Nrthwnd

Oooooh Chuck this is all awesome of Grona Lund! So many memories I have, from my tours there. Love re-seeing all the old stuff, and the new stuff, too. By the way, how was the new (for us) Haunt House there? Still two levels, with stairs, etc.? Looking forward to The Final Day from you. p.s. Grona Lund is the "Blackpool of Scandinavia" to me. And then some!

Fixed.

^ That's cool! My first time with TPR to TDLR (2007) it was so hot and humid, I wore a small towel around my head. Then, Cast Members would keep giving me stickers from practically everything I rode on that day, lol! It was fun. Stickered and waiting for "Legend of Mythica" to start in the TDS harbour. TPR 2007 Japan Tour.

^It wasn't always open when we were there. But you can actually check and find out, before entering the queue. Beside the (what I call) Loading Barn, there are stairs to the left of where the general queue goes inside it. And there's a SR sign above those stairs. And the Single Riders sign will either say Closed or Open. You'll be able to see it w/o having to enter the main queue, which you'll then have to do anyway to get to the SR stairs. Hope this helps w/o sounding too confusing.

Our First DCA Day continued, with riding a few more attractions. David didn't want to ride any more coasters there, so I used the Single Rider line on Incredicoaster. I always find this queue interesting, as you have to line up, then get into one of two elevators, first to go up. Then cross over the loading tracks to the second elevator, and take it down to the loading area. First timers doing this always seem confused with what's going on. And my group was certainly thankful "somebody" (me) knew what to do. After my ride, we did our first turn on Midway Mania. David did way better than me on this, so I wanted a rematch later on. WE then headed back over to Cars Land, and rode both Luigi's Rollicking Roadsters and Mater's Junkyard Jamboree, both themed to Halloween. Both fun, but it was obvious there were only half (or less) of the cars running in Luigi's. A cast member told me that "some of Luigi's relatives weren't feeling well" i.e. needing maintenance. After that we headed over to Hollywood Land and joined Mike & Sulley To The Rescue. A slow ride but definitely better than what was there before. I remember reading about. (See Superstar Limo) And then after that...after that? We still had a couple of hours until we saw "World of Color" (and my surprise for David). So we apparently timed it just right, to see the 5pm showing of FROZEN. But this time, after it's playing for three+ years, no Fast Passes were needed. Everybody just showed up within a half hour, including us, and we got these great Orchestra (on the aisle) seats for the show. (SPOILER ALERT?) But, I totally forgot how c-c-c-cold they make the building for the s-s-s-snow effects. Nonetheless the actors were strong singers and everything was just as it was, when I saw it in 2016. When the show was over, I took us over to Smokejumpers Grill for something to eat before WoC. After all the fancy food we'd been eating both at Knott's and here, this was a very simple burger we had. First and only one for me on the entire trip. The ring things were excellent, and the vanilla shake was thick and tasty. And when we finished, we were ready to head to an area to see World of Color. And that's when I sprung my surprise on David.... I look like I'm conducting, or something. (DM) I would love to be a Design Imagineer, if I could come up with this! The middle looks a bit "eaten up," but the wheels still look good. Wait. Aren't there supposed to be more cars out there? Photo from 2016. Even with half gone, it was still a fun ride. How's Your Blood Type, Mater? Yep, I would love to come up with stuff like this. I wish Fillmore's had more than drinks, but still, my fave spot. It almost looks like a Pop Up Shop to me. Plenty of space to just hang around. I still am not sure what he had on his back. But I asked to take a pic, anyway. They obliged. First we go left (Mike & Sulley); then we'll go right (Frozen). Here we are. In the queue, waiting to go in. Great show again. No photos taken. I was lazy. Dinner before dessert! Simple burger and ring things. And the milkshake was great! Almost done. "When Balloon Clouds Attack Each Other" A stroll around the Pier again, before World of Color starts. "Luxo" wasn't on, nor was 'he' moving at all. Back of the Pal-A-Round. And Bing Bong continually cries out candy. (To Be Continued)

^ Sad to have lost them, too.

