Originally Posted By RoadTrip Day Three– Monday July 3 Our third day at Disneyland was probably little like I thought it would be, but was very enjoyable nonetheless. It started out as usual and then quickly turned to embarrassing. I got up earlier than the women in my life and headed for the DLH’s Coffee House for coffee, milk and pastries for our breakfast. Once back in the Marina Tower elevator I pushed the button for Floor 7 and the other person in the elevator pushed the button for Floor 6. One little problem… I got out on Floor 6. I walked to the location where our room is on Floor 7 and knocked on the door. My hands are full of breakfast for my family and I can’t get at my room card. So I knock and say “Rachie… its Dad… can you get the door?†A half minute passes and although I can hear the TV in the room no one comes to the door. So once again I knock and say “Rachie… my arms are full; can you please get the door?†Still no response. So now I’m a little irritated but at the same time concerned. Did they get up and turn on the TV and then go back to bed and fall asleep? Or were they being threatened at knife point by the Anaheim Pajama Slasher who had found his way to our hotel room? So I take out my key card and slide it in the slot. Red. I slide it in the slot again. Red. I look at the number on the door. 6XX and we were in 7XX. Oops… right door, wrong floor. Oh God. Now these poor innocent people in room 6XX figure they had the Anaheim Pajama Slasher knocking on THEIR door trying to get in. I quickly retreat to the elevator, go up a floor and knock on the door of room 7XX. I am very happy as my daughter opens the door and lets me in. We all eat breakfast and I try to decide what I am going to tell the DLH security if someone complains about the Anaheim Pajama Slasher trying to get into their room on the 6th floor. After breakfast I call the number that DlandDug left on my voice mail the previous evening. He ACTUALLY answers the phone!! I don’t’ tell him about my being the Anaheim Slasher or anything, and let him know that once again we have changed our dinner plans and WILL be keeping our 7:30 reservation at Hook’s Pointe. I arrange to meet Doug at the Lost Bar at the DLH at 6:30. I am very glad that we will get together and am so grateful that poohbear14 was able to get in touch with him. We will spend our last day at DCA, but will spend our time getting there with a leisurely stroll through Downtown Disney stopping at any shops that interest us. I am usually more commando than this but it is HOT and the air conditioned shops seem like a dandy place to be. We stop first in Starabilias… a great shop with movie/entertainment memorabilia. It is kind of like Sid Cahunga’s at the Disney Studios except with stuff that people actually want to buy. I say that with sadness because I LOVE Sid’s, but most stuff there just doesn’t seem to attract much attention. I enjoy looking at the guitars signed by rock stars, starting at $5,000 and going up from there. There are a few that were REALLY tempting and that I think would have been a good investment if I had been willing to put out the bucks but I wasn’t. I later learn about someone’s autographed guitar (a Beatle, Elvis, I forget) going for about $250,000 and wonder about my decision not to buy. At any rate, they have a great poster of Al Pacino shooting a machine gun in “Scareface†which we know our son will love. We arrange to have it framed and will pick it up later. Next we browse “Build-A-Bear Workshop†and “Department 56â€. Both places are wonderful places to window shop but we find nothing we want to buy except for my daughter, who finds a Christmas present for her boyfriend’s mom at “56â€. Our next stop is “Something Silverâ€. This shop has some very nice handmade silver jewelry and I realize it will cost me significant coin before we leave Anaheim. It really isn’t all that expensive though, so I let my wife browse for quite a while with the promise that she can shop as long as she wants on our way back from DCA. We are FINALLY on the road to DCA and I am happy when we arrive. Our first stop is the Hollywood Pictures Backlot where I want another trip through Monster’s Inc. I love this darkride and truly feel that it is one of Disney’s best. After this we head for another trip on Soarin’ which both the women in my life ended up loving after our last flight! Something I saw in the queue for Soarin’ rather disturbed me. Right ahead of us were a couple of girls who could not have been more than 16. One of them was dressed in a top that showed about as much of her breasts as would be legal to show. This girl also had very suggestive/explicit remarks written in magic marker on her jeans referring to various sexual acts. I mean I’m RoadTrip. I certainly don’t mind a stray flash of breast here and there in the parks. But to see a girl so young dressed like that really saddened me and made me wish that Disney enforced the standards of dress that they used to. Oh well… on to better things. Once again we all thoroughly enjoyed Soarin’, and I still consider it the single most FUN Disney ride. I also really appreciate the fact that people still tend to applaud at the end of this attraction. This used to be fairly common at Disney attractions, but people seem to have become jaded over the past 10 years and don’t do it as much anymore. After Soarin’ we head over to the Pacific Wharf Café and face the longest line we’ve experienced at Disneyland. We have our daughter secure a table in the shade for us while we stand in line for the food. Our wait was almost 45 minutes and this was at 1:15 in the afternoon!! At least DCA seems to have no problems attracting people to THIS place. My wife and daughter order the Apple-Walnut salad in a bread bowl and I order the Broccoli Cheese soup in a bread bowl. Both selections were wonderful and I can see why the Café draws so much business. After lunch I want to hit Paradise Pier, but neither my wife nor daughter does thrill type rides so they have no interest. I really enjoy 4 or 5 of the Paradise Pier attractions, but I am out-voted and go with the majority. On the way back towards the DCA entrance we stop off at the Golden Vine Winery to see “Seasons of the Vine†and enjoy a couple of glasses of wine. Other people were waiting with us for a showing of ‘Seasons†so we didn’t have to ask any one to see it. It SEEMED like the film was being regularly shown, but I have no way of verifying that. My daughter decided to go ahead to Engine-Ears Toys while my wife and I finished our wine. It is the Golden Vine Winery which first turned my wife and me in to wine aficionados (winos). We sit at a table and sip our wine while we think about what life was like before we were raging alcoholics. JUST KIDDING!! Our prior trip to DCA DID introduce us to wine and showed us an option to beer and margaritas which had pretty much dominated our alcohol consumption for years. After we finish our wine we catch up with our daughter at Engine-Ears Toys where she is holding a clinic on how to properly select and pack the various parts selected for a Mr. Potato Head. She had built a Potato Head for herself the other day and now she was building one for her boyfriend. Since she was clearly one of the more experienced spud builders in the place, kids of all ages were looking to her for guidance. That guidance seemed to primarily be “stuff as much stuff as you can in the spud’s butt†but she also answered many questions about what various pieces were and how they could be attached to the plastic potato. I think Disney should have given her commission. She probably single-handedly sold about $200 worth of plastic spud stuff. Even I got into the act and build a Mr. Potato Head that I am quite certain you all would be jealous of. After our adventures at Engine-Ears Toys my daughter heads back for the DLH while I ask my wife if she will do Monster’s Inc with me one more time. Of course being the best wife in the world she says yes and we are soon winding our way through Monstropolis. We had a bunch of fun and it was such a short wait (probably 5-7 minutes) that I ask if we can ride again. Of course being the best wife in the world she once again says yes and we are on our way to another Monster’s Inc. adventure. Until we get within sight of the loading area. Then the whole attraction goes dead. The lights and everything are still on, but everything related to the show… video screens, taxis, etc. are completely dead. The CM announces that they are having technical problems and that while we are free to stay they have no idea how long it will be until the ride is back on line. My wife an I decide to wait (of course at my urging) and it seems a good decision since in about 15 minutes the taxis are once again heading for Monstropolis. A cheer goes up from the crowd as the vehicles start moving but then we all wait and wait. I won’t say “Bad Show†like some of the insider folks here like to say, but I WILL SAY that we should have been given more information. Since we had to wait for a considerable e amount of time after the ride appeared to be working it would have been nice if someone announced something like “Although our taxis are once again touring Monstropolis we have to make sure they all return safely before sending you out on them. We expect that this will take about 20 minutes if the monsters don’t give us any troubleâ€. I expected the reset time because of my frequent experience with Test Track resets. Most people probably didn’t expect the delay though and should have been told something. We FINALLY make our second trip of the afternoon through Monstropolis and although I really wish we hadn’t experienced the delay I am still glad we waited for our second trip. I just love the sequence with the doors… it seems so much more complex than any other Disney dark ride I’ve experienced. We are now getting into the late afternoon and it is time for my wife and me to head back to the Disneyland Hotel. I will be going directly back to get ready for my much anticipate meet with DlandDug. My wife will be making the expected side-trip to “Something Silver†on the way back to the hotel as I expected. I just hope our American Express can stand the damage. I get back to our room, spend a few minutes freshening up and it is time to go look for Doug. As I get to the Lost Bar I take a wide circle looking for him but don’t find anyone looking like Doug. So I go take a seat in the Lost bar and order a Mai Tai. While I’m slowly drinking my Mai Tai I look to my right and there is a guy that looks like Doug with a rather handsome boy at a table eating burgers. I walk over to the table and say “Hi… I’m RoadTrip… are you Doug?