Fill the Caroussel on Disneyland's Birthday!
 

It has always been a deluded dream of our dear Not Afraid to completely fill the King Arthur Caroussel with friends and acquaintances, such that not a steed remains ridden by a stranger and so that friends can enjoy a unique spin of merriment and revelry.

And so it occurs that on July 17th, 2005, Disneyland's 50th Birthday, a sufficient number of friends and acquaintences will be celebrating inside the Happiest Place on Earth. Enough, perhaps, to fill the Caroussel.

We are recruiting volunteers for this daring adventure, to be embarked upon immediately following the Grand Noon Meet on Sunday, July 17th. There are 68 noble steeds and some benches, and so we are going to try to gather 70 hearty souls to march from the Hub, across the drawbridge of Sleeping Beauty Castle, and on to King Arthur Caroussel ... where we will blithely inform the CM that we are a party of 70, and will gladly let others in line behind us move ahead of us as is necessary to make Not Afraid's dream come true of having the Caroussel all to ourselves!



If you would like to participate in Not Afraid's Make-a-Wish Caroussel Ride of Dreams, just find her at the Noon meet on Birthday Sunday. She won't be hard to find, and we will be actively searching for volunteers.

Please help this needy Disneyland nerd, and have yourself a grand time in the process! :birdy:

Hmm, it'd be fun if we all posted here to say that we'll be there....then we can see what kind of percentage of the Carousel will be swankers!

You have my bow, and GD's axe. :cool:

This thread looks really familiar, not sure why....

The monkey and I will gladly go round and round on the horsies! :D

OMG! You all are going to sink the Carousel! :eek:

We're in. :)

Obviously, you can count on me

Obviously! Yea, you can count on me too. ;)

Wouldn't miss it!!

do the big guys all ride in the front?:evil:

Count my group in as well. (There are four of us).

I'm in... but only if I can sit side-saddle. And Ralphie's in. I think I posted us being in on MC, too. So don't double count us. Unless you divide by two after counting us twice.
:D

Wow. I don't think I could be a part of this....but I will gladly take a photo or two.

I'll be there!!

And why the heck not?

Count GusGus and I in on this. Any prognostication on time? This will take some serious coordination!

Hmm, must've broken his legs when I wasn't looking....although there is a wheelchair ramp, so NM's really got no excuse, eh? :p

Ah well, we need a photographer anyway, even if it is a self-hater. :evil:

i'm thinking "King Authur's Tilt-A-Whirl".

I will be there. Giddy up!

Also, can we assume that Not Afraid will be given the honor to ride the Golden Horse when we fill the carousel?

YES! Jingles is MINE MINE MINE!

LOL

Damn I love that horse.

Are we doing this right after the bridge crossing?

:)

Total so far...
 

iSm
zapp
CP
GD
Morrigoon
CoasterMatt
Monkey
MBC
Matthew
€
NA
Monorail Man
WendyBeth
WB2
WB3
WB4
GC
Ralphie
Belleh5
Kevy
GusGus
Daniel

Total so far: 22

I KNOW there will be more of you there!

I'm going to have three other people with me, and I know there will be lots of others with additional people as well. I don't think we'll have a problem filling it.:D

I listed your other people above, unless you meant 3 MORE people besides...

As for total participants, we will not know until the Time Has Come ... as we are also recruiting volunteers at MiceChat.

Many over there have raised concerns about when this is going to be done, as everyone has a busy day with more people than I thought possible having lunch at Blue Bayou at various seating times.

So, here's the deal. We are going to gather people together starting at 12:30 as the Noon Mega-Meet either starts to die down or just hits its stride, whichever. And before 1:00 p.m., we will be heading for Fantasyland to Fill the Caroussel.

This will not be a part of the Disneyland Thru the Decades Attraction Quest. The Caroussel was not voted as one of the Best Attractions of Opening Day or Decade One, but it remains a sentimental Opening Day favorite - - especially beloved by Not Afraid, whose lifelong dream we are going to fulfill.

But let's not break the Caroussel. Remember, not too long ago, it took them longer to rebuild the Caroussel than it took to build all of Disneyland in 1955!

If we can make it, I'd like to recruit myself, LSPE and her main man. :)

LSPE, if you're reading this, throw in the yeah or nay! ;)

Whoops, sorry CP! Didn't see that. Well, I still think we'll be fine, between all the MC'ers and LoT'ers.

