More than twenty years later and Disneyland’s popular Fantasmic! nighttime water-and-light show has finally added a new Fastpass-based reservation system. The new Fantasmic! Fastpass eliminates the need to camp out hours before the show and streamlines the viewing experience similarly to Disney California Adventure‘s World of Color show. In addition to Fastpass, Fantasmic! fans can now enjoy a dining experience to go along with their show in a variety of price points. Meanwhile, both parks get ready for the debut of new Frozen Fun this weekend as Anna and Elsa get ready to freeze both parks with new entertainment and additions.
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!
Get an up-close look at the magic! Don’t forget — You can click on any photo in today’s post to see a larger, high-resolution version!
We’ve got a full update for you today along with some thoughts from our recent Walt Disney World vacation at the end of today’s update. Let’s get started!
| Welcome to Disneyland! |
The busy holiday season continues at the Disneyland Resort, with crowds growing every week as we approach the traditionally peak Christmas week and New Year holidays.
A look at Disneyland wait times early Sunday afternoon
Meanwhile, Buena Vista Street is as stunning as ever…
| Fastpasstasmic! |
Back in Disneyland, the new Fantasmic! FASTPASS system and dining packages debuted on Friday and there are plenty of signs out to let you know.
Much like California Adventure’s World of Color FASTPASS system, Fantasmic! FASTPASS will grant you access to a reserved viewing area for your showtime. The addition of Fastpass eliminates the need to camp out hours before show time, and that’s a good thing.
Guests hoping to catch a showing of Fantasmic! only need a ticket now to get a good view and no longer have to spread out blankets hours before showtime to claim your spot as people have done for over two decades.
To get your Fastpass, follow the signs to the distribution area along Big Thunder Trail, near Big Thunder Ranch.
Fastpass machines are converted outdoor vending carts.
What might be a little overkill with the Fantasmic! FASTPASS rollout is the addition of new dining packages. Dining packages come with reserved viewing of the show, but with the show over 20 years old, it seems like even more of a blatant money grab than a nice option for guests. The cheapest dining option are new Fantasmic! On the Go meals at Aladdin’s Oasis. Guests can choose from a small menu and enjoy their $20 meal at Aladdin’s Oasis or take it to go.
Enjoy a meal in Aladdin’s Oasis for the first time in years!
In addition to the On the Go meals, you can enjoy a three-course table service meal for a higher price at the River Belle Terrace ($42 per adult, $22 per child) or Blue Bayou ($61 per adult, $23 per child). If you just want to enjoy the Fantasmic! dessert buffet, it has moved to Critter Country’s Hungry Bear Restaurant ($30 per guest).
Here’s hoping a Fastpass system helps alleviate the congestion and crowding along the Rivers of America that has been a problem since the show debuted in the early 1990s. A more streamlined, ticketed viewing area without guests camping out for hours can go a long way in keeping the area clearer for longer into the evening before showtime.
| Freezing Over |
Over in Fantasyland, Arendelle from Disney’s hit animated film “Frozen” continues to take shape in Storybook Land. The new miniature vignette is expected to debut this weekend as part of the new “Frozen Fun” promotion launching on Saturday.
Storybook Land Cast Members could be spotted on Sunday morning practicing their new script…
Casey Jr. Circus Train remains closed while Frozen moves in…
Casey Jr. thought he could handle Arendelle moving in but he really can’t.
This week is your last chance to see the Tangled and Beauty and the Beast shows at the Royal Theater in Fantasy Faire. These shows will go dark to make way for a new Frozen-themed show that will run exclusively in the theater as part of the Frozen Fun promotion.
Over in Disney California Adventure, Frozen continues to take over Hollywood Land…
The art deco entry arches to “Hollywood Studios” are now painted an icy blue…
And the Mad T Party’s old entry portal continues to get lightly re-themed to Frozen with some modifications including new paint.
Work on the Mad T Party’s giant pocket watch…
The backlot Studio Store is being re-themed as Wandering Oaken’s Trading Post
Olaf’s snow playground and meet-and-greet area is going into Stage 17.
Muppet Vision is pretty much gone as the theater is transformed to host a new Frozen sing-a-long show.
More and more is slowly disappearing from the Muppets queue. I wonder if all of the Muppet props will glow away before Frozen Fun opens?
Monsters Inc. is still open and accessible at the end of Hollywood Blvd.
