Category: Disneyland

Dumbo Double Dare 2013: The Half-Marathon
Back-to-back runs is something new for me, so I wasn’t sure how Saturday’s 10K run was going to affect my run in the half on Sunday.    Even during training, there were no back-to-back runs.   I was following Jeff Galloway’s training plan for the Dumbo, and in that training plan he has you do long walks, rather than runs, on Saturday, and then the long runs on Sunday.    That seemed odd to me, but who am I to question the master?   So that was my training regimen, imperfectly followed to be sure, but long walks on Saturday and long runs on Sunday.

The good news is that I did not feel any ill effects from Saturday’s 10K. No soreness, aches and pains, or notable fatigue as I was getting ready on Sunday.    And I decided the motto for the day was “no excuses”.   Saturday was done, it was not going to affect my performance on Sunday.    The weather was again unseasonably warm, and while that would undoubtedly affect my speed, it was not going to keep me from finishing and having a great time.   I had three medals waiting for me at the finish line and I would run, walk, or crawl across that finish line to get them.

Pre-Race

The corral situation was less confusing today.   As soon as I turned the corner to head to my corral, I saw the “G” balloon clearly — and now that I know where G corral actually is, I’m pretty sure that the marker balloon had not been there on Saturday.    I knew I’d be slow today, and that starting in the last corral gave me no margin to fall behind pace, so I wanted to at least give myself the advantage of being in the front of the corral.    Mission accomplished — I was ready to enter the corral at 4:20 a.m. and was in the front row.   I sat on the pavement and passed the time texting and Facebooking, although I eventually realized I had better make sure I had enough battery power for the race and put the phone away.

We watched corrals A-F start; I think the intervals were 7 or 8 minutes apart.    As F was moving to the start, they began moving our barricade forward, and we edged our way closer to the start.   Once F had gone they moved us into place — so I had a front row view of Mickey, Minnie, and our race announcer as they counted us down to the race start.

First half of the race

And then we were off.    Being at the front of the corral certainly has its advantages — yesterday I had been so hemmed in that I felt like I couldn’t set my own pace at all.   Today with nothing but pavement in front of me, I was able to establish a good pace early, and the first couple of miles established a good faster-than-PR pace that I hoped would carry through.     Very early on I realized that there was some lingering effect from yesterday’s run — although I had felt nothing standing or walking, once I started to run I felt some twinges in the thighs indicating that I wasn’t 100% recovered from the 10K.   But this never became a factor, just something I was aware of without feeling it was affecting my run.

We did not run around by the convention center today, instead turning left on Katella, and then left on Harbor, to enter the park earlier than in the 10K.   Somewhere before mile 2, there was a big cheer coming from behind us, I turned in time to see the eventual race winner loping past us (Mile 2 and Mile 12 ran parallel for a while behind DCA).   Interestingly enough, I did not see the 2nd place or any other runners, so I have to assume the winner took it by a pretty good margin.

Our course through the parks was different than yesterday.   Instead of coming in through Cars Land, we ran behind Paradise Pier and California Screamin’, and entered the park at the western side of the Pier.   World of Color was again on for us as we ran along the northern side of the lagoon and headed into Cars Land.    From there we ran in front of the Tower of Terror and then headed toward the front of the park, essentially the reverse of yesterday’s course.    As we passed Soarin’ we turned right and exited the park, crossing the Esplanade and then entering Disneyland.

Backstage at DCA

Our course through Disneyland again took us down Main Street, but this time we went left rather than right at the hub and entered Frontierland.     We were able to run the Big Thunder Trail — this has been closed the entire month I’ve been here due to Big Thunder Mountain construction, I wonder if it will be closed again after the race.   We came out into Fantasyland, ran through the castle (yay!), and then turned into Tomorrowland.    We wound our way past it’s a small world and through Mickey’s Toontown, this time exiting Toontown through the same backstage entrance that we came into Toontown through in the 10K.    Our backstage run here was more curtailed than yesterday, heading straight out onto Disneyland Drive and then making a right towards Ball Road.    (I was a little unclear on the exact geography here … it seemed like we were running through the same area the corrals had been.   But that can’t be because the early wave runners would have been through here before the late corrals had emptied.   But I’m now curious — if I’d been at the back of the corral rather than the front, and looked behind me, would I have been able to spot the first wave of runners coming out of the park?

The Mile 4 marker was just as we came out of the park.   Now we had a long stretch of road running ahead.    At most of the mile markers, a couple of sweepers on bikes would tell us how we were doing vs. the required pace — 8 minutes ahead, 8 1/2 minutes ahead, 9 minutes ahead.    I’ve never heard these announcements before, but then I’ve never started in the last corral so I guess I’d never cut it as close.    The good news is the numbers were going up, I was building a little buffer ahead of the sweepers at each mile.

Miles 6 and 7 were all just road running.   Water stops were more frequent than the 10K (the 10K had been criticized for not having enough).    I was getting water at each stop, but had not adjusted sufficiently for the heat and humidity — I didn’t realize it at the time but I was not hydrating enough, and that was going to bite me very shortly.

Second half of the race

Between Mile 7 and 8 we went by a series of classic cars that lined both sides of the route.   I was amazed at how many there were — I figured there would be 20 or so cars, but then you’d turn the corner, and there was another row,   We entered the parking lot of the Honda Center, and there were still more.   There had to be at least a couple of hundred cars on display.   I was really starting to feel the heat at this point; I stopped trying to follow my pre-programmed run/walk ratio and decided instead to just run enough to keep my pace ahead of the required 16 min/mile pace.

At mile 9 we came to Anaheim Stadium.    We got a lot of encouragement here … cheerleaders, marching bands, scout troops — a lot of organizations had turned out to cheer.   (And actually there had been a lot of this along the route prior to this — but this was the main concentration).

It was nice to have the cheerleaders rooting us on, although a lot of them were encouraging us to fight, which seemed a bit strange for a friendly run.    Must be an L.A thing, maybe our race jerseys looked like gang colors.

About this point, the heat caught up with me.    I walked my way through the stadium, not running at all between miles 9 and 10.    I assured myself I just needed to cool off a bit, get some fluids into me, and then I could pick up the pace for the last three miles.   But the reality was I was done running, for all practical purposes — I’d do a few short 15-20 second runs maybe once a mile or so, and across the finish line, but I just didn’t have anything left in the tank.

Mostly it was the heat that had gotten to me, but I won’t deny that I hadn’t been as consistent with my training as I should have been, and always trained in the coolest part of the day in a more temperate climate — so I just had nothing to prepare me for the heat wave that manages to follow me to every runDisney event.    Also, it’s hard to find that motivation to run when everyone around you is walking … we were definitely the back of the pack at this point, and I think everyone within sight of me was content to just walk it in from this point in the race.    (Also, those helpful sweepers who had been calling out our pace at each mile marker did not appear again after mile 8 … I suspect that due to the heat they may have relaxed the pace requirement.)

Somewhere along mile 11 I realized I wasn’t even walking a straight line, so at the next water stop I took a little extra time to get more fluids in me, and had them refill the water bottles I was carrying (one was empty, and the other was as warm as bath water).

The finish was uneventful … I remembering walking by the spot at Mile 12 where we had spotted the leader run by 3+ hours ago, and walking around the Paradise Pier hotel and crossing through Downtown Disney, where we were being cheered on by a lot of the early finishers.    Then we rounded a curve and I could see the finish line.    I didn’t think I could run it from there, so I waited until I’d closed about half the distance to the finish line before I broke into a jog.    I made my way to the left side were Goofy and Mickey were awaiting, and got high fives from both just before I crossed the timing mat.

Post-Race

After the finish, I turned into the post-race area and had the big “D” Disneyland medal hung around my neck.   Then I made my way over to the Dumbo Double Dare tent, where I exchanged my wristband for a Dumbo medal.   And then to the Coast-to-Coast tent, where I again exchanged a wristband for a medal. (Dumbo is for doing both the 10K and the half this weekend, Coast-to-Coast is for doing a half-marathon or greater at Disneyland and Walt Disney World in the same calendar year)

Disneyland Half medal

Dumbo Double Dare medal

Coast-to-Coast medal

Water and Powerade were next — not just cups, as along the race, but full, cold bottles.   I took two Powerades and drained them right on the spot, then a water bottle to carry with me.   Photographers were moving through the crowd taking pictures, I had two or three taken around here so I bypassed the photo lines were you got your picture in front the official backdrop.     I grabbed a food box at the runner refreshment tent and sat down on the pavement to rest a bit — the walk back to the buses was a half mile or more and I needed a minute before I headed out.

I think I sat for 5 to 10 minutes.   I posted something to Facebook saying I’d finished, and then stood up (an amazing accomplishment) to head through Downtown Disney and to the shuttle bus area.     About midway through DTD, I felt I needed to sit down for a minute.   I had gotten a little light-headed.    I still had my water bottle with me, so I sat for probably 15 minutes sipping water.    I spotted a drink cart nearby, and decided another Powerade was in order.    I stood up again, found that the lightheadedness had passed, and walked to the drink cart, and then continued on to the buses.

I took a few hours of rest in my hotel room, and then put on my Half Marathon shirt, hung my medals around my neck, and headed back to Disneyland to get some pictures with my friends the princesses.

Next up: Wine & Dine half marathon in early November.   Between now and then, I’ll be doing my training runs in Atlanta, where the humidity will be more comparable to Florida.    And I’m hoping to get cool weather for that one … my WDW and DL halves have set the bar pretty low for a PR, so there’s no reason not to clear it easily in my next run.

Related articles
- Disneyland Half Marathon Weekend Course Maps and Corral Placement (runningatdisney.com)
September 2, 2013
Dumbo Double Dare 2013: The 10K
This morning I was up before 4 a.m. to get ready for the first leg of the Dumbo Double Dare, the inaugural Disneyland 10K.    I tend to be a morning person anyway so this didn’t throw me off much — I think I prefer this to night races, at least that’s been my experience so far.

I’ve been watching the weather forecast for a while, and I have to say, if accuracy in forecasting matters I’m not sure how any of these meteorologists stay employed.   Every day for at least a week, the temperature has been significantly above forecast — 99 on a day where 90 was the forecast high, for example.

The forecast for this morning was about 73 degrees, and one of the first things i did when I got up was check the temperature.   81.   Well, it’s not going to be a PR day, that’s for sure; and visions of the Tower of Terror race came back to me.    (Actually, this is my third runDisney race — Tower of Terror 2012, WDW Half 2013, and now Disneyland Half 2013, and all 3 have been “unseasonably warm”.    I hope things balance out and give me 40 degree temps for the Wine & Dine half in November, that would be spectacular.

The bus service was a pleasant surprise — I’d asked drivers a few times over the past few days where the bus stops were going to be, and they were not really sure, which made me a bit nervous.   But when I got downstairs, there was a prominent runDisney sign in the lobby indicating our pick-up was in front of the Embassy Suites (right next door).   So I walked over and joined about 8 people already waiting; we had a full busload of 25+ by the time the bus pulled up 10 to 15 minutes later.

Our dropoff was about half a mile from the starting corrals — a nice stretch and warm up pre-race, but I suspected it would seem far longer after.   (Actually, not too bad today, but the real test comes tomorrow).

The Disneyland 5K ran before our 10K started, so they sent the 5K runners ahead to the corrals while the 10K runners were held in a pre-race staging area, with entertainment, water, backdrops to have photos taken, and tents sent up by various charities and race sponsors.   I stayed near the water tables to get extra fluids in me, the high temp and high humidity combination made me want to make sure I was hydrated, even though that probably meant I’d be making a pit stop along the way.

Pre/Post-race assembly area

Pre-race entertainment

Follow Mickey to the starting corrals

The 5Kers took off – I heard they were a bit late starting but I hadn’t memorized the schedule so I didn’t notice the discrepancy.   We then made our way over to the corrals.   I was in corral G and honestly — I never saw it.   I saw balloons for D, E, and F   (A, B, and C were off in a different direction) and started making my way to the back of F where G was supposed to be.   I never saw it, but eventually started seeing G bibs mixed in with the Fs so I just merged my way into the crowd.    By this time the early corrals had already begun running so we started surging forward to get to the start.

I started my Garmin at 6:37 a.m. so that’s when my section of the mob was crossing the start.   Sunrise has been just a few minutes earlier, the temp had dropped a few degrees (79 now) but was still uncomfortable.

Our first two miles was on surface street. We started on Disneyland Drive next to the Disneyland Hotel, and proceeded south.   We crossed Katella and turned left to run in front of the convention center, where the D23 Expo banners were still hanging.

I had a run-walk strategy of run 20 seconds, walk 40, which was slower (more walking) than the ratio I’ve used in past races.   But I thought it would give me a better chance of finishing strong.   As it turned out, the race was just too congested for any sort of strategy other than run when there’s pavement in front of you, walk when there are people in front of you.   I tried to avoid doing too much running side-to-side, but occasionally when there was obviously clear space ahead I’d occasionally make a detour to the side to get around a slower group.

We continued down Convention Way to Harbor, and made the left to take us toward the parks.    We entered Disney’s California Adventure through Cars Land.    Mater and Lightning McQueen were out for photos.    Disney employees waved us ahead with checkered flags — I appreciated the well-themed encouragement.    Mater’s Junkyard Jamboree was whirling to add a little fun and background music to the run.   For some reason I missed getting pictures of any of this, but here are a few backstage shots as we headed into DCA.

