Branson Summer Trip

Protest...Protest...Protest...

photo from OC Register .

So the female employee at the Grand Californian Hotel is causing quite a stir. She refuses to work, unless she can wear the traditional Hijab, of her Muslim faith. Disney is denying her request, and offering other options for her to use in costume, to continue working. She has taken days without pay, and will not wear the options Disney has offered. Now, there's a protest going on soon, with people supporting her.

Honestly, this lady needs to give it up. Disney is offering her options for her, and she's denying them. Do you see Jewish Castmembers with yamakas on stage? I don't. Disney is a non denominational company. They aren't racist. They're an entertainment company that has costumes, and when you're on stage, then you need to abide by those costuming rules. If you don't like it, then go find another job. In today's times, I'm sure there's people that would love to work, and take her job.
Looks like this story is still a work in progress...

The Queen Anne's Revenge...

Wow, she's awful purty! Mahalo to Shockya.

On Stranger Sets...

Photos are slowly leaking from on set of Pirates of The Caribbean: On Stranger Tides. Here's a few of the most recent, and I'll update as I find more. Mahalo to Shockya .

Lots and Lots of Change

Well, now that Disney decides to raise their prices...AGAIN, there's still more change going on at the Resort. I guess they're trying to find a way to pay for all of the stuff they're adding to the Resort. Money's got to come from somewhere, right? And we all know that TDA won't use the money Disney's already made. They just want more from the guests.

If you can't tell, I'm not too happy about the price increase.
Here's a list Micechat made for their weekly column.

Aside from Disney getting even more money (I'll rant about this in a later post) from their guests, there's a lot of stuff going on at the resort that's making Disney everything it should have been a decade ago. Disney's California Adventure is making severe progress in becoming a full day theme park. Paradise Pier should be the first project to be totally completed. The back half has already been completed for the most part, as Toy Story Midway Mania has been there for awhile now, the games are reopened with new Victorian facades, The Sun Wheel is redressed as Mickey's Fun Wheel, and The Orange Stinger is now Silly Symphony Swings.

Now the rest of the Pier:
The Maliboomer is going away September 7th, and the last riders are being blasted off on the 6th. Current plans, as far as I know, is that this area will be a park area, with a character meet and greet. For now. There could be plans for an attraction to be placed inside the helix and backstage. There's room for it, so who knows what the boys in Glendale are up to.
Pizza Oom Mow Mow and Burger Invasion are being redressed as Victorian themed buildings, still serving the same food.

Mulholland Madness is being redressed and rethemed as Goofy's Sky School. This attraction will be going down sometime early October. The whole theme is based off the 1940's Short "Goofy's Glider", and will be a flying school that teaches beginner aviators how to fly, the goofy way, of course.

Golden Dreams Theater is already gone, and now you can see steel rising up for the newest D-ticket attraction, The Little Mermaid: Ariel's Undersea Adventure. This is slated to open summer 2011.

The rest of the park is slowing evolving as well. The old Timon and Pumbaa parking lot is becoming a desert wonderland filled with Cars. Most of the steel infrastructure is already there, now they're working on sculpting and molding the rock work into the Radiator Springs backdrop. Everything here is slated to open in 2012.

Hollywood Pictures Backlot is a quiet project, but it's changing to REALLY look like Hollywood, circa 1930's and 40's. Red Car Trolley tracks are already being place, and soon will start to make their way to the front of the park, which is going to be redesigned into Buena Vista Street, a vision of how Walt arrived in Los Angeles back in the 20's. This is probably going to be one of the last projects completed, but will, in my most humble opinion, be the best.

and yet we haven't brought up Disneyland yet, now have we? That'll be in the next post.

Firing Back

So Disneyland is selling those toy guns again from my childhood. I'm pretty happy about this! Heck, I might even buy one for old time's sake. In an article according to Mouse Planet
they're the same guns as before, just painted bright red and green, and are being sold in the " Pioneer Mercantile, Pieces of Eight, and the Indiana Jones store." What's funny is that back on my trip to Branson, I saw the same guns (hey, its the midwest, guns are common for even 6 year olds.) being sold, and posted a picture of them on my facebook with a comment stating " Hey DISNEY! Get back to selling these things!"

(photo from the trip)

Apparently they listen to me. So Disney, if you're reading this, please bring back the people mover, not with any movie tie in. Oh and also, could you please not put a Tinker Bell attraction in the old Motorboat Cruise area? Thanks so much.

Viva La California

I'm back from vacation in Branson. It was a great trip, seeing that I got to fly on the coattails of other people's dinero. I got to go to the local theme park several times, the water park, several stage shows, movies, a day out on the lake on a nice boat, and paid airfare.

It was a lot of fun, but definitely a lot of life lessons were learned. Like learning when to shut your mouth and let things roll. Or to just let an argument go when others won't let up.
I'll say it again. I love California, and I can't really see my self ever moving out of this state.

I will go back eventually to this place again, maybe for a cool photoshoot or something. (: