They're back...
Source: http://www.ocregister.com/articles/nemo-636490-disneyland-fleet.htmlRichard Nixon, then vice president of the United States, was on hand for the fleet’s initial launch.
Walt Disney wanted to show off his fleet to Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev, who had a fleet of his own, but security concerns tripped that up.
Just last year, rumors circulated that the fleet was going to be beached.
Now, 55 years after Disneyland’s submarines began taking guests on a slow-moving, underwater cruise, the fleet is back. The ride now known as Finding Nemo Submarine Voyage re-opens today after eight months of refurbishment - with the same eight vessels that started it all.
The Seafarer, one of Disneyland's submarines, makes its way around Submarine Lagoon and Matterhorn Mountain as the monorail cruises overhead while captains test various systems in advance of today's re-launch. The ride has been closed for a year while crews conducted routine, scheduled maintenance.
The subs aren’t the fastest or scariest or most romantic of Disneyland rides. They’re not even the longest, though they sometimes felt like they were. But under any name, Disneyland’s submarines are iconic, a fun place to duck out of the hot sun.
Upgrades, minor ones by Disney’s standards, are now complete.
“We put some of the latest technology in to make the show fresher, and that’s what I think we’ll feel when we start setting sail,” said Randy Sundberg, a veteran helmsman, the title that Disneyland bestows to its submarine operators.
“We have to make a good home for Nemo.”
Disneyland's Tommorrowland featured "Submarine Voyage" from 1959-1998. Guests descended through hatches into the half-submerged submarines looking trough port holes on either side of the submarine. The submarines glided along a track in the lagoon and saw real-looking and imaginary sea life fastened to rocks or floating in the water.
The most visible change is the new paint on the rock and coral throughout the 5-million-gallon lagoon. The paint is actually crushed glass, meant to be more vibrant underwater than other paints and less prone to fading in the sun.
The park’s original Submarine Voyage debuted in 1959, loosely based on a North Pole trek made the year before by the world’s first nuclear-powered submarine, the USS Nautilus. Also that day, June 6, Disneyland unveiled the Matterhorn Bobsleds and the Monorail.
All three rides from ‘59 now have been refurbished, some more than once. The submarines closed the first time in 1998 and re-opened in 2007 with a “Finding Nemo” movie theme. Eight months ago the ride shut down for the latest remodel.
Jeremy Crowley, 42, of Long Beach remembers riding the original subs.
Submarine Voyage opened in 1959, the same day as the Monorail and Matterhorn.
“As a little kid, it was fun,” he said, standing in front of the lagoon Wednesday. “You went underwater and saw all the sea creatures.”
He hasn’t been on the ride since the Nemo makeover. But his 8-year-old daughter is a fan of the movie and wants to return to go beneath the surface and see Nemo and his friends.
Helmsman Frank Matosich worked on the original ride in the 1960s and ‘70s.
“When Finding Nemo came in, I was a bit skeptical,” he said. “I went on one of the early trips, through, and all I could do was go, ‘Ooh! Ahh! Wow!’ And it just impressed me so much what Imagineering and facilities and operations did with the old Submarine Voyage.”
Drea Munoz, 36, of Lodi, was hopeful the refurbishment would keep the subs from stalling, which she said happened the last time she rode.
“It’s cool that it goes underwater,” she said.
“There’s no other ride here that goes underwater.”
Live mermaids at play in the Disneyland submarine ride's lagoon, circa 1965.
