Whimsy's Crazy DL Adventure + notes on AI Auditions (6/28-6/29) UPDATED 7/23!

[whimsy87]

Well, this is my very first TR and I am pretty excited about recounting the adventure we had! This was my third trip to DL (my first was with my show choir as a senior in high school in 2005 -- and my second was with a group of friends (including a DL expert) in 2007).

This time the cast was pretty simple:
Me - 22 y/o college student, aspiring American Idol contestant or health teacher
DBF - 22 y/o, also aspires to be on American Idol. Whether the BF here means best friend or boyfriend is a matter of some debate. We've been best friends since we were 12, so it's a bit complicated. But we always have fun adventures.

Here we are!

We left Utah at around 8 AM on Saturday and drove straight through (minus a 10 minute gas stop in Vegas), arriving at our hotel at around 4 PM. We stayed at the Best Western Stovall's Inn, which we booked via Hotels.com because we are poor.

Here is the JoBro key card that I found hilarious. DBF was like: You can have that one! I will use the boring one.

Now, because the trip was originally planned just to do American Idol auditions in LA, we knew it was going to be insane. But I just COULDN'T be in the area for that long and NOT go DL. So we went to bed around 6 PM because we had to wake up at 1 AM to go get in line to register for auditions. We did this in Salt Lake City last year, so we knew the earlier we registered, the earlier we would be done. (The photo of us is from around 5:30 AM after DBF woke up. How he slept on the asphalt, I will never understand).

We ended up being really glad we got there so early. By 7:30 when we finished registering (they officially started registration at around 7:00), the line was over a half a mile long.

We, being the crazies we are, got back to the hotel at about 8:00, ate some food we'd brought with us, changed our clothes and walked straight over to the parks. A crazy beginning to our crazy DL/AI adventure.

 

[disneydreamer74]

What? American Idol???HOw cool!!! It takes a lot of moxie to do something like that, good for you! I hope you win it all!!! How was Stovall's? I almost booked it for my upcoming trip! Hope you had a blast!

 

[andee2000]

I can't wait to hear more. Your trip already sounds exciting.

 

[raissazhou02]

I am so glad to hear your excited trip, you even have twice time there, so it must be a very good place, i am planning to make a trip there too some day.

 

[whimsy87]

What? American Idol???HOw cool!!! It takes a lot of moxie to do something like that, good for you! I hope you win it all!!! How was Stovall's? I almost booked it for my upcoming trip! Hope you had a blast!

My mother says I have moxie in spades. But really the experience is really fun even though there's about a 95% chance you won't make it past the first round (11,000 people auditioned in LA! CRAZY!)

Also, we really loved Stovall's. The rooms were very nice for what we paid (I think we paid around $65/night). By the end of the night, that mile or so walk was REALLY long though. We'd probably take the shuttle if we did it again, but we were really trying to do everything on the cheap.

I can't wait to hear more. Your trip already sounds exciting.

Thank you! It really was!

I am so glad to hear your excited trip, you even have twice time there, so it must be a very good place, i am planning to make a trip there too some day.

You will love it! There is no place like DL, I think.

 

[whimsy87]

Now, because we wanted to sit down for a minute and take a rest after having been hanging out on concrete for six hours, we decided just to wait till DCA opened and maybe take a quick nap before heading out. DBF was out like a light the moment he laid down (again! that boy can sleep anywhere, anytime). I can't really blame him for his lack of appropriate excitement, though, considering he was a DL virgin. I was too excited and keyed up about going to the parks/AI auditions that I couldn't sleep to save my life.

So by the time we headed to DL at 10:00 AM, I had already been awake for a full 9 hours. We got our 2-day park hoppers (and ended up swapping because his had a picture of Minnie kissing Mickey on the cheek and I wanted it).

We wanted pictures at the entrance (his on the C - which his name begins with; mine on the L - which my last name begins with. Sadly there is no W in California). But, of course, it was way too crowded. So we settled on just a random picture of us by some plants!

