3 reports + links to more- 8 days since May + conversations galore

[daisy_77]

I am glad that you got some relief!

Kaoden said it---Walt was ahead of his time.

[bumbershoot]

So I'm pretty annoyed with myself, b/c I didn't take all the pix I usually do, which are the way I figure out what we did, and I didn't take notes. I'm having a real problem with remembering the order, and as everyone who reads my stuff knows, I normally go in order.

But it's not possible this time.

Especially b/c my brother put that little enabling "you could go back to Anaheim for a day or two", then I was talking about that with my sis in law this morn, and she said "how much is that Grand hotel? Book it, use my card, go tomorrow". They justify this by saying that they never have bought E a proper birthday or Yule/Christmas present, so they just pay for *his* travel and park stuff...so they buy HIM a hotel room, not me, but of course I can stay there. They are hilarious.

So my mind is BLOWN, and I'm struggling with guilt about Robert not being here (though he is urging me to go, telling me that I like being in the know, I like having done things first so I can show him around, etc etc), and so if all I have from DCA are glimpses, well, glimpses are what you're going to get.

I tell you, I am so lucky with my family. And hubby. Oh, and speaking of hubby, he's already feeling changes after taking his first pill for treatment of the prolactinoma. So cool!

Trip glimpses in next post.

[bumbershoot]

PLEASE explain to me why I, of all people, put any stock in what the disney site said????

It shows a 279 rate for GCH for tomorrow, but the reality is that they have one suite for over 1K tomorrow. That's a big difference!

Harumph.

[daisy_77]

Wow, your family is sooooo nice!

I would totally stay at the GCH if it was offered to me.

I am so glad to hear Robert can feeling the changes.

[bumbershoot]

TSMM, Soarin'. Done and enjoyed. Got a second set of FPs for Soarin' b/c SIL loved it so much, but one thing I DO remember is that the time on them was 1:55, so we had some time to wait!


snippets from the day



**************
We had lunch (none of us except E had had breakfast) at Cocina Cucamonga and Pacific Wharf Cafe. E and I both got kid's meals of the bean and cheese burritos. For the first time, he actually wanted to try the fruit cup. He couldn't deal with how sweet it was, but at least he tried it this time! Brother and SIL shared the corn chowder (in the important bread bowl) and the Carne Asada w/ Chicken Tamale. They enjoyed it all. For some reason, SIL also got the toddler meal of mac and cheese, and offered some to E...he really liked it, and so did she. I can't get over what a tiny little portion of mac and cheese it is, but at least the taste was good (according to them).

I really like the set-up of the new Cocina...you order well away from the windows, at stand alone kiosks like they do at Pizza Oom Mow Mow and, I believe, the Hungry Bear. Then you take your receipt to the windows, and once you get up to the person at the window, you show your receipt and they gather your order. The kid meals were still in the mickey plates, but the other dish was on a proper (bright yellow) plate and came with proper silverware. Nice!

There was a roving female mariachi band. They didn't bug me, but my sib and his wife are extremely anti roving bands, so it brought tension to the table. Thankfully we were done with our food by the time they started over towards our side.

************

The tortilla factory was a big hit! Not, perhaps, the "maseca" cartoon, but seeing them made and having a fresh one at the end was a good thing. SIL wanted to go again, right away! While she did that with Eamon, that's when I went to first aid, as it was just around the corner. Brother went with me, but waited outside.
*************

E did not get soaked in the bug's land water areas! My sib scoffed at me when I told E he could run through things, but he was not to get soaked...but he agreed, and he did just that! Got a light sprinkling all over and was happy with that.

We rode the Chew Chew train (brother noticed the "chew" spelling and meaning immediately). E and I went on Tuck and Roll, where we encountered a wait! Had to wait 2 ride cycles before we went on. Shocking. They have GOT to do something about the heat in there...the tent just traps the hot air...I know I'd been to first aid by then b/c I had my wet paper towel around my neck, LOL, but I always notice the heat under that big top.

