Game of Who!!!

On our way home from Wondercon I was to drop off Chris at Dallas and Jes' place as they were going to drive him to the airport in the early AM the next morning.

We decided to get some dinner and watch the latest Doctor Who as it returned last night with brand new episodes. This was the return of new companion Clara who has been in the previous episodes but has died both times. In this episode the Doctor finds Clara in present day London and fights an enemy via the city's "Wi-Fi soup".

Overall I enjoyed the episode. I really like the new companion and was sad to see her die twice. I was hoping they were going to use a companion who wasn't from modern day but atlas they killed her off in the last Christmas episode and we now have the Clara of today. The story was cool but seemed to just happen very quickly and then just as quickly be resolved. I did like the interaction between the Doctor and Clara. I think they have great chemistry way back to the beginning of the seasons Asylum of the Daleks and the two actors never had screen time together. I am looking forward to finding out why The Doctor keeps running into different incarnations of this same girl. Why is she so special.  So a good episode but not an "OMG that was the best" kind of episode. I look forward to next weeks episode and the remainder of this season.

After Who we got to talking about Game of Thrones. I have yet to see this series as I don't have HBO and can't use HBO Go since my internet is so horrible. Jes mentioned that we should watch the first episode and since Chris had not seen it either we thought it was a good idea. I was super excited as I've been trying to find someone with the DVD's so I could watch seasons 1 & 2 (I actually did find someone, Greg Aronowitz and he is going to allow me to borrow them.. I can't wait.) Anyways we watched the first episode. Now I've read the first 2/3'ds of the first book, so I kind of knew what was going on. I think it looks great and it's beautifully shot but it's slow.  Now that doesn't mean I didn't like it. I actually enjoyed it and I can't wait to watch the rest of season 1 and then 2. I had a hard time with the book because I was told it was a fantasy world and though it has those elements it's really more about political intrigue and that didn't interest me at the time. As well as all the underage rape scenes and incests... it just didn't sit well with me. But with the TV series that actually aged the girls up a bit so it's not so bad, though the incest is still there. I look forward to continuing to watch Game of Thrones.

After Game of Thrones Dallas and I worked on my D&D character. We will be starting a game at the end of April, which I am looking forward to. I haven't played D&D since fifth grade and for me that was over 30 years ago. So I rolled some dice and picked some spells. We weren't able to finish everything but I got a start of building my Halfling Wizard. You can be sure I'll be blogging more about D&D when the time comes.

I ended my night be saying goodbye to Jes and Dallas and then saying goodbye to my BFF Chris. It's always hard saying goodbye to him because I know I won't be seeing him for a few months (SDCC, or maybe sooner) but this time it was a bit harder and I really don't know why. My heart actually ached this time around. I felt it in the pit of my chest. I guess it could be because we only got to spend a few days together unlike past hang outs when I got to live with him for a few weeks or SDCC when we get to hang out for a good five to six days. I guess just over two days is just not enough Chris time for me. Anyways I said my goodbye and headed home, thus ended my 2013 Wondercon experience.

Wondercon Day 3 - Sunday

I woke up today around 8am and debated on weather I was going to cos-play or not today. My initial plan was to cos-play both Saturday and Sunday. But with all my issues with my ears and hair I didn't feel like doing that all over again. Also we had to check out of the hotel by 10am and we were going out to breakfast. Now I don't mind being out in public as a Hobbit, I actually quite like it, but I also needed to buy some things which makes it harder when your in costume.

So I went back and fourth for a good half hour. I really love cos-playing and other then hanging out with friends that is the main reason I am here at Wondercon. Robert said I shouldn't, Aaron was indifferent and Chris said I shouldn't but then a few moments later when I did decided that I as not going to cos-play he made me feel guilty for not cos-playing.. yeah that's what Chris does. :)

I was bummed that I didn't cos-play but in the end I think it was for the best. We packed up everything and took it to our cars and then checked out of the Hotel.. just like checking in, checking out was a piece of cake. Afterwards we walked over to iHop for some much needed breakfast.

The con was to open at 11am so we made our way over there just after 11. We hooked up with Brett and Daniella once again and started to do some shopping. I wanted to get some "Pop" bobble head Star Wars figures. Jes bought me a set a few years ago for my birthday and since then I've purchased the continuing series of figures. They also had some Hobbit one and I couldn't pass those up. We then went over to the artist alley as you can find some great pictures from local artists. This was a big mistake for my wallet as I spent way to much money but I did find some fantastic prints. I think my favorites are some gender bending X-men characters. Rogue and Phoenix as hot guys, Supergirl as a guy (not Superman) and a few others. I could defiantly do some damage at this table. The artist is Joe Phillips http://www.joephillips.com/ He has a sexy take on some classic super heroes. Check it out...

Once again several friends joined our group and left our group though out the day. Robert left mid day as he wasn't feeling great and his friend Daniella soon followed. We ran into Scott, Red 5, Keri, Marissa and Greg Aronowitz and chatted for a bit. Soon our party was down to Chris, Aaron, Rupert, Brett, Luis and I.  We decided to go over to the gaming area and play a game of Ticket to Ride. Brett had to leave us before the game was over but in the end Chris beat Luis by 2 cars to take the game... it was a ton of fun.

We had about and hour or so left before the con closed. We wandered around another half hour before Chris and I called it a day.

Over all Wondercon 2013 was exactly what I was hoping it would be. A place for me to cos-play and get my Hobbit on as well as having a fun time hanging with friends and enjoying the geeky/nerdy atmosphere. San Diego Comic Con is coming up next and I can't wait.. 

You can see more con pictures HERE  

Happy Easter

Happy Easter to all if you celebrate it. If not, have a wonderful Sunday. I am looking forward to Nobel Garden, I am trying to finally get my what a long, strange trip it's been achievement. Wish me luck! Hope everyone is doing well and enjoying time with family and friends. This is what makes life worth it, and if you can spend some time with your Azerothian friends all the better :)

Peace and Love
Jay

Sichuan 川妹子 Chinese Restaurant - North Greenwich

Heheh. Last night was a fun night! :D I haven't had this much fun for a long time!

Yesterday evening we were celebrating 3 people's birthdays (including mine, and it was also Mr Flirt's birthday this month). It was all organised by my friend Miss Money who I met up with in December. This meant I had to miss out on the new episode of Dr Who (which I caught up with this afternoon :D).

So, why did I we go to this place? Well, they have some karaoke rooms we could hire. I had told a few of my friends we were going there, and they said this is so typical of Chinese people going out to sing in a karaoke place... Is it? ¬_¬" I don't seem to go a lot, but my friends do, and it was my second time going to this restaurant Sichuan 川妹子 (Mando: chuan mei zi).

Outside the restaurant

I was the first one there! (I always seem to be the first one during these type of typical meet ups... Not complaining). The place wasn't full, but there were some people there already dining...

The room we were in

Miss Money's friends came next and they speak very fast Mandarin. I couldn't catch up with them. XD Then we ended up with a room that was half filled with Chinese and the other half was European!! A definite mixed group...
We then ordered food next! I couldn't take as many pictures as I would've liked as everyone just dug into the food. :(

Pig's intestines anyone? I liked it!

Some very spicy food... don't even know what it was!!

The one on the silver tiny wok is Frog's Legs... Someone finished it. But not many of us touched it... The Squid dish at the back was a bit salty for my liking

This was only some of the dishes! We had loads...

Majority of the food that was ordered (about 75%) was all spicy. Not spicy, spicy like it would burn my tongue but I think Sichuan food is supposed to be 4++ chillies. I didn't chew on any chillies which would've made me cry. T_T

Can anyone guess which song this is?

How did we get onto singing Oppa Gangnham Style?

We moved onto the karaoke after eating. And majority of the songs we sang were in English. I got given the mike a few times (a lot of times actually) because I knew some of the songs... and the others didn't. I had to sing N'Sync's Bye Bye Bye by myself because Miss Money was out the room, and she chose that song to sing!!!!!! Where were you Miss Money...?

Yummy birthday cake!! ^_^ Thanks Miss Money!!!! 

She was getting the cake!! Hahahahah. There were 13 of us. So one of the guy's (Miss Money's friend of a friend... it was also his birthday) kindly cut up the cake into 16 pieces! :D ... I got to eat the big strawberry by the way because Mr Flirt didn't want it. :D

We all sang Happy Birthday in Mandarin, Italian, Cantonese, French, Polish and English!! ^_^ Wow.

