Weird stuff viewed on the Disney Echo this yEAR

Crunchy numbers

4,329 films were submitted to the 2012 Cannes Film Festival. This Disney Echo blog had 28,000 views in 2012. If each view were a film, this blog would power 6 Film Festivals. But probably not very well.

Disney Echo readers are weird. Or maybe I’m weird, I forget. But here are the posts that somehow got the most views in 2012:

---

Subliminal Message in Disney Tangled Marketing

---

Titanic Ghost Tour

---

New Official Disney Parks iPhone App Features Augmented Reality And Official Wait Times

---

Disney Tangled: Spoilers

---

Free iPhone app lets you zoom while recording

---

Disneyland PeopleMover, Innoventions replacement, Tomorrowland revamp, Frontierland expansion approved? Here’s why

---

Disney rereleases classic Song of the South

---

Lego Store at Disneyland’s Downtown Disney

---

iPhone — The Missing Manual for iOS 6, iPhone 5 and earlier iPhones

---

iPhone iOS 6 Bug with Sounds

---

Happy birthday, Siri!

---

Siri vs Siri: The battle of the iPhone 5 turn-by-turn navigation apps

---

Siri and iPad 3

---

Thanks, everyone, for a wonderful year!

Disneyland PeopleMover, Innoventions replacement, Tomorrowland revamp, Frontierland expansion approved? Here’s why

The Astro Orbiter in its current location, seen here from inside the Plaza Inn restaurant, doesn't blend well with that area's turn-of-the-century theming and also clogs the entrance to Tomorrowland from the Hub (Disneyland's Central Plaza).

The buzz from Disneyland insiders is that the Suits in charge there know they need to increase the number of attractions in order to deal with that park’s crowded conditions.

It’s a great, big, beautiful Tomorrowland!

Because of that, rumor has it that Disney Imagineering projects have been approved to revamp Tomorrowland — including moving the Astro Orbiter out of that land’s crowded Central Plaza walkway and returning them back to the old Rocket Jets location, flying high over the heart of Tomorrowland with, get this, a new PeopleMover below it as well as a replacement for Innoventions in the old Carousel Theater/America Sings building.

I’d love to see all of that happen as well as a new attraction in that interesting building (hopefully utilizing its unique rotating ring section). It is way past time to evict the Elias family out of their Innoventions Dream Home on 360 Tomorrowland Way. They can continue celebrating their son’s “amazing” soccer goal elsewhere… or move with your lives on as you move out, Elias family. You’ve been hosting a party celebrating Robbie’s soccer goal since 1998. Is he even still living at home after all that time?

Add to the expansion project mix that Disneyland Resort president George Kalogridis at D23′s Destination D mini-expo admitted they “hear us” about bringing the PeopleMover back, so plans have been created to make that possible. He went on to explain what Disney has to do to make the attraction comply with today’s safety standards (adding a walkway alongside the track with railings and emergency exit staircases, etc.). Changes made to the park’s Alice in Wonderland attraction immediately come to mind.

The PeopleMover was a very high-capacity, short line, efficient attraction that in and of itself would help to alleviate Disneyland’s Guest overcrowding problem. Plus, they could bring back the TRON SuperSpeed Tunnel section to the PeopleMover — synergy with TRON Legacy! Having the 3,000 Guest per hour capacity of the PeopleMover back will be a great start to lessen Disneyland’s overcrowding.

Frontierland Expansion

But that’s not all. Word is that Frontierland will be expanded with at least one new attraction, an E-Ticket (i.e., a super attraction).

Before Frontierland can be expanded, though, room needs to be created for that behind the berm. That’s why Disney is looking into where offsite — but nearby — they can move the backstage Circle D Ranch horse stables (then uses trailers to transport the park’s horses to/from the park) to open up room behind the Festival Arena to expand Frontierland with a new E-Ticket attraction which might be themed to Johnny Depp’s upcoming “Lone Ranger” movie.

Good! Big Thunder Ranch can certainly use something more exciting than a log cabin and a petting zoo. Big Thunder Trail can be much more than a backdoor path to Fantasyland behind Big Tbunder Mountain.

I hope all of these rumored changes are officially announced soon and come to pass. With these additions to Disneyland — along with the improvements at Disney California Adventure — my opinion is that the Disneyland Resort will be better than ever. Reply with your thoughts about this!

Like This on Facebook!

Monorail Purple into Disneyland Tuesday morning

Michael had the great idea to see if we could ride in the front of the monorail so I asked. They said yes! It was Monorail Purple, skinned in it’s Year of a Million Dreams motif. The new Monorail Red wasn’t online yet that morning because they had problems with it, we were told. It will be added sometime during the day, but they didn’t know when.

We also got to ride the new Monorail Red twice that week, and we’ll post about it in this travel blog, too.

 

 

 

The door opens and Michael is the first to get in.

Our monorail pilot said Disneyland doesn’t give out “Monorail License”s like WDW does.

 

In the picture below, Carol takes a picture before she enters the front of the monorail.

Pictures Carol took have been added into this blog entry, including this one of me (what she was shooting through the open door, above).

 

Michael also shot a video which we’ll post after getting home.

There are more pictures!

The first thing we see while at the Downtown Disney monorail station is a Cast Member parking lot.

Then some lovely flowering bushes.

Hard to believe this wooded scene used to be an asphalt parking lot.

Here’s something you don’t see every day… the backside of the Indiana Jones attraction.

Another look at what’s backstage behind the Indiana Jones attraction.

Now we passing over the picnic area. I will have more pictures of the picnic area from ground level later in this blog.

This is the Disneyland entry plaza.

 

Further east, going over the Disneyland entry plaza.

The Disneyland turnstyles with Main Street Train Station beyond.

Here is where hotel shuttle buses turn around.

Another bus turn-around area. Probably looks like crop circles from the air.

On the left, the Cast Member building.

These are massive air conditioning units backstage behind Tomorrowland.

More backstage buildings on the left. We can see the monorail track on the right for heading back to the Downtown Disney station.

Our monorail track is on top, while the return monorail track comes in on a curve underneath before running parallel with our track. That’s Harbor Blvd. beyond the Disneyland fence.

On the left, Tomorrowland’s Autopia and the Matterhorn.

Michael did a great job taking video, which I’ll post here later.

The Matterhorn, behind Autopia.

The Matterhorn behind our monorail track seen going over the Finding Nemo Submarine Voyage lagoon.

Here is the lagoon with Autopia behind it. Part of Autopia is actually on top of the Finding Nemo Submarine Voyage, but you’d never know it.

Now we’re over Fantasyland with it’s a small world in the distance.

it’s a small world plaza

You can see a bit of it’s a small world behind the trees.

Fantasyland with our monorail track and the People Mover track to the right of it.

Here’s the switch track for when a monorail needs to go to the roundhouse.

The monorail track swirls around a lot of Disneyland before reaching the monorail station, giving great views of the park like this other one of the Matterhorn.

Here is the Mad Tea Party attraction.

A Disneyland exclusive: Alice in Wonderland attraction.

A waterfall on the Matterhorn.

Here is part of the queue area for the submarine voyage attraction.

We’re approaching the Tomorrowland station.

We’ve exited and now can see Monorail Purple from below.

That was our last ride on the old monorail. The next two times are with the new Monorail Red and we’ll have details of those exciting rides as well here on the blog.

Tomorrowland

Redd Rockett’s Pizza Port and “retro rocket” — which we still think is very cool.

The Pizza Port is inside what used to be the Mission to Mars building.

photo posted from my iPhone

Disneyland Professional Photographer-Shot Photos

Here are pictures shot of us at Disneyland by Disney photographers using their own professional cameras.

                                                                                                      

Main Street U.S.A.

                                                                                                      

Michael and Mickey at Mickey’s Movie Barn

                                                                                                    

Michael, Mickey, Rich and Carol at Mickey’s Movie Barn

                                                                                                                                                                

Michael at Buzz Lightyear’s Astro Blasters

                                                                                                                                                                  

Carol and Rich at Buzz Lightyear’s Astro BlastersRead comments and reply!

