My horse did not move a muscle when this cat took a flying leap and clawed his way up her flank to get to me and I’m so proud of her

I’m back at the hotel. I’m beat. But dang it, that was a great time.

I got to meet up with Andrew today (he texted me while I was on the Submarine Voyage and I didn’t see it until I got off, but the timing was perfect -- when I replied and told him where I was, it turned out that he was right on the other side of the Matterhorn). We watched the Tiki Room together before he went home to work on school stuff.

I didn’t run into anyone else I knew today (no random encounters with former bosses like yesterday, even though I kept my eyes open for one in Star Wars Land).

I’m rambling again, but this time I’ll include a cut so I don’t take up as much of your dashboard as I did this morning.

One thing I found amusing: after going to Oga’s Cantina, I decided to buy a DJ R3X Funko Pop (it was that or the DJ R3X bluetooth speaker, but...we’re talking $25 vs $150). I remembered seeing them earlier in the day, and I went to every store in Batuu trying to remember where I saw them. In the last store, I asked the cashier for help.

“Um, I think those are sold off-planet. We don’t have them on Batuu.”

(Which seems odd since that’s where DJ R3X actually is.)

I took the hint and realized that I must have seen them in the Star Trader, so I went there and sure enough, there they were.

But I wondered, if I really didn’t get it, if he would have been more specific. Like, I get that cast members are strongly encouraged to play roles in that part of the park (I overheard one lady talking about a friend’s ex-boyfriend who got his arms ripped off by Chewbacca for doing her wrong -- some people are INTO their roles, and I dig it), but...if I had been confused by the “we don’t sell them on Batuu” statement instead of putting together the clue, would he have sent me to Tomorrowland?

Ooh, a good hint could have been “I believe the travel company Star Tours services a planet where they are sold, maybe check the shop in their terminal if you happen to find yourself in that part of the galaxy.” That way he can keep it “in-universe” while being more specific.

Of course, he may have already thought of all that, and just didn’t need to use it because what he said was enough to remind me that I’d seen it in that other part of Disneyland that is full of Star Wars stuff, and I told him that I now knew where I had seen it.

This whole trip, cast members were great (with one singular exception, but not enough to mention it to anyone in authority -- she may have been having a bad day). Sure, there were cast members who weren’t 100% in it (but, honestly, I probably saw more great examples of great cast members in the past two days than I have in the past several trips combined); there were those I overheard talking about the party last night, or a dating issue that two security guards were talking about at the bag check, but...that stuff is going to happen all the time (and the guards did stop talking about it as I went through the metal detector and then gathered my things from the tray to re-stock my pockets with my wallet, phone, portable phone charger, charging cable, and the trading pins I brought, which I didn’t trade in the end because nothing I saw on cast member lanyards seemed “better” to me -- but I had a LOT squeezed into my pockets so I could avoid bringing a backpack or fanny pack so it took me a little time to get back together when I went through Security).

There was one cast member at the Temple of the Forbidden Eye today, though, that bugged me. We were in the film room and she was telling people to fill in all the available space (odd to me, since the FastPass merge point is at the temple entrance, and then I walked all the way to the atrium before running into the rest of the line inside, so it’s not like she was trying to get more people out of the hot sun -- as a guest I hear “fill in all available space” and I think “How many of these people are going to try to use this to cut ahead of other people in line?”).

She, in a very monotone voice, just kept repeating “Move forward, fill all available space, side by side, two by two, three by three.” I heard her repeat that, verbatim, at least 15 times within just a couple minutes. It was just annoyingly repetitive, especially with the same “ugh, why don’t these people get it?” tone that came across.

But, again, maybe she was just having an off day. 

And while I’ve had rides on the Submarine Voyage before, years ago before it was a Nemo thing, where a more accurate name would have been “body odor in a tube,” today was something else.

I mean, I’m in there for maybe 15 minutes with a handful of people who figured that since they were going underwater in a submarine today, they could skip the shower. And it was...like...GAG bad today. Even in the Tiki Room with Andrew, I was still coughing like I was trying to get the stench out of my throat (not HIS stench -- I detected no noticeable smell from him at all -- just from having breathed in the B.O. Cigar before that).

But I really feel for the pilot. They’re right in the middle, higher than the rest of us (and in comics, “stink lines” always go up, so I assume they do the same in real life). I hope they’ve got better ventilation up there than those of us under sea level have. Otherwise that’s got to be a miserable position to be in.

My portable phone charger worked like a charm, though. While I carried it and the phone in separate pockets most of the time, it was small enough that the two times I used it today, I could put it and the phone in the same pocket with my lightning cable connecting them.

When I got in line for the Submarine Voyage, I was down to about 30% battery (and this was at noon, about three hours after I got to the park). I got off the attraction at about 12:35, and I was already up to just over 80% (and the remaining battery in the charger was still 94%).

Granted, as I kept using the phone as it charged (I’d just bring the phone and charger out of my pocket together and hold them back to back as I used the phone), it was about 3 hours later that I unplugged it with the phone at 92%.

