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057 - Disneyland Clarification
Feb. 26th, 2015 10:34 amI received a text from my sister-in-law, and this is the full content of that text (just in case anyone may think that I had been bullied in to this or been given a set of counter-ponts that needed to be addressed - this is all from the heart) -
(the blog post in question is the one where I defended the Disney Ticket Price increases and related the story of my first trip to DIsneyland)
That was all there was to it, and though I never do retractions because everything in my blog is an exact and factual recollection of events in my life from my own personal perspective, I do feel that I should clarify the blog post in question for several reasons, the least of which being that it is not a proper representation of who my Sister-In-Law is; her love for Disneyland and Disney in general has always been the inspiration for my own levels of Disney Nerdosity. The thought of her being hurt by something I said is dumbfounding to me, as she has the thickest skin of anyone I've ever met - she can take abuse like no one else! How could I have said something that hurt her?
Okay, so looking back on the post, here are the points I feel need to be clarified in standard storyteller style, and I hope that these clarifications help to heal whatever wounds I have left behind. Please remember that the facts may be a bit skewed by time and personal recollection.
First of all, it was the Summer of 1991 and I was 18 years old. As is the case with all recently graduated 18-year-olds, I already knew everything that could ever be known and my opinions were much, MUCH more than just opinions - they were FACTS. Your favorite music? It's okay... but the BEST music is The Ramones and They Might Be Giants. Your favorite color is red? That's cute, but the BEST color is BLUE. It's not opinion, it's just simple FACTS.
Also, as many 18-year-olds, I was jaded and cynical. The world is crap, I'm the only smart person in the world, and best of all there was absolutely no reason for me to ever leave my home town because everything I needed was right there. In retrospect, this was probably why my Brother and my Sister-In-Law invited me to come stay with them after I graduated, in hopes that I might realize that there's more to the world than a town with one high school and one pizza place. And it worked! They opened my eyes to all sorts of new things and possibilities, and they worked HARD to do it!
(BTW, this is not to diminish the work my Brother had put in to expanding my horizons during this visit, but this post will focus on the words and actions of my Sister-In-Law. There are tons of hilarious anecdotes about my small-town antics in The Big City that we still laugh about to this day, but that's for a different post... this is about DISNEYLAND. Stay on target, Brian!)
From the very beginning, my Sister-In-Law had been excited to take me to Disneyland; like I had said before, she grew up there. She's one of those kids we all get to be jealous of, who could just pop in to the parks every day after school. She knew that park like an old friend! Her Mom was the hostess at the Chinese restaurant across from the Disneyland parking lot (where the Paradise Pier Hotel is now) and people would leave the unused days of their multi-day passes as part of the tip, so it rarely cost them money to go to Disneyland!
So here I was, mister 18-year-old Small Town Country Bumpkin In The Big City, being offered FREE DISNEYLAND TICKETS, and my attitude was still a resounding "Meh". My arguments included that I didn't like roller coasters, and that Disneyland was for kids. My Sister-In-Law knew I would love it, she was a PRO at loving Disneyland, and she would make sure I had an awesome time one way or another!
Eye roll. Ugh. fine. Whatever.
And then one day, for some reason even unknown to *me*, I decided to get on a bus and go to Disneyland by myself. I got to the Disneyland Hotel at about 4 in the afternoon, paid my $27.50 for a full days admission, rode the Monorail in to Tomorrowland, rode Star Tours *once* and came out to hear "Ladies and Gentlemen Boys And Girls, DIsneyland is closing tonight at 6pm". I had just enough time to wander back to the monorail and think "Dang, so that's Disneyland? That was SUPER LAME. I thought it had all sorts of different stuff in it!"
That night, when I told my Sister-In-Law that I had already gone to Disneyland and was not impressed, I'm pretty sure she was crushed that I hadn't waited for her to take me. But remember, I'm 18 - your feelings, desires and opinions are secondary to my own. SO she grilled me - All I did was ride the Star Tours? Did I go to any of the other lands? Did I see Main Street? How about the big floral Mickey Mouse at the entry? The Mark Twain Riverboat? Haunted Mansion??? PIRATES?!?!?!
After my obligatory eye roll and "Ugh, whatever", I'm pretty sure I then INSISTED that they must have removed all that stuff, because all I saw was a monorail and a big rocket and Star Tours. Because I'm 18 and I know everything, remember. It was then decided that the three of us would go together.
The timeline from here becomes a bit sketchy for me... it may have been a single day, it may have been multiple days. For the sake of storytelling, I'm going to condense it into one day. And keep in mind, my Sister-In-Law was doing her level best to appeal to the eye-rolling know-it-all smart-ass that I was, and she did it *brilliantly*
I think that the plan had been to do the entire Disneyland experience, from rope-drop to Fireworks, but I was 18 and insisted on sleeping in till like *noon*.
I remember riding Splash Mountain and begging not to go on Splash Mountain, and observing that all you ever saw was a huge line of people going in but nobody ever coming out.
I remember going on Star Tours maybe? And then my Brother had to leave to go to work (he worked something like 27 different jobs at the time), so it was just me and my Sister-In-Law.
This is when she tried to appeal to my hipper-than-thou attitude by telling me the stories of The Good Old Days when her sister and friends (not her though, she was straight-and-narrow) would come to the park to mess with the tourists, take drugs and do generally non-Disney things ("The best ride at Disneyland is The Bathroom when you're on Acid"). Funny stories that DID INDEED appeal to me but also made me very uncomfortable, kind of like a racist joke. But since I *was* responding to the stories, she decided to totally take me on a Locals Tour, the gist of which was a jaded "These lines are too long, this ride is for little kids, don't buy food here it's too expensive" that I nodded and moped around to. To *her*, she was giving me exactly what I wanted... and at the time yeah, I think that WAS what I wanted to hear.
We went over to The Disneyland Hotel to see the Dancing Waters Show (which she prefered to the fireworks), but we only caught the last minute of it. No problem, though, as it put us right near her FAVORITE place to see the fireworks from - a grassy hill outside the park somewhere (I have never since been able to figure where that hill was located). While the fireworks went off, she told me about how crowded it would be in the park right now and how they play music during the show and... and this was the first inkling I had of thinking "Hey, I'd kind of like to be a part of that crowd..."
After the crowds were gone, we went back into the park for some reason (I don't remember why) and she took a picture of me posing in front of a giant Rocketeer backdrop. Right about then, all because of my Sister-In-Law, I started loving Disneyland and wishing I had done it *right*. Many MANY years later (TWENTY!) I was able to rectify this egregius error when they invited Crystal, Molly and I to share a room with them at The Grand Californian. THIS TIME we did it RIGHT. THIS TIME we all rode It's A Small World and other rides together as a big, unified family! We took a group-shot of all of us in front of the castle! We reveled in every nook and cranny of Disneyland Awesomeness and Nerdiness we could!
The Grand Californian Trip is what my Sister-In-Law deserved back in 1991. Instead, she put on her Jaded Cynical Local Mask to show me the trip that the Jaded Cynical 18-year-old ME was looking for, and I'll always be grateful for that :) Without her, I would not have my greatest obsession!
So thank you, Sister-In-Law (who's name will remain redacted since she has no real online presence), I love you and am thankful for everything you have ever done and for being my Role Model of Disney Love :)
Hey Brian I wanted to let you know that I was offended and hurt by your comments about me and Disneyland on your blog
(the blog post in question is the one where I defended the Disney Ticket Price increases and related the story of my first trip to DIsneyland)
That was all there was to it, and though I never do retractions because everything in my blog is an exact and factual recollection of events in my life from my own personal perspective, I do feel that I should clarify the blog post in question for several reasons, the least of which being that it is not a proper representation of who my Sister-In-Law is; her love for Disneyland and Disney in general has always been the inspiration for my own levels of Disney Nerdosity. The thought of her being hurt by something I said is dumbfounding to me, as she has the thickest skin of anyone I've ever met - she can take abuse like no one else! How could I have said something that hurt her?
Okay, so looking back on the post, here are the points I feel need to be clarified in standard storyteller style, and I hope that these clarifications help to heal whatever wounds I have left behind. Please remember that the facts may be a bit skewed by time and personal recollection.
First of all, it was the Summer of 1991 and I was 18 years old. As is the case with all recently graduated 18-year-olds, I already knew everything that could ever be known and my opinions were much, MUCH more than just opinions - they were FACTS. Your favorite music? It's okay... but the BEST music is The Ramones and They Might Be Giants. Your favorite color is red? That's cute, but the BEST color is BLUE. It's not opinion, it's just simple FACTS.
Also, as many 18-year-olds, I was jaded and cynical. The world is crap, I'm the only smart person in the world, and best of all there was absolutely no reason for me to ever leave my home town because everything I needed was right there. In retrospect, this was probably why my Brother and my Sister-In-Law invited me to come stay with them after I graduated, in hopes that I might realize that there's more to the world than a town with one high school and one pizza place. And it worked! They opened my eyes to all sorts of new things and possibilities, and they worked HARD to do it!
(BTW, this is not to diminish the work my Brother had put in to expanding my horizons during this visit, but this post will focus on the words and actions of my Sister-In-Law. There are tons of hilarious anecdotes about my small-town antics in The Big City that we still laugh about to this day, but that's for a different post... this is about DISNEYLAND. Stay on target, Brian!)
From the very beginning, my Sister-In-Law had been excited to take me to Disneyland; like I had said before, she grew up there. She's one of those kids we all get to be jealous of, who could just pop in to the parks every day after school. She knew that park like an old friend! Her Mom was the hostess at the Chinese restaurant across from the Disneyland parking lot (where the Paradise Pier Hotel is now) and people would leave the unused days of their multi-day passes as part of the tip, so it rarely cost them money to go to Disneyland!
