Chapter 59
After-Hours in the Kingdom

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(Originally posted September 2, 2013)

Exiting Cars Land, we went through the tunnel into Pacific Wharf.

Tracy and I were both jonesing for a snack and realized we could get one for free by taking the Bakery Tour.

As we entered the building, we were handed our slices of sourdough bread. It was really quite delicious! We had tasted the bread before when we got bread bowls at Pacific Wharf Café, but we had never done the tour before.

While we would later learn that most people just take a sample and go, we decided to see what the actual tour was all about. So we watched the HIGH-quality movie with Rosie O’Donnell and Colin Mochrie before we were released into the bakery itself.

We actually learned quite a bit about how the whole process of making the bread works (does it gross anyone else out a little how the starter dates back over 100 years? I know, I get that we’re not eating 100-year-old bread, but it still sort of feels like it…) I also think it must be so awkward to be one of the cast members making the bread and constantly being watched—sort of how zoo animals feel, I expect.

After we finished learning ALL about bread, we decided to be done with DCA for now, so we hopped back over to Disneyland.

Going over to Adventureland, we saw that Aladdin was meeting and greeting in his Oasis, so we said “hi.”

The Jungle Cruise was another attraction, like Alice in Wonderland, that we never would have been able to ride going in the standby line because it is ALWAYS in that 20+ minute range.

We made use of the GAC yet again, therefore, and were quickly able to board a boat.

Our skipper was funny, and it was a great way to be reintroduced to this ride for the first time after a long absence.

I for one will always laugh at the corny jokes. I just love the Jungle Cruise.

Hungry in earnest now, we decided to try out another of the counter service restaurants that we had always heard rave reviews for—Bengal Barbeque.

We had actually grabbed our very first Mickey pretzel from this location on our last trip, but now we wanted to sample some of the unique menu items. The line here is actually always ridiculously long, but we finally got to the front and ordered a Tiger Tail (not to be confused with a Tigger Tail), a Banyan Beef Skewer, and a Safari Skewer (aka the world-famous bacon-wrapped asparagus).

Here were our entrees.

The Tiger Tail is basically a delicious extra-large breadstick with a grilled flavor. We really enjoyed it.

The Safari Skewer was everything we dreamed it would be. We love bacon, and asparagus is one of our favorite vegetables (especially when grilled) so it did not disappoint. The one thing about it, however, was that we realized it was quite expensive for something we could pretty easily make at home. We decided that we would try grilling up our own Safari Skewers the next time we got a craving.

The Banyan Beef Skewer surprised us by being (possibly) our favorite part of the meal! The sauce was deliciously spicy, and the beef was very tender. It was also served with a green onion on the side, and Tracy wondered if that would taste good to complement the skewer.

The answer, unfortunately, was a resounding “NO!” and she spent the rest of the evening being sad that her mouth tasted like onion.

On the whole, we had a really great experience at Bengal Barbeque and decided we would most definitely be back. Halfway through the meal, though, we started shivering as the sun started to set. Once we were finished eating, we went back to the car to grab our jackets.

Riding back on the tram from Mickey and Friends, we had a decision to make. There was a Limited Time Passholder Magic event today offering screenings of Peter Pan at the Main Street Opera House. Tracy and I had gotten wristbands for the 7:00pm showing since we thought it would be the one least crowded with kids. That time was now approaching, and we needed to figure out if we wanted to go. I was pretty gung-ho in wanting to see the movie, but Tracy was worried that she would definitely fall asleep if put in a dark theater at this hour—we had, after all, been on the go since very early that morning. In the end, we decided not to go to the screening (we had just gotten the Blu-ray anyway) and to spend the rest of the evening touring the parks instead.

First, we went to DCA and rode Soarin’ Over California since it’s still always one of my favorites. Next, we hopped back over to Disneyland and went on Pirates. I tried to take a few non-flash pictures in the loading area and riding past Blue Bayou.

As we got off Pirates, the park was actually closing, but we still had one last trick up our sleeves (or rather on our wrists). As part of the Limited Time Magic event, they were keeping Fantasyland open after hours from 8:00 to 10:00 just for the passholders who had gotten wristbands for the Peter Pan screening. Even though we hadn’t gone to the movie, we still had our wristbands, so we walked over to Fantasyland.

First we rode Snow White, followed by a spin on the Carrousel.

We followed that up with a journey through hell with Mr. Toad.

And next, we took a spin aboard the Casey Jr. Circus Train. I should pause here to note that when we walked around Fantasyland surveying the crowds (which were EXTREMELY light), we saw a Disneyland Cat dart across our path near “it’s a small world”. Obviously, the kitty had expected the park to be closed and was surprised there were still so many people around. It was at this moment that we began wondering if the cats had a Twitter account—and the rest, as they say, is history.

I should also mention how much we love Casey Jr. I think it’s one of Disneyland’s most easily overlooked attractions, but it’s really a lot of fun. We try never to sit in the cages, so it’s not as uncomfortable as it looks, and the ride gives you a unique view of Storybook Land. We ride it quite often.

