{"id":233,"date":"2009-09-25T09:00:52","date_gmt":"2009-09-25T14:00:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/raysofdisneyland.com\/?p=233"},"modified":"2009-09-25T09:00:52","modified_gmt":"2009-09-25T14:00:52","slug":"the-post-disney-blues-a-vacation-recap-of-sorts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/raysofdisneyland.com\/?p=233","title":{"rendered":"The Post-Disney Blues&#8230; A Vacation Recap of Sorts"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>There are certain marks that you know make you a true Disney <span style=\"text-decoration: line-through;\">freak<\/span> fan&#8230; hopefully some of you are with me on this one.<\/p>\n<p>I cry when I drive away from the resort at the end of my vacation&#8230; back to the airport, back to reality. \u00c2\u00a0I start planning my next Disney vacation the day after I get back from my Disney vacation. \u00c2\u00a0And I am plagued by the post-Disney blues. \u00c2\u00a0Oh goodness, do I ever have the post-Disney blues.<\/p>\n<p>So, in order to beat the blues and hopefully move on to the Disney vacation planning joy&#8230; I&#8217;m sharing my trip with all of you. \u00c2\u00a0This might be a long one, so sit back and pretend you&#8217;re watching the summer vacation slide show with your relatives, but it will be more fun than that, I promise!<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-medium wp-image-235\" title=\"Carnation Cafe\" src=\"http:\/\/raysofdisneyland.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/09\/dscn0762-300x225.jpg\" alt=\"Carnation Cafe\" width=\"240\" height=\"180\" \/>One of my favorite traditions on any Disneyland trip is our first stop at the Carnation Cafe for breakfast or lunch. \u00c2\u00a0This trip was no exception and our first meal was wonderful. \u00c2\u00a0There is something very special about the Carnation&#8230; I have memories of going there when I was little and watching the parade pass down Main Street from the little wrought iron tables. \u00c2\u00a0The Carnation is one of those things about Disney that is fully immersive. \u00c2\u00a0I know nothing of reality when I am tucked away under a little red and white umbrella, sipping hot cocoa and eating a Mickey Mouse waffle.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-medium wp-image-239\" title=\"Pixie Hollow at Night\" src=\"http:\/\/raysofdisneyland.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/09\/dscn0907-300x225.jpg\" alt=\"Pixie Hollow at Night\" width=\"240\" height=\"180\" \/>I haven&#8217;t been to Disneyland since they opened the new Pixie Hollow and I absolutely couldn&#8217;t wait for this new experience. \u00c2\u00a0I couldn&#8217;t believe that I was going to be able to meet Tinker Bell&#8230; honestly this was something on my &#8220;Bucket List&#8221; of things to do before I die. \u00c2\u00a0Pixie Hollow was amazing. \u00c2\u00a0On our second day in the park, we explored this little piece of Fantasyland at night, after the fairies had gone to sleep. \u00c2\u00a0The special Disney details here were amazing&#8230; little fairy homes on the banks of the ponds, homes for all of the main characters in the <em>Tinker Bell Movie<\/em>, and brilliant twinkling lights sprinkled through the trees like pixie dust.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-medium wp-image-241\" title=\"Tinker Bell Meet and Greet\" src=\"http:\/\/raysofdisneyland.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/09\/dscn0970-225x300.jpg\" alt=\"Tinker Bell Meet and Greet\" width=\"180\" height=\"240\" \/>Day Three was the big day&#8230; I met Tinker Bell \ud83d\ude42 \u00c2\u00a0She was just as fabulous as I had hoped&#8230; full of spunk, but sweet, and willing to put up with a late-20&#8217;s fan who wanted a hug \ud83d\ude42 \u00c2\u00a0I also met Iridessa, who was so beautiful and really sweet as well. \u00c2\u00a0Pixie Hollow was truly a magical place. \u00c2\u00a0Disney has the meet and greet set up really well so that each group has individual time with the fairies and PhotoPass Photographers are on hand to capture the memories as well as character handlers who are happy to take photos with your personal camera as well. \u00c2\u00a0I came out from meeting Tink with a huge smile and such a wonderful happy feeling&#8230; the kind that only Disney can create.<\/p>\n<p>We stayed at the Paradise Pier Hotel for the first time on this trip and I was very pleased&#8230; I will have a larger review of the hotel in another post. \u00c2\u00a0We also went to the Lilo and Stitch Character Breakfast at the hotel&#8217;s PCH Grill for the first time <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-medium wp-image-245\" title=\"Lilo and Stitch\" src=\"http:\/\/raysofdisneyland.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/09\/dscn10901-300x225.jpg\" alt=\"Lilo and Stitch\" width=\"240\" height=\"180\" \/>and it was really great. \u00c2\u00a0These characters were really amazing! \u00c2\u00a0Stitch spent the better portion of our\u00c2\u00a0breakfast time at our table, begging for a sip of my coffee and promising that it wouldn&#8217;t make him wild. \u00c2\u00a0He was a really great character and even brought Lilo in on the fun, trying to tell her that he could be trusted to drink my coffee. \u00c2\u00a0It is truly amazing to me how much emotion the characters can portray without ever saying a word. \u00c2\u00a0I had a great time with Stitch and he made the experience really special for me. \u00c2\u00a0I was a little nervous about the breakfast to be honest&#8230; my little puppy that I lost last year, was affectionately nicknamed Stitch because she was such a terror. \u00c2\u00a0Thankfully this Stitch made me forget about being sad at all.<\/p>\n<p>The rest of my trip was a combination of the D23 Expo and spending a little time in the parks. \u00c2\u00a0I will definitely post updates about the expo later, but it was a truly amazing experience. \u00c2\u00a0These were just a few of the highlights from my trip&#8230; there is so much more to tell. \u00c2\u00a0It was so wonderful, it&#8217;s no wonder that I have such a case of the post-Disney blues.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>There are certain marks that you know make you a true Disney freak fan&#8230; hopefully some of you are with me on this one. I cry when I drive away from the resort at the end of my vacation&#8230; back to the airport, back to reality. \u00c2\u00a0I start planning my next Disney vacation the day [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[29,37,38,90,104,106,110,125],"class_list":["post-233","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-disney-vacations","tag-carnation-cafe","tag-d23","tag-d23-expo","tag-lilo-and-stitch","tag-paradise-pier-hotel","tag-pch-grill","tag-pixie-hollow","tag-tinker-bell"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/raysofdisneyland.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/233","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/raysofdisneyland.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/raysofdisneyland.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/raysofdisneyland.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/raysofdisneyland.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=233"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/raysofdisneyland.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/233\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/raysofdisneyland.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=233"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/raysofdisneyland.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=233"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/raysofdisneyland.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=233"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}