Category: Disneyland

Disneyland radio codes, pre world-wide-web.

In the days before the World Wide Web, finding information about Disney theme parks was nearly impossible. There were some books and TV specials, but beyond that, unless you knew somebody with inside information (i.e. someone who worked or had worked for the Mouse), you probably didn’t know much.

Today, of course, every nook and cranny of the parks is fully documented. You can find photos and videos of backstage areas, scans of ride maintenance manuals, attraction audio files and more just by typing a few words in a search engine. You can even find endless videos from inside the “secret” Club 33 which, before the World Wide Web, most of us didn’t even know existed. Heck, even *I* have photos I took inside Club 33.

But before the modern Internet, things were different. If you didn’t live in California or Florida, you probably did not encounter many (or even any) people who worked for Disney. Everything I knew about Disneyland and Magic Kingdom was from my family taking me to both several times as a kid in the 1970s.

Finding Disney information in the early 1980s…

But that started to change when home computers and telephone modems became a thing. In the early 1980s, I learned about computer Bulletin Board Systems (BBSes). I could dial in to some other kid’s computer and read messages from other users that called in at other times. Unlike a real bulletin board on the wall at a local book shop, this computer bulletin board could be accessed by anyone in the local area code! (Or around the world if they wanted to pay long distance phone charge to call some random kid’s computer in Houston, I guess.)

It was through one of these BBSes I met my first former Disney employee. He had worked at Magic Kingdom in the maintenance department. The stories he shared were my first glimpse “behind the magic” of Disney theme parks.

For example, he explained the projectors that made the singing busts and the Madam Leota’s face on the table in the Haunted Mansion. He described how the face surface was mostly flat with a bit of shape for where the nose and eyes and such would be. He mentioned they used a fan to blow air to keep dust from being in the projection beam. He said they used special lenses that refocused it around the shape. He also mentioned “angel hair” (though I still have no idea what this meant) for Leota’s crystal ball.

Was any of this true? A decade later, thanks to the World Wide Web, it sure seemed like most of it was.

But, not all of his stories checked out. He said that the Disney designers had been wanting to do a similar Leota type projection effect for 20,000 Leagues under the sea involving an octopus. Have you ever heard of such a rumor or experiment?

Even before the internet, there were rumors, and Disney cast members heard plenty of of them — some true, but most were not (just like today).

Finding Disney information in the late 1980s/early 1990s…

The 1980s also brought us national text-based services like CompuServe, The Source, Delphi and GEnie. Instead of just being able to interact with folks who were calling in to some random kid’s computer in same town, now you could dial a local number and be connected to a series of mainframe computers connected across the country (or even around the world).

I was a member of a few of these services in the later 1980s and early 1990s. It was on one of these services in the early 1990s that someone sent me a list of Disneyland radio codes. Thanks to my dad, I had already become familiar with some of these. His van was loaded with radio equipment and police scanners. When we’d drive to Walt Disney World, we’d sit in the parking lot listening to Disney radio chatter. (Have I told the story about carrying around scanners in the park, listening in? If not, I will have to sometime…)

He had written down a list of codes and what they meant. He had also gotten some more codes and information from Disney security staff. I am pretty sure I must have asked my Disneyland contact about these codes to see if I could get a complete list for my dad.

So below, I present to you a slightly redacted (just in case he still works for Disney in some capacity) of these codes. I wonder if any of these are still in use? I certainly recognize a few of the more famous ones… But back then, I don’t think any of us know what a ride going “101” meant.

Enjoy this trip back to the early 1990s…


Sub: Disneyland's radio codes...

Allen,

I'll bet you thought I forgot you!  Well, do be honest, I did, but I ran
across the printout I made, so now I remember! :-)

Here are all of the codes I have...