^ Sweet!

Don't Be Stupid ~ Shania Twain

Kharma Chameleon ~ Culture Club

^ There's so much happening in the next few years, I'm not surprised that they didn't mention a new country (i.e. Brazil, Rumor) for World Showcase, at this year's D23. There's always D23 in 2021 (and 2023) too. My two retro EPCOT books. The right one is 'slimmer' than the other. (o:

~ A Sunday Shot ~ We did get a couple of shots of us in front of The Castle. But not till later in our visit there. So here's one of the two taken, by nice guests for us. And we returned the favour by taking their photo too, with their camera, the way they wanted. Sept.12/19. "The Three of Us."

Hilarity Hall looks awesome on it's facade! The whole park is looking better and better. Thanks for the updates, Larry.

Streets

^ How the heck did you get that First Ride ..... uh...thing? BTW...magnet, sticker, patch?

^ Awesome! And that's okay about this case. I wasn't that interested in it, until the price went down on it, on eBay. But I really didn't buy that much in Souvenirs like that, and other stuff on our trip last month. I mean, even my pin buying was about ... 3 pins total! There was a souvenir stand at the exit of HM, but I totally forgot about it and kept walking out! Dumb bear. I do love the snack cases more than the popcorn buckets because.... well yeah, smaller things, easier to display and/or store. Okay, it was four pins... and three buttons David picked up, shamelessly.

From the "Couldn't Resist It" Dept... I decided to get one of these. The eBay seller had it marked down from what it originally went for, several months ago. And the shipping was Free. Time waiting, eventually pays off, more or less. The TDS Venetian Gondola snack case. With Ms.Mouse. I really like the design of it.

The Single Rider queue for GR is also hit and miss, depending on how long the regular line is. But definitely get one ride in first, on GhostRider. And if you want to save a bit of food money, go to the Chicken To-Go spot in Marketplace. Same great Mrs. Knott's food, but less cost, and easy to eat in your hotel room. We split a three piece meal, added an extra piece, and then got something from the Bakery, right next door. All packed up neat and tidy for us. Extra fork included. So - many - choices. (o;

