Disneyland - Jungle Cruise - 1980s - "Last Day Dip"

It is a tradition lost to the ravages of time: launching a Skipper into the river on his last day on Jungle.

Our thanks to Ed Cunningham, fearless skipper of the early 80s---and (thankfully) someone who bothered to document the antics (and keep the photos). Ed originally posted these pics of what was no doubt his last day on Jungle (even then, Management was not keen on Cast Members swimming in attractions during Park hours).


The initial push into the river by a fellow cast member was clearly quite effective, as the victim made it all the way across to the catwalk!

Alas, this grand tradition is no longer in favor at modern Disneyland (ahem, "The Disneyland Resort"). This is probably for the best. We've heard tell that Ed suffered from the dreaded "Jungle River Slimepox" on and off for over 27 years after hitting the river. Yeeewwww.

By the way, I do not think I will ever tire of seeing photos of the Jungle boats with their striped canopies or the Skipper costumes with the leopard print hat bands.

These photographs also help to answer the time honored guest question: "How deep is the water?"

In the middle photograph, our victim has resurfaced and is standing on the mucky bottom, with his head and shoulders out of the water.

It's that deep.

For now, my friends, stay well, keep dry and remember, as Trader Sam used to tell me often: "There's no known cure for Slimepox."

So when next you cruise the Jungle, STAY IN THE BOAT!

---Mike

Disneyland Musings - Volume VI - Matterhorn Way

All right, I've been bad. Very bad.
I have been dealing with a lot in my other life and have neglected my blog.
What's strange, though, is that I've actually picked up more followers during this "frozen screen" phase.
Perhaps the best way to increase readership of "Jungle is 101" is for me to stop writing...

No such luck folks.

Today I muse about my first shift as a spry, young custodial host in brilliant sweeper "whites" in May 1984. As the title of this post indicates, I was assigned "Matterhorn Way" in Fantasyland for my first shift "on my own" after training.

It is an area of the park (like I need to tell any of you Parkophiles) that runs from the northeast corner of the Hub on Main Street (to the right of Sleeping Beauty's Castle if you are facing the Castle from Main Street) and northeast toward the Small World (on one side) and more easterly toward the queue for Finding Nemo (on the other side---Matterhorn Way splits at the base of the Matterhorn---the Alice side and then the Tomorrowland side). See the photograph from 1985 (note the 30th Anniversary logo on the light pole).

It is a section of the parade route for most every Disneyland parade. The main section of Matterhorn way runs between the Matterhorn and the Fantasyland restrooms just south of Alice in Wonderland. It is an open area that is usually not too crowded. It is shaded along its western edge by the trees and the castle wall facade that run along the southeastern edge of Fantasyland.
It's a great place to be a sweeper.
Plenty of foot traffic.
Lots of guest interaction.
The bathroom is easily located and most guests can be directed there without a map or a 20 minute geography lesson.
The bullpen for the Matterhorn runs in a single line along the base of the mountain---easy to sweep. Just jump in line with your pan and broom, ease along with the guests, sweep as you go and jump back out when you get across from Alice.
There are sunny areas but also blessed shade. July and August are rough if your area is a place largely devoid of shade like Tomorrowland or along the Rivers of America (between the River Belle Terrace and Tom Sawyer's Rafts landing).
Matterhorn Way is a travelers' zone---people who are going through it are moving to and fro on their way to other places.
They usually know where they're going, too, because once one rounds the corner from Main Street, the Small World unmistakingly beckons in the distance, with Alice very obviously to the left and a great, big, white mountain to the right. The echoing roar of Harold sounds from inside the mountain and rolls along Matterhorn Way rhythmically.
Sure, you'll get the occasional, "Can you tell me how to get to the Matterhorn?"
But there is something deeply satisfying about being able to put on your best Disney smile for the guest, slowly turning toward the megalith behind you, and answering with a two-fingered point, "Why you're almost there! It's that white mountain to my left!"
Most smile embarrassedly and nod a thank you as they step into the line.
As that young sweeper on his first shift, Matterhorn way was perfect.
First of all, for your lead, it was an easy spot to keep track of a newbie.
There's nowhere to hide (or get lost). It is also an easy area to point out ("I want you to start at the popcorn cart---hit that area often, by the way---over in front of the Matterhorn and then sweep the area all the way past Alice down to the Hub, and then the back side of the mountain and back along the Alice side to the popcorn cart again, you got that? Don't forget to hit the line every half hour or so and don't forget the restrooms!")
It's a spot "between worlds" within the Park. It's a little Main Street, it's a little Tomorrowland, it's a little Fantasyland---all within an area that takes about 15 minutes to cycle through with a pan and broom.
Guests enjoyed (and still do enjoy) sitting along the concrete benches south of the restrooms. They are themed to be part of the Sleeping Beauty Castle and are smooth and usually shaded.
I often met the most pleasant people seated along there. They were happy to have a conversation with a sweeper. Many were seniors---resting their legs while the rest of the family scurried elsewhere in the Park.
"How are you today?"
"Just fine," I'd answer. "Where are you from?"
"Oh, we're from "X"---we're visiting the grandchildren. What a lovely day! Not too warm for you is it?"
"No, I keep moving and there's shade. Besides, those restrooms over there are cool and air conditioned---and they need sweeping!"
"I hadn't even noticed. I'm glad you pointed them out! Thank you."
Et cetera.
I couldn't believe I was actually getting PAID to stand in Disneyland and talk with people! Or to walk through my assigned area with my pan and broom and keep the place Disney clean! (I was pretty gung-ho, I'll admit; you know, even later on the Jungle Cruise, I was quick to pick up trash in the queue or in the boats).
For your next visit, your assignment is to take a seat along the concrete Castle benches on Matterhorn Way and people watch for a while. Grab a corn dog or a churro or a turkey leg and take a seat. Watch the guests going by.
Better yet, take some time and watch for the sweeper.
Be sure to say hello.

