March 90s Nite and Skywalker Ranch! UPDATE 7/14 TR COMPLETE

[OhioStateBuckeye]

Ok, DL finally released the park hours for the last day of my trip so I can really get thing finalized.

I had one happy and one sad thing happen. On Friday the sailing ship Columbia was off the rehab list, so looks like Fantasmic is back on. However, Space never dropped off the rehab list That is probably one of my favorite DL rides, so I am pretty sad.

We bought a 3 day ticket so we will have one EMM at Disneyland. The days of the week they have them are Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday. We have decided to go with Saturday because the EMM is at 7 am that day, I figure the earlier it is, hopefully the less people will be willing to wake up and go.

Wednesday
DL 9-8
DCA 9-8

Thursday
DL (8)9-8 90s Nite starts at 9 and goes until 1 am. They are having a mix in at 6, I assume that means if you have a party ticket you can come in at that time. We'll have day tickets anyway, so will already be in
DCA 9-8

Friday
DL 9-12
DCA 9-10

Saturday
DL (7)8-12
DCA 8-10
Carnation Cafe dinner, scheduled during the parade. Hopefully we'll be able to ask for a table outside and get to see the tops of the floats go by as we eat.

Sunday
DL 8-12
DCA 8-10
Carthay Circle lunch

The rest of my dining plans are kind of up in the air now. I am having a bit of a crisis (said very tongue in cheek). My plans were looking pretty good before, but now that Fantasmic is back I was thinking of doing a Hungry Bear package for it, and the only showtimes are on Friday and Saturday. And I haven't found a great time for our character breakfast.

I want to do...Carnation Cafe at Soundsational parade time. Character breakfast, but not take up any early morning prime park time. Carthay Circle lunch, Jazz kitchen lunch, Hungry Bear F! package and Lamplight Lounge dinner.

Sigh. So complicated wanting to do so many things.

 

[Jaina]

It sounds like a super fun trip! I hope you're able to figure out your dining reservations and get them to work out how you want!

 

[dolewhipdreams]

Disney dining crises are the worst!

 

[OhioStateBuckeye]

It sounds like a super fun trip! I hope you're able to figure out your dining reservations and get them to work out how you want!

Disney dining crises are the worst!

They are the worst. But I've got it figured.

Wednesday: Carnation Cafe 5:30 so we can hopefully have a seat on the patio and see Soundsational at 6
Thursday: No ADRs
Friday: Ralph Brennan's Jazz Kitchen 12:30, Lamplight Lounge 8
Saturday: Storyteller's character breakfast 10:30, Lamplight Lounge 8:45
Sunday: Carthay Circle 1:30

Just need to decide which Lamplight I am keeping.

I've also narrowed down my 90s nite outfit.



Think I might go with the grunge look.

We also found out San Francisco hotel. The Metro Hotel, it's a cute little hotel that is not too far from Skywalker Ranch in Sonomo County.

https://www.sonomacounty.com/lodging/metro-hotel-cafe

 

[dolewhipdreams]

90s grunge is the best. Good choice.

 

[FeistyDisneyMom]

90s grunge is the best. Good choice.

I still dress in 90s grunge! It is never a bad choice

 

[OhioStateBuckeye]

WOC is back!

I went ahead and booked the dessert party for Friday night.

 

[Daisybelle]

I'm so excited to get to see WOC that week! I had decided to just 'let it go' and be content without F! or WOC. We're going to do the dessert party on Wednesday the 6th.

 

[OhioStateBuckeye]

I'm so excited to get to see WOC that week! I had decided to just 'let it go' and be content without F! or WOC. We're going to do the dessert party on Wednesday the 6th.

Nice!

Yeah I wasn't too sad about WOC not running, but of course when it came back I had to watch it in style

 

[yulilin3]

Guess who might go to DL in November? This girl!! I'll be following your report. Very interested in what you think of the WOC dessert party as that is something we really want to do. It's our first trip to DL so it's super strange to wait until 60 days to reserve all of it

 

[OhioStateBuckeye]

Guess who might go to DL in November? This girl!! I'll be following your report. Very interested in what you think of the WOC dessert party as that is something we really want to do. It's our first trip to DL so it's super strange to wait until 60 days to reserve all of it

Oooh first trip?! You are going to love it!

Be sure to keep me updated on all your plans!

 

[OhioStateBuckeye]

Here are the final outfits. I'll have jeans with mine, the grunge look.

We're going to finish packing today and tomorrow and Monday is the day we leave!!

