We were going to the beginner of this magical spell, this grand curtain-like illusion, where magic is real and all you have to do is just go to Disneyland...where dreams come true. Kids all over the nation and even the world love going to the Disney Theme Parks, riding the rides, seeing the shows, and craning their necks for the fireworks at night. In a world that needs enlightenment and fun, Disney Land and Disney World sure give you something to dream about, think about, and smile about. But now to the blog about our experience there.
It was the 13th of March, and I was blogging about a fake alien encounter on that day, a spin off of a real blog post of Roswell, New Mexico. In it we battled aliens with names like Googilalala, G for short, from X-9, with triangle like spacecraft. I wrote it all out on my other blog, Andrew's Inventive Adventures, in the very morning, with the dogs bugging me asking for tummy rubbings and my parents snoring, Rebecca in her beauty sleep. Trouble is, it was on a tab, page, whatever, that wasn't saved, and even the usually "Save now" blue button had red lines and error signs everywhere. I thought it was saved though, and dumbly went to the page which shows them all, pressing the save button and then the publish post. Then it went to the other page, but something was wrong. When I checked back it only did part of the post, and I was devastated, crying, screaming, and saying all this to Mom. She told me it was okay and it was a lesson to save every document in Word. I was really mad and sad and didn't want to learn about lessons. I had put all my hard work into that action packed story! And all the good parts of it was gone! I couldn't really write it again, could I?
Dad helped me out by going and looking at all the different tabs. Miraculously, it was on there, but not saved. I transported it to Word, saved it there, and then opened up the create post and copied and saved it on that page. After that I edited with spellcheck, and then published my document. You can read "An Alien Experience" on my other blog, http://andrewsinventiveadventures.com
I was ultra happy now that the story was out on the "blogosphere" as they call it. It would of made the day and the blog too terrible if I had gone to Disneyland hating life and so sad that the story wasn't published. But that little drama scene probably made me a lot more happy in the end, happy and optimistic for the adventure at Disneyland, where dreams come true.
My mom had a family that she played with when she lived in Cali, and stayed with them when in her teens she returned. They are the Abrahamsons and they had three children she played with and spent time with, Meg, her best friend and pen pal, Doug, and Eric. Eric happened to work at Disneyland, so on the previous evening Mom had phoned him saying she'd like to see him perform or do his act, because she had done so with Meg at another place, Knotts Berry Farms. He thought that she was asking for free tickets as us as his guest, but the thought didn't even occur in Mom's mind. Anyway, he said to meet us in the edge of Downtown Disney, at a bakery cafe kind of place and he'd eat breakfast with us, catch up, and then he'd take us to Disneyland and we could go do whatever we wanted to do, which included listening to his act. So, we drove to Downtown Disney, parked, and went along the broad street lining the shops we had been to the previous night. As we walked along the fancy large chain restaurants, a shop on the left side of the venues caught my eye.
It was THE DISNEYLAND SHOP, where merchandise comes true. (I just made up the last part.) On it was metal sculptures of some characters on a blue and yellow globe on top of the sign, a clock including Goofy, Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum, and Micky and Pluto, all in a funny array, trying to stay on the globe. There was two entrances, and so the second one had Donald Duck's kids, with him in a plane, and them all being silly with all their funny faces and trying to take down Donald. It didn't move, but yet it signaled adventure, movement, and the effects of the characters' faces made it pretty chuckling to look at. Right past that on the same side was a french sounding bakery, with a black railing and tables with umbrellas outside. People sat eating omelets and other tasty treats. We walked in the entrance where waiters let us go through, and we sat at the rectangular table at the end by a wall and construction noises, a sign saying a new edition was coming in in a few months. We were going to wait until Eric was there, but he texted Mom saying he was arriving by tram and we should just start eating, for he wasn't actually going to have time to eat a meal with us. The tram was across the street, a long sheek futuristic looking train propelled by white rails on the top. I looked at the menu.
