Haunt Season 2014 - Event #5 – Mickey’s Halloween Party (Disneyland)

Haunt Season 2014 - Event #5 – Mickey’s Halloween Party (Disneyland)

  First off, this is not event for my fellow haunt friends.  This is definitely a family event full of rides, trick or treating, and some entertainment that wasn’t worth my time.  That being said, I’m doing this review on my full day experience.  Then you can make the decision whether this is an event for you.

PRICE

  The reason why I signed up for this event is the price.  Now Annual Passholders can complain that the price is too much.  But for a non passholder, the price is great, especially if you REALLY want to go on two rides that got some attention, Thunder Mountain and Alice in Wonderland.

  The price is $65.  Included in this price is parking, which runs about 17 dollars.  Take out the price for parking, you are paying $48 for the event, which I think is a great deal.  Plus you get into the park 3 hours before the park opens and get some extra’s that I’ll go into in a second.  Considering the price for a one day, no park hopping pass is about 100 dollars, paying half that for 8 hours in the park is a great deal in my book…well, a great deal at Disney that is ;-).

BEFORE THE PARTY

  My brother and I arrived at Disneyland around 1:00 PM.  Jay got some backlash from his parking attendant regarding him being there way too early, but I didn’t have an issue.  Parked in the Donald parking lot and met Jay by the escalators.

  We then had a great lunch at Rainforest Café…who has said that, right?  Our waiter was awesome, coming from the fine state of Florida and he worked at Disney World in the entertainment field.  He kept coming back to us to refill our drinks and talk about his old days in Florida.  Very nice guy and made for a nice experience.

  Afterwards, I took Jay over to Trader Sam’s for his first experience at the bar.  Jay says it was one of his favorite things to do that night.  We both got two drinks, and they were good stuff.  I like how the special effects moments didn’t go on so much that you couldn’t have a conversation.  You could just chill, talk, and get sprinkled on from time to time.  I think it will be a place that Jay and I will hang out at for years to come.  The Python drink was UNBELIEVABLE.

  Like I mentioned earlier, we got in the park at 3 pm.  The rest of the public was already in there so lines were long and the fast passes were gone.  We decided to see the extended preview of Big Hero 6, which looks fantastic.  A great way to relax and get air conditioning.  After that, we took the train around to Toon Town.

  Toon Town was opened as a Pre Party location for the party guests.  It was our first experience with trick or treating, and boy did we get a lot of candy.  There was three Trick or Treat trails located in Toon Town.  One around the fountain by Roger Rabbit, one through Mickey’s house and Minnie’s house, and then one around Goofy’s boat.  With just those three trails, we almost filled our bag up with candy.  We also went on Roger Rabbit for a spin through Toon Town.  Or just to see Jessica Rabbit, but you didn’t see my write that ;-).

  After Toon Town we went over to Big Thunder Ranch for their Pre-Party Trick or Treat areas.  There were some art areas, pumpkin carvings and I believe some snacks could be bought back here.  Really miss Billy Hill and the Hillbillies.  This was their home, at least recently.

PARTY TIME

  The main reason for me to sign up for this party was to go on Big Thunder Mountain and Alice in Wonderland.  So first up, we went on Thunder Mountain.  Thanks to only those with tickets for the party able to ride, we walked right on.  Boy is it smooth, and that ending was really awesome.  Fun riding a ride while protecting your candy, lol.

  For the next 30 minutes, we hit a couple more Trick or Treat trails, tried to ride Splash Mountain but it was down, walked over to Haunted Mansion but Jay wanted to wait for it to be dark, and ended up walking over to Space Mountain – Ghost Galaxy for a ride.  Took about 20 minutes in line, then we were on.  Jay’s first ride through, fun as always and I didn’t see any real changes from previous years.

  Headed back to Haunted Mansion Halloween layover and rode that.  I think the ginger bread house this year is my favorite.  It’s an Iron Maiden type device with balls over the nails, I think?  I think there was a Ginger Bread man inside too.  Other than that, I think the ride was the same as last year…I think.

  Splash Mountain was on so we went on for a ride so we could get our 2.99 digital picture.  We did a great pose, coming to Instagram shortly.  At the scene where brer fox is pushing Brer Bear and an alligator has Brer fox’s tail, we stopped.  And the ride went 101.  Pretty cool to walk through the last scene of the ride, then out the back onto backstage, then back in again.  They gave us fastpasses, but none of the rides were really using fastpass and the lines were okay.  So I still have it.

  Oh, and that 2.99 digital copy?  Apparently they stopped doing that and it’s now 14.99.  That sucks majorly.  BOO DISNEY!! 

  Walked Jay to Main Street and he headed home.  I went over to ride Alice but it was closed for the fireworks.  Did some trick or treat trails, watched the new Halloween overlay video on Small World, and then headed over and rode Pirates.  After Pirates went back to Alice, which had a long line, and finally got to see the new scenes.  The ride does look beautiful and there’s tons more to see thanks to the video projection.  But the Queen still looks the same, I thought she was being upgraded too?

  Finished the night with a ride on Thunder Mountain at night, which looks a lot better than the day.  Ended up with 3 bags of candy, some souvenirs for the kiddies, and headed home, arriving in Manteca at 6 AM. 

  An amazing weekend with friends and family.  Unfortunately I didn’t get to see everybody I wanted to in So Cal, just not enough time.  But I’ll be back soon, love it down there.

Haunt Season 2014 - Event #4 - The Haunted Hotel (San Diego)

Haunt Season 2014 - Event #4 - The Haunted Hotel (San Diego)

  Another haunt in the books, oh yeah!!  First local haunt, which is fantastic.  Nice to go to a new city, new haunt, and a new group of victims to hang out with.
  First, I was to go alone.  Then Emily said she would go, the Steph said she would go, and last but not least, my little bro decided "well, if everybody else is going, I will too."  Life is good my friends, life is good.

BEFORE THE HAUNT

  So all the other haunts I have ever gone to usually has a build up.  The outside is decorated with the right theming, creepy music, and scareactors are everywhere.  When we came up to the Haunted Hotel, I didn't even realize it until we were right next to the open door with a sign above the entrance.  It was bizarre.  We did see one scareactor outside and she talked to us for a little bit, apparently Emily smelled good and the lady wanted Em's eyes.  Also surprising, no line.  It opened at 7, we were there at 8:30 and there was no line.  All very bizarre.  What was I getting into right?
  Then they led us into a room where we lined up in lines.  We were given the rules, no touching the characters, no touching the props, blah blah blah, you know the rules.  RESPECT THEM!!  Then we walked down the stairs and there we lined up again.  Very bizarre.  Then a scareactor got a small group of us and we were on our way.

