Land of the Rising Mickey - Feb 20, 2001

Land of the Rising Mickey
Page 4 of 5

I continued to along the main walkway to Port Discovery. It's very futuristic, but it nice how there are a lot of trees everywhere. Everything is metallic and high tech looking, but for some reason the style of things reminded me of Mulan. Don't ask me why. (note: More than anything, Port Discovery strikes me as Disneyland's Tomorrowland 98, built from the ground up, and with a real budget.)

I saw about ten of the Aquatopia ride vehicles sitting under the Electric Railway track not far from the station. They didn't look like they had their rubber hover skirts yet. They're so shiny and new. They look like giant toys.

I realized something as I was walking from Port Discovery toward Cape Cod. There was a feeling nagging at me when I was looking around at Arabian Coast, Mermaid Lagoon, and Port Discovery. It was like there was something strange about them.  I figured out what it is. They're perfect, like Tokyo Disneyland. I'm used to seeing, Mysterious Island and New York at American Waterfront, which are nothing like Tokyo Disneyland. For months now most of the people working around me have been "aging" things. They've been taking perfect new structures and making them look old, salt stained, and worn. At American Waterfront they've even been covering things in fake bird droppings!

It was weird walking from the "realness" of Area 3 into the perfection of those other areas.

Cape Cod is nice, even though it reminds me of Radio Exercises. But I'm not going to describe it. Just look at some pictures of the waterfront at Cape Cod. Ok, I will say that I think it will be very peaceful. (Note: Cape Cod is VERY much DisneySea's New Orleans Square.)

I figured that I'd been pretty much everywhere else, so I might as well check out Columbia. I could only walk around on the deck because the inside has reached the "dust free" stage and only certain people can go in. From what I could see through the window, it looks very tasteful and turn of the century with a lot of wood paneling. I can already tell that the restaurant they're putting be in there is going to be very expensive.

I really felt like I was on the deck of a real ship and the view was amazing! 

While I was standing on the deck of Columbia I noticed that the temperature had dropped. Oh no! The temperature dropped?! Lately it's been suddenly getting much colder after 3:30. What time is it! My watch said 3:45!! My little tour was over.

I'm never late. My supervisor was kind of surprised, but he was cool about it.

About that temperature drop, I don't like being cold, but when I feel that chill I know it means one thing - It's almost the end of the day! We work until sunset. In the afternoon I can't stop checking that sun.

But we have to be careful not to get chilblains (the stage before frostbite). Every once in a while someone gets it. More often than not, it's their feet. Even though I wear a pair or two of good sox, my feet get numb pretty often.  Chilblains usually happen when someone gets their shoes wet. Because their feet are already numb from the cold they don't realize how cold they are and they keep working for hours with feet that are too cold. Someone will miss a day of work because of it sometimes, but usually they just come in and complain about their itchy feet all day.

After about ninety or so more minutes of making whales glide through the sea (or something like that) and some cleaning up, the sun finally went down. I couldn't wait to get home and relax. I made a beeline for our office and joined the frenzy of everyone changing out of their dirty work clothes in that tiny little room. Ready to go, I slipped my ID into the time clock (It worked again!) and I was out of there.