Disneyland trip. It was fun! No, really, I haven't been subject to alien abduction...

[summer_jackel]

So, last weekend, after about a year of planning and at least 12 of corpsefairy attempting to convince me to go there, she, madmanatw and I made the 6-hour drive south to Disneyland. I'll admit trepidation; though I do love me some coasters, I am pretty deeply adverse to big crowds of people and I hate standing in line. Also, I loathe Southern CA, no offense to the several people I like who reside there (and who I regret that I did not have time to visit). After going to Disney as a teen, I swore that I would never return.

All of this notwithstanding...I actually had a really good time. The crowds and lines were (gasp!) pretty reasonable, partly because it's the off season, and partly because there was another fire in SoCal. /wince/ We had *no* wait times for a number of rides and had only one half-hour wait time. I can live with that. Good company and good times.

My favorites, for the record, are Splash Mountain, the beautiful carousel, and the Nightmare Before Christmas themed Haunted Mansion, which was woooooooonderful.



...how do my companions look so relaxed on that thing?!



Friendly vulpine fursuiter and myself. I find it hilarious that there is a major ride based on 'Song of the South', but that Disney won't release the movie! I think they should just release the darn thing and take the flak for their 70's racism and let me have my much-missed animated foxies and bunnies. I mean, can it really be that much worse than the black crows in 'Dumbo?'



Haunted Mansion niftiness. I had to love this. It's one of my favorite movies.







gorgeous percheron.


I have a serious carousel fetish. This beautiful machine is an antique Dentzel that originally opened in Ontario 1932; since the Dentzel factory closed in 1929, it must have been one of the last. It's now quite a Frankenstein, with a fourth row of Stein & Goldstein horses added and the outside row standers converted to jumpers. Still, it's beautiful and real.

I love this photo very muchly.


Tired Jackel at end of day slumps on carousel.







The lead (most heavily carved) horse; a real beauty.




A detail of the amazingly beautiful tile mural at the gate of CA Adventures. Disney could have done it with plastic; I was very happy to see them do it in ceramic. This thing is an amazing piece of art.

Comments

[kimberly-t.livejournal.com]

Great pictures! I love carousels too! Someday I really want to go back and find the amusement park in California that has the two-story carousel. One level was all horses, but the second level had lions and giraffes and other beasties! I saw it once and begged to go on it, but my parents said no (it was at the end of a long day with four bratty kids, they just wanted to get out of there) and now I can't even remember which amusement park it was in.

FYI, bootleg copies of "Song of the South" do pop up on Ebay from time to time.

[corpsefairy.livejournal.com]

That's Great America in Santa Clara. I believe the carousel is still there.

[summer-jackel.livejournal.com]

Yep. The Columbia at Great America is a beautiful carousel, though the figures are reproductions of the original wooden antiques. It's also a real Frankenstein, featuring Dentzel, Muller and PTC reproductions. The menagerie figures are on the lower story, and include the Dentzel hippocampus/seahorse, which is my favorite Carousel figure ever. (I've 'met' the real one, when I was a volunteer at the SF carousel museum. It is a heck of a lovely work of art). The upper story are all horses.

Great America has an antique PTC carousel as well, a really stunning one. It hasn't been up for many years, and I am really upset with them for pulling it.

I may need to get one of those bootleg copies of Song of the South. So amusing.

[raveness-d.livejournal.com]

I am jealous.

I've only ever been to Disney World... and there were some very bad memories associated with that trip.

I'd LOVE to have been able to see that Haunted Mansion. I've always really adored TNBC.

[summer-jackel.livejournal.com]

I've never been to WDW, but Corpsefairy has obtained my consent to accompany her there at some point in the not so distant future. I am hoping to glimpse a wild alligator.

[joreth]

Then I ought to take you to Gatorland while you're here!

[summer-jackel.livejournal.com]

...Gatorland?

/big starry eyes/ I want an alligator. Can I have an alligator?

[joreth]

well, I'm not very well versed in the laws regarding transporting alligators across state lines, but we can get your picture taken "wrestling" a live alligator!

[troubleagain.livejournal.com]

Truly. It's the thing to do. ::nods seriously::

[summer-jackel.livejournal.com]

Obviously, I MUST visit this attraction. Because: gators=love.

