After 24hours of back-to-back flights over Indian Ocean and Pacific, I am back in US of A again. The event I am attending is for some ironical reason is in Anaheim CA i.e. *very* close to Disneyland. The customs officer at Los Angeles airport was encouraging me to visit the theme park. I disappointed him informing that I really have to attend bunch of business meetings.
After flying in world's smallest flight to Orange county (for some stupid reason my corporate travel desk thinks it is easier to take flight from Los Angeles to Orange County and then go to Anaheim than just drive the 26 miles in 35mins from Los Angeles to Anaheim), I landed up in Disney's Grand Californian Hotel. Disney owns several places around Disneyland (duh..) including bunch of hotels. I did not realize what was going to hit me, till I saw that the hotel valets dressed as Cinderella dwarfs... argh! The reception counter staff dress looks like carpenters; I asked Cheyenne (blond.. figures) what the dress meant, she did not know. She wanted a photo-identity and did not know that passport has address in it. But worse was yet to come...
The hotel was full of children and their families; Family is a good thing to have... at home. In hotel you expect an alert staff, good room service, clean towels, not children running through the passage! The room was another nightmare, modeled after Winnie the Pooh's house, there are poster bed (ahhhh) and the TV shows 4 channels of cartoons. The window opens the view of Disney theme park. Several tourist-type people with camera bouncing on their bellies are walking around in shorts and sneakers. I am in the tourist paradise. The bed side mints are in the shape of Donald duck. The breakfast menu contains 7 varieties of kiddie breakfasts, including but not limited to, 'Mickey Mouse shaped Waffles'. The restaurant is called 'Storyteller's Cafe', idea being children would be told stories while parents stuff them in this land of plenty. The hotel has special road to Disney park, every normal adult comes out with Mickey ears on their heads. In my house I watch cartoons all the time due to my son, in here I pay $224 per day to watch SharkTales on TV (3 times in the day!) and cheering children shrieks from theme park (the room is very close to the them park) in the background. I was dreaming pager boys dressed as chipmunks.. maybe too many of Mickey mouse chocolates.
Disneyland, of course is and was famous for its marketing. When it started the TV advertising actually made it so popular. In smack middle of there is Disney Drive, Downtown Disney and Disneyland Street. It is like a set of people living inside a theme park. I wonder what their suicide rate would be... It is just too much of advertising. Thankfully Starbucks came in standard cup and tasted same (another reason why you love the consistency introduced by Americans).
A visit to Disneyland is of course on the cards, but without my son, I will have to be fairly drunk to spend $50 for a theme park visit (and actually do it). Maybe I should get my family here too, it might be a pleasant change to have my son spill some his ice cream on the hotel passage.
Well I have to live through this Disneyland nightmare, my only revenge is to watch tacky action movies on TNT...
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1 comment:
Dear Srinivas,
Reminds me of a picture taken of Barbara Cartland in her bedroom. Before that, I could not imagine that pink can have so many shades. There is a limit to everything, and the land of plenty crosses it by a wide margin. The problem for me is that after some days of this overdose you may start enjoying it, and become unbearable to the rest of the world. So it is a good thing that you may have to come back within a week. I have in some adult stuff here, which may wipe out the after effects of overexposure to Disney, which I would like to try out on you. See you this weekend.
Rajeev
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