Then there was more singing in the end! I enjoyed my evening but it ended up with some damaged vocal cords ¬_¬"" which had to be soothed by a ginger tea this morning! Hah!

Any guesses at which song this is?

Moving onto the Chinese songs...

Ok, you must know this song!

Uh... Spanish song???

Total cost came to over £200 (Miss Money and friends were examining the receipt very closely) and in the end we paid £18 each as there's a small discount if you pay in cash. The room itself costs £190 to hire! So the more  people there are the merrier. It was the second biggest room that they had by the way and apparently the bigger room is big!

The restaurant was closing...

My geeky rating: 5/5 (just because I got to sing a lot)

Good points:

- Spicy spicy food (spicy enough to handle!)

- An ok selection / mixture of songs available (come on, they even had Oppa Gangnham Style!) - pretty much up-to-date with the Korean songs!!

- Good price for the amount of people who were there last night

- Not far from North Greenwich Tube Station
- Good service (they speak Cantonese, Mandarin and English)

Bad points:

- Room was not completely sound proof as we could hear next door's music ¬,¬"

- I can't actually think of anything else!

Address: Millenium Leisure Park, Bugsby Way, Greenwich, London SE10 0QJ

If you are going there by bus from the station, the stop is Odeon Cinema.

Website: http://www.chuanmeizi.foodkingdom.com/SupplierWebSite/21/Default.aspx

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Wondercon Day 2 - Saturday

Day 2 of Wondercon starts.. up at 8am, showered and attempting to put on my halflings ears. My friend Chris offered to help me out. Now I've put on these ears many times the past two years and you'd think it would be easier every time but it's not. Once again we struggled to get them on just right and make the as seamless as possible. We did do it in the end but it was tough.

The next battle was the wig. My wigs have always been my trouble spot, I have never really been happy with the way they look. Last year I spent about $150 on a nicer wig and it seemed to work okay, but still wasn't exactly what I was hoping for. Today was the same, I struggled and struggled with it until finally I said screw it and admitted defeat. I had been working on it for an hour and it wasn't getting any better and I was holding up my friends who were kind enough to be waiting for me. Chris wanted to order room service for Breakfast. It was a good idea as we were all hungry and with my issues with my cos-play going out to breakfast would have delayed us even more. I don't order room service very often as it's rather expensive but Chris offered to pay so we gave it a go and it was extremely tasty. The food was hot and very yummy. Chris made a good call with that.

I finished getting ready and we headed down the to con around 10:30am. It was Chris, Robert, Aaron and I. We were soon joined by Brett. We walked around the con checking out booths and such. I would get requests for photos here and there but no where near as many as I did at SDCC.

We were joined by friends as the day went on. Dallas, Rupert, Daniella, Steve, Luis, Scott, Matt, Jennifer, Leslie, Brian K, Brian F, Anne, and Nicki. Some would stay with us for a while, some just a few moments.

There were lots of cool cos player, I actually did see another Hobbit as well as a Gandalf.

The con has become a mini San Diego Comic Con, this is only the second year it's been down here in LA, it's normally in SF but it sold out this year and if you wanted to get in panels last year you just walked right in.. this year you had to get there a few hours early to get a seat.

I decided to not do any panels this year. Today was all about cos-playing. I was the only one cos-playing from our group (well Chris was cos-play but it looked like regular street clothes). We spent all day going from one end of the con to the other and back again.

Around 7pm the con closed and we headed back up to the room so I could change. We were heading out to a local buffet place to have a little celebration dinner for Chris. We expected about 20 or so friends to join us. It was a bit crazy at the beginning but soon enough we had the entire back half corner of the restaurant to ourselves.

The food is what you would expected from a $10 family buffet restaurant but the company was the best. Joining us from the con we had Nicki, Anne, Scott, Dallas, Brett, Rupert, Aaron, Luis, Brian K, Brian F, Leslie, Robert, Jennifer, Matt, Daniella, and Steve. Those who just came in for dinner were Josh, Troy, Anthony and Michele. It was a good time. I know Chris was really happy to see everyone and that's all that really matters to me. That was the whole point of having this dinner. It wasn't about the food, it was about seeing my best friend happy.. so mission accomplished.