INTO THE HAUNT

  First up, we entered an elevator.  Kind of similar to the elevator I experienced in Trapped last year, but without the video monitoring, and I think this elevator actually went down...maybe not??  Who knows?  Got a couple of good scares, the doors open, and I find myself in the lead with my little brother right behind me.
  The maze for me was really well themed, but kind of disjointed.  No real storyline, just different scenes.  For me, a name like "Haunted Hotel", I was expecting more of a haunt through a, well, haunted hotel.  And that's not what this was.  I'm actually having a hard time remembering some of the scenes in order, so I'm just going to talk quickly about the ones I remember, and enjoyed.
  There was a voodoo like area where we walked on boardwalks and there were candles.  There were butcher rooms full of guys with knives chasing us.  There were some corridors that were completely dark.  Luckily, I've done enough of these to kind of figure out where to go.  I remember hearing Steph or Em asking "How does Jer know where to go?"  Lol, because I'm the bomb ladies ;-).
  The best scene I remember is the clown subway.  First there's a subway car that jumps out at you, kind of like the subway in the Universal Haunt "An American Werewolf in London."  Then you round a corner and you find yourself in a subway car with a whole bunch of clowns.  Now the subway is actually moving a little bit, which I thought was a great trick that they didn't need to do, but doing it was so much better.  As always, there were dummies in there and maybe to scareactors, so which one was real?  Then one jumped out at me and said dance boy dance, so I danced.  And I danced, and danced, Jay was laughing like crazy, fun time. 
  Then there was the diner with a girl in one of the booths.  I thought she looked human so I tried to point her out to Jay, but she freaked them out anyways.  Poor Haunt Virgins, lol.  Then the final room there were people with chainsaws that would chase you out of the maze and up the stairs.  Then at the top of the stairs, there was the guy from the Saw movies on a little tricycle.  People were flying up those stairs and down the street, that part was freakin awesome.
  New for me: there was a room with multiple air bag like devices.  Now usually, it's a walkway that you have to push between these two large air bubble things.  Well this room had 6 different directions you could go through.  And I think it was so the group could get mixed up and the person in front could end up the person in the back.  I tried left, dead end.  I followed a scareactor forward, dead end.  Went to the right, and we were on our way again, with me in the lead.  It was a cool way to mess things up. 

CONCLUSION

  Jay enjoyed his time at the maze.  He says following me made it a lot easier.  I thought the haunt was a really good local haunt with tons of great environments.  But when you push an award  like "named by Haunt World Magazine as one of the top 13 haunted houses in America" you need to be awesome.  And I think they were close, but no storyline and no hotel part made it kind of weird.  I would have loved to have gone through a hotel, room by room, with interesting and crazy things going on in each room.  But damn, that subway was good stuff.  While in San Diego, check this maze out, good stuff.  Wish I had a chance to go through a second time so my memory was a little better.

That's it for So Cal for me.  Heading up to Disneyland for their Halloween Party tonight then I'll be heading home.  Got a couple more haunts on my list so I'll be back shortly.  I'll probably do a quick write up of the Disneyland Party, but don't expect too much. 

And I'm pretty sure I'm going to be asked what's the best haunt event down in So Cal?  In all honesty, I can't tell you.  Knott's is always my favorite, mostly because you can just hang out there and be in the environment.  Dark Harbor has real history and real life scares.  And Universal Studios has the best environments to explore.  So flip a coin, or go to all three :-).

Haunt Season 2014 - Event #3 - Halloween Horror Nights (Universal Studios)

Haunt Season 2014 - Event #3 - Halloween Horror Nights (Universal Studios)

  Before I get into this next installment, can't believe people actually still read blogs, lol.  My stats went crazy over the last couple of days, so thank you all for reading them.  Makes me want to do them.
  Well, today, I'm exhausted.  Tough night sleep, another really late night, but good times all around.  This morning I finally went to bed around 4:15, not too bad, but still crazy.  My haunt family heads home today, and I might have another event or two to do in the coming days.
  So Halloween Horror Nights...this one is a tough one to start.  The sticker shock on this event stays in your mind while you are at the event.  Is the event worth the cash?  I'm still undecided.  Yes and no will probably be my final answer.  And the sad thing is if you want to do EVERYTHING at the event, you have to get the front of the line pass or you are either screwed, or so rushed to do everything you won't get a chance to sit back and enjoy it.  But on a side note, if you only go to Universal Studios once a year, and you go during HHN, then you'll be able to do the full park except for the tram ride.  So in a couple of years, I might be considering this option in order to get a ride on Harry Potter.  Sticker Price for a family of four with front of the line access will run you about 600 dollars...um, yeah.
 
FRONT OF THE LINE ACCESS

  Universal Studios does Front of the Line access a little differently than other parks.  Other parks you pay the price, then get unlimited access to everything.  At Universal, Front of the Line access gives you front of the line access to everything once, including certain attractions.  Now there was an exception to the rule which I'll get into later.  But for me, this is an issue.  I don't see everything in my first walk through, I need a couple of walk through's to really see a maze.  So only seeing it once, not okay for me.  Thanks to very short lines when we first got there, I was able to see one maze twice, and go on two rides twice, which was cool.  But still, only once through with the pass?  BOOOO!!!

CLOWNS 3D WITH MUSIC BY SLASH

  My first introduction to Universal Studios HHN was an interesting one.  They first give you the 3D glasses that have shown up at a couple of haunts I've been too.  Not really 3D glasses, but they make the colors stand out so it looks 3D.  I think it looks cool.  Add clowns doing crazy things and you have this maze.
  A couple of examples: A clown disemboweling someone with the entrails wrapped around their neck and dancing.  A freezer container with some clowns, and it was really cold.  A van of clowns that jumps out at you, which seemed to be a running gag in most of the mazes, something being launched at you, and of course clowns with knives, chainsaws, and whatever else they can get their hands on.
  It was a fun maze, the colors were cool, but I was expecting more from Universal.  So after going through this one, I was a little nervous in regards to the night.
  PS There was music?
  Walk Thru: 1

AN AMERICAN WEREWOLF IN LONDON

  My second maze, and one that left me with HOLY CRAP, THAT'S MORE LIKE IT!!  Now I'm not sure if I've seen this movie or it's been so long that I don't remember.  But this was a pretty sweet maze with some amazing environments.  First a bar, then a forest with a guy being eaten by a werewolf, Nazi like beings slitting a guys throat and shooting the room up, a hospital, a subway car flying at you (again, that something inanimate coming at you) and multiple Werewolf's snarling at you with flashing lights.  These werewolf's were freaking awesome.  A couple of times, I waited back to see it happen again...and again...and again...HELL YEAH.
  So at Dark Harbor I mentioned that group of girls that hung on me for a part of the maze because they were frightened.  It happened again in this maze...except they were boys, about the same age too.  They were hilarious, but kept pushing into me, and I like to take my time, chill, enjoy.
  Possibly my favorite maze of the night, but there's another one that is either tied, or a close second.
  This maze, we walked through with no wait when we got there.  So I was able to go back at the end of the evening to ride this again.  It was to my great disappointment to find some of the wolves not working, and a lot of the corridors empty, but the maze was PACKED with people.  Glad we walked through at the beginning.
  Walk Thru: 2

SCARE ZONE: WALKING TO TERMINUS

  Apparently, last year this was actually another tram ride.  This year, we walked to the mazes down on the lot.  The walk included some walkers (aka walking dead) and a walk through a tunnel that resembled the one in Walking Dead.  Entering the Back Lot, you come upon this really awesome building with lit up windows of walkers attacking people, I thought this was a really cool scene. 
  But there were people EVERYWHERE.  The Walking Dead maze had a two hour wait...a two hour wait?  There better be a buffet at the end of that line!  Lol.  The AVP maze also had a 100 minute wait.  Just tons and tons of people.
  To entertain the growing line, there were people asking questions to hand out prizes, very sexy dressed ladies dancing in cages, and videos of said ladies up on the big screen.  There were also vendors selling crap like food and merchandise.  It was absolutely nuts and at times it looked out of control, which it probably wasn't, but still.
  Thanks to the front of line pass, Robert and I didn't get close enough to get our picture taken with those lovely dancers, so sad.  But they are saved in the same folder Elvira is.

THE WALKING DEAD: END OF THE LINE

  Ah, the Walking Dead.  The only maze that I've actually seen the show for recently.  So for me it was cool to see the tank that had broken through the fence into the jail area, the cell block where the characters lived, the convenient store where they looked for stuff.  All very cool.  But the problem with picking Walking Dead for this maze is that most of this season happened in the woods following a train track, so all you got were a couple of scenes from the beginning of the season, then you were done. 
  Way too short of a maze and was a big disappointment to the group, including myself.  But damn, it was cool to see some of that stuff from the show.  I should have watched the other movies more recently so I could have been more involved in the maze.
  On a side note, if I waited 100 minutes for this maze, and then went through it, I would not be a happy camper.  I don't think I'd be a happy camper going through any maze after waiting 100 minutes unless one of those dancing girls in the cage gave me a private show, just saying.  It's like 200 bucks for a Shania Twain concert?  She better be giving me a lap dance too.
  Walk Thru: 1

AVP: ALIEN VS PREDATOR

  OH...MY...GOD!!  Now I haven't seen the movie in forever, but man this was an awesome maze.  First up you see the down Predator ship with some larger than life predators.  YES YES YES YES.  There were these windows where the crawling alien things would fly around then SMACK against the window trying to get you.  Yeah, I saw the line moving these things, but damn that was cool.  The alien eggs, the aliens coming out of chests (um, they looked like penises, sorry kids, but I have to say that), and a couple of scenes you walked through an alien and a predator freaking fighting.  I think I've only said this once but YES YES YES YES YES.  I stopped to try to take a picture of them fighting but it was too dark and the flashing of lights screwed everything up.  Then at the very end, the mother alien freaking huge towering over you, trying to reach for you, oh my god YES!!!
  Unfortunately, there were some problems with this maze.  I understand that the scareactors need a break.  But stop the line in a section and do it without being seen by the paying public.  I saw three different instances where the actors were being switched out.  Completely took me out of the storyline. 
  This was also my first experience at how Universal packs the maze with people.  Instead of a steady walk through, I was forced to stop and wait for people to go through.  I'm paying the big bucks for front of the line, I want to be alone with my group without seeing others.  And if I paid the 250 dollar ticket, oh you better give me my space, you know?
  Great maze though, sad that I couldn't experience it a couple of more times.
  Walk Thru: Sadly...1

FROM DUSK TIL DAWN

  This is probably number 3 for the night.  Great environments, tons of women in bikini's or underwear covered in blood, trying to attack us with knives.  Here's my question: the mazes are covered in blood, tons of terror, a rated R type environment.  So why no bad language and nudity?  It would definitely make it feel more real.  I mean we are in a strip joint for goodness sake.  And if you are taking a kid through this, you should expect these things. 
  My biggest problem with this maze is that the scareactors jumped out at you then went immediately back inside their hiding spots.  I like it when they jump out at you, then give you a bad time for a little bit, then go back to hiding.  One example of this being successfully done is the bikini clad vampire jumping out with a chainsaw, cutting into a body with blood flying all over the place, then hiding again. 
  It was a fun walk through, with some fun scenes.  But I think I would have loved it more if I had seen the movie more recently.  Need to remember that for next time.
  Walk Thru: Sadly again...1

TERROR TRAM

  The cool thing about the Terror Tram is it took you to a location on the backlot, after watching a sum up of Season 4 of The Walking Dead, then you get to walk through the sets for Bates Motel and the War of the Worlds, freaking awesome, right?  But the scareactors and the theming just didn't work. 
  So the tram pulls up and there's a line of guards in full armor with what looks to be guns or chainsaws, I think they were chainsaws.  First, you don't use guns or chainsaws because it attracts the walkers, duh.  Then they have the walkers walking around with the guards.  Then there's more walking dead around the motel, and up to the house.  There is a cool road section where it looks like people were camping and there was blood all over the windows of the car, very cool.  But then you get to the Bates Motel house and you can take a picture with Norman Bates, then into the War of the Worlds section where there's zombies.  There's also these really bad zombie mannequins that looks kind of stupid.  We are at Universal Studios, we expect more right? 
  Then we are on the tram and we are heading back.  Like I said, disappointing.  They could do so much back there, I have faith Universal, amaze us!!
  Walk/Ride Thru: 1

PINK'S BREAK

  Let's take a quick break from the haunts.  Now I LOVE my boys, and LOVE taking them to theme parks.  But tonight, I was with 7 other adults and it was freaking awesome.  We filled up ride cars, filled up a table while we ate hot dogs, it was all freaking awesome.  Sure at times we got separated and it took a second to get back, but we all hung out together.  There weren't any clicks, just people talking to everybody, it was an amazing time and everybody was excited about something.  Deanna was so excited to see An American Werewolf she turned into a 16 year old girl right before our eyes, it was that kind of awesomeness that we had last night.  Hanging out with a good group of folks doing something I love...priceless.
  When me and the boys go, the boys always want to take the stairs.  So when we were going back up, I took the stairs.  And to my surprise, Darrell joined me.  Then Darrell got tired and Robert joined me.  Then the final staircase, the three of us ran up it.  It was awesome, even cooler to hear them talking about how their feet didn't hurt anymore.  Three men running up stairs like they were kids, how cool is that?

DRACULA UNTOLD...REIGN OF BLOOD

  This maze we were told SUCKED, so there a lot of jokes being told before we entered this maze.  And because our expectations were so extremely low, I think we all enjoyed it. Lots of people jumping out at us, lots of those non animated objects being thrown towards us, and areas where it wasn't really themed to anything.  Also quite a bit of bodies or body parts hanging from the roof that we had to get around.  But one of my favorite scenes of the night was in this maze.  There were these really old buildings on fire and you had to walk around them.  It was a really cool, haunted scene.  I could have gone through that area a couple of times.
  Not one of the best, but definitely cool to see.
  Walk Thru: Again, sadly...1

FACE OFF IN THE FLESH

  Another one of the weaker mazes because I really have no connection with the costumes these people were dressed in.  Some of the environments were cool, and I probably would have enjoyed the monster maze that was here year round, which will now be gone forever.  It's a long maze, with more strobe lights (getting tired of those folks, I won't lie to you), but some cool and fun stuff.  The only real scene that stick out is you walk over the room on a bridge, then you climb down the stairs, and enter this dance party with some cool creatures.  That was fun, and that female dancer, very sexy.
  Like Knotts, even the bad mazes were better than ones I've seen at say Discovery Kingdom or Fright Planet.  So while I am giving these a bad time, they were still pretty awesome and I would be glad to go through any of these again, with no complaints...well, except for the price.

SCARE ZONES - THE ESCALATOR

  Okay, so this isn't a scare zone, but the audio from the escalator was hilarious.  "Please keep an eye on the escalator and ignore that beautiful girl coming up from the other direction, she is way out of your league and you will just embarrass yourself."  "Please keep an eye on the escalator or I will eat you up and you will be left as a bloody pulp."  "Please turn right for AVP and turn left, which is the opposite of right, for Werewolf.  Don't ask me questions, I'm not a freaking GPS, I'm an escalator."  Just funny stuff.  I was also inappropriate with Tom Hanks...see, I can be myself with these guys, it's awesome!!

