12/09/06 Cruise Continued ~ Pirating Bananas DIS Geekorama Part 2 Part 2

[Jhalkias]

My impressions of CA . . .

So, Disney's California Adventure . . . the park that does not know what it wants to be . . .

There are some great rides at CA. Fun rides. CA is more like an amusement park than a theme park. The theme is there, but it is a loose theme. The park is more "open" than DL, but much more generic too.

It has a more confusing layout, and seems like it is trying to be too many things. There is a direct entry from the GC hotel, a definite advantage if you are staying there.

Attractions:

Soarin' is the same great attraction at both parks.

Tower of Terror - definitely better at WDW. At CA you never leave the same elevator shaft, and while the effects are more modern, the experience seems to not be as scary.

Alladin Stage show - A+++ attraction! Great show, lots of fun, and a must see! I really enjoyed this show.

California Screamin' Roller Coaster - Fun roller coaster! I rode it about 10 times, with a single rider line, virtually no wait.

Monster's Inc. Ride - cute ride.

I really did not do any of the other attractions as they did not interest me. They have a Playhouse Disney show, and a water rapid ride that would get you entirely too wet. This park NEVER felt like there was a crowd there.

Everyone from California will have to tell me if I missed something I should have done. The Ferris wheel looked like I would lose my lunch on one of those cars that traveled on a track. I am not fond of Ferris wheels anyway.

 

[kimerinc]

Hi Kim!
Wow, will you be in Hawaii for Thanksgiving?

Yep! 10 days in the sun!

 

[kimerinc]

I just went back to reminisce to the day of the cruise last year and read a few pages. It seems just like yesterday.

In 11 months this thread has grown by almost 10,000 posts AFTER the cruise is over. There are threads for cruises not done yet that are not even close to that number. It shows what a great group we have.

Long Live the Geeks! ​

You said it SISTA!!!!

 

[kimerinc]

I am just about ready to give up following teams . . . it just makes me crazy to invest my time in watching a game or a team for the whole season, and see them come so close and then blow it! Entertainment? More like heartache!

Watch OSU basketball this season if you get a chance. Their new "big" man, Kosta Koufos is from our community, and is a great kid.



Well Marielle, you should expect the Steelers to win. The Browns are much improved, but it would be a major upset to see them win - esp at the Steelers.

John,

Our FB team is 0-11 so don't feel too bad! All I can say is thank heavens for basketball season!

 

[kimerinc]

My impressions of CA . . .

So, Disney's California Adventure . . . the park that does not know what it wants to be . . .

There are some great rides at CA. Fun rides. CA is more like an amusement park than a theme park. The theme is there, but it is a loose theme. The park is more "open" than DL, but much more generic too.

It has a more confusing layout, and seems like it is trying to be too many things. There is a direct entry from the GC hotel, a definite advantage if you are staying there.

Attractions:

Soarin' is the same great attraction at both parks.

Tower of Terror - definitely better at WDW. At CA you never leave the same elevator shaft, and while the effects are more modern, the experience seems to not be as scary.

Alladin Stage show - A+++ attraction! Great show, lots of fun, and a must see! I really enjoyed this show.

California Screamin' Roller Coaster - Fun roller coaster! I rode it about 10 times, with a single rider line, virtually no wait.

Monster's Inc. Ride - cute ride.

I really did not do any of the other attractions as they did not interest me. They have a Playhouse Disney show, and a water rapid ride that would get you entirely too wet. This park NEVER felt like there was a crowd there.

Everyone from California will have to tell me if I missed something I should have done. The Ferris wheel looked like I would lose my lunch on one of those cars that traveled on a track. I am not fond of Ferris wheels anyway.

John, the big question for me is, did you go into the GC? I am dying to find out if we had the same general impression of both hotels?

Also, one of the reasons we love DL is that everything is so close and you don't waste as much time on busses. Of course there is less to do, but did you like that about DL or was the compactness to distracting?

