As you may or may not already be aware, I’m a pretty hardcore theme park nerd. I’m fascinated by the way they combine ideals found in film, theater, and classical arts in order to transport you to a place that exists in three dimensions all around you, the way they can design things from the grandest scale all the way down to the most minute detail and allow it to be experienced first hand.
I also enjoy taking pictures at theme parks. Now I have no illusions of being a particularly good photographer, but I take enough pictures that the law of average dictates that at least some of them should turn out half-decent. Periodically I’ll post some of my pictures and offer up some commentary to go along with them, and today I’ll start with my favorite park in the world. Disneyland.
Clicking on any of the pictures below will allow you to scroll through larger versions. Enjoy.
Sunday, January 19. This trip is my first time ever visiting as a local.
The Tiki Juice Bar is closed for refurbishment right now.
Adventureland can sometimes get to be a bit of a bottle neck, but it really is one of my favorite areas of the park. There’s such a richness of detail in a such a small space.
Columbia is in dry dock for refurbishment. At the time of this post, the scaffolding has come down, and she’s scheduled to set sail again on February 14.
Splash Mountain. This is one of my absolute favorites, and traditionally the first ride of each trip for me. Sadly it was in pretty poor shape at the beginning of the month – the lighting was terrible and there were quite a few animatronics not working or missing altogether. It’s since closed for refurbishment; hopefully it comes back looking marvelous once again.
“Mugging for the camera is what Tiggers do best!”
This view makes me sad. Behind that door is one of the most beautiful areas of the park, never again to be seen… unless you can afford a $30,000 annual membership to Club 33.
On the bright side, Pirates is in great condition. Some effects that haven’t worked in years are working again, and they finally ditched the awful, and out of place projection of Blackbeard from ON STRANGER TIDES.
Another one of my favorites. Indiana Jones Adventure. They added some new projection mapping effects to the beginning portion of the ride and they actually work quite well. A decided improvement over the ol’ smoke eyes.
Marvel is in the process of taking over the top floor of Innoventions and I can’t say I mind. More on this in a bit.
Submarine Voyage is also closed, with a (supposed) return in September. That said, the rumor mill is suggesting that the return date may be fictional and the ride will be bulldozed in favor of a STAR WARS expansion. There’s definitely some plausibility to this, but I hope it proves untrue. Finding Nemo Submarine Voyage may not be the ideal version of the attraction, but having the subs operational in any capacity is a huge plus for the park. It’d be tragic to see them go away forever again.
This was my first time ever topping out the score screen on Astro Blasters. My picture didn’t come though at the end, though, so I’m unsure of my final score.
And now, let’s hop over to California Adventure, a park that’s stunningly better in almost every area than it was five years ago.
Boo! Fortunately the PLANES characters have since been removed from the billboard. They’re still in the Soarin’ pre-show video, but I’m hoping that will be fixed soon as well.
The Little Mermaid ~ Ariel’s Undersea Adventure is about two-thirds of a great attraction. They botch the ending pretty severely, but there’s still a lot to like here.
Say what you will about CARS, but Imagineering did something pretty incredible with Cars Land.
A Bug’s Land. A pretty little section of the park that never-the-less should be replaced by something more significant.
Another first for me on this trip. I watched the Disneyland flag retreat ceremony for the first time. This is definitely one of those “hidden” gems of Disneyland, take time to check it out if you never have before.
Mickey and the Magical Map. This show is amicable – enjoyable, but with no aspirations of being memorable. Still, it’s great to see a stage show back in the Fantasyland Theater again. Hopefully we get something with more substance next time.
Now, to follow up with my earlier comment. The Marvel stuff in Innoventions is somewhat unsubstantial, yet it provides more reason to actually enter the building than there’s been since 1998. The prop displays are neat, and I’m sure a lot of people get a kick out of the meet and greets, but I’d really love to see what Disney could do with a proper Marvel attraction. I’m not sure Tomorrowland is necessarily the best place for it, but I’d much rather have a new Marvel attraction than watch it become Star Wars Land.
IRON MAN THREE’s Mark 42 armor.
Mark I (IRON MAN)
Mark II (IRON MAN)
Mark III (IRON MAN)
Mark IV (IRON MAN 2)
Mark V (IRON MAN 2)
Mark VI (IRON MAN 2)
Mark VII (MARVEL’S THE AVENGERS)
During the off season, Disneyland still shows Remember… Dreams Come True, their 50th Anniversary fireworks show. Albeit this is a significantly scaled down version of it. Still, it’s a pretty great show.
If I’m not mistaken, some of these projection effects are new (relatively).
While the Columbia is in dry dock, Fantasmic! is also dark. That means you get the somewhat rare opportunity to take a night cruise on the Mark Twain. If you’re anywhere nearby before February 14, I can’t recommend this enough.
Tower of Terror at DCA may not be nearly as good as its Disney’s Hollywood Studios counterpart, but it’s still a fun attraction.
:(
Alice is also going down soon, apparently to finally address the monstrosity of tarps and scaffolding that have engulfed its exterior. I’m not sure if the new OSHA approved track will ever be quite as good as the original version, but at least it should be better than having this mess as a perpetual eyesore.
Friday, January 24. This day happened to be the 20th anniversary of another one of my favorite attractions, Roger Rabbit’s Car Toon Spin.
As you can see here, Jack Skellington has made sure you won’t soon forget his Christmas night. He left a trail of brokenness through the Mansion. Hopefully they get some of these issues patched up soon.
You can’t really see it in this picture, but Space Mountain is filthy. Last year it was found that the exterior wasn’t up to code for fall protection, and as a result the maintenance staff hasn’t been able to clean it. As you can see, though, there’s some work going on around the top and bottom rims of the mountain. Hopefully they’ll be able to clean it soon.
Wednesday, January 29.
Weekdays in the off season are kind of incredible.
I keep hoping that one of these time the new Star Tours won’t disappoint me, but it does. Every time. The original attraction worked really well and had impeccable pacing. This version says “to hell with pacing” in favor of randomization and wall-to-wall, but ultimately empty fan service.
I’m not sure why I’ve never noticed this little droid next to Artoo before.
You can see the grossness of Space Mountain a little bit better here, though the backlighting isn’t doing it any favors.
Characters walking around and not getting mobbed by throngs of people. The off season really is great.
I have no intention of waiting in a 2+ hour line for an Anna and Elsa meet and greet, but I really love the Olaf animatronic here. FROZEN is another one that I really want to see a proper attraction for.
Friday, January 31. I wasn’t actually planning on visiting on this day, but I was persuaded by my friend Andy Castro (@21royalstreet). In California Adventure they had some special offerings to celebrate the Lunar New Year. I’m actually really glad I went. The event was sort of EPCOT-lite, but since we don’t have any kind of equivalent to EPCOT at Disneyland, these cultural celebrations are more than welcome.
That’s it for this time. Hope you enjoyed.
David Daut 