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Friday, September 12, 2014

Dapper Day at the Disneyland Resort - Part 2

Let's see, where did we leave off I think we had just finished swimming in the pool and headed back up to the room. I can't remember exactly what time we headed up to the room, but we've been running around all morning and once we got there Ian passed out. We had discussed meeting Sean and Kelly at 4pm, but he just kept sleeping. By 4:15 T and I stopped being so quiet and started getting ready ourselves. He woke up not long after that and we headed in to the parks. I checked with Kelly and it turned out Sophie had the same idea about sleeping late.
The Disneyland Band was making their way down the street as we were headed in.

I wasn't able to get any family pictures of us all in our dapper clothes then, but I did take some at home a few days before.
Like Ian's hat?

He doesn't!

Very dapper. And much happier without it. 

A very dapper family.


Walking down Main Street, Jacob was waiting for us. First ride? Why not Winnie the Pooh?


And one of the best part of the ride is the stop at Pooh Corner afterwards for a treat!

Next up we got in line for Pirates. What's Ian so distracted by?

Oh my. Mommy, it's not nice to tease him like that.

Oh, you weren't teasing him. That's okay, he absolutely loves apples. And now he's got two little bottom teeth that help him bite off small bits. After a fun ride it was time to meet up with Sean and Kelly.

Kelly and Sean were staying out of the sun at the Jolly Holiday Bakery. A very dapper family.

Since we're here, why not get a few photos.


One of the rides Sean just had to go on was Big Thunder Mountain. He hasn't been on it since the refurb. The Mousewait app said it was only a 20 minute wait, but I don't think it took more than 10 minutes before we were riding. I requested the back row and we got it. The ride on the back is a bit smoother and you get to see more of the effects.

Because it was such a quick wait, (don't tell the girls and don't read this Kelly), Sean and I took a 2nd trip. This time we requested the front just to see the difference. I asked the couple behind us to smile and they obliged.

Jacob, Sean and I joined the crew at the Jolly Holiday Bakery and by this point Steven and his two daughters had joined them. By now it was 6:45 and we had to hurry over to DCA for the Micechat meetup.

Once we got there we found Matt and Amy waiting for us. Not knowing how many people were going to show up, we found a large open area and grabbed a few tables. Within a few minutes Cassie and her niece arrived and by now we were all pretty hungry. Luckily the Boardwalk Pizza and Pasta restaurant is right here. Theresa, what did you put in Ian's bottle?

Steven wanted to make sure my camera setup was good before we took a group photo. Also not long after Dawn and Hudson joined us.

Now that's a good lookin bunch. Starting at the back row going left to right.
(back) Jacob, Joe (Micechat name: mre200200), Matt (whoever), Hudson
(middle) Steven (sbk1234), Theresa, Ian, Amy, Dawn (lovemainstreet), Kelly (KellyMcG86), Sean, Sophie
(front) Mikayla, Samantha, Cassie (CassieRN), Sarah

Everyone was having a great time talking with each other, but it was starting to get close to Ian's bedtime. Theresa and I took our leave and headed back up to our room in the Grand Californian. I fed Ian and got him ready for bed while Theresa also got ready to settle in for the night. Ian started falling asleep and Theresa said she'd take him and I could head back out. Thanks Theresa!

I arrived back to the group around 8:45 and found everyone still hanging around. Hopefully not waiting around for me. But once I got there everyone started packing up to head to some rides. I was surprised to see Sophie awake still. Sean took her back to their room, but not before Kelly left a big kiss on her cheek.

It's difficult to make any decisions with a large group, but luckily in the Dapper Day thread on Micechat someone had suggested going on Tower of Terror all dressed up. That's where we all walked towards.

Well it's a 55 minute wait, but really the whole point of the rest of the night is hanging out with old friends and new friends. The ride is just going to be a bonus. After seeing the wait time though, Jacob decided he was going to take his leave. This is his sixth day straight in the park.

Shy around the camera or just doesn't like the flash?

The line was every bit of 55 minutes, but we enjoyed getting to know some of the people we've only talked to online.

And getting hair tips.

At some point it was determined that I owed Mikayla a piggyback ride...

Good looking family.

Once we arrived at the library, we listened to the spiel and were one of the last to leave. The queue was backed up all the way to the door so there was nowhere for us to go, thus we didn't feel bad staying behind for a couple photos. Kelly and Dawn.

Kelly and Samantha

We requested and received the very front row of the elevator (because we wanted an awesome picture). The girls chose a princess pose. The Tower of Terror is always a blast. I don't ride it nearly often enough. Oh no! We lost Hudson!

After the group got off the ride, Dawn and Hudson split. It's 10:30pm and California Adventure has closed. We're going to continue this party at Disneyland.

And it seems we're not the only ones. Disneyland was crowded, especially walking down Main Street.

After going through a few ride options, Jungle Cruise (no), Indy (broken), it's a small world (definitely no!), the group decided Big Thunder Mountain at night would be great. I think the wait time for this was around 40 minutes.

Smile everyone!

We exited Big Thunder by 11:35pm. There's one more ride I know we have to get in. Kelly proposed Splash Mountain in our dapper clothes should be how we all end the night. Sadly Steven and his daughters left us after Big Thunder. I don't blame them though. The rest of us have a hotel room to go back to to change out of our wet clothes. They have an hour drive to look forward to.

So that leaves myself, Kelly, Amy and Matt. It was 11:40 and Splash Mountain was a walk-on. Sweet! We loaded into the back of a log and took our journey along with Brer Rabbit. I was happy to see they had turned off the water blasts at the drop. Will that mean we'll stay somewhat dry?
Definitely not! We went down a hill, hit the water at the bottom and I hear a collective Awww. I was a part of it too. A huge wave of water came over the right side and soaked my right leg and shoe.

We arrived back at the dock at 11:50 and there was no one in line. The operator asked if we'd like to go around again, and yes, of course we do! When we got to the part where we had got soaked before, we barely got a drizzle. At least this second time around would be drier than the first.

Happy faces all. Little did we know that at the bottom of this hill we would be completely drenched. It was insane the amount of water that came into our log and I don't think I've ever been this wet on this ride. I had to take off my hat because there was water surrounding the entire brim. My pants and shirt were soaked and I was just hoping my bag kept my camera and phone dry. Once we got off the ride, I took off my shoes and literally poured water out of them. At least we won't be freezing walking back. It's still quite warm.

Looks like Amy's shoes are giving her problems too. Shortly after getting off the ride, she took them off and walked through Disneyland barefoot.

And Kelly had enough after not much longer.

We stopped for one last group picture in front of the train station then continued to the hotel. Again it was super convenient to have a place to go to right here instead of driving home.

Once we got to the lobby we all said our goodbyes and parted ways. What an awesome day. I think we all enjoyed our time at the park and hanging out with friends. My family is planning on going to the next Dapper Day on Sunday March 1st, 2015!

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