Day 2 - Mostly Walking

Times and events have been changed to protect the memory of the author. This is coming from a memory almost one year old that had no notes to go off of. Fortunately, I don't think there's anyone here who can really argue with my representation of what happened.

Tuesday was our busy Disney day. As I said, this is when all the kids had their clinics. As luck would have it, the drill team's clinic was the earliest. Both Arielle and Stephanie were in the drill team and I wanted to see if they'd let me observe as a chaperone. Lisa was the only odd-man-out in our room as she was the choir's pianist. However, we convinced the choir teacher to let her go with us. The band kids also had morning clinics, but the choir's wasn't until the afternoon so she would've had to spend the morning virtually alone.

We woke up at some insane and inhumane hour (around six, I believe -- I think Arielle got up around 5:30 or 5:45 so that she could be presentable for the world) and drove into Backstage Disney which was on the complete opposite side of the park from our inn (this is noteworthy later). Our bus was only momentarily detained to be sniffed out by a drug dog and for the undercarriage to be checked out with what looked like a giant dentist tool. This was presumably to prevent us from sneaking any terrorist devices in under the guise of a high school trip.

We were met by a Backstage Cast Member (one of the many overly cheerful 19-year olds Disney employs for just such purposes) who smiled so sweetly half of us got cavities. Unfortunately, they only let a handful of adults in with the kids and since Lisa and I were not parents, we were among the first culled. Herein lied our problem.

By this time it was around seven some odd in the morning and (if I recall correctly) the park didn't open until nine. We were given two options: walk back to the hotel, or wait where we were until the park opened and we could go inside. So either sit on some concrete benches for over an hour, or walk ALL THE WAY AROUND the outside of the park (part of which entailed crossing a freeway.) Amazingly enough, it took us quite a few minutes of debate to figure out that trying to cross a freeway on foot would be a bad idea. Lisa and I decided we would go back to the hotel to nap and recover from the shock of getting up so early for nothing (even though this was against the rules -- students were not allowed to return to the hotel during the day.) So wait we did.

A half hour later the band kids arrived in their bus and we gathered a few more parents who couldn't go in with their kids. Finally, at nine we were let into the park! We came in through Toon Town and it felt like we were seeing Disneyland naked. Toon Town opens an hour after the main park and there were only a couple of cast members sweeping up. When we passed into the main park, we received several wary looks from parents already queuing up with loaded strollers for a chance to see Mickey's house. Crowds of people surged into the park and we headed out as fast as we could.

The next few hours went by pretty fast. Arielle and the rest of the team got back around 11 (an hour later than they were s'posed to due to some huge drama with their bus driver being unable to find the exit, arguing with the bubbly cast member, and causing traffic jams Backstage) and we headed into the park. I'm not sure what we did but I believe we only had about an hour or so before we had to be back at the inn so everyone could get ready to be in the parade! They had to wear all black as they walked down Main Street in the middle of the afternoon and wouldn't be able to come back to shower (the travesty!) The parade didn't actually start till about an hour after they had to be on site, so I deemed another nap was necessary before I would meander into the park and take the obligatory photos. However, when the time came I found that more sleep was much more interesting than a Main Street parade. Come to find out, to the disappointment of the kids, they were the whole parade! That's it and nothing else. When it was all said and done and they had all changed, Arielle called me and I finally made it into the park.

There was only time for a couple rides before we had to be back in Toon Town to head to the choir clinic. This was the funnest part of the day for me. Since their choir was so small, I got to go as one of the students (I'm sure I passed as a 17-year old.) The clinic consisted of us singing three different songs and recording them with the animation! We did "Reflection" from Mulan, "Hawaiian Roller Coast Ride" from Lilo & Stitch, and "Be Our Guest" from Beauty and the Beast. It was so awesome and I'm glad I decided to be a chaperone just for that experience.

Afterwards, we rode and absolutely loved Soarin' Over California. Oh, the citrus smells! My memory gets fuzzy from here, I think we bounced around from group to group and tried to find people who were like-minded in the rides they wanted to attend. Arielle wanted to go on Thunder Mountain again but by the time we made it there, it was closed for maintenance -- so it was on to Indiana Jones!...which had too long of a line. By this time it was only Arielle and I and the park would be closing in a couple hours. This put some people (who shall not be named) in a less than pleasant mood since it felt like there'd been no fun at all that day.

However the mood was quickly turned around with a visit to some much-anticipated teacups. While we were in line we made a call home and left a message on the answering machine. Before leaving Nampa, Mom had requested that we call her at the teacups so she could hear the "Unbirthday Song." As I understand it, the message we left mostly just sounded like a bunch of garbled noise, but the mission was completed!

By this time my feet began to SERIOUSRY hurt. I had made the mistake of bringing shoes that (apparently) only LOOKED athletic and supportive, and I couldn't keep my suffering (or limping) hidden any longer. Even though I desperately wanted to after admonishing Arielle's shoe choice the entire week prior saying, "You're going to be in so much pain and regret listening to me."

That night, we again all fell asleep as soon as our heads hit the pillows.