Welcome back to Walt’s original magic kingdom in Anaheim. Today we’ll take a look at what Disney is doing to plus and fix the legacy park as it heads into the gauntlet of next year’s Wookie-sized opening of Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge.
On Main Street, a few things are missing ahead of the busy fall season. Yes, you read that right. While in years past Disney would save refurbishments for after summer . . . the Halloween through Christmas seasons are now so lucrative for Disney that summer is now the best time for them to do little touchups before fall. Although the price at the front gate shows this as the expensive season, for the most part it isn’t as busy as you remember it anymore.
The Indian Statue is missing from outside of 20th Century Music Store.
Heading into Adventureland…
The Tiki Room is now behind construction walls as Disney will be adjusting the entrance and exit to better accommodate guests with wheelchairs. The Tiki Juice Bar remains open while the Tiki Room is closed.
Looks like a ramp will be built in the Tiki Garden to allow wheelchairs to enter from the front door. As guests exit the Tiki Room they will be shuttled through the new Tropical Hideaway to help increase traffic in the corner of Adventureland as well as prevent crowd flow disruption along the main walkway of Adventureland. This means that both the entrance and exit will soon be wheelchair accessible.
Some of the walls include art from versions of the Tiki Room in other Disney parks.
A few Tiki statues are outside of the construction walls…
…but a few those behind the construction wall are now wrapped up.
Along the back side of Tiki Room, some of the decoration on the upper roof has been removed.
Progress continues on Tropical Hideaway.
The waterfall by the Adventureland restrooms didn’t seem to be working on Saturday.
Over in New Orleans Square, a construction wall has appeared around one of the planters that divide the walkway through the land. They are likely removing the planter in an attempt to increase the width of the walkway ahead of Star Wars Land opening next year.
Pirates… because why not.
We’re still loving the neat new skeleton transformation effect and the re-introduction of the original narration in the caves. It sets the tone much better than Davy Jones did.
Port Royal Curious and Curiosities shop in New Orleans Square has just received a whole Doombuggie worth of both Haunted Mansion and Nightmare Before Christmas Merchandise just ahead of the Halloween merchandise. Castmembers mentioned that the main Halloween merch will be hitting the shelves this coming Sunday.
Use the arrows to slide through the merchandise images:
The one that stood out to me… anyone want some Jack Skellington Gloves?
Just outside Port Royal, Redd, the Pirate Fortune Teller is missing.
Passing by the Haunted Mansion, we only have until Sunday night to enjoy the classic before Jack Skellinton moves in to wreck the halls.
Over at Splash Mountain, lighting problems continue to reflect badly on this dark ride.
Just take a look inside:
Br’er Rabbit on the handcart has stopped working again.
It should look like this folks:
At least the boat is lit properly.
They really need to invest in the appropriate fall-safety measures to make it possible to fix and adjust lighting between refurbishments. This ride is too much of a treasure to be allowed to degrade so significantly (and so quickly) after every refurbishment.
Star Wars Land Construction
A little bit from Tarzan’s Treehouse:
A few shots from Big Thunder:
Over at the Hungry Bear entrance, we can see work on the berm as well as landscaping going in near the walkway. We can also see where the mountain range ends just off to the right of the zone.
Moving over to Toontown
From outside the park
A few shots from Hungry Bear at night…
Mickey’s Toontown has seen better days: Paint peeling, props missing/broken, areas being completely unused, Star Wars Land messing with sightlines, etc…
Let’s take a closer look at Donald’s Boat to demonstrate some problems that plague the entire land. The bottom of the boat sits completely empty.
Props behind nets definitely are showing their age.
The rope ladder has long since been removed…
On the roof of the boat, paint is peeling from the upper reaches of props.
Inside the Wheelhouse, there is something missing…the wheel
The waterfall behind the boat is slowed down to a trickle.
Across from Donald’s boat, there are roof tiles just plain missing from Goofy’s house.
Toontown is a great land but Disney has let it get to a point of disrepair that it might be worse than Tomorrowland at this point. The entire land needs a lengthy refurbishment. . . or replacement.
Work continues on Small World…
…but this repair can be only seen at night.
Disney has been replacing the facade lights with LED. The back facade is now a deep blue, the main facade is very white, and for some reason, the clock tower is pink and yellow.
The bright white lighting has been added to the extended facade but not to the Parade gate wall.
Let’s pop in and take a ride on the most airconditioned happiest cruise that ever sailed.
Matterhorn continues it’s refurbishment as some rockwork is replaced, train cars get refurbished, and standby and Fastpass queues get reworked.
We would have got more shots from Matterhorn this week except…
(Clarified – 8-14-18- Brian) The Disneyland Monorail has been operating on reduced hours (approximately 5 hours each day) during this heat wave. The monorail’s air conditioning is only installed on the front and rear cabs, while the middle sets of cars all have windows that can open and additionally a fan system for increased ventilation. Unfortunately, the fan system has not been running efficiently enough to keep the cars cool. Since temperatures the last few weeks have been in the 90˚ to 100˚ range outside, the inside of the trains can reach upwards of 95˚+ by 10am. To keep guests comfortable, operation of the Monorails was limited to 8am-11am and about 10:15pm-Midnight on the days we visited last week. (Trains actually reach a bearable temperature each evening by about 7pm, but it doesn’t make sense to pull out the trains for only an hour and then put them away again at 8pm for fireworks.) If the Monorail is important to you, plan on riding it very early or late on the day of your visit.
The Tomorrowland churro cart has been pulled for refurbishment. For the time being Disney has brought the Beauty and Beast themed cart to fill the spot. They used the same cart a few months ago while they worked on the Casey Jr. Churro Cart over in Fantasyland.
Now it’s only a matter of time until Disney finally refurbishes the pretzel cart next to it, as it remains stuck in the early 90’s, to complete the Tomorrowland set of ODV carts (ODV = Outdoor Vending).
Over at Space Mountain, it appears that Disney is planning to move the Fastpass merge down into the winding corridors of Spacestation 77.
This would ultimately help speed up Fastpass as the second set of scanners for Fastpass causes a bottleneck at the merge point that causes Standby to be held up by the uneven flow of Fastpass. By moving the merge point down into the corridors it would allow for more air-conditioned standby queue and also allow Fastpass parties a chance to regroup in their own hallway before merging into the main line.
The Space Mountain photo window offers some new-to-us merchandise:
There’s no better way to end the night than catching a spot for Fantasmic…except Disney is now allowing guests to camp for spots in the non-Fastpass viewing zones starting as early as 5pm each night.
This is potentially problematic as people fill up the walkways…
Before we go…we have found another sign of Halloween coming to the resort. The Fantasmic lighting towers are now being left out overnight to test for Mickey’s Halloween Party.
Speaking of Halloween . . .
| Micechat Knott’s Scary Farm Halloween Haunt VIP Event – Saturday, September 29th, 2018 |
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 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, more than half of the tickets are already spoken for and prices must go up on this Wednesday, August 15th.
Get your tickets now before they disappear!
My thanks to Scott Attula for his assistance with today’s update. See you all real soon!!!
That’s it for today. Join us again later this week as we look at California Adventure, Downtown Disney, and Mickey & Friends Parking Structure.
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