 

[87Heel]

Well Marielle, you should expect the Steelers to win. The Browns are much improved, but it would be a major upset to see them win - esp at the Steelers.

Of course I hope that your expectations are correct, but you know that there are the bad Steelers that played Denver and Arizona this year. So far the bad Steelers have not appeared in Pittsburgh, though.

 

[becka]

Geeks! It looks like things have been slow around here.

I have been having a few weeks that I wish I could forget. Work has been terrible which is bad considering that I am trying for that new DBA position. It got so bad that I asked my supervisor to actually remove me from the payroll system because I didn't want to work with one of our business partners anymore. I had my first DBA interview the day before and it did not go as well as I had hoped. I did make it to round two (3 1/2 hour interviews tomorrow afternoon ) so all is not lost there but it is stressing me out.

We have had all kinds of problems with DS and school. I know I told you guys that Nathan was having some adjustment issues but I thought it was getting better because we were no longer getting phone calls, incident reports, etc.. Well a little over a week ago I got a horrible phone call from he principal telling me that we needed to do more than just talk with DS because it was obviously not working. What? Apparently things had been getting much worse at school but they never told us. We should apparently have known what was going on without anyone telling us because DS was certainly not offering up the information. We have instituted a new plan with DS at school and at home and thankfully this week has been so much better. I just wish they would have told me this over a month ago and maybe it would not have been this bad. We have shown them this week that if given the chance we can help make things better. The whole thing has just been stressing me out however. It is just terrible to know that your child is obviously hurting and upset and lashing out.

On top of all of that the Friday before last a co-worker took me out to lunch to cheer me up after everything. Lunch was nice until we were walking out and I slipped on a slick floor and fell down HARD! Unfortunately my back has been really bothering me since then. It has not been this bad in a long time. I am really worried about our WDW trip later this month. My back had been feeling so great for the past few months and now this. I really hope it does not cause too many issues in the parks.

That same night I was driving home and was involved in a hit and run accident. Thankfully there was really no damage but it shook me up. Earlier this week I also slipped and feel in the parking lot at work and managed to mess up my knee and of course that didn't help my back. I feel like someone is trying to punish me because things keep happening. We have also had a chipped windshield in my car, two ceilings fan break, both kids have been sick and I was almost hit from behind this Friday night on my way home from work as well. I am a bit afraid to leave my house.

I really, really, really need this week to go better but I am afraid it won't. We are going to be so busy. If I can just survive this week I am so glad to just get away. We leave a week from Wednesday night to go to my parents for Thanksgiving and then Friday evening we start our drive to WDW.

Sorry for the depressing post. Hopefully I will have more fun things to post about next time.

 

[becka]

On the plus side Missouri did win again yesterday (they are 9-1) and are headed for a huge showdown on Nov 24th with Kansas. I so hope that the game will be televised on a channel we can get on the WDW resort TV. It should be a great game.

 

[becka]

John - It sounds like you had a nice trip to DL. It does sound very strange to think about everything being that compact and about having the "real" world be seen and heard from the parks. I am sure we will enjoy DL when we go but I somehow think that WDW will always be our true love.

 

[becka]

Has anyone heard from PJ since she got back? I know she was on the Magic during Halloween and I think that was the cruise that was impacted by TS Noel. It sounds like it was a rough ride but that the Magic and Wonder were both in Nassua on Friday. It must have been a cool site to see both ships together.

 

[becka]

Brack - At least we won't be the first to put up Christmas stuff.

We actually just got the Halloween stuff put up this morning but I think the outside lights on going up this afternoon. The weather is so nice and since we only have one more weekend at home before our trip it seems like the time to do it so we can enjoy them as soon as we get back from our trip. We won't actually light them now but it will be a nice change to put them up in 70 degree weather instead of 30 degrees.

I don't have the tree out yet. We may do that next Saturday if we have time. I am afraid if we don't get it up before we leave we won't have time until the weekend after we get back which is around Dec 8-9...that doesn't seem like a long enough time to really enjoy the tree. It is so much work it I want to be able to enjoy it for a bit longer.

