[Question] Proper Attraction Names

[Code90]

I'm just curious to know... What is it that prevents guests from referring to certain attractions by their proper names?

For example, most guests can't say California Screamin'. They'll just refer to it as "the roller coaster".

Grizzly River Run is referred to as "the river raft ride".

Here are some others...

Haunted Mansion = "the haunted house"
Skyway = "the buckets"
Main Street Electrical Parade = "the electric light parade"
Autopia = "the cars" or "autotopia"
Fantasmic = "Fantasia show"
Matterhorn Bobsleds = "magic mountain" (where is the connection here?)

Can anyone think of more commonly misused names?

And why is it that certain names don't catch on?

[Datameister]

Re: Proper Attraction Names

Well, some attractions are simply named poorly - or at least named with a mouthful that no sane guest will want to regurgitate with any regularity. I mean, no one goes around saying, "Hey, let's go ride Indiana Jones Adventure: Temple of the Forbidden Eye!" I certainly don't. But just having a sign that says Indiana Jones in front would seem...not quite right.

But that's not so much what you're talking about. Most of your examples are perfectly easy, appropriate names that guests nevertheless manage to mangle. I'd say it's the same reason folks mangle all sorts of terminology they don't use frequently and don't take too seriously. It's just not something most of them think or care about.

[Ron W]

Re: Proper Attraction Names

I guess the average guest just doesn't care enough about the proper names and just says the first thing that comes to mind that will get their point across.

Some people like to come up with their own nicknames for things too. A lot of people on these boards call the Central Plaza "the Hub" and although Disney calls the area between the park entrances the Entry Plaza or Entrance Plaza (I have read and heard both) some here call it the "Esplanade" (even though the street signs in NOS say the riverfront there is the Esplanade).

[Dan - Tasmic!]

Re: Proper Attraction Names

I'm just curious to know... What is it that prevents guests from referring to certain attractions by their proper names?

For example, most guests can't say California Screamin'. They'll just refer to it as "the roller coaster".

Grizzly River Run is referred to as "the river raft ride".

Here are some others...

Haunted Mansion = "the haunted house"
Skyway = "the buckets"
Main Street Electrical Parade = "the electric light parade"
Autopia = "the cars" or "autotopia"
Fantasmic = "Fantasia show"
Matterhorn Bobsleds = "magic mountain" (where is the connection here?)

Can anyone think of more commonly misused names?

And why is it that certain names don't catch on?

Autopia = Bumper Cars
HISTA = Honey, I Shrunk The Kids
Astro Orbitor = Rocket Ships
Columbia = Pirate Ship
California Screamin' Or Soarin' Over California = California Soarin'
Fantasmic! = Fantasia, Water And Laser Show, Peter Pan Show, Fantragic!
Haunted Mansion = Scary House
"Celebrate: A Street Party" = Parade, LOL :lol:
Splash Mountain = Log Ride

I can't think of anymore...........

[Code90]

Re: Proper Attraction Names

The weird thing about "The Hub" is that even the company refers to it as such... Even though it's officially named Central Plaza.

I'm more forgiving when it comes attractions with long names such as Indy, Buzz, Toy Story, Teacups, Thunder... etc.

Here's another one. Instead of California Adventure, it's...

California park
Adventure park
California land
Adventure land

[Bob Weaver]

Re: Proper Attraction Names

Sadly, Adventure Thru Inner Space was popularly known as "The Monsanto Ride."

[Bexington]

Re: Proper Attraction Names

my friend and i sometimes go out of our way to sound like total casualists and call things ridiculous names like

Mad Tea Party = tea cups
space mountain = starcoaster
matterhorn = mount fuji
Pirates of the Carribean = Captain Jack (wich can get you odd looks if you say loudly you want to ride it)
Mickey's Toon Town = that place i can't do anything
Dumbo the flying elephant = fat grey carousel

[Krillinish]

Re: Proper Attraction Names

California Screamin' = Paradise Pier
California Screamin' = Mickey coaster
California Screamin' = "mountain" (typically by Spanish-only speaking guests)
California Screamin' = ::wavy arm motion::
Toy Story Midway Mania = California Screamin'

[AcmePunched]

Re: Proper Attraction Names

my friend and i sometimes go out of our way to sound like total casualists and call things ridiculous names like

Mad Tea Party = tea cups
space mountain = starcoaster
matterhorn = mount fuji
Pirates of the Carribean = Captain Jack (wich can get you odd looks if you say loudly you want to ride it)
Mickey's Toon Town = that place i can't do anything
Dumbo the flying elephant = fat grey carousel

LAWL

California Screamin' = Paradise Pier
California Screamin' = Mickey coaster
California Screamin' = "mountain" (typically by Spanish-only speaking guests)
California Screamin' = ::wavy arm motion::
Toy Story Midway Mania = California Screamin'

More LAWL

[JerrodDRagon]

Re: Proper Attraction Names

I call the (ride that has yet to be built) Radiator Springs Racers, The Cars Ride. Because I dont want to have to say Radiator Springs Racers everytime I'm talking about it.

