Disneyland Tour 2014

Okay, I'm tired.  Still.  I've been back for 6 days, but I'm still tired.  I met up with the band/choir/orchestra/drama group in LA on the 8th.  The next day we went to Disneyland.  The band and orchestra had their performances and the choir had its recording clinic (I have no idea what the drama schedule was).  I didn't sleep well the night before so I slept through the choir clinic.  The parks weren't overly crowded and we had a fun day.  We did have an issue with kids who were "breaking the Sabbath" (as per their parents' instructions), and there were a couple of kids for which we had to make "go to church" accommodations, and we did have a kid lose his park hopper pass, but other than that, it was a good day!  We made it back to the hotel around midnight.  During room checks/visits, we gave the kids the schedule for the next day... head to Disneyland at 9 a.m., then meet at the buses at 7:30 p.m. for an 8 p.m. departure.  I couldn't believe that we had kids who wanted to know why we had to stay so late at the park.  Really?  7:30 was past their bedtimes?  Then we had some kids that didn't want to go to Disneyland at all and asked if they could just stay at the hotel all day.  Whatever.

Monday we got to the park and had to help out the kid who lost his park pass the previous day.  We also had to help out the kids who intentionally left their park passes at the hotel because they thought that by doing so, they wouldn't have to spend the day at Disneyland.  Really?  What a punishment... having to go to Disneyland.  Poor babies.  It makes me wonder what they thought they'd be doing when they signed up for the Disneyland tour.  3 hours later, we had those issues sorted out and got to go play in the parks.  It was a bit more crowded, but still tolerable.  We got back to the hotel around 8:30 p.m. and guess what??? Now the kids were complaining that because we had to leave the park so early, they didn't have time to eat and were so hungry and needed an escort to take them to go get dinner.

On Tuesday, the band and orchestra had their clinics, and the choir performed in the park.  The parks were insanely crowded.  Human traffic jams are the best.  There were huge lines everywhere; we waited 110 minutes for Space Mountain.  I'd hit my "I'm done" point, and the crowds and my exhaustion weren't making the day any easier.  The kids were told to be at the buses at 9:45 p.m. for a 10 p.m. departure.  At 10:25, there were 5 kids missing.  They had been told to "run" and if we were still there, they'd be lucky, otherwise they'd need to take a cab back to the hotel.  We saw 3 of the kids running towards the bus.  When they saw that the bus was still there, they stopped running and strolled to the bus.  The adult in charge of my bus saw this and instructed the driver to pull out, and she did.  Those kids were able to get on a different bus though.  The other 2 kids got to take a cab to the hotel.

On Wednesday we loaded the buses and left around 8 a.m. for the drive back to Utah.  It was uneventful until just east of Las Vegas when we saw a dark plume of smoke about half mile ahead.

 A big rig was burning right on the interstate.  We sat there for about 90 minutes (I'm so glad it was only that long) until the fire was extinguished.

We had 2 girls decide that they needed to charge their phones so they were going to unplug the router that everyone else was using so they could charge.  They didn't appreciate being told "no" and actually looked stunned that they were told "no."  We got to St George much later than anticipated, but Texas Roadhouse told us to come anyway.  Nightmare.  We told the server that we need our order put in first, so we could take care of the bill, and get our group in and out as quickly as possible.  3 hours after arriving, and after serving nearly everyone else, they brought out our food.  Every order at our table was messed up... meat cooked wrong, wrong cut of steak, no portobello mushroom sauce, wrong dish, and my meal was never brought out.  The server said she'd have the kitchen cook it, but at that point, I was done with Texas Roadhouse and wanted out of there, so I told her not to bother.  Well, finally we got on the road and I made it home at 1:47 a.m.

Oh, did I mention that our bus driver missed the port of entry at the Arizona-Utah border and got pulled over?  Did I mention that he sassed the highway patrolman?  Just another little adventure.

So tour... yes, in all it was fun.  I always forget how wiped out I get on these things.  Next year, will I go?  No idea.  It's too soon to even think about that.