disneyfan1313 Posted May 25, 2006 Share Posted May 25, 2006 What a crazy trip! Some of you may have seen my Sesame Place trip report - well after that we flew to LA and spent some time in SoCal and also Vegas.. I still feel like I need a vacation from my vacation! Right after we landed in LA we hauled butt over to the Disneyland Resort and went straight to DCA... why? Cause we "Love LA!". I can't wait for this to open next year.. guess I have to plan another trip! This is my version of a SIGNATURE SHOT! It always makes me laugh how long the line is to get through the Disneyland Turnstiles. You would never see that at WDW! We hustled over to Monsters Inc. which is brand new for this year. It used the superstar limo attraction and is *great* in its new form. Really fun ride with cool special effects. Food Rocks! (not the show..but real food!) The meatball sub was amazing and Staceys Tomato and Mozzerella Sandwhich rocked as well. Can we go back now!! Being a weekday the Vinyard Room was closed (awesome place to eat if you get a chance) but the Wine Country Trattoria was open. This is one of the best places to eat in DCA Here we are in said plaza on said important date. ... Awwww The sun wheel plaza! Those of you who know us know why this has such special meaning to us.. Hopefully they do not change it as they are rumored to. I *heart* the giant hub-cap! Welcome to the Disneyland Resort! It makes me sad that the 50th anniversary will be over soon. The park really has a great feel to it and has never looked this great. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
disneyfan1313 Posted May 25, 2006 Author Share Posted May 25, 2006 The next day we hit Knotts and had a great time! The middle of the week lack of crowds helped and a great chicken dinner did not hurt either. Desert was at Mel's Drive in. I was sooo tired at this point! For dinner we went to the Magic Castle in Hollywood which was AMAZING. It's a private magic club with great shows and good food. Plus you have to say Open Sesame to an owl to get in. How cool is that! I never knew my water was a perfume! Yae! No more showers for me.. oh wait.. I *guess* I should throw in a coaster shot.. I thought silver bullet was OK. The first half reminded me of Dueling Dragons.. The second half was pretty forgettable. Any park with a real stage coach is OK with me! This had the longest wait we had all day. About 20 minutes since they were only running on train... er... coach. DAMN YOU KNOTTS!!! 2 credits closed in one trip. ARGH! Another credit Stacey will have that I wont. Scary cat child.. evil..EVIL! We left for some fried chicken action. Imagine this - Knotts Berry Farm jelly is used here... Coincidence?!?!? Stacey fits in with the boys.. I think Calico Mine Train rocks. Retro, bad-ass dark ride on a train. Is it a credit? Didn't there used to be a crappy dark ride up here? 1+1=5? Its a DONKEY! Stacey can drive the real thing! Beautiful theming for everything except the worlds crappiest shooting gallery. WTF?! I *love* this half of the park and how themed it is. I do wish they kept up this level of detail for the rest of it. First coaster of the day! CLOSED! Argh! I will never be able to get my Ghostrider credit. Signature shot! On our way we saw this motel.. look at the sign... All we could come up with was "Erotic"! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
disneyfan1313 Posted May 25, 2006 Author Share Posted May 25, 2006 Another day of fun! This day we woke up late since we knew we were going to be going to the Tatsu Media Event and hit DL in the afternoon. Then we drove up to SFMM and had a great time. Sad thing is - this is the best shot I got.. but it was like 4am! It's time to ride the beast! I really enjoyed it - very forcefull! We are so. friggin. tired. We tried to sleep but the excitement was just too much! Thanks again to R&E for putting on a great event and always having something going on. Here we are at SFMM! This is an interesting first trip to the park! Signature DL Castle Shot! I love the way it is done up for the 50th. Very classy! Awesome Penny Press! The penny goes down Splash Mountain! Splash Mountain at DL was the first...and boy can you tell! Give Brer Fox a new hairstyle! I love that their security wears a special costume on Tom Sawer Island. I'm not sure what i'm doing with my hands in this pic though. Mine Train Through Natures Wonderland... Does this count as a SBNO credit? Lots more paths than at WDW. Tom Sawer Island rocks anywhere in the world but it does have a special charm here at Disneyland. Bengal BBQ rocks! Meat on a skewer - whats not to like about that! I love the theming on the rehab wall at pirates. It's sad its closed but I am excited that Captain Jack Sparrow will be coming soon! We randomly found the 50th anniversary Mickey walking around in Tomorrowland. Picture time! I love the new Disneyland Space Mountain. It is a great upgrade to an already classic, amazing ride. It is so friggin smooth and fast! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
