Wednesday, February 24, 2010
The day started well enough, we left the hotel and headed over to the park. This was a Disneyland day and we were going to try and get into Carnation Cafe this morning rather than have lunch there later in the day. We had never had lunch there so we didn’t know what the menu was going to be like, plus I would have rather had a hand-dipped corn dog at the Stage Door Cafe than try something new at Carnation Cafe.
We get into the park and make our way down Main Street to Carnation Cafe. The first thing that strikes me is there was no one in line and there were only a few people seated. I’m not used to seeing this and I was surprised more people weren’t taking advantage of the no wait to eat. We are seated almost immediately right next to this other family. When I say right next to, I mean nearly to the point we we could share condiments and conversation.
I like the fact that the same server’s are there every time we go. We got Troy this time, a server we’ve had in past years, but looking around I recognized nearly every face there. It’s weird and goes to show the type of employer Disney is when people stay for so many years. From what I’ve learned from them all, they all love it there.
We each ordered the Mickey-shaped Waffle and we were served quickly. I looked onto Main Street while we were eating and I thought that we might actually finish before the rope drop. As usual Oscar came around to the tables and made sure everything was going alright as did our server Troy. We were able to get through our breakfast rather quickly, though we were not able to finish before the rope drop. I think that worked to our benefit because then we weren’t involved in the rush to the attractions and since there wasn’t anything planned initially it didn’t matter that we weren’t the first in line.
We paid, and set out into the park. Our first stop was Buzz Lightyear Astro Blasters. The night before we talked about what attractions we would like to ride repeatedly and Buzz Lightyear Astro Blasters was definitely one that we wanted to ride. While this is a popular ride it isn’t the first one that people flock to so as we walked up we could see that it was only a five minute wait. We walked on and there were these two kids who… I’m not even sure what they were doing. They were walking through the queue hesitantly,as if they were looking for someone. My mom and I wanted to blast right through them, but cutting in front of a couple of kids is generally frowned upon at Disneyland.
Finally we reached the loading area and they just stopped dead in their tracks. This was the last straw, there wasn’t anyone in line, they should have just got on the ride, my Mom and I blasted past them, I saw they turned and never boarded the attraction. Whatever, their loss. We rode the ride and I did terribly, 390,000+ points. I just couldn’t hit Zurg which gives you 50,000 points each time you hit him in the right spot. I walked away frustrated with my score. Before reaching the exit I looked up at the scoreboard and noticed LGM was on the board. I’m so used to seeing LGM with really high scores and I noticed it was a really low score, then it got me thinking, is LGM even a real person? How could one person have such a wide variance of scores. Then it got me thinking again, could they stand for something indicating that the player didn’t enter their initials into the computer?
We made the loop and boarded the attraction again, and this time I was on top of my game. I hit Zurg a couple of times and left that room with 260,000 points, I didn’t do too well throughout the rest of the ride, but in the last room the ride stopped right in front of a triangle target. I hit that thing continuously until I reached 850,500 points. That is the highest score I think I ever got in my life. I walked away extremely happy, this was one I was definitely going to send to myself so I could forward it on to everyone I know and post it on Facebook and Twitter and any other social network I have.
After riding Buzz we headed to Captain EO. This time we were determined to get a seat further back and near the center of the theater. We got in the queue and stood at the side. Normally cast members will urge guests to move all the way down and around to the right to fill in all the available space. They do however open the side doors allowing people further back in the line to enter the theater at the same time those who are further along the line. It is these doors that offer the best chance of getting a seat near the rear of the theater providing you with the best possible viewing angle to enjoy Captain EO the way it was meant to be enjoyed, without the headache and temporary blindness. It has to be said, Captain EO gets better with every viewing and you also begin to see the flaws. My mom mentioned that Michael’s jacket opens and closes all by itself.
Following another awesome viewing of Captain EO we walked around to Space Mountain where we looked at the wait time and considered it to be longer than we wanted to wait. My mom sat down on a bench while I walked up and got us each a FastPass and walked back. I noticed when I got back that the doors into the theater playing Captain EO were still open and thought that it would be possible to exit the attraction and then immediately enjoy it again without waiting! I told my mom this and she agreed that it would be possible and that we should try it sometime.
We realized we hadn’t explored anything past New Orleans Square including the Haunted Mansion and Critter Country. To remedy that we took the train to New Orleans Square, along the way trying to take flashless pictures of “The Grand Canyon” and “Primeval World” all of which were hot blurry messes, but again, they’re memories. We also grabbed a photo of those heads that are stored in the back of New Orleans Square. I always wondered why those were there, what sort of decorative value do they hold other than being kind of creepy.
We got off the train and went to the Haunted Mansion feeling a few raindrops on the way. There was a time when we would only go on this during the holiday’s so we would only see the Nightmare Before Christmas overlay, which is ironic because that is usually the treat, for me it’s a treat to see it without an overlay. I kind of like the original better because I like when you go to the outside scene with all the ghosts and tombstones and then you see those busts singing “Grim Grinning Ghosts”. The overlay, instead of having busts, has pumpkins singing, this is something else that’s ironic, because you wouldn’t expect pumpkins being used for a Christmas overlay. I look for only one thing while riding this attraction, and that is see which place setting they make the hidden mickey in the dining room sequence.
I’d have to say that the scariest part of that ride for me, is right after the dining room where you go into the attic and there is that ghostly bride who killed all her husbands. That bride looks so creepy and seems to be the most realistic ghost in the bunch, you know, cause I’ve had so much experience with ghosts in my life. Either way that room gives me the shivers.
We got off the ride and it had been raining thankfully it had stopped raining but the ground was still wet and slippery. I know what you’re thinking, because I mentioned it being slick out there you think one of us bit it. We didn’t, but it wasn’t completely out of the realm of possibility. We did carefully make our way into Critter Country so my mom could use the facilities and then she could talk herself into and then out of going on Splash Mountain. The wait time for the ride was only 5 minutes, but getting wet on a cloudy, cool day wasn’t as appealing as the 5 minute wait.
Instead we opted to ride The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh. I don’t understand why people don’t like this ride, it’s better than Snow White’s Scary Adventures and Pinnocchio’s Daring Journey combined. We got in line and once we reached the loading zone we were place in the front row while a man and his young daughter where placed behind us. She made the executive decision to trade places with them so that his daughter would be able to see better. He thanked us and told his daughter to thank us as well. Whatever. Alright, she was kind of cute because she had good manners.
We go through the ride without incident but then we come to the end and the doors open and then we see it. Raindrops! It’s raining and neither of us are prepared for such weather. I mean, they’ve been threatening us with this weather all week but saw nothing of it, then all of a sudden, smack dab in the middle of our vacation it decides to rain and we left our ponchos in the car, a 45 minute trek and tram ride. I suggested that we just buy some ponchos, but we had talked about sharing a funnel cake at the Hungry Bear Restaurant.
Instead of buying a poncho or walking then riding a tram to the car, we walked the few yards to the Hungry Bear Restaurant, unintentionally stalking the gentleman and daughter we gave our seat to on The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh to eat and take shelter. We got in line and ordered the funnel cake, first though there was some heated discussion between my mom and I about which funnel cake we should get. I wanted to get the Chocolate Brownie on and my mom continually tried reminding me how we felt after we had it the first time. I didn’t care, if we were going to spend $5.49 for a funnel cake I want to get my as much for my money as I possibly can.We got the Chocolate Brownie Funnel Cake at my behest and we sat down to eat it. We easily got through it and we both agreed that it wasn’t as bad as we both remembered. I remembered that we each probably got our own the last time and that’s why it made us feel terrible. Here’s a tip, share that funnel cake, you’ll thank me later.
I mentioned on a previous day that I bought the iPhone app, Wishing Stars and now that we weren’t following an itinerary and we didn’t have anything on the docket we thought it was a prime opportunity to do one of these quests. We went through some of the quests available on the app, and wanted to choose one that didn’t require a lot of walking because my mom just didn’t have that much walking left in her. We started with a Medium quest entitled Disney Photo’s. We looked at the photos of the items we needed to find and noticed they were spread out throughout the park, plus ust looking at the photos we knew exactly where each of these locations were.
We went back to he drawing board and picked a different quest, one that was a little closer to where we were, so we chose New Orleans Shops. I’m sorry, but this was listed under Medium quests and yet it was ridiculously easy and we were able to get through it in about 10 minutes. Keep in mind that my mom doesn’t walk very fast so if she was able to hobble her way through this quest in 10 minutes, you can only imagine just how easy this quest was.
After completing the quest we sat down waiting for the disappointment to wear off and discussed what we were going to do next. It was decided that we would go to Big Thunder Mountain Railroad and see what the line looked like. While on our way my mom suggested we see what time the next show at the Golden Horseshoe was, it was going to happen in like 10 minutes or so, but I needed to go to the restroom first. I had two choices of restrooms, the always crowded Adventureland restroom or the one by Rancho del Zocalo Restaurante which is less crowded. I didn’t choose the Adventureland restroom and I’m glad I did. There was a man and his son who were using the restroom, the father had just finished helping his son and told him to go wash his hands, the boy said, “But I don’t want to wash my hands!” Dad responded, “You always have to wash your hands!” I thought that was funny.
I walk back to the Golden Horseshoe and my mom gives me the bad news, Billy Hill and the Hillbillies don’t perform on Tuesday’s and Wednesday’s. Of course they don’t why wouldn’t they be available to perform the one time we want to actually see them. It doesn’t matter, it isn’t really our type of humor so while it might have been amusing to watch, I don’t think we would have truly enjoyed it as much as we would have liked. We sat for a little longer while I worked on my trip report via my iPhone and my mom was updating her notebook. After a few more minutes we got up and made our way to Big Thunder.
The wait for Big Thunder was short, so we rode it and then got off and rode it again. Both times we practically walked right on. However there was a slight misunderstanding. The man in front of us in line the first time we rode, said there was seven or so in his group, but his group wasn’t together so the cast member thought we were a part of the seven and put us in a row that was reserved for this family of seven. There were a few moments of confusion and once everything got straightened out we ended up in row 9, a better row than 5, 6 or 7.
I find it absolutely annoying that people don’t keep their group together. It is vitally important that you all get in line together and stay together. This is becoming a theme with people that think they can have part of their group go out and ride an attraction while another member waits in another line. Worse yet, when you can’t keep your family together while you’re in the same line is absolutely ridiculous! It not only affects your ability to get on the ride immediately, but it also causes confusion for others in the line as well as the cast member trying to keep their counts and rows straight.
The second time through Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, we were placed in the last car. The last car on a roller coaster is the best because it’s a more thrilling experience. You’ll notice that when you go up a hill you gain speed at the top because the front of the train is pulling you down the hill even before you reached the top. Plus, you’re whipped at every turn more fiercely than if you were in the middle or in the front. I have the bruises to prove this (that’s an exaggeration).
We walked off Big Thunder and decided to go on “it’s a small world”. It’s funny to me that I would always dread going on that ride, but ever since they made the updates to the ride, I find myself looking forward to riding it. We walked the path behind Big Thunder, and that’s a great place to find Woody and Jesse from Toy Story 2 hanging out. I got a couple of great shots of them together without any annoying kids ruining the shot. Jeepers, kids just have no courtesy when it comes to getting in people’s shots.
We get in line for “it’s a small world” and get on rather quickly. For some reason the lines for this ride are so short. We have been able to get right on or on within a couple of minutes throughout the entire trip. This time, I was going to attempt to take some pictures. Throughout the entire ride, there was a man and his father in front of us, and he was taking pictures with his flash. This is generally frowned upon. But you know what, I’m freaking tired of taking lousy pictures on these rides. I, for once in my life, would like to take a decent photo of these stupid dolls. Because I’m courteous to others, I don’t. So what I’m stuck with are a bunch of blurry photos. Sure I could play around with the settings of my camera, but I’m not quite sure how to do that yet.
After taking a bunch of blurry pictures, we got off the ride and headed into Tomorrowland to once again see Captain EO. We decided that we wanted to see this as many times as we could, because we didn’t want to look back and think, “I wish I had seen Captain EO more.” Honestly, how often do you look back and you say to yourself, “I wish I didn’t do [insert attraction name here] that many times.” Probably very rarely or if at all. We walked into the queue and sat down got good seats because we know how to work the system, and sat there enjoying yet another showing of Captain EO. This time I watched carefully how many times Michael Jackson’s jacket went from him ripping his jacket open to it mysteriously closing. The total? Five. Five times it went from open to close. One of those times, the jacket mysteriously opened by itself and closed by itself. I understand why this had to happen. How else were they going to show Michael ripping his jacket open unless they somehow closed it.
Following this final showing of Captain EO we stopped to see what the wait was like for Star Tours. I don’t like Star Tours, because there is a moment that near the end where I don’t think the ride and the movie sync up well and it makes me feel uncomfortable. Plus I rode that ride so many freaking times in my life, that it’s a movie that I’ve seen and I’m just not interested in seeing it anymore. Although I did read in a book they are selling on property called, Disney Challenges where you can see a blast from Disneyland’s past somewhere in the film. It might be worth checking out, but I’ll probably wait until the next trip to do it.
Realizing the line for Star Tours was longer than we were willing to wait, 15 minutes we moved on to Frontierland where we were planning on enjoying another hand-dipped corn dog at the Stage Door Cafe. I could sit here and talk about how awesome and delicious it was, although I was struck by the young cast member that took my order, his name was Leland. I thought that was a really interesting name, and he was rather an interesting fellow. He was upbeat and asked about where I volunteered, I told him we volunteered at our public library and then the conversation changed and it turned to the weather, he mentioned that he was stuck inside and would rather be outside, I didn’t blame him, it was a nice day out there.
The order came immediately and I took the food to where my mom was sitting, along the edge of the eating area so we could watch people as they walked by. I had a difficult time finding the condiment cart since it wasn’t in it’s usual spot. I walked all the wat to the River Belle Terrace to grab setups and mustard. I feel weird going into an establishment to raid their supplies when I didn’t purchase anything there. I don’t know why, but it feels like buying something at McDonald’s and then going to Carl’s Jr. and raiding their condiments. I know it isn’t anything like that… or maybe it is, I don’t know.
While we were eating the topic of little girls dressed in princess outfits came up. The whole discourse had us almost rolling in the floor we were having such a good time silently torturing these poor young girls. We were considering going up to them and telling them, “You don’t look anything like Cinderella, because Cinderella has blonde hair, and you have brown. So in order to maintain the integrity of the character we’re going to have to ask you to give back the costume. We went on and on talking about this and coming up with different scenarios that we could use. We even talked about people with Mickey Mouse ears on and how since they weren’t mice then they shouldn’t be wearing ears. It was just so fun to be talking like this and secretly coming up with ways to ruin peoples experience at the park. Of course we would never do it, but it’s fun to just think about it.
We made a very quick stop into Westward Ho Trading Post to glance at pins, then we walked back up Main Street, first stopping at the hub so I could snap a few shots of the castle and the Partners statue. Then we continued on our way to the Market House to get a coffee and a cookie. There we met a woman who lives in Vancouver, British Columbia. I’ve found now more than ever people engaging us in conversation. After telling this woman where we were from, she told us that she met her husband at University of Oregon and they moved to Seattle. Her husband isn’t liking the weather in Seattle so he’s trying to move them down south. She got her coffee and left. We met up with her briefly at the coffee preparation bar where she said she might see us again!