I'll be posting pics on my instagram during the trip, in case anyone wants to follow along it's rjrook

 

[OhioStateBuckeye]

All right time to get this thing started.

Our plane was a bit late returning from LAX, so we got back to the apartment around 3 am on Monday morning, I went into work that late morning and entered a giant mess. We needed to get so many cases done for our contract so I ended up working 11+ hour days, including Saturday, and I was just too exhausted to start my trip report until now.

So without further ado, my trip report.

 

[OhioStateBuckeye]

Here we go!

Our flight left Kansas City at 6:20 pm. Brian had been running around all day finishing things up while I was at work.

He dropped Sirius off at the boarders right before he left to pick me up.



So sad. He doesn't like to go, but he has a good time because all the staff love him and dote on him.

Brian was a little bit late picking me up, though he claimed he was right on time.

It was about a 40 minute drive to the airport from my work. We were just driving our own car, we are way too far away from the airport to uber. Our last trip we did a convoluted one way rental to the airport from where we live, which was actually only about $20. Then another one way rental from the airport. The cost and timing just didn't work out for this trip, however. So we pre paid for The Parking Spot covered parking, which *spoiler alert* turned out fine. Also, when you leave the parking area you are able to take free waters from the fridge by the check out gates. I'm always dehydrated after flights so this is a good last impression from the Parking Spot.

We ended up arriving with plenty of time, though I always feel very awkward when the Parking Spot shuttle pulls up. I swear they arrive instantly and I always feel rushed because I have to pack up an endless supply of junk that was just sitting in the car, not in a suitcase. Nothing like running to the shuttle trailing cords and sunglasses and coats and hats.

We always fly Southwest when we have a choice (free checked bags, no penalty for changing flight times and dates). We got our one bag checked safely (with the empty tote shoved inside, it's nice to bring a back up for souvenirs).

We both have TSA pre-check, though I've never found that to be necessary since we got it, the regular security lines have always been short as well. But we still used pre-check. If you got it, flaunt it, am I right?! (Archer voice, if you don't watch that cartoon then just ignore that).

Before too long our flight was boarding. We had early B boarding spots, we got a row to ourselves near the back. The flight was close to being sold out, so my strat is always to sit towards the back. Everyone crowds the front so you're more likely to get a row to yourselves in the back.

Brian did homework and I watched Family Guy on the free Southwest live tv. We also used our complimentary Southwest drink coupons (they mail them out every once in a while). Let me tell you, those flight attendants do a strong pour. I guess you get the entire bottle of alcohol? I'm a light weight to begin with so in no time at all I was inappropriately cracking up at a commercial for colostomy bags. I mean...come on! Don't put those commercials on a family guy episode if you don't want the watchers to giggle inappropriately. Know your audience.

Our flight had a connector through Denver. I had two choices for connecting flights out of Kansas City that would have arrived at the same time, so of course I chose Denver. I wanted to have a look at the airport.

In case you've never heard, or have never been awake for a long period of time when you should be sleeping investigating the bowels of the internet...there are a lot of conspiracy theories for Denver's airport. It's just a strange place. Seriously, google Denver airport conspiracy and you'll see.

Anyway, we walked all over our gate and the only weird thing I found was this:



Which is just a decorative area that is themed to Mayan or Aztec ruins.

I guess all the crazy stuff is in different areas we couldn't access. So I took some pics off google image:



Those are all murals in the airport that are kind of odd and suggestive of certain conspiracy theories (New World Order stuff). So if you're into that kind of reading, go down the rabbit hole.

I guess there are also weird tunnels underneath the airport and it may or may not be a government bunker.

Also, there is the weird horse statue outside the airport with glowing red eyes. Apparently a piece of it fell onto it's artist while he was finishing it and killed him.



So anyway...I was very disappointed in the lack of weird things I was able to see at the airport. I don't necessarily believe all the theories, but I love to read about stuff like that.

Instead we ate at a Chinese place that was recommended to us by flight attendants on the first flight (ask the flight attendants for food recommendations, they always know).

We had late A boarding group for this flight, it was announced that the flight was full. And then we had to wait another half hour for a flight attendant to arrive who's plane was delayed. Bleh.

I thought I had the great idea to sit in a two person emergency exit aisle. I always feel bad for Brian because I love to look out the window so he always has to take middle seat, I thought this would be good because he wouldn't have anyone next to him. Instead it was the worst flight ever. The seats don't recline in the emergency exit, and it was one of the new planes and the seats were extremely uncomfortable. So it was one of those...fall asleep for two minutes, wake up...fall back asleep. Pretty bad.

