55 and 50 Party - Disneyland and Zlick!

[cirquelover]

It sounds like it was the swankiest event ever!

Thanks for sharing the pics, so I can see what an amazing time was had by all. The suite looks beyond imagination, so wish I could have seen it!

I'm so glad everyone made your birthday special. It looks like you gave everyone an amazing weekend too!

[CoasterMatt]

I love the fact that two of us saw Steve in the 70s/80s pics and yelled out "Doug Henning!" :)

I'd love to contribute to any slideshow, if I've got any pics worthy of inclusion.

[MouseWife]

I want to know, the skyride, did someone make that? After reading that it was 99% your items, what did YOU make?? AND the Pirates bed, that is yours??? AWESOME!!! {decos, not bed}

[Alex]

In some of the pictures of Steve from this last weekend I was thinking "Gary Oldman."

But I don't know who Doug Henning is so maybe I'd have thought that instead.

ETA: Ok, seeing his Wikipedia picture I recognize him as the TM kook.

[innerSpaceman]

With my long hair, I was often referred to as Doug Henning in the '80's.:rolleyes:


Once I cut my hair to a non-retarded length, and until about 3 years go, I was constantly mistaken for Gary Oldman, though I do not see the resemblance at all - not one little bit. But one particular lady at DCA was so insistent I was him - and that I give her an autograph - I obliged by signing Mr. Oldman's name. Sheesh.


I want to know, the skyride, did someone make that? After reading that it was 99% your items, what did YOU make?? AND the Pirates bed, that is yours??? AWESOME!!!

Many people thought the suite came pre-Disney decorated by Disney. Um, not so. (Though there are prints of Disneyland artists' renderings throughout, which will be available at Company D once they gut this building in 2012.). Just about EVERYTHING was installed by me and my crew, from - ahem - concepts of mine, inspired by the suite's unique layout.

So the Skyway was the most time-consuming and difficult item of decoration. Modern-day beach pails and childrens' toys no longer look like the original skybuckets, and I couldn't even find online expensive models of the revised skybuckets. I was so fortunate to locate a paper model of the skyway at disneyexperience.com (they have papers models of a slew of attractions).

We doubled the size of the parts and painstakingly cut, folded and glued for nearly 40 man-hours of work to make the ten buckets. (I can't imagine what kind of ship-in-a-bottle tools would be needed to make them in the original size - but we needed a larger size in any event for our event purposes).

It was very discouraging work at times. We were able to print out different colors for the buckets, but I'd hoped no one would notice the buckets all had the same number - which would be an error. Oh, until I noticed that number was - astonishingly - 55. :D That gave me the encouragement to finish.


Alas, though the sky crew who put together the entire, beautiful, outdoor patio lighting were an amazing bunch - they did not secure the Skyway to my satisfaction - and buckets kept falling all through the night (prompting many jokes about why the Skyway closed).

When I went around repairing various items on Saturday, the Skyway was foremost in my mind (recalling those 40 man hours of construction). But I saved the project for last, hoping the wind would die down at the higher elevations of the 11th floor penthouse. So when I sliced my arm in Toad Hell, the reason I kept screaming "Fvck" was not because it hurt - but because I instantly knew my necessary trip to the emergency room would mean the Skyway would never be re-commissioned.

But - like many of Disneyland's best effects (the purple smoke from Toad Hall chimneys, the collapsing dry ice "roof" in Indiana Jones) - the Skylight Skyway of 55/50 would be temporary, in this case for the big party only. And in those few hours, it inspired all the laughter, joy and fond remembrances I'd hoped it would.




(More about the decorations in future posts)

[Alex]

Once I cut my hair to a non-retarded length, and until about 3 years go, I was constantly mistaken for Gary Oldman, though I do not see the resemblance at all - not one little bit.

Interesting, because I've never before seen any resemblance to Gary Oldman and it was just something in these specific pictures that triggered it.

Guess I'm slower in the uptake.

[Cynthia]

When I first saw Steve across the room I thought he looked rather like the singer for the Psychedelic Furs, it is the patrician features I think.

[innerSpaceman]

When I first saw Steve across the room I thought he looked rather like the singer for the Psychedelic Furs, it is the patrician features I think.

Hahaha, is "patrician features" nice code for big, honking nose? ;)

[Cynthia]

No silly, code for "noble" as in from refined stock :)

[innerSpaceman]

So the other thing that seemed to hit people the strongest was The Pirate's Lair - our version of the Get-It Room. :D

Ironic, since the prime Disney Get-It Room is featured in Pirates of the Caribbean. It's the room with the Pirate ship firing on the Spanish fort. We took a friend on the ride for his first time - this was way back in the '80s - and he seemed non-plussed by this spectacle. We kept saying, "Don't You Get It? It's a room, indoors, flooded with water, with moving clouds projected on the walls, and a freaking pirate ship with a robot captain firing cannonballs over passing guest boats on a Spanish fortress on the other side? Get it? Get it?"



He didn't get it. :rolleyes:


But, ever since, we've referred to any spectacular themed environment room that takes your breath away as a Get It Room. And it seemed our Pirates Lair did just that. Laughter was the most general reaction to all our other environments - but just about everyone who entered the Pirates Lair simply gasped.


Yes, it was beautiful. :cool:


It was, at first, the ugliest room in the suite. The carpet, which remained, is hideous. The drapes along the 25-foot long wall were atrocious. The bed was ugly - as was all the standard Disneyland Hotel room furniture from the 1980's (and don't get me started on why this ultra-expensive suite didn't have different, and higher caliber furniture than a standard guest room!)

Once I decided that everything on the east half of the vast suite would be themed to a Disneyland attraction, I started to wonder what could be done with this big, ugly room. It didn't take long - because we had to deal with a giant immovable bed, and I happen to have a skeleton I've used for dozens of Halloween parties. D'uh, Pirate Captain's Quarters!


So I tasked my sister with this particular room, and sent her some reference pictures. Within an hour, she had found that fantastic headboard and footboard on Craig's List. It was cracked up the center, made of cheap, white plaster, and the upholstered inset was hot pink. But a little gold paint, red on the inset, and the addition of a skull and cross-bones - and voila - my single favorite piece in the whole damn project.

Every time I'd get discouraged by the vast scope of the 55/50 decorations and all that was entailed in constructing and assembling them, I'd look at that headboard and be reinvigorated.

