Just a couple of days to go before heading out to the mainland. Really excited about this. The hotel and car reservations are all taken care of. Have several tickets purchased, but not all of them at this point. Looking to see about discounts for some of the attractions.
The first week is pretty well planned out. Dollywood and Pigeon Forge then to Boston to visit family. I had the suggestion to go to Six Flags New England or Canobie Lake Park while in New England. Unfortunately, they are on their fall schedules and not open weekdays while I'm there.
Spent time over the weekend buying some gifts. Not wanting to cart around on the different legs, it will be easier to pack and ship some items rather than trying to bring with me on the plane. Food goodies are nice because they can get eaten and you don't have to dust them over the long haul.
Worked on the recognition card. When I've talked to people about the idea I haven't received any negative feedback. People really like the idea. It will also help to keep me focused on looking for positive during the trip. Last time I only gave out half a dozen. This time, I'm hoping for more. Bringing 50 cards with me. I'll bring the softcopy with me in case I need to make more but might need to find a Walmart or something to find the card stock on which to print them.
Since I started planning the trip and knowing that I was going to San Diego I was trying to get in touch with an old college buddy. We lost touch a number of years ago. I would send them my Christmas card and one year I got it back in the mail as deliverable. The old email addresses and phone number went stale. Lookups for name searches didn't work. Facebook negative. Finally, I did have a family member name of someone I didn't know. Was able to find them on FB and reached out. They in turn were able to get me some contact information. After doing the Belmont Park roller coaster, we're going to get together. It's been over two decades since we last communicated and I look forward to catching up with them.
One of my concerns for the trip is my diet. I haven't been doing sugars and grains for a while now. I know there are going to be days when I'll be going outside that range. I just need to remind myself not to do it every day. Last year after doing the marathon I ate whatever. One months later there was a 20lb difference. I don't want that to happen on this trip so I need to be a little more judicious with my choices.
Finally I was trying to decide what to pack as the weather is going to be different in the mountains of Tennessee vs the shore of Lake Erie, New England then Florida and Southern California. Living in Hawaii for so long has thinned out my New England blood and have decided that some long sleeve garments might be necessary as below 70 could be considered cold for me. Stupid, I know, but five locations on one trip forces some choices.
Monday, September 17, 2018
Fall 2018 Theme Park Trip planning-Recognition Card
Posted by The Hawaii Guy at 10:18 PM 0 comments
Labels: #F2018TPT, fall 2018 Theme Park Trip
Saturday, September 8, 2018
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!
Posted by The Hawaii Guy at 10:05 PM 0 comments
Labels: #F2018TPT, Anaheim, California, Cedar Point, customer service, Disney, Dollywood, flickr, hollywood, Legoland, Ohio, orlando, roller coaster, San Diego, Sandusky, SeaWorld, Six Flags, Tennessee, united, Universal
Friday, September 9, 2016
Over View
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| Twelve Parks Collage |
The visit to Disneyland Paris resort was in 2008. Why do I mention this? To give a reference point of my experience with the parks and what was and wasn’t in the parks when I visited.
Little bit of a disclaimer up front. This is my rating of what I liked. You may agree with me, you may not. There are items that tickle my fancy but for you, it may be like dragging nails across the chalk board just as there may be somethings that stick in my craw but causes a big smile on your face. No two visitors to any Disney park will take away an identical experience. That’s fine. In the background, keep in mind that while there are a number of similarities, all of the parks are different. They all have their own personalities, strengths and weaknesses. My ratings will be based on my actual visits to the parks and not things they have changed since the latest visit. With each park, I’ll put the last time I visited there as part of the description.
12 Walt Disney Studios Paris
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| Walt Disney Studios Paris Dedication Plaque |
11 Disney California Adventure
| Pre-Transformation Disney California Adventure Entrance Plaza |
10 Disney's Animal Kingdom
| Animal Kingdom Entrance |
9 Disneyland Paris
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| Le Château de la Belle au Bois Dormant Disneyland Paris |
8 Disney Hollywood Studios
| Disney Hollywood Studios sign |
7 Tokyo Disneyland
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| Partners statue at Tokyo Disneyland |
6 Epcot
| Spaceship Earth at night |
5 Hong Kong Disneyland
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| Sleeping Beauty Castle Hong Kong Disneyland |
4 Shanghai Disneyland
| Enchanted Storybook Castle at night Shanghai Disneyland |
3 Magic Kingdom
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| Custodial host on the right! |
This rating is mostly sentimental. My last visit to the Magic Kingdom was in April 2010, but it was my first which vividly sticks in my mind. The Challenger shuttle had exploded just a week or so before my college program started. My first steps EVER into a Disney park were through stairwell number 9 by Lancer’s Inn, what is now Mrs. Potts, looking out to swarms of sea gulls hanging around trying to get food dropped by or stolen from people sitting at tables with umbrellas and on the other side of the walkway was 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. My first entry ever into a Disney park was as a cast member. It wasn’t until a week later, on my first day off, I parked in the regular parking lot with thousands of others to take the tram to the TTC then the ferry across the Seven Seas Lagoon to walk in the gates as a guest. Many of my memories are tied to helping people as a custodial host. Gone are the Sky Buckets, Mike Finks Keel Boats, the bird show in Adventureland where I nearly wet myself with excitement as I was allowed to help walk out a hyacinth macaw and Tabasco the 80’s cover band who would make their entrance or exit as I pushed the button on the elevator stage at the Tomorrowland Terrace. More memories about the Magic Kingdom, rather than the attractions and shows in the park were of the program itself and the friends made. Even today, 30 years later a number of us are still in contact.
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| Cinderella Castle Magic Kingdom |
Damn it…I got water drops screwing up my key board now. Twenty ten was my DC2CerUMA, Disney Coast to Coast-er Universally Magic Adventure doing the six US Disney parks, riding all the attractions on both coasts that weren’t under rehab, passing out Awesome Job cards by catching people doing their jobs well and as stated in other blog posts, visiting with Disney friends old and new so while I was traveling solo, I wasn’t traveling alone. Yeah, a very sentimental rating because of people and friends instead of rides, parades and shows.
2 Disneyland
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| me and partner statue Disneyland, Anaheim, CA |
1 Tokyo DisneySea
| Mt Prometheus behind Fortress Explorations |
So that’s my list. With my upcoming trip to the US parks for the first time in six years, my rankings may change. Cars Land, World of Color and Buena Vista Street at Disney California Adventure, experiencing Food and Wine for the first time at Epcot, the new Fantasyland at the Magic Kingdom, Disneyland and Disney’s Hollywood Studios being ripped up for the new Star Wars lands and maybe The Rivers of Light at Disney’s Animal Kingdom will undoubtedly factor into those rankings.
Are you P12 meaning that you’ve experienced all twelve parks? If so, share your rankings let’s see what makes or breaks your rankings for the parks? You know, P12 probably isn’t a good name because eventually Disney will build their 13th park. What would you call it instead?
Posted by The Hawaii Guy at 10:34 PM 0 comments








