On January 25th, Disneyland Resort continued their efforts to layer events on top of each other with their Lunar New Years celebration joining Get Your Ears On and Valentine's month as seasonal events all offering different elements. Additionally, Mickey's Soundsational Parade made its return.

​This year feels like the most cohesive version of a Lunar New Celebration we've seen at DCA. They've widened the footprint and with that has come little extra touches of theming that make it feel more planned out and better produced.

The greatest improvement with the fleshing out of things is bringing Mulan's Lunar New Year Procession all the way out to Paradise Park. This gives a bit more of a parade feel and brings the show to a setting that makes for much easier viewing. We talk much more about this on an upcoming podcast, but for now take a look at the video and judge for yourself.

As in the past, characters are at the heart of this event. Big lines formed wherever characters were found.

We put together a short video that gives a feel for what they event offers:

Outside of the Lunar New Year festivities, it was interesting to find that Disneyland seemed to take it up a notch with Get Your Ears On and finally rolled out new guidemaps and character costumes.

Adding to this was the launch of a nighttime Get Your Ears On dance party in Tomorrowland (not pictured) and the return of Mickey's Soundsational Parade. It was interesting in that it felt as if this were the true opening day and the 18th (the officially announced start of the event) were more of a soft opening. Regardless, the return of Soundsational brought out many fans. Although the parade has never been a favorite for us, the excitement of the crowds was obvious with the masses swaying and singing along from the outset. We have snippets of the new pieces on our YouTube channel as well as full video. Here are a few pics as well as the parade in its entirety:

Outside of these two larger scale events, we only found one other item worth sharing. On our walk out to the parking structure, we found a new Captain Marvel Instagram walk on the ESPN Zone facade. While it seemed so small we nearly didn't post it at all, people seemed pretty excited with hundreds of "likes" on social media so we figured we'd include it here:

Alright, that's a wrap for this visit. Please subscribe on YouTube, Apple Podcast/Stitcher & follow along on social media if interested in the latest from the parks.

We are back at Disneyland, where Get Your Ears On just began Friday and the park has already layered in a Valentine's Day celebration.

​Before we get to that, let's stop in at the Grand Californian Hotel where White Water Snacks has re-opened. While there is no physical menu sign, you can view the full menu on the Disneyland app (yes, they have nachos).

Just outside the Grand, World of Disney continues their food merch push and have added a food cart that currently is filled with plush pizza.

At Disneyland, there have been a number of touches to theme things for Valentine's Day that range from as minor as heart stickers added to Mickey and Minnie signs to full photo ops.

Similar to the Easter scavenger hunt DLR has had for years, this year there is a Valentine's Day Version. A map is $6.99, but the purchase of two maps secured you both sets of cards prior to even doing the hunt. All in all, pretty reasonable for a fun little hunt around the parks. We will only show two of the items being hunted, so as to not spoil all of the fun.

While Disneyland has been adding hearts, DCA has been adding elements for this Friday's opening of Lunar New Year. Booths, with menus, have started popping up as well as other pieces of decor.

On the merchandise front, DCA's Big Top Toys had a couple re-stock/new items.

Alright, that's a wrap for this visit. Please subscribe on YouTube, Apple Podcast/Stitcher & follow along on social media if interested in the latest from the parks.

It was only 11 days ago that Disneyland Resort was celebrating the holidays and already the page has turned to a new season with Get Your Ears On. With a very rainy week in the rear view mirror, the resort attempts to transition with mixed execution. A little bit of everything seemed to be missing on opening day.

​Upon entering the park, there was a noticeable absence of any decor above the entry turnstiles. While there was some bunting, no characters or signage of any sort. Also, noticeably absent were new park guides or the food guides promoted on social media.

Inside the park, there weren't additions of much in decor from the previous day. That said, everything on display fits and is a nice touch for Get Your Ears On. Can you go wrong with a focus on Mickey and Minnie?

No new outfits for the characters on this day.

We were surprised to find none of the new popcorn buckets available for purchase in Disneyland. The popular Mickey sipper from last year's birthday celebration did return.

Although the primary focus of the day was Get Your Ears On, we'd be disingenuous to say that the original Haunted Mansion opening back up wasn't a highlight of the day. Although it's 50th anniversary is sure to be overshadowed by the opening of Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge, it definitely will still be a focus for us.

