If it’s August, it must be Halloween. Thoughts of summer are waning as Disney prepares to scare up record profit for its most lucrative season of the year. Let’s take a quick jaunt through the resort to see what’s new.
Haunted Mansion Holiday Reveal
If you blinked, you might have missed it, but hidden in the latest Disney Twenty Three Magazine from D23 is a small image of what the 2018 Haunted Mansion Holiday Gingerbread House will look like. Read the detail notes to figure out what moves and what lights up. After all these years, they are still making a new house each year.
Speaking of Mansion, it’s behind construction walls for its annual transition.
Another thing changing is the planter wall along the main drag. This will now be a route to Star Wars land (up and over the bridge and along the new pathway by Hungry Bear). It’s very likely that Disney is trying to free up a little extra space in this congested spot. Here’s a tip Disney: get rid of Fastpass on this attraction and you can do away with at least half of the congestion in this tight spot.
Hard to believe, but it will be Halloween/Christmas again at the Mansion on September 7th.
Halloween Party Dates
Unlike the Magic Kingdom, which launched Halloween Parties on August 17 (story here), Disneyland’s party dates don’t begin until September 19th.
With the exception of the first Friday of the event (Sept 21st), all other Fridays are sold out. And those are the only dates unavailable at this time. That is likely to change quickly, so if this party is important to you, secure your tickets now.
Halloween Merchandise
While making my way through the resort to shoot the update, I couldn’t help but notice this year’s Halloween merchandise. We shared some of this earlier, but some of it was new to me. With Haunted Mansion’s 50th anniversary coming up, there also seems to be more Mansion merchandise than usual . . . which is just PERFECT for Halloween.
The Disney Home Store in Downtown Disney has a unique selection of items, including some of those Mansion Items . . . that I NEED!
I’m pretty sure we’ve seen these candlestick holders before, but they are the kind of thing that should always be available.
The pop-up World of Disney Too shop in the Esplanade is now entirely merchandised with Halloween items.
The Gone Hollywood Store in DCA is now mostly a Halloween costume shop. The girls costumes seem a little better constructed than the ones for little boys.
I’ve seen Disney Princess costumes at Target and Costco this week and they aren’t of as high a quality (or price) as these in the Gone Hollywood store.
The Goofy wall hanger is apparently very popular. They put them out in the few stores that carry it and it sells out quickly each day. (I’ve seen it at the Home Store and Gone Hollywood, but I’m sure it’s in other spots as well).
On Buena Vista Street, there are some great Mansion mugs.
Exclusive Passholder Mansion items at Kingswell Cameras (just show them your AP to purchase).
And Five and Dime has Halloween items as well.
Pixar Fest Ending Soon
September 3rd brings Pixar Fest to an end. The red, yellow & blue banners will give way to the purple and black bunting of Halloween (on Buena Vista Street at least). And just in time too . . . the Pixar Fest decor is starting to lose its saturated luster.
Once the Pixar Pals moved to Pixar Pier, the Paradise Gardens displays stopped making much sense.
The Pixar Shorts were fun, but once they added 3 more shorts to the Tomorrowland Theater it just became a little too much.
Pixar Pier
There’s nothing new in Pixar Pier other than Carousel construction and a lack of major progress on the and Inside Out area.
They’ve been having lots of trouble with the Pixar decals on the billboard wall near Adorable Snowman. No more fish or balloons for now. Guests keep peeling them off the walls. Not sure why they don’t just paint them on instead of pasting them.
The Carousel is completely enclosed. On Main Street USA they use photo scrims, wouldn’t it be fun if they used the concept art for the new version of the attraction on these scrims?
As I passed Midway Mania, I noticed that the line to get a Fastpass was insanely long.
I keep waiting for them to add some shade to this area. Although the Pixarmonic Orchestra is brilliant, it’s too painful to stand in the sun to watch them.
There were a few Pixar characters out and about, but not as many as earlier in the festival.
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The Inside Out area is just a long wall. I peeked through a crack and could see that the cement has been ripped up, but no real prep-work has been done yet for the new ride. A reworked version of Flik’s Fliers is on the way next year.
Like Alice through the looking glass. Well, something like that. Dirt.
Across from the Little Mermaid, some of the trees are being replaced.
Bugs Land closing September 4th
Not long left now. One day after Pixar Fest ends, Bugs Land will close forever to make way for Marvel Land.
Around DCA
The two Instagrammable photo spots in Hollywood Land (behind the refreshment stand) have been discovered. Long lines all day to take a photo here.
That construction around the Animation Building is just exterior refurbishment.
I am looking forward to the Halloween decoration in Cars Land. Nothing yet, but we’ll start seeing details pop up soon.
World of Color is still a point of pain for the resort. They had planned and recorded a new show for Halloween “World of Color: Villainous,” but that will have to wait for next year. It is still unclear when the platform will be ready for showtime.
There was a new mug in the shop across from Sorin’. It’s super cute . . . but it wouldn’t last one day in my house. That elaborate “S” handle would be broken in an instant.
So, this isn’t news, but I’m SOOOOO curious. I still see tons of rose gold and Millennial Pink ears for sale in nearly every shop in the resort. Are they really that popular after all this time?
Vote in our poll – Hot or Not?
And why are all the headband ears for women. Can’t they make some of them without the bow so both men and women can use them? I love an ear hat, but they ruin my beautiful hair. LOL. But really, I’d love to see some unisex ear headbands.
Downtown Disney
The Downtown Disney redo is such a mixed bag. I’m excited about the two new gastropubs in the midsection. I never loved World of Disney, but appreciated the whimsy of the character sculptures. The new version of the store feels so generic to me. Hope that’s all addressed when it officially relaunches in the fall. Then there’s the dead-zone. Still waiting to see what the long-term plan is for the spot of the on-hold Disney hotel. For now, it’s a really depressing area.
The Monorail still can’t operate in the hot part of the day. It’s a real shame too. Schools should add this example to textbooks for what happens when you prioritize design over function. They are the most beautiful and graceful vehicles at the resort . . . but that doesn’t do you any good if you can’t ride it because temperatures reach the 100s in the cabin by midday! With three Monorail trains and only one or two operating at any given time, I’d really like to see a rolling refurb so they can finally add cooling systems to the cabins.
Black Tap and Ballast Point are on the way . . . but it sure doesn’t look like much progress has been made on the interiors.
The other big project is the Naples redo. This was a complete gut and rebuild . . . done in stages. Quite the undertaking.
Parking Garage Update
One project which is going up at a rapid rate is the new parking expansion. They must be paying the construction companies extra to meet or beat the targets. It’s fun to watch this project week to week because of so many changes happening so fast.
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Well folks, we’ve come to the end of another fun-filled update. And as my mother says every Thanksgiving . . . you don’t have to go home, but you can’t stay here!
And if you haven’t already read our Monday Disneyland Update or Thursday Disney World Update, please don’t miss them.
