Disneyland

Saturday

Kelly Chapman

In defense of the Disney Adult

For too long derision of the Disney Adult has gone on unchecked. The world has been all too eager to sneer at the oblivious saccharine happiness of the woman – for it is always a woman – who dares to freely enjoy the most magical place on earth. It's easy to place the blame for the ills of modernity on this mouse-ear-bedecked scapegoat, for she embodies all the cringing mannerisms of the aging millennial, from their too-insistent sincerity to their generational refusal to put away childish things long after childhood has passed them by. Despite sharing their normative age and sex, I too have always counted myself among the haters, defining myself against type. “Not like other girls,” I said. “Not like other millennials.” Until this week.

disney adult

Wednesday

Ella Johnson

Trouble in paradise: thousands of Disneyland employees threaten strike

Some 14,000 cast members at Disneyland in California voted by an overwhelming 99 percent to authorize a strike on Monday; however, a coalition of union members reached a tentative agreement with Disneyland Tuesday, mainly revolving around wage increases. The coalition, titled Disney Workers Rising, will open a vote on the agreement at Disneyland for employees on July 29. According to Disney, there are more than 35,000 cast members (what they call their employees) who work at Disneyland in Orange County, California. The terms of the agreement have yet to be disclosed, but if Disney agreed to raise wages by twenty-five cents an hour — which certain employees have hypothesized could happen, though it will likely be by much more — that would cost them more than $18 million per year.

Thursday

Mitchell Jackson

The last days of Splash Mountain

Crowds lined up to say au revoir to a Southern California landmark — not Route 66, or the elementary school operating out of the remains of the Ambassador Hotel, where an assassin shot RFK. They were gathering for the month-long funeral of the Disneyland water ride Splash Mountain. Since 1989, visitors have ridden boats up a mountain, past the animatronic Brer Rabbit escaping the briar patch, bumping into Brer Bear and Brer Fox, who kidnap him. As they toss the bunny off a cliff and down a river, the ride’s riverboats fall down the mountain after him. Miraculously, both Brer Rabbit and the log-flume passengers survive. The survival is never explained, but visitors rarely notice because they’re enraptured by the grand finale rendition of “Zip-a-dee-doo-da.

Splash Mountain