Post #347082 by Cammo on Fri, Nov 30, 2007 10:12 PM

I ain’t even scratched the surface, and keep in mind that these are all recent things they’ve done, none of these even predate 1997, and many have happened in the last few years. Some they’re planning as you read this.

And – these were all true the last time I visited, but may be different or even worse now.

The main sign reading “DISNEYLAND, The Happiest Place on Earth” has been taken down. This used to be a huge banner sign at the car park entry, literally the signature sign of the whole park. It’s been replaced by what looks like big peeled oranges. (Symbolizing ‘this is the place we skin you?’) They did this right before the 50th anniversary celebrations, then bizarrely brought out a lot of 50th merchandise that incorporated that sign. I don’t know if they have ANY sign anywhere in the park system that declares it as the Happiest Place anymore. Apparently it’s just not important.

They no longer serve turkey dinners in the Plaza Inn at Thanksgiving & Christmas. This was the best food in the park – healthy and delicious. They used to vary the menu seasonally, but it’s always the same food now, every day; Pot Roast. Try Pot Roast on a hot August night. Yikes!

The Settlers’s Cabin doesn’t burn anymore. It burned for 50 years, then they turned off the propane. This was one of the best reasons to go on the canoes – to see the cabin up close – you could feel the flames and the canoe guides always paddled slow around there and joked it up.

Big Thunder Ranch BBQ, one of the best and oddly the fastest serving restaurant in Disneyland history, is closed. The weird part is, the whole operation is still there, they just won’t open it up unless you rent the space. At Big Thunder BBQ you could order ribs and chicken from a cookhouse wagon, get your food right away still smoking from the grill, and sit around a campfire at night at communal picnic tables, meeting and talking with other guests. Billy Hill and the boys would come around most nights and play wild bluegrass music, and tell jokes! It was amazing, fun, and so relaxing. So close it.

The Country Bear Jambouree is gone, seemingly in a fit of rage after the Country Bear movie bombed. People think it ‘made way’ for the Pooh ride, but they could have put the ride a leetle bit to the left without disturbing the bears.

The Disney Gallery was established to sell original Imagineer art. They no longer sell originals; it’s an upscale gift shop now.

They're not allowed to shoot the hippos in Adventureland. Now take my advice, if you ever get charged by a full sized hippo on say the Nile you had better getthe biggest guns that are sitting in the boat and shoot right between the eyes. Get EVERYBODY in the boat to shoot too.

The Indiana Jones ride interior has been gutted of fire and water. Nobody seems to notice that there aren’t many special effects anymore in the (formerly spectacular) main hall where the car goes over the bridge; the huge skull to the left used to gush a waterfall of red lava, etc. They run the car through this section faster now so you don’t have time to look around much.

You can’t go to the Blue Bayou without reservations anymore. For people with an internet connection, foreknowledge of the situation and the ability to plan 6 months in advance, this isn’t a problem. Nobody else can get in.

The Admiral Fowler Inn was designed to sell yummy seafood snacks. I think it sells french fries now.

The entry to Frontierland has been PC’ed. There is no Indian Village Encampment at the front. Inside, there is no sign of precautions against the Indians; the left door used to have a big stone weight over it for quick closure, but it’s been removed, etc. All the Frontierland stores used to sell western merchandise; you could buy a pretty nice jacket there, or a book on Indian tribes. They sell t-shirts now. I actually asked a shop lady if they sold any western items anymore, and she looked at me like I was painted purple. (I wasn’t.)

No Circlerama. Again, the Circlerama hasn’t been taken down, they just won’t open it.

The three sided sign beside the Tomorrowland train station hasn’t worked for years. (It animates.)

The Tomorrowland Monorail sign hasn’t worked for years. (It animates.)

Your and mine favorite ride, the Matterhorn. Get ready. They’re playing around with making the Matterhorn sleds two sets of three seated in-line cars, like log flume rides. That means your girlfriend won’t be able to sit on your lap. Now, I’m not kidding here, the whole reason for going on the Matterhorn is to get your girlfriend to sit on your lap and get tossed around for a few minutes. 36% of Californian marriages have been started this way. It’s important. Really important that they DON’T DO THIS. Moreover, the Matterhorn is one ride that pretty small kids can go on with their parents and actually sit on their laps. Log flume seating simply means very small kids can not go on the ride anymore. They aim to do away with this, for the worst of reasons; to increase efficiency.

They painted Tomorrowland rusty brown. The intent seems to have been to make Tomorrowland look old.

At the same time, they re-planted all of Tomorrowland with edible food. (Did you notice?) All the shrubs, the small plantings, the decorative details, are all edible food because in the future “all plants will have to be edible to support the population explosion”. Tomorrowland plants used to be the weirdest things they could find; succulents, rain forest vines, bizarre palms, to give the impression of other worlds. Now its pepper plants (very hard to maintain), there as food, but they won’t let you eat them of course.

The big wet spinning ball in front of Space Mountain used to have spray-water fountains all around it. They took those out; too much fun.

The Astro-Orbiter. As one of the ‘updates’ to Tomorrowland, they brought the rockets down off the raised gantry they used to sit on and planted them 60 feet lower. Now they barely go higher than the lamp poles. The rockets used to be one of the most exciting, awesome rides in the park. They’re now just like the Dumbo ride. Whose brilliant idea was it to raise the rockets up high in the first place, by simply sitting them on top of the elevators that take you up? Walt’s.

Almost all the benches have been removed from Disneyland. The only ones remaining are to watch the parades from. The rest, ones you could sit on and look at a map or eat an ice cream cone on, are gone. I think the only ambient benches remaining in the whole park are in front of Rancho del Zocalo in Frontierland.

California Adventure is so bad it actually has an unintentional slum area, the alley that's the only passage to the Tower of Terror. Trash regularly collects there, whirled in by air eddies formed by the huge undecorated warehouse-sized buildings that face the alley.

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