My Trip to the 2011 D23 Expo - TR Complete!

[franandaj]

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Sketch on how it passes through the Matterhorn

The Matterhorn was built right at the same time they were constructing 20,000 Leagues. In this picture you can see the lagoon for the 20,000 Leaagues with the Matterhorn looming in the background.

The top goes on first

So here they are hoisting one of the cars up onto the track

This guy is going on a test run, but evidently there are no safety ladders to climb up or down if the car gets stuck mid ride! Tony Baxter couldn’t believe this one! Evidently those are some of the first things that they build nowadays!

It’s getting closer to completion

Blurry but the point of this one is that the ride is going right through the construction zone. Unheard of today not only for cosmetic purposes, but safety as well!

Can you believe this one? These guys are just pushing this heavy equipment along the monorail track! Look mom! No net!

And then this guy, “don’t worry I’ll be right over! No worries about this giant lake down here!”

And here they are cutting the ribbon on the Monorail, I’m surprised that they haven’t thrown those scissors away! They never worked right!

Bob Gurr has a really funny story about he kidnapped then Vice President Nixon on a Monorail trip! Thank God the thing didn’t break down on him!

Now this is the construction for the 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea ride.

More of the 20,000 Leagues construction

In this picture you can see the pylons for the Monorail, construction for all three of these attractions was going on concurrently.

These are some of the underwater sculptures

And the track the submarines ride on

Here’s one of the test voyages

And a look at the ???? I have no idea what these are

Here it is triumphantly emerging from the end of the ride.

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[franandaj]

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How many of you are old enough to remember these lovely ladies?

Evidently the day that auditions were held for the Mermaids, EVERY manager felt he needed to be present.

So evidently the flying saucers were a huge hit, but there was something mechanical that didn’t work so good on these so they were removed. We’ll see them again in Carsland as Luigi’s flying tires!

Another favorite ride of yesteryear

Now this is from a tour that Walt was giving of The Swiss Family Robinson Treehouse, he was evidently so comfortable that he just laid down in the bed and continued the tour!

Here we are outside the Treehouse. This is nostalgic for Californians as it is now Tarzan’s Treehouse

This was a really funny clip because Walt kept going around and around this turnstile like a little kid.

The Tiki room was a huge innovation for the time and even seeing it last week, it still is timeless and delightful (and perfect on super hot day!)

For the opening he had Polynesian dancers come in

Moving on to the World’s Fair, here are some shots of from there.

Evidently this original animatronic Mr Lincoln broke down when Walt was trying to demonstrate him to the sponsors. It took a couple hours, but they got him up and running in time for the opening of the fair. However a day or two into the fair they had to do some quick fixes because his hands wore through his pants since they rubbed against them every time he stood up and down. Imagine how many times he stands up and down in a day worth of shows!

I believe this is an aerial view of the offices at Disneyland and the building which would eventually hold the Primeval World. (one of my favorites at DL) Notice the Monorail in the parking lot.

A teaser for the Dinosaurs, you see they were part of the Ford exhibit at the World’s Fair. People were transported in Ford Mustangs through the USA and then back in time to see the Dinosaurs. They considered bringing the ride to CA, but they would need to buy new Ford Mustangs every year which could get pricey, so instead they just brought the Dinosaurs.

Can you imagine seeing this in the 1960s driving down the Freeway, someone might wonder what they had been smokin’?

So that’s my update for today, but don’t worry! I have plenty more to come, plus for anyone following my Destination D40 trip, I have a fun surprise coming probably in the next update!

 

[franandaj]

That's the Skyway, dear.

That's it!

Senior moment!

 

[DisneyFirefly]

That's it!

Senior moment!

 

[mvf-m11c]

Very nice photos from the Wonderful World of Vintage of DL. It would have been neat if we got to see and hear about WDW, but it was neat to see the videos of DL.

 

[WDWJonasGirl]

Love the old stuff about Disneyland. At that time, I was waiting to meet the cast of Shake It Up. I was there for about 3 1/2 hours

 

[PrincessInOz]

WOW That is vintage DL.


And I've been on Skyways and 20,000 leagues under the sea .....a long, long, time ago......in a faraway galaxy......

