Day Three, Part Two of Backstage Magic

We headed out to the wine cellar at Hook's Point restaurant, located at the Disneyland Hotel. Everyone met in the lobby and hiked over as a group. We were led downstairs to a neat little “cellar” area with a bar laden with yummy appetizers like cheese, brushetta, and the like. There were three types of wine to taste, plus sparking juice and soft drinks for those who didn't want to imbibe. After enjoying a nice, causal get-together over the appetizers, we trooped upstairs to the restaurant for our dinner. For our entree, there was a choice of chicken or salmon, as key lime pie was the dessert. The server was very attentive, but I don't think they've quite gotten the hang of serving nearly 40 people all at once because the food did take a while. It wasn't a big deal, since we were all pretty content from the appetizer (and probably more so from the wine!).
After dinner, we all trooped over to Disneyland for a special surprise. Since we got there after dark, it was a very appropriate experience: a ride on the Haunted Mansion! Our whole group had its own stretching room, and five volunteers (my husband included) got to experience it from a unique perspective. Then we all loaded into doom buggies to enjoy a Disneyland classic.
Next up, we were all given a fastpass good on any fastpass ride and turned loose to enjoy the rest of our evening. Hubby and I planned to use ours on Indy, although we did slip in a ride on Pirates because there was no line. I hate to admit it, but the DL version is much superior to FL.
At Indy, the posted wait time was only 15 minutes, so we used the standby line. I absolutely love Indy; it's probably my favorite DL ride. The wait turned out to be closer to half an hour, so when we were done we decided to try to again with fastpass. Unfortunately we were told that we couldn't use them because no one was there to take them. The CM tried to convince us that we didn't need them, but we noticed that the posted time had gone up to 25 minutes so we decided against it. Instead, we popped next door to the Jungle Cruise for an awesome night ride.
After that, we decided to call it a night, since I was nearly dead on my feet. We shuffled to the hotel, totally exhausted but very content. It had been a long, full day with plenty of adventures. Although I knew our 7 a.m. meeting time would come much too quickly the next morning, I was still excited at the adventures that lay ahead at DL/