Fall 2018 Theme Park Trip-plans and planning

Looking back it's been two years since my last post. Time to fix that.

Well, I have another big trip coming up and am totally ecstatic about it. I am about to get a full month off from work. I've been working to make sure there is another person in the office that knows my skills. I'm one that I'm not afraid to share everything that I know.

Travel plans include Dollywood and Pigeon Forge area attractions, going to Boston to visit family. Heading to Cedar Point to the East Coast coaster capital. Time in Florida will include Universal Orlando and Halloween Horror Nights, the Disney parks including Food and Wine Festival and Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party, Legoland, Florida Zipline Coaster, Star Flyer, and Fun Spots. In California the West Coast Legoland there in the San Diego area and their SeaWorld plus Belmont Park in the "extreme south" are the plans. Traveling north to Anaheim and the Disneyland resort including Mickey's Halloween Party, Knott's Berry and Scary Farms, Santa Monica Pier, Universal Hollywood, Six Flags Magic Mountain the West Coast coaster capital...possibly their Halloween event and then the Warner Bros Studio Tour and their Halloween event. So Heartland, East Coast, Mid West, the South and West Coast will be covered on this trip.  I am so appreciative that I have the ability to do this.

Along the way I plan to meet up with a number of people. Some are coaster buddies, some are Disney pals, others are college friends and some are former co-workers and podcasters. So while I may be traveling solo, I won't be doing everything as a single.

Surprisingly enough, when I was trying to make the travel arrangements, I wanted to maybe do trains between say Sandusky, OH and Knoxville, TN or Knoxville, TN and Orlando, FL as a way to see the country. Those options weren't viable due to how far away trains stations were from starting or ending points needing buses. I looked at maybe buses outright, but the amount of time and transfers were rather awkward and cumbersome. Luckily I was able to make the flight arrangements through one carrier, United, although several legs will be with code share partners. Learned that it is difficult to try to book a trip with more than five legs to the trip. All totaled, I have nine segments. The first leg I have to travel from Honolulu to Newark which is a ten hour flight and then back up to Knoxville. Blissfully the LAX to HNL flight is six hours.

In my big 2010 trip, I had business cards that I gave out for people going above and beyond in their work. Back then, I gave them a card recognizing them for their effort, took their pic, blogged about them and their actions

and then made sure I wrote back to the companies involved to give the person credit. While I don't have the cards ready to go yet, I plan on doing that again this trip. It's really easy to fall into the negative and those cards helped keep me looking for the positive.

During my fall 2016 trip, I lost my wallet while riding Mako at SeaWorld Orlando the day before I was to fly to LAX. Still haven't heard back from SeaWorld if they dredged the pond where it dropped  and recovered it with the $700 still inside. If I ever get that back, really need to make sure to make big noise about that! But with losing my ID, I want to make sure on this trip that I have backups like maybe making sure that I bring my passport and not keeping all the money on my person. Also I need to make sure that I follow my procedures and not rush when I get on a coaster to make sure that I have everything really secured.

One of the other challenges that I have is with the rental car portions. I have a valid drivers license, but don't own a car in Hawaii. When I rent I must do the responsible action have have some insurance and the costs add up quickly. So the RAC company would look at say Friday noon to Monday 6am as just three days, the insurance company says it's four so on those transfer days, I'm having to pay for insurance twice. Plus the insurance itself isn't cheap with charges that have been 15-25% of the daily rental rate.  But, it's something that I have to do since I don't have my own policy.

I use Flickr instead of Instagram. When I would post to Flickr, it would automatically post to Twitter and then a bit later to Facebook. Something has happened to the interface and that no longer happens.  If you want to see pics during the trip, goto flickr.com/frikitiki. For quick updates I'm @coconutwireless on twitter.

If you have comments or questions, let me know. The fall 2018 Coaster Trip begins on September 20th!

DC2CERUMA - Day 14

Today was a relaxing day that had a couple of extra cool moments. It was a great way to wrap up my last full day of my Disney Coast to Coast-er Universally Magic Adventure by hitting the tenth park of the trip with an unexpected guest followed up with a a couple of activities that I had not planned on doing at all during the trip.

