Sunday, May 3, 2009

Busy Last Day at the Disneyland Resort

We packed a lot into today, trying to squeeze in everything we wanted to do before our time here in Anaheim runs out. We started today with a monorail ride into Disneyland. While walking through Downtown Disney to get to the monorail station, we were overtaken by four people, two men and two women, dressed entirely in black, the women carrying black parasols. You see all types here, so we didn't think that much of it, although these folks certainly looked about as un-Disney as anyone possibly could. When we got to Disneyland, there were more goth-types walking around, most of them in groups, and later we saw more at DCA. Turns out that this is the 11th annual Bats Day in the Fun Parks Weekend, the "premiere Dark Alternative Subculture event on the West Coast."

We did a couple of rides in Fantasyland and then decided to say goodbye to Disneyland. It was getting very crowded and we had plans to tour the Grand Californian to learn about the Arts and Crafts influences in the architecture and decor of the hotel. The one-hour tour was fascinating and lots of design details we had overlooked were pointed out to us by our guide Sierra. Several artists were commissioned to work on various elements of the hotel, like the tiles used on the front of the registration desk and the stunningly beautiful stained glass doors at the hotel's entrance. I took a lot of photos which are all posted on Flickr.

After that tour, we were picked up by a representative of the Disney Vacation Club and taken to their building about a block away to learn about DVC membership. We (mostly I) have been tossing around the idea of joining DVC since we take so many Disney vacations, but what we had pretty much figured out on or own was verified by the DVC rep - renting points from DVC members rather than buying our own membership is a better way to go for us. We were shown a model of the DVC units that are currently under construction here at the Grand Californian and they are stunning, but we don't visit Disney parks often enough, or take long enough vacations, to ever break even on this large an investment.

After the DVC tour, we went back to DCA to see the Aladdin show one more time and use the FastPasses we received for taking the DVC tour. The park was mobbed, so after riding Soarin', we came back to the hotel and had a nice last dinner in the Storyteller's Cafe. Now we're packing. Right below us in Downtown Disney, a flamenco guitarist is performing. During our days here we have seen a violinist, dulcimer player, and a percussionist performing outside at night. Downtown Disney is a great venue for adults and we have really enjoyed staying here, right next to all it has to offer. And for a fitting finale, we are watching the Disneyland fireworks from our balcony.

This has been a great trip. We feel that now we have really "done" Disneyland and will look forward to coming back sometime if the circumstances are right.

All the photos from this trip are posted on Flickr.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

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I will definitely take tones of photos there!!!