California Adventures

So we went to Disney’s California Adventures on Saturday, only because we had free passes from a deal earlier in the year and they were about to expire. Instead of hilda coming along, we brought hildon, or so said the card that was getting Juan in, just in case they saw the name and expected it to be a girl. lol. We bugged him about being hildon for the rest of the day.

We started out in the Hollywood Backlot where they had all the shows, and probably my favorite part of it all was the recreation of what is it, Sunset Blvd? Anyway, El Capitan and The Hyperion where there and they did this really cool perspective thing where the street really did look like it went for a few blocks, when in reality it went probably six feet. When I walked towards it I got dizzy because my mind couldn’t figure out if this was real or not. It was cool. We saw the Aladdin show which was very dissapointing. It doesn’t even have to do with the fact that it’s probably my favorite Disney animated movie, it’s just that it’s supposed to be such a magical experience, flashy, glitzy, and humorous, but it lacked all the above for most of the presentation. There were some good parts, but overall, the show got a pretty flat 3 out of 5 from me. I really liked the animation studio thingy. We saw a short presentation on character design that was part video, part real person talking (they talked to us and each other). They talked about Mushu and how he changed as they kept designing his character. And did you know that in Pocahontas, instead of just two sidekicks (the racoon and the hummingbird) they were also gonna have a turkey? Yup, but they dropped him. Anyway, the presentation and timing of it all was really good. My only complaint was that it was too short. I wanted to see more. When you walked out of that, you went through a gallery with drawings, paintings, and sketches of different character designs like Tinker Bell, Beast, Alice, and lots more. It was so cool to see the different things they had in mind for the images that we take for granted as being the design. I really liked that place.

It’s a really small place so then we went to Paradise Pier which reminded me a whole lot of Santa Cruz (le sigh). It was beautiful. The most memorable part about that area is California Screamin’, the rollercoaster with the Mickey Mouse sillouette(sp?). That is one awesome roller coaster. We rode that baby twice.

As far as work is concerned, it’s ok. I am alreadr begining to see why there is such a high turnover rate of people there. The place is either boring, or they work you like a dog, all for practically minimum wage. I want to get out of there as soon as possible. Hopefully a presenter position will open up soon.