Afterwards some folks went back to our hotel for an after party. I was not one of them. My feet were killing me and I needed to rest. Most of our after parties are pretty crazy and I just wasn't in the mood for crazy. So Robert and I headed back up to the hotel to go to sleep while Aaron and Chris went to the after party.

All in all it was another fun day at Wondercon. Tomorrow is the last day of con. I'm still debating on weather or not I'll be dressing up.. guess I'll decided tomorrow when I get up... stay tuned.

You can see more con pictures HERE 

Wondercon Day 1 - Friday

So I was up around 8am, showered and started to pack. I was hoping to get everything in one suitcase but my Hobbit clothes are so bulky (the cloak takes up most of one suitcase alone) that I had to pack everything in two suitcases. So even though I was only staying a few nights in a hotel it looked like I would be there for a few weeks.

I left my place around 9:30am, traffic was hit and miss, took me about two hours to get to Anaheim and the convention center. I was staying at the Hilton which is literally right next to the convention center so I found the self parking for the hotel and parked. I couldn't check into the hotel until 4pm. So I just grabbed my backpack and headed over to the con.

 I made my way to room E where I was to pick up my badge. As expected it was a mad house. There were people everywhere. As I made my way into room E I went to  the left side of the room for the professional badges. They had four lines, A - F, G - L, M - S, T - Z ( or something similar). The lines were super long but when I got midway down the line my friend Jarad called out my name so I joyed him. It was very confusing at first as there were four lines at the front but some how only three towards the end. Jarad and I looked around and he said to me.. I think you're suppose to be in that line.. with the guy with orange backpack. And sure enough my M - S line (which is normally the longest) was the shortest with only 10 or so people. I immediately walked passed everyone and got in that line and with in 10 minutes I had my badges for Wondercon. My buddy Jarad took almost an hour to get his badges... I got lucky.
 
After obtaining my badge I had to get into this crazy long line that went up an escalator, out the side door, wrapped around the back of the con and then folded in on itself two times before going back into the building and into the main hall. It looked pretty crazy but it actually didn't take too long to get inside.

I had gotten to the con around 11:30am and was finally actually in the main hall by 12:30pm. So all in all it wasn't that bad.

First thing I did was hook up with my buddy Brett, who got in about a half hour earlier. We walked the vendors room from beginning to end. Ran into a few friends, including Andrew, Brian K, Brian F, Jennifer, and Felicia Day.

Around 3:30 he and I headed back to my hotel to check in. I went to the parking structure and got my bags and then checked it. It was pretty painless and really quick. Brett and I went up to my room, dropped off my stuff and rested for a few minutes.

When then headed back down to the main convention hall and we ran into my friends America Young and Andrew Seely. They were with several of their friends. We joined them and took them over to the gaming area. We sat with them and chatted for about an hour or so when another friend of mine Amy Radcliffe joined us. It was so much fun seeing all these friends. Amy and I caught up for bit before Brett and I parted ways with the group and headed out to find my buddy Robert who had just arrived. We found Robert and continued to walk around the floor for a bit.

My buddy Chris was arriving from Montana tonight at 9:15pm, I got a text from him informing me that he caught an earlier flight, so he was now getting in around 8pm but his baggage was still on his original flight and wouldn't be in until 9:15pm.

He was flying into Santa Ana airport which is about 30 minutes away from the con so we (Robert, Brett and I) left around 7:15pm for the airport. Got there around 7:45pm and parked (that was an adventure all into itself). We waited for his plane to land and shortly after he was walking up to us. It was awesome seeing him. I haven't seen him since my visit to Montana last December. So it's been about three months and I miss him so much.

Of course we still had an hour to wait for his luggage so we went to a local El Torito for some dinner. It was a fun dinner, service was kind of slow and everyone was starving but the company was fantastic. We got back to the airport around 9:30pm, picked up his bag and then headed back to the hotel/con. When we got there we said our goodbyes to Brett and our hellos Aaron, Rachelle, Anne, Nicki, Brian K, Brian F, Rachel, Jen and Kim who were all there to welcome Chris to the con. We got some drinks down in the hotel bar and found a place to sit and chat.

