Happiness is a DisneyLAND BTMR Fastpass - 12/11 - The End! Parts 28-32 + Epilogue

[Gymfan15]

Note: If you have noticed my absense for the last week or so (ha ha), it's because I've been preparing for NaNoWriMo. If you don't know what that is, it's an event where writers all over the world get together and write a novel of 50,000 words or more in the month of November. I've never done it before, but I thought it would be fun to do. My novel is about a gymnast (duh) and it's pretty bad, but I'm enjoying it so far.
Anyway, I worked overtime and got all but the last day of my TR written up, so I'd have something to post while I'm busy scribbling away. When I run out of stuff to post before December, y'all are just going to have to wait!
Anyway, that was all.

Previously on Happiness is a Disneyland BTMRR FastPass: We eat with Pirates! We go on a lame Jungle Cruise ride! We go on Indy! We are forced to endure the Rodger Rabbits queue! Excitement abounds!

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We still had a fair amount of time to kill before our FastPasses for Space Mountain became good, so we decided, hey, it's hot, we've got cash to burn, why don't we go down to the Carnation Cafe and get some ICE CREAM?!!!

We were walking through the hub on our way to Main Street when I spotted the Omnibus loading passengers. If you don't know what that is, it's a double-decker bus that rides up and down Main Street. I'd never ridden it before and it was my goal to ride all of the Disneyland transportation devices, so on we hopped!

Mom called and told us that she and Grandma and Grandpa were just about to go to the 50 Year Anniversary show at the Opera House, and if we hurried we could join them and then we'd all go get ice cream afterward.

So we did just that!

On the way out of the show there's a long gallery with a lot of artwork for sale. I spotted a lovely Aslan painting that I just had to take a picture of, so I whipped out my camera and proceeded to snap away. It was indoors, so I was using my flash, obviously.

After taking about two pictures a CM stepped up and said, "Hi, it's fine if you take pictures, put please don't use the flash; it can damage the artwork."

Whoops! So I turned off the flash (or so I thought) and took another picture. But the flash went off! I was so embarrassed; it was pretty funny.

Here's the artwork I risked everything for a picture of... Isn't it beautiful?

After that, we headed into the adjourning Hat Shop so we could look around and so I could get the obligatory hat pic.

I was graduating that year but I didn't want to shell out the money for the ears (I'd never wear 'em) so I figured this was the next best thing. Cheers!

Then we all headed down Main Street for some yummy ice cream goodness!

Here is Jody, obviously enjoying the ice cream we shared. It was mint with a TON of whipped cream and chocolate chips. When I think of Disneyland ice cream, I think of THAT.

Mom and Grandma with their goodies.

Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhh, iccccccccceeeee creeeeeeeeeaaaammmmmmm!!!!!!!! :lol:

Here's a less weird one.

That was one delicious interlude! Now it was time to bid our farewells to the adults in the group and head off to the ride we'd waited a good two hours for...SPACE MOUNTAIN!!!

Up Next: Gotta love little green slips of paper...

 

[Gymfan15]

Previously on Happiness is a Disneyland BTMRR FastPass: We have ice cream! Whoop!

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After gorging out on some yummy ice cream at the Carnation Cafe, we were READY to get our Space Mountain fix. We'd been waiting what seemed like all day to ride, and goodness gracious if we didn't want to ride, and ride right now!

We head over to Space Mountain. Normal.
We go in the Fast Pass line. Normal.
We encounter quite a bunch of people in the FP line waiting to be let into the main queue because of the large amount of standbys. Not normal, but we only waited five minutes or so.
We see a lady get into the FP line by using one of those attraction re-admittance passes, the kind you get when you get walked off a ride or experience some other kind of error. Never saw one of those used before, but hey, I guess it's normal.
We wait a bit in the queue, going through the enclosed area and then the main loading area. Normal.
We get all the way down to the last single line before boarding. Definitely normal.
They play the "attraction stopped" spiel at turn on all the lights. Um, definitely not normal.

So we're standing in line, just a few people away from getting on the ride, and it shuts down. ARG. *face palm* I didn't mind the ride being shut down as much I did that I'd already surrendered my Fast Pass...good grief, I'd waited almost two hours to use it, and now it's gone, and now I can't ride? Bummer!

As the CM's prepared to escort everyone out of the queue, I saw them pull out packets of sheets with green markings on them that they were scribbling something on. I perked up. Those were attraction re-admittance passes. Thanks to the DIS, I knew that they were good for a bunch of people for any ride except Nemo.

They escorted us out of the line and sure enough, we got this little baby!

Sadness and dismay had turned into rejoicing. This was the Holy Grail of FP's...we could use this on ANY ride except Nemo. ANY ride. Peter Pan, Autopia, the Matterhorn...what ever we wanted, we could have. Whee!

Jody's kind of upset she didn't get to ride Space Mountain..

But hey, a green pass is pretty cool too!

Here's MY feeling on the subject.

This is us just before we boarded the Matterhorn, our next ride after our botched Space Mountain attempt. We did it in the normal line since it wasn't too long. We hadn't figured out what we wanted to use our green pass on yet...our two top choices were Peter Pan (always ridiculous line, and then mom and Gram and Gramps could go too) and Autopia (pretty long line too).

When we got off of the Matterhorn, we decided to head over to ride Pirates, since we hadn't yet. We went through Frontierland, and I noticed that Big Thunder Mountain didn't have that long of a line.

"Hey Jody, wanna ride?"

*shrug* "Sure!"

That would end up being a running theme of our trip...I'd spot a ride, say "hey, wanna go?" and she would be game! We got on a lot of unexpected rides that way. I love going with the flow, even if it IS inefficient and not the best way to use your time!

The first time we'd rode Big Thunder Mountain we'd ridden in the front, now I wanted to test a theory and ride in the back. I'd been told that the ride is faster from the back, because you pick up momentum from the drops much more than the front, which is braked, does. I don't think the CM was used to having people ask for the very last car on the train. :lol:

We rode, and I do think the back is a mite faster. I mean, it's logical. If the front is going a certain speed and the end whips down, you're going to go faster because of gravity and mass. Or something like that.

Up Next: What IS that smell?!?!

 

[Gymfan15]

Previously on Happiness is a Disneyland BTMRR FastPass: Denied! Asile and Jody DON'T get to ride Space Mountain, but they get a cool attraction re-admittance pass instead. Pretty neat, huh? They also test out physics theories on Big Thunder Mountain. And who said that Disneyland wasn't educational?

