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.

Why we love Sandra Bullock

I'm sure that out in the vast expanse of the cold cosmos there is a star. It's a bright shinning star that you look at it in wonder and amazement. It is so beautiful and inspiring you go "oooooh". Right next to it is a black hole. We can't see it directly because no light can escape it. We know it's there because it does have an influence upon the bright shining star next door giving the star extra flare as it deals with the sucking gravitational influence of the hole. Over the weekend we got to see a live example of these two opposing forces here on Earth focused into one body known as Sandra Bullock.

Award seasons are funny. Watching who gets ignored for their work who gets fingers pointed at them so other people will notice them or others who get lifted up on platforms for all to see. Sometimes the finger pointing is good as in the case of The Oscars when the Academy of the Motion Picture Arts and Sciences says these are the best that Hollywood has to offer. On the flip side are the Golden Raspberry Awards more affectionately known as The Razzies which points the finger at someones work and says "Dude (or dudette), that really sucked!"

In the cinematic year that was 2009 the mystical forces came together in the right proportions to allow the Magellanic Cloud to part, streams of flowing protons to filter through, the hand of god to reach through the heavens with his outstretched finger to point at Sandra Bullock and say "This year, you will be the best and the worst that Hollywood has to offer!" Sandra tosses her long brown hair about, shining in the celestial glow as choirs of angels sing "aaaaaahhhhh".

The worst as recognized by the Razzies was Sandra's portrayal of Mary Horowitz, a not all too hip crossword puzzle creator who is smitten and stalks TV news cameraman Steve (Bradley Cooper) in the movie appropriately named All About Steve. It was painful to watch this intelligent woman mindlessly chase a man across the country and be lead on by a no good news reporter feeding her lines to advance his own cause. While Mary has a heart of gold her self-esteem she doesn't feel is as valuable. This was not a story about self empowerment and I'm sure feminists everywhere were cringing if they watched this movie. For her efforts in this film, the Razzies awarded her two awards: the first being the Worst Screen Couple which she shared with Bradley Cooper and the second being Worst Actress.

At the other end of the spectrum was the portrayal of Leigh Anne Tuohy, a no nonsense southern lady who took a homeless black child off the street and provided him a stable home life. Fierce, determined, strict, gutsy, nurturing and loving describe the women Bullock brought to the big screen. To see Bullock stand at 5'7" next to Quinton Aaron who portrayed Michael Oher at 6'8" and close to 400 pounds was like seeing a poodle stand next to an elephant, an interesting combination whose story pulled at the heart strings in The Blind Side. It was a role that Bullock turned down several times. It wasn't until meeting Tuohy did Bullock decide to accept the role. It was almost a lost opportunity. Now, I'm sure she's glad she decided to accept the role!

So for the first time in the history of cinema, one person, one actress was recognized on one weekend for the two sides of the good/bad coin that is Hollywood Cinema. After being nominated for the Razzie, Bullock said she would show up if she won and true to her word she showed up and accepted the award with grace, humility and humor, lots of humor!



When she was called on stage to accept the Oscar for the Best Actress, it was heart warming, heart felt and again very humorous.


(Here's hoping this video doesn't get taken down by YouTube)

I'm sure there will be a very special case in the Bullock household. It will hold the 13.5" 8.5 lb 24K gold plated Oscar Statuette and right next to it will be the empty 8mm film reel with the glued on raspberry that is spray painted gold for a cost of $4.97 (at least according to the founder of the Razzies John Wilson) The bright shining star and the sucking black hole poised next to each other in that case. Sandra gave us her best and worst performances in 2009 and accepted both in a very genuine and sincere way. For this how could you not love this women Sandra Bullock.