My Disneyland trip

[Teflon Billy]

Well, this is sucking. :\

Closed: Space Mountain, the Matterhorn, It's a Small World, Cinderella's Castle, the Tiki Lounge and The Pirate Ship.

What manner of mindset is it that closes most of your "signature" attractions at a theme park and still sees fit to open the doors?

Also, the Haunted Mansion has been entriely re-done in an effort to shill The Nightmare Before Christmas. And it is singularly awful. No longer is anything about it creepy, or archaic looking. It's all just a buch of slapped-together cartoony-looking naughty word.

The Swiss Family robinson Treehouse has--in respone to disney's need to shill their Tarzan video--Tarzan's Treehouse.

The Jungle Cruise has been changed from any semblance of a "boat safari through deepest, darkest Africa" to a comedy routine extolling how basically idiotic the ride is, blended liberally with politically correct re-imaginingas of the scenes presented (The pride of lions surrounding a downed Zebra in their lair are described by the Boat's pilot as "Lion's who have been given the important job of guarding the sleeping Zebra").

The Penny Arcade on Mainstreet USA--once a very elaborate display of functional turn of the century arcade machines is now Five (5) machines fronting an immense candy store.

Tom Sawyer Island is now minus the burning homestead on the border of "Native Territory" and has an added Native Village where paceful Native American robots listen to a wise elder talk about their invention of the flute.

Tomorrowland seems to have run entirely out of "Future" for want of a better term. The old, cheesy "Shrinking Machine" (which gave a pretty interesting description of basic atomic structures as you rode along enjoying the show) has been replaced with "Honey, I Shrunk the Audience"...a short 3D film, brought to you by the good folks at Kodak. The Submarine Ride is gone (as apparently submarines are not "Futuristic" enough for the mighty Tomorrowland), yet somehow the Science Fictional experience of Driving a car lives on.

I've gotten old. there is nothing here for me any longer but a giant marketing machine without even the charm of their "Classic" attractions like Small World or Space Mountain.

I have utterly wasted a ton of money.

 

[tarchon]

May have been the storms last week - we got some pretty substantial rain.
The Halloweenified Knotts Berry Farm (Knotts Scary Farm) is supposed to be pretty good.

 

[Samothdm]

Interesting to get the perspective of someone who doesn't live here about the changes.

The Haunted Mansion is only changed during the Halloween-Christmas season. From January through late September or early October, it's the regular old Haunted Mansion that you remember. They started doing the Nightmare Before Christmas thing a few years ago, and for those of us who live here and go often, it's a nice change of pace. I think that they actually do a pretty good job on the changes, although I see your point that it is kind of a "marketing scam". However, all of Disneyland seems geared just toward getting you to buy more Disney stuff.

The Tiki Room is the same, although I believe that they are "updating" it. Hopefully that just means fixing the animatronics that weren't working rather than completely changing it.

The Thunder Mountain Railroad has been closed for quite a long time due to the death of a park guest and then, right after it reopened, another guest-related injury. No word on when it will be reopened, at least not the last time I was there.

I miss the days of the Jungle Cruise as a kid when you can really get into it, but it's been a big joke-fest since I was in High School back in the 80s. The bit about the "lions guarding the sleeping zebra" is supposed to be a joke - that's not a "PC" thing. Some of the ride operators really get into it, but no one does it "serious" any more. It's kind of sad, really. You probably didn't have to wait in line very long, but they completely redid the line for while you wait to get on the ride and it's actually pretty cool - a whole 1930s themed Safari-camp with old-fashioned radios and maps and photos and old travel posters. It's actually pretty cool, I think. They did that when they installed the Indiana Jones ride back in the late 80s/early 90s.

Since Pirates of the Caribbean was closed, you didn't get to see the changes there. I fear you'd be disappointed, as are 99.999995% of the people who see it. It was huge news down here in the LA area when they changed it. Basically, the pirates no longer chase the women. The women are now holding food in their hands, and they've positioned the pirates and women so it appears that the pirates are not chasing the women, but just trying to get to the food. Lame!. They did leave in the slave auction of the women with the red head and all that, so it's really not consistent in what they changed. There also used to be a pirate trying to balance himself with one foot on the dock and one foot in a little boat and he had a women's slip in his hand that he had "found". Well, that's all gone now. I think the guy is still there but he looks different.

They also added some pirates near the very end of the ride who look like they're trying to pull a large sack of treasure up the last incline before the ride drops out, but they way they've done it, it doesn't look like the pirates are actually holding the treasure. It's hard to explain but one guy is basically at the top with a rope pulling the sack, and another guy as at the bottom trying to lift the sack, except that his hands are nowhere near the sack so it looks wrong.

Lots of other subtle changes as well, such as moving the treasure in the Captain's Quarters far back into the room so that you can reach it from the boats - it used to be right out to the edge. Small things like that.

Space Mountain now has speakers installed in the headrests so you hear this loud electric guitar music but it's been closed for quite awhile so I have no idea what they are doing to it.

The Honey I Shrunk the Kids lame 3-D movie is actually in the place where the old lame 3-D movie, Michael Jackson's "Captain EO" was placed. I think you're right, though, that before that, it was that Shrinking Ride. I used to love that.

They also got rid of "Mission to Mars" or whatever that was called a long, long time ago. There was a huge revamping of Tomorrowland in the 90s but it flopped because basically the biggest new attraction, a Rocket Ride, never really worked and was permanently shut down after being open less than a year. It still takes up space but they never did anything with it.

The Submarines have been gone for around 5 years but the pond is still there.

They're redone the Matterhorn several times over the past few years. I have no idea why they keep shutting it down and tweaking it. It's annoying. The last big drop before you get to the end is not quite so much of a drop as it used to be. It's a little anticlimactic now.

It's also lame that the Star Wars ride has been the exact same since they opened it. I know it's expensive, but since it's basically just a movie that you watch while the ride moves around, it seems that they could have changed the movie once in a while to keep it fresh.

Not sure if you remember "America Sings" but that's been gone for a long time, too. They used a bunch of the animatronic animals in "Splash Mountain" and then put this lame exhibit in the building with stuff like "How To Use A Computer!". Not fun.

There was a really cool circular theater, too, that had "The Wonders of China" which has been gone for a few years. I forget what's there, now but I think it might be part of where the Rocket Ride was supposed to be housed.

They continually tinker with it, taking out rides and adding new ones. But, it seems to me that the changes that they've made over the past 15 years have not been good changes.

Out of curiosity, Teflon Billy, when was the last time you were there before your recent visit?

 

[Teflon Billy]

...Out of curiosity, Teflon Billy, when was the last time you were there before your recent visit?

25 years ago.

They managed to have everything open.

 

[Crothian]

While you ar ethere you should hand out copies of Kult to the kids

 

[Michael Morris]

Why is my evil sense going off, and why is that black robbed cleric grinning?

 

[Droid101]

25 years ago.

They managed to have everything open.

I went last week and Thunder Mountain was open.

But Matterhorn and Space Mountain were closed. Sucked. I left early.

 

[Laurel]

That does suck! Last time I was there Cinderella's castle was a huge cake.... really hated that!!!!

You actually sound disappointed that It's a Small World wasn't working... I just wish I had helped in disabling it....

All those little shiny faces, singing over and over and over and over again. "It's a small world after all"

 

[BOZ]

Well, this is sucking. :\

Closed: Space Mountain, the Matterhorn, It's a Small World, Cinderella's Castle, the Tiki Lounge and The Pirate Ship.

What manner of mindset is it that closes most of your "signature" attractions at a theme park and still sees fit to open the doors?

they still wants yo money.

 

[reveal]

I think this article will answer a lot of your questions as to why things are closed.

http://money.cnn.com/2004/10/27/news/fortune500/disneyland/index.htm

Disney gunning for old magic
Changes at theme park aim to restore founder's vision, refurbish appearance of facilities.