franandaj
I'm so happy, I could BOUNCE!
- Joined
- Nov 15, 2009
- Messages
- 37,723
Opening Day
We had a great day at the previews. I was happy with the amount of rides that we got on and everything, however today would prove a little less successful. Sorry about the long drama, but it gives context to our not so magical day.
We woke up opening day with all the best intentions, Fran wanted some special merchandise that was going to go on sale at 12 noon. We had planned to leave at 9AM like we had done two days before, but a bit of a wrench got thrown into our plans.
As you may know we manage a few apartment buildings that we own. What I failed to mention in the last post was that the day before our preview day, the unit we used to live in had a relapse of an ongoing problem of a back up in their bathroom. We had sent a plumber out to take a look, the morning we were at the park. While we were enjoying the AC in the Mercantile, I got a text from our tenant that the tub was backing up again, after the initial plumber left. It was pretty late in the afternoon so the plumbing service said they would send someone out the next morning.
We aren't quite sure what the second plumber did because they didn't call us while on-site (strike 1), also there was spillout through the clean out valve that they "don't clean up", and they did not replace stopper on the clean out valve (strike 2). Well that changed our plans for Thursday afternoon. Without going into great detail, we ended up removing 50 or so soiled pavers from the patio area (to deal with later). They weren't cemented in or anything, but Fran and I had put them in 20 or so years ago, so they had a bit of sediment that had "cemented" them together. And then we cleaned away any residual mess on the concrete. Let's just say it was a somewhat exhausting and disgusting way to spend an afternoon/early evening.
We had picked up a meal at some fast food restaurant before we started working so once we got back home, I wasn't hungry. I just wanted to get cleaned off. After a shower, we ate our Caramel apple from the day before.
But let's backtrack a little, when we were working in the tenant's yard, moving the pavers, the tenant saw us and waved on her way to her car. You wouldn't think she had any earth shattering news that we didn't know. Remember the plumber never called us? Well they did call us when they arrived around 9:45AM and no one was home, but no word after they got in to check out the problem.
After my shower and caramel apple, I texted her that we cleaned the yard up and would finish in the future, and did the plumber ever get back to you? She sent the following:
"Yes they came at 1030 when I was home and said there is a major issue with the mainline and will need to dig under the master bedroom to get to the problem. He said he was going to call Fran. So this back up will continue to happen unless that is fixed. They will have to dig through the master bedroom floor, "break concrete" is what he said."
Say what? You didn't think to talk to us about this when you saw us earlier?????
That was strike 3 for the plumber. They want to destroy the master bedroom floor of one of our highest income generating units, and we don't even get a phone call!
I went to bed and Fran started looking online for a new plumber. After all we were leaving at 9AM. Right?
I kept that faith even at 7:14AM opening day when I sent this text to Jill and Jenny:
"We're going to try and leave right around the same time as Wednesday. This will be a much more abbreviated day. Just shopping at noon, Guardians and corn/cheese dogs."
After all, we (Jenny, Jill, Michael, Fran and I) had dinner plans that night. Sort of a planned potluck where everyone was making something, and that started at 5PM.
I got up and dressed, fed the cats, made coffee, everything I would normally do. And then I went to see how Fran was doing on getting up. And at 8:38AM, this reality set in, when I sent this text to Jill and Jenny.
"We aren't leaving anytime soon. Fran is still asleep, and I can't get her to stay awake."
It was finally 10:15 before she was awake and dressed. The prior evening, she had sent an email to the plumbing service she found online, but they didn't reply. She called them and set up an afternoon appointment with the tenants, and then we were ready to go. Only an hour and a half late.
We stopped for Ham and Cheese Croissants at our favorite donut store, and may have picked up a few sweet items as well. And then we were on our way, finally.
While we were driving, the plumber from the day before called to give us an update. He called Fran's phone (which has bad sound), and she couldn't hear him. We asked him to call back on my phone, and he said he was driving too and couldn't write down the number. He asked us to call him back when neither of us were driving. Strike 4. I doubt he realizes that he was the final straw in losing a 20+ year customer for the company. A week later he still has not called back.
Anyways back to the fun!
And here we are approaching the turnstiles for the Grand reopening of Disneyland!!!!
The train! I must ride this at some point!
Being back on Main Street is such a lovely feeling!
So by this time it was about quarter to 12. What Fran didn't realize was that when you want Disney merch, the early bird gets the worm. With limited entry into shops, there was a virtual queue formed, we were pretty far down the list.
We didn't know how long the wait would be, so I didn't want to get in any ride queues in case we were called back sooner rather than later. We waited in the shade and I worked on the TR on my tablet. Unfortunately she forgot about the fervor of Disney Fans, and by the time we were called most, most of the things she wanted were sold out.
After our unsuccessful shopping attempt we meandered over to New Orleans Square. I had read online about the fate of the Old Dress Shop. It is going to be converted to a Princess and the Frog themed QS. They had dressed up the space a bit so it didn't look nearly as sad.
The other unfortunate thing was that the day was proving to be very hot. Even though we were waiting in the shade, I was starting to feel a little queasy. As soon as I started to feel queasy, I started pounding back the water. I always carry a refillable bottle with me, and it's so nice to see more and more filling stations around the parks. However in 90° heat, nothing was helping. It was after 1PM so we could have park hopped over to DCA, but the idea of a Corn/Cheese Dog actually made me a little nauseous. I considered ordering a Dole Whip but with the hour long experience a couple days before, we passed on that too. So pretty much all our plans for the day were a bust.
Fran asked if we could roll through World of Disney on our way out, and here we finally had some success. I found a water bottle that I will use exclusively for the parks.
I did get some dish towels.
And I got this really cute T-shirt!
Pretty soon we were on the way home only to turn around and head back out to Jenny's. No pics from that night, we just had a good food and good times with friends.
Since this was such a sorry update, I'll include this little bonus from my Birthday. The reason I didn't choose to celebrate my birthday at the park, was that at the time I decided on how I would celebrate, there was barely a hint that they might open up. It was mid March when I decided it would be dinner at Del Frisco's. First there were four of us, then five, and finally six. Jill flew in for the weekend so that we could have fun and be almost normal. We met at the restaurant and decided to order Family Style so that all of us could have lots of different flavors.
I started off with my Belvedere Gibson Up. I have missed these!
I also brought some of the wines from my cellar. We only ended up drinking two of these amongst our party.
They decanted the wine for us.
We started with two lettuce wedges split in half.
Fran got three orders of the Bacon au Poivre for the table.
So yummy!
I don't remember if we split three orders of Lobster Bisque, but everyone had some.
Look at all that Lobster!
Then it was time for the Main Course! We ordered two of these Ribeyes.
Creamed Corn
Au Gratin Potatoes
Creamed Spinach
And our table
To say that this was delicious would be an understatement! This was my first swanky dinner since the pandemic started and my first dinner with a bunch of friends at a restaurant! The side dishes and especially the steaks were absolutely wonderful! The first time I had a Del Frisco's steak, my tastebuds had never experienced such joy. This was Leonard's first time, and he also said that he's never had a steak so tasty. Their rub is just phenomenal. I can't wait to go back again! I did pace myself, we had a lot of starters, and wanted to save some room.
The carnage
I ordered the Butter Cake which is the most luscious dessert that I have had in a long long time! It is crispy on the outside and soft and moist on the inside. The ice cream and whipped cream compliment the cake perfectly.
You may see a slice of cheesecake in the back ground. I tasted it, but nothing compared to my beloved butter cake.
Not even this Chocolate Mousse.
And I took this obligatory shot of the cheesecake.
It was a super fun night with friends!
I promise our next day at the park is better!
We had a great day at the previews. I was happy with the amount of rides that we got on and everything, however today would prove a little less successful. Sorry about the long drama, but it gives context to our not so magical day.
We woke up opening day with all the best intentions, Fran wanted some special merchandise that was going to go on sale at 12 noon. We had planned to leave at 9AM like we had done two days before, but a bit of a wrench got thrown into our plans.
As you may know we manage a few apartment buildings that we own. What I failed to mention in the last post was that the day before our preview day, the unit we used to live in had a relapse of an ongoing problem of a back up in their bathroom. We had sent a plumber out to take a look, the morning we were at the park. While we were enjoying the AC in the Mercantile, I got a text from our tenant that the tub was backing up again, after the initial plumber left. It was pretty late in the afternoon so the plumbing service said they would send someone out the next morning.
We aren't quite sure what the second plumber did because they didn't call us while on-site (strike 1), also there was spillout through the clean out valve that they "don't clean up", and they did not replace stopper on the clean out valve (strike 2). Well that changed our plans for Thursday afternoon. Without going into great detail, we ended up removing 50 or so soiled pavers from the patio area (to deal with later). They weren't cemented in or anything, but Fran and I had put them in 20 or so years ago, so they had a bit of sediment that had "cemented" them together. And then we cleaned away any residual mess on the concrete. Let's just say it was a somewhat exhausting and disgusting way to spend an afternoon/early evening.
We had picked up a meal at some fast food restaurant before we started working so once we got back home, I wasn't hungry. I just wanted to get cleaned off. After a shower, we ate our Caramel apple from the day before.
But let's backtrack a little, when we were working in the tenant's yard, moving the pavers, the tenant saw us and waved on her way to her car. You wouldn't think she had any earth shattering news that we didn't know. Remember the plumber never called us? Well they did call us when they arrived around 9:45AM and no one was home, but no word after they got in to check out the problem.
After my shower and caramel apple, I texted her that we cleaned the yard up and would finish in the future, and did the plumber ever get back to you? She sent the following:
"Yes they came at 1030 when I was home and said there is a major issue with the mainline and will need to dig under the master bedroom to get to the problem. He said he was going to call Fran. So this back up will continue to happen unless that is fixed. They will have to dig through the master bedroom floor, "break concrete" is what he said."
Say what? You didn't think to talk to us about this when you saw us earlier?????
That was strike 3 for the plumber. They want to destroy the master bedroom floor of one of our highest income generating units, and we don't even get a phone call!
I went to bed and Fran started looking online for a new plumber. After all we were leaving at 9AM. Right?
I kept that faith even at 7:14AM opening day when I sent this text to Jill and Jenny:
"We're going to try and leave right around the same time as Wednesday. This will be a much more abbreviated day. Just shopping at noon, Guardians and corn/cheese dogs."
After all, we (Jenny, Jill, Michael, Fran and I) had dinner plans that night. Sort of a planned potluck where everyone was making something, and that started at 5PM.
I got up and dressed, fed the cats, made coffee, everything I would normally do. And then I went to see how Fran was doing on getting up. And at 8:38AM, this reality set in, when I sent this text to Jill and Jenny.
"We aren't leaving anytime soon. Fran is still asleep, and I can't get her to stay awake."
It was finally 10:15 before she was awake and dressed. The prior evening, she had sent an email to the plumbing service she found online, but they didn't reply. She called them and set up an afternoon appointment with the tenants, and then we were ready to go. Only an hour and a half late.
We stopped for Ham and Cheese Croissants at our favorite donut store, and may have picked up a few sweet items as well. And then we were on our way, finally.
While we were driving, the plumber from the day before called to give us an update. He called Fran's phone (which has bad sound), and she couldn't hear him. We asked him to call back on my phone, and he said he was driving too and couldn't write down the number. He asked us to call him back when neither of us were driving. Strike 4. I doubt he realizes that he was the final straw in losing a 20+ year customer for the company. A week later he still has not called back.
Anyways back to the fun!
And here we are approaching the turnstiles for the Grand reopening of Disneyland!!!!
The train! I must ride this at some point!
Being back on Main Street is such a lovely feeling!
So by this time it was about quarter to 12. What Fran didn't realize was that when you want Disney merch, the early bird gets the worm. With limited entry into shops, there was a virtual queue formed, we were pretty far down the list.
We didn't know how long the wait would be, so I didn't want to get in any ride queues in case we were called back sooner rather than later. We waited in the shade and I worked on the TR on my tablet. Unfortunately she forgot about the fervor of Disney Fans, and by the time we were called most, most of the things she wanted were sold out.
After our unsuccessful shopping attempt we meandered over to New Orleans Square. I had read online about the fate of the Old Dress Shop. It is going to be converted to a Princess and the Frog themed QS. They had dressed up the space a bit so it didn't look nearly as sad.
The other unfortunate thing was that the day was proving to be very hot. Even though we were waiting in the shade, I was starting to feel a little queasy. As soon as I started to feel queasy, I started pounding back the water. I always carry a refillable bottle with me, and it's so nice to see more and more filling stations around the parks. However in 90° heat, nothing was helping. It was after 1PM so we could have park hopped over to DCA, but the idea of a Corn/Cheese Dog actually made me a little nauseous. I considered ordering a Dole Whip but with the hour long experience a couple days before, we passed on that too. So pretty much all our plans for the day were a bust.
Fran asked if we could roll through World of Disney on our way out, and here we finally had some success. I found a water bottle that I will use exclusively for the parks.
I did get some dish towels.
And I got this really cute T-shirt!
Pretty soon we were on the way home only to turn around and head back out to Jenny's. No pics from that night, we just had a good food and good times with friends.
Since this was such a sorry update, I'll include this little bonus from my Birthday. The reason I didn't choose to celebrate my birthday at the park, was that at the time I decided on how I would celebrate, there was barely a hint that they might open up. It was mid March when I decided it would be dinner at Del Frisco's. First there were four of us, then five, and finally six. Jill flew in for the weekend so that we could have fun and be almost normal. We met at the restaurant and decided to order Family Style so that all of us could have lots of different flavors.
I started off with my Belvedere Gibson Up. I have missed these!
I also brought some of the wines from my cellar. We only ended up drinking two of these amongst our party.
They decanted the wine for us.
We started with two lettuce wedges split in half.
Fran got three orders of the Bacon au Poivre for the table.
So yummy!
I don't remember if we split three orders of Lobster Bisque, but everyone had some.
Look at all that Lobster!
Then it was time for the Main Course! We ordered two of these Ribeyes.
Creamed Corn
Au Gratin Potatoes
Creamed Spinach
And our table
To say that this was delicious would be an understatement! This was my first swanky dinner since the pandemic started and my first dinner with a bunch of friends at a restaurant! The side dishes and especially the steaks were absolutely wonderful! The first time I had a Del Frisco's steak, my tastebuds had never experienced such joy. This was Leonard's first time, and he also said that he's never had a steak so tasty. Their rub is just phenomenal. I can't wait to go back again! I did pace myself, we had a lot of starters, and wanted to save some room.
The carnage
I ordered the Butter Cake which is the most luscious dessert that I have had in a long long time! It is crispy on the outside and soft and moist on the inside. The ice cream and whipped cream compliment the cake perfectly.
You may see a slice of cheesecake in the back ground. I tasted it, but nothing compared to my beloved butter cake.
Not even this Chocolate Mousse.
And I took this obligatory shot of the cheesecake.
It was a super fun night with friends!
I promise our next day at the park is better!
Last edited:
Sorry to hear that.