SCARE ZONE - SKULLZ

  Love Skullz.  When we were down in the lower lot going on the rides, these guys would come up on us and have some fun.  They were standing on stilts with cow skulls, very cool.  I have a picture on my camera of Shannon and her sister with one.  I'll get that posted shortly.  Loud music, some fog, and cool lighting complete this area.  Oh and Universal, go to Knotts, they will show you how to do fog correctly.  Just saying.

SCARE ZONE - MASK A RAID

  This one fans of Horror Nights got to vote for three and this was the winner.  I chose a different one, can't remember.  Not a huge fan of this area, but it was fun.

SCARE ZONE - THE PURGE: ANARCHY

  Haven't seen the second movie, but I get the idea that the night is filled with chaos and laws are on hold for the night.  Lots of characters chasing people in an attempt to kill.  One lady I saw take off and the guy chased her a good distance, that is a good scare zone.  Don't just jump, but run run run, that's what the Purge is all about.  Well done.  Got some pictures of this on my Instagram.  Also, there was some kind of presentation at the front of this maze, but I didn't stop and listen, too much to do.

SCARE ZONE - DARK CHRISTMAS

  Loved it, loved it, loved it.  This whole area was MESSED UP!!  It's for all of us that hate Christmas popping up during our Halloween month.  It's like an R rated version of Nightmare Before Christmas.  Reindeer as skeletons or hairy monsters, naughty children being tortured, scary Santa Clauses with knives, just fantastic.  Oh and crazy Christmas music with people being tortured.  Lol, awesome.  Love this area.

THE RIDES

  Surprising, along with our front of the line access to the mazes, we also got front of the line access, once, for the rides.  So we rode Mummy, Transformers, Despicable Me, The Simpsons, all with no wait.  Got to see the whole park in one night, it was fantastic.  We got on Mummy and Transformers before the lines were long so we didn't use our front of the line passes, so I got to ride Mummy twice.  And riding Mummy with adults, hilarious.  After they left, I think we were all walkers due to the last couple of days, I headed back downstairs and went on Jurassic Park.  Love that ride but the boys are scared of it.  On the top level, they play Welcome to the Jungle and it looks like the dinosaurs are dancing.  Hilarious. After seeing Werewolf again and then heading over to Mummy, I decide to do the single rider line for Jurassic Park, but they saw my badge and told me not to worry about the fact that I had already used my one time, and got to ride it again.  I didn't get wet, luckily, but man what a night.

So this unfortunately ends my so cal weekend trip with my haunt family.  It was an unbelievable week and I couldn't thank Doug and Shannon enough for letting me tag along.  It's an experience that I hope I can afford every year.

Tonight, there's a possibility that I might be doing a San Diego Haunt, them tomorrow is the Disneyland Halloween Party, so I'll have write ups for all of those soon too.  And if I can, I'll write something up for the Dungeon as well. 

Just like last time, I now need to get ready to hang out with my bro, so no editing on this one either.  Thanks for reading, leave a comment, and I'll see you next time.  And hey, go see a haunt this year, even if you are scared to death.  It might surprise you how much fun you have, and I'll go with you if you need someone's back to hide behind.

Haunt Season 2014 - Event #2 - Dark Harbor (Queen Mary)

Haunt Season 2014 - Event #2 - Dark Harbor (Queen Mary)

  Fatigue, late nights, starting to take it's toll.  I feel like a zombie from one of those mazes.  But I continue on, and having a blast.
  Last night met up with even more friends that the night before.  That's what haunt is all about: friends and scares. In addition to Doug, Shannon, Robert and Mike, met up with Jeff, Dusty, Norm and Alonzo from work.  Alonzo's girlfriend was there, and I feel terrible that I keep forgetting her name.  But going through a haunt with her and Robert, awesome fun.
  So the biggest bummer of the night was the price of parking.  If you are going, please be warned that the parking is a whopping 20 dollars.  Compared to Knott's 15, it was kind of shocking.  A lot of people were taking taxi's home last night, so I'm guessing the alcohol was quite popular.
  For this event, I joined up with the MiceChatter's who got us into the VIP section.  Free food and booze, what could go wrong?  Not being a huge drinker, I stuck to primarily diet soda, but did have a margarita that was quite potent.
  Along with the VIP access, we got front of the line access, just like at Knott's.  I've been spoiled by front of the line access, and I don't think I could go to one of these events without it.  For Submerged, I'm pretty sure that we went through all the mazes, then came back and did Submerged a second time before people in the back of the line even did the maze once.

MAZES OUTSIDE THE BOAT

  The layout was awesome.  There were three mazes and the Freakshow outside of the boat with a carnival theme.  A huge swing ride and tons of carney food filled the area.  Shannon told me to film it and send it to the State Fair committee and tell them this is how it should be done, and I couldn't agree more.  The smells, the sounds, just awesome.

CIRCUS

  This was our first maze of the night.  The maze had a lot of different ways you could go through it.  So there were often times we saw people going the opposite way, or people who were behind us, popped up in front of us.  The clowns were spooky, but nothing that really passed the scary mark.  There was one clown that looked and moved like a puppet.  This guy caught Shannon's attention, and pretty much stopped her in her tracks.  The coolest part for me was the very end where you walked on these moving squares.  So it felt like you were walking on a slippery floor.  After getting use to it, you could learn to slip and slide, and it was pretty cool. 
  Went through this maze twice.

DEADRISE

  Probably my least favorite maze of the day.  You walked through a sunken boat with people in the dark coming to get you.  The environment of this maze was just not interesting.  Dark areas, sometimes parts of the boat were kind of cool, and here was this huge fire launch coming from the boat that lit up the night sky.
  My favorite part of the maze was watching the guy who roamed on top of the maze.  From the VIP section, you can watch walk back and forth, and sometimes reach down and try to grab people.  At one point of the night, he got down and was watching people.  One poor lady was looking up to see him and he snuck up on her at ground level and said "I'm not up there."  Freaked the crap out of her, lol.  People would sit on benches and watch his work, very entertaining.
  Went through this maze once.

VOODOO VILLAGE

  This was my second maze of the night and it blew me away.  I would say it was at the same level as Knott's, if not a little bit better.  It was one of the longest mazes I have ever been through, and each environment was better than the last.  The candle's brought a spooky mood, while the bricks and the cement blocks on the walls made it feel like you were in some cavern or tunnel. 
  The best part of the maze was the bayou scene.  A person in the chair would yell at you, while mist covered the floor so you couldn't tell if there was alligator filled watter lurking below.  After the boardwalk, it switched to a dirt, mesh type of floor.  Swamp thing type figures hid in the bushes.  At one point a guy jumped over the rope and ran up the stairs, freaking me out.  The last time we walked through this maze, the mist wasn't working.
  Another great scene was the Mardi Gras scene.  A girl was holding her bra telling us she was working for beads, and no she was not nude.  Further on, a character fake vomited on Jeff, not realizing he was there, and gave him beads to apologize. 
  A very dark and awesome maze.  I'm not sure how many times I went through this maze, three or four times.