Around 12:30am I called it a night since I had to be up early in the morning to Hobbit-fy myself. Shortly after Robert, then Chris and Aaron showed up. The four of us were sharing a hotel room. We got into our Pj's and went to bed.

Overall day one of Wondercon was a blast. I got to hang with good friends, see the return of my best friend, and be surround by a ton of nerds and geeks.. it doesn't get much better then that. Tomorrow it's HOBBIT TIME!!!!

You can see more con pictures HERE

Marks and Spencer Easter Bunnies / Egg

Last Easter chocolate post for 2013! ^_^ But I'm sure there'll be more chocolate to review in the future!

So WOW. I think Marks and Spencer have joined in the Easter chocolate fun / war! Are these new? Probably not but I've never seen these before, or I may have overlooked them in the past... So I bought all three different flavours that were just sitting there and waiting for me to try them out. :D 

Bubbly Chocolate Bunny. There's a small review out there from 2010, so I believe this is not new, but the packaging is new. This tastes a bit like cheap chocolate put together. The bubbly inside tastes ok. But it is hard for your teeth. So if you have dentures (false teeth) be aware!! This doesn't melt easily in the mouth like Wispa or Aero do.

Mint chocolate makers could learn from this egg. This Bubbly Mint Truffle Egg is gorgeous. It has some real mintiness to it! There is definitely chocolate in there. But very hard on the outside (can you see my teeth marks?). However, this does not disappoint mint chocolate fans! I like it!

Honeycomb Truffle Crunch Bunny did not disappoint either. I couldn't taste the cheap chocolaty taste. I am really impressed by the honeycomb bits and soft truffle inside. Although not entirely filled with honeycomb, you can at least taste it. The truffle part was also very good! Chocolate on the outside was soft and tasty.

They all taste good, well except for the Bubbly Chocolate Bunny.

They were at a good reasonable price too! 55p!! Impressed with M&S!

Happy Easter!!! ^_^

Dune

A very flawed movie I've always had a soft spot for is David Lynch's Dune and a while back I picked it up on Blu-ray.

Visually it's an improvement on the previous DVD releases but that's kind of a mixed blessing, I've always thought some of the visual effects in Dune were substandard even when the film was first released but now on Blu-ray you can really see just how bad or should I say dated they are.

Dune on Blu-ray isn't a must own title for most people but I'm glad I have it, I wonder if it's too much to hope that the extended version might one day get a Blu-ray release as well.

It's a Hobbit Kind of Day

This morning I edited another episode of my MASH 4077 podcast. We have recorded about seven episodes already and for once I'm trying to get ahead of the game. Normally I wanted a few days before a podcast is due to be released (which is stupid). Since I have the time off I'm really trying to do better and get as many as we have recorded done.. it will make my life easier in the long run. So today I edited and finished the podcast that won't be out until April 15th. 

I got The Hobbit blu-ray yesterday, I won a Oscar poll on a scifi forum that I frequent. So today I watched the extras with my roommate Michele. There is over 2 hours of awesome behind the scenes extra.. only issue I had is that they were the 10 production blogs that they released over the past year on the internet. Plus side is that the stuff is so incredible cool I didn't mind watching it all again. But that was all that was part of the special features. I'm sure they are saving the new stuff for the extended version of the movie blu ray release that will be coming out soon. And yes I'll be buying that as well.

After Michele and I watched the extras we popped in the movie. Now I have a screener of the movie so I've seen it four or five times but it's still not the same seeing in beautiful HD.  While the movie was playing Michele helped me out with my Hobbit wig and curled it for me. She previously did this a few days ago but now she was putting the final touches on it while I wore it. (Warning to future roommates, you will be required to help with my crazy cos-play ideas ). I really appreciate her help.

Speaking of Hobbit I got an additional accessory for my Hobbit outfit. I already have a "one" ring, but since I don't like gold it's actually black titanium with the words in silver. Well that doesn't quest match the movie so I purchased a gold version that looks more like the ring from the movie. I also purchased a silver chain to hang the ring from.. also like the movie. I got the ring a few days ago and today I go the chain. Looks great and I think it's a cool addition to my co-splay.

