Half a Ton of Big Guys goes to Southern California

[Bloodhound]

JW is located downstairs by the rental car sign in...its a very impressive statue

 

[MAGICFOR2]

JW is located downstairs by the rental car sign in...its a very impressive statue

Thanks! I'll have to look for him next time!

Still waiting....

 

[Bloodhound]

Your welcome....it will be worth the out of the way trip to see it.

 

[Bloodhound]

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone....Im off to my sisters in Louisville for a couple days

 

[Minnie_Moo]

BH and DTD, I just found your trip report! Off to read now

 

[Bloodhound]

glad to have you aboard...I just got home from my shop till u drop weekend in Louisville and I have drooped lol

 

[Bloodhound]

The hoteL grounds were nice and far back off the road but our rooms werent ready till 3pm so we had alot of time before Our Whale watching excurtion at Dana's Point Warf. And head off to the Beach....my first site of the Great Pacific Ocean,,,, we drive down the ! state rd along the coast enjoying the drive taking in all the sights and I spot a pier and we pull over and walk over and see how far away it is and get back in a drive alittle ways farther and find Huntington Beach Pier and they had a nice parking area and alot of shops and resturaunts...we take off our shoes and get walking to the surf ....its a nice sunny warm day an the surf is roaring as every wave hits the beach ...we just has to go step in the surf and man was it cold an we got splashed...but it was really awesome.....sea gulls were everywhere begging for food much bigger than they looked on TV....we saw one that had a fish hook caught in his beack as we walked way out to the end of the pier which had a resturaunt that was very busy and fisherman on both sides up an down the board walk....there were some guys on small surf boards having alot of fun and we watch them awhile while on the pier they were doing pretty good job an had a few wipe outs. though..

..we decide to go back to the shopping area and find some food an notice that BJ's Pizza was not all that busy and go in..sat down an.we must have brought the crowd with us causr it filled up fast after that an they looked to be short handed ....it was finally time for a berr I ordered the smaller wich had 7 different small bears and the others ordered different typs while...we get a big order of nachos BJ's style which were awesome while waitting on the pizza....Donald do you remember the name of the pizza we ordered??? It was excellant an we were all hungry an didnt leave a scrap....lol

 

[MAGICFOR2]

You went to Huntington Beach That's my favorite - I love the area and it is so close to DL! Sounds like you had a great start to your day!

 

[Bloodhound]

Hi...yes it was a great place to walk around barefoot in the sand and watch the surfers and the waves crashing into the beach

 

[DonaldTDuck]

I checked online and came up with this for the pizza:
BJ’S BACON CHEESEBURGER
For the classic burger lover - ground Angus beef, red onions, Applewood smoked bacon, cheddar cheese, diced tomatoes and chopped dill pickles drizzled with our signature burger sauce.
It was goog. And the beers were all great. There was a stout in Pluto's sampler, and I knew he wouldn't care for it. Yea, bonus beer. And that appy was huge, enough for 4 Big Guys. BTW, the surf caught me from behind and soaked me as we were leaving the ocean. I've been in the Pacific many times, mostly Seal Beach and Waikiki, so I should have known better.
On to the whale watch. I had been very exscited to book this, I dreamed of Shamu swimming by. What we got were whales that looked incredibly like dolphins, but not as animated. I really don't mind, any excuse to be on a boat is a goog one. And met a lot of nice folks; you can't help but meet them if Goofy is there, he is a natural born social director.
Our plan all along had been to watch whales, then nead to Old World Restaurant for Octoberfest. But this trip would not go as planned on very many levels, and the morning Quizno adventure caused us to change our eating protocol, sending us to BJ's and making us not a bit hungry after sailing. We also needed to physically check in, so back to Anaheim and get a look at our rooms. I regret not taking pics inside because the rooms were fantastic. The fridge was about 54 inches tall, much larger than expected. The furniture was all new and the shower was great. And my request for first floor was honored. But the biggie was, when we opened the door, there was no odor, not from the carpet, not from the curtains, not from the bathroom. Now when we left....
As I mentioned, out meal plan for the day was shot, but, being Big Guys, we weren't done eating. About 10, we all started feeling it. So I brought up what had been in the back of my mind(a cold and dusty place) for a while, Bubba Gump's. Turned out it was the first restaurant on Garden Walk coming from our direction. And since we were walking, that was a big plus. We walked in and the place was packed. They gave us a beeper and promised it wouldn't be long. And it wasn't. We barely had time to go out front and harass the giant shrimp fuzzy(?) character when it went off(the beeper, not the shrimp). It's October 24 and they seated us outside at 10:30 at night. And it was gaauuugess.(In case you didn't know the southern spellun) Our server was a petite hotT college chick that might have been 4'10 and 85 pounds wringing wet. Kept mentioning her boyfriend for some reason .
She came to take our drink order, well they had a beer and a shot, so what could I do? Asked for Bourbon and she wasn't quite sure what it was. Thought she did, but asked if Jack Daniels would work. No honey, bourbon, as in Kentucky distilled, like oh, maybe Maker's Mark. What beer? I ordered a Blue Moon, then all the others did the same. We then serenaded her with Blue Moon of Kentucky, the Bill Monroe version. She looked stunned. More talk of boyfriend. Pluto, did we all get the bucket of boat trash? And I added on an ear of corn the size of Kansas. Left there fuller than a tick at a blood bank. We could hear but not see the fireworks at DL, Bubba's faces the wrong way. Then we saw dozens, perhaps hundreds of folks walking back to their resorts. Many with strollers and/or small kids. Walking further than we would have to, and we were out of the 'walking zone' on all the maps. Gave us hope as we headed in at 1 am to be at rope drop at 8 am.

