Photo and Video TR: Disneyland 50th

[Sgt. Fox]

Took a recent trip to the Disneyland Resort for the 50th and thought I'd share my experience with y'all. Normally I take still photos on my trips, but I've recently gotten into the whole video thing so I decided to bring my video camera instead. I had hoped to take half-decent quality photos with the video camera as well, but the quality really was sub-par, so I apologize for the photos in this report. I'm going back in January and I'll take my real still camera equipment that trip.

 

We drove in from Arizona and spent two days at the resort. Although we were pretty leisurely, we saw pretty much everything. The crowds were big and the weather was hot, but the Disney folks had lots of cast members working and were cycling through the attractions like mad, so what could have been a bad situation really was quite okay. Through effective fastpass use, I think the longest line we waited in was about a half hour for Buzz Lightyear.

 

I hadn't been to the resort in a little while, and the first thing I noticed was that the place looked a lot nicer than it used to. There was new paint all over, and it looked like a lot of the building facades had been renovated. My wife didn't care for the extra pink in the castle, but I was glad to see it looking bright and all spruced up.

 

 

The new Disneyland 50th exhibit was allright. I enjoyed the pre-show room with all the memorabilia a lot, but the movie itself was ho-hum. The super-huge model of Disneyland on opening day - way cool. I hope Lincoln comes back some day. I really enjoyed that show more than the retrospective movie they have running in there now.

 

Several of the water rides like Splash and Grizzly had huge lines due to the hot weather, but we managed to get on them with little trouble once the sun went down. I noticed a considerable change in the cannon-ball effects in Pirates. They actually got us wet! As for the Splash renovation, I'm not sure I care for it. Is it just me, or do the new logs move through the attraction waaaay faster than they used to? I was trying to film the ride and things were just whizzing by.

 

 

Pooh was walk-on the entire trip, despite enormous crowds. I can't really figure that one out. Maybe because it's hidden back in that corner? I mean, sure, it's no E-Ticket, but it's not supposed to be an E-Ticket. As far as dark rides go, I think it's better than Snow White or Pinochio, and those usually have at least a 10 minute line if not longer. Oh well, Disneyland's loss is our gain. We were able to walk on several times and ride.

 

Mansion was another spot I noticed big changes after the rehab. The new Leota effect is unbelieveable, and it's nice having "crawl-mode" instead of the frequent show stops for people who are so old/handicapped/fat/insert-disability-here that they can't board a 2mph vehicle. I liked it a lot!

 

 

Buzz Lightyear was fun. Not much to say about this one. It seemed a little better than its florida cousin for some reason. I made mad points on that thing since we stopped for a while mid circuit (probably to load disabled guests) and I just kept blasting a target a couple of feet away.

 

The only other "new" things we tried out were Space Mountain and the fireworks show. The new Space is way cool. I've never been on a coaster that smooth before. Anywhere. It's like riding on glass. The audio is great, the theming is great, and the new effects are great. I think I would have liked to see the loading station overhauled a little more heavily, but I can live with that.

 

 

 

Saw the new transfer table in action, (it's in the video too), and that's a pretty cool addition from a technical standpoint. When we were departing the station, I threw up the horns for the lady working tower, and she busted up laughing and threw them back at me. It was hillarious. We were both going "WOOOoooooooo!" and throwing the horns back and forth before my rocket the scale.

 

 

 

I saw the darkened meteor props to my left when you exit the "spinny-tunnel lift" (Lift B?). I think those are going to be lit and used for the "Rocket Mountain" version when that debuts. That would be pretty cool since it would make for a greater difference between the two versions. The electronic sign out front was actually broken and had both Space and Rocket Mountain lit up on it at the same time. Nobody could figure out what it said since it basically said "RSOPCAKCEET MOUNTAIN".

 

Saw the fireworks from the hub, and they were phenomenal. I'm glad they didn't replace Believe with a crappy show. It's kind of ripped off from the Florida "Wishes" show, but it's still pretty good. I tried going on #disney-central on Newnet to look into the soundtrack, but the IRC chatroom seems to be gone. Does anyone know if it's moved to another server?

 

Finally, I made sure to get in a good half-dozen rides on my favorite: The Tower of Terror.

 

 

 

This ride suffers from the same mystery-illness that Pooh does. I think it's a phenomenal ride, but there's hardly ever a line for it. We waited less than 10 minues throughout the entire trip. Even though the park was crowded, Tower didn't seem to be drawing any crowds. I'm just mystified.

 

Oh well, that's about it for my trip report. I had a great time at the park and can't wait to go back in January. Hopefully you enjoyed the report. Here's a link to the trip video I made. Enjoy!

 

http://www.reflectionsoflife.com/video/DL50th.zip

 

Oh yeah, and you can see my still photos of Disneyland here:

 

http://www.reflectionsoflife.com/cpg132/index.php?cat=17

[Erik Johnson]

Cool Photo TR....Im downloading the video right now...

[socalMAN123]

Nice TR. When I rode Space Mountain, I also noticed the darkened meteor props to the left side. Hope Rockit Mountain makes the ride better than the extremly cool regular one!

---Brent 8)

EDIT: Awesome video!

[Sir Clinksalot]

Awesome video!!

 

Your interior ToT and Haunted Mansion shots turned out awesome!!!

[Chrissie]

Ur video is wicked!

 

Thanks for sharing

[PhishyBrewer]

One of the better Disneyland videos I've seen. Nice work!

[Hattuchili]

Wow, great video. I really liked it. When I saw it, I wanted to go back to DLR. Thanks for posting.

 

--Sören