I Know You, I Walked Thru You Once Upon a Dream

The Sleeping Beauty Castle Walk Thru (one of the funkiest Disneyland attractions I ever visited) is officially going to reopen! Hoo-Ray! Just in time for BlueRay!

Now, this was never any E-Ticket attraction. No, this was one of those small "surprise" experiences that gives Disneyland the richness that no other park can even approach.

Must have been watching Conversations with Michael Eisner. Zzzzzzz.

And I'm glad to see Tony Baxter's comments that they are modeling this redo off the original Eyvind Earle design, not the window-display version that took over in the seventies.

Here's the press release.

Bob says....

An' here I sit so patiently

Waiting to find out what price

You have to pay to get out of

Going through all these things twice.

Thanks, Bob.

You can find that kind of poetry throughout Blonde on Blonde. Go git it.

Does InBev Know What They Have?

The Sea World parks have always fascinated me.

My first Sea World experience was back in the mid-seventies, at the now-defunct Sea World Ohio, near Cleveland. A little history lesson: that park was a real jewel among the Sea World properties, outperforming expectations from day one. You want some background on it, check out Geoorge Millay's biography The Wave Maker.

The Super Friends were performing ski shows at Sea World during my first visit. It was my first exposure to Mera, Aquaman's wife. Meee-Yow!

While you have your nose in that really great history of the theme park business, read up on George's thoughts regarding the Marine Mammal Protection Act. That little bit of legislation had a big impact on the theme park industry, and Sea World in particular. Why?

Well, cutting to the chase, when the MMPA was passed in 1972, it prohibited Americans from harassing, hunting, capturing, or killing marine animals in United States waters or on the high seas. The upshot: companies couldn't go out and snatch a bunch of killer whales and dolphins, just 'cause.

Ah, but Sea World already had these beasties, and there was nothing preventing them from continuing to display them, or make them jump through rings of fire, or dance to Village People songs. Thing was, Sea World became one of the only games in town with that little law.

That's what she said...

So, InBev grabs up Anheuser Busch and there's all this talk about selling off the parks to pay down the debt on that deal. But maybe those parks are more valuable than folks give them credit for, just because they have those assets.

Add in the deal that the Busch parks have in place with the Sesame Street characters here in the United States, plus the agreement with Nakheel in Dubai...well, you hate to see these parks dismantled, but it sure seems like you could maybe make more money by not keeping all these parks lumped together.

What would Disney or Universal do if offered the chance to buy Sesame Place and also snatch up the rights to use the Sesame characters here in the United States?

What would Merlin Entertainment or Oriental Land Company do if they were given a chance to own the three Sea World parks here in the United States, moving them from foreign players to immediate contenders in the Orlando, So. Cal., and (oh yeah) San Antonio markets?

Seems like there are a lot of cool possibilities. Also some scary ones. Here's hoping that whatever happens, these parks aren't tarnished in the process.

Random Sketch

too many meetings

What Disney's Hollywood Studios Doesn't Need...

...is another show. Good lord, you spend a day at this joint and it's hurry-hurry, scurry-scurry from one scheduled event to another. Guess it wouldn't be so bad if the shows ran all day--like they do at Sea World--but most of Disney's shows shut down just about the time that the Florida sun switches from Atomic to Something Tolerable.

If Toy Story Mania proves anything, it's that the Studios need(s) more rides to fill out the guest experience. Especially family rides.

So, as Jim Hill provides this news about the new American Idol attraction--one more big show--I just gotta think this is another misguided Marketing-driven attraction that throws this park even further out of balance.

Million Dollar Spud

Just back from a ridiculously-long vacation to the sunshine state and the Vacation Kingdom of the World. While there, we made sure to visit Toy Story/Midway Mania ride at Disney's MGM Hollywood Studios Theme Park. More about the ride below. This entry begins with a recounting of our second visit to this attraction.

Anyway, we took the Standby line which was posted at 65 minutes but was chucking along so quick, it seemed like our wait would be maybe half that. Of course, the idiot who thinks that way jinxes himself. And sure enough, the line just stopped.

I used this time to take in the queue (nothing really special, big toys on a thin budget) and the much-lauded Tater Head animatronic (NOT visible to Fastpassers). So we stood watching the Potato. Pretty soon, he started acting weird. He'd freeze. Then he'd hit the wall. He took his ear out (nice). When he went to shove it back in, he kind of just lobbed it onto the floor (ooops!).

Below is a suboptimal, blurry shot of the unfortunate Cast Member who had to walk the gauntlet of grumbling Standby guests so he could replace the giant spud-ear using a highly-themed aluminum stepladder.

(Seriously, I'm totally embarrassed at the quality of this shot.)

"Hurry up, ya hockey puck! Bob Iger spent more on my nose than you'll make in a lifetime!"

Tater Head continued to sputter and whirr as we stood in place for 90 minutes. Once, he went haywire when an irritable guest used an emergency exit near the spud...seemed like some proximity sensor killed the show.

Panic Bar versus Tater Head. Panic Bar WINS!

Eventually though, we did ride (after a 130 minute wait...STOOPID Fastpass). And it is a very well done attraction. Insanely addictive.

THE FUNMEISTER IS DEAD!

LONG LIVE THE FUNMEISTER!





I can't figure out whether I should be sad or resigned to the idea that Pleasure Island wil officially be shuttered this September. The memories of great times are there, but it has been way too much work to pretend that PI was fun for, oh, maybe the last decade. Seriously, how many times can you sit through the same show at Adventurers Club and pretend the old yarns are still funny, or even interesting?

What I do mourn is the fact that Pleasure Island never lived up to its potential and now never will. There was always this nugget inside me that hoped the Mouse would someday see that PI could be "grown up" and still every bit as rich and fanciful as the best Disney attraction.

Instead we say goodnight to Merriweather Adam Pleasure, his idiot sons, the canvas factory, the pigeons from Sandusky, and the Balderdash Awards. We loved you when you were young. But we'd rather see you dead than have you living as some gibbering, drooling old fart.