You will notice that DBF loves to make faces. They get wackier as the trip goes on.

We went to grab fp's for Soarin' first thing. Then we walked straight over to the Monster's Inc ride as our very first ride because I LOVE it, and I'd hoped it would bring out DBF's inner child. Come to find out, his inner child is about 40 years old. Mine is about 6, and she'd pretty close to the surface. So he didn't LOVE the kids rides like I do, but he appreciated that I loved them so much.

We then went to ride ToT. Which ended up being his favorite ride. I believe we rode it twice in a row because the line was short. We rode it nine times in the course of our trip. Yes. Nine.

I think this picture was from ride number four. But it's easily one of my favorites.

We then went to go grab FP's for California Screamin' and to ride the Maliboomer. On our way there, I did see something that I HAD to have a picture with.

Strange, I know. But my little sister just starred as Peter Pan in her high school production of the musical. So everything and anything Peter Pan was really endeared to me on this trip. Especially considering that girl absolutely LOVED her pixie dust. She still has a bag of it on her dresser.

Anyways, then we went over to Soarin'. At some point we grabbed FP's for GRR and headed back over to Hollywood to catch a showing of Aladdin (which is DBF's favorite Disney movie, so I knew he would LOVE the show). He had been told by his supervisor at work that he had eat a pickle, so he grabbed one of those before that.

He loved the pickles. And the churros. And the Mickey Ice cream sandwiches. For a skinny guy, he really packs it away. I'm jealous of his ability to eat whatever he wants with basically zero consequence. Anyways. I will leave you with a picture of us before we headed into It's Tough to Be Bug.

Next time: the new Up! float in the Pixar Play Parade, Magical! fireworks, the biggest fail in turkey leg history, and the the first of many harrowing footwear issues.

 

[magicallyDisney001]

Great TR so far! AI auditions sound exciting, too! Looking forward to another installment!

 

[whimsy87]

Sorry about the delay on this update! I went to a family reunion and immediately following that, DBF and I went to Denver. It's been a crazy month. I guess I'm just trying to fit as much in as humanly possible before I have to start school again.

Anyways, back to the TR!

So after It's Tough To Be a Bug, we were on our way back over to ToT for some more elevator fun when we ran into the Pixar Play parade. We were going to just keep walking, but I heard them announce the brand new Up! float, and I made DBF hang back to see it. Because I love, love, love all of the characters. Here are the photos!

Doug would shout SQUIRREL! every once in a while and look off in a random direction. So cute!

Aww. . . I loved it.

Now, it's been so long that everything is kind a blur at this point. I know that we went on GRR at some point (and I seem to be a water magnet. Seriously. Just wait until you see my post-Splash Mountain photos) And we waited to be in the front-middle section on Soarin'. And we rode the Maliboomer a couple of times. I just don't remember in what order! Oh dear.

I do remember that DBF and I were really, really into the frozen apple juice. And when we smelled the turkey legs, oh my! DBF said he wouldn't share with me so he made my buy my own.

Here we are with those giant portions of meaty goodness:

And of course, we failed at eating them. Big time. I didn't even have to tell him "I told you so".

Guess which one is mine. Haha.

We had originally planned on staying till the park closed and then going over to see the fireworks and possibly Fantasmic! that night, but around 7:30, DBF looked over at me and basically told me I looked like a zombie. How flattering. But I had been awake since 1 AM, and we had accomplished pretty much everything in DCA, so I consented to go back to the hotel early.

On our walk back, I was pretty quiet (which is very unlike me, so I guess I was pretty zombified), but DBF kept on a long string of whining about his feet. Now, DBF is not generally a whiner. And especially not for more than five minutes.

Well, he had been wearing super cheap flip flops all day, which is especially bad because he has just about the flattest feet on earth. And I mean that in the nicest way possible. So the next day he would borrow a pair of my slightly-too-small cushioned Nike flip flops. Those things are amazing.

And so ends Day 1 of our adventure. Next time: we actually see the fireworks!