Valkyre

Guess Where We Were on Thursday, October 20th?

Mike has put in 35 years with Ma Bell. Every five year anniversary, they let you celebrate, on their dime. Within limits. After the 25th anniversary, they allow you to celebrate at the exclusive Club 33, located inside Disneyland. It seems the Telephone Pioneers have maintained a membership there. Well, in order for one to get into Club 33, you need to get into Disneyland, since it's located in New Orleans Square. So, not only did we enjoy lunch at Club 33, we got admission to the park. All throughout the year, they are celebrating their golden, 50th anniversary.

However, they kind of got carried away with the gold. Everything was gold. I started to call it "pimp gold". And, they had a ton "50th anniversary" crap on sale. They just took normal everyday items and slapped gold paint on them and jack up the price. I'm sure that a lot of people are going to hoard the stuff, thinking that it will be valuable down the line. But, I think there has been too much of it sold, for it to ever become valuable. It made me think back to their 25th anniversary and how much different it was. Instead of Buy! Buy! Buy!, they gave stuff away. They gave away their mouse ear hats. They did have silver ears, instead of the usual black. You could get pictures taken with your favorite Disney character, and they would print it out and put it in a commemerative cardboard frame, for free. And, they also handed out free birthday cake. I also don't remember them splashing silver paint all over half the park. The 25th seemed like they were thanking the public for supporting them all those years. The 50th is corporate greed.

Another disappointment was the refurbished Space Mountain. It had re-opened recently after being closed for several months. They have been heavily advertising it. What they show on TV is nothing like the ride. They took a pretty fun ride and ruined it. Instead of getting a rough coaster ride, which adds to the thrill, they somehow smoothed it out and, it seemed that they slowed it down. It , to me, felt like you were in a luxury sedan driving down through the levels of a parking garage. (If you happen to speed through parking garages.) Usually, when you go on coasters, even a tame coaster, you get the usual people who hold their arms up and scream for the sake of screaming. Our whole train was quiet as we drop through the turns and hills. It was truly disappointing. I miss the old Space Mountain.

To celebrate Halloween, and Christmas, the Haunted Mansion gets revamped and completely done over. It becomes the Nightmare Before Christmas. It's really well done and worth waiting in line to see.

Posted by Valkyre at October 22, 2005 09:16 PM