Tomorrowland? I’m thinking more…Yesterland…
There is no place as iconic as Disneyland. I swear. It’s more American than apple pie. For a kid, it’s the ultimate in ultimate. I love Disneyland and I got to ride my fill of Indiana Jones, Thunder Mountain, Space Mountain, The Haunted House, Pirates of the Caribbean and Peter Pan - which may be the most beautiful ride in the park.
But I have to wonder if Walt is rolling over in his grave. Tomorrow Land needs, uh, futuristic-type updating? Maybe a major makeover? The only thing there worth riding or even visiting is Space Mountain. The rest of T.L. is flat out depressing. Critter Country should be bulldozed - it’s where all those extra homeless animatronic characters - the Small World rejects - go to die. It’s just scary. Frontier Land has Thunder Mountain - a great ride, but that’s all. New Orleans Square still has it going on and Fantasy Land continues to be every child’s favorite place in the park.
The weird thing was that we arrived at 8:30 a.m. and we’d achieved all our goals and were heading back to the new Rhode Island-sized parking structure by 3 p.m. That’s another thing - the parking garage they put in to make room for California Adventures. You no longer have the opportunity to experience that heart-pounding anticipation and excitement as you approach Disneyland - even the Matterhorn is mostly obscured by the parking structure - a megalithic monstrosity that winds you around and around and around via a nonsensical, circuitous, maze-like route that I can only assume is designed to thwart potential evil-doers. The tram from the parking garage to the front gate drops you off at the new Disney Downtown where you are greeted by…surprise…gift shops.
But hey…there were no lines. We walked right on all the rides. And the churros are still good. It’s funny - the prices in the park seem reasonable, especially compared to what you pay for food at a baseball game, you know, where we pay at least $5.50 for a bottle of water, $8 for a hot dog, $10 for nachos.
Since the occasion was also a reunion for my husband’s family, as you can imagine, we were very busy and didn’t sleep a whole lot. Got home last night pretty beat and found the poor birdie, who seemed to be doing better when we left, on the bottom of the cage. As of this morning, little Alstie is no longer with us. We’re very sad. I ran out and bought a new companion for our parrot since she’s been quite upset about her poor friend. She immediately took the baby parakeet under her wing and began grooming her. Tibby is remarkably gentle for a parrot - at least with other birds.
Tomorrow - why us authors struggle with our websites - a nice answer to Rebecca’s question over at Dirty Sexy Books.
