SusanEllen
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- May 24, 2004
[Before this vacation started I thought I knew what Id be telling you in this trip report--if not the actual words, I was fairly certain I knew all the subjects I was going to cover. I thought I would follow the day by day list of tours, shows and restaurants, making pithy and entertaining comments about each. I feel fortunate to have had 10 previous trips to Disneyland and 11 to Walt Disney World in the past fourteen years, so I thought Id be able to point out similarities and differences between the two American Disney places and make insightful comments about them. (It's all right if you laughed at my use of the words "pithy," "entertaining," and "insightful". I did.) I thought I knew pretty much everything I was going to be writing about, until I woke very early on Day Two and something that wasnt on our carefully crafted itinerary happened, something so splendid that its now close to the top of my all-time best Disney experiencesand I never even left the hotel room. A lot of todays report concerns that surprise. Heres how it started:]
The call that woke me at 5:45 (AM!!!) was a wrong number, but of course, I didnt know that when I bolted out of bed and stumbled to the desk, feeling for my phone in the dark. Since only a handful of people have my cell number, I was afraid this early morning call meant troubleeither an emergency back in Oklahoma or a change in Sharons flight plans. Happy to say it was neither. I was so relieved that this call hadnt ended the vacation before it had begun that when the person on the other end apologized for disturbing me, I said, Thats all right. Really. and I meant it! Whether it was the adrenalin still in my system or the bump on my leg that I got when I tangled with a chair during my dash to the phone, I was wide awake now. I began thinking about our plans for the week and once that started there was no chance of getting back to sleep. Though six was earlier than Id intended to start the day (thinking Id bank a little extra rest for the long, full days ahead and rise just in time to dress and meet Sharon in the lobby), I knew that Sharon had already started her day by this time, so it seemed only fair that I be up, too. With an 8 oclock plane to catch, she and Howard were almost certainly on the way to the Sacramento airport. I hoped theyd allowed plenty of time in case Sharon ran into . . . well, you know . . .Special Screening! Her LA/Ontario ETA was 8:50 and now that I knew how long that trip took, I had some idea of when to expect her10-ish and not before.
I realized that being up before the sun might be an opportunity to get a shot of my wonderful park view in the morning light. I opened the curtains to find Paradise Pier still lit with the parks night lights. Dawn was just beginning to lighten the sky and one by one the lights on the rides and the neon signs snapped off. I pulled up a chair and for the next two hours sat watching Paradise Pier come alive. Trucks began to arrivesmall ones moving down the midway and big eighteen wheelers pulling in behind the barrier that hides the utility road from guest areas. Before long the park would open and for the rest of the day thousands of guests would walk just there, only a few yards from the backstage they wouldnt be able to see but that I could see now from my window. All those people stopping and watching friends on California Screamin or the Maliboomer would be unaware of the world of work going on so close to them. Tiny blue street cleaners (tiny from 14 stories up) that looked like Zambonis zipped around washing the walkways. There were vans, bicycles, trucks of various sizes and shapesa big one pulling seven cars like a railroad train off its tracks, and vehicles like Id never seen before, obviously designed for their specific jobs. Two boats crossed Paradise Bay heading for the Sun Wheel. Soon there were dozens of vehicles and hundreds of people moving all over the park and I felt like I was playing with the most deluxe version ever of a Disney Park game, complete with lots of miniature backstage Cast Members. A large crane pulled up and parked next to the Golden Zephyr ride and a man in a basket at the top of the crane began to replace light bulbs. (The Golden Zephyr has long cables lined with old fashioned amusement park light bulbs. Keeping them all lit must be a full time jobthis man worked on them for nearly three hours.) As the Zephyr slowly rotated while the crane stayed in place, the man changed the burned out bulbs he could reach. Awhile later, the crane began to fold very slowly. Then it unfolded and when it was in its new lower position the man began to change bulbs at that level.
This hazy view may look just like the pictures from Day One, but note the empty parking lot and the night lights decorating the rides still on. The red ride on the left is the Golden Zephyr.
Of course, I knew that it took thousands of people behind the scenes to keep Disney parks going, but knowing is one thing while seeing is something else entirely. What great luck to have awakened early today, to get to see all this. Tomorrow morning wed be doing the Cruzin California segway tour in DCA at just about this time. For months Ive been looking forward to the tour, to seeing DCAs backstage activities as we move around the waking park. I realized that seeing those activities now from up here was adding a dimension (literally) to my understanding of what goes into getting a park ready for usevery day! I scanned all that was in my view hoping to see segways from todays tour speeding down the walkways but knew that at 7:30 the tour group was probably in the midst of their segway training. It was time to get dressed, but every few minutes I returned to the window to look for the segways. Finally, just after 8, I spotted a lone segway that was obviously not part of the tour but a CM on a mission speeding from one side of Paradise Pier to the other. At 8:45 riderless coaster cars began moving along the Mulholland Madness track.
