Re: New Orleans Square - What's So Special About It?
I think New Orleans Square is so popular because it is one the most evocative, warm and romantic areas of the park. It really makes you feel like you are back in "N'awlins", back in the past. It's a very "cozy" place, and it is so rich in detail that it really takes you out of the present and transports you to another place and time. Plus it's got Pirates and Mansion, two of the most popular attractions ever!
Re: New Orleans Square - What's So Special About It?
It's absolutely gorgeous--a sense of quiet pervades it, even if you're surrounded by people. It's shady and there are small areas to duck into for a nice quiet seat. Plus the fact that there are a lot of nice shops that are just great to look at. During the holidays, it's even more gorgeous!
Re: New Orleans Square - What's So Special About It?
NOS has many beautiful and fun elements that all work together to create a perfect Disneyland atmosphere. It does, in fact, embody everything Disney parks should be, IMO. The great things about NOS are:
1. Architecture. The buildings are beautiful, detailed, semi-authentic, purposeful, intricate, and thematically consistent. Compare River Belle Terrace, all the buildings around Pirates, and the Haunted Mansion facade--they all have varieties, but they fit within the same beautiful framework.
2. Trees. So many of them. Lovely shade. They create layers through which you glimpse other areas. The air feels nicer and you don't feel like you're stuck in a concrete jungle. ::cough:: Tomorrowland ::cough::
3. Quality attractions. Pirates and the Haunted Mansion are two of the most richly themed and best loved original Disney rides, both of which Walt had a hand in. They're big and ambitious, but still thoroughly charming, with some of the best Disney use of animatronics and special effects to date.
4. Rivers of America. There's something magical about having a woodsy waterway crawling past a land, especially at night.
5. Entertainment. NOS has got great performers on the "streets" and in the--
6. --restaurants. Blue Bayou alone is practically enough to elevate NOS above every other locale in Disneyland on the face of the earth.
I love the other lands, too. But if I had to pick one to spend all day in without being able to ride anything, I'd pick NOS in an instant.
EDIT: By the way, NOS' popularity isn't a new thing. I've seen it win at least two "Favorite Land" polls on this forum, and it was popular in the recent thread about lands. Actually, NOS hasn't changed all that much in forty years--I mean, the trees have grown, Johnny Depp has taken up residence, the HM attic has changed its OS a few times, Fantasmic! has created evening congestion, and Pirates' lower courtyard was created in the outdoor queue...but fundamentally, NOS hasn't changed. It's still the same place, albeit with improved atmosphere thanks to the wonderful trees' growth.
Re: New Orleans Square - What's So Special About It?
I have loved New Orleans Square for 35+ years (since I was 4 years old). Not exactly sure why, though. Maybe because it housed the mysterious looking House? Had the original POTC that was awesome? What's funny is when I lived in Louisiana for a few years back in the late '80's, and we went to New Orleans, my first reaction of the city was, "This looks just like Disneyland!" These days I have an exceptional fondness for DL's New Orleans Square cuz it brings back so many wonderful memories of my visits to the place it was built after. In a weird way, it feels like home to me.
"This would be a great place if we could only get rid of all these people." WD
"Women are the best judges of anything we turn out. Their taste is very important. They are the theatergoers, they are the ones who drag the men in. If the women like it, to heck with the men." WD
Individuality is a great thing....as long as we think alike.
Re: New Orleans Square - What's So Special About It?
We lived in Lousiana for five years...NOS...the smells wafting from the restaurants!! The food....Blue Bayou...Club 33. Listening to the VooDoo lady! Courtyard of the Angels for pictures. The music. And the holiday decorations are incredible...it is even more magical when decorated for Christmas...the big "over the top" ornaments! The view out over the Rivers of America.
Re: New Orleans Square - What's So Special About It?
Well said, Datameister, well said.
Current hat total: 100 of 100 - completed!
