OCnative1964's 3-29 & 3-30 Report

[ocnative1964]

Day 1 leaving Portland, 3-28

Arrive at airport at 6:15 pm, flight leaves at 7:40. 4 minute walk to Security line, 3 lanes available with no one in line, and we get in line behind the one person in N. America that needs step by step instructions on how to get through security. We walk around them to one of the empty lines.

Start the process of undressing, throw backpack on belt, including video camera, oops, apparently this is the newest trick of the Hijackers, to bring down a plane, as I am instantly whisked away to the strip search area. This nice man from the TSA proceeds to remove everything from my backpack, digital camera, cellphone, 2 lbs of trail mix, suduko book, and finally the video camera, then the swabbing starts. They swab everything in sight, they swab then hang the swab cloth out, then get a new one and keep swabbing. I didn’t see any test results, but I assume I passed the swab test. So then after the swabbing of 2 camera’s the cell phone etc, he crams everything back into the backpack, except the video camera, and run the back pack through the xray machine again, as I stand there holding the video camera. Which was supposed the be the issue to start with???

Funny thing is they never even say my Ipod that was in the front pouch, never swabbed it, I suppose this will be the next thing the terrorists will use.

Then its off to Dinner, GUSTOV’S fine German dining, you can upgrade your beer for $1, or your alcohol drink for $2. Dinner comes off without a hitch, but I always marvel at how they wont allow me to bring my 1.5 inch swiss army pocket knife on board, yet they will serve me dinner with metal knives forks and fondue skewers. Another thing to ponder.

I think the reason they want you to the airport early is to spend money there, we spent $45 on dinner and $20 on tips for the bags, before we even got on the plane.

Little did we know that our plane had already boarded, we were sitting in a half empty terminal expecting to wait half an hour, and I hear a page for me, (thinking this was another security issue, I approach the kiosk and she says oh good you are here, we are loaded and ready to go!!! OOPs.

We get to the SNA airport and round up our bags, our supper shuttle is either not there or left early, rather than wait around, start asking the shuttle pimps who can get us there, $40 to wait a bit and take a shared van, or $47 to leave in one minute with our own van. So money bags pays the $7 for the faster trip… as we pull out I see the super shuttle people.

Get to the Disneyland Hotel about 11:00 pm, go to check in. Everything is ready to go, we head up to the room, 11th floor, North side, Marina building, a fabulous view of the parking structure, and if you open the door and hang out to the east a decent view of DL, including, MH, Splash, Castle, SM etc. Supposedly the fireworks, but we were not there at that time.
Room is nice comfy, and actually pretty large. We are all dead tired and by midnight we are ALL out…

[ocnative1964]

Day 2: 3-29

The kids are up early, not surprising as the usually are, but kids and 6 hours sleep, not a good combo.

We all get up, and get ready. We are ready by about 7:30, and we head out to look for food, as the hotel room service prices are astronomical. We wanted to hit the restaurant next to the pool, but not open, they recommend goofy’s kitchen, at $400, we keep looking. We end up at the La Brea Bakery, they open at 8 am. the only seating was outside, luckily the heaters were on as it was a bit chilly, after walking to the restrooms (through security) about 3 times, we finally eat. The food was good, cost about $39 with tax, 44 with tip.

Then its off to pick a line to get in the park. They were about half way out the esplanade. We get about to the front and notice strollers, thinking that is odd, we ask someone and sure enough they not sell the strollers OUTSIDE the park, so the kids and mom get in as I run to get a stroller, and of course I have to wait in line again….

Finally get inside together and YEAH we are at Disneyland. First thing the kids want to ride the astro-Orbiter, I head for SM FP’s I get back before they get on. 20 min stgandby.
Both kids love this ride, Take a couple photos, then decide to try Astro-Blasters, the queue is great, and the ride is fun, the 7 year old got 1600 points, I got 81000 and the 3 year old screamed and cried… bummer, he’s a sensitive little guy. Too loud and crazy for him.

Then the 7 year old and I go to ride Space, to be honest the Queue was nothing special. And the loading area was not too much different than before. The best part was NO BRIGHT ORANGE ORB… we sat in the front and the 7 year old loved it.

Then it was over to DCA for the little guy to have some fun. Of course flicks fun fair… the lines into DCA pretty long, took maybe 15 minutes. Surprised by that,

Got to Bugs land, Rode the chew chew, rode the flyers and rode the lady bug boogie. Played in the leaky faucet. Got FP for TOT, Monsters was a 40+ minute wait, TOT was 20. The kids played in the forest play land while I got fast passes.

Lunch, went to Taste Pilots. We got there minutes before the hugh rush and got thru the line pretty quickly. The food was low average(cheesburger) but the wife liked her chicken popper salad. And the kids liked the smiley fries.

NAP time.
The kids and MOM was ready to nap, got to the hotel at 2pm. And I was free till 5PM.

The rental car folks picked me up at exactly 2pm, and I was out of there with a minivan in about 30 minutes, and back to the hotel, parked the van and back for fun.
Tried to get a reservation for rainforest Café, cant get one, but we can seat you in 5 minutes. Will try back later.
I took the monorail back into DL. They were doing a test and gave me a ticket to time the next train, it only took 5 minutes, I got to ride in the back cone (which was the front as they are only going one way back and forth to TL) I got in the park and had to figure out what to do in now 2 hours) the park was a bit crowded, it had rained heavily the day before and people made up for it today (Wednesday). I decided to ride the Matterhorn, TL side. Wait was about 25 minutes, got front car so I videotaped it. Really fun, I think that side is smoother. From here I decided to head for NOS & see what the lines were like, HM had a 15 minute line, why not, got in line 2 lanes open, everyone in the left side, I go right, about half way in I think this cant be right, I don’t want to cut, maybe its FP, wait there is none, its just the goofy guests, I got on the very next elevator, wait time 2 minutes. The ride was great, I haven’t been on the standard ride for 10+ years. Still great.
Then went to see how the line for splash was, 72 minutes, on a Wednesday. Then I thought, isn’t there a single rider line available? Sure enough, a 70 minute line down to maybe 5 minutes, I was the only one there. Then I thought I’d better see about TOT.
as I may not have time with the kids around.
Stopped for a dole whip on the way.
The line into DCA at 4pm was still about 15 minutes.
Got to TOT and with FP got in the library in about 1 minute, and thru the boiler room in about 10.
This ride was AWESOME, my first thought was that it was better than Indy, the effects are so good its incredible. Unbelievable, the way the sight, sound and mind play tricks on you at the same time(just like the T-zone) it just goes together so so well.

Anyhow now its time to head back to get the family, stop at Rainforest at 5pm and ask about a 6:15 time slot, says the wait is half an hour, I finally got her to put more people in front of me, and get the 6:15 time slot.
It was fun and the kids liked it, but the 3 year old didn’t like the thunder etc… he didn’t mind at 11 months, go figure…

Went back into the park on the monorail and again got the front(rear cone) the 3 yearold loved it, he’s a train freak. Got off the monorail and got a new stroller at the Starcade, and it was off to NOS. took everyone on HM, about a 10 minute wait, everyone liked it, the 3 year old didn’t have a heart attack!!!

Then over to Critter Country, Pooh broke down. MOM and the 7 year old rose splash, she liked it OK but didn’t want to go again with me? I went single rider.

Then it was back toward the hub to see the fireworks, I had wanted to get front center spot on the way through after dinner, and it was available, but the wife wanted to do stuff. But we still got a decent spot off to the left side of the hub, right by the adventure land entrance, the view was great except the main fireworks were off center of the castle.

What a Great show. Feeling the heat of the indy flames from 100 yards away, WOW, what can you say, glad I got to see it, as good as video is, it’s the best in person.

After the Fireworks mom and the 3 year old went back to the hotel, and the 7 year old got to pick one last attraction, she picked HM. Did that then back to the hotel.

[ocnative1964]

Day 3, Thursday, early entry…3-30

Went for early entry. This is the greatest thing offered besides fast pass. We decided to use early entry for Breakfast. At the Plaza inn, Minnies character breakfast. The beauty of this before the park opens is your kids will have uninterrupted character interaction. There were maybe 1000 people for the 8 am rope drop. Of them only about 5 families were there for the breakfast, there were actually more characters than kids. Minnie, Chip & Dale, Hook, Pooh, Eyore, Tigger, and cinderella’s Fairy god mother… the characters come multiple times to each table as they otherwise would be talking to each other. It was great and we had a plenty of time for some great photos etc. if you get a chance do this. And the food was very good, it was $77 for 4 of us, but so much better than the previous morning that it was worth the extra $30.

