Aug 13
Our last day at Disneyland…first stop after breakfast was to get tickets to the ride through Big Thunder Mountain, one more time. Things are very different today – heightened security: big men with guns and scary looking dogs at all the entrances, men in uniforms with some other kind of bigger guns patrolling around the bus stop and beside the road. It took us a long time to get through the gate, one of the few places in Disneyland that doesn’t tell you the length of the line. They x-rayed our bags, and we walked through the detector. They seemed to pull more people out of line, but that was the only difference.
This time we went to the other side and looked at the Disney Studio side…more stores! The only ride that attracted E was the Twilight Tower – that ride makes you go upside down, and I’m just not that brave. She is a serious shopper, we had to go into many (felt like all…) of the stores one more time in case there was something she had missed. Then she did her planning of gifts to buy and then we had to go back one more time to actually buy them.
Although I have said many times that I would never have matching clothes with my husband, I clearly didn’t mean never with anyone. The day turned cold and damp, and rather than going back to the hotel, I decided to buy us sweatshirts. I picked out one that I liked, and lo and behold, she picked out the same one. Michael used to call her mini-Margaret…all I know is that we walked around all day in our matching shirts and that delighted her.
Because we had made a reservation at a “nice” theme restaurant for dinner, we decided to have a small lunch, which was, once again, chips and salsa and chicken nuggets. I had forgotten some of the details of traveling with a child. 45 minutes in line and 19.50 EUR and I had one happy child. Food and bathrooms seem like the only other places at Disneyland that don’t have a sign telling you how long you will have to wait.
Dinner was at Captain Jacks, from the Pirates of the Caribbean. Eunsol paid for it so I just enjoyed it. The food was good but the space was amazing. It was like being in a cave beside a river. Boats full of people kept going by, and we realized that was another ride that we had to try. The lights were dim, and everything was very nautical. The service was also very nice, and because we had a reservation…no waiting. We had actually made our dinner reservation for Ratatouilles Bistro for yesterday, but E was so sick that we cancelled, and this was what was available.
After dinner, we went on the boat ride, twice. It was like a boat that floated along through caves full of pirate treasure, over a waterfall and through a burning ship. Along the way were ghosts, skeletons, lots of strange characters and Jack Sparrow himself, singing and drinking. By the time we had finished, it was only an hour until the fireworks so we just had time to run around and finish our shopping.
The illuminations started at 11 – it is actually amazing, so much more than just fireworks. Images from different movies are projected on the castle, there are spotlights and fireworks. It last for almost half an hour. Just as it started the rain began, but we decided to pull up our hoods and tough it out. The only glitch was the number of people with selfie sticks who filmed the whole thing and generally got in the way of other people who were trying to watch.
Back to the hotel, time to pack and then to bed.
Reflecting on the whole experience, I have to admit that Disney’s big skill is creating ambience. When you’re in Jack Sparrows restaurant, you feel like you’re with the pirates. When your roller coaster is crashing through an explosion in a mine, you feel like you are experiencing something. The other thing is that Disneyland is remarkably clean. To have that many people passing through every day, doing what people do, and yet there is no garbage on the ground and even the garbage cans are wiped off regularly. Every single staff member was pleasant and helpful. There is a lot that libraries could learn from all of this – its not just the number of people, its that they are trained to be consistently friendly. They all wear uniforms with their names on as well, something that many libraries have failed to accomplish. I have read about their training but the articles are remarkably vague; it was good to see that their claims for their staff, or cast members as they call them, are true.