 

[dgbg100106]

Love the retro Disney pictures.

 

[Hawleys]

Nice update! I never get tired of the vintage Disney photos. Just think, 50 years from now, folks will be looking at vintage photos of the Carsland construction.

 

[Leshaface]

LOVE all the vintage pics!

And I love how all the folks back then dressed up.

 

[franandaj]

Very nice photos from the Wonderful World of Vintage of DL. It would have been neat if we got to see and hear about WDW, but it was neat to see the videos of DL.

Yeah, they said that there just isn't this kind of footage for WDW because by that time they had moved to video, and video just doesn't hold up like film. Evidently it degrades over time so most of the footage is now useless.

Love the old stuff about Disneyland. At that time, I was waiting to meet the cast of Shake It Up. I was there for about 3 1/2 hours

Wow! That was one crazy line!

WOW That is vintage DL.


And I've been on Skyways and 20,000 leagues under the sea .....a long, long, time ago......in a faraway galaxy......

I know I've been on the Skyways, I'm pretty sure I got to ride 20,000 leagues under the sea, but I have been on Nemo Submarines!

Love the retro Disney pictures.

Very cool! I never get tired of watching them!

Nice update! I never get tired of the vintage Disney photos. Just think, 50 years from now, folks will be looking at vintage photos of the Carsland construction.

I know, isn't that funny? I wonder what we'll be riding then?

LOVE all the vintage pics!

And I love how all the folks back then dressed up.

I know! I often go to the parks all gussied up and people wonder!

 

[franandaj]

So back to the vintage Disney Footage. This is construction of the first high-rise Disneyland Hotel, if you know your DL History, you will know that the first hotel was two stories and I think it had only 24 units. People thought it was crazy to build a hotel next to a theme park, why would anyone want to stay outside a theme park? Can anyone help me out as to what they are building in the foreground?

I believe this is the staircase in New Orleans Square

Next they showed a few shots of the building of POTC. Here they are setting up the Pirate Bedchamber

This is the pirate ship in the scene outside the town.

Now on the sails they needed to add cannonball fire to make it realistic, evidently they don’t do it this way any more because Tony Baxter was flabbergasted that the guy just whipped out a blow torch and began searing the sails.

OK, all you geeks out there who is this? Roy? They told us on the day and that’s why I snapped the pic, but now I don’t remember?

Evidently this is the opening ceremony for POTC, Pirates bust down the doors

And here were some of the first riders

I’m guessing this is construction for the Carousel of Progress (Mission to Mars, Innoventions)

Now this is the real part that made it all worth it for me. Those of you who followed my Destination-D40 TR might recall that there was a segment in there on the Disneyworld that never was. Because of the nature of the presentation, they asked us to put our cameras away. The highlight of that was a ride that never came to be at WDW. You see Disney never planned to put POTC in the MK, they had planned for the Western River Expedition and it was a five in one ride complex. For the same reason there is no New Orleans square at WDW they thought something about the Old West would be more interesting. So here it is the Western River Expedition.

The problem was that when the MK opened all the guests complained, “Where is the Pirate Ride” there were so many requests for Pirates that they junked the whole idea and just put in Pirates.

So before we start our journey, here are a few shots and explanations. This is concept art for the cowboys.

Now this is a concept for the ride complex. No one really knows today what all the various rides were. There was the flume ride on the top. The Painted Desert was another section and this was to be inspired by Mary Blair. The Western Expedition would be inside and who knows what the other two were.

This model shows how the three parts of the ride itself would work together.

Here are some concept shots including the Mary Blair color palettes.

Your journey begins through some caverns complete with animal shaped stalactites and stalagmites

Then you ride through the desert (more Mary Blair)

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[franandaj]

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Cue the ominous music on the horizon

These must be the gents that you see on the Prairie

More foreshadowing

You see these scenes along the trail

The women folk are traveling to town

But there’s trouble a foot

After we make it through the danger, we find the sleepy little town.

Much like Pirates, it appears that cowboys enjoy their women and wine

Then there is the tame side of town

The puritanical women

However, they can’t seem to keep things from getting out of hand.

I imagine these gals would be the equivalent of the Red Head

Even the Indians are in on the party

This is a “between scenes slide but it kinda shows how the Indians and the settlers are frustrated.

