55 and 50 Party - Disneyland and Zlick!
 

TWO BIRTHDAYS, BOTH ALIKE IN AWESOMENESS




It’s a July bursting with Fifties. :birdy:


First - - - DISNEYLAND ‘55 - A fantastically coincidental bit of Fateful Timing.
This year, the Happiest Place on Earth turns 55 years old BECAUSE it was created in ‘55!!

Boggles the Mind, Stirs the Senses. Come and Party with Us to Celebrate the Strange. :eek:

On the eve of Disneyland’s 55th Birthday, the LoT of you are invited to join our traditional Night-Before blow-out at the Disneyland Hotel on Friday, the 16th of July, 2010.

But not just any blow-out. We’re pulling out all the stops and having this year’s party in the famous, swankadelic Wrather Suite - the decadent penthouse of the Marina Tower that we’ve drooled over and dreamed about since this series of parties started at the hotel 25 years ago! :snap:

Named for Jack Wrather, the creator and long-time owner of the Disneyland Hotel, the suite was long closed to the public because it was Jack and Bonita Wrather’s home-away-from-home once the Marina Tower of the hotel was built in the early 1970’s. And it’s a ‘70’s masterpiece of hipster style and groovy chic. Come check it out!! :D


Then - there’s also the small matter of 50 YEARS OF ZLICKERY :iSm:

A child of the 60’s, a boy of the 70’s, a drugster of the 80’s, a dad in the 90’s, and a Man for the New Millennium Right Now!

That’s right, bitches - it’s Steve Zlick’s 50th Birthday!! :p


ok, technically speaking, my birthday is two weeks earlier, on the 2nd. But why throw two incredible parties when we can combine-athon into one overwhelmingly spectacular party of magnificence?!?!


So that’s just what we’ve done. A once-in-a-lifetime night of celebrating in the Disneyland Hotel’s legendary Wrather Suite - The Swankiest Place on Earth!


:cheers:


Friday, July 16, 2010 - starting at 8:00 pm and ending way later. Top floor of the Magic Tower (formerly the Marina Tower) (soon to be the Fantasy Tower) - or just ask for the Presidential Suite (formerly the Marina Suite) (formerly the Wrather Suite).

:confused: Confused? Ha, and the party hasn’t even started!

I hope you all have fun. I can't even attend the 10th Anniversary MousePlanet stuff so I won't be any closer than 400 miles.

But am I missing something? I don't understand this part:



Is that just humor or do you see something odd in it? Almost everything that has a start date will eventually have that happen. In 10 years you'll celerate your 60th birthday because you were born in '60 in 2048 I'll celebrate my 74th birthday because I was born in '74. In 3810 Disneyland will be 1,955 years old because it was opened in 1955.

This probably looks like party pooping but I don't intend it to be, I'm just feeling like something went over my head.

Oh, Alex - it's just my usual Zlick hyperbole!


It's not really odd, insomuch as unique. But sometimes the turn of a phrase means not using the most perfectly descriptive English language wording available.


And apart from the hoopla that generally surrounds the "big" numbers that are societally acceptable from the shared calendar (the recent 50th comes to mind) ... Disneyland has, as far as I know, only two oddities of number anniversaries coincident to numbers meaningfully related to Disneyland.

The 33rd Birthday was in 1988, and we celebrated the quirkiness with a dinner at Club 33. After 55, I don't know of any number that will have this nerdy quirk. (Well, I guess I just won't be around in 3810.)

This is the kind of anniversary that's for the Disneyland geeks and not necessarily the masses. The company has some developed cool artwork for merchandise related to this quirk, but I assume all promotion this summer is going to be for Summer LessFailtastic (we hope) and Please Save DCA World of Color.

This is going to be EPIC! I can't wait!!!

That's fine, I got it then. I just wasn't sure if I was overlooking some deeper numerological connection.

This is going to be super fantastic! I wish I could be there for it.
:)

They make these things called airplanes that can bring you places, including California. You can pay money and they give ticket to get on one that goes where you want to go. Then you go to this place called the airport and get on the airplane. Then when the plane lands you are in California and you have some of your friends pick you up and take you to the party!

Ugh, Brad the consummate actor is in a show during that time period. A little facebook birdie told me, though, that he's part of a 37-strong ensemble cast and that no one gets more than a minute of stage time and that he's bored in this particular production.


Maybe if we put on a show at the party and offer him a plum role, he can leave the lame show for a better offer. He can play Paul Pressler in the Disneyland melodrama we will somehow come up with!!

We can call it Shopgirl.

I'm suddenly picturing Brad behind the perfume counter at Black's....

This is gonna make the 50th look like a cup-cake party!

And like they say, I have so many men...

I wish I could go truly. But the play is going to take up all my time. And it may run for a full 6 weeks... which is cool and exhausting all at the same time.
:D

Pfft, we have plays here in Los Angeles, missy. In fact, at this point in your career, Broadway beckons. (L.A. is on the way to that great white one).


Bornieo: The 50th was a cup cake party. Those awful cupcakes they could not get rid of, because no one wanted a second. (Unlike the sheet cake they were serving every 20 yards for the 40th birthday - yum, yum, stuff yourself all day yum).

But yes, of course, it will make mincemeat of our 50th Disneyland Hotel party. There's a lot less general excitement for the 55th, and I doubt this will bring every Disneyland fan out of the woodwork like 5 years ago. But Disneyland '55 is so geektastic, I almost like it better than the 50th. We will make it outstanding!!!

The 50th was incredible due in no small part to the awesome efforts of those attending that weekend, and no small part of those efforts included iSm running around working his magical mischief.

This sounds like it will be a party to end all parties...and it better be, since many of us are attending sans APness.

So, in lieu of the Carousel take-over, what are we going to do?

Take over the bathrooms or the hallways. Or chain ourselves to the Lost Bar, waterfalls and motorboat areas in protest.

Storm the Dream Suite.

How many people does Space Mountain hold?

Many of the attendees will be APless.

Well, there are certain APless peoples whom I trust completely - and I would let them hold down the fort at the Wrather Suite to keep the permanent party going during the brief stints when others of us will be in the Park (going by past experience, that's 9am to noon and 8:00 pm to park closing on the birthday).

I was just referring to a sinking of Space Mtn.


Has anyone seen the money tree? I'd really like to renew on the bday. Or before.

Been there - done that :D

We had a group of 13 and a train holds 12. So what do they do? Put 12 on one train and ONE (Gn2Dlnd - AKA Parmesan Jim) on another. He had a train all to hisself

CMs were funny, trying to insist it wasn't a weight issue, but an issue with the train. Yeah, right...

Personally, I think it was CP who put us over the top on the weight overload.

Especially since our passes will be expiring about 3 weeks after and we will not be renewing so really want to take advantage of being in the park as much as possible. Especially since it is a Saturday and i do not have to work the next day either.

We'll be there. I've heard of Zlick (big fan), but what is this Disneyland you're all talking about?

It's that dumpy little place across from Disney California Adventure

I was there.

I wasn't there, but I found that on the internet. ;)

It was that fat guy in blue...

Well, I hear he IS fully loaded...



Oh, and I aint going to no stinkin party.

Lash! I haven't seen you around in a while, how've you been?

This sounds great! I'll try to make it!

Steve, all your parties are epic. I'm sure this one will be no exception. So as long as work cooperates (and regardless of it, since the party will probably be as long as "New Year's"), I'm so totally there.

Looks like Hubby and I will make it....can't see getting off Medical Leave until at least August. Sounds like the party of a lifetime!

Makes me laugh every time. I am so immature. :D

See, not as funny.

Of course you can always take a P. If you do, please don't do it in the pool.

So immature I can barely stand myself. :D

Someone actually needs to invent a chemical that DOES turn the pool blue (or some other color) from pee.

The requisite Snopes article.

And I am Gn2Dlnd's partner in immaturity. But you knew that already.

Why do you think I posted it?

For those who lack APness, there's always the retro Disneyland slide show event that MousePlanet is presenting on the 17th:

http://www.mouseplanet.com/9266/Mous...iversary_Party

I think we've talked about it as a possible swanking at one point, so here's a chance. :)

We've seen this before and it's totally awesome, well worth the entrance fee.

Not too bad... mostly.

Party!

Hmm, it seems Mr. Zlick has more influence than any of us ever imagined...

Knott's is selling those too, for this summer's Light thing in Camp Snoopy.

Bwahahaha, what took them so long this time.


