Alrighty then... the site has been down for a few days, as I've exceeded my disk space on the cox server and blogger wouldn't let me publish anymore, and since my main page is run on blogger, the whole site got caught in limbo. For now, the musicbox is gone. I'll move things aorund when I get a chance. Now lets talk about last saturday (this'll stay on my main page unless/until I decide to publish it's own page).

Got picked up at around 6:45, headed over to pick up the twins, we got there a bit early so we sat in front of their house while neal took pictures. Drive up to anaheim went fine, no one killed anyone else. We got to the resort in record time and had some time to kill. Ate at McDonalds, did laps around the resort and such, Neal learned the roads around the park, etc. Plenty more chance to see Tower of Terror up close, but I refrained from freaking out. Parked the car, walked downtown disney for a while, browsed the bookstore, watched little kids throw pennies into a killer wishing fountain (killer as in, deadly). The park was slated to open at 10, so we started to walk towards the front gates as it was 9:20. To our surprise, the gates were already open when we got to the front entrance. Whatever. It was nice, as most people weren't aware the park was already open, it wasn't very crowded. Immediately we walked down Hollywood Blvd and towards tower.

The line was only a 20 minute wait, but we got fastpasses anyway. It seemed to move much quicker than 20 minutes. The gronds all around the new attraction are very well done. It's not as creepy without the overgrown vegetation like at Florida, but the street atmosphere made it feel more authentic, like a real Hollywood hotel. We continued throw the queue and into the hotel. The lobby was amazing, as were the rest of the rooms in the hotel. What was really cool was the boiler room. The rides story has you explore the basement level of the hotel where you board a maintenence service elevator. The room is very creepy, filled with stuff to look at and be entertained by. Neal and I argued about whether the libary had taken us underground (like the haunted mansion at disneyland does). I say it doesn't. And I'm right. The elevator was really old and creepy looking, and it seemed that Laura was able to keep her cool all the way until we were seated and the doors shut. The beginning of the ride is very startling and disorienting. Without ruining it, I'll just say that this elevator can do a lot more than a normal elevator can. The ride was a lot of fun, and though it was missing several things from the WDW version, it had plenty of new special effects and there was one moment of the ride that was truly terrifying (and yet still a lot of fun).

After that we headed down to Soarin' Over CA and rode that. While Tower was a lot of fun, I have to say that Soarin' is still my favorite ride at DCA. So beautiful. We took fastpasses for that after getting off and then went back to tower to ride it again. Still a lot of fun the second time. We had some time to kill after that before the Soarin' fastpass was up, so we decided to try Muppetvision 3d. We watched the entire preshow, and just as we were about to enter the theater, we see the CM running around and then they directed us out another door through the building. Turns out we were being evacuated. All guests were led backstage and out of the Hollywood Pictures Backlot area and it was closed off. Later on I learned that there had be an electrical fire in the Playhouse Disney building. No matter. We continued on toward Soarin' to ride it a second time. We were going to request center front row seats, but there was no need, as we miraculously were put there anyway. So the ride was that much more magical.

We decided to try other areas of the park as hollwood was closed and we pretty much conquered condor flats with its one ride. We passed Grizzly River Run and got fp's for that, and then continued through San Francisco towards Paradise Pier, and began to walk the pier counter clockwise. We ended up at california screaming. The CM's working that ride were pretty funny with their suggestions on how to pass time in line. Anyway, that coaster is great. After riding we notice Tower of Terror operating again (you can see that thing from all over the park), so we figured Hollywood had reopened. We started to make our way back towards that area, but we got distracted at A Bugs Land, and did the 3d show they got there. The theater is really well done, it looks as if its underground. The show was very short but it's unusually scary for a kids show. Laura ducked when Hopper unleased his bug army. We all got stung my hornets. Lots of fun. Neal then proceeded to steal "bug eyes" from the show. Hooligan. We wandered around the newly redone A Bugs Land after the show just to take in the themeing. I really liked the benches that are made with popcicle sticks.

Hollywood had indeed reopened, so we went back and actually got to watch the muppet show. It was a lot of laughs. After that, we rode GRR. Neal and Kristin got soaked. Lunch followed at the Taste Pilot's Grill in condor flats. My burger was pretty good. I ate with Laura, as Neal and Kristin decided to wander off to who knows where. They came back with shoestring fries from Award Weiners in hollywood, since criss cut fries aren't good enough for neal. After that, in an order I've since forgotten, we rode the sun wheel, saw Aladdin on stage, did Who Wants To Be a Millionaire Play It, and rode screamin' several more times. My anaylsis of the sun wheel "yep...I've dealt with this before...car...definately rocking...". Aladdin was very funny, and I think it was better than everyone else who I was with thought it was going to be. Screamin' eventually gave me a headache and I couldn't ride that anymore. Somewhere in there, Laura and I rode Grizzly two more times nad got drenched, while Neal and Kristin rode screamin' even more. The line for that coaster was moving very quickly that day.

Eventually we made our way back to Hollywood, and into the animation building. In the sorcerors workshop section, whe took character tests. I turned out to be Tarzan, Laura was Lumier (but answered many questions inaccurately), Neal was Jimminy Cricket, and Kristin was very appropriately Malificent. We also put our voice in disney cartoon scenes. Laura and I redid a scene from lion king, and she kinda rewrote the script a bit. Hilarious results. We were in there for proly around 45 minutes to an hour, and then I went back to Tower of Terror to buy sovenirs. I got a picture and a tshirt, and Laura got a postcard. WE wandered around Hollywood at night some more, took some pictures, and then lined up for the electrical parade. It's always nice to see that parade. Brings backs lots of memories. The end of the day came not long after that. WE left hte park, wandered Downtown Disney some more, caught part of the disneyland fireworks, then eventuall left. Stopped at the magical 7-11 next to disneyland on the way back, and then headed home, although we did take a slight detour on the way home to the beach.

The rest of the week was another week gone by. I'd like to write about it more, and about today, but I'm tired of writing, and tired in general. You're probably tired of reading. So I'll write about that all later. Goodnight.