We’re Back!
May 8, 2008
Posted by CindyC in : Opinions & Thoughts , trackback
After a long car ride yesterday, we are back from our whirlwind trip to Disneyland. Although not my destination of choice, I have to admit that it was great fun for child and the adults.
Quite a bit has changed since the last I visited the theme park. The area that was once a parking lot is now California Adventures; the submarine voyage is now the Nemo Submarine ride; Pirates of the Carribean now features Johnny Depp and Ariel’s Grotto is now available to feed both hungry stomachs and little girls’ fantasies of meeting the famous namesake and her beautiful friends. The weather was pleasant and the lines were short (this is apparently the lull before the summer rush) so we couldn’t have asked for better conditions. During our time at the park, I realized that it probably is one of the happiest places on earth because everything is so unrealistically perfect. The children laugh and sparkle as they see their favorite characters come alive. Flowers and greenery surround us as if there’s no shortage of water supply. Idealized worlds like Fantasy Land, Tomorrow Land and Toon Town have no sadness or disappointments, just happy endings.
As an adult, I appreciated the brief escape from the real world, though I did cringe every time I saw plastic water bottles thrown into the trash instead of recycling.
The one real disappointment for us was the closure of It’s A Small World, my favorite childhood ride. Officially, the ride is closed for renovations to repair the wear-and-tear endured over the years. However, local friends told us the main reason for the year-long closure is to accommodate the increasingly large population, not in numbers but in weight. Average Americans are now 25 pounds heavier than we were back when the ride opened (in 1964). The boats routinely bottom out under heavier weight and get stuck in the narrow turns. For quite some time, the ride operators were told to leave empty seats in boats with heavy riders to combat the weight issue until park officials finally gave up and closed the ride for a permanent fix. At first, I was amazed that our nation has gotten so fat. But then, I looked around and noticed that many folks on the mechanized scooters were not disabled or elderly and appear to have no ailments other than excessive weight or laziness.
I guess there are some problems that even a place meticulously built to satisfy fantasies can’t stay immune to. If you are planning a trip to Disneyland, you better go soon before other rides need to close down for the same problem.
CindyC at Organicpicks
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P.S. Thanks for all the suggestions to my last minute travel panic. We survived both drives with the treasure bag and some books. We did pull out the DVD player, only once, on the way down when we were stuck in the infamous LA traffic.
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Comments»
I have actually heard that about It’s a Small World. I think it’s a sad state of affairs that Disney realizes that people’s weight isn’t going to decrease any time soon and they choose to close one of their most popular rides for over a year to fix the problem. It makes me wonder how much more weight the ride will be able to accomodate now versus what it was originally designed to hold.
I had heard that too about Small World. We got back from Yosemite last weekend and noticed too how many very overweight people were vacationing there. It is no wonder too. We don’t eat out much anymore but were forced to on vacation. After noticing how heavy everyone seemed, I paid a bit more attention to what we were served. The portions were positively enormous. I would finish after eating 1/3 or so and repeatedly the waiter staff would ask if there was something wrong with the meal. Yes! It’s HUGE.