At my old job I had a hiring and firing responsibility. I hired Asa and about two months after I was let go, he was laid off too. He moved from Hawaii back to California and we've kept in touch. He took time out of his schedule to come over to my hotel and together we visited Universal Studios Hollywood. Along the way we stopped in Buena Park where I was able to get postcard stamps (note, I have to make sure I bring the stamps with me since I can't trust Disneyland or Magic Mountain or places where you BUY postcards to have postcard stamps!) and we did a quick drive by of Knott's Berry Farm.

I hadn't been to Universal in two years and for Asa it had been ten something so there was a lot new for him and for me it was the West Coast version of the Simpsons ride. I have to say, that the whole Simpsons attraction is one sharp witted and fun experience. Between the videos in the queue and the main attraction, they poke fun at so much! The little stints that Patty and Selma, Apu, Mole Man and grounds keeper Willie just before you get ready to board are wonderful how they bounce back and forth with banter. Yeah, a very good attraction!

The whole time was at a nice pace. The weather was warm, but not uncomfortable. The park had misters going all over the place to help keep it cool. There were no lines to speak of. The longest we waited was about 15 minutes for the Simpsons everything else was one or two vehicles. The Mummy was so light that when Asa asked to move from the second row to the first row, Amelia told him how to get back in line quicker. For the tram tour we lucked out; Wysteria lane was open. We had the chance to see the exterior sets used for the show Desperate Housewives. The last visit had the road closed. The one thing I didn't see as much as when I was over in Florida was characters. Only saw a few like Lucy, Groucho Marx, and Sponge Bob.

The end of the time in the park we were able to squeeze in Waterworld and Terminator 2: 3D. Recently I made comments about the relevance of Waterworld. After seeing the stunt show, having the movie tie is doesn't matter. It was a fun, action filled, VERY WET (at least for some of the lower seats) concise example to stuntman workmanship. The downed airplane landing in the theater...classic! When Waterworld got out we had to hustle over to catch the last show of the day with the folks of Cyberdyne.

Asa had suggested staying in the area a bit afterward to avoid some of the rush hour traffic. My friend Jeff had mentioned Griffith Park so we ventured up to Griffith Observatory. I'm so glad that the two came together. It was exciting to see a LA landmark plus the fact that I'm a science and math guy this place got me excited. The interior of the building was gorgeous. The exterior was just as beautiful. The vistas even with the smog were incredible. Watching the sunset was just one of those moments you go WOW! On the lawn there were two telescopes set up. One was trained on Venus and the other Saturn. It was incredible to see the rings through that little eye piece. With that we departed to make our way back down to Anaheim.

For dinner Asa suggested a place called Lee's Sandwiches on Harbor Blvd. He was very enthusiastic on the place. They had 10" baguette sandwiches for under four bucks. Not a bad deal. He suggested getting the jalapeno peppers too! This is the first time that I can remember getting a fresh sliced jalapeno, not one that had been marinating in some jar for months. To wash it down, a lychee smoothie. It was very tasty, the bread was fresh and you know you have a good jalapeno when your nose starts to run! Asa also treated me to a chicken taco from Alberto's. It was very good as well. Nothing like I get in Hawaii!

Asa was great company. Thanks for showing me some of the food choices here in California. They were far better selections that the burger and pulled pork sandwich from Universal! I want to mention Phil from Florida and say a big mahalo to him as he provided me with the tickets for the park.

Back at the hotel I was busy working on my postcards and in comes Jeff. He attended DPN Westfest and stayed at the Grand Californian during the event but has since moved hotels before flying out to Honolulu to visit with me for a few days. We got talking about his adventure of the day. Turns out we were both at Griffith Observatory at the same time. We have the same sunset photos! Looks like I was one level lower than him while taking the shots. Too funny!

In one way I'm glad the trip is coming to an end. I am tired. I already told Jeff not to expect a whole lot out of me on Thursday as I need a little recoup time. By hitting Universal Studios Hollywood, that makes ten parks in 14 days. Tomorrow will just be a little time in Disneyland before getting the shuttle back to LAX and then Honolulu. It will be nice to put my head down in the Apartment in Paradise once more.

DC2CERUMA - Day 7

Today was the wind down day for Florida. Tomorrow I leave for California and the DPN Westfest event. It was a good day. I spent the day at the Universal parks on my own and this time I didn't take the camera bag. My phone has a camera and I used that extensively, but no zoom, no tight shots, no flash shots. My shoulder didn't get killed by the strap and I didn't have to worry about putting it in and taking it out of a locker while riding rides. I didn't even close out the parks.

Meers Transportation provided a shuttle service between Pop Century and the Universal Orlando Resort. Eighteen dollars for a round trip I think was reasonable as I was told by several people a taxi would have been about $30-$40 each way. So I think I got a reasonable deal. The only suggestion for them would be to have the destinations on the pickup vehicles. When I asked the Customer Service agent when I moved my pickup time about what sort of vehicle, van or bus, she wasn't sure. So as the different vehicles pulled up you had to ask as they weren't labeled.

Spent the morning at Universal doing Jaws, Rip Ride Rockit and a couple other shows. Slow pace. There were several times characters became available like Ricky and Lucy, Scooby Doo, Fiona and Donkey. For the most part other than Fiona and Donkey there wasn't a line. It was very easy to get a picture of the character by itself or it was easy enough to jump in and have someone take the shot for you.

The afternoon was spent at Islands of Adventure. I rode Cat in the Hat which did NOT have spinning cars even though they had signs posted saying they would spin. Poseidon and Sindbad were two shows I saw. Sindbad wasn't bad as the 20 minute show passed very quickly. I just wish I could have gotten something better with the Wizarding World of Harry Potter. I really would have liked to try the butter beer and pumpkin juice drinks!

The ride that takes the cake for me is Spider Man. I really thought it was an awesome ride. Once the levitation and anti-levitation rays were activated, the ride stepped it up a notch in the excitement factor! The Simpsons was also very fun, especially if you are into amusement parks at all.

The two rides I didn't do was the Bilge-rat Barges and Rip Saw Rapids. You got wet on those and I just didn't want to deal with it on this go around. I was already having issues of being uncomfortable and I didn't want to take THAT to the next level.

The one BIG disappointment was the food. On day one I had the meal plan. Ate at five of the six eligible restaurants. Spaghetti and meatballs, pizza, chicken fingers were eaten on the plan. Today was a cheese burger and a gyro. Other than the chicken fingers, the food was bland, tastless, or worst of all cold! At Mel's diner I had the apple pie today. I was told it would be hot, but the outside was cold and the interior was meh as far as hot heat. It tasted good, but if it was ala mode as they showed, the ice cream would have melted due to room temp and not the pie itself. They need to up their game on the food.

During the bus ride back to Pop, met two girls from Canada. We got into a health care debate. They don't have it as well up there as the news says. Four days to set a broken arm? Two weeks to diagnose a broken wrist. Anyway, I hope I was able to turn them onto Bob Jackson over at Riverside!

While I was running around, I made an effort to get my laundry done first thing when I got back and it paid off. I've been by the laundry room several times and the people are lined up waiting for either washer or dryer to open up. I'm lucky in that choice!

The fun aspect of this trip was the plurking, tweeting and facebooking. It added a whole other dimension to the adventure. There were a couple conversations going on and got lots of feedback on the photos I posted. I think I said it earlier, I was traveling solo, but I was not alone!

As I write this, I'm was trying to sleep but haven't been able to do so. I will be picked up at 4:15am for a 7am flight so I'm up at 3am. I'm hoping to catch a couple of zzzz's at the airport and stay asleep on the 4.5 hour flight from MCO to LAX.

This first week of the Disney Coast to Coast-er Universally Magic Adventure is coming to a close there one big overall disappointment for me is that I wasn't able to give out as many of the Awesome Job cards as I had hoped. Three is a low number in my book. We'll have to see if I can do better in California. SO until then, ALOHA

DC2CERUMA - Day 6

Today was a day of excitement. I finally was going to visit the Universal Orlando Resort with its two parks: Universal Studios Florida and Islands of Adventure! Although, I have to admit that on this 6th day of DC2CerUMA, my tail is severely dragging. Lots of walking around and not a whole heck of a lot of sleep!

I went over with friend and fellow In the Loop podcaster, The Legend. He picked me up at Pop Century and we were at the park for park opening. We started in the Universal side of the house. Jimmy Neutron, Simpsons, Men in Black, rides that I have heard about for a LONG time, I was finally going to experience them!