Night View Of Disneyland Hotel

The blue section shows stars and fiber optics, Magic Tower (where we stayed) is where the red Disneyland Hotel lighted building is in the right.

Walk in Walt’s Footsteps tour is great. Worth the cost and time. Puts the park into perspective about Walt, and we heard little stories and information we never knew or noticed before. Meet at 9:15 for a 9:30-12:30 tour and it includes a lunch of your choice of sandwich, seasonal fruit or bag of chips, two chocolate chip cookies and your choice of soft drinks or bottled water – served 12:30-1:00 pm. Lunch is included in the price.

We saw the interior of Club 33, the interior of the fire station with facts about Walt’s use of it as well as his apartment above, we rode the Lilly Belle train car (that’s not assured, the tour guide has to obtain prior permission and train car can’t be booked for another group), displays of 50th Anniversary exhibit were shown and explained – but not the movie of it – and we went on the Jungle Cruise (through the exit marked “Excaping Passengers”!) and into the Enchanted Tiki Room where they showed us one of the flowers unattached in the attraction — and let each of us operate it to make it “talk.” We walked through New Orleans Square, by the Matterhorn and it’s a small world, Snow White’s Grotto, the Fantasyland Carousel, and Sleeping Beauty Castle — as well as along Main Street U.S.A. where we were shown the output vents of the “smellitzer” that makes the aromas available outside of various shops, and had windows along the street explained to us.

After the tour we saw the Steve Martin movie about the 50th Anniversary. Our son bought some light-up Mouse Ears and I bought a princess version for a young distant relative who had a bone marrow transplant last year, and we had those stitched with names.

Next we rode the train on a “grand circle tour of the Magic Kingdom”, saw the Grand Canyon and the dinosaurs. At 3:00 pm we left the park to rest (after getting our hands stamped), upload things to this travel blog, then got ready for dinner at Napa Rose.

Dinner was superb. Michael wants this caliber of food at his school cafeteria (heh, wouldn’t we wish!). Annual Pass discount not done at Napa Rose. For three adult entrees, three adult menu soups, two glasses of wine and Coke, three desserts, tax and tip a fortune got spent there, well into triple digits. Rich will cancel our coming back due only to the expenses. Fabulous meal!

(Update from Rich: Afterwards we also decided a good reason to cancel our Priority Seating for the following night is because it takes so long to dine comfortably (not rushed) in the meal, plus getting cleaned up beforehand — and we didn’t have that much time left in our vacation compared to all we wanted to do.)

I was too pooped after the meal but Rich and son returned to the park after a change of clothes. They went on Autopia (you get a drivers license souvenir for free there, for $5 you can make it a photo drivers license but they didn’t do it that night… Michael and I did that another day), took the monorail into and out of the park (one time we couldn’t leave on it because it was closed at the time, being too close to when the fireworks go off), saw Fantasmic! (better than when we saw it last 13 years ago and better than in Florida, Rich said) and POTC for the second time of the trip because Michael liked it so much (and we all agree it is better than in Florida). A meeting up with an E-friend and family didn’t happen that day.

Today at 9 am we’re have a character breakfast with Minnie and her friends at Plaza Inn in Disneyland, and we have the rest of the day and night free to do anything we want in the park. We night try again to meet up with the E-friend.

Wednesday we pick up a rental car in the morning, travel to Legoland with E-friend and family in separate vehicles, move from DL Hotel to Grand Californian Hotel, and have dinner at Ralph Brennan’s Jazz Kitchen.

(Update from Rich: We stayed longer than we thought we would at Legoland, plus got a later start, so I cancelled the Priority Seating from Ralph Brennan’s Jazz Kitchen using my iPhone while at Legoland.)

Friday we meet Michael Broggie and tour Walt’s barn and see his trains, see the “College Road Trip” movie at El Capitan Theatre and try to find Walt’s grave.

Saturday we leave for home and return the rental car at the airport before taking our flights.

Have a great day where you are.

Carol Koster

Sent from my iPhone

posted from iPhoneSlide.com