:cheers:



My sister Leigh is an interior designer, and her husband Richard an architect who used to design movie sets, so they were the perfect team to fit out this lush and gorgeous room. The red velvet, beaded faux-drapes that covered the ugly drapes were made by Leigh for a display window when The Grove opened in L.A. (Richard was the designer of The Grove, have I ever mentioned that? :p )

That giant gold frame along the far wall was a display case for one of their ill-conceived sales schemes (The Earring Frame Company) and they traveled around the world with that monstrosity. Years earlier, a friend had given me a giant poster of the background piece that was used for the opening credits of the movie "Hook" - and so the marriage of those two element made for a stunning object seen when you first enter the room.

The huge armoire was perfectly usable, as the artists rendering of Disneyland emblazoned on the front is in perfect Treasure Map style. We capped the armoire with a Pirate skull, a silly pirate hat, and two guns - all of which happened to be purchased at Disneyland over the years. These were flanked by classic lego Pirate ships which were so fun to re-build after decades tucked away in their boxes.

The rest of the details that lushed-out the room came from Leigh's closet or mine, or were picked up here and there. That chest-looking thing on one of the tables, and all the old books were found in other parts of the suite!

Almost all the fabrics on the bed and covering the ugly tables and nightstands are Leigh's, except for the bottom-most bedcover and the material covering the hideous, formerly purple chaise - which were my cousin Lisa's draperies. (And once we borrowed another desk from the room across the hall to use in a seating area, we had to jury-rig another tablecloth from two Pirate flags.)


The only exception to the found fabric was the fantastic stuff that made up the bed canopy - which we hunted down at the downtown L.A. fabric mart a few weeks ago. I may end up using it as a real bed canopy on my own bed -- and I'm tempted to use that headboard, too - though it may be too kitchy for the reality of my swank apartment.


Anyway, nothing but the floor and the wallpaper remained original to the room. (And in a photoshop job, my sister added an oriental carpet, mirrors on the walls, and a chandelier to cover the errant ugly that was un-erasable in the real suite).



http://img3.imageshack.us/img3/5020/embellishedpirateslair.jpg






The room turned out simply gorgeous. Really the Get-It Room highlight of the 55/50 decor. An amazing transformation from the ugliest space to the most beautiful. I hope you all enjoyed.

:iSm:

[innerSpaceman]

No silly, code for "noble" as in from refined stock :)

Is "refined stock" code for inbred?? :p

[Gn2Dlnd]

And in a photoshop job, my sister added an oriental carpet, mirrors on the walls, and a chandelier to cover the errant ugly that was un-erasable in the real suite

No, that picture is exactly the way I remember the room. I think you must be mistaken.

[Kevy Baby]

(And in a photoshop job, my sister added an oriental carpet, mirrors on the walls, and a chandelier to cover the errant ugly that was un-erasable in the real suite).I see in your Photoshop job, you also removed the duct tape that was holding the peacock in place ;)

The room was simply stunning, although the whole night I lived in fear of the canopy somehow pulling a little too hard on the fire sprinklers and causing a catastrophe. Might I suggest finding a different solution than attaching things to the fire sprinklers next year when you recreate this, but with more grandiose accoutrement.

[innerSpaceman]

Heheh, were were tempted to light the candles around all that material and drunken guests and hope for the best.

Obviously, we thought about the merits of hanging the material from our own hooks simply stickied to the ceilings or from the potentially more dangerous but firmly-affixed sprinkler units. We chose the latter.


Um, sprinkler units are not all that finicky. You have to pretty much bang them with a hammer to get them to go off (or, ya know, purposefully break the little glass thingy). I use them to affix ceiling things all the time.



But, oi, the peacock duct tape! Sheesh, there was an awful lot of last-minute duct tape that I would never have approved. Things became a little harried in the final hour or so. I'm glad she took it out in post-production.


I think I'll get her to do that with my double chin, too. :D

[Not Afraid]

I love this room so much that I took a nice long nap in it - something I've always wanted to do in the real attraction. I think I rode Pirates about 40 times that day.

[innerSpaceman]

Laurie got quite a start when Captain Skell rolled over in the night, and she woke up with him staring her right in the kisser!



* * * * * * *

Fifty Five Fifty Lost and Found: Hey everybody who wise swank enough to attend 55/50 - are you missing some stuff? It was an epic party - so of course various and sundry items were left behind. Let me know if anything of yours has gone missing, and we'll try to match it up with the items in the 55/50 Lost & Found box!

[Kevy Baby]

Fifty Five Fifty Lost and Found: Hey everybody who wise swank enough to attend 55/50 - are you missing some stuff? It was an epic party - so of course various and sundry items were left behind. Let me know if anything of yours has gone missing, and we'll try to match it up with the items in the 55/50 Lost & Found box!I lost my virginity - do you have it?

[alphabassettgrrl]

You still had a virginity to lose?

[Disneyphile]

Laurie got quite a start when Captain Skell rolled over in the night, and she woke up with him staring her right in the kisser!

Hmmm. That wasn't supposed to happen. You were supposed to wake up startled to find his hand on your jewels. ;)

[Kevy Baby]

You still had a virginity to lose? Not "a" virginity: THE virginity. I was chaste and pure as the driven snow. Until I lost my virginity.



















When I was 11

[lashbear]

Don't worry Kevy- you may have lost your virginity, but you've still got the box it came in...

[€uroMeinke]

SO - if anyone has any prime photographs you'd like to contribute to a future and ever-evolving version of the slideshow, please get them to me. Some may have already been included, but you never know (I doubt anyone watched all 90 minutes!) - my "collection" of Disneyland photos has been very haphazard, and I never intended to present them in this fashion. Most of the photos I've obtained in the mouseplanet/Fab/LoT era are low-res versions - so really, anything you think might be worthy of the ages, please get it to me in the next few months or so, and I'll have a new version of the slideshow by Christmastime. We can keep adding to it forever! Heheh.


I have tons of photos I'd be willing to share - including those from Walt's 100th where we first met. But I think you'll have to come over some time to sort through the collections and burn some disks.

[Cadaverous Pallor]

Bwahahaha - photos??

Disneyland photo folder:
5.16 gigs
4,419 files

It would be quite the thing to sort through. A photo sharing party would be a lot of fun...or we could fill up a handful of flash drives and send them your way ;)

[€uroMeinke]

Oooo - I want a photosharing party!

