Salute to All Things Disney but Mostly Disneyland

Since Laura was in a week-long training class at work, I (Lee) had the opportunity to take her place at a press event Disney put on for Southern California media to get a look behind the scenes at all the changes coming to the Disneyland Resort this Summer - especially the opening of Buena Vista Street and Cars Land at California Adventure.

This is Part One!

The first half of the event took place in what Disney calls its Cast Showcase at California Adventure. This is an immersive education venue that Disney built to familiarize all 22,000 Disneyland Resort cast members with all the changes taking place around the Disneyland Resort. The Showcase is currently occupying the soundstage venue at California Adventure that is used to hold Who Wants To Be A Millionaire. For those who have been through the Narnia or other "behind the scenes" exhibits for various films that have been installed at Disney Hollywood Studios at Walt Disney World, this has the same sort of feel. The Cast Showcase is supposed to run for 20 days.

Our visit to the Cast Showcase began with a welcome by Tom Staggs, Chairman Walt Disney Parks and Resorts. Tom said that Disney recognized that California Adventure was not living up to its potential and began a five year program to remake the park. Highlights so far include extensive changes to the Paradise Pier area, the Little Mermaid attraction, and the World of Color show. The re-imagined entrance and hub for California Adventure, Buena Vista Street, and the new 12-acre Cars Land complete that five-year effort. He explained that the Showcase covers not just the changes at California Adventure but also at Disneyland and Downtown Disney. It is not just about attractions but also about merchandising, food and beverage and entertainment. He remarked that when they re-open California Adventure it will finally be a worthy and complementary neighbor to Disneyland. Re-open was a deliberate choice of words - Disney views the magnitude of the changes and the shift in the story of California Adventure to be significant enough that they are considering this a second Grand Opening for the park.

Tom then circled back to talk about the Disney cast members who he said are the key to bringing the worlds that the Disney Imagineers build to life and to the guest experience. He said that the cast members will visit the Showcase because they love what they do - they are Disney fans and they want to know as much as possible to help their guests.

As his parting shot Tom shared a secret - along with all the other changes coming June 15th, there will be a new segment in World of Color featuring Pixar's latest animated feature 'Brave'.

From here on out the Cast Showcase experience was what the cast members will see. The first room includes displays on the renovated Matterhorn - including one of the new ride vehicles - on the Mad T Party dance party coming to California Adventure (replacing ElecTRONica), and the new Fantasy Faire "Princess experience" area coming to Disneyland.This area also features a kitchen set for the "The Happy Chef" who acts as the master-of-ceremonies for this area of the exhibit. She is putting on a cooking demonstration making a celebratory cake and with each ingredient she adds to the cake there is a video segment from a Disney executive talking about an aspect of the changes. The first video is from George Kalogridis, President of Disneyland Resort, who greets the 22,000 cast members and Imagineers of Disneyland Resort and welcomes them to the cast showcase. He tells the cast members that this is the second largest expansion in the history of the Disneyland Resort and that "the happiest place on Earth just got happier."

Another of the video segments talks to all the changes taking place in Downtown Disney. Those changes include the extensive renovations to the Disneyland Hotel including replacing all the electrical and plumbing, expanding the rooms into the former balcony areas, and upgrading the furniture, carpet, and fittings. Other highlights include the renovated Lego store (we are getting giant Lego sculptures like those at Walt Disney World), the new Wunderground Gallery (Disney collectables), the new Earl of Sandwich restaurant (yea!) and the expanded La Brea Bakery.

The next video segment highlights the recently completed renovations to the "400 block" of Main Street in Disneyland. These changes include complete interior remodels of all the shops and restaurants, most in the Victorian style. The candy store now has a candy kitchen that is twice as big so guests can see two kinds of candy being made at once. The shops have more room for guests to move around and more cash registers to shorten waits to check out. The service area at the GIbson Girl ice cream shop has been moved back into the shop so the queue will now be inside instead of spilling out onto Main Street.

The new Matterhorn ride vehicles

The segment highlighting changes within the Parks included a section on the Matterhorn. This is the first time it's been scaffolded since it was built which allowed them to paint it a new color and add new "snow", and is the first major rehab since 1978. The new ride vehicles are each two connected cars, each with three individual seat compartments instead of the single (shared) set compartment. They are building a new load area to support both a single rider line and load/unload for guests who need "assistance". The Matterhorn re-opens on June 15th.

The changeover from ElecTRONica to Mad T Party in the Hollywood area of California Adventure is almost complete - with a new central stage and the new House of Cards that replaces Flynn's Arcade. The featured act for the Mad T Party is the Mad T Party Band that includes the Mad Hatter and Alice as band members. They will perform for twenty minutes out of every hour and tunes the rest of the hour will be provided by a DJ (see the picture with the glowing bunny ears). There will be professional dancers featured at the House of Cards along with, if Glowfest and ElecTRONica are any indication, lots of dancing guests.

There has been no formal announcement made that we are aware of, but there is a note on the map of California Adventure entertainment below, that reads "Daytime fountain show - our famous Paradise Pier fountains perform, dance and play - in the day".

This map highlights the live performers and character "meet and greet" opportunities around California Adventure

We then moved to the second room in the exhibit - this one decorated like 1920's Los Angeles to highlight the new Buena Vista Street. Our host for this area was an actor playing an old time radio announcer - complete with impressions and sound effects. Various video segments, along with the static displays, told the story of Buena Vista Street and what guests can expect. Buena Vista Street represents Los Angeles as it was in the 1920's when Walt arrived with little more than "his suitcase and his dreams". Buena Vista Street actually starts with the entrance to California Adventure - the entrance turnstile area has been rebuilt to look like the Los Angeles' Pan Pacific Theater . The shops on Buena Vista street have been themed to have a connection to the young Walt Disney (Mortimer's Produce, Clarabelle's Ice Cream, Elias and Company) and the story is that they may have served as the inspiration for some of Walt's early stories and characters.

Buena Vista Street ends in a new hub area with a new "partners" statue and a beautiful fountain that front the Carthay Circle Theater. Just in case you don't know the connection, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs premiered at the Carthay Circle Theater in 1937. This Partners statue features a much younger Walt Disney and an earlier version of Mickey Mouse. The Carthay Circle Theater building will house three restaurants: a lounge downstairs that serves appetizers and "small plate" dishes, a full table service dining room upstairs that seats 200 inside and 56 more on the balcony, and the Club 33 associated private dining room - 1901.

The fountain at the center of the new California Adventure hub. Image copyright ©Disney.

Running up and down Buena Vista Street and into the Hollywood area will be the two Red Car trolleys - based on the Pacific Electric Railroad trolleys that used to run in Los Angeles. Some interesting trivia for this attraction - the cars are based on the original Pacific Electric Railroad cars but are brand new and they are actually battery powered (so all the overhead wires are just set dressing). Their numbers are 623 (for 1923, the year Walt arrived in LA) and 717 (for the 7/17/55 opening day of Disneyland).