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After riding Big Thunder Mountain, we headed down to Pirates, went through the queue (it was fast-moving if not short) and boarded our boat. I remember tossing my bags on the bottom of my boat, since there was no sense in holding them.

When we exited the ride, I picked up my bags and was horrified to feel that the bottoms were dripping wet!!! 8-o Apparently there had been a puddle in the bottom of the boat that I hadn't noticed, and when I sat my bags in it, well...

So I've got my stuff clutched to my chest, frantically trying to get out any electronics or non-durable items that might have gotten wet when Jody sniffed her hand and said,

"What IS that smell????"

Come to think of it, I could smell something really disgusting too. I gave my wet bag a good whiff.

EWWWWWWWWWWW.

It smelled like something died. It was seriously one of the grossest smells I have ever encountered at Disneyland. We determined that it was the water from the ride that was producing such an awful smell, since only the things that had gotten wet stunk. I now know that that particular stench was simply old, stangant water...that stuff had been sitting inside that Pirates boat for who knows how long, and with all those feet and guck and whatnot getting mixed with it....*gag*

Jody was fine, except for a bit of her hand, which had gotten wet when she helped me rescue my stuff from certain drowning, but I was covered in it. Since I had held my wet bags close to me initially the water had transfered from my backpack to my shirt, and I could smell it on my hands and particularily my bag. One didn't want to give any deep whiffs around that stuff, trust me.

Truly, truly gross. My stuff was okay, except for some damp papers and of course the horrible stench on my backpack and camera case, but yeah. A nasty end to a nice ride.

We were in the area and still had some Splash Mountain FP's from earlier in the day, so I suggested that we go on. Jody really, really, really didn't want to get wet, but I told her to shut up and use the poncho I had given her. She didn't, but yeah, no right to complain!

After all the splashing was over (I can't remember if anyone got wet; I vaugely remember a nice wall of water getting my legs during the pitch black drop but I'm not sure which one of our rides that was from) we decided to grab the camera and snap some pictures in the final scene.

Did you know if you look just to the left of Jody and look up, you'll see the railroad? I had "known" that before, but I didn't "get" it until my last trip before leaving California the year before. I guess it's because I only rode the New Orleans - Toon Town leg once.

Here's me, stench and all!

Do you believe in karma? I don't, but you gotta admit, after me blocking out a girl's face on an earlier ride, it's kind of...poetic justice, I guess.

When we were finished with Spash, it was getting late in the day, so we thought it would be a good time to meet back up with the adults and use our magic attraction re-admittance pass.

It was a toss-up between Autopia and Peter Pan, and we figured that the adults would appreciate Peter Pan more, since I don't think they could have gone on Autopia anyway. I called mom and she said that Grandma and Grandpa had already left, but she'd wait for us and we could go on Peter Pan right before leaving.

I couldn't find a wait time for Autopia but the line was short, so we hopped in. Seriously, this ride has THE most deceptive queue line EVER. It looks short, but then you hit the switchbacks inside of the circular building, and once you get out of there, the line moves incredibly slow. It's not the first time I've been fooled by an Autopia line, I'm sad to say. But we wanted to ride anyway so it wasn't a problem; I was just a teensy bit frustrated that it took longer than I planned.

This is me trying to get in touch with mom whilst in line for Autopia. I think there was something about her not picking up her cell phone. *shrugs*

When we got off the ride, I called mom and told her to meet us in front of the Peter Pan ride. There was a slight problem though...the parade had just started and both mom and Jody and I were on the wrong side of the street.

Now, being familiar with parade schedules as I am (thanks DIS! ) I knew that the quickest way across was to head down to Small World where the parade was starting from, and cross over just as the last float came out. We timed it perfectly and only had to wait ten seconds or so before we could cross the street. Score!

Mom, however, had a different experience. I called her and told her to keep walking twords Small World until she saw the end of the parade, but she didn't quite get what I was saying, or was stuck, or something. It took her a few minutes to get across, but she did, and we were reunited without too much fuss.

I gotta tell ya, there's nothing more fun that bypassing a 45+ minute line and only waiting a minute or less thanks to a lovely green re-admittance pass. I love Peter Pan but don't get to ride it too often due to the line (and remember, there's no Peter Pan FP's at Disneyland) and my general impatience, so this definitely was the best use for our ticket.

We worked the system; yeah!

By this time it was getting late and the park was nearly closed, but were we done with our evening? Uh uh!

Up Next: Girls Just Wanna Sho-op...

 

[Gymfan15]

Previously on Happiness is a Disneyland BTMRR FastPass: Asile and Jody encounter a stench to die for (literally) on Pirates, ride Splash and Autopia, and work the system by using their ride re-admittance pass on Peter Pan; yeah!

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Our plan for that evening was to spend some time in Downtown Disney and look around, and we were going to take the monorail down there from Disneyland. However, when when we walked up to the Tomorrowland station, not only was there a ridiculous amount of people already waiting in line, but we were informed that the monorail was not working at the moment and nobody knew when it would be running again! So scratch that off the list.

We made our way out of Disneyland and into Downtown Disney. I know we looked at stuff and wandered around, but I don't remember much of that. All I remember is that at the end, we went into the World of Disney store and since we were just about to leave the area to go back to the hotel, I figured, why not buy my figurine now?

Now if you don't remember, for this trip, not only was I on a mission to snag a Big Thunder Mountain FastPass for my collection, but I was also on the lookout for an Ariel figurine. When we lived in California and we went fairly often, I never bought souvenirs because I preferred to save my money and buy one maybe expensive item that I really liked, instead of a dozen things that I'd end up losing or whatever.

The day before we left to drive to Chicago, I ended up buying a Cinderella and Prince Charming figuring, with Cinderella in her wedding dress. It was cute as all get-out, and it actually survived the entire car trip from California to Chicago, unharmed.

Ain't it purty?

When I had chosen my figurine, I'd noticed an Ariel and Eric one that was so cute, but I didn't end up buying. Later on I wished I had, and I promised myself that if I went back to Disneyland, and if they still had them, I'd buy it.

So, after months of waiting and quite a bit of searching and choosing, here's what I got!

Is that adorable, or what?

So yeah, there's my little figurine story!

Well, that's pretty much all of Monday. I know we ate dinner at some point, but for the life of me I cannot remember when, where, or what it was we ate.

