Shamu vs Mickey: Who will get my vacation $ Memorial Day week? (I think we already know the answer)

[dayvewc]

Ok. I am starting my trip report, now that I am home. I really should have done this as a pre- and during report, but I get behind sometimes.

Anyway, now that I have the first post, the next ones should happen faster.

For those who have read my previous reports, I wish to say now that I did not get near as many pictures this time around, so there will be less photographic evidence of the shenanigans that occurred than normal. ;-)

 

[bcwife76]

Following!

Not as many pictures you say? Hmmmm.....perhaps you were busy having *too* much fun

 

[dayvewc]

Following!

Not as many pictures you say? Hmmmm.....perhaps you were busy having *too* much fun

That is a possibility. lol. Actually, DL changed and no longer offers a PhotoPass package to download all your pictures from the visit. Now, it is $40 per day of pictures. That is where I get a lot of my pictures, and I haven't gone through all of them yet to see which days I will purchase. Probably all of them, since the 4 days is about the same as the $150 I had planned to spend for the photo package deal. Just going to be a day or two while I decide.

 

[chewysmom]

Following along!

 

[dayvewc]

Ok. Time to get some information in here.

This was probably the least planned trip I have taken in 7 years. I knew that I wanted to visit SeaWorld in addition to Disneyland, so I made air reservations to fly in to San Diego, with a return from Los Angeles, and a rental car to get between the two. Then, other than purchasing my Disneyland ticket and making the hotel/resort reservations I did no other preparations for this trip.

So, on Friday, May 27, I was up til late evening doing all my packing for my flight out on Saturday. ;-)

Saturday morning, I woke up, got everything loaded into my car, and left my house approximately 4 1/2 hours before my flight. Not quite as early as you'd think, considering I live almost 2 hours away from the airport. On my way in, I decided that I needed a haircut, so I stopped off at a Wal-Mart that had a SuperCuts and went in to have it lopped off. Little did I know, they had a 2 hour wait. I explained that I had to check in for my flight in 45 minutes (to make the recommended 90 minute early arrival time, and the WM was still 15 minutes away from the airport) and between customers who volunteered to let me go before them I got bumped up about 6 slots and got my hair cut with a "hassle free" look. Telling you, clippers do wonders! I might have could have done this myself, but I actually wanted it styled and only asked for the buzz when I realized that I really wasn't going to have time.

Anyway, by the time I got my hair cut, drove to the parking lot, caught the shuttle to the terminal, and got to the counter to check my bag, I was at exactly 30 minutes before the flight was scheduled to leave. The little alarm even sounded that I was a late check-in. The counter agent said not to worry about the notice that my bag might not make my flight, they would make sure it was on the plane with me. Went through the TSA checkpoint, and arrived at the gate a few minutes before they started boarding.

Flew from Memphis to Dallas, had about an hour layover, and then flew on to San Diego. I love flying, but not much you can really write about if the flight is uneventful and all of mine were.

Collected my luggage (and can I say that I liked the San Diego airport), caught the shuttle to Dollar rent-a-car and got checked in. I did manage to remember that I did not need the insurance, but let myself get talked into purchasing the tank of gas that was in the car. Probably not a bad option if I had planned to do more driving, but as it was I only used about 1/2 the tank. And the counter agent was correct, the price of gas in SD was much cheaper than in LA, so if I had used the full tank (or more) it would definitely have been cheaper.

Went to pick out my car, and got one that I really liked. Drove around to the exit, and when they scanned the car discovered that it was due for a maintenance check and couldn't be rented. So I had to take it back and pick out a different car, and the only option left was a Versa. Not bad, but not quite as comfortable as the one I was in (and for the life of me, I can't remember what it was now). Also, the Versa was not in the color I wanted.

