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Welcome to Geeks Corner! This week, the big topic that is focused on is the Downtown Disney. This comes as the Downtown Disney District celebrated its 25th anniversary on Monday. To help talk about this subject, Doug Marsh joins Mr. Daps and Caitie. Along with talking about the origins, past, and present of Downtown Disney, they also talk about the new Avengers: Doomsday teaser (or story clue?), Disneyland Handcrafted, and the Lunar New Year celebration at the Disneyland Resort. We hope you enjoy this nostalgic episode of Geeks Corner! Join the conversation in the comments! We’ll see you ’round the corner!
THE WEEK IN GEEK
New Avengers: Doomsday Teaser https://dapsmagic.com/2026/01/black-panther-and-fantastic-four-appear-in-newest-avengers-doomsday-teaser/
Some Thoughts About the Disneyland Handcrafted Premiere https://dapsmagic.com/2026/01/disneyland-handcrafted-disney-and-positive-stuff/
25 Years of Downtown Disney https://dapsmagic.com/2026/01/downtown-disney-celebrates-25-years-as-a-part-of-the-disneyland-resort/
Disney Reveals Food, Drink, and Novelties for 2026 Lunar New Year Celebration https://dapsmagic.com/2026/01/geek-eats-lunar-new-year-celebration-food-beverage-guide/
Show More Show Less View Video Transcript
0:00
[Music]
0:17
Welcome to Geeks Corner. I'm Mr. Daps. I'm Katie. And tonight we are joined by our illustrious historian,
0:24
Doug Marsh. Doug Marsh, the one and only. Hello there. And before we do anything
0:30
else though, did you know that all of the sound effects in Disneyland Handcrafted were recreated at Skywalker
0:38
Sound because they didn't have any? I actually did know that. Did you know that, Doug?
0:45
Uh, no, I had not heard that. Bear in mind, some of us didn't get to go to a
0:50
sneak preview at the Walt Disney Studios. That is I had a friend who was just saying saying that people were going to one
0:56
down in Florida and uh wondering how to get to go to that and I said well you know what just
1:02
spend several years working very hard on a website and a podcast and providing
1:07
content online and then you you'll get perhaps invited to something like that.
1:12
That's exactly it is and there's there's no magic formula to do it other than
1:18
consistency, hard work and then a lot of luck I feel like. All right. Should we get to the show?
1:23
I think so. Okay. It's a little bit different tonight. We we had to figure out how to make this all work and uh and and I
1:30
think I think it's working great. So, hopefully we'll see if this this works through a whole half hour. But uh we
1:36
have a new Avengers Doomsday teaser that came out this morning as has been the trend all month. And this is the fourth
1:43
one. Actually, I'm sidetracked, guys. We can almost do the um the Brady Bunch
1:50
thing of looking over at each other. See, there you go.
1:56
I just figured it out. Yes. I I I have to go the other way. That's That's weird. Okay. Um it's like
2:03
it's like being mirrored. Yeah. It's It's like the Muppets. Uh anyway, this time we went to Wakanda and
2:11
we saw the Black Panther and we saw the King of Wakanda and The Thing from Fantastic 4. What did
2:20
you think of this, Katie? Everybody else gets their own, which is like really what's bothersome here. Um
2:26
it does remind me there's a meme I reference really, really frequently of a Snapchat somebody sent at a college
2:31
party and it's an old woman sitting on a couch and it says, "So there's a 45-year-old woman here." Um, that's how
2:37
I felt when Fantastic 4 showed up. I was like, "But this is Black Panther's trailer. I don't I don't understand.
2:44
Like I don't know." Um, I think it it looks fun. Well, and and Chris makes a very good
2:51
point is these actually are clues. They're story clues. They're not
2:56
The Russo brothers posted on Instagram today that uh they're not teasers.
3:01
They're story clues. Did you get to see it, Doug? I did not actually. I You're gonna have
3:07
to check taking a back. I thought that they had rolled out so many of them before that there wasn't anybody left.
