Disneyland - Christmas in California Adventure

Over and over, the thing that is amazing is how good Disney is at making things feel right.

When you enter California Adventure, Buena Vista Street fills a similar role as Main Street, but evoking 1920s Los Angeles instead of 1910 Marceline, Missouri or Fort Collins Colorado.

One of the first things that caught my eye were the large bells hanging from garlands. They reminded me of Bakelite. I don't think they really were, or even know that you would find decorations like that in 1920s Los Angeles, but it felt right.

Moving left into Hollywood Land, it is still Los Angeles, but more modern, and it reminded me of the decorations we had just seen at The Grove. That felt right.

If we had gone right instead, it would have taken us to Paradise Pier, starting with Ariel's Undersea Adventure. 

That building is one of the most impressive in the park. Realizing that it was started as something completely different (a replica of the Palace of Fine Arts Rotunda in San Francisco that housed the Golden Dreams film) makes the transformation that much more amazing as finials, relief sculpture, and even crushed up shells in the floor make it perfect for the ride. Garlands were added that fit into the architecture of the building and the color scheme of the ride.

The rest of Paradise Pier is flashier, like a coastal boardwalk, so decorations were added that were bright and colorful, with bold gift packages and peppermint sticks.

Moving into the Pacific Wharf, which is modeled on San Francisco's Fisherman's Wharf and Monterey's Cannery Row, things are not quite as bright and colorful. Here the primary decorations were simple lines of Christmas lights hung across the spaces between buildings. They were spaced apart in a way that felt somewhat sparse, but it fit in.

 

There are two California Adventure lands based on Pixar movies, and so those were chances to get a little more fanciful. Both did so in ways that felt right without being over the top.

For A Bug's Land, where attractions are built by the bugs out of cast-off human items, it was a simple thing to add a few Christmas ornaments and lights. Where you would normally have straws and pencils, suddenly there is a candy cane, and the pencil has a Santa head, which is cute and brings up some nostalgia for anyone who has ever had one of those pencils.

The most amazing variety was in Cars Land. The replication of details in the movie was already impressive, but they just let their imaginations run wild for the Christmas decorations. There were "trees" made of tires, traffic cones, and license plates, and garlands made of mufflers.

Any one land is impressive, but taken together it is amazing how well they do, and it makes the park a fun place to be.

Disneyland - Christmas in the Magic Kingdom

I find that it will take me more than one post to cover Christmas at Disneyland. The decorations were so great, with the incorporation of themes, and so my writing about Christmas decorations will extend beyond Christmas, and I have accepted this.

This week will focus on the Magic Kingdom, next week will focus on California Adventure, and even though I probably could skip Downtown Disney, which is a smaller area and more focused, I will have a week on it too.

When I talk about incorporation of themes, it is not just that there is a theme for one side of the park, but there are decorations specific to that land.

We covered that a little with the focus on It's A Small World last week. For their holiday version, the outside of the ride was bedecked with white tinsel wreaths and garlands with multicolored glossy ornaments, and the insides of wreaths in the expanded area around the ride matched the woodcut style and color scheme of the ride.

It's A Small World is part of Fantasyland, but it is kind of separate from the rest of Fantasyland. Technically, the rest of Fantasyland was not very decorated, and neither were Tomorrowland and Adventureland. That's not to say that there was no decoration at all, but there were areas that did more, and the ways in which they did it was cool.

Toon Town is my least favorite area in the Magic Kingdom, but I could appreciate what they did for decorations. You have the homes of the main characters, and as well as normal downtown buildings like a bank and post office. It is the cartoon equivalent of Main Street.

So, the garlands and wreaths for the public buildings were in bold colors and sort of streamlined, in much the same way that you might draw a cartoon town decorated for Christmas.

Then, with the character houses, that was added to. Mickey's decorations are the most basic and traditional. Minnie has a heart wreath with silver and pink, and her tree is topped with a bow. Donald lives on a boat, and his decorations are kind of nautical. Goofy's decorations were a little more off-beat, and kind of sports-themed. I was surprised to not see any decorations for Chip and Dale's tree, but maybe they are supposed to be hibernating.

Frontierland decorations were very Western, homespun and rustic.

