Today’s post continues the topic of “5 Disneyland Details We Love (and 5 we hate!)” from the EarzUp Podcast. Yeah, I know…it was more than just 5. They’re overachievers!
7. The way the tap water tastes. According to Jason, it tastes like a combination of blood and dirt at the Park water fountains. That’s one way to sell more bottled water! Not that Dasani is much better…
8. The PeopleMover tracks in Tomorrowland. They are a sad reminder that we will never see a vehicle riding on those tracks again. Kind of like having a bunch of broken cars on the front lawn of a mansion. It would help foot traffic in that area to just remove them.
9. The replacement of the Market House coffee shop with Starbucks. The coffee was fine…and it wasn’t $5+, and you could get free refills, making it (for some) the last souvenir before you leave.
Not being Starbucks, it differentiated the experience from going to any town in America (or even Downtown Disney). The coffee should hit different, like the churros. Admittedly, there was a dispute on the podcast over whether the previous coffee was actually good/bad, though. I’m not a coffee drinker, but typically my friends who went to the Park with me stated it was a step above caffeinated water.
10. The trolley tracks on Main Street. They appreciate the authenticity, but so many times have almost broken an ankle, gotten a stroller wheel stuck in there…just give us a more modern version of a trolley! NOTE: This one, I have to respectfully disagree on. While I myself have tripped over the tracks before, a stroller is no reason to make ANY changes at the Park. Anyone who reads my blog knows that I have an aversion to the abundance of strollers (which are as big as mobile homes) found there.
11. Buena Vista Street. It looks bland and not nuanced enough to reflect Los Angeles in the 1930s; kinda’ like tract homes. Also full of boring window treatments. Compared to Main Street, it’s night and day. Thoroughly unimaginative. NOTE: at first, I was surprised by this one. When Buena Vista Street first opened, I thought it was the coolest thing. But…it was the vintage façades that I loved and the fact that it was SOOOO much better than its predecessor, Sunshine Plaza (which wouldn’t have taken much). I would argue that over the years, Main Street’s shop interiors have become less imaginative, too, as they have devolved into repositories of plush and uninteresting vendors.
12. Pointless warehouse and backstage areas in DCA. There’s a rarely used stage (formerly for Electronica) and empty buildings that they are doing NOTHING with. Or at least nothing that enhances the guest experience.
13. The non-working parts of the Indiana Jones Adventure queue. The bamboo trick to lower the ceiling has not worked in years. I can’t begin to count how many times I twirled that big piece of bamboo around hoping so hard that it would actually work again. But no…
14. The Paradise Garden Park. The most jumbled non-themed area in any part of Disneyland. Just throw stuff in there, and people will go. This area stinks - spend some actual dollars on it!
15. The lady that hangs out in front of Carthay with the fake dog. Hey lady, don't ever talk to me! Notice that the Disney Corporation didn’t miss an opportunity for cross-promotion; the name of the dog is “Lady.” The typeface police would have to shoot the person that used all-caps with the decorative font. Ugh.
16. I don't like Batuuese…hearing cast members speak the forced new language just feels like bad dinner theater (like the lady in front of Carthay with the fake dog). Imagine hearing Cajun Creole in New Orleans Square? We all know we’re at Disneyland…let it go. NOTE: I have never been to Star Wars land, so this 2016 construction shot is the closest thing that I have. I’m not upset about it, either.
17. The entirety of the Esplanade; groups of teens meeting at the compass rose drinking their Starbucks drinks. Devoid of basic design elements and shade; drop some green! Add a few trees! So much space to do SOMETHING with!
Another chance to catch the entire ball of wax in advance:
I never thought about the mailboxes until you mentioned it. One more thing I took for granted, never used, and never noticed when it was gone. Regrets.
ReplyDeleteI've also never tasted the water fountains of Disneyland, but no regrets there. I wish Dasani ( and Coke ) were replaced with lesser known, locally made craft sodas for a unique experience, but corporate sponsorship speaks louder than Walt's ghost.
One advantage about the People Mover tracks = shade. In a park that continuously finds new ways to have you stand for hours on end, at least there's some shade.
Agreed on Market House over Starbucks. Walt once expressed an interest in finding things here you couldn't find anywhere else, hence the mineral shop in Frontierland and other things. We need less of McDonalds fries, Starbucks and Coke. Market House coffee was never good, but that's easily changed by changing suppliers. I think they were using Maxwell House which is like gently aged cigarette ashes. I'm currently sipping my God-awful expensive Kona at the moment but I'm willing to pay more for good coffee. Starbucks is paying more for mediocre coffee. They've gone downhill.
The trolley tracks on Main Street are important BECAUSE you can break an ankle on them. It may take a good set of recessed rails at Disneyland to wake people up, make them pay attention to their surroundings, etc. I'm getting so bitter as I get older. I walk past a stroller that just got snagged in the tracks and all I can think is "Good. That buys me a little time to get in line ahead of them."
I always felt something was off in Buena Vista Street but didn't know what until now. The window displays. Some are good ( the candy shop and the hidden Mickeys inside the mountain ) but others are just the sort of commercial grab that don't feel right.
The one upside to the pointless warehouses and backstages of DCA is it gives them a multi-purpose area to try new things. I'll give it that much. The Tron thing was memorable, but little else.
When I saw the cast members trying that "Bright Suns" thing with guests you could tell they were doing it half-hearted because the guest reaction was bad and they were tired of negative guest reactions. Somewhere above the abused employee and the marginalized customer is a Disney exec who makes a lot of money to not wade into the pool and see what the temperature really is.
I'll defend the Esplanade. Security cameras and visibility are essential. This is where some truly awful things happen and Disney security needs unobstructed views.
Bryan - Yes, the shade of PM tracks is good, but not when you have to worry about concrete chunks of unmaintained track falling on your head!
ReplyDeleteOn the coffee thing...again, not a coffee drinker but....surely they could have gotten a local roaster interested in doing some kind of sponsorship deal where they could have helped out the community AND gotten publicity for the vendor at the same time, while providing a quality product.
Speaking of Tron, wasn't there supposed to be some Tron attraction going into Tomorrowland? Haven't heard anything else about it. It's too bad that the cult movies like Tron and Rocketeer can't find a way into the Park. Oh, that's right...those movies don't translate into crap plush toys.
I hadn't thought about the security of the Esplanade...good point.