Disneylands Drinking Water Policy

Disneyland's Drinking Water Policy

If you go up to any food vender at the Disneyland theme park and ask for a water cup they will give you two options; (1) you may buy bottled drinking water from them or (2) they will offer to give you a cup with ice in it and you can go find a water fountian somewhere to fill it up.

I remeber going to Disneyland many years before the creation of California Adventureland and the many other new theme park additions and being able to get drinking water from just about any food vender in the park. In fact any respectable restruant, just about any place in the United States of America, will give you a cup with water in it should you ask for one.

This new policy at Disneyland is one that a few movie theaters such as AMC have also adapted. I learned about this policy about a year ago when I was at Disneyland with my wife, who was preganate at the time and dehydrated. Not having any more water with us and being out of cash I asked the nearest food vender for a cup of water for my thirsty, pregnate wife. He pulled out a water bottle and told me it would be $3.50. I told him I didn't have any money and just needed a complimentary water. He then handed me a cup with ice in it and told me to go find a drinking fountain!

To be quite honesty this really pissed me off. I am trying to enjoy a relaxing day at Disneyland and I can't even get a complementary water from a food vender.

The reason Disney and AMC have have adopted this shadey policy is simple. It is an attempt to increase their bottom line. The idea is by creating the inconvience of forcing people to take a cup with ice in it, sending them away to find a drinking fountain and then making them fill it up, will cause more people to just by bottled water from the theme park rather than take free complimentary water.

A policy such as this is not only a great inconvience to anyone visiting the park it is also a saftey concern. Disneyland is located in Anehiem California a place that can become very, very, hot. Especailly during late spring, summer and early fall months. Finding a drinking fountain at the Disneyland theme park on a crowded day is not always an easy task. Especally for someone new to the park or visiting for the first time. Even when given directions finding a water fountain and navigating over too that water fountian can be difficult and take a long time.

Suppose a person has become dehydrated from walking through the park all day and has has not realized they have not consumed enough water. This is very possible and it happens to athletes all the time in sport situations. This person is then discouraged from drinking water because they do not wish to pay $3.50 for a small bottled water and do not want to take time out of their day to find a drinking fountain especally after waiting in line to ask the vendor for water. Very easily you can find many guests suffering from heat stroke, dehydration and other problems. In my situation a pregnate woman was told to just go find a drinking fountain. How does the vender even know this person isn't so thirsty they may vomit, passout or faint before even getting to the drinking fountain! They don't.

All in all this is a very shady police that jepordised the health, comfort and saftey of others in an attempt to make more money.

How to Combat this Policy

Aside from writing to Disney and complaining I recommend you take water into the park with you. This is something I have done ever since and it has worked very well. Before going into Disneyland have a back pack with enough water to last you throughout the entire day. I recommed having at least three liters per-person. This will prevent Disney from making unearned, undeserved money, it will keep you hydrated and make the entire day much more enjoyable when you don't have to worry about getting ice cups from vendors, spending too much money on a small water bottle and finding drinking fountains.

Swiss Family Robinson's Tree House

Swiss Family Robinson's Tree House

This attraction was originally based one of the best movies ever. This movie has everything! Pirates, guns, coconut bombs, booby traps, pirate ships, an awsome tree house, hand to hand combat and did I mention coconut bombs! What a great movie. I have loved this movie for many years. My favirote part is the final battle in the end of the film between the Robinson family and the pirates.

The Run Down

Swiss Family Robinson's Tree House is located inbetween the Jungle Boat Ride and the Pirates of the Caribbean. You walk through a huge fake tree house that is modeled after the tree house in the classic Disney movie Swiss Family Robinson. This tree house is very large you will be at least three stories high once you make it to the top.

The Best Features of This Ride

Nothing! This attraction has been completely changed! It is no longer the Swiss Family Robinson's Tree House but it has now become Tarzan's Tree House! Disney changed the attraction to Tarzan's Tree House and took out the timeless music of the movie Swiss Family Robinson and replaced it with that awful sound track from the Tarzan movie. They also stuck a bunch of really crummy looking plastic statues of different characters from the Tarzan movie in all the rooms. These characters are really poorly done, they do not look life like and they are not animitronic.

The Worste Things About This Ride

• Tarzan is one of Disney's worst cartoons ever, I hated it.
• The characters in each of the rooms look terrible and are not life like.
• No animitronics.
• No Swiss Family Robinson.
• Bad Music.

My Rating

The one good point of this attraction is there is very little if any line or wait to walk through it. At one time this attraction was really cool as you got to see and be in what almost seemed like the actual Swiss Family Robinson's Tree House. It is more fun to walk through it if you pretend you are in the Swiss Family Robinson's Tree House and you just ignor all the Tarzan stuff. You will still recogonize some things from the Swiss Family Robisnon's movie and the orginal attraction such as the cool pully system they used to get water. Other than those few points the ride has been horribly ruined. Even if you are a fan of the Tarzan film I do not think this attraction complements the Tarzan cartoon very well.