FREAKSHOW

  Freakshow caught all of our attention when we first arrived.  It also had a huge fire launch from the top of the building.  Inside, you got to see many "freaky" items, like the bones of a Siamese twin, bottles full of weird indescribable things, and cages full of items that currently have left my exhausted memory.
  Further in, you got to see little scenes of characters: talking skeleton, Siamese twins who want to go to Hollywood, a man with a small head (quite silly), and a woman who pounded a nail into her head.  After the characters, you entered a couple of dark hallways that got darker and darker until finally you couldn't see anything.  Those dark hallways were my favorite.
  I believe this is an upcharge maze, but I wouldn't go through it again.  But glad we saw it once.

STAGE SHOW

  In the middle of the carnival, there's a stage where a DJ plays music, a live band will play, and the scareactors that are wandering around put on a play.  I thought putting the scareactors in a performance was a really cool idea, but the story was lacking and I was frankly bored.  Some great picture shots of the whole group, which I'm going to guess we'll be able to view on MiceChat.com in the coming days.  If it does, I'll post the link here.  But for me, I'd skip this and do the mazes, that's where the fun is.
  Also, some of the walk around characters were freaking awesome.  I didn't get my picture taken with the big hairy guys, but they were amazing puppet figures.  And some of the sliders (guys when metal on their knees and feet) would spark up the night as they slid by you.  Seen these guys at Knott's too.  My knees hurt just watching them.

INSIDE THE BOAT

In order to get into the boat, you have to line up outside.  When you see the lines trying to get on the boat, you are very thankful for the wristband around your wrist that lets you not wait in line.  In the line for Submerged, I heard one poor guy ask "how much extra for one of those wristbands?"  Telling you folks, pay the extra price for these bands and skip the lines.  Unless you REALLY like the people you are with, lol.

SOULMATE

  Soulmate was the first maze we went on inside the Queen Mary.  All three mazes are long mazes that make you climb and descend spooky staircases.  Soulmate has this beautiful woman in white that just stairs at you from a top landing.  As you got further into the maze, her dress is less white, and she is covered with more and more blood.  In the final scene, she is dancing with a head.
  It's a bizarre maze, and fun to walk through.  At the end of the evening, I realized I had only done this maze once so I decided to go again.  The second time I was alone, and the maze was quite empty compared to earlier in the evening.  The couple who was in front of me...well, the guy in the couple freaked out and asked for me to go first.  I ended up getting way in front of them and did the whole maze by myself, with no one in front or behind me.  That was spooky, especially when I didn't see a single scareactor for a long period of time.
  My favorite character was a guy who would measure you, then say you weren't worth it, move on.  Skin and appendages hung from the walls.  It was quite creepy.
  Went through the maze twice, not my favorite on the ship.

SUBMERGED

  This was probably my favorite maze on the Queen Mary.  Unfortunately, I don't really know the history of the boat and Shannon's sister would let us know what she found on Google.  It would be cool if the Queen Mary gave some kind of background on the ghosts that we might run into, especially in the VIP section.
  You first enter by the boat where Screaming Mary, I think that's the ghost's name, stood on the other side of the swimming pool area.  This was a great scene: a deserted pool with a spooky slide that ended in empty space and a creepy child pointing at you.  I pointed back and she followed me.  I put my pinky to my ear and my index finger to my mouth and mouthed "call me", she sprinted at me, and a scareacter jumped out from another corridor freaking me out, awesome.
  The maze was full of loud sounds, creepy hallways, and great actors.  On Instagram, there's a picture of a red hallway which I absolutely loved.  There was a woman walking around in it which made it even more creepy.
  Lots of water effects also filled this maze, which is weird on a boat, right?  If you know me, I love water effects, and this was simply awesome.
  In one of my walk thrus, there were a group of young ladies behind me that screamed quite a bit.  If you've walked through a maze with me, you know that I walk slowly.  Well my group got in front of me and the group of girls behind me caught up with me and before I knew it, they were hiding behind me.  Then one latched onto my arm "I don't know who you are but I'm staying with you."  And I walked the train of girls through a good chunk of the maze.  Hilarious.
  Went through this maze at least 4 times.

B340

  If there was a spooky, creepy maze this is it.  According to our historian, B340 is a room on the boat that is no longer rented out because of spooky things that happen in that room, like a sheet flying off of you for no reason. 
  It seemed like we were following the thoughts of a murder as we walked through this maze.  B340 is written over and over on the walls, clocks ticking everywhere, a room with a woman screaming for help because "he's here to get me."  Then the next room is covered in blood, a body on the bed ripped to shreds, and a knife wielding freak pacing around the room.  Great scenes.
  SPOILER: I hate ruining things like this for anybody who is planning on going to the maze, but there's a chance you might miss it.  Which I did the first time I walked through the maze.  Others experienced it, so we went back to check it out again.  There's a bridge in this maze that goes over a huge warehouse like section.  The first time the lights were on, the second time it was dark and spooky.  There's a button on the bridge that needs to be reset, so it doesn't go off every time you go over it.  But if you are lucky enough to be on the bridge when it goes off...the bridge drops and it is probably the freakiest thing I've ever been on.  Everybody screams that experiences it, a great effect in a very creepy room.
  Went on this maze 3 or 4 times.

That's the mazes.  A big downfall of the event is the porto-potties.  That kind of sucked.  But the mazes were well done and the event was awesome.  If I had tons of money, I'd be eating tons of the fried food or maybe a huge sandwich, or a waffle cone, or how about those fried twinkies!!  Great event, check this one out if you are in the area.  Come early, or get the front of the line pass.

Well, got home at 3:30 last night, woke up at 11.  Now time to get ready to meet the gang again for another fun filled night.  Hopefully I'll be able to write up the next event tomorrow morning. 

Again, sorry for no editing...too much to do.

NEXT UP: UNIVERSAL STUDIOS - HALLOWEEN HORROR NIGHTS

Haunt Season 2014 - Event #1 - Knott's Scary Farm

Haunt Season 2014 - Event #1 - Knott's Scary Farm


UPDATE [10/9/14]: For some video of the mazes I went through, In The Loop posted four, only one was in my top 3 though: http://inthelooppodcast.com/2014/10/video-walk-through-4-haunted-mazes-at-knotts-scary-farm-2014/





  Knott's Scary Farm was my first ever Theme Park haunt, experienced last year in fact.  The theme park is filled with haunts, scare zones, and fog.  This year, surprisingly, was more awesome than last year.  I really didn't think that was possible.
  We met up with Jeff Tucker, entertainment director of Knott's Berry Farm, co-Creator of Trapped, podcaster for 91 Reasons, and probably one of the coolest guys I've ever met.  Jeff showed us around some of the back areas, including some of the cafeterias and where the monsters go for makeup and costuming.  I took no pictures in these areas, mostly because it's cool to see, but not really needed in relation to the haunt.  At one point I got to meet Jeff's daughter who plays Maggie in one of the shows.  Last year, she freaked me out.  She is absolutely adorable and the father/daughter relationship, couldn't do anything but smile at those two.

TRAPPED - LOCK AND KEY

  The first haunt of the night was at Trapped.  Trapped is an upcharge and sends in a group of 6 to figure out puzzles in numerous stressful situations.  For an example, last year we were standing in water while electricity popped all around us.  Last years maze took less than 10 minutes from start to finish.  This years took us a whopping 35 minutes to go through.
  Now I'm not going to go into Trapped, it's an experience that everybody who is going to Scary Farm should experience without any knowledge of what they are going in to see.  But I will tell you one thing, the last room made my hyperventilate.  I never get scared in Haunts, I'm there to enjoy the environments and people jumping out at me no longer makes me jump.  But what I had to do in that final room, well, it freaked me out.  In November or December, The Season Pass podcast will be posting a show all about this years Trapped, check it out for a full run down of this haunt.

VOODOO

  The environment of VooDoo blew me away.  The outside of the haunt looks like it was straight from New Orleans Square at Disneyland.  At any point I was expecting males to show up on the second floor with beads begging to be flashed.  The purples and the greens were simply beautiful. 
  Jeff and company took us through VooDoo earlier in the day during the daylight, and even with the sun up, the maze was jaw dropping.  The bayou in that warehouse is so amazingly themed that you believe you are in Louisiana.  You walk along a boardwalk with these little shacks that you go through.  Then at the end you walk on a dirt path through a graveyard.
  We returned late that night and at night, it's even more spookier.  But first, a Skeleton Key.  Now what's a Skeleton Key?  Last year, Knott's started something special for the true fans.  With an upcharge, you get to go to a room before going into the haunt and get a performance and some back story to the haunt.  Some were amazing, others were okay, but all had a little jumping moment.  VooDoo's Skeleton Key messed some of the people up in my group.  Why?  They locked us in coffins.  Yep, LOCKED US IN COFFINS.  Now this didn't bother me at all, but for those nervous of close spaces, it messed them up.
  At night, the bayou shines.  There's humidity, voodoo rituals, candle like lighting, and reptiles all over the place.  It was easily my favorite haunt.
  BUT, I had a problem with the fact that you only get to go through half of the maze.  You have to do this one multiple times in order to see it all.  That was a huge bummer, considering we didn't really have much time to hit the mazes.  But at Knott's, even the smallest complaint can't take away how freakin awesome these mazes are.

DARK MAGIC

  Dark Magic was my first maze last year, and I went through it so fast that I really didn't get to see it.  While others in my group said this was their favorite maze, I really didn't care for it.  But this year, I took my time and it really is a well done maze.
  First up, the Skeleton Key.  This time it's in a séance room and you are calling Houdini from the other world.  What happens next is something you would see in a movie, and experiencing it was pretty cool.  My only problem is that we were a group of 6...and there were only 5 chairs.  I stood off to the side and when the actor asked us to hold hands, I didn't and she got mad and made a sign with her face that I better hold someone's hand.
  The haunt was much the same as last year, I just took my time checking it all out.  There's a mirror maze that I don't really remember from last year, which a scare actor got me when she raised her hand in front of me.  I also missed the magic show from last year, but was called on stage to demonstrate this year.  My group continued on, but it was cool to see the magic act.  I finished the last half of the maze by myself.  No problem doing that ;-).

GUNSLINGER'S GRAVE

  One of my favorites from last year.  The Skeleton Key was changed a little to add a husband in the room and I felt I was more of a participant.  The shooting that takes place in that scene lasted a little longer and then the fist fight inside the cabin was just fantastic.  Again, one of my favorite Skeleton Keys.
  The maze itself wasn't changed too much.  The thing about this maze is that you are following a possibly dead gunslinger who is taking revenge on the gang that killed his wife and child.  So there isn't any scary people in this maze.  Just the gang that the gunslinger is hunting down.  Sometimes you would come upon a killing of the gunslinger, or possibly an animal or two.
  If you know me, then you know I really enjoyed walking through the brothel behind the bar.  Those ladies were hot and the theming in that room made me feel like I was in an old west town with the ladies of the night.  LOVED IT.
  Minor problem with this haunt: it seemed empty.  Weren't too many people working this one and they weren't really into scaring you.  It was more of a maze you just walked through, looked around, and left.  Still freaking awesome, just surprising.

THE TOOTH FAIRY

  For some reason, my boys like to lose their teeth at my place.  So I made up this story that I was scared of the Tooth Fairy.  It's wrong that a fairy flies into my house, steals money from my wallet, and then steals my kids tooth.  IT'S WRONG!!  Always gets laughs from my boys.  But they laughed even harder when they found out Knott's was putting together a Tooth Fairy maze for me to go through.
  We checked out this maze earlier in the day too, but this one needs to be seen at night because IT IS MESSED UP!!  Probably the bloodiest, nastiest maze of them all.  Just me telling you about this maze will probably give you nightmares.
  You enter the maze through a house where you see windows of kids going to bed.  Then a black cloud goes over the kids.  Inside the house, you walk through a boys and a girls room.  In the girls room, you see the Tooth Fairy and a very scared young lady.  Then you go through a dark tunnel with fur on the walls...um yeah, fur.  Inside the maze, you see kids being torn apart, jaws missing, disemboweled.  It's absolutely shocking. 
  But damn it was good.  Some of the props in that maze are absolutely gross and awful.  But it's part of the STORY.  That's right, these mazes have stories.  And this one was in my top 3 for the night.

FOREVERMORE

  Forevermore returns this year.  It has no Skeleton Key, and hasn't been changed too much.  You follow a serial killer who bases is killings on Edgar Allen Poe.  I think the first half is absolutely awesome, but the last half loses me.  Following a serial killer, and the works of Edgar Allen Poe?!?!?  Can't go wrong.

TRICK OR TREAT

  Trick or Treat is another fun maze.  You start the maze by ringing the doorbell, then entering a house that has been taken over by the Green Witch.  The house is well themed, and it's really a fun maze.  But it you've seen it before, nothing really has changed too much.  And some of the big scares from last year weren't there this year, or they weren't working, or I missed them in my walk through.

PINOCCHIO UNSTRUNG

  Last year, I went through Pinocchio three times, the last two times by myself.  I loved it.  I knew the story, loved the environments, and the scare actors hated me because they would try to scare me and I'd end up standing in the middle of the room just looking.  The huge Pinocchio animatronic was awesome at the end, just like last year.
  New for this year, they added a Skeleton Key.  Not sure this room really added anything to the maze, and the actor in the room was hard to hear.  But it was entertaining.  The maze itself didn't have too much to add, so it dropped a couple of spots from last year.

DOMINION OF THE DAMNED

  In all honesty, I walked through this maze to get to The Tooth Fairy.  I'm trying to remember what stood out in this maze and it was probably all the sculptures and the paintings.  In each room, you are surrounded by vampire actors who jump at you, or just get real close.  My buddy Robert got scared by some barrels...he was a bit jumpy. 
  We skipped the Skeleton Key for this one this year, and the maze itself was okay.  The environment is still awesome, but nothing in it had me wanting for another go around.

THE WITCH'S KEEP

  The Calico Mine train reopened this summer and looks amazing.  They did a cool overlay with a lot of green lighting that made for a fun ride.  I had issues with the strobe lights, which were used a couple of times on the ride.  By the end of the night, my head was starting to hurt a bit.  The Green Witch in the cavern was a bit of a disappointment and didn't really fit in with the ride.  The animatronics are so awesome, but she kind of just stands there and doesn't move.  The huge witch hand was pretty awesome.

