Coloring Disneyland

I may have written about this before. I forget. It's kind of a head scratching subject for me. In today's MiceChat's In The Parks weekly feature they talk about the setting up of the Big Thunder Jamboree area for summer entertainment including outdoor performances of Billy Hill and the Hillbillies. Since the area is kind of out of the way not often used outside of corporate events (it is the normally fenced off area behind the Big Thunder Bar-B-Que restaurant and petting zoo, Disney has to promote a little bit of what's going on in there including the Hillbillies, character performances, and a children's coloring area to get people to stop by. Huh? Another one?

A few years ago one of my co-workers took his family to Disneyland. He recounted the story about how his young kids wanted to take time out of their Disney day to stop by the Princess Fantasy Fair. To meet princesses (one of his kids is a boy)? No, his kids wanted to sit down at one of the tables that were set up for coloring. You know.... crayons, paper, that kind of thing. My mouth dropped wide open as I listened. "Are you kidding?" 

"You mean to tell me that at the ridiculously high admission price it takes to get a family of four to get in the place, you are going to take the time to sit down and do something that could easily be done back at the hotel or home for that matter. It's Disneyland, time is money. Once you walk in, you're on the clock." Those may not have been my exact words to him but pretty close.

He would have his standard reply ready for me (and the subject of the next entry in this blog) when he talks about his trips to Disneyland - "It's all about the kids."

Hmmmm..... I could only think about the times when The Boy was young enough and Mrs. DisneyandTraveler and I would have him along. If he would have asked me if he could sit down and color I would have dragged his little behind all the way to railroad station and made him go around the park in circles rather than take the time to "color". I exaggerate because fortunately, that subject never came up. The Boy was always the true Disneyland trooper - "what ride do we go on next?"