DisneyWHAT?? - oh, DisneyLAND - 3/16-20 - COMPLETE!!
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PrincessSharon · 03-21-2006, 03:56 PM

Great start, Eileen! I'm really looking forward to this TR! Hurry back with more, please! [img]/ubb/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img]

buzzspal2 · 03-21-2006, 04:16 PM

Welcome home We are looking forward to hearing all about it [img]/ubb/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

**chezp** · 03-21-2006, 04:43 PM

Welcome back! [img]/ubb/images/graemlins/zwavin.gif[/img] I can't wait to hear all about your trip! [img]/ubb/images/graemlins/waytogo.gif[/img]

**DrDolphin** · 03-21-2006, 06:30 PM

I can't wait to read the trip report!!!

**Caldercup** · 03-21-2006, 10:56 PM

DisneyWHAT?? Oh, DisneyLAND (or, A Little Divine Intervention)

Our Party: 
Me (Eileen), 39, complete Disneyphile, 1st trip to DLR
DS (Calder, also called CJ), 10, all-around-great-kid and Disney World addict, 1st trip to DLR
DH (Bob), 40, award-winning ride designer, 1st trip to DLR
Karen, bi-coastal Disneyphile, wonderful Disneyland tour-giver
Zack, 12, son of Karen and total Legomaniac!

The final preparations

I was so busy working on a big presentation that my husband has to give a few days after we return from this Disneyland trip that I barely spent time prepping to get us ready to leave. I stopped at a bookstore and snagged the Birnbaum book on Tuesday (but I never even cracked it before we got on the plane!) Thank goodness Karen was coming along – it really helped ease my fears, knowing that I had a pro at my back. [img]/ubb/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img]

Even though I tried to leave work early Wednesday, I got stuck until the very last minute, so I was in a complete panic trying to get ready the night before we left. I was madly running around finishing our packing while simultaneously checking PMs from Karen and working on rhymes for the treasure hunt she organized. At midnight, I was bushed, but I composed a silly poem for my darling friend about how much I was looking forward to this trip. (Now that I’ve read it again, I can honestly say it was terrible!) I went to bed, still thinking in rhyming couplets!

Thursday, March 16, 2006

My alarm was set for 6AM, but I came fully awake at 5AM, despite having gone to sleep after midnight. Oh well! It’d make me all the more sleepy for the plane. I got up and snuggled under blankets in front of the downstairs TV while the house heated up in anticipation of 6AM showers.

Just when I knew the alarm would go off in our bedroom, I climbed the stairs and started getting ready. By 6:20, Calder was awake – he was too excited to sleep – even though his alarm wasn’t set to go off until 6:45. Bob popped in the shower as we finished up and got the beds made. By 7AM, we had everything in the car and gave the dogs a final pat on the head. As soon as I hit the car, I realized that I’d left the all-important directions Karen had sent to get us from LAX to our hotel. I dashed back in the house to find myself excitedly greeted by the dogs – who’d obviously missed me in the two minutes I’d been gone. I ran all over the place before I realized that I’d packed them in my suitcase by mistake. The dogs got another pat as I dashed back out to the car. It was a chilly 35 degrees.

Even though there’s been some bad construction on our route to the airport, we didn’t get stopped by anything. I’d thought to pack a bag of juices and muffins, so we enjoyed them as we drove down. Bob dropped me off at check-in while he took the minivan to long-term parking. I got to try United’s kiosk check-in and did pretty well. There was one minor glitch when I had to pick out Calder’s E-ticket voucher number from the gazillion numbers on the print-out. But, we checked in all three suitcases in record time. Then we sat down to wait for Bob to come through the doors behind us.

When he came down the escalators in front of us, I knew something had gone wrong. Oh, no! The entire long-term parking lot was full and he was sent to the parking garage. Well, thank goodness his company would pick up that tab since it would be twice what long-term would cost.

He got through the “non-bag” kiosk pretty quickly – although there was another Robert Lloyd traveling to LAX that confused the machine. Eventually, it was worked out and we headed up to security. There was almost no line, so we got through that pretty quickly too.

I wanted to try to clear up a problem with our return flight, but the gate agent was unable to assign us new seats (Calder and I both had window seats on opposite sides of row 17! He wouldn’t like that – being so far from Mom for that long flight.) She told me that I’d have a better chance of taking care of it the day I returned and that she couldn’t imagine someone not being willing to take Calder’s window seat over a middle seat next to me. Well… we’ll see!

We’d gotten to the airport with plenty of time to spare, so we had a chance to finish our juice and muffins before they boarded us. We got ourselves settled and I tried to fall asleep before take-off. I think I would’ve succeeded if they hadn’t announced that the in-flight movie would be Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. Oooooh, I love that movie! We got in the air about 20 minutes late and they didn’t think they could make up ALL of the time, but they’d try.

That’s when I noticed it…. Man, …what was that smell? Yuck – it was perfume. Cheap perfume. Dime store perfume and it was drilling a hole in my sinuses. Egad! Who buys this crap?! It smelled like citrus that had sat in the sun too long. And it was the woman in front of me. And she had it in her hair – hair that she flipped and twirled and played with the whole flight. It made it impossible to sleep! When they offered me water for the tenth time over Colorado, I wanted to pour it on her head, just to mitigate that stench!

I tried to occupy my mind with the Goblet of Fire and the movie managed to keep me from drenching Citrus Girl.

I decided that maybe I’d like to try one of the breakfast boxes. I was excited to see that they had a wedge of blue cheese in it. I actually held this up to my nose – the smell of “feet” was better than Citrus Girl.

About four hours into the flight, I knew I’d have to face the excruciatingly small bathroom. I took the opportunity (or should I say “challenge”) when Calder asked DH to let him out of the row. We walked to the back and I stretched my legs and back while we waited for the bathroom to be free. Calder went in first and then it was my turn. Good God. How was I to manage this thing? – it was no bigger than a Kleenex box. Plus, it’s cold. I can’t pee when it’s cold. After a few minutes, I managed to complete my business and wash up. I was never so happy to open a door. I would rather dehydrate by not drinking than face another airplane bathroom!

Our entire family pulled out our iPods and settled in for the last few hours of the trip. I think I even managed to sleep. That is, until Citrus Girl decided to re-apply. Ugh…

Finally, at 12:05, I was released from Perfume Hell and we got to baggage claim pretty quickly. For an enormous airport, LAX was extremely efficient with the luggage. We had our bags by 12:30 and we were walking out to the rental car shuttle in record time. (PHL can’t do this in 45 minutes!!)

We got to National and Bob checked in. I saw him laughing and he turned around to wave Karen’s driving directions in the air. He loved how much detail she put into it (including facts about how the movie Speed was filmed on one of the highways we’d be taking.)

I called Karen and told her to expect some teasing from Bob! She was excited that we'd arrived and was counting the minutes until she could pick up Zack at school and head down the coast to Anaheim!

[Up next: Lunch, tickets, and California}

**chezp** · 03-22-2006, 02:03 AM

Eileen, I am SO with your comment about airplane bathrooms. [img]/ubb/images/graemlins/roflmao.gif[/img] I always manage to avoid them on our nine and a half hour flight to Orlando, but I think with something like a 13 hour flight to Vegas next month, I think I'll have to give in. [img]/ubb/images/graemlins/frown.gif[/img]

I don't know how you kept quiet with Citrus Girl - I think I would've lost it, having to put up with that stench. [img]/ubb/images/graemlins/082502yes_prv.gif[/img]

I just hope the rest of your vacation is a lot better than the flight out there. [img]/ubb/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

**Colexis Mom** · 03-22-2006, 06:23 AM

Great start Eileen [img]/ubb/images/graemlins/zwavin.gif[/img] Glad you survived the flight and perfume girl [img]/ubb/images/graemlins/rolleyes.gif[/img]

Can't wait for more [img]/ubb/images/graemlins/laugh.gif[/img]

lauren-roxy · 03-22-2006, 10:59 AM

Great start Eileen!!! Sorry for the nasty perfume. Can't wait to read more!!!!

DawnDenise · 03-22-2006, 11:08 AM

Airplane bathrooms and I do not get along at all but I think mine is more a strange phobia! [img]/ubb/images/graemlins/eek.gif[/img] Sorry about the perfume lady and then having to deal with the reapplying.

Looking forward to more!!

zacksmom_1993 · 03-22-2006, 11:47 AM

[ QUOTE ]
Airplane bathrooms and I do not get along at all but I think mine is more a strange phobia!

[/ QUOTE ]

Do you have that fear abour your innards being sucked out at 30,000 feet too? Oh, that's just me? [img]/ubb/images/graemlins/ukid.gif[/img] [img]/ubb/images/graemlins/blush.gif[/img]

Eileen, I'm still chuckling over my dorkdum in those driving instructions. They were SO DETAILED. Now, when we're driving Zack will say things like, "Just past that driveway you should see a small crack in the sidewalk, a ladybug has set up residence inside there, count to 12 in Japanese and make a right turn when you are finished." [img]/ubb/images/graemlins/rolleyes.gif[/img] Not far from the truth though sadly. What can I say? I was excited to see the Lloyd fam and I didn't want anything to happen to them in LA traffic! [img]/ubb/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img] Can't wait for more!

**Caldercup** · 03-22-2006, 12:14 PM

I wish it was a fear of getting sucked out at 30,000 feet - I can't even fit in the room, let alone fit down the pipes! [img]/ubb/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img]

More in a minute!
Eileen

PrincessSharon · 03-22-2006, 12:36 PM

Great update, Eileen! Glad you survived Citrus Girl. I take the train to work every day, so I so know the feeling.

Too funny about Karen's super-detailed directions! [img]/ubb/images/graemlins/roflmao.gif[/img] Looking forward to more, please!

**Caldercup** · 03-22-2006, 01:14 PM

Well – as much teasing as Karen took over her detailed directions, they were the BEST directions and got us to our destination without any wasted effort or loss of time. We silly Lloyds got distracted at one point and made a turn where no turn should’ve been made (not Karen’s fault!), but we looped around and found our hotel in seconds.

I have to say that it was amazing how well the parks are disguised from the road – even though we were on a street that abuts the parks, you could barely see through the visual breaks and trees they had implemented. (Quite brilliant from a design point of view!)

Bob was starved and I was getting cranky from lack of caffeine and liquids. Calder – who doesn’t eat enough to sustain the ladybug in Karen’s sidewalk – wasn’t hungry [img]/ubb/images/graemlins/crazy.gif[/img] We pulled into our hotel’s parking lot and made a bee-line for the Millie’s restaurant. Bob was salivating at all the options for items with avocadoes. He loves avocadoes and I think it’s the one thing that would make him move to California! I got a turkey and avocado croissant sandwich and he got burger with avocado and onion rings. Calder was strong-armed into ordering mac and cheese and did a fair job of eating it. (Normally, I don’t insist he eat on vacation, but he hadn’t had anything since we took off from Philadelphia over 8 hours before – he SHOULD’VE been hungry [img]/ubb/images/graemlins/crazy.gif[/img] ) We all drank a ton of sodas and I even took an Aleve to get rid of my headache. The food was terrific and the service even better.

We tried to check in, but our rooms wouldn’t be ready for another half hour and Bob didn’t want to wait. Luckily, I had my touring bag on me and I had our confirmation numbers for our Will Call tickets. We walked down the road (past all of the hotels that line this area across from the park) and got to the light just as it turned red. <sigh> It’s a loooooong light! <shrug> Oh, well… the weather was perfect – blue skies with white balls of fluffy clouds. It was cool and comfortable and I was loving all the sunshine. It was about 2:30PM and the sun was nice and bright.

We crossed the road and headed into DISNEY PROPERTY! [img]/ubb/images/graemlins/thewave.gif[/img] We walked through security and past the ticket windows. I was too anxious to see everything, so I kept walking until I could see the California Adventure (DCA) and Disneyland entrances – I clapped my hands like a little girl and Bob took a picture of my excitement!

[What a nut!]

Then we turned back to the #4 Will Call window. It was a painless procedure, but the CM stumped me when she gave a warning that they would not replace these tickets if I lost them. “Not even if I have the confirmation number?” I was so surprised that I know my voice squeaked! Nope… [img]/ubb/images/graemlins/082502no_prv.gif[/img] (Man, that really worried me – not that I’ve ever lost my WDW tickets or APs, but I felt sure that… now… I WOULD lose them…)

[I look terrified here!]

Gulp…

Tickets in hand, we looked at each other a moment. My heart was telling me to go into Disneyland, but I had this dream of letting Karen show me “her” Magic Kingdom. Bob and Calder were willing to wait for their Main Street fix, so we went left towards DCA.

[Calder and his letter]

We got through the turnstiles (which don’t have biometric scanners!) and walked under the Golden Gate bridge just as a monorail went overhead. [img]/ubb/images/graemlins/cool.gif[/img]

Then I realized that Calder and Bob were looking at me for directions. Then I realized that I had ABSOLUTELY NO IDEA what to do in this park. I told you, I hadn’t even cracked the Birnbaum book until the airplane – and then Calder took it out of my hands.

Yikes… I felt like a “regular” tourist [img]/ubb/images/graemlins/foreheadslap.gif[/img] I backtracked to grab a park map – God knows when was the last time I needed one of those at WDW!

I realized that Soarin’ was right around the corner, so we headed that way into an area called the “Golden State.” The theming for the building exteriors was like that of 1940’s aviation hangars. The stand-by line was 60 minutes and Calder just will not put up with waits like that [img]/ubb/images/graemlins/082502no_prv.gif[/img] (he’s soooo spoiled after having gone in WDW’s off-season for so many trips!) The FPs were not until 7:25-8PM, but we decided to grab them anyway. Then we continued along the path and found the Grizzly Peak Recreation Area.

