California here we come! The White House goes to Disneyland and Aulani - Update 10/2

Anal Annie · Aug 27, 2014

^ Just wanted to note for any new readers that with the change to the "new" DISboards software I noticed that a LOT but not ALL of my apostrophe's are now missing. So for example we'd might now say wed. I am NOT going to go thru this entire trip report and look for them to fix them - just know that I didn't write it that way - something was lost in the transition to the new boards!!! :badpc:

This is only my 2nd ever trip report. The other one I wrote was after our epic trip to Europe and our Med DCL cruise back in 2011. For that one, I chose to use a website so I could share it easily with friends & family outside of the DIS. It was kind of a pain in the you-know-what to maintain AND I never got around to finishing my last few days so this time I am just going to write it here.

I can't write this trip report without starting it with some background. Alright, a LOT of background A lot of you who've been around here and who "know me" will remember that this trip was SUPPOSED to have happened LAST summer. Then 8 days before we were supposed to leave my teenage DS (then 16) had something called a spontaneous pneumothorax (basically a collapsed lung) and since it was his LUNG he wasn't allowed to fly for 3 weeks!! :faint:

So at 8 days to go we had to cancel the entire trip!!!

DS was going to be fine - but he had to go in for xrays every few days to be sure the pneumothorax was healing properly.

It was the biggest hassle to make all these last minute phone calls to cancel everything on top of taking care of DS. FIRST up was calling DVC. Then the airlines, rental cars, Pearl Harbor, surf lesson place, Starwood hotels to cancel our days on Maui ETC. We got super lucky tho in that DVC was able to find us a 1-bedroom open at SSR for 9 nights if we pushed our dates back by almost a week (the only 1-bedroom available - no studios were available anywhere). Canceling the studios at VGC and Aulani was almost an even wash points-wise with the 9 nights in the 1-bedroom at SSR. So we decided that since he couldn't FLY we would drive to FL instead. We had to use the points by November or lose them. So this became our new plan. We'd never driven with DS to FL but people do it all the time - so could we (once). :drive:

I had pre-ordered our Disneyland park tickets so we brought them with us to FL. They were able to scan them and tell they were unused so we turned them in towards buying AP's.

We had booked 3 nights on Maui following Aulani at the Westin Ocean Resort Villas with Starwood points so when I called Starwood to cancel they told me that we could have our points back BUT that we'd have to use our Starwood account by October or else we'd lose those points. So then we decided to stop for the night in Savannah, GA at the Sheraton to use our Starwood account so we'd preserve those points. OY! So many loose ends to take care of.

We had booked this trip with 3 different airlines and they each one had a different cancelation policy. Most of our flights were on Alaska Airline and they actually had a very generous cancelation policy. They charged us a $100 pp penalty BUT they gave us a full year from our initial date of travel to rebook & fly (then they gave us an additional month on top of that so we essentially had thru August of this year)!! With proof from the pulmonologist, Hawaiian Airline gave us until 1 year from the date of purchase to rebook our flight that we had with them (so I had until late January to rebook with them). They did not charge a penalty. Delta also did not charge us a penalty BUT we only had 1 year from the original purchase date to not only rebook but also to FLY. So there we were with $850 in flights on Delta that had to be flown on by January (which is when I booked all the flights). It was at this point that we decided to book WDW for January - it would be better than losing the $850.

Just as a side note, when we went to FL in January there was a big snow storm at home on the day we were supposed to fly home so we ended up extending our stay by 1 extra night as Delta was waiving change fees because of the storm. We didn't have a direct flight so we were afraid we'd get stuck in Atlanta if we left Orlando. Better to just stay put. Of course that ate up a few more points BUT we were in a std. studio at Jambo House so it wasn't horrible. It just meant borrowing MORE points. :worried:

OK so before I go any further I will just give a quick update on DS. He ended up having another pneumothorax in early November on the same lung. The pulmonologist said he should have surgery this time. He had these things on the outside of his lungs called blebs which are like little blisters. And sometimes they can pop and when they pop they create a hole in the lung which is what causes the collapse. He said he was going to be prone to having this re-occur so it would be best to just have this surgery where they go in and scrape the outside of the lung to 1) get rid of any other blebs and 2) the abrasion would make the outside of the lung adhere to the chest wall. That way if the blebs would come back and pop again they wouldn't make a hole in the lung. The thoracic surgeon who performed the surgery said that there was only about a 10% chance that it would happen to the other lung too. WELL. Guess who hit the jackpot with having another one occur on the other lung in February!? YUP. You got it. He's a swimmer and the week before HS Regionals he had another one happen on the other lung.

This one was a BIG one. A 40% collapse this time so they put in a chest tube at the ER and he had to have the same surgery on this lung. This one really knocked him for a loop. We had to wait almost 2 days for the surgeon to get to him (wouldn't ya know during another big snow storm). Of all the dumb luck!! Keeping our fingers crossed now that DS has had ENOUGH to last a lifetime. So far so good but the "what if" is always on the back of our minds.

OK, in my next post I will hopefully start with the new re-planning efforts for our big Disneyland / Aulani / Maui trip. ::yes::

jerseygal · Aug 28, 2014

VERY GLAD that you DS is DOING BETTER!!!! :thumbsup2

FABULOUS NEWS!!! :cheer2:

Looking forward to hearing more! :cool1:

Yours was "riddled" with some CRAZY WEATHER though I think...Glad everything worked out WELL in the end..
That storm was SO STRANGE..UNPRECEDENTED FOR OAHU it seemed!

Anal Annie · Aug 28, 2014

With everything that happened to us LAST year I was almost afraid to start planning again. :scared:

But we had about $2,100 in flight credits on Alaska Air that we weren't going to get back unless we flew somewhere on Alaska Air and our inter-island flight on Hawaiian Air was still there, tho of course not as much money to worry about but why waste it. So come December-January I started the planning all over again. The wheels in my head were spinning. When I hawked the airline prices I found everything had gone up and that in order to stick to our credits we were going to have to adjust to flying mid-week rather than on weekends. OK, we could work with that. Long as it was the same ballpark price. Now at least I knew what we needed our dates to be at VGC & Aulani. I would come back to buy the airfare once I snagged our ressies.

The year before we had planned for more nights & better views at Aulani by banking some points from the previous year. Now those were all gone AND we had to dip into the borrowing mode to complete that MLK weekend trip so we were working with about 100 fewer points this year. :sad2:

In order to make it work this time we shaved 1 night off of DL & VGC and settled for just 3 nights / 2 1/2 days there. I hated to do that - and we really could've used 1 more day to enjoy the resort but let's face it, VGC is a points hog!! Even weekday points for a studio were a killer. I think overall that the Aulani point charts are reasonable but we also couldn't book an OV this time (which we had booked last year) without major borrowing so we opted to try for an IV studio instead.

I was really probably more nervous about "getting in" at VGC than I was Aulani. At least Aulani has other options and views and is larger. VGC is tiny and I worried we'd get shut out. I could hardly sleep and was online & ready to book at like 7:30. Just had to keep refreshing the screen waiting for the 8:00 online opening. With my finger on the enter key I stared hard at the computer clock as it flipped from 7:59 to 8:00 and immediately hit submit to secure our studio at VGC. WHEW!! We made it. :cool1:

Next up would be the same process for Aulani in 3 more days. Could my old heart stand the suspense?! I was almost desperate to get the IV. If the IV wasn't available and we had to go up to a PV we'd have to keep it. There would be no point to waitlist the IV because we'd already be in the borrowing mode and the points would go into holding or whatever. We'd be stuck with no turning back. Next year DS graduates HS and we don't know yet EXACTLY what we're going to do for our last vacation before he heads off to college but we didn't want to dig ourselves in too deep with the borrowing. Tentatively we have a 4-night DCL booked on the Dream so we were thinking maybe 4 nights at WDW, then 4 nights DCL followed by 3 o 4 more nights at another WDW resort (depends when he needs to leave for college). But I don't know yet if we're going to be able to keep the DCL. We may just do a WDW vacation at the resort of his choosing. The DCL's are just so expensive it gives me indigestion!! :crazy2:

Pass the Tums!! Guess we'll cross that bridge later. So anyway, 3 days after the VGC drama I went thru the same sweating bullets process to snag our IV studio at Aulani. THIS IS IT PEOPLE! We are officially rebooked for DL and Hawaii. As exciting as it was to have the ressies secured I was still afraid to get too excited. And financially, we were better off LAST year. A few weeks after I got us booked was when DS had that 3rd pnemothroax so I quickly felt nickle & dimed by co-pays and deductibles for 2 surgeries (because of course they hit in 2 different years so we had 2 major deductibles to deal with) and our flex fund was eaten up over night and gone by February and everything just felt more overwhelming this time. I was now determined that this trip would have to be on as much of a budget as I could do it. I continued buying a $25 Disney gift card every week with my groceries & I squirreled away money in my drawer anytime I had a chance. I didn't want to leave Hawaii with a huge charge on our credit card. That would be no fun LATER. But meanwhile it wasn't really that much fun squirreling it away in the drawer all year either. :rotfl:

To top things off in April my old Honda Pilot started acting up. I took it in for some major routine maintenance & dropped about $1,200 on it for an alignment & the 100K maintenance thing becuz DS and I were driving to Raleigh, NC for a college visit over spring break. The day we were to leave I found a huge puddle in the garage floor from where the radiator blew up. :scared1:

So we ended up in a rental for that road trip and a $850 or $900 bill when we got back. THEN 2 or 3 weeks after that something else went and I found ANOTHER puddle in the garage floor - the mechanic had the thing for 4 days trying to figure it out. Luckily whatever it was a cheap part - but I had $500 more in labor to pay. :headache:

I was really feeling doomed. pirate:

What could possibly be next? :rolleyes1

How about TWO (yes, TWO) back-to-back hurricanes heading straight for Hawaii at the same time just DAYS before we were supposed to go? :eek:

First time in like 25 years that Hawaii had 2 hurricanes threatening it in the same season. And these were only about 3 days apart. WHAT are the odds it would happen the same time we're supposed to go?! More on this one later…..

Back to the planning. I then re-booked our 3 nights on Maui with our Starwood points. BUT at some point not long AFTER we had booked last year they had changed the points structure / requirements - NOT in our favor of course. The Westin Ocean Resort Villas now required more points than what we had to book it so basically our only option was to book the Sheraton Ka'anapali at Black Rock. While another studio would've been nice we had stayed at this Sheraton property on our last trip in 2006 and it was fine so we figured we could certainly stay there again even tho it would be a step down from Aulani. I went ahead and planned Aulani first and then Maui - the way we usually finish our Hawaii trips. Mostly because the Alaska Air flight schedules were better to return home from Maui than from Honolulu. (MUCH shorter layover on the mainland.) Seemed like the Hawaii plan was coming together.

I booked rental cars for both islands on discounthawaiicarrental.com then continued to watch for better deals on that site, Priceline and thru Costco. One day in June I finally hit the jackpot on the Costco website and found a temporary price drop so I snagged them and canceled the other reservations. :cool1:

I saved a lot. YAY! :yay:

Something seemed to be working in our favor!

All of a sudden it was summer and we were busy with DS's club swimming and our summer swim team (I help with the pictures for the end-of-season banquet / DVD program) so time FLEW by in June & July. Swimming ended the end of July then it was TIME TO PACK!! :dance3:

I was determined not to overpack and to be organized. I wanted to leave a few pounds to spare for souvenirs and I think I did pretty good. I packed so that pretty much everything we needed for our 3 nights in CA would be in our carry-ons and we wouldn't even have to open our larger checked bags. (That plan actually worked out pretty good. We only had to pull a couple of things out of the bigger bags. That really helped with the packing up to leave CA for Hawaii. Real timesaver. :thumbsup2

)

Next post - Let the games begin!!

Anal Annie · Aug 28, 2014

The time has finally come!! Since we were using Reagan National Airport and were going to be gone for 2 full weeks I booked a Town Car service to pick us up and to bring us home. Parking down there, even at an off-site local hotel would cost around $125-130 and the Town Car was $150 round-trip. Our departure flight was at 9:15 AM and our return was at 5:40 PM so both flights would be during rush hour – better off to let someone else do the driving. It was much less stressful and not really that much more money. This turned out to be a great idea!! YAY!! I was pleased with this decision. If I had been driving to the airport I would’ve been so stressed on the Beltway – and fearful of taking the wrong exit off the Parkway to go to the parking and of running late. This way, we were able to sit back and take a deep breath. The car service recommended a 3 hr. pickup window so we had plenty of time to spare as traffic was actually pretty good that morning. DS somehow ended up with TSA Pre-approved security and they let all of us go thru together – what a BREEZE!! We found our gate and then got some breakfast from the Mickey D’s across the way. It was kinda funky tho. Didn’t taste so good. I knew the airline would have “food for purchase” and we had some snacks packed (somewhere) so I pitched half my breakfast and waited excitedly for our boarding. We boarded on time and finally we’re off!!

It was a 5+ hour flight and although I had 1 unfinished book and 2 new books on my Kindle I couldn’t concentrate to read. I was too tired. I had gone to bed at probably midnight and the alarm went off at like 5:40. I tried to sleep but you know how that goes. I think I probably got about an hour or so in short cat naps. When we landed at LAX we were able to get our luggage promptly – it came really fast and for the first time I can remember we had a pretty short walk from the gate to the baggage claim area. I had booked a private van to pick us up thru the Super Shuttle people. The shared van was priced per person while the private van was for “up to 4”. Since you have to pay per person for the shared van the cost difference was only about $20 each way when I compared a few options. We only had 2 ½ days at DL and I didn’t want to waste any of it dropping off other people first!! Once we had our luggage I just had to call and the van was “5 minutes away”. It was the perfect size / solution for the 3 of us. We landed around I guess 11:30 and we were at VGC by about 1:00ish. Just what I’d estimated.

Check-in went smoothly – there was no line. We had not pre-purchased our park tickets so the CM was able to help us with that purchase too. I had put in a room request to hopefully have a theme park / WOC view but this wasn’t available. The CM actually said we were on the 1st floor and I was like is THAT ALL YOU HAVE so she was able to move us up to the 2nd floor back in a corner somewhere. At least we’d be able to see over the trees. I had a room request for Aulani too so I was thinking hopefully we’d get some pixie dust and THAT one would come thru instead. Of course it was too early for the room to be ready so we stored our bags with bell services and headed out. We entered into Downtown Disney and promptly decided we were HUNGRY so we decided to stop for some pizza before heading into the parks. SURPRISE they don’t take your room keys to charge there if it’s not a Disney owned & operated business. BUT they DID give us a 10% DVC discount when they saw that we were DVC members on our room key. We found that every place would offer us a discount as long as we asked. COOL BEANS!!

As soon as we finished lunch we went to Disneyland Park.

It’s all kind of a blur now. We decided to head to Space Mountain first and as we were walking up the ramp to get into an hour long standby wait these 2 guys (probably 20ish) were on the Fast Pass ramp and they said “HEY we have some extra Fast Passes if you WANT THEM!!” Well HECK YEAH!! We finally got some pixie dust!! What a great way to start out our first ride!! The only other time we had been to Disneyland was back in 2005 and Space Mountain had been down for like 2 years for a major refurb. We were only there for 2 days that time too and it just happened that they had a soft opening / test on one of our evenings while we were there. We just happened to look up and see people standing in line and started asking what was going on. So we stood in line for like about 2 ½ hours or something on that trip to ride it. It was pretty cool. But we only got the one ride. We were anxious to ride it again!!

After Space we did the Bobsled thing since we don’t have that in FL. That was about maybe a 45 minute wait. Fun to ride something “new”. I forget what we did next. At some point we got the text that our room was ready so I decided to leave DH and DS and go back to VGC to get our bags delivered so we wouldn’t have to deal with that at bedtime. I think they may have gone to ride Splash Mtn which had a long wait too. But I also wanted to check the pullout sofa to see if it was made up or not. They usually are NOT made up at WDW and I have to make up the bed for DS. Something else I didn’t want to do at bedtime. With jetlag. I was really happy to find that it was already made up!! WHOO HOO!! All those points for this studio get you a pre-made bed!! (It’s the little things that get me excited!) It was also a lot bigger than most DVC studios in FL. I loved that the parks and VGC were so convenient to just “run back” for stuff. So nice not to have to walk a half mile to a bus stop and then stand on a bus full of hot sweaty cranky people to go to the room. More bonus points for using all those DVC points to stay here!

Our view:

After taking care of a few things I went back to re-join “the boys”. I was probably only gone for about an hour. I can’t remember everything we rode but we felt like we got a good bit in considering how late we got started. We were smelling some reallllly good smells in the New Orleans area of the park so we decided to stop for dinner at the French Market Café. (We had a dinner ADR for Blue Bayou for the next night.) I felt like mashed potatoes so I ordered the Cajun Meatloaf. DS and DH both ordered the Cajun Shrimp Pasta. Well so DS went thru the line first, then me then DH. This is when things went wrong. DS got the last shrimp. So when DH’s turn came they tried to give him chicken. He was like NO, I want shrimp. Well so they had to cook more. So we went to find a seat and he waited. And waited. AND WAITED. How LONG does it take to cook some shrimp? A lot longer there than it does for me at HOME!! We were a little ticked that they didn’t just go over to the other side of the line (since there were 2 sides / 2 lines) to get him his shrimp. DS and I also waited for him. By the time he came out our food was stone cold. My plate was half cooked baby carrots, there was no gravy for the mashed potatoes and the meatloaf was kinda icky. It should have been called "Baby carrots with meatloaf". :rotfl:

But DS and DH really liked their shrimp, even cold and even after waiting forever for them. After this experience we decided that the wonderful smell we were smelling was actually coming from the Café Orleans and so DS said he wanted to eat there. (We would eventually eat lunch there on our last day.)

Look at how many carrots I had - they covered half the plate!!

We saw them getting ready for Fantasmic but we did not hang around to watch. I think if IRC we had managed to pick up some late fast passes for Space Mtn so we needed to hurry back over there after dinner to catch that again. Even tho I didn’t want us to be out super late (because we were on a 3 hr. time difference AND because we had the CA early opening the next day) we were out late. We pretty much crashed as soon as we got back to the room. It was a FULL but fun day for sure!! :dance3:

wdrl · Aug 28, 2014

Following along on your trip report. I don't know about you, but I think Disneyland has a different feel to it compared to WDW. Not bad in any way, but just different. When I saw Sleeping Beauty's castle I thought it looked so small compared to Cinderella's castle in the Magic Kingdom.

Looking forward to seeing more photos. Thanks for doing this!

Anal Annie · Aug 28, 2014

wdrl said:
Following along on your trip report. I don't know about you, but I think Disneyland has a different feel to it compared to WDW. Not bad in any way, but just different. When I saw Sleeping Beauty's castle I thought it looked so small compared to Cinderella's castle in the Magic Kingdom.

Looking forward to seeing more photos. Thanks for doing this!

Glad to have you along for the ride!! We had forgotten how small the castle was at Disneyland. In FL you can find the castle from almost anywhere and figure out where you are. In CA you can't see it until you're in front of it. I think the PRETTIEST castle tho is at Disneyland Paris. It is beautiful and landscaped in a really neat way.

We noticed a lot of differences in CA and yes, definitely a different feel to it. First, all of the CM's were local CA people whereas in FL everybody is from someplace else. Second, while they were friendly, they weren't AS friendly as the WDW CM's somehow. Just a different way about them. We noticed that nearly everyone wore SOMETHING on their heads - Mickey headbands or hats or SOMETHING but hardly ANY Disneyland shirts or other gear. And not so many kids carrying balloons & light spinners. And nobody was pin trading!! There were no lanyards full of pins hanging off of anyone. Not even the CM's. (We don't usually trade but we collect.) Those were the biggest differences we noticed.

Cinderpamela · Aug 29, 2014

Yay you started your report LeeAnne!! I am in! :thumbsup2

We have always choosen Cafe Orleans over French Market Café... and you have just confirmed to me that is a good way to go!

Excited to hear more about your trip.

wdrl · Aug 29, 2014

Did you go to the Guardians of the Galaxy show? From what I've heard, Disney can't bring that same exact show to Florida due to the legal arrangements between Marvel/Disney and Universal. Supposedly, the Guardians show has a moving stage or some other "moving" element. Thus, legally it qualifies as a 'ride', and Universal has exclusive rights to 'rides' involving Marvel characters in Florida.

CarlaT · Aug 29, 2014

Following your trip report also! Going to DL and Aulani in Nov. 3nights at VGC and 6nights Aulani me, DH & DS13. I have to say I was same way booking the VGC, up early, computer on and ready to go for 8am. I didn't have any luck with a studio and ended up with a 1bedroom. Used more points then I wanted to, but worth it. I haven't booked transportation in Calif yet. I will check into the Super Shuttle for a personal vehicle. I too don't want to worry about making other stops along the way.
I'm enjoying the pictures and can't wait to read more.
Also glad your DS is all better!

Carla

Bellies23 · Aug 29, 2014

Glad you are doing a trip report as I am hoping to go to DL and Aulani next summer and am starting the info gathering process!

Anal Annie · Aug 29, 2014

wdrl said:
Did you go to the Guardians of the Galaxy show? From what I've heard, Disney can't bring that same exact show to Florida due to the legal arrangements between Marvel/Disney and Universal. Supposedly, the Guardians show has a moving stage or some other "moving" element. Thus, legally it qualifies as a 'ride', and Universal has exclusive rights to 'rides' involving Marvel characters in Florida.

No, we didn't do that - DS said he thought it was some sort of a preview thing so we skipped it. :confused3

Did we miss out on something good? We also didn't get to Soarin' at CA (DS said he didn't care to go) and we JUST MISSED the last go-around on the big ferris wheel (Mickey's fun wheel or whatever they call it). We did it when we were there the 1st time and did the swinging cars which was kinda scary and I kinda wanted to go in the evening this time as the lights were coming on in the park but we got there right as they were shutting things down for WOC on our last night. Literally just missed it as we saw others were still getting on as we walked up.

CarlaT said:
Following your trip report also! Going to DL and Aulani in Nov. 3nights at VGC and 6nights Aulani me, DH & DS13. I have to say I was same way booking the VGC, up early, computer on and ready to go for 8am. I didn't have any luck with a studio and ended up with a 1bedroom. Used more points then I wanted to, but worth it. I haven't booked transportation in Calif yet. I will check into the Super Shuttle for a personal vehicle. I too don't want to worry about making other stops along the way.
I'm enjoying the pictures and can't wait to read more.
Also glad your DS is all better!

Carla

Bellies23 said:
Glad you are doing a trip report as I am hoping to go to DL and Aulani next summer and am starting the info gathering process!

guys!! Glad to have you along!!

Carla - the Super Shuttle private van thing was called Execu Van or Execu something or other. It was reasonable enough for the 3 of us at $72 each way vs $17 pp each way for the shared van. Wouldn't have been as good of a deal for 2 people but for 3 or 4 it was perfect. :thumbsup2

Anal Annie · Aug 29, 2014

(Starting the day with a BIG YAWNS)

With this day being our one and only early opening morning for the CA Adventure park we wanted to be sure to get there before they opened at 8:00. Of course we were dragging from being out late the night before and from jet lag on top of that etc. so we were moving S-L-O-W. I think I set the alarm for around 6:00 or 6:30 but it was a real struggle to get up and out. DS was really hard to get up. I had brought some like Little Debbie Coffee Cake things with us & some muffins so we just sort of snacked on something while we were getting ready – planning that we’d stop for some “real” breakfast around 9:30 or so. Our primary goal this morning was to hit RSR and the other Cars Land rides before it got too late and too crowded. In my mind I was thinking this would be sort of like how we (used to) do AK park in FL. Back in the day (pre FP+) we would always go on morning EMH’s and hit EE first thing. We would usually ride it 2 or 3 times standby and (used to) pull a FP for it so we could hit one more time later. The difference here at DL was that they don’t open the FP machines until regular park opening. So we would plan to hit the FP line soon after the reg. park hours opened at 9:00. Since we were moving so slow it was actually almost 8:00 when we left the room. I was starting to stress a little because we were running slower than what I planned (wanted). I was worried how long the line would be already for RSR. Ended up being about a 30 min. wait by the time we got to it. Not TOOO bad but bad enough that I knew we probably wouldn’t get more than 1 ride in before the park opened. It was pretty cool. Very reminiscent of TT at Epcot. Except with 2 tracks side-by-side and hills & curves rather than a long fast straight-away. The cars were very similar tho to TT. It was themed reallllly well. There were a lot of little details that impressed us.

After we rode RSR we rode Luigi’s Tires and Mater’s Junkyard Jamboree. Luigi’s Tires was fun. DS went by himself while DH and I tried to navigate our own tire. We could see DS laughing and knew he was having fun, even by himself.

We noticed on our way into the park that morning that it was very overcast and gloomy out. It reminded us that the weather was like that when we were there in 2005 too. Back then we were there in late June / early July and everybody called it the “June Gloom”. Seemed like it happens in August too. I was hesitant to take too many pictures early that morning because of the overcast. I wanted nice sunny bright pictures. FINALLY the sun started poking out around probably around 9:30 or 10:00. Around that time we decided to stop for breakfast at Flo’s V8 Café. It was pretty good. I ordered some American breakfast and “the boys” ordered some tamale eggs and I wished I’d gotten that too. They said they were good. Mine was a pretty typical egg & bacon plate. After breakfast we headed over to pull FP’s for RSR so we could ride that again and then we started heading over toward Grizzly River Rapids to get FP’s for WOC that night. DS wanted to ride GRR while we were there (it looks very similar to Kali River Rapids) but I didn’t want to get wet just yet (the sun had JUST come out – I wasn’t hot yet). We talked him into coming back for it later and we went over to the Pier area and rode TS and CA Screamin’.

Now I’m getting fuzzy on the order of things. I think we went back over to use our passes for RSR and then we pulled one for GRR. I think. When we did finally ride GRR it had warmed up enough that it felt good and we ended up on the same raft as another family from Maryland!! And they lived really close to us too. Just about 20 or 30 min. away. It was pretty funny. Small world ‘eh? I’m sure if we’d had more time with them that we’d have probably found someone in common that we all knew!! They were doing an all California vacation and were working their way up the coast. That is something we may have to think about doing one day. We’d love to see San Diego and explore more of the LA area and visit some friends in No. CA. Maybe next time?!

We stopped for lunch at some Mexican cantina type place (Cocina Cucamonga Mexican Grill I think it was) and I tried calling the airline to see what I could find out about our flight to Hawaii on Friday (if anything). With hurricane Iselle bearing down on the islands and predicted to hit the same day we were supposed to go the only news we had at this point was that the airline was waiving change fees. But they hadn’t cancelled our flight yet or posted any specific info. I had tried to call them earlier too and kept getting a busy signal. While we were sitting there DH and I were both trying to call and he got thru to a real person finally. He gave the phone to me (‘cuz I always handle all this kind of stuff) but I was having a language barrier with the agent (on top of it being loud in the park and hard to hear). She really didn’t seem to know anything and I wasn’t sure she was understanding everything I was asking so after about 15 minutes I gave the phone to DH so he could try talking to her. (Meanwhile DS went to go try to ride RSR in the single rider line but it turned out that it broke down and the line was huge so he eventually gave up.) DH was also frustrated with this woman on the phone. We could get no yes or no answers from her. She finally said she was going to have to transfer us to someone else. So back on hold with a recording that said wait times were over an hour….30 minutes later we finally decided to hang up. This process with the airline was not going to be easy. Once we hooked back up with DS he said he thought we should just wait and see what happens. How did he get to be so smart? Of course that’s what we should do!! We have insurance. We have no choice. But in the meantime the Anal Annie side of me was worried about making alternate plans “just in case”. It was hard to relax and enjoy anything now tho.

Soooo we had dinner ressies that night at Blue Bayou so we crossed over to the DL park. This was DH’s only ADR request. He had remembered seeing it from the Pirates of the Caribbean ride when we were there in 2005 and thought it would be cool to go. A few people had told me if we wanted to be seated by the water to go early so we tried to get there 20 or 30 min. before our actual ressie time. We checked in and probably about 10 min. later they called us. Overall we thought it was just OK. I guess you go there mostly for the coolness factor of eating in the POC ride. It was reallllly dark. I wasn’t really keen on a whole lot of stuff on the menu. In fact I can barely remember what all we ordered (that’s not like me to forget and even tho I took pics of the food it was so dark you can’t really make them out and they pretty much suck)!! LOL. I think DH ordered fish (maybe Salmon). I ordered some sort of chicken (still trying to get my mashed potato craving fixed) and DS ordered the Jambalaya. I think we all had a bowl of the gumbo to start. Our server was just OK, nothing to brag about. I think I was expecting more. It was kind of pricey and I don’t think we’d probably go back. We kept thinking about how good that Café Orleans place smelled and DS repeated that he still wanted to eat there. I told him we’d try to get in there the next day.

After dinner we had to hoof it right back over to California Adventure bcuz we had FP’s for the WOC show. Once the sun went down it started to get chilly (we sure aren’t in FL Toto))!! So DH ran back to the room to get some long sleeves for us while DS and I went to claim a spot at WOC. Did I mention just HOW convenient it is to stay at VGC?! No way you could “run back to the room” at WDW, even if you were at Epcot and staying at BCV. We got there to the WOC line just a few minutes after they opened the FP line to get in but we were just far enough back that the very best recommended spots I’d read about were gone already. I talked to a CM and asked her where she would go and she said ON THE BRIDGE (which looked like a good spot to me). DS didn’t want to go up there but I told him it was chilly and if we got one of the “wet zone” spots we’d be REALLLLY cold (and wet). So we went up to the bridge. That was also a good spot for DH to find us when he got back. I thought it was a perfect spot. You could see the entire lagoon and you didn’t have a million other heads in front of you. DH made it back with our sweaters with plenty of time to spare. (But I was STILL cold!!) How weird to be so COLD in August!! Finally the show started. We thought it was really good – not sure that I would say it was any better than Fantasmic tho (which we did NOT see there). But we were glad to have a chance to see it once. As soon as the show was over we beelined straight out of the park to go back to the room to shower & prepare for our last day. (We were starting to learn our way around already – that’s how much smaller these parks are compared to WDW!)

jerseygal · Aug 30, 2014

What a treat! :thumbsup2

GORGEOUS PICS! :cheer2:

I am enjoying reading this trip report as DL and VGC might be in the "mix" for a vaca next may-june! :thumbsup2

I agree about the proximity of VGC! Think that I mentioned that we stayed at Grand Californian Resort, summer of '09, on "Developer Points" resulting from our DVC purchase in fall, 08...GCV was almost open, just missed it(Sept.09 I believe)What a TREAT at GC Resort! :thumbsup2

2 connecting gorgeous rooms for the four of us! :thumbsup2

So CONVENIENT! :thumbsup2

Looking at these pics, made me remember the great power walk, only guests of GC Resort and I guess GCV now can take advantage of...A "tour" power walk through CA for about an hour pre opening! WAS SO MUCH FUN!!! :cheer2:

Anal Annie · Aug 31, 2014

WOW!! Time is really flying by here!! :scared1:

I cannot believe were already on our last day! I was already realizing we hadn't planned for enough nights at VGC. I mean didnt we JUST GET HERE?! I wished we couldve planned 4 nights like we had last year. I mean we werent even going to have time to enjoy the resort or pool or anything. Today we would split our day between the 2 parks starting with Disneyland then we could go over to CA Adventure for awhile and hit some things there again. With the 2 parks right across from each other we could bounce back & forth all day if we wanted. Wed already seen WOC and we thought if Fantasmic worked into the evening then fine, but if not then OH WELL. DS said he wanted to ride CA Screamin at dark with the lights on & I wanted to ride Mickeys Fun Wheel (swinging) at dark AND DS also said he wanted to get ice cream and see the fireworks at DL tonight too so we knew we would bounce around a lot from park to park and that we wanted to finish up at the DL park. Otherwise it was a free game, just wing it kind of day!! We also had a lot going on in the back of our minds with no definitive answers yet about hurricane Iselle. Lets go!!

We started out with another overcast morning in the Disneyland park and checked out things like Tarzans Treehouse (vs the Swiss Family Robinson Treehouse in FL) and of course rode standbys like the Haunted Mansion, Pirates of the Caribbean & Jungle Cruise. DH ran to grab fastpasses somewhere at one of the mountains (gosh how we miss being able to do that at WDW).

After POC we swung by Café Orleans when it opened to see if we could get a lunch ressie there. YES! Score! :yay:

12:30 lunch as promised to DS before heading over to the CA Adventure park for the afternoon. The dinner menu looked really good (mmmmmm French Onion Soup) but our time was short, planning & timing difficult and well, quite frankly lunch suited our budget a lot more than dinner so lunch it would be. But hey, the lunch menu looked pretty darned good too so DS was happy (plus there were already some good mouth watering smells coming out of the place). When we got to Cafe Orleans for lunch I was sooo torn on what to order. At our local Bennigan's back home I often order the Monte Cristo - but here they had the traditional one with turkey & ham AND they had a special 3-cheese one which included Swiss, Mozzarella and Brie!! OMG. What to do?! DS decided to order the traditional one and I went for the 3-cheese one 'cuz I couldn't pass up melted and deepfried BRIE!! DH ordered the seafood crepe because it had scallops. He said it was good but he wished he'd ordered one of the Monte Cristo's. We all kind of shared a few bites around the table (DS and I actually traded 1 piece of each of our sandwiches). It was very good - WAAAY better than my local Bennigan's - not toooo breaded, not toooo fried. It was JUST right. :thumbsup2

Meanwhile, everybody back home kept posting on FB & texting us to ask us what we were going to do about hurricane Iselle. She was still heading straight for Hawaii on Friday. Well, we had bought some insurance for the flights but it wouldnt kick in and cover anything unless we were actually delayed. If we took advantage of the airline waiving their change fees wed void the insurance contract and they would pay nothing. We HAD to wait it out. Right after lunch I decided to leave the boys as we switched parks so I could go back to the room for awhile to try to figure out where we could go and where we would stay IF OUR FLIGHT WAS CANCELLED. I also needed to call the Super Shuttle ExecuCar van ride place and give them a heads up that we may not be going to the airport. I knew that VGC was booked solid already. So I needed to recharge my phone and also call DVC Member Services and Disneyland reservations to see what else may be open (on cash). DVC said they were waiving all penalties for refunding Aulani points and that if they were borrowed they would go back to where they came from which was good to hear. I also got the number of points required to stay at the other DL hotel properties WOW are they a LOT!! I mean like heart attack size A LOT!! :faint:

YIKES! I didnt want to have to borrow that many points they were twice as high as the Aulani points that wed get refunded IF it came to that point. Plus if we were going to use the insurance it would have to be on cash so we could get reimbursed. I also PMd and texted some of my DIS friends who work for DU to see if they had any suggestions or advice. This was just stuff I couldnt do in the parks. I was really bummed to miss out on a couple hours of my day but this hurricane problem was really weighing heavy on us. It was hard to enjoy myself. Still no official word from the airline either. I made lots of notes & got lots of prices but made no decisions. I ALMOST booked a room on cash at Paradise Pier but decided to wait to talk to DH. (If the flight DID go as scheduled then that would be another call Id have to make to cancel it.) I also went down to the front desk at VGC to talk to the CMs down there and explained the situation. They were all really nice, but the DVC side was completely booked there just wasnt anything to be done. A reg. hotel room would cost something like $600. YIKES!! No way we could do that! While I was doing all of this I also threw in a load of laundry. What can I say. :confused3

Some people eat when theyre worried I do housework. LOL. When that load of laundry was done drying I went to go back to join the boys in CA Adventure.

We rode RSR again and DH spied a Hidden Mickey on a wire on a pole right outside of the ride. We werent finding as many hidden Mickeys here as we do at home in WDW. We kept looking but just werent having a lot of luck finding them. OH and we also stopped to have pictures taken with Lightening McQueen. I cant remember what else we did but we kept moving and riding.

Finally the sun started going down gosh this day had gone by FAST! WHOOOSH!! We were almost of time!! We grabbed a quickie cheap dinner at some hot dog place (Award Wieners) that had a bunch of different hot dogs. Then we started working our way back over to the Pier side to ride the things we wanted to do in the dark with the lights on. We did CA Screamin and started to go to the Fun Wheel and JUST MISSED getting on the last ride before they shut it down in preparation for WOC. I mean we could SEE people getting on as we walked up and we got turned away as they put up the closed rope. We were SOOOO close!! :headache:

Bummer!!

One final look at the beautiful pier area all lit up with a train ready to launch on CA Screamin:

Now it was time to go back over to Disneyland to get some ice cream and watch the fireworks!! We stopped mid-way down on Main Street near the ice cream parlor after we got our ice cream thinking that would be the perfect spot. Its good in FL surely it would be good here too. Why go too deep into the park when thats all we were going to do before going back to the room to shower & pack (the flight was still saying on time). But in hindsight we shouldve gone a little further up the street. The fireworks didnt seem to be as high as they are at WDW (maybe because the castle is so much smaller?) and there were trees on the corners blocking a good part of our view. DOH!!!! DS was mad at us for stopping so far back. He kept saying we shouldve gone closer. WHO KNEW they wouldnt be so high and that they would SEEM like most of them were on the left rather than centered equally on both sides?! I swear they were lopsided with most of them on the left side!! (I guess DL regulars would know this stuff guess that was something I should have researched.) So for anybody else reading this who hasnt been yet but who is planning to go DONT STOP ½ WAY DOWN ON MAIN STREET!!! As you can see from many of my pictures theres a big honking tree on the corner by the hotdog shop that will block your view!! It also seemed like more people picked kids up to put on their shoulders here at DL which was another big view blocker. Again, maybe because the fireworks are so much lower (or the castle so much smaller)?! LOL. Anyway, mental note for next time!! Go all the way up to the square in front of the castle for the best view!!

Anal Annie · Aug 31, 2014

Hey folks I have a dumb question!! I know I've done this before but I'm having a brain fart moment and can't remember HOW!! I would like to update the first post with links to the various days as I add them but I can't figure out how to get the links to add for the individual posts!! :headache:

Can somebody clue an old gal in please?! THANKS!!

wdrl · Aug 31, 2014

Anal Annie said:
Hey folks I have a dumb question!! I know I've done this before but I'm having a brain fart moment and can't remember HOW!! I would like to update the first post with links to the various days as I add them but I can't figure out how to get the links to add for the individual posts!! Can somebody clue an old gal in please?! THANKS!!

1. Edit your first post with word/phrase tags for the additional days of your trip (DL Day 1, DL Day 2, Aulani Day 1, etc).

2. Create the additional post that you'll want to associate with each word/phrase tag.

3. Once the additional post is created, click on the post number that appears in the upper right hand corner of the post. This will open the post in a separate window on your computer.

4. Copy the entire URL address for that post.

5 Edit your first post. Highlight the word/phrase tag you want to associate with the additional post. Then, click on the Insert Link icon that appears on the top of the post dialogue box (it looks like a blue and green planet with a chain link). Another dialogue box will appear with "Please enter your URL of your link." Paste the URL for your additional post. Warning: The dialogue box has http:// already inserted; when you paste, be sure that you don't accidentally insert two http:// precursors.

That should take care of it.

wdrl · Aug 31, 2014

I fully agree that less than four nights is not enough to fully enjoy DLR. There is so much that is not in WDW (the Matterhorn, Radiator Springs, etc). And even for the rides that are on both coasts, like Its a Small World and Pirates of the Caribbean, there are so many subtle differences to check out.

There were several Hidden Mickeys in Radiator Springs. Did you check out the car hoods that were in the window of Ramone's? Each hood had at least one Hidden Mickey in its paint job.

Did you ever get to ride Mickey's Fun Wheel? I love that ride. Even though I know the cars don't swing more than 25 degrees off center, I was always convinced our car was this close to doing a full 360. We found out that if we rode the Fun Wheel early in the morning before the crowds appeared, we could sometimes ride a quarter or almost halfway round before the wheel was stopped to let others board.

Thanks for posting your photos. Gosh, I wish we had bought some VGC points when we first joined DVC in 2009!

Anal Annie · Aug 31, 2014

wdrl said:
1. Edit your first post with word/phrase tags for the additional days of your trip (DL Day 1, DL Day 2, Aulani Day 1, etc).

2. Create the additional post that you'll want to associate with each word/phrase tag.

3. Once the additional post is created, click on the post number that appears in the upper right hand corner of the post. This will open the post in a separate window on your computer.

4. Copy the entire URL address for that post.

5 Edit your first post. Highlight the word/phrase tag you want to associate with the additional post. Then, click on the Insert Link icon that appears on the top of the post dialogue box (it looks like a blue and green planet with a chain link). Another dialogue box will appear with "Please enter your URL of your link." Paste the URL for your additional post. Warning: The dialogue box has http:// already inserted; when you paste, be sure that you don't accidentally insert two http:// precursors.

That should take care of it.

I knew it was simple enough that I'd figured it out in the past - but it was escaping my pea brain today!!!

wdrl said:
I fully agree that less than four nights is not enough to fully enjoy DLR. There is so much that is not in WDW (the Matterhorn, Radiator Springs, etc). And even for the rides that are on both coasts, like Its a Small World and Pirates of the Caribbean, there are so many subtle differences to check out.

There were several Hidden Mickeys in Radiator Springs. Did you check out the car hoods that were in the window of Ramone's? Each hood had at least one Hidden Mickey in its paint job.

Did you ever get to ride Mickey's Fun Wheel? I love that ride. Even though I know the cars don't swing more than 25 degrees off center, I was always convinced our car was this close to doing a full 360. We found out that if we rode the Fun Wheel early in the morning before the crowds appeared, we could sometimes ride a quarter or almost halfway round before the wheel was stopped to let others board.

Thanks for posting your photos. Gosh, I wish we had bought some VGC points when we first joined DVC in 2009!

NO and NO!!! Missed the car hoods and missed getting on the Fun Wheel. :mad:

I remember being really scared on the Fun Wheel last time (it was still the sun wheel back then). They DO feel like they're moving a lot more than they really are!! But I still wanted to do it again. I think last time in 2005 I was just so taken by surprise at how much they moved. I thought I'd be more prepared for them this time. Guess we'll have to hit it again whenever we make it back one day.

jerseygal · Sep 1, 2014

GORGEOUS fireworks pics! :woohoo:

Makes me want to run back SOON! :thumbsup2

The MonteCristo looks SO DELIC! :banana:

Used to love going to Bennigans for the MonteCristo; our fav! This looks BETTER!.. ::yes::

Sad when the Bennigans we frequented closed up!

Anal Annie · Sep 4, 2014

We were up early to leave VGC by 7:00 for the airport!! Our flight is still showing as on time for 10:00!! Are we really going to fly into a hurricane!? Ummm. Yes, looks like we are!! We had heard on a lot of news reports how there had been a run on drinking water in Hawaii so after we got thru security I stopped and bought 3 large liter size bottles of water to pack into a carry-on to bring with us just in case.

I was really looking forward to this flight. We were booked on Hawaiian Airlines which is supposed to be really good and they still serve complimentary food!! :cool1:

We had used them inter-island before on previous trips but those are really short flights. I was looking forward to this flight because we had upgraded our seats to something they called extra comfort which meant we'd have 5 more inches of legroom, pillows & blankets, power outlets and priority boarding. Once we boarded we found that a LOT of other people must've taken advantage of the no fee waiver to change flights because our flight was maybe only about ½ full. It was so quiet!! DS and I were seated next to each other and DH was across the aisle in the middle & he had nobody in the other 3 seats adjacent to him so he was literally able to lay down! About 90 minutes or so before the end of the flight we started hitting a good bit of turbulence from the 2nd hurricane, Julio. We took some pictures out the window of what we thought might be him. The flight attendants said they didnt know what to expect it was a first for them to land in a storm like this too. As we approached Honolulu they were all looking out the windows at how choppy the ocean was. They said it was really noticeable how big the waves were (DS and I were on the land side so couldnt see the ocean as well cuz the plane was banking in the other direction by the time we got really low). Finally, we landed safe & sound!! YAY!! :dance3:

We made it!! ALOHA!!!

The weather didnt seem THAT bad. It wasnt raining and the sun appeared to be coming in & out. It was very windy which we expected. Coming from the east coast wed been thru our share of blizzards and tropical storms so this was no surprise. We gathered our luggage and schlepped over to the car rental shuttle. Easy peasy. 10 minutes later we were at Alamo picking up our rental car. I guess everybody else changing their flights worked in our favor NO LINES at the rental counter!! 10 minutes later we were on the road to Aulani!! A lot of stuff in Hawaii was closed for the day (schools etc) due to the storm so we hit no traffic. Not knowing exactly what the forecast was for the rest of the day or how long we had until the weather potentially got worse we decided to go ahead & stop at Target on the way to the resort to get some storm supplies (read: beer & booze). LOL. OH and some breakfast & sandwich stuff & some chocolate milk for DS. We were really glad that wed bought the 3 big bottles of water to bring with us at LAX as the only water left on the shelves was a couple bottles of berry flavored seltzer water. We also called home to let everyone know wed made it OK and we grabbed some lunch at the Pizza Hut in the Target since we were sort of in-between meal times. Figured this might be our last cheap meal for the rest of the week. :rolleyes:

We got to the resort around 3:00 and were whisked right inside to the lobby (I think they normally greet people outside but they had moved everything inside due to the wind). We were given leis and a glass of refreshing citrus flavored water then taken to the desk to get our room keys (we were told our room was ready).

At the check-in desk the CM said they were fully booked because a lot of people had delayed their departures due to hurricane Iselle. I mentioned that Id placed some room requests on our reservation & I asked if any of them could be met. The CM said Oh yes, youll be on the 16th floor in the Ewa tower. Well, it didnt click with me that she said Ewa not LONG WING of the Ewa so I was initially excited. Until we got to the 16th floor and I realized that our room number went in the other direction. Major bummer for a few minutes upon going into the room and seeing the parking garage directly below us...I took a couple of pictures before the room got junked up with luggage but none looking straight down. I didnt need that image in my photo albums. If you looked just straight out the view wasnt that bad. But we ended up not really spending any time on the balcony. Just nothing too exciting out there to look at maybe. :confused3

Turned out that DH had bought some bottled beer that needed a bottle opener and we discovered there wasnt one in the room so we called mousekeeping to get one brought up. That came really fast and as soon as the luggage came we put our groceries away and left to go explore the resort and get our bearings.

Despite the overcast sky and wind there were a few people in the pools. I heard that initially they were closing the beach & pool for the day but I guess when it didnt get as bad as they thought it might get they opened the pools. Of course the umbrellas were all secured closed and the lounge chairs on the beach were in large stacks (nobody was in the lagoon). We wandered thru the Olelo Room which was very cute they had it decorated with Hawaiian language words and pronunciations. I didnt have any plastic cups to mix drinks in so I ordered a drink in there so Id have a cup. There was a delightful bartender in there (but DOH I forget her name) that made me a good tropical drink with ginger in it. I kept thinking I would go back there sometime but never made it. But it was a cute place.

Since the reviews Id read for Monkey Pod were really favorable we decided to go there for dinner (that way wed have more nights to go back if we liked it enough) so we went online & made a reservation for later that evening. There were a fair amount of people waiting to get in when we got there so I was glad we made a reservation. We were seated promptly. DS and I both ordered the fish tacos and DH ordered the roasted brussel sprout pizza. The food was quite good and FWIW we DID like it enough to go back again but we never made it. Just ran out of time / days.

It was a pretty laid back evening. After we ate we just walked around the shopping center over there and looked at the other options for local dining & shopping then we went back to Aulani and walked around a little more (browsed in the shops to see what sort of stuff they had). We had had a pretty busy day and had another 3 hour time difference from CA to get used to so we called it a night and went to bed somewhere between 10 and 11:00.

ETA: I almost forgot - when we got ready for bed that night DS comes out the bathroom in a complete panic, hands clapped to the sides of his head, mouth hanging wide open, eyes bulging. He just discovered that he had left his retainers in their case ON THE AIRPLANE!!!!! :furious:

OMG. NOOOOO!!! For anybody out there who's lost a set of retainers you know that feeling!! His ortho had JUST told him a few days before we left that he could go to "nights only" with them but he had forgotten to wear them the night before 'cuz we were so exhausted. To make up for THAT he said he would just go ahead & wear them that day. Well, so Hawaiian Airline served lunch so he took them out. DOH!!! Of course, I had told him to just put them away right then but he waved me off "I got this Mom". Ummm. Yeah. Right. $600 later when we got home to order replacements because he has the invisaline ones 'cuz he's allergic to nickel. :faint:

Uggg. Never a dull moment with my (empty) wallet!!! I called the airline right away to talk to their lost & found dept. - told them the flight number & seat # etc. I called them again the next day too but they were never turned in. That flourescent green case was a goner.

California here we come! The White House goes to Disneyland and Aulani - Update 10/2

at least I KNOW I'm a kook...I just can't help it

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at least I KNOW I'm a kook...I just can't help it

at least I KNOW I'm a kook...I just can't help it

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at least I KNOW I'm a kook...I just can't help it

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Earning My Ears

Earning My Ears

at least I KNOW I'm a kook...I just can't help it

at least I KNOW I'm a kook...I just can't help it

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at least I KNOW I'm a kook...I just can't help it

at least I KNOW I'm a kook...I just can't help it

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at least I KNOW I'm a kook...I just can't help it

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at least I KNOW I'm a kook...I just can't help it