3:14
Um Well, think about how many chairs there were. That's true. That like 2 hour,
3:19
three-hour long live stream. Yeah, there there's a lot of They still have a lot of chairs to get through. Um anyway, we're looking forward to seeing
3:25
what they come up with next with these story clues that I'm still probably going to call a teaser. And um
3:32
I hope there's not too many of them and we're not able to figure things out too
3:39
easily. I will just say that with story clues. Um keep them keep us guessing and
3:44
teasing. And even if they're misdirection a little bit, I'm okay with that, too. But all right. Uh Disneyland Handcrafted
3:51
will be coming out on January 22nd. I almost said July. I don't know why, but
3:56
uh that would have been that would have been disappointing to be honest. So many good things Disney happen in
4:03
July. That is true. That's very true. But uh we did have the opportunity to attend
4:08
the world premiere of it last Thursday night and got to hear Leslie I work
4:13
speak about it, which is where we did get that quote that we learned that there was no audio in the videos that
4:20
they used for this hour and a half. um
4:26
documentary, which means that they had to recreate all of them up at Skywalker Sound. And I might have done you all a
4:32
disservice by telling you this because the moment we all heard that, we were so tuned into the to the audio and the
4:40
fully and like how things lined up. And I will just say, you're never going to listen to construction the same way
4:46
again. And same with the Mark Twain. But I will say I forgot multiple times during Disneyland Handcrafted.
4:52
Oh, that's good. That's good. I I'm also I'm really good at suspending disbelief. If you like I worked with
4:58
puppets a little bit too long in my past career. So I'm really good at being like, "Oh, there's no person there. This
5:03
is just my reality now." Um but like I I did forget multiple times cuz I was
5:09
like, "It's so good." And like it's so immersive and it does tell a whole story that you're like, "Yeah, that is the sound that would make."
5:15
You're never like, "Oh, that's a rough sounding car horn." Well, and I will say
5:22
when you get to the Mark Twain Bell part, you see how very good they did with this. Like that blew my mind. We
5:28
will be talking more about Handcrafted more next week. Uh mainly because we
5:33
will have hopefully reviewed it again by gotten a screener by then. And if not,
5:38
that's okay because we can still talk a lot about it. We will have our full review up before then. So be sure to
5:44
come back next week and we will have more thoughts on that. more thoughts on the tour of the Walt Walt's office was
5:50
last week also and uh just what it's like to be at a premiere on the Walt Disney Studios lot, which is Have you
5:56
ever done that, Doug? On the lot? Oh, yes. What was your first time? I've done premieres at the studio. Uh
6:03
Piglet's Big Adventure and uh Princess and the Frog.
6:08
Oh, nice. And yeah, that was that was a nice premiere. And yeah, they've done they've done a
6:13
few there. And then for um like special events and things like that. Okay, very cool. Yeah, lots of special events
6:19
through the years, but um I don't think I'd done a I might have done a premiere there. I can't remember now.
6:24
I've definitely never done a The big topic of tonight, which we are rushing through everything else to get
6:30
through and we will we will return in in just a few minutes or little more than a
6:35
few minutes to one other news story of the day just because we all like to talk about food. But before we get into all
6:41
of that, yesterday, Downtown Disney turned 25 years old officially, I think
6:47
we could say. And with that, they revealed a new logo. And that's it's really actually reminiscent of the past,
6:53
which is great. But one of us was here on the opening day.
7:00
One of us was there a few days before the opening days. And I don't know what the third person Thank you, Doug. And I
7:07
don't know what the third person's story is. Uh when do you remember your first time, Katie, to Downtown Disney?
7:13
No. Okay. Because when Downtown Disney opened, I was indeed four years old. There you go. Um
7:21
at least you're not saying at least you're no longer saying, "And I wasn't born yet." when I talk about things.
7:28
We've really made a lot of progress on that. It's feeling good. Yes, we have. Hard to believe. Hard to
7:33
believe I'm going into my sixth year writing 30 years ago at Disneyland.
7:38
Wow. And as Mr. Daps pointed out, we've caught up to Mr. Daps. Yes. Yes, we did.
