Plan
We need a plan
a good plan
.a wise plan
any plan at all at this point will do.
'Cause heaven help ya if ya don't gots one.
I hear tell them Chicago folk can get a might ornery if'n you don't gots a plan.
Todays plan will consist of getting up at a reasonable hour. Now when I say reasonable, I mean something along the lines of 6 - 6:30am. Its a Monday after all. If we were back home, we would already be headed out the door, and on our way to the meet our train for the commute to work. We got an extra 45 minutes of sleep. That is vacation at its finest folks!
Funny isn't it? Getting up early for work? Pure torture.
Getting up early for Disney? Pure joy.
The park opens at 9am today. We (and by we, I mean T-Man) makes the coffee and we begin the morning ritual.
I am now very familiar with this routine.
It's almost like I was there.
Cute PJ's Bunny boy.
Search through dresser and closet to find something appropriate to wear to the parks.
How crowded are the parks? Perhaps a suit of armor would be appropriate?
Pack our backpacks with water, soda, sunscreen, you know, everything but the kitchen sink, just the essentials one may need for going 2 miles away from the resort.
What. No Sunny D's?
Brain
Shoot
I knew I was forgetting something.
Well, you can't remember everything!
Next time get T-Man to remember the brains.
Lady H goes back for her brain, T-Man closes up the room and we head to the car.
I like how you wrote "goes back for her brain".
For some reason, we didn't take a picture of the parking area we parked in. This is weird for us, since we take pictures of EVERYTHING! Especially parking areas, so we can remember how to get back to the car.
Queue foreboding music?
I believe (in other words, I asked T-Man) that we parked in the Woody parking area.
There's a line here.... but it's a family board.
The time now is somewhere in the vicinity of 8:50ish. We have 10 minutes to get to the park, get through security, get to the gates, get our tickets scanned, and meet them.
Oh, you are in so much trouble.
Gotta have a plan... but ya gotta be on
time!
I start to panic!
Good thing that button was there!
We hurry up and wait (My favorite catchphrase for any amusement park) at the security checkpoint.
That's true.
Constant running just to get in a line and wait.
But at least you're ahead of that slow schmuck back there!
Who happens to have a GAC so he's actually laughing at you.
As we wait, we assume the position, pulling off our backpacks and opening them, ready for security to search them, so we don't hold up the line.
That's not the first position I imagined when you wrote "assume the position".
by now it is past 9am. As we approach the shortest line, I can see Smidgy and Nebo sitting on one of the benches just inside the park...waiting...anxiously waiting
Oh, you are in so much trouble now!
We are stopped by the camera people, asking to check our tickets, we tell them we have already had our picture taken, but evidentially, they wont believe us until they see for themselves. Once they have proof on their handheld whatchamacallits, they usher us over to the turnstile, where another CM is waiting to scan our tickets once again.
This is where I start wondering about this whole picture thing. If we have to be scanned by not one but two people just to get into the park, is there really a point in the extra precaution of taking the photo? I mean, I thought the whole point of the picture was to eliminate all the extras?!
That's just.... dumb.
Next thing you know, they'll make us all wear wrist bands that will lose our ADRs and lock us out of our rooms.
We are finally pushed through the turnstile and saunter up to Nebo and Smidgy,
Whoa.
Sometimes the mind plays tricks.
When I first read that, I saw "pushed through the turnstile" which gave me a visual of cattle being led into the slaughterhouse.
So I read that sentence as "pushed through the turnstile and slaughtered"
Now
that is not quite the Disney I know!
albeit a little cautiously, because we are late, and are afraid of getting a stern talking to.
In my scenario, a 'stern talking to' would be the least of your worries.
Then again... with Nebo doing the talking? Maybe not.
ooooh. The silent treatment.
By this time, most of, if not all the passes were probably already gone.
So it's like TSM at DHS? Is there the 'running of the bulls' too?
As we finally approach the crowd near RSR, we notice the standby time is at 120 minutes.
Already!?!? Wow.
Smidgy offers up the chance to use it, and honestly, we would be fools to say no...
Really? Really? You're going to put that out there?
Nope. Not falling for it.
Too easy.
I know Nebo is a little sketchy on using it, and I dont want him to feel like we are pouncing on every opportunity, so I let them lead on this. Giving them the opportunity to do what they feel they should do, without outside influence.
Heather: "Well, looks like there's a two hour wait for this ride. It sure would be nice if there was some way... some magical, mysterious way, to bypass this reaaaaaaaaaaallllllllllly long line. Yup. A real shame. What? You want to use your GAC? Well.... okay. If you insist."
I sniff myself discreetly
I can't believe you said that!
This gives us some time to meander the park and check out some of the other sites and rides.
I knew a girl named Brooke who liked to meander.
But then she started to live life in the fast lane and it eroded our relationship.
Dam she got stuck up at the end.
Nebo definitely wanted to go on California Screamin, as well as Mickeys fun wheel...otherwise known as, MNSFWOD! I will explain to those who have no clue what that means a little later.
I know! I know!
Although I'm tempted to say Mickey's Not Suitable For Work Over Dose.
But I won't.
Evidentially it is narrated by Colin Mockrie (If you have ever watched an episode of Whos Line is it Anyway, you will recognize him as the almost bald, older guy that does most of the skits with Ryan Stiles) and Rosie ODonnell.
