[dznygrl]

Originally Posted by WishUponAStar

(here we go again, Twilight Zone)

At approximately 9:10pm (15 minutes before showtime, when we had already been sitting there for nearly an hour) two women and a collective 5 children TOTALLY and physically PUSHED their bodies in front of ours to get in front of us & press their bodies against the rope (we WERE the first people in front of the rope). Neither women made eye contact, said excuse me, or even attempted to be gracious about it. It was a full on PUSH past us, pull of their children's hands to come with them, then just stopped there in front of us SQUISHING us now against the metal garbage cans & against the cast iron postal box on a pole.

Daniel and I both looked at each other TOTALLY in shock like, "Did they seriously just push us out of the way and expect to steal our spot with no apologies?"

I guess one of the women heard me say to Daniel, "What the heck, that woman TOTALLY just pushed me and took our spot."

The woman turned around and SCREAMED AT ME; "YA KNOW, YOU SHOULD HAVE A LITTLE PATIENCE!"

This threw me for a loop and I lost it.

I said to the rude lady, "Umm, excuse me, but we've been sitting here for ONE HOUR.. I call that patience enough. I am sorry you don't have a spot but PHYSICALLY PUSHING me out of the way and attemping to shove your way into one isn't ok. There's a rope there and there's NOT enough room for your party of 7 to fit. We waited here and we don't want to be physically violated! "

I am SO glad you stood up to that lady! OMG I am furious just sitting here reading about it - I can't imagine if I had been there!

Oh, and Daniel's surprise was sooooooo sweet ()...what a perfect time to give it to you too, right before the best fireworks EVER!

[dznygrl]

Originally Posted by WishUponAStar

This was my absolute FAVORITE! I love that I caught the laser during the "Star Tours" part of the show:

Wishy, that picture is AMAZING!!!!!!!!!! You need to enter that in some photo contests - really, what a great pic!!

[dznygrl]

Originally Posted by WishUponAStar

I think I am ready for Day 2!

Sunday, June 22nd

....WAIT.... first, EArly Morning Entry discussion:


Sunday is an "early morning entry" day in Disneyland Park, they do this about 4 times per week. These are mornings where [supposedly] only resort guests & people who hold 3 day, or higher, tickets can get into the park one hour early (which was 7am). I was a little frustrated when I started noticing that many ticket turnstiles weren't checking this status what-so-ever. Daniel noted that whordes of people were coming off the trams (that don't connect to the resort hotels), and walking from directions that didn't lead to resort hotels & entering right in. Perhaps maybe they all had those special tickets that included one early morning entry who knows but it APPEARED that whoever walked up was just walking through the turnstiles willy-nilly with no thorough checking going on.

My inquiry about these "early morning entry" privleges, for any one more Disneyland seasoned than I, is why when you stay at one of the Disneyland Resort Hotels are you only allowed to do ONE early entry? On Tuesday when we went to do early morning entry again (of course THIS TIME they were thoroughly checking) the man at the monorail station ticket turnstile stopped Daniel and I. He did a computer look-up of our tickets & said "I'm sorry ma'am, you already did your early entry." When Daniel and I showed him our Disneyland Hotel resort i.d. he asked me again, "Didn't you already use your one early entry, is this your second time?" I said, "yes, this is the second time we're doing early entry but aren't we entitled because we're staying on property?" He tried to explain to me that I was only entitled to "ONE MAGICAL MORNING and that I already used it." Another cast member came over, clicked some screens on the ticket computer, and let Daniel and I through. No explanations given or anything and we didn't want to hold up the line any further so we just went.

I was really confused by this situation. If I had a 4-day park hopper, and was staying at the Disneyland Hotel shouldn't I be entitled to TWO early morning entries if that's the case? One for the ticket & one for staying at the resort? I don't know if the dude was confused or we were but something just didn't seem right. And shouldn't you get UNLIMITED "magical mornings" just by virtue of staying at an official Disneyland Resort hotel?

OK, sorry... here comes Day 2.

If that is truly the rule - 'only one magic morning entry' when you're staying on-site, I think that's absolutely BOGUS!!!!!! (And infuriating!) The amount you have to pay to stay on-site at DL is so astronomical compared to half of the options in WDW, and at the very least you should be able to use magic morning every day of your stay!

