Finally! Toontown was slow! I knew that if I could catch it early in the morning, I could beat the crowds and do more of the exploring I wanted to do since it re-opened. The last few times I visited there were other times in the day, mostly the afternoon, and it was so crazy crowded that I barely had room to breathe in there, let alone explore. Let me remind you that I can have crowd issues. But this morning was amazing! Mickey & Minnie's Runaway Railway was nearly a walk-on! One of my favorites! And I even talked myself into trying out the Roger Rabbit ride. To be honest, I have purposely avoided that ride in the past, because I'm not into the movie. It's not my humor, nor my taste in stories, so for that reason, I stayed away. I decided that day to get off my high horse and try it out, especially since that ride was only about a five-minute wait. So, I got on it and found it fun as I played around with the car. As my grandpa would have said, "Let that be a lesson to you."
I walked through the little gag area and visited the fountain. It was funny that as I was up there taking pictures, a duck flew right over my head, close enough to startle me, and it felt like it was going right at me for a moment. There was a women walking past with a stroller who saw it, too, and we just laughed. I continued my photo-op without any more duck attacks and went on eventually to explore Mickey's house. I ended up in line to meet him there, but there was a delay, and I decided since I didn't eat so well the day before (only ended up having one good meal), I needed to eat more than meet Mickey at the moment, so I slipped out and went to get something at Red Rose Tavern. I really like that place. After a lengthy amount of time there, I went to tackle the Fantasyland rides, and the lines were all so short that I had completed nearly every ride by noon. Even though I had one awkward episode when I confused Snow White's exit with the entrance and got a little called out by a CM, everything went smoothly. I was so surprised how well it all turned out. None of the ride wait times were longer than 15 minutes--Peter Pan is always the exception, but it was only about 25-30 minutes! And, Yay! for fellow-riders cheering on the teacups! Some think that the reason behind this low wait time was that it was the first day of the 70th birthday celebration, and everyone was using their time playing with those new keys.
Being in Fantasyland, I was able to see a few characters wandering around: Peter Pan, Captain Hook, Aurora; however, I never interacted with any of them. I wasn't feeling up to it, and I was feeling too aware that I'm not their preferred interactive guest, so I spared them from potential awkwardness. I was having enough interactions with guests and others that I didn't feel the need to seek that out.
Fortunately, I was finished with all of that in just enough time to enjoy watching the Disneyland Band at the castle. I hadn't been at a castle performance since my first visit, so I was really happy to be able to join in on that experience. We even had an appearance by Belle! She's one of the characters I haven't met yet.
I took a break just as the cavalcade was going on (and got a glimpse of it while leaving). I came back a little later while the flag ceremony was going on as I entered, so I stopped for a moment until it finished and then moved on to other activities. At this point I'd done all of the attractions I wanted so I stayed in the area and had some photos taken, including getting fortunate with meeting with Mickey to make up for the missed opportunity in the morning. I went one more time on the railroad (it was my great friend on this trip!) while I once more mulled over what to do next and got this bright idea to tackle Haunted Mansion again since they had a hiccup the last time I went. I was so shocked to find that the wait time was only 15 minutes! There was a delay again, but only for a few minutes. I meandered over to Pirates and found its wait time was about five minutes! Goodness, who can pass that up? Low and behold, the third pirate I noticed was missing a few days ago had returned! I felt complete now.
I think I spent some time wandering around the area mindlessly doing nothing, until I decided I needed to get something to eat at the Tropical Hideaway. I stayed there for a while and then meandered around the area while hearing the thump, thump, thumping of the parade coming from the distance. I'd decided by then that I was going to go to Small World and watch the projection show after 10:00 and wait there for the late parade (assuming it would be less crowded). LOL. First night! There's no way to avoid that crowd!
I went out trying to figure out a way to sneak into Main Street for the fireworks, but wasn't sure the CMs were allowing people to slip into the parade area, which was where I needed to be to make that happen, so I wandered out near the exit and waited there. There was no way for me to know when to go in, and it turned out that the fireworks started immediately following the parade, so I had no way of getting in there on time. I really have bad luck on getting these spots on Main Street! It was disappointing, so I resolved just to do what I did last time this happened and walked along the walking path while they were going off and caught a few glimpses while I went, and as usual, the finale happened to be right when I was on the walkway passing the castle! That wasn't so bad.
I immediately took a U-turn and went straight to Small World. The show there was only a few minutes long, but I was in a good spot for it, so that made up for things a little. It wasn't the greatest for the parade, since the CMs were requesting us to stand and I had a lot of tall people in my group. I was able to shift around a little so I could see something, but the people in front of me who were short were having to lift their phones up high to get their good pictures, so instead of seeing the parade itself, I was given a show now and then via cell phone screen! Oh well. I was a little frustrated, because they were obstructing my attempts at capturing things, but I was thankful that I got to enjoy the parade fully during its preview, so my frustrations here were petty.
Before leaving the park for the final time on this trip, I decided to take a turn in the Sleeping Beauty Walk-through since that was the one attraction I didn't do earlier. Wow, it's a whole different vibe going up there at night. It's a mysterious and suspenseful vibe with all of those dark passages. I was getting really tired, it being the end of the day and the end of the week of full activity, so I didn't really stick around there for long.
It was a great day!
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| Toontown Fountain |
