Long Boring Travelogue Post

Today is April 21st, 2007. It's our first anniversary.

We've spent most of the last week celebrating the milestone. When we got married, I really wanted to take Nancy to Disneyland for our honeymoon. She'd never been there, believe it or not. Alas, she was in school with finals rapidly approaching, and other logistical things just didn't work out. So we went to Park City for the weekend, then returned to our normal lives.

This year, things were different. I got to take her to Disneyland. Here are some of the details.

Hotel California
Our Disneyland vacation started on Tuesday afternoon. I found a really good fare to SoCal on Jet Blue. We left Salt Lake City around 3:30 and arrived at the Long Beach airport at 3:55. (No, that's not a typo. Time zone change, remember?) We gathered our bags and caught a shuttle to the hotel in Anaheim. We checked in and got our room assignment, but found two small difficulties: first, the room had two queen beds instead of a king bed as I'd requested from the travel agency; and second, the door to our room was wide open when we got to it. That second part was more than a little disturbing. Who knows who could have gone in before we did and what they might have done? So we brought these issues to the attention of Oliver, the guy at the desk, and he promptly got us another room. Oliver was interesting. He was helpful, deferential, and extremely polite...to me. He never talked to Nancy, even when she was talking to him. He answered all of her questions with responses to me. We left a comment to that effect on the card when we left.

After getting established in the room, our thoughts began to turn to dinner. Nancy had picked up a 'local attractions' map from the hotel lobby and found a restaurant she said would be a lot of fun: Dave & Buster's. I'd never been to a D&B's before, so we caught a cab to The Block at Orange and made our way to the restaurant. It was a blast. We each got the Whiskey Glazed Mixed Grill combo, which included steak, chicken, ribs, and a $10 game card for $15.99. And rolls. For some reason, the rolls tasted really good that night, and we had them bring us some more. Anyway, after dinner, we played games. Nancy's a wiz at Skee-ball, and we also played a horse-racing game. Between the two, we (meaning Nancy, mostly) won enough tickets to get her a D&B T-shirt and some stickers for scrapbooking.

Oh, and something else interesting happened at D&B's. We got carded. This will probably sound strange, but I can't recall ever being carded before. Really. Granted, I haven't spent a lot of time at bars and dance clubs, but still. It was a little strange.

From dinner we made our way back through The Block, stopping briefly at the Big Dogs store to pick up a couple of T-shirts:

Great shirts for a vacation, don't you think?

The cab brought us back to the hotel, where we took advantage of the pool and the hot tub. After half an hour or so of swimming and soaking we returned to our room and called it a night, dreams of the Magic Kingdom filling our heads.

We're Going to Disneyland!
The hotel accommodations included a voucher for two Park Hopper passes, which would allow us to go between the Disneyland and California Adventure parks at will over the next three days. We packed our cameras and some treats, sprayed on the sun screen, bought a pair of 3-day shuttle passes, and headed up Harbor Boulevard to the parks. On the shuttle we met a lady with a broken ankle. When we got to the park we helped her off the shuttle, for which she and her family were very appreciative. Then we took our voucher to the ticket office and got our passes. When I mentioned to the lady at the window that this was Nancy's first visit, she gave her an official Disneyland "First Visit" button. It was a nice touch.

Then came the line to get into the park. It was still pretty early in the day, so the line at the front gates was about 50 yards long. As we made our way toward the back, we heard a familiar voice from about halfway up the line. It was the lady with the broken ankle, and seeing us, she was saying to her family, "There are your cousins! Tell them to get in line over here with us!" So we joined her. She thanked us again for helping her off the shuttle, and we thanked her for saving us fifteen minutes in line.

After getting a few pictures of Nancy with various Disney characters, we started riding the rides. We started by getting a FastPass for Space Mountain, which was closed for renovation the last time I was at the park. With future tickets in hand, we checked out some other rides. Nancy's first ever Disneyland ride was Star Tours. (And let me just say, droids really shouldn't be piloting Starspeeders.) Then we rode Buzz Lightyear's Astro Blasters, followed by a ride on the Matterhorn. By then it was time to return to Space Mountain, which was as much fun as I remembered. After a quick bite of lunch, we went to the world (in)famous It's A Small World ride. We had jokingly threatened to call Nancy's mom while we were on the ride so she could hear the song. She told us thanks, but no thanks. So naturally Nancy called her as we got on the ride. And about 30 seconds after Nancy got off the phone, I called her too. Wacky fun. By the way, did you know that the Small World ride lasts almost 20 minutes? Well, now you do.

At this point we needed a rest, so we rode the Disneyland Railroad around the park a couple of times. We finally got off at the Toon Town Station, and after a quick stop to see if we could get pictures with the princesses, we made our way south to Adventureland. We picked up a FastPass for Thunder Mountain, then took in the Haunted Mansion and the Pirates of the Caribbean ride. (By the way, if you've ever wanted the lyrics to the Pirates song they play during the ride, here you go. Really bad eggs!) After that, we just had time for a ride on the Indiana Jones And The Temple Of The Forbidden Eye ride before the parade started.