---Mike

Disneyland: Happy New Year! Tomorrowland, Then and Now, Plaza Gardens and 1985 Cast Members

Salutations and best wishes for a healthy, happy, safe and productive new year to all four of you loyal readers! It is kinda silly to have a site meter to track my mom and three other people, but what the heck, it was a free application.

Since we tend to look back here at Jungle, there's no better way to start the new year than to compare 1980s Tomorrowland with its present counterpart.

The photograph below shows the east side of Tomorrowland viewed from the upper bullpen area of Space Mountain in 1985. Bright primary colors catch the eye, from the Monorail, to the Skyway, to the America Sings building and even the Tomorrowland Terrace umbrellas. Palm trees also rose gracefully to the sky, perhaps evoking a positive, upwardly moving future.
This same area today (a touch more crowded) seems a little "off." You can really see how Innoventions was kinda slapped together over the old America Sings building. Hey! They got rid of the flag poles and replaced them with---a triangle thingy! Now there's also a big wet ball in the middle of the walkway. Not sure why. Further, they've added a green tower to the skyline (over at the Autopia) and replaced a nice shady spot near the old America Sings building with one that's a little less shady. Stainless steel handrails have become brass or rust-colored, too.
And what exactly has taken over the old Rocket Jets platform to the upper left of the photo? DirecTV? Dish Network?
Enough of that.

Next, I share with you a 1985 view of Carnation Plaza Gardens and a link to an old post about this location. This photograph was taken by a guest during Park operating hours in early 1985. Imagine, open, empty space within Disneyland! Trust me, it can happen.

Finally, let's close with a fun shot of several 1985 cast members perched above the moat at the entrance to Sleeping Beauty's Castle. See? Cast members have fun at Disneyland, too.
That, I can assuredly and thankfully tell you, is one thing about the Park that has not changed over time!

Here's to 2010! May each of your lives continue to grow and add new things! May there continue to be imagination left in the world!

---Mike

Disneyland - More 80s Nostalgia - Jungle Cruise - Tiki - Orange Polyester - Merry Christmas!

Ok. Ok. I know---it's been a month since my last post. I have been, shall we say, remiss.

But hey, this isn't "Julie & Julia," or even "Mike & Walt." I never promised to post every single day or to cook every dish in Julia Child's first cookbook over the course of a year.

Still...if you're gonna be a blogger, I guess you have to actually blog occasionally. Even if you have but four (4), count them, four(4) readers to your name.

I have seen somewhere that "Jungle is 101" is described as being a bit on the nostalgic side. That's like saying the Boy Scouts are a bit on the "help-an-old-lady-to-cross-the-street-and-learn-how-to-tie-really-good-knots" side.

