Days in the Park - A Fan Blog About Disney, Gaming, and Everything In-Between: Disneyland Fire Dept.

Sunday, December 11, 2011

Days in the Park Week in Review (12/5 - 12/10)

It was a fun week at Days in the Park. Technical problems made it impossible to do an article every day like we would have liked, but sometimes that's just the way that particular ball bounces. If it didn't exist, we couldn't blog. But it does exist, so it seems like half the time it doesn't work. Go figure... Time for a recap!

On Monday and Tuesday, we challenged you with our weekly "Magical Mystery Mondays" to guess where in The Parks we were when we took a particular picture. This week's was very special because Monday was what would have been Walt Disney's 110th birthday. As we shouldn't have to note at this point, without Walt's vision and his willingness to dream, none of this would be possible, and we certainly wouldn't be here blogging about it Monday's picture was in his honor. We have a lot of fun with these every week, so make sure you stop by each and every Monday to participate with us. Guess correctly, and you'll find your name posted on our blog come Tuesday morning!

In this week's "Almost" Wordless Wednesday, we took readers along with us through one of our favorite attractions, and buildings, in Disneyland on a little tour of Disneyland history in the Disneyland Opera House

On Thursday, we released another episode of our Disneyland podcast, the Days in the ParkCast. This week's episode was one of our shorter, mini-episodes known as our "Banzai!" podcasts. In it, we discuss Mickey's Halloween Party (which we attended in October) and give you our thoughts about this one-of-a-kind annual event; what we experienced, and what you can expect to experience should you attend. It was a lot of fun to talk about, and a lot of fun to listen to we think. Come on by and give us a listen!

And finally on Friday, Chad hopped back on board for his monthly ride around the blogging world aboard the Magical Blogorail Blue Line. This month, we're talking the #1 Disney experience we've yet to experience but would love to do one day. Chad's choice? Walt Disney's apartment, of course! So come on by, read what he had to say on the matter, and then check out all of the other wonderful writers along the rail and see what they chose as their #1 Disney experience wish.

We didn't get to do as much as wanted this week, but we're really proud of everything that we did! Walt Disney's birthday is very important to us, for obvious reasons, and we think it made an excellent choice for our Monday guessing game, and it segued perfectly into our "Almost" Wordless Wednesday. We've also been working really hard on our podcast over the past few weeks, and there are two new episodes out for our listeners. These are so much fun for us to do, and we hope that people enjoy them as much as we enjoy doing them. It's so much fun to just grab a mic and start blathering away about something that we love so much. If you haven't taken the time to listen in it, we'd love to have you give us a try! You can listen to, or download, our show on our "Parkcast" website: http://www.daysintheparkcast.com, or you can subscribe to our show and listen to us in iTunes. Give us a listen and let us know what you think! And on Friday, what's better than a Blogorail article? We have so many wonderful Disney bloggers on each and every one of the Blogorail loops; why don't you check them out? If you're here, you obviously love Disney and there are some fantastic ones there. We encourage you to check them all out!

The Holidays are in full-swing at the Disneyland Resort, and so are we! We can't wait to head out this weekend and score an entire new plethora of pictures and information for our readers. It's something we love doing, and we hope that it enables you to come along with us during our Days and enjoy Disneyland right alongside us. That's what we try to do, and we hope we're successful to at least some degree.

Thanks so much for stopping by! It's going to be a great week, so come on back. We love having you around!

Friday, January 14, 2011

A Land Apart

Welcome to those of you joining me from A Disney Mom's Love of Disney. I am the 4th stop on our Magical Blogorail.

"To all who come to this happy place, welcome. Disneyland is your land." - Walt Disney, 1955

Disneyland - 1955

Allow me to set up today's article for you. I'm a "Lander". I'm not sure if it's a term I myself coined or not (I'd not heard anyone else use it before I started to) but for me the land of Disney fans can be broken down into two primary categories above all others (excluding the foreign Parks): "Landers" (those who claim Disneyland as their Park) and "Worlders" (those who claim Walt Disney World as their Park). I assure you, nothing derogatory is meant by either. It's just something I started saying a while back.

I'm somewhat unique among my blogorailing peers in that I'm the only "Lander" in my entire loop. So when I was given the topic for this month's Loop, "Talk about your favorite Resort and why it is", it was a little bit tricky for me. You see, as an annual passholder who never has to stay at The Park, and can come and go whenever I please, there really wasn't anything for me to write about. Shortest. Article. Ever. So with Beth's blessing, today I'll be writing about my favorite Disney Park.

So, my favorite Park (in case you have to have me say it) is Disneyland Park. Simple enough.

But why is Disneyland my favorite Park? Is it too cliche to say that at its simplest it really boils down to Walt? Well, I'm going to say it anyway. It really boils down to Walt.

Disneyland was Walt's Park. Because he passed away before he was able to see Walt Disney World come to fruition, Walt is inexorably tied to Disneyland in a way that no other Park will ever have. And that makes it very special to me and to many others.

One of my favorite views in the whole wide world...

No matter how many times I go into The Park, I'm consistently taken aback by the magnitude of the history, Walt's history, that I'm taking part in. From the moment I walk inside the Main Gates and glance up at The Disneyland Limited ("now leaving for a grand circle tour"...), especially if the Lilly Belle (which Walt himself and his wife once rode in) is on track, I'm powerfully reminded of just who has come before me, looking at seeing the exact same things I find myself looking at decades later.

Walt's Apartment (and candle) are directly above the Disneyland Fire Dept.

You can't go two steps without looking and seeing something that Walt himself had a personal hand in: his apartment over the Disneyland Fire Dept.; the Opera House which houses Great Moments With Mr. Lincoln and the very bench Walt himself used to sit in whilst in The Park; the back row of Walt Disney's Enchanted Tiki Room in which I never fail to see in my mind's eye the picture of Walt with his animatronic birds; and both It's A Small World and King Arthur Carousel, which Walt had shipped and moved, piece by piece, from their original locations on the East Coast because he loved them so much and wanted to share them with the rest of the world. The list could just go on and on.

Like it or not, the Tiki Room is where all of our favorite Animatronics began

Perhaps the greatest reminder of all, though, is walking through the arch of Sleeping Beauty Castle between Fantasyland and Main Street, U.S.A. Maybe nowhere in the entire Park is the thought "I'm literally walking where Walt himself once walked" quite so powerful. Our castle might be smaller than Cinderella's, but ours is the one where Walt once walked. Sometimes walking through, I just have to stop and take a look around, and if I'm in an imaginative mood, I can picture myself in perhaps the exact same spot that Walt once stood, looking around and surveying his Kingdom himself. That alone is worth the price of admission.

Walt, Mickey and our Castle

There's an entire litany of things I enjoy doing in The Park. I have my favorite attractions, favorite restaurants, favorite stores, and even my favorite restrooms. But since the question was "why is it your favorite Park?", I tried to avoid all of those and get to the heart of the matter. Disneyland Park is my favorite Park because of Walt.

My family and I plan on taking a trip to Walt Disney World again for the first time since 1993 next summer (2012). There is no doubt in my mind that it will go down in the annals of Elliott Family Vacations as one of the greatest ever. We literally cannot wait to get there and spend our seven days running around like complete fools, enamored with everything we see.

But it's safe to say that when I do return home after, and walk through the Main Gates of my favorite Park again, the first words out of my mouth will most likely be, "Welcome Home, Chad. Welcome Home."