7:44
Yeah. Last year. He said he said that was the annual pass that I bought the first time.
7:51
So, uh, so now it's going now it's going to be entering his his nostalgic era.
7:57
Yeah. Yeah. I mean, we could we could really mess with people someday. And uh I guess we'll need to wait a few. I
8:05
think 97 is my first roll of pictures from Disneyland that I have.
8:10
Oh, those are good. And if I can find some, maybe I'll throw a couple at you that you can add to your
8:16
your your monthly uh post and we can do a collab. But uh that
8:21
would actually be pretty funny and weird. I've I've done it before. this this this
8:27
month's article, I had to get uh Jason Schultz, who of course does Parkendium
8:32
and and has been digitizing all my photos for me, but I had to ask him, "Do you have a picture of the double-decker
8:37
bus?" And that that sparked him then remembering, "Oh, yeah, the double-decker bus." Told me a couple of
8:44
funny stories, one of which can never be repeated. And uh there's a few of those out there. But, uh, I remember my first
8:51
time inside Downtown Disney, uh, because we'd been watching I, you know, I put a
8:57
little flavor of this in the article of watching it being built and they, uh,
9:02
really kept everything under wraps, but, uh, when the Montreal reopened, and that
9:07
was weird. Uh, do you remember by any chance, Mr.
9:13
DPS, riding the Montreal back and forth on the one-way stretch of track? I do
9:19
because they broke the beam over where they were digging the big tunnel along Harbor Boulevard
9:24
and the hotel guests were unhappy. So when they got that station ready, they
9:31
built like a little hamster trail through the construction site and they
9:36
actually put a couple of little windows in it and then one Montreal would run back and forth between Tomorrowland and
9:44
the station using the short section of track. Yep. And so it was it was interesting because they it meant that the pilot was
9:51
in the back for one journey and because you know they were they were in essence backing
9:57
us up into whichever one that they were facing forward for. And uh but as we
10:02
were watching we could see that it was getting closer and closer and then right near the end of the year they started pulling down the fences and cleaning
10:10
things up. Mhm. And so even though I had been in there uh on the 31st for New Year's with
10:17
friends, uh I was there the next morning. Nice. And to my surprise and astonishment, it
10:25
was open. Now, not all the shops and stores were open. I don't remember if
10:30
World of Disney was open on the first, but I know that by the second, that was the big one that everybody was most
10:36
excited about was World of Disney. uh because we had all seen the huge shops
10:42
or most of us had seen the huge shops that were in Florida and we had nothing
10:47
even remotely equivalent in California. You know, we had the the shopping centers that were connected the shopping
10:53
plaza that was connected to the Disneyland Hotel, right? But that was not nearly as big and it didn't have all of that whimsical
10:59
theming. Remember the big sky machines? Uhhuh. The Yeah. All that stuff that's all gone
11:05
now. Uh yes, that was it. And then of course uh to finally find out what all the shops were
11:12
going to be. Yeah. So what now what was your first visit you were saying? So mine must have been right after New
11:20
Year's because I remember we we were able to go in and I remember seeing it from above
11:27
as we're coming down, you know, down the ramp or whatever. And then the thing
11:32
that really we were geeking out about was we were walking up and you saw the piano for the jazz kitchen. You remember
11:39
that that bedazzled piano that was inside the in
11:44
in the courtyard? Uh no, it was it was in that room on the right and
11:50
Oh, in the main dining room on the stage. Mhm. You know, I don't, for whatever reason, I don't. What I remember from Jazz
11:56
Kitchen, of course, was the figure of the jolly chef with the gumbo pot
12:02
with um the the croad and the fish and the gator who was much too big for the
12:08
gumbo pot. So, I we we guessed, okay, it's just his head, but he's still smiling.
12:14
You know what keeps him happy? But yeah, I I remember us geeking out over that
12:19
piano because we just had never seen anything like it before. And even even the lights in Downtown Disney, like
12:26
everything was so unlike anything I'd seen in Minnesota. Like we don't have outdoor malls really in Minnesota. So,
12:33
um I remember that was really, you know, you just kind of looked up there and everything was so bright and lights and
12:39
and colors and it just was unlike anything we'd experienced before. And uh
12:46
I don't remember actually spending much time, you know, we we looked at it, it was cool and then it was like all right to
12:53
the park, you know, like it was not our it was not our destination. It was just kind of one of
12:58
those cool things that you know, you thought about later, but I think we were more interested in getting on rides back then.
13:04
Mhm. And uh the uh the other thing of course is is it's hard for a lot of
13:11
people to remember what were the original shops. What was the original lineup of shops? And I've had people,
13:17
you know, swear to me, I know that Anettis was there at the beginning. And the other people say, "There was an
13:23
Angetis shop." And yes, there was an Angeta shop, which you could buy very
13:29
strange and slightly creepy figurines of little tiny sleeping babies. And uh and
13:35
other people, Build-A-Bear, even I am not certain whether Build-a- Bear was
13:41
there one when they opened. Now bear in mind the article is based on pre-opening
13:46
and then there are a few pictures that were from just slightly after. In fact, there are two photos in there that were
13:52
taken one day when I was walking through and they were directing everyone around a beeworm.
13:58
And so if you look closely pictures, there's a bee swarm up in the tree. But uh one way that I was able to confirm
14:04
what was there was of course this move here to make sure I don't have glare on
14:10
this. So, this was the very first, well, it's either the first or second brochure
14:18
that was offered. Uh, it's actually dated down on the bottom, January 19th through 25th,
14:25
2001 since January 12th was the opening. And this actually functioned as a guide
14:31
map, just like the guide maps in the park. And that meant that of course it had inside
14:39
a map in the style of the parks, the theme parks
14:46
you see there. And then it included
14:53
a schedule of events. And there it is telling you who was playing. And for three days, you could
15:00
have gone to the uh House of Blues to see Social Distortion perform, the
15:07
legendary Fullerton punk rock band and or you could go over to the ESPN zone and see them taping up close
15:15
for ESPN. And uh also they had Greg Gregory Issacs and Freak Daddy. And uh
15:22
they had Eric Sardinas. And as I said in the article, I don't know if he set his guitar on fire, but uh possibly. And
15:28
then uh for Ralph Brennan's Jazz Kitchen, they just say lot of jazz and then they just have it listed for for
15:34
all the Something's never changed. Yes. So this was um uh very very helpful
15:40
in finding uh you know what uh what was being done. So does that list out all the stores
15:46
too, Doug? Yes, it does. It uh and was Build-a- Bear on that list? Well, here's what's interesting. This
15:53
one right here has there's shopping right there. Okay,
15:58
this close. There's shopping. But I also have a second brochure.
16:05
And this brochure is slightly smaller, but this was also from the very first um
16:12
season. And inside it breaks down in three double pages. Entertainment.
16:20
Mhm. and then dining and it has a complete list and
16:26
description of each of the shops. Okay. And then here is shopping. Okay. Now, here's the interesting thing. The
16:33
guide map, which is dated for the 19th, does not have Build-A-Bear on it,
16:39
but I found when I was looking through this that Build-A-Bear Workshop is listed in this brochure.
16:47
And do you remember when you got that one? This one possibly came after
16:55
the other one, but I do know this much. This one is dated for exactly one week,
17:00
right, after the grand opening. It does not have Build-a- Bear on it. So, it makes you think that Build-A-Bear
17:06
wasn't done on time. Yeah. And uh I uh I also I seem to
17:12
recall that the Department 56 store occupied virtually that whole building
17:18
except where Wetzel's pretzels was there at the end. Yeah. So this I have I have kind of a little
17:25
amusing anecdote about this this brochure. Fire away. when um I when I used to belong to the
17:33
old NFC, uh I every now and then would be asked to do a presentation. In January, we
17:39
would do what was called a kickoff convention, which was just a one-day event Saturday followed by a show and
17:46
sale on Sunday. And on the one-day event, we would just do a series of quick seminars. And I was asked that
17:52
year uh 2001 to do a seminar on collecting Disneyland paper ephemera
17:59
because I had been entertaining people with just like like tonight entertaining people with paper or or Sunday.
18:06
That's right. Like you know you never know what's going to come out of the bag. It's like oh by the way here's a letter that was written in 1965
18:14
too. Anyway, uh so uh I I did the presentation and I had I had a lot of
18:20
very rare paper and I had a lot of very fun paper and at the end of it I said it
18:25
used to always drive me crazy when I would watch a lot of these presentations and see people who have all these things that now either are not available or the
18:34
prices have gone up so much on them that nobody really can afford to start collecting now because they were starting to charge like $5
18:41
for some of these brochures and and I just couldn't imagine paying that much for a brochure from 1955 or 56. But uh I
18:50
said to them, you know, I started collecting a long time ago when I was in
18:55
high school. And if and and at the time that I was collecting then, a lot of these things weren't that old, but now
19:02
they are. I said, "Today, when I walked into this hotel, there was a brochure rack out in the lobby. And on the
19:07
brochure rack, they had two racks filled and I held this up with this brochure
19:13
for Downtown Disney." And I said, and I'm sure you don't really think, you know, this isn't very historical. It's,
19:20
you know, something that's going on right now. But I said, 'You know, someday, 20 or 30 years from now, this
19:26
brochure is going to have everything that was in Downtown Disney on the very
19:32
first week it opened. Mhm. So, if you ever, you know, want to start without having to pay a thing,
19:40
you could start with that. And, you know, nice little hand round of applause. And and afterwards, I'm
19:46
standing and talking with friends and things. And then on my way out, I just happen to glance over at the brochure rack. And can you guess? It was stripped
19:53
bare. Every brochure was gone for downtown. You made a difference.
20:00
I I guess. Or maybe maybe there's a bunch of them put away or, you know, whatever happened with them. Yeah. Hopefully not just one person
20:06
grabbed them all. Uh so going back to old school
20:11
Downtown Disney before all the transformations and you know, it's it's quite a bit different now than it was.
20:18
What was every maybe we'll start with Katie. What was your favorite place to
20:23
either eat or go at Downtown Disney? Easy, because I was a very small young
20:31
girl who loved glitter. So, obviously, Club Libby is 100% my answer.
20:38
We'll count it. Yeah, Club Liy Lou, which then turned into Disney 365, which then turned into the Disney dress shop
20:45
about halfway uh right by the entrance to uh the Grand California, right across from Safari, which is it was originally Petals.
20:53
There we go. And Petals was a specialty leather shop, you know.
20:59
Okay, as people say out. Maybe that should have stayed in Frontier Land. I don't know. Uh, Doug,
21:04
what was your favorite either restaurant or store or whatever back in the day
21:09
that's no longer in Downtown Disney? Uh, way back in the day, uh, I actually
21:16
I just I like the vibe, but in later years, my favorite was when
21:21
they put Earl of Sandwich back. I was like, "Which?"
21:27
Well, so no, no, that that's when the the first Earl of Sandwich replaced Compass Books,
21:33
which is what I was going to answer is my favorite, right? And then they were going to put um and then they put Earl of Sandwich
21:39
down where Labraa Bakery was. But if I had to choose a favorite place just to hang out, I really liked Starabilious.
21:47
Oh, yeah. That was good, too. Darabilas had genuine show business collectibles
21:52
and autographed items and it was really fun. Uh once again couldn't necessarily
21:58
afford them, but it was fun to look. I don't think I could afford anything in there if I remember correctly.
22:04
Yeah, it was expensive. I I loved which was right near Compass Books. Um, I loved I loved Compass Books back in the
22:11
day and uh that was probably the most magical bookstore of of my memory.
22:18
There was a booknook and I used to wait to get picked up by my mom waiting in
22:24
that like it was a weird like there was a pillar and then you could go behind it and read books. I would go hang out
22:30
there. It was at the very very far uh uh east end west end of of the restaurant
22:38
or the restaurant the the bookstore and Yes. And it became then like a little dining area when Earl of Sandwich
22:45
came in. And do you also kiosk? Yeah. That was that was a great
22:51
building. Yeah, it it really was. So, next question
22:57
and then we're going to do the big double-decker review. re reveal. Yes. Yes.
