PDA

View Full Version : The Best Birthday Presents Ever: DL-DCA Annual Passports



Disney Crone/Kid
08-15-2001, 04:32 PM
Hi, I'm new to this board, having just posted my intro over at the Lounge:
http://mousepad.mouseplanet.com/showthread.php?s=&postid=17720#post17720

First things first: I've been lurking for about a month now, and I just had to stop by to THANK ALL OF YOU Mouse Planeteers/Padders for your articles and posts. I found you via a google.com search, and what a valuable find it was. You're a terrific bunch of folks, and your enthusiasm is absolutely contagious!

From your posts here, I learned about Annual Passports (APs) to Disneyland (DL) AND Disney California Adventure: http://mousepad.mouseplanet.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=646&highlight=annual+passports I never knew such wondrous things existed! Within a week of our first-ever visit to DCA, we were like two giddy kids as we headed out to the Esplanade (fancy name for area between the two parks) to buy ourselves our birthday presents (two months early :eek:!).

2-Park (DL/DCA) Annual Passports! Yessssssss!

We've been back FOUR times in one month :D :D :D :D: , alternating parks with each visit. This, in the sweltering heat of summer AND its huge summer crowds (I'm not into crowds), yet everytime, we've thoroughly enjoyed ourselves.

Before we head down, I'll do a quick search of the MousePad board (I truly love this feature) and get all pumped up with info on specifics to super-charge our experiences.

Thanks to your recommendations, we've savored our first churros; watched the fireworks from a prime vantage point (the train depot); cooled off at the Tiki Room (quaintly retro). You have significantly enhanced and enriched our Disneyland/DCA experiences with your knowledge, insights, and experiences.

Keep up your great work. You are refreshingly honest, true-blue ambassadors for Disney with realistic, candid reporting. Not all schmaltzy and sugar-coated. I'll be checking in regularly.

Gratefully yours,

Ralph Wiggum
08-15-2001, 05:01 PM
I don't know if i personally helped in anyway but I am sure I speak for all of us when we say..."no problem"

and congrats on the pass!

lisap
08-15-2001, 05:42 PM
Beautiful Avatar :)

EandCDad
08-15-2001, 07:04 PM
Originally posted by Disney Crone/Kid

First things first: I've been lurking for about a month now, and I just had to stop by to THANK ALL OF YOU Mouse Planeteers/Padders for your articles and posts. I found you via a google.com search, and what a valuable find it was. You're a terrific bunch of folks, and your enthusiasm is absolutely contagious!



Thanks for the kind words. Enjoy you passes, great Avatar, and keep the enthusiastic posts coming.

Gemini Cricket
08-15-2001, 07:51 PM
Disney Crone/Kid -

Awesome idea! My birthday is on March 10th!

I'm kidding.
:D :D :D

Dlandmom
08-15-2001, 08:30 PM
Welcome Disney Crone/Kid! I'm glad if I've in any way helped! Those passes are certainly a great thing...it's pretty hard to resist "just stopping by" when you live so close!;) We just need to remember how lucky we are!:D

Disney Crone/Kid
08-20-2001, 12:01 PM
To Ralph Wiggum, lisap, EandCDad, Doc, and DlandMom,

Thanks for taking the time to extend the kindness of welcoming a newcomer/stranger. What a very nice Disney thing to do. Lurking in anonymity is comfortable and safe, but unidimensional. Welcoming folks like you make it easier to break barriers that impede human interaction.

Ralph, I also enjoyed meeting you via your website, featuring you and your family, attestations of the saying, "The family who plays together, sticks together." Such happy faces...they must make Walt proud...mission accomplished.

lisap and EandCDad: As for the beautiful/great avatar, in case you missed it, look at it again...it's an optical illusion. What do YOU see? The pretty girl (kid)? The crone? Or does it flip back and forth for you, as it does for me... although my visual cortex prefers to linger longer on the pretty girl.

You both have cool avatars, too. I notice you've changed them since I first started reading this board. They keep things interesting. I think avatars reveal a bit or more about the persons behind them.

Doc (Sheriff Ken-lookalike): Yup, it IS an awesome idea to buy each other (or oneself) a premium, 2-park, annual passport as a primo birthday present. Unrestricted (no holds barred), they have liberated much Disney joy upon us. We are only regretful that we did not know about it sooner. It's, yes, as you put it, AWESOME. Forget "stuff" that end up cluttering up my spaces, and owning me, rather than the other way around. I'm all for experiences-that-uplift and put smiles on my face and on others, and Disney does that for me, for us.

March 10...you've got plenty time to save up for your present to yourself.

DlandMom: You are so right: "Those passes are certainly a great thing...it's pretty hard to resist "just stopping by" when you live so close!" After a full day on Saturday, we bopped into Disneyland at dusk, and had an unexpectedly special evening that made me so appreciative of its proximity. Yes, yes, yes, you are so right:" We just need to remember how lucky we are!"

Lucky, lucky all of us.

Disney Crone/Kid
08-20-2001, 01:40 PM
This past Saturday, at dusk, I felt a strong compulsion to get to Disneyland. We had been out of town, a hundred miles away, and had just arrived home after an hour's drive. Earlier in the day, we had a substantial, sit-down lunch, and when we got home, we weren't in the mood to cook, nor to go out for something light at one of our usual local restaurants.

