The Journal of a Disneyland Annual Passholder

Back in August 2015 during the D23 Expo, Bob Iger announced that Star Wars themed lands were coming to Disneyland and Walt Disney World in its Hollywood Studios Theme Park. At Disneyland, the land is being built north of Frontierland, mainly in backstage areas that have long been relocated. The real casualty for the guests is the loss of Big Thunder Ranch and the Festival Arena. Disney also announced that the Rivers of America, the Railroad and Fantasmic would close for 2016 and reopen this year. The Railroad will have a new route and the Mark Twain and Columbia and the canoes would travel a shorter route but would travel along a brand new rear end of the river. The River which represents several known US Rivers will include a new section dedicated to the real life Columbia Gorge. But what many fans were anticipating is the return of a retooled and enhanced Fantasmic!. Over the course of several years, the show has seen technological upgrades but the original story kept intact. T...

Recently it was announced that the 50th Anniversary fireworks show "Remember Dreams Come True" which originally ended back in 2014 would be making a return. Meanwhile, the 60th anniversary show "Disneyland Forever" ended with the conclusion of the Diamond Celebration and as of now appears to be permanently retired (although with the current trend of bringing things back, Forevers return in a limited capacity wouldn't be a surprise). I don't usually compare shows since I find it to taint ones experience but I felt this had to be done in order to help what I'm talking about here. To fully appreciate a show, one must be able to understand the shows message and both firework shows actually did a good job in conveying those messages. Lets take a look at Remember Dreams Come True first. This show is pretty straightforward and easier to know what it was about right off the bat. The show tells the history of Disneyland by going through all the lands in t...

It seems like yesterday that I saw World of Color for the very first time. When I first saw the show, it wasn't even open to the public yet. It was a Cast Member preview that my sister took me to. Ever since I saw the show for the very first time, it became my favorite nighttime spectacular in the resort. So you can say I'm an "Original" fan of the show. For the first 5 years, i've seen the show ever changing and people leaving happy that they saw this amazing show over the years. I never thought I would be obsessed with a show until this show opened. It changed the way I play at the Resort whenever I'm there for a full day. It made me love Disney even more! You might be wondering why this post is some sort of a reflection post. Well, its because it pretty much is. When the Diamond Celebration at the Disneyland Resort begins, a new World of Color show will debut which will be as spectacular as the "Classic" World of Color has been fo...

Rhianna reference aside, I couldn't be anymore excited about the upcoming Diamond Celebration at the Disneyland Resort! This new celebration will be as big as the 50th Golden Celebration that was known as the "Happiest Homecoming on Earth" and the "Happiest Celebration on Earth. But unlike 10 years ago in which all Disney Parks participated, it will be just the Disneyland Resort celebrating. During the 50th, several things debuted during the course of the celebration at Disneyland which is as follows for both parks: Disneyland Park: Walt Disneys Parade of Dreams (Ended in 2008) Remember Dreams Come True Fireworks Spectacular (Ended in 2014) Buzz Lightyears Astro Blasters Renovated Tiki Room, Space Mountain and Pirates of the Caribbean and Jungle Cruise Disneyland: The First 50 Magical Years (scaled back to "The Disneyland Story featuring Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln in 2009) Disney California Adventure: Pixars Block Party Bash  ...

Knotts Scary Farm Paradise pier (Note: Stock photo from July 20th) Most tourists usually use Disneyland as a hub and center of their vacation in SoCal as they travel to other SoCal destinations from there (unless they have a hotel in Los Angeles). As a local however, I did things a lot different this past October 4th. Since 2009, I've made the trip to Knotts for their Halloween Haunt event and usually has me going there close to 5pm for my pre scare dinner. This year, I did something that I wanted to do: Go to Knotts FROM Disneyland. http://www.rideart.org Anaheim has a transportation line for its "Resort area" called the Anaheim Resort Transportation (known as ART) and it serves as a connection to the local destinations around Anaheim and some of the neighboring cities in the county. 2 years ago, they extended a line to Buena Park which connects Disneyland and Knotts Berry Farm (Line 18). Because of the nature of the line's route, it doesn't operat...

Its been an interesting 2014 at Disneyland. Not only does it include my usual routine of Indiana Jones, World of Color and the occasional chats with my Cast Member friends, it also included an unexpected new thing to do: Watch Magical Map more than once per visit. In its first year last year, I watched the show every now and then. It wasn't until January that I began watching the show everytime I visited. When my January term started, the off-season at the Resort began and I got off early enough in the 3 days that I went to school that I went to Disneyland to have some fun till my mom got off work. Since I couldn't stay late for World of Color, Magical Map became the ideal substitute during weekday visits to the parks. The show is fun and the performers make the show alive. When I started uploading pics I took of the show on Instagram, thats when my obsession with Magical Map grew. Any performer at Map that has an Instagram found me through the hashtags I use on my picture...

On May 23rd, I spent 22 hours at both Disneyland and California Adventure. Both parks as well as the Magic Kingdom in Orlando, FL were open once again from 6am to 6am the next day. Both parks started out empty in the morning and then got more busier as the night went on. This is what I did that day that was the most exciting:  The Frozen fan inside me wanted me to do the Frozen Sing-a-long that was taking place throughout the day at the MuppetVision Theater in Hollywoodland. It was one thing to be excited to see it on the big screen again, but to actually sing along to the songs which i wasn't able to do in theaters (I didn't do the Sing a long in theaters because I wasn't sure if my theater was doing it) was very fun! Some people left over the course of the movie I'd let it slide since people thought it was just a fun show with the songs from the movie and not the full movie itself. When I parkhopped back to California Adventure in the evening, I ran into a l...

February 29th, 2012 was known as Leap Day. Leap Year is the time when February gets 29 days not 28 days. 2 years ago, Disney decided to have Disneyland and the Magic Kingdom in FL open from 6am on Feb 29th to 6am the next day (March 1st). I decided to attend the 24 hour day but I was able to spend 14 hours because I spent the first 10 hours preparing and having lunch with my parents. Getting there, it felt like a normal day but as the night arrived, the masses arrived and Disneyland was hit to capacity before midnight. I attended a "Midnight Snack" event arranged by the Disney Parks Blog people though there was a conflict as I was in the "Original" line for it while a second line formed. Disneyland Managers took care of it by making sure that those that were in the original line for the small event went in while those that tried to form a 2nd line was held back by Disneyland security. The small event was fun and some characters came out. To cap off the event, we wer...

"All of Our Dreams can come true if we have the courage to pursue them."-Walt Disney Whenever I remember this quote, I realize that in order to pursue my dreams, whatever that dream may be, I have to be able achieve it by going after it actively. Its never an easy road to achieve dreams. You have to climb leaps, bounds and mountains to get there. But every small step leads to a big achievement. You've got to be willing to "Go the Distance" to get to where you want to be.