Oh the Sea of Humanity: Disney at New years Pt. 6

We hit dinner in Tomorrowland, and if you want Chinese in Disney, it’s pretty lousy. I am sorry I didn’t get a turkey leg when I had a chance.

Thn we went shopping. Which was I really wanted to do there. (I'm watching my masculinity points lower--there were low after I admitted in the newsroom I was a Gilmore Girls fan.) They had some good stuff there, and I got got a new cap for my collection. It didn't have Mickey, but it was a cool, comtemporary design. I was tempted to buy one of the "New Years 2007 Mickey mouse ears" that everyone had on. The reason was that the ears were silver, and it you added some antennae, they would look like little satillite dishes. I could always put a sign on them saying "controlled by Disney." But I didn't. I also got a beltpack for my camcorder as well.

We headed back to Libertytown to see the electric light parade. We took up a spot in front of the prisoner stocks in front of the boat dock. People were of course taking pictures of family members inside them. I wonder what prisoners back then would think about us mocking this form of punishment? I had thoughts of getting a picture of me in them flipping people off, but with so many kids around, I thought twice about it.

The parade itself was not a disappointment. It was still magical and very well done. There were some people complaining to others about standing in front of their view. Not a please, just “we have kids who want to watch, so sit down in front.” The lack of courtesy is something I noticed a few times in the part. More on that later…

After the parade, we set out more towards the middle of the park to see the fireworks, which a lot of people had the same idea. We pushed our way through the streets to get more towards the middle, and the Disney employees are basically directing traffic. Some were nice, others, discourteous. You would figure Disney would figure out a better way to get enough people to see the fireworks. But then again, you had a good 75,000 people wanting to see it.

We finally nudged into a side of the road. They had roped off parts of the street, which had a lot of people already sitting. We found an un-roped portion and squished in. Fireworks started at 11:50 that evening, which was cool. We had little warning when 11:59 came around, just a silence from the fireworks, somebody saying something over the speakers, and then the fireworks going off again at midnight. No count down from anyone, no indication of midnight. Just several horns going off and a huge fireworks display. But the fireworks were spectacular. They went all around the park. Very beautiful.

Then came the exit. It was organized chaos again. We were told the monorails, then the guards told us the ferries. Half way into the ferry lines, some stupid guard said “the ferry is this way” and we head out, then realize he was pointing us to the buses. We tried to get back in, and he said “take the buses or get to the back in the line.” My mom tried to reason with the guy, but he was being, well a d**k. My mom sneaks by him and my dad and myself try to follow her, but the guard wasn’t allowing us in. Finally, he just gave up and let us though. My mom commented he was the rudest person we have encountered in the park. I had to agree. It reminded me of the Cape Coral cops, who never show courtesy to people as far as I see. Tangent time…

I have seen several instances with the Cape cops have been rude. One experience involved me coming home one night after dj-ing Mona’s. I had a good tips that night, and had a wallet full of ones. I had run a stop sign and never noticed the cop behind me. I parked at the store right near the stop to shop, took off my seatbelt, when I noticed the lights. The cop came up, ask for license and registration. I oblige, and he immediate looked at my wallet, which was lying out on my dash full of money, and accused me of being a drug dealer. You have to be kidding me!!! He demanded to do a search. I had nothing to hide, and I got out of my car. Another cop came up, who was one of the few I encountered that was nice to me, did some small talk while the other cop searched. The search found nothing. The first cop, sited me for my seat belt and forgave the stop sign running, but was still was rude to me about it.

The other incident happened a few weeks ago. A plane had landed in a vacant lot in the middle of the city, and we were covering it. The Cape P.D. was basically yelling at cars to move along, and nothing to see here. A Cape P.D. volunteer stopped to ask if they needed help with traffic, and the Cape cop chewed him out for parking at the side of the road. We heard this about half a block away and we all thought he was rude. Maybe there was a day when cops actually were courteous to citizens—I remember those days in Montana. But you wonder why people don’t like cops.

Okay, welcome back to the near present. So we hit the ferry dock. The guard at the dock was cool, and knew that the last thing we needed was a grumpy security guard giving us grief. He was friendly and, and yes, courteous to us. He even made some small talk with the crowd. We board the ferry and we left the Magic Kingdom. I saw the Magic Kingdom get smaller and smaller in the distance, which after this day was a great site. It still had its charm and for a moment, that childhood magic still lingered. Will I come back? Maybe someday with my kids. When that magic in their eyes, and the technology has gotten better.