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Disneyland/Disney World

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Discussion of Disneyland and Disney World took over a pretty big chunk of the most recent episode thread, so it was suggested to me that we have a dedicated thread on the topic.

I don't have anything specific to kick it off with, other than that I went to Disneyland recently for the first time in several years and it was really fun, and I've realized as an adult how much differently and more satisfyingly I can appreciate the value of these weird places than when I was a kid.

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I remember crying on the Dumbo ride and seeing Captain EO. I really didn't want to watch Captain EO. I also accidentally broke the 3D glasses in half for some god damn reason and my mom had to give me hers.

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I remember crying on the Dumbo ride

 

 

 

 

 

Chris: did you go on the Haunted Mansion? I've never been to any of the Disney parks, but I want to go someday (maybe on Gay Day?) and the Haunted Mansion is priority one.

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Haha, I forgot all about Babar. Thanks Tegan.

 

Does anyone remember some kind of glass elevator at Disney World where you rise up underwater and appear on a sidewalk on the surface? Was this just one of those childhood dreams I had where I conflated it with real life?

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My last visit to a Disney was many, many years ago.  The one thing I really remember was DisneyQuest.  It's basically a 5 story arcade.  Besides having a lot of classic arcade games, it also had some 3D rides/games, like one where you donned the old pre-oculus virtual reality headset and used a lightsaber like stick to fight monsters.  Another one I remember let you build your own virtual rollercoaster, then get into a booth with a seat on hydraulics and a big screen where you could ride your creation.  To a 12 year old kid, it was amazing.

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Haunted Mansion was changed to a Nightmare Before Christmas theme for the Halloween/Christmas holidays. It was fine - much better than the Space Mountain Halloween ride - but I'm told the original is still the best. Hopefully I get to see that one soon.

I mentioned in the episode thread that my mom was very anti-Disneyland/World when I was a kid. I was a little afraid that her reaction to me going as an adult would be less than positive. Instead, she told me about taking my older sister to Disneyland when they were living in California. I had no idea my mom had ever been to Disneyland. The whole experience was hilarious.

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Chris: did you go on the Haunted Mansion? I've never been to any of the Disney parks, but I want to go someday (maybe on Gay Day?) and the Haunted Mansion is priority one.

The Haunted Mansion is awesome, one of the great rides. Like Sarah said, when we went it was the holiday themed version, which I had never seen. It was better than I was expecting it to be, really. But it's tough to beat the 60s-detached-creepy-cool vibe of the original (as compared to the somewhat more in-your-face-90s-capital-c-Creepy-with-stripes mode that The Nightmare Before Christmas resides in).

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Does anyone remember some kind of glass elevator at Disney World where you rise up underwater and appear on a sidewalk on the surface? Was this just one of those childhood dreams I had where I conflated it with real life?

Hmm... this might be the "Hydrolators" at the Living Seas in EPCOT -- you would ride them "down" to take a ride through and then wander around an "underground sea base" and when you left, you'd then ride them back "up to the surface" (the Hydrolators were actually just mocked up to look like elevators and didn't go anywhere).  They got rid of them when they changed over to a Finding Nemo theme a couple of years ago.

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Hmm... this might be the "Hydrolators" at the Living Seas in EPCOT -- you would ride them "down" to take a ride through and then wander around an "underground sea base" and when you left, you'd then ride them back "up to the surface" (the Hydrolators were actually just mocked up to look like elevators and didn't go anywhere).  They got rid of them when they changed over to a Finding Nemo theme a couple of years ago.

That reminds me of the old submarine ride at Disneyland (currently not open) where, especially as a kid, it felt like you were going deep under the sea but in reality you aren't going anywhere.

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Thank you! That must be it! I had to watch a stupid video with Regis Philbin because a lot of pictures were not ringing any bells since I guess I've been to so many aquariums in life. It looked really dumb and nothing like I remember. I guess it's sort of the same concept like those caged in rides, but I think I have only ever been on the Reboot one in Moody Gardens and hated it. I was fully convinced it was real ocean water we were going through on the hydrolaters so I suppose it was pretty effective.

I guess I may have dreamed or misremembered the elevator going through actual water and ascending from the concrete outside. That's probably a safety hazard. Although I could really find any video or discernible pictures on the exit. It's made more complicated that the exit was changed when the ride became about Finding Nemo. So I still wonder if I dreamed. I also have this vague memory that my uncle met us outside but I would have to call my mom to confirm he met us there since the rest of the vacation was spent on beaches in Florida. Unfortunately I was four years old when I went so I don't retain much concept of the world back then.