[alphabassettgrrl]

Not "a" virginity: THE virginity. I was chaste and pure as the driven snow. Until I lost my virginity.


When I was 11

Bwahahahaha!!!!

[BarTopDancer]

That would be fun!

[innerSpaceman]

Yep, definitely - let's have a photo-sharing party. Now that I have all my Disneyland photos in one place!

[Morrigoon]

OMG... fun!

[innerSpaceman]

I was tempted at times to seek photos from people for the party slideshow, as there were a few obvious holes and gaps in the coverage ... but the subtle background effect I was going for required that no one know in advance it was going to be a feature of the event.

[Cadaverous Pallor]

I was tempted at times to seek photos from people for the party slideshow, as there were a few obvious holes and gaps in the coverage ... but the subtle background effect I was going for required that no one know in advance it was going to be a feature of the event.It ended up being more of a magnet for people than the food table! (Though luckily the food was right there too.)

At one point I said something about how young we all looked, and a woman next to me said "yeah, my baby pictures are in there." I laughed then realized she wasn't exaggerating, as it was :iSm:'s daughter!

[innerSpaceman]

Bwahaha, she's 28 now - and there are pictures of her dating back to age 5 or so. Mwahahahah.

Then, of course, there's a handful of me at age 10 - on my first visit to Disneyland. And some really embarrassing ones of me at age 16 on a summer-before-space-mountain high school trip from new york. Gak, what a dweeb I was!










(No cracks about "was.") :p

[innerSpaceman]

By the way, all this talk of new Haunted Mansion movie reminds me (because the music is going thru my head), there's a revision of the Disneyland 50 fantastic CD set for Disneyland '55. Discs 3 and 4 have some new stuff!

Appropos to the new movie talk, the epic "Fantasbelieveremembric" track now features the Haunted Mansion mash-up music that's currently going through my head. It's a great piece, and I'm sorry I didn't include it before. I think I was trying not to overshadow the actual attraction music earlier in the set, but that was just silly - the Remember score for the Haunted Mansion segment is awesome.

The release of the Disney at the World's Fair CD set inspired a couple of other changes. Since there was already some World's Fair music in the small world segment, I considered it fair game to include some of this non-Disneyland stuff for other attractions that were brought to Disneyland after the World's Fair.

So there's a great bit of a super-swanky Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow instrumental that I combined with some previously unused Progress City music for a new track in the Tomorrowland section.

Also I swapped out the Mr. Lincoln pre-show narration for the World's Fair pre-show song "Illinois" - an absolutely hysterical and rad piece of music that's totally awesome and 60's.

I found a bunch of Peoplemover music that was far better quality than the stuff on the original discs. So "Peoplemover Medley" has been completely re-mixed, and a couple of other rad Peoplemover songs are now in the Bonus section.


If anyone wants to upgrade their sets with new Discs 3 and 4, just let me know - and I'll gladly get those out to you.


:iSm: New updates every five years!

[innerSpaceman]

And the rest.

For the final post on the rad decorations, lets add some pictures, huh? A picture speaks a thousand words ... but, me being me, I’m still gonna speak the thousand words. :)


So what’s left?

Well ... there were actually 3 bathrooms in the suite, and I wanted each of them to have a different theme.

The least visited was tucked behind the bar on the way to the kitchen. We made this the Adventureland Bathroom. Simple stuff, hung with vines and decked out with some tiki and small art pieces.



http://a.imageshack.us/img72/5678/adventureland2.jpg




http://a.imageshack.us/img802/4710/adventureland6.jpg




It was keith’s idea to dub this the Restroom Formerly Known as Prince, in a nod to one of our Park in-jokes.


http://a.imageshack.us/img338/9020/adventureland9.jpg




The kitchen was decorated pretty rudimentarily - with some Disneyland memorabilia - just a nod to how we’d typically decorate the entire suite for one of these birthday parties back in the day.




http://a.imageshack.us/img641/1826/kitchen1u.jpg

We included the New Home for Koi Fish snafu, which we figured was a perfect Disneyland Hotel / food joke that was perfect for the kitchen here, and pretty recently funny.



The middle bathroom was themed to the Haunted Mansion. This was, of course, just a bunch of stuff left over from our Haunted Mansion party two Halloweens ago, but it was a good amount of stuff to cram into a bathroom and its entry hall.


http://a.imageshack.us/img197/6275/mansion03.jpg






http://a.imageshack.us/img203/5229/mansion04.jpg



One thing that doesn’t come across in pictures is ... sound.

Starting with the Haunted Mansion bath, we had sound loops playing in all the themed environments. The loop of stuff in the Mansion bathroom was pulled from the various sound loops playing at the Haunted Mansion Party.

In the Pirates Lair, we used the half-hour piece developed for the Disneyland 50 CDs.

And in the Tomorrowland Bathroom, I put together a really fun loop, mostly from the Disneyland 50 CD, but also from some other sources. I think the sound really helped sell the environment. The Mansion bathroom was downright spooky when you were in there alone with the door closed.

And the Tomorrowland Bathroom was really sold by the sound. This back space of the suite was divided into several segments - Inner Space, Outer Space, and Liquid Space.



http://a.imageshack.us/img529/5189/subshower02.jpg


The shower was especially fun because you could literally add water to the environment. Every once in a while you’d be in the shower, with all the seaweed and fish (it was decorated on the inside, too), and the Submarine Voyage track would come on the sound loop, and you’d have water rushing over you ... and you were just about as “immersed” as you could get. I think that happened to only 3 people - but that, to me, was success!




http://a.imageshack.us/img805/504/cosmicbidet2.jpg


The Outer Space room was pretty funny. We re-papered the walls in the tiny chamber with the toilet and (Cosmic) bidet, with a moonscape I had on my bedroom walls in the ‘80s! It’s been sitting in a tube for 30 years waiting for a second life, and this was it. It was not reclaimed from the walls, so this was the moonscape’s swan song. Best of all, our own paper on the walls meant we could renew our traditional glujeslime ritual - which we did during the After-Party.



http://a.imageshack.us/img571/1807/cosmicbidet86.jpg



Basically, you cut open glow sticks and sprinkle the glow juice all over the walls and floor and ceiling. It ends up looking like a psychedelic star field, and this is when our outer space room really shone ... but of course, the outer space cosmic bidet joke was pretty rad.








