A Walk in the Park: Day One

For the next several days we'll be taking a leisurely stroll through pre-opening Disneyland--and I do mean leisurely! It's going to take us five days to get from the parade gate next to "it's a small world" down to the Central Plaza (though the actual walk only took me seven minutes). Alas, I do not have dozens of pictures to show, but they should provide a different look at the Park to those of you who have never been Cast Members. The photos were all taken on September 3, 2002.

We're not getting too far out of the gate today...

"it's a small world" is here under renovation, as the Park undid the Disneyland Paris-induced changes from the early 1990s. Not only did they restore the white facade, but also reverted to using the original music tracks recorded for the New York World's Fair. The music had been replaced with the John Debney-scored tracks recorded for Disneyland Paris, because the quality of the mono mixes--used at Disneyland since 1966--didn't measure up. Work on a never-released box set of New York World's Fair music unearthed the original recordings, permitting their return to Disneyland.

It looks like it's going to be a warm day--the sun's already beating down well before any Guests have arrived! I just checked, and it did get up to about 90 degrees that day.

You can see that off-season work has started, with the Matterhorn Bobsleds closed for refurbishment.

Tomorrow we venture off the parade route to enter the heart of Fantasyland!