The Legend and myself decided to buy the two park meal plan. There were 6 restaurants available. I did 5 while The Legend did the Eat around the Universe and ate at all 6 locations. He kinda knows what it felt like when I at a whole Kitchen Sink at Beaches and Cream!

I was offered the chance to review a possible show for network television. It had an actor that I don't like so the show wasn't any good for me. I was paid $10 for my time of about 30 minutes.

We didn't do all the attractions at Universal in the AM, but moved over to Island of Adventure (IOA) that afternoon where I got to meet Matt who I've chatted with about coasters and some other items for a long time now. It was great to actually meet the person behind the myth and legend although not to be confused with THE Legend!

The Legend and Matt were great tour guides. They helped me on a couple of items where like on dueling dragons the harness wouldn't close all the way, but they made it fit! I had the same issues with closing the harness on Hulk and Rip Ride Rocket. On two of those three rides I needed the big boy seat. Lesson learned!

It was great touring with them as they knew the ins and outs and understood what it took to move me swiftly and efficiently from attraction to attraction. It was really appreciated. Mahalo to Matt and The Legend! I really liked the Spiderman and Simpsons' rides!

I had my camera bag and after 6 days, it was getting HEAVY! I've decided tomorrow, I will go to the park with just my cell phone, nothing more. It will be different, but my body needs a bit of rest.

At the end of our day exploring "The U" parks as some Disney podcasts call them, we departed with The Legend bringing me back to his place where we did the In the Loop podcast without hurting anyone. Good deal!

I'm going to cut this short as I need to do some postcards for Orlando before I leave so here is a hardy ALOHA!!

DC2CERUMA - Day 5

Today was a beautifully mellow day! It was my last day at Walt Disney World before two exciting days at Universal Orlando Resort. It was going to be my day to enjoy the Flower and Garden Festival at Epcot. The day did not disappoint on many levels.

The day started a bit late. The time zone difference and with all the running around. I spent extra time getting ready the morning. Yesterday was the first time that I wore as we say in Hawaii, rubbah slippahs for the entire day. It wasn't bad until just before getting back to Pop. I had a feeling on my foot like a blister was forming. It hadn't, but it was on it's way if I had not headed it off with going back to the sneakers and double socks. Extra baby powder was also in order.

Once in the park I used photopass again and again and again.

I was milking that for all it's going to be worth! Photos for F&G items and then went to Inoventions about the Kim Possible Adventure. There I met Ricky and did a little filming. This guy was in a wheel chair with no legs and hand issues. He was a cast member for the KPA and explained it. He recommended Germany and got me started after a couple of adjustments. Before I left, he grabbed my hand to shake his as I personally wasn't sure what to do because his right hand had a thumb but the other fingers were stumped. He used his left hand to help complete the shake. He took the lead in figuring out what for me was awkward because I wasn't sure what to do. After doing the KPA, I went back later in the day to try to find him to give him my Awesome Job card but he wasn't there. I'm going to make sure that I contact Disney about how he handled himself and that the recommendation was right on!

Did the Great Piggy Band Adventure and headed to Club Cool. I drank a Beverly in honor of all my hommies and peeps who couldn't be there.

I met up again with John Corigliano from Mousetimes as we set about to do the KPA. As we were entering World Showcase there was an alligator snapping turtle that was trying to get onto the walk way but eventually went back into the water. Together we did three KP Adventures, Germany, Japan and France. They were all very fun and would recommend them to anyone. Along the way we met a princess, eat snacks, talk to a cast member from Kiyoshu who explained the brown square with teeth called Domo and had fun cutting loose while John recorded the adventures!

John and I enjoyed Impression de France and got Fish and Chips to eat from the UK where were gave part of our chips to the seagulls and ducks. We headed into the old Millennium Village to watch part of the dance competition that was happening that weekend. There were teams from all over the world. While we may think it dorky, gotta give them props for those routines!

After enjoying Marty Short and his problems playing Hockey, John and I made a bee line for the old Wonders of Life pavillion that was housing the F&G festival center.

