Days in the Park Week in Review (12/5 - 12/10)

It was a fun week at Days in the Park.  Technical problems made it impossible to do an article every day like we would have liked, but sometimes that's just the way that particular ball bounces.  If it didn't exist, we couldn't blog.  But it does exist, so it seems like half the time it doesn't work.  Go figure...  Time for a recap!

On Monday and Tuesday, we challenged you with our weekly "Magical Mystery Mondays" to guess where in The Parks we were when we took a particular picture.  This week's was very special because Monday was what would have been Walt Disney's 110th birthday.  As we shouldn't have to note at this point, without Walt's vision and his willingness to dream, none of this would be possible, and we certainly wouldn't be here blogging about it  Monday's picture was in his honor.  We have a lot of fun with these every week, so make sure you stop by each and every Monday to participate with us.  Guess correctly, and you'll find your name posted on our blog come Tuesday morning!

In this week's "Almost" Wordless Wednesday, we took readers along with us through one of our favorite attractions, and buildings, in Disneyland on a little tour of Disneyland history in the Disneyland Opera House

On Thursday, we released another episode of our Disneyland podcast, the Days in the ParkCast.  This week's episode was one of our shorter, mini-episodes known as our "Banzai!" podcasts.  In it, we discuss Mickey's Halloween Party (which we attended in October) and give you our thoughts about this one-of-a-kind annual event; what we experienced, and what you can expect to experience should you attend.  It was a lot of fun to talk about, and a lot of fun to listen to we think.  Come on by and give us a listen!

And finally on Friday, Chad hopped back on board for his monthly ride around the blogging world aboard the Magical Blogorail Blue Line.  This month, we're talking the #1 Disney experience we've yet to experience but would love to do one day.  Chad's choice?  Walt Disney's apartment, of course!  So come on by, read what he had to say on the matter, and then check out all of the other wonderful writers along the rail and see what they chose as their #1 Disney experience wish.

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We didn't get to do as much as wanted this week, but we're really proud of everything that we did!  Walt Disney's birthday is very important to us, for obvious reasons, and we think it made an excellent choice for our Monday guessing game, and it segued perfectly into our "Almost" Wordless Wednesday.  We've also been working really hard on our podcast over the past few weeks, and there are two new episodes out for our listeners.  These are so much fun for us to do, and we hope that people enjoy them as much as we enjoy doing them.  It's so much fun to just grab a mic and start blathering away about something that we love so much.  If you haven't taken the time to listen in it, we'd love to have you give us a try!  You can listen to, or download, our show on our "Parkcast" website: http://www.daysintheparkcast.com, or you can subscribe to our show and listen to us in iTunes.  Give us a listen and let us know what you think!  And on Friday, what's better than a Blogorail article?  We have so many wonderful Disney bloggers on each and every one of the Blogorail loops; why don't you check them out?  If you're here, you obviously love Disney and there are some fantastic ones there.  We encourage you to check them all out!

The Holidays are in full-swing at the Disneyland Resort, and so are we!  We can't wait to head out this weekend and score an entire new plethora of pictures and information for our readers.  It's something we love doing, and we hope that it enables you to come along with us during our Days and enjoy Disneyland right alongside us.  That's what we try to do, and we hope we're successful to at least some degree.

Thanks so much for stopping by!  It's going to be a great week, so come on back.  We love having you around!

The Disneyland Opera House - Almost Wordless Wednesday

Since the Disneyland Opera House was featured in our blog on Monday for our "Where Are We?" article this week, we decided to ride this horse just a little bit longer and keep the theme going for our "Almost" Wordless Wednesday this week.  We spent a lot of time in front of the building waiting for the Disneyland Candlelight Processional this past weekend, so it's fresh in our minds and ready to go!

One of the best things about the Opera House is that it not only holds the Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln attraction inside, which is one of our very favorites attractions at Disneyland, but it also is a bit of mini-Disneyland museum, with oodles of old Disneyland, and Walt Disney, paraphernalia.  So not only do you get to get see a great show about one of America's greatest presidents, but you also get to learn a lot about the history of Disneyland as well!  You just can't beat that!

So we're including some of our favorite photos from around the Opera House today.  The next time you're at Disneyland, if you haven't already, or heck even if you have already, take a look around inside for yourselves, and let us know what you like about the Disneyland Opera House.

The entrance to the Disneyland Opera House on Main Street U.S.A.

Walt's bench from Griffith Park (Los Angeles) where he once sat dreaming of Disneyland

Disneyland as it was when Walt Disney opened it in 1955

We LOVE this diorama of Disneyland's Sleeping Beauty Castle

There's always loads of Disneyland history and memorabilia to see here

Early Disneyland ticket books - Yes, once upon a time you needed TICKETS to ride all of the attractions

Absolutely AMAZING portrait of Abraham Lincoln - Great Moments With Mr. Lincoln

The Disneyland Opera House at night. Beautiful!

The Disneyland Opera House - That's Where We Were!

Each and every Monday we write a post, we like to play a little game.  We challenge our readers to guess "Where Are We?" based on a random picture taken somewhere at the Disneyland Resort.  We thrive on challenging, so the pictures can be anywhere at The Resort: Disneyland Park, Disney California Adventure Park, or Downtown Disney and the hotels.

Yesterday was a very special day in Disney history, as we celebrated Walt Disney's birthday; what would have been his 110th.  As such, we used one of his portraits from Disneyland as our inspiration for yesterday's game.  It must have been harder than we had anticipated (though we were sure we had served up a juicy softball to our readers), because we only had a couple of guesses; but both were right!

This week's photo challenge spot can be found inside Disneyland Park, on Main Street U.S.A., just as you enter The Park inside the Disney Opera House, where the Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln attraction resides:

This particular portrait of Walt Disney is arguably one of the most iconic, and certainly one of our favorites, ones ever taken of Walt Disney.  The image of Walt strolling through the gates of Sleeping Beauty Castle after Disneyland had been built is one that even when you're not actually looking at the portrait, you can still see it easily in your mind and know exactly what it looks like.  Every time we walk through the gates in this direction, into Fantasyland, we're reminded of this portrait and the knowledge that we're walking exactly, spot for spot, where Walt Disney himself did once upon a time; too amazing!

As always, we like to give a shout-out to everyone who came by and guessed, so here they in order of guess and by Twitter (or commenter) name:

• ChristinaShaw76
• Chilebob

And there you have it, our two correct guessers for this week!  Thanks to everyone who took a shot at it.  Even if you're not right, everyone should take a guess; you've got nothing to lose!

We'll be back next week with another brand-new spot for our readers to take a crack at!  In the meantime, if you have any suggestions for a spot you'd like for us to do, or a picture of your own that you would like to submit for us to use, drop us a line at daysinthepark@daysinthepark.com.  We love having reader submissions and would love to take a look at whatever spots you might have that you'd like to see here.

Until next week, keep those peepers open and be sure and take in all of the little details all over Disneyland; you never know what little details you might see that you never have before.