jodyb
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Oct 15, 1999
Liav and Jody's Excellent DLP Adventure 2005 Part 4
Cast:
Liav (13)
Jody (Old enough to be her Mom...)
Part 4 – Tuesday, Jan. 11, 2005, continued…
Goodbye to our lovely DLH room… (it seems the only photo of the room that we had is this one of the wallpaper border! Sorry!)
So off we went to the Studios. As soon as we reached the outdoors we realized it was MUCH colder today! Good thing I was wearing my son's long-johns under my jeans – I grabbed them when he was packing up his winter navy gear, and they sure came in handy! I also had a big down jacket that used to be my Dad's which I put UNDER a regular rain-jacket of mine. Not really too fashionable, to say the least, but I was determined to be warm! Liav had a nice down jacket that her Minnesota auntie gifted her with last year so she was outfitted nicely, though. Like Laura, I am not a large person (110 pounds soaking wet) but under all these layers this fact was not evident, and I vowed never to be in any photos, which was fine with Liav (the official photographer) anyway.
There were no characters at the Studios gate, which we thought odd since last year there had always been swarms of them… but we thought maybe they were too cold! We walked quickly to RnR, which is our favorite ride at the Studios. We planned to use our VIP FastPasses, but we were told that FastPass was not in use that week because of Magic Unlimited. My feeling is that Magic Unlimited should not have anything to do with whether FastPass is in use… but that's the way it was. The wait wasn't too bad, and after the first ride, we wanted to go again, so we were shown through a short CM corridor back to the queuing area. Now, here is where things went a little wrong. The CM's usually line people up for the cars, and as an empty train of cars comes up, it is immediately filled by waiting riders, and their places are immediately filled by those waiting for the next train. But during Magic Unlimited (at least that first week) it was a free for all! The regular queue came from one direction, and the repeat riders from the other, and they all converged in one big mess on the waiting area for the cars! Once was enough for us in that mess, so after our second ride, we exited RnR.
Believe it or not, Liav and I had never done the Magic of Disney Animation – in all our trips to WDW and DLP, somehow this one was always missed! So this time… we finally experienced it. It was okay, but Liav found it hard to follow. The live CM who gives the commentary in French spoke very loudly and it was difficult to hear the English through the headphones over his voice. This on top of the fact that English is not Liav's first language made it a sort of mish-mash of sound for her, but she enjoyed the clips anyway.
Afterward we spent some time playing the games in the outer area, and while Liav was concentrating on some creative endeavor, Coda sneaked up on her and pulled her hair – it wasn't easy, but I finally got Coda to calm down enough to pose for a picture with Liav.
After this, all we really wanted to do was more RnR, so we decided to see if they'd sorted out the queues… nope – it was still a mess, but we managed to ride twice more. This time, while still in the regular waiting area, we saw quite a few empty trains of cars being sent off. We were later told that this was due to a problem in the sound system, and rather than send guests on a silent ride, they were letting the cars with the defective system leave empty. Needless to say this held up the queue a bit, but still it wasn't too bad, even with lots of people coming back through the secret passage for Magic Unlimited riding….
Our cars had plenty of loud music, and we love this ride as much as ever.
We always look at the pictures as we're coming off the ride, and every single time, my mouth is wide open in a scream and my eyes are squeezed shut! Liav gets extremely annoyed at this, as she never fails to instruct me to keep my eyes open and mouth shut!! (Well, maybe my ulterior motive is to save the exorbitant price I would have to pay for the photo if she liked it…. Heh heh…)
As for Liav, she is always pictured grinning (eyes open of course) and hands in the air- fearless flyer that she is…
In the store at the exit to RnR Liav made her first souvenir purchase of this trip. A little Stitch to hang on her cellular phone. (We later found out her cell phone has no place to hang it – so it now lives on her camera).
We did not stay for the parade – it was just too cold, and we were hungry, so we left the studios
And off we went to Annette's diner …where we ordered the same food as the other day, and enjoyed it just as much.
After lunch we went to Disneyland Park and decided to do some shopping on Main Street. We both wanted candies to bring to school and work, and I wanted a baby gift for a friend's grandchild that is to be born in February. We found great stuff – Christmas chocolates were half price (and we were given the 10% discount for our AP's in addition!). I got the baby the most adorable Pooh mobile that plays music, and a soft Pooh rattle. We had all the purchases sent to the Sequoia lodge…
We wandered over to Fantasyland and rode Small World. We stayed on an additional time. (Here too things were not too organized – Magic Unlimited seemed to confuse the CM's and what should have been a fast-moving line was pretty stalled, and a lot of empty or almost empty boats went into the ride…
We also rode Dumbo and the Teacups (we really love all these Fantasyland kiddie rides), and then it was time to walk back to the Castle Club for tea.
