As I have mentioned (many times), I purchased my first digital camera in 1996. This was followed by my first digital video camcorder in 1999. It recorded digitally on 8mm video tapes. Over the years, I recorded hundreds of tapes at theme parks and Renaissance festivals. This was followed by an upgrade to an HD camcorder that used DV tapes (which I have dozens and dozens of those), then a jump to camcorders that used memory cards.
All the memory card footage is backed up to hard drives, but very little of the Digital8 and DV tapes exist anywhere other than those tapes. Hopefully my old camcorders still work, and the tapes can still be read, because I would like to begin the process of importing them for editing and sharing.
I am overdue for the annual “anniversary” post, so I’ll try to find time to collect that information, soon.
The park is open for the 2021 with many changes, meaning the Wiki is a bit out of date now, referencing rides that have been relocated, renamed or replaced. Sometimes all three 😉
Recently, Adventureland announced a new multi-tier season pass offering for 2021. Four different passes will be available at different price points with different benefits. The complete details are found on the official website.
Here is a breakdown of the new tiers:
Bronze – $110
This new pass is $30 lower than last year’s $140 pass, but only includes:
Admission Monday-Thursday
No discounts, no parking, no Oktoberfest admission, no arcade game card, etc. This is the “babysitter pass” for parents to drop their kids off at the park. Since a pass that includes parking is only $30 more, and with parking costing $10 in 2020, anyone driving to the park and paying for parking more than three times is better off upgrading to the next level.
Silver – $140
The silver level, matching the price of last year’s full pass, is a step down from previous season passes as it does not include food/merchandise discounts, Oktoberfest admission, etc. It adds the following:
Free general parking.
$5 off a guest ticket.
Season Pass Holder Only Days admission.
Sunset on the Boulevard Concert Series admission.
Notice “general parking.” 2021 will now bring an upcharge for “priority parking.” Also new is the concert series and Season Pass Holder Only Days.
Gold – $175
The gold pass is the new equivalent to last year’s $140 season pass. This means the price jumped $35 this year, but some new benefits have been added. It includes everything from bronze and silver, then adds:
$10 off guest ticket.
1 free guest ticket on each Season Pass Holder Only Days.
Circo de Luz Admission
10% retail discount.
$5 arcade card.
Full refund on Adventure Bay tubes.
$20 off Adventure Bay cabana.
2021 souvenir cup with one soft drink or ICEE refill.
2021 souvenir bucket with one popcorn or cookie refill.
Oktoberfest admission (21+).
$20 off Labor Day Party admission (21+).
10% discount at Spectators Bar & Grill.
$10 RV campground discount.
$15 Adventureland Inn room discount.
Also note the new Circo de Luz and Labor Day Party events.
Platinum – $290
And, much like the special VIP packages offered at Oktoberfest the past few years, there is a new mega season pass which includes everything above, but adds:
Early Adventure Bay check in at 10:30. (Is this admission, or just check in to get in?)
$50 off Adventure Bay cabana.
PLATINUM CUP with free soda and ICEE refills.
Labor Day Party admission.
Park Hospitality Suite Admission.
$15 RV campground discount.
$20-30 Adventureland Inn room discount.
Free one night stay at Adventureland Inn.
Adventureland Inn Splash Pass.
I could not find any details on some of these offerings, so right now it’s a leap of faith on upgrading to a higher pass level for events or benefits that have not been announced. However, compared to regular single day admission to the park plus parking, an individual going to the park ($50 ticket + $10 parking) just five times is a break even for the $290 platinum level.
Obviously, using ticket discounts would require going more than that to benefit.
The new “babysitter pass” is likely to be very useful to families who can visit Monday through Thursday. A parent can get a gold pass that covers parking, and the rest of the family can get the basic bronze pass and save a bunch of money after just a few visits.
I, personally, would go for gold or platinum since I used my passes for numerous 1-2 hour visits to the park over the season. Depending on what the special events are, the upgrade from the $175 pass to $290 ($115) depends on if you planned to use the hotel room and the cost of the special parties. For someone who gets one or two sodas each visit, just having free soda refills might make it worthwhile.
These are some fantastic options. Let’s hope we are allowed to go to amusements parks in 2021.
Although I tend to focus on the past with photo essays going back to 1996, I hope to find some time to discuss a bit of the present — Covid-19 and how the Orlando theme parks are dealing with it. There are some interesting differences in the level of precautions taken by Disney Springs, Universal Orlando Resort and Sea World.
Anniversary of the fire that destroyed have of Main Street (hat tip to Elizabeth Dunn Huether for mentioning this). The rebuilt Main Street re-opened for the 2011 season.
The big for 2020 was when Adventureland post this on May 17, 2020 to their Facebook page:
Mary 17, 2020 Facebook teaser.
The image of a knight slaying a dragon immediately started speculation that something would be happening to the double-loop Dragon coaster.
Two days later, on May 19, the park posted an animated GIF that has the same image rotating in to view with the text “The Dragon Slayer” above it:
May 19, 2020 Facebook post.
Facebook group member Alec Rushford posted that SkyHigh Coasters LLC had reshared the teaser on their Facebook page, with Tag Gable following up with a post saying that they were the ones that did the build job on last year’s Phoenix roller coaster.
Also on May 19, local TV station KCCI posted an article that included drone footage of the Dragon being dismantled at the park:
That post was quickly removed from the page, but said a zoomed photo taken off property confirms this was actually happening.
