11/28: Castle Walkthrough reopens, Pardoned turkeys, Holiday roundup, +MORE!

WELCOME TO DISNEYLAND!
With the holidays in full swing now at the Resort, the billboards at the Mickey & Friends Parking Structure have been swapped out along with the banners in Downtown Disney.




The AP billboard at the security checkpoint has gotten an AP ad to match the holiday marketing campaign.



New park maps


The inside flap of the map lists the major holiday attractions at Disneyland (nothing is going on at California Adventure) and teases the Sleeping Beauty Castle Walkthrough.



It's definitely the holidays inside Disneyland.







The Sleeping Beauty's Winter Castle overlay has gotten plussed this year, with new "ice" finials, and an extended lighting package on the back of the Castle.


Last year, the back of the Castle looked incomplete and the missing areas of snow and lights broke any effective illusion of magical snowfall that Disney was attempting to create. The new snowdrifts on the back of the Castle and the extended lighting effects really make the overall product work better. Hopefully next year a better solution for the icicles can be implemented, but until then kudos to Disney for fixing up the back of the Castle!




WALKING THROUGH
A LOOK AT THE SLEEPING BEAUTY CASTLE WALKTHROUGH
Speaking of the Castle, after being closed for seven years, the Sleeping Beauty Castle Walkthrough reopened Wednesday evening at around 5:30 p.m. Imagineers including Tony Baxter could be seen in the area for a while after opening as Disneyland fans in the know lined up for hours ahead of time for the A-Ticket attraction's re-opening.














The heap of spinning wheels smolders and burns in the distance.


















The three fairies can be seen putting out the candles in the great hall.








The Corridor of Goons is a dark, narrow hallway of doors. A couple of them have windows that feature touch-sensitive interactive effects similar in idea to the ones in Dead Man's Grotto on Tom Sawyer Island.




The demons fly up from the Castle in an ominous swirl of clouds as Maleficent happily looks on.



Countless spinning wheels fly around a seemingly endless corridor. In photos, the wheels are moving so fast that they appear only as blurs.





The final battle scene between Maleficent and Prince Philip is pretty spectacular. The animated transformation of Maleficent into the dragon is one of the coolest special effects I've seen from Disneyland in recent years.


The animation in this scene is spectacular; these photos really don't do it justice. You have to see it for yourself.




An excellent finale.


After the battle, the Prince wakes Princess Aurora with true love's kiss, and then guests go down the final flight of stairs.








Next to the Walkthrough exit, in the former Three Fairies Magic Crystals Shop is the Accessible Experience where guests unable or unwilling to navigate the narrow passages and stairs of the traditional walkthrough can watch the CGI Walkthrough bonus feature from the Sleeping Beauty 50th Anniversary Platinum Edition DVD. The CGI Walkthrough is presented on a large, high-definition television.


Be aware that the a couple scenes in the Accessible Experience do differ from the actual walkthrough attraction.






All-in-all, the Walkthrough is a tremendous achievement in classic Disney artistry and showmanship. It's a great experience, especially for Disneyland geeks. The lighting, sound, and visuals are all perfect and the special effects woven throughout are subtle, but dripping with Disney magic. Kudos to everybody at Imagineering who was involved in the project - it's a beautiful job well done.

As for the Accessible Experience, I highly recommend going through the Castle if you can. Experiencing it in person cannot be beat, however, I do warn that if you are wary of narrow spaces and/or are affected by the heat in small spaces, then you may want to wait until crowds die down for this attraction and there's more room to breathe with less people going through. It can get warm in the walkthrough, as many experienced in the cool fall temperatures when the attraction opened Wednesday night.


HAPPIEST TURKEYS ON EARTH
The National Thanksgiving Turkeys, Pumpkin and Pecan, pardoned by President Bush this week flew first class to Disneyland and will now call Big Thunder Ranch home for the rest of their lives. You can read the press release here.







SNOW SHOW
The "Wintertime Enchantment" snow lighting effects have extended down Main Street to the Christmas tree this year. Thousands of LED lights light up the trees in the Central Plaza, the garlands down Main Street, and Christmas tree.


The bigger and better lighting show is pretty remarkable. It's a great effect and the "Wintertime Enchantment" offering with the Castle snow and lighting is really nicely improved from last year with the inclusion of the hub and Main Street in the show.







HOLIDAY TREATS
All of the regular holiday treats are back at the Blue Ribbon Bakery and Baker's Field Bakery...













And the Gibson Girl Ice Cream Parlor and Bur-r-r Bank Ice Cream have special Peppermint Stick ice cream available.



HOLIDAY ROUND-UP
And a look at some of the Resort's holiday festivities...

The Dapper Dans are sporting their Christmas costumes.


Santa is working at the popcorn machine in the hub.




The Christmas tree in Town Square has lots of new lights so the nightly "snow" lighting effects can be achieved.







Santa's Reindeer Roundup in Frontierland is back







Critter Country is dressed up for Christmas, too.




Critter Country doesn't have the holiday garlands strung up in the sky with balloons above the Winnie the Pooh meet-and-greet this year.



Over at DCA, Santa's Beach Blast is nowhere to be seen this year.




Flik's Fun Fair has its giant Christmas lights and ornaments




The Christmas tree in Golden State Park is up...


But the nearby San Francisco Street wasn't decorated this year.