[Evan]

Re: Proper Attraction Names

I've never quite understood this phenomenon either, or why people seem to make it more difficult on themselves by inexplicably adding more syllables, in the case of "Autotopia." I don't know where the "Light" came from when people call MSEP/DEP the "Electric Light Parade." Perhaps from the band Electric Light Orchestra. That's my only guess. "Electrical Parade" is just as easy to say.

[wettham1783]

Re: Proper Attraction Names

My brother insists on calling DCA The California Experience, I think he confuses it with the now defunct Star Trek Experience in Vegas.

[QuestionableKri]

Re: Proper Attraction Names

Thread seems to keep eating my posts, or for some strange reason they don't appear to me. if I'm somehow spamming this thread I completely apologize.
A lot of the naming, at least in my experience, comes from what you used to call the ride as a kid. Not really interested in the big, fancy names I usually just referred to it as what kind of ride it basically was.
ie: mad hatter's tea party was the teacups, cause all you did was spin around in big teacups. The Haunted Mansion was the haunted house, etc.
And rides that were movie/character based were usually shortened to the name of the central character.
ie: snow white's scary adventures was snow white, pinnochi's daring journey was pinnochio,etc.
As long as I got the point down of what I wanted to ride, what did it matter what the proper name was!

[Steve DeGaetano]

Re: Proper Attraction Names

I wonder how many people on this thread complaining about not using "proper names" like to ride "the train" as opposed to "the Disneyland Railroad."

[Bob Weaver]

Re: Proper Attraction Names

People don't like long names for things.

[disneyfanatic529]

Re: Proper Attraction Names

My family still calls California Screamin' the Mickey Mouse rollercoaster, even though I showed them the ears are gone.

And as a little kid I used to call the Skyway, the skyscrapers, back in the early nineties. To me they looked like they were sc the sky when looking straight up.

[RedHandedJill]

Re: Proper Attraction Names

People are just so lazy sometimes when it comes to naming rides. I can understand that some rides have longer names than others, so they shorten them, but some people shorten and completely change the name... Why? You're just confusing yourself and others around you when you do it. Sheesh!

[SnorkletsMom]

Re: Proper Attraction Names

Partly because the names are often long. I abbreviate some of them too, especially when talking to my son. Actually, now that I think about it, I probably use short or descriptive names for just about all the attractions.

It's also because people hear it said incorrectly, they say it incorrectly in turn, then someone else hears them and says it incorrectly...

[Rongo]

Re: Proper Attraction Names

And yet, all these incorrect or slang references to rides are far easier to figure out than the string of acronyms used by folks here on Micechat... I'm constantly having to stop and puzzle out what people mean by BTMRR or HISTA or IJATFE or TMAWP or FNSV. K?

[Karalora]

Re: Proper Attraction Names

In my mind, there's a difference between abbreviating the name of the ride for convenience (Indiana Jones Adventure --> Indy, "it's a small world" --> Small World) and getting it wrong. And I know not everyone is as intimately familiar with the park as I am and I try not to be too judgmental, but there are some common misnomers that really get on my nerves.

Like "Haunted House" for the Haunted Mansion. I mean, the name of the attraction is only engraved on a big plaque on each gate post as you enter the queue, and the Ghost Host only says right in the opening spiel, "Welcome, foolish mortals, to the Haunted Mansion." And it's not like "Haunted House" is really all that much shorter to pronounce than "Haunted Mansion." (Go ahead and try it!) If you say it that way because your preschooler doesn't know the word "mansion," why not use this opportunity to teach it to them? Honestly.

Or "Auto-topia." I understand, I really do. "Autopia" is kind of an oddly constructed word. When reading it, we see the "Auto" part before we get to where it's a play on "Utopia," and there's a bit of a mental short-circuit. But after a few slip-ups, you should be able to process the word as it is.

I give my dad a pass on calling BTMRR the Mine Train. Because the older attraction was one of his favorites, and because the coaster vehicles themselves are designed to look like mine trains. And because he's my dad.

But nobody gets a pass on saying "the Jack Sparrow ride." That's unforgivable.