Anaheim

This weekend Jennifer and Susan attended a romance book convention at the Anaheim Marriott, which is located just south of the Disneyland Resort and next to the Anaheim Convention center. 

They arrived Thursday morning, and after checking in and setting up, went into Disneyland for dinner.

Their room was high enough up that they could see Disneyland's fireworks over the top of the adjacent hotel. Saturday night they went to DCA to ride Radiator Springs Racers and watch the fireworks in Disneyland.

Sunday after the convention was over they went into the parks with some friends for most of the day. The Halloween decorations were still mostly up, and they enjoyed the Haunted Mansion Holiday version of the ride.

They went again on Monday. One of the ways Disneyland celebrated its 70th Anniversary was with special lock stations in each land, so Jennifer bought a key and checked them all out. They fly home today.

Tron and Test Track

Early yesterday morning I dropped Jenn and Susan off at MCO to catch the first Delta flight to LAX so they could attend a book convention in Anaheim. I decided to go into Magic Kingdom and ride the Tron coaster. To promote the new Tron: Ares movie, Disney did a temporary overlay of the ride, with lighting an audio changes. It was pretty well done. 

Afterward I planned to ride Tiana’s again, but it had a delayed opening so instead I hopped on the Jungle Cruise. I hadn’t ridden it for a few years. Tiana’s was still closed when I got off, so although the park was fairly uncrowded, I headed out. 

This morning I headed into Epcot before it opened. Food & Wine started at the end of August, but we’ve been too busy to make visiting it a priority. 

My main purpose in visiting was the revised Test Track. It reopened in July, but we weren’t able to do the Cast preview because we were in England. It was pretty well done, emphasizing new car technology over the last version’s simulated testing. Afterward I walked around the showcase but none of the booths were open yet and none of the menus looked interesting enough to wait for, so I left for home.

Conventions

In Vegas, besides signing and selling books, Jennifer took part in a panel and visited with other authors. She and Susan flew back on a red eye Saturday night. 

This weekend, Jenn had a booth at a fantasy romance book convention at the Hilton near Disney Springs. I helped her and Susan set up on Thursday afternoon, then we went to dinner at the Benihana.

On Friday I took Bryan to the airport so he could fly to a convention in Anaheim. He stayed with friends, and yesterday they went to the Disney parks. Disneyland Park is currently celebrating its 70th anniversary. 

In California Adventure, they are building a new attraction for the Avenger’s Campus. Both parks were decorated for Halloween. Bryan flies back tomorrow. 

Fort Wilderness

Yesterday afternoon I went into Magic Kingdom to check on the progress on Tom Sawyer Island, which is being converted into a Cars attraction. I couldn’t see much because they had recently installed walls around the whole area, but they had demolished most of the structures on TSI. Big Thunder Mountain was still closed for refurbishment, and the train is only running between Main Street and Storybook Circus.

After a walk around MK I took a boat out to Fort Wilderness. Crews have started installing windows and sliding doors and roof elements to Lakeshore Lodge. A couple of the cranes had been removed. 

I walked out to the bat house and the start of the Sassagoula River, and saw some deer on the way back.

Disney has added some cabins across from Pioneer Hall that can be toured by prospective DVC members. I had an early dinner at Trails End and a drink at Crockett’s Tavern then headed home.

Disney is continuing to do work behind Big Thunder Mountain. Recently they added trailers for construction offices for the Carsland and Villains Land projects, and they've been building a berm near the road. 

Hollywood Studios

Last Friday, Bryan went to another Universal Halloween Horror Night, while Jennifer helped another author do a signing at a local bookstore. Yesterday, Jenn and Susan flew out to Las Vegas for a book convention. Like last year, it was held at the Paris Las Vegas.

This morning I decided to head to Hollywood Studios. I got there early, and went for a ride on the Friendship Boats while waiting for the park to open.

Once it opened, I made a loop to see what was new. Disney closed the Star Wars Launch Bay recently so they could convert it back to an animation attraction. The courtyard was walled off, and they had started demolishing the arch at the entrance. 

Inside of Walt Disney Presents was a display on some of the current WDW projects. The model for the Tropical America project at Animal Kingdom was pretty cool.  

Earlier this year they added a covered seating area for the Woody’s Lunchbox quick serve. It really should have been there from the start 

The old Muppets courtyard was also walled off for its conversion to Monsteropolis. Some demolition has been done, but most of the work is occurring backstage, where they are constructing a show building for a door factory coaster. 

Hockey

At the end of September, Jennifer published her latest book, a sequel to her previous Halloween themed books. Last Tuesday, Susan and I accompanied her and a couple of her friends to a Tampa Bay Lightning preseason match.

Like last year, they faced the Florida Panthers at Kia Center in downtown Orlando. The Bolts won 3-2.

Last Thursday night I attended a Shrine Meeting in Apopka to transfer my membership from Al Kader Temple in Oregon to Bahia Temple. 

While I attended the meeting, Bryan enjoyed another night at Universal HHN with some friends. 

