Adventureland Bazaar

5 Comments Posted by on July 26, 2011

So right next to the Indy Outpost (connected even) is the Adventureland Bazaar. Now the Adventureland Bazaar is closest to the now closed Aladdin’s Oasis Dinner Show. First, I never attended the Aladdin’s Oasis Dinner Show which, according to Yesterland, only ran for a couple of years. Those years I happened to be living in the Midwest and completely missed it.

On another note, I completely missed the Rocket Rods too–a ride using the Peoplemover track. But I heard it wasn’t that great.

Anyway, now Aladdin’s Oasis seems to be just a meet and greet for Aladdin characters. Which I very rarely see open, so I think getting in there is going to be a challenge. It’s really too bad because apparently the Oasis shares a kitchen with the Plaza Pavilion, another waste of space in the park–formerly a restaurant, currently useless. Anyway, it did inspire the Adventureland Bazaar, and that’s what I’m going to talk about today.

How bizarre

The Bazaar, representing the Middle East, is rightly located and connected to the Outpost, representing Africa. Because Disney is all into truncated geography like that.

The Bazaar is actually on the corner part of the store area.

You know, the corner part. Cause that makes so much sense to someone who hasn't been there.

There’s lots of different details around there, in true Disney fashion.

Adventureland "Traders"--quotes used correctly since they don't actually trade there, unless you consider money to be a trade

Like Indy, there are “apartments” above the Bazaar. I particularly love this window:

Because when I think about the Middle East or Africa or anywhere, really, I always think "Tattoo parlor and banjo lessons in the same building? Genius."

I guess it does say “Oriental tattoo” which makes it better? Or not. Check out Hanzi Smatter. But I can’t help but wonder what an actual Disneyland tattoo parlor would look like. I mean, getting permanent, real tattoos at Disneyland. I bet there’d be a big market for that, really, given how popular tattoos are these days, and I do see a lot of Disney-related tattoos on people at the park. It would be all guaranteed to be hygienic and stuff and then people could brag that they got their Disney tattoo at the Mouse and not some friend-of-a-friend-of-a-friend guy working out of his “apartment” on top of the garage of his parent’s house while they were totally inebriated. I’m thinking it’s a solid idea!

Too bad Walt would personally and forcefully rise up from the grave and kill whomever allowed a tattoo parlor in his park. Making that even more complicated is the fact that Walt was cremated. But I’m sure he would be so offended by such a thing that he would go all Mummy or whatever and swirl his ashes back into a corporeal form to express his outrage.

And no, he was not cryogenically frozen.

But I digress.

You can also buy a magic carpet at the Bazaar, or so the door claims, though I wasn’t able to find any actual magic carpets for sale.

Did I really need two pictures of this doorway? What was I thinking?

The Bazaar is pretty intricately themed. Here’s an elephant on top of a squished penny machine.

Elephants are nice.

I used to love the squished penny thing. Actually, I can remember being a little kid at Knotts and you could clandestinely put a coin on the railroad track and after the train went by you had your very own squished coin, but I believe those days are long gone.

Some of the things for sale are more Adventureland-ish than Bazaar-ish, like these drinking vessels.

What's with the zebra print? Do people really buy these?

I love the totally authentic Panda bears. They’re Disneyland’s version of a Pillow Pet.

"Mommy, I want a panda to symbolize my visit to the Middle East/Africa section of Disneyland!"

Theo got a pillow pet for Christmas this past year. Great-Grandma saw a commercial for it and went out to find one. He has the doggie one–it’s really cute! And very soft.

Anyway, the Bazaar has some great theming around the ceiling and over the doors.

I have no idea what any of these things are. Xylophone? Maraca? Whatever--I'm sure they're authentic

Even the register area is exciting.

Exciting!

And then in the back of the store, I came to one of those things I never knew existed–Aladdin’s lamp!

OMG it's a genie lamp!!!

It was actually pretty cool, tucked away in the back there. The banner reads:

"Whosoever rubs the lamp (and places coins in the slot below) shall receive the wisdom of the GENIE and have their future revealed"

I mean wow, how cool is that? I was all ready to place my coins in the slow below and receive the wisdom of the GENIE, until I saw this.

Out of order??? What, is the GENIE on vacation or something???

Bad show, Disney. Bad show! There was the one free coin slot but I was a little nervous to place my coins in it lest that one be out of order too and just not marked. I didn’t want to waste 50 cents if the GENIE wasn’t going to pony up my future. So I’ll have to go back and check it again.

Anyone gotten a fortune from this machine GENIE? What did it say?

Adventureland, Things I Never Knew Existed , , , , , , ,

Indiana Jones Adventure Outpost

7 Comments Posted by on July 24, 2011

I don’t do a whole lot of shopping inside the park since I’m generally not buying souvenirs much and the things I do tend to buy (like ears) I find either at the Mad Hatter or general merchandise stores like the Emporium. So needless to say, I’m not sure I’ve ever actually been inside the Indiana Jones Adventure Outpost before now.

Well, “now” as in when I took these pictures a  few weeks ago, but you know what I mean.

Anyway, the Indiana Jones Adventure Outpost store is located (shockingly) across the way from the Indiana Jones Adventure ride. It’s right in the bottleneck area of Adventureland, which is another reason I’ve never gone in–I’m just trying to get through the bottleneck in Adventureland.

It’s a vicious cycle.

Although there is one advantage of being on such a slow-moving pathway, which is that it’s extremely easy to catch shoplifters. It’s not like they’re going anywhere fast.

The Outpost is easily identified by its stylish straight-out-of-the-80s Indiana Jones logo accompanied by two fake miniature skulls.

I think there are supposed to be fake apartments up there

Except the fake apartments don’t really look very Indiana Jones Adventure-y. They’re kind of more like–yeah, I don’t know. Forget it.

The big theme in the Outpost is Indy’s trademark hat.

"Excuse me, do you know where I can find an Indy hat?"

Indy’s fedora is positively iconic. I didn’t check to see how much they were, but I’m pretty sure they’re less than the $99.99 that ThinkGeek is charging for theirs.

Although ThinkGeek attempts to lay out a pretty compelling argument for their $99.99 hat by saying that there were 3 (or more) hats used by Indy, but the fur felt one was the stylish one used for closeups and non-action scenes, and while other Indy hats are wool felt, the $99.99 hat is fur felt. I’m not sure exactly what fur felt is, but it must be costly. Anyway, I love ThinkGeek so I will forgive them for this. I mean, they have an entire category for Zombies and Bacon. What’s there not to love about that?

ThinkGeek is definitely right about different hats being used because one you step into the Outpost, on the back wall there are different hats than the one on the hat tree at the entrance.

These are, like, a darker green maybe?

If you have a child who wants an Indy hat, don’t despair! The Outpost has an entire Indy set for your young archeologist.

Including toy machete!

Another cool thing about Disneyland is that even the stores are themed pretty extensively. I thought I got a bunch of pictures of the Outpost theming but as it turns out, there’s just this one:

More hats on the back wall--brown this time

Although I found this to be very cute:

Return Address: 1313 S. Harbor Blvd., Anaheim, CA 92802

Did you know that the American Film Institute rated Indiana Jones #2 in the Greatest Screen Characters (hero category)? I was a little taken aback by that. I mean, I love Indy and all, but number 2? And lucky Harrison Ford shows up again at #14 for Han Solo. The list is kind of wacky, actually, including Lassie (#39), Marge Gunderson from Fargo (#33), and “Juror #8” from 12 Angry Men (#28, played by Henry Fonda in case you’re not up on your 12 Angry Jurors).

#1 is Atticus Finch. That one I have to agree with. Of course, Digory’s middle name is Atticus, and our dearly beloved late Scout Dog was of course named after Scout Finch herself.

How far off the track have I gotten from Disneyland? Very far.

So go see the Indiana Jones Adventure Outpost. If you want a fedora.

Adventureland , ,

Nostalgia Corner (Also, the Missed Knott’s-Disney Love Connection)

2 Comments Posted by on July 20, 2011

Kevin here, again.  It’ll only be a little while longer until Shelby comes back home from Vermont and starts producing hot and fresh content for your delectation (yes, yes, you’ve been reading her posts this week — she wrote them before she left and put them away to be republished later, like carefully-wrapped casseroles in the freezer).  Until then, here’s a mini-post from me.

Last week, Theo and I spent four days up in our local mountains at my grandparents’ vacation cabin.  Like any vacation home worth its salt, the cabin has a stash of ancient National Geographic magazines — emergency intellectual nourishment, I suppose, to be read after you’ve exhausted all other possible options.  (The literary equivalent of those 2004-vintage cans of Dinty Moore stew that are in our garden shed earthquake kit.)