Critter Country could have gone that route and it would have fit, but there was more of a focus on the denizens of the Hundred Acre Woods that inhabit Critter Country, so there was a carrot-themed tree for Rabbit, and honey pots everywhere.

New Orleans Square had more of a gold and glass theme to it. It wasn't exactly Gothic; perhaps it was Southern Gothic with some French influence. Mainly it felt right, which is the overall theme.

Then of course there was Main Street. It was very traditional, with green garlands and wreaths and poinsettia everywhere, and a very tall Christmas tree. It looks Christmas-y, for sure, but they do even better than that.

Every night there is a fireworks show with music. It is very popular. We did not check the schedule, so one night we were caught in a mob of people on their way out. I like fireworks, and I can go for parades, but I like to plan on seeing it, and get myself in a good viewing position. Caught in the crush of people, we did not want to participate, and trying to keep going was not fun, but suddenly it started snowing.

I am aware it was soap suds, and the crowd was still there, but suddenly I got all weepy because it was so beautiful. Disney won over my grumpy cynical heart, and it was still only early November.

Disneyland: It's A Small World Happy Holidays

I had heard good things about the holiday version of the It's A Small World ride, but not only had I never been on it, we had not been on the regular ride for years.

When we were going in October, the ride was closed for the holiday makeover. When we went in February it was also closed, though I am not sure if it was for the regular take down of the holiday decorations or for other maintenance.

There were a few surprises that I had to ask about to see if they were part of ride normally, or only for the holidays. We saw characters from Disney movies scattered throughout the ride. For example, Peter Pan and Tinkerbell fly over London Bridge, Ariel is with the other mermaids, and Lilo is near Polynesia.

This is a regular part of the ride now, and I liked it. It is subtle enough that it doesn't take away from the focus of the ride, and at least for us it was a nice surprise just because it was so new.

For the holiday changes, I thought they worked well. It had occurred to me before that they would fit in pretty naturally. You start the ride in an Arctic setting, so bringing in the North Pole is not too much of a stretch. We do associate toy soldiers with Christmas - probably because of Babes in Toyland - but there are toy soldiers in the England setting, so it fits in well. And of course, children singing and being united feels like it should be a part of Christmas, so that part works.

It is worth stating that the things that a lot of people hate about the regular ride don't bother me, as I am the sentimental type, and I believe in multiculturalism. I am sure there are complaints about how well or simplistically they portray the various cultures, but I recognized a lot of things there that I hadn't before, and there are some pretty good details included. I have seen that type of dancing, and they have the movements right. Oh, that costume represents this country. They were things that went over my head when I was younger, but having read more and traveled more, I am pretty impressed.

Obviously I did not take any pictures on the ride, but there are still a lot of pictures of the decorations because they did an amazing job. As you got into the area of the ride, there were multiple wreaths that matched the artwork of the building and ride, which has a very distinctive style designed by Mary Blair. The line and control booths were decked with white wreaths and garlands and multi-colored balls. It was a different look from the rest of the park, but it worked.

And of course at night, everything was lit up amazingly. This is another area where I am not sure how different that is from normal, because I think it normally does light up at night, but we have not tended to be in that area after dark. This time we made a point of riding the train at night so we could ride through it and see it from that vantage point, and it was good.

So we enjoyed it, and we did some thing we had never done before to make sure we got the full enjoyment of it, which worked out.

If you get a chance, see this attraction.

Los Angeles: Christmas at The Grove

http://www.thegrovela.com/

We mainly went to the grove for Dylan's Candy Bar, which will get it's own write-up.

Dylan's was pretty much at the opposite end of the mall from where we started, and it was not easily discernible where it was. I asked a couple of employees, and they were not even sure there was such a place. However, I'm glad it worked out that way, because the Grove was all done up for Christmas, and it was beautiful.

I did not manage to get a picture that did justice to Santa and the sleigh with a full set of reindeer, but they were pretty cool. There were also hanging stars, decorations on the posts, and a particularly saucy gingerbread man on top of a candy house. They all contributed to the mood.

I am sure the fountain is not a seasonal thing, but it was very beautiful. Also not seasonal, they have what is easily the largest Barnes & Noble I have ever seen.

I enjoyed the decorations at the Grove. If you are in the area, it is worth checking out.