The Flippant Trip - (new TWILIGHT TR update 11/16/09 bottom of pg 29)

[travelmel]

I know! I totally should have guessed by the shirts, but I guess I just thought you were just a super-organized trip planning mom! But your girls were beautiful, and very polite.

We had a great trip. It was our first time at Disneyland after MANY trips to WDW. It was a little strange visiting a place that was so familiar, yet so different, but we're glad we got a chance to go!

And I agree, Sunday was much less crowded than Monday was!

Thanks so much for the compliments! I can't remember if it was your little girl insisting to sit by mine or if it was a different families child... but there was a CUTE little one who was sitting on the steps trying to copy the girls and we were getting such a kick out of her!

As you may have read, I wanted to go and compare the WDW attractions SO BAD! Did you find that Disneyland was closer together and less walking? That's what I hear and for that I'm greatful. Was the Blue Bayou a great respite or what?? Sure we don't have the pleathora of choices as WDW but it's pretty cute stuff what we do have!

What were your thoughts on the comparrisons?

 

[tofubeast]

Underground from here is the Beast's Library (I have issues with Beauty and the Beast, however. Basically, your teaching girls that if you love big, grumpy, abusive men LONG ENOUGH and GOOD ENOUGH then they'll CHANGE. Not so much, sista.) moving on....

I completely concur. The message in this story has never sat well with me.

 

[travelmel]

Okay... so I saw this other post with bigger lettering and I'm going to try it as my eyes aren't so great and maybe yours aren't either... here we gooooo.....

So, we left off eating burgers on the curb of the "hub" at DCA.. We sat down on the side of the street that the Goody "Train" chain of restaraunts was on and right near a trash can. I figured the floats would be coming from our left but they came from our right so the trash can was sorta in our way. Once the lights dimmed and the floats came though, I never noticed it again.

I hadn't seen this parade in over 15 years, I'd guess. (Oh my.. I just realized I haven't responded to that nice lady who shared her story about her tragic day with her DD 9 mos at the last viewing! ... I will address her here.) Dear person who cried when she saw the last parade showing. I WOULDA BEEN RIGHT THERE WITH YOU! I totally would have taken my DD any age. That is so cute!

I love nostalgia.. even the bad stuff... Last year while in So Cal we visited a mission near Oceanside and I asked my DH and DD's to tour it with me.. I had been saying that I hated touring missions as a kid in LA (what a BORING FIELD TRIP!) and my husband who is usually up for anything was like.. "why do you want us to tour with you, so we can relive your terrible childhood?" YES that's exactly right! Luckily for me my DDB is a REALLY good BFF and she dutifuly toured along with me....

talk about an off topic picture!
Mission San Louis Rey

Faithful buddy DDB

OKAY.... maybe I'll TR those trips another day

So here we are at the parade.... we also go the cutest video.. I'm going to try and figure out how to post video.. I've seen it done on TourGuideMIKE.

I think it works!


I used to have that thing where you look through what looks like a white plastic hand held video camera (circa 1977) and you could put in what looked like hard plastic VHS tapes and watch Disney movies. My favorite thing to do was watch Cinderella's dress transform from rags to princess...forward and backward, forward and backward over and over and over... There was also a fun one of Mickey, Donald, and Goofy in a haunted mansion.. gooditmes.

I remeber a parade where Cinderella was up high on something.. who knows what it was.. Parade of Dreams circa 1977 and she LOOKED at me and waved AT ME. I was star struck. I went to bed feeling like Lucille Ball after kissing Bill Holden!

I love hook!

The rider on this Pete's Dragon float was really good at talking with the crowd...

Insert your own polictical views here __. As long as it fits into the alloted space!

The parade was alot shorter than I remembered it as a kid LOL go figure But it was all kinds of cute. I had actually forgotten about the weird grunts of the little Love Bugs! Our family has top secret meetings now and then and we call ourselves something that's top secret.... hint... amorous insects. Shh.. don't tell if you guessed it.

Up next... heading back to DL for the conclusion of the night!


P.S. I am going back to add a couple of short video's to our BLUE BAYOU section - and one to the intro/wedding section if you're interested.

 

[travelmel]

At the end of the parade we strolled back to DL to finish up our FP stuff that we acquired earlier in the day. THANKS DAD!