Here's us heading back to the parking lot on the tram:

Mom and Jody

And me! Still reeking of stagnant water.

We went back to the hotel and CRASHED. We had a really full day coming up!

Up Next: It's a StoryBook Land...

 

[Gymfan15]

Previously on Happiness is a Disneyland BTMRR FastPass: Asile buys an Ariel figurine! Yay!

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We woke up Tuesday morning a wee bit sore, but still with plenty of energy to get us through a second full day at Disneyland.

I was shocked to discover that overnight, the weather had changed from clear and boiling hot to overcast and just a tad bit nippy! That just might throw a wrench in our plan for riding Grizzly River Rapids at DCA. But who cared. Cooler weather definitely beats GRR ANY day.

We ate breakfast and drove over to Disneyland, just a bit later than we had the previous day.

Jody and I waiting for a tram. I love the trams. It's like the first ride of the day.

We got inside Disneyland JUST as the park opened up, so there was no waiting with the rest of the masses on Main Street. The plan was for me to run over to Space Mountain to grab FastPasses for myself and Jody, while she and mom headed over to the Storybook Land canal boats.

I made good time, and joined up with mom who was still walking, and then joined up with Jody, who was already in line. We had a bit of a wait, on account that there was only two boats running and those boats have a pretty low capacity considering the length of the ride. But no matter.

Jody waiting very patiently for a boat.

A pretty bad perspective shot of the flower arrangement at the loading dock.

Finally, we got to get on a boat. Unfortunately, the CM we got as a tour guide was...well, not very good at all. I've been on this ride and the spiel they give is pretty good, but with this guy, you could barely understand what he was saying, and what you could understand, wasn't engaging or interesting at all. It was a very off-putting experience. But I didn't come on this ride for the spiel anyway, so I amused myself by taking photos of the miniatures. I LOVE minatures. Sometimes I think that if I had a dream job, it'd be creating miniatures for movies like Lord of the Rings or Narnia. It's just so amazing and beautiful and it would be so FUN.

AHHHH! IT'S GONNA EAT US!!!!

Now I'm trying to remember what this place is. Alice's village, maybe?

Not sure what this is, except I think it's a church. And of course I had to chop off the top.

Why look, it's Agrabah!

Speaking of Aladdin, this is the rose trellis that he and Jasmine float under during "A Whole New World".

It's the cottage of the Seven Dwarfs!

The Mine. Can you hear them working away?

It's Cinderella's Castle! Do you see the Pumpkin Coach?

The desert patchwork quilt.

Clearly labeled, this is Toad Hall.

Windmills. I want a show of hands; how many of you have seen the short that this belongs too?

Gepetto's Village.

Really bad shot of Ariel and Eric's castle by the sea.

And that was our adventure into Storybook Land!

Up Next: "Good Time? Are you having a Good Time?"

 

[Gymfan15]

Update on NaNoWriMo: I won last night! 50k, baby. I'm pretty excited as it was my first year doing it and I wasn't sure if I'd finish last night. Woot!

Previously on Happiness is a Disneyland BTMRR FastPass: Asile and crew go on Storybook Land and look at lots of pretty miniatures. Ah, love.

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Now that we had gotten the most time-leeching ride out of the way (Storybook Land ALWAYS has a line, and it moves very slowly), it was time to hit all the other Fantasyland rides that we had passed over the day before. Metaphorically speaking, of course. Mom left to do some shopping, but instructed us to stick around the area so that I could get her a merchandise discount because of my AP (remember, mom didn't have one anymore).

The Tea Cups were first, since we saw that they were loading people in and there was NO line, so we ran in and got in a cup right away. The Tea Cups are always fun if you like that spinning sensation. Which we love, of course.

Next up was Snow White and Pinocchio (not necessarily in that order), but not before stopping for a quick photo-shoot at the Sword in the Stone.

Will Jody be able to pull it out?!?!

PULLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL JODYYYYYY PULLLLLL!!!!!!

After THAT venture proved unsuccessful, we rode our rides and were about to head out to a different section when we spied a certain Evil Step-Mother all by her lonesome on the outskirts of Fantasyland. So, why pass up the opportunity?

Me + characters = awkward. I dunno, I'm just not a big character person. I don't really know how to act around them, as is clearly evidenced here.

Jody had no such problem, as you can see. When the Queen saw her shirt she remarked it a very haughty, disapproving voice, "'Good Time'? Are you having a Good Time?".

Jody knew how to have fun with these characters, which was really great to see and pretty funny for me. I wish we'd ran into more during our day because it would have been fun to see her interact with others, haha.

When we had finished up all of our must-do rides in Fantasyland (we skipped Mr. Toad's Wild Ride and Alice in Wonderland because the lines weren't worth it for us), we headed over to the Princess Fantasy Fair, where mom was shopping for things for the girls at home.

There we had to wait for what seemed like forever for me to get through the line with mom's stuff. So frustrating. As is probably clearly obvious in this TR, I HATE to wait.

Once that task was FINALLY accomplished, we decided that it was time for us to split up. Jody and I had FP's for Space Mountain, and then we'd be heading over to DCA for a good portion of the day. Mom wanted to stick around Disneyland for a bit longer to shop, and told us that she might meet up with us for lunch in a few hours, or head back to the hotel. That was fine with us, so off we went, eager for the Space Mountain ride that had eluded us the previous day!

We got through the FastPass line pretty quickly, and got the front row of a rocket, as requested. Our manner of thinking was, if you were going to wait that amount of time in line, you might as well wait five or ten minutes more and get the best seats.

I'd been carrying a small backpack and camera case with me at Disneyland, and while it does fit into the little pouches that Disneyland provides for all their thrill rides, for Space Mountain I prefered to set my things on the floor and then hook my leg around the straps so there was no possible way they could fly out. It's nearly inaccessible during the ride, but who needs to grab their stuff while on an attraction, right?

As we sat down and I got my things situated, I remember thinking about what had happened the last time we'd tried to ride Space Mountain, when the ride had closed down, and I thought, "Wouldn't it be funny if we got stuck and I wanted to get my camera out, but it was way down on the floor and hard to reach?"

Ha ha. Very. Funny. Indeed.

Up Next: We got STUCK on SPACE MOUNTAIN!!!

 

[Gymfan15]

Previously on Happiness is a Disneyland BTMRR FastPass: We go on Fantasyland Rides. While boarding Space Mountain, Asile gets weird premonition about needing her camera to be accessible during the ride. Ha ha ha.

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When I last wrote, I said that I had thought back to the previous day when we'd just missed out on riding Space Mountain due to the ride being closed while we were in line, and I thought how funny it would be if I actually had need of my camera, which I was just then stowing away in a rather inaccessible recess of the vehicle for ease and safety. But nothing interesting EVER happens to me, right?

The whole ride STARTED normally. We waved good-bye to the ride operator, went up the the first lift in that tunnel that makes you feel like you're moving forward, standing still and going backwards at the same time, and descended into Space.

Just as we made that first corner heading to the second lift, I distinctly heard a recorded loudspeaker message playing. It was just for a split second, and I couldn't make out what it said, but I was baffled because I've been on this ride dozens of times, and I've never heard any sound effect like that before. I shrugged it off as me being rusty due to months of being Space Mountain-less and figured it was just some random "You are cleared for take-off" type thing.

Then, as we reached the top of the lift and JUST as we launched down and the ride really started, I heard it again! This was getting odd. I strained to hear what it was saying, and as we rushed around the building, we would pass the speaker at certain points and I could make out bits and pieces of what it was.

"....remain in your seats....temporarily stopped....ride resume..."

Huh?!?!??!?!?!

Suddenly I realized where I'd heard that before. That was the message they'd played when Space Mountain shut down the day before!

I thought, "Oh my goodness gracious, they're going to stop us on Space Mountain!!!!"

I don't remember if I leaned over and told Jody what was going on; I may have and I may not have. All I know is that the ride was going normally, but because that message was playing, it could only mean one thing, and that was that we were going to get stopped.

Sure enough, just as we entered that series of tight circles that are right before the end of coaster, the rocket screeched to a stop and there we sat on the track, looking at each other and thinking, "Oh my word, we actually did get stopped!!!!"

I reached for my camera, beating myself up for not listening to my gut when I had boarded the ride earlier and laughing at the irony of it all.

Here's a video I took right after we got stopped. Can't you just HEAR the smiles on our faces? Please ignore me and my "know-it-all"-ness; what can I say; I read the DIS!

The track in front of us. The lights are still off.

The view below us

Behind us

Is somebody happy or WHAT?!?!

"Yeah! We got stuck on a ride! Totally sweet!"

Another view of the track with the Rocket in the foreground.

Right around then they turned the lights on. It was so funny. Everyone in the building was booing and we were cheering.

Here's the video I took of once the lights were on, till they pushed the Rocket, and we traveled down to the loading queue. No walk-off for us, boo! But it was still SO fun. Ignore me, my annoying voice, and the ear-splitting screams at the end.



Jody was so funny. She thought that a CM was going to tell me to put the camera away, so when the CM's came walking by to check on us she was like, "Be careful, put it down!!!".

When we got to the end of the ride, a CM asked us if we wanted to ride again. Who wouldn't? So after a 10 or 15 minute wait, we got to go on the entire ride again, this time with no stops. We're guessing that the reason we got stopped in the first place was because someone dropped something or triggered an alarm. It evidently wasn't a big deal, because they let people go right back on afterward, instead of clearing the queue and escorting us off.

Here's us after our second ride! I really wish I had the photo from the first ride, but by the time we got there it was gone. *sniff* Ah well!

Man. Just writing about this makes me grin all over again. It was SUCH a fun experience. I definitely did not expect anything like that would happen to me while I was at Disneyland, but it did, and it was such a cool and unique memory!

So we had gone to Storybook Land, met an evil Queen, got STUCK on Space Mountain, and we still had an entire day left to go!

Up Next: Jody's first trip to DCA

 

[Gymfan15]

Previously on Happiness is a Disneyland BTMRR FastPass: We got STUCK on SPACE MOUNTAIN. 'Nuff said.

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After having the TIME of our life on Space Mountain, we headed over to Disneyland's California Adventure (DCA, as it shall henceforth be called), where we intended to spend the majority of the day.

Our plan was to start at the front of the park and work our way to the back, doing all the rides and attractions that we wanted in the meantime. The first thing to do was for me to grab FP's for Soarin' for both of us, while Jody headed over to Tower of Terror, which was to be our first ride.

And so we did just that. At first Jody wasn't sure if she'd be able to find ToT by herself but really, it's impossible NOT to find it once you're pointed in the right direction. Have I ever mentioned that I love the Hollywood back-lot portion of DCA? I love being able to "roam the streets" like you can on Main Street USA.

I got the necessary FP's and joined Jody at the ToT queue. We got through the lobby portion very quickly (think, 1 minute) but got stuck in the Boiler Room for the longest time (think, 15 minutes). Completely the opposite from the last time I'd ridden ToT.

In the end, we actually got the premiere seats of the entire ride, and I didn't even ask for it. Go figure!

There's us in our prime seats. Look at the kids' expressions all around the room. Poor wee kiddies. Cracks me up every time.

Can't see us?

Maybe this'll help! Notice us clutching onto our bags for dear life. We weren't intending for those to get any airtime, for sure!

I have gotta say, ToT is not my favorite ride of all time. I just don't like getting dropped suddenly like that. I've actually only been on it twice. It's okay, I don't hate it, but it's not going on my Top 10. Hence the rather strained smile in the photo above!

We still had time to kill before our FP tickets went up (isn't that how it always goes? We're always waiting for a FP so we kill time by going on random rides?) so it was time to go on Monster's Inc., just a hop and a skip away.

I'd actually never been on Monster's Inc. before (long story), and I was completely blown away by it. It was so charming! That's really the only word I can think of to describe it. The level of theming and ride immersion was so great, and this ride wasn't even designed for Monster's Inc.; it was shoehorned in off of another ride! Pretty amazing if you ask me.

The line was a mite long; 15 to 20 minutes, but I didn't mind because there was SO much to look at in the queue. The only queue that I can think of that has the same level of immersion as Indiana Jones.

The ride was utterly and completely charming and fun, and from a person who's never even seen the movie, that's a lot.

Point is, I loved it. Whee!

By this time our FP was up (combination of short wait time and long queues) so we headed over to Soarin'. By this time we were getting pretty hungry (I'd been scarfing down candy in the Monster's Inc. queue) but we figured we'd get Soarin' done and then head over to the Paradise Pier section of the park for lunch.