Around

It's All DCA Today! But first......after getting back to the Hotel the previous night, on an earlier shuttle, I looked through the rest of our DLR schedule, and decided we needed to change our shuttle pick up times, and (sadly) cancel a meal package in conjunction with Fantasmic! Fantasmic! was only running on the Friday that week, and originally, I had reserved a Meal To Go at the Hungry Bear Restaurant, which also gave us tickets to a reserved spot to see Fantasmic! But standing only, and it was the 10:30pm show. Knowing we'd never get through it AND have to pack that same night, AND then have to get up around 6:30 for leaving... it just wasn't going to work. So back into Disneyland we went, back to Customer Services, only this time using the reservation number to cancel it all. And again, this was done with efficiency, speed, and just plain niceness on the part of the Cast Member we used. So again THANK YOU to Customer Services, both in DLR and Knott's too! I'd left my camera in a Marketplace shop, they found it and got it to Knott's CS for an easy retrieval. Even without a cell phone, things can still be done in the parks! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Now in DCA, we started with the Tower of Terror and it was a lot of fun. The Guardians overlay was amazing and I found myself laughing on the ride itself, more than I remember with it's original theming. Great start to the day. Then we decided to check out Mickey's PhilharMagic, and to compare it with the other versions we'd seen (Us in Tokyo and Hong Kong for myself). The theater it was in was not built to house the huge Cinerama-type screen that the others used. So they shrunk down the start of the first part, then enlarged to regular screen size for the rest of it. It worked okay. Not as "magical" as the other two versions, but it was fine. And Donald still showed up, where he was supposed to end up, at the end of the show. (No Spoilers HERE) Then we headed up to Radiator Springs Racers and got in a relatively small queue. But it definitely built up to a longer wait, after we were there. It was then I was asked to hold a plastic card on a lanyard, and then give it to a Cast Member once we reached the load station. A simple way of checking queue times, we guessed. Racers was just as good as I remember it before, and David loved it, especially the "racing"! After that, it was time for some food, and I knew that Flo's had a Breakfast Menu. So we split a good old fashioned eggs and bacon between us, along with a nice biscuit and potatoes. It was so good, we actually came back to the place on another day, for breakfast again. After eating, we did a basic walk around, through Pixar Pier, took another ride on Little Mermaid, then into Grizzly Peak, and decided to take in Soarin'. And David loved it so much, he really wanted to see it again. But next time, we would get a Fast Pass for it. And then, by early afternoon, I was ready for a cocktail or three. So we literally walked into the Lamplighter Lounge (no queue to wait in), were shown an outdoor table which looked out onto where World of Color would be, and enjoyed cocktails with a couple of appetizers for an hour or so, while the rest of the world rushed around the park, lol. And the Lounge had a lot of Pixar Artwork inside the building. Which made heading to the bathroom a longer................time to get there................and back. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ P.S. To put my 7 cents in about Soarin' s including the Paris shot.... In a lot of postings everywhere, it's referred to as a "horrid, awful shot/piece of film/shit"...."and the curvature of the screen doesn't help either, blah blah." Well, I didn't give a hoot about the "angled/bent" shot of the Eiffel Tower. And to be honest, when I first saw this in 2016, I actually was overcome by the entire film, and teared up when the Tower lit up. Call it fond memories of several visits there with my partner, David. We love the city and after we saw it, even David said he felt misty eyed on first seeing this, with me. The awesome music certainly helped with those emotions, too. But, we'll definitely see it (and the California one, when it comes back) again and again and... Finally get to ride this, with only a 20 min. wait or so. Inside and the boarding areas were amazing to queue through. Next up was this. This was ten minutes before the theater doors opened. More people did come to see it, but it was a very small 'house'. And how they showed the movie was okay. In the queue for Racers, I am given this to hand to a Cast Member upon boarding. And I did. After exiting the ride, I showed David where his Birth Year was, on the bridge. This one was over in Disney Paris at Ratatouille, just before you enter the show building. Time for breakfast! For us two, this was enough. And it was good! David taking his shot. Note the TPR Product Placement. Neither of us were interested in riding this. And I had ridden Flik's Flyers before. Pretty colours though. Soarin' Take 1. Crowded queue, but it moved pretty fast. Only one theater in use. After a while, it was time to get some more food and drink... With an awesome serving of Potato Skins to enjoy. These were so good, I forgot to take a photo of the other appys we were having! Silly me. (o; ....and the drink was cocktails! Pricey ones but hey, it's Disney, right? We're at the Lamplighter Lounge in DCA. At the Lamplighter Lounge, our view from where we were sitting. World of Color would look great from here, although a bit...uh... "on an angle". (To Be Continued)

^ You look like Harry Potter, kind of, I think. ^^ And you look VERY HAPPY, Bert. The last photo David took of me, as we left Disneyland, on our last night in S.California. 7pm FRIDAY THE (sept.) 13TH. Didn't want to leave just yet. But we had a shuttle to catch, back to our hotel. And packing.

All this. Sept.12/19. Taken by my partner David, in DL's Emporium. And.....my eyes look wierd.

I like Fall here. Even when it rains. A ~ Lot.

A new photo of the Castle construction has been posted online. Without the tall crane in front of it. Thanks to whoever took this photo.

If it succeeds in drawing in the crowds, this will be practically like the Waterworld shows. Although in this case, the Bourne Trilogy was pretty successful in each film, I recall. But for those who have never seen even one of the Trilogy, it should be good enough to keep them interested, too

Interesting that there is so big a memorial to 9/11. Makes me wonder what other small-ish towns or cities do this as well as Granger. Great Dino Tour! But don't POP QUIZ me on this. I was avoiding the flora on that pathway you noted, and forgot everything. EDIT: I looked it up. Over 700 memorials across the nation!