A Disneyland annual passport that is, well for that matter I have a regular passport as well - duh! My Dad upgraded my free birthday Disneyland ticket to an annual passport and I hadn't had a chance to use it since that day. Kirsty came to visit LA right around the time I was getting back from England and we had limited time to see one another. She was staying at the park and wanted to spend her last night there in the park so off we went down the 5 to give the passport a spin. I upgraded my passport that night to a Deluxe and have since been four times in the last month. It's a cheap day out overall, you always know you're going to have a good time and you can always leave when you're tired because with the passport I can come back any time I want. The first evening with Kirsty was lots of fun and we made her go on the evil swinging gondolas. The second time was with my sister, Andy and the fabulous Maggie. This was after the "faux" party she threw for Mary. She thinks I'm not going to tell her when she grows up that she had a staged first birthday party two weeks after the fact, she is surely mistaken. We went just for a few hours to get a corn dog and ride on the evil gondolas again. Andy and my sister were terrified but Maggie was loving it, she's since been on the Matterhorn and loves that too. That's a 3 year old set to live life on the edge. This last Sunday Deanna and I ventured out to the park again because it was the 40th anniversary of the Haunted Mansion and some special Shag product was being released that day. I loved what Shag did for the 50th anniversary product and from what I saw online I knew we had to head down there that day. Josh Agle was also signing the product so it was not only a chance to buy some limited edition items but also get to meet an artist I've admired for years now. The line to buy product was pretty long but it was well worth the wait to mingle in with the Disney fanatics. I've seen some of these people around the park before trading pins and at the Disney character clearance store but never had a chance to talk to them. We met a nice woman that was there to buy a $225 pin set - yes $225 american!!!
She left after she was able to purchase a different $175 set at the gallery in New Orleans square and she had learned that the other set was sold out already. Next we stood next to two men that were also pin collectors but then switched their focus to the Hawaiian shirts and thermos to get signed. I had my eye on the cookie urn and one of the lithos. Deanna had picked out a really cool litho as well but apparently lots of other people liked that one too and it sold out before we made it into the store but she did get a very nice second choice. Everything was beautiful, even the lunch bags! I ended up with a third item as well - the tee which has the images of the hitchhiking ghosts and some spirits soaring on the back. While in line to pick up the merchandise we had just paid for we met Nancy who was our favorite of all the collectors. She had on the same pair of hideous Mickey mouse Crocs I was wearing and was absolutely devastated when we told her the company would soon be going out of business. Nancy told us all about the other things she had bought at previous events and about how her daughter was there early to buy some of her own items. We pointed out Shag to her when he passed through the room on the way to a quick break and we helped her climb under the rope at the other line to get our autographs. The signing line was much shorter and we were done in a few minutes, the staff helped you unpack your items, took a photo of you then packed everything back up. It could be that the Disney fans are far more tame then the crowds at the Megastore signings but everything was so pleasant I'm sure I'll attend the next event they have with Shag.
We spent the rest of the day in park going on a few rides and eating some fine meals. The day was going great, the weather was fine and we decided to go on Splash Mountain. We had a fastpass so we avoided the hour long wait in line. We were seated in the very front of the log and I was starting to get worried about getting absolutely soaked. It was late in the afternoon and I wasn't worried about being cold more about being uncomfortable in wet clothes, you can get a rash! I took the option of the very front since Deanna had a white shirt on and well no need to have a wet tee contest going on! After the first dip I was pretty wet already and was starting to fret about how much water was going to come into the log after that giant fall. THe ride stopped shortly after the first dip because of a "logjam" but we started up again after about a minute. The ride continued on through the briar patch without sound then the logs stopped again.
This time the log did not start up again and we were told we'd be climbing out of the ride and escorted out. It was kind of cool, we got to stand inside the ride and climb past the animatronic characters that were clacking away silently and down a flight of stairs behind the ride. For our trouble we were given a fastpass that would let us go to the front of the line on any ride, even those without fastpass set up. It was pretty awesome and well worth our trouble. We spent the rest of the day in the park enjoying a few more rides before giving in to our exhaustion and headed back to the car. I'll be off to the park again before the end of the month, I'm enjoying spending a summer in the kingdom. Who knew inside me was a secret Disney fan, although after summer is over who knows how many times I'll head back. Could this be just a passing fancy? Who knows I'm enjoying it while it lasts.
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