My Year With The Mouse

Category Archives: Main Street

Construction and Corndogs

6 Comments Posted by Shelby on February 24, 2012

Well I finally, finally made it back to the park today! Twice, actually. I mean, Theo and I went to the park for a couple of hours this morning, and then once I got home I checked my phone and had a text from a friend saying, “Hey, me and your other friend are at Disneyland, wanna meet up?”

Seriously. Right as I walked in the door coming back from Disneyland.

And I was so proud of spending quality time with Theo that I stayed off of my phone basically the whole time. And then, as it turned out, it wasn’t quality time after all. Theo wanted to go on Small World but the wait was a bit long and he was being really antsy, so I said no. Then he wanted to go on the Jolly Trolley in ToonTown, except that the Jolly Trolley doesn’t actually move or go anywhere anymore, unfortunately. He got to play in ToonTown but didn’t get to ride any rides.

So when we got home, Kevin asked him what he did at Disneyland, and he said, “Mommy said no rides. Got time out.” Way to make me look like the bad guy, kid! And for the record, he did NOT get a time out, he was just threatened with one when he wouldn’t get back in his stroller. But if you followed his logic, it was pretty much the worst trip to Disneyland ever.

Whatever. That’s what you get with a 3-year-old.

Anyway, here’s a picture:

Right above the East side entrance arch

I figured I needed to throw a picture in there. That’s the Lilly Belle, the private train car I didn’t even know existed until I started this blog.

February and March are generally a good time to come to Disneyland. The crowds are low, except on holidays like President’s Day. However, the drawback is that you can run into a lot of things down for refurbishment.

They did finish up the Jolly Holiday Bakery back in the building that used to be the Annual Pass headquarters called the Plaza Pavilion. In exchange, they shut down the Blue Ribbon Bakery:

With a giant tarp too, talk about shut down with extreme prejudice!

The Carnation Cafe and the Gibson Girl Ice Cream Parlor are also shut down. They both will be returning, but the Blue Ribbon Bakery will not.

Let us hold a moment of silence for the Blue Ribbon Bakery.

Feeling better now? Yeah, me neither.

They also blocked off the opening of the Penny Arcade

I have no idea why

Really, I don’t. I don’t think it’s part of the Carnation Cafe expansion, but I suppose we’ll know soon enough.

Probably the biggest refurb going on at Disneyland right now is the Matterhorn.

Does the real Matterhorn have scaffolding?

This is a major refurb, with everything from re-doing the exterior to replacing the bobsled cars.

Yes, I said replacing the bobsled cars.

Back in the old Matterhorn you sat in your bobsled car with another people sitting between your legs. I mean, it was awesome for Date Night and all, but a bit awkward with your friends. The new sleds have individual seating for 3 with two sleds per vehicle. This should increase the ride capacity (yay!) which means quicker lines (yay!), but less opportunity for groping. I believe they are also fixing the track to be less jerky and bumpy (a welcome improvement) as well as the abominable snowman (or snowmen, as the case may be). What’s not changing is the fact that the two sides are slightly different, with the Fantasyland side being better than the Tomorrowland side.

Insider tip there. If you go when it’s actually open.

Anyway, other than the refurbs, I also wanted to point out one of my favorite eating establishments in the park.

Yes, I consider a red cart to be an "eating establishment"

The Corn Dog Cart is found on the hub at the end of Main Street. The corn dogs are hand-dipped, which makes them delicious but also takes them longer to cook, so you end up with this:

There were actually more people in line but I was getting funny looks so I had to pretend to photograph something else, and then I just got this shot and called it a day

I also think the Corn Dog Cart is one of the best values for your money at Disneyland.

And I'm not talking about the $2.79 bottle of water

Corn dog and chips? Pretty good!

If you don’t feel like waiting for the cart, however, you can get the exact same dogs over at the Stage Door Cafe which is usually faster and less crowded.

And that rounds up our miscellaneous pictures for the day!

