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!

Halloween at Disneyland - 1996 (or "Farewell to Tomorrowland")

Well, it's Halloween Time again at the Disneyland Resort! Last year I did a Vintage Disneyland Trip Report from 1995, the very first year that the park decorated for Halloween. Today, I have a few pics from the following year, but not really enough pics to warrant a full blown vintage trip report. So, how about a mini trip report to Disneyland in the Fall of 1996?

Once again, the Maleficent balloon that was originally used to promote Fantasmic in 1992 was resurrected in the fabulous Disneyland Parking Lot. The banner for "Mickey's Halloween Treat" is actually covering the original Fantasmic promo. Artist, blogger, and former DL employee Kevin Kidney coordinated the construction of this mega-Maleficent!

I wonder what happened to this inflatable? Is she being used somewhere to sell cars? (I know... Disney wouldn't allow that!)

This particular year, the floral portrait of Mickey had been reworked and given a "face mask". And look, the Kalamazoo Handcar is parked out in front of the train!

The flowers at the entrance to Tomorrowland were also changed to more of a Fall-ish color palette. (In today's Tomorrowland, the flowers have been replaced with brown concrete rocks.) Yay, the Rocket Jets are exactly where they should be in this picture! Notice the construction wall off in the distance. Work had already begun on converting the wonderful 1967 Carousel Theater building into.....well, nothing.


If we pan just a little to the left, we see that there was a special Hunchback of Notre Dame display set up just for Halloween. The Disney animated film had been released earlier that year. (For the previous Halloween, a Goofy topiary stood in one of the Tomorrowland planters.)

Note the crane on top of the Matterhorn in the photo below. In the nineties, the Matterhorn was undergoing a major renovation that took place every Winter over the course of several years. Actually....is it still shutting down every Winter for major refurbishment?

Hey, there's Phoebus signing an autograph for a fan!

He must have been heading for a break, since it looks like he's signing "on the run."

Coming Soon: A Very Brown Tomorrowland. This sign was located underneath the PeopleMover track at the entrance to Tomorrowland. It turned out to be a very cruel joke, however. The sign should have read "Tomorrowland - Lack of Imagination and Beyond! - The Future Ends Spring 1998" I know, not too clever but hey I'm a little bitter.....YOU DESTROYED MY FAVORITE LAND, DISNEY!!! Okay, I feel better and I'm over it....for right now, anyway.


That's it for the 1996 Halloween pics. The park's Halloween decor was not yet at the level that it is today. It would still be a couple more years before the Haunted Mansion would get it's first holiday overlay and another thirteen years until Space Mountain's "Ghost Galaxy."

DL Halloween Trip Report...From 1995!

Today, we'll be taking a look at Disneyland's Halloween decorations from 14 years ago. It's October of 1995, the very first year of "Mickey's Halloween Treat." As we approach the park, a huge inflatable Maleficent can be seen in the parking lot. This is the same inflatable that was used to promote Fantasmic in 1992. Check out this photo of the Maleficent balloon on Westcot 2000's blog.

Once inside the park, we are greeted in Town Square by Grandmother Willow from the film, "Pocahontas." This is the same spot where the Christmas tree is placed every year as well as the giant Mickey-shaped pumpkin and the recent "Celebrate" envelope and balloons.

If we stop and take a peak inside the Emporium, we'll see that the revolving centerpiece of Mickey, Goofy and Donald has been decorated with leaves and acorns for the Fall.

On a recent trip to Disney's California Adventure, I took the following photo but I didn't realize that I had seen these figures before until I was reviewing my photos for this post. It looks like they have repositioned Donald and changed the color scheme on Goofy, but they are obviously the same ones. They also decorated these figures for the Winter of 1995 and I will be posting a photo of that in the near future.

Moving a little further up Main St., we see that the Candy Palace has also been decorated for the season. Here's a vignette featuring the Wicked Witch. There is a jar of candy corn nearby, as well as a Jack O' Lantern filled with more yummy treats.

Now let's head on over to the patio area of the Plaza Inn Restaurant, where there is a giant pumpkin carving demonstration taking place. That pumpkin on the right weighs 516 pounds!

Upon leaving the patio area of the Plaza Inn, we get a nice view of the Fall flowers planted in the Tomorrowland entrance way. I could rant right now, but I've done enough of that in the past, so for today I'll just say, oh how I miss THIS version of Tomorrowland!

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Note the topiary of Goofy on the far right. He's wearing a mask and cape and from what I remember, he was holding a sword too.....sort of a la Zorro. Also note the absence of PeopleMover cars. I believe it had closed for good at this point, even though I have photos of it running just 3 months earlier. That year was kind of sketchy for the PeopleMover. Sometimes you would go to the park and it would be open and other times not.

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Unfortunately, the Halloween decorations stopped there back then. They did not decorate Frontierland and there was no Haunted Mansion Holiday yet. I have a set of photos from the following years' Halloween season (1996) and will try to get those posted before the 31st!