In the early days of DizWorld, you’d line up at the gates and at the bell (opening time), you’d sprint* to your favorite ride. So my extended family was all on Space Mountain at the same time, surprised to find it was in the dark.
We got off and my niece said “I heard a little girl screaming in there…” We all turned to look at my dad, the big tough WW2 Navy vet, looking sheepish.
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*They’ve stopped using the FastPasses and they’re back to the “Wait for ‘Rope Drop’ and sprint to the most popular ride”.
As a speedy kid, I loved it. As a limping senior, not so sure. I’ll have to get in shape before I go with the kids next time: “Yes, personal trainer, I need to be able to sprint half a mile. Don’t ask why, just assume it’s a Crossfit thing…”
My first visit to a Disney park in decades was a couple years back in Tokyo. Somehow we ended up there just before the gates opened and I expected the young Japanese visitors to dash to the best rides. There was a dash, but as my wife and I leisurely strolled down Main Street marveling at how it looked just like Anaheim, we noticed the kids were all dashing for the gift shops. We walked right on to some rides that would have had long waits back home and the lines only started to lengthen into 20+ minute wait times when the Japanese kids started to show up wearing a variety of silly hats they had just purchased. By the end of the day, almost every Japanese visitor was wearing some kind of Disney accessory purchased from the shops.
This reminds me of my visit to Tokyo DisneySea in 2010. For some reason there were 20+ kids all dressed up in white custodian uniforms, with Mickey in the same uniform, all doing a dance with mops or brooms. Our kids were totally mystified. Only in Japan!
BTW anyone who’s a fireworks or water parade fan should visit DisneySea. Over the top only starts to describe it.
My favorite teacher was Mrs. K, who taught 6th grade. On the Saturday following the last day of school, all the kids (and some parents) were invited to Mrs. K’s house for a huge breakfast. Now, Mrs. K happened to live right next to the wonderful Euclid Beach Park, and after breakfast the entire class and parents were treated to an all-day pass to the amusement park, at Mr. K’s expense.
When I was in high school, Disneyland would hire local marching bands to perform in their parades. The deal was you march in 2-3 parades, then you get turned loose in the park for the rest of the day.
This was in 1983, when the “New Fantasyland” was under massive construction and Mickey’s Toontown did not exist. So at this time, once the Disneyland Railroad left New Orleans Square, it was about a 10 minute trip around almost the entire park before the next stop in Tomorrowland. Sometimes the construction delays would halt the train for another 5 minutes or so.
That evening it was raining after we exited the Haunted Mansion, so we decided to take the train around the park until the rain stopped. After we boarded the train stopped in a tight tunnel behind Rivers of America and waited for a construction delay to clear. Meanwhile, one of our friends, who had been emitting silent-but-deadlies ever since dinner, started to giggle. Then we felt the wooden seat beach vibrate. After about 20 seconds the smell washed over us and we all tucked our noses into our shirts. 10-15 seconds later the whispered comments started spreading throughout the car. “Oh god, who did that?” “Was that you?” “Not me!”
Because we were trapped motionless in a tunnel, the stench just lingered in place. Finally the train started to move. We gasped for air after we cleared the tunnel and the breeze hit us. But the smell still followed us. After the 8-10 minute ride, we pulled into the Tomorrowland station. Despite the rain, except for our group the entire car cleared, with passengers either getting off the train or moving to other cars. As the conductor called out “All aboard!!”, the farter suddenly bolted off the train, pulled his sweatshirt down over his butt, and ran though the station into the rainy night. That’s when it hit us…“Did he just shit his pants?”
We didn’t see him the rest of the night. When it was time to board the buses for the return to school, we saw him deliberately turn away to ignore us and get on a different bus. His bus got back to school before ours, so we missed him there. The following Monday at school… “Hey, what happened?”
“Nothing”
“Did you shart?”
silence
“We’ll take that as a yes”
“Shut up”
I’ve been to Action Park so I’ve seen all three things. Its better to watch the documentary than to have me try to explain.
In the not at all amusing but strange and interesting category:
My father instilled in me a healthy sense of situational awareness. He was not paranoid but did make sure to see where exits and fire doors were. I was one a class trip to an amusement park. While I was going through an attraction I kept thinking there was only one exit I could see and it was so dark I would be in trouble if anything happened. The next day on the news I saw the Haunted Castle at Great Adventure burned down and 8 kids were killed.
I was 11 when one of the lamest rides at Disneyland claimed the life of an 18 year old hostess. It was lame when it was the Carousel of Progress, and it was lame when it became America Sings shortly before crushing its victim. But, I’ll be damned if my friends and I didn’t stand in line for it every time we visited the park. Partly because you could sit down and rest your feet during the relatively long “ride”, but mostly so we could visit the scene of a grisly death and speculate how it happened and add more bullshit to the story like how her head popped off and landed in the lap of a guest. 11 year olds really are vicious assholes.
When I was about five or six, so it must have been around 1973/74, my family visited Phantasialand in Brühl near Cologne. As most people do, we visited a gift shop. My mother got interested in a little (cheap, plastic) purse, picked it up and hung it over her shoulder. She wasn’t really sure if she wanted that purse and browsed the shop for other things and planned to pay later or else hang the purse back where she had picked it up. So we stayed some time longer before we left the shop to enjoy more rides and other attractions. In the evening, we left the park and went to our car, and when my mother entered the passenger seat, she noticed that the purse was still hanging over her shoulder. She had totally forgotten about it and of course hadn’t payed for it. Now my mother is the most honest and law-abiding person you can imagine, so she was shocked and seriously wanted to go back to the shop to give it back or pay it. But we were all tired and exhausted from the day and still had a long drive home, so my father said “screw it” and we left the place. I bet my mother had a bad conscience for quite a long time.
So the whole family still laughs about the day our mother stole a purse.
That is so funny, I can just imagine how mortified your poor mother was when she realized that she was a thief.
This is a not a park, but it’s fun to drive by with folks who aren’t from around here. All there is left now are the cages on poles. As there are no steps on the poles, whoever was stuck up in the cages must have been put there. Much entertaining speculation often happens.
There are a couple of deer farms/petting zoos in the area as well. Kids can hand feed the deer while dad buys some freshly killed corn fed venison.
I went to OG Disneyland often when I was young and loved looking through the cracks while riding the train. I knew there was an entire underground world by the time I was 7 and being able to catch a glimpse as we trundled along was the best part of the park.
I don’t remember every having to sit stacked at Disneyland, but Magic Mountain had several stacked rides. Thinking about it, the ones I remember were all water roller coasters. Could that be what you are remembering @Yookeroo?
