Originally Posted By TDLFAN Hi everyone... I visited TDR on June 12th and had the chance to check out some new happenings in the park. First up, the construction on the TDL Hotel continues, with several of the turrets on top of the building being currently placed and worked on. The central fixture above the building, facing the park is also being installed. Over at TDS, the 5th anniversary celebration has concluded and with it, all of the 5th anniversary decor has been taken down and the park has returned to it's normal look. However, one 5th anniversary fixture has been kept: the stylish Mickey statue and character fountain around Aquasphere. This particularly popular photo spot is receiving a little face lift... the 5th has been removed and a new stylish TDS banner had been installed. Due to my short amount of time... I skipped rides, even though most of them only had 10-20 mins wait time, except for TOT.. at about 100 mins stand by wait with all FPs gone. I decided to enjoy the park's surrounding sans 5th anniversary decor, and take in the ever unseen TDS details that to this day, keep popping up as if they had been placed there since the last time I visited. Now THAT is truly accomplished theming in the part of the Imagineers. I took time to have dinner and enjoy my favorite counter dish at TDS, the delicious Curry Sampler in Casbah Food Court, then proceeded to enjoy the park... collecting my free Funderful Disney Fan Club passport holder wallet gift currently being given out to members of the Club. Once I was done with my quality control walk at TDS, I boarded the TDR Line and headed straight to TDL, bypassing the new Cirque du Soleil theater now being built close by the Ambassador Hotel. Not a great location for this theater..as it destroys the views of the Ambassadors' splendor and retro architecture. Once at TDL.. the park was much busier than TDS, with the Stitch event still going strong. I took time to enjoy the surroundings at World Bazaar and Tomorrowland this time around. The entire block of shops between Tomorrowland and the Partner's Plaza is still closed and under renovations. So is Frontierland's block of shops and Country Bears attraction. POTC is closed while the Jack overlay is being installed. On my way to Tomorrowland, I could not help noticing the bad conditions of the floors on the bridge that leads from the Hub and into the ToowTown, Rocket jets area. This is a very bad show for TDL and one that reminds me of the days when the MK began it's slide into bad maintenance. OLC!!! GET BUSY!!! I don't want to travel so far to go see cracked floors since I can do that at the MK just 12 mins away from my place, so don't give me reason to rant on your park as well in the near future... I went on Space Moutain to enjoy the new overlay. 25 mins wait was posted for Stand by guests, but we only waited 20 by my watch. As usual, I enjoyed the ride, and like the much darker environs of the main portion of the ride. Plus, now I am more than before convinced they have added a "wind-like" sound to the main area of the ride, and you do hear this whooshing sound as you ride down those darkened drops and turns. Space Mountain does not disappoint here and I wish WDW got busy and majorly overhauled theirs to this standard, and track! Once outside...the new light show installed on Space Mountain looks great. It give the building a constant kinetic feel of colorful light patterns with subtle moments of light beams reaching out from the top of the building and into the sky. One moment Space Mountain is silver, or neon purple, or a combination of different colors..like aqua, red, or even navy, to name a few... at times, it also goes all out Gay Pride, with a rainbow pattern that should be the stationary look for TDL's gay day later in July. *hint to OLC* Finally, I wanted to catch Dreamlights again and enjoy the new Nemo, Monsters Inc and Cindy floats. Like I have stated before.. the Monsters Inc float, with it's unique intensity changing light patterns is stunning. However, when Cinderella's float comes around, and her lovely dress tranforms from pink to blue to shimmering white.. the GASPS from the audience can be heard all around. It's a magnificent achievement from Imagineering and the guests are genuinely floored by this rather low profile-looking float. KUDOS!!! The other much subtle changes to the parade are also appreciated, and it's always good to see Roger Rabbit in the "flesh" at the end of the parade. After the parade was over, the announcement came about "Disney Magic in the Sky" fireworks being cancelled due to the windy conditions over the park. If the show had been presented.. the ashes of the fallout would have flown directly over guests in TDL. Not a good thing, and this is something I have had to deal with at the MK and EPCOT Center during their shows.. even though now I have learned to move to the opposite side of the winds for such shows... Anyways... I ended up leaving TDR after that. As always... a fabulous, albeit short time, was had and with every visit I make here, I am still convinced this is as good as overall quality can get at a Disney Resort. Enjoy the photos for this visit and read the captions for extra info, if you are bored to death and have nothing to do for the next 5 hrs. <a href="http://albums.photo.epson.com/j/AlbumIndex?u=4334673&a=32542130&f=" target="_blank">http://albums.photo.epson.com/ j/AlbumIndex?u=4334673&a=32542130&f=</a>
Originally Posted By The Goddess Mara TDLFAN, your usual excellent report and photos.We'll just have to wait a few years to see how all the contstruction pans out. Lots of stuff roasting in the pot!
