I think I have forgotten to mention that I have a Disney  YouTube Channel. I have Just posted a video of my Top 5 Favorite Disney Parades. If you like it , Consider subscribing and liking.

Oh dear. I seem to have been abruptly detained by cranky spirits. Also the space time continuum managed to change the course of time so that I did not post anything 4 months. Anyway, now here are the updates blah blah blah park related pun, alright let’s get started.

DISNEYLAND RESORT.

Um, Some stuff has changed a lot throughout the last 4 months.

DISNEYLAND PARK:

First off, and most importantly The Main Street Electrical Parade has finally returned.

I love this parade and I am very sad that they are retiring it after June 18th. But at least Paint the Night comes back June 19th.

Next off the fireworks have been changed (Finally). I have already stated my opinions on Fantasy In The Sky in the past, but they have changed the firework show to something amazing. Remember Dreams Come True. I know I know its not new, it was the 50th show but, um, It is really awesome.

In refurbishment status, there is too much to count but the big things are:

The Matterhorn Bobsleds, and Pirates of the Caribbean.

California Adventure:

Not Much has happened over at DCA. The only kind of news is part of Guardians is starting to show.

Also this year the Lunar New Year celebration appeared around paradise bay. This was also an opportunity to see a  few rare sights, First off, The little Mermaid, Ariel’s Under Sea Adventure With a long line. You can also meet Mulan and Mushu near Goofy’s Sky School.

But, possibly most rare is the opportunity to see fireworks over DCA. There is no good way to describe this. If I had to I would say: “It is mostly just like the new years World of Color, but with pretty music instead of god awful remixes of pop songs, and it happens nightly. Because it is so hard to describe here is a link to what I think is the best video by So Cal Attractions 360.

And that is it when it comes to DCA.

So now here is some random Disneyland Resort news:

The former House Of Blues has been demolished.

There are many Electrical Themed Banners and foods all around the resort. Here are some examples:

Now Moving on to Walt Disney World.

Animal Kingdom:

Avatar Land construction is going well with predicted opening in May.

Hollywood Studios:

At Christmas Hollywood Studios got a seasonal holiday firework show called Jingle Bell Jingle Bam! 

And Toy Story Land And Star Wars Land are both piles of debris, Rubble, and dirt.

Now over to EPCOT:

Epcot is getting a major overhaul in the near future that will change EPCOT bact to it’s original vision. That was all that was announced about the overhaul. We don’t even know which original vision. Are we talking the 1960s Walt’s City of the Future EPCOT, or the 1980s Future technology attractions EPCOT? We don’t know. 

Also, just last month the Figment Festival… I mean Festival of the Arts made its debut at EPCOT, and if you are a Figment fan (I Raise my hand) This is pretty awesome. Great food, pretty art, and lots, I mean LOTS of FIGMENT!

Magic Kingdom:

It has been announced that in may the almost 20 year old firework show Wishes “A magical gathering of dreams,” Will be replaced with a new show called: Happily Ever After! 

While I do LOVE the idea of a new firework show, I am probably not ever going to be able to watch it and not be sad over how many memories me and my family made with Wishes. But that is kind of a nit pick, heck anything with Moana and Aladdin is enough to turn my head.

And the nightly projection show Celebrate The Magic, 

Has been Replaced by the Pyrotechnically  superior, Once Upon A Time.

I personally think that this show is better in every category except in music, because Celebrate’s theme was just so perfect.

And That is it! That is most of the news in the American Disney Parks. When your reading stops gather your belongings and step carefully from the cite. Have a Magical day.

Welcome to Pardon Our Pixie Dust! The monthly Update series where we talk about the new things in the Disney Parks! So please pull down on the lap bar and stay seated because lets begin!

DISNEYLAND:

A lot has changed this summer at The Disneyland Resort so lets start with Disneyland Park

DISNEYLAND PARK:

In Disneyland the Diamond Celebration has officially ended as of September 5th and took Paint The Night, Disneyland Forever, and World of Color Celebrate with it.

In Star Wars land news it’s coming along nicely and The Disneyland Railroad, and all the stuff on the river are planned to re-open in July 2017, My feet are cheering! This also includes Fantasmic which will also open in July with minor differences.

On September 10th we got a new firework show, the old not-so-classic classic Fantasy In The Sky!

I know it’s classic as the very first firework show but it has not stood the test of time. As said last time IT’S FOUR MINUTES LONG! Ugh any way without a nighttime parade Mickey’s Soundsational Parade is making a 7:30 performance. But in early 2017 We get back THE MAIN STREET ELECTRICAL PARADE!!!!!!!

It’s Preeeeeeeeeeeeeety! Any way I love this parade! Its classic unlike… other things, hem hem Fantasy in the Sky hem hem but unlike 15 years ago its coming back to Disneyland Park.

That is all the news in Disneyland Park, Now lets move on to D.C.A.

DISNEY’S CALIFORNIA ADVENTURE.

