A hidden mickey and the Blue Bayou

The rest of our trip at Disneyland was rides, rides, rides, and an occasional clam chowder in a sourdough bowl.

But we discovered two cool things: hidden mickeys and the Blue Bayou.

In the Pirates of the Caribbean, just before you enter the dark tunnel with the talking skull, you pass through a dark and quiet bayou. Did you know there is a restaurant to your right as you pass through the faux bayou? Daorcey mentioned vaguely that there was a restaurant and his family never did eat there because the place was always booked up.

Thanks to our well-earned Disney Dollars, we ate at the Blue Bayou. The food is expensive but that did not deter the family of eight, with six small kids, from eating there. The quality is okay but really its big attraction is you're eating in the Pirates of the Caribbean ride. Luckily, we did not sit near the ride and did not have to endure inane comments of the riders.

Also of interest was the cookie boat plundering the dessert seas. Most of it was edible... we think.

Yar, even the plastic mast is "edible"

The menus are also a bonus souvenir. Wow, what bang for my buck!

Daorcey says it's blurry because it's dark. Right.

However, the adult menu did not convert to a hat like the kids' menu so naturally we had to clothe ourselves in such high fashion. We also wore them on the ride because if you can't wear a menu/pirate hat on the Pirates of the Caribbean, that's just sad.

If Daorcey had a pirate name, it would be Squinty.

The other excitement was the Hidden Mickey. We were sitting in the front seat/row for Pirates of the Caribbean and usually only two people sit in the front row. These two girls join us just before the boats leave. So the boat was a little front heavy. However, we learned the secret of the Hidden Mickey.

In every ride there is a at least one Mickey Mouse-shaped something. In the Pirates of the Caribbean, in the battle scene between the ship and the fort, the fort has a large Mickey Mouse-shaped hole in it.

So as soon as we got back to the hotel, we popped online to write a quick post and find out more Hidden Mickeys. This is definitely a feature for:

a) Disneyland creators and workers leaving their mark by sneaking in the Mickey ears, and
b) Disneyland guests who have done the rides so many times that they're ready to add on the extra fun of searching for Hidden Mickeys throughout the rides.

A quick Google search found a few sites dedicated to this phenomenon. So we printed out what we could and focused our efforts on finding the mickeys on the Indiana Jones ride (we knew we'd be doing that one a few more times).

The are two easy ones to spot. In the lineup to watch the orientation film (Salah!), there is a large mickey in the lineup on the wall which is made through a trick of the light and the colour of stone. Once you see it, it's hard not to see it all the time--it just jumps out at you.

On the back of the well where you can pull the rope and cause a researcher to drop into a pit, there is a series of symbols on the cover of the tomb/excavation site. Among these symbols is a Hidden Mickey.

Holy Mickey's Head, Batman!

The best Hidden Mickey can be seen on the ride in the first set of skeletons. One of the skeletons is wearing a Mickey Mouse hat with "Bones" written on it! Sadly, I never did see it, but every time we went on the ride Daorcey said he saw it and he kept adding new details:

"Oh wow, it has a pink bow on it! Didn't you see it?"
"Geez, the Bones script really stands out in the black light!"
"How can you not see it? It's a sparkly pink bow!"

After the third time, Daorcey shut up when he realized his observations were not helping.