Nothing to See Here...

[mvf-m11c]

So that's where you have been today Sherry. Glad that you and Liza got to go to DL on the first day of the Halloween season. It must have been neat to see all the Halloween decorations.

 

[tksbaskets]

Yes, Marie! Today was the day! I am home now. I couldn't believe that the floral masked Mickey was back! That was one of the things I'd missed about the Halloween season since it was removed after 2007!

Anyway, I got as many photos as I could. I really need a few days to spread out the photo taking, take breaks, get back to photo-taking, etc. I went with Liza/funatdisney to DLR and we split up for a while to go off and take photos!

S.W.E.E.T.!! Can't wait to hear all about it

 

[Belle Ella]

Well I had to know something was up when you made a mobile post about the floral Mickey So glad it sounds like it was a great day. Can't wait to see your pictures.

 

[ducky_love]

Sherry - can I ask who the character on the right is? It is making me crazy!! I was thinking he had to be from Treasure Planet but I zipped through the movie and I don't think I saw him. Thanks!!!

 

[mvf-m11c]

Sherry - can I ask who the character on the right is? It is making me crazy!! I was thinking he had to be from Treasure Planet but I zipped through the movie and I don't think I saw him. Thanks!!!

The character on the right is Don Karnage the air pirate from the television series Tale Spin in the 90s.

 

[kaoden39]

Michele, I thought of you and Jessica when I passed by the Duffy pumpkin patch photo display in DCA today! I took a couple of pictures of it, as well as the Halloween Duffy sold in the stores on Main Street (when did Duffy move over to Main Street to be sold?).



Kaitlin, you'll have a blast! Everything on Main Street is totally Halloween-ified! The Halloween Round-Up is really cool.

I know what you mean - my AP expires the day before the holiday season starts! So I have to figure out if I am renewing it then or a couple of weeks later, or not at all or whatever! It's a bad feeling when the AP expires. You feel so lost without it!

Very cool!! I can hardly wait to hear about it!!

 

[ducky_love]

The character on the right is Don Karnage the air pirate from the television series Tale Spin in the 90s.

I *never* would have guessed!! Thank you so much. Ironic- I have that on the DVD shelf too!

 

[WDWJonasGirl]

How was it yesterday? Anyway, here's my DCL Trip report:

http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=2781879

 

[areweindisneyyet]

Yay! So glad you made it to DL for Halloween, and now that Halloween has started it means Christmas must be just around the corner. Can't wait for the details.

 

[Sherry E]

The Return of the Masked Mouse and His Diabolical Twin - September 16, 2011 - Part 1​

Hello! It's been quite a while since we last visited, hasn't it? It has been 9 months since I last entered the enchanted gates of the Happiest Place on Earth. It has been an eternity since my near-calamitous encounter with a trash can, which was the fault of an ice cream cone.

You see, I am not someone who goes to Disneyland many times during the year. I generally stick to Halloween Time trips and holiday trips, and sometimes I do only one...and sometimes it might be a quickie. Last year I had to skip Halloween Time, and I missed it so much. It was time to return!

Well, seeing as the trip about which I'm reporting was a short one - about 3/4 of a day, really - I won't have a long narrative leading into the photos to offer you in each post, as I might normally have. I mainly have photos to share - I don't think anyone will complain about that. Less chatting; more photos!

Basically, many of you have been longtime followers on this TR and are aware of a few of the many struggles I have endured in the last few years, not to mention the struggles just to make these little DLR trips happen! I have gotten to the point where I am so exhausted by it all - trying to coordinate people, trying to get them to communicate, trying to work things out to everyone's liking, etc. - only to have things fall apart or go horribly awry.

Recently, I have become frustrated in the planning of my upcoming holiday DLR extravaganza. It has turned into a source of anxiety and stress for me, and a trip to DLR should not make you feel that way - it's rather counter-intuitive, wouldn't you say? So I am at the point where I don't know what's happening. I have no clue if my out-of-state friends (The I Family) will be coming into town to join me. They have stopped communicating with me, which either means they have created some reason to be mad about something...OR they are planning on letting me know at the last minute what they are doing and they have no desire to compromise and work things out to everyone's satisfaction.

My holiday dates are set for 11/28 - 12/5. Whether or not I cut off a couple of those nights, I am just going to proceed as though these friends will not be there. I may even be lucky enough to share my super-inexpensive PPH room with a couple of DIS'ers, if all goes well! It's a fantastic rate that I will never, ever get again - might as well share it with others who would appreciate it!

So I established that I did not want to skip Halloween Time again this year, even if I could only go there for a day. But I didn't have the energy to deal with stress and getting people together. I didn't want to bother with trying to round up friends - as much as I love my usual motley crew (yes, I almost accidentally spelled it C-R-U-E, in case you wondered) of Orange County friends and have a great time and non-stop laughs with them when I see them, I just didn't have the energy to try to work it all out. I feel like it's such an effort - and, frankly, I am too old for it now!

At my suggestion, one of our DIS'ers - Liza/funatdisney - agreed quite a while back (like maybe in May?) that we could go to DLR on opening day of Halloween Time this year, just so we would be there to see what was new or different and be first to report back about it on the DIS. But the plans were not finalized until recently.

To be honest - and this is not a slam against anyone - my main goal was really to get to DLR and get as many photos as I could get of the Halloween festivities in a day trip, more so than wanting friends with me. This was also a major reason why I did not bother asking my friends Jackie, Bob, Shawn, etc. to join me - I knew I wanted to focus on photo-taking, and that is simply something I cannot do when I'm with people. I like to have my "friend time," but when I am in "photo mode" (and they could be good photos, bad photos, mediocre photos, whatever), I like to be solo.

Also, if I am with someone who is a shutterbug as well, I don't want to be influenced by anything they get photos of. I want to go off and kind of discover things on my own, and not have any particular 'seeds' planted in my head of what to get pictures of because I happened to see them snapping something out of the corner of my eye. I think that's a natural human impulse - you see someone snap a photo and you want to snap it too! I don't want to do that! I want to wander off and see what I can come up with in my own warped mind.

Liza/funatdisney pretty much knows the drill with photo taking and being solo. We established that we would split up at DLR at some point, to go off on separate photo missions. So I didn't have to worry about that aspect of things. I just needed to get in 'the zone' and get it done!

Liza kindly picked me up just after 7:30 a.m.-ish or so on Friday morning, September 16th, and we headed towards Anaheim!!

So....now that I have given you the intro, I will fill the subsequent posts with photos...

I feel like I am forgetting something that I was going to explain or fill you in on, but I am so sleepy right now, for some odd reason, that I can't concentrate or remember what it was. However, the Emmy Awards are on TV tonight, and if there is even a remote chance I can catch the mega, molten, smokin' hot "Eric" from True Blood - Alexander Skarsgard - making his way down the red carpet, you can bet I will snap to attention and wake up - FAST!!

Hey, a girl's gotta have her priorities in life, right?

 

[tksbaskets]

What an intro!! Of course I LOVE your chatting!

Because of you I will NEVER look at a trash can on MainStreet the same way again, pull a scarf out and not see it as a child-trippin' weapon, or be able to explain why I find peppermint ice cream so amusing to my family.

So I'm hoping in between your sure to be stunning photos there may be a little chatting

I hear you about Eric!

 

[Sherry E]

The Return of the Masked Mouse and His Diabolical Twin - September 16, 2011 - Part 2​

Okey dokey...so now that I have explained how and why the Halloween Time day trip came about, I can get on with the photo posting!!! The odd thing was that, given as many photos as I took, I actually skipped a lot of things. Since this was not going to be a multi-day trip, I knew I would have limited time to take photos, so I bypassed lots of things to mainly focus on Halloween stuff. I figured, I can get a photo of the new DCA entrance later on down the road.

By the way, for those of you who have found your way over here from the Halloween Superthread, I will be posting photos that I did not post in that thread as well as some that I did post, so you won't be seeing all the same stuff repeated - only some things!

Because it was an overcast morning with a pretty heavy cloud cover, it was nice and cool for several hours. It was humid, but the temperature was in the 70's - I was happy with that for a minute. I started to feel pretty warm later in the afternoon, though, but in the morning it was nice and gloomy.

When we arrived at the gates of Disneyland, we were greeted by these familiar pumpkin friends:

​

It was at this time that I noticed something had returned - the Masked Floral Halloween Mickey (I think deejdigsdis refers to him as clown-looking)!!! This is something that I have not seen for Halloween Time at DLR since 2007! This is one of the things I have repeatedly lamented the loss of, as Disneyland and Team Disney Anaheim have slowly but surely chipped away at their Halloween offerings over the years, removing a little here and there, with each passing season. In my mind, it's better to make the Halloween decor bigger and better with the passage of time, not downsize it all!

I was delighted to see the familiar mask made from various flora. I never, ever thought they would bring back Masked Floral Halloween Clown Bandit Mickey....

And, apparently, everyone else in the park was shocked to see the return of the Masked Mouse too...because there were 50 million people crowded in front of him, trying to get a photo.

So my Masked Mouse Clown Bandit photos are not good ones, of course, but you can still see him!

Hello, old Masked Clown Bandit Rodent Halloween Flowery Friend!!

​

 

[WDWJonasGirl]

Love it so far Sherry!!

 

[Belle Ella]

Hehe, oh the Emmys tonight ... can't wait.

Anyways, so glad to see you starting on your TR already! I posted this on the Halloween thread but I'll probably linger back for the next two weeks. I really want to soak in the Halloween decorations and everything when I'm there in person so I'll be avoiding this year's photos until then.

Hopefully I'll have a lot to say when I get back!

 

[Sherry E]

The Return of the Masked Mouse and His Diabolical Twin - September 16, 2011 - Part 3

Of course, the lovely Autumn flowers were in abundance around DLR - I just love the colors!​

Winking Mickey...

Non-Winking Mickey...

Now THIS is The Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown!

On to Haunted Mansion Holiday...

I had to shoot this at warp speed because the HMH line was zipping along, so I'm shocked that I got any of the hearse in here at all, but I wanted deejdigsdis to see that it's there...it looks like it has a freshened up paint job, doesn't it?

At this point, because the line was moving so fast, I was just shooting things and I wasn't even sure what they were! If it was in my path and I had the camera out, I clicked the shutter!....This is the problem with the Haunted Mansion Holiday queue - there are all kinds of cool things to see and little details that go unnoticed but, ideally, you want to get in a fast line for it. We had a fast line, but there was no way to stop and take photos without annoying the people in the line behind us. So it is a tricky area to photograph. If you get in a super slow line, that might be better for picture-taking. I've gotten a few photos in the past while in line, and I remember it was hard then. Every time the line slowed down, it would speed right up again.

​

I didn't attempt to get any photos inside the ride - that kind of thing works much better with DSLR cameras! But the new gingerbread centerpiece was cool - it is a mansion that opens in the center like a big, scary mouth with pointy teeth chomping down. The gingerbread smell was faint this time around - and it was opening day!


I had not yet been on the Little Mermaid ride, and we decided to head over to DCA so I could ride it before any crowds set in. There was essentially no line at all - California Adventure was a virtual ghost town compared to how it's been at other times of the year and how it will probably be next year.

​

I didn't get any photos from inside the ride because it was my first time riding it and I wanted to pay attention to the details. Next time I will attempt some pictures. The Little Mermaid is one of my all-time favorite Disney movies, and I think a ride in its honor is long overdue.

I will say this...while I enjoyed the Little Mermaid ride, and the colors/visuals are great (gotta love the "Under the Sea" scene with all the dancing fish and sea creatures!), and for the most part it is what I expected it would be...it felt a little thin, for lack of a better word. It felt like there was something missing to it - I couldn't quite put my finger on it. It seemed like a scene was missing or something, like it was unfinished. It seemed like each scene didn't really flow together or connect seamlessly. I don't know - maybe I am the only one who thinks that? Somehow, something fell just a wee bit short for me, though I still like it and will certainly ride it again.

I love the details in the queue for the Little Mermaid ride. Disney is so clever at making what appear to be drops of paint or someone's spilled ice cream into sea-themed shapes!! I swear, I thought someone had dribbled some ice cream on the ground - and the blobs of goo next to the embedded shell pieces turned out to be actual shapes!! They are masters at details!

We decided to hop on Toy Story Midway Mania, as it only had a 10-minute wait!!! I've waited for that ride for 30 and 40 minutes, so a 10-minute wait was unbelievable. As I said, DCA was a ghost town - everyone was probably over in DL where the Halloween stuff was!

Hello, Mr. Potato Head!

​

And while I got the lowest score I have ever gotten on this trip (not sure why - I can usually get into the groove of it quickly but my wrist was bothering me a bit), it was still a fun time...and did I mention the TEN MINUTE WAIT??

If my wrist had not been bugging me, we would have gone on TSMM again. In fact, if Shawn had been with me she would have been THRILLED at the 10-minute wait. She and I have always said that if TSMM had a short wait, we would just ride it repeatedly. But once was enough for right then.

 

[kaoden39]

Love it!! But you know me I am a chat fan!!

 

[tksbaskets]

Great pics! You wouldn't have gotten my family or me away from TSMM with a 10 minute wait until our forearms fell off

Can't wait for more....

Did I say how happy I am that you made a secret trip???

 

[Sherry E]

What an intro!! Of course I LOVE your chatting!

Because of you I will NEVER look at a trash can on MainStreet the same way again, pull a scarf out and not see it as a child-trippin' weapon, or be able to explain why I find peppermint ice cream so amusing to my family.

So I'm hoping in between your sure to be stunning photos there may be a little chatting

I hear you about Eric!

And be careful when you are sitting in a chair, that you're not backing it up onto random kids!

There's probably some stuff to explain or chat about in between photos, but I was pretty focused this time on, "I have to get photos of X, Y and Z," and it wasn't so much a just mosey along and enjoy the day kind of trip. Well, it was an enjoyable day - that's not what meant - but there are some days where I am more on a 'mission' than other days! If I had a few days to kind of wander around slowly, then I could divide up my time accordingly. But I knew my time was limited so I had to jump into action!

Thank you for the kind words, TK! I'm glad you're still following along! Now where is that rascal, deejdigsdis?? I've got sewing machine window display photos for her coming up! I know she loves a good sewing machine holiday display!

Ahhh, Eric....of course, "True Blood" won't be back on TV for 9 long months. I nearly passed out when I recently found out that TB shoots in Los Angeles! All this time I thought they were still shooting in Lousiana! You mean to tell me that Alexander Skarsgard is in my city? Yikes!

Love it so far Sherry!!

Thank you, Kaitlin! Lots more photos coming up! And I will definitely check out your DCL trip report! I never make it over to that section so I have to have a particular reason to go there - it's a good thing you told me about it!

Hehe, oh the Emmys tonight ... can't wait.

Anyways, so glad to see you starting on your TR already! I posted this on the Halloween thread but I'll probably linger back for the next two weeks. I really want to soak in the Halloween decorations and everything when I'm there in person so I'll be avoiding this year's photos until then.

Hopefully I'll have a lot to say when I get back!

Hi, Jessica! I love train wreck award shows with the whole red carpet thing.

I meant to reply to your comment in the Halloween thread - I know what you mean. Part of you wants to see what people post just because of that natural curiosity factor, and because of the 'I don't want to miss that!' element. On the other hand, you want to kind of 'discover' everything yourself, with your own eyes. You want to find things on your own. You don't want to be influenced in any way because of what you saw someone else post - like you don't want to avoid taking a photo of something, OR be compelled to take a photo of something, because you saw that someone else did it. You want to just let your trip and photo ideas flow organically!

I am curious to know what you thought of the Little Mermaid ride, and if you agreed with my assessment? You have not gotten to the Little Mermaid part of your TR yet, have you (I assume you rode it)? I don't think I missed it in your TR, but maybe I did? I wonder if you feel the same way about it - cool ride, colorful, fun...but there's a missing element somewhere along the line!

 

[mvf-m11c]

Great pictures as always Sherry.

Can't wait to see more.

 

[mariezp]

Great start so far Sherry! Loving the pictures even though, as you know, I am not even much of a halloween fan. DD and I were just discussing the fact that even if you are not a fan of the holiday with Disney you can still enjoy the park because they do such a wonderful job of keeping it family friendly and have such cute decorations. Just more of that good old Disney magic!

WOW! Lucky you! I have never seen a 10 minute line for TSMM. I would have had to have gone on it at least a couple times.

Now you have got me really curious to see if we share the Little Mermaid assessment. While I would hope after all the hard work (and money) they put into it that it would feel "complete", I don't suppose it would come as a total shock if it ends a little abrupt. I love all the dark rides but they sure do all seem to have really squashed storylines. Guess it's hard to squeeze all the highlights of a 90 minute movie into a ride that only lasts a few minutes.

Can't wait for more!