Originally Posted By SuperDry Regarding the park guides, I absolutely love the new cover on the Japanese TDL guide: it's very much a modernized version of the retro style that was in use many years ago for signage at the original DL.
Originally Posted By Mr X Got a link? (I know, I know...I was just there last week...never checked out a guidemap those since I know the park like the back of my hand)
Originally Posted By TDLFAN ^^^and you wonder why I am so hard on you for not keeping up with current information...then telling me I am mean to you.
Originally Posted By WorldDisney WOW, I just through every picture and as ALWAYS, beautiful pictures TDLFAN . Although I been to TDS a dozen times now, everytime I look at pictures, I almost feel like it's all brand new to me. I get excited again and want to go TOMORROW!!!! Looking at the entrance pics to TDS, for some reason I recalled the first time I went to TDS all the way back to Semptember 18th, 2001, two weeks exactly TDS opened and I still remember it like yesterday. Standing in that HUGE line just to get IN the park (it took over an hour), FINALLY getting up to the booth and VEEEERRY nervous for some reason that I wouldn't get in that day (you have to remember, this was during all the rumors and gossip on the internet the park was already booked up with pre-order tickets for like a month or something) and when I got my 3 day pass, I don't think I can BEGIN to say how excited I was just to enter. When I pass that turnstyle I was in complete awe from that moment on. I couldn't get over the beauty of that entrance alone. I must've stayed there for 20 minutes just looking at that volcano and harbor. The beauty of the park was just stunning and people have to remember just a week before that, I was travelling through Italy, Greece, France, Switzerland and etc for the first time, but THIS just floored me more than anything I seen in Europe. TDS seems to just get more and more beautiful every year. How ANY Disney fan can go to this park and not be amazed by just the intricate beauty and detailing of it all will always amaze me. I will be back this summer and can't wait! Also, I will have a lot of new things to see: Mythica, TOT, Sinbad redo, SM additions, new Dreamlight floats and the POTC overlay, I'm excited to get back to TDR!!!
Originally Posted By TDR_Fan Honestly, I thought Tokyo DisneySea was more beautiful and amazing than anything I had seen in Europe. Like I've mentioned before many times, Tokyo DisneySea is the most beautiful and elaborate theme park on Earth!
Originally Posted By TDLFAN >>How ANY Disney fan can go to this park and not be amazed by just the intricate beauty and detailing of it all<< At least two british ones I know feel that way. >>The beauty of the park was just stunning and people have to remember just a week before that, I was travelling through Italy, Greece, France, Switzerland and etc for the first time, but THIS just floored me more than anything I seen in Europe.<< I still get choked up every time I walk under the Miracosta... a feeling I wanted to convey on that pictorial. One of my most amusing fan stories, is that is a certain mutual friend who went there during CM previews and as he walked into TDS on his very first time.. video camera in hand and tape rolling.... we can hear him using expletives "Holly ****!!! etc etc" as he takes in the stunning atmosphere of Mediterranean Harbor for the first time. THAT is what makes a Disney park truly "Disney". Thanks OLC for coughing up the yen.
Originally Posted By WorldDisney ^^Yeah, it truly is TDR_Fan! In that Europe trip, I also went to DLP for the first time and that was just drop dead beautiful too...but TDS just did it for me (wow, that was a great Disney year for me lol). OF course, I also got to experience DCA the first time that year...a small speed bump on the run up to greatness ;D.
Originally Posted By WorldDisney <<I still get choked up every time I walk under the Miracosta... a feeling I wanted to convey on that pictorial. One of my most amusing fan stories, is that is a certain mutual friend who went there during CM previews and as he walked into TDS on his very first time.. video camera in hand and tape rolling.... we can hear him using expletives "Holly ****!!! etc etc" as he takes in the stunning atmosphere of Mediterranean Harbor for the first time.>> LOL, that's funny . Actually, my word that day seem to be 'WOW' everywhere I went. I would litterally utter that everytime I walked and saw something that was just beyound anything I could imagine. I believe most of my "WOW" came from the American Waterfront (still my favorite section) and Mysterious island, but each port got at least one . It's funny, I remember by my 3rd day when I was finally able to hit (an empty) TDL, the place just felt so bland to me lol. After two days of TDS sensory overload, looking at TDL entrance and many of the lands just lost their appeal. The park suddenly looked 'blah' to me. It was a little strange. Of course, now it's all balanced out again .
