Monday, April 21, 2008

Lessons Learned: Disneyland

Joni Mitchell was right, you don’t know what you got ‘til it’s gone.
.
I was thinking about Disneyland and the old ticket book. You see kids, back when I was a youngster, when you went to Disneyland you got a ticket book. And the most “thrilling” rides were the highest (E) tickets. Things like The Matterhorn or Pirates of the Caribbean.
.
And you learned from this. You can’t have everything. Now a days the number of attractions you can visit is limited only by your ability to berate Mom and Dad to stay long enough. But in the olden times (days of yore), you had to made some tough decisions. Peoplemover or RocketJets?
?
You only have 2 D tickets left and you have to use one of them to get to Tom Sawyer’s Island so you have to decide, PeopleMover or RocketJets?
?
Today this would be solved by making your parents stay so you could go on both, but in MY day you had to choose.
.
You also learned the value of a “deal”. Most of the rides in Fantasyland were C’s. Peter Pan (which was a must), Sleeping Beauty (because Kathy would cry on it no matter how much she promised she wouldn’t), Dumbo, the Tea Cups AND Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride- they were all C’s. You couldn’t go on them all.
.
But Alice in Wonderland. Ah.. gentle Alice. She was a “B”. Back then I didn’t know why. Now I think it is because she was tucked a little out of the way and didn’t get the walk in trade. But to this very day Alice in Wonderland is one of my favorite rides.
.
The cars with the grumpy catapiliers on them. The dancing cards inside. The Queen of Hearts who shrieks, "Off with her head!". The disappearing Cheshire Cat.
.
I don’t know why I thought of this, except Eddie and I were talking and I miss Disneyland. But mainly the Disneyland of my memory, not the Disneyland of today. I remember holding, like, 4 tickets left, and wanted to go on six different rides. I remember actually standing and quivering being pulled in some many directions at once. And my mom or Jeanie just standing there saying, “It’s your decision.” Oh…. You knew you were going to decide wrong. AND you had to decide quickly or one of the other kids in your group would pull you onto the Jungle Cruise, which was just a waste of an E Ticket.