Looks like all of Mad T Party will remain as-is, just with a light Frozen re-theme.
Why bother spending the money to do something new if people will come to see it anyway?
| Refurbishment Roundup |
[center]Royal Remodel[/center]
Back in Disneyland, New Orleans Square’s Royal Courtyard remains closed as construction continues.
Rumors began circulating last week that the Royal Courtyard’s construction was related to the opening of a new high-end restaurant that would open next year, similar to Club 33 but with no membership needed.
The rumored low-capacity but very expensive restaurant would occupy space that was intended to be the formal dining room of Walt Disney’s planned New Orleans Square apartment. That formal dining room was partially given to Club 33 years ago when Walt Disney’s “Royal Suite” was still open to guests as the Disney Gallery. Once the Disney Gallery closed and was converted into the Disneyland Dream Suite for the Year of a Million Dreams campaign, Club 33 continued using the space for storage. This space roughly occupies the areas in the upstairs portion of these New Orleans Square buildings.
Well, it turns out rumors of a new restaurant in this very small space aren’t true, but work is underway upstairs to convert the space from Club 33 storage to a new private Club 33 dining room for large parties. When Club 33 expanded its kitchen facilities in its recent renovations, it did so at the expense of the club’s private dining room for large parties, otherwise known as its Trophy Room. The Trophy Room (now expanded kitchen space) occupied the upstairs areas in the buildings shown below.
With the Trophy Room gone, the Club lost dining capacity, despite gaining new capacity with the addition of the jazz lounge. The new dining room in what’s left of Walt Disney’s Royal Suite will fill the gap made during the Club’s recent expansion. Unfortunately, those that could have afforded a multi-course meal in the rumored “new restaurant” will have to still find their way into Club 33 for that kind of dining experience.
These rumors and news of even more Club 33 expansion comes alongside controversial membership changes that have upset some Club members. The Los Angeles Times ran a story last week on the membership changes that will reduce member benefits and make it harder for non-members to get into the club just be knowing a friend-of-a-friend. Even Club 33 members have to deal with Disney’s constant price increases while benefits and offerings are cut back.
Here’s hoping the changes underway in the Royal Courtyard aren’t as regrettable as the rest of New Orleans Square’s Club 33-related modifications.
[center]In Crust We Trust[/center]
Back in California Adventure, the Boudin Bakery Tour’s refurbishment continues without much progress to see.
| Dateline Disneyland Holiday Gift Guide 2014 |
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Give some Disney magic this year! The clock is rapidly counting down to Christmas but don’t worry it’s not too late to get great gifts for the Disney fans on your list. We’re here to make that last-minute Disney shopping a breeze. With so many great movies, books, and music from Disney and Marvel over the last year, there’s something for everybody here in our annual holiday gift guide. So, sit back and check off some names from your shopping list! Help support Dateline Disneyland this holiday season! Shopping on Amazon through the links below will get you some of the best deals of the season while helping support Dateline Disneyland into 2015! Happy Holidays! Great Disney Books
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| Thoughts from the Vacation Kingdom |
I recently took two weeks off from Dateline Disneyland while I enjoyed a week away in Florida. The primary reason for my trip to Disney’s Florida property was to attend D23’s Destination D: Attraction Rewind.
That two-day D23 event was an interesting way to begin a vacation at Walt Disney World, as it focused almost exclusively on Disney theme park history, the company’s involvement with the 1964-65 New York World’s Fair, and extinct and never-realized attractions. The D23 team really put together an impressive event, with incredible presentations from Disney Legends such as Bob Gurr and Marty Sklar on the groundbreaking and revolutionary World’s Fair attractions they worked on, to an hour-long discussion on Tony Baxter’s incredible but never-built Discovery Bay project for Disneyland. Starting a visit to Walt Disney World with a two-day recap of the remarkable things Disney has done over the years is a tough way to start a trip. It set a tone I wasn’t expecting to have hovering in the back of my mind over the rest of the week.
It’s important to remember that Walt Disney World is a product, a culmination, and a refinement of everything WED Imagineering learned and accomplished at Disneyland and in New York before Walt Disney World opened as a pretty remarkable and forward-thinking vacation complex in the swamps of Florida in 1971. So what does all of this have to do with my thoughts on Walt Disney World? Well, a lot.
