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3, 10, and/or 13!!!!

3 - Favorite Disneyland Memory

This is tough because there are a lot to choose from, but at the moment it’s gotta be riding Indy on my most recent trip. It’s hard to say what it was exactly about it, but it was really special.

It was early morning, near opening, and I split off from my group to go ride Indy solo. Combine that early morning anticipation with the fact I hadn’t been to the park in almost a decade and there was definitely an energy in the air, or at least my bones.

And then the ride, man, the ride! This was shortly after the major refurb they did last year and everything in the ride was firing on all cylinders. Probably the best run I’ve ever had on it, at least that I can remember. It really lived up to everything that ride should be.

And whether it was the energy, the state of the ride, or some combo of the two, it was enough to kind of cancel out that analytical side of my brain that wants to dissect every detail now that I’m working in design and just feel every moment of it. I can’t remember the last time I felt that kind of pure joy and exhilaration from an attraction.

The rest of the day after that was great too, but even if I had left after that Indy ride, I still would have been grinning ear to ear.

10 - Favorite Disneyland Restaurant 

I’m rarely the type to sit down for a full meal at the park, and I usually enjoy Bengal Barbecue, Royal Street Veranda, and the Mint Julep Bar quite a bit. But my favorite at the moment is Refreshment Corner, because I always end up there when the evening slows down just before the fireworks/nighttime show, and it’s a great place to watch them. Plus the piano players are always a treat.

13 - Top 5 Disneyland Sounds

In no particular order because they’re all great:

5) Pirates Bayou ambiance

4) Echoes of wind and scream from the Matterhorn

3) Nature sounds on Big Thunder Trail

2) Fortune Red’s little motif

1) The Jungle Cruise gunshots as heard from Main Street. They could be terrifying, but in context they remind me as I’m walking into the park that adventure is never far away.

#disney #disneyland #asks #sounds #adventureland #ambiance #indiana jones #hold-me-till-winter

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Ask #19. A “hidden gem” of Disneyland (or the park of your choice)

I love the sheer amount of hidden little details that Disneyland contains, but my favorite at the moment (besides all the fortune tellers) is the Halloween Tree in Frontierland. I was there at the right time to finally see it decorated and it was really such a delight.

The Halloween Tree itself has so many layers of meaning and how Bradbury is tied up in Disney lore, but also how that’s juxtaposed by the seemingly random choice of tree that doesn’t really match the stature of the one in the book and the fact that the book isn’t actually a Disney-related IP at all.

It’s the kind of old school Disney reference where something was brought into the park just because it’s neat, and it’s wild to me that it was only created in 2007 when it feels like something that could have been there much longer.

Also the tree is undecorated most of the year so it’s technically a hidden gem most of the time.

On a completely unrelated note, a hidden gem I recently discovered in Magic Kingdom that I really enjoy is this random sign in Adventureland:

It’s actually super visible on the corner of the bazaar but I’ve never noticed until now that the boats on the sign actually move! Very cool and quirky element that adds a lot to the bazaar area, which honestly could use a few more details like this one.

#disneyland #disney #walt disney world #asks #magic kingdom #theme parks #halloween tree #Adventureland #frontierland #karalora

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It’s been a while and I’m on break this week so let’s do some of these. Will answer for any park I’ve been to, Disney or otherwise!

Disneyland asks!

Send me a number and I will tell you 1. My favorite defunct attraction 2. My favorite ride currently at the park 3. My favorite Disneyland memory 4. A ride I wish I could’ve experienced 5. My least favorite ride at the park 6. A ride I’m glad is gone 7. My favorite land 8. A ride I wish they would have at the park 9. A land I wish they would add to the park 10. My Favorite restaurant at the park 11. My Favorite show in the park 12. My Earliest Disneyland memory 13. My 5 favorite Disneyland sounds 14. My 5 favorite Disneyland smells 15. My Favorite holiday/special attraction versions 16. My favorite time of year to go to the park 17. A ride I like that nobody else likes 18. A ride I dislike that everyone else likes 19. A “hidden gem” of Disneyland 20. An unpopular Disneyland opinion

#asks #Disneyland #theme parks #Disney #universal

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The Yakoose at the Adventurers Club. A bizarre yak-moose creature that was accidentally taken to a furniture upholsterer instead of a taxidermist.

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Vincent Price at the opening of The Tingler (1959)

#William castle was definitely an interesting fellow #and a pioneer in immersive theater #wish more films had interactive elements these days #outside of theme parks #also #Vincent Price

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Nothing simultaneously warms my heart and makes me want to cry like those videos of Country Bear Jamboree packed full of people who all knew the words to every song

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Goodbye to the one and only, original, Country Bear Jamboree. Thanks for bearing with us to the bear end!

