My Year With The Mouse

Monthly Archives: July 2012

Trolley Treats–DADDY I WANT SOME CANDY!!!

10 Comments Posted by Shelby on July 30, 2012

First off, thank you so much everyone for indulging me in a short blogging break. I have been busy–I did graduate with my MFA after all–so it’s not like I’ve been sitting around with nothing to do.

Well, there has been SOME sitting around. And plenty to do. But I was recharging.

So we’re still over here at the Mouse-Next-Door and playing around on the new Buena Vista Street. As many of you know (or don’t), Buena Vista Street is the new entrance to Disney California Adventure Park. It’s like Main Street but set in the 20s when Walt first arrived in Los Angeles. And it’s awesome.

One thing I love is the candy store, Trolley Treats. You can recognize Trolley Treats by the giant candy mountain in its window.

The window with reflections

Yes, please.

Next stop, Candy Mountain.

Sign me UP! Also there’s a model train that runs around there.

Now look, I’m a candy addict. It’s a flaw. But I love it. Chocolate, fruity, gummy, sour candy, I rarely discriminate. The only thing I don’t like is mint chocolate. Other than that? Bring it.

So a candy store right there on Buena Vista Street makes my little sugar-powered heart jump with joy.

Trolley Treats has that beautiful sight–the Disneyland candy counter.

I can never decide

Oh, here’s a picture of the back of the Candy Mountain window

Not as exciting from this side

Anyway, one of the best things about Disneyland candy stores is that each location has a few special items made only in that store. For example, the Tigger Tails and Hunny Pot Crispie Treats at the Pooh Corner Store. Trolley Treats is no exception.

Marshmallows, for example

Yep, Trolley Treats serves up some gourmet marshmallows.

Flavors include watermelon and chocolate

I’ve been meaning to make my own marshmallows for a long time. Seriously! They don’t look that hard, and I keep thinking I’ll make some chocolate marshmallows to put in hot chocolate, but then I realize it’s practically August so I’ll have to do it later, and then I’m like oh, handmade Christmas gift! Awesome marshmallows! And then I forget or run out of time and just buy people Target gift cards or something.

But I mean well.

Back to Trolley Treats, they make another one of my childhood favorites:

Taffy!

Not just any kind of taffy, either. It’s that super-thin flavored taffy. The kind where if it’s at all a bit hot or maybe you just hold it in your hands too long, it’s very hard to get off the paper, but if you stick it in the freezer (at home) and whack it on the counter top it breaks into convenient bite-sized pieces. When I was a kid I loved taffy so much I named one of my hamsters Taffy.

Of course, I also had a hamster named Twerp because I liked the word.

Anyway–thin taffy! Yay!

The rest of shop is–well, I was concentrating on the candy, but if you look up, there’s some trolleys!

All aboard!

Candy…yummmmmmm

Oswald’s Service Station

Leave a comment Posted by Shelby on July 18, 2012

Once upon a time there was an animator named Walt Disney. He created a character named Oswald the Lucky Rabbit. Oswald was kind of funky looking–a bit like what would become his younger brother, Mickey Mouse, except with long black ears.

Unfortunately, Universal owned the rights to Oswald, so he hasn’t made any appearances in the Resort…until now!

Well, in name anyway

Disney actually ended up trading ABC/ESPN sports caster Al Michaels to NBC, and in exchange Universal signed over their rights to Oswald.

Talk about a bizarre switch, but it worked!

Oswald’s Service Station features gas pumps of the era.

The gas pump

And a fancy car!

Not for sale

What IS for sale are various items within the Service Station

Lightning McQueen mouse ears

Generalized Disney merchandise

And of course, the loving details that make Disney amazing.

Mickey Mouse bell and cans of oil

And this is my favorite part.

Oswald’s first dollar

Such a fun little store right as you walk in to the park.

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A Look Around Hollywood Land

2 Comments Posted by Shelby on July 16, 2012

Hollywood Land is now much more highlighted since the Buena Vista Street walls came down. It starts with the Carthay Circle theater and ends over with the Tower of Terror. In between are some great buildings and details.

The Hyperion is where you can find Aladdin.

Seriously, the Aladdin show is completely top notch

Various details surround the area

Battle Creek, Michigan–the cereal capital of the world!

Hollywood and Sunset Blvds

Very cool (but false) buildings abound

Like this one

And this one

The cable lines above the street were cause for much consternation among the rabid Disneyland fan community. Many people thought they looked ugly. But they are completely historically accurate to the time period of Buena Vista Street, and the Red Car Trolley would look very weird without them.

I think they look just fine

Even the doorways and awnings look sharp.

You can just imagine people living there. Well, I can anyway

And for real, how cool would it be to have an apartment inside Disneyland? I bet people would pay a TON of money for that.

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Mad T Party (part 1)

2 Comments Posted by Shelby on July 13, 2012

Over in Hollywood, or the Disney California Adventure version of Hollywood, there’s a dance extravaganza called the Mad T Party. Prior to the Mad T Party, the extravaganza was ElecTRONica, based on the movie Tron, of course. However, ElecTRONica got a little tired, so now it’s a really whacked out version of Alice in Wonderland, if Alice in Wonderland were some kind of Disney-based dance party thing.

The entrance

It’s all like glowy and flashy and very, very NEON.

The White Rabbit’s stop watch, I presume.

That screen changes

Mad T, man!

Headwear is encouraged.

They don’t REALLY mean no service though

You walk through a cool misty thing, which is literally cool, as in kind of cold.

Did I mention the neon?

And that puts you right into the mood for the stage!

It’s very large. And pink.

There are two bars, one of which is called (appropriately) Drink Me.

All shiny and stuff

The detailing is fantastic.

It’s hard to tell where things start and end, which I suppose is the point.

They do serve alcohol.

Walt’s probably rolling over in his grave

You can sit and watch the band in an oversized plastic chair in front of a decorative screen that used to be a show in ElecTRONica. I personally like the Mad T stage better.