MagicHusky Goes Treehousing & Towering! *Aladdin Musical filmed in HD!* (New 12/7) [Archive] - The DIS Discussion Forums

magichusky

09-18-2010, 07:54 AM

Why hello everyone! :welcome: to my first ever TR! It's a baby! Come one, come all, and read about my mini-adventure riddled with close encounters during which I strive to climb the Disney treehouse trifecta, explore dark , sparkling caverns and search for my animal spirit, and enter a sticky situation w/ a certain bellhop. I'm writing this predominantly as practice for my upcoming WDW Christmas delight- I'll be visiting the world 12/17-12/23 w/ my Mom, Dad, and sister, Heather. Since this future Floridian adventure has been anticipated for 20+ years (I grew up in Disneyland but have never been to WDW!) it is imperative that it be well documented. Here's what we have so far:

PART 1: Stumbling out of bed and tramming (post 1)
PART 2: A royal entrance (post 2)
PART 3: Treehousing & Castling (post 4)
PART 4: That tree is still Swiss to me!! (post 11)
PART 5: We've run out of hot dogs! (pg 2, post 18)
PART 6: HOOTIN' & HOLLERIN' (pg 3, post 31)
PART 7: I TOOK THE DARE! (pg 3, post 32)
PART 8: I'm a hungry bear in a world of color (pg 3, post 36)
PART 9: BONUS mini-TR (10/7/10): Operation Aladdin Musical
Part 9A: It's HalloweenTime!
Part 9B: Tiki-Grilled-Cheese-to-Go
Part 9C: Pumpkins & Muffins Are Good Together
Part 9D: It's a Whole New World
PART 10: Sneak peek for my WDW Christmas upcoming TR!

And here's what's coming up:

That's all, folks!

First, let me introduce the cast of characters:

CAST OF CHARACTERS:

Lauren! (Me!!!!) I'm 25, an antsy grad student :surfweb:, and if I had to guess I'd say I've been to Disneyland around 100 times. I grew up in San Diego and as a small child I would refuse to attend school on my birthday and would request (or rather expect, heehee) a DL day since I of course cared nothing for pop quizzes or hooked-on-phonics worksheets as a birthday treat. :cake: I also get a kick out of auditioning for The Amazing Race on CBS so keep an eye out for me and my sister! I am now an AP holder and DL regular. So regular that in fact the bellhops in the tower know who I am (I'd like to give a friendly shout-out to my good buddies Sean M. and Chad!!!). *Favorite Disney animated film: The Little Mermaid.

Here's me w/ a lovely goat:

http://i979.photobucket.com/albums/ae278/magichusky/dis01/lauren01.jpg

And for good measure, a pic of my very own magic husky, Loki (but I call him Kiki):

http://i979.photobucket.com/albums/ae278/magichusky/dis01/loki01.jpg

And another to showcase his serious side:

http://i979.photobucket.com/albums/ae278/magichusky/dis01/loki02.jpg

Kendra! Kendra was that crazy girl in college who perpetually deemed that midnight of the night before a big paper was due was the proper time to initiate and complete said paper, then humbly accept an A+ in return. Kendra was also nocturnal, which must be contagious since now I too am nocturnal. Upon my return to college one year after winter break, I heard a faint utterance of "Acidophilus" float up the hall and it was confirmed: Kendra was back! Kendra also once dressed up as Hermione for Halloween and bravely escorted a mob of inner-city children trick-or-treating through campus. Yes, the genius that is Kendra is still a mystery to us. *Favorite Disney animated film: Beauty and the Beast.

Here's Kendra w/ her buddy Sulley: :sulley:

http://i979.photobucket.com/albums/ae278/magichusky/dis01/kendra_sully.jpg

The premise of this trip:

I have discovered that the only way to communicate w/ my crazy buddies, VBsHustla (here on the DIS- check out their most recent WDW TR here: "Ultrafeast: Beach Club CL Trip March 2010" (http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=2429460)), during their WDW excursions is via Twitter. It actually was quite beneficial b/c that's how I discovered Disney was hosting a 9pm World of Color (WOC) show on 9/15-16 exclusively for APs. In addition, APs would have exclusive riding privileges between 8-8:45pm on those nights for the Tower of Terror (TOT), Soarin', and a few others. I pitched the idea to Kendra and she loved it! D to the Land!!! So the plan was that I would drive down from LA and hang out at DL, then meet Kendra there after she got off from work...

PART 1: Stumbling out of bed and tramming

As I mentioned before, I have somehow recently become nocturnal :rolleyes: (somehow I have an inkling that that's mostly due to the beast that is grad school). As a result, waking up before 11am can be quite the crisis. I had planned on making a BestBuy run in the "morning" to make a much anticipated purchase: a new camera! :banana: A hot pink "Canon Powershot sd1400 is" to be exact. This is really my first big girl camera since my old camera is a 7 yr old 4 megapixel Gateway digital camera, which refused to store more than 36 photos at a time. Singular. I needed to make the purchase early enough that I would have enough time to fully charge the new battery before I left for DL (goal was 2pm).

I managed to stumble out of bed at 10:30am and toodled on over to BestBuy, where I purchased my beloved camera (which was on sale btw) and an HD memory card (apparently this baby can film HD movies!!). I buzzed back into my apartment and immediately started charging the battery, which had an advertised 1.5 hrs of charging time. While the battery was doing its thing, I settled down for some lunch and an online viewing of "Ocean Girl" (Disney channel circa 1994 and a Kendra recommendation). How did I miss this completely fabulous TV-series as a child??? :happytv:

I was impressed when my battery indicated a full charge exactly an hour and 40 minutes later. So, it being almost 2:30pm, I loaded up my hot pink plaid Mickey bag with my hot pink camera, hot pink phone, and hand sanitizer (the hand sanitizer actually comes into play later!) and threw myself into my Jeep. I figured I'd better get some gas before departing, but surely would've passed if I had known it would take me almost 30 min to do the job! Only in Los Angeles does it take a half hour to drive less than half a mile to a gas station and fill your car up. :confused3: At this particular gas station, my neighbors think it appropriate to pull in at the first pump they see, consequently blocking access to all remaining pumps. Anyway, I finally got going at 2:50pm and arrived at the dreaded Mickey & Friends parking structure by 4pm (Funny how when I drove to Disney at 3am for the 1/2 Marathon it took 30 min). I despise the Mickey & Friends parking structure because it costs $15 to park there and then it takes an extra 20 min to be transported by tram to Downtown Disney. The trams are the slowest things ever and it takes people 5 minutes simply to climb aboard and sit down plus another 5 to disembark. Plus, is anyone else besides me hating the new doors they installed on those things?? :headache: They're quite heavy and don't stay open on their own accord. Consequently when I disembark I am forced to hold the door open for various small children behind me and by the time I finally get going I find myself surrounded by a mob of painfully leisurely walkers and as a result must walk painfully leisurely myself all the way to the security checkpoint. When the trams were doorless I was able to do a flying dismount and power walk all the way to China before my fellow trammers even set stroller to pavement. :rolleyes1:

CONTINUED IN THE NEXT POST...

magichusky

09-18-2010, 08:05 AM

PART 2: A royal entrance

Upon emerging from the checkpoint, I was greeted with "You've Got a Friend In Me" and my delightful pumpkinized pals atop the turnstiles whom I look forward to every Fall. Donald is by far the loveliest:

http://i979.photobucket.com/albums/ae278/magichusky/dis01/dis01_01.jpg

Unfortunately, HalloweenTime officially started the next day, :mad: but at least I got to check out most of the special decorations:

http://i979.photobucket.com/albums/ae278/magichusky/dis01/dis01_02.jpg

http://i979.photobucket.com/albums/ae278/magichusky/dis01/dis01_03.jpg

http://i979.photobucket.com/albums/ae278/magichusky/dis01/dis01_04.jpg

As I was walking in, the flag retreat ceremony was just getting under way so I stopped and partook in the patriotic party. The area was riddled with joyous Yanks (so no photos unfortunately) and everyone sang the Star Spangled Banner together with pride. I didn't sing because it would have most certainly ruined the ambience. :sad2: Once we were done singing I turned and set off down Main Street. I'm sure this family adored starring in my photo:

http://i979.photobucket.com/albums/ae278/magichusky/dis01/dis01_05.jpg

I was delighted to acquire the following photo of Walt's pumpkin patch without it guest starring Tootie and Teddy Tourist, who have ruined countless photos over the years.

http://i979.photobucket.com/albums/ae278/magichusky/dis01/dis01_06.jpg

http://i979.photobucket.com/albums/ae278/magichusky/dis01/dis01_08.jpg

Do hanging baskets count as hidden Mickeys?

http://i979.photobucket.com/albums/ae278/magichusky/dis01/dis01_07.jpg

I proceeded to the castle and encountered this little guy. I couldn't figure out the intended emotion- inspired? Noble? Courageous? Haughty?

http://i979.photobucket.com/albums/ae278/magichusky/dis01/dis01_09.jpg

http://i979.photobucket.com/albums/ae278/magichusky/dis01/dis01_10.jpg

It was a super glorious day out and the moat water was looking less moaty and more lakey, which was nice. The wishing well was all boarded up but at least I got to enjoy these great spinning fountain fish. It was very "There you see her." Which reminds me of a now extinct Little Mermaid fountain that used to be nearby, featuring my fav King Triton. I was horrified when it was removed and replaced by generic water shooting things! :eek:

http://i979.photobucket.com/albums/ae278/magichusky/dis01/dis01_11.jpg

http://i979.photobucket.com/albums/ae278/magichusky/dis01/dis01_12.jpg

It never ceases to amaze me that no matter how few or how many people are stuffed into DL, the Peter Pan line is always 30 min. And what's that white thing affixed to the tip of the clock tower? It looks like a snowflake to me? But that doesn't make any sense. :confused3:

http://i979.photobucket.com/albums/ae278/magichusky/dis01/dis01_13.jpg

Fantasy Land was disgusting. There were strollers all over the place and about fifty children trying to pull the sword out of the stone. :scared1: So I aborted mission and took a hard left past Pinocchio's Village Haus, which was all boarded up. What on earth could they possibly be doing in there? I passed my beloved Big Thunder Ranch but it was unfortunately closed! I pretty much wanted to tie that wagon to the back of my Jeep and tow it back home on the 405.

http://i979.photobucket.com/albums/ae278/magichusky/dis01/dis01_14.jpg

http://i979.photobucket.com/albums/ae278/magichusky/dis01/dis01_15.jpg

I was admiring another of my favorite DL oddities and saw the Mark Twain chugging along on the other side of this abandoned tunnel...

http://i979.photobucket.com/albums/ae278/magichusky/dis01/dis01_16.jpg

So I ran to catch up with it:

http://i979.photobucket.com/albums/ae278/magichusky/dis01/dis01_17.jpg

As I raced around the corner and Tom Sawyer Island came into view, I had a sudden hankering to be ferried by raft, stumble across my favorite barrel bridge, and bounce a few people around. :laughing:

http://i979.photobucket.com/albums/ae278/magichusky/dis01/dis01_18.jpg

I could still see people combing the island but the last raft had apparently departed at 5pm! I just barely missed it! I turned around, forlorn, and was horrified to run into this freakish mansion!

http://i979.photobucket.com/albums/ae278/magichusky/dis01/dis01_19.jpg

The Haunted Mansion was closed and fenced up but it was still far too eery for me even in its partially hidden state so I evacuated by rail. Then, the strangest thing happened!

TO BE CONTINUED...

Eight

09-18-2010, 03:02 PM

I'm totally with you about the trams. I hate those things, and I hate waiting when there's a crowd of people are fighting to get on. Which is why I almost always walk, even though everyone I'm with always complain about having to walk, and I'm just like, "It about as fast, and if you're going to complain about walking, then why are you at Disneyland?" Seriously, it's not that far. And when did they install doors on those things? I think I'd hate them even more now.

Anyway..

I'm loving your report so far. :thumbsup2

(and secretly glad someone else shares my hatred of the trams)

I never noticed that thing on the top of the clock tower at Peter Pan before! Man, what is that? I'll have to look for that next time I go, because now I'm intrigued.

Can't wait to read more!

magichusky

09-18-2010, 10:07 PM

PART 3: Treehousing & Castling

When we last left off, I was fleeing from the Haunted Mansion. I was relieved to discover a train waiting for me at the New Orleans station, so I hopped aboard and was almost immediately whisked away through Splash Mountain. I was delighted to see a log floating through our field of view at just the perfect moment. I was also surprised to find that two other parties sitting next to me also found joy in waving to cranky strangers. Usually people look at me like I'm insane b/c I insist upon waving to practically everyone from my locomotive. Guess they're too cool for school. :cool2: Unfortunately, the log we passed haughtily ignored us all. We then passed the Rivers of America and saw a moose and a busy Indian village. Then, the strangest thing happened...

I got off at ToonTown! :mickeyjum I generally detest TT but today I had a very important date with a certain treehouse. The only thing I hate more than TT is Roger Rabbit's Toon Spin, or whatever it's called, which is IN TT (funny thing is that I truly adore the movie). Recently, I went to DL with an inexperienced DLer (I always feel guilty while touring w/ such a person because they insist on festering in indecision, so I feel like I'm ordering them around all day). Anyway, we got stuck on Small World for 25 min WITH the music on the entire time! By the time we got out of there my head was spinning, and we had missed rope drop for CA Adv! I insisted that the CMs gift me magical fastpasses as retribution and was rewarded 2 such passes for my tenacity. My touring companion wanted to use one of them for the RR Spin! I was horrified and refused (We wound up using the special passes for 2 attractions that didn't offer FPs: Peter Pan and the swinging gondolas on the CA Adv ferris wheel). So in short, I hate the land of toons.

As I was walking into the land of screaming children, I did a double take at this Emily Gilmore reference, or in other words, a spoof of the DAR (Daughters of the American Revolution): :rotfl2:

http://i979.photobucket.com/albums/ae278/magichusky/dis01/dis01_20.jpg

I wish I could fill my car up w/ gas in TT rather than that disgusting Shell station back home! :car:

http://i979.photobucket.com/albums/ae278/magichusky/dis01/dis01_21.jpg

Finally! I've had a craving for a tour of the Chip 'n' Dale Treehouse for all of 2 days!

http://i979.photobucket.com/albums/ae278/magichusky/dis01/dis01_22.jpg

It's a bit brambly up there!

http://i979.photobucket.com/albums/ae278/magichusky/dis01/dis01_23.jpg

http://i979.photobucket.com/albums/ae278/magichusky/dis01/dis01_24.jpg

We're not nearly high enough!

http://i979.photobucket.com/albums/ae278/magichusky/dis01/dis01_25.jpg

http://i979.photobucket.com/albums/ae278/magichusky/dis01/dis01_26.jpg

The toons were starting to get to me so I hotfooted it out of there. On my way out I saw Minnie emerge from a backstage door. I waved but she was too busy smoothing her dress and admiring her new shoes to pay any attention to my kind gesture. She pranced over to the nearest gaggle of small children and immediately strollers everywhere yelled "Minnie!!". They advanced in perfect battle formation. It was time to go!

