The MousePlanet Mailbag is a regular compilation of some of our reader feedback and writer responses that may be of interest to our readers. We encourage you to drop your questions, opinions, or comments to us in care of our mailbag.
In the first part of this week’s mailbag, MousePlanet staff writers answer reader questions about the Disneyland Resort. The first letter is from Jim, who provided information on the new Segway tour, Cruzin’ Disney’s California Adventure Park, for last week’s Disneyland Park Update (link). Jim writes:
Wow… I got mentioned! There were some changes to the tour. First, it is at 7:15 a.m.; this is important because security does not let you in before that (at least, on the west side) and if you didn’t already pick up your tickets, then you would still need to. Also, the tour is limited to 10 people. They have only 14 Segways now and with 10 people and two cast members, that leaves only two if something should go wrong. Along the way, we would stop and have some ‘tour’ moments. Cameras are not prohibited but you can only take pictures when allowed.
It runs from 7:15-9:45 and this is the approximate breakdown:
7:15-7:30 – Meet at the C in California. Go to Guest Services area where enter to a very nice waiting (green) room. Have breakfast (fruit, fruit juices & muffins) and getting acquainted with each other
7:30-8 (can go up to 8:30) – Orientation and obstacle courses for the Segway. Watch a video first then go out to the area around the old Millionaire building, Monster Inc, etc for the various courses. Getting used to the Segway is fun and quite easy. But you must be ambulatory and/or not have bouts of vertigo! After all is done (about 8:15 for us) we went from Hollywood Backlot, weaved around to Condor Flats then up around Grizzly Peak and into the Redwood Creek Challenge Trail. The course continues down and around to Paradise Pier from the Palace of Fine Arts, then west to the food area; there’s a break at the McDonalds, which isn’t open.
After the break there’s some “free” time to go east from the Orange to the east side, up the incline from California Screamin’. We had a free group photo (along with other photos of members you came with—but this is NOT free) in front of the amphitheatre, then we headed east over to Bug’s Land and Flik’s Fun Fair. There is a portion of the tour that is backstage between Flik’s and the Tower of Terror. The tour finishes up back up the boulevard to Hollywood Pictures Backlot.
We had to use the backstage at this time because guests start entering the park and no one (with some VIP exceptions) is to be out riding the Segways onstage. Since Hollywood doesn’t officially open until 10, it is okay to do one last time up the street. Then we parked the Segways by the Mickey fountain, got our pins, and walked over to Greetings from California to get our pictures. Two and a half hours went very fast. This is a very good but pricey tour.
Ken G. writes:
I was at the media event for Finding Nemo last Sunday and Monday, and asked several media relations folks what was the status on the new monorails coming in soon. No one seemed to know, although one person did tell me they are basically down to 2 monorails and the other 2 are being “pirated for parts” as needed. And of course, one of the monorails was painted to look like a Nemo sub.
Has anyone at MousePlanet heard anything else? About a year ago I read that at least one of the new retro-looking monorails would be online sometime in 2007, and doing a Google search I did come across a rendering done by the company, Burke Design, contracted to build the monorails. If you search Wikipedia.org (Disneyland Monorail System) you’ll see the rendering.
All we’ve heard is that the new monorails supposedly are coming in early 2008. They are supposed to be more “retro” in design—one is supposed to even have the bubble on top like the first monorail in Disneyland. I guess we’ll just have to wait to see what develops.
Julie writes:
We are annual passholders and go to Disneyland a lot. We had not been to Goofy’s Kitchen for a while. There is new pricing. Children’s pricing is for kids up to age 9. Kids 10 and older are the adult price. We had to pay full price $26.95 for my 12-year-old, who ate 2 pieces of chicken strips. I complained but they said that this is the new pricing.
I didn’t know if you wanted to list this especially for big families or families planning birthday parties. This is outrageous and I hope they get a lot of complaints. Ariel’s Grotto also has the same pricing.
This meal pricing is in line with Disney’s current admission pricing where children’s tickets are only available for kids 3-9 (under 3 is free) and everyone 10 and older is classified as an adult. Please let us know if you get any response from Disney to your complaint. Thanks for writing.
Khail writes:
I was at the park on June 7th 2007. I was visiting with my family that insisted I buy a block day ticket to remedy my So Cal annual pass. While walking through Tomorrowland I noticed that there were a few people in line for finding Nemo. I assumed these were the contest winners. However when I got close enough to read the sign it stated that all annual pass holders are welcome to ride. After showing my pass in excitement I hopped aboard a sub and waited and waited and waited (I am sure they are still working out the kinks).
I want to give you my review but I won’t spoil the ride. So here is what I can tell you. The first one-third of the ride has practically nothing to do with Nemo (save for one minor character). It spiels on as if we were on an educational submarine voyage. This gave you ample time to question: where is Dory? Where is Nemo? Several times.
