Anyone Game? 2 Castles and a Road Trip TR! Last Day and TR Wrap Up! #2796; 10/01

[dolphingirl47]

I love the WOC photos. I have to admit the first time I saw the show, I was largely indifferent, but since then I have learned to love it.

I love sitting in the lobby of the Grand Californian and listen to the pianist. It is such a beautiful space.

Corinna

 

[zanzibar138]

Wow I LOVE your WOC post! It nearly made me cry! I do have a soft spot for WOC since that's where DH proposed

I'll have to keep Uva Bar in mind for our visit. I would never really have thought of going there for dinner. The lamb burger looks like it's got lots of stuff in it I don't like but the other food looks great too.

Your DH's comment made me lol! I can't wait to hear about your road trip

 

[Pinkocto]

You had me singing along, in my head, with the WoC pictures. That was such a beautiful show

And wow, your Carsland nights pictures were awesome! I never made it over there at night and boy did I miss out!

Fabulous day all around. Great food, great fun, and great company!

DHs comment was cute

 

[tiggrbaby]

The show looks amazing!

And to Alison: I love the blue dress!

I'm looking forward to the next part of your trip.

 

[ejud]

(Continued from Previous Post)


The world is a carousel of color
History,
comedy,
fantasy
There's drama and mirth
There's old mother earth with all of her secrets to see
The world is a treasure trove of faces
Fabulous, faraway places
The hopes and the fears
The joys and the tears of people like you and like me

Isn’t it amazing what the mind remembers?
This is the 3rd time I’ve seen this attraction and every time I try to sing along with the words at the start of the show, I always mess up at the 2nd line.
The lyrics I’ve used here are from the Wonderful World of Colour television show that I remember from my childhood. I’m not sure that they are entirely perfect and if you know them and I've gotten them muddled up, let me know!

You forgot (in that voice), "Walt Disney Presents..."

Beautiful pictures and presentation!



Jud

 

[ejud]

Ahhhh... so... like these first 32 pages are just the beginning???

 

[mvf-m11c]

Very nice pictures from WoC from the VIP seating area. The VIP seats are nice to watch the show but I will still prefer my favorite spot right in front of the fire hydrant in the blue section. I can't wait to leave next week to see World of Color: Winter Dreams!. Seeing the new version of WoC is making me all to excited that I might have to change my plans for the upcoming trip in which we got to see it two times instead of one.

Glad that you had a great time at Uva Bar and Cafe. All the food looks so good that I will have to dine there one day with my DA.

Great trip report during DL.

 

[ACDSNY]

Great pics of WOC. I absolutely love the lamps and light fixtures in the Grand Californian, the lobby is so relaxing even when it's full of people.

 

[TifffanyD]

Speaking of the Xmas stuff...

When we were there last week we got to see jen practicing the Xmas stuff each night...all night long. Cool to see until the spotlight shines in your room and you hear the crazy Spanish dance party at 2am lol

 

[franandaj]

Ah! Finally put my finger on it!

Pio! Pass on to Fran, and anyone else who is limited to an ECV like me, that something my ECV mechanic told me that has helped greatly is IGNORE the stupid light on the charger that tells you it is done: charge your batteries for 8 hours regardless- just leave it plugged in for 8 hours.



Jud

Actually, it was the fact that we hadn't replaced the batteries in enough time. Evidently they don't last the two years that they told us back when. We are lucky to get a year out of a set of batteries now. We definitely give them 8 hours, (if we have them in the room that long). I'm not sure we slept that long this DL trip!

And to Alison: I love the blue dress!

Aw shucks! Thanks!

Ahhhh... so... like these first 32 pages are just the beginning???

I know for a fact we have a whole lot more at the end of the trip. I'm looking forward to what is in between!

I really enjoyed the last three rides that day they were a total bonus. In fact that's kind of what we would do for a regular day at the park, come out in the evening, and hit Star Tours, Buzz or Space (for me) before dinner. Not really all three in one night unless I was feeling overly ambitious. That we hit them on a night after all that in the day was like sensory overload! Fran rarely gets on the rides at all when we go out, she is happy with just shopping and eating.