This picture of me is horrendous but I thought it was funny as I had just hit my fingernail so hard on the front bar of the ride that I thought the tip of my finger had come off with it... So here is me checking to see if all my appendages are there!

This little piggy went to market....

We had heard that the Autopia FP was disconnected but we found out it wasn't. We decided to do a walk on and it was a pretty lengthy wait (maybe 15 min?) but Nemo was still hanging tough at 60 min around 10pm so we opted for the cars. I almost skipped this ride (AGAIN) but I'm SO glad I didn't!

55 smiles per hour!

Bailey-o Andretti... more later on this goofy driver. Anybody seen that cartoon of Goofy as he becomes the mad motorist getting behind the wheel? It's a SCREAM!

So I'm in front of DDC and trying to slow down to get her picture. I'm looking behind myself instead of steering which is causing me to hit each and every curve and jerk myself around every 3-4 seconds. I'm hysterical laughing and here comes my daughter and I finally get close enough to snap what I think is a stunning picture only to find THIS:

what the BEEP is she lookin at??

Ah well... tomorrow is another day (and another land HA HA ). I was so surprised how much they liked this ride. There is something magical about controlling a gas pedal when you're under 16. When we pulled into the station and DDC yells to me - "MOM....... THAT was an EXPERIENCE!"

ME: Woo happy dance!

Next we decided to take the side entrance's through the castle to take in the scenery at night and make our way over to Indie for our last ride of the day.

When I was about 4 years old my aunt gave me a book about Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. It was not a regular book, it was a personalized book and it featured ME as a character. My name was in it along with my address, my friends, and my pet (my doggie, Brandy). The story called for me to save Snow White from being frozen and trapped in the diamond mine It just so happened that MY birthday was the combination to the lock that was keeping her prisoner! arty:

I swear, is an empowering thing to be in charge of Snow White's release from peril!

It's January 19th 1970! (in case they forgot)

I told my girls that they needed to kiss alot of frogs before they meet their prince and that they need to make sure they get one at LEAST as nice as their old Dads... which is maybe... one in 6,000? Maybe even higher odds! Here's DDC singin' her "One day my prince will come" song at this ultra romatique refreshment station.

Looking elegant and refreshed

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We leave Fantasyland and enter the land of ADVENTURE!

I just realized that I haven't put in a time frame since 1:30 this afternoon.. if anybody cares let me know and I'll try to recreate it.

Oh, and I forgot to tell this story: We never even SAW the Dream Team the two days that we were there! However, when we got in line earlier to ride Indie one of the CM's running the fast pass check point really liked our shirts He said, "hey you guys are cool.. I have something for you" and he reached into his pocket. "oh.. I don't have what I wanted to give you but here.." he signed a paper he had in his pocket which allowed us an extra FP for Indie Unfortunately, at that time we already had TWO sets of Indie FP's but we were REALLY happy to be recognized for our shirt efforts none the less. We did wonder though....what was he going to get out of in his pocket??? Dream FP??? It was ok though as we pretty much rocked the FP system and were in good shape anyway. We would have given away our extra Indie FP but the lines were dead when we came back anyway.

So, that concludes Day 1! We were exhausted but in good spirts. Day 1 was definitely the best day of the trip as the crowds were low and our legs were still working (as opposed to day 2). I loved, loved, LOVED our day.

 

[MadiMouse]

Great update! You are really getting me excited!

 

[travelmel]

Great update! You are really getting me excited!

I'm glad you're enjoying it! I'm having so much fun writing it up.. I feel like a published author!

When are you guys going??

 

[oybolshoi]

It's hard to stop once you start ...

BTW, you put me to shame with your prompt postings and updates ... do you think you could slow down just a bit?

 

[MadiMouse]

Published author, hunh...
Our dates are September 6 - 12, 2008. We are staying at HoJo's. Our flight arrives at Lax around 10:20am. We plan to get to the hotel, store our stuff if room is not ready and go to DL. I want to make ressies at Ralph Brennan's that night or we may just do Mimi's. We have a Mimi's here in Atlanta and I just looooovvvvveeeee the food. I guess this trip will be different from WDW b/c I don't want to plan our week around food/ADR's! yeah, right!

Sorry to hijack your TR with my planning. By the way I plan to do a PTR by the beginning of August for this upcoming DLR trip and a TR upon our return!!

 

[travelmel]

It's hard to stop once you start ...