My Favorite WoW Things

Happy Thursday All!

     Life has been crazy and I haven't been able to write as much as I would like. That is just how things are sometimes. As I was reading over my previous posts I came to a realization. Most of them are a little soap boxy, and while I think I have valid points in them I wanted to share my more fun and quirky side this time. I am far less serious than I have let on. So onto the list: My Favorite WoW Things!!

1. That moment when you complete an epic quest chain and you have helped to accomplish some insanely difficult task. One of the best moments ever! Makes me feel awesome and I have to tell EVERYONE!! 
2. Similarly, killing rares with my friends. Gathering up, taking on this huge boss together and burning it down and looting it! 
3. Did I mention loot? Loot is awesome... even if it is mostly 28 gold.
4. Mounts, I recently have discovered I do love collecting mounts, working on my 100 mounts achievement. 14 more to go I think... Once I get it I will be soooooo excited. Then I'll have to start plugging away at the new 200 achieve.
5. It hasn't happened yet, but it's coming and I don't think we know how to get it yet but I am so excited for the Faerie Dragon Mount. OMG!! looks sooo amazing and I want I want I want!! 
6. My friends!! All the amazing people I have met through WoW. We laugh, we cry, we make fart jokes and that's awesome :-).
7. WoW Monopoly, because it's Monopoly and it's WoW. Enough said!
8. The WoW Twitter community, I had no idea it was out there until I found it. They are great supportive people and I am so happy I did. I have learned so much more about WoW and it's impact on people than I knew was possible. 
9. WoW Podcasts, they keep me occupied at work and up to date on the latest news. Makes my work week fly by.
10. WoW is family time. I play with my husband, and now his mom plays too.  Gives us a common hobby and I can't help but smile when my youngest asks me: "Mom are you playing Heals is a Panda?" (My priest is named Healette and I race changed her to a panda when mists came out). I think its freaking adorable, and my kids love dragons too! :-).

I could go on and on about all the things I love about WoW and the community that surrounds it, but I'll stop here... for now. Feel free to share with me what your favorite WoW things are in the comments below or follow me on Twitter @Jaygurrl

Peace and Love

Jay

Gaming Overload??

Today I played some LOTRO, but to be honest I was kind of bored with it. It's not the actual game I'm bored with.. the problem is I'm playing four different characters. Each one at a different level. My Hobbit is my main character that I play with Chris but when he's not around I play with my Human, Dwarf and Elf alt characters. Well Chris has been extremely busy with work and hasn't really played since mid February so I've been playing my alt characters alot and all three are close in level so the quests that I do are all the same. So I do one quest with my human, then a day or so later I'm doing that same quest with my Dwarf and then a day later I'm doing the same quest for a third time with my Elf... it gets kind of monotonous.

I'm thinking I should just play one alt character so it doesn't feel repetitive. I mean I'm playing the same quests with my Hobbit but that's part of a fellowship and that really gives it an entirely different feel. Now my only problem is which alt character do I continue with. I love my human female Kiwyn, she's strong and pretty powerful, she also has a companion so she has someone to fight along her side.. it's almost like being in a fellowship and playing with another person., My Dwarf Arikk is pretty bad ass and is actually stronger then my human female. He's the closest thing to being like my Hobbit, who I just adore. My Elf is probably my least favorite even though he's a magic user. He's more of supporting character and is the weakest of all my characters. Anyways I hope Chris is able to play soon, as I not only missing my Hobbit Drialdo I miss the companionship of my best friend.

Speaking of Chris he did have some free time tonight so we wrote some more of our new webseries. While I was finishing up the first draft of episode 105, Chris was starting to write episode 106. What's great is Chris and I have gone over the outlines for the first six episodes so it makes it a bit easier when we write for all we are really doing is writing the dialogue. But by the end of the night we officially have episodes 101 - 105 first drafts written and in the can... woohoo

Being Human series 3

I really enjoyed the first two series of Being Human when I watched them so I was looking forward to seeing the final series featuring all of the original cast but honestly I thought the first few episodes were kind of weak.

Things did improve once a previous villain returned to the show and it felt more like the series I had enjoyed before, well until I got to the series final episode, it was pretty obvious what was going to happen but everything was too drawn out and well to be frank boring.

