A 40th celebration to end the world! COMPLETED 6/24 About This Page:

[chezp]

Originally Posted by disney_duke

Glad you waited it out to ride RSR once more. Cool photos while on the ride. I should try that sometime, just for fun and see what happens!

You should!

[chezp]

Originally Posted by Ciavobella

RSR does indeed look like fun but I can not imagine waiting for 2.5 hours. I once saw a 3 hour wait for Soarin' - hearty people to deal with that.

I am 100% with you on that. I do not know how people could wait that long for anything. Before I got chronic fatigue, which means I can't stand for long periods of time, about the longest we'd consider waiting was 45 minutes.

[Colexis Mom]

Just getting caught up again! Sorry Storyteller's was a bit of a letdown! Great pictures from CA! Glad you got to ride on Radiator Springs! The crowds have certainly arrived from earlier this morning! Love the PP pictures in front of DL!

[Roxie2006]

I know with all the great shots on RSR, even your random ones, my DH will really love that ride, as will my DGS. I just love seeing all the Christmas decorations around the Parks. Also, your Photopass photos are really great too!

[chezp]

Originally Posted by Roxie2006

I know with all the great shots on RSR, even your random ones, my DH will really love that ride, as will my DGS. I just love seeing all the Christmas decorations around the Parks. Also, your Photopass photos are really great too!

Thank you.

[Cam22]

Glad you all were able to use your FastPasses from the night before for Radiator Spring Racers! We had a similar wait for our second ride on Forbidden Journey at IoA with announcements telling us progress, but the line not moving. That ride looks so cool!

[KMB733]

So apparently the crowd of people were all in line for Radiator Springs Racers! I'm glad you were finally able to get on that ride. It would have been such a shame to get that close and then not be able to ride. Can't wait to hear about the holiday tour.

[DrDolphin]

Sorry to hear you had a delay on RSR - but I am glad you got to take another go at it.

[chezp]

Tuesday 25 December – part six: they’re trying to sneak in with us!

We checked in for our tour, and were told we were in “team red” and to grab a seat to the right of the booth. As there was no-one around, and it was almost an hour before the tour was due to start, we decided to have a quick look up Main Street USA, as Mark thought he’d seen a kitchen shop. They were starting to get ready for the three o’clock parade, and it was pretty busy in the park now as a result. Unfortunately what Mark thought was a kitchen shop was in fact a sweet shop. Oh well, we tried…



We wandered back to the tour meeting spot through the Emporium.

It turned out there were three groups, silver, red (us) and green, and there was certainly some friendly rivalry between them as the tours wore on. We were the second to leave with Garrett. Immediately, we headed over to the California Adventure, passing through gates operated by the Cast Members, so we could just walk across the plaza. You can’t do this in Walt Disney World!

We entered into Buena Vista Street, and talked about how this dates from the Los Angeles of the 1920s and 1930s, which was in the depression, so they didn’t have much money for Christmas decorations, and this is reflected in the simplicity of the garlands here.

We then moved down to look at the Christmas tree, with Garrett explaining how decorating trees came to be. It was a result of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert being pictured by a decorated Christmas tree, which then became the fashionable thing to do.



We headed next for Cars Land, although we didn’t go very far down this area, with Garrett just explaining about each of the Christmas trees here, and how they represented the various characters from Cars. I thought this bit was really interesting, but it was a shame we didn’t have the five minutes extra just to walk down and see each of them, so that we could see them for ourselves as we heard about them.

We made our way back to Carthay Circle, where we went into our favourite Fiddler and everything else café (can you tell I so can’t be bothered with the name of this place? ) and were given the choice of either eggnog or peppermint marshmallow. I went for peppermint, while Mark went for eggnog, which he did not enjoy. Well, come on, it’s eggnog for goodness sake. I can’t think of anything worse…


Mine was much nicer…

We headed back down Buena Vista Street to the entrance, just catching the trolley containing Mickey, who’d just given a show, as we left.



