Chapter 63
Spontaneous Fun

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(Originally posted September 8, 2013)

When we had been in Tomorrowland earlier, we had pulled Space Mountain Fastpasses. Now it was our window, so we went back over there. We loved the ride yet again, and this time Tracy figured out when the picture was about to be taken.

After coming back from space, we decided to hop over to DCA. We made our way back toward Paradise Pier and saw that Goofy was on his way out to perform in Instant Concert! …Just Add Water. We grabbed a spot on a bench and decided to watch the performance.

This is one of those little live performances (which take place all over both parks) that I think MAKE Disneyland what it is. There’s always a feeling of spontaneity here that allows you to think anything might happen at any time—and then it does! We had a lot of fun watching the Instant Concert, and then when it was over, everyone just went back about their business.

Getting up from our viewing location, we walked past the cast members who were playing different games along the boardwalk area. One of the goals was to guess Disney-related words whose letters were jumbled up on the ground. Tracy and I were able to guess them all without issue, so the cast member wanted to know if we could correctly rearrange the letters in “supercalifragilisticexpialidocious” in less that a minute. We set to work moving them all around and quickly had our word correct.

We were rewarded with a sticker, and we again just found ourselves grinning from ear to ear because we were having fun enjoying the bizarre surprises DCA was offering us this afternoon.

Since we were in Paradise Pier anyway, I think we rode Toy Story Mania (though I don’t have a picture of our scores to prove it) before heading out for the day. On the way out, we were stopped by our first Guest Research cast members and asked about our day in DCA. We made sure to point out how much we liked our interactions with the Paradise Pier cast members and gave the overall day very high marks.

Thursday, we returned to Disneyland after work yet again. This time, the weather was looking a little iffy (which rarely happens here) so we actually brought an umbrella because we were sure it was about to start raining. We went into Disneyland and walked back to Snow White’s Grotto, where we had never properly spent any time before.

It’s quite beautiful back there, and we admired all the statues. Next, we went into Fantasyland and rode the Story Book Land Canal Boats. It was our first time riding the attraction during the day, so we got several good pictures of the miniatures.

My favorite thing continues to be when there are Disneyland Ducks looking like giants stomping around among the small-scale structures.

We dream of one day seeing a Disneyland Cat acting like Godzilla in Story Book Land.

I feel like I would be remiss if I didn’t mention our other favorite part about this ride. We LOVE the fact that the actual script and official storyline is that Monstro gobbled up Pinocchio and Gepetto, but the clever pair lit a fire that made the whale sneeze his tail right off. And what happens when a whale sneezes his tail off? Why, we get our own private entrance to Story Book Land, OF COURSE!

We rode “it’s a small world” next. I’m serious that we really couldn’t get enough of this ride when it first reopened from its refurb.

Going back to the hub, we saw that the Fire Engine was waiting, and since that was a Main Street Vehicle we hadn’t ridden yet, we climbed aboard.

Hopping over to DCA, we walked by Carthay Circle Restaurant and ogled at the beautiful architecture.

Next, we walked past Grizzly Peak and over to the Blue Sky Cellar.

The concepts that were on display at that time were the models for Fantasy Faire (which we had just gotten a peek at the previous day).

The models they do in preparation for a new land are just incredible. I still remember marveling at the complete New Fantasyland model at One Man’s Dream in WDW. We also liked how they had some fake Imagineer desks in the Blue Sky Cellar. Duffy is peeking out from a shelf.

After thoroughly examining the model for Fantasy Faire, we also watched the video they were playing that previewed the area and Mickey and the Magical Map. It made us really excited for both things to come to our park!

Moving back outside, we walked over to Hollywoodland.

We decided to do a round at the Animation Academy because we could learn to draw Pluto!!

Here’s Tracy’s drawing.

And mine.

On the way out from the Animation Academy, Tracy had to quickly get my attention because I was about to step in vomit. That’s right, someone found animating to be a little too thrilling and left what Disney refers to as a “protein spill” on the stairs. Narrowly avoiding the mess, we went back out into the Animation Building. We actually got right back in line for the Animation Academy again because the next class was going to learn how to draw the Cheshire Cat. We had developed a newfound love for this character because his wily ways and his general brattiness remind us of our frenemy Crooky, so we were very excited to learn how to draw him.

Unfortunately, the doors didn’t open when they were supposed to. We waited for a little while before the cast member came over the loudspeaker to let us know the class had been cancelled. Apparently they couldn’t clean up the protein spill quickly enough (though of course, they didn’t make any mention of that).

Disappointed that we would have to wait until another time to learn how to draw the Cheshire Cat, we moved back out onto Buena Vista Street. Our disappointment quickly subsided when we saw Pluto coming out for a meet and greet. We were the first ones to line up, so we got to meet the fellow we had just drawn!

A little further down Buena Vista Street, Chip ‘n’ Dale were also out. They were fun, though Chip was being a little too flirtatious with Tracy…

After our character interactions, we left DCA and went home. We hadn’t needed our umbrella after all, though once we left, the clouds opened up and started pouring. I guess we just had impeccable timing.

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