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

DC2CERUMA - Day 9

While today is officially the start of DPN Westfest, there is nothing on the schedule until tonight for a mixer at the Lost Bar over at the Disneyland hotel. This morning allowed me a breather. When I hit the sack last night, I was out. My roomie Brian came in a got ready for bed and I didn't stir. I got up to nature's call at 6:30 and then went back to bed until about 8ish when Brian's alarms for him to get up and meet people for breakfast started to go off. No Problem!

He went off and I stayed in the room. First I had a massive headache and second, I needed to play catch up. I was sooooo tired yesterday that I didn't do an entry. I did it this morning. I played on the computer a bit. No problems with the internet connection today! The maid was surprised I was there. I watched her and she was confused that I was still in the room. I hung in the room resting until about 11 when I got ready and headed over to the parks.

I had a mission today. I needed to see if I could get a cast member or two from the Aladdin show to meet people after my DPN Westfest event, "One Last Time with Aladdin and Jamine" meet. I started asking the questioning in Orlando at the guest relations building in Town Hall at the Magic Kingdom. They said I had to talk to Disneyland directly. No luck getting to someone. Automated system saying they were closed when I called.

On property, I contact GR in Disneyland and told that NO, it was not possible. Come on people, this is Disney, "Where dreams Come True" is thier motto. Go to Disney's California Adventure and the lady there tells me to check with the show. I go over to the Hyperion Theater and the girl there says I need to go back to GR and ask to speak with Entertainment One. I do that and was told that I needed to contact publicity. I did that and they pass me over to media relations. I call them and get handed off to a voice mail box asking me for the VM Box number. I have no idea. So I call back and get connected to the mail box of hopefully the right person who can help with this. As of righting this, I haven't been able to speak with the person who supposedly can help me. I'm hoping they come through as I would like to give away another AWESOME JOB card instead of a possible doosh nomination We'll see and I'll keep you posted.

For my lunch I went to Taste Pilots for the X-5 ribs.

It comes with fries and cole saw. I get onion rings instead of the fries. They have a huge fixin bar but I only grab some dill pickle slices. I love this lunch. I usually have this combo one and possibly twice per trip!

That afternoon hung with some people and we did a number of rides. As we came out of the haunted mansion, there was this sight. There was a family of four. The wife was in an electric convenience vehicle as well as the husband. They parked by the Mansion and the husband got off his scooter and started walking towards Splash Mountain.

It was as this time I realized that the husband and the kids were wearing Pajamas. I had to do a double time but did get a shot. Reaction has been interesting to say the least.

After the rides, I came back to the room for a little bit before hitting the official first event of the DPN Westfest schedule! It was a good time. Meeting with with people with whom you've had conversations, people you saw last year, people who are new to the event., it was good to see and meet them all! It was overall a fun time! I left a little early to be able to blog with a better sense of mind, but I'm nodding off right now, big time.

Tomorrow I have my give away items, the biggest being my Awesome Job card to the person who gets me connect up with the actors/actresses. For the meet I have a number of cool items to give away including shirts from Hong Kong. I have 100 buttons made for the event. While it would be cool if I gave them all out. The first is the meet button and the second is a generic podcast MMCTV button. Hopefully I will run out!

DC2CERUMA - Day 8

Yeah, I arrived at LAX and the Disneyland Resort without a hitch! I lucked out on the plane in that I had the whole row to myself. I got a bit of sleep, but even as I write this I'm doing it on fumes. I still have another week to go! Luggage arrived with me, Super Shuttle was fast and accurate. All is good, a little chilly, but still all good! I even got to see a snow capped mountain as we came in to LAX.

Met up with my roommate for a few days Brian. We couldn't get into the room yet so we headed across the street. As soon as we entered the Disneyland park, what did we do? You guessed it, Photopass! Gotta get the money's worth! It wasn't long after that when we met up with some more DPNers. My first ride of the day and this portion of the trip was the classic Pirates of the Caribbean followed by Haunted Mansion.

As a group we told stories, we joked, we ate and told each other facts. We didn't have the DF hat with us, but it we did it would have been passed around. For me personally, I think it was the Buzz Lightyear contacting Command ring tone that won the prize!

One of the oh ahh moments was by Paradise Bay. We went down by the water and watched as they were doing some test of the equipment. There was this huge audio visual tower that during the day is hidden and when the show occurs, it is raised from a pit. They do the same thing for Fantasmic! over in Frontierland and New Orleans Square. We got to watch them lower this one tower and twice, the towers components hit the doors that were swung wide open. Those of us there let out an audible gasp of shock. We are really excited for this show and don't want damaged equipment causing the show to be delayed any more than it already has been delayed.

In the short afternoon, rode most of the big rides, Pirates of the Caribbean, Haunted Mansion, Space Mountain, Soarin, and California Screamin'. Had some food for the California Food and Wine festival happening and Disney's California Adventure park. It was a good first day in the parks. Met up with Toast, Ryan, Trish, Holly, Jenn, Pat, Leaa, Jeff, Jason, Lorien, Thomas and Brad. I think that's all and if I missed you, I apologize. As I said, good first day.

But, as I said earlier, my butt is draggin. On Pirates, I was sooo tired that I nodded off. Toast who I saw in Florida a few days ago was in the same row as me and caught the moment with his camera....using a flash....in a ride where they ask you not to take flash photography. In fact, I was so tired that while I tried to start this post last night, I nodded of at the table, not to mention that having a slow internet connection was loading pages and responding timely. So I went to bed. Slept a solid 8 hours. I'm up writing this now, but after I finish, I'm going to grab a little more shut eye if possible.