It was quite expensive. And fancy, with names I both had never heard of and had ingredients I hated or didn't care to try. So, I returned as us tweens (twelve year olds) sometimes do, to the kids menu. I just got some scrambled eggs and a pancake or two, and I ate that graciously, still fairly hungry from not having anything that day. I'm not saying it was the best eggs or pancake i had ever eaten, which it wasn't,but it was satisfactory of my needs. Mom had some fancy eggs benedict thing and Dad a french omelet. There was a white pavilion at the drop off spot for the tram, and every few minutes scores of people, woman and children, uniformed or not, with employees and customers, old and fat, young and slim, filed through. I tried to look for a short man, who might be bald, through all the people. Mom kept saying no as I asked while looking at a few, bearded or cleanshaven. Rebecca got mad at me because I made a few short jokes when we were walking to breakfast. I'd never say that to anyone who might be smaller than i was. Well, I did it once, only yesterday, when a kid in only his underpants at a pool said "Haha, I'm taller than you!" to my cousin, who's older and a little smaller than the younger kid. I went up to him and said, "Haha, I'm taller than you!" only to give him a piece of his own medicine.
Mom and Rebecca needed to go to the restroom, and Dad stayed by the table to pay and to also look out for Eric. Sadly, the closest restroom was in the large and tall metal and white stone DISNEYLAND STORE. I went along with them, just because it be boring sitting and waiting and I wanted to see if their was anything in here I might walking in. Upon walking under Donald and his ducklings, we passed by a security man or greeter, tan and rather old, who said hello to us in a very nice way. Inside were stands or columns with several Disney characters, clothes and shirts and caps, and the Disney characters were like Lumiare (not sure I spelled that right) from Beauty and the Beast, and Flounder and Buzz Lightyear and the like. And on the walls above the uniformed purple shirted employees, funny songs from all the movies, and carpeted floor, were glorious paintings including the dalmatians and Alice in Wonderland, all among the different corners and alcoves different characters galore. Alas, we could not take time to shop, oh no, we had to go to the very back of the shop, go to the restroom quickly, and thereafter speed through the extravagant and large shop once more and go outside to be there before Eric arrived. This would be hard.
Trying to be casual we quickly walked, taking long strides. I tried to take a look around as we took a sharp turn right among some Lion King action figures. Behind two dressing room mirrors Mom and Rebecca emerged in the restrooms, while I curiously looked around, under Alice and the Mad Hare with a tea cup set in plastic right under it. I went along this way some more, and took a peek at some awesome star wars plasters and even an Indiana Jones whip. I was so glad they had finally included boy items, not all the tees and dresses and makeup! My search was very short lived, however, and Mom tugged me back to our entrance. Zimming through it once more we stood outside the restaurant with Dad sitting down, analyzing the passersby from the tram. It came our way and tons of people filed out. Among the crowded chaos, Mom squinted in the CA sun and instantly recognized Eric. He was bald, broad shouldered and.... I must say it.... shorter than the average man but only a little... like a little taller than me. He was wearing jeans, a green shirt, and was hauling a satchel, beige and strapped to his shoulder tightly. We went through the crowd to say hello to him, and he hugged Mom and shook my hand.
"Great to see you. My name's Eric!" he said to Rebecca and complimented her outfit. Mom was very grateful to see him and Mom caught up with him a little on the way. Eric was married and had a couple of daughters. Meg would really like to see us and lived in the area, and maybe in the next few days she'd pay us a visit. As we exited Downtown Disney and got to some gates with ticket booths and those five metal cylinder spinny things and security guards with the blue and yellow DISNEYLAND sign above, crossing all this stone, I was crazily impressed at how quick we got in. Past times at Disney World it had taken a long time, with ticketing and prices and waiting all involved. This time, Eric scanned a credit card looking rectangle on a scanner and then he said, "Their with me" and we went in. The small metal detectors and checking of our bags, and then, we were off. We had entered Disneyland!
I was very excited when we were handed the map and left to our devices. This world of characters and dreams, and unlimited possibility! It was too bad we could not first enrich ourselves in the statue and fountain in the front of the mouse with a city hall, a small of every one in America, with a hast shop and several Victorian looking buildings, stone, balconies, flat, and square in this small circle. Something about Lincoln on our right with reddish brown and a hat shop, called the Mad Hatter, probably after the dude in Alice in Wonderland. I wanted to look around at these things for a bit, but no, Eric had to take us to where he performed, and then he'd get dressed and we would wait for Dad by calling him and telling the situation. Disneyland from this point turned into a street, Main Street U.S.A., to be exact. There was a broad way, two sidewalks and two rows of buildings, and a train track, metal and in the ground, in between. And boy was it crowded. People of all different skin types and gender and blood types and work types flooded the area. All these buildings were also very Victorian with a kind of 1920's feel to it. They were mostly brick or stone and mostly shops and small restaurants, only the ones where you eat nachos and coke at a small table, no Olive Garden or anything like that.
One across the street on the right from us took my notice. It had that classic theater square outside a tall white angular building, with the black background and bulby lights around. It said "Steamboat Willie" now playing, and from the name and little commercial showings on Disney Channel I knew that it was the classic first cartoon Mickey Mouse was featured in, with the whole blowing of the horn and the black and white smile and no pupiled-lips. I'm so glad they updated him. It would be creepy if they still had him with those just-black eyes. Shivers.
We also passed by one that had a huge tall white thing in front of it, the building did, and it said the EMPORIUM, with also the square in front like the Willie theater. It said it had books and gifts and other stuff, and in the windows were cool moving statues like Snow White and her in the coffin with the dwarfs around and the monkey on the rock with the lion in his hands, all moving and colored and life like. I wanted to look at them more as we sped on. Now we were at on the left side of the street tables with umbrellas and red and white colored, with facing the entrance a inside area, counter with an old fashioned fifties menu. There was also a step-up piano that said Rag Time and the times on it also, the performances that he was doing. He left to go get changed, stating that his performance was at like 11, later on. It was in like an hour. He only had three other performances, and so we wanted to see it the first time so our whole day didn't revolve around trying to be back for the piano thing and then eventually not finding the time to do it. However, Dad was back at the entrance, and he wouldn't find us alone so we'd have to go back to the entrance, call him and locate them, and then we'd mill around Main Street and that circle where the statue was stationed. Maybe even see that "Steamboat Willie" thing.
I didn't know fully all this until we were walking back along Main Street and then into the circle, where on the steps of the statue we squinted into the sun, directly behind the dimmer city hall. Dad was easy to locate. Tan skin, red or white Chevrolet ball cap, collared shirt with pens in the buttoned part, large baggy khaki pants and slicked back silver hair, you couldn't miss him. We saw him emerge from the gate on the right side, carrying with him some maps of the park, saying Your Guide to Disneyland Park in fancy middle ages lettering, with Star Tours 3D logo (it was in blue and a triangle) and Darth Vader, red light saber in hand, taking up a lot of the picture, snowy peaks mingled with sheer droppings enclosed in the background. This I really wanted to do, on looking on a page in the map, where it said you can't miss Star Tours, which is a show in 3D. They also mentioned Space Mountain, Indiana Jones Adventure, among others. I really wanted to do or see these, Star Tours especially as I loved it at Disney World and the others I had done many times. These were all in Adventureland and Tomorrowland, probably my favorite part of Disneyland. I looked at the greatly illustrated map, the painted colors, the different colored sections and sidebars, and the numbers and keys. I was now ready to go get going. Let's go do Disneyland.
