If you remember from yesterday, I left off at the esplanade of Disneyland as we started to walk through the gates for the first time ever:
I knew, once I saw the train station, that this definitely wasn't Disney World!
Even if a familiar sign greeted me (albeit lower and without a high wall above it):
I booked it down Main Street:
Even bypassing the firehouse, trying to get to that castle view I'd waited so long to see:
Where I had the typical, "IT'S SO SMALL!" reaction:
But I just HAD to get a traditional shot, because in our family we like Mouse butts and we can not lie...
Adventureland was first and I was a bit disappointed in its entry:
Florida has much more of a grand Adventureland entrance than California...but again, I didn't mind too much because I had a specific destination in mind, one in another land, Liberty Square:
Seems to me that it's a bit sacrilegious parking scooters beside a hearse:
But I concede that Disneyland's Haunted Mansion is far prettier than Disney World's, even with all the Nightmare Before Christmas stuff all over it:
And my new camera didn't fail to disappoint, especially in dark room pictures where there was movement and I was walking:
The ride never stopped, but it did slow a bit in places, so I was able to get very difficult shots:
As much as I love Nightmare Before Christmas the movie, having it take over my favorite Disney ride was upsetting, especially in one of my favorite places, the singing busts:
So ride #1 was a bust, but I still had my second-favorite Disney ride, Pirates, to go:
It moved a lot faster than Disney World's, but it's also a lot longer and, in all honesty, blew WDW's version completely out of the water! At least I managed to get a clean shot of one of the most ellusive scenes in Florida's version:
We rode the Mark Twain afterwards (which felt just like the Liberty Belle, but with more scenery to see):
and then headed directly to the castle for some up-close shots of it:
Of course I got a couple of tears walking through the portcullis, but got happy again once we did the Castle Walkthrough and saw my favorite Disney Villain:
We headed to ToonTown next (I really missed seeing a ToonTown) and Pluto's Dog House:
For a hot dog and my first food disappointment of the trip:
It's not that it was a bad dog, it just wasn't "good", and by that I mean Casey's in Florida good. Oh well, can't expect much out of a hot dog, so when we finished, we continued to wander around ToonTown taking in the sights:
I was a bit surprised that it wasn't more crowded compared to the rest of the park...at Disney World it was always the most congested area, but since we never had Roger Rabbit's Car Toon Spin at Disney World, I couldn't wait to ride it!
It was way too fast to get a decent shot on the inside, but I did keep some of the better ones. By this time, we had got the text that our room was ready, so it was back to The Grand Cali to see where we would be staying for the next five nights. Needless to say, I was quite pleased with the room, despite all the negative comments I had read online about it being tired and old:
There is just something comforting about staying in a Disney resort hotel, especially with hidden Mickey's hidden everywhere like the carpet:
and the bed throw:
Once we settled in, it was time to get ready for dinner at Storytellers Cafe:
Where my usual lamp fetish was in high gear:
Once again, the staff, in particular our waitress, was very subpar, but after a drink, I didn't mind so much and, of course, I had to have one with a light up cube:
This was a buffet restaurant and, knowing how Disney limits menu items, I wasn't expecting the same thing at the buffet...there were literally two different meats, two different veggies, and two carb items total on the buffet. It probably would have been easier to just order off the menu. But anyway, here are our food pics, his first:
Then mine:
I had already returned for seconds before she even brought the bread to our table. I was so miffed, I forgot to get a picture of it and even almost forgot to get my second plate:
Or second drink which took almost 20 minutes to get to the table:
I had to turn that cube off because it was rotating colors and hurt my eyes. Dessert was up next, and we just got a sampling of each and shared. There was a bigger selection (four instead of two):
But only one was to my taste and even it wasn't very good:
Overall, this was probably one of the worst of our meals, which wasn't a good start for our first Disneyland trip. When I think of Disney buffets, my mind automatically wanders to Hollywood & Vine in Disney World's Hollywood Studios and it's a huge bar with numerous selections and an almost as big dessert bar. Compared to H&V, Storytellers was a joke. The bad waitress didn't help matters any. By that point, we had been up since the butt-crack of dawn and I was just ready to call it a night, especially with the L.A. Tour the next day (you guys know...the one I had been dreading all year long). So tomorrow, let's pick up with the infamous L.A. Tour!
