My Year With The Mouse

Yesterday I covered the second floor of Innoventions (why the second floor? Because that’s where you go in now) and so today I’m going to cover the first floor.

But I do want to put in that Kristin, my friend who caused all the trouble at Soarin’ Over California, lambasted me for saying that I had no interest in seeing Asimo the robot, as he is her son’s favorite character after Mickey. And then Kelli, also of Mothers in the Mouseland fame, jumped on the dogpile to chastise me as well. SO, ladies, I will go in and see the Asimo show, okay? OKAY??? HAPPY NOW???

Good.

Anyway, as I was saying yesterday, Innoventions is supposed to introduce us to the wonders of the future, but the unfortunate thing is that the future has changed faster than Innoventions and now the only good thing about it is that it’s air-conditioned (and yes, Kristin and Kelli, Asimo the robot). I think this is the only attraction at Disneyland where it actually says on the sign “Strollers Welcomed.” I mean, strollers are generally tolerated just about everywhere, and also allowed on some attractions, but “welcomed” just seems a little desperate.

Wait Time 0 minutes! Strollers welcomed! Everyone welcomed! Just please, please, please come in!

Formerly you entered on the first level and waited until the magic doors opened–oh, did I mention that the building rotates? The building rotates. So you formerly waited for the building to rotate to you and joined a group at the magic door until it opened and you met your tour guide. You walked around with a group, which made a fast escape much more difficult.

Now that you start on the second level, the group tour sections are sad and lonely. Like you used to start your tour here:

The magic doors, now known as the exit

It's just an everyday neighborhood

And you were going to get a tour of the House of the Future, which had all kinds of cool things that we could totally expect to find in the distant future, the year 2000. For some reason, the tour guides wear soccer uniforms, like they’re supposed to be kids in this future family or Disney is all hip and into soccer, or maybe they’re trying to woo the non-Americans who call soccer “football.” I don’t know. Anyway, now that you wander to the first floor on your own, the days of the actual tour are gone and instead you just have tour guides who stand around saying things like, “I’m about to give a tour of the house of the future! Come join me!” and very few people do.

This cast member wasn't getting any takers for his tour of the living room, but he was so friendly and cool nonetheless

The cast members are all really nice too, but I’d consider putting in a transfer or something.

Back in the day, the rotating part had several different segments that your tour group visited. Each had a cast member to explain the segment. The one time I visited Innoventions prior to the entrance/exit switch, I thought the best segment was the music one.

This cast member was actually really awesome

I was the only one there, but she gave her whole spiel with enthusiasm anyway. And I gotta say, kudos to the Innoventions cast members who try really hard and with great attitudes even though the tours aren’t there anymore. You have to respect that, and I do. In all seriousness, I will be the first to praise Disneyland’s cast members. They work so hard and really make the magic–making the experience special enough for me to want to blog about it. Yay cast members! It wouldn’t be such a great park without you.

Anyway, the music section has electronic instruments that have all kinds of cool effects, and in the old tour different people (and by people I mean kids) were invited up to sample the instruments. This cast member actually let Theo play the guitar while he was still in the stroller. Talk about above and beyond!

Strollers were welcomed, so I wasn't about to take him out. If you own a toddler, you understand why.

And then there’s always the teenager who just wants to show off, so he says “can’t you program the drums to be exactly like a regular drum set?” and to her immense credit, the cast member does and gives the teen his 2 minutes of fame or whatever. We were still the only ones standing there–us and his two friends.

I can play the drums!

The other segments used to have a cast member explaining what they were all about, but now none of them do except for the futuristic kitchen.

This is supposed to be a tv studio or something, I guess. No cast member there.

Shiny car. Why is it here? No clue.

Apparently in the living room of the future, you're going to have a flat screen tv. NO WAY!!!

You will also have a television in your dining room. My mind, she is blown.

On the other side of the segments, you can play this awesome game on stage, where you can play either the drums or guitar, or you can sing. It’s like karaoke but there’s lights for instruments. If I were to invent this game for play at home on your Xbox or Wii, I’d call it “Rock Band.”

These three are singing a Queen song.

I mistakenly thought that this trio was a family–a dad with two of his kids. I was wrong. The adult was on his own and the kids had established themselves as permanent features. I mean, they could play the game and all, but they were on their third song by the time I left, and really? You come to Disneyland to play Rock Band? At least they aren’t High School Musical songs anymore, but if this were my child I’d be dragging them onto Autopia or something and ordering them to have a freakin’ good time because Rock Band is significantly cheaper than this annual pass I bought you, so you better make the best of it.

But maybe that’s just me.

Next, I moved to the house of the future. There was a piano (electric, of course), and on top of the piano were these totally cool picture frames that had digital pictures that changed.

C'mon, Disney. Nobody's ever going to make these things for 30 bucks.

There’s also this amazing video game that you don’t even need a controller for. You just move your body.

Wouldn't it be amazing if someone like Sony invented this one day?

I did learn, however, that the house of the future is apparently one of the best places to take a nap.

You fall asleep at Disneyland, you end up on someone's blog. Just sayin'.

The funniest part is, see that screen above the woman’s head? This is what it says:

Going into energy saving mode indeed!

In the future we will also have coffee tables that have books inside them that you can just flick with your fingers to turn the page. It’s like a Nook, except it’s in your coffee table and it’s also part of the future.

For God's sake--use a coaster for that drink!!!

Man, that lady in the picture looks like she could go into energy saving mode at any moment.

I did like the prototype children’s room.

Some kids sleep in a race car bed, others shoot cannons all night.

They did have a detail that everyone should have in their homes–a model railroad!

I'm pretty sure that if I let him, Kevin would drill holes in all of the walls below the ceiling and install a whole-house elevated model railroad

And finally, you wake up from your nap and exit through the former entrance.

Back to the world of today, kind of like the home of the future/today

The weird thing is, you can kill a massive amount of time in Innoventions. We spent a good 45 minutes there and all I was really doing was walking around taking pictures. You could easily spend the whole day in there and not realize it.

But at least you wouldn’t be hot.