At the end of Main Street U.S.A. there is a sign that shows the wait times for attractions in the park. Here’s what it looks like today:
Disneyland wait times sign from May 16, 2017.
Disneyland wait time sign on May 26, 1996.
In 1996, there was a very different wait time sign in use in May. That was one of my first trips with my Epson PhotoPC digital camera, so the only images I have are in the tiny 320×240 format.
As you can see, the sign was a much simpler board with black signs and white lettering. It’s hard to make out, but I believe the wait time for the then-new Indiana Jones Adventure was one hour and thirty minutes! Back then, the line might start on Main Street U.S.A., go all the way into Adventureland, then upstairs to fill up the second level of the Jungle Cruise, before finally entering the attraction queue. In this days before FastPass, the entire queue was used, from the bridge and lower outside area and all of the inside of the temple.
Keep that in mind the next time you complain about how long the lines are š
Disneyland wait times sign on May 20, 1996.
I only have one other tiny 320×240 photo of this sign, seen here to the left. Look how simple it was. They had simple stanchions holding ropes to mark off the area. Two small potted plants served as decoration around the base of this tiny wheeled display. A simple podium and umbrella and, amazingly, two cast members staffed it.
Simpler times.
Was this a temporary sign I just happened to catch? The reason I ask is because just a few months later there was a different wait time sign there:
Disneyland wait times sign on August 14, 1996.
They had built this larger sign into the flower bed area. Notice the construction barrier to the right, and no fencing to the left.
Then, just a few days later, it looked like this:
Disneyland wait times sign on August 18, 1996.
In this photo you can see a fence to the left and right of this sign. Did I happen to visit during a refurbishment of this sign? Or was the park transitioning from a temporary on-wheels sign to something more permanent?
Oh, and hey, Indiana Jones Adventure was only 45 minutes when I took this photo! And you will see The Spirit of Pocahontas stage show was running, as well as The Lion King Celebration parade plus The Main Street Electrical Parade! Yes, Virginia, there was a time when Disneyland had a daytime parade and a separate nighttime parade.
I am amused that, even in my first few trips with a digital camera, I was starting to notice trivial things like wait time signs and minor changes like this.
I wonder what else I’ll uncover as I continue to browse through my gallery…
I’ve always made it known that my focus when visiting Disneyland or Walt Disney World were the rides and attractions. Unless there is something truly “Disney” about a restaurant (like eating under the moonlight at the Blue Bayou Restaurant at Disneyland, or eating in a car atĀ Sci-Fi Dine In at Disney Hollywood Studios), I’m pretty sure I can find good restaurants all over. Likewise, I can find luxury resorts with plenty of amenities in my home town. With that in mind, I find it surprising that, during my first visit with a digital camera in 1996, I visited the Disneyland Hotel.
Back then, there was only Disneyland, a parking lot, and the hotel. Perhaps I just wanted to get off at the monorail stop and explore. Perhaps I was doing the “here’s how to drink adult beverages at Disneyland” trick (though I see no photos from anything else, so I’ll assume I was just exploring and that the alcohol trick came later).
Somewhere inside the hotel there used to be this massive collage of Disney memorabilia:
Disneyland memorabilia on display in 1996 (probably August 16, 1996).
My ancient 640×480 digital photo doesn’t do it justice. If I had encountered this today, I’d have taken tons of photos of the various items in this display case. I wonder if this display is still there somewhere?
I was also impressed to find that there was live street entertainment at the hotel:
The Bellhops band at the Disneyland Hotel on August 16, 1996.
The Bellhops would ride up on their golf cart and perform. I did not have a video camera with me during that trip, but I did find someone else’s brief video of the Bellhops from a few years earlier (1991) on YouTube:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7mjw3oQTAl8
YouTube user “starleet2001” 1991 home video of the Bellhops band.
A quick web search did not turn up much about this band. Anyone know more about them?
Moving on, I was impressed with the “lake” that existed between the three Disney Hotel towers! You could rent a paddle boat and ride around.
Paddle around the Disneyland Hotel lake on August 16, 1996.
This area has been remodeled at least twice since I took this photo. During a recent visit with Werner of Yesterland.com, he pointed me to a collection of old Disneyland Hotel press photos from this era that showed more about this “lake.” In those years, before it was actually owned by Disney, it was quite an attraction on its own with entertainment and activities. If you go back early enough, there was even a large golf course next to the original tower!
But I digress.
I also snapped a picture of the pool area. By today’s standards, it doesn’t seem that impressive.
Disneyland Hotel pool area on August 16, 1996.
I’m not sure what caught my attention in this photo. Perhaps it was the lush landscaping behind the pools that blocked out the view of a contested city area. Perhaps it was the sandy beach where the volleyball court is.
I’ve wanted to stay at the Disneyland Hotel for a long time, but the pricing was outrageous to me back then… Today, we’d jump at a chance to stay there and pay 1990s prices.
Thanks for joining me on this quick look at some of my earliest digital photos from Disneyland. I figure we have about 150,000 more to get through, so check back again sometime.
This was one of the stage shows that was also replicated at Walt Disney World. Their version was at the Disney/MGM Studios, though it doesn’t look like I have any photos of it. It was Huntchback of Notre Dame by the time I took photos there. Regardless, I think I preferred the Disneyland version since it made use of a trap door in the stage to let characters “appear” rather than having them run on/off stage.
But I digress.
The theater, back then, was far less themed than the one that Disneyland has today:
Theater control booth on August 15, 1996.
I don’t even think I really wanted to “waste” my time and watch a show, but I was online friends with a show technician that was working the show that day and I wanted to say hi. He was one of the guys that would be up on all that scaffolding running lights and such. I wonder if his position was eventually replaced by computer-controlled lighting…
It also had fire…
The Spirit of Pocahontas on August 15, 1996.
The theater would later get updated and become home to a Snow White show. Remind me to talk about Disneyland, food, and that Snow White show when I get to it. I heard some really neat stories about it.
Ever wonder what a nighttime parade made up of thousands of sparkling lights would look like to a 1996 digital camera?
Neither did I, but let’s find out.
Here’s the Main Street Electrical Parade as seen though the lens of a first-generation digital camera:
MSEP on August 14, 1996.MSEP on August 14, 1996.
I’d share more, but I think you get the idea: It looks bad on a 1996 digital camera.
But, back then, unless you had a good camera and knew how to use it, and a scanner, this was about the only way you’d have seen it other than in person. My Kodak Disc camera photos of the Florida version of the parade in 1982 were even worse.
It’s really sad that this parade was leaving the park forever in 1996, but at least there was something new and shiny to look forward to:
Light Magic sign on August 14, 1996.
I can’t wait to see what Light Magic looks like through the lens of a first generation digital camera.
A quick follow-up to the previous article… I found a few more parking lot related photos I took in 1997. Here’s one showing the layout of the parking lot — a very helpful map for those who can’t remember where they parked:
Parking lot vehicle locator map on May 11, 1997.
The Disneyland Tram runs approximately every 15 minutes?!? It would be faster to walk š
I also found a higher resolution photo of the old parking lot walkway. You would park, then walk to this walkway, and head towards the entrance.
At 640×480 resolutions, you can almost make out the details of the Disneyland Train Station. Almost.
I also found a somewhat blurry view from the monorail that shows where this walkway is in relation to the park entrance. This was from the far end monorail which now runs through the entrance (over the bridge) at Disney California Adventure.
May 17, 1997.
Above, you can see one of the old yellow trams (left), and the walkway (right side). Today, you’d be looking at Buena Vista Street at DCA!
Another image I wanted to share from 1996 was too small, so here’s a slightly less small version of it — the guest information booth with clocks showing the time at every Disney resort around the globe!
May 10, 1997.
