Lesson learned. Need more days in Disney!!! Aug 2010 (NEW 1/20-COMPLETE)

[Dina Monster]

I'll wait patiently...

 

[YukiPhnx]

If this is an acronym for bad language, I'm not able to figure out it.

ETA: Nevermind. Google is an amazing thing.

Do you updates in Word Yuki, then copy them into the Reply window when you're ready to post. You can still add smilies or other formatting stuff before you submit it. It avoids a lot of

I shall do that from now on!!!

Google SURE is an amazing thing. I usually don't use such hard language, but after losing my entry TWICE.....There's no other way for me to express it.

I hate when that happens! It fits with your TR title though , "Lesson Learned"

It sure does!

I'll wait patiently...

Awww, thanks Dina!

 

[dizneeat]

I was working on my next update, and was close to finishing when I realized I had too many pictures, so I had to split the update. I copied the last part and hit submit, but the Dis had signed me out, so I needed to sign in again. And what do you know, I lost everything I had typed, except for that last little part.

Sooo, after getting mad and angry at myself for knowing better than to sign in before going back and copying my whole entry, I started to work on it again.

But internet explorer crashed.

FML. I guess some higher power just doesn't want me to update tonight. Hopefully I can get it up by this weekend.

Been there, Yuki, been there! But haven't we all ..........

Sorry you lost your update. But like someone else said - do them in word, at least all your typing will at least be saved!

It fits with your TR title though , "Lesson Learned"

So true!

 

[englishrose47]

I wood do my Updates in word and save them if I knew how2011 is my year for learning how to post links in my siggie and my TRs I have over 11 months to accomplish that!!!

 

[jenbear123]

That has happened to me way too many times to count. Now I always save it in wordpad or something similar. Especially when I don't have time to finish the update all at once. The worst is to walk away from your computer for a while or refresh the page by accident!!! We're mostly patient people so we'll be here when you post

 

[YukiPhnx]

Chapter 15a. Day 3 pt.4- Hollywood, here I come!

After my super long absence due to internet frustrations, I’m back! This time, I typed this up in word. I learned my lesson! Ok, let’s finally get this update done already!

After our lovely rest at Pop, we headed for the bus stop taking us to DHS around 7:30pm. I had planned for us to catch the 2nd showing of Fantasmic, at 10pm!!! Hoping the crowds will be greatly reduced by then.

I cannot stress how much I LOVED the location of our room. We were on the 2nd floor of the 70s building with the Mickey phone, right around the corner from the stair case behind it. It was SUCH A GREAT location! Around the corner from the Hippy Dippy pool and short walk away from Everything Pop and the bus stops. In addition to the extra quiet of being in a building without a pool, we faced the lake, which was even quieter. The 2nd floor was so perfect for us because we didn’t have to wait for an elevator, or drag ourselves up 4 flights of stairs. At the end of every night, I would rave about how much I loved our location. I’ll definitely be requesting rooms around the same area for my next trip. I don’t think there’s a need to pay more for the preferred room if you’re worried about distance.

Oh ya, we were heading to DHS! When we passed the turnstiles, my heart just FILLED with joy. I know for many others, it’s the Magic Kingdom that gives them THAT feeling. For me, it’s DHS. Just….that pure joy I get when I walk down Hollywood boulevard, looking at all there is to see, seeing the hat at the end of the park. There’s a perpetual smile on my face and just an incredible good feeling fills me up. I don’t think there’s anything I DON’T like about DHS.

Here are some(many) photos of our walk towards ToT. We were planning to get some rides in before the show. It had just rained a little bit, so the sky was a yellow-ish dull colour that I loved. Felt like a flashback scene where I’m being transported back in time to the height of twinkle town with all the glamour and the glitz.

Our first glimpse of the Hat!

At last, the Tower of Terror!!!! Oooooh. I thought the sky’s colour was such a perfect backdrop for the hotel.

We took a look at the standby time. It was 40 mins! Normally, the good planner in me would’ve refused to get in line. For reasons unknown, we decided to join the line.

I love this photo. The hotel through the thick neglected plants of the grounds.

Right after taking that last picture, Andrew’s stomach started to feel uneasy. We blame the milkshake from Ghirardelli’s. We decided to get out of line, despite knowing onlookers would label us as scaredy-cats! I know I would.
After a quick bathroom break, we decided to explore the stores before getting back in line. At this point, I texted Danica (ZeroToHero) to let her know we were in the park. We had arranged to try to meet up for Fantasmic that night. Her brother was getting tired, so her family was already on their way out of the park. Oh wells, we always have other trips to meet!