They had a few display items, many heavily pushing the local Florida agriculture. I picked up a limited edition of the Flower and Garden vinylmation that I will use as a give away. I really LOVE the package delivery service. I really wish Disneyland would implement such a service or at serivce to drop off the items at the front of park. it was great not having to worry about carrying around a bag even if the item was a small item!

After John and I returned to Innoventions to try to find Ricky, we did the Stormchasers. I really like what they did to simulate a house blowing away in a storm. Hawaii like Florida has the potential for high hurrican damage and while I knew some of the information, there was more that I didn't know. Before John left for the day together we did the piggy bank adventure. The technology there with the pig itself is cute. I particularly liked when you had "money" in the bank when you shook the bank you could hear the coins jingle. It's that sort of detail that allows Disney to stand apart from everyone else.

Off in the distance there were dark clouds and then you could hear the faint rumbling of thunder and the flashes of lightning that interuppted my picture taking at Imagination. I wish they would do a bit of tweeking to this attraction. With the two changes, the underlying concepts for imagination has gotten blurred and in some cases lost. Oh well, Dreamfinder was past and is not current, unfortunately. I had just managed to make it to the bus stop when the heveans opened up. The rain was blowing sideways! It cut my day short by a few hours, but there was a positive to it.

My former trailermate from the College Program lives here in Florida and was attending a conference while I've been here. Since I was back at the room earlier, we were able to get together. We had dinner at Ragalan Road at Pleasure Island at Downtown Disney. We ate and had a good time catching up with each other. He presented me with something from one of his friends that will help me with Universal over the next two days. Again, my sincere thanks for the assistance that will be provided over the upcoming 48 hours. We managed to close up Raglan Road. I'm sure if they had live entertainment that night, we would have been able to stay until later.

one part that I really enjoyed today took place up at the Imagination water area. I was taking some video of the water in action as well as the passing monorail trains as others would come up to have their picture taken. I would volunteer to take a shot so everyone could be in it. I did this about half a dozen times. I had fun helping them and they really enjoying having a picture with everyone in it.

While today was mellow, I'm expecting high energy as I venture to Universal Orlando Resort for the first time! I will be putty in my tour guides hands as they expertly and adeptly show me the ins and outs of UOR. Following this I'm sure that interesting conversations are going to happen on In The Loop podcast. That is I'm hoping to make it. As I write this the thunder and lightning is still happening at the rain is coming down.

Caught doing something right

I have a big trip coming up and I'm super stoked about it! I'll be hitting up a number of theme parks on the east and west coasts. In the plans are the six Disney parks, the three Universal parks and one Six Flags park, a couple of hotels, one airline for four different segments, one rent a car company and four different shuttle companies. I've called it my Disney Coast to Coast-er Universally Magic Adventure. I was thinking of doing something and would like to hear your thoughts on this idea to be executed while on the adventurous journey.

During the trip I know that I will encounter hundreds of people starting and ending with the shuttle trip to and from the Honolulu International Airport with all the parks, hotels, drivers and ride operators in between. We always hear the gripe and complaint stories about companies and employees not doing their jobs right. I want to try to turn that around a little and maybe have some fun with it. The game plan is as follows: get some of those print at home business cards, put something like "You've been caught doing something right" on them, when I catch someone doing something right by going above and beyond give them a card, ask if I can get a shot of them with my phone camera and then blog about them and what they did here at The Tiki Outpost.

With all the different components of this trip there will be a lot of chances for things to go wrong but I'm hoping that I don't run across any junk. I'm hoping all goes well and want to let those people who do things right be noticed. While I can't give them anything like money or prizes, hopefully the little card will act like a certificate that they can show other people. The web address will be on the card and I can point out to them that there will be a post about why they were noticed. The card and post will act as their reward.

I've already had one surprise in the planning. I contacted Universal Orlando Resort and heard back from them the NEXT day with a phone call AND they observed the time zone. Tony was the rep. He waited to call in their day so I received the call at 8am my time and not 2am as some other organizations/solicitors from the east coast have done in the past. I hate when the mainland goes on Daylight Saving Time and it becomes 6 hours between here and there. He fully answered all of my questions. The call was a surprise as they could have used e-mail.

So that's the idea give attention to people doing things right. What do you think? Got any comments or suggestions? Leave them below!