We arrived at San Francisco airport around 12:30, which was an hour late. Everything after that went wrong. It took our bags a good half hour to come in, and I had to go to the bathroom and they were unisex bathrooms, so I watched the guy come out ahead of me, walked in, saw pee all over the seat and just walked right back out. Come on, people. 1. Gross. 2. I'm not cleaning that up 3. This is the reason I'm opposed to same sex bathrooms. From the evidence I've seen, guys cannot clean up after themselves in the bathroom. So no thanks.

San Francisco's airport has a tram system that should take you to the rental car area. It was down due to technical reasons, so we had to walk all over the place trying to find buses. The signs were not very good, and the only employees I saw were either sitting on benches smoking or having a dance off circle (not kidding). We finally found the buses, which also smelled very strongly of pee. So San Francisco is now the pee airport.

Finally we were at the rental car area. They were out of our reserved size, so we got a huge Dodge Caravan. And promptly named her Soccer. All our rental cars get names, and most get backstories as well.

Our hotel was about 40 minutes away from the airport, we had to take a toll bridge that was expensive (not the Golden Gate, another one). We finally got to the hotel around 3:30 am. I'll talk about the hotel in the next installment, it was very nice but we were far too exhausted to care at that time.

The only good thing was we got to sleep in the next day. Our first plan was to meet for lunch at Skywalker Ranch!!!

 

[soniam]

Paul hurt his neck laughing so hard at this! I hate pee Denver looks strange. I know we flew in to go to Colorado Springs, but I don’t remember anything weird. I refuse to sit anywhere near the exit row after an unfortunate flights with some major jerks. Still wish I had to punched that girl

 

[dolewhipdreams]

So sad. He doesn't like to go, but he has a good time because all the staff love him and dote on him.

Oh my goodness what a face!

Nothing like running to the shuttle trailing cords and sunglasses and coats and hats

Hahaha I can see this perfectly in my mind

with the empty tote shoved inside, it's nice to bring a back up for souvenirs).

Genius, this is why we’re friends

Everyone crowds the front so you're more likely to get a row to yourselves in the back

More genius ideas!!

Let me tell you, those flight attendants do a strong pour. I guess you get the entire bottle of alcohol

Oh man YES they do. I got a rum and coke on a 9am flight once (cuz why not) and oh man I could smell it before they handed it to me. Made for a fun day.

ask the flight attendants for food recommendations, they always know).

YET MORE GENIUS

the only employees I saw were either sitting on benches smoking or having a dance off circle (not kidding

I’ve never been to San Francisco but this sounds very San Francisco.

 

[OhioStateBuckeye]

Paul hurt his neck laughing so hard at this! I hate pee Denver looks strange. I know we flew in to go to Colorado Springs, but I don’t remember anything weird. I refuse to sit anywhere near the exit row after an unfortunate flights with some major jerks. Still wish I had to punched that girl

I hope Paul is ok, hahaha.

Why did you almost punch a girl? What in the world happened??

Oh my goodness what a face!


Hahaha I can see this perfectly in my mind


Genius, this is why we’re friends


More genius ideas!!


Oh man YES they do. I got a rum and coke on a 9am flight once (cuz why not) and oh man I could smell it before they handed it to me. Made for a fun day.


YET MORE GENIUS


I’ve never been to San Francisco but this sounds very San Francisco.

Glad I can educate a bit. Just like Epcot. Hahah, that was a stretch, but I said it.

 

[OhioStateBuckeye]

Ever since I got a fitbit I love to keep track of my sleep. I really don't sleep on vacations and I'm going to provide proof. So on this night, even though we were able to sleep in, I got 5 hours and 31 minutes of sleep. We'd wanted to be up before breakfast stopped being serviced. This wasn't just any old hotel, they had unlimited crepes!

We stayed at the Metro Hotel and Cafe in Petaluma. It's a cute little town about 40 miles north of San Francisco. The location worked for us on this trip, though it was farther from the city, it was only about 20 miles from Skywalker Ranch. The town is full of little shops, tasty restaurants and even a movie theater. The hotel is a small boutique place that is themed after a French hotel. There were about 6 rooms on the inside of the building, then 4 little vintage type RV trailers along the outside. These pictures were taken during different times of the trip but I'm just going to include them all here.






We were in one of the indoor rooms. It was a really nice room, very clean and it was only around $100 a night.




I loved that goose lamp. And the TV had access to Hulu, Netflix and basic cable.

