More New Stuff At Disneyland & My 300th Post!

Last week, I got a late night "itch" to go over to the Parks. My goal was to get there before DCA closed at 10:00 so that I could go on the Little Mermaid attraction again. Well, the traffic on the 5 freeway was not pretty! It got even worse as I got closer to the Parks because the fireworks were going off and everyone on the freeway was slowing down to watch them. SMART!

When I finally arrived at the parking structure, I was surprised to see that there weren't any cast members in the toll booths. I guess even Disney isn't going to charge people 15 dollars to park for just a few hours. I wonder what time they stop charging? Anyway, I was directed over to the Pinocchio lot which is located just south of the Mickey and Friends parking structure. I think I have only parked there once before and since I have taken pics of the signs on all the different levels of the Mickey and Friends structure, I thought I should take a picture of ol' Pinoke.

When you park in the Pinocchio section, you have to cross the tram right of way in order to board the trams. The caution sign below is posted at the edge of the Pinocchio lot. Speaking of trams, since the fireworks had ended by now and people were leaving the park in droves, many of the trams were dropping people off and then just heading straight back to get more people instead of picking up the few people that wanted to go TO the park. It makes sense, I guess. They just kept driving by us and a voice over the speakers would say, "there will be another tram along shortly...." So after finally boarding a tram, I realized that DCA was going to close before I could get to the gate. NUTS!



So I went into Disneyland and thought maybe I could go on the new Star Tours again. Well, it had a wait of 120 minutes, so I figured I would try again at the end of the night. While walking through New Orleans Square, I happened upon this casket-shaped "quarter press" machine. How long has this been here? I'm guessing not too long. I love the themeing!



Did that wall behind the machine used to be a doorway?



I kind of like the Haunted Mansion designs, but why do they have to stamp "Disneyland Resort" on them? Can't they just say "Disneyland"? Am I being too nitpicky?



Well the night goes by quickly when the park closes at 12:00 and you don't get there until 10:00, so at five minutes before park closing, I went back over to Star Tours and the wait was now posted at 60 minutes. I saw where the end of the line was and compared it to when I last rode it and figured it would probably be shorter. It ended up being only about a 30 minute wait. Upon exiting the attraction, I noticed a sign that I had not seen during my last visit. Maybe it wasn't there yet? Anyway, I'm posting a photo of it here since I wasn't able to include it in my "Star Tours Preview" post last month.



Disney's "exit through a souvenir shop" trick usually doesn't work on me, but this time I did make a purchase. The following scans are from a new souvenir postcard booklet. I have a few postcards from the eighties of the old "destination posters" that used to hang above the Star Tours exit ramp, but I need to go digging for those. I'll try to get those posted later.












So that was my short DL trip from last week. This week, I decided to make a quick stop by the Disneyland Hotel after work, because I had heard there was a new water feature that was unveiled in front of the Wonder/Frontier Tower. During my last visit to the Hotel, this area was still behind construction walls.







It isn't as spectacular as the old hotel waterfalls, but I guess it's better than just a patch of grass.

By the way....today is my 300th post!

New Stuff! - The Disneyland Hotel

In addition to getting a "Sneak Preview" of The Little Mermaid attraction and the new Star Tours on Friday, I was also able to check out the new "stuff" over at the Disneyland Hotel. We'll begin with the new Monorail-themed water slides. This is the area that was formerly occupied by the Seaports of the Pacific shops, The Lost Bar, and the remote control Jungle Cruise boats.





The former Shipyard Inn/Hook's Pointe building was spared from demolition and has been given a complete makeover. Due to ongoing construction work at the hotel, temporary signs have been posted to guide the way through all the construction walls.





This shot shows the entrance to the new bar, "Trader Sam's".



Here's a shot taken last year from almost the same angle. The ground around the building has been raised and now covers up the old Wine Cellar space that used to be located on the lower level. I was told that the space is now used as a pantry and storage for the new bar and restaurant.



Here's another current shot taken from a different angle....