After Casey Jr., Tracy took a ride on the Matterhorn Bobsleds using the single rider line (even though there were barely any people in the regular line). I liked how the moon looked over the mountain as I waited for her.

We followed up the Matterhorn by riding Pinocchio, which was one of the last Fantasyland rides we hadn’t done yet that day. And now, even though it was only about 9:00, and we could have spent another hour in Fantasyland, we were exhausted and ready to turn in. We noticed the beauty of the lit up Snow White fountain on the way out.

The castle was, of course, quite beautiful as well.

By now, Main Street was pretty much deserted, and they had already closed the garage door entrance to the Penny Arcade.

We only lingered on Main Street for a few minutes, therefore, before making our way out of the park. We had officially stayed from rope drop until past closing, and we were exhausted. Despite not starting off great, the day had been a lot of fun, and we once again just felt so lucky to be here.

Overview of February 2013

Total Days Visiting Disneyland Parks
5

Celebrity Sightings in CA*
Ron Howard

*Though this was our first celeb sighting in CA, we had a long history of spotting famous people in NYC. For fun, I will now attempt to make a full list of all the celebrities we sighted there over the many years. You should also note that our definition of “celebrity” is a little loose. It could be relabeled as a list of people who we had seen on our TVs and then later saw in real life.
Taylor’s NY Sightings: Richard Gere, Jesse Eisenberg, Paul Newman, Joanne Woodward, Cheyenne Jackson, Chris Parnell, Joanna Gleason
Tracy’s NY Sightings: Peter Facinelli
Sightings in NY Together: Robert Pattinson, Daniel Radcliffe, Katie Holmes, John Lithgow, Blake Lively, Bernadette Peters, Mary Kate Olsen, Richard Kind, Kristin Chenoweth, Sean Hayes, Victor Garber, Ashley Greene, Corbin Bleu, Richard Griffiths, Kendra Wilkinson, Hank Baskett, John Lutz (Lutz from 30 Rock), Scott Adsit (Pete from 30 Rock), Amanda Setton (Shauna from The Mindy Project), Tony Plana (Ignacio Suarez from Ugly Betty)

Disney Movies We Watched
Cars (As I said when I first mentioned Cars Land, we had only seen Cars one time back when it was in theaters. At the time, I remembered really liking it and not really getting why it had gotten much poorer reviews than any other Pixar movie to date. Now, in preparation for heading to DCA, we watched it again on Blu-ray, and I still thought it was quite good. It’s not my FAVORITE Pixar movie, but I was a fan of the story and the animation. Plus, I think once you see Cars Land, you can appreciate the movie even more because it almost feels like you’ve walked on the “movie set”)
Sleeping Beauty (For some reason, Tracy was convinced that she HATED Sleeping Beauty. She was pretty sure there was something about the movie that she really didn’t like… but since she had only seen it once and was in elementary school at the time, we wondered if her hatred was well-founded. I had honestly probably seen this movie fewer times than most of the other classics because I don’t think it was among my Disney VHS tapes growing up. I finally convinced her to watch the movie again as we wanted to really understand the Castle Walkthrough at Disneyland. Upon watching the film again for the first time in almost 20 years, both of us really liked it. The animation is just beautiful, Maleficent is terrifying, and the fairies are amusing. Our one criticism would probably be that Aurora is the most one-dimensional of the Disney princesses, but she serves her purpose)
The Aristocats (I’ve read several bad reviews of this movie since it was one of the first ones made after Walt died, and it had been years since I’d seen it—plus Tracy hadn’t ever seen it at all. We enjoyed the film as it related to our newfound amusement with cats. The characters are all pleasant enough, and the story is fun if a little “fluffy”—pun not even intended. “Everybody Wants to Be a Cat” is DEFINITELY one of the “trippiest” things in any Disney movie ever, but on the whole we liked The Aristocats pretty well)

Disneyland Cat Sightings
Oh, bother. At this point, I think it was safe to say we had lost count. Let’s just say several.

Favorite Disney Snack
Beignets from Ralph Brennan’s Jazz Kitchen Express (These were absolutely delicious, and they were even worth the sneezing attack I went through before trying to eat them)

Favorite Disney Meal
Hot Link Corn Dog from Corn Dog Castle (This one almost feels like a copout because we knew from experience how much we loved them. Still, it did not disappoint and really hit the spot)

Favorite Guilty-Pleasure TV Show
The Bachelor (Ugh, I feel dirty even admitting this one. I’ll admit that we started watching just because we never had before and wanted to see what all the fuss was about. Then all the ridiculous personalities combined with such a ridiculous premise had us tuning in week after week. In the end, we’re also just hopeless romantics, and found ourselves wanting all these people to find SOMEONE they could live happily together with, even if we don’t REALLY have that much faith in the process of The Bachelor/Bachelorette)

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