“...a sound broke
out over the gently rippling water. In fact it was a sound that they
had heard several times since entering Frontierland without thinking
anything of it…because never during fifty years of their
experience, except for comparatively brief stretches involving
maintenance, had Frontierland been without it. It was almost
background noise, a sound they took for granted. Its absence would
have been a deafening clamor.
It was the low, mellow
blast of the steam whistle on a paddlewheel-driven riverboat.”
– Crowns of the Kingdom
Chapter 6, “Weirdness in the Wild West”
It
may be the height of arrogance to quote one's own writing, but while
planning this post and trying to come up with the best way to explain
what it has been like to be without the Mark Twain—and
the Columbia and the
Disneyland Railroad and the rest—since January of 2016, I realized
that...I already had. Their absence has been a deafening clamor.
Disneyland isn't quite itself without these 100% classic
attractions...particularly the steamboat and steam train, Opening Day
originals.
It's
been especially disconcerting because we've known the whole time that
when they re-opened, these rides would be drastically—and
permanently—altered. New construction around the edges of the park
has affected the Disneyland Railroad before, of course, but never
quite on this scale. We've been hearing a lot about how the train now
turns left for the
first! time! ever! as if that were something genuinely exciting. Me?
I wasn't sure anything could make up for the fact that Tom Sawyer
Island and the Rivers of America themselves have been truncated
in order to free up land for Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge.
So
now that I've seen it all...how is it? So glad you asked...