disneyfan1313 Posted May 25, 2006 Author Share Posted May 25, 2006 After the camp out we headed to our hotel to shower and nap. We made it to SFMM about noon and spent some time with a very tired Robb and Joey (thanks guys!). They introduced us to the wonder that is the revolution! Overall we were kinda meh about SFMM - it really could use a few non-coaster rides.. but the company was great! I think I know these blokes! Careful - the one on the right has a knife concealed in his fist! .. And here are the wrist bands to prove it. This is where we slept last night... This was actually a pretty cool shooting arcade! It had an interesting twist where the color of the LED's on the target dictated the tickets you got. We did find a place with good Italian ices - yummy sour apple! This hill should be illegal! Its insane! We had to stop on the way up to catch our breath - are we that out of shape?!? This ride did not agree with us. Perhaps it was just having a bad day, perhaps the sun and lack of sleep was getting to us but I might never ride a stand-up again! Speedy Gonzales in a car? WTF?!?! Can't he outrun the car?!?! I thought this was the best ride in the park. I had ridden Titan already and enjoyed it as well. Hey! Were going to place this coke stand right next to Superman so it distracts you from realizing you are paying $5 for a bottle of water.. Good idea? Pigs on a Stick! Look Ma - It's the underside of a torture machine! We hit mooseburger lodge when we got into the park. We would have loved to see the moose talk though. Stupid moose gag order! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
disneyfan1313 Posted May 25, 2006 Author Share Posted May 25, 2006 The next day we went to E3 which was TONS of fun! Joey, Stacey and I waited about 30 minutes to get a DS Lite case - this is how I entertained myself. They got to stare at flashing lights.. Here is Robb being interviewed about Japanese Tentacle Porn - who knew he was an expert! DDR = FFUN! Next to the Pirates of the Caribbean game they had tons of cool props from the movie! Don't turn around .. there is a giant transformer RIGHT BEHIND YOU! Awww.. It's the PS3 booth - too bad only 20 people visited it after they spent the millions to build it.. Here is Robb playing Wario Ware - by contract I am only allowed to show the back of his head. The Wii controller was very easy to use. Here are all the accessories - it really is an amazingly versatile machine and controller. Here we watched a bunch of guys play with their Wii! (ahh...it never gets old!) The nintendo booth was amazing and by far the winner of the event. This is what is called an establishing shot. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
disneyfan1313 Posted May 25, 2006 Author Share Posted May 25, 2006 Next Day? Back to DL - We usually just do Disneyland on our trips so we actually went less this time than we usually do. Another Shooting Gallery credit! Did I mention I love food? This is from Rancho Del Zocalo in DL - Really good mexican food! Our friend Joel getting his Golden Zephyer credit. If you haven't ridden it - it's actually really fun! It is MADNESS to wait for this ride! We love King Tritons Carousel. Stacey always rides an Otter. Here is an example of a menu - they used a lot of food locations which are not currently open which was cool. Friggin Huge Strawberries! Here is an example of one locations selection. There is not as much as Epcot's food and Wine but it is a good start. We did try all the food and I liked most of it. Food and Wine festival is going on so we *have* to try everything! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wes Posted May 25, 2006 Share Posted May 25, 2006 This guy is awesome. Most of the security guys who work on TSI are really cool. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
disneyfan1313 Posted May 25, 2006 Author Share Posted May 25, 2006 We headed off to Vegas for the last leg of our trip. We enjoyed our first time there - it's kinda like a cruise but with more walking (and lots more smoke!) We headed back to DCA for one last fix before the red-eye. See ya soon So-Cal! Thanks for eveything everyone who we saw. We had a blast! Breakfast the next day was at an amazing restaurant in the Venetian called Bouchon. It's Thomas Kellers restaurant and was amazing. After the show she won about $50 on nickel slots. Not bad! We saw Penn and Teller at the Rio and it rocked! Here is Stacey with Penn. Fremont Street was cool as well. We didn't feel that safe but it was fun. We loved the circular elevators that Ceasars Palace - they also had an amazing chocolate shop there. We finally got to ride Manhattan