It was another sweltering week at the Disneyland Resort, but we aren’t letting the heat get between us and a California Adventure update! We’ll take you through the park, where World of Color is still sidelined and then out to the new hotel project which is also tanked.
California Adventure
Folks from warmer parts of the country like to make fun of us for freaking out over the recent heatwave, but it really is oppressively hot. The Disneyland Resort just wasn’t built to keep guests comfortable in these conditions. Here are the average Anaheim temperatures:
August traditionaly gets warm in Anaheim with occasional hot days:
But the past few weeks have been insanely hot with frequent 100+ days:
So, we took lots of breaks in the normal shooting schedule, drank lots of water, and skipped the non-essential stuff so we could still bring you the latest. Speaking of which, hang on for the comments from David Koenig below about World of Color and the Hotel. Yikes!
Grizzly Needs a Trim
Scott has been waiting years for Disney to trim back the trees around Grizzly Peak. There are only about three locations to get a good shot of the mountain.
This is what the mountain looks like from the parade route today:
This is what it looked like in 2016:
Taking a stroll through Hollywood Land…
Vampirina will be the newest Disney Junior character to meet this fall, we expect to see her with her fellow Junior characters in Hollywood Land.
Since Disney added these two murals on Stage 12 Walls I’ve been wondering if they’ll be adding anything on the opposite side.
They seem to be pretty popular though.
Countdown to Extinction
We are now less than a month away from Fliks Fun Faire closing for good. The land will close on September 4th. If you have been putting off visiting your favorite bugs, now is the time. Soon, this will all be Marvel themed.
Will Blue Sky Die?
Now that Pixar Pier has been open for a while, what’s next for Blue Sky Cellar? Will they add a Star Wars land or Marvel Land display or put the whole facility back into mothballs?
What would you like to see happen with the Blue Sky Cellar:
Halloween
The Horn-O-Plenty was added for Halloween last year in Cars Land and was never put away. It’s almost time for Halloween to return. Did you enjoy the DCA overlays last year? What would you like to see them add to Halloween in this park?
Halloween officially starts on September 7th this year. That’s just around the corner folks. Time to start costume shopping.
Although we have not seen any Halloween items just yet, we spotted some light testing for Guardians of the Galaxy: Monsters After Dark. Are you happy that the overlay is returning this year?
This year’s event looks to be a near clone of last year, with all the overlays as last year and the Halloween Party at Disneyland.
The Mickey’s Halloween Party is more expensive than a single day admission into the park this year. Prices start at $105/pp in September and hit $130 near Halloween.
Pixar Pier
As we approach the World of Color platforms you can clearly see they are not in good shape. The middle and stage left platforms are bent into some weird arches. The stage right platform appears to not be damaged and is now below the water line while the other two remain up in maintenance mode all day. The blue construction scrims have been removed.
While World of Color is down, Disney is taking this opportunity to replace some of the trees that line the viewing area.
Along the parade route, Disney has been converting trash cans on the Little Mermaid side so they no longer say Paradise Garden Park instead of Paradise Pier. About half of the cans in the Paradise Park area have been converted while all the cans in the Paradise Gardens area have already been converted.
Paradise Park:
Paradise Gardens:
Noticed some orange paint on the coaster…maybe they’re testing colors out or…
…or its the splashback from maintenance spraypainting the wall.
Over at Bing Bongs, there’s no figure just yet, but they have been closing the left entrance door (closest to the Treat counter) at the hottest part of the day. With temperatures in SoCal being 95+ for most of the week, the machines couldn’t keep the colorful drinks cold enough to serve.
Moving over to the bandshell, the temporary speakers and bushes are now gone and they are finally using a permanent sound system and lights. This allows for later show times.
Construction continues to move at a glacial pace on the Carousel. The upper reaches of the roof have been painted black.
Scott wasn’t a fan of the Incredicoaster. Though he noted that it’s not necessarily a bad thing that some theme was added to it.
He also said this coaster is significantly more difficult to take pictures of than before. You have to sit in the front and you pretty much can’t aim the camera at all since your arms are fairly locked in by the shoulder restraint. The ride also moves so fast it’s difficult to hit focus and keep things looking “frozen” in camera.
