Lisa's Letters from La La Land: When You Wish Upon a Star....

Getting up at the crack of dawn ( or before) is the norm for this trip, but today, I was keen as mustard to be up and going on time.

This of course, takes some doing with the group dynamic, so when all were assembled, we headed across to the hallowed ground that is Disneyland , en masse.

It was a relatively quick task to line up and exchange vouchers for our 14 day hopper pass, and then it was through the turnstiles and immersion in the magic.

Under the bridge we went, and it was hard to miss that Disneyland was all dressed up and ready to party for Halloween. The rust, orange and yellow décor was on every possible vantage point and really gave the place a festive look. It was like Halloween was going to be ‘tomorrow’ and it was hard not to think like that as well.

Other changes I’d noticed straight up were the recent renovations to Main Street, the most disappointing of which, was that the Penny Arcade was now essentially a lolly shop with just one or two of the old machines I used to love feeding those annoying coppers into to get rid of them. I was actually quite disappointed by this change.

All the shop windows were decorated in the Halloween theme too and they are at their usual intricate brilliance – and in hindsight, I didn’t photograph nearly enough of them. The regular ‘need to be somewhere’ really curtailed my more creative photographic efforts, as they take the time we just didn’t have.

The idea was that we’d hit a few of the headliner rides as a group, have lunch and then disperse, and by and large, that’s kind of what happened. Its very exciting when the first ride you choose is a walk-on, and having ridden Pirates multiple times, I was quick to choose a seat to the back – cos I am opposed to getting my clothes too wet on the rides.

But of course, the newbies were none the wiser and exited the ride with wet butts from the front rows… I was sitting with Sandie and it was a hoot to call out ‘he wants the redhead’ at the opportune moment – and only our Disney-file Club friends who read this will understand just how funny that truly was.

From Pirates we headed to ride Haunted Mansion with its Nightmare before Christmas overlay for the Halloween season. This was the most decorated part of the park in my estimation and it was truly spectacular.

It is well known, again, amongst my Disneyana Club friends that I am not a fan of the Haunted Mansion ride, and so I did sit with Sandie who was going to monitor my terror level. As it turns out, I LOVED the new Halloween overlay with Jack Skellington all over everything( Sandie was probably disappointed with my lack of panic) and I knew I was going to ride this one again, multiple times if I could swing it.

The next one on the list was Splash Mountain, but it was down at the time, so we did a quick ride of Winnie the Pooh and seeing as the ride was still down for an indefinite time, lunch at the Hungry Bear was the go… Now today was also my ‘Izzy day’. Izzy being our trip mascot and today being my turn to show him some of the sights. I believe I set the bar pretty high today, as he had his first romantic encounter ( with an amorous praying mantis at Lunch) and later on riding the tea cups – my fav Disneyland ride. Although, I think I might have spun him a little too much cos he was looking a little green for a while after that.

Another attempt was made to ride Splash, but alas ( feigned distress here) the ride was still down and to the great amusement of other park goers, we donned our shower caps regardless and judging began in earnest. It’s a long story, but the need for shower caps centred around some of us not wanting to get wet hair on this ride. So caps were supplied with the instructions that the best decorated one would win a prize at the park. It was a hoot listening to passers-by fully convinced this was a challenge being arranged by some of the HUGE Disney-fied Internet based forums – but no, just a bunch of funny women from Australia.

So with the shower caps having been judged, and the winner to be announced at dinner, we headed over to Big Thunder Mountain, another of my top 5 rides. Always a winner in my book. Its fast, its smooth, and the mining town theme is so well done that you feel you are ‘back in the day’. Apart from that, you get to clear your lungs out with a good scream most of the way around .

From here we kind of zig zagged a bit, and rode the teacups, just cos we could, and took a group photo in front of the castle… and then it was on to the Bobsleds ride to see if all the alterations at the newly renovated Matterhorn were indeed as rough as is often said.

Well, the answer to that would be … yes. The ride is rougher, but the new bobsleds, in my opinion, are better to sit in than the older ones. Or maybe its just that they’re shiner… who knows.

At this point, a few broke away from the group, me being one, and I headed to the sanctuary of air-conditioned retail therapy. The heat was unbelievable and was taking its toll on me so an hour in the shops was just what the doctor ordered.

Mid afternoon, we all met back up at the Plaza Inn to celebrate our Unbirthday with Pat E Cake, Mickey and Donald. Interestingly, I would put money on every other group in the place were ACTUALLY celebrating a real birthday and under the age of 10, but anyhoo…. We were all presented with a Mickey shaped cake, a few squirts of psychedelic coloured icing, a paddlepop stick to apply said icing and little cups of sprinkles and lollies to decorate our unbirthday cakes. Well, turns out with that many women in a group, we were decorating for sheep stations and the competition was fierce. I was going for the whole ‘hidden Mickey’ theme, but fell short, as the heat was melting all my icing and it just looked pretty hideous by the time I was finished.

After some singing and dancing by Pat E , M and D, the birthday boy/girl was invited up to take photos, so naturally, the whole 15 of us trooped up and gathered for a shot.

So with cakes having been consumed, and little cups of lollies having been swallowed as sugar shots rather than being decorating items, we again headed out into the park to various vantage points.

We piled onto the train and tootled around to Tomorrowland, where some of our number decided to ride Autopia and the rest of us stayed on the train till Main Street and called it a day at the park, me being one…. Being on the go all day, the heat in the high 30’s had taken its toll and I needed a break so headed back to the hotel for a bit before we all met up again to head to Down Town Disney to dine at the Rainforest Café.

Wow, LOVED this restaurant, that is more shop and show, than purely about the food. This place buzzes with a frenetic energy, with sudden thunderstorms that set off all the animatronics beasties around the levels, and lively waiters who travel in packs and get very excited when someone orders the volcano looking dessert.

The food here was amazing…HUGE… but really delicious - as were their cocktails. I’ll definitely be dining here again in the future.

And drum roll please… I was the lucky winner of the ‘decorate your cap’ challenge, and happily spent my gift card later in the trip on a set of Minnie Mouse ears…

Another massive day, another late night… time for bed before another early start tomorrow.