Buckimion
Purple Heart Park Commando
- Joined
- Dec 29, 2003
- Messages
- 859
Wednesday, June 15th: Tierney's 12th Birthday! Mom decided she wanted to sleep in and agreed to meet us near Condor Flats for lunch at Taste Pilots Grill about 11:30.
We started off by getting to the Disneyland gates just before they opened at 9 and after waiting in line, was admitted about 9:15. We headed for Town Hall / Guest services where we got Tierney an "Its my Birthday" sticker and she got to have Goofy sing 'Happy Birthday' to her over the phone.
We headed to Pirates of the Caribbean first, and then back to Splash Mountain after we found the Haunted Mansion was still closed. On the way back to the front of the park, we stopped for a double ride on Indy before heading across to California Adventure.
DCA had already opened its gates and we got through quickly. We went and picked up fastpasses first for Soarin' and then doubled back through the Hollywood Backlot for the Tower of Terror. ToT was still listed as only a 5 minute wait and they were not yet using the queue lines, loading directly through the front door instead. As I approached the doorway, a cast member said I should pick up a fastpass in the future. Maybe he meant well, but I found it somewhat snobbish. I was already holding a fastpass for another ride and didn't consider it worth my time to bother picking up another fastpass when the standby line was so short and I didn't intend to ride it again so soon. ToT had one of the better ECV/wheelchair arrangements we'd run into. I left my scooter directly outside of the elevator and we were returned to exactly the same spot and headed out without fuss to the photo stand / gift shop.
I showed Tierney the former Superstar Limo building, currently undergoing renovation into a new Monsters Inc. attraction. I'm thinking of returning to the Disneyland Resort in 2007 for this and the return of the Submarine ride. We went on and saw the Muppet 3D show. Sitting in my scooter for this, it was the first time I actually could see the penguin orchestra.
Time now for our Soarin' fastpasses. Tierney wasn't so sure if she'd like this at first but got a thrill when we lifted off the floor. The only rotten part about this is we were directed to the very back row on this and another ride on Soarin' later. It appears that disabled passengers in large capacity vehicles are constantly directed to the back. We had this problem on Pirates, Small World, Soarin', Big Thunder and had to beg our way for a front seat ride later on California Screaming. (On a second ride on Friday we were stuffed in toward the back on this too.) Only on Splash Mountain were we really given a choice and Indy and ToT kept us in the front. After our ride, it was getting close to 11:30 so we hung around Engine Ears Toys near the front gates to keep an eye open for Tammy. I was saddened to see they have apparently quit making models of the rides to go along with monorail sets and the front window of the shop in the California Zephyr train car looked pretty bare. (On the other hand, there are lots of traditional board games now with Disney themes and some of them looked pretty interesting.) Tammy showed up about 15 minutes later than expected as she was surprised to find out the Timon lot shuttle was not operating today and she had to walk all the way around. Our lunch at Taste Pilots Grill was interesting as this was our first experience with their new touch-screen ordering system. We both ordered the Wild Blue Yonder burgers but think they were stingy with the blue cheese this time last time it was piled high. Tierney got the chicken nugget munch meal but only ate half of it as she wanted to get back to riding and didn't want to wait for us to finish our meals.
Tierney made a pain of herself until we finally finished and started heading through the park again, stopping to get fastpasses for us at Soarin' and also at Grizzly River, taking advantage of the fact that Grizzly is not connected to the rest of the fastpass system. When we reached the Paradise Pier section, we hit Golden Zephyr, Mulholland Madness, and let Tierney ride Maliboomer alone. Golden Zephyr was a nightmare to exit. It is served by a very narrow elevator and the platform on top can accommodate maybe 2 ECVs / wheelchairs. While I was riding, 3 tried to come up 2 managed to wedge themselves onto the platform leaving one sitting in the elevator holding the doors open, which left NO room for me to be able to exit. The CMs stood there scratching their heads, reluctant to let anyone wheel their chair onto the actual ride platform to clear space and the rider in the elevator refused to go back down and clear the way saying things were too crowded below for her to go back down and back up enough for me to follow back down to exit. The CMs finally gave in and let the others onto the platform long enough to let me get into the elevator. When I reached the bottom, there was only one other wheelchair user there but I suggested she wait until at least one of the others made their way down to make more room.
After this fiasco, we took a spin on the carousel, although the CM forgot to let us on twice. (The ride was a walk-up but he was kept busy monitoring everyone else getting on and just forgot about us standing at the handicap entrance. His control stand was only a few feet away, but his view was blocked by a steel beam.) On the third time we made enough (friendly) noise that he couldn't forget us. We then entered the standard queue for California Screaming. As I said before, when we finally got up to our turn to ride, they started to place us in the middle-rear but we begged for a front seat ride and got it after a couple more train's worth went by.
