Last week was full of joy and sudden moisture as heavy rains fell on Southern California. The two big questions running through the minds of Disneyland fans were “who will be the Candlelight Narrator” and “will Candlelight be rained out.” We’ll take a look at the Candlelight Ceremony’s magical Christmas display, as well as some news from around the Disneyland Resort, including construction in the parks, the lackluster launch of the latest Trader Sam’s Tiki Mug, and what the Florida opening of Rise of the Resistance means for Disneyland next year.
Candlelight Processional
Disneyland’s time-honored holiday tradition, the Candlelight Ceremony and Processional, took place this past weekend in spite of the threat of a rain-out. People from all over the world come out to see this iconic Christmas spectacular. It features a 400-voice choir, a live orchestra, and a celebrity narrator who reads the Christmas story to the audience.
This is an event that requires a lot of planning. Not only on behalf of the Disneyland Resort (they have to set up a stage, also prepare all the music for their talent, and host all their invited guests) but also for anyone looking to attend! People will come at park opening in the morning to reserve a spot in Town Square in front of City Hall or Disneyana to have a prime viewing location.
The Candlelight Ceremony is usually performed on the first weekend of December, with two showings per night on Saturday and Sunday.
The identity of the Candlelight Narrator is generally kept a secret prior to the first performance, and every year Disney fans try to figure out or guess who it might be. This year we heard potential guesses of Kristen Bell or Idina Menzel from Frozen 2, Brie Larson from Captain Marvel, and even Chris Evans from Captain America. Then, earlier on Saturday, Dusty started posting that it might be Lin-Manuel Miranda . . . and it was!
Lin-Manuel is a gifted songwriter, singer, and actor we know from Moana (where he wrote and sang several of the film’s hit songs) and from Mary Poppins Returns, where he played Jack the Lamplighter. And let’s not forget a little show called Hamilton.
Here he is at Saturday’s soundcheck and later at the first performance.
The Candlelight Processional and Ceremony is a pure expression of Christmas. This is definitely an event to add to your Disneyland bucket list.
For more information about the Disneyland Christmas spectacular of the season, be sure to read the article below.
Disneyland’s Candlelight Processional: The Ultimate Christmas Event
If you weren’t able to make it to Disneyland for Candlelight this weekend or didn’t want to wait 6+ hours holding a spot in Town Square, we have a special treat for you! We have an incredibly rare video of this year’s first showing from a seat just in front of Lin-Manuel Miranda. Although nothing can beat seeing it in person, this live video comes pretty close!
It’s Disney Vacation Time!
We’ve got some great news for you. Our partners at Get Away Today are helping you save money on Disney theme park tickets and travel packages. AND, through Christmas, they’ve got some great ways for you to gift Disney trips for a reduced deposit:
- For Discounted theme park tickets and travel packages, always start HERE: Get Away Today (When calling, always mention MiceChat so you get your special rates and deals!)
- For a limited time, MiceChat readers can book a trip for just $99 down with an interest-free Layaway Plan!
- Layaway Plans must be booked by December 25, 2019 to get the $99 reduced deposit.
- Book for travel for dates through December 31, 2020.
- Payments can be made at any time and in any amount, with final payment due just five days before travel.
- Layaway Plans can be used for any of our Southern California vacations and can be combined with any of our specials – like Extra Day Free Tickets and Extra Night Free Hotel Specials.
Just imagine giving the gift of a Disneyland vacation to someone special in your life:
And if giving the gift of a Disney vacation sounds like the perfect Christmas gift, here are some GREAT ideas on how to it (we even have things you can download to make gifting easy) – HERE
Rainy Days and Soggy Guests
Guests visiting Anaheim this past week have seen more than a few rainy days. And several of those rainy days had flash flood alerts attached! As you would expect, that meant shorter wait times, fewer crowds, and plenty of puddles.
Here’s a look at the wait times at Disneyland on Friday afternoon. For the most part, people don’t want to ride attractions in the rain. So, anything with an outside component had a short wait.
Main Street has plenty of drains along both sides of the street, and even in the tracks for the trolley. No major puddles here!
Because of the rain, the Christmas Fantasy Parade on Friday was replaced with The Rainy Day Cavalcade. Don’t worry, Santa and Mrs. Claus still made an appearance!
Once you reach the Hub you’ll note that the newly lowered curbs were built without drains, so the puddles grow fast here, even in a light shower.
As a whole, Disneyland (and much of Southern California for that matter) is not built for rain. There are very few covered areas throughout the park, and most of the eateries and restaurants are open-air.
Guests were searching for a little bit of cover wherever they could find it. So, if there was an overhang, there was someone standing in it.
But, for huge sections of the park, there’s really nowhere to go for shelter.