We walked back to Hollywood blvd and got our photo taken by photopass.

We lingered a while in Villains in Vogue. This was one of my favourite stores on my last trip. I loved how villain themed all the merchandise was. I bought an interactive picture book about the top villains in here! Unfortunately…..I was less than pleased on this trip. Most of it was taken over by Vinylmation.

The most villain-like merch in there was Nightmare before Christmas stuff.

Because I wasn’t able to meet up with Danica, I decided to take a photo tribute for her!

I remember Lou bought her this Zero plush on THEIR 3rd anniversary trip together.

We decided to try again for ToT, but this time the standby was 80 mins! No way hose. We headed towards RnRc to see if we would have better luck over there.

Ooooh, the Tower at night.

The guitar all lit up!

The wait for RnRc wasn’t much better, it was 60 mins. So we decided to just rest a bit before trying ToT again. I took this time to write down notes of our adventure so far. Thank goodness for Andrew’s constant picture taking, my notes aren’t as thorough as I’d like.

By this point, it was 8:45pm. We had hoped most people watching the 1st showing would already be in line, which would free up the lines for the rides. ToT was at a 40 min wait again. We decided to chance it. We noticed the line moved MUCH faster than 40 minutes. More like 20 minutes! I guess they hadn’t updated the time yet. I know on one of my many rides on ToT, I was given the card thingy for the standby times. I was pretty excited about that!

Continued in next post.

 

[YukiPhnx]

Chapter 15b. Day 3 pt.4- Tower of Terror? You mean, of AWESOME!
Ooooh, out of order!

All old and stuff.

We were very happy about finding the hidden Mickey in the library. We were right next to it!

We read the Hidden Mickeys book before getting on this ride, so we were trying to find the one on the wall in the boiler room. Even after 7 rides, we weren't able to find it! Well, here are some photos of the boiler room anyways.

I love how some of tha coals are still "glowing", like they're still alive. Some people may think there's nothing to see here, but there are so many details! In contrast to wait Lia (__disneygirl) always says, you actually have to look DOWN here to see the coolness. All those tools and coals and rusty pipes.

When we were close to getting sorted into those numbers in front of the elevator, we spoke to a very eloquent sounding little girl. I think she was about...10-11yrs old. I was eating my dried apple rings while in line, and she saw me eating them and said, word for word, "Excuse me, I have to ask, just what are you eating?" I was so taken aback! Woow, what a mouth on this girl (in a good way of course). I had never heard a little girl speak so elegantly! I explained to her what I was eating, and we had a great little conversation about how I'm kind of scared since it was my first time and she told me, "Oh, you have no need to be afraid. It's so exhilarating, you're going to come back for more!" Wow, it was such a lovely conversation. She had her dad with her and he just smiled.

We were seating at the very back for my first ride. Our bellhop gave his spiel and was pretty funny. It was my first time hearing it, so it was cute. All my other times.....I could basically mouth along with them. I loved it when they did something different.

Soooooo, how was my first ride? Well, here's a photo of us after my first ever ride on ToT!

I had fun, but was pretty shaky. Here's a red neck photo of our ride. We did the generic thing and just put our arms ups. What a freakin thrill when you let go of the handlebars, wow!

We're at the very back to the most right.

When we got off, the standby time was 30 mins, but we knew all 4 elevators were working, so we walked right back on, with practically no wait! This time, we took some more pictures of the queue and planned a silly pose for our redneck photo.

Mahjong table! I pointed this out to Andrew cause he loves playing the game.

I’ve never stopped long enough around this desk to take a real good look at it.

Gosh, the inside is pretty.

Ok, it looks like we failed to take that redneck photo, but there are many more to come! So far, ToT count = 2.
I’m pretty sure ToT became my favourite ride at Disney. After that thrilling visit to The Twilight Zone, we came out to see a VERY LONG LINE forming for the 2nd Showing of Fantasmic. Oh my gosh, it stretched so far! I thought I had more pictures of this part of our night, but I guess I’m mistaking my videotaping for photos.

As we walked to the end of the line, we considered skipping the show and watching it another trip, kind of like with Illuminations. It was just SOOOOO long. Instead of just leaving, we asked the CM standing near the end of the line if we would be able to fit in the show. He told us that the line would be moving in about 5 minutes to let people into the theatre, and that if we got into line at that point, we would definitely get a seat. So we got into line. Lesson number 9. I don’t have to be in line 30-45mins before Fantasmic starts to get a good seat. Every seat is a good seat! Getting into line about 10-15mins before the show will still get me a seat AND I don’t have to stand for so long because they let people in about 10 minutes before the show starts!