After breakfast it was about 8:55, we headed for Fantasy land, and hit the carousel first, then took photos with the sword. Then did Mr Toad. By now its 9:20, I am getting antsy for FP’s, the wife wants to take the kids on the storybook canal boats, and I see my chance, and head for BTMRR, as she is to ride the boats, then Alice, and meet up after that. I come back in about 8 minutes and they are outside. I thought it was quick… asked how it was, reply is, didn’t want to wait in the long line. So we just waited for you. I was horrified, its 9:30 on a Thursday and you don’t want to wait in lines??? What will it be like at noon??? One of the kids calls restroom break, so we head for the one between Matterhorn and Alice. While she is in the restroom, I keep telling the 3 year old how cool the Matterhorn is, and point out the "Trains" as they go by… He is convinced it’s a cool train ride. The wife gets back and I announce intentions for the matterhorn, she protests that the line is too long, again its not even 10Am yet. I say screw it, and take the boy on the matterhorn. The line is about 20 minutes. We get in our "train" and all is good. Until the DARK hill that is. The crying and screaming begins. As if that wasn’t bad enough, then he gets a look at the red eyes, and hears the growl of the A-snowman, and that throws him over the edge…I finally calm him down once he can see a bit, but each time the snowman comes back he has a royal cow…He didn’t really cry, more just frightened, but at the end I did get him to High 5 for this accomplishment. He was happy about it, but certainly didn’t want to go again. Unfortunately the 7 year old girl that is well tall enough to do anything, was timid as well… frustrating.

Once the train ride was over it was off to Jungle cruise.

On the way heading past the oasis(what is that place anyhow???) who do we pass but CM Matt…. I stop, instinctively pull out my camera, circle around, step in front of him and snap the perfect picture…

I then step up the the shocked MattO and put out my hand to shake his and I say Hello Matt! He says Oh hello, how do you know who I am. I tell him that I have read quite a bit about him on the internet, and that I know who he is. Then he goes into super cool guest relations mode. His first thing is, Whats your name? WOW … Dave. Where are you from Dave? We are from Portland. Oh that’s great, welcome. Then he introduces the other guy CM Scott, this is Scott from Florida, he’s out here to help us with a few things. Then he tells me how he really enjoys his job, and how the other day he was walking through the empty battle scene in Pirates, no water and how awesome it is to be in there. I then mention that I think its great that they brought Pixar in for the partnership, he then says, actually Jon Lassater eas Just out 2 weeks ago working on some things, and that they have a fantastic relationship, and have been friends for a long time.
By now its been about 5 minutes and I figure the wife is wondering what the heck Im up to this time, so I reach out touch his shoulder and say, well Matt, Im sure you have business to attend to, so I will let you guys go. It was nice meeting you. He replied and ended with, "will you be coming back to the parks"….

In talking to him I felt that he has a great love of what he is doing, and the parks themselves, not to mention the guests, he was Very friendly, and never acted like he had something better to do than talk to me. It was a pleasure to talk to him. If you get a chance I recommend it…

My wife though showed how dumb I was by asking If I got my picture with him… Oh crap. And the guy from florida could have taken it… oh well, next time.

We then took the jungle cruise, it was about 10:30 and they just opened the upstairs queue, about a 15 minute wait, lots of fun, the new effects were great… the guns and dynamite is great, and the Piranha are plentiful but fun…

Then we met up with family, our party gore from 4-14. By now its getting pretty crowded, so we decide to use our FP’s for Indy and BTMRR, after riding Indy again after TOT, I think overall they are both great and in different ways. TOT is seamless effects, Indy is just plain AWESOME…

Then its off to DCA. Again the wait into DCA is about 25 min, longer than the day before.

The kids and moms go to Bugs land, as the dads got get FP’s.

After 2 rides in FFF, its time to move, due to the short Standby we head over to TOT. about 20 minutes, Monsters still 40+ minutes (as it was ALL day, we never rode it…) from TOT we headed to redwood creek for the kids. Then we did GRR, what a great Ride, I could never get tired of it. Rode in a Tshirt, and stayed partly Dry, all the kids had ponchos.

Then we had lunch at taste pilots again, this time the line was horrible, 2:00 PM. This time I got the BBQ chicken sandwhich. It was OK. After about an hour its off to screaming. We have 6 fast passes for 8 riders, it was great. Then I take my wife single rider, line, we wait about 8 minutes (as opposed to 70+) and ended up sitting together anyhow…

We took the kids to Jumping Jellyfish, and then pulled the rest of the clan out of the cove bar, and its off to TOT to use some fast passes. Rode 2 more times, what a great ride. Never gets old. The standby was up to about 40 min.
Didn’t realize the sky mural at the end of HPB lights up a sunset at dusk. Cool effect.
went by Monsters still 40+ min. still not going to happen.

Last ride in DCA head over to Soaring. Those that are first timers love it. It’s a great attraction once per trip. And the kids LOVE it. Its now about 8 pm and time to head back to DL.

We head over and ride HM again. 5 minute wait. Then its sit around and complain about how tired everyone is, and should we leave??? Fireworks start, and the view from NOS is actually pretty good. And you can even see tink flying around, although it looked like she crashed into the brush…

We decide to head over to the monorail to catch the first train after the fireworks, in case of a mad dash. We got over to TL and the fireworks from there were also pretty OK, not as good as NOS but the matterhorn lighting up was pretty neat. First rail back to the hotel, not too crowded, the crowd must be staying.

We had asked the hotel for one more night about 10 times and they were 100+ overbooked, and just for kicks I asked one last time, and they had one room. We left anyhow.

Loaded up the car, and headed for Moms place at 10:30 and got to her place at 11:45, not a bad drive.

[PumpkinKingJack]

More to Follow I assume! Sounds Great, Wheres Gustavs?

[ocnative1964]

Day 4

Friday slept in a bit, then had to get ready for the wedding rehearsal, found out I needed to dress nice for this also. CRAP off to the mall, in temecula. The rehearsal and dinner were fun, but it was cold(outdoor wedding) spent too much on wine.
Saturday relax and wait to get ready for the wedding, it was at the South Coast Winery, which is nowhere near the coast. The wedding was fun and I wont bore you with the details.


Day 5 "selected passenger"

I knew something was up when I was unable to print my boarding passes, it said for "security Reasons". I was able to print the wife and daughters. It said to get them at the airport. OK… we head out Sunday for one more night in a hotel next to the airport. Stayed at the Ayers hotel. Not bad, rooms a little small, but great details and has a ritzy feel to it, and it was the best priced in the area. Most others are $200.night, this was $119.00. so Monday AM early, we get to the airport, all 9 bags in tow, shoot over to the self serve area, no line, print out the boarding passes, and she takes out luggage, have to pay $25 for one bag 6 lbs over 50… so we head over to the security line, and we are waiting and we get to the ID lady and she looks at the tickets and says, ok whose "J"? he’s a "selected Passenger" excuse me, here he is, he’s 3. Oh Crap the lady says, hold on. (I’m guessing its not like winning the lottery) she comes back and says ok, we need to take him to a private room, one ou you parents can come along…

Uh… OK… so we are deciding who will go, and she comes back and says, oh forget it, you all can come this way. We get our own private x-ray machine and no-one else in line, we throw our 8 carry-on bags on the belt and walk thru, it was almost easier than the regular screening and it was much faster, maybe it was the lottery.
So we get up to the gate and I ask how long till boarding, 5 minutes, oh ok, I guess I wont have breakfast or use the restroom… oh well. Then not 5 seconds later she pages me and "J", im thinking oh selected passenger… she then tells us that one of our seats are broken and that we will be moving (splitting up the family) but we will keep you in 2’s, I hope so with 2 small children. The new seats were in back on the rear wall, actually not too bad.
As we get on she checks the tickets and notices the 3 year old is still "selected", and says they should have taken care of this at the check in for a 3 year old, as he is obviously NOT who they are looking for. No kidding.

The change of planes and trip home had no issues, had a nice breakfast in oakland, and returned home.

Overall it was a great trip, although frustrating at times. But MattO we will come again, I promise…

[ocnative1964]

More to Follow I assume! Sounds Great, Wheres Gustavs?

Gustovs is a portland german resturant, and they have an airport resturant that opened recently.

I will post pictures have to uploat the 400 or so... could take a while.

[smitty-78]

Sounds like you hade a great time OC thanks for the report .
You only have 400 pics that should upload in no time....lol

[ocnative1964]

we did, BOY was it crowded... it rained really hard on tuesday, so we got to entertain all those that stayed home that day.

but it was FUN...

[Pinocchio85]

Sounds like you had a great time. Thanks for sharing.

[ocnative1964]

Picture time...

http://www.smugmug.com/gallery/1336996