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The Sushi Bandit Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Sep-03-06 11:22 PM
Original message
Poll question: Favorite Disneyland Ride
So.... it labor day and things are kinda slow so I am posting a fun poll!

Disclaimer: there is no way i can have all of them in just 10 choices so dont get pissed that your favorite isnt listed. Just post it for all to see!

Mahalo!
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Ediacara Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Sep-03-06 11:24 PM
Response to Original message
1. Space Mountain!
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Bryan Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Sep-03-06 11:26 PM
Response to Original message
2. "The Tiki Room" by default
It's wonderful, of course, but my heart still belongs to the long-departed "Mr. Toad's Wild Ride"...
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Tulum_Moon Donating Member (556 posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Sep-03-06 11:31 PM
Response to Reply #2
3. How could you forget "Mr. Toads Wild Ride"
Here we Gooooooooooooooooo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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begin_within Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Sep-03-06 11:38 PM
Response to Reply #2
7. Mr. Toad's is gone from WDW, but still in operation at Disneyland in CA.
According to Mouseplanet, they closed the one in WDW in Florida to make room for the "Winnie the Pooh" ride there. But the original one is still in operation in Anaheim, and it's one of the oldest rides in the park - one of the few left that has been there since day 1 of Disneyland.

http://mouseplanet.com/guide.php?pg=AAC108

By the way, I heard years ago that Michael Jackson had Disney build an exact duplicate of "Mr. Toad's Wild Ride" at his Neverland ranch. And, that he wanted them to build an exact duplicate of "Pirates of the Caribbean," which would obviously have cost much more to build than a "Mr. Toad," but that Disney refused to do it.
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begin_within Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Sep-03-06 11:32 PM
Response to Original message
4. The best ride they ever had is long gone, sadly.
"Mine Train Thru Nature's Wonderland" in Frontierland always had a short line, and a long ride (16 minutes), through scenery which was fake, but over the years the real vegetation grew up around it and it was a beautiful trip through nature. And it ended with the unbelivably beautiful "Rainbow Caverns" which was a cave filled with waterfalls, rivers of color, fountains - all of it with fluorescent water in a whole spectrum of colors. I went on that ride numerous times just to see the Rainbow Caverns again. Whoever demolished that belongs in the hall of shame. They built the "Thunder Mountain Railroad" thrill ride in the same area, a ride which has speed but nowhere near the atmosphere or beauty of the original ride there. And the rest of the area they have never done anything good with. The elimination of that ride was the biggest mistake they ever made.

Runner-up is the "Adventure Thru Inner Space," also popularly called the "Monsanto Ride" though that was not it's name. You got in cars shaped just like the "Doom Buggies" of the Haunted Mansion, and rode through a series of rooms simulating that you were shrinking smaller and smaller, down to the size of an atom, to see what the water molecule looks like at the atomic level. It was a fascinating and beautifully designed ride. Also a great crime that they eliminated it and replaced it with the so-so "Star Tours."

Of the rides in existence now, Space Mountain, Pirates of the Caribbean, and Haunted Mansion are the best and most fully-realized.

Rides that are not in Disneyland any more are described in detail at yesterland.com
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The Sushi Bandit Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Sep-04-06 01:41 AM
Response to Reply #4
10. an Adventure Thru Inner Space photo for ya!
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begin_within Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Sep-04-06 04:16 AM
Response to Reply #10
11. Thanks - that brings back memories. The first time, we were afraid to get
into that car because the little miniature cars in the clear part of the microscope thing were what was going to happen to us - we were going to be shrunk down to just 3 inches tall in a matter of seconds! For a 7-year-old boy it was kind of frightening, at first. But while standing in line, I noticed that among the little miniature people in the miniature cars going by, the same woman in a red outfit kept going by at a regular interval, so that's when I figured out it was actually fake and that those weren't the actual live people who had been in line ahead of us. That was the only scary part of the ride, otherwise it was a fantastic voyage.
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LibDemAlways Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Sep-04-06 10:38 AM
Response to Reply #11
23. My brother happened upon one of those miniature
Edited on Mon Sep-04-06 11:10 AM by LibDemAlways
ride cars riders passed by while in line in an antique shop in Orange years ago - probably claimed by an employee when the ride was being dismantled. Anyhow, he bought it for $300.00 and has it to this day. Great piece of Disney memorabilia.

