Random Ramblings Around The Parks - "Almost" Wordless Wednesday

We're back! Well, sort of. We won't be back to full speed for a couple of weeks yet, unfortunately. And we promise to let you guys know exactly what has been going on that's kept us away for so long, though we can't promise it's particularly enthralling.

In the meantime though, we did manage a recent trip into The Park for some photos we thought we could share today. We hope that you'll like them as much as we did taking them.

Enjoy!

You have to start your "Day" off right

Knowing who we get to draw ahead of time? Score!

It was unfortunately closed, and all we got was this pretty cool picture

With a cold beverage in hand, one of the best views in The Parks

Drink from the cup that is Jessica? #ThatAintRight

We think that Randall gets a bad rap. He cares!

She's waving directly at Chad. He just knows it!

Chicken Alfredo and "Remember..." at the Plaza Inn to end the day. Pretty much perfect in every way.

The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror - Nerd "D" Halloween Special

"You unlock this door with the key of imagination. Beyond it is another dimension: a dimension of sound, a dimension of sight, a dimension of mind. You're moving into a land of both shadow and substance, of things and ideas. You've just crossed over into the Twilight Zone." 

-Rod Serling

The sign says it all

Anyone that really knows me can tell you the "The Twilight Zone" is my absolute favorite television favorite show.  As such, it seemed only fitting to make it my topic for Nerd "D"'s first Halloween Special!

Quick History: The Twilight Zone was a half-hour, black and white show written by one Mr. Rod Serling, which aired on CBS from 1959 to 1964.  It usually dealt with human psychoses, showing how the human mind can freak out, and with good reason(!), at the simplest things. Things such as your daughter's Talking Tina (in "The Living Doll" episode), or believing that a mirror could show you your enemies ("The Mirror" episode), and sometimes even the occasional slot machine calling your name out over and over again ("The Fever" episode).  However, not everything was about the mind, as sometimes Mr. Serling used the supernatural to great effect.  From death to the devil himself, The Twilight Zone was well-known for its dark overtones.  There were, however, plenty of amusing episodes, including one featuring funny gal Carol Burnett.  In fact, watching the Twilight Zone is kind of like watching a "Who's Who?" of people who were very famous in early television!  My personal favorite episode, however, would have to be "The Obsolete Man" with Burgess Meredith.  I'm not gonna give anything away, but if you can get your hands on the episode I highly recommend it; the ending was amazing!

Rod Serling: It's sad to know that many people don't even know who Rod Serling is, at least by name. That's why I was excited to see how Disney California Adventure Park chose to represent him a lot on the Twilight Zone Tower of Terror attraction.  From having one of the original openings to the show, and hiring one of the best Serling impersonators there is to monologue the rest of the attraction, it's good to know that Disney worked so hard on getting the feel of an actual "Twilight Zone" episode into their attraction.  Rod Serling truly was a talented man with a passion for frightening the mind, and Disneyland did a terrific job in bringing that into the attraction.

Intimidating, ain't it?

Tower of Terror: The attraction first opened over at Walt Disney World in 1994, and ten years later one it was brought over to Disney California Adventure Park.  Since the one at DCA is the only one I've ridden, it seems only fair (and necessary) to talk about that one.  Let's start with the decor.  I love all the references to the televison show itself!  The thimble (from "The After Hours") in the lobby, the fortune teller machine (from "Nick of Time") in both libraries, and even Talking Tina herself (from "The Living Doll") sitting on the couch, and I know that there are so many references that I still haven't found!  The structure itself is pretty intimidating, as well.  Anytime you walk up to an attraction standing at 183 feet, and it looks like its been hit by lightning several times, well you get the idea.  This thing is meant to send chills down your spine, and it does its job well.  I've ridden it countless times, and Chad can tell you I still get nervous each and every time, but it's all worth it though, just to be part of the "The Twilight Zone" lore.