We had our last lovely rest in the Castle Club lounge over delicious cakes and coffee. Someone had opened the windows and we could see the floats of the Princess Parade and hear the music as the parade disappeared off to the side of Main Street…
and then we said our final (for this trip!) goodbyes to CC and DLH.
As we walked through the village toward the Sequoia we shopped some more – Liav got a pair of pajamas and I got my yearly DLP mug…
When we got to Sequoia Lodge it was dark and starting to pour rain!!
We ran into the SL lobby just as a downpour started.
Even though we'd now been exposed to and spoiled by the DLH and CC, we were pleased to be at the SL, which is also dear to our hearts. We had great memories from our week's stay last year here, and it was like "coming home"!
And guess what – Christmas decorations were all still intact and lit!!!! Gorgeous! (And this was Tuesday, two days after official end of Christmas… stay tuned….)
I went to check in, confident that our luggage had been delivered as promised, to our new room. There were two unpleasant surprises now. First, we had been assigned a room in the farthest lodge from the main building (forgot name of lodge, sorry), and our luggage was in the luggage room, and we would have to take it to the room ourselves! I explained that one of the bags is too large for me to handle alone, and especially not in the rain – could they lend me a cart? Maybe in a few hours… very busy…..
Hmmmmm.
I inquired about the possibility of a room in the main building, but was told these rooms are extra charge. (However last January we had stayed 7 nights in the main building for absolutely no extra charge…apparently they are operating at higher capacity this year!) I must have looked extremely crestfallen, because the CM called a manager, and after a lively French conversation which I did not understand except for the repetition of the word "chambre"… the manager kindly made me the following offer. He would see that our luggage was brought to the room in the outer lodge within the next 15 minutes, AND we would only have to stay there one night. Tomorrow we could leave our luggage in the room, and it would be transferred to a Montana room for the duration of our stay (another 4 nights). Would this be acceptable? He apologized for not being able to give us a Montana room that night but they were absolutely at full capacity. Well! Of course this was very nice and I accepted gratefully! :jumping4:
Off we went through the rain and found our room in the outer reaches of the SL grounds. It was a bit depressing in that building I have to admit, and I was glad it was only for one night. There was absolutely not a bit of "magic" at all… but at this point it was just to shower and sleep, and the luggage was delivered promptly as promised.
We got into our cozy jammies and watched a Disney movie on TV (remember, this is a rare pleasure for us)…
My last words to Liav as we drifted off to sleep were…. "We're not in Castle Club anymore, Toto…."
Cast:
Liav (13)
Jody (Old enough to be her Mom...)
Part 4 – Tuesday, Jan. 11, 2005, continued…
Goodbye to our lovely DLH room… (it seems the only photo of the room that we had is this one of the wallpaper border! Sorry!)
So off we went to the Studios. As soon as we reached the outdoors we realized it was MUCH colder today! Good thing I was wearing my son's long-johns under my jeans – I grabbed them when he was packing up his winter navy gear, and they sure came in handy! I also had a big down jacket that used to be my Dad's which I put UNDER a regular rain-jacket of mine. Not really too fashionable, to say the least, but I was determined to be warm! Liav had a nice down jacket that her Minnesota auntie gifted her with last year so she was outfitted nicely, though. Like Laura, I am not a large person (110 pounds soaking wet) but under all these layers this fact was not evident, and I vowed never to be in any photos, which was fine with Liav (the official photographer) anyway.
There were no characters at the Studios gate, which we thought odd since last year there had always been swarms of them… but we thought maybe they were too cold! We walked quickly to RnR, which is our favorite ride at the Studios. We planned to use our VIP FastPasses, but we were told that FastPass was not in use that week because of Magic Unlimited. My feeling is that Magic Unlimited should not have anything to do with whether FastPass is in use… but that's the way it was. The wait wasn't too bad, and after the first ride, we wanted to go again, so we were shown through a short CM corridor back to the queuing area. Now, here is where things went a little wrong. The CM's usually line people up for the cars, and as an empty train of cars comes up, it is immediately filled by waiting riders, and their places are immediately filled by those waiting for the next train. But during Magic Unlimited (at least that first week) it was a free for all! The regular queue came from one direction, and the repeat riders from the other, and they all converged in one big mess on the waiting area for the cars! Once was enough for us in that mess, so after our second ride, we exited RnR.
Believe it or not, Liav and I had never done the Magic of Disney Animation – in all our trips to WDW and DLP, somehow this one was always missed! So this time… we finally experienced it. It was okay, but Liav found it hard to follow. The live CM who gives the commentary in French spoke very loudly and it was difficult to hear the English through the headphones over his voice. This on top of the fact that English is not Liav's first language made it a sort of mish-mash of sound for her, but she enjoyed the clips anyway.
Afterward we spent some time playing the games in the outer area, and while Liav was concentrating on some creative endeavor, Coda sneaked up on her and pulled her hair – it wasn't easy, but I finally got Coda to calm down enough to pose for a picture with Liav.