Coming into DCA

The back side of rock

From there we continued onto Paradise Pier, and made a big loop of the lagoon.   The World of Color show was going … obviously it loses a lot during the daylight, but I loved running to the music and enjoyed glancing over at the fountains.   I saw the first race photographer of the morning along here but I’m not sure if he got me.   Mickey’s Fun Wheel was also going — in both parks, a few rides were operating (riderless) just to add a little kinetic energy to those of us who were losing ours.

A loop around the west side of the park brought us to Mile 3, just in front of Soaring Over California.    We continued across in front of Carthay Circle and headed down toward Tower of Terror, where we exited the park.

Here we descended and ran through a tunnel I didn’t know existed — I’m not sure exactly where it’s located but it seems it must be running under the shuttle bus drop-off area at the East end of the Esplanade.   Coming back up, we were in backstage areas surrounding Disneyland — I saw Cast Scheduling and Cast Costuming buildings, along with others that weren’t as prominently labeled.    We went from backstage to the Esplanade, through an open gate, and then under the train tracks onto Main Street USA.

Head toward the light

Cast Costuming, Cast Scheduling buildings

This is starting to look familiar

Running down Main Street was obviously a highlight so I stopped for a few pictures, then made the turn into Tomorrowland and continued around to it’s a small world.   From here we went backstage again, and passed a succession of interesting areas — vehicle maintenance, parade floats, seeing the backside of various areas such as ToonTown, etc.    At this point I checked my timing and realized I had enough of a buffer that I didn’t need to fear the sweepers … so I started taking more pictures, talking to those around me more, and just enjoying the morning walk.    I’d still take off at a jog when there was clear space in front of me, but that wasn’t happening all that often.

Main Street USA

Train Roundhouse and Monorail Barn — all 4 trains were visible but this photo really only captured one.

A nice display put on by costuming shop

Loved seeing vehicles awaiting maintenance.

Doom buggies

Bobsled

More bobsleds

Parade floats

Makeshift petting zoo

Custodial employees lined the backstage route to cheer us on. Now I want to go back and pick up that water cup I dropped.

Behind Mickey’s Toontown

Mickey’s Toontown backdrop

We came back onstage into Mickey’s Toontown and made our way through Fantasyland. Dumbo was running, appropriately. Of course, getting a picture running through the castle is one of the great shots everyone hopes to get, but I think after some couple decided to quite literally jump in front of me and mug for the race photographer’s camera I probably missed that opportunity.

We headed through Frontierland and then were backstage again .. I remember seeing what I assume is an employee commissary and Imagineering, as well as the back side of Indiana Jones.   We then came out into Downtown Disney for our final mile (or so).    A lot of the early finishers had made their way back here to cheer on those of us bringing up the rear, and with that motivation I did a bit more running along this last mile than I’d done for miles 4 and 5.    When I turned the corner past the ESPN Zone, I could see the finish line, and kept my slow jog going until I crossed the timing mat.

From the finish, we were herded through the finisher chutes where we picked up first our medals, then Dumbo wristbands for those racing again tomorrow, then water.   Race photographers were there to take pictures with the medals, the lines were a bit long but I felt it was worth the wait.   Then we picked up our runner refreshment boxes and were turned loose into the wild to reunite with family and friends.    I’m solo on this trip and while I know several other people who were running today, I hadn’t made any plans to meet up with them. So I decided that heading back to the hotel for a shower and some rest was the way to go … and then see what I felt like after that.

A few hours of rest and I made my way back to Disneyland, wearing my 10K race shirt and finisher’s medal.   I hadn’t checked out the photo ops available in Fantasy Faire before, so I thought this would be the perfect time.    I got pictures with Cinderella, Snow White, and Aurora, took in a few rides, and then decided to head back to the hotel again rather than spending more time on my feet.

10K Finisher’s Medal

10K Finisher’s Medal and ribbon

I’m very happy with today’s result — and more than a little worried about tomorrow’s.   It’s supposed to be cooler, but I have zero faith in the forecasters on that.   We are scheduled for an earlier start and that will also help with the heat and humidity.    I think I will again start by trying to do 20:40 intervals, although in the early going it’s quite likely there won’t be space enough to stick to any predetermined pattern.

Should be an interesting, and challenging, morning.   Looking forward to it!

Related articles
- Disneyland Half Marathon and 10k Courses Are Here! (lifelaugheatrun.wordpress.com)
- DDD Race Goals (prairieprincessrunners.wordpress.com)
August 31, 2013
Dumbo Double Dare 2013: Race Expo

I started off 2013 by running in the WDW Half-Marathon in January.    I knew that if I completed that (it was my first run of that length), that I would than want to do the Disneyland Half over Labor Day weekend, as completing both of these in the same calendar year earns the Coast to Coast medal.

Injuries prevented me from training for the WDW Half the way I intended, but I did complete the race, and so set my sights on DL.

But wait — there’s more!   runDisney announced that this year, in addition to the half-marathon, there would also be a 10K race added to the weekend lineup.    And, if you chose to run both the 10K and the half-marathon back-to-back (the 10K on Saturday and the half on Sunday), then this earns you the special Dumbo Double Dare medal.

My initial thought was that, with only a single half-marathon under my belt, running a 10K and half back-to-back was something that could wait.    But then a friend pointed out that you only get one chance to run an Inaugural event — and this would be two, the inaugural 10K and the inaugural Dumbo Double Dare.    So when registration opened up, I jumped right on it … which was a good thing, as the Dumbo was sold out in just a few hours after registration opened.

The Expo

Notice how I conveniently skip over all the training and preparation.    Just like I did I real life.     (That’s not entirely true, but my longest long run coming in to the weekend is a little over 10 miles in July.    After that, things got hectic with buying and selling houses, preparing for a cross-country move, attending the D23 Expo, and miscellaneous other things that always seemed to be more compelling than going for a run).

Friday August 30th was Expo day.    The only must-do task for the day is simply to pick up a race bib.    But like many (perhaps most) people on Friday, I wanted to hit the Expo (merchandise area) before the registration — after all, they aren’t going to give my race bib away to someone else, but someone else could grab the last limited-edition runDisney shirt if I didn’t get there early.

Just about everyone I’ve talked to, or seen post online, agrees — the Expo was a disaster.    I’m not sure how, given that runDisney knows exactly how many registrations were sold, they could be so completely unprepared for the crowd that appeared this morning.     Maybe they thought the crowd would spread out over the two-day expo — but by their history of constantly running short of high-demand items, they have guaranteed that everyone who can is going to show up at opening before the merchandise is gone.   And this fustercluck will only reinforce that behavior for the next Expo.