Disney might just get a letter from me about that...especially because you are right, most of the time they don't bother checking peoples' tickets for magic mornings, and the entire public can get in if they want to!

[dznygrl]

Originally Posted by WishUponAStar

So we're seated promptly & without going into millions of details this was just SUCH an amazing dinner! Our server was amazing, SO kind, & so interested in taking care of our every desire. I ended up giving a seperate generous tip to our guy that was busing the table (Alfredo) because he was SO kind! He saw that we were enjoying the Sourdough bread and I explained to him that we just don't get this wonderful tasting sourdough on the east coast, he came back to our table 5 minutes later with a big take out box, handed it to me, and said "SHHH, top secret, you've got bread!" Oh my god, I LOVED him! He also noticed that table crumbs were obviously my enemy so he kept coming with that cool maître d crumb sweeper and said to Daniel, "you get her pretty jewel encrusted one for home." I LOVED this man!!!

Our server suprised me with an awesome birthday dessert and my friend Alfredo offered to take a picture for us & told me, "Make a wish for more bread & crumb brush." Oh my gosh, I LOVE Alfredo! Go to Steakhouse 55 & give him a big hug for me everyone!

See, now THAT is a cast member.

I wish they were all like that!!! It adds so much to the experience when someone takes the time to be friendly and engaging and act like they REALLY enjoy their job!

P.S. I'm still LOLing over your 'Glowtini'... I think by sticking Captain Hook's feet in your drink, she got Glowtini mixed up with a "Dirty" Martini!

[WishUponAStar]

Originally Posted by dznygrl

It's a shame that people have to pay so much attention to it and make you uncomfortable, because I aboslutely LOVE the art on your back and think it looks beautiful! I totally understand how people constantly looking at it (or heaven forbid taking pictures! ) would be disconcerting. It seems like the one place you should be able to show it off comfortably is Disney parks, but of course it doesn't work that way.

Okay anyway, just a little side comment......back to reading!

Well, I expect looking & such, I think I just feel self conscious sometimes in Disney parks with my back showing b/c I look like a huge Disney maniac or something. Then again, who am I foolin'... obviously I am!? I guess I am just not used to it because 85% of the time my back is covered and nobody knows or sees it. I do love it though and I want to finish it but I have no extra $ this summer!

[WishUponAStar]

Originally Posted by dznygrl

And rode California Screamin' afterwords to boot!!

I have the stomach of steel!

[WishUponAStar]

Originally Posted by dznygrl

Okay, that would have been such a strange experience!!! I'm glad you at least got a discount off of your meal, because without the usual Goofy's Kitchen atmosphere and the great fuss they usually make over birthdays, you definitely weren't getting your money's worth!

(I kind of feel bad for the characters, actually........I'm curious how they got up to the ballroom, and how they were able to get away when they needed a breather! That sounds a little bit like chaos!)

I'm glad to hear your evening at Disneyland made up for it though! Can't wait to read about it. And I'm off...!

It was SO weird. I did see characters being taken in/out of the elevator across the hall and after they'd do a round in the ballroom they'd dissapear into the same door that the servers were. Did they have to go through the kitchen?!?! I have no idea! It was SOOOO weird. Kinda interesting though to get to dine in the ballroom with a lot of characters & not a lot of guests though. Even though they DID forget my birthday.

[WishUponAStar]

Originally Posted by dznygrl

Wishy, that picture is AMAZING!!!!!!!!!! You need to enter that in some photo contests - really, what a great pic!!

Thank you, I like that one too .

[dznygrl]

Originally Posted by WishUponAStar

Well, I expect looking & such, I think I just feel self conscious sometimes in Disney parks with my back showing b/c I look like a huge Disney maniac or something. Then again, who am I foolin'... obviously I am!? I guess I am just not used to it because 85% of the time my back is covered and nobody knows or sees it. I do love it though and I want to finish it but I have no extra $ this summer!

I definitely understand where you're coming from with not wanting to seem like a total Disney maniac...I felt the same way about people finding out I was a cast member. Let me tell you, there were not a ton of cast members who wanted to spend their off-time playing in the parks, so tourists often responded with surprise and a "wow you must REALLY love Disney!" That always made me feel kind of foolish, even though I don't know why...and obviously I DO really love Disney, but... Anyway, yeah. I understand exactly what you're saying. It was just more comfortable for me to NOT tell people sometimes!