What ended up happening seems so silly and insignificant now, but to someone with low blood sugar and no patience then, it was kinda a big deal, lol.
Now, there's always a wait for Soarin', even if you have a FP, because of the "show" aspect of it. So we waited in the regular line, and the CM's were pulling out groups of 2 or less to fill in gaps in the seating. We got pulled out fairly quickly, but the CM had made a counting mistake and we had to wait by the side until the next group was being lined up. Not that I really cared; I wanted to have the pick of my seat. Nothing but the best, right?

Now remember, the Soarin' groups cycle into about fifteen minutes. The ride itself only lasts for just a tick under five, but then you've got to have five minutes to get people in and buckled, and five or so to get them out. Something like that.

So we wait our 15 minutes by the side, then we get the row that we wanted, and waited fifteen minutes with that group. Then we got let in, and Jody and I got ourselves seated and buckled.

However, for some reason, we were asked to get up and move because there was a problem with those seats. I'm guessing some seat-belt issue, although it was fine for me (when we actually got to ride, we noticed that those two seats were sectioned as off-limits and no one was sitting there). They offered us two spots in the back, but we figured that it wasn't a big deal to wait, and decided to stay back for our top row again.

Unfortunately, it never happened...we were ushered into the third section waiting area, and before we could ask a CM for a change, they'd already loaded in a group of kids from a school group.

There was no way that I was going to wait for ANOTHER fifteen minutes for that row again, so reluctantly we just decided to stick it out. I was somewhat tired, hungry, and just a bit ticked off that after all that waiting, we were still going to get not-as-good seats.

Oh well. Life's not perfect all the time, right?

We did end up riding, and it was great, despite the whole hassle about the seats. Again, it seems so silly now to think back on that with such an attitude, but yeah. Like I said, you can't have everything you want in life. Fortunately, that was really the only time we weren't satisfied with what we got. Everything else, we would simply wait like normal people if we wanted to be picky. I just guess that this time it was a combination of events out of our control and probably hunger that resulted in such disappointment. lol!

After we were done with THAT, it was time to head over to the Pacific Wharf Cafe and get some grub. We walked there by way of the Golden State Trail and I saw that the Grizzly River Rapids was running but had hardly ANY passengers. I wanted to go on, but Jody was dead set on keeping her tennis shoes dry (and this ride does have a horrible track record of getting you COMPLETELY soaked). Honestly, if I had had some flip-flops to change into to keep MY tennis shoes dry, I woulda forced her on. She had a poncho that I'd given her, okay? Not really cruel. But, since I DID have the same predicament that she did, and I am none too fond of wet soggy shoes myself, I didn't force the issue.

When we got to the Cafe, I had Jody stand in line while I dashed off to get FP's for Screamin'. It wasn't a long walk and there wasn't a wait to get to the machines, but by the time I got back, Jody was just walking out with the clam chowder soup bowl that we'd be sharing. Way to go girl!

I gotta say, that was the BEST soup bowl I've ever ate. And it split perfectly between us. First we ate the soup, then we ate the dry bread, then we ripped the rest of the bowl in half and ate that. And there was not a crumb left. I finished eating feeling exactly full, not too full or too empty. It was quite an agreeable arrangement for both parties involved.

I suppose by this time you're wondering where Mom had been all this time. After we'd had our exciting experience on Space Mountain, I tried to call her and tell her but she never picked up. I called her again telling her that we were on our way to the Cafe for soup bowls to see if she'd be joining us, but she never picked that up either. Later my dad called and said that her phone had died and she'd had to go back to the hotel to charge it, which is why she'd never picked up. She called me a bit later to say that she was just planning on staying at the hotel for the rest of the day since she was tired and felt like resting, and would pick us up when we were ready to leave.

So that was that.

Next Up: Screamin' Over California

 

[Gymfan15]

Previously on Happiness is a Disneyland BTMRR FastPass: We go on Tower of Terror (freaky), Monster's Inc. (charming), Soarin' (infuriating) and eat at the Soup Bowl Place (delicious). Yay!

-----

After enjoying a delightful lunch, it was time to go Screamin'. Favorite ride in the entire park, whoop whoop!

We grabbed another set of FP's on the way in (this is not just a one-time ride, folks!) and navigated our way to a front-row seat. What fun!

As far as roller coasters goes, Screamin' is somewhat tame, but I love it the way it is. It's got enough of excitement in it to keep it from getting boring, but it's not too "scary" that you spend the entire time praying for safety and can instead simply enjoy the ride and the view.

We love Screamin', yes we do! We love Screamin', how 'bout you?

After that, it was time to check out other Paradise Pier attractions and generally enjoy the park for awhile.

Let's see. The actual order of events here is a bit iffy, but anyway, let's just say we did it.

We rode the Maliboomer twice, since there was hardly any line to speak of. I love the Maliboomer. It's not like a regular "scream" ride, where you go up slow but come down fast; here you go up fast and come down slow-ish. Perfect for me. The first time we ride, my restraint didn't go down as far as it normally does so I got some serious airtime there...not exactly pleasant (for me), but yeah, adds a bit of excitement and suspense to the ride. The second time went off without a hitch.

Have I ever told you of the time when my sister and I were going on this ride, and two big, beefy guys sat next to us. Of of them chickened out, however, and he got a LOT of heckling from that from his friend and the CM there. They were like, "These GIRLS aren't scared to go on it, and you are!". It was so funny. Really, the Maliboomer is the most fun ride to go people-watching on. Especially since you can see people's reactions clearly at the scariest moment. I remember a time when a family went on together, and the mom was really not into the ride at ALL. She had her eyes shut firmly, clutching onto the handholds for dear life, and didn't make a sound until just before disembarking, when she made a remark that had the entire queue in stitches. The CM's really love to give you a rough time on this ride. They love nothing more than to "send" you up just when you least expect it. The first time I rode, the CM INSISTED we put our hands in the air before sending us up. I was having NONE of it. Finally, to appease him, I let go with one hand, and JUST then we went whizzing up. I mighta known.

Yeah. Lots and lots of really fun memories attached to this ride. I will be so sad if they tear this out or change it during the upcoming refurb...it may be a stock amusement park ride, but it is SO fun.

After that, I know we went on the Orange Stingers once (you know, that great big Orange sitting at the end of the Pier) and may have rode Mulliholland (sp) Madness once, although I'm thinking that we may have passed on it due to the line. The park wasn't exactly empty that day.

We rode the Paradise Pier Flyers, something I'd actually never been on, which was fun. It's like the Orange Singers on steroids. It was neat to go whizzing around the Pier like that.

