The day began with breakfast at Goofy’s Kitchen in the Disneyland Hotel.
This was another character breakfast but the characters were much more reserved this time with the possible exception of Alice who appeared to have woken up on the wrong side of the mushroom that morning. 
I tend to recall that Alice from Wonderland was inquisitive but very polite and easy going. Our Alice had a little bit of an attitude that reminded me of an over privileged Orange County youngster—although she did join me in a rousing chorus of “A very merry unbirthday tooooooooooooo me”! She certainly looked the part of Alice though.The amazing thing about this breakfast was the buffet. It had everything you would possibly want for breakfast and probably lunch as well. It was obviously aimed at kids as there was plenty of things that kids would want; macaroni & cheese, chicken strips, chocolate covered rice krispy treats, jello, Mickey Mouse waffles covered in powdered sugar and real whipped crème, M&M cookie pizza, double chocolate muffins, and make-your-own ice cream sundaes. Come to think of it the buffet had everything I wanted too.
After breakfast we trekked back to the Grand Californian and out through the hotel’s private entrance into Disney’s California Adventure. This was another early admittance as the park was not yet open. We proceeded into the Condor Flats area to the Soarin’ Over California attraction
where, while we were waiting, one of the Katie’s, no not the one from the Trivia Contest, not the one who was celebrating a birthday, yes…the one who was a little scared on the Haunted Mansion attraction, stated to me that she liked Disney World better than Disneyland. These were fightin’s words to me and a complete “throw down” occurred as those “east coast/west coast” rivalries were stirred up. Fortunately cooler heads prevailed and no soar by shootings occurred.Soarin’ is my favorite ride in the California Adventure Park. The ride simulates hang gliding over the entire State of California, from the Golden Gate Bridge to Disneyland, as you sit suspended in your gondola over an IMAX type large curved screen. Prior to take-off a canopy drops down over your head which blows air on you at different speeds to simulate speeding up or slowing down (in conjunction with the speed of the film). The canopy also contains scents (basically a large air freshner as we were shown afterward) that are blown down to give you the smell of pine trees as we glide through wooded areas, citrus aromas as we sail above an orange grove, and salt water as we soar over the surfers at the beach. 
We were split into two groups for the ride and as the first group was ushered in to get settled into their gondolas our group was taken down to the basement and inside an area behind the screen. The screen is actually a metallic mesh and while we could see the group on the ride, they could not see us. This was a very interesting perspective; if I turned my head I could see what part of the film they were in and if I looked straight ahead I could see how they were experiencing the ride. This was very cool to be disassociated with their experience but see how it affected them and how they reacted.
From Soarin’ we headed over to the Hollywood Backlot to the Animation Building where we had our own private Turtle Talk Live with Crush from Disney/Pixar’s Finding Nemo. This attraction is a wonder of technology as the animated character appears on screen looking at us through what is seemingly an aquarium window. Crush talks, moves, emotes, and reacts all in synchronized time with the interaction between himself and the audience. 
He is happy to take questions as well as ask questions of the audience. Whoever is controlling this process (for those who don’t believe it is Crush himself) is able to see us as he directs the moderator to the people he wants to talk to by describing what they are wearing. I had the opportunity to ask Crush, as he had been around the reef a few times, which resort he felt was better, Disneyland or Disney World. Crush was rendered speechless by the din of verbal controversy that this question evoked to the point where he remarked to the moderator that is sounded like a “mutiny amongst the little noggins” was brewing.
After our Turtle Talk with Crush we adjourned to a lesson on how to draw Mickey Mouse. The artist gave us specific instructions and demonstrated very easily how to draw Mickey. Some looked better than others; especially Katie’s…no not the one that liked Disney World better, not the one that was celebrating a birthday, the other one…from the trivia contest that is an art student focusing on animation. Hers was almost indistinguishable from the Disney artist’s rendering causing me to walk away soothing my envy by reminding myself that I probably made more money last year than Katie the college student.
From there we had a little free time so we departed the group (or actually the group departed us) and we headed over to the Muppet 3-D Movie.
After the always entertaining Muppets it was time to rejoin the group at the Aladdin Musical Stage Spectacular at the Hyperion theatre. This is a great show and should not be missed it has the flying carpet, Aladdin’s processional into Argiba on a white elephant, really evil bad guys, and a really comical blue genie. 
If they added about 45 minutes to it this could clearly be Disney’s next Broadway musical.
Final Recommendation: As far as our experience at the Disneyland Resort was concerned I would say we had too much free time and not enough behind the scenes experiences. No one on this tour was a DLR or WDW virgin and had all ridden "Space Matterhorns", or whatever the rides I don't go on are called, many times in the past. I would have liked a little more structured tour to include going on the newest attractions. Finding Nemo at the Magic Kingdom and Toy Story's Midway Mania are the newest rides and we could not get on them. Every time we tried the lines were two hours long. It would have been nice for them to have been included in the cost of the tour. Also they are undoubtedly technological wonders, especially Toy Story's Midway Mania with the computer graphics involved. It would have also been nice to have a look at how those rides were controlled.
We had some free time after Aladdin and just chilled out until it was time to meet the group again at the Hollywood Back Lot for dinner. We were taken into studio 12 which is a private dining facility at the end of the back lot area. As we entered, one of the Katie’s, no not the artist from the trivia contest, not the one celebrating a birthday, but the one that liked Disney World better than Disneyland approached me to tell me that she had a revelation and now liked Disneyland 50% and Disney World 50%. Never have I been so happy to see the youth of America come to their senses. I enthusiastically gave her a hug whereupon she tried to report me to Security.
A fantastic buffet was served and we were treated to a by-family visit with Stacia, a Disney sketch artist and historian who drew a portrait of our favorite Disney character, signed it, and inscribed it from the character. We choose Mary Poppins and, as Stacia had some free time afterward, Mickey Mouse..JPG)
I will add the pictures of the drawings as soon as they come back from the framer. After dinner our guides, Quinn and Michelle, presented a PowerPoint presentation with photos they had taken of us all weeks long, including photos of us in areas where we were restricted from taking photos. This was heartwarming and melancholy time for us as we knew that our time on this trip and with this wonderful group of people was coming nearing its end.
After the PowerPoint presentation Mickey and Minnie strolled in to not only pose for pictures, but also engage in a little pantomime patter between the two of them…very entertaining. 
At this point we adjourned from dinner to our private reviewing area to watch the fireworks for the last time.
The following morning we all matriculated into the Story Teller’s Café at the Grand Californian Hotel for yet another breakfast buffet and photo opportunities with the characters and our final photo opportunities with each other.
Alas the tour was over…however this blog will continue as I always have something Disney-wise brewing in my head, so please stop back now and then to see what else is on my mind however, regardless of what I may come up with it will not overshadow the original purpose of the blog which was to mend the ache when we left a piece of our hearts in Anaheim, California in June of 2008.
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