23:02
Um, what is your favorite thing there now? Um, okay. So, I'm going to say something
23:09
controversial. Everyone just forget um everything about me for a second. Okay. My favorite place is actually Ballast
23:16
Point. Um, I think there's something Ballast Point
23:21
the um brewery. I think it's really nice. They have this really nice outside patio area that's
23:27
above Downtown Disney. Um, you can also sit up by a window and just people watch, which is like my favorite thing
23:34
to do at Disney parks is just watch people do things. Um, extra points if it's raining and you sit at that window
23:40
or the bar at the window and you just like watch everybody scatter. Very fun. Um, but I think the the vibe is fun and
23:47
it it kind of has that like laidback nightife that uh DTD 1.0. Everyone talks about
23:55
DCA 1.0. What about DTD? Um, but I think it captures that vibe and that essence
24:02
of what the original Downtown Disney was shooting for. And I just love to hang
24:07
out and take friends there and that type of stuff. All right, Doug, what's your favorite?
24:15
Uh, I have I haven't gotten to as many of the new venues because I keep waiting
24:21
for all the new venues. I'm intensely curious to see the new uh Earl of
24:27
Sandwich and the uh uh Gordon Ramsay restaurant up above the Carne.
24:32
But right now, what I kind of like is Parkside Market. Oh, yeah. And go upstairs.
24:39
Go upstairs. And uh there's not just that one dining area that overlooks the stage, there's a
24:46
also an outdoor patio that's over the the coffee shop that no longer has an identity. And uh you can almost always
24:55
find table seating up there. Yeah. And something I highly recommend is the uh grilled uh uh Brussels sprouts.
25:04
And I just learned something I probably should have known already. Uh whichever one of the downstairs counters you go to
25:11
order at Uhhuh. you can order the same menu from either counter. Yes. Because of course, and now we I
25:17
always knew it was coming out of the same kitchen, but just recently they took way too long to get my order ready
25:24
for me. It was some some sort of oversight or something. And so the manager, to apologize, said, "Would you
25:29
like a dessert or something?" And I said, "Tell you what, I I'd like the grilled brussel sprouts." And I
25:36
mentioned I would have ordered them anyway, except I was ordering from uh Soul Sisters, and they said, "Oh, you
25:41
can order our menu over there and their menu over here." So, you can do that.
25:47
That's cool. That's very cool. Um, I'm gonna go with Ballast Point as well. Like I Well, I'm going still give it to
25:54
Ballast Point even though they don't have their Smashburger anymore. And And I am very upset about this.
26:00
Didn't know that was coming. There's not many things. Does it still say Smashburg on the building? Uh,
26:05
no. That's uh You're thinking Blacktap? Blacktap. That's downstairs.
26:10
Yeah. No, the one upstairs is the one I Yeah, I loved their Smashburger, but um
26:15
they're still they're still good. Like I still enjoy them. The vibe is great. And um and I also really enjoy Splitzville.
26:23
Like Splitzville is a lot of fun as well. And uh that's, you know, can't go wrong with that. And we've done a lot of
26:29
chalk events there. So that would be uh probably up there at the moment as Switzville also did something that kind
26:37
of annoyed me about House of Blues, but I understand House of Blues wanted to be a completely self-contained experience.
26:43
Sure. But uh they're right next to the Montreal track. Yeah. And so Splitzville upstairs has a room
26:50
where there are windows and you can sit and you can watch the Montreal zipping back and forth. Best window ever right at eye level with
26:57
it. It's really cool. So good. So good. Um, well, I guess
27:02
should we reveal the the bus, Doug? And you want to talk about your your story behind the the bus?
27:08
Do we have a moment for just one quick one? Here's here's the great trivia question for you. According to my count, there are one,
27:15
two, three, four, and maybe three. There are four definite
27:21
original vendors in their same location in Downtown Disney from opening day. Do
27:28
you know what they are? So, third parties, Naples Jazz Kitchen.