Back when Disneyland was only thirty years old, my friend Bonnie worked for the company that made glow-sticks. We wore them all over ourselves into Disneyland, and even made chains of them that reached from our top-floor Sierra Tower room all they way to the ground outside the Disneyland Hotel.

The next summer, Disneyland was selling them - and they were the bane of dark rides for over a decade.


I hope the glasses work out better, but I note they're not marketing them for Space Mountain. When will they learn?

Well, I wish you the best!

Big Changes are coming to the Disneyland Hotel, an institution that has changed, and changed and changed again so many times it could make your head bellhop spin. This time, the Neverland Pool is being expanded to cover the area now occupied by the Lost Bar and adjacent grassy paradise. The new section of the pool will feature a phenomenal double water slide, with a replica of the old “Disneyland” sign on top, and a course that will take plungers through the shells of iconic Disneyland monorails! It’s going to be rad.






But what will be lost is beyond sad. The waterfalls at the foot of the Bonita tower are, to paraphrase Disney parlance, Flowing Away Forever. Le sigh. They’ve certainly been an iconic part of the Disneyland Hotel for as long as I’ve known the place - they were installed in 1978 when I first moved to California! In a hotel always full of evolving features and activities, they were (imo) the most Disneyland-like in their creation of a themed environment. I’ll be so sad to see them go.









Also getting the axe are the Cove Pool and the Koi Pond. In fact, the koi have already been removed - but to where remains a mystery. Some say they’ve moved to The Huntington Library, but other evidence points to a darker destiny for the koi.




















In any event, a rendering of the new layout reveals there’s nothing but a new grassy paradise planned for the area where the waterfalls and koi once reigned.








My apologies for any of you getting repeats of these updates through facebook or evite, but I don’t want to leave anyone out - because everyone on the LoT is invited, but I don’t have everyone’s email address or facebook friendship. So I’ll be bumping this thread every few days with a Countdown to 55/50 photo spread of the Disneyland Hotel - so you can get a fun run through its history as we lead up to the big event in July.







A rare color shot of the original Disneyland Hotel sign. It will be swell to have a replica back on the property.









Arriving by Monorail was a unique and stylish way to get to the Disneyland Hotel - with regular service starting in 1961 (and stopping in 2001, even though the station didn’t move - - just the hotel did.)








Arriving by helicopter was another stylish way to get the hotel in the early ‘60’s - when there was regular service between The Disneyland Hotel and LAX.









World of Color may be all the rage at the Resort this season, but Disneyland’s original fountain show was right here at the Disneyland Hotel. Performances finally came to a halt in the early years of the 21st Century. I guess they’ll finally get around to removing the facility when they demolish the waterfalls.








Jack and Bonita Wrather and family posing in front of the first guest room tower to be built at the Disneyland Hotel. Um, the outdoor elevator to the Top of the Park Lounge was built on the wrong side to allow the proper name of the hotel to be displayed. That was soon fixed with an addition to the Sierra Tower in the mid-sixties. Two more guest towers followed in the seventies, and the center of activity at the hotel moved west.




It’s dizzying how many different incarnations the hotel has had ... but I daresay that despite how cool the monorail water slides will be, the new version of the Disneyland Hotel will feature its least variety of features and activities ever. Worse yet, all the guest rooms are being “hermetically sealed.” There will no longer be sliding glass doors opening toward the bustling quad, nor any opening windows, nor any balconies.





We can only ponder the fate of the Wrather/Marina/Presidential Suite where the Fifty Five Fifty Party will take place. Its character and charm relies heavily on access to the great outdoors of the Disneyland Hotel quad vortex of fun. Just one more reason not to miss this fabulous party. After all, the magnificent Wrather Suite could be flowing away forever, too. And don’t forget to say farewell to the waterfalls while you’re here!











:iSm:

My Dad and his wife got married on the bridge over the koi fish pond back in (I think) 1985, shortly before I moved in with him to go back to school. We have many wedding photos from around the Water Falls

I wonder how many alka seltzer tabs it would take to get that whole thing really fizzed up?

I double dog dare you to find out. ;)

We already have plans that evening, but might be able to change them to attend. So, we're a maybe for now.

Well, if you're busy (and this goes for everyone), the party continues at the fabulous Wrather Suite on the actual birthday, the 17th (albeit a little more low-key) - from 1pm to 8pm (and then we head back into the Park) and - of course - the traditional After Party - from Park closing till dawn!!! (or as late as we can stay up) ... we do this every 5th year, but we are going to wring it out of the Wrather Suite like nobodies' business!

Coolness i so can't wait. Matt and I will be there on the 16th and hopefully if not on the 17th from 1pm til 8pm after park closing til dawn lol i'm ready to party big time....lol

I wish I could go...

Well, if you wish hard enough .... and believe strongly enough ....


:)




:iSm:

Did I say Chris and I will be there? If not, let me say it again. WE'RE IN!

I've been away from the park for a while and I'm really looking forward to a Disney extravaganza!

I just read through the thread, and realized I hadn't yet rsveepeed. So, yeah. I'd "rather" not miss your "sweet" 50.

Damn, I just used up my good birthday card material. Oh well, hope you like pictures of funny old ladies with unexpectedly risque captions.

It’s now T-Minus Ten Days and Counting to the extraordinary Fifty Five Fifty double birthday party at the Disneyland Hotel on July 16th. Construction is kicking into higher gear for the latest renaissance of the hotel, and I’ve seen some encouragement that not every room in the hotel is going to be hermetically sealed. Right now, they’re working on the roof right above the Wrather Suite. The next couple of years will likely see the biggest changes since the late ‘70’s.








From 1961 to 2009, the Monorail Station was part of the Disneyland Hotel, as was everything between the current “Downtown Disney” station and where the hotel now “starts” at the Sierra Tower.











The Marina Tower was completed in 1970, marking the westward shift of the hotel’s focus to a quad between the towers.









This cover of the Hotel’s 1968 edition of Check-In magazine depicts the fantastic marina planned between the recently expanded Sierra Tower (1966) and the coming-soon Marina Tower (1970).











An artist’s rendering of the Disneyland Hotel in its magnificent heyday of the Eighties. With the completion of the Bonita Tower in 1978, the Hotel reached its pinnacle of magnificence.









The vast marina made it seem as if the entire quad between the towers was flooded with water.











The Marina was dotted with miniature and model ships - including this replica of the Queen Mary, which was also owned by the Wrathers (and later by Disney when it finally bought out them out in 1989).









Paddle boats ply the Marina at the height of available activities for children of all ages.












A page from the Hotel’s guest magazine indicates how plentiful - and how plenty corny - the Hotel’s entertainment and activity offerings were in the fabulous Eighties. I heart the ‘80’s!!!






As we know, things have changed a bit since then, when the vast marina was drained and the Neverland Pool was built in the quad, to replace the Olympic Pool lost to Downtown Disney construction.

You’ll be able to enjoy a last-chance bird’s-eye view of the current configuration of the ever-changing quad, and see the start of construction as the Hotel is transformed once again. Friday night, July 16th. Hope to see you there!



A word about Parking:

There are actually 3 options available:

1) If you have the right kind of AP, you can park for free in the Mickey & Friends Parking Structure. It’s a short walk from there to the Disneyland Hotel, and it’s safe to leave cars in the Structure till the wee hours of the morning.


2) Free Parking at the Disneyland Hotel - Follow signs to Downtown Disney / Disneyland Hotel onto Magic Way - and take the second left from Magic Way to the Disneyland Hotel. Follow the signs to Self Parking.

Self Parking at the Disneyland Hotel will be FREE - but you may have to make two elevator trips between the 11th floor and the Front Desk to show them a room key in exchange for an exit voucher. At some point after midnight, the parking lot ticket booth will close and you’ll be able to exit for free without an exit voucher.


3) Downtown Disney - Follow signs to Downtown Disney / Disneyland Hotel onto Magic Way - and take the first left from Magic Way into the Downtown Disney parking area. The first 3 hours are free, or - with a validation from any Downtown Disney business establishment, the first 5 hours are free. After that, technically, the lot charges $6 per hour (with a maximum of $30) - but the ticket booth closes around midnight and you’ll be able to exit for free any time after that.





oooooh, Ten Days to Go!!!! :iSm:

*le sigh*

WOOHOO!!! This is gonna be GREAT!

Yay! The kittens are reasonably well behaved, so we might even stay out all night!

I was wondering about your birthday but I hadn't seen this. WOW

This is awesome!! I would say yes {and I know you'd say 'Who the Hell is this??} but I seem to never get to go anywhere.

