First FULL day at DisneyLand....

OK, so the picture to the left is NOT from today....it's actually a picture I took of Jason yesterday in front of the Sleeping Beauty Castle and the iconic statue of Walt & Mickey in the main DisneyLand park...but I forgot to post it, so I thought I'd post it today.  Isn't he cute? :)

Besides, it seemed a fitting picture to post for a blog about our first full day (with Kimmy & Johanna, of course) here at DisneyLand...even though we spent the day in the OTHER park here:  California Adventure.  (For all you non-Disney folk out there, California's DisneyLAND has two main parks---DisneyLand and California Adventure...as compared to Florida's DisneyWORLD which has 4 parks (Magic Kingdom, Epcot, Animal Kingdom & Hollywood Studios) plus 2 water parks).  So today was a California Adventure Day for us......

...we chose California Adventure because it didn't open until 9 as compared to 7am for the main park and we had no desire to be up that early and knew that if we went into the park 2 hours after opening on a holiday Saturday it would probably be packed....plus we knew dinner and our evening event were in California Adventure anyway....so that choice was made for us....

Jason and I were both up pretty early since our internal clocks have not shifted backwards 3 hours yet...but we still spent a pretty lazy morning before we were all ready to go and headed out into the park.  It was a very nice day....we spent most the day just strolling and riding rides and taking in shows and shopping....typical amusement park fare.....here are a few pics of me and Jason and the girls from our day:

Picture of the 4 of us on roller coaster "California Screamin'"

Jason donning his 3D glasses to ride/play "Toy Story Mania" Ride/Game.

Here's a few pictures of our group on the King Triton/Little Mermaid themed carousel:

And a picture of Jason and I in one of the various "photo op" places they have set up (we're new toys still in the box----although not entirely sure whether we qualify as DOLLS or ACTION FIGURES! LOL)

We also posed for this set of pictures.  There's a huge ferris wheel in the park with a big mickey head on it as decoration...and if you stand just right, you can make it look like YOU have the mickey ears!

After spending most of the day in the park, we went back to the room to relax a bit, change our clothes and went to the lobby where Kimmy and Johanna had a cocktail and we all listened to the pianist there for a bit before we headed back into the park for dinner.  We had a special dinner package booked-----there is a new evening show in the big lagoon in the park called "World of Color" that is very popular....and they offer a special package where you can eat in one of the restaurants in the park and that meal also includes the ability to stand in a priority reserved section with a great view of the show....so we jumped at the chance (especially because Johanna has a premium annual pass to this park and so our meal was 10-15% off).   The meal was pretty good....and the dessert tray, especially, was very fancy:

Dessert at our restaurant ("Ariel's Grotto")---an assortment of foods we didn't need to eat...and yet we did anyway...YUM! LOL

This "film strip" off the dessert tray is actually a ribbon of molded white chocolate with a full color imprint on it....it was very, very cool------and pretty tasty, too!

It was a good thing we did the dinner package because there were a TON of people trying to go to both shows of "World of Color" so we wouldn't have been able to enjoy the show nearly as much had we not done it (and the food was pretty good, too!)

So, now...."World of Color."  You might recall that I said last night we went to see "Fantasmic!"----which is wonderful in Florida but only so-so here.  This new "World of Color" show TOTALLY makes up for what's lacking in the California version of "Fantasmic!"   This new show really is one of my all time favorites. 

The show is very elaborate and, as you might guess from its name, very COLORFUL.  In a nutshell....the show is kind of a replacement for a fireworks show (a Disney theme park staple for after dark) EXCEPT that it uses no fireworks or rockets or explosives.  Instead the entire show takes place entirely on the large lagoon in front of the roller coaster and ferris wheel and it is a show of intricately choreographed and lit fountains combined with a few fire effects (like torches on the water) and large water mist "screens" onto which they can project films and images-----and then some laser effects thrown in for good measure and all set to a great soundtrack of Disney music.  It's just really, really great, and these photos don't do the show justice AT ALL....but here are a few shots we got:

The lights on the ferris wheel, which is kind of the backdrop, are also choreographed and woven into the overall show here and there. 

Not fireworks----WATER!

Remember----NO FIREWORKS....the light you're seeing is literally just jets of water that are lit from beneath!

My favorite shot from the Little Mermaid portion of the show.....that's an image being projected onto a spray of WATER---not a screen.

Aladdin & Jasmine

This is the villains section, hence the menacing glowing eyes.....I tried to capture the fire effect but it didn't read that well....but during this section in addition to the water, which is orange and red, there are also jets of flames shooting up out of the lake.

Lady & the Tramp

All in all.....this new addition to the litany of theme park shows and entertainment that I've seen over the years at Disney Parks ranks very close to the top....we loved it and, if you are ever in California and can make it to DisneyLand...it's a must see, for sure!

OK...not it's after midnight here and we have to be up and at DisneyLand tomorrow morning by 8am....should be a fun and exciting day with a trip to Club 33 (more on what that is for you Disney newbies later)!!