Great Adventure Outpost
Industry => Trip Reports and Meeting Plans => Topic started by: sir clinksalot on March 01, 2006, 11:33:30 AM
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Josh decided he wanted to go to Sea World San Diego and and Disneyland for his birthday. We headed down Friday night, went to a VERY busy Disneyland, had dinner, did one attraction and left for our hotel.
Saturday we woke up, drove down to Sea World and had a totally awesome, stress free day.
We were joined at Sea World by my Mom and our friend Ashlee and her 2 year old son Dylan.
Josh is showing off his 48" height
(http://greggandkristi.smugmug.com/photos/57857290-M.jpg)
Amanda is now 54"
(http://greggandkristi.smugmug.com/photos/57857305-M.jpg)
The kids were happy that Grandma was here with us
(http://greggandkristi.smugmug.com/photos/57857316-M.jpg)
Journey still looks ... well, like Journey
(http://greggandkristi.smugmug.com/photos/57857368-M.jpg)
We saw some Polar Bears
(http://greggandkristi.smugmug.com/photos/57857454-M.jpg)
And some Walrus Porn
(http://greggandkristi.smugmug.com/photos/57857514-M.jpg)
Gregg and Josh pretending were Polar Bears
(http://greggandkristi.smugmug.com/photos/57857522-M.jpg)
Next up are my favorites ... the Penguins
(http://greggandkristi.smugmug.com/photos/57857564-M.jpg)
(http://greggandkristi.smugmug.com/photos/57857589-M.jpg)
Kristi and Josh checking out the Megellanic Penguins
(http://greggandkristi.smugmug.com/photos/57857702-M.jpg)
We saw the Shamu show in the temporary area because of the new construction
(http://greggandkristi.smugmug.com/photos/57857787-M.jpg)
Josh is exactly 8 years old when this picture was taken ... this is how I was holding him exactly 8 years ago ... he was certainly lighter then ... ;)
(http://greggandkristi.smugmug.com/photos/57857869-M.jpg)
Kristi likes whipped cream
(http://greggandkristi.smugmug.com/photos/57857930-M.jpg)
We decided to take some nice pictures
(http://greggandkristi.smugmug.com/photos/57865930-M.jpg)
We saw the dolphins, my Mom thought the lady falling in the water was real
(http://greggandkristi.smugmug.com/photos/57866156-M.jpg)
(http://greggandkristi.smugmug.com/photos/57866236-M.jpg)
This thing could give you nightmares
(http://greggandkristi.smugmug.com/photos/57866310-M.jpg)
Kristi's favorite, the Flaming-o's (They're HOT)
(http://greggandkristi.smugmug.com/photos/57866352-M.jpg)
We saw the Sea Lion and Otter show which I'm happy to say has gotten MUCH better, thanks in part to this guy
(http://greggandkristi.smugmug.com/photos/57866392-M.jpg)
(http://greggandkristi.smugmug.com/photos/57866397-M.jpg)
That concludes the SW portion of the TR, you can find more pics here:
http://greggandkristi.smugmug.com/gallery/1235177 (http://greggandkristi.smugmug.com/gallery/1235177)
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Sunday was our Disneyland Day. We knew earlier in the week that Cheerleaders were invading DCA so we figured we would spend most of our day at Disneyland. No problem's there.
We checked out of our hotel and headed over to the park about 8:00. The park wasn't open until 9:00 but that gives us time to cruise main street, etc.
When we arrived they had 5 lanes open for parking ... BUT ONLY 2 BOOTHS OPEN!!! So this meant that 5 lanes of traffic had to fight their way for 2 booths. This is Disneyland right???
Okay, so it took 20 minutes to park. Walking up to the tram and they are only running 1 TRAM!!!! This is Disneyland right???
So we decide to walk. We beat the tram and got right in the park, no problem. Josh LOVES Indy so since it was his b-day trip we headed over there first. We wanted to get to DCA right at 10:00 so the kids could finally ride Monsters and Josh wanted to ride Screamin'. We picked up some Space Mtn Fastpasses first then headed over to DCA.
The lines were ASTRONOMICAL!!! They only had like 4 booths open. Now even with no cheerleaders this wouldn't have been enough. But you know you are getting invaded by cheerleaders and yet you still don't have enough turnstiles open. We have to be at Six Flags right???
Head in to the park about 20 minutes later and wait for them to drop the rope into Hollywood. Made it to Monsters and only had about a 10 minute wait. Not too bad.
Headed back to Screamin' to find they only have 1 side open and only 3 trains. Now with any other park, and any other ride this would have been fine but Screamin' on a quite busy Sunday with the 2-fer going on and attack of the cheerleaders happening should have easily been running 4 trains and had both sides open.
Picked up some fastpasses for later and got in line. The wait was about 20 minutes but it would have been 10 if the ride was being run the way it should.
After Screamin' we got a snack at McD's (it was the ONLY thing open ... another Six Flags trait) and picked up some Mullholland Madness FastPasses. Did the Orange Stinger and headed back for Screamin'. Now both sides were open but they were still only running 3 trains.
Usually on Screamin' you don't have to wait more than 60 seconds for a train to arrive in the station, usually less than 30. I had never seen no trains in the station for over a minute.
Had our ride, it was decent and then headed for Mullholland Madness. Used our FP's and headed back to Disneyland.
By this time it was lunch so we ate at the Cafe' Orleans which was FINALLY open and it was good. Did Big Thunder and Space Mtn. By this time we'd had enough of crowds, etc so we headed home.
I'm really happy that Disneyland is doing so well for the 50th but I personally will be happy when it's all over. There was a time you could go to the park on a non-holiday Sunday in February and find waits of no more than 20 minutes for even the most popular attractions. You could walk the walkways and have a nice relaxing time in the park. With all this stuff going on now it's near impossible.
We did have a fun time at Disneyland but honestly I think we are taking a Disney break for a few months, or even until the end of the summer.
Here are the pics:
We got our picture taken with Belle:
(http://greggandkristi.smugmug.com/photos/57851984-M.jpg)
Kristi and the kids:
(http://greggandkristi.smugmug.com/photos/57852012-M.jpg)
On the Carousel:
(http://greggandkristi.smugmug.com/photos/57852022-M.jpg)
Gregg Got's Crabs:
(http://greggandkristi.smugmug.com/photos/57852043-M.jpg)
The line to get inside DCA
(http://greggandkristi.smugmug.com/photos/57852046-M.jpg)
You can find the rest of the pics here:
http://greggandkristi.smugmug.com/gallery/1235081 (http://greggandkristi.smugmug.com/gallery/1235081)
The night time pictures are from Friday night.
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I can't wait for the season to start so I can start doing Trip reports. It looks like you had a great time , Again !!
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I can't wait for Cali, I am gonna be there in about a week!! Nice TR!
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Awesome TR. I'm with Bubba. I can't wait to do TR's again :)
Even with insane crowds its tough not to have a good time at a Disney park.
You might be interested in this weeks article on Miceage.com. While I'm not always a Al Lutz fan (though he has gotten more positive lately), I think he hits only everything you spoke of here.
It looks like most of the problems have to do with the coming strike becuase they are training the execs to handle the rides etc.
http://www.miceage.com/allutz/al022806a.htm
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^ The rides were running fine ... well, except for Screamin'. But the strike issue is only at Disnyland, DCA has a seperate contract.
My biggest thing was the parking situation. I have never seen such a bad parking scenario or only 1 tram at Disneyland.