(no subject)

[senoritafish]

Getting in the car to head to Dismalland to take the kids minds off recent happenings; I love it when the clouds are so textured...

Sky
Huntington Beach CA
Casio EX-Z80A
22 February 2009




A few months ago, I was reminded of the little walk thru of Sleeping Beauty's Castle that I remembered from a long time ago. We searched for it a few months ago, and were unable to even find the doors into it - upon asking a "cast member," I was told that it had been closed several years previously because people were "being naughty" in there. This time we were tickled to find that it is once again open, with the doors where I remembered them, now with fancy awnings, a bit brighter lighting, and presumably, cameras to observe for mischief. All the little dioramas inside have been redone, adding animated bits here and there from the movie, like the flames from the burning spindles above.

Sleeping Beauty
Anaheim CA



Also tickled to hear this antique player (whatisit - organ? I'd say that but it also had brass instruments and percussion) that played "This is Halloween" and "What is This?" from Nightmare Before Christmas - if you put a quarter in, of course. My amusement in the arcade/candy store while the fry were running around putting nickels in the little hand-cranked silent movie machines - I don't know the proper name of those things either...

Comments

[otana.livejournal.com]

I was gonna say, "wait closed? But I was there in January!"

Disneyland's fun, my friend works the Small World ride, she adores it. And the best part about having a cast member as a friend is that I get in for free!

[senoritafish.livejournal.com]

My brother worked there too, in the early 90's; he is a rabid Disneyphile and he too, loves the Small World ride. He takes the kids on it. Just a little too saccarine for me; I can stomach it about once a year, when he pleads with me.

I don't remember him getting any of us in for free, but he did get us nifty items from the employee's store, which had things that weren't available to the public. I think I still have a King Triton T-shirt that I really liked, although it's pretty worn now.

As far as the castle; I have a feeling it might have been on of those "you aren't appreciating this properly, so we're going to take it away from you for awhile" kind of things Disney seems to like to do; like they do with their DVDs.

[otana.livejournal.com]

Well, the DVDs is a pretty good marketing strategy. Obviously Disney wants to market themselves to every new generation, and by making the DVDs only available in short bursts, they create a demand and bring them out in time for a whole new set of kids to get excited about them. If they're constantly available, people get blase about them. I used to work at the Disney Store in London, we were able to shift absolutely abysmal movies that everyone hated, just by working up excitement over them being "limited edition".

But yeah, I'm glad they reopened the Sleeping Beauty castle, that was a lovely attraction. I enjoyed the water show too, I'd only seen the fireworks before that.

From what I recall of her explanation, Cast Members get unlimited free passes off season, and have a quota of passes for on season visits. So off season, we just pack a lunch, drive over there (straight down the 90 for me, nice and easy) and spend the day hanging out. Especially nice when the park's half empty and there are no lines.

[senoritafish.livejournal.com]

Heh, I'm aware it's their marketing gimmick strategy. I got totally suckered in the early 90's by the Suncoast video store employee to buy the special deluxe boxed set of Fantasia VHS tapes with accompanied book and making-of feature, because it would NEVER BE AVAILABLE AGAIN (and was sure to be a collectors item and increase in value)!!!! I believe he meant on VHS - this was shortly before DVDs became widely available. I think that thing is still sitting unopened in my garage...

Passes - Ah, I see...Doug worked there before they became available. Yeah, it's nice just going for a couple of hours after 8 pm; sometimes they don't even check you for parking and very few people in lines (although the kids have been complaining they never see the place in the daytime). We used to get the special passes to get to the front of the line (or an alternate entrance) because of Angus, but he's gotten better about them making him anxious so we don't need them so much.