SPECIAL OPS: INFECTED

  Not going through the normal ways of the haunt, the line for this maze had me a bit confused.  This maze has taken over Camp Snoopy and we were to start on the Montezuma's Revenge side of the camp.  It took some time, and while we waited, I honestly was wondering if it was worth it.  There were haunts to be seen!!
  First, we got our laser guns.  They were pretty cool guns, except they were lime green.  Then our group of 13 were split into two groups.  Our mission, find the scientist and find a cure for the zombie outbreak.  And off we went, shooting zombies with our laser guns.  The first part was a bit silly, and shooting a zombie with a light gun didn't really taken them down.  They kept coming, then they would shake and fall down.  With air guns, the zombie could feel when they got hit and go down accordingly.  But this is where my complaining stopped.
  At the second check point, our groups were mixed up again.  Our new group was told to provide cover for the other group.  But we were taken hostage, put our hands on our heads and taken to a cage where zombies and the militants harassed us.  Then our leader told us to slowly put our hands down.  "GET THOSE HANDS BACK ON YOUR HEAD" "At the count of three, we run." "GET THOSE HANDS BACK IN YOUR HEAD" "Get ready, on three."  That was probably the best part of the night and left our group laughing and high on energy.
  The whole experience was just amazing.  To have a gun, to be put in a storyline, and then watch it unfold all around you is hard to put into words.  I can not wait to see what they do next year.  The best thing I did all night, awesome.

SCARE ZONES

  I'm interested in seeing how scare zones are done in different parks.  At Knott's, you have themed characters walking around.  Some sliding on their knees making sparks.  They will interact with the guests.  First time this year I saw a male and female who seemed to be a couple harassing the guests, then they would hold onto each other and find their next victims.  I actually thought this was kind of cool.
  When anybody ever asks about Knott's, I tell them go check out Ghost Town.  They fill the town with fog and lighting and it really is amazing.  I didn't spend enough time back here than I would have liked, but it was freaking awesome.  Not too scary, you feel safe, but the environment is just...well, creepy.  And I loved it.

CELEBRITIES...ARE YOU KIDDING ME?

  Guess it was celebrity night.  While I didn't see anybody other than one huge name I'll get to in a second, it was awesome knowing they were in the park.  Dr. Reid from Criminal Minds and Luke from Modern Family were there.  I didn't seem, but I did see pictures of them, and that was pretty awesome.
  But the best part of the night, and the part I am still in denial about, our group got 10 minutes with Elvira.  Yes, THE ELVIRA.  There's only one, and she's as beautiful as always.  She was funny, dirty sense of humor, and gorgeous.  We were asked to take no pictures and no video, so all I have is my memories, but dang, did that really happen?  Check out The Season Pass in the near future for the interview.  Awesome lady, hope to see her again some time real soon.

THE HANGING

  Knott's puts on a pop culture show that makes fun of everything in the year then hangs the most annoying, crazy person of the year.  The first half was amusing, but the last half was filled with this really stupid fighting.  The joke of "they are wearing blue and green because they get changed into turtles or transformers on the computer" got old, and they kept doing it over and over again.  I actually got bored and wanted to leave, but I had to see who they hanged.  And I was disappointed.  Not a good show this year, huge bummer.

NOT SEEN

I didn't see Elvira's Big Top, but I really hope to in the future.  Sounds like an amazing show, with yes the real Elvira.  Also didn't see the Gypsy Camp, but saw some people getting their palms read.  I thought the Maggie Possession show was going on this year too, but I can't see any mention of it on the website. 

I wish I had spent a little more time in the mazes, especially VooDoo.  Going through a couple of times gives you the ability to see everything.  Going once, you miss things.

CONCLUSION

  Helluva way to start the Haunt Season.  Love Knott's and I hope to return every year to Scary Farm.  Didn't buy a shirt, there just wasn't time.  And spending time with Jeff Tucker, king of pop culture, was freaking awesome.  In VooDoo, he started singing the dentist song from Little Shop of Horrors.  How awesome is that?  The guy is just cool, and I hope to hang out with again in the future.

Please note, I'm not editing this, I really don't have enough time.  Getting it up before the next event is more important.  Got home at 5:00 AM this morning, up at 11:30.  And now I'm preparing for the next event.

UP NEXT: DARK HARBOR at THE QUEEN MARY

10/13/11 My Trip To the Walt Disney Family Museum

This is one of those posts that I wish I could add tons of pictures and art work so you can see some of the stuff I saw. But this museum has quite a few rules. On the ticket:

· No Cell Phone
· No Photography
· No Strollers
· No Backpacks
· No Food or Beverages

I believe the no Cell Phone rule is no calling or taking pictures or video. I had to check flight information a couple of times while I was there and they didn’t have an issue with it, I did it in a corner away from everybody, but still in the view of the docents.

Couple of quick things about me: I’m not a big Museum guy. I heard about the Museum on many podcasts, but Window to the Magic really sold me on going. My love of Disney is really only to the Theme Parks and the man, Walt Disney. Besides the live action musicals of the mid to late 60’s, the cartoons and the movies are only okay to me. I’ve probably only seen all of them once, maybe twice. Disneyland and Disney World, I haven't been enough, but I've been a lot. So that’s my background with Disney.

When you arrive to the Museum, it leaves you in awe. It is absolutely beautiful. Looking at the building, you can see the Golden Gate in the background. The day was sunny and absolutely beautiful. I’d love to come back just to explore the grounds of the Presidio.

When you enter the building, it’s actually quite empty compared to the exhibits. I needed to use the restroom, and it took me some time to find it, head downstairs. Downstairs, there’s some cool Disneyland Attraction posters, but that’s it. I think this area is used for bag check. The restrooms are very clean and open, I think they need to add music or something to this downstairs area.

On the first floor, I glimpsed the store and a tiny refreshment stand. Listening to a WTTM podcast, I had pictured this area a lot larger, the ears tricked me. I bought my ticket at the desk, 20 dollars for my adult size, and got the rundown of rules, which I knew thanks to the podcast.

Behind the desk is a large room where you can view all the awards that Walt had received. I think the most interesting part of this large room was the Snow White Oscar awards and the furniture from the apartment above the Firehouse.

You give your ticket to the ticket taker, get the rundown of rules again, and enter the first exhibit. This first exhibit was fascinating. It chronicles from Walt’s Grandparents to Walt joining the Red Cross. Pictures on the walls, articles to read, video displayed with Walt telling stories, and memorabilia tell a wonderful and vivid story. You really get the isense of Walt’s youth and the family members that pushed him to be great. Even his father’s Fiddle was there to look at. Some of the things that you could read, you would hear Walt say again in the video. By the time I left the first room, I knew who Walt’s Family were and what they looked like. I found it interesting that Walt and his sister were photographed together a lot. Perhaps due to the closeness of their ages? I read, looked and saw everything.

The next room continued the story after Walt returned from the war. He continues with his animation skills and gets a job perfecting those skills. I didn’t realize how much time he also spent behind the video camera. The home videos, the backwards video, and Laugh-O-Gram videos were awesome to see.

One thing that definitely impressed me was the High Definition black and white photos. Some of those pictures were simply awesome.

