Today we finish up our two-part update on Disneyland‘s big 60th Anniversary celebration kick-off by taking a look at the new daytime entertainment, attraction enhancements and special 60th anniversary decorations in both parks. From fierce new enhancements at the Matterhorn Bobsleds to new tunes from Five and Dime and a new Disney Gallery exhibit, we’ve got all of the new additions and daytime entertainment covered. We’ll finish up with a special insiders recap of Friday’s 24 hour party, sent over from the MiceAge Update crew.
Don’t miss your weekly Disneyland Resort crowd forecast — provided by our friends at MouseAddict — in the Weekly News and Information Roundup at the end of today’s update!
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Dateline Disneyland is back! As you may have noticed, I took some time off recently to tend to some unexpected family issues and also to celebrate a personal achievement. Dateline Disneyland is back now, and just in time to fill you in on all the goings-on for Disneyland’s big Diamond Celebration.
Okay, we’ve got a lot to cover today, so let’s get started!
| Welcome to Disneyland’s Diamond Celebration! |
Disneyland’s big 60th Anniversary Diamond Celebration is now underway and both parks are decked out for the party.
Overall, the decorations look great — Disneyland went all out here and it shows.
Main Street is lined with blue bunting and Diamond D icons for the celebration.
In Town Square, Mickey and friends meet with guests in their new 60th anniversary outfits.
At the end of Main Street, Sleeping Beauty Castle’s Diamond Celebration overlay was finished off last week with the unveiling of the “60” medallion over the drawbridge entrance.
The strange plastic “diamond” covers over two of the frontmost turrets on the Castle were removed before the launch of the celebration. The turret rooftops now blend in better with the rest of the castle.
At night, the Castle lights up in blue with thinking lights all along its rooftop.
In Disney California Adventure, Buena Vista Street and Carthay Circle are also celebrating Disneyland’s Diamond Celebration with plenty of decorations.
Art deco-style wrought iron pieces adorn California Adventure’s Pan Pacific gates
Buena Vista Street is also lined with blue Diamond Celebration bunting
Diamond Ds on the Glendale-Hyperion bridge
Carthay Circle Theater is dressed up for the party but not as much as Sleeping Beauty Castle.
Looks good
The marquee has been given the diamond treatment
It doesn’t really photograph well but in person the diamonds are a nice, festive touch.
This weird silver cover over some of the finials are the worst part of the overlay. They don’t look great.
| Park entertainment celebrates with new tunes |
As part of the 60th anniversary festivities, live music entertainment is getting a big expansion in both parks later this summer, including significant changes for the Disneyland Band. These big changes will go into effect starting July 17 but before that happens, the Dapper Dans, Five and Dime and the Red Car News Boys have received big updates to their shows, with new songs to celebrate the 60th.
On Main Street, the Dapper Dans have incorporated an updated version of the Sherman Brother’s “Tencennial Song” along with several Diamond Celebration references.
Below, watch the Dapper Dans perform on Main Street with new 60th Anniversary additions
In Disney California, Five and Dime are celebrating the 60th on Buena Vista Street with three new songs
Also on Buena Vista Street, the Red Car News Boys have a new finale song with Mickey called “Dream It Do It!”
| Attractions dazzle with new magic |
In both parks, attractions, exhibits and displays have received big updates and enhancements just in time for the 60th Anniversary celebration. From windows on Main Street to an new Abominable Snowman in the Matterhorn, there’s been a lot of plussing going on in the parks.
In Town Square, the Disney Gallery in the Main Street Opera House lobby has a new exhibit up in honor of the 60th anniversary. Banners were still up over the weekend for the Gallery’s former Ice Queen-themed show…
Luckily new posters announce the new “Drawing Disneyland: The Early Years,” which showcases concept drawings of the park, land-by-land by early WED Imagineers.
The new show is really great, with beautifully hand-rendered sketches and illustrations by some of Walt’s original Imagineers.
Adventureland by Harper Goff
Frontierland by Sam McKim
Main Street U.S.A. by Harry Johnson
Fantasyland by Bill Martin
Tomorrowland by John Hench
Display cases feature photos of Walt Disney with the early Imagineers. Below, Walt and Disney Legend Bob Gurr.
Walt and Bob Sewell
Walt with Claude Coats, Bill Cottrell, John Hench, Don Edgren and Dick Irvine.
Walt and Herb Ryman
Meanwhile, the Opera House lobby is still running the 10-year-old 50th Anniversary movie starring Steve Martin.
On Main Street, the windows of the Emporium are being transformed with new enchanted displays depicting classic and recent Disney films. The first of the six new displays to debut is the one based on Peter Pan, and it’s pretty great.
