Wandering the Land June 10-11, 2007
The Subs are Back!
The Finding Nemo Submarine Voyage Opens in Tomorrowland.
The attraction's entrance. |
The audio-animatronic seagulls in the lagoon shout: "Mine, mine, mine!" |
After cruising the lagoon the submarines pass into the interior area where all of the Nemo effects take place. |
The queue area is decorated with vegetation that resembles underwater plants and creatures like sea anemones. |
Four subs can dock and be loaded at the same time. The subs are loaded from both the front and back hatches. |
The staircase down into the sub is steep and narrow. |
The submarine's interior – two rows, 20 seats per row. Push the seat down – they fold up automatically upon rising. |
Each seat has its own porthole. Adults will have to bend down and lean forward for the full view. Smaller children should sit on a parent's lap. |
View out the porthole. |
In addition to the computer-generated Nemo characters, the ride includes static figures like Darla, divers, and other fish. |
The sub passes by this ancient lost city. |
And several giant clams – complete with giant pearls! |
To celebrate the Grand Opening, Mickey and Minnie turned out in their nautical best. |
As did Daisy and Goofy! (Donald is always appropriately attired.) |
Crush the sea turtle thought the whole thing was "Totally awesome, dude!" |
There were even some jellyfish "floating" around. |
The Grand Opening ceremony featured comments from Disneyland President Ed Grier, Disney CEO Bob Iger, and Jay Rasulo, President of Disney Parks & Resorts, and a song and flipper-footed dance number from Dory and the snorkel gang. |
But the ceremony was interrupted when a large whale popped up in the lagoon – can't launch the subs with a big whale there! |
After some "whale speak" by Dory and the audience ("Pleeeeeeeeease goooooooooooo aaaa-waaaaaay") the whale is convinced to move along, while overhead the Disneyland monorail, decked out as a Finding Nemo submarine, glides over the lagoon. |
The "submarine" monorail and the lagoon. |
The whale seems to feel at home in the lagoon! |
The Nemo Dream Mobile, a mobile version of the popular "Turtle Talk with Crush" show, was on-hand for part of the weekend. around. |
The attraction opened to the public a little after noon – but people started lining up at 5:30 in the morning. Here's the beginning of the line at about 12:45…it stretched all the way around the lagoon past the Matterhorn… |
And past the Matterhorn, where it switch-backed under the monorail tracks and down into the Fantasia Gardens seating area… |
And up onto the terraced area along Small World way, where it doubled back on itself… |
This Cast Member is standing at the entrance to the line, which was at the corner of the Matterhorn and Small World Way – at this point the end of the line was all the way down at small world, and estimated wait time was about 4 hours. |
A new attraction means new merchandise! |
Keychains and antenna balls. |
Nemo popcorn buckets. |
And colorful Nemo balloons! |
Additional "Wandering the Land"
10/1/06 – Disney's HalloweenTime
10/10/06 – More Disney's HalloweenTime
10/17/06 – Mickey's Halloween Treat
10/24/06 – Ilene Radish shares Disneyland photos
11/7/06 – The Grand Californian Resort – photos by Monica Gauvin
11/14/06 – Holiday photos from Disney's California Adventure
11/21/06 – Photos from "it's a small world holiday"
12/5/06 – Holiday photos around Disneyland
12/19/06 – Disneyland's "A Christmas Fantasy" Parade
4/10/07 – Springtime at Disneyland
4/29/07 – Disney's California Food and Wine Weekends
5/22/07 – Images from Disney's California Adventure
6/18/07 – Pirates of the Caribbean Suite at the Disneyland Hotel.