While I was waiting, I noticed that somebody was waiving at me. It was Cassie, who had been our guide for the A Walk In Walt's Footsteps tour. She came over and gave me a hug. I had not expected to see her again as she had told us that she had jury service during Thanksgiving week. Apparently her services were not required. It was nice to see her again. Soon our guide for this tour came to introduce herself. We had Maria from Puerto Rico for this tour. We were issued with our audio devices and the headset and after a sound check we got going. This group was much bigger and we had a lot of families with very small children on the tour, which got interesting later on.
We first headed over to California Adventure. Maria directed us to a gate to the left of the turnstiles. There were some other tour guides waiting for us there. Maria told us that there would be a number of cast members helping us during the tour and she asked us that every time that this happens, we wish them Happy Holidays. This was actually really nice. When we were all inside, she gathered us together and told us a bit about Buena Vista Street in general. She then explained the role that Buena Vista Street plays in the holiday celebrations at Disneyland resort. Our next stop was a shop window that had a number of Christmas decorations on display. This had caught my eye the previous day and I had assumed that they were "Disney authentic". I was wrong. All the decorations displayed there were actually from the 1930s. Apparently the Imagineers went through some trouble to find those.
We then pushed on towards the Christmas tree at the end of Buena Vista Street. On the way, Maria told us about some of the holiday entertainment on Buena Vista Street like the bell ringers and the daily tree lighting ceremony. Once we got to the tree, Maria pointed out various decorations that have links to Disney history like Walt Disney's train barn. She shared with us that Imagineers went through the attics of relatives to find Christmas decorations from the 1930s. The decorations on the tree are replicas as they could not find decorations from that period of time that were big enough, but they were all scale copies of the decorations found in various attics. One thing that I had not noticed before is that the characters that were included looked very different from what I am used to. Again, they were replicas of the characters how they looked in the 1930s.
We had one last stop at California Adventure. The tour includes a number of treats and we were about to get our first one. We stopped at Trolley Treats and after a hearty Happy Holiday to the cast members there, we were given a special version of the holiday marshmallow wand that they make for the holiday tours. They sell the full size version at Trolley Treats. Ours were the size of a normal marshmallow and this was more than enough for me. There is no way I could have eaten a full sized one. Our treat consisted of marshmallow, mint, caramel, chocolate and sprinkles. It was delicious, but very rich.
We enjoyed our treats while we were walking back to the exit. We crossed back over to Disneyland. We stopped at the Christmas tree at Town Square. Maria told us that all the trees around the Disneyland resort today are artificial trees. She asked if anybody knew why this was. There were a number of theories ranging from aesthetic reasons to struggling to find trees that are big enough. The real reason is more serious. Maria shared with us that one year cast members were decorating the tree on Town Square the night before the holiday season was due to start. They were just finishing off putting the last decorations on the tree when somebody noticed that the top of the tree was on fire. Even though everybody reacted quickly, they lost the tree and most of the decorations. After this, the decision was made to only use artificial trees around the resort. There was a happy ending to this story though. Disney being Disney, they managed to source replacements for the tree and the decorations on very short notice. By the time Disneyland opened to the guests the next morning, there was a beautifully decorated tree and nobody was any the wiser of what happened during the night.
We moved up Main Street a little way and stopped by a doorway. Maria pointed out that the mezuzah mounted on the doorpost designates the premises as Jewish. She pointed out the hanukkiah in the upstairs window and explained some of the traditions around Hanukkah. We then moved on towards the hub and Maria explained some elements of the holiday seasons of the past. She told us about the Monsanto House of the Future, which was near the entrance of Tomorrowland roughly where Pixie Hollow is now. This was decorated to look like a Christmas present every year for the holiday season. She also told us about the huge star on top of the Matterhorn. I know there are rumours that this will be brought back this year, but time will tell.
We then crossed over into Adventureland to ride the first attraction that is part of the tour. This was the second year that Jungle Cruise was transformed into Jingle Cruise for the holiday season at Walt Disney World and Disneyland. I had been rather excited about this in 2013, but when I got to experience this at Walt Disney World, it had left me rather disappointed. There were minimal Christmas touches. For the most part there were just Christmas themed jokes that were somewhat cheesy and were delivered half-heartedly. So I was not actually looking forward to this part of the tour. When we got to Jingle Cruise, they were not quite ready for us. We were directed to an area nearby to wait and we stayed there for about 15 minutes before Maria came for us. The area had some shade and as it was another very hot day, the downtime was welcome. When Maria came back for us, she took us through the exit and we got a boat just for our tour group.
I was very positively surprised by this year’s version. Right from the beginning, it was obvious that a lot more time and effort had been spent on the Christmas decorations this time round. This was not the only thing that had changed. There were a range of visual gags. There was a different storyline than the one that Jungle Cruise normally has and in this context, the jokes actually made sense and some of them were actually rather funny. I have since heard that they also used smells on this ride, but I had not noticed this. What a difference a year makes. This had gone from something that felt like it had been half-heartedly cobbled together in 2013 to something well thought out and put together with great attention to detail in 2014. The 2014 version was a great addition to the holiday season.
Once we had completed our trip around the jungle, we headed over to New Orleans Square. Maria pointed out some of the decorations to us and then we headed over to Haunted Mansion Holiday. This was the point where the group was effectively split in two. All of the younger kids started to cry and some of the slightly older kids refused to go on the ride. So various parents had to sit this out with their kids. Maria told them where to meet us and the rest of us went to enjoy the ride. This time we were lucky and we walked straight into the stretching room. We managed to keep the group pretty much together. The ride did a fair bit of stopping and starting this time so I had plenty of opportunity to take some photos.
When we finished the ride, we waited for a bit until everybody was back together and then we walked through Frontierland. Maria pointed out how different areas in Frontierland represent different periods of time and how this is reflected in the decorations. I found this very interesting. We then walked past the Jingle Jangle Jamboree and once we crossed over into Fantasyland, Maria announced that we would have a comfort break. I got myself an orange soda and then headed back over to where we had been told that we would have a break and chatted to some other people on the tour who had the same idea. I was a bit surprised that we did not have the break at the Jingle Jangle Jamboree.
Once the break was over, we headed over to It’s A Small World Holiday. We headed to the exit and there were a number of cast members in the area making sure that this went as smoothly as possible. We all were on a boat very quickly and I thoroughly enjoyed the ride again.