Saturday, March 14, 2009

The Disneyland Experience PT 2 - Vote for "Change"... NOT!!!

The above picture was taken at the Golden Horseshoe in Frontier Land where, on our Thursday trip, a shocking reality of "change" hit me square between the eyes as the following news came to my attention.

I'll first lay some groundwork, which has absolutely nothing to do with the topic at hand, but fills you in on the first part of our day. We got to Disneyland, and the four of us agreed to go to California Adventure first, since they closed at 6pm, as opposed to Disneyland's 9pm. So we went there, rode "Soarin' Over California" and "Tower of Terror," got a fastpass to "California Screamin," and then went to the Disneyland side. (Never to return and use the fastpass, due to forgetfulness.) We are all very indecisive people when it comes to things like rides, etc. So we agreed that one person would lead us in California Adventure, and I would lead us in Disneyland, since that's my favorite out of the two. And it was there that my world turned upside-down. (not really, but for discussion's sake let's say it did.) Of course, it was imperative that we go watch "Billy Hill and the Hillbillies" at the Golden Horseshoe in Frontier Land as it is my absolute favorite thing to see at Disneyland.

Now follow me as I lead you subtly into my shocking news. As many of you may have observed already, Disneyland has been upping the price of daily parking about 1 dollar each year or so since a few years ago. When my family moved to southern California in '05, the price for parking, if I remember correctly, was at 9 dollars per day. It is now at 12 dollars. That is not really a drastic change, albeit, it is a steady one, which is dangerous as well. However that is not the primary disturbing change of which I speak. 

Ready? As we travelled to the Golden Horseshoe, we decided to eat there as we waited for Billy Hill, as I have already stated. In times past, up till now, I had enjoyed a good full basket of nice, plump chicken strips while awaiting the infamous "Billy Hill" show. I went in to save a table for the four of us, while the three went and ordered food. I had Daryn get me my usual, chicken strips. He called me minutes later saying, "They don't serve chicken strips anymore. They only have chicken nuggets." which I found out were about half the size of the previous mentions chicken strips. I asked how much for the nuggets and soda, to which he replied, "$11.50." I about fell out of my chair. 

Not 5 months ago, at that same diner, I had eaten a nice fat juicy chicken strip meal for around 8 dollars. I had never heard of a Disneyland diner upping their prices by that much in that short amount of time. Ridiculous.

I hope that news was as shocking and outrageous to you as it was to me. Refer back to the above photo for a view of the new 11 dollar mini-nuggets.

The Disneyland Experience (well... ours at least) PT 1

This past Thursday evening proved to be quite an eventful one for Daryn, Brittany, Jonathan, and myself. Since Daryn and my-self's seasonal passes to Disneyland are nigh to expiration we supposed that we would go and "break-even." - Well, Daryn just broke even; I got my money's worth out of it a long time ago.Lol This outing was planned about a week ago; actually, they had it planned - I was undecided about it until about 30 minutes before we pulled out of the church parking lot in Daryn's truck. We met behind the church, piled into the truck, and that's when the fun began.

(Behold, I now wax eloquent.) Now, before I embark on my memoirs, I would feel obliged to point out something of importance. There were considerable amounts of inspiration, which sparked ideas and points of discussion, brought to my attention through my observations while on our "mini-vacation" that I would like to review. Albeit, if I, indeed, expressed the complete extent of my memories, thoughts, complaints, and opinions in merely one composition, it would, quite possibly, produce material of nearly eternal extent. Reading such kinds of essays have been known to cause harmful side-effects such as, finger crampness, teeth grittanitus, a severe inkling to bang ones head against a wall, just to name a few. Personally, I feel that it would be more favorable for me, the author, to strive in holding on to (proverbially speaking, of course) as many frequenters as are faithful enough to remain. With that being said, the majority of my thoughts will probably be split into 4 or 5 separate compositions.

Now, the following 80 something picture album is a reflection of our recent trip to the "happiest place on earth." Enjoy the pictures. For the sake of clarification, there are a few pictures in the following album that actually have a certain element of importance behind them; those are they which you may see repeated, in perhaps another post, included with my detailed thoughts concerning them.