T.R.I.P., Koutesu's Trip Report In Progress

[Koutesu]

Ok. So it's Saturday today. Tomorrow I hit the road for Anaheim. All I can say is that it's about time I get a vacation. I plan to take my laptop so A)I still have the internet, B)I have a crapload of videos and music from Disney parks (I know, where Dreams Come-something or other), and C)I can officially do a trip report. Even T.R.I.P. is an acronym for Trip Report In Progress.

All I have left is to pack. Our park tickets arrived 2 weeks ago (my company goes through Working Advantage, so at least we got some kind of discount). I also stayed up late the other night burning CDs for the drive from Phoenix to Anaheim. I memorial-ized the 6 disc Musical History of Disneyland and the Pirates of the Caribbean CD and Haunted Mansion CD I have onto 5 discs (which I added Phantom Manor ride through I downloaded from another site).

I also burned 2 CDs for the Disney Eurobeat CD that AVEX produced for Tokyo Disneyland back around 2000. For those who don't know, AVEX got the rights to remix Disney music into eurobeat music which was used for the Club Disney promotion at TDL at that time. AVEX also teamed up with video game company Konami to make Dance Dance Revolution: Disney's Rave/Disney Mix. Mickey Mouse March~Eurobeat Version was also used for the dance game Para Para Paradise. Those of you who are eurobeat fans might recognize the names Dave Rodgers and Domino.

(Kimura Takuya, Mickey, Minnie, and others dance to Night of Fire and Mickey Mouse March.)
[YOUTUBE]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T-ncRnGQ2eY[/YOUTUBE]

I really can't wait to leave tomorrow. All I have to do go to my parents' house and we'll pack up the 2 cars we're using. There'll be 10 of us! My parents, me, my younger brother, my older sister, my bother in law, my two nieces (one of which is about 15 months), my nephew, and my aunt.

I will have lots of fun. I'll update as my trip progresses.

[VeganPrincess]

Wow, you have a really big travel party. Can't wait to read the report.

[Melonballer]

Have fun and keep us updated.

[Koutesu]

Wow, you have a really big travel party. Can't wait to read the report.

This isn't the first time either. In the fall of '05, we had another extended family trip to get multiple familiar October b-days out of the way. That time there were 13 of us!

[Koutesu]

I'm about to head to bed in a few minutes. I'm still at home in Mesa. Tomorrow, the plan is to go meet my parents at their house. We'll probably have a quick bite to eat before barrelling across the desert. I believe we'll be at the Peacock Suites (my dad went into the Shell Vacations Time Share thing through the Legacy Resort in Phoenix). Soon as I get pics uploaded to my Photobucket, we'll start seeing my pics. I got a simple digital camera earlier this year, so I'll be able to upload and even post pics before I've gone home!

おやすみなさい/o yasuminasai (good night)

[Koutesu]

It's Sunday morning and we're preparing to leave. Soon enough we'll hitting the road. It will be about 6-6.5 hours of driving until we arrive in Anaheim.

[The Disneylander]

This looks very promising, have fun!

[Koutesu]

I'm exhausted. After what felt like forever, we finally left like an hour after my last message. We stopped @ Wendy's for lunch off I-10 and Litchfield Rd on the way out of the Phoenix area. By the time we left Wendy's it was almost 1:30! We drove to Indio where we switched drivers.

Let me tell you, my dad's driving made me nervous. He got too close to some of the vehicles. I closed my eyes so I didn't have to feel worried (I wish I had a chicken brake the whole time) and fell asleep as a result. My sister's car got too far ahead until we passed them on the downhill section approaching Indio. Then we stopped for gas.

We got back on the freeway, this time with me driving and in control. I kept having to slow down so my brother in law Nicky could catch up (I was only doing 80 or so!). Somewhere in this forum was a thread on someone asking about the 60-215-91 interchange. While it is a mess with all the construction, it's not as bad as everyone has been making it out to be! If it's not the morning rush hour, it should be ok. It's still the stupid cloverleaf ramp (since the flyover ramp still isn't complete). Once I got past the construction, it was pretty smooth sailing the rest of the way. I prefer blowing through the 55 and 57 interchanges and using the Lemon St/Harbor Blvd exit and then driving the 5 miles or whatever south to the Disneyland Resort.

At first we couldn't find the hotel. I know I had seen it before, so I turned left onto Disney Way. I turned onto Clementine when I should have gone straight ahead where the street curves into Manchester. We found our hotel the Peacock Suites.

It's ok. They use valet 24/7. The rooms are a little narrow (seems like the older hotels have wider rooms). They're 2 room suites. With a group of 10, we used 2 suites which were actually connected. Sliding french doors are what separate the back room (sofabed, TV, fridge, micro) from the bedroom. The kids love sleeping in these TV rooms. Ugh, you have to buy a 24 hour period connection for the internet! Even Best Westerns and Days Inn will have free internet. It is a little far from DL.

