Disneyland and Stuff

Well, I’m finally digging out from the semester and making some headway, which is more than I say for the both the market’s and the Disney Companies’ stock price after today… youch.

It looks like my 2008 will come to a close despite my best efforts with me, like most of you, being a guest at Disney Parks and not a Cast Member.  We had some pretty solid leads, an interview or two, but just too many moving parts in the end to put it all together this year.  Oh well, there is always next year. . . saying what Jim Hill has been hinting at in Florida doesn’t come true (only 35% occupancy in January???  Whoda thunk?)!!! 

Makes me think of this door in Disneyland’s way cool Toontown (much better than the one in Florida me thinks).

I promised I’d give a brief synopsis of my recent business trip to California that afforded me most of a day at Disneyland.  It was a Sunday the 16th, which was a night the park was scheduled to be open until Midnight.  We got there a little later in the afternoon than we planned, but we were still in the front gate by about 4 in the afternoon.

The crowds were very light (here is a pic of Main Street):

Due to that, we didn’t wait in line for much of anything… in fact, the longest wait we had was for the Nemo submarine ride which was about 20 minutes.  Space Mountain, Indy, The Haunted Mansion, were all less than 10-15 minutes. 

Besides the smaller rides in Fantasyland, we rode just about everything we wanted to save the Matterhorn and Peter Pan (why does this ride always have HUGE lines???).  Not open were Small World (missed it by a couple of days) and Roger Rabbit’s Cartoon Spin (which I missed not getting to ride if only for the queue!).

Fantasmic went off without a hitch (though I later heard they used a special lower level fireworks display) and the fireworks over the castle were cancelled due to fire concerns in the area.  We had a light amount of smoke in the air as you can see in the picture above, but it wasn’t so bad that it was all you could smell.

I have to say one of the stand out attractions was The Haunted Mansion Very Scary Christmas overlay.  I’d never seen it, so it was a real treat. 

I can tell you after seeing it I see why Imagineering and Operations consider it not logistically feasible in Florida. The overlay mods are so extensive in fact, that you’d be hard pressed to know it was ever a different ride… 

I won’t spoil all the details (I’m sure you can find them someplace else if you REALLY must know), but suffice it to say it really is well done. 

So there you have it, a short, condensed trip report from the left coast. 

Now if someone in Florida would just figure out how to make hot, fresh Churros like the ones in Disneyland I’d be set…