Everything Else, Main Street blue ribbon bakery, corn dog cart disneyland, corn dogs disneyland, matterhorn refurbishment

Blue Ribbon Bakery

3 Comments Posted by Shelby on January 25, 2012

So I need to blog this now because soon the Blue Ribbon Bakery as I know it (and as you will come to know it, ever so briefly in this post) will be gone. It shall be replaced with a newer, better bakery, or so they say.

Yeah, I took these pictures at night. At Christmas. Sue me.

The Blue Ribbon Bakery is about halfway down Main Street on the right. It’s actually located in a small space between the Gibson Girl ice cream parlor and the Carnation Cafe.

And here's the sign

Although it does not immediately look like it, the Blue Ribbon Bakery is on a corner. And if you turn left onto that corner, you’ll find a very nice bathroom.

If you've gotta go, hang a left here

The BRB serves standard bakery fare.

Cupcakes, cookies, rice crispy treats, etc.

It also has good hot chocolate and cinnamon rolls.

The BRB does not, however, have great crowd control. I mean, the line for the bakery items themselves isn’t too complicated.

waiting for baked items

But those people you see in the foreground are not actually waiting for baked items.

They are waiting for ice cream next door.

The line for ice cream

As I mentioned over on my post about the Gibson Girl ice cream parlor, there was very little room for an extended queue there, and it backed up into the bakery. Additionally, the Carnation Cafe–one of the better sit-down restaurants in my opinion–had a rather truncated outdoor-only seating arrangement.

No more. All bakery items are being moved to the Jolly Holiday Bakery (new on the hub, haven’t been there yet) and the space formerly known as the Blue Ribbon Bakery will now be indoor seating for both the Carnation Cafe and the ice cream parlor.

While I’m a little sad about the loss of Blue Ribbon, the space is badly needed for both the Carnation Cafe and the Gibson Girl parlor. Plus I think the Jolly Holiday bakery and cafe is going to be even better. You can’t stop progress, people. You just can’t.

Main Street closing blue ribbon bakery

Bench

1 Comment Posted by Shelby on January 13, 2012

If you know anything about the history of Disneyland, you know that Walt used to love spending time with his daughters at Griffith Park in Los Angeles, and it was there that he dreamed of a family park. One without, presumably, litter all over the ground. Now over by the Disney Gallery, there’s a bench.

Look how nicely displayed it is!

Just in case you should doubt its authenticity, there’s the plaque.

"Walt Disney sat here!"

There’s also a carousel horse from the carousel there, which is where Walt got the idea for King Arthur Carrousel.

Except without litter on the ground.

Anyway, I didn’t take a picture of that, but I took a picture of this

Get yer fresh roasted peanuts!

Apparently they used to sell those at Griffith Park. And at first I wondered why they don’t sell them at Disneyland, but I thought well, maybe it’s because they don’t want all of those peanut shells all over their litter-free ground?

Main Street griffith park bench disney, where did disney think of disneyland?

The Disney Gallery Train Exhibit

1 Comment Posted by Shelby on January 9, 2012

Before I posted about the Mary Blair exhibit in the Disney Gallery, and that was awesome. However, right up Kevin and Theo’s alley is their current exhibit–railroads.

Walt loved trains. Loved them. You’ve probably seen the picture of him leaning outside of a Disneyland Railroad steam engine waving at the camera.

Well if you haven’t, go look it up. I’m not going to do it for you.

Anyway, he also had his very own garden railroad at home.

And this is one of the cars

One day we’re going to have a garden railroad too. Because it’s awesome.

This is the plaque that accompanies the above car.

No, I can't read it either. Sorry.

Here’s some art of Walt riding a miniature train with Mickey Mouse.

I want one.

The Disneyland Rail Road is an attraction that circles the park and goes through the Grand Canyon diorama, which I love. It’s one of Theo’s favorite rides in the park. I also took a picture of this sign, that says in effect, “Walt wasn’t the only one who liked trains!”

Nope, can't read this one either.

The Disney Gallery room was pretty cool. Theo liked the moving railroad

Because he's that kind of guy

There’s also one of those ceiling trains. Do those have a name? Probably, but I don’t know what it is. Anyway, I totally want one of these too. I’d even bust holes in my walls to make it go around the whole house, however impractical it seems.