Peter Pan is the Bomb???

If you haven’t figured it out from my last few blogs, my family took a spontaneous trip to Disneyland. Before our trip we followed tweets and other recommendations on what some must-see things in the park are, especially with a toddler. All Disney fanatics both local and professional all said this: “You gotta see Peter Pan's flight ride. It’s the bomb! Make sure you do that first thing when you get into the park because the line grows quickly.” I found that was the same recommendation for every demographic. If you’re on a date… go to Peter Pan! If you are proposing, go to Peter Pan! If you are celebrating grad night… yup, go to Peter Pan!

I vaguely remember going on this ride when I was young and I remember my thoughts after the ride were: “That was it?” Now with every professional opinion emphasis I thought, What the heck. I’ll give it another shot. Our first day of three days spent at the park started with a mad dash to Peter Pan’s ride only to be introduced to a forty-five-minute-long line. We patiently waited with an impatient toddler and the ride was over in less than three minutes. I am sad to say that my overall reaction to the ride this time was the same as last time I rode it as a child.

The professional Disney fanatics argue that the reason why the Peter Pan ride is the bomb is because you are in a pirate ship, and it really feels like you are flying above early 19^th century London. I guess I missed that feeling all three times I rode it. I felt like I was on a rickety tram that carried me into less than ten rooms with horrible lighting. Yes you could see the little cute model of London below with Big Ben and all but it looked like the glow in the dark paint used on the model was overdue for a major recharge. We could barely see anything down there. What little animatronics they had in the ride seemed out of place and rushed (to move you along to a particular moment of the movie).

Disneyland has improved with some of their newer rides where they know you will be standing in line for at least an hour (which can entertain the waitees by creative obstacles to walk through etc.) You don’t get that with Peter Pan. It doesn’t matter what time of day it is, you will have to wait in an extremely long line for a short class-C ride.

Do you agree with me on this or do think the Peter Pan ride is the bomb? Please explain.     

Innoventions Tragic History

It was 1974. Disneyland wanted to do something  special to commemorate our country’s bicentennial. The Disney company constructed a giant carousel theatre in Tomorrowland that had a rotating stage. “America Sings” was the attraction and  in this theatre the audience sat stationary while the stage rotated showing six different scenes with animatronics figures that sang various patriotic folk songs.

Animatronics figures in America Sings

Deborah Stone was an 18 year old cast member from Texas that was supposed to greet and farewell the audience attending the show. When the lights went out, and the show began, and the stage began to rotate, you could hear horrific screaming. Deborah had gotten too close to the rotating walls, she was pulled into them and was crushed to death. This attraction was briefly closed to clean up the accident, and it reopened 2 days later and continued to run until the 1980’s.

Around the 1990’s this theatre reopened, this time calling the Building / Theatre “ Innoventions” this time to follow suit with the Tomorrowland theme. The rotating stage no longer had all the patriotic animals (they were placed in Splash Mountain) and replaced them with a creepy looking robot name Tom Morrow who was the host of the new show in the theatre. He was to help show off futuristic technology that we would see shortly in our own homes in the near future, “The Home of Tomorrow. ” Cast members always complained about how Tom Morrow would malfunction, and come on in the dark and at times when no one was around or controlling him. Some people think it was Deborah letting everyone know that she was still there.

 

Tom Morrow

I got to see creepy Tom Morrow back in 1998 and my family still has footage of him buried deep in our archaic VHS collection. Upon my return to Disneyland last month I discovered that they have once again changed “Innoventions.” The building is still called Innoventions but they have gotten rid of both creepy Tom Morrow and the huge rotating stage. 

Iron Man props now can be seen in Innoventions

Now that Disney has bought Marvel, they have now put in all sorts of props from the Avengers in there. They still have futuristic technology that you can explore on the lower level but unfortunately most of their “future” presentations are now outdated. You can still see the track where the notorious stage ran on in the lower level. Even though I was not able to see an apparition of Deborah or experience any paranormal activity, I simply had a solemn sense of reverence for those who accidentally passed away while working here. I am not the type of person who would try to entice a paranormal experience.

Do you think the Disneyland cast member rumors of this attraction being haunted is legit? 

The Bad Fortune Teller

Legend has it that when Walt Disney was young he had a fortune teller give him his fortune. It wasn’t good. She promised him that he would die a painful death at the young age of 30. Even though that fortune never came to pass, it affected him negatively for the rest of his life. When his imagineers were designing and constructing the Penny Arcade on main street in Disneyland, he was reluctant to put in Esmerelda (the fortune-telling arcade game) unless they could promise him that she would only give out good fortunes.

The legend or rumors in Disneyland is every now and then Esmerelda has been known to give out a bad fortune. That is why Disneyland cast members frequently drop a quarter in her slot to see if they will be one of the rare people to get a bad fortune.

Whether this legend is just a business scheme (or not) I had to try my luck with the machine to see what I would get. This is what it said:

Have you ever tried one of these things before? Do you think it’s full of it?

Pranking with Darling Facaden

“Three can keep a secret, if two of them are dead.” Benjamin Franklin

This is another important rule to pranking. Anonymity is a difficult factor but if you can accomplish it in your prank it can multiply your success. 

I have a nephew by the name of Darling Facaden, he is best described as unstable pack of nitroglycerin just waiting to explode at any moment. He loves to be loud, he loves destroying things, or making messes. Here is the closest picture I could find that best describes him.

I am always trying to find cute and creative ways to smuggle silly string to this boy for I had the hypothesis that Darling Facaden plus silly string equals a big mess! I had arranged a correspondent to plant a can of silly string in his bedroom. I wanted my helper to hide it in a spot that would not be discovered for a few days. Here we are two weeks later and I have gathered information on how the results of that prank turned out. Sadly this mission was a failure.

The silly string was delivered successfully. None of Darling Facaden’s family suspected a thing... Until my wife told them.

Two weeks later my wife gets a voicemail message from Darling Facaden thanking her for the silly string present. He found the silly string, presented it to his mom who told him to go use it outside.

So remember my dear friends anonymity is your ally if achieved successfully. The less people who know of your plot the better off you are. Stay tuned for more tips from my pranking travel log.

Have you ever had success in keeping a secret with more than two people?