perfect for a two year old, right? OK, so we weren’t thinking too clearly at 8:15, but we went on anyway. Hunter actually handled the scary story and darkness pretty well, but when we got off he said “me no like that one” so we continued on where there was sunlight for awhile.
After our daring journey we headed back to the “tiny train” which now was open at 8:30. I know I work for the company, but I have to say there were many things that puzzled/annoyed me on this trip. The fact that not all of the attractions were not open during the full gamut of parks hours at Disneyland Park got my goat a bit. But I digress… We boarded the train and took a tour of the storybook villages which was a pretty neat ride that Hunter really enjoyed.
After we completed the journey around the tiny village we were feeling the rumbling of our tummies so we headed back to Frontierland to indulge in some breakfast at the little known River Belle Terrace. It was a beautiful morning as we took our breakfast platters and Mickey pancake outside and enjoyed the picturesque backdrop of Tom Sawyer Island. The food hit the spot and we devoured it and headed on to our next stop.
Hunter was feeling the need to explore the world by foot this morning so we let him run laps around Frontierland trying to coax him in the general direction that we were headed. We ended up back at The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh attraction, and we decided to go for a spin in a hunny pot. Hunter enjoyed bouncing up and down like Tigger and excitedly pointed out all of his Disney Channel friends. Post hunny pot, we conveniently exited right near – guess what – the train station!
Since this was Hunter’s special day we decided to ride the train and get off at the Tomorrowland stop to take the “MONORAIL!!!!“ back to Downtown Disney and make our way back to the hotel. This we did and Hunter loved every minute of it.
After the monorail, Hunter had his nap and Grandma and Poppop returned from the tour offering to watch Hunter. They weren’t even done with their offer, and Emily and I were out the door and headed into Disney’s California Adventure to grab a quiet bite to eat. We grabbed some “not so quick” service food from Cucina Cucamonga which is a Mexican restaurant. The food was good, and it was a nice break in the fast paced world of Hunter.
We returned to the room, got the rest of the gang, and headed to Disneyland Park to enjoy our second to last day in California. We took a bunch of pictures as we roamed around taking in all the sights and sounds. It was crowded so we didn’t explore many rides. After our feet were tired we headed back to the room to get ready for dinner. We were greeted by wine and a cheese plate that the Glen Griffin family arranged for Grandma’s birthday. Lucky for all of us she likes to share!
Dinner was at Hook’s Pointe restaurant at the Disneyland Hotel which was by far the fanciest meal we arranged for the family all week that included Hunter. We broke down and decided to bring the portable DVD player to dinner because Hunter was short on sleep and patience. Lucky for us it worked like a charm. We all enjoyed dinner and Poppop, Hunter and I left dinner early so Emily and Grandma could enjoy wine and dessert.
What a great day!
