Snow Blankets Sleeping Beauty Castle, Creating New Look For The Holidays At Disneyland Resort

(October 26, 2007) New enchantment arrives in Disneyland as the holiday season finds �Sleeping Beauty�s Winter Castle� covered in freshly fallen snow. With its exciting new look, the Castle will serve as a shimmering centerpiece for a daytime holiday celebration, and as a snow-capped stage for the new music, lighting and special effects that will precede the legendary �Believe ... in Holiday Magic� nighttime fireworks spectacular.

The Castle will create a magical sense of wintertime enchantment throughout the holidays at Disneyland, adding to the many delights that traditionally welcome guests when Disneyland and Disney�s California Adventure parks are transformed into dazzling holiday wonderlands.

By day, �Sleeping Beauty�s Winter Castle� will be a sparkling Disneyland landmark and photo location for holiday visitors from around the world. As evening arrives, the Castle will undergo a transformation as special lighting effects and a new musical score take guests on a journey that dramatizes a young child�s dream for snow!

This magical spell will build to the highlight of the evening: the fireworks spectacular, �Believe ... in Holiday Magic,� which will take guests on a journey of sights and sounds of the season and will end with a touching rendition of �White Christmas� and one of Disneyland�s most beloved holiday traditions: a climactic snowfall that swirls down on Main Street, U.S.A., small world mall and New Orleans Square. To top it all off, the beautiful blanket of snow on the Castle will begin to shimmer like never before!

Such holiday magic may be found throughout the day in both Disneyland and Disney�s California Adventure during the holiday season. Themed entertainment, sparkling decorations, tasty treats and the annual holiday transformations of �it�s a small world� and the Haunted Mansion will add festive seasonal fun and warmth to Disneyland Resort visits from November 16 through January 6. The transformation at the Resort will come during Disney Parks� ongoing Year of a Million Dreams celebration where guests� dreams, large and small, are coming true through the Disney Dreams Giveaway.

Upon entering Main Street, U.S.A, in Disneyland, holiday guests will find the traditional 60-foot-tall evergreen Disneyland Christmas tree that is grandly decorated with 10,000 ornaments and holiday lights.

�Santa�s Reindeer Round-up� will return to Big Thunder Ranch in Frontierland, with the ranch transformed into a �West Pole� getaway where Santa can unwind with Mrs. Claus and his team of reindeer. Kids and their families can chat with St. Nick, see real reindeer grazing in a corral, play some reindeer games, create take-home Yuletide souvenirs and join in holiday line dances with music from a Western trio.

The Resort�s annual holiday parade, �A Christmas Fantasy,� will be presented November 16 through January 6 on Main Street, U.S.A. This ever-popular procession depicts an enchanting collection of holiday scenes, music and a cast of Disney characters and performers in Yuletide vignettes. Toy soldiers march in cadence, friendly snowmen dance and Santa waves from a soaring sleigh as his reindeer prance below.

Haunted Mansion Holiday returns with a madcap celebration where the traditions of Halloween and Christmas collide. The ghoulish but well-meaning Jack Skellington from the film Tim Burton�s The Nightmare Before Christmas has come to the Haunted Mansion to transform it with his skewed vision of the holidays.

In Fantasyland, the classic �it�s a small world� again will become �it�s a small world Holiday� with a popular seasonal overlay that transforms this classic Disneyland attraction into a holiday trip around the world. More than 300,000 glittery lights will adorn the attraction�s fa�ade.

Disney�s California Adventure will celebrate the season with fanciful park-wide decorations and lively entertainment. Guests approaching the park will immediately get in the holiday mood as the iconic entrance-way letters that spell �CALIFORNIA� will be transformed to appear as swirling red and white peppermint sticks.

Inside �a bug�s land,� Flik and his bug buddies will spread giant Christmas lights, oversized ornaments and towering candy canes throughout their realm. Alongside Paradise Bay, a beautifully decorated Christmas tree will provide a dazzling sight as other nearby trees sparkle with hundreds of lights and the lampposts are decorated with seasonal wreathes.

Sunshine Plaza becomes �Santa�s Beach Blast,� where the Disney characters playfully blend classic holiday images with the California beach lifestyle. Santa the Surfer greets guests near a Woody wagon sleigh, and the area is filled with seaside-style holiday decorations.

During the holidays, the fun will be extended with expanded park hours for both Disneyland Resort theme parks for much of the season. Downtown Disney District and the Disneyland Resort hotels will join in the merriment with twinkling lights and ornaments, special entertainment and holiday dining.

Also contributing to the holiday fun will be the continuation of the Disney Dreams Giveaway and the immersive entertainment experiences of the Year of a Million Dreams at Disney Parks. At Disneyland, guests can meet and interact with Disney Princesses at Disney Princess Fantasy Faire, with Jedi Knights at the Jedi Training Academy and with Captain Jack Sparrow and his crew at Pirate�s Lair on Tom Sawyer Island. At Disney�s California Adventure, guests young and old will be dancing to the beat of the new High School Musical 2: School�s Out! street show, inspired by the megahit Disney Channel original movie.

-- Posted October 29, 2007