Here are the rootin tootin cowboy shooters!

I’m not exactly sure what’s going on here, but someone is being hung out to dry.

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[franandaj]

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The bad guys make a reappearance.

I guess it’s up to the women folk to save the day (as usual)

With a little help from the comical old man

The Indians are neutral

Here’s how it all fits together

He’s waiting around for business to pick up!

The aftermath

The Indians save the day

But you’re not out of the woods yet.

And then that’s it! I would imagine that you ride off into the Sunset, but I don’t have any more pictures so that must be all of it!

They had one final thing for us and I can’t even believe that Disney was involved in this, but I thought it was hilarious. This guy come on a TV commercial telling kids that they can get a Free copy of this picture of Davy Crockett.

All they need to do is come to their local [insert car dealership name here] dealer and have their parents test drive a brand new

And they could be entered into a contest for an all expense paid trip to

Can you imagine the kids bugging their parents?

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[franandaj]

[Continued from Previous Post]

So they ended up the presentation with a drive down Harbor Blvd.

So I thought I would pop in here with a couple of pics that I stole from mvf-m11c, although it’s much easier just to say Bret. Now remember I told you about the crazy queues? Here is the queue from the Carsland presentation. I think this was the one that most people wanted to get into (besides the Arena presentations) and people were prepared to wait all day to do it.

So this was when the queue was just forming. The door on the left is where they led us out of the room when it was time to move to the other room. The door on the right is where people entered to get in the queue. If you start at the beginning of the line and count about 50 or so people back and look just to the left underneath the blurry blue light, you will see Fran in her scooter reading a book! This must have been when I was out getting my coffee!

Behind us, the line went to the back of the room and then snaked back through these columns

Eventually the room got completely full

I’d say that I spent about six hours in lines like this that day.

When the queue rooms were still full (ie they hadn’t loaded up the show room for the next show) the line for not the next, but the following show had to wait in the hallway. This is what it was like. I do have to say the 2011 Expo was much better than 2009 because EVERY line was like this in 2009!

Gotta Run for now, final “Fond Farewell” and Bonus Food Porn still to come!

 

[PrincessInOz]

WOW! Massive update indeed....and I always wondered why there wasn't a New Orleans at WDW.....but I LOVE that Wild West montage. It would so perfectly fit in with Big Thunder and Splash today.


And would you look at Harbor Blvd.....all those orange groves!

THanks for sharing.

 

[Leshaface]

Great pics!

I can't BELIEVE that's how Harbor Blvd used to look like Times certainly have changed.

Alison, you probably already said this somewhere in the beginning, but how much are tickets to go to the Expo? This is something I would definitely do solo ( you know DH would NOT like to stand in lines like this all day ) but I think this would be very fun to do.

 

[Wonder2008]

So back to the vintage Disney Footage. This is construction of the first high-rise Disneyland Hotel, if you know your DL History, you will know that the first hotel was two stories and I think it had only 24 units. People thought it was crazy to build a hotel next to a theme park, why would anyone want to stay outside a theme park? Can anyone help me out as to what they are building in the foreground?

That looks like New Orleans Square in the foreground.

I really like that picture of the Disneyland Hotel. I had read somewhere that the first tower built was doubled in size later on - if you look at the picture, the right half looks "done", but the left half isn't.

Robert

 

[franandaj]

WOW! Massive update indeed....and I always wondered why there wasn't a New Orleans at WDW.....but I LOVE that Wild West montage. It would so perfectly fit in with Big Thunder and Splash today.


And would you look at Harbor Blvd.....all those orange groves!

THanks for sharing.

Yeah, In Walt's original plan N'Orleans was too close to WDW and he didn't think it would seem as exotic as the Wild West so that's why there isn't that land. It would have been really cool if the Imagineers could have cultivated that aspect of the park.

Great pics!

I can't BELIEVE that's how Harbor Blvd used to look like Times certainly have changed.

Alison, you probably already said this somewhere in the beginning, but how much are tickets to go to the Expo? This is something I would definitely do solo ( you know DH would NOT like to stand in lines like this all day ) but I think this would be very fun to do.

I know, we can't imagine Harbor Blvd looking like that now. Hey it looks a little like driving down Mooney or Hillman/Demaree, but even less evolved.

Tickets range in price. Sorcerer tickets (supposedly only 50 but closer to 100) were $1000, Premiere (what we had supposedly 250 probably closer to 300) were $500, and Member and non Member tickets were around $45 or so per day (I think I really don't know). The thing is that if you do go, become a D23 member beforehand. The lines for D23 members got in before the non D23 people. I tell you we are going to get the Sorcerer's or equivalent next time. We screwed up because we forgot about buying the tickets until after 5PM and it opened at 10AM. Plus we each needed to have a membership which we didn't realize until the registration opened. Luckily we coudl at least get the Premeiere because it did pay off, I just wish we could have had the Sorcerer.

That looks like New Orleans Square in the foreground.

I really like that picture of the Disneyland Hotel. I had read somewhere that the first tower built was doubled in size later on - if you look at the picture, the right half looks "done", but the left half isn't.

Robert

The other thing that I wonder is if it was the complex near the DL Hotel before they had the whole DTD area. I remember meeting a friend at a complex near the DL hotel for some drinks, well a lot of drinks but there was a whole area around there with themed restaurants and stuff, I'm a little fuzzy on it all, but I do remember an area that is now gone that used to be around there. Plus when I stayed at the DL hotel they had a pool that is gone where I swam laps on a couple days since I was missing my regular swim workouts, but I'm sure I didn't keep up like I would have if my coaches were pressuring me. But I do remember a pool that was Olympic in scale and not themed like the current pools.

 

[franandaj]

So while most people were leaving the Convention Center, we scooted on back to the Sorcerer & Premier Member Lounge for our “Fond Farewell”

Stephen Clark and his main henchwoman came out to thank us. Wow, I didn't notice it but this poor guy probably didn't sleep for the whole three days!

And they started passing out cupcakes. For some reason cupcakes are all the rage right now.

They served us adult beverages (for free! ) and had all kinds of other goodies out on the food tables.

I got my picture taken with the two of them.

And then we headed out, because after two days of cold food I was ready for Mrs. Knott’s Chicken dinner! For those of you who don’t know Walter and Cordelia Knott came from Kansas to California in the 1920’s. Sometime during the Great Depression in order to make ends meet Mrs. Knott began serving Fried Chicken Dinners on her wedding china at the ridiculous price of 65¢. These meals were all inclusive with soup or Cherry Rhubarb, Salad, Biscuits, Fried Chicken and a slice of Boysenberry Pie; a Berry cultivated by her husband and named in honor of his friend who challenged him to cultivate said berries.

Now I’m hoping that these dinners are based on the same principles and recipes that she created back when. I know I’ve always enjoyed our dinners here (although I’ll get the cabbage next time since the corn is obviously canned), but we can never eat the pie and always have to take it to go! I forgot to take pictures of it when we ate it a couple days later, but believe me, it’s worth it! In fact if I were staying at the Villas (from out of town) and ventured over here for dinner, I would bring a pie back to my villa, just to enjoy at night!

So here’s our dinner, we ended up stretching it into two dinners, I think we ate the leftovers Wednesday night (as you will see why).

Biscuits

Salad and Cherry Rhubarb

Salad and Chicken Noodle Soup

Corn and Cabbage

And the star of the show, Fried Chicken and Mashed Potatoes. You know, I’ll tell you I’ve seen bad reviews on Yelp, but most of them are from people who didn’t want to wait in the line and got take out. They complained that it wasn’t crispy, well then suck it up and wait for them to bring you your chicken hot and crispy in the Dining Room! As far as I was concerned it was tasty, crispy and not to spicy. Some others on Yelp seemed to think their recipe needed help, but this is Midwestern Chicken not Southern. As far as I’m concerned, it’s pretty darned good and the biscuits are addicting!

After that we went back to the hotel, tried to find room in the fridge for all the leftovers. In fact we left with more food than we came with! I was in a food coma and we went to bed soon after getting back to the hotel. Monday morning we slept in and took all the way until noon to check out.

But wait there’s more! You’ll have to tune in later for the bonus food porn!