Data's Birthday TR

[wanderw1]

data, don't u think ucla should put a together a weekend disneyland bus? there are so many pass holders here that would use it on saturdays and sundays. not that the flyaway to lax to buss is not fun, but those ucla busses aren't even used on the weekend if there is no football games!

[Datameister]

Seriously, that'd be great! It'd be expensive, though. =/ Hard to beat $25 total for the round trip...and that goes down to a mere $15 if you get back early enough to catch the 11 pm FlyAway from LAX to Westwood!

Anyway, part 2 is coming up in JUST a sec!

[I Heart Disneyland]

Fantastic dual trip report. It's nice to put faces to your names too! (After seeing them so much on the board.) I LOVE the BTMRR and Matterhorn shots, Seawolf! They are so clear for such fast and jerky rides. How'd you do it? Do tell!

[Coheteboy]

Too slow, Data! I'm going to bed. Catch the rest tomorrow!

[Datameister]

PART 2

So! After saving my lens cap from certain death in the bushes behind a food cart, our efforts were beginning to make us hungry. But we decided to stop at Star Tours first. I'm tellin' ya...I don't think this attraction is as badly dated as some of y'all make it out to be. But that's just me. Maybe it was just because we got to go in through the secret handicapped entrance!



Then...decisiveness again became our unexpected forte. After we rode BLAB and sat around trying to figure out what to do about lunch for a while, I took command and suggested that we go to the IHOP across the street. We even planned ahead, deciding to come back afterwards, ride the train to NOS, and ride the Haunted Mansion for the second time that day. I needed to get lots of HM in, since I probably won't get to experience it until next year! I won't be able to go back to the park until late September at the earliest, and then it'll be HMH, which doesn't count. Anyway, we spent perhaps an hour eating and talking in IHOP, which was fun.



Back to the park we went! The railroad was sadly unfruitful in terms of backstage photography, even with Justin trying at the same time. Those darn trees just work too well! Whose dumb idea was it to hide backstage and preserve the magic and theme things convincingly? (Just for clarification, because I'm paranoid, that's actually exactly why I love the park so much. Just so we're clear!) We followed the plan and headed over to HM afterward, which was nice, as always. We had a running competition all day to see who could correctly hypothesize which elevator we'd end up in, and I got pretty good, if I may say so myself.

Then, if I'm not mistaken, we met up with none other than MickeyMousePal, his sister, and wettham1783! I had never met any of them before, so it was a real blast to get a chance to do so. Slowly but surely, I'm meeting more MiceChatters in person! After another ride on the train (barely any more fruitful! =/), we hit Splash Mountain. And my goodness, did some of us get soaked! I was asking for it, both literally and by sitting in the middle, but I really did not anticipate that much water on (and in ) my clothes and shoes. Felt nice...sorta. 0.o Haha, my feet were still wet a few hours later when I changed into sandals. Anyway, here's us teetering over the edge of Chickapin Hill.



We then headed over to the Haunted Mansion, where we took a look at the hidden pet cemetery, upon my suggestion. Can you believe that I, the non-AP, was the one who'd been back there before? Anyway, it's always nice to go around back there. It's quiet...it actually feels a lot like being in a real side yard, if you ignore Splash Mountain and the...you know...crypts.



From left to right, that's startours1, MickeyMousePal's sister, MickeyMousePal himself, and wettham1783 in the first photo. SeaWolf38's on the left in this one:



Then we figured we were right next to the ride, so we may as well go for a spin! (This was #3 for Justin and me for that day.) The stretching room was packed, and me, David, and Justin ended up a little ways behind the others in the portrait hall. I'd been through the chicken exit once, but the other two hadn't, so we ended up deciding to go through there. Pretty cool stuff! Yes, we took flash photos, but don't worry - we timed it so that it happened in synchronization with the lightning strobes, so that any light that leaked through the mostly-shuttered windows into the portrait gallery would have just looked like it was supposed to be there.