...and another taken last year from roughly the same spot. That building on the right was the Croc's Bits and Bites food stand that was torn down. We'll see a "before" and "after" of that in a minute.



These doors can be found at the entrance of Trader Sam's. The beautiful carved wood sort of reminds me of the doors to The Enchanted Tiki Rooms at both Walt Disney World and Tokyo Disneyland.



The interior is rather small, but there is plenty of outdoor patio seating.



Does this view look familiar? I'm kicking myself for not staying in there longer or at least asking if there were any effects that take place outside the window. I didn't really think of it until later when a hotel employee told me to make sure to go back and order a specialty drink and see what happens. She seemed to be implying that the bartenders recite something or do something special, but when I got home and looked at my pics, I was wondering if maybe more happens. I guess I need to go back!



If you look upward, you can see a few familiar faces. There are two drum players from The Enchanted Tiki Room in the background, and Koro, "The Midnight Dancer" from the Enchanted Tiki Garden can also be seen. I don't know if they talk or do anything either.....again, it didn't really cross my mind until after I got home! Note the shirt being worn by the cast member.



Here's a close-up of that shirt. I love the print....tikis, hippos, Jungle Cruise boats, and there's even a groovy-looking bird. I want one of these shirts!



Now we'll continue around the building to the new restaurant, Tangaroa Terrace. Gee, I wonder where they got that name.....it's GRRRRRRRRRREAT!!!



Here's another shot taken last year from more or less the same vantage point.



A close-up of the new sign and the tikis on either side of the entrance.....





There's a patio, or should I say a "terrace" with seating to the left and right side of the entrance. The terrace area continues on around the building and connects with the outdoor seating for Trader Sam's. There's even an area for outdoor entertainment. As I was leaving, there was a man sitting on a stool playing the guitar. Now if they can just hire some hula girls and fire dancers! Oh, and I love that giant rubber tree in the middle of the terrace and it is a real tree.....no concrete Disneydendrons here!



Let's go inside and take a look at the new menu.



Once you know what you want, you place your order using these touch screens. A receipt is then printed out and you take it to a central register along with any additional items (chips, drinks, desserts, etc.) that you can pick up along the way.



The interior of the restaurant is also quite small (Trader Sam's was built in what used to be part of the Hook's Pointe dining room). There are some nice framed pieces hanging on the walls.









Here's a shot looking up above the entrance.



This is what the old Hook's Pointe interior looked like. I had taken photos of it and was even given a menu that I intended to post before it closed last summer, but I never got around to it!



Now we're back outside and looking at an outdoor fireplace that has been built in the spot formerly occupied by Croc's Bits and Bites.



Here is another shot from last year looking in the same direction.



Just to the right of this area would have been the path that used to lead to the old Hotel Waterfalls and Koi Ponds. Today, there is a path that leads to......a grassy lawn. Just as we had seen in the concept art, Disney took out the beautiful waterfalls and caves and replaced them with nothing!



If you look closely, you can see that at least three of the Jacaranda trees around the Koi ponds survived the demolition.



Here they are as they appeared last year. Also, if you look in the shot above, you can see that the Dancing Waters arena is still standing behind that construction wall, with only a small portion of the tall blue concrete wall having been removed.



I thought it was interesting the way that this construction wall had been built around a tree. Many of the construction walls at the hotel have vintage Disneyland attraction posters hanging on them. In addition to this Tiki Room poster, there are vintage posters for the Jungle Cruise, the PeopleMover, Tom's Sawyer Island and the Skyway.



Well that's it for today. This was my fourth post in four days! I haven't posted that frequently since the first three months of my blog! I'll probably be taking the next 3 or 4 days off from posting. If anyone is interested in checking out my Disneyland Hotel posts from last summer for further comparisons, you can click on the links below:

The Disneyland Hotel - Waterfalls and Caves

The Disneyland Hotel - Koi Ponds and Dancing Waters

The Disneyland Hotel - The Old Marina Buildings