My sister Carolina, Nicky, her son Nick, 9 month old Victoria, and my brother Eric are using ART, the rest of us are using the family Impala and driving to Mickey and Friends. I love using that parking structure. I know lots of people on this board complain M&F isn't very Disney like and stuff like that, but I noticed the skilled CMs are very efficient at parking us. I was suprised to see they still park all cars in the same manner as the parking lot. Those of you who have never used the old lot or M&F, each aisle has the cars come and park in two phases. Cars in Phase 1 move to the end and pull into the spot (which looks like one, long parking spot). The car must pull to the very front. When the front half of the every spot is filled, the cars in Phase 2 come in and pull in behind the cars in those spots. I love using the tramzillas. I love to see these white and red trams pull up, load up with happy people from all over the world, and go. They look almost graceful going through the curves. It seems like as soon as a tramzilla boards and leaves, another comes right up from behind to load more people.

We spent the first day at Disneyland. It felt good to be back. Sure, it was busy, but I guess you could call me a summer warrior. Almost every trip we've made has been in the summer. I'm used to longer lines and crowds.

Our first ride was everyone's favorite: カリブの海賊/Karibu no Kaizoku! My little niece Victoria was getting scared as we approached the first drop since it's very dark. That first drop was "Baby's First Thrill". I got water splashed back into my face. It wasn't like a little spritz either. Everyone in the boat was singing "Yo-Ho". If you haven't figured it out yet, I'm talking about Pirates of the Caribbean. We did many classics that day. We did Haunted Mansion, Splash Mountain, Indiana Jones, Star Tours, it's a small world, Peter Pan, and Mr Toad. We also did Autopia and Pooh. Funny thing about Peter Pan, it's a small world, Mr Toad, and Pooh is the fact that there always seems to be a lot of childless adults. It got pretty warm and were cursed with sunshine. I was so tired after Monday. We got back to the hotel around 12 midnight.

We spent a full day at DCA. We had to take the baby to Monster's Inc. That was a given. My sister loved Muppets. We used to watch the Muppet Show when we were kids. I never used to like Sam the Eagle until Muppet Vision. Of course, political humor is funnier when you're an adult (American Dad is lost on younger people), but I loved his "Tribute to All Nations But Mostly America", even though his glorious 3 hour finale had to be trimmed back to a minute and a half (which in itself is a stab at small world). It had a pretty good sized audience. Soarin' is simply amazing. I love its soundtrack. It's Tough to Be a Bug also drew a good sized audience. I love dark parts of this show when Hopper invades. I love hearing people scream when Hopper has the theatre gassed with the can of bug spray and the audience get's stung by the wasps. The black widows seem to really freak people out, too. Grizzly River Run was fun as always. We purposely came to the ride entrance from Paradise Pier so that Carolina and Nicky didn't see the last drop. She kept asking me if it was anything like Bigfoot Rapids at Knott's and I told her no since they don't just have waterfalls over you. They couldn't believe there was a drop ahead of us. I think my dry curse is over as I actually got wet. We even got the geyser! Carolina and Nicky loved Screamin'. They had fastpasses for that right after GRR, so they got to airdry a little. We had dinner at the Fisherman's Wharf area. I had a broccoli cheese bread bowl. It was so good! Their brocolli cheese bread bowl makes the one you get at Paradise Bakery at the mall look like a puddle of vomit. I thought it was that good. The perfect ending to our day at DCA was Disney's Electrical Parade.

We then went to Disneyland for Star Tours. It was during the fireworks, but we made suprisingly good time getting toward the hub. After Star Tours, my sister really wanted to do Space Mountain. We tried to do fastpass the day before, but Space had broken down and we decided to fastpass Splash instead. We were very pleasantly suprised when the 55 minute wait for Space only ended up being 30 min if that. The CMs did a very good job keeping the line moving. To me it really says a lot when attractions like Pirates, Haunted Mansion, and Space have a decades long popularity that doesn't wane.

We are using today to rest. I'm very tired and sore. We will be at the parks again tomorrow, then we return home on Friday ;_;

Just so everyone knows, I get to start at my new branch on Monday. i will still be a lead teller, but I will be at a larger branch and I get to work traditional hours instead of working til 7pm at an instore branch.

I will post some of my pics when I get a chance. What I intend to do is make a slideshow, post it to YouTube, so keep an eye on this thread!

[Koutesu]

My parents:


My Aunt Leonor, my niece Danniela, my nephew Nick


Sister Carolina, Nicky, and niece Victoria (I joke that Victoria is my #1 favorite while her brother and sister are tied for 3rd):


Me


Brother Eric

[Koutesu]

Here are a few pics. I plan to make a slideshow and post it on YouTube.

















Look at Victoria sleep!

[Alice's Wonderland]

Sounds like an awesome trip! I love those family get togethers that take forever and yet are still totally worth it.

[DonDuck]

Great TR!

[NeverNeverland]

Great report!

[aashee]

Nice Mix of Pix!

Well Done!

Chad

[Koutesu]

Tomorrow will be our last day at Disneyland, so I'll try to get some more pics. Like I said, I intend to make a slideshow with all my pics, but will take me a while.