California Here We Come - part 6 - Pirate's Dinner Theater

Please see parts 1-5 first

The Hollywood Tour was somewhat exhausting (especially for Mom) and we were both needing down time that just didn't seem to be available in our days. We weren't getting much sleep and the strain was starting to show. I was not looking forward to our journey to Buena Park because it involved 2 different buses and a train ride. Nevertheless, I knew we were going to make it there because we had both already paid $50.00 for our ticket and I wanted to see Hailey. This was the only day (besides travel days) that the band did not have to suit up for a performance. This was definitely a working trip for them because in addition to the 3 performances they had to do they were also still practicing! This day was for them to just be kids and have fun. I remember in New York after the parade when we all had dinner on the boat and the kids were all dressed up and had a disco on their level of the boat. They were just having a blast and I kept thinking to myself how much they deserved it. This trip they haven't even marched the parade yet and they already deserve some fun and I wanted to be there too!

The band and company (300+ people) had had breakfast on the Queen Mary on their first day but we weren't even there yet. It's really hard to find places where they can all go at once and dinner theaters are usually popular places for large bands to go when they are on trips. Dinner tonight was at the Pirate's Dinner Adventure. I had bought our tickets online and saved $20.00. The 6:00pm show was sold out so I'm glad I went ahead and bought the tickets.

On a last minute whim I called the concierge at the hotel to review our travel plans and see if he knew any better or quicker way for us to get there. He informed me that Buena Park was very far away and he felt like it was too far to take public transportation. He offered us a private car at the low, low price of $65.00 one way! Ummm.....what? Thanks but no thanks. So we hit the street to begin our journey.

We caught the blue bus to the train station where we would catch the green line train. There was a ticket kiosk and I went ahead and bought us both day passes which would cover the round trip. $5.00 for me and $1.80 for my Mom who gets a Senior discount.

The train was like an above-ground subway. It went very fast and seemed to be traveling along with the interstate traffic. We rode it for about 20 minutes. We stopped at a station called Norwalk to catch the orange bus whose final destination was Disneyland. It was getting off work time and the place was extremely crowded. This was the first bus we had ridden that had standing room only. It stopped at every stop with people getting off and more people getting on. Mom and I had to sit with other people and there were people standing in the aisles. It was quite cramped and very uncomfortable. It amazed me though, how these people utilized their public transportation. The crowd died down as we got closer to the final stop. Finally it was our stop and we got off. We had to walk about a block to the dinner theater. It was surprisingly very cold and we just wanted to get in where it was warm.

The sign out front welcomed the Homewood Band! How cool is that?

Dinnertheater

When we got inside the entire band and company were there and they were just mingling, having snacks, drinks and watching a pre-show. It was so good to finally be with them! I called Hailey and told her we were there. She said "Where?" She found us quickly and I gave her a big hug! We talked for a bit before she was whisked away with her group. I've been on a few of these trips over the years and I know that parents intefering or pulling their own kids away from the group is not allowed. It is a huge job to keep up with 250 kids and they do a great job at it but it also means that parents have to understand that their inteference will undermine their whole process. So I got to see her for a few minutes.

Hailey

The theater was in the round and divided up into 6 different colored sections. Hailey was in the purple section and Mom and I were in the green section. Each section was assigned a pirate that was wearing the section color. We were to be the cheerleaders for our pirate. It was a very interactive show and some parts of it seemed like a pep rally! There were singing and dancing numbers and some incredible acrobatics. All of the performers were extremely talented. Our green pirate, a very nice-looking young guy, was amazing when they all took turns on a trampoline. There were fireworks and explosions. They didn't allow any flash photography so I didn't get any pictures. The meal was shrimp and chicken with a salad and rice, 2 glasses of beer or wine and apple cobbler for dessert. It wasn't fantastic food, but all in all it was a fun time and well worth the $50.00.

Mom was extremely exhausted from the traveling and all of the noise was making her very edgy. It seemed to go by so fast and now we had to make the grueling journey back to our hotel. Since we had crossed the street to get to the theater coming I knew that our bus stop would be on the same side of the street to go back. I saw the band loading their buses and tried to get back there to tell Hailey bye but I could not. We couldn't risk missing our bus. We started walking to the bus stop and Mom really needed to sit down. There was a little bench a few yards from the bus stop so I told her to sit there while I went to check and make sure it was the right stop. While I was checking the bus actually came and it was the right one. I asked the driver if he could drive down and pick up my Mother (he could see her sitting there it just just a few yards away)! Well, he refused and said she needed to come to the bus stop. I knew he wouldn't wait while she walked there. He just told me there would be another bus in a few minutes and shut the door in my face and drove off! I couldn't believe it! I walked to get Mom and got her to the bus stop and we just had to sit there and wait. It was freezing cold and I was wearing flip flops. I saw all 7 of the bands buses pull out and leave and I felt so sad and jealous. Even though they had the boosters on ghetto buses at least they were ON a bus! I wondered why we didn't just go ahead and pay the extra money and do the trip the other band parents did. Oh well!

Finally our bus came and we got back to the train station much quicker than before since it didn't stop near as many times. There were some Disneyland employees on the bus who had just gotten off work and we got to listen to some very interesting stories about people breaking rules and stuff. Wow! Those people had seen it all!

So we get on the train and it's just sitting there with a couple of people on it. I look at the map on the wall and we're definitely on the right train but it's not moving! As more and more buses came, more and more people got on the train. It was around 9pm on New Year's Eve so there were all kinds on that train. People still coming home from work, people going to parties, it was crazy! After about 30 minutes of sitting there finally the train left (driving backwards, which was weird) and we flew back through the interstate traffic and arrived at the station around 10:15. Due to missing the first bus and the train being delayed we had missed our final bus back to the hotel that was supposed to come at 10:02. There were no buses there and I was worried. I called the concierge to see if the shuttle could come pick us up since we were very close but he said they couldn't do that. Finally another blue bus came. The driver needed to take a quick bathroom break so he parked the bus for five minutes before he let us get on. He was so nice when I asked him if he was going to Century and Aviation. He said sure I'll get you there! Whew!

I have never been so glad to see a hotel in my life!

Mom crashed but I stayed up to watch the ball in New York drop on TV.

Tomorrow was the big day, parade day and we had breakfast at 4am and loading of the buses at 5am. I left another ridiculously early wake-up call and crashed myself.

Happy New Year!

continued in part 7...