My Stupid Vacation
Posted: Mon Jun 20, 2011 1:13 pm
Well, we got back from California late last night. It was an amazingly fun and relaxing trip. I thought I'd post the lowlights here, such as they were. I'm not too good at seeing Stupid Guest in others, but I'm a wiz at self-recriminations.
We arrived, starving, at LAX at around 1 PM local time a week ago last Friday. We had been up for 12 hours and had only had a light breakfast about 8 hours ago. We decided to hightail it to the hotel and eat there.
But the hotel was in Orange County, right by the Orange County airport. I learned that we flew in to the wrong airport after I had bought the tickets. Sigh.
We used Supershuttle to get to the hotel. It took 2 and a half hours to get to the hotel! It was only 15-20 miles away! By then we were both starving and exhausted so we ate a meal and had a nap and slept right through the dinner arrangements we had made with friends.
We rented a car on Sunday and drove up to Disneyland Monday, parking in the Woody lot. We got there at exactly park opening and seeing everyone rushing en-mass to Tomorrowland, we decided to go to Adventureland and ride Indiana Jones.
We spent a while on that side of the park and after lunch wandered over to Tomorrowland to get fast passes for Star Tours. But they had been gone since 9:30 that morning! We decided not to spend over two hours in the standby lines and never did get to ride Star Tours, a shame since that was the whole reason we planned our California vacation.
We did get to ride the new-to-us Finding Nemo Subs and see the new-to-my-wife Captain Eo. Unfortunately, the Matterhorn was closed for renovation, which was a shame since that was the whole reason we planned our California vacation.
The park was so crowded! I've never been to a Disney park that was that crowded before. I usually try to go on the "off-season," but we had gone to California for a conference, so timing was not on our side.
We left the park for dinner and my wife wasn't feeling well. She took a cab back to the hotel and I went back to the park to use our Space Mountain fastpasses and try to get on Star Tours, but the line was too long for me to stand it.
The next day we went to DCA. Learning our lesson from Star Tours, we rushed to get fast passes for The Little Mermaid, since no less than two different Cast Members swore the ride had FP (it does not). Instead we got FP for Soarin and waited about 45 minutes for Ariel. I'm glad we got to ride it since that was the whole reason we planned our California vacation.
We went over to the pier to try the new-to-us Toy Story Midway game, which was a lot of fun, definitely my favorite of the ride-and-shoot rides. The park was also very crowded, but we didn't have long waits due to our clever use of Fast Pass.
My wife's feet were hurting, so she took a break before World of Color (we got the dining special) while I took a look at Flynn's arcade. Fun games from my college days! On the way back to World of Color, I got coupons for tokens for Flynn's. Too late though.
My wife had snagged totally excellent seats for WoC because she had hurt her foot and the nice Cast Members there let her sit in the handicapped section. I want to make this clear here. My wife has plantar fasciitis, a legitimate medical condition where her feet will cause her great pain. She could not have stood to see the show, but we didn't have any sort of passes or wheelchairs or ECVs. Still the CMs there let her sit in the handicapped section. That was very nice of them and they deserve kudos.
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We arrived, starving, at LAX at around 1 PM local time a week ago last Friday. We had been up for 12 hours and had only had a light breakfast about 8 hours ago. We decided to hightail it to the hotel and eat there.
But the hotel was in Orange County, right by the Orange County airport. I learned that we flew in to the wrong airport after I had bought the tickets. Sigh.
We used Supershuttle to get to the hotel. It took 2 and a half hours to get to the hotel! It was only 15-20 miles away! By then we were both starving and exhausted so we ate a meal and had a nap and slept right through the dinner arrangements we had made with friends.
We rented a car on Sunday and drove up to Disneyland Monday, parking in the Woody lot. We got there at exactly park opening and seeing everyone rushing en-mass to Tomorrowland, we decided to go to Adventureland and ride Indiana Jones.
We spent a while on that side of the park and after lunch wandered over to Tomorrowland to get fast passes for Star Tours. But they had been gone since 9:30 that morning! We decided not to spend over two hours in the standby lines and never did get to ride Star Tours, a shame since that was the whole reason we planned our California vacation.
We did get to ride the new-to-us Finding Nemo Subs and see the new-to-my-wife Captain Eo. Unfortunately, the Matterhorn was closed for renovation, which was a shame since that was the whole reason we planned our California vacation.
The park was so crowded! I've never been to a Disney park that was that crowded before. I usually try to go on the "off-season," but we had gone to California for a conference, so timing was not on our side.
We left the park for dinner and my wife wasn't feeling well. She took a cab back to the hotel and I went back to the park to use our Space Mountain fastpasses and try to get on Star Tours, but the line was too long for me to stand it.
The next day we went to DCA. Learning our lesson from Star Tours, we rushed to get fast passes for The Little Mermaid, since no less than two different Cast Members swore the ride had FP (it does not). Instead we got FP for Soarin and waited about 45 minutes for Ariel. I'm glad we got to ride it since that was the whole reason we planned our California vacation.
We went over to the pier to try the new-to-us Toy Story Midway game, which was a lot of fun, definitely my favorite of the ride-and-shoot rides. The park was also very crowded, but we didn't have long waits due to our clever use of Fast Pass.
My wife's feet were hurting, so she took a break before World of Color (we got the dining special) while I took a look at Flynn's arcade. Fun games from my college days! On the way back to World of Color, I got coupons for tokens for Flynn's. Too late though.
My wife had snagged totally excellent seats for WoC because she had hurt her foot and the nice Cast Members there let her sit in the handicapped section. I want to make this clear here. My wife has plantar fasciitis, a legitimate medical condition where her feet will cause her great pain. She could not have stood to see the show, but we didn't have any sort of passes or wheelchairs or ECVs. Still the CMs there let her sit in the handicapped section. That was very nice of them and they deserve kudos.
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