With all that said, Disneyland in the rain truly is magical. Rain itself is a rare occurrence in SoCal, and experiencing it in Disneyland really is a memory that will linger. . . if the pneumonia doesn’t kill you first. 😉
MiceChat Anniversary & Gumball Rally
MiceChat/MiceAge turns 17 years young next year and will be celebrating with a weekend of celebrities and events at the Disneyland Resort February 7th through 9th, 2020. While our celebrity events have yet to be announced, tickets are already available for our world-famous Gumball Rally on February 8th. The Rally is a race through Disneyland to see who can ride the most attractions in a single day. It’s absolutely the most fun you’ll ever have in the parks.
Join over 500 of your fellow Disney fans to see who’s got the best strategy for riding the attractions. Compete in teams of 2 to 4 individuals and have the time of your lives.
For more information about the event and to register, visit the Gumball Rally Info Page HERE.
Holiday Tiki Mug Sales a Bust
Last Wednesday marked another seasonal tiki mug release at the Disneyland Hotel. In time for the holidays, there is a new Holiday Nutcracker tiki mug available for purchase (there’s also a matching ornament sold at the hotel’s Fantasia gift shop, sold separately).
Sales for the release event began at 7am on December 4th, but there was definitely no reason to arrive early. The line was mercifully (maybe even embarrassingly?) short. We read some sites saying that devoted Trader Sam’s fans waited out in the rain for this new mug, but that wasn’t accurate. Disney had created an indoor queue and sales area.
They were also selling some of the other limited release tiki mugs from previous merchandise events earlier this year. These included the unsold Hatbox Ghost (which had a similar attendance issue for its release event), Golden Piranha (which was originally released for D23 Expo in August) and Tangaroa Surfboard tiki mugs.
Is this a sign that guests have lost interest in tiki mugs? Did you like the style of this new mug? Or is it the high price and frequent release schedule oversaturating the market? Do you collect tiki mugs? What do you think the issue is?
Galaxy’s Edge Update
Both versions of Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge (here at Disneyland and out at Walt Disney World in Florida) saw some changes this week.
What Does Disney World’s Rise of the Resistance Opening Mean for Disneyland?
The highly anticipated Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance at Walt Disney World opened to the public last Thursday. The state-of-the-art attraction attracted massive crowds at Disney’s Hollywood Studios Park in Florida, which used the virtual queue/boarding pass system first trialed at Disneyland with the opening of Galaxy’s Edge.
For more details, and a (mostly) spoiler-free review, read the article below.
Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance Not-So-Spoiler-y Walkthrough
Would you like to see a virtual queue used for the opening of the Disneyland version of the ride?. This is very similar to how admittance to Star Wars land was originally going to work earlier this year by grouping guests into boarding groups through the Disney World app. For the most part, the boarding groups were successful in getting a large number of people through the attraction without making them wait in line all day. We’re interested to see if Disneyland will use the same system come January.
Star Wars Land Updates
Here at Disneyland’s Star Wars land, there have been a few updates. New droid beverage carts have arrived in the land to sell the cute round Coke bottles. These carts replace the simple ice-bath barrels that the land opened with.
The new droid carts are decorated with the same pattern as the Galaxy’s Edge Coca-Cola brand soda bottles. There are three Coke carts as well as one Diet Coke and one Sprite, and they mirror the ones already in Disney World’s Batuu.
There are three interactive buttons on the red Coke carts opposite to the droids but they don’t seem to do anything when pressed at the moment.
Chocolate popcorn is also being sold at these new carts. It’s one of our favorite products in Star Wars land, but is often overlooked because it isn’t in direct sight. It was previously available at Kat Saka’s Kettle, and is now on the droid carts as well.
Over at Ronto Roasters, a new sign has been added at the entrance of its queue.
Construction Update
As always, there are lots of construction projects happening around the Disneyland Resort. Here’s a quick summary of what’s happened (or not happened) this week.
Tomorrowland
Here in Tomorrowland, the construction projects have just about come to a stand-still. The two major projects in the land, the walls for Star Tours and Buzz Lightyear and the emergency exit staircase at Space Mountain, haven’t made any significant progress since last month.
The scrims that have been covering the walls at Star Tours and Buzz Lightyear have remained rolled up due to the inclement weather. We presume this is prep for work on the new entryway to Tomorrowland.
The emergency exit for Space Mountain remains behind construction walls.
Mickey and Friends Parking Structure
And finally, over at the Mickey and Friends Structure, construction continues to wrap up as the project nears completion. The last major project still in progress is the second elevator shaft that is being added to the Mickey and Friends structure and the paving in that area.
Refurbishments are Coming!
Although we are done with planned attraction refurbishments for this year, that doesn’t mean we can’t expect some for 2020! Here are the upcoming refurbs:
Haunted Mansion
Good news: if you love Haunted Mansion Holiday, then you are in luck! Jack Skellington will continue “wreaking the halls” until January 20th, 2020. Mansion will be open while Small World has its holiday overlay taken down starting January 7th.
Bad news: Once Small World returns (and Rise of the Resistance has its opening weekend), the Haunted Mansion will close and begin a several-month-long refurbishment. Word is to not expect the attraction to reopen until late spring to early summer this year. At this time, we aren’t sure exactly what parts of the attraction will be touched up, but we’re hoping to find out soon!
Snow White
The classic Snow White attraction is set for a refurb starting January 7, 2020. This includes changing the ending sequence to a significantly happier ending, as well as some minor touchups in the attraction. For more information about what changes are coming, read HERE!
NEWS – Snow White’s Adventures to Be Less Scary at Disneyland
Indiana Jones
The big-name attraction set for a refurb next year is Indiana Jones. It will be turning 25, and I’m sure they’ve got a couple tricks up their sleeve to heighten the adventure. We will have more info to share soon.
Refurbishment Calendar
Here is the list of refurbishments planned around the Disneyland Resort for next year.
Currently Under Refurbishment:
- Red Car Trolley: April 1st, 2019-Summer 2020
- Jamba
Juice: November 4th, 2019-Spring 2020
Upcoming Refurbishment:
- Carthay Circle Restaurant and Lounge (January 6th-30th)
- 1901 (January 6th-30th)
- Snow White’s Scary Adventures (January 7th-Summer 2020)
- Mark Twain Riverboat (starting January 7th)
- It’s A Small World Refurbishment (January 7th-16th)
- Haunted Mansion Refurbishment (January 20th-Spring 2020)
- Indiana Jones Adventure (Spring 2020-TBD)
One more note: We have been told that Autopia has also been slated for a refurbishment this Spring but Disney has not confirmed this as of this posting, so stay tuned on that one.
This and That
More news from around the Resort:
Main Street, U.S.A. Horses Brother and Reggie Retire
If you have walked down Disneyland’s Main Street, U.S.A. then you most likely have seen Brother and Reggie. The two horses have spent 11 magical years leading the horse-drawn streetcars down the Park’s introductory land.
However, these two beloved, hoofed Cast Members are now hanging up their horseshoes. They’ll live out their retirement on a farm owned by a Cast Member (humankind). Have you ever taken a ride with Brother or Reggie?
Two @Disneyland greats retired today, Brother and Reggie. They pulled wagons down Main Street, U.S.A. for 11 years. Now 18, they were adopted by a Cast Member and will live out the rest of their days on a bucolic farm. pic.twitter.com/GkP1HVvzs0
— Marcy Carriker Smothers (@MarcySmothers) November 24, 2019
Asian Eats Sign (But Not Open)
The new Asian takeout window has a new sign that has been hung on the mobile home pop-up’s facade. There is still no update about its opening.
It’s Disney Vacation Time!
We’ve got some great news for you. Our partners at Get Away Today are helping you save money on Disney theme park tickets and travel packages. AND, through Christmas, they’ve got some great ways for you to gift Disney trips for a reduced deposit:
- For Discounted theme park tickets and travel packages, always start HERE: Get Away Today (When calling, always mention MiceChat so you get your special rates and deals!)
- For a limited time, MiceChat readers can book a trip for just $99 down with an interest-free Layaway Plan!
- Layaway Plans must be booked by December 25, 2019 to get the $99 reduced deposit.
- Book for travel for dates through December 31, 2020.
- Payments can be made at any time and in any amount, with final payment due just five days before travel.
- Layaway Plans can be used for any of our Southern California vacations and can be combined with any of our specials – like Extra Day Free Tickets and Extra Night Free Hotel Specials.
Just imagine giving the gift of a Disneyland vacation to someone special in your life:
And if giving the gift of a Disney vacation sounds like the perfect Christmas gift, here are some GREAT ideas on how to it (we even have things you can download to make gifting easy) – HERE
Let’s Hear From You
Congrats! You’ve made it to the end of another info-filled Disneyland Update. The holidays are a hectic time in everyone’s lives, but Disneyland gives us a place to take a minute and enjoy the season. Stroll down Main Street and listen to the Christmas carols, or take a ride on the Merriest Cruise on Earth and celebrate with the children of the world. Hopefully, our massive Disneyland Updates can bring a little bit of that to you for those who can’t go to Disneyland regularly.
Have you ever watched Disneyland’s Candlelight Ceremony? Do you think the tiki mug craze is coming to an end? What do you think of the new Soda Droids in Star Wars land? Let us know in the comments!
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