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I remember a cool September night at Disneyland, when I stood
and watched the last submarine of the night take its spin around the lagoon.
Reluctant to leave, I hung around a bit to watch as the last passengers to ever
ride that attraction at Disneyland, climbed up out of the sub. I saw famed
Imagineer Tony Baxter disembark after that sub had docked, and I imagined for
him, it was just as bittersweet a voyage to take as it was for me to observe.
Having grown up with Disneyland, I had sailed many a voyage on those subs. That
evening, the subs had been dealt a death blow. As a Disneyland attraction, they
were done and would sail no more.
On that night in early September, it had been about 15 years
since the submarines had had any refurbishment and truth be told, they were
looking pretty worn out. The technology that once was amazing had seen its time
come and go. Plastic fish suspended by strings and goofy-looking sea serpents
just didn't cut it any more.
As the then Disneyland spokesperson Ray Gomez said, "(the
technology) isn't as relevant today as it once was." For me though, it didn't
matter, hokey as the subs were, I had a soft spot for them and hated to see them
go. I wished that rather than abandon the ride, it could have been changed and
updated to bring it back to relevance for a modern audience.
That was in 1998. Since then, almost nine years has passed, the
lagoon has lain dormant, and one of the original three E Tickets has lived for
those nine years only in Yesterland (the other two original E Tickets were the
Matterhorn and the Monorail and thankfully, they were and still are, going
strong). At that point in time, Paul Pressler was president of Disneyland. Since
he was pretty famous for closing up attractions and replacing them with nothing,
there wasn't much hope for anything to replace the subs. It was sad to walk by
the lagoon and see that big expanse of water with no action in it.
Until ... one fall day in 2004 a little spark of hope arrived on the scene. A
sub had been dragged into the lagoon with a "box" built next to it. Rumors
abounded, but what was really going on was that Imagineering was doing a test to
see if new technology would work to bring a version of Pixar's film Finding
Nemo to the submarines.
If all went well, Imagineers could pitch the
technology to management and get the funding to go ahead and redo the subs in a
manner that that would capture the attention of today's park visitors.
I guess it all went pretty well.
Last week, I stood by the side of the lagoon once more. This
time, the view brought no hint of bittersweet, only pure pleasure, as the shiny
yellow submarines glided through "liquid space" once more.
And in a week's time, park guests will once again be able to
queue up for the subs. It's about time don't you think dear readers? Nine years
is much too long for such a huge chunk of Disneyland to lay dormant.
A little history is in order here, and then I'll get to
Finding Nemo Submarine Voyage, because I know you are all dying to hear what
the new attraction is like, and yes ... I have taken a ride on the subs ... and
I am all astonishment.
Opening to the public on June 6, 1959 the original eight
submarines were painted gray and were modeled after America's newest fleet of
nuclear submarines. The initial names of the eight subs were Nautilus, Triton,
Seawolf, Skate, Skipjack, George Washington, Patrick Henry, and Ethan Allen.
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