When we were all walking into the theatre, Andrew was playing on his DS. A couple of things happened on our way there. One, there was a little baby on top of a garbage can, held by his dad behind him. He lifted his shirt and yelled “Mommy!!”. It was adorable!!! He was all bouncy and stuff. The next thing that happened is one of my favourite stories. A little boy about 9-10 yrs old, holding hands with his little brother in a Mario t-shirt, came up to Andrew and asked him what he was playing. Andrew told him he was playing Dragon Quest. Andrew lowered his DS so the boys could see. It was adorable! It was a fairly long walk in, so the boys and Andrew just talked about the game as we walked in. At one point, we got separated, so we figured their parents came to get them. Then about 2 minutes later, the little boy comes back up to us, taps Andrew’s elbow, and he continues talking about the game with him!! In the end, his mom called for him and we didn’t see any more of him. It was a great experience.

Fantasmic was…..FANTASTIC. We chose not to take any pictures and just enjoyed the show. It was…incredible. If I had waited more than 20 mins, it would have still been worth it. Andrew and I can’t wait to come back to watch it. Here is the only picture we took of it.

We got home and had a cup noodle before heading to bed.
Coming up next: Arrg be a pirate!

 

[dizneeat]

Great update, Yuki!

I love all the photos you took and that you finally got to ride ToT! I am glad you liked Fantasmic and that you didn't have to wait in line for too long!

We haven't seen Fantasmic in a long time, but we plan to do the Fantasmic lunch. We'll have to wait and see!

 

[YukiPhnx]

Great update, Yuki!

I love all the photos you took and that you finally got to ride ToT! I am glad you liked Fantasmic and that you didn't have to wait in line for too long!

We haven't seen Fantasmic in a long time, but we plan to do the Fantasmic lunch. We'll have to wait and see!

Andrew was very shutter-happy that night. I love all the photos her took. Takes me right back.

I love ToT and Fantasmic so much!

Oh ya, they have the lunch deal now. Can't wait to hear how that goes!

 

[tinacaplan]

Great update and nice pictures of ToT. Too bad all that dropping would make me very ill. I, too, love the architecture at DHS. Its beautiful. I would love it if they would build an Art Deco themed resort that looked like DHS.

 

[Sleepingbooty]

Like Lessa said, they're grocery stores/supermarkets. You can compare them to Tops Markets, or Walgreens, or Safeway.

They are grocery stores. PC = President's Choice which is the brand/company that owns a bunch of chains of grocery stores across the country.

I don't know why I thought you were talking about department stores. You probably wouldn't recognize the names of our regional groceries either: Schnucks, Dierbergs, and Shop n Save (I think that one is a national chain, though)

.... "Excuse me, I have to ask, just what are you eating?" I was so taken aback! Woow, what a mouth on this girl (in a good way of course). I had never heard a little girl speak so elegantly! I explained to her what I was eating, and we had a great little conversation about how I'm kind of scared since it was my first time and she told me, "Oh, you have no need to be afraid. It's so exhilarating, you're going to come back for more!" Wow, it was such a lovely conversation. She had her dad with her and he just smiled.

How adorable! I love talking to strangers at WDW, don't you?

I'm glad you decided to wait for Fantasmic. You are right, there isn't a bad seat, and it is SUCH a fantastic show, isn't it!

Looking forward to your next update, Matey!

 

[Cat0727]

Great update Yuki, I loved all the photos of ToT! For some reason the wait for that ride always ends up being shorter than what's posted. I don't mind that ride queue though, there is so much to look at and take pictures of! I still have yet to take a picture of the mahjong set. I'm like Andrew, I love playing that game, too

 

[englishrose47]

Great Update Yuki!!!Can't wait to see what you thought of Fantasmic and the pix !!Mine never turn out good !!

 

[IheartDDuck]

Great update!

I'm glad that you liked ToT. It's one of the rides that I can go on over and over again. One thing that I have found is that they always overpost the wait time at ToT, so normally if it says 40 minutes, it only ends up being about 20.

 

[YukiPhnx]

Great update and nice pictures of ToT. Too bad all that dropping would make me very ill. I, too, love the architecture at DHS. Its beautiful. I would love it if they would build an Art Deco themed resort that looked like DHS.