http://a.imageshack.us/img29/9426/innerspace2.jpg


Of course, Inner Space is my personal favorite, so I went all out with the lattice-paper snowflake, the lighting effects, and the molecules.








http://a.imageshack.us/img59/2677/innerspace4.jpg


The snowflake ended up blocking the mirror effect I wanted to reproduce from the attraction, where the molecules are frozen in endlessly-repeating strings - - but we found that if you stuck your head into the “set,” there were indeed mirrors on both sides, and the endless rows of molecules effect was achieved! Of course, the giant atoms in the bathtub turned out great - made, quite obviously, from colored exercise balls and hula hoops. TeeHee.







http://a.imageshack.us/img34/2499/toadhell1.jpg

The last room in the Tomorrowland Bathroom led to Toad Hell. We never got around to making the flames for the walls of the sauna, but the heat really sold it - as I’d hoped it would. The devils turned out to be among the hardest things to come up with. When I first came up with the idea, I thought it would be quite simple to find devil dolls - but no. We searched and searched and scoured the internet. In the end, we used baby dolls, painted red, added beaks, new eyes, horns, a tail, paper wings, and the stuff used to hold gift cards to floral arrangements as the pitchforks.


http://a.imageshack.us/img38/1741/toadhell3.jpg

This was the joke that started it all, and I’m glad it turned out funny as it did.


I really liked the environment of the Tomorrowland Bathroom - - and was very happy people ended up hanging out back here when we decided to make it the smoking room. (There’s a $250 fine for smoking in the suite, even on the patio - and we thought it would be a little obvious out there, so I just picked the room I’d like best to get high in ... and was happy to find people hanging out in there during the party!)



http://a.imageshack.us/img94/5678/acrosstheskyway.jpg


I really wish the skyway would have lasted beyond the party night, but it was obviously a cool element on the beautiful patio. Decorating the carousel meant it couldn’t spin (it was hard to turn anyway) - so I hope people grokked that it was a spinning room. (I don’t think anyone read either of the warning signs we worked so hard on - - we made a number of signs for the party, but the Carousel signs were our most elaborate. I haven’t come across any pictures of them. I have a feeling the joke never panned out.)



http://a.imageshack.us/img248/9407/swanking.jpg


As for the rest of the suite, we just tried to make it festive, and less bland than it’s unfortunately become over the years. I brought along my original Inner Space poster for behind the bar. And we strung really big mardi-gras beads all over the walls. We had a cool slide show going near the food spread. I don’t think many people realized that we had to bring the flatscreen display unit. There’s nothing but tiny old tube TVs in the suite. Pfft.



http://a.imageshack.us/img251/9507/thespread.jpg


The table centerpiece on the was perhaps our biggest piece of “themeing” in the main rooms. It’s a combination of the old Sears Playset we’d been using for rudimentary Disneyland models at some of these parties in the past, and ideas inspired by Disneyphile’s fantastic wedding centerpieces. I supplied a lot of the pieces for this, but a ton more were made by my sister Leigh, especially for the event. I think it turned out phenomenally.



http://a.imageshack.us/img130/9017/centerpiececentral.jpg




http://a.imageshack.us/img6/8161/jonesland.jpg




http://a.imageshack.us/img37/5117/inthemiddle.jpg



... and please excuse these last two shots, from the staging area and not the actual party, but fantasyland and frontierland came out great, and largely escaped guest photography it seems.



http://a.imageshack.us/img194/6708/xcenterpieceftr.jpg





http://img841.imageshack.us/img841/8884/xcenterpiecefnt.jpg




And I’m pretty happy with how fantastically the suite was decorated for the party. I was trying to induce a squee pleasure effect, and I think we had some success there. There was certainly a very large scope to this project - featuring salutes to so many Disneyland lands and attractions, as well as generally decking out the suite, and bringing everything from, like I said, our own video display screen, to every dish and glass and fork, pot, pan and sponge inside the suite. It was a huge undertaking to bring all this stuff into a hotel suite, set it up, play with it, tear it down, and take it away. There were 50 boxes of stuff (a great coincidence), and several large items like the headboard, the tv, several large pieces of art, and a couple of ladders. Plus tons of food and drink brought into the suite separately. This was on a vast scale - even for me!

:iSm:


But, yeah, I loved it. My apologies and deepest thanks to all the crew and volunteers. There’s zero way this would have happened without you - - as you well know from being in on the near-chaos.


And Thanks to everyone who came out for the fun. It was a pleasure to share this unique weekend of hedonism with you guys. I hope you enjoyed yourselves, and I suspect that you did. Yay! :cool:





.

[wendybeth]

I'm just looking at all these great pictures, and am in absolute awe. :cheers:

[Gn2Dlnd]

The America Sings warning signs were read by many, and oft-explained. At one point, the revolving gazebo was redubbed the Gayzebo, cause that's where all the cute boys were hanging out. ;) I loved that there were major set pieces for everyone to get, and "Easter eggs" to be found only after a bit of exploring.

[Cadaverous Pallor]

Just seeing the pics and reading your wrap-up makes me still feel the glow. :)

I totally noticed the America Sings WARNING signs - they were the first thing I spotted on the patio. Genius, and sold the immobile red-white-and-blue pod immediately.

The Skyway was one of those things you didn't see immediately and after I discovered it, I noticed several other people having that discovery moment themselves. The party was filled with things like that, as Gn2 says.

Steve isn't overselling the importance of soundtrack. I'd say decor made things festive, but the music evoked the emotion of actually being on these rides. The first time I hit the Mansion bathroom for some real business, the door creek sound effect happened to match up with me closing the door! At a later visit to the Mansion bathroom I was disappointed to notice the sound was off, taking the entire experience down from a 10 to a 3, selling me on the cd-player-in-every-space concept. We spent ages lounging in the Pirates room and that loop was so expansive and full of memories that we didn't mind hearing it again and again (and reciting the spiel, and giggling, again, and again...).

I seriously felt that our time spent in the suite was a decent replacement for a day in the park, especially since the park was apparently jammed full, and certain rides are still sullied with annoying additions.