I like crazy hats and maybe they would have a top hat in the "Mad Hatter". I asked Mom if we could go in, and while she took pics with Rebecca of people using iPads as cameras Dad and I went in there. It was very disappointing. There were little cloth and wool hats, like Goofy hats with buck teeth over the forehead, and fake little hats. No real ones though. The shop had a lot of merchandise and hangers, wasn't very big, and so we milled to the right where the other stuff was. The doors had been open and it was the same over here. In the carpeted area with blue painted walls and a bad corridor leading to double doors to some more rooms, we looked at paintings of iconic people who changed the world, and also another one about Disney stuff, the history of the great parks and also a 3d of the Castle and what it was modeled after, one in Germany. I looked at paintings of Orville and Wilbur Wright, Henry Ford, Thomas Edison, and several other great minds of the 19th and 20th centuries. I also read little bios of them. A man in uniform said there was a performance going on, called "Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln" where they had a real talking robot of Abe Lincoln, the first animated figure at Disneyland, of many in the future. The doors opened and the red and black tailored suited man lead us in to the red curtains, two lighted exit signs, the black chairs and the room coming up in the air and then swooping down like every small or big auditorium does. I looked at the stage.
Large red curtains and two large T.V.'s on either side. What were they for? I wondered. Well, we found seats right in the very center of the area, and then turned off cell phones, waiting for the show to begin. In only a few minutes after mumbling about what the show would be about it began. The screens lit up a rugged flag, blue and red and white with some painted or animated scratches and tints and stains to it. A deep voiced narrator told of America's greatness, it's rise to freedom for all people behinds it's doors, and how the Revelation went with the Revolutionary War stated. Then with gunpowder and paintings of militia men it shifted to a more fun and industrial period after that war, with Victorian styles, steamboats, great trade and commerce, and not to forget the Industrial Revolution. In this time period Abe Lincoln grey up and new this time, peaceful and simple, with only trouble brewing as states decide whether to have slaves or not(Kansas/Nebraska Act) and John Brown's Harper's Ferry stand and Harriet Beecher Stowe's book Uncle Tom's Cabin heat up the debate even more. It showed more paintings with more sound effects. Also it went to describe the Civil War as the state's seceded and blood and guts was displayed a lot. And in this crisis the Union strongly prevailed, but it was at great cost that they reclaimed lost states and freed slaves. On this note of forgiving and forgetting being mandatory, Lincoln made a great speech:
At this moment the curtains went up and Abe Lincoln appeared. He was sitting down on a chair surrounded by some fake books, and stood up, kind of looking real but not exactly with two many movements and his motions being too slow, and delivered what I think is the 2nd Inaugural Address, stating to become friends and to put it all behind you. I'm paraphrasing of course, because he sure did say forewith and albeit and wondrous and centre a lot, words like that you know. After delivering this address, the short haired brown with zit on cheek and tall and lean form sat down, then the curtains rolled away and down for a choir like singing and paintings of America, with "America the beautiful" in the background. Purple mountain majesties and amber ways of grain paintings made their way upon the screen. We filed out the exit door, with a few other people who were there, and I liked it all right but it wasn't what I expected. There was a really good "Ghosts of the Library" production we saw at the Lincoln Museum in Springfield, IL that was a lot better.( See "Abraham Lincoln Library and Museum" for details)
Well we left the circled area to go to Eric's piano session. After this we'd go to Adventureland, which even by the name I could see was going to be awesomely awesome. It was good to see Dad again and I'd bet he'd like meeting Eric. He thought the Abraham Lincoln was very educational and great. Sitting down at a circle table with metal chairs and a red and white umbrella, Eric in a boulder hat, bow tie and long blue pants and nice vest and pocket watch came out in true Victorian fashion. He smiled and resumed his place on his piano, wooden casing around it and a step which made it higher. He looked like a different person, I have to say. Playing ragtime like a true artist, a combination of blues and classical with a modern twist, his fingers effortlessly flew over the black and white keys, making joyful noise and nice little tunes. As this part of MainStreet was right next to a thing about Mary Poppins(and she was probably in here because Main Street is supposed to look like the late 1800's, early 1900's where Mary Poppins is stationed), Eric also did some Mary Poppins theme songs. While she's on my mind I'll state we took a picture with the large dressed old hatted Poppins...well an actress.
