Tiana's Showboat Jubilee and the new SPACE MOUNTAIN!

Ok, i'll admit...one thing doesn't have much to do with the other...except that I went and saw both over the weekend!

First, Tiana's Showboat Jubilee was mentioned before in an ealier post, but I wanted to expand on it now that I have actually seen the show. It certainly is a very strange format for a Disney show, the performers come out from what appears to be adventureland? They parade to music from the film down through Liberty Square and onto the Riverboat, where it proceeds down the river to a catchy New Orleans style song. It comes to a stop in front of the dock to leave Tom Sawyer's Island (in between Liberty Square and Frontierland) and they perform several other numbers before continuing down the river. If you wait long enough, eventually they will come around the other side and parade back to where they came from. It was cute and fun and energetic and had the whole crowd dancing and boppin around!


The on over to SPACE MOUNTAIN! Anyone who has been on it before won't notice much of a change on the actual ride itself, the changes come inside the queue more than anything! I secured myself a fast pass early in the day, which I would recommend you do regardless of time of the year, since this attraction has always been among the most popular. The first change I noticed was the sign outside. It's a vibrant lime green. Inside the building it was noticeably cleaner (albeit what they probably spent most of their time doing). There is a BIG change on the stand-by side of the line. Recognizing that the people on that side of the line usually stand there on average of 60 minutes, the imagineers added a gaming system much like the one in Soarin' but you each have your own controls. This game takes up most of the line. While I think its cool, I can already see problems with it. When a new game started up. The line stopped moving. Even though they could have continued onto the ride they stopped going because they wanted to play the game.

On the ride itself it is very much the same. It looks like the cars have been painted, but don't let them fool you, they look new, but they aren't. One look at the nasty old pouch where you can keep your stuff would tell you that. There is one major difference for the ride...SMILE! They now take your picture! And you can buy it in the Arcade afterwards. They've also made updates to the exit on the attraction.

Osborne Family Lights

The Osborne Spectacle of Dancing Lights starts today! I am so excited as this is by far my favorite holiday celebration that Disney does. Everyone can join in on this one since it is free with admission. Located in the back of the park in an area called the Streets of America, they have an opening ceremony where one lucky child from the crowd will get to flip the switch (and its a big one) to turn on the huge collection of lights strung by the thousands on every building. Snow is also in the forcast and flurries float down in the streets. The lights "Dance" to Holiday musical numbers every 10 minutes or so. It is a lot of fun for the family, couple or group of friends.