Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 14:46 — 8.8MB) | Embed
Welcome to Stuff I Learned Yesterday. My name is Darrell Darnell, my favorite ride inside Disneyland is Haunted Mansion, and I believe that if you aren’t learning, you aren’t living.
Have I mentioned it often enough yet that I love going to Disneyland? It really is the happiest place on earth! In fact, I’m heading there two weeks from today to take in the fall Halloween season and Oogie Boogie Bash. October is a wonderful time to be at the parks, and that’s one reason why I’ve visited more often that time of year than any other.
In fact, today’s story takes place during a fall visit to the parks. In case you aren’t aware, I also do a podcast about the Netflix show Stranger Things with my daughter, Addi. We started the show in the summer of 2017 in the lead up to the show’s second season. The podcast is called The Stranger Things Podcast in case you’d like to check it out. Which you should. Only mouth breathers miss episodes of The Stranger Things Podcast.
Technically I first visited Disneyland when I was 2 or 3 years old, but I have no memories of that. So it doesn’t count! In January of 2018 I found myself in Anaheim working a conference for a client and I decided to stay an extra day so I could visit Disneyland. Growing up I’d only visited our small local theme park, Frontier City, and Six Flags over Texas in Dallas. I was excited to see what Disneyland was all about and see if it lived up to the hype.
From the moment I walked into the park it was clear something was different about Disneyland. The park was so clean and immersive. The theming was meticulous and I found it to be a warm and inviting atmosphere. I’d purchased a park hopper ticket which allowed me to check out both Disneyland and California Adventure during my day there. I knew I wouldn’t get to experience everything each park had to offer since I only had one day to take in both parks, so I researched ahead of time and made a list of the things I most wanted to do.
It was genuinely a magical day. I was even lucky enough to go up to the captain’s deck on the Mark Twain riverboat and take the wheel to pilot the boat around the Rivers of America, ringing the bell along the way. My only mistake on the day was waiting too long to ride Radiator Springs Racers at California Adventure. By the time evening rolled around and I made my way to that area of the park, they’d closed the standby line for the night. I’d greatly underestimated the popularity of the ride and so I had to wait until my next visit to experience it.
Once I came home, I couldn’t wait to go back! In fact, I did go back in March of the next year with my son, Colby. I also made a trip in October of that year with Addi, which is where we’ll pick up today’s story.
Addi and I announced to our Stranger Things audience that we were heading out to Universal Studios and Disneyland that fall. At Universal, we were able to spend the day with one of our listeners, Katrina, and check out Halloween Horror Nights. The park had a Stranger Things themed haunted house that year, along with several food items themed to the show. We had an absolute blast in the park taking in the Stranger Things goodies and hanging out with Katrina.
The next day we headed to Disneyland. This was Addi’s first visit to the park. Prior to that day, she’d only been to Frontier City. She’d never even been to Six Flags. We once again made arrangements ahead of time to hang out with listeners from our podcast. On this day we were hanging out with a couple of guys named JJ and Blake. If those names sound familiar, we ended up forming a great friendship with them and they were co-hosts on our now-retired Disney podcast, Mouse House Weekly.
Addi and I arrived before the park opened and headed down Main Street USA. We’d never met JJ or Blake before that day, so we were texting with them to try and find them. As we reached the end of Main Street and entered the central hub, there sitting on a bench were our two companions and guides for the day. Blake was an annual pass holder and JJ once worked at the park, so we were in great hands.
It’s hard to explain how amazing that day was. Addi and I had such a great time around the parks that we just kept going. We had no intention of being at the park from open until close without taking a break, but that’s what happened. We just didn’t want it to end! After spending something like 15 or 16 hours that day at Disney, we finally arrived back at our hotel exhausted and exhilarated! We couldn’t wait to get some sleep and go back the next day!
The next day was just the two of us. We’d experienced most of the best of both Disneyland and California Adventure the previous day, so this day was focused on re-riding our favorite rides and experiencing the few attractions we’d missed the day before.
During my first trip to Disneyland I identified Haunted Mansion, Pirates of the Caribbean, Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, and Jungle Cruise as my favorite Disneyland rides, while Incredicoaster and Guardians of the Galaxy: Mission Breakout were my favorite rides at California Adventure. I’ll also add that once I did get to ride Radiator Springs Racers with Colby, it became one of my top rides as well.
At Disneyland, Addi loved Big Thunder the most. In fact, we rode it at least three times with JJ and Blake that day, maybe even four times. She rode Space Mountain, Matterhorn, Smuggler’s Run, everything JJ and Blake recommended. But over in California Adventure, the story was different. She refused to step foot on Incredicoaster or Guardians.
For those who aren’t familiar with these rides, they are probably the two most thrilling rides in either of these two Disney parks. Incredicoaster is a roller coaster themed to The Incredibles. It launches you from 0-55 in about 4 seconds. It has one inversion, reaches a height of 120 feet, drops the rider 108 feet, and is the longest inversion roller coaster in the world. Having said that, for a coaster enthusiast, Incredicoaster is not intimidating. But for someone who’s never been on a coaster like it, it most certainly can be fearful.
Guardian of the Galaxy: Mission Breakout is an accelerated drop tower dark ride attraction. It’s very similar to The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror ride you can find in other Disney parks, and in fact used to be themed as that ride before being converted to Guardians in 2017. The ride uses pulleys and counterweights to pull riders down faster than the force of gravity, causing you to lift out of your seat. It then pulls you back up at random times before randomly pulling you back down again. It’s my absolute favorite ride in the park, but if you don’t like drop rides, it’s not for you.