Some of that wonderful hotel interior we were talking about

Is "The Twilight Zone" Kid-friendly?: We think parental advisory is in effect on this one.  Depedning on the episode, it may not be a good idea to let your child watch this show, mostly because it takes a mature mind to understand it, especially when some of the episodes deal with fear and the supernatural.  That said, we've been watching it for years and nothing bad has come of it... *twitch-twitch*

Is the Twilight Zone Tower of Terror attraction for Kids?: I've seen this go both ways.  My niece has been wanting to ride it since she was three years old.  She's six now and a few months ago her dad, two other uncles, and myself took her on it, which turned out to be a huge mistake.  She was so terrified that when the ride was over the crying caught up to her, and didn't leave for a while.  I blame her dad completely on this fiasco.  On the other hand I've also ridden with it first timers, like Chad' son Michael, and they absolutely loved it and couldn't wait to hop back on for another ride.  A good gauge might be to look at how your child acts on other attractions around The Resort.  I think it's best to try out one the Mountains over at Disneyland Park first and see how they react.  I've heard of parents who wanna ride it so bad they don't tell their kid exactly what it is; a move we certainly don't condone.  Even we're not that cruel!  They just say,"It's Disney so it can't be scary."  Foolish mortals!  Like I said before it's a 183 foot building that looks like it's been struck by lightning multiple times, the interior is creepy, and your dealing with ghosts and some pretty good drops (not to mention entire cars of screaming patrons).  It's meant to be creepy, and it actually is creepy, so take that into consideration if you're trying to get your kids aboard.

This as you'll see behind you is a maintenance service elevator, still in operation, waiting for you and your crying children...

So now that I've shared my Twilight Zone interest with you, it's time that you share some with me!  Have you ever seen the show, and if so do you have a favorite episode?  I'd love to hear what it is!

And if you've ever ridden the ride, what did you think of it?  Well done?  Do you have a favorite picture pose to do at the end?

Send me your opinions of both!  I'd love to read and respond to what you have to say!  Thanks for stopping by today, and we hope that everyone has a very safe, and profitable (at least candy-wise) Halloween.  Happy Halloween everyone!

The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror - That's Where We Were (Again)!

Each and every Monday we challenge our readers to guess "where we are" 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.  This week was no different, and as usual we had lots of people participating and guessing with us.  And even though we tried to get tricky with this week's, we still had several correct guesses!

We don't often post back to back pictures from the same general location, and in fact this might be a first, but we went back to the well this week as our picture again came to us courtesy of the Twilight Zone Tower of Terror inside the Hollywood Pictures Backlot in Disney California Adventure Park:

We were just looking for the attraction that the picture was a part of, but for those who might have been wondering exactly where it was, this "pool" sign is located just as you exit the Hotel Gift Shop after you've exited the attraction itself.  It's on the right just as you come out so you can't miss it!

We deliberately got tricky with this one, and sure enough we had loads of guesses for either the Disneyland pool, or the Grand Californian pool.  Sorry to do that to you guys, but it was kind of fun at the same time!  Kudos to those who didn't bite and knew we were being tricky, but kudos to everyone who came by and took a guess too.  We love doing these things!

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:

• Monica from The Life of a Tree blog (blog)
• Malloryann (blog)
• LomographyLilly (Twitter)
• AbieCoop (Twitter)
• KatiePirateTink (Twitter)
• ChevyBurnz (Twitter)
• adisneymom (Twitter)

And there you have them - quite a few more than we thought we might get since we were being "tricksy", but you guys are awesome!  And thanks to everyone who took a shot at it.  Even if you're not right, everyone should take a guess; what have you got 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.

Where at the Disneyland Resort Are We? - Magical Mystery Mondays

Monday has long been one of our favorite days of the week because we get to to do something easy but fun; challenge with you a picture.  Each and every week we come across loads of spots we think would make great picture opportunities, and each and every week we challenge you, our readers, to attempt to guess where we were at the Disneyland Resort when we took our pictures.  Some are easy, some are hard, but we think it's a great way for us to get you involved and commenting on our blog, and people seem to enjoy doing it.

We came across this spot recently, and thought it would make a good addition to our collection of what we call our "guessing spots" around The Parks.  It's not too terribly difficult, so we're hoping for lots of correct guesses today!

So, do you know where we took this picture?

If you think you know where it is, let us know!  There are a few really easy ways to do so:

• Leave us a comment here! (probably the best way to do it) 
• Send us a Direct Message on our Twitter account @DaysInThePark 
• Drop us an email at daysinthepark@daysinthepark.com 

We try to keep your answers hidden as best that we can so that more people get a chance to guess, so if you'll help us along by submitting your answers "on the sly" we'd much appreciate it!  We like to keep it going as long as we can and give everyone a shot.  We'll be back tomorrow morning to post up all the people who guessed correctly and give you the exact spot where this was taken.

Have fun, don't take it too seriously, and let the guesses fly!

Days in the Park Week in Review (9/12 - 9/17)

We had a great week this week at Days in the Park.  We kept busy and had something new almost every day, which is always a good week for us!  And we double-posted a couple of times, so if you add them all up, we've already posted into next week!  Time for a recap!

On Monday, 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 came courtesy of the Twilight Zone Tower of Terror in the Hollywood Pictures Backlot in Disney California Adventure Park.  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!

Tuesday,we announced the winner in our first ever "Thank You" giveaway on our blog, as our reader Jeremy (Twitter @3DisKids) took home a great Disney prize-pack full of some awesome goodies

In this week's "Almost" Wordless Wednesday, we shared some random pictures from one of our last trips of the summer into the Disneyland Resort, and Mark met one of the most feared men in the galaxy which we just had to share

It was a Disney Flashback on Friday, as Halloween Time 2011 at Disneyland began with a look back at Halloween Time at Disneyland from 2010

And finally on Saturday, we celebrated our first "blogoversary" here at Days in the Park with a special "Thank You" from all of our writers

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We didn't mention it up top, but we also finally managed to record and get out Episode 8 of our "Days in the Parkcast" podcast!  We've been on kind of a break with that while we looked at our show and tried to work on some new segments, and we're pleased with the direction and how it went!  We think it will better reflect our blog now, albeit it in audio format.  And we're super stoked to finally have Amy on board and recording with us as she's transplanted her "Amy's Favorite Things" segments from here to the podcast.  If you haven't already, but you enjoy reading our blog, give our show a listen!  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 Halloween Time 2011 has officially begun at Disneyland!  We were in The Park last night to say that we officially rode both Space Mountain: Ghost Galaxy and Haunted Mansion Holiday, but that was really all we did.  We're looking forward to going back out many more times in the next month and a half, and will be sharing lots of information, and more importantly pictures, from our Halloween "days in the park" with you, our readers.  It should be a great season!

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

A Late Summer's Day at Disneyland - Almost Wordless Wednesday

We LOVE National Brown Fur Day (even though we've never heard of it before)!

It's Boardwalk Zza and Pas!

Fake games are why fake arcades were created. Pure awesome!

We knew that it was just a matter of time before The Empire invaded our turf

Mark looking ecstatic! Fett looking kind of bored...

Napping on the Mark Twain Riverboat

Ah... the perfect napping spot...

The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror - That's Where We Were!

Each and every Monday we challenge our readers to guess "where we are" based on a random picture taken somewhere at the Disneyland Resort.  This week was no different, and we had several guesses thrown our direction.  Last week, we had a few people tell us that our picture was too easy, prompting us to make this week's picture just a mite harder.  That said, we still had a few correct guesses.  You guys are amazing!

This week's picture came to us courtesy of the Twilight Zone Tower of Terror inside the Hollywood Pictures Backlot in Disney California Adventure Park:

As some correctly guessed, it's a picture of a pressure gauge that can be found inside the queue for the attraction.  As usual, we weren't too picky about the where, and we would have accepted anything having to do with The Tower at all; we're just nice like that.

