Mornings are nice a quiet still, week days just before the Holiday rush are rather pleasant, the crowds don’t start till noon-ish and stay reasonable all day.
Breakfast of champions! I always manage to time the pancakes just right to get them “hot off the griddle” yummy-yummy!
The river sure is peaceful early in the day, makes you forget you’re in Anaheim just off the 5 freeway.
The headwaters of the river that runs thru Bear Country (or Critter whatever). This area has eluded both my old camera and my newer one. It never seems to want to focus, is it a magical river?
Bear Country is actually very nice when it’s not wall to wall people.
Here you go, there’s a few Christmas Decorations. Didn’t this used to be an Arcade? I guess I should know that?
Well I finally did it, I rode the Pooh ride. It was better than I expected, yes its mostly plywood cut outs, but it's cute and the “Heffalumps and Woozles” sequence is mind bending to say the least.
Alice and the Mad Hatter have been out in the park every time I visit lately and they really are becoming quite popular. A few minutes after this photo they had about 20 guests in a line with them dancing to “Tea for Two” with the band playing along. This really added to the mood and everyone was having a grand time. It’s all in the details…
My favorite little ticket booth is doing just fine.
I took this next set of 6 photos for Jason over at Disneyland Nomenclature (link). He had commented that certain elements in the shop “Mlle. Antoinette's Parfumerie” in New Orleans Square were chosen by Walt, the shop is now called “Jewel of Orleans” but it does have all the original interior. Here is an article about the shop from the Summer 1976 Vacationland magazine. Here is the entire Summer 1976 issue in case you are interested (link-68mb).
The nice ladies running the shop mentioned to me that the giant perfume bottle out front was also original; just the name has been changed.
A brief stop in Tomorrowland finds the Monorail track-crack has been repaired, well, kind of. Actually, I could do a better Spackle job than that. I’ve been reporting on this for 3 months now (link). I hope things are not “declining by degrees” in Tomorrowland.
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As a kid I changed a lot of my allowance money into quarters in this little booth. When do you think was the last time it was open? 1992 is my guess…
For some silly reason I keep trying to take pictures of Dumbo at night while its moving. My lower end digital camera doesn’t have a clue what to do and neither do I. Its just mesmerizing to watch all those Dumbo’s flying around in circles!
There was an extra treat near the end of an already perfect day. Fantasmic was not running, I didn’t ask why, I don’t care why and can you believe I’ve never even seen it! This meant the Mark Twain was running at night and New Orleans Square was not a "circus after dark". It’s been 20+ years since I’ve been on the Mark Twain at night; I had forgotten how nice and peaceful it is. Once you leave the “square” it feels so authentic it’s amazing.
One last comment, I didn’t get a photo because you can’t take pictures inside the Haunted Mansion. As part of the Christmas overlay, they have a fun gingerbread coffin (with a gingerbread ghost inside) on the table in the ballroom scene. Just as your Doom buggy is entering that area you can smell gingerbread… It’s all in the details.
