[dznygrl]

Yup, that's right!

For those of you who don't follow me on Twitter - my sister and I were on vacation in Southern Cali for a few days this past week. What was supposed to be a Six-Flags-only vacation turned into a partial Disneyland trip! It ranks as the single best change of plans ever!

I will be back with all the juicy details (including pics and the info on how we ended up at Disney in the first place!) very soon. Off to resize my pics. Stay tuned!

[cinderbella]

omg..you are your spontaneity always amaze me!! I can't wait to hear about it!!

[WDW Rules]

Okay, I'll be waiting. I bet it was fun!

[Dana]

Cool! Glad you got to "sneak" to Disneyland. Can't wait to hear all about it. you tell a great trip report.

[dznygrl]

So a little background on this trip...

My sister and I had been planning an end-of-summer trip to Six Flags Magic Mountain, just the two of us. The plan was to spend 3 days in Valencia - two days at Magic Mountain and one day at the water park, Hurricane Harbor.

Cast:
Dznygrl - age 24
Michelle, "Mia" - age 17

A few things we hadn't counted on:
-Extreme heat (around 100 degrees every + heavy humidity!)
-The Station wildfire
-Six Flags' own brand of (terrible) customer service

Now believe me, I know that Six Flags is not known for Disney-esque service, cleanliness, etc. But we've made trips there many times before and been able to look past all that. Not this time.

Our trip started out with a bang...lots of enthusiasm, totally pumped to hit the roller coasters. We had a loooong drive ahead of us when we started, which required some appropriate fuel...(thank goodness my sister isn't on this site, or she'd probably kill me for posting some of these pics! )

[dznygrl]

Don't worry, I'm going to skip all of the Six Flags nonsense (except for the part that drove us to DL!)

I apologize for how terribly cheesy we look in some of these pictures!

Early into the trip, we were feelin' good...happy to point out our location on the map whenever we stopped at a rest area!

[Dana]

LMAO....yeah sis would kill you. They pictures are adorable however and we won't tell her.

[dznygrl]

As soon as we hit central California, the heat began to take its toll. The first pic is my sister faking melting to death at a rest area. The second is us dying of heat in the car. (Even A/C was no match for this kind of heat - especially since there was not a cloud to be found in the sky! It was 100+ degrees and the sun was blazing.)

[WishUponAStar]

YAY!!! I am SOOO happy you got to go to Disneyland, this makes me SO excited to see your pics!!

[Experiment6-2-6]

Originally Posted by dznygrl

A few things we hadn't counted on:
-Extreme heat (around 100 degrees every + heavy humidity!)
-The Station wildfire
-Six Flags' own brand of (terrible) customer service

Sorry to hear about the unexpected situations.

That being said, even a partial trip is better than none. I can't wait until I read more!

[WishUponAStar]

Ummm, haha, if I was your sister right now I'd be tackling you to the ground and grinding my nuckle into your skull until you took those pictures off.

But I love it, we won't tell her!!

[hanwill]

sounds like you had southern weather... Wanna move? Sounds like a fun trip!

[dznygrl]

Now down to the nitty gritty: just how Six Flags drove us into the welcoming arms of Disney!

We spent our first day at Magic Mountain as planned. It was hot, sticky, a little smoky, and downright miserable. (The weather and the wildfire, of course, were not Six Flags' fault. ) Mia and I discovered that neither of enjoys roller coasters the way we used to. In addition to the soreness and headaches we already had from the rides, the heat was so intense it actually made us nauseous. Neither of us felt too great by the time we got back to our hotel!

The big problem arose on Day #2. We went to Hurricane Harbor, hoping that water attractions would keep us cool and happy all day. This day was cloudy and the reprieve from the blazing sun was a blessing!

At the entrance to Hurricane Harbor, there were some hastily-printed pieces of paper plastered around announcing that five of the park's biggest attractions were closed for the day. (We had just seen them open the day before!) Bummer. We checked out the wave pool - which had no waves, and was approximately the temperature of melted ice cream - and then 2 innertube slides. At one point I noticed black smears on my innertube and realized it was ASH! Ash was falling pretty heavily and the amount that guests must have been breathing in could not have been healthy. I'm frankly surprised that a water park would stay open under those circumstances!

Before leaving the hotel on this morning, my sister had changed her swimsuit top for a similar tank top because her swimsuit top has a tendency to fly off on waterslides. Apparently this was a BAD idea, because we were turned away from all of the body slides at Hurricane Harbor and told Mia couldn't ride them "in regular clothes". There was NO signage to indicate this rule anywhere, not even in the park brochures, on the maps, or even on the website where we purchased our tickets! Equally infuriating was the fact that we saw other girls riding the body slides in attire almost identical to my sister's. She was wearing a form-fitting tank and her swimsuit bottoms, but we were turned away from 50% of the attractions in the park. Another 25% were closed for the day, which left us about 3 total slides and an ice-cold "non"-wave-pool to choose from.

I went to Guest Relations to explain our situation and ask what our options were.

Guess what kind of response I got?

"Well, it's not really our fault that you chose to wear a tank top. Go buy a swimsuit at the gift shop."



Um...wow.

When I pressed the issue further, I was offered a ticket for my sister to come back on a different day. I explained that we were not available to come back on another day. I asked if they could exchange our tickets for one-day tickets to Magic Mountain if we paid the price difference (which is a measley $7 difference if you purchase online!): nope. I even asked if they could offer my sister a discount on a swimsuit top since there is no signage supporting their "no tank tops" rule: nope. It was either "go buy a swimsuit", or be entirely outta luck.

I gotta be honest: this made me furious. I asked if there was a phone number I could call to speak to a superior. The guest relations agent responded "Sure!" and handed me a business card with a hastily-scribbled e-mail address I couldn't even read. No phone number. Literally a name, the Six Flags logo, and a scribbled e-mail.

That was it for me. We got our stuff and left.

It was definitely time to reevaluate our vacation plans!!

[LittleMissMagic]

Oooh.... sounds like fun! (Well, I'm assuming Disney is more fun than this Six Flags water park. )

[dznygrl]

We spent the rest of the day kinda just dawdling around Southern CA. It was fun to visit some of my old favorite haunts and show my sister around.

We ended up eating lunch at a KFC in San Fernando - probably the most unique KFC I have ever visited in my life. The lobby featured a huge flat screen TV...which was playing Maury. Nothing like fried chicken and paternity tests, right??

After lunch I suggested we drive to Hollywood just for fun, since my sister has never been and I love playing Tour Guide Barbie. Lol! Our first stop was for dessert. This is some can't-miss stuff...*sigh*...I would do anything for more of it right now...