Chapter 4
Dizzy, Ana, Travis, Steve, and Michelle walked up to the Disneyland entrance. The lines were still long to enter Disneyland, even though it was almost 4:00 in the afternoon. When they arrived at the front of the line, they were greeted by a smiling cast member. He scanned their tickets and Dizzy leaned in to hear the whistle of the machine. One by one they walked through the turnstile and Ana grabbed a map for each of them from the map holder.
The timing couldn’t have been more perfect. As soon as they walked through the gate, they glanced up to see the beautiful Main Street Train Station and heard the whistle of an approaching train. There were families taking pictures with the Mickey shaped flower garden in front of the station as the background, and Dizzy’s mom was reaching in her purse for her camera.
“Everyone go stand in front of the garden,” she said excitedly. “This will be a great picture.”
Steve, Travis, Dizzy, and Ana all stood together and smiled for the camera.
“Say ‘Mickey!’” Michelle said, pressing the button on her camera.
“Mickey!” the group, minus Travis, shouted.
“Wait, hold on.” Michelle was messing with the buttons on the back of the camera. “OK, I have it now. Say ‘Mickey!’...no wait. Steve, how do I--”
“Would you like me to do that for you ma’am?” asked a nearby Disney photographer. “That way you can be in the picture too.”
“That would be wonderful,” Michelle said excitedly. “Thank you so much.” Michelle handed her the camera and rushed to Steve’s side.
“One more time, everyone say ‘Mickey!”
“Mickey!” everyone but Travis said again.
“Are we going to have to say Mickey every time we take a picture?” Travis whispered to his dad. “What’s wrong with just smiling?”
“She’s excited, Travis,” Steve replied quietly. “Cut her some slack.”
The photographer returned the camera to Michelle and the group made their way to Main Street. Before they entered the tunnel that went under the Disneyland Railroad tracks, Dizzy looked up and saw a plaque above him. He read it quietly to himself.
“Here you leave today and enter the world of yesterday, tomorrow, and fantasy.” It was such a simple quote but it summarized the entire Disneyland experience.
When they arrived on Main Street, Ana looked like she was going to pop from excitement.
“There’s Pluto!” she shouted, starting to run to him. “And there is Alice and the Mad Hatter!” she screamed again, changing directions. She had her autograph book and a pen in her hand and got in Alice’s line.
“How long are we going to watch this kid get autographs?” Travis asked his dad. “She will want to spend the entire trip in these lines to meet these dumb characters.”
“Believe it or not at one point you did the same thing when you were her age son.”
Travis looked at Dizzy to see if he heard what his dad said, but Dizzy didn’t seem to be listening to their conversation.
“I wasn’t that bad,” Travis said, relieved Dizzy didn’t hear. “Hey, what’s that?”
There was a large stage built on Town Square in front of the Main Street train station with a big crowd in front of it.
“Maybe there is a performance or a show?” Dizzy suggested, just noticing the stage for the first time. “Mom, I’m going to go check it out.”
“That’s fine Dizzy,” his mom answered. “We’ll be right here.”
Dizzy and Travis walked over to the stage and saw that a large, black vault was sitting on it. The vault looked to be about six feet tall and had a silver Mickey Mouse head engraved in the middle, just above the dial. There were workers busily setting up a podium, microphone, and running wires along the side of the stage.
“I wonder what that’s for,” Dizzy said to Travis.
“I thought you were Mr. Disney,” Travis answered. “I figured you’d know what it is.”
“Nope,” Dizzy replied. “I have no idea what this thing is. And why would you think I’m Mr. Disney?”
“Your mom told my dad that you knew everything there is to know about Disneyland. I figured you would’ve known what’s going on.”
A short, overweight man in a blue suit and a bow tie walked up the steps leading to the stage. His name tag read Mr. Pegg, which seemed odd to Dizzy, as most cast members had the employee’s first name and hometown on them. Mr. Pegg stepped up to the vault, looked it over for a few moments and nodded his head, indicating that everything looked fine. He approached the microphone and gave a thumbs-up to a worker standing near a control board. There was a huge explosion that made the now rather large crowd all step back in unison.
