Did you get your fill of turducken, green bean casserole, and pumpkin pie last week? Hopefully you were busy chowing down during Thanksgiving, and not braving the record crowds that descended upon the Disneyland Resort. Cyber Monday through Post-Turkey Thursday is your last best chance for exploring the park's holiday offerings. Expect attendance to steadily build starting this coming Friday through the end of December.

Crowd Calendar

Quietest Day: Saturday 11/24 was a 9 out of 10 at the resort, with a 8.5 at Disneyland, and 8.4 at DCA.

Busiest Day: Tuesday 11/20 was a 10 out of 10 at the resort, with a 9.6 at Disneyland, and 9.9 at DCA.

Subscribe to the Touring Plans Disneyland Crowd Calendar for full details on predicted attendance for the next 30 days.

Special Events

• Holiday decorations are visible throughout the resort to celebrate Disneyland's Holiday season, which runs through 1/6/2013. The Holiday Fantasy daytime parade is now performing daily.
• Annual passholders who entered a sweepstakes for tickets to the Candlelight Processional at Disneyland Park should be notified if they won beginning today (11/26). Glow in the dark merchandise themed to the show will be available in the park starting December 1.

• Guided VIP tours of Disneyland's holiday offerings are available now through the end of the season.
• Now through 1/6, the Believe…In Holiday Magic fireworks at Disneyland Park now interacts with Glow With The Show light-up mouse ear hats.
• Disneyland offered Thanksgiving feasts last Thursday at the resort hotels and throughout the parks.
• Santa is making daily appearances at Big Thunder Ranch's Jingle Jangle Jamboree through the end of the season.
• Holiday decor, seasonal songs, and nightly “snowfalls” have been added to DCA's Mad T Party now through New Years. Glow in the dark collectible pins are also now on sale.
• Ramone's House of Body Art in Cars Land officially expands its merchandise space into the former FastPass distribution garage next door begining today, though sales there started over the weekend. Special seasonal Cars Land items will be on sale through the end of the holidays.
• A new collection of Nightmare Before Christmas-inspired artwork by Noah will be released on 12/1 at Downtown Disney's WonderGround Gallery.

• Fresh hand-made candy canes will be prepared at Disneyland's Candy Palace on November 23, 26, & 30, and December 3, 7, 10, 14, 17, 21, 23, & 24. The canes will also be made at DCA's Trolley Treats on November 24 & 27, and December 1, 4, 8, 11, 15, 18, 22, & 25. Arrive at park opening to secure a wristband and be prepared for a long, long, wait if you want one of the $13 sweets!
• Santa Claus currently is posing for (paid) photos in the mornings at the Paradise Pier hotel, and in the evenings at the Grand Californian and Disneyland hotels.
• A modest “holiday village” of merchandise and snack vendors has cropped up near the ice skating rink in Downtown Disney.
• A contract worker was cleaning the exterior of Disneyland's Space Mountain last Wednesday when he fell and slid down the roof, and had rescued by the fire department.
• Disneyland Resort is now allowing guests with 4 or 5 day passes to enter the parks through any turnstyle, but is still checking photo IDs. This results in slow entry procedures; be prepared this holiday season to arrive extra early (at least 45 pre-opening) to be one of the first people into the park.
• Actor Will Ferrell was spotted hanging out with Santa Goofy inside Disneyland Park last week.

Openings, Closings, and Refurbishments

• Indiana Jones Adventure: Closed through 12/7/12 for a much needed refurbishment.
• Construction continues through 2013 on the new Princess Fantasy Faire and Fantasyland Theatre.
• MuppetVision 4D has been temporarily replaced with the Prep & Landing: Naughty vs. Nice 3-D short film for the holiday season.
• A Prep & Landing sequence has also been temporarily added to World of Color performances.

• Mickey’s Fun Wheel is closed for refurbishment 11/26 through 12/6.

Last Week at Disneyland Resort (11/18/2012 – 11/24/2012) is a post from the TouringPlans.com Blog. Signup for a premium subscription today! Or get news via Email, Twitter, & Facebook.

Disneyland's Big Thunder Ranch may not draw as much demand as the similarly-named roller-coaster next door, but it's always been one of my favorite places in the resort for catching a quiet moment.

Best known as home to the Happiest Petting Zoo on Earth (featuring a herd of friendly pigmy goats) the Ranch is currently in the clutches of Santa Claus and his elf-managing Mrs.

This year's Jingle Jangle Jamboree features photo-ops, DIY craft stations, and seasonal performance by Billy Hill and the Holiday Hillbillies on the arena stage. But this year, you may notice certain long-running VIP guests are absent.

For starters, even though the kids can still play carnival-style “reindeer games,” Santa's tradition transportation have taken the season off. Live reindeer, who formerly livened up “Santa's Reindeer Round-Up” are nowhere to be found in 2012.

Furthermore, the park's long time turkey population was taken away a few weeks before their favorite festival. In case you weren't aware, Disneyland's turkeys had a prestigious lineage, as key participants in the Presidential pardon Thanksgiving tradition.

The true origin of the United States President commuting the death sentence of a ceremonial fowl is fogged in myth, with Abraham Lincoln, Harry Truman, and John F. Kennedy commonly cited as instigators. The modern tradition began with George H.W. Bush in 1989, and in 2005 his son W. started sending his pardoned poultry to Disney. For five consecutive Thanksgivings, the nation's officially exonerated birds were immediately escorted via airplane and motorcade to either Disneyland or Walt Disney World, where they starred as Grand Marshall in the park's Thanksgiving Day parade before retiring to a pampered life at the ranch.

Unfortunately, as the modern turkey is bred to gain weight quickly and have a short lifespan, the birds sent to Walt Disney World in 2007 died swiftly of natural causes, as have their more recent successors. Happily, the three turkeys at Disneyland have lived remarkably long lives, attributed in part to a special diet the park veternarians developed.

Courage and Carolina, the last governmental gobblers given to Disneyland, were granted clemency by Barack Obama in 2009, the final year Disney participated in the ceremony. In 2010, Disney representatives explained the tradition's end as resulting from their focus on the then-new “Let the Memories Begin” marketing campaign. Since then, Presidential turkeys have taken wing to Mount Vernon, George Washington's estate in Virginia.

Until recently, the remaining turkeys were allowed to live out their retirements in the pen provided for them at Big Thunder Ranch. They were pulled from public view before the Christmas decor was revealed, and while there is no official acknowledgement of their fate, according to MiceAge's Al Lutz they should now be happily housed in backstage facilities. While it's gratifying to know their oversized drumsticks won't be greasily gracing the park's vending carts, that corner of Disneyland will forever feel a little less colorful to those who notice the birds' absence.

As you dig into your Thankgiving repast, take a moment to say a belated bye-bye to our dearly departed feathered friends. Then please pass me the stuffing!

Goodbye Gobbler Gallery: A Thanksgiving Tribute to Disneyland’s Ex-Turkeys is a post from the TouringPlans.com Blog. Signup for a premium subscription today! Or get news via Email, Twitter, & Facebook.

All photos copyright Disney

We hope you got a chance to check out Disneyland's seasonal decor during last week's slow period, because this week will be slammed with holiday tourists. On the plus side, a couple Fantasyland classics returned recently from extensive refurbishment, revealing a famous puppet-eating whale who now looks better than he has in years.

Crowd Calendar

Quietest Day: Tuesday and Wednesday 11/13 & 14 were both a 1 out of 10 at the resort, with a 1.1 at Disneyland, and 1.1 at DCA.

Busiest Day: Sunday 11/11 was a 9 out of 10 at the resort, with a 7.6 at Disneyland, and 8.7 at DCA.

Subscribe to the Touring Plans Disneyland Crowd Calendar for full details on predicted attendance for the next 30 days.

Special Events

• Holiday decoration were installed throughout the resort in time for the offical 11/12 start of Disneyland's Holiday season, which runs through 1/6/2013. The Holiday Fantasy daytime parade is now performing daily.
• Guided VIP tours of Disneyland's holiday offerings are available now through the end of the season.
• Beginning on 11/12, the Believe…In Holiday Magic fireworks at Disneyland Park now interacts with Glow With The Show light-up mouse ear hats.
• The Plummers, a Marine Corps family from California, helped “flip the switch” inaugurating this season's “it's a small world” holiday decor on 11/12.
• Disneyland released details on Thanksgiving feasts offered this Thursday at the resort hotels and throughout the parks.
• Disney has rolled out a new Mickey Check symbol on restaurant menus at both American resorts, indicating kids' meal selections that meet new nutritional guidelines.

• Cars Land, Radiator Springs Racers, and Carthay Circle Theater all picked up prestigious prizes at the annual Themed Entertainment Association industry awards.
• Santa is making daily appearances at Big Thunder Ranch's Jingle Jangle Jamboree through the end of the season.
• Between 11/12 and 11/18, annual passholders could enter a sweepstakes for tickets to the Candlelight Processional at Disneyland Park. Winners will be notified starting 11/26.
• Holiday decor, seasonal songs, and nightly “snowfalls” have been added to DCA's Mad T Party now through New Years. Glow in the dark collectible pins are also now on sale.
• A new holiday edition of the Buena Vista Bugle is now being distributed in DCA.
• Variety reported that Disney is developing a new television show based on the ride Big Thunder Mountain.
• A Babydoll sheep and minature Herford cow have joined the herd at Big Thunder Ranch; visiting guests can vote on what the animals' names should be.
  

Openings, Closings, and Refurbishments

• Indiana Jones Adventure: Closed through 12/7/12 for a much needed refurbishment.
• Storybook Land Canal Boats and Casey Jr. Circus Train: reopened on 11/16 after refurbishment, with new safety railings installed along the bridge over the canal.
• Construction continues through 2013 on the new Princess Fantasy Faire and Fantasyland Theatre.
• The repair of tile in front of Carthay Circle Restaurant has been completed, with no significant CHAGES from the original look.
• MuppetVision 4D has been temporarily replaced with the Prep & Landing: Naughty vs. Nice 3-D short film for the holiday season.
• A Prep & Landing sequence has also been temporarily added to World of Color performances.

Last Week at Disneyland Resort (11/11/2012 – 11/17/2012) is a post from the TouringPlans.com Blog. Signup for a premium subscription today! Or get news via Email, Twitter, & Facebook.