So.
Sorry for the long, lonnnngggggggggg delay in finishing up my Disney-rific story here. No, really. I mean it. I meant to have wrapped this story up two weeks ago, but Life got in the way.
(So did Trouble.)
(And Risk.)
(And lots of other ominous-sounding board games.)
(Stupid spring cleaning!)
(Anyway….)
For part one of this story, please click HERE, and for part two, click HERE.
When we last left off, it was the end of our second day in Disneyland back in 2008, remember? I was staggering around the park in pain thanks to a back injury I received on one of the rides. (Crap.) Here’s what happened next….
DAY 3:
I awoke in the morning with a start and sat up in bed, staring in disbelief in the darkness. I simply couldn’t comprehend what was happening to me. I…. I…. I felt…. totally fine. What the—? After my injury the night before, I had expected to wake up in whimper-worthy pain. But, no. I felt completely normal.
(For now.)
After assuring the nine other people in my travelling group that I was, unexpectedly, healthy and pain-free, we walked from our hotel to Disneyland and started our day at the Character Breakfast where a cast member took a group shot of us as we arrived. This is the one and only picture of all of us together on the whole trip.
Wednesday and I were wearing our new Mickey ears we had purchased the day before. Hers were Jack Skellington themed and mine were Jack Sparrow. :-)
For breakfast, we had Mickey Mouse waffles. Mmmmmmmmmmmm!
Captain Hook joined us for a bite or two.
So did the Fairy Godmother.
Pooh Bear and Tigger tried to hobnob with the one year old in our group, but perhaps she was still feeling the sting of the previous day’s Pooh Bear ride insult, because she was NOT having it. In fact, she started to wail like a banshee! Tigger made a run for it, while Pooh Bear was appropriately ashamed.
Deciding we had snubbed Disney’s California Adventure long enough, we headed there after breakfast. Wednesday and I split from the rest of the group there and we quickly found Snow White’s magic mirror who talked to us and gave us directions to the Beauty and the Beast Library.
Walking into the library was awesome. It looked just like it did in the Beauty and the Beast cartoon! See the rose on the mantle there? When the last petal falls, the lights flicker and the portrait of Prince Adam (raise your hand if you knew his name was Adam…. anyone?…. anyone?….) gets slashed to shreds by angry Beast claws. (Sooooooooo cool!)
There were magic books in the library which asked you questions and then told you which Disney character you are most like. Wednesday was Lady (from Lady and the Tramp) and I was Cinderella…. which probably explains why I hate housework. And mean stepmothers.
Hmm?…. What was that?…. What did the magic book say our villainous alter egos were?…. Oh, alright, I’ll tell you, but this is just between you and me, okay?…. Wednesday was Cinderella’s evil stepmother (ha!) and I was the Wicked Queen from Snow White. Happy now?! :-P
It was right about the time that we were leaving the Beast’s Library when all of the day’s walking, noshing, character schmoozing, mirror-mirror-on-the-wall-ing, and other shenanigans, caught up to me and I started realizing I was not as fine as I had thought I was back in the hotel. My back was having spasms and shooting pains which were making my knees buckle, and my hand had gone completely numb. Great. By the time we met up with our herd for lunch, I was in utter agony, having trouble walking, and had developed the ubersexy posture of Quasimodo.
Not good.
I staggered to the nearest cast member and asked her where I could buy some pain killers. She looked at me in wide-eyed alarm and asked me if I had been injured in the park. I told her what happened and she told me that only “suckers” actually PAY for medications in Disneyland and California Adventure and then she directed me to a special little secret hush-hush nurse’s station just around the corner.
When I entered the nurse’s station, I didn’t even need to wait. The nurse was right there, asking me what was wrong. I told her my story and within seconds she handed me a little sealed package of pills for free and told me to take them and come back if they didn’t work.
Umm…. okay. That was easy.
I hobbled back to my group who were still eating lunch right where I had left them and opened the little package the nurse had given me. There were three generic pills inside, but no directions to go with them. I honestly wasn’t sure if I was staring at one dose or three, the package didn’t say. My travel companions and I debated it and it was decided that it must be a single dose or else, surely, SURELY, there would be instructions which stated otherwise, right? Well, of course. Duh. Sounds perfectly reasonable. So—*gulp*—I downed the three pills.
A few minutes later, Wednesday and I left our herd and headed out of California Adventure because we had been tipped off that Jack Skellington would be hanging out by The Haunted Mansion in Disneyland in about an hour and Wednesday really, REALLY wanted to meet him. I was still having a lot of trouble walking, so the always helpful Wednesday was arm-in-arm with me, assisting me along like I was 100 years old. Our plan was to slowly snail our way to New Orleans Square and then find a bench to sit on and rest while we waited for the Pumpkin King.
Only….
