Does This Count as a Hidden Mickey?

If you missed it on Twitter, I posted a link to "Project Pumpkin," an idea I had cooked up one year ago but never got around to finishing. Basically, last year I noticed that Pier One was selling pumpkin holders that looked like cats. I wanted to carve a pumpkin so it resembled a mouse sitting in the cat's stomach. This year, I finally got around to buying the pumpkin holder (it's amazing Pier One still sold them) and carving our pumpkin. The end result:


It looks like a certain famous mouse influenced my design, doesn't it?

New Features on The geekTicket

In case you've been wondering what I've been up to, check out my new site, the geekTicket. It highlights theme park and entertainment news with a focus on the underlying technology. I'll have some new stories for Hitchhiking Ghosts soon.

Here are the latest features on The geekTicket:

• Epcot Exhibit Captures 'Thrills' of Learning
  
  Rollercoaster enthusiasts have used computer software to design their own thrill rides for years. Experiencing these rides, however, has been limited to staring at a monitor while leaning side to side and making "swoosh" noises. Raytheon and KUKA Robotics are looking to change that.


• Montréal's Magic LED Lanterns
  
  As sunset approaches in Montréal's Botanical Garden, you can tell something special is about to happen.

An Update from the Great Beyond

Playful spooks have interrupted this blog. Please remain seated in your chair because I'm working on something big that should be launching around the first week of October. I can't say what it is just yet, but it's going to be fun. In the meantime, please visit one of the fantastic sites that appear in the left-hand column.

Disney in the Golden State

All the recent California Adventure and Disneyland construction updates remind me of an item I have sitting in my box of theme park mementos. Disney's California Adventure may have opened in 2001, but it wasn't the only major addition to Anaheim at the time. That was the year Walt Disney Parks and Resorts launched the Disneyland Resort — the combination of Downtown Disney, the Grand Californian Hotel, the Paradise Pier Hotel, the original Disneyland Hotel and the two parks into one vacation destination. At the time, cast members were given a commemorative medallion for the occasion.


Growing up in Southern California, I always felt like Walt Disney World was this distant place that I may never get to experience. It's a little silly now that I think about it, because I've traveled to places a lot farther than Florida since then. But in 2001 I was excited that Disneyland was finally becoming a destination (almost) equal to its East Coast counterpart. Here we are eight years later and the resort is growing yet again. Disney's California Adventure is getting a billion-dollar makeover, the Grand Californian is expanding, the strawberry field is going to be paved over for more parking and the Disneyland Hotel is getting a face lift. It's all really exciting. (OK, another parking lot isn't thrilling news, but the additional spots are necessary for the expansion plans.)

The difference between 2001 and now is that I'm watching this happen from the other side of the country. In fact, the once-unreachable Walt Disney World is now only a two-hour flight away. In 2001, I was working security at the Disneyland Resort, so I experienced all the changes first-hand — sometimes I was even guarding the construction sites. Now I'm watching the transformation from the safety of my computer.

I can't wait to visit California over the next couple of years and see the outcome of all this work. In the meantime, it's fun to remember how we got here in the first place.

Here Comes the Plannausaurus Rex

The Plannausaurus Rex is bound to get lost with that blank map!

On Twitter, I posed the question "How early is too early to start planning a Walt Disney World trip?" Here I am, 140 days from the Walt Disney World Marathon and I'm starting to wonder about little trip details, such as dinner reservations and which attractions we should hit up first. Some people might call that crazy, but in the past I've found that being prepared — especially when visiting a popular tourist destination — can mean the difference between a great trip and a miserable one.

I'm not like this on every trip. In fact, on every vacation my wife and I have been on, we've avoided schedules. Having a little piece a paper dictate what we're doing all day can suck the fun out of a trip faster than inclement weather. Sure, when we were in Peru we knew we had to see Machu Picchu and that required setting up train tickets and our tour in advance. But that's more the exception than the rule. We start most vacation days with a general attitude of "Maybe we should visit X and then get some lunch." Sometimes that works, and other times you end up with altitude sickness or some kind of stomach bug and you have to rethink your plans for the day. Sometimes, you end up in your hotel room watching a German TV drama about a police dog.

Something about Disney vacations, however, turns me into the Plannausaurus Rex. I want to know exactly what we're doing each day. Maybe it's because I love visiting the parks, which makes a Disney vacation really fun to plan. Or maybe it's because I know how crazy the Disneyland Resort and Walt Disney World can get. For example, during our last trip to Walt Disney World we didn't make any dinner plans for our final night there. A quick call to the dining hotline revealed most places were booked and tables wouldn't be available until 9 p.m. Thankfully, we ended up with a table at Spoodles by luck. Someone had canceled their reservation while I was on the line. Crisis averted. But a Plannausaurus Rex would've never been in that situation in the first place.

I still like my Disney vacations to be spontaneous. I have a general idea of what I want to see in the parks, but that might change. Sometimes you hit all the attractions you want to see, and other times you end up trying on sombreros in the Mexico Pavilion because there's a horrible thunderstorm outside. That's life.

Are you or a loved one a Plannausaurus Rex?

For the Record: The Official Album

I bet you thought I was done with these. You know what they say: Vinyl is making a comeback. Of course, the people who are saying that haven't stepped into a proper record store in the last decade. One of my favorite record stores in Southern California has been carrying new vinyl releases for as long as I can remember. But I digress.

In 1980, Walt Disney Productions released The Official Album of Disneyland/Walt Disney World. According to Wikipedia — which is usually a sketchy source but I'm willing to cut them some slack — this was the very first official album for the parks. All I remember as a kid was the excitement of hearing the music from my favorite Disneyland attractions in my house. They're all on here, from Pirates of the Caribbean and the Haunted Mansion to the Enchanted Tiki Room and America Sings.


Of course, now I have the wonderful box set A Musical History of Disneyland, which has the complete audio for those attractions and more. One problem with The Official Album of Disneyland/Walt Disney World was that classic songs like "Yo Ho (A Pirate's Life for Me)" and "Grim Grinning Ghosts" were cut down to one or two minutes. That's not enough if you want to relive your favorite attractions (and in my case you now live 3,000 miles away from the park). On the other hand, there's an advantage to keeping it short. Thanks to A Musical History of Disneyland I can recite the entire Enchanted Tiki Room. No joke. Last time I was at Disneyland, I sat through the show thinking, "Maybe I listen to that box set a little too much." The magic and surprise of these attractions are preserved somewhat when you don't experience them all the time.

Happy 40th Anniversary ... I Think

There's been much debate as to when the Haunted Mansion actually opened. Some say August 9, 1969, and others say August 12, 1969. I'm going to split the difference (kind of) and say "Happy Anniversary!" on the 10th. (I guess really splitting the difference would be posting this right before midnight tonight). Either way, the Haunted Mansion opened 40 years ago this week, and it still draws in the crowds. Yet after all these years, there are still only 999 happy haunts in the mansion. I've been told there's room for a thousand. Any volunteers?