Trip Report Let’s Hit It Outta The Park!!!

It’s been about 3.5 years since my last Disney trip report and I’m really rusty. While not truly live, I want to try and do sort of a day by day as we go. Of course, I’m already behind as today is day 3!

So, where are we? At a Holiday Inn about .5 miles from here…

This isn’t exactly a Disney trip. In fact, it’s going to be nearly a week and a half until we set foot in a Disney park. Sam…the kid who had just turned 2 in my very first trip report, is now almost 16 and playing travel softball. We’re in town for PGF nationals to cap off our summer season. Between our crazy summer tournament schedule, college stuff for Kendall, and recent hurricane related lodging, I feel like we’ve been living in hotels for nearly 2 months. Most of the team opted for beach adjacent/front rentals when we bought out of the stay to play requirement, but Disneyland was our priority. Imagine that!?!

Speaking of Kendall…she stayed home to organize things for dorm move in next month and give the dog a break from boarding after her storm experience. So, this is how she’s getting to experience much of this trip…

(Yeah, that’s me up there too)
It’s too bad because the fun stuff planned towards the end was supposed to be for her. I was going to head to Yosemite, but she insisted on Disney. She gave me this whole heartfelt speech about it being her childhood. Kids!

So, we decided to drive to California. It’s been drama trying to get my vehicle back for this (damaged in the May derecho that went through Houston) and it’s probably going to have to go back in. We were hoping we’d have it before Sam’s two tournaments in Colorado, but they ordered some incorrect parts. Oh well…I have it now even though it’s still got issues. We set out around 4:45am CT on the 17th with a goal of Tucson by dinner time. I was driving, so not much in the way of photos aside from this Texas Spiny Lizard at a gas station west of San Antonio.

The most surprising drama of the day was just west of El Paso. All traffic was being individually inspected by Border Patrol. So that was fun. We also had to keep an eye out for dust storms and dodge the dust devils in NM and AZ.

We got to Tucson around dinner. We checked into the hotel, but I was so road weary that we just opted for a nearby Denny’s and hoped the severe storm over the mountains didn’t hit us.

Thankfully, the storm lost its steam and we were all able to get some sleep. Well, sort of. I was up around 4:30am, which is probably good because I noticed an alert for one of Kendall’s prime day packages being delivered and saw this on the local Houston radar.

I have some serious PTSD from the derecho and Hurricane Beryl, so I woke Kendall up and had her move to a safer spot downstairs. Oh, and said a few prayers for the power to stay on. Thankfully all was good, but she’s going to Oklahoma, so I need her to be more weather aware.

I used sunrise to try and keep myself from freaking out.

It’s a really boring video, but I got tired of peaking, so I just put my phone in the window.

 

[HouCuseChickie]

 

[HouCuseChickie]

 

[HouCuseChickie]

And it’s time to disembark.

We went through the gift shop on the way out and checked on getting a replacement FuelRod. The screen was malfunctioning so I figured I’d need to just find another location in the park. Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed a change in the merch from the other day. I was so focused on the battery that I walked right past it!

Flashback… the day we went to Trader Sam’s, I saw a woman wearing a phenomenal Small World spirit jersey. I hadn’t been able to find it anywhere and it definitely wasn’t in stock when we were in the park 2 days earlier. But there it was!!!! A rack full of ‘em! When I brought it to the register, the CM told me they’d just gotten them in and they’ve been selling really well. So, I had my official souvenir.

A little wrinkled after a day in a bag and being jammed in my suitcase but I love it.

 

[HouCuseChickie]

Somewhere in all of this, we made the decision to book a Space Mountain LL. It was later in the day, but not ridiculously late. Still, it meant filling up the time.

The Storybook Land boats aren’t a fave or a must, yet there’s something sweet and relaxing about it was well…there was also no line! So it became our next attraction.

Next up was our ill fated flight on Peter Pan.

At least Sam remembered she took a pic of our villain sighting while we were in line.

If only I knew what was to come before we were in this spot. Obviously we didn’t get hurt, but that still ranks as the worst evacuation we’ve experienced.

Oh, and this late night post is because I’m too bothered to sleep.

One of Ks roommates, on the other side of the quad, put a pre-move in request to have her bed vaulted/lofted. It wasn’t done, so she put in another request yesterday. They came by to do it today while everybody was at camp. They mixed up the sides and vaulted Ks bed in error. To add insult to injury, they tossed all of her stuff on the ground. It’s too high for her to get in and they can’t fix it until tomorrow. So she’s sleeping on the floor tonight. Ugh! Time to try and sleep.

 

[Swissmiss]

It’s too high for her to get in and they can’t fix it until tomorrow. So she’s sleeping on the floor tonight. Ugh! Time to try and sleep.

For one night she and the other girl couldn’t switch so she didn’t need to sleep on the floor?!

 

[HouCuseChickie]

For one night she and the other girl couldn’t switch so she didn’t need to sleep on the floor?!

You'd think, but I guess nobody else wanted to be disrupted. I figured the girl whose bed was supposed to be lofted would switch for the night, but no. It's making me wonder how this year will go if nobody can show that kind of sense and compassion for one night.

 

[Swissmiss]

You'd think, but I guess nobody else wanted to be disrupted. I figured the girl whose bed was supposed to be lofted would switch for the night, but no. It's making me wonder how this year will go if nobody can show that kind of sense and compassion for one night.

I didn’t want to say that, but I did kind of think that too. But let’s chalk it up to being young and clueless and not a foreboding of what is to come

 

[HouCuseChickie]

Bed update...

I had a gut feeling that this needed to be escalated. My gut was right.

I called the university's housing line, explained the situation, and was told that they have the request. What was bizarre is they said the request came from my husband! David, while on some paperwork, hasn't done anything directly with the university. The woman said it could be at least another week before they get to it. I told her that this was their error and my daughter was sleeping on the floor because she can't physically get into her bed. I'm not sure if I've ever shared this...but K is short. She's 5' on a good day. Most times she measures up around 4'10.5"-4'11". The woman suggested they move the beds between the sides of the quad to give the other girl the lofted bed she was supposed to get. The assembled beds don't fit through the doors! She gave me a secondary number to call if it was still an issue later on and to check with my husband...like maybe he did this and we just weren't communicating. So, I hung up and talked to David and he hadn't done a thing. So, he called back...spoke to someone else who said it may be 2 weeks before they can do it because they're understaffed. When he said that was unacceptable, he was transferred to the same woman I spoke to earlier. She ended up transferring him to the number she gave me and he again repeated that this isn't a preference thing. Our kid legitimately cannot get into her bed and it's due to their error. He even asked for a ladder if they couldn't get to it immediately. She has a step stool, but it's not enough to make this workable in the meantime. It's supposed to be fixed by 4pm today. I'm praying it happens. Tomorrow is K's bday and I'd hate for her to be spending her first one away at college being stuck on the floor due to this ridiculousness. Oh...and it showed he put in the request because the caller ID on the university's landlines show his name...because he's the lead name/billing party on the cell phone account. Considering most of these kids are still on their parents' account, this can't be an uncommon occurrence. Plus, it shows her OU email tied to the request...not David's. It's petty but telling me David put in the request just added to the confusion. I'm too bothered with the university to even think about the kids being petty.

 

[HouCuseChickie]

Still waiting to hear from Kendall. I’m sure they have fun camp stuff and college stuff while I get to worry about her bed. So, I’ll go on with the trip…

After the demon babies, we headed to Frontierland so I could try another FuelRod kiosk. That one had an out of order message on the screen. Ugh! We were hot and wanted cool treats. So we grabbed a table at the Tropical Hideaway. I don’t know why it didn’t click for me but I put in an order at the Tiki Juice bar thinking they were one and the same. It should have clicked when I didn’t see flavor options. Oh well… my order was in and I even found a partially charged Anker battery in my bag.

David and Sam wanted ice cream. I suggested Gibson Girl but I guess it’s not what they wanted. They came back with some classics instead.

I also hit the window where mine was ready. I had to walk around to the Tiki room entrance, but it is what it is.

Back when we could do self serve at the Poly, I would make a solid base before spiraling, but their method creates a hollow center.

After our treats, we decided to use the LL we got for the Peter Pan breakdown on Big Thunder.

Fun ride! It was nearly Space Mountain time so we trekked back to Tomorrowland.

 

[HouCuseChickie]

Sorry…it messed up my post. Working to correct.

 

[HouCuseChickie]

BED IS FIXED!!!!!!

 

[HouCuseChickie]

We were running a bit early so we popped into Star Tours to pass the time.

It was kind of a dud because it was the exact same mission locations. There was a secondary reason behind this. There’s supposed to be a FuelCell kiosk right near the store exit for the attraction. It took us three tries and three CMs to help us find it. I’m glad we did because that battery I found in my bag didn’t have much juice. The joy was short lived because this machine was also down. I decided to call the number on the machine.

I never dreamed I’d be on the phone in a Disney park discussing batteries. It turns out all of the machines were down because they needed to do a tablet upgrade. They had at least stocked the machines with the new version of the batteries they just shifted to, so they were able to take some machine info by phone, had me deposit the spent battery, and she was able to force it to dispense a new battery. Sadly, the woman behind me was out of luck since she wanted to buy new and that required a fully operational machine.