This was definitely a day of overload for us! We loved those treats and when we were there last weekend for band weekend, I almost suggested we go into the ice cream shop and get some, but I knew we had already eaten so much, I thought better of it!

Your pictures of WoC came out so nice. For an already blurry show, your shots were very clean! I really do love that lamburger! I had one last Sunday and it was sooooooo good! That Uva bar turned out to be a favorites amongst a lot of band members, we ran into quite a few people there after the performance. Good drinks and good food!

I could have sworn that your DS got the regular hamburger/cheeseburger and not the Fish and chips, but I was so tired that day, I didn't know you had convinced Fran to sign up for MNSSHP and I didn't even remember that she finished off my lamburger. I actually thought I ate it all. I also had no idea what your DH ordered and I think I even had pictures. That says something. I ALWAYS remember the food!

It was such a good time with you at DL and I was looking so forward to our time at WDW. I do have to say that as much fun as we had, I really wanted more. You and your family were such a joy to spend time with, I'm sorry we don't live closer. I've truly cherished this time we had together and I'm just getting to the heart of our time together at WDW on my TR, and all I can say is that I wish we could have found a way to spend more time together, but then again our time together was perfect. You're just such lovely people, I wish we could get together more often in person, but we'll just have to live with the DIS.

I am going to really crunch the vacation numbers and see how we can get to Australia, but I think I really will require some serious weight loss so that we can comfortably fit in economy seats as we don't want to pay the price for airfare there and we can't seem to swing it business class on points!

OK, so I'm looking forward to hearing about your trip after you left us, since we are going to hit at least one place that you did!

 

[rentayenta]

Love your WoC photos. Those are some of the best I've sen of the actual projections. How early did you line up to get that spot?

Okay, now the lamb buyer is on my list to try. I like the Uva Bar and their garlic fries are to die for but I haven't tried the lamb burger. They also make a nice Bloody Mary.

 

[kmedina]

The World of Color is fantastic. I could not sing more than the first line. It is all I ever remember. Crap would really love to try a lamb burger. Someday, we will have to eat at Uva Bar. When is the vacation starting?! I sometimes feel like Disneyland isn't a full vacation, because we never stay for long and it is not a big hassle to get there. You however came a long way. I have to assume he was joking or he moved so much over the Disneyland days that he was asking when the relaxation starts. For me, vacation is commando (like you). For crap, vacation "should be relaxing."

 

[PrincessInOz]

I love the WOC photos. I have to admit the first time I saw the show, I was largely indifferent, but since then I have learned to love it.

I love sitting in the lobby of the Grand Californian and listen to the pianist. It is such a beautiful space.

Corinna

I love listening to pianists in any hotel lobby. Even better when it's a Disney hotel.

How funny that you were indifferent to WoC the first time round and you love it now. I totally loved it from the get-go.

Wow I LOVE your WOC post! It nearly made me cry! I do have a soft spot for WOC since that's where DH proposed

I'll have to keep Uva Bar in mind for our visit. I would never really have thought of going there for dinner. The lamb burger looks like it's got lots of stuff in it I don't like but the other food looks great too.

Your DH's comment made me lol! I can't wait to hear about your road trip

DH's comment is funny.....now. I didn't necessarily see the humour in it....then.....(much).

I hope you make it to Uva. If you're going in the August/Sep timeframe, it would be a perfect place to sit, eat, drink and people watch.

You had me singing along, in my head, with the WoC pictures. That was such a beautiful show

And wow, your Carsland nights pictures were awesome! I never made it over there at night and boy did I miss out!

Fabulous day all around. Great food, great fun, and great company!

DHs comment was cute

You missed seeing Carsland at night? I think you need to plan a return trip.

The show looks amazing!

And to Alison: I love the blue dress!

I'm looking forward to the next part of your trip.

Thank tiggrbaby. I hope the road trip holds everyone's interest on the Dis.

You forgot (in that voice), "Walt Disney Presents..."

Beautiful pictures and presentation!



Jud

Dang! I knew I forgot something.

Ahhhh... so... like these first 32 pages are just the beginning???

I covered the first 4 days in 32 pages? Hmmm. I must be losing my touch.