All we need are 70 victims.,,,,,er,,,,,volunteers.

We should start to think of the logistics of accomplishing this. The carousel will NOT be a walk-on. And remember, above all, we should strive not to piss off too many other people (not counting the small segment of people in this world who are comitted to getting pissed off no matter what).

There seem to be 2 options on how to handle this, each with their own pitfalls.

Option 1: All 70 of us get in line, and when the first member gets to the front, they smile and cackle in delight as one (or more) of several expressions cross the CMs face (fear, panic, envy, distaste, joy). The pitfall? Let's say that after the carrousel loads, there are 25 people in front of us. That leaves the next one about 1/3 full. On most occasions, not a problem. If you have a large group that wants to ride together, but the normal loading rhythm leaves you staggered, you just move aside, let the CM fill the vehicle, and wait for the next one. But it's a sight more comlicated to move 70 people aside and let 55 get past. For instance, what if one family too many shuffles their way past. Are you going to be the one to tell the 5 year old that just got to the front of the line that he's got to go back now?

Option 2: We send a small group (3, 4, or 5) of emissaries to have a pow-wow with the CM before queuing up. Then, most likely, the emissaries would get into the actual queue, while the rest of us stand to the side (perhaps wrapping around the carrousel's perimeter to be out of the way as much as possible). When the emissaries get to the front of the queue, the CM lets the right number of people pass, empties the holding area, and we file in our 70 bodies for the next ride. The pitfall? The people behind us, most likely blissfully unaware of the pre-queuing huddle with the CM, will probably not be too keen to go from being next in line to having 70 people get in front of them. Of course, logically, it's just one spin of the carousel, hardly a fantastic hardship on anyone. However, we all know crowds don't respond logically, especially on busy days when visual length of a queue is an important determining factor in people's decissions. Undoubtedly, someone, if not several people, will feel swindled at being lead to believe the queue was 70 people shorter than it actually was.

Not to say it will be impossible to do it cordially and without incident, but the logistics of getting a CM to accomodate a VERY extraordinary cicumstance on an already extraordinary day will not be trivial. Among other things, we have to be prepared for the fact that success or failure may hinge on the mood of the CM.

Option 2. And we should send our emissaries over there just after 12:30, before we get the whole group moving in that direction.

I think it's totally doable, and that one spin of the carousel won't really piss off anyone. If we attempted this at 4pm, when the place is even more hot and crowded and people are tired, I might worry, but as it is, I think we'll be ok, if we do everything in the politest way possible.

I like the emissary idea. Send them about 10 minutes ahead to pow wow with the CM so that by the time the rest of us arrive, we'll have an idea what we're doing.

I like the idea of the carrousel being the destination of our storming of the castle - of course, there's an event in front of the castle at 10:00 - do you suppose the castle enterance will be open by then?

If so, there could always be the storming of the Wishing Well

"Have fun storming the castle!"

Sorry, it had to be said. You bring up an interesting question there. We could always storm the castle to begin the attraction quest...

Ah, but you know the castle will be blocked off well before the event - probably at opening.

1. I picture it somehow will make babies and puppies cry.

2. Much like say filling a boat and sinking it, it pegs too far on the Geekometer for my comfort level, and I hate to run at redline. Preserve the motor I always say. Not that I'm not one for occasionally rowing through the gears.

3. I'm afraid of horsies?

We're not trying to "sink" the carousel... just fill it

NM-Geeks know not fear of Geekiness. It's a sort of freedom, really- not caring what other people think, worrying that you're a little 'off', etc. You, NM, are not a total Geek. You do have possibilities, grasshopper- you flirt with Geekiness, periodically popping in to state how very unGeeky you are, but the phrase "methinks he doth protest too much' springs to mind.... This weekend may be Your Test.:evil:

I guess I will have to make a trip on over to the horses. Count us in for 2 or 3. :D

Just for fun: here's a little something you can print up and iron on a t-shirt

http://home.comcast.net/~cindylamb1/NAtshirt.jpg

Don't forget that we stood in line for Pan last year at noonish-- and we were hot and tired by that time. And it wasn't even the 50th. And we weren't all there at opening.