From there, I tried to drive over to the hotel - Wyndham San Diego Bay Side hotel. I say tried, because while I did make it eventually, I had to circle the block 4 times to find where to turn in to get to the parking garage. And then I wound up parked on the far side of the hotel from the check-in desk. Which, became a minor complaint as when I got there to check-in there was already a line and only two agents checking people in. It took almost 45 minutes to get checked in, and then my reservation was charged incorrectly - to the tune of double what it should have been. They corrected it quickly when I pointed it out (and to be honest, part of it was my fault. When I made the reservation I was offered an upgrade to a suite if available for $139. I missed the small print where that was a nightly charge, and that the tax on the upgrade was at a different, higher, rate than the tax on a regular room. But the front desk agent was really nice and took off the upgrade, so it was more in line to what I thought it was supposed to have been.)

So, I went to my room and OMG!!! For just being a hotel room, this was really nice. Still really small, but I was on one of the top floors with a view of the bay, and it was an amazing view.

I unpacked what I had to, and went to bed, for tomorrow was going to be a long day.

 

[dayvewc]

So, my alarm started going off at 7 am Sunday morning, and I was actually ok with getting up at that time. 7 am west coast time is 9 am home time, and I never get to sleep in that late. So, I got up, did my morning rituals, and left the hotel about 8:30, headed to a grocery store to get something for breakfast and to snack on during the day. It was during the time I was getting ready to leave that I realized I had not packed my lunch cooler that I normally travel with and carry my food and snacks in. So, I was wound up going to a Wal-Mart Neighborhood Market on the hopes that they would also carry a lunch cooler in addition to the food I planned to buy. And they did. I now own about 5 of these things in assorted colors and sizes. I think I'm just going to start leaving one in each of my travel bags so when I start packing for my next trip it is already in there!!

I also picked up a small bunch of bananas, a couple of 6 packs of bottled caffeine (Dr. Pepper), some generic pop tarts, a 12 pack of Carnation pre-mixed breakfast drink, and a 6-inch deli sandwich. Dropped most of everything in the trunk of the car, but put a couple of the DP and the sandwich in the lunch cooler and headed over to SeaWorld. Arrived at the parking lot a bit after 9 am, got parked and entered the park before 10. Over the next 10 hours, I managed to see every show and ride most of the rides. Let me just say, if you ever get a chance, see the Cirque de la Mer show - it is awesome. Probably one of the best shows I have ever seen in a theme park. Also, the Clyde and Seymour Sea Lions Tonight show as hilarious - they make fun of every other show and ride in the park.

I was highly amused that the Shamu show (and yes, they still do a Shamu show, just the trainers do not get in the water with them anymore. They may be in the process of phasing them out completely, but as of last week they were still performing) is now being billed as the "killer whale" show. I remember as a small child that is what orca's were called. And then there was the big push to call them "orca's" so to remove that negative connotation associated with "killer", but now it has swung full circle I guess.

And when I say that I did all the shows, I am serious. I was in the park a little before 10, and rode the Journey to Atlantis (better than the one in Orlando), then watched the 10:15 Dolphin Days show, rode the SkyTower, went to watch the 11 o'clock Killer Whales educational show, the 12 noon Pets Rule show, back over to the Killer Whale tank for the 1 pm One Ocean show, took a little bit of time to eat my sandwich and wanted to ride the Sky Hook, but the wait was 90 minutes, watched the 3:30 pm Cirque de la Mer show, the 4:45 Sea Lions Live show, and then the 6:30 pm Sea Lions Tonite show. (Yes, I did less prep work than for any other trip, but that doesn't mean I did NO prep work. Though, in honesty, I set up a spreadsheet Saturday night before I went to bed and printed it Sunday morning before I left the hotel to make sure I made all the shows.)

By this point, I was getting tired, and the charge on my rented ECV was running low, so I stopped to get a couple of souvenirs and was assisted by some incredibly helpful team members, and then headed back to the hotel a bit after 8 pm. I missed the late night fireworks show, which I do kind of regret as I was able to see parts of them from the balcony in my room and they did look great. But, considering that it took me another 4 times circling the block to get in to the parking garage, and this time I (kind of) knew where I was going, it was obvious (to me) I was tired and heading back to the hotel was the correct call.