Yup. There's still another 23 days to go. But the road trip component should go a little quicker. If my HK TR is anything to go by, I was doing about 5 or 6 posts per Disney day and about 2 or 3 per standard day. I suspect I will come close to those kinds of averages for this trip report.

As Alison has pointed out, there is still the 7 full days that we spent at WDW to go after the roadtrip. Some of those pictures are quite decent.

Very nice pictures from WoC from the VIP seating area. The VIP seats are nice to watch the show but I will still prefer my favorite spot right in front of the fire hydrant in the blue section. I can't wait to leave next week to see World of Color: Winter Dreams!. Seeing the new version of WoC is making me all to excited that I might have to change my plans for the upcoming trip in which we got to see it two times instead of one.

Glad that you had a great time at Uva Bar and Cafe. All the food looks so good that I will have to dine there one day with my DA.

Great trip report during DL.

Bret - With your new lens, you should be able to cover WoC in the one night. I think you were planning on catching Fantasmic! on the other night. Would be a shame to miss out of Fantasmic! ???

FYI - I used the 70 - 200 lens for Fantasmic! in WDW and I am very happy with those shots.

Great pics of WOC. I absolutely love the lamps and light fixtures in the Grand Californian, the lobby is so relaxing even when it's full of people.

They are beautiful! I took 2 - 3 close up pictures of the light fixtures. But it seemed over kill to share them all on the TR.

Speaking of the Xmas stuff...

When we were there last week we got to see jen practicing the Xmas stuff each night...all night long. Cool to see until the spotlight shines in your room and you hear the crazy Spanish dance party at 2am lol

I'm going to sound really ignorant here....but who is Jen?

Actually, it was the fact that we hadn't replaced the batteries in enough time. Evidently they don't last the two years that they told us back when. We are lucky to get a year out of a set of batteries now. We definitely give them 8 hours, (if we have them in the room that long). I'm not sure we slept that long this DL trip!



Aw shucks! Thanks!



I know for a fact we have a whole lot more at the end of the trip. I'm looking forward to what is in between!

I really enjoyed the last three rides that day they were a total bonus. In fact that's kind of what we would do for a regular day at the park, come out in the evening, and hit Star Tours, Buzz or Space (for me) before dinner. Not really all three in one night unless I was feeling overly ambitious. That we hit them on a night after all that in the day was like sensory overload! Fran rarely gets on the rides at all when we go out, she is happy with just shopping and eating.

This was definitely a day of overload for us! We loved those treats and when we were there last weekend for band weekend, I almost suggested we go into the ice cream shop and get some, but I knew we had already eaten so much, I thought better of it!

Your pictures of WoC came out so nice. For an already blurry show, your shots were very clean! I really do love that lamburger! I had one last Sunday and it was sooooooo good! That Uva bar turned out to be a favorites amongst a lot of band members, we ran into quite a few people there after the performance. Good drinks and good food!

I could have sworn that your DS got the regular hamburger/cheeseburger and not the Fish and chips, but I was so tired that day, I didn't know you had convinced Fran to sign up for MNSSHP and I didn't even remember that she finished off my lamburger. I actually thought I ate it all. I also had no idea what your DH ordered and I think I even had pictures. That says something. I ALWAYS remember the food!

It was such a good time with you at DL and I was looking so forward to our time at WDW. I do have to say that as much fun as we had, I really wanted more. You and your family were such a joy to spend time with, I'm sorry we don't live closer. I've truly cherished this time we had together and I'm just getting to the heart of our time together at WDW on my TR, and all I can say is that I wish we could have found a way to spend more time together, but then again our time together was perfect. You're just such lovely people, I wish we could get together more often in person, but we'll just have to live with the DIS.

I am going to really crunch the vacation numbers and see how we can get to Australia, but I think I really will require some serious weight loss so that we can comfortably fit in economy seats as we don't want to pay the price for airfare there and we can't seem to swing it business class on points!

OK, so I'm looking forward to hearing about your trip after you left us, since we are going to hit at least one place that you did!

Alison - I wished we had spent more time together as well (even though the time we did spend with each other was perfect). And I do wish we could see each other more often too.

I'll have to check DH's set of pictures. I think you're right. DS might have had a burger here.

