Southern California. Will it be attached to the state once we're done with it? *Updated 7/9* COMPLETE - Page 21 - PassPorter - A Community of Walt Disney World, Disneyland, Disney Cruise Line, and General Travel Forums
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the videos! And that party sure looked cool. Was Crystal the only adult celebrating her birthday? Hey, who DID win?
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Oct '99: CSR ~ May '02: CR ~ Nov '04: SOG ~ May '06: SOG ~ Dec '07: Solo @ Pop ~ May '08: Pop w/friends ~ Oct '08: SOG ~ Dec '09: Pop w/LeAnn ~ Sept '10: Solo @ Pop ~ Spring '11: AKL ~ Jan '12: Pop for 1/2 Marathon ~ Sept '12: 1st trip for DL 1/2 Marathon? ~ Feb '13: Pop w/pals? ~ Mar '13: Tokyo Disney w/PP's?
I have walked by that a few times when that was going on, but I never knew what it was! Dang it, I was JUST at DL for my birthday, too, and that sounds like something my DD and nieces would have loved! Oh well, thanks for the info about it. Now I now, and I have a plan for my next birthday!
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Saturday, October 9, 2014 - Kaitlyn and I before the Happy Haunted 5K at ESPN Wide World of Sports
The My DL Birthday Party is definitely a deal! Looks like both birthday girls enjoyed it! Great pics and I watched the videos last night. Great updates Sarah!
I enjoyed hearing about your day while we were on the tour, Sarah. That birthday party looked like a lot of fun. Your videos are all so great, they take me right back! Can't wait for more!
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Mickey's so happy to see me back, he can barely contain himself!
. . . and even MORE rides – this time with lots of company!!!!!!!!
After the birthday party, our tummies full of cake and punch, we headed off towards New Orleans Square for a ride on Pirates and then on to the Haunted Mansion:
Um . . . we recited the stretching room script. Is that telling of how many times we have ridden HM or what?
Emilie decided she wanted to ride in the DoomBuggy with “Mr. Crystal and Miss Doug” , while Terri and I grabbed the one right behind them.
After our DoomBuggy ride, Doug and Crystal decided to head back to the hotel (with the plan of heading over to Knott’s Berry Farm for Mrs. Knott’s Famous Fried Chicken for dinner . . . ). After they headed out, Terri, Emilie and I headed over to ride Big Thunder Mountain Railroad . . .
OH! And this reminds me . . . I totally forgot to mention earlier about the Crocs! So, back in December, Terri bought Emilie some of the red w/ black heel strap Mickey Crocs. She wore them while we were in L.A. When we left the Hilton in L.A., I had her look around the room to make sure we had packed everything and she assured me that there was nothing left in the room. WELL . . . when we got to Disneyland and I asked her to get her Crocs out to wear to dinner that first night, they were nowhere to be found. I mean NOWHERE.
This began the calling back and forth with the Hilton . . . we found out that they HAD been found by Housekeeping and then were told to call back to talk to someone in “Purchasing and Shipping”. So, we did . . . no answer. I called first thing the morning that everyone was on the tour (so, this report day) and was told that that no one would be available in that “department” until after 9am. Called back later that afternoon . . . talked to someone in “Purchasing and Shipping” who tells me that they can’t help me, but would connect me to someone who could . . . then hung up on me. This did not please Terri in the least . . . so she called back and the first thing out of her mouth was “Hello, may I speak with the manager please.” Terri called back and forth with Sophia, the manager . . . and in this video of our ride on BTMRR, you can hear the end of one of the convos. Sophia didn’t really have the best of timing when she was calling back.
After squeaking and squealing through Big Thunder (really, is there any other way to ride it? Not for me there isn’t! ) and many times telling Miss Skinny Pants to hold on because of the lap bar issue . . . we headed around the corner towards Fantasyland and ran into Woody just standing there all by his lonesome!
We headed into Fantasyland after that and rode Mad Tea Party.
Then Alice in Wonderland! (the second video is a little bit dark, but you can still make out most of the ride )
Since we were right there, and Terri had yet to ride it, we headed over and got in the Tomorrowland side queue for the Matterhorn then headed over to it’s a small world. On the way over there, I realized that DH had called, so I called him back . . . he gave me the news that I sure didn’t want to hear while I was on vacation and spending everything I had in savings over the past year . . . “Honey . . . um . . . my car blew a head gasket today. I thought it was just the water pump so I changed it and it still isn’t fixed. I can’t drive it anywhere until it gets fixed and the estimate to fix it is standing at about $1200. But don’t let that keep you from enjoying the rest of the trip!”
Ugh.
Well, we figured it wasn’t something we could real help at the time (and, thankfully, he works with someone who is a master mechanic and has all of the fancy tools needed to do just the type of work we needed done at his home. He said he would do it for us for $200 plus the price of parts, so we’re looking at $500 TOPS instead of $1200!) and I was NOT about to let it hamper my trip enjoyment . . . no sir!
So anyways . . . on to IASW!
As you can see, it was 4:45pm when we were boarding our boat!
I was giggling over a couple of ducks that were just swimming along in the channels. As a boat would come along, they would swim out of the way then head back out into the main channel.
DUCKS!
. . . and the only pics of mine from inside that even came out halfway decent (aka NOT blurry beyond recognition. lol )
As we were disembarking our boat on IASW, Sophia the Hilton manager called Terri back and told her that in order to have the Crocs sent to us and have them arrive to the Disneyland Hotel by Sunday (mind you, this was Wednesday . . . and we were not even an HOUR down I-5 from the hotel) they would have to overnight them and that would cost $24. Otherwise, they could send them regular UPS or FedEx Ground to my house and it would only be $10. I just opted for them to be sent Ground and gave her my shipping information. The real interesting thing is that I was assured it would be $10 for Ground shipping . . . almost a week after I got home, the Crocs arrived (so roughly 2 weeks had passed since the Hilton was first contacted about shipping them to me) UPS Ground. Five days later, I noticed that there was a charge on my bank account for $23.90 from UPS. SO . . . despite being assured that it would only be $10 to ship them to my home, and after being told that the charge to overnight them would be $24, I was STILL charged $24 for shipping. SO they either charged me for 2nd Day Air or 3 Day Select then shipped it Ground or . . . I don’t know. The only “excuse” I could get out of UPS was that “sometimes even the ‘express’ packages get hung up. Sorry.” Harumph. I am just glad we got them back, that’s for sure!
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All of that business finally “figured out”, we headed into Toontown . . .
and straight to Roger Rabbit’s Car Toon Spin! Last time Miss Emilie rode this, she bawled like a baby in the queue and the CM ride operator gave her a flashlight to use during the ride. Not this time, I said! I promised her she wouldn’t need one and she went on with no problems! Our car wasn’t wanting to spin too easily though, so my arms got quite the workout!
Baby Herman with his newspaper and his “stogie”
After our spin (or nearly lack thereof . . . ) we walked through Toontown and headed back to Gadget’s Go Coaster. It is just about like Goofy’s Barnstormer at MK, especially in length of the ride, but I find Gadget’s Go Coaster just a bit more . . . dare I say . . . exciting.
Mickey’s house with the Toontown sign looming in the “hills” in the background
Minnie’s house
Gadget’s Go Coaster . . . as seen from the doorway to the load area!
We were all getting a little hungry by this point (and it was still a couple of hours to go before Terri’s dinner) so we headed into Frontierland and caught the very end of the show at the Diamond Horseshoe and had some food. Terri stayed downstairs and ordered for us while we headed upstairs to grab a table in the balcony area. It was the standard chicken strips and french fries for me for dinner but boy were they GOOD. They were crispy, hot and fresh! I believe Terri had the $9 chili in a bread bowl that was “so not worth $9”
After we had finished eating, we headed downstairs to find that we had been “locked” up there. I guess they didn’t check (thoroughly, anyways) to see if there were any other people upstairs before they put the ropes across the bottom of the steps. So, we had to go over the ropes to get out.
It was approaching the 7pm hour, so we headed over towards our earlier agreed upon meeting spot near IASW for the parade . . . we took the “long way” through Fantasyland, taking pics along the way:
We were there for just a few minutes before Karen, Eileen, Tina, Sharon and Janine arrived. We all pulled up a piece of the sidewalk and waited for the parade.
By now, you have all read Eileen’s report where she described my . . . um . . . reaction to the dancing fork’s costume. I mean . . . the guy is in these gold/silver tights and dancing right there and I looked up and it was like “OH! MY EYES!!!!!!!!!!!!!” I so could have done without SEEING that . . . then I get the teasings from everyone about how he was “jangling his junk” and . . . . ugh. Oh. Gawd. White asparagus.
AAAAAAANYWAYS . . .
Even though I was fairly traumatized by the dancing fork in tights, I was still able to enjoy the rest of the parade, though my camera battery was DEAD. So I got NO pictures of the parade that night. I do really love that parade though!
Our spot for the parade was right at its starting point near IASW, so the bulk of the crowds were still waiting for it on Main Street by the time it had passed us by . . . so we headed on into Tomorrowland to catch a couple of rides before everyone parted ways for the evening. First, we headed to Buzz Lightyear AstroBlasters . . .
. . . and then on to Space Mountain, where we sat behind Eileen. She thanked me after the ride was over for the noises I make on those kinds of rides. I believe you have seen the pics of the ride on Eileen’s report . . . a good time was had by all!
After our ride through Space, we all headed out of the park. It was about 8:30 and Tina and Terri were running a little late for their dinner with Liz at Steakhouse 55 at the DLH (formerly Granville’s Steakhouse) and Karen, Eileen, Sharon and Janine were headed to do a little shopping at World of Disney.
Emilie and I headed back to the room so that I could do some laundry (because if I didn’t we’d be wearing dirty clothes or buying all new ones for the rest of the week! ) As we entered the lobby of our building, we ran into Crystal and Doug, who were coming off of the elevator. They never did make it over to Knott’s that evening . . . instead they came back to their room and Doug napped while Crystal did their laundry and such.
They headed out and we went up to our room to grab the laundry and some quarters. The laundry room at the DLH is ridiculously small. 4 washers and 6 dryers or something for 3 fairly large buildings of rooms and it was CRAMPED in there. One of the dryers was broken . . . and if you didn’t watch your stuff closely, someone would gladly remove your clothes from the machine for you and leave them out, even if they were soaking wet out of the washer. It felt like I was back in the Navy living in the barracks again . . . that’s how it worked then too.
While we waited for our laundry to finish, we grabbed a Mickey bar and a drink from Croc’s Bits and Bites then wandered around the grounds of the DLH to waste some time. FINALLY, after what seemed like FOREVER, our laundry was done, so I loaded it up in my portable hamper and we headed back to the room. I started folding the clothes immediately and Emilie sat on the floor watching TV . . . I looked over after about 5 minutes and she was fast asleep, laying on the floor. She wasn’t happy with me either when I woke her up to throw her PJs on and put her in bed, but oh well. lol
It wasn’t too long before I was out myself. All in all, I would have to say, our first day in the parks at Disneyland turned out to be a GREAT one!
COMING UP NEXT: A lunch fit for a Princess . . . and the next best thing to a chiropractor at DCA.
Oh my goodness, I can't believe that last line - that really was your first day in the Disneyland parks? You packed so much in, it seemed like more than that! How annoying about the Crocs, but it sounds like you had a lot of fun that evening!
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Oh.... the parade comment had me and LOL so loud I scared the cats into another room. Sorry to hear after all that hassle about the crocs that you STILL was charged the $24.00... and I thought Miss Sophia had her act together (unlike some others at that Hilton...) Glad to hear the shoes did arrive though.
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the videos! And that party sure looked cool. Was Crystal the only adult celebrating her birthday? Hey, who DID win?
ºOº ~*~ 
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Dang it, I was JUST at DL for my birthday, too, and that sounds like something my DD and nieces would have loved! 
Oh well, thanks for the info about it. Now I now, and I have a plan for my next birthday! 
Looks like both birthday girls enjoyed it! Great pics and I watched the videos last night. Great updates Sarah!
, while Terri and I grabbed the one right behind them.
). After they headed out, Terri, Emilie and I headed over to ride Big Thunder Mountain Railroad . . . 
I believe Terri had the $9 chili in a bread bowl that was “so not worth $9” 
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Sorry about the charge for the crocs 
But sounds like you had a great day 
and LOL so loud I scared the cats into another room. Sorry to hear after all that hassle about the crocs that you STILL was charged the $24.00... and I thought Miss Sophia had her act together (unlike some others at that Hilton...) Glad to hear the shoes did arrive though.
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