Common Radio Codes Used At Disneyland

10-1      Receiving poorly
10-2      Receiving well
10-4      OK or Acknowledge
10-6      Busy
10-7      Out of service (usually used when going to lunch)
10-8      In service (when back from lunch)
10-9      Repeat last transmission
10-14     Escort or convoy (I've never heard this one used)
10-19     Return to office
10-20     What is your location?
10-21     Call x (where x is the telephone # given following the code)
10-22     Cancel last message/assignment
10-23     Stand-by
10-28     Registration request (never heard this one, either)
10-87     Meet __________ at __________
10-96     Request test of select call
10-97     Arrive at scene
10-98     Finished last assignment
10-99     Undesirable person (add to 10-99 the following codes)
     Code C = Caucasion
     Code B = Black
     Code L = Latino
     Code O = Oriental

11350     Possession of Dangerous drugs
11357     Possession of Marijuana
5150      Mentally disturbed
211       Robbery
240       Assualt
242       Battery
314       Indecent exposure
390       Drunk
408       Counterfeit bill
415       Disturbing the peace
417       Person with weapon (add following codes)
     Code G = Gun
     Code K = Knife
459       Burglary
486       Petty theft
502       Drunk driver
503       Stolen vehicle
594       Malicious mischief
901       Traffic Accident, unknown if injury
901-T     Injury traffic accident
902       Accident, non-injury
904       Fire
921       Prowler
925       Suspicious person
982       Bomb threat
999       Officer needs help, any unit respond

Code 1    Routine
Code 2    Urgent
Code 3    Emergency
Code 4    No further assistance needed
Code 5    Stake out
Code 7    Lunch
Code H    Call home
Code 100  Attraction delayed opening
Code 101  Attraction down - routine
Code 102  Attraction down - urgent
Code 103  Attraction down - emergency
Code 104  Attraction up - Normal operation
Code 105  Attraction up - reduced operations
Code 106  Attraction up - Full capacity

GC        Guest Complaint

There are many more that I can't think of off the top of my head, but this
will give you alot to listen for.  Please don't indiscrimanantly reveal
these codes, i.e. 'in the RT'.  This is _not_ for public knowledge,
although with a little investigation by anyone, they could find most of
these out. ;-)


[Redacted]

Until next time…

Howard Johnson’s Mattercam

Last year I stumbled upon this YouTube video where a family photo bombs the Mattercam:

The Mattercam is a camera on the top of the Howard Johnson’s hotel next to Disneyland. “Back in the day” it provided a static image of the Matterhorn that would refresh from time to time. Today, it is a live video feed, and the camera pans to different locations every few minutes.

As of this writing (9/23/2022), here are the fourteen locations the camera will cycle, in this order:

  1. Matterhorn
  2. Space Mountain
  3. DCA Overview
  4. Mickey’s Fun Wheel
  5. Incredicoaster –
  6. Carsland –
  7. Guardians of the Galaxy –
  8. Grand Californian
  9. Monorail
  10. Esplanade
  11. Check-In Spot
  12. Disneyland Overview
  13. Bobsled Zoom
  14. Submarines

The Walt’s Chili Bowl family chose the “Check-In Spot” for their location. I thought it might be fun to pinpoint all the locations the Mattercam points to which could also offer photo bombing opportunities.

Unfortunately, I live in Iowa, so running down to the Disneyland Resort Area is not something I can easily do.

Any locals out there care to take this on?

Disneyland VR360 photos from 2017

When I bought my first digital camera in 1996, I was the only person I knew that had a digital camera. I had to explain it as a “computer camera” when folks asked what it was. No one knew the term “digital camera” yet.

Even when I’d visit Disneyland, no one had them. You’d see the occasional camcorder or film camera, but no one was snapping away digital … yet. That changed quickly.

Later, I took a 3-D camcorder attachment on a trip, recording interlaced 3-D to Digital8 video tapes.

Around 2005, I took a “one shot panorama” camera gadget to the parks. You would point the camera up, where it would take a photo of the bottom of a half mirror ball. Software would later turn that in to a panorama with limited up/down viewing. This was the predecessor to the 360 cameras we have today.