Love your WoC photos. Those are some of the best I've sen of the actual projections. How early did you line up to get that spot?

Okay, now the lamb buyer is on my list to try. I like the Uva Bar and their garlic fries are to die for but I haven't tried the lamb burger. They also make a nice Bloody Mary.

Thank you. Let me know when you make it to the Uva bar.

The World of Color is fantastic. I could not sing more than the first line. It is all I ever remember. Crap would really love to try a lamb burger. Someday, we will have to eat at Uva Bar. When is the vacation starting?! I sometimes feel like Disneyland isn't a full vacation, because we never stay for long and it is not a big hassle to get there. You however came a long way. I have to assume he was joking or he moved so much over the Disneyland days that he was asking when the relaxation starts. For me, vacation is commando (like you). For crap, vacation "should be relaxing."

The road trip ended up being a lot more jammed packed than I envisaged. I had hoped for a bit more down time than what we did.

Oh well....

 

[PrincessInOz]

Road to Sedona 17 September 2013



The Best Laid Plans #4: Early Flight to Phoenix




Last night over dinner, Alison asked about our plans for the next day. We were scheduled to fly out of LAX on a 10.20 am flight to Phoenix. She advised us to leave early for the airport and figured we needed to leave at 6 am in order to give ourselves that "just in case" buffer. We are, afterall, talking about LA peak hour work day traffic.



She also asked about what route I was taking and I mumbled something like the 91 to 105. Okay....it’s the 5 to 91 to 110 to 105.



I think my DH was a little taken back at the start time. I suspect that this might have been about the time he asked when our holiday was going to start. But, he was happy enough to go along with the local's advice.

We managed to leave by 6.15 am. I missed out on a final make-your-own-waffle at the Residence Inn as breakfast didn't start till 7 am.







Traffic was heavy but flowing at that time of the morning. It took us an hour to get to the rental car facilities and drop off the silver flash. The car had served us well for the 4 days we were here.







It was 7.30 am when we got to the SouthWest Airlines Terminal. In my pre-trip planning, I had debated over buying the Early Bird check-in facility and finally determined that for the extra $37.50 for the 3 of us, it was worth the peace of mind.



So, around midnight last night, I used the hotel facilities to complete on-line check in and print out my boarding passes. I was very happy to see that we had A 25, 26 and 27 on our boarding passes.

With boarding passes in hand, I headed to one of those automatic counters to check-in my 2 pieces of luggage. When I finally figured that I needed to line up my boarding pass to the line on the screen in order to scan the barcode, I was NOT the face of happy! A message popped up on screen....


Flight Cancelled.
See Attendant for help.



Yup. Our 10.20 am flight had been cancelled somewhere between midnight last night and 7.30 am this morning.


"How much extra is this going to cost?" barked my DH.
"Oh crap*!" whined my DS.

(*crap. Not quite what he said.)




The best laid plans! *sigh*



I knew the next flight after the 10.20 am was an 11.50 am flight on SWA. I was hoping that it wasn't full and that we would be able to get on-board. We were in the hands of the flight attendant.

Tippy Tap. Tippy Tap. Went the flight attendant on the computer.



"How does the 8.55 am flight sound?"




Really??? I’ll take it.

We didn't get Boarding Class A for the earlier flight. They were already fully subscribed. But she marked my boarding passes with an XT. What the frig is that???

Turns out that XT means that we were allowed to board the plan after A but before B.



This was one change in plans that I was just going to roll with. It wasn't exactly a rush; but we had to move real quick to get to our gate for departure. Security check was busy that morning.






And I have to admit, at the time, I remember thinking that the extra time was a bonus.





(Continued in Next Post)

 

[PrincessInOz]

(Continued from Previous Post)


Cruising at 37,000 feet




An hour long short flight
Below us we see patchwork
Our human footprints









We managed to grab something to eat on the plane right near the gate.








Just as well. We were starving by the time we sat down in our seats on our earlier flight.






(Continued in Next Post)

 

[PrincessInOz]

(Continued from Previous Post)


The Best Laid Plans #5: Not Gold Customer Service




Hertz Rental let us down today. Our name was not up on their Gold Member board and so we headed on in to talk to a real person about our car booking. Turns out they did not have any compact cars available either.



