Trip Report - December 9, 2010

Time for another nice trip around the park. I was curious if the “Holiday Season” and its masses of humanity had descended on the park yet. As of December 9th, the park was still at normal weekday crowd levels and was actually very pleasant. This weekend and the rest of the year are likely to be very crowded so this was a nice treat.





Even though there weren't record crowds there was a small mob lined up at the Candy Palace at opening.





I counted at least 100 people in line on the outside.





At least another 25 people were lined up inside the Penny Arcade.





Why all the commotion? Candy Cane’s of course, fresh made just like mom used to do?





These candy makers are totally focused and apparently hot since it s 90-100 degrees in that room!





Here’s a little video showing the “pulling” of the raw Candy Cane material, it looks kinda fun if it wasn’t 100 degrees in there!

Well, here we have a bit of a problem. It seems the Candy Cane batches are limited in quantity and the “Magic Mornings” Hotel guests that got in the park one hour early gobbled up all the cane’s from the first batch. Regular guests were fuming, quote’s like “So your hotel guests are treated better than the rest of us” and “This is class warfare” (I seriously heard someone say that!). Its just candy folks!





They were handing out these sheets to try and help guests understand. I was there for 15 minutes and never even saw a Candy Cane! In fact, I don’t even like Candy Cane’s! If you try and eat one you’ll need to see a dentist, if you “lick” it, you’ll need to see a doctor about your bloody cut-up tongue, so I’ll pass thank you.





What do you know; ABC does mean Acme Business College.






New lockers have arrived at Disneyland and surprise they are the same price as the old ones, that never happens!





New kiosks tell you they don’t make change so you better not shove a $20 bill in there!






I used my debit card, it seemed easier.






You get to pick you own 4 digit access code, which is very cool and you no longer have to return to the Kiosk to re-open you locker.






The small locker (and I do mean small) is the same size as before and works for jackets and clothes, but you’ll need the big $10 locker if you one of those backpack people.






These neat flowers have a name that’s on the tip of my tongue, anyone??





Lots of lines.





Toontown got a new sign, hooray! One of these days I need to go over there, I’ve only been there once in the last 10 years!






The little ticket booth is looking great. Margie (the CM that works the booth) was telling a guest that this used to be a actual ticket booth years ago and the guest recalled it and its former location and even remembers buying tickets for her daughter there decades ago.





What do you know, they still sell tickets!






Three Fences, my little corner of Disneyland is doing well.





The mighty Matterhorn didn’t have much of a line, 5 minutes max.







It almost looks like you could fit a Skyway bucket thru that hole, Nah.






This photo (link) from my February 1969 post reveals the origins of the Tomorrowland cross.






As you can see, the cross was really just another support for the extended roof, at some point a large section was removed, leaving this support column exposed so I guess someone decided to “plus” it up with a neat point on the top.





More cross’s waiting to be created.






The Captain EO sign has a small change, here’s how it looked on opening day back in February (link).






TRON merchandise was prominently displayed in the window at the Star Trader.






And as soon as you walk in the door you are attacked by Captain EO merchandise (it must sell better).





Go a little further inside the store and you’ll find a few TRON items, not much though.






Hey this shirt would be great if I was a petite teenage girl – I bet they don’t sell many of those!





Look what I found right next to the TRON shirts, your money would be better spent on this.





The Star Tours exit was solidly boarded up and closed.






They have removed the old 3D “Star Tours” sign and put up this flat thing from the poster shop, I hope that's temporary.





The future that never arrived.






Your future has been “red-tagged” – sorry about that.






Well it only took two years but they fixed the missing tiles (link) - THANK YOU who ever did that – it gave me a smile for the rest of the day. Now just repaint the trim please.





Are your initials on this tree and if so, how did you do it?





The center support of our lost Tomorrowland.





Who is this guy and why did he stop and point at me?





The Astro-Orbiter is currently closed for some non-scheduled maintenance.





That cart is interesting, looks like some sort of hydraulic bypass unit.





Obligatory Castle shot, poor thing looks weighted down during the daylight.





One of the nicest cast members in the entire park, he smiles for me every time!





Another “After” photo compared to Major's 1958 photo (link).





These truly look fake but I touched one and can verify they are real.





Magic Sky’s over Anaheim.





What? Say it isn’t so…






The Casey Jr. Ticket booth is also completely in the shade of the trees making a good photo near impossible!





Boy they changed these flowers quick, just a few weeks ago there were totally different.






Same here along the Skyway entrance, all new.





I’m sad to report that Monsto has developed an odd aliment that causes serious inflammation of his gums.




The Teacups seem to be turning really slow, what’s up with that?





Yet another “after shot” here's the same scene in 1969 (link). You’ll notice today’s cast member is fully dressed.





The back cover was missing from this car, it’s a little more high-tech than I imagined, but not much.





Over in Adventureland I got this shot which reminds me very much of some of the vintage slides taken in this same spot.





Adventureland was not to crowded at all, its rare if you can see even see the ground in this area.






Not a bad stand-by time for Indy.





The Jungle Cruise was a total walk-on, no waiting.





Heading out of the park, here’s one more “After” shot, this area was much more useful as a Coffee House (link), see its just wasted space now!






Puppies! These are not Seeing Eye dogs, these are security dogs! I saw the black doggie last year at the park, his handlers had hidden a fake soda can under a bench, the dog had just found it and they were giving him a treat. I wonder what was in the can?





I overheard a funny conversation between two Cast Members at this spot. “It looks great but why did they have you paint this, it was fine before - meanwhile other much need areas go unfixed”. Sounds like an age old problem.






Town Square looks great on the way out and it was a super visit. I never get tired of visiting the park and I even bought myself something this time, a neato super soft scarf for $16, just call me “big spender”.