The Disneyland Resort: Part 2-Night Time!

Be Sure to Check Out my Previous Post: The Disneyland Resort: Part 1-Day Time!

When the sun goes down, the magic only grows at the Disneyland resort. Main Street USA is glowing brightly with Broadway lights and glowing gift shop windows. The infamous Cinderella Castle is brilliantly lit with deep blues and purples, then changing to reds and oranges. It truly is one of the most magical times of day, and you truly lose yourself in the park.

Our Glow with the Show Ears!

For most guests, souvenirs take form of hats adorned with "Mickey Ears" of all different styles. They make children feel as if they are princesses or wizards, help soon to be married couples celebrate the Disney way, and for others just have their name embroidered on the cap. More recently Disney has developed a new pair of ears that are both technologically advanced, and stand out in any crowd. They are called "Glow with the Show Ears", and they do exactly as they sound: they glow with the show! In short, there are multicolored LEDs in each ear, and an infrared receiver in the ears, and when you are at select shows throughout the Disneyland Resort (and now at Fantasmic! at Walt Disney World) they sync with the theatrics.

The hats were only $25 each, and we both had to have them! With the darkened midways, we stood

out from everyone else and got tons of compliments. Currently there are several different shows are areas at the Disneyland Resort that we found that they synced with:
 -World of Color
-Fantasmic!
-The Cars Land Stoplight (with the 3rd blink being slightly longer)
-Fireworks
-Mad T Party
-And Oddly enough, the Mickey and Friends Tram Downtown Disney station (They turn orange like the tram color).

Fantasmic!

If you are not in a show area, they still light up and change colors as you walk around, and when the
hats are close to each other, they pulse and change colors in time with each other, almost like they're friends saying hello. The best part of the hats, is that there is no buttons to push in order to sync it with a show or other interaction area. Once you pass into an active zone, they ears immediately start responding to what the zone transmitter tells them to. So as soon as the show starts, your ears are already going.

Fantasmic!

Back to the rest of the evening, we managed to see both of the nighttime spectaculars: Fantasmic! (Disneyland) and World of Color (California Adventure). Fantasmic opened in 1992, and has be delighting audiences of thousands nightly ever since. The show includes water effects, lasers, live actors and pyrotechnics at a cost of nearly $75,000 per showing (Thanks Wikipedia). It is a 23 minute show that excites and delights children of all ages (even us 20+ year old children at heart).


After enjoying Fantasmic!, we enjoyed a few minutes of the fireworks show before headed over to

Giant Turkey Legs!

California Adventure for "World of Color". However we were on a mission, and that mission was for turkey legs. After looping nearly all of California Adventure, we were nearly giving up hope as we passed the back end of the bay and found the pure gold that was the turkey leg man. Needless to say, this photo shows we were happy.

Back to the show......Opened in 2010, World of Color is a massive display of fountains, projection, fire and lights on Paradise Bay. While there are no live actors, and essentially it is a "push play and let it run" style show, it is nothing short of incredible. The sheer brilliance of the colors and size of the founains all perfectly in sync with the music, make for an unforgettable experience. It was a low attendance night for the show (often times you are squeezed shoulder to shoulder with people) so we had room to spread out and take photos without worrying about disturbing other viewers. And of course, we had our Glow With The Show Ears on :)

Now normally I am not one to post videos of Disney shows or rides in their entirety, but for you to truly get the impact of how awesome the show is, and mostly to see the implementaion of the Glow With the Show Ears, take a look at this video (even if its just the first 2 minutes). However, please dont skip ahead, and watch the full first minute. Seeing the ears start right with the show and hearing the crowds reaction to the effect is awesome!




Now unfortunately, on most nights there are very few guests actually utilizing the ears (this was a video from a pass-holder preview night), so the effect isn't nearly as dramatic, however over the years i can see it growing. I will certainly be bringing mine with me every time I go.

Our End of the Night Photo with Mickey and Walt

With the conclusion of World of Color, the night was coming to a close. And with a few night photos of Cars Land, the Tower of Terror and the Carthay theater, we said good bye to the mouse and headed home. All in all, it was an awesome day, and probably the most fun i've ever had at Disney (and that's saying a lot!). It reminded me that we all need to take some time every now and again to let our inner child out again with some of your closest friends.

Bucky's New Friend

It was good to see Stella, and Bucky seems to have a new friend.

Didn't get enough Disney Photos? Check out the full #LyfInColor-Disneyland Resort Album here!

Be Sure to check out my next post: Six Flags Magic Mountain!