But. If I wish really hard......I've been dying to go to the park and this is a great reason to add to my list for whining.

Love all of the photos!!!

I wouldn't say "Who the Hell is This." I'd say, "Wow, AWESOME!!!"

Aw, sweet!

Who knows, though. Everytime I plan something it crashes. I think I'll have to fly by the seat of my pants and see what happens. :0)

Wow - memory just jogged of some mountie show in the hotel bar, anyone else have this recollection?

Yes, but not from Disneyland.

Sgt. Preston's! It just came to me. All afternoon, all I could think of was "Yukon Clem," but perhaps that was one of the characters. Klondike Kate was another one. Hahahaha!! Loved that show - - tho I think I only saw it twice. I think we went because it was the only way to get a drink anywhere near Disneyland. ;)

Exactly! - and I recall being amazed that there was this sort of entertainment outside the park. Otherwise I came to the hotel to check out the fake beach

Oi, the days of the fake beach are numbered, too (though I'm not sure there's any more sand over by that weird pool in the back).

When I visited the hotel yesterday, there were walls up near the waterfalls - and my heart skipped several beats.

But the falls are still there - - for now. Lots of construction going on at the Bonita, though. Good news is, the balconies on the top floor will be staying, as well as the ones on both ends of all floors. Those rooms will have sliding glass doors ... and I expect there to be daily fist fights in the lobby for any of those rooms.

The new suites in the hotel are each themed to a land or attraction, and word is they are coming out quite beautiful. Rumor has it the Wrather Suite is going to be the Tomorrowland Suite in the hotel's next incarnation. That would be rad!

You know... if you go on this thing called the internet and pay money you can get a ticket for a very quick trip to CA. There's this place called an airport and if you give them your ticket they will let you on a plane and you will be here!

We want!
ERICA! (and Jason!)
ERICA! (and Jason!)
ERICA! (and Jason!)
ERICA! (and Jason!)

Yes, sometimes it just seems that Utah is a million worlds away from California. But it's not. :p

let's try this


My parents would love to see you! My daddy asks how you are and my mom is going to Canada soon. And Boo misses you too.


:evil: :p :evil: :p :evil:

Now that has some potential - I always thought the Park missed out on an opportunity during the recent Shag years to make a Space age bachelor pad lounge in Tomorrowland a la Encounters - I hear they did something like this during one of the Grad Nights.

OMG, if they had Shag design the interior, people would be LINING UP to rent that out!

Yeah, when I learned that yesterday, I was almost sad I'd jumped the gun.

But ... well, with how much they've actually blanded it out over the years, we've been tempted to make some modifications of our own that will certainly be interesting. :D

I've been thinking about how we used to "put up with" the Mountie Show because, for years upon years, Sgt. Preston's was the only place to get a cocktail anywhere near Disneyland.

Sometimes it cracks me up that, not only are there now five places you can get a stiff drink at the Disneyland Hotel, there are - by my count - a dozen other establishments at the Resort that serve alcoholic beverages.


Times sure have changed. :D


Is Walt rolling over in his grave? Or just rolling over from his daily afterlife massage to grab that first glass of afternoon scotch? ;)

In just a few days, Disneyland will be fifty-five years old, since it was created in good old ‘55.

Let’s go back now and take a look at the humble beginnings of the Disneyland Hotel, which also dates back to 1955 and will be fifty five years old later this summer. (For the record, I’ve been fifty for a few days now, but I still feel young and chipper.)









A fascinating aerial view of Disneyland in the summer of 1955. The rough encampment that was the Disneyland Hotel of those days is vaguely visible in the top center of the photo.










A pre-opening Artist’s Rendering of the very first “version” of the Disneyland Hotel. Some of these buildings survived until 2001 - when everything you see in this rendering became “property” of Downtown Disney. Absolutely none of the current Disneyland Hotel yet existed in 1955 when the hotel opened.









The original front of the Disneyland Hotel - before the monorail station was built. (My apologies for an earlier typo - the monorail station was part of the Disneyland Hotel from 1961 till 2001, not 2009.)











The first guest room tower was erected in 1962, and all of the lush Disneyland Hotel lay at its feet. Little could anyone imagine that one day, all of the Disneyland Hotel would instead lay behind it. (And apparently, no one imagined putting a Disneyland Hotel sign atop that tower when it was first built - because they didn’t leave room for it.)












A postcard of the original pool area of 1955. Tres Swanky. The swimming pool survived until the turn of the century.












It wasn’t long before someone had the brilliant idea to put a Disneyland Hotel sign atop the guest tower - except - oops - the exterior elevator is in the way! The “Euro” version of the name held sway until the Sierra Tower was expanded in 1966.









Vintage cars and architecture at the entrance to the Disneyland Hotel’s original restaurant zone. Fifties!!











A very interesting aerial view of the Disneyland Hotel and Disneyland in the early 1960’s. Pretty much everything behind the guest tower was a golf course - the main recreational activity offered in the hotel’s early years. Today, the entire hotel sits on the site of that former golf course, and everything on the Disneyland side of the tower is now officially part of Downtown Disney. Essentially, the entire hotel was moved a little to the left, and that guest tower - hidden somewhere inside a larger structure - is all that remains from this 1960’s view.










This advertisement from 1966 touts the new changes to the Disneyland Hotel. The construction of the Sierra Tower expansion is underway, and motel-style guest rooms start to encroach on the golf course grounds, pioneering the new territory that the hotel will famously occupy - when the bustling marina, Seaports of the Pacific shopping, Dancing Waters fountain show, the Horseshoe Falls, the Koi Pond, the Cove Beach Pool, the Convention Center, and the Marina and Bonita Towers will all be added!



Please join us as we famously occupy the Disneyland Hotel on July 16th for the most fabulous Disneyland Birthday Party ever! We look forward to seeing you there!








A word about staying overnight:

The day after the party - Saturday, the 17th - is, of course, Disneyland Birthday. Its 55th. Perhaps the quirkiest number birthday in Disneyland history because of its direct relation to the year of its birth. Or, maybe it’s completely meaningless. You decide.


:babette: But if you decide you want to head into Disneyland the morning after the party, you don’t necessarily need to go home. You’re welcome to stay in the suite - - if you don’t mind not sleeping in a bed (and not sleeping much). Beds are in short supply (there’s only one, and it’s taken), but space is plentiful. You can bring a sleeping bag or an air mattress or a blanket and stash them in our “quiet room” across the hall. We’ll bring out the sleeping stuff for the slumber party portion of the evening.

There’s no set time for that ... but experience shows (and we’ve been at this for 25 years) the slumber party doesn’t start much before three in the morning - - with laughter and giggling continuing till about four. Most people DO get to sleep before the sun comes up - - but sleep is not guaranteed - and activity returns to the suite early enough to get to Disneyland early (not by opening, necessarily, but early).


:coffee: I understand some folks have opted to get a hotel room nearby. And while I’m not urging anyone to incur that expense - - I have to point out that anyone wishing to get a decent night’s sleep AND go into Disneyland early in the morning might want to consider their own accommodations. There are a variety of reasonably-priced hotels in Anaheim. The Camelot on Harbor Blvd is a particular favorite (we host many of our “off-year” Disneyland Birthday parties there). But I reiterate, anyone willing to coast along on fumes at Disneyland in the morning is welcome to stay in the suite.


Of course, morning’s not the only time for Disneyland Birthday fun. We’ll be heading back to the Park in the evening for the uber-fun of Disneyland Birthday Night and will be closing the Park, if tradition holds. All are Welcome.


:cheers: All afternoon, we’ll be back at the Wrather Suite, continuing the party in more mellow style. Please feel free to drop on by, have a drink, nosh a bit, sit a spell, take a dip in the pool, or enjoy the current features of the Disneyland Hotel while they last - and they won’t last long.


:cool: Lastly, anyone who closes the Park with us that night (or who happens to be in the vicinity of Anaheim at one in the morning) is welcome to join us back at the suite for the After Party - our final hurrah of fun in the fantabulous Wrather Suite.



:snap: The entire weekend will be Rather Sweet. Please join us for any or all of it!

I'm hearing that the waterfalls officially close on July 15. Let me see if I can find where I read that...

I am offically not going to make it. Money is a huge issue and I will have The Boy.

Sorry to hear both those things.

Is the Wrather Suite a stop listed on the elevator button? How does one find it?

No, there's no elevator button. And don't bother asking for it by that name either. No one in the hotel will know what you're talking about.

