It’s Disneyland Resort Update time. This week we take a look at all the construction happening around the parks, Downtown Disney, Mickey and Friends parking expansion, and a whole lot more.
Just before you enter the park, Disney has set up extra ticket carts to the right of the Disneyland Turnstiles, but with no signage on them for now.
Disneyland
Upon entering the park, Jafar was out signing books and trying to get people to kiss his hands…not too many takers but the attempts ended in hilarity.
Main Street
Refurb work continues on the Main Street facades. scrims are still erected above the lockers on Center Street. But something is amiss on the Disney Clothiers sign…
The backing had separated from the curved front of the sign on Friday. On Sunday, they had tried to fix the sign with what appears to be a coathanger . . . but the blue highlights still don’t match up with the cutouts. . .
At night the line to get a photo with the giant Mickey Pumpkin in Town Square can be 30 minutes or more. On Saturday night, it reached the doors of Carnation Cafe!
ConstructionAdventureland
Work on the Tiki Room lani and exit continues, unfortunately for the thousands of folks who showed up for Unofficial Tiki Day on Sunday.
Refurb/Construction work continues on the Tiki Room/Tropical Hideaway. The wall between Jolly Holliday and the Tiki Garden is currently being reinstalled.
Tiki Room is scheduled to return this Wednesday, October 3rd.
Just around the corner, behind the Tiki Room, The Tropical Hideaway is taking shape.
Concept art for the new refreshment area has been added to the construction wall.
Frontierland
The west side of Disneyland’s central hub is still shrouded in green construction scrims.
Work continues on the Frontierland bridge expansion to prepare for the Star Wars mob crowds coming summer of 2019. Looking through the scrim, it appears that the waterway has been completely dug out and is just about ready to be recemented once the new bridge supports have been installed.
Work has completed on the sidewalk in front of the seating area for the refreshments area, “Ship To Shore,” across from the Big Thunder exit and next to the Mark Twain/Columbia dock.
Pirates of the Caribbean
We can rejoice. Fastpass for Pirates of the Caribbean appears to have been abandoned for now. Some of the Fastpass signs and the readers have been removed. This is a big relief as the backup of guests it would have caused would undo all the pathway flow changes which are being made elsewhere in the land.
Star Wars Land Construction
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Domes rising from Galaxy’s Edge. . .
From the parking structure you can see that work continues on the petrified trees, but mostly on the Millenium Falcon building (to the left).
Back inside of the park… more work on the never-going-to-be-hidden-in-ToonTown mountains.
And here are a few shots from Tarzan’s Treehouse:
Fantasyland
Refurb work continues on the Matterhorn Mountain. We still don’t have a reopening date yet.
This week, two service platforms were added to the outside the mountain for construction/refurbishment…there’s something you won’t see on the real Matterhorn.
Queue work continues as Disney enhances the standby queue, which was necessitated by the addition of Fastpass to the attraction.
Nearby, the old Motorboat Cruise Dock (Fantasia Gardens) is closed for refurbishment.
Over at Small World, scrims now adorn Small World Toy Shop. Hopefully, they finish before the Holiday season starts. But it is odd that they didn’t save this refurbishment for the time period when Small World is already down for Holiday install/removal.
On the back side of the shop, a portion of side scaffolding has been left exposed. This is due to the projector located on this side of the building. I bet that once Halloween passes, this portion of the building will be covered again.
Toon Town
Over at Chip ‘N Dale’s Tree House, the refurb walls are down and the improvements are noticeable. The staircase and fence rails have been replaced and everything has a nice coat of paint. It looks good.
Now if they can do that with the rest of Toon Town…
Tomorrowland
Over in Tomorrowland on Friday there was a water main break between Launch Bay and Pizza Planet that flooded the Cosmic Waves planter area. The restaurant remained closed for most of the day as a result.
As of Sunday, a small area remains off limits and dirt is mounded up where the break was repaired.
The water is off at Cosmic Waves for now . . . revealing the scrapes and scuffs on the 20 year old Kugle ball.
Don’t forget that Remember…Dreams Come True is playing again. It’s easily one of the best Disneyland fireworks shows ever. But do you like it better than the Pixar Fest show, Together Forever?
Check the schedule before you go, Disney doesn’t always show fireworks on weekdays during this time of the year (besides Halloween Screams during Mickey’s Halloween Party), so you may only have the opportunity to see this show two days a week, Saturday and Sunday, to view it. Don’t have Halloween party tickets but want to see Halloween Screams fireworks? If the regular Mickey’s Halloween Party fireworks get canceled for wind or rain, then regular guests get to see the show the next day since the shells are already loaded and ready to go. Upset Twitter posts on a Friday night are your tip to get to the park on Saturday.
