So, this year we had annual Disney passes. And our annual ends tomorrow, or today. Depending if "though 8/21" means it's ok on 8/21 or until 8/21.
Anyway, in my weird math way of looking at things, I wanted to go 15 times to have it be a reasonable deal. 12 times and we'd break even on the parking- that is until they raised the cost of that, too. And we bought them the week before the prices went up, so it was a do or don't sort of year and we'd saved and budgeted for it. But if you used the current prices and our price paid, 10 visits would have been ok deal wise. Of course I went a little crazy with the vacation budget this past year and also bought plane tickets for the east coast and we did a week long stint visiting places that have too much or no summer with our family. (FYI Utah/AZ and NM apparently has too much summer. Colorado seems to miss the summer bus, at least the mountains did.. hello.. Arctic tundra?)
Back to Disney and the blog worthy post of the year.
So yesterday was visit 14. And today might be visit 15. Might. If they let us in the park.
Because apparently it's not too hard to shut down an entire building/ride at Disney. We did it. Accidentally.
So if you go to Disney and want to not accidentally shut down part of the park waiting for SWAT to arrive, learn from our experience...
So when we go, the kids mostly want to bring backpacks to keep their treasures and snacks and drinks in. I'm ok with this (was ok with this) because hauling bottles of drinks makes me feel like a pack mule. Disney lets us bring in our water bottles and even juice boxes or Gatorade bottles. I love this and in turn buy something there everytime kinda in return for 'thanks for not making me buy stuff, in return I'll voluntarily spend money here'
OK.. back to backpacks and waterbottles - towards the late afternoon we went into the imaginations area that has a "Be Iron man" game. The wait for this was long and painful but it was new and we'd just (as in the day before) say the movie at free movie day on Base, so the kids were like "oh, cool! I can put on his suit?!" not quite, it's a virtual game and a virtual suit... And the line was down this tunnel and while there we over heard a conversation that went "do you have a lost and found here?" to which the answer was "yes, I'll take you there" Remember this.
BUT virtual suit just wasn't realistic with a backpack on, so during our turn JM bowled his bag towards the wall for his turn. 2 kids later, we walk out to leave. Usually I do an obsessive kid and bag check after loosing 1 wallet, 1 purse and 1 cellphone in the past 2-3 yrs. This time, no I was so frustrated by kids 1 and 4 lack of self control about touching virtual siblings and freaking out virtual game that I couldn't think straight. Decide it's one last ride we had fast passes for and we're out of there. But oh, wait, we have to stop at the bathroom, get 10 minutes into the line and I look at a bouncing JM and think aloud "where is your backback?" to which he answers he gave it to me. Think back and remember him bowling it in the general direction of my feet. crud.
Go back to the building, into the main door and instead of following the path we're supposed to take meandering through the building, I try to go right straight for the last know address of the backpack. Disney Dude stops me says, you can't go in there, I tell him, I'm just going back for his bag he forgot and walk past, mostly with his permission. Turn the corner and we see it there, JM is relieved it hasn't been stolen ans as we walk to it, we're stopped with "You can't go there!"
uh.. what? 'I just want to get his bag he forgot'
in steps Disney Gal "it's been here 20 minutes, security has to clear the area"
this is taking a while to get into my brain. And I tell her we came back as soon as we realized we forgot it.
"we have to clear the area, everyone need to evacuate!" and they continue to tell people to leave.
You and I know there were people there waiting for 40 minutes to pretend to be iron man, they are NOT NOT NOT happy about this. its not like they're moving the lines outside, they're just telling everyone to get out..
Up steps off duty LA county sheriff who offers to open the back to prove it's not a threat. NOPE, he has to leave, they need Disney swat to come clear it.
So am I supposed to stay here and wait for this or am I supposed to leave? Nope stay, they'll need to talk to you. Goodie. I can't wait to be arrested by Disney.
Then Disney gal says, "well, at least you'll get to see a cute puppy"
Which of course gets Sonia's attention. Joy. a bomb sniffing dog for a graham cracker and juice covered bag. It's getting even better. Sonia rattles off dogs who sniff bomb facts for 10 minutes and decides he'll be bringing a beagle.
Finally swat dude (who surprisingly isn't dressed like a Ninja. I imagined him in all black/body armour) arrives. Gives us a look, the hyper clear-the-area-security-duo a look and says "is this the backpack?" mind you it's child size and mostly empty. I'm sure it looks like a threat. And he did not bring the bomb sniffing beagle. Asks me to describe it. 'Well, it used to be a diaper bag, but now he uses it as his disney outing backpack, he has a half drunk juice box, graham cracker crumbs and a key chain on the zipper that says "california" because the zipper pull was broken.' Enough detail for you? Tells me I can come and open it. And ohh! Surprise! there is also a empty water bottle and kit kat wrapper (I didn't know he had a kit kat today. I didn't know we had kit kats in the house) And they let us go. We flee the area hoping to avoid the angry mob that we imagine has formed.
Head out of the park to Mcdonalds across the street to wait for the combined disbelief and embarrassment to subside. Bring the offending backpack and all other backpacks back to the car, retrieve sweatshirts and go wait for the fireworks.
Today, after a late night the kids are getting a late start and IF IF IF we go to disney it will be for a few hours and then we'll be home by dinner.
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