I confess, when it comes to the Park, nostalgia is my game (though I do seem to recall a post or two relating to my most recent stint as a cast member!).

Thanks to the magic of the Internet, I've been able to come across many old photographs from my first tour of duty at the Park. Today, we peek at a few more, starting with the Jungle Cruise crew from 1986-87-ish (thanks to Sue B. for originally sharing this photo). Two of my favorite old skippers (Jimm and Dougg) (they insist on the double consonants) a pictured in the group below (Jimm to the far left and Dougg smack in the middle). See? The hats, the costumes, the canopies, the old seat cushions, 7 cast members on a single boat (doing absolutely nothing but posing for a picture)---Jungle at its finest!
I remember the macrame-style belts were a bit cheesy, but overall, we cut a fine form in our Jungle gear, eh?

In our next photograph we have old-time skipper "Wally" taking a zip around the rivers of Adventureland on the world famous "skiff." I worked a lot of parade shifts and Mark Twain with Wally. He was a great Jungle captain. Back in the day, they actually trusted us skippers (at least a few of us anyway) to pilot a boat through the Jungle that was not connected to the riverbed. Imagine.

Of course, our old lead (Don) was known to pilot an unwitting skipper or two (seated at the front of the skiff) directly under Schweitzer falls for a ceremonial jungle baptism (one of several preferred forms of the ritual---others included: the squirter, the falls, the Spur side, the unload, the front switch, the rear switch, the "it's clear to cross the bow! (and then throttle into reverse suddenly)" to name but a few).

Of course, after several times around the Jungle (or more, if the rest of your rotation was mad at you for taking an "extended" break), you would retire to one of the many premier break areas available to Disneyland Cast Members.

Each break area came stocked with: (1) a 40-year old vending machine (complete with 40-year old snacks inside), (2) an inoperative change machine (that would instantly spit back any type of bill one attempted to feed into it---from a crisp, newly minted greenback to the more common crumpled single), (3) a bench or table (usually orange for some reason) and (4) a videogame.

In a photograph below (originally shared byfrom Lee S.), we see a fellow Thunder cast member (Henry D.) enjoying a few mushroom-shooting moments with Centipede (with an inoperative brown change machine in the background). The old Thunder costumes were also pretty cool (though the boots would absolutely KILL your feet after a typical shift).
Some attractions actually permitted the cast member to be both on the clock AND taking a break AT THE SAME TIME. This wonder of the modern workplace was available in many forms around the Park, but none so perfect as the Tiki Room:
Here (in another Lee S. photo---thanks Lee!), we see a graphic demonstration of the work/break principle in its purest form, with Dave P. as our Tiki Room attraction operator. Uh, Dave, first you wake up Jose and now THIS? By the way, I think that same chair is STILL at Tiki (though now it's in the "office" in the back and not on stage as depicted above).

The photograph of Dave also brings back memories of the Tiki costume. Slacks and an orange Hawaiian shirt made entirely of polyester. Those pants would literally tear the hair off of your legs. They also would not breathe! Nice combo once July and August hit, let me tell you.

We close today's post with a 1986 photograph (again thanks to Lee S.) of Jeff Cravello at the turnstile position leading to the Tiki lanai. It looks like the sun is setting and the lights are coming up in Adventureland. Soon Jeff will be hearing the drums of the Tahitian Terrace show rumbling into action behind him. Very 80s specs Jeff is sporting, no?Okay, there is one thing I do NOT miss about 1980s Adventure/Frontier Attractions: Tiki polyester.

It took 25 years, but the hair finally has grown back on the front of my thighs. Sheesh.

Oh, and in case I don't post between now and then, may each of you have a safe, happy and Merry Christmas!

"Jungle Bells! Jungle Bells! Jungle all the way! Oh what fun it is to run...from an elephant about to spray! Hey!!"

---Mike

Disneyland - Jungle Cruise - 1983 - Arthur

Ah, the old Jungle queue and entrance. Thanks to old Skipper Ed Cunningham for originally sharing the shot below from 1983. You can see we were a different class of Jungle skippers back then---very well turned out, indeed. This group looks like they just got back from the Banana Ball and they haven't even left yet! By the way, dig the prototype for the new Small World boat at the bottom of the photo---this design never caught on for some reason.
In scrounging around trying to locate old photographs from back in the day, I found one showing "Arthur" on Main Street from 1983 or 84 (thanks to my old sweeper pal, Robin Mora, for originally sharing this picture). If you weren't around Disneyland when Arthur was a regular...well hopefully this will help you understand a little of what he was like.
Let us now raise our glasses...To Arthur!

