The Miscellaneous Thought Thread

[mickEblu]

The new ads on this site are diabolical. I don’t deserve this.

 

[PiratesMansion]

The new ads on this site are diabolical. I don’t deserve this.

Use an ad blocker.

 

[mickEblu]

Use an ad blocker.

Uh oh I don’t think you’re supposed to say that out loud

 

[Distorian]

Really glad to see Disney is offering this deal.

https://disneyland.disney.go.com/en-ca/offers-discounts/kids-summer-ticket-offer-2026/

 

[TP2000]

Another year, and again Disneyland didn't participate in Earth Hour last night.

But I did! I had our neighborhood's Gourmet Nite dinner to go to, so I turned on every light in the house and all the deck/landscape lights before I left the house. At our host's house, I mentioned it was an hour away from Earth Hour and how I choose to celebrate, so he turned on what few lights he had left that weren't already on (guest rooms, mostly).

I'd have to imagine that Disneyland Resort still had at least a few lights left they could've turned on last night at 8:30pm!

Join the Biggest Hour for Earth | Earth Hour

Join us again next year for Earth Hour 2026 on Saturday, 28th March at 8:30 pm your local time as we create the Biggest Hour for Earth.

www.earthhour.org

 

[PiratesMansion]

Another year, and again Disneyland didn't participate in Earth Hour last night.

But I did! I had our neighborhood's Gourmet Nite dinner to go to, so I turned on every light in the house and all the deck/landscape lights before I left the house. At our host's house, I mentioned it was an hour away from Earth Hour and how I choose to celebrate, so he turned on what few lights he had left that weren't already on (guest rooms, mostly).

I'd have to imagine that Disneyland Resort still had at least a few lights left they could've turned on last night at 8:30pm!

View attachment 914133

Join the Biggest Hour for Earth | Earth Hour

Join us again next year for Earth Hour 2026 on Saturday, 28th March at 8:30 pm your local time as we create the Biggest Hour for Earth.

www.earthhour.org

I'm not going to get mad at Disneyland for not participating in something that I have never heard of, and that I wager many people have never heard of.

 

[DL-fan]

Was there a ribbon cutting ceremony for this?

 

[TP2000]

I'm not going to get mad at Disneyland for not participating in something that I have never heard of, and that I wager many people have never heard of.

No one in this country has ever heard of it. It's a European thing, mostly. Like scarves.

About a decade ago they tried very, very hard to make it a thing here. And the US media helped and tried very, very hard to make it a thing. But it went nowhere. At the time, there was some brief discussion among us on this board how, or what, Disneyland could do to celebrate Earth Hour without upsetting all the tourists by turning everything off.

That's about when I started turning all my lights on instead of off, just for fun.

It's still kind of a European thing, but now that they want lots of new electricity for AI even in Europe, it's struggling.

 

[Parteecia]

No one in this country has ever heard of it. It's a European thing, mostly. Like scarves.

About a decade ago they tried very, very hard to make it a thing here. And the US media helped and tried very, very hard to make it a thing. But it went nowhere. At the time, there was some brief discussion among us on this board how, or what, Disneyland could do to celebrate Earth Hour without upsetting all the tourists by turning everything off.

That's about when I started turning all my lights on instead of off, just for fun.

It's still kind of a European thing, but now that they want lots of new electricity for AI even in Europe, it's struggling.

Also an L.A. thing -- City Hall, Samo Pier Ferris Wheel, LAX...

 

[TP2000]

Really glad to see Disney is offering this deal.

https://disneyland.disney.go.com/en-ca/offers-discounts/kids-summer-ticket-offer-2026/

You have to wonder at what point the increasing population decline in California, especially Southern California, starts to impact Disneyland attendance???

Los Angeles County lost over 300,000 people in just the last 5 years. LA County just lost 54,000 people in 2025 alone. Orange and San Diego Counties were also in the Top 10 for population loss nationally, with OC losing 8,520 and San Diego County losing 5,294 in '25.

