Yesterday I visited the Disneyland Resort for a day that included the filming of the 2008 Walt Disney World Christmas Day Parade, & much more… So let’s get to it:
During the transition period from Halloween to Christmas, the Toy Story Mania billboards are back up at the Mickey & Friends Tram Station.
The attraction closure board.
Candy canes now adorn the CALIFORNIA letters.
The pumpkin Fab 5 are down from the turnstiles.
As noted in the picture, the Jonas Brothers & Jose Feliciano were at Disneyland, as well as Ryan Seacrest.
A look at some of the equipment & stages up & down Main Street.
It looks like Sleeping Beauty Castle is pretty much ready for the Holiday season.
Both Monorail Red & Monorail Blue were running all morning & from about 5pm & on. Monorail Purple was obviously used the rest of the day.
There was some slight damage done to the Monorail track right next to the Tomorrowland Terrace.
I got in line for the Matterhorn, but it had broken down.
A few shots of Monorail Blue, followed by some of Monorail Red.
A look at It’s a Small World Holiday, which is just 2 weeks away from re-opening.
The Santa hat has been put on the clock.
The Christmas lights have been installed all over the facade.
The Happy Holidays sign has been added to the main attraction sign.
The Fantasy Faire store opposite It’s a Small World Holiday is closed for refurbishment.
So with The Fantasy Faire closed for refurbishment, the It’s a Small World Toy Shop has re-opened.
The children of the world are missing from the boat.
It doesn’t look like they’ve changed that much inside the store.
More lights on the It’s a Small World Holiday facade.
Now a look at some of the Christmas decorations in Mickey’s Toontown.
The Toontown Christmas tree.
The decorations for Minnie’s House are rather bland compared to the rest of Toontown.
I guess Donald is in a sort of Bah Humbug mood!
This small area of Toontown next to the Fire Dept. is still under construction tarps.
Here’s a look construction on It’s a Small World Holiday seen from the Disneyland Railroad.
Water was in the flume yesterday. I doubt it’s going to be removed again.
A couple of the Christmas Fantasy Parade floats were backstage waiting to come out into the park to be filmed for the WDW Christmas Day Parade.
Another float right next to the Matterhorn.
You couldn’t go any further than Alice in Wonderland out of Fantasyland. To get out, you had to go all the way to the main Tomorrowland entrance.
Toy Soliders!!!
The Disney Fairies have temporarily booted Mickey & Minnie off their float.
Snowflake girls (my personal favorite performers in this parade).
The Disney Fairies once again.
The new Toy Factory float. Very different & more modern than before, but I still like it.
The Toy Soldiers again.
Santa’s Elves, even though Santa wasn’t in the parade, Goofy as Santa was (Santa will be in WDW).
Santa’s Workshop.
Giant Mickey balloons, probably for the What Will You Celebrate? promotion next year.
The Princess Christmas Ball float.
Followed, weirdly enough, by the Bolt Pre-Parade float.
And then Santa Cla… Excuse me, Goofy’s float.
Sleeping Beauty’s Winter Castle.
Walt Disney’s Imagineering Legends is finally on sale, after what seemed to be quite a delay.
And another new book, The Alchemy of Animation.
More filming down Main Street near Town Square.
I spy with my little eye, someone that is very short!
It’s Ryan Seacrest!
A bunch of equipment for the filming.
We leave Disneyland Park for now with a look at its’ awesome new park map.
Ads for Bolt on the back of one of the Hollywood Pictures Backlot buildings.
Garland up on the Golden Gate Bridge.
Garland up on the currently attraction-less Palace of Fine Arts.
Scaff-holding is starting to spread all over the Sun Wheel.
The stucco has been completely ripped off the Midway Games facade.
The draining of the Paradise Pier lagoon has begun!
Water pumps over by the California Screamin’ launch.
A new curtain at Mr. Potato Head’s gazebo.
The inside portion of the Toy Story Midway Mania queue was walled off.
Finally my score is getting better on Midway Mania!
Now a look at the awesome construction walls they’ve put up for the Games of the Boardwalk & Mickey’s Fun Wheel.
Bye Bye Stucco!
While the Midway Games are closed for refurbishment, the Midway Shops remain open.
These various character images will be on the various gondolas.
The lagoon draining by the Sun Wheel.
And the lagoon draining by the Orange Stinger.
All of the McDonalds tables have been removed from the Burger Invasion seating area.
Burger Invasion itself is out from behind tarps & construction walls.
The giant M for McDonalds has been replaced with this generic planet.
The latest DCA park map features Toy Story Midway Mania, in a generic, but very cool design.
The new & upcoming attractions page features Haunted Mansion Holiday, Pixie Hollow, the Blue Sky Cellar, High School Musical 3: Right Here! Right Now!, & coming soon, Holidays at the Disneyland Resort.
The Blue Sky Cellar is now featured on the DCA map.
Some work being done to the Cowboy Crunchies sign in Flik’s Fun Fair.
Because of that, Disney felt the need to place this sign at the entrance to Flik’s Fun Fair.
Holiday decorations in Pacific Wharf.
The Golden Gate Bridge & it’s holiday garland once again.
The backside of Goofy!
The only shot I managed to get of the new Bolt Pre-Parade (I was taking a video of it instead).
In case you missed it, here is the video I posted yesterday of the Bolt Pre-Parade.
Removal of the stage in front of Sleeping Beauty’s Winter Castle that was used in the morning for filming of the Christmas Day Parade.
The majestic castle itself.
The line for Pixie Hollow at around 3:45pm.
I didn’t go in there (or any meet ‘n greets for that matter), but I peeked through one of the holes in the giant grass & saw that Fawn & Silvermist were there. Tinker Bell wasn’t however, due to the fact that the Parade of Dreams was running at that time.
The fountain was running yesterday (it wasn’t during my previous visit).
The Plaza Pavilion is finally out from behind tarps & construction walls, after 11 months of work.
Now a look at some of the New Orleans Square holiday decorations at night.
A look at the new Christmas store in the Courtyard of Angels.
Haunted Mansion Holiday all lit up at night.
Big Thunder Ranch is currently being transfered over to Santa’s Reindeer Roundup.
I went & sat for the Parade of Dreams, as its last 2008 performance is on November 11th, & it won’t be returning until February due to A Christmas Fantasy Parade at first, & then the Main Street re-paving project. Here are a few of my best shots.
I think flash actually made this picture darker!
Even though it’s blurry, there’s a nice quality to this shot.
Plaza Pavilion all lit up at night.
And we’ll end this photo report with the lovely Christmas trees in Downtown Disney.
That’s going to do it for this, once again, enormous photo report. Stay tuned to our Image Galleries for bigger versions of these pictures & many others!