Got in bed around 11 pm after unwinding and prepacking for travel the next day, and that was my day in SeaWorld.

 

[dayvewc]

and getting ahead of myself in my trip report.....

I just sent an email to Disneyland guest services about the less than magical things that happened to me on Wednesday of my trip. Before I hit send, I copied and pasted it into a word document to have a copy for myself. It was 4 pages long!!!

I guess if nothing else, the whole mess I've been having with DRI has gotten me keeping records of EVERYTHING. Thank God my phone has a text/word processor app on it. That is where I wrote all my notes while it was happening, and referenced for the email. Not sure if I will include the email here in the TR. That's still a couple of days from now in the recounting of what happened.

 

[thiabelle]

Following along!! I love your trip reports!!

 

[dayvewc]

Following along!! I love your trip reports!!

Thanks!! I always feel kind of narcissistic writing these. I am sure that there are things in them that help other people, but it mostly feels like I'm just bragging about my trips and what I managed to do. It makes me feel good to know that someone loves them, maybe I'll feel less self-conscious in the writing. Though, I do hope you enjoy the bits of humor I try to inject into the reports at times. ;-)

 

[chewysmom]

This is the first time I've followed along on one of your TR, but so far, so good!

You sure packed a lot into your Sea World day! I'm tired just thinking about it, lol.

Looking forward to reading more.

 

[thiabelle]

Oh- I certainly love your humor. I am a major league lurker but I read "debt dumpers" every day. Your TR is way to get to "know" you better (as much as a person can know another via the Internet!). Plus I have only been to DL once and I love to hear about it.

 

[toystoryduo]

Great start to your trip report!

You packed a lot into your Sea World day! How does San Diego's Sea World compare to Orlando's? Is it smaller/larger? Does it have the same/different shows? We used to go to the Sea World in Ohio when I was a child, and the differences between Sea World Ohio (as a child) and Sea World Orlando (as an adult) are interesting to me. We would love to head out to the West Coast and experience Sea World and Disneyland some day.

Looking forward to the rest of your report!

 

[dayvewc]

Memorial Day arrived. I woke up, took care of my morning rituals. Gave a brief salute to the USS Midway outside my window, waved good-bye to the bay (afterall, I had been seeing waves from it for 2 days now ), checked my accounts online and then went to check out. I checked my accounts because when I checked in, due to the error/misunderstanding, one of my credit cards had a double charge for twice the amount I had expected for the stay, and the credit card that I wound up using was not the one I had wanted to use. By this morning, the double pending charges had gone away, which left enough room on the card for the actual charge of what the room was going to be, and I needed to change the payment method to my preferred card. Triple reward points for the stay, oh yeah.

So, I got all my stuff put in the rental, and headed up the highway. There was probably some nice scenic views on the drive up, but I was focused on not having a wreck - west coast people do not drive the same way fly-over country people do. They are much more insane.

After the uneventful, though somewhat stressful driving experience, I arrived at the Grand Californian Resort around 1 pm. Got my luggage handed off to bell services, parked the rental in self-parking, and got checked in. Then I went to guest services and asked who I contacted to have the ECV I had rented delivered, as it was supposed to have been dropped off that morning. While I was waiting for bell services to bring the ECV up, I wondered around the lobby and located one of the most important things for me - the smoking area. yeah, I know, I shouldn't but I do.

It took a while for them to find the ECV, somehow it got placed in storage without the paperwork telling who it was going to, but it got worked out and when it was delivered I headed over to the DCA entrance. After entering DCA, I headed to the front where the PhotoPass store was to see about getting the photopass all-access card. I don't remember what they called them, but it would allow me to download all the pictures I had taken during my trip. Found out that they don't offer them anymore, instead I have the option of downloading individual pictures for $13 each, or all the pictures from a day for $40 a day. Since I had planned on spending about $150 for the card, and I have a 4 day pass, I plan on purchasing all 4 days of my pictures for $160 (probably plus tax). Though, I have not gone through my pictures yet, so if I have a day without many, or many good ones, I will probably skip that day.