As of this posting, it looks like the park will have two rides less for the 2020 season, with something new to replace the Dragon next year. Nothing has been announced about a replacement for the Splash Over (though some have speculated maybe it is just being disassembled to be refurbished and will return).
I returned to visiting Disneyland in December 1995. I was then an annual pass holder every year except for the dark times (after the great tech layoffs following 9/11) through the late 2000s.
Disneyland used to do a yearly Annual Passholder Party. It was a hard ticket event that gave pass holders special access in the evening to presentations, entertainment and food. The last one was 23 years ago today on March 14, 1997. I thought it might be fun to look back on the event through my ancient digital photos.
Getting there is half the fun
I travelled for work, and just happened to be in Irvine, California the week this event was held. I had no ticket, but my local friend Steve roamed the lines asked if anyone had an extra ticket. Thanks to Steve and some random nice guy I was able to experience the event. (I used to have a picture of him, but it seems to have been lost to time.)
New Tomorrowland
The new New Tomorrowland was under construction, so there were many displays set up showing things to come.
Innoventions
This one shows the paint job that Innoventions would soon have.
Innoventions model. Disneyland Annual Passholder Part on May 14, 1997
It was on this night that the made the building rotate (to great applause) for the first time since it America Sings was inside. I highly suspect they practiced this before they tried to power it up in front of annual pass holders.
Rocket Rods
The PeopleMover had been shut down for a few years, but its high speed replacement, Rocket Rods, would soon be operating. This was a map of the track layout.
Disneyland Annual Passholder Part on May 14, 1997
The next resort…
And of course, with Disneyland soon to be the Disneyland Resort featuring a new theme park, Disney’s California Adventure, there was concept art on hand about changes coming to the resort area.
Disneyland Annual Passholder Part on May 14, 1997
And check out this “now” and “later” image showing the yucky run down strip mall look that surrounded Disneyland … and the lush tourist district it would soon be transformed into:
Disneyland Annual Passholder Part on May 14, 1997
Won’t you let me take you on a Disney cruise?
The Disney Cruise lines was also represented, showing off a model of an upcoming cruise ship.
Disneyland Annual Passholder Part on May 14, 1997
Animal Kingdom: coming soon!
There was also a new Florida Disney theme park opening — the first new U.S. park since Disney/MGM Studios opened nine years earlier. Animal Kingdom was represented with a display of concept art.
Disneyland Annual Passholder Part on May 14, 1997Disneyland Annual Passholder Part on May 14, 1997
Test Track!
The transformation of Epcot’s World of Motion into Test Track also got some concept art.
Disneyland Annual Passholder Part on May 14, 1997
Imagineers standing by…
This is where I got to meet some imagineers for the first time. I had my photo taken with Bruce Gordon and Tony Baxter, though I don’t believe I had any idea who either of them were at the time.
Me with Imagineer Bruce Gordon (and ???) at Disneyland on May 14, 1997.
Me with Imagineer Tony Baxter at Disneyland on May 14, 1997.
Hungry yet?
Outside of Tomorrowland, the walkway between New Orleans Square and the Rivers of America was taken over by food booths. You could buy samples of all kinds of food items from the different lands of the parks. Back then, the prices were very reasonable!
Disneyland Annual Passholder Part on May 14, 1997Disneyland Annual Passholder Part on May 14, 1997Disneyland Annual Passholder Part on May 14, 1997Disneyland Annual Passholder Part on May 14, 1997
Light Magic
This was also the first night we got to see a sneak preview of the upcoming Light Magic parade… but I will save that for a second part.
I thought I had many more photos from this night, but it appears they may have been lost with some hard drive failures I have had over the years. Stay in school kids, and backup often.
Until next time…
P.S. The photos in this article were all 640×480 low resolution images from my Epson PhotoPC camera. They have been upscaled using software as an experiment. What do you think? I think they look like Instagram filters. . .
When I bought my first digital camera in 1996, the specs were quite impressive. My Epson PhotoPC could take a picture large enough to fill my entire PC’s VGA-resolution screen – 640×480! Of course, on dial-up modems, you would never put pictures of that size on a website, so I often used the half-size 320×240 images online (or smaller).
But today, icons for phone apps are larger than 640×480. My huge 1996 pictures now look like postage stamps.
But technology always finds a way, and I am experimenting with some modern image processing that uses artificial intelligence to try to figure out what was supposed to be in the photo, and make it larger.
Here is an example… This is a 1996 photo from Disneyland:
1996 Disneyland Frontierland (original).
And here is the same photo, reprocessed to be double the resolution:
6401996 Disneyland Frontierland (reprocessed).
If you viewed the original at double size and compared it with the reprocessed photo, you could see quite a difference. But in small sizes in this article, it just looks a tad sharper. Zooming in on the people in the canoe shows there wasn’t enough detail for the AI to do much. It gives them a weird artistic filtered look.
Let’s see if we can show them side-by-side. You can click on these to see them full size.
1996 Disneyland Frontierland (original).1996 Disneyland Frontierland (reprocessed).Which do you think looks better?
The question I have for you today is … should I reprocess the photos I share in these articles? Or just use the original 1996 versions as-is?
In February 2001, I got to visit the just-opened Disney’s California Adventure Park. It seems the first thing we did was get breakfast at the ABC Soap Opera Bistro. Here’s a few minutes of video from that brand new restaurant.
