Disneyland! A trip recap
First off, let me say this:
Holy Crap I was at Disneyland.
Holy Crap I was in California.
I want to move to California now.
The trip starts Thrusday afternoon, when I left Buffalo to go to the ROC to get my haricut at my favourite place to get a haircut, Thomas Laurence Salon. Awesome haircut, and now I can wake up and not have to do anything to my hair to make it look bitchin'. I LOVE that. Short hair, for the win! Then we went to Olive Garden for Pats belated 21st birthday family dinner. However, I was disapointed. For their 'birthday cake for the birthday boy', they just gave him half a scoop of chocolate ice cream/cake with a small plop of whipped topping! WTF? Screw you Olive Garden and your cheap-ass ways. Me collapsing into sleep didn't occur until 11:15, which was great because.....
At 3:30 my alarm woke me up! The day is now Friday, time for a shower and a brief voyage to the ROC (Rochester International Airport) to catch a 6am flight! Upon the advice of my neighbor, who is a manager of the TSA, I got there at 4;30, which was awesome because ten minutes after I got in line it doubled in size. Now, the best part about flying out of Rochester is the Red Osier stand. Red Osier=amazing roast beef, and they have a fantastic breakfast sammich which contains: Roast Beef, Cheese, Egg, all on a Pretzel Roll, and all for four dollars. Worth the flight all right there! Unfortunately, I did not check my flight status in the morning (I was half awake!), otherwise I would have seen that my flight was delayed an hour. Crap. This turned out to be good, because it would have been another hour in Detroits airport, which I am currently not fans with. Despite their Jose Cuervo Tequilla restaraunt which was open at 9am for a Tequilla Sunrise! Sweet. You know whats not sweet? The 4 hour plane ride afterwards. But the first song to play on my iPod after leaving was "Put your Hands up for Detroit. I love this city!" However, upon the advice of my boss from work, I got a window seat on the left side to approach San Diego. INCREDIBLE!
San Diego is incredible. Enough said.
Since my host was working until noon, I took the Coaster Train from Amtrak up to Poinsettia where she lives/works. Best decision EVAR. It was a spectacular way of convincing me to move to California. Here was the route:
1) Pass by United Launch Alliance building. I drool at the job prospect.
2) Pass by awesome rocky coasts,
3) Pass by beaches filled with beautiful, half-naked women. (points to whomever can tell me what movie that is from! Ria, I am looking your way!)
We ate lunch at a place that had Fish Tacos, which were not as bad as I expected, and I got to put my feet in the Pacific Ocean! Also awesome. The person watching our shoes was actually from New York, which was a nice taste of home. Then we hung out at Rias for a bit, then picked up Natasha from the airport! Our party is now complete, and we went to In N Out Burger. So bad but soooooooo good. Sleep came quickly. Espicially since I slept at 3am EST. Yup, 24 hours. Party like a rockstar!
Then came Saturday. The big day. DISNEYLAND! We left around 7:30 because I could not sleep, and we got to the resort at 9. It was crazy! We passed by a building that looked like Madison Cube Garden from Futurama, and got to Disneyland at 9. Which I just mentioned above. I was astounded about how SMALL it was! You can see elements of the park outside of the berm, and it was easy to transverse the property! Then we go to the Downtown Disney lot and pick up an old friend. Art! He had the morning off and came to hang out with us! Art was a CM with me during my 2002 program at Innoventions, and has since moved out to Cali again to be a valet at the Grand Californian. Art is our hero. Not only did he get us free parking, but he also gave us some incredible picture opportunities and when my blue gate would not work he maingated Ria and I in! Art, you are our hero and we are forever in your debt. Disneyland was incredible! I did everything I wanted to do except Space Mountain, Mr. Toads Wild Ride, and Innoventions.
Main observations:
- The castle is so SMALL!
- Their Pirates of the Caribbean blows WDW's out of the water! Literally! I almost had a freakin' cannonball shot at me in the main battle scene! AWESOME!
- The Blue Bayou is THE place to get a meal at Disneyland. It was ritzy, had impecable Disney service. If we needed a fork, I just drank half of my water and a waiter came over to refill it, which we could then ask for another fork. This restaraunt was in New Orleans Square (pre-Katrina), and you could see the boats from PoTC go through the Bayou to their fate in the Caribbean. That place ranks up there as my favourite Disney Dining Experience!
- Their Splash Mountain was not as good as WDW's, but you got a hella lot more SOAKED at the main hill! It was great!
- I liked the design of their Haunted Mansion, but it seems like WDW's is more forbodding...
- HELL YEAH MATTERHORN! That was awesome! I was so stoked to finally ride it!
- Disney's California Adventure was right across the plaza, but it seemed like there was little substance to it. Very few attractions, and we were done with it in about 4 hours. California Screamin' was fun, and Soarin' is always great. Their Tower was meh. The CM at Tower, though, was incredible. The highlight of DCA, however, was.....
- The Aladdin Stage Show! It is an hour long stage show with the story of Aladdin. The twist, however, is that the Genie can make pop culture comments! Among the highlights (Kirsten youre gonna love it):
- Aladdin: Who are you?
Genie: Hi, Im a Mac, and youre a PC.
- Genie: This is gonna look great on YouTube!
- Genie: Wow, Jaffar, youre mean. Youre so mean that even Tom from Myspace won't even be your friend
- Genie: Al! You are SO in my 5 now.
- Genie (after Jafar turned into a serpant): Aren't you supposed to be on some kind of plane?
Genie: Wow! Im free! This must be what Paris Hilton feels like!
Genie (to Iago): Now as for you, Tiki Room Reject! (that was an AWESOME line and I couldnt stop laughing)
Essentially, this is what made going to DCA worth it. Best show EVER.
- Waited until park closing to do the Finding Nemo subs, and they were awesome. So great to ride a part of Disney history!
- The fireworks were incredible! Natasha has a way of finding great spots, and we got one right in front of the castle! The fireworks were 180 degrees around us and spectacular!
- Fantastmic, in the words of Noelle, beats up WDW's version and takes its lunch money.
In short, Disneyland rules. And because I had such an awesome time there, my next trip will be nowhere near as good and I will bitch about the good ol' days when going to Disneyland was fun. Or not. Screw you purists! You don't know what you're talking about.
Sunday, I flew home. I had no time to shop for souviners for most, and that sucked. But at least we stopped for California Oranges and I got it all over my Snakes on a Plane Shirt, which made it smell awesome the entire ride back, which was great because I was in the middle during my 4 hour ride to Detroit and some creepy guy next to me kept trying to grab my hand. Ew. The flight from Detroit to ROC was great because we got delayed on the tarmac, but this turned out for the awesome because when we took off we saw fireworks! I think they were from some Canadian celebration or whatever, but seeing Fireworks from 20k feet is something I definately recommend.
In short, I would like to thank Ria for being a gracious hostess, and Natasha for the idea, even though it was 2 weeks before the actual date. And right now Yo Ho Yo Ho A Pirates Life for Me is playing on iTunes! Sweet. Please comment! This took entirely too long to write. And pictues will be on facebook. The end.
p.s. I wanna go to WDW now in October since I found 5 comp tickets. Tara, when are you going? Anyone else wanna come? Food & Wine Fest!
Current Music: A Pirates Life for Me