My Year With The Mouse

Casey Jr. was the first ride we ever took Theo on. I can’t remember exactly why we chose Casey Jr.–maybe because it was Kevin’s thing about trains and it’s a train that’s actually a Fantasyland ride rather than a trip around the Magic Kingdom. I think it seemed more ride-y. And it seemed like perhaps not the best idea to put a 6 week old on his own elephant on Dumbo.

Here he is:

OMG he's so tiny!!!

And then here he is at 2 and 1/2:

Such a big boy!

You know what would have been a cute idea? Taking a picture of him there at age 1. Oh well. That’s what photoshop is for, right? Revisionist history?

Anyway, Theo is now very into trains so it wasn’t a surprise that Casey Jr. was on his to-do list.

Or at least is was once we introduced him to it. In line.

I love its sign because the painting on the train reminds me of one of Theo’s favorite books, the Little Red Caboose. Also, it is necessary to supervise children at all times.

Words to the wise

There are a number of different cars that you can ride on, or in, or whatever. The cars toward the front are open-aired little chariot thingies.

This is the kind we rode with Theo his first time.

Towards the back there are animal cages that for some reason, kids go ape about. Get it? Ape? Hahaha, I’m so funny. Anyway, kids tend to race to these, and then some sad looking adults end up cramming themselves in there too and it’s just not pretty.

Perhaps these are more spacious than they look, but I'm not really interested in finding out.

As I said above, one of Theo’s favorite books is the Little Red Caboose, and conveniently, Casey Jr. has a little red caboose on the back. Or as Theo pronounces it, coo-boose.

Ride coo-boose! Ride coo-boose!

We actually waited another cycle to ride the caboose. It was already full when we first got to board, so we just asked the cast member if we could wait for the next train to ride the caboose. She said it was no problem and we just waited behind the yellow safety line at the exit.

Theo is schooling Daddy in the proper ways to drive a coo-boose

Use both hands, Daddy!!!

A good thing to know is that Casey Jr. is pretty connected to the Storybook Land Canal Boats. They come around right by the queue.

They always wave too, or at least the cast member does

And I don’t want to freak anyone out, but it’s a scientific fact that Disneyland has at least one ghost and I’m not talking about the Haunted Mansion. I’m talking about the ghost that haunts Casey Jr.. How do I know this? Because I got a picture!!!!!

I call this "Close Encounters of the Aperture Kind"

Scary, dude. But not as scary as Pinocchio.

And now, let’s take some bets on how long it takes for someone to search for “Disneyland ghost” and find me.

Anyway, The Storybook Canal Boats take you through Storybook Land in miniature, and Casey Jr. basically takes you around that via the land route, which is faster and (sorry, boats) more exicting.

It’s so close to the canal water that it has its own life preserver ring.

But really, how deep can it BE?

There’s quite a bit of decorative foliage, like the ride name in flowers. You also go through a lovely floral display representing the Silly Symphonies, and talk about something quite possibly lost on the next generation. I’ll have to track that down.

It's like Mickey except it's not Mickey

And incidentally, back on the King Arthur Carrousel post I talked about how the Disneyland site itself says that animals from the carrousel were moved to Casey Jr. which as you look at it seems patently untrue, given that a giant carrousel giraffe would stick out like…well…a giant carrousel giraffe on this ride. So I believe what moved are perhaps the stationary seats or some decorative panels.

Also you may notice that we got in line for this ride when it was light and got off in the dark, and the pictures here are out of order.

Anyway, Casey Jr. was surprisingly fast. Like, who takes their 6-week-old on a ride like that??? Heh. So the main problem with photographing on Casey Jr. is that pretty much all of my pictures turned out like this:

And this one is pretty much the best of the bunch. No joke.

So with a lack of other compelling and informative pictures, I’m going to have to sign off now, except to say…

Search for Disneyland Magic? I love that Disney doesn’t abandon their old movies and shorts. Yes, my SRM reveals that the Silly Symphonies were released between 1929 and 1939, and the people who saw them live also enjoyed the now recognizably racially insensitive Song of the South in the theater, but the Silly Symphonies are still represented here on Casey Jr. and in the Mouse-Next-Door on the Silly Symphonies Swings (formerly the Orange Stinger, which I actually really liked, so boo hoo). Anyway, while Disney does pile up the new, they haven’t entirely abandoned the old. It was magic then and it’s still magic now.