DisDancerina
DIS Veteran
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- Jul 19, 2007
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Real, non-Disney people are the truly delusional ones. They don't realize what it is to us... <3 I mean we....
Oh yeah, I'm in!
Oh yeah, I'm in!
Beets, Buzzers & Bathroom Floors: My Harrowing Adventures at DLR! Updated 7/7
- Thread starter Bev1016
- Start date
Belle Ella
DIS Legend
- Joined
- Jun 30, 2007
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- 13,501
Now that I will raise a glass to!
Day One! -- May 25
The alarm went off early Monday morning, and I was so excited! First, I was excited because we were headed for Disneyland, and second, I was excited because DH wasn't rolled up into a big ball of nausea like he was the morning of our last WDW trip. He was healthy, DS was healthy, and I was healthy, so we were ready to go!
The flight was mostly uneventful, but DS struggled with being in such a small space for two hours. He was happy, but frustrated.
When we landed, we had to find our shuttle to the hotel. This is the part that always irks me a bit, because as we're standing in the middle of LAX with buses and cars whizzing by, everyone is saying
"Where do we go?"
"Is this our shuttle?"
"When will the shuttle be here?"
"Why haven't you in all of your infinite planning wisdom rented us a limo and gotten us to our hotel by now?"
So I tried to field all of the questions as patiently as possible, and then our shuttle came. Last time we went to DL, we were the only people on the shuttle, and we were quickly whisked from the airport to our hotel. This time, we were the only people again!
Until the next shuttle stop.
A whole bus full of people got on, and after loading them all on (which took a while), traveling to Anaheim (which also took a while) and stopping at two-fifths of the hotels in Southern California, we finally made it to the Hampton Inn, our home for the next 5 1/2 days.
The hotel was pretty decent. My parents, sister and nieces had a suite with a bedroom, a sitting room, a kitchen, and a balcony--perfect for viewing the fireworks, and our room connected onto the suite, so it was a good setup.
We unpacked a little and headed for Disneyland, unsure if there would be massive crowds because of Memorial Day. It was crowded, but not horrific. We ate dinner at the Stage Door Cafe--it's all stuff for dipping--chicken strips, fish and chips, mozzarella sticks and the like. The price was high (like all park food), but I thought it was quite good. And even though the sign says you can only choose one kind of dipping sauce, the kind CM let us have a couple.
We'd been going back and forth on what should be our first ride of the trip, and we finally settled on POTC--a great choice, because everyone could go. Then we hit Tiki Room (the good one, not the WDW one), jungle cruise, and tried to get on Roger Rabbit but did not succeed, because the ride closed while we were in the queue. We may have done some other rides that night, but I forget.
Then it was back to the hotel. We saw a few fireworks and almost everyone went to bed. DH and I were up talking for quite some time and went to sleep at 1 a.m. We thought we'd be awakened by our morning alarm or by DS crying, or MAYBE by the chatty teenage gals in the room across the hall, but no! Something else woke us up first!
What was it? Stay tuned! (And there are pictures coming soon!)
The alarm went off early Monday morning, and I was so excited! First, I was excited because we were headed for Disneyland, and second, I was excited because DH wasn't rolled up into a big ball of nausea like he was the morning of our last WDW trip. He was healthy, DS was healthy, and I was healthy, so we were ready to go!
The flight was mostly uneventful, but DS struggled with being in such a small space for two hours. He was happy, but frustrated.
When we landed, we had to find our shuttle to the hotel. This is the part that always irks me a bit, because as we're standing in the middle of LAX with buses and cars whizzing by, everyone is saying
"Where do we go?"
"Is this our shuttle?"
"When will the shuttle be here?"
"Why haven't you in all of your infinite planning wisdom rented us a limo and gotten us to our hotel by now?"
So I tried to field all of the questions as patiently as possible, and then our shuttle came. Last time we went to DL, we were the only people on the shuttle, and we were quickly whisked from the airport to our hotel. This time, we were the only people again!
Until the next shuttle stop.