There are several new entertainment acts that have been created for Buena Vista Street. Five and Dime is a jazzy band (the Five) with vocalist Dime, who will perform from various locations using their car as their stage. The Red Car News Boys is a six-member group that will serve as the singing ambassadors of Buena Vista Street and may remind some of Disney's 'Newsies' movie and musical. Fans of the street performers in Disney Hollywood Studios at Walt Disney World should enjoy the "Citizens of Buena Vista". These four characters include a policeman, a directionally-challenged messenger, a photographer and a slightly crazed dog lady and they will have impromptu interactions with guests making their way down Buena Vista Street. Guests will also regularly see Goofy dressed in a 20's era zoot suit on Buena Vista Street.

Tomorrow "Cars Land" so be sure to check back!

Thought I'd write about some of the new (to me) meals I've had at Disneyland over my last few trips.

The Village Haus in Fantasyland re-opened late last year with a somewhat new menu - I have to say I was happy to see a new twist on the the burgers and pizza they served before! They still serve burgers and pizza, but now in addition to the usual offerings they serve a burger with pastrami, horseradish sauce, and caramelized onions, and a BLT flatbread with bacon, caramelized onions, marinated tomatoes and arugula. In keeping with the Bavarian theme of the restaurant they also offer a chicken sausage in a pretzel roll, covered with sauerkraut, which was what I tried. It was pretty good - the sausage was tasty, though the pretzel roll was a little dry. And it needed more sauerkraut. But I enjoyed it and would order it again.

Village Haus Menu

Troubadour Tavern is located next to Disney's Princess Fantasy Faire. Its offerings are more like substantial snacks than real meals. In addition to bratwurst and corn on the cob they offer three kinds of baked potatoes: broccoli and cheese, bacon and sour cream, and barbecued chicken. I ordered the bacon and sour cream potato, which also came with cheese and chives. I'm never quite sure what I'm going to get when I order a baked potato from a fast food place, but the one I had here was hot and fluffy and very good. They were pretty generous with all of the toppings, and it was petty filling for $6.29. I think next time I'd like to try either the broccoli and cheese or the barbecued chicken potato - those look good, too!

Troubadour Tavern Menu

Tomorrowland Terrace has a Mahi Mahi Sandwich on the menu. The mahi mahi is marinated and baked, and served on a bun with cabbage and pico de gallo. I opted for the fruit instead of fries. It could have used something that would have given it a little bit more of a kick, but I'd order it again.

Tomorrowland Terrace Menu

While Lee and I have done the World of Color Picnics several times, we had never done one of the World of Color Dinner Packages. I was surprised when I called on a Thursday and found plenty of availability for the next night - I had my choice of times at both restaurants!. We chose the Wine Country Trattoria - I hadn't been there since they re-opened last summer with the new menu.

There is now seating at the Trattoria both upstairs and downstairs, but the kitchen is not quite as well-equipped upstairs, so only World of Color diners are seated upstairs, since it has a smaller menu. (They also seat World of Color diners downstairs.) We were seated upstairs. The area is a large covered patio, and is open on the sides. It was a little chilly on this January night, but not too bad.

The World of Color Dinners are prix fixe - you have choice of soup or salad, and then a choice of six entrees. Dessert is a shared platter with small servings of four different desserts. It's $39.99, and at the end of dinner you receive tickets to the Reserved Viewing area for the World of Color show.

Since it was a cool evening Lee and I started with the minestrone soup. It's a very acceptable soup, but nothing to rave about.

I chose Today's Sustainable Fish for my entree. I don't remember now what kind of fish it was but it was nicely cooked, moist, and served on a bed of tomato-vegetable ragu.

Lee had the Braised Lamb Shank with polenta and some kind of greens. He really liked it - I had a few bites, too, and it was very good.

I have to say I was disappointed in the desserts: Trattoria Tiramisu, Mini Fruit Crostada,
Vanilla Bean Panna Cotta with Fresh Fruit, and Chocolate Hazelnut Mousse with Lemon Cream. The mousse was pretty good, but the rest were just ok. We didn't finish the crostada or the tiramisu.

I was surprised that there was an annual pass discount on the dining package, but there was, and our server even asked if we were AP holders (which they don't always do). Even with the discount, by the time we added tax, tip, and a couple glasses of wine it was a hundred dollar dinner.

Wine Country Trattoria World of Color Dinner Menu

We had tickets to the 8:00 World of Color show - even though it said to go to the viewing area at 7:30, and we went at 7:30, there were already LOTS of people in there. So, even in the reserved section we didn't get a prime spot, though we had a mostly unobstructed view. Still a great show, though. I hadn't see the Tron tag at the end from the viewing area - only from the side. It looks a lot better from the front.

First the bad news...as announced November 3 on the Disney Parks Blog, there will be no Disney's California Food and Wine Festival in 2011 or 2012. The wording was such that some speculated that it just wouldn't be at DCA, but AllEars has verified with a Disney representative that there will be NO Festival.

I'm very disappointed, since this is one of my favorite events, but I can understand that the construction at DCA would make it difficult - some of the areas they have used in the past for the Festival will not be available. I'm still bummed, though.

Some things that are relatively new at the parks...

The Duffy the Disney Bear Meet and Greet location in Paradise Pier, next to Treasures in Paradise. Jeanine wrote about that in this blog entry. Those who visit the area get an "I Just Hugged Duffy" sticker.

The Tangled Meet and Greet area is located in Fantasyland next to Pinocchio's Daring Journey. Guests can meet Rapunzel and Flynn Rider.

The new Disney Dance Crew show debuted on October 22 at DCA's Hollywood Pictures Backlot theater, replacing the Drawn to the Magic show. The show features the new talking Mickey Mouse character, who can move his mouth and blink his eyes. This Mickey also has all the moves, as he brings together two rival dance crews. They perform to modern versions of classic Disney tunes - some of them rather surprising - like "A Pirate's Life for Me". After the show Mickey comes out to meet and greet guests - but this character is not the talking Mickey. Same costume, different head (and I'm guessing a different person inside, too!).

One fun thing I noticed - take a look at the glowing logo on the cover of the DJ's laptop. :-)

The Disney Channel Rocks! show, which premiered in Florida on October 22 (see the AllEars page HERE, has been postponed until November 26. The new show, featuring music from the Disney Channel's “High School Musical” series, “Camp Rock” and “StarStruck” will be performed on the Palisades Stage in Paradise Park next to Paradise Bay in the morning and early afternoon.

