The Cats of Disneyland & Knott's Berry Farm

Today is International Cat Day.  International Cat Day is a celebration which takes place every year, on August 8th.  It was created in 2002 by the International Fund for Animal Welfare.  (National Cat Day is celebrated every year on October 29th.)

Speaking of international, I took this cat's pic near Disneyland's It's A Small World attraction, back in 2009. Awww...sorry for the bright camera flash, kitty!

And I took this pic near California Adventure's Grizzly River Rapids, in 2015. This cat's name is officially (or I guess, unofficially), "Francisco."  Francisco is a very friendly cat and will sometimes come right up to guests, to be petted.

Knott's Berry Farm has it's own feline population.  These first two pics were taken just outside of the Western Trails Museum, in Ghost Town.

And this shy kitty cat was hiding in the bushes, near Ghost Town's Boot Hill Cemetery.

Even Japanese amusement parks have their own feline residents. I took this pic at Tokyo Dome City, in 2009.

Several years ago, there was an article in The Los Angeles Times, about Disneyland's feline population, and "Francisco" was actually named in the article. Knott's Berry Farm's cats got a brief mention, as well.

I have my own personal cat story, from when I used to work at Knott's Berry Farm.  Back then, the cats were rarely visible to guests or employees, during the day.  After the park closed, we would sometimes get a glimpse of one running out from under one building, over to another.  There weren't any feeding stations for the cats, and we were told that management only let them hang around, because they helped keep the rat population down.

One night, in December of 1988....the day after Christmas to be exact, it was late and the park was going to be closing in about an hour.  Suddenly, a black cat walked out into the middle of Ghost Town, and started crying out.  She came right up to a couple friends/coworkers of mine and even let them pick her up.  She was super skinny, to the point where you could see the outline of her rib cage.  We really believed that she was "crying out for help."

It was very cold and the temperature was supposed to drop below freezing that night, so my friends were going to secretly lock her inside of "The Original Berry Stand" overnight, and leave her with some chicken strips.  One of them was working early the next morning, so they would have been able to let her out without anyone else knowing she had been in there.

Well, it just so happened that our family cat had passed away, two months earlier.  She was 20 years old, and had been a part of the family since I was 4 years old.  At that time, we had made the decision not to run out and adopt another cat right away.  This cat, presenting herself the way that she did, sort of made me feel like it was happening for a reason.  So, I took her home with me.

I did wonder if security would stop me as I tried to leave the park with her, and say something like, "Hey, you can't take that cat......that's Knott's property!"  I really would not have been surprised if they did.  So, I put the cat inside of my employee jacket (while I was wearing it!), snapped it up to the top snap, and attempted to smuggle her out.

Surprisingly, she was completely comfortable (and probably warm) inside my jacket and she didn't even scratch me, or attempt to escape.  However, she did not like being completely hidden inside there, so she stuck her head out the top and kept craning it around so she could see where we were going.  I could not get her to duck down, even at that moment when we were walking past security.  I never made eye contact with the security guard, so I don't know if he saw her or not, but we made it to the car, and she made the journey home with me, where she proceeded to live out a nice, long, pampered life.

Here is a photo of her, taken not too long after she had been brought home and "fattened up" a bit.

And here's a pic of her about a year later, taking possession of a piece of notebook paper that had dropped onto the floor.

I hope everyone enjoyed my (long) cat story!  I'll end here, with a couple pics from when "Grumpy Cat" (R.I.P.!) visited Disneyland, back in 2013.

A very happy International Cat Day, to all the cat lovers out there!

The Disneyland Hotel: Part 2 - Koi Ponds & Dancing Waters

Today we're back at the Disneyland Hotel. This time we'll be taking a look at the area just west of the waterfalls. Here's that postcard again, courtesy of Don Ballard. The area circled in orange is the hotel's Koi Ponds and the area circled in yellow is the site of the former Dancing Waters arena.


We'll look at the Koi ponds first. In the photo below, we're standing between the Wonder Tower and the hotel waterfalls, looking towards the Koi ponds.


The kids in the center of the photo above, are looking into the tiled pool of water seen below. Gotta love that brown tile from the seventies! The water from that pool spills over into the lower pond. There is a gate that can be seen straight ahead which leads to a platform hanging out over the water. I'm assuming this was used for feeding the Koi?

We're a little further down the path now and there are Koi ponds on both sides of the walkway. The sunken waterfall area that we saw in my last post is straight ahead at the end of the path. Remember, all of this is going to be replaced with......as Chris Jepsen commented after that last post, NOTHING! It will actually be replaced with grass, but yeah.....NOTHING!

This is the view just to the left. That building in the background is another section of the old Seaports of the Pacific shops, which we'll take a look a closer look at in my next post.

Here's a view from the opposite end of the pond. That path to the right of the railing is off limits to guests. Again, I'm assuming this was used to feed the Koi.

The Jacaranda trees are in bloom again.....really they are! Hey, what's going to happen to all these trees? Oh wait, I forgot....they'll be replaced with grass. That sign on the railing reads, "Please Do Not Feed The Koi Fish Or Throw Any Objects Or Coins Into These Pools. Thank You."

And here they are up close and personal, the Koi fish. I was told by a hotel CM that they were all packed up a few weeks ago and taken to the Huntington Library in Pasadena. Well, not all of them. She said there were a few that were hiding and that still remain in the waters. I don't blame them. If this was my home, I'd want to stay behind too! I hope they won't be forgotten by the time the bulldozers come in.

Just next to the Koi ponds are the remnants of the old Dancing Waters Show. Although I never stayed at the Disneyland Hotel, I remember going over to the hotel many times in the evening to watch the water show. I really can't believe this all still exists. Those square panels that are being taken over with vine growth look like they might actually be the square fiber optic light panels used during the show....or maybe they're just what the panels were mounted to. Those light panels can be seen doing their thing (here) over at the blog, Westcot 2000, along with an article from a 1992 Disneyland Line about the conversion of the show from "Dancing Waters" to "Fantasy Waters." At this time, the show went from being manually run by two cast members to being completely automated.

Most of the water jets have been removed, but up until a couple years ago, a small fountain of water shot up continuously from this pool.

Here's another postcard courtesy of Don Ballard showing the Dancing Waters back in their heyday.

I'm ending the post today with this photo from a 2008 trip to Tokyo. This was a "dancing waters" show at Tokyo Dome City. The music that was used for this show included the theme from "Gone With The Wind" and music from "The Wizard of Oz."

Part 3 of this series focuses on the former Hotel Marina and it's shops and restaurants.....oh, and also the Hotel's Jungle Cruise-themed remote control boats! To view that post, Click Here.

Welcome to Parachute Land!

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Or is it one word....Parachuteland? It's shown each way on two different signs. This magical land can be found at Tokyo Dome City in Tokyo, Japan. Located next door to the Tokyo Dome sports arena, this amusement area was founded in 1955 and consists of three sections or "lands", Parachute Land, Tower Land, and LaQua.

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Parachute Land does indeed contain a parachute ride and it's called the Sky Flower. This attraction was made by Intamin AG, the same company that made Knott's Sky Jump tower, as well as several parachute towers for other amusement parks across the U.S.

Tokyo's Sky Flower

For a comparison, the photo below shows Knott's Berry Farm's Sky Jump tower, (This photo was borrowed and used with permission from the Vintage Disneyland Tickets blog. Click here: Vintage Disneyland Tickets to see fantastic trip reports of Disneyland, Knott's and Magic Mountain, in addition to great vintage park tickets, brochures, maps, guides and much more!)

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Knott's Sky Jump

Riding in these baskets gave me a major flashback to my childhood visits to Knott's. It also took me back to a time when I worked at the park. On the Sky Flower, you are taken up and dropped twice....just as in the old days at Knott's. (Knott's changed this at one point and only took guests up once.)

This is the view from the top during the day.

And this is the view looking down on the Tokyo Dome sports arena at night.

Parachute Land also has it's own "PeopleMover" attraction called the "Sky Trip," and it's just like Disneyland's used to be....except the vehicles are different colors...and the cars only hold two people....oh, and you have to power them yourself by peddling! Other than that, they are JUST like the old PeopleMover. The next photo shows a Sky Trip car leaving the station. That's a hotel rising up in the background. It kind of gives the park a "Disney's California Adventure" feel to it.....but not in a good way.

Here is a blue and a pink car going around the base of the parachute tower.

And here's another view of the vehicles looking straight down from the top of the Sky Flower. An orange Sky Trip car can be seen at about "eight o' clock" and a blue one can be seen at about "ten o' clock."

I hope everyone enjoyed this visit to Parachute Land! I will try to do a post on the other two "lands" of Tokyo Dome City in the future, but I probably won't be blogging for a little while now, because I am leaving in just a few days for Tokyo. On April 15th, Tokyo Disneyland will be celebrating it's 26th anniversary with the opening of their new Monsters Inc. Ride and Go Seek attraction. I hope to bring back lots of new photos to share!