A whole bus full of people got on, and after loading them all on (which took a while), traveling to Anaheim (which also took a while) and stopping at two-fifths of the hotels in Southern California, we finally made it to the Hampton Inn, our home for the next 5 1/2 days. The hotel was pretty decent. My parents, sister and nieces had a suite with a bedroom, a sitting room, a kitchen, and a balcony--perfect for viewing the fireworks, and our room connected onto the suite, so it was a good setup.
We unpacked a little and headed for Disneyland, unsure if there would be massive crowds because of Memorial Day. It was crowded, but not horrific. We ate dinner at the Stage Door Cafe--it's all stuff for dipping--chicken strips, fish and chips, mozzarella sticks and the like. The price was high (like all park food), but I thought it was quite good. And even though the sign says you can only choose one kind of dipping sauce, the kind CM let us have a couple.
We'd been going back and forth on what should be our first ride of the trip, and we finally settled on POTC--a great choice, because everyone could go. Then we hit Tiki Room (the good one, not the WDW one), jungle cruise, and tried to get on Roger Rabbit but did not succeed, because the ride closed while we were in the queue. We may have done some other rides that night, but I forget.
Then it was back to the hotel. We saw a few fireworks and almost everyone went to bed. DH and I were up talking for quite some time and went to sleep at 1 a.m. We thought we'd be awakened by our morning alarm or by DS crying, or MAYBE by the chatty teenage gals in the room across the hall, but no! Something else woke us up first!
What was it? Stay tuned! (And there are pictures coming soon!)
DisDancerina
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Jul 19, 2007
- Messages
- 1,914
Argh! I want to know what woke you!
Sounds like you guys had fun! We were contemplating going then, but we decided otherwise.
I love that food place! It's soo yummy. My parents would wait there when I was on Big Thunder in the summer, great spot.
Sounds like you guys had fun! We were contemplating going then, but we decided otherwise.
I love that food place! It's soo yummy. My parents would wait there when I was on Big Thunder in the summer, great spot.
Sherry E
Currently tag-less...
- Joined
- Jan 5, 2008
- Messages
- 19,646
Was it an earthquake that woke you? We have been having so many of them in SoCal recently, but I can't recall offhand if any of them happened in the middle of the night. They all seemed to be daytime or evening quakes.
Anyway, you know we all won't let you get away with not posting photos for too long!! We love TR photos! I started my TR last October, and initially it had NO photos in it at all, but then I went back and put them in throughout the whole report. So bring on the pictures!!!
Anyway, you know we all won't let you get away with not posting photos for too long!! We love TR photos! I started my TR last October, and initially it had NO photos in it at all, but then I went back and put them in throughout the whole report. So bring on the pictures!!!
Argh! I want to know what woke you!
Sounds like you guys had fun! We were contemplating going then, but we decided otherwise.
I love that food place! It's soo yummy. My parents would wait there when I was on Big Thunder in the summer, great spot.
We did have a pretty fun trip. I guess it wasn't officially summer yet, so the parks closed pretty early, and we didn't get to see the new fireworks show, but the weather was nice and the crowds weren't too bad.
Since you didn't go that week, do you have another time that you're planning for?
It was not an earthquake, but that's all I'm going to say for now.
I've got to do something so that people will keep reading!The pictures are definitely coming. I think the first two days of the trip I took one picture. After that, I started taking more.
I am enjoying your TR!
Nice cliffhanger...waiting to hear what woke you all up.
It's coming soon!
And thanks for reading . . . your DD is adorable!
Little late to the party, but I'm here!!
I'm anxious to read about your adventures as I've only been to DL once (May 2003). But it's looking like I'll be heading there in the too-distant future!
Hi Jenna!
You will have a great time on your next DL trip! My last trip to DL was in 05, and I think I had become a bit of a WDW snob, thinking that DL didn't have a lot of the things that WDW had. Well, I am completely enchanted with DL now. It just has its own special magic, and you can feel all of the love and attention that Walt put into it. I can't wait for you and Jenny to get that pre-trippie started! 
mommy2allyandaveri
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Sep 19, 2006
- Messages
- 3,558
Just catching up, love the TR!
Don't you just love the Stage Door Cafe? We go there at least once a trip.
Can't wait for some pics
Don't you just love the Stage Door Cafe? We go there at least once a trip.
Can't wait for some pics
Just catching up, love the TR!
Don't you just love the Stage Door Cafe? We go there at least once a trip.
Can't wait for some pics
Thanks for reading! There will be pics soon (but not in the next post, which you will understand when you read what happened!)
I had never been to the Stage Door before this trip, but it's definitely one I'll go back to. Everyone liked it, and when you have kids, my picky sister, and vegetarian parents, that's saying something!
rentayenta
DIS Legend
- Joined
- Feb 28, 2007
- Messages
- 27,424
I want pictures! 
There will be pictures soon-ish.
But since I didn't take many pics until the 2nd or 3rd day of the trip, here's a pic of DS from our last WDW trip (since I'll probably never finish my WDW trippie):
The good thing about always having the camera is that there aren't many pictures of me. Most of the ones I post will be of DS, since DH is also camera shy.
When we last left this trip report, my little traveling posse was sound asleep, dreaming of getting to Disneyland bright and early for a Magic Morning.
But that was before the incident.
And now we fast-forward to 3 a..m., and Im dreaming about how Im fixing something or doing something with a computer or something like that, when suddenly:
BUZZ, BUZZ, BUZZ (accompanied by pulsating flashes of light)--
THIS IS AN EMERGENCY. PLEASE EXIT THE BUILDING.
THIS IS AN EMERGENCY. PLEASE EXIT THE BUILDING.
When this first began, I was still half asleep and thinking that something I had done in my dream had set off an alarm, so I told DH it was my fault. Then I woke up a little more and realized that this was not of my doing, and we should probably evacuate, like the annoying voice was asking us to do.
Looking back now, DH and I were moving awfully slowly. We casually made ourselves mildly presentable, and took DS. I grabbed purse and shoes, which I was carrying instead of wearing, and we descended the four flights of stairs to the exit. We met my dad in the hallway, but the rest of our group had already evacuated.
When we got outside the hotel, the scene was so surreal. There were hundreds of people, standing around in their shorts and Pjs, looking like zombies. We were all just kind of staring at each other trying to figure out if this was real or if we were having some kind of mass hallucination. After standing around for a few minutes, a voice tells us to go back inside, and so we climb the stairs back to the fourth floor, where the strobe light is still flashing. As we head into our room, my sister yells lets not do the early morning thing today, and we gladly agree to postpone the Magic Morning until Thursday.
We put DS to sleep again (even though he slept through the whole thing!), and we get ready to sleep, hoping the strobe light will shut off soon. It finally does, and I close my eyes and start drifting off to sleep, when a large buzzer sounds again:
THAT WAS A FALSE ALARM. YOU MAY RETURN TO YOUR ROOMS.
(I think we already figured that out, considering we had all returned to our rooms.)
Enough with the announcements already! Lets go to sleep! At least, I hoped I could sleep, but not before one more announcement10 minutes laterin Spanish (I have no problem with the Spanish announcement, I just wish they would have done it immediately after the English one instead of waiting for another 10 minutes. I was a little worried to fall asleep again for fear that the Croatian announcement was on its way!)
Finally, the announcements were done, and we went back to sleep. Needless to say, we missed Magic Mornings!
Later that day, someone at the bus stop told us that the evacuation was a result of someone burning pizza in their microwave. It reminds me of that episode of The Office where Ryan burns a cheesy pita in the toaster oven. I just wish I knew who burned the pizza so that I could find him and call him fire guy.
Coming up next: Our first full day in the parks and fun at the Food and Wine fest!
But that was before the incident.
And now we fast-forward to 3 a..m., and Im dreaming about how Im fixing something or doing something with a computer or something like that, when suddenly:
BUZZ, BUZZ, BUZZ (accompanied by pulsating flashes of light)--
THIS IS AN EMERGENCY. PLEASE EXIT THE BUILDING.
THIS IS AN EMERGENCY. PLEASE EXIT THE BUILDING.
When this first began, I was still half asleep and thinking that something I had done in my dream had set off an alarm, so I told DH it was my fault. Then I woke up a little more and realized that this was not of my doing, and we should probably evacuate, like the annoying voice was asking us to do.
Looking back now, DH and I were moving awfully slowly. We casually made ourselves mildly presentable, and took DS. I grabbed purse and shoes, which I was carrying instead of wearing, and we descended the four flights of stairs to the exit. We met my dad in the hallway, but the rest of our group had already evacuated.
