Sometimes you have so much fun, you don’t stop for photos.

We had a second day of getting up and out of the house early.  Disneyland opened at 8AM, so we needed to get to the parking structure by 7:15AM.

Tab did her hair to look like Rey from Star Wars.  She, John, and I also wore our Star Wars shirts.

The line to get in was already well formed by the time we got to the entrance (the plaza between the two parks is called the Esplande) and it wasn’t long before they admitted us and held us a little closer to the train overpass. 

We did not buy MaxPass today.  Even though we loved it Tuesday, we had decided prior to the trip that we would not use it our second day and compare our experiences.  Also, most of the things we didn’t get to do Tuesday that we planned to do Wednesday weren’t FastPass ride.

We headed straight for Pirates of the Caribbean.  We walked right on.
I do sort of wonder what they made their pirates look like BEFORE the movies.

Among all who have visited both parks, Pirates of the Caribbean at Disneyland comes in, hands-down, rated better than it’s companion ride at Disney World.  This is because there are more drop (gentle ones) in the dark, and it has a longer story.  I’m not much of a fan of Pirates, in general, but I did appreciate that this one had fun, unexpected drops. 

John grabbed us FastPasses for the evening’s show of Fantasmic.  Pulling a FastPass for an evening show does not affect your ability to pull fast passes for rides.  They are considered “disconnected” from the rest of the system.

We headed over to Fantasyland and did Dumbo.

And then headed over to Tomorrowland Speedway.

Crowds were lighter than yesterday, so we rerode some of the favorites in Fantasyland.

Since we had again eaten breakfast super early, and it worked in our favor to have an early lunch yesterday, we did just that same thing again today.

We went to French Market in New Orleans Square.

Overall we felt that menus in DLR were exceptional.  This venue especially had a lot to chose from. 

We’d messed up our times to meet characters yesterday, so we headed over to Critter Country right after lunch to make sure we met Pooh and his Friends.  We were the last family to get in to see them before they took a little break.

Every Butler kid has had a deep love for all things Pooh at one point or another.  They are a special part of childhood in our house.  More so than Mickey and Friends.  We’ve met Pooh many times at WDW and enjoyed every opportunity.  The set up here is so much nicer.  I’d love to see this recreated at WDW. 

Tigger had them all bouncing.

See Tigger in the background?  He left just after he saw us.

I wish I had caught Katriel running to Pooh as she came around the corner and saw him.

Winnie the Pooh is Marie’s most favorite character.  She had some alone pictures.

We spent a little time shopping before we went on Splash Mountain again.  We had grabbed some paper fast passes earlier, I think.  

We then sucked-it-up and got in line for Peter Pan.  For reasons no one can explain, Peter Pan is a favorite at both parks.  It is the main ride at DLR that people RUN to at rope drop and lines grow to a 30 minute wait within second of park opening.  They climb to well over an hour at times, and rarely drop to under 30 minutes for the remainder of the day.  I could skip it entirely.  It isn’t a particularly special ride and I haven’t bothered with it on more than one occasion when we go to WDW.  I could have eliminated it from our list entirely, except for the fact that Peter Pan is one of Katriel’s favorite movies (no other Butler claims this) and she is the five year old in the party and a sweet-heart, at that.  We were glad to see it was only a 30-minute wait when we arrived and we were on the ride a few minutes before the 30-minute mark.  And two-minutes later it was over.

We headed to Main Street for a bit. 

We met Chip and Dale.

We turned around and saw a line forming across the way and…

And lo and behold, right behind us was Aurora.
While I do like the organization of character meets at WDW, I confess it is a lot of fun to randomly run into friends like this.

We took the train back over through Frontierland, and over to ToonTown so we could meet Mickey and Minnie.

We did visit Mickey’s house,

and got to meet him.

But Minnie’s line was oppressive and we left that for another day.

We split up a bit.

John, Nan, the little girls and I tried to see a show.  I say tried because we queued, were seated, the introduction started, AND then the show was cancelled for technical difficulties.  Phooey.

We enjoyed dinner at the same French Market we’d had lunch.  I, personally, really like to try new places, but I was outvoted by the rest of the gang, who wanted to try some menu items they hadn’t tried at lunch.

We at least ate at a different spot.

I really can’t tell you what we did the rest of the evening as we waited for Fantasmic to begin. 

Around an hour before the show we went to the riverboat queue.  The riverboat wasn’t there… that’s were the FastPass return line begins.  About 30 minutes before the show, they ushered us in to the FastPass viewing area.  We were instructed to sit down on the gently sloping walkway facing Tom Sawyer’s Island in the Rivers of America.  (Only days later did I come to understand that we actually had gotten “upgraded” a bit to the spot that is reserved for people who purchase dining packages.  They must not have sold out dining packages that day and as a result we had some of the best seats.)

The show started at 9, and it was then that I was utterly horrified that I had almost gone on a cruise this year instead of this amazing trip.  Hand down this was THE best nighttime entertainment I had ever, ever, ever, ever seen.  It surpassed the Disney Hollywood Studios version for so many reasons.  Firstly, you are SO much closer; every piece of the projections on the water can be acutely discerned, and you feel like you are right there with Mickey as he battles his dreams.  Secondly, it incorporates two boats, one of which is the Pirate ship and the actors aboard that ship steal the show.  Thirdly, being THAT close, you can actually see the characters on the riverboat as they engage with the crowd.  And LASTLY – THAT DRAGON!  She is crazy good. 

AND SO CLOSE! Pictures do  not do it justice. 
We got up FAST as it ended and hurried toward Main Street.  If we had wanted to see the Together Forever fireworks again, we could have, but instead we hurried out to Esplande.  They use exits behind the store fronts to divert traffic off main street.  They do that at Magic Kingdom, as well.

It was another very full, and decidedly amazing day.