Salt Touched

‘Tis true Peter, time really does fly…

And all good things must come to an end.

You’d never think a week could go so quickly, it seems like only yesterday we arrived here and now we’re just about to pack up and fly home.

Well, tomorrow anyway.

So it seems only fitting really that we ended up sitting on the same corner of main street for the parade now that we did 19 years ago when we said goodbye to the electrical parade for the last time. My father’s idea that was, Mum and I would have both forgotten about it. Dad usually hates camping out for anything, but some things are just important, even if they mean sitting on the sunbaked pavement for a half an hour.

We didn’t spend the whole day at the park today – we had intended to, but yesterday was a long day and we were just too tired. So we went home after lunch (note to all: Rainforest Café is NOT worth the money! Great décor, good service, lousy food), and grabbed a few hours of much needed sleep instead. Though we did stop at Downtown Disney first, so I could get one of the many Tinker Bell shirt’s I’d had my eye on all week (“I don’t Tink so”…too cute)…

Which is how we ended up sitting on the sunwarmed pavement of main street just as the early evening sun was kissing the tops of the Emporium on main street.

Disneyland knows how to do parades better than anyone I know, and their current offering is no exception. The costumes alone are enough to drop your jaw, I mean they had someone dressed up as a carnival mask!

Once the parade had wound it’s way past us, trailing the usual gaggle of excited park guests in its wake, we drifted back over to California Adventure for a final ride on the coaster (“again again!!!!”) and one final drop from the Tower of Terror (the cast member doing the opening spiel this time was not nearly so amusing as the first one but you can’t win ‘em all), and then it was back to the original park so that I could get my silhouette done (I have one from almost every park I’ve been to from the time I was five to now)…and so we could find a place to stand for the fireworks.

Bless my parents 100 ways to Sunday, they understood why it was so important that we stay as the three of us for the fireworks. Too many times standing watching fireworks explode over the turrets of Sleeping Beauty’s Castle all by myself or with the wrong people, I needed the right people there. For about ten minutes it looked as if the show was going to be cancelled (there was strong wind at higher elevations) but after about ten minutes delay the spotlights swept over the sky, main street went dark, and the stars began to explode,

Then my Mum takes one arm from around my waist and points to the tiny speck of light crossing the sky from the Matterhorn towards the tallest turret of the castle. And you can only see her for a second, because for some reason her spotlight went out (probably something to do with those winds, or just the angle we were at)…but Mum and Dad saw her first..

Look! Look there! There she is!!

And I looked up, and all I could here in my mind’s ear was the old old voice from the original fireworks many many years ago

Where if you believe and wish hard enough, you too will see the magic of Tinker Bell as she lights this evening’s performance…

Yes, after all this time, and all these show changes, Tink still flies…

And me? Well, there were things that went “wrong”, there were thing that were not as we expected, there were things we may change for next time but really? When it comes down to it?

Tink still flies…

And I…still believe…

Every five-day park hopper pass purchased at Disneyland comes with admission to one of their magic mornings; where you can enter the park an hour before opening. In this case it meant that only Fantasyland and Tomorrow land were open to the public early, but that’s still a nice chance to wander around in a park that’s only perhaps half occupied. Granted, a few things didn’t open until the park itself – for example the Matterhorn Bobsleds remain elusive (they’ve had an insane line all week, mostly because Space Mountain is closed, meaning that the Matterhorn is the only real coaster in the park other than Big Thunder Mountain), and despite my wish to the contrary the Storybook Land Canals remained stubbornly silent at their docks until the crowds came at 8.

Also, no characters were out that early, but the fact that I was there before (most of) the throngs of children meant that the wait for Pixie Hollow when it did open was relatively short, so I got my picture with Tinker Bell, and also the wait for Merina from Brave was only 20 minutes compared to its usual 45, so two more checked off my list!

We only stayed in the park in the morning. In the afternoon we went to Knott’s Berry Farm – which has long been a favourite of my Mum and Dad’s though I hardly remember it from when we went when I was little. I wish I did remember it, because it’s a neat place. Very old west for the most part, including a saloon style show where the stage is right behind the bar. Sadly, the lines weren’t working in our favour (this was partially my fault, because there was one ride I was committed to going on that had a near two hour wait..), but Mum and I went on the River Rapids (and I got soaked), and then I braved the Ghost Rider…

Wooden coasters are….an experience. I came this close to losing my glasses, and I’m still not 100% sure it was worth the near two hour wait! But hey, at least now I can say I’ve done it!

And then there was dinner…

We almost didn’t go to Medieval Times. Almost. I mean, I’m not a kid anymore, and the 12 hour days do take something out of all of us, and today was particularly long since it started so early. But as I’ve said many times before, some things are important, and this is one of them.