Then we waited by the exit for the others to emerge.



Pirates came next, and thanks to my utterly brilliant suggestion, we ended up in the significantly longer line on the left, just so we could see the area discussed in the quasi-recent "Old Pirates Queue" thread. Good job, me!



But on the bright side, I had a huge revelation in the loading area! Actually, it wasn't so much a revelation as it was an...episode. See, there was this blueprint I'd seen, and it was listed as part of Indy, but I couldn't figure out for the life of me where it was in the building. It showed a staircase and a few walls, and it didn't look very Indy-ish. As I looked up the stairs to the Pirates tower, I finally got it! The blueprints were for this area of Pirates, which connects to the nearby Indy queue via stairs. So as I realized this, I pretty much started spazzing out. It was interesting...I'm sure the others can verify that. Anyway, on the even BRIGHTER (darker?) side, the Dark Lady gave me a call before we got on the ride and told me she'd arrived! We paddled our way through the ride as fast as we could () and made it to the exit, where she was waiting for us. I then got to do another first! Don't kill me, but...I'd never been on the Mark Twain or the Columbia. I know, I know. I finally got around to it, and I didn't regret it! I suppose it was just about exactly how I expected it to be: a nice, relaxing, scenic tour around the river, with some fun photo ops.





I also had fun inadvertently creating some 3D photos by snapping shots at different points along the river. Here's Big Thunder in cross-eyed and (for those who have the right glasses) red/blue anaglyph formats:





And the same for Pirates.





More random shots on the Twain!









I want to say that right after that, we got dinner at Rancho Del Zocalo. I'm pretty sure that's when it was. we then headed into Fantasyland for a ride on the carousel and another first for me: Casey Jr.! Yes, that's right, I'd never been on it, not even as a little kid, I think.





We got the monkey car! It was pretty funny fitting so many young adults into one of those. As you can see, some of us ended up in the car behind, though. Anyway, the ride itself was fairly entertaining...I have no need to ride it again anytime soon, but I'm glad I finally had the experience. And it was unexpectedly thrilling because we went a little unusually fast around the turns!

Next came Big Thunder again, after I'd taken my still-wet shoes off of my still-wet feet and put them into sandals that also promptly became still-wet. Yay pruney toes! On BTMRR, I committed a grievous crime...I flashed the bats.



This temporarily blinded Justin, who was sitting next ot me, for which I again apologize. Once the ride got going, we took a lot of photos backwards, but most of mine didn't really turn out. This one was kinda cool:



And then this one was the funniest one I took all DAY. This is what a man looks like while he performs an inverted goat trick!



The story here is, Justin was taking a lot of photos every which way, and when the time came to do the goat trick, he ended up facing the opposite direction through the entire turn. I was trying to photograph the goat, and his face got in the way, and hilarity ensued. Looks like something out of one of those videos where you're watching a peaceful landscape and then someone pops up and screams, doesn't it?

Anyway, we then headed over to HM - for Justin and me, it was the fourth time at least in the preshow that day! Which I honestly didn't mind one bit. Afterward, we stopped by the exit to take a group photo, with the help of my camera's timer function and a stable trash can that Justin discretely moved a few inches.



From left to right: SeaWolf38, startours1, me, wettham1783, MickeyMousePal's sister, MickeyMousePal, and the Dark Lady, who mysteriously lived up to her name again. Like I said in my last TR, ask her, not me!

We hit the Jungle Cruise and the Enchanted Tiki Room after that. Unfortunately, though, I started just feeling really wiped out. It was about 9 in the evening, and my body was telling me loud and clear to call it quits, so I decided I'd rather not push it. I was sad to say so long, but I had three hours of travel between me and my bed, so I figured it'd be best to get goin'. So we parted ways a little earlier than I'd hoped, but all in all, it was an AWESOME day. All six of you made my birthday so much more amazing than it would have been...I mean, Disneyland by myself is great from time to time, but the day was so much more special with all of you. So thank you so much for making it there, and I hope we get to do it again before too long! Thanks for readin', all, and good night.