I escaped from the mob and decided to try my new camera out in nearby SW.

http://i979.photobucket.com/albums/ae278/magichusky/dis01/dis01_27.jpg

Just as I was about to queue up the CM roped it off about 3 ft in front of me! Apparently SW closes like 30 min prior to the evening parade. :sad: I feel like that hasn't always been so since when I was very small I once made everyone escort me from Frontierland to FL during a parade just so that I could go on SW. And it was very much open. Anyway, I was terribly disappointed so I headed off towards the castle. I considered riding the Storybook Canal boats but the line was far too long and that's one of my most hated queues due to its ridiculously narrow walkways.

I love Dumbo's purple tent and matching outfit:

http://i979.photobucket.com/albums/ae278/magichusky/dis01/dis01_28.jpg

I've wanted to chill out w/ a Dole Whip on Pinocchio's balcony since the age of 5. They really need to let me up there one of these days.

http://i979.photobucket.com/albums/ae278/magichusky/dis01/dis01_29.jpg

I'm confused as to the meaning of this stork. The only Disney film w/ a character delivered by stork is Dumbo, right? I haven't seen Pinocchio in a few years but I don't think he was delivered in such a manner? He just came to life in Gepetto's workshop!

http://i979.photobucket.com/albums/ae278/magichusky/dis01/dis01_30.jpg

Oh my dearie! I'm being spied on by a wicked witch! :maleficen

http://i979.photobucket.com/albums/ae278/magichusky/dis01/dis01_31.jpg

I passed by the BBB and pretty much needed to go inside. This display really needs to be recreated in my apartment immediately:

http://i979.photobucket.com/albums/ae278/magichusky/dis01/dis01_32.jpg

I've of course inquired about these crowns numerous times and they're apparently not for sale! Unfortunately I oftentimes find myself trying to buy various shop displays and the CMs think I'm the craziest. I should channel Sandra Bullock from the Blind Side, whip out my checkbook, acquire an imposing Southern drawl, and insist: "Well, come ooon, what's it gonna take??".

http://i979.photobucket.com/albums/ae278/magichusky/dis01/dis01_33.jpg

This window divided the store from the boutique. I could hear giggles and got a whiff of hairspray...let's get outta here!

http://i979.photobucket.com/albums/ae278/magichusky/dis01/dis01_34.jpg

I think I've seen less than 5 people use this drinking fountain in 20 yrs. They just really need to make it into a fountain (without the drinking part).

http://i979.photobucket.com/albums/ae278/magichusky/dis01/dis01_36.jpg

It's rare that it's quiet enough for me to enter the castle since I despise being stuck inside. If it's too crowded, not only do you get stuck for ages but you also get breathed on and stepped on; plus there's no way to get around the guests ahead of you if you want to leave. I definitely recommend visiting the castle early in the morning or right before closing!

http://i979.photobucket.com/albums/ae278/magichusky/dis01/dis01_35.jpg

It's quite difficult to take good photos in there and it didn't help that I was inexperienced w/ the new camera. So if you haven't been inside before, here's one shot to give you a general idea of what it's like. The windows look out onto various scenes that tell the story of Sleeping Beauty and little storybooks are displayed along the way that you can read. While walking through the dungeon corridor, I highly recommend opening the middle door (the one w/ no window). It makes for a good time!!

http://i979.photobucket.com/albums/ae278/magichusky/dis01/dis01_37.jpg

Upon descending the final staircase and exiting the castle, Fairy Flora called out after me: "Make it pink!!!" I was like, well certainly! You don't have to tell me! pixiedust:

I walked out onto the drawbridge and sat down in one of the buit-in benches and enjoyed the view. Unfortunately within 30 seconds my view was transformed into that of the backsides of a family who decided to stand almost directly in front of me. They were practically standing inside the recessed niche I was sitting in. The tween boy started blowing bubbles at me and I decided that it was time to evacuate and pay a visit to a far superior family, my fav Swiss family!

TO BE CONTINUED...

magichusky

09-18-2010, 11:09 PM

I'm totally with you about the trams. I hate those things, and I hate waiting when there's a crowd of people are fighting to get on.

Agreed! It's pretty awkward sometimes when you're forced to battle w/ a 5 yr old kid for a spot on the tram. So you have to let the 5 yr old get on and then by extension the other 10 members of their party. After all that, there's no more room on the tram and you have to wait another 10 min. I've totally walked before and it was such a relief to move forward of my own volition. :rolleyes1

And thanks for reading! I'm afraid that my TR title isn't attractive enough to gain readership!

magichusky

09-18-2010, 11:23 PM

CALLING DISNEY AT 4AM IS GREAT FUN!

Hi everyone! This is an exciting night! :cheer2: I've been planning my Christmas WDW excursion for months and today we are 90 days out! This is my first WDW trip EVER so I'm super duper stoked about it!!! Anyway, tomorrow (basically tonight at 4am, 7am EST) is the first day I can try for a Wishes cruise reservation. I'm hoping for 12/18 since it'll be our first full day. I'm also hoping that I'll be successful tonight or else I'll have to stay up 'til 4am each night until I score a ressie. Apparently there are only 5 boats available per night so I'm rather nervous! I had to do the 4am thing back in August, too, so I could book the CP dinner package at Le Cellier. It took me 7 min of continuous dialing just to get on hold, then another hour on hold until I even got to speak w/ someone! Plus I had to listen to the Haunted Mansion soundtrack while waiting- it was pretty eery at 4:50am!! :upsidedow

Mommy2PrincessAbby

09-18-2010, 11:34 PM

I love your TR so far! And your pics are great!!

Eight

09-18-2010, 11:58 PM

Agreed! It's pretty awkward sometimes when you're forced to battle w/ a 5 yr old kid for a spot on the tram. So you have to let the 5 yr old get on and then by extension the other 10 members of their party. After all that, there's no more room on the tram and you have to wait another 10 min. I've totally walked before and it was such a relief to move forward of my own volition. :rolleyes1

And thanks for reading! I'm afraid that my TR title isn't attractive enough to gain readership!

Exactly! Ugh, trams. :sad2:

I don't know, I don't think it's the title. It caught my attention anyway. :) The Disneyland trip report board can be slow at times though, at least compared to the WDW trip report board.

And oh man, calling at 4 AM does not sound fun. Why can't they open at 10 EST? It makes sense in my mind. Are the Wishes cruises really hard to get? They sound so fun! I'd love to do one next time I go to Disney World.

Also, I'm slightly embarrassed to admit I had no clue there was a Chip 'n' Dale Treehouse.

VBsHustla

09-19-2010, 12:01 AM

Hello! Loving the TR, but it's making me feel very nostalgic for DL! I must visit immediately, especially before my most hated Disneyland time of the year rolls around again. I'd like to avoid a 4 hour journey on the 405 and a Christmas time fireworks altercation if at all possible! However, I absolutely love all the Halloween decor photographs. Particularly that weird pumpkin with the guy wearing Mickey ears!

I am extremely disturbed and offended to hear that the trams are now even more inconvenient! :scared1: Those doors sound like quite the nuisance. Some of us don't have those extra seconds to spare when we roll in 3 minutes before the Tower closes.

I'm glad that Toon Town, if nothing else, has that beautiful Emily Gilmore tribute. She deserves it! :lovestruc Another pic I enjoyed was that strange stork photo. :laughing:

Good luck with your Wishes cruise and making it through the next 6-7 hours haha. (That is insane. I'm headed to sleep now!) I look forward to the rest of the TR and am very excited for when your guest star Kendra makes an appearance! :goodvibes

magichusky

09-19-2010, 08:56 PM

I love your TR so far! And your pics are great!!

Thank you!! So glad you're here! That's so exciting that you'll be DLing it away in just 2 weeks! :woohoo:

And oh man, calling at 4 AM does not sound fun. Why can't they open at 10 EST? It makes sense in my mind. Are the Wishes cruises really hard to get? They sound so fun! I'd love to do one next time I go to Disney World.

Also, I'm slightly embarrassed to admit I had no clue there was a Chip 'n' Dale Treehouse.

I definitely agree about the DL TR board being slower than the corresponding WDW one. Hopefully people will read my WDW Christmas TR- I'm already thinking about titles! :cloud9:

Calling at 4am was actually not too bad this time around! I got through immediately and made my Wishes reservation for just the date I wanted. :banana: Now I just have to hope that it doesn't rain or something ridiculous. I'm really not sure how hard they are to get since getting my ressie was so easy, but I saw this thread:

Illuminations Cruises- what they are and how to book one (http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=62582)

and it totally freaked me out! Granted the thread is old and is specifically regarding Illuminations cruises, but I would imagine that a Wishes cruise would be more in demand than Illuminations. Plus, the date that I booked our cruise was for the last day of the holiday season that didn't have the special Holiday Wishes. I bet a lot of people visiting during that time would prefer to book for Holiday Wishes instead! I've seen Holiday Wishes at DL and actually disliked it; the music made me sleepy and the red and green fireworks weren't as bright and colorful. I pretty much *never* watch fireworks b/c there are too many cranky people and they're all stuffed together like sardines! So I'm glad I can watch them now from the safety of my own boat!!

I actually didn't know that there was a Chip 'n' Dale Treehouse either! It's way in the back of TT by Mickey's house, which was closed when I went. TT is really gross IMO. I read in my Imagineering guides that back in the day when it first opened (at WDW), it was called Birthday Land and was intended as a temporary attraction to celebrate Mickey's 60th birthday. I'd prefer the birthday version! Thankfully they're demolishing it soon, at least at WDW. ;)

Hello! Loving the TR, but it's making me feel very nostalgic for DL! I must visit immediately, especially before my most hated Disneyland time of the year rolls around again. I'd like to avoid a 4 hour journey on the 405 and a Christmas time fireworks altercation if at all possible! However, I absolutely love all the Halloween decor photographs. Particularly that weird pumpkin with the guy wearing Mickey ears!

I am extremely disturbed and offended to hear that the trams are now even more inconvenient! :scared1: Those doors sound like quite the nuisance. Some of us don't have those extra seconds to spare when we roll in 3 minutes before the Tower closes.

Hahaha you really DO need to make a reappearance! :cool1: Kendra and I were discussing that DL just isn't the same w/out you! I can't get over how many people have screamed at you in the Disney parks lately- like the fireworks woman and the Eeyore woman! Like, seriously?? If I had seen fireworks woman yelling at you I certainly would have given her a piece of my mind! It was so loud that I literally heard nothing and I was standing like a foot behind you. I was thinking back to our crazy long DL commutes and recall 2 *really* bad ones. I thought that the 3 hr one was the Halloween commute but no, I remembered that it was the Hanukkah commute actually! :confused3 I still am perplexed. And I'm also perplexed as to how we got from the Mickey & Friends parking structure to the tower in less than 6 min twice!!!! We truly had seconds by the time we got to the CA Adv turnstiles. And that woman w/ the stroller couldn't figure out how to use her ticket in front of us! She almost cost us a ride on the tower. Like how do you not understand tickets by 6pm in the evening??? :furious:

magichusky

09-19-2010, 10:26 PM

PART 4: That tree is still Swiss to me!!

I left tween bubble boy in the dust and crossed the hub with purpose. I entered AdventureLand and was shocked that I was able to walk freely through the JC/Indy area! Usually my brisk pace is reduced to a lethargic shuffle due to the fact that this region is perpetually bottlenecked. I walked right up to my destination: an attraction that is very dear to my heart, the Swiss Family Robinson Treehouse! :love: Excuse me, the Tarzan Treehouse.

http://i979.photobucket.com/albums/ae278/magichusky/dis01/dis01_38.jpg

Let's all travel back in time to pre-1999 (pre-Swiss eviction) shall we?

Yesterland remembers the Swiss Family Robinson Treehouse (http://www.yesterland.com/treehouse.html)

I remember listening to Julie Andrews give an interview about her memoire, Home, at the Los Angeles Festival of Books. She reminisced about Walt telling her that she was perfect for an upcoming project (haha- not hard to guess which project that was!) but she had to decline as she was pregnant. Walt said: "That's all right, I'll wait." What a great/super smart guy! :love: She also told us about when Walt took her on a tour of DL for the first time. They came upon the treehouse and Walt said, w/ a twinkle in his eye: "And they said only God could make trees!" Love it!!!! Anyway, long tangent short, how dare they evict my dear Swiss family??? Regardless, that tree is still Swiss to me!

Forget Pinocchio's little balcony, can I chill out w/ a Dole Whip here instead?

http://i979.photobucket.com/albums/ae278/magichusky/dis01/dis01_39.jpg

My comrades love visiting the treehouse w/ me b/c never fail, I insist upon running across the big suspended bridge like a maniac and bouncing everybody around: :banana:

http://i979.photobucket.com/albums/ae278/magichusky/dis01/dis01_40.jpg

A view to the East of the Matterhorn:

http://i979.photobucket.com/albums/ae278/magichusky/dis01/dis01_41.jpg

A view to the Northeast of BTMR:

http://i979.photobucket.com/albums/ae278/magichusky/dis01/dis01_44.jpg

A view to the West of HM, SM, the Columbia, and Critter Country (I love this pic):

http://i979.photobucket.com/albums/ae278/magichusky/dis01/dis01_42.jpg

Do you think anyone would mind if I did some recreational tree-climbing?

http://i979.photobucket.com/albums/ae278/magichusky/dis01/dis01_43.jpg

A little girl behind me declared: "Mommy, it's a looong way down!" Indeed child, it is:

http://i979.photobucket.com/albums/ae278/magichusky/dis01/dis01_45.jpg

I refused to take pics of any of the rooms they have set up b/c they threw some excessively unattractive plastic gorillas and jaguars in there to enhance the Tarzan theming. Like, excuse me, plastic??? Anyway, here's a fun pic I took while descending the final staircase:

http://i979.photobucket.com/albums/ae278/magichusky/dis01/dis01_46.jpg

I made it! Upon reaching the ground, you spill into a rather obnoxious shaded area where small children clang on pots and pans and shake chains or something or other. Guess this is where all the unfortunate souls go who aren't tall enough to ride IJ and wait for big bro and big sis. I turned to my right and at that moment, very much wanted to raft on over to the Temple of the Forbidden Eye by way of this lovely stream:

http://i979.photobucket.com/albums/ae278/magichusky/dis01/dis01_47.jpg

I love waterfalls!

http://i979.photobucket.com/albums/ae278/magichusky/dis01/dis01_48.jpg

CONTINUED IN NEXT POST...

magichusky

09-19-2010, 10:34 PM

...PART 4 CONTINUED

Just beyond the treehouse is the beginning of my favorite part of DL! :cloud9: I paused to admire the Dream Suite and imagined myself sashaying up the stairs:

http://i979.photobucket.com/albums/ae278/magichusky/dis01/dis01_49.jpg

Okay: forget the Pinocchio balcony and that dirty treehouse- I'm a takin' my Dole Whip up here if you please! :goodvibes Notice Walt's and Roy's golden initials:

http://i979.photobucket.com/albums/ae278/magichusky/dis01/dis01_50.jpg

Unfortunately this corridor is rather dark here since by then it was 6pm or so, but they hadn't turned the lights on yet. You should see it at Christmas! :santa:

http://i979.photobucket.com/albums/ae278/magichusky/dis01/dis01_51.jpg

Club 33! I should ding-dong-ditch, just for kicks. How dare that wheelchair invade my photo? My dear friend Kendra has eaten here once! She was 11 or 12 if I'm remembering correctly and had mickey shaped pasta! :cool1:

http://i979.photobucket.com/albums/ae278/magichusky/dis01/dis01_52.jpg

This is a beautiful, quiet area in the back of New Orleans; all you can hear is the fountain splashing. I actually recently found a photo of my mom posing here back in the 70s! Of course, my parents have since lost the photo and I think it's somewhere in the black hole/our garage. :rolleyes: I'll scan it if I find it!

http://i979.photobucket.com/albums/ae278/magichusky/dis01/dis01_53.jpg

I decided I'd better get over to CA Adv since I wanted to get some photos over there before it got dark. Plus, I had some unfinished business to take care of... I cut through the edge of Frontierland and popped into my fav western mercantile delight (It's a pretty large store; I've admired everything from scrapbooking supplies to cooking items in there and purchased Minnie Mouse slippers there once!) for a few moments. But first, I admired one of my new favorites: the Halloween tree!

http://i979.photobucket.com/albums/ae278/magichusky/dis01/dis01_54.jpg

http://i979.photobucket.com/albums/ae278/magichusky/dis01/dis01_55.jpg

http://i979.photobucket.com/albums/ae278/magichusky/dis01/dis01_56.jpg

I needed to make a pit-stop but almost forgot: the restrooms at the entrance to Frontierland are by far the most disgusting restrooms in the entire park!!! Guess I'll have to wait. But wait- the restrooms by the train station are the 2nd most disgusting. Guess I'll have to wait a little bit longer! (hey, I unwittingly made a Joe J ref!) :rolleyes1

A side note, now that we're talking about restrooms (what a delightful topic): my buddy Laura once discovered on the DIS that there was a secret restroom between Fantasy Land and Frontierland. Secret = clean! The next time we went, we spent quite awhile searching for it! After pulling on quite a few locked/fake doors, we felt like idiots but actually went up to the nearest CM and asked her if there was a secret restroom in the vicinity. :rotfl2: She thought we were completely insane and laughed heartily, but informed us that we might be referring to a family restroom that's in the Carnation Plaza. Sure enough, there it was when we ran over there! It's partially hidden, so I guess it's a little "secret." It's a single restroom that you can go into and lock the door, plus it had a diaper changing station. So diaper changers- this is the DL diaper paradise! :woohoo:

I hurried down Main St and everyone was already in position for the evening parade. I usually don't care for parades (mainly due to the insane crowds) so I skedaddled.

http://i979.photobucket.com/albums/ae278/magichusky/dis01/dis01_57.jpg

I *always* glance up at Walt's light in the window every visit. :lovestruc

http://i979.photobucket.com/albums/ae278/magichusky/dis01/dis01_58.jpg

Off to California! Wait, aren't I already in CA? (Yes, the name of this park has always perplexed me) :sad2:

http://i979.photobucket.com/albums/ae278/magichusky/dis01/dis01_59.jpg

TO BE CONTINUED...

UncleOrville

09-20-2010, 02:01 PM

I am LOVING your report! Hilarious! The part that made me laugh out loud most heartily is this simple sentence: "Fantasy Land was disgusting." :lmao:

Ahh, I can picture it now.

Oh, and I do believe I can reveal what your Peter Pan snowflake is:

http://i761.photobucket.com/albums/xx260/UncleOrville/3631328284_afa3e6ae54_b.jpg

It was clearly a terribly dreary day when I last visited DL! I will have to come visit you and DL when Laura does!

VBsHustla

09-20-2010, 04:24 PM

Hahaha you really DO need to make a reappearance! :cool1: Kendra and I were discussing that DL just isn't the same w/out you! I can't get over how many people have screamed at you in the Disney parks lately- like the fireworks woman and the Eeyore woman! Like, seriously?? If I had seen fireworks woman yelling at you I certainly would have given her a piece of my mind! It was so loud that I literally heard nothing and I was standing like a foot behind you. I was thinking back to our crazy long DL commutes and recall 2 *really* bad ones. I thought that the 3 hr one was the Halloween commute but no, I remembered that it was the Hanukkah commute actually! :confused3 I still am perplexed. And I'm also perplexed as to how we got from the Mickey & Friends parking structure to the tower in less than 6 min twice!!!! We truly had seconds by the time we got to the CA Adv turnstiles. And that woman w/ the stroller couldn't figure out how to use her ticket in front of us! She almost cost us a ride on the tower. Like how do you not understand tickets by 6pm in the evening??? :furious:

Oh that Halloween one was ridiculous! Remember it took us an hour beforehand to go like a mile, because we had to go to a post office or something random like that. And then we sat in that terrible parking structure for another hour due to the craziest incompetence (the parking passes were free that night?!) I highly preferred our "free" lot and mad dashes via the Grand Californian entrance!

Congrats on the Wishes cruise! Glad to hear it wasn't a huge ordeal.

I'm excited to hear about your next adventures. Hopefully you managed to successfully ride the Tower repeatedly and dominate the high score board at TSM!

I also cannot deal with Splash Mountaineers who are too oblivious to wave to the train. They don't know how lucky they are to be in the perfect spot at the perfect moment. I'm never fortunate enough to experience a train going by when in a log! Also love that Halloween tree!

where's_my_prince

09-20-2010, 04:41 PM

great TR so far :thumbsup2

magichusky

09-20-2010, 08:26 PM

I am LOVING your report! Hilarious! The part that made me laugh out loud most heartily is this simple sentence: "Fantasy Land was disgusting." :lmao:

Haha thank you!! And thanks for visiting! I think I'm finally going to move into a 2nd page at this point- people are simply refusing to read my poor little TR! :sad2:

OF COURSE! It's that darn ship- I can see it now! I love that you had a pic of that specifically. And OMG you really need to come visit! :banana: I'll have to introduce you guys to my newest bellhop friends. ;)

Oh that Halloween one was ridiculous! Remember it took us an hour beforehand to go like a mile, because we had to go to a post office or something random like that. And then we sat in that terrible parking structure for another hour due to the craziest incompetence (the parking passes were free that night?!) I highly preferred our "free" lot and mad dashes via the Grand Californian entrance!

Congrats on the Wishes cruise! Glad to hear it wasn't a huge ordeal.

I'm excited to hear about your next adventures. Hopefully you managed to successfully ride the Tower repeatedly and dominate the high score board at TSM!

Hahaha Halloween was insanity! Yes and don't forget the most exciting part of the trip: while stuck on Santa Monica Blvd for an hour, some crazy motorcycle guy w/ a skeleton ski-mask stuck his head through my open window and screamed in my face! :scared1: I was so surprised I didn't get a chance to retaliate. I don't drive w/ the window open anymore, btw. And we had to go to the post office b/c my dad mailed our APs to the wrong address and we were trying to track them down. I'm convinced now that that post office simply doesn't exist. This area is truly the stupidest.

And also, TSM was totally closed! It was terrible! :confused:

great TR so far :thumbsup2

Thank you!! :goodvibes

UncleOrville

09-21-2010, 09:14 AM

Yes and don't forget the most exciting part of the trip: while stuck on Santa Monica Blvd for an hour, some crazy motorcycle guy w/ a skeleton ski-mask stuck his head through my open window and screamed in my face! :scared1:

WHAT?! :scared1::rotfl::laughing::eek: You guys had the craziest driving experiences. This, the random gang fight that broke out in front of you. Insanity.

magichusky

09-21-2010, 08:45 PM

WHAT?! :scared1::rotfl::laughing::eek: You guys had the craziest driving experiences. This, the random gang fight that broke out in front of you. Insanity.

Hahaha OMG how could I forget that great gang fight?? I was actually *genuinely* concerned in that situation and was ordering Laura to roll her window down and scream at the cars on the other side of us to get out of the way so we could escape. :eek: These stupid people were gawking at the fight and simultaneously blocking us in so we couldn't get away from the punch-a-thon that was seriously less than 10 ft away and drawing ever closer! We were on our way to the San Diego Jonas concert that evening! Joe got beaned by an electric blue teddy bear that night:

Joe Jonas hit in the face by a teddy bear (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6GsFR735NPQ)

He didn't even see it coming!!! :rotfl2:

magichusky

09-21-2010, 08:59 PM

PART 5: We've run out of hot dogs!

When we left off, I was on my way to California:

http://i979.photobucket.com/albums/ae278/magichusky/dis01/dis01_59.jpg

I hurried over to Grizzly Bear Rapids to check on the status of the WOC passes. They had started giving out the AP-only passes at 5pm and it was around 6:30pm. Kendra had had a kitty-cat emergency vet appointment to attend so she was running late. :sad1: (Kit-cat is fine, btw!) I was pretty confused as to where exactly they were dispensing these passes from- :confused: all I saw were the GBR machines. I had seen WOC once before in June w/ my Aunt, Uncle, and cousins and knew there were passes to be had in the rapids area, but my Aunt was the one who got the passes so I had never done it myself. I saw a CM by the gift shop and asked him where the WOC machines were. "Right around the corner." So I passed the GBR machines and walked around the corner. There was a roped off queue heading in that direction so I got in and followed it- all the way to a dead end! Another CM was standing there and unfastened the rope so I could get out of the queue. He was probably thinking "where is that crazy girl going??". :laughing: I asked him where the WOC passes were and got another vague answer. I finally deduced that the WOC passes were being dispensed from the GBR machines! :idea: There truly were NO signs indicating this. I have no idea how an average Joe would figure this out. I had no idea that you even had to get a WOC pass until a friend told me- I thought you could just walk up like Fantasmic or something.

On my way back down the path, I took a few pics to pretend like I totally meant to go over there:

http://i979.photobucket.com/albums/ae278/magichusky/dis01/dis01_60.jpg

http://i979.photobucket.com/albums/ae278/magichusky/dis01/dis01_61.jpg

This is the last segment of GBR. You may think you triumphed by escaping a soak. I have seen many a guest w/ that triumphant glow... until they encountered this huge geyser!!! (It doesn't hit every raft though, so it's just the luck of the draw)

http://i979.photobucket.com/albums/ae278/magichusky/dis01/dis01_62.jpg

I noted that the WOC passes were still available, so I went on my merry way. I passed the Redwood Challenge Trail and remembered that I was planning on dragging Kendra in here later! I turned around and snapped a pic of my bear friend since I had the perfect angle. I don't get why this isn't visible to guests as they enter the park? You have to be all the way over on the other side of the park to be able to see this guy.

http://i979.photobucket.com/albums/ae278/magichusky/dis01/dis01_63.jpg

As mentioned earlier, I had some unfinished business. On my previous visit, I had noticed a great guy walking around w/ a huge stuffed daschund wearing a hot dog bun. :love: I decided that it must be a prize of some sort! So I of course turned on my heel immediately and headed to the pier. Sure enough, there were those hot dogs! You had to throw little baseballs into a target and throw 3 strikes w/ 8 balls. I can totally do this! I bought a game and wound up dinking out w/ only 2 strikes. I'm terribly competitive so I was actually seething about this for the rest of the day- :mad: like I was on the tower and didn't even hear Rod Serling b/c I was thinking about that blasted hot dog! So I vowed that on my next visit, I would return for the dog. The night before this day I totally practiced w/ a little ball and a hat and was full on prepared for the fight! I was power walking w/ confidence towards my beloved hot dog...:cool1:

http://i979.photobucket.com/albums/ae278/magichusky/dis01/dis01_64.jpg

When I got to the booth, there were only a bunch of stuffed Caseys hanging on the rack. Ummm, there better be some hot dogs hidden in the back! I accosted a nearby CM and described the dog. "Oh, we ran out of hot dogs! We only have Caseys left." Whaaat in the Disney world?! I love how I'm apparently the only one who can't win this game. Now I was seething AND forlorn.

They were testing the equipment for that evening's upcoming WOC shows. My concrete bear buddy roared w/ laughter at me off in the distance. Hot dog! See that big blue wall in the background w/ all that construction? Voyage of the Little Mermaid!!! Opening 2011 (hey, that's not too far away!).

http://i979.photobucket.com/albums/ae278/magichusky/dis01/dis01_65.jpg

This carousel is always more packed than the King Arthur equivalent. Beats me? Although I do love the sign:

http://i979.photobucket.com/albums/ae278/magichusky/dis01/dis01_66.jpg

http://i979.photobucket.com/albums/ae278/magichusky/dis01/dis01_67.jpg

I was still dejected about my hot dog. So I decided to California Scream it off by way of the single riders line:

http://i979.photobucket.com/albums/ae278/magichusky/dis01/dis01_68.jpg

A little tween girl and I took the elevator over to the other side of the tracks and she adored my stuffed Nemo hat. I told her that it was great for cold weather but pretty much you just get a whole bunch of people screaming at you: "OMG! Look! I found Nemo!!!!" The first time it happened it was pretty funny, but these days the tally's up to around 50 or so! CS was a great pick-me-up! The woman I was seated next to asked me nervously: "Have you ever done this one before?" "Why yes, about a zillion times!" Then I started babbling about how they use a technique w/ magnetic linear induction to accelerate the train from 0 to 60mph in like 2.6 sec! Haha I'm such a dork.

