Kenversations™
Disneyland 35th Anniversary Celebration
Part Two

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If you missed it, Part One is still available.

Adventureland
Beyond the Plaza, Adventureland waits. There is a smooth, green surface throughout the area. The Enchanted Tiki Room is pretty much the way Walt Disney left it. Once past the Tiki Room, the most prominent thing at the entrance of the area is the restroom, with two entrances to the women’s room – one with an Adventureland theme and one with a Frontierland theme. The pay phones are tucked back by the men’s room entrance, right by the door that cast members are using to get backstage. It’s a tight fit when someone from Custodial brings a large themed metal trash cart through there!

Adjacent to the Enchanted Tiki Room is the Tahitian Terrace, featuring tropical themed food and live entertainment. It is a table-service restaurant that is very popular, with steak, shrimp, chicken, and fish. During the daytime, a character show plays called “Legend of the Island Jewel�?, featuring Roger Rabbit (of course!), Goofy, Mickey and Minnie. At night, the show is Drums of the Islands.

The Jungle Cruise, with its brightly painted boats with the striped canopies and simple, ground-level queue area with the thatched roof, is nearby. Piranhas have not been found in the jungle waters. The Temple of Mara, also known as the Temple of the Forbidden Eye – is a local legend, believed to be buried somewhere in the in the jungle… perhaps Indiana Jones can find the place. Overlooking part of the cruise is the Swiss Family Robinson Treehouse.

A tasty, nicely-theme new place to eat, the Bengal Barbecue, replaced Sunkist, I Presume.

New Orleans Square
In the Disney Gallery is the new exhibit "The Disneyland That Never Was". In the room closest to the treehouse, a thirtysomething brunette woman with glasses is explaining to a handful of captivated people the details of the project depicted in a model in the middle of the room and illustrations on the walls – Discovery Bay. People ask her if she works there. She doesn't. The second question is usually "Why wasn't this great project built?".

Except for the long lines for Pirates of the Caribbean, Splash Mountain (the line stretches down near the Tom Sawyer Island rafts), and the Haunted Mansion, which does not receive any sort of overlay theming at any time of the year, New Orleans is a rather sleepy place. There is no nighttime spectacular on the Rivers of America. The Mark Twain paddlewheel riverboat keeps plying the river at night, stopping in the backriver for the fireworks show on summer nights. There is more greenery, especially along the river.

Pirates of the Caribbean features brightly colored boats. Aside from some technology enhancements, the attraction has stayed pretty much the same since it opened, with lecherous pirates chasing women. It is a very popular attraction, as evidenced by the lines that fill the area between the attraction and the Swiss Family Robinson Treehouse, extending way back into a covered area. An attraction that has these kinds of lines despite the high capacity could very well be ripe for a cinematic adaptation.

Below the Disney Gallery is the One of a Kind Shop, just one of several unique shops crowding every nook and cranny of New Orleans Square. In Pieces of Eight, guests can buy "realistic" replicas of old-style guns.

The Haunted Mansion is also known for having long lines, but at least guests can keep themselves entertained by reading the gravestones on the hill next to the mansion – they are humorous tributes to the Imagineers who put a ride into the place so that the living guests could experience it, too. The attraction is much the same has it was when it opened to the living, with the Doom Buggies emerging from behind a giant spider web (and giant spider!) to pick up the guests. Madame Leota stays on her table. An attraction that has these kinds of lines despite the high capacity could very well be ripe for a cinematic adaptation.

Down by the river, next to the Tom Sawyer Island rafts is the Keel Boat landing, where guests can take a ride on one of two small free-floating boats that navigate the Rivers of America as the guide provides the same kind of corny humor heard on the Jungle Cruise. Next to that is the Harbour Galley, which features such seafood delights as fried catfish nuggets, Cajun popcorn shrimp, and clam chowder in a bread bowl. It is a convenient place for people who are waiting in the 90-minute Splash Mountain line to send a member of their party to score a meal for them, as the teenaged, thick-haired sweeper with the nerdy glasses informs the hungry guests as he cleans up the line.