It Never Pays To Be On Time: Part Two

Everybody knows how long it can take to park at Disneyland. Well, if not everybody, at least my girlfriend Nancy and I know. Since we have those cheaper, annual passes, the drill is quite familiar to us. On this crisp, chipper morning, we planned on arriving at the “Mickey and Friends” parking structure with enough time to catch the shuttle and arrive at least close to when the Happiest Place On Earth opened its pearly gates.

Much to our irritation and disappointment, all Disneyland parking was closed, with Magic Kingdom traffic being redirected through all kinds of downtown Anaheim streets on a red cone labyrinth that rivaled Mr. Toads Wild Ride.

Like cattle, we (along with hundreds of other automobiles) were herded into the parking garage of a hotel where we were instructed to wait for a shuttle bus back to Disneyland. If you’re guessing right now that Nancy and I were curious enough to ask what was going on, then you too, (as Jeff Foxworthy would put it) are smarter than a 5th grader.

Anyway, here’s the story: Disneyland anticipated a very busy day and made a special deal with this hotel because they were expecting an unusually large crowd, so big, their own parking structures would not be able to hold all the cars. And so, for the sake of those poor, unfortunate, fashionably late pilgrims who might arrive in the middle of the day, Disney’s parking garages were kept empty and waiting.

It was an extra half hour to be redirected to the hotel, followed by an additional half hour waiting around for the bus with its drive back through traffic.  An hour delay because of our bright idea about showing up early! Exactly why they chose to make things easy on the tardy and punish those who were dumb enough to get there on time, I’m sure I don’t know. Perhaps they were taking their cue from typical, present-day America, which seems to reward and bail out every single citizen (or non citizen) except the responsible.

Oh well. Next time I’ll follow the example of Alice in Wonderland’s white rabbit. I guess by being late, that crafty old critter knew what he was doing after all.

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