Disneyland Trip Recap: Galaxy's Edge, Pixar Pier, and SpectroMagic History

Disneyland Holiday Trip Highlights

• 🎢 Disneyland and DCA were visited on January 2nd, 2018, with significant crowds despite the recent busy holiday season.
• ✨ The park looked fantastic, with well-maintained paint and working details like arcade games and old-fashioned telephones on Main Street.
• 🎶 It's a Small World Holiday was a new experience, noted for its dense decorations and seamless transition into holiday music.
• 👻 Haunted Mansion Holiday was also enjoyed, with the seasonal overlay being a precursor to other park overlays.

Galaxy's Edge Construction and Entrances

• 🚀 Construction for Galaxy's Edge is progressing rapidly, with vertical building evident.
• 🗺️ Two main entrances to Galaxy's Edge from Disneyland are planned: one through Critter Country (past Winnie the Pooh and Hungry Bear Restaurant) and another through Fantasyland (near the old Frontier Land setup).
• 🎬 A third entrance is located near the old barbecue place, dropping guests into the center of Galaxy's Edge, near the Millennium Falcon attraction.
• 🌐 The layout of Disneyland's Galaxy's Edge influenced the design in Florida, though Florida's transition may be less smooth.
• 🗓️ Both Disneyland and Disney World's Galaxy's Edge are expected to open on the same day, with Disneyland potentially using its version for hard-ticket events if completed earlier.

DCA Transformations and Attractions

• 🎢 California Screamin' was ridden one last time before its transformation into the Incredicoaster as part of Pixar Pier.
• 💡 The area around the ride is being rethemed to Pixar Pier, with a mid-century modern aesthetic.
• 💥 Guardians of the Galaxy: Mission Breakout was a highlight, with the speaker preferring it over the original Tower of Terror.
• 🐜 Bugs Land is being phased out, with Flick's Flyer potentially rethemed to Inside Out and moving towards the Incredicoaster area.

Hall of Presidents and Animatronic Challenges

• 🇺🇸 The Hall of Presidents reopened with a Donald Trump animatronic figure after significant media attention regarding its likeness.
• 🗣️ Imagineering faced challenges with the animatronic's appearance, partly due to the limited recording time with the President and the animatronic's design limitations for certain speaking styles.
• 🎨 The figure's coloration and lack of a signature red tie were adjusted to better match the other presidential figures and avoid a jarring appearance.
• 🛡️ Metal pieces to prevent stage charging have been present since the 1970s, not a new addition for the Trump figure.

SpectroMagic Parade History and Legacy

• 🎶 Don Dorsey, credited with music design for the Main Street Electrical Parade, was involved in the early stages of the SpectroMagic project.
• 💡 Dorsey advocated for larger, more transformative units in parades, moving away from smaller, single-element floats.
• 🎠 A revolving carousel on a float was an ambitious but short-lived feature of the Electromagic Parade.
• 🎵 John Debney composed the score for SpectroMagic, using a 70-piece orchestra and creating a rich, memorable soundtrack, including the song "On This Magic Night."
• 👻 The Spectrum Men, characters from the land of Lightspiration, were a notable and sometimes disturbing element of the parade, with their luminous masks and nonsensical phrases.
• 💡 SpectroMagic ran from 1991 to 1999, returned for the millennium, and then ran again from 2001 to 2010, featuring extensive lighting and sound.
• 💔 The parade floats were ultimately destroyed, with Disney preventing collectors from obtaining them, ensuring SpectroMagic would not return.