Wednesday, April 29, 2015

"And with this one I'm going to Disneeeeeeyland"-Thief from Thief and the Cobbler

An amazing opportunity came up that allowed us to travel down to this amazing place for the cost of just Lord Hickory and Lady Hummingbyrd's tickets.  Room, board, and access to the parks for two days was free for all the Minions.  As such we couldn't turn down such an offer.

We even took the chance to stay on the Mouse House grounds in the Europa version of the Wilderness Lodge.  Or perhaps the dilapidated predecessor to it may be more accurate.

We arrived at the "Ranch" to our "cabin" (a single-wide, very functional I cannot complain on that.)

Skosh and Dash checking out the front porch.

Papa and Skoshi posing before our cabin.  And entering the Parks.
Day 1

Pop-Pop...these photos are for your viewing pleasure. :)

The minions and Hummingbyrd waited outside the diner while Hickory ran in to make contact with our friends who would be joining up with us on this adventure.

Views of the Downtown Disney area they have here.

Ironically we have arrived once again during the 'Spring Fling', this was not planned nor expected.



Time to pose for some cute pictures....hey let's all look through the rails...

Or we could acquire a random extra child to distract Chubbly, that works too.

Time to wait for a parade...and one of the few times we actually saw each other.

Okay now just a bunch of pictures of the parade...oh and Lumpy about to pop at seeing 'real' Princesses.



Have I mentioned yet that Princess Lumpy LOVES Rapunzel?  Watch you'll see.

So glad we watched Alice in Wonderland on car ride down.  That made this whole part better.



So bummed we missed the chance for Skoshi to meet Tigger.  Maybe another time.

Alright...let's enter the creepy animatronics portion of the parade wherein Grins notes the lions head is falling off.

Rapunzel is only second to one other Disney character in Lumpy's mind...Tinkerbell.

So she was so bummed that Tink wasn't with Pan and Hook...but kept her eyes peeled now for her.


She was happy to see Minnie too but getting concerned that Tinkerbell was missing.

The oldest two joined in the search and were soon rewarded for their efforts.

Princess Lumpy was super excited to see Tinkerbell and see her do the <3 shape toward her.

And now for the only other time we ran into our friends while we were there.
Okay not the best shot, but everyone is in it and visible to some extent.

It was getting late though, so time to go get some supper.


This place was a great way to start our adventure.  Mmm.


After dinner in Africa, we were off to the Middle East.

Unique to this venue...a trip through Aladdin.

It was like a whole new world to the Minions.  Now to the evening show.

The end of the first day there, some very tired little minions crashed hard.

This is what the 'sleeps 6' version of the cabin at the Ranch looks like.  Three twins, a trundle, and a queen.

At breakfast we learned that France is made out of 100% Apples...who knew.
We have a tradition of finding and trying to lift Astrolabes...there is a long story behind this for Hickory and Hummingbyrd, but we couldn't walk away and not get a picture with this one.

Now THAT is fun car.

"I'm wishing, for the one I love."  We had to stop at the wishing well and make wishes.

Then off to Sleeping Beauty's Castle to find Maleficent.  She's been chained in the dungeon below.

We found the entrance to the dragon's lair after a bit of searching.

This was really cool so you get to see a few bigger pictures than normal.

Have to be very quiet or else you risked waking the dragon.  Our fearless Minions were very silent.

Unfortunately for them the group behind us was not as quiet.

Princess Lumpy wanted to watch from a safer distance once they awoke the dragon.

Can't say I truly blame her though.  The flash on the camera makes this seem brighter than it was.

The smoke, lights, and sounds were awesome...but freaked little Skoshi out.

Lady Hummingbyrd and the camera retreated to the exit with the smallest two Minions.

Princess Lumpy went to visit Snow White's house.  She's Cinderella today.
The details here did not disappoint, even with it being a mercantile location.

Whilst the older three Minions headed to Star Tours (and poor Chubbly was turned away :'( because he is such a tiny little gentleman.)  Princess Lumpy and Skosh waited to see her majesty.
It was a long wait as you will see.  Lumpy gets creative, "Look, I'm a bunny!"
Finally a dream come true for Lumpy.  She meets her heroine.

Lumpy was practically speechless.  She couldn't believe Rapunzel would talk to her.

Skosh was a charmer as always.


And her trip to Disneyland is complete.


Hey look who Papa sees.




Swiss Family Robinson Treehouse is even better here than in the back home.
Will explain why later, for now a quick diaper change and then Buzz Lightyear!
This is the family favorite.

And this is Dash getting ready to make the ride stop...sit down Dash!

Off to our reservation at The Agrabah Cafe.


They did a great job of making you feel like you were outdoors and not in the cold.

Now off to Adventure Isle, which was full of fun things to explore.

Attacking the Jolly Roger as per Papa's orders.
The sun begins to set on our chilled crew.

Into the caves we go.
They don't call it a Labyrinth for nothing.


Grins loses his head...and then the party was ambushed by cave trolls!

Cute ones though.

Mama was captured.


Watching for a Sunset Alert...and then sounding the alarm.

Sunset Alert! Sunset Alert! Awwooooooooooooooogah!


Papa gets caught in the Sunset...poor guy.

The rest of the Party flees to the safety of the Swiss Family Robinson sunken ships.

Wait...that won't work...well might as well stop for a photo, now to get everyone to co-operate.

