Really?
You mean to tell me that I was now given an opportunity to see celebrities?!?!?! For free!?!?!? Without having to find some way to get into the lottery of bleacher seats at the Oscars? No way. I told Joanna calmly that we should check it out, though, in my mind I was really hoping that we would just see the celebrities wandering the park. In fact, since I'm a Twithead, I jumped on my phone and started searching @Disneyland to see if anyone had spotted anyone. To my excitement, it was posted by a few people that Johnny Depp, Geoffrey Rush and Penelope Cruz were wandering the parks and enjoying the rides.
Game on. I suddenly went into celebrity watch mode at Disneyland. There's an easy way to spot celebrities and I'm going to let you in on a little secret. When you're at Disneyland, watch for the women that are dressed in red argyle sweaters with blue skirts and hats. These are the Disney hostesses, but really, they're celebrity handlers. They lead the celebs through the enormous crowds and ensure that the celeb makes it onto all the rides they want.
Back to the story.
So once we get into the park, we realize that it's not exactly crowded, but all of Main Street has been blocked off for media, therefore all the people are forced onto the sidewalk - not fun. In fact, large crowds at Disneyland are not fun at all, but this just seemed worse because of how Disneyland blocked off a lot of walkways.
We ate first (always a must) and then decided we should go see the setup over on Tom Sawyer's Island - that's where they place the movie screen:
Not the best picture, but it was from my iPhone (hey, at least I'm showing you pictures for the first time in my blog). The bleachers on the left were reserved seating for the actual movie. And had we known at the time and had the money, we, too, could have walked the black carpet (tickets sold out in three days at $1000 per ticket - donated directly to charity). But it was the mere mortals that had to pay the money. The celebs just got the invite.
Our next stop was the bleachers of Main Street (sounds like Holmes of Beaker Street. Or not.).
This was before it got crowded. Yes, I said before it got crowded. By the time the celebrities started to show up, there were people everywhere. It was cool.
As the evening grew closer and the wind grew stronger (as well as the cold), it seemed inevitable that we would start seeing celebrities. One of the first:
Eric McCormack. He's looking old. How sad. He used to be cute on Will and Grace. What happened? He was followed immediately after by Martin Short, but I don't have a picture of him. Well, they were just the beginning, but I won't go into all the details that a normal reporter might go into. Let's just say that there may as well have been a Dancing With the Stars Reunion Show happening at Disneyland for the number of cast members from that show. Not only did we see current professional dancers, such as Tony Davolani and Luis Van Amstel, but also current contestants, such as Kirstie Allie and Chelsea Kane, but also, there were plenty of past contestants from the show. Joey Lawrence (whoa), Cameron Matheson, Jennifer Grey....
....who seemed very excited to be recognized. Kyle Massey and Rick Fox (whom, if you have read this blog, we have actually seen at Disneyland before) were also there with family as well as Bruno Tonioli (the judge) there to tell them there needed to put more passion into their steps.
But then, it seemed like a parade of young Disney Channel stars - and I (thankfully) did not know who they were. Luckily for us, there were a group of young girls in front of us that would scream just about anytime one of these stars (male or female) would appear nearby and therefore within shouting range. Let's just say that I'm surprised that Abby managed to fall asleep a couple of times in Joanna's arms.
After the "kids" rolled through, it seemed time for more of the adults to traipse in - fashionably late, of course.
Teri Hatcher sauntered in with her daughter (whom we have actually seen at Disney's California Adventure in the past also) and Eva Longoria came in toward the end as well (so I guess anyone that is on a show on ABC gets the invite? For those of you that don't know, Disney owns ABC).
Several stars were rushed through the black carpet taking care to avoid being stopped for autographs and photos. In fact, it seemed as if Johnny Depp himself was being especially careful to simply wave to the fans:
I have a feeling this is because at the previous Pirates premiere at Disneyland, they had to hold off starting the movie for almost two hours because Johnny was outside still signing autographs. It's probably why they didn't want him walking on the sides and only in the middle. Oh well. At least I got a picture.
Boy, this post is long.
As it got darker and harder to see (Disney had not turned on all of the lights where we were located, Joanna and I decided that we should head out of the park before the rest of the crowd. As we walked, it was eerie to see most of the stores closed and rides non operational. As we walked down Main Street, we could see a few stragglers making their way down the black carpet - of note was Geoffrey Rush, whom I couldn't get a picture of because by then, my phone had turned itself off.
Last night was a great opportunity and Joanna and I are not really sure if we'll have that chance again. It was so fun even though our intention yesterday was to actually go on rides, but that's okay. We loved it and the people around us made it just as entertaining - well, except maybe the piercing squeals from the girls each time some young start arrived. Other than that, an incredible experience.
By the way, the reason the post is titled as such is because they were tossing free pirate Mickey ear hats into the crowd. And they were tossing a lot. Almost everyone in our section got one except for us. And I was simply trying to get them for Abby. Oh well.
Until next time.
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