CONTINUED IN NEXT POST...

magichusky

09-21-2010, 09:05 PM

...PART 5 CONTINUED

Anyway, I started back towards the park entrance to wait for Kendra. Here's a pic of construction of the new Cars Land behind the wharf. It looks like that structure will eventually be Test Track. Ugh- CA Adv is so ugly these days w/ all the construction!

http://i979.photobucket.com/albums/ae278/magichusky/dis01/dis01_69.jpg

http://i979.photobucket.com/albums/ae278/magichusky/dis01/dis01_70.jpg

Two of my fav things: The Little Mermaid and the tower. :lovestruc

http://i979.photobucket.com/albums/ae278/magichusky/dis01/dis01_71.jpg

So annoying that the tower is only accessible these days by walking through Bug's Land. Definitely not my fav.

http://i979.photobucket.com/albums/ae278/magichusky/dis01/dis01_72.jpg

At this point it was around 7pm or so so I sat down on those concrete ledges that zig-zag through the sun fountain area, which is just beyond the Golden Gate bridge. There was almost no one else lounging here so it was quite tranquil. Kendra called and was stuck in traffic, but could see CA Adv from where she was! Apparently there was a light out along Harbor Blvd. which stupidly backed up traffic for miles. While I was talking w/ Kendra, all of a sudden a 1.5 yr old boy comes toddling around the corner atop the ledge, escorted by his mother who was walking alongside the ledge and holding his hand. They walked right up to me, to within 2 ft, and were seriously standing there staring at me and waiting for me to get out of the way so they could proceed! :confused3 There was truly about 5 miles of ledge they could traverse through that abandoned area that didn't include the square foot I was using. I looked up at them and they continued to stare and wait! Hahaha how strange! As Kendra was complaining about the traffic on the phone, I indignantly gathered up my belongings, got up, and stepped aside. The mother smiled at me. "Oh, thank you." "Uuuhh, okay?" People are the weirdest. :rotfl:

Moving on. Kendra is en route :banana: and I told her I would meet her by the sun fountain. I'm suddenly starving and consider running back to DL for some Blue Ribbon goodness.

http://i979.photobucket.com/albums/ae278/magichusky/dis01/dis01_73.jpg

Oh dear, but there isn't enough time for that! So I distract myself w/ Bruce:

http://i979.photobucket.com/albums/ae278/magichusky/dis01/dis01_74.jpg

That window display has been around for as long as I can remember. If they ever disassemble that thing I'll be extremely upset! I went inside the CA Adv candy store to check out their baked goods. :) Maybe I don't need to run all the way over to Blue Ribbon after all?

http://i979.photobucket.com/albums/ae278/magichusky/dis01/dis01_75.jpg

The prices in here were ludicrous! Disney, I refuse to pay $3.75 plus tax for a single oreo dipped in chocolate. :eek: I dinked around in the adjoining store for a little while more and was dumbstruck by the sheer volume of people in there scooping up autograph books, shirts, sweatshirts, pencils, hats, and pretty much anything else you could imagine. It was a madhouse! :yay: Super strange since the park seemed so empty at that moment. But I did happen upon this fabulous shirt that featured not only Ariel, but Alice and the Cheshire Cat, too! I decided I really needed it immediately...

http://i979.photobucket.com/albums/ae278/magichusky/dis01/dis01_76.jpg

...until I checked the price tag. $36! Disney, I refuse to pay $36 for a shard of printed cotton. Plus, v-necks generally look stupid on me anyway. I passed the bakery area for about the 50th time. Nope, the oreo still isn't worth $4. I went back outside.

http://i979.photobucket.com/albums/ae278/magichusky/dis01/dis01_73.jpg

Ugh! So hungry! No time! Kendra's coming! I was starting to turn blue w/ Blue Ribbon fever. Would I make a run for it??? :confused:

TO BE CONTINUED...

magichusky

09-21-2010, 09:19 PM

magichusky

09-21-2010, 09:26 PM

Omg wait a second... that's not Ariel! It's Alice! I just figured out that there's a bow on top of this girl's head. :rotfl: It really does look like Ariel though. And why would you design a WOC shirt exclusively featuring Alice when she isn't even in the show? (at least not that I can recall) I thought that was sort of strange to have an Ariel/Alice themed shirt but hey, it works for me... Did I mention that I was a dork? :cool1:

http://i979.photobucket.com/albums/ae278/magichusky/dis01/dis01_76.jpg

VBsHustla

09-21-2010, 10:54 PM

Hi everyone-

I'm just so excited that I had to advertise this in my TR: not only have I successfully made a Wishes cruise reservation for our Christmas WDW trip, but we'll be going on a holiday sleigh ride through Fort Wilderness as well! :banana: The sleigh ride is actually a surprise and my parents and sister are clueless. I hope they like it, since it'll be my Christmas present to them all this year. Now I have all of the necessary reservations and ADRs, plus an extra Le Cellier ADR (I made it before I got the CP package, just in case I couldn't get Le Cellier w/ the package). I guess I should cancel it since I already have my CP dinner package, but I'm just terrified to do it- it took me months to get that thing!

The only other thing I'm not sure about is where we should eat the night of our Wishes cruise. We're going to AK that day and my dad won't have a PH pass so we pretty much need to eat in AK or near SoG (probably GF or Poly). Our cruise is departing from the Poly but I couldn't get an 'Ohana ADR (we're eating breakfast there another day anyway). My parents also refuse to eat at the AK lodge (I originally had a Boma ADR but my mom nixed it) b/c they don't really like Indian/African food. Then again, I don't either! :laughing: Oh dear...

Eat at Citrico's! It's SO good! :thumbsup2 We like Kona Cafe at the Poly, too.

That's extremely disappointing that you were denied your ideal prize! How weird, I can't believe a large enough volume of people play those games in order to deplete them of their stuffed animals!

The World of Color fastpass situation sounds rather stupid. Haha they tore up that lake for years and added all that crazy underwater technology but couldn't install a few new FP machines? I am also appalled that you can't go the normal way to the Tower anymore?! Why not?

And yes, there are some real freaks in LA! That motorcycle guy was definitely one of my favorites. Also enjoyed that guy who serenaded us on the bus, and that absolutely crazy drunken man chasing us, who we only managed to escape by running into the nearby Burger King!

magichusky

09-22-2010, 12:13 AM

Eat at Citrico's! It's SO good! :thumbsup2 We like Kona Cafe at the Poly, too.

That's extremely disappointing that you were denied your ideal prize! How weird, I can't believe a large enough volume of people play those games in order to deplete them of their stuffed animals!

The World of Color fastpass situation sounds rather stupid. Haha they tore up that lake for years and added all that crazy underwater technology but couldn't install a few new FP machines? I am also appalled that you can't go the normal way to the Tower anymore?! Why not?

And yes, there are some real freaks in LA! That motorcycle guy was definitely one of my favorites. Also enjoyed that guy who serenaded us on the bus, and that absolutely crazy drunken man chasing us, who we only managed to escape by running into the nearby Burger King!

Wow- Citrico's got super wonderful reviews! I'm not sure if we'd be looking attractive enough to go in there right before that cruise though! I love how capris and jeans are included in the dress code. Capris are like the most disgusting things ever!

The WOC fastpass process is really ridiculous. Before the show starts you have to go line up at various locations throughout the park depending on the color of your pass. Then you stand there I guess until the previous show is over and wait for everyone else to clear out, then proceed to your viewing area. I've of course waltzed up right up before my show started both times I've seen it. Like if I just heard the show from afar while waiting in line, I def wouldn't be in the mood to wait a little more and then listen to the darn thing all over again.

And the other tower entrance is just closed right now b/c it's under construction, along w/ everything else in that place. They're installing some trolley tracks over there or something! It will certainly reopen at some point.

I totally forgot about the Burger King freak! Don't forget about that insane woman who randomly approached us at the bus stop and wouldn't stop talking to us about money and her colleagues who were out to get her or something. She was definitely on drugs of some sort. I believe that was the last time we took the bus!

uneekstylez

09-22-2010, 02:18 PM

Eight

09-22-2010, 07:32 PM

You have a picture of your mom posing in the Court Des Anges from the 70s? That is soo cool! It's one of my favorite spots in the whole park, and I love old Disneyland photos, so to me, that's insanely cool. Yes, I'm a dork.

That's awesome about getting both the cruise and the sleigh ride! Are you doing a PTR for that trip at all?

The only other thing I'm not sure about is where we should eat the night of our Wishes cruise. We're going to AK that day and my dad won't have a PH pass so we pretty much need to eat in AK or near SoG (probably GF or Poly). Our cruise is departing from the Poly but I couldn't get an 'Ohana ADR (we're eating breakfast there another day anyway). My parents also refuse to eat at the AK lodge (I originally had a Boma ADR but my mom nixed it) b/c they don't really like Indian/African food. Then again, I don't either! :laughing: Oh dear...

I would reconsider Boma. I'm an insanely picky eater, (and I hate Indian food) but I loved it! I didn't think it was too, I don't know, "exotic", and everything I tried was really good. My mom says she had never seen me eat that much in one meal. I'm pretty sure they had some more standard buffet fare too. But I might be remembering wrong. Anyway, just thought I'd throw that out there.

magichusky

09-22-2010, 08:16 PM

I <3 reading your posts! I can't wait for our trip in 2 weeks!!! :rotfl:

BTW, how are you liking your new Powershot? How's the video quality? I'm thinking of upgrading my old SD1100IS for the SD1400IS. I love how it can record HD videos. It's more convenient than having to bring a point and shoot and also a camcorder.

Hi!! Thanks for reading! :wizard: Your trip is going to be fabulous- this is such a great time to go to DL!

And I absolutely loved the powershot!! :love: I've only used it once so far but all the photos came out beautifully! I was annoyed w/ myself b/c I forgot to take a pic of the castle using the "miniature effect" setting, which was one of the big reasons I bought the darn thing in the first place! And also, in the next post I'm going to include an HD mini-movie I took so you can check it out! It really looks stunning (I can't believe it came out of that tiny camera!). It was shot in the dark and still looks amazing!

You have a picture of your mom posing in the Court Des Anges from the 70s? That is soo cool! It's one of my favorite spots in the whole park, and I love old Disneyland photos, so to me, that's insanely cool. Yes, I'm a dork.

That's awesome about getting both the cruise and the sleigh ride! Are you doing a PTR for that trip at all?

I would reconsider Boma. I'm an insanely picky eater, (and I hate Indian food) but I loved it! I didn't think it was too, I don't know, "exotic", and everything I tried was really good. My mom says she had never seen me eat that much in one meal. I'm pretty sure they had some more standard buffet fare too. But I might be remembering wrong. Anyway, just thought I'd throw that out there.

Omg it's called the Court des Anges? I had no idea it even had a name! Is there a sign in there somewhere? Hahaha I love that you love I found a 70's-era pic of it! I was super excited b/c it's a sort of random photo-op in DL. I also have pics of my parents at WDW in 1972 (which was the last time they visited). Hopefully I'll be able to find them next time I drive home! :woohoo:

And thanks for the Boma suggestion! I'll re-evaluate the menu for sure. I really want to check out the AK lodge so actually eating there seemed logical, especially on our AK day. I'm thinking about starting a PTR but am waiting to drive home again to search for those old photos. They'd be extremely appropriate for a PTR I think! Hopefully I'll have it up and running before I finish this TR so I can link to it. So excited for Christmas! 85 days until we leave!! :cheer2:

Eight

09-22-2010, 09:54 PM

Omg it's called the Court des Anges? I had no idea it even had a name! Is there a sign in there somewhere? Hahaha I love that you love I found a 70's-era pic of it! I was super excited b/c it's a sort of random photo-op in DL. I also have pics of my parents at WDW in 1972 (which was the last time they visited). Hopefully I'll be able to find them next time I drive home! :woohoo:

And thanks for the Boma suggestion! I'll re-evaluate the menu for sure. I really want to check out the AK lodge so actually eating there seemed logical, especially on our AK day. I'm thinking about starting a PTR but am waiting to drive home again to search for those old photos. They'd be extremely appropriate for a PTR I think! Hopefully I'll have it up and running before I finish this TR so I can link to it. So excited for Christmas! 85 days until we leave!! :cheer2:

Yeah, there's a little sign. Here's a picture of it.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/karlburn/3070308984/ (not my photograph)
Isn't finding old Disney photos the best? I know my parents went to WDW in the 80s, but I have no idea if we have the photos from that trip. I'd love to see them if they exist though!

The Animal Kingdom Lodge is my favorite hotel on property. I love that place. If you do end up eating there, and if you have time before or after the dinner, I know they give talks at night (or at least they used to) about eastern Africa, and they're pretty interesting. At least I think they are, but I'm also incredibly interested in eastern Africa, the culture, and the animals.

And hey, if you start a PTR, make sure to post a link here. I'd definitely read it. :thumbsup2

magichusky

09-23-2010, 09:41 PM

Yeah, there's a little sign.

OMG that sign is totally in my photo- I'm such a nerd! Haha! :rotfl2:

The AK lodge looks sooo neat! And I really adore that kind of theming (like Adventureland in DL w/ all the tiki torches and crazy animals and such). Those talks sound awesome- I will definitely keep my eye out for those if I get over there. I love how WDW hires people from all over the world to come and represent their cultures at the parks! :simba:

magichusky

09-26-2010, 12:51 AM

http://i979.photobucket.com/albums/ae278/magichusky/general/ucla_lunch01.jpghttp://i979.photobucket.com/albums/ae278/magichusky/general/ucla_lunch02.jpghttp://i979.photobucket.com/albums/ae278/magichusky/general/ucla_lunch03.jpg

Let me give a surprise shout out to my little bruins who defeated the #7 UT Longhorns in Texas today 34-12! :cheer2: I must confess that I prefer following the NFL (Yes, I'm a Chargers fan. But that's not as lame as being a Padres fan so don't laugh too much) however I do enjoy my bruin upsets from time to time. The last one was in 2006 when they miraculously defeated the USC Trojans. Crazy side-story: the evening of the USC victory, Laura and I went to the dining hall for dinner after the game had finished and let me tell you, EVERYone was buzzing about it. (The last time UCLA had defeated USC was in 1998) We were sitting down eating some disgusting pasta and suddenly, practically instantaneously, every single student in the place simultaneously abandoned their dinners and rose to their feet as a single unit and performed the LOUDEST 8-clap I have ever heard in my entire life in perfect unison. :grouphug: And there were hundreds of people in there! Of course Laura and I just sat there in astonishment during the whole thing b/c (1) we were so surprised, :scared1: there was no time to react and (2) we both refuse to perform the 8-clap (we're not really the fist pumping types; since our wrists are about 1 inch in circumference I imagine it'd look exceedingly ridiculous if we attempted to fist pump in even a mildly belligerent manner whilst chanting a fight song). :laughing:

Anyway, I think that from now on whenever the bruins pull off a major upset, or even a semi-major upset, I will remember my dinner on December 2, 2006. :rotfl2:

Stay tuned... Part 6 ("HOOTIN' & HOLLERIN') is coming right up!

magichusky

09-26-2010, 01:07 AM

PART 6: HOOTIN' & HOLLERIN'

Hello again, friends! I probably shouldn't be tinkering w/ this right now b/c I have this paper that should've been done like yesterday but oh well. It's far too early in the evening to work on anything scientific. For some reason I can only sort of do physics in the darkest dark of the night. :confused: After meeting w/ my professor yesterday and chatting about photons, I went to the library and checked out Huck Finn. Now I need to pay a visit to Tom Sawyer island immediately!