On second thought I'll just tie them to the mast here for ignoring us.

Now Minions you are all stuck, mwahahahahaaaaaa!

They agreed to be better, so we released them to go search the Root Cellar.


Trying out the various settings on our new camera to varying result.


We finally found the Welsh Festival for which we came on these dates...one hour after it ended.

Figures.  Oh well we have pictures of their signs so we know it actually happened.


If you ever wonder how our homeland is presented on foreign shores, visit this 'unique' example.

While the older ones went through the significantly more creep Haunted Manor.

Mama and Skoshi and Lumpy were dying to R.I.P.

The whole party is concerned about the DC level of a Haunted Gazebo.  Does it take physical dmg?
Day 2

Papa wasn't feeling well, so everyone let him sleep in while they snuggled their special toys.

All have one from the various parks when they were little.  So Skoshi received his on this trip.

Disney Babies and their respective owners.

Dash and "Pokey", Grins and "Littlefoot",

Chubbly and "Sweet Pea", Lumpy and "Snowflake",



and introducing Skoshi and "8-Bit".  Chubbly used his money to buy a huge lollipop.

Dash taught him how to properly lick it.

His mouth was yellow for days.

Ready for another fun day!

Re-creating a particular shot.

Papa has more Minions than chairs.


Now off to the Fairy Tale boat ride.

You sit and it has the movies labeled as you travel through miniature replications of the settings.

Words wouldn't do it justice so you'll have to settle for pictures.






Some films were more favored by the camera man than others.


The Cave of Wonders swallowed us, and we missed the actual model sets in here, they were cool though.

You can see the ruby with Abu in the center of the below picture though.





Some sets were more unexpected than others as well.  Emerald City anyone?

From Fairy Tale boat ride to the Casey Junior ride.



It overlooks the other ride.  If you back up you can see the train going by from the boat too.

This was a little roller coaster, they all loved it.


Continuing a long standing tradition.

Would have been better with Hickory as well but this is better than nothing.

Once we finished hitting the remaining attractions we wished to see at Disneyland, we headed over to Walt Disney Studios, and to our reservations at Bistrot Chez Rémy.   If anyone reading gets a chance to go here, make a point of getting a fast pass and riding the Ratatoille ride first.  It will make the experience even better, we did the inverse, still fun, but could have been incredible for the kids the other way around.

The waiting area is set up just like in the film.  They you travel through the air vent into Remy's.

These have to be bigger to give it partial justice.   Welcome to being rat-sized.

Grandmom...how would you like to measure your sugar with these spoons?

Remy's golden fork looks much bigger than its counterpart 'upstairs'.  As does the book "Anyone Can Cook".








Our martini umbrella, jam lid covered ramekin table and wine bottle cap chairs.

Minion dessert time.

Skoshi chews the table in anticipation.

Papa and Mama's desserts.

Alright everyone up on the wine corks.


The big 'uns headed out to ride with Papa on the Ratatouille ride, the young'uns went with Mama.

Second round of Slinky Dog's Zig Zag spin it is!

Then to the Backlot Tour wherein we will learn that Skosh truly is sound sensitive.  Poor guy.


Lots of fun set things here.  The Dinotopia things were of most interest to Hummingbyrd though.


Okay this was all good...until we got to this part of the ride.

Chubbly, Lumpy, Dash, and Grins loved it.  Skosh was nervous at first then the water hit.

He freaked and was done with this whole scary ride thing.  We had to quit taking pictures of him.

The tour calmed down again for a bit...

We passed cool movie props...but then went into a 3D set of a dragon attack.

The heat of the dragon fire was too much for the smallest Minion who decided we were going to kill him at this point.

The rest of us thoroughly enjoyed it though.  Even if Skoshi didn't calm down until 10min after we left the ride.

The gift shop at Tower of Terror offered somethings Lady Marine would LOVE.

Lord Marine, you should look into getting your lady love one of these, it even plays music. :)

Bats!!!!

Time for a little Armageddon.


Taking Skoshi's thoughts on loud noises, explosions, and such into account.
The rest of the party went to see the "Lights, Motors, Action! Stuntshow Spectacular with Lightning McQueen."

They sat in the very front row.


Despite her serious looking face Princess Lumpy thought this was amazing.



So much to take in, now off to become part of the Sorcerer's Apprentice.

They make pretty good magical brooms, no?

This day went by very quickly, and soon it was nightfall.

We ran back over to Disneyland for one last ride the older minions missed that morning.

Had a quick run through the "Old Fort" before leaving too.  As we were leaving, Lumpy found this.

As she was Rapunzel in her mind that day, it was only fitting she pose with her favorite Princess.

She kept asking for another picture.



Mama and the Good Fairies.

One wiped out little Princess Lumpy and Skoshi.

Dinner back at the Ranch.


Day 3



The Art of Disney.


Lumpy won the scream contest hands down.

The closest Skoshi got to Tigger.  We had reservatins at The Crystal Palace we couldn't miss.

Now to see their loot, the Minions saved all their money for a year to go to Disney with.
So if you were a part of the last year's contributions, you can now see how they spent it.

Dash

Grins

Chubbly

And Princess Lumpy



Skoshi just got his Thumper "8-Bit" and his Tigger and Roo.  Since he was cranky we didn't take a picture of him with those.

That brings us to the end of our trip, and the end of this post.  In the words of Genie: