Happy Monday from sunny Southern California – though for a lot of folks in Glendale, the skies might be looking pretty gray. The layoffs that follow any Disney Theme Park opening seem to have been especially brutal this time, and while veterans like Joe Rohde and Tom Fitzgerald are still in the building, and some other veterans have been – and some of these, to their amazement – spared, it’s been a heartbreaking weekend for a lot of people who have been personally responsible for bringing millions of people Disney Magic. We’ve seen it before and we’ll see it again and I never thought I’d see this chain of events unfolding the precise way this chain of events appears to me, an outsider, to be unfolding, almost identically to the way it did before, with disastrous long-term results for short-term gains. Then I was loud and angry. Now, I’m just sad, sad down to the very marrow of my bones. But I’ve seen things get better before and I know that even though the bad people are louder, there are so many more good people out there, so I don’t lose hope.
Here’s a suggestion. Hit play on the BRAND NEW MiceChat Podcast from Doug and Dusty below and listen to the fellows while you enjoy the photos below. It will help add a bit more context to some of what you are seeing, especially the photos of the Tower of Terror:
International Politics at the Crosswalks
It’s a big tourism week for Chinese people this week in Anaheim, and a protest group decided to take advantage of it this week to try to get their voices heard by the Chinese government.
| Disneyland |
The crowds at Disneyland were heavy on Saturday but more than manageable on Sunday, with long lines to get through bag check AND metal detectors both evenings as we left due, it looked, to the upcoming demise of Disney’s three popular nighttime spectaculars, Paint the Night, World of Color – Celebrate! and Disneyland Forever. Plan accordingly, and if possible, take advantage of the special dining or dessert packages to make sure your last viewing is a special experience.
There is one new attraction on Main Street, U.S.A. – a live musical one! If you look between the corner and first banners, you’ll see a dark circle that is usually a semicircle. That’s because there’s a noisy little nest full of cheeping baby birds cheering up the entrance to the restaurant. They’re big enough to peer over the edge now, so I think they’ll be flying off on their own in a few weeks…but they do make sweet music.
Star Wars Land Construction Continues
There’s a little more upward construction, but still, it’s mostly dirt. I don’t like dirt. It’s coarse and rough and irritating and it gets everywhere. Fourteen acres of everywhere. People do wonder where we MiceChatters got our rampant curiosity about upcoming projects.
Tom Sawyer Island
There is a TON of work going on, so here is a ton of photos.
Familiar Faces at The Hungry Bear
Gomer, Liver Lips and Wendell are back, in the form of Marc Davis’ original concept art on some of the walls at The Hungry Bear Restaurant. It’s nice to see their furry faces, even in this limited way.
Horticulture: The Plants Tell the Story
Morgan “Bill” Evans and his brother Jack famously invented theme park horticulture, starting with putting fancy Latin name tags on weeds in Storybook Land. Their crowning achievement is the floral Mickey that greets guests at the entrance of Disneyland every day. Bill also invented a machine that moved and created entire berms! Next time you’re at Disneyland, take a moment to look at the nearest garden. It’s probably themed to match the area, and maybe even the time period, you happen to be visiting at the moment. For example:
Tomorrowland starts out with edible plants – not palatable – DON’T EAT THEM! – and moves onward toward Star Tours in a funky, spacy type of succulents. Toward the lagoon, they became more creative with those succulents, going for an undersea/coral/seaweed feel:
Rockwork plays an important part, too. BIG rockwork in this case, from the Great Barrier Reef to the Swiss Alps in about three seconds. No, literally, three seconds, I took these from the Monorail.
Princesses get roses, of course.
But when you get to Rancho del Zocalo, things go really crazy. The floral fantasy of Fantasyland collides with the rugged succulents and cacti of the Southwestern desert and the result is really spectacular, and it has spread to eat up the lion’s share of Frontierland at this point.
The more arid areas of Frontierland are limited to a few flowerbeds.
This leads into a few different parts of the deeper American South:
New Orleans, of course, with the untamed flower gardens and the nautical monuments:
To the Deep South:
To even a place that doesn’t really exist – take note of the plant life around the characters’ houses here, and note how it differs from the European and Middle Eastern influences in the horticulture around Storybook Land. This is a wilder look for the American version of Winnie the Pooh, and even the architecture reflects that.
Another interesting thing you’ll see is plant life growing ON things, IN things, over and under things. In this case, it’s growing on Splash Mountain. In the queue line for Winnie the Pooh, there are actually smaller versions of those cliffs above, plantings and all, even though they were created a decade afterward, because they wanted the plants to tell the story, that this was part of Critter Country, not something new that had been tacked on.