When I “returned” to Disneyland in 2017, I took my RICOH Theta VR360 camera with me. I have never shared any of these photos before (there really wasn’t an easy way to share them back then), but I have started uploading them to my “Park Hopping in VR” YouTube group:

https://www.facebook.com/groups/@parkhoppinginvr

Stop by and see opening year of Guardians of the Galaxy: Mission Breakout in VR.

Experience A Bug’s Land in VR.

Be amazed at the incredible quality of a 2017 VR camera šŸ˜‰

Or not. But they are still fun to look at.

Drop by and if you also do VR photography, feel free to share some of your theme park VR photos.

More to come. So much more…

Did Disneyland solve its Annual Pass problem?

Although I visited Disneyland in the 70s as a kid, I did not become a “regular” visitor until 1995. I began traveling for a new job and purchased an annual pass so I could visit Disneyland every time work sent me to California. I remained an annual pass holder fairly consistently until 2010, when finances made me focus on food and shelter rather than Pirates and Mansions. (To be more accurate, I did miss visiting in 2006 due to a job layoff, but 1995 to 2009 had a number of visits.)

Back in those days, Disney still had an “off season” where crowd levels were so low you could walk right up to the boats on Pirates of the Caribbean, or hop on Indiana Jones over and over. Those times were always my favorite times to visit.

When I was able to return to the park in 2017, things had changed. Disney no longer had an off season, and the parks seemed to have crowds that previously would have only been seen around major holidays like Spring Break or Christmas.

Many claimed annual pass holders were to blame. The Internet echo chamber said that Disneyland had one million pass holders, though I do not know if Disney ever released any official count. It was clear, though, that the modern Instagram-YouTube-Social Media generation was using the park like it had never been used before. A souvenir popcorn bucket would go on sale, and social media would spread this news and the park would see an influx of people rushing to buy as many as they could — often to resell later that day on eBay. Much of the vibe of the park had changed.

And then Covid happened…

When Disneyland re-opened after the Covid closure, annual passes were gone. Eventually, the new Magic Key system would replace them, though trying to buy one was almost impossible — only a limited amount would be sold, and they would sell out almost immediately. One would think that the new $1,649 Inspire Key would be enough to curtail demand, but even this pass seemed to be unavailable the times I checked.

Until recently.

The other night, I happened to catch some random YouTube suggested video discussing that all the passes were for sale again, and had no sold out. The hosts suggested this was due to no one wanting them.

This could be the case. Or, Disney could have finally “fixed” its annual pass problem.

The fix is in…

My first Disneyland annual pass was probably around $169, and every year the price would increase. But, if you took two weeklong trips a year (one at the start of the pass, one at the end of the pass) it was still cheaper than buying tickets at the gate. I always sprung for the highest pass with parking and PhotoPass and whatever else it offered.

But Magic Keys were different. The post-Covid park reservation system meant the pass no longer let you pop in to the park randomly after work. You had to plan ahead, and reserve your visit–if you could. Some days would be unavailable. And, the Keys had limits to how many days you could reserve in advance.

This is what made me not consider a Magic Key, even if I could have bought one. My trips used to be 8-day trips (like, Tuesday through Tuesday) and at the time, the most days you could reserve on any Key level was less than that.

BUT, this and a few other changes may be allowing the park to open up Key sales without restrictions. Here’s a few reasons why:

  1. The new Magic Keys have blackout dates–even the $1649 one.
  2. “A Magic Key pass does not guarantee park entry, even on dates when a pass is not blocked.”–clearly stated on the terms of the new passes.
  3. Park visits must be reserved in advance. During busy times, reservations may be unavailable. If you hear about that new popcorn bucket, you may not be able to run down and buy one unless you had already scheduled that day in advance.
  4. Only the $1649 pass includes parking. At the $1249 level, you get a 50% discount on parking, and at $849 you get 25% off parking. Now that parking has increased to $35, that means even at the $1249 Key level you are paying $17.50 each time you visit Disneyland in a case, and more for the lower passes with less discounts.

