Disneyland trip Part 3 - Saturday in the parks

Nobody got up except for Terri. Joyce thought she set our room alarm. It didn't go off. I woke up at 6:15AM and nobody in our suite was awake. Can't have a group photo without everyone! I went back to sleep. We still all woke up by 8AM. We got to the park before 9AM and rode the Matterhorn bobsleds with only a short wait. Gena wanted to ride Splash Mountain once more, and we did before the line got long. Then we headed for California Adventure. The one thing I really wanted to do there was the animation studio. We all happened to meet up and got fast passes for Soaring Over California for later, then split up to do our own thing. Carlene was spending the day with her daughter and sister over in Disneyland. Poor thing! It was horribly crowded. We'd planned to avoid Disneyland on the weekend for that reason. There is a mist dispenser outside Soaring Over California. I cooled off there. We had lunch at the rocket restaurant, wandered the park, took in The Bug's Life 3D adventure then returned to do Soaring Over California. We lucked out! The nine of us filled the entire front row, which are the best seats. It's so cool! You get the effect of hang gliding with an IMAX screen. Unfortunately, Elaine had a panic attack when it first started and screamed "STOP IT! STOP IT!" Terri is an RN and was sitting next to her. She calmed Elaine down and the ride continued. We were all too worried about Elaine to fully enjoy the ride. She was OK afterward. One of our group asked why they hadn't stopped the ride and they said kids scream all the time. They didn't know it was a real panic attack. If they'd seen arms flailing longer they would have stopped it. By calming Elaine, Terri had forced her to ride through the whole thing.

Terri told us we HAD to go see the stage play Aladdin. She said she hadn't planned to see it but someone had insisted and she was really glad she'd gone. The fact that it's a sit-down thing and air-conditioned sold us! Since nobody wanted to do the animation studio with me, I went in to do the voice part of it while they went to get seats for Aladdin. We had preferred seating for the show as part of our package deal. I chose a scene from Bambi that required voices for Thumper, Flower and Bambi. It was the scene where Bambi is learning everyone's names. What fun! Wish I could have kept that in my archive.

I found the others and we saw Aladdin. Wow! Terri was right! What a great show! We were impressed that they were an equal opportunity employer for their cast members. I didn't even notice at first that one of the actors was in an electric wheelchair. The only problem with the preferred seating is that we were directly under the flying carpet when it flew over the audience. I think for this show, the first balcony would be best.

After that, Gena left us to take something back to the hotel. Karen, Joyce and I wandered over to the boardwalk where Karen and I rode the California Screamin' rollercoaster. I'd read about it online and decided I didn't want to ride it. But it looked OK in person, so we went for it. Joyce had a bit of a headache so she opted out of riding with us. She watched us at the start of the ride. She said she wished she could have gotten a picture of when it started to capture the looks on our faces! LOL

They say it goes from 0 to 55 MPH in about 5 seconds but it feels a lot faster than that! It jerks a scream out of you and just as you run out of breath, take another and start to laugh, it yanks another one out of you, and another and so on until it's finally over. Whew! Once per day is enough for that ride!

I got a fast pass for the Grizzly Rapids ride with the intention of coming back to the park after the party. The way my feet were hurting and how tired I was feeling, I wasn't sure if I'd make it back but just in case...

By this time, we needed to head back to the hotel for our big party. That will be a separate post.

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Disneyland trip Part 4 - Saturday evening Birthday party

I'd forgotten to mention that when we came in from the park Friday night, we each had a Birthday princess tiara and wand on our pillows along with a Disney Princess sticker. The next day we were required to wear the tiaras all day. If any from our group caught us not wearing our tiara, we'd have to give them our sticker. The tiaras are meant for people with fluffy hair. Most of us don't have fluffy hair so the only way to get them to stay on was to wrap them around our skulls. It hurt. Karen put hers onto her purple cowboy hat and it worked. We rebelled against the game and handed our stickers to her right away. During Aladdin, Karen took her hat off and Beth N who was not only wearing her tiara but also carrying her wand confiscated Karen's stickers. Beth N won the game and got a silly prize.

The pizza was there when we got back from the park at about 5:30PM. Carlene's daughter stayed to see us. We hadn't seen her since our trip to Seattle seven years ago. She's all grown up! She was quite amused by the games we were tortured with. Terri told us to each bring a baby picture. Joyce said it was a dumb idea because with only two Asians in our group, so everyone would have a 50/50 chance of guessing correctly. That didn't turn out to be true. I didn't guess Elaine's correctly. Babies all look a little Asian! I got Karen's because I've seen it before. I got my own, of course. I got Joyce's because the smile was hers. I got one other by using the smile to guess. Everyone guessed mine.

Then the light was beginning to fade outside and we headed out to do group photos. On the way, Terri was trying to hold her mouse ears with her arm and it slipped around her breast which gave her an idea for an alternative use for mouse ears. She borrowed someone's to model her idea.
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Disneyland trip Part 5 - Posed group photos

Carlene's daughter Renee solved one dilemma for us. We were wondering how we'd get group photos that included all of us. She graciously agreed to take picures with everyone's cameras. We had eight cameras and three hats to pose with.

What was amazing to us is after we took the tiara picture in the lobby of our hotel tower, another group of women came through the lobby and saw our birthday tiaras. It turns out they're doing the EXACT SAME THING WE WERE! Both groups squealed and hugged each other. They were envious of our t-shirts. Maybe I have a marketing strategy!

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Disneyland trip Part 6 - Gift exchange and purple hat contest

We were instructed to bring a wrapped age-appropriate gift that cost $10.00 or less. I won't post all the pictures because I didn't get pictures of the things people right next to me got or of my gift. I'll just give you the best ones. The gifts were collected. The oldest started by selecting a gift. The next person had the option of taking a gift already opened, or selecting a wrapped gift to open. If a gift was taken from you, you chose a new one to open. Only one trade happened. Some gifts were kid toys. I got a Disney Princess jacks set. Carlene got a Disney Princess jump rope. Karen brought a nose hair trimmer and admitted later that she'd dressed it up with Disney stickers with the hope that I'd pick it. Ha! Gena picked it and was stuck with it. The funniest was the gift Gena brought. She is a fan of Friends and played off of a joke from that show regarding thong underwear. Someone on the show called it "butt floss" so she found a purple thong, bought a large size of dental floss and relabeled it "Denture Floss." She removed the dental floss and stuffed the thong inside then wrapped it. One of her oldest friends opened it. LOL it was hilarious! Elaine got a very appropriate Princess pillow.

Then we all presented our purple hats with the background on them and all voted for our first and second choices. Karen won the grand prize with her purple cowboy hat with the beaded necklace band she had to modify with embroidery floss to make it fit.

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Disneyland trip Part 7 - our room

At first glance, it wasn't obvious that we were in the Disneyland hotel. The cabinet that holds the TV and mini-fridge in our room had a map of the park burned into the wood. Then I noticed the pictures on the walls were all of Disney rides and attractions. I didn't notice that the lamps over the sink were held by white gloved Mickey hands. The mirror did seem rather fancy, as if it belonged in a castle. Then I noticed other Disney touches. Tinkerbelle was in the ceiling border. The lamp on the desk had a Mickey head. Even the carpet had hidden Mickeys.

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Disneyland trip Part 8 - Main suite pictures

The main suite had a small kitchenette. No cooking allowed but a sink, mini-fridge and coffee maker were provided. The hide-a-beds were lumpy. The regular beds felt wonderful! I think they use beautyrest mattresses.

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Disneyland trip Part 9 - view from the balcony

I love looking down from high places! We watched the fireworks from here Saturday night. Eh. Not that impressive after experiencing them close up.

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Disneyland trip - Part 10 - the last day

We packed the night before and dispensed as much food as we could. The maids were going to end up with a lot of unopened stuff. We checked our luggage with the valets and went off to enjoy ourselves until it was time to leave.

Most of the group went to a Gospel brunch at The House Of Blues. Joyce, Carlene and I went to the Rainforest Cafe for brunch. I was very grumpy. I hadn't slept well at all because my feet kept cramping even with tylenol. I didn't dare take aspirin because my female problems had been going non-stop all weekend already. Aspirin would make it worse. So when they assigned us to a table that took 10 minutes longer to clear than they said it would and took other parties of 3 who had arrived after we had to their tables before they took us, I grumped about it. The food was good... when it came. We were ignored for a long time. Just as our food finally came, a photo crew came by, shoved stuffed animals into our hands and told us to smile. I'm sure it was a horrid photo. We were all pretty crabby. We didn't check it out at all. We shopped until the others were done with the Gospel Brunch. I picked up graduation hat ears for Chris, a t-shirt for me and some pins for other people. Joyce told me I should get a tie-dye shirt for Eric. They were too bright and I knew he'd never wear them. I had my mind made up that I'd get him a set of wings from a flight shop I saw in California Adventure. We wanted to ride Soaring Over California again without the distraction of worry.

Carlene hadn't seen the Bug's life 3D and we hadn't used our preferred seating tickets for it the day before, so we got fast passes for Soaring and went to watch the 3D show with Carlene. For that show, the preferred seating is a great thing to do. The 5th row is perfect for the effects. I saw double sometimes the first time we went. In the 5th row, that didn't happen. Then I shopped for Eric's wings and it was time for Soaring. We didn't get the front row this time. We were in the third. We saw the people's feet in front of us. Still, it was wonderful! We went to see the show in the mini-Palace of Fine Arts. I wondered why they showed Califia, the spirit of California as a black woman. It seemed to me that Califia would be native American. Once we were seated in the theatre, Joyce wondered why the carvings of Califia on either side of the stage looked like Whoopi Goldberg and just then the lights dimmed and we found out why. Whoopi portrays Califia in the presentation. It's a mini-history of California that focuses on a few ethnic groups as they moved into the state and left out half my pioneer ancestors and some of Joyce's, too. Still, it brought tears to my eyes at the end.

