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John Thompson -- June 1999 -- Disneyland

If you want to see this TR with pictures, go to http://www.thompsonfamilyweb.com

This report will be broken up into essentially 2 parts. The first will deal with the blow-by-blow of the trip itself. The second part will deal with observations and opinions.

Parties: Just me (John). I flew to California for my nephew's wedding. My nephew lives in Sacramento, about an 8 hour drive from Orange County. I flew into Santa Ana Airport from Newark on Thursday night and spent the night at my parent's place in Anaheim. Originally I did not intend to go to DL, but I am working on a commercial web site for which I could use pictures from DL. Lots of pictures. So I decided to go to DL on Friday. I booked a room at the Anaheim Marriot for Friday Night. This was also to serve the web site I'm working on. I won't go into any details of the site now, except to say that it's travel oriented.

Friday Morning was overcast and a little cool. We all got up early and I went out to breakfast with my folks to the Katella Grill, their favorite spot for cheap breakfast. The breakfast's there, besides being cheap, are pretty good. They then drove me to DL and dropped me off. The original plan was for me to drop my dad off at his office and take the car, but my mom's ear was bothering her and she needed the car to go to the doctor (it turned out to be a minor thing). The way the parking is laid out now you can no longer be driven to the gate, as was the case in the past. Instead you are directed to a the Timon lot, essentially to where the handicap parking is. I boarded the Lion King Tram and was off to the park.

I got to the gate at about 8:30 - a half hour before opening. As is my usual strategy, I ignored the ticket booths nearest the tram drop-off, which were all at least 15 people deep, and walked to the further, empty ticket booths. The first thing I noticed while entering the park is that the Main Street Railroad Station is surrounded by scaffolding and green tarp. I assume there is work being performed on the building. There was also work being done on buildings on either side of the Town Square. This would make my picture taking task a bit more difficult, but I was able to work around it.

I walked around Main Street a while, looking for possible gifts for my family and a new T-shirt for myself. I have one DL tee that I really like (it's blue, with an image of the castle elevation blueprint and the first DL park entry ticket), but on my last trip I was unable to find a tee that I liked. While walking around I did find one I liked - tan with images of the Matterhorn, IASW, the Castle and Space Mountain surrounding a "postcard" image of Mickey, Donald, Goofy & Pluto. I made a mental note to pick one up later.

I went to the photo shop a few minutes before rope drop. This is a good place to go for rope drop because they open the doors at opening and you can walk in ahead of the bulk of the crowd. I wanted to head straight to Rocket Rodds, because I knew the lines would likely be long later and it's the one attraction I'd never been on (I've seen HISTA at WDW). I started chatting with Bob & Donna, the CMs working in the photo shop. Bob is a real wise guy and the two of them get a little patter going that's most amusing. I figured it would be a good idea to ask them if they thought RR would be open right at 9:00. Bob checked an opening times sheet and informed me it wouldn't open until 10:00. Armed with this info I moved to the other side of the rope to go straight to IJA instead.

The rope dropped and I walked briskly to IJA. I was surprised and dismayed the wait ended up being about 25 minutes - I didn't think there were that many people ahead of me. Of course as I left I noticed the wait was listed as 45 minutes, so I did all right. I then headed over to Tomorrowland to check out the situation with Rocket Rodds. The ride wasn't opening for 30 minutes and there was already quite a line, so I decided to skip it and hope for the best later. I checked out the wait at HISTA, but the CM said 13 minutes so I decided to come back. Instead I went on Space Mountain with a 20 minute wait. I then went back to HISTA. The wait was still long, but the park was getting more crowded so I went for it. The show was as good as I recalled from WDW, but the "mouse tail" in my seat didn't work.

Up to this time I had been taking some of the pictures I needed for my web site. It was now 11:00, the time I had decided earlier to cut off all attraction riding and focus on the picture taking. I called my dad to arrange to be picked up at 2:00 and started clicking away. I finished at about 1:00. During the picture-taking flurry I took a break and pampered myself with lunch at the Blue Bayou. I had a Monte Cristo sandwich and a Diet Coke (when the server asked if I had decided what I want, I told her I decided before I walked in the door). I hadn't had a Cristo at BB for a couple of years. I had one at a Bennigan's Restaurant a few months ago that was quite good and I was wondering how it would compare to BB. There is no comparison. BB still makes, IMHO, the greatest Monte Cristo sandwich money can buy.

I left the park about 1:20 and went to check out the preview center for Anaheim Resort & Disney's California Adventure. I climbed the scaffold to look at the construction progress, taking some pictures for a panoramic photo ( http://thompsonfamilyweb.com/panorama/DACpan.JPG ). Leaving the preview center I realized it was too early to take the tram, so I returned to the park to buy the T-shirt I had my eye on. I left the park again, hopped the tram and met my dad at the same spot he had dropped me off. I took him home, kept the car and checked into my hotel.

It was a warm afternoon and I was hoping take a dip in the pool, but the Mulan parade was at 4:30 and I wanted to tape the parade for my web site. I left the hotel at 3:30 and returned to the park. When I checked the camcorder I discovered that the battery was dead. I had left it to charge all day, so either I didn't have it the charger hooked up correctly or the battery has gone bad. Oh well, it wasn't an important feature of the web site anyway. Instead I took my camera and took one picture I realized I was missing (the sign at the entrance to Tomorrowland) and stowed both cameras in a locker.

I found a spot near the beginning of the parade at IASW and enjoyed the show. It's a nice parade but I'm sure it's much nicer at night. I decided to leave before the end of the parade and took a ride on BTMRR with about a 20 minute wait. I wandered around a bit more, but all the lines were a bit long after the parade ended and I needed to be back at my folks place by 6:00, so I left.

After going out to dinner with my parents and my brother & sister-in-law (to a place in old town Orange called PJ's Abbey), I returned to the park. It was now about 10:00, and the park closed at midnight. The first thing I did was check Rocket Rodds again. The CM said the wait was 70 minutes, although I doubted it was really that long. I asked when the line closed and he said that it would be open until park closing, so I decided to come back later. I headed back to IJA and did that again. It was a walk on, and for the first time in the dozen or so times I've ridden the ride I went through the "see the future" door. (I think I've gone through the "youth" door maybe twice, every other ride has been through "glittering gold".) I wanted to do either HM or PotC, so I headed toward New Orleans Square. I noticed that Fantasmic! was going on, so I assumed the lines would be short. I got to PotC first, but I skipped it because what I really wanted to do was HM. HM was a walk on, so I was able to do PotC as well.

It was now a little about 11:30 and the park closed at midnight. I headed over to Tomorrowland. I didn't want to get in line at RR yet, so I checked out Innoventions. The place was pretty empty. It's weird to see all these overly cheerful CMs and animatronics putting on their shows with very few people there. I must say that Tom Morrow is one impressive animatronic figure. The only thing I checked out was a VR sort of thing sponsored by GM. It was pretty lame. I left Innoventions and finally headed back over to RR. By now the line was down to about 20 minutes. This turned out to be a particularly good thing because there was a know-it-all jerk impressing his girlfriend with his vast knowledge (most either incorrect or the type of thing any 10 year old knows) in line behind me. After riding RR I did a little shopping on Main Street (I bought a couple of books for my kids) then left the park for the final time.

Observations: The Good, The Bad & DCA.

I paid particular attention to some things that have been hot topics on the Internet of late. Here are my thoughts:

The Good:

Rocket Rodds has been much maligned on the Internet. I wanted to ride it mainly, of course, because it was the only ride there I'd never been on. Now, since I'd heard so much bad stuff I wasn't expecting much. And I only had to wait 20 minutes. 20 minutes is about as long as I'd want to wait for this ride, but I have to say I was pleasantly surprised. It's actually a pretty cool ride. Parts of the queue area are cool (the circlevision room) and others are pretty lame (what's with that black tunnel?) One problem with riding after closing is that all the rides you go through are closed. The car went through Space Mountain and I didn't even know it.

I thought I'd ridden PotC since it's make-over. I was wrong. The attraction looks absolutely gorgeous. The treasure room, in particular, is stunning. As for the "politically correct" changes, they were, in my opinion, unimportant and rather silly. I also noticed that HM looked better than I recalled it looking in years. There was also some narration (something about "Madame Leota" as well as some comments in the "stretching door" hallway) I don't recall having been there before.