In 2025, the LA Metro area of LA-Long Beach-Anaheim lost 62,454 people. As a comparison, in 2025 the Orlando-Kissimmee-Winter Haven metro area gained 61,046 people. Tampa-St. Pete-Bradenton gained 26,751 people in 2025.

The people who are leaving California for other states are largely middle to upper-middle class, many with children. At some point, California's population decline is going to impact Disneyland attendance patterns. If it hasn't already.

 

[TP2000]

Looking at the Census data for metro areas from 2025 is interesting, and should be a boon to all those "Disney is buying up property in Texas for a Disneyland!" rumors we all love so much.

While the LA Metro area lost 62,454 people last year, the Metro areas of Texas had this one-year change in 2025:

Houston metro gained 126,720
Dallas-Ft. Worth metro gained 123,557 people
Austin metro gained 53,796
San Antonio metro gained 38,402

Lone Star Disneyland coming 2031! My barber's bus driver who is married to a realtor told me!

 

[Distorian]

I wish Disney would build a park in Texas. Unfortunately I know that if they did, it would suck. Shanghai, DCA, Disney Adventure World, and the planned Abu Dhabi all exhibit Disney's preference for departing from the formula that made Disneyland and other Disney Parks work. There is a rejection at WDI of true themed environments. Instead of a park receiving a central theme, they're amorphous and allowed to add any IP they desire. This is best exemplified with such hit lands as Mickey Avenue, Gardens of Imagination, Adventure Way, and, the greatest example, Performance Corridor. These are non specific lands with no time period, no story, no place, all so that they can be shaped and changed in whatever way Disney chooses. An anarchic model of theme park design. If Disney built a park in Texas, I'm confident that's what we would receive, not the kind of park that makes Disneyland, Epcot, Animal Kingdom, or Disney Sea special and good.

 

[Disney Vault]

You have to wonder at what point the increasing population decline in California, especially Southern California, starts to impact Disneyland attendance???

Los Angeles County lost over 300,000 people in just the last 5 years. LA County just lost 54,000 people in 2025 alone. Orange and San Diego Counties were also in the Top 10 for population loss nationally, with OC losing 8,520 and San Diego County losing 5,294 in '25.

In 2025, the LA Metro area of LA-Long Beach-Anaheim lost 62,454 people. As a comparison, in 2025 the Orlando-Kissimmee-Winter Haven metro area gained 61,046 people. Tampa-St. Pete-Bradenton gained 26,751 people in 2025.

The people who are leaving California for other states are largely middle to upper-middle class, many with children. At some point, California's population decline is going to impact Disneyland attendance patterns. If it hasn't already.

So last year LA county lost .005%
Dont think that is going to hurt disneyland

 

[DavidDL]

So, this about qualifies as a "miscellaneous thought" but I figured I would share it for whoever needed to hear it.

A friend of mine that I haven't seen in a very long time and his girlfriend flew in from out of state and wanted to see both parks while they were here (she had never been at all and he hadn't been to DCA in close to 20 years) so, I found myself in DCA as well about a week or so ago for the first time in long time.

Brace yourselves, because I have something positive to say! Pym's Test Kitchen was the hero of that visit because it has a pasta I consider on-par or at least to be a worthy successor to my lost Chicken Sun-dried Tomato Pesto Pasta from Boardwalk Pizza and Pasta. They call it the Pepper Particle Pasta and it is, in many ways, similar. The dining area itself doesn't hold a candle to the garden area outside of Boardwalk but I still felt this was worth a share for anyone who had been missing it like I had. In fact, everything I had here was great (tried the Spinach and Artichoke Grilled Cheese, as well).

This meal and a ride on Soarin' Over California were almost enough to make me wanna start coming back in on a regular basis. Though I fear now that I've said how much I enjoyed it, a menu change will soon occur.

 

[Distorian]

So, this about qualifies as a "miscellaneous thought" but I figured I would share it for whoever needed to hear it.

A friend of mine that I haven't seen in a very long time and his girlfriend flew in from out of state and wanted to see both parks while they were here (she had never been at all and he hadn't been to DCA in close to 20 years) so, I found myself in DCA as well about a week or so ago for the first time in long time.

