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Sunday, July 22, 2018

Hunting Lions at Disneyland

Today at Disneyland we're celebrating The Lion King! And because we're lions today, we're going to hunt for other lions at the park.
For hats, there's Ian sporting his Young Simba hat from Disneyland Paris. My Simba hat (which we're calling Mufasa today) came from Disney World. Alli has a rare Nala hat which I think was released around the time of the movie.
And you can see in the background, the banners are sporting lions on their banners. Lion Count - 1.

Thankfully arriving right when the park opened meant short lines! Alice in Wonderland was a really short line. Ian - Today is my Unbirthday!

While on the ride during the golden afternoon section with the flowers singing, a Dandelion appeared! Lion Count - 2.

Because the lines are short, Dumbo was calling our name.

Taking turns helping Dumbo fly up and down.

Next is Casey Jr. Ian. Off he goes! One of these days I'm tempted to let him navigate us around the park.

Alli following right behind him.

All these lions are in a cage for their trip around the park.

No pictures of lions, or words that say lion. Just a Wild Animals Cage. But...

At the very end of the ride, while Casey is saying goodbye, he says, "As they say to the animals, that's the end of the Lion." I'm counting it. Lion Count - 3.

Alli what are you eating? "Cucumber." Lions don't eat cucumbers Alli.

Still pretty quiet in the park, so Finding Nemo was a walk-on. No lion fish or anything was found in the water, though we did see a volcano, which Ian was excited to see.

And driving around Autopia on our own safari, I couldn't spot any lions here either.


Gadget's Go-coaster has become a go-to.

Eww. People talk about the decline of Toontown. The pond that's visible from the Toontown path is clean (though filled with leaves). The pond that you only see from the ride is scummy. Yuck.

I love that characters wander through Toontown since they are supposed to live there.

Big hugs for Pluto.

Asking Ian what he wanted to ride today he said "The Yellow Car ride!" Thankfully Theresa was able to decode that to be Roger Rabbit's Toontown Spin.

Alli told me she really like Roger. I agree!

Over at it's a small world, I knew we'd see a couple of lions. There's Simba (along with Pumba and Timon) plus another large lion. I'm counting that as 2 sightings. Lion Count - 5.

And the topiaries along the exit had yet another lion for us to find. Lion Count - 6.

Next up was the carousel.

Purple horse? Alli is happy!

One of the horses has blanket with a lion emblem on it. Lion Count - 7.

And the center of the carousel there's a coat of arms with lions on it as well. Lion Count - 8.

After a tasty lunch at the Red Rose Tavern, Ian really wanted to go on Snow White's Scary Adventure. That's a first for him and I'm happy he's doing things that might be outside his comfort zone.

Can't forget the Disney family crest on the castle. That's got 3 lions on it, but we'll count them as 1. Lion Count - 9. And look, it's Jacob!

As luck would have it as we walked by the pastry booth on Main Street, the Dole Whip Donut was available and there wasn't a ridiculous line!

I've been curious to try it ever since it was announced, even though it costs $6 for the donut.

Cutting into it and spilling the pineapple jelly. The donut was really dense and a bit doughy. I enjoy the sweetness, but really wish the pineapple flavor stood out more. Happy to try it, but won't be ordering it again.

Of course you can't forget the lions on the world famous Jungle Cruise! They're so sweet protecting that sleeping Zebra. He looks dead tired. Lion Count - 10.

As we walked out, the Disneyland Band was marching down Main Street doing the conga and wouldn't you know, they were playing "I Just Can't Wait To Be King" from The Lion King.

Does that count? Let me ask the judges.
Thumbs up from the judges. Lion Count - 11.

That does it for our lion hunt. In the end, we found 11 references to lions inside Disneyland!

So, besides the Lion King scene in Fantasmic (that we're not sticking around for) and not counting anything in DCA, what other lion references did I miss today?

Let's pop over to DCA for a little bit. From the Disneyland app, it looks like this park is a little busy today. Ian commented that Mr. Incredible and Frozone are going to have to hold that up for a long time. Only until September buddy. Then I'm guessing we're going to be celebrating Halloween!

Yep, lines are long here. The wait for Ariel was amongst the longest I've ever seen. The queue spilled out the entrance and looped back down the street.


And Ian is always happy to ride Goofy's Sky School. Thankfully the fastpass kept our wait time down.
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Hey! The new Sweet Shop is open! Let's go check it out!

Inside was a bunch of... retail? Really? I thought it was going to be dedicated to candy.

I do like that there's candy on the floors.

Maybe I'm missing something here. I get the kids drawing. That's from the movie. But why the curtain? Does it open up or something? What am I not getting?

Over on the side of the store, there was finally some sweet stuff. And they worked the scary clown from the movie into it too. Now you can get frozen slushes here.

Along with an assortment of cake pops, caramel apples, and other sweets.

And in the same area there's more treats to be had. I do love cotton candy. In the end though, nothing screamed "buy me!".

Jacob trying to beat the heat with his Dole Whip donut umbrella. It was not super effective.

For the last ride of the day, Theresa always asks the kids the question in the same way. "Do you want to go home, or do you want to go for one last ride on ..." Inevitably they end up picking the ride, but it helps get them ready to go home. Despite all the lines elsewhere, Mater was only a 10 minute wait.

Yes it was hot in Anaheim today. Yes I kept my hat on the whole time (except when told to remove it for a ride). Fun hats are worth it though!

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