So when we last left off, I was starting to turn blue with Blue Ribbon fever! :sick: Kendra was finally almost there but of course as soon as she announced her impending arrival I launched into a food crisis and couldn't find anything suitable to eat in CA Adv. We had decided we would meet just inside the main gate at the sun fountain so I was nervous about running back over to DL for food b/c I didn't want to make Kendra wait after she had been in such terrible traffic. I refused to pay $4 for an oreo in the CA Adv bakery so...

http://i979.photobucket.com/albums/ae278/magichusky/dis01/dis01_77.jpg

...I fled!! :tiptoe: It was around 7:30 pm (both parks closed at 8pm) so practically everyone was leaving for those disgusting trams (except for the APs of course, who were all heading to CA Adv for the AP exclusive riding privileges from 8-8:45pm and the 9pm WOC). I nabbed this twilight photo of my beautiful train:

http://i979.photobucket.com/albums/ae278/magichusky/dis01/dis01_78.jpg

I desperately wanted to just climb up that hill and run down the other side toward Main St. via the train station when I encountered an absolute mob of tourists marching through the western tunnel on their way out of the park! I was actually unsure of whether or not I would be able to get through! :crowded: Oh well- onward!! My back was literally up against the side of the tunnel and I inched on through sideways. I pretty much love how whenever people are enclosed in a mob, they cast off any sense of individual responsibility. They refuse to make eye contact w/ you and proceed to walk into you while never once trying to step aside so you can get by. All it would take would be 6 inches or so on their part but alas, it's too much for them. About 4 or so people full on elbowed me while tunneling. Seriously?

I finally made it! To the Blue Ribbon!!!

http://i979.photobucket.com/albums/ae278/magichusky/dis01/dis01_79.jpg

Before getting in line, I ran up to the display case to confirm that there were still macaroons available. Most of the time they're sold out by the early evening but since crowds were light today I was optimistic. Once I waited in line for a macaroon for almost 30 min and literally the guest standing in front of me purchased the last one! :furious: I was dumbfounded and very much annoyed! Anyway, they had half a tray left of the Matterhorn Macaroons (this is the white chocolate variety; they also offer a dark chocolate version but I didn't see any of those)!

About halfway through the line I became quite worried that the woman behind me was actively trying to cut me! It was quite ridiculous since she was at least 50 or so and certainly should know better. And I wasn't dilly dallying either! The queue in the BR is demarcated by a bronze railing and is fairly narrow. By the time I was the next guest to be called to a register, this woman and I were standing perfectly abreast in the queue! She was probably standing less than a foot away from me! Hahaha whoa! Thankfully she didn't try to beat me to the next available register and I purchased 2 macaroons without further incident!

I was depositing my change in my wallet and reorganizing bills (I am in awe of people who can make purchases and instantaneously get their wallet back in order and walk away) and Kendra calls! She has arrived at the sun fountain! I power walk out of the BR and back through the tunnel, which is much less unwieldy by this point, and make it to the sun within about 3-4 min!

I learn that Kit-cat's vet appointment went well, :) so we hurry off to Grizzly rapids to pick up our AP WOC passes before the park closed at 8pm. Thank goodness they still had some left but we were going to be in the RED viewing area. That doesn't sound good. :sad2:

Why lookee that-a-way! The Redwood Challenge Trail! Neither of us had ever been inside and were both surprised to find that it was open, even w/ it being dark. Up ahead and to the right of the entrance we saw an interesting set-up. There was a row of about 5 or so zip lines running parallel to one another. Each line had a tire attached and 1 child per tire. Once they were all in position, the children grabbed their respective tires and raced eachother to the other end. Then they all jumped onto the tires and rode them all the way back to where they started. The little girl closest to us practically flew off of her tire after she reached the bottom of the incline and the tire hit the end of the zip line and recoiled. :rotfl2: It all looked pretty darn exciting! Kendra and I inquired excitedly if we could join in but no: kiddos only. The CM apologized profusely but we were still forlorn! After being kicked out, we immediately spy a huge suspended bridge and we go about trying to figure out how to get there. Going up?? :dumbo:

http://i979.photobucket.com/albums/ae278/magichusky/dis01/dis01_80.jpg

Kendra was wearing flip flops so practically took a face-plant as we ascended these sloping nets and went higher and higher towards the bridge. :rotfl: The spacing between the ropes and knots in the net was substantial and I was constantly checking to make sure that my feet didn't slip through them- and I'm a giant w/ correspondingly giant feet so I'd be afraid to see what would happen to a super small child w/ super small feet! The place was pretty deserted so we had the bridge all to ourselves and immediately stumbled onto it and bounced each other around.

Next we came upon the HOOT 'N' HOLLER LOGS!

http://i979.photobucket.com/albums/ae278/magichusky/dis01/dis01_81.jpg

We were pleased to discover that there was no maximum height for the logs! So we raced each other to the bottom! Kendra won. I was busy getting the hugest wedgie ever in the history of slides (guess that's what slowed me down, haha). :crazy: Eventually I made it to the bottom and remembered why I hadn't been on a slide in over 10 yrs. Of course, we were both hootin' w/ laughter upon emerging from our logs:

http://i979.photobucket.com/albums/ae278/magichusky/dis01/dis01_82.jpg

I informed Kendra that I had recently discovered that a "spirit cave" existed somewhere along the challenge trail. We ran back up the stairs and asked the CM who was manning the logs where this supposed spirit cave was located. She told us it was in the very back of the trail by the exit. We were rather hyper by then so we scattered and skipped along the rear trails in extreme anticipation. We passed the Squirrel Scramble (another series of sloping nets). Not that way! Then we saw this:

http://i979.photobucket.com/albums/ae278/magichusky/dis01/dis01_83.jpg

Running into the cave:

http://i979.photobucket.com/albums/ae278/magichusky/dis01/dis01_84.jpg

On the far wall of the cave was a glowing pawprint. It was like glass over a raging fire, with flames of amber and red. Once you place your hand over it, the cave shakes w/ thunder and the amber flames shoot out from the pawprint and the rock cracks. Then your animal spirit reveals itself to you! Here's a list of the possible spirits and what each embodies:

http://i979.photobucket.com/albums/ae278/magichusky/dis01/dis01_86.jpg

Kendra was bubbling over w/ joy :jumping1: for this attraction and invoked the animal spirits over and over and over again:

http://i979.photobucket.com/albums/ae278/magichusky/dis01/dis01_85.jpg

I of course filmed the whole thing in HD. Check it out on YouTube to discover what Kendra's spirit animal was! (Or at least her first spirit animal, haha). I was indignant when I invoked the salmon. I wanted the wolf. But at least I wasn't the skunk!!

Kendra's Kenai Spirit Cave Experience in HD! (YouTube) (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FHbAylI7VTk)

After we had invoked about 50 animal spirits, a little blonde boy appeared and shoved in front of us and started slapping his hand against the pawprint. Eventually a salmon appeared but he continued to slap. I was of course inching away and desperately fumbling for my hand sanitizer, :scared1: but Kendra, the ever generous kiddo-lover that she is, tried to explain the situation to him. "You're a salmon!" Then, "You're an eagle!" But still the slapping. Kendra wanted to continue invoking spirits but I was practically crawling up the wall in a cloud of hand sanitizer :eek: so we evacuated!

By this time, it was 8pm and time for our exclusive riding privileges! We tumbled out of the challenge trail, positively gushing over the Kenai Spirit Cave, :hyper2: and... we're off!

TO BE CONTINUED...

magichusky

10-03-2010, 03:50 AM

PART 7: I TOOK THE DARE!

I've been looking forward to this segment for the whole TR! It includes the "towering" half of this TR's title and describes most definitely one of the most wild towering adventures I've had in awhile! pirate:

When we last left off, Kendra and I were invoking our animal spirits in the Kenai Spirit Cave located along the Redwood Challenge Trail (my new fav place in CA Adv!). Kendra was mesmerized so invoked pretty much all of the possible animals 3 times over, but her first spirit was a bear so she is technically a grizzly! I only invoked twice b/c my germ-a-phobia was kicking in and I refused to touch the glowing pawprint after a tiny blonde boy came over and started slapping his hand against it. :lmao: There are actually 2 glowing pawprints in the cave; 1 is closer to the ground for the kiddos and the second is higher up for all of the non-toddlers. When I saw that a toddler could easily reach the adult print anyway I whipped out the hand sanitizer and mostly wasn't interested in playing with the print any further! On my first go I, strangely enough, only got some thunder and lightning but no animal spirit! :scratchin My second go (this was still pre-blonde boy) produced a salmon, so I guess I'm a fish?? According to the sign, that makes me "instinctive and strong-willed." Since "strong-willed" is usually just a euphemism for "stubborn" then that's actually highly accurate! :ssst:

By the time we had had our fill of the Kenai Spirit Cave (well, I had had my fill but Kendra definitely could've stuck around for much longer!) it was a little after 8pm! We knew that from 8-8:45pm APs had exclusive riding privileges for the major non-Paradise Pier attractions in CA Adv (those were closed due to WOC) so we were super excited and curious as to how crowded this was going to be! Kendra, still on her Kenai Spirit Cave high, started flipping out for Soarin', so we busted out of the Challenge Trail and hurried around the corner to our destination. :cool1:

As Soarin' came into view, I slowed and worried that it was closed! There was absolutely NO ONE in front of the building except for 2 CMs. We pressed onward and saw 3 other guests proceed through the turnstiles. When we arrived the CMs were turning away 2 families trying to get in w/out APs. Kendra and I flashed our APs and were allowed inside!

http://i979.photobucket.com/albums/ae278/magichusky/dis01/dis01_87.jpg

I must say that I have NEVER in my life seen Soarin' so deserted and tranquil! :earboy2: I actually didn't get annoyed once while in the queue, but that was probably b/c it literally took less than 5 min to walk inside the building, stroll through the entire queue, and take our places on the glider. We had the 2 left-most seats on the right-most glider in the 2nd row. I generally request the 1st row since I detest having numerous pairs of dirty feet dangling above me, but that night I didn't want the extra wait since I was planning on towering multiple times!

Unfortunately I was distracted the majority of the time by the dangling feet. :rotfl2: It's obnoxious since not only are all of the said dirty feet different shapes and sizes and encased in a large variety of colorful and sometimes heinously ugly footwear, but they all dangle differently as well. Some people have a slow but steady dangle, others display a much faster pace of dangling, and still others don't dangle at all but twitch haphazardly. Even worse than heinous footwear is a bare foot. :eek: Since guests are instructed to remove flip flops and stow them under their seats, I have to stare at the undersides of all pairs of feet belonging to anyone who is (1) wearing flip flops and (2) seated in front of me. By far the majority of feet in the first row this night were bare, which allowed me to observe that at least 40% of them were quite flat footed. I deduced that these feet were probably all related- that family must have a particularly strong flat-foot gene!

Probably as no surprise to you, I didn't pay any attention at all to Soarin' this day, b/c I was much too preoccupied w/ judging feet. The only parts I really enjoy are when the horses gallop through a canyon in the desert and the jets streak by and racing over the surfers at sunset. I despise the segment in which you glide over a traffic jam on the 10 towards downtown LA under the stars and I actually don't really enjoy the final glide over a holiday-themed DL either. Back when I didn't have a car, I would have to rent a Zip-Car for the day and when the day was done, I would have to drive back, park the Zip-Car in its designated parking spot, and make a 20 min walk back to my apartment at around 1am. That walk was particularly uncomfortable in the winter when it was far too cold outside for such a late night stroll! So all in all, I probably detest those last 2 scenes on Soarin' b/c they remind me of my Zip-Car escapades! :car:

After we were finished screaming over traffic jams and having fireworks explode violently in our faces, we cut off the flat footed family (well not really, they were taking forever putting their flip flops back on) and I was bouncing off the walls in anticipation of going towering!!! :Pinkbounc

CONTINUED IN NEXT POST...

magichusky

10-03-2010, 04:12 AM

...PART 7 CONTINUED

Once we buzzed through Bug's Land (Kendra told me that they actually have It's a Bug's Life! in here! The same 4-D show in AK at WDW! I never knew that! I still refuse to partake though. I'd probably flip out even more outrageously than some of the small children) the tower was suddenly looming over us in an electric purple haze. And umm, there was absolutely no one there either! :banana: The bellhops checked our APs and waved us in through the gates. We were immediately herded into the North Library (leading to the ground floor queue) w/ about 15 other people and then headed over to... Shaft 1!! I don't know if I've previously mentioned my love for Shaft 1 or not, but it's the superior shaft by far. :love:

A bellhop directed us to the back row. I certainly didn't notice anything particularly unappealing about this certain bellhop but as we stood there and waited for our elevator to arrive Kendra launched into a huge diatribe about how much she disliked him! Apparently she thought that our bellhop was exceedingly boring, monotone, and entirely not dramaturgical enough for her! "He's sooo not into it," Kendra whined. "Kendra, the poor guy'll hear you!!" I hissed. I really don't have terribly high standards for bellhops these days; as long as they allow me to enjoy the elevator of my choice I think they're just delightful. However, when I request shaft 1 I require to be waved on in that direction no questions asked. Sometimes when my party and I request shaft 1 we are met w/ bug eyes :confused: and a: "Uuh, you'll have to stand in line a bit longer for that" to which we reply with: "That's okay, we'll wait." Then everyone, including the bellhop and nearby guests, give us the crazy look as we waltz triumphantly to our preferred corner. :rolleyes1

I don't know if this guy overheard Kendra's disapproval earlier, but our bellhop sprang to life as he seated us in our elevator. After he hopped around and checked everyone's seatbelts, he began his speech. I must say, it was probably in my top 5 of bellhop speeches I've ever heard! (#1 was actually a tower-themed reenactment of that Old Spice commercial! You know the one: "Look over at your man, now back to me!" etc. Instead of superbowl tix at the end, our bellhop flashed magical fastpasses at us. I would've written him a glowing comment card at guest relations but unfortunately I couldn't catch his name since I was seated in the back, and when we returned from our ride he was gone! If you've never seen this commercial, you really have to check it out: Old Spice | The Man Your Man Could Smell Like (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=owGykVbfgUE))

We enjoyed a pretty docile crowd for a late-night ride (I have definitely noticed that my fellow tower-ers get significantly louder and more volatile at night compared to the afternoon crowd :rockband:). I was flipping out too much to think to glance over and see if I could catch a glimpse of WOC unfortunately. After our trip to the Twilight Zone, :teleport: our bellhop reappeared and immediately presented us w/ an actual bottle of hand sanitizer, modeling it in such a way that would make the Price Is Right girls proud: "Can I interest anyone in a fine bottle of hand sanitizer?" :confused: Haha what an extremely random offering! Little did we know that that wasn't the end of his antics. Kendra and I disembarked our elevator and were absolutely horrified to discover this ghastly photo of ourselves in mid-flipout:

http://i979.photobucket.com/albums/ae278/magichusky/dis01/dis01_88.jpg

:scared1: Kendra declared: "OMG! My hair is horizontal!!" I was surprised b/c usually I'm fully hunched over in hilarity by the time our photo is taken. However it is quite apparent in this pic that I was in mid-hunch so I guess I was a bit lethargic that evening (I was still hungry). To this day I have no explanation as to how practically everyone else besides me (haha and Kendra) can manage to pose oh so perfectly mere seconds before they plunge into free-fall. Even when I went on this ride w/ my mom last year (that was her first ever tower experience!) she had perfect posture and a perfect smile in the photo. I was, yes you guessed it, hunched over. Usually you can barely see me in these pics!

We were still discussing our unfortunate photo when we meandered into the gift shop and came upon a fabulous collection of Mad Hatter headpieces! Complete w/ frizzy red hair extensions! I insisted that Kendra pose w/ one of them. As we were getting set up a CM came over and outright demanded that I also wear a hat and he could take our photo together. :laughing: I'm pretty sure he just wanted to use my tiny hot pink Powershot. In my experience, guys are abnormally attracted to hot pink objects. For example, they insist on using my hot pink women's softball bat for some reason. :confused: I'm convinced it's b/c they secretly require the lighter variety of bat since their science geek muscles can't handle anything more substantial. :rotfl:

Anyway, it took a few minutes for us to get into position b/c my hat was crooked and bent from sitting in a pile for so long (I of course took one from the bottom of the pile which had a higher probability of being cootie-free) and this crazy CM refused to take the photo until it was fixed. We never could get it quite right but it looks fabulous nonetheless. When I finally saw this pic I was horrified- that hair looks a little too similar to the state of my hair when I was in high school!! :scared1: Ahh, memories. So here are Kendra and me doing our best Johnny Depp impersonations!

http://i979.photobucket.com/albums/ae278/magichusky/dis01/dis01_89.jpg

When we finally exited the gift shop we thought about going to line up for WOC (our WOC passes instructed us to return between 8:15-8:45pm). Who wants to line up for WOC when we could be in line for the tower?? Certainly not us. :woohoo: We ran over to the gate and the CMs just waved us through w/out making us bust out our APs again b/c of course they recognized our crazy selves. This time, there was absolutely NO ONE in the entire lobby except for us and 1 CM! Kendra was so excited that she did her best 1920s movie star impersonation:

http://i979.photobucket.com/albums/ae278/magichusky/dis01/dis01_90.jpg

By the time we got into the North Library there were maybe 5-10 other guests w/ us. We (I mean I) were ecstatic to be directed to shaft 1 once again! They managed to stuff all of the stragglers into one final elevator w/ no seats left. Our previous bellhop returned to arrange everyone properly into the elevator. I was of course whining b/c I had hoped we would catch a lull at just the right moment and wind up w/ a private elevator. Ridiculous and unrealistic, you say? I THINK NOT!!!

Mickey's Halloween Party- October 31, 2008 (pardon my strange facial expression but I had braces at this point and was very uncomfortable! Even worse, I couldn't eat any of the candy at the party!) Laura (aka VBsHustla here on the DIS) and me, courtesy of bellhop Andrew:

http://i979.photobucket.com/albums/ae278/magichusky/general/tot_10-31-08b.jpg

AND NO, IT WASNT JUST A ONE TIME THING:

November 22, 2008. We were aware prior to boarding that we would have the place all to ourselves (in contrast to Halloween, above) so we were able to strategize and choose our seats so as to produce the most aesthetically pleasing pic. Laura and me again, courtesy of bellhop Chad:

http://i979.photobucket.com/albums/ae278/magichusky/general/tot_11-22-08b.jpg

Yes, both of those amazing photos are real-life testaments to the saying: "The squeaky wheel gets the oil." (They were also both taken in shaft 1 of course) It never hurts to ask! Pretty much we just rode the tower over and over again until closing and we were the last ones! On Halloween it was more of a surprise, but in November I believe we noticed we were the last ones in line and specifically asked for our own elevator. Of course, after our Halloween adventure, we pretty much always expect/demand a private elevator. Haha sometimes it works out and sometimes it doesn't!

Anyway, Kendra and I were in row 2 and wound up being the last ones to board the elevator. Just as we were about to board, bellhop Shawn told us that we had to wait there and promptly closed the doors in our faces! :confused: By that time everyone else was pretty much seated and organized. Kendra and I just stood there, speechless. Our silence was permeated w/ incredulity and hilarity. We started hopefully snickering after I broke the silence and suggested that possibly bellhop Shawn was going to give us our own elevator.

After 20 sec or so, the doors reopened and bellhop Shawn reappeared and ushered us into the elevator. I was indignant that he had played such a pointless trick and said: "Well, I would much prefer to have a private elevator!" :mad: Bellhop Shawn most certainly recognized us from our ride just minutes prior b/c he began his speech by lamenting that he had tried to get rid of everyone from his previous elevator by abandoning them in the Twilight Zone however he was unsuccessful, as evidenced by the fact that Kendra and I were sitting in row 2. We had apparently escaped! But this time we would not be so lucky. I probably didn't laugh as much as I should have b/c I was still disappointed that we didn't get a private elevator!

As we got out of our elevator, bellhop Shawn motioned to me. "Pssst! I'm sorry about messing w/ you guys," and he produced two slips of paper, upside down. I slowly reached for them, partly feeling like I was involved in a drug transaction and partly crazy w/ curiosity as to what exactly this gift could be. Magical fastpasses? VIP WOC passes??? They turned out to be these things (modeled by Flounder):

http://i979.photobucket.com/albums/ae278/magichusky/dis01/dis01_94.jpg

Stickers! :idea: Haha I definitely didn't foresee that one! Kendra and I roared w/ laughter and thanked bellhop Shawn. As we exited through the giftshop, the Mad Hatter picture taking CM was standing w/ another CM bidding adieu to the final guests for the day. They noticed our stickers and were so excited! "WOW- good job you guys!!!" Kendra and I were by then highly amused- the TOT bellhops/CMs were particularly insane tonight! Usually the TOT bellhops are pretty amusing, but they certainly don't lavish us w/ gifts and tricks every day! Kendra and I were convinced that bellhop Shawn had heard our whining earlier and decided to redeem himself. Another possibility is that they were all amused by my Nemo hat. I have found that CMs become especially entertaining when you're wearing an over the top Disney headpiece. :jester:

We ran back over to the gate to see if we could get on again but by that time it was 8:50pm or so and the gate was closed and deserted! :sad2: We reluctantly started off through Bug's Land toward our upcoming WOC spectacular!

:rainbow:

TO BE CONTINUED...

magichusky

10-04-2010, 04:05 AM

RANDOM UPDATES! :dogdance:

1) Is anyone as excited as I am about Beauty and the Beast being re-released today on DVD/Blueray? I've been waiting years and years! :wizard:

2) I'm randomly taking an archery class that starts today. :flower3: Just think- Barcelona 1992 Olympic games opening ceremony:

Barcelona 1992 Olympic flame (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gSA9xUUXj6E)

3) I'm popping by DL this Thursday, 10/7!! :banana: Planning on seeing the Aladdin musical before it closes (they keep threatening but have held off the Pixar invasion for now), riding Small World, and snacking on some seasonal pumpkin muffins.

4) 73 days until I see WDW for the first time ever! :woohoo:

VBsHustla

10-05-2010, 01:24 PM

I must do that animal spirit thing! That looks awesome. I would have to wipe the area down with some disinfecting wipes before participating after hearing the tale of that child, but still, what a great attraction! I would insist on getting the moose. :thumbsup2 That definitely sounds like Kendra's ideal activity, glad she loved it!

Glad to hear you were able to track down some macaroons at such a late hour and that the person immediately in front of you didn't purchase the last of them after you waited in a giant line. :laughing: What luck! Also pleased to hear UCLA won. I of course hadn't heard. That 8-clapping in the dining hall was truly absurd. I'm proud to say that I don't even know how to perform that ridiculous chant. I did love that time, though, since it meant crazy USC people didn't infest the area just to make fun of us. Like really, do we look like we actually care about such nonsense?!

I didn't realize this AP event was after the park closed! How excellent! What a treat to have a Soarin experience take under 3 hours and to encounter such crazy bellhops! How rude that they didn't reward you with a private elevator, but those stickers are a nice consolation prize. I haven't had such enthusiastic bellhops in ages. The Florida bellhops are highly inferior to their DL counterparts. In addition to our private elevator friends, I would have to say my favorite is that crazy guy who would run like a maniac during the boarding. Pretty impressive stuff.

magichusky

10-06-2010, 02:33 AM

That 8-clapping in the dining hall was truly absurd. I'm proud to say that I don't even know how to perform that ridiculous chant. I did love that time, though, since it meant crazy USC people didn't infest the area just to make fun of us. Like really, do we look like we actually care about such nonsense?!

I don't know how to perform the chant either! I loved how at beginning of the year dorm meetings they would insist that everyone do the 8-clap for like 20 min. I felt embarrassed for them all b/c they were SO into it. And yes, I still recall that 30-something USC couple who visited Westwood after the USC-UCLA game expressly to taunt students. When they started laughing at us I had no idea what they were talking about since they weren't wearing any USC gear. That's so lame to get caught up in that stuff if you're like, not on the football team.

The Florida bellhops are highly inferior to their DL counterparts. In addition to our private elevator friends, I would have to say my favorite is that crazy guy who would run like a maniac during the boarding. Pretty impressive stuff.

How ridiculous about the WDW bellhops! I pretty much expect special treatment on the tower these days! And I forgot about that running guy! He motioned for us w/ just his arm visible to move into the elevator from the queue and when we walked into that corridor area like 2 seconds later he was somehow standing in the corner like 20 ft away! Hahahaha that was SO weird!!! That was definitely one of my most favorite bellhop tricks.

magichusky

11-05-2010, 08:01 PM

PART 8: I'm a hungry bear in a world of color

I'm back for Part 8! Sorry about the delay, but this paper I've been writing has been kicking my butt. Plus, I had to give a talk at a conference which resulted in me flipping out for a few days instead of DISing. And finally, I went to the Halloween Party at DL w/ Kendra, Suzanne, and Angie!!! I was Maleficent, Kendra was Belle, Suzanne was Snow White, and Angie was Alice. Planning on writing a new TR soon! Anyway, onward.

When we last left off, Kendra and I had run into a "sticky" situation with Bellhop Shawn at the tower. We certainly would've gone for a third run but the queue closed while we were enjoying our 2nd run. So, we decided we should most definitely power walk back through Bug's Land to line up for WOC (we were quite late at this point, hee-hee, b/c obviously towering multiple times is far more fun than being queued up in the dark). As a refresher, since you most certainly don't remember, we obtained our WOC passes so late that we got stuck in the RED viewing zone. Here's Flounder modeling my pass which I forgot to hand to the CM:

http://i979.photobucket.com/albums/ae278/magichusky/dis01/dis01_95.jpg

I love how our passes instructed us to "return between 8:15pm & 8:45pm." We took that as more of a suggestion than a rule.

I took this great pic on our way out of Bug's Land:

http://i979.photobucket.com/albums/ae278/magichusky/dis01/dis01_91.jpg

It reminds me of the Honey I Shrunk the Kids! playground at DHS in WDW (I've never been there but have admired photos of it here on the DIS). That reminds me- we're currently 42 days away from our WDW excursion!!! So very excited!!!!

Anyway, by the time we found our queue for WOC (it was all the way back by the Redwood Challenge Trail), it was practically 9pm- the show started at 9:15pm. We waited there for maybe 5 min before a CM led our line over to our viewing area. The entire WOC fastpass/queueing process seems slightly convoluted to me, but I guess it's better than a free for all? There were just so many lines of people streaming all over the place being directed by CMs that I felt like I was in elementary school again! Due to my Disney ADHD, I prefer to run up to an attraction and then promptly run away again. Getting situated for WOC really takes forever and cramps my style.

Waiting for WOC to start. Umm, yeah... the RED viewing location... stinks.

http://i979.photobucket.com/albums/ae278/magichusky/dis01/dis01_92.jpg

Who knows why that trellis is sitting there? I've never inspected it closely but I feel like it has no purpose. They should really take it down- the RED zone would have a markedly better view. When the show finally began and progressed, I realized just how bad the RED zone really was. The water screens upon which they project the various movie clips and such are angled more towards the wharf area, so guests situated closer to the tower have the best angle. I couldn't see a lot of the show b/c it really starts becoming obnoxiously invisible once your field of view shifts too far to one side.

The show itself is one that I mildly enjoy actually! I'm not one for parades and shows and things, so I found this generally surprising. I mostly just adore watching the fountain effects (I've been strangely obsessed w/ fountains since I was a baby apparently) and of course enjoy all of the clips from the classic Disney animated films, particularly The Little Mermaid. There's also a WALL-E segment that I don't understand b/c somehow I still haven't seen that film! What can I say, science fiction just really freaks me out. By far, the best segment is the windmill scene from the classic Silly Symphony, "The Old Mill" (1937)- probably my favorite animated anything of all time. Check it out:

YouTube - Walt Disney's The Old Mill (1937) (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MYEmL0d0lZE)

Unfortunately, we were too close to the pier for me to be comfortable w/ busting out my brand new camera for pics. If you're too close to the show, you actually get coated in mist and sprinkled on! So here's my lone pic (sorry- not very interesting!):

http://i979.photobucket.com/albums/ae278/magichusky/dis01/dis01_93.jpg

Here's where the title of this subsection comes in: I was a very hungry bear in a world of color. I had munched on 3/4 of one of my Matterhorn Macaroons but still hadn't had a proper dinner, making the macaroon taste surprisingly disgusting. In fact, it was so disgusting that I never ate the second one and haven't eaten anything coconut since. Anyone that knows me knows that I can go from being completely normal to completely starving in less than 5 min, and that once I become starving I subsequently become cranky and lethargic. Pretty much that meant that I didn't really pay attention to the last 1/3 of WOC. But I don't particularly enjoy that part anyway since it chronicles the destruction of Mufasa underscored by a horrendous, depressing, never-ending song.

It was near 10pm by the time we emerged from the park and I was perplexed to discover that practically all food establishments were closed by then! The only place open was a Wetzel's Pretzels in DTD, so I was forced to order a pepperoni pretzel w/ marinara dipping sauce and pretend it was pizza. Kendra and I sat as I devoured my "pizza" and watched a little girl with tiny light-up Ugg boots dance to an electric violinist who was performing nearby (it was actually the cutest thing we had seen all day). We were extremely jealous b/c we recognized that if we ever decided to follow our hearts to a random dance party in public, people would probably think we were completely insane. Oh, to be young again!

By the time I finished my pretzel, and Ugg-girl had long finished dancing, I was relieved to find out that the trams were still running (haha- forgot about that). Kendra had parked in a different parking lot so I headed off to Mickey & Friends on my own. It was quite strange b/c I was practically the only one on the entire tram! I went up to the last car and the tram attendant opened a door for me, so I sat in the first section in which there are two rows of seats facing eachother (usually where the stroller people sit). Eventually my car became full, w/ one party per row. I don't know exactly, but there are perhaps 6 or so cars per tram, and every other car was completely empty. Well, of course, this crazy family, carrying huge bags of whatever it was from the Disney Store, lumbered up to the one car in the tram that was populated and squeezed into my row, so they were facing me. The father was drunkenly screaming and hugging his wife while the daughter was rustling the plastic bags like they were tambourines or something. Needless to say, I was pretty annoyed that I was going to have to awkwardly stare at these people for the entire tram ride. Instead of "C'est la vie," I should say "C'est ma vie." I don't know how these crazy people find me!

Well, that's the conclusion of September 16th! Unfortunately, I was unsuccessful in climbing the Disney Treehouse Trifecta, as I missed the Tom Sawyer treehouse. I also meant to take a spin on Small World, POTC, and/or the Tiki Room. All in all, even though there was an anomalous (even for DL) overpopulation of strollers that day, I had a blast trying out my new camera, hootin' and hollerin', and hanging out in the Kenai Spirit Cave.

If you're so inclined, stick around for my bonus mini-TR from October 7th! It includes some more fabulous photos and I even filmed part of the Aladdin Musical in HD! Also, keep an eye out for my upcoming Mickey's Halloween Party TR from October 29th!

magichusky

11-06-2010, 06:59 PM

BONUS MINI-TR: 10/7/2010

PART A: It's HalloweenTime!

Hello everyone! I'm adding this mini-TR b/c it's not big enough to start a new thread but still awesome! I was driving home for the weekend and the really delightful thing about driving home is that DL is on the way! So I of course stopped by. I was planning on illegally parking in the DTD lot (3 hrs for free) so I wouldn't have to deal w/ Mickey & Friends (I recall a mere two yrs ago that the parking fee for M&F was $11. Now it's a ridiculous $15!). Due to this strict time limit, I only had two things on my to-do list: (1) See the Aladdin Musical at the Hyperion Theater in CA Adv and (2) pick up some macaroons from the Blue Ribbon for Mom!

I left early enough so that traffic wasn't too bad (getting on the 405 before 2pm is the rule, not the exception, unless I want to stare at LAX for a half hour) and my spirits were high as I illegally parked in DTD. I planned on riding the monorail into DL but it was broken at that moment, so onward! I'm not particularly fond of DTD so I don't know why I took these pics really, but I think it was b/c the weather was SO nice! It had been raining for quite a few days prior, so I felt like those Norwegians who run outside and soak up some scarce rays during the winter when the sun comes out.

http://i979.photobucket.com/albums/ae278/magichusky/dis02/dis02_001.jpg

http://i979.photobucket.com/albums/ae278/magichusky/dis02/dis02_002.jpg

I was super duper excited b/c this time HalloweenTime was officially in full swing! My last trip I stopped by on Sep 16th, the day before the very first day of HalloweenTime. Consequently, even though lots of decorations were up and everything was still quite festive, I was unable to purchase those special pumpkin muffins at the Blue Ribbon!

Since I was planning on wrapping up my visit w/ Aladdin at CA Adv, I went into DL first. On my way down Main Street, I took some pics of some more pumpkins! I love these guys, and saw not a one that was like another.

http://i979.photobucket.com/albums/ae278/magichusky/dis02/dis02_003.jpg

http://i979.photobucket.com/albums/ae278/magichusky/dis02/dis02_004.jpg

As you can see, it really wasn't crowded at all!

http://i979.photobucket.com/albums/ae278/magichusky/dis02/dis02_005.jpg

On my last trip, I had just purchased my new camera. One of the reasons I selected this particular camera was due to its "Miniature Effect" setting, which makes things look like they're miniature models of the real thing by making its surroundings out of focus and such. I had to sit down on a bench for a minute or two b/c I forgot how to change settings, but I eventually figured it out and took these of the castle:

http://i979.photobucket.com/albums/ae278/magichusky/dis02/dis02_006.jpg

http://i979.photobucket.com/albums/ae278/magichusky/dis02/dis02_007.jpg

You be the judge as to whether or not the castle looks miniature! I thought the second one was better but I think I need to be a bit further away for this effect to be entirely successful. I still love it though and am looking forward to using it on various landmarks at WDW in December!!

This close-up was not taken w/ the miniature setting:

http://i979.photobucket.com/albums/ae278/magichusky/dis02/dis02_008.jpg

At this point I was at the hub and decided I was starving. I surely wouldn't pay the least bit of attention to Aladdin while starving, so I headed towards Critter Country to get a Hungry Bear grilled cheese. I went through Frontierland and came upon this colorful and creepy set-up adjacent to that Mexican restaurant I've never been to:

http://i979.photobucket.com/albums/ae278/magichusky/dis02/dis02_009.jpg

It was a nod to the Mexican version of Halloween: Dia de los Meurtos. It must've been the super nice weather, but everyone was actually equally super in letting fellow guests take photos of the various vignettes. I was sincerely impressed!

http://i979.photobucket.com/albums/ae278/magichusky/dis02/dis02_010.jpg

http://i979.photobucket.com/albums/ae278/magichusky/dis02/dis02_011.jpg

I don't know why I'm drawn to fake food so much? I guess it just reminds me of the smell of my collection of plastic food I owned as a preschooler. I'm looking forward to visiting my 2 yr old niece in December, who was just given a kitchen for her birthday. I'm planning on commandeering that thing immediately upon arrival!

http://i979.photobucket.com/albums/ae278/magichusky/dis02/dis02_012.jpg

After admiring the fake loaves of bread sparkling in the sunlight, I continued on towards Critter Country in search of the real thing...

TO BE CONTINUED...

VBsHustla

11-06-2010, 11:44 PM

Yay an update! That stinks that your World of Color situation was not ideal in terms of location and hunger. :sad2: I still really think that I would hate that show a lot. Can't deal with large crowds of people and standing and staring at something for 30 minutes! However, I really must come and check it out before judging it so harshly!

I really like the "miniature" photo of the castle with the water in it! Lovely! It almost looks like a painting. I look forward to seeing some miniaturized Florida locations! Also, I'm greatly looking forward to the Halloween Party TR/pics!

magichusky

11-11-2010, 01:16 AM

I still really think that I would hate that show a lot. Can't deal with large crowds of people and standing and staring at something for 30 minutes! However, I really must come and check it out before judging it so harshly!

Hahaha yes, you really do! It's really not a huge deal as long as you get the yellow viewing section. That way, you're standing in the back, above all the people crammed into the red zone on water level. When I went w/ my aunt, uncle, and cousins back in June we stood up there and had a great view (except my cousin who was too short to see over people's heads) and we weren't surrounded by people. Except this one super tall guy wearing a Mickey sorceror hat waltzed up right as it was starting and totally stood directly in front of us. There were plenty of other places to stand so it was pretty ridiculous. My uncle went up to him and asked him if he could move or take off his hat but the guy started whining like a nerd and finally my uncle was like: "Just take off the damn hat!!" The guy said: "Well, if you asked nicely." Then he moved. It was SO funny. Anyway, long story short, you just have to stand in the back. And then you can run away right when it ends!

I also have quite a bit of my new Halloween TR written and all of the photos have been uploaded, so prob this weekend I'll start a new thread! I hope it goes better than this one has- seriously NO ONE is reading this. I'm not too offended b/c sometimes I ramble about the strangest stuff so people prob think I'm INSANE, however if no one reads my WDW TR I'll be super sad! :sad1:

magichusky

11-11-2010, 02:00 AM

PART B: Tiki-Grilled-Cheese-to-Go

Last time we left off I was (surprise!) starving, so I was in the process of cutting through Frontierland to get to Critter Country for some sustenance. The Mark Twain was just pulling in as I passed by, so I snapped this photo, which for some reason I think is just adorable:

http://i979.photobucket.com/albums/ae278/magichusky/dis02/dis02_013.jpg

I pushed onward (at this point I was power walking in desperation) but had to stop to snap this lovely pic, which I think is quite regal. There I go again, obsessing over the Dream Suite. I actually saw people sitting up there on the balcony once watching Fantasmic. And I saw the inside on a Samantha Brown special! It was lovely...

http://i979.photobucket.com/albums/ae278/magichusky/dis02/dis02_014.jpg

Almost there...

http://i979.photobucket.com/albums/ae278/magichusky/dis02/dis02_015.jpg

YES! FOOOOOD!

http://i979.photobucket.com/albums/ae278/magichusky/dis02/dis02_016.jpg

I ordered by beloved $2 grilled cheese and went up to the counter to wait for it. I took this pic of my favorite Critter Country signage:

http://i979.photobucket.com/albums/ae278/magichusky/dis02/dis02_017.jpg

I adore it b/c the big guy jamming a sandwich into his mouth w/ his eyes closed is totally me when I'm starving. When the CM came out w/ my tray, perfectly empty except for a lone grilled cheese idling in the middle, she giggled as she set it down on the counter. I sheepishly gathered up my little tray and went over to the napkin station, where I transferred my grilled cheese to a wad of napkins and returned the tray. I was indignant when I caught multiple people staring at me. I think a $2 grilled cheese is a perfectly reasonable snack!

So I left that judgemental Hungry Bear and decided that I would walk to Small World. Seriously, I was just passing POTC as I was inhaling the last bite of my sandwich. It couldn't have taken me more than 2-3 minutes to travel from HB to POTC so I'm still mystified as to how I gobbled down an entire meal in such a small timeframe. May I refer you again to the big guy in the above image. Me. Very me.

I had reached the Tiki Room and could see the hub, but the Dole Whip hut suddenly looked so attractive. But the line was LONG. I was still jazzed about my $2 lunch so decided that another $3 on a Dole Whip would be very well spent. However, the line was just unacceptable. So, the naughty and selfish DLer that I am, I popped into the Tiki Room waiting area and got in THAT line, resulting in only 1 person in front of me vs. 20. Heehee.

http://i979.photobucket.com/albums/ae278/magichusky/dis02/dis02_018.jpg

When I took that first bite of Dole-Whippy goodness, surrounded by fake tropical foliage and 20 tiki men spitting fire and wise words, I got caught up in it all and followed everyone else right into the Tiki Room when the doors swung open and the drums drummed. I was pleased to be seated next to a delightful small child who sang along with joy, giving me, in turn, permission to sing as well. Somehow it's just so much easier to justify certain behavior when in the company of a child.

I was pleased when one of my pics actually turned out pretty well:

http://i979.photobucket.com/albums/ae278/magichusky/dis02/dis02_019.jpg

I'm definitely looking forward to visiting the Tiki Room in WDW, however I've heard that Iago took over the place a few years ago and in the Imagineers' haste for progress, compromised the integrity of the original show.

After my Tiki side-trip, I power walked outta there. Would there be enough time for SW before Aladdin started?

TO BE CONTINUED...

VBsHustla

11-11-2010, 11:57 AM

I also have quite a bit of my new Halloween TR written and all of the photos have been uploaded, so prob this weekend I'll start a new thread! I hope it goes better than this one has- seriously NO ONE is reading this. I'm not too offended b/c sometimes I ramble about the strangest stuff so people prob think I'm INSANE, however if no one reads my WDW TR I'll be super sad! :sad1:

Haha yes no one ever read our TRs! Hated it! What you need to do is some promoting and networking. :laughing: Go in the DL threads and answer people's questions and then be like, "you can read more in my TR if you want" haha. And as for networking, post in threads for Shades of Greens, December 2010, the Wishes cruise, etc. That seems to work pretty well. :laughing:

Grilled cheese is $2 now?! What the heck?! I used to have to pay for an entire cheeseburger when I would get those (cannot BELIEVE that I consumed cheese a mere two years ago!) In any case, I am so pleased that they no longer charge like $8 for one slice of cheese. That was pretty ridiculous! I'm glad you'll be checking out the new Tiki room. I have heard those same horror stories and have never attended this version. I'd rather stick to visiting the same 5 attractions that I've seen 300 times in their original states!

Eight

11-11-2010, 02:28 PM

Okay, it seems like every time I read your trip report, I discover something I knew nothing about. Like the Spirit Cave! Seriously, I had no clue that was there, but now I kind of want to try it.

I have mixed feelings about the Disneyland final scene in Soarin'. I love it because it's this great aerial view of Disneyland, but I detest the part where Tinkerbell flies out. You have all these amazing views of California, and the last shot is of an animated fairy coming at you? Really? I don't know, maybe it's just me.

So,what's superior about Shaft 1? Also totally jealous that you've gotten elevators to yourself before. That's pretty fantastic.

I love the picture you took in the Tiki Room. :thumbsup2

And I'm looking forward to reading about your Halloween trip report. I really, really wanted to go to one of the Halloween parties this year since they were at Disneyland, but you know, the whole living in Seattle thing kind of gets in the way. :sad2: Maybe next year.

UncleOrville

11-12-2010, 11:22 AM

I've finally returned to the DIS and am caught up! That cave in CA Adventure sounds SO awesome! I must visit it sometime. And I am so impressed by all of the dedicated and interesting CMs in the Tower there. As Laura said, there is certainly no such equivalent in DW. :sad2:

I adore that you got caught up in the spirit of the Tiki Room and were moved to follow the crowd into the show. :rotfl:

magichusky

11-13-2010, 12:16 AM

In any case, I am so pleased that they no longer charge like $8 for one slice of cheese.