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Anyone have any experiences staying at any of the Disneyland Resort hotels? I'm currently in the early planning process of planning a stay in the Grand California, because ~~fuck it~~, and I'm curious to hear accounts from any of the three hotels.

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Never been to Disneyland, but I've been to Disney World multiple times with my family. I had a blast, but the Florida weather can take its toll on you; fuck, writing this out I remembered by Dad almost got sun stoked when we last visited Disney World. 

 

I'm surprised I haven't checked out Disneyland yet since I've been living in California for a bit now. Oh well. 

I think Lego Land is further up in my list than Disneyland.

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Anyone have any experiences staying at any of the Disneyland Resort hotels? I'm currently in the early planning process of planning a stay in the Grand California, because ~~fuck it~~, and I'm curious to hear accounts from any of the three hotels.

 

Of the three, the Grand Californian is the only one I'd bother paying for, but even then it's not realllly worth it except to try it out once. Ultimately, it's a pretty normal hotel room (though they do have pretty cushy mattresses). If you can, try to get a room away from the pool, because it can be loud on that side of the hotel.

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For a kid who loved sci-fi, getting to ride Star Tours was just about the most amazing thing. I haven't been to a Disney since the prequels came out, though, so I'm scared they may have changed it.

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For a kid who loved sci-fi, getting to ride Star Tours was just about the most amazing thing. I haven't been to a Disney since the prequels came out, though, so I'm scared they may have changed it.

 

The first time I rode Star Tours I was 10 or 11 and I had never seen Star Wars, so I didn't "get" any of it, I just thought it was a cool fun space thing.

 

Also your fears are true, they totally redid it several years ago. It's got a bunch of prequel stuff in it now. It's still cool and fun, just not as cool.

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Never been to Disneyland, but I've been to Disney World multiple times with my family. I had a blast, but the Florida weather can take its toll on you; fuck, writing this out I remembered by Dad almost got sun stoked when we last visited Disney World. 

 

I'm surprised I haven't checked out Disneyland yet since I've been living in California for a bit now. Oh well. 

I think Lego Land is further up in my list than Disneyland.

 

Disney World/Orlando Tourism pro-tip - if you find that in the middle of your vacation there's a day where there's a fair chance of rain but only for a limited time, plan on doing something that's often very busy. I've often found myself in a theme park in the rain as it rains all the goddamn time here and if it comes down somewhat hard for any length of time there are always a large amount of people that decide to leave the park. If you can find it in yourself to wait it out, it really pays off. I found myself at Universal's Islands of Adventure and I was able to burn through rollercoasters right after a 20-minute rain storm - I went on Dueling Dragons (now reskinned as a dragon-based Harry Potter rollercoaster) 4 times, twice on each track in the front and back. I also did The Hulk twice, the Spiderman experience, and Dr. Doom's Freefall. All of that in the span of about an hour. Lines picked up by the end, but man was it a great compressed bit of fun. Around the time I went, The Hulk and Spiderman would both regularly have 45-60 minute wait times and the other two would have at least 15 minute lines.

 

Also, if anyone's ever in Orlando and wants to hang out let me know! I live a couple hours away now, but I lived in the suburbs of Orlando for my whole childhood and know some nice spots around the town if you want to take a day off from the attractions.

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I went to one of them (whichever one is in Florida? World, I think?) way back when I was a little kid, with my grandparents, my aunt, and one of my cousins.

The only things I remember are 1)Watching "Batman & Robin" as the in-flight movie going down; 2)Talking to some kid my age I sat next to on the plane, whose name I have long since forgotten and will never ever see again; 3)Dropping a cup full of ice I had been carrying with me while walking around the park, and then being sad because Florida is RIDICULOUSLY HOT and I needed that ice to cool off.

OH and 4)We went to a Medieval Times for dinner one night. It was awesome.

So... I'd like to go again someday because I don't remember anything about actually being AT Disney WorldLand.

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I remember going to Disneyland because my parents decided that, since we were in the area, they might as well take us to Disneyland and Universal Studios. 'The area' was Canada.

 

This would have been 1992, back when it wasn't safe to go to Knotts Berry Farm and kids would throw smoke bombs on the freeway. It was a very good thing we got a shuttle bus from the airport because we were all freaking out.