As Addi and I returned to the parks on that second day, I was very much hoping to convince her to ride both of the rides. However, as this was her first Disney park trip, I wanted to focus our time on her and what she most wanted to do. We spent time in Fantasyland riding King Arthur’s Carrousel and Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride. We even invented our own in-ride game for Mr. Toad that we still play every time we ride it. Of course, we took a few trips on the wildest ride in the wilderness too!
Eventually we made our way over to California Adventure where we rode Radiator Springs Racers a couple of times. The single rider line for that ride is a massive cheat code by the way. I did my best to tell her about Incredicoaster and Guardians in a way I felt would help her set aside her fears and ride them, but she was not budging. She did not want to ride either of them.
Eventually we made our way around the pier and ended up at Goofy’s Sky School. Neither of us recall exactly what happened next. Either we rode Goofy’s and then sat down on a bench to figure out what to do next, or Goofy’s was too long of a wait so we sat down on a bench to figure out what to do next. Either way, there we were sitting on a bench near Goofy. Addi looked over at Incredicoaster in the distance and said, “I want to do it. I want to ride Incredicoaster.”
I must have asked her half a dozen times over those two days to ride it, and each time I was met with a firm, “no.” Now, seemingly out of nowhere she’d changed her mind. Feeling the urge to strike before she changed her mind, I stood up, grabbed her hand, and said, “let’s go!”
Once Addi committed to riding, she was all in. I love that about her that when she gives her word, she stands by it. We speed-walked to the entrance and entered the queue. She was nervous as we snaked our way through the line toward the loading area. When we finally got to the loading zone, they put us on the back row of the train. The back row of a coaster can often feel more intense because all of the momentum of the train is in front of you pulling you forward, and Incredicoaster is no different.
To be honest, Addi was not ready for what happened next. Until you’ve experienced a launch roller coaster, it’s really impossible to be prepared. The coaster eases you out of the station and brings you to a stop. Then from the speakers in your seat, Dash counts down, “5…4…3…2…1…Go!” From there you get shoved into the back of your seat as the coaster goes from 0-55 in 4 seconds as I mentioned earlier. Addi was screaming her head off!
The coaster banked and turned, flew up hills and shot back down them. Quickly we were at the loop and experiencing the power of its inversion. More turns and camel backs, up another lift hill which greets you with the smell of Jack Jack’s cookies, and the ride is only half over. As the train nears the end it takes you through some calm turns and the safety of the station is in sight. There, without you realizing it, it takes your picture.
I still have that picture of us from that first ride. In that picture Addi is smiling from ear to ear. She’s gipping the safety bar as tightly as she can, mind you, but her smile is as big as her fear had been. Once we got off, it was time to talk about it.
“What did you think?,” I asked. “It was terrifying! I’m never riding it again!,” she replied. I pointed out that the expression on her face in the photo said otherwise. She said that the photo had been taken at the end when the terrifying part was over. The photo wasn’t an accurate depiction of the horrors of the ride. She was glad she’d done it, but she’d never again step foot on the ride.
Here’s what I learned.
I love this story about Addi because it’s taught me a few things. It taught both of us a few things. First, it’s understandable to be terrified of the unknown. Whether that’s something like a roller coaster, starting a new job, or a million things in between, the unknown is often scary. Addi benefitted by having me and our friends, who’d been down that track before, help her understand reality. It was still hard for her to conceptualize our experiences or trust that our experience would be like hers, and that’s where her continued hesitancy came in.
When we face uncertain times, we are wise when we tap into the experience of others who have walked down the road before. Sure, their experience might be somewhat different than ours, but we can learn a lot about what to expect by listening to their experience and learning from them.
In the end, we have to face our fears and move forward. Once we make that decision to move forward, it’s best if we have a friend and confidant to hold us by the hand and carry us through. We don’t need to go through those experiences alone, and we’re much better off when we have that trusted friend to support us along the winding path that gets us to our destination.
“Yeah, but Darrell, she didn’t like the ride. She said she’d never ride it again! Doesn’t that teach us that we should trust our gut and use our fears as a guard rail to keep us safe?”
Sure. Sometimes. Discerning when that’s the case is often very, very difficult. I’m of the opinion that I’d rather try and fail and learn from that experience than live the rest of my life wondering “what if.”
In October of 2021 all four of us took a trip to Disneyland. Neither my wife, Kari, nor Addi wanted to ride Incredicoaster. At one point, Addi looked over to Kari and said, “I’ll ride it if you will.” What happened next, none of us saw coming. Addi loved it! In fact, Addi and I went back to Disneyland last year, and she rode Incredicoaster 4 times! Multiple times she left Kari and I to do our own thing so she could go ride Incredicoaster.
The fear of that initial experience is now a distant memory and she considers Incredicoaster to be tied with Radiator Springs Racers as her favorite ride. I think she could spend all day at the park just going back and forth between those two rides! And that’s the other lesson here. Sometimes the initial fear of a new experience is still too much. The safety of what’s familiar is a hard thing to let go of. But if we’ll give it another go, we bring with us the understanding and experience of what we learned before, and in doing so, we find the ride much more enjoyable.
I’m Darrell Darnell, and this has been Stuff I Learned Yesterday.
I want you to be a part of the next Monday Mailbag on July 29th! Monday Mailbag is your opportunity to Share what YOU’VE learned, so that other listeners and I can learn from YOU. It can be a message as short as 30 seconds or several minutes long. It really doesn’t matter just as long as it’s something that will benefit others. You can send in questions or responses to my SILY episodes, and I’ll respond to them via Monday Mailbag episodes. You can participate in Monday Mailbags by visiting the Golden Spiral Media listener feedback page.