Chapter 135
So Long, Farewell

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(Originally posted January 19, 2014)

I’m not the type of person who would ever advocate Disneyland needing to be like a museum and never allowed to change, but we just felt like it was a really dumb idea to close off this beautiful location that had been around for so many years.

While we sat up there, Fantasmic! started going on the Rivers of America, and we got to enjoy listening to the soundtrack from our peaceful seclusion. Eventually, however, we decided we should probably head out. We didn’t know if we’d ever see the place again, so we took a few final looks.

Having said our goodbyes, we made our way toward the front of the park. On our way out, we saw that some new Halloween-themed window displays had been put up at the front of the Emporium.

Glad that we had decided to brave the parks in spite of the heat, we’d really enjoyed a pleasant (if bittersweet) evening. On the way out, we took a picture of the Firehouse before heading home.

As you’ve probably noticed Tracy and I love any occasion to celebrate something, so we like to commemorate various “anniversaries” even if they aren’t actually big ones. Thursday the 5th marked eight-and-a-half years since we had started dating, so we decided that was a fun reason to head to the parks and celebrate. There was also an Annual Passholder Limited Time Magic event this evening to celebrate the release of The Little Mermaid on Blu-ray, so DCA was going to be open to APs for three extra hours.

It was another really hot day, but we decided to park at Mickey and Friends anyway because we’d read that the tram route was in the process of being decorated for Halloween. When we arrived, we saw the new billboards at the tram stop.

We took the tram and saw these ghosts and pumpkins that had shown up since our last visit. (Note: It’s really hard to get good pictures of anything on the side of the tram because it actually moves pretty fast…)

We had to get our wristbands for the AP event, but the process was very quick and easy. I don’t think we had to wait more than a minute or so at the assigned ticket booth before we were able to go on our way.

Heading into DCA, we made a beeline back to Boardwalk Pizza and Pasta. On the day when we failed miserably in the parks because of the heat, we had been wanting to go here for dinner to try the special Macaroni and Cheese Pizza. This was one of the last days it was available, but we made it in under the wire.

They must get complaints about the pesto because they served it to us on the side instead of dousing it on. Here was the pizza in all its glory.

This was REALLY tasty (and even better when we put the pesto on). It obviously tasted a lot like mac and cheese, but it was more of a “fancy” mac and cheese. All the flavors like the bacon came together to make it really enjoyable.

Finished with dinner, we didn’t know what to do next. It was still a few hours until the special event actually started, but the heat made it so DCA wasn’t too crowded. We were ready to get a dose of air conditioning, and since tonight was all about The Little Mermaid, we decided that would be a good ride to go on. We actually stayed on it for two full rotations because it was empty—we just asked the cast member if we could stay seated, and he was fine with that!

After getting off the attraction, we noticed that it was finally starting to get close to dusk, and it felt less deathly to be outside. Since the sun was about to set, we decided to head over to Cars Land to watch the “Sh-Boom” lighting—which is one of my favorite hidden gems in DCA—and then got a return time for the Racers.

With some time to kill, we passed through Ghirardelli and found out that they had replaced the free caramel squares with pumpkin spice ones for autumn. The pumpkin spice were good, but I didn’t really like them as much as most pumpkin-flavored treats…

Walking into “a bug’s land,” we decided that this seemed like a perfect occasion to ride Heimlich’s Chew-Chew Train. As ridiculous as that attraction is, I don’t think we’ll ever tire of it. It’s just fun!

Tracy REALLY wanted to reach those candy corns.

We headed into Hollywoodland next to check the schedule for Animation Academy and trade some Vinyls at Off the Page. As you can see, it really wasn’t too packed.

None of the upcoming animation classes really appealed to us at the moment, so we decided to head back to Paradise Pier and ride Jumpin’ Jellyfish before it closed for World of Color.

After our ride, the party was about to officially begin and we saw that DCA Today had tweeted that they were giving away some special prizes right at the stroke of 8:00. We thought it would be fun to see what they had and didn’t really expect many people to be there, but BOY were we wrong!

As we got to Carthay Circle, we saw a line of at least a few hundred people leading to the table outside of Starbucks where the Twitterers had set up camp. We thought for a split second about waiting in line, but then we decided to check what they were actually giving out. Tracy ran to the front and discovered that this entire line was for DCA Today BUTTONS. We already have more of those than we know what to do with, so we were not about to wait in this (I know the picture doesn’t do it justice, but it was a crazy line).

Instead, we headed back to Radiator Springs since it was our time!

While waiting in the Fastpass line, a screaming band of at least 10 children suddenly came sprinting toward us at top speed. They must have been hyped up on gallons of soda and 50 churros each because I have never in my life been so annoyed by kids at Disney. Their parents did made a VERY half-hearted effort to control them and tell them to respect our personal bubble, but both Tracy and I got stepped on and collided with several times. I’ve said it before—why are kids allowed in Disneyland??

Once we got to the front of the line, we were excited to be in a different car from the screamers. We got Guido and lost, but Tracy got a nice nap in.

We had thought about getting the Limited Time Magic Oswald Ice Cream Sundae as a dessert tonight, but we decided that it was a little expensive at $12 and we weren’t really hungry enough to need all that food. In the end, we opted for a Frappuccino instead.

While waiting in Fiddler, Fifer, and Practical, I noticed this awesome poster on the wall that is obviously an homage to the great Disney Channel original movie Tower of Terror. I wasn’t sure if it was a special addition now that Halloween was on its way or if it’s always there and I’d just never noticed it before. I should try to remember to check next time we’re there.