Getting back to Get Your Ears On, there isn't much more to say about decor or characters for opening day. We found some nice little touches in Mickey's ToonTown, but nothing very memorable anywhere in the park.

With the focus of the event seeming to primarily be food and merchandise, we did make an effort to try a few more items than normal. In the end, we purchased a cake pop ($6), the new bow-tie pasta ($10.49) at Alien's Pizza Planet and the 90th Burger ($15) at Smokejumper's Grill. The pasta was the highlight. Very tasty item with cute presentation. The cake pop was standard. Nothing much to say on that one. The burger was interesting. At $15, with no fries, it just seemed like a standard overpriced burger with a more appealing aesthetic. That said, it was quite tasty. It has been awhile since we've eaten at Smokejumper's so we can't compare very accurately to what their burgers normally are. Be advised it's a lot of meat and cheese. We split it for dinner and still left a bit uneaten.

It appears the short return of Paradise Garden Grill was just a tease. Although the original menu returned after the departure of the holiday season, the counter service spot hasn't opened yet and now has just a couple days before they reopen in the Disney Lunar New Year mode.

On the way to setting up to record Mickey's Mix Magic show, we stumbled upon a couple of the Get Your Ears On Food Guides on a counter, at Plaza Inn. We had inquired at a few food spots throughout the day and no one seemed to know what we were talking about. Anyway, it was nice to get a look at the physical guide. We put together a quick video of it, for any that are interested. You can also find a version on the Disney Parks Blog.

Closing out the night, we finished with the debut of Mickey's Mix Magic. This new nighttime show utilizes projection mapping on Main Street and "it's a small world" and lively music to entertain. This 10 minute show is high energy and fun from start to finish. That said, it doesn't have the grandeur of a traditional "kiss goodnight" and rather feels like it should run multiple times a night. The current schedule of one showing per evening brings to many crowds for such a small scale show. All in all, we enjoyed it but just think the time investment should be minimal. We managed to grab video from two different angles, so check them out if interested. Also, we have individualized video for each song.

Thanks for joining us for this big day of coverage! More to come soon.

Welcome back! The rain didn't hold us back from getting a second update in at the Disneyland Resort this week. Here is what found on the dreary night.
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First up, the new parking structure continues to show progress. It feels like each visit it is noticeably further along.

Meanwhile, at the Disneyland Hotel work continues on Tangaroa. You can now see a bit of the new wallpaper and the classic photos are not up (yet?). Also, the soda machine is now a Coke Freestyle.

Additionally, work on the pool is still happening.

At the Downtown Disney Lego Store, everything is awesome as the store continues to make the newest Lego Movie the center of its displays. The massive "Welcome to Apocolypseberg" set is the newest centerpiece display.

Not to be outdone by World of Disney, Disney Home has added a big food merch display for Get Your Ears On.

Also, Marceline's has the Steamboat Willy candy apple added to its treats.

More displays have been added for Get Your Ears On at the center of World of Disney.

Although the rain has slowed work, there are a few new signs of Disney Lunar New Year. With only a week to get there, lots of advances should be seen by Monday.

Disneyland⁠ ⁠ kicks off Valentine’s Day season on 1/22, so signs of that are also starting to appear in DCA.

We finally got the Get Your Ears On banners we've been looking most for, as they are up at the entrance of Disneyland⁠ ⁠ and on Main Street. Cast Members at the turnstiles said more decor will come tonight above the entryway.

New Haunted Mansion keychains. With the 50th this year, the merch train will be difficult to keep up for Haunted Mansion fans.

Last up, today, is our quick video of the latest from Get Your Ears On.

We'll be back, tomorrow, with much more. Follow along, with us, on our social channels and YouTube.

Welcome! This is a brand new addition to the way we cover parks on our routine visits. We don’t plan to do anything different with our social media updates, but we do want to add this spot to include a bit more. In short, there’s only so much we can post on social channels. So, follow along with us there and here!

Our first park update from Disneyland comes on this rainy night. Take a look at Get Your Ears On progress, refurb projects, new merchandise and more. Enjoy!

Let’s start things out with Get Your Ears On. This new seasonal event officially kicks off Monday with a new nighttime show, but banners, merchandise and other nods have been showing up for over a week. If not subscribed to our YouTube channel, you might have missed our first two updates on the event. You can catch up here: