Thumping Our Way Through Disneyland. The Dream Begins.

[Backstage_Gal]

Originally Posted by mmeb144

What?!? Look, I love you both equally, somebody, please get writing. Besides, enough with the cliffhangers already. I feel really bruised by Nebo's trip report, that guy can really string you along...

T-Man, that was a great update! Stand strong and proud.

That shuttle bus scenario seems weird. The one and only time we went to DL, we stayed about 5 min walk away, but not nearly as nice a place as yours.

[Thumper_Man]

Originally Posted by mmeb144

What?!? Look, I love you both equally, somebody, please get writing. Besides, enough with the cliffhangers already. I feel really bruised by Nebo's trip report, that guy can really string you along...

It's not a cliffhanger. It's a delay tactic while I organize all the pictures.

[cp'ersmom]

Originally Posted by Thumper_Man

It's a beautiful mornin' ahhh, I think I'll go outside for a while. An jus' smile, just take in some clean fresh air boy.
Ain't no sense in stayin' inside, if the weather's fine and you got the time.
It's your chance to wake up and plan another brand new day, either way;
It's a beautiful mornin'.

I know I said we’ll try to get this TR moving a little more quickly, so here it goes.

Sunday, August 26, 2012. Went to DL in the morning, DCA in the afternoon and finished the day back at DL. I now return you to your regularly scheduled TR over on Nebo’s thread.

Still around? Really, Nebo’s is more exciting at the moment. Our day is literally a walk in the park compared to his; but if you insist, I’ll try to make our day sound exciting and magical.

Today is our first full theme park day, and our only chance to take advantage of the early magic morning we got when we purchased our tickets. There are 4 days Disney allows you to take advantage of this perk: Sunday, Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday; and the only park you can use it at is Disneyland. We had just arrived on Saturday and wouldn’t have made it to theme park early anyways. Tuesday our plan is to hit DCA. Thursday will be the relaxation day I promised Lady H and of course we leave on a Saturday. So today’s plan is to be at the park at 8:00 am, as Disneyland originally opens at 9.

That dreaded alarm goes off again. This time at 6 am, and no I didn’t go back to sleep. Don’t want to waste any precious park time. I mosey on over to the kitchen to get some coffee before I wake up sleeping beauty. She is not a morning person. For that matter neither am I. As others have mentioned, there are only 2 times that I’m up early: work and vacation. Since I work 5 days a week, that means I’m up early all week. Given the chance, I will sleep in and I take full advantage on the weekends. Since we’re on vacation though, I’m up.

I get to the kitchen and coffee isn’t ready yet. The coffee pot in our room has an automatic timer and I set it up before going to bed. I walk over and inspect the coffee pot. Timer is on. Put the correct time I wanted it to go on.

Doh! I didn’t set the clock right.

I fix the time on the coffee maker, because any sensible person would this; and every now and then I’m smart that way. Had I been smarter, I would’ve checked to make sure I had the correct time when I first set it. The time looked correct, but I was off by 12 hours. I switched day to night, and night to day. Anyways, I turn the coffee maker on and head back (unarmed with coffee) to wake sleeping beauty. This time I didn’t need the bucket of ice water to get her up. A kiss worked just fine. Soon coffee is ready and so are we. Pack our bags, grab our tickets and put them in the new lanyards we bought the night before, and off we go to the lobby. Need to buy passes to ride the ART (Anaheim Resort Transportation) shuttle.

For those that have been asking how far our hotel is from DL; it wasn’t too far, but far enough if you decided to walk there. The hotel is a mile down the road from the DL turnstile, or a 20-25 minute walk (depending on how fast you walk). 45-60 minute walk at the end of the day if you’re tired and don’t want to walk anymore. Knowing that we would be in for a full day of walking, standing and walking some more; we didn’t really want to walk. Especially if we decided to go back to the hotel for a break.

While I was planning this trip, I made sure to research how much parking was going to cost. Had we parked at any of the Disney Theme Parks parking lots, it would’ve cost us $15 per day. To use ART, it costs $4 per adult for an all day ride pass. Given we were 2 adults, it would cost us $8 per day to get to DL; instead of paying the $15 that DL charges and you still have to take a shuttle to get there. Yup, I typed that out correctly. You pay to park at the DL parking lots and you still have to take s shuttle to DL. Let me show you what I’m talking about.

Here is Google’s current map of DLR and the surrounding area. I added a few lines and description to it so you can hopefully follow along.



I indicated on the map where Lady and I were staying. The light blue line is how far Lady H and I would have to walk to catch the nearest ART shuttle. The green line would be the route the shuttle would take to DL after it picked us up. Notice the nearest parking lot to us is the Toy Story Mania parking lot. Could’ve been the parking lot was just called Toy Story and I’m adding Mania. Anyways, this parking lot isn’t too far up the road from where we were staying. There were also no short cuts from our hotel to this parking lot. Not unless you wanted to jump the wall. The red line indicates my best guess of the route the DL parking lot shuttles would take. We never parked in this lot but looking at a closer Google Map of this lot, I indicated where the shuttle pick up probably is; and it dropped off/picked up in the same vicinity as the ART shuttle once it got to DL. Needless to say, our shuttle ride would more or less be the same distance if we took the ART shuttle or the DL shuttle. I think there is a parking garage closer to DL, but we never went looking for it. So I can’t tell you if it was closer or not. I did see as you got to the end of DtD, there is an area where the parking lot trams (same type used at WDW parking lots) picked up and dropped off.

Ok, now that I covered the whole parking issue, let me get back to the TR itself. We head over to our hotel lobby to buy our ART passes. There’s a kiosk in the lobby that you can buy your tickets from. We figured it would be easier to do it this way, rather than pay the driver. As we walk into the lobby, Sneaky Larry is already hard at work figuring out who will be his next victims. We try not to make eye contact and proceed directly to the kiosk. He spots us but just gives us a friendly good morning and goes to a back office. Phew. We escaped for now. We quickly buy our tickets and get out of there before he comes back.

ART passes in hand we head over to the shuttle stop. Right now it’s about 7:45 and the ART shuttle is supposed to pick up about every 20 minutes or so. We get to the shuttle waiting area and there is about 10 people waiting for the shuttle. One observation I do make, just like at WDW, there are people with big strollers waiting to get on. I start to fear for my shins and the back of my heals seeing these monster strollers. We wait about 5 minutes and the ART shuttle pulls up. They’re not very big shuttles. I’m guessing they can hold about 50 passengers max. As luck would have it, it wasn’t really packed at this hour; little did we know it wouldn’t be a quiet trip to Disneyland.

The shuttle driver must have been a yellow jacket in disguise. No offense to anyone out there when I say he was an older man. I would say he was either in has late 50’ or early 60’s. I know what you’re thinking, “T_Man is calling us old.” He was older than me so how else would I refer to him. On our 5 minute or so shuttle ride, the driver decided he needed kid participation. He asked the kids if they knew where they were going. Naturally the kids yelled out Disneyland. Now here’s where his old age kicks in, he tells them “I can’t hear you.” Now we have the kids yelling out even louder and some adults joining in. Again he says “I still can’t hear you.” Did he remember to turn his hearing aids on? Lady H wanted to tell him “Alma, turn the pack on.” This time everyone screams out Disneyland, Lady H and I included. We wanted to make sure he heard this time. He must have heard everyone this time because he seems satisfied and stops asking. Good because now my ears are ringing. He then gives the kids a public service announcement. “Stay with your parents, listen to mom and dad, have fun, blah blah blah.” Finally, our shuttle arrives to shuttle drop off/pick up area. Once again, the driver wants crowd participation; “Kids, do you know where you are?” They kids yell out “Disneyland” and the driver is now Mr. Funny Man, “Wrong. You’re on the bus,” and with that he lets us off.

Now it’s time for the ever so famous, daunting task of slipping by security un-noticed. Walls are too high to jump here and I don’t know where the snipers are positioned. Best to play it safe and just go through security. Lines aren’t too long at this hour. Lady H and I open our bags to show security all the supplies we need for the day. They confiscate our mountain climbing gear. They said they already have CM’s that act as mountain climbers and they aren’t holding open auditions for future climbers. So much for climbing the Matterhorn today. They let everything else we have pass through and we head towards the gate. I look at the time on my phone; shoot, we’ve already lost 5 minutes of valuable touring time already. Time to tour commando style. We walk up to the turnstile and hand the CM our City Pass. She scans them and hands them back to us, along with 2 new tickets. Oh boy, bonus days I thought. We must be the billionth visitors through the gate. Nope, turns out these will now be the tickets we use for the rest of the trip. Our City Pass for Disney is no longer valid. Now the tickets we got are the cheap paper tickets. They’re not even the Tyvek type tickets that you get at WDW. I would’ve rather have stuck to my sturdy, credit card like City Pass ticket.

After we get our cheap paper tickets, the CM now scans these tickets. No fingerprint system like WDW. This would be a love/hate relationship later on in the TR. We walk through the turnstile and we are finally inside Disneyland.

Since it has obviously been stated on here that some like Lady H’s writing style more than “THE OTHER GUY”, TOG is ending this chapter here and will try to turn it over to Lady H so she can keep you entertained while I quietly sit in the back of the class; occasionally filling in any details that Lady H may not quite recall. Secretly plotting my revenge and how I can torture you with more chapters.
Bwaahhh hhhaaaa hhhaaa hhhaaa.

Glad you are on your way to your first magical day! Hope there's no blood shed, concrete smacked, WC mishaps or dining disasters!

[smidgy]

I love BOTH your writing styles!
you both look younger than I pictured. (of course everyone looks young to us 55 and older set, dontcha know?)

great job researching. how silly would it have been to drive to the parking lot and end up taking a shuttle almost as far?

there's one thing Nebo hates.. when any CM does the "I can't hear you" bit. he refuses to play along.

ponzi mentioned what I wanted to and forgot. that garbage can in the middle of the room. If it was us, I would have put it in the bathtub if I couldn't find any other place. it would have killed Nebo.. .. "death by trashcan".

[mmeb144]

Originally Posted by Thumper_Man

It's not a cliffhanger. It's a delay tactic while I organize all the pictures.

Oh, nevermind...

[bankr63]

Originally Posted by Thumper_Man's Wife

Nothing can be bad with Chili on it. Of course i'm sure your chili and our chili are a little different. But to me it doesn't matter. Smother a burger with Chili and it's the best burger in town! I never thought about just putting it all in a styrofoam cup...Hmmm...

Ooooh, Chili recipes. Now there's some recipes I could get into. I make a Texas Red that blows the top of your head off!

[bankr63]

Originally Posted by Thumper_Man

I know I said we’ll try to get this TR moving a little more quickly, so here it goes.

Sunday, August 26, 2012. Went to DL in the morning, DCA in the afternoon and finished the day back at DL. I now return you to your regularly scheduled TR over on Nebo’s thread.


Still around? Really, Nebo’s is more exciting at the moment. Our day is literally a walk in the park compared to his; but if you insist, I’ll try to make our day sound exciting and magical.

Oh, I insist alright! At least I can keep up with yours. Nebo is so popular that I always find myself 20 pages behind (I'm now at 88 and the rest of you are at 118!)

Well the first two hours show some promise of the Magic yet to come. Looking forward to hearing more...

[orangecats2]

Great pics of you guys at S55.
Need more pics...

Did you get the postcard?

[pkondz]

Originally Posted by Thumper_Man's Wife

You think? Alright I'll let it slide, You had a hard couple of weeks with work...But only this one time.

Sweet! I got a free pass!

Originally Posted by Thumper_Man's Wife

Right? I mean seriously. I don't ask much of the luggage. All I ask is that it holds the clothes and necessities I need and for giving me that, I take it to wonderful places, and here it goes, wanting to vacating without me! Hmph! maybe seeing only the inside of the airplane, airport and hotel isn't considered a vacation to it.

Originally Posted by Thumper_Man's Wife

To bag or not to bag...that was the question...Wait...that didn't sound right.

I beg your pardon?!?

Well, it was an anniversary vacation...

Originally Posted by Thumper_Man's Wife

Oh sure. Is that all it takes to get readers?

yes

Originally Posted by Thumper_Man's Wife

Since technically I can't call it a Flash mob can it be considered a Flash Flash? Hmmm...

Again... yes.

Is T-Man going to hunt me down and shoot me by any chance?

Originally Posted by Thumper_Man's Wife

Hey! I resemble that remark!!!

Hey! I remarked that... umm...

oh nevermind.

Originally Posted by Thumper_Man's Wife

I know i probably looked at T-Man with "the look" and thought a few times about saying something to her, but thought, we just got here, our room more than likely isn't ready yet, The last thing i need is someone to implant a video camera or worse, a skunk or something in our room while they are getting it ready because I became Mrs. CrabbyPants!

True. I meant it more like when you're at a store and not at their mercy.

Originally Posted by Thumper_Man's Wife

This is exactly what I thought. I kept going over each day in the back of my mind thinking...OK...I didn't do anything stupid yesterday did I? Nothing in front of anyone that would be cause for storytelling later? I don't remember running around nekkid or flashing anyone at the resort...Whew...we are clear for today!

But just for today, right?

Originally Posted by Thumper_Man's Wife

I'm usually not the adventurous type when it comes to food. I'm pretty particular...OK fine, I'm picky! But I can usually find something at any place I go. But just wait, it gets better in regards to eateries as we go...

Oh? You guys should write a TR!

Originally Posted by Thumper_Man's Wife

I appreciate that more than you know , but don't tell the "other guy" that...I've been telling him I got through college by paying smart people to write my term papers!

So now that I've caused a schism in the Thumper household, will this TR degenerate into name calling and finger pointing?


That should be fun.

Originally Posted by Thumper_Man's Wife

Nothing can be bad with Chili on it. Of course i'm sure your chili and our chili are a little different. But to me it doesn't matter. Smother a burger with Chili and it's the best burger in town! I never thought about just putting it all in a styrofoam cup...Hmmm...

The chili that's used up here (for burgers) is a ground beef chili (no beans).

Originally Posted by Thumper_Man's Wife

When you get the answer, will you share it with me? I still have no clue how that happened.

Oh, carp... Sorry, no. Man code.

Originally Posted by Thumper_Man's Wife

True story: Back when I was young...er...I worked at the mall, in one of the retail stores. One day, I was ringing up a customer, giving the usual credit card sales pitch as i was told I had to do, then gave the lady her total, it was something along the lines of $21.98 and she handed me a $20, plus 3 dollar bills and 2 pennies...and i looked at her with the weirdest expression I'm sure.

Me: "Ma'am, Your bill is only $21.98 (As I try to give her back the $1.02)
Customer: "Yes, I know...And I'm giving you, $23.02
Me: "I realize that, however, I'm not sure why..."

Then the inevitable nickel dropped and I went..."Oh...Hahaha...nevermind."

Nope. Sorry, you lost me there. Was it a tip? Were you in a retail store that accepted gratuities? Otherwise the change works out to $1.04... which totally negates the $3.02 (or at least $1.02 of it).

Originally Posted by Thumper_Man's Wife

After the first two times, we moved it to the wall just outside of the kitchen area. There really wasn't any other place to put it...

As soon as I saw that pic, all I could think of was, "What a dumb spot for the garbage."

Originally Posted by Thumper_Man's Wife

“There is no exquisite beauty… without some strangeness in the proportion.” ~ Edgar Allen Poe

Your quote is purtier than mine.

Originally Posted by Thumper_Man's Wife

If I wanted practical I would have chopped off the hair a long time ago. I'm one of those weirdos that lets her hair grow in the summer and then will cut it in the winter, just in time to freeze to death!

That is weird! I had a buddy who decided that he'd try shaving his head... He thought winter was a good time to try it. Whoops!

Originally Posted by Thumper_Man's Wife

No, Kidney selling takes place later in the week...

But you can get a $100 gift card just for sitting on your fannies for 6 hours at a presentation.

[nebo]

Mike, I still love you, and I think you are a wonderful writer.
I'm also not so sure that the "other guy" wasn't intended for you, but me.

I also have something that is troubling me:

From Heather:

True story: Back when I was young...er...I worked at the mall, in one of the retail stores. One day, I was ringing up a customer, giving the usual credit card sales pitch as i was told I had to do, then gave the lady her total, it was something along the lines of $21.98 and she handed me a $20, plus 3 dollar bills and 2 pennies...and i looked at her with the weirdest expression I'm sure.

Me: "Ma'am, Your bill is only $21.98 (As I try to give her back the $1.02)
Customer: "Yes, I know...And I'm giving you, $23.02
Me: "I realize that, however, I'm not sure why..."

heather, you should be punished for this.
I do this type of thing all the time, sometimes just to watch the fun as they try to figure it out, but something about the way you just phrased it,,,, had me totally confused trying to figure it out, not sure why. I still am. this won't make it an even dollar, will it? No, now it's 4 cents you owe her, Oh, Monty, Monty.
Just don't do it again.

I mean, my method would have been to say, here's 22, keep the lousy two cents.

[Thumper_Man's Wife]

Originally Posted by nebo

Mike, I still love you, and I think you are a wonderful writer.
I'm also not so sure that the "other guy" wasn't intended for you, but me.

I also have something that is troubling me:

From Heather:

True story: Back when I was young...er...I worked at the mall, in one of the retail stores. One day, I was ringing up a customer, giving the usual credit card sales pitch as i was told I had to do, then gave the lady her total, it was something along the lines of $21.98 and she handed me a $20, plus 3 dollar bills and 2 pennies...and i looked at her with the weirdest expression I'm sure.

Me: "Ma'am, Your bill is only $21.98 (As I try to give her back the $1.02)
Customer: "Yes, I know...And I'm giving you, $23.02
Me: "I realize that, however, I'm not sure why..."

heather, you should be punished for this.
I do this type of thing all the time, sometimes just to watch the fun as they try to figure it out, but something about the way you just phrased it,,,, had me totally confused trying to figure it out, not sure why.
Just don't do it again.

I mean, my method would have been to say, here's 22, keep the lousy two cents.

I don't say this very often but...O.M.G...I must have been typing in my sleep yesterday. I knew I was tired but that was ridiculous...not only Ponzi but also Nebo called me out, and I promise it wasn't intentional.
I was a penny off...There was a little joke with the "nickel dropped in" quote and everything, but I seemed to have screwed it all up.

But to get the story straight and not look like a complete math idiot here...

The customer hands over $23.03 which of course confused me as the bill is $21.98. I tried to explain that what she was giving me was more than what the total was...I was probably staring at her for a good minute or two before...wait for it...the nickel dropped in...and I understood what she was trying to do.

I think there is a penny phobia in NM, because I found myself dealing with cases like this on a regular basis.

Now I must remember to not speak math when tired.

[nebo]

Originally Posted by Thumper_Man's Wife

I don't say this very often but...O.M.G...I must have been typing in my sleep yesterday. I knew I was tired but that was ridiculous...not only Ponzi but also Nebo called me out, and I promise it wasn't intentional.
I was a penny off...There was a little joke with the "nickel dropped in" quote and everything, but I seemed to have screwed it all up.



The customer hands over $23.03 which of course confused me as the bill is $21.98. I tried to explain that what she was giving me was more than what the total was...I was probably staring at her for a good minute or two before...wait for it...the nickel dropped in...and I understood what she was trying to do.

I think there is a penny phobia in NM, because I found myself dealing with cases like this on a regular basis.

Now I must remember to not speak math when tired.

Ok, so, now you owe her a dollar and 5 cents and this is supposed to simplify things in her mind, when a stinking keep the two cents would have worked,,,,,,
Ponzi, leave it alone, there's no upside here.

[Thumper_Man's Wife]

Originally Posted by nebo

Ok, so, now you owe her a dollar and 5 cents and this is supposed to simplify things in her mind, when a stinking keep the two cents would have worked,,,,,,
Ponzi, leave it alone, there's no upside here.

I didn't say it was supposed to make sense...I just said it was a true story. There is a reason I am no longer working in retail. But now you know why I was stumped.

[Thumper_Man]

Originally Posted by orangecats2

Did you get the postcard?

Are you referring to this one?




If so, no; we didn't get it. Please send another one.

We wish we would've been there to. Can't wait until December when we are. Thanks for sending it to us. We really like it and it's already hanging on our bulletin board by the puter.

[Thumper_Man]

Originally Posted by nebo

Mike, I still love you, and I think you are a wonderful writer.

Now that's the funniest joke you've told yet.

Originally Posted by nebo

I'm also not so sure that the "other guy" wasn't intended for you, but me.

No, I am the other guy. If you look, Lady H is the one who wrote and posted the chapter. Since I wrote the chapters before, I was clearly pointed out as the other guy.

Originally Posted by nebo

I also have something that is troubling me:

Just one thing? Usually you have more. Eyes, back, dehydration, concussions. That's 4 right there. Should I go on?

Originally Posted by nebo

From Heather:

True story: Back when I was young...er...I worked at the mall, in one of the retail stores. One day, I was ringing up a customer, giving the usual credit card sales pitch as i was told I had to do, then gave the lady her total, it was something along the lines of $21.98 and she handed me a $20, plus 3 dollar bills and 2 pennies...and i looked at her with the weirdest expression I'm sure.

Me: "Ma'am, Your bill is only $21.98 (As I try to give her back the $1.02)
Customer: "Yes, I know...And I'm giving you, $23.02
Me: "I realize that, however, I'm not sure why..."

heather, you should be punished for this.
I do this type of thing all the time, sometimes just to watch the fun as they try to figure it out, but something about the way you just phrased it,,,, had me totally confused trying to figure it out, not sure why. I still am. this won't make it an even dollar, will it? No, now it's 4 cents you owe her, Oh, Monty, Monty.
Just don't do it again.

I mean, my method would have been to say, here's 22, keep the lousy two cents.

All those thing I just mentioned and this is the one that is troubling you? Still suffering from the concussion I see.