Chapter 36: Together in Tinsel Town
Now that we were all fat and happy from our lunch at
Hollywood & Vine, the ten of us slowly walked, strolled and rolled down palm-lined Sunset Boulevard toward the next activity which was sure to be a hit with everyone. Well now, hmmm, let’s see. We’ve got four adults (one pregnant), a senior citizen, and five kids ages 2-11. It’s not so
terribly difficult to guess what that was!
Hint: it’s
not Twilight Zone Tower of Terror!
Here we are lining up for the 1:45 show. Marilyn’s sciatica was bothering her…she’d kill me if she knew I was posting this pic, so shhhh! 
Soon the CMs began letting us into the theater. Now, the plan was for us to just park Aunt Rae’s wheelchair with Josie’s stroller and then Ed would help her into the theater and to her seat. But, we were so early for the show that it was immediately evident that we were going to get really good seats down front.
One of the CMs suggested that they wheel down to the stage level via the wheelchair ramp/handicapped entrance, park the chair down there and then walk up the small number of steps to where the rest of us were seated. This seemed to make sense, because otherwise it would have been a very l-o-n-g shaky walk down a lot of steps for Aunt Rae. It worked out well, and we were all able to get great seats together.
We were excited; my family hadn’t seen this show in a while and it was my little nieces’ first time. Emily and Beth were just ga-ga over Belle (although Emily still insisted that Ariel was still her favorite princess!)
We were fortunate enough to see these guys one more time…
Four for a Dollar
There was an older woman sitting in the front row with her family who was celebrating her birthday. I gathered that they had been spotted by the CMs (go, Birthday Button!) and been given seats
front row, center, because of this. Well, the guys from
Four for a Dollar brought her up on stage, serenaded her, and made a big fuss over her birthday. She was eating it up, LOL!
The stagelights came up and the show began...
The show was a huge hit with Aunt Rae. “It was almost like seeing a Broadway show!” she gushed. “Oh, that music and the costumes!” Naturally, the little girls were in awe, and it was fun to see them chattering away with their big cousin, Tricia, about the show. Billy had been jumping up and down in his seat and laughing like crazy during the songs!
It was an unqualified success!
Now, here is where my memory gets a bit fuzzy. I know that we wanted to go to see
VOLM (Voyage of the Little Mermaid) after that, but the next pictures I took showed
Rock & Roller Coaster! Billy must have seen that we were so close and made a fuss. I must have broken off from the rest of the group to take him and Tricia, using the GAC.
I always sit with Billy so that I can make sure he keeps his head back against the headrest during the launch. Tricia sat in front of us with a single rider. I know I’m getting old because as much as I like Aerosmith, I remember thinking the music blaring in my ears was just a tad too loud!
I do recall that even the FP queue must have been long, because when we got out of there,
I vetoed their request for
Tower of Terror because I felt we had been gone too long already. We were, I reminded them, supposed to be enjoying the park with their cousins.
The copy of the
Times Guide I held onto is coming in handy! (Between that and my pictures, I’m kind of piecing together my memories of the day.) The next pictures I have are of
Playhouse Disney: Live on Stage. It may seem funny that Billy still liked this, but again, if there’s music and singing…he’s all for it! Now, considering that it must’ve taken the three of us at least 45 min. to do R&RC, I’m guessing we met up with the others and were queuing up at PD for the 3:20 performance.
This, however, is where Tricia balked.
Beauty and the Beast was one thing, but at eleven years old, she was drawing the line at sitting through
Playhouse Disney! Ed decided to take her over to the nearby
Magic of Disney Animation for a more age-appropriate activity.
When the doors opened and we entered the darkened theater, I had a bit of a dilemma. We were early enough (once more) to get good seats on the floor up front, but the wheelchair section, naturally, was along the back wall. Well, this was one show for which AR would not have transferred out of that chair even if you paid her. “If I sit down on that floor, I’ll never get up!” she quipped.
So, we let my sister’s family sit closer to the stage while we hung back close to the wall with AR. The theater wasn’t really that crowded, though, and Billy spent half the show up on his feet, dancing, so he wasn’t missing anything.
After we clapped and sang and caught bubbles, we stepped outside and I made a quick call to see when Ed and Tricia would be done. They were just finishing up. As it turned out, Marilyn had not taken her gang to see VOLM while we were on R&RC, so that was the next thing on our list.
(I have absolutely no idea what the others did while the kids and I were on R&RC because I had the camera with me, so I have no photo clues.)
Ed can’t remember, either, so oh well!
There was a tolerable line for
VOLM (had all the families with little kids been in this area earlier in the day?) so we just hung around the courtyard area to wait for Ed and Trish. Billy spied a cart with
Playhouse Disney toys and he made a beeline for it. He was so happy and excited! I couldn’t help it; I bought him a toy, a musical “baton” like the one Leo from the Little Einstiens uses.
Soon Ed and Tricia appeared and she was so proud of her drawing of
Stitch. (I didn’t have the heart to tell her I thought it looked like a deranged mutant bunny rabbit!)
I wondered what
our Stitch would think of it when we brought it back to the room and showed it to him……
Kathy
See link in my siggie.....
