Here we see the nightly lighting ceremony at Cars Land inside Disney California Adventure Park. True to the movie, even down to the 3rd light flashing slower than the others!
This is a full ride-thru on the Red Car Trolley from the Tower station to the Buena Vista Street station by way for Carthay Circle. This park looks truly amazing lit up at night!
Snow White’s Scary Adventures made its last and final run at Walt Disney World yesterday. It is a very sad day as this was one of the original attractions at the Magic Kingdom when it opened in 1971.
WDW's Exterior
The space that belonged to Snow White’s Scary Adventures will now become a princess area. Are people upset about this much like the same way people were upset at Disneyland for changing the Carnation Plaza Gardens to make room for a princess themed area?
Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs on a beautiful mural at the WDW version.
And looks who's also on that mural!
But all is not lost, for a new attraction will be opening at the Magic Kingdom based on Walt Disney’s first animated feature. The Seven Dwarf’s Mine Ride will open sometime next year and I am very excited about it. It looks like it will be loads of fun with amazing details.
Disney released concept art for the new attraction
And for us West Coast fans, Snow White will continue her scary adventures for years to come. But we will always remember the sister attraction that was at Walt Disney World. While they were similar in most ways, there were differences and in some ways WDW’s version was superior. Disneyland’s version’s climax has the Old Hag struck by lightning and then you see a wall mural that reads “And they lived happily ever after”. Kind of anti climactic right? Well, WDW’s version had a real ending that Disneyland didn’t have enough room for. In WDW’s version, after the Old Hag is struck by lightning, we see the body of Snow White being kissed by her Prince in order to wake her up. The very next scene shows the Dwarfs waving goodbye to the Prince and Snow White as they really do live happily ever after.
Awakening the original Sleeping Beauty
And they lived happily ever after!
And here is a great video which was posted on Mousechat of a ride thru of the WDW version with the lights on!
So we want to hear from you. How do you feel about Walt Disney World closing their version of “Snow White’s Scary Adventures”? Does it make sense because a new ride based on that film is opening? After all, Dumbo and Alice in Wonderland have 2 rides each at Disneyland. Leave your comments below.
This was one of the coolest things I have seen at the park. A quick google search will show that the custodial team at TDA has been at this for a while, but with as much time as I have spent at the parks I have never seen this!
We had just finished out Fantasmic! 20th anniversary showing, had already ridden on Big Thunder Mountain and were headed to Pirates… when we saw a few people admiring something on the ground. We saw some water on the ground and as our eyes adjusted to the ground in front of Riverbell Terrace, we realized that it was artwork!
Here are some pictures we snapped of a few of the characters drawn on the ground and to boot, I caught some video of the cast member drawing a huge Mickey Mouse in front of Pirates! Enjoy!
On June 15th, the all new Buena Vista Street will open at Disney California Adventure. When that date comes, the Red Car Trolley will be making its way from the entrance of the park, down Buena Vista Street, to Hollywood Land, and finally making its way to the Hollywood Tower Hotel.
The Disney Parks Blog just posted some pictures of the trolley doing some testing.
I can’t wait for the Trolleys to come! How about you?
Are you a fan of Churros, Turkey Legs, and Dole Whips? Well not only can you buy these delicious snacks at Disneyland, but you can now buy vintage T-Shirt promoting them!
What's Your Favorite?
I really love the look of these shirts. I may have to buy a few! Will you be buying any?
Added below is a link to the Disney Parks Blog’s post on the Snack inspired shirts:
It is perhaps the single greatest attraction ever created in the history of theme parks and it’s celebrating it’s 45th anniversary this Sunday.
On March 18, 1967, the world was treated to the most advanced and remarkable attraction in the world: Pirates of the Caribbean. The amount of detail and use of animatronic technology is unsurpassed.
Today, we celebrate the anniversary with a wonderful video posted by the Disney Parks Blog showing the different Pirate attractions throughout the world.
Here are some pictures of the classic attraction as well.
Pirates from May 1967
The Blue Bayou
Ye Come Seekin' Adventure
Drink Up!
Captain's Quarters
Fire at Will!
Where Be The Treasure?
We Wants the Redhead!
Who Makes it Six?
I Be Willin' to Share, I Be!
The Singing Trio
Setting the Place on Fire!
Sleeping with Pigs
The Hairy Leg!
Here ye be Spot!
Cannon Fun!
And a special thanks to Daveland for use of their pictures!
Well, yesterday was the highly anticipated Disney24 event “One More Disney Day.” Disneyland Park in Anaheim, CA and The Magic Kingdom at WDW in Florida were open from 6am on the 29th of February to 6am this morning for the leap year… and we have questions.
Did you get in?
We here at RSP tried, like much of the rest of Southern California, to go for the night after work yesterday and we were met by gridlocked traffic and a lot of “shave and a haircut” horn-tooting with other frustrated Disneyland hopefuls. Since we had to work both yesterday and today, we planned to head down after work for a few hours, have some dinner, catch the 1am Fantasmic! show with some friends, and head home around 2am. We, however, sat in 3 hours of traffic while – on the resort grounds – a worse picture was being painted by the twitterspere.
photo credit: @btr0n
Long lines, capacity signs, and the almighty APs all met for a pow-wow in the esplanade between DCA and Disneyland at 8pm and it never seemed to die down from there. Ticket booths were packed, cell phones were dying, and, as I can imagine, people were really upset. “One More Disney Disaster” was a potential headline thrown out by a few Disney-fan twitter feeds. Had we planned on staying until 6am, we may have stuck it out, but it was 11:15 and we hadn’t crossed Ball Rd. yet after exiting the 5.
Not everyone was waiting in 3 hours of traffic though. “[We got there at] 11:50pm. Took [an] hour to park. We bypassed the [trams] and walked to the park. My pass was scanned in around 1:10am” says annual passholder Tiffany B. “Would I do it again? Probably not. Its been crossed off my to do list.” Jenene C. from Los Angeles said, “I got there at 9 o’clock tuesday night… we waited outside for about 9 hours. The only real problem was with the charging lockers. [They] malfunctioned and people’s phones were stolen.”
Why wasn’t DCA open?
photo credit: @CharlieSpillers
I just don’t understand what the logic here was? Perhaps it was a staffing shortage to have both parks fully staffed for 24 hours straight with normal operating park days bookending the event, but one would think one would have planned for that when planning an event of this magnitude. One park guest said, “The real insanity started after 7pm a lot of people came after they got off work to stay the night, the wait times more than doubled in a matter of minutes…” This is when DCA closed and just as all the APs and SoCal residents coming straight from work descended upon the resort. Keeping DCA open just makes sense. From what I read, people were left in the esplanade with nowhere to go but home while waiting for the chance of the park to re-open to first-entry guests.
And by many accounts, the ticket booths were still crowded at 2am! Everyone wanted to take part in the promotion whether it was for a few hours or the entire 24 hours and whether they were APs or not.
Why did we all want to go?
photo credit: ocregister.com
This isn’t something new — at least it wasn’t for me. In fact, I remember when the #disney24 tweets started and there was a great video promotion and whispers of a great announcement. Robert tells me, “They think there’s going to be a 24 hour party at Disneyland.” To which I responded, “That’s the stupidest promotion I have ever heard of.” Cut to: 2 months later, I am sitting in 3 hours of traffic only to turn around and go to In-n-Out in La Mirada, CA. What was the draw? I wasn’t excited about any of the mercy or food or pins, I just wanted to go to Disneyland overnight. But where have I heard of that before?
Oh yeah, Gradnight. High school, people! Still, Tiffany B. says of one of the highlights “…it was awesome to see the sunrise from the park!” But Disneyland also did a similar event when Star Tours opened in 1987 — the park was open for a full 60 hours just so guests could ride the new attraction.
So if we all have passes, go to Disneyland whenever we want, and for the most part have been to Gradnight or Disneyland at night, what was the draw? The merchandise? Why did we all feel the need to take part in this event which, for some, was so disastrous? Some guests weighed in on the subject. “it wasn’t worth the hype, just like a crowded Disneyland trip that started at 1a versus 5pm”, “it doesn’t seem like they were prepared enough for the huge crowds”, “people began to clear out of the park after [Fantasmic!] at 1am then again around 4am by 6am there weren’t that many people left in the park for the sunrise over the castle.”
But to some, it was a different story. “It was something different to experience.”
What was open and what was closed?
photo credit: ocregister.com
I haven’t been able to get a solid answer on this one yet. One of our biggest peeves with the park here at RSP is how early the restaurants close. Last night, we were to meet up with friends at the Café Orleans for a 12:20am “breakfast” which was awesome to be able to go to eat that late in the park — but what else was open and what was closed?
One of our friends in the park said, “They should have kept more food places open because the ones that were open had very long lines for them as well.”
Was all the hustle and bustle worth it?
photo credit: @MousePlanetAVP
Among the list of offerings from the park for this event were special edition mouse ears, a t-shirt, sweatshirt, watch, pin, and food stops. With all that said, it seems a majority of the people came after all of these offerings were gone. “In all my time at Disneyland for this event seems much like a very crowded summer day at the park.” says Alexandria who drove to the park that evening to only get in after 1:30am. “Was it worth it for me to go? Sure!… [however] I would have to pass [on] any kind of future event like this. I’ll just stick to going on Sundays during the fall/winter with my pass.”
“I don’t feel like they focused on making people happy because I don’t think anybody enjoys being at the park when it’s that crowded.” says Michelle H. who travelled to the park from the Santa Clarita Valley. “I don’t think it was worth it at all. I wouldn’t go again.”
The most consistent take-away we got from the 10-or-so people? “Any cast member I interacted with were quite friendly.” It’s their job and even with all the craziness, they should all be commended. I am sure the angry crowds outside didn’t make it easy to wear a smile all night.
Were you there? Did you try to go but gave up? How did it go for you?
This year marks the 25th anniversary of the popular Disneyland attraction Star Tours.
Below is a fan tribute video of the original Star Tours attraction created in computer graphics to every last detail. It’s a job well done!
http://youtu.be/_iv-FYZD6eE
Some Star Tours Facts:
Star Tours opened in January 1987, replacing another popular Disneyland attraction: Adventure Thru Inner Space.
The Mighty Microscope from Adventure Thru Inner Space can be found in the Star Tours video.
Star Tours quickly become one of Disney’s most popular attractions and versions were added to Walt Disney World, Tokyo Disneyland, and Disneyland Paris.
The voice of Captain Rex is provided by Paul Reubens aka Pee-wee Herman!
In 2011, a new version of Star Tours opened with new destinations, updated effects, and 3D.
Look for hidden Disney and Star Wars references in the luggage which a robot is inspecting in the newly updated queue.