To Arthur!

Here! Here!

---Mike

Disneyland - Adventureland As It Was...some 1985 views

Today we start with a nice photograph of the Jungle Cruise dock at Disneyland as it appeared circa 1985-86. You can see the beautiful tree that shaded the exit dock and the eastern end of Tropical Imports. Those barrels you see held rubber snakes and spiders of all sizes. You could even buy cool little skulls. I don't think there was a plush toy to be found within Adventureland back then (unless some tyke trucked it in there via stroller).

If your heart twinges or aches just a touch when you see the striped canopy of the old Jungle boats in the background of the photo---then you and I should definitely sit down for a drink together someday because we understand each other, compadre.

Next I have a pretty poor quality photo that I copied from somewhere off the internet (and hereby beg forgiveness from the person who originally posted it---whom I will credit if I do learn their identity at some point).

In any event, this picture shows a panoramic view of Adventureland in the "Pre-Indy," "Pre-Tarzan" and "Pre-Aladdin" days of yore.

While it is pretty fuzzy, you see how much of the ground your eye can take in, even with the many guests strolling through? There was a bit more space in the walkways back then.

These days, with the new Jungle queue, Indy, Tarzan's Treehouse and the Aladdin thingy, Adventureland has become much more crowded and its main walkway much more narrow.

You can also make out the fuzzy form of the old Jungle Cruise entrance toward the center of the photograph. I miss the thatched palm fronds that made up the canopy over the old queue. When we used to make the announcement about the varieties of poisonous snakes in the rafters overhead---let's just say it was slightly more believable back then!

Here is a closer shot of the skulls that used to adorn the Jungle Cruise entrance:

You have to admit, there was more of a danger vibe on entering the queue in 1985 than say, today:

Oooooooh. Either we about to embark on a dangerous adventure into the sweltering jungle...or we've just stumbled across the entrance to the local "Pier 1 Imports" or "Banana Republic."

Note: neither Pier 1 nor Banana Republic sponsor or are in any way affiliated with "Jungle is 101." The appearance of the Pier 1 logo here is due to an error in the production process and will not be repeated.*

*(with apologies to "Monty Python's Flying Circus")

Stay cool, Adventure fans! We've got more junk to throw your way. Until then, always stay at least partially informed and try not to give in to overwhelming despair, even if you find yourself in Toontown on a hot day with a cranky five year old.

It's like Trader Sam always told me: "Mike, you've got to know when to keep your head and when to lose it."

Adieu, mon ami!

---Mike

Disneyland - Halloween - A Return To A Popular Haunted Mansion Post From Last Year - The "Real Ghost"

In honor of the Halloween season, for those of you who missed it---and even for those who didn't, I've been asked to re-post or link to my story of the Haunted Mansion's real ghost.

Here it is. Enjoy.

Oh, and here's another link to an interesting video of surveillance cameras that purports to capture a "real" ghost at Disneyland. Somewhat odd that the photographer decided to zoom in and film the security video just at the moment the "ghost" appeared.

I'm just sayin'....

---Happy Halloween all!

Disneyland - Tiki Room Lanai - 1985

Here is a familiar sight: a 1985 photograph of the Tiki Room lanai, with Tongaroa, father of all gods and goddesses, proudly holding court between performances of the show that take place inside the doors to the left.

The Tiki Room show has actually changed considerably since 1985. A large chunk of the middle section of the show was removed in order to appeal to modern audiences and keep the show's cycle time down closer to 15-minute intervals.

Thankfully, the cast member costumes have also been updated---from the orange and white polyster number of the 1980s to a somewhat more subdued hawaiian print shirt and khaki pants in vogue today.

I remember working a few summer nights at Tiki in 1987. The torches at the entrance lit up the area and the drums from the Tahitian Terrace show next door boomed in the distance. The smell of pineapple and teriyaki wafted through the area.

When I returned to Tiki this past year for a few shifts, it was very much like I'd never left, though I deeply missed the Tahitian Terrace teriyaki smell, drums and dancers.

Tiki's back room shared a door with the Tahitian Terrace kitchen and backstage area. On my way to break, I would walk through and occasionally catch a glimpse of the show in progress. It was always great to see the tables full of guests, hear the clank of silverware against plates and watch the Samoans twirl burning torches on the stage.

Anyhow, running the Tiki Room show as an attraction host was always relaxing. If you were the only one stationed at the attraction (usually when your partner had to go to lunch), you would be in charge of opening the turnstile, letting in the guests, closing off the turnstile, updating the "time until next show" clock, noting the guest count, opening the show doors, introducing the show and, of course, waking up Jose. After all this, you could stand or sit in the theater and enjoy the show along with the guests, keeping an eye on things to make sure everyone was seated and enjoying themselves.

In my day, the middle of the show included an Offenbach piece ("Bacarole") that was very relaxing and almost hypnotic, especially when coupled with the dancing waters of the "Magic Fountain" at the center of the show.

The Dole Tiki Juice Bar at the entrance to the Tiki Room lanai is one of only two places on the planet where you can obtain an authentic "Dole Whip." If you don't know what I'm talking about...try one the next time you're in Adventureland (you'll thank me).

I loved working the turnstile at Tiki. It was just one big guest interaction experience.
Hello! Where're you from?
The next show will be in 10 minutes.
Have you tried a Dole Whip?
I see you're a Cubs fan---are you from Chicago, nice shirt?
No, I can't give you my name tag.
What is this attraction? It is a show with singing birds, flowers and tikis---you'll love it. Your little one may get a bit wound up at the end when the thunder and lightning starts, so keep that in mind...etc., etc.
Once guests seated themselves in the lanai, I would walk around with the pan and broom, pick up trash and chat before getting them to line up at the bottom of the steps for the next show.
Other cast members would walk by and wave to me while I was stationed at the turnstile. Friends from Jungle Cruise heading to their shift; area managers; sweepers; Outdoor Vending folks; you name it.
Even today, Tiki Room is a cherished attraction location for cast members. Only people with a good amount of seniority are able to get the coveted Tiki shifts.
The theming, the show, the ambience---the Enchanted Tiki Room is a timeless masterpiece. Thank goodness for Walt and all of his creative team. They really did a fabulous job.

Well...it looks like the gods have been angered by all my jibberish, so I better shove off for now before the thunderbolts start flying.

Alooooooooooooo-ha!

---Mike

Disneyland - 1984 - Olympic Summer - Where is Everybody?

Hello, Jungle-teers! Bet you thought I died or something, right?

Let's say I have been fully engaged at work and unable to sneak even a few moments for posting for several weeks, and we will leave it at that.

Today, return with me for a moment to Disneyland 1984, the year the Summer Olympics came to Los Angeles. Those Olympics were, by most all accounts, a rousing success for Los Angeles and Southern California. The world's eyes were upon this region for the duration of the Games.

I remember the hype leading up to the Games as well. It seemed every inch of California was promoting the Olympics. Some of my fellow Disneyland cast members at the time were also (amazingly enough) Cal State Fullerton students and were in the band. They were invited to play at the L.A. Coliseum for the opening festivities. They participated in playing John Williams' now famous "Olympic Fanfare and Theme."

Local TV and radio stations warned for months about the traffic nightmare that would ensnare Los Angeles and Orange Counties as Olympic spectators flocked to the Southland from around the world.

At the Park, everybody braced themselves for a nightmare summer. Visions of 65,000+ guests per day swirled in our heads. Area managers beefed up the schedules, adding bodies wherever they could in order to meet the expected crowd with a sufficient number of cast members.

As summer neared and flights into LAX increased in volume with Olympics traffic, Southern California held its collective breath.


Everywhere you looked were the colorful---very 1980s---Summer Olympics flags, banners and logos. The Games were scheduled to run from July 28 to August 12, 1984. Los Angeles and its business community mobilized an unprecedented effort to accommodate an estimated 625,000 visitors. As May 1984 turned into June, the newspapers boomed about the coming onslaught.

Hal Fishman on KTLA Channel 5's evening newscast spoke often of the great preparations, the coming crowds and the fact that KTLA would be there with up to the minute traffic reports to help Angelenos navigate the freeways that were expected to crawl with higher than normal traffic for mid-to-late summer.