Within about twenty minutes of taking the pills I started to feel quite…. umm…. FuNkY. Suddenly, EVERYTHING seemed knee-slappingly hilarious and I felt dizzy, but in a delightful and dreamy kind of way. I wasn’t feeling any pain anymore, that was for sure, but I wasn’t feeling any common sense either. In hindsight, I can see that I was having some sort of unanticipated drug reaction and that hauling my sauced self back to the nurse’s station probably would have been a good idea. But, at the time, all I wanted to do was get Wednesday to Jack Skellington, so arm-in-arm we swayed and stumbled and laughed our way over to The Haunted Mansion.
I’m not exactly sure what happened next. My memories of it are extremely fractured and kinda swirly. I remember tottering around, asking random strangers where Jack was. I remember sitting on a rock wall with Wednesday, but I couldn’t balance and kept falling forward off of it while giggling like a moron. I remember Wednesday pointing at me, laughing, and asking me if I was okay and I was certain I was more okay than I had ever been in my entire life—in fact, I was feeling %$#&ing FANTASTIC!!!! I remember talking non-stop about whatever popped into my mind and there was a wee little voice in the back of my skull telling me to shut up, but I just couldn’t stop talking.
At some point during all of this, I decided to take a picture of Wednesday and me….
….but I was having a little trouble remembering how to use my camera. Clearly.
*rolling my eyes*
When Jack Skellington arrived, he had Sally with him and Wednesday was squealing under her breath with glee. There was a huge line of people following them, hoping to get pictures taken. Somehow, Wednesday and I ended up near the front of the line. I’m honestly not sure how that happened, but I think the odds are pretty decent that we cut in line, although I don’t remember anyone complaining, so perhaps we didn’t.
When it was our turn, Wednesday was sooOOooOOoo excited and nervous that she should could hardly speak. I, on the other hand, couldn’t stop yapping and immediately handed my precious camera off to a random stranger and asked her to take our picture.
After that picture was taken, I remember just standing there talking away to Jack. I was having trouble keeping my balance and didn’t give a flying fart about the hundred or so other people waiting in line behind us. (If you were one of those people, I am so, so, SO sorry!) I was in the middle of blah-blah-blahing about my hair, for some unknown reason, when I suddenly realized that a man dressed as a skeleton was staring at me like I was a complete freak.
Jack was speechless, just coldly gazing down at me with those massive black eyes which started to remind me of black holes that might gobble me up. (ACK!) The little voice in the back of my head suddenly bellowed “SHUT!!!! UP!!!!” at me and I stopped mid-sentence and walked away. The stranger handed me my beloved camera back and I shot one more picture of Jack and Sally, who were kind enough to pose rather than run away screaming, as I would have done if I were them….
I also shot a picture of a very thrilled and star-struck Wednesday as we left Jack and Sally. (Her life is now complete. Obviously.) ;-)
After that? Umm…. I don’t really know. I don’t really have any memories of the next few hours, just a picture or two on my camera of a magic lamp in a store somewhere in Adventureland. (????) What other hijinks we got up to that day is anybody’s guess…. although, I asked Wednesday, and she seems to remember something about us buying a bunch of brownies. (Ha ha!)
The next thing I remember is being in Toon Town that evening. I was still feeling no pain, but had, thankfully, shaken off the drunken idiot persona. (Must have been the brownies!) In Toon Town, we ran into Goofy….
….and I tested out the furniture in Minnie’s house….
….and Wednesday found a super-cool Alice in Wonderland doorknob on a random door.
And after playing in Toon Town and going on The Haunted Mansion a few more times, we headed back to our hotel to get a good night’s sleep.
DAY 4:
This was our last day in Disneyland. We only had a couple of hours in the park before we had to catch a shuttle bus back to the airport. *sad sigh* Not wanting to repeat any of the previous day’s stupidity, I decided to take my own Tylenol in the hotel this time rather than taking mysterious and sketchy no-name meds from a “nurse” employed by Mickey Mouse.
(Seriously. Who was that chick and what the hell did she give me????)
The one year old in our group was totally digging her pink Minnie Mouse ears that morning!
And Wednesday and I were totally digging the Halloween décor.
We headed to Fantasyland first and got a group shot of the kids in the non-spinning Alice In Wonderland teacup.
Next, we hit the Dumbo ride.
And we giggled at a topiary Dumbo’s butt. *snicker*
Wednesday had a Mickey pancake for breakfast. (YUM!)
And Wednesday took her grandma on The Haunted Mansion. One. Last. T-t-t-time. *sniffle*
In a little shop on Main Street, this lady cut out a silhouette of Wednesday. (It’s an old family tradition!)
Wednesday and I made one last stop at her favorite store in Disneyland, Le Bat en Rouge, which sold Nightmare Before Christmas stuff and absolutely nothing else!
And then that was that. We said goodbye to Disneyland.
It was a truly amazing trip and we have three photo albums full of pictures to remember it all. :-)
So, why all the Disney talk going on here lately? You’ll just have to wait and see….
© Coracabana