The lines were disorganized — ask where the end of the line was, and you’d frequently get people pointing off in opposite directions.   The merchandise line and registration line were jammed together so it was difficult to discern which was which.    Nearly all of the line was outdoors in full sun, and it was quite hot.

I lined up nearly an hour before the Expo opened, so I was in pretty good shape.   After we were admitted to the Expo hall, I made my selections fairly quickly and proceeded to get into the checkout line — which was comically poorly thought out.    After switching back and forth a few times, the line outgrew its designated area, and extended across the show floor.   Now, all the people trying to get into the hall to shop had to cross the checkout line to do so — really poorly planned.   An area was set up for speakers right in the middle of the floor, as if someone tried to locate the most inconvenient place for it and was successful.   The checkout line crossed this area as well, leading to complaints from people trying to see and hear the speakers that the line was noisy and distracting.

Getting in early meant I made it through checkout in about half an hour.   In the early afternoon I heard the line was over two hours, and at some point they actually closed the shopping floor to allow the cashiers to work through the backlog of people trying to check out.

A lot of this stuff could have been put online ahead of time rather than turning the expo into a free-for-all like your worst Black Friday nightmare.   The lines could have been sized appropriately and laid out more intelligently.   Limits could be put on purchases — I saw many, many people heading to the checkout with armloads of shirts.    I mean, they’re really nice shirts and all, but nobody needs 10 of them.     If the shirts, pins, hats, and other merchandise was made available online for purchase, runDisney would probably sell far more of it, and pocket quite a bit more money.   There would then be no reason for the eBay resellers to clog the expo buying up dozens of items for resale, and it would turn into a better experience for everyone.

So, roughly 90 minutes of standing in line (to get into the expo and to make purchases), and I have a few shirts to show for it.   I still haven’t done the only must-do task for today, which is pick up the bib, so I head to that line next.    While I was in the Expo the lines have grown, and the organization of the lines has descended into chaos.   I got into the line I was directed into, only to have it stopped cold while some other line was merged in and went ahead of us.    Someone in front of me was livid, insisting the people in our line had been waiting longer, but having just gotten in the line myself I have no idea if that was true.   (I certainly hadn’t been waiting long at this point).     I didn’t time it, but I’m sure I spent less than an hour in the registration line.   Probably not a lot less, though.

Once the line actually made its way to the actual registration area, things started to hum along more smoothly.   The single registration line fed into dozens of individual lines — first you head in the general direction of your event (5K, 10K, Half, or Dumbo), and then once you’re in the right area, there are different registration lines based on your bib number.    (If you followed instructions and printed out your waiver ahead of time, then you had your bib number … if you didn’t, then you went to the penalty box in the middle where workstations were provided for you to print out and sign your waiver, then head off to the appropriate line).

After this, still not done.   Now the line leads out of the registration area, and back into the Expo hall … this time to pick up race shirts.   Fortunately this area of the hall was nothing at all like the runDisney retail area — it was organized and moving quickly.    Once again you sorted yourself out based by event, and then again by shirt size.   Once I found my line there were only about 10 people ahead of me, after less than 5 minutes I had a bag (that I’ll use at the bag check if I have anything to check at the races) with all 3 of my shirts (10K, Half-Marathon, and Dumbo).

I’m excited for the upcoming runs, but the debacle of the expo is not getting the weekend started off in an appropriately magical way.   I’m glad I went early as it seemed to only go downhill through most of the morning.    Reports indicated that the registration lines weren’t nearly as bad later in the afternoon, but I didn’t hear whether the expo merchandise area ever recovered after their afternoon shutdown.

August 30, 2013
D23 Expo 2013: Highlights from the Imagineering Panels
Sunday at the D23 Expo was Imagineering day. Early on, when schedule details were first being announced, it was revealed that there would be five Imagineering sessions on Sunday, but it wasn’t until the last week or so before the Expo kicked off that attendees were given any information about the sessions.

The sessions were similar in that each one was a panel, and the panels were somewhat more free-form than other panels and presentations. As a result, there was some overlap, and in reviewing my notes, I felt it would be better to just combine my notes and create a single blog post for the three panels I was able to attend (attending the Disney Infinity presentation required me to miss the other two Imagineering panels. I’ve also included a few items from Marty Sklar’s solo presentation on Friday, which I had not previously written up.

The Panels

The three panels I attended on Sunday were:

Working with Walt, with panelists
- Marty Sklar. Disney Legend; Currently International Ambassador for Walt Disney Imagineering; previously VP of Concepts and Planning, Vice Chairman and Principal Creative Executive. Among many other things, guided the creative development of Epcot.
- X Atencio. Disney Legend. Wrote the story for attractions such as the Haunted Mansion and Pirates of the Caribbean; also wrote the songs “A Pirate’s Life for Me” and “Grim Grinning Ghosts”.
- Alice Davis. Disney Legend. A costume designer for attractions such as it’s a small world and Pirates of the Caribbean, as well as Disney films and television. Widow of Disney Legend Marc Davis.
- Bob Gurr. Disney Legend. Designer of ride vehicles including Autopia cars, the OmniMover system (Doom Buggies and similar), Matterhorn Bobsleds, Submarine Voyage submarines, and the Disneyland Monorail.
Leading a Legacy, with panelists
- Marty Sklar. See above
- Bruce Vaughn, Chief Creative Executive, Walt Disney Imagineering
Leave Em Laughing, with panelists
- Dave Fisher, show writer
- Kevin Rafferty, story development, senior concept writer
- George Scribner, story development, director
- Joe Lanzisero, Creative VP for Tokyo Disneyland
- Jason Surrell, show writer and producer
The Content

Here are some of the things that I thought worth jotting down notes about during these presentations

(Marty) The last time Walt appeared on film (October 1966) was in the much-shown introduction to “the Florida Project”, where Walt introduced the plans for what would become Walt Disney World, including EPCOT.   Marty was the writer for this.

(Alice) The first time she met Walt was when she was having dinner with her husband Marc at the Tam.   (Tam O’Shanter, a restaurant near the studios popular with studio personnel).   Walt asked about her work.   She was in the garment industry — making girdles and brassieres.   Walt was fascinated (and as far as I can tell she was relating this entirely seriously) by her expertise with elastic.   Two years later, Walt called and asked her to do costumes for it’s a small world.

(Bob) Asked about first time meeting Walt, he said he was doing sketches for the Autopia cars.   Someone came through the office and took a look, and it wasn’t until he was on his way out and someone said “bye, Walt” that Bob realized who it was.   He thought maybe it was a night watchman or something, so I guess it must have happened after hours.

(Marty) His first job at Disney was to produce a tabloid-style newspaper that would be sold on Main Street for ten cents.    It showed how, for Walt, Main Street was a real place, not just a mock-up.   No real small town of that era would be without a newspaper, so there had to be one or the story wouldn’t be right.

(Bob) When doing the Lincoln animatronic, Walt had an actor do the speech, and filmed it as a reference.   Bob felt the first take done by the actor was excellent.   But Walt kept making him do it over, and over. He knew what he wanted and kept pushing (but wasn’t giving any direction to the actor, just having him do it again).   The last take was the one Walt wanted. The actor was clearly exhausted by that point, and Walt felt that was the way Lincoln would have been at Gettysburg.   That was the kind of authenticity that Walt looked for.

(Alice) Making the dolls for it’s a small world, at some point she told Walt that no one had told her how much she could spend on each costume for fabric, buttons, etc.   Walt told her he had a building full of people to do “pencil work”, that she was to design the best costume that anyone from 1 to 100 would love to wear, and they (the pencil people) would figure out how to pay for it.   “People will know the difference; give them your best and they’ll be back. Cheat them and you’ll never see hide nor hair of them again”.

(X) After 20+ years in animation, Walt brought him over to do the script for Pirates.   Marty asked, having never done a script, why did Walt trust you to do that?   X: it was a direct command performance from the man himself.

(Bob) Walt was never interested in what you had done, but only in what you were going to do next.

(Alice) Walt would give you something you didn’t think you were capable of doing. And you’d find a way to do it, because you didn’t want to disappoint Walt.

(Bob) Walt remembered almost everything he ever heard, if you told him something, and came back with a different story later, he’d call you on it.

(Alice) A young man came to Walt with a drawing and asked him “what do you think of this”?   After looking for a moment, Walt said “It’s very difficult to choose between one”.   He always wanted options.

(Marty) The job of leading Imagineering is largely a job as a casting director.   For example, Marc Davis and Claude Coats were very different – they wouldn’t be caught dead going to lunch together.    (Not anything negative, they were just very different).   But putting them together created a really complementary team.

With the Haunted Mansion, Claude felt it should be scary, and Marc thought it should be funny.    The back and forth between them gave us the ride we have today, probably better than if we had gotten just Marc’s version or Claude’s version.

(Marty) asked about how to train for a job in Imagineering, Marty suggested learning as much as you can about as many things as you can.   Imagineering comprises 140 different disciplines (but Marty acknowledges they don’t really know how many, that’s just the number they use).   Cross-disciplinary skills are a must.

(Marty) leading Imagineering is about casting, motivation, and gently helping someone understand when they have the wrong idea (“a bit of an art form”)

(Marty or Bruce — didn’t note) An interesting thing with Hong Kong Disneyland (Shanghai will be similar) is that because of the one child law, the kid-to-adult ratio is inverted from other worldwide parks; influences a lot of what you do in park design.

(Bruce) told a funny story about World of Color.   After investing millions in this very advanced fountain system, they decided to create new versions of many classic Disney songs. So they had the London Symphony Orchestra record a brand new score for the show.   And when they first tried it out, it just wasn’t working.   Someone even said “what if fountains are just boring?” after they had invested tremendous time and money in the show.   Then, they dropped in the classic music (the arrangements we all know) — and immediately it worked.   We are just really wired to respond to that music the way we know it.

Someone from the audience asked about Harry Potter at Universal; Bruce didn’t really rise to the us vs. them challenge, but used the question to re-affirm that it’s all about story — that ride, that area of the park is so powerful because it starts with a great story.

(not sure who told this one) When Disneyland was about 6 years old, Walt sent Marc Davis over since he was between projects.   Walt asked what he thought, and Marc said what was missing was humor.   So Marc added things like the men climbing the tree to get away from the rhino in the Jungle Cruise.   (and apparently the original Jungle Cruise script was not funny; it appears from history that the script got punched up at about the same time Marc began working in the parks).

(Kevin) The version of one of the songs at Mater’s Junkyard Jamboree where Mater forgets the words to the song was completely intentional (which is different than the story I’d heard about it previously).    The story is, when Kevin was demoing the song for Larry the Cable Guy (voice of Mater), he actually did forget some words and filled in with a “something something something”   — Larry said “we have to do that!” and did it in one take.

(Kevin) Mater’s Junkyard Jamboree also is the first ride to have a “Joke” button; when the ride is loading, if it is taking a little longer than ideal, the operator can hit a “joke” button on the console and Mater tells a joke.    He played a number of the recorded jokes for the audience.   I don’t remember any or I’d share.

There was obviously a lot more in all of these panels, but those were the highlights as I saw them.    The biggest thrill was just being able to see so many Disney Legends and hear their stories.
August 21, 2013
A Walk in Walt’s Disneyland Footsteps

During the D23 Expo, I made many new friends, and there was a lot of sharing of what we were doing around the parks before and after the Expo.     One thing that was mentioned more than once was the Walk in Walt’s Disneyland Footsteps guided tour at Disneyland.    A version of this tour has been offered for some time, but it has been recently upgraded and revamped, and everyone who had taken it spoke of it very highly.    Since I was going to be in town for a while after the Expo, I called the Disneyland Tour number ( 714-781-TOUR ) and reserved a spot for myself.

The tour meets at the Guided Tour garden, across from the Main Street train station and adjacent to City Hall.    Upon check-in I was asked to make a meal selection from the Jolly Holiday Bakery menu, as we would be served a meal at the tour conclusion (since I was on the afternoon tour, this was essentially dinner even though the tour description referred to it as lunch).      We were given bottles of water while we waited — nice since it was a warm day.    A few minutes before our 2:30 tour was scheduled to begin, our tour guide, Mia, began introducing herself to the guests and handing out the audio devices we would use to hear Mia and also to listen to pre-recorded portions of the tour.     (The pre-recorded portions were almost entirely snippets of Walt Disney talking about whatever we were currently seeing on the tour, and occasionally a bit of music).

The tour starts across from the Disneyland Train Station

Once everyone was wired up and name badged, we headed over to our first stop, which was the Main Street Fire Station.    Mia told us a bit about the overall design of Main Street — that while it pulls some elements from Walt’s home town of Marceline, MO, it was really not intended to be any specific place. Every visitor is supposed to see a bit of their own home town in it.    The train station and city hall are largely based on ones in Fort Collins, CO, the home town of Imagineer Harper Goff, who designed those buildings for Main Street.

First stop: The Fire Department. Walt’s private apartment, above, is where we will conclude the tour.

From there, we made the short walk over to the Town Square.    We stood in front of the flagpole, right about at the spot where Walt delivered his opening day dedication.   We listened to a recording of that speech.   Mia shared several stories about the park’s opening day, which was not practically perfect in every way.

