This has been an exciting week. We started off with a big Disneyland Update filled with construction and projects. Then we shared a preview of the Get Your Ears On promotion which launches today. Now let’s see what’s going on at DCA and in Downtown Disney, including the official opening of Ballast Point!
Ballast Point
Ballast point held its grand opening celebration on Wednesday. We’ve been looking forward to giving it a try and headed over for some brews and bites.
Guests enter on the lower level where Ride Makerz was previously located (and Department 56 before that) and then head up a stairway to the brewery. We highly suggest getting a reservation, the initial waits have been insanely long. Without a reservation, you could be looking at waiting at least 90 minutes before making it inside.
The aesthetic is nautical inspired with a touch of warmth and modern elegance. It makes for a very welcoming and comfortable space.
This is also a fully functional brewery where they make small batches of their beer in-house.
At the top of the stairs is a small shop that happens to have one of the best views from the restaurant. It’s a shame that this isn’t utilized towards functionality like additional seating, especially since it would have been handy with the large crowds we saw this opening week. Maybe they could try using a display case by the hostess stand and the items could be brought out to guests when purchased.
The views of Downtown Disney are spectacular from anywhere inside the brewery.
The establishment features some really good beers and food, and also remains family friendly.
We tried out some of the food. Our photographer, Stephanie, was very pleased to find some vegan options that she really enjoyed.
I get the feeling the spicy wings are going to be very popular.
Vegan lettuce wraps.
The versatility of the menu is pretty astounding. You can get tacos with beer battered fish, or if you wanted a vegan-friendly option you could opt for soyrizo and roasted cauliflower ones instead.
Overall, Ballast Point makes for a great addition to Downtown Disney. The views from inside are incredible, the food is tasty, and the beer selection is pretty fantastic. The main thing to look out for are long wait times. Helpful hint: reservations, reservations, reservations!
California Adventure
New Mickey banners for the Get Your Ears On campaign are now up in the Esplanade.
Entering DCA, the park has been de-Holiday-ized.
Sans-Holiday
Most of the Holiday decor is gone, including all the festival booths.
The few remnants of the festival are a merchandise cart across from the Cars Land entrance and a merchandise booth near the Little Mermaid.
These lighting poles in Paradise Park also remain, re-wrapped for Lunar New Year that starts next weekend.
Over in Cars Land, holiday decor is gone.
And over in Grizzly Peak, just a few trees are still adorned with Jelly-light Jars.
Marvel Land Update
Work continues on prepping the old A Bug Life Theater for the new Spider-Man web-shooter dark ride.
New frames are being added to the building
From the Guardians side, nearly everything in A Bug’s Land, except the restrooms, has been demolished.
From last week:
This week:
They’ve made a lot of drastic changes to the site all within a week’s time.
Guardians of Galaxy Update
Over at Guardians, it looks like Disney is reducing the planters to help with what could be crowd flow issues when the new land opens. The Tower/Guardians queue has always been a choke point that spills out into the street and blocks trolley and foot traffic. Looks like they’re trying to alleviate that.
Interestingly, on this gate they added a safety sign along with a height bar. Maybe they are planning on shifting the Standby Entrance queue entrance to help accommodate crowd flow…
Pixar Pier Update
Upon entering the Pier this week, we were immediately met with a new red construction wall adorning what will be Jessie’s Critter Round-Up. Scaffolding has spread further, now enveloping the Incredibles fountain on the right side of the area.
Since the fountain is now behind walls, hopefully, Disney can find a way to fix the yellowing on this fountain that occurs regularly and consistently (it’s perpetually looked nasty since even before Pixar Pier officially opened). This is what the fountain looked like last week:
There are signs that the carousel’s inside wall mural is getting painted.
Over at the Pier restrooms, the PP logos engraved onto the ground are gone now.
The… Emotional Swings (is anyone going to call this Emotional Whirlwind?) have electric conduits being laid as well as a print of where the I-beam will be installed.
Grizzly Refurb
Over at Grizzly, construction walls now cover sections of the ride.
Across from the ride’s main entrance, the dryers have been pulled out. According to CMs, Disney will be installing more permanent dryers soon… I wish they wouldn’t… too ugly.
Regular ride maintenance is occurring…
…this time the entire water reservoir has been drained.
And if we head over to the water next to Pacific Wharf we can see that all the water has been fully drained here as well. The Wharf’s waterway is actually a reservoir for Grizzly River Run.
This waterway is very dirty, it’s probably why all the water has been drained so they can deep clean the basin.
Backlot Churros
Over in the Backlot, Disney debuted a “new” Churro stand.
More than likely, this is the stand that used to be in Bugs Land and is back after a quick refurb and reskin.
The design matches the banners and skins around the land, this will likely be stationed here until Marvel Land opens.
Rainy Day
Over the last week, it has been raining here in Southern California. To Californians, it’s an event for it to rain, and also the perfect day to go to the park grab some pictures…
Frozone was trying to make it snow on the pier but the rain was coming down too fast. Guess he’ll just have to let it go.
Lighting on Mickey’s Fun Wheel was having difficulties keeping up with the rain.
Downtown Disney
Get Your Banners On
Out in Downtown Disney, Get Your Ears On wraps are being used on the shuttered buildings.
World of Disney
To go along with the Get Your Ears On promotion, new merchandise has been popping up.
There’s a huge push for Mickey designs for Get Your Ears On. In Center Store, it’s all Mickey replacing the Holiday section.
Over in the West side of the store, the Mickey Mouse merchandise has been replaced with 2018/2019 Disneyland merchandise. It’s odd that Disney did not move the rear-projected Mickey Mouse ear hat display over to Center Store to help promote the Mickey 90th event.
The Eastern side of the store has a whole bunch of Disney Parks Lifestyle merchandise.
We did notice that a lot of the shirts are in women sizes, which was interesting. Maybe they’ll introduce some unisex sizes soon.
Ballast Point’s downstairs neighbor, Black Tap has applied for a liquor license. Air ducts and other equipment are waiting for installation on the patio.
Disneyland
Castle Refurb
Back over in Disneyland, scaffolding has begun to climb the sides of Sleeping Beauty Castle.
Down the walkway around the castle, Disney has installed a scrim of backgrounds from Sleeping Beauty with some superimposed forest creatures on it.
Along the back of the castle, a bit of the snow remains. More interestingly, the castle roof toppers have gone missing ahead of the roof redo.
Astro Orbitor
Over at Astro Orbitor, portions of the planets on top of the structure have started to go missing.
No word on when this will return yet. Some might wonder if it will return.
More Purple Pop-up
Over at the New Orleans Square Churro Cart, the Purple Churro has debuted. Just colored sugar on top of the normal churro, nothing too special. Should continue to be popular with the Instagrammers.
This and That
This week Monorail Red come back into service with a Mickey Wrap. Red and yellow, like his pants and shoes!
Dusty was able to get a preview of the Get Your Ears On offerings. If you have not read Dusty’s article be sure to do so HERE.
He was also able to preview the new Mickey’s Mix Magic which will debut tonight!
I asked Dusty Sage his thoughts about the new show:
I love the firework show, music, animation, snow, and lasers. It’s high energy, unlike anything we’ve seen from Disneyland before. It’s a big win. However, because it’s so different, folks are either going to love it or hagte it. Electronic Dance Music isn’t for everyone. Unfortunately, the projection only version is a bit lacking in comparison. I fear that unless people are dancing in the streets, they may feel a bit let down by a 10 minute projection show. There will likely be no projections on the castle until after the refurbishment is done unless they can get a big scrim up. But when it debuts this Weekend, it likely will not have projections on the castle. Which means, it’s best to see fireworks from Main Street, and the projection only show from small world.
While I’m excited for the new fireworks show, but will people still enjoy a 10 minute long projection show without fireworks? While that may work over in Florida, it may not work after the first few weeks here in Anaheim.
Here’s a test of the fireworks as seen from the parking structure. Yes, I went night after night to catch these for you:
Disneyland Hotel
Pool Construction
Over at the Disneyland Hotel, two-thirds of the pool is under construction. The Monorail slides, D-Ticket pool, and both spas are behind walls at the moment. The large E-ticket pool is still available.
I find it interesting that they added this banner even though its going to be behind a construction wall for a couple of months.
Tangaroa Terrace Construction
Work continues over at Tangaroa Terrace. A new awning is now visible around the dining area.
And over at the fireplace across from Trader Sam’s, new lights have been strung across the seating area.
Mickey and Friends Parking Structure Update
Over at Mickey and Friends, work continues at a feverish pace as Disney races to try to get this parking structure ready for Star Wars Land’s crowds.
During the last few weeks, the escalators have been installed as well as the drywalling for rooms inside the structure.
Along the back, we can see the three landing pads for the escalators. I wonder if we will see security moved up to these rings.
Here is where the bridge will be connected to the new structure.
According to construction workers, the bridge will cross the street about where the lane sign is.