Mom told us to go sing Supercalifr.... you know what I'm talking about. We were a little out of practice with the song, but nevertheless did our best to sing the part. Most of it was either mumbling or singing the chorus, but when Mom told us to do Zip-a-dee-doo-da we was golden. Mama, bless her heart, she were a takin' a picture.... wait a second why am I talking like this? Oh yeah, I thought of Zip-a-dee-do-da, which made me think of Song of the South, that movie, which made me think of Uncle Remus, that sharecropper in the movie. He's not a slave... it's post-Civil War GA. Yeah it's not racist. It's a great movie. Anyway, that we knew better. Sitting down, a man had a toddler and a wife and paid him a tip, as Eric blushed, sort of embarrassed. Another man was a rag time fan and was disappointed when Eric didn't know a song but they talked about the music "art" for a few minutes. After that his gig was over, and he talked to us and was introduced to Dad, who shook his hand. He showed us pictures of his kids on his phone, and Mom took pictures of us with 'ole Eric. We then said goodbye to him, and went about our day. Moving away from the broad way of Main Street, we came to the actual big statue, not just the one in the front. This circle was quite large, but with a circled street going around instead of a triangular form as in the beginning. There was also no shops or buildings crowding around it, just the different sections of the park. Tomorrow Land on the right, Main Street creeping behind, Adventure Land and parts of Frontier land on the South and North West, and the giant castle marking Fantasy Land in front. The statue was Walt Disney and Mickey Mouse holding hands waving, in bronze.
It was time to start. I was really excited to finally go on a ride or something in this magical place, this great place of dreams and fairy tales and movies. AdventureLand was first, which I was glad about. The entrance, with cut in lettering, green and yellow on a wooden surface and Amazon noises everywhere, was two buildings holding a wooden frame. As I walked on the grey stone crowded by hundreds of different people, I passed by some sandstone arched buildings, with red adobe architecture, all the usual safari gear in their stores. I did look at a few Indiana Jones hats, (as I did with cowboy hats around the country) but didn't buy any out of the stores on the right with no doors, their merchandise seen from the walkway. Why, you may ask? My hat is so much better than any of theirs, as with the cowboy hats, as it's felt, with a leather strap strip and dino like skin around the head part, and is crushable and easy to wear. I substitute it as a cowboy hat, but it was from Disney World at the Indiana Jones thing there. By the entrance at a corner with large brown staffs and leafy palm trees, green marking the scenery, was a restaurant, the Enchanted Tiki Room, also a show. On my left was a docking area, with brown slanting roofs and balconies, and a lot of people with no doors, just tons of people filing in lines, with something saying the Jungle Cruise. We had done that before and it was way too long a line for just robot animals and fake safari camps with dead people and awesomely constructed broken down jeeps and tattered tents. Man it's pretty fun but you have to wait in line so long!
Mom and Dad were wondering what we would do as we walked along more. There was only four attractions in this part, and it seemed at Disney World there was a lot more, Aladdin and Dumbo and some more stuff. Maybe I just didn't pick a good spot to start. On the great map with wonderful painted images (no MapQuest or anything like that) I saw that something was Indiana Jones Adventure. I knew this from MGM in Orlando to be a large arena show where we watched an actor who played Jones go away from the ball and the whole desert Egypt scene with the bald guy and the plane.(sorry if you haven't seen the movies and you don't know what I'm talking about.) Then they explained how they did it all, which I especially liked because I'm delighted with the director-movie process and wish to be in that business. I didn't care that much if we saw it again, but it probably would be fun. We walked and on our right was wooden beams in a super large tree. This was probably that Swiss Family Robinson deal I had so loved at Disney World. And then the road thinned out, and in the foliage a man said that the Indiana Jones Adventure was this way. We went through a small gate, large palm leaves and sunlight pouring through green dense plants surrounding the area. This was the line for this great adventure.