From there, I left DCA and headed to a ticket booth to upgrade my 4-day pass to a park-hopper. Got that done, and headed into DL proper. Made my way over to check out the Matterhorn, since it had been closed last time I was there and saw it had a 70 minute wait, so went to the monorail and hopped a ride to Downtown Disney. Went to the RainForest cafe for a late lunch (it was around 3 pm at this point) and ate. Got to use my $25 promotional gift card. It may not be the greatest reward program, but the Landry Select Rewards is not a bad deal.

After my lunch, went to the Pin Trader booth next door and decided which pins I was going to pursue this trip - the 60th anniversary Princess Pins. Bought 4 boxes of the 2 pins per box for my starter set of 8 pins (since there are 8 pins in the set, I had enough to trade any duplicates and have all the pins by the end of my trip). I also picked up a couple of DVC limited edition pins. Then it was over to the World of Disney to look for some souvenirs. I could not find the specific ones I was after, though a cast member did suggest a few other stores I would want to check out. Around this time, I received a text alert that my room was ready, so I went back to DGC to have my luggage brought up. Once it was there, I unpacked and sorted my clothes into a couple of different drawers in the chest, then headed back to the park. I checked the stores that had been recommended to me - Midway Merchandise, who directed me to Hats n Tats, who directed me to Elias & Co, who directed me over to FrontierLand in DL.

By the time I made it through all the stores, it was around 7-7:30, so when I got to DL I skipped the store and headed straight to the Matterhorn. Got a ride in, and by time I got off, the parade had already started, so I worked my way slowly toward the hub to be in position to make a controlled dash toward the castle. Was almost successful, I got close to the castle after the parade passed, but got pinned in by a couple of families and wound up facing in a slightly awkward direction waiting for the fireworks. Not a big deal, the seat on my ECV swiveled, but just before the show, a family worked their way between me and the castle and then set a small child on the dad's shoulders. I still had a good view of the fireworks, but could no longer see the castle at all.

After the show, I made my way to the rope in front of the castle and then had my picture made. Headed out and back to my room, and this ended my first day in DL (even though it was only a half-day).

P.S. Had I realized when I booked the trip, I would have given it a lot more thought, but this wound up being "Grad-Night Week" and it was CROWDED every afternoon and night. Good lord it was packed.

 

[dayvewc]

Great start to your trip report!

You packed a lot into your Sea World day! How does San Diego's Sea World compare to Orlando's? Is it smaller/larger? Does it have the same/different shows? We used to go to the Sea World in Ohio when I was a child, and the differences between Sea World Ohio (as a child) and Sea World Orlando (as an adult) are interesting to me. We would love to head out to the West Coast and experience Sea World and Disneyland some day.

Looking forward to the rest of your report!

San Diego's Sea World is a bit smaller than Orlando's. Most of the shows are the "same" - One Ocean is the killer whale / orca show - seemed identical to my memory; the dolphin show was better in Orlando; the Pets Rule show was different, not sure which was better; Clyde & Seymour was a different show than the last one I remember seeing, better show in San Diego; the SkyTower was the "same" but the view was different , I think San Diego had the better view. San Diego has the Cirque de la Mer, which was an awesome show, they should find a way to bring it or something similar to Orlando. There was a penguin encounter area, but I didn't make it there, so I don't know if it was as built up as Antarctica in Orlando - didn't seem to be from when I passed by the area. I also didn't go on the Wild Arctic ride, so not sure how it compares. San Diego has the Sky Hook, but I didn't get a chance to ride it, and the only other ride I saw was the Manta, so Orlando has more roller coasters and rides. Which is better? Objectively speaking, I would say that Orlando is the better park of the two, though it would depend on exactly what you are looking to do. If you are going for the shows, I'd say San Diego as it has the Cirque and the other shows are comparable though as I said the Dolphin are better in Orlando. If you are after rides and thrills I'd go for Orlando as I noticed more rides there than in San Diego. I like rides, but they are secondary to seeing the shows to me. I get on the rides around watching the shows, unless I am spending multiple days and then I try to get in everything at least once.