You can see the time at Disneyland, Walt Disney World, Tokyo Disneyland and Euro Disney! (Euro Disney, you ask? Geez, you are young. That’s what Disneyland Paris was called from 1992 to 2002. I guess Disney’s California Adventure and Disney/MGM Studios were not the first parks to get a name change.)
And, lastly… This image:
May 11, 1997.
I have no recollection what the purpose of that sign was, but something about it must have caught my attention.
My first trip to Disneyland was probably around 1974 or 1975. I remember our family road trip from Houston, Texas to California. We stopped at the Grand Canyon, Painted Desert and Petrified Forest. I also recall seeing Newspaper Rock and hearing my mom wondering if they represented aliens (check out the fingers and toes). Today I just wonder how families planned these trips in the days before the Internet. Travel brochures? That must have had something to do with it. I remember we had one that mentioned a ride called the “Haunted Mansion.” I pictured “dune buggies” driving through an old haunted house.
But I digress…
I have no photos from that visit (or the one or two more I got to make in the late 1970s), nor did I take a camera with me when I got to return to Disneyland in December 1995. I do recall that 1995 visit, though, since I finally learned where many of my childhood memories came from – like seeing a giant whale (Storybookland) and a skeleton drinking from a bottle (Pirates of the Caribbean). There were so many things I remembered from Disneyland that were not found in Florida’s Magic Kingdom.
By 1996, I had my first digital camera and would start documenting all my trips. Do you remember this Disneyland sign?
That sign was in use until they expanded the resort and added California Adventure. Vehicles would enter from the main entrance on South Harbor Blvd. (Disneyland’s official address is 1313 South Harbor Blvd with the 1313 rumored to either be MM – 13th letter of the alphabet twice for Mickey Mouse – or Disney poking fun at superstition.)
The parking lot entrance itself was much smaller than what we are used to today. I can’ t recall if there was another entrance on the other side of the park, or just an exit.
Disneyland parking entrance on August 16, 1996.
I took a better photo of the main entrance sign during my next visit on August 16, 1996:
August 16, 1996
Notice the power lines? For those too young to remember, they cut across the Disneyland parking lot (where California Adventure is today) and you’d park under or around them. Here’s what that looked like:
I’m not sure of the direction that photo was taken, but that may be the Paradise Pier Hotel in the back right (though it was probably still known as the Pan Pacific Hotel at the time. Disney bought it in 1995, but didn’t rename it until 2000.)
If you were lucky, you could park close enough to just walk to the entrance, else you took trams. If you were even luckier (or richer), you might have been able to use the special parking area just for Club 33 visitors!
Club 33 parking on August 16, 1996.
Thanks to the Internet, this “secret” club in the park was now well know (at least online). But, back then, the only photos you could find were a few official Disney press photos. Today, every inch of Club 33 seems to be documented as “everyone” that wants to seems to have gotten inside. (I’ve even been there, in 2017, after declining three invitations back around 1996 or so.)
Back then, annual pass holders also got special parking. It’s hard to believe there was a time when annual passes were rare enough to give perks like that!
In 1996, the Indiana Jones Adventure was the hot new ride. It had just opened up the previous summer for Disneyland’s 40th anniversary. It was constructed on land that was formerly the Pinocchio parking lot. Originally, it was just a huge, green building with a security booth on top:
Indiana Jones Adventure show building on May 22, 1996.
When the Grand Californian Hotel was built years later, they decorated the building up a bit and planted palm trees in front of it so it would look nicer for guests staying at the expensive hotel.
Another detail about the old parking lot was a covered waiting area for folks getting picked up:
Disneyland pickup spot on August 18, 1996.
Today, the closest you can be dropped off is near the Harbor Blvd. entrance where shuttles and taxis are allowed to go.
The actual entrance of Disneyland was a bit different. The ticket booths used to be in front of the park under the monorail track:
Disneyland ticket booths on May 25, 1996.
As you can see, the park had long lines to get in even back then.