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:

• DisneyDreamer02 (Twitter)
• Kendra Laroche (Facebook)
• Melanie (blog)
• ChevyBurnz (Twitter)
• Chachalina55 (Twitter)

And there you have them - not as many correct guesses as last week, but more than we thought we'd get!  Thanks to everyone who took a shot at it.  Almost everyone who did was right, so massive props for being willing to guess.  Even if you're not right, everyone should; what have you got 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.

Where at Disneyland Are We? - Magical Mystery Mondays

Monday has long been one of our favorite days of the week because we get to to do something easy but fun; challenge with you a picture.  Each and every week we come across hundreds of spots we think would make great picture opportunities, and each and every week we challenge you, our readers, to attempt to guess where we were in Disneyland when we took our pictures.  Some of them are easy, some of them are hard, but based on the number of people we have guessing on a weekly basis, people love playing guessing games and at least trying to participate.  It's a great way for us to get you involved and commenting on our blog more.

Last week's picture was apparently "too easy"; at least, that's what several people told us.  This week, we've tried to make it just a bit more difficult.  Most people may not have ever actually seen this spot, but we're thinking it might be one worth at least hazarding a guess at based on how it looks; we'll see how it goes.  And we're going on record right now as saying that we have absolutely no idea what "Gland Water" is, but if you do, we'd love to hear!

So, do you know where we took this picture?

If you think you know where it is, let us know!  There are a couple of really easy ways to do so:

• Leave us a comment here! (probably the best way to do it) 
• Send us a Direct Message on our Twitter account @DaysInThePark 
• Drop us an email at daysinthepark@daysinthepark.com 

We try to keep your answers hidden as best that we can so that more people get a chance to guess.  We like to keep it going as long as we can and give everyone a shot.

We'll be back tomorrow morning to post up all the people who guessed correctly and give you the exact spot where this was taken.  Have fun, don't take it too seriously, and let the guesses fly!

Days In The Parkcast Episode 4 - Pirates of the Temple of Terror

In this episode your intrepid Parkers spend some time discussing a recent trip into The Park where we met Jack Lindquist, participated in an AIDS Walk, became Galactic Heroes and took on one gnarly queue and a wily snake in a forbidden temple. Come join us!

Show Notes

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You can subscribe to our podcast through iTunes and listen, or subscribe to our podcast's RSS feed.  Alternately, feel free to listen to our "Parkcast" here or download the mp3 directly to listen.

Hope you enjoy!

The Friday Fast Pass: The Fastpass!

It's been a while since we did one of our Friday Fast Pass segments! We figured what better way to get back into the groove of offering up some Days In The Park tips than to focus on the very thing we took our segment's namesake from: the Park Fastpass.

What people did before the invention of the Fastpass system is beyond us! Well, we know they stood in line a lot more, but we're sure you get what we're trying to say. And when it comes to line bypassing, nobody does it better than Disney! You need only look to other theme parks and the example they set (charging you above and beyond your park admission for the privilege) to see just what a great thing The Parks have going for them here, and you'd do best to take advantage of it as often as you can.

If you're uninitiated into the world that is Fastpass still, it's really simple to explain. As mentioned before, it's basically a "line bypassing" system The Parks have implemented meant to save people time and cut down on long lines. You get it automatically with your Park admission ticket, so you don't have to do anything except go to the attraction you want and, if it has a Fastpass option available, get a Fastpass ticket to come back at a later time and ride (or see in the case of  World of Color) it without having to wait in the long lines to do it. The attractions that have Fastpass options have little ticket dispensing booths near the entrance and all you have to do is insert your Park ticket (or Annual Pass if you're a passholder) and it will spit out a ticket for you to bring back at a later time to enjoy your attraction. Easy enough, right?

Each of the two Parks has their own set of attractions that are "Fastpass enabled". They are:

Disneyland Park:

• Space Mountain
• Roger Rabbit's Cartoon Spin
• Autopia
• Indiana Jones Adventure
• Splash Mountain
• Big Thunder Mountain Railroad

Disney's California Adventure:

• Twilight Zone Tower of Terror
• Soarin' Over California
• Grizzly River Run
• California Screamin'
• World of Color

We also have reason to believe that they will be adding a Fastpass option to the new Star Tours: The Adventure Continues and The Little Mermaid: Ariel's Undersea Adventure in the future (having taken those from Buzz Lightyear Astro Blasters and we're still unsure about the ones that were at Mulholland Madness previously), but we guess that only time will tell.

So, do we actually use the Fastpass system ourselves? You bet we do! Over the years it's become an integral part of our Park excursions, and it's even more important for people who don't make it to The Parks as often to use this fantastic system.

With that in mind, we present our top 5 tips for using the Fastpass system in The Parks for maximum enjoyment!

1. Begin early! It just stands to reason logically that the earlier you get into The Park, and the earlier you begin racking up Fastpasses, the more you can get throughout the day (barring an attraction running out which does happen, especially with some of the more popular attractions like Space Mountain). You're allowed to get one Fastpass every hour (from when you got your last one - your Fastpass ticket will tell you on the front when you're eligible to get another) so do it! And although we tend to fly by the seat of our pants most days, when we do go to The Park with a mind to ride something, we occasionally do know which attractions we want to get Fastpasses for, and we make sure to move down the list and get our next as quickly as we possibly can so we get everything in before the end of the day. Starting early will help you do that.
2. Double the pleasure! Using the Fastpass system to your advantage you can almost get two rides for the price of one. Many times we'll get a Fastpass, sacrifice ourselves to the lines, and by the time we're done with the first ride, our Fastpasses are up and we can get right back on for a second go-around. It's a really great way to do rides like Space Mountain, Splash Mountain or the Tower of Terror if you've a mind to. And sometimes we've even been able to triple our pleasure! If you have members of your party who aren't riders, if they're willing, you can even borrow their tickets or passes to get extra Fastpasses and do it again! We don't do this one often but we have been known to from time to time.
3. Know what to use your Fastpasses for! In our experience, some of the attractions that have Fastpass options aren't necessarily the best ones to be using it on. The lines are usually pretty negligible and are fast moving so we don't like to use them there. Our suggestions would be Space Mountain, Splash Mountain and Indiana Jones Adventure at Disneyland Park, and Tower of Terror, Soarin' Over California and Grizzly River Run at Disney's California Adventure. These are the ones that typically have the longest lines during the busiest seasons which can run anywhere from 1 1/2 to 2 hours. 
4. You can go past your time on your Fastpass ticket to ride. Each Fastpass ticket has a return time on it ("Return Anytime Between 9:30 and 10:30AM for example). For the longest time we thought it was a rule that must strictly be adhered to, but that's not the case. You can go ride anytime after that. We'll never forget when our friends found out that we didn't know this. Their laughter and mockery are still ringing in our ears. We still try to get back to the attraction as quickly as we can, but it's nice to know that if we miss our time for some reason (such as standing in another line) that we can still use our Fastpasses anytime we want.
5. And lastly, pay the kindness forward! We can't count the number of times we've been moving about The Parks, and a family or something has come up to us and offered us their unused Fastpasses. We make it a point (the passes in the picture at the top of this article notwithstanding) that if we have Fastpasses on us that are unused to do our best to give it to another group or family that might be able to use them. If you're not going to use them, do your best to pass them on and make someone else's day just a little more magical. Isn't that what it's all about?

So there you have it: our Days In The Park tips for this week all about the Park Fastpass system. We know that a lot of people already know about this stuff, but you never know when it might come in handy, or when one of our tips might be something even users might not have thought of before.

Do you have any tips of your own concerning Fastpasses? Let us know and we'll do a follow-up article soon and include them. 

Now get out there and ride it up!

Magical Mystery Mondays! - Where Are We?

A few weeks ago we started up a new segment that at the time we called, "Where Can You Find?", where we wanted to post pictures of (perhaps) hard to find spots around The Parks and challenge our readers to tell us where the picture was taken.  It seemed to go over pretty well (we had quite a few responses) and wanted to continue to do it, but we never really liked the name, and we did in fact ask for suggestions from you guys on what we should call it.

We did hear back from several people (and we liked all of your suggestions) but we ultimately went with one submitted by our friend Bruce over at Unknown Magic Within Walt Disney World, who suggested we entitle our new segments, "Magical Mystery Mondays".  We like it!  Sounds very Park-ish with "Magical" in it, and "Magical Mystery" reminds us of "The Beatles".  So we'll take it.  Thanks, Bruce!

With that out of the way, we present this week's "Magical Mystery Mondays!" brain-teaser.

We rated the last one we did a couple of weeks ago a "3" on a scale of 1 to 10 (in difficulty), but we're hoping that this one will present just a bit more of a challenge.  And God help us if this is in more than one area of The Park.  We think this one should pose something along a 6 or 7 in difficulty (we genuinely tried not to make it too easy), but again, who knows?  You guys just may surprise us!  

We'll be back tomorrow morning to let you know just where it is.  In the meantime, feel free to let us know where you think it is via Twitter, or leave us a comment here.  We'll be sure to read them in either place.

Enjoy!

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Well, another "Magical Mystery Monday" has come and gone!  We had several people contact us through the website here, Twitter and Facebook and out of the dozen or so guesses that we had only Rosemary (one of our friends from FindingMickey.com) really knew where it was.

The fact that it was a steam gauge did exactly what we intended it to do; it threw people off (though we didn't do it in a mean way, we promise!).  We primarily saw guesses from what you would think the primary culprits would be:  the Mark Twain Riverboat or the Disneyland Railroad, but neither are right.  In point of fact, this particular steam gauge is found in Disney California Adventure, in the Hollywood Pictures Backlot, inside the queue for the Twilight Zone Tower of Terror.  Pretty tricksy of us, huh?

As you go through the queue and make your way through the lobby, and past the little room where you watch the pre-ride video, this particular gauge is one of many on a whole bank of gauges and valves you pass (on your right) on the lower level of the basement/boiler room before you board your elevators.  Once you know they're there, it's almost impossible to miss them.

Again, it might seem a little bit underhanded to choose this particular one, but we loved it because we felt like it was a shining example of attention to detail.  Most people probably never even thought of the Tower as a possibility, and yet once you know where it is it makes perfect sense.  The Tower of Terror is one of our favorite attractions in either Park, and one of the reasons it is, is not just because it's an awesome ride in and of itself, but because it is decorated and presented so well.  Everything from the lobby to the boiler room is amazingly well done, and really lends to the illusion that you're in a very old, very dilapidated, and very haunted hotel.  Even if you don't ever intend on riding the attraction itself, it might be a fun thing to just go through the line so you can see all of the decoration and atmosphere inside for yourself.  They'll let you bail at the end if you really want to (we've seen Cast Members let people do this).

And there you have it.  This week's mystery spot!  We'll be back next week with another; one that is probably just a tad easier, but we'll see.

Thanks to everyone who participated and sent in their guesses.  Hope you'll do the same next week!

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The Tuesday Toss-Up: Children At Play

Here at Days In The Park, we firmly believe in the old adage that there's a child inside each and every one of us trying to get out.  Our problem isn't letting the kid out, it's getting him (or her) back inside!

We spent some time over the weekend just playing at and enjoying Disney California Adventure (some place we haven't spent a lot of time in as of late) before heading over to Disneyland Park to close out our night.  This is some of the randomness that transpired in picture form.

Enjoy!

"Oh dear God, what is that flashing light?!" *insert screams here*

Ah, good times aboard our favorite maintenance service elevator.  Sarah from Magical Days With The Mouse (2nd row, middle right) looks rather bored with the paranormal shenanigans, Jen Tucker from Overheard at Disneyland (2nd row, far right) is holding on as we prepare to drop (what? holding on?!), and Days In The Park (back row, right) looks absolutely petrified.  When can we ride again?!

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We spent some time hanging around Flynn's Arcade and the End Of Line Club in the Hollywood Backlot around the time that ElecTRONica got started.  It's been a while since we've been back here, and it was good to hear the techno music hasn't gotten any quieter in our absence.  Maybe next time we'll enjoy a tasty beverage with one of those little flashy ice-cube thingies they include.

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Oh so pink

One of Chad's favorite segments of the entire show.  Just don't tell anyone.

"The seaweed is always greenah..."

California Screamin' looked absolutely awesome

"Light Cycles In The Mist"

It had been quite some time since we had actually seen World Of Color.  Not sure about Amy, but Mark had only seen the show once before (right after it opened) and Chad hadn't seen it since September.  On a whim (and a quick tweet or two) our site, Magical Days With The Mouse, and FindingMickey.com got our FastPasses Sunday afternoon for the 9:15 show.  It was every bit as gorgeous and amazing as we remembered it.  The new TRON bits didn't hurt one bit, either.  These are just a few of the dozens of shots we all snapped off between us, and some of our site's personal favorites from the evening.

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On tonight's episode of "Nights In The Park", "When Twinkling Lights Fail!"

And lastly, an entirely new attraction in the Park that we had never seen before.  You just never know what these wonderful Imagineers are going to come up with.  Slipped it in right under our noses, they did!  It did remind us an awful lot of Space Mountain, though.

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KILT (Karacters I Love Thursdays): Chip & Dale!

Mark's been talking about getting his picture taken with Chip & Dale (together!) for quite some time.  It didn't help matters at all, or help calm him down, when Chad kept telling him about the number of times he had taken pictures of Chip & Dale together.

A dream came true during an end of the summer trip when he walked out of the Twilight Zone Tower of Terror and saw both of his favorite chipmunks hanging around outside the store as you exit the attraction.

Mark (L) and Bryce (R) palling around with Chip & Dale

Next week, a villain!

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Days In The Park Takes The Happiest Haunts Tour

An Introduction:
For a couple of years here at Days In The Park, we've been dying (pun totally intended) to take Disneyland Resort's Halloween Tour, aptly named the 'Happiest Haunts Tour'.  

We'd been hearing about the various tours that were available at The Park, and we had long since decided we wanted this one to be our first, but due to, ahem, monetary issues we just hadn't gotten around to it.  We spent all of the last year talking about it, and as time came near this year, we just didn't think it was going to happen, again.  However, thanks to some serious persuasion on Chad's part, and a loan given to Mark to ensure it happened, October 14th at 5:05pm rolled around with both of us there and accounted for on the tour.  

So without further ado...

The Tour:
Offered as one of many different tours at the Disneyland Resort, Disneyland's 'Happiest Haunts Tour' is a roughly 3-hour trek across areas of both Parks (Disneyland and California Adventure) intended to give you a behind the scenes sneak-peek at some of the most "haunted" areas around The Resort, as well as giving you some information on the various stories and Halloween lore these areas around The Park represent.

Unlike many of the tours offered, the Happiest Haunts Tour begins cutting its swathe across The Parks in Disney's California Adventure, next to the Twilight Zone Tower of Terror.  We must say, the tour seemed very well organized. Aside from a few technical issues with some equipment (mostly battery malfunction), the setting up and getting under way was as smooth as silk considering there were two different groups (roughly 20 people each) leaving simultaneously.  

Our tour guide Adolfo made sure we were all set up with our gear:  headphones (the guides use a closed mic so others around in The Park can't really eavesdrop too much) and flashing "rave" necklaces (so they could keep up with us and we could keep up with our groups, and so we could all blind each other on the dark rides).  Once we were all set (feeling like a bunch of pack-mules I'm sure) our wily guide let us know we would be visiting some "club" at the top of the Tower for further instructions on where our evening would be taking us.  Floundering completely in the dark there, and not knowing what on earth the "club" Adolfo was talking about could possibly be, we foolishly followed our host into the Tower of Terror building, where we were hustled into the waiting service elevators (completely against our wills, I might add), and given the ride of our lives.

The poor girl in the back looks terrified!  *snicker*

Of interesting note, once we arrived back at ground level from the "club", some nefarious Halloween Spirit had taken away our guide Adolfo and replaced him with this guy, Master Gracey.

Over the course of the next three hours, Master Gracey led us on a romp all over the Disneyland Resort, hitting the high spots of the Halloween Time celebration.  

In all seriousness, though, Master Gracey (as I'm sure the other guides are taught to do) totally made the tour what it was for us.  He was perfect. Whether he was accusing Mark of hoarding candy corn in his pockets and bringing it into The Parks, or whether he was deadpanning cracks about the children in The Parks "actually being goblins" or "that horrible winter holiday" that "disgusted" him so, the guide really makes the tour on this one, folks.  We couldn't have had a better one.  

Master Gracey led us all over The Park:  

1. Main Street, USA
2. the Jack o' Lanterns in Central Plaza
3. Tomorrowland and Space Mountain Ghost Galaxy 
4. Fantasyland and Snow White's Scary Adventures 
5. Frontierland along with Big Thunder Ranch & Zocalo Ranch and Big Thunder Mountain

And he did so all the while telling tales around the various parts of The Park. We won't give them all away, but some of our favorites included a tale of lost love with the ghost from Ghost Galaxy, a truly terrifying tale of a yeti and his horrible singing voice, The Legend of Sleepy Hollow and Ichabod Crane,  and the Tommyknockers who inhabit the mines of Big Thunder Mountain.  We also really enjoyed spending some time in Zocalo Ranch in Frontierland, learning more about Dia de los Muertos and other Mexican celebrations.

The Halloween Tree in Frontierland, which Master Gracey hopes one day replaces the "disgusting winter holiday tree" in each of our homes

After your brisk, and it is fairly brisk, walk around Disneyland Park the tour finally ends up just where it should outside of the spookiest locale of all, The Haunted Mansion.  Amazingly enough, at this point our original guide Adolfo reappeared (Master Gracey disappeared without a word or trace) for our final ride of the evening through Haunted Mansion Holiday.  And that's where our tale of the tour ends, and yours begins, should you wish to participate yourself.

Two of the biggest selling points, at least for us, of the whole tour was the fact that you get to see all of the best that Halloween Time has to offer, as well as riding all of the attractions Disneyland is known for during the holiday, all in one shot.  Seriously, who wouldn't want to see all of these places as well as getting basically a front-row pass to these classic Disney Halloween attractions?  You can't help but feel good when you're ushered straight to the front of the line to ride them.

And lastly, though it might seem a bit greedy, we enjoy free things (who doesn't?).  And like so many of the other special things that Disneyland offers, you don't go home from your tour empty-handed.  The rave necklace?  Yours to keep.  The special Happiest Haunts Tour Key on the end of said necklace (which you can only get on the tour)?  Yours to keep.  And they even do your sweet-tooth a tremendous favor with a yummy rice krispy treat shaped like everyone's favorite mouse.

The boy just couldn't resist showing off his goodies

Do you enjoy Halloween?  Good.  Do you enjoy Disneyland?  Great!  Then you owe it to yourself, if you can, to take this tour.  It really does enable you to gain a different, and really neat, perspective of what goes into making Halloween Time at the Disneyland Resort what it is.  It comes highly recommended!

If you'd like more information about this, or any of the other Disneyland tours, you can get more information about their full line of tours at the Disneyland website or contact them directly at (714) 781-4400.

Note:
We'd be completely remiss if we didn't give a special mention to that "strange couple" you see in many of our photos.  

Through blogging, and our love of Hidden Mickeys, we met Rosemary and Neil from FindingMickey.com and have kept pretty steady contact with them ever since.  When we mentioned to Rosemary we were planning on doing the tour, and on a whim invited them to join us on the same evening, imagine our stupification when they accepted.

One of the awesome things about blogging is making new friends, and in particular new Disney friends.  It was great to spend a few hours getting to know and hang out with them, and we all had a great time doing it.  

Be sure to check out their website when you have a minute, and be sure to follow them on Twitter (@findingmickey).

That "strange couple" from FindingMickey.com

Getting ready for Tower of Terror with FindingMickey.com

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