Up at the ranch, the Big Thunder Ranch, that is - Santa has set up shop. Back in the '80's and well into the '90's, the ranch was home to a petting farm, and the Big Thunder BBQ restaurant (which I worked at for a short while during my tenure at the park). In the later '90's it became a shell of its' former glory when the restaurant was closed, and the animals finally disappeared by around 2000. But each year at Christmas, Santa reappears and brings his reindeer along. Santa will be inside the log cabin for photos, and his deer friends are around in the old animal corrals for all to see. They do have a few goats again, but it's nothing like it used to be with horses, cows, sheep, goats and the chickens of old. The restaurant has reopened, but nothing like it used to be either. But - open restaurants are certainly better than shuttered ones!
I remember so well back in '76 when the Mine Train Through Nature's Wonderland closed in Frontierland, to be replaced by the
"Wildest Ride in the Wilderness" in '77. Back then, the Rivers of America were drained as well, and all of Frontierland became "the great wall of construction walls" at DL, just as Paradise Pier at DCA is currently surrounded by them.
Passing through Frontierland, along the river's edge into New Orleans Square, I enjoyed the new "Tiana's Showboat Jubilee". It was a fun little show, even though I have no clue about the new Princess & The Frog film yet. It definitely made me want to see it. The songs were quite enjoyable. I'm really hoping this return to traditional animation is a smashing success for Disney! I want more 2D animation.
Like WDW - the procession passes through the land, and then onto the riverboat. The Mark Twain, as I read online a couple of days ago, was actually used in the P&TF film. Apparently the crew animating the film made a day trip down to Anaheim in order to actually record the whistles of the Mark Twain in order to incorporate them into the film. Since the film is set in New Orleans, it certainly does feel appropriate to have the show in New Orleans Square here at DL. I haven't seen it in Liberty Square/Frontierland at WDW, but I'm sure it plays well there too.
Then it was on to the Haunted Mansion Holiday - where Jack Skellington and friends from Hallowweentown have taken over my beloved Mansion. It's actually this way now for more than 1/3 of the year... since it opens up this way right around Labor Day, and stays this way until after New Year's... such a bummer when you want to see the real version. I am NOT a fan of this overlay at all...but I cannot dispute its' popularity. 9 years running, with people clamoring to see it. And many people do love it. I don't. To each his own. Here are a few shots of it for those of you have not experienced it.
Then again later in the dark...
And a couple on the inside... the stretching portraits are changed to look like stained glass windows that then "break" when the elevator starts stretching (because yes, at DL the Stretching Room IS actually an elevator, unlike at WDW. At DL, for operational purposes, the whole thing could not fit inside the berm, so you enter into the plantation house, and then have to get beyond the berm into the show building...so you go DOWN underground and then pass underneath the railroad tracks via the Portrait Corridor - [added in to the WDW version during the latest update when the cool endless staircase scene was added]. At WDW, 1) the water table is entirely too high to allow for going down too far, despite the MK being built on the 2nd floor with the utilidors underneath as the basement, and 2) the entire facility, house facade and show building are located inside the berm - so there was no operational need like at DL. So at DL the floor goes down and the ceiling is stationary, vs. at WDW the floor is stationary and the ceiling goes up.) Followed by a giant Jack in the ceiling vs. the traditional hanging corpse just prior to the doors opening into the Portrait Corridor and on to the doom buggies, or as the HMH calls them, the "black Christmas sleighs"
At the loading area...
...in the Grand Hall, there's a giant gingerbread carousel with Zero on it. The traditional blue china dishes have been replaced with black spiderweb plates, and there's a giant Nightmare themed CHristmas tree over near the ballroom dancers. The smell from that carousel is wonderful!!
I didn't get an attic shot, but here's Jack at the entrance to the graveyard
followed by some of his handiwork inside the graveyard
Oogie Boogie has replaced the Hitchhiking Ghosts, playing "game show host" to see what kind of prize each sleigh will get as they pass by the crypt mirrors. I got the "?" or "Surprise" one each time I rode. Little things were popping up with each mirror I passed, instead of a single item that was supposed to be next to me like the traditional hitchhiking ghosts are.
Here are a couple of shots of New Orleans Square decked out for Christmas
Ok - now I have to upload more photos. Maybe I'll get more done tonight, and maybe not...
sorry about clogging up this thread with my photos and stuff - I just didn't feel like doing a traditional TR. I'm having more fun this way.
So what are your thoughts about it????
i would go today but obama is in allentown (the town next to me) which i would have to go thru to get to cabelas and im sure they have the place shut down. dont want jewlery, buys what she wants thru the year. i got two pic frames that i put our 25th anv. trip to wdw in so she (i) can hang on the wall. heck, i even got her new tires for her car so thats out!
in the summer, we have some relatives in NC, we would probably stop there. Alabama might be a little out of the way but one day I'd love to come check it out. I'm a foodie so, I hear there is some good BBQ down there. I may have to ask a few questions about where the locals eat, those are always the best places.