[HighLeveller]

Cool TR(s), both of you.
I like thumbnail vresions too, but am always cool with full-size pics as long as they average not more than about 100KB each. I gloss over TRs with huge-filesize pictures. (Dialup...it's all I got but I'm glad to have it at least.)

Originally Posted by Datameister

And yeah, I'm not sure exactly what that was, KAN, but it said something about Grad Nite on it.

I got a shot of it when I was there on the 25th, from almost the exact same place it turns out, and specifically zoomed in on it.

Under "Grad Nite" there's what looks like "Presented by Honda". Below that, in a stylized font, is what looks like "Dance all night". Then, above the screen you see "Here we go" with another Grad Nite logo to the left. Maybe it's some sort of DDR variant where you can win prizes.

[HighLeveller]

(Oh--just saw this...)

Originally Posted by Datameister

Nice stereogram. Been meaning to post some myself. (EDIT: stereograms. Didn't see the first one)

[Datameister]

Thanks, both of ya!

[KAN]

Originally Posted by Datameister

We then headed over to the Haunted Mansion, where we took a look at the hidden pet cemetery ..... It's quiet...it actually feels a lot like being in a real side yard, if you ignore Splash Mountain and the...you know...crypts.

BEST..........



QUOTE...........



EVER!!!!!!






Seriously, that is hilarious!






--KAN

[SeaWolf38]

Great part 2, Joe! I'll have my part 2 up later today sometime..... I'm gonna be busy alot of the day today, but hopefully I can find some time to make it.

[Victoria]

Originally Posted by Datameister

I want to say that right after that, we got dinner at Rancho Del Zocalo. I'm pretty sure that's when it was. we then headed into Fantasyland for a ride on the carousel and another first for me: Casey Jr.! Yes, that's right, I'd never been on it, not even as a little kid, I think.





We got the monkey car! It was pretty funny fitting so many young adults into one of those. As you can see, some of us ended up in the car behind, though. Anyway, the ride itself was fairly entertaining...I have no need to ride it again anytime soon, but I'm glad I finally had the experience. And it was unexpectedly thrilling because we went a little unusually fast around the turns!

Data... did you check out the backstage area from the Casey Jr. Train? I don't know if you can see it as well during the day as you can at night... but basically it's backstage galore. You can even see what I believe is the original berm... Disneyland RailRoad tracks that haven't been in use in ages. For some reason it seems they never removed them.

[nojarama]

Great trip/photo report. Glad you got to visit the mansion in it's normal, "corruptible, mortal" state (4 times? I usually go twice or three times a visit myself- you beat me!). Happy Birthday Datameister!

[Nautilus]

Someone is abusing the use of the chicken exit...

[NeverNeverland]

Glad you had such a great time Data!

I am loving the 2 TRs in one

[Datameister]

Originally Posted by Victoria

Data... did you check out the backstage area from the Casey Jr. Train? I don't know if you can see it as well during the day as you can at night... but basically it's backstage galore. You can even see what I believe is the original berm... Disneyland RailRoad tracks that haven't been in use in ages. For some reason it seems they never removed them.

That was actually one of my reasons for riding, but I could barely see anything. =/ The hedges made it very difficult to catch glimpses of anything but a few corrugated steel roofs.

Originally Posted by Nautilus

Someone is abusing the use of the chicken exit...

Nah...abusing would be if we jumped into the storm scene and spray-painted a large hidden Mickey onto the backside of the nearest window, then proceeded to shout ghostly sound effects of our own at the guests over the din of the storm sound effects...or if we went straight instead of turning left at the stairs back up to the park, as we were strongly tempted to do but decided not to. No, what we were doing was just harmless exploration of an area they make freely available to guests.