You might ask for it by its current official name, the Presidential Suite, but likely few people will know what place you are talking about. If you must ask, mention the Marina Suite, and almost everyone working at the Disneyland Hotel will know exactly where to direct you.

But the elevator button you push is 11. In the Marina Tower (no, that's not what it's called now) - which is the "main" tower with the front desk and check-in counter. At Floor 11, turn right out of the elevator and proceed to the doorway on your right with steps leading up to it. You're arrived.

In more ways than one. :iSm:

We can't make it Friday but Maddie and I will be up sometime Saturday afternoon (she has a polo clinic in the AM). She's been reading all your facebok updates and is dying to get a peek at the suite. So we'll drop by and say hi :)

No worries. Please come on by in the afternoon, Saturday. Part of what's great about a 36-hour-party is that peeps can join in when best it suits. I'll be so happy when you and Madz arrive!

Ooooo Can we get Maddy drunk? ;)

Uh, no. But thanks for asking.

;)

By the way, Steve, great pictures of the Hotel! I miss the glass elevator.

I couldn't find any info or pics online about the floating ice skating rink they did for the holidays. My kids and I loved doing that each year when they had it!

Help us return the Swank to the Disneyland Hotel. We can do it with the Fifty Five Fifty Party!

Our latest go-round of Disneyland Hotel photos reveals that, while fun and activities peaked in the 80’s, the swank factor steadily declined through the 60’s and 70’s. Take a look.









Ah, the Top of the Park Lounge in its glory days. Reached by outdoor elevator that whisked you from the hotel grounds to this rooftop retreat, the Top of the Park Lounge was THE hipster hotspot of the Disneyland Resort - - well, long before there was a Disneyland Resort. Views of the fireworks complimented a round of cocktails in the sky. This is where traveling businessmen went to unwind from a boring day of meetings, and where couples retired for a drink or two after the kids went to bed, all tuckered out from a busy day at the Happiest Place on Earth. For a few brief hours every night, the Top of the Park Lounge was even happier.











The Monorail Bar near the hotel’s main entrance was an even busier saloon. Themed to different ages of transportation, this was the pick-up spot for the Disneyland Hotel. Check out all the swingin’ sixties singles on the make in this photo! Clang, clang, clang went the trolley!











THIS was the caliber of guest photographed at random on the hotel grounds in the late ‘50’s. Times.Have.Changed.











An awesome shot of the fin-filled parking lot against the retro-girder design of the restaurant entrance. Nothing screams Fabulous Fifties quite like this vintage photograph of Anaheim’s Disneyland Hotel.











By the 1980’s, the Monorail Bar had been converted to the Monorail Café some of us older folks are more familiar with. It was the White Water Snacks of its day, offering decent food at comparatively reasonable prices - and mere steps away from Monorail service directly to Tomorrowland. I’m sure I didn’t realize back in the ‘80’s what a fantastic yesterdayland the Monorail Café enjoyed when it was the Monorail Bar.











And the dress-code had relaxed a bit by the ‘80’s, as well. But ya gotta love that rear wall in classic attraction poster style. Friendly if frumpy waitresses offered fresh family fare. I miss the place. It was sad to see the Café go when the entire front half of the hotel was converted to the west end of Downtown Disney.












An iconic photograph of the Disneyland Hotel entrance, soon after regular monorail service started in 1961. Classic in every sense.












Walt poses with his beloved bubble-top monorail at the Disneyland Hotel station. Yes, folks, the first daily operating honest-to-goodness transportation monorail in the Western Hemisphere.



:iSm:



Let’s celebrate Walt’s dream-come-true. Disneyland, an American Original. Often copied, never surpassed. The Happiest Place on Earth since July 17, 1955. Fifty Five Fifty swank-o-rific celebrations July 16 at the Disneyland Hotel.

What great photos, wish I were there! Or rather then.

Somewhere, we have some souvenirs from the Mononrail cafe as we went shortly before it closed. I think we have a Frisbee flying disc and some other items.

Can't wait - Love the first pic and hope some of that swank still remains in the Wrather suite - and if not that we can collectively recreate it

It will need some swankifying, that's for sure. And this is just the gang to do it!

Alas, we will not be making it for the Friday night soiree. But we will surely be there to see the aftermath sometime Saturday afternoon.

oh, now my cheese is sad :(

But, Saturday is Disneyland Birthday! I'm so glad the Sloan clan will be around then!!

For some reason, everyone we know locally that would be willing to babysit has other plans for that evening...

Don't they have babysitting at the hotel?

I wish I knew some sweet old lady who could sit with Theo in the Quiet Room across the hall when he tires of the party scene ... but then I realized, I'm just about the oldest person I know.

Still - Theo is more than welcome until he tires of the party scene. I know another couple is bringing their 2-point-something year old until she tires of the party. So it's not like it's a zero-kid-tolerance zone. (It also won't be quite as child-prohibitive as Disneyland Birthday parties of yesteryear, as there won't be several people on acid and there won't be a nitrous oxide tank in the middle of the room ... so by those standards, this party will be practically kid-friendly!)
;)

Party doesn't start until well after his bed time, he'll have tired of the party scene before there's a scene to tire of. Especially when taking into account that he'll be getting his 6 month shots that morning,

My sister is getting married Friday evening and we have a big show on Saturday, so I'm afraid I'm out. :(

I was asking her mom.. but thanks for playing! :p

You've been out of the closet for a long time sweetie!

whatWhatWHAAAT!?!?
Who told?

Sorry we'll miss you SM, but mazel-tov to your sister!





(and, pssst, it was Brad Cricket who tattled on you.)

What a jabberjaw.

iSm, I am LOVING all these old pictures.

Not loving that I'll be 5 states away.

PS... Welcome to my decade. Jump on in. The water's fine!

I'm completely innocent, as always.
Hee hee.

It was, in fact, SM who outed himself and you at "Blast!" during the infamous GC meet of ye old MP days. "Are we segregating ourselves?" said SM. Or maybe it was iSm. I fergit.
:D

I don't know who did what, but that's definitely where I was outed. I was so subtle in gawking at the hot boys and their horns, but someone had to go and notice and go tell the world. Fortunately, my future boyfriend hadn't shown up yet that day ... so he didn't find out for at least 6 more hours.

Actually, Isaac was the first person I met at the meet. I'm not sure if he was with us at Blast!.

It is hard to tell iSm and SM apart when they are standing next to each other - it's like they are identical twins.

Don't you have some sort of photographic documentation of that day?

Nope. Unpossible. Isaac wasn't there in the morning. I first heard about him that morning when I tried to sneak backstage in the Nasa Exhibit that's now the Buzz Lightyear fastpass area. Not Afraid told me there was this guy named Isaac who liked that kinda thing, too. My interest was piqued, but he didn't show up until the Bangles concert at DCA.

We took an instant liking to each other. And it was just a bonus that I was into hot man-on-man action, and there was this guy named Isaac who liked that kinda thing, too. ;)




Yes, just like Danny DeVito and the Governator!

There's a great picture of that too. Cellphones as the eternal flame.

<snicker> Yeah... Right...

Pure as the driven snow, too, right?

He's as pure as any snow that falls where he now resides. :p

I was so skinny back then. sigh!

There you go not knowing things again, iSm. Isaac and I had a little meet of our own prior to the big meet. We met at the hub. He walked right up to me and said, "Hi. Zapppop." Then we walked around the park and then rode stuff and then came back to the hub for the big meet. Isaac was one of the first board buddies I met in real life. The very first, I believe was our Joyce. She came to the aquarium.
:)
I'm so pure! I'm almost Geisha-esque.

I loooove this pic! Wish we were there that day....though our dorkiness at the time would have ruined such a rad shot. ;)

Good news! Looks like we can make it after all. Tentative plans have been made with parental babysitters. :D :D :D Good thing, too, since looking at all the yeses on the evite was making my stomach drop.

I miss Teddy the Security Guard, he never comes to your events any more.

Keeping my fingers crossed that tentative plans for GD and CP come through. 55/50 would not be the same without them.

I had to find out why we didn't make this meet...witness the thread! :eek:

Hmm, August 2nd, 2002...two days before we got married. :D

What's weird about seeing such old threads is at the time it felt like MousePlanet was pretty old by the time we got the board up. And now, from the perspective of a decade later they practically seem simultaneous.

Heh... I was living in Vegas at the time. Wow... 8 years...

I'm not seeing the pic but it looks like cemeinke (heh) posted a group pic of 16 people...any way you could dig that up?