From Paradise Pier we headed to the wharf section. Even though she got an entire package of tortillas for her birthday, Tierney regarded this section of our visit as pure, educational torture. The tortilla factory is mine and Tammy's favorite attraction to relax in and escape the crowds. We also hit the Boudin Bakery tour for the first time and liked it too.
Around to A Bugs Life show where we noted the spiders here drop MUCH! lower to the audience than the Animal Kingdom version. (brrrrr!) We walked around through Filk's Fun Fair area but nothing really appealed to Tierney. We were disappointed that you come so close to the Tower of Terror but can't get though from here. Since Tierney couldn't wait any longer for another ride on ToT, we made our way around and after a fairly short wait (30 minutes @ 5pm), got her 2nd ride.
Tierney was impatient to get back to Grizzly River but we decided to put off getting soaked as long as possible. We decided to catch the Alladin show and it was my favorite part of the trip. Genie is the star of the show and he knows it and hams it up for all its worth. Carpet was cute too but I thought Alladin grinned way too much. I'm glad they dropped the monkey in this version as things were busy enough. A couple of times Alladin & Jasmine disappeared and reappeared in places too quickly for me to believe they're not using twins. (A trick my brother & I used to use in our magic acts back in high school.) Tierney giggled all night over the "Sultan Peppershaker" joke.
On to Soarin' our fastpasses should have been used about 3 hours prior but we didn't have any problems using them now. At Grizzly River, things were so quiet they didn't bother to collect them, they just told us to save them as a souvenir. Tammy had purchased a fastpass holder for her lanyard but was using it to store her ticket. Just after exiting the ride she realized it was missing and sent Tierney running back down to check the boat. It had already been sent back out (empty) and the CMs told her to check lost and found later. We didn't want to rely on that and Tierney waited until the boat came back. The pass was safe and dry in the bottom. (whew!)
I made a big mistake here it was 8pm and the park was shutting down. Somehow, I thought the park closed at 9 and the Block Party Bash happened at 8. After asking a couple of confused CMs, we tracked one down that said the parade had happened back at 5pm and things were closing for the night. We made our way out and Tammy wanted to go into Disneyland to see the fireworks herself. Looking at the crowd, I wasn't thrilled but I didn't think Tammy would have any other chance. We got in and got as far as the flagpoles before things were too crowded to go further. Visibility was poor with trees blocking the way and we could barely see the castle but we at least got to hear the show.
One of the good things about being so close to the entrance was that we were also close to the exit. The minute the show was over, we turned and bolted for the gates ahead of the crowd.
Time for a long rest day before our final assault on the mouse.
We started off by getting to the Disneyland gates just before they opened at 9 and after waiting in line, was admitted about 9:15. We headed for Town Hall / Guest services where we got Tierney an "Its my Birthday" sticker and she got to have Goofy sing 'Happy Birthday' to her over the phone.
We headed to Pirates of the Caribbean first, and then back to Splash Mountain after we found the Haunted Mansion was still closed. On the way back to the front of the park, we stopped for a double ride on Indy before heading across to California Adventure.
DCA had already opened its gates and we got through quickly. We went and picked up fastpasses first for Soarin' and then doubled back through the Hollywood Backlot for the Tower of Terror. ToT was still listed as only a 5 minute wait and they were not yet using the queue lines, loading directly through the front door instead. As I approached the doorway, a cast member said I should pick up a fastpass in the future. Maybe he meant well, but I found it somewhat snobbish. I was already holding a fastpass for another ride and didn't consider it worth my time to bother picking up another fastpass when the standby line was so short and I didn't intend to ride it again so soon. ToT had one of the better ECV/wheelchair arrangements we'd run into. I left my scooter directly outside of the elevator and we were returned to exactly the same spot and headed out without fuss to the photo stand / gift shop.
I showed Tierney the former Superstar Limo building, currently undergoing renovation into a new Monsters Inc. attraction. I'm thinking of returning to the Disneyland Resort in 2007 for this and the return of the Submarine ride. We went on and saw the Muppet 3D show. Sitting in my scooter for this, it was the first time I actually could see the penguin orchestra.
Time now for our Soarin' fastpasses. Tierney wasn't so sure if she'd like this at first but got a thrill when we lifted off the floor. The only rotten part about this is we were directed to the very back row on this and another ride on Soarin' later. It appears that disabled passengers in large capacity vehicles are constantly directed to the back. We had this problem on Pirates, Small World, Soarin', Big Thunder and had to beg our way for a front seat ride later on California Screaming. (On a second ride on Friday we were stuffed in toward the back on this too.) Only on Splash Mountain were we really given a choice and Indy and ToT kept us in the front. After our ride, it was getting close to 11:30 so we hung around Engine Ears Toys near the front gates to keep an eye open for Tammy. I was saddened to see they have apparently quit making models of the rides to go along with monorail sets and the front window of the shop in the California Zephyr train car looked pretty bare. (On the other hand, there are lots of traditional board games now with Disney themes and some of them looked pretty interesting.) Tammy showed up about 15 minutes later than expected as she was surprised to find out the Timon lot shuttle was not operating today and she had to walk all the way around. Our lunch at Taste Pilots Grill was interesting as this was our first experience with their new touch-screen ordering system. We both ordered the Wild Blue Yonder burgers but think they were stingy with the blue cheese this time last time it was piled high. Tierney got the chicken nugget munch meal but only ate half of it as she wanted to get back to riding and didn't want to wait for us to finish our meals.
