PTR-Cheating on Mickey w/Harry!...OMG! Only a month to go!

[dgbg100106]

Alison.... 1 week!

 

[Leshaface]

Um, okay, I must have been living under a rock for a long time, because i've never heard of Trader Sam's at the DLH!

I showed Dan last night, and it's a must see on our next trip. It looks amazing and the drinks look FANTASTIC!

 

[franandaj]

I agree bummer!

Neither of the girls are big eaters so I figured it might be good to keep the morning and afternoon on Nov 1st low key since we have the MNSSHP that night and Discovery Cove the next day.

If we don't meet up this trip we'll have to try next Oct at DL.

Well I will be so excited to hear about Discovery Cove! We postponed that until our May trip, but I'm not finding many reviews online.

Alison.... 1 week!

I know I can't believe it!

Um, okay, I must have been living under a rock for a long time, because i've never heard of Trader Sam's at the DLH!

I showed Dan last night, and it's a must see on our next trip. It looks amazing and the drinks look FANTASTIC!

It's fairly new it was open when the Expo was going on, but it hasn't been open all that long. There is a QS restaurant Tangaroa Terrace (?) or is that at WDW? next door both are part of the DLH expansion. I haven't eaten at the QS place, but based on reviews, I think the bar has better food.

 

[franandaj]

Sunday we awoke to the same revelation that we did not need to be up at the crack of dawn, so we slept in and left the room when the bellman picked the bags up at 11AM. Our plan was to ride the monorail, have Brunch at the Plaza Inn, and meet up with Hawleys and her wife. Though that wasn’t the planned order, that’s pretty much how it worked out. On our way into DL we bumped into them and they were heading back to the GCH to check out (regular guests have until noon while DVC has to be out at 11). We wanted to eat first, but the restaurant didn’t open until noon and it was only 11:30. I did a quick ride on Star Tours and then we headed to the monorail. A car was leaving as we pulled up to the ramp so we had to wait for the next one to board. Not too bad of a wait!

It has been years since either of us had been on the Monorail and we were happy to see some of the new construction from that vantage point.

 

[franandaj]

So by this point we were absolutely STARVED! It had been a long time that we enjoyed multiple days in the parks and had a choice of multiple restaurants. I really wanted to eat at the Plaza Inn. It was Walt’s favorite restaurant, he always wanted it to have an elegant setting, but to serve classic food. Fried chicken was one of Walt’s favorite dishes and when they remodeled and resdesigned the menu for this place about 12 years ago, they made sure to include “Sunday chicken dinner” on the menu. This is our favorite dish here, plus we also love the Cobb Salad. For Gay Days and the Red Shirts they offered a special Red Velvet Cake for the weekend only. We got one of each.

They make your Cobb Salad to order.

When we ran into Hawleys and her wife earlier we had agreed to meet up after Fran and I had lunch. They were just finishing lunch too on the other side of the park, so we headed over to meet them and they were just finishing their lunch. We all decided to go on Soarin together and that was really fun. We chatted while waiting in the line and got to know each other a little better.

Fran and I had wanted to go on Mickey’s Fun Wheel of Death, but not the swinging gondolas because you get a great vantage of the resort and we wanted to take a picture of the Carsland construction, they were game so we all headed over there.

The view as we descended into the loading area was kind of trippy

Once we got up, we got some great views.

Proof of our DIS meet!

Carsland

Grizzly Peak

Disneyland

Our Villa

Tower of Terror

 

[PrincessInOz]

Looks like a nice DisMeet with Hawleys!!

And isn't Carsland taking shape? I hope that there is going to be some water around there...otherwise it might be hot, hot, hot!

 

[franandaj]

After our ride on the MFWoD, we decided it was time to part company. They had a flight to catch and we were getting tired, but we had registered for the fireside chat with Carol Channing to benefit her Foundation for the Arts. Since it was pretty hot outside and we had no hotel room we decided to just go park outside the room in the convention center, plug in our scooters and enjoy the AC while DISing or Fran read her book. Besides we had been to the D23 Convention and were used to waiting in lines!

After a while people started to show up to load in the room, set up a bar and a table selling books and handing out tickets. I decided that this was a good time to get us a snack so I went to Wetzel’s Pretzels and got us a couple dogs (no pics sorry!) I had a drink while we waited and about 20 minutes late they let us in the room. It was full of other queer folks in red shirts!

Shortly thereafter Carol Channing came out and our host (I don’t remember his name, but he was awesome!) interviewed here for about 2 hours.

She talked about all kinds of things, from when she first realized that she was a gay icon (somewhere in the late 1940s) and she would go to Fire Island and party all night with the gay guys.

She talked about here association with Walt Disney and I think this is Wally Boag who operated the trains at DL and Walt’s house.