When I was in high school, that was THE hot ride to go on with a boy or girlfriend. We called it the "make out" ride. LOL!
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SaveElmer Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Sep-04-06 01:16 PM
Response to Reply #10
29. That is the only ride...where
I nearly lost my lunch...

Never again!!!
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lavenderdiva Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Sep-03-06 11:34 PM
Response to Original message
5. Gotta love Mr Toad's Wild Ride, Peter Pan's Flight
and Story Book Land Canal Boats-- all favorites!
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GalleryGod Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Sep-04-06 10:00 AM
Response to Reply #5
21. Mr. Toad's !
Love it. Last time I went on it? Summer, 2003.
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Haole Girl Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Sep-03-06 11:34 PM
Response to Original message
6. Space Mountain!
I love that ride! I'm not sure which is more hilarious-- the ride itself or how frightened everybody gets by the time they finish waiting in line to go on it! :rofl:
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trackfan Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Sep-04-06 12:51 AM
Response to Original message
8. Last time I was at Disneyland was March 28, 1976
Space Mountain was under construction.
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The Sushi Bandit Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Sep-04-06 01:29 AM
Response to Original message
9. Skull rock was my favorite non-ride place at Disneyland
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begin_within Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Sep-04-06 04:25 AM
Response to Reply #9
12. Thanks, that was a true work of art. Another travesty committed when they
Edited on Mon Sep-04-06 04:29 AM by bob_weaver
tore that one down. I remember that you could walk through the lower part of it. There is a Skull Rock at the Disneyland in Paris, but it is ugly. There is also a new skull-shaped rock at Legoland in Carlsbad, California, which is much closer in design to the one you posted a picture of, and I think of it as a "silent tribute" to the one at Disneyland, consciously or unconsciously.
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ForrestGump Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Sep-04-06 04:28 AM
Response to Original message
13. Haven't been since 1991 or 1992, but I used to go twice a year
when I lived in LA in the '80s and early '90s. I got grumpy if I didn't go twice a year.

My favorite -- if I really had to pick a favorite -- was always Pirates, with Haunted Mansion close behind, but then along came Star Tours and I probably would've picked that above the others if I had just one choice of ride.

B ut I have very fond memories of a lot of those rides, from Peter Pan's flight and Mr Toad's Wild Ride to the Country Bears, the Jungle Cruise, Big Thunder and the more audio-animatronic-dense rides. I loved Disneyland...still do, even though I haven't been there in so long (and, for all the time I spent in Florida during the '90s and all the years I spent living near Florida, I've never once been to Disney World). Even just poking around in places on Main Street USA and Frontierland, etc, was fun.

The whole world grew up with Disney and I knew the geography of the park long before I ever came to the United States. Part of my childhood will always be there, no matter that I was 20 when I first walked through its magical gates.
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begin_within Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Sep-04-06 04:38 AM
Response to Reply #13
16. It had a genuinely "magical" feel to it in the 1960s and 1970s, but then
in the 1980s and 1990s whoever was in charge of Disneyland (Michael Eisner at the top and whoever was the president of Disneyland itself, under Eisner) slowly and systematically dismantled Walt's vision and replaced it with their own. Now it's merely a shadow of the glorious place it once was. The rides are bigger and costlier and more technologically advanced, but the charm of the place has been completely lost, I'm sad to say. Going there now is more of an ordeal than a "magical" experience.
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ForrestGump Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Sep-04-06 05:20 AM
Response to Reply #16
17. I hate to think how much it costs to get in for a day now
About $80, if ticket prices kept going up at the rate they were in the '80s.

