Tiggerfans trip Report, Part 1

[tiggerfan]

Ok folks I know it is a bit later than some of the other CHOC Walk/Gay Days trip reports but I had to spend the rest of my week dealing with those silly customers and they didn’t understand when I wanted to skip their work to write about Disney <G>.

So here we go, a trip report absent pictures (I am one of those people who bring the camera but never end up taking pictures.

Day One: Friday October 6th

This was mostly a travel day. I live in Stockton, which is about 6 hours or so from the Mouse House.

I left town around 1pm and drove south, stopping in Glendale for a dinner party/get together with friends who live in the area. As always I planned to leave after a quick dinner, and of course didn’t get out until nearly 11:30 pm.

I then headed down to Anaheim and checked in to the Howard Johnsons (which thanks to the entertainment rate I got for $ 55 per night plus tax). I had room 2124 which is towards the back, a longer walk but less noise.

I do have to say for the price it was one heck of a deal.

After relaxing for a bit I headed to bed, ready for the next day in the parks.

Day Two: Saturday October 7th

I got up early and headed over to Mimi’s (a great place to grab breakfast before heading into the parks). I waited for a bit and soon was met by the legendary Judimouse, one of the nicest people on the planet.

We had breakfast and then she drove me over to CHOC so we could check in for the walk the next day. If you don’t know about CHOC or the walk, I encourage you to check out the web site (www.choc.org) and find out more.

After checking in Judi dropped me at the parks and, being the ever wonderful person she is, she headed off to pick up another friend at the airport.

I got into Disneyland just after 10am and it was already crowded with lots of very nice people in red shirts. Speaking as an mostly straight person, I have to say that I just don’t get the fuss over the whole Gay Days thing.

I know there are those who have moral issues with sexuality, but its not like I saw anything inappropriate. I saw some nice cute couples holding hands, that’s about it. The only really questionable stuff I saw were some straight teenage couples kissing and touching back by Frontierland.

I also noticed a few counter protesters who were wearing red shirts with comments against gay days. Again, I don’t get it, seems they could spend time on more productive things than protesting a non-event.

Frankly some of the gay couples were a lot nicer to me than some of the counter protesters. But anyway, off my soapbox and back to the trip report.

My last trip down was in June when Pirates was still in rehab, so I wanted to make sure to get at least one ride on the new version. I headed over to NOS and found that there wasn’t too bad of a line (maybe 15 minutes)

The line moved quickly, and I spent much of it explaining to people in line why the parks were crowded and what the red shirts were for. I have to say I love the new rehab, especially the ghost curtain effect, which I think is very well executed.

After Pirates I moved over to Haunted Mansion, to see the overlay for Nightmare Before Christmas. Disney went all out on this one and the details were incredible. Funnily enough the person in line next to me loves HM but hates the movie, and this was the first time he’d been in the park in 10 yrs. I hope he liked the overlay.

After Haunted I headed to ride on Pooh since I know I am often the only one in my group who wants to ride on it. I was in line with a very nice couple of red shirts and we laughed over the fact that we were the only 3 adults without kids in line. (if you guys are online here, hello)

After Pooh it was time to meet up with Judi and her friend Clara. Clara is something of a Billy Hill addict so we met at the Golden Horseshoe and enjoyed a really good show.

After the show Clara stuck around for a second show while Judi and I headed over to ride on Big Thunder. This is a great ride and lots of fun to do, especially at night.

After Big Thunder it was getting late enough to head out for lunch. One thing I have come to enjoy is eating in downtown Disney, the prices are not much more expensive and you get nice table service

We headed down to Ralph Brennans Jazz Kitchen for a very fattening lunch and a nice conversation. As usual we ran into a few of Judi’s friends (both Cast members and guests) which is always fun for me to watch.

After lunch we decided to try DCA for a while since Disneyland was really packed. A word of advice if you come down on Gay Days weekend, they usually focus on DL on Saturday and DCA on Sunday.

At DCA Judi took us to see Golden Screams, which is the Halloween rehab of Golden Dreams. People have already posted on the details of the show, so I won’t bother rehashing things. But the one thing I will say is that this is a bad bad show. It’s only good point is you can grab a nap.

We also watched Muppets and Bugs Life, which are good shows and a lot of fun. I do think they could maybe update the Muppet show a little bit but overall it is a very fun way to spend some time.

By now it was getting later so we headed over to the Cove Bar so that Judi could meet with all of the red-shirters from here on the web. I have seldom seen a bar that crowded and Judi was of course quickly surrounded by her friends.

For those of you who waved a hello to the dorky guy with Judi, thanks for the hello and sorry I didn’t get a chance to meet more of you but things were so crowded I figured it was easier to let Judi say her hellos.

After the meet at the Cove Bar we tried to do a few more rides but things were pretty crowded. In addition we had the CHOC walk the next day, so we decided to head back to the hotel and get a good nights sleep


Coming soon, part 2 with CHOC Walk and Day 3

[NeverNeverland]

Thanka for the report
Looking forward to day 2

[kelly]

great report looking forward to day 2 report

[Hakuna Makarla]

wheres the pics man?? wheres the pics??????? I can not seem to get thru a trip report unless it has great pics

[tiggerfan]

Sorry but I tend to forget to take pictures when I go in the parks.

But I will be down again in November, I'll try to do better <G>

[Radiobarry]

Great report! Looks like good times for both "Tigger" and (Detroit) "Tiger" fans too!!! (Although we all now that Tigers don't bounce, which might hurt them in the baseball World Series)...

--Barry