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We wandered to the Monterey part of the park since that was the only part we hadn't explored. We toured the Boudin bread factory and had lunch at a cafe. Then it was time to mosey back to the front of the park and head back to the hotel to get our luggage and catch the shuttle. We stopped in a few stores. I was looking for a specific t-shirt I'd seen on adults. All I could find were children's sizes and adult sweatshirts. All the while, my feet were horribly painful, I had a headache, I was so tired I could hardly function and my stomach was not very happy with me. Joycey started teasing me that they should buy me a Grumpy t-shirt. I actually agreed. I'm going to see if I can find the one I want online.

I worked hard to stay patient. Gena was driving me nuts. She'd been driving me nuts all weekend. She worries about every little thing, rarely finishes a sentence before starting a new thought and often will start to tell you something then turn mid-sentence and walk away while mumbling the end of the sentence softly. When you say, "I'm sorry, I didn't hear you," she'll do EXACTLY the same thing again only softer. She INVENTS things to worry about and yacks about them endlessly. She'll ask you a question and won't listen to the answer, so she'll ask you again. And again. When Karen was trying to collect all the room keys, Gena was four feet from her yacking about whatever. Karen asked me three times if I'd given her my key. The first time, I gave it to her. The second, I reminded her I had already. The third time I smiled and told her she'd now asked me three times and she had it. Gena was getting to her, too. I suspected I knew who hadn't given Karen their room key. I interrupted Gena's current spew of words and asked if she'd given Karen her room key. She hadn't. I winked at Karen and said, "There you go!" She whispered, "Thank you."

By the time we got to the airport, I was praying I wouldn't end up next to Gena for the flight home. I was very close to my emotional edge. Before we got to the ticket counter to check in, I got my drivers license out, expecting that Karen would check us all in the way Gena had in San Jose for the trip out. We got a different mindset with this airport. Because we didn't all have the same last name, we had to individually check in. They wouldn't accept my passenger receipt to check me in, I had to find a credit card. My credit cards were buried in my purse which was buried in my backpack. The woman who was supposed to help me pointed to the self-check in touch screen and walked away. I lost it. I started blubbering that I wasn't prepared for this and it shouldn't have to be this hard and I didn't understand why they made it so difficult. I just want to be home. Then I apologized and said that I was so tired that I just couldn't deal with anything right now. It was embarrassing. It's not like I had any control over it. I wanted to do what two year olds do and just scream "NO NO NO NO!" At least I didn't go that far with it. I did dig out my credit card and check myself in as I blubbered. As a punishment, they didn't give me the ticket jacket with a place to stick my luggage claim sticker. She just handed me the sticker.

We got through security without incident. I got some water to drink. Karen got some chocolate frozen yogurt. It looked good. I wasn't sure sugar was a good idea but it was too tempting. It helped a lot. I was calmer after that.

Karen was next to me on the plane. She fell asleep. Joyce and I ordered some Sprite for her and I woke her when it came. Joyce picked up a flight magazine and read it most of the trip. That kept Gena quiet. The luggage got to the carousel faster than I've ever seen it happen before.

Eric picked me up. I have never been so happy to see him. Ahh. Home, sweet home.

Disneyland trip - final thoughts

The lunch at Blue Bayou didn't happen. They've changed over to a reservation system that forces you to plan 60 days ahead of time. We had lunch at House of Blues instead. They couldn't accomodate 10 people indoors and it was over 90 degrees fahrenheit outside so we ended up at two tables across the restaurant from each other. :(

The food was good - not Blue Bayou good, but decently good.

All the nice restaurants inside Disneyland require reservations 60 days in advance. Be warned.

Just got my car back

Early yesterday afternoon I called the dealership to get the status of my car. I was put into voice-mail and left a message specifically asking to be called on my home phone number. I knew I wouldn't be able to move fast enough to grab my cell phone if he called me on it.

It was after six last night when I realized he hadn't called me back. I asked Eric to drop me off there this morning on his way to work. I was determined to either leave with my car or a rental. My service rep was shocked to see me. He said he'd left me a message first thing this morning on my cell phone. I told him it was turned off. He looked guilty. Then he said my car was ready, that they were just waiting for payment from the warranty company. He said he'd release it since the repair had been approved by them. He adjusted my bill so all I paid was the $100 deductable. Toyota covered the additional two days of car rental! YAY!

I hugged my car when they brought it out. That made them all laugh.

Ugh. I still feel sick. Now I'm going back to bed for a while, then I need to fiercely attack my school work.