27:34
Mhm. Uh, Wetszels. Mhm.
27:39
And my chin just broke.
27:45
Am I close? Well, now we're we're going to as a gimme world of Disney.
27:51
Oh, yeah. World. So, that'd be four. So, you have one more that is definitely exactly in the same place. same
27:58
location. Uh, and then, uh, and then Naples, you know, got remodeled slightly and then Jazz Kitchen got remodeled
28:06
majorly. Yeah. And, uh, I'm not I'm I don't count Marcelines because it's really a
28:11
different candy store. Oh, yeah. It's a And it replaces Marcelines. Yeah. Um, and
28:20
that's gone. That's gone. Okay. And and but the last one definitely
28:27
Lego store. Oh yeah, duh. A Lego store. Lego store is there.
28:34
Wait, that might actually be my favorite. Yeah, you love the Lego store. That I don't know how I missed that. Yeah,
28:40
that one that one probably is my favorite. All right, tell us about the the red bus. Yeah, that that brings us to the first
28:47
thing to disappear. Yes. And uh the uh uh part of the thing
28:52
about Downtown Disney when they opened it and and along with California Adventure was that they believed they expected that it was going to be an
28:59
enormous immediate hit and that they were not going to be able to possibly handle the enormous crowds of people
29:05
that were going to materialize. And so they released on the uh the guide map
29:10
and I showed this in the article. You read the article, read the article. The back of this one included this nice
29:18
little guide and they were also illuminated uh kiosk directories all over the resort. Yeah.
29:24
And one of the items that's on it that's kind of unusual is right here along this side.
29:30
Let's see if my finger will Yeah, there it is right there. A pale green line and it just says the
29:37
double-decker bus. And uh I understand Mr. DPS, you are
29:42
among those who have an odd vague memory. I do. Of the double decker buses. And by the
29:50
way, it is buses plural. And they they ordered two of these. And
29:55
the idea was the enormous crowds of people who would be using the surface lots. There were at least four surface
30:01
lots when they opened. And this this would make its way all the way from the
30:07
Pinocchio lot, which is where Toy Story is now. Mhm. I'm I'm sorry. Pixar
30:14
lot, which is where Pixar is now. And then it would go all the way down to that odd little traffic circle that you
30:21
find next to uh Pixar Pier uh the Pixar Place Hotel
30:27
and uh the uh there and there was an inter at least one intermediate stop
30:33
there where uh near the ESPN zone currently Lululemon
30:38
and they and that have you ever noticed that roadway that's there? Yeah. Yeah, that there's an actual
30:43
concrete and uh with full curbs and everything. Lately, they have
30:50
painted a portion of it with harlequin squares and uh they've also put uh some planters
30:57
in it to kind of make it go away, but it's still there. Well, that was for the
31:02
use of these two double-decker buses that were going to be on continuous operation to
31:09
handle the enormous crowds of people. But what they discovered very early on was that the there hardly anyone was
31:15
riding them because there just weren't that many people who were traveling up and down the uh far yeah
31:22
uh western side of Downtown Disney. And uh also another thing about them is they
31:28
needed to have a place to store them. And since they were double-decker, they wouldn't fit inside the parking structure,
31:34
of course. So what they did is they made the top telescoping. And I used to remember driving in and seeing these two weirdly
31:41
flattened double-decker buses parked down in the Chip and Dale section.
31:47
Wow. And I I will tell you one of the stories I was told that I can relate is that not
31:52
long after 911 when they were upping security all over the resort,
31:58
those two buses for a period of time were parked at the end of one of the streets they wanted to guard. They were
32:04
being used as a literal barricade to keep people from driving vehicles uh
32:11
into the resort. And uh so if any of you have a photo of that, I would love to see it. In fact, I
32:17
would love to see a photo of either one of those parked in Chip andale. For whatever reason, it never occurred to me
32:23
to take a photo of that. Uh, I I may be wrong, but I thought I saw them used a
32:30
couple of times for special events at the resort when they wanted to fill them
32:35
with like crowds of school kids and things like that. Okay. But, uh, if you if you took a close look
32:41
at that, can you can you put it up again for just a moment? And and it's not,
32:47
frankly, a terribly attractive vehicle. No, it's very utilitarian.