She talked about how she sang Lyndon B Johnson’s theme song of his Candidacy “Hello, Lyndon” and how he thought that the song was stolen by Louis Armstrong when he heard it on the radio years later as “Hello Dolly”! She even sang a little of that “Hello Lyndon” song.

Throughout the evening they showed multiple clips of Carol in various “Disney adjacent” movies. While they weren’t Disney movies they either had a Disneyesque inspiration or were produced by ex Disney producers. She was very amused and had not seen some of the footage even though she was the star.

This is Momma, a local Drag Queen who is well known in the community and especially at GD, today she is channeling Carol. In fact Momma’s alter ego was sitting behind us at the D23 Expo Carsland Presentation.

One of the most moving stories about her was her husband. They were sweethearts as teenagers. She never stopped loving him and wrote about this in her autobiography about 8 years ago. He read this and all his friends urged him to seek her out. They married almost immediately and she said that she loves him just as much now as when she was 12 years old! How sweet is that?

She actually sang a number of songs for us, I don’t remember what they all were, but she was forgetting a few lyrics, and the guide helped her out when she fell short, but how cool is that at 90 (something) she had this much zeal! Her husband did say that he hadn’t seen her so animated in quite some time.

She was such a hoot! I know I won’t have that much spunk at her age, but it was wonderful to see her. Fran took me to see her in Hello Dolly about 12 years ago, it was pretty amazing that she could still play that role! She is still vibrant and hilarious! What a career this woman had, they started off the show with a video retrospective of her roles and performances, including “Diamonds are a Girls Best Friend”, “Hello Dolly”, and others. She was an amazing woman!


After this we crawled back to our car, thank god for the valets who put the bags in the car and we made it back home to slip into bed. What an exahausting but absolutely fun weekend. Next year I get to book us Friday through Monday!

 

[franandaj]

Looks like a nice DisMeet with Hawleys!!

And isn't Carsland taking shape? I hope that there is going to be some water around there...otherwise it might be hot, hot, hot!

No I think it will be hot, hot, hot...I don't remember hearing about any bodies of water...you know it is off Route 66 in the desert.

 

[PrincessInOz]

Absolutely mesmerising post! I love Carol Channing and that's the closest I'm ever going to get to seeing her up close. Fantastic to have that experience!

Thanks for sharing.




ps. I just noticed your response. Perhaps that might be a waterfall or two...there was in the movie.

 

[franandaj]

Absolutely mesmerising post! I love Carol Channing and that's the closest I'm ever going to get to seeing her up close. Fantastic to have that experience!

Thanks for sharing.




ps. I just noticed your response. Perhaps that might be a waterfall or two...there was in the movie.

You're right, I think there was a waterfall or two.... We were in the front row and continuously laughing with Carol, she was amazing. I know queenie said that her voice was annoying, but I think that was one of the things that just made her more endearing in person. I'm so glad that we saw her, it was a laugh a minute and to still be able to do that at her age is priceless!

 

[PrincessInOz]

I actually think that her voice is all part of the package that is distinctively Carol Channing.

 

[dgbg100106]

What a great experience to have, thanks for sharing everything.

 

[franandaj]

Well my Saturday evening dining dilemma has been solved. I spent over half an hour on the phone yesterday trying to sort out my Cat Cora debacle. I explained to the gentleman on the phone that I had paid with a Disney gift card that I no longer had in my possession, that I wasn't paying $150 to not see Cat Cora, and I wanted to cancel the reservation. After a very long time on hold, he informed me that my reservation had been canceled on Oct 8 and I should see the credit on my next statement.

After everything I told him, he would say, "I understand completely". Clearly he did not. When he finally did understand I was put back on hold, and then eventually transferred to a Guest Services Coordinator. She told me by law they can only issue the refund to the card it came from. I started to get pretty exasperated, and feared I was out $300+. However, she eventually told me that Business services could most likely issue me a new card, unfortunately it was closed for the day.

In most cases they would mail me the card, but she was going to see if they could have the card waiting for me at BCV when we check in next week. She wasn’t able to work that out for me, but they are Fed Ex 2nd daying the card to me and it has already gone out. I just hope that we’re back from Tulare when it arrives. I will be leaving a note on my door, saying “please accept this note as my signature”.

So I guess it’s Raglan Road for Saturday night!

 

[PrincessInOz]

I hope you get the $$ back!

 

[Leshaface]

First no Cat, now this to top it off. What a headache. I hope it all works out.

Well, are you somewhat happy about going to RR?

 

[dgbg100106]

Hope the card arrives and the fedex guy leaves the package for you.

 

[franandaj]

I hope you get the $$ back!