Not to be pessimistic-- but I think we should be realistic. Chances are, people WILL be cranky at us. This doesn't mean I think we shouldn't attempt the carousell-filling. Actually, I think there may well be enough geeks in this crew (don't forget-- word of mouth, and all of the big sites are having meets at noon. And we probably can fill at least half of the carousel with LoT alone) so there may be more than a full load of carousel-riders.

Lol- that's great! :snap:

Course I'm there.

Well, I think a combination of Option 1 and 2 would work best. That is, sending emissaries on ahead, but having everyone be in the queue, under the lame, view-blocking, purple sunshade. We will be careful about letting the correct number of people file past us - - and if there are any overages, I will explain the reason for their having to wait one more turn of the Carousel.

As in all things, we will have to be as spontaneous and maliable as is possible with a large group.

For instance, if the Castle is not open at Park opening, and ditto Peter Pan, then we are going to have to time our storming the Castle and Peter Pan ride very carefully indeed. We will work around all obstacles and rarely admit defeat - - but will surrender with grace, if necessary, to preserve the harmony and happiness of the day.

We'll definitely have a full load. I believe we currently have about 45 people on the list at MiceChat already. :D

Seriously, can I have you once Zap's done with you? Or at least borrow your wit and humor to carry me through my days?

Lol, Erica- I read iSm's post and thought "He is a true Zenarchist".

Ha! I beg to differ. Last I saw him at the park, he was attempting to get photos of each of the 50 hidden mickeys. That's just one piece of evidence I have against him... :evil:

iSm
zapp
CP
GD
Morrigoon
CoasterMatt
Monkey
MBC
Matthew
€
NA
Monorail Man
WendyBeth
WB2
WB3
WB4
GC
Ralphie
Belleh5
Kevy
GusGus
Daniel
LibraryVixen
awinner
Mrs. Winner
Baby Winner
BlueErica

Total: 27

We keep referring to this as NA's dream, but wasn't it €'s idea?

According to him, nada.

And, you think he would let a great idea like this not be credited to him if it was truely his idea? :p He'd send the intellectual property lawyers after me in a ssecond!

Hmmm. Definitely looks like we'll have a full herd then! WOOOOOOOOO! :D

No guarantees, of course, but you can count Chernabog, Bluepeople, and Bluepeople's boyfriend as likelies.

Hehe, alrighty then, I was mistaken.

Ok, found it. :)

Don't forget LSPE and Tom and LibraryVixen!

:) Yay!! :) I knew you'd wanna partake! Kick arse!
:snap:

Hey, watabout me? :( I wanna be in front!!! ;)

iSm
zapp
CP
GD
Morrigoon
CoasterMatt
Monkey
MBC
Matthew
€
NA
Monorail Man
WendyBeth
WB2
WB3
WB4
GC
Ralphie
Belleh5
Kevy
GusGus
Daniel
LibraryVixen
awinner
Mrs. Winner
Baby Winner
BlueErica
Chernabog
Bluepeople
Bluepeople's boyfriend
LSPE
Tom
Bornieo

Total: 33

I haven't seen Bluepeople in ages! :)
I'm guessing that the CM will tell the emissaries what the deal will be, whether we stand in line or wrap around the carousel. Sending those emissaries at least 15 min before "showtime" is only fair to the CMs, so they can figure out logistics. They'll probably have to call in a lead or two for assistance.

How could we come to DL and not be a part of this? Count me and Heather in.

(But we'll only ride a horse if it's white. or gold.)

Damn, you're picky!

Do you really think that a CM is going to want to figure out the logistics of getting a party of 70 on at the same time?

Methinks the leads will have a lot of other things to do that day.

So we shouldn't do this because it will inconvenience the CM? I think at the very least the CM would appreciate the geekiness of it all, on some level. It'll be a story they can tell for years to come.

Something tells me this isn't the first time a huge group hit the carousel all at once. There are plenty of family reunions, foreign tour groups, boyscout troops, you name it....

You'd better all be in uniform. ;)

Last time I went on the caroussel was 7/17/04 and I had quite a ride ;). We have a lunch ressie at 1:50 so I don't think I'll be able to make it.. however I am expecting NM to take lots of photos of this momentous event.

ummmmm, I have 1:40 ressies, so you're there, chickie.