11/18/17-11/22/17
it was a dark morning. For you see, at 3:00 AM the sun was still not in the sky. As I heroically drove to TPA, I was excited. Vegas, then Disneyland! The flight departed for Houston and I was on my way.
Day one: Lighting Dimensions Industry
Alas, my flight had arrived to Las Vegas! As I exited, the aeroport architecture screamed pre 2008 all over it. It was hilarious. Then, I took a bus over to the rental car place. I did Alamo and got a Ford Fusion. I stayed at the Palazzo. It was amazing. The canal shoppes were amazing. I ate lunch at the lobby in the Trump hotel (YOLO). I had the fish and chips. It came out on that newspaper that fish and chips comes out on and tasted very good. The waiter was very attentive. However the food was pricey. Then I drove to the convention center where I was exploring the LDI show until about 5:00. There were many cool lighting effects that I can use in my business. Then, I drove back to the Palazzo for a nap. 2 hours later I had my reservations at the Eiffel Tower restaurant. The view from there was great. I was able to see the fountains dance at the Bellagio. The food was pricey but worth it. Finally, I went to the Mandalay Bay in order to see the Michael Jackson show. It was AMAZING! Highly recommended (fair warning, there is pole dancing but it's an art and I wouldn't hesitate if I had a kid to bring them to this show).
Day two: More LDI and architectural exploration
So I woke up bright and early to get to LDI. I ate breakfast at the Grand Luxor Cafe. Good food. I saw some cool projection mapping technology by Christie (the company that does the PM projectors that Disney uses) among other cool stuff. Around 3:00 the show began to wind down. I then left and went to the Caesar Forum shops. They have AMAZING architecture! The theming was beautiful and the sculptures of Caesar and other Romans were amazing. They have a cool show about Atlantis with AAs and pyro that's a couple minutes long. It was neat but definitely nothing close to disney quality. I ate dinner at the Canal shoppes at a Venetian restaurant. I had gnocchi with some good meat sauce. It was nice. Then, I went to the Wynn to see Le Rêve. Another great show exploring how search how true love can be poetic.
Day three: the other park
I woke up early and drove my rental car to Disneyland. I couldn't get any rooms at the Grand Californian for less than $700 a night so I decided to try the Homewood Suites. It was amazing. Breakfast buffet in the morning, extremely clean, huge rooms with lots of amenities and most importantly: comfy beds! I arrived at DCA at around 2:00. It's also worth mentioning I had MaxPass. I started off by eating lunch at Smokejumpers Grill to try the new menu. I had a cheeseburger. It was delicious. From there I did GRR. Always fun if the temp is above 70 degrees. Then I did TLM. I don't get why this attraction gets so much hate. It is very much like the old EPCOT Center classics: heavy on the AAs and an omnimover. From there I wandered around and did single rider for CS. I like RRC better because of the music (runs for cover). From there it was a hop skip and jump to Cars Land where I single ridered RSRs. This is the only reason I did DCA. This one attraction is incredible. However I did notice Luigi was not synced in the scene before the rave (the projection was off). I did it three more times. Then I did the Joy to the Whirl LRRs attraction. It was intense! I loved it. From there I did GotG. It is a downgrade in theming and storytelling. In between I did the Frozen show. It broke down and Anna, Sven and that dude were left hanging for like 5 minutes in the jump scene. It was hilarious when they got down and then the show countinued because they were standing, then went on the floor like they landed and there was a thud. After, I ate dinner at the Cozy Cone having two mac n cheese with bacon cones. I saw WoC with a FP. Amazing.
Day four: The Magic Kingdom
Day four started with me waking up at 6:00 and eating breakfast at hw hotel. The breakfast at Homewood is good and I enjoyed it. I then walked to the Happiest Place on Earth and arrived at 7:00 on the dot. Waiting 35 minutes, I read The Intelligent Investor by Ben Graham. Great book and I finished it by the time they let me in (I started on the flight). They started letting people who were not staying on property in around 7:35. I couldn't do EMH because I didn't have a 3 day pass. I got in and I went to the entrance to Adventureland. I got a FP for HMH with MP. As I got to the loading area, the ride broke down. The lights stopped flickering, control panels flashed, a siren blared "beep, beep, beep." A great way to start my day at Disneyland! It was 10 minutes of precious morning time before the ride was back to normal- or so I thought. It then broke down AGAIN. From here it was 5 more minutes until it was fixed. I finally got on and it was worth it. From there I went to Haunted Mansion. Then Pirates. Splash. Big Thunder. Small World. Train. Main Street vehicles. Lunch was at the Plaza Restauraunt. I had chicken and my God it was delicious. My abuela taught me how to properly devour fried chicken leaving nothing but the bone and I did her proud- leaving nothing but bones! From there I did Matterhorn, Space Mountain and many other attractions. I had a blast! I had a chocolate chip cookie from the Jolly Holiday and popcorn as snacks. Dinner was the Fantasmic! dinner party thing. It was good. I had the corn chowder (good), brisket sandwich (great), baked beans (too sweet) and potato salad (hard and cold). The server, Shane, was amazing, as was Fantasmic! Then something disappointing happened: high winds. Disneyland canceled their fireworks. That was sad but I didn't let it ruin my day. The rest of the day was spent bouncing between amazing attractions.
I drove back to Vegas this morning and am taking advantage of aeroplane wifi to post this.
Overall: An amazing trip! I learned a lot at LDI and had a blast at Disneyland.
it was a dark morning. For you see, at 3:00 AM the sun was still not in the sky. As I heroically drove to TPA, I was excited. Vegas, then Disneyland! The flight departed for Houston and I was on my way.
Day one: Lighting Dimensions Industry
Alas, my flight had arrived to Las Vegas! As I exited, the aeroport architecture screamed pre 2008 all over it. It was hilarious. Then, I took a bus over to the rental car place. I did Alamo and got a Ford Fusion. I stayed at the Palazzo. It was amazing. The canal shoppes were amazing. I ate lunch at the lobby in the Trump hotel (YOLO). I had the fish and chips. It came out on that newspaper that fish and chips comes out on and tasted very good. The waiter was very attentive. However the food was pricey. Then I drove to the convention center where I was exploring the LDI show until about 5:00. There were many cool lighting effects that I can use in my business. Then, I drove back to the Palazzo for a nap. 2 hours later I had my reservations at the Eiffel Tower restaurant. The view from there was great. I was able to see the fountains dance at the Bellagio. The food was pricey but worth it. Finally, I went to the Mandalay Bay in order to see the Michael Jackson show. It was AMAZING! Highly recommended (fair warning, there is pole dancing but it's an art and I wouldn't hesitate if I had a kid to bring them to this show).
Day two: More LDI and architectural exploration
So I woke up bright and early to get to LDI. I ate breakfast at the Grand Luxor Cafe. Good food. I saw some cool projection mapping technology by Christie (the company that does the PM projectors that Disney uses) among other cool stuff. Around 3:00 the show began to wind down. I then left and went to the Caesar Forum shops. They have AMAZING architecture! The theming was beautiful and the sculptures of Caesar and other Romans were amazing. They have a cool show about Atlantis with AAs and pyro that's a couple minutes long. It was neat but definitely nothing close to disney quality. I ate dinner at the Canal shoppes at a Venetian restaurant. I had gnocchi with some good meat sauce. It was nice. Then, I went to the Wynn to see Le Rêve. Another great show exploring how search how true love can be poetic.
Day three: the other park
I woke up early and drove my rental car to Disneyland. I couldn't get any rooms at the Grand Californian for less than $700 a night so I decided to try the Homewood Suites. It was amazing. Breakfast buffet in the morning, extremely clean, huge rooms with lots of amenities and most importantly: comfy beds! I arrived at DCA at around 2:00. It's also worth mentioning I had MaxPass. I started off by eating lunch at Smokejumpers Grill to try the new menu. I had a cheeseburger. It was delicious. From there I did GRR. Always fun if the temp is above 70 degrees. Then I did TLM. I don't get why this attraction gets so much hate. It is very much like the old EPCOT Center classics: heavy on the AAs and an omnimover. From there I wandered around and did single rider for CS. I like RRC better because of the music (runs for cover). From there it was a hop skip and jump to Cars Land where I single ridered RSRs. This is the only reason I did DCA. This one attraction is incredible. However I did notice Luigi was not synced in the scene before the rave (the projection was off). I did it three more times. Then I did the Joy to the Whirl LRRs attraction. It was intense! I loved it. From there I did GotG. It is a downgrade in theming and storytelling. In between I did the Frozen show. It broke down and Anna, Sven and that dude were left hanging for like 5 minutes in the jump scene. It was hilarious when they got down and then the show countinued because they were standing, then went on the floor like they landed and there was a thud. After, I ate dinner at the Cozy Cone having two mac n cheese with bacon cones. I saw WoC with a FP. Amazing.
Day four: The Magic Kingdom
Day four started with me waking up at 6:00 and eating breakfast at hw hotel. The breakfast at Homewood is good and I enjoyed it. I then walked to the Happiest Place on Earth and arrived at 7:00 on the dot. Waiting 35 minutes, I read The Intelligent Investor by Ben Graham. Great book and I finished it by the time they let me in (I started on the flight). They started letting people who were not staying on property in around 7:35. I couldn't do EMH because I didn't have a 3 day pass. I got in and I went to the entrance to Adventureland. I got a FP for HMH with MP. As I got to the loading area, the ride broke down. The lights stopped flickering, control panels flashed, a siren blared "beep, beep, beep." A great way to start my day at Disneyland! It was 10 minutes of precious morning time before the ride was back to normal- or so I thought. It then broke down AGAIN. From here it was 5 more minutes until it was fixed. I finally got on and it was worth it. From there I went to Haunted Mansion. Then Pirates. Splash. Big Thunder. Small World. Train. Main Street vehicles. Lunch was at the Plaza Restauraunt. I had chicken and my God it was delicious. My abuela taught me how to properly devour fried chicken leaving nothing but the bone and I did her proud- leaving nothing but bones! From there I did Matterhorn, Space Mountain and many other attractions. I had a blast! I had a chocolate chip cookie from the Jolly Holiday and popcorn as snacks. Dinner was the Fantasmic! dinner party thing. It was good. I had the corn chowder (good), brisket sandwich (great), baked beans (too sweet) and potato salad (hard and cold). The server, Shane, was amazing, as was Fantasmic! Then something disappointing happened: high winds. Disneyland canceled their fireworks. That was sad but I didn't let it ruin my day. The rest of the day was spent bouncing between amazing attractions.
I drove back to Vegas this morning and am taking advantage of aeroplane wifi to post this.
Overall: An amazing trip! I learned a lot at LDI and had a blast at Disneyland.