I'm sure that I will, it's just very frustrating that they canceled it on the 8th of October and I never got a phone call. What if I didn't read the DIS? I would have been really pissed off when I showed up that night to find no Cat and they STILL wanted to charge me $150! I might have paid $60 or so for a stand in, but I only pay that kind of money for celebrities or a really terrific chef (like the meal I posted earlier this week.) When you came down to all the drinks, dinner and 25% tip (we like to overtip the waiters for excellent service since we know them on a first name basis!).

First no Cat, now this to top it off. What a headache. I hope it all works out.

Well, are you somewhat happy about going to RR?

Other than the fact that it will take a bus ride and we might still be tipsy from the Grand Mariner Tasting, I am definitely looking forward to trying the place. Rose & Crown used to be one of our favorite places until they told us we couldn't wait for a patio table to view Illuminations! That was almost five years ago and we still haven't been back. We have a favorite Irish Pub here in Long Beach, so I'm sure that I will love Raglan Road!

Hope the card arrives and the fedex guy leaves the package for you.

Well if he's anything like the Postman, he'll have no problem leaving valuable packages in plain sight on our porch!

 

[bangzoom6877]

5 days to go!!!!!

 

[ACDSNY]

5 days to go!!!!!

Have fun!

We're not far behind...11 days to go!!! Almost to single digits!


Alison, I hope your gift card arrives in time.

 

[franandaj]

5 days to go!!!!!

Well we've had quite a lasst 24 hours! I'm so looking forward to it and there was a period this morning that I thought we were going to have to cancel!

On Monday, we set up an appointment for my friend Arline with our Primary Care Doctor, after she had her appt with the cardiologist. While we were there the Doc was going to take a peek at Fran's leg which has been bothering her for a few weeks. Well last night it was clear that she had some sort of infection. The Dr. called in an antibiotic and I picked it up last night. The pain got so bad that we had to find the bottle of leftover morphine from her last knee replacement. Over night she took so much that she has been throwing up all day.

When we saw the doc today, she gave her a new antibiotic, with a more broad spectrum and a prescription to help with the nausea. The Dr. gave her the OK to travel four hours up to take our friend home, but we would not have made it before midnight at the rate we were going so we postponed taking her home to Sat/Sun instead. The doc feels that she will be recovered enough by Tues to fly.

I just hope that she recovers enough to enjoy herself, and not be cranky. Right now she's OK, but boy was she cranky today!

She seems a little better since she was able to eat a little of the Turkey and Dumplings we had for dinner and we're actually watching TV and she is awake. I've been working on my first post for my TR that I want to post over the weekend so that I can give it a few days for everyone to make their way over and get some more DVC followers.

For those interested, Mac has been fitting in well. He's not getting along with one of Arline's cats, but other than that he's fitting in quite well. He seems to get along with all of our cats, just not Arline's but they will be going home Saturday.

And let me add, I REALLY hope that her leg gets better because I don't want to go away with someone this CRANKY! If she doesn't get better this will be a nightmare instead of a dream trip. I just hope that the antibiotics don't ruin the F&W part. I don't think you're supposed to drink on antibiotics, not that she drinks very much, that my job. But she might get very cranky at the F&W events not drinking when we've paid all this money! I have a feeling she'll have a drink or two anyways!

The good news is that we will be home tomorrow to get the FedEx gift card from Disney.

This is totally unrelated, but in the whole thing of Arline, she has to stay home more, so she reallocated her budget to afford cable, (so the TV we took back from her in January because it needed HiDef signal and she was using rabbit ears) we can give back to her. We bought ourselves a new HDTV for the bedroom and when I tried to hook it up the aging DVR we had in there completely died. I had been on the phone with DirecTV a few weeks ago when we thought it was dead, but it officially died. So we called up and set up service to get a new HD DVR in the bedroom. Well it took way too long and the folks there were totally disorganized, this was yesterday we were on the phone with them. Giving our credit card number to way too many different people. Well today we are the proud owners of now TWO new HD DVRs! Idiots! Since we changed our trip, we can't be here for the Sunday installation, so we'll just have to do it once we get back from Florida and our poor Russian Blue cat who has her own apartment will have to suck it up and be without humans sleeping over there becuase I successfully installed the DVR from our guest bedroom in the main bedroom! We have morning TV again!

I know this sounds really silly, but I went all day not knowing the Kadaffi was killed and had I seen my morning news show before we headed out to the Doctor at 10:30AM I would have been informed of world politics. Not that it makes a huge difference, but I hate not knowing what going on. We were in the Dcotors from 12:00 - 4:00 and we arrived at her office around 11:30, we were supposed to be there at 11:00 but with Fran feeling icky and she ended up getting sick on the way so we had to change drivers on the way, things got delayed. We called the Dr. so she handled a discharge at the hospital next door since we were late and she ended up being late.

UGH! Long Day and sucky circumstances, I hope the weekend improves. Not likely since we're going to a funeral before we head up to Tulare to drop off Arline.