Fireworks were shooting out of the top of the vault and music was playing from the speakers along Main Street. The music quieted and a voice began to speak.
“Ladies and gentleman, boys and girls, welcome to Disneyland!” Mr. Pegg was speaking into the microphone. “Tomorrow morning, we would like to welcome you to take part in a once in a lifetime event, the Disneyland Quest. A treasure hunt throughout Disneyland, full of riddles and clues that you must decipher. Solve all the clues to find the three numbers that unlock the Disney Vault you will find behind me.”
The man motioned to the vault that was sitting behind him on the stage. Dizzy looked up at the vault that still had sparklers shooting out of the top of it. He saw Main Street Station behind the safe and wished he had his mom’s camera to take a picture.
“Hey, can I borrow your phone?” Dizzy asked Travis. “I want to take a picture of that.”
“Why?” Travis asked.
“It looks cool, don’t you think?”
“Whatever man.” Travis took out his iPhone and handed it to Dizzy. Dizzy held up the phone to get as much of the background into the picture as he could. He snapped a couple of pictures and handed the phone back to Travis.
“Why didn’t you use your phone?” Travis asked, putting his phone back into his pocket.
“I don’t have a cell phone,” Dizzy answered.
“Ouch,” Travis replied. “That’s gotta be rough.”
“Signups for the Disneyland Quest will begin now in City Hall,” Mr. Pegg continued. It was at that moment that the hundreds of people begin running toward City Hall, wanting to be the first to sign up.
“Before you all run off,” the man said, stopping the crowd in their tracks, “don’t you want to know what’s inside?”
“Yeah!” the crowd responded in unison.
“The first team to open the vault behind me,” again he motioned behind him toward the vault, almost as if he was showing off the same picture that Dizzy just took, “will receive the grand prize of $250,000-”
“WHOA!” the crowd yelled, interrupting the man. A huge cheer spread throughout the crowd and the man held up his hands, hoping to quiet them down so he could continue.
“Right,” he said when it was quiet enough for him to begin again. “The winners will receive the grand prize of $250,000 and four lifetime passes to all Disney parks around the world. Those passes are good seven days a week, 365 days a year.”
More cheers and yells came from the crowd.
“Again, signups begin now in City Hall. Have your entire group with you when you sign up and please, no more than four people per group. Children are welcome to sign up but need a parent signature during registration. Everyone will receive the first clue tomorrow morning and the Quest ends at 7:00 p.m. sharp. If no one finds the combination by then, the prize stays in the vault. Good luck everyone!”
More fireworks exploded behind him as he walked off the stage. He found himself quickly surrounded by people asking him questions about the Quest.
“Wow, this sounds incredible!” Dizzy said to Travis.
“We just heard,” Steve said, approaching Dizzy and Travis with Michelle and Ana. “Sounds like fun, doesn’t it? Are you two going to join the Quest?”
?
??Do it Dizzy,” his mom suggested. “You will do great. And it does sound like a lot of fun.”
“I’m in if you are,” Travis said to Dizzy. “Split the prize 50-50 if we win?”
“Sure,” Dizzy said. He didn’t expect to win, although the money and the lifetime passes sounded great. “There will be hundreds, maybe thousands of teams signing up for this thing though. So don’t get your hopes up.”
“But Dizzy,” Ana said, not looking up from Alice’s signature in her book, “nobody knows more about Disneyland than you do. You’ll win for sure.”
“Well, that settles it,” Steve said, clapping his hands. “Let’s get you kids signed up. That line already looks pretty long, so let’s not waste any more time.”
The five of them headed toward City Hall and got in the back of a line that was zig zagging through ropes that had been set up. Dizzy looked back toward the vault and wondered if he actually did have a chance of winning.
Who knows, Dizzy thought to himself. Someone has to win. It might as well be us, right?