He felt it was a net neutral addition, which is better than how he felt about Pixar Pier as a whole. The phrase he mentioned to me was “visual vomit” and that it was disappointing to see something lack cohesion so much in a Disney Park. What he did appreciate was the food, particularly the cookie num num…
This and That
Let’s take a stroll through a “national park…”
Scott found a little solitude in Grizzly Peak as he had been touring some of the actual national parks a week or so prior on his way home from graduation.
I was hot and tired, so I decided to try some light trail long exposure shots of Paint the Night.
Downtown Disney
Half of World of Disney remains closed as the reimagining continues.
The remodel continues at Naples as well.
We’re still waiting for Wetzel Pretzel’s to reopen. It’s slated for the Fall.
How’s everyone feeling about the two brewery restaurants coming in here? It feels like they’ve been working on them forever now.
Across the way, the building that contains Catal, the Void, and Disney Home is being repainted to match the brewery building. The green is being painted white.
Since work has stopped for a while on the new hotel, they’ve brought in food trucks to fill the space for now. Better than nothing, but not much better.
So, what’s the delay all about? Our own David Koenig explains:
When Disney rushed to build DCA and Downtown Disney on the cheap two decades back, they opted not to do all the prep work they could have to avoid future costs and delays. They’re currently paying that price.
At DCA, World of Color was thought to be going dark for just a couple of months. That was extended through the summer and now they’re shooting for near the end of the year. One tech fears the show might not return until 2019.
Evidently, the World of Color lagoon needs to be dug up to make repairs to electrical and plumbing—fixes related to short-sightedness during construction.
At Downtown Disney, the new hotel may face similar delays.
Sixty years ago, a Richfield gas station stood near the southern entrance to the Disneyland Hotel, near where the AMC theater stands today. Apparently, its underground gas tanks were never removed.
Building a hotel on the site will require removal of the tanks and clean-up of the site. One insider said that, if like most really old tanks it has been leaking into the soil, its removal and decontamination of the site could delay construction by up to 8 months.
The Disneyland Resort will be humming by the summer of 2019, but 2018 is starting to remind me of 2004, with workmen scrambling to repair the fallout from years of bad decisions in time for the 50th anniversary celebration.
Construction walls have come all the way up to the restrooms at the Lego Store (The old AMC Theaters is on the other side of the wall). This will be the new entrance/security check for Downtown Disney for all guests entering from the western side of the district once construction on the new hotel gets underway.
Mickey & Friends
The expansion of the Mickey and Friends parking structure is really on high speed. There’s a lot of vertical construction right now.
The ramps are going in as well.
That’s all for the DCA update this week, everyone. Temperatures should start dropping off this next week (hopefully), and boy are we excited for that. But there’s one thing I’m even more excited about . . .
MiceChat Knott’s Scary Farm Halloween Haunt VIP Event – Saturday, September 29th, 2018
MiceChat Knott’s Scary Farm VIP Event Tickets HERE
Join us in the fog-shrouded streets of Ghost Town for the MiceChat Knott’s Scary Farm Halloween Haunt 2018. We are once again working with the great folks of Knott’s Berry to bring you a magically scary event. Leave the real world behind and enter a dream-land of spooky fun with fellow MiceChat readers.
This just in . . . this year’s panel discussion will feature animatronic and haunt superstars Garner Holt and Bill Butler (of Garner Holt Productions). We’ll also be joined by Jeff Tucker (Knott’s Entertainment Supervisor, creative, and writer of the Hanging), and John Waite (one of the godfathers of the original theme park haunts). An epic way to launch your haunt!!!
Our VIP event is the ultimate way to experience Knott’s Scary Farm:
- Admission into Knott’s Scary Farm
- Meet and greet with maze designers
- Backstage tour of a new maze before the event
- MiceChat panel discussion with legends and creatives
- All you can eat Private Pre-scare Boo-fet dinner
- Early entry into Haunt
- Unlimited front of the line access to all mazes
- Front of line for Fastlane rides
- A bone-chilling night of MiceChat fun
Have you always wanted to go to the haunt but you were too afraid? Join 150 of your fellow readers who will help keep you safe from the monsters. Not afraid? Help Dusty lead the way through the fog!
Act fast folks, nearly half of the tickets are already spoken for and prices must go up on August 15th.
Get your tickets now before they disappear!
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