A Walk in the Park: Day Five

We've finally arrived at the Central Plaza! I'm glad we're here, because this is one of my favorite areas of Disneyland.

If I could have worked all my shifts at the Information Board, I certainly would have!

What can one say?

There are often service vehicles on Main Street when the Park is closed; I'm happy to have avoided that here.

Kevin Yee liked this second photo enough to use it on the cover of the preview edition of Mouse Trap.

Well, the Park's going to open soon, so what better place to leave you? If you move off quietly, you may be able to avoid attracting Security's attention. So go off to explore your favorite corner of Disneyland before Guests arrive, but remember--I never saw you!

A Walk in the Park: Part Four

We'll stick with some more shots of Sleeping Beauty Castle today...

This coin press machine always bothered me, looking as cheap as it does in comparison to the Castle. Somebody please tell me it's gone?

I could look at Guestless photographs like this all day long!

I thought this was a pretty nice picture--and still do--but after repeated viewings I discovered there was something not quite right about it...

A Walk in the Park: Day Three

A repost from last week, now presented in its proper context. I agree with the commenters that this is a pretty magical spot, and totally blocks out the outside world.

I'm of the personal opinion that Fantasyland would be improved with some sort of Carrousel; what do you guys think? They could put it behind that circular wall!

A Walk in the Park: Day Two

I think I'd enjoy Fantasyland a lot more if it were always this wide open! Unfortunately, it's often a sea of humanity.

Note the cleaning taking place!

Space Mountain Is Open

As a companion to Outside the Berm's July 25 post, here is the cover of the May 26, 1977 Disneyland Line:

Thesaurus Statistics

This probably requires a small bit of explanation...

• Total number of terms: Every term in the thesaurus (obviously). This includes 20,432 dates (e.g., 2008-07-27). Since these have relationships and notes just like other terms, I have no problem including them in the count.
• Non-postable terms: These are what is known as the lead-in vocabulary. Disneyland Omnibus would lead one to the postable term Omnibus.
• Top terms: A key part of the thesaurus is the hierarchy, and this is the number of terms at the top. Now, with the structure I'm using it shouldn't be as high as it is. I'd like to have only 10-15 top terms. A large number of the top terms, then, are terms I've picked up while going through sources that I still need to fit into the conceptual structure.
• Orphan terms: These are a subset of the top terms that don't have relations to other terms. This number should be 0.
• Subject categories: This is another means of classification outside of the hierarchy. For instance, for people and organizations in the thesaurus I have a "Role" classification. The Roles include Atmosphere Talent, Cast Member, lessee personnel, and Retlaw personnel.
• Hierarchical relationships: Hierarchy is used for structure and to facilitate searching. Fantasy on Parade has broader terms events, promotions, and programs by names (a term which then functions something like an authority list) and parades.
• Equivalence relationships: The Omnibus example above is an equivalent relationship--where I've defined that one term can be used for two terms. This needn't be confined to nomenclature issues. If I wanted lower specificity, I could have Omnibus (along with Fire Engine, Horseless Carriage (Red), etc.) point to Main Street Vehicles. But with this project I've been much more inclined to address distinctions than to lump things together.
• Associative relationships: These types of relations call attention to other terms that might be of interest. In the Library of Congress Subject Headings, these are just RT--related terms. While I do denote some relations this way, I've also defined a fair number of more specific relationships. For example, Dominguez, Ron PFMD [performed as/in] Davy Crockett (walk-around character). Fantasia Gardens PRED [had predecessor] Motor Boat Cruise. (In time I might get more specific and create a Motor Boat Cruise Dock term.)
  

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!