At the cinema, the megahit comedy of the summer was Ghostbusters, and Ray Parker, Jr.'s famous theme song to that movie streamed from radios as KIIS-FM and other popular stations were cranked up at beaches, pools and backyard barbeques: "Who you gonna call? GHOSTBUSTERS! I can't heeeeaaar you! Who you gonna call? GHOSTBUSTERS! Louder!"

Among the cast members over at Disneyland, we waited for the post-Memorial Day Weekend crowds to swell.

The first week of June arrived. The Main Street Electrical Parade and Fantasy in the Sky kicked off the season and lit up the summer nights. I remember the first few parades seemded pretty full, but as the week went on, the crowd along the route wasn't as deep. Not nearly as deep as we expected.

By the second week of June, the fever pitch of pre-Olympics hysteria blazed across the Southland. Teams of athletes were arriving or soon to arrive, and TV news crews were providing location shots from all over the place---Chino Hills, Long Beach, the Coliseum, Santa Monica, Irvine, Santa Anita---you name it.

As we cast members clocked in at Harbor House to start our shifts during mid-June, we wondered what lay ahead of us "inside the berm." Was today the day were we going to get killed by a mass of guests trouncing our area of the Park?

Could Day Custodial keep up with the titanic amounts of trash?
Could Theme Park Operations and Adventure/Frontier Attractions maintain the attraction cycle times enough to avoid two-to-three-hour lines from forming in the bullpens?
Would Outdoor Vending run out of popcorn or frozen bananas at the worst possible moment? Heaven forbid, would there be enough Mickey Mouse balloons to satisfy the swarm of guests? Would the engines of the Disneyland Railroad blow their boilers from the strain of pulling passenger cars fully laden?

By the third week of June, we knew the time had to be coming. With the 4th of July weekend just around the corner, the inevitable was almost upon us.

Yet.

June was actually slow.

Like, eerily slow. Nowhere near the normal crowds for that time of year.

Now this was before Annual Passes were as common as drivers' licenses in California. Heck, we had only recently moved to full-day Passports, having scrapped the old ticket books. The So-Cal "locals" were an important part of our summer crowd, but they weren't believed to be the largest part. They were the ones who brought their family members to the Park every summer. The Aunts or Uncles or Cousins from Cleveland, Boise, St. Louis, South Bend, Pittsburgh, Naperville or such cities would make their summer pilgrimage to the West Coast and Sunny Southern California and their California relations would dutifully haul them all down to 1313 South Harbor Boulevard in Anaheim. So each "local" would usually bring four to six "visitors" with them to the Park during the summer.

With the Olympics, this trend was expected to be far worse, because not only were the locals and their visitors going to be hitting the Park, but hundreds of thousands of international guests were to be added to the mix. One could only picture a sea of heads and shoulders, clogging Main Street from Town Square to the Castle Forecourt and spreading from the Hub into each and every "land" of Disneyland. We could picture the line for Pirates of the Caribbean winding back and forth all the way to the Rivers of America, physically cutting off thousands of guests---who would then be trapped in Bear Country and the west side of New Orleans Square. Our vision was of wall to wall people filling in every open square inch of the Park---even Thunder Trail!

Hideous. Teeming. Almost unmanageable.

I worked the 4th of July in 1984 in Frontierland. I had a closing shift and was assigned "Popcorn Alley" between the River Belle Terrace and the mouth of Thunder Trail (so named because of the two Popcorn carts located within this area and the elbow-to-elbow crowd conditions that inevitably seemed to result in about 90 five-year-olds per half-hour dropping or spilling carton after carton of Orville Redenbacher's ® Gourmet Popping Corn along the riverfront and around the Mark Twain dock). It was another warm July night and I figured we were in for it.

I remember looking up from my pan and broom at about 8:15 p.m. and toward the entrance to Frontierland. Something struck me as odd: I could actually see the entrance to Frontierland. Not only that, but I could see the ground from the Mark Twain dock to the shooting gallery and beyond. Over by the shooting gallery, a handful of guests were walking slowly toward Big Thunder. Another three or four clomped along the wooden porch near the Golden Horseshoe. The Outdoor Vending cast member stationed at the popcorn cart nearby stared blankly into her glass bin---filled with recently popped popcorn. There was no one in line at her cart.

Heck, you could pretty much WALK ONTO Big Thunder.


What was up?


This was summer, not mid-February in the rain?


WHERE WAS EVERYBODY?


Where were our guests?


Let me tell you something. You will never in your lifetime see Frontierland as "guest-free" on a 4th of July evening at Disneyland as I saw it on that night back in 1984. I've never seen anything like it since. Indeed, the very next year, I worked what was then---(and may still be)---the busiest 4th of July in Disneyland history. Our "official" count was over 75,000, and that was IN-PARK (so the legend goes).

You want hell on earth? Try Disneyland on a hot summer day in July with over 70,000 people in the Park.

There is nowhere to run. Nowhere to walk. Nowhere to get out of line or out of the crowd. Nowhere to escape that over-tired four year old who is just now crashing from the sugar-induced acid trip he went on after digging into his brother's rock candy from the Candy Palace on Main Street (and downing half the little plastic box container of the stuff). Nowhere to escape from that kid's parents or siblings, either.


Hot.


Crowded.


Hell.


But not in Summer 1984!


Those pre-Olympics warnings of record-breaking crowds absolutely scared the locals Park-less! No local Southern Californian was going to be caught dead anywhere near Anaheim in the summer of 1984! And they sure as hell weren't going to take their family members there, either. In fact, many of their family members were told "wait 'til next year to come out; you're not gonna wanna be here with all the crowds and traffic from the Olympics!"


Among the sparse number of guests I recall spotting during that unusually uncrowded summer were members of several African nations' Olympics teams. They were tall and wore their t-shirts proudly. Few spoke English, but all were amazed and overjoyed by Disneyland.

Now don't get me wrong, I'm not saying Disneyland was empty that summer, but it was much, much slower that I had ever seen it before or since during the same time of year.


Call it the "Great Olympics Scare-Off" of 1984. Call it what you will. For me, it meant a summer of more elbow room. More room for the old pan and broom. More time to practice the "cigarette-butt-from-behind-the-back, around-the-front, between-the-legs-and-into-the-pan." It was a grand anomaly. Actually, it was one of the few (and nowadays almost non-existent) times when the Park was open (as in open space)---with just the right number of guests and cast members wandering through it.


To quote Archie and Edith Bunker: "Those. Were. The. Daaaaaaaaaaayyyyyyyyyssssss!"


I bid you all a good day (or night as the case may be) and wish each of you a "slow day" at Disneyland at least once in your life!

---Mike

Disneyland Musings - Volume V - What's The Strangest Thing That Ever Happened To You While Visiting The Park?

Hello, Jungle followers and readers! I've been stuck doing a million other things in my "real" life, so this virtual life has suffered greatly.

Today's post is a quick one, just so you don't think I've left you forever.

To make it even easier on myself, I am posing a question for you---so you can do most of the work.

What is the strangest thing that ever happened to you while visiting Disneyland?

Here's one of my answers to this ponderously deep question: One of the strangest things that happened to me at the Park might actually be the huge cloud of ash that drifted over Disneyland from a brush fire in nearby Yorba Linda as I was working on Jungle Cruise. It was very odd to see the Jungle turn orange. Indeed, all of Adventureland was cast in a weird orange glow as the fire clouds covered the sun. Fine ash rained down onto the canopies of our boats and the Elephant Bathing pool was turned into a scene from Apocalypse Now.

The Park became eerily quieter when blanketed by the smoke. It was one of those rare occasions when the outside world literally poured in over the berm. And in these rather crazy, 2012, End-of-Days, Nostradamus Effect, Global Economic Collapse, Terror Alert Level Orange, post-9/11, amped up and out of control times---it really wasn't all that pleasant to see a leviathan plume of smoke over the Park. I did not work at the Park on September 11, 2001, but can't imagine a weirder or more unsettling day than that for those Cast Members who were there that morning. I've read some posts along the way from people who were working in the Park that day. Surreal.

Well. How's that for uplifting?

Of course, I could've told you about the time I encountered a fellow Cast Member swimming in the Submarine Lagoon, but we'll save that for another day.

If you have a moment, drop a post about YOUR strangest Disneyland experience. I am sure there are some great stories among you. All four (4) of my loyal readers.

Stay safe and do your part to see that there is imagination left in the world.

---Mike