It's a Jolly Holiday with Larry--The Goble/Wilmot Holiday--Day Three

[rgoble5972]

CAST

Robin – 42 – Trip Report Writer, Hostess, Bringer of Butterfingers
Larry - 46 - Trip Report god, Weary Traveler, Stayer in Parks After Hours

Wednesday, October 19, 2005

“Excuse me. Could you please tell us where the restrooms are?”

This morning at 6:00 I noticed that they were running the Sun Wheel and the Maliboomer at California Adventure. I suppose they were doing their routine maintenance tests.

Every night with the turndown service, the housekeeping CM’s leave a schedule of the next day’s activities at the Grand Californian. Larry had noticed that one of the activities for today was an early morning Fitness Walk in California Adventure before the park was opened to the public. He thought it sounded like fun and he asked if I’d be interested in doing it with him. I thought it sounded neat too so we decided to give it a try.

Yup it sounded fun to me. I guess I was more attracted to the prospect of being in the park alone, rather than “Power Walking” but for anything fun there is a price to be paid. - LWW

The activity sheet said to meet at the Eureka Springs Health Club at 7:25, so we got breakfast in the lounge at 7:00 (I had half a breakfast, didn’t want to be sluggish on the walk –L) and then went downstairs to find the Health Club. We were following the signs out the south doors of the hotel when we met a woman in a jogging suit headed the other way. She asked us if we were looking for the Fitness Walk and, when we said “yes,” she told us we needed to meet at the hotel entrance to California Adventure.

I was slightly alarmed at her outfit, the whole thing reeked of Mrs. Fitness, “I do five miles before breakfast and then I go and train.” My outfit was more Mr. “I go for a bit of a walk in the park occasionally”. I was comforted in the belief that Robin has a working knowledge of CPR and other life saving techniques. - LWW

At the entrance to DCA we found CM’s Dave and Brian (or the Abbott and Costello of the Grand Californian, as Larry liked to call them). They explained a little bit about what to expect on the walk while we (there were 5 guests including Larry and me) signed a waiver relieving Disney of any responsibility whatsoever. (Oh right that’s good, Disney. Drag me from bed early, to go on a “Powerwalk” around the Park, and when I have a heart attack, it’s my fault!!!!-L.)

Dave and Brian explained that we would be walking approximately 2 miles. They reminded us that the parks at Disney have workers in them 24 hours a day so we’d have to be aware of the maintenance crews, watching for vehicles, hoses across the walkways, etc.

After everyone had signed in, Brian called security to come and let us in the park, and we were on our way. Larry and I walked with Brian a little ahead of the other group, which was led by Dave. Sure enough, there was quite a bit of work going on: trees and shrubs being pruned, walkways and benches being hosed off, lights being checked, etc. Apparently they finished their tests of the rides earlier however as none of them were running.

Brian said that he and Dave were kind of like the “cruise directors” for the hotel and that they arranged or supervised all the activities at the Grand Californian. Brian had come to Disneyland from Florida where he had been working at WDW.

We had a very enjoyable walk with Brian, talking about writing trip reports and Mouseplanet, and Disney in general. We walked at a brisk pace, covering the entire park and even doubling back to a few areas. Our route took us from the Grand Californian entrance south past the Redwood Creek Challenge Trail, around Paradise Pier, past the Pacific Wharf area, through A Bug’s Land and back out to the Sunshine Plaza, down the Hollywood Pictures Backlot and around past the Tower of Terror. Here we circled back through the Aladdin holding area, back out of the Backlot, through the Bay Area and back around the Grizzly River Run (via a back path that I hadn’t ever noticed or been on before), through Condor Flats, around the Sunshine Plaza and then back through the Flats to the Grand California entrance! Whew!

One of the cutest areas was the new-ish A Bug’s Land/ Flik’s Fun Fair area. Not having any small children, we had skipped this area when I was here with my family in December 2004. The design of the area was a very cute, larger-than-life, bug’s eye view complete with popsicle stick benches, a Kleenex box bathroom, cereal box entrance, juice box ride vehicles, and clover plants for shade. Even if you don’t have little kids, you should go and look around, because the theming is really well done.

