Welcome back to the Disneyland Resort! This was a very eventful (pun intended) weekend in Anaheim as the team here at MiceChat hosted four events in three days of MiceChat Anniversary and Gumball Rally! We’ve got some highlights from the weekend as well as some updates on the castle refurbishment, the eastern security gate, and the various refurbishments around Disneyland. Now heed this warning: the photos will materialize only if you remain safely seated with your hands, arms, feet, and legs inside the update.
Gumball Rally/MiceChat Anniversary
To kick off the weekend of events, David Price, the son of Disney Legend Buzz Price, hosted a panel about his father’s longstanding contribution to the early development of Disneyland and the legacy he created with the Disney company.
On a cold, wet Saturday morning, the Gumball Rally kicked off with hundreds of teams participating. The purpose of the game is to ride the most attractions in a single day at Disneyland. The game this year was themed around the Haunted Mansion and had all sorts of neat tie-ins with the questions in the gamebook.
As gamebooks were handed out, the skies opened up and gave everyone an unexpected twist to the start of their game: soggy clothes!
After a few hours the skies cleared up and everyone rushed to hit all the attractions at Disneyland before the deadline. Here are some highlights throughout the day, and much more to come in our full Gumball Rally post later in the week…
This year we added a new mechanic to the game, Spooky Selfies! Some attractions required that you take a photo while on the ride, but many teams took to chronicling the whole day. By the end of the day, there were over two thousand posts for #micechatrally!
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If you got cut off of the photo on Instagram, here’s a wider version
As the clock inched closer to the end time of 8pm, players were rushing to turn in gamebooks before the deadline!
Gamebooks were collected, counted, and scored with winners to be announced at Sunday morning’s MiceChat Anniversary Breakfast…
The following morning we had a panel hosted by author David Koenig and Bob D’Arcy, the first Disneyland tour guide. Bob had tons of stories about the early, pre-opening days of Disneyland, and has written a book on it “A Walk in the Park: Reflections from Disneyland’s First Host.”
After the panel, we revealed who the top teams of the Gumball Rally were.
Congratulations to the top three winning teams!
Los Disney Hermanos took home this beautiful Haunted Mansion themed Gumball Trophy.
Here are the places of the top 10 teams:
- 1 Los Disney Hermanos
- 2 The Mousefits
- 3 Bobbidi Bobbidi Booze
- 4 The Chilling Challengers
- 5 Straight Outta Compton
- 6 Bitter Bellhops
- 7 No Windows & Two Doors
- 8 To MARS and Beyond
- 9 When Mom’s Away We Go To Disnyland
- 10 DEAD Tired
Thanks to everyone who came out for another year of Gumball Rally and MiceChat Anniversary! We’ll have a full post about everything, including the final results, soon!
Project Stardust
Sleeping Beauty Castle
Castle construction is taking off, now with newly added scrims on both sides of the castle.
The front of the castle is covered in John Hench’s second rendering of the castle.
On the back, Prince Philip battles the Maleficent dragon.
He’s got some help from Flora, Fauna, and Merryweather at the very top.
Let’s peek through the fence…
There was a section of a wall sitting in the forecourt.
Over near Snow White’s Wishing Well, the new paint scheme on the brickwork is spreading.
This is much brighter than Kim Irvine’s rendering so I wouldn’t assume they’re done yet. Once they’ve added some aging and particles, it will no doubt be much darker.
Interestingly, I did not find a cast member near Fantasy Faire or Bibbity Bobbiti Boutique telling guests they couldn’t walk between Main Street and Fantasyland. It seems the walkway is remaining open, at least for now.
It certainly helped with congestion and my own sanity as I was moving around the park quickly to catch Gumball Rallyers for photos.
Main Street
Work is still ongoing outside the Emporium and City Hall in Town Square as walkways are being enhanced for ease of access for strollers and wheelchairs.
Eastern Security Gateway
Permanent security structures are being constructed along the Harbor Blvd. entrance.
It looks like they’re hoping to create more capacity with this new system, bringing this entrance closer to the security lines at Mickey and Friends.
Refurbishments
Rivers of America
Work continues for Fantasmic and the Sailing Ship Columbia.
The Columbia lost its plastic wrap just in time to get poured on.
I caught a crew cleaning up the deck post-rain.
Splash Mountain
You’ll have to find your laughing place somewhere else for a little while; Splash Mountain closed this week for refurbishment.
Astro Orbitor
The Astro Orbitor has been down for refurbishment for a few weeks and was almost entirely missing in action last week. This week there’s a big box covered in a black tarp, which looks to be a portion of the attraction coming back for reassembly.
Refurbishment Calendar
No End Date:
- Sleeping Beauty Castle Exterior: January 7th-Spring 2019
- Sleeping Beauty Castle Walkthrough: January 17-Spring 2019
- Enchanted Chamber Gift Shop: January 17th-Spring 2019
- Astro Orbitor: January 7th-Spring 2019
- Grizzly River Run: January 7th-Spring 2019
- Lube 0 Rama Gift Shop: starts February 25th
- Silly Symphony Swings: starts March 4th
With End Date:
- Splash Mountain: February 4th-14th
- Mint Julep Bar: February 18th-March 1st
- Space Mountain: February 25th-March 14th
- Sailing Ship Columbia: January 21st-March 8th
- Fantasmic: January 21st-March 8th
This and That
In Tomorrowland, the Ralph Breaks the Internet preview is still playing to empty theaters. For reference, this film came out on November 21, 2018.
I also noticed the sign by the Tomorrowland train station isn’t rotating any more (there are three scenes), it’s also starting to peel.
The Hungry Bear has great views of Galaxy’s Edge, it’s a quiet and tranquil spot to see the rock towers of Black Spire Outpost. At least, for now it is. Those trees will grow in fast.
I was listening to one of our podcast partners, the Sweep Spot, and they had a guest who worked the river. He mentioned that one of the only spots in Disneyland that has been untouched for a long time was the growth behind the Hungry Bear restaurant. Now with the walkway to Galaxy’s Edge going right through it, I’m interested to see how lush the area will be compared to the younger plants and trees around the Frontierland and Fantasyland entrances.
Winter is the best time to catch a sunset at Disneyland, it’s softer and creates things like orange Space Mountain…
…and cotton candy cloud backgrounds for Small World.
Sweethearts’ Nite
Stephenie (@stephishappening) attended the special Disneyland After Dark: Sweethearts’ Nite event this week. Keep an eye out for the full review on Micechat later this week!
That’s it from the Disneyland Resort! Thanks for stopping in. Did you attend the Gumball Rally? Do you like the new castle colors. Want to see Astro Orbiter move to Yesterland? Let us know in the comments!
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