We Moved to Disneyland!! Now What ? Stories from New DLR Locals - Updated 1/15

[disneymania0711]

Love the Dapper Dans pic. That's a keeper!!

 

[franandaj]

That picture with you and the Dapper Dans is great!

I'm glad that the new DAS is working out for you. Crooky is very cute!

 

[Luisa]

The black lips were very goth! Totally appropriate for Halloween!

 

[tayalltheway]

Well I meant I didn't know about it before we planned our trip. Once we were there that day, we definitely noticed something different with so many people wearing red shirts... But yeah we heard about Gay Days through people there that day. I just meant I never heard about the event before that day.

October weekends have become so busy at Disneyland... I much prefer the weekdays when the crowds aren't so big... But we did part of the trip during the weekend so our friend could see Fantasmic and the fireworks since that was his first visit to Disneyland. I am really glad that California Adventure has World of Color every night, even on weeknights when they close earlier. Makes it nicer for the people who want to go during the weekdays, that at least some of the night shows are offered then. (I know in the summer they are every night, but I was talking about other times of the year)

I see what you mean now! I feel like every weekend (not just October) has become so busy at Disneyland at this point... There REALLY isn't an "off-season" anymore. And I agree that I wish they would offer things like Fantasmic and fireworks during the week... I'm glad World of Color is available every night, but I do prefer Fantasmic.

That black spider cake pop looks amazing and sounds delicious. Too funny about the black stains though

October weekends at DL are crazy now. They used to be so mellow not that long ago!!! I love all the stuff they have there now, but not the crowds!

The cake pop was AMAZING and I've craved it many times since then!

Definitely agree with you about October weekends... I wish all those confounded people would just go away and leave Disneyland to us. Is that really too much to ask??

I'm a little bit behind with your trip report/life report but I'm so excited that it's Halloween time!! Halloween season is our favorite time to visit WDW but we've never been to dl's Halloween

Can't wait to live vicariously through you 2!

Also, looks like I'm headed back to DL in the beginning of June! Yay for me! Anything that's new in the parks in the last year or so that you'd recommend?

Oh and also...did guys adopt Crookshanks!? When did this happen. Geez I need to go back and read.

Welcome back! Halloween Time is AWESOME at Disneyland! Hopefully you can make it out to experience it for yourself sometime!

That's great that you'll be back out in June! I'm trying to think what's new here since last year. Mickey and the Magical Map is pretty good. I don't know if Fantasy Faire was open when you were here last, but we really enjoyed the shows there... Also, of course, the refurbed Big Thunder is fantastic!

We didn't ADOPT Crooky per say. He still has the lady across the way that feeds him, but we do let him in to hang out with us It's like having a pet without any responsibility

Love the Dapper Dans pic. That's a keeper!!

Thanks! I was a fan of how it turned out too

That picture with you and the Dapper Dans is great!

I'm glad that the new DAS is working out for you. Crooky is very cute!

Thanks! I'm glad the DAS is working out for us as well And I can't deny that Crooky is adorable

The black lips were very goth! Totally appropriate for Halloween!

Perfect. It's almost as if we planned it that way!

 

[tayalltheway]

Chapter 150
Get Into the Spirit, Let Everyone Hear It​

 

[PrincessInOz]

Great pics.


Love the one of you with the Dapper Dans and those masks are beautiful. Fun, fun, fun with Big Thunder Ranch and pumpkin beauties in the shack.
Great pics of the parade.

 

[Luisa]

Love the picture of the monorail, and those pumpkins look amazing!

 

[APears]

I completely feel your pain about the packed October weekends, even when I went after work this past Tuesday it was crazy packed! I know it's Spring Break, but I feel like it has been like this pretty often lately.

Which keychain did you get? I've been contemplating getting a Disney one for some time, but I don't know which are of best quality and not too bulky.

I don't think we have ever sat and watched Soundsational either, but I agree about the Tiana float! It truly looks larger than life.

How is the mac and cheese at Earl? I've always seen it but I've never gotten it.

I am the one on twitter that sent you the thing about the Dachshund races, hopefully you guys can make it sometime, they even have a store centered around Dachshund items and so many of the little dogs roaming around!

 

[Sherry E]

Taylor --

I thought I would check in on you, a fellow SoCal resident, and see how you and Tracy fared during tonight's earthquake! Do you still have power? I was seeing some news reports that said that certain areas of Orange County lost power for a bit.

I know that the epicenter was much closer to where you live than where I live -- and where I live it literally felt like the shaking and rolling just kept going and going and going, so I can only imagine what you guys felt. I don't think I've ever felt a quake that seemed to last as long as this one, and I've lived in SoCal my entire life. It wasn't the strongest quake I've ever felt (Northridge still takes the cake on that one), but the one tonight just wouldn't stop rolling! I was already jumpy and skittish from just having watched two of the Paranormal Activity movies back-to-back, so this tremor just sent me over the edge!

You know, a really unsettling thing that all of the local news channels do now -- and you have probably noticed it -- is keep their in-studio camera trained on a seismograph, so that we viewers can watch the little needle start crazily scribbling back and forth when another quake is coming. In the old days of quakes in SoCal we never saw a live seismograph.

So while I was watching two anchor people talk about the quake, I had one eye on that darn seismograph in the corner of the screen and I started to get uneasy when I saw the lines getting darker and longer. I was thinking, "Oh no! There's another big one!"

And it turned out to be a replay of what the seismograph looked like when the the 5.1 quake happened earlier! They tricked me! It made me so mad! They replay the "live" seismic action and make people panic!

The other unsettling thing is that when the reporters high-tail it to Cal Tech or wherever and grill the scientists, we, the viewers, can hear the Cal Tech in-house 4-second warning alarm going off if the ground begins shaking again. While resident expert Lucy Jones was speaking and giving us the details of tonight's 5.1 quake, all of a sudden their warning alarm started blasting in the background and she said, "There's another one happening now...it's about a 2.0 or so..."

Maybe it's just me, but...hearing a loud siren at Cal Tech and seeing the seismo needle scribbling wildly all over the paper just doesn't put me at ease!

 

[franandaj]

Those pumpkins always amaze me, they do such a great job on carving them!

The spider cake pop sounds yum! We never actually eat our treats in the park, we're usually too full from whatever else we've eaten so we have to take them home for later.

Your masks were very cute. I'm so glad that we have an Earl of Sandwich now, it makes going there at WDW less of a mystique.

So do you guys have any plans to be there on Wednesday next week? I'm meeting up with a DIS friend for the day and thought we could say "hi" if you're out there. Not sure how late we'll make it but at least until 7PM or so. Probably a little longer.

 

[PrincessInOz]

Heard about the quake here as well. Hope everyone in SoCal is safe.

 

[tdashgirl]

The pumpkins at DL are one of my all-time favorite things to see there. This year we are going to FL during the fall for the 1st time and I will miss those pumpkins! Maybe I'll have to work out a visit ... hmmmm ....

 

[Dizzy4DL]

Just wanted to say I'm still reading along, and enjoying every update!

We hope to get to Disneyland during the Halloween season in 2015. Our trip to WDW this year will more than use up the vacation budget for awhile as you can imagine.

 

[heaven2dc]

Sherry E - I felt it where I live and felt uneasy all evening! I was sitting on the couch and it felt like the apartment building was swaying back and forth. The 4.1 quake a week or so before felt more like a jolt but this one definitely lasted longer.

I hope Taylor and Tracy are okay and didn't suffer any damage! I also couldn't keep my eyes off of the seismograph lol Living in SoCal sure has been an adventure the past two years! I really need to go back down to Disneyland - would love to run into some Diser's there sometime! I just had an interview for Disney Reservation Sales Agent this past week and am waiting for an email or phone call for the panel interview. Hopefully I'll get the job as it would be a dream come true and what fun to be able to help plan Disney vacations!

 

[tayalltheway]

Great pics.

Love the one of you with the Dapper Dans and those masks are beautiful. Fun, fun, fun with Big Thunder Ranch and pumpkin beauties in the shack.
Great pics of the parade.

Thanks! We had a really fun time coloring the masks and taking pictures with the pumpkin folk at BTR. And I was glad we finally watched the parade!

Love the picture of the monorail, and those pumpkins look amazing!

The pumpkin artists are just phenomenal! I have no idea how they can be so talented with such a bizarre medium.

I completely feel your pain about the packed October weekends, even when I went after work this past Tuesday it was crazy packed! I know it's Spring Break, but I feel like it has been like this pretty often lately.

Which keychain did you get? I've been contemplating getting a Disney one for some time, but I don't know which are of best quality and not too bulky.

