First of all, hello Disney customer service and copyright police, nice to see you all again. Please feel free to peruse this post, and as always, your comments are welcome. Now, to the post.
Last night, I went to see Wall.E at the El Capitan Theatre with Willow, Adam, Todd, Kristen, Michael, and Brooke. On Friday was Willow's birthday, so this was timed to be part of the birthday weekend. Willow is turning "29" so she's only taking up a weekend to celebrate. I'm sure when she turns 40 (like, never!), she will consider the option of a celebratory year.
Once again, we purchased VIP tickets. The VIP tickets cost about twice the normal ones, but you get assigned seating and a custom bucket of popcorn and a drink. The bucket is a little plastic bucket with a lid, and in this case it was decorated with Wall.E artwork. These buckets are very useful, so we keep them jealously. You do not want to lose your bucket! If you're in the habit of buying popcorn and a drink when you go to the movies, you'll pay about the same for said goodies as you did for your ticket, so ultimately the VIP tickets are a pretty good deal. I myself am not a huge movie theater popcorn fan (I don't know what they put in the stuff, but it always makes me a little nauseated), but I do like my bucket.
Here we are, once again, outside the theater getting ready for our evening of excitement. There is even some fancy juggling in which Willow is in mortal danger.
The movie is unbelievable. And by unbelievable I mean it is astounding. It was very entertaining, as all Pixar movies are, they have a great sense of humor. But this one was so interesting and packed with detail and social commentary (some of it, I might add, not necessarily in favor of companies such as Disney itself) that I barely was able to laugh at the funny parts. My mind was so engaged that I couldn't even laugh. I registered where the movie was funny, I agreed that it was funny, but being entertained was a secondary thought in the back of my head. I don't know if Pixar meant to make such a powerful film, but they did. I know this is a very vague description of it, but if you haven't seen the film, I don't want to give anything away. You really must must must see it. As soon as it comes out on DVD, I will purchase it immediately and watch it a few more times.
After the movie, we went next door to Disney's Soda Fountain and Studio Store. This is a classic-style soda fountain, where you can get sundaes, shakes and malts, floats etc. You can see their menu here, if you're curious.
Last time we had one of these outings and wanted to finish the evening with an ice cream, we were rebuffed because the soda fountain closed early. What's worse, we found ourselves getting shakes and burgers at a competitor's store! Fortunately for us, Disney's customer service would not stand for it, and this time we were treated to the ice cream of our choice. Say what you will about Disney, but if they care about every single customer they way they did with us, then they deserve customer loyalty. If you think I'm exaggerating, just think back to your most recent shitty customer service experience (which for most of us was probably within the last month, unfortunately) and how invalidating and frustrating that experience was, and then tell me I'm wrong. I for one make my consumer choices based on customer service when I can. For example, Dell will never ever have my business again, and if they end up as the only computer company on earth, I will stop using computers (I won't even include a link to their website, I think they're a terrible company). Conversely, I'm not willing to even consider switching from Verizon Wireless because their customer service is so damn good, i-Phone notwithstanding.
But I digress.
At the soda fountain, I got a banana split. Here's a picture of it. The banana, split in half lengthwise, is lying on the bottom buried under the yumminess. On top are 2 scoops of vanilla ice cream, one scoop of chocolate ice cream, strawberries, maraschino cherries, whipped cream, almonds and walnuts sprinkled on top, and marshmallow cream. This was an adult moment: ice cream for dinner, because I can!
And here's Todd's Wall.E sundae.
Of course, as this was Willow's birthday celebration, video was shot, including the birthday singing by the soda fountain servers. Note that we got to sit at a section that was closed - it was actually reserved for us.
Today we continue the celebration by enjoying a picnic in the park. It's a gorgeous day, sunny and warm, the perfect temperature for a picnic, but not too hot. More of that later.