BTW, you put me to shame with your prompt postings and updates ... do you think you could slow down just a bit?

Yea, what's funny is I seriously thought these things should take 6 mos to a year (because I read YOURS mostly!) but LOOK AT ME! ROFLMBO

 

[travelmel]

Published author, hunh...

Don't worry, I'll still talk to you!


And you didn't highjack a thing! I'm happy to hear from ya! September should be great in LA. I've never heard of the Ralph Brennan place.. is it the Jazz Cafe? I hear good things about that!

I also hear good things about Rainforest Cafe but I wasn't impressed. Cute place though.

Mimi's is yummy but if you already have one.... is it far from you? It's really close to the DLR so not a problem there. I have not explored DTD at ALL. I like my park time.

Look forward to hearing more about your food choices and your PTR. Alert me if you think about it as I don't always know what's going on.

Are you going to do anything besides Disney for those days?

I'll put in my plug for Knott's Berry Farm.. it's a little convoluted since the Roller Coaster invasion but it is still THE FIRST AND ORIGINAL THEME PARK in the world and definitely worth a visit.

Melissa

 

[MadiMouse]

Don't worry, I'll still talk to you!


And you didn't highjack a thing! I'm happy to hear from ya! September should be great in LA. I've never heard of the Ralph Brennan place.. is it the Jazz Cafe? I hear good things about that!

I also hear good things about Rainforest Cafe but I wasn't impressed. Cute place though.

Mimi's is yummy but if you already have one.... is it far from you? It's really close to the DLR so not a problem there. I have not explored DTD at ALL. I like my park time.

Look forward to hearing more about your food choices and your PTR. Alert me if you think about it as I don't always know what's going on.

Are you going to do anything besides Disney for those days?

I'll put in my plug for Knott's Berry Farm.. it's a little convoluted since the Roller Coaster invasion but it is still THE FIRST AND ORIGINAL THEME PARK in the world and definitely worth a visit.

Melissa

Yes, it's the Jazz Cafe. Oops...I didn't write the full name.
I would say the Mimi's is about 30 mins away. Everything in Atlanta is always a "drive" away. LOL. But a lot of people do rave about the food there. I do want to try new things. Have you ever been to In n Out Burger? Read about here on the dis. Any suggestions would be great, too.

We want to visit Newport Beach. I know I sound stingy but I only planned one non-disney day! I want to go to Sprinkles (cupcake place) and get some treats. LOL. I am waiting on them to open one here in Atlanta. (sprinklescupcakes dot com). No, I don't work for their advertising dept.

I will be sure to let you know about the ptr.

 

[casaazul]

Thanks for the great report. I read it all!!

Your girls are adorable .. I have a 13 year old son ... still loves Disneyland.

We used to play VMK all the time ... since Beta days. Even got to take a special VMK Insider's Tour of Disneyland back in 2005. My husband and sister weren't too happy, but the kid and I had fun. Got to cut the lines on a number of rides!

 

[travelmel]

Thanks for the great report. I read it all!!

Your girls are adorable .. I have a 13 year old son ... still loves Disneyland.

We used to play VMK all the time ... since Beta days. Even got to take a special VMK Insider's Tour of Disneyland back in 2005. My husband and sister weren't too happy, but the kid and I had fun. Got to cut the lines on a number of rides!

You are so lucky to have taken that tour.. when we heard about it we were ULTRA excited! It's really lame that they took it away.. it was SO beautiful! The brass tries to make it sound like it was a part time venture but that was TOO much work for part time. There were some interesting articles on the Motley Fool that talked about how bad of a decision it was.

If you have any pics related to the tour, let me know! Is there a TR??

Yes, it's the Jazz Cafe. Oops...I didn't write the full name.
I would say the Mimi's is about 30 mins away. Everything in Atlanta is always a "drive" away. LOL. But a lot of people do rave about the food there. I do want to try new things. Have you ever been to In n Out Burger? Read about here on the dis. Any suggestions would be great, too.

We want to visit Newport Beach. I know I sound stingy but I only planned one non-disney day! I want to go to Sprinkles (cupcake place) and get some treats. LOL. I am waiting on them to open one here in Atlanta. (sprinklescupcakes dot com). No, I don't work for their advertising dept.

I will be sure to let you know about the ptr.