Below, behind-the-scenes footage from Disney of the making-of the new window displays.
With the window glare, it’s difficult to get photos or video that truly illustrate the size and quality of the new display… but trust me — the quality and showmanship here is top notch.
The remaining Enchanted Windows debut over the next several months and will feature scenes from Cinderella, Frozen, Princess and the Frog, Aladdin and Toy Story. Below, video of the new Peter Pan window.
In Fantasyland, the Matterhorn has reopened with impressive new Abominable Snowman audio-animatronics, replacing the old late-1970s figures.
The new figures depict the Abominable Snowman as being larger and scarier than ever before and appears to lunge at passing bobsleds.
The old animatronics certainly held a lot of nostalgia and childhood memories for me, but the new figures are excellent and help raise the stakes and boost the thrill level of the ride.
In addition to the new, advanced Abominable Snowmen figures, the Matterhorn lost the old glowing crystals and Wells Expedition vignette. In its place is a new pile of things the Abominable Snowman has apparently stolen and torn up, including old Disneyland ride vehicles including an old Matterhorn bobsled and a Skyway bucket. In a recent interview with the Huffington Post, Imagineer Kim Irvine explained the changes:
“Again, I want to stress here that the story that the Matterhorn tells is pretty much the same. The big change is, of course, with the Abominable Snowman. He’s a little bit more ferocious, a little bit more exciting,” Kim said. “And if you’re really paying attention as you ride along in your bobsled, you may notice that — at various points along the way — that there are these caves where the Abominable Snowman seems to be hoarding things that he found out in the Park. That — if you look closely — you may be able to see items that pay tribute to rides, shows and attractions from Disneyland’s past.”
It’s a bizarre and unfortunate change as the new scene really just reads as a pile of garbage as you pass by at the Matterhorn’s zippy 27 mph. The glowing crystals, on the other hand, were bright and were easy-to-understand as you zipped by. The Wells Expedition climbing gear in the crystals vignette (a tribute to former Walt Disney Company President and mountain climber Frank Wells) and the Abominable Snowman’s red glowing eyes at the top of the lift hill were also lost as part of this project.
Disney recently released video of the new changes:
And below, the new changes seen in context on the ride.
Full ride on the Tomorrowland-side.
The ride is drawing long wait times following its reopening as guests line up to see the changes.
A fun new Matterhorn photo-op is set up not far from the ride’s entrance.
In New Orleans Square, the Haunted Mansion recently unveiled the long-awaited Hat Box Ghost. The character—which debuted with the Haunted Mansion in 1969 but was quickly removed after Imagineers were unable to get the effect to work properly—garnered a fervent cult following in recent years and his popularity was bolstered when Disney began producing merchandise with his likeness. Speculation of his return reached a fever pitch when Disney included a mock-up of the character at the D23 Expo in 2013.
The scene and the effect looks and works great.
Below, video of the Hat Box Ghost in the Haunted Mansion:
The return of the Hat Box Ghost has been popular and Disney reinstated Fastpass use at the attraction, which has been reserved only for Haunted Mansion Holiday in recent years.
and Soarin’ Over California
Over in Disney California Adventure, Grizzly Peak Airfield opened earlier this month. The rethemed area replaces Condor Flats, making the entire area an extension of the larger Grizzly Peak theme. The changes here are wildly successful, bringing in great new landscaping, nice new architectural features, a lovely new color palette for the area, fantastic new music, and lots of new thematic touches that really make the space feel like a 1950s-era National Park.
Condor Flats’ old desert-themed rock work has been replaced with new rock work that blends in with Grizzly Peak
Lots of great new signage and notice boards up throughout the land
The former Fly ‘n’ Buy shop is now Humphrey’s, named after Disney’s Humphrey the Bear
John Muir quotes on the restrooms building
The billboard has a new design
The popcorn cart has a new look as well
The new Mt. Muir Lookout tower is a great addition.
Soarin’ Over California is back as well, with new 4K projection systems that replaced the old film projectors. The change to digital improves on some aspects (no more dirty or scratched film) while lessens others (4K digital resolution isn’t as high as 70mm film).
Unfortunately, the interior of Soarin’ was unchanged during the Grizzly Peak Airfield remodel. The original design of the space isn’t the worst thing from the original Disney’s California Adventure, but it would have been great to see it updated with the new Grizzly Peak Airfield aesthetic.