I recharged again later while I was in Oga’s, and got back up into the 80% range in the 45 minutes that I was in line for Oga’s and inside (I didn’t use my full 45-minutes of allowed time -- the sun was BEATING down on the line to get in, as I knew from having been out there, so I figured I’d help people get into the shade since I’d already had my two drinks).

Oh, and the Disneyland app LOST my Oga’s reservation.

Twice today it forgot everything about me. Even though I used its “touch ID” feature to sign in when needed, on one of those times I put my thumb on the main button and the app said I had entered the wrong password. I had to reset my password.

Then, even though I had seen the reservation for Oga’s on the app on my walk from Pirates (had to ride that one a second time) to Galaxy’s Edge, when I got there the reservation had completely vanished. There is a Guest Relations podium with a computer at the center of the three entrances to Galaxy’s Edge, so I stopped by there and said “This is probably going to sound like I’m making it up to get something I didn’t actually reserve, but...I had a reservation for this hard-to-get-into place and now it’s gone.”

(I didn’t think about the fact that I had an email verification...but at the same time, I also had email verifications for two other times since I modified the timing of the reservation twice this morning).

But the Guest Relations cast member assured me that if I did indeed have a reservation, then Oga’s would have my name, and I would be fine. And, sure enough, when I got there and explained, they asked for my last name and the time of my reservation, and verified that I did indeed have it.

But the Guest Relations guy said that they’ve had a lot of these types of glitches with the app.

I mean, it is a complicated app on their end -- keeping track of dining reservations and FastPasses for tens of thousands of people per day can’t be an easy feat. So I won’t say “Disney has got to be better than this” but...it would be nice. But still, the reservation wasn’t LOST lost, just lost on my end. They still made good on it, so I’m happy.

I can’t wait to do this again someday...but next time I may fly and pay for a shuttle to whatever hotel I stay at (this one isn’t bad; about a 20 minute walk to the main gate, but I could see maybe spending a little more to be closer next time). That drive into SoCal was rough, and I have to make it in the other direction tomorrow. It would probably be more expensive to fly, but would be an ease on driving stress.

I have zero regrets about the past couple of days. And maybe the date no-show was a blessing in disguise. I do like her, and it’ll be interesting the next time I talk to her to see whether she’s mad at me for not trying harder to get her here with me or whether she just actually blew me off, but...thinking back over the past couple of days (plus the day before, when I “met” her -- we had seen and talked to each other several times in the casino, but that was the first time that I spent that much time talking to her and ended up with the whole crush thing going on), either (1) I would have been moving too fast for her (she mentioned on that morning in the casino that she couldn’t believe how quickly I walked -- and I’m even faster in the park), or (2) she would have been annoyed at how I bounced around instead of taking the park in a clockwise/counter-clockwise direction (especially today -- I kept booking whatever the next available FastPass was until I had FastPassed everything, then I FastPassed some of them again), or (3) mad because she came all this way for me to call it an early both days of the trip (granted, I probably would have struggled through if she was keeping up, just out of pride, but still...whether that happened or not she would have gotten gross sweaty Kenny, not suave tie-wearing casino manager Kenny).

All in all, to the best of my recollection, here’s the list of rides I got in (not in the order I did them, but in the order that they’re listed on the Disney Wiki):

• Main Street Cinema (so glad they rescinded the “put merchandise in there” thing) • Buzz Lightyear Astro Blasters (I didn’t score as well as I would have liked, especially since I KNOW the diamond-shaped targets are worth the most -- my aim just wasn’t good today and I got just over 100,000 points) • Finding Nemo Submarine Voyage (I had heard that the show building was drained and that the subs just ran through a trough of water in the middle of otherwise dry scenes -- and while that seemed true in some scenes, in others I could see the surface of the water in the distance; I’d love to see a “water map” of that show building). • HyperSpace Mountain (twice -- once as a walk-on in the standby line with a 3 minute wait, the second with a FastPass because I HAD to do that one again, it was amazing, and it put Smuggler’s Run to shame). • Star Tours (every scene after leaving the spaceport was new to me). There was no Rebel Spy on our flight. After the cast member left the cabin and we heard the gangplank move out of the way, there was a couple minutes where nothing happened, then we heard an announcement that it was “taking longer to load R2D2 than anticipated,” and then when the ride did start and the Stormtroopers stopped us to check for the rebel spy, the area of the screen that is usually a photo of someone in the StarSpeeder was just a blank rectangle (and we had no empty seats, so it’s not like the cast member hit some “choose random” button and the computer chose someplace at which nobody was sitting). Still better than Smuggler’s Run. • Okay, why does that Wiki still list “Innoventions” as a “current” attraction? It’s been the Star Wars Launch Bay for a while now (and is currently closed so I didn’t go in). Then again, it also lists the Starcade as a “current attraction,” so maybe that wasn’t the best site to link to. • Snow White’s Scary Adventures. This one pissed me off. Nothing about the attraction itself or the cast members therein (though I was disappointed to see that the brass “book” at the entrance has been worn down to the point where it’s almost impossible to read the indented words). But I was in line behind a family. One lady, two guys, two kids. The two guys were going out of their way to tell the kids (probably one three years old, the other four) that the Evil Queen was going to throw them in her dungeon. And throwing in evil laughs (which I’m afraid I may have prompted because I touched the brass apple at the entrance and elicited an evil laugh from the Evil Queen, which they were emulating). By the show scene in the queue (where there’s a spell book an fake stairs and a bunch of money people have thrown in there for some reason but I know it goes to charity so do your thing if you’re ever tempted to throw money in there) they were telling the boy that they were going to put him in there, even lifting him up the bars in the windows and telling him that they could fit him through and that he’d be trapped forever. The mom was trying to reassure the kids that it was “a baby’s ride” and that it wasn’t scary (meanwhile I’m thinking of the dungeon scenes, and the scary forest, and the fact that “Scary” is IN THE NAME OF THE ATTRACTION FOR A REASON and that the kids are going to get off hating that she lied to them, but MORE angry at the guys who instilled all this fear into the kids, and then MADE FUN OF THEM for being scared. I had hoped the kids would handle it okay, but when I got off (I was in the car behind them), they were still in the exit walkway and the boy was crying so hard after the ride that he was drooling. People don’t realize how well kids remember things like this (as I can say from personal experience). I saw the cast member (who hadn’t heard everything that I had heard) hesitate before letting them ride, but I can’t blame him -- that’s on who I’m guessing was the kid’s dad and uncle (I don’t know those relations for sure, but both of those guys were complete assholes). I hope the kid ends up okay -- that came across, to me, as a scarring experience for him, and I hope I’m wrong. • Pinocchio’s Daring Journey -- I thought I was filming this one, and was really proud of how I framed everything as the ride went on (I was in the front row, holding my phone on the front of the vehicle, and adjusting the angle to get everything JUST right -- then realized at the end that I had been in photo mode, not video mode. I took a photo of an empty part of the queue as the ride started (which was blurry so I deleted it), and got no video at all. • The Sleeping Beauty Castle walk-through -- a group passed me in the first set of scenes, and literally tried to open every single door in the castle. Fortunately for Disneyland, all of those doors were locked. The effects in there have come a long way since I was a kid. • It’s a Small World. I live-broadcasted this one on Facebook, then got a copyright violation. I thought that song was copyright free, as it was written by the Sherman Brothers and then not copyrighted since they wrote it for UNICEF as “a gift to the children of the world.” I contested it, but then I researched and it seems that maybe the song WAS copyrighted (and the copyright renewed). I sent Facebook a message telling me that they could re-mute the video  since I had already claimed that I had permission to use the song (since I thought nobody owned it -- maybe it’s just the attraction recording that is copyrighted?). It got more attention on Facebook (both from Facebook and from friends) than I thought it would. • Matterhorn Bobsleds - Only one side working still after part of the mountain fell off not long ago. The side that was working (the right side/Teacups side) was not the one I thought would be working; but there’s still scaffolding and scrim up next to the Main Street-facing waterfall (which is currently turned off) where the rockwork fell off • Big Thunder Mountain Railroad. I rode it twice. Both times were on train #4. I was just glad it wasn’t train #6. They have a new track and, I’m told, new trains since the accident (I rode it once after the crash that killed Marcello Torres on the old track but never rode it again until the track replacement because I didn’t feel safe). But train #6 was the one that crashed in 2003 (it crashed twice more after reopening from the initial crash, though those ones were minor incidents of trains bumping into each other at the station). I didn’t do “the goat trick.” • Mark Twain Riverboat - This was the attraction on which I closed out my trip. A nice, relaxing ride around the newly-shortened (at least “newly” since the last time I was here” around the Rivers of America. Another guest pointed out kids on the WRONG SIDE OF THE RAILING along the river, and the cast member acted quickly. Good show, guest who reported it and cast member aboard the boat who handled it. • Jungle Cruise - Don’t remember skipper’s name (I was half-asleep by this point). They were middling-to-good. Decent deliveries, not the best bote of guests (it’s spelled “bote” when it’s the Jungle Cruise). • Indiana Jones - I mentioned my beef with one particular cast member. Do the “air jets” that are supposed to signify things landing on you ever fool anyone? Even when the attraction opened, it was an obvious play. • Walt Disney’s Enchanted Tiki Room -- saw this with Andrew (aka disfan here but he hasn’t posted in almost a year). My parents and lil sis were in Walt Disney World last month and the version they saw was shortened, mine was not. So I have that over them • Haunted Mansion Holiday -for the fist time (even though I had been here once since his re-debut) --- worked, and the effect is amazing. • Splash Mountain -- I tried to keep my phone dry. I succeeded (last time I was on this I broke my stepdad’s cell phone with water damage so I’n GOOD now since I kept my phone and charger dry), • Splash Mountain -- I did Single Rider and the cast member told me to go over a bridge that was roped of. My first time separating/disconnecting ropes since I was a cast member.