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Where Dreams Are True (continued)
Part of the fun of visiting foreign Disney parks
is in the vistas,
how familiar rides are juxtaposed in unfamiliar ways.
No Photoshop here: the Dumbo ride really is right
next to the Haunted Mansion.
We missed the Mickey Mouse Revue due to rehab, which was annoying since it
was one of the motivating factors in going to Tokyo. The Haunted Mansion Holiday
was great to see, with extra AAs of Sally and Jack at the beginning, and Sally
and Teddy at the piano. It was a bit jarring, since this is WDW's HM, not
Disneyland's, so this is a vision of what Orlando might someday get.
Freud calls the unfamiliar which nonetheless
reminds us of home 'uncanny.'
Most rides have only minor changes, such as Pirates of the Caribbean and the
right-up-close Jack Sparrow at the end. You could almost high-five him.
Star Tours has an extra queue room, but there was
no line on our visit.
We expected only minor changes on Big Thunder, but were surprised by the
high-octane finale to this ride. We were also pleasantly blown away by the steam
train. We'd expected the painted and functioning status of the animal
animatronics on this ride, but did not expect the Tony Baxter tribute on a crate
near the end, nor did we have any idea there was a surprise section on this
ride, since it's well hidden from the outside view.
Do you remember the purple 'Thinking Mickey' cups at Disneyland in the 1990s?
They were in use here, which was odd and nostalgic at the same time. It's also
highly bizarre to stand at the entrance to Pirates, see the Royal Street Veranda
to the right, and the Café Orleans and Blue Bayou beyond that. If you stand at a
certain angle, your entire vision is taken up by a vista that could quite
literally have been at Disneyland, before the pedestrian bridge over the Pirates
entry queue was built.
It's a dimension of sight, of sound… it's the
twilight zone.
Speaking of nostalgia, Tomorrowland is still in its original white here, and
this was one of the things I was looking forward to the most.
The spinner ride is off in the corner.
But oddly, I ended up feeling a little sorry for Tomorrowland. The parts that
are old and unchanged come across as really anachronistic and outdated.
Some parts have clearly never been updated.
The parts that are newly updated, such as the Buzz Lightyear ride, don't seem
to flow entirely with the rest of Tomorrowland. I loved their version of Space
Mountain (it's the Anaheim version, circa 1994 in the queue and circa 2007 on
the ride, but without any on-ride audio). Top-notch effects and decorations,
highly clean passageways… it was perfect.
It's hard to see the ship hanging from the
ceiling here, but it exuded 'cool'.
Tomorrowland is also the home of the only upkeep problem I saw in either
park: paint was peeled and cracked on the murals at the entrance to the land.
The problem is somewhat glaring, actually, which made it all the more
surprising, since it was a 'big' problem and there were no 'small' problems to
be seen elsewhere, despite me looking quite hard.
At this distance, you can't see the cracked
paint, but it was obvious when you got close.
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