Carnation Plaza Gardens–Starring the Highlighters

5 Comments Posted by on April 3, 2011

I have a special place in my heart for the Carnation Plaza Gardens. It’s just a little stage with seating set back near the entrance to Frontierland. For amateur performing groups, this is the stage you usually perform on (unless you’re a marching band). Back in my misspent youth, I belongs to a performing group and we sang on this stage as well, so it does hold a great deal of nostalgia for me.

Put your cares away and step into the Carnation Plaza Gardens

You might be wondering why Carnation would sponsor just a little stage. It’s because back in the day, you used to be able to get burgers and stuff there. Not anymore. Now it’s just a peaceful, fun little place tucked away.

There’s a big gazebo that holds the stage, which is very cute.

Shiny!

The day I was trying to get on Oprah, I noticed a youth choir singing on the stage. I was immediately drawn in, partly because I was trying to take an inconspicuous picture of Oprah’s film crew, partly because I needed to refill my water bottle, partly because Theo was in a mood and this was making him happy, but mostly because the group there was really good.

Meet the Highlighters from South Kitsap High School in Port Orchard, Washington!

Because every choral group needs at least one podium

 

No idea where Port Orchard is? Me either, so I looked it up for you:

Welcome to Port Orchard!

Looks like a pretty cool place to live.

I was immediately drawn in by the Highlighters’ stylish jazz numbers. These guys sounded great!

I should probably take a moment to clarify that the group to which I belonged when I was young was not really that good. The Highlighters were significantly better than my old performing group.

They wore really classy outfits–black suits. Unfortunately it was 91.5 degrees that day, so they must have been positively sweltering. It reminded me of our family friend’s wedding in Arizona when it was a billion degrees. All of the groomsmen had ice packs in their pockets. Disneyland is not usually that hot at the end of March, but there ya go.

You're probably really overheated. I'm sorry!

After the Highlighters finished, I took the opportunity to accost two women who looked like they were a part of the group. Lucky for me, they were.

I spoke with Beth Allen, wife of Mike Allen, who is the conductor of the Hightlighters. Beth’s son Jake was also a featured performer. Beth said that there are 20 kids in the Highlighters and this is Mike’s 23rd year as director. Woo hoo!

I have to say, one thing I really love about Disneyland is their willingness to let youth groups like marching bands (that’s me!) and choral groups (me again!) in to perform for guests. It’s a lot of fun for the kids, a lot of fun for the guests, and just in general a lot of fun.

Beth told me that the Highlighters come down about every other year, and the kids fundraise their butts off to make it. Boy, do I remember those fundraising days. That was the worst part of high school. Okay, not the worst part, but it was pretty bad. Apparently, among other things, the Highlighters sang at a madrigal feast–which let me interrupt just a second here and say that I LOVE madrigal feasts. They also sold cookie dough and pizzas and all kind of other stuff.

However, as Beth said, “We stopped doing car washes.” To which I add a hearty “hear hear!” Car wash fundraisers seriously SUCK. If you ever find yourself in a position of having to participate in a car wash fundraiser, then do your best to get out of it. Fall out of a tree and put yourself in the hospital or something. I can assure you that whatever injury you sustain, it won’t be as bad as a  car wash fundraiser.

But I digress.

Here's another shot of the Highlighters in action

They did a fabulous job on the whole, but I have to say that my favorite part was at the end when they launched into the Glee version of “Don’t Stop Believin’.” I couldn’t help but sing along.

I also met Katie, who was a chaperone for the trip and a former Highlighter herself. Katie was so inspired by her experiences that she grew up to become an elementary school music teacher. Katie is on the left in this picture, with Beth on the right.

We need more music education in schools! Seriously, people!!! MUSIC EDUCATION IS SO, SO, SO IMPORTANT!!

Aren’t they fun?

I’d like to say that I was disappointed that I didn’t get to be on Oprah, but really, because of it, I did stumble across the Highlighters and was really glad for that.

And if any of the Highlighters are reading, leave me a comment! You did really well!

 

Main Street , , , , , ,

In Which I Am Almost On Oprah

7 Comments Posted by on March 31, 2011

Today was hot hot hot, and I don’t mean that in a “Hey, that’s a great 80’s song!” kind of way. According to Weather Underground, it was 91.5 degrees. And it felt like 91.5 degrees. Or maybe more.

Oh, and here’s another valuable tip from Shelby–when you bring along your sunscreen to apply when you get there, make sure there’s actually enough in the bottle to do the job. I had to buy a bottle of Coppertone from the little newsstand hut thing in Downtown Disney next to the Wetzels cart, and much to my surprised, they charged exactly what I would have paid at Walgreens. I thought for sure I was going to get stuck with $35 sunscreen, but nope! So that was a bonus at least.

Anyway, walking into the park, I saw this:

Oprah's so lucky to have an acronym-conducive name. If I had my own network, it would be SLRH, and that's just...no.

In case you can’t read miniature print, it says that OWN, the Oprah Winfrey Network, is filming in the park today, blah blah blah, if you don’t want to be on TV then avoid the cameras.

So of course I immediately went to look for the cameras.

But then I felt like I should ride a ride, so I hopped on Buzz Lightyear (post coming soon), and then Theo became very unhappy when I swung through Fantasyland (he wanted to ride the carrousel and kept saying “horse? horse? horse?” in an extremely pathos-inducing tone of voice) so I figured I would 1) abandon my search, 2) find a nice, shady spot to rest for a second, and 3) refill my water bottle. Did I mention it was hot? Good lord, it’s not even April yet. Even though it will be tomorrow.

Off to my right was a small bridge that leads to the Carnation Plaza Gardens, a little stage tucked away near Frontierland that I absolutely love. I noticed a bunch of official-looking cast members with clipboards, and lots and lots of equipment on carts.

I walked over the bridge and so as not to be conspicuous, having learned my lesson from the Awkward Social Situation, walked to the stage area and turned around to snap a picture.

Lots of equipment, no Oprah

I know that doesn’t look impressive, but there was more there that didn’t make it into the shot.

I thought about hanging around to see if something was going to happen, like maybe a celebrity would show up or something, but they didn’t seem to be setting anything up. A cast member did block off the bridge:

Well let's just hope there's not a riot at the regular entrance, because the emergency exit is now blocked

However, I stopped caring about Oprah when I saw a high school choir performing on the stage. They were just wonderful, and Theo was entranced. And I will blog about them later.

Suffice to say, they never set anything up and I never really got close to being on Oprah. But I think her camera crew is a good second best.

Main Street , ,

Soarin’ Over California

6 Comments Posted by on March 29, 2011

People ask me a lot if I’m going to do Disney’s California Adventure for My Year With The Mouse, and I say no because there’s tons of stuff to do in Disneyland alone to keep me occupied for a year. But I do occasionally go over to California Adventure to hit a few rides, and on my Mom’s Night Out we went on Soarin’ Over California, so I’m going to blog about it.

Also, I just learned via the Standard Research Methodology that the actual name of the park has changed to Disney California Adventure Park. Which, quite frankly, is kind of lame. D-CAP? That sounds like some kind of nutritional supplement. What was wrong with Disney’s California Adventure? Well, a lot was wrong with Disney’s California Adventure, but that’s a whole other blog or something. Anyway, for the purposes of THIS blog, I’m going to call it the Mouse-Next-Door (MND).

The MND has a small handful of cool rides, and Soarin’ Over California is one of them. Now let me just get a personal pet peeve out of the way. The Mouse-in-law also has Soarin’ Over California in Epcot, but they just call it “Soarin’.” For some reason, this makes me irrationally irritated. It’s Soarin’ Over California because the film is you flying in the air over California. The ride at Epcot is exactly the same. That is, in Epcot, you are still Soarin’ over California.

Every time someone says Soarin’ without the California part, small blood vessels explode in my brain that, over the long term, might cause some real problems for me. Yes, I know that’s actually the name of the ride in Florida, but I can’t help it.

Let’s just get on with the post, shall we?

Okay, Soarin’ Over California was the first ride the mom friends decided to do after our dinner.

Notice the part where it says "Over California" underneath "Soarin'." I know it's tiny, but it's there. Trust me.

Soarin’ Over California is basically a ride where you sit on a seat and are dangled in the air, and then they show a movie on a hugely ginormous screen of various place in California from the air and your seat moves around like you’re actually flying over the Golden Gate Bridge or Yosemite or whatever.

First, you queue up outside and zig-zag for a while. This is also where we met Janine and Brianne.

It started to drizzle a little

Once you get inside, it’s pretty cool. The building is supposed to be like a big airplane hanger, and they give you lots of interesting things to look at.

The first time I saw this sign I thought it said "Wings of Flame" and I was like oh, famous plane crashes? Tacky.

There are banners with seminal moments in aviation as well as pictures lining the walls.

That wacky Kristin models the interior design

As an aside, I took the following picture because there was an adult in the line with a full face-paint job. Face painting is popular and expensive, and very very rare on an adult. I tried to hide the fact that I was trying to get a picture of the face paint guy by pretending to take a picture of my friends. Sadly, my aim wasn’t all that great and I just ended up with a picture of my friends.

Lesson learned--when you're trying to take a picture of someone, make sure they're actually in the picture

Kristin nearly got us kicked out by flashing a gang sign.

I'm kidding

At the end of the Wings of Flame part, you get funneled into either Concourse 1 or Concourse 2. The flashing sign cycles through the various airports in California.

I've actually flown out of the Palm Springs airport before. It's quite nice.

We were on Concourse 1. Shhhhhhhh–it’s the same ride either way.

You zig zag for a while more and then you are cleared for takeoff

Once again, I'd like to take the opportunity to point out the "Over California" part under "Soarin'"

You go inside the big giant room with the pretty blue screen

The cast member is here in case you get lost

You then sit down in your designated row

SIT DOWN, CARISSA! YOUR BUTT IS BLOCKING MY PICTURE!

There’s a simple seatbelt to keep you in your seat. There’s also a loop between your legs and if you’re under a certain height, you thread the seatbelt through the loop. This confused some of us.

There we go--group picture!

I laughed as I realized that, being a big group of moms, we were all leaning over and checking to make sure everyone else’s seatbelts were on properly. You can leave the kids at home, but you’re still going to feel horribly guilty if someone falls off the ride because you didn’t double-check their seatbelt.

Just sayin’.

Once everyone is belted in, the ride lifts up so that every row is equally facing the screen and you feel like there’s nobody else around you (except for the people whose seatbelt you just checked).

The screen looks like this, but it's much, much bigger

The movie itself is super cool. There are fun effects like when you’re flying over an orange grove, there’s an orange scent, and your seat gently tilts when you’re turning. Your flight ends over Disneyland at night during the holiday season with the fireworks.

And make no mistake–no matter how hard they tried to take the California out of Soarin’ in Florida, you’re still Soarin’ Over California.

Everything Else, Mouse-Next-Door , , , ,

Space Mountain!

2 Comments Posted by on March 27, 2011

And now we get to my favorite ride in all of Disneyland–Space Mountain! Space Mountain is one of four Mountains at Disneyland, each corresponding to a thrill ride. Space Mountain is an indoor rollercoaster (as is Big Thunder Mountain and Matterhorn Mountain, while Splash Mountain is a log ride). The cool thing about being inside is that it’s dark so you can’t see the tracks.

According to Standard Research Methodology, Space Mountain opened in 1977. One of my earliest memories of Space Mountain was when I was little but finally tall enough to ride it (I was a very small child), I was really chicken, but I wanted to ride it, so my mom kept saying, “are you sure? are you sure?” and I was like “yeah yeah yeah, I’m totally sure.” So we waited for hours (it seemed, it was probably about an hour) and then at the very last second–very last second meaning sitting in the car–I freaked out and started bawling and refused to go on it. My mother had to stay behind with me and she was livid that we had wasted all that time standing in line for me to chicken out. LIVID.

Ah, the joy of Disney magic.

