The Journal of a Disneyland Annual Passholder

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  ...

10 years ago, Disney put on a "Golden" celebration to celebrate Disneyland in Anaheim, California turning 50. Now they aim to do it again with Diamonds which is a common symbol in wedding celebrations (used to be 75). This time, the emphasis will be on Nighttime Spectaculars which will once again feature advancements in technology in ways that have never been done before in Disney Parks! More information about the 60th will be announced in the coming months. Last night, Disney Parks Blog readers got the chance to be at Disneyland to hear whats to come for the 60th and all 4 announcements are the 4 major attractions for the celebration. Diamond Decorations During the 50th, Sleeping Beauty Castle was decorated in beautiful golden decorations which featured 5 crowns representing a decade in Disneyland History. For the 60th, the castle will be decorated in diamonds and shades of blue and Carthay Circle Theatre in Disney California Adventure will also receive ...

Into the Woods is Disney's first attempt at adapting a Broadway Musical into a movie and boy did it not fail to make me laugh. From the songs from the Broadway musical to the design of some of the characters, the movie is a charming adaption of the Broadway musical and thats a strong statement from someone that didn't actually see the musical that its based on.  Fans of the Musical will have a jolly good time seeing the songs on the big screen while some will be left wondering "Why am i laughing so hard at these songs?!" One of the interesting things in the movie was the very short screen time of Johnny Depp although his character, the Wolf does die in the actual "Red Riding Hood" story so that was to be expected unless the musical twisted the story so that he lived (which didn't happen). The movies i've seen Depp in, he was a main character but in this movie, he's a minor character so Depp fans should not expect him to be in the e...

Its no secret that World of Color was designed to be flexible. With such a flexible system, scenes can be either modified or switched out for newer scenes. Steve Davison envisioned the show to be like a living "Fantasia" in which each change would bring in something new to the show. No show in Disney Parks history had the ability. Even Davison himself didn't think of changing the show material in the other shows he did in the past. Back in 2009, Steve Davison presented twice, one at California Adventure and one at the inaugural D23 Expo in Anaheim, the intended lineup for the first version of World of Color. But when the show opened in 2010, much of the material had been switched around. Many fans thought that Bob Iger, the CEO of the company was responsible for the changes but thats only half true. Steve Davison and his team also had a hand in changing the show in places they deemed to not have worked as they hoped. For example, Chernabog was originally supposed...

Both of these SoCal Destinations operate in the same county and in 2 different cities. Both are just 10 minutes apart. What most people outside of SoCal don't know is that these 2 have a history that stems from both of their creators who both are named Walt and the two had a friendship. Walter Marvin Knott was a Californian born farmer that struggled in his early years of farming until his attempts at nursing several berries from an abandoned farm changed his fortunes for him and his wife. The Boysenberry plant would later be cultivated and sold on its own or as jelly. The berry proved to be a success and soon his wife would begin selling chicken dinners in order to combat the Great Depression in the 30s.  As more and more people flocked to the Chicken Dinner Restaurant, Knott decided to create a western "Ghost Town" on his property in order to entertain the hundreds waiting for a table at their restaurant. This would be the basis for Knotts Berr...

NOTE: The following review was done as spoiler free as possible. There may be some unintentional spoilers. If you have not seen the movie, beware. On a scale of 1 thru 10, how would I rate BH6? A perfect 10! Building off their success from "Frozen" last year, Disney releases "Big Hero 6" based on the Marvel comics of the same name. This is the first time that Disney has adapted Marvel Characters into a Disney animated movie which is a nice change of pace from having to shift through classic fairytales that they may have not used yet or had to have an original story pitch. Set in a fictional city called San Fransokyo (a hybrid of San Fransisco and Tokyo), Hiro sets out to save the city from a mysterious villain with the help of his friends and his brother's robot "Baymax" which was created as a Healthcare robot. Its been a long time since I cried in a movie theater and this movie managed to make that happen to me 3 times. A lot of their anima...

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...