[12-27, 12-31] HighLeveller Has a Big DL New-Year's Adventure - 2 TRs!

[HighLeveller]

[Quick Link to Part 2]


DLR: Dec. 27, 2008

I normally don't want to visit on Saturday. But I had disassembled my transportation to do some repairs, and wanted to get in at least one more Christmas-time visit while I had a rental, in case I wasn't able to complete the repairs in time.

First off, a quick thing. This, from June 1st
7: Get a picture with **********
Status: Failed
I'm officially calling this off, now that I really don't see it happening. But it was nothing big.

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Today was level 5 on the 1-to-5 busy-ness scale I recently devised; capacity was probably reached for a while later in the day. Getting there around 11am, there were loads of people in line to buy tickets, but it was light at the turnstiles. It was a good crowd today, which seems to be the usual case around Christmas time. The day's only real drawback was long waits.



In line for Buzz, a little backstage peek. (Buzz, round 1 of 3: 606.6k/23rd)

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"it's a small world" Holiday
I took approximately a bajillion pictures in here today (344 actually), mainly for reference purposes. Some (mostly) non-repeats:

Another costuming favorite of mine









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"A Christmnas Fantasy" Parade

Before the parades, lots of Tournament of Roses logos were to be seen. All these bands were way cool, and it wouldn't be the last time I'd see them during this adventure...

Lighting was a bit harsh due to shadows from the Main Street buildings. So here's the better ones.























Delusions of grandeur?



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New Orleans Square

Some familiar-looking costuming...



(A ride on Pirates took place around now, if you're wondering about the abrupt change from afternoon to evening)





Oh so inviting...








The light show was--finally--in proper form and showing every fifteen minutes! (Check out the projection on the far right: the red component is out.)





I planned to forgo Parade 2 for ride-time and dinner-time, figuring the draw of the parade would lessen wait times. I wanted to go to Rancho del Zocalo. When I did, all the members of one of the marching bands were in line! (They made a decent choice IMO.) I'll wait a bit--off for some tea instead.










After this, back to Rancho del Zocalo where it was pleasantly uncrowded.

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Haunted Mansion Holiday















I don't recall seeing these popups before. Maybe just didn't pay much attention to them if they were always there.

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Fixed, finally.


A 1/4-second shot--handheld



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Buzz Lightyear was running very nicely finally, but bad guns were a consistent problem today, along with a couple dead targets I rely on. I had a dismal round--would the top-100 streak I've had since August be continued?


Once again, just barely! (I thought this streak was since June, but my last game on 6-25 wasn't top-100. Everything beginning Aug 18 was.)

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"Believe...in Holiday Magic"
Believe, yes; see, not this time. I was on the Matterhorn around start time, and heard some music playing but never saw any pyro. Heading toward IASW to presumably watch from there, the snowfall was in progress: the fireworks had obviously been called off. Must've been windy higher up.




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IASW, round 2:








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Fantasmic!









Check out all the refractive distortion from the heat.


Mickey has a new magic wand that's only visible in wavelengths my digicam doesn't see. But it works just the same!

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When the blasted, well, blaster doesn't work, try the other side. (That one wasn't so hot either.)



A couple more from Small World: round 3 of 3; final ride of the night.




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That's all for today. I had a gift card burning a hole in my pocket (and scorching my AP while it was at it). I also went to City Hall for probably the first time ever. Why? To send out a thank-you for getting the IASW light show fixed.

Goodnight.

PS: Shortly after this visit I did complete the repairs (the transportation transports like a champ now), which meant the New-Year's-Eve visit I was considering would be a go for sure.

Coming up: that New-Year's visit! Featuring many, many pictures including Fog-tasmic!, more Small World, a Space Mountain 101, some astronomy, fogginess around the park, a bad hangover, and more! I'm gonna pull a Dan here and wait until there's at least 15 posts so part 2 will be on the next page (for the forum default of 15 posts/page). For me at least (firefox) if there's too many pictures on one page these big gray areas start showing up; probably a memory limitation.

[caesarboxfan]

Nice TR so far!

Originally Posted by HighLeveller

[size=4]For me at least (firefox) if there's too many pictures on one page these big gray areas start showing up; probably a memory limitation.

That's what's been going on! Makes sense now.

[RPDigger]

Nice TR so far....and now only 14 more posts to go before we get to see part 2!

[HighLeveller]

Thanks. If you ever have problems with too-long pages, you can click on the number where it says "#1 (permalink)", etc on the red bar of any post to see the post by itself.

This'll make it 13. I still gotta finish choosing pictures and writing it up, as well as Part 3 which will be elsewhere on the site. ETA late Sunday night probably.

[Dan - Tasmic!]

The pictures are awesome. Thanks for sharing! Great job!

Originally Posted by HighLeveller

I'm gonna pull a Dan here and wait until there's at least 15 posts so part 2 will be on the next page (for the forum default of 15 posts/page). For me at least (firefox) if there's too many pictures on one page these big gray areas start showing up; probably a memory limitation.

So, THAT'S what you call it!!! LOL

[WheresMickey]

Nice report so far!

[Luke Manning]

The light show was--finally--in proper form and showing every fifteen minutes! (Check out the projection on the far right: the red component is out.)

Too bad the holiday season is pretty much over now that they've finally got it going regularly!

[Sir Didymus]

I don't know what everyone's been talking about the projection show not working properly, but every time I've visited this season, it went off without a hitch every time I was expecting it. The thing that was having lots of issues this year was the actual lights on the facade. Whenever they would pop back on at the end, there would always be at least one section that remained dark, sometimes even the entire clock tower!

Awesome Trip Report, by the way!

[SplashMoun10]

I am very surprised at how much less boring IASW got. Their was so much stuff packed into the rooms that I had little time to look at everything. Bravo. And bravo on the trip report + photos HIghLeveller

[royaldisneyfan]

Great TR so far. Keep them comin!

[aashee]

Nice Pix HL!

[Micoofy Duck]

Happy New Year Trip Report! Thanks again for taking the time to share your park experience

[DisneyGal]

I always like seeing the night shots. Well done.

[mousechild]

Well Done HL.

[HighLeveller]

All right, I'm back, after some delays (fatigue, a short power outage, perfectionism...)

Thanks a bunch for the feedback everyone

Originally Posted by Dan - Tasmic!

So, THAT'S what you call it!!! LOL

Just started to actually--seemed convenient

Originally Posted by Sir Didymus

I don't know what everyone's been talking about the projection show not working properly, but every time I've visited this season, it went off without a hitch every time I was expecting it. The thing that was having lots of issues this year was the actual lights on the facade. Whenever they would pop back on at the end, there would always be at least one section that remained dark, sometimes even the entire clock tower!

Maybe I'd just gone on the wrong days. Previous time was the 7th and I didn't see it at all, but one time did see some of the lights out like you mentioned, suggesting it had run shortly before then.

Part 2 is about to go live...