Tower of Terror – Remain Seated, Please

March 22, 2015

Behind the Velvet Ropes

Yesterday at Disney California Adventure, a unique opportunity arose. As I made my way over to the Twilight Zone Tower of Terror, I noticed it was down. I walked up to the front and I noticed they were letting a few people inside. As I approached the bellhop, she said “Come in”. Inside they let us explore the lobby and library. We could really get close to these wonderful details that you would never notice on a normal day. Besides the up close experience, the bellhops did a great job conducting their tours describing facts and secrets. For instance, did you know that the couch and two chairs represent the ghostly inhabitants of that fallen elevator? The following are some photos I took. Unfortunately, I only had my phone, so the quality of the photos aren’t as nice as I would have hoped. Enjoy!

An antique case of cigars left behind from that fateful night.

The Registry (Signed by Imagineers who created the Attraction)

A unique point of view of the lobby's centerpiece. — A unique point of view of the lobby’s centerpiece.

Items to represent the adult female ghost. — Items to represent the ghostly Mother.

The guests left in a rush after the incident occurred.

This person was enjoying a cup of tea that night.

This person had a feeling something bad was going to happen. The occurrence happened right in the middle of her sentence.

This cup of tea belongs to the setting representing the ghostly maid who looks after the young starlet.

The maid's setting. — The maid’s setting.

A Shirley Temple doll left behind by the ghostly child. She didn't forget her Mickey Mouse doll however! — A Shirley Temple doll left behind by the ghostly child. She didn’t forget her Mickey Mouse doll however!

This represents the ghostly Father from that night in 1939.

August 5, 2014May 31, 2021

Disney’s Hollywood Studios’ Tower of Terror 20th Anniversary Special with Mark Silverman!

May 6, 2014September 23, 2017

Looking Back: Tower of Terror opens!

Yesterday, we reported on the 10 year anniversary of the DCA version of the Twilight Zone Tower of Terror. Many could hardly believe that it had been 10 years, including us! But to sell just how long ago it was or to show just how far Disney California Adventure park has come in a relatively short amount of time, depending on how you look at it, I’ve compiled a list (thanks to the folks at yesterland, MiceChat and davelandweb) of 20 things available to guests about to ride the brand new E-ticket attraction!

1. The Timon and Pumbaa parking area was an option for guests

Sorry, you can't park in a Construction Zone, Halloween is coming, so is the OC Fair — source: MiceChat.com

2. You could visit the golden dreams theatre

Check out the Golden Dreams film here:

Golden Dreams at DCA from Martins Videos on Vimeo.

3. Ride an orange stinger

4. Take a trip down Mulholland Dr.

5. Shoot up the MaliBoomer

6. Walk up to a shuttered “Hollywood and Dine”

7. Have a private entrance if you were staying at the Paradise Pier Hotel

8. Have McDonald’s at Burger Invasion Restaurant

9. Have a free tortilla

10. Watch “Seasons of the Vine”

Check out the “Seasons of the Vine” video here:

11. Play “Who Wants to be a Millionaire – Play It!”

12. Take a photo inside a real life postcard

Also visit:

DCA Mural

Golden Gate Bridge

Sunshine Plaza

13. Shop at a California Zephyr

14. Eat some fish and chips on Paradise Pier

15. Take a photo at a location of your choice at Pacific Ocean Photo.

16. Take the kids to see the Playhouse Disney show

17. Stay late to see the Electrical Parade

18. Visit the bountiful valley farm

19. Check out Mulan’s Chinese New Year.

20. Shop at Greetings from California

May 5, 2014March 4, 2015

Ten Years in the Twilight Zone

Today marks the 10th anniversary of one of the most popular attractions in all of the Disneyland Resort: “The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror”!

Opening 10 years after its original counterpart, the Tower of Terror possesses all the things that make a great Disney attraction. From every cob web to every leaky pipe, the details are fantastic.

I would now like to share with you a few photographs we have taken over the years showcasing the grand hotel in all its eerie glory.

May 1, 2014September 23, 2017

Photo Essay: Tokyo DisneySea!

It feel like just yesterday and 3 years ago at the same time. In reality, it’s only been about 6 months since we were at the Tokyo Disney Resort and I conclude my photo essay with the creme-de-la-creme of Disney parks: Tokyo DisneySea! You may be interested in checking out our Tokyo DisneySea episode of the Remain Seated, Please Podcast while you read along! You can also check out this video compilation I made of the footage from the park!

We took the subway to the resort that morning and figured we could walk to DisneySea in the same way we walked over to Disneyland — not the case! I guess we are so used to walking to Disneyland here in Anaheim that we take it for granted. For this park, we got to board the monorail! (for a small fee.)

Riding past Tokyo Disneyland on the Monorail!

Once at the park entrance, we noticed how much shorter the line to get in was. Thank goodness! We weren’t sure we could handle another day like the previous in terms of crowds. We did catch a glimpse of some more amazing kids in costumes, though!

We got in and walked quickly to the American Waterfront section of the park to get our Tower of Terror fastpasses and our dinner reservations on the SS Columbia.

It's hard not to be in awe of this park's "weenie" Mount Prometheus — It’s hard not to be in awe of this park’s “weenie” Mount Prometheus

The Columbia in the early morning hours!

It's ALL in the details! — It’s ALL in the details!

We then headed to the next E-ticket attraction to stand in what we thought would be a huge line — “Journey to the Center of the Earth,” which is over at Mysterious Island — an INCREDIBLY detailed area of the park that is unlike anything else you have ever seen, I assure you!

The start of the queue for "Journey to the Center of the Earth!" — The start of the queue for “Journey to the Center of the Earth!”

After THAT whirlwind experience, we grabbed a bite to eat. I had heard about the Gyoza Dog, but I HAD to have one! So I did and I REALLY liked it. More of a Bao-like texture on the outside dumpling but inside was more of the Gyoza dumpling kind of texture.

Then, we headed over to the Lost River Delta to check out the Indiana Jones attraction. It was still VERY early in the day and the park was still pretty slow which was GREAT for us. I LOVED the queue for Indiana Jones Adventure: Temple of the Crystal Skull. The ride is very similar to the Indiana Jones attraction at Disneyland, but this queue was incredible.

Just to give you some perspective. This room is HUGE!

THIS looks familiar! Just above the load-in area.

Next up was Port Discovery. The aesthetic and design of this area reminded me of Discovery Land at Disneyland Resort Paris. Lots of blues and golds and a steam punk vibe. I was very interested in the Aquatopia attraction which is a trackless ride system on water. It sounds cooler than it was, but it was fun nonetheless.

We were now ready. It was time. TOWER OF TERROR! This would be the first time we had been on a Tower attraction that was not themed after The Twilight Zone and this would also mark the final Tower we needed to ride to be able to say we had ridden them all! Here’s what we saw:

Heading back to the American Waterfront, I snapped this. Looks a little like Liberty Square to me!

The “CLOSED” side-entrance. Just a part of the details

The Japanese version of the famous elevator scene in the lobby!

The idol vanishes right before your eyes!

The warehouse queue after the idol scene.

It’s VERY similar to the DCA and Paris version in terms of ride experience, but the story and visuals are much different and in some ways better.

Just before lunch, we walked thru the Mediterranean Harbor area of the park and snapped some shots.

Toy Story area adjacent to the American Waterfront

From here, we first heard Mount Prometheus erupt! We had no idea it would, but it only makes sense! Took some great video of it, too! Now, it was back to Mysterious Island to ride “Journey…” again and see what else there was to offer. Glad we went back, and it wouldn’t be our last time!

Corn Popcorn! I loved it -- maybe my favorite flavor. — Corn Potage Popcorn! I loved it — maybe my favorite flavor.

20k Leagues Under the Sea! What a treat!

"20k..." queue details — “20k…” queue details

Then, it was back to Port Discovery to check out the other attraction there, StormRider! This is a mix between Honey I Shrunk the Audience and Star Tours and the queue is much better than the attraction. Still, unlike any other Disney attraction I’ve been on.

Mermaid Lagoon and Triton’s Kingdom. This is the children’s area of the park but the concept is genius — at least for Triton’s Kingdom. Think of the interactive queue for Dumbo at Magic Kingdom park at WDW on a much larger scale. It’s completely indoors and looks JUST like the Under the Sea scene in Ariel’s Undersea Adventure at Disney California Adventure Park and Magic Kingdom but you can walk around it. Many of the kiddy rides from DCA show up here but walking thru it is WELL worth it. Plus, there’s a Cirque Du Soleil-level Little Mermaid show!

Triton's Kingdom signage — Triton’s Kingdom signage

I got yelled at for taking pictures here.

It's performed in the round with the show happening above you. — It’s performed in the round with the show happening above you.

The gift shop looks like the inside of a whale's mouth! — The gift shop looks like the inside of a whale’s mouth!

The Arabian Coast was next. Had no idea what to expect here. I saw there was a magic show which we ultimately skipped due to less than stellar (literally, not facetiously), and some boat ride that sounded cool. This, however, was cool on the level of New Orleans Square at Disneyland in the sense that there were quiet areas with great detail and you could just stroll the streets of a middle-eastern street market. Very cool! And that boat ride? One of the greatest surprises of the entire two-day stay at the parks: Sinbad’s Voyage!

Sinbad's Storybook Voyage! — Sinbad’s Storybook Voyage!

This animatronic is HUGE. Too bad I didn't get anything to compare it to in this shot. — This animatronic is HUGE. Too bad I didn’t get anything to compare it to in this shot.

With a song from Alan Menken, this is the “…Small World” for today’s kids in the sense that it’s a repetitive song that’s super catchy and small animatronics telling the story. These are mostly the size and feel of the Mary Blair models in “…Small World” but with an updated look and feel. REALLY well done!

The rest of the day was re-riding things, snapping shots, and waiting for Fantasmic! You can see those photos in the gallery below. Outside of that, we did two more cool things: The Fortress Explorations section of the park at the base of Mount Prometheus and dinner and drinks aboard the Columbia!

We had so much fun here, we forgot to take a lot of pics!

You’ll have to forgive me for not writing down what we got. Drinks were at my favorite publicly accessible Disney lounge, The Teddy Roosevelt Lounge, aboard the SS Columbia!

And lastly, Fantasmic! This show is different from the other two versions of the show at Disneyland and Hollywood Studios at WDW. Thin Illuminations at Epcot meets the WDW version of Fantasmic! The mirror effect and dragon were the best parts of this show, for sure!

The huge hat which is the centerpiece of the show

This was a huge day for us. A new Disney Park at another country. We ate a ton of popcorn and we had much fewer guests to contend with. It was a super awesome day and an incredibly beautiful park!

"Journey..." attraction poster at the park entrance — “Journey…” attraction poster at the park entrance

"20k..." attraction poster at the park entrance — “20k…” attraction poster at the park entrance

And now for the entire gallery! Enjoy!

We tried to walk to the park but saw this cool bus!

Indiana Jones Adventure: Temple of the Crystal Skull

December 30, 2012September 23, 2017

Hidden Mickey List for Disney California Adventure Park!

Here’s another list hosted by Well for the Disney California Adventure Park. I started the list with more of a suggestion than a probable real HM but it’s still fun to see these. More lists to come!

November 23, 2012September 23, 2017

Walt Disney World: Part III – Hollywood Studios and More!

Today was the day I was to finally ride the original Tower of Terror. I was SUPER excited!

Disney’s Hollywood Studios is a smaller park that’s more focused on shows and entertainment than attractions but the few attractions they do have really pack a punch and the shows are among the best I have seen at a Disney park. Orlando seems to be a haven for film and stage hopefuls with plenty of roles to go around. Really top notch stuff coming out of these parks!

So we entered through some familiar looking gates — the new Disney California Adventure Park gates, while modeled after the Pan Pacific park theatre are actually modeled after Disney’s own Hollywood Studios park. I had no idea until DCA’s walls were about to come down in front of the new gates and a buddy of mine showed me a picture of the Hollywood Studios gate. I was surprised and thought that DCA’s walls had come down early. It’s striking how similar these parks look from the front!

And that’s not all. There’s even a Carthay Circle Theatre (which is a shop rather than a restaurant) and a lot of the same building replicas DCA has in it’s Hollywood Blvd. area. Even the gas station looks a lot like Oswald’s at DCA. I went to high school in Hollywood and lived there for about 5 years and they really nailed a lot of the tiny details. Their Crossroads of the World replica (information station at the park) is uncanny and their Max Factor building (a shopping plaza) is spot on.

Hollywood Studios’ Carthay Circle Theatre

After taking in the main drag Hollywood Blvd., we took a right and headed down Sunset Boulevard toward the Hollywood Tower Hotel known as Tower of Terror.

We took tons of photos of this attraction which seems to house more homages to the show than our DCA counterpart. Traveling through the 5th dimension caused me to laugh out loud in glee the first time the doors opened and we moved forward. It’s really neat and almost too stimulating upon the first ride. There’s just no way to sell how incredibly detailed and awesome this ride is. The day we came home we went to DLR and rode Tower and while it’s still a great ride and superior in a few areas, as a whole, I would have to say that Hollywood Studios’ version of the ride is in a completely different league.

Next it was onto Rockin’ Roller Coaster starring Aerosmith. We had done this at Disney’s Hollywood Studios in Paris and I remembered really enjoying it. The queue in Paris seemed a little more detailed but the facade was much better at Walt Disney World.

This ride has some great holograms for the pre-show and a nice story and great theming. We are granted backstage passes to a concert that’s happening in 10 minutes and Aerosmith has demanded that their manager sense a limo our way to get us there. Unfortunately there’s traffic but our “driver” seems to know some back-alley shortcuts. We take off into the dark night past some hollywood landmarks along with some rockin’ tunes. It’s a whirlwind thrill and if I had to compare it to something, it would be a mix of Space Mountain and California Screamin’ at DCA.

We grabbed a quick bite at the farmer’s market area. What was nice was the even though this was standard theme park fare, it’s pretty regional so BBQ baked beans and cole slaw are common hot dog toppings. I loved it! They also had bacon macaroni and cheese toppings. A great treat I have yet to discover at our 3rd and Fairfax farmer’s market.

This walking magician puts on a great show!

Our first new-to-us attraction at this park was The Great Movie Ride. While it’s a great ride, it seems to be a lot like Jungle Cruise in the way that your “skipper” can make or break the ride, and you have multiple ones so landing multiple good hosts can be difficult. We had two pretty bad ones but there are some great things to look at. I liked how large the ride vehicles were. They really move a lot of people in there!

The Voyage of the Little Mermaid was a fun show with some cool laser effects and some great puppetry. However, there’s a whole scene where Ariel is live on stage singing a song and animated Ariel is singing and swimming on a projection right next to her. Seemed like a mixed message. It’s also a very truncated version of the film’s story. You should go into this having already seen the film.

Star Tours! While exactly the same as ours in almost every way including the queue (minus a few things), the exterior of this one is superior to Disneyland’s. There’s an AT-AT out front walking through the Endor Moon terrain. Super fun to look at and walk through!

Walking straight into the Indiana Jones Stunt Spectacular, we had no idea what to expect. We walked into a very large set so we figured there’d be a lot of col stuff to see while the actors made their way from section to section in what may be a 15 minute show, or so. However, after the entire set gets used in the first scene, I was worried there wasn’t going to be much more to see. Then, the set change happened. This has to be some of the most incredible set design I have seen at any Disney park! The scenes are HUGE and the stunts are great. I highly recommend this show!

On our way back to Tower (I know, I know…), we stopped into the Beauty and the Beast show. Yet again, if you’re an out of work actor, make your way to Orlando because these shows are just top notch! Absolutely terrific performances all around and this show is a little longer than The Little Mermaid show although there’s still some plot holes if you have not seen the film.

Next was more of a showcase of all things Walt. Put together by D23, One Man’s Dream is a huge love letter to Walt with props from his boyhood desk with his name etched into the wood to his Glendale, CA office as it would have been seen on the lot. It’s a wonderful museum of Walt Disney treasures with an amazing film at the end that’s sure to bring tears to your eyes. Well done!

After this, we wandered the park awaiting Fantasmic! at 7pm. We planned on grabbing good seats at the amphitheater so a 5:30 arrival was key. We walked thru the Pixar area where their Toy Story Midway Mania was. We skipped it as the lines were just outlandish and we aren’t huge fans of the DCA version so we figured we weren’t missing anything. We saw Pizza Planet (having my birthday there next year for SURE! (I kid…)), a huge Muppet store (we skipped MuppetVision 3D), the backlot area (the backlot tour was down for the duration of our trip there), and skipped the Lights! Motor! Action! stunt show as we had seen it in Paris. After some sightseeing, it was time to go see the East Coast version of the Disneyland classic.

I took a little nap while waiting for the show but we certainly had GREAT seats! While it’s different, it was cool to see some added scenes with rarely seen characters like Pocahontas. Their dragon is like our old dragon and they have a smaller and sort of dinky version of the Mark Twain for the finale. All in all, it’s still a magical show but in the amphitheater setting, it seems a little too far away. I was still able to grab some awesome pictures. See if you can spot the Mickey with the weird eyes. What’s THAT about?

Tons more Fantasmic! pictures below! After leaving Hollywood Studios for the night, we headed over to The Magic Kingdom to take advantage of the extra magic hours. We headed over to the Tiki Room but they closed early so we went to Tomorrowland to check out Space Mountain which wasn’t bad. It’s very different and more like the pre-1998 DLR version. I really liked the star effect inside the queue — it was very convincing. Unfortunately we were not able to play with the interactive queue. Has anyone done it? Is it any good?

Before we left for the night, we went on TTA’s Peoplemover. It moved a lot faster than I expected and was visually different from our old Disneyland version but it was still a great ride with some incredible park views!

Another perfect day at WDW in the books! Nice touch upon exiting the Magic Kingdom for the night and retiring to our hotel room once again.

June 19, 2012September 23, 2017

Video Updates From This Past Weekend!

Here I have compiled some of the videos I took this past weekend. More to come but thought I would share!

Here we see a DCA Cast Member doing his best impression of this classic Twilight Zone character:

"A Piano in the House" (1962) — © CBS – The Twilight Zone “A Piano in the House” (1962)

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!

December 13, 2011September 23, 2017

The Scariest Place on Earth?

Somehow, I stumbled upon these frighteningly real-looking videos from the security cameras at our favorite park on the planet, Disneyland. Now, I have heard of people seeing ghosts at the parks and seen really bad photos of ghosts at the park, but nothing quite like these.

I work in “the industry” and know a visual effect when I see it. This is either a very well executed visual effect by an avid Disneyland fanatic with a lot of time and resources on his hands, or a very bored security officer.

The problems I have with these videos is that there are either so many ghosts at the park that shooting any security camera at any time provides one with these results, or they’re a hoax — but how?! These are so incredibly haunting, I got goosebumps while watching them at work and continued to rewind them back and play them over and over again with a very genuine “how did they do that?!” look on my face.

That last one is my absolute favorite. Not just anyone has access to these apparent security cameras. How incredible is it that the possibility of these being real evokes these emotions out of me? I am a huge skeptic but I have an open mind. I just don’t have any grounds to disprove any of this.

I found another YouTube channel debunking these videos but I just don’t find their arguments to hold water. I, too, thought that it was a reflection at first on the lens but man, that last HM video is just INCREDIBLE! I don’t know much about security monitors but I have never seen a monitor “ghost” in that way. I liked watching his one video, though, because it has some other great videos.

The “ghost” videos that prompted this post were found at this YouTube page. They, unfortunately, are the only ones this user ever uploaded and the page has laid dormant for over 2 years — but not without gaining a substantial amount of hits! What do you think is going on in these videos? Is our magical park a haven for the disembodied?

November 29, 2011September 23, 2017

Trip Report: November 27, 2011

Here’s a roundup of this past Sunday’s trip.

We got to the park early and had lunch at Storyteller’s Cafe. We were bummed we missed breakfast (they don’t offer Sunday brunch, we discovered) but lunch is SUPER inexpensive here. Just over $20 for my wife and I. Highly recommended for those on a budget.

We then headed straight to the new Grand Circle Tour exhibit at the Disney Gallery. Incredible! I wanted everything on the walls in that exhibit! I loved everything from the signage out front (with the working smoke stack!) to the train going around the back gallery. A must-see!

We then got to meet one of the Fab-5 in their holiday garb — Donald! He was a great character but had no wrangler! Strange but makes for good talking-to-your-neighbor-in-line time to get your picture just right!

We thought that today would be a fun time to try riding some things we never ride. Today started with the Matternhorn. After a month+ refurb, nothing has changed. Still rough and still with the old cars. Unfortunate.

Next was Small World Holiday! I only ride this twice a year so this was a nice treat! Looked and sounded great although one of the clowns that ride their bike on the wire was not working and one of the many suns had an eye (read: light) out. Other than that, it was perfect timing for us to get out of the heat and skip the Christmas parade madness. One day I’ll check that out.

On our way to our next ride, we saw the Tangled meetup had a short line (only 20 minutes compared to the normal 45+). We met Rapunzel and Flynn but it was pretty weird. Usually meeting characters is fun because they are big smiling faces that you mime with. These were kids our age and it seemed just — weird. Not sure what that was about.

We also checked out the Reindeer Roundup! We are never in the park early enough and we noticed that Santa Claus is also available for photos at the roundup! Even better, the BBQ restaurant was open pretty late in the day which made me excited to come back for dinner soon! It’s my favorite restaurant at Disneyland so dinner there would be killer!

We then put on our mining hats and headed over to Big Thunder Mountain Railroad. We saw the queue was pretty long but the sign said only 10 minutes. After about a 5 minute wait, we saw that the queue was only going to the stairs and straight up. What a day for Disneyland — no lines!!! We had a great ride.

I went to take a picture of a beautifully autumn-red tree and accidentally punched myself in the eye with the camera. It was a beautiful tree! We also noticed that the collapsing mine projection looked new — although the rocks were not falling. You win some, you lose some.

Photo1.jpg.scaled.1000 — DCA all Christmas-y!

After making our way through the NOS crowds, we grabbed some HMH fastpasses and made a b-line for DCA. We met up with fellow RSP-er Robert to ride his favorite DCA attraction: The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror. It, too, had a short line and we were also the line-time-takers (we were given this lanyard).

However, I was not sure who to give the lanyard to, so I gave it to the person I thought best to get it — the bellhop loading us into the elevator. Not sure how that went down but let’s be honest, that’s the gauge for how long the line is. The ride looked and sounded great but unfortunately the mirror effect was not working correctly. I wonder what goes into that effect to make it so unreliable?

Robert here: I wanted to point out one other thing about our trip on Tower. Usually when you enter the library, the door closes, a flash of lightning strikes, and the TV turns on. At that precise moment, the lights go off. However, on this particular trip, the lights stayed on. They slowly started to dim and they were shut off about half way through the preshow video. I wonder if that was intentional or not. It was neat, but I think I prefer the lights to go out with the lightning strike.

We then headed back to Disneyland (sans Robert) to utilize some Star Tours fastpasses we got from a friend. Unfortunately, as great as the queue was, that’s all we saw. Our starspeeder was halted by a cast member so that we could sing Happy Birthday to another cast member and this seemed to break the entire spaceport. We did receive some neat re-admits that included Star Tours (they’re red) and planned on returning or utilizing for another ride. We ultimately did not.

Instead, we went to Haunted Mansion Holiday and lucky for us, we had fastpasses. This was the longest line of the day at 45 minutes! We sped onto the ride and everything looked, sounded, and smelled great! We even got into the lobby before the narrator began, into the stretching room as he began, and into the hallway right on time! I love when that all works out — but I also don’t think we should hope for that. It should be consistant.

After, we went to check out Indiana Jones and the Temple of the Forbidden Eye. I have to admit, this is one of the best looking rides in the park. But something is always a miss for me and I believe I found it. I don’t buy the movements of the vehicle. I get that they programmed human reactions into the ride vehicle but it takes me out of the experience. Also, all I see is a smooth track but all I feel is a bumpy ride. I spend most of the time trying to figure out what’s going on. I don’t like that I don’t enjoy the ride, but I also know I am in the minority here so I’ll ride with friends that enjoy it and think to myself that I am super flexible for my friends. Ha!

391937_10150380772831080_521966079_8690191_986432691_n — Trader Sam's!

It’s Robert again! So while, David was getting stuck on Star Tours and riding some E Ticket attractions, I was with my girlfriend and a few friends at Trader Sam’s at the Disneyland Hotel. Boy I love that place. There are so many intricate details that I notice every time I go. While we were there, we witnessed a bunch of special effects including an erupting volcano, a sinking ship in a bottle, indoor rain, and a sinking bar stool! If you haven’t been there, please go. It’s one of my favorite places to be.

It was then time to check out the newly re-opened Pirates of the Caribbean with Robert, Inthia, and Dawn. We will cover the changes in a future post but wow, I thought there were some great changes! There were also some things missing and some things added. Fun ride all-in-all and no mermaids! Where would they put them anyway that would make any sense?

We split from Robert, Inthia, and Dawn to use our re-admit at Space Mountain while they went to ride HMH but again, the line was so short, we saved out re-admit for later! Another thrilling ride through the galaxy with a fun photo to boot. I noticed that they no longer utilize the TV screens at the top of the inside queue as no one waits up there anymore. I wish they’d update the videos/screens all together and maybe that’s next.

Robert again: So while they were on Space Mountain, Inthia, Dawn, and I got fastpasses for the Haunted Mansion Holiday. While waiting, we ate a delicious dinner at the French Market. I had a great sandwich in miniature Jack Skellington Coffin!

We then had a bad bout with attractions. We planned on trying to ride Star Tours with our group all back together but the fastpass line was 25+ minutes. We tried to ride HMH a second time but it was closed! We were, however, able to take a buzz through the Hundred Acre Woods with Winnie the Pooh. I really love that ride and am saddened every time I see the line so short. I really hope people make their way to that attraction enough!

1478489565_65d34f75c4_b — The Decked Out Splash - Courtesy of Flickr.com

While making our way back to HMH, we noticed that Splash Mountain had a holiday layover on its facade that looked really great! I guess it’s been around for a few years but I had never seen it before. Nice touch — wish it was lit at night.

Suzi and I left to try to make it to Tortilla Joe’s at DTD before the rest of the group went on HMH. Unfortunately the restaurant was closed for the night and we went home. What I did notice throughout the whole experience: the Davy Crockett Canoes are still open! I have to get on that before they shutter up for the winter!

It will be me, Robert, for the rest of this report:

After David and Suzi left, we finally made our way to the Haunted Mansion Holiday. It was great except, Madame Leota was no longer a floating ornament. She was stationary and there was no sign to her ornament pieces. Also, her face was being projected, which they never do anymore. It’s evident that they don’t use the projection often as they were not able to perfect it. The projection was not aligned with the bust inside the crystal ball and her eyes were very small and pinched in the middle. It really looked bad. I assume that was the reason the ride was closed earlier. When David went on it earlier in the day, he said that she looked good and was a floating ornament. Oh well… I’m sure they’ll fix her up soon.

385790_10150380779936080_521966079_8690226_1968386772_n — Sleeping Beauty's Castle

384376_10150380780736080_521966079_8690233_1651832405_n — Inside the Castle

We headed over to Fantasyland after the Mansion, and took a bunch of photos of Sleeping Beauty’s Castle while it was all decked out for Christmas. It is really beautiful. While over there, we walked through the Castle to view the Sleeping Beauty scenes. I love that it’s back. It brings great childhood memories.

383889_10150380794031080_521966079_8690270_1685291934_n — Make an Evil Wish!

After the Castle, we went on Snow White’s Scary Adventures. It was a great ride and everything looked amazing.

376103_10150380776756080_521966079_8690210_1389354928_n — Original artwork for Casey Jr. on display at the Disney Gallery

A trip to Casey Jr. came next. We sat in our favorite spot, the caboose. There’s nothing like a trip on Casey Jr. at night. It is something that is so special and uniquely Disneyland.

303827_10150269279186080_521966079_8091807_4451262_n — BTMRR

We ended our night with a late night ride of Big Thunder Mountain Railroad. It was the perfect end to a wonderful day at Disneyland.

See you at the parks!