I recalled Bengal Barbecue Skewer raves here, and after my husband roused himself from a nap, I suggested DL for a light dinner and maybe, Fantasmic or Believe! afterwards. My husband is a good sport, and in spite of the facts -- Saturday night, in an August heat wave, with hordes of people at DL, he was game, and we hit the freeway, anyway.

Yup, as expected, the park was HOT, jam-packed, and the lines were loooooong.

After patiently waiting in line for 15 minutes, enough time to contemplate the insanity of our actions, we had our food in hand. The nearby tables were filled. Fortuitously filled, as we were to learn.

I lead us through the thick crowd to New Orleans Square. I was intent on locating a spot mentioned in a message here. In spite of a scant recollection, I had a certainty that it was findable. Specifically, I was in search of a courtyard ... in a gallery, if I had remembered correctly. Once in the square, we quickly found the portrait artists ("Aha, this must be the gallery"). Sure enough, nearby, was a courtyard -- The Royal Courtyard , no less -- which is inconspicously tucked between two stores.

We peeked in. When our eyes adjusted to the cool darkness, we saw that it was a diminutive space, as Disneyland proportions go. Off to the side, facing a tall staircase, was an -- incredibly-- empty, black wrought-iron bench, built for two, framed by potted plants.

I had a distinct sense of Kismet (meaning fate or destiny). It felt like that the empty bench was waiting for us to arrive, just at that moment. A prearrangement.

"But of course, it isn't," said my rational mind. "Sheer luck...or maybe, a bit of Disney Magic?"

Outside, mere steps away, the madding, heat-frenzied crowd was growing by the second, piling into the square for Fantasmic, yet, there we were, reveling in a private, cool "oasis" to leisurely and peacefully enjoy our supper. We each had a Bengal BBQ skewer with full-flavored, meaty morsels. I love spicy anything, and the Bengal Skewer is SPICY. My mouth was afire, and I enjoyed the burn.

I now fully understand the rhasodies and raves. All deserved.

We punctuated the meat morsels with healthy bites of skewered vegetables: mushroom, green pepper, red potato and onion). We topped off our supper with a bowl of refreshing fruit, heaped with chilled pieces of kiwi, melons, pineapple and little bunches of grapes, accompanied with a perfect, flame-dousing yogurt dip.

We spoke in hushed tones. The courtyard is a place that demands a kind of reverence. A sacred place? Savoring our moments in this quiet, remarkable space, we marveled that it even existed. I wondered aloud where the staircase across us lead to.... http://www.imagineering.org/noscrtyard.jpg

"It's just a fascade. A false front," said my husband.

Ralph Wiggum
08-20-2001, 03:22 PM
Originally posted by Disney Crone/Kid
To Ralph Wiggum, lisap, EandCDad, Doc, and DlandMom,

Thanks for taking the time to extend the kindness of welcoming a newcomer/stranger. What a very nice Disney thing to do. Lurking in anonymity is comfortable and safe, but unidimensional. Welcoming folks like you make it easier to break barriers that impede human interaction.

Ralph, I also enjoyed meeting you via your website, featuring you and your family, attestations of the saying, "The family who plays together, sticks together." Such happy faces...they must make Walt proud...mission accomplished.

Thats the nicest thing I have heard in a very long time. Thanx sooo much from me and the fam.http://www.contrabandent.com/pez/cwm/cwm/twirl.gif

TokyoInsider
08-23-2001, 06:11 PM
Hello folks- quick question for you all-

What kind of 'proof' do you have to show at the main ticket booth to qualify for the So Cal. discounted Annual Passports?

It looks like I'll be headed over there (from Tokyo), and was wondering if my wife (a non-Californian) could 'slide in' under my California Driver's license if I sprung in for both passports at the same time.

Thanks!

dizneyangel
08-23-2001, 06:14 PM
I believe that you need a driver's license or utility bill, and you can purchase a certain number of tickets at one time. I'm not sure on the specifics of that, though.

lisap
08-24-2001, 07:08 AM
Originally posted by Disney Crone/Kid

<snip>
We spoke in hushed tones. The courtyard is a place that demands a kind of reverence. A sacred place? Savoring our moments in this quiet, remarkable space, we marveled that it even existed. I wondered aloud where the staircase across us lead to.... http://www.imagineering.org/noscrtyard.jpg

"It's just a fascade. A false front," said my husband.

I just stumbled across your short story. Very lovely--Thank you--:)

Disney Crone/Kid
08-24-2001, 07:43 PM
Originally posted by lisap


I just stumbled across your short story. Very lovely--Thank you--:)

You're welcome, Lisa. It was a pleasure to preserve the experience in words in my journal, and then to cut and paste it here, on the chance that someone here just might enjoy the sharing of our Disney precious moments.

The continuation of my short story ended up on another thread. A disjointed story. I think I'll link the rest of the evening's recollection, here, so the whole experience is here in its entirety. Here it is.
http://mousepad.mouseplanet.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=1786

As it turned out, the staircase in The Royal Courtyard was NOT a mere fascade leading up to nowhere. Instead, it lead straight up to Walt Disney's front door entrance to his private apartment, now The Disney Gallery. Very private. Very inconspicuous. Very discreet. http://www.imagineering.org/noscrtyard.jpg

The present public "front entrance" at the top of the spiral staircase just outside the Pirates of the Caribbean entrance was a later add-on: http://www.disneylandsource.com/neworl/gallery.html

That night, we had a strong sense of Walt's presence showing us the way -- literally, guiding us up -- to his pet project, one of his last before he transitioned.

It thrills me that you perceived the loveliness of it.