One issue is of particular interest to fans of Disney and Disneyland: August, 1963.  This issue is basically a love letter to the Walt Disney Corporation, with pages and pages devoted to activities at the Studios and Disney’s relatively new theme park, Disneyland.  The reader gets a National Geographic-quality photo tour of the park.  Coming attractions, like the Tiki Room and Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln, are introduced.  Things that are now commonplace cultural knowledge have to be explained (“Sprouting mouse ears testify that this young Disneylander is a Mousketeer, a fan of Mickey’s”).

At the end of the article, the author asks Walt “What happens when there is no more Walt Disney?”  Walt essentially dismisses the thought, saying that while he’s handing over more responsibility to others, he’s “61.  I’ve got everything I started out with except my tonsils, and that’s above average.  I plan to be around for a while.”  Since we know now that Walt would die of lung cancer just three years after this article was written, this brings the piece to a bittersweet close.

The “Modern Mechanix” blog has scanned in all of this giant fifty-page article, in three parts:  One, Two, and Three.  Part two contains a particularly nice fold-out map of 1963-era Disneyland.

Two ads elsewhere in the magazine caught my eye:

The Disneyland Hotel -- This IS Southern California (Click for a larger version)

The Disneyland Hotel has had the same basic appearance for my entire life; much like Disneyland itself, it’s hard to think of a time when it was actually brand-new.

PLAY and LIVE in ANAHEIM -- home of Disneyland! (Click for a larger version)

Living in Anaheim, you pretty often hear it referred to pejoratively (Anacrime, Anaslime, etc., etc.) by the kind of people who prefer the spic-and-span planned communities of South Orange County.  While I quite like our town, even I think of it as ‘old’, probably because we live in our 1920s house in the historic Anaheim Colony (founded by German immigrants in 1857) area downtown.  So, it’s a little mind-bending to see it advertised nationally as the progressive and balanced (and atom-powered, no doubt) City of Tomorrow.

The Knott’s-Disney Connection That Almost Was:  I can’t believe that I forgot to mention this in my article on Knott’s Berry Farm.  In the days of Walt Disney and Walter Knott, there was a spirit of friendly competition between Knott’s and Disneyland, with each man visiting the other’s park to check up on the latest developments.  In the 1990s, the two parks almost became much closer, joining the same family in a theme-park version of The Brady Bunch.  Essentially, the story is this: before developing California Adventure, Disney was exploring ideas for a “second gate” in the Orange County/Los Angeles area.  At the same time, the Knott family was looking for a buyer for their amusement park.  In response to both of these, Disney’s Imagineering staff came up with an idea for how Knott’s could be rethemed and expanded into “Disney’s America”.  In the end, the deal was scuttled because of logistical issues (how to move thousands of people between Anaheim and Buena Park?), Disney execs not wanting to refurbish someone else’s dirty ‘ol park, and (O the irony) the Knott heirs’ fear that Disney’s retheming would wipe out their parents’ legacy.  You can read more about “Disney’s America” here.

Everything Else, Nostalgia, Not Disney , ,

Dapper Dans

4 Comments Posted by on July 20, 2011

Walt loved music, so he planned a lot of it inside the park. Much like the Pearly Band, Bootstrappers, Hook and Ladder Company, and the Straw Hatters, the Dapper Dans is a barbershop quartet who appear to perform for a short while and then disappear. They sing a capella  on Main Street, usually near the fruit cart. You can spot them by their natty outfits.

The Dapper Dans are brought to you by stripes

They usually tap dance a little, but I didn’t quite catch that.

I can’t emphasize enough that these roving entertainers really are a lot of fun and I recommend slowing down and seeing them when you’re at the park.

The Dapper Dans have been around since 1959 and even have their own website. Apparently they’re supposed to have a custom 4-seater Schwinn bike, but I’ve never seen it.

Sans bike

Even though they don’t have the Disney characters or flash like the Straw Hatters and the Hook and Ladder Company, they still excel in entertainment.

Everyone look at the ground

That person on the left is clapping.

The Dapper Dans are really one of the most recognized of the roving entertainment. I didn’t know anything about the others, but I had definitely heard of the Dapper Dans. And when I asked the internet what the name of the Straw Hatters was, most people said it was the Dapper Dans.

It’s an easy mistake to make.

Straw Hatters

Dapper Dans

Except that a barbershop quartet only has four people.

The Dapper Dans also has that little bit of flair so emblematic of Disneyland.

Farewell!

Definitely try to catch some of the roving entertainment at Disneyland. It’s a lot of fun.

Main Street , , ,

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