What we learned at Disneyland

1) Unfortunately, the parking garage does not accept magic, love, and / or Disney spirit as payment.

2) There is no alcohol sold within the park. (*** exception below)
There *are* several eating / drinking establishments with deceptively misleading names like The Mint Julep Bar and Refreshment Corner. But don’t waste your time sprinting to them for an early happy hour. Unless you want some juice or a Coke.

3) Fat people carts, fka The Jazzy, are now being referred to as “Electronic Convenience Vehicles” (ECVs). For those of you with legitimate non weight-related medical issues, and the elderly, ride away. To the rest of you, please consider walking.

4) Johnny Depp is even stunningly hot as a mechanical fake pirate figure. I almost fell out of the Pirates of the Caribbean boat several times turning around to ogle him. (No photo available. I was so starstruck I forgot about my cameraphone)



5) It is a children’s park.
This means, among other things, that Uncle Walt and staff will not allow you to purchase a photo of you and your friends on a ride if someone is performing a “boob grab” (Official Disney Terminology. I kid you not). They will, however, send a nice patient manager out to give their inflexible inappropriate photo policy spiel, and you will be kindly escorted back to the ride (ironically, to the front of the line, with the fat people waiting on their ECVs,) to re-ride and attempt a more Disney friendly retake.
So for all you boob grabbers…take a photo of your photo when it appears up on the wall at the end of the ride. We are kicking ourselves for not doing this.

6) When riding the carousel, they *will* yell at you over the loudspeaker if you start whipping your "horsies" with the leather seat belt strap. And they do refer to them as “horsies.”

7) In other Uncle Walt Is Always Watching You infractions…they *can* see you, in the dark, even on the water rides, when you stick your hand into the magic Disney rivers and splash your friends. This will also result in a public loudspeaker chastising.

8) Happily, none of these playful violations results in expulsion from the park, a trip to the naughty chair, or a stay in Disney Jail.
(But how much fun would Disney Jail be?!... Maybe next time. A girl can only dream. )

9) The place is insanely clean. Sweepers with cool hot dog cart like vacuums appeared on Main Street 3 minutes after the end of day Celebration parade to suck up the rainbow colored Mickey confetti that littered the ground. They don’t sell gum. This also means that you don’t see gum on the streets anywhere. I think Disney & Singapore are on to something. Streets and sidewalks look magically new and clean without gum and cigarette butts.

10) It’s a Small World is just as soothing and magical as it was when I was ten.



11) The crowd is interesting and diverse. Princess costumes optional, and of course, sold on site. (The kids XL ones looked potentially wearable, and although tempted, I left empty-handed, unable to find a Tinkerbell one. ) Along with $18 balloons and every imaginable product in your household that they could figure out how to re-brand as Disney.

For those contemplating a visit….

***In 2009, you can get in free on the day of your birthday. You can also get an Express Pass to cut lines. Your friends, however, will all have to pay $72 and wait in lines. But it was definitely worth it. The first week of school seemed to be a good time to go. Lines were all under 30 minutes most of our day, but got a bit longer for everything by late afternoon. A good part of the waiting time turned out to be in the shade, and even in A/C. Go Disney line planning department!

*** Per the staff, it should be packed Labor Day, then die down until Thanksgiving. So those of you with Sept Oct and Nov birthdays, get yourself over to see Mickey and friends pronto. Not sure if they’ll have this birthday thing next year…

***Re: the alcohol thing - You can get your hand stamped and take a 3 minute walk out to Downtown Disney and enjoy a wine or beer with your meal. And the new California Adventure Park does allow adults to drink responsibly. * There is a private place, Club 33, in the New Orleans section of the park that does serve beer and wine, but apparently it has a long wait list (13 years)to become a member. Club 33 Wikipedia

***For the smokers – there are 3 very scenic relaxing clean smoking sections in the park. I had to used them just on principle. If I couldn't drink, I was at least going to smoke. Check your map…one is near Matterhorn, the other by Thunder Mtn Railroad. The other is a bit more hidden and close to the site of our boob-grab incident.

***You can bring water and plastic bottles into the park, but glass is a no-no.


-Princess Rita