Contributing photographer Jason of disneygeek.com and “All Things Disney” blogger Jeanine Yamanaka attended the special Mickey’s Soundsational Parade event for Disneyland Annual Passholders on Wednesday, October 12. They team up in this blog, which features Jason’s photos and captions, and some of Jeanine’s comments on the event – including some things to know if you will be attending the second of these, on Monday, October 17.

The park was open to invited passholders from 8:00 p.m. to midnight. There was an exclusive nighttime performance of Mickey’s Soundsational Parade, a panel discussion with some of the parade’s creators, and the opportunity to get a close-up view of the floats. In addition, attractions, shops, and restaurants were open in Fantasyland, Tomorrowland, and Main Street U.S.A.

Overall I thought it was a great event. Everyone seemed to be having a good time, the cast members included. Seeing the parade under the lights was great, especially with a minimal crowd so you could move around a bit and try for more interesting pictures. The photos of the floats up close with the parade performers seemed to be a big hit also.

Jeanine: To give you an idea of the schedule, the event formally started at 8pm when the park closed to regular guests. You were advised to park only in the Mickey and Friends structure, as they were not going to be running shuttles to any of the other lots after 9pm. Entrance into Adventureland and Frontierland were blocked off by CMs with most of the rides in Fantasyland and Tomorrowland open. The parade started from It’s A Small World at 9:30pm, and by 10:30pm the bulk of the floats were parked around Main St. for photos with the characters. To encourage the use of Photopass, each AP holder was given a promotional code to purchase up to 5 photo downloads for $1.99 each.

It ended up as a really nice event–the volume of people were controlled enough so that virtually everything was a walk-on by the end of the night. All the panel participants were nice enough to hang out around the Mary Poppins float to greet people and take photos, and the floats were even more impressive up close, where you could appreciate all the detailing Kevin and Jody put into them. Everyone I spoke with thought it was a terrific thing to offer the Annual Passholders and had great hopes for more AP nights in the future.

On to the photos…

Four dining locations featured special menu items

Coke Corner had bacon mac and cheese hotdogs

Tomorrowland Terrace had a free cupcake with meal purchase. I did not make it to the other two.

Jeanine: I was there too! The other two locations were the Blue Ribbon Bakery, which was offering a pumpkin muffin, and Redd Rockett’s Pizza Port, which had a Buffalo Chicken Pizza specialty. While I didn’t try either of them, I did hear some people mention they were unimpressed with the pizza. The schedule you get when you enter lists the locations but not the special offers, so the best thing, if you’re going to the next night on Oct. 17th, is to find a knowledgeable CM to tell you what all the items are, saving yourself a run around the park.

Some shots of the special showing of the parade for the event

Tomorrowland Terrace Hosted a panel discussion and Q&A session with some of the creative team: Art Directors Jody Daily and Kevin Kidney, and Senior Show Producer John Addis.

Jeanine: The panel was great and something of a surprise, as it wasn’t listed on the schedule at all, and none of the CMs seemed to know anything about it. I only caught it by sheer luck, as I happened to be walking towards Tomorrowland Terrace when they made an overhead announcement about it. As it was, the announcement was barely audible where I was, and was totally missed by anyone who had gotten onto a ride at that point.

Jeanine: For Monday’s reference, the panel took place around 10:15pm, and in addition to the guys on our panel, Steve Davison, Vice President for Parades and Spectaculars, should be back from Paris and speaking as well.

Jeanine: Some interesting factoids from the talk:
–Look closely at Princess and the Frog float, and you’ll find Evinrude, the dragonfly from The Rescuers.
–The Aladdin float has a coin motif that is carried out in the “Coin Girl,” who is dressed all in gold and preceeds it.
–If you look under the carousel on the Mary Poppins float, you see a representation of Burt’s “one-man band” with the self-beating drum.

Main Street had several floats and their performers out for pictures

Queues for a closer view of the floats had an entrance sign and were marked off on the street with tape

The Princess and the Frog float and performers

A look at the line of people waiting

Since the floats were stopped and the parade lights on you could get some nice close up shots

The Aladdin crew

The Mary Poppins Unit

Some of the creative team out for pictures and to interact with guests

The Three Caballeros unit

A look up Main Street

Last up the Peter Pan unit

For additional photos, including some construction shots from DCA, Disneyland, and the Disneyland Hotel from earlier in the afternoon, check out the full Disneyland Update Jason posted on his site, http://disneygeek.com

Post a Comment