Jouney To McSwain-Mecca (Disneyland)
The Disney name has been a household name since the 1930s. In the early 1950s Walt Disney decided to put into action his dream of an amusement park that would begin a revolution in entertainment. The revolution is on going today as people still try to copy and try to recreate Walt's vision. Walt's vision was Disneyland and it opened in 1955. He promoted it on a TV show called "The Wonderful World of Disney" that aired nationwide. It was an infomercial for his park located in Anaheim California. My parents were at the golden age of impressionism when Disneyland opened. My Dad recounts watching Walt on the TV every Sunday talking about his park and showing movies that would correspond with one of the "lands" in the park. The park was broken up into four lands; Adventureland, Frontierland, Tomorrowland and Fantasyland. My Dad said that he dreamed of making the trek out to California to see the park but sadly, travel wasn't easy back in the 50s and the average person just didn't go out to California from the East Coast.
After the success of Disneyland, Walt decided to expand his operation to the hungry East Coast market and quietly began buying a vast amount of property in central Florida that would later become The Walt Disney World Resort. Again, using TV has his springboard, he began promoting it and pointing out the sheer space that was equal to a large city they now had. They opened The Magic Kingdom at Walt Disney World in 1971. My parents were now in their early twenties and itching to experience what had seen as children but now in a much more manageable traveling location. My Mom, a Methodist youth director at the time, saw an opportunity to take her youth down there. My Dad later said it was an excuse for the two of them to go. They went within the first year it was opened. As soon as they had my sister and I, they leaped at the chance to return and I made my first visit at two years old, shortly before EPCOT was opened. We have been as a family and often on my own too many times to count. Making the trip on average of about every other year.
So the Disney brand has been instilled in me my whole life. Some of my fondest memories have occurred there. Trips with my best friend, Jeff Crawford and his family, still bring smiles to my face. I was awarded a trip to Disney with Jeff after our high school graduation. I took college friends down during my time at Appalachian. I would eventually ask my wife to marry me during the fireworks at Cinderellas Castle.
Despite the McSwain love-affair with Disney, no one in my family ever made the trip to Disneyland. So when Tresca and I were planning our first anniversary, one of us tossed out the idea of going to California to see the Braves play either San Fransisco or the LA Dodgers. Unfortunately our schedules didn't match up with the Braves schedule so we scratched that idea but held onto the idea of California. With just a long weekend to work with, we weighed our options and agreed on Los Angeles, with the climax of our trip ending at Disneyland.
Using our reward points from our credit card, we booked a hotel near the Disney California property. After a visit to Long Beach and a baseball game, I finally crossed the gates of Disneyland. I had plotted out the attack plan using what Jeff and his brother, both of whom are much bigger Disney aficionados than I ever wanted to be. (see: Progress City USA) The Disney train is an excellent method for conquering a Disney theme park. We were one of the first through the gates that morning and took the train quickly to a part of the park that guests weren't in and began our assault with no lines, knocking out four rides in 45 minutes in Adventureland. It would have been five had "Indiana Jones' Adventure" not been down. From there we would cross the central hub that is Sleeping Beauty's Castle. Which for the record didn't really impress me. It was very small and didn't have the awe-inspiring effect that Cinderellas Castle at the Magic Kingdom has. However, the nostalgia effect was okay.
Tomorrowland along with Adventureland were very similar in layout to The Magic Kingdom. The only difference was the size. The Magic Kingdom was much more spread out over a wider area. I found pathways to be narrower with line queues extending well out into the walkways. By the time we made it to Tomorrowland, we began to see lines but not more than 10-15 minutes long. We were through Tomorrowland within an hour and a half. With the highlights being the underwhelming relaunch of "Captain EO", a 3-D short movie staring the late Michael Jackson. It had been removed from the parks in the mid 90s upon Jacko's legal problems and was re-introduced after his death. Seemed a bit shameless to me. It was cutting edge at the time of it's release in 1986 but it had not aged well.