As we went past Paradise Bay (the lake in the Paradise Pier area), Brian told us that Disney designed the Bay to be deep enough that it can hold its own water and all the water from Grizzly River Run which is drained each night so the path can be checked. That’s a lot of water to move (and just about as much water as poor Larry was drinking every day!).

You know what shocked me, was that the cynic in me always thought that it was people who looked after the parks, but I was so wrong. Honestly, no one is a bigger doubter than me, and so you can trust me. It was amazing. There was this big guy, who looked all mean, a security guard, and he was walking around with Pluto as a guard dog. Now I know that Pluto needs a walk n’all, but you would think that they would get a more scary one for the security detail.

Then there were the seven dwarfs. They were polishing brass door handles on the buildings and shops, well they were apart from Grumpy who was kinda shirking a little and moaning under his breath, and well as for Dopey, he was just flirting with Snow White, who was I think supposed to be bringing in Princess Costumes from a big Truck on Condor Flats to one of the shops, but she didn’t seem to be making much progress to me.

I had to laugh at Captain Hook, who was mowing the lawn, with one of those ride on machines, and a disabled sticker in the window, he was looking a bit grumpy too, probably because Mr. Smee was out on the lake fishing in his boat, I guess it was his day off and that left the gardening section short handed, (Sorry Captain Hook that’s a cruel joke!)

Minnie was nowhere to be seen, but Mickey was lauding it up with all the other suits, he had a big walkie-talkie and a nice tie on. He seemed to be in charge of preparations for a big private party later on, he was getting Donald and Daisy to put out some nice tables and chairs ready for a wedding or something. Gosh wouldn’t it be nice to marry at a Disney Park.

The cutest bit was watching Dumbo walk up to the lake and draw a trunk full of water and then hop and skip, over to the flower beds and then water the Roses. - LWW

Back at the gate, Dave called security again and they came and let us back out of the park. Brian said that they held the walks every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. I enjoyed the walk very much and would definitely do it again (and did, as it turns out).

We were done with the walk around 8:00 so we went back through the hotel and through Downtown Disney to the Magic Kingdom. There was no early entry this morning, so we found a bench at the west entrance of the esplanade and sat and talked till around 8:45. They began letting guests in at 8:30 so we let the bulk of the crowd go through before we walked over to the gates and walked through.

Once inside we headed over to the Disneyland: The First 50 Magical Years exhibit. They had lots of interesting models inside the building, including a replica of the Space Mountain track. We didn’t have a whole lot of time to look around as there was a film starting in just a few minutes, so we went inside the theater to watch that.

The film was hosted by Steve Martin (and Donald Duck) and it showed lots of the early rides that are no longer at Disneyland. It was neat seeing attractions that I remembered from my childhood (and some that were waaaaaaaaay before my time!).

After the film, we went to Adventureland and got Fast Passes for Indiana Jones for later and then hopped in the stand by line and rode with almost no wait. Well, except for the mile hike through the queue.

Next, we went to the Haunted Mansion and took another ride. Every year for the Holiday Haunted Mansion makeover, they come up with a new gingerbread creation for the large table in the ballroom. This year the gingerbread house is the man-eating wreath. They also do a smaller gingerbread “house” which they put on display at the French Market in New Orleans square (and when I say “smaller” I mean “still ridiculously huge.”). This year it is a very impressive Jack Skellington statue.

Since we were close to Critter Country after we finished the HM, we made our way to Winnie the Pooh (Larry has a thing about Pooh!) and rode that. I had heard that as a nod to the Country Bear Jamboree, which the Winnie the Pooh ride replaced, they put the heads of some of the characters from the Country Bear Jamboree in the last room of the ride. Apparently you have to look behind your car (excuse me, I mean “beehive”) to see them. Alas, we weren’t able to spot them. It took me several rides through the Winnie the Pooh ride at WDW before I spotted the picture of Mr. Toad handing over the deed to the building, so maybe I just need to ride it again and keep looking. Not an easy task what with Larry’s aversion to Pooh. You gotta be sad to lose the Country Bear Jamboree, I mean where else can you get such quality entertainment, moose heads on the wall and everything. I mean, you gotta like that southern entertainment. - L

It was now about 10:30 and Larry was in need of some coffee (and was being very brave about not having any yet this morning), so we went into the River Belle Terrace for some breakfast for Larry (okay, I might have managed to eat a cinnamon roll). Larry picked up the food while I ran to BTMRR to pick up some Fast Passes. Unfortunately, they didn’t have the FP machine turned on, so I got us another one for Indiana Jones instead then went back to the restaurant. (Actually I like the breakfasts in there, you can get the normal American stuff, pancakes, sausages and strangled eggs, MMMMM, My kind of food. – L. )

After (second) breakfast, we rode Big Thunder and then walked through Fantasyland to Toontown to ride the Roger Rabbit Cartoon Spin (something I had never done). This was probably our longest wait of the trip--I’ll bet we were in the queue for 20 minutes or so.

Now, maybe I didn’t understand the ride because I’ve never seen the movie or maybe we were just spinning too fast for me to pick up on the plot, but this ride seemed very disjointed to me. I’m not saying the ride wasn’t fun--goodness knows I was laughing hard enough (or maybe I was just giddy from all the spinning), but all the scenery was just a blur to me and I had a hard time getting anything out of the ride except for snatches of some dark alleyways and something about turpentine.

I think the turpentine bit was about the bad guys, dunno who they are though, who were going to obliterate the cartoon characters by dissolving the acetate film with the turpentine mixture. I mean how can you say Disney isn’t educational when they run basic chemistry classes on the rides? - LWW

After we stopped spinning, we went back to Tomorrowland to board the monorail. While we were on the monorail platform we looked through the construction barriers (they had peep-holes) at the work they’re doing on the old Submarine ride. It looks like the new Finding Nemo attraction is going to utilize the old tracks.

I took a photo of Robin, with her head stuck through the observation hole in the construction wall. And it looks like she has been mounted by the Duke of Sutherland and put on the wall of his death museum in Golspie, next to the Giraffe heads and the Dik Diks. – LWW (Yes, except that in my picture I’m smiling—the dead giraffe and the dik diks, not so much! -- RG)

We took the monorail to Downtown Disney and walked back to the Grand Californian. We went to the lounge for a pseudo-lunch/snack and then headed to DCA to try and get in to see the 2:00 production of Aladdin, stopping to get a Fast Pass for Soarin’ Over California on the way.

We got to the Hyperion at 1:45 and all the preferred seating was full. In fact, it looked like the whole theater was going to be full but a CM said we could wait in the overflow line to see if they had any seats left over, so that’s what we did. Larry admired my line pushing ability but I really don’t see how me raising my hand and saying “party of two” (well, perhaps I was a bit more aggressive than that) to get in to the theater is any different than him jumping up and down and waving his arms around wildly to get picked to be a Beet or a Stunt Show participant. And, hey, it got us in to the show. Granted, we were up in the highest balcony, but we didn’t have to wait in line for an hour either. (That’s true, but I was rather alarmed at the oxygen masks in the seat arms.-L.)

The show was over at 3:00 and we decided to take a quick ride on the Tower of Terror while we were so close.

On the way back up the Backlot, we stopped in the Animation Building and went to see Turtle Talk with Crush. Dude! The show was very cute and it was neat to see the ways he interacted with the audience. (It was awesome Dude-ette, totally Crazy Man..)

Next, we stopped to use our Soarin’ Fast Passes, once again riding on the front row. I really like the music from the ride and we stopped in the gift shop across from the ride to see if they had the music on CD. We weren’t able to find the music, but Larry bought a Soarin’ Over California pin with my name on it for me. Is he amazing, or what? (Awww thanks R. – L.)

We went back to the hotel around 4:30 in order to rest a bit and for me to update my trip report notes.