[Ghoulish Delight]

Mansion bathroom was by far my favorite element. Sure, lots of other things had components that surpassed the Mansion bathroom, but what sold the bathroom for me was the fact that the attraction itself is supposed to be a residence...thus it would HAVE a bathroom. And I was taking a piss IN THAT BATHROOM! Clearly there's something wrong with my brain, but if so I don't want to be right, because that weird little thought made me smile every time I used the facilities.

[innerSpaceman]

Hahahahahahahahaha, that's awesome!



Oh, and the CD player in the Mansion Bathroom (which came with the suite, btw) was the only unit that didn't have a Repeat function, and so was dependent on a couple of drunken caretakers - and hence spotty.

[Kevy Baby]

http://a.imageshack.us/img641/1826/kitchen1u.jpg

We included the New Home for Koi Fish snafu, which we figured was a perfect Disneyland Hotel / food joke that was perfect for the kitchen here, and pretty recently funny.I hope you left this sign in the suite. I want to think it lasted until suite gets demolished/refurbed.

[innerSpaceman]

Heheh, sorry, no, I kept it. I laughed too hard over the incident not to want this semi-permanent momento.


Maybe when the hotel refurbishment is done, I'll put it up in the area where the koi pond used to be.


:evil:

[Snowflake]

Wow, just W-O-W, the photos are awesome. Clearly, I missed the party of the decade. Again, many happy belated iSm. You sure can throw swanky parties! :snap:

[innerSpaceman]

I posted so many other examples, I'd just feel remiss if I didn't post a few of the star attraction.

Pirate Room, Pirate Room, Pirate Room! Aaaarrrrghh!




http://a.imageshack.us/img401/2667/squarters.jpg

All we started with was a bed and a skeleton.





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Finally some use for the long-rolled Hook Credits poster and that absurdly large gold frame!




http://img837.imageshack.us/img837/6121/thedecorators.jpg

Richard and Leigh, the decorators, have a sit-down to admire their just-completed handiwork.




I could have lived in this room forever! :iSm:

[Cadaverous Pallor]

I could have lived in this room forever! :iSm:We very nearly did ;)

It's sad to think it no longer exists.

[Not Afraid]

I went in to use the Mansion facilities, closed the main door, hiked up my dress and realized Leota was watching me. I had to close the secondary doors to take a piss.

[Morrigoon]

Steve: I think you should redo your bedroom at home... :argghh: :argghh: :decap: :iSm:

[RStar]

I love the Peacock ductaped to it's post. No, dammit! You will not escape!!!

[innerSpaceman]

I went in to use the Mansion facilities, closed the main door, hiked up my dress and realized Leota was watching me. I had to close the secondary doors to take a piss.



I was temped to put HIM facing anyone seated ...


http://a.imageshack.us/img31/9849/ghoulish.jpg




:evil:

[keith - SuPeR K!]

At a later visit to the Mansion bathroom I was disappointed to notice the sound was off, taking the entire experience down from a 10 to a 3, selling me on the cd-player-in-every-space concept.

Dang... Must have hopped in there right before I restarted it! That was the hardest one to keep track of. 52 tracks! LOL

[Cadaverous Pallor]

Dang... Must have hopped in there right before I restarted it! That was the hardest one to keep track of. 52 tracks! LOLHeh, no worries. I would have restarted it myself but I was a bit out of it by that point ;)

[innerSpaceman]

Well, I'm finally getting around to posting the photos the crew took of the decorations and the early hours of the party.

Please forgive the delay, the aftermath of Fifty Five Fifty has been severe. My flesh wound is hampering the recovery efforts, so everything's going to take more time than anticipated.

In any event, the crew photos are here at Photobucket (http://s448.photobucket.com/albums/qq207/ZlikiSm/Fifty%20Five%20Fifty/) (better for viewing), and here at Picasa (http://picasaweb.google.com/stevezlick/FiftyFiveFifty#) (better for grabbing).




* * * * * *

Included in the photos are 2 with the mysterious Sage. WHO IS HE? Everyone is talking about him. He made quite a first impression on me, and at least a dozen other people who've been asking about him.

I forget who he came with. How can we get more of him???

:confused:

[Ghoulish Delight]

He came with Kevy and Susan.

Sign of a good party - flipping through the photos and seeing a shot of myself holding a glass and thinking, "Hmm, I don't remember drinking that."

[Kevy Baby]

Included in the photos are 2 with the mysterious Sage. WHO IS HE? Everyone is talking about him. He made quite a first impression on me, and at least a dozen other people who've been asking about him.

I forget who he came with. How can we get more of him???

:confused:He's just some strange guy we picked up on the way to the party.





As Greg said, he is a friend of ours. And sorry to disappoint you Steve, but he is straight.

[innerSpaceman]

Heheh, no that's not it. He just made a good impression on me. And seriously, about a DOZEN people have asked me about him since.


Tell him he was well-liked, and he has a permanent standing invitation to all fun happenings we make happen from now on.

[RStar]

Kevy should enjite him to the LoT as well!

[innerSpaceman]

For a quirkly, behind-the-scenes view (ahem, mine) of the spectacle that was Fifty Five Fifty, check out my el jay. (http://zlick.livejournal.com/32531.html)


:confused: (Does anybody el jay anymore?)


Well, I still do sometimes. I have a unique take on Fifty Five Fifty - it was rife with the Bonita Effect.


What's that, you say? Check out the el jay. ;)

:cheers: Lots o' photos!

[Snowflake]

Oooh! I missed the party of the century, but now feel like I was there. The ATIS tribute was very fabulous!

[Cadaverous Pallor]

Dude, very flattered to have my ruminations quoted. :)

[innerSpaceman]

Well, you summed things up so beautifully. :blush:


* * * * * * * *


Ok, two weeks after and I've finally started to put things away. I need the big box I stored the Lego Pirate Ships in, so my first task was de-constructing them.

It took a long time, but perhaps a 10th the time it took to re-build them after being stored in their boxes for more than 20 years. As I took them apart and put like pieces in separate zip-locks to make it easier if anyone wants to ever build them again - which takes many hours - I couldn't help but ruminate on the insane level of detail and effort I put into Fifty Five Fifty. I think I'm nuts. :rolleyes:


I just realized now that I'm done, I made the oddly ironic choice of putting my birthday-gift Toy Story 1 and 2 blu-ray set on in the background, as I prepare to - what? - put the lego pirate ships back in storage for another 20 years? More likely forever. That's sad.

