Laura's Disney Lines

54 years young!

This year we've already seen the opening of the updated "it's a small world" attraction, the new Celebrate! A Street Party, the Celebration Round-up and BBQ dining experience, and the new Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique. Over at DCA, the Food and Wine Festival returned for a 4th year, Cocina Cucamonga moved to a new location with an expanded menu, Mickey's Fun Wheel opened, and the Blue Sky Cellar preview center just re-opened with updated exhibits on what we can expect in DCA's continuing expansion.

I think Disneyland received some of its birthday presents early this year with the premiere of the new Summer Nightastic! event, featuring the return of revamped favorites like Disney's Electrical Parade and Fantasmic!, and the new TLT Dance Club, Pixie Hollow Enchantment, and the all new fireworks show, Magical, where Dumbo flies around the castle.

The Disneyland Half Marathon Weekend returns Labor Day weekend, with events Friday-Sunday - Lee and I will be running the half marathon on Sunday. And the very first D23 Expo takes place at the Anaheim Convention Center September 10-13.

Disney's HalloweenTime returns on September 25, including the popular Haunted Mansion Holiday and the return of Mickey's Trick or Treat Party at DCA on selected nights in October.

Also this fall, the very first DVC resort in California, The Villas at Disney's Grand Californian Resort & Spa opens its doors.

The holidays return to Disneyland in November as Disneyland is transformed into the "Merriest Place on Earth", with all of the special decorations, parade and fireworks that go with it.

Next spring the new Disney's World of Color nighttime spectacular opens in DCA and who knows what else Disney might have planned?

AllEars pages on some of the events and attractions mentioned above:
"it's a small world"
Celebrate! A Street Party
Celebration Roundup and BBQ
Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique
Disney's California Food and Wine Festival
Mickey's Fun Wheel
Summer Nightastic!
Disney's Electrical Parade
Fantasmic!
Disneyland Half Marathon Weekend
Mickey's Trick or Treat Party

Monday - Studios Day for the RADP group - most of my AllEars team mates have left or are going home today. Jack's still around though, since he's very involved in the RADP community, too.

I actually got a full night's sleep (which I really needed!) last night and got up around 8:00. Had a quick breakfast in the room (granola bar, tangerine, and tea that I brought with me from home), and then walked the half mile or so to the Studios. There's some advantage at least to being on this end of the Boardwalk Villas. :-)

There was quite a long line to get into the Studios, but the streets didn't seem as crowded as when I was here at park opening in October. I went back to Toy Story Mania to get a Fastpass to use later - the return time was 10:25 when I got in line and 10:50 when I got my Fastpass! I found Kevin (and Leonard) there and we walked over to Rock'N'Roller Coaster for the first RADP meet of the day.

It took a while to get all of us assembled - the 9:30 start time became more like 10:00. Our new friend Steve came back to join us again today...when he saw the events on today's schedule he decided he really wasn't feeling well enough to go to work. :-) When it came time for the group photos there was a wonderful Photopass photographer there who arranged us all and took pictures with her camera, and then with about 7 of ours.

There were 28 of us that went on RnRC - the "limo" holds 24 so 4 went in a separate car. It was a fun ride, though we had a premature stop before the end, and then we got held for several minutes before we finally pulled into the unloading area. During the wait you could hear shouts of "Are we there yet?", "I have to go...", "Well, you should've done that before we left!" and other such things. :-) The delay meant that our photos were no longer up on the monitor, but we could go to the counter and view them. Jack was my ride partner again. (Judy, I kept much better tabs on him today than I did yesterday! :-) )

It was a good thing we rode that when we did because the line was 50 minutes by the time we got done.

From there we went over to the Tower of Terror where we had about as short a wait as possible - pretty much walked right in the Library (Leonard Loves Libraries), and then right onto the elevator! There were 21 of us riding, so we had a whole elevator to ourselves. I'd forgotten how much fun it is to ride ToT with an elevator full of RADPers...it's a blast. Kevin and I were both sitting on the aisle in the front row, and we each held one of Leonard's arms during the ride - Leonard did a lot of levitating. :-) After the ride ended, but just before the doors opened someone said "scream!", and so we all screamed at the CM as the doors opened. She didn't seem too perturbed by it, though.

Next on the agenda was a picture of the group with Mickey Mouse. Unfortunately this hadn't been on the meet schedule so a lot of people who would have participated had gone elsewhere. There were 9 of us who went to meet Sorcerer Mickey in the Animation Building, though.

It was lunch time by then. I went to the 50s Prime Time Cafe with Sean, Pamela, our new friend Steve, Jack, Bruce, Marta, Catherine, Carol, and a friend of Carol's. I'd never eaten there before, believe it or not. We had a pretty good server - she quickly realized that Catherine (who couldn't seem to keep her elbows off the table) was going to be a troublemaker.

