You're all dressed up to go draming, now don't tell me I'm wrong, And what a night to go dreaming, mind if I tag along? Bing Crosby, Raod to Morocco

As always, Disneyland impresses me with the sheer design of space, and the durability of things. It was cleaner this time than the last time I was here, so there has been some turn around in management. The people doing customer service are for the most part really into the "happiest place on Earth" unto I suspect a little weed being smoked in the back room. One guy who waited on me I swear he was high, about my age and very very cheerful, and making some very weird change (to my benefit). There were a few jerks too, mostly they just blew you off if you asked something in genuine confusion. Like I say, a little weird, and the customer service people were referred to as "cast" as if the entire thing was one big show.

I heard more Spanish being spoken than English by the crowd. And it was not all the "normal" Spanish I learned, but differing dialects.

 

Out in front, there is a huge "quad" (with a huge intaglio compass rose), a space that allows you to orient on one of two parks, or Downtown Disney (the shopping mall) or the parking lots and trams. There were 6-sided bricks with the names of donors on them………. Of all the thousands of these benefactor hexagons, I was shocked to find a "Kira Mfawnwy Thomas" and wondered if it was a relation of Ray Thomas. He named his boat Mfawnwy I do believe. (means "beloved" in Welsh).

 

Disney always has had a thing about the "four directions" which belays his Native American influence (Jung was writing about this sort of thing in the 50‘s); few people get it but the original Disneyland was set up like the Land of Oz, with four "lands" in each of the corners (Fantasyland, Tomorrowland, Adventureland, and Frontierland). In fact I remember a time when there WAS no Main Street, which dates me! (well I WAS very small then). Then Uncle Walt built Main Street around 1959-60, put his offices in the second story of same, then built the D-land hotel (with his penthouse at the top, naturally), then the monorail, and the rest is history. New Orleans Square was carved out of Frontierland to compliment Pirates of the Caribbean, and the first on-site restaurants were part of it (The Blue Bayou with all those lovely fireflies).

Somewhere in my recent travels, someone said the California Adventure was "a waste, and made more money as a parking lot!". I disagree, I was tickled with the new addition, and think with time it will grow into a very neat place to be. C.A. is divided up into various places you might find around California proper. The most obvious is the Paradise Pleasure Pier: Baby Boomers who grew up in SoCal know places like the Pike, POP (Pacific Ocean Park) the Venice Pleasure Pier (this is where the Cheetah used to be, in the 60‘s). And of course, those California "pleasure piers" were simply knock -offs of the old Coney Island in New York.. The imagineers at Disney have put in roller coasters (this made out of iron, not wood), Ferris Wheels, a "mock" Venice Ballroom (Hotel Del?) There was a RAINBOW PIER. Well, just a little one, all done on bamboo poles, and old lanterns hanging off them in all colors. There was a classic Midway too, where you could pitch balls at stacked milk bottles! (I wonder if you could win goldfish?) And swing chairs……. The thing that impressed me the most, was the actual wooden boardwalk, which had two levels, rather like the dock in Victoria, one upper, and one lower near the water. There used to be a boardwalk in Laguna Beach like this too. And the benches. I think they must have been the real thing, because they were very very familiar. Dragons mouths lolled off the armrests, and dolphins were molded into the metal frames, chipping sea green paint. I think they had the same benches on the Long Beach boardwalk. When those places were torn down, the benches must have been up for sale, and who better than Disney to buy them?

The old Tomorrowland jets are also on the Paradise Pleasure Pier, while in old Tomorrowland, the tower that once carried the little rockets now has arms adorned with old satellite dishes, as a modern sculpture, very cool.

The rest of California Adventure included:

California Adventure is going to grow, I can tell….. It had the incomplete "rustic" feel to it like Disneyland used to have in the old days, the 60’s. It was very uncrowded, which was very nice. There is a lot of potential in the lagoon area (I can just see paddle boats like they have at Tahoe on that), and I didn’t mention the two "drop and scream" towers because I don’t do that stuff (but they looked fun), and the mural on the walls outside CA was one of the prettiest mosaics I’ve ever seen in my life. It was like stained glass, only done in hand made tiles, and fit together in to wonderful scenery. They wedged in some wine tasting too, but seeing the prices on everything else, I didn’t bother. I’ve done the real thing, thank you.

What I did in the original park??? I was able to get on:

I really wanted to get on the monorail, Thunder Mountain, and Submarine (they call it "Finding Nemo" now. I can remember being excited by live mermaids in my day). But the lines were horrible, remind me to never do Disneyland in the summer again. They had a "fast pass" system where you inserted you ticket, got a spot on a future running of the ride, and then could go do something else. It helped but not enough.

I learned what a 5150 is at Disneyland: A "Code D" is a flipped out customer at D-land. Some freak out on the rides, but are perfectly ok folks. The workers have to be ready to deal with it.

Two very cool "live" action things impressed me. The first was Jedi Academy in Tomorrowland, wherein a true stunt actor took about 20 little kids from the audience, and showed them light saber technique. This is remarkably like samurai swordsmanship, or perhaps broadsword technique. One stance looked like a baseball batting stance. It was the real thing! Then a dude dressed like Darth Vader, and two storm troopers appeared, and engaged the Younglings, it was great interactive fun. I hope no small children were traumatized by the real life appearance of such a ferocious villain!

 

  • Moonlight becomes you, it goes with your hair
  • You certainly know the right things to wear.........

AND early on, I had just gotten to the park, got off in New Orleans, was trying to repack on a park bench, when an old gent crept past me. He was carrying a guitar. A nice one. A blonde Gibson 335. He was an old Black guy, grizzled, and appeared to have stepped off the streets of modern New Orleans……….. I sat and listened, he plugged in and burbled around for a while, no special tune, but suddenly I DID hear something I knew. (racking my brains) it was MOONLIGHT BECOMES YOU. I wonder if he saw the Moon Child on my tee as he went by? Naw. But I really really enjoyed it (in fact I had to put on sunglasses to hide my red eyes!) That song is from Road to Morocco, one of my all time faves, and they also used it in First Contact when Jean Luc Picard is dodging the Borg in a Dixon Hill holo-novel. I always thought it would be nice on the guitar, and indeed it was.

I skipped Toontown, barely strolled into Fantasyland, skipped the Jungle Ride, and Splash Mountain (as much as I love Song of the South). Space Mountain gives me the jumps too, and I didn’t have time; ditto Matterhorn. Skipped Autopias. Ah I remember the days when my brothers would ride that three times! Junior Autopia and the motorboats ore long gone. There was some place little girls were going to "princess school" and coming out with butterflies painted on their faces (it was very cute, they were everywhere). I HATE the live shows they are always doing in the middle of Main Street, they are cheesy, and always block traffic.

I REALLY enjoyed the three 3-D shows I saw, one was "Bug’s Life" the second "Honey I Shrunk the Audience" and the Muppet Vision one. Bug’s Life had the 3-D effect nailed, but the other two didn’t. You had to wear the glasses (I stole a pair) and it had me trying to catch butterflies that weren’t there! My fave part was in "Honey" the little kid comes out with a mouse, after answering what he fed it (popcorn, boogers and jelly beans) he put it into a replicator. The next thing you know, someone is asking where the hundreds of mice went, and you felt little things run by your feet in the theatre! SQUEALS went up everywhere!

I was exhausted of course by fireworks time, a lot of it due to my bad organization and walking too much. But it WAS nice, I went by myself, and didn’t have to put up with anyone’s whining or behavior. I only had one meal that day, other than the quick breakfast snack burger, and that root beer float. I hiked off the park grounds about 7 to the Panda Express and had a wonderful meal along with a Tsing-Tao beer. By 9 am, I made it to the Jazz Kitchen, Judy Elving found me, and we watched fireworks a bit. Then off to the Rainforest for some much needed beer.

Judy told me an interesting story. I was babbling about the Paradise Pleasure Pier and how they were playing Beach Boys but as calliope music "we've been having fun all summer long" seemed to really sum up the moment, but imagine it as a plinky music box song. Judy piped up, the Wilson brothers used to live next door to her Grandmother! I about dropped my teeth. She had some strange story about them stealing her brothers' lunch money, but it was a bit of strange history indeed........ I think they all lived in Hawthorne.

Kim Paris came and was out there somewhere, but got sidetracked by the music in the Jazz Kitchen (it WAS good) and Roberta Halog showed up, but otherwise we were it. Judy and I talked quite a while, sipping our drinks, and she was kind enough to take me back to Dinah’s. I crashed and burned………….

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