Brace yourselves, because I have something positive to say! Pym's Test Kitchen was the hero of that visit because it has a pasta I consider on-par or at least to be a worthy successor to my lost Chicken Sun-dried Tomato Pesto Pasta from Boardwalk Pizza and Pasta. They call it the Pepper Particle Pasta and it is, in many ways, similar. The dining area itself doesn't hold a candle to garden outside of Boardwalk but I still felt this was worth a share for anyone who had been missing it like I had. In fact, everything I had here was great (tried the Spinach and Artichoke Grilled Cheese, as well).

This meal and a ride on Soarin' Over California were almost enough to make me wanna start coming back in on a regular basis. Though I fear now that I've said how much I enjoyed it, a menu change will soon occur.

I have almost no praise for Avenger's land, but I will go ahead and say the idea of Pym's kitchen is fun and classic Disney Imagineering. Feels like something that belongs in a 1990's Tomorrowland.

 

[DavidDL]

I have almost no praise for Avenger's land, but I will go ahead and say the idea of Pym's kitchen is fun and classic Disney Imagineering. Feels like something that belongs in a 1990's Tomorrowland.

Agreed on both counts. I had the stupidest smile on my face seeing the "Humongous Taco Salad's" come out of the kitchen because it's just such a fun and simple concept: a taco salad with a shell designed to feel like they just enlarged a regular-sized taco to giant proportions.

Oh, I should also point out: we just walked right in and ordered. There were two registers open for walk-ins and we didn't wait longer than like 10 minutes to order and for our food to come out. Meanwhile, the mobile order line was super backed up for some reason. As someone who haattttes Mobile Order in the parks with the white-hot intensity of a thousand suns, this was awesome to see and just added to my praises for the establishment on this particular visit.

 

[TP2000]

So last year LA county lost .005%
Dont think that is going to hurt disneyland

It's not .005%, it's actually .556% if you want to get to the third decimal. Probably best to just round down to .5%

The problem is that this is compounded over the previous years losses, and in the past five years since the 2020 Census they've lost 3% of their County population. The Metro area as a whole, which includes Anaheim, lost 62,454 last year alone.

That's going in the wrong direction. And it's doing it at the fastest rate in the nation. Demographically it's made even worse, as the people leaving are generally middle and upper-middle class families with children, grandchildren in the future, etc. and they are the core demographic for Disneyland visits.

You can replace some of them with single women aged 25 to 40 and other Magic Key Lifestylers, but it still leaves a mark.

 

[TP2000]

It's a bit scary to think how few of us here on this board are left who remember Mission To Mars, Presented by McDonnell Douglas in Tomorrowland in the 1970's to 90's.

That big video screen of the takeoff and landing in the auditorium, um... McDonnell Douglas Spaceliner was always a highlight. I watched this week's SpaceX launch tonight on YouTube and I still can not stop being amazed by this technology that allows the rocket to return back to its landing base or a floating barge offshore.

I wish there could be a Mission To Mars, Presented by SpaceX in Tomorrowland! To be ignoring this incredible chapter in human history, and what it holds in the next 25 years, in a land called Tomorrowland is sad and short-sighted, in my opinion.

 

[Parteecia]

It's not .005%, it's actually .556% if you want to get to the third decimal. Probably best to just round down to .5%

The problem is that this is compounded over the previous years losses, and in the past five years since the 2020 Census they've lost 3% of their County population. The Metro area as a whole, which includes Anaheim, lost 62,454 last year alone.

That's going in the wrong direction. And it's doing it at the fastest rate in the nation. Demographically it's made even worse, as the people leaving are generally middle and upper-middle class families with children, grandchildren in the future, etc. and they are the core demographic for Disneyland visits.

You can replace some of them with single women aged 25 to 40 and other Magic Key Lifestylers, but it still leaves a mark.

I am too simple to understand why this is a bad thing in an area where there are housing and water shortages.

 

[DLR92]

I don’t think Disneyland will be at all affected with a decline of California declining population. I don’t know why people would move to other states. Most would move back eventually.