Rain washed away just about all of the first two nights of Disneyland’s newly-expanded 20-night run of Candlelight over the weekend. Still, the extended run of the popular event will continue as planned, with seating reserved for Annual Passholders. Meanwhile, the holidays season continues throughout the Resort with a new gingerbread house inspired by “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs” finding a home at Carthay Circle Restaurant.
We continue our 5th Anniversary Celebration this week! To celebrate, Dateline Disneyland has teamed up with our friends at the Howard Johnson Anaheim and TouringPlans.com to give back to you, our readers! It’s our way of saying thanks for reading for the last five years. Details on our 5th Anniversary Giveaway Celebration can be found in today’s column.
A special thanks to Jacob Genzuk for contributing a couple photos this week.
Get a closer look at today’s update! Click on any photo in today’s column for a large, high-resolution version of the image.
| We’re Celebrating 5 Years! |
| Dateline Disneyland is turning 5 years old! To celebrate, we’re giving back to you, our readers, with 5 weeks of prizes from our friends at the Howard Johnson Plaza Hotel & Water Playground and TouringPlans.com! We’re giving out prizes for five weeks through December 10! Congratulations to our second and third week winners: Laurie from Prospect Park, PA; Martin from Redding, CA; Justine from Orange, CA; Nathan from Heber City, UT; Charles from Mesa, AZ; Rose from Chatsworth, CA; Jana from Sacramento, CA; and Taylor from Milwaukee, WI! We hope you enjoy your prizes and thanks for reading! Enjoy a 2-night getaway at Howard Johnson Plaza Hotel! Win a year subscription to TouringPlans.com!
Win a TouringPlans.com Disney eBook!
Also available from TouringPlans eBooks is the beautiful Disneyland: Sunrise to Sunrise — a photographic journey through Disneyland’s 2012 24-hour Leap Day party. Enter-To-Win! You can enter-to-win until 11:59 p.m. this Friday, December 7 for this week’s giveaway! Rules and Restrictions:
Happy anniversary and good luck! |
| Welcome to Disneyland! |
Candlelight Processional performances will boost evening crowd levels at Disneyland higher than usual over the next eighteen days. TouringPlans.com can help you navigate the parks with our per-park Crowd Calendar, Lines – Mobile Wait Times App that gives access to current and estimated wait times for attractions, and Touring Plans detailing the best plan of attack for hitting the attractions. With holiday crowds on the horizon, it’s a good time to subscribe to TouringPlans.com to plan your strategy to avoid the crowds!
Below are the predicted resort-wide crowd numbers for select days generated by the TouringPlans professional statisticians as measured for the upcoming week. For the access to the full year and per-park crowd level predictions, visit our Crowd Calendar.
— Fred Hazelton, Statistician, TouringPlans.com
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Crowd Prediction |
Crowd Tips |
| Tues., Dec. 4 | Here are some quick-hit notes that we hope you’ll find helpful as you prepare your visits for the week:
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| Wed., Dec. 5 | 5 /10 | |
| Thu., Dec. 6 | 6 /10 | |
| Fri., Dec. 7 | 9 /10 | |
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| Crowd levels are based on a scale from 1 to 10, with 1 being the least crowded conditions and 10 being most crowded.See Disneyland crowds for the next 365 days. Get Disneyland wait times on your iPhone, Android, or Smartphone.Do more. Wait less.  Dateline Disneyland is sponsored by TouringPlans.com. |
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| Candlelight Arrives |
Disneyland’s traditional and wildly popular Candlelight Processional and Ceremony returned over the weekend. The event typically takes place the first weekend of December, but has been expanded to a 20-night run this year, starting with Saturday’s performances. The expanded schedule means the stage on Main Street Station and additional set-up throughout Town Square will remain up for the better part of the month, only being taken down in time for the extremely busy last two weekends of the year.
Some of the Candlelight set-up seen from the main entrance has been dressed up a bit for its extended run.
In Town Square, this is what guests will be greeted with through December 20.
By day the whole thing is rather an eyesore and it’ll be interesting to see how the nightly Candlelight performances and set-up will affect crowd flow in the area as the holiday season gets busier.
Candlelight began as Disneyland’s annual gift back to the local community, with special community VIPs being given VIP seating during the event. Seating for this weekend’s performances was reserved for Disney’s VIP guests as per tradition, but three out of four performances over the weekend were canceled due to rain.
The remaining nights of Candlelight have reserved seating for Annual Passholders, which were chosen by an online lottery. Below, the schedule of performances and celebrity narrators for nights open to Annual Passholders.