Some of the attractions that I grew up seeing on TV and reading about in National Geographic (a 1965 issue) and elsewhere were just so key to the place, even though when I finally went on the submarine ride I decided that it could definitely use a little updating (I never did do Autopia, or whatever it was called) and the same was true of Mission to Mars before they got rid of it (state of the art for the early '60s, maybe, but by 1985 a room that rumbled a bit at the climax of the experience was overshadowed even by more sedate '60s-'70s attractions like the most excellent Tiki Tiki Tiki Tiki Tiki Room). Still, it was always sad to see some of the iconic aspects of Disneyland vanish.

And, yeah, Eisner seems pretty much reviled by ex-Disney staff as well as in Hollywood, in general. I love that the animators of Shrek made the evil prince look (and act) like Eisner. :D
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begin_within Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Sep-04-06 09:13 AM
Response to Reply #17
19. We were able to get in for $4, all rides included, on the "Orange County
Employees Nights" in the late 1960s and eaerly 1970s. My Dad was an employee of the County of Orange, and they had a deal with Disneyland for Orange County Nights, which were either once or twice a year. At that time Disneyland was still using the ticket books (A, B, C, D, E) but on that night, no tickets were required for any ride - you just paid for the admission ticket (and I remember clearly that it was $4, because I saw the tickets and my Mom and Dad were worried about how many people we could afford to take.) It was a great time to go there! A single-day admission is currently $59.
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RebelOne Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Sep-04-06 04:36 AM
Response to Original message
14. It's a small world.
Take that ride and the song will be stuck in your head for hours.
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last_texas_dem Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Sep-04-06 04:37 AM
Response to Original message
15. "Splash Mountain"
Edited on Mon Sep-04-06 04:38 AM by last_texas_dem
Well, that was my favorite the one time I went to Disney World, back in fourth grade, but I'm pretty sure it would still be. It's cool and interesting inside, and the drop is a blast. But I liked all of them except those darn tea cups! They're one of only two rides I've ever felt sick from, and, like the other ride I got sick on, it's all because of that spin-in-one-direction-in-one-thing-while-you're-in-a-big-thing-spinning-the-other-direction set-up. I can handle any roller-coaster, but you better not put me in any spinning tea cups!
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blondeatlast Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Sep-04-06 07:28 AM
Response to Original message
18. Other: Haunted Mansion.
What other ride could chill me and make me laugh?

Kudos to the underappreciated writers for the HM (and so many of the great ones), with all the technical razzle-dazzle, their contributions are easily overlooked.
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begin_within Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Sep-04-06 09:26 AM
Response to Reply #18
20. If you can ever get a copy of the Haunted Mansion record that Disney
put out when the ride first opened, I would highly recommend it. It tells the whole story of Mike and Karen, who go into the house on a dark and rainy night, and describes all the effects that you see in the ride as part of the story. It also has the music. The album I got also had printed pages of cartoon drawings of many of the effects. I'm sure if I still had it today it would command a high dollar amount from Disney collectors and/or Haunted Mansion collectors. My stepmother threw away all of my records when I went away to college.
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blondeatlast Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Sep-04-06 11:19 AM
Response to Reply #20
24. Thanks for the tip! I'll watch for it.
I remember a Wonderful World of Disney that featured the Osnmonds learning about it when it fist opened, too.

It was really quite entertaining and informative.

All that wonderful stuff, probably lost to time. sigh.
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begin_within Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Sep-04-06 01:10 PM
Response to Reply #24
28. A good place to look would be this site:
http://www.doombuggies.com

Everything Haunted Mansion-related
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Rabrrrrrr Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Sep-04-06 10:03 AM
Response to Original message
22. Natalie Portman.
Well, she SHOULD be a ride. Just sayin'.
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The Sushi Bandit Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Sep-04-06 12:50 PM
Response to Reply #22
27. Your wish is granted.. long live Jambi
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Mutley Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Sep-04-06 11:32 AM
Response to Original message
25. I've never been to Disneyland, but I've been to Disney World
and my pick is Space Mountain. :D
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Arugula Latte Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Sep-04-06 11:55 AM
Response to Original message
26. Pirates. Hands down.
:woohoo:

Talk about being transported to another time and place. Yes, I know it's fake and fantasy. But fun fun fun.
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