What a week! Last Friday, Disneyland Resort unveiled Pixar Fest. It has taken us multiple visits and we still haven’t covered it all. We’ll take a stab at filling in the blanks today from DCA as well as showing you what’s new in Downtown Disney and the return of Splash Mountain at Disneyland.
Add a little background noise to your reading. Click play on the latest MiceChat Podcast below and enjoy listening along as the MiceChat Crew visit the media event for Pixar Fest:
PIXAR FEST
Disney’s summer celebration this year is Pixar Fest. It’s much bigger than previous events such as Summer of Heroes. This event involves two parades, an all-new fireworks show, a substantial amount of festival foods and merchandise, Pixar characters all over the place and some really good entertainment. You can find our 7 articles about Pixar Fest HERE.
Paradise Gardens
Disney has been using Paradise Garden as its festival space for a while now. The Garden Grill, stage and seating areas adapt themselves well to many different events and activities. The food they’ve chosen for Pixar Fest is Mexican.
The Coco Jarrita mug is super popular. They’ve been selling the mugs out on most days.
Scott thought the tacos were pretty standard, not bad, but not special.
Pixar Characters at Paradise Gardens
Three sets of characters are on rotation. Mike and Sully, Dug and Russell, and Buzz and Woody.
Some static figures from Coco are also on display:
Off in the corner of Paradise Gardens is a small offering for passholders. Leave a note, take a photo, charge your phone, and get a sticker (if they have any).
Pixarmonic Orchestra
My favorite offering in this corner of the park is the Pixarmonic Orchestra. They are a fun and wacky band which plays Spike Jones-esque versions of your favorite Pixar songs.
BLUE SKY CELLAR
Blue Sky Cellar has returned at long last with a new preview. This time around the center is shedding new light on Pixar Pier.
The reopening of Blue Sky Cellar is interesting. The space is filled with concept art and models for the Pixar takeover of the old Paradise Pier. If you take your time to look around, you’ll see how the Pier project has evolved. It was originally intended to have a spinner attraction in the helix nearest the load to the Incredicoaster. It was also once intended to have a theater behind the coaster accessed via an archway across from the Fun Wheel. There are many architectural details which were dropped as well. However, that isn’t to say Pixar Pier isn’t worth the effort. This is the process that EVERY project goes through. It’s something often referred to as “Value Engineering.” A project is pitched the way the designer(s) would LIKE to see it realized, then cuts are made for purposes of budget or even to accommodate time constraints, operations or guest research.
And Brian Pinsky shares the video in the Blue Sky Cellar:
PIXAR PIER CONSTRUCTION
There’s mania on the midway as construction crews race to get the Pier completed by it’s official June opening.
You’ll really start noticing changes now. The rooftops are being replaced or recolored at the old Ariel’s Grotto, new rooflines created for the Incredicoaster, and a new color scheme on Midway Mania.
The scream tubes are now red instead of blue. They have also been fully enclosed in many portions.
They have removed the paint from Mickey’s ears.
And the Pixar Pier logo is now in the center of the coaster loop.
The Cover Bar has reopened and is serving food. The lines are nearly as long as for Midway Mania. The bar will close again next month to complete its transition into the Lamplight Lounge.
Do you like the new look of the Toy Story building? The roof is now teal with red accents.
One thing you shouldn’t hold your breath for is the carousel. The transition won’t be complete until next year!
Parts of the coaster are starting to show significant rust.
Look at that new roofline for the Incredicoaster station.
Pixar Shop on Pier
The shop across from the Cove Bar has reopened as a Pixar store called Knick’s Knacks. There are some cute things here.
And the #pixarwall which is temporarily covering one of the entries.
PIXAR SHORTS
Are you getting tired of all the Pixar yet? Hope not, because there’s more! In the Hollywood backlot, they are showing Pixar Shorts. At the moment they have “Piper,” “Lava” and “For the Birds.” The do use some of the 4D effects in the theater as well as the 3D glasses.
CARS GET META
What would various Pixar films look like if the happned within the world of Cars? There are some clues during Pixar Fest. At the entry to the land you can have your photo taken with the Cars versions of Buzz and Woody. And in the land are some movie posters. It’s meta and totally geeky . . . we love it.
Anyone else want to see them turn these posters into short films?
BUGS/MARVEL LAND
Tick Tock, time to visit Bugs Land. If you want to get those last minute photos or a ride on the attractions, you’ll want to do that soon. The land will close this summer to allow construction Marvel Land.
With one attraction already closed (Tough to be a Bug), they are doing some kid craft and face painting stuff in the area to help keep families occupied.
DOWNTOWN DISNEY
Out in Downtown Disney even more change is on the way. Half of World of Disney is closed as they change the look of the store. It’s not just an overlay, they are doing heavy duty construction.
Dress shop
The Dress Shop has been playing musical chairs. First the dresses moved from Vault Disney to the space vacated by the hat shop. And this week it moved again to the shop where Anna and Elsa’s boutique was located.
The hospital coloration for old Build a Bear building we showed you last week has been toned down. The building is now sporting gold and silver accents.
Pixar decorations have been added to the gardens.
SPLASH MOUNTAIN BREAKDANCE
Splash Mountain has FINALLY returned from refurbishment. The attraction wasn’t quite ready on reopening day last weekened and spent much of the time it has been reopened to guests . . . broken. Our staff had been trying to ride the attraction to report on it for you for our Monday Update, but the attraction was out of service. Dusty was the first of our crew to get a complete ride-through and his video is below for you.
The attraction itself looks pretty good. The lights are brighter and the upstairs scenes are better lit. Though, there appear to be areas they are still working on. A few of the figures have not returned and those areas aren’t properly lit yet.
Click play and enjoy the ride:
THIS AND THAT
Schmoozies is offering a Mike Wazowski birthday cake ice cream whoopie pie and mint chip shake.
Scott said if you’re a fan of ice cream, these are great as Mike is filled with a tasty birthday cake ice cream and the Mint Chip shake essentially is mint chip ice cream. Although he felt that he wouldn’t eat both together again, it was a lot of sugar!
Dole Whip Doughnut Craze
Everyone seems to be going gaga for the new pineapple specialty doughnut at Disneyland. The confection is made to look like it has a dollop of Dole Whip on top and various social media bloggers and vloggers shared, but that’s really meringue. Disney could not legally use the “Dole” name since it is not made by Dole, nor does it actually contain Dole Whip. But that didn’t stop the craze and waits have been up to an hour long to purchase one. That’s made worse by the fact that the doughnuts are only released twice a day in very limited quantity (once in the morning and once at 5pm on most days). Yesterday they made 300 pineapple doughnuts in the morning and another 300 in the afternoon.
Take a look at this line:
Time for some sadness. The last day for the doughnut was yesterday (unless Disney decides to extend the run). Lines (and even guest confrontations) got so bad that Disney had to start handing out vouchers.
But cast members tell us that the doughnut may return very soon. Given the popularity of the specialty doughnuts in general, and the pineapple doughnut in particular, we hope Disney will expand the number of doughnuts made every day and the number of locations they are available. If Universal can make fresh Lard Lad doughnuts available all day, so can Disney.
DAPPER DAYS
One of our favorite days of the year returns this Sunday. Dapper Day! Come join us at the Walt and Mickey Statue at noon on Sunday for our regular Disneyland meet-up. You don’t need to dress dapper, but please feel free to do so.
If you are looking for something swanky to wear, you can visit the Disneyland Hotel ballroom on Saturday and Sunday and pick up some hip new duds.
And that’s our update for this week. We’ll be back again on Monday with even more goodness from the Disneyland Resort.
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