In N Out is ONLY hamburgers, fries, and shakes/drinks.. just to warn you. My husband doesn't eat beef and it was TOUGH to get into the parking lot and crowded etc just to find out there was no food for him! The hamburger's are OK.. definitely get a double-double as the patties are paper thin. They're more of phenonmenon for their bumper sticker, I think!

As for a tasty fast food treat, we enjoyed the Fat Burger fries quite a bit! Also, El Pollo Loco is fun (and somewhat healthy due to roasted chicken options) choice for a different take on mexican.

Ummm.... Sonic Burger has some tasty Onion Rings and any kind of flavored drink you could POSSIBLY imagine up.

My girls LOVED LOVED LOVED the beach! I would highly recommend a day in the Pacific Ocean. Unfortunately, the waves don't accept PS arrangements and sometimes they don't play nice for the one day you have to visit... but we had a great time splashin in fairly calm and (eventually) warm surf. Well, warm compared to Pacific Northwest water.. not warm compared to Mexico. But do-able for sure.

And don't forget... Knott's Berry Farm!! Check it out..it's totally cool.

 

[Sleepless Knight]

Your TR is very fun to read, though I'm amazed at how fast you update. I was hoping to finish my February TR sometime in March, and I didn't start it until June.

 

[travelmel]

Your TR is very fun to read, though I'm amazed at how fast you update. I was hoping to finish my February TR sometime in March, and I didn't start it until June.

I'm slowing down, by popular request I decided to read your entire TR from your wonderful experiences at the Disney Studios (THE REAL STUDIOS) while I bide my time between istallments!

Was wondering... does the video in my TR slow down the loading time for anybody?

Hey... how's that princess jedi search comin' along?

 

[LVdisneyChick]

love the report... I am also invested in ridemax. will see how it works.

 

[Jynohn]

Thanks so much for the compliments! I can't remember if it was your little girl insisting to sit by mine or if it was a different families child... but there was a CUTE little one who was sitting on the steps trying to copy the girls and we were getting such a kick out of her!

As you may have read, I wanted to go and compare the WDW attractions SO BAD! Did you find that Disneyland was closer together and less walking? That's what I hear and for that I'm greatful. Was the Blue Bayou a great respite or what?? Sure we don't have the pleathora of choices as WDW but it's pretty cute stuff what we do have!

What were your thoughts on the comparrisons?

No, our daughter was the little red head sitting across from you, but I remember the little girl you're talking about and she was adorable. I heard her tell your daughter that she wished she had a headband just like hers.

I did think that the Disneyland attractions were closer together with much less walking. This was both good and bad. Good because we were less tired at the end of the day, but bad because it seemed a lot more crowded and congested, even though the lines weren't too bad.

Overall, we missed WDW, but thought that some of the rides at Disneyland were a lot better and had nicer theming and more charm. I'll always be a WDW fan at heart, but I'm really glad I got a chance to visit Walt's original park!

 

[travelmel]

No, our daughter was the little red head sitting across from you, but I remember the little girl you're talking about and she was adorable. I heard her tell your daughter that she wished she had a headband just like hers.

I did think that the Disneyland attractions were closer together with much less walking. This was both good and bad. Good because we were less tired at the end of the day, but bad because it seemed a lot more crowded and congested, even though the lines weren't too bad.

Yes, that was the one.. too funny! It's so weird when your own kids are the "big kids!"

Send along a link to your TR if you have one! (and if you don't.... )

 

[mommaU4]

Yea, what's funny is I seriously thought these things should take 6 mos to a year (because I read YOURS mostly!) but LOOK AT ME! ROFLMBO

I've seen a few TRs that are still going on a year later too! I found that once I started mine I just couldn't stop. I started on 6/17 and finished the whole thing on 6/25.

Love yours so far! Great pics too!!

 

[travelmel]

Let's see..where was I? We closed down the park on Day 1 then drove our tired selves to my Aunt's house in Diamond Bar (about 20 min away). Three of us slept on an "L" couch and the other on a regular couch in another room. Not the restful sleep you might think... ..but none the less. Plus, it was free!

The girls roused pretty well, considering the 12 hours of sleep in the last 48 hours and got ready without much fuss. I made tea for everybody. Oh yea, and the night before we stopped for a bottle of water (even at midnight I was STILL thirsty) and decided to get some muffins, fruit, and OJ for hte next morning. So I grabbed our bag-o-breakfast and we headed out the door!

DDC fell asleep in the car and I spent 10 minutes on the phone with my Uncle Frank on which exit was more convenient considering we wanted to revist the Harbor blvd drop off again. Well you know how everybody in LA has a shortcut and nobody in LA agrees which is best so after all was said and done we eventually ended up exiting on Orangethorpe and going on from there.

It was 7:23 when DH dropped us off and the lines were a little longer (but we were a little later). Day 1 we arrived at 7:05 and we were second in line at the turnstiles. Day 2 and 20 min later we were probably about 30 people back. By 7:50 the line had trippled behind us (at everyturnstile) and was nearing the letters in CALIFORNIA of the other park! It had not gotten even near that long the day before even by rope drop. It felt like a bad omen. Sure enough, the parks were more crowded all day.

Today was NOT EMH for the resort guests so the park was empty when we first walked through. My DH is 6'2 ish and has LONG legs. He used every inch of them to walk across the park at top speed to .... YOU GUESSED IT... NEMO!. I could in no way keep up with him and had to jog and rest the entire way. I thought I was going to pass out! DDC went with Daddy and DDB stayed by my side cheering me on like those guys who drive in the car with the long distance bikers .... YOU CAN DO IT... YOU CAN DO IT... in other words, this was not an effort for her at all but she hung tight with me, none the less. She was inspirational all the way.

We knew our route did NOT go through Fantasyland and I was slightly upset when I saw the CM's standing there pushing traffic for Nemo towards the Matterhorn side (the greedy bugger in me didn't want EVERYBODY to know the secrets I had studied so hard to learn!). When we arrived at our final destiation I snapped this picture of our achievement. What you are seeing here is one of the most rarest of Disney sightings: The front of the Nemo Line!

Flippant family, you made it here and are almost first in line... WHAT ARE YOU GOING TO DO? We're goin on the SUBS baby!

The CM actually wound us through the queue and we all filed in very civilized like (for OCD Disney freaks!). I saw some people in line during the winding of the line who had been behind us in line at the turnstiles. Their lack of urgency probably put them about 20 minutes behind us. We met a very nice couple in front of us. It was one of the few conversations we had with other guests, unfortunately. But, shout out to them and their awesome camera! (we have the same one ). So here we are.. .

Second sub of the day baby!

That is actually one of my favorite shots of our trip. I'm Norwegian, but I love me some Dutch Tilt action!

So I was totally afraid that the hype about this ride not going to live up to the experience. I was a BIG fan of this ride as a kid. I completely believed that we dove down deep and that we had all kinds of emergency troubles and it was SO real. I think that's why I never joined the military. Too scary with the Navy experiences as a child! I remember seeing the subs in the lagoon and noticing that they were partially "surfaced" and thinking... hmm... I wonder where the part of the ride is where you are all the way under .... ignorance really, really is BLISS. Recently I was so nostalgic for this ride (before Nemo) that I got on to Youtube and found the a video of the original ride throught! When the man's voice came on I almost cried!

Getting on board the sub was SO cool. It felt the same, sounded the same (echo chamber), even smelled the same.

My mom is as happier than that giant clam we're about to see

Looking at the old shells against the swimming pool wall (I swear it was definitely rocky shoreline 30 yrs ago) almost got me misty all over again. I snapped this pic for old time sake...

Ding... Ding.... Ding...(insert radar noise)

The next few seconds were TOTAL memory recall!!! I don't think this part had changed much at all since the original... LOVED IT!


Said clam

It could have broke down right here and I would have been satisfied with my experience.. but NOPE, it kept on going and it was pleasing me all the way. The new additions are REALLY so cute! The little ones are going to grow up thinking they dove with Nemo and Dory and all their other friends! It was really, REALLY quite cute. I highly, HIGHLY recommend this ride. It was definitely MY favorite of the trip.

I didn't get any pics of the animated sequences as my camera doesn't do well with moving darkness. We exited this ride rejuvenated in mind and spirit...triumphant (The line was 60 minutes long within 5 minutes of rope drop) and GLEEFULL! After this it was all gravy. As we had done FL the day before we decided to hit it and run over to Tomorrow land and grab a SM FP and ride one of my other favorites: The Astro-orbitors(? I think that's what they're called now)...

Up next: Dumbo for grown-upsCOLOR]

Man I miss that elevator!