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The return of
DisneylandBlues
Fantasyland / Canoes

Anything that has a Disney name to it is something we feel responsible for.

- Walt Disney

Let's start with two REAL Fantasyland eyesores...

King Arthur's Carrousel - fading away...

small world's toy shop looks almost as bad as the facade for the ride itself

The Canoe dock is also in horrible disrepair...

Although I'm glad that Cynthia Harriss pushed to keep the canoes, there's more to them than just running the attraction on a regular basis.  They also need to be maintained.

Although the dock itself is very worn and the non-slip grip added to prevent cast members [CM's] from slipping in their moccasins is worn down to the point of nonexistence, this can't be shown in a photograph.  But there are a half dozen or so tall posts along the dock that are supposed to be decorated with Indian and outdoorsy accessories. These Indian "dreamcatchers" and other items displayed from the dock posts are extremely weathered and worn. They can be seen in the three shots below:

The Canoes themselves are also in very bad shape. The sides are horribly scraped, and the paint is gone down to the hull in many places. 

They used to always have one Canoe from the fleet out of the water and back in the Staff Shop being repaired and repainted, it was a continual yearlong process to rehab the full fleet of Canoes. 

Pretty ugly huh?

That process stopped in October, 1998 and has not yet resumed since the Canoes returned to the park attraction roster in June, 1999. The Canoes run every day now, the wear and tear is mounting, and the neglect is showing.  Now look at the sign [below] used for the Canoes. 

The park used to take great pride in theming the signs to the attractions...

It's chipped, dirty and clashes with the surrounding area and theme. There is nothing painted white in Critter Country, except for the above sign. It has a cheaply made, sun-faded laminated patch attached with Velcro that says when the canoes close, but does not tell visitors when they open. It's embarrassing from a park that used to pride itself on its craftsmanship of signs. 

Obvious wear and disrepair is also visible along the hull of the Columbia. You can see the worst damage along the midships of the starboard hull, the side of the Columbia that faces the Island along the middle of the boat. The work barges used in Fantasmic! really beat up the sides of the ship. Both of the big boats endure far more wear and tear during the frenzy of backstage Fantasmic! use than they ever have during regular day use for the visitors. 

However, even though the extreme wear and tear of Fantasmic! and the hectic Entertainment crews really takes it's toll on the boats, the maintenance budget has not been increased to keep these boats in the pristine shape they were in from the 1950's until the early 1990's. The budgets have instead been steadily decreased over the last 5 years, and it is really showing now on both boats. If you sit at the picnic tables on Tom Sawyer's Island across from the Mark Twain dock, you would be able to see the problems quite clearly. Or, you could sit on one of the benches along the riverbank beneath Fort Wilderness, across from where Cascade Peak used to be, and get close views there as the boats and canoes pass by. 

The Mark Twain is also very worn and scraped along the bottom deck, close to the water line. 

You can see the damage to the Twain in this shot.

If you look at older pictures of both boats, you can clearly see that they never used to have so much visible neglect. I think D-I-G readers agree that Fantasmic! is one of the best entertainment productions Disneyland has ever offered, but the boats are subjected to dramatically increased levels of wear and tear now that they are key Fantasmic! show pieces. The maintenance budget should be increased, not decreased, to keep these boats in tip top shape for the visitors who use them before that evening's Fantasmic!

What's amazing is that the smaller attractions are often the first things allowed to slip into such disrepair and neglect. See the very tired looking decorations and set pieces on the Canoe dock above for example, then go try and find a store or restaurant in the Park that looks as awful. You won't find any. 

Stores and restaurants make a profit that is easily tracked by the bean counters. A mere attraction however has no till to count out at the end of the day, and no real way to track it's value to the Company or the Park. 

Can you imagine, oh say, the Briar Patch shop across from the Canoes falling into the same state of ugly disrepair? And the adjacent Hungry Bear Restaurant received fresh new decorations, paint, and theming behind the service counter during it's yearly rehab a few months ago. Meanwhile, the canoe dock and the canoes themselves look worse and worse as the years go by, with no rehab in sight.

On the NEXT PAGE let's take a look at Main Street problems.

ParrotHead kindly hosts the WALT DISNEY WORLD BLUES web site, stop by to see problems on the other coast