(no subject)
I went to Disneyland for a few hours yesterday and found some things I like and some I don't. I normally post on Flickr, but I didn't take any good pictures this trip, so I'll just dust off Live Journal for this one.
A couple trips ago, I rode on a parking lot tram with safety doors. I know they need to protect people from themselves, but these doors made the tram even more dangerous. They cut down the size of the opening by about 8 inches, and are spring loaded. I saw a man carrying a stroller struggling to get through them. Image the problem trying to carry a small child, diaper bag, purse, camera bag, purchases, etc and squeeze through the door. Not only that, you are going down two steps in the process, can no longer swing the bags or your arms over the arm of the seat, and all the time, the door is trying to close and pin you in the entry.
On this trip I found that that tram wasn't just an experiment -- now ALL the trams have been equipped with these ill-designed bottlenecks and the tram staff are forced to run up and down the waiting aisles shooing people with strollers to a special line for the double wide seat. Sometimes you have to wonder whether the lawyers or the imagineers are running the place any more.
On the plus side, the Rivers of America is (are?) open again and I applaud the new theme work. Now, it is truly Rivers of America, with four sections with landscaping, river details and animals native to those rivers. There are a lot more animals and more animation. And, once again, the cabin has changed its message. What was originally a cabin set on fire by savage Indians (complete with arrow-pierced body,) became a cabin NOT on fire when we had a natural gas shortage, then briefly a cabin with "pirate fire", then just a cabin, then a cabin on fire because a moonshiner fell into a drunker stupor, then again, just a cabin, then an eco-nightmare cabin on fire because of careless settlers, complete with fire burning up a branch of a nearby tree with an eagle nest and eaglets. (Don't eagles always build their nests right outside cabins?), then, once again back to being just a cabin. Now, the cabin has a renovated Keel Boat moored outside and it's Mike Fink's home. And wouldn't you know it, the coonskin cap hanging by the door shows that Davey Crockett is visiting and the two of them are singing the Davey Crockett song in perfect harmony. Oh, the eaglets survived the fire and the tree and nest are now in the Columbia River area. The circle of life. I was about to say that they bucked the trend of introducing Disney characters into every ride, but there was the Davey Crockett sing-along ...
A couple trips ago, I rode on a parking lot tram with safety doors. I know they need to protect people from themselves, but these doors made the tram even more dangerous. They cut down the size of the opening by about 8 inches, and are spring loaded. I saw a man carrying a stroller struggling to get through them. Image the problem trying to carry a small child, diaper bag, purse, camera bag, purchases, etc and squeeze through the door. Not only that, you are going down two steps in the process, can no longer swing the bags or your arms over the arm of the seat, and all the time, the door is trying to close and pin you in the entry.
On this trip I found that that tram wasn't just an experiment -- now ALL the trams have been equipped with these ill-designed bottlenecks and the tram staff are forced to run up and down the waiting aisles shooing people with strollers to a special line for the double wide seat. Sometimes you have to wonder whether the lawyers or the imagineers are running the place any more.
On the plus side, the Rivers of America is (are?) open again and I applaud the new theme work. Now, it is truly Rivers of America, with four sections with landscaping, river details and animals native to those rivers. There are a lot more animals and more animation. And, once again, the cabin has changed its message. What was originally a cabin set on fire by savage Indians (complete with arrow-pierced body,) became a cabin NOT on fire when we had a natural gas shortage, then briefly a cabin with "pirate fire", then just a cabin, then a cabin on fire because a moonshiner fell into a drunker stupor, then again, just a cabin, then an eco-nightmare cabin on fire because of careless settlers, complete with fire burning up a branch of a nearby tree with an eagle nest and eaglets. (Don't eagles always build their nests right outside cabins?), then, once again back to being just a cabin. Now, the cabin has a renovated Keel Boat moored outside and it's Mike Fink's home. And wouldn't you know it, the coonskin cap hanging by the door shows that Davey Crockett is visiting and the two of them are singing the Davey Crockett song in perfect harmony. Oh, the eaglets survived the fire and the tree and nest are now in the Columbia River area. The circle of life. I was about to say that they bucked the trend of introducing Disney characters into every ride, but there was the Davey Crockett sing-along ...