After breakfast, the two rooms were a whirlwind of activity. Travis had misplaced his 215 pin and tore apart the room looking for it. Luckily he found it in the pockets of the jeans he had worn the day before. Michelle attached Ana’s 215 pin to her pink Minnie Mouse t-shirt while Dizzy double checked that he had the twelve Fast Passes in his wallet that Steve had given him the day before. He wisely decided not to use any the previous night, thinking they might come in handy for the Quest. Steve returned Travis’s cell phone to him while Ana grabbed her autograph book and pen, and at 8:15 the five of them began their walk to Disneyland.
The lines to get into Disneyland crossed the plaza between Disneyland and California Adventure. Nearly every available entrance was open, and busy cast members were scanning tickets as quickly as they could. Every person entering the park was busy talking about the Quest. Those unable to sign up the day before hoped for a chance to sign up that morning. Dizzy, Travis, Ana, Michelle, and Steve were waiting in a line near the Downtown Disney side of the plaza.
“I think the entire city of Anaheim is here today,” Steve said. “I have never seen the lines this long so early.”
“I hope we get our clue before the rope drop,” Travis said, standing on his tip toes to look over the line in front of him. “It would stink to start off behind.”
“Look!” Dizzy said, interrupting Travis. “A new line is opening!” Dizzy pointed to a cast member unlocking a medal gate in front of a group of turnstiles. “Let’s hurry!”
The swinging gate and Dizzy’s shout to hurry caused a stampede, as hundreds of people in the nearby lines began racing for the new and empty entrances. Dizzy had seen it first and he grabbed Ana’s hand, racing for the turnstile. People were running every which way, parents pushing strollers, elderly men and women being pushed in wheel chairs. The scene was hectic. Dizzy sidestepped a stroller and was pushed hard from behind, causing him to lose his balance and fall on his side. He let go of Ana’s hand so he wouldn’t pull her down with him.
“I told you to stay out of my way kid,” a familiar voice came from behind him. It was Justin. Dizzy didn’t know if the push was accidental, but doubted it. The stampede had died down and the lines in front of the newly opened entrances were now the same length as the others. Dizzy dusted himself off and got back to his feet, grabbed Ana’s hand, and began looking around.
“Where did they go?” Dizzy asked. “Do you see Mom? Or Steve and Travis?”
“Nopers,” Ana said. She was busy clicking the end of her retractable pen, something that had kept her entertained for most of the morning. “It would be fun if getting autographs was part of the Quest, huh Dizzy?”
“That would be cool,” Dizzy said, still scanning the newly formed lines. “Where did they go?”
“Dizzy! Hey, Dizzy!” he heard a voice from behind him calling his name. Dizzy always said one good thing about his name was that if he heard someone shouting it, that person definitely was calling for him.
He turned around and faced the line he had just left and found Travis, Steve, and his mom just a few groups away from the front of the line. Dizzy and Ana walked back over to them.
“Good trick Dizzy,” Travis said. “Telling everyone to run to the new line made just about everyone in front of us go.”
Nobody else in the group had left the line when he grabbed Ana and took off. His shout alerted the people in front of them in line about the new opening, and instead of running toward the gate with the others, Travis, Steve, and Michelle just moved up in line.
Fifteen minutes later they were standing on Main Street, shoulder to shoulder with hundreds, maybe thousands, of people waiting to get the first clue. Town Square, the steps to Main Street station, and the street and sidewalks down Main Street were all packed with people. At the end of Main Street was a white rope being held up by cast members. It was a Disneyland tradition for the park to play a recording of Walt Disney’s opening day speech from the day the park opened in 1955, followed by the rope drop and hundreds of people running like mad to their favorite ride, wanting to be the first to ride it that day. Cast members would always encourage the guests to walk safely to their destination, but that suggestion almost always was ignored.
Dizzy and Travis began looking at the pins of the people nearby.
“That guy is in group 367,” Dizzy said, elbowing Travis and nodding his head toward the man.
“You see that lady covered in pins?” Travis asked, motioning toward a heavyset woman wearing a denim jacket covered in collectible Disney pins. “Look at that pin on her hat. 688.”
Mr. Pegg appeared from behind a door marked “Cast Members Only”, and the crowd quickly parted allowing him to walk freely to the stage. As he passed, the open space quickly filled up behind him. He climbed the steps to the stage and took his spot behind the microphone. The sight of him ready to give instructions made the crowd eager and excited, and a loud cheer swept across Main Street.
Mr. Pegg held up his hands to quiet the crowd.
“Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls,” he began. A round of fireworks exploded from the top of the vault behind him. “Welcome...to the Disneyland Quest!”