Disney California Adventure: World of Color - Winter Dreams

This was an especially enjoyable weekend, with a tribute to George Chakiris at UCLA Saturday night followed by fun at the Disneyland Resort on Sunday.

The new World of Color - Winter Dreams water show opened at Disney California Adventure on Friday, and we took advantage of a reserved viewing area for Annual Passholders in order to see the show last night.

We showed up at park opening Sunday morning to secure our passes...

...and then, after breakfast at Flo's V8 Cafe, we headed into Disneyland to see the new "Jingle Cruise" holiday overlay.

The loading area and boats have been decorated with whimsical jungle-themed Christmas decorations, which made for a fun change.

We also briefly stopped by the new FROZEN meet and greet cottage in order to check out the audioanimatronic Olaf the Snowman, which has been installed on the roof since our last visit earlier this month.

We then headed home to do other things for a few hours, returning to California Adventure after dark:

Buena Vista Street is absolutely magical at Christmastime, with old-fashioned department store window displays and a classic music loop including songs such as Bing Crosby's "It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas."

I love these vintage-style ornaments on display in one of the store windows.

World of Color - Winter Dreams is a completely new presentation for Christmas, themed to tie in with Disney's release of FROZEN (2013) later this month. I enjoyed it very much, especially a miniature NUTCRACKER SUITE with the TOY STORY characters; the Little Green Men are some of my all-time favorite Disney characters, and they're used to great effect.

My other favorite section was of Thumper and Bambi skating on the ice; the lighting and water effects were wonderful.

I think I would have liked the show to have a little more "Christmas" and less "Winter," but the theming made sense given the new movie, which I'm looking forward to seeing.

I really admired the show's creativity, including great projections and light effects on the California Screamin' coaster in the background.

I reviewed the original World of Color show in 2010.

There's lots more about all of the resort's new holiday offerings in a terrific photo post at MiceChat. (I highly recommend the new Chorizo Flatbread temporarily offered at Boardwalk Pizza & Pasta as part of "Viva Navidad"!) As Mary McNamara wrote last week in the Los Angeles Times, Disney offers "the best holiday magic in town."

There's more fun ahead this week! Thursday night I'll be attending a screening of MARY POPPINS (1964) at Disney's El Capitan Theatre, and Saturday night I plan to see a pair of Irene Dunne comedies at UCLA.