Friday, January 3, 2014

Christmas Time 2013 Coming to a Close at the Disneyland Resort

The Christmas season of 2013 - 2014 is coming to an end at the Disneyland Resort.


Compared to last week, the lines to get into Disneyland were a lot shorter


The lines to get into Disney California Adventure were pretty much the same as last week ha ha


Walking down Buena Vista Street




Following the line of people wait to get a FastPass for Radiator Springs Racers




Back on Buena Vista Street, people were poking out from the double doors of Fiddler, Fifer, and Practical Cafe

Looking inside, the line was long.  And I am sure most of them were there just for the Starbucks coffee




Inside Clarbabelle's Ice Cream...


The light shines through the stained glass


Alice would be very happy to know there the menu now has pictures of the items.
It makes it a big simpler to see what it is that you are ordering
And it makes it look more tempting to stop and order





Across the street at Elias and Company...


Some new winter merchandise for her




Looks like Mickey is ready to start getting things put away until Christmas time 2014


Heading into Disneyland now...


Is it just me or does it look like Cinderella has "let herself go" just a tad this Holiday season? ha ha
Maybe she is just bundled up a bit more since it was a bit cool this morning








Soon the Jingle Cruise will be back to its normal self




Parking structure!



Climbing the Tarzan Treehouse...






Love looking at the rooftops of New Orleans Square




ROAR!!

I hope I didn't scare you


Part of the construction wall from the West side of Big Thunder Mountain Railroad was removed




That means the smoking section is open again






One of the trains coming over the crest of the second lift hill






Supposedly the Fantasyland Skyway station will soon begin to get dismantled.


Another look at one of Big Thunder Mountain Railroad trains being sent around the track








Taking a leisurly ride on the Mark Twain










Walking back around Big Thunder Mountain again.
From the side of one mountain to another...




A submarine heading towards the waterfall










Wow! Look at the line. It's sticking out from the entrance.  Did word get out about a certain Disney fan site claiming the possibility of Finding Nemo Submarine Voyage closing for good after Jan 6??

Nooo... I think there are 2 reasons for the long line.
Reason 1 : The queue was not fully open.  Only 1/4 of the chained queue was being used at the time.
Reason 2 : It's the last weekend of Christmas Time, so naturally there are still crowds in the Park. And if they see any "short" line, they jump in it





As far as I know, one Disney fan site is stating that there is a high possibility that the Submarine Voyage will be closing for good after Jan 6th and not be returning due to the financial strain that the Walt Disney World MagicBands have placed on the company.

If I thought the Submarine Voyage was closing for good, I would have jumped in line, rode the ride, and taken pictures. But I didn't. Why? Because I don't think they are closing for good.  I believe that the Submarine Voyage will go down for a refurbishment that will unfortunately take almost a year to complete.

A few have mentioned that Disney has done if before in the past. They would state an attraction will be going down for a refurbishment (Rocket Rods) or a parade (Light Magic)  will get some retooling, only to have them never return. But you see, Rocket Rods and Light Magic pretty much got a bad rap from the start. And with the constant issues they had, those in charge (like Michael Eisner, Paul Pressler, and Cynthia Harris) didn't want to admit their mistakes. So what did they do to save themselves the embarrassment of publicly getting rid of something? Why just say they are going to get refurbished and fine tuned.  That way, as time goes on, Disneyland will distract the Guests with something else so that they forget about Light Magic and Rocket Rods.

But now it's a different time with different people running the Parks. With an attraction that's been in operation for nearly 6 1/2 years, if they were going to get rid of it, I think they would just come out and say "with the changing times of today and the needs to serve our Guests with better experiences, the Submarine Voyage will be closing yadda yadda yadda."...you know, the typical canned reasoning Disney PR always gives.  And knowing Disney, if a "beloved" attraction is about to go away forever, they will try and milk it as much as they can with merchandise and any other PR stunt they can throw at it.

   



Space Mountain is starting to get a cleaning






The Flower Market on Main Street U.S.A.'s Center Street has been reduced to just the photo-op stand
Not sure if the flowers were removed because they created more of an interference with the Guest flow to and from the Main Street lockers or if they Flower Market was just part of the Christmas Time season






There was a little scary moment here.  The horse pulling the trolley was starting to get spooked or something.  It would travel a few feet and then stop.   After a few minutes, it would travel again and stop.  Looking at the horse, it looked as though it was nervous and wanted to quickly get through the crowd.

I don't know if this was the horse's first time out or what, because they did have someone from the Circle D Ranch on the trolley. I guess in case something was to happen as they would know what to do.

Cast Members started to clear the track route so the horse would see that no one would be in the way.


Soon it started to come down the tracks kind of fast.  The horse stopped a few more times before it finally made its way around Town Square to the loading/unloading zone.

I don't know if they took the trolley and horse backstage or if they continued operation with the horse.  If I was on the trolley, I probably would have wanted off as quickly as I could


I like this style of drawing.  It kind of reminds me of something from the 70's and 80's, but modernized













On to Disney California Adventure...




Officer Blue is here to keep the peace ... or maybe "piece" ha ha ha ha


Phineas and Ferb's dance party was ending as I was passing by Little Mermaid






Filming taking place over by the Paradise Garden

























With not much going on in Disney California Adventure, it's time to leave...




Officer Blue is leading me out

That will conclude today's pictorial
Thanks for stopping by and checking it out

Feel free to leave a comment

Until Next Time....

4 comments:

  1. Great update. Thanks. We will be down during the first week in Feb. thanks again for all your updates.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks for visiting the site.
      Hope you enjoy your visit in Feb :)

      Delete
  2. I agree completely with your thoughts about the subs. They are coming back, end of story.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Ditto... Very insightful.

    ReplyDelete