There are several attractions that were once part of The Magic Kingdom and have been removed but are still part of Disneyland. One of which is the submarines. "Submarine Voyage" was an attraction near and dear to Walt's heart. The joke was that Disney had one of the largest sub fleets in the world at the time of it's opening. The ride was recreated at the Magic Kingdom as "20,000 Leagues Under the Sea". It was hard to maintain and operate and was closed in 1994. I found that like in a historic location, the Disney Company is less willing to make major changes to Disneyland, especially to attractions that Disney had his fingerprints on. So the subs remain at Disney but were re-branded as "Finding Nemo's Submarine Voyage".
Fantasyland was probably the most different in comparison to the two theme parks. Very little reminded me of the Florida property. "It's A Small World" was completely different from an exterior standpoint but the concept, of course, was the same. The were a lot more rides crammed into Fantasyland. "Mr. Toad's Wild Ride" an original attraction, since removed from Magic Kingdom, was still rolling along.
After touching off on a few attractions in Fantasyland the crowds were beginning to escalate and we began utilizing the "FastPass" system. The FastPass is a ride reservation that allows you to skip past long lines onto rides. It is limited to the number you can get within a certain time period but is very good when trying to conquer a park. I find though that it causes you to hop-scotch from one area to another more. I prefer more of a "stay the course" kind of attack, hitting as many rides as possible before crowds get big before falling back on the FastPass. We went and got a FastPass for Splash Mountain then made our way back to Fantasyland where I rode the Matterhorn. The ride didn't really turn my crank too much. It was basically an outdoor version of Space Mountain, another roller coaster that doesn't really do it for me either. I'm much more content on the smooth tracked modern coasters.
As I walked around I was constantly comparing and contrasting with my opinions leaning more favorably towards The Magic Kingdom. Tresca oddly enough liked Disneyland a little better. I like the size better on the whole at the Magic Kingdom but thought the quality of the rides and the preservation of Walt's vision was far more evident in California. I heard others making similar arguments in groups. One patron saying that they develop rides in Florida before they bring them to Disneyland to perfect them. I would say the opposite is actually happening. There are subtle differences to the rides but you could clearly see where they would develop an idea at Disneyland, like Indiana Jone's Adventure with the moving hydrolic vehicles and then taking that and developing "Dinosaur" which is one of my favorite attractions in Florida.
By in large seeing Disneyland was something I've longed to do for many years but never had the time, nor the resources and partner to do it with. It was well worth the trip and I hope to go back someday but it will probably be many, many years from now.
After the success of Disneyland, Walt decided to expand his operation to the hungry East Coast market and quietly began buying a vast amount of property in central Florida that would later become The Walt Disney World Resort. Again, using TV has his springboard, he began promoting it and pointing out the sheer space that was equal to a large city they now had. They opened The Magic Kingdom at Walt Disney World in 1971. My parents were now in their early twenties and itching to experience what had seen as children but now in a much more manageable traveling location. My Mom, a Methodist youth director at the time, saw an opportunity to take her youth down there. My Dad later said it was an excuse for the two of them to go. They went within the first year it was opened. As soon as they had my sister and I, they leaped at the chance to return and I made my first visit at two years old, shortly before EPCOT was opened. We have been as a family and often on my own too many times to count. Making the trip on average of about every other year.
So the Disney brand has been instilled in me my whole life. Some of my fondest memories have occurred there. Trips with my best friend, Jeff Crawford and his family, still bring smiles to my face. I was awarded a trip to Disney with Jeff after our high school graduation. I took college friends down during my time at Appalachian. I would eventually ask my wife to marry me during the fireworks at Cinderellas Castle.
Despite the McSwain love-affair with Disney, no one in my family ever made the trip to Disneyland. So when Tresca and I were planning our first anniversary, one of us tossed out the idea of going to California to see the Braves play either San Fransisco or the LA Dodgers. Unfortunately our schedules didn't match up with the Braves schedule so we scratched that idea but held onto the idea of California. With just a long weekend to work with, we weighed our options and agreed on Los Angeles, with the climax of our trip ending at Disneyland.