32:53
And this was intended to be a real workhorse. And it's funny because the just the front end, the grill has a
33:00
little detailing on it, but the rest of it, as you can see, it's Super Graphics. Yeah. And what color is it, Mr. Daps?
33:08
Well, you're telling me it's orange, but I I was thinking it was a red. I think it's like orange that and it
33:15
veers into red. Okay, maybe we'll go with that. What do you think it is, Katie? I think it's red.
33:21
I'm so sorry. And I'm I'm not saying this because this is the person that is still right next to me when the camera
33:28
turns off. Comments, we want to hear in the comments what color is the bus.
33:35
Can't can't reach over there. And yeah, there you go. All right. Well, we are running out of time. So, if you want to see more
33:41
pictures of uh Downtown Disney from opening well around opening day, I
33:46
should say, uh head on over to DAPS Magic and we'll also have the uh link in the show notes so you don't miss them
33:52
there as well. We have one more thing to talk about though before we say good night. And that is Lunar New Year. The
33:59
celebration starts in about a week and a half. What is everybody, if you've had a
34:06
chance to look at the food or not, like what do you most look forward to with Lunar New Year at Disney California
34:12
Adventure? Did you ask what it's the year of year of the horse? It's year of the horse. Year of the horse.
34:17
Horus horse collar. Roger says he thought the bus was orange.
34:23
Okay, there's there's two and two. We'll see. I will say looking at the menu, uh, new this year they have ducki, which is like
34:29
a Korean spicy rice cake dish. Um, super stoked on that. Um, and as always stoked
34:35
about the quesadilla egg girls, but um, the Doug Boi just give it to me. I'm
34:41
sorry that I hit my back. You know, that's okay. Is there anything you're looking forward to, Doug?
34:47
I always look forward to all of the uh, beautiful decor and the music.
34:53
And it's always nice them when they switch it up because, you know, we get over there often enough that it's nice to see it when they take
34:59
the time and they make the effort. Yes. And uh I haven't had a chance to look at all of the food offerings that
35:04
are coming up, but I hope that they have uh something that what you were describing sounds awfully good. So I'm
35:10
going have to take a look at that. There's a uh Kungpow bow that has um I'm
35:17
forgetting what it it's basically uh imitation chicken. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And that one looked interesting to me.
35:24
We will we will see if it's it's good or not. We'll have coverage of that up in the next week or two and uh it'll be a
35:30
lot of fun. But we are running out of time. So Katie, what should people do? You should go to dapsmagic.com. You
35:35
should check out all the Disney and positive stuff as it happens. Uh go read our review of Disneyland Handcrafted. Go
35:41
read Doug's article. Uh 25 years, sorry, 30 years is so ingrained uh ingrained in
35:47
my brain for the branding. 25 years ago at Downtown Disney. Um also go to
35:52
patreon.com/dapsmagic to join Dapsmagic AQ. AQHQ.
35:58
It is our secret headquarters. that is so secret we tell everybody where to go. Um and uh
36:05
it's like the Disney Vacation Club. It's the best kept secret. Exactly. There you go.
36:10
Um and uh join us there. We actually have a post show for this show and it is a whole lot of fun. So
36:16
it is. Also, make sure to subscribe to our YouTube channel. You don't want to miss any of the videos we have going up. We've got a lot of Disneyland band this
36:22
week. So hopefully you like the band and hopefully you enjoy these videos. Doug was actually with me, I think, for some
36:28
of the filming of those. And uh thank you so much for being on tonight, Doug. It's been a blast.
36:33
Yes. And one last quick plug. I saved some material for 5 years from now when
36:40
this opening is 30 years ago at Disneyland. And there's a couple of surprising photos that were not shared
36:47
this time around that I will share in five years. The good Lord willing prize.
36:52
I can't wait. It's going to be a blast. Well, thank you all for watching. We are running out of time so we will see you
36:59
around the corner. Bye.
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