Duckland: Stroll through downtown Duckburg, making sure to tour Scrooge's Money Bin, then cross the Audubon Bay Bridge to St. Canard. Visit Liquidator's Splash Pool, and don't forget a stop by Bushroot Gardens!
NOS has many beautiful and fun elements that all work together to create a perfect Disneyland atmosphere. It does, in fact, embody everything Disney parks should be, IMO. The great things about NOS are:
1. Architecture. The buildings are beautiful, detailed, semi-authentic, purposeful, intricate, and thematically consistent. Compare River Belle Terrace, all the buildings around Pirates, and the Haunted Mansion facade--they all have varieties, but they fit within the same beautiful framework.
2. Trees. So many of them. Lovely shade. They create layers through which you glimpse other areas. The air feels nicer and you don't feel like you're stuck in a concrete jungle. ::cough:: Tomorrowland ::cough::
3. Quality attractions. Pirates and the Haunted Mansion are two of the most richly themed and best loved original Disney rides, both of which Walt had a hand in. They're big and ambitious, but still thoroughly charming, with some of the best Disney use of animatronics and special effects to date.
4. Rivers of America. There's something magical about having a woodsy waterway crawling past a land, especially at night.
5. Entertainment. NOS has got great performers on the "streets" and in the--
6. --restaurants. Blue Bayou alone is practically enough to elevate NOS above every other locale in Disneyland on the face of the earth.
I love the other lands, too. But if I had to pick one to spend all day in without being able to ride anything, I'd pick NOS in an instant.
EDIT: By the way, NOS' popularity isn't a new thing. I've seen it win at least two "Favorite Land" polls on this forum, and it was popular in the recent thread about lands. Actually, NOS hasn't changed all that much in forty years--I mean, the trees have grown, Johnny Depp has taken up residence, the HM attic has changed its OS a few times, Fantasmic! has created evening congestion, and Pirates' lower courtyard was created in the outdoor queue...but fundamentally, NOS hasn't changed. It's still the same place, albeit with improved atmosphere thanks to the wonderful trees' growth.
Re: New Orleans Square - What's So Special About It?
Great points all...and now another one.
For the purposes of this post I am referring mainly to the French Quarter section of New Orleans Square.
To me, New Orleans Square always represented a new dimension in "Lands" for Disney.
First...it wasn't just a general theme...it was the first Land to actually represent a real place. Wasn't just like Main Street was "like" your typical mid-western main street...or that Frontierland was a very broad representation of various styles of the old west. New Orleans Square represented a real place you could find on a map.
It didn't feel like the rest of Disneyland in that much of the rest of the park was more of a Hollywood stage set. New Orleans Square felt different from its very opening. Like you weren't participating in some movie....but instead were "visiting" a representation of a very real place.
As such, I've always opinioned it was the precursor to a design and storytelling style that was more like what would eventually be the World Showcase countries at EPCOT. I think New Orleans Square is more related to that, than the typical other Lands at Disneyland.
And I think that's one of the things that makes it special. Almost as if at the end of Walt's life...he was just starting to take the Land concept to a slightly different level. Whether he consciously recognized it or not.
Re: New Orleans Square - What's So Special About It?
Interesting point, Opus1guy, although I don't totally agree with it. NOS is still a generalization that doesn't literally represent any one location in the French Quarter. And I do think that Main Street et al. are intended to transport you to the other places, not drop you into movie sets that depict them. NOS just does a more convincing job of it in many ways.
Interesting point, Opus1guy, although I don't totally agree with it. NOS is still a generalization that doesn't literally represent any one location in the French Quarter.
Oh I agree and didn't mean to imply otherwise. Yes it's a generalization. But it's a generalization of a real place on a map. The France area at EPCOT is a generalization too. But it's a generalization of a real place. That's what I meant.
The other lands transport you more to a place of mind. New Orleans Square is meant to transport you more to a real place...the French Quarter of the real city of New Orleans.
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