Hope that helps, and I definitely recommend at least one visit out west. Disneyland may have the history of where Walt walked, but (my opinion) Disneyland was the park Walt was able to build, Disney World is the park(s) he wanted to build.

 

[toystoryduo]

San Diego's Sea World is a bit smaller than Orlando's. Most of the shows are the "same" - One Ocean is the killer whale / orca show - seemed identical to my memory; the dolphin show was better in Orlando; the Pets Rule show was different, not sure which was better; Clyde & Seymour was a different show than the last one I remember seeing, better show in San Diego; the SkyTower was the "same" but the view was different , I think San Diego had the better view. San Diego has the Cirque de la Mer, which was an awesome show, they should find a way to bring it or something similar to Orlando. There was a penguin encounter area, but I didn't make it there, so I don't know if it was as built up as Antarctica in Orlando - didn't seem to be from when I passed by the area. I also didn't go on the Wild Arctic ride, so not sure how it compares. San Diego has the Sky Hook, but I didn't get a chance to ride it, and the only other ride I saw was the Manta, so Orlando has more roller coasters and rides. Which is better? Objectively speaking, I would say that Orlando is the better park of the two, though it would depend on exactly what you are looking to do. If you are going for the shows, I'd say San Diego as it has the Cirque and the other shows are comparable though as I said the Dolphin are better in Orlando. If you are after rides and thrills I'd go for Orlando as I noticed more rides there than in San Diego. I like rides, but they are secondary to seeing the shows to me. I get on the rides around watching the shows, unless I am spending multiple days and then I try to get in everything at least once.

Hope that helps, and I definitely recommend at least one visit out west. Disneyland may have the history of where Walt walked, but (my opinion) Disneyland was the park Walt was able to build, Disney World is the park(s) he wanted to build.

That does help! Thank you for sharing!

We are really hoping to make it out west someday. My DH was in San Diego a few years ago for work, and he loved it out there.

 

[bcwife76]

Well you sure packed in a lot on your SeaWorld visit! Even if you didn't stay for the fireworks, it sounds like you had a decent view from your hotel room.

Yes SoCal drivers be cray-cray!! In all my trips to Cali I have never driven further south than Bakersfield. My dh does the driving from there. I won't drive past LA. He can do the driving from there too! And this is coming from someone who's driven in downtown San Fran ....that I had no problems with.....but that's Northern Cali

Well even with half a day you managed to do some damage on your first day at DL! Sorry your view was messed up at fireworks time - my dh never puts either of our kids on his shoulders for a better view that is just so RUDE!!

When did they change the photopass stuff? I'm sure it wasn't like that when we were there in October. We might not bother ordering any photos for our August trip now.

Interested to find out what happened to you on Wednesday at DL....but also interested to read about the rest of your days, too

 

[dayvewc]

OK, so we are up to Tuesday morning, the day after Memorial Day.

I woke up about 6:30, went through my normal morning routine. Ate a little bit for breakfast, and headed down around 7:30 to get ready to enter the park for early morning hours. Hint, early morning hours begin at 7 am, not 8 am. Oops.

So, I headed straight to DCA instead, and then made my way over to the backlot area to get a FP for "Frozen - Live". Took about 45 minutes waiting in line, but I did wind up with passes to the first show at 12:30. It was now near 9 a.m., and since I was in the area, I went over to ride Tower of Terror (another 45 minute wait), and then went to get a FastPass for Radiator Springs Racer (return time around 7:30 pm).

Kind of moseyed along passing time til 11:30 when I got in line to go watch Frozen. Waited in that line for almost an hour, then managed to snag an almost perfect seat in my opinion. I was on the back row of the front floor section, on the inner aisle side on the right side of the stage. Had a great view, and being on the aisle I could see around anyone that might get in front of me (no one did). If you are not sure, go see this show. I'm partial to live theatre anyway, but this was awesome. I was highly, highly impressed with the sets and technical aspects. And the acting was superb as well. Even the Olaf puppet worked was impressive.

