Too Late To Bed, Too Early To Rise

We started before sunrise. Had to make our reservation at Goofy's Kitchen for 7:00 AM because the only other option was 11:00 AM on Tuesday, which would have cut into playtime severely. Two surprises: Brookie and Anna are considered infants and therefore ate for free, and my AAA membership scored a significant discount for both families. We didn't even have to ask for either - just told them how many adults and the ages of the kids and they asked if we had AAA. This is the goofiest buffet-style dining I'm aware of. Part of your complete breakfast includes hot dogs, peanut butter and jelly pizza, cupcakes and ice cream sundaes. Oh, and Gummy Worms. Then the parade of characters begins. Brookie got Pluto, Chef Goofy, Baloo, Chip, Dale and Alice to sign her autograph book and we made the kids pose for pictures with all of them. Pre-princess Belle (blue Mormon dress, not yellow gown) was there also but she never made it to our table while we were there.



My and Sean went swimming prior to meeting Timmy by the dog kennels at 11:00 to gain park entry. We headed out to cross off one more item from our long list of everything princess: the Princess Faire, where little princesses and knights can meet their favorite princesses, learn to wave like a princess, learn to bow like a prince and curtsy like a princess, learn to dance at a ball should they ever attend one, and shop at the princesses' own store and beauty salon. Brookie added Mulan to her collection. Ariel, Aurora and Hot Belle (yellow gown) were there as well, but they were yesterday's news. It turns out some of the princesses are available outside of Ariel's Grotto. But I'll say this: we waited about three or four times longer in that line than we have for any other so far. Longer than Space Mountain. Longer than Buzz Lightyear Astro Blasters. Longer than Autopia or Grizzly River Run. Ariel's Grotto was worth the expense compared to waiting in that line, considering we got to eat and sit down. I hope a huge promotion went to the guy that figured out how to exploit the princess characters at the expense of parents of little girls (see future post about the Disney princess revival).



We stopped for ice cream on Main Street USA in the early afternoon. We're being told that the temperature only reached 82 degrees, but it felt like 102. The ice cream cooled most of us down, Erik being the exception as the ice cream merely turned him into human fly paper. The "infants" were getting cranky so I reluctantly volunteered to watch over them back at the hotel while Sara, My and Sean went out with the three kids that didn't earn us breakfast savings to do some of the rides that I can't stomach, namely Space Mountain and Star Tours. They have added a bunch of lights to Space Mountain - like stars and a hyper-space-type feature - and those really mess with my eyes and brain. Before our non-Disney dinner we caught the Parade of Dreams.

Sara and Sean both recorded new personal bests in the mad dash. First Sara when she ran all the way back to our room to get our park passes after bringing the babies back for naps. The passes were in my pocket. Then Sean when we walked all the way to our cars in the self-parking lot after the parade before realizing that neither of us had our car keys with us. Upon returning from Kris and Vicki's Sunday night we had both stored them safely away so as not to lose them in the parks during the week ahead. Sean owed me big-time for being able to use my AAA discount, so we gave him our room key and he ran for two.

As we were approaching the cars to go to dinner, this time with keys, Brookie turned and waved, "See you tomorrow, Disneyland."