sunday funday at the park

it'd been awhile since we'd gone to the 'land for rope drop, so the kids and i decided to hit it up one sunday morning.  the old lady was hoping to have some disneyland-style french toast, and we managed to score a reservation at plaza inn for breakfast.  we decided to book it for 9:30 so we could go in and do some fun stuff first.

as per usual on a sunday morning, there was zero traffic heading down to anaheim and we were parked and through the main gate just a few minutes after 8:00.  after securing a fastpass for hyperspace mountain using the disneyland app, we headed over to big thunder mountain and walked right onto the ride.

afterwards, we busted out some quarters for the shooting gallery.

this is always the best time to catch a castle photo, before the park fills up.  and also before i start getting extra sweaty.  heh.

since the wait time posted at star tours was only 5 minutes, we swung in for a quick ride.

and the old lady finally fulfilled a childhood dream - snacking on astronaut ice cream.  she chose the neopolitan ice cream sandwich and shared it with all of us.

by then it was time to use our fastpass.  hyperspace mountain is my favorite version of this ride.  the OG version is so dark and a little blah, and the ghost galaxy halloween overlay is creepy AF.  this one is like baby bear's porridge - just right.

and even after all of that fun we had time to take a turn at buzz lightyear's astro blasters.  this is why we love rope drop so much...it's a little tough to get up so early, but the rides are so easily accessible before it gets too crowded.

plaza inn is right there where tomorrowland and main street meet, and so we headed over to check in for our reservation.

before being shown to our table, we got to take a picture with our hostess.

the breakfast buffet here is pretty good, with something for everyone.  there are breakfast pastries, eggs with bacon and sausage, mickey-shaped waffles, made-to-order omelettes, juice, coffee, tea, soda.  everything you could possibly want, with characters stopping to visit you at your table and take pictures.

you get to see lots of classic characters here - aside from minnie, you get to meet chip & dale, winnie the pooh (and tigger too!), pluto, goofy's son max, rafiki.

i'm not sure what was going on here, but her face makes me laugh.

once we'd had our fill of both characters and grub, we headed out of there to do some browsing in the shops on main street.  we even managed to catch the dapper dans doing a quickie performance in one of the stores.

the park was starting to get crowded and the temperatures were rising rapidly, and while we had fastpasses for another ride we decided to head on outta there and throw on some bathing suits to jump into the pool at home.  that's our favorite part of being annual passholders - we can roll in, soak in some disney magic, have some food and bounce.  it's a great way to spend a sunday morning.