When you get to the screens that have Nemo and such, you pass by them much too fast. I kept trying to peer back through my tiny port hole to see if I would miss anything. That, I believe, was one of the charming things about the original submarine voyage. You see and fish and go “oh there is a fish” and you move on. On the updated one you wish the sub would stop. My parents are in the Navy so I KNOW submarines can stop.
Regardless as someone who has never seen Finding Nemo (don’t hurt me) but loves Disneyland I think it is a great feat of imagination and technology. Truly something worth seeing.
I will divulge this little tidbit for you. There is a shout out at the end for all of us old school submarine voyage fans. At the end the recorded ship captain states “we had better resurface before we start seeing things like mermaids or a sea serpent.” an obvious shout out to the oddities of the old ride. It will give you a nice smile to end with.
Hope you find Nemo soon!
Thanks for writing and sending your review of the new attraction. Did you happen to get a picture of the “all APs welcome” sign?
Khail replies:
No and I am totally shooting myself in the foot for it cause that was the one time I went to the park without my video camera and digital camera.
I wish I had more for you. I assume you saw the sign since you knew what it says? I was shocked when I found out I could go.
We’ve heard about the sign but I’m not sure if we have pictures yet. Glad you enjoyed the ride!
MousePlanet photography expert Frank Anzalone (link) answers the second group of letters in this week’s mailbag. Jeffrey K. writes:
Your pictures of the Finding Nemo Submarine attraction with the monorails and Matterhorn were great. It was odd how the sepia-toned pictures actually created a feeling of reminiscing the past when I was a kid, even though black and white photos weren’t that prevalent at that time.
My family was actually very lucky to get on the Submarine ride last week. On the day the Ducks won the Stanley Cup, I decided to take my family after dinner hoping Disneyland wouldn’t be too crowded with the hockey game being televised. We parked in Downtown Disney and took the monorail into the park, with me carrying our double-stroller over my shoulder. As my wife exited in front of me with my 1-year-old daughter, she noticed the submarine ride was operating. She asked if I wanted to go on it, and I emphatically said heck yes. We thought we were going to be turned away at first, but the people at the entrance told us that as long as we were annual passholders, we only needed to show our passes to get in line. We did, and it took us only 10 minutes to get on the ride.
Afterwards, I thought that perhaps this was one of the nights that Disney had set aside for the annual passholder preview if you had been picked from the lottery advertised in the postcard sent out. If so, then I guess they stopped requiring that you show proof of being picked from that lottery. Or perhaps, it was just a soft opening and they were restricting it to annual passholders. I did see signs indicating that it was open only to passholders after exiting the ride. My 3 yr. old son liked it a lot, and my daughter only got scared during the pitch-black sequence. My wife and I liked it a lot, and I kept thinking that it was a long ride.
Anyways, I did choose your photo of the subs with the Matterhorn in the background and have it as my wallpaper now. Thanks for the photos.
I am glad you got a chance to enjoy the ride (and the photos!). When I was selecting those desktop images, I just had a flashback to the vintage days of Disneyland with a couple of those shots. Now, with the digital darkroom, you can play a little with the images (so I did!). I’m glad you got that “youth smile” along with me.
LeAnn writes:
I have just run across your Disney photo tips today. Our trip was last October, and I am just dying to go again soon. I have always been interested in photography, and have carried a camera everywhere I went as long as I can remember. I have been searching the Internet for a site where I can host and also offer for sale my photographs (mainly school and sports related for now), so I can’t even remember how I ended up finding your tips. I just wanted to say thanks for taking the time to put them together, and the information is very helpful, even for photographing other subjects! Thanks for the inspiration!
I am glad you found the ‘photo tips’ useful! It was a fun project for me to put together and it made me think a little more about it too!
There are a few sites out there that will host your images and have them available for sale. Try: “www.ifp3.com” or “www.morephotos.com” There are many more, so research their services too.
Have fun with your photography!
Paul writes:
We’re frequent visitors to Disneyland also, and my wife spends a lot of time cruising around MousePlanet. She forwarded me your link off of the Author Search page, and I wanted to write and let you know your articles and photos are great. I’ve also been dabbling in digital photography, although I’m not nearly as vivid as you at this point. I took some shots in February of the fireworks display, but without a tripod, all I ended up with was a lot of blur.
I recently purchased a high-end f2.8 canon lens, and I love that, but now it has me craving a nice wide-angle too. I totally love your shot of the cluster of Mickey and Minnie Balloons in your Favorites area.
That f2.8 lens will help you get some good evening/firework pictures. Keep using that tripod when you can. As you get more and more into it the camera store, or as my wife says, Frank’s toy store, will have all the lens variations you could ever imagine; for digital look for a 18 mm to start. I use a 18mm to 55 mm zoom, and also have a 17 mm to 200 mm zoom. These seem to be nice all purpose lens configurations. I use these all the time.
Maybe I’ll see you at the Park – until then, send me some of those Disney picture samples!
