Disneyland Plaza Gardens Fence - Before and After

I was at Disneyland yesterday and stayed until after the Fireworks last night so today’s post is light. It was good to back at the park and to spend 10 hours there on a beautiful summer day.

The flag pole shot looks somewhat different at Disneyland than the Magic Kingdom. The castle looks better further away (or what appears to be further away). The Magic Kingdom castle is awesome, but a little too much “in your face”.





It’s temping to rip down that “years of whatever” sign. Is it just me or is that promotion really getting old and tiring?






The crowds were actually not too bad for summer, although some of the lines mid-day got nutty. I actually waited an hour for Indiana Jones, I’ve never been in the outside queue line, and it’s great, for about the first 5 minutes… Ah, a castle that you can walk right thru, it's good to be home...






Now a brief before and after. Gorilla’s Don’t Blog had a post on Monday (link) that showed this great photo of the Gazebo that is where the Plaza Gardens are today. Progressland commented that the fence on the bridge (far left in the photo below) looks like the same fence that is there today so I just had to check it out.





This photo is from Stuff from the Park, I’m not sure on the date, but it shows the same little fence on the bridge.






From yesterday. It looks pretty much the same to me.







This close-up does reveal this is not a “new fence” or new bridge for that matter. Could this actually be the fence from 1955? Here’s the bigger question, how in the world would we ever find out for certain?





Tomorrow: Come visit the defunct Magic Kingdom Skyway Buildings and related stuff…

The WEDway PeopleMover

Without a doubt my favor attraction at the Magic Kingdom was the WEDway PeopleMover. The name of the attraction was changed in 1994 to the “Tomorrowland Transit Authority” but to me it’s the “WEDway PeopleMover”.

The attraction opened July 1, 1975 and although today's Tomorrowland has been transformed into something very different, the WEDway ride system and vehicles have not change at all. It looks and feels like a WED attraction should.

As shown from the 1975 Magic Kingdom guide book, the WEDway was an E-ticket from day one.






Here’s an E-Ticket from June 1975. Sadly, this would be a short stay of the WEDway PeopleMover on the E-Ticket.






By September 1976, the WEDway found itself on the D-Ticket, where it would remain until the letter tickets stopped in 1982.






Here is a map from the 1975 guide book showing the new WEDway PeopleMover track. It runs 5,484 feet at an average of 6.84mph. It has 629 linear synchronous induction motors and 32 trains with 5 car per train!






On to the present. The front of the building is a victim of the 1994 New Tomorrowland. At least most of it looks like it can be removed, sometimes going “cheap” has its side benefits.






Oh yes a Gantry Tower, and it was in use! What fun to see the Gantry elevators, the Rockets and the People Mover all in motion at once! Fantastic sounds too!









The WEDway was temporarily down, but it didn’t stop a large line from forming. As soon as it opened it literally swallowed the line in two minutes. I love the Speed Ramps! I have no idea who the "thinking man" is on the right, but he looks at peace with the world of Tomorrow.






Loading area as seen while traveling up the Speed Ramp.






Your WEDway PeopleMover car awaits you. The door closes automatically, watch your legs and arms and please keep them inside the vehicle at all times.






As you head off the load platform, you are moving an excruciating 1.84 mph; you can hear all the kids saying “it too slow”. Mom & Dad know better and soon you are going fast enough for a nice breeze.




Come ride the first section and see for yourself.

After you go thru the first set of buildings you are on your way to Space Mountain. This is where you pass other WEDway trains that have just left Space Mountain. This is my favorite area of the attraction.






Inside Space Mountain you see the load area, then you see the lift chain which is neat and then you are in the darkness of Space Mountain with the ride, that part is very cool. Cool with awesome Air Conditioning and cool because it’s like you’re in the ride, but with no line, and its smoother! It's actually better than riding Space Mountain itself, trust me.






On my third (or was it forth) trip on the WEDway, I was taking the time in the dark mountain to review some photos on my camera when I realized that Space Mountain was not running and the light were ON! I only got 5 seconds of it, but its fun to look at.

Some of the outside track sections. The part around the load platform has been defaced with the “New Tomorrowland” junk.





But as you head away from the central area, there is plenty of the old architecture still available to see. It's true, I am a Disneyland Geek because this style of architecture looks so much more appealing to me. Yes that's the old Skyway building in the background, if you want to see more of it, come back on Saturday for a Skyway Saturday.






Now as we head thru more attraction buildings, we find part of the progress city EPCOT Model. This is very difficult to take pictures of because it’s behind glass. I was able to get a few pictures, but the flash really washed the poor thing out so bad it’s not fair to post them. The video mode shows less detail, but the lighting is much more as Walt intended it to be.

Well, our 10 minute ride is coming to an end. Neat set of stairs leading up to the Rockets, reminds me of Disneyland.






Thank goodness they left the inside of this attraction in its original state. The architecture is amazing, where's George Jetson?.






Time to hit the exit Speed Ramp, no running and please hold the hand rail.





I rode this attraction 5 times. I could have done it more, but I had more photos to take and more ice cream to eat!

This is a must do “E-Ticket” attraction for any diehard Disneyland fan.

The Disneyland Resort - 1991 Impact Report for WESTCOT

If only?

A fascinating look at what could have been. This "Draft Environmental Report Summary" from 1991 gives a small look at what could have been done at Disneyland. Instead, we got DCA and Downtown Disney... This was a pretty ambitious project at 3 Billion dollars!

And a BIG Thank you goes out to Richard over at Viewliner Ltd., for creating my new wonderful blog banner, awesome work Richard, I can’t thank you enough!

Tomorrow: Come Ride the WEDway People Mover, it's just like old times...

The Magic Kingdom - 1975/2008 "Before and After"

WOW, what a fantastic trip to Florida and Walt Disney World. It was a blast.

I’ve got complete reports coming up on all my experiences and they prove what a Disneyland geek I really am. My Favorite attraction was the WEDway People Mover, with the Carousel of Progress running a close second. Detailed post reports on those and more attractions will follow through-out the week.

For today’s post, let’s play “Before and After”. The before photos are courtesy of a 1975 Walt Disney World glossy souvenir guide book. The After shots are from last week, Tuesday and Saturday. Where possible I tried to frame the photos as they were taken in 1975, however, some of the spots have changed so much it was difficult, but are still fun to compare.

Here we go. The cover of the 1975 Souvenir Guide. My after photo does not even attempt to get the same angle; it was a mob scene in front of the castle so I took this shot from the Adventureland side. The castle is grand indeed; too bad they don’t open the front for most of the day because they do an hourly show. Kind of odd not being able to walk thru the castle gates.







The Flag Pole planter area as it appeared in 1975. As you can see in the after photo, the planter was reduced at some point and they added a bench to the planter behind it with a “partners” type statue of Roy and Mickey, and the plaque was also moved to the rear planter area.







The plaque already looks old in the 1975 photo, it’s a little more weathered now, but still in great shape.







Main Street looking north. The trolley was running, but it was too hot to wait for it to line up with my “after” photo.







Pirates of the Caribbean. The signage has changed, the colors are a little different, but otherwise it’s pretty much the same. The attraction, well, I'll discuss that on a later post.







The Hall of Presidents, a covered entry has been added, a flag pole area has been added in front and the tree in front is huge now, the whole Liberty Square area is great and this attraction is awesome!







The Haunted Mansion has some color shifting. The greenery surrounding it has grown up nicely.







The entrance to Tomorrowland has change drastically and dramatically and all for the worse. I thought Disneyland missed the target on its “New Tomorrowland” entrance; the Florida version is just a mess. Please remove it at once!







Space Mountain has changed very little, which is great for the outside. The attraction itself, um, well, it needs a complete refurbishment like Anaheim received a few years ago The attraction was clunky, junky, and noisy and felt like it wanted to rattle right off those 33 year old tracks. I was hoping it would end sooner that it did. If the line is not a “walk on” don’t bother.







Ah the Carousel of Progress. The outside has changed a little, but oh boy, was it fun. I have a full post with video's coming regarding this amazingly well preserved Walt Disney original attraction. This and the WEDway People mover (I also have a full post with a ride thru video coming up this week) are worth the price of admission for any Disneyland Geek like me.






My WDW review posts will start Thurday (hey, I gotta unpack still!) so tomorrow I’ve got a fun Westcot Impact Study from 1991, they really should have stuck with that plan, it was only going to be 3 Billion dollars!