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marinessIncidentally, it seems to be a week of fulfilling childhood dreams. Not that this particular one was mine.
I pretty much never venture to theme parks in the summer, for one critically important reason: it's hot. Very hot. I may not be emphasizing this enough. On the other hand, Disney's Electric Lights parade was on. So. We put my scooter in the car, and I braved the heat with my parents and their friends G and B (I think B? I might have this wrong. Then again, I'm fairly sure that no one ever calls him just B, so…we'll go with it).
Arriving was interesting, since at first glance, it appeared that Disney had shut off access to the disabled parking, which, no, but which did mean going around in little circles until we could reach the not actually closed off entrance to the disabled parking and try again. Once that was done, we headed directly towards the boat (with the disabled parking, you don't take the little trams, but you're not that close to the boats, either, in yet another demonstration of why, in some ways, Epcot is distinctly better planned; then again, Epcot isn't trying to hide the full scale of its parking lots, the way the Magic Kingdom is. But I digress) since my father likes the boat. It was early evening, but it felt like mid-afternoon.
We had hoped, watching the ratios of people leaving to people arriving, to find the park a little less crowded. Alas, not. I have seen worse crowds there once – on the Millennium Celebration, when the park filled to capacity and closed its gates, and about the same crowds when a group of us made the mistake of heading there the day after Thanksgiving, but, still, crowded to the point where only cell phones kept us from losing each other entirely.
We had successfully hunted down food when my mother, to our surprise, announced she wanted to do Dumbo.
Now, you have to understand: my mother is not really a ride person. She did them with us, when we were younger, not all that happily, and although she likes Buzz Lightyear, it's not her thing. But here she was, demanding Dumbo.
"See," she explained, "When they opened Disneyland, they showed pictures of everyone flying around on Dumbo and I thought, I want to do that."
Alert readers might be noticing that this happened in 1955.
Still, there's nothing like waiting for fifty-five years to fulfill a childhood dream. And so, after Buzz Lightyear and Laugh Floor, she stood in line, got into a Dumbo, flew up in the sky, and waved and waved.
After that, it was off to the Electric Light Parade and critical ice cream replenishment and fireworks (which, this summer, were really good), and then, moving through the masses of crowds exiting the park, and decisions to return...if not again, ever, in July. Some other month, when no one has to wait those few extra minutes (plus fifty-five years) for Dumbo.
I pretty much never venture to theme parks in the summer, for one critically important reason: it's hot. Very hot. I may not be emphasizing this enough. On the other hand, Disney's Electric Lights parade was on. So. We put my scooter in the car, and I braved the heat with my parents and their friends G and B (I think B? I might have this wrong. Then again, I'm fairly sure that no one ever calls him just B, so…we'll go with it).
Arriving was interesting, since at first glance, it appeared that Disney had shut off access to the disabled parking, which, no, but which did mean going around in little circles until we could reach the not actually closed off entrance to the disabled parking and try again. Once that was done, we headed directly towards the boat (with the disabled parking, you don't take the little trams, but you're not that close to the boats, either, in yet another demonstration of why, in some ways, Epcot is distinctly better planned; then again, Epcot isn't trying to hide the full scale of its parking lots, the way the Magic Kingdom is. But I digress) since my father likes the boat. It was early evening, but it felt like mid-afternoon.
We had hoped, watching the ratios of people leaving to people arriving, to find the park a little less crowded. Alas, not. I have seen worse crowds there once – on the Millennium Celebration, when the park filled to capacity and closed its gates, and about the same crowds when a group of us made the mistake of heading there the day after Thanksgiving, but, still, crowded to the point where only cell phones kept us from losing each other entirely.
We had successfully hunted down food when my mother, to our surprise, announced she wanted to do Dumbo.
Now, you have to understand: my mother is not really a ride person. She did them with us, when we were younger, not all that happily, and although she likes Buzz Lightyear, it's not her thing. But here she was, demanding Dumbo.
"See," she explained, "When they opened Disneyland, they showed pictures of everyone flying around on Dumbo and I thought, I want to do that."
Alert readers might be noticing that this happened in 1955.
Still, there's nothing like waiting for fifty-five years to fulfill a childhood dream. And so, after Buzz Lightyear and Laugh Floor, she stood in line, got into a Dumbo, flew up in the sky, and waved and waved.
After that, it was off to the Electric Light Parade and critical ice cream replenishment and fireworks (which, this summer, were really good), and then, moving through the masses of crowds exiting the park, and decisions to return...if not again, ever, in July. Some other month, when no one has to wait those few extra minutes (plus fifty-five years) for Dumbo.