Hearing about Walt’s opening day dedication

We proceeded down Main Street, making particular note of the many windows in the upper floors of the buildings which are dedicated to particular figures in Disney history that made lasting contributions.    I saw Imagineer Rolly Crump’s window; I was actually looking for the Sherman Brothers but missed it, so I’ll have to go back and look more carefully.    At the end of Main Street we paused at the Hub, to the side of the Partners statue, while Mia discussed the overall hub-and-spoke design of the park and the use of “weinies” to pull the guest along from one area to another.

At the Hub

We moved on to the castle forecourt, and learned that the castle drawbridge is actually operational, and how opening the drawbridge was a dramatic flourish on opening day.     We made our way across the drawbridge, through the castle, and into Fantasyland.

In Fantasyland we rode Peter Pan’s Flight, one of the original opening day attractions, and still one of the more popular attractions in the park.

In Fantasyland, about to ride Peter Pans Flight

From Peter Pan, we made our way over to New Orleans Square.   Here Mia told us about some of the non-public areas that were designed for Walt’s personal use and to entertain important visitors: an expanded apartment over Pirates of the Caribbean (that Walt never got to use), Club 33, and a planned but never completed Jazz club.

We proceeded to the entrance to Club 33 — a very exclusive dining establishment for members only.    The waiting list for membership is quite long, and the membership cost is quite extravagant.    It’s on my bucket list to dine there someday, but for now, we were able to enter the lobby, which is not open to the public.   So while it’s not lunch or dinner at the Club, it’s still a very special opportunity, and I think one that everyone there really appreciated.

In front of Club 33

We wait by the door while Mia bribes some guards, or something

It appears to have worked, we’re in!

The small, but very elegant, lobby area

Stairs or an old-fashioned lift provide access to the dining areas upstairs

In the lift — should I just push ‘2’ and go for it?

After spending a nice amount of time in the Club 33 lobby — it’s very nice that we didn’t feel rushed through here and everyone got to take pictures in the lift — we made our way over to an area next to the Haunted Mansion, where we learned a little about the various early concepts for both the Mansion (or The Museum of the Weird) and Pirates of the Caribbean (or Blue Bayou Lagoon).   Here we listened to more audio of Walt, along with Imagineer Claude Coats, describing the concepts of the attractions as they were envisioned at the time.    We’ll hear more about these attractions later, but the interesting bit at this point was that both of these rides were originally conceived as walk-though attractions.

At this point, roughly the midpoint of our tour, we paused for a restroom break.   When we resumed, we crossed the park into Tomorrowland, taking up a spot in front of the Carousel of Progress.    (Yes, it’s Innoventions now, and if you’re a bit younger than me perhaps to you it’s America Sings.) While standing here Mia told us some stories about the various incarnations of the Fantasyland and Tomorrowland Autopias that have existed over the years.   (I can’t share all the great stories, as then there’d be less reason to take the tour)

From here we moved over to a location between the Finding Nemo submarine voyage lagoon and the Matterhorn.   We heard about the major expansion of Tomorrowland in the late 1950s that brought the Matternhorn and Monorail attractions to the park, and how innovative the steel tube, block dispatch system for the Matterhorn was.

We moved over to it’s a small world to hear stories about what a turning point the 1964-65 New York World’s Fair proved to be for Disneyland.    Creating rides and attractions for a theme park like Disneyland is an expensive proposition … but with the World’s Fair, Disney was actually paid by sponsors to develop attractions that would later find their way back to the parks.    The attractions that were designed this way included Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln, The Carousel of Progress, it’s a small world, and Ford’s Magic Skyway (which morphed into the PeopleMover System).   The Primeval World diorama seen along the Disneyland Railroad also came from the Magic Skyway exhibit.

I was aware of these attractions, and their World’s Fair heritage, prior to the tour.   But I didn’t realize that the Magic Skyway ride system was also the precursor to the Haunted Mansion’s OmniMover system (also used on a number of later rides), and the small world boat system was similarly served as a prototype for the Pirates of the Caribbean flume.    So we can also credit the Worlds Fair experience of the Disney Imagineers for giving us those attractions in their current forms.

Now we crossed the park again, making our way to the Enchanted Tiki Room.    While this is an attraction many guests love to hate, I’ve always enjoyed it.    We experienced the show after hearing about Walt’s early work with audio animatronics.

Now our tour is almost at an end.   We make our way back up Main Street and stop in the gallery outside Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln.   Here, standing in front of the last picture of Walt Disney taken inside his park, we hear about his illness and death in 1966.

We then cross back over to the tour garden, where we are divided into smaller groups to go upstairs over the Firehouse and view Walt’s apartment.    Although we aren’t allowed to take photos in the apartment, our tour guide will take a picture of each of us, using our cameras, so I get a picture in front of the lamp that is always lit to signify Walt’s ongoing presence in the park.

In Walt’s apartment above the Fire Dept.

The tour was a wonderful experience — the access to Club 33 and Walt’s apartment are two very special experiences that by themselves justify taking the tour.    Hearing Walt talk about the park — the only Disney park in the world that he personally visited — while standing in the places he stood, or in front of the attractions he was talking about on his show, is just a really special way to experience these stories, even if you’ve heard them before.

At the conclusion of the tour, we came back to the Guided Tour area for the final time, and sat at the shaded tables there to eat the meals we had ordered at check-in.    Mia circulated around the tables, continuing to answer questions or share stories, or pose for pictures with the guests.    We all received the Walk in Walt’s Disneyland Footsteps pin, featuring a well-known photograph of Walt on the front and a reproduction of the park dedication plaque inside, along with a silhouette of the Partners statue.    Even though I don’t collect many pins this one is a very nice keepsake from the experience.

I had to get a picture with Mia after the tour

The Walk in Walt’s Footsteps Tour is currently offered twice daily, at 9:30 a.m and 2:30 p.m.   For more information and reservations visit the official tour page.

August 20, 2013
I love it when a plan comes together

Sometimes the stars align just so, and something magical happens.    This may just be one of those times in my life.

Almost a year ago, tickets went on sale for the 2013 D23 Expo.   Since I’m planning on writing a lot more about the Expo over the next 3 weeks, I won’t go into anything about it here, other than to say buying the tickets put a stake in the ground as far as my schedule … I knew exactly where I was going to be on August 9-11 of 2013.

I bought those Expo tickets while I was training for my first ever runDisney race, and my first run over 5K – the Tower of Terror 10 miler, in late September of 2012.   That race led me to try another — the WDW Half Marathon in January 2013 — and that in turn led me to sign up for back-to-back races over the upcoming Labor Day weekend — the inaugural Disneyland 10K on August 31st, followed by the Disneyland Half Marathon on September 1st.   (The two races together comprise the Dumbo Double Dare challenge, and doing the Disneyland Half during the same calendar year as the WDW Half earns me the Coast-to-Coast Challenge medal, so I’ll be sporting some serious bling come Labor Day.    I hope I can stand up!

