Entertainment at Disneyland Park

Moving on from the attractions, here are my thoughts on some of the entertainment at Disneyland (I'm defining entertainment here as things that are on at particular times listed in the Times Guide, i.e., shows, parades, fireworks, etc.).

Main Street, U.S.A.

Mickey's Soundsational Parade - This was fun and featured lots of different Disney characters. This parade has been around for a few years so it was much less insane than the nighttime parade. I was able to get a seat on a bench about half an hour before the parade.

Disneyland Forever - These fireworks were new for Disneyland's 60th anniversary. They were one of my favourite things at Disneyland and I saw them almost every night I was there. My favourite fireworks sequence was Let It Go (which suits itself very well to fireworks), but my favourite part of the fireworks overall was Tinker Bell flying (unlike at Disney World, she flew all around the castle rather than just from one point to another). I tried to watch the fireworks from a few different locations. The hub gave a great view of the actual fireworks and of Tinker Bell flying. After I saw Fantasmic I stayed where I was for the fireworks, which I think was the best view of the projections (on mist screens). The snow in the Let it Go sequence fell in the Fantasmic viewing area and on Main Street, but not in the hub. My main disappointment about the fireworks was that twice Tinkerbell and Nemo didn't fly and there was no announcement to that effect (one night there was lightning in the area; the other night I have no idea why they didn't fly).

Paint the Night - Like the fireworks, this parade was new for the 60th anniversary. I enjoyed the parade more the second time I saw it. I think my enjoyment increased once I realised that it's very true that Magic Kingdom (at Disney World) is the most magical place on earth whereas Disneyland (Anaheim) is the happiest place on earth. The first time I saw the parade I was disappointed that it wasn't magical. Once I realised that it was supposed to be fun I got a lot more out of it. And technically it was very impressive. The downside was how difficult it was to get a good spot for the parade. Curbside seats along Main Street were taken by about 3 hours before the first parade. An hour in advance I was able to get a spot about 5 people back. We were able to sit down until about 20 minutes before the parade.

Disneyland Band - The band have two different sets on Main St; the 10:30 and 11:30 sets are near the train station while the 12:30 set starts near the castle and moves down Main St. I saw both versions and much preferred the 12:30 version. The morning/train station version was mildly entertaining. The 12:30 version had characters (Mickey and friends) plus the Dapper Dans joined in once they reached the train station. But the best part was that as they marched down Main St the people watching fell in behind them which kind of felt like actually being in a parade. The only strange thing was that they did a singalong of Live the Magic which nobody in the audience actually knew the words to.

New Orleans Square

Jambayala Jazz - Stopped briefly to hear this group perform but wasn't interested enough to watch a whole set. Mainly provided live atmosphere music for the area.

The Bootstrappers - This group was performing while I was at Café Orleans and provided some entertainment while I waited for my food. I'm not sure that I would have stopped to watch them otherwise though.

Frontierland

Fantasmic - I only saw this once because it was only showing on weekends. I did the Blue Bayou package so my view of both the island and the boats was excellent. The fastpass I was given gave a return window starting at 8:30 (for a 9pm show) but I showed up at 8:10 to be safe. I was glad I did, because the viewing area was already open and I ended up in the third row back. Some segments of the show were very similar to the Disney World version but some are completely different, including a cool Peter Pan segment which uses the Columbia ship. The dragon is also much more impressive in Disneyland. Overall a very enjoyable show.

The Laughing Stock Co. - I only saw this group as I was passing by. They were mildly funny. One of the main issues with the smaller entertainment offerings was that watching them involved standing out in the sun and in August it was just too hot to do that for long.

Fantasyland

Mickey and the Magical Map - This was a great show. It was basically a long medley of songs from Disney movies tied together with a vague plot involving Mickey. So the storyline wasn't particularly interesting but all of the songs and choreography were really good. I would have like to have seen it twice but since it is only shown in the afternoon and was not on every day while I was there it was too hard to fit in a second performance.

Royal Theatre - I knew that this Frozen show was Fastpass only but I didn't realise how popular it would be, so it took me two attempts to see it. Definitely worth the effort as it was very funny - much better than the Frozen Singalong at DCA. I particularly appreciated the subtle musical references (Peer Gynt, Peter and the Wolf, etc.).