Disneyland/NASCAR - Terri & Cheryl - FINISHED 3/25 About This Page:

[LizardCop]

[img]http://smileys.*************.com/cat/23/23_30_104.gif[/img] Another Tag-Team Report!!!

[chezp]

Great start girls - I can't wait to read some more!

[DrDolphin]

February 25, 2005

No matter how I tried to sleep – I could not get comfortable. Needless to say the 4am call came way too early for this non-morning person. Instead of lying in bed, I knew I had to get up, get dressed and get out of my room – cause I am going to Disneyland!!! I checked out of my room, went down to the car, moved my toiletry case to the big suitcase and put the overnight bag and my purse into the trunk of the car.

Back into the hotel, I logged onto southwest.com and printed my boarding pass (A group) and logged on to the boards for a few minutes while waiting for the shuttle. The shuttle arrived right at 5am, I grabbed a “breakfast to go” bag and hopped on board (got to love those Hampton Inn perks!!).

We arrived at the airport, and although I already had my boarding pass, Southwest in Orlando does not have a separate check in line for folks that printed the boarding pass and only need to check their bags. So I had to stand in line. In about 10 minutes, I had checked my bag, dropped it off at the security scanner line and headed to security. It always amazes me how quickly you can get through security if you are prepared. Jackets off, shoes off, laptop out of case, etc. When everyone does that, the line moves so very quickly. I think it took me less than five minutes to get through security and at 520am I boarded the monorail (that’s what I call it) to head to the gate. I grabbed a seat, opened my breakfast bag, which had an apple, a banana nut muffin and a small bottle of water to wait for my flight to board. I watched CNN Morning news – including info on the snowstorm that dropped 6 inches of snow on Maryland – I hoped that Cheryl could get out of BWI ok.

I found out my flight would go from Orlando to New Orleans to Las Vegas and then to Los Angeles. I so wanted to find a comfy seat on the plane so that I could sleep. I decided that no matter where I ended up, I should not complain about where I sat – since I was flying for FREE (a very nice price). I was very glad I brought my large WDW sweatshirt with me – the airport was so cold!!! I also packet my green fleece pullover, and 2 rain ponchos – just in case (esp. with the weather S. California had been having).

While I was waiting to board, a woman and a man came to stand behind me in line… they were having an interesting conversation about a friend who is a face character at WDW who had just had a child and was given the option of loosing the baby weight quickly or loosing her job…. The gentleman made the comment that her boyfriend was upset with the employer for putting undo pressure on the girlfriend… and he said “guess that’s what happens when you knock up Cinderella” OMG!!!! I tried not to giggle…. I guess the woman (in line) is a CM at WDW and the guy is her cousin that used to be a CM… the things you hear in line at MCO.

We board the flight and I made a beeline for the exit row – window seat. Got it, grabbed a blanket, a pillow and went to sleep. I don’t even remember taking off. I was really tired. I woke up as we landed in New Orleans right at 845 eastern (I never did reset my watch on this trip). I forgot how weird that approach over the Mississippi River is!! The plane was very cold and between my sweatshirt, fleece and blanket I had managed to create a cocoon of warmth. The gentleman behind me complained to the flight attendant about people not in wheelchairs being allowed to preboard. “If you can walk – you can’t preboard” was the exact quote. How arrogant!! My father has very bad tendonitis in his ankles – he can walk, he can stand, but it takes him a long time to walk down the sloping jetway. That gentleman should have been thankful that he could stand and walk and be quiet [stepping off soap box].

We flew over the Grand Canyon and Lake Meade and I got to see Hoover damn on the approach to Vegas. It has been way too many years since I’ve been out here. I know that mom and dad are close (compared to Jacksonville), looks like I need to plan a trip to somewhere other than WDW (yes – I said that). Maybe for my birthday since the cruise fell through?

At noon the pilot came on to inform us that we were almost 30-minutes ahead of schedule into Las Vegas… which means those of us staying on the plane will have an hour to kill instead of 30 minutes while waiting for the transition. One flight attendant said they might let us deplane to get something to eat – but you’d have to have your boarding pass…. Problem – I turned my printed at the hotel one into the guy at the gate in Orlando… the flight attendant told me that is the only real problem with printing your own – no tear off. He told me a great tip – print 2 copies of the boarding pass – one for you and one for them. You never know when you might need it… lesson learned. I did manage to get off and get a pizza hut personal pizza and a pretzel. The ground ops agent asked me my name when I left and when I returned, however he did not ask me my name, check ID or anything... he just watched me get back on the plane . I talked to Scott to let him know where I "was" and I talked to Mom as well.


Vegas Strip from the tarmac - closest I have ever been to Las Vegas

We landed in LA at 1130am – and as I headed to baggage claim, I called Cheryl. She was in another terminal (since AirTran and SWA land in different terminals) and was already walking my direction. She met me at SW baggage claim – and after about 10 minutes, I had my bag in hand and we were headed out the door toward the Hertz Rental Car shuttle bus.

Next - The car shuffle - now how do we get to the hotel?

[GATechGal]

Great installations ladies. Can't wait for the next set.

[Tink and co.]

Excellent update, and great picture of Vegas!

[Phoebe_Cates]

Rental Car Shuffle, Getting Lost w’ “Never Lost”, California Adventure

Once Terri’s luggage made it to the baggage carousel, we immediately headed to the car rental shuttle stop and flagged down a Hertz driver. We hauled our luggage on board and made our way to Hertz to pick up our car rental. Once there, we walked directly to our car b/c Terri’s name was on the board as a Hertz #1 Club Gold Member. The only problem was that our car smelled like smoke. So, back to the front office we go to exchange our vehicle. … Once in our permanent ride, I was in charge of programming the Never Lost system b/c Terri’s “Disney Direction Chip” apparently doesn’t work anywhere other then WDW. We realized relatively quickly that the area maps and printed directions Terri had the foresight to bring were desperately needed when we missed the first “ding” and had to make a U-turn. Opps! … Eventually, we made it to Anaheim and almost drove right past the Disneyland Resort entrance b/c it blended into the Kissimmee-like background. I’m so used to the Walt Disney World entrance, which stands alone, separated from the hustle and bustle of reality. We eventually found the Anaheim Hilton a couple of long blocks away and parked in the adjacent parking lot. Meandering our way out of the parking garage proved to be a bit of a challenge with our luggage, but we ultimately made our way to the front desk prepared for a fight (Terri and I had been exchanging phone calls back and forth with Hilton about using our points). Surprisingly, there weren’t any issues. We even got upgraded to the executive floor! Must have been Disney Magic! What was nice about the executive floor was that there was a lounge with bottle water, sodas, continental breakfast (we didn’t have to pay for breakfast the entire weekend), hot appetizers, and the best cookies ever in the afternoon. Woohoo! Once we got settled into our room, we decided to walk back to the entrance of DL b/c we didn’t have a clue on how the Anaheim Resort Transportation (ART) system worked yet – although we certainly figured it out after walking miles the first day! Two LONG blocks later, we walked passed the front gate and ticketing counters into a circular area with California Adventure to the left, Downtown Disney straight ahead, and Disneyland to the right. Today we choose to go to the left into CA. I have to admit that it was a bit overwhelming at first. I felt like one of those annoying people that I complain about in WDW, who stand in the middle of a walkway b/c they have no idea where they’re going. Terri and I decided to check the stand-by time for Soarin’ Over California since we knew it was coming to EPCOT for the 50th anniversary celebration. Since the stand-by time was 60 minutes, we decided to pick up a fast pass and then find something to eat for lunch. We ended up in White Water Snacks at the Disney’s Grand Californian Hotel (a.k.a. Wilderness Lodge), where I had the best nachos ever! Ummmm! I think this was probably my best meal of the entire trip. After lunch, we headed over to California Screamin’ and decided to wait in line since it looked like it was moving. This roller coaster reminded me of an old fashioned wooden coaster with more twists and turns so riders experienced air time as if suspended. Afterwards, we took a leisurely ride on King Triton’s Carousel to settle our stomachs. We then headed to the Sun Wheel, where we got in line for the non-movable buckets b/c I refused to get on the movable ones (Tara already warned me of this feature). It was scary enough without the extra movement! … After the Sun Wheel, we continued walking around the lake and ended up in front of Grizzly River Run (a.k.a. Kali River Rapids). At which point, Terri and I preceded to pull out our ponchos (yes, we put on ponchos before getting on a water ride). No one in our “raft” got it that bad, which was good b/c it was cold. By the time we got off that attraction, our fast past times for Soarin’ became available. So, we headed over. It reminded me of Mickey’s Philharmagic in that there were scents, like pine, sprayed at appropriate points during the IMAX like movie. The only difference is that you’re suspended above. I just wish I knew what I was looking at! I’m embarrassed to say that I couldn’t place some of the places. After Soarin (boy, were our arms tired lol), we walked through Downtown Disney, where I picked up another “looking for prince charming” type shirt in the World of Disney store. Once through DTD, we swung a left to walk to Disney’s Paradise Pier Hotel for dinner at Yamabuki, where I had a pretty standard tempura/sushi dinner. I don’t think you can mess that up overly much. … After dinner, we walked all the way back to our hotel and decided that we were definitely going to figure out transportation options in the morning.

