Part 1

Being the Disney geek I am, I felt it was time for a visit to the undisputed best theme park in the nation.  Last time I attended the park, May 16th lots was happening in preparation for the upcoming Summer Nightastic promotion which began June 12th.  I was fortunate enough to view all the different shows involved with Summer Nightastic, each was as dazzling as the next.  In this three part journey lets take an adventure around the Magic Kingdom and it’s sister park Disney’s California Adventure.

My mom, friend and I arrived to the esplanade around 7:30ish and went into the California Adventure first.  The main goal of this night was to attend all the Nightastic shows in one night and first up was Disney’s Electrical Parade.  Little did we know, people were already lining up in heavy numbers an hour prior to the show.  Really I have never, ever, seen the park this crowded.

We walked over to Tower of Terror but it was closed so we got a performance of Turtle Talk with Crush.  Turtle Talk is a interactive animated character that can talk and respond to guest.  Crush can answer any (appropriate) question and gives you a turtle name (I am Jammin’ Justice).  This technology has made this attraction a hit with guest.

Then we headed to grab a spot for Disney’s Electrical Parade around 8:15 and waited half an hour for the parade to start.  But it was fine, we had a great view of Mickey’s Fun Wheel and it’s amazing Lightshow to keep us entertained the entire time.

The parade itself was amazing in all aspects.  I really enjoyed it and would love to see this parade stick around for many more generations to watch and daze into this Disney wonder.  I wish they would run it more often at Disney’s California Adventure, if marketed right, it might pack in guest at night more often.

Most of my pictures turned out bad so here are some of the ones that turned out okay.

As the other entertainment offerings around the park, Disney’s Electrical Parade was given a flurry of new updates for the summer promotion.  The new additions for the Summer Nightastic include:

  • The music was rerecorded with different sounds to create a higher pitch score.  This update was good at times but some of the float’s music was just awkward so I definitely prefer the original score.
  • A new Tinkerbell lead float that replaced the original Blue Fairy float.  This float looked great but I still wish the Blue Fairy was still in the parade.
  • Trails of Pixie Dust fly down all the major floats now just adding more magic to the parade.  Perhaps, the most subtle I thought all the pixie dust was done brilliantly and looked great!
  • The return of the long gone 7 Dwarfs mine.  This float is the exact same one that ran when this parade was in Disneyland more that a decade ago but I just thought the float was odd.  This one featured black cut outs to create the cavern effect and used lights to make the diamonds and crystals.  But this was the only use of cut outs in the entire parade so I just thought it was odd.
  • Also returning was the entire Pinocchio unit which consists of two floats and several actors.  This was my favorite addition because of the Donkey Boys.  Not only were they talented, they were amusing and hilarious.  They walked around and gave attitudes to different spectators and interacted with several guest.  Great addition

Unfortunately these additions at a cost; the Dumbo’s Circus unit, which consisted of multiple floats, was removed as was the Blue Fairy.  My mom also noted that there was a lot less Mice in the Cinderella unit then she remembered but this might just be bad memory on her part.

Overall, I love this parade and I can’t wait till it returns to the streets of Disneyland next year, if all goes according to the rumors.

This isn’t really a parade; it is more like a spectacular. Check it out:

After we watched theparade we darted, across the esplanade to Disneyland.  We walked in just as the fireworks were starting and got a great spot at the train station.  The fireworks were entitled Magical; featured only during the Summer Nightastic promotion.

The whole premise of the fireworks is the magic of different things and the movies they relate to.  Some of the movies that were included were Pinocchio, Mary Poppins, and Dumbo.  Dumbo actually flies over the castle as a giant puppet.  Unfortunately he didn’t come out during the fireworks, which was disappointing.

Overall the fireworks were good, but they weren’t nearly as good as the previous Remember Dreams Come True.  However, like almost everything Disney does, the music was great!  I loved the theme song.

Check it out:

Finally, we took the train over to New Orleans Square and got a great spot for Fantasmic! Created in 1992, this unique show is a combination of boats, performers, projections, and fireworks.

The new upgrades for Fantasmic! include:

  • Upgraded projectors that shoot high definition images on to large mist screens.
  • A new crocodile that snaps at Captain Hook and has a wide variety of motions.
  • The pinnacle of the entire Summer Nightastic campaign is the new, highly marketed Dragon that is of course, broken.  The dragon has yet to come out of the shadows creating a much milder show.

Fantasmic! still has probably my all time favorite musical score for anything Disney and the performance itself still shocks me.  I can’t say much other than it is an amazing experience that you have to be at to fully take in.

Check it out: