Thursday 13

Thirteen Facts About Our Recent Visit to Disneyland (or Dizzyland, as Frank likes to call it) MJ and her camera card are still in California, so I'll have to add some photos to this later. For now, just the facts... 1. Our touring buddies, the Traaseths, are terrific people with a 'touring style' quite compatible with our own. 2. Tomorrowland is (still and always) very, very L O U D. 3. FastPasses are a great idea, but they tend to lead to lots of extra walking. I think we traveled between Tomorrowland and Frontierland about twelve thirteen times. 4. Pirates of the Caribbean has been updated to include Jack Sparrow, Davy Jones, and Captain Barbosa. This is mostly fine with me—it was fun spotting the changes—but my heart yearned for the way it was when I was a kid. Of course, with the older changes for political correctness, it hasn't been that way in many a moon. I also felt a pang for all the people who now won't be able to recognize what elements from the ride made it into the movies. For example, the dog-with-the-keys joke in the first movie just went flat. 5. Indiana Jones is still not worth standing in very long lines for. Yes, I'm expecting argument on that one. No, you won't convince me I'm wrong. And Abbi and Alec agreed with me, so there. 6. Space Mountain had to be shut down briefly—just as we were getting close to our turn—because a very tall man stood up as his spaceship was leaving port. He wouldn't fit under the restraint bar. The delay was a bother (MJ was waiting for us on Main Street with a headache), but it was fascinating to watch as they reset the ride. The coolest part was the way they added in ships to speed things up after the reset. They slid a section of track over and the new ship, on a replacement section of track, slotted right in. They were able to add four or five new ships in less than a minute. But why weren't those ships already in use, you might wonder. I wonder, too. Is a 40-minute wait part of the attraction? Is there some study somewhere that says people need long waits in order to appreciate their day at Disneyland? It's hard to imagine, but maybe so. 7. The fireworks show was the best I have ever seen. We weren't planning to watch it, figuring we'd get some good rides in while the crowd was occupied, but we couldn't tear ourselves away. The shaped bursts were amazing: smiley faces, hearts, stars, cubes, and planets with rings. They fired these cool rocket flares in succession—just like the corks popping in "Be Our Guest" in "Beauty and the Beast"—and Tinkerbell made a high-wire flight above the castle, while rocket flares went off all around her (him? she was pretty buff). Oh, and they made football-field-sized smoke rings that would get backlit by subsequent bursts. Cool and amazing stuff. (Sorry, Kyra.) 8. Thunder Mountain Railroad is still my favorite coaster there, especially our no-line, nighttime run through it. We also had a pretty good time on our second of three runs on the Matterhorn. It seemed faster than the others. Go figure. 9. Chocolate covered frozen bananas! (Need I say more?) 10. MJ and Chloe didn't buy anything except food. What's up with that? I guess they have reached their quota on Disney paraphernalia. 11. We were there for fifteen hours and went on approximately 15 rides. Factoring in the size of the President's Day crowd and our stops for food, rests, and bathroom breaks, it doesn't seem a bad average. But those planning trips should definitely not assume one day will be enough time to see everything. 12. I could barely move the next day and I still have sore muscles. I think climbing up to Tarzan's treehouse was a mistake. :-) 13. My five favorite moments of the day: * Walking onto Main Street when we arrived, full of anticipation and so happy to be in the Happiest Place on Earth. * The four girls walking abreast in lockstep, arms linked, with Alec walking in sync beside them but just a bit too independent to link up. * Talking about femininity with Kelli while in line to face her demons on the Matterhorn. * Our group hug in Adventureland. * Driving Alec and Abbi back to their hotel, having almost made it to the midnight closing time, with all the kids laughing and talking in the back seats, and with Frank happy to play chauffer and hear our stories after his blissful, Disney-free day alone. Get the Thursday Thirteen code here! View More Thursday Thirteen Participants