You may be wondering why I haven't mentioned us going on the Sunwheel yet. Well, we actually didn't. Jody was definitely game and we would have gone on if it was a priority for us, but I've got a lil' secret to confess...I'd sworn off the swinging gondolas by this point, and there was no way that Jody was going to make me go on. I'm all about giving everything a chance here, folks. I'd gone on it twice before. I figure if you go on something twice and still don't like it, then you have the right to refuse to ride it again. It was okay, but really, every time I was in one of those swinging cars, I was convinced I was gonna die. :lol: Talk about no sense of security whatsoever.

So yeah, if Jody had really wanted to go on there, I would have let her go on a swinging car, while I sat in my stationary one. But she didn't push the matter, so I neatly skirted around it. No need to inflict needless torture of you don't have to, right?

Oh, and before you ask, Toy Story Midway Mania wasn't open yet. It would open it's doors to the public a mere few weeks later. *sob* I'd been hoping to snag a soft opening while there, but the date kept getting pushed back further and further and there were no sneak previews available while we were there. Depressing, I know.

We still had a bit of time left before we could ride Screamin', so we decided to head over to Hollywood Blv. again and do the things we hadn't been able to do yet. Of course, that particular section is clear on the other side of the park. If I had to say what my one big beef of DCA is, it would be that the big rides are spread out around the park, and there aren't many "filler" rides to do in the meantime. In Disneyland, I can wait for a Space Mountain FP and keep myself occupied with plenty of stuff nearby, but with DCA, if I want to do something else while waiting, I have to either walk clear across the park to another big ride or do the rides around the area, which are either non-existent or simply have their re-rideable limits. That's another reason why I never really rode ToT that much...most of the time I was in DCA, I'd be either riding Screamin' or waiting for a FP, so I would stick around that section of the park. If ToT had been easier to get to, I'm sure I would have ridden it more.

But anyway, enough about that.

On our way over to Hollywood, we grabbed a frozen lemonade to share. I love those things. Sure, I've got some duds in the past (once I got one that had been frozen weirdly and the top was solid ice, not nice and soft like it oughta be) but they really are yummy.

Anyway, it was clear that this was going to take us a bit to finish, so we stopped at some benches to eat most of it, then headed over to the Muppets show. We still had some left, but I figured that since we'd probably have to wait through the pre-show, we'd have plenty of time to finish it.

Well, as my luck would have it, we timed it EXACTLY right where people were being admitted into the show just as we got there. We hated to waste the slushy, so we were cramming in as much as we could before we went in to sit down. It was pretty funny, even if we did get some major brain-freeze.

Did you know that there are plans to replace the Muppet show with a Narnia 3-D show in a few years? Trust me, if that ever comes to fruition, me and my stuff will BE there. I love Narnia and I love Disneyland, so...win-win for me!

Up Next: The rest of our DCA fun

 

[Gymfan15]

Previously on Happiness is a Disneyland BTMRR FastPass: We ride various DCA rides and Asile waxes rhapsodic about different aspects of DCA and Disneyland. Hooray for rambling!

-----

Before we left Hollywoodland (okay, that's not what it's called, but it's what it WILL be called after the refurb and it sure is a lot easier to remember than it's real title) we had to stop by the Animation Studio. Jody is an aspiring artist, and she wants to be an animator for Pixar when she "grows up", so I thought she'd have fun doing the character drawings there.

We had a bit of a wait before the next class started, so we plunked ourselves down inside the little queue area and looked around the building. There's tons of huge videos screens set up all around and they play different clips of different Disney animation films with lots of gorgeous artwork, and it was nice to just sit and look at it all.

Relaxing inside the Art Studio queue, doing another one of those cruddy self portraits. Please note Jody and her expressive pose in the background.

Will ya stop shoving that camera in my face for once?

Here's a not-so-good view of the main room of the Animation Studio. You can see all the different video screens, and it was on a Jungle Book clip when I took this photo.

Eventually we were let into the Art Studio and the character of that session was Minnie Mouse, someone I'd never done before. I didn't manage to get a picture of Jody's (a shame, because her's was really good) but I did get one of mine awhile after I got home.

I need to STOP drawing my preliminary sketches so big; I keep running into the top; arrgg!

When we were done with that, I think we may have had a quick run-through some of the other exhibits in the building before hot-footing it over to Screamin' to use our FP's.

Having a blast. Dunno what I'm doing with my arms.

By this time the park was closing; DCA closes much earlier than Disneyland on most days. We'd had a blast, and besides the Grizzly River Rapids (and the Aladdin show, sniff), we'd done pretty much everything that there was to be done. Sure, DCA gets a bad rap most of the time, but I've always loved it, and I can't WAIT to come back in a few years and see what it looks like after the refurbish,. NuDCA is gonna be stunning!

Up Next: A Mountain and A Meal

 

[Gymfan15]

Previously on Happiness is a Disneyland BTMRR FastPass: We draw stuff. And ride rides. Whoopie.

-----

When we got off Screamin' DCA had just about closed, so we hopped back over to Disneyland to spend the rest of the evening.

Whilst walking down Main Street, I saw an activity that I'd never seen in Disneyland before, ever.

Ever heard of them? From what I can gather, they come out and play with the kids waiting for the parade. Or something of that ilk. Never saw them before in my life.

I thought this was a fun shot; you can see the ball in mid-air. Think he caught it?

We headed into Tomorrowland and nabbed a Space Mountain FP (why I didn't grab one before leaving Disneyland earlier that day, I'll never know) and decided to hit the Matterhorn before taking a dinner break.

I think this is the only ride sign photo I took. Sad, isn't it?

After going on the Matterhorn (I think we rode the Fantasyland side this time, as opposed to the Tomorrowland side, which is a lot more fun) we headed back into Tomorrowland for dinner. On the way, I stopped to get my picture taken in front of the Subs because mom is collecting Nemo stuff.

Meh, passable.

That evening we dined at Pizza Port, a favorite of mine for their scrumptious pizza and salad. Again, we split food so there would be variaty and plenty to go around.

After that, we decided to hit the Rocket Rods since the parade was going on and it has a small(ish) line. Really though, that ride has such a low capacity that it can take forever to get through when there's only twenty or thirty people in front of you.

I thought it would be neat if we could time the ride while the parade was passing through, but alas, it was not to be. The parade was well down Main Street by the time we boarded, and I don't think you could see it from the Rockets.