[tinygalaxies.livejournal.com]

OMG The Haunted Mansion at Disneyland is 5000 times more awesome than the one at WDW. I want to go :(

[summer-jackel.livejournal.com]

It's apparently retrofitted to Nightmare only this time of year. Really is awesome.

[tinygalaxies.livejournal.com]

Just the architecture of it - more of a New Orleans mansion than whatever you'd call the WDW mansion.

[corpsefairy.livejournal.com]

WDW's Mansion is New England architecture, because it is in Liberty Square instead of New Orleans Square.

The Nightmare overlay is deeply awesome. It's even better inside than out - the Imagineers didn't mess around when they designed it.

[tinygalaxies.livejournal.com]

Thanks! That makes sense. Is the inside of the ride pretty similar (aside from the seasonal TNBC)?

[madmanatw.livejournal.com]

Yup, pretty similar once you get past the opening hallway.

[joreth]

"Song of the South" is currently available at Pirate Bay, since it's not legally available for sale in the US.

[summer-jackel.livejournal.com]

ooooh, thank you! I downloaded it, but have no idea how to make it go. It won't open in Quicktime. Any ideas? (I am on a mac).

Also, you must tell me more about this Gatorland thing...

[starchy.livejournal.com]

VLC is my preferred video platform on any OS.

[joreth]

It's an mpg, and I don't know how that works on a Mac.

I have Windows, but I use a program called VLC for all my video files. If that doesn't work, you can try downloading the avi version, which I hear is not quite as good quality.

Another problem might be if you don't have bit torrent software installed to unpack the file. It's fairly simple, you install the software, then visit sites like Pirate Bay, and when you click "download this torrent", it automatically loads the bittorrent software for you and unpacks it.

"Gatorland is a one-of-a-kind, protected habitat for man and beast where adventures lurk around every corner! Internationally known as the Alligator Capital of the World, Gatorland’s 110-acre theme park and nature conservatory is located in Central Florida at the head of the Florida Everglades. Once you have experienced Gatorland, it will be hard to believe that it began in 1949 as a roadside attraction!"

I think you may like the Trainer For A Day package at $40, but their regular park tix only cost $20. Plus, they have great gator jerkey in the gift shop!

You might also like a couple of the gator pics I have at http://www.theinnbetween.net/reptamp.html

[summer-jackel.livejournal.com]

Drat...I downloaded VLC and did everything the instructions told to do, but the application won't open. I am made of technological fail. :P

Maybe this will work better on my laptop.

Gatorland sounds AWESOME. Certainly, I must go there. And I get to *pet* a real live *alligator?* And possibly smooch it on the muzzle? What could possibly be more utterly wonderful in a roadside attraction...?!

ok, so maybe those cougar kittens I got to hold in Oregon. But still. Alligators. Do Want.

[joreth]

Did you install a bit torrent application first? That may be the problem - at least that's what I did wrong the first time I ever tried to download a bittorrent file. I have the link in the previous comment.

Yep, you get to pet a real life alligator, and last time I was there, they had a full size adult alligator (with his mouth taped for safety) that you could straddle his back, hold onto his mouth as it's raised in the air (a position that makes them incredibly weak) and have your picture taken "wrestling" him.

[joreth]

Just for reference, my copies of the mpg and the avi finally both downloaded and I could compare them. The avi file was better sound quality and a larger viewing size, so when you get the download issue straightened out, I recommend the avi version.

[noahbrand.livejournal.com]

Hey, I remember the trip to Disneyland you took as a teenager. Somewhere I still have a couple pictures from that.

Man, that was a startlingly large number of years ago.

[summer-jackel.livejournal.com]

Yeah, it really was scarily long ago. We're, like, in our 30s or something.

That was really a fun trip. Disneyland scared me, but it needed to happen. ;)

[nicole-monkey.livejournal.com]

I am so happy that you enjoyed yourself, I had a trip with the very same companions as you to the very same place and had a wonderful time. Really if you are going to Disneyland Corpsefairy and madmanatw are the ones to go with! And the reason they look so calm on splash mountain is because they have been on it a million times :P
That horse is so beautiful, I think I checked out the same one last time I was there. Hooves the size of dinner plates! I want to ride one so bad! ..In the snow.. in Germany.. with a fur lined cloak.. 500 years ago.. It's okay for me to want impossible things!