Disneyland Day 4 (Part 4)

Once we arrived back in Disneyland we headed towards main street to see how the seating for the 3:30 parade was looking.  I couldn't believe that at 2pm it was already pretty busy.  We snagged a spot on a bench but it was facing the full sun and was not going to be good for sitting in for 90 minutes.  We left the kids there just in case it's all we could find but eventually we found a place on the curb in the shade near the end of Main Street.  We saved a huge spot then messaged Melinda to see if her family wanted to join us.  They did so we spread our stuff (and kids) out to save our spot and settled back for the long wait.  I ran and got a snack for Brian (double scoop cookies and cream in a fresh waffle cone) and a chocolate croissant (I love these in WDW... maybe not quite as good in DL though) for my breakfast tomorrow.  When I got back to the curb we let the kids go explore Tarzan's tree house.  They were gone for a little while and Brian and I just enjoyed relaxing together and eating our treats. 

 

Eventually the Hunters let me know they changed their mind about coming to the parade so we shrunk down our spot and all just sat together on the curb.  I even bothered a cast member to take our photo... twice, as he didn't include Chase in the photo the first time.

 

The parade began and it was so neat to be able to see in person what I usually watch each Christmas day in the Disney Christmas parade.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Unfortunately we thought the Christmas parade may actually be better on TV then in real life.  We were all disappointed in the parade, especially because it had just one song the entire time.  We've only seen one other holiday parade back in 2001, during the kids first trip when we went to the Mickey's Trick or Treat party.  That was a FABULOUS parade so I think I expected more than what we got.  Not that great at all.

Once the parade was over we headed to Adventureland, both to escape the crowds and to finally see the Tiki Room.  Chase has been wanting to see it, though Brian wasn't that enthused.  Chase and I assured him that it wasn't as terrible as the one in WDW.  Not sure it was as terrible, but it was pretty close if not. I know it's a classic and I love the song but it just isn't that great of an attraction.

While waiting for the Tiki Room we ran into the Hunters, who were all enjoying their Dole whips.  We caught up a little and then went our separate ways again. 

After Tiki room we walked by Indy, as Chase had seen that it was open with a 35 minute wait.  It was closed down once again by the time we got there.  It wasn't due to open back up from refurbishment until tomorrow so I'm sure it was all soft opening stuff so they could fine tune it a little bit more.

Next up was Pirates, but it was closed down (again!).  Instead we opted to use our HMH fastpasses... until we noticed that the FP line stretched through the whole queue and had about 100 people standing in line out on the sidewalk outside the ride.  We passed on that one too, as we were on a mission to eventually dump all this merchandise at our hotel and order pizza in.  We headed out but stopped at the hub for another try at a castle photo.  Not sure it's any better than the last one though.

 

Before we could do that we needed to get to one last night time show - the Mad T Party.  It was 5:30 and I thought it started at 6 so we headed right over. 

The lines to DCA were pretty long but we got in and then got photopass photos in front of the tree.  Here's another case where the fastpass photographers let us down.  They positioned us where they wanted us and took our photo, not even noticing that they had put one boy behind the other.  Almost all the photos have only half of Tristan's head.  No bueno.  *grump* 

 

This is the only useable one in the bunch.

 

Eventually we went to Gone Hollywood again to look at some purses that I'd been eyeing this trip.  They are Harvey purses made of seatbelts.  They are super sturdy and cute, but also come with a super price.  I hemmed and hawed over them and finally decided on one.  It was the right shape and size for me, though I had hoped for one that wasn't white.  Hopefully this will clean easily! (ETA: One month of use thus far and it's still looking pretty decent.)

While I was shopping the kids caught the Pixar Play Parade.  Then they checked out the animation academy.  Jack Skellington was being drawn next and the kids all really like him so we went for that session at 6pm.

Then the kids were set loose on the Sorcerers Workshop while Brian and I held down a couch in the main building area.  They came back a little later all atwitter with what they did.  They took a "which character are you" quiz.  Chase was Jack Skellington, Tristan was Wall E and Carissa was Belle.  They also took a try voicing a character and singing a song to match the animation.  Chase said "I sing worse than Pumba!", though he did get credit for doing "a good Iago". 

About 5:45 we got in the waiting crowd for the Mad T Party, not really knowing what to expect there.  Brian grabbed the kids a hot cocoa, as it had cooled down some outside.  We met Dee and Dum, who chatted and joked with us before letting us in to the Mad T Party. 

  

You had to walk through this arch with so much mist you could hardly see. 

I will say that I thought the whole Mad T Party was really neat! I loved the band, I loved the music, I loved the outrageous costumes and fun, eclectic decor. I'm not sure the kids were as impressed as I was. Chase didn't mind singing the songs with me (and we certainly enjoyed belting out Journey's "Any Way You Want It" with the band) but the other three thought it was loud or boring. We walked around a bit, looking at all it had to offer and then decided to just head back to the hotel, after spending only 15 minutes there. Chase stayed behind to enjoy the fun a little longer, though he left 10 minutes after us because the band had taken a break.

We got back to the room and ordered in Marri's pizza.  We enjoyed it together in the room and talked about what we wanted to do and buy tomorrow, as it's our last day (and a partial day at that).  We packed up as well as we could and then they all went to bed before 10pm (except me, as I stayed up another 2 hours downloading photos and writing this trip report).