And then there's the much maligned McDonald's "fry cart". Hooo-boy, talk about "Much Ado About Nothing". It is a very nicely themed (as a western wagon) little structure that sells French fries. So the fries are (God forbid!) McDonald’s fries. Big deal. McDonald’s fries are better than the soggy things sold at most of the counter service restaurants in DL anyway. As for the "harbinger of things to come" argument, again I say big deal. As long as they are properly themed (and every indication is that they will be), I couldn't care less if the fast food served in DL happens to be McD's. It's not as if the counter service food at DL is haute cuisine. Sheesh...

I noticed a lot of painting and sprucing up going on - especially on Main Street. This is a good sign. Additionally, what I could see of the work going, not just the painting on Main Street but also the work being done on the Mark Twain and the Tarzan Treehouse, looked top-drawer. I was a bit dismayed when it appeared that the paint on the refurbished Monstro was streaking, but then I realized it was just water dripping from his blow hole.

The area surrounding DL is looking real good. Katella and the streets around DL now are lined with palm trees. You can really start to see that, when they are finished, the whole area is going to look great.

The Bad:

Despite the maintenance and painting going on, many parts of the park looked in the worst shape I've ever seen. It's not awful, mind you, but if you look with even a little bit of a critical eye you can see a lot of room for improvement. This was especially true of Main Street and Toon Town - two areas that really need to look immaculate to look good. the IASW building also looked faded. Fantasyland looked OK otherwise, but truth be told I didn't look that closely.

The new Tomorrowland was a real disappointment. The last time I was in DL it was still under construction and I thought it would look cool. Design wise I think it's fine. It just looks like they never quite finished the job. Innoventions looks pretty cool, as an example, but other buildings look like they were only given any detail from one angle. It really pales in comparison with Tomorrowland at WDW. Also, when I was there at night, I felt that the area could use a lot more of the cool lighting effects there are at WDW. There were one or two, but not enough.

DCA:

I've written this before and I will again: I think Disney's California Adventure is going to be cool. Funny thing is, I agree with most of the criticism, I just don't agree with the conclusion. Is the park too small? Yep. Are there too few attractions? Yep. Is the overall theme a bit lame? Yep. Do some of the attractions look a bit, well, odd? Yep. Is Paradise Pier nothing but a spruced up carnival? Yep. Is it going to suck? No, I don't think so.

First, my general philosophy is this - too little of a new park is better than no new park at all. I'd rather have a new park to visit that's too small than none at all. Disney Studios is a good example of this. It's a bit on the small side, but still a great time. Likewise the number of attractions. To me, and to a lot of folks, the number of attractions is not as important as the overall ambiance of the park itself. And I do think that the park is going to look great - judging by the art work.

Most of the attractions look pretty cool. Especially the Ferris Wheel, Coaster and Raft Ride. Oh sure, some seem a bit odd - the bread-making display, the wine tasting thing - but I have been amazed in the past when Disney made what sounds weird on paper into a great attraction ("Living with the Land", e.g.). Of course there's that giant orange peal thing - I don't know *what's* up with that thing - but as I said, I'll wait and see.

I think the area that engenders the most wrath - and the one where I diverge most from the critics - is the question of Paradise Pear. To begin with, if I read one more "Just the kind of park Walt *didn't* want" I'll gag. Those statements remind me of the heirs to Uncle Manny's fortune who blow it on a 'round the world cruise instead of putting it away for their kid's education because "it's what Uncle Manny wanted". Puh-leeze. If you don't like the idea of a Disney version of a carnival, then say so. Don't hide behind the comments of a man who dies over 30 years ago.

And the fact is that I'm not convinced that Walt would have objected. I have no doubt that he would have objected in 1955, I just question whether he would have in 2001. Just as Main Street is a fantasy representation of an American Main Street that never was, Paradise Pier is trying to be a fantasy representation of a carnival that never was. Just as Walt had fond rose-colored memories from his youth of a town square, today's designers and (yes, that's right) executives could very easily have fond, rose-colored memories of local seaside carnivals. Latching on to something said by Walt Disney over 40 years ago doesn't hold water for me. Times change. People change. Peoples attitudes change. Even Walt, if he were alive today, would have changed.

Well, there are my thoughts. I'm sure many will disagree, but I have the feeling many will agree as well. I hope you enjoyed it.

John Thompson

john@thompsonfamilyweb.com

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