So yesterday was the yearly trip to Disneyland.

I thought that it was just going to be impossibly busy, what with it being the day after Christmas and just a lovely day, but the lines weren't really so long. I thought that maybe people stayed away because they also thought that it would be too crowded, but then it occurred to me that it might have something to do with there not being so many tourists this year.

So I got up at 8.30a (what's the deal with this vacation, I keep going to bed at 11p and waking up at 8.30a! Must be the lack of internet and Sims) and went out to Kinko's to upload and check my email, because I wasn't waiting another day, Disneyland or no Disneyland.

I got there fairly quickly, but am still upset about the whole re-arrangement of the parking lot thing, what with the new California Adventure thing being where the parking lot used to be, and there being no sight of the Matterhorn from the freeway, which was always so exciting. Now the first ride you see is a ferris wheel from the parking garage. Foo.

So I went to the park and I just started smiling. It's the Happiest Place On Earth, you know! I sort of hate the fact that now they are calling the whole thing "Disneyland Resort", but there's nothing that can be done about that. Even with that it's still the Happiest Place On Earth, or the Merriest Place, as they call it during the holidays.

First I went on Small World and second I went on the Matterhorn, because those are always the first and second rides I go on, and then I went on Alice in Wonderland, then Star Tours and Honey I Shrunk the Audience, then I was going to go on Space Mountain, but it was down, so I had lunch instead. Well, I wasn't going to have lunch before Space Mountain, after all!

I also did a bit of shopping, getting a few more Christmas things taken care of, and I got my traditional yearly t-shirt, which is a tradition of only three years now, but I really like it and wish that I had been doing it all along. Starting in 2000 was pretty cool, though. Anyway, I get the t-shirt with the year on it, and the 2002 shirt design is kind of ugly, but when it's a tradition, that doesn't matter.

I also like getting a foolish headgear of some sort, since Disneyland is the one place where staid and stolid adults feel free to wear the silliest things in the world on their heads. My choice was a pair of fluffy, feathery deely-bobbers, that I saw on the heads of many adults. And they came in fuschia, which pretty much exactly matched my hair, so I had to get them!

Then I went to Frontierland, hitting it in daylight for practically the first time ever, and did my favourite shooting gallery, then went to the Pirates of the Caribbean, that for some reason I keep wanting to call Pirates of Penzance. Slightly different. More skeletons and fewer operetta numbers.

There was this little kid behind me shrieking with agony about having to be on the ride, just terrified. I felt bad for him, since I was, actually, that child at one time, though the ride I was dragged on kicking and screaming was the Haunted House, they didn't take me on Pirates after that debacle. Of course, this kid was around two or three and I was eight, but I was just as scared. I tried looking at the ride through his eyes, and it's really terrifying if you're an easily scared kid.

Then I went to the Haunted House, but the line was a little long, so I decided to get a Fastpass and go to the Country Bear Jamboree while I waited. Until I started walking around and I couldn't find it. Now, I know Disneyland like the inside of my mouth, and the fact that I couldn't find it started to seem suspicious. So I found an employee (or Cast Member, as they call them) and said:

"Why can't I find Country Bear Jamboree? And don't tell me it's because it's gone forever."
"It's gone forever."
"That is terrible news!"
"Yeah, it's been gone for a few months. There's going to be something new in that theatre in the spring, but I don't know what it will be."

I am so sad! I love Country Bear Jamboree! Not the least reason of which is that family friend Pete Renoudet does the voice of Henry, the Emcee bear. But also because it's been there my whole life and should not go away!! All change is bad, that's my mantra. Or, to mis-quote Bill Murray in Groundhog Day, "Anything different is bad."

Then I went back to the Haunted Mansion, and found that that was different, too, because it is now a Nightmare Before Christmas ride! It was actually pretty fun, especially since I know the ride so well, seeing where they put things on top of other things, and it really was awfully clever. But I want my old Haunted Mansion back. Unlikely, though, considering the amount of Nightmare Before Christmas souvenirs on sale.

Then I went on Big Thunder Mountain, which I usually skip, going on Splash Mountain instead, but it's really fun, I don't know why I rarely ride it. And after that I decided to do the Indiana Jones ride, which I rode once when it first opened and hated it so much that I never went back. I was wondering if I was right. I was right.

The good thing, though, was that I didn't have to wait for an hour to realize that I hated the ride, because they had this single rider thing, where you could cut to the front of the line with the wheelchairs and blind people and they would use you to fill in spaces in the ride. Therefor, I was able to be quickly reminded exactly how appalling and bouncy and jolting that stupid ride is, though everyone else seemed to enjoy it. But they have no taste.

After that was Jungle Cruise, which I always think would be the funnest ride to work on, since it is the only bastion of sarcasm in the Happiest Place On Earth. And then I watched part of the parade, shopped some more, because if you don't spend at least a hundred bucks, you really haven't been to Disneyland, and went home.

It was really a fairly painless day! The lines were not so bad, I never saw a posted wait time longer that 65 minutes, and I never got in a line longer than 40 minutes, and those tended to all be around 20 minutes or so. I only did the Fastpass thing once, but it was barely necessary.

And I was a pretty big hit with the kids with the hair and so on, particularly after I added the deely-bobbers. I kept hearing kids cry with glee, "Look! There's Goofy! There's Cinderella! There's a girl with pink hair!"

I am the new attraction at Disneyland. But I'm only available once a year, so you have to be lucky to see me.

Today's horoscope:
Common sense keeps you grounded. Someone offers a pipe dream, but you know what reality is and decline.

One year ago today:
Did everyone suddenly become Depression-era folk fans, and if so, why so suddenly?

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Last Updated Fri 28 December 13:01:09 2001