Hey, I'm glad and surprised I found a second use for them after saving them for 2 decades. But now that I have, I'm completely satisfied with my choice to keep them around. Now, I'm done and they are too cool to go in the attic forever.


If anyone wants them, or know a kid who wants them, or - well - has a kid that might want them in six or seven years after storage your attic (hint, hint, person whom I happily quoted in my el jay re-cap), I'd be more than happy to bestow them upon some happy child or child-at-heart.




http://a.imageshack.us/img185/9749/e23hmslego.jpg

[Kevy Baby]

I think I'm nuts. :rolleyes:We know you are

[Cadaverous Pallor]

If anyone wants them, or know a kid who wants them, or - well - has a kid that might want them in six or seven years after storage your attic (hint, hint, person whom I happily quoted in my el jay re-cap), I'd be more than happy to bestow them upon some happy child or child-at-heart.We'd love to have it (and future Theo would love it as well) but I have to say that if anyone else wants it for the here and now they can call dibs. As you say, if we take it, it will be in storage for a long time.

If no one wants it - there's always room for Lego. Thanks! :D

[innerSpaceman]

Well so far one adult has requested it. But I think I'm more inclined to leave it in trust for Theo.



Anyways, whilst I wait to see if any more requests come in ...



... the thrilling conclusion of The Bonita Effect is up on my el jay (http://zlick.livejournal.com/33014.html).


It's my second-to-last word on Fifty Five Fifty. (I'm awaiting a reply from Disney to my letter about the string of snafus we experienced at the Hotel - - a dark side of 55/50 we've thus far kept from our happy guests ... but I may post about that here on the LoT once I hear what they've got to say for themselves.)

[flippyshark]

I had that Lego pirate ship twenty years ago, and proudly kept it on my coffee table for a couple of years. One day, my then six-year-old nephew picked it up and pretended to fly it around the room a la Peter Pan (adorable) then crashed it to the ground. (not adorable) I gathered all the bricks and put them in a box, but by then, I had lost the bricking instructions that had come with the ship - I gave the box away several years after that to someone who thought they could figure out how to re-crate it. I don't think that ever happened. It is an amazingly lovely Lego ship. But, these days, I'm very tempted by the Lego Falling water.

I'm so sad Bonita Tower is gone, and so glad it went out in such style!

[innerSpaceman]

If I would have thought of it, it would have been a fitting salute yo the Lego Ship and the Bonita Falls to sail it off the edge of Horseshoe Falls to its watery doom. If I hadn't carefully deconstructed it, I would do it still. Alas, golden opportunity lost.

[RStar]

As the falls came to a crashing halt due to lego pieces stuck in the pump equipment......

Then Disney could blame closeing them all on you!

[Mousey Girl]

Giving them to Theo would be a terrific idea. It would be keeping them in the Family.

[Cadaverous Pallor]

Wow, that's a hell of a write-up! I read the whole thing and thoroughly enjoyed it.

Erik wasn't the only one who remembered you talking about the magical suite across the way 5 years ago...GD and I also remember it well. To hear that you went through several ideas before landing on the Rather Sweet was surprising to me. It was definitely in the back of your head the whole time.

[Morrigoon]

Yeah, I remember him saying something

[BarTopDancer]

What a write up! It was such an awesome party I think I'm still on a buzz.

[Cadaverous Pallor]

Finally, we've overcome a computer issue - here (http://www.flipshare.com/login.aspx?nRecipient=NjI1MTEwM2EtMjk2ZS00NWM5LTll YjktODUxNTg0MDlmNjA1&nFrame=M2JkNjYwNmMtMjIyMS00NmI3LWEzNmEtZDVhZjhmYWJ mMzBl&nMethod=ZW1haWw=&emt=549b92dc-f46f-4a4e-ae6a-1f141b8b523d&nT=2239782020045051&nMedia=NmFlMjYwYmYtYjI4Yi00YWFiLWJhOWMtMzBjM2QwMDc 1ZDE0)is the quick walk-through video I took.

[RStar]

Hey, I was in that for 1/10th of a second.

I'm a movie star!! ;)

I love the wave in the mirror, Jen. Kinda hard to stay out of the shot when there's mirror on all sides, huh? :D

Thanks for posting it, and glad your 'puter probs are fixed!

[BarTopDancer]

Awesome video!

[innerSpaceman]

Cool video, CP. Thanks for persisting.



Ok, now that enough time has passed, I will reveal the Dark Side of the Disneyland Hotel stay. Not enough to ruin anything, but enough that I wrote a rather scathing letter to the hotel on July 27. I know they received it (because my injury claims handler mentioned it), but I've received no response from Disney as of today, August 23. Pfft.

Theft, insult, threats and contempt -- best relayed by my actual letter:

My party and I were recent guests of the hotel, July 15 through 19, 2010, and had the occasion to stay in the Presidential Suite (formerly the Marina Suite), which we chose for its historical relationship to the theme of a Disneyland birthday event we held in the suite on the evening of July 16.

We generally enjoyed our time at the hotel. However, there were several disturbing incidents which marred our stay, at the alarming rate of at least one per day. Though we had many pleasant interactions with various members of the hotel staff, too many of our interactions were extremely troublesome. Furthermore, we were very disappointed with the physical condition of so expensive a suite, which conditions we would have found unacceptable were it not for the historical significance, as I mentioned, that was key to our planned event.

On the first evening of our stay, we were victims of an incident of theft perpetrated by the hotel staff. Fortunately, nothing of value was taken, but such an incident was completely unacceptable. Hotel security investigated, and made a report of the incident.

We were bringing in a case of water, the first of countless items of food and drink we would be bringing into the suite for our event the following evening. I left the case of water in the hallway, just outside the door to the suite’s kitchen. I proceeded to show a visitor briefly around the suite, after entering through the main doorway, and then immediately went to retrieve the water from outside the kitchen door. It was gone. Not more than five minutes had elapsed since I placed the case of water there.

Hotel security determined that housekeeping had removed the water. I was advised by security that it was housekeeping policy to remove any items left in the hallway for longer than half an hour. The water had been there for less than five minutes. Meanwhile, an unsightly tray of half-eaten food remained for several hours that evening outside a guest door directly across from the suite. In any event, the case of water was likely not removed for a legitimate housekeeping purpose - as it was retrieved and returned to us with over half the contents missing.