We were fairly close to the river, close enough that I vaguely saw riverboats in their beige and khaki go past, through the green trees and high plants. And then suddenly we were in the 1940's, on an archaeologist trip in the Amazon or Brazil or Peru. We were walking through a long and boring line of people, my only entertainment looking at people, ease dropping on conversations, talking to Mom and Dad, or looking at the map and analyzing what we should do next. My video camera picked up, and my phone too, the amazing stuff around us. We went around a metal cage, square, with some rotating thing in it, metal and damp it seemed, as cracking of whips and elephant noises amplified though beige wooden crates which littered a scene. There was also old army jeeps, worn over with mirrors cracked and missing, and a few tents up with torn over idols of ghastly images. There was more old antique stuff like this. And then, as we kept switch-backing lines, going this way and that, behind and in front of all the fake stuff to keep us entertained and make it look genuine and mask us into Disney's Illusion, I saw what appeared to be a Myan pyramid. It had levels of it's square bottom and then planks going out around it, rectangular. Look up mayan pyramid and you'll probably see what I'm talking about. It was brown, with it looking like it was made of thatch. Ladders stretched out along the levels that started large at the bottom and got smaller as they went up, used to pull up when enemies came and had no transportation to get up. Smart idea. There were two cobras on the front, statues, I took pictures of and sent to a friend in text.
Those were frightening, barely even seeable, with forked tongues and yellowed eyes against the almost all beige statue. They were wider and bigger than actual snakes' heads, and had soft and silky looking heads before you came down to their scaly body, flaps on the sides that made them menacing, and then the S formation with the rattled tip at the end making the all so familiar reference to S being known as snake, serpent, and Satan. Try rolling those words over in your mouth. S is the form a snake can take, and also the sound it makes, so we connect the before-honest letter of S as those terrible words. But anyway, the line twisted back to the entrance up a walkway, and then turned left once more, so now we were on the same level as the entrance, the door, to this Myan Temple. Oh yes, the adventure was about to begin!
Was it just the performance and show or a ride? Only time would tell.
The line slowly shifted into the dark and dimly lighted temple. Stone walls and a chilly presence, the one you get in an abandoned house, a creepy cave, or your strict teacher's living room, came to us. Dad, iPad in hand, brought up the rear as I took up third place and Mom led, but sometimes Rebecca did too. I tried to talk to all of them and about my thoughts on this interesting place. We were in a narrow corridor, and the walkway traveled downward. All the while, there were strange markings in the walls, red and figurines of some sort, in edition to panels telling about Mara, and many red slanting and oval like eyes. Mom didn't let me read those, as she said that maybe the performance was about to begin, and maybe we'd come back through here, and so we could take it slower on the return journey. This path was divided into two areas, a blue rope separating them, and we were on the right side. We came into a domed room, sunlight streaming from a small class circle at the top of this, hyalagriphics all around and several Egyptian statues making their mark around. Then we started to go up, passing a large eye, streaming red light, and it blocking a doorway, plus several spears in places on the wall, seemingly like they had been thrown in an effort to uhh... impale somebody.
Then it went up, the walkway, I mean, and to the right of another wall. I could hear switches making, and some Indian guy talking. Who was this? When I saw employees bending over and heard all this stuff, my hunches were confirmed when I thought this was a ride, no show. Yeah, it certainly made sense, because why would be in this temple, and why was it an adventure with it saying under the caption, "Beware the Wrath of Mara as you descend into the temple of the Forbidden Eye in search of Ancient Treasure!" Mom had already made her suspicions clear of it being a ride. There were truck like vehicles, with several rows and seat belts. Now the question was not if it was a ride or show, but if the ride was scary.
I hoped not. I don't like scary rides where they try to defy gravity and I'm afraid out of my wits. Although Space Mountain was one of them and I had done that ride a lot. It was too late to back out, and I wondered with a large fear in motion of how bad the ride might turn out to be.
Uh oh. We were next in line.
Scary or timid? Only time would tell.
TO BE CONTINUED...(SEE " DISNEYLAND PART TWO" FOR THE NEXT THRILLING INSTALLMENT)
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