I don't think we have ever sat and watched Soundsational either, but I agree about the Tiana float! It truly looks larger than life.

How is the mac and cheese at Earl? I've always seen it but I've never gotten it.

I am the one on twitter that sent you the thing about the Dachshund races, hopefully you guys can make it sometime, they even have a store centered around Dachshund items and so many of the little dogs roaming around!

It's funny that you would mention Spring Break feeling so crowded because this week has actually been extremely light crowdwise. I don't think Disney expected it to be so (relatively) dead because they have Fantasmic! and fireworks every night and are staying open till midnight. I'm not complaining about the lack of crowds, mind you, but it's just interesting that even Disney can't seem to figure out when people are going to show up these days...

This is the keychain that I got. It's not my favorite of all the ones they have, but I like it and I wanted something that wouldn't be very bulky.



I recommend taking the time out to watch Soundsational at least once. We definitely enjoyed it more than I thought we would considering we'd already basically seen the whole thing walking by hundreds of times.

So I can't really remember the Mac and Cheese from EoS that well, but I asked Tracy just now and she recalls it being delicious. I know I didn't have any complaints, but it doesn't stand out in my mind that well 6 months later...

Thanks for sending me the Dachshund info! I need to look at the schedule again to find out the dates for April! It all sounds like so much fun

Taylor --

I thought I would check in on you, a fellow SoCal resident, and see how you and Tracy fared during tonight's earthquake! Do you still have power? I was seeing some news reports that said that certain areas of Orange County lost power for a bit.

I know that the epicenter was much closer to where you live than where I live -- and where I live it literally felt like the shaking and rolling just kept going and going and going, so I can only imagine what you guys felt. I don't think I've ever felt a quake that seemed to last as long as this one, and I've lived in SoCal my entire life. It wasn't the strongest quake I've ever felt (Northridge still takes the cake on that one), but the one tonight just wouldn't stop rolling! I was already jumpy and skittish from just having watched two of the Paranormal Activity movies back-to-back, so this tremor just sent me over the edge!

You know, a really unsettling thing that all of the local news channels do now -- and you have probably noticed it -- is keep their in-studio camera trained on a seismograph, so that we viewers can watch the little needle start crazily scribbling back and forth when another quake is coming. In the old days of quakes in SoCal we never saw a live seismograph.

So while I was watching two anchor people talk about the quake, I had one eye on that darn seismograph in the corner of the screen and I started to get uneasy when I saw the lines getting darker and longer. I was thinking, "Oh no! There's another big one!"

And it turned out to be a replay of what the seismograph looked like when the the 5.1 quake happened earlier! They tricked me! It made me so mad! They replay the "live" seismic action and make people panic!

The other unsettling thing is that when the reporters high-tail it to Cal Tech or wherever and grill the scientists, we, the viewers, can hear the Cal Tech in-house 4-second warning alarm going off if the ground begins shaking again. While resident expert Lucy Jones was speaking and giving us the details of tonight's 5.1 quake, all of a sudden their warning alarm started blasting in the background and she said, "There's another one happening now...it's about a 2.0 or so..."

Maybe it's just me, but...hearing a loud siren at Cal Tech and seeing the seismo needle scribbling wildly all over the paper just doesn't put me at ease!

Now that it's taken me so long to respond to this, you're probably thinking that we were traumatized by the earthquake and hightailed it out of here

We did indeed feel it, but it was nowhere near as scary as I had built up earthquakes to be in my mind. It took us probably 5 seconds to realize what was going on, and then we dropped to the ground but didn't even have time to crawl toward the nearest door frame or piece of sturdy furniture for cover before the rolling had already stopped. I think the extent of our "damage" was that one of our Vinylmations toppled over (the HORROR!)

I'm glad that we didn't even think to turn on the news after the quake because I'm sure that it would have unsettled me more than anything else (especially considering the coverage you're talking about). Instead I just took to Twitter and the DL Cats had a lot of fun being snarky about the earthquake. I think it's good we were at home for our first quake rather than in Disneyland or anywhere else. Neither Tracy nor I freaked out at all, and it definitely felt like an initiation of sorts-- welcome to California!

I think I've only felt one big aftershock (the next day), though Tracy has had a few more at the office this week.

Other than getting a little shaken up, did you avoid any damage?

Those pumpkins always amaze me, they do such a great job on carving them!