In anticipation of the upcoming TRON: Legacy movie, opening in theaters December 17, there are several tie-ins at Disney California Adventure. ElecTRONica brings the world of TRON to the Hollywood Pictures Backlot Friday-Sunday nights (it will run nightly from December 17-January 2). In addition to the techno dance party in the streets, guests can view a 9-minute 3D preview of the movie in the MuppetVision theater, experience the LASERMAN show, or enjoy a "Glowjito" or "Digitini" at theEnd of Line Club. (For the true TRON geeks: I still have a computer system that displays "END OF LINE" on my screen when I log off.) And for a real blast from the past there's Flynn's Arcade, which has quite a selection of 1980s video games - everything from Air Hockey to Pac-man to, yes, the TRON game. One cool thing: the game tokens (25 cents each) actually are custom "Flynn's Arcade" tokens!

According to a recent Disneyland press release, ElecTRONica will continue into spring, 2011.

There's also a new TRON: Legacy encore to World of Color - the very first one. We were told that adding encores was something they planned to do with World of Color, so it's great to see that we got one this soon after the show opened! The encore runs at the end of each World of Color show as that pesky Master Control Program manages to take control of the show for a while. Disney has stated that the encore will run for several months, so while there is no official end date, it will definitely be with us through the holidays and for some time beyond.

And speaking of the holidays...the Disneyland Resort's holiday celebration begins on Friday, November 12. At Disneyland this includes favorites like the "A Christmas Fantasy" parade, Sleeping Beauty Winter Castle, Santa's Reindeer Round-up, "it's a small world" Holiday, and the "Believe...in Holiday Magic" fireworks. Over at DCA the familiar candy cane-striped letters of "CALIFORNIA" will be back, as well as the over-sized ornaments and decorations at Flik's Fun Fair. Santa Claus will greet guests at Paradise Pier.

See the Holidays at Disneyland page for more information and photos.

The World of Color Road Show is in San Diego July 22-25. As announced in this press release, Disney has been taking its new nighttime spectacular "on the road" to the cities of San Francisco, Sacramento, San Diego, and Los Angeles.

Since you can't really take the fountains and lasers and lights to a remote location, what's really happening is that in each city different animation sequences, which showcase themes and characters that actually appear in the show, are projected onto a large surface in that area. In San Diego, that happens to be the side of the U.S.S. Midway, an aircraft carrier that is now a museum. Yeah, that's a pretty large surface! There are different shows with different themes for each city - for San Diego, the theme, appropriately enough, is "Water", and includes scenes from The Little Mermaid, Finding Nemo, Fantasia and Fantasia 2000, Alice in Wonderland, Pocahontas, and Bambi. Even classics like Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs and Pinocchio make an appearance.

Though it sounds like something to experience in person, this is only intended to be an on-line experience, where those interested visit the www.WorldofColorRoadShow.com to actually see (and even participate!) in the show. The on-line experience runs nightly from 9:00-11:30 p.m. on July 22-25. If you missed the live broadcast in San Diego, you can still catch the webcast for Los Angeles, which will occur on July 29-31 and August 1 from 9-11:30 p.m.

We'll have more footage of the show in the next couple of days after Lee has had a chance to edit the video he took, but in the meantime here's a taste of it, courtesy of Disney:

I have to say I think my favorite moment is the little bucket-carrying broom at the end - he appears at the very end and closes all of the shows.

I spent the better part of three days at Disneyland last week...just thought I'd share some random observations and thoughts on various things.

World of Color - I like this show more every time I see it - I see new things in it every time! Some of that is because of seeing it from different angles - you see different things depending on which projection screen you have the best view of.

The projection screens are VERY affected by wind - the first two times I saw the show the projections seemed a bit unclear to me as compared to images Disney released before the show open. But on Saturday night the wind was down and the images were VERY clear for the first 2/3 of the show, and really looked great.

I am disappointed in the viewing area, though - just about any where you are in the viewing area your view is going to be blocked by one of the light towers that's down by the water. When we watched it on Saturday we had a tower that was right in the middle of our view of the main projection screen.

We watched the show from the side (in front of California Screamin') one night. It was a great spot to watch the fountains from. And they present a different look when viewed from the side - we thought that you can better see just what they are doing. There were very few people back there - we could've walked up right before the show started and had our choice of spots. Of course it was the third show...so it's probably not that empty for the first two.

World of Color Picnic: We did this Saturday night. I still think it's a terrific value! For Annual Passholders it's $12.99, and for that you get a bottled drink (worth $3), a reusable tote bag (and they were giving one per meal rather than just one per order), which is worth another $3-$4, and then you also get a nice snack PLUS a Fastpass for World of Color that you didn't have to wait in line for 30-90 minutes to get! I had the Mediterranean Vegetarian meal this time, and it seemed to be quite a bit more food than you get with the other meals - the vegetable wrap was a pretty normal size. So that picnic meal really was a meal for me. One thing we learned at the Round Robin session about the picnic meals: they will pre-sell up to 425 on the web site for each night, and up to 400 for same-day picnic sales at the park.

Landscaping: Disney always does a great job with their landscaping, but I thought these World of Color-inspired plantings were especially colorful.

Toy Story Midway Mania - the new game and Toy Story 3 characters have been added. Dino Darts, hosted by Rex and Trixie, replaces Bo-Peep's Baa-loon Pop. The game itself is the same, but the background and elements have been changed to reflect the new hosts. I saw Buttercup the Unicorn in one of the other games, but did not see Lotso, who is also in the ride somewhere.

Crowds: Disney California Adventure was really not crowded at all on Friday or Saturday - we rode Toy Story Mania Saturday afternoon with only a 25 minute wait! On Friday night Disneyland was not too crowded, either - it was the fewest people I've ever seen at the first showing of Fantasmic!. But we thought (hoped) that might be the case because most of the die-hard fans would be trying to catch the first night of World of Color.

The California Letters: The letters in front of DCA that spell out "CALIFORNIA" have been changed again - World of Color colors.

Silly Symphony Swings: This attraction is re-theming of the Orange Stinger attraction, so riders still sit in swings that are lifted into the air and then the ride spins around. The old attraction had an "orange peel" around it, so it was somewhat enclosed. The newer one doesn't have that. I think it's taller and spins faster than the old one, but other people tell me it just seems that way because it's all open now. In any case, it's still a lot of fun, though I come of it slightly dizzy. Some tandem swings have been added to the new version, so that an adult and a child can ride together. Those seemed to be quite popular - and they also had a shorter line!

Minnie & Friends Breakfast in the Park: Deb, Lee and I went to this character breakfast at the Plaza Inn in Disneyland on Saturday morning. We were there just after the park opened, so it was not too busy yet. The characters were really full of it, and were great fun. Deb commented that they interacted with each other a lot more than she sees in Florida. For example, Captain Hook locked Max, Chip, Dale and Rafiki out on the patio - until Minnie came along and scolded him. Later I suggested to Dale that if he was looking for some mischief, that he should go steal the Mad Hatter's hat - and he went over to try to do it. There were quite a few characters there, too - in addition to the aforementioned there were also Alice and the Mad Hatter, Gepetto, (who had a mustache-twirling contest with Captain Hook), Eeyore, and Rabbit (from Winnie-the-Pooh). The food was pretty good, too - it was not as huge a selection as they have at Storytellers, but they had made-to-order omelets that I think we all enjoyed.

Glow Fest: We saw this on Saturday night, the first night they had the drummers and dancers performing. It's very colorful and different - and also quite loud.

The Bollywood Step Dance group (all the way from Yorba Linda!) was fascinating to watch - modern dance meets India? I don't know how to describe it. Here's the description from their web page: "The Bollywood dance style incorporates the fusion of Hip Hop, Jazz, Salsa, East Indian Classical, Folk, and Bhangra dancing." Really elaborate and beautiful costumes, and they were very energetic - I don't know how they will keep up that pace all night!

Everything starts on the stage in Sunshine Plaza, then later in the evening moves back into the Hollywood Backlot, where it becomes more of a street party, with the focus more on the guests dancing and enjoying themselves rather than watching entertainers perform. Lots of glowing things - glowing tables, glowing beverages, glowing bracelets (red, green, and blue - blue seemed to be the popular color!), glowing balloons, glowing light swords, and even glowing cotton candy.

Looks like it's going to be a great summer!

World of Color Merchandise can (at this point) mainly be found in three locations. As you enter Disney California Adventure, there is a merchandise store on the left side "Greetings from California". It has a basic merchandise display sporting T-shirts, cups, glassware, bracelets ...

... a micro-fiber black blanket, limited edition matted litho.....

Some merchandise is available for purchase exclusively by Annual Passholders. This includes the shirts pictured below: a t-shirt, hooded sweatshirt and a women's t-shirt. A commemorative coin and AP exclusive pins are also available. In some locations this merchandise is out on display, in others it is kept behind the counter and you have to ask for it.

The widest variety of merchandise and limited edition pins are found in the Paradise Pier shopping district, at Treasures in Paradise across from Ariel's Grotto, and at Point Mugu Tattoo.

If you are looking for pins, be sure and hit the Paradise Pier stores.

A Disney Vacation Club pin is available, unfortunately, I did not have my DVC membership card with me in California. You could also purchase an Annual Passholder pin ($7.95) which is labeled as exclusive! In fact, the AP pin was available on at the online DisneyStore prior to World of Color opeining, but is no longer available.

You can find the pins on the Disney Pin trading site. When I shopped on 6/14, the Opening Day pin (LE 1500 $11.95) was sold out. The other Limited Edition pins (1200 $9.95) were available.

The Opening Day pin has an edition size of 1500 and features the beautiful Sprite from Disney's Fantasia 2000. Six other individual pins - with an edition size of 1200 - depict Alice in Wonderland, Crush and Squirt, Sebastian, Woody and Buzz, Scar, and Pocahontas. These six pins can also be purchased in a collector set, which includes a completer pin with the logo for the World of Color. The collectors set has an edition size of 300. For the ultimate collector, the World of Color framed set includes the six individual pins plus two completer pins: the World of Color Logo and Tinker Bell. The Tinker Bell pin - found only within the framed set - has an edition size of just 100.

By now, I suspect everyone likely to read this has already read a plethora of information about World of Color (WoC) and its various permutations of seating arrangements. One of the methods of obtaining seating in the desirable "Paradise Park" location is buying a picnic meal either in advance, online, or on the same day, walk-up. I tried this out for the first public showing of WoC, and had some observations.

Initially, the picnics were said to cost $14.99 with no discounts, and would be available online on 6/11. Ultimately, it turned out that the picnics cost $12.99 with an AP discount, and were available online starting the morning of 6/10. On picking up the picnics, signs were up stating the picnics cost $13.99 so it may be the pricing is still in flux. Orders placed online were given Fastpasses for the 9:00pm show, while walk-ups were given passes for the 10:15pm show. While picnics were not available for purchase on the day of the show until 2pm, there was a huge line present by around 10:00am, at which time they started giving out wristbands so people could leave and come back later, assured that the picnics would not run out before they got theirs.

I asked the CM handling the line whether it was more/less advantageous to come earlier or later in the 2pm-8pm pickup time frame, he said that it didn't matter--everyone was either going to get Yellow or Green viewing areas, and they were directly adjacent. We returned around 6:30pm, and received Yellow.

The picnics each came in their own commemorative tote bag:

I had the Asian picnic which was, for the most part, decent.

The salmon was a little dry but still manageable. The soba noodles were surprisingly good, and the mandarin orange cake was better than I had expected, being largely made of some sort of mousse filling rather than dry cake. What wasn't good were the spring rolls, which were essentially julienned cucumber and carrot mixed together in a rice paper wrapper. The cucumber and carrot were completely bland, and the wrapper was so soft and damp that it proved impossible to dunk it into the dipping sauce without the whole thing exploding in a messy heap of vegetables.

The Fastpasses told us to go directly to the viewing area 30-90 minutes prior to the show. The interesting part about the viewing area is that it is divided up into sections by color, but there are no permanent markers delineating different sections. This leaves me to believe that they could conceivably change the location of a color whenever they want, in which case there would be no real way to know how good a section you scored until you got placed in it. In this first night's viewing, Blue was the section most directly opposite the water screens, with Orange behind them, and Green adjacent to them. Yellow was on the other side of Green, and farthest off to the side was Red. While initially it seemed as though there would be three tiers of viewing areas (average for the regular Fastpass holders, better for picnickers, best for sit-down package holders,) it rapidly became evident that there were only two -- Blue for the dining packages, and everything else for everyone else.

Anyone who had looked at the Paradise Park area in advance could probably have predicted that the viewing would be somewhat problematic by how shallow the tiering was constructed. The bottom tier appears to have the closest view, but offers the best chance of getting drenched through the progress of the show. The successive levels each offer good views in the front, but the people in back are generally stuck looking at the back of heads, and the occasional child riding his parent's shoulders. Additionally, the show uses several different water screens at different distances from the audience -- the screens in the back and the middle are mostly visible from the majority of the area, however the closest screen really only seems discernible if you're sitting in the Blue section, or pretty close to it. The other sections curve around, so that you end up looking at the screen from the edge side, making the already-soft-focus picture often unidentifiable.

There is no sitting in the areas. Some of the people had gotten there early and were all sitting down in their sections, only to have the CMs tell them to stand up, and then place later arrivals in front of them. This led to some decidedly un-magical feelings.

To help keep the packed-in crowd from rioting and bloodshed, Disney provides a pre-show with large color-marked puppets that wander around for the half-hour prior to showtime inciting people to sing and holla their general enjoyment.

The show itself is spectacular -- the mastery of color and water it displays is amazing and thoroughly worth all the trouble and hoops you might have to suffer to enjoy it from a decent vantage point.

During a subsequent show, I watched it from the back of Paradise Pier, and while the images on the screens were only occasionally identifiable, the view of the fountains and their movements was excellent. While it certainly wouldn't be my first choice, you can definitely get a reasonable appreciation for the show without getting a Fastpass of any kind.

