Disneyland - Changes

These pictures are all random ones that I haven't used, because I don't really have any pictures of today's topic.

I usually don't take pictures on rides. Prohibitions against flash photography make me nervous about taking photos without a flash, and the movement makes it likely that the picture won't come out, and on fast rides I might even lose my camera.

(I think once you have a cell phone camera a lot of anxieties go away, but I wouldn't know.)

Anyway, there were three changes that my sisters and I noticed on rides.

Actually, there were four, because the film characters that had been added to the It's a Small World ride were associated with the Christmas decorations in our mind, but are part of the regular ride now. It had been so long since we had been there when the ride was open that we didn't know.

We have been there for the Haunted Mansion holiday mode many times, so it was easier to see that they had added a moldy gingerbread man, and there was the scent of gingerbread in the air. That was new.

On the Alice in Wonderland ride, video was projected in some parts, including an army of cards. That made for less gaps in the ride's narrative.

Finally, and this was my favorite, there was a change on Big Thunder Mountain Railroad.

That is one of my favorite rides anyway, but the weakest part of the ride was one part where you are climbing, and what it showed was gravel and rocks falling in silhouette, giving the impression of an imminent landslide. What you have now is combustibles and sparks, getting ready for an explosion, and it looks a lot better.

It would be easy to get it wrong. Big Thunder also has some charmingly low-tech animatronics, and I would hate to lose the turtle or buzzard or snakes. I love the billy goat chewing the stick of dynamite.

If they did a complete overhaul to be all high-tech, there would be something precious lost. The little tweaks improve without detracting, and I am constantly amazed by how well Disney does.

That makes finding this article yesterday even better.:

http://disneyparks.disney.go.com/blog/2015/04/legendary-hatbox-ghost-comes-out-to-socialize-in-the-haunted-mansion-at-disneyland-park-in-may/

I'm pretty sure that some of being able to revive this ghost relates to improved technology, but also it honors tradition, and the love that guests feel for even the tiniest details of the park.