That’s another topic for future posts, but once again, I’ve got a firm schedule commitment, again in Anaheim, this time for Labor Day weekend.

Now, at the same time I’m making all these plans for Anaheim, I’m also thinking about a cross-country move — to get closer to family and friends, primarily.   It’s an idea I’ve been kicking around for several years, but with real estate in the tank recently it wasn’t feasible to sell my house for enough to make it worthwhile.    But recent recoveries in the market changed the equation … I talked to my Realtor and we decided to give it a shot.   The house went on the market, and 8 days later it was under contract.    The market was stronger than I realized.

I followed this up with a trip to Atlanta, I called it a house hunting trip but honestly I would have been satisfied just to eliminate a few areas from consideration and narrow the focus somewhat.   Finding neighborhoods, and not necessarily “the” house, was my goal.    But again, things went better than expected, and by the end of last week I was under contract on a house there.

Now is when the timing falls into place beautifully.   I need to be out of my house here in early August, but the house I just purchased is under construction and will not be ready until mid-September.     So I’m homeless for most of the month of August.     But, I do have a few prior commitments in Anaheim … so you can probably see where this is going.

Early in August, the movers will come in, pack up my house, and roll away.    I’ll board a flight for Anaheim and enjoy the D23 Expo.   And then …. I’ll stay.    My job affords me the luxury of working from anywhere I can get an internet connection, so it’s not (exactly) an extended vacation.    I’m hoping to find a nice coffee shop or similar location to use as my office for nearly four weeks, while every evening is a chance to enjoy the Disneyland Resort at a leisurely pace I’ve never experienced.   I’ll need to keep up my training … a lap around the resort perimeter is just about the length of my daily runs, anyway, so that shouldn’t present much of a problem.   After the Dumbo Double Dare on Labor Day weekend, I’ll fly to Atlanta, where I’ll stay with family for the last couple of weeks before moving in to my new home.

I’m really looking forward to living — however briefly — in Anaheim.    The Expo should be amazing, I’m hoping just to finish the races upright, and the time in between should be a great chance to get to know every little nook and cranny of the Disneyland resort.

So, Disneyland friends — any suggestions?    Where’s a great place to set up with a laptop and get work done while still being part of the magic?   What are the places to see and things to do when you’ve got more than just a couple of days to run through the parks?    Anything else you’d recommend for a short-term Anaheim area resident to make sure not to miss?

July 22, 2013
Disney Christmas: West Coast Edition

I’ve been a regular visitor to the Walt Disney World resort during the holiday season for many years; but this year is the first time I’ve made a similarly timed trip to the Disneyland resort.    I was excited to see what would seem familiar and what would be different about experiencing Disney holidays west coast style.

In just a few days I’ll be off to WDW, so this will be a bi-coastal Disney Christmas year for me … truly a Jolly Holiday.   A follow-up posting on the East Coast version of Disney Holidays will be following soon.

Disneyland

My favorite part of the Disneyland Christmas experience was two attractions that are re-themed with holiday overlays .. the Haunted Mansion and it’s a small world.   While both of these attractions are also at the Magic Kingdom in Florida, it is only at the California park that they get a full makeover for the holiday season.

While both are well done, the Haunted Mansion holiday is to me the hands-down winner for best extreme makeover.   The Haunted Mansion is taken over by Jack Skellington and other characters from the Nightmare before Christmas.   Every scene in every room is made over — from the stretching room to the graveyard, it’s an entirely new attraction.   Calling it an overlay just doesn’t do justice to how completely the attraction is transformed for the holidays.

The few pictures below don’t begin to convey the full effect — this is something you have to experience!

The second attraction to get the holiday overlay treatment is it’s a small world. Here, the soundtrack now includes both the attraction theme song and Jingle Bells, alternating back and forth for the duration of the ride. (As we pass Ariel in one scene, the words changed to Jingle Shells — I wonder if there were any other variations that I missed?)

Other than these two attractions, the area of the park most transformed for the holidays is Main Street. Garland is hung across the street along the entire length; there is of course the giant Christmas Tree in town square, and Sleeping Beauty Castle is adorned in holiday decorations. It was interesting to note that the same Castle Dream Lights treatment is done at both parks, but the presentation is quite different. At the Magic Kingdom, once dusk falls and the castle is lit, it is given the full dream lights treatment. At Disneyland, the dream lights are held back until the finale of the fireworks.

Disney’s California Adventure

At DCA, the Buena Vista Street area provides traditional Christmas decor and entertainment — the obligatory giant tree in front of the shops, a wreath hung on the Carthay Circle Theater’s tower, and garland adorning the buildings and lamp posts.   A wandering group of bell ringers (who are also carolers) provide festive holiday entertainment.    The decorations and entertainment are well matched to the theme of 1920s and 30s Hollywood.

Back in Cars Land, we get a far more whimsical and fanciful Christmas.    The cars have decorated their land as only cars would — with traffic cones, hubcaps, air filters, and whitewall tires for wreaths.   It’s impossible to spend time in the area without breaking into a big grin at the cleverness of the decorating.

That’s it for this brief look at Disneyland and Disney’s California Adventure during the Christmas season.    A look at the Florida parks is coming soon.

December 17, 2012
A First Visit to Cars Land and Buena Vista Street

A while back I visited the Cars Land and Buena Vista Street areas of Disney’s California Adventure for the first time.

Buena Vista Street

Buena Vista Street is a nice addition to the park; it does a great job of setting the mood and transporting the visitor to a different time and place.    The area is filled with references to Disney history, such as Oswald’s gas station and the Elias and Company store.    There are no rides or attractions here; the area serves the same purpose as Main Street U.S.A in the Disneyland park — the transition from the outside world of reality to the world of imagination and possibilities.   Oh, and to sell you some souvenirs.

The centerpiece of the new Buena Vista Street area is the Carthay Circle Theater — a reproduction of the theatre where Snow White premiered in 1937.    Here, the building serves not as a theater but as a lounge (downstairs) and restaurant (upstairs).   The restaurant is the nicest of any inside a Disneyland Resort theme park (at least any open to the general public — I unfortunately haven’t had the experience of Club 33 to make a comparison).

I did have a chance to have dinner at the Carthay Circle, and found it elegant and very enjoyable.    I look forward to returning and trying more things off the menu there, and perhaps writing up a review after I’ve given it a few more visits.