Me too. And I thought I wasn't :(

Daymn that's an old thread. Now I'm reading it to see why it was closed.

I think MP closes threads that are super old... I think.

That's right! Marriage before a trip to Disneyland? Whatever.
:D

Reading that thread made me all happy inside. But boy, I posted too much in that thread. But it was a fantastic trip. Loved meeting all y'alls. And I remember the drive to and fro being wonderful too.
:)

That's true. They don't want ancient threads bumped. I love that it makes all of our old threads look dangerous :evil:

It's on B's FB. I thought I had a copy but it's long gone.

I will hunt for it later

It somehow seems wrong to read old MP threads in the new colors

Let alone with current signatures and avatars.

OKay, I posted some photos from the day in a Picasa Album. Might see a few people you haven't seen in awhile and other shocking things - it seems we used to go on rides back then

Did you all buy any Oxyclean when you ran into Billy Mays in front of the castle?

Holy sh!t!

Ohhhh....it's been so long! The way we used to linger by the castle as they closed up the park....*sigh*

LOVE these pics.

Yet in the cellphones for the Bangles pic, Lisa is phoneless. How odd! :)

It was a topsy turvy world back then.

Yeah, you and she standing their with nothing but your naked thumbs sticking in the air! But frankly, I'm surprised that cell phones were around way back then! ;)

Kevin Kidney made this for the birthday:



it's 5 feet x 2 feet. It will be on display somewhere at Disneyland starting Saturday.

Which lead me to these!!!!

Rad Stuff! Can't wait to see that big display at the Park on Saturday.

Because here it comes, Ladies and Gentlemen. Disneyland’s 55th Birthday, this Saturday the 17th. Festivities start with a bang at the Fifty Five Fifty party, Friday night, the 16th.

Some of you may remember that other big anniversary celebration five years ago. Pfft, Fifty, Schmifty! Nothing says Disneyland U.S.A. like the number 55!!

July 17, 1955 was the infamous Black Sunday. Counterfeit Tickets were everywhere. People climbed over fences and scaled the berm. Drinking fountains weren’t working. Food and beverages soon ran out. Ladies’ high heels sank into the still-drying asphalt. Sabotaged electrical lines closed all of Fantasyland. A gas leak forced the evacuation of Tomorrowland. Guests were up to their ankles in water when their combined weight sunk the Mark Twain’s lower deck. And a D-list actor helped emcee the flub-ridden television coverage before going on to be President of the United States.


An inauspicious start to be sure. Later that summer, Disneyland welcomed its one-millionth guest.



1955 was a pretty cool year on other fronts, too!

• Polio shots were first offered in schools.

• The first Walk / Don’t Walk pedestrian signs appeared at crosswalks in New York City.

• Ann Landers’ column debuts.

• Rosa Parks refuses to give up her seat on a city bus.

• Tappan manufactures the first home microwave ovens - which retail for $1,300.

• Instant oatmeal is invented by Quaker Oats.

• Most people know that Roy Krok started McDonald’s in 1955, but did you know that Kentucky Fried Chicken also got its start that year?

• Crest toothpaste was introduced.

• The Village Voice began publication.

• Barbara Streisand enjoys her first recording release - at age 13!

• Gunsmoke hits the airwaves - for the longest run in television history (a record which, though tied, still stands).

• “In God We Trust” is added to United States currency.

• James Dean is killed in a car crash.

• Alpert Einstein dies, at age 76.

• The Ford Thunderbird is introduced.

• The racoon population is endangered by the coonskin cap craze!

- - thanks to Disneyland - opened July 17, 1955 - all because one man had a crazy dream, and he never gave up for seven years in bringing it to life.


For our last countdown photo spread, let’s take a look at Disneyland in 1955 - before anyone knew Walt’s wild idea would become the happiest place on earth for millions the world over, and a focal point of fun, pleasure, and friendship for so many of us.






Testing the paddle wheel on the Mark Twain








Construction continues on the stockade entrance to Frontierland








Building Sleeping Beauty Castle








Tomorrowland in 1955








Interior of the Kelvinator Circarama Theater








The original Fantasyland








Wally Boag, Donald Novis and Judy Marsh ham it up with a Disneyland guest at the Golden Horseshoe








It’s standing room only aboard the short-lived freight train of The Disneyland Railroad








Mouseketeer Karen Pendelton and pachyderm in the Mickey Mouse Circus Parade








Then Vice-President Richard Nixon receives the Key to Disneyland from Fess Parker








The Jungle Rivers of the World loading dock is the gateway to mystery and adventure




And the rest, as they say, is history ... and the stuff of legend.




Come celebrate the birth of Disneyland in ‘55 on its 55th anniversary. At Disneyland and the Disneyland Hotel. July 16, 17 & 18, 2010.


:tiki: The rough schedule:

Friday, July 16 - 8:30 pm - The fabled Fifty Five Fifty Party - likely to be the most amazing unofficial Disneyland celebration in the history of mankind, celebrating Walt’s Dream Come True and Fifty Schmifty Years of Zlick. The Wrather Suite, Disneyland Hotel.

Saturday, July 17 - Disneyland’s 55th Birthday. Morning in the Park. All afternoon at the Wrather Suite and the Disneyland Hotel. Nightime in the Park till closing.

Sunday (technically), July 18 - the After Party in the Wrather Suite - 1 am till ???

Note: :iSm: There will be a rainbow psychedelic group Space Mountain ride Saturday night - most likely right after fireworks. If you’d like to rocket through the cosmos with us at infinite speeds, please obtain your own Space Mountain Fast Pass sometime during the day. And wherever you are in the Park during fireworks, head over afterwards to meet up at the Space Mountain sign.


:cheers: Getting to the Wrather Suite:

The suite is in the Magic Tower of the Disneyland Hotel, the building with the main lobby and check-in desk. If you ask a cast member for directions, you won’t get any traction by calling it the Wrather Suite. Few employees will know what you’re talking about. You might ask for it by its current name, the Presidential Suite, but most staff will recognize it as the Marina Suite.

No need to ask, though. Just take the elevators to the 11th floor, turn right and proceed to the doorway on your right with steps leading up to it. You’ve arrived! In more ways than one.


:cool: That’s it from me. No more formal updates. I’ll be away from the internet for the duration, starting this evening. I’ll have my phone with me, but likely won’t check the ‘net during all the crazy preparations. Best to call or text me if you need to reach me. (If you don’t have my number and think it might come in handy for you, best to send me a message before midnight tonight and I’ll clue you in.)

:snap: :snap: :snap: :snap:


Fifty Five Fifty!!!

C’mon, everybody! Here We Go!!!

I love that! I'd love even just a poster of it!
:)

So exciting all this talk of Steve's birthday party with the history and the upcoming carousing and the general shenanigans and all dem stuffs.

Yeah, so where's our flat Brad?


No, I wants our REAL BRAD. My cheese is so sad you'll be missing this. :(


It's Just.Not.Right.

I'll babysit hawaii for you if you want GC

lol! No no. You three have to come here while I'm here.
:)


Well, if it's any consolation, I have a pretty good excuse for why I can't come to this wonderful shindig. I'm helping create a Disney-type fantasy with a Hawai'i twist to the local kids here. Adding to the Disney-esque nature of the show, I asked the director, music director and the whole cast if we could stick around after the show is done to do a meet-n-greet with the people who came to see the show. We'd be in costume and in character and available for photos. It's mostly because of our Sleeping Beauty princess character, the little girls wanted to meet her and pose with her for pics. I did feel that the show ends too abruptly and we disappear really quick (it's a long curtain call for 25 people... the audience would get sore hands if we let it go on for too long).
So, I get to be Bashful in front of the kids and get to work on some improv, too. The director agreed wholeheartedly. Tomorrow we start that. I can't wait.
:)

Wow - this is a GREAT picture. It looks like it required a lot of dodging/burning in the print process (what was needed before Photoshop), but absolutely striking. I love it!

Yep, you have to put yourself in the pre-pre-photoshop mindset to appreciate it. One of my faves.

Heh, in looking up some detail about dodging and burning (I know the high level concept, was curious about the specifics) I found the wiki page which uses a photo of Albert Schweitzer as a prime example of the technique.

For the record - I have loved all of the updates, Steve! You always know how to do this stuff the right way. :snap:

I remember Stevie's Disneyland's 50th party. All the way by the Neverland Pool on the ground I could hear Steve laughing from his room. Top floor, I believe. What a great party that was.
:)

If you were anywhere within sixteen miles of Century City, you'd have heard me laughing just now ... because, well, all I can say at this point is ...

