Hey all you underpaid, over worked CM's. I finally completed my two days at Disneyland. And boy are my feet tired!
Well no complaints really. Park was not very busy so I didn't need fastpass or anything. Actually after the first day I was getting bored. Guess I have done all I wanted to do. I spent a gob of money on "disney" food (i.e. character buffet and mexican joint). But over all it was good.
I guess working at Disney kind of sucks because most CM's were as happy as death warmed over and even when I complimented one they seemed very grumpy. Oh well.
I want to send shouts out to the Muppet Vision 3D dude who admitted to checking out the site. Though he never posts.
Couple things I wondered when I left....
1) Why are there NO footwear supplies sold anywhere in Disney? (i.e. inserts, foot powder)
2) Why the monorail doesn't get you to your hotel, any hotel?
3) Why the Paradise Pier doesn't have fans in their bathrooms?
Completed Trip to DL
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Dante101
- Regular Guest
- Posts: 269
- Joined: Sat May 03, 2003 5:16 pm
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Yeah - what GMC said about the monorail.
The hotel monorail station is in the exact same location as when it opened in 1961. Here's a pic before the station was built - it was located in that upper level brown area on the right (above the two cars). This was the main entrance for the hotel (later the main entrance was moved).
When the hotel monorail station first opened, it was located next to the original room buildings (which later were turned into the honeymoon suites). You can see them to the right of the station in this next picture. This is also the year when the first tower went up (in the background - awaiting its "hotel Disneyland" signage on top).
The hotel continued to grow and its center (which was once next to the monorail station) moved towards the towers - the last one opening up in the late 1970s. But the monorail station didn't move.
The hotel was owned by the Wrather corporation, so that might be why they didn't bother moving the monorail station closer to the towers and new hotel entrance.
Years later Disney bought the Wrather corperation, which included the Disneyland Hotel, but still they didn't bother to move the monorail station. It is pretty expensive to modify the track - with most of the expense being the pylons going deep underground.
There have been plans for monorail expansion. When they built the nearby Hilton hotel, they were trying to get the Disneyland monorail to go through it and have an indoor station (ala WDW's Contemporary Hotel), but they couldn't make the deal happen - Wrather had the exclusive rights.
Some of the plans for "Wescot" had the monorail taking a tour of that new park, but that died with Frank Wells.
Then when they hit on opening Downtown Disney, leaving the station in the same spot suddenly made a lot of sense - its directly in between the Dland Hotel and Grand Californian, and right in the center of Downtown Disney with all the shops and restaurants.
I agree, it's a bit of a walk to your hotel room after a long day walking around the Park, but this is the new "cost-effective" Disney. Plus it must cost a lot to rent shop space at Downtown Disney - and I'm sure its added incentive for Disney to say "your space is near the monorail station, where thousands of people exit everyday."
What must suck is the people at the Disneyland hotel who want to visit California Adventure...
There are different transportation things they can do to the property, but you run into the expense factor, and having multiple stations to man, and buying more monorails, and bypassing shopping/restaurant areas and such. Then you look at it and think "ya know, the property ain't really all that big to justify a major alteration of the transportation."
Also, doesn't the parking lot trams drop you off closer to the Paradise Pier and Dland Hotel towers? Not the parking structure trams, but the ones that pick up in that section closer to Harbor Blvd...
These pics are from the Disneyland Postcards web site.
The hotel monorail station is in the exact same location as when it opened in 1961. Here's a pic before the station was built - it was located in that upper level brown area on the right (above the two cars). This was the main entrance for the hotel (later the main entrance was moved).
When the hotel monorail station first opened, it was located next to the original room buildings (which later were turned into the honeymoon suites). You can see them to the right of the station in this next picture. This is also the year when the first tower went up (in the background - awaiting its "hotel Disneyland" signage on top).
The hotel continued to grow and its center (which was once next to the monorail station) moved towards the towers - the last one opening up in the late 1970s. But the monorail station didn't move.
The hotel was owned by the Wrather corporation, so that might be why they didn't bother moving the monorail station closer to the towers and new hotel entrance.
Years later Disney bought the Wrather corperation, which included the Disneyland Hotel, but still they didn't bother to move the monorail station. It is pretty expensive to modify the track - with most of the expense being the pylons going deep underground.
There have been plans for monorail expansion. When they built the nearby Hilton hotel, they were trying to get the Disneyland monorail to go through it and have an indoor station (ala WDW's Contemporary Hotel), but they couldn't make the deal happen - Wrather had the exclusive rights.
Some of the plans for "Wescot" had the monorail taking a tour of that new park, but that died with Frank Wells.
Then when they hit on opening Downtown Disney, leaving the station in the same spot suddenly made a lot of sense - its directly in between the Dland Hotel and Grand Californian, and right in the center of Downtown Disney with all the shops and restaurants.
I agree, it's a bit of a walk to your hotel room after a long day walking around the Park, but this is the new "cost-effective" Disney. Plus it must cost a lot to rent shop space at Downtown Disney - and I'm sure its added incentive for Disney to say "your space is near the monorail station, where thousands of people exit everyday."
What must suck is the people at the Disneyland hotel who want to visit California Adventure...
There are different transportation things they can do to the property, but you run into the expense factor, and having multiple stations to man, and buying more monorails, and bypassing shopping/restaurant areas and such. Then you look at it and think "ya know, the property ain't really all that big to justify a major alteration of the transportation."
Also, doesn't the parking lot trams drop you off closer to the Paradise Pier and Dland Hotel towers? Not the parking structure trams, but the ones that pick up in that section closer to Harbor Blvd...
These pics are from the Disneyland Postcards web site.