DC2CERUMA - Day 13

Today was a fantastic day. Ever since I saw the movie Roller Coaster, I've always wanted to visit Magic Mountain. Today was that day. I was pulling into the parking lot after paying my $15 for that little slice of asphalt that would be called mine for those few hours I was visiting and while I was putting the car into park I got choked up. It was similar to how I felt when I stepped into Walt Disney Studios Paris completing my visiting all of the Disney parks globally. A place that I had seen and heard about for 30 years I was finally visiting there in Valencia!

The day started a little rough. I tried to use the complementary computer system in the hotel lobby to buy a package for the visit. I would have received a park admission, parking and a meal for $55. When I tried to order it on line, the computer didn't have the necessary software. They had acrobat 6 and the current version is 10. The result is that when I got to the park, I paid $55 for admission alone. But since the cost of a season pass was the price of a single day full price ticket, I opted for the pass. SO, I am a Six Flags Magic Mountain season pass holder even though I'll probably not be able to make it back while it is valid. The funny thing is when you order on line they in my opinion, distort the savings the list on line. They say to save $22 on line with a single day ticket and they charge you $5 on line processing fee so the savings is really only $17.

After entering the park I was approached by Black Jack Joe, he's one of the people who attended DPN Westfest. On his way home he stopped by MM since he's an annual pass holder. Joe took the time out of his day to show me the ropes of touring this Southern California landmark park. I really appreciate what he did as in the matter of a few hours we had done almost all of the coasters in the park. Luckily the day was DEAD in the park for numbers of people and almost everything was a direct walk on. If we waited, it was maybe one train. We spent more time putting our stuff into the available lockers per the instructions of the attractions than waiting for the coasters themselves. I kept all the receipts and $7 was spent , one dollar at a time, to secure our belongings while we rode.

The first ride of the day was X2. It was crazy! The trains are HUGE and it does take some time to load people. One of my concerns was would I fit. At Universal Florida, there were two coaster trains that I had to use "the big boy" seating. For X2, I fit. Actually, for the whole day, there were a couple of snuggy moments, and the attendants with a little effort got me into each of the harnesses when necessary but I didn't have any problems overall! Before Black Jack Joe left for the day to continue his trip to Northern California we had done all of the roller coasters except Revolution and Viper. I would be able to do those two on my own.

During the course of the day I was able to give out not one, but TWO Awesome Job cards! The first went to Noelle. Joe and I were walking by her whack a mole booth. I had my camera around my neck.

She stopped us to ask if we would like our picture taken. Normally you have to ask employees to do it, but she just volunteered. She took the shot then Joe and I went and rode Batman and Riddler before I returned to offer her the card. She was totally stoked. She even had her supervisor come over and be in the shot that I snapped with my camera phone!

The second went to Nari. We were riding the Canyon Blaster (Hey, it's a coaster credit!). The operator Nari asked it we wanted to go again. The riders said yes so she hit the button and we were off for a second time! We didn't have to get off or anything. it was cool. I laughed up a storm! So good going to Noelle and Nari on their Awesome Job cards! You both earned those little cards!

NOW, there was one person who shouldn't be in her position. She wasn't Doosh worthy, but the interactions should have been different. I went to SFMM Guest Relations to pass along my comments. Amanda listed to me talk about their team members and she did NOTHING to acknowledge what I was talking about. No excitement in her voice, no real acknowledgment, no nuttin from her. Something that I thought should be recognized is how many of the employees would recognize me as BJJ and myself or just myself would say "Have a Six Flags day" or some other words of acknowledgment. I know that in 5 star hotels, when you get within so many feet of an employee they are to acknowledge you. It was rather nice. Although, I wish they could do something about their uniforms that are the dayglo yellow/green that ask you to pick up your trash.

In the park I paid for water, not once but twice. The first time I was parched. The nearest water fountains were broken. I was dry in the mouth and sweating quite a bit. Similarly, I know that I complained about the cost of a 20oz coke at Disney with WDW at $2.55 and DLR at $3.03, but for that same bottle at SFMM, $3.75!! Only did one of those! I had a burger at Katy's Kettle. The burger was cold, but the onion rings were good! To make up for the bad burger, I stopped at In-n-Out burger in Fullerton and had the Double Double with fries and a large drink for dinner!

So as you can see it was a real good day. I got to accomplish a goal of visiting Magic Mountain, I gave out two Awesome Job cards and I got In-n-Out Burger. I don't think it could have gotten much better!

Tomorrow is my last full theme park day, it will be Universal Hollywood. I should only have to pay for parking and food! Day 14 will bring me to my 10th theme park in this two week trip. That info is just blowing my mind! I've done theme parks or theme park related for two solid weeks. Texting with an old employee who now lives here and it looks like I might have company to Universal. Whoo hoo!

So, there should be 3 more posts covering the full day, the partial day on Wednesday and then some sort of recap. For those of you who have followed along this far, thank you. I hope that I haven't bored you and provided you some entertainment!

DC2CERUMA - Day 12

I need to make a correction to yesterday's post. I mentioned Thomas and Eric who are visually impaired people that I met. I got one name wrong. It was Matt and Eric. I wanted to correct that one right away!

Today was the final day of DPN Westfest along with a day of goodbyes and the day that I hit the wall. Today passed quicker than I would have liked. It signaled the end of the DPN gathering at Disneyland. I am sad to see it go. There were lots of good times over the past several days. At the same time, I'm on day 12 of the adventure with every day being a very fully day and today was the day that I hit my limit. After being up to 2:30am today, I once again decided to sleep a little. I was up at 7:30am and could have used more zzzz's but needed to be at the park for the 10am photo gathering. I was going to use my PhotoPass card!

What was more exciting than going into the park was spotting the Bat Day people in the esplanade even before they had a chance to enter either park.. Some just wore black whatever and some were dressed in outfits, costumes or attire that was simply stunning. There was this one couple dressing in a purple and velvet ensemble that was beautiful. I did ask to take a picture, but they said they were running for a meet and that if I ran into them in the park, they would be more than happy to let me take a shot. Unfortunately, I did not run into them again.

The photo meet went well I thought! With my photopass, I was grabbing an individual or individuals to pose with me with the photopass photographer and then they did one large shot and a bunch of smaller shots to get more detail. All went on my card. I can't wait to see ALL the shots I have taken. I was really excited getting a pp picture with the Skurvy Monkeys

More events, more people; after going to see the Lincoln we broke for lunch. I could feel it right at that time. I had hit the wall. I was growing impatient with people and events. I basically had lunch alone to try to keep myself in check and not bark at someone. I was going to head back to the hotel room to sleep, but I had made promises to myself about going to a couple particular meets and I wanted to make sure I kept those.

The Billy Hill and the Hill Billies is a fun event. Their highlight is when they fiddle to the Orange Blossom trail. They do such a great job with it. The sound is wonderful and the entertainment value is just as good.

Mike and Steve from the newest member of The DPN, Disney Park Hoppin' Party are such fun to be around. Their meet at the tea cups was a hoot. They had picked up new mad hatter hats marked like the new Mad Hatter as portrayed by Johnny Depp. I even won some of their materials for a couple of DVDs. I managed to get them in front of the photo pass while they were dressed up.

I watched the Tiki Room before I left he park for the day. I know that I have half a day on Wednesday but won't be able to get in a lot of rides before I have to leave to get the shuttle back to the airport. And again, I was/am cranky. I didn't want to unload on someone. This adventure between the different theme parks, which 2 full days and 2 parks to go has just wiped me out. I almost got into it with the guest relations because they aren't selling post card stamps. Something that I learned tonight is that contrary to popular belief, is that a ticket from WDW by policy it cannot be used at the Disneyland resort.

I'm looking forward to Magic Mountain, but need to cut this short. I am nodding off while typing in this report. I must first apologize to a lot of Westfesters in than I did not say good bye. There were some people to whom I wanted to spend more time or get photopass but it didn't work out. Maybe next time. They're all a great bunch of people and am glad that we had the chance to get together.

DC2CERUMA - Day 11

Today had some interesting events unfold. Nothing major in impact to the big population, but interesting to me! The first was getting postcards. I was looking for postcards at Disney's California Adventure and they only had four different ones in stock and each was $2.00. When I asked the Cast Member behind the counter said that because of the billion dollar remodel they would eventually be switching stock. OK, but you didn't have some generic character cards that you could have been put in the store? The second part of that is that according to the same CM, the US Post Office came in and removed the vending machines for stamps. Huh, this organization that is struggling to generate revenue removed a source AND will not allow Disney to sell stamps at their guest relations? They allow 7-11 to sell stamps but not Disney. Weird.

Before the events of the day got started I met up with Design and Proud Monkey out in front of DCA. They were waiting for one of their party to arrive before going in. The use of facebook, twitter, texting, and mobile phones in general has very much changed the way that a visit to an amusement park occurs. How much it's used to convey reactions to events in the park as well as keeping tabs of people and what they are doing.

Unfortunately, I was not able to attend the Toy Story Mania event as I was running a special errand that I wanted to complete today before something else distracted me from the goal. The Corn Dog meet with Sarah, Jason and Jimmy, thank you for awarding me a small stuffed Heimlich from Bug's Life for travelling the furthest. Aunty Lo's Island Meet at the animation academy was a blast. The whole animation building is chock full of detail that most people miss. It was the first time in a couple of visits that I did the animation studio where I learned to draw a character. This time around it was Goofy! The parks are so full of detail at different levels and for most people it flies right over their head!

Dinner tonight was at Story Tellers in the Grand Californian. They had a good spread. But more importantly, the company was compelling. Lots of laughs. For the most part, people will ignore bad food when they are in the company of people who make them feel good and laugh. That was the case with tonight's dinner.

There are all sort of activites within the park and within the framework of DPN Westfest that could keep an individual busy, but it's the connections with people that is the most important. I had the chance to meet Thomas and Eric who are visually impaired. It was fun talking to them. Thomas has been out to Hawaii before and I tried to explain the new Disney resort, Aulani that is coming up in terms referencing what he knew already. I also got to share with them a fact about Tokyo DisneySea that would be very important to them in a future visit. They were excited and surprised about what I revealed to them!

There was no one that really shone above the rest for me to be able to give out an AWESOME JOB! card. Also discovered that the state side Disney doesn't give out rubber stamps for letters the same way that Hong Kong did. It helps personalize the letter/postcard to really embellish them. Oh Well!

Fantasyland at night is magic. Many times I have ridden the rides. I really love the dark rides. Pinocchio is one of my favorites. Unfortunately, Peter Pan always has a long line no matter what time of day or night!

Tomorrow is the last day of DPN Westfest. The main event for me is the photo shot in front of the castle. My Photo Pass should get a big workout tomorrow to help preserve the memories of the weekend. More than anything else, I think Disney is in the business of helping people make lasting memories. That's my story and I'm going to stick with it!