On Sunday, the wife and I will be taking our boy to Disneyland! It will be his second official visit and I seriously can’t wait! Going to the parks with a little guy is very different than usual visits. However, I can’t wait to see how he reacts to the sights and sounds from my absolute favorite place on earth now that he’s nearly 15 months old! In honor of this visit, I thought I’d take a virtual trip to various Disney parks in North America to see some of the new stuff virtually. What do you say? Are you with me?

Up first, at DCA, the Guardians of the Galaxy have taken over. This show entitled “Avengers Training Initiative,” is pretty much the Jedi Training Academy for Marvel. While this show doesn’t have any of the Guardians of the Galaxy, it’s fun for the family. Colton is still too young to participate. Maybe, if this show proves to be as popular as the Jedi Training Academy at Disneyland, he’ll step in sometime in the future.

Out in front of the new Guardians of the Galaxy: Mission Breakout, we have this fun little show featuring Star Lord and Gamora. If you’ve seen any of the Guardians of the Galaxy movies, you know music is a big part of how Star Lord operates. So, it is sort of fitting that a show for the Guardians would be a music one.

Of course, here is the main addition of the summer at DCA. It’s the Guardians of the Galaxy: Mission Breakout attraction. This attraction replaced the Tower of Terror. The folks at Walt Disney Imagineering have come up with an amzaingly awesome queue for this attraction. I’ve read quite a few people who went to this new attraction not wanting to like it because of how much they loved the Tower of Terror. Much to their surprise, they love the new attraction as well.

I think this video is kind of cool to give you a perspective on the similarities/dissimilarities between the two attractions.

Over at Disney’s Animal Kingdom in Florida, the big addition is Pandora from the movie Avatar. It’s a brand new land for DAK. The lines to get in to the land itself lasted hours when it first opened to the public. We can walk through any time we want with the aid of YouTube.

In this video, you’ll have to jump to around 4 minutes to get to the reason I share it. This video takes you through Pandora at night. The addition of this “Avatar Land” has given Disney’s Animal kingdom something it never had… a reason to visit at night!

One of the attractions in Pandora is the Na’vi River Journey boat ride. The animatronics in this attraction are absolutely amazing! I saw the main animatronic in this attraction a few years ago at a WDI Research and Development Open House. It’s really cool to finally see this figure in the attraction itself.

The E Ticket attraction of Pandora is the Flight of Passage ride. This video is of the queue line for the attraction. It ends with you entering the ride portion.

Here is the ride video. It’s a motion simulator kind of a ride. The video is stunning. Don’t you think?

With the opening of Pandora, Animal Kingdom is now open past sunset. So, that means they can have nighttime shows! Here’s the new Rivers of Light show at DAK!

Over at Disney’s Hollywood Studios, they’ve added The Music of Pixar show featuring a live orchestra, walk around characters, and film clips. I love this show! I do wonder how long it will last, though. That orchestra must have cost Disney quite a bit of money. Anyways, this show is really fun!

Disney Movie Magic is really cool! First, this projection show does NOT feature the Disney Animation movies. It’s all about live action movies. That’s why I love it so much and wish I could go right now and see it live. It’s rare for Disney to have shows like this which don’t reference their animation. So, for the uniqueness alone, it’s totally worth the watch.

Of course the Disney Movie Magic show leads into the Star Wars: A Galactic Spectacular Fireworks show. Disney is clearly using a formula here. Projection show followed by fireworks, just like the Magic Kingdom.

Speaking of the Magic Kingdom, the long time popular fireworks show Wishes has been replaces with Happily Ever After. I don’t know about you, but the new show looks amazing! I don’t have the emotional connection with Wishes that many have. So, I’m sure there are those out there that would disagree with me. But, I think this show is amazing!

Back at Disneyland, the Main Street Electrical Parade returned earlier this year. To be honest, it was a change that I thought was unnecessary. I still do. When I go to Disneyland, I won’t be watching this parade because Colton will need to be in bed before it makes way up Main Street U.S.A. It’s not that this is a bad parade.

However, when you have Paint the Night already happening, it’s hard to go back in time. Sorry to those that love the Main Street Electrical Parade. But, I’m a much bigger fan of Paint the Night.

Let’s end this post with my favorite Disney fireworks show…Remember…Dreams Come True. This is the firework show that Disneyland had going on for its 50th Anniversary. The new additions in 2017 are amazing!