Fortunately, it was just water, and nothing of real value was lost. But it did not set a pleasing example to us on the first night of our stay, especially as we were making ready to bring large quantities of food and drink into the suite for our planned event.

The next morning, I received a telephone call from a woman by the name of Ann, who represented herself to be the assistant hotel manager, and the ranking management official on duty at that time - the morning of Friday, July 16, 2010. Ann was calling to inquire about the theft incident of the prior evening, but our conversation soon turned to matters of the event in the suite and became unnecessarily contentious and disturbing.

Ann advised me that the arrangements I had made with Kristin of the hotel, upon an earlier site visit, for complimentary guest parking for our anticipated 50 guests would not be honored, and that, furthermore, she contended no such arrangements were ever made. I begged to differ. Kristin had represented quite clearly to me and my friend, Laurie Wieland (who was also a registered guest of the hotel and present in the suite at the time of this phone call with Ann) that our guests would be able to park free of charge in the Disneyland Hotel self-parking lot, and that - if parking lot exit vouchers could not be found for our guests - the front desk would print up as many room keys as would be necessary to grant each of our guests free exit from the parking lot. Ann insisted to me that was an arrangement contrary to hotel policy and further, and most disturbing, that I was making the whole thing up in order to get some sort of freebie from the hotel.

I calmly informed Ann that I would have no way of knowing what was and was not hotel policy, but that I expected the hotel to honor its promises, made by Kirstin, the hotel’s representative, whether she was acting within policy or not. Ann went on to contend that she had spoken with Kristin that morning, as well as with Lauren Flicker, the person at Disney Vacation Planning who had handled all our reservation arrangements. According to Ann, Kristin denied ever having had such a conversation with Laurie and me and, even more incredulously, stated that Lauren Flicker had told her (Ann) that our expected event attendance was ten people - whereupon Ann told me I would not be allowed to hold my event in the suite that evening if 50 people were expected.

That was, of course, patently absurd. At no point did we ever make the ridiculous claim that we would be holding an event in the Marina Suite for ten people. At all points of our discussions with Disney representatives, we were very clear on our estimate of 50 people. I’m sure no mention of a ten-guest event was made during any of my several discussions with Lauren Flicker, and I was crystal clear on my 50-guest estimate in my conversations with Kristin at the hotel when we made our site inspection about a month prior to our arrival - at which time Kristin made the promise of free parking for each and every one of our expected fifty guests.

Upon informing Ann of this, she resolutely stuck to her position that I must be fabricating the conversation that took place between Kristen, Laurie and myself. At this point in our phone conversation, I warned Ann that she was coming perilously close to calling me a liar. In fact, she had called me a liar, and I was simply being tactful in offering her an avenue of retreat. Ann did not take that avenue, however, and insisted to me that the conversation with Kristin never took place. Furthermore, Ann said, the hotel would not honor such an arrangement even if it had been promised. She insisted I would have to pay for parking for my guests, but would afford me the discounted rate of $4 per vehicle.

Though I was loathe to do so, because I believe every hotel guest should be treated with the same level of dignity and respect, I reminded Ann that I was running up a hotel tab in excess of $13,000, and it seemed needlessly antagonizing to refuse to offer a mere hundred dollars’ worth of complimentary parking to me in light of the arrangement which I had made, or even claimed to have made. Of course, it was beyond the pale to refuse to honor the arrangements I had previously made with the hotel, no matter how large or nominal the cost, and certainly an affront and insult to me for Ann to repeatedly insist that I was lying about making such arrangements in the first place. And it bordered on threatening when Ann claimed we would not be “allowed” to hold an event in the suite if we were expecting as many as 50 people.

Of course, being such a nominal charge for guest parking, I would never have hesitated to assume the cost of my guests’ parking if Kristin had told me I would need to pay $4 per vehicle for parking privileges. But she did not. And I don’t believe either Kristin or Lauren Flicker had spoken with Ann before Ann relayed to me their purported statements about our prior dealings and conversations. Rather, I am inclined to believe that Ann was being less than truthful with me in that regard. And I find it hard to believe that Ann has ever had any training in proper customer service in the hospitality industry. I was severely insulted and upset by our conversation.



continued in following post

[innerSpaceman]

continued from previous post


That afternoon, the hotel did send up 50 complimentary parking vouchers, and we appreciated the effort to make amends and do right by the promises made to me. But, making good on those promises did not make up for the rudeness and outrageous behavior by the hotel personnel holding themself out as the highest management official on duty.

The next day, to add injury to insult, I suffered a very deep gash in my arm from an extremely dangerous condition in the suite, namely, a razor-sharp, protruding strip of metal running the width of the heating control box in the master bath sauna. This sharp piece of metal protrudes from the unit at about waist height, and the mere inadvertent grazing of my arm against it caused a deep and severe cut which required several staples to close at the local emergency room.

Security and hotel first aid made reports about this incident, which you may consult. I am pursuing an injury claim with Disney Guest Claims and I expect compensation for any medical expenses I have incurred or may continue to incur in connection with this injury. While hotel personnel were kind and professional in their duties following this injury, that such a patently dangerous condition should exist in the hotel suite is nearly unthinkable in this day and age of heightened liability consciousness. It seems everything about the physical condition of the suite was frozen in time several decades ago. But I will return to that subject after a brief discussion of my final disturbing incident with the hotel staff.

On the morning we were to check out of the Marina Suite, July 18, 2010, I telephoned the front desk to request an hour’s late check-out extension. We had quite a bit of material to pack up and remove, including an entire kitchen’s worth of cooking and serving pieces, and a large event’s worth of dishes, glassware, etc. In fact, your crack bell staff (for whom I have nothing but praise), filled 17 carts of materials brought up to the suite, and it took 7 bellmen nearly an hour to accomplish that moving task (far less cumbersome than the packing and moving task facing us the morning of check-out). In any event, the front desk insisted they could grant me only a half-hour extension, representing there was a party checking into the suite that day.