Near the entrance to Critter Country stands a store called The Briar Patch, themed to Br’er Rabbit’s home. The entire roof is sodded, after a common American Pioneer practice. This store is actually made of real logs and has been there since the Indian Village days.
| Disney California Adventure |
Frozen:Live at the Hyperion continues to pack them in, so make sure to get your Fastpasses early – trying for Standby will NOT guarantee you a seat – and if you and your family feel like dancin’ the night away to a DJ and don’t want to be anywhere near crowds of any kind, Jammin’ on the Backlot is most definitely up your alley (because there aren’t any crowds there). Better yet, if you or your loved ones absolutely must experience Frozen, do one of the packages.
We didn’t look inside much, to be honest, we had bigger Starlords to fry – but – oh, look, it’s Tik Tok!
“Are You Inspired?” – A Fun PhotoPass Hack
Ok, so this is really more of a little known tip than a true “Hack,” but that’s what the kids call it these days. So here’s the phrase you need to know, “Are you inspired?” That is what you can ask any PhotoPass photographer you see lurking around any particularly photogenic Disneyland or DCA area, like Main Street, U.S.A. Railroad Station or Cars Land’s Pacific Wharf entrance. If they’re not — if they’re a normal PhotoPass photographer, they’ll be able to direct you to an “Inspired PhotoPass photographer,” who can go beyond the normal photo op to create a special private photo shoot for you in unique locations. If you’ve got one of the new “Signature” level passses, it’s included!
No makeup? Check. Casual clothes? Very. Tired-looking? You bet. Interesting thing for Update? Let’s do it!
“So, how do we start?” I asked.
She led me up to the train. “First, we’re going to re-enact Walt waving out of the train car….”
“Oh, I LIKE you.” I said.
So when we got to DCA (see, that’s why it’s here), we ran into an “Inspired” photographer and he said he only had a fish-eye lens that he had just gotten that day, and was learning to use it. Fun. Let’s play!
You tell the photographer if you like or don’t like (like the sun in my eyes in this photo) something and they adjust to what you want.
Then you go to the camera store or to your Disneyland app, download the photos, and they are yours to keep. One of the perks of the pricer Annual Passes.
Here’s Tower of Guardians something, something.
Getting Ready for a World of Color
Screamin’ Stopped for a Purse
There’s a reason why guests are told to make sure that everything is held or fastened close to their body. It’s so those things don’t fly off and create a safety hazard. Guests having trouble being able to understand this simple rule leads to the shelves and lockers that many, if not most, theme parks have at the boarding area of their thrill rides now.
So, what happens when some careless lady’s purse falls out of a train and onto the tracks? I just happened to be in the park to find out.
Well, the ride comes to a halt and all the guests have to be evacuated.
And that means you can’t ride the attraction for hours.
So, what do the intrepid Cast Members do? They set up a ring toss game and get everyone playing, laughing and having fun!
Horticulture in DCA
In A Bug’s Land, the plants dwarf you, seeming to be giant, but the more modestly-sized ones were actually chosen because they really do attract helpful and pollinating insects, butterflies and bees.
What do I think of when I think of lush, green, theme park horticulture?
It’s a cornucopia!
| Downtown Disney |
Taste of Downtown Disney
CHOC’s Taste of Downtown Disney is this coming Thursday, August 11th. Downtown Disney, the hotels area and World of Color will be an absolutely crowded mess. You have been warned Tickets range from 75.00 to 5,000.00 and you can still get them by going to CHOC.com.
| Refurbishment Round Up |
Summer Refurbishments:
Disneyland
- Mark Twain Riverboat
- Sailing Ship Columbia
- Davy Crockett’s Explorer Canoes
- Fantasmic! Closed for Refurbishment
- Pirate’s Lair on Tom Sawyer Island
- Disneyland Railroad
Disney California Adventure
- King Triton’s Carousel
| Get Disneyland Wait Times with Mouseaddict |
Get Mouseaddict Here You can keep track of the wait times and even where in the park people are congregating by downloading the app (iPhone only at this time).
| Thank you ! | |
| All of us on the Disneyland Photo Update crew would like to thank you for joining us today. Each week we’ll feature different photographers and commentators (often more than one). Today’s MiceChat Disneyland Update was shot and assembled by Shelly Valladolid with additional photo contributions from Darth Daver, Roger Colton and Noe Valladolid. |
| Are you a member of the MiceChat Sunday Meet-up Facebook group? If you are interested in meeting up with fellow theme park lovers in the parks, please be sure to follow this group: MiceChat Sundays in the Park. And please follow the MiceChat Facebook Page for news and updates from the Disneyland Resort and beyond: |
That’s it for this week’s Update.Are you a photographer? Do you love the parks? Would you like to contribute to the Disneyland Update or other MiceChat columns? Contact Dusty Sage: [email protected]