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USC and Penn State Visit Disneyland

I was at Disneyland on Friday with my wife and kids, enjoying my last one-day pass before it expires. We chose Friday because we wanted to see Disneyland during the Christmas and New Year celebration, and because December 26 was the day that the USC and Penn State football teams were visiting. I got a chance to snap a few photos, including these:

Pete Carroll awaiting his introduction back near the path to Snow White's Grotto.

USC's team captains hanging around while the Penn State team captains are introduced.

USC team captain and starting quarterback, junior Mark Sanchez.

USC team captain and starting safety, senior Kevin Ellison. In most seasons, a player as good as Ellison would be the finest defensive player on the team.

USC team captain and starting center, redshirt senior (or redshirt redshirt junior?) Jeff Byers.

USC team captain and starting linebacker Brian Cushing.

After watching all of us snapping pictures left and right, Kevin Ellison took a few of his own.

Pete Carroll talks about how awesome it is to be back in the Rose Bowl for the 4th straight time.

I loved this photo. Just because you are a captain, and sit on the stage, doesn't mean you need to put your camcorder away. We're all fans, right?

Joe Paterno and Pete Carroll get their Rose Bowl trophies from Disneyland.

Among the players who were not on the stage, Rey Maualuga was by far the most popular. Right after this, I got an awesome photo of him with my younger daughter that has already made the email rounds. When we bought her first USC jersey, she picked #58, and she was wearing it under her USC sweatshirt on Friday.

Taylor Mays was enjoying himself, too.

After the ceremony in front of Snow White's Castle, a bunch of cameramen with various media outlets set up around certain rides, including the Teacups and here, at the base of the Matterhorn, where they took pictures of the players as they took in the attractions.

Empty Boardwalk

Late at night, as the park is closing, this is Disney California Adventure, with not a soul in sight. Just a few hours earlier, this area was brimming with dozens of eager parkgoers.

 

They plan to spend a billion dollars to get more legs into this park in 2010.

Disneyland's Halloween Treat

If you live in Southern California and have a kid under the age of 13, the Disney Halloween Event, Mickey's Trick-or-Treat Party at Disney California Adventure is great. We hit this event tonight. It was a great entertainment value. Ride lines were short. We walked right on to California Screamin' and even the new Midway Mania ride had a very sort wait. There were craft tables, games of skill, themed decorations, lots of candy distribution stops, good music, character photo ops and lots of happy little kids in costumes, along with a significant percentage of happy and slightly weird big kids in costumes.

They don't open the full park until the official opening time of 7:30 p.m. (6:30 p.m. on weeknights), but get there early and enjoy the entrance shops, the diner or the music. If you want shorter lines, go to Midway Mania first, and for candy collection, start with the candy stops near the back of the park, and hit the ones up front later. There are four more nights of this in 2008: October 28, 29, 30 and 31.

More on the Disneyland Birthday Deal

You can register for their birthday deal here if you are not already a passholder or a Disney.com member.

Happy Birthday Next Year

Free Disneyland on your birthday in 2009!

Disney's VMK: Virtual Mass Killing

Next month, Disney will be shutting down its popular massively multiplayer online role-playing game, Virtual Magic Kingdom. Millions of players signed up for the game since it opened in May 2005 as part of the celebration of Disneyland's 50th Anniversary celebration. They made little characters, second versions of themselves as park guests, and played games, made friends and built rooms with their virtual wealth. Some players made more than one such character. But on May 21, 2008, every last one of them is being put virtually put to sleep. VMK's developer, Seth "Yavn" Mendelsohn, posted this Q&A regarding the closing:

Why is this happening? Why are you closing Virtual Magic Kingdom?
As Yavn mentioned in the Newsletter, VMK was created and launched as part of a promotion to celebrate Disneyland's 50th Anniversary. The game/promotion has ran well beyond the original time it was intended to.
When is the last time I can play?
The game will close at 10:00PM PST, Wednesday, May 21st, 2008.
Will I still be able to buy cards and pins in the Parks?
Yes, you can still buy VMK Cards and Pins at Disneyland and Walt Disney World Parks while supplies last but after May 21st, 2008 the codes will no longer work in the game.
What will happen to the game and the website?
The website will remain up for a few weeks to let people know what has happened, but you will not be able to log into the game after May 21th, 2008.
What will happen to all my virtual stuff in VMK?
Since the virtual items live only in VMK, you won't be able to access your VMK items or take them with you to another Disney Online Virtual World.

For the protection of underage players, VMK took great pains to prevent players from meeting each other outside the game. For example, players cannot type numbers, discuss where they live, and the limited dictionary did not include words such as "call", "phone" "address" or other such words. As a result, when the game shuts down, many players who had become "virtual friends" will have no way to chat with each other again. Not surprisingly, the players are freaking out, and not just the ones who bought virtual green thong sandals on eBay for $800. Disney is trying to steer VMK players toward their recently developed pay-to-play sites like Toontown and Pirates of the Caribbean Online, or its recently acquired Club Penguin, but so far, the VMK world doesn't seem interested.

Remember America Sings?

Twenty years ago today, Disneyland closed one of its classic attractions, America Sings, so that it wouldn't have to spend the money on so many fresh animatronic figures to grace its newfangled Splash Mountain ride. I was in the very last group of regular park guests to go through the attraction.

Part one above, part two below.

You can't tell from these videos, which must have been taken a bit earlier, but on that last time through, the cast members had done all sorts of mischievous things to some of the characters. It was very un-Disneylike, but funny.