There’s a lot to still be said about the Walt Disney World experience. Riding into the Magic Kingdom on a ferry boat across the Seven Seas Lagoon is an unmatched experience. Seeing Cinderella Castle come into view across the water is one of those things that still gives me goosebumps and is perhaps the most perfect way to introduce guests to a theme park, ever. Epcot’s Spaceship Earth is still an incredible marvel to behold. And World Showcase still features two of the most beautiful and impressive theme park shows in Impressions de France and the American Adventure. Elsewhere on property, Disney’s Animal Kingdom is a truly gorgeous park, a slow-burn experience that I continue to grow more fond of every time I visit.
Animal Kingdom is an interesting park because it really aims high and in many cases succeeds at being much more than your traditional theme park experience. It’s rich, layered, and surprisingly authentic but still accessible. It’ll be interesting to see how Disney handles the addition of the science fiction-based Avatar to this park that so heavily focuses on nature and life on Earth. I’m betting that, if nothing else, Avatar will look gorgeous, regardless of content — and that seems to be the current trend at Walt Disney World.
At Epcot, the recent overhaul of that park’s Test Track thrill ride overlaid a really effective TRON-style aesthetic on a ride experience that continues to be so physically unpleasant that I will forever be baffled that guests enjoy it. Meanwhile, the park continues to struggle with its World’s Fair-inspired roots, with a mostly-stagnant Future World and a World Showcase that continues to slowly slip further into the realm of high-end shopping mall. The addition of Frozen to the Norway pavilion is a long-term mistake that Disney will enjoy short-term returns from until people remember that there’s still not enough to do elsewhere in the park.
Meanwhile, the Magic Kingdom’s New Fantasyland area is rich with detail and a truly beautiful compliment to the existing Fantasyland. The problem is that for all the hype and all the money spent, the new land is devoid of any worthwhile content. For my money, New Fantasyland is far better an environment than California Adventure’s Cars Land. Unlike Cars Land, however, New Fantasyland is much bigger without having enough worth doing. The Seven Dwarfs Mine Train is lovely but has only one show scene that is pretty great but not enough to justify the extended wait times. New Fantasyland’s clone of California Adventure’s Little Mermaid ride is placed at the end of a gorgeous queue, but not even a nice queue can save the ride, which is serviceable but far below what it ought to be. The “Enchanted Tales with Belle” meet-and-greet show is a bizarre experience with a couple of really nice special effects that are overshadowed by a confusing time travel storyline and awkward, forced guest interaction.
New Fantasyland is interesting because it’s a lot of really wonderful environments that clearly were carefully and beautifully designed but that lack any compelling attractions. The Storybook Circus area is perhaps the biggest blow because never has a roadside circus been so appealing, beautiful, and engaging. But like the rest of New Fantasyland, there’s not much to do back here besides riding Dumbo or a kiddie coaster. New Fantasyland gives you theses really great opportunities of passing through Maurice’s magic mirror or Pete’s open mouth, but there’s no ride waiting for you in either place; just more meet-and-greets and more opportunities to be sold PhotoPass pictures.
It’s a shame because New Fantasyland really is beautiful, more so than I had ever expected with wonderful water features, lush landscaping, and really lovely, authentic details. In many ways, New Fantasyland is reflective of Walt Disney World as a whole right now. There’s a good amount of money being spent across the property — New Fantasyland is newly finished, Avatar is underway, a possible revitalization of Hollywood Studios is in the works, Frozen is coming to Epcot, and Downtown Disney is being totally overhauled — but what is perhaps the most painfully obvious thing about Walt Disney World’s current management is that for all the financial investment, none of it comes with any ambition.
From constant Disney Vacation Club expansions, to theme park additions that are decided based on IP popularity, everything is calculated to reduce risk and maximize profits as much as possible. There’s none of groundbreaking ambition that brought us the New York World’s Fair attractions. And none of the lofty, forward-thiking vision that gave us the original EPCOT Center is at work here.
I thought about all of this a lot on my trip—especially after moments of experiencing a distinctly Walt Disney World thing, like riding the ferryboat to Magic Kingdom, taking a Monorail into Epcot, gazing up at Mary Blair’s mural in the Contemporary, or watching the Hall of Presidents. Walt Disney World still works because its very strong foundation was built by a company with ambition and desires beyond just wanting to run a couple amusement parks in Florida. Walt Disney World was built by a company that was able to redefine what modern entertainment–from animation, to television, to leisure—was and could be.
It’s true that there’s still plenty to be excited about at Walt Disney World. As a Disneyland local and someone who only gets out to Florida once every other year or so, the Vacation Kingdom experience still manages to be really special for me in a lot of ways, new and old. Storybook Circus, as an area, is so unexpectedly rich and rewarding if you spend the time to explore and take in the details.
Magic Kingdom’s Tom Sawyer Island and Swiss Family Robinson Treehouse are absolute treasures. Epcot’s Spaceship Earth, Living with the Land, Impressions de France and American Adventure are pure Walt Disney World magic. Furthermore, the theme parks are currently enjoying a period of truly excellent maintenance, some of the best I’ve ever seen on either coast. And holiday offerings such as Hollywood Studios’ Osborne Lights and Magic Kingdom’s Cinderella Castle Dream Lights are dazzling.
So, sure, there’s a lot still worth seeing at Walt Disney World. But at a certain point you have to start taking risks again and do something really great. Maybe that’s Avatar, or maybe it’s whatever they have planned for Star Wars, who knows. Is Disney still capable of redefining, revolutionizing, or reinventing the theme park experience? Definitely. But right now it increasingly looks like Disney is just going through the motions. It’s time again for Disney to find that vision that made Walt Disney World that once-in-a-lifetime destination that everybody dreams of going to.
• • •
While in Florida, I took a detour to Universal Orlando Resort to visit the new Diagon Alley expansion to Universal’s wildly successful Wizarding World of Harry Potter. What Universal is doing with the Harry Potter franchise is really incredible and I highly recommend adding a day or two for Universal if you’re planning a Walt Disney World vacation.
Disney has also started taking worlds seen in films and translating them into full real-world build-outs, somewhat in New Fantasyland and perhaps most clearly with Cars Land and likely in the upcoming Avatar project. But Wizarding World is so successful because this is a world that, from book to film, was always a place that we could see really ourselves in. Every kid reading Harry Potter wants to go buy their robes in Diagon Alley before boarding the train to Hogwarts, and now that fantasy is a real experience that we all can have. Cars Land is nice and the Cars characters are fun, but nobody wants to actually drink some gasoline at Flo’s. But who doesn’t want a mug of Butterbeer or a chocolate frog?
Diagon Alley is beautiful and one of the most immersive environments I’ve ever been in, with a pretty fun and unique (albeit not perfect) E-Ticket ride at the back of the land. And if Diagon isn’t enough for you, the still-remarkable Hogsmeade Village is just a short train ride away. You really can’t beat that.
 Enjoy retro fun just steps away from Disneyland at Howard Johnson Hotel & Water Playground A short walk from the park, HoJo Anaheim is conveniently located next to Matterhorn Mountain at Disneyland with nearby dining, freeway access, FREE parking and FREE Wi-Fi. For more information on HoJo Anaheim, room rates, or to book your stay today, visit HoJoAnaheim.com/MiceChat Save with MiceChat & Passholder Discounts Every Day! The HoJo Anaheim is now offering daily discounts for MiceChat members and even DEEPER discounts for Disneyland Resort Annual Passholders! For more information visit the HoJo Anaheim Innsider Boards which features an up-to-date listing of available nights, or call (714) 776-6120 and ask for In-House Reservations to book. If your date isn’t listed, the HoJo Anaheim still offers rooms for 20% off their best available rate if you call (714) 776-6120.  |
| Weekly News & Information Round-Up | ||
| Weekly Theme Park Hours December 15-21, 2014 |
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| [B]Disneyland Park[/B] | [B]California Adventure[/B] | |
| Mon.-Thu.: 8 am – 12 am Friday: 8 am – 11 pm Sat.-Sun.: 8 am – 12 am |
Mon.-Fri.: 8 am – 10 pm Fri.-Sun.: 8 am – 11 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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December 15-21, 2014 |
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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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| Alright, that wraps up this week’s edition of Dateline Disneyland. Are you ready for Frozen Fun this weekend or will you be getting a Fastpass to Fantasmic! instead? Let us know in the comments section below!
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| FTC-Mandated Disclosure: Promotional consideration for this edition of Dateline Disneyland was provided by the Howard Johnson Plaza Hotel & Water Playground. |