Wow – was this place terrific!! It's a big exploration trail with all kinds of climbing and sliding and walking paths that totally appealed to all of us, especially Calder!

He loved all the “redwood” trees and played on the slides and the tunnels.

Bob and I "collect" the signs for the castmembers - I love when they're themed for their area:

At one point, he found this large log that we all walked through – well, Bob had to bend in half to fit through it and even I had to duck down. There was a “skylight” in the middle and I grabbed this pic of my boys.

[Pop goes my weasels!]

Calder wanted to try the Grizzly River Run raft ride (think Kali RR on steroids!), but people were coming off drenched and there was a nip in the air. I opened my bag for ponchos and realized that they were still in my luggage! Oh well, we’d save it for another day.

We wondered over towards the “Paradise Pier” area and Bob caught me looking very lost. (Actually, Calder and I were having a heated discussion over whether he’d like rides that flipped him upside-down… like California Screamin’… but he was having none of it and I was getting exasperated!)

[It looks like I’m lost, but I’m not!]

I remembered that this is a good photo op spot:

We continued on into Paradise Pier because Calder liked the looks of the Sun Wheel – a big Ferris wheel where the cars actually slide along rails.

He dared me to go on it because he knows I can’t stand heights and he wanted to prove that sometimes your fears overcome your desire to try something. Well… I can’t let a dare like that go unopposed. So, we got in line. Calder gulped – I don’t think he wanted to ride it either, but now he couldn’t back out without losing face. Bob tried to crack us up by taking crazy pictures.

When we go on things like this, I usually try to balance my Pooh-sized weight by putting Calder and Bob across from me. Not this time – the CM put us into a “basket” with two very thin Australians and the three Lloyds on the other side. Not a good idea! As the basket moves around the wheel, it eventually gets to a point where it slides down the rail and starts to swing. If the basket has a lopsided load, it REALLY swings. Bob and the other gent started joking about getting this thing really going, and I totally panicked – I grabbed both sides of the car and tried to pretend that I wasn’t screaming inside.

[Do I look happy? I'M NOT!!]

By the time we got off this thing, I was totally woozy. We passed by the Maliboomer – a Dr. Doom/Frog Jump type of rocket-up-and-down-a-big-pole kind of ride. Calder loves these on the boardwalk on the Jersey Shore, but this one was waaaay tall and he tried to tell us that it looked “lame,” but we knew he was compensating.

That’s when Bob saw the Orange Stinger – it’s a spinning swing ride housed inside a large “orange peel.” Well, with my husband, there’s no such thing as a bad pun… so, with lots of “that looks a-‘peel’-ing” comments, he and Calder went on, while I pulled up a bench to regain my equilibrium. When they got off, I couldn’t resist – “Orange ya glad you tried that?” Bob said it was “a slice of heaven” and Calder said it was “the pits.” “Pithy,” I said, “your puns are very pithy!” (Yeah, we love bad puns!)

[Swinger]

I called Karen to see where they were and she was flying down the highway towards us - anxious to get to DLR as quickly as possible. She was appreciative that we'd held off on going into Disneyland until she got there.

Calder discovered a little squirting ship and went to play on the SS Rustworthy while I finished up my call.

[Squirt!]

Then I saw the sunglasses place and I realized that I'd forgotten to get some for Calder. It took him a long time to pick out a pair he'd like, but I'm glad I got them - it was quite bright(when it was sunny) during the trip and he appreciated them a great deal.

[Calder's wearing Bob's glasses for effect!]

That’s when I noticed the cloud above my head – gnats. Why’d it have to be gnats? These buggers followed me all over the park, about a foot above my head. I felt like Pigpen from the Peanuts. I looked around and realized that there was a little cloud above about a third of the heads in the crowd. Maybe it was a hairspray thing – since I cut off all my hair, I’ve started using hairspray again… Sheesh!

Oh, well, if you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em. We headed over to A Bug’s Land to see what we could see… my little retinue of bugs following me all the way.

[Next up: we fall in love with the theming of the place…]

rileysmommy · 03-22-2006, 02:50 PM

[img]/ubb/images/graemlins/rofl2.gif[/img] I'm loving your trip report so far!

**chezp** · 03-22-2006, 03:29 PM

Great update - and I just love your photos, especially the ones of the theming in the Grizzly Park Recreation Area, you on the Sun Wheel, waiting for the Sun Wheel - all of them in fact! [img]/ubb/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img] That one on the Stinger is awesome though - who took that? The effect on it is excellent. [img]/ubb/images/graemlins/waytogo.gif[/img]