The spider cake pop sounds yum! We never actually eat our treats in the park, we're usually too full from whatever else we've eaten so we have to take them home for later.

Your masks were very cute. I'm so glad that we have an Earl of Sandwich now, it makes going there at WDW less of a mystique.

So do you guys have any plans to be there on Wednesday next week? I'm meeting up with a DIS friend for the day and thought we could say "hi" if you're out there. Not sure how late we'll make it but at least until 7PM or so. Probably a little longer.

The pumpkins are fantastic. I don't even know how they do such a good job!

I highly recommend the spider cake pop if they return this year. I understand not eating your treats in the parks, but we can never muster the restraint to hold off for more than a minute or so before digging in!

Definitely glad we have an EoS here now too. It feels like such an ordeal to head to the one at WDW, and now we can use that meal slot for something a little more unique the next time we go.

Of course I didn't check the DIS for several days and missed your message about being in the parks yesterday I know I keep saying it, but NEXT TIME!

Heard about the quake here as well. Hope everyone in SoCal is safe.

Safe and well here! From what I've heard, there weren't even any injuries in the quake.

The pumpkins at DL are one of my all-time favorite things to see there. This year we are going to FL during the fall for the 1st time and I will miss those pumpkins! Maybe I'll have to work out a visit ... hmmmm ....

I'm sure WDW in the fall will be awesome, but I agree that you'll probably need to arrange at least one quick visit to check out the pumpkins here

Just wanted to say I'm still reading along, and enjoying every update!

We hope to get to Disneyland during the Halloween season in 2015. Our trip to WDW this year will more than use up the vacation budget for awhile as you can imagine.

So glad to hear you're still reading and enjoying

I'm sure that a WDW trip is quite expensive enough for the year, but hopefully you'll get to experience Halloween Time here someday soon!

Sherry E - I felt it where I live and felt uneasy all evening! I was sitting on the couch and it felt like the apartment building was swaying back and forth. The 4.1 quake a week or so before felt more like a jolt but this one definitely lasted longer.

I hope Taylor and Tracy are okay and didn't suffer any damage! I also couldn't keep my eyes off of the seismograph lol Living in SoCal sure has been an adventure the past two years! I really need to go back down to Disneyland - would love to run into some Diser's there sometime! I just had an interview for Disney Reservation Sales Agent this past week and am waiting for an email or phone call for the panel interview. Hopefully I'll get the job as it would be a dream come true and what fun to be able to help plan Disney vacations!

As I was telling Sherry E above, we felt it but it really wasn't too bad here. No damage and didn't even leave us too rattled. We didn't feel the one the week before at all.

That's awesome that you're in the running for a Disney Reservation Agent job! Hope the interview process goes well I totally understand being excited about the prospect of planning Disney vacations for a living! Sounds great!!

 

[PrincessInOz]

Congrats on new handsets. Hope you're enjoying the new cameras.

All things cone-sidered, that cone looks delicious!

YAY for Tracy breaking 200K for the second time. I love all her passport poses. Hilarious.

You both look so happy with Duffy. Love the pillowpet; and I would have been like the little girl....running out of the store before payment.

 

[nukephd]

I just finished catching up. This is by far the most epic TR I have ever read on the Dis, and I have been reading the Dis since 2006 (I changed my handle recently and don't post as much as I used to, hence the reason my join date doesn't reflect that). I never ventured to the DL boards until I moved out to socal less than a year ago, so most of the TRs have been on the WDW boards. Thanks for posting everything on here. It has been a great read!

Also, I saw on your twitter that you just road California Screamin' for the first time. Nice! I hope you enjoyed it. I just rode it for the first time last Saturday, and I loved it. I used to go to WDW at least annually because I'm a former east coaster, but now my wife and I have a premium AP to DL/DCA since moving to socal for my residency training. I have only been to DL twice so far. Our first time was two Saturdays ago (we only go on Saturdays since it takes about 1 hour and 15 minutes to get there from La Jolla).

I look forward to reading your future posts

 

[AbbyMarie]

Still following along and really enjoying your continued report as usual. It makes me so happy to read about your DL adventures! I would love to live in SoCal and go to DL as often as I wanted...sigh...maybe someday I would love to follow you on twitter...but I can't find you. Have a great weekend!

 

[tdashgirl]

the passport photos!

 

[heaven2dc]

the Duffy bear!