Series 3 had some good episodes but it also had more than a few duds, I have the series 4 Blu-rays but I'm not sure I'm in much of a hurry to see them, I know some of the cast wanted to move on to other things and cast changes nearly always hurt a show but this series was just dull for about half of it's 8 episode run.

Hopefully things will pick up in series 4, I also have season 1 of the US version of Being Human, once I've had the time to watch it I think it will be interesting to compare the two.

Blood: The Last Vampire

I had been interested in seeing the live action version of Blood: The Last Vampire for a while now, it started out well but it wasn't long before it all went horribly wrong.

My advice, avoid this stinker and re-watch the anime instead.

Disneyland III

Today I went to Disneyland for the third time this year. This time I went with my buddy Brett. I got there around 10am and from the moment I pulled up to the parking structure I knew it was going to be a busy day. There were lines of cars outside the structure. In the past few years when I have gone to Disneyland there has never been cars this far out.

Surprisingly it didn't take that long to park. I was on the fifth level, I've parked on the sixth (top) level many times. I got to and on the tram fairly easy and was soon walking up to Brett who was waiting for me out front. Once again the lines to get through security were longer then I've ever seen, but as with parking they didn't take too long to get through.

Once inside Brett and I decided to go to Disney California Adventures first as we figured it would be

less crowded and then we'd go over to Disneyland later in the day assuming folks with kids would go home by then.

Yeah we were wrong. I have never seen DCA so crowded. Now this is great for DCA as it's struggled to find people but with the new Carsland it's really become quite a popular place. Every ride was an hour to two hour wait. Some like the Radiator Springs Racers were 3 1/2 hours wait.

Since both Brett and I are season pass holder we decided that we were not going to wait in the very long lines. we were going to just enjoy each others company and walk around and enjoy the parks. But the first ride we actually got on was The Little Mermaid ride as the wait was only 10 minutes. Afterwards we headed over to Goofy's Sky School, the wait was over an hour. Brett was so surprised by these wait time but for this ride I was not surprised as it's always busy and very popular. I convinced him to get a fast pass for this one. So we got our fast pass and then went next door to get a corn dog (kind of a tradition). We then walked around to the Mickey's Fun Wheel. As we were walking by Brett said he's only been in the stationary cars but never on the swinging ones.. so of course we had to get in line. The wait time said 60 minutes but it actually took us about 45 minutes to get on. It was a lot of fun.

Next we went over to Screaming and once again the line was incredibly long, I've never seen it this long before so we opted to skip it. At this time we were able to use our fast pass on Goofy's Sky School. So we made our way back over there and rode that ride. Brett hadn't been on it since it was re-label Goofy's Sky School.. it's actually one of my favorite rides at DCA.

We then went to Tower of Terror, which was a 70 minute wait so we grabbed a fast pass but it was good for 8:25pm... that was six hours away.

We opted to leave DCA and head over to Disneyland. Now we thought DCA was bad.. Disneyland was even worse. Our first stop was Star Tours... the wait was an hour but this was one ride we though was worth it. It actually took us about and an hour to get on the ride, but was well worth it as I got two of my favorite worlds.

Afterward we went and grabbed some spaghetti at the pizza place. We then kind of just walked around. We checked out the new section of Fantasy land, which was pretty cool. I can't wait to see the new Beauty and the Beast show. I was looking for a soft serve ice cream place but come to find out that Disneyland doesn't have any so we headed back to DCA for ice cream.

We got into the single rider line for Radiator Springs Racers. The wait was about an hour but compared to the 3 hour wait for the regular line we were cool with that. What was great is that Brett and I were in separate cars but we actually raced each other... my car won of course :)

We finished our day waiting in line for Toy Story Mania. I love this ride but the wait is always so long but this time around the wait was about and hour and I didn't think that was too bad. It did feel like forever in that line but we finally rode it, Brett won with points but I was more accurate.

We finished our visit with a churro on our way out of the parks. Instead of taking the tram back to the parking structure Brett suggested we walk. It was a nice night and it allowed us to hang out just a bit longer.

Even thought the place was packed and we rode about six rides it was another awesome trip to Disneyland. Best part was getting to hang out with my good friend Brett.. can't wait to do it again.