If you live in southern California and are like me and my friends you have some kind of annual pass to Disneyland (you also raised an shaking angry fist to the sky the day Disney got rid of the SoCal Annual Pass. Nooooooo!!!). You go every chance you get, know the best ways to Fast Pass, know the “top 10 things you didn’t know about Disneyland”, maybe even the characters’ photo schedules; but did you know about the unofficial days at Disneyland?
Yes my dears, a time when people en mass come together to celebrate their collective state of being, hobby or fandom. We get to dress up, take a group photo of hundreds, meet up and explore “The Happiest Place on Earth” with people who love the same things we do; which just makes it even better. Days like Bats Day and Dapper Day and two weeks ago for the first time Derby Days. Oh my but my friend TJ and I love us some Roller Derby and we were not about to miss out on this. So after I begrudgingly shelled out the money for the SoCal Delux annual pass (I want my regular pass back! Wha!) we made a be-line for Sleeping Beauty’s Castle where everyone was taking the massive group photo commemorating the first of many days to come when ruff and tumble women in muscle shirts, hot pants and striped knee socks come together in blissful harmony at the happiest place on Earth.
Ok, that’s a lie. We were both lazy and took forever to get to D-land -fabulousness takes time you know- so we missed the group photo, Ugh. I have no idea what anyone was wearing except that some awesome Roller Derby team shirts and the special Derby Days t-shirt walking around did catch my eye all day. And after weaving our way through the human soup that was California Adventure at mid-day in July (I think I understand now why they got rid of the regular SoCal pass) we decided to do Disneyland our way. Which means we headed straight for ye old watering hole that is the UVA Bar in Downtown Disney. A haven amongst the horde of tiny humans. Precious though they are they can’t drink, so we were safe for the time being.
The next bit is a little fuzzy. There were more drinks than we had intended. Personally I felt the click and then had a couple… no, a few more. Neither one of us drink like we used to so this was either a good idea or a bad one, I still haven’t decided. Still though it did make the next part a bit more interesting. And I swear we were still walking straight… as far as I remember.
Sooo, we may have harassed a cast member as we entered California Adventures; but I still attest that he was being a dick. Though admittedly if we had been completely sober we probably would have let it slide; but being accentuated we weren’t in any mood to let him ruin our Disney experience. Anyhoo…
Ride, ride, ride… The Mad T Party! I’ve always wanted to go. A virtual club for everyone that combines everything we ever wanted; the cray Wonderland of our youth with good music and drinks. We skipped the drinks and jammed to the White Rabbit spinning tunes and the Tweedle twins MCing then weaved our way through the other revelers checking things out till we found the croquet players – stilt walkers riding pink flamingos. I love stilt walkers! We are sideshow performers, it’s a thing. Thanks to the ever tall croquet team we stumbled upon the Cards area. Amazingly you would be surprised how difficult it is to build a house of cards out of giant cards with four-year-olds as your aids. I know, right!?! This quickly deconstructed in the slow-motion fighting with the cards as our weapons. The cast member weren’t too hot about that and stopped us; but the kids were having a grand old time – all of us kids. Hey we were dressed … interestingly and playing with children, we wanted to not appear creepy to their guarded parents watching. I’m not sure we succeeded. Aaaaaand time to leave.
Back to Disneyland! Have you ever turned left as you enter Space Mountain? Wow, we felt like VIPs! It’s zip, zip, zip and you pop out at the front car and totally skip the indoor line. Thank you awesome fire breather we met at the UVA Bar for your generosity and the VIP pass you gave us! (I do so love the people you can meet there while taking a break) Space Mountain is our go-to ride and you must be in the front car for the best experience. Whipping around in the dark not knowing what is coming next is so thrilling. The drinks we had made it a slightly new experience which can only be described by the look on my face as the picture was taken at the end of the ride. I’m usually so hard-core about it. We made it to Big Thunder Mountain as the fireworks went off (must sit in the back), made an unsuccessful attempt of filming the ride in the dark and made it to the rest of our favorite rides before we ran out of steam. That would be about 10pm folks. I know, we’re getting old.
Thus ended our first Derby Days at the “Happiest Place on Earth.” We completely lost out on the Derby Days experience; but had our own –interesting- one. Somehow we promise to make up for it come Nerdy Day or Shiny Day in the Parks or maybe even Villains’ Day. And I swear on my mouse-ears I’m never drinking that much at Disneyland again. Ooof.
Welcome to MeghanLand 