Me and Karl Strauss Check Out The World of Color

Prepare to Assemble

They were dropping like flies. It only took 3 little words to send others in my traveling party to go scurrying out of the parks and into "we've got other things to do tonight". The 3 words are World of Color. Mrs. DisneylandTraveler - "I think I'm going back to the hotel to do some laundry." My sister and her husband - "I think we're going over to Tony Roma's for dinner, are you sure you don't want to join us?"

No...it was World of Color night and I'm going to see it. Let's explore.

Mrs. DLT and I watched the Pixar Play Parade, went over to Flo's for dinner, then parted company for the next several hours - she to her laundry and me to the World of Color. Showtime was probably still 2 hours away.

WOC - an insidethemagic.com photo. My pictures of WOC stink.

You've heard and read (and probably seen) what a great show World of Color is. It is. But I'm here to tell you about the other side of WOC, the side that sends some Disney fans fleeing into the night in the opposite direction.

The wait for WOC is an ordeal, an effort in patience and the eventual onset of mighty sore feet. Knowing what my like was going to be like for the next several hours, I paid a visit to an old DCA friend, the Karl Strauss beer truck found in the Pacific Wharf area. Most DCA regulars over 21 know exactly where it is.

So I sat down and thought about my day (fun) and pondered my night (my poor feet) over a couple of the San Diego based micro brewery fine beers - The Red Trolley Ale. Not as potent as the Tower 10 IPA but rich, smooth, and balanced for those that like their hops. And even after finishing, I still had time to kill before the ordeal was to begin.

The Karl Strauss Red Trolley Ale - I'll take two please.

I wandered around Paradise Pier and had a good time watching people have a good time. In general, Paradise Pier may be my favorite area of DCA. Disney wanted to capture that seaside amusement park look and feel, and while not perfect, they have improved that area of DCA. Paradise Pier has a feel of completeness about it. Probably easy to do when it basically goes around in a circle.

Bayside Brews - Paradise Pier

It's a long walk from the Pacific Wharf area to the far side of Paradise Pier (well, not really) but a man can work up a thirst on the walk around Paradise Pier. Disney thought of that and put up a beer hut next to the Boardwalk Pizza & Pasta and Paradise Garden Grill restaurants. Over here they serve different kinds of beer from the horrid Bud Light to the excellent Sierra Nevada Torpedo IPA. But this was a night for me and Karl Strauss and the Bayside Brews served up the Karl Strauss Pintail Ale a far more herbaceous brew than the Red Trolley Ale. After the Red Trolley Ale, the Pintail Ale tasted like brewed up freshly mowed grass clippings which is kind of funny because I had a Pintail Ale two days earlier with the 5 cheese ravioli from the Boardwalk Pizza and Pasta and enjoyed it thoroughly. There's a lesson here somewhere.

Before I made it to the World of Color Mosh pit, there was one more stop to make on the way. Yep, the Corn Dog Castle. The corn dogs from the Corn Dog Castle are so large (and greasy) that me and Mrs. DLT usually split one. Since Mrs. DLT deserted me on this night, I got the whole greasy corn dog to myself. Word of advice that I have passed on before - Disney offers either potato chips or sliced apples with their corn dogs. Pick the slice apples, it cuts through the grease that will begin to do a tap dance in your belly.

And so I arrive at my World of Color viewing area 3 beers (4 if you counts the Racer 5 I had at Flo's with dinner) and 1 corn dog down at about 8:15. Gee, I only have an hour to wait before the scheduled 9:15 show performance. And now you know why everyone else I was with disappeared when it came time for World of Color. As Tom Petty once sang, "the waiting is the hardest part". And for me, not just waiting - standing and waiting. Of course in my younger years, I could have done what many did around me and take a nice comfortable seat on the concrete ground. But I'm now many years on the other side of 40 (or 50) and the sitting on ground part of my trips to Disneyland is something I left behind years ago. No more. So I stood and waited for the World of Color. I actually go a spot by a post and chain link barrier which allowed a slight bit of leaning for some degree of relief. But its no fun, no fun at all waiting for the World of Color.

Another insidethemagic.com WOC photo. I've given up trying to take pictures of it.

So after standing and waiting for the show to begin an hour or more, the show starts. Its 25 minutes long of still more standing. I've written about the World of Color before, its a wonderful spectacle to see but could be better as the show tends more to meander rather than build. Some of the animated sequences work, some don't (Mufasa death scene from The Lion King). If you have never seen the World of Color - you just have to. If you have seen WOC a bunch of times like have, the biggest enjoyment from World of Color comes from the people around you seeing it for the first time. It's more Vegas than Disney. Fantasmic over in Disneyland is still the better nighttime show.

And so my exhausting World of Color night comes to an end. Thanks Karl, I couldn't have done it without you.

PS. For ten bucks ahead cover charge you can see World of Color from a seat at the Cove Bar. Yeah, it's a view from the side and maybe the back but that seat is a valuable commodity at my ages. I smell a new addition to my Disneyland Bucket List coming on.