Welcome to mid-July! I’m Stephenie (AKA DisneybySteph) and I’ll be your tour guide through Disney California Adventure today along with our trusty Dusty Sage. If you haven’t heard, I’ve just made the move from Florida to California after living in Florida my whole life! I am so excited to explore parks that are “new” to me! Well, “newish”. I did come here at least twice a year, so I’m certainly not a newb, but there are some clear differences between navigating these parks, and I hope to infuse my experience of being a new AP in the articles I help write here at MiceChat!
The heat this week was unbearable for many Californians. As a Floridian, it feels like Spring to me! All kidding aside, it was HOT. This left the parks emptier than usual. If you can brave the heat, it’s a great opportunity to experience the parks as they were before the days of FastPass and millions of passholders. We’ll start at the entrance of the park, where the citizens of Buena Vista Street didn’t seem to notice how hot it had become!
The Incredibles Preview remains closed, but the signage remains throughout Hollywoodland. It would have been nice to duck into the theater on a hot day and enjoy the Pixar Short festival. Instead, we rode Monsters Inc. Mike and Sully to the Rescue. I like to call it, Superstar Monsters. It’s a pretty good overlay, but feels less so the longer you have to wait for it. The Guardians of the Galaxy and other Marvel stars are also still meeting despite the heat.
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The Buzz Wall is still insanely popular. I’m sure Disney paying attention as more of these “Museum of Ice Cream” style walls seem to be popping up in the parks (the various Pixar walls and Minnie’s polka dot wall come to mind). They are pure Instagram candy for the social media generations, and relatively cheap and easy to install. You can see my friend Chloe hamming it up below. . .
The Disney Rewards VISA Meet and Greet had Pluto available to meet on this particular day. If you ask them who is greeting guests they’ll tell you “It’s a surprise.” This is always a short line if you have a Disney VISA, but available for just a few hours every day.
A line developed of folks wanting to take a photo in front of the mural on the side of the Hyperion Theater that was longer than the Pluto meet and greet.
The Guardians of the Galaxy dance-off show continues to draw big crowds. Sorry that we couldn’t get you some closeups, there were just too many people and not worth waiting in the sun for a better spot.
Guardians of the Galaxy continues to be one of the best Universal attractions that Disney has never produced. (yes. that was some shade you detected from me. I don’t love this screen-based attraction, but it’s very fun and fine in the context of the rest of Marvel yet to come to this corner of the park.)
The future home of Marvel awaits. The land behind this gate (next to Tower of Guardians Terror of the Galaxy: Mission Pipes) and all of Bugs Land are soon to be consumed by superheroes.
Each time I visit A Bugs Land, I wonder if it will be my last. It seems clear that they will use one of the rides for the Inside Out attraction on Pixar Pier, so what’s the delay? Perhaps it will stay open to deal with summer crowds. But the Fastpass for Radiator Springs Racers, which was located next to Tough to be a Bug, has already been relocated to Cars Land. A sure sign that the winds of change are blowing.
Flik’s Flyers is the attraction that it seems will clearly become the Inside Out Attraction at the Pier.
When we rode Heimlich’s, I was so disappointed to see the shape it’s in. I know it’s going away, but it was so dirty with peeling paint and just plain dirt everywhere. No scents. No sprays. This land was originally built on the cheap, but it’s sad to see it look even cheaper with poor maintenance. It’s time for all of this to go.
Maybe they can transfer the flora and fauna to Florida. Pandora is severely lacking in colorful plants. I wonder why they didn’t use more of these incredible looking flowers in Florida? They’d fit right into the alien landscape.
World Of Color is still having issues as they float the mechanism and work on it daily.
This silhouette motif on the shade structure is lovely. There are so many Pixar characters represented here. Can you find one from each movie? I could.
Outdoor Bar
Knick’s Knacks continues to have new (at least to me) Pixar Merchandise in the store and lots of it is cute! I also noticed these sketches. They’re really lovely. You can see some of the new(er) merchandise available.
This Luxo Ball made of fish stamps has appeared and disappeared a couple of times, I’m not sure why. It was placed so close to the Keep Our Pier Clean! billboard, but not centered. I suppose it’s reminiscent of the natural neighborhood graffiti one could expect on a pier. The other photo opp with the balloons from UP was gone entirely. The problem may have something to do with the long line for Adorable Snowman. It’s possible folks are peeling the stickers from the wall.
Love it or hate it, Pixar Pier is pulling in much larger crowds than the old Paradise Pier. And folks seem to be staying here longer and doing things like shopping and buying food as well. Previously, this was an area that you went to ride Screamin’ and Midway Mania and then made a beeline back out. The only thing keeping me from staying in this area longer is a complete and total lack of shade. Not good on hot days like we’ve been having.
The Incredibles fountain wall is fixed. It was drained for a while last week.
One more time . . . I need to do this again in the dark . . . and away we go . . .
Finally some noticeable changes at the carousel, where the old tarp has been unhooked from the canopy, likely to be removed.
Midway Mania is as popular as ever. But Mr. Potatohead still breaks down on a regular basis. We had the same problem in Florida and they eventually removed him. Though he’s now back with the opening of Toy Story Land.
The Pixar Park area, near the Pal-A-Round, has some interesting seating/planters. What I can’t quite understand is why they’ve left one side completely open on each planter. They’ve had to put trash cans in the opening to keep guests out. But they just look unfinished.
I LOVE the Pixarmonic Orchestra, which has been playing 6 times a day. But it’s really hard to watch their earlier shows with no shade in the area. It sure would be easy for them to stretch some wires from the Pal-A-Round to the band shell and stretch some shade tarps. It really isn’t fair to expect guests to stop and watch a show with 1) no seats, and 2) no shade.
Nighttime makes everything better. This was always true of the Pier.
Bing Bong’s shop still isn’t open.
The whole Inside Out area of Pixar Pier is just construction walls. Though they’ve painted them and added characters. More photo-ops for you Instagrammers.
And one last strangeness about Pixar Pier. There’s a beautiful marquee for the Boardwalk side of the Pier, but no signage at all for the Paradise Gardens side of the Pier. Even simple signage on the arch under the coaster would be welcome.
Here’s a fun game . . . spot the hidden Dusty. Sometimes I feel like I can read his mind. I think he just saw the long line for the Grizzly Fastpass.
Speaking of . . . You Californians really seem to struggle with the new Fastpass scanners. It’s backing up queues throughout the resort. We don’t have this much trouble with Magicbands in Florida (even with all those tourists). Is it time for Magicbands in California?
When can we do this again folks? Here are some parting shots of the magical Paint the Night Parade . . . .
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