After this, all we really wanted to do was more RnR, so we decided to see if they'd sorted out the queues… nope – it was still a mess, but we managed to ride twice more. This time, while still in the regular waiting area, we saw quite a few empty trains of cars being sent off. We were later told that this was due to a problem in the sound system, and rather than send guests on a silent ride, they were letting the cars with the defective system leave empty. Needless to say this held up the queue a bit, but still it wasn't too bad, even with lots of people coming back through the secret passage for Magic Unlimited riding….
Our cars had plenty of loud music, and we love this ride as much as ever.
We always look at the pictures as we're coming off the ride, and every single time, my mouth is wide open in a scream and my eyes are squeezed shut! Liav gets extremely annoyed at this, as she never fails to instruct me to keep my eyes open and mouth shut!! (Well, maybe my ulterior motive is to save the exorbitant price I would have to pay for the photo if she liked it…. Heh heh…)
As for Liav, she is always pictured grinning (eyes open of course) and hands in the air- fearless flyer that she is…
In the store at the exit to RnR Liav made her first souvenir purchase of this trip. A little Stitch to hang on her cellular phone. (We later found out her cell phone has no place to hang it – so it now lives on her camera).
We did not stay for the parade – it was just too cold, and we were hungry, so we left the studios
And off we went to Annette's diner …where we ordered the same food as the other day, and enjoyed it just as much.
After lunch we went to Disneyland Park and decided to do some shopping on Main Street. We both wanted candies to bring to school and work, and I wanted a baby gift for a friend's grandchild that is to be born in February. We found great stuff – Christmas chocolates were half price (and we were given the 10% discount for our AP's in addition!). I got the baby the most adorable Pooh mobile that plays music, and a soft Pooh rattle. We had all the purchases sent to the Sequoia lodge…
We wandered over to Fantasyland and rode Small World. We stayed on an additional time. (Here too things were not too organized – Magic Unlimited seemed to confuse the CM's and what should have been a fast-moving line was pretty stalled, and a lot of empty or almost empty boats went into the ride…
We also rode Dumbo and the Teacups (we really love all these Fantasyland kiddie rides), and then it was time to walk back to the Castle Club for tea.
We had our last lovely rest in the Castle Club lounge over delicious cakes and coffee. Someone had opened the windows and we could see the floats of the Princess Parade and hear the music as the parade disappeared off to the side of Main Street…
and then we said our final (for this trip!) goodbyes to CC and DLH.
As we walked through the village toward the Sequoia we shopped some more – Liav got a pair of pajamas and I got my yearly DLP mug…
When we got to Sequoia Lodge it was dark and starting to pour rain!!
We ran into the SL lobby just as a downpour started.
Even though we'd now been exposed to and spoiled by the DLH and CC, we were pleased to be at the SL, which is also dear to our hearts. We had great memories from our week's stay last year here, and it was like "coming home"!
And guess what – Christmas decorations were all still intact and lit!!!! Gorgeous! (And this was Tuesday, two days after official end of Christmas… stay tuned….)
I went to check in, confident that our luggage had been delivered as promised, to our new room. There were two unpleasant surprises now. First, we had been assigned a room in the farthest lodge from the main building (forgot name of lodge, sorry), and our luggage was in the luggage room, and we would have to take it to the room ourselves! I explained that one of the bags is too large for me to handle alone, and especially not in the rain – could they lend me a cart? Maybe in a few hours… very busy…..
Hmmmmm.
I inquired about the possibility of a room in the main building, but was told these rooms are extra charge. (However last January we had stayed 7 nights in the main building for absolutely no extra charge…apparently they are operating at higher capacity this year!) I must have looked extremely crestfallen, because the CM called a manager, and after a lively French conversation which I did not understand except for the repetition of the word "chambre"… the manager kindly made me the following offer. He would see that our luggage was brought to the room in the outer lodge within the next 15 minutes, AND we would only have to stay there one night. Tomorrow we could leave our luggage in the room, and it would be transferred to a Montana room for the duration of our stay (another 4 nights). Would this be acceptable? He apologized for not being able to give us a Montana room that night but they were absolutely at full capacity. Well! Of course this was very nice and I accepted gratefully! :jumping4:
Off we went through the rain and found our room in the outer reaches of the SL grounds. It was a bit depressing in that building I have to admit, and I was glad it was only for one night. There was absolutely not a bit of "magic" at all… but at this point it was just to shower and sleep, and the luggage was delivered promptly as promised.
We got into our cozy jammies and watched a Disney movie on TV (remember, this is a rare pleasure for us)…
My last words to Liav as we drifted off to sleep were…. "We're not in Castle Club anymore, Toto…."
I, on the other hand am finding it sort of frustrating!! 
laura
