From: jperry@oahu.cs.ucla.edu (John Perry)
Newsgroups: talk.bizarre,alt.disney.disneyland
Subject: I'm Number 1 at Disneyland
Date: 14 Jan 1995 00:12:02 -0800

Disneyland is going to be giving out a set of collector cards, one
each day from January 21 through March 3, one for each year Dland has
been open.  They also gave out complete sets of the cards to the
first 5000 people to buy or renew an annual pass in 1995.  They
had their own little section in the January 1 issue of the LA Times 
just to promote this.

At first I thought COOL!  I'll renew my passport and get the cool
cards.  Then my logical self interrupted, saying NAH!  It's 11 in
the morning.  I bet collectors and card dealers have called up and bought
20 passes each just to get the sets of cards to scalp.  They must be
sold out on the first 5000 passes already, surely.  So I went on
with my day (nursing my hangover from partying the night before).

Then my brother Dave called.  He lives up in the Silicon Valley, but he's 
a much bigger collector of Disney stuff than me.  Somehow he'd heard
about the card sets and he wanted one (I MUST HAVE ONE I MUST HAVE ONE!).
He pleaded with me to get him one (he doesn't have a credit card), but I 
gave him my argument that they must be sold out.  Eventually, I broke
down and said, alright.  Call Disneyland, and if they're still available
call me on conference call and we'll order them up.

Three hours later Dave called back.  He'd been trying to get through
to the Disneyland number the whole time and hadn't been able to get 
through.  I felt almost smug.  Surely, they must be sold out.  So I
went on with my day (eating leftover Christmas cookies).

At 7:00 my sister Judy called up.  Somehow, she'd gotten through to
Disneyland, and they told her that you couldn't get them over the phone.
The only way to get the cards was to go to Disneyland and get it at the
ticket booths.  She said they told her they weren't sold out, but they
were getting close.  I reluctantly decided to drag my ass out from
in front of the TV, and go down and get Passes and cards for everyone.

I made good time getting to Disneyland, but I kept thinking I'm gonna
get there and they'll sell the last one to the person in front of me
(did I mention that on their 30th anniversary, the person in front of
me entering the park won a car?  Well, that's a different story...).
I got to the park, showed my passport and headed in toward the preferred
parking.  

There's a little row of yellow poles right under the monorail (Hi Roger) 
tracks that separate the preferred parking section from the peon parking, 
and a little row of orange cones to direct you into the narrow opening
between the poles.  As I was negotiating this opening, a car sped by in
the preferred section.  I was keeping my eye on him to make sure I stayed
out of his way when I clipped a pole.  It gouged up my front left quarter
panel and flattened my tire.

The little Disney security guys (who can take a bunch of security guys
in liederhosen seriously) came out and snapped a bunch of polaroids and
filled out an accident report.

The report number was TR #01-95... 


I was the first accident at Disneyland in 1995.

					John

p.s. I got the passes, 5 in all: 1 for me, 1 for Dave, and 3 for Judy
      and her 2 kids.

p.p.s.  When you have an accident, Disneyland is not the happiest place
	on Earth.