The only thing I would give a pass to, is the "Glow Fest" they developed for the people in the Hollywood Picture Backlot. In the first place, the Sun Plaza and the Backlot are decorated up with fairly loud and garish signage with an inexplicable emphasis on fluorescent yellow. We thought perhaps it would look better with special lighting, at night, but it was more or less the same. The backdrop that makes up the end of the street was covered over with projections of a tetris-like pattern, and colored shadows of dancing figures. There was a handful of people dancing in the streets to exceptionally loud music, but most seemed to be availing themselves of the booths in the middle of the street which were selling a variety of alcoholic beverages such as Cosmopolitans, in souvenir martini glasses. The odd part was that, at least at the booth I examined, there weren't any similarly festive non-alcoholic options -- just bottles of water. Although no doubt entertaining for many, it left me with the same impression George Bailey got when he found Bedford Falls turned into Pottersville.

On the whole, I thought Disney did a relatively good job of coming up with a variety of affordable options by which people can guarantee themselves a place to see the show. With time, it seems likely that they'll continue to fine-tune and improve the admittedly rocky arrangements they have now.

Deb Wills and I were fortunate to be able to attend the World of Color Premiere event tonight. It was an amazing experience - I like World of Color more every time I see it.

We posted a short video to youtube earlier this evening with highlights from World of Color from the dress rehearsal last week. You can see that here (and thanks to Lee for doing the editing on it!)

It's really too late to try to tell you much about it, so I'll just share some photos for now.

Our Master (Mouster?) of Ceremonies was the one and only Mickey Mouse - but this was the *talking* Mickey that you may have seen several weeks ago - his mouth moves along with what he's saying, and he can blink his eyes. In fact, he even joked with Teri Hatcher that he needed to take a second photo with her because he thought his eyes had been closed! It was pretty cool!

I was able to watch a lot more of the show this time, though I still took both pictures and video. As I said, I like it more each time I see it - I'm sure I will continue to notice new things in it for a long time to come. This photo shows some of the laser effects.

And more fountains doing more things:

What? The show is over already???

Afterwards, Deb had the opportunity to interview Disneyland Ambassador Quinn Shurian about the Summer Nightastic! events, and also about his position as one of the Disneyland Ambassadors.

She also spoke to Sayre Wiseman, Director, Show Production, Walt Disney Imagineering, about the World of Color, something Sayre has been involved in from its inception. We'll have the interviews on-line as soon as possible.

We'll have lots more video to come - Deb interviewed Bob Iger, Tom Staggs (President of Disney Parks and Resorts) and George Kalogridis (among others) on the blue carpet, and of course we'll have her interviews with Sayre Wiseman and Quinn Shurian.

Lots more events tomorrow!

This isn't going to be a review, really - more of a collection of my thoughts and impressions now that I've seen World of Color.

My overall impression: I really liked it, but I'm really looking forward to seeing it when I'm not trying to get pictures/video of it.

So even though I've now seen it twice I don't really think I can give a "review" of it. The first time I saw it was from our room at the Grand Californian, where we were off to the side and could see the fountains but could not see the mist screens (and the projections on them) at all.

The second time was at a dress rehearsal, when I was in the actual viewing area, but to be honest I watched most of it through the view finder on the video camera, so I really don't feel like I experienced the show - I saw more of it when I watched the video after I got home than I did in person!

But I enjoyed what I saw, and I'm anxious to see it again. The scale of it is just enormous, and even from the viewing area you can't actually see the whole thing at once - there are things going on in front of you, and things going on off to the side, too. And so much happening all at once that my brain just couldn't process it all. For example, one thing I noticed on watching the video is at the end of the "UP" sequence: as the house pulled by its thousands of colorful balloons flies up out of sight there is one solitary "Mickey" balloon that floats under it.

A lot of what Disney has posted on-line has been computer generated images, so I have to say I was a little disappointed that the actual projections on the mist screens were not nearly as crisp and clear as I was expecting. But the projections add a lot to the experience, and the show was much better when I saw it from the front where I could see the projections than when I viewed it from the side with no projections.

But the fountains are amazing - there are so many of them, and they do so many different things, and in so many colors. They dance and play and sway and pop and seem to float in the air. I have to say that the ones that go really, really, high are just awesome. They put an exclamation point on certain sequences.

We got a lot of information on World of Color and things that we could expect to see in it last May, and then again at the D23 Expo in September. But a fair number of those things are actually not in the final version - like the Alice in Wonderland sequence with the paper sculpture animations and the "Little Squirt" fountain character. Some things that were added are characters from The Princess and the Frog - Tiana and Prince Naveen, and Dr. Facilier - the "balloon house" from UP and the Genie from Aladdin.

The music is terrific - selections from classic Disney animated movies as well as newer ones - Under the Sea, Friend Like Me, April Showers, and Night on Bald Mountain, just to name a few. Some very different arrangements of Part of Your World and April Showers. And of course there's the signature "Wonderful World of Color" which opens and closes the show - and just a warning, it has serious earworm potential. :-)

In addition to the projections on the mist screens, there are also projection domes that rise up out of the water, and images are projected on those - sometimes it's a smaller (and clearer) version of what's on the main water screen, and sometimes it's completely different.

There are some light-hearted moments with Dory and Marlin, Wall-E, the Genie, and Buzz and Woody, and more touching moments with Mufasa and Simba, Belle and the Beast, and Wall-E and Eve.

The fire effects during the Pirates of the Caribbean sequence are really cool.

I was surprised to see lights on Mickey's Fun Wheel at certain places in the show, but they serve to accent everything else that's going on.

One of my favorite moments is towards the end, when the projection of Sorcerer Mickey seems to be conducting the fountains.

The finale is terrific, a reprise of Wonderful World of Color, where many of the characters we've seen throughout the show return, almost like they are taking a bow. But the real stars of this show are the fountains!

We'll be posting a short video with highlights from World of Color to youtube tonight at 9:00 - you can either find it on the AllEars channel: http://youtube.com/allearsnet or keep an eye on the main page of AllEars where we will have a link to it.

World of Color Picnic Meals went on sale this morning at www.disneyland.com. I ordered ours for Saturday night - it was very quick and easy. If you're an Annual Passholder and logged in to their site with your user name and password then you get a discount - $12.99 instead of $14.99. So it makes it an even better deal!

At the World of Color event the other night they spent a lot of time telling us about the options guests have for viewing World of Color from the Viewing area - this of course is one question that I think almost all of us have had!

Disney put out a fairly comprehensive press release, but here's a few additional details.

World of Color will be visible from all around Paradise Bay (except where there are buildings or attractions in the way, of course) but the prime viewing area will be Paradise Park, the new terraced area they recently finished. Access to this area for World of Color will be limited to those who have a ticket for it. There are two different areas: General Viewing and Preferred Reserved Viewing. And there are multiple ways to get a ticket.

