Saturday, August 22, 2009

Disneyland in August

This August we took ANOTHER trip to the Disneyland Resort for my birthday and my brother's birthday. For the first day we stayed at the Hilton, before moving into the Carousel View Suite. That room is my favorite by far! It has four beds and I get my own room with a TV and a king sized bed. We have an excellent view of the fireworks and the park, even the monorail as it goes by.

Considering the fact that it was August it was fairly mild weather but the crowds were pretty heavy.
This is the Wharf in Disney's California Adventure.
Genevieve outside of the Jungle Cruise.
Genevieve waits for Dumbo to be finished with her Mickey Mouse ears on. Isn't she cute?
So last ride of the night? What does it HAVE to be? Splash Mountain. Sammy can't see. Joey shouldn't speak. And, of course, I can't hear.
Hear No Evil, Speak No Evil, See No Evil. Get it?

I made the idiotic mistake of sitting in the first seat, even if it is my favorite seat. Then we ALL made the mistake of sitting in a clump so that when the log hit the water after the drops it was hitting the water like a bomb. None of our weight was balanced and we slammed into the water like a boulder. The waves coming over the edges were the biggest I have ever seen.
What you don't notice in this photo is how totally SOAKED I am. I was washed. It's really not a good photo of me. My hair, shirt, and pants are soaked. The water that came over the edge of the log was at least a foot and a half high and drenched me. I made the idiotic mistake of sitting in the first seat, even if it is my favorite seat.

So my birthday arrives and my mother has suspiciously been talking about dressing up. My mother doesn't dress up, so for her to be discussing doing it something must have been up. There were many scenarios running through my head. Could we be going to the Blue Bayou? No. She knows I don't like the food and humidity there. Maybe a private tour? But we've already done the private tours and the VIP tours. What could be special?

Then she started saying we would need to go to the portrait area and I began to get a clue. We were going to Club 33. It was confirmed when Joe coolly walked up to the club door and notified them that our party is here. So it was the five of us (Belle, mom, Joe, Sam, and I) with our two Disneyland friends that went to lunch at Club 33!
Joey and I posed with our cake. Isn't the room decor just gorgeous? It truly was like eating in a museum, a very comfortable museum.
This is Sam, Joe, and I piled out on the balcony. We were standing just above the patio near Cafe Orleans. You should have seen the looks of terror on the faces of the people below us! The balcony didn't look very strong. Just kidding!
To eat we had chicken, Chateaubriand, and someone had lamb. It was all very delicious. We also had access to a buffet of various salads, cheese, breads, crackers, and desserts. My mom liked the unlimited crab legs and shrimp that was available. I was in love with the bread bar that had various olive oil dips to use. They also had a good pasta salad with a pesto on it. I love pesto. They had a s'more dessert. How did they know I love s'mores?
This is our "oh-so-delicious" cake from Disney Dining. It is a three-layer chocolate cake with chocolate mousse filling and a whipped cream frosting. It was EXCELLENT. It was the best cake I have ever had. I had it for dessert and breakfast, and a snack. It tasted great with coffee.
This is my piece of cake! Because?... Well. It says my name on it! Duh!
Belle didn't like the balcony but she came out for her photo-op anyway.
There's the Mark Twain from our vantage point.
You can just make out the door of Club 33 in the background from where I stood on the balcony.
We were allowed to explore the rest of the club and saw the "Trophy Room", which is essentially a bunch of taxidermy animals and other artifacts from abroad. I was a little horrified by some of the dead animals.
After lunch, we rode the Mark Twain around. Then we hit a few more rides before going over to Disney's California Adventure. We stayed there until the park closed at 10. We flew on Soarin' Over California and rode the Tower of Terror, as well as visited the Animation Academy. I experienced Turtle Talk with Crush for the first time and thought it was great. We tried to get our friend, Karen, to go on Tower of Terror but she adamantly refused!!! She said she would go on next trip.
Well... that's the end of my trip. Notice I took the leftover cake with me and had a last minute churro with my brand new Club 33 hat. I did do some serious shopping with my birthday fun card from Disneyland the next day but alas there were no more rides.