My Ideal Disneyland Part 5

Okay, time for the Buzz Lightyear AstroBlasters and the last part of the Tland series! This is another ride I have never been on. This space in Tland was originally occupied by Circarama, which opened with the park in 1955. It was a circular theater where guests stood in the middle and where able to have a 360 degree view of a projected image. The show changed a few times but the show "America the Beautiful" was there mostly from 1956 until 1984. The attraction closed in '97 for the '98 redo when the space was replaced with "The American Space Experience" exhibit which was reminiscent of the early sponsored exhibits that Tland used to be riddled with. It was part of the ride queue for Rocket Rods (has pics of the sign conversion to Buzz after RRs) I think for a brief time and then the AstroBlasters came in 2003.

I'm gonna go off on a bit of a tangent here, while I'm on the sponsored exhibits of early Tland. Apparently when Tland first opened, Disney was kind of poor and didn't have money for many rides in Tland. So, they had a butt load of sponsored exhibits. There was the Kaiser Aluminum exhibit, and the Monsanto Hall of Chemistry, which both opened in 1955, the Richfield "World Beneath Us" exhibit, the "Our Future in Color" gallery by Dutch Boy, the "Bathroom of Tomorrow" by Crane (which is something I think should be put into Innoventions btw) and "Fashions and Fabrics Through the Ages" by Monsanto. There were probably even more. The Monsanto House of the Future was really like one huge exhibit. When Disneyland first opened, it was like everything was sponsored! I mean, Monsanto was huge, Richfield Oil was in there for a while (Autopia and others), The Bell System, AT&T (Circarama/CircleVision), General Electric (Carousel of Progress), TWA (Rocket to the Moon), Coca Cola (BTW, that link is has a bunch of great pics showing how the Coca Cola Stage/Terrace has changed through the years), ALWEG (monorail), and Goodyear (PeopleMover). All of these were in Tland and probably more. But while I'm talking about it, I'll mention some sponsored stuff in other areas of the park. Dole has sponsored the Tiki Room since it opened and still does. The Tahitian Terrace was Stouffer's. Kodak is found here and there throughout the park with the Photopass stuff and Autopia is sponsored by Chevron now. Innoventions has like a million different sponsors in it. I read on MiceChat that Village Haus in Fantasyland is sponsored by Minute Maid and the Rancho del Zacalo in Fronteirland is (or was/ now is La Victoria?) by Ortega, Big Thunder Ranch is Brawny, Coca Cola is all over the place, and there are probably more. I look at old pics of dland and see these signs all over the place that have nothing to do with dland and are outside companies and I'm glad most of them are gone now. I like to feel completely immersed in disneyland while I'm there and outside advertising really takes away from it for me.

So that's that. Back to Buzz. Again, I've never been on it. I've heard it's like Midway Mania in DCA (which I've also never been on) but not quite as good. It's not the most popular but it gets traffic. I can't say much about it since I've never been on it but it doesn't sound that great. Also, as I mentioned with Nemo, I don't really enjoy Pixar being in dland because it doesn't feel like it entirely belongs there for some reason. I don't know...Tland isn't really supposed to be movie themed, or wasn't intended to be that way. Really, only Fantasyland was supposed to be like that. In my ideal dland, I think I would put something else in that space only I don't know what. I think having something like the old "Adventure thru Inner Space"might be cool, especially with the new technologies that we have today.

So that's it for this land but really, it won't be because it's always changing. And who knows what the future will hold for Tomorrowland? See you in Fantasyland for my next installation of the series!

My Ideal Disneyland Part 3

Moving on in Tomorrowland. So, have you ever walked into Tland and wondered what that archway track looking thing was above you? Well, I'll tell you. It is what remains of the ill-fated PeopleMover. This was also a pretty early ride, part of the '67 revamp of Tland. There's an article on it at Yesterland. There's more pics here. Apparently, the PM was an example of what the transportation would be like in Walt Disney's vision of the future, along with the monorail. He had a vision for a city that was never built. You've probably heard of it: EPCOT (there is an Epcot center in Florida but the actual city never came to fruition). You probably don't know this, but it stands for "Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow. Disney's "Progress City" model in the old Carousel of Progress was a sort of preview of EPCOT. PeopleMovers (or WEDway) in Epcot would eliminate the need for cars altogether, in theory. Here is a great article on the original concept of the EPCOT. Here's more. It's fascinating. Walt had so many ideas and goals that it just amazes me. Here's a vid:

There's a longer version on YouTube too if you wanna check it out.

Anyways, back to Disneyland. The PM lasted a really long time but was closed in '95 for reasons I don't know. It did, however lead to two deaths from people trying to jump between cars. I'd say 95% of Disney deaths are because people are STUPID. Those annoying safety spiels are there for a reason! (Although I rather enjoy the Haunted Mansion safety message because he says "and PLEASE...watch your children" and then he says it in Spanish and it sounds like 100 times scarier. I also love that in that ride, if you tug on the bar, it reprimands you. It's just funny.) Anyways, I'm guessing that they just figured that the PM was outdated and was boring for guests (it did only move at 2mph) and they had different ways to see Tland from above like the monorail and the Skyway, which closed in '94. But I do think that it offered an awesome view into rides. It went through a tunnel behind the Carousel of Progress/America Sings, through Circlevision, Star Tours, and Space Mountain. I personally never was able to go on the PM but wish I had the chance. i would have been 4 or 5 so I wouldn't remember it but I do have a pic of me on the monorail in about '94 where you can see the PM in the background. (I'd put it up but my scanner isn't working). So after the PM closed, imagineers tried to use the abandoned track with something faster and funner in '98. Props to them for trying but the new "Rocket Rods" attraction, although pretty popular when in use, soon went to "Yesterland." He's got a great article on it over there. Here's a summary: The Rocket Rods used the PM track and went through it in 3 minutes, when the PM had taken 16 minutes to go the same path. I've read that some of the problems with it were that it was too short for the wait time, it was too slow to be a thrill ride, but too fast to be a sight-seeing ride. It also had to slow down abruptly at the turns. This is because the turns were designed for a 2mph car and the track isn't banked, which basically meant that if the Rocket Rods didn't slow down, they'd fly right off the track. The constant slowing and speeding up again was not only annoying, but it was hard on the vehicles and track. It soon was broken down half the time. So, it was closed after only about 2 years of being opened, never fulfilling a 2001 reopen promise.

In my ideal dland, the poor abandoned PM track would be used with a fast ride like Rocket Rods but they need to bank those turns and make it better. Although I don't know if a three minute ride is worth it...maybe they should just put the PM back. I'm not sure. I just hate seeing those ghostly tracks and all that wasted space. I'll stop for now because this is a pretty long entry already. To be continued!