Next Day: The familiar yet different Disneyland.

[DopeyGirl]

Great updates!!!

Cool picture of the Vegas strip from the tarmac, Terri . . . I had forgotten that it was so close!!!

Looking forward to more!!!

[snoozy]

Great updates ladies.

[BritDisFan]

Great updates you two , looking forward to more.

Karen

[Tara O'Hara]

Awesome updates, you guys and cool pic of the Strip, Terri!

[GATechGal]

Please, please, please tell me you guys went back to CA and saw the Aladin show. It's every bit as good (maybe better) than Beauty and the Beast at MGM. And doesn't it feel wierd to have everything so close together?

[chezp]

Great report so far girls - I'm loving it! The photo of Vegas was really - I can't wait to go there hopefully next year and the food reviews are excellent. It's already helping me to think about places we might want to go when we go to Disneyland.

[DrDolphin]

The rental car shuffle – and “how do we get to the hotel?”

We picked up the rental car at Hertz – a silver Taurus – loaded everything into the trunk, took off jackets, etc and started the car. The “low oil pressure” light came on. Nope – not keeping this car. Ain’t no way. So I drove the car over to the Gold Members check in building, left Cheryl inside the car and went in to exchange our silver Taurus for a BLUE TAURUS. Real original. In addition, I had ordered “never lost” for the car – a GPS computer unit designed to tell you when to turn etc. I put Cheryl in charge of programming it and we were off. And immediately got lost. There was a delayed “ding”, so fortunately in addition to ordering the Never lost – I had picked up regular old paper maps from AAA, as well as printed driving instructions from the Hilton website and the Disneyland website. After a few minutes of confusion (while thanking God we were not arriving during rush hour) we made our way to the Disneyland Resort. We even managed to go in the wrong entrance to the hotel- but finally found the correct parking area and parked WAY FAR AWAY (hear the echo?) from the lobby elevators… Good thing my suitcase is on wheels.

When we checked in – Cheryl and I were completely prepared for problems. The week before the trip I had been trying to print our free room confirmations – and the Hilton website was not cooperating. When I called Hilton I was told that 2 of our 3 nights were free – but the 3rd night was not. HUH?? I knew they had taken the points from Cheryl’s account… how can that be. So I had called Cheryl and warned her. She’d called Hilton (remember – she was in Philly for work that week) and she thought maybe it was taken care of – but we had all the paperwork and were ready for a fight. No need. Everything was fine. And – we were upgraded to the Executive Floor – the one with free food and soda… wow! A little Disney magic at Hilton. We put all our stuff in the room and I discovered my leave in conditioner had opened during the trip and conditioned 3 of my shirts!!! So I did a quick batch of “laundry” in the bathtub and hung everything to dry, then we headed to the lounge for water, took a couple of photos from the lounge and headed downstairs for the promised “two short block walk” to Disneyland. I want to know who measured SHORT!! There was no way that was less than ¾ mile one-way!!!


The view from the Hilton Executive Lounge

We walked the 2 blocks to DL Resort – and I did not realize we were there at first – since Denny’s and McDonalds were right across the road. I can SO see why Walt wanted to open another place in Florida – away from all of this. It reminded me of Kissimmee in a way… was the same, but different.


Plaque on Anaheim Street

We decided to head to California Adventure since Tara had told Cheryl it could be done in ½ a day – and that was all the time we had.


Entrance to Disney’s California Adventure

We immediately headed to “Soarin Over California” to see what the wait time looked like – 60 minutes. Too long for this girl. Cheryl was HUNGRY. She had not eaten at all – and thought we should grab some lunch. I ate pizza hut in Las Vegas – so I was less hungry. We headed to the Grand Californian and found a counter service local (it reminded me So much of Roaring Forks). Cheryl had the chicken nachos (which I helped to eat – they were yum) with a diet coke, and I had a Mickey-head pretzel and a bottle of water. I had almost gotten a mickey bar – until I noticed that they are almost $0.75 more at DL than WDW???? HUH???


Cheryl’s nachos


My pretzel

After lunch, we headed back to Paradise Pier to ride California Screamin’. Since we were only there 2 days – we had limited time to spend in each park and hit what we had decided were the high points for us. Screamin’ is GREAT!!! I loved the Mickey loop – although the fast moguls made my stomach lurch a bit (up, down, up, down). It is a wonderful coaster. We looked at our photo – we had the STRANGEST looks on our faces… and decided to skip the photo.

Right next to Screamin’ is King Triton’s carousel. I love it!! The sea creatures were wonderful – I picked the grey whale (appropriate for the marine biologist) and Cheryl picked a fish next to me (hate to say I can’t remember what kind of fish – or even the color).


On King Triton’s Carousel

Then we headed to the SunWheel. Now it seems that when Tara and Cheryl met in Philly – Tara told Cheryl all about the rides – and as a result – Cheryl requested that we take a non-moving car for the SunWheel. Of course, this meant waiting longer in line ad 2/3rds of the cars move, while 1/3 doesn’t. We got on and I took a few photos from the top of the parks and hotels around us. Cheryl said the non-moving car moved more than enough for her liking.


On the SunWheel


Views from the sunwheel

Continued in the next post

[chezp]

Excellent installment Terri - I love your photos! That Mickey pretzel is so much fun!

[DrDolphin]

While we were on the SunWheel – we could see the Grizzly River Run (reminds me a lot of Kali River Rapids) and decided to head that way. I had remembered to bring the ponchos – so, after getting a treat (chocolate covered banana for CJ and a frozen lemonade for me – it boy was it frozen – solid as a rock), we headed that way to wait in line. The stand by line said 40 minutes… I think it took right about that – but we talked, and I called Scott, and we talked more… and then we got to board our raft…. We were with a family from England – a couple of whom had brought ponchos – and a couple without ponchos. We needed them!!! I would have been soaked to the bone without my trusty Mickey poncho. Great ride. I prefer it to Kali – it even seems longer than Kali is.

Last but not least – we decided to head over to Soarin’. Out Fast Passes weren’t good for at least another hour – and the line still said 60-minutes, but we were leaving the park to go to dinner, weren’t sure if we’d be back – and decided to take our chances. OMG!!! That ride is so cool!! I cannot wait for it to open in EPCOT and ride it again in May!!!! WOW!! I think it would be very easy to make it Soarin’ over Florida, Arizona, New York – whatever they wanted to – to help keep it fresh and new…. But WOW!!!

After Soarin’ we looked in the picture shop at the photo we’d taken early in the day (nope – we looked, well, yuck) and did a wee bit more shopping. I bought a ticket/fastpass holder than is currently holding my work Ids in it…. And we also tried on a few items of headwear.


Disney Dreaming?

We left DCA, and headed into Downtown Disney for the walk to the Paradise Pier hotel for dinner at Yamabuki. We stopped in the lobby to pose with a very famous surfer before heading into dinner.



Cheryl and I both had the Chicken teriyaki, with miso soup, ginger salad, steamed rice, California rolls, and shrimp tempura. I had iced tea and Cheryl had diet coke. I somehow forgot to take photos of any of our meals after lunch… not quiet sure why. And now that I think of it - I don't remember what dinner cost -- I think around $55.00 for the two of us (and boy how weird for me not to be using the DDE card!!!).

After dinner – we headed back through DTD, stopping at WOD to look at the sweatshirt options. Ended up with both of us buying t-shirts. Cheryl got another “prince wanted” – long sleeves and black, while I got a while long sleeve v-necked shirt with blue mouse ears on it that says “Disneyland Resort”. I really like it! We had wanted sweatshirts – since I received a 20% off coupon from Disney when I bought our park tickets on line… 20% off a $100.00 purchase.

We made the LONG walk back to the hotel – my feet were screaming when we got there. It was 845pm when we arrived, and my body said it was 1145pm, and I had been up (even with naps) since 4am. I was so tired and boy did my back hurt. I changed into jammies, Cheryl called for a wake up call and I was asleep before my head hit the pillow.

Next – It’s like the Twilight Zone