6:50 AM - well that's more like it, I suppose. Not exactly a vacation sleep in, but at least in the same ballpark as my usual wake up time. I notice I am alone in bed.....Tracey is on the couch! Oh boy. She mentioned that the bed was really soft...too soft for her...so I guess she couldn't sleep. To me, it was like sleeping in a big King Size cloud of pillows! Softer is better for me. Just another example of the only part of our marriage where we are completely incompatible: sleeping.
She likes firm mattresses, I like soft. She needs to sleep in total darkness with no sound (earplugs, in fact). I require light and noise (TV usually). She sleeps at room temperature, I like my bedroom to be meat-locker-esque. It's definitely a challenge.
She's asleep as I type this, hopefully I am typing quietly enough not to wake The Bear. Couch Bear is usually much grouchier than Bed Bear so hopefully she sleeps until she wakes herself up......
Oh boy, it turns out that she moved to the couch because of someone's snoring, not an uncomfortable bed. She has awaken in a lovely mood, hopefully she doesn't get too tired during the day, bringing on the appearance of Grouchy Bear.
9:30 AM - Down to the lobby to pick up some muffins and coffee for breakfast while The Process is underway. We are planning a few hours in the park, that's usually enough time to see everything we need to see here. Checkout time is 11 AM and I expect we'll be using every minute of that time before we are ready to go.
What a beautiful hotel. So much better than the place we last stayed in, in Hollywood, which had blood stains on the carpet, a door so sketchy we actually moved a bureau in front of it to protect ourselves during the night, and a lobby so small that Tracey had to stand out on Hollywood Blvd. while I checked in because we couldn't both fit.
Just a slight upgrade this time.
11:00 AM - Off to the park! No huge lineup getting in; they have a sign advertising approximate wait times, and since the Despicable Me Minions Mayhem ride says only 10 minutes, we high-tail it over there. Of course, so does everyone else. Oh, that reminds me:
Reason 1,798 why Disney is better than Universal:
At Disney, a posted 10-minute wait time really means "little to no wait". At Universal, it means "bring a book".
So by the time we get to the ride, the 10 minutes changes to 20, and while we are actually in the line, it changes to 50. It didn't take us 50, but it was in the 30-40 range. It's a terrific ride, quite new for California (we did ride it on our last trip to Universal Florida), but it's a must-do for anyone, especially if you enjoy those movies. And if you don't enjoy those movies, you might want to skip this park, because the Minions are everywhere. EVERYWHERE. They obviously understand that it's OK to milk a popular franchise, I just wonder what the shelf life of this franchise will be. I know they are making a Minions spin off movie but unless they do a Despicable Me 3, which to my knowledge they haven't talked about, it might peter out.
Anyway, I love the Minions, so good for them. Hope it is successful.
We also notice where they are building California's version of the Wizarding World of Harry Potter. Exciting to be sure, but it doesn't seem like the area they are using (close to the Simpsons area) is big enough to do it right...but we'll see.
They've also opened up a new Transformers 3-D ride which I hear is a lot of fun, but the wait is over an hour (even in Universal time) and I can't stomach that long a wait today. Next time.
After only three attractions today (also including the Backlot Tour and The Mummy) and lunch, we are done. It's Saturday and the place is a zoo, and the heat has taken care of us. This is the hottest I can ever remember in September down here. It's crazy hot.
Oh, and the posted wait time for The Mummy was 20 minutes. After being in line (in the heat) for about 15, we hopped into the "single riders" line and rode separately....it still took us well over 20 minutes. I wonder if Universal figures it's guests can't tell time??
3:15 PM - We are in the car and headed down the freeway for our 45 minute drive to tonight's hotel. ROFLMAO. 45 minutes? Maybe if we had one of those futuristic cars we all saw in The Jetsons. In real life, on the L.A. freeway, it takes us an hour and a half.
I've never seen it so brown down here. It's not like I didn't know they were going through a drought, but I'm not sure it is getting quite enough attention back home. Miles and miles and miles of nothing remotely green.
4:45 PM - We arrive and check into tonight's 'transitional' hotel, the Comfort Inn, about 3 miles from Disneyland. We generally spend a night in one of these types of hotels if we are getting in quite late (so as to not pay the huge prices of the Grand Californian for nearly nothing), which was the original plan here, but after we changed the itinerary I didn't bother to change the hotel. It won't kill us to stay off-site for one night, and the hotel is very clean and perfectly comfortable for one evening.
5: 15 PM - We arrive at Downtown Disney to look around a bit before our dinner reservations at Catal. We brought the bottle of 1998 Merlot from Miner Family Vineyards that we purchased earlier in the week; Catal offers ZERO corkage fee if you bring your own wine. They have a fabulous wine list so I would not generally bring wine to a restaurant like this, but since we really need to drink quite a few bottles before trying to get back into Canada, this seems like a great time to start. We take the wine to Catal right away so it doesn't stay in the heat, and they put it into a red wine fridge for us with no problem.
It is so hot that we can't just go into a store to get cool; we have to go into a store and find the air conditioning and stand under it. It's really insane. After the crazy hot summer we had at home, I would have been fine with some milder temperatures.
7:00 PM - Dinner time and we decide to sit outside for our meal. It's still hot, but tolerable; I figure it's just about as hot as I could possibly stand while eating dinner. It doesn't really get any cooler during dinner, either. We have a great meal, and the wine was simply wonderful. After two courses and an appetizer, our bill (after my Annual Passholder discount and tip) was $75. It really pays to bring your own wine :-)
After dinner we look around a bit more, and try to see what else we want to do that we don't already have planned, and then walk back to the parking lot.
9:30 PM - Back to the room to have a look at our plans for the next few days. I admit it, I'm a planner; I like to have things planned and booked well in advance....but you gotta be flexible when circumstances dictate, and the heat is going to dictate we change our schedule. It's not getting any cooler. In fact, just the opposite...so we talk about switching to an "evening" schedule and staying out of the heat. It seems like a great idea until we check the park schedule and realize they aren't open late during the week in September, so there isn't much chance to make any significant changes. We are just going to have to accept the fact that we'll have to go into the parks more often and for shorter days. We can adjust.
Tomorrow we move to the Grand Californian Hotel & Spa, and have our first day in the parks! Fun!
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