December 12th - The VIP Life
We woke up on Saturday ready for a very exciting day! I’m not sure if I mentioned it earlier, but during our wedding, one of our guests approached us and asked if she could do something magical during our
Disneyland trip. This was the same guest that got us into Club 33, so I wasn’t sure what other magic she could possibly make. But I found out that she was able to book an eight hour VIP tour for us while we were in Disneyland! She was also able to get us VIP viewing for the Christmas parade and the Paint the Night parade.
We were supposed to meet our VIP tour guide in the lobby of the Grand Californian at 10 am, so we decided to get breakfast before that. We grabbed some food in Whitewater Snacks, and right around 10, we headed to the lobby.
There were several guides in the lobby, but we weren’t sure which one was ours. When the group of them saw us approach in our Just Married buttons, they asked if we were the newlyweds from Florida. We obviously were, so they directed us to our tour guide, Colby. Let me just say that Colby was a big Star Wars fan, so he and Jeff had a LOT to talk about. Especially since this was only a few days before the release of the Force Awakens.
We went with Colby to the Grand Californian’s entrance into DCA, while he explained how his tours worked. He said that our eight hours would be enough time to get almost everything done in both parks, depending on what we wanted to do. He asked if there was anything specific we wanted to see for sure. I said Hyperspace Mountain, and Jeff said he wanted to meet Thor and Spiderman. Colby made a phone call and was able to set up a meet and greet time with them when we park hopped over to Disneyland.
Our first ride was Soarin’, and it was crazy to basically skip the entire line to ride. We’ve never been on Disneyland’s version of Soarin’ because it’s basically exactly the same as ours, but it was worth doing since there was no line! After Soarin, we hit Tower of Terror, and then we walked through Bugs Land into Cars Land.
In Cars Land, we rode Radiator Springs Racers, and then we headed to Paradise Pier. I decided that I didn’t want to ride California Screamin’ because I thought it might make me sick. So instead we rode Toy Story Mania. At that point, we had pretty much hit every major ride in DCA, so we headed out to hop over to Disneyland. I remember stopping for a drink and awkwardly asking Colby if he wanted anything. We weren’t sure if we were supposed to offer to buy food and stuff for our tour guide. Colby did ask if we would buy him a bottle of water, and we did.
When we got to Disneyland, one of the first things we did was go to Superhero Headquarters to meet Thor and Spiderman, like Jeff wanted. The SHIELD agent let us have the room to ourselves when we met Thor.
I’m really bitter about this because I know I’m worthy to wield the hammer. Thor is CLEARLY holding it down, so I can’t realize my true potential.
Dumb Thor and his dumb hammer.
Then we headed over to see Spiderman, which was awesome!
And after meeting the superheroes, we rode Hyperspace Mountain!
You can see Colby behind us.
Soon it was time for our VIP viewing of the Christmas parade. Our viewing area was at the top of the train station, and it was awesome.
One of the only pictures of the Christmas parade we took.
After the parade, we were pretty hungry, so we headed to eat at El Rancho del Zocalo, a Mexican quick service restaurant in the Adventureland/Frontierland area. We offered to buy lunch for Colby, but he said he was going to go to his break room for a bit while we ate. When we were almost done eating, he came back, and we formulated our plan for the rest of the afternoon.
First we rode Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, and I think we did Indiana Jones as well. Then we headed to Haunted Mansion Holiday.
I’m not sure if we rode Pirates of the Caribbean while we were in the area, but I can’t imagine me passing up the opportunity to ride it. We may have ridden Jingle Cruise as well, but I can’t remember for sure. I do know that we soon headed into Fantasyland and rode the Matterhorn. There are two sides, and we had done one side on our first day. Now it was time to do the second. Well turns out on the second side, you get wet. I got splashed in the face when we went through the water part!
In Fantasyland, we also rode it’s a small world holiday.
I wanted to ride Peter Pan and Alice in Wonderland, but those were two of the only rides that don’t give preferred access to VIP tours.
I think we did some other Fantasyland rides before heading back to do some more in Tomorrowland. Their Buzz Lightyear is awesome… the guns are not attached to the vehicle like they are in WDW, so they’re easier to maneuver! After Buzz, it was getting late, but we had time for one more thing. I requested Hyperspace Mountain again.
We took this photo in line.
Unfortunately, Hyperspace Mountain was having some technical difficulties while we were in line, and we weren’t sure how long it would be. We were given the option of waiting or doing one different last thing, since our time was almost over for our tour. Jeff asked if it was possible to meet Chewbacca, since we were in the area. Colby made a phone call and said yes, they could fit us in!
After meeting Chewy, our tour time was done, so we thanked Colby and said goodbye to him. We also tipped him because apparently it isn’t required but is appreciated to tip VIP tour guides.
By now, it was a little past 6 pm, and Disneyland was PACKED. This was by far the busiest day that I have ever seen at the park, and it wasn’t as easily manageable without our VIP tour guide anymore. What can I say, I got spoiled.
Jeff had a friend in the park, so we met her for a while to chat. Then they went to go ride some things, but we were tired from our busy day at the park. We headed back to our hotel to grab some food. We decided to eat in the Hearthstone Lounge, the bar in our hotel.
I believe I got some sliders and a glass of wine, and I don’t remember what Jeff got. Although the wine made me pretty sleepy after our exhausting day, it was really nice to sit and have a nice relaxing dinner on our honeymoon. After eating, we headed back to the room to watch some TV and go to sleep. We ended up totally blowing off our VIP viewing for Paint the Night because we were so tired! Luckily we had seen it earlier in the week, so we didn't feel obligated to go.
In the next update: a character breakfast where we got no pictures!