The show never stops at Disneyland and Disney California Adventure. While the delightfully charming True Love week ended on February 17th and numerous refurbishments have rides closed, there is still plenty to see and do. The cold winter is melting away and the first rides are thawing from the many refurbishment projects going on throughout the resort. Splash Mountain is flowing, once again, after its annual refurbishment and looks great (as we’ll show you in photos and video below). But there are still a few more rides that are down. Here we show you what to expect on your next visit in the parks.
GUMBALL RALLY, MAY 4th at the
DISNEYLAND RESORT
Get your racing shoes on and grab your tickets for this years Gumball Rally! What’s a Gumball Rally? The Rally is a race to find out who can ride the most attractions at Disneyland in a single day. Sounds fun, right? Well, it is even better than it sounds. You’ll be riding attractions and figuring out the best path through the park based upon the challenges we place in front of you. In the end, it’s a ton of fun for geeks and theme park fans alike.
Grab your tickets now for the May 4th event
The pink banners of True Love week are gone, the heart has been removed from Town Square, but there are plenty of new things blooming.
The stage is now set for another eye-poping spring as Gerbera daisies and Tulips festoon the planters at the front of Main Street on up to the hub.
FANTASY FAIRE VILLAGE
The new princess meet and greet is looking more and more like what you would expect to find just on the other side of the castle in Fantasyland, complete with charming window boxes of flowers and intricate, wood carved figures.
SPLASH MOUNTAIN
Splash has returned from the usual winter refurbishment and it really looks great. Of course, with the reopening came the newly enforced Fastpass rules and signage to boot. But, in the end, that’s going to be a good thing too.
it’s a small world
The water has yet to return to the canals of small world. That will happen on March 1st. Along the small world mall, the light towers are returning from refurbishment as well.
BIG THUNDER MOUNTAIN
No discernible progress at the Big Thunder site this week. The large yellow crane looms above.
BRIDGEGATE!
The Hyperion bridge at the front of Disney California Adventure has been painted once again. This time, they have used a lighter tan color for the insets on the bridge. There is still a contrast, but it isn’t nearly as jarring as before.
If you would like to try your hand at painting the bridge, MonorailMan has set up a little tool on MiceChat just for you.
RETURN TO OZ
It stinks. Why? Disney has decided to use the Muppetvision 3D theater again as flex space for a 3D preview of an upcoming film. Guests queue up outside and enter through the exit doors to go into the theater. No special decorations are in place other than the logo of the upcoming film on the screen. The preview begins and focuses, for the most part, on the cyclone scene that whisks James Franco to Oz. Promising to utilize the 4D effects, guests are only treated to wind, a few flashing lights and some spritzes of water as yet another glorified trailer plays out on the screen. This isn’t an attraction folks, it’s pure marketing.
It’s sad to see that there exists an attraction that has such low hourly capacity that it can easily be shuttered to show a trailer for a movie. One more nail in the coffin for Muppets.
TOWER OF TERROR
While on a random visit through Tower of Terror, we noticed that the set seemed recently redressed. There was an increased amount of cobweb dressing breezing in the air, hung throughout the set. It all looked wonderfully creepy. Nice work.
SILLY SYMPHONY SWINGS
Set to return March 15th, the Silly Symphony Swings is still completely disassembled. This must be a pretty substantial refurbishment.
GRIZZLY RIVER RUN
As the March 1st return for Grizzly looms, the ride is looking great (from what we can see from a distance). Fresh paint and replaced planks along the dry waterway. Turquoise water continues to circulate in the canal near the lift hill and will soon be returned to the attraction.
It was a pleasure to bring you all another dose of Disneyland news from the resort we all love so much. Check back next week as we return with a ride through of it’s a small world and check on the progress of all those Disneyland projects.