Everyone in Southern California knows that every few years an occasion arises that causes you to make a trip to Disneyland. Sometimes visitors come in from out of town and you find yourself playing tour guide. Or else there are small children in your family and inevitably one of them will beg to be taken for their birthday. Maybe you just need a little make believe. Whatever the reason, it is difficult to avoid. Our turn came this past weekend. We needed something to do and tickets fell into our hands. So we battled the traffic and steeled ourselves for the certain crush of people we knew would be there. We always eat at the Carnation Restaurant just inside the gates. The prices are better than the other restaurants in the park and the menu options are good. This day would be no different. Or so we thought. The first thing that we noticed was that the menu had changed. There were fewer things to choose from. No matter. The others chose soup and sandwiches. Unfortunately I ordered the salad. My biggest regret of the day, besides ordering the salad, was not taking a picture of it before sending it back. Now I am not in the habit of sending my food back. I understand how difficult it is to be in the service industry and I have tremendous respect for those in it. That being said... My salad was fine to look at. Once I began eating, however, I noticed that the leaves were getting more and more wilted. No, it was not from salad dressing because I did not use any. By the time I had eaten a third of it, I found a clump of leaves that were so spoiled, they looked as if they had come from a pre-packaged bag of salad mix that had been forgotten in the back of a refrigerator for a week. Actually that is probably what it was. I called the waitress over. She looked at it and did not look surprised at all. She simply asked if I would like another. No apology. I said "no thank you." She asked if I wanted anything else but the entire time seemed to be bored with the conversation. All I wanted her to do is seem at least a little disturbed by what had happened. An apology would have been nice. We paid our bill and yes, even left a tip. Determined to enjoy the rest of the day, we went on the first ride. Long line but no surprise there. What was surprising was the amount of trash around. I have been to Disneyland enough times to have noticed how meticulous these people are about keeping the park clean. This is why it was so shocking to see so much litter. We went on The Pirates of the Caribbean. The ride itself was fine but I was stunned to hear the people behind us complaining that they had been on three rides since the day before that were not operating properly. They joked about whether it would be safe to go on many more. On to the next ride, The Haunted Mansion. We were stuck on the ride for about 10 minutes. How about the canoe ride? Closed. Splash Mountain? More than an hour wait. That's ok. It is prime tourist season. We expect to wait. Space Mountain? Same. We went to Innovations and enjoyed ourselves. This was the turning point. Next we went on the Indiana Jones ride; then came Fantasmic. This is an incredibly clever event featuring projections on fountains of water combined with live action and fireworks. Nicely done! We could not get out of the park because of the crowds, so we finished our evening with the silliness of the Enchanted Tiki Room. After a rough beginning, a good time was had by all. I guess what I am trying to say is that Disney did what Disney does best but maybe it is starting to feel the same economic pinch as the rest of us. If that is true, then that is a shame because even though we aren't the type of people who enjoy visiting theme parks very often, it is nice to be able to count on a fantasy when we want one.