I had one of the famous chocolate milk shakes - it was huge and I couldn't finish it. Since I had started with that, I opted for a salad and a side of mashed potatoes for lunch, though the pot pies and fried chicken and grilled chicken sandwiches that my tablemates were having looked good, too. We were doing good on time until it was time to pay the bill...which we wanted to split in multiple ways. And even though a Tables in Wonderland card is good for 10 people, it's not good across multiple bills. It took a long time to get that straightened out, but I must say I felt rather sorry for the server in having to deal with that - I wish everyone had come prepared to pay cash!

Jack was very nice and bought my lunch for me - he can be very sweet - at times. :-) It was very funny listening to the banter between him and Catherine - they seem to bring out the worst in each other. :-)

Next up was the Great Movie Ride meet at 2:00. The half of our group who went to Mama Melrose ended up being 15-20 minutes late - shame on them! While we were waiting we looked around at the various foot and hand prints - and Leonard had to pose with the one of Leonard Nimoy. :-)

We shanghaied one of the "doormen" to take our group photo - I think we might have set a camera record for this one. And then we went on the ride. There were hmm...30 of us for this one, I think? We had a short wait - I had a very nice chat with Lindsey while we were in line. This was her first Mousefest and her first experience with RADP - she enjoyed our group, too. (And who wouldn't? We're a lot of fun!)

For the Great Movie Ride we got the cowboy side - yay!!!! In all the times I've ridden this, I think it's only the third time I've gotten the cowboy side. Our narrator was Kayla, and we had her laughing so hard that she forgot her lines. :-) When we went into the mummy room, where she is the robed figure standing there we started chanting: "Kayla, Kayla, Kayla" and she started shaking with laughter. The short break from us had helped were regain her composure, though, and she was fine for the rest of the ride. It was a lot of fun.

Next up was the "Betty White Bash". I don't know what inspired Kevin to come up with this one. I think the main idea was to watch the Block Party Bash from the Hall of Fame area (where the busts of various actors are), but it took on a life of its own. Catherine had made a mask with Betty White's face on both sides and put it on a stick, and Kevin wanted pictures of each of us posing with the bust of Betty White and the mask. Which of course some people hammed up a lot more than others. As the parade passed by a lot of the Cast Members saw the mask that Catherine was holding up and a number of them made fun comments about it. It was probably one of those "you had to be there" things, but it was really a lot of fun.

After the parade passed we got a CM to take a group photo of us around Betty's statue.

And then we did *another* photo under the arch that says "Disney's Hollywood Studios". This one was like herding cats, though - people kept disappearing and then coming back, but in the meantime one or two others had disappeared. We had a really fun Fastpass photographer named Gary who helped us with this one - he was a riot.

It was time for the Toy Story Mania Meet - all those of us who had gotten Fastpasses earlier in the day were ready to use them. I think there were 27 of us this time. Jack and I rode together and I beat him (he told me that I was going to put that in the blog) but not by that much. I really like that ride, but my arm is so tired by the end!!!

I headed to Epcot after that since I wanted to see a few of the holiday storytellers plus sit and enjoy the Lights of Winter.

First was the Tres Reyes Magos in Mexico - their story hasn't changed much since the last time I saw them.

Next was one of my favorites - Norway. It was a little different this year, though - instead of just Julenissen, it was called Sigrid and Julenissen. A girl in a lovely Norwegian costume came out and started to tell us about holiday customs in Norway, but she was soon joined by a mischievous gnome - a gnome that she couldn't see since she didn't believe in gnomes. But he had the power to freeze her in place and perform small acts of mischief like placing a bell in her hand or getting us to do something when she "woke" up. And of course by the end she had become a believer and could see him, too. It was cute, though I thought Julenissen by himself has put on a fine show in the past.

Next was Helga in Germany - this one also seemed updated to me. She talked about the Christmas Market and spiced wine and the history of the Christmas tree and the nutcracker - and then she was joined on stage by a giant nutcracker.

I went towards the front of the park to sit and watch the Lights of Winter for awhile - it's one of my very favorite things at WDW during the holidays, and this is the first chance I've had to do that. In addition to the lights dancing to music, the fountain was dancing constantly as well, instead of every 15 minutes like it usually does. The music repeats after about 20 minutes - I heard pretty close to a full set, I think.

Walked back to the Boardwalk with a stop at the Bakery to pick up a sandwich for dinner, and then work on this blog entry for a while before I went to the final RADP Meet - the Winter/Summerland Mini Golf event.

There were 25 of us playing - quite a good turnout! Normally they send out foursomes, but we went in groups of 5. We all played the Snow course. Kenny, Jack, Catherine, Marta and I were one group, and we had a very good time. Jack kicked our butts - he scored 39 on the par 56 course. Everyone seemed to enjoy themselves - but Tiger Woods has nothing to worry about. :-)

There were a lot of places to take some fun photos on the course.

It was hard saying goodbye to everyone - I had so much fun playing with them these last few days! And I probably won't see some of them for a couple of years - though I keep trying to convince them that we need to have a meet at DisneyLAND. :-)

I'll have a little bit of park time tomorrow before I have to go to the airport.

Now that the holidays are back at Disneyland there are many holiday activities available to guests at Disneyland Park - not so many at Disney's California Adventure, unfortunately. So I'll start with DCA first.

At the park entrance the "CALIFORNIA" letters have their seasonal candy cane stripes. And figures of Mickey and Goofy adorn the first and last letters, respectively. It's a very popular photo opportunity.

No Santa's Beach Blast in Sunshine Plaza this year, but the characters in their holiday attire make frequent appearances there during the day.

Other photo ops include the oversized ornaments and other decorations in Flik's Fun Fair, and the glittering Christmas tree just outside Paradise Pier.

Over in Disneyland...

The huge Christmas tree dominates Town Square, and wreaths and garlands decorate all of Main Street. This is the best place to find the Disney characters in their holiday outfits, though you'll also find some of them back in Toontown, and the Pooh characters are usually back in Critter Country.

There is a nightly tree lighting ceremony, usually at 5:00.

Sleeping Beauty Castle wears icicles and a dusting of snow during the day, and comes alive with a glittering covering of ice at night. There are at least two brief castle lighting shows where the lights are turned off and then gradually come on in shimmering animation - these are typically at 5:30 and 7:30.

Santa's Reindeer Roundup has returned to Big Thunder Ranch, and there are a variety of activities for kids there. Craft tables are set up where kids can color using the crayons and coloring pages provided (no charge). Or, at Mrs Claus' Cookie Kitchen, boxed cookie kits, complete with frosting and decorations are available for $6. There are Christmas trees, snowmen and gingerbread me available.

Entertainment, such as a magician, takes place on the stage about every hour. The audience is encouraged to participate.

The corral is home to Santa's reindeer - all eight of them. Guests may not go inside their corral, but from the outside can take photos and watch the reindeer peacefully eating their hay.

Visits with Santa Claus are available in the cabin next to the reindeer corral - the line to see him is usually fairly lengthy, though.

New Orleans Square is festively decorated for the holidays, with lots of beads and lights and other glittery stuff. The major holiday attraction in that area, of course, is Haunted Mansion Holiday - this is the 8th year that Jack Skellington and the Nightmare Before Christmas gang have brought their own kind of magic and mayhem to the Haunted Mansion. It's one of my favorites every year!

Over in Toontown the Disney characters have seemingly gone all out to decorate their homes. The decorations there feature lots of bright kid-friendly colors. I have seen Santa Goofy greeting guests in the gazebo.

Perhaps one of Disneyland's most beloved holiday traditions is the holiday edition of "it's a small world". After taking a ride through there getting a glimpse of the holiday traditions celebrated by children in some of the rest of the world, I'm not sure how you can't be smiling at the end. The attraction just reopened at the end of November after an extensive rehab, and it looks better than ever. There are a few new things inside, though as far as the holiday decorations go one of the biggest changes I saw was outside, where the topiaries now feature colored lights at night in addition to the white ones.

At night the "it's a small world" facade is lit up with thousands of colored lights - all of the lights come on nightly in a special lighting moment that takes place around 5:00. About 20 minutes later, and every 15 minutes after that, there's a special light show, where holiday-themed projections, choreographed to holiday music, are projected on the facade in a short show.

And of course there's the A Christmas Fantasy parade, shown twice daily. The first parade runs from "it's a small world" to Town Square, the second one does the reverse. Where else can you see a toy soldier marching band, dancing reindeer, and skating snowflakes - not to mention Santa Claus himself! There's a new version of the Toy Factory float this year.

To finish out the day Disneyland offers the nightly Believe...in Holiday Magic fireworks show. The show can be viewed from Main Street, New Orleans Square, and the "it's a small world" mall, and at the end "snow" falls in all of those areas. It's really quite lovely!

If all that isn't enough, there's also holiday shopping (hats, shirts, Christmas tree ornaments, etc.) or trying out the variety of holiday treats (peppermint or eggnog fudge, tamales, various krispie treats and cookies, and so on). Yum!

The holiday season at Disneyland officially began Friday, November 21, and my friend Kristin(e) and I spent the day there seeing what was new and different - and what was missing. Of course the major "new" thing was the reopening of "it's a small world" after a very lengthy rehab that started in late January. The holiday season at Disneyland usually starts a week to 10 days earlier than it did this year - my theory is that the opening of "small world" delayed it this year.

I took tons of photos, and could write in a lot more detail but I'm only going to hit the highlights here - hopefully I'll have time to do some more in-depth reviews later.

There's new snowflake designs over the entrance turnstiles - they look even better at night.

First thing we did at park opening, of course, was hot foot it back to "it's a small world". There was a short line, but we didn't wait long. It really does look shiny and new!

Here's one of the new boats - I think they are narrower than the old ones. The rows seat 2-3 maximum - the older boats could get 4 in the middle rows.

From what I could tell the attraction, at least in its holiday configuration, hasn't changed very much. The Disney characters have not yet been added - I think that is supposed to take place after the holidays. There are a number of small changes throughout, but maybe I'll get to that in a later blog.

I only noticed two big changes:

The first was in the Hawaii/Polynesia/Australia room, where the rainforest scene has been added to the end. This link will take you to a larger picture.

The second was in the final room, where there's a huge sun at the end of the room.

When we exited, the line was still fairly short, so we went again - we knew it would just get longer as the day went on! The clock went off while we were waiting in line the second time - wow. The figures look brand new - so bright and shiny!

They seemed to be having a slight problem with the water flow - at the same point in both of our rides (going into the last room, I think?) we really slowed down to a crawl - and neither of our boats was overloaded at all.

And then we continued on our holiday tour around the rest of the park...Toontown is once again decorated for the holidays.

And Santa's Reindeer Roundup is back at Big Thunder Ranch. The reindeer (all 8 of them!) were looking groomed and beautiful. We arrived during a performance of a magic show in the stage and watched the rest of that - lots of sleight of hand and prestidigitation. A number of audience members, both kids and adults, were called on stage to participate. It was a lot of fun.

The decorations are up in New Orleans Square also - that's always one of my favorites. And of course Haunted Mansion Holiday is still running - we took a ride on that.

Critter Country is also looking its usual festive self - I'm always a little surprised they do as much decorating there as they do, since it's not as popular as most other areas of the park. We stopped into Pooh Corner to see what kind of holiday treats they might have there - really not too much, actually. A candy apple snowman and chocolate-covered snowman marshmallow on a stick was about it.

The castle has its icicles and dusting of snow - never mind that it was almost 80 degrees. :-)

We headed over to DCA for a while. The candy-cane striped "California" letters are back in front of the entrance, and the wreaths and garland adorn the Golden Gate Bridge. But what happened to Santa's Beach Blast??? Sunshine Plaza looks strangely bereft and unadorned. That wasn't the only thing missing - the garlands that normally adorns P.T. Flea and the Farmer's Market was also gone, as was any kind of decoration on the buildings in the San Francisco area, though the building-formerly-known-as-Golden-Dreams was decorated.

The tree is in its usual spot near the entrance to Paradise Pier.

The city sidewalks, busy sidewalks, were dressed in holiday style in the Hollywood Studios area.

And Flik's Fun Fair had the normal oversized ornaments and lights, though the Santa "pencil eraser" was gone.

We went back over to Disneyland to see the first showing of the Christmas Fantasy parade - got a nice spot on the curb in Town Square, where we were almost at the end of the parade route. It's pretty much the same, though there's a new Toy Factory float this year, replacing the previous one. It goes along with the building block theme they have for Buzz and Woody's floats.

The Times Guide, which covers Friday through next Thursday, actually has NO times listed for the castle lighting, tree lighting, or "it's a small world" lighting. We asked a Cast Member, who had times in his guide for the "small world" lighting (4:57 p.m.) and the tree lighting (5:00), but nothing for the castle. Hmmm. We went back to "small world" for its lighting ceremony - there was an annoucement on the street and a short countdown, and all of the lights went on. Ooooh...ahhhhhh. :-)

I think the colored lights on the topiary animals are new - or at least I'd never notice them before.

We waited there another 20 minutes to see the holiday projection sequence - the first one of those was about 5:20 - they take place about 5 minutes after the clock chimes each quarter hour.

We went back to Main Street to see if the castle was lighted yet - nope. Asked another CM, who thought it might not be until after the fireworks (which started at 9:25), but then we heard a passing guest say 5:30. So we waited a few more minutes, and sure enough - the lights started twinkling and coming on at 5:30. There was a very short soundtrack that went with it - a conversation between a mother and child about snow. It's still really beautiful this year! I think there are some additional effects on the buildings on Main Street, but we didn't see those - did see the trees behind us in the hub light up, though.

That was the end of our day and we headed home. It was another great day!