The "no cost" version for the General Viewing area is something we're all familiar with - a FASTPASS. FASTPASSES will be distributed beginning at park opening at the Grizzly River Run FASTPASS machines until they are all gone. You may not choose which show you want to attend. The FASTPASS ticket will also indicate which entrance you should use to enter the viewing area.

Preferred Reserved Viewing is available to those who have booked the World of Color dining package at either Ariel's Grotto or Wine Country Trattoria. Reservations can be made up to 60 days in advance by calling (714) 781-DINE. Both locations offer a prix fixe menu. Prices for the Trattoria are $39.99 for adults and $18.99 for children ages 3-9. The price at Ariel's Grotto varies depending on whether it is indoor or outdoor seating, at this point, indoor seating is $36.99 for adults and $20.99 for children.

Here are the World of Color Prix Fixe menus for the Trattoria:
Adult Menu
Kid's Menu

The World of Color menu for Ariel's Grotto is the same as their usual menu, with the exception that the conch shell dessert has been replaced by a World of Color "filmstrip" dessert.

Ariel's Grotto Adult Menu
Ariel's Grotto Kid's Menu

The third option is the World of Color Picnic. Guests with this option receive a General Viewing FASTPASS ticket. For $14.99 (same price for adults and kids) guests receive a boxed meal and a non-alcoholic beverage. Kid's meals also come with a light-up bracelet. All meals are served cold. Adults have four meal choices and kids have three choices (I will describe them in more detail below). The picnics can only be reserved on-line or as a walk-up on the day of the show: they can NOT be reserved by calling Disneyland Dining. All are subject to availability. (As of this writing, even though the press materials say meals can be reserved 60 days in advance, if you go to the web site they are only available for 30 days - if you are looking for a reservation more than 30 days out I suggest you keep trying the web site periodically in case this policy changes.) Meals that are reserved on-line will have tickets to the first show, walk-ups will have tickets to the second show.

Meals must be picked up at the Sonoma Terrace of the Golden Vine Winery, which is on the far left side of the building, anytime from 2:00 p.m. until 8:00 p.m. Each order comes in a World of Color tote bag. We are hoping to try out the picnic meal option on opening weekend, and will definitely report on that!

Here are the available menus:

Disney provided two of the adult meals for us to sample, The European Antipasto:

And The Taste of Asia:

I had the Taste of Asia, and I have to say that I was pleasantly surprised. The salmon, though cold, still had a very good flavor (and I usually dislike cold fish), and the spring roll had lots of crunchy vegetables. The udon noodle salad was also very tasty. The mandarin orange cake was ok - but that has more to do with it not being chocolate than with any shortcoming in the cake, which was moist and flavorful, and not overwhelmingly orange.

I sampled a couple of things from the European Antipasto meal, also. The Caprese Salad skewer, with mozzarella bites and cherry tomatoes, was good. I did not try any of the cheese or meats (though those I was sharing the meal with enjoyed them). The chocolate covered tiramisu cake was very nice - I only had a bite of it, but I liked it much better than the mandarin orange cake.

Now, bear in mind that none of these "meals" are very big - for most people they would not be enough food to count as a dinner. But I think it's a great value - $14.99 includes the meal, drink AND a ticket to World of Color!!! I'd pay that much just for the ticket alone, so having food and beverage thrown in is a bonus as far as I'm concerned. Now, we'll see where the "Reserved Viewing" area is actually located, but it's hard to imagine that anything in the Viewing area is going to have a view that's totally obstructed.

Another item we got to sample is some colored and multi-flavored popcorn, which comes in a souvenir translucent World of Color popcorn bucket. I think it's like Kool-Aid popcorn - the different flavors are cherry, grape, blueberry and kettle corn, and it's very sweet. Though I found it a little bit addicting - it's a good thing I only had a small serving and not a whole bucket.

Another food offering that sounds like fun is the Light Up Cotton Candy. We didn't get to see or sample this, but it's described as white cotton candy with a colored swirl, with a light stick inside that makes it glow. Sounds like something that will be a huge hit with kids.

There will also be a selection of "glowing" drinks for sale, either in light-up souvenir glasses, or with a light-up swizzle stick.

New merchandise will add its own glow - new balloons with light-up World of Color art inside, and light-up bracelets. There will also be World of Color popcorn buckets, travel mugs and sipper cups. And we can also expect the usual World of Color-themed merchandise like t-shirts, fleece and hats. You can see some samples of it HERE. (I like the fountains with the Fun Wheel in the background.)

Last night I was very fortunate to attend a dress rehearsal of the new World of Color spectacular that debuts June 11th! While I am sure many of you are anxiously awaiting a review, you'll have to wait a bit longer. I won't be posting my review until after the media preview on June 10th.

Information is now available on various Dining Options that include a reserved viewing and information on obtaining a FASTPASS for the show.

I am able to share with you 3 photographs provided by Disney:

Lee and I are staying in the Villas at the Grand Californian for our Food and Wine weekend. I requested a Paradise Pier view when I booked it, and we got one - we are on the 4th floor.

We knew that World of Color testing was going on, so hoped to see some of that, but last night around 10:30 after DCA closed we saw something even better - what looked to be a full run-through, complete with sound, of the much-anticipated World of Color show.

We are off to the side, so were not able to see the projections on the mist screens at all, but had a pretty good view of the fountains. Since this wasn't planned, Lee didn't have a tripod, so the camera was hand-held and a little shaky in places. It's about 25 minutes long, so we posted it to youtube in three parts.

Here it is - hope you enjoy!

Today was opening day for the 2010 edition of Disney's California Food and Wine Festival. Wow...I'm not even sure where to begin!

I'll start with a little bit of a World of Color update, though. (For which there is still no official opening date, unfortunately!) The construction walls around the viewing area are finally down (came down last week), and when we arrived they were actually testing some of the fountains.

Here's a look at some of the viewing area, which is called Paradise Park.

And here's something you don't see every day - blue-suited Disney Divers!

But back to the Festival...

The Festival is certainly bigger than ever, with more events, more demos, more guest chefs, more merchandise and more food and wine offerings than ever before.

This year's theme is The Art of Flavor, and new banners are set up all over the park.

In past years it has been centered mostly in the Golden Vine Winery and Pacific Wharf areas, but this year, partly because of all of the construction going on, most of the activity takes place in Stage 12 of the Hollywood Pictures Backlot (now called the Festival Showplace), and in the Chef's Showcase Stage which is still in Sunshine Plaza.

The Festival Showplace is home to the Wine, Beer, and Spirits demos. I think it's going to be very nice to have those in an indoor area - in past years the wine and beer got much too warm sitting outside on a hot day. This area is also where the Sweet Sundays events will be held, again, much nicer in an area where you can control the elements and not worry about the wind blowing things over, or stray leaves falling into the food! (I had a leaf fall into my wine glass last year.)

The new Star Lounge is also located in the Festival Showplace. It offers Belgian beers, Festival wines and even some special cocktails.

