Thursday, April 30, 2009

A Magical Place That Is a World of Fun

Come with me to the land that was made for you and me.
It was a nice warm day to go visit the Disneyland Resort. Here I am heading down the escalator, deciding whether to walk or to take the tram.
I chose to walk and as I was walking, I noticed some of Astro Orbitors's gold spheres. A lot of Astro Orbitors parts were in this area being worked on. 
First stop is Disney's California Adventure. With the World Celebration of the Food and Wine festivile, the area music that is played reminds me of World Showcase at EPCOT Center
I love turning the corner and see Mickey happily smiling at all the Guests visiting. This type of greeting is much more inviting than the previous sun
Construction for World of Color
These might be the programming cables used for the lights
The wave machine totally gone



I hope this gets cleaned up before the Fun Wheel opens. This kind of mess will probably be an ongoing problem.  And it doesn't help any that the poles are painted black


With the new entrance, it should be easier to find where to queue up. The old entrance marquee was located to the far right, next to the palm tree.
The culprit!  I wonder if they thought about putting those thin spikes on the poles so the birds wouldn't land there.   


Is this construction for Little Mermaid? Or could they be building something to illuminate Mickey's Face?
The San Fran area goes a little green with some bare trees
The signs on either side leading to the entrance, are they new?
After some tastey lunch at Taste Pilot's Grill, it was off to Disneyland
Is this "mask" a type of sunglasses for the horse?  
The phonograph is broken
Get your palms read by Rolly Crump. Rolly Crump started with Disney back in 1952 at the Walt Disney Studios. He served as an in-between artist and later, assistant animator, contributing to Peter Pan, Lady and the Tramp, Sleeping Beauty, and others.
In 1959, Rolly joined WED enterprises.  There, he became one of Walt's key designers for some of Disneyland's attractions and shops, including Haunted Mansion, Enchanted Tiki Room, and Adventureland Bazaar. Rolly also worked on a few of the Disney attractions that were introduced at the 1964-65 New York World's Fair. He designed the Tower of the Four Winds marquee for the It's a Small World pavillion. When the attraction moved to Disneyland, he designed the animated clock at the entrance.
Rolly helped with the intial design of the Magic Kingdom for Walt Disney World. He left the company after 1970 to persue other projects and eventually came back and contributed to EPCOT Center's TheLand and Wonders of Life Pavillions. Rolly retired from the Walt Disney Company in 1996

Don Edgren worked for Wheeler & Gray, Structural Engineers, at The Walt Disney Studios on the structural design/detail of Disneyland from late 1954 until the Park opened on July 17, 1955.  He then coordinated structural design/detail on Disneyland expansion until June of 1961.
Don worked as a project engineer on the Ford Motor Company exhibit for the 1964-65 New York World's Fair and the "Magic Skyway" show and ride.
Back at Disneyland, Don led the Imagineering engineering team for New Orleans Square and Pirates of the Caribbean, while also participating in the initial master planning for Walt Disney World in Florida. In 1969, Don was promoted to vice president, engineering for Florida.
Don returned to WED, April 1972 as vice president of engineering. He led the Imagineering engineers on the Magic Kingdom's Space Mountain, after which he left Disney briefly. But then in 1979, Don returned to WED as director of engineering for Tokyo Disneyland. For that project, he moved to Japan and coordinated all engineering design activities. In 1983, Don returned to the WED, where he was responsible for the direction and supervision of all project engineers. And in 1987, Don retired from The Walt Disney Company.
Amazing how open it looks without the Astro Orbitor.  Now if they would only continue to take out the remaining pieces, fill it in, and take the wall down, would I truly be happy
If you are wondering what has happened here, it looks like the protective panels that were underneath the monorail beam have been taken off. 
Some people may get tired of the Celebration Barbecue pictures, but I think it's still newsworthy because it seems like the area is not generating a lot of business during peak times when every other Disneyland restaurant has a nice turn out in their dining areas.  
What is this??  Is this Loch Ness?

No, it's just a bird eating lunch
Looks like the bird is having a tough time swallowing that fish
Looks like he has it under control.
One happy bird
That concludes todays trip to the Disneyland Resort. Check back often for more