†He said that he was and I promised that once I had settled my financial obligation with my waitress at the Lost Bar I would be right back. I’m soon at the table with Doug and his step-son and we are having a good time talking about LOTS of stuff. Doug senses that a WE conversation might be coming up so he gives his stepson (I’m sorry… I don’t remember his name) about a million dollars in change and points him towards the remote control boats. We talk about all kinds of good WE stuff and of course decided that we can be good LP friends even if we are on opposite sides of some issues. We even talked about Beaumandy a bit, who Doug had previously met. Doug indicated that he’d had a good time with Beau, but that if I gave away any of the secrets about Beau that he told me about he’d have to kill me; so of course I won’t’. ;-) Soon my lovely wife and daughter walked up and the conversation soon changed to HOLLYWOOD!! My wife is a major fan of the STARS and has always wanted to check out Hollywood. I had always kind of dumped on the idea and said that I couldn’t imagine Hollywood being any fun. Doug said I was WAY WRONG and that Hollywood had really become a great place to visit over the last few years. My wife LOVED everything Doug said and confirmed that the next time we are in So Cal we will definitely ask Doug for his World Famous tour of the Hollywood Stars. I’m not kidding here… both my wife and daughter saw this as a highlight of the trip and are looking forward to our next trip to Anaheim. We are now 5 minutes or so past our reservation time for Hook’s Pointe, and we need to go. We all had a great time with DlandDug and I thank him for making time for us. We had another great meal at Hook’s. Although I don’t like my chicken dish nearly as well as I liked my sea bass dish from the night before. Every Hook’s entry I’ve tried has been very good, although it is the seafood entrées that have truly been GREAT! All too soon our dinner is done, and we go back to our room for our last evening at the Disneyland Hotel. We hate to be leaving, but we also know that we have seen what we really wanted to see and immensely enjoyed our trip. Although we may have wanted to see a little more in cooler weather, considering the weather we experienced we thought we did very well. I had originally intended to end my trip report on our last full day – Day 3. But there were a few experiences on Day 4 that were rather interesting, so if I am up to it I may write a brief report on Day 4 next weekend. If not, consider this trip report complete and I hope you enjoyed it. We LOVED our quick trip to Disneyland, and think it is without a doubt the finest Disney Park in many ways.
Originally Posted By Dabob2 I enjoyed it too. About the Beau secrets - let me guess. He's actually a liberal, and just posts the way he does to make conservatives look silly. j/k Too funny about the "slasher" stuff. I bet you were just hoping like crazy the 6th floor room door didn't open before you got your elevator.
Originally Posted By BlueDevilSF And here I thought you were gonna say that you and Mrs. Trippy pretended you were teenagers parking on a date night while stranded on the ride. ;-)
Originally Posted By amazedncal2 You write great trip reports Trippy You HAD to bring up the apple-walnut chicken salad in a breadbowl.........now I REALLY want to go back, I tried to make a mock up of it at home and it just didn't work. I'm glad that the DLH security never caught up with you OR, is that what was interesting about day 4? Inquiring minds want to know.
Originally Posted By DlandDug Don't know why it took me so long to find this. My handsome stepson is Cameron. He can't wait until he is old enough to post here on LP (he's 11 right now). You may have seen some photos he took in one of the DLR Updates on the site. I try to meet as many members of the LP Community as possible-- even that crowd over at WE. Of the regulars there, I have met Kar2oonMan, Beaumandy, WilliamK99, gadzuux, cmpaley, DarkBeer, superdry, alexbook, and now RoadTrip. (If I left anyone off this list, my apologies.) It really does give you a different perspective on someone's posts after you've met them in the real world (ar at least at Disneyland!). Great trip reports, Trippy. See you on the other side of the fence over at WE!
Originally Posted By BlueDevilSF ^^^ Dug, I will be there next month from 10/5-9. It would be nice to meet you in person, if you are able to show up. I've called for people to come to the Cove Bar on Saturday the 7th around 5-ish.
Originally Posted By Inspector 57 Thanks for these reports, Trippy. I'm really glad the trip was so good for the three of you!
Originally Posted By RoadTrip <<Thanks for these reports, Trippy. I'm really glad the trip was so good for the three of you!>> Thanks Inspector for bringing this report back to the top again. I just re-read all my DL reports and the responses to them, and I have the biggest danged grin on my face you've ever seen. I've discovered that when you write trip reports it is not a totally selfless act providing amusement for fellow LP'ers. It is probably the most wonderful memory of the trip you will ever have. I had already forgotten some of the really cool things I had detailed in my trip reports. I am going to print them out and start keeping a notebook of trip reports. Write trip reports folks. I truly wish I had trip reports on every Disney trip I’ve taken. There are special moments in every trip that are so easy to forget as time passes. Take the time to write a report and you will make a memory that is never forgotten.
Originally Posted By TALL Disney Guy Trippy, I echo your sentiments 110%. I re-read my Big Meet-DL report on the "anniversary" of it from 2 years ago (the days around July 17th), and I'm so glad I kept notes and immortalized so many wonderful memories from one of the best weeks of my life. It's a great exercise for everyone to do.