We were sure to be awake in time for some breakfast. Our flight the following morning was very early, and we'd miss breakfast that day.

They had crepes with toppings, pastries, tea and coffee.

 

[OhioStateBuckeye]

Breakfast was very satisfactory. Unfortunately, it rained the whole time we were in San Francisco. We had planned to walk around the town a bit but I had no desire to go our in the rain so we relaxed in the room a bit.

We were going to meet our friends at a park and ride around noon. The excitement of soon stepping foot on Skywalker Ranch was real.

For those of you who aren't major Star Wars fans, Skywalker Ranch is George Lucas' own private ranch. He has a main house there that holds his expansive film research library. There is also a fitness building which has a small food cafeteria, this is also where the small gift shop is. There is a building for Skywalker Sound, which is a working sound studio. There is an IT building, which anyone in the industry can rent out space to work in (same with Skywalker Sound). There is also a giant archives building, which is unfortunately not available to the public. There is even a working winery and some cows live there as well.

It was featured in the movie Fan Boys, there was also an episode of Big Bang Theory where Sheldon and Leonard try to sneak in. It's kind of a mecca for Star Wars fans. In part, this stems from the exclusivity of the place. Even though it's open for people working in the film industry, there is no real way for fans to get a look unless they are invited as a guest of someone who works there. Which is how we were able to get in. Our friend scheduled a lunch for all of us, other than that the only building you are able to go inside is the main house. We also weren't supposed to take too many pictures, we didn't want to get our friend (who had graciously invited us) in trouble, so we really didn't take many. You're allowed to take them of the grounds, but you have to be in the picture. You cannot take pictures of anything inside the buildings either.

Anyway, we met up with our friend, Emily, and her two other friends (our new friends) Carolyn and Nate. They are both cast members at WDW. Our giant van, Soccer, came in handy at this time. We all piled inside together and had plenty of space for activities.

It was only a short ride from the park and ride to the ranch. The scenery along the way was gorgeous. We came upon the security gate and our friend showed her badge and the guard checked to see that our names were on the list. Apparently, there were new items on the cafe menu and the security guard was very excited about them. Isn't it crazy how Skywalker Ranch is some epic place for fans, yet people just casually work there and are excited about new lunch items.

We took the short drive over the grounds to the fitness building. The grounds are so well maintained, they reminded us all of National Parks. There's even a cute little covered bridge going over a stream.

The cafe in the fitness building wasn't very big. We were met with the sad sight of the gift shop...and it was closed After seeing that sad sign, we decided to do what most Americans do when confronted with a crushing sadness: eat. Most of the tables were taken up with employees eating. I tried not to stick out too much and gawk like a super fan n00b, so I just took casual glances around trying to see if I recognized anyone eating there (I didn't). I got the fabled chicken sandwich and sweet potato fries. The chicken sandwich was really, really good as advertised. I'm still sad we couldn't even take a picture of the food. What kind of Disney trip is this if I don't have pictures of food?! We managed to find 5 seats together and immediately launched into ranking national pizza chains. Pizza Hut and Cici's are solidly at the bottom, if anyone was wondering. We managed to not weird out any employees too much.

After we were done eating, Emily noticed that the gift shop had opened!! Score!! We all ran over and promptly spent around $500 as a group. Just casual shopping, you know. They had all sorts of stuff like t-shirts, jackets, wine that was made on site, magnets, cups, all the usual things. I haven't taken pictures of the merchandise I got yet, I'll have to take those tonight and put them in the next installment.

My favorite bit of merch that I didn't buy was a Skywalker Ranch logo flannel shirt. If anyone is familiar with Lucas, he is always wearing a flannel shirt. I really wanted one but they were a bit expensive and Brian argued with me that I'd never wear it. I'm still a bit sad about that.

So we tore ourselves away from the gift shop and headed back to the car to drive to the main house. On the way, we saw an ancient limo with an even older driver (afterwards I started picturing him as the chess player in the Pixar short). He was looking a bit lost in his limo and the last we saw of him at the moment he drove off into an empty field.

As we parked at the mansion, we saw the limo off in the distance just driving around an empty field. We had no idea what was going on but we had mansions to explore!

I'm going to leave off here for the moment, but I will promise to start off my next installment by posting the only picture we have of Skywalker Ranch!!

Oh, and the merch pics!

 

[Jaina]

So awesome! And that episode is hilarious! How fun that you got to go in! It would have been sooo hard not to surreptitiously sneak a few pics on your phone, oh man! I'm excited for you that you got to go though. And the little hotel/cafe were super cute!