Mickey's Soundsational Parade (May 27, 2011 - Present)

This parade started rolling down the parade route for Summer 2011 and signals a return to a traditional parade format for Disneyland. It is approx 15 minutes long and features 9 units and several dozen performers.

My First Impressions from two viewings on 5/27/11: I thought it was extremely well done and I was very happy to see a parade in the traditional sense return to Disneyland. There were no show stops, just a rolling parade that lasted about 15 minutes from when it started moving till the last unit passed me by. I thought the animation and details on the units were great. The sound track was catchy and integrated the regular disney music perfectly, but both places I stood seemed to be on the edge of a zone, need to figure that out still and see if it makes a difference to be in the middle of an audio zone. I thought the large number of performers and characters in the parade were also great to see too. I found Mary Poppins to be an interesting finale. The one thing I would have liked to have seen is more live musicians. Having the drum line at the beginning really opened it up with a high energy moment. Also the articulated (guess that is what you would call it, his eyes blinked and mouth moved) Mickey was a nice touch and closing with the Pearly Band.

The Magic, The Memories, and You! (January 27, 2011 - Present)

This nightly projection show takes place on Small World and features music, video effects, fireworks, and photos of guests taken throughout the day.

My initial thoughts from 1/28/11:

The Magic, the Memories, and You! show premiered Thursday night and runs twice nightly on the weekends and once on week days according to the schedule I saw Friday. This is a projection show on Small World featuring some great effects, music, a couple fireworks, as well as guest photos taken throughout the day.

• I enjoyed the show. I was not wowed by it but I was entertained and would definitely recommend seeing it if you are in the park. Some of the effects are great to see. Especially those that involved transformations of Small World and putting pieces of the facade into motion. Also I thought they integrated the guest photos nicely. They do not overwhelm the show but instead are used to support the show. Now I am really looking forward to seeing the WDW version on my next Florida trip, down there they run a similar show but use Cinderella Castle as the projection surface.
• I thought the times of 8:00pm and 9:10pm were a bit awkward to deal with because of the fireworks. Wonder why they did not run an earlier one. Best guess would be because of the fireworks for the finale but would have liked to have seen something during the 6 or 7pm hour. The problem with 8pm is when its over you have 30 minutes till the fireworks. If you want to see the 9:10pm one you would be hard pressed to make it there if you watched the fireworks elsewhere like many like to do.
• One other issue was that being so close to the end of the Remember meant that for the second show we were all held quite a ways back due to the firework fall out restrictions not being lifted yet. So all guests were held back in the narrow mall area instead of the wider area directly in front of the attraction. I would venture to guess the further back you got the less impressed you were (I will have to try it sometime to verify).
• From what I could tell they use the same images for both shows.
• As for viewing location tips if you can position yourself straight on with the facade you should have a great view as long as someone tall or with a kid on their shoulders does not get in front of you. The crowds for both shows Friday were on the mild side, guessing due to the fact that very few people knew what the show was and maybe the awkward timing.
• On Friday the crowd was light for the first show, you could have shown up about 10 minutes before and still found a great spot to watch from. The second was more crowded thanks to the fireworks just ending, also it may have felt that way because of the fire marshal restriction I mentioned above.

Magical (June 12, 2009 - present during the summer)

Notes from the June 11 Preview of Magical:
Magical was next on the agenda and we had spots near the center of Main Street near Coke Corner. The new show features a sound track that goes through several Disney films. As you saw in the pictorial update one of the new elements of the show is Dumbo takes flight during the Baby Mine segment. There are also still projections on the castle throughout the show as well as some great new spotlight effects. Magical uses less launch points from within the park than Remember did, but several Fantasyland attractions as well as Toontown are closed down before and during the show, so keep that in mind. I enjoyed the show and know I will see it several more times this summer, but I kind of missed the E-Ticket in the sky segment of Remember. I really enjoyed the tour of the park as a way to wrap up and end your day at the Resort. The Wishes segments of Remember always bothered me a bit (I am not a huge fan of the WDW show and when the song was re-used here it just never sat right with me). For all you Disney film buffs out there though I am guessing you will really enjoy this new show. The finale also features confetti which is shot off of the roofs on Main Street as well as the Small World Mall light Towers. From where we were it was hard to see this. (Note: I went back Friday night and watched from a better location so I have comments in the next Geekspeaks on that). For more information on Magical click here for the press release.

Remember... Dreams Come True (5/5/2005 - 6/2009) Starting 2009 Season to fill in when no other show is running on weekend, etc..

Wow.. that's the best way to describe this great Disneyland Fireworks show.

" I thought it would be hard to top believe, but the E-Ticket segment in the middle of the show is nothing short of incredible, a great trip down memory lane. Only compliant I have is I thought it relied too heavily on the Wishes music from Florida and would have liked to have seen the new theme song have fireworks vs. being just an exit tune. The new flight path Tinkerbell takes looks great too. Looks like a similar flight rig as the magic carpet in Aladdin uses, or at least that is what jumped to mind watching it go. The multiple launch points around the park really make the show impressive. Not sure if it was just our ears, but the sound track with seemed to be "surround" sound for the most part.. for example when the train announcement played we could have sworn it came from down Main Street, a very great effect. This will definite pack in the crowds for the for seeable future." 5/13/05

To read the press release that describes it click here