When I was 8 years old I ended up standing on my chair at Medieval Times screaming “Kill him!!!!” at the top of my lungs in a vain attempt to give our particular patron more courage (I failed, our knight ‘died’ in the first joust that night)…now that I’m a little older, I can appreciate the actual skill behind the show a lot more. That said, it still brings out the…rather bloodthirsty…side of people. Bread and circuses! The concept hasn’t changed all that much! Of course, this time we sprung the extra $10 each and paid for “Royal Seating” which put us actually ring side. I could have reached out and touched the horses! And the horsemanship is truly incredible, those horses do things you would normally only see if you were lucky enough to view the real Lippizan stallions, or if you’ve the misfortune to be on an actual battlefield! At one point the horse was literally all four hooves in the air.

And then there was the falcon. She was a peregrine by the look of her, and her handler had an immense amount of skill…

Ladies and Gentlemen! The sport of kings!

Freya but that bird was beautiful. And the handler was letting her bait against the glove so you could see her wings.

It was about at that point that they served dinner, and because I totally forgot I almost asked for cutlery, until Mum turned to me and said

You are not asking for a spoon!

Y’see, you don’t eat with cutlery at this place!

And that was all at the beginning. This is one of those places where you kind of forget to eat (despite the fact that they serve you WAY more food than you’ll ever be able to eat in the first place!) , because you get so caught up in cheering for your knight that you forget there’s even food in front of you. Despite the fact that we had the largest section, our patron knight lost, slashed by a battle axe during a “dispute of honour”

NO! Not the battle axe!!! No one EVER survives the battle axe!!!

Your majesty, I feel it safe to say that the dispute has been…settled?

The green knight won, which surprised the heck out of us because for ages Green was the vested evil-doer in the script.

SO AMAZING!!!!

Oh, and one more thing (As there always is) when I was 8 and we last went, they chose the “Queen of Love and Beauty” from amongst the whole audience – it could be any woman in the arena. After nearly 19 years I still remember the name of the woman the winner chose; lovely willowy thing of perhaps 25. This time I sat in the front row and waited for what I knew wasn’t coming – and I wasn’t all that surprised when someone from the winner’s section received it…but …it was a kid! It’s really hard to begrudge that kind of thing to a 6 year old! And as it turns out, they’ve put in a really good rule in the arena, the honors have to go to a child. Have to be under 12. So some little girl will get a really good memory out of that night.

Oh, and as a result of all this, I have ended up the proud owner of a shirt that reads “Show Me Your Chivalry”

Into every life a little rain must fall. Well, not literally, being as how this is California and they’re in the middle of a pretty horrific drought. Perhaps the better way to phrase it is “into every life some disappointment must come”

Even on vacation…

Even on this vacation..

It’s only natural that in the amount of time we’ve been away from California a lot of things will have changed. But sometimes change isn’t for the better.

When we last went to Universal Studios Hollywood it was much less tourist trap much more working studio. Yes, there were a few rides, but it was mostly special effects exhibitions (like Backdraft) and movie history stuff. And the back lot tour featured stories about Chaplin and Carey Grant much more than highlighting things like Desperate Housewives.

Not so any more. The park has become disorganized, overcrowded (mostly with over-priced fast food chains) and vastly overpriced for what you actually get.

And I swear, I liked the movie and all, but if I saw one more promotion for “Despicable Me”…

That said, it wasn’t all bad. There were a few highlights. For one, they’ve installed the Transformers ride here, which is just as awesome here as it is in Singapore, so my parents finally got to actually see one of the things I keep going on about! So that was cool.

Secondly, I finally made it through Jurassic Park with my eyes open! HA! Take that T-Rex! Sadly, I have no photographic proof of this epic achievement because the photos were just too expensive. Well, actually I don’t really know how expensive they were because the employees behind the counter were too busy chatting among themselves to notice me in order for me to find out how much they were (seriously, everyone who works at Universal needs to take lessons from a Disneyland Cast Member as far as hospitality goes, I mean really, learn how to at least fake interest guys!).

Thirdly, and this was actually the coolest thing for me – they had the original DeLorean on display, with all the history and plans and such. THAT was pretty awesome to see.

Eventually we ended up salvaging the day by going to Universal City next door (which was much more interesting than the actual park), and had dinner at the Hard Rock Café, which was delicious, and the place was nearly empty. We were chatting with the waitress and mentioned that we’d ended up with kind of a disappointing day…and her response?

Oh you mean the park? I never go there these days. If I ever go to a theme park, I just go to Disneyland

That from someone who works *right* next door!

So, sadly, overall? I never actually thought I’d say this about a sister park versus an original, but …the Singapore park actually far overshadows its older sibling..

But hey, you live and learn right?