Celebrity Narrators and Dates
- December 3, 4, 5: Kurt Russell
- December 6, 7, 8: Edward James Olmos
- December 9, 10, 11: Lou Diamond Phillips
- December 12, 13: Dick Van Dyke
- December 14: Marcia Gay Harden
- December 15, 16: Patricia Heaton
- December 17, 18, 19: Molly Ringwald
- December 20: Dennis Haysbert
Main Street Station will have limited operation and alternate entrance/exit routes due to Candlelight
Nearby, the Main Street Opera House and Disney Gallery close will early due to Candlelight.
The Omnibus’ stop in Town Square has moved a bit, now closer to the front of the Opera House, due to Candlelight.
In Tomorrowland, Captain EO closes early for Candlelight staging.
Special Candlelight merchandise is available at select shops including Disney Showcase on Main Street and World of Disney in Downtown Disney.
Women’s top:
Sweatshirt and scarf
Ornament
Construction Kingdom |
At the end of Main Street, construction progresses at the upcoming Fantasy Faire princess meet-and-greet area.
The Fantasyland Theater continues to come along as well…
In Frontierland, some refurbishment work took place on the bridge in Big Thunder Trail over the week. Dateline Disneyland reader Jacob Genzuk snapped these shots of the work being done at night earlier in the week.
By the weekend, the bridge work was completed and the path was open to guests again.
Some nearby rock work is getting some TLC as well
| Welcome to California Adventure |
Over in Disney California Adventure, the holidays continue with no big news to report.
The Buena Vista Street Community Bell Ringers are really great
Awnings have been replaced at Elias and Co.
No more text on the awnings advertising the store having the “Widest Selection” or “Highest Quality”
A larger sign to draw people into the Santa meet-and-greet at Elias and Co. has been added
At Carthay Circle Restaurant, a Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs-themed gingerbread house has been added to the lobby.
It’s worth checking out.
In addition to the Carthay Circle Restaurant’s gingerbread house, Disney announced two other gingerbread creations last week including a gingerbread Mater at Flo’s V8 Cafe and a gingerbread house inspired by Walt Disney’s home at the Fiddler, Fifer and Practical Cafe, but neither of those were on display at their announced locations over the weekend.
The rain forced the Red Car News Boys and Five and Dime performances to be canceled over the weekend
The News Boys still made appearances, however, singing from a Red Car as it went down the trolley route
In A Bug’s Land, the lemonade stand in Flik’s Fun Fair has been removed.
 Give some Disney fun this year! The holidays are here again and what better gift to give this holiday season than Disney? Below is a list of some of the best books, movies and video game releases for the Disney fans on your shopping list. Everything from this year’s spectacular books including Poster Art of the Disney Parks and It’s Kind of a Cute Story, to the year’s biggest Disney blockbusters including Marvel’s The Avengers, Brave and Wreck-It Ralph; we’ve got you covered. So jump in and check off some names from your list with the Amazon links below! By buying through the Amazon links below you’ll also be helping support Dateline Disneyland so we can continue bringing Disneyland to you through 2013! Happy Holidays!
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In celebration of Dateline Disneyland’s 5th Anniversary, we’re taking a look back at photos from the Dateline Disneyland archives. Join us as we look back at some photos from past updates and talk about the changes seen at the Disneyland Resort over the last five years. It’s a fun look back at some big changes over the last half-decade.
This week we look back to October 18, 2010. Disneyland had just opened its new Tangled meet-and-greet in Fantasyland and huge changes were underway at Disney California Adventure.
Tangled wasn’t in theaters yet, but Rapunzel made a big first impression on Fantasyland with her hair wrapping around buildings. The hair is no longer there, but Rapunzel still meets guests in this location.
Rapunzel proved to be popular with long wait times that continue today.
Meanwhile, Duffy the Disney Bear sailed into Disney California Adventure, making less of an impact than Rapunzel.
At DCA, the main entrance murals were being removed.
Sunshine Plaza’s sun fountain was in the process of being removed…
Construction continued on the then-upcoming Little Mermaid dark ride
And nearby, Mullholland Madness had started its conversion into Goofy’s Sky School and the old Burger Invasion and Pizza Oom Mow Mow restaurants were being transformed into the fantastic new Paradise Garden area.
Not far from the Paradise Garden area, the Maliboomer was still in the process of being removed.
Meanwhile, the Cadillac Range in Cars Land was still just steel framework.
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| Weekly News & Information Round-Up | ||
| Weekly Theme Park Hours December 3 — 9, 2012 |
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| Disneyland Park | Disney California Adventure | |
| Monday-Wednesday: 9 am – 9 pm Thursday: 9 am – 10 pm Friday-Sunday: 8 am – 12 midnight |
Monday-Thursday: 9 am – 8 pm Friday-Saturday: 8 am – 11 pm Sunday: 8 am – 10 pm |
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visit the Disneyland.com Theme Park Calendar |
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4.6—9.4 out of 10 |
5.3—8.1 out of 10 |
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with 1 being the least crowded conditions and 10 being most crowded. For crowd predictions for the next 365 days, visit |
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A quick look at noteworthy Disney theme park headlines from around the web. |
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Alright, that wraps up this week’s edition of Dateline Disneyland! Thank you for reading and don’t forget to comment on today’s column for your chance to win some great prizes!
Don’t forget to discuss this week’s column in the comments section below! Your comment could win you a prize in our 5th Anniversary Giveaway Celebration! We’re only here because of your continued support. If you’ve enjoy Dateline Disneyland over the last five years, please consider helping us out by donating a buck or two so we can pay the bills and keep the updates coming! You can donate with a click of a button via PayPal — click here! For more Disneyland news, be sure to read MiceChat’s weekly In the Parks blog. And be sure to check out our sister blog, Dateline Disney World – a fantastic weekly photo blog covering Walt Disney World in Orlando, Florida! Thanks for reading. See you at Disneyland! |
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| FTC-Mandated Disclosure: Promotional consideration for this edition of Dateline Disneyland was provided by TouringPlans.com | Do More. Wait Less. and the Howard Johnson Plaza Hotel & Water Playground. |
December 4, 2012 at 9:16 pm
HAPPY 5th Anniversary Dateline Disneyland, Great update as well. Looking back in time I can still remeber those pictures when you first reported on them. I would just like to say Dateline has informed my family and I so much on current events and gave us so many helpful hints on our travels you all are all a blessing.
December 5, 2012 at 3:50 am
Great update as always.
December 5, 2012 at 6:45 am
Great update! Thank you
December 5, 2012 at 11:31 am
I have never noticed so much Candlelight merchandise before! But I love the coffee mugs.
I really enjoyed the look back in October 2010. I remember when they were building Ariel and totally missed the Tangled Meet and Greet.
There is a picture of the Mater Gingerbread in the DLR Holiday Treat photos thread. It looks amazing!
December 5, 2012 at 3:07 pm
Glad I could be helpful this week! Maybe I can do it again in the future.
December 5, 2012 at 3:25 pm
Thanks for the update folks! I always use one of your guys pics as my background on my computer. So every Monday I can’t to see what new pic is going up!
December 5, 2012 at 6:42 pm
Thanks for that Fabulous & Magical update!
December 5, 2012 at 8:31 pm
Can’t wait! We arrive on Dec 8 and get to spend a whole week!!!
December 5, 2012 at 10:22 pm
Thanks for bringing back the ability to click and enlarge the photos in the article. I missed that the last few updates.
December 6, 2012 at 7:57 am
I love Christmas time at Disneyland. So wish I was going this year! Great information as always, and I love the trip down memory lane! DCA is such a better park now. Still waiting to see Carsland, though.
December 6, 2012 at 2:10 pm
I can’t believe all the above photos are five years old! It really doesn’t seem like that long ago.
I was there Saturday-Wednesday and was lucky enough to get seats for the Sat. 7:30pm Candlelight and also the Sun. 7:30pm show, only to have both of them cancel after they had started. I was so glad that the performance that I had tickets for on Monday at 5:30pm wasn’t rained out and I got to see my very first complete Candlelight Processional with the man that I love the most, Kurt Russell, as the narrator. I ended up in the standby line for Tuesday’s 5:30pm performance and was lucky enough to get seats once again and saw another complete show with Kurt.
If anyone wants to see the Candlelight performances but doesn’t have a ticket, I highly recommend finding the standby line and waiting. There were empty seats each night.
But I wouldn’t think there will be any empty seats for Dick Van Dyke’s performance.
Looking forward to next week’s photos and report!
December 6, 2012 at 7:34 pm
Once again a great update. Thanks for all the hard work it brings a little bit of Disneyland to Boise, ID
Rikster
December 6, 2012 at 10:28 pm
Wonderful update! Thanks!
December 7, 2012 at 7:28 am
Amazing update! I’d love to see more of the Then And Now, even after the 5 year celebration is over!
December 7, 2012 at 8:57 am
Wish I was there. Thanks for the update.