Larry went to the lounge around 5:30 to pick up some drinks for us. Tonight we had reservations at the Blue Bayou for 7:00 so we got ready for dinner (looking very sharp, I might add, with Larry in dress slacks (I think she means a nice pair of trousers –L) and shirt and me in a dress and heels) and left for the Magic Kingdom at 6:30.

The park was pretty crowded with people waiting for the parade to start at 7:00, but we made it through the crowd and to the Blue Bayou by 6:45. We were seated just a few minutes after 7:00.

For an appetizer, we shared the andouille sausage stuffed mushrooms (very tasty). Larry had the Roast Prime Rib (sans the horseradish sauce) with the clam chowder to start while I had the creole salmon fillet with the vegetable gumbo. Larry tried my gumbo and liked it better than his chowder but, even though I sincerely offered it, wouldn’t take mine. Is he a nice date or what? (I try my best Robin, I try my best.)

We had a very nice meal watching the Pirates of the Caribbean boats float by. We were both way too full for dessert although we saw the dessert tray on the way out and they all looked delicious. We finished our meal around 8:15 and stepped out of the restaurant and into the park which had closed at 8:00 tonight.

Now you may recall that it was Larry’s idea to do the Fitness Walk in DCA this morning because he though it would be neat to get into the park before the official opening time. Well tonight was when I realized that this was an ongoing thing with Larry--being somewhere he wasn’t supposed to be after hours. I’m not sure if this is some kind of residual latent tendency from a trouble youth or some manifestation of a rebellion against authority (more likely, it’s just an attempt to break away from that stiff upper lip, uptight British mold!), but when we left the Blue Bayou, Larry suggested that we have a walk around the park “until they throw us out.”

Actually, I don’t think Disney ever “throws you out.” I think they just politely, albeit strongly, suggest that its closing time and you should leave. However, since it was such a nice evening and we were both very full from dinner, a walk around a quiet Magic Kingdom sounded ideal.

We left the Blue Bayou and New Orleans Square and walked through Critter Country all the way to the dead end at the gift shop after the Winnie the Pooh ride. We found that a good strategy for looking innocent when wandering around the more remote areas of the park when we met CM’s was to inquire of them about the nearest location of a restroom. Also, given Larry’s present condition with his diabetes and his kidneys, it was timely and useful to know! Yup that’s true, I think I’m pretty cognizant with pretty much all of the WC’s in the Disneyland Resort – L.

We doubled back through Critter Country and walked along the edge of the Rivers of America into Frontierland. From there, we took the back path around Big Thunder Mountain, past Big Thunder Ranch and into Fantasyland. We walked through the castle into the hub of Main Street and were going back up the path alongside the castle that leads to Snow White’s grotto when we met a Security Cast Member with her patrol dog/hell beast coming the opposite way! (This one sure wasn’t Pluto.!-L) We decided that we had probably stayed in the outskirt areas long enough if they were finishing their security sweeps, so I showed the Snow White and the Seven Dwarf statues to Larry (and told him the story of how the carvings were a gift from Italy but how they had made Snow White and the Dwarves all the same height so Disney put Snow White higher than the dwarves and used forced perspective to create the illusion that she was taller), and we started back toward the hub again.

I have to admit that Robin is right, I do have a bit of thing about being in the parks after/before hours, but that’s when they are at there nicest, How can you enjoy them when you can’t see anything for all the people. There is so much detail in the parks, a story in every window frame, every doorway and every flowerbed. Honestly I would suggest that everyone should hang around at least once during each trip. You will thank me for the suggestion when you have done it, I promise. LWW

On the way towards Main Street, a nice Cast Member asked if we wanted our picture made in front of the castle and we said yes. We continued down Main Street, which still had quite a few shoppers, and walked back to the hotel.

We got back to the GC at 9:00 and, given our tiredness level from our early morning Fitness Walk and our late night security breech stroll, had a few desserts from the lounge and then called it a night around 10:00.

 

[Linxzy]

*bump*