The TCD Gang Goes to Disneyland!

[alexwyattmommy 181]

Bless you.

[h2odivers...Ray 952]

Great updates.

Reading your TR makes me remember all the time I spent at DL as a youth.

It also makes me want to visit the other Disney Parks. I just wish the one in France, wasn't in France. Lol.

[Tri-Circle-D 2,059]

At least in Project Tomorrow you didn't have swiss cheese holes in your picture!

 

Disneyland just looks boring on the outside compared to WDW.

 

LOL. True.  At Disneyland, you get to take your own photo, and you can retake it if you don't like it.

 

I didn't find Disneyland to be boring on the outside at all.  But, it does feel very crowded and maybe a bit cluttered compared to the MK. 

 

I wish our Space allowed people to sit next to each other. Z would ride it then. He's not too sure about it right now. He does want to ride EE though. 

 

Z has never ridden the Speedway. That might make me a bad parent. 

 

Cracking up about the House of Tomorrow having the same floors as the comfort stations. 

 

If Z can ride EE, then Space Mountain will be a piece of cake for him.

 

I can't believe that Z has never been on the Speedway.  My kids ALWAYS wanted to go on the Speedway.  It's boring as heck for an adult, but a 4 or 5 year old thinks it's the coolest thing ever.

 

Yeah, how do you like that we have floors of the future in the Fort Wilderness Comfort Stations?

 

It is comforting for me to know that stall #2 will still exist in the future. 

 

Very true.

 

I see on this day you were representing for the Fort. Did anyone ask about your shirt.  If they did I hope you told them it's a bad place.  We don't need no long hair hippie type Cali people competing for resi's.

 

The pic of SM ride vehicles we RnR ish from the back.  

 

Good eye.  Yes, I was repping the Fort.  I thought I would get some questions about it, but no one asked.  The only conversation me wearing Fort gear started didn't come until we checked in at the Grand Californian.  One of the concierge CM's there was excited because she said she had always wanted to go to Fort Wilderness and stay in the Lodge.  Sigh.

 

Bottom line, I don't think I motivated any hippies to drive their VW vans east.

 

The Space Mountain vehicles do kind of look like RNRC cars from the photo I posted, but they are not connected.  You go out one car at a time.

 

Man i miss paper FPs....

Does the DL monorail have stops anywhere besides Tomorrowland?

 

Being able to use paper FP's at DL made me miss them too.  We were able to use way more than 3 per day, and, as we will get to later, I could use them to re-ride some of the rides we wanted to experience more than once. 

 

Carol correctly answered your question about the monorail below. Until we rode it later in the trip, I really didn't know where it went or what it did.

 

I believe DTD, and you have to have a ticket to board.

 

Correct, there are only two stops for the monorail.  One in Tomorrowland, and the other in Downtown Disney.  And, they have bag check and ticket scanners there.   I am not sure of the operating hours, but I imagine it doesn't operate when the park isn't open.

 

Big thunder! Can't wait to see what you thought.

 

We will get there soon. I take it from your question that you have seen the special effects they added to theirs.  We didn't know about them, and were blown away (pun intended).

 

It has got to be the Tom Hiddleston version of Loki.

 

 

 

I am guessing that's Tom Hiddleston?

 

 

Great updates.

Reading your TR makes me remember all the time I spent at DL as a youth.

It also makes me want to visit the other Disney Parks. I just wish the one in France, wasn't in France. Lol.

 

I would love to hear about your experiences at Disneyland as a youth.  A lot has changed since then.

 

We all came away with the same idea you mentioned- we would now like to see the other Disney Parks too.  If the twins can become seasonal CM's, they get free admission to all of those, except for the Tokyo ones.  What a deal!

 

TCD

[Tri-Circle-D 2,059]

Submarine ride... did WDW ever have one of those?

 

I had to answer this question with a separate post.

 

At first, I was going to tell you to turn in your Fiend card, but you've told us that you grew up on the west coast, so you never got to see Disney World in its original glory.

 

Heck yes, Disney World had a submarine ride.  It was called 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, and it was awesome.

 

It was one of the original rides, and took up a third of the space in Fantasyland.

 

The article Marty linked has some good basic information:

 

Yes.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/20,000_Leagues_Under_the_Sea:_Submarine_Voyage

 

But, if you really want to read all about the awesome submarine ride at WDW, check out this site:  http://www.20kride.com/home.html

 

The defunct ride is something that we have discussed on this board in the past.

 

There are currently two tributes to it hidden in Fantasyland at the MK.

 

The ride shut down in 1994, and the space it occupied was vacant and unused for about 10 years.  Then in 2005, they took out the lagoon, and put in a play area with a Winnie the Pooh theme.  There was a big fake tree in the play area, and the image of one of the old Nautilus subs was hidden over a doorway there:

 

 

When they got ready to build the new Mine Train ride, in 2010 or so, that fake tree was moved to the Winnie the Pooh ride queue, and the hidden Nautilus is still there.

 

Then, in the rocks built for the new Little Mermaid ride queue, there is another hidden Nautilus:

 

 

 

In addition to that, one of the old ride subs is sunken in the snorkeling lagoon at Castaway Cay.  There are some photos of that in this post in one of the TCD cruise trip reports:

 

http://www.fortfiends.net/forum/topic/10767-the-tcd-gang-sails-again-a-four-night-disney-dream-trip-report/page-11#entry294699

 

So, yes, WDW used to have a submarine ride.

 

TCD

[Tri-Circle-D 2,059]

It's still Friday morning, December 5th.  We did pretty good riding the rides in Fantasyland and Tomorrowland, and now we're heading to lunch. 

 

Before lunch, we got Big Thunder Mountain FP's.  That way, we'd have something to do right after.

 

We had made our lunch plans for today right after lunch yesterday.  One of the "must eat" recommendations Twin #1 got from her manager was were the Monte Cristo sandwiches available at either the Blue Bayou or Café Orleans restaurants.  We tried to get in to Café Orleans on Thursday, but they were only seating guests with reservations.  Twin #1 got on her phone, and found us a reservation for today.  There were quite a few times we had to choose from, actually.  And there were other restaurants available too.  Much more than we would have expected to find under similar circumstances at WDW.

 

As we walked toward New Orleans Square, we admired the Mark Twain riverboat, and I told the girls we would need to ride it some time today so we could see the sights in this area of the park:

 

 

The Mark Twain cast off as we went to get our Big Thunder FP's, and was steaming away:

 

 

This is the entrance for Pirates- but there was a line that snaked off to the right of this photo.  They don't offer FP's for Pirates, so I figured at some point we would be waiting in a long line to ride it:

 

 

Here we are back in New Orleans Square- it is remarkably like the real thing, minus the drunks,  bad smells and scary street performers:

 

 

We checked in and were issued a pager.  And, we sat on a bench and admired our surroundings.  These rooms are above the French Market restaurant- we could see people in them, but we don't know who they were or how they got up there.  Maybe this is part of Club 33?:

 

 

 

As we sat and waited, Jack and Sally walked by with no character handler.  That's how they do it in Disneyland, and people let them walk by without mobbing them:

 

 

We were seated quickly, and had a nice table outside:

 

 

We were beneath a big tree with giant holiday ornaments, and had a view of the Tom Sawyer Island and Big Thunder Mountain in the distance:

 

 

As we perused the menu, the table next to us got a basket of fries that looked really good.

 

These are listed as Pommes Frites on the menu, and are described as:  "Traditional French Fried Potatoes tossed with Parmesan, Garlic, and Parsley served with Cajun Spice Rémoulade."  That sounded good to us, so we started with an order:

 

 

They had a lot of interesting sounding food on the menu.  You can check it out for yourself here, if you like:  https://disneyland.disney.go.com/dining/disneyland/cafe-orleans/menus/

 

The girls both wanted the Monte Cristo.  I briefly considered ordering something different so we could try something else on the menu, but the Monte Cristo really sounded good, so we all ordered that.

 

Here's what our sandwiches looked like:

 

 

I have to tell you that was a mighty fine lunch.  I ate all of mine, but the girls couldn't finish theirs. We had to box up some leftovers, which I planned to have for a Scooby Snack later.

 

The best part of the meal came when the check came and Twin #1 was able to use one of the 40% off coupons they give to CM's at Christmas Time.

 

Bam:

 

 

That was still an expensive lunch, even with the discount, but this was the least expensive place we could get a Monte Cristo sandwich, and I'm glad we did.

 

The original plan was for us to head to Big Thunder after lunch, but we had time left before our return window opened, and I wanted to grab an Indiana Jones FP as soon as we were eligible to do that.  So, we headed over to Adventureland.

 

The Tarzan Tree House was open today.  It wasn't open on Thursday, and we didn't know if it would be open for long today, so we started climbing:

 

 

At some point, this was the Swiss Family Robinson Treehouse, just like we have at WDW, but a few years ago, they converted the Disneyland one into Tarzan's Treehouse.  I don't approve, but we still had to see it for ourselves.

 

We got a good view of the building that serves as the entrance for Pirates:

 

 

Jane's diary tells us that we're visiting her place now:

 

 

I like the views from up here- from this spot I could see the Haunted Mansion, and Splash Mountain and the Columbia sailing ship:

 

 

Oh no.  It seems that we've been attacked by a plastic jaguar:

 

 

That plastic jaguar made quite a mess:

 

 

There's baby Tarzan's cradle:

 

 

Here's a good view of Big Thunder mountain:

 

 

We next saw baby Tarzan and his surrogate mother. It looked like some kind of special effect was supposed to happen with that mirror, but it didn't seem to be working:

 

 

 

This seems to be pretty much the same set-up as we have at WDW:

 

 

This room featured an animated sketch:

 

 

And a plastic Tarzan:

 

 

More Treehouse:

 

 

Some of us were happy when the stairs started to lead downward:

 

 

This is Jane's lab:

 

 

We found a familiar looking teapot near the end of the walk-through.  The twins said this appears in the movie. I didn't remember that, but I'm sure they're right:

 

 

Next up, we grab those Indy FP's and head over to Big Thunder, where things did not go exactly as planned.

 

TCD

[GaDawgFan.....Kelly 799]

Ouch, those sandwiches were expensive, but they sure look good! 

[Momof6....aka Marty 769]

It has got to be the Tom Hiddleston version of Loki.

I hear that!

 

Thank you!  Even a frustrated Loki can make the day a little bit better.

[Momof6....aka Marty 769]

 

 

 

 

The guy just right of center seems to be wearing a rain jacket.  Was it raining, or is he just a hippie?

[twiceblessed....nacole 433]

I had to answer this question with a separate post.

 

At first, I was going to tell you to turn in your Fiend card, but you've told us that you grew up on the west coast, so you never got to see Disney World in its original glory.

 

Heck yes, Disney World had a submarine ride.  It was called 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, and it was awesome.

 

It was one of the original rides, and took up a third of the space in Fantasyland.

 

The article Marty linked has some good basic information:

 

 

But, if you really want to read all about the awesome submarine ride at WDW, check out this site:  http://www.20kride.com/home.html

 

The defunct ride is something that we have discussed on this board in the past.

 

There are currently two tributes to it hidden in Fantasyland at the MK.

 

The ride shut down in 1994, and the space it occupied was vacant and unused for about 10 years.  Then in 2005, they took out the lagoon, and put in a play area with a Winnie the Pooh theme.  There was a big fake tree in the play area, and the image of one of the old Nautilus subs was hidden over a doorway there:

 

 

When they got ready to build the new Mine Train ride, in 2010 or so, that fake tree was moved to the Winnie the Pooh ride queue, and the hidden Nautilus is still there.

 

Then, in the rocks built for the new Little Mermaid ride queue, there is another hidden Nautilus:

 

 

 

In addition to that, one of the old ride subs is sunken in the snorkeling lagoon at Castaway Cay.  There are some photos of that in this post in one of the TCD cruise trip reports:

 

http://www.fortfiends.net/forum/topic/10767-the-tcd-gang-sails-again-a-four-night-disney-dream-trip-report/page-11#entry294699

 

So, yes, WDW used to have a submarine ride.

 

TCD

 

Yes.. sorry, maybe I should turn in my Fiend card    I should have know all of this....thanks for the info though :)  I'm going to pay extra close attention, on our next visit, to the areas you outlined and see if I can recognize the tributes!   I actually think the Pooh Ride is super cute (more so the queue actually, the dream portion at the carnival is it? is a bit odd to me) however.... I still wish they had made room for both.  Loved the submarine ride at Disney and I'm guessing my kids would get a kick out of it, if it was still at WDW.

[CCIntrigue...aka Gwen 547]

Ouch, those sandwiches were expensive, but they sure look good! 

 

They were expensive, but the looked like they could have fed two or three people!  Huge!

[Heidi-meetsTCD@TSM 5]

TCD,

I am sure when you see this it will be too late, but for anyone else that is interested that show about Guy F at Disneyland is on right now (6:00) on the food network. It was originally taped in 2009 and is about the various foods/snacks at DL as well as the Holiday decorations etc.

Heidi

[Heidi-meetsTCD@TSM 5]

TCD,

 

All caught up! We also thought that DL's Small World was so much better than WDW. We were there in August both times, so didn't see the holiday overlay, but we did really enjoy all of the various Disney characters scattered throughout the ride. It gives an otherwise boring ride (for us anyway!) something fun to look for!

 

We all loved Space Mountain, but prefer the WDW version. My boys however, loved the music playing throughout the DL version. I would prefer no music blaring in my ears, but to each their own!

 

Overall, I don't care for "driving car" rides at any theme park. I was so happy when my boys outgrew the one at WDW and every other theme park we have visited. But I did like the DL Autopia ride! I especially liked the off road feature!! I have to admit the first time on, I was looking at my video camera while my son was driving and was not really paying attention....suddenly it got very bumpy and when I looked up the paved road was gone......I am embarrassed to admit that I actually said, "oh my goodness, what happened, get back on the road Cameron"!!! Now as soon as all of that popped out of my mouth, I quickly came to my senses and realized it was part of the ride. Much to the delight of my family, my saying that is recorded forever on the video camera. Whenever it is brought up I hear, "Mom, how could you think that?? There is a piece of metal on the road, its not like Cameron could have taken a wrong turn"!!!! I always hang my head in shame and I too wonder what I was thinking!!!!

 

We all LOVE the DL Buzz ride and being able to take the gun into your hand to shoot. Also love how the target lights up so you can actually tell if you hit it.

 

Probably a tie for us between the Swiss Family Tree House and the Tarzan one, but I do remember there were quite a few neat effects in the Tarzan one. The only one I can remember at the moment was hearing baby Tarzan crying in his crib, but I know there were more!

 

Looking forward to the next update!

[LONE-STAR 370]

To me the tree should be Swiss but my kid would have no clue what it was but Tarzan she likes so I guess that's better.

[h2odivers...Ray 952]

Just a few comments.

First of all great pic and update.

Monte Cristobalite sandwich = heart attack on a plate. I'm not a fan. Too sweet for my taste and I worked at a restaurant that served them and they were very popular and I probably got tired of seeing them. Lol.

Several years a ago there was a porthole window from one of the 20k subs for sale on ebay. I made my max bid with less than 24 hrs to go. I was working so I couldn't track it but the thing sold for $1,200. And no I didn't win it.

The pic you showed of the door to Club 33 is actually the old entrance. great job finding it. Not to many people even know about it. The original door is not used anymore. So I think when y'all were sitting and looking up at the people upstairs you were looking into Club 33. Here's a pic from my DL TR that shows the new entrance. It's to the right of the old door, as your facing the door, back towards the HM.

New entrance.

[Tri-Circle-D 2,059]

Ouch, those sandwiches were expensive, but they sure look good! 

 

You are right on both counts.  That isn't something that I would eat regularly, but it was fun to try once.

 

Thank you!  Even a frustrated Loki can make the day a little bit better.

 

I'll take your word for it.  I didn't know Loki was so popular.

 

The guy just right of center seems to be wearing a rain jacket.  Was it raining, or is he just a hippie?

 

Good question.  That's not a raincoat, because it wasn't raining,  I think that's what is known as a Sk8r Boi.  I would treat him as I would a hippie, just to be on the safe side.

 

Yes.. sorry, maybe I should turn in my Fiend card    I should have know all of this....thanks for the info though :)  I'm going to pay extra close attention, on our next visit, to the areas you outlined and see if I can recognize the tributes!   I actually think the Pooh Ride is super cute (more so the queue actually, the dream portion at the carnival is it? is a bit odd to me) however.... I still wish they had made room for both.  Loved the submarine ride at Disney and I'm guessing my kids would get a kick out of it, if it was still at WDW.

 

I hope that you can impress the family by pointing out these hidden Nautilus subs on your next visit to WDW.  Be prepared for disappointment, though, my kids make fun of me for pointing out things like this.

 

You are right about it being a shame that WDW found it necessary to get rid of the 20,000 Leagues ride. There's plenty of space that they could have used to add new things and still keep what was an original, classic attraction.  But, it was too expensive to maintain, so it had to go.  After all, it's all about the bottom line.

 

They were expensive, but the looked like they could have fed two or three people!  Huge!

 

That is true.  One sandwich would definitely have been plenty for the twins to split.

 

TCD,

I am sure when you see this it will be too late, but for anyone else that is interested that show about Guy F at Disneyland is on right now (6:00) on the food network. It was originally taped in 2009 and is about the various foods/snacks at DL as well as the Holiday decorations etc.

Heidi

 

Thank you for posting this!

 

I actually did catch part of the show last night- and it was the part showing Guy making candy canes while his son made the candy apples. 

 

That show made me sad though, because the MK Main Street no longer has a Bakery.  Yes, there's still a building there with a Bakery sign hanging outside, but it's a Starbucks on the inside now, and nothing gets baked in there.

 

TCD,

 

All caught up! We also thought that DL's Small World was so much better than WDW. We were there in August both times, so didn't see the holiday overlay, but we did really enjoy all of the various Disney characters scattered throughout the ride. It gives an otherwise boring ride (for us anyway!) something fun to look for!

 

We all loved Space Mountain, but prefer the WDW version. My boys however, loved the music playing throughout the DL version. I would prefer no music blaring in my ears, but to each their own!

 

Overall, I don't care for "driving car" rides at any theme park. I was so happy when my boys outgrew the one at WDW and every other theme park we have visited. But I did like the DL Autopia ride! I especially liked the off road feature!! I have to admit the first time on, I was looking at my video camera while my son was driving and was not really paying attention....suddenly it got very bumpy and when I looked up the paved road was gone......I am embarrassed to admit that I actually said, "oh my goodness, what happened, get back on the road Cameron"!!! Now as soon as all of that popped out of my mouth, I quickly came to my senses and realized it was part of the ride. Much to the delight of my family, my saying that is recorded forever on the video camera. Whenever it is brought up I hear, "Mom, how could you think that?? There is a piece of metal on the road, its not like Cameron could have taken a wrong turn"!!!! I always hang my head in shame and I too wonder what I was thinking!!!!

 

We all LOVE the DL Buzz ride and being able to take the gun into your hand to shoot. Also love how the target lights up so you can actually tell if you hit it.

 

Probably a tie for us between the Swiss Family Tree House and the Tarzan one, but I do remember there were quite a few neat effects in the Tarzan one. The only one I can remember at the moment was hearing baby Tarzan crying in his crib, but I know there were more!

 

Looking forward to the next update!

 

Wow, I agree with everything you said!

 

That's a great story about you thinking your son drove off the Autopia track.

 

I didn't hear baby Tarzan crying from his cradle. Maybe I missed it, or, more likely, there were things not working correctly.  As I mentioned, it was apparent that the mirror in the scene with Tarzan and his gorilla mom was supposed to do something, but it didn't.

 

To me the tree should be Swiss but my kid would have no clue what it was but Tarzan she likes so I guess that's better.

 

Good point.  I think I've mentioned before the Swiss Family Robinson is one of Mrs. TCD's favorite movies, so the TCD girls have all watched it.  But, the Swiss Family Robinson Treehouse is one of the attractions where Twin #1 works at the MK, and when she was in training, she was the only one in her entire training class who had seen the movie.  It's pretty sad that the CM's who work the Treehouse at the MK know nothing about what's on display.

 

Just a few comments.

First of all great pic and update.

Monte Cristobalite sandwich = heart attack on a plate. I'm not a fan. Too sweet for my taste and I worked at a restaurant that served them and they were very popular and I probably got tired of seeing them. Lol.

Several years a ago there was a porthole window from one of the 20k subs for sale on ebay. I made my max bid with less than 24 hrs to go. I was working so I couldn't track it but the thing sold for $1,200. And no I didn't win it.

The pic you showed of the door to Club 33 is actually the old entrance. great job finding it. Not to many people even know about it. The original door is not used anymore. So I think when y'all were sitting and looking up at the people upstairs you were looking into Club 33. Here's a pic from my DL TR that shows the new entrance. It's to the right of the old door, as your facing the door, back towards the HM.

New entrance.

 

I did like the Monte Cristo sandwich, but it's not something I would want to eat very often.  I can only recall ever having one once before this.  At a restaurant called Bennigan's.  That's not where you worked, is it?

 

$1200 for one porthole?  Thanks for that info.  I think the sub at Castaway Cay still has its porthole windows.  I need to book a DCL cruise and pack a crowbar!

 

Hey- I saw that door, and I even have a photo of it, but I didn't post it because I wasn't sure it was anything important:

 

 

Do you know much about that club?  I've read all kinds of stories about how much it costs to be a member.  I wonder why the don't put one in the MK?, from what I've seen, there's plenty of rich folks around who would pay for that.

 

TCD

[Katman1356...Jason 1,140]

Current cost in an article I just saw was $11,000 a year and there is a waiting list

[Tri-Circle-D 2,059]

Current cost in an article I just saw was $11,000 a year and there is a waiting list

 

That is mind boggling to me.  But, it does come with a lot of perks like park passes and such.  I could see a big company paying for a membership to entertain and impress clients. but I can't imagine regular people shelling out that kind of dough for a club that has a lot of restrictions, and very pricy food.  There are country clubs and yacht clubs around where I live that have much nicer amenities and are less expensive than that to belong to. 

 

TCD

[Tri-Circle-D 2,059]

And we're back . . .

 

It's Friday afternoon, and we've just descended Tarzan's Treehouse.  We have FP's for later for the Indiana Jones ride, and we're now heading to cash in our Big Thunder FP's.

 

On the way to Big Thunder, we stopped to look at something that we saw other guests admiring when we walked past this area earlier:

 

 

 

This plaque explains what we're looking at:

 

 

That's cool- it's a real petrified tree.  And Mrs. Disney gave it to Disneyland in 1967.  Which was after Walt's death.  I wonder what the story is there-how did she become the owner of a piece of a petrified tree, and why did she give it to Disneyland?

 

Here's a photo of our Big Thunder FP's.  I took it to show how brilliant I was with our FP planning.  I had picked these up on our way to lunch- you can read the issue time in the bottom right corner- 12:42 pm, and we had eaten lunch, and then picked up Indiana Jones FP's after that, before returning here toward the end of our return window to ride.  It was 2:21 pm when I snapped this photo:

 

 

Well, my beautiful plan soon ran into a snag.  Big Thunder was down when we arrived there just in time to use our FP's:

 

 

I hate to complain, but this had already happened to us at Peter Pan, Mr. Toad and Space Mountain.  And, I didn't mention it, but Alice in Wonderland was down when we got in the queue earlier.  The CM working there told us that they were about to resume the ride, and we only had to wait a few minutes, but it had been down before that.  That's an awful lot of down attractions.  I'm not sure if that's how things go at Disneyland, but that's how it was for us.

 

A down ride is not the end of the world.  The CM's were all acting like it would be back up at any moment, so we decided to go and see something nearby that we planned to see anyway: Big Thunder Ranch.

 

This side of the park is not as congested as the Tomorrowland side.  There's a nice path and a wooded view along it.  This cave obviously is there for a reason, but I don't know what it is: 

 

 

That's not on Tom Sawyer Island.  That's a wooded area off to the side of Big Thunder Mountain.  I don't know what a cave is doing there.

 

We walked past a smoking area here.  Here's one of those classic unnecessary California warning signs.  And there's always interesting people watching in the smoking section- those two hippies there in the back look like they're up to no good.  Probably smoking funny cigarettes:

 

 

I am not sure what goes on in the Big Thunder Ranch area the rest of the year, but when we visited, they had something called the Jingle Jangle Jamboree going on:

 

 

Santa is meeting guests in that area over there:

 

 

They had a large seating area set up where guests could work on crafts- they could color things and there were also cookie decorating kits for sale:

 

 

And there weren't too many empty seats available:

 

 

This was where you could pick up paper ornaments and coloring sheets to color.  They had a box that people could put their completed projects in to donate to the troops:

 

 

There were Disney characters dressed in holiday costumes wandering around the Jingle Jangle Jamboree with no organized meet and greet lines.  Guests could just walk right up for a hug:

 

 

This looked like a fun area, and we were thinking about grabbing some of the crafts and a seat and joining in, but we heard the cars on Big Thunder Mountain moving around the track, and we headed that way to see if the ride was back up.

 

And it was.

 

The outside part of this ride is similar to the one in the MK:

 

 

But, there is no inside part of the queue.  The queue winds around outside and uncovered.  They have the same dinosaur bones on their ride as we have at the MK:

 

 

I was glad that we had FP's, as the standby line was already rather long:

 

 

The ride vehicles here seem to be the same as what we have at the MK, but the loading area is outside:

 

 

Big Thunder selfie. That guy in the back missed a perfect opportunity to photo bomb:

 

 

I had heard that there were some new effects added to the Disneyland Big Thunder, but hadn't really paid attention to what they were.

 

Well, they have some really cool special effects on their ride that we don't.  There's all kinds of references throughout the ride to dynamite and blasting.  There's a part where you pass a mountain goat and he has a stick of dynamite in his mouth.  When you enter the tunnel where the train climbs-where we used to have falling rocks in the MK- there are sparks and fuses that appear to be lit.  As the train ascends the hill in that tunnel, there is suddenly a huge simulated explosion with smoke and lights which is very cool and very well executed.  We don't have any of that.  But, we do have that guy floating in the bathtub, which, as far as I could see, they don't have here.  It as at this point of our trip that I had one big question:

 

Why?

 

Why does Disneyland get the cool overlays for their Haunted Mansion and Small World rides?  Why does Disneyland still have Mr. Toad?  Why does Disneyland still have their subs?  And music in their Space Mountain?  And interactive targets in their Buzz ride? Why is their Indiana Jones ride so much better than Dinosaur?  Why do they still have a Bakery where actual baking happens?  And now we saw these really cool special effects in their Big Thunder ride?  (and, please note, we haven't even seen Cars Land yet).

 

Why can't we have nice things like this in Disney World?

 

I'll tell you why- the guys in charge of Disney World just spent 2 Billion Dollars on plastic wristbands that don't work.

 

That $2 Billion could have brought us all the cool stuff they have at Disneyland ,and more.  But, instead we get FP+ and MagicBands.

 

Yay us.

 

Maybe it would have been better if I hadn't seen all of this.

 

Let's just move on.

 

It looks like fall was finally hitting So Cal:

 

 

I mentioned earlier that I was a little disappointed in the people watching here at Disneyland.  But, there were a few interesting people around.  Like this guy, who had a big vest full of pins and a hat to match:

 

 

You need to take a closer look at that guy to appreciate him:

 

 

That's a lot of pins.  As a bonus we also got Go Pro guy and a Real Housewife taking a very important call in that shot.  That's all pretty good, but this photo could have been taken at Disney World. These So Cal folks were not anywhere as interesting as I had been lead to believe.

 

After Big Thunder, it was time to cross another attraction off of our list.  The Mark Twain Riverboat.  Our view from the top deck:

 

 

This is an area on Tom Sawyer Island:

 

 

Over there is the viewing area for Fantasmic.  It was 3:07 pm, and it looked like there were already people staking out places to watch the show which was hours away:

 

 

Mark Twain Riverboat selfie:

 

 

Yup. People definitely were staking out spots for Fantasmic:

 

 

This is the stage area they use for Fantasmic- it looks like visitors to the island can walk on it and take a look around.  I wanted to do that:

 

 

That is one very realistic looking bird on that barrel.  (because it is a real bird).  I am not sure what the floating barrels were for:

 

 

I wanted to get a photo of me with the Columbia, and Twin #2 joined in:

 

 

I was curious about the Columbia.  I remember seeing a recording of the broadcast from when Disneyland first opened, and I remember that the ship was there then. I didn't realize that it was still here, and we saw on our park map that they sometimes will offer guests rides aboard it.  It wasn't operating today, and I wasn't sure at the time how often, if ever, it gets used.  I'll have some move information about the Columbia coming up just a bit later in this report.

 

Here's another look at the stage area for Fantasmic on Tom Sawyer island.  This was intriguing to all of us. We didn't know that Fantasmic was performed right in the park and didn't have its own show area.  We all agreed that we needed to see it while we were here, and we decided that tonight should be the night:

 

 

We are just getting started on our lap around Tom Sawyer island, but we will have to stop here and finish the ride in the next update, as we are at the photo limit for this one.

 

TCD

[GaDawgFan.....Kelly 799]

That pin guy is special for sure.

 

I think you are getting better at selfies. Have your girls given you lessons? 

[CCIntrigue...aka Gwen 547]

I was aware of some differences between DL and WDW, but you're pointing out so many more!

 

http://www.disneyfoodblog.com/2014/07/19/first-look-and-photo-review-the-new-club-33-in-disneyland/ has some interesting info on Club 33, including the new pricing structures.  They have several articles about it.

 

Hope you got some great pictures of Fantasmic!  I'm wondering if it was different too.

[h2odivers...Ray 952]

Current cost in an article I just saw was $11,000 a year and there is a waiting list

I heard $10,000.00/ year but I'm not going to debate over such a small amount of money. Lol.

I also heard they sell booze in there. And that was confirmed by the two guys walking out in my pic.

And there is a long waiting list to become. a member.

Also we have a club at the MK. We just don't want the trailer park people from the Fort to know about it. Lol

[LONE-STAR 370]

Current cost in an article I just saw was $11,000 a year and there is a waiting list

That's crazy I'm not sure what they could give me to make that worth it.

[Beckers 1,136]

Current cost in an article I just saw was $11,000 a year and there is a waiting list

Chip and co posted an article it's going up to $12,000 and their perks are getting scaled way back. Would love to know what these people do for a living who can afford this.

[Beckers 1,136]

I agree your selfies are much improved!!!

Please no updates on Friday, I have a lot to do to prep for Elizabeth's birthday and our Christmas party Saturday. I can't be distracted by this :)

[h2odivers...Ray 952]

I was aware of some differences between DL and WDW, but you're pointing out so many more!

http://www.disneyfoodblog.com/2014/07/19/first-look-and-photo-review-the-new-club-33-in-disneyland/ has some interesting info on Club 33, including the new pricing structures. They have several articles about it.

Hope you got some great pictures of Fantasmic! I'm wondering if it was different too.

Great article.

Thanks for sharing.

One thing that confused me is the written on the bottom of the menu.

It says when member is present party enjoys a 20% discount.

Thy as strange to me. How do they get in there if the members not present?