I knew, once I saw the train station, that this definitely wasn't Disney World!
Even if a familiar sign greeted me (albeit lower and without a high wall above it):
I booked it down Main Street:
Even bypassing the firehouse, trying to get to that castle view I'd waited so long to see:
Where I had the typical, "IT'S SO SMALL!" reaction:
But I just HAD to get a traditional shot, because in our family we like Mouse butts and we can not lie...
Adventureland was first and I was a bit disappointed in its entry:
Florida has much more of a grand Adventureland entrance than California...but again, I didn't mind too much because I had a specific destination in mind, one in another land, Liberty Square:
Seems to me that it's a bit sacrilegious parking scooters beside a hearse:
But I concede that Disneyland's Haunted Mansion is far prettier than Disney World's, even with all the Nightmare Before Christmas stuff all over it:
And my new camera didn't fail to disappoint, especially in dark room pictures where there was movement and I was walking:
The ride never stopped, but it did slow a bit in places, so I was able to get very difficult shots:
As much as I love Nightmare Before Christmas the movie, having it take over my favorite Disney ride was upsetting, especially in one of my favorite places, the singing busts:
So ride #1 was a bust, but I still had my second-favorite Disney ride, Pirates, to go:
It moved a lot faster than Disney World's, but it's also a lot longer and, in all honesty, blew WDW's version completely out of the water! At least I managed to get a clean shot of one of the most ellusive scenes in Florida's version:
We rode the Mark Twain afterwards (which felt just like the Liberty Belle, but with more scenery to see):
and then headed directly to the castle for some up-close shots of it:
Of course I got a couple of tears walking through the portcullis, but got happy again once we did the Castle Walkthrough and saw my favorite Disney Villain:
We headed to ToonTown next (I really missed seeing a ToonTown) and Pluto's Dog House:
For a hot dog and my first food disappointment of the trip:
It's not that it was a bad dog, it just wasn't "good", and by that I mean Casey's in Florida good. Oh well, can't expect much out of a hot dog, so when we finished, we continued to wander around ToonTown taking in the sights:
I was a bit surprised that it wasn't more crowded compared to the rest of the park...at Disney World it was always the most congested area, but since we never had Roger Rabbit's Car Toon Spin at Disney World, I couldn't wait to ride it!
It was way too fast to get a decent shot on the inside, but I did keep some of the better ones. By this time, we had got the text that our room was ready, so it was back to The Grand Cali to see where we would be staying for the next five nights. Needless to say, I was quite pleased with the room, despite all the negative comments I had read online about it being tired and old:
There is just something comforting about staying in a Disney resort hotel, especially with hidden Mickey's hidden everywhere like the carpet:
and the bed throw:
Once we settled in, it was time to get ready for dinner at Storytellers Cafe:
Where my usual lamp fetish was in high gear:
Once again, the staff, in particular our waitress, was very subpar, but after a drink, I didn't mind so much and, of course, I had to have one with a light up cube:
This was a buffet restaurant and, knowing how Disney limits menu items, I wasn't expecting the same thing at the buffet...there were literally two different meats, two different veggies, and two carb items total on the buffet. It probably would have been easier to just order off the menu. But anyway, here are our food pics, his first:
Then mine:
I had already returned for seconds before she even brought the bread to our table. I was so miffed, I forgot to get a picture of it and even almost forgot to get my second plate:
Or second drink which took almost 20 minutes to get to the table:
I had to turn that cube off because it was rotating colors and hurt my eyes. Dessert was up next, and we just got a sampling of each and shared. There was a bigger selection (four instead of two):
But only one was to my taste and even it wasn't very good:
Overall, this was probably one of the worst of our meals, which wasn't a good start for our first Disneyland trip. When I think of Disney buffets, my mind automatically wanders to Hollywood & Vine in Disney World's Hollywood Studios and it's a huge bar with numerous selections and an almost as big dessert bar. Compared to H&V, Storytellers was a joke. The bad waitress didn't help matters any. By that point, we had been up since the butt-crack of dawn and I was just ready to call it a night, especially with the L.A. Tour the next day (you guys know...the one I had been dreading all year long). So tomorrow, let's pick up with the infamous L.A. Tour!
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Linda