The CM was borderline useless on that...she was having issues on Heimlich, too (they cycle the CMs around the rides quickly in bug's land and it's not the first time that the CM at Heimlich was the CM at tuck/roll even when we go right over there). Then she'd make the announcement about...well, who knows, really, and she talked fast, high, and muffled. I did quite a good impression of her later, by speaking into my closed fist, it brought a smile to my stoic brother's face. Always fun to get a smile.

E actually DROVE the buggie this time! He needed some help sometimes, but for more than half of the ridetime, he was controlling the entire vehicle. How cool is that? Both Robert and I have relatively long torsos with relatively short legs, but maybe E is going to get the long legs from my dad's side of the family? His being able to reach the pedal might be indicative of that.


The Ladybug Boogie was fun, but like I've mentioned, something about the ride re-injured whatever part is injured on my bro. He hasn't shared what exactly is pulled, but it's something very painful, I can tell.

After that we called it quits in bug's land, b/c E doesn't enjoy Flik's Flyers enough to go just the two of us, nor does he like it enough to justify any wait over, say 5 minutes.

************

While leaving the bug's land area, SIL saw Sam Andreas Shakes (actually she saw it on our way in, and we created a path where it was on our way out towards Sunshine Plaza...creative path). She needed one of those shakes. So while wandering out of there, heading for our second time on Soarin', they decided to stop in the shade of Grizzly Mountain (as I call it, even if that's not the name, LOL) and finish it. I figured that I might as well go get the FPs, so that's what I did!

They are generous with everything else in their lives...but NOT desserts. Desserts are hoarded, and I wasn't having fun watching them scarf down a milkshake.

So I went over there, and in my brain-melt (I was still overheating then), I got a FP using E's AP too. He won't go on it, he doesn't like the fact that you disappear, but we made that 4th FP work for us.

When I got back we went on Soarin' again.

Later on, when we made our way over into Hollywood, first we went on Monsters Inc. The line was out the door, which is a first for us. Not unpleasant, just surprising.

After Monsters, I went on TOT with sis in law...she screamed so loud! And she was laughing so hard at the end. Loved it. We came out and she went on again (using E's FP) with my brother. He tells me she screamed on that ride too...he of course did not, silly boy. But they both really liked the ride.

[bumbershoot]

Originally Posted by daisy_77

Wow, your family is sooooo nice!

I would totally stay at the GCH if it was offered to me.

They are...but alas GCH isn't going along with the plans.

I'm now looking at the Tropicana.

[amyamya]

No! No Tropicana! There is no way the entire Grand is full on a weeknight?! Surely there will be a cancellation or no show? You MUST stay there! Don't give up yet...

[Sherry E]

Yes, you have to stay at the GCH so you can have the experience of having stayed at all 3 - and then you can compare notes with me on the GCH rooms and tell me if you think the beds are too tall!! I hope you can get in! I can deal with a little dessert hoarding if I get a cool GCH room out of it!!

The Cocina line set-up sounds similar to what the set-up at Taste Pilots Grill is, except without the '70s classic rock playing in the background!! I was not sure if I liked that set-up or not, but that's what it was.

Oh, I so empathize with you about the overheating, Molly. I can totally understand as you explain your experience of people worrying about you as they see you sweating even in an air-conditioned area - it's because you are literally overheated. And as I said, I have always had that problem (since I was little), whether I was thin or heavy, whether I was 10 years old or 21 or 41 years old - that's just my body chemistry, I guess. I have know very thin people who seem to get hot quickly, and heavier people who get very cold fast. It's all in the body make-up. But it has to drop down to 40 degrees before I get too cold! And people who don't have the problem don't understand. If you go out on an 80-degree day, they say, "Oh it's not too bad right now. It's not that hot." But it is not hot to THEM. To me, I feel like I am burning from the inside out! And then I get bad sunburns on top of it, so summertime is NOT my friend!!!

[kaoden39]

I am with everybody else. Go GCH!! Yes, I am still practicing enabling

[bumbershoot]

Originally Posted by amyamya

No! No Tropicana! There is no way the entire Grand is full on a weeknight?! Surely there will be a cancellation or no show? You MUST stay there! Don't give up yet...

Alas...all taht was available at an AP rate at the GCH was a one bedroom suite for OVER $1000. Um yeah no.

