My date with Cinderella (6/21-6/26) ~ Pics included

[Sherwin]

Sherwin's attempted date with Cinderella
New pictures coming!

Hello hello hello all! Here is my very late post-TR from my trip to DLR on June 21st to June 26th. This is all organized around notes I took, my imagination, memory, and select pictures that I will post. I am a heavy writer, so bear with me. If you start to read extremely long paragraphs, that is just my imagination working.

Let's start with a nice picture from my trip:

Mission Briefing
I had a very clear objective on this trip, to find the girl who sparked my newfound passion for Disney . Would I get my "fantabulous" date with Cinderella? Or would it all be a big flop? Let's find out.

First, let me introduce myself and my companions. There are two major characters, myself and my friend Phillip. We entered the parks all six days. And two minor characters, Paul and Young, who went into the parks only on select days.

CAST
Myself (Sherwin) [major character]
This was the first trip I had help planning from the DIS since coming here, and you can be sure that I will rely even more heavily on your expertise for my next trip. I have gone to DL many times in the past, and have always had a love for it, but nothing other than watching Cinderella in December of 08 sparked my newfound flair and passion for the parks. I will admit, though, that for a few weeks leading up to the trip, I entered a slump which nearly killed my passion for Disney. Some may have noticed that I was considerably absent from the DIS. School, work, and other priorities did not help, and I was beginning to get worried . The real question is whether or not this trip will help save my love for DL and if Cinderella can help too (if I can find her)!

Phillip [major character]
Phillip has been my best friend since the 5th grade and sadly, does not share my passion. He enjoys going to the parks, though, and has only gone a couple times before. He's a bit of a social introvert and even refused to wear an honorary citizen badge a CM gave us . We'll see how he deals with my abnormal love for Cinderella . But we shall reveal if he as stone cold toward the Disney princesses as I make him out to be.

Paul [minor character]
Paul is Phillip's brother and a friend I used to play in the school band with. Unlike me, he did not want to spend the entire trip in the parks. But like me, he also has a favorite Disney girl-- Ariel. 'Part of Your World' is even his favorite Disney song. He also seems to know a lot of Disney trivia too. Maybe he's harboring a secret love for Disney too .

Young [minor character]
Young is Phillip and Paul's old baby sitter from way back when. He's currently living in South Korea and has been visiting us and staying with Phillip and Paul here in Seattle. He came to the States shortly before our trip and joined in at the last minute. He arrived two days after us, but unfortunately did not see the parks that much.

Here is I.

Phillip in an Autopia car. More on this story later.

Paul (left) and Young (right).

De-briefing Reports
Date with Cinderella
Sunday, June 21st
Monday, June 22nd
Tuesday, June 23rd
Wednesday, June 24th
Thursday, June 25th
Friday, June 26th

Future trips???
Coming soon!

MISSION DE-BRIEFING
SUNDAY, JUNE 21st
We arrived at LAX at around 9:30am Sunday morning. The baggage took a little while to come out, but we managed to get all our stuff with time to spare. We decided to take the DLR Express for this trip and walked out to the center island of the terminal. Beware! There was a 'Shuttle 2000' that tried to pass itself off as the DLR Express. It was a white van that had a plain sign on the windshield that read 'DISNEYLAND EXPRESS'. The driver attempted to coerce me into taking his shuttle and even pulled out Greyline's official DLR Express brochure to advertise the fares as "the same". I quickly declined and soon the real bus came.

After about 45 minutes, we arrived in Anaheim where we were the last to be dropped off at the Comfort Inn Maingate. I know this hotel shows up a lot as GAT's top searches, so I'm going put a quick review:

Hotel Review ~ Comfort Inn Maingate: 2171 South Harbor BLVD
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The hotel is pleasantly clean and well kept. Check-in was quick and painless and the lobby was very nice, albeit small. It has complimentary coffee, tea, and hot water, and a microwave, as the rooms don't have them. However, the rooms do have a good-sized refrigerator. The biggest drawback, as has been mentioned before, is the distance. Despite being named 'maingate', it's a little over a mile from the parks, so for those with weary feet, I recommend taking the ART. We walked to and fro the parks for the entire breadth of the trip after deciding it to be a good way to burn off park food. Nearby is a Carl's Jr. and Taco Bell, if you want that late night snack, and also a Bucca di Beppo for finer dining. The complimentary breakfast is pretty good, they have a fairly wide selection of foods: bagels, toast, assorted doughnuts, danishes, fruit, waffle makers, hard-boiled eggs, cereal, oatmeal, and of course, juice, milk, coffee and tea. It gets very busy with families from about 8-10am, though. The second drawback, I believe, was probably an isolated and rare incident, and I will mention it in Thursday's report.
---

After settling in, we walked to a Von's on Chapman and Hester, a little over half a mile away. Got some lunch and groceries for sandwiches to bring into the parks later. After all that hoopla, we finally entered the parks in the afternoon. I admit I was still a bit in my slump, so DLR was just not as exciting as I wished it would have been. Still, as I entered through the main gate on Harbor, it slowly started teasing me back to life . Surprisingly, for Father's Day, it was not terribly busy. In fact, there weren't that many folks in the esplanade. Of course, I was on the lookout for Cinderella. We probably went in too soon because the princesses weren't at the floral. Nonetheless, we first headed to Space Mountain, grabbed FPs, and did about a 40-45 minute wait (which is pretty good for SM on a weekend afternoon). Ooh, SM was funnn, and I remembered where the camera was:

That is I, in the bottom left corner, Phillip on my left, and Paul behind me.

After that, we headed out toward NoS, grabbed some IJA FPs and ate dinner at the French Market. I got the jambalaya but they forgot to put rice in mine . Nonetheless, it was a good heaping of vegetables to at least try and balance all the junk I was gonna eat the rest of the trip.

Counter-service line

My jambalaya

The rest of the evening was very chilled and we kind of free-styled it. Hopped aboard PoTC, HM. Did BTMRR twice during the first F! showing, it was about a 5-10 minute wait. Then we ended up getting caught in traffic flow and had to walk all the way around the RoA until we circled back around, caught F! for about 7 minutes from a crappy view right behind a tree. Then decided to catch IJA before the show was over-- luckily, the wait was advertised as 45 minutes, but it was really only 20 minutes or so.

Strangely, by the end of the day, I got some kind of motion sickness from ever major thrill ride we went on -- SM, BTMRR, IJA... which is NOT me. I would never get motion sickness before. I love DL too much for that to happen . Nonetheless, we decided to finish our day by waiting for the second F! showing right on the riverfront. Yes, the dragon wasn't there, but the show was magical nonetheless, and I managed to spot Cindy on the Mark Twain-- hopefully, a sign of things to come. I wanted to use our Indy and SM FPs, but Paul and Phillip were too tired (or tooo lame! bazing!) so we headed back.

Day one was closed out, no earth-shattering event but a success to start the trip.

MONDAY, JUNE 22th
This day would have been just fine if it hadn't progressed into what it did by nighttime, which you will quickly find out what happened. I also didn't really get any pictures on Monday. Nevertheless, we spent a good use of our time during the day. After a quick breakfast, we headed out to DCA and went straight for ToT for a very quick 5 minute wait. My perception of many of the rides had been skewed by my last trip to WDW, so I was expecting the elevator carriage to move forward horizontally, which it did not. Woo, better get my mind set back on DLR again! After the ride, somehow I felt a teensy bit motion sick again. Weird, since I love drop rides. Oh well. After ToT, we headed straight for Paradise Pier, where I was able to catch a glimpse of the drained lake. Sorry, no picture. Like RoA, Paradise Bay is actually very shallow. It looked like a lot of the electrical wiring and paneling was being put up in good time. Hopefully, I can catch WoC when it opens next year; rumors are that it will even rival F!

Tower of Terror

Anyway, we headed aboard Screamin, which is my favorite coaster in the parks. But again, strangely enough, after we got off, the menacing feeling of illness tried to creep back. I wouldn't let it get to me though. I grabbed FPs for Screamin' as Phillip and Paul waited in line for the great and heralded TSMM. The wait was expected of course, around 40 or so minutes, but was tremendous fun as I've been hearing all about. I got owned on the ride though, when I wasted too much time trying to switch arms since my right arm was being desecrated by the quick-pulling action. It was good fun, nonetheless.

---
A question! When we were in the normal queue about to board, I noticed a second smaller queue leading up to the boarding platform as well. I know the ride doesn't have FPs, so it must have been a disability line or a rider swap (which I know absolutely nothing about, so if someone could enlighten me).

---
Anyway, after TSMM, we wandered for a bit and looked up at Mickey's FunWheel, as I reminisced about all the horror stories I heard on the DIS about the swinging side. This scared the wits out of Phillip so we decided not to go on it.... yet....muahahahah. We walked around the boardwalk before deciding to get lunch at Pizza Oom Mow Mow. I got the Chicken Fusilli, Phillip and Paul got pizza. I'd assume it's the same as Pizza Port's in DL. The fusilli is actually quite tasty, although portions are not particularly big. Following our lunch break, we decided to head back toward the DCA entrance and along the way, we encountered those animatronic trash cans:

I threw a wrapper in it, and it thanked me, which led to much debate and speculation among us whether or not it was being remotely controlled by a CM. If so, where was the CM hiding? Hmm..

After our short morning excursion, we headed back over to DL and waited in a very fast moving line for Matterhorn. We decided to take the Fantasyland side because my last ride back in '06 was the Tomorrowland side. It seemed to be jerkier than I remember, and wow, so many hairpin turns! Definitely not for those with motion sickness and with back/neck problems! Poor Phillip had actually been taking a bigger beating with the motion sickness than I had. Following the Matterhorn, we wandered over to Tomorrowland to try out DL's version of TSMM, Buzz. We actually ended up liking Buzz better because it's an actual shooter with direct line-of-sight as opposed to more of the lobbing with TSMM and the line isn't as long . We made sure to play multiple times each day and it quickly became our destination in Tomorrowland. At first, we were all noobs since I only scored 50,000 and Phillip and Paul didn't do much better. Paul figured out the secret was to shoot the purple triangles and without telling us, achieved the 160,000 range in our second game, while I was still stuck below 100k. But, my score improved drastically as I will show you later.

One of the many tries I took at beating Phillip. We got way better by the end of the trip.

After a bit more wandering, I grabbed myself a Dole Whip (fantastic stuff, albeit a little sweet) and we decided to head back to the hotel for our afternoon break, where we caught up on some rest and made dinner. Then it was time to go back into the parks.

As the afternoon wore on into evening, however, my throat started to get that swelling feeling you get when you start to get sick. At first, I ignored it but it only get worse and worse. When we got back into the parks, it was the point where you get really annoyed when you swallow. Hoping it would go away, we went back into Tomorrowland and played more Buzz. We went on Autopia afterwards and I felt my throat get progressively worse. If those woes weren't enough, let's just say I must have not eaten something right, because my stomach let me know in not the most fashionable way. Hoping both the swollen throat and abdominal cramps would go away, I hobbled out of my Autopia car and we went back to Buzz again. By that point, I had to use the men's room, so after relieving myself woohoo, we waited in about a 45 minute line for SM during the fireworks. Unfortunately, for me, SM was not as fun as yesterday since my feeling of ill was spiraling downward. We got the shot of us "cursing" our fourth friend who couldn't make the trip (inside joke) and after that, we hobbled over to Fantasyland.

Interestingly enough at this point, Phillip also felt strange, but not the same ill that I had. He also had some stomach issues, and blamed me for passing it to him . Nonetheless, we took a quick trip through the castle walkthrough. Although short, it's a really neat exhibit with new special effects that is worth visiting. We then decided for our last ride of the night-- Peter Pan, of course. Though I did underestimate the wait-- which turned out to be around 35-40 minutes . We all enjoyed seeing the little cars on the London streets, but did feel the ride to be a little short. Nonetheless, by the this point, I felt like a sack of rotting potatoes so we decided to head back. I honored our commitment to walk back all the way and yes, it was a long way back, but I managed to hobble back into my bed. My health did deteriorate pretty quickly as we walked and I instantly fell asleep back at the hotel, hoping for a better Tuesday.

So Day Two, though closing out in a not-so-great manner , was relatively successful. I still had not made a check next to my biggest priority on the list-- seeing she with the glass slipper . Hopefully, I would take the next few days to remedy that problem and complete my mission.

I will continue working on Tuesday - Friday, and they will hopefully all be up soon with more pics.

 

[justliketink]

Your trip report is really good Sherwin! Although I'm sorry you got sick in Disneyland. That is so not fair. I can't wait to read more and find out if you braved Mickey's Wheel!

 

[PirateFish989]

Cinderella is my favorite! I dream of being her one day.

 

[cinderella-princess]

I know how you feel about getting sick at Disneyland! It seems that every time I'm there I end up getting a nasty cold. Purell doesn't seem to do anything either Oh well, I'm hoping you were able to douse yourself in cold medicine and have fun anyways!

 

[Sherwin]

And so my epic saga continues with Day 3, lest my illness gets worse...

Tuesday, JUNE 23rd
Monday night was not a pretty night. Instead of retreating as I had hoped, the illness deteriorated my health rapidly overnight and by the time I had awoken at around 8-9am, I felt like worse than a mushy sack of rotten carrots. My night was spent punctured with dreams about the stomach virus and a semi-consciousness that I was sick. Nevertheless, I tried to drag myself out of bed at morning time and I hobbled into the shower for what I hoped would be a remedial method of cleaning all the gunk and junk that was making me feel so cruddy. Unfortunately, it did not really help, so I slipped back into bed and decided to sleep for two and a half more hours. Phillip awoke around this time and though he was not sick, saw that I crawled back into bed, and took advantage of the situation by also taking a post-waking morning nap. How ironic . Evidently, he was weary of either 1) having to deal with rides giving him motion sickness or 2) having to contend with my persistence to find Cinderella.

Nonetheless, I was determined not to let the illness beat me so I decided on entering the parks after noontime. My nap lasted just until then so Phillip and I headed out to DL. Young was arriving around 2pm so Paul agreed to stay at the hotel and wait for him while the two of us headed into the parks. Before doing so, I hopped in the shower and sang a little to lift my spirits. Things felt a bit better but I still had those chills where it either felt too hot or too cold.

We headed into DL around 1pm and ironically, Phillip also said he feeling weird. He wasn't sick like me, but he did complain of being tired (sheesh, more lameness). We did a lot of sitting around and while loafing, I snapped a few pics of the park:

Sleeping Beauty Castle

Here I am, positively enthralled at the prospect of being sick.

I really didn't like the feeling of lack of productivity by sitting on the bench, so we got up and wandered through the castle into Fantasyland. We took things easy as today wasn't the brightest of days for both of us. Spotting Pinocchio, we decided to wait about 15 minutes in line and hopped aboard. After Pinocchio, we wandered around some more, probably rode some Buzz, and then I had a sudden idea . The princesses hadn't shown up at the floral, but I did know of a place they could be. Phillip wasn't aware of the Princess Fantasy Faire, but you can bet that if I told him about it, he would most certainly resist. We wandered over behind Fantasyland until we finally got to the PFF sign.

"I'm not going in there."

I almost had to drag him in. If I couldn't be guaranteed the princesses to be floating around the park, I had to go to the one place I knew I would find them. There was already a long line of families with little kids. You can bet that me trying to fit in with that demographic was an interesting sight . We first peeked through the bushes to see who was there... Ariel and Aurora! Hmm...no Cindy. I looked mightily suspicious where I was, so I wandered around the line into the princess shop where we were able to overlook the meet 'n' greet from a better view. Luckily, the CMs let me do my business and didn't question me. After a few more minutes of trying to see who else was in there, I saw...a blue dress, a white glove..

ZOMGOJH!)@U($)!(U!UR%(U)(!!() IT'S HER!!!

I grabbed Phillip's sleeve and tugged, "Dude, it's Cinderella!" At this point, Phillip was fairly embarrassed (or again.... too lame ) to be seen, and didn't want me to make such a fuss. Now here was a dilemma. The line didn't seem to be moving very fast and I was concerned that if I waited in the queue, they would do a princess rotation. Well, being the slight OCDer I am, I debated with Phillip for about 25 minutes how I should go about executing my plan. During the time, princesses were going in and about, and we spotted Pocahontas and Belle, among others (who were both very pretty, I must say ). In fact, even Phillip admitted Belle was the princess he liked. AHA, so I finally exposed him!

Suddenly, I realized that three more princesses were making their way up to the meet 'n' greet. It was another rotation, which could only mean one thing-- waiting in line would have been suicide. After a few more minutes, Ariel and Aurora relinquished their spots, waved at us (we waved back), and they went backstage. Obviously waiting in line was no longer an option so my only choice was to catch her before she disappeared backstage for a quick picture. Then I saw Cinderella making her way back... "Phillip! She's coming!" I literally remember my heart beating quicker than it had before. As she came around, I threw Phillip my camera, and though my voice was nearly stuck inside my throat, I managed to pipe out, "Can I have a quick picture with you?" Hahahhuh... clearly she wasn't allowed to do any more outside the meet 'n' greets, and put a finger up to her lips to shut me up. At first, I thought I had just been rejected, but she pointed at the camera and lo and behold, Phillip got the shot. I thanked her quietly, as she slipped backstage and gave us a final wave.

I did feel a little bad for cheating the whole line, but I was glad to catch her since she was leaving anyway. At this point, I felt like a new man. I mean, it wasn't much of a date, but I didn't feel nearly as sick anymore. It must have been fairy godmother's magic . I felt like a whole day's accomplishment had been achieved, so we took the rest of the afternoon easy, going on a few rides here and there. Paul gave us a call and told us Young had arrived, so we agreed to meet up around 6 for dinner outside DL. We did some wandering around Downtown Disney and checked out a few restaurants. Boy, all of them had very long waits. RFC had a line that stretched out the door some 25 feet. So we decided to walk over to ESPN Zone and check it out. I heard good things about it on the DIS, so we inquired about a wait, which only turned out to be 15 minutes.

The quickly got us a seat, and I ordered the Buffalo Chicken Sandwich with the baked potato substitution. Phillip got the Zone Cheese Steak, Paul the sauteed salmon, and Young wasn't terribly hungry, and ordered quesadillas.

A quick review of ESPN Zone:
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The ambiance in there is awesome. It's a version of casual dining similar to that of Applebees/Red Robin/TGIFs/Chili's, but it's a bit nicer and quieter. They have a ton of TVs around the restaurant with multiple sports channels on at once so you can have your pick of what you want to watch. The service was excellent and prices reasonable. My food was fairly good. The baked potato was great, however, they did put way too much blue cheese in my chicken sandwich, so it ended up being very strong and salty. Just less blue cheese would have made it excellent. So overall, a 4/5-- definitely one of the better places to eat in the resort.
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After dinner, we did some more wandering around Downtown and gaped at a churro cart that was selling the king-sized and double-twisted churros. We had this running joke on the trip-- Phillip had gotten churros every day since we got here since he liked them so much, and we joked that he could have gotten 9 churros back at Costco for the 3 he got here. We actually ended up making a lot of fun at the prices of things at DL. I calculated that for every bottle of Dasani sold in the parks, I could have purchased 900 gallons of fresh tap water here in Seattle .

Anyway, we looked through World of Disney, tinkered around with some toys, and spotted a $550 sketch of Minnie.

Alas, the day was almost over. Phillip and I were exhausted, as I needed to expunge the rest of the illness from my body, so we decided to head back to the hotel while Young and Paul went into the parks.

Paul later told me a story that happened while he and Young rode Splash. When they were on the ride, Young had become a bit bold and bored, and started making fun of the animatronics in the ride. Young is from Korea and has a very sarcastic view of thinking, so he joked openly about the animals and creatures on Splash. This continued through each level when finally they heard a roaring sound of water. As they approached the main drop, Young finally shut up and became ghostly white, screaming "I want to go hooomee!" in a thick Korean accent as they went over the drop. This amused Paul and everyone else in the same log, and of course I got a good chuckle from it when I heard.

Anyway, Phillip and I headed back to the hotel to close out our day. I was feeling much better and I was finally able to make a check next to my biggest objective. Finally, I could say...

MISSION ACCOMPLISHED

Our trip wasn't over yet, though. Would we brave Mickey's Funwheel? What new "adventures" would we encounter? Wed-Fri coming soon!

 

[bumbershoot]

"Beware! There was a 'Shuttle 2000' that tried to pass itself off as the DLR Express. It was a white van that had a plain sign on the windshield that read 'DISNEYLAND EXPRESS'. The driver attempted to coerce me into taking his shuttle and even pulled out Greyline's official DLR Express brochure to advertise the fares as "the same"."


Oh yes indeed...they tried that on us, but we'd prepaid, and they went running away as soon as I showed the printed voucher and said "is this your company?"


The other line at TSMM is where people in wheelchairs and ECVs go, after they've traversed the line. And it's their exit too, I assume.


Sounds like you got the curse of the rice-less jambalaya.


Phillip looks very much like (half-Korean) hubby's (full Korean) cousins. Are all of you of Korean descent, or just Young?


That picture of you with Cinderella is adorable (and manly of course). You don't look sick even in the slightest!

 

[Sherwin]

"Beware! There was a 'Shuttle 2000' that tried to pass itself off as the DLR Express. It was a white van that had a plain sign on the windshield that read 'DISNEYLAND EXPRESS'. The driver attempted to coerce me into taking his shuttle and even pulled out Greyline's official DLR Express brochure to advertise the fares as "the same"."


Oh yes indeed...they tried that on us, but we'd prepaid, and they went running away as soon as I showed the printed voucher and said "is this your company?"

He almost sucked me into his trap. I didn't get prepaid vouchers but I knew exactly what the DLR express looked like, and his little van there sure as heck wasn't it.

Phillip looks very much like (half-Korean) hubby's (full Korean) cousins. Are all of you of Korean descent, or just Young?

All of them are actually Korean with the exception of myself. I'm Chinese.

 

[Sherwin]

Okay, sorry for not updating. You know with the fourth and all, I was *cough* busy. Anyway, today we find out if we decided to try the funwheel or not.

WEDNESDAY, JUNE 24th
Wednesday was a glorious day. By then, my sinuses had cleared, the swelling in the throat had begun to recede, and my chills had all but disappeared. Even better was the amount of time we were able to spend in the parks. We got in about 10am and stayed for about 12 hours. The best part is... no breaks, no stopping, no going back to the hotel.. and NO NAP. This is quite a feat since I always drop dead into an afternoon slump around 2-4pm and usually I can't operate without a nap. Anyway...

Paul and Young decided to go into LA so Phillip and I headed into the parks by ourselves. We entered DCA first and headed to the back where Paradise Pier was. I quickly grabbed FPs for Screamin' and once again, we got in line for a 40 minute TSMM wait. It would have been worth it had my shooter not been broken . The vertical axis wasn't reading so I could only shoot from side-to-side on a horizontal plane. Oh well, it was fun hitting what I could while it lasted. After TSMM, we approached the funwheel and looked up.

"Oh boy."

I asked Phillip if he was up to the challenge. It was one of those rides that looked kind of fun but was really nefariously deceptive. He agreed, and we ended up waiting for 35 minutes, before two girls behind us CUT right when we were at the head of the line. The group in front of us was too big and the CMs were taking a party of two, so the CM let the girls through and not us . Had we been further back in line, I would have given them a piece of my mind. Nevertheless, I cooled down and we got on a swinging gondola a few minutes later and sat across from a family of three. It wasn't so bad going up, but then the first swing down quite literally mocked us.

"Oh my word". I distinctly remember uttering those three words. I think I was okay, though. The stomach was a tad queasy but I just kept looking out at the drained lake. It was a bit like those pirate ship rides except more tedious. I could deal with the next two swings, but when they sent us around for one more revolution, I had to keep my eyes firmly concentrated out the carriage and tried to bob my head against the motion of the swinging to keep the horizon still. I looked over at Phillip and he looked fine until we got off the ride and I learned later that apparently he wasn't. So his side of the story is that he genuinely felt like there was a strong possibility he was going to hurl and he told me that he was actually panicking and trying to figure out where he would direct his uh.. regurgitation should it happen. He said that he would have almost certainly given way had they sent us around one more time.

We later joked about how crudely disgusting yet hilarious it would look if unsuspecting spectators were looking at the funwheel from the boardwalk (or taking pictures) and all of sudden some sick started splashing out from one of the gondolas .

How Phillip was able to accomplish the next two feats, I do not know. We actually went on Screamin' right after the Funwheel despite how terrible Phillip felt. We used the FPs I got before TSMM, but the ride broke down while we were on the gondolas and the line was backed up pretty good. Nonetheless, somehow we got through the ride. I wasn't feeling as bad I was on Monday, so I was all bubbly and content. But Phillip...you'll never guess what he did next...

I said, "I'm hungry, didn't you want to try the turkey leg? I want to try the turkey leg." I know the turkey leg is a love-hate food at DL, but I wanted to give it my best shot, so I waited at the vendor right under Screamin' and Phillip said, "I want to try it too".

I know we were both big hungry guys, but would we really be able to reconcile a big greasy meaty turkey leg with something as devious as motion sickness from the funwheel? We both grabbed one each (a mistake which I later learned). Now the first few bites were tasty-- they reminded me of the good ol' Thanksgiving dinners. Until a few bites later, when Phillip put his down.

"I'm done".

<-- For something like this, I can't stop using this emoticon.

Apparently, there was also a snail crawling around on a fence post right behind me where it was in clear view for him, so poor Phillip had to deal with watching the slimy thing. At this point, I was still holding up, so I kept chomping down, until I too, had reached my limit. I was more full than sick, but I had surely underestimated the power of the turkey leg.

Two words to sum it all up for us: "Never again".

Well, I hope I didn't scare any of you away with my graphic pictures of turkey leg *cough* awesomeness . Anyway, to this day, how Phillip managed to even eat a bite of the thing after Screamin' and the Funwheel is still beyond me. By that point, we both had begun to feel full and iffy, so we decided to stroll pass GRR and back toward the entrance. Then I remembered that some DISers said that Cinderella would sometimes show up at 'Drawn to the Magic'. There was a show playing in ten minutes, so we headed to the backlot.

I actually enjoyed the show. It's very short, but I think the CMs do the singing do very well and of course I enjoyed the music (I was singing 'A Dream is a Wish Your Heart Makes' the rest of the day through ). And it was a triple delight seeing Cindy again . After the show, the three characters, Cindy, Sorcerer Mickey, and Woody all posed for meet 'n' greets. Now, I debated with Phillip for a good solid five minutes whether or not the Cindy was the same from yesterday. (Sadly I forgot what Tuesday's Cindy looked like, shame on me, I must have been so excited ) We finally concluded that it was not, considering it would have made sense that the PFF Cinderella would be different than the one at Drawn to the Magic. After a few more minutes of pondering, I decided to step into line for a second 30-second "date" . Luckily I was the last one for the 2:30 show, because a big CM had to turn away little girls saying, "Folks, this is our last guest. Cinderella will be back out for the next show". Heheh.

Well, as soon as it was my turn, I was about to tell her that I was her "number one biggest fan" , but she asked me my name as I shyly piped out "Sherwin" . We got a picture of my second rendezvous with my love, Cinderella , as I thanked her graciously. Well, I had twice fulfilled my obligation now so I was charged with even more energy to spend for the rest of the day (hmm, that must have been why I had no slump ).

I look a little more ruffled in this one, but oh well.

After my second date ......., we decided to check out the Soarin' FPs, but by then the return time was already 9pm . Unfortunately, I was stupid and forgot to use the 'get FPs early and return later' strategy. So we got some frozen treats to cool our stomachs and headed over to DL. We rode the RR over to NoS and hopped aboard HM for about a 10 minute wait. It's interesting to measure how involved people get at certain times during the day when the ghost host "scares" you in the elevator. One of the other times we went, it was either very late or very early, because it was dead silent went the hanging skeleton appeared. This time, though, I think my eardrums exploded . *Uses grandpa voice*: "Crazy teenagers!"

continued in next post...

 

[Sherwin]

Wednesday, June 24th continued

After HM, we finally decided to try and hit Splash. Unfortunately, my memory had grown legs and run away over the years so I forgot where FP distribution was. We passed it, went around the mountain, and ended up at Pooh. "Huh, where is that blasted thing?" As we doubled back and retraced our steps, I heard an announcement within the queue: "Ladies and Gentlemen, we are currently experiencing some..." GARRRR! Rounding the corner, we saw that the FP machines had gone down as well . This all happened right when we were going back around after missing the machines the first time. If we had known where they were in the first place, we might have been able to snag FPs in the nick of time . Oh well. We decided to hop aboard the canoes for a row around the RoA. We had a good time chatting and joking with the folks around us; while a woman in front of us was snapping photos, the CM rowing behind was like "Hey no pictures, keep rowing!" (sarcastically of course ) and the woman replied, "I wouldn't be helping anyway, so I'd just be better off taking pictures."

We took it easy the rest of the afternoon and evening, and rode pirates (where a particularly large cannon splash doused both of us). I think IJA was down, and yes, I will echo the sentiment that many rides broke down a lot during that particular time frame at the end of June. We stopped by the Indy shop across from the ride, played with the swords and snapped some shots.

A cute little panda bear wrapped in a leaf of some sort, but...

Oh no, it's been re-envisioned as a spring roll! With salt and pepper. Phillip's idea, not mine.

I wanted to head back to PFF to see the princess rotation again, and Phillip called me a creepingish stalker. Hey, call it what you will, but I happen to be one of a few young men out there willing to admit that these princesses are quite attractive . We wandered through the shop and hey look I found my third date:

I don't think the real Cinderella would have appreciated being held like that .

We wandered a little through Fantasyland afterward and decided to wait in line for Alice in Wonderland, where we saw a group of girls, each chomping on their own turkey leg . Well, they clearly did what we could not . After Alice, we caught the last few minutes of the street parade. I'm not big for parade-watching so I can't compare it to any other DL parade (I'm afraid I have to admit that the last I saw the electrical parade was in '91 when it was still on Main Street-- okay, I was kind of small then). It was a bit like a mix of high school musical thrown in with some Disney characters. I know it hasn't been terribly well received, but again, not exactly a territory I feel strongly about.

We did some more wandering around, and did IJA and Buzz a couple more times. We decided to hop aboard Autopia again and after a 20-25 minute wait, we boarded the cars. We were waiting unusually long for clearance when we saw some of the CMs walking briskly back and forth along the platform. Several minutes later, we were told to get out of the car and were promised readmission passes...when they fixed the problem. I actually would have gladly taken the passes and used them to combat another mega-line. Here is a photo I snapped while waiting at the boarding area:

Here is the real story: As we were cleared to leave, I decided to leave my camera on the "dashboard" and film my ride through the course. Within the first hundred or so yards, I heard some rowdy youngsters in the car on the track right of mine. A little girl was yelling, "Go go go! Hey, beat that guy" I wasn't paying terrible attention but when they passed me, the little girl yelled, "HAHAH, we passed you!" At this point, I was like "Oh, kids these days ". But right then, the girl yelled even louder: "SUCKER!" So I revised my original reaction and was more like "Kids these days " Haha, I looked back at the video I recorded and I could hear myself muttering: "*Grumble* No respect, getting insulted hrrmph... by an eight-year old..."

Nevertheless after that last retort from her, I zoomed past them and they never caught up with me again .

After that enlightening experience, we decided to take things easy and closed out the night watching the fireworks. Here's a quick review of the show:

---
Magical review
For those avid DL park goers, AP holders, and fireworks watchers, it will be evident that this is a temporary/transitional show that has been much watered down from RDCT. The show is designed for better crowd control and to save massive expenses that would normally be eaten up by a show like RDCT. It is much shorter and uses less types of pyrotechnics and overall effects than RDCT. Despite this, the soundtrack is enjoyable to listen to and yes, Dumbo appears for a few brief moments. For people who don't visit DL often, the show is still magical and is appreciated nonetheless. They open up the backstage route west of Main Street behind the ice cream shop and emporium as a detour to clear people out faster.
---

After the visit, we decided to stop in the emporium to look around for any souvenirs, where I spotted this model of a barber shop in the corner of the store. I asked Phillip, "Isn't that a little dark?"

To me, it looks like a barber getting ready to shank a kid in the face with a straight razor . One of the darker things I've seen at DL, I must say.

Anyway, finding nothing, we decided to head back and close out our fourth day in the parks. Our trip was nearing its close, but I was perfectly content having achieved my mission's objective twice .

 

[DLR29]

What a hilarious TR! Sounds like a fun trip (despite getting sick, queasy on Mickey's Fun Wheel, and an excess amount of turkey)

 

[prettyprincessbelle]

You are funny!

I don't think Cindy would appreciate you holding her like that either! I have the Belle doll like that. I think DBF has it? I need to find it. Oh, btw, he's a Cinderella lova like you!

 

[Sherwin]

You are funny!

I don't think Cindy would appreciate you holding her like that either! I have the Belle doll like that. I think DBF has it? I need to find it. Oh, btw, he's a Cinderella lova like you!

I used to have the hots for Aurora before I saw Cinderella (it was pretty much the one movie we didn't have).

Anyway, oh geez, I still have Thurs and Fri to finish up. Will do that in a jiffy!

 

[Sherwin]

Sorry everyone for delaying! I was that lazy. Allow me to finish the trip and provide 'closure' until next time.

THURSDAY, JUNE 25th
Maaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaagggggggicc Mornnnnnnnnnnnnnnniiiiinnnnnnggg!!! After our commando style stop-at-nothing run on Wednesday, we decided to use our MMs on Thursday morning. Getting up was not fun. The park was open at 8am, so MM was 7am, and we had about a 20 min walk, so my wake up call was 6am. No breakfast today. Paul and Young were going into LA again, but we agreed to meet up with them and go into the city for a little bit as well.

After stumbling out of bed and drenching myself in a hot water shower, we threw on our clothes and headed out the door. Brrr! The skies were overcast but I knew they were plotting-- by mid morning, I knew the clouds would burn off the reveal devilish heat casting sunshine. By the time we got to the gates, there was already quite the crowd being funneled into the park, so we joined the throng. I decided to see if SM was open in Tomorrowland yet, because lets be honest here, Phillip's too embarrassed to go on Fantasyland rides. Unfortunately, SM was not quite open yet, sooo... we decide to go on our favorite ride..BUZZ!

This early on, we wondered if we could score on the High Scores. So as the ride began, we started firing at will at the targets. Then in the second to last room... we heard the announcement that the ride had temporarily stopped. JACKPOT, we had also stopped just beyond a purple triangle target and we were both firing our hearts out at it. Finally, the ride got going again , and we checked our scores:

2nd and 5th place! Not bad. I guess going really early in the morning and having the ride stop for a while helped .

Seeing our initials in the high score was very cool, but the guy who beat Phillip already got some 700k points. Anyway, we decided to hop on again. As we looped back around to the entrance and were giddily jaunty about our scores, a CM following close beside us pulled out two Honorary Citizen Badges and handed them to us. We were very grateful-- Phillip had no idea what it was so I had to explain to him about all the badges. After that gift, we hopped back aboard. This time not so lucky. No where even close to last time through. Oh well. We decided to journey over to Nemo, where there was already a 40 minute wait . Guess I should have paid more attention to the MM thread. We decided to wait anyway, where it was, for the most part, moving quickly enough.

The only time he'd wear it. Sigh... he was again, too embarrassed (or TOO LAME, as I always say)

Thanks CM!

I was very impressed with the new technology on Nemo. I can see why the ride is popular. It's not my favorite in DL, but its definitely great for families and people of all ages. I remember the old submarine voyage when they had mermaids. Ahh the nostalgia.

The most hated character in Nemo.

After Nemo, we decided to go through Autopia once and grabbed FPs for it. Unlike a lot of DISers, its a ride I like , but I agree the fumes suck. That chevron sponsorship is something I will not be sorry to see go. We decided to round back over to Buzz...again, and see how we'd match up against our old score. Now the entire park was open so no doubt we wouldn't be as high up.

Huh, well what do you know. 75th place. By that time, someone had already achieved 2,000,000. How they did it, I'll never know.

Okay, we had had enough Buzz by then. We decided to round back over past Nemo and wait for Matterhorn. By then the line was actually considerably long. This time, we decided for the TL side- not sure which queue moves faster. Anyway, OH MY WORD was it bumpy. For some odd reason, it was much bumpier than our ride on Monday. We were riding along parallel with another FL train for part of the ride, but man it was like falling down a flight of stairs . I don't ever remember Matterhorn being that rough before. Not recommended for people with back and neck problems.

After our bumpy excursion, we walked around Fantasyland some more, before finally I decided to upgrade to an AP!! . The process took a bit longer than I thought and to make sure my hopper was not transferred to me, the CM had to ask me what day the hopper wasn't used. Uh oh, I couldn't remember, since we mixed the hoppers around, being that Paul didn't use his all the days. I finally figured it out and she proceeded, taking my picture (which turned out really funny) and finally I am now a rookie AP holder! I am sure hoping to return before it expires and bring you another TR, maybe my third date with Cindy .

We decided to meet up with Paul and Young at 11:30 but I really wanted to break in my new AP so we scurried across the esplanade over to DCA. It was exciting as the CM warmly said "Welcome back!" . We could only manage time for one ride so we decided to hop on board ToT. My pose didn't turn out quite right, but oh well. We sat across a very jolly red-faced looking man, who appeared to me as a younger Santa who decided to shave this morning:

Yay, Santa!

continued in next post...

 

[Sherwin]

Thursday, June 25th continued

Well I had finally broken in my AP, so we decided to meet up with Paul and Young, but not before grabbing a bite to eat at 7-11. We took an express bus into Downtown LA (which we almost missed) and it took about an hour and a half to get there. I tried to nap along the way, but didn't really succeed. Another passenger that boarded about 20 min after we did was holding a GPS with the window attachment and the suction cup... hmmm, stolen? Methinks so. Anyway, we got off just past Pershing Square and did some wandering around the markets. Spotted the Disney concert hall but no picture . We walked north into Little Tokyo and decided to stop for lunch at Orochon Ramen. Apparently this place has been featured on Man vs. Food for its insanely spicy ramen.

They have seven different levels of spiciness plus 2 extra levels of extreme spiciness. Number 7 has no spice whatsoever, and it gradually gets hotter till it gets to filthy stinking hot number one. However, it also has Special #1 and Special #2, the latter of which only has been defeated by the very brave. Those who order Sp. #2 have the opportunity of doing the 30 min challenge and if beating it, they get their picture on the Wall of Fame.

Waiting for the noodles.

Both me and Paul ordered no. 3s, Phillip was a pansy and ordered a number 7 (we teased him greatly about it). Young got...the special number 2. Being the sarcastic one he is, he said it would be no problem. He declined the 30 minute challenge (booooo...lame!) though.

We decided to eat outside since it was a nice day. Before the waitress even stepped outside with our orders, we would smell the spiciness of the soup . We were joking about what it'd look like if the soup burned through the bottom of the bowl . When our orders arrived, the color of the soup in Young's bowl was scarily red. Looking at it burned our eyes. The three of us, Paul, Phillip and me decided to scoop small spoonfuls of the soup and try.

Look at that smirk.

Phillip said it was already burning his mouth, but again he's kind of lame, so we decided to let Young dig in. "It's not bad!" Okay, that was just good acting by Young. He never let us know that he was dying of the heat but we all knew that his insides were probably burning away. He couldn't finish the soup (reason why he declined the challenge) so after our very tasty and spicy meal, we ventured down into a market to get some dessert to cool our stomachs.

Me and Paul taking pictures of our number 3s.

Afterward, Phillip and I parted ways with Paul and Young. They decided to go to Hollywood and I made the excuse that I had to make reservations with the DLR express, but really I just wanted to go back to DL . We walked up to Union Station and caught a Metrolink train headed toward Anaheim.

On the train.

Angels Stadium. Sworn enemies of the Mariners!

The Anaheim station is right next to Angels Stadium, which is still quite far away from DLR, so we walked quite a bit to get back-- hey, whats a few miles when you can burn off all that ramen? As soon we got back, I found out that we didn't need to make reservations, so we rested a bit and recuperated before setting off back to DL.

Once back in, we played...more Buzz. Of course, our scores from this morning were long gone. We grabbed some FPs and decided to use our morning Autopia FPs. What luck, since the line was about a 30-35 min wait. Not really though. We climbed aboard our cars and everything was going swimmingly until half way through the course. Apparently, someone's car had stalled and the CMs were unable to fix it. So, there were about a group of 7 or 8 cars all waiting there on the tracks.

Phillip telling me to go. Really to no avail, though.

The monorail-- moving a lot faster than we were.

We waited about 10 minutes before a kid a few cars up piped out to the CMs, "Hey, can you bring us churros and popcorn?!" I certainly agreed with that . After a few more minutes, the CMs got us out the cars and walked us back to the boarding area. There were 2 impatient women who were pretty frustrated, but by and large no one else really had a problem. One girl couldn't move without a wheelchair, though, so they had to go fetch one for her. After getting back to the station, we were surprised to see the entire ride was shut down and everyone had left, leaving the line like a ghost town. The CMs promised us readmission passes and I asked, "How about we get some free Annual Pass upgrades instead?" and gained some chuckles.

We quickly got our passes and decided to use them on the only ride sensible, SM of course! Having missed it this morning, it was nice being able to bypass an hour long line.

I. Was. Looking. In. The. Wrong. Direction.

We decided to expend our Buzz FPs, where EH? It also was broken down. Luckily, it was only down for 10 minutes or so and we chose to stay in the line. Wise choice as they got it quickly back up. The ride did stop temporarily when we were on board, but no matter! More time for shooting.

My personal best, but Phillip got nearly 700k on this .

By that time, the first F! was just starting and I wanted to time it just so that we could watch Indy while F! was playing. Unfortunately, that was also down. So we hopped on board the Jungle Cruise. I always seem to be on the not-so-enthusiastic boats as only one person was chuckling to the CM's jokes . Magical had just started and I really wanted to ride BTMRR during the fireworks so we made our way over there only to find... it too was broken. So everyone else wasn't lying-- thus far, Autopia, Buzz, Indy, and BTMRR had all broken down within a couple hours from each other.

No matter. We watched the end of the fireworks from the walkway next to BTMRR. I wanted to catch the second F! showing, but Phillip was too tired and wanted to go back. LAMMMMEEE. Unfortunately, I would not get to see the show again on the trip . So we decided to return to the hotel where I left with a heavy heart, because I knew it would be my last time on this trip being in the parks at night.

After returning, we did have a strange phenomenon. Here is the incident I mentioned at the beginning about our hotel. When we got back, I noticed these small silky webs strung along our doorknob, and when I looked closer, tens of tiny little spiders were crawling over the knob . It was quite disgusting and Phillip took some blades of grass to try and knock them off. We found more scurrying on the wall adjacent to the door and scraped off as many as we could. Hoping there was no hole that was producing the little buggers, we opened the door, bolted inside and shut it. All in all, it was probably a rare and isolated incident. Nonetheless, we bade day 5 farewell and anticipated day 6... our last .

 

[Sherwin]

FRIDAY, JUNE 26th

Well, there were a lot of laughs, cries, yells, sneezes, coughs, and burps on this trip. I would be very sad to leave but I knew this day had to come. Not much happened in the parks so I'll go over that quickly.

Friday morning Phillip and I decided to get up early again and go into the parks to squeeze a couple more hours in. There was no MM, so we got breakfast and headed out at 7:30. Interestingly enough, we made it there unexpectedly for the rope drop, which I forgot was happening. We headed straight west towards Adventureland after the rope was dropped but Indy was closed and so was Splash. So we decided to hop aboard Pooh .

After that thrilling ride of which we were the ONLY patrons, we decided to hop aboard HM one last time and decided to do BTMRR with a quick 5 minute wait. *Sigh* I like it better at night. We of course did Buzz a few last times. Young had to catch the 1:35 DLR Express bus back so we couldn't stay too long. I decided to stop in the emporium to grab a few gifts for my sister (as it was her Bday a week ago). It turns out later she already had the exact 2 things I got her .

Finally, it was time to leave, but not before taking some more pictures:

We left through the gates with heavy hearts (or at least I did). Hopefully I will return in time to make my AP worth it. As we walked back and passed the 7-11 on Katella, a crazy lady outside kept yelling at passerby for taking kids to 7-11 because the drinks were too sugary and fattening and kept saying something about giving them "juice boxes" instead. Huh, well I guess she had a point.

We met back up with Paul and Young at the hotel and checked out. Grabbed a bite to eat before we had to send off Young on the DLR express. The procedure is supposed to be simple, you simply stand on the curbside and the driver is supposed to spot you. It varies by hotel, but that's how it was with ours.

Our bus was one hour after Young's but 2:35 (the listed time) came and went. At 2:50 Phillip decided to call Greyline where a very rude woman told us that we should have just caught the 1:35 bus. Huh? Like that has to do with anything . Phillip asked her what we were supposed to do and she told us to take a cab to DLH and catch the bus to LAX from there. After Phillip asked her what time the bus was going to leave, she only retorted "Now." Wow, real helpful. We decided to wait for the 3:35pm one, which ended up getting us there on time.

For those taking the DLR express, remember the pick up bus that go to area hotels are 'Coach America' buses that take you to DL where a real painted express bus will take you to the airport.

We finally caught the 3:35 bus, got dropped off at DLH, jumped aboard another bus with a very friendly driver, and waved goodbye to DL. Oh I will be back. You can count on it. And that's where this story will pick up next time.

Until then folks, goodbye, and of course...

MISSION ACCOMPLISHED

 

[WebmasterMaryJo]

I loved your report, Sherwin, and was laughing out loud several times.

Glad to see that you were able to accomplish your mission. Cinderella must have seen the determination in you to grant you your first date.

Regarding your question about TSMM other line, in addition to the accessible entrance, the single riders take advantage of that other entrance. I've used it a couple of times, and it shaves off quite a bit of the waiting time. They also have a single rider line at Screamin', which saves time.

PUSH the trashcan is followed by a CM dressed casually, and talking in a microphone that he covers with his hand. He's probably about 15 feet away, so if you had looked for him you would have seen him. I have a very clear shot of him taken on 6/20 this year. He's hilarious, I think.

Loved all of your reviews, the pic of "Santa" had me seriously laughing out loud.

I am impressed that you guys took the busses to the LA area and walked from the train station to the parks. How long did that walk take you? I wonder if someone had the ART pass, if they could walk to the Motel 6 & take the ART from there, if need be. That is really good going, and now whenever someone asks about public transportation to LA, etc., I know who to go to with these questions.

I have to ask my daughter about that restaurant in Little Tokyo. She goes there often enough with her friends.


Thanks so much for a great report, with excellent pictures, and an all-around enjoyable read.

 

[Sherry E]

Sherwin, I was also laughing out loud in some places, especially about the barber preparing to shank the kid! Oh, it's so wrong, but you are correct - it did seem very dark and macabre!

And that is quite a trek from Anaheim to Downtown L.A. and then back to Anaheim, and for most people who live out here in SoCal just the traveling would take up the bulk of their days, but the way you described it, it appeared seamless and not terribly time-consuming at all!

I am glad you fulfilled your Cindy-quest and also that your illness didn't detain you too long...and that no one upchucked in the Fun Wheel of Death. But how weird was that with the tiny spiders on the doorknob? Crazy! Where was mama spider, I wonder?

Looks like the DSE (Disney Snowball Effect) got hold of you and now you have an AP. So we can look forward to many more great photos and hilarious accounts of your future DLR trips, I hope?