I love this ride, by the way. It's so simple, yet it has a strange scary factor that makes it so fun even for adults! I can only imagine what that ride was line when it was on top of the People Movers platform. 8-o

Up Next: Is ASIMO Awesome?

 

[Gymfan15]

Previously on Happiness is a Disneyland BTMRR FastPass: We eat and go on rides. This is getting awfully pointless, folks.
-----

After dinner, we decided to hop into Innoventions and see what there was to offer. We may have stopped at "Honey, I Shrunk The Audience" on the way, but I can't remember. *shrug*

They (Innoventions) were working on the Home of the Future so the rotating platform was not working, which was kind of a bummer, but what can you do?

There was a new offering since I'd last been there, namely a free Segway ride for anyone over 16 with a parent, 18 alone. I could have gone, but Jody wouldn't have been able to go with me, and I didn't want to leave her out, so we bypassed that and headed to the other exhibits.

There was a lot of stuff closed, so there really wasn't much to see. We went to the Health section and Jody did a age-acceleration thing that takes your photo and then shows you what you'll look like when you're sixty.

She really, really, REALLY didn't want me to take a picture of it. *lol*

They did have a robot demonstration which I'd been to before and thought that Jody might like, so I grabbed some tickets for that. They're sort of like FastPasses except that the CM gives them out. Since the seating is limited, you generally have to have one of these tickets to get in.

ASIMO is the name of the robot, and he's made by Honda. Maybe you've seen some of his commercials?

Eventually we were let in, and enjoyed the show. It was kind of cheesy and dumb, but the actual robot was neat.

This is the best shot I got of ASIMO. Pretty sleek, huh?

I'm tired of saying "after we did this", so um...yeah.

Our next and last ride of the day was, of course, Space Mountain. What with our track record with this particular ride, we were somewhat surprised when we actually got through the entire ride with NOTHING abnormal happening. Shocker!

Since this was our third time on the ride, we thought we'd be goofy and pose. I'm horrible at posing. Someday, I'll do a good one.

By this time, the park was closing. *sniff* NO MORE DISNEYLAND RIDES!

But wait! There's more...

Up Next: So long, farewell...

 

[Gymfan15]

Previously on Happiness is a Disneyland BTMRR FastPass: Just scroll up.
-----

So the park was closing and it was time to leave. :cry: I hated to go! But the end has to come sometime.

We obviously couldn't leave without some last-minute photos, so we stopped along Main Street to take some. It wasn't easy with that crush of humanity heading towards the Exit, I'll have you know.

Sleeping Beauty's Castle all lit up at night.

The Partners Statue with the Castle in the background. FYI, point-and-shoot cameras are USELESS in the dark. Ugh. It's at moments at like these when I actually seriously consider investing in a decent camera. Then I look at the cost and slap myself in the head and ask what was I thinking?!?

Jody with a view down Main Street. It was so much fun having her on the trip with me!

Me. I love Disneyland so much.

I'm putting this here only because of the funny expression of the people who got caught in my flash. Whoops.

Tinker Bell! She's a new addition to the Mickey head.

Jody posing in front of Mickey.

Me. See how the Mickey is light up?

Then I took one last parting shot...

And then we left.

WHAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :cry: :cry: :cry:

Mom picked us up in the drop-off area, and we drove back to the hotel to wait for Jody's mom to come pick her up. They arrived after not too long, and we spent a little while having good conversation and saying our last goodbyes.

Amanda came with her mom to pick Jody up. It was great to see her one last time!

Eventually, it got late and they had to leave. It was so sad! I had a BLAST spending time with them, and I can only hope that I can come back and do it again sometime.

Then it was off to bed for mom and I...we had a plane to catch!

Up Next: The Big Wok!

 

[Gymfan15]

Previously on Happiness is a Disneyland BTMRR FastPass: We leave Disneyland. *sob*
-----

The day dawned bright and clear. We were both pretty tired and sore from the whole trip and were glad to be going home and were really looking forward to that long airplane ride!

I, myself, did most of the packing...ugh. We got SO much stuff while we were there. It was so difficult trying to fit everything in. I KNEW we were going to be overweight.

It was kind of funny, because right then I was the stressed out one, and mom, who is usually the more uptight of us two, was the relaxed, easy-going one. I was worrying that we were taking too long; that we still had some stuff to do that day, and that we were going to be late to the airport. She had to keep telling me to calm down; calm down!

Once we finally checked out of the hotel, we drove down to Redondo Beach to this wonderful Mongolian Grill that we used to go to often. It's called the Big Wok, and it's amazing.

Here's mom's food, waiting to go on the grill.

Sizzling, sizzling.

Cooking some more

Mom's plate.

My plate once cooked. Before...

...and After. Was it ever YUMMY. *drool*

Had to get a picture outside!

It was a yummy, scrumptious meal. We thoroughly enjoyed ourselves! If you're ever in Redondo Beach, look it up.

Up Next: The Beach, and we say Farewell!

 

[Gymfan15]

Previously on Happiness is a Disneyland BTMRR FastPass: We pig out.
-----

After we'd thoroughly pigged out at the Big Wok, we decided to head down to the beach for a few minutes before going to the airport. Because as everyone knows, you simply cannot be in Southern California without visiting the beach at least once. No matter if you've lived there your whole life.

As we drove, Mom made me take a picture of this restaurant. I guess she had use to go there when she was younger.

Reminds me of...Kettle corn. Which I HATE. Sweet popcorn? Eww.

Then, finally...the ocean!

We stopped at the Redondo Beach pier and got out to take some pictures. For those of you who don't know what this pier is, it's where they hold a huge beach vollyball tournament every year. I've never been to it, but friends have, and this is what it looks like then:

Pretty packed, huh? The only indication that this place gives off on normal days of it being the site of a huge event is the volleyball nets scattered around (but they have them all over the beach anyway; not just here) and all along the actual pier there are plaques naming the winners of the female and male competitions since it started. It's fun looking down and seeing Misty May-Treanor and Kerri Walsh's names all over the pier.

Anyway, back to present day. It was pretty windy, so trying to snap some shots on the pier was a bit tricky.

Mom on the pier

Looking at the ocean

Me, yay

A shot down the pier and to the ocean.

After that it was time to bid our fair farewells and make our way to LAX. We had a plane to catch!

First, we had to go to the car rental place to drop off our lovey Electric Blue car. *sob* We miss you! I had some fun trying to maneuver all of our stuff from the car to the bus, but that's another story...

