Along The River, April 1974
Ay, chihuahua! I think I am glad that I wasn't planning on riding "Pirates of the Caribbean" in April, 1974. One look at that line is enough to make a grown man cry. What's amazing is that POC is such a "people eater" that the wait probably wasn't too terrible. I'm not sure they could have squeezed another soul onto that raft, either.
Even the Columbia is packed!
6 comments:
Holy Sardinias! The Lady of Columbia - The Gem of the Ocean! - is glad she's leading well in front...
I am such a Disneyland nut that I actually kinda wanted the lines at Pirates to be so long that I could go back into the side queue sections just to see it back there. It did happen once, and I didn't regret it. Seemed old, overgrown, barely used back there by that time (not long before the redesign). The building seemed so huge and so authentic somehow, it kept going back there, towering over you, only rivaled by seemingly ancient towering jungle on the other side. Neat to me! The line did take an age but at least it kept moving.
Have we ever seen those buildings clearly? Aft of Columbia - The Gem of the Ocean! - on the shore side. Part of Rainbow Ridge I think...?
I remember sitting in a hotel room in Thailand, homesick after something like 40 days, and thinking my way through POTC to keep my mind off of it. I grabbed a piece of paper and mapped it out from memory, going from scene to scene in my mind, and the brilliance of the layout struck me.
Before that, I'd never realized that the town scene wraps around the lighthouse, and that the lighthouse masks the post that's supporting the roof. I'd also never realized that those lit windows along the building wall to your left as you board the ride at Lafitte's Landing are actually attached to the inside of the outer wall of the building, on the other side of the wall from the little-used overflow line area. As a kid, I'd always assumed there were offices or alien autopsy rooms or some other sort of backstagey magic in there.
I love the photos, Major, but if I could pick any day in 1974 to visit, that wouldn't have been it - too crowded. Probably no worse than any April day in the present century, but if I could go back to 1974, why try to replicate 2010?
Crowds....ugh! Reminds me of how the Park was two weeks ago.
True they may get packed more than ever these days, but they're still too poor to pay well or fix the PeopleMover. :)
Sorry guys, I'm out of town and can't get to a computer very often!
Chiana, I don't ever remember the wait for Pirates being bad, even when the line was long. I just loved being there. And yes, I think that is part of Rainbow Ridge.
Chuck, great memories as always! I always appreciate your great comments.
Connie, we need to ask VintageDisneylandTickets how he manages to see the park so uncrowded all the time.
Hi Major, great shots of 1974, just how I remember it.
Chiana, I got to wait through the side queue once long ago, I remember how our hearts sank when we got around the corner and saw the huge line running back there.
Chuck, you have amazing powers of 3D recollection in order to develop that sketch. I hope you have a livelihood that lets you capitalize on that. Good work indeed. I suspected those windows were real because they always looked appropriate to the time of day outside, unlike anything else in POC. I'm like that too, always puzzling about how they did it, and why...
JG (no profile today) (I am often in places now where I don't want to enter passwords, so anonymous is how I remain)
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