Disneyland All-Nighter 2015 RECAP

Disclaimer: I will be talking about the new changes to several Disneyland rides, in some detail. If you haven't seen these yet and would like to experience them for yourself spoiler-free, I suggest you stop reading here.

The chain has broken.

This year's all-nighter was absolutely spectacular. New rides, amazing fireworks, parades, decorations. It may have been my favorite one so far. Unfortunately, I didn't make the full 24 hours.

My friends and I arrived around 5 and got into the park at opening. The first ride of the day was Matterhorn, and I wouldn't have had it any other way. The new additions are fantastic. The lift hill effect is super cool, even terrifying. The crashed bobsleds are an awesome touch. But of course, the centerpiece of this new makeover is the updated yeti, and it is far from disappointing. Our new friend is much larger and much scarier: in fact, only his upper body can be seen. Rather than clawing at the air, the yeti now emerges from a cave and roars directly at passing riders. His movements are much more lifelike, and while I think the new roar is a little... I don't know, zombie-like? It's still quite chilling.

As I had been saving the Hatbox Ghost for myself as well, that was the second ride we hit. The new effect is really cool--it really does look like his head disappears. It's great to finally see one of the most iconic parts of the ride in person, especially because they finally had the technology to successfully pull it off. However, I feel that the addition of the Hatbox Ghost makes the ghost bride look even more lame by comparison. I hope they can update her with similar technology in the future.

At some point in the day we rode on Splash Mountain, getting far more soaked than usual. Seriously, they must have dialed it up for the summer because I have never gotten so drenched on this ride as I have when a tidal wave crashed over us on the final drop.

The park reached capacity sometime in the early afternoon. After jumping from ride to ride, we rode on Indiana Jones Adventure and were amazed to discover the new ride intro. We first saw the Fountain of Eternal Youth, and the second time around we saw the Observatory of the Future. The latter was really cool, even more so than before. I was very pleasantly surprised to discover these changes.

In anticipation of the new firework show, we decided to ride the Matterhorn while the fireworks went off. We got in line at exactly 8:30 to prepare for the fireworks at 9:30. We actually had to go around 4 times before the fireworks started, believe it or not.

By midnight, we'd been on almost every ride in Disneyland Park. We decided to try our luck at California Adventure, but the lines to get into either park were the longest I've ever seen. My friends and I went back to our hotel and went to sleep, though one of my friends got into DCA at 3 and saw the new World of Color. As I really wanted to see the new changes to DCA for myself, I will be returning soon.

This year with all the new changes coming to the park and with the 60th anniversary kicking off, it's no surprise that the 22nd was so busy. Hopefully in 2016 I can reach the 24 hour mark once again.

Disneyland All-Nighter 2015 Preview

This year's 24 hour Disneyland day is highly anticipated, as it will not only be celebrating the beginning of summer, but also Disneyland's 60th anniversary. Many updates are happening at the resort, and some will be unveiled on May 22nd, the day of the all-nighter. These include a new parade and firework show, and new and improved abominable snowman animatronics on Matterhorn Bobsleds. Not to mention the return of the famed Hatbox Ghost, which is happening on May 9th (tomorrow)!

As I have the past couple years, I will be recapping the all-nighter, and trying to once again hit the 24 hour mark. I have a strong feeling that this year's all-nighter will be the best one yet.