So we get to the airport, and we have to check in and weigh our luggage. Oh dear. So I hoist the suitcase up on the scales, and sure enough, it was a couple pounds over. The other one was right exactly on.

I was tired, stressed out, and not at all happy about having to open up our suitcases and dig around to try and even the weight out. We ended up taking out a bag of avocados and another bag of oranges from the heavier suitcase and putting it in the lighter one, and we asked for and received permission to put a two-pound box of See's Candy in our carry-on (it was a gift from Jody's family). I was surprised that we were allowed to take it, seeing as it's open food (we even munched on it whilst on the plane, lol) but hey, I don't make the rules.

So after re-organizing the suitcases, I got them back up on the scale and they JUST passed. Phew. Crises averted!

Then we had to go through security, where I made the mistake of sending all of my stuff through on the convener belt, and having to wait several yards away while a security gaurd dug through my bag to find my ID and my boarding pass. Ugh. But what could I do?

Anyway, after that, we re-assembled the huge mess that was our carry-on luggage and made our way to the correct terminal.

Waiting at the terminal to board our plane.

Woot, can we say tired and ready to go home?

Finally we were able to board. It wasn't a huge plane like the one we came on; just a regular, normal sized jet. Good bye, individual TV's. *sniff*

Here's the view from my window. We had to wait for quite a while while they finished loading up the luggage. I saw one of our suitcases come in and be put on the plane. Didn't see the other one; it must have gone in earlier (and it did arrive at the end, lol).

Then, finally, after all that waiting, we took off! Being a camera freak that I am, I had to take a couple shots. We hadn't been able to see the ocean when we flew in because we were in the wrong direction, but since we were flying to Chicago we flew out a bit into the ocean and then back into LA (a precaution they do for all long flights, I guess?), so I got a nice view.

^^ That's Catalina Island. Never been there, but now I can say I've at least seen it!

Then, I put the camera away and settled in for the flight.

It was fine as all flights go. They showed "The Jumper", and I watched bits of it. It was okay, but pretty lame as far as movies go. I had a hard time "getting" it.

We arrived at Chicago O'Hare at a decent time, and got all of our luggage without much of a hitch and was met outside by dad. And thus, the journey ended! And what a journey it had been!

Up Next: Epilogue

 

[Gymfan15]

Previously on Happiness is a Disneyland BTMRR FastPass: The trip ended. *sob*
-----

Well, that wraps up my little Trip Report. I had fun writing it, and I hope all you Haunted Mansion ghosties out there, with a few token mortals as well, had fun reading it.

Echo, echo? Is anyone there?

Anyway, a little update from after our trip ended. I posted a bit of this earlier, but I thought I'd wrap it up.

Let's see. We arrived home on a Wednesday, May 21st. On Thursday, I can't remember what we did (probably recover?). On Friday, mom had a doctor's appointment for the baby's checkup, and everything was perfectly fine and normal. We may have gone out to see a movie that night; I don't remember.

On Saturday we went to a church get-together at a friend's house. It was held mainly outdoors, and it was over-cast and windy. No one thought of putting any sunscreen on, and we all ended up getting pretty burnt. Mom in particular.

On Sunday, she was feeling so bad from the sunburn that she didn't even make it to church. I ended up staying home with her. She had them all over her arms and it was pretty painful, plus she now had a massive headache.

On Monday morning, dad decided to take her in to an urgent care just to make sure that everything was fine. While they were there, the staff noticed that her blood pressure had skyrocketed. They took more tests, and sure enough, she had pre-eclampsia. For those of you who don't know, it's a very serious medical condition associated with pregnancy that can result in the death of the mother and baby if not treated promptly.

After being transferred to the hospital and after her blood pressure would not come down, the decision was made to induce labor, even though the baby was not yet due to be born for another five weeks.

On Tuesday, at 5:30 in the morning, little Benjamin James made his rather unannounced and completely unexpected entrance into the world!

He weighted just a tick over four pounds and was so small and tiny. As a preemie, though, he didn't really have any problems that he could have had. When he was two days old he had a little bout of sleep apnea which set him back, and they ended up having to give him a feeding tube because he wouldn't stay awake long enough to drink all he needed.

He ended up staying in the NICU for two weeks before we were able to bring him home.

I'm happy to report that today, Benjamin is a happy, healthy little fat boy. He's just grown so much that it's amazing. We guess he's between 12 and 15 pounds now. Mom is also doing very well. She battled some high blood pressure for a while, but she's fine now and is happy and excited to be finally getting into the swing of things since before we even moved out here nearly a year ago, really.

Here's a recent picture of Benjamin:

Isn't he a cutie?

Well, it was certainly a very interesting end to an interesting trip. We like to joke that Benjamin got so enthralled with the idea of seeing Disneyland for himself that he decided to come out early, and was very disappointed when he ended up here instead! So we've promised to take him back someday.

Thank you all for sticking with me through this long process. Didn't intend for it to take this long, but oh well...what can you do?

God bless!

~ Asile
Spareoom.net

 

[borntoshop96]

Unfortunately, it never happened...we were ushered into the third section waiting area, and before we could ask a CM for a change, they'd already loaded in a group of kids from a school group.

There was no way that I was going to wait for ANOTHER fifteen minutes for that row again, so reluctantly we just decided to stick it out. I was somewhat tired, hungry, and just a bit ticked off that after all that waiting, we were still going to get not-as-good seats.

Oh well. Life's not perfect all the time, right?

We did end up riding, and it was great, despite the whole hassle about the seats. Again, it seems so silly now to think back on that with such an attitude, but yeah. Like I said, you can't have everything you want in life. Fortunately, that was really the only time we weren't satisfied with what we got. Everything else, we would simply wait like normal people if we wanted to be picky. I just guess that this time it was a combination of events out of our control and probably hunger that resulted in such disappointment. lol!

After we were done with THAT, it was time to head over to the Pacific Wharf Cafe and get some grub. We walked there by way of the Golden State Trail and I saw that the Grizzly River Rapids was running but had hardly ANY passengers. I wanted to go on, but Jody was dead set on keeping her tennis shoes dry (and this ride does have a horrible track record of getting you COMPLETELY soaked). Honestly, if I had had some flip-flops to change into to keep MY tennis shoes dry, I woulda forced her on. She had a poncho that I'd given her, okay? Not really cruel. But, since I DID have the same predicament that she did, and I am none too fond of wet soggy shoes myself, I didn't force the issue.