HERE IS AN EARLY PHOTO UPDATE OF MINE.

Pictures were taken on May 21st, 2005. The update was dated as May 23rd
I was using an Olympus Point-and-shoot C8080wz Wide Zoom camera

This was after the "official" opening of the 50th anniversary celebration (which was held on May 5th, 2005)
but obviously BEFORE the actual 50th opening date of July 17th 2005

desktop wallpaper links have been removed.
I was only offering them in 1024x768 and 1280x1024 resolution bmp files back then anyway.

Here come the excuses:

I had some family matters come up this past week, so I didn't get to the park on
Wednesday night, like I usually do. So the next time I could visit was Saturday, May 21st.

It was hot. It was crowded.
The sun was baking everything in sight, including the exposure needle in my camera.
The number of desktops available for download this week reflects that.

I'm not terribly happy with my photo shoot of this week,
but the trip redeemed itself at the end...
And there's always this week to get it right!

I entered into the park the normal way... waiting in line.
It was a long line at 10am (the park opened at 8am)
The lines went half-way, or more, into the esplanade.

Disney California Adventure's lines went well beyond the word
"California", but they had just opened their gates when I arrived on the scene.

I noticed these nifty new "50th Annivarsary" bricks that have been recently laid
in the entry plaza. I don't know how much a brick costs. Please don't ask.

I think they make an interesting design on the ground. I'll be interested to see how they wear over the years.

Here's closeup of the medallion:

 

I see that the stroller and Wheelchair/Electric Wheelchair rental booth has been moved
back inside. There was a rumor that the guests and Employees ("castmembers") all liked the rentals
outside the gates, but for whatever reason, it was moved back inside the gate of the park sometime this week.
 

One of Walt's original Main Street USA cars, now painted gold
for the 50th anniversary.

Did you know that Walt was so adamant about period cars going up and down Main Street
that when the money for the cars was no longer there due to budget problems in the building of Disneyland,
he paid for them out of his own pocket?
 

After going through the castle (WAY-Y-Y too many people for a decent picture!),
I took this shot of "Jingles" the golden horse on "King Arthur's Carrousel".

 

It was very busy, as I said.
The Rope Police were out in full force.

While I was over in Fantasyland, I thought I might take a few pictures of
the few remaining original ticket booths from Disneyland.

These are the places where tickets and ticket books were once sold
back when Disneyland operated on the ticket system. That was changed
in the 1980's (for better or for worse), and most of the ticket booths were removed.
A few still remain, although they have been changed so that you don't realize what they once were
or you simply walk right by them.

Notice this is painted Gold. I'm not sure if that's because the structure itself was original
to the park or if it's because the ride itself is original to the park.

Either way, this used to be a booth that they sold tickets out of.

The Giant Mushroom holding up the "Alice In Wonderland" book
originally was a ticket sales booth... now it's a ride operator's booth for the "Alice" ride.
 

If I'm not mistaken, this Kodak booth just outside of
"It's A Small World" used to be a ticket booth, too!

I'm pretty sure they used to sell the tickets for the "Matterhorn Bobsleds" ride here only.
 

Do you see the Hidden Mickey 50th logo in this picture?

bottom row of shields above the ticket windows, 2nd from the left

The last ticket booth is over by "Casey Junior Circus Train", but I didn't get over there.

It's all greek to me.
 
 

(This is on the left hand side of "Small World". I just hadn't noticed it before.)

I headed over to Tomorrowland to check out "Space Mountain".
I can always hope that they're doing soft opening rides.
 

they were not.
 

I also wanted to check out if the Annual Passholder's processing Center
had moved out of Space Mountain's On-Ride picture viewing/purchasing station area yet.

I guess it had!
No signs up anywhere that it had moved, or where it had moved to!!!
 

I was on Main Street Later, and noticed the line in front of the Main Street Bank for Annual Passholder
processing. So it's there now, NOT at the old Radio Disney booth under the PeopleMover station.

Once again, I heard music coming from the
"Club Buzz" stage, and thought I'd check out the show.
Regular visitors here know I like to heckle the singers and musicians on this stage.
 

Ok, I don't heckle them, but I am a big critic of the bands that perform at the park,
and so I couldn't resist checking out who the new band was, because I did not
recognize the female singer's voice.

OH! It was still "Brooke And The Boyz", but it wasn't Brooke!
It was someone who could actually sing and remember Lyrics!

Too bad she dresses like a pre-teen!

Notice the keyboard player on the right signing to the sound guy
"I can't hear myself"

Oh, I know THAT look!

So off to Adventureland I go... only to notice this:

I don't want to get all crankypants on ya, but I HATE cracked paint at Disneyland!
Let's hope the money comes through to bring the Peoplemovers back, and this area will be
rehabbed soon!

Ahhh... The Jungle Cruise:

MAN! I hate it when I get Skippers who have NO interest in making the ride fun,
or themselves heard. Once again I got a skipper who mumbled every word and said all the words
asquicklyaspossibletogetthewholethingoverwith...

