Starling Travel

Re-Imagineering is a weblog written by Pixar employees about what is wrong with the current Disneyland and how to fix it. Most of the time they are right on the mark, but this entry is completely WRONG in all capital letters this time.

• Re-Imagineering: Elemental Losses: Earth

Their entry argues that because the parking lot of old Disney was so drab and boring it was a stark contrast to the magical world of Disneyland. That might have been true. Maybe even back when they built California Adventure, the parking lot WAS better than the new addition, but now, they are WRONG.

We visited Disneyland this year and I was truly impressed with the parking situation. The moment our car got on Disney property, I felt like we were already in the Magic Kingdom. Friendly employees directed our car to the structure and then within the structure, they even directed us to a parking spot. It went so easily and we weren’t driving around and around looking for a place to park our car like we did at Universal Studios.

It was so easy to remember where our car was because we were on the Goofy floor. Even the kids remembered where our car was parked, “Goofy!” Each of the floors were assigned a Disney character, which is so much easier to remember than Floor 5.

When we went down to the trams, we could take an elevator or the bank of escalators. All the escalators went down, so it was very easy to get out of the parking garage and to the tram that quickly came to take us to the park.

When we returned, all the escalators were going up instead of down. I had no idea that they even made reversible escalators, but the Disney Imagineers planned long and hard on this parking structure to make it an easy experience for people who are tired and just want to go home.

I think the writers for Imagineering need to look at the current incarnation of Disneyland with new eyes. Look at it as if you never saw the Disneyland of 1958. Look at it as a parent of today and imagine trying to get three tired kids back to the car and out of the park. The parking structure is one of the things at Disneyland that WORKS. It works so well and so efficiently that people probably never even notice it.

Pictures Via Flicker:

• disneyland parking lot: about 1958 on Flickr – Photo Sharing!

• Parking structure on Flickr – Photo Sharing!

Jeff Voris has a Flickr Slideshow of the pictures he took while he was at the county fair in Orange County, California. You can see it here:

• Orange County Fair 2006 Slideshow – by Jeff Voris

These are my two favorite photos:

Summer is the time for county and state fairs. If you need a break for the weekend, plan a trip to your county or state fair and enjoy all the weirdness that your local area has to offer.

Via: Boing Boing: Unusual photos taken at OC fair

This video is almost 25 minutes long. It is a Disney film made about Disneyland and shows Walt Disney’s ideas for his new amusement park, The Epcot Center. It shows Disneyland as it was in the early sixties. If you went to Disneyland as a child and are shocked to see how different it is today, this video is great for reminiscing.

I spent all of last week reminiscing about Lagoon, a Utah amusement park. The old photographs reminded me of how excited I was to go to Lagoon as a child. You can see the series here:

• Pick Me! » Lagoon 1973 (Part 1 of 7)

• Pick Me! » Lagoon 1973 (Part 2 of 7)

• Pick Me! » Lagoon 1973 (Part 3 of 7)

• Pick Me! » Lagoon 1973 (Part 4 of 7)

• Pick Me! » Lagoon 1973 (Part 5 of 7)

• Pick Me! » Lagoon 1973 (Part 6 of 7)

• Pick Me! » Lagoon 1973 (Part 7 of 7)

It’s strange for me to go to Lagoon as an adult and not see the Lagoon of my past. In most respects, the park is far better than it was when I was a child, but my eyes still see the ghosts of the past. I think to myself, “The slides used to be here. The fun house used to be there.” I can’t walk along the pathways without remembering the Lagoon of my youth.

Colleen Wainwright lives in California and has had many opportunities to go to Disneyland as a child and as an adult, but for the first time, she went to Disneyland WITH children.

• communicatrix » Blog Archive » Miss Colleen’s Wild Ride

The first time I went to Disneyland with children was with my friends’ three kids last year. They had never been to Disneyland, but they had been to other amusement parks. The concept of rides were not scary to them and the waiting in line was expected.

Watching them experience Disneyland for the first time was more fun than my first trip there. I loved watching them discover the hidden secrets that Disneyland has to offer.

There are so many people who are eager to complain about Disneyland because it’s more commercial than they remember it as a child or because certain rides have disappeared never to return. Disneyland is not a museum and guess what? It’s not a shopping mall either.

Through the eyes of a child, Disneyland is another world that doesn’t exist anywhere else. Those who believe otherwise have lost their child’s eyes.

Club 33 is the exclusive private club in Disneyland. It is the only location in Disneyland that serves alcohol. It was named Club 33 after the original 33 sponsors of Disneyland. Now, membership seems to be steeped in rumor with waiting lists that are said to be over three years long and membership fees ranging from $2000 to $10,000 a year.

When Groucho Marx said that he would never want to join a club that would have him as a member, I wonder if he ever knew about Club 33. The rumors about this club make me think of the intelligentsia of Walt Disney’s intimates. I used to imagine that Club 33 was filled with Imagineers and the elite of Walt Disney’s friends. Imagine how excited I was to know that there were pictures of the club on the Internet. They hadn’t been pulled by Disney and they showed things like the menu and the bill.

• Photoblog – Club 33 – 10-13-04

• Photoblog – Club 33 – 12-12-04

There is no narrative to this photoblog, unfortunately. He leaves us no clues about how he got into the club or why he was able to go twice. He doesn’t say if he is a member or a guest of one. He leaves hardly a trace of himself on his website: a few “rants” and a rambling introduction. All we have are these pictures, really.

Somehow, seeing these Club 33 pictures makes me think less of Disney intelligentsia and more of Disney obsessed fans. It’s actually a little disappointing.