We crossed the plaza again… and in Town Square, Garrett told us about the Christmas trees here. One is very obvious…

… the second is no longer present, but is during the Candlelight Processional here, which is again made up of Cast Members, while the third is the Christmas tree in Walt’s apartment in the fire station:

We walked a little way up Main Street, pausing at this doorway to look at it, as it shows how the Jewish faith celebrate Christmas. The little doorknob you can see to the right of the doorway is a symbol of blessings.



Our next stop was the hub, where we talked about the castle. I can’t remember how many lights it has on it, but it was a stupid number.



From there, it was into Frontierland, and then into New Orleans Square. I think you can guess what was coming next… you got it a ride on the Haunted Mansion Holidays!



We went in through the Fastpass line, and Garrett told the Cast Member there were 16 of us. Unbelievably, two people came in behind us, but he was wise to it, did no more than told the Cast Member at the front of the Fastpass line, and she dealt with it. They didn’t have Fastpasses, so I suspect they were directed to the back of the standby line, which was now showing 75 minutes. The irony was there were still Fastpasses for about an hour’s time. What would you do?



In we went, and enjoyed another ride on this great version of the Haunted Mansion. I got one shot I wasn’t able to get earlier.



When we came out of there, we walked around the Rivers of America, heading for Frontierland. Garrett was telling us how good Fantasmic! is here. Well, I guess it will have to wait until another visit, as there are no opportunities left to see it now. He also told us to ride Big Thunder now, as it’s going down for rehab in the New Year and when it’s back up and running, in his words, it would be “very different”. I have no idea what that means…

We stopped outside the Jingle Jangle Jamboree, with Garrett explaining what happens here. This is where I felt the tour could benefit from maybe an extra half hour or hour, because, as with Cars Land, I’d like to have gone in here as part of the tour, rather than just hear about it.



I will say that, as well as Garrett, you had some very cool excerpts, mainly from Walt, but also others, explaining about Christmas at Disneyland, played over your headsets, which I loved. It was a good way of adding to the experience.

Here, we took a restroom break, and I have to say I thought it was a long time to expect people to go without one (by now it was maybe 4:45pm ) as this tour is open to all ages. Personally, I’d set a lower age limit, but I understand why they don’t, as a lot of people do this tour just to get the reserved seating at the end for the Christmas parade, and I get that. We spoke to one local family who are doing this tour for about the third or fourth time for that very reason.

Next: a holiday treat for “troublesome” Mark!

[cubfancolleen]

I didn't realize that you've not seen Fantasmic! at Disneyland! It is MUCH better than the WDW version. Fantasmic! started at DL, and we were lucky enough to live there then, and to be there for the premier. Just blew us away the first time we saw it. First, you're much closer to the action. I wish I could adequately describe why it's so much better. You MUST see it on your next time at DL!

Love the sound of the tour! Too bad you're seeing some things from a distance, though.

[dutchdisneyfamily]

I've been waiting to hear about this tour. We plan to book it when we go.

[lauriep]

I can understand people doing the tour just for the parade viewing and for skipping the Mansion line, but so far, it hasn't been that great really, Although I seem to remember it was very inexpensive, right? I'm in agreement with Colleen about Fantasmic! at DL. I skip it now at WDW, but saw the DL version on my first visit years ago and it was so much better. It feels more like a surprise happening than a theater production.

[sakana]

I'd really love to see Haunted Mansion holiday!

PS your guide was a bit confused about Judaism.

Sent from my BlackBerry 9300 using Tapatalk

[disney_duke]

Silly Mark. Eggnog!!
Sounded like a good tour, if a bit rushed. I suppose they expect that folks should go back and look at things later, maybe? I've also skipped Fantasmic and am skipping it again this trip. Some day, some day......

[lauriep]

Originally Posted by sakana

I'd really love to see Haunted Mansion holiday!

PS your guide was a bit confused about Judaism.

Sent from my BlackBerry 9300 using Tapatalk

LOL! Agreed!