Disney California Adventure
The spooky season continues at DCA, and we’re still pleased with the volume of decorations on Buena Vista Street and Cars Land. We hope that additional areas can be decorated in time for Mickey’s Halloween Party to move here next year.
Hollywood Land
As of this morning, The AP corner has closed. Like Pixar Fest, it was only a photo opportunity and a lamer-as-it-progressed set of AP buttons. It’s odd that the Halloween-themed AP corner closed only four weeks into the promotion.
Over at Sunset Showcase, the theater sits empty for the next couple of weeks. The next scheduled movie preview is for The Nutcracker and the Four Realms. . . which looks like a beautiful film. Looking forward to this preview. I’m surprised how often the previews tempt me into buying a ticket to see the full-length film.
Do the DCA previews ever convince you to pay to see the full-length film?
Bugs Land/Marvel Land Construction
Not much visible progress has been made this week on the removal of the bugs. The sign is down, but the sign pole for the It’s Tough to be A Bug marquee is visible.
Pixar Pier
Work continues on the Carousel, the top has been nicely painted.
This week we noticed that the mural behind Jack Jack’s Cookie Num Nums was damaged.
Work continues on the Inside Out ride (former Flik’s Flyers). Finally, after 6 years, the Mallaboomer pad is getting torn apart.
And no…no Bing Bong yet. He’ll eventually be located behind that wall. For all this delay, he’d better be amazing.
Also, in positive news, the chocolate samples are back at Ghiradelli. They were missing for the past couple of weeks due to factory shipment issues. Fans had worried that the samples would never return.
Downtown Disney
This week in Downtown Disney, the construction walls that were placed in the parking lot for the now-delayed hotel are still there.
Moving onto some more hotel related news…
Earl of Sandwich will be reopening today . . . for a limited run. There were already desserts on display yesterday.
With the delayed hotel comes the also delayed new security entrance into Downtown Disney. This construction wall extends into the Downtown Disney walkway, and from above we can see pipework exposed.
Over on the parking lot side (near the Paradise Pier Hotel), the construction walls have been pulled back a bit, and guests are being allowed to park there again.
Fall decorations adorn Downtown Disney starting at Tortilla Jo’s and extend all the way down to the tram stop.
Halloween stickers now adorn the windows of Black Tap and Ballast Point construction sites…
Decorations for Salt & Straw can now be seen popping up over the construction walls.
Naples upstairs and patio construction is now complete, but Napolini remains gutted. A Naples hostess said they are expecting the project to be completed sometime next month.
Moving over to World of Disney, the store is now a third of its normal size. The middle set of doors are now closed for the removal of the temporary center construction wall. They are getting very close to reopening, with shelves and even some merchandise now in place in the closed sections.
The current look of the World of Disney reminds of a generic industrial warehouse, but according to sources, there are many props and magic to be added before the store officially reopens.
Look not behind the black curtain.
Peaking through the doors on the park-side of the shop earlier this week…
Mickey and Friends Parking Structure Construction
Work continues at a feverish pace as parts of the 4th and 5th levels begin to appear at the tram route end of the structure.
Green hashing on the ground is where the railing will be removed for the bridge that will connect the two structures together. Levels 2 and 3 are connected already as the new structure continues to extend to the skyward.
Work continues on what I expect to be the new security screening area. It should be interesting to see how that will work when you have an 18K parking space garage worth of people all trying to access the very inefficient tram system…(insert People Mover efficiency rant here)
Disneyland Hotel
Work continues on Tangaroa Terrace as it becomes bar-ified.
The fireplace across from Trader Sams is also behind construction walls.
How about this new to me T-shirt for the Disneyland Hotel?
Moving over to the Grand, the construction work is beginning to wrap up on the valet area.
This and That
It was unofficial Tiki Day at Disneyland on Sunday. There were thousands of guests dressed in their Tiki best. While the Tiki Room was closed, that didn’t seem to damper the tropical fabulousness of the attendees.
Have you been waiting for the popcorn cauldron to return? Well, it’s back.
The planted wall on the Starbucks patio has returned.
Much thanks to Dusty, Scott Attula, Dsny Debbie, and our crew for helping out with Today’s update. Thanks for reading everyone!
BROADWAY TO THE RESCUE
MONTALBON THEATER HOLLYWOOD
OCT 13, 2018
Looking for some entertaining Disney fun? Michael Leon Wooley (Louis the Alligator from Disney’s Princess and the Frog) and Dusty Sage are putting together a show in Hollywood which features over 30 Broadway stars and a cast of nearly 100. The show is on October 13th and will benefit the Hope of the Valley Homeless Mission.
This year’s show is entirely Disney and features many stars from Disney’s Broadway shows!
Broadway to the Rescue info and tickets HERE
That’s for today from the Disneyland we’ll be back soon!
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