It was like she was embarrassed to have the job of telling us jokes!
This is one of the most sought after positions in the park, and here she
was just not interested in really being there.

Notice the skipper in the picture above has the throttle on full and the mike no where near his mouth.
"Get the ride over with" is NOT good show!

ok. I'm done ranting!
 
 

This is an example of the explosions of dynamite over at the gorillas "Trashing the camp".
VERY impressive!
 

I keep trying to get this shot. This was close, and set up nicely, but parts are just
way over exposed... I will keep trying though and post a desktop if I ever feel like I got it right.

The sun was just too much for many decent pictures worthy of desktops today.
 

The Pirannha warning.

Heck, I was in Adventureland, I HAD to go on Indiana Jones...

right? 

RIGHT???

The rumor is that over the years, the ride mechanics have been softened (or worn down) so that the ride
is not as harsh as it used to be, but it's been returned to it's "Toss you here and about" state.

I didn't judge this to be so, but I leave it up to others to make the final decision. I just remember back in the 90's
getting really thrown around, and not so now.

Here's a picture I managed to take of the snake:

I got a cool shot of the skulls piled up along one wall, but I think it's a bit gruesome until a certain
holiday comes around...
 

Over in Frontierland...
Here's the Mark Twain coming into the landing:

I'd like to point out that one of the simplest rides in the park still gets great ridership numbers!
Walt had some ideas that seemed to have lasted and lasted.
Everyone isn't interested in thrills. A nice slow leisurely ride around the Rivers Of America can be quite nice too, thank you!

BRING BACK THE PEOPLEMOVERS
AND THE SKYWAY!!!

ahem.

Did I say that out loud?

So it was about this time that I started to give up on taking any decent pictures of the park.
I figured I go take a couple shots over at DCA and call it a day.
The sun just wasn't co-operating. Made for a nice warm day
but lousy photography.

Here's a shot of the Gold Horse-Drawn Trolley:

That's it. I had it. It was too crowded and too hot to get any decent artsy pictures.
Where is the front gate?

And then I remembered the new 50th anniversary show over in the Main Street Opera House.

WOW!
What an exhibit!

I heard someone say that this was made up of all pictures of Walt Disney, but I haven't verified that.

Hey!
What's wrong with this picture, anyway?
 
 
 
 
 
 

SPOILER ALERT!
highlight here:
HOW many fingers is Mickey supposed to have?

I think my next updates will have MANY more pictures and a better explanation of this exhibit.
There is SO MUCH Disneyland Memorabilia here!
 

It starts with Walt's love of trains and model trains... not the little
set-it-up-in-your-garage kind of train
but a "get-on-it-and-ride" kind of train.

Here's a pictue of Salvadore Dali taking a ride on Walt's train.
Classic!

(That is NOT Walt driving it).

Then there's the design phase of Disneyland. Where it started out in Walt's mind in a vacant lot across the
street from the Burbank Disney Studios... only to quickly outgrow that.

Here's an artist rendering of Walt's ideas:

Clicking on this picture will not take you to a desktop, but to a very large version of this
picture that you can scroll around and see the different "lands" up close!
 

There's a section devoted to all the castmember "characters" over the years.
There are some pretty interesting shots here:
 

Disney had a very strange costume design back then.
"Look at the size of that noggin!"
 
 

A very early Tinkerbell from atop the Matterhorn

Why does she look like "The Beaver" from the same era to me?
 

There are plenty of concept sketches of rides that we know and love now.
One of my favorites is the "Alice In Wonderland" WALK THROUGH

Click on this to get a MUCH larger picture you can explore
 

Here are some assorted pictures I took of the displays
 

...
 

The centerpiece (almost literally) of the "Disneyland, The First 50 Magical Years"
is a scale model of how Disneyland looked in 1955:

Here are some close ups of the model...

You can expect some more shots of this model with some
desktop wallpapers in the next update

After viewing all the displays, I went in to see the show.
I could have easily spent an hour looking at all the excellent stuff.

Like I said, expect more pictures that are "desktop worthy" in the coming weeks.
 

I walked into the old "Abraham Lincoln" theater and watched the 50 years film with Steve Martin and Donald Duck
the way the theater was meant to be used... without headphones!

It's really quite excellent. Very much along the lines of the films they used to show in Epcot.

As you walk into the exit lobby, you see a "coming attractions" type display along the wall:
In it are these two tidbits:

"Turtle Talk" coming soon at Disney's California Adventure

 

and Monster's Inc.

 

(I want that cool blueprint type wallpaper for my desktop!)
 

Speaking of the Monster's Inc ride
Here's a gander at the construction fence and the facade behind it.

Quite well done, don't you think?
 

So that's it. As I said before, the crowds were just 'outta control'.
By the time I stepped into the "50 magical years" exhibit, my patience was gone and I think
my photos (and lack of desktop images) reflect that.

I'll be back at the parks in a couple days
(Tuesday evening, I think)
so I'll take some more pictures then, and we'll see what changes (if any) have happened in 3 days!