We watched the Year of a Million Dreams parade, and Nancy got a lot of good pictures for her upcoming scrapbook project. At that point, we both agreed that it was time to go home. We went back to the shuttle pick-up point and waited something like half an hour for our transportation to show up. This was bad only because it had become cold and windy by then, and we were both wearing shorts. But we made it back to the hotel, ordered a pizza, and settled in for the night.

The Morning After
Neither of us felt very will that next morning. Nancy had started feeling ill the night before, no doubt exacerbated by the chilly wind we had to stand in for so long. And I was just feeling beat. So we slept in. I woke up before Nancy did, which is pretty much the norm, so I got showered and dressed for the day. With Nancy still getting some much-needed rest, I plugged in my computer and quietly took advantage of the hotel's free wireless Internet service. Once Nancy awoke we watched a couple of episodes of Scrubs on the laptop's DVD player. Then Nancy got cleaned up, and we went to lunch.

I don't know how many of you have eaten at the Rainforest Cafe, but if you haven't, you should. We went to the restaurant at Downtown Disney. The food was great, and the ambience was excellent. After a BBQ chicken pizza for her, steak and chicken fajitas for me, and T-shirts for both of us, we caught the monorail back into Disneyland. We spent only a few hours in the park this time, with highlights including the Enchanted Tiki Room, the Jungle Cruise, another ride on the Pirates of the Caribbean (which lasts about 15 minutes, by the way), and a visit to Mickey's Toon Town, where we rode Roger Rabbit's Car Toon Spin and Gadget's Go Coaster. By that time the park was about to close, and we were ready for another round in the hot tub. So we returned to the hotel for our final night's stay.

And Speaking Of Rain...
We awoke Friday Morning to find that it had rained overnight. Upon closer examination, I realized that it was still, in fact, raining. No matter. Of course we were still going to the parks for the last day of our vacation. What do you think we are, a couple of lightweights?

After availing ourselves of the hotel's excellent continental breakfast, we packed up our stuff and checked out. Leaving our bags in the hotel's custody until our airport shuttle would come pick us up, we returned to take in the other park, Disney's California Adventure.

Our first ride was Soarin' Over California. For the unfamiliar, the ride is something like a cross between a ski lift and an IMAX theater. The first time I wet on this ride several years ago, it seriously freaked me out. With my fear of heights, I spent the first half of the ride trying to remember how to breathe. Then my rational mind successfully asserted itself, and I was able to enjoy/be amazed by the rest of the ride. This time there was none of the fear, just the amazement.

When we left, the rain had intensified a little. So we crossed over to a souvenir shop for Nancy to get a Mickey-embossed vinyl poncho. She talked me into getting one too—which consisted of her asking me repeatedly if I wanted a poncho, me telling her repeatedly that I didn't need one, and her ultimately buying me one anyway. And in the end, I'm glad she did. The rain got a lot worse before it got better.

We took in two more rides after that. The Grizzly River Run raft ride might seem like an odd choice for something to do during a torrential downpour, but it was a lot of fun. Usually it's one of the hardest rides to get on, especially when the weather is hot and sunny and people are looking for something wet to cool down with. Not so for us. There was no line whatsoever. We walked up and got right on the ride with no waiting. The other ride was one I hadn't been able to ride the last time I visited, because like Space Mountain, it had been closed. That was the park's big roller coaster, California Screamin'. And I have just one word for it: wow. Fast-moving and thrilling without being inordinately scary, I have to rate this as one of the best roller coasters I've ever been on. Probably the best, actually.

We had a moment of fun after we got off California Screamin'. People were congregated around a wall full of monitors showing pictures from our just-completed ride. A guy and two girls were looking at their picture, and the girls were teasing the guy a little because he looked scared in the picture. I'm not sure how we ended up in the conversation, but at one point, I told him, "Man, I hate to be the one to tell you this, but you look like a little girl." Well, he did. He just shook his head sadly at me. I'll bet the girls reminded him of that all day long.

We were ready for something a little more sedate now, so we headed over to the "It's Tough to Be a Bug" show. Fun, a little scary, and a little stinky. Then we decided to be really brave and take on The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror. I knew it was going to play on my above-mentioned fear of heights. And it did. It was the scariest ride of the week, hands down. But it was fun. Unlike the Sun Wheel, which I rode the last time I was there and swore I'd never, ever ride again. The reason? From the Wikipedia article we read: "The variation from the standard Ferris Wheel is that the 16 orange and purple gondolas are able to ride on interior rails so that they slide inward and outward with the centrifugal force of the wheel's rotational movement." In other words, the movement of the cars makes you feel like you're going to fly right off the wheel and into the lake. It scared me to death. Never again, I tell you.

We wrapped up our time at California Adventure by riding the Monsters, Inc. Mike & Sulley to the Rescue! ride and taking in a Jim Henson's Muppet*Vision 3D show. Then it was time for a late lunch/early dinner before returning to the hotel to catch the shuttle to the airport. So, not seeing anything else that grabbed our appetites, we returned to the Rainforest Cafe. After BBQ chicken pizza and chicken fried steak we headed for the shuttle pickup lot by way of the monorail. We said goodbye to everything as we glided above the park, reminiscing about how much fun we'd had over the past three days. Now the time had come to head home.

Long Beach, We Have A Problem
Our flight back to Salt Lake City was scheduled to leave at 7:45 Friday night. To get us there in plenty of time, the airport shuttle was scheduled to pick us up at the hotel between 5:00 and 5:15. When it became apparent that the resort shuttle wasn't going to get us back on time, I called to airport shuttle company to let them know what was going on. I told them we had been delayed at the park, but that we'd be back at the hotel by 5:20. They said they'd pass that on to the driver. We got back to the hotel at 5:15, got our bags back, and waited for the shuttle to appear.

And waited.

And waited some more.

About 5:40 I called the shuttle company to check on the status of our transportation. They put me on hold for a couple of minutes, then told me the driver was "5-10 minutes away". I thanked the lady for her help and hung up.

6:00 came around, and still we had no shuttle. So I called again, and after being pout on hold again, I got the same response: the driver will be there in "5-10 minutes". I told the guy that's what I'd been told 20 minutes before, and he said, "That's what dispatch just told me. That's all I can tell you." So we waited some more, growing increasingly anxious as the time passed by.

At 6:15 I called them back again, with little time or inclination for pleasantries. I explained to the first woman who answered that our shuttle was now a full hour late and that I didn't want to miss our flight. She put me on hold, and after a few minutes, someone else came on the line. So I gave them our information again and explained the situation again. He put me on hold again, then came back and gave me the whole "5-10 minutes" routine again. I let him know in a rather direct fashion that that answer wasn't good enough. I needed to know exactly when our shuttle was going to be here,and if he couldn't tell me that, then he needed to transfer me to someone who could. So I was put on hold. Again.

The lady that came on next was only marginally less unhelpful than the previous two agents. After giving her all of our information again, I told her that I was not happy with what had happened. She apologized and said she could have a shuttle to us in, you guessed it, "5-10 minutes". By this time, Oliver had called us a cab, because that was going to be the only way we'd have any shot at all at getting to the airport on time. So I told the lady we needed to cancel the reservation and get a refund. I also suggested that because of the runaround and the inconvenience (which was now bordering on panic) that the company had caused us, the refund needed to be for the full amount I had paid, and not just for that day's trip. She said she'd be happy to cancel the reservation but that she couldn't issue a refund. So she escalated me to someone else.

While all this was going on, the shuttle company called the hotel. An interesting three-way conversation ensued between the driver, Oliver, and Nancy. Apparently the driver had showed up at the hotel, and not finding us there, moved on to his other stops. There were just two problems with that. First, the driver never got out of the van, talked to the desk clerk, or made any kind of effort to see if his passengers were there. Second, he had arrived at the hotel to pick us up at 4:40—twenty minutes ahead of schedule.

So after being on hold for another few minutes, I got to talk to someone in the shuttle company's customer 'service' department. I was told that they would have to escalate the issue to their Quality Assurance department and that were unable to issue a refund for the service because the reservation was not cancelled at least two hours in advance. And I was told that the QA folks would need to contact me directly about the issue—in 3-5 business days. I was incredulous. I asked the guy on the phone, very calmly, I thought, "You're telling me that because your driver failed to pick us up, I have to wait 3-5 days to talk to someone about the possibility of getting a refund?" His response was that the QA folks were in the office from 9-5 Monday through Friday, and they would contact me next week. Un-be-fraggin'-lievable. Twenty-seven minutes on the phone with these bozos and no resolution whatsoever. That's almost half an hour of my life that I can never get back.

Yeah, it had become a bad day for me. Someone else is going to have a bad day 3-5 business days from now, I can assure you of that.

Fortunately, the cab had arrived by then, and momentarily we were on our way to the airport. On the way there I called the airline and told them of our predicament. The Jet Blue rep noted everything and told us that we should be okay. So we drove on and trusted in our cabbie to get us to the plane on time. And he did. We got there just as before they announced the preboarding procedure. Once we actually got to the airport, we got on the plane without incident.

Murphy's Law would dictate, of course, that once we actually got on the plane, it would sit on the tarmac for half an hour before actually taking off.

Nevertheless, we got back into Salt Lake only ten minutes after our scheduled arrival time. From there we picked up our bags, caught the shuttle back to the parking company where we'd left our car, and drove home. All told, we were in bed by midnight. And it was a good thing, too. It had been a tiring day, in a lot of ways.

Home At Last
And that brings us to the present. As I mentioned at the beginning, today is our first anniversary. We've spent a lot of the day just resting and hanging out together. As much fun as the last three days have been, it's kind of nice to have a day together with no obligations to the outside world. We'll go out to a quiet dinner at Sizzler later tonight, and we'll have to get some groceries before we turn in for the night. Beyond that, though, it looks like a quiet night for us, followed by a quiet day tomorrow.

And that pretty well wraps it up. We're both dog-tired, and our legs are a little sore from all the walking we've done. But we're happy and we're refreshed, and best of all, we're into our second year of being married now.

Life is good.