After the show, I went to Downtown Disney and ate at Rainforest Cafe. Yes, I really like that restaurant, and yes it is worth it. Especially when you have accumulated $150 worth of gift cards to use there. I think I mentioned somewhere, that once I got to Anaheim, everything was prepaid. Well, RFC was 3 (supposed to be 4) of my meals. I also got a set of RFC dinner plates - they were on sale for 4 for $15, regularly $5 each. I can live with saving 25% on souvenirs. After my late lunch, I stopped of at World of Disney to get all the souvenirs I could - managed to find everything except for one. Had it bagged and tagged and sent to the resort for pick-up the next day.

By now it was a bit after 5, maybe as late as 5:30, so I headed back to DCA and just kind of hung out until time for my RSR FP. Rode the ride, and then headed back to my room where I changed into swim trunks and spent about 30 minutes soaking in the hot tub, before moving over to dry off in front of the outdoor fireplace. Then it was back to my room to sleep for the night and prepare for the next day.

 

[dayvewc]

Well you sure packed in a lot on your SeaWorld visit! Even if you didn't stay for the fireworks, it sounds like you had a decent view from your hotel room.

Yes I did. If I hadn't been so tired, I would have stayed for the fireworks, but I just couldn't see staying 2 more hours for them when I was falling asleep on my feet (well, on my ECV, but same thing.) My view from my room was pretty decent. All of the big ones were easy to see, but I guess Disney has spoiled me, without music it just didn't seem the same.

Yes SoCal drivers be cray-cray!! In all my trips to Cali I have never driven further south than Bakersfield. My dh does the driving from there. I won't drive past LA. He can do the driving from there too! And this is coming from someone who's driven in downtown San Fran ....that I had no problems with.....but that's Northern Cali

I've driven in/through about half the states. All across the south and midwest. I was even a driver for a while while I was in the Army and drove all over South Korea. Those were interesting times to say the least. But I'd rather be in traffic in downtown Seoul than deal with some of the drivers on the road with me that morning. At least in Korea the other drivers looked around before they cut you off.

Well even with half a day you managed to do some damage on your first day at DL! Sorry your view was messed up at fireworks time - my dh never puts either of our kids on his shoulders for a better view that is just so RUDE!!

That's always been my thought too. I understand wanting them to get a good view, and I realize that there are a limited number of places to be to get good views of the show, but come on, if you are already taller than the person behind you, it's just rude on top of self-centered to block even more of the view.

When did they change the photopass stuff? I'm sure it wasn't like that when we were there in October. We might not bother ordering any photos for our August trip now.

I am not sure. I got one when I was there last spring break. And I guess if I had done some prep work I would have known. The photopass cast member that told me about it made a suggestion, which was a good one if you have done the pre-planning, to try to get all the pics that you want done on one day and just buy that day. That kind of works, if you have a plan, but I didn't this time. Worst case scenario, if you take one day in each park and focus on getting all the pictures you want it should be possible - would definitely be difficult to get all the pictures you might want from both parks in one day - and it would still be about half the cost of the old pass.

Interested to find out what happened to you on Wednesday at DL....but also interested to read about the rest of your days, too

Well I'm almost to what happened on Wednesday. It probably wasn't as bad as it felt at the time. I know that being tired and at the end of the day definitely had an effect on how I reacted, but it still, to my opinion, was something that should not have happened - or at least not have happened in that manner.

 

[Gena001]

OK, so we are up to Tuesday morning, the day after Memorial Day.

...FastPass for Radiator Springs Racer (return time around 7:30 pm).

By now it was a bit after 5, maybe as late as 5:30, so I headed back to DCA and just kind of hung out until time for my RSR FP. Rode the ride, and then headed back to my room...

View attachment 174449

Did you like RSR?

 

[dayvewc]

Did you like RSR?

Yes I did. I don't know that it is worth the 90 minute to 2 hour wait. So, I wouldn't ride it unless it was early morning or without a FP, but I did enjoy it. **SPOILER ALERT** I ride it again later in the week.