It was finally time to go back to space…

We kept getting a good laugh. Sam was in Epcot mode and kept calling it Spaceship Mountain. She was also ticked that she was blocked in the picture.

Somewhere in all of this we also ordered a dinnerish snack. I was getting the hang of this! Part of me really wanted a tuna sandwich but I was the only one. David and Sam wanted chili dogs…even though they know the Disneyland chili has beans. So, we just sort of sat around and waited until it was time…

 

[HouCuseChickie]

Well, power is out here and who the heck knows why. It’s upper 90s and sunny, no transformer explosions, so I can only hope it’s a short outage. In the meantime, I’ll post since I’ve got nothing else to do….

I must have been tired...in looking at the last pic above, I now remember that we also rode Astro Blasters again. It's been YEARS and I still can't get the hang of aiming these guns. Sam kicked my butt and I just didn't care. We stopped to look for our pictures but there was nothing this time. We also had a ride stoppage for a bit. David called us cheaters for trying to boost our scores!

Off to get our food from Refreshment Corner.

It was ok. Surprisingly, the chili dogs were better than the mac bowl and the pretzel was the best thing I ordered. I ate most of the mac but left 99% of the bread.

While we waited, I looked at LLs. Indy kept showing good times again. It was really ticking me off because they were never there when I clicked to try and book it. It was always hours later.

I gave up.

After dinner, we wanted to go ride M&MRR, but we needed to get something for K first. I guess I got confused and mistook hat for shirt. At least I got her something she’d wear. Initially, I wanted to get her a Donald Duck shirt but they had one sweatshirt, it was ugly, and the quality was awful. I ended finding something that was much better quality (around the same price) in a dark red with a monotone embroidered castle and logo. Sam got this tee…

Also hysterical that we were sent to the toy area to find a full length mirror!

We thought we might finally get to ride the Railway. The standby wait was good even though LL times were pretty late. So, we headed towards the back of the park.

When we arrived at the entry to Toontown, we realized the error of our ways. Toontown was in the process of closing in preparation for fireworks.

So ya know what was right there, and had LLs immediately available so we could jump the 25 minute line???

That’s right…Demon Babies!

 

[HouCuseChickie]

I’m not really sure the LL saved us much time, but it was as nice to soak in the exterior as the sun was setting and lighting came on.

I didn’t take any pictures inside the demon baby ride.

1. It became clear that this was going to be our final true attraction of the trip and I wanted to soak it in.

2. David and Sam wanted a turkey leg and I was trying to time a mobile order accordingly.

3. Available options were dwindling with fireworks closures.

4. My feet were not ok. The blisters on the balls of my feet were growing and walking was really becoming a challenge. So, we waved goodbye to the demon babies…

… and found a seat to wait on turkey leg time.

 

[HouCuseChickie]

Let it be known that I don’t like turkey legs. It’s funny because I hoard turkeys when the Thanksgiving sales come around and it’s our favorite meal. I really think that hurt the most with the food that spoiled after Beryl. I had a turkey in there!!!

In any event…these two feasted on a turkey leg.

I just sat and took in our last moments in the park.

With our monorail plan, it also meant no goodbye along Main Street. So it was a nighttime walk by the Matterhorn, Autopia and the subs. I do really enjoy how they illuminate the water.

 

[HouCuseChickie]

There was a monorail waiting for us when we got up to the platform. So we boarded and also took a little peak into Autopia.

I also took video from the ride but I wasn’t really able to get much in the way of exciting stuff.



It would have been so nice to have the regular entrance/exit…

So we walked to the temporary one…

David suggested we hit Trader Sam’s for drinks, but we just spent the day eating quick service to save a little. It just seemed silly to go back there for drinks. Instead, I suggested we just go and sit for a bit to rest my feet.

We were being watched! Lol

 

[HouCuseChickie]

Whew…long night. It’s always something. We had to take the dog into an emergency vet last night and she came home this morning with a cone of shame.

We were there for hours because more critical animals kept arriving.

Time to try and finish this up.

It was time to take a final painful walk back to the hotel. So, we said our farewells to the Disneyland Hotel.

I wanted to make it back for fireworks. They started up just as we hit the edge of the Holiday Inn property.

 

[HouCuseChickie]

I didn’t love the angle and I kind of wanted to be in the spot I had favored for the bulk of the stay. Nothing really earth shattering, but a couple of posts of our last night of hotel parking fireworks.

 

[HouCuseChickie]

 

[ajrwdwgirl]

Hope your dog recovers quickly!