The Disneyland SIG is currently on hiatus due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
What could be more fun than visiting Disneyland together with your Mensa friends?
A Region 9 Disneyland SIG has been formed for Mensa members from throughout Southern California who want to visit Disneyland with other Mensans.
Mensa members with Disneyland annual Passports will want to check out the contact information below. Mensans visiting from outside Southern California are especially invited to enjoy Disneyland with their fellow Mensans.
Mark your calendars – the plan is to schedule Disneyland outings on the 3rd Sunday of each month (although some months may vary).
Check the Facebook page below or contact one of the members below to verify upcoming dates. Or, check our OCM Calendar.
Each month we will have dinner at a different restaurant within the Disneyland Resort; we will target several rides and a show. The rest of the day will be unplanned and will happen as things will happen
The meeting place is inside Disneyland in front of the Fire Station on Main Street at 10:00 am.
Contact:
GLAAM Contact: Guy Felton, 562-480-3109 OR gfeltonlb@verizon.net
OCM Contact: Cathy Heflin, 818-813-4143, calendar@ocmensa.org
OR
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/MensaDisneyBuddies/
A Fun Time at the Inaugural Excursion in May, 2014
by Guy Felton
On May 18 the Disneyland Mensa SIG had their inaugural excursion into the Disneyland Resorts. None of us have previously met any of the others, so there was a slight logistical issue meeting up, and one would think me having blue hair and a neon technical shirt would make me stand out a bit. But this also happened to be one of Disneyland’s Bats Day (a goth event) so blue hair, not so uncommon. Yet we still had a good start and met up at our agreed-upon meeting place (a planter outside Disney’s California Adventure) and said our quick hellos and the 6 of us made our way into DCA. Several of us, not me, are jedi masters of the fast pass system and with many of us having the MouseWait app it was the Mensa Mind at home. My style at the park is more of a people-watcher thing, maybe 2 or 3 rides for the day, catch a parade, a show, look at the Rivers of America around what used to be Tom Sawyer’s Island… it was a nice change to be in the organism of a group style. And we even had an itinerary, which did turn out to be a good thing, but with 6 people never having had met each other previously I wasn’t sure if we would be able to adhere to it.
Our first task was to go to Grizzly River Run and get FastPass tickets for the World of Color show for later that evening, and since we were there and had those in the group with a nice planner’s mind, we also stopped and got our FastPass for Radiator Springs Racers (the relatively new CarsLand ride). And then hit Soaring Over California, one of my favorite rides and a staple every time I visit the parks. Then racing over to Disneyland we obtained our passes for Star Tours. While we were there, into Buzz Lightyear Astro Blasters for some fun target practice. Throughout the day we took in Big Thunder Railroad, the Mark Twain Riverboat, Snow White’s Scary Adventure, Haunted Mansion, Radiator Springs Racers, Star Tours, saw the World of Color show, and some of us also went on the Tower of Terror, Space Mountain, and saw the wonderful special extended preview for Maleficent. We split about mid-day for different lunch meals (some of us going to DCA for clam chowder while others staying at Disneyland for corn dogs), this is when some of us picked up Tower of Terror and Maleficent, while the others did a double ride on Star Tours. And rejoined again at Disneyland at the Mark Twain Riverboat… back on itinerary. If anyone was looking for our group we were amazingly accurate to the posted itinerary. Surprisingly so.
It’s fun to know how a group mind works. Of the 6 of us in the first excursion (there were at least 4 others who weren’t able to make contact with us while in the park, which was a shame, but our first group was good for a learning experience), there was myself, Brian, Jennifer, Pam, Rik, and a non-Mensan friend of Jennifer’s. Some of us were planners, some preferred to follow and enjoy the ride, some counted steps on pedometers, some used GPS tracking… an enjoyable mix of minds, and it is truly amazing how the Mensan minds can be so uniquely different yet still work well as a group.
During a snack we took in Fantasyland. We had an interesting conversation about a strategy game played by a larger group of people called “Werewolves and Villages, which sounds like it can be a fun event to add to the group during the month on some random evenings. This group game is played at the GLAAM RG and many AGs now. It is also often played at the Mensa Game Night at Canter’s on the 4th Wed of each month (please see the GLAAM calendar for details). In addition we were thrilled by a dramatic reading by Rik of fortune cards from a Pirate fortune teller in New Orleans Square. All in all (I wonder if I should mention this) we covered over 9 miles of walking that day. Who’d a thunk it?
If you are interesed in joining our Disneyland Mensa SIG please feel free to meet up with us. Originally a yahoo group was being used, and still is, but it seems to be more immediately available using the Facebook Group. Most of us have our smart phones and if using the facebook group if someone is trying to meet our group while in transit any number of us will receive the post and be able to respond with current location and estimated time to the next location. And at least a couple of us have portable backup batteries to keep their devices charged for extended periods of time – no loss of contact by mobile battery life. Please join us in our upcoming excursions.
If you don’t have an Annual Passport no worries. We still manage to get a lot of rides in the day and time to also sit and eat/snack and take restroom breaks, and with the use of our smart phones we can separate from the pack and rejoin later. So even without an Annual Passport, if on a General Admission ticket, you can still have a good time with the group.
I am looking forward to meeting with the group again and having some new members joining with us.