Express. It was actually... OK. A bit of headbanging and it felt very slow but not as bad as I had expected. We had dinner at an amazing restaurant in the Bellagio called FIX. The Black Angus Mini Burgers were to die for and the white truffle and mac and cheese that look like mozzerella sticks rocked as well. The fountains at Bellagio were amazing - we wish we had more time. We are having a drink in Quark's Bar.. /geek Star Trek Experience was a must see and very cool - I wonder if it will last with Cedar Fair buying it. Mommy - What are those lions doing? After that torture device we made it to Vegas and NY NY - We ate pizza next to a footer for Manhattan Express. How lovely! It was doing things that no steel coaster should do including bizarre painful shuffling that felt like Gwazi on a BAD day. Is it always like this? Although it did have a crazy baby japanese game outside it! Our first stop was the Desparado at Buffalo Bills. This was quite possibly the roughest coaster I have ever been on. Before our drive we had to get some Breakfast - Nothing better than Roscoes Chicken and Waffles! YUMMY! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
robbalvey Posted May 25, 2006 Share Posted May 25, 2006 OMG! That was like the mother lode of all Photo Trip Reports! Loved every second of it. Great photos, captions had me laughing "Japanese Tenticle Porn!" LMAO!!!! Thanks for sharing and it was great seeing you two again. Hopefully we'll get to meet up somewhere before our October Florida visit. --Robb Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jdsmartdude911 Posted May 25, 2006 Share Posted May 25, 2006 im the one on the green hoodie sitting down Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DerekRx Posted May 25, 2006 Share Posted May 25, 2006 Wow, that's a LOT of stuff to do in a short amount of time. You two really know how to cram a lot into a little. Maybe I'll see you guys on my next trip to WDW in July, since I'm doing 2 whole days at MK. Is it just me, or does the dude at the Sun fountain thingy look like he's puking in the water?! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
disneyfan1313 Posted May 26, 2006 Author Share Posted May 26, 2006 OMG! That was like the mother lode of all Photo Trip Reports! Loved every second of it. Great photos, captions had me laughing "Japanese Tenticle Porn!" LMAO!!!! Thanks for sharing and it was great seeing you two again. Hopefully we'll get to meet up somewhere before our October Florida visit. --Robb Thank you for the kind words Robb - but sucking up won't stop me from telling Elissa about your Japanese Tenticle Porn fetish. Rollercoasters in Japan - HAH! If only she knew the real reason you like to go there! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Freefallbestrideever Posted May 26, 2006 Share Posted May 26, 2006 ^LMAO, awesome pictures and i'm really glad i never got to ride Desperado after a few chances and me kicking myself for not riding the coaster in the middle of nowhere I haven't been on Manhatten Express either so i'll definately check it out next time im in the desert It seems like everytime we see JD-i'm the green sweater-smartdude he's always sitting down lol Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ncf Posted May 26, 2006 Share Posted May 26, 2006 Desperado was totally awesome when I rode it, not rough at all, but very bumpy! (which is a good thing) Desperado is my #3, after X and Nemesis Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Meteornotes Posted May 26, 2006 Share Posted May 26, 2006 Cool TR. The Magic Castle ROCKS! I haven't been there in a very long time, but used to go a lot when we lived in Glendale (we shared a house with two people that were magicians). Desperado was pretty rough the last time I rode it about six years ago, so I can only imagine how bad it is now. dt Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nursemelis374 Posted May 26, 2006 Share Posted May 26, 2006 Wow! You guys did everything! Even Roscoe's!!! What a fun trip, thanks for the whirlwind trip report! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
disneyfan1313 Posted May 30, 2006 Author Share Posted May 30, 2006 Cool TR. The Magic Castle ROCKS! I haven't been there in a very long time, but used to go a lot when we lived in Glendale (we shared a house with two people that were magicians). Desperado was pretty rough the last time I rode it about six years ago, so I can only imagine how bad it is now. dt Magic Castle did rock - I wish I had the cash or connections to get a membership. Hopefully someone else will go on Desperado soon so I can find out if it was just having wheel problems or the fact that it feels like Gwazi on a bad day is a permanent...um.. "feature" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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