I believe I could have stayed at my window all day long and been entertained the whole time, but decided it was time to go downstairs. I knew Sharons plane had probably just landed and it would be an hour or so before she got here, but I thought perhaps it was time to break my wonderful windows hypnotic spellif I could.
. . . to be continued
Day Two, Part 2: Day Two, Part 2
The call that woke me at 5:45 (AM!!!) was a wrong number, but of course, I didnt know that when I bolted out of bed and stumbled to the desk, feeling for my phone in the dark. Since only a handful of people have my cell number, I was afraid this early morning call meant troubleeither an emergency back in Oklahoma or a change in Sharons flight plans. Happy to say it was neither. I was so relieved that this call hadnt ended the vacation before it had begun that when the person on the other end apologized for disturbing me, I said, Thats all right. Really. and I meant it! Whether it was the adrenalin still in my system or the bump on my leg that I got when I tangled with a chair during my dash to the phone, I was wide awake now. I began thinking about our plans for the week and once that started there was no chance of getting back to sleep. Though six was earlier than Id intended to start the day (thinking Id bank a little extra rest for the long, full days ahead and rise just in time to dress and meet Sharon in the lobby), I knew that Sharon had already started her day by this time, so it seemed only fair that I be up, too. With an 8 oclock plane to catch, she and Howard were almost certainly on the way to the Sacramento airport. I hoped theyd allowed plenty of time in case Sharon ran into . . . well, you know . . .Special Screening! Her LA/Ontario ETA was 8:50 and now that I knew how long that trip took, I had some idea of when to expect her10-ish and not before.
I realized that being up before the sun might be an opportunity to get a shot of my wonderful park view in the morning light. I opened the curtains to find Paradise Pier still lit with the parks night lights. Dawn was just beginning to lighten the sky and one by one the lights on the rides and the neon signs snapped off. I pulled up a chair and for the next two hours sat watching Paradise Pier come alive. Trucks began to arrivesmall ones moving down the midway and big eighteen wheelers pulling in behind the barrier that hides the utility road from guest areas. Before long the park would open and for the rest of the day thousands of guests would walk just there, only a few yards from the backstage they wouldnt be able to see but that I could see now from my window. All those people stopping and watching friends on California Screamin or the Maliboomer would be unaware of the world of work going on so close to them. Tiny blue street cleaners (tiny from 14 stories up) that looked like Zambonis zipped around washing the walkways. There were vans, bicycles, trucks of various sizes and shapesa big one pulling seven cars like a railroad train off its tracks, and vehicles like Id never seen before, obviously designed for their specific jobs. Two boats crossed Paradise Bay heading for the Sun Wheel. Soon there were dozens of vehicles and hundreds of people moving all over the park and I felt like I was playing with the most deluxe version ever of a Disney Park game, complete with lots of miniature backstage Cast Members. A large crane pulled up and parked next to the Golden Zephyr ride and a man in a basket at the top of the crane began to replace light bulbs. (The Golden Zephyr has long cables lined with old fashioned amusement park light bulbs. Keeping them all lit must be a full time jobthis man worked on them for nearly three hours.) As the Zephyr slowly rotated while the crane stayed in place, the man changed the burned out bulbs he could reach. Awhile later, the crane began to fold very slowly. Then it unfolded and when it was in its new lower position the man began to change bulbs at that level.
This hazy view may look just like the pictures from Day One, but note the empty parking lot and the night lights decorating the rides still on. The red ride on the left is the Golden Zephyr.
Of course, I knew that it took thousands of people behind the scenes to keep Disney parks going, but knowing is one thing while seeing is something else entirely. What great luck to have awakened early today, to get to see all this. Tomorrow morning wed be doing the Cruzin California segway tour in DCA at just about this time. For months Ive been looking forward to the tour, to seeing DCAs backstage activities as we move around the waking park. I realized that seeing those activities now from up here was adding a dimension (literally) to my understanding of what goes into getting a park ready for usevery day! I scanned all that was in my view hoping to see segways from todays tour speeding down the walkways but knew that at 7:30 the tour group was probably in the midst of their segway training. It was time to get dressed, but every few minutes I returned to the window to look for the segways. Finally, just after 8, I spotted a lone segway that was obviously not part of the tour but a CM on a mission speeding from one side of Paradise Pier to the other. At 8:45 riderless coaster cars began moving along the Mulholland Madness track.
I believe I could have stayed at my window all day long and been entertained the whole time, but decided it was time to go downstairs. I knew Sharons plane had probably just landed and it would be an hour or so before she got here, but I thought perhaps it was time to break my wonderful windows hypnotic spellif I could.
. . . to be continued
Day Two, Part 2: Day Two, Part 2