 

[DonaldTDuck]

Just realized while writing that that we never introduced ourselves. Many of you read our WDW report last year, link below, and some are new friends from the DL pages who helped with our planning, but for all you newbies, We are the Big Guys.
First, by age AND beauty, c'est moi. I'm Donald, both in real life sometimes and at Disney. Also known as Tom.

I'm the one on the right. From last year. I did pretty goog avoiding the camera this trip.
Next up my lovely cohost for this trippie, and the baby of the foursome, is Pluto, AKA Robert.

The dog on the left.

Next is Mickey, the nice guy of the group, and full time female cm chatter, Jeff.

Oh this could go on all day.

And last, and certainly not least(he passed me in weight, so I could say most) Goofy. Goofy can and will talk to anyone, and makes everyone comfortable. We call him Tony IRL.

Can you see the resemblence? They are about the same height.
We also had friends drop by. I can't find any pics of Dalepool, but do of Nurse Darcy and her friend Tom, copied from one of her posts on here.

That's the other Tom in front. He and Darci(ain't she a purty li'l thang?) hopefully will drop by with comments as we get in deeper with this.
Glad to have you all (and y'all) aboard.

 

[Bloodhound]

Hi Tom we all did really enjoy Buba Gump's and the Blue Moon's I was the only one that had the Tialapia fish with mango salsa delish The ret of you had the boat trash. I really enjoyed the car ride down the coast to the whale watch at Dana's Point Warf...speeking to Darcy today she informed me of my problem with uploading my photo's I should use the window's installer instead of the downloadable cd with the camera...we shall see how this works cause I have lots of pictures to inset of the whale watch. Hound Out

 

[MAGICFOR2]

Great update, Donald - just need more pics! We ate at Bubba Gumps in Monterey - really good! Poor waitress - what were you big guys doing, singing songs about Kentucky to her?

"fuller than a tick at a blood drive"

 

[nurse.darcy]

Just realized while writing that that we never introduced ourselves. Many of you read our WDW report last year, link below, and some are new friends from the DL pages who helped with our planning, but for all you newbies, We are the Big Guys.
First, by age AND beauty, c'est moi. I'm Donald, both in real life sometimes and at Disney. Also known as Tom.

I'm the one on the right. From last year. I did pretty goog avoiding the camera this trip.
Next up my lovely cohost for this trippie, and the baby of the foursome, is Pluto, AKA Robert.

The dog on the left.

Next is Mickey, the nice guy of the group, and full time female cm chatter, Jeff.

Oh this could go on all day.

And last, and certainly not least(he passed me in weight, so I could say most) Goofy. Goofy can and will talk to anyone, and makes everyone comfortable. We call him Tony IRL.

Can you see the resemblence? They are about the same height.
We also had friends drop by. I can't find any pics of Dalepool, but do of Nurse Darcy and her friend Tom, copied from one of her posts on here.

That's the other Tom in front. He and Darci(ain't she a purty li'l thang?) hopefully will drop by with comments as we get in deeper with this.
Glad to have you all (and y'all) aboard.

There's my boys. They all were a lot of fun. I totally enjoyed hanging with them for a couple days. Cant wait till they get to the part where I can add in. . .lol.

 

[hlrababy]

Well, I finally made it over!!!

 

[DonaldTDuck]

I haven't heard from Pluto in a while, so I will forge ahead. We managed to get up Saturday by 7 and were at the gates by 7:45. We were on the Southern California City Pass, so we had to go to the ticket booth to swap our voucher for a 3 day parkhopper. We were a few minutes after 8 when we got in the back of the line, and wer in by 8:10. We headed straight to Peter Pan, but there was a veerryy long line, so we went on by to the next ride, which had no wait. If you know FL well, you know Mr. Toad's Wild Ride is next. So I got to do my must do for FL as the very first thing. Yea. On to Dumbo. Yep, the half a ton took up four elephants, but there was a shockingly short line, so what the hey. Besides, when I was a teenager, Muhummad Ali visited DL and declared Dumbo his favorite ride, so it must be manly. In spite of my fear of heights, I love this ride.
Next we head to Pinocchio's Adventure(yawn) and Snow White's Skerry Adventure. I did rub the apple. Made Goofy jump. hehehe. Working back to the right, we hit Alice in Wonderland, possibly the cutest ride in all the Land. Then I convinced(begged) one of the guys to ride the Mad Hatter Tea Party with me. I'm pretty sure it was Pluto, so if he ever returns from where ever he's hiding, we'll ask him. Then we for the first of many times this trip, we climb on the Matterhorn. This ride is worth the crosscountry trip by itself. It's not the best mountain, but it is the most unique. As we head into the mountain, the cute teenaged cm notices my tshirt, The Three Cabelleros and says it's her favorite movie. Before we got in the mountain, I'd told her of the ride at Mexico and she said she HAD to go the the World now. Kewl.
This first ride was on the old Tomorrowland side, although the ride is completely in FL now. Since the wait was so short, we immediately rode the FL side. It really is a step slower. But the drops are slightly higher I think. When we get off, it's not yet 10:00.
A short walk and we are at the place that we would return to about 10 times- Space Mountain. WDW should change the name of theirs to Lame Mountain until they can rehab it to where there's at least a comparison. From the time you cross over the ride in the line and see the handicapped car on the side with its separte loading and sideways conveyer belt to put it in queu as soon as it's loaded to the music as you take off to the smooth dark track, everything is fantastic. And since we'd picked up a fast pass on our way in, we know we'd be back that day.
We go over to Autopia, a much kewler ride than that thing at WDW. First of all, they give you a 'special' driver's license for Autopia. Secondly, the cars are cooler. Thirdly, the track is far more interesting, at least than the last time I rode Indy. And the ride uses a biofuel, and the whole area smells of french fries.
Breakfast had been at the motel's free bar, and I found it better than average, but lunch time is barreling at us. We decide to head to New Orleans Square, and the train is right there, so we hit the rails. The panoramas add nothing. I'd rather see trees. But everything is so packed in, they use them to hide attractions, or at least the back of attractions. Our first thought was to eat at the French Market, but 20,00 others thought of it first. We decide to head to the Hungry Bear, which by this point we all resemble. We all got burgers and fries and thought they were much better than our first meal of burgers and fries at WDW last year, at Backlot in MGM.
Nest time, PotC, HM/NBC, and how I learned to hate the DL version of my favorite ride at WDW.

 

[DonaldTDuck]

Great update, Donald - just need more pics! We ate at Bubba Gumps in Monterey - really good! Poor waitress - what were you big guys doing, singing songs about Kentucky to her?

"fuller than a tick at a blood drive"

I hope you're still aboard. I'm sorry for the delay. I leave for WDW in 2 weeks so I hope to get a few more up before then.

There's my boys. They all were a lot of fun. I totally enjoyed hanging with them for a couple days. Cant wait till they get to the part where I can add in. . .lol.

You can chime in at any time with anything you want to say. We need to do the World together sometime.

Well, I finally made it over!!!

Hi, hirababy. Welcome to our trippie. I hope to get on with it the next few days. For sure by the first.

 

[Bloodhound]

Hi DtD , yes I was the one that you pleaded to go on the teacups ride...nice installment. Thanks

 

[tinkermell]

I haven't heard from Pluto in a while, so I will forge ahead. We managed to get up Saturday by 7 and were at the gates by 7:45. We were on the Southern California City Pass, so we had to go to the ticket booth to swap our voucher for a 3 day parkhopper. We were a few minutes after 8 when we got in the back of the line, and wer in by 8:10. We headed straight to Peter Pan, but there was a veerryy long line, so we went on by to the next ride, which had no wait. If you know FL well, you know Mr. Toad's Wild Ride is next. So I got to do my must do for FL as the very first thing. Yea. On to Dumbo. Yep, the half a ton took up four elephants, but there was a shockingly short line, so what the hey. Besides, when I was a teenager, Muhummad Ali visited DL and declared Dumbo his favorite ride, so it must be manly. In spite of my fear of heights, I love this ride.
Next we head to Pinocchio's Adventure(yawn) and Snow White's Skerry Adventure. I did rub the apple. Made Goofy jump. hehehe. Working back to the right, we hit Alice in Wonderland, possibly the cutest ride in all the Land. Then I convinced(begged) one of the guys to ride the Mad Hatter Tea Party with me. I'm pretty sure it was Pluto, so if he ever returns from where ever he's hiding, we'll ask him. Then we for the first of many times this trip, we climb on the Matterhorn. This ride is worth the crosscountry trip by itself. It's not the best mountain, but it is the most unique. As we head into the mountain, the cute teenaged cm notices my tshirt, The Three Cabelleros and says it's her favorite movie. Before we got in the mountain, I'd told her of the ride at Mexico and she said she HAD to go the the World now. Kewl.
This first ride was on the old Tomorrowland side, although the ride is completely in FL now. Since the wait was so short, we immediately rode the FL side. It really is a step slower. But the drops are slightly higher I think. When we get off, it's not yet 10:00.
A short walk and we are at the place that we would return to about 10 times- Space Mountain. WDW should change the name of theirs to Lame Mountain until they can rehab it to where there's at least a comparison. From the time you cross over the ride in the line and see the handicapped car on the side with its separte loading and sideways conveyer belt to put it in queu as soon as it's loaded to the music as you take off to the smooth dark track, everything is fantastic. And since we'd picked up a fast pass on our way in, we know we'd be back that day.
We go over to Autopia, a much kewler ride than that thing at WDW. First of all, they give you a 'special' driver's license for Autopia. Secondly, the cars are cooler. Thirdly, the track is far more interesting, at least than the last time I rode Indy. And the ride uses a biofuel, and the whole area smells of french fries.
Breakfast had been at the motel's free bar, and I found it better than average, but lunch time is barreling at us. We decide to head to New Orleans Square, and the train is right there, so we hit the rails. The panoramas add nothing. I'd rather see trees. But everything is so packed in, they use them to hide attractions, or at least the back of attractions. Our first thought was to eat at the French Market, but 20,00 others thought of it first. We decide to head to the Hungry Bear, which by this point we all resemble. We all got burgers and fries and thought they were much better than our first meal of burgers and fries at WDW last year, at Backlot in MGM.
Nest time, PotC, HM/NBC, and how I learned to hate the DL version of my favorite ride at WDW.

Hmm? I'm assuming that you did not like the NBC version??? Blasphemy!!!

 

[DonaldTDuck]

Hmm? I'm assuming that you did not like the NBC version??? Blasphemy!!!

Now you know what happens when you assume. You make an astatstar out of u & me.