This would have been reasonable and expected if indeed there were another party checking into the suite that day. But as we were still guests of the hotel, staying in a room across the hall from the Marina Suite for one extra day, we observed that the housekeeping staff was still cleaning the suite at 6:00 p.m. I believe if guests were expected to check in that day, the suite would have to have been ready by the 3:00 pm check-in time (and we certainly left it in a condition conducive to meeting that deadline). I’m afraid the suite still being cleaned at 6:00 p.m. left me with the impression that hotel personnel had once again been less than honest with me, and once again had been needlessly stingy in extending barely extraordinary customer service.

As a guest for several days in what I believe to be the hotel’s largest suite, I don’t necessarily expect a level of customer service greater than that provided to any other guest. But I dread to think that any other guests received the disgraceful levels of customer service my party and I were treated to during our stay.

Furthermore, the physical condition of the suite, as I alluded to previously, is deplorable and completely out of line with the rates the suite commands. The furnishings were decades old, threadbare and scuffed up. Frankly, they are the same tired furnishings featured in every standard guest room of the Disneyland Hotel - and I don’t believe my expectation that a suite commanding such prime rates of stay be furnished somewhat more luxuriously is in any way out of line. We actually had to bring in our own video display unit for a presentation we had to make, as there was nothing but decades-old, tiny tube televisions in the suite. Seriously, in 2010, the level of amenities in a suite of this kind was simply unfathomable.

And while it was very nice to have a suite with a full kitchen, which allowed us to host the type of event we had contemplated, the kitchen appliances were woefully outdated and careworn. There was no microwave oven and the dishwasher was barely functional, leaving us to again wonder in which decade the suite had last been updated. If the full kitchen had been stocked with so much a sink stopper, it would have been faster and more effective to wash the large quantities of dishes and glassware by hand. As it was, we brought in a wide variety of kitchen gear, including a microwave oven, but would never have thought to provide our own sink stopper. In addition, the temperature indication numbers were all worn off the oven dials, making it very difficult to properly prepare food for our guests. As I said, it was nice to have a kitchen - but in 2010, we did not expect one circa 1985.

I understand that the tower in which the suite is located is due for an extensive renovation in 2012, and that the suite will be refurbished at that time. But there is no excuse for such a prestigious and frankly expensive suite in 2010 to show signs of neglect and inattention dating back several decades. I believe it is common in the hospitality industry for such prestigious suites to receive tender, loving care on a regular basis, to reflect current standards of technological convenience and amenities, and frankly to express a level of luxury in their furnishings and fixtures above and beyond what might be found in standard guest rooms of the same establishment.

In short, we experienced very high levels of disappointment with the state of our suite and with the nature of guest service extended to us. Every day of our stay was marred by the oft-embarrassing and once-is-enough injuriously dangerous conditions of our suite, and by being treated to stinginess, theft, insult, threats and contempt by members of the staff and management.

I hope serious note will be taken of our complaints, and several issues addressed at the Disneyland Hotel so that other guests need not have as disappointing an experience as we did during our very expensive stay. Crass as it may be to relate my guest satisfaction to money, I nonetheless hardly feel I got my thirteen thousand dollars’ worth.

Though many members of the hotel staff treated us well and did their jobs quite ably and professionally, I must overall give the Disneyland Hotel a rather disgraceful failing grade. This was perhaps my 7th or 8th stay at the Disneyland Hotel, but I cannot imagine I would choose to be a guest of your establishment in the future.


Regretfully,

:iSm:

[Gemini Cricket]

I think they haven't responded yet because they're still reading.
lol
:D

Nice letter. Thumbs up.
:)

[RStar]

Wow, Steve. I'm sorry you had to put up with all of that durring such a great event. I'm glad the event it's self was such a huge hit, that these problems didn't overshadow it too much.

[Snowflake]

I think they haven't responded yet because they're still reading.
lol
:D

Nice letter. Thumbs up.
:)

Steve, I'm sorry your great celebration was marred by all these nitwits.

Brad, Bwahahahahahaaaaaaaaaa, you positively slay me!

[Gn2Dlnd]

You're doing better than I would in the same situation. My training comes straight from the queen of righteous indignation. I've seen, and cowered, as my mother held her ground and demanded, and demanded, and demanded, AND DEMANDED, AND DEMAAAANNNNDED what she thought was right. It's terrifying, really, and has taken me years to learn that that's not the best way to deal with people.

Every so often, though, the skill comes in handy. ;)

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/1/1e/Bonita_Granville_in_The_Beloved_Brat_trailer.jpg/220px-Bonita_Granville_in_The_Beloved_Brat_trailer.jpg (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bonita_Granville) She looks kinda pissed, wouldn't you say?

[innerSpaceman]

The only thing that really bugged me was that bitch Ann who repeatedly called me a liar and made up stories about what other people said to me. I was really agitated for about an hour.

I wasn't happy about my injury either, but not nearly as upset. I'm not too happy with the way Disney's handling it though. In fact, the only reply I had to my letter was from the woman handling my injury claim, and she proceeded to grill me on why I rented the suite in the first place if it was in such shoddy condition. And she wanted to know what I was trying to get out of Disney by writing that letter. Sheesh.

[Kevy Baby]

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/1/1e/Bonita_Granville_in_The_Beloved_Brat_trailer.jpg/220px-Bonita_Granville_in_The_Beloved_Brat_trailer.jpg (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bonita_Granville)
She looks kinda pissed, wouldn't you say?Your Mom was Bonita Granville? What a small world!






after all

[Gn2Dlnd]

And she was the original Tinkerbell for Fantasy in the Sky!

I was born nine months after she and Art Linkletter were holed up one snowy night on the icy slopes of the majestic Matterhorn.

[lashbear]

Well, it just goes to show, doesn't it ? ....

You get whinging guests all over the DLR, not just in the parks.

;) :p

[Cadaverous Pallor]

Well, it just goes to show, doesn't it ? ....

You get whining guests all over the DLR, not just in the parks.

;) :pFixed yer typo :p

[Gn2Dlnd]

Oh, you know those Australasians, always stuffing extra "o"s and "u"s and "g"s into wordes.

[lashbear]

er, whingeing? :blush:

[Ghoulish Delight]

CP's just making fun of the Britishism (it's "whining" her ein the states, not "whinging").

[lashbear]

Oh.... Tell her to stop whining then. ;)

[Kevy Baby]

I thought she was just winging it...

[Ghoulish Delight]

Also, we say "ein" instead of "in".

And "her" instead of "here".

Isn't multiculturalism cool!

[Alex]

No, it scares me.