Oh, I'd just LOVE
another photo update!
Well, we aim to please, Minnie!
Here's my Photo Update for the week, folks!
I visited the parks a couple times in
the last week, and got
a couple interesting photos for you, and
about
60 boring ones...
All in attempt to keep us all updated on what's going on at the parks.
Some stuff I know, some stuff I just
say "Huh?"
So read on
if you dare!
It's not too busy
on Wednesday afternoon when I visited.
Quite a change from
the past few weeks, but I knew by now not
to kid myself. It's
quiet here because most likely all those Southern California grade school
students on a field
trip are already through the turnstiles enjoying themselves!
I didn't expect to see a film crew
once I got through the gates, but it appears
some filming for an Asian Market was being
done. I asked a Castmember who was
keeping the riff-raff away from the ropes
what it was all about, but he said he didn't
really know.
Not terribly quiet,
but the flowers look nice.
Disneyland's landscaping
department is just top notch in my book.
Space Mountain is still closed. It's been
like 2 years now that it closed suddenly one morning after
crews found cracks in the steel roller
coaster track. It's scheduled to reopen July 15th with all new tracks
(although in the same configuration as
the old track). The rumor I've heard is that the new
castmember uniforms are in and they're
pretty spiffy. Also supposedly test runs with
Castmembers have begun.
I'd expect sneak previews for guests to
start very soon. Not this coming week, but the week after.
You never know with Disney, though.
New rumors about this ride plop up to the surface every other day.
I would say that we can expect that
all references to Fed-Ex will be gone from the Queue area when it reopens,
as
the contract with Disney has expired.
Also the new special effects once you are on the ride are supposed to be
one of the
big improvements, as well as newly designed
cars with speakers for the ride soundtrack.
Outside Innoventions:
This wall appeared in front of the exit
ramp for Innoventions
I walked up the exit ramp to take this
picture. A castmember just about had a coronary
that I walked the 15 feet up the exit
ramp, and then was almost beside herself that I took this picture.
I don't understand that. It's obviously
in plain sight from anyone exiting innoventions, and no real
work has started on it yet.
My guess right now is that it will be another
Photo Montage spot, but it's just my first guess.
I don't think it's going to be another
Outdoor Vending Booth, as there is already a permanent
Lemonade stand about 20 feet away from
this spot.
Music coming from the Club Buzz Stage
area means that I HAVE to go check it out.
The schedule says that they're DJs. Interesting
that they (the two people in the magenta T-shirts) are DJ'ing
from IPODS!
The fellow on the left, if I am not mistaken,
also doubles as the controller and voice for "PUSH" the
talking trashcan that roams around Tomorrowland.
They were playing
some Britney Spears and some other such tunes while I was there.
SOMETHING from Disney?
From DisneyMania 1, 2, or 3 perhaps?
Nope.
They play Disneymania at Downtown Disney
all the time, and I always see folks responding very well
to the new renditions of Disney Tunes.
It'd be nice if they played these songs in the park as well!
While here at Club Buzz would work, I have
thought in the past that along the parade route about
15 minutes or more before the parade starts
would be a lot of fun, too! I think it would
serve to hype up the crowd sitting in
the hot sun waiting for the "Parade Of Dreams" to start.
I walked through Fantasyland and the glinting
gold "Dumbo" ride vehicle caught my eye.
One vehicle from each attraction that
opened in 1955 along with Disneyland has been painted Gold.
It's a neat idea, I guess, but it kinda'
throws off the concept of riding Dumbo.
Here's a shot of the backside of the Glinting
castle.
Named after the famed architect Dr. Albert...
Glinting
(Is glinting even a word?
Only my spellchecker will know for sure)
As I walked through the castle the Disney
people that were with the film crew
started blocking off access so that they
could get some shots of their people in front of it.
You don't get this
kind of opportunity too often, so I just had to take a couple shots.
Not the best weather,
and the sun wasn't that great, but I like pictures without crowds in them,
so here ya' go.
Here are the actors
that the film crew was filming.
The woman has her
hair done up like Minnie Mouse Ears.
Anyone know who they are?
Anyone recognize them?
I walked off to the side and took a couple
pictures from there, too.
I liked the flowers in this shot.
And here's another shot from an angle
of the castle that I just cannot resist.
Again, no one in front of the castle or
in the walkways even is refreshing.
At this point, I wanted to walk over to
Disney's California Adventure to try and see if Chicken Little
was running around. DCA closes at 6om,
so I headed down Main Street USA.
I noticed several survey takers stopping
people on both side of Main Street. It seemed like it was
more than usual, so I thought I'd mention
it here.
A couple days later when I came back to
the park, I was actually stopped by one. Usually they find out you're an
annual passholder and they smile and move
on. But this time the person asked to take my email address so that they
might send a questionnaire to me at a
later date. This appeared to be all they were doing when I took
the picture above, as well.
Goofy was out causing
mayhem in front of City Hall.
This shot was taken after I found out
that nothing was going on at DCA at all.
A little prep before Block Party Bash,
but that's it.
Someday, I'll stick around and take some
pictures of that new parade featuring
Disney's "Pixar Pals" - I just haven't
gotten to it yet.
I thought this was an interesting shot.
It makes a cool little desktop tile.
Right-click this picture and choose "Save
Target As"... saving it in your desktop wallpapers folder.
When you choose the picture as a desktop,
be sure you tell Windows to "TILE" it, instead of
centering or stretching it. It comes up
pretty good!
THIS is the line to get into "The Mad
Hatter" for those 50th anniversary Golden Mickey Ears.
The line is actually longer than I got
in the picture here by several people.
I walked back over to New Orleans Square,
and got this shot from the queue in front of Haunted Mansion.