You take the elevator up to the second floor. The elevator is a little confusing. Me and the other couple in the elevator actually stood there for 30 seconds until we realized we had to push a button. Yeah, we felt stupid. Then Uncle Walt came over the speakers in the elevator and gave a little introduction.

The first room on the second floor had to do with the Alice cartoons. I was a little confused with the different pictures of the little girls, until I read that there were actually 4 girls that played Alice. You were able to read some of the correspondence from the people who released the Alice shorts, and they weren’t kind messages. I was kind of surprised by the harshness of the messages.

Prior to the second floor, all the audio came from the ceiling for the videos. On the second floor, some of the videos had audio in the ceiling, others had these cool little speakers you held up to your ear to listen. That was pretty cool. When Walt’s family showed up in video, I was surprised that I knew who everybody was, and didn’t need to read the captions.

In the next room, the story of Oswald, the loss of Oswald, and the creation of Mickey. On one wall, there were tons of individual drawings from Steamboat Willie, only 15 actual seconds of footage. In this room, my fascination with Ub Iwerks really started rooting in my brain. He’s in tons of pictures, did tons of the artwork for the Mickey cartoons, and I wanted to know more. Weird how I’m in a museum for Walt Disney, but I was in need to learn more about Iwerks.

In the center of this room was a hands on exhibit where you could add sounds to video footage. Being alone, I watched the instructions and then moved on. Now understanding the story of Mickey Mouse, and how Steamboat Willie was actually the 3rd short of Mickey Mouse, I was heading into the next room when I looked at my phone. It was 4:00 PM. I had been there for 2 hours and only had an hour left. I also realized that my brain hurt.

In the next room, I found a bench against the window and sat down for a breather. Being a Theme Park fan, I was hoping to spend most of my time in the Disneyland section, and now I only had an hour. Putting myself back together, I quickly went through the Snow White room, the Pinocchio room, watched a little of the Fantasia video, and moved on to the artist strike.

I spent some crucial minutes watching this section of Walt’s history. While this exhibit was relatively small, it gave me an idea of what was going on back then. I wish there was more information, but no time to dwell.

Went quickly through the Mexico section, and spent very little time in the animation room which looked to have some really cool hands on exhibits.

The next room caught me completely by surprise. DISNEYANA. Of course, Disneyana was the collection of Disney memorabilia...Right? Not exactly. There were these little replicas of tables and chairs, books, and tons of other stuff. Walt was interested in having an exhibit tour the United States with these miniatures. It was fascinating. I never knew, and had to move on, unfortunately.

Quickly walked by the True Life Adventures, spent a couple of minutes relaxing by the window looking at the Golden Gate (what a view), and finally found myself in the Disneyland room. First up, Walt’s train. The videos, the pictures, it was fantastic. No time to read, I walked around the walk way only to come face to face with the Disneyland model.

I spent 10 minutes looking at the model and trying to figure out how to duplicate it for my house, not possible. The model was smaller than I anticipated, and I thought I had heard that all the rides up to today was included. But that wasn’t really true. I think all the attractions that Walt worked on were included. Every time I looked at something I had already seen, I found something new, some extra that I missed early. I looked at it from all directions, and it was breath taking. The worker who watched over the display (bored out of her mind) kept asking me if I had any questions, I just wanted to look.

I pulled myself away, literally, and walked by exhibits for Wonderful World of Color, the Mickey Mouse Club, and Mary Poppins. I took a close look at the Abraham Lincoln exhibit, read some of the information on Epcot, and kept moving. In the final exhibit of this room were the last projects that Walt was a part of: Happiest Millionaire (my favorite Disney movie), planned ski resort and Disney World.

There was a video montage in this section that showed about 10 seconds of what looked like a huge model of the Disney World property. I have never seen this footage before, and I would love to see more. I watched this montage twice trying to see more of the detail of that model. Does anybody know of its existence and where I might be able to see more? Maybe pictures of the model? One of many things that I wish there was more on.

The saddest part was the story of the final 2 months of Walt’s life. How he went from hip issues, to a lump, to getting better, to gone. Left a lump in the throat.

And then to really kick you in the gut, when you enter the next room, there was a small video of the broadcast of Walt’s Death. Had to stay there for a second to compose myself. Then it was time to leave. I walked past the cartoons and walked through the white room with video on the wall. I walked through the exit and into the store. Not enough time…

CONCLUSION

I have heard many people say that you need a full day to go through that Museum. I disagree, I think you need multiple days to go through this museum. In all honesty, I experienced Walt from birth to Steamboat Willie, visited him at Disneyland, then his passing. That was my 3 hour visit at the Museum. My head hurt with all the information that I had sucked in from those couple of rooms. Staying there longer probably would not have been enjoyable. Maybe go from 10 -12, take a 2 hour walk on the ocean and get something to eat, then return for another 3 hours? That might work. Then on the third visit, bring my boys.

Between the amazing pictures, amazing videos, the story and the wonderful hands on exhibits, this is a wonderful museum.

Questions that I would like to research more on:

· Who is Ub Iwerks, definitely check to see if there’s a biography on him
· Relationship between Walt and Ruth
· Disneyana and the miniatures
· Artist Strike
· The Disney World model that looked like the size of a football field

But the biggest question I have is why is this museum in San Francisco? Is it because of how close the family is? I would think this museum should be in Marcione, Kansas City, Hollywood or Orange. Or am I missing something? Which is definitely possible. I still have 75% of the exhibits still to look through.

Running Day #21 - Best run this month

Uh, yeah, best run this month means it SUCKED!! I decided to run 3 miles, then I decided to see where the flooding was taking place on the bike trail. So I ran to the bike trail, up over the bridge (water was extremely high) back down, to I16, which is where the flooding started. Probably okay for bikes, but I would have gotten wet.

Back over the bridge where I took a couple of pictures. Accidentally stopped Run Keeper, which is why my run is cut into two. Ran down from the bridge and was exhausted. I felt relaxed and my muscles were not in the mood to go any further. Walked 30 seconds, then ran the rest of the way back. Running down 19th instead of 16th to get back faster.

So why no running? It looks like our Disney World trip in January 2012 isn't in the cards. So getting ready for the marathon isn't on the top of my list. Instead, I've enjoyed reading, movie watching and even some video game playing (I forgot how much I love to play video games). Plus, the boys are playing t-ball, and that's number 1 on my list. Great team, great parents, I'm really having a great time this year, game on.

So with nothing to push me forward, my running has kind of been pushed to the side for now. I've cancelled a lot of my television shows, leaving me with reality television, some sitcoms, and a few murder mysteries to watch. I'm usually caught up by the weekend, which means I'm cleaning the house and preparing dinner more. It's actually really nice. SCORE!!

Now, if I can just find a way to get my family to Disney, that would be awesome.

Disney World Marathon 2012 Countdown: NULL
Total Distance Ran (since 12/27/10): 100.8 miles / 2852.79 (miles to WDW from my house)Fastest Mile: 12/30/10 - 9:01 / mi
Longest Distance: 2/19/10 - 7.93 miles

Just realized I didn't blog about my longest run, probably due to the really bad headache I got from that run. It was kind of cool, ran around downtown on the bike trail. Started at work, went to the almond factory, hopped on the bike trial, ran to Discovery Park, ran to Old Sac, to the Capitol, and back to work. Close to 8 miles, but I was exhausted after that run. Needed a nap. Til next time!!