BONITA!!!!

And thanks, Jen.

I'm trying to build for my guests one-tenth of the excitement I feel right now! :D

In attending this party I don't think I'm commemorating Disneyland's 55th anniversary so much as commemorating the 5th anniversary of the awesomeness that was the 50th - Steve's party being a good portion of that.

Went looking for my online 50th album and found out it was on Epson's long gone photo site. Here's a quick album of a few party-in-the-hotel-room pics.














Funny, I was just working with that picture the other day. :)

Our camera was left behind :eek: and someone took a few pics the next morning. These are the nice ones.

To me, and maybe it's related to me not having a sense of smell, but the memories of the 50th party make my mouth taste those cupcakes again.

"someone," huh? Hahaha, my ex is such a rascal.

Well, our view from the balconies of this party will be from the exact opposite direction. They won't be wide and spacious balconies, and they won't have a fireworks view of Disneyland. BUT ...

the room will be, shall we say, decidedly less cramped than the double bedroom that passed for a suite back then. This suite is A SUITE. It's the Wrather Suite, and its rather sweet, and I'm so excited I just might wet myself.

Based on who the someone was who was taking the morning-after pictures, I am guessing that there were some that were, shall we say, "non-postable"?

I have fabulous memories of the 50th. And easy to remember since I spent about 12 hours sitting at Whitewater Cafe processing all the stuff everybody else was doing.

Alex, if you leave in the morning, you and Lani could make it to the 55th!

I can't even attend the MousePlanet 10th Anniversary stuff because we have a major product release this weekend at work and I'll be pulling an all-nighter on Saturday.

Plus, as I was saying to someone else today, even after a few years without a serious visit to the park, the thought of going to Disneyland makes me shudder with mild revulsion. I keep expecting the last bite barfs to wear off soon but so far it isn't happening (I don't feel the same about WDW or the other resorts).

I'm so excited! I'm hoping the kittens are okay by themselves... I have a fab dress that I have to alter slightly before Friday evening. And I have to find a hotel, since I don't want to drive home that night!

We have to dress for this event.....yikes!

I mean dress up, just in case Kevy reads this.

Most vivid memory was missing the morning events, arriving late because of comic-con. <sigh> Standing near Mickey in Townsquare with thousands of gold ears around was a real moment though...



the 50th MMC was amazing, also! :)

I was in that MMC event! I was one of the people who turned the giant black Mickey Mouse Ears into a giant gold Mickey Mouse Ears using gold pom-poms! Ah, the memories!

*Happy Dance*

babysitting arrangement confirmed. See y'all tomorrow!

Nah, just pics of the piles of bottles and trash left over from a rad party.

Notice that all the pics are from early on - when things get really fun I don't remember to take pics. Seeing the fireworks from there was fantastic, due to Isaac's perfect soundtrack matching and everyone's participation.

This is making me want to post ALL my pics from that weekend, along with all the ones others took that I downloaded...

Yay! :snap:

And I may be able to stop by for a hour or two at about 8:00 myself. Gads, it's been years since I've seen some of you guys!

I don't know what you like to spend, but, when I was thinking of going up, I checked the places I like to go. Marriott Residence Inn Maingate. A bit high.

Second {within walking distance and cheap} the Motel 6. It is quite bare. It had wood floors. But, it was cheap, next door to the Marriott, too.

Dah. Friday?? I thought the party was Saturday? Oh well. Now I know I really can't go. I have an appointment to take my mom to the lawyer to get her one of those Health Directives? I'll be so bummed if she doesn't want to go. Wah.

I was going to try and go since I see a lot of people don't have APs. Like me.

I know it will be a blast. You all are sooooo creative and fun.

The party is from Friday night thru Sunday morning.....so you partially right.

Oooo. Okay, I am going to put on my thinking cap.

Thanks for the heads up. IF I can finish with the lawyer and IF I can convince some people I just might make it.

I need something more than just being a shuttle monkey for the bike riders in this house or the mom taxi.

I mentioned the book signing in Frisco and I had friends who WANT to do it with me...quite a few. But, it is such a long way.

Actually, there's a big party in the suite is Friday night, then the suite will be empty for a Saturday morning park run, then back to the suite for a layabout afternoon, then back to the park for Saturday nighttime antics - so if you're coming for the suite experience they probably won't be in there for most of Saturday night.

Rats. I want antics!!

I want to go to the park too. *le sigh*

I will have to experience it through photos, yet again.

So, all of y'all with cameras, snap away!!

We'll be there tomorrow night for a few hours. :)

Perhaps we can all bring our pics from birthdays past for a bit of a slide show and nostalgia - or maybe any childhood Disneyland pics and we can make our own Ken Burns live documentary

:cool: :cool: :snap: :snap: :snap: :snap: :snap: :) :) :) :) :cheers: :iSm:


(Because words cannot express how happy I am!)

Mwahahaha :D (and snicker)

BTW: We have a friend coming with us, so we are a total of three

:cool:

Hehe This is going to be EPIC. Just sayin' ;)

Holy crap! It is! I just got home, and the party is swinging. The Suite is sweet, and the decorations are awsome! Pirates of the Caribbean Master suite, Haunted Mansion hallway and bathroom, Innerspace master bathroom and Finding Nemo shower, hell sauna, and my fave- the cosmic bedet! :D

I had to split a bit early to take care of my wife, but man, that has to be the swankiest party of the decade!

Happy Birthday Steve!

Epic party of awesomeness was both epic and awesome. Was? IS! Couples were still arriving as we were leaving at 1 (only doing so as I must return in the morning. More visits to the party will be forthcoming....)

Pics are on FB, for those interested.

Wonderful part! The decor was pure Disney swankarific!

And as you can see, Kevy was enjoying the party: :evil:

Beyond awesome! Steve is the kink of swank!

Wheeeeeeee!

Spectacular, spectacular, no words in the vernacular!

Attachment 1491

Holy moley! The most amazing party - decorations - people - host.

Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious!

Cannot wait to go back today and take in even more awesomeness.

Epic party. Unbelievable.

Best.Typo.Ever

Thank you Steve (and familia) for the very swankiest of affairs!
:cool: :cool: :cool: :cool:

So sad that we're not going to make it up there. From the photos it's amazing. Hope everyone's having a marvelous time!

Steve- how in the world did you get "Gay" on the name badge????

Way to go!:snap:

The best party ever!!!!!

Being up for 30 hours now, I'm exhausted but it was all worth the amazing swank that was 55!

Thanks the the Host & helpers for putting on the best of the best. It was fantastic.

I just ran into Wolfy at Downtown Disney (ok she repeatedly yelled "Bob!" until I turned around :rolleyes: ), and she told me that Steve took an unexpected trip to visit the ER after managing to find a well hidden sharp object in the sauna (I guess it really was HELL in there!:evil: ). They stitched him up, and he made his date at Club 33. A bit of a bummer for this weekend, but he managed to put his swank back on and finish the day! What a trooper!

Awesome shot, Greg.

You look fantastically swank, Steve!!

I'm still boggling that anyone could get into 33 on DL's actual birthday...

Yeah, at Disneyland, when you go to hell you REALLY go to hell! ;)

If by "wee hidden" you mean "right out in the middle of the thing where anyone could easily accidentally slice themselves on an unnecessarily sharp piece of metal", then yeah.

Yeah, no one goes there. It's too crowded.

Actually, I said "well hidden" with a hint of sarcasim, but at any rate- yikes! What are people thinking when they do stuff like that?

"Hey Joe, do ya think I need to shorten this here sharp pipe sticking way out of this steam thing?"

"Naw, it's ok. I got a six pack waitin' at home. Let's get outa here!"

:rolleyes: :eek:

More of my pics:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/6614139...ted=4804572161

I've never ridden the sauna at Disneyland.

Which land is that in?

Finn Land?

[Falls over laughing.]

SL: I know that's supposed to be lame, but I can't help laughing.

I just had the most amazing weekend, thank you Steve, and thanks EVERYBODY for so much fun!

Did this weekend really happen?

Thank you so much to Steve! Collective geekgasm squee can't even begin to describe how awesome it was.

Photos being uploaded.

Photos here

Whee! We had a blast! I'm glad I have a day to recover. I anticipate a day filled with not much useful activity. The decorations were amazing. I loved the sky buckets.