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Disneyland Paris's Big Thunder Mountain with snow!

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If only Joe Rohde started a themed entertainment design company where everyone got to operate on that perspective about theme and narrative.

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being a long time disney theme park history lover is the most anguishing interest you can have because it’s a neverending cycle of “here’s a passion project from 50 years ago the worlds top creatives and engineers at the time assembled with endless care and genuine love of the craft. by the way you cannot visit it or even see footage of it anymore because the executives completely changed everything about this attraction. also this type of mindset is probably never going to come back in the parks at least not in the US ones that disney has full control over, because they just want to pander to marvel and star wars adults instead of maintaining the 500030202 million rides they have that are in desperate need of immediate attention that everyone is begging them to update: also they just announced another star wars land. oh and by the way they have a prop from that one cool attraction from the beginning as a cool fixture in some shop now. the rest of the material from that ride has a 90% chance of being scrapped”

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#yes please more themed stuff

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You know, an interesting tumblr transformation that's happened gradually, and which I've seen no one talk about: ask-culture has essentially dropped off to nothing.

By which I mean, asks used to be WAY more of the tumblr economy. They used to be more common to send, and receive, and see. They were integral to the collaborative, forum-like behavior of old tumblr communities, not even to speak on the HUGE number of ask-blogs that used to exist to only be interacted with in ask-form.

I'm not saying this in a vying-for-attention way but instead in an observational way: I used to get way way more asks in like 2015, even with a fraction of my follower count. I wonder if it's due to the homogenization of social media sites? There's a lot more of this divide between "content creator" and "consumer" instead of just a bunch of peer blogs who would talk to each other. "Asks" aren't really a thing on twitter, are they? And as I understand it, the closest thing to an "ask" on instagram or tiktok would be a creator screenshotting some comment and responding to it in a new reel or video or whatever those content mediums are. Are asks just too tumblr-specific? Is that aspect of the site culture dying out as more and more people converge to using all their social media sites in the same way?

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It’s not even really a “dark” ride given that there’s so much light coming in.

That Halloween guy reminds me of that one carnival ride that has zombies out front, and literally NOTHING inside. It is just a track in a metal box with no scenery

The most low effort thing I've ever seen

#wow #this is laughably terrible #Gotta say I’ve never seen the dark ride equivalent of an unthemed roller coaster before so I guess it’s unique?

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it’s a small world

Living with the Land

Grizzly River Run

And, if you want to go international

Mystic Manor

Sindbad’s Storybook Voyage

Roaring Rapids

Although if I’m being honest I would probably be the first in line to see an Expedition Everest movie.

Rides that somehow haven’t been turned into movies:

Expedition Everest

Kilimanjaro Safari

Mission: Space

Journey Into Imagination

Indiana Jones and the Temple of the Forbidden eye

Soarin Over California

Carousel of Progress

The American Adventure

Autopia

#disney #disney parks #movies #movies that don’t exist #Disneyland

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The Vegas Sphere opened last night showcasing really a new medium of immersive entertainment somewhere between cinema and live events…it’s essentially the 21st century version of omnimax but the level of picture quality, scale, and sound quality as well as the support for live entertainment and 4d effects really turn it into its own thing! U2 opened last night, and the thing I’ve spent the last year of my life working on, Postcard From Earth, opens in one week! Check it out!

#this is super cool! #definitely check it out

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Sometimes it’s fun rediscovering your old posts. I know this idea was wacky as heck, but I still kinda love it!

Theme Park Design Prompt #2

Disney has built five different versions of the Haunted Mansion, and they placed each one in a different land!

California’s version is in New Orleans Square.

Florida’s is in Liberty Square,

Tokyo’s is in Fantasyland,

Paris’ is in Frontierland, and

Hong Kong’s is in Adventureland.

Each version was designed differently so that it would fit into its new surroundings.

Today, that power is YOURS! You are now President Imagineer! Congrats!

Your job?

Pick any attraction, and explain how you would redesign it so that it thrives in a new land!

Reblog with your response!

#theme park design prompts #theme parks #disneyland #disney #tomorrowland #hall of presidents #intergalactic hall of future overlords

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If you have the chance to see The Nest in Los Angeles, go do it now! Easily the coolest thing I’ve seen in the immersive space. Tbh it actually achieves what a lot of immersive/theme park things only think they’re achieving.

You have real agency/illusion of agency while still guaranteeing everyone experiences the full story arc. Amazing intimacy, a story with actual emotions, interactivity that is interesting and matters and isn’t just a gimmick or pressing buttons. And it nearly completely avoids all the worst pitfalls and awkward interactions that immersive theatre so often corners itself into.

My only real complaint is it’s maybe not the most repeatable of experiences, but nevertheless I still kinda want to do it again!

Also apparently queer owned and operated!