While I understand Disney's plan to try and provide a more updated attraction younger children would recognize. I think children should still watch Swiss Family Robinson and I think they will like it as much as Tarzan. Plus most people just liked to walk through a really cool tree house. Sticking a bunch of Tarzan characters in there doesn't make the exprience any more improved. Over all I have to say this is a pass on by attraction. I give it a 3 out of 10. I would have given the orginal a 10 and would of said it was a check it out if you'd like too but it's not the best thing in the park attraction.

Pirates of the Caribbean

The Pirates of the Caribbean

This is one of the all time best rides of Disneyland. Pirates of the Caribbean is a really awsome ride. It is a favirote of mine and a really fun experience.

The Run Down

Pirates of the Caribbean is a classic Disneyland ride. This ride takes you on a boat and starts in a swamp, from the swamp you go down into some caves. Here pirates have hidden treasure, weapons and all kinds of stuff. After the caves you will tour through a town being ransacked and burned by pirates. Then you are brought back to the swamp where you started.

The Best Features of This Ride

• Going through an indoor swamp.
• The old man sitting in front of his shack on the swamp.
• The talking skull.
• The famous line "Dead Men Tell No Tales."
• The water falls.
• The full scale pirate ship attacking the town. I really enjoy watching the pirates peak over the side of the ship. I also like the cannons shooting at each other.
• The music. The song; "Yo, Ho, Yo, Ho, a Pirates Life for Me," is just a classic, timeless and unforgetable song.
• A fairly fast moving line. Pirates of the carribian almost never takes too long to get onto, it also lastest for a reasonable amount of time.

Some of the Poor Features of this Ride.

The pirates of the Caribbean ride today is not the same ride I went on as a child. The first thing that is different is it has been changed to be more polically correct. There used to be a part of the ride where pirates chase women around in circles and then one fat woman was chasing a pirate around. The last time I rode this ride it had the pirates holding a bunch of food, like bread, cakes and fruit, and the women were chasing the pirates as if to try and get the food back. I think the orginal feature of the pirates chasing the women around was much better.

In the final room before you leave the ride was a huge gun fight. With pirates shooting at each other and bullets splashing out of the water. There was also a tower of barrels with a pirate sitting on top of them. The last time I rode this ride I only saw one pirate shooting a gun and the pirate sitting on the tower of barrels was gone. The more pirates shooting guns at each other the better. I don't know why Disney changed this one but they should have left it. The gun fight was totally awsome, now it is just lame.

Right before you leave this room are some really lousy looking pirates trying to steel treasure. These pirates were never there when I was younger and they look terrible. They look like something thrown together really quickly. The life like quality of these two pirates is poor and they do not look as good as the other pirates in the ride. Disney needs to take these pirates out they just look bad.

My Rating

While Pirates of the Caribbean is still one of the greatest rides of all time it is defenately not as good as it was before they made those changes to it. I feel like it has been toned down too much I would like to see more pirates, more shooting, and stuff like that. If you are going to visit the Disneyland theme park I have to say this ride is an absolute must ride attraction. Over all it gets a 10.

Concerning the Movie

The movie, "Pirates of the Caribbean The Curse of the Black Pearl," is completely awsome. This movie did complete justice to the Pirates of the Caribbean ride. It has lots of action, fighting, skulls, drama and weapons which is totally rad. I throughly enjoyed it and it lived up to the great ride from which it was based on. For this reason Pirates of the Caribbean remains to be one of the greatest theme park rides of all time.

Welcome

Hi my name is Sam Kressin, I am a native Californian born and raised in San Diego. Ever since I was a small child my parents would take me and my brothers and sisters to Disneyland every year. We would all go together as a family usually in November. Each year this was one of my most favorite days. I would get to skip school, get up early in the morning, we would drive up to Anaheim, have fun all day long and come back home once the park closed. I still have many fond memories of those past Disneyland trips.

Now being grown up and much older with a family of my own I still enjoy going to the Disneyland theme park from time to time. (That's me and my wife on the left, I also have a little girl) The park holds many positive fun memories from when I was younger and I still enjoy many of the rides and attractions within Disneyland.

Today Disneyland is completely different than the place I would visit as a child. Some of these changes are good and some are not so good. Many of the changes are really cool and a lot of fun while others I dislike greatly. I have published this blog to provide reviews, traveling tips, entertainment tips, advice for people wishing to visit Disneyland, discussion topics for people who visit the park (even more often then I do) and just talk about the Disneyland theme park in Anaheim California.

A few more things about this blog. This blog is not politically correct! I post my straight out opinion on things regardless if it offends people or not. Also I do not work for Disney, I never have worked for Disney and I am not affiliated with Disney in anyway. Therefore what you will find on this blog is the straight out honest opinion of a hard working consumer. If I think something is a rip off, scam or other wise you will hear about it here. If you are a die hard Disney fan that doesn't like to hear or read anything negative about the company you may not like this Blog. Finally like I said I am just a hard working consumer who has enjoyed the theme park. I am not some geeked out, freak who has memorized every fact and detail concerning the Walt Disney Company.

Have Fun and Enjoy - Sam Kressin