 

I remember we managed to go to nearly every ride in Disneyland in a day. We started early, so we explored Main Street USA before the park proper opened and discovered Main Street USA mostly sucked, and then went straight for the back of the park, stopping for nothing. Oh, all those other people peeled off to the first cool thing they saw, but we hustled hard to the very back, and then for some reason got on It's A Small World. We found a rollercoaster in the newly opened ToonTown, then started moving forward, hitting the big queues around about lunchtime. We never went on Star Tours or Space Mountain because Mum had developed vertigo and so flashing lights were right out, but we managed to go on everything we wanted to. I think the most we waited was for the Jungle Tour, about 45 minutes - once the queues started getting too long, we went for lunch, then started on all the rides people had already been on, Pirates of the Caribbean and the like. (Dad discovered that imagineers were fond of drops in the dark, and that he was not, and we thought it was hilarious when he'd shout out 'you bastards!' in a very Australian accent whenever they did it.)

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(Dad discovered that imagineers were fond of drops in the dark, and that he was not, and we thought it was hilarious when he'd shout out 'you bastards!' in a very Australian accent whenever they did it.)

 

This is my favorite anecdote in this thread.

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Of the three, the Grand Californian is the only one I'd bother paying for, but even then it's not realllly worth it except to try it out once. Ultimately, it's a pretty normal hotel room (though they do have pretty cushy mattresses). If you can, try to get a room away from the pool, because it can be loud on that side of the hotel.

 

I agree. The Grand Californian is a gorgeous take-off of the Ahwahnee up in Yosemite, with a really incredible central lobby. However, it's real pricey, and you can wander through it and get a lot of the same views and excitement without having to pay for, exactly as was described, is just a pretty normal hotel room. 

 

Also, I think that people are pretty split on Haunted Mansion Holiday. While I agree it's visually striking, I don't feel super strongly about Nightmare Before Christmas either way, but I actually do get a kick out of seeing the Haunted Mansion done up for the film every year, if only because I've got the entire non-holiday version practically memorized. I'm a sucker for detail, and both version of the ride are rife with small touches throughout. It's been interesting to see the evolution of the holiday version of the ride over the years. When it first opened, the queue area (which, on normal days is quite zippy, but on busy days can be pretty tedious) featured large banners with the lyrics to various "Christmas Scarols", take-offs on popular Christmas songs with Nightmare Before Christmas-esque twists. The thing is, while this might be neat for like, maybe a five to ten minute wait in line, a 30 - 40 minute wait, featuring these repetitive, awkwardly sung songs played to a growing-ever-more grumpy crowd can really grow thin. They've been removed in subsequent years. 

 

I hope that everyone who goes to any Disney theme park, but in particular Disneyland, tries to pay attention during the queue areas, as this is one of the major ways in which a Disney park separates itself from other theme parks. Indiana Jones and the Temple of the Forbidden Eye, when it first opened, featured a long meandering queue that threaded through the temple, deep to where you boarded the car for the ride. The walls featured cryptic texts written in "Maraglyphics," a language developed for the ride (decoder cards were provided early on), and by translating the text, you could read hints about what was to come in the ride. There were also interactive gags: a "collapsing" spike ceiling, and a rope that, when pulled, caused a disappointed sounding british fellow to yell out below. There are so many other incredible details. Here's the line from the outside of the temple, where 1920s music is piped from a set of tinny speakers as you wait. There's a large generator located centrally to the queue, and when it sputters, the lights threaded throughout the entire line will flicker. There's a room covered in bat guano, there's a chamber where you can see and hear a movie projector that casts "old" film-reels about the ride up on a screen as you go by. There's even a small office for Indiana Jones himself, tucked away in a corner. The thing is, as the ride is now almost 10 years old, as a way of getting people onto the ride, a lot of this is passed by quickly, and quite a few little things have been slightly changed in order to increase ride efficiency. I think that the queue, and indeed the ride*, are absolute marvels, but I can't help but be disappointed with people who have to see it as it is today compared to what it was nearer to its opening. 

 

*If you think I have too many opinions about a ride queue, well...

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I know I'm way late in replying to this, but I just want to point out that the Grand Californian and the Ahwahnee Hotel aren't really that similar in style. The exterior share a bit in common (a touch of Craftsman), but the interiors are massively different. The Grand Californian is full-on Craftsman inside, while the Ahwahnee's a mishmash of native american and spanish styles. Here's the Ahwahnee's lounge area:

 

1920px-Ahwahnee_Hotel_-_Great_Lounge.jpg'

 

And here's the Grand Californian's lounge:

692655_37_z.jpg

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You are right! I think that I mostly was referring to the exterior when I brought up the comparison, as the interiors are indeed very different. Hopefully the eagle-eyed viewers of your first image, Doug, will find themselves wondering why it's so eerily familiar

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Does anyone remember the episode that discussed the creepy disneyland employee housing contract clauses stuff? I think it was a reader mail? Was that even this podcast?

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