Disney's Monstrous Summer All Nighter!

Do you have those friends? You know the ones who challenge you to do things that you just know you shouldn't be doing? I never seem to have a shortage of those kind of friends. When I was young(er), one of my "friends" challenged me to jump my car across a small stream running beside his house. Possibly inspired by watching too many Dukes of Hazzard reruns I accepted, only to come to the stark realization that a 1980 Chevrolet Citation doesn't have a lot of jumping power. Fortunately the damage to the car (and me) was minimal, but the money for the tow truck came straight out of my wallet and not that of my friend who came up with the dumb idea in the first place. 

The only picture I have of my old Citation. Don't ask why I'm on the street emptying it while wearing only a towel. I honestly don't know.  

I'd like to think that I'm a little older and wiser now, but in reality it's just the challenges that have changed. Last Thursday Disney announced that on May 24th they would be repeating their "24 hours in the park" promotion, and it didn't take long for my challenge issuing friends to emerge and start asking if I was planning on participating. Perhaps they honestly forgot about the crashing defeat we suffered at hour 15 on Leap Day. Maybe they truly have faith in our ability to learn from our mistakes and they assume that this time everything will go smoothly. Most likely, they just want to hear another story about a grown man getting chewed up and spit out by an activity that would be considered an ultimate dream by most 3rd graders. 

With that in mind, you'd think that by now I'd have to be smart enough to not even consider taking a second run at such a hare-brained promotion, but that's exactly what we're thinking of doing. It's not logical but there's something about this challenge that just calls out to me as something I have to do. I don't know what it is. It's not like there's a prize for survival. Heck, if you have something to do the next day (which I do) then it's more likely to come off feeling like a punishment. Still I can't seem to shake the idea that a 2 am ride on Heimlich's Chew Chew Train is something I need to experience in life so while there's no guarantees, we're definitely considering going.

What's going to be different this time? Well for starters it's going to be on the Friday night of the Memorial Day long weekend which doesn't exactly strike me as a good thing. I remember being pinned in wall to wall people at 6am on a Wednesday morning for Leap Day and I can only imagine what the line for Peter Pan will be like on a holiday Friday with no real reason for people to be tucked into bed early. On the other hand, Disney apparently learns from it's mistakes and this year both Disneyland and California Adventure are going to be open for the entire 24 hours. This opens up a ton of new possibilities, including the concept that I could spend the whole 24 hours in the Animation Academy and come out being able to draw a Disney character that doesn't look like a Tim Burton stick figure. Then again, that might be asking too much, even for Disney magic. 

As I said, we're considering it, but you know what might help me decide to give it a try? If I knew other slightly off-kilter people who were going to be there. What's the saying, "Craziness loves company"? No? Well it should be, so if you're thinking about attending the Monstrous Summer All Nighter let me know. You might just be that friend whose challenge I decide to accept. Also, while we're at it, let's see if the rental car can clear that ditch. I'll bet today's cars have far more jumping power than those of the early 80's. 

Still more jumping power than a 1980 Citation!

Written by Steve Pratt