Tierney made a pain of herself until we finally finished and started heading through the park again, stopping to get fastpasses for us at Soarin' and also at Grizzly River, taking advantage of the fact that Grizzly is not connected to the rest of the fastpass system. When we reached the Paradise Pier section, we hit Golden Zephyr, Mulholland Madness, and let Tierney ride Maliboomer alone. Golden Zephyr was a nightmare to exit. It is served by a very narrow elevator and the platform on top can accommodate maybe 2 ECVs / wheelchairs. While I was riding, 3 tried to come up 2 managed to wedge themselves onto the platform leaving one sitting in the elevator holding the doors open, which left NO room for me to be able to exit. The CMs stood there scratching their heads, reluctant to let anyone wheel their chair onto the actual ride platform to clear space and the rider in the elevator refused to go back down and clear the way saying things were too crowded below for her to go back down and back up enough for me to follow back down to exit. The CMs finally gave in and let the others onto the platform long enough to let me get into the elevator. When I reached the bottom, there was only one other wheelchair user there but I suggested she wait until at least one of the others made their way down to make more room.
After this fiasco, we took a spin on the carousel, although the CM forgot to let us on twice. (The ride was a walk-up but he was kept busy monitoring everyone else getting on and just forgot about us standing at the handicap entrance. His control stand was only a few feet away, but his view was blocked by a steel beam.) On the third time we made enough (friendly) noise that he couldn't forget us. We then entered the standard queue for California Screaming. As I said before, when we finally got up to our turn to ride, they started to place us in the middle-rear but we begged for a front seat ride and got it after a couple more train's worth went by.
From Paradise Pier we headed to the wharf section. Even though she got an entire package of tortillas for her birthday, Tierney regarded this section of our visit as pure, educational torture. The tortilla factory is mine and Tammy's favorite attraction to relax in and escape the crowds. We also hit the Boudin Bakery tour for the first time and liked it too.
Around to A Bugs Life show where we noted the spiders here drop MUCH! lower to the audience than the Animal Kingdom version. (brrrrr!) We walked around through Filk's Fun Fair area but nothing really appealed to Tierney. We were disappointed that you come so close to the Tower of Terror but can't get though from here. Since Tierney couldn't wait any longer for another ride on ToT, we made our way around and after a fairly short wait (30 minutes @ 5pm), got her 2nd ride.
Tierney was impatient to get back to Grizzly River but we decided to put off getting soaked as long as possible. We decided to catch the Alladin show and it was my favorite part of the trip. Genie is the star of the show and he knows it and hams it up for all its worth. Carpet was cute too but I thought Alladin grinned way too much. I'm glad they dropped the monkey in this version as things were busy enough. A couple of times Alladin & Jasmine disappeared and reappeared in places too quickly for me to believe they're not using twins. (A trick my brother & I used to use in our magic acts back in high school.) Tierney giggled all night over the "Sultan Peppershaker" joke.
On to Soarin' our fastpasses should have been used about 3 hours prior but we didn't have any problems using them now. At Grizzly River, things were so quiet they didn't bother to collect them, they just told us to save them as a souvenir. Tammy had purchased a fastpass holder for her lanyard but was using it to store her ticket. Just after exiting the ride she realized it was missing and sent Tierney running back down to check the boat. It had already been sent back out (empty) and the CMs told her to check lost and found later. We didn't want to rely on that and Tierney waited until the boat came back. The pass was safe and dry in the bottom. (whew!)
I made a big mistake here it was 8pm and the park was shutting down. Somehow, I thought the park closed at 9 and the Block Party Bash happened at 8. After asking a couple of confused CMs, we tracked one down that said the parade had happened back at 5pm and things were closing for the night. We made our way out and Tammy wanted to go into Disneyland to see the fireworks herself. Looking at the crowd, I wasn't thrilled but I didn't think Tammy would have any other chance. We got in and got as far as the flagpoles before things were too crowded to go further. Visibility was poor with trees blocking the way and we could barely see the castle but we at least got to hear the show.
One of the good things about being so close to the entrance was that we were also close to the exit. The minute the show was over, we turned and bolted for the gates ahead of the crowd.
Time for a long rest day before our final assault on the mouse.
I was a bit embarassed to bring this up. We rode Soarin' four times in three days...and were seated in the back row every time.