The Wine "Seller" has a large selection of bottles of wines from wineries appearing at the Festival. In addition there's a larger selection of Festival merchandise than I've ever seen, with more of a variety. While browsing there we met All Ears reader Kimberly who had come all the way from American Samoa! Hello Kimberly!

I'll talk more about the Taste of California Marketplace later.

Also back in the Hollywood Backlot area is the Belgian Brewer's Collection and the area used for the Jr. Chef program.

The Wine and Beer Walks have moved from the Pacific Wharf area to the walkway between Grizzly Peak and "a bug's land".

I was able to interview Moises Carranza, the chef d'cuisine at the Blue Bayou (or the "world famous Blue Bayou", as he told me.)

And I also spoke to April Ventura, Sommelier at the Golden Vine Winery, about the soon-to-reopen Wine Country Trattoria restaurant.

For lunch, the Disney people gave us a $25 gift card (the same type of wrist card they have at Epcot's F&W Festival) that we could use at the Taste of California Marketplace. I'm SO glad this is back this year - last year they didn't offer it because of restaurant renovations that were going on at the time. This year it's in the new Festival Showplace, which used to be the Hollywood and Dine food court when DCA first opened, but has been closed for years. Anyway...they offer 10 different food items - we tried about 5 of them. (I will get a menu posted to the F&W page Real Soon.)

For fountain drinks, rather than the usual serve-yourself they had one of those new Freestyle Coca-Cola beverage dispensers that lets you pick from a couple of menus to customize your beverage.

First you pick a type of beverage, such as Coke Zero or Dasani Water, and then on the next menu you can pick a flavor to add to it.

Supposedly there's over 400 flavor combinations possible. There's more information on it on this Wikipedia page. It was fun to try it.

I think the consensus among the five of us dining together was that the Beer Battered Halibut was the most outstanding - it was featherlight and crispy. Really wonderful.

The Karl Strauss Pale Ale and Canadian White Cheddar Cheese Soup is back - always a Festival favorite. And this year I have the recipe for it - it was included in our press kit. I will be posting that.

More on other things we tried later.

We were able to attend Guy Fieri's cooking demo - which was VERY popular - people arrived at park opening and immediately got in line to get into it, even though the demo didn't start until 3:30!!! I'd really never seen him before, but he was very entertaining and well-spoken. He brought his 13-1/2 year-old son Hunter up on stage to help him out- and it was Hunter who actually did most of the cooking! They made Lemongrass Chicken and Green Papaya Slaw. Fieri is the host of the new show Minute to Win It, and actually brought three audience members up front to play the "Face the Cookie" game. One guy almost managed to do it before the time ran out.

He told us that he wasn't feeling well and was loaded up on Claritin-D and only operating at about half his normal energy level - if that was Guy Fieri at half-strength, wow...I think he'd be downright scary at full strength! :-)

Afterwards we had the opportunity for a short interview with him - we'll have more on that later.

As we were leaving the Chef's Showcase stage area, we saw a new group, The Jammin' Chefs, who were performing at the entrance to Sunshine Plaza. Percussion, tap dancing, and even getting audience members to participate in a game of Follow the Leader (drumstyle) and a conga line. Lots of fun to watch.

This year's Festival also features special menu items at most of the counter service restaurants around DCA, so we tried a combination of those for dinner.

First was the Southwest Pulled Pork Sandwich from Taste Pilot's Grill. This is pulled pork in chipotle bbq sauce with caramelized apples and onions on a toasted cornmeal bun. This was good, except that the apples and onions had a really odd flavor - tasted of something that wasn't apples and onions so we didn't enjoy it as much as we had expected to.

Next was the Thai Rice Spring Roll from the Lucky Fortune Cookery. Rice noodles with carrots, green onions, basil and red bell peppers wrapped in a rice paper wrapper and served with ginger sauce. Not bad, but a bit small for $3.99.

Last but not least was the Anaheim Chile Relleno from Cocina Cucamonga. Battered Anaheim chiles stuffed with cheese and covered in Ranchero sauce. Served with rice and beans, guacamole and pico de gallo. I thought the sauce was overwhelming on this - it was a little too spicy, and I couldn't taste the chile relleno until I scraped the sauce off. Other than that I really enjoyed it.

We also did the California Classics Wine Walk. This was quite popular - it was pretty crowded when we went in. For $10 each we were able to sample four different wines out of the 12 that were available. I have to say that I was really impressed - I really enjoyed all of the wines that I tried, and Lee did, too. Between the two of us we tried 7 of the 12 - we both had the Tobin James Zinfandel, which was awesome.

There we met All Ears reader Yvonne from Florida, and her friends whose names I didn't catch. They were out visiting the California parks for the first time - though compared to Epcot's Food and Wine Festival they were a bit underwhelmed by the one here. And I understand that - there's not the variety of foods here - it's more about the events than "eating around the park".

A couple of special treats tonight after we returned to our room - we were able to see Disney's Electrical Parade (soon to be on its way to Florida) from our room - sort of. With all of the construction walls that are between us and the parade route we could really only see the taller floats.

And even more exciting - we were able to see a run-through of the World of Color show, which they did about an hour after the park closed. Video of that will be posted soon, if it hasn't been already. It was pretty cool - we were off to the side and couldn't see the projections on the mist screens at all, but the fountains themselves were pretty amazing!

It was a great day!

Part 2 of my photos and observations from my trip to Disneyland on Friday.

I'll start with the resorts, since that's actually where I began my day - walked there from the Pinocchio Parking Lot (I arrived early enough that I was parked outside in the Pinocchio lot rather than inside the garage, which suited me since the walk from there is a little shorter to/from the hotels).

The remodeling of the Dreams Tower at the Disneyland Hotel still continues - it looks to be about halfway done. If anyone has the opportunity to stay in the new rooms please send us some photos!

At the Paradise Pier, the new Surf's Up Breakfast with Mickey has replaced the Lilo and Stitch character breakfast. It's a breakfast buffet - there is no longer an a la carte menu. Stitch is still at the breakfast, along with Mickey, of course, but no Lilo. The buffet includes: an omelet station, breakfast flatbreads, Mickey waffles, chocolate peanut butter banana French toast, smoothies, parfait station, chilaquiles and smoked salmon. $25.99 for adults and $13.99 for kids, tax and 15% gratuity will be added.

For those who would like a hot breakfast but not the buffet, the Surfside Lounge is offering breakfast now in addition to the usual coffee and pastries. The menu is HERE.

A number of things going on at DCA. The construction walls are still up around Paradise Bay, but they have finished the structure they were building at the end of the bridges between Paradise Pier and Pacific Wharf so those walls are down, and that makes it not quite so claustrophobic. This looks like a big light and speaker tower to me.

And of course work on the World of Color show is continuing in the bay itself.

The bay has been refilled and so the nice reflections are back again.

There's still plenty of construction walls up all around Paradise Pier, but the ones between the bay and the former Golden Dreams attraction have been moved closer to the bay so that there is a little more room to walk now. A wall completely blocks the walkway in front of Jumping Jellyfish so you have to go around the S.S. Rustworthy past Pizza Oom Mow Mow for the moment.

