Apologies right off to those tuning in today expecting the promised column on San Francisco amusements. It’s lurking about, but I got distracted and didn’t finish it for today. I’ll save it for some time later.
If everything goes as planned, I’m off for a visit to the Disneyland resort for the weekend of December 7 and 8. It turns out that Michele is off a day before that for a travel congress event that is being held at the Disneyland Hotel, so this seemed like the right time to visit as well. And as my mom joined the ranks of the Annual Passholder a visit or two back, she’s interested as well.
Michele will do her trip on the company dime, and that leaves my mom and I to fend for ourselves. So we’re cogitating the possibilities… Jet Blue looks like a winner, but we’re not sure about when. And as much as we would enjoy another stay at the Grand Californian, we won’t have the great discount rates we have enjoyed in the past. So we’re looking for something a bit more on the humble side.
When I was much younger, there was a usual plan for a visit to Disneyland. It was something that only happened every other year, and during the summer months. If memory serves, my first off-season was during an Easter-week vacation from parochial school. Imagine Sherman’s March to the Sea, and you somewhat have a typical trip from the North to the South. All seven of us in the Ford Country Squire Station Wagon, making the long drive from the Bay Area out to Riverside where we would stay with family. In summer, it was a challenge to air-conditioning for the Ford, and more often than not, a losing battle.
From that first visit in the summer of 1965, there would be six more until the summer of 1978. Often they were two or maybe three day affairs with at least one late night, as we grew older. And they were often punctuated by my father’s announcement that it was three o’clock and time to leave for the day. In all fairness, I think he dreaded the hour plus drive back out to Riverside from Anaheim (not much fun even then, and all the more annoying today).
I took advantage of the crowded situation in the Country Squire to seek an easier transit, first by flying on Air Cal out of San Jose to Ontario, and then in the summer of 1977 by riding Amtrak from San Bernadino to Los Angeles and then up the coast to Martinez. That train trip was memorable for a number of reasons. It was my first visit to Los Angeles Union Station, then a pale imitation of what it had been during the golden days of rail travel. Since then, it has been revived as a major transit hub and sees more rail travel than it has since the days of the post World War II rush.
The train ride was memorable as well. My mother recalls having traveled to and from San Luis Obispo by train to visit her grand parents. From the glory days of the Southern Pacific, the old station in San Luis Obispo was still much as it had been, and that Amtrak train had one of the railroad’s home built dome lounge cars in it’s consist.
Amtrak had the misfortune to have hired a color consultant (who must have been color blind) with questionable taste in its early days. This led to unusual color combinations in décor such as brown and purple, blue and orange, and on and on. One such poor choice was to carpet the floor in this particular dome lounge with the same dark blue both under the seats in the dome as well as the recessed floor from which you walked down to the lower level of the lounge. On this particular trip I rode, that was well demonstrated as an elderly woman suffered a bad injury from a fall due to not being able to see the recessed floor. The train had to make an unscheduled stop to have her taken off to a hospital.
I was met at the station in Martinez by Michele and other friends. I was somewhat smitten in those days, and a big hug made up for a lot of the separation. Somewhat ironically, nine years later, Michele and I rode the Coast Starlight from Martinez to Los Angeles and back on our honeymoon.
Another trip in the summer of 1978 was a bit more professional, if it was made by car driving down the I-5. Michele and I were part of a group that was assisting with a stage illusion based on Star Trek’s transporter system. We had done so at several conventions and were all set to do so again at Space Con 6 to be held at the Anaheim Convention Center. The trip coincided with the reopening of Disneyland’s Matterhorn attraction with the addition of the Abominable Snowman. Things didn’t go as planned on a number of accounts.
The folks planning Space Con didn’t take into account another big sci-fi con going on in LA the same weekend and they didn’t get the attendance they had counted on. The stage illusion didn’t make it out of the trailer from the parking lot as the Convention Center required union folks to do the work of set-up or have a full union crew paid if we did it without them. The same was true for even using us as door monitors or ticket takers for Space Con as the Convention Center has their own staff to handle that duties.
Things were not much better at Disneyland as the Snowman and the Matterhorn weren’t ready for show yet. So we, among many, got free passes to use on a future visit.
That trip was unique for another reason, the first time we used a “Pay One Price” pass. The Magic Kingdom Club was offering them at a reasonable price. It was kind of neat flashing your pass to the folks at the attractions, while most people still were handing over tickets. Made you feel like a VIP of sorts, even if you were not.
So we enjoyed an interesting, almost free weekend in Anaheim.
Over the years since, I’ve had annual passes off and on. During the Parks 35th anniversary celebration, I think I was in the park more than thirty times (one day for all of three minutes in and out total), usually to see if I had won a prize of note (which I didn’t). I was there all day on July 17, 1990 from open to close with two other friends including festivities in front of the Castle with the dreaded cake.
In recent years, I took advantage of passes from friends either through Club 33 visits or CM gate passes. The end of that revived my purchase of an AP, and since then I’m comfy with a visit or three a year as the budget allows.
In the area of hotels/motels, I think I’ve managed to stay at a good variety of places. I’ve gone from the budget specials to the top of the line and back again. I’ve yet to stay at the Paradise Pier and haven’t been back to the Disneyland Hotel since the Downtown Disney changes. I did my share of “roach” or “no-tell” motels over the years, and really am glad that some of them are no longer with us, as I hope you are as well!
As well, there will always be a certain amount of nostalgia for the old parking lot, trams, gates and signs. Likely not from CM’s who were out and about in all kinds of weather, day and night, year round.
Yes, things have changed. Frankly, I think for the better. The Anaheim Resort District is one thing we got out of the Westcot project that actually works! Standards for signs and plants, streets and sidewalks all make sense and give the area a true appearance of being a unified community, even if it isn’t. I think now that Walt would have appreciated today’s lack of clutter that used to be the architecture de jour along Harbor Blvd and Katella Avenue. Even the fluffy, new, off and on ramps from the Five all around the place make a difference.
Again, this is all tainted by the ramblings of someone with an over-appreciation of the whole place…
Maybe it all comes down to what some people I know keep reminding me:
It’s not the years. It’s the miles.
Based on that, I’m well over due for that million-mile tune up.
So, another effort out of the keyboard. Thanks again to everyone who drops a nickel or twenty into Roger’s Amazon Honor System Paybox, now and then. It may not add up to much, but it helps keep him in Diet Coke’s lately…