So here I was, mister 18-year-old Small Town Country Bumpkin In The Big City, being offered FREE DISNEYLAND TICKETS, and my attitude was still a resounding "Meh". My arguments included that I didn't like roller coasters, and that Disneyland was for kids. My Sister-In-Law knew I would love it, she was a PRO at loving Disneyland, and she would make sure I had an awesome time one way or another!
Eye roll. Ugh. fine. Whatever.
And then one day, for some reason even unknown to *me*, I decided to get on a bus and go to Disneyland by myself. I got to the Disneyland Hotel at about 4 in the afternoon, paid my $27.50 for a full days admission, rode the Monorail in to Tomorrowland, rode Star Tours *once* and came out to hear "Ladies and Gentlemen Boys And Girls, DIsneyland is closing tonight at 6pm". I had just enough time to wander back to the monorail and think "Dang, so that's Disneyland? That was SUPER LAME. I thought it had all sorts of different stuff in it!"
That night, when I told my Sister-In-Law that I had already gone to Disneyland and was not impressed, I'm pretty sure she was crushed that I hadn't waited for her to take me. But remember, I'm 18 - your feelings, desires and opinions are secondary to my own. SO she grilled me - All I did was ride the Star Tours? Did I go to any of the other lands? Did I see Main Street? How about the big floral Mickey Mouse at the entry? The Mark Twain Riverboat? Haunted Mansion??? PIRATES?!?!?!
After my obligatory eye roll and "Ugh, whatever", I'm pretty sure I then INSISTED that they must have removed all that stuff, because all I saw was a monorail and a big rocket and Star Tours. Because I'm 18 and I know everything, remember. It was then decided that the three of us would go together.
The timeline from here becomes a bit sketchy for me... it may have been a single day, it may have been multiple days. For the sake of storytelling, I'm going to condense it into one day. And keep in mind, my Sister-In-Law was doing her level best to appeal to the eye-rolling know-it-all smart-ass that I was, and she did it *brilliantly*
I think that the plan had been to do the entire Disneyland experience, from rope-drop to Fireworks, but I was 18 and insisted on sleeping in till like *noon*.
I remember riding Splash Mountain and begging not to go on Splash Mountain, and observing that all you ever saw was a huge line of people going in but nobody ever coming out.
I remember going on Star Tours maybe? And then my Brother had to leave to go to work (he worked something like 27 different jobs at the time), so it was just me and my Sister-In-Law.
This is when she tried to appeal to my hipper-than-thou attitude by telling me the stories of The Good Old Days when her sister and friends (not her though, she was straight-and-narrow) would come to the park to mess with the tourists, take drugs and do generally non-Disney things ("The best ride at Disneyland is The Bathroom when you're on Acid"). Funny stories that DID INDEED appeal to me but also made me very uncomfortable, kind of like a racist joke. But since I *was* responding to the stories, she decided to totally take me on a Locals Tour, the gist of which was a jaded "These lines are too long, this ride is for little kids, don't buy food here it's too expensive" that I nodded and moped around to. To *her*, she was giving me exactly what I wanted... and at the time yeah, I think that WAS what I wanted to hear.
We went over to The Disneyland Hotel to see the Dancing Waters Show (which she prefered to the fireworks), but we only caught the last minute of it. No problem, though, as it put us right near her FAVORITE place to see the fireworks from - a grassy hill outside the park somewhere (I have never since been able to figure where that hill was located). While the fireworks went off, she told me about how crowded it would be in the park right now and how they play music during the show and... and this was the first inkling I had of thinking "Hey, I'd kind of like to be a part of that crowd..."
After the crowds were gone, we went back into the park for some reason (I don't remember why) and she took a picture of me posing in front of a giant Rocketeer backdrop. Right about then, all because of my Sister-In-Law, I started loving Disneyland and wishing I had done it *right*. Many MANY years later (TWENTY!) I was able to rectify this egregius error when they invited Crystal, Molly and I to share a room with them at The Grand Californian. THIS TIME we did it RIGHT. THIS TIME we all rode It's A Small World and other rides together as a big, unified family! We took a group-shot of all of us in front of the castle! We reveled in every nook and cranny of Disneyland Awesomeness and Nerdiness we could!
The Grand Californian Trip is what my Sister-In-Law deserved back in 1991. Instead, she put on her Jaded Cynical Local Mask to show me the trip that the Jaded Cynical 18-year-old ME was looking for, and I'll always be grateful for that :) Without her, I would not have my greatest obsession!
So thank you, Sister-In-Law (who's name will remain redacted since she has no real online presence), I love you and am thankful for everything you have ever done and for being my Role Model of Disney Love :)