Using our reward points from our credit card, we booked a hotel near the Disney California property. After a visit to Long Beach and a baseball game, I finally crossed the gates of Disneyland. I had plotted out the attack plan using what Jeff and his brother, both of whom are much bigger Disney aficionados than I ever wanted to be. (see: Progress City USA) The Disney train is an excellent method for conquering a Disney theme park. We were one of the first through the gates that morning and took the train quickly to a part of the park that guests weren't in and began our assault with no lines, knocking out four rides in 45 minutes in Adventureland. It would have been five had "Indiana Jones' Adventure" not been down. From there we would cross the central hub that is Sleeping Beauty's Castle. Which for the record didn't really impress me. It was very small and didn't have the awe-inspiring effect that Cinderellas Castle at the Magic Kingdom has. However, the nostalgia effect was okay.
Tomorrowland along with Adventureland were very similar in layout to The Magic Kingdom. The only difference was the size. The Magic Kingdom was much more spread out over a wider area. I found pathways to be narrower with line queues extending well out into the walkways. By the time we made it to Tomorrowland, we began to see lines but not more than 10-15 minutes long. We were through Tomorrowland within an hour and a half. With the highlights being the underwhelming relaunch of "Captain EO", a 3-D short movie staring the late Michael Jackson. It had been removed from the parks in the mid 90s upon Jacko's legal problems and was re-introduced after his death. Seemed a bit shameless to me. It was cutting edge at the time of it's release in 1986 but it had not aged well.
There are several attractions that were once part of The Magic Kingdom and have been removed but are still part of Disneyland. One of which is the submarines. "Submarine Voyage" was an attraction near and dear to Walt's heart. The joke was that Disney had one of the largest sub fleets in the world at the time of it's opening. The ride was recreated at the Magic Kingdom as "20,000 Leagues Under the Sea". It was hard to maintain and operate and was closed in 1994. I found that like in a historic location, the Disney Company is less willing to make major changes to Disneyland, especially to attractions that Disney had his fingerprints on. So the subs remain at Disney but were re-branded as "Finding Nemo's Submarine Voyage".
Fantasyland was probably the most different in comparison to the two theme parks. Very little reminded me of the Florida property. "It's A Small World" was completely different from an exterior standpoint but the concept, of course, was the same. The were a lot more rides crammed into Fantasyland. "Mr. Toad's Wild Ride" an original attraction, since removed from Magic Kingdom, was still rolling along.
After touching off on a few attractions in Fantasyland the crowds were beginning to escalate and we began utilizing the "FastPass" system. The FastPass is a ride reservation that allows you to skip past long lines onto rides. It is limited to the number you can get within a certain time period but is very good when trying to conquer a park. I find though that it causes you to hop-scotch from one area to another more. I prefer more of a "stay the course" kind of attack, hitting as many rides as possible before crowds get big before falling back on the FastPass. We went and got a FastPass for Splash Mountain then made our way back to Fantasyland where I rode the Matterhorn. The ride didn't really turn my crank too much. It was basically an outdoor version of Space Mountain, another roller coaster that doesn't really do it for me either. I'm much more content on the smooth tracked modern coasters.
As I walked around I was constantly comparing and contrasting with my opinions leaning more favorably towards The Magic Kingdom. Tresca oddly enough liked Disneyland a little better. I like the size better on the whole at the Magic Kingdom but thought the quality of the rides and the preservation of Walt's vision was far more evident in California. I heard others making similar arguments in groups. One patron saying that they develop rides in Florida before they bring them to Disneyland to perfect them. I would say the opposite is actually happening. There are subtle differences to the rides but you could clearly see where they would develop an idea at Disneyland, like Indiana Jone's Adventure with the moving hydrolic vehicles and then taking that and developing "Dinosaur" which is one of my favorite attractions in Florida.
By in large seeing Disneyland was something I've longed to do for many years but never had the time, nor the resources and partner to do it with. It was well worth the trip and I hope to go back someday but it will probably be many, many years from now.