Disneyland Vacation and Visitors

Today is day 2 of 12 of April visitors and vacation. Even though I am still working today and the next 2 days, I'm already having fun and am looking forward to the rest of it.

For lunch today, Danny and I met up with friends from the UK named John and Dave at Blueberry Hill. I met them a year ago when another friend named Dave ( ) asked me to get them in to see LOVE with a tour the theater. We had a great chat that night and I've kept in touch with them online since. Danny got to meet them for the first time today. Now, we're both ready to move to the UK.

After that, we were able to briefly meet up with my parents before I headed out to work. We met with them yesterday for a couple of hours as well. The visiting will get easier later in the week when my vacation kicks in.

Speaking of which, we have quite a busy schedule of Vegas and Disneyland-related activities happening. My parents went to see both KA and Zumanity last night (they are hardcore as you can see). And I saw the pictures today - Mom and Dad were the "volunteer dance couple" for the end of the show. Tuesday, Danny and I are going to see Lion King thanks to free tickets from work and then we'll see Phantom the next day with my parents. Finally, my parents will be going to see Cher (the original inspiration for this trip) on one of their last days here. A lot of shows are getting squeezed into this visit.

On Thursday, Keena and Erik ( ), our good friends from Orlando, are coming out to Vegas as well. We'll hang out with them and the parents for a couple of days doing fun Vegas things and probably a lot of Wii and then Keena, Erik, Danny, and I will drive off to Anaheim for 2 1/2 days.

Disneyland! Disneyland! Disneyland! I haven't been since 2007 and the Disney nerd in me is about to go nuts, especially after 2 aborted trip plans in the past year or so. There is a whole bunch of new stuff (and sort of old stuff) there that I can't wait to see: Captain EO Tribute, Midway Madness, Monster Inc. (which was always closed on previous visits), and all of the construction on the new DCA elements. I'm a little sad that both Fantasmic w/ new dragon and World of Color will not be open. However, the construction walls for WoC should be down so we can at least check out the gear and Fantasmic is drained so we can do the same there. It's a reason to come back later anyway. :-)

We arrive sometime on Sunday the 11th and will do something in the Disneyland area - Downtown Disney, maybe a park evening, or just hotel sloth. We'll be in the parks for full days on the 12th and 13th then drive home early on the 14th. There won't be any room for side trips and visits this time but if any California people happen to be in Disneyland, feel free to give me a text or Twitter DM (@mkbrister). And if any Disneyland folk have a break to come out and say hello, we'd love to see ya!

For now, it is back to work. Happy Chocolate Bunny Droppings Day!