The Long Overdue Adam's 23rd Birthday Post

Yes, this post is two months late, but at least you're finally getting to see it.. right?! On November 15th, myself (Adam) and five of my closest friends spent the smokey Orange County day at Disneyland to celebrate my 23rd birthday. That morning, fires flared up in Yorba Linda and Anaheim Hills, casting an orange glow and smokey skies over Disneyland for nearly the entire day. For a Saturday, the park seemed more empty than normal, probably due to smart people wanting to stay out of the smoke. Too bad we aren't smart enough for that, or maybe, just maybe, we love Disneyland too much for a little smoke to stop us! We spent the early part of the day at California Adventure, before heading to Disneyland, then ESPNzone for dinner, and back to Disneyland to close out the celebration. Of course, we have pictures to document parts of the day. What would this update be without pictures???


(Truthfully I felt that if we were going to burn to death in a fire, no better place for it to happen than Disneyland. Am I right? -Ruben)











(My superior and yet to be beaten by my friends high score on TSMM which was achieved that day- Ruben)

10/22 Update

To all of those out there in Disneyland-land, it's been a while. But we are back, and better than ever. On October 22, Ruben and I went to Mickey's Trick-or-Treat Party, and to say we had a blast would be putting it lightly. Our goal for the night was to get character pictures, since there were numerous designated areas to do so. We only got on one ride, Toy Story Midway Mania, and I lost but got my highest score ever and finally got that damn black cat as my prize! There's not much else to write about, so I will leave you with our pictures from the night. We will be back with posts in the coming weeks, as we will be at the parks on Saturday for my birthday party, and again on the 25th for my official birthday day!

(I was an Aquabat, even though I forgot my power belt :( and Adam was druggie version of Adam- Ruben)

10/12

So yesterday I (Ruben) went to the parks Sans Adam, he was caught up with The Pats and Avs games to which now he must avenge them like Simba avenged his fathers death. Being a weekend the parks were a little too crowded for my liking. But I still got on the rides that mattered. A tip for those going to the NBC Haunted Mansion- Get in line during the fireworks. We did this last night and the wait was only 30 minutes, way better than the 60+ the rest of the day. Being that I did not grab my camera when leaving yesterday all I have are some lovely cameraphone pictures, I came so close to my high score on TSMM yesterday- still something for Adam to try and top.


Also being thats its Halloween time they had some decorations up my favorite being this



Cheshire Cat pumpkin. How rad.

They had some Day Of The Dead things up nearby Big Thunder Mountain, I thought that they were pretty rad.

9/20 Update.

Weren't we just here a few days ago? Adam and I hit up the parks again for a little while today as we were heading off to see H2O and Rancid (I don't really even like Rancid) at the House Of Blue at Downtown Disney.
The Parks were easily the most crowded I had seen them all summer, which is kinda weird since technically summer is over. Our first destination was going to be the Princess Fair because I personally wanted some pictures with some princesses. We took the Railroad around to Toontown where I noticed the line for Rodger Rabbit was insanely long, and unfortunately we realized the line for the Princess Fair was also insanely long. Since we had other plans we made our way back to the entrance of Disneyland and over to California Adventure.
While there we rode Heimlich's Train, which... just has some of the funniest Dialogue I have heard, then we went off to get a good spot for the ever so amazing Pixar's Play Parade. Which if you haven't seen is easily one of the most fun parades with a catchy song to it. My good friend Mychal (who can be seen in the picture of us with Sorcerer Mickey in the previous post) is a green army man in the parade which is why we finally saw it the other day.
After the parade we met up with another one of my good friends Lindsey and we got on California Screamin'- which we don't do enough, as well as the Tower of Terror.
I'm pretty sure I creeped out some lady on Tower, but thats half the fun.

Here are some pictures below, Adam will add the ones from the rides when he gets home later.

9/17 Update.

Ruben and I went to the parks from 2pm-8pm on Wednesday. Total ride counts for the year have been updated, bringing us to a grand total of 165 for the year. Here are some pictures from the trip:







(Ruben's Note: That's right. I finally beat Adam on TSMM)

6/17/2008- Toy Story Midway Mania!

Today Adam and I ventured out to the parks for the opening of Toy Story Midway Mania. California Adventure was probably the busiest I have ever seen it with the wait time for Grizzly Rapids at 80 minutes. We did not arrive at the park until close to 5:00 because of other things that we had to do today (Adam got a hair cut for the first time in forever). We thought ahead from the heat and purchased bottles of water before beginning our wait for TSMM.


We began our wait through the sun and the heat. The start of the long line is right alongside the water side of the pier which provided us the constant launch noise of California Screaming, which gets pretty annoying fast. As the line stretches on they hold up the sidewalk to get groups past and from there we had to zig and zag through the lovely lines until we got to the first indoor portion of the line. Inside here were posters for some of the games we were about to play, but to easily make one forget about that was the heat. The room does not do well with the summer and body heat, while there are fans inside the room they do nothing, except probably make it hotter. Added to it all the screaming and crying kids who definitely did not want to be standing in that line for 5 more minutes let alone another 30+


The heat enjoyed making my hair wavy. Also Disney asks that you wear your 3-D Glasses over your sunglasses to make the game that much more fun.

The Ride itself is everything I hoped it would be and more. Though it was only the first time I rode it the guns are fairly easy to use. My only mistake was that I was not letting the string that you use to fire the gun return all the way before attempting to fire again- or I was not pushing it back in enough. Once you get the hang of aiming and firing the weapon its a blast to play the different games throughout the ride, be careful though because some targets may do some various things that catch you off guard.


Obviously Adam having already been on the ride and knowing what to expect beat me though I feel that I did pretty good.

This was in the exit its the ride in actual size.

Afterwards we were going to go to ESPN Zone for dinner and to watch the game- but we were informed there would be no free tables till after the game. When we left we noticed the large crowd sitting outside just watching the game on the tv.


We ended up leaving the overcrowded parks to have dinner and watch the game at Red Robin where Adam and I laughed.


Hopefully we will take a trip soon with our pal Yoda to continue on our Disneyland quest.

Toy Story Midway Mania

About a month ago, I entered my name into the Annual Passholder lottery for a sneak preview on the new Toy Story Midway Mania ride, opening at DCA on June 17th. For last year's similar contest for the Finding Nemo Submarine Voyage, myself and four people I know entered and none of us won, so needless to say, I didn't have very high hopes for this year's lottery. However, on the morning of June 2nd, I was more than delighted to see an email proclaiming I had won a sneak preview on the ride, on June 10th between 10am and 3pm. I think describing myself as incredibly ecstatic would be a bit of an understatement. I did my best to keep my excitement to myself and not brag to my friends TOO much in the week between the email and my date to ride, as I was only allowed to bring a fellow passholder with me to ride, and unfortuantely, my fellow passholder friends all had prior engagements for the special day. But would that stop me from fulfilling my destiny as one of the first to ride this spectacular ride?! I DON'T THINK SO!

I got to the parks around 1:15 and went straight to the booth in Downtown Disney to be awarded my pass to preview the ride. From there, it was off to the pier to make my dream a reality. At the front of the line, a couple CM's were stationed to make sure that you had a pass for the preview, as well as an annual pass for each member of your group. The line and theming are very impressive, except for the fact that a decent portion of the line is uncovered from the sun, which will not be fun for the long lines expected this summer. The first covered room of the queue features a number of posters, previewing the various games that you get to play on the ride (a picture of my favorite poster is included later in this post). Upon getting in line and eavesdropping on other people's conversations, I learned that CM's were allowing people to re-ride as much as they wanted, as long as the line stayed relatively short. Luckily for me, it did, and I got to ride not one, not two, not three, not four, but FIVE times in a row, waiting only about 10 minutes each time. By my last trip, the CM's started joking around with me about going on so many times in a row, but really, how could I resist?!

The ride itself is absolutely incredible. I had a pretty good idea of what the actual games were going to be like, but really didn't know what to expect for the surrounding areas and the actual movement of the cars between games. The attention to detail is stunning of the sets is stunning for a Toy Story fanatic like myself, and I especially enjoyed seeing the blue wallpaper with white clouds on it, just like in Andy's room in the movies. As much as I want to, I don't feel I should give anything else away, but just know that you will all be extremely impressed once the ride opens to the public next week.

Here are some pictures from the queue, ride, and my final score screen on four of my five rides (my fourth ride's score didn't show up on my screen unfortunately).

My special pass!

My favorite poster from the queue.

The beginning of the ride!

My first score.

My second score.

My third score.

My final, and best score!


[For the record- I hate the fact that Adam was able to ride it while I was stuck at work. He was sending me text messages that made me wish I was able to get that day off -Ruben]

5/13/08

On May Thirteenth, in the year Two Thousand and Eight, two young men and a Jedi master set out to do the impossible.. to experience every ride, show, and restaurant that Disneyland has to offer, 80 in all. On this first day of their incredible journey, 15 of the 80 were conquered. Here are the pictures as proof, plus a few others just for fun:

Yoda on the Tram from the Mickey and Friends parking structure.

Yoda on Monsters Inc.

Yoda with the future Jedi, Wall-E.

Yoda on the Horse-Drawn Streetcar.

To infinity.. AND BEYOND!

Yoda on the Disneyland Railroad, Tomorrowland Station.

The gang taking a break with Goofy in Toontown.

Yoda at Minnie's House.

Princess Adam in Minnie's House.

The obligatory mirror shot in Minnie's House.

Yoda on Gadget's Go-Coaster.

Adam <3's Gadget.

Yoda at Chip 'n Dale's House.

Yoda at Donald's Boat.

Yoda at Goofy's House.

Yoda on Roger Rabbit's Car-Toon Spin.

Yoda on Big Thunder Mountain.

Yoda on the Mark Twain.

Yoda on Jungle Cruise.

The gang on Astro Blasters.


It will be a long and strenuous journey for the three comrades, but please do not give up on them because they will not give up on what they have set out to accomplish. This is only the beginning..