I always get those two mixed up. Don't know why.
The bread's only ingredients are: unbleached flour, water, salt, and a portion of the mother dough.
Did anyone else think Mother ship when reading mother dough?
No.
Just you.
The only flour tortilla making machine we have at home is me
You make your own tortillas?
What? You need a bathroom break? Already? We havent even started with beer yet! Fine...but make it quick will ya?
Finally...Geez! Did you have to make the outhouse first?
No. But I did have to shovel my way out to it.
Geez, you southern folk can be so insensitive.
If you remember from our last TR, Paradise Pier is made to resemble...well...a pier
So it would appear.
You cant quite hear what is being said, but all of a sudden you hear the entire car scream as it is launched straight up into a tunnel. Nebos eyes light up like a little kid on his birthday! I think so does T-Mans.
As would mine.
I avert my eyes and continue to walk, pretending I didnt see a thing.
Here is where my brain gets a little fuzzy.
You should've checked it for fuzz after you went back to the room to get it.
If I remember correctly, I started having problems right off the bat with my gun. It wasnt hitting my intended targets, instead it was going off to the side.
Uh, huh. Right. It's the gun.
Sure.
No, really. I believe you.
T-Man and I were going back and forth on the score. Each set of new games had one of us just above the other.
So what you're saying here (since "your gun was going off to the side") is that T-Man is really,
really inept at TSM.
Im just going to need a minute...Sorry
*sniff sniff*
Aw. Here's a tissue.
I dont think im over exaggerating when I say that its possible my gun was hitting targets in the game behind me.
"Mommy! Mommy! I got high score! I never get high score! It's like someone else was shooting the targets with me!"
In the end, Im pretty sure that T-Man won. We tried to take a picture of the scores, but by the time we knew it, we were being shooed off the car and booted back onto the pier.
T-Man won.
Trust me.
If you'd won, you would've remembered.
It's a maxim.
I figured it was early, and playing dumb wife (DW) early is better. It gives me a chance to catch my breath for the next DW move later in the day.
What is with the stairs in Southern California?!?!
It's part of Schwarzenegger's plan to whip Californians into shape.
Im pretty sure if a chicken wanted to get to the other side...he would not have to cross the road...he would take the stairs!
Q: Why did the chicken take the stairs?
A: To outrun Maria!
Over the shoulder harness + seat belt (reminding you of a child car seat restraint) = OH HECK NO!
At this point, once the restraint is on and I am facing forward, I start to think
What am I doing? T-Man could have gone with Nebo and I didnt have to do this. I could have stayed with Smidgy. We could have gone and grabbed a nice drink and relaxed a while...DOh!
D'oh!
I think this video of a couple of guys from an Australian morning show who went on the ride can explain, or in this case, show, what the ride is like, a lot better than I can
That video was hilarious. The one guy got pretty green about half way through!
Looming in the distance was my nemesis. A beautiful wheel, that looked so inviting and yet was so evil!
Dun, dun dun dun....
With all that said...this year, I was not going to be defeated by MNSFWOD, I would not let it get to me. I was not going to be scared anymore.
You go, girl! I'm so proud of you!!!
As we approached the ride, I swallowed hard, took a deep breath in, let it out slowly and...
Smidgy and I gladly left Nebo in T-Mans capable hands and went and took a seat in one of the benches overlooking the ride and lagoon.
oh
What? I said I wasnt going to let it get to me...the only way I could do that was to chicken out!
You took some stairs?
Yes, I do regret not going on it...I usually have a strict rule of thumb that I will do all the rides at least once each trip, so I do not have any regrets...however, I still havent gotten over my fear on this one.
So... If you'd gone, you might've regretted it?
Its sort of like the tramway we have here in NM. I love going up in that thing, but since the time I went down at night and had a full on panic attack in the middle of the tram car full of people, I have not been back up in it, and I feel the same will happen with MNSFWOD.
Whoa. That couldn't have been fun.
The whole time Smidgy and I were competing to see who had the craziest scream, while Nebo and T-Man competed for who laughed best at their wives.
I can see that! Great visual!
We decided at that moment that it was a good time to hit the watering hole...Hey, its 5 oclock somewhere right?!
When I read this, it was after 5, so that counts.
We were seated into a raft with 3 other people, a gentleman and what I am guessing are his two kids (a boy and a girl).
Nah. Just a kidnapper and his two victims.
Here is Smidgy with the little boy I was talking about.
Great shot. Love the way the little guy is looking at Smidgy.
If you are there with people who go to the parks regularly and you are a newbie...trust me...they will never tell you what you are in for.
You're right! That's true.
Except if there's a loudmouth who feels it's his job to ruin everyone's fun.
As our car decends, the little boy off to Smidgys side...No...Not Nebo, the other little boy...starts giggling because he knows what will happen.
We pass the first zig, and are on our way to the zag, probably about a 10 minute wait max to get on the ride...when it breaks down again.
Not again!
Will our fearless crew ever get on the ride? Will they be destined to stand in line forever?
Tune in next time for these answers and more
I'm going to guess you didn't stand in line forever... unless you're posting your chapters from there.
Thanks for the update Heather!