As mentioned before World Of Color Celebrate has ended it’s almost year and a half run in Paradise Bay. As of September 10th the original Wonderful World of Color is back obliterating peoples eyebrows all across Paradise Bay.

That of course is small news. But HUGE news came out a few months ago about the beloved Twilight Zone Tower of Terror.

Next year T.Z.T.O.T will go under a overhaul to be transformed into Guardians of the Galaxy Mission Breakout.

The hardcore fans are pissed off but I don’t think this is a bad idea (DISCLAIMER: I am mostly passing on the opinion of the you tuber Some Jerk With A Camera because I agree with him so here is the link to his video where he talks about this stuff:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0AfZNRmg_no) I don’t want to repeat what is in the video so just go watch it. Here I will give you the link again:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0AfZNRmg_no. That is about all but there is a tiny bit of news in Downtown Disney.

DOWNTOWN DISNEY:

The House of Blues restaurant closed a little while ago to make way for something new.

The building is currently looking kind of creepy

but coming soon will be a bowling sports bar. And That is it. This post is running a little long so I will talk about WDW and it’s huge news next time so remember to stay seated until the post comes to a complete stop and watch your step as you exit.

Of cores there is no “Right way” but… There’s always, my way! Disneyland for me is easy because it’s only an hour plane ride away. But if you’re like me here is my way: At D.P.A, (Disney Parks Ace) We think that the best times to go are always the second week of December, and the third or fourth week of April. They are both weeks that have less crowds than Christmas break and summer. Any way last time we said that we love to stay at the Disneyland Hotel.

But if you must, or are only going with 2 people instead of 3 or 4 we recommend the Grand Californian Hotel and Spa.

Allow me to explain. The Disneyland Hotel is all the way at the end of Downtown Disney, which means it a longer walk, and since there are no cast members around except on the monorail, you have to walk a very far walk just to get back to the hotel. At the Grand, not only are you 5 minutes away from Disneyland Park, you also have your own entrance to Disney’s California Adventure, which is probably why it’s more expensive. So after school on Friday you immediately go to the airport and hop on your plane to SNA or John Wayne Airport. It is the easiest to go from SNA to Disneyland that any other airport.

Nighttime Experience:

So when you get there check, into the hotel and go into the park. Which park? Well it depends on what kind of Nighttime show you like. Disneyland Park will have 2 shows by spring, and as of right now 1. They will be The Main Street electrical Parade,

and the fireworks Fantasy in the Sky. F.S is the only show in Disneyland Park right now.

The Main Street Electrical Parade is awesome, but in my opinion the Fantasy in The Sky fireworks are not that good. I know that they the show is charming as the first firework show ever done by Disney but, It has not stood the test of time. Heck its FOUR MINUTES LONG! Even Wishes is 12 minutes!

But If you Don’t like fireworks you can see The Wonderful World Of Color, A marvel of earth sea and sky! Or just sea, and light, and fire.

World of color is not great but its good and worth seeing… Once.  But after that the park is closed so you can’t have an extra 2 hours in the park. But that’s the end of day 1, See our next post about day 2.

 

Electric Mayhem:

 

Throughout the last few months I made a goal to find out as much as I could about the Main Street Electrical Parade, or its title these days: Disney’s Electrical Parade. I found some pretty cool stuff so here is a lot of what I’ve learned:

Disney’s Electrical Parade’s core idea originally began in the mind of Bob Janai. “ Well about 8 months before the opening of Walt Disney World I took a look at Bay Lake and since there were no horizon lights there was just perfect ‘black’ or perfect darkness. So I made a mockup of a glowing whale on a boat in Bay Lake, And one night I took some Disney executives at the time out on the lake on another boat to show them the whale-” – Behind the scenes of Disney’s Electrical Parade documentary.

What Bob Janai was creating looked something like this:

Then on October 1st, 1971 Disney World, Disney’s Contemporary Resort, and more important to this topic, Disney’s Polynesian Resort opened to the public. With the Polynesian resort came the first showing of the Electrical Water Pageant. It was the whale and much more on seven barges with flat lighted 2D frames. The show was also themed to a 1963 music piece called “Baroque Hoedown.” The Electrical Water pageant still exists to this day and now has 14 “floats”. Now it is also often referred to as “The Water Parade.” But the Disney Company wanted to bring the show to Disneyland to boost the park’s evening attendance, seeing there were no nightly fireworks in that period of time. But with no suitable body of water the west coast version was developed with wheels. They had so many problems that I can’t even begin to tell but there were a lot of them. Then on June 17, 1972 the first Main Street Electrical Parade was shown. Some of the original floats kept their 2D shapes from The Electrical Water Pageant, and were just flat frames on wheels. Many of the original floats were also pulled or pushed by hand. Then in 1977 the entire parade was reworked into 3 dimensions. And the music was reworked by Don Dorsey.

    The units of floats throughout the years included: Alice in Wonderland units, Cinderella units, Peter Pan units, a rare Dumbo unit, Snow white units, It’s a Small World units, Under the Sea units, Pinocchio units, a Fox & the Hound unit, A Pete’s Dragon unit, a Tinkerbelle unit, a Blue Fairy unit, a Drum thing unit, and a To Honor America unit. Also in total there are 40 + floats. But now the story after 1977: An identical parade was designed for the Magic Kingdom with slightly wider floats. Then on November 25th, 1996 the Disneyland parade finished its run and was sent to Euro Disneyland. Also in the Magic Kingdom Spectromagic appeared on October 1st, 1991 – May 21st, 1999 and from april 2nd, 2001 – June 5th, 2010.

Then on July 3rd, 2001 the Parade made it’s return to Disneyland in the new California Adventure theme park to boost the new park’s evening attendance. The Parade ran normally for 9 years when the Summer Nightastic upgraded the show with a new Tinkerbell opening float and a pixie dust swoosh along the entire parade done with new advanced LED technology.

In 2010 it was shipped to Florida. The Summer Nightastic lasted until August 15, 2010 and then The Maliboomer drop tower Deconstruction closed the parade route so the glittering classic could not return.

So it’s now 2016. Where can you see this sparkling spectacular? Well, in Hong Kong Disneyland they had the Paint The Night Parade, started on October 1st, 2014, and then was sent to Disneyland California for the Diamond Celebration, celebrating Disneyland 60th. So that is considered an electrical parade. Ok ok where is the original that you have been reading about for 8 minutes? Well it is still being shown in Walt Disney World’s Magic Kingdom once a night every night. And the original original is still playing in Hong Kong to this day. So thanks for listening to me ramble on about a decorated Christmas house on wheels.

UPDATE: August 22 2016

The Main street electrical parade is returning to Disneyland in early 2017.

We at Beyond the Berm have been asked to give advice to a friend about how to enjoy Disneyland without a car. The truth is simple . . . you don’t need a car! A car at Disneyland (IMHO) just gets in the way. Here’s the best way to enjoy Disneyland without a car.

First recommendation: Fly into Santa Ana John Wayne Airport (abbreviated SNA). Depending on the size of your party and whether or not you are arriving at rush hour, a taxi may be a cheaper way to get to Disneyland than the Disneyland Express (bus from SNA). A taxi will cost between $35 – 40, while (last time I checked) the Disneyland Express cost $20 per adult, with one child per paying adult free. The Disneyland Express also leaves SNA only once per hour, so a taxi can be more convenient if you just missed a shuttle.

Second recommendation: Staying at one of the three Disneyland hotels makes life without a car a no-brainer. Not only do these hotels provide a fully immersive Disney experience, there really is little reason to venture out of the Disney park area and into greater Anaheim. All of your needs can be met within the Downtown Disney district and the hotels (although last trip I was unable to find contact lens cleaning solution without venturing out to find a CVS, that is the only time such a thing has occurred). Although significantly more expensive than most of the “Good Neighbor Hotels,” if your budget allows, we recommend these three properties. The Grand Californian is the most expensive, next is the classic Disneyland Hotel (the personal favorite of Beyond the Berm), and Paradise Pier is the least expensive of the three.

In addition to the convenience of the three hotels inside the park area, there are other perks to staying at one of the three hotels. Although being able to use your room key to charge food and other purchases to your room is convenient, as is being just a few steps away from the park, there is a much more compelling reason to stay at one of the three hotels: Magic Hours. For park hotel guests, every morning they are offered admission to one of the two parks an hour before all other park guests. Although it may seem early, it is very wise to arrive the hour early and ride some rides whose lines later in the day are simply not worth waiting in (like Peter Pan, although one of our favorite rides, with lines that can be an hour long for a 180 second ride, we ride it during Magic Hour or not at all). More on ride strategies in another posting.

The final reason to stay in one of the three park hotels is your feet. When your dogs start barking at the end of a long, hot, fun-filled day, being a few steps from the park entrance or monorail stop will seem like a very good idea. Although hotel shuttles are fine and usually reliable, they can add anywhere from 30 minutes to an hour to your trip back to your room. If you are traveling with small children or seniors, this can feel like forever.

More recommendations to come!

We are launching a part of this blog to be entitled “Beyond the Berm” about vacation and travel tips for the Happiest Place on Earth. We at DisneyParkAce and Beyond the Berm believe that if you don’t love vacationing in Disneyland, you must be doing it wrong. We are here to help change that.

As we have found out from Agent D.A.D Pirates of the Caribbean is closed due to having the boats fill with water and people being stupid enough to get their fingers cut off. Pirates will re-open September 30th 2015. During the closure the boats are being replaced.

We at Disney Park Ace were were relived when we found out that the paint the night parade and the Disneyland Forever Firework show were staying at least until next summer.

Just a few days ago Space Mountain & Haunted mansion had their Festive makeovers shown to the public

Hatbox Ghost from Haunted Mansion Holiday, image resized from Disney Parks Blog.

I can not wait to go see these attractions!