I got lucky and Haunted Mansion stopped
me right in front of these fellows. I've taken a decent picture
of these singing busts before, but I've
never actually stopped in front of them like this.
I was so happy I already had my camera
out, as the ride stopped for only 5 or 10 seconds.
If I hadn't had it out and already set
to a slow exposure with no flash, I probably would have missed this shot.
Constant Vigilance!
I don't often go over to Tom Sawyer's Island,
but I thought I'd check it out today...
The princesses were having a little meet
& greet over in the Carnation Gardens performance area.
I just love watching how they interact
with guests, especially little girls.
...and each other.
You can really tell that they love to see
the awe of magic in children's eyes.
A few parade shots from Thursday:
I was standing on the landing for Main
Street Station when I got this shot.
It's about the best you're going to get
from that standpoint, because otherwise there's a flag pole in the middle
of your view!
I liked this shot
because it's the quintessential Tinkerbell pose.
I think this is
a new Tinkerbell, and she really gets into character!
And here's Ariel!
Taking shots from what amounts to a second
story level is really nice for this parade, as many of the floats
are very tall!
You get a nice view of the Pinocchio performance
stop, too!
The following pictures are from Friday, June 15th
My wife and I were planning on going to
the park on Friday as I had the day off.
About 10 o'clock Thursday night, I got
word that Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and some atheletes
were going to be at Disney's California
Adventure at 10am for some kind of ceremony.
So my wife was kind enough to follow me
around while I took some shots of the goings on.
This is the check-in tent for the media
showing up for the 'event'.
Because of the morning gloom/mist/storm,
the neon of the California Zephyr train stood out.
I thought it'd make a neat desktop.
I originally went up the redwood trail
side of DCA because Disney was making announcements that
the ceremony would be in front of the
"Golden Dreams" building (that's close to the
San Francisco area). I thought this would
be the quickest way to get there...
I took this shot on the way. The morning
mist combined with the misters from the
"Grizzly River Run" ride made a neat foggy
statement for this picture.
It turns out Disney had a rope strung across
the walkway blocking access to the Golden Dreams area. The gentleman working
security
at the rope said that I would have better
luck going around the other way.
He was right. There was NO rope going the
other direction. Following the crowd in this situation would have been
the right thing to do!
As it was, by the time we got to where
the stage had been set up, I was a couple people deep away from the barricade.
So I was forced to shoot
pictures from an even greater distance!
Suits, Suits, and more suits... and a few
athletes made their way into the roped off area. Doing their best to
ignore the riff-raff paying guests off
to the sides.
Meanwhile Disney was announcing that the
event was going to be happening from every loudspeaker in the park
for the hour that we had to wait. Our
line of sight was very poor, and I can't imagine what it must have been
like for the
folks 20 to 50 people deep behind us!
Finally the show started...
Turns out, the "ceremony" was actually
the kickoff for the "Governor's Council on Physical Fitness and Sports"
Disneyland Ambassador Rebecca Phelps came
out to greet the crowd
The cast from "Block Party Bash" came
out to dance and lip-sync to some peppy music.
Disneyland Resort President, Matt Ouimet
The "Godfather Of Fitness", Jack Lalanne
Tony Hawk makes his entrance. Michelle
Kwan and other Olympic athlete's ( as well as Jack Lalanne) are already
on the stage
Tony Hawk is not a young guy.
But then again, neither is Jack Lalanne!
Michelle Kwan addresses the crowd
We gotta have Mickey and Minnie mouse
and the rest of the Fab 5 gang in the house!
Boy scouts march in carrying State of
California Flags.
A new fitness badge has been created for
them to earn.
You know who!
Some people were counting how many times
he said "Kah - lee - forn - yah"
..and yes, he actually used the phrase
"Pump you up"
Is Jack Lalanne trying to look younger
in those glasses?
I'm impressed he's still alive and able
to WALK, let alone leading the Governor's Council on Physical Fitness and
Sports!
Michelle Kwan was probably the one athlete
who most looked like they were enjoying themselves.
Group Shot.
You can read more about the whole deal at
and there are more pictures of the event
(taken from the front and center press
stage) here:
http://www.photos.gov.ca.gov/essay63.html
Here are just a few more photos of our
day on Friday:
This wonderful guitar player sits on Royal
Street in New Orleans Square.
Think "Wes Montgomery" and you won't be
far off.
I ran into the WONDERFUL Burt the Chimney
Sweep and Mary Poppins
while waiting for the Parade of Dreams
to start.
They are easily the best resemblance to
any actual actors I've ever seen in the park.
Immediately after posing for this picture,
they continued walking towards City Hall, and on the way
"Brut" did this kind of head over heel
handstand using his Chimney Sweep Broom.... it was
truly remarkable to see, and WAY-Y-Y beyond
the call of a castmember!
Mickey and pals did a little cavalcade
around the town square about 10 minutes before the parade started.
Belle
Pinocchio & the drummer toy
I heard that one confused guest once referred
to these characters as "Dum and Dummer"
sigh.
Goodbye, all!
I hope you enjoyed another week's update.
More pictures of the Parade Of Dreams,
I know, I know...
But it's the most "Disney" thing that
happens in the park, and it's just
so darn good (and you don't have to wait
4 hours to get a good viewing
spot like the fireworks show!)
Tune in Next Monday for another update!
Same Bat time, same Bat Channel!
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updates, won't you please consider donating to help cover
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Disneyland fans
everywhere thank you!
Love Up!
Daddyb
I shoot my photos using an
Olympus
8080widezoom 8 megapixel Digital camera
with an Olympus .8x wide angle conversion
lens
I also use a Moose warming/polarizing filter on many of my shots.
not a paid product endorsement in any way,
simply letting you know the equipment I have paid for
and use and really, really appreciate!