Below, a full ride-through of Soarin’ Over California with new 4K projection
Overall, the new Grizzly Peak Airfield is fantastic. It’s surprising what a lot of new paint, some trees and some great thematic details can do to really change the feel of an area. The Airfield is relaxing, and unlike Condor Flats, it’s actually a place I want to spend time in. Congrats to the team that worked on this, it’s really a wonderful job well done.
| Refurbishment Roundup |
In Fantasyland, Peter Pan’s Flight continues its refurbishment and enhancement project. Originally set to open by the 60th Anniversary kickoff, the classic dark ride has been delayed until July 1.
Walls are down around the attraction but blue curtains have been put up, blocking any views into the load station.
In Tomorrowland, the Innoventions building remains closed. No official word yet on what’s happening here.
Tomorrowland movie art on the walls
With Innoventions closed, Captain America and Thor have relocated and are now doing meet-and-greets at a temporary location next to the Tomorrowlanding shop.
| #Disney24: Inside & Out |
Yesterday, the first installment of this 60th anniversary coverage recapped Friday’s chaotic 24-hour Diamond Celebration kickoff party. That event’s unprecedented popularity forced Disney to enforce admission restrictions to Disneyland by the early afternoon. Those restrictions ultimately continued for over 12 hours, until Disneyland finally reopened around 2 a.m. The closure of Disneyland—which continued several hours after the park had emptied following the evening fireworks show—caused major strain elsewhere in the Resort; with tens of thousands of guests flooding the main entrance esplanade, Downtown Disney, security checkpoints, and Disney California Adventure.
After running our coverage yesterday, a MiceAge source reached out to us and shared a different take on the unprecedented popularity of this year’s event and the subsequent failures within Disney that caused so many problems.
Thursday by Midnight there were already 3,000 people camping out in the shuttle loading area, where previous 24 Hour events only had a few hundred overnight campers.
Friday by 5:00am there were over 10,000 people waiting to be let in, where previous events only had a couple thousand waiting by park opening. Parking was seeing heavy arrivals before 6:00am. The plan was to pull in the expected few thousand waiting and give them free ear hats for the sunrise publicity shot at park opening. The opening ceremony went off without a hitch, but there were thousands more than expected and they filled in a very full Town Square and spilled out into the Esplanade. That was the first clue that this event was going to be much more popular than the last three 24 hour events.
By 6:30am there was already 16,000 people inside Disneyland, with 4,000 inside DCA. The early morning arrivals continued to be very heavy through Noon. The executive committee began to wonder if they’d underestimated the demand for the event by mid morning.
By 11:00am there were over 43,000 people inside Disneyland, which is the type of number you’d see on a crazy day during the week of Christmas. An additional 15,000 were in DCA, which is like an average weekday afternoon. Parking began to run out of inventory by early afternoon, and at 2:00pm there was 52,000 people inside Disneyland. That’s more than are allowed in on New Years Eve, but the decision was made to push the limit because thousands were already waiting along the parade route so the rest of the park wasn’t as busy as the in-park attendance might indicate. Disneyland’s attractions continued to have waits like an average busy holiday weekend, with longer lines at Matterhorn and Haunted Mansion.
At 2:00 the executive steering committee who had been monitoring the numbers and crowds all morning became very concerned that the event was getting out of control as people continued to pour into the Resort. The first phased closure of the Disneyland turnstiles began, jumping past the first two phases and starting with Phase 3, which suspended ticket sales and only allowed those with handstamps back into Disneyland.
In the afternoon Disneyland continued to fill with people who already had handstamps from earlier in the morning, and as word spread that the ticket booths were shutting down those inside Disneyland began to camp out. DCA was becoming busier with 24,000 in the park by 5:00pm
At 5:00 there was now 57,000 people inside Disneyland, which was the highest number anyone has ever seen in at least 20 years. Since so many people were waiting on the over-full parade route, the majority of the park felt very busy but not quite out of control. But Disneyland was in uncharted attendance territory and the executive committee was beginning to panic. For the first time ever, Disneyland triggered a Phase 4 closure of the turnstiles at 5:30, which means absolutely no one is allowed in, not even Club 33 guests, Premiere AP’s, or company executives with Gold passes. Of course, it took some time for that information to make its way to the front lines.
This is about the time that communication between departments began to break down. The Resort’s executives were holed up in the Emergency Operations Center located backstage behind Main Street. The decision was made to attempt to clear out the Esplanade by shutting down all bag check tents. This was also the time that the after-work crowd began to arrive, and tens of thousands more people arrived, using the last few thousand of the Resort’s 19,000 parking spaces they had to use on Friday.
