DC2CERUMA - Day 15-the final day

And so ends my Disney Coast to Coast-er Universally Magic Adventure. Day 15, time to pack, enjoy the Disney parks a little and then head back to Honolulu. I just tried to chill and relax. Once I get back to Honolulu, I have four full days with Jeff from Houston of the Meandering Mouse Podcast.

I was originally planning on getting into the park around 10am, but I took a while to get going between doing the DC2CERUMA Day 14 blog post, getting food, showering and getting packed. One of my habits that had me slightly flummoxed was that of my changes. Since arriving in Anaheim, I did like I do at home, I empty my pockets of change and here I put the coins into a Styrofoam cup. It was HEAVY! When I checked out, I tried to change it at the front desk. Nope, they wouldn't do it. So I went to the sundry store and bought a soda and gum and paid out seven bucks in coins. In the parks I got a desert and my freestyle coke mix and paid about eight bucks in coins. I got a meal and paid the amount above a whole dollar in coins. When I left the park I grabbed another soda and paid three dollars in coins. Almost 20 dollars in coins. And that was just from a week in Southern California!

I started in Disney's California Adventure slowly walking around, taking pictures and enjoying the atmosphere. Every chance I saw for a photopass opportunity, I took it. I must have had about a dozen stops total and not sure how many pictures total were taken. I asked around about the World of Color and couldn't find out anything about soft openings although several cast members did mention about the possible use of assigned tickets for show times. That would be a good test of the American public so see if they could handle some of the things that the Tokyo Disneyland Resort does! I also tried to find a propeller beanie hat with no luck. Dang! I didn't ride any rides in DCA before heading over to Disneyland.

In Disneyland, more of the same wondering around. Random shots of what ever. I did do one ride and that was Roger Rabbit's Cartoon Spin. With it I pulled a fast pass. No intentions of using it, but adding it to the collection. Different stores along the way asking about the propeller beanie. A number of locations within both parks commented that they had them several months ago and are waiting for more to come in. Wonder if Disney is realizing that they are loosing out on not having the propeller beanies! I did see one family wearing a set. I asked them where they got them only to hear they purchased on e-bay or something like that and they had brought them into the park. Bummer!

My last photo pass shots were by the Partners statue. I told the guy to make it a good one as they would be my last for the trip. He had me outstretch my arms and with open hands, I expect to have Tinkerbell placed in them. Cut last shots. The last shots on the camera where the small character statues in the hub. I had loaded up all the pictures and the number of pics that I took on his trip alone was 1618 total pictures. This is my still camera only, no phone camera, HD video cam or photopass shots. I know I'll be spending some time sorting them out.

My shuttle service with Super shuttle arrived a bit early so I'm writing up the blog at this time in Notebook. Internet service is not available unless I pay for it soooo, no biggie. It should make posting a bit earlier once I get some sort of internet connection. I'm hoping that since the flight is not full, the seat next to me stays empty and that I can get some sleep. I realized that I forgot to charge the i-pod and last used it for watching video. The battery has got to be low at this point.

I can feel myself nodding off and am afraid I'll drop the laptop, so I'll sign off for now!

DC2CERUMA - Day 10

The ball really started rolling on DPN Westfest activities today! My meet was today and more people show up for the weekend. Lots of the locals come out for the evening activities and even more will show up tomorrow, Saturday.

I tried to work something for my meet today. Yesterday I contacted Media Relations and didn't get a call back. I called again today. While I riding Mike and Sulley to the Rescue I received a call back and a message. It was basically for something like this to happen there would need to be a media relations person present and since they didn't have anyone available it would not be possible to have my request officially filled. David said that I could try the theater itself. Well, I did try and failed on all accounts. I tried the people by the theater and even asked what could they do to help make the moment more magical and basically got blank stares and shrugged shoulders. After viewing the show, I even tried to leave some of the buttons I had made for the main characters and the ushers wouldn't take them. I was told to mail them to the entertainment department and if they saw fit they would pass them along. So, do they deserve the doosh nominations. No, I don't think so, they weren't rude or not following rules. But what disappointed me even more is that Disney prides itself on making magical moments and when even asked how could we make this more magical they didn't have a response. I was sooooo wanting to hand out an AWESOME JOB card or multiple cards for having something coming through and instead they stayed in the card holder.

To those people who came out and watched the show together, a big thanks to you! You are my friends on the DPN, you are watchers of my podcast. There were 35 of you who took the time out of your schedule to join me in watching Aladdin. I know for some people it will be their last time as the show will be retired in August and they won't have the chance to see it before then. To those people who won the 10 prizes, I hope you enjoy them and can put them to good use! I know some others couldn't make it to the meet due to issues like special luncheons at Club 33 or travel, I totally understand. I knew that by having this meet on a Friday afternoon it would affect some people's ability to attend.

Through the day I did manage to make it over to the Festival Markethouse to the fantastic Coke Machine. I really love the ability to mix flavors like peach, raspberry and grape with products like Sprite, Coke Zero, Fanta and other base flavors. Funny story on the second trip there, I mentioned to the girl at the register it would be nice instead of having just a 22 or 32 ounce cup that they could have several say 5 oz cups so you could try different flavors. The cashier said you could go up for free refills. I repeated it out loud to the group of about 8 people I was with. In just a few seconds a manager looking type person came over and made comments along the lines like this is Disney and there are no free refills. He said it in such a way that I'm sure the cashier felt uncomfortable being corrected in front of the guests.

Dinner was at the Big Thunder BBQ. It was a BBQ served family style with corn bread, sausage, ribs, chicken, cole slaw, baked beans and corn on the cob. I had gotten some of the sauce on my face and a couple of the ladies at the table were disturbed because I didn't wipe if off immediately. When I did attempt to get it off, it was high enough that I didn't get it. I was offered a Hello Kitty mirror and a wet antibacterial wipe in order to get if off. As I cleaned, my picture holding the HK Mirror was taken and posted to Facebook.

One funny part of the night was during the Rabble Rousers meet, a large group went over to ride Mickey's Fun Wheel that has both stationary and moving cars. In the one car there were 5 of us and none of us could be considered to be on the carrot stick diet. We got into the car and had a fun time as the momentum of the car on the moving track gave us some good swinging motion.

After leaving the Disneyland park a little after 11pm, I got in contact with the guys from the Skurvy Monkeys podcast. They were in Downtown Disney. I was tired, but I really wanted to meet up with them. I headed over to the UVA Bar and met most of the monkey cast face to face at one time. Samby Monkey, Spider Monkey, Design, IMHO Monkey, and Guerrilla Monkey were in the same place at the same time. Design presented me with two very, very special gifts. The first was the original drawing he did of Movie Monkey. I need to get this framed. The second was a kukui nut lei which he picked up on Kauai when he got married, took it back to the mainland and brought it with him to present to me when he came down for the weekend activities. Both are sincerely appreciated!

These trips to Disney when you know that you are going to be meeting up with others who share your interests are priceless. Several of the events had people who I haven't seen in years or a least a year from the last DPN Westfest. They are a great way to keep in touch with people on a face to face basis instead of just and name and number in an outlook contact card. It's great to connect with people on a face to face basis instead of electronic forums, social media or e-mail. It's funnerer and the bestest