Look at that GORGEOUS shot of the Submarine Voyage. Crystal-clear water; a Monorail overhead, and the Ethan Allen slowly turning the bend to take another load of guests through the mysteries of liquid space. This first shot is from August, 1959. Now dear readers, you are about to be exposed to the underbelly of this attraction. During a December 1961 cleanup, what lies beneath the water was exposed for all to see.
You’d never know that all of this ca-rap was underneath here; with the water filling up the lagoon, everything blends together to form a beautiful bed of shells and coral. Without the water...not so pretty. The Imagineers definitely knew what they were doing.
A closeup of the workers dilligently cleaning the track and doing all sorts of sordid repairs that guests really don’t need to know about! That is, except for my readers of course.
The poor dear...she can barely make it up the exit steps. She’ll need to head over to the Space Bar for a stiff drink. Oops! They don’t serve booze. Guess she’ll have to find a local watering hole in beautiful downtown Anaheim instead.
See more Disneyland Submarine Voyage photos at my main website.
Those were awesome! I remember my total shock at seeing the lagoon empty back in 1961, LOL.
ReplyDeleteVery interesting! I always enjoy seeing "behind the scenes" workings.
ReplyDeleteThanks Dave...and they are GRAY!
ReplyDeleteA really good post of things seldom seen.
I am reminded of the story where Walt wanted to line up his fleet for Nikita Sergeyevich Khrushchev to inspect and be in awe of.
I miss Walt and we need his pride of country today more than ever.
I think it's cool how the colors look totally different than when there is water. I much prefer the water tones!
ReplyDeleteI know I saw the sub lagoon empty at least once - and maybe twice - when I was a kid. It was disappointing to not be able to ride the subs, but I did love getting a look at it.
ReplyDeleteI remember seeing the lagoon drained a couple times during childhood visits as well. I don't remember if by then they were putting a wall up around it or not, but I definitely remember viewing it from above on the Skyway.
ReplyDeleteWhile I prefer the original Subs over the Finding Nemo version, I am so glad that we didn't lose our Sub attraction altogether like WDW did. What a terrible loss for them.