Notices
Disneyland California and West Coast Trip Reports Trip Reports

Reply
 
Thread Tools Search this Thread Display Modes
Old 8 Jul 15, 09:31 PM  
Link to this Post
#1
Happyhaunt1000
slightly serious Dibber
 
Happyhaunt1000's Avatar
 
Join Date: Mar 11
Brett & Jo's Pilgrimage to Where it All Began: Day 3 - Finally Meeting Old New Friends!

Hello you lot… thank you again for reading (and possibly enjoying) Day 2. The comments as always have been lovely and I very much appreciate you taking the time to leave them.

So, what’s on the agenda for today?

Well… today we are being proper little tourists, so this report is very photo-heavy (who am I kidding, they’re always photo-heavy!) During the day we plan to see lots of sights around LA… and then in the evening we’ve got a paranormal tour on the Queen Mary ocean liner. And as always, with us, things don’t quite go how we’d expect! Enjoy

So following last night’s wash out of an evening… I’m determined to make up for it today and squeeze as much fun out of our day as possible. We both wake up around 6:30 and although I feel fine, Jo is saying that her guts are a bit hurty. I felt a little bit like that last night and we wonder if JR burgers had anything to do with it.

The plan is to meet Jon and Lisa at the concourse outside Disneyland at 8am so we can collect our park tickets… meaning we don’t have to worry about waiting in line tomorrow morning and can instead head straight into DL and enjoy the Extra Magic Hour!

Those readers of the last TR will be familiar with how most mornings in the Harding hotel room go… but for those that don’t know… it normally goes something like this
• Make a plan to leave the room by a specific time.
• Brett gets dressed and ready 10minutes ahead of leaving time.
• Jo is still d1ckin’ about at the time we were meant to be leaving.
• Brett gets angry.
And basically repeat this every single time we go out!

My problem is I always expect Jo to take on board that it makes me angry and will instead be ready before even I am. But this never happens… and today is no exception. Thing is though… we’ll be meeting J&L for the first time ever (in ‘real life’) and all I can think is that they’ll hate us for being tardy Brits and not being there when we said we would.

Knowing Jo is still 10minutes from being ready, I quickly text Jon and let him know we’ll be 10mins late and that it’s all Jo’s fault! (I’m good like that… ya know… quick to shift the blame when it isn’t me!) Eventually, we’re out the door and walking to DL to meet J&L. I’d had another Ding Dong for breakfast and had grabbed a bottle of Naked fruit juice from the fridge.



I crack the drink open and take a swig. It tastes weird… not like the blueberry Naked should taste. I complain to Jo that it’s very ‘bitty’ (and by that I mean that it tasted like there was grit in the drink) but just assume it’s the pips from the berries. I continue the swig-then-grimace routine until we get to a set of traffic lights and have to stop to wait for the green man to show. It’s then that I realise I’ve not bought a normal Naked fruit juice… but a bloody protein juice! It had protein supplement in it! No wonder it tasted so gritty and horrible. I drink a few more mouthfuls, but there is no way I’m finishing this drink and end up lobbing it in the nearest bin.

When we’d walked to DL the day we arrived, I’d said that it took us about 15minutes to get to the park… but it’s clear I was totally wrong about that. After walking flat out and only waiting once for the crossing sign, we’d only just reached the main road where DL was located and it’d been 15minutes! We still had a good 10-15minute walk to get to where J&L were waiting for us. Being sweaty, out of breath and apologising for being even later than first anticipated is not how I’d envisaged our first meeting going down.

Jon had actually said the previous night that he wanted to run at me and I’d do the Dirty Dancing lift and hold him above my head… all while the girls politely hugged and kissed each other on the cheek! Let me just say now… the lift never happened. For one... knowing what I do now, Jon might have cried about being so high off the ground and whimpered something about ‘holding on for safety’! (*We’ll cover this again later in the trip… don’t worry*)

The way it actually went down was very civil… we spotted them across the concourse and there, 50metres away, was the guy whose face I’d seen on Facetime on so many occasions in the past 18months. Even though we’d never met face to face before… I guess when you FT with someone, it makes meeting them in person seem like you already have. I gave him a big bear hug and a slightly less violent hug went to Lisa. I think one of the first things I said to him was “you’re shorter than I thought you’d be”… which he is! I had to insist on a group selfie to commemorate this auspicious occasion!



As we’re walking to the window to pick up our tickets, we chat about how our day was at KBF, and about the hockey game they attended last night. There’s no queue so we have our tickets within minutes and start a slow walk through DTD and to the DL Hotel… which is where Madan, our chauffer for the day, is meeting us.

We’ve got some time to kill, and seeing as we hadn’t stepped foot in the hotel on Saturday night, we have a little look around the lobby at some of the artwork and pictures detailing the history of Disneyland and Walt himself.





The hotel feels very relaxed, and there doesn’t seem to be the constant flow of traffic with people coming and going. Maybe it’s something to do with the time of day…. or possibly it’s because it doesn’t have a busy restaurant just off the lobby like most Disney hotels do. Considering the price it costs to stay at this place… I imagined it would feel very different!

We all head outside just before 9am, and a few minutes later Madan arrives and we’re on our way.









First stop… the Hollywood sign! As I mentioned previously, today was going to be a day of doing very touristy things… basically hitting spots that most people associate with LA… so there wasn’t going to be a lot of going off the beaten track. It was going to be pretty standard stuff.

Most of the journey was spent on the freeway, and during that time we chatted amongst ourselves about anything and everything. At one point (and I made a voice memo about this), Jon went onto YouTube and was watching a POV video of Space Mountain to see if he was going to go on it the following day. Firstly, as we all know, SM is in the dark… so I’m not actually sure what Jon was watching (I’m guessing a blank screen for 2 and a half minutes!) Secondly, this was to be the first of many instances where I gave Jon abuse and told him to put on his big boy pants and ride all the attractions! (You’ll have to wait and find out if he did or didn’t in the coming days.)

After an hour of pretty much nothing but freeway, we passed a sign saying that Universal Studios was the next exit. At least me and Jo now knew what we’d be having to do again on Friday! A few minutes later we were off the freeway and winding our way through the Hollywood Hills.











A few minutes later, Madan is pulling over and we’re all piling out of the car. He tells us to take as long as we like. So here we are… staring up at the Hollywood sign. I take photos of J&L with the sign in the background… they then do the same for us… Jon takes photos for another couple… we take photos of the scenery… and… errrr… that’s it! Sure it’s iconic… but it’s just a word… spelled out in giant letters on the side of a hill! There’s really not a lot to it.

























We spent 10 minutes taking photos and looking at the view, and then we all just got back into the van. This surprised Madan, but I’m not quite sure how long he’d expected us to look up at this sign!

Anyway, with the sign ticked off the list, it was now onto our next destination… the Hollywood Walk of Fame and Grauman’s Chinese Theatre! It doesn’t take long to get there and Madan drops us off and tells us he’ll wait for us a little further up the road and, again, to take as long as we like.







There are tour groups everywhere… and the second you look down to see whose star you’re walking on, you end up losing sight of the people you’re with! Within the first couple of minutes outside the TCL Chinese Theatre I lose Jo, Jon and Lisa, but as people shuffle out of the way to look at different hand prints I spot them again.



















We spend some time taking pictures, looking around and generally being harassed by people wanting us to listen to/buy their demo CD. At one point two guys come over and strike up a conversation with me… one hands me his CD then virtually begs me for $20 so him and his ‘pal’ can split the money. Normally I’d tell them to Foxtrot Oscar off… but I was feeling generous and in a giving mood. I decide, against my better judgement, to give him some cash. He gratefully accepts and within seconds is hitting up someone else to buy his CD.

At this point the other guy who was with him asks me for some money. I tell him that his mate said they were going to split the cash I’d handed over… but that’s not good enough for him.
“Say… how about you give me $20 as well?”
“Errr… no”
“How about I break your $20… and you give me half of that?”
“No… “
“How about…?”
“Listen mate… I’ve just given your buddy some cash… get it off him, now #### off!”
And with that I turn my back on him and catch up to Jo, Jon and Lisa.

We then head into a huge store which is selling all sorts of tourist merchandise. There’s one big section selling nothing but Oscars. They have labels on them like ‘Best Hairdresser… Best Father… Best Body’ as well as ones bearing possibly every known name in the universe!



Happyhaunt1000 is offline Boy Mouse Click to view Members Trip Plans Add Member to Ignore List
Old 8 Jul 15, 09:32 PM  
Link to this Post
#2
Happyhaunt1000
Thread Starter
slightly serious Dibber
 
Happyhaunt1000's Avatar
 
Join Date: Mar 11
Continued...

The rest of the place is full of t-shirts, mugs, magnets and statues all tied into the themes of Hollywood, the movie industry or California in general. We spend all of 10 minutes walking through the whole store, but nothing really catches our eye or falls under the tacky radar enough for us to want to buy it.























Somehow when we came into the store, none of us had seen the pink Cadillac parked inside!

When we leave we wander along the street a little more…. not looking for anyone’s star in particular, but pointing out ones with people’s names we’d heard of (because believe me… there were a lot of names we didn’t recognise!)


























Considering all the allegations, I’m very surprised this one’s still here! Will have to wait until September to find out if his bust is still at DHS! *No we won’t… literally on the day of posting this, it’s made the international news that the bust is being removed!*

We cross the street and head back the way we just came… again, looking at the stars… and then Lisa says she’d like to go into the Ghirardelli store that used to be a Disney store… or was it a Disney Store that used to be a Ghirardelli! Either way, we go inside and they sell both Disney stuff and Ghirardelli chocolate/ice creams. Again, we don’t buy anything and spend just a couple of minutes inside.














Once outside I ask if there is anyone’s star that the group is desperate to see. I get a resounding “no” as my answer and we decide that it’s time to head back to find Madan.

So what is my overall feeling about this area? Well… as a massive movie nerd I thought I’d be more excited or interested in seeing the Walk of Fame and the TCL Chinese Theatre… but I wasn’t! When all is said and done it’s just people’s names written on stars on the floor. And as for the hand prints… once you’ve looked at a couple of sets and said “oooh, doesn’t Bruce Willis have small hands” there’s not an awful lot to it. I felt kinda ‘meh’ about the whole thing. But once again… it’s something to tick off the list and somewhere I doubt I’ll ever visit again in my life!

As we’re walking along, Jon says “I’m hungry”. Before I could even reply, a guy standing with two other people by the side of the road says “me too”. Jon laughs and carries on walking… and the guy then says in a slightly angrier tone “don’t laugh, I’m really hungry!” When I was recalling this when doing a VM in the car later in the day, it turned out nobody else knew this had happened… and none of them had realised that the three people standing by the roadside were homeless people, who I’ll be honest, looked like that wanted to rip Jon’s head off when he’d laughed. Seems like they were oblivious to their surroundings and the looks we were getting!

So there we are… the four of us walking back to the road where Madan had said he’d parked, when a large truck across the road flipped down its loading ramp and it banged loudly as it hit the road… which made me jump. I mean so much so that all the others saw me physically jump! It made them all burst into fits of laughter (even Madan had a chuckle as he’d seen it all from down the road!) I said that we were in LA and for all I knew it could’ve been a gunshot… but they no longer cared what I was saying… they were all too busy laughing and calling me a baby!

Once again, Madan was surprised we were back so quickly, but we’d said we had seen enough and he should take us onto the next location… which was to be The Grove shopping center and the Farmers Market, near La Brea. He said something about the Market being special for some reason… but I can’t remember what that was and I made no VM about it either! He then asked if we were hungry and we said that we were… at which point Jon said we had to try In-N-Out Burger. I’d always heard/read good things about it, and because they are only located in Southern California there was no way were weren’t going to eat there. Luckily, Madan knew of one that was on the way to the market, so made our way there. He parked up outside and we asked him if he wanted anything… which he politely declined. Before we even got inside the burgers smelt divine!





The menu is pretty simple:
Hamburger or cheeseburger
Single or double
(I’ve since found out that there’s a secret menu you can just ask for… which I wish I’d known about as I always love anything that’s off menu!)

It was a simple choice for me… a Double Double (two beef patties, two slices of cheese), fries and a drink, and Jo orders the same, just with the single cheeseburger. J&L are on the till next to us and they’ve ordered exactly the same thing… but then Jon also decides to get a milkshake. We get our order number and wait to the side.









It’s about 11:30 and considering it’s before lunchtime, the place is pretty busy… but we manage to snag a booth and all go and sit down whilst we wait. A couple of minutes pass and mine and Jo’s number gets called and I go collect our food… J&L are still waiting.



The burgers look good and it smells amazing… but I’m not about to start chowing down while they are waiting for their food. Surely it won’t be long… our orders were taken at practically the same time. We’re all sitting there waiting and the people behind the counter keep calling for ‘order number 94’ to collect their meal… but nobody is coming forward. Jon looks at his ticket and he’s number 95.

A few more minutes pass… and still J&L’s number isn’t being called… but the staff are now making announcements on the outside loud speaker asking for number 94 to collect their meal. The strange thing is, the meal that’s sitting on the side getting cold (like ours) looks like what I think J&L ordered. Jon is now up and standing near the counter… hoping that this will miraculously make his meal appear… which it doesn’t.





The staff continue calling for number 94… waiting for some douchebag to realise that’s it’s their number the staff have been calling for well over 5 minutes. Jon comes back to the booth and I’m saying “ Are you sure that’s not your food, dude? It looks a lot like what you ordered.”
“No, it’s not… my number is 95”
Jo then leans across and looks at his receipt.
“Jon… that receipt is only for a milkshake. Didn’t you order the milkshake after you ordered your meal?” and she cracks up laughing.
And that’s when the penny drops! Jon realises that he did indeed order the milkshake after his meal… and he reaches into his pocket and pulls out the receipt with the number that every In-N-Out staff member has been calling for 10 minutes… number 94!

Now, this is a family website… and although people sneak the odd swear through in their TR, I can’t see any possible way of writing down the words and names I called Jon! To be fair… the walk of shame he had to do back to the counter to collect his meal should have been all the abuse he suffered. And I wish I’d taken a picture of the staff behind the counter pointing at Jon as he sheepishly walked away. I did however manage to capture how red his face went when he returned to the table!





Finally… I could now tuck into my burger! And what a great, albeit slightly cold, burger it was. After my first bite I turned to Jo and said “know what this tastes like… a Wimpy quarter pounder with cheese!” I asked if Wimpy was something that they had out in America and J&L said they didn’t know of any.

Jon (still red faced) said he liked it, but it wasn’t as good as Shake Shack. Having not eaten there before I don’t know if that’s an accurate statement or not… but I was definitely enjoying my first In-N-Out burger. The fries weren’t terrible, but they were almost stone cold by now… and although they gave you a generous portion, I wasn’t that impressed by them. As in most places in America, when you order soda, you get it yourself from the machine with free refills. I was extremely glad about this as the first drink I chose was disgusting! I think it was a lemon drink… but it tasted like medicine! I went back up, tipped it away and got something else.

On my way back to the table, I could see Jon tucking into some little yellow peppers… a freebie from the condiments bar along with your normal ketchup and mustard. I asked if they were hot, and Jon said no... but Lisa corrected this almost immediately and said they were a little hot.



You might remember yesterday that I said about my intolerance for hot food (spicy Cheetos anyone?) and how I try to avoid it wherever possible. (Heat does not equate to flavour in my book!) But, I’m certainly not one to shy away from a challenge so I picked up one of these little peppers and took a bite. Jo was doing big eyes at me. She knows how sensitive my poor little guts are and said I’d regret it later. Now while it wasn’t the hottest thing I’ve ever tried to eat, it was certainly more heat than I was used to. It clearly showed on my face too as Jon started laughing at my face contorting and going a little red! Jon was chomping down them like they were nothing! I, however, was done after that one bite.





Happyhaunt1000 is offline Boy Mouse Click to view Members Trip Plans Add Member to Ignore List
Old 8 Jul 15, 09:32 PM  
Link to this Post
#3
Happyhaunt1000
Thread Starter
slightly serious Dibber
 
Happyhaunt1000's Avatar
 
Join Date: Mar 11
Continued...

With our bellies full, and the redness in our faces (mine from the pepper and Jon’s for being Mr 94) having subsided, we left and went back outside to Madan for the next leg of our sightseeing tour. The Grove and Farmers Market wasn’t that far away, and as he dropped us off Madan pointed at the area he would be parked and told us again to take as long as we liked. Even though none of us were particularly in the mood for shopping, we figured we’d have a wander round and see if anything caught our eye.









The area itself looked really clean and modern, and if I were in shopping mode, I’m sure I would’ve been darting in and out of more stores. As it was, they first store we went into was Barnes and Noble. Considering we’re in a digital age, it’s still really nice to go into an actual book store and wander round (yes, I know it sells cds, dvds, blurays etc. but the majority of the store was books). Jon was looking for something specific, and while he was browsing I went to the graphic novel section to have a look around. A few minutes later Jon returned, unable to find the book he was looking for (I think it was a book about how to grow a more luxurious/bushy moustache!) so we left and carried on.







There was a huge Nike store just opposite and I said I’d like to pop in just to see if they had any cool trainers. They didn’t! This store was terrible. It was a huge two-storey building and when I went up to the second floor where the men’s trainers were, there was just a tiny selection of trainers (no more than 30 pairs… which may sound like a lot, but isn’t when you see then on them mounted on the wall!) I gave them all the quick once over but nothing caught my eye, so we left.

As we were leaving, one of the employees commented on my trainers (which happened to be Nike) and said they were “dope” and “on point”! (He was right… they were both of those things!) Coming downstairs I thought that Jo might want to look at some of the ladies running clothes… but they had literally two different types of leggings, both of which were garish and not her style, so we just walked out. Very disappointing.

In the centre of all the shops was a big pond/water feature… it was really pretty and did a good job of distracting us from the fact that all the shops were nothing we were interested in looking at! I got a quick hi-five from Iron Man at some Avengers promotion that was going on, and then it was over to the Farmer’s Market.













The smells as we entered this place were amazing... I kinda wished we hadn’t just eaten In-N-Out burger because there were so many things in here I would’ve loved to sample. It wasn’t long though before I could resist no more, and I decided to try some Pistachio ice cream. The only other person interested in getting anything was Jon, who I believe went for some Rocky Road. It was pretty damn good… but not the best pistachio ice cream I’ve ever had.



Again, it wasn’t long before we were done looking around… and when you’re full of burger and fries, the last thing you want to spend time doing is looking at more food. Yet again, when we got back to the car, Madan was surprised at how quick we’d been and seeing that we didn’t have any bags, with us, realised that we weren’t in a shopping mood.

The next stop was our quickest yet… and it was the Beverly Hills Garden Park. Basically it’s just another sign! We stopped, we took a couple of photos and headed back to the car!







As always, there were a few ipad wombles in action. I guess it’s just part of everyday life now that people walk around with a tablet and take pictures on it! When everything else is getting smaller and more portable, it’s like these people want to be the reverse of that and carry around something larger. I bet they wish the old video cameras that you had to rest on your shoulder would make a comeback too!

So as I was saying, we looked at the sign, looked at the pond and headed back to Madan who was now taking us to Rodeo Drive. It was around this part of the day that it struck me that LA was basically just like London but with palm trees. Driving down Rodeo Drive reminded me of driving through Mayfair. There were expensive shops, expensive cars and rich people walking about. None of it held any interest to me or any of the group. We didn’t see any point in getting out of the car as (a) we weren’t going to be buying anything and (b) I had no interest in window shopping… so we just kept driving.



















The other thing that struck me was just how good a job Grand Theft Auto 5 game designers (Rockstar) had done of recreating LA in the game. (It wasn’t called LA though… it was called Los Santos.) The streets around here looking exactly like they do in the game… even Jo noticed it.

Next on what was turning out to be a whistle-stop tour of LA was Santa Monica beach and pier. This was probably the furthest we’d driven since actually getting into LA itself… so we kept ourselves amused taking stupid photos… and at this point, for some unknown reason, I decided to do an impression of a dog!



When we arrived, Madan parked up and we made the short walk down to the pier. It was bustling with a real mixture of people. Tourists, locals, buskers, street vendors… it was quite a packed pier. After watching the waves for a bit (we realised this was the first time we’d ever seen the Pacific Ocean) and taking some pictures of the beach… which, as beaches go, was pretty beautiful… we decided that we didn’t want to actually go down onto the sand, and also none of us wanted to see the big men oiled up and doing squat thrusts on Muscle Beach! (Maybe the girls did… but they certainly didn’t let it be known!)

























Now there are probably some of you getting ticked off at our antics today. Who goes to the beach and then doesn’t actually go ON the beach? Who goes to Rodeo Drive and then doesn’t get out to look around the shops? Well… us… that’s who!

This holiday was never really intended to be a sightseeing trip. It was a chance for me to get away for my 40th… but more so a chance to finally go to Disneyland. If Disney had sold a 5-day ticket, I would’ve bought one of those and spent the whole time on Disney property. As it was, they don’t and we didn’t. But that being said, we still felt like we should see a little of LA as we’d come all this way. But fancy shops and gorgeous beaches just don’t interest me or Jo (and as it turned out, J&L as well). And before I get it in the neck in the comments, I know there’s more to LA than shops and beaches… but we only had one free day… so we decided to do the touristy thing and spend a little time at a lot of places.

And I think that’s the problem (for me) with LA. Everything is really spread out. I can see why when people do the West Coast driving tour, they only spend a few days (if that) in each place they stop. A little bit of LA is more than enough!

By this point I’d made my mind up that LA wasn’t really for me. It was nice enough… but reminded me too much of London, and when I go away, I don’t want to be reminded of the place I’m getting away from!

Right, let’s get back to the story…
So as we’re walking back along the pier, we all decide that we’ve had enough for the day, and as a group we’re happy to ask Madan to take us back home. On our way back I spot an old Zoltar machine… just like the one from Big. Of course, I can’t let an opportunity like this pass by so I stick a quarter in and get my fortune told.











Poor Madan was asleep when we got back the car… and I was a bit apprehensive approaching the car and waking him up. We were in LA after all…he might have being carry a ‘piece’! I raise my voice while talking to the others as we get nearer and this does the trick. He wakes up and we pile into the car. He asks us where we’d like to go next, but we have no idea what to suggest. He mentions going to another beach, but we say we’re actually ok with going back to the hotel. So that’s where we go… back to the Disneyland Hotel.
Happyhaunt1000 is offline Boy Mouse Click to view Members Trip Plans Add Member to Ignore List
Old 8 Jul 15, 09:33 PM  
Link to this Post
#4
Happyhaunt1000
Thread Starter
slightly serious Dibber
 
Happyhaunt1000's Avatar
 
Join Date: Mar 11
Continued...

On the way back Jon offered me a sea salt flavoured chewing stick. I asked him what it was and he showed me this… it’s a toothpick!



I figure he’s just giving a fancy name to a toothpick, but no… these are (apparently) flavoured chewing sticks… and he tells me there are all sorts of flavours. I take one and I chew it for a bit. But it’s still just a toothpick! I’m getting no salty flavour, it just tastes of wood. Jon’s telling me to chew it a certain way… but it feels a little bit like he’s trying to use the power of suggestion to make me think that’s it’s not just a plain old toothpick that he’s been conned into buying on the belief that its flavoured! I’m not buying what he’s selling… so I give up trying to experience flavours and just chew it.









For the last bit of the journey back, we start making our plans for the rest of the afternoon/evening as we have our ghost tour on the Queen Mary… it starts at 8pm, but they advise to get there half an hour before. Given its location, we knew we’d need to be leaving our hotel (the Staybridge Suites) at 7pm, then go and pick up J&L at about 7:10 then make our way there. This meant that when we arrived back at the Disneyland Hotel we had 3 and a half hours to kill before Madan picked us up again. And this is when it’s suggested that we go to Trader Sam’s for cocktails!

This turns out to be one of the best decisions of the entire trip! I’m going to just assume that most of you don’t know what Trader Sam’s is, so the most basic way of describing it would be to call it a bar. But it’s not a normal bar! It’s possibly the best, most fun bar I’ve ever been to (sorry Cava Del Tequila). It’s a tiki themed bar and the inside the whole place is decorated with all sorts of memorabilia from Adventureland attractions and tiki trinkets. Once it reaches capacity, it’s a one out/one in set up… which can lead to long wait times outside… and the bar’s namesake is the guy you meet on the Jungle Cruise… ya know… he’s the one you encounter towards the end of the ride holding the brolly and two shrunken heads.





We get to the entrance and luckily for us, it’s not at capacity (who would have expected that at 3.30 on a Monday afternoon!) so we walk in. I instantly fall in love with this place… it’s just so cool. Normally I’m the guy that’s looking for a menu and checking out the cocktail list when he walks into a bar… but I was just gazing around in wonder at all the detail that had been crammed into this tiny space. It really reminds me of the Tiki Room attraction. That may sound like a ‘well, duh Brett’ kind of thing, but what I mean is that there is no natural light. Everything is low lit and the windows are actually fake. They show scenes of volcanoes and little exotic looking islands in the middle of the sea, so you have no idea what’s going on outside in the real world. It’s a fairly small place and there is a bar in the middle of the room, some stools all around the bar, and then no more than about 12 small tables/booths.













We spot a couple leaving one of the tall tables by the door, so I quickly tell Jo to grab a bar stool and guard it. I then get a couple of menus from the bar and take them to her and Lisa at the table. As we’re looking through the menu a spot of luck befalls us. There’s a group of four leaving one of the bigger tables… so without wasting a second I dart over and secure it for us. We sit down, and so begins one epic drinking session!







As you can see from the menu, there’s quite a selection available… and some of the cocktails come in a souvenir glass/mug. Well… being someone who loves a good souvenir glass, I know without hesitation that I’ll be ordering the Shrunken Head Zombie as the glass you get with it is really cool… and Jon says he’s ordering the same. The girls end up both ordering the same drink as well… a Hippopotomai-Tai (another one in a souvenir glass!)

At the bar we place our order and me and Jon are disappointed to hear that they don’t have any of the souvenir Zombie Head mugs! Son of a b****! I’m not hanging about feeling sorry for myself though, I change my order and go for the Krakatoa Punch while Jon opts for a Shipwreck on the Rocks.

Now there was something I didn’t mention when I gave my little synopsis about the bar… and that’s that when certain drinks are ordered there are suddenly sound effects, lightning and the ‘skipper’ (that’s how they refer to the bar staff in TS) suddenly starts interacting with you and everyone else in the bar at the time. Well the drinks me and Jon have ordered trigger these things! Jon’s Shipwreck drink has made the ship above the bar encounter storming waters… and begins to sink.

My Krakatoa turns the calm Polynesian scenes in the fake window to turn to one of storm clouds… then bells start ringing… a siren starts sounding and then the ‘skipper’ starts shouting “ oh no… run for your lives… Krakatoa!“ and then starts using a squirty water bottle and spraying everyone at the bar and saying “ahhhhhh… the lava… it burns!” Talk about theatrics!









As you can see, the mugs they serve the drinks in are really cool… and totally worth the extra money. And as for the drinks themselves, I’ve never seen Disney bartenders be so generous with the alcohol! They weren’t using measures… instead just pouring straight from the bottle for what feels like minutes at a time! All of our cocktails taste amazing, and you can tell they’ve not been stingy with the liquor!









We’re sitting around chit chatting, watching other people order their drinks and get the same skipper interaction and effects that we got. But then a group of girls order a sharing cocktail called the Uh-Oa! When this is ordered and has finished being made (it takes a little time), the already dim lights dim even more, the skipper rings the bell and he (along with everyone else in the bar) starts to chant “Uh Oa, Uh Oa, Uh Oa” as the drink is presented… in this case brought to their table. It’s served in a three legged bowl with Hear No Evil, See No Evil, and Speak No Evil tiki statues on the legs… and the drink itself is then lit on fire. In the head of each of the three statues there is some powder (turns out it’s cinnamon), which the server and the girls pick up and flick into the fire… which causes the flame to flicker and crackle, all the while people are still chanting!

We see this and I suggest that we get one each (bearing in mind this is meant to be a sharing cocktail)! Nobody thinks this is wise (spoilsports) so we decided to get one to share. So when we finish our first round, I go to the bar and ask to start a tab... and then kick-off said tab with the Uh-Oa. It takes a little while to come out, but then we get the same effects and chanting as everyone else gets, and when the flame goes out we all start sipping. It’s not as nice as the previous cocktails, and has quite a bitter taste to it. It doesn’t last long though and we move onto ordering another round and the cycle begins again!















It was around our third or fourth cocktail that me and Jo decide we’re not going to bother going back to the hotel to get changed… instead, we’re gonna go for the ghost tour in the clothes we’re currently wearing. This, of course, means that we can drink until around 6:55 when we can walk/stagger out to the front of the hotel and meet Madan. But it now means that we need to do a few things before it all gets out of hand and we’re so drunk we can’t organise anything. Firstly I get Jon to call Madan and ask him to come straight to the Disneyland Hotel at 7pm.

We then decide that it’s best that we get some food from the bar so we’ll have something in our bellies to try and soak up some of the alcohol. I make no mention of what it is we order… but here are a few pictures.









I remember it tasting good and but it wasn’t so filling that it stopped us from ordering more drinks. Because they weren’t clearing the old finished drinks away quick enough, there was an abundance of straws in various mugs and glasses. I decided that I’d start connecting the straws together and see how long I could get it and actually still get drink through the straw! People in the bar along with the skippers are cracking jokes, telling me I’ll never get more than three connected and get drink through it (which I see as a challenge) I think I manage five… which gets me a little round of applause!










Bathroom selfie!
















Bathroom selfie! (Take-2)

By this point, if it comes in a souvenir mug, we’d ordered it (along with the mug). We (sorry… not we… ‘I’) think it’ll be a great idea if we try and drink every cocktail on the menu before we leave. I don’t remember anyone actually saying no… but everyone else had slowed down a little at this point. So much so that Lisa dropped out of one round and then went back to the hotel room to grab a hoodie for later tonight… and Jo decided that she also needed a hoodie, but this involved her going to the shop in the DL Hotel and buying one. This left just me and Jon ploughing on through the list.

At one point he leaves to go to the bathroom and upon his return I proclaim loudly “heeeey… Jon’s back” and I start clapping (he’d barely been gone three minutes)… and so does everyone else in the bar! For the second time today, Jon goes bright red… or we’re assuming so as it was so dark we couldn’t actually see it!

After nearly three and a half hours of drinking extremely strong cocktails it’s time to leave and we call for the bill. The woman comes over with our bill and two bags full of souvenir mugs. I take the receipt and look at it. “That can’t be right!” I say to Jon, “they’ve missed loads of drinks off our bill!” I show Jon the receipt and its only $64. At this point I hear a guy sitting on a table next to ours turn to his girlfriend and say “what the hell have you been ordering?!”
“Excuse me… have you got a really expensive bill?” I ask them, “I think we’ve got yours over here” and we swap bills. Ahhh… $214 that’s a bit more like it!



We pay up, and head out into the sunshine. For me, it’s the first time I’ve seen daylight in over 3hrs and that, mixed with alcohol makes me look like a mole man emerging from underground for the first time as I squint and try to adjust to how sunny it still is. When we get to the lobby I suddenly remember that I’ve left my camera bag at the bar! I leg it back there and puffing and panting, go to where we were just sitting and there, under my chair, is my camera bag. Phew… lucky escape there!
Happyhaunt1000 is offline Boy Mouse Click to view Members Trip Plans Add Member to Ignore List
Old 8 Jul 15, 09:33 PM  
Link to this Post
#5
Happyhaunt1000
Thread Starter
slightly serious Dibber
 
Happyhaunt1000's Avatar
 
Join Date: Mar 11
Continued...

Madan arrives and we all bundle in on our way to the Queen Mary. Once again... I do my best ‘dog in a car’ impression! During the journey I also record a voice memo. Listening back to it so I could write this day was not pleasant. While I was trying to recall the events of the day so far (which there had been quite a lot of) I kept being distracted by the comments Jon was making as well as the titbits of info that Jo was reminding me of. It was 13minutes of pain and I’m glad I never have to listen to that recording again.







Less than half an hour later and we’ve arrived at the Queen Mary, in Long Beach. The area of Long Beach is very picturesque… if we had a bit more time it might have been nice to investigate a little more, but as it was we had a tour to get to. The ship itself is very impressive… we had a look around the outside and reception area then thought we’d better find out where we needed to be for the paranormal tour.















We asked at reception where we needed to book in, we were directed to an area where there were already about 10 people standing around waiting. I found an employee, who it turned out was the guy who would be giving the tour, and he said that we were welcome to wait here for the tour to start in 30mintutes or we could go and investigate the public areas of the ship and have a bit of a look round. Just as I turned round to ask what the other three wanted to do, he then said “or you could go to the bar for a drink”. Well… after that third choice became available, there was only one thing we were going to do! Off to the bar it was.





As expected, the bar was decorated in a manner in which you expect a royal cruise ship to be. I asked what everyone wanted and they were all floundering and not making a decision. All except Lisa, who knew she just wanted a coke. Because the others weren’t making a decision I chose for them, and order double Sailor Jerry and cokes for the three of us. The barmaid asks to see Jon’s ID (clearly she thinks that him growing that tiny moustache is trying to hide that he’s really only 16!) and he flips open his wallet to prove that he is really a grown up man. As she goes to ask me I tell her that my wife has just gone to the bathroom and my ID is in her purse. She pauses a second and I think she’s about to tell me I can’t have my drink… so I quickly say “it’s weird for us Brits… we get ID’d when we’re 18 or 19 and then it stops. But we come here and it’s like we’re teenagers again”. She chuckles and just turns round and goes to the till and comes back with the receipt. When Jo gets back we show our ID and then we all head out onto the deck to have our drinks looking over the harbour and beachfront.










Bathroom selfie! (Take-3)





With our alcohol levels topped up and toilet breaks taken, we go back to the meeting point and wait for our tour to begin. The guy we spoke to earlier returns, and leads us further into the ship to a large room with tables and chairs set out… and he then asks us all to sit down and gives us a brief history of the Queen Mary. I say brief… it was about 20 minutes! Personally I found it quite interesting, but it seemed that Jon was a little restless (and tipsy) and was giggling at something Jo was doing on her phone. I know we’d had a drink, but I didn’t want to be ‘those’ people on the tour who weren’t paying attention to the tour guide and spent the whole time mucking about!







After the history lesson, the tour begins for real. I’m not gonna go through every little detail and every little things that was said to us… so I’ll try to sum it all up in a much more brief synopsis for you.

As we’re taken to different parts of the ship, we’re told about events that happened while the ship was a functioning vessel (including the role it played in WW2). We hear stories about certain experiences that passengers and crew had (unexplainable paranormal events) as well as more recent events that the QM’s current staff have had happen to them. Our guide tells us that he personally has never had anything paranormal happen to him, and but that he remains open minded to the paranormal. None of us experience anything ourselves (and that’s not for the want of trying or hoping to see or hear something!)





































During the tour we were told by the guide that we should take as many pictures as we like (obviously in the hope of capturing something) and while in one section of the boat, I decided to stand away from the rest of the group… face completely the opposite direction they are facing, and then just keep taking pictures. I took about 20 pics and then moved onto the next area with the group. As I was looking back at these photos to me they all looked exactly identical. That is, all but one. It was about six or seven shots in… and I’m not saying it’s anything paranormal… I’m just saying that I had 19 pics exactly the same… but in one there is some sort of white blur/smudge/mist in the picture!









As I was saying to Jo and J&L that there’s one photo that’s slightly different, a couple on the tour overheard me and asked to look. Well, the woman gets super excited at the picture! “Oh my god… that’s crazy… where did you capture that… wow, it’s amazing… oh my god!” Personally I thought she was a bit(!) OTT about it… then again, I think she’d had more to drink than we had!

After two hours the tour was over and we were making our way outside. It was around 10pm and we were all feeling tired after a 14hr day of fun and frolics. Now I know it may feel like I’ve forgone my usual overload of information that I normally put into my TR writing, but the tour doesn’t really lend itself to being written about in detail. Don’t get me wrong, I found it really interesting hearing the stories about all the areas we were shown, but in this instance I feel like you really have to be there to fully appreciate it. So you just got a load of photos instead!

We got to the car park and Madan was there waiting for us, and after a short drive we were bidding a goodnight to J&L and also to our personal tour guide for the day… Madan. We’re back in the room and even though it was 11pm we realised we’d eaten very little today and were extremely hungry. We decided to order a pizza from room service, and then set about packing a small suitcase with three days’ worth of clothes in… because tomorrow we would be going to the Disneyland Hotel where it would be our home until Friday! Feeling tired, hungry and wanting to just go to bed meant packing the suitcase was somewhat of a challenge, and we were both getting a little short tempered with each other by the time the pizza arrived. We stopped packing just long enough to wolf down a couple of slices each, but then it was back to the packing.



Finally at around 12:30am we were finished and ready for bed. Jo gets into bed before me and when I get back from the bathroom she’s fast asleep with her phone in her hands. She did this a couple of times in Florida and I embarrassed her then by taking a photo and putting it into the TR for all to see… so obviously I had to do the same again! Even when I took the phone away, her hands stayed in exactly the same gripping position as if she was still holding it! She’d passed out basically as soon as her head hit the pillow… and once I’d finished taking photos, I was exactly the same.





And that, my friends, is the end of Day 3. We had some highs - meeting Jon and Lisa for the first time, a great tour guide, a session drinking in the funnest (yes, it’s a word!) bar ever… and the low that is LA (‘nuff said)… but ultimately it was a brilliant day.

As always, thanks for reading. I love you byeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee

#dibbafterdrinkinginthedarkforthreehoursyoureyesar elikepissholesinthesnowwhenyouemerge
Happyhaunt1000 is offline Boy Mouse Click to view Members Trip Plans Add Member to Ignore List
Old 8 Jul 15, 11:53 PM  
Link to this Post
#6
Buffton
Apprentice Imagineer
 
Buffton's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jul 13
Epic read this evening! Thank you! The bar looks amazing, the staff must be exhausted at the end of each shift! Looking forward to the disney installments!
Thhhaaannnkkkksss!
Lizzie
Buffton is offline Girl Mouse Click to view Members Trip Plans Add Member to Ignore List
Old 9 Jul 15, 05:19 AM  
Link to this Post
#7
Nesbits
Very Serious Dibber
 
Nesbits's Avatar
 
Join Date: Apr 06
What a brill read. I enjoyed your day.

Trader SAMs looks epic.

What did your Zoltan fortune say?
Nesbits is offline Boy Mouse Click to view Members Trip Plans Add Member to Ignore List
Old 9 Jul 15, 09:24 AM  
Link to this Post
#8
abiknox
Imagineer
 
Join Date: Jan 10

abiknox's Reviews
Hotel Reviews: 1
Restaurant Reviews: 5
I just killed the first 45 minutes of my working day reading that so thank you, brilliant report as always! Love all the photos.

I was laughing so much I had to hide behind my computer screen whist reading the Mr 94 story! Absolutely classic.

I think our feelings about LA were pretty similar, we only spent about an hour at the Walk of Fame & that included time for lunch at Jonny Rockets. I did like Santa Monica more but we only made a pit stop on our way to the airport.

I'm gutted we never made it to Trader Sams, it was on the list but we never found the time. It looks/sounds incredible. I felt drunk just looking at all the cocktails you ordered

Love the photos of Jo at the end, one very tiring but amazing day.
abiknox is offline Girl Mouse Click to view Members Trip Plans Add Member to Ignore List
Old 9 Jul 15, 09:24 AM  
Link to this Post
#9
Yorkie Girl
Imagineer
 
Yorkie Girl's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jun 12
Location: Yorkshire

Yorkie Girl's Reviews
Hotel Reviews: 4
Restaurant Reviews: 19
Fantastic read as always
Those cocktails look amazing!
Yorkie Girl is offline Girl Mouse Click to view Members Trip Plans Add Member to Ignore List
Old 9 Jul 15, 09:38 AM  
Link to this Post
#10
Gingerskeet
Proud to wear my Ears
 
Gingerskeet's Avatar
 
Join Date: Mar 15
OMG what an epic read!

Keep 'em coming
__________________
Clear Creek 2001. Windsor Hills 2003. I-Drive 2004. Sunset Lakes 2005. Indian Creek 2006. Runaway Beach Club 2007. Rolling Hills 2008. I-Drive 2009. Sunset Lakes 2010. Primrose Drive 2015. Emerald Island 2019.
Gingerskeet is offline Girl Mouse Click to view Members Trip Plans Add Member to Ignore List
Reply

Thread Tools Search this Thread
Search this Thread:

Advanced Search
Display Modes

Forum Jump


All times are GMT +1. The time now is 01:31 AM.


Powered by vBulletin - Copyright © 2000 - 2024, Jelsoft Enterprises Ltd.
DIBB Savings
AttractionTickets.com

Get £10 off each Disney Ticket with the code ATDIBB10

Get up to £50 off per room at Disney or Universal with the code DIBBHOTELS


theDIBB Blog
One of the the five worlds found in Epic Universe, How to Train Your Dragon... Read More »
Disney announced that a new nighttime show, “Disney Dreams That Soar,” will run nightly at... Read More »
Walt Disney World Resort guests can get ready to have a “glowing’’ good time when... Read More »


theDIBB Menu


Exchange Rates
US Dollar Rates
ASDA  $1.2354
CaxtonFX  $1.2308
Covent Garden FX  $1.2544
FAIRFX  $1.2350
John Lewis  $1.2380
M&S  $1.2178
Sainsburys  $1.2354
TESCO  $1.2364
Travelex  $1.2353
Updated: 00:30 29/03/2024
Euro Rates
ASDA  €1.1447
CaxtonFX  €1.1410
Covent Garden FX  €1.1515
FAIRFX  €1.1432
John Lewis  €1.1457
M&S  €1.1263
Sainsburys  €1.1440
TESCO  €1.1445
Travelex  €1.1435
Updated: 00:30 29/03/2024

DIBB Premium Membership
Did you know you can help support theDIBB with Premium Membership?

Check out this link for more information and benefits, such as...

"No adverts on theDIBB Forums"

Upgrade Now



X