But my SIL caught me just as I was about to go for the Tropicana (I had just played on mapmyrun and found that the trop is .22 miles to the center of the esplanade while PPH is .46 miles through GCH, to the same spot) and made me book a view room at PPH.

Honestly I wish I'd just done the Trop, b/c it's closer, I'm not having anything delivered to the room, and it's not like I'm getting in the car at 4am so we can take advantage of MM tomorrow...but what swayed me was that it's a hotel, so it's a bit safer, at least in perception, than the motel of the Tropicana. I'm sure they would rather have their nephew in the confines of PPH than out in the wilderness of Harbor, LOL.

[kaoden39]

Originally Posted by bumbershoot

Alas...all taht was available at an AP rate at the GCH was a one bedroom suite for OVER $1000. Um yeah no.

But my SIL caught me just as I was about to go for the Tropicana (I had just played on mapmyrun and found that the trop is .22 miles to the center of the esplanade while PPH is .46 miles through GCH, to the same spot) and made me book a view room at PPH.

Honestly I wish I'd just done the Trop, b/c it's closer, I'm not having anything delivered to the room, and it's not like I'm getting in the car at 4am so we can take advantage of MM tomorrow...but what swayed me was that it's a hotel, so it's a bit safer, at least in perception, than the motel of the Tropicana. I'm sure they would rather have their nephew in the confines of PPH than out in the wilderness of Harbor, LOL.

I am actually more comfortable hearing that you are staying in an actual hotel with indoor hallways. Plus SIL wants to make sure E has the best. He has stolen her heart.

[bumbershoot]

Sherry, I'm going to try to get us to Taste Pilots this time. I've heard such good things about the cross cut fries, and everyone says there's a veggie burger there.

I really hope to try NEW things instead of just all the normal things, so I can have something *interesting* to write about! If it's the same old same old, I doubt I'll write, 'cuz frankly I'm sure these reports are getting boring!


What I should do is do reviews of things, instead of my first this then that stories.

[Sherry E]

That is interesting to know the exact distances from the Tropicana vs. the PPH! I was trying to convince my out of town friends (IF they end up coming out here in the Fall) to stay off-site for a variety of reasons (even though I would be staying onsite!), and my Idaho friend was iffy about the idea because of distance. So now I have actual stats I can give her about how close the Trop is and how close the PPH is to support my point!!

So back to the PPH it is for you! Gee, Molly, you are becoming a seasoned on-site guest!! Pretty soon you will have stayed onsite more than off-site, despite best laid plans!

[kaoden39]

Originally Posted by Sherry E

That is interesting to know the exact distances from the Tropicana vs. the PPH! I was trying to convince my out of town friends (IF they end up coming out here in the Fall) to stay off-site for a variety of reasons (even though I would be staying onsite!), and my Idaho friend was iffy about the idea because of distance. So now I have actual stats I can give her about how close the Trop is and how close the PPH is to support my point!!

So back to the PPH it is for you! Gee, Molly, you are becoming a seasoned on-site guest!! Pretty soon you will have stayed onsite more than off-site, despite best laid plans!

And the CM's will be greeting you by name when they see you!!

[Sherry E]

Originally Posted by bumbershoot

Sherry, I'm going to try to get us to Taste Pilots this time. I've heard such good things about the cross cut fries, and everyone says there's a veggie burger there.

I really hope to try NEW things instead of just all the normal things, so I can have something *interesting* to write about! If it's the same old same old, I doubt I'll write, 'cuz frankly I'm sure these reports are getting boring!


What I should do is do reviews of things, instead of my first this then that stories.

Those fries at TPG are good - so were the onion rings, for that matter. Generous portion sizes too! The TPG menu was a tad limited, but I think I recall a veggie burger on there somewhere. I know my BBQ chicken sandwich was very messy. And all the songs that play at TPG are aviation/space-related songs. I heard Elton John's "Rocket Man," David Bowie's "Space Oddity" and Steve Miller's "Fly Like an Eagle" while I was there. Gotta love the classics!!

I think we all really enjoy your reports here! I am just happy that you are getting to go to DLR so often to have something to report ON! But I think there is probably always something new or different to be discovered on the property somewhere; always more pictures to be taken.