Here is the concept art of the bridge.
Along the back of the structure:
MiceChat Anniversary weekend is next month! Join us for three days of events and activities. Don’t miss the Friday evening cocktail reception celebrating Disney super legend Buzz Price, our Sunday morning breakfast with David Koenig and the very first Disneyland tour guide, and our most affordable Gumball Rally ever, making this the PERFECT year for you to give it a roll. And please don’t miss the MiceChat Sunday meetup at Disneyland on February 10th . . . the event that started it all. All of the amazing events are listed below. Please help us spread the word. We can’t wait to see you!
TIP: Sign up for the Rally, then add the Combo Ticket Package for the best deal on Anniversary weekend. If you aren’t doing the Rally, the Combo Ticket Package (listed below) is your golden ticket to Anniversary Weekend magic!
The Buzz Way Cocktail Reception
Feb 8th, 7:30 – 9:30 PM – Wyndham Garden Hotel
A panel discussion and cocktail reception celebrating the great Buzz Price, the Disney super-legend who helped create the business model for Disneyland (and Walt Disney World) and discovered the land that the Happiest Place on Earth was built on. Joining us will be David Price, Buzz Price’s son and a themed entertainment star in his own right. David will have copies of his new book about his dad, which contains chapters written by theme park industry luminaries who worked with and were inspired by Buzz Price. The event will feature never-before-seen videos of Buzz and his thoughts on theme parks which will leave you wishing there were more men like him around today. We will also have a unique opportunity to pick up a copy of the book Buzz himself wrote which is now long out of print! Plus, Disney Imagineer Terri Hardin Jackson will be joining us!
The Hotel Indigo (the sister hotel to the Wyndham and immediately next door) is offering a special rate of $109 per night (for the nights of the 8th and 9th) with complimentary WiFi, Parking, and amenity gift. Contact [email protected] and request the MiceChat Anniversary rate.
Buzz event info and tickets HERE
Gumball Rally!
February 9th – 7am until 8pm
The world-famous Gumball Rally is rolling your way on Saturday, February 9th. Do you have what it takes to ride the most attractions at Disneyland in a single day?
Gather together a team of 2, 3, or 4 friends or family members and enjoy the most fun you’ve ever had at the Happiest Place on Earth.
This year’s Rally is inspired by the 50th anniversary of the Haunted Mansion.
SPECIAL EARLYBIRD PRICING THROUGH JANUARY 15th ONLY – more than 50% off last year! We’ve been dying to have you.
Gumball Rally Links:
The First Tour Guide
Breakfast
Feb 10th, 8:30 AM – The Anaheim Hotel
Disneyland author, David Koenig, introduces us to the man who was Disneyland’s very first tour guide in the months before Disneyland even opened to guests. David will interview Bob D’Arcy and we’ll see images of Disneyland that no one has seen before. We’ll also have a chat with David about his own new book coming out and books will be available from Bob & David as well as some additional surprises!
Enjoy a traditional American breakfast of Scrambled Eggs, Bacon, Sausage, Seasoned Breakfast Potatoes, Assorted Pastries, Whole Fruit Display, Trinidad Regular & Decaf Coffee, Evolution Herbal Teas, and Water Station
This event will also serve as the Gumball Rally Award Party. The winning teams and special awards will be given out at this event. Gumball Rally event attendees will be given a special event discount so they can celebrate the winning teams (purchase the combo packages for deep discount).
Breakfast event info and tickets HERE SPECIAL
MICECHAT ANNIVERSARY TICKET COMBOS – (YOUR BEST VALUE)
Add both MiceChat Anniversary events and save $10 off our already low rates (buy the General Admission Combo Ticket). OR – Get VIP seating at both events and a special signed gift for just $20 more (buy the VIP Combo Ticket)
MiceChat Anniversary events Combo Tickets HERE
MiceChat Anniversary Noon Mega Meet
Sunday, February 10th
Disneyland
Don’t miss the event that started it all so many years ago. Join us for a classic noon meet up in the central hub of Disneyland. We’ll have lunch, then head off to experience what we call the “West Side Wonders”. This year is the 50th Anniversary of the Haunted Mansion, so we’ll be sure to do that. And if time allows, we’ll also ride the Mark Twain, Pirates, see the Tiki Birds and much more. Disneyland is fun in a group (even if it’s a busy day). Chat, make friends, and have a wonderful time celebrating 16 years of MiceAge/MiceChat.
That’s it for today. How well would you handle a rainy week at the resort? Are you ready to “Get your ears on”? We’ll see you again real soon!
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