The Wine Country Trattoria and the Wine Terrace are both closed while the restaurant is being remodeled - it is scheduled to open again in April. And while we're talking about food and restaurants, here's a reminder that Disney's Calfornia Food and Wine Festival returns from April 16-May 31. No information on the schedule or events is available yet, though.

Big changes back in the Hollywood Backlot area - the center of the street is blocked by construction walls, and you have to go up one side or the other depending on whether you want to go to Playhouse Disney and the Animation Building or the rest of the backlot area.

The reason? The tracks for the Red Trolley are going in, and the trolley itself is supposed to open later this year.

The walkway is so narrow that they have had to close Award Weiners - there's no room for the line for this popular counter-service restaurant.

On the construction walls are vintage Disney movie posters.

There's a new Annual Passport Processing Center in the far corner of the backlot, which was a food court restaurant called Hollywood & Dine when the park first opened, but has been closed for years. I was told this location is "temporary", but not just how "temporary" it is.

I tried something I'd never had before - I was in DCA early enough that the Pacific Wharf Cafe was still serving breakfast AND I was actually hungry. I really like their soups and salads in bread bowls, but for breakfast they serve scrambled eggs in a bread bowl. It also came with two slices of nice crisp bacon and some fruit - a bunch of grapes and some sliced oranges. The eggs were a little dry but everything else was excellent. The eggs need a little oomph, so I got a couple of packets of salsa from Cocina Cucamonga. No way I could eat all that bread, and I ended up taking most of it home where it made for a fine soup bowl for some homemade split pea soup that night. For $5.99 it was good and very reasonably priced. The breakfast menu is HERE. I don't think the breakfast menu has changed at all in the five years I've been collecting menus for AllEars - I keep expecting the prices to go up.

There's a couple new stores that have opened in Downtown Disney recently. D Street is Vinylmation central, but they also carry "cutting edge apparel" for men and women as well as other collectibles and artwork.

But my favorite new store is The Cupcake Store, which is located at the end of Downtown Disney near the ESPN Club. It's a little shop right in the center, which sells gourmet cupcakes. They are nicely decorated with flowers, chocolate, candy sprinkles, etc. There's vanilla, yellow cake, chocolate, red velvet, and vanilla coconut and they are $4.95 each. I'm not sure why I took a photo of the shop and didn't take any pictures of the cupcakes!

Something that is not new, but I'd never noticed before, is this remote-control boat area on the side of the Rainforest Cafe. There was no one playing with it when I was there, so I don't know how popular it really is.

And that brings us to the end of my ravings - for now, at least.

On Thursday Disney held a media event on the DCA expansion, with a focus on the new Disney's World of Color show, which will premiere next spring. I'll have more detailed information in upcoming blog entries, but I wanted to talk a bit about the event and especially the lagoon walkthrough itself.

The event began in Blue Sky Cellar, DCA's preview center, which has been updated with new concept art, models, and a new video.

Mary Lowery, Director of Internet Strategy and Business Management for Walt Disney Parks and Resorts, announced a brand new website, www.disneyscaliforniaadventure.com, which will provide frequently updated information on DCA's expansion. The website went on-line just a few minutes before Mary began her demonstration. Check it out - there are lots of videos on things like the World of Color, the Little Mermaid attraction, and Cars Land. (Note that the Mickey Mouse clock shows the correct time - and if you click on it the alarm goes off!)

Steven Davison gave a fairly lengthy presentation on the upcoming World of Color nighttime spectacular, including several videos. One of the videos was a test of some of the fountains, mist screens and digital projectors that they did in the lagoon over a year ago, before it was drained. It was pretty impressive!

I didn't think we'd get it ready in time to post with this blog entry, but thanks to the efforts of my husband Lee, here is Steven Davison's presentation. It's in 3 parts due to the length. There's a couple of minutes between the end of the first clip and the start of the second that was proprietary and has been removed.

The name Disney's World of Color comes from the 1960s television show Walt Disney's Wonderful World of Color, which brought Walt Disney into our living rooms on Sunday nights. The opening music for the show will be an updated version of that theme song. There are more than 1200 different fountains, with several different kinds of nozzles - some shooting as high as 200' in the air (to give you an idea, Mickey's Fun Wheel is 150' high). Each fountain has its own set of LED lights, which can produce 18 million colors. The show will also include lasers, fog, and fire. Plus the world's largest projected water screen - 380 feet wide and 50 feet high (that's 19,000 square feet!).

The show will include animation and music from films such as Alice in Wonderland, Pocahontas, The Lion King, Toy Story, Finding Nemo, and WALL-E. I have to say that the Colors of the Wind segment from Pocahontas looks amazing.

The new viewing area will accommodate 9000 guests, though the show will be visible from just about anywhere around Paradise Bay. It's anticipated to be 25 minutes long.

After that it was time to actually go into the lagoon and see just how they are going to pull this off. First off, we had to don hardhats, vests, and safety glasses. Our "guides" were Sayre Weisman, Show Producer, and Chuck Davis, World of Color Technical Producer.

We could not take any pictures while we were in the lagoon, but here's a video Disney released that shows some of the construction and the underside of the platform.

Here's some of my notes:

The platform is 400' long and 120' wide at its widest points. It is built out of individual 12' x 16' sections which are made of structural fiberglass.

As you can see in the video, the platforms were put into place with a huge crane - it took a couple of days and nights.

About 2/3 of the fountains are currently installed.

The entire platform raises and lowers - it has three different levels: hidden level, where everything is under the surface of the water, show level, which is 23" below the surface, and maintenance level, where the entire platform can be dry.

The blue tanks that you can see in the photo above are the "ballast tanks" - air displaces water (or vice versa) to raise or lower the platforms. Once they reach the desired level they are locked into place with scissor lifts.

There are several kinds of fountains, including grid fountains, which can shoot 43' high, chaser fountains, which go to 85', and blow pops, which can shoot 200' in the air. Each fountain has its own 1 HP well pump and its own LED light ring, which can illuminate the whole fountain. Each has electrically piloted pneumatic valves (I had to be sure to write that down!), to control the flow of water. The fastest ones can cycle in 1/8 of a second!

Each platform has a SUB - a submersible utility box - which contains the logic, electronics, power, and air, etc. for each platform. Everything is remotely controllable.

The lagoon tour concluded with a demonstration of a blow pop fountain - and they said it's the first time they've done that. Since there's no water in the lagoon they had to bring in a water tank. It shot a column of water about 150' in the air - it was pretty impressive even though it didn't last very long since they quickly ran out of water.

After the tour there was a Q&A session with Steven Davison, Sayre Wiseman, Chuck Davis and Bob Weis.

The event was very interesting - it was really cool to get the "under the scenes" tour of the World of Color show. It really looks amazing - I'm looking forward to next spring!