We took our coffee and cookie to the Town Square and sat down on the benches. Characters were all over the place and I had to go take some photos. Then most of them left and out came Chip who walked right past us and stationed himself right at the flag pole. He was being followed by some people, but then Mickey, Minnie, Donald and Goofy came out and everyone abandoned Chip and raced over to the group of popular characters as did I and I snapped some poorly framed photos, but I have them or parts of them in some of the pictures.
They were all getting on the Double Decker bus and riding it up and down Main Street. As they were getting on there was a large group forming to get pictures and ride the bus with them. Chip was standing over by the flag pole by himself. I took a break taking pictures of Mickey and his pals and went back to my mom where I grabbed a bite of my cookie and took a sip of my coffee. Now there was a line for Chip who was then joined by Dale and Pluto. Because the line was right where my mom and I were sitting we decided to move. We moved to a location where we could see Chip & Dale and Pluto interact with the guests and have their picture taken.
We sat there for a while watching people and I grabbed some more photos of Mickey and his pals, they leave and then come back I grabbed some pictures of them trying to get off the bus, which was awkward. I thought that they all might then immediately go backstage so I briskly walked to where they disappear but to my dismay they decided that they would take some photos and sign some autographs.
The autograph books. I talked to my mom about this. I wondered how the characters felt about providing autographs to guests. You look at Pluto and the drama he has to go through just to sign his name, I thought what a pain it is, and whether they dread having to do it. I think it’s a super idea and I have even considered on occasion buying a book and getting their autographs too. It does hold up the line, and since they are only out their for a limited amount of time, I don’t necessarily think it’s considerate to others to hold up the line so someone can get a character’s autograph. Really, I don’t stand in those lines so it doesn’t matter to me personally whether someone asks for an autograph or not.
I came back and then we gathered our things and went into the Disney Gallery and checked it out. Looking around I saw a couple of things I wanted to get, and considered seriously next time I go in June to pick some art up, not that we have any room in the house for more Disney related framed “art”.
Upon leaving the Disney Gallery we noticed that the characters looked to be wrapping things up and so I raced over once again to where they disappear, joined by my mom where I attempted to take some decent photos of them without people polluting my shots of them. My mom seeing the potential of the pictures that she could take whipped out her camera begrudgingly and began snapping as well. I got a couple of good ones but, I’m generally unsatisfied with the results. Next time though, I know what I have to do, be prepared and get closer. Don’t rely on your zoom to get you close, it’s never close enough. I’m going to freaking get right up to their giant furry faces and snap some quality pictures.
We left shortly after that , but first we had to grab a refill on the coffee. It was roughly 4pm and the park was closing for a private party at 7pm. If we were to stay we would have just wandered and complained so we decided to call it a day and hit the trams before they got crowded with people all thinking of doing the same thing. It was a good thing we left when we did because shortly after arriving at the hotel I started feeling really nauseous.
If you look at what we ate throughout the trip so far it shouldn’t surprise anyone that I was feeling sick to my stomach. The only vegetable I ate the entire trip was a total of two stalks of asparagus on day 2 of the trip. That was it. The rest of the trip was filled with garbage and fried food and talking about the sheer amount of food I had on this day I was lucky to not be keeled over dead of a heart attack. I began feeling better at about 7:30pm. I remember because I remember how I felt when Kathy tried to spin out of turn on Wheel of Fortune and I jumped out of the bed I was resting on and mocked her to her face.
I worked on this trip report shortly after that then my mom and I called it a night. I went into my room and I have a tip for you. The TV’s at the Howard Johnson’s have RCA jacks in the back and so I was able to hook my iPhone up to the TV to watch a movie. You’ll have to dial “00” to get to the channel that will display whatever you have hooked up to the RCA jacks.
That was Day 4.
I wrote this when I was tired and so some/all of it may not make sense. I didn’t proof it because it’s long. If you have any questions let me know in the comments.