Originally Posted By TDR_Fan Disneyland Paris is very pretty indeed, but Tokyo DisneySea is just beyond words. It's that beautiful! Never before have I seen such a level of scale, beauty, detail, and authenticity in a theme park.
Originally Posted By WorldDisney <<Now WD... go check out my Ocean Park versus HKDL pictorials... will you?>> Sure will . Actually, the ONE time I was stuck in Hong Kong for 3 weeks last year, I WENT to Ocean Park only to be rained out 30 minutes later . I didn't ride one thing and left the park an hour later.
Originally Posted By Mr X ***>>How ANY Disney fan can go to this park and not be amazed by just the intricate beauty and detailing of it all<< At least two british ones I know feel that way.*** Could always change that to "any Disney fan who doesn't have a hidden agenda".
Originally Posted By Mr X Yes, my first time at preview was exactly the same. I was actually on invite from a CM who'd already seen a lot of the place, so he was just enjoying guiding me around each corner and watching my jaw drop over and over again. Funny thing too, this CM was from SoCal, cool dude, and like he said "I hated Disney when I was a kid...I always wanted to go to Knotts", and he still doesn't care much about Magic Kingdoms but his whole demeanor that day in DisneySea was the same as mine. He was like "man, I can't believe I'm geekin over a Disney park! dude, check it out...I'm totally geekin over this place". That "first time" was something else boy...wow. Must have been like opening day at Epcot too, I'd imagine. I don't think I'll ever forget that first stroll under the Mira Costa (breathtaking), and then walking up by the Roman Ruins and just looking out at the whole thing (for some reason, it seemed almost surreal...especially the train, dunno why). It was an overcast day, which disappointed me until I realized that DisneySea looks even BETTER when the weather is a touch gloomy (totally sets off the volcano and some of the other "real world" awsome stuff that everyone but two people on earth really think is amazing).
Originally Posted By TDLFAN >>Must have been like opening day at Epcot too, I'd imagine.<< Interestin you mention this, since I went to EPCOT Center on opening day Oct 1st, 1982. It was nice and grand, but still.. not close to the spectacular visuals of TDS. Besides... there were several ride malfuntions on that day at EPCOT. My most vivid recollections of opening day was Willard Scott doing the weather report in front of us while waiting in line to get in after the opeing ceremonies, the riding Universe of Energy and breaking down as we entered the Primeval forrest. Then had to be evacuated... everyone laughed when a CM yelled at us... "Go this way and be careful you don't step on Dinosaur Poo!"
Originally Posted By Mr X Lucky Guy! I would put that right up there with opening day at Disneyland itself! Plus, you went to the DisneySea Grand Opening too right? I didn't, though I was there 5 times for the previews so I didn't really want to fight the crowds one more time.
Originally Posted By WorldDisney ^^Yeah, I didn't get the same feeling when I first went to Epcot, but honestly I didn't go the first time until 1999, just a few years ago, so I had already seen enough pictures and video of the place by the time I got there. It was still amazing to see it in person though (and that's what so amazing about travelling isn't it? You see these places for YEARS in photographs, tv, movies and etc that you feel like you already been, but then when you are actually there up front and personal you almost can't believe it! So many places has done this for me, the pyramids in Egypt being #1, but I actually feel WDW in general is a close second. Ironically, those are TWO places I wanted to see when I was maybe 10 years old ).
Originally Posted By WorldDisney <<Plus, you went to the DisneySea Grand Opening too right? I didn't, though I was there 5 times for the previews so I didn't really want to fight the crowds one more time. >> Yeah, I was never one of these grand opening people....the crowds alone scares me away. Add to all the break downs and problems that can happen, I just don't ever want to bother. The grand opening of the Nemo subs last week sounds like that was the LAST place I wanted to be. It's actually more fun reading and hearing about the day from the people on the net than to actually be there . I could've went to BOTH DCA and TDS grand openings, but purposely decied to wait a few days or weeks to see them. Of course, DCA I could've handled afterall lol since it was only about 12,000 people in the freaking park. But dealing with the crazy Disney fans in Tokyo combined with the most beautiful, amazing Disney theme park ever built on opening day....naaah .
Originally Posted By TDLFAN >>Plus, you went to the DisneySea Grand Opening too right?<< No, I did not. G-Fan and I went to TDS for the first time together towards the end of september.