Aww, it's too bad you're unable to handle ToT. That rush is just incredible.

Oooh, I would love a hotel in that theme! That would be so cool. I just love the architecture of that time. So snazzy.

How adorable! I love talking to strangers at WDW, don't you?

I'm glad you decided to wait for Fantasmic. You are right, there isn't a bad seat, and it is SUCH a fantastic show, isn't it!

Looking forward to your next update, Matey!

I really DO love talking to strangers. Not just at WDW either. I'm just the talkative type.

Yeah, I'm very glad I waited. Everything I've read told me I need to line up for at least 45mins for a good seat, so I was worried I wouldn't get one. It turns out I really don't need to!

Great update Yuki, I loved all the photos of ToT! For some reason the wait for that ride always ends up being shorter than what's posted. I don't mind that ride queue though, there is so much to look at and take pictures of! I still have yet to take a picture of the mahjong set. I'm like Andrew, I love playing that game, too

Yeah, I love the shorter wait times. On my next DHS day, I was even able to get the 13min wait sign! In the middle of the day too, and not just in the morning when it opens! The line is just like the one for EE, so much to look at.

Great Update Yuki!!!Can't wait to see what you thought of Fantasmic and the pix !!Mine never turn out good !!

Rosie, I already have the Fantasmic pic up! Just the one! I really loved the show. Andrew enjoyed it so much more than I expected him to! We just loved it when they projected the animations on the water screen,

 

[ZeroToHero]

Great update! I love DHS too, especially because I'm sort of Magic Kingdomed out, I think. I will be excited when the new Fantasyland opens though.

I am sad we didn't get to meet... I forgot how different traveling with little kids is.... they dictate where you go, and you can't really change their mind. :/ Oh well.

I love Tower of Terror, but I always get scared right when it starts going up after the long hallway scene... I psych myself out.

Also, I have only seen Fantasmic once! I keep saying it's something I am going to do again, but I never do. Maybe this next trip, haha.

 

[YukiPhnx]

Great update!

I'm glad that you liked ToT. It's one of the rides that I can go on over and over again. One thing that I have found is that they always overpost the wait time at ToT, so normally if it says 40 minutes, it only ends up being about 20.

Yeah, I learned that about all the rides too. There is really only 1 ride that tells you the exact time, I found. The backlot tour. If it says 40 mins, it'll BE 40 mins of standing there, walking between rails with nothing to look at I still love the attraction. I need to find out when the lines will be shorter.

Great update! I love DHS too, especially because I'm sort of Magic Kingdomed out, I think. I will be excited when the new Fantasyland opens though.

I am sad we didn't get to meet... I forgot how different traveling with little kids is.... they dictate where you go, and you can't really change their mind. :/ Oh well.

I love Tower of Terror, but I always get scared right when it starts going up after the long hallway scene... I psych myself out.

Also, I have only seen Fantasmic once! I keep saying it's something I am going to do again, but I never do. Maybe this next trip, haha.

Yeah, I really like MK and all its lands, but it doesn't quiet do it for me. Probably because I came to WDW first when I was already 17. I never had that childhood connection to MK. Also, all the theming that smacks you in the face as soon as you enter is also why I love DHS. It's like....instant. No transition or anything.

Yeah....I've travelled with younger kids too (my sibs when THEY were really little) and it was a lot of waiting for them and stopping when they stopped and going home when they were too tired, but I was still ready for more!.

I always get scared when I'm going THROUGH the hallway! With all the Twilight Zone stuff floating around you. Oh! I left out a lesson I learned about this ride! I'll have to include it on my full DHS day.

Oooh, you must try to do Fantasmic! Don't let the lines psych you out! Huh...the lesson I learned should've been to ask the CMs about the line. They're most knowledgeable about whether I'll get a seat or not, probably.

 

[ZeroToHero]

Oh! I forgot - cute Baby Zero picture! Mine is no longer as white as that... he's sort of grey now. But I still love him.

 

[YukiPhnx]

Oh! I forgot - cute Baby Zero picture! Mine is no longer as white as that... he's sort of grey now. But I still love him.

Hahahaha The baby zero made me think of YOU! I HAD to get a picture!

 

[glennbo123]

I've filled up water bottles at that very same water fountain. I know, it's amazing when you think about it.

Hey, I'm glad you loved ToT and Fantasmic. When you said that you rode ToT a second time I was worried that you weren't going to make it into Fantasmic because I know people start lining up early.