So that extra time we gained with the earlier flight had evaporated into the empty nothingness of Hertz!




According to the real person, our option was a 6-seater SUV. They figured we would need the extra space for all that extra luggage we were carrying......and it was an upgrade to what we had originally ordered anyway......




Nope. Sorry. Not. Us.



We spent close on 15 minutes debating the point with her. I wonder if they have a policy about trying to get customers to take cars that don’t want nor need. I overheard the lady next to me having the same conversation with her real person as well.

Given that there were at least two customers with identical problems, and the lady next to me was apparently a weekly Fly-In Fly-Out regular, they needed to sort something out real quick. She was a lot more vocal than we were and complained about how they could at least get more cars in their fleet and that they needed to treat her better as she booked a car with them every week at this same airport. Complained. Loudly. We figured we didn't need to say anything else and just looked at our person pointedly.



It took them another 45 minutes before they pulled a couple of mid-sized cars out of their vaults and delivered them to us. Brand spanking NEW cars. DH said there was barely 45 miles on the odometer when he got into the car.




(Continued in Next Post)

 

[PrincessInOz]

(Continued from Previous Post)


DisMeet #5: Meriweather




I’d arranged to catch up with another Dis-ser in Phoenix. Meriweather.



I hope that I didn't bother you too much on this morning, Meriweather. Between the earlier flight and the delay at Hertz, I ended up calling and texting her a bit to update her. And I suspect she might have gotten to the meeting spot a littler earlier than she had originally planned after I told her about the change in flight. So, I am sorry if I messed up your plans this morning!



For those of you that don't know Meriweather, she hangs out on the games board and also coordinates a phenomenal amount of exchanges between Dis-sers.
Such activity commands R-E-S-P-E-C-T on the boards....afterall, Meriweather has close on 200,000 posts on the Dis. Aside from that Dis Ad poster, she easily has the most number of posts I've seen by anyone.



She suggested meeting at the Tempe Marketplace. An open-air shopping mall with over 100 retailers. It was about 20 minutes drive, east of the Phoenix Sky Harbour Airport.






I had been hopeful for a little shopping time when we were put on the earlier flight. The hopes evaporated in the Hertz office. Sadly, my run of missing out on shopping was to follow me here as well.




Meriweather suggested that we pick the dining place and she would meet us there.


Eenie Meenie Miney Mo!







Truth be known, DS picked the place. He felt like eating Japanese.







There was a wide array of choices. DS settled on the Chicken Teriyaki lunch special.






I picked the Salmon Teriyaki version.







Yeah. I totally forgot about US serve sizes. Our meals were huge! And they came with Miso soup as well!







Meriweather picked the chicken teriyaki off the menu with a more appropriate serving size.







The pesky vegetarian went with a soup noodle dish. I think the kitchen made a vegetarian option of one of the soup noodle dishes on the menu.








It was great to have lunch and chat with Meriweather. We chatted about life, our families and gossiped a little about the Dis.







We did swap presents. I had some Aussie trinkets with me but Meriweather’s gift is AWESOME!







That’s a Mickey head spaghetti measure I’ve got in one hand and Mickey earrings in the other. Meriweather’s husband made them and they are unbelievably gorgeous! Thanks so much for them Meriweather.





As always, time was too short. I would have liked to have stayed longer enjoying her company but we still had a number of things to do and places to get to before the end of the day.

 

[Meriweather]

It was SO nice to meet you......and no problem on the time.
I had time to go shopping even if you didn't! My favorite spice store is at the mall.
And I hit the Target and got DGD more clothes

So sorry about your problems with the rental car
And thank you so much for the Aussie gifts AND the Hong Kong pins!

 

[TifffanyD]

It was SO nice to meet you......and no problem on the time. I had time to go shopping even if you didn't! My favorite spice store is at the mall. And I hit the Target and got DGD more clothes So sorry about your problems with the rental car And thank you so much for the Aussie gifts AND the Hong Kong pins!

Hi! I am wondering what your favorite spice store is!

 

[Meriweather]

Hi! I am wondering what your favorite spice store is!

Penzey's.
I used to order from them online when we lived in WA and was so glad to find out there was a store here