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potzbie
10-13-2006, 12:13 AM
I swung by Disneyland today (Thur. Oct 12). Here is a long trip report of a very short visit.

I finished my home tasks. At 3:30 pm I got in my car. The 60 (Pomona) freeway eastbound was okay. I got on the southbound 605 (San Gabriel River) freeway. The jam-up from rush hour slowed everything at about Beverly Bl., so I decided to get off the 605 freeway and drive surface streets. The best big thoroughfare was Whittier Bl., and since it angled south and east (diagonally) simultaneously, it looked like a good alternative. So, I drove on Whittier Bl., until it hit Harbor Bl., and I turned south on Harbor Bl. I have taken surface streets before, but never Whittier Bl. So I've added a route to my repertoire.

Before arriving at MICKEY AND FRIENDS parking structure, I stopped at the Disney Character Warehouse (Orangethorpe at Lemon), to look for a polo shirt or golf shirt with a pocket. I didn't find what I wanted. But I did check out the merchandise. I checked out the toys, too. Did you know that there is a PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN action figure of "the redhead" (i.e., the wench in the bride auction)? "Action", eh? Makes one wonder what kind of action a wench is built with, no? A bargain at $4.99. As usual, the inventory at the Character Warehouse was 80% fleece pullovers and sweaters. But there were some princess costumes; a timely selection (i.e., Halloween) for an "outlet" store, no?

Well! I drove toward Ball Rd. I got to MICKEY AND FRIENDS. I parked on DAISY DUCK purple level.

From the tram, instead of going straight to the park, I looked in WORLD OF DISNEY for a polo/golf shirt with a pocket. No luck. Everything is "winter" clothes. Oh, well.

Before going to Disneyland, I wanted to check out the baseball playoffs, St. Louis Cardinals vs. New York Mets. So I walked thru the Grand Californian Hotel to the bar, to watch a few innings. I did pause at the fireplace to hear the storyteller for a few minutes. After a couple of innings, and a couple of Shirley Temples/Roy Rogers, I walked out of the bar and into the central lobby to listen to the piano player for a while, who was tinkling ivories with Disney medleys with appeggio flourishes. I finally headed to Disneyland Park.

Long entry lines for a Thursday afternoon at 6:30 pm. I saw the giant pumpkins carved as Disney characters atop the entry gates. I saw the new style entry device. I didn't see my "color picture" on the monitor like I thought I would.

The parade was about to begin, so I chose to forego the parade and go to a "land". What the heck. I did JUNGLE CRUISE because I hadn't done it at night for a long time. I did pick up a couple of new jokes from the skipper.
• Joke #1 -- At the scene of the lost safari, where the rhino is about to poke the hind end of the low-man porter, the Skipper says, "I've never seen that before -- look at all those rocks on that beach!" (It's true! I've never noticed the surface landscape at that particular scene!)
• Joke #2 -- At the piranha pool, where the rock walls have primitive symbols indicating the danger of piranha, the Skipper asks, "Anyone know how to read fish phonics?"
What I learned is that the disadvantage of doing JUNGLE CRUISE at night is that you cannot see anything but what the spotlight is on, so you miss a couple of scenes in their fullness. The skipper didn't even mention the Begal tiger, but went straight to the cobra gag. ("Here we see a pack of cobras. Three of them. That's funny -- they usually travel in fours.")

Frontierland: Riverbelle Terrace was closed at 7:15 pm. Can you believe it? People were eating inside, so they must have just closed. I did confirm that the Golden Horseshoe was still serving food at 7:15 pm. I didn't see anyone at Rancho Del Zocalo, so that must have been closed. I sat down to rest. I watched the "Shooting Exposition" (shooting gallery). I didn't know that there were lightning and thunder special effects in the Shooting Exposition. I guess I had never seen it after sunset before.

No piano player on Main Street. So I didn't hang out there.

I guess the long (1 3/4 hour) drive tired me out. Maybe the unsuccessful shopping tired me out. Even after sitting and resting, I really couldn't do any more walking around. Since all the live entertainment was 100% over, I didn't have a great motivation to sit and listen to anything. So, I called it a day.