Anyway, somewhere along the way I found the guts to ride it and it quickly became my favorite. This visit I was with my mom’s group for “Mom’s Night Out” (see Mothers in the Mouseland). We were all keen to go on Space Mountain, since it’s a difficult ride to go on with toddlers (difficult = impossible unless you have someone to ride switch with). Well, not all of us. One of us was pregnant, so SM was out for her. Still, this was that last picture of the whole group before we parted ways.

Look familiar? Thanks for reading!

Space Mountain was completely shut down in 2003, and they dug all the way into the ground to rebuild it. I was hoping they’d put in a new track, maybe something with a loop, but they ended up with the exact same track. That’s kind of the only disappointing thing about Space Mountain, once you learn the track. You bank to the right a LOT.

In the 80’s and 90’s, Space Mountain had this moving walkway that went right to the roof of the mountain. It was all futuristic and cool and stuff, but totally useless because it backed up the queue and they always had it turned off. After the re-do, you walk around the side and schlep yourself up to the roof. You can get some cool pictures up there

Oooooo, it's all glowy and stuff!

One baffling thing about the re-do is that it gets unbelievably hot up there on the roof while you’re waiting. You’d think they would take the opportunity to put in misters, or even just cover the whole thing, but no. In July, you bake.

After a thoroughly uninteresting queue in which you zig zag a number of times, you finally reach the actual mountain building. They let you through in groups, presumably so you don’t back up inside.

What ride are we waiting for again? Oh that's right--Space Mountain

Once inside the building, you descend. So yeah, you climb up to the roof to wait, and then descend to board. There’s not really space at the base of the building for a line, so there ya go.

Hi Kelli!

Inside, there are various monitors with loops talking about the ride and how if you’re pregnant or you don’t like high-speed adventures or shooting into space or whatever, this isn’t the ride for you. Which kind of bites because by the time you’ve made it to the building, you’ve already invested a huge amount of time in line. The inside looks a lot like this:

Boring

Kristin attempted to entertain us with some ballet and yoga moves.

I almost killed myself trying to imitate her. It was bad.

Again with my awesome photography skills.

Back in the olden days, there were darkened windows in the queue where you could actually look into the ride and see space shuttles go shooting by. There was also a viewing area from the Peoplemover. Both of those things let in a lot of light, so originally Space Mountain wasn’t completely dark.

It is now.

Which is pretty awesome.

In lieu of the windows, they installed the above-mentioned monitors. They try to give you a clue as to what your riding experience will be like, but trust me, it’s nothing like this.

Are they shooting lasers or something?

You finally open onto the space port area and get a nice aerial view before you board.

You're almost there--hang on!

After being seated, you move to the launch tube. This is all futuristic and there are black lights, so when you insist that everyone in your group turn around and smile so you can take a picture, their teeth glow.

It's like a freaky Crest commercial

You approach Mission Control, and then off you go.

We haven't actually started yet. Monica needs to get out more.

In the launch tube, the lights start flashing and spinning until you get to the inside of the coaster where it’s completely dark.

This starts spinning and stuff and it's kind of nauseating, actually

When you get to the actual track, the music goes all “Ahhhhhhhhh!!!!!” and then you get a countdown from 10. At 1, you shoot through the entire track, completely gravity-fed. It’s really awesome. There’s also this cool soundtrack that just kicks it up a notch.

At the end of the ride, you get your picture taken. I always try to think of something clever to do, but tend to fall short. However, this time I attempted to take a picture of my own. This is the part where you get your picture taken:

Flashy streamy lights and stuff

When you get off, you can buy your picture for $14.95 for a 5×7. Or you can go all ghetto and take a picture of your picture, like I did.

You're actually supposed to buy this

So there I am, taking a picture of the part where they take a picture of you. I mistakenly thought that the camera was off to the left a bit, so my camera is pointed off to the left, but I later realized that the camera is directly overhead and it’s just the flash that comes from the left.

This is a picture of me taking a picture of the camera taking a picture of me

That is so postmodern, my head exploded.

Tomorrowland , ,

← Older posts

Newer posts →