When you’ve been up until 12:30am, six in the morning comes awfully early, but awake (well somewhat) we were. We had early morning reservations for Character Dining this morning, which meant being at the gates nearly two hours before they opened so that we could make our reservation time without getting caught in the crush of the waiting crowd.

The upshot of this is that we were only steps from the entrance turnstyle when the lone cast member standing in front of the station called out to the crowd:

Okay everyone, help me out here! 10! 9! 8! 7!

And by the time he got to 6 ever voice in the queue is raised,

6! 5! 4! 3! 2! 1!

And as one, the entry turnstyles all unlock and the line surges forward, riding the crest of pure positive energy.

The character breakfast was an absolute flashback to or trip here when I was little more than a toddler. In fact, it was the same characters – and Captain Hook is still an amazing actor, whoever he was behind that mask! I can’t imagine how difficult it must be to stay in character when you’re not only completely mute but don’t even have your own facial expressions to rely on.

Once we’d laughed (and cried) our way through breakfast we were able to wend our way through a near empty park – tat early in the morning on a Sunday the throngs haven’t started to arrive yet.

Case in point? We walked onto Splash Mountain. Since it’s the only operating water ride in the entire resort where you actually get wet enough to cool down (Grizzly Peak over in California adventure is closed for maintenance), it usually boasts a foolhardy long line, but not this morning.

Note to self (and all others who are thinking of riding Splash Mountain at any time in the near future): if you’re going to ride on Splash Mountain don’t sit in seat #3! Y’see, my Dad thought he would be safe by not sitting in the front, when the truth is the front seat is the driest part of the ride! So he got soaked wheras Mum and I, comparatively, barely got damp.

It took two hours for his jeans to dry.

Mum and I laughed – hysterically.

He was not impressed.

Since it was still quiet we made our way back to California Adventures where, again, there were no lines.

Another case in point? I walked onto to The Tower Of Terror.

I have been waiting to ride this thing for years, ever since I saw the documentary of how it was put together. I even suffered through the (rather terrible)movie version. I’m really pleased that it lived up to my expectations.

Hotel management requests no flash photography and no video recording. F at any time you decide nyou don’t want to stay with us your “exits” are here and here. Please hang on to any loose items such as glasses, purses, hats…hopes…dreams….loved ones…and any other personal baggage you may be carrying at this time in your life. Any other questions? It’s too late!

And the cast member slams the elevator doors shut with a big rattling “clang”

Yup, I screamed. Not at the door closing of course, but at the drop. Because it’s one heck of a drop. The view from the top is pretty amazing though.

And then I immediately wanted to turn around and go through it again!

Mwahahahhahaa

At about noon or so the heat was once again getting to be too much for us and we were all starting to feel more than a little bit woozy. So we took a hotel break, and then I went back to brave the character line ups.

The line for the main princess faire was only 20 minutes, so I got my snapshots with Tiana, Ariel (who said she was keeping her balance quite well on her new legs but was still working on her dancing), and Snow White (always an honour to meet the one who started it all), and then I went next door to figure out what to do next…and saw that the Frozen line up was just over an hour…

Instead of five hours…

Shortest it’s been in ages…

So…

I caved.

What? The line was in the shade and I had nothing else I particularly “needed” to do! And the chances of the line being that short again were extremely low.

Do not judge me on my Disney geekiness, it’s part of my charm. It’s part of my charm because I say so, so there!

Honestly, I feel sorry for the girls playing Esla and Anna, they’ve got one of the most difficult parts in the park simply because they’re the most popular. Their smiles were still in place when I reached them, but there was definite exhaustion behind those carefully made up eyes.

Near impossible photo finally obtained I met back up with my little group and we headed over to New Orlean’s square to use the super-fast Pass that we’d been given at the gate (they made a mistake with our breakfast reservations, they gave us the pass as an apology). And that was one heck of a backstage pass! Took us in through the exit, bypassed not only the standby line but the entire fast-pass line! Super pass! No wonder they don’t give them out very often!

Which brings us to now, as the sun starts making its way down over the horizon and the skyline of Paradise Peir starts to glow like a giant carnival. We made the reservations for World of Colour yesterday, but the restertaunt is overbooked and so…we wait. For what feels like a very long time. Good thing we had that hot dog earlier!

That said, World of Colour was well worth the wait; and so was the dinner that we were eventually served before showtime (actually that’s an understatement, that was the best pasta I’ve had outside of Italy). I’d seen little clips of the show online over the years, but there’s rather a difference between seeing something on a little tiny screen and actually seeing it from the front row. Of course, since we were standing in the front (preferred seating, it’s so the only way to see these things), when the wind changed we did get rather a little bit damp but…definitely worth it.

So so definitely worth it.