Last New Year’s Eve we were at Disneyland. I thought this would be a magical and exhilarating experience. We usually have cozy Cioppino dinner at our friends organic farm, but last year we wanted to upgrade to a dazzling New Year’s Eve with all the fireworks music.
We spent a few days in L.A. before committing to the Disneyland fantasy. I must confess to you all here that our family LOVES Disneyland. We fall into Disney’s perfect rendition of make believe the minute we enter. We are swept away by the piped in music and the cute Americana Main Street. The characters milling the environs always amuse us.The rides are great but the place is what we enjoy the most. Okay the food is awful. Disneyland can take you on a fairytale ride but the minute you have to eat something you are brought right back to Anaheim and all its “cementy” fast food glory.
We prefer to stay at the Grand Californian, but last winter break, even during a recession, it was booked. We took the recommendation of some fellow Disneyphiles and stayed across the street at the Annabella. When we arrived at the Annabella, we liked the look of it. The Taco Bell architecture and the tables near the year-round heated pool were nice touches. We thought maybe the kids would want to swim in the pool at night after a day in the park. When we got our keys to the room and entered the illusion was shattered. It was a small Comfort Inn anywhere along a major interstate. It would do, we only needed to sleep there. As long as it was quiet and we could take a shower.
Onward to the park and we were swept away into the tides of people. Oh the people! We usually visit Disneyland the end of January and we exhaust ourselves going on the rides so many times. There are no waits, and we have the place essentially to ourselves and a few foreigners. This was not the case over winter break. What were we thinking when we saw the hotels were booked? Oh well, we made it work. We used our Fast Pass strategy and got onto all the rides, yes some were at 11:00 at night, but at least we didn’t have to wait in line. Although we did wait in lines, plenty of them; lines for the Pirates of the Caribbean, lines for Space Mountain, lines for the bathroom, lines for food, terrible food.
Disneyland is wonderful in the day, but it is truly spectacular at night with all the lights and the lavender shimmering castle. The Matterhorn and the Spinning Teacups are beautiful and I can’t resist the Storybook train ride all lit up with the tiny lights.
On New Year’s Eve day we planned to sleep in and enter the park late and stay late after the new year rolled in. It was a great idea. We hadn’t gotten to sleep until close to 1 AM the night before after watching the fireworks and walking back through Downtown Disney. We looked forward to a late morning and then a marathon afternoon and night in the park. Unfortunately the hotel had a small incident in the room directly below us. Apparently a water pipe broke during the night. Early New Year’s Eve day all the furniture had to dragged out of the room and a jack hammer was brought in to break up the cement floor in order to fix the broken pipe. The really special part was that the water had of course had to be turned off so that the pipe didn’t continue to flood the room. The water was to the whole building.
Well the pool was heated, so in it we went, tired and cranky. It was the best bath we were going to get all day. I drank a gallon of the lobby coffee and put on my best face for a day in the park.
The day was busy, our Fast Pass strategy didn’t work, by 10:00 AM all the Fast Passes had been used up for the day. If this Fast Pass thing is confusing you, let me explain. Disneyland found that people didn’t buy enough crap because they had to stand in line so long. So... they came up with a great plan to let people put their tickets in a special little machine and it would indicate when you could come back and enjoy the ride without waiting in line. You are given an hour window. Sometimes there is a tiny wait, but in general it is a better way to go when there is a big crowd. When it is really crowded though, like during winter break, the hours fill up. Your hour may be at 11PM or on New Year’s Eve, 1 AM. It is tricky. This does, as Disney executives predicted, allow more time for milling over the Disney emblazoned sweatshirts and key chains, and the other “must-haves” in the miracle of Disneyland thinking. Where does my brain go when I am at Disneyland?
Anyway, on New Year’s Eve day, while walking from Fantasyland to Adventureland, we noticed a long line along the backside of Adventureland. I asked a woman who sat in a clump near the front of the line what she was waiting for. She told me that at 9PM Disney employees handed out hats and party noise makers. Wow, 9PM? It was not even 4PM when I asked. We all decided that we didn’t need hats and noise makers.
After a day of standing in lines for three rides, it was time for dinner, yum! Mexican boiled something with 5000 others, loved it. After dinner the crowds grew thicker and thicker until I needed to sit down and get a bit of a break. Ice cream sounded good. An ice cream sundae while we waited for the New Year to approach. On our way to the ice cream shop we passed by the hat and noise maker dispensing station. The line was gone and the Disney employees were generously handing out hats and noise makers to all who passed. We picked up a few, with no waiting in line. What was the rush to be the first to receive one of the millions of identical hats handed out all night long? Maybe the line dwellers just needed to pay the stiff park entry fee to get a break and sit on the pavement for four hours.
The quaint square in front of the castle was quilted with blankets and campers. They were positioned and waiting for the festivities to begin in three hours. This was perplexing considering that there was so much more to do then wait on the cold ground on a blanket in Disneyland. Like get an ice cream sundae. Only in our dreams, the line was days long. Okay we decided to just sit for a bit. Where? The chairs in every cafe, the benches on the street, all the curbs, essentially any flat surface had been coveted with people waiting. It was the waiting time and it was cold. I had grown up in L.A. and why I forgot that December can be cold was another moment of magical Disneyland thinking. We were wearing our Norcal down jackets, but still it was cold. Luckily we found that the lame little theater on Main Street that shows the old Mickey Mouse cartoon reels was open and warm. There were a few benches inside to sit on and wait out the approaching New Year. I had settled in and was snuggled up to Mark when a Disney cop came in and rousted us out. “No loitering in here, get on out!” Wow, a Disney chump, I had never seen one before. We shuffled out back into the thickening crowd. We stood face to face in front of the magical lavender castle. The music was blaring and I was rocking back and forth with exhaustion. The girls were energized and bouncing with youthful excitement. I had my stupid plastic Disney top hat on over my knit hat and I looked like a Santa Cruz street rat. My hair was snarled and sticking out from under my hats. I was starting to feel like I should cry and we still had another hour to go. If we had wanted to go on a ride at that time it would have been impossible. The crowd was riveted looking toward the castle and there was only one direction anyone could move, towards the exit.