SIDE NOTE: If 15,000 pass holders showed up on the same day, each paying 50% of parking fees, Disneyland makes over a quarter of a million dollars.

As we’ve seen with all the price increases over the decades annual passes were sold, prices never kept the crowds away. Even today, with the highest prices ever, the park can still get packed.

But, maybe not due to Magic Keys. Disney can now “turn off” admission any time the park is too busy, and folks who might have gone to the parks a dozen times in a month may be unable to do so due to reservations being unavailable. And, maybe they don’t want to pay $23 to pop in to the park just to buy a new popcorn bucket.

This is the Internet, and this is just random speculation.

We’ll see if these Magic Keys are still for sale next month.

Until then…

Not knowing is more fun.

In the early days of the public Internet, even before the World Wide Web, I felt very plugged in to what was going on with Disney theme parks. I followed usenet newsgroups like alt.disney.disneyland and rec.arts.disneyparks. I was on the GEnie online service hanging out in the Destination Florida RoundTable (which also featured a Disneyland area for some reason). Folks routinely posted about their recent visit to the parks. It was because of discussions there about the building of the Indiana Jones Adventure at Disneyland that I made a goal to return to Disneyland once that ride opened. I had not been there since Space Mountain/Big Thunder were new.

Over the 1990s, fan sites, web message forums and all kinds of new resources replaced the old newsgroups and pay services. If something was known, it was shared. I felt completely plugged in, and on top of every tidbit happeningā€”from the change of a cup size or altering of paper napkins, to more major things like ride refurbishments.

It was a great time. But now I have regrets.

I became disconnected, though not because I wanted to be. I had financial struggles for nearly a decade. If I couldnā€™t go, I didnā€™t need to follow a dozen websites daily to see the latest news about Disneyland of Walt Disney World.

In those years, money was so tight I took no vacations. I had no home phone, no cell phone and no home internet. The only contact I had with cybespace was through an iPad or taking my laptop down to a place with free WiFi.

I was only able to return to Disneyland thanks to a friend offering me free lodging in his vacation home, and after getting a different job that had slightly higher pay.

That trip, my friends, was probably the best Disney trip Iā€™ve ever had since my first ones as a kid in the 1970s. I was aware that Cars Land had been added but did not know any details. One of my local SoCal friends, Steve (R.I.P.), escorted me through Disney California Adventure park where I saw the new entrance area and many other changes since my last visit in 2009. He walked me past the main Cars Land entrance, distracting me with details on the other side. He wanted me to walk through the backside arch in to the land and see the ā€œmountain range.ā€

We did.

Cars Land (2017)

And it was epic.

Riding Radiator Springs Racers spoiler-free was also an absolute pleasure. I had read no reviews, seen no ride through videos, or even read comments about it.

Best. Ride. Ever.

Because of that, I continued to try to avoid spoilers. This made the Guardians of the Galaxy Mission Breakout a fantastic new experience when that ride opened.

The magic was back.

I have not had a Disney annual pass since the pre-Covid era. I did, however, taken advantage of a low cost (ā€œthree months freeā€) passes to Universal Studios Orlando, which turned out to be a gateway back in to regular theme park trips — just not to Disney.

And since I had not been following Universal at all, ever, I did not even know there was a new mega King Kong ride there. I remember walking from Jurassic Park and seeing this “mountain” looming in the distance. “What is that!?” I thought.

Reign of Kong: Skull Island (2017)

Approaching it that first time was thrilling.

Between the time I started writing this article, many months ago, and the time I finish it today, I have become a bit more plugged in with Universal Orlando — watching YouTube video “news” about the park from time to time. But, no where near the level of plugged-in-ness I was in the 1990s-2000s with Disney.

And I think I prefer it like this.

If you ever feel burnt out or jaded, try unplugging for awhile. It might just give your next visit a boost!

Until then…

9/11 and Disney Parks

9/11 ribbon.

NOTE: This post was originally written a few years ago.

I was working for a startup tech company in Silicon Valley when 9/11 happened. I remember going to the lobby of the hotel I was staying at and the front desk clerk saying “I hope you weren’t flying out today.” I was not, and I had no idea why she said that.

After the hotel shuttle dropped me off at work, I learned of what was going on. I spent my work day distracted as I kept an eye on news websites. Many must have been doing the same, as “big” news sites were reverting to very sparse, simple web pages to keep up with the traffic.

And even though Disneyland and Walt Disney World were far away from the attacks, the parks closed — something they rarely did. If you tried to go to the official websites, you saw the following:

Disneyland website on 9/11/2001.
Walt Disney World website on 9/11/2001.

It took years for tourism to recover. Hotels closed. Disney projects were canceled. But recover it did, and here we are, almost twenty years later, with some of the busiest parks and largest expansions those parks have ever seen.

Today, as we “Never Forget,” I hope all continue to move forward.

Until next time…

Haunted Mansion product placement

Haunted Mansion, not to be confused with The Haunted Mansion (2003), opened in theaters today. Since most of the movie is set in the mansion, product placement was not as easy to do. Watch for verbal references to:

  • Zillow – there really is a Zillow listing for this mansion, a very clever movie tie in.
  • Amazon – though perhaps just a jokeā€¦
  • CVS – This one was blatant. The medium brings out a notepad and says that she got it at CVS.
  • COSTCO – I forget where this was mentioned.
  • Burger King – a Burger King fry bag is passed around in a car, and references are made to its contents.

What others did you notice? Please leave a comment and I will update the list.

Disneylandā€™s Oogie Boogie Bash 2023 sells out in 10 hours

After an initial attempt to sell tickets on July 6th, ticket sells resumed on July 11th. A short time before the selling queue opened at 9 a.m. PST, folks were able to join a holding queue which was (so we are told) going to randomly insert us in the actual ticket queue.

I was there before 9 a.m., and remained in the queue until just after 8 p.m. PST when all tickets were sold out.

During the day, the screen would update as certain days became ā€œlimitedā€ or sold out. I took screenshots every time I noticed a change, and if there is interest, Iā€™ll write a post that shows which dates sold out first.

It was quite the waste of a day. And this, my friends, is the same company that folks are saying is in financial trouble because Indy is only the 12th highest grossing film in the world, currently.

Until next timeā€¦

Disneyland 2018 vs Disneyland 2022 – introduction

In the not-too-distant future (but probably not next Sunday, A.D.), I plan to write out my thoughts about the Disneyland of 2022 versus the pre-COVID Disneyland of 2018. For those that go all the time, the changes are incremental. Stay away a few years, and the changes are huge.

From the introduction to mobile ordering, to the need for using a phone for “everything” (even getting to view World of Color at DCA), a current visit to Disneyland is vastly different than one just a few years ago.

And I don’t expect to even discuss price increases, since anyone old enough knows this is not a new thing, and we’ve talked about them for decades.

More to come…

The time(s) Disney changed the lyrics to the Pirates of the Carribean theme song

Updates:

  • Added Google screen shot for ā€stand up me hearties yo hoā€ version.
  • Added YouTube video of that version.
  • Updated title. Will there be more versions found?

ADVISORY: This article uses the ā€rā€œ word, mostly so search engines can find it in case anyone else stumbles upon this topic.

While researching something completely unrelated, I ended up exploring some old internet newsgroup messages. (You see, kids, before there was a World Wide Web, Disney fans used text and things called ā€news groupsā€ to communicate with each other.)

I stumbled across a 1997 posting about the breaking news that Disneyland was going to be changing Pirates of the Caribbean. This was followed by a comment wondering if they were going to remove the word ā€rapeā€ from the Yo Ho theme song, too. As a kid who visited Disneyland and Magic Kingdom in the 1970s, I also grew up thinking there was a line in that song that used that word. As an adult, I had assumed Disney must have edited out that inappropriate verse.

It wasnā€™t until years later when fans had access to full source audio and scans of he original sheet music that we could confirm that there never was such a line in the original song. All such memories were false. Seeing others, back in the mid-1990s, make references to it let me know that at least I wasnā€™t alone in mishearing a song lyric.

But I digress.

In that discussion, someone pointed out that this word never appeared in the theme song, but that Disney had removed ā€drink up me hearties, yo ho!ā€ from a CD release of the theme song.

Some quick research led me to the album: Music From the Parks, 1996. I had this album on cassette. It contained remakes of Disney theme park songs done by other artists. Read more about it here:

https://disney.fandom.com/wiki/Disney%27s_Music_from_the_Park

The track listing as as follows:

  • “Zip-a-Dee-Doo-Dah” – Patti Austin
  • “Yo Ho (A Pirate’s Life for Me)” – The Pointer Sisters
  • “It’s a Small World/When You Wish Upon a Star Medley” – Etta James
  • “The Ballad of Davy Crockett” –  Tim Curry
  • “Grim Grinning Ghosts” – Barenaked Ladies
  • “Hakuna Matata Medley” – The Rembrandts
  • “Circle of Life/Can You Feel the Love Tonight Medley” – Richard Page
  • “SpectroMagic Medley (Instrumental)” – David Benoit
  • “A Dream Is a Wish Your Heart Makes” – Linda Ronstadt
  • “Part of Your World” – Olivia Newton-John
  • “Mickey Mouse March/Zip-a-Dee-Doo-Dah Medley (Instrumental)” – The Disney Big Band
  • “When You Wish Upon a Star” – Take 6
  • “Remember the Magic (Theme Song) – Brian McKnight
  • “IllumiNations 25” – The Disney Big Band

ā€¦and while researching this, I learned there was a bonus track on the CD I never heard. I only had it on cassette. (And still do, somewhere.)

I bought this album specifically because it had remakes of the Haunted Mansion and Pirates of the Caribbean theme songs. About the only other thing on the album that stands out in my mind to this day is the Davy Crocket song sung in Rocky Horror Picture Show style by Tim Curry. Itā€™s quite the hoot! (ā€œDavy ā€¦. David, Crocketā€¦ King of the ā€¦*wild* frontierā€¦ā€)

I found The Pointer Sisterā€™s version of Yo Ho on YouTube, and sure enough, the song had been re-arranged and omitted ā€Drink up me hearties, yo hoā€:

Since this was around the same time decisions were being made to alter the ride, it does make me wonder if the changes in these lyrics were done for a similar reason ā€” or maybe they just decided to change the song for artistic reasons, leaving out the one line all of us know even if we cannot remember the versus. (Typing that out now, that would seem to be a very odd decision, if so.)

The original:

Yo ho, yo ho, a pirate’s life for me.
We pillage plunder, we rifle and loot.
Drink up me ‘earties, yo ho.
We kidnap and ravage and don’t give a hoot.
Drink up me ‘earties, yo ho.

The Pointer Sisters version:

Yo ho, yo ho, a pirate’s life for me.
Yo ho, yo YO, a pirate’s life for me.
We pillage plunder, we rifle and loot.
We kidnap and ravage and don’t give a hoot.

The same pattern follows through the rest of the song.

If I ever noticed this at the time, I forgot that I noticed. But I think that I didnā€™t. At that time, we did not have access to full versions of these soundtracks. I remember being quite happy at discovering one could pull of some audio files from the Walt Disney World Explorer CD-ROM and get some instrumental background snippets that had never been released publicly before.

So, while the R word never appeared in the original song, a Disney remake of the song did alter the lyrics to remove lines about drinking.

The more you knowā€¦

Stand up me hearties, yo ho?

And further proving you canā€™t really trust what a search engine chooses for you as the best possible answer, look at what Google brings up for the lyrics:

Stand up me hearties, yo ho?

There must be some Disney Kids album that has a censored version of the song on itā€¦ I guess.

Update: Jonas Brothers, Disney Mania 4. https://youtu.be/ywUujyCsNZE