On Sunday ATG had a company “fun day” at Disneyland Theme Park. I took Beverly with me. It worked out well as she was at her mother’s house in Irvine because of a conference in San Diego she was attending the next day.
I picked her up around 9:30 and we were shortly on our way.
We quickly figured out that with the accelerating crowd growth (it was almost like people were giving birth inside the park) that it would be smartest to ride Pirates of the Caribbean (the only ride we really HAD to see) – which didn’t have FastPass, and then pick up a fastpass for an attraction to ride after lunch. We decided to pick up FastPass for the log ride loosely based on Brer Rabbit (sic). Beverly informed me of Song of the South and the rides link to Disney’s racial fumbling (“tar baby,” anyone?).
Pirates had been closed when I was at Disneyland a year earlier. They had added elements from the film series. The experience was a bit confusing for me – as my knowledge of the Pirates genre stemmed solely from the second feature film (which was confusing as all hell without watching the first). “Captain Jack” had been awkwardly implanted into the ride hiding in barrels and behind rosebushes. Towards the end he had a whole room where he stretched back in his chair and spoke of the plunder places all around him. The vast breach between the old animatronic technology and new was startling and a bit uncomfortable. The new “Sparrow” figures had many more points of articulation, lifelike latex skin, etc. that in the dark come together for a robot that is almost too real. Except for the fact that we know Johnny Depp wouldn’t lower himself to performing 20 times an hour inside a pirate costume for tourists. -although he did destroy Willy Wonka – so anything is possible.
One very surprising thing about Pirates is that they added a fog projector display – just like the one I bitched about seeing at the NextFest (check the September blog). Except, unlike at NextFest, we actually passed through it.
At lunch we ate monstrous portions of meat and mingled (although only slightly) with the regular crew (of mine).
After lunch we rode It’s a Small World (Beverly insisted since I’d never been). It is one of the oldest rides and also the most child-oriented. I kept thinking we were in a giant shopping mall Christmas display. The fact that we could clearly see the tiled ceiling, black drapes on the walls, churning gears, etc. didn’t help disillusion me. The cartoonish rain forest display was well done though.
On our way to Splash Mountain we decided to ride the Tea Cups. And yes she was made all kinds of dizzy by my expert spinning (I failed to mention to her that we had had our own “teacup” rip-off ride at every county fair as a child).
Splash Mountain was a bit odd. The wide berth for the boat resulted in a lot of hard bumps to correct our “canoe” as we were guided through the “desert” mountain en route to the “big” drop. Yes, we got wet.
An hour later we were somewhere in the vicinity of Newport Beach. We sat on rocks jutting out of the beach 30 feet high and admired the precarious architecture built into the cliffs behind us.
look – de plane! (or a pelican)
quick – who was sitting on the smooth rock – and who was sitting on the rough rock?….
Another hour later and we were eating Chinese with Beverly’s mother and before you knew it it was almost 10pm and time for me to start my long journey northward on the oft congested (and recently deadly) golden state freeway.