Last night Jennifer and a friend went to Tampa for the Lightning’s season opener. Recently the name of the Arena was changed from Amalie to Benchmark. The Lightning lost to the Ottawa Senators. 

Dining Coupons

While we visited Tennessee and the Carolinas, Bryan continued to visit Universal’s Halloween Horror Nights, including the Death Eater Encounter in the Studios' Diagon Alley area.

Monday afternoon, Susan, Jenn, and I went to Animal Kingdom to use a dining coupon before it expired. Disney gives each cast member three coupons each fall, and they expire after a year. Most of Dinoland was behind construction walls, as they prepare to retheme it to tropical America. 

The dinosaur skeleton over the pathway was gone, and the Boneyard play area had been recently demolished. Jenn and I went for what will probably be our last ride on Dinosaur, then we walked through Asia and ate dinner at Flame Tree BBQ. 

Wednesday evening all four of us went to dinner at Ohana’s to use another coupon. Work on the new entrance to the Polynesian is continuing. 

After dinner we walked to the Island Tower and had a drink at the Wailulu Bar & Grill.

Yesterday Susan and I stopped at Disney Springs after running errands and used another coupon at D-Luxe Burger, then picked up some ice cream sandwiches to use up our snack coupons.

South Carolina

Sunday morning, we checked out of the Sheraton Vacation Club in Myrtle Beach and headed southwest to Charleston. We drove around downtown Charleston a bit since Jenn had never seen it. In the afternoon we continued on to Hilton Head, stopping at a cider shop on the way.

We then checked into a two bedroom villa at Disney’s Hilton Head Resort. They had refurbished the rooms since our last visit, replacing the sofa bed with a pull down Murphy beds in the living room. 

We ran to the store for some food, made dinner, then hung out at the pool. The water seemed colder than when we visited in January of 2022. 

Yesterday morning we made breakfast then went out to the Beach House, where we walked in the ocean and enjoyed the pool there. In the afternoon we drove up to the outlet malls in Bluffton to do some shopping. We ate dinner at the quick serve by the pool.

Today we drove home. We stopped at a new Buc-ee’s in Brunswick, Georgia on the way.

Great Smoky Mountains

Yesterday morning, we checked out of our hotel in Pigeon Forge, squeezed all our stuff back into my truck, and drove into Smoky Mountains National Park. This time we visited the Cades Cove area of the park, which we hadn’t done before. I was a little disappointed by the visitor center there; unlike the other ones in the park we’ve stopped at in the past, it was mostly just a store. There were also a few old buildings in the area, and open fields. 

To exit the park, we took a one way gravel road that headed south toward North Carolina, where we turned east. The road was slow and bumpy, but we were rewarded by seeing a bear cross in front of us. After about an hour, we hit a paved winding road. As we got close to Asheville, the road widened and straightened, and eventually we were back on I-40. Eventually we turned south toward Charlotte, stopping for the night in a nearby city called Gastonia.

We looked at things to do in the Charlotte area, but there wasn’t anything that really interested us, so this morning we headed southeast toward Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. We stopped at the new Buc-ee’s in Florence but it was too crowded to want to pick anything up.

We also stopped at an outlet mall outside Myrtle Beach, then drove along the beach a bit. We booked a one bedroom villa at the Sheraton Broadway Villas for the night, and spent a while at the pool. 

Dollywood

Yesterday morning Susan and I drove through Gatlinburg, which is located between Pigeon Forge and Great Smoky Mountains NP. Jennifer stayed in the hotel and worked on finishing her newest book. The other times we have driven through the area we took the bypass. Gatlinburg is similar to Pigeon Forge, with lots of restaurants, hotels, shops, and tourist attractions, but smaller and narrower. 

From Gatlinburg we took the bypass back to Pigeon Forge, then continued north to Sevierville to check out the outlet mall there. For lunch we returned to the Hard Rock Cafe, which we had visited in June of 2022. In the afternoon we did some more shopping in Pigeon Forge. 

This morning, while Jenn continued finishing her book, Susan and I visited Dollywood. I have been wanting to explore this park for a while, and was disappointed Jenn couldn’t go too. The park was about to start its Fall Festival, so was decorated with Jack O’Lanterns throughout the park. 

We got there right at opening, and headed up the left side of the park. Waits for rides were real low all day, and the weather was great. I rode the Mystery Mine and Big Bear Mountain Coasters, then we watched the bird show. In the afternoon we rode the train.

The train goes up the left side of the park to the top then heads back down the same way. It takes 20 minutes. There were some decent views of the park and the surrounding area, although in a few places I wished they had removed some trees and other places I wished they would add more to cover up backstage areas. It also went by the area where they are building there newest attraction. 

After the train we walked through a museum about Dolly Parton’s life, then headed out. Beside the train, there weren’t any other rides that Susan could ride, and I didn’t want to make her walk back up the hill to wait while I rode another coaster. The one I really wanted to try, Blazing Fury, was down for the day. Dollywood is a nice park, but you really need to like coasters and flat rides to really enjoy it.