 

[kimerinc]

Becka,

I think you need to come on vacation with me. Good Grief Girl!

 

[pjpoohbear]

Has anyone heard from PJ since she got back? I know she was on the Magic during Halloween and I think that was the cruise that was impacted by TS Noel. It sounds like it was a rough ride but that the Magic and Wonder were both in Nassua on Friday. It must have been a cool site to see both ships together.

Nassau November 2nd, 2007, that night we rode Hurricane Noel back to Port C, doors were sliding, drawers were opening, and the TV slide down it's track and back several times.

Pj

 

[becka]

Thanks for the pictures PJ! I am sure you would have rather been at CC that day but seeing both ships together is a pretty good consolation prize.

The luck continues here.....

DS just went to bed sick. I have my interviews tomorrow so I have to go to work and DH is swamped at work and is going to have to stay home anyway. His boss will be mad but him staying home is the lesser of two evils.

Also we went to put up our outside Christmas lights and they have disappeared. We can find the timer, the extension cords, etc.. but no lights. All of our other Christmas stuff is in the boxes like normal. All I can figure it that we tossed our inflatable Frosty last year at the end of the season because he had a leak and maybe DH accidentally threw a box out that had both Frosty and all of our outside lights in it.

 

[becka]

I did forget to mention that if I get this DBA job (a big if right now) then January 2009 may not be out of the realm of possibility for us anymore. I really do want to do an Eastern cruise so I may keep our 12/06/08 cruise booked but if a lot of Geeks book an Eastern in January 2009 we may have to consider moving our dates if I get the position.

 

[Jhalkias]

John, the big question for me is, did you go into the GC? I am dying to find out if we had the same general impression of both hotels?

Also, one of the reasons we love DL is that everything is so close and you don't waste as much time on busses. Of course there is less to do, but did you like that about DL or was the compactness to distracting?

Kim,

I did get to go in the GC, but did not get to see any of the rooms. It is an extremely beautiful hotel, and reminds me a lot of Wilderness Lodge. BUT it has a distinct "California" feel to it. It is a bit confusing trying to get around, and I remarked to someone that from the outside, it doesn't look like you could fit this hotel in this space! The California feel may have come as much from the people as from the Hotel. I told Amy even with my short experience in California, I don't think I could ever live there. There is a lot of pretentiousness. Different than the East Coast - hard for me to describe . . .

I have to tell you though, one night I was invited to a wine tasting and dinner at the Napa Rose. It was absolutely wonderful, and I had a great meal and a great time. It too is an absolutely stunning locale.

The next night I ate at Storytellers, and had a great meal there too. The staff was some of the most accommodating that I have ever experienced, even for Disney.

If the pool I saw is the only pool at the GC though, that is a disappointment. It is very small for the large hotel.

Of course I hope that your expectations are correct, but you know that there are the bad Steelers that played Denver and Arizona this year. So far the bad Steelers have not appeared in Pittsburgh, though.

I told you Marielle. The Browns found a way to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. What a different game 1st half to 2nd half. Can I even get a break here with ONE team????

 

[87Heel]

I told you Marielle. The Browns found a way to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. What a different game 1st half to 2nd half. Can I even get a break here with ONE team????

Since I did not see any of the game, I cannot explain what happened. But I'm still happy about the Steeler victory, ugly or otherwise (sorry).

College hoops is starting... and it could be a fun season for the Heel fans!
Trey and Hannah are going to Chapel Hill next weekend for a special Carolina Kids Club event to see a bit of the team practice, then meet coaches/players for some autographs.

 

[87Heel]

Becka,
Good luck with your interviews today! You deserve a good day!

 

[brack]

College hoops is starting... and it could be a fun season for the Heel fans!

Trey and Hannah are going to Chapel Hill next weekend for a special Carolina Kids Club event to see a bit of the team practice, then meet coaches/players for some autographs.

Go 'Heels!

 

[lillygator]

John - did you like GC more than DLH?