Cars Land

While the Buena Vista Street area is a nice addition, it’s Cars Land that has really completely transformed the park.    No longer will guests complain that DCA was better as a parking lot.   With this expansion, DCA has finally become a worthy sibling to Disneyland — what it lacks in legacy and history it can now make up for in theming and the appeal of great ride experiences.

The thing that really stands out about Cars Land is how immersive the theming is.   The rock work is incredible and sets the mood for the entire area. It’s impressive during the day, but at night it becomes truly breathtaking. Every detail of Cars Land — signage, road signs, the single blinking traffic signal — helps create the illusion that you’re in Radiator Springs.   I don’t think Disney has ever done theming this well — and while I’m sure Universal’s Harry Potter gets some of the credit here, having heard John Lasseter talk about Cars Land at the 2011 D23 Expo, I know that he was the driving force behind making the theming as thorough and immersive as it is throughout the area.

Mater’s Junkyard Jamboree

There are three attractions in Cars Land; the first one you encounter is Mater’s Junkyard Jamboree.   The ride consists of tractors pulling wagons; guests ride in the wagon. The tractors are on turntables, similar to the teacups ride at Disneyland.   The tractors actually transition from one turntable to another, interleaving with the other tractors. The wagons swing first to one side and then the other as the tractors change direction as the weave around the turntables.   It’s quite a fun ride and the experience is enhanced by the soundtrack — a variety of songs sung by Mater (Larry the Cable Guy) provides the music for what I suppose is a giant tractor square dance.

Luigi’s Flying Tires

The next attraction is Luigi’s Flying Tires.   I never got to experience the Flying Saucers ride at Disneyland, and always felt that I’d missed out on something special.   Now I feel like I’ve had the chance to experience something very similar — and it turns out, I guess I hadn’t missed that much.   The ride sounds much better in concept than it comes across in execution.   The ride vehicles are giant tires. The surface is in essence a giant air hockey table, where air jets (rigged to open only when a tire passes over them) lift the tires, allowing them to float on a cushion of air and glide around the ride area.   The problem is, this ride moves so slowly that the motion is barely perceptible.   A joystick that allowed the riders to spin the vehicles was removed before the ride opened (apparently it made operating the vehicles too confusing).    Movement is controlled by leaning in the direction you want to travel.    I’ve heard there is some skill involved here, and perhaps with practice it’s possible to get the tires moving at a more rapid clip — but if true, I didn’t see anyone managing that during the time I rode or watched the ride.

When we rode, there were giant beach balls that you could bat around the area, in an attempt to create some sense that something was moving, even if it’s not you.   The beach balls disappeared only a few days after we were there … apparently some riders were getting a bit too aggressive with them.

I’ve read on other blogs that the spinning mechanisms (essentially dead weight since the joysticks were removed) are being removed, which will lighten the vehicles somewhat.   I’ll give Luigi’s another try next time I visit; maybe with practice, and lighter vehicles, there’s a fun ride here.   But my initial experience puts it a distant third to the other two attractions in the area.

Radiator Springs Racers

Now we come to the E Ticket attraction.   The basic mechanics of the Races is obviously borrowed from Test Track at EPCOT.    Test Track is a great ride … it’s always been popular, and when I first heard that the Radiator Springs Racers would have a top speed only about half what Test Track achieves, I thought the Racers would end up being the inferior ride … I expected it to be a nice, enjoyable ride, but didn’t think it would come up to the high bar set by the WDW inspiration.

Well, I was wrong.   I think what Radiator Springs Racers does is shows how critical story is to making a truly great ride.    Yes, Test Track has a story line, and it’s well done … but let’s face it, nobody rides Test Track because of the story.    And I doubt many people ride for the various story-related scenarios that you’re put through in the first half of the ride — it’s all about crashing through that barrier and getting to the high-speed outdoor segment.

With Radiator Springs racers, the slow, more story-driven part of the ride is every bit as enjoyable as the race.   Right as you start, as you wind your way through the hillsides and take in the spectacular waterfall, you realize you’re in for an amazing ride.    (This part of the ride is especially enjoyable at night).   You then ride through the town of Radiator Springs (not the one you just walked through to get here … there’s another recreation of the town inside the ride).   Many of the characters from Cars make appearances, and set up the story of the race that’s about to take place.    There are some nice effects here, although a few weren’t working properly during my visit … giving me a reason to make a return trip soon.

After getting new tires or a new paint job (depending on which fork in the road you take), you pull up to the starting line and the race begins.   Although the speed isn’t as great as Test Track, the course is more compact — with tighter turns and quick elevation changes, your need for speed will be satisfied.

Radiator Springs Racers is very popular — Fast Passes were running out within the first hour the park was open, and the standby line was regularly over two hours.   But it is without a doubt worth it.     The ride is best at night — when we were there, fast pass return times weren’t being enforced, so you could get a fast pass first thing in the morning and then ride late at night.   Unfortunately, I’ve heard this is no longer permitted, and that the return times are now being enforced.

Dining: Flo’s V8 Cafe and the Cozy Cone Motel

There are a couple of dining options in Cars Land.   For quick service, there are the cones of the Cozy Cone motel.   For a counter service, sit down meal, there is Flo’s V8 Cafe.   Flo’s has a much nicer menu than is typical for counter service — turkey and dressing, pork loin, etc.    It can get quite crowded at peak times.

Wrap-up

I really enjoyed my first visit to the new Cars Land and Buena Vista Street areas of the DCA park.   I’m looking forward to visiting again during the holidays, experiencing all the attractions again and seeing how the these areas are decorated for the Christmas season.

November 12, 2012
Coming Attractions
Now that the new blog is up and operational, I’m looking forward to some of the things that I’ll be blogging about here in the months to come.

June and July will probably be light, but things will begin to pick up after that.

In August, I’ll be attending Destination:D, Celebrating 75 Years of Disney Feature Animation, at the Disneyland Resort. So in mid-August I’ll be blogging about
- The D23 Destination:D Event
- The new Cars Land expansion to Disney’s California Adventure
- The re-themed Buena Vista Street area of DCA
- Some fine dining experiences at Napa Rose and Carthay Circle restaurants
Then in September, it’s off to Florida for an incredibly jam-packed week including
- The inaugural Tower of Terror 10-mile race
- D23’s EPCOT 30th Anniversary celebration
- Any other in-park events for EPCOT’s 30th anniversary
- The first weekend of the Food & Wine festival at EPCOT
- Mickey’s Not-so-Scary Halloween Party at the Magic Kingdom
- WDW Radio’s e-Ticket event
- Plus other events by WDW Today and WDW Celebrations to commemorate EPCOT’s 30th.
Then, in 2013 there will be a cruise on the Disney Dream, and the 3rd D23 Expo. So much to look forward to!

UPDATE: Edited 6/8/12 to add link to the D23 EPCOT Event details
June 3, 2012