Hahaha seriously- they must have a bunch of vegetarians frequenting Hungry Bear lately for such a drastic change! Like 2 months ago I requested a grilled cheese there and went through the whole "Just make it a cheeseburger without the meat" kind of thing, but there's totally a button on their touch screens specifically for grilled cheese, and it's still not officially listed on the menu. And w/ my AP discount, it's $1.80! What a meal! popcorn::

Okay, it seems like every time I read your trip report, I discover something I knew nothing about. Like the Spirit Cave! Seriously, I had no clue that was there, but now I kind of want to try it.

I didn't know about it either, until the day before I went on this trip! I think I was surfing the DL website and saw a pic of it somewhere and was confused. I always thought the Redwood Challenge Trail was exclusively for small kids, but adults can go in there too!

I have mixed feelings about the Disneyland final scene in Soarin'. I love it because it's this great aerial view of Disneyland, but I detest the part where Tinkerbell flies out. You have all these amazing views of California, and the last shot is of an animated fairy coming at you? Really? I don't know, maybe it's just me.

I totally agree w/ you about this. I've never really liked the final segment- it seems like it doesn't go w/ the rest of the scenes. And I hate how the majority of the time, the audience cheers when the traffic jam in downtown LA comes on. I don't want to be reminded of the fact that I have to drive home after DL closes! :snooty:

So,what's superior about Shaft 1?

Hahaha, shaft 1 has a superior drop sequence. Shaft 1,2 have the same drop sequence: up to the mirror room, down to the hallway/star room, drop, then up to the top. Shaft 3 goes up to the mirror room, up to the hallway room, drop, then up to the top. Though Shaft 1, 2 have the same sequences, shaft 1 gives you a feeling at some point in which you don't know if you're falling or going up. Shaft 2 (or at least the one time I was on this particular shaft, since I've refused to be queued there since) sort of pauses at the bottom just enough that you don't get that crazy confused feeling. Apparently the CMs call the shafts a,b,c (Shaft A = Shaft 1). We had to explain this to a CM once- I was pleased that he believed us immediately.

And I'm looking forward to reading about your Halloween trip report. I really, really wanted to go to one of the Halloween parties this year since they were at Disneyland, but you know, the whole living in Seattle thing kind of gets in the way. :sad2: Maybe next year.

Thanks for stopping by my Halloween TR!!! I love that I saw those DISers (the lurkyloos) on the train! :lmao: You should totally fly down for Halloween next year. The DL Halloween party version is SO much better than the CA Adv version!

I've finally returned to the DIS and am caught up! That cave in CA Adventure sounds SO awesome! I must visit it sometime. And I am so impressed by all of the dedicated and interesting CMs in the Tower there. As Laura said, there is certainly no such equivalent in DW. :sad2:

Hahaha- the cave really was the highlight of our evening. The CMs really never cease to amuse me- I don't know what it is about those crazy guys! I'll be so offended at WDW if I don't receive special attention on the tower- I've grown so accustomed to it! :sad2:

magichusky

11-13-2010, 12:20 AM

FUN UPDATES!!!

Hi everyone! Well- my WDW tix arrived today!!!!!! :love: YES!!! I'm such a geek, b/c I stared at them for like 10 min. I was like: OMG I have tickets, and they say Disney World on them, therefore they must be WDW tix, hence I am going to WDW. I still can't believe it.

And also, I started my new Halloween TR! I've added it to my signature but you can also find it on the DL TR board. I can't wait 'til I get to the explain the meaning behind the title!!! :maleficen

Eight

11-13-2010, 01:52 PM

Hahaha, shaft 1 has a superior drop sequence. Shaft 1,2 have the same drop sequence: up to the mirror room, down to the hallway/star room, drop, then up to the top. Shaft 3 goes up to the mirror room, up to the hallway room, drop, then up to the top. Though Shaft 1, 2 have the same sequences, shaft 1 gives you a feeling at some point in which you don't know if you're falling or going up. Shaft 2 (or at least the one time I was on this particular shaft, since I've refused to be queued there since) sort of pauses at the bottom just enough that you don't get that crazy confused feeling. Apparently the CMs call the shafts a,b,c (Shaft A = Shaft 1). We had to explain this to a CM once- I was pleased that he believed us immediately.

Thanks for stopping by my Halloween TR!!! I love that I saw those DISers (the lurkyloos) on the train! :lmao: You should totally fly down for Halloween next year. The DL Halloween party version is SO much better than the CA Adv version!

Haha, that's awesome that you know all this. :thumbsup2 Next time I'm at Disneyland, I'm going to have a Tower of Terror Marathon and ride all three shafts in a row to see if I can tell the difference. It'll be fun!

I totally should next year. I could have gone last year since I was living in LA at the time, but I was like, "California Adventure Halloween party? That would be so much better if it was in Disneyland." And then, of course, they moved it this year.. :rolleyes:

magichusky

11-20-2010, 07:52 PM

Haha, that's awesome that you know all this. :thumbsup2 Next time I'm at Disneyland, I'm going to have a Tower of Terror Marathon and ride all three shafts in a row to see if I can tell the difference. It'll be fun!

Hahaha you really must have a TOT marathon! The bellhops just adore it when I request a certain shaft. They were convinced that my pal and I had some sort of schoolhouse crush on the bellhop manning shaft 1. I love how people think I'm in high school or college when in fact I am in neither. Haha! :sad2:

magichusky

11-20-2010, 07:57 PM

Part C: Pumpkins and Muffins are Good Together

When we last left off, I had consumed an entire grilled cheese in "gone in 60 seconds" style and had been bewitched by the Tiki Room after ordering a Dole Whip for dessert. My plan was to ride Small World before heading over to CA Adv for the Aladdin Musical, but I wasn't sure if I'd have enough time since I HAD to stop at the Blue Ribbon Bakery to clean them out of Matterhorn Macaroons. I was driving home after this and it's just bad form these days to show up at my house w/out macaroons for the macaroon-wild DM.

Recently I was more than pleased to discover that my cousin had, upon graduating from college, taken a job w/ DL as a CM. Apparently she is in charge of distributing strollers and driving the submarines. I didn't have much time so I hotfooted it over to the submarine area to spy. Nope, that's definitely NOT Megan:

http://i979.photobucket.com/albums/ae278/magichusky/dis02/dis02_020.jpg

Unfortunately it takes FOREVER for those darn submarines to load and get going so I only had the opportunity to spy on 3 drivers before I had to proceed. Next time!

As I was passing by the Matterhorn on my way to SW, I saw this strange sign. There's nothing more amusing than a sign fashioned out of a golden turkey. Maybe I just never walk through here often enough, but I don't recall this building being here before?

http://i979.photobucket.com/albums/ae278/magichusky/dis02/dis02_021.jpg

I finally arrived at SW but was horrified to see an unruly line as I rounded the corner! It was at least 25 min long. Definitely not enough time! I was quite disappointed b/c SW was the only other thing that was really on my agenda for today besides Aladdin, but surely I would be back soon. Suddenly I realized that I was seriously in danger of missing Aladdin, so I powerwalked back through Tomorrowland and crashed through a bunch of strollers on Main Street to do a bakery dash:

http://i979.photobucket.com/albums/ae278/magichusky/dis02/dis02_022.jpg

Unfortunately it's quite difficult to do a bakery dash at the Blue Ribbon b/c it seems to perpetually have a long line! I was bored so I took this pic of the back of a window display. I've been meaning to craft my very own fake cakes and sundaes for display in my own kitchen, but just haven't gotten around to it...

http://i979.photobucket.com/albums/ae278/magichusky/dis02/dis02_023.jpg

They only had 2 macaroons left in the display case so I was watching them like a hawk the whole time with worry. As I got closer, a CM put a huge tray of raw macaroons into the oven. I was delighted so I took a pic in my excitement:

http://i979.photobucket.com/albums/ae278/magichusky/dis02/dis02_024.jpg

I finally reached the register and purchased the last 2 macaroons and a special seasonal pumpkin muffin (the kind w/ the cream cheese filling). People have been raving about them here on the DIS so I was rather curious! The one thing about the BRB that annoys me is that the bags they put your snacks in are practically useless for transport. They always throw my 10 macaroons into a tiny white paper lunch bag and it always winds up getting crumpled into a big massive wad smelling of coconut and tissue paper at the bottom of my park bag. I guess most people go to BRB to purchase food and eat it, not carry it around w/ them for the rest of the day so they can return home and store it for the winter. Anyway, now I bring a hot pink collapsible Snoopy tote that has become the go-to bag for my BRB macaroon binges.

After arranging my macaroons and muffin carefully into my Snoopy tote like they were priceless china and reorganizing the bills in my wallet (Yes, I'm pretty sure I have some form OCD) I consulted my phone and was horrified to discover that I seriously had 5 min to exit DL, enter CA Adv, and storm into the Hyperion Theater before Aladdin started! :scared1: Hahaha oops. I probably looked like an idiot busting out of BRB with my hot pink Snoopy tote swinging around exploding w/ coconut, but who really cares about such things while zooming through DL?

Up next: Aladdin in HD!!!! (Yes, I made it)

TO BE CONTINUED...

magichusky

12-07-2010, 02:37 AM

Part D: It's a Whole New World

Finally I'm back for the last installment of this breathtaking series! I've of course been DISing away but have recently migrated over to the WDW TR section in preparation for my upcoming stint in the World. But more on that later.

Last time we talked, I was hauling it over to the Hyperion Theater from Blue Ribbon Bakery (BRB). I had purchased a tote full of macaroons for my Mom but upon exiting the bakery discovered that I had 5 min to get to Aladdin! I was on the verge of just leaving at that point but I remembered that really the entire reason I stopped at DL that day was to see that darn Aladdin Musical. So I ran.

After getting through the CA Adv turnstiles, I power walked towards the usual route to get to the Hyperion but was excessively annoyed to spy a sign stating that the only way to get there was through Bug's Land. I despise going through Bug's Land b/c there's always a bottleneck that actually rivals the one that perpetually causes chaos in the Indiana Jones area. I was pleased to find a mother and her 10 yr old son absolutely HAULING it through the bottleneck, so I sought refuge behind them and let them shove everyone else out of the way for me. I thought they were for sure heading for the Hyperion but they were actually sprinting towards the tower.

I finally arrived at my destination and was of course ushered into the nosebleed section. I was probably the 10th to last person to enter the theater! I was a bit appalled when I realized how far away I was from the stage but there's no way I was going to spend precious Disney time waiting in line for a seat I might not even get so I could see a show I might not even like. So the nosebleed section it was.

I was admittedly pretty nervous about this whole production. I had heard great reviews but this was actually the very first time I would ever sit down for a show while visiting the parks. My Mom and I always meant to go see the Pocahontas show at DL back in 1996 but it closed! I was sitting for possibly 5 min and the lights went down- I whipped out my camera, turned the flash off, and readied myself.

Once the show started I found myself reasonably amused and decided that it was safe to stay for awhile. Of course the first thing I noticed was that Aladdin had a T-shirt tan; he had a tank top on and the top third of his arm was simply glowing white. Trust me of all people to become fixated on something so ridiculous. But can't they at least get the guy a spray tan? I mean he is supposed to be living in Agraba. The other thing I noticed was that there was absolutely no Abu in this production. I was appalled! Anyway, here's probably my very best photo of the bunch I took during the show:

http://i979.photobucket.com/albums/ae278/magichusky/dis02/dis02_025.jpg

Pretty good considering how very far away I was! I also filmed 2 HD movies:

The following is the part when Aladdin as Prince Ali storms into the castle for the first time w/ his parade of animals and magical servants. If you look closely you can see that Aladdin's riding this awesome elephant up to the stage!
Aladdin the Musical: Prince Ali! Fabulous he! Ali Ababwa (YouTube) (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kaAulDu60ww)

This part is the "A Whole New World" portion complete w/ magic carpet soaring over the audience. (Haha in my case it was actually flying below me) The actors riding the carpet were different actors than the ones on the stage and carpet Aladdin's voice wasn't as convincing as stage Aladdin's unfortunately.
Aladdin the Musical: A Whole New World (YouTube) (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FHtMrlx-TDw)

And some more photos:

http://i979.photobucket.com/albums/ae278/magichusky/dis02/dis02_026.jpg

http://i979.photobucket.com/albums/ae278/magichusky/dis02/dis02_027.jpg

http://i979.photobucket.com/albums/ae278/magichusky/dis02/dis02_028.jpg

http://i979.photobucket.com/albums/ae278/magichusky/dis02/dis02_029.jpg

All in all I surprisingly generally enjoyed this show! The genie cracked way too many "current" jokes in my opinion however, including so many references to Lindsay Lohan, Lady Gaga, and the Kardashians that the audience pretty much petered out in the laugh department by 20-30 minutes in. I would rather not hear about those idiots while immersed in wholesome Disney goodness, thank you very much!

I was confused upon exiting the theater when I somehow became the first person to get out of there and hit the pavement. I had to descend multiple long staircases to reach the ground level and still was the first to emerge from the queue and stumble towards the tower! Haha do I really walk that fast? I must look like quite the idiot zooming around DL in such a frenzy.

The wait time for the tower was an advertised 30 min, which is ridiculous b/c 90% of the time I seem to practically walk on that thing and straight into the library. I got in line though b/c I couldn't imagine leaving without towering! The tower annoys me however b/c they have no single rider line. I took this pic of this sign hanging between the elevators in the lobby:

http://i979.photobucket.com/albums/ae278/magichusky/dis02/dis02_030.jpg

A pretty stupid pic if you ask me but the reason I took it was b/c I don't think that particular sign has always been there? I seem to recall a less flashy sign w/ the same info? Sometimes at Disney I think I'm going crazy b/c I frequently notice things like in POTC for example that I swear have been changed or moved around. But I'm never sure! Do they really tinker w/ established rides that often?

I wound up getting on within 15 min since there was an elevator leaving just as I was entering the boiler room w/ 1 spot left just for me. Excellent! Afterwards I stopped by DTD and bought a Mickey DVD case in the World of Disney store so I could be sure to bring along my fabulous collection of Christmas movies w/ me to WDW! Of course the WOD store refused to validate my parking ticket so I wound up having to pay $7 for illegally parking in the DTD lot. (They give you 3 hrs for free and since I had just missed the earlier Aladdin show when I arrived, I had been parked for around 4.5 hrs) Still better than paying $15 to park in that ghastly Mickey & Friends structure!

So that's that! Hopefully you all enjoyed my mostly solo TR and mini-TR b/c I certainly did! If you don't find me too terribly boring, then hop on over to my WDW PTR for my upcoming excursion- we're departing 12/17 which is insanely soon! I'll also of course be writing a TR for this trip. More info in the next post!

THE END...but stay tuned for my WDW Christmas trip info!