When we got outside the hotel, the scene was so surreal. There were hundreds of people, standing around in their shorts and Pjs, looking like zombies. We were all just kind of staring at each other trying to figure out if this was real or if we were having some kind of mass hallucination. After standing around for a few minutes, a voice tells us to go back inside, and so we climb the stairs back to the fourth floor, where the strobe light is still flashing. As we head into our room, my sister yells lets not do the early morning thing today, and we gladly agree to postpone the Magic Morning until Thursday.
We put DS to sleep again (even though he slept through the whole thing!), and we get ready to sleep, hoping the strobe light will shut off soon. It finally does, and I close my eyes and start drifting off to sleep, when a large buzzer sounds again:
THAT WAS A FALSE ALARM. YOU MAY RETURN TO YOUR ROOMS.
(I think we already figured that out, considering we had all returned to our rooms.)
Enough with the announcements already! Lets go to sleep! At least, I hoped I could sleep, but not before one more announcement10 minutes laterin Spanish (I have no problem with the Spanish announcement, I just wish they would have done it immediately after the English one instead of waiting for another 10 minutes. I was a little worried to fall asleep again for fear that the Croatian announcement was on its way!)
Finally, the announcements were done, and we went back to sleep. Needless to say, we missed Magic Mornings!
Later that day, someone at the bus stop told us that the evacuation was a result of someone burning pizza in their microwave. It reminds me of that episode of The Office where Ryan burns a cheesy pita in the toaster oven. I just wish I knew who burned the pizza so that I could find him and call him fire guy.
Coming up next: Our first full day in the parks and fun at the Food and Wine fest!
Sherry E
Currently tag-less...
- Joined
- Jan 5, 2008
- Messages
- 19,646
I wonder how often that kind of thing happens at DLR - where someone overcooks something in the Microwave and forces everyone to evacuate. Oh, that person must have been SO embarrassed and ashamed to have caused all that mayhem (even though everyone was calm - it was mayhem just because of the time of morning). I am the sort of person who embarrasses easily, and I happen to live in a building with smoke detectors that are very sensitive and they go off at the slightest detection of steam from the shower or pizza crust getting a little too brown in the oven, and I have had the alarm go off periodically over the years to my horror....thinking my neighbors will blame me (even though it has happened to some of them too). So I can't imagine what I would do if I caused the hotel to evacuate or caused fire trucks to show up to do an inspection!!
I was laughing about waiting for the Croatian announcement next. Why DID they wait so long in between the English and Spanish announcements? That is crazy!
Anyway, looking forward to how the beets and the bathroom floor come into play...
I was laughing about waiting for the Croatian announcement next. Why DID they wait so long in between the English and Spanish announcements? That is crazy!Anyway, looking forward to how the beets and the bathroom floor come into play...
I know! I'm sure that person was so embarassed! It sounds like something that would happen to me, too. I set my alarm off while cooking the other day--even though I don't think anyone else heard, it was still embarassing for me.
As far as the beets (a good experience) and the bathroom floors (a bad experience), you'll find out all about them, but not for another day or so!
OMG what a night, so pleased it was a false alarm but really
I agree. I'm glad everybody was safe, but the experience was a little freaky, especially for my youngest niece. It scared her quite a bit and she couldn't get back to sleep. It took her a little while to forget about it and return to her silly self.
Belle Ella
DIS Legend
- Joined
- Jun 30, 2007
- Messages
- 13,501
Well dang! Talk about an experience. I have to say I've always wondered how n evacutaion of a hotel would really work. We've all seen the little things on the back of the doors and what not telling you what to do but how many of us have ever actually had to leave the hotel in the middle of the night for a possible emergency?
Well, you have now, huh?
I think I would have been absolutely terrified, and probably would ahve been wide awake for the rest of the night unless I had heard then and there what really happened.
Just hope the interrupted sleep didn't make the day hard other than missing out on your planned MM!
Well, you have now, huh?
I think I would have been absolutely terrified, and probably would ahve been wide awake for the rest of the night unless I had heard then and there what really happened.
Just hope the interrupted sleep didn't make the day hard other than missing out on your planned MM!
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