Disneyland 2017 Trip - Day 3

Todd joined me for the power walk this morning - kudos to him for getting up early.  We had another great walk and got to watch (as we passed and then later looped back through the same area) them rehearsing and shooting a commercial with Mickey on a cherry picker.  Neat!

After the walk we again got breakfast at the Hearthstone Lounge and took it back to the room to eat and relax/nap until the park was open.  We planned to spend this day and the next at Disneyland, so we were not in any hurry today.

A menacing shadow behind the curtains turns out to be just a big moth.  We managed to shoo him out onto the balcony where he glowered at us before flying away.

Good morning Disneyland

First stop:  Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln - an attraction at the beginning of Main Street that we had never done before (and probably won't do again).  Robot Lincoln speaks; historic and iconic, but *yawn*.

Wait for it...

wait for it...

wait for it...

Bam!  Sleeping Beauty Castle.

We went into Tomorrowland and rode Star Tours, then walked around to Big Thunder Mountain Railroad and rode it.

Big Thunder Mountain.  You can see a crane in the under-construction Star Wars land in the upper left.

Always a fun ride

Splash Mountain.  We'll come back to you later; right now we have lunch reservations at...

...the Blue Bayou Restaurant

The Blue Bayou is a restaurant inside the Pirates of the Caribbean ride - boats of passengers float by on the river on one side of the restaurant.

Bottomless nonalcoholic mint juleps.  Delicious and refreshing.  Recipe here.
For lunch Todd had the Jambalaya and I had a Monte Cristo sandwich.

After lunch it was on to the Haunted Mansion

We rode Space Mountain after the Haunted Mansion and then got in line to take the monorail to Downtown Disney and back to the hotel.  This was another first as we had never been on the monorail at Disneyland and it's such an icon.  In hindsight, I don't need to ever go on it again.

Unlike Walt Disney World where the monorail is a means of transportation with many stops, the Disneyland monorail is really just meant as an attraction with one station in Tomorrowland and another in Downtown Disney.  This wouldn't be so bad, but it's slow which means a long wait in line, and once you're on the actual ride is nothing special - a lot of the view on the journey is of the backs of buildings, parking lots, dumpsters, etc.  The view was a little better on the return journey when we went back to the park later, but it's definitely not worth the wait when we could have walked the same distance in 10-15 minutes.

That said, like Mr. Lincoln, I'm glad we experienced it at least once.

Waiting for the monorail, watching the Finding Nemo submarines make their loops

Splish splash I was takin' a bath...

I'll call this one The (sub)Mariners and the Matterhorn

I like this shot.  There's that crane again.

Looking the other way in the monorail line reveals Tomorrowland and Space Mountain

We got back to our hotel room and chilled for about an hour and a half before heading back to Disneyland via the (ugh) monorail.  It was around 6:00 when we got back to the park.

Later afternoon in the lobby

We got a Fast Pass for the Matterhorn Bobsleds then walked over to Adventureland.  The line at the Tiki Juice Bar had been horrendous earlier in the day, but wasn't bad now so we waited and got a Dole pineapple whip.  Yum yum yum.  Afterwards we rode Pirates of the Caribbean then crossed the park, dodging the crowds lining up for the parade that was about to start.  We got corn dogs (yay!) at the Little Red Wagon next to the Plaza Inn at the end of Main Street then found a place to sit down and eat.

We then used our Fast Passes to bypass the 40 minute wait and rode the Matterhorn.  It's a rough ride, but the yeti animatronic inside the mountain is scary and great fun.  By that time it was dark outside so we rode Splash Mountain while everyone else was watching the parade, then took a tour on the Jungle Cruise.

We stopped in the Royal Street Veranda for a sweet before walking back to our hotel and turning in for the night.  The next day would be another good day at Disneyland.