I looked at my excited family and announced that I would meet them back in the lobby of the Grand Californian Hotel. Mark knew I was ready to crumble and he said that he thought that was a great idea.
I exited the park, they were no longer letting people in, the park had reached full capacity, 50,000 people. They warned me that I would not be able to reenter. “Promise?” I purred.
Walking back through Downtown Disney I was shocked at how dressed up everyone was. Women in high heels and short sexy dresses with stylish handbags, were pouring out of restaurants with well dressed men. The women had sharp fancy hair styles and wore nice jewelry. I felt like I had just been rescued from Shackelton’s Endurance. My hair ratted and dirty, in my jeans and puffy down jacket. I entered the labyrinth of The Grand Californian Hotel and headed straight to the bathroom to confirm the suspicions of my appearance. Yep, it was bad. I ran my fingers through my hair, stuffed my down jacket into my backpack, rinsed my face and entered the lobby.
This was the slow motion part of the Disney movie I was living in. When Cinderella looks inward through the window of the castle and sees the beautifully dressed people dancing and talking, content and warm. This is when she looks down at her rags and knows that they would embarrass her. I threw out the shackles of this stupid fairytale and stepped inside. I was met by the gentle floating of classical music. There were empty leather chairs around the fireplace and piano. People were milling about holding glasses filled with shimmering elixirs. I ordered a glass of champagne at the bar fell softly into a leather rocking chair in front of the Storytellers Fireplace. I sipped the golden liquid and closed my eyes. Warm and in the environment I preferred I started to let myself drift away when a strong Australian accent pulled me back to consciousness. I opened my eyes and saw next to me a woman who was a spitting image of Catherine Deneuve, except six feet tall and without the french accent.
“Gud evnin” she said.“Ya, bin har long?”
“Ah no” I hesitated, “I just came in from the park, my family is still in there, I told them I would meet them here.” Why did I want to give so much instant information? We americans tend to tell all immediately.
“I jus gaut back from Seaworld tuday. My huban and boys are asleep upstairs and I wanned to celebrate the New Year wit a drink.” She too sipped champagne.
“Well,Happy New year to you,” I raised my glass and she raised hers. “ Are you on a vacation? ” I stupidly asked.
“Yea, we are on holiday from Australia. We are visiting all the major cities in America for amunth” We started here, and then we are off to Miami tomorra. While the husban and the boys are sleepin, I wanned to pick up some gifts in Downtown Disney.” She pulled out a couple of gigantic bags filled with snow globes and a pink Disney sweatshirt with Tinkerbell on the front. “Dis sweatshirt is for ma sista, do ya like it? Pink isn’t my color but my sista will love it.”
“ Yes, it is great.” I said and took another drink. Help me I thought, HELP!
Suddenly she threw her head back and finished her champagne. She jumped up and said she would be right back would I watch her stuff. Within a few minutes she was back with two more glasses of bubbly. One was for me. “Oh, thank-you.” I said. I still hadn’t finished a quarter of my original glass.
“We ate dinner across the street at da Paradise Pier restaurant,” she said. “These Americans are so funny, when we asked for a red and a white wine, they only braught us a glass of each, I yelled, we are from Australia bring us a bottle of each!”
“Were you at a party?” I inquired.
“Na, it was jus me an my husban and the boys.”
She finished her second drink, I handed the one she had brought me and said and politely as I could that it would take me awhile to finish my first glass, she was welcome to the second glass. She smiled and was happy to take it off my hands.
Soon the countdown started and I was sitting with this stranger, drunk stranger, wondering what my family was doing at that moment. Auld Land Syne was being played by the piano player and the mood was merry and content.
My new friend chattered on about her trip and Australia. I never new why she was vacationing for so long in the winter, albeit summer in Australia. Maybe it is their summer break. She told me that her husband was big and a big drinker. She complained about the crowds and the cost of everything and that they had a long month ahead of them.
Mark and the girls found me and flooded me with the astounding New Year’s events. I was mildly jealous of how happy they were, but it didn’t override my feeling of warmth and comfort in the lobby.
I filled Mark in with the details on my new friend, and looked at him with pity when she started pulling out all the gifts to show him. She told him how her husband and boys were asleep upstairs in the Grand Californian and she wanted a drink and met me. Mark was courteous and listened as long as he could. He was tired and cold. He wanted to leave and get back to the hotel and a bed. We left and walked the mile across the street back to our little Taco Bell Hotel.
The next morning Mark went to retrieve coffee from the lobby and who should he see but Miss Australia sitting alone in the lobby drinking coffee. He thought that he would go over and say hi, when he remembered that she had said that she and her family were staying in the Grand Californian. What was she doing at the Annabella by herself? It wasn’t like it was a destination hotel lobby, the small coffee machine in the corner could not have lured her the mile walk over. There she sat unaware that she was being watched in the pink Tinkerbell sweatshirt she had purchased for her sista.
Post a comment
^ Top