Just posted my photos on facebook

I'm compiling a gallery of weekend fun pics, and when I went to run the batch, found out there's 55 photos :D

Here's the gallery- lemme know if you want any prints, the originals are a bit better- I had to resize and compress to get these up on Facebook.

Am I not allowed to see these (since I am not on Facebook)?

At the bottom of every album is a share this album with your friends if they are not on facebook link. It's what I used to post mine. Perhaps those who are posting their photos on FB can use that link so everyone can enjoy them.

I'm just glad :iSm: survived the 55/50! I thought he was unlucky enough when we met him in the parking lot on Saturday - he had to drive all the way home that morning to recover his forgotten park tickets. I guess getting your arm stapled is a sight worse but at least it probably didn't take nearly as long.



We had an incredible time. Hard to fit it all in a short post. Friday night was a legendary moment in time. The ambiance was perfect in that it was everything at once - swank and chic, dressed but not stuffy, warm yet cosmopolitan, casual yet stylish. The food poured out the kitchen, from classic cocktail fare ("Hot weenies, anyone?") to family style courses ("How do I eat soup and carry a drink?") Steve was barraged with wonderful gifts, each one inevitably sending him into conniptions on the floor. It was great seeing those from Steve's other circles, people we have known for many years of amazing events. I wish we could have stayed to hug all the late arrivals and witness the late-night hijinks but the few hours we could be there were still incredibly magical.

Saturday was a different kind of fun, laying around in the room, swimming in the pool. Theo did spectacularly well, as he always does.

There was something so right about the suite setup. In many ways it was a dream come true for us long-time APers. We've always wanted a lounge with air conditioning, unlimited laying around benefits, full food service and bar, and perhaps even a pool? The fact that it used to be a swanky space but had the magic sucked out of it over the years only to be given a turbo injected theming boost by our awesome hosts made it even more apropos.

Thankfully, we have today to recover. All three of us needed a break. Theo had a 3 hour nap this morning...and so did I. GD is napping on the couch as I type this.

Infinite thanks to Steve and his crew of master chefs, interior designers, and general mischief makers. You are legends in your own time. *tip of the hat*

Happy Birthday, everyone. :cool:

BTD thanks for the tip, I fixed my album

OMG I'm just starting to take a look at the photos..

The people mover/skyride? lights!!! All of the decorations...were they there or are they yours?

I'm going back in...these are awesome!!

So sorry to hear you had a visit to the ER. :0(

Oh, that was all added by the host and Santa's little helpers :D .

Disney should take note! :snap:

RStar, those are some pretty magical elves!! Those decorations are AMAZING! Those are fantastic. I feel lucky to even have seen photos of them. I've never seen them before.

Matt, I noticed that about your pics, too!! I thought that was on purpose!

JWBear, off to see your photos, I hope.........

Oh, yes, I did!! What is this 'rotating room'? And, it was a little apartment!! WOW

Steve, that was an amazing way to celebrate your birthday!! I wish I could have been there to help contribute, it looks like it was all pure magic!!

Was there today helping tear down and store all of the decorations....was remarkable to see what was a Disney dream come true turn into a rather boring type suite. Did not realize almost everything in the suite did not belong to the Hotel...including all the dishes, glassware, cookware, microwave, flatscreen TV, etc. etc. I think they only thing they did supply was a coffee maker and the normal amentities.

Another GREAT BIG thank you to all involved that made this weekend a Disney haven for us Disney geeks! This can never be matched again...or at least I don't think so.

And, thank you Diane, and all who helped host such a wonderfull party!

RStar....I had nothing to do with hosting, I only came and enjoyed just like most of us (and a little of the clean up).

I can't bear the thought of going back to work tomorrow. I don't want the magic to end.

What a weekend! It was pure magic and beyond my wildest imagination. I haven't been feeling the Disney magic for a while and I have to say it is back in full force.

What amazes me about any of Steve's events is the amazing detail that goes in to each and every one of them. But this one went way beyond the pale - it really knocked my socks off!

I'm still amazingly happy from the afterglow of the magic. Thank you Steve and thank you to all of my amazing LoT friends. I love you all!

My pics are up and on Facebook here

Now for some sleep

Well, then thank you for that part- it's the part that most people don't want to do! Any way it was good to see you!

And, it was so hot in that sauna that the duct tape holding up those little devils was pulling off, and I had to re-attch them. It was hell in there!!

Great pics everyone!

Lisa~ you looked very happy in the pictures. Glad to hear your Disney magic is back. That is how I met you and it was always a wonderful thing to share with you. You have the Disney magic and share it so well.

It was in reattaching said devils once more that :iSm: hurt himself. You evoke Satan, you pay the price!!

Oh, I guess I didn't cut myself because I only "re-attch"ed them. Had I "re-attached" them it would have been curtains for me! :evil:

I wonder how Steve is doing today.....

Truly an awesome weekend! This will occupy the same rank as the 25th anniversary and the 50th in the pantheon of Disneyland birthday blow-outs to remember. Steve, you guys did an amazing job, out-Disneying Disney. Congratulations!

I imagine 56/51 will be a small noon-time event at the corndog truck.

I can't really put it all into words, except that this shindig was 100% pure Steve. :)

I'm still unclear on who is, and is not, allowed to set foot in the suite...

I mentioned it in another thread, but for those who admired the great dress that Cynthia was wearing, you can be extra impressed by the fact that she made the dress herself. And she found the fabric and made the dress in something like two days!!!!

She also wanted to trade my shirt for it, but it wouldn't fit me....

What can I say, I don't get out enough, that is why I moved back to the magic kingdom :D

That dress totally rocked.

I love looking at all the pics! Looks like it was a blast!! Steve, how did you get all that stuff in there? I'm surprised they let you!
:)

I agree!

And just to be clear, the dress is too SMALL for my waist. And my manboobs might be too small as well....

wow - so sorry I missed THIS! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qJR8JGdcFjE

I don't want to be a Debbie Downer, but it's a byproduct of the CABG X3 that I had...

I bawled my eyes out looking at the photos. It's made me very sad that I couldn't be there and share the occasion with you all. I know that there are many people in the USA who still couldn't go either, but I feel like Charlie Bucket looking through the window of the candy shop at all the other kids who were buying and scoffing all the sweets.

Still, like Charlie, One day (2015, in fact) I'll get a 'Golden Ticket' and be able to visit that magical place again in person. Until then, I'll continue to get misty-eyed looking at the pics.

Sorry to be a drag. Resume merriment at will.

*sniff* {{hug}}

Well Lash, you'll be visiting during the 60th anniversary, perhaps there will be much merriment to be had then. Do you know the month of your visit?

We had a great time at the party, iSm - we were impressed (as always) by your marked eye for detail and decor. A celebration befitting the tandem excellence of the birthday park and the birthday boy. : )

The past few days have been nothing short of amazing. I have to say thank you so very much to iSm for asking me to help out- I am deeply honored to have been part of this already infamous event, and I couldn't be happier with how everything turned out! (Bonita! Bonita! Bonita!) I feel so proud of what we accomplished :) It may seem like the entire moving in, setting up, and tearing down process was a ridiculous amount of work, but it was so much fun to experience first hand that I would hardly call it work... From beginning to end it was a crazy, amazing, fun, exciting, challenging, creative, insane, brilliant, swanky, completely satisfying, EPIC experience! Thank you to everyone who came and enjoyed themselves! You all looked wonderful and it was such a treat to see everyone so happy!!!

GO TEAM!

Wow. Just wow.


:D What a blow out! Thanks all for sharing in the ultimate swank fest. I had such a good time, and everything exceeded my beautiful expectations. I'm so pleased it appeared everyone had a grand old time, and this was indeed the most EPIC endeavor I have ever concocted.


:blush: What a fantastic bunch of friends I have. The showering of love was overwhelming and appreciated.


:cool: The manifestation of my Disneyland-homage design fest was thrilling to me as it sprung from mind to reality. Not quite finished one hour after the party started (!), it was 98% of what I envisioned, 8% beyond what I had envisioned - and, best of all, seemed to me to fulfill its objective as a squee-inducer to launch universal good feelings, good times, and geekasms. The Fifty Five Fifty Party was so unbelievably rad, and the following days and nights of Disneyland Birthday loungifying of tomorrow, and after-party of trippiness were amazing as well.


:evil: I'm glad I'll have a scar to always remind me of the fantasticness!



* * * * *

While I'm so pleased that beauty, swankness, and fun galore sprang from my drawing board to the world - I somewhat regret the amount of toil and effort my insanity imposed on even a willing and beguiled crew of talented assistants.


:snap: Special thanks to keith - SuPeR K! and Omar for above-and-beyondness, start-to-finish participation and contributions that elevated you two to absolute co-hosts of this epic event.

OMG, you guys, you should have seen the high-speed and efficient coordination of the tear-down when the hotel graciously provided us a whole half-hour of extra check-out time to remove 98% of everything wonderful in that suite (only the rad 60's fireplace was original) and crammed it into a guest room one-80th the size across the hall. THIS WOULD HAVE FAILED if it were not for the Wolf Pack and their conscripted friends. OMG, the biggest thanks to you for saving the day. :snap: :snap:

(Off the board, my friends Randy and Mardeen and their boy Ryland from my Ren Faire days also helped tremendously with tear-down. Kelly, Mark and Duke also helped with set-up, as did Ginny - who also worked tear-down. Of course, my sister Leigh and her husband Richard did a big part of the set-up, and the "get-it" room that induced so many gasp reactions - the Pirate Lair - was almost exclusively their execution of my conception. Wow!)



And did I mention that Wow! is the word most in my mind? Tired is the word most in my soul. This was an exhausting enterprise for 50-year-old me, but what a 50th birthday it was.

:cheers: Thanks again everyone! I hope all of you had a terrific time, and my suspicions that you did make it all worthwhile, and make me so.damn.happy!


:iSm:

Welcome Back, Kink of Swank!! :cool:

Ooh, tell us about the velvet rope gift! I saw you unwrapping it across the way but didn't get to look at it.

What other swank gifts did you get?? The few I saw were stellar.

Pfft, yours among the absolute best. The 50th Birthday Photo Collage worthy of display in Disneyland was the funniest, bestest thing ever. And the collectible figure? Well, how much longer do I have to decide? I want them all!!! Right now, I still want to go with Jungle Cruise Skipper. He's so cute!

Yeah, but what was the story behind the velvet rope gift (as CP refers to it - I only saw that it was something memorable to you but didn't hear the story)?

I haven't had time to read the plaque yet - but the shadow box with the velvet rope contains a swarth of cigarette-burned carpet and of course the velvet rope from none other than Grauman's Chinese Theater. They were swiped from a garbage bin behind the theater by my friend Peter (btw, here's his photos of the shindig) right after the first 6-week camp-out, line-up in Hollywood for the Star Wars prequels.

I had been a veteran of the original trilogy's line-ups in Hollywood, and joined this new group of fun kids for the next generation's follow-ups. Little did I know then that I'd be making more lifelong friends. But '99 was followed by 2002, and then 2005, and then our friendships continued to this day.

So Peter has hoarded this stuff in his garage, hoping some day to frame it for a special occasion. Wow!

I was so touched by this elegant and unusual momento of great times and the beginnings of wonderful friendships. The whole gang of them got together for the much more expensive part of framing the wonderful items ... and it was easily the best group gift of the night (ok, the only group gift of the night), and truly one of the most magnificent birthday gifts I have ever received.


:blush:

Yep, I want em.

For the record, though I love looking at photos on Facebook - the site SUCKS for sharing. Photos are crappy size, low-rez bah.


As you might imagine, I like quite a few photos from quite a few people - but if you posted them only on facebook - would you please drop me a line so I can request the real deal of selected pics? I would be ever so happy if you would.

I'll say, what an inspired and personal gift that was!


Malkozlick Malkozlick Malokzlick

Attachment 1492


Good question. Anyone know when the Kevin Kidney figures are released, all I've seen is "later this summer".

Paraphrase of the conversation after Steve learned that we will be gifting him one his choice of those figures when they are released:

Steve: Oh no, what a difficult choice! Because...

Me: ...the Tomorrowland one is the obvious choice thematically

Steve: Yes, but then...

Me: ...the Skipper is more your type

Steve: He's totally my type!


For the record, if they were already out and we had just gone and bought one, we would have bought the Skipper.

I will be trying my hardest to talk the Stoat into July... Hmmm - the 60th... Maybe I'd better book the hotel room now. :eek:

Yeah, see what you can do....

That photo collage was amazing. I'm glad it was hung in a place where I could see it. What an awesome gift!

Various Responses:

It's a real name badge, albeit a DisneyWorld one. My co-host Laurie gave it to me as a birthday gift. (Many may not have seen her around much, she was in charge of the food and the kitchen - a great big hand for her, please, jeebus what a job!).

She'd been holding onto it for 4 years to present it to me on my 50th (which she did, on my actual birthday). I was touched all evening of 55/50 because so many people told me they'd been holding their gift for 2 years, 1 year, 3 years - waiting for a suitable occasion. Awesome.





Heheh, I tried to hint at it in my pre-party cryptic response, but yes - obviously - there was a slideshow of fabulous photos - very Zlick-centric of course, but naturally featuring so many of the LoT shots.

I'm planning on updating it with some photos from the recent event - - and more. In fact, €uroMeinke had posted some photos of the first Gemini Cricket meet earlier in this thread, but it was too late to include them in the show (it was one of the very first party projects, completed some 5 weeks ago).

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.






For the record, I love the Tour Guide one as well, and she'd be my second choice. But obviously, let's go with the obvious, the gut feeling, the instant attraction - and my choice is - d'uh - The Skipper!

Thanks for the great double gift. Wow.



Other great gifts from the LoT folks were the Dick Nixon campaign buttons from EH1812 and nirvanaman - so perfectly timed with me already wearing a "GAY" name badge. What a riot!

The 55/50 cuff links crafted personally by Not Afraid were another stunning gift. And yes, there was no hesitation to cut the buttons off my shirt so I could wear them right then and there at 55/50. What an amazing gift. Love them!


I opened many other gifts in the morning, some of which I'm so sorry I didn't get the chance to do with their benefactors in person the night before. Some laughs could have been had.

On the LoT side, Joe and BJ went simple but funny in recalling our the Hearthstone days when Joe was a drinker (and what a drinker!) - they got me a liter of 7-up and Seagrams 7, with a box of Sweaty Ass Crackers.

And, oh my, there's still one gift I haven't opened - it was all styrofoamed and taped to death, so I brought it home with all the freight and promptly forgot about it. Better go get it now. :cool:





In closing - I tried to mojo CP for this, but I must spread some around first. Suffice it to say it's the best description I've read of 55/50, so it's worth repeating:

I think I just pretended to read it that night. No glasses, 3 tequila sunrises, and a good dose of pot brownies = no reading ability for me. :D

So, I finally checked it out.


Ok, I may cry all over again. :)

It is fabulous that such crappy movies produced such a wonderful present.

Oh, I did enjoy the slide show, and got a good laugh at Steve's long hair in the 70/80's! :D

Of course you all would do the same if you saw my picture from the 70/80's!:eek:

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!

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.

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}

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.

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.


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)

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.

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? ;)

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

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).










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:

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

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

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.

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

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.

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!

I lost my virginity - do you have it?

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

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



















When I was 11

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

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.

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 ;)

Oooo - I want a photosharing party!

That would be fun!

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

OMG... fun!

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!

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

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!

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.













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







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.






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.













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.






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!







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.







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.











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











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.









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.




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!)






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.)






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.






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.

















... 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.














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:





.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

I hope you left this sign in the suite. I want to think it lasted until suite gets demolished/refurbed.

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:

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:

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!






All we started with was a bed and a skeleton.







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






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




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

We very nearly did ;)

It's sad to think it no longer exists.

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.

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

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

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







:evil:

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

Heh, no worries. I would have restarted it myself but I was a bit out of it by that point ;)

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 (better for viewing), and here at Picasa (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:

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."

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.

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.

Kevy should enjite him to the LoT as well!

For a quirkly, behind-the-scenes view (ahem, mine) of the spectacle that was Fifty Five Fifty, check out my el jay.


: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!

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

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

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.

We know you are

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

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.


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.)

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!

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.

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!

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

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.

Yeah, I remember him saying something

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

Finally, we've overcome a computer issue - here is the quick walk-through video I took.

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!

Awesome video!

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

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:

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

Nice letter. Thumbs up.
:)

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.

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

Brad, Bwahahahahahaaaaaaaaaa, you positively slay me!

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. ;)

She looks kinda pissed, wouldn't you say?

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.

Your Mom was Bonita Granville? What a small world!






after all

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.

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

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

;) :p

Fixed yer typo :p

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

er, whingeing? :blush:

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

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

I thought she was just winging it...

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

And "her" instead of "here".

Isn't multiculturalism cool!

No, it scares me.