The rest of the evening is pretty well known at this point. Throughout the evening the executive committee was feverishly trying to craft a strategy to deal with the thousands still waiting to get into the Esplanade, plus the 30,000 people now inside DCA who were getting angry that they weren’t allowed to park hop over to Disneyland. By 8:00pm the executive strategy for the Esplanade crisis became “shelter in place”, and the decision was made to keep the Esplanade on lockdown and keep Disneyland at Level 4 until sometime after Midnight.
There is no plan in place to use the audio speakers in the Esplanade and shuttle area to communicate as a public address system. There was also very little information trickling down to the lower management ranks and the hourly CM’s staffing the turnstiles and bag screening tents. The executive committee approved the usually perky Disneyland Today Twitter feed to begin putting out blunt Tweets about Disneyland’s indefinite closure. In their minds, that was effective communication, but the reality is that the thousands waiting to get in weren’t being told anything by the frazzled CM’s staffing the park entrances, and not that many guests use Twitter to find out information about their park visits. There was local media present from the Orange County Register, but they were inside the park waiting for the parade and fireworks and completely missed the real story taking place outside the gates.
In a full panic by late evening, the executives kept Disneyland’s gates closed until two hours after the final Paint The Night parade scheduled for 1:00am, even as Disneyland emptied out and most attractions had extremely short waits. The executives cut off alcohol sales at DCA by 11:00pm and closed the Guest Services building in the Esplanade due to the volatile and angry mobs. The Santa Ana Freeway was backed up for five miles north of the Disneyland Drive off ramp for hours that evening. The surface streets around Disneyland were severely congested, and occasionally gridlocked, from 7:00pm until 2:00am. The Cast Member parking shuttles used to get the CM’s back to Angel Stadium, where over 10,000 CM’s were parked on Friday, couldn’t get to the Resort and departing CM’s waited in long lines of up to an hour for a shuttle back to Angel Stadium. Never has Disneyland seen this type of crowd, and the plans TDA crafted to host 120,000 visitors for the 24 Hour Party collapsed under the weight of an estimated 175,000 that got in or attempted to get into the parks that day.
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- 5/25: Disneyland’s Diamond Celebration kicks off with a bumpy 24-hour party
An recap of Disneyland’s Diamond Celebration 24-hour party plus full coverage of the new nighttine entertainment including Paint the Night, fireworks and World of Color. - 5/22: Your Guide to Disneyland’s Diamond Celebration Merchandise
Take a look at a sampling of the over 500 new items designed specifically Disneyland’s Diamond Celebration. - 5/21: Your Guide to Disneyland’s Diamond Celebration & 24 Hour Party
A complete guide to Disneyland’s 24-hour party complete with information that’s useful throughout the entire Diamond Celebration
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| Weekly News & Information Round-Up | ||
| Weekly Theme Park Hours May 25-31, 2015 |
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| [B]Disneyland Park[/B] | [B]California Adventure[/B] | |
| Mon.-Thur.: 8 am – 12 am Fri.-Sat.: 9 am – 12 am Sunday: 8 am – 12 am |
Mon.-Thur.: 8 am – 10 pm Fri.-Sat.: 9 am – 10 pm Sunday: 8 am – 10 pm |
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| [CENTER]For a complete listing of theme park hours, visit the Disneyland.com Theme Park Calendar[/CENTER] |
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| [center]Closure and Refurbishment Schedule[/center] | ||
| [b][center]Disneyland Park[/center][/b] | ||
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| [b][center]Disney California Adventure[/center][/b] | ||
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| [b][center]Downtown Disney and Disneyland Resort Hotels[/center][/b] | ||
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May 25 — 31
The free Mouseaddict app for iPhone and iPad features more than five dozen categories of searchable resort information, weather forecasts, park and show schedules, the latest news and articles from MiceChat, and more. Download free on the App Store or at mouseaddict.com.
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| [center]Headline Roundup A quick look at noteworthy Disney theme park headlines from around the web.[/center] |
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| OK, alright that wraps up our second part of our 60th Anniversary kick-off coverage. What do you think of the new daytime entertainment and attraction enhancements? And how do you feel about Disneyland’s 24 hour party now? Join the discussion and let us know in the comments section below!
Join us next week for a look at all of Disneyland’s special Diamond Celebration food and novelty items including popcorn buckets, souvenir mugs, cupcakes and more! Special thanks to our Dateline Disneylanders!
Benjamin, and Jackie A! To help support Dateline Disneyland and get some fun swag in return, visit our Patreon page now! For more Disneyland news, be sure to read MiceChat’s weekly In the Parks blog. And be sure to check out our sister blog, Dateline Disney World – a fantastic weekly photo blog covering Walt Disney World in Orlando, Florida! Thanks for reading. See you at Disneyland! |
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