Tiny 320×240 photo of the Disneyland ticket scanners from May 21, 1996.
Once you got to the front of the line, they would scan your ticket with these ticket scanners. There was even a Hidden Mickey cut into the back of the booth. (I have photos of many of these early Hidden Mickeys that I submitted to the original Hidden Mickey site — hiddenmickeys.org — though as I check now, the site may be down. Here’s an archive of it from 1998.)
I’ll leave you with one item that doesn’t seem to have changed much: the outside lockers. Although today this is now at the end of Downtown Disney rather than across from a parking lot, I think the locker area is about the same other than having all the greenery in front of it (blocking the view of guests who are eating at the picnic area).
Disneyland outside lockers on August 18, 1996.
I should really try to get “now” versions of some of these photos the next time I make it out there.
I hope you enjoyed this short tour of some of my earliest digital photos. I plan to do more postings like this from time to time, so be sure to follow my Facebook page or Twitter account to stay in touch.
The American Puppet Theater has asked for your vote in a poll conducted by Des Moines Parent website. (I have contributed content for them in the past, relating to local Halloween haunted house activities.) They would love it if you’d vote for them in the category of “Best Children’s Theater” or “Best Outdoor Entertainment”:
Adventureland has announced that this year’s July 4th fireworks will begin at approximately 9:40 p.m. on July 4, 2017 (weather permitting).
I’ve seen the fireworks a number of times over the years, and it’s always a nice show – usually larger than what the various local communities can offer. In past years, when Adventureland held it’s fireworks on the same night that nearbyĀ PrairieĀ MeadowsĀ did their’s, they seemed to coordinate. Adventureland’s show would go, then as soon as it was over, the casino would begin it’s show — allowing guests in the park a two-for-one show just by facing a different direction š
Here is the nearly 25-minute show from 2016, which included speakers set up all along the River City/Boulevard area to play patriotic music:
The fireworks are launched from near theĀ Raging River loading area. During the day, you can see it from the line:
Fireworks launch area in 2006.
The best viewing area is inĀ River City, though you should be able to see theme from any area not obstructed by buildings or trees. The music, however, can only be heard from the Boulevard/River City area.
In 2016, the park also added new colorful LED lights to theĀ Monster roller coasterĀ andĀ Space Shot. The crew atĀ KCL Engineering that did the installs also created special July 4th light shows:
Neat, eh?
To give you an idea at how much more the park does these days, here is the show from 2009:
And here it is from 2008:
I wasn’t able to visit the park from 2010-2015, so I have no recordings of those years. I don’t know when the park added music to the show. I may have some earlier fireworks recordings on tape somewhere (I took my first digital camcorder to the park in 1999), but I have never posted them. Maybe I’ll have some even older fireworks videos to share next year…
Based out of Chicago,Ā Miss Green and her puppet friends present two shows atĀ The Chapel each day.
American Puppet Theater at The Chapel.
On the stage, a small puppet theater is set up:
Miss Green and her puppet theater.
I grew up watchingĀ Mr. Roger’s Neighborhood and the puppets in theĀ Land of Make Believe, but I have seen very few puppet shows in person. The show I caught featured two short stories.
The first involved a pirate and made references to the monster ofĀ Dragon Island. It was neat seeing the show customized forĀ Adventureland. (For those who haven’t visited, Dragon Island is one of the “lands” of the park, where some carnival games are, as well as the Dragon roller coaster,Ā Puff the Dragon andĀ Himalaya).
American Puppet Theater pirate show.
The second show featured two friends and a tree:
American Puppet Theater.
Both shows are short enough they should work well with the A.D.D. generation of kids roaming the park these days.
If you stick around after the show, you can meetĀ Miss Green and some of her puppets. She had a gift for the kid’s the stayed for this show:
American Puppet Theater meet-and-greet.
If you have little ones (or just like puppets), be sure to catch theĀ American Puppet Theater this season, and tellĀ Miss Green that ParkHopping.com sent you.
