Welcome back to the Disneyland Resort, where we are prepared to fatten you up and entertain you. We froze our update crew to bring you photos of Food and Wine Festival set-up, World of Color’s return performance, and refurbishments and news at Disneyland Park. This was a fun one for us . . .
World of Color Return
California Adventure’s nighttime spectacular, World of Color, returned this past weekend! The show aired its (almost) original format, it hadn’t played for guests since April 2018. We shared some initial photos and video with you on Saturday here, but I’ve got a lot more for you below.
It was great to see the familiar show after such a long absence.
This show still features the Pirate of the Caribbean section, complete with plenty of On Stranger Tides promotion. Though, many of you may like this Pirates scene better than the one currently in Fantastic at Disneyland.
Here’s a little clip of the show. Water . . . fire . . . color . . .
Of course, I recommend sticking around for the post-show, it presents the best time to head straight to the railing and photograph the fountains without upsetting the other guests.
Food and Wine
The DCA Food and Wine Festival begins this coming Friday and most of the booths are already set up.
Along with the booths, the menus are on display as well. Disney usually posts these menus well in advance, but they have yet to officially post the entire festival online yet.
For those whowho remem the old Kitchen Kabarat animatronic show at Epcot, the “Veggie Veggie Fruit Fruit” booth is most likely a reference to the song from that show.
Perhaps this will put you in the mood:
Saving the Planet, One Paper Straw at a Time
It hasn’t been very long since Disney began diminishing the availability of single-use plastic straws and lids (and other plastics). Over the weekend, paper straws popped up all over the resort. Fans of the paper straws at Disney’s Animal Kingdom will be happy to see that these appear to be the same type of straws.
We hope that biodegradable lids become available soon as well for those who request them.
Disneyland Park Update
As the road to the opening of Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge grows closer, there’s a lot going on here too . . .
Project Stardust
Sleeping Beauty Castle
Still ongoing is the refurbishment and new color scheme of Sleeping Beauty Castle.
The brown scrims were replaced with these sky colored ones. During the day, they blend into the sky quite well.
The various scrims on the Fantasyland side of the castle were reworked to better feature the fire and thorns from the Sleeping Beauty backdrop. The Christmas Shoppe scrim had been blocking some of this awesome scene . . . now it’s part of it as the thorns and fire take over the shop.
The ongoing brick painting on the side of the castle continues. You can see some protectant plastic covering sections.
The main waterfall is not on, but the water has started moving again around Snow White’s Wishing Well.
To get to Fantasyland, you’ll need to take the long way . . .
Even though the path along the west side of the castle does cut through, they won’t let you take it unless you have an appointment at the Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique.
Peeking through the construction fence, we can see what we believe is a test wall still sitting in the forecourt – most likely used as a reference for the crews painting and fixing the castle walls.
Main Street USA
Work continues on the curbs around Town Square.
These are guest flow improvements that mostly consist of lengthening and flattening the ramps on the curbs so there’s less gridlock around them.
The planter work near the City Hall ramp is still ongoing. The construction wall does create a pinch point as guests try to use the ramp and get stuck against the wall during busy times. The work should be wrapping up soon.
While the walls are still up around Town Square, the Main Street vehicles are down. Last week there were meet and greets with the horses, this week there’s a photo op with the fire engine.
Star Tours and Launch Bay
We’ve had a lot of questions about the fate of Star Tours and Launch Bay lately. While we don’t know what will happen a few years from now, Disneyland will need all the capacity it can get this summer. Neither attraction is expected to close due to those capacity needs.
Launch Bay will make it easy for guests to do meet and greets with Star Wars characters, particularly ones that aren’t part of the story in Galaxy’s Edge. The current explanation of the background of Black Spire Outpost makes it seem improbable that we’ll see some of the main characters just walking around in the new land, especially Darth Vader as he’s long since died in the timeline they’re using. Launch Bay will be a place you can meet classic characters and buy some Star Wars merchandise that doesn’t quite fit the new land.
Hopefully we’ll see some updates to the space soon as the last refresh was for The Last Jedi.
All the same opening day displays are still available beyond the first room as well.
The one exception is this small model of part of Black Spire Outpost that was added last year. This is a tiny glimpse into Galaxy’s Edge.
The top floor of this building has been unused since the removal of Superhero HQ. Disneyland is going to need additional places for guests to go once Galaxy’s Edge opens, so I hope something moves in up there soon, even if it’s just Superhero HQ returning.
As for the main attraction in this space, the light side characters are definitely more popular than the dark side ones.
The space is almost completely empty every time I go in. Maybe it’s time to add BB-8 and Jawas like the Orlando version.
Refurbishments
Critter Country
Some walls were erected outside of the Hungry Bear restaurant where an outdoor vending cart normally sits.
Looking through the scrim, it seems as though some work is being done on the concrete.
Astro Orbitor
The Astro Orbitor is still just a giant black box for the moment as we wait for it to be reassembled.
And those spotlight globes remain empty on the PeopleMover tracks. I wonder why they are even still there?
Mark Twain/Sailing Ship Columbia
The Frontierland dock is still getting a retouch.
The Sailing Ship Columbia remains dry-docked at Fowler’s Harbor.
Some parts are wrapped up.
French Market
French Market exterior refurbishment wraps are still up while the restaurant remains open.
Galaxy’s Edge
Last week we noticed that some of the backsides of Galaxy’s Edge’s rockwork were getting filled in. This week, it looks like a lot of that work is starting to get finished.
Some new supports have popped up as well, looks like something will be installed here soon.
If you haven’t ventured up to the seating area of Hungry Bear, give it a try sometime. Not only can you see the back side of the Rivers of America, but there’s also a great view of the facades of Galaxy’s Edge. Eventually the trees will grow in and hide everything.
Here’s the front side of those new supports we showed you from the parking structure side.
If you had looked this way just two years ago when work began on Galaxy’s Edge, you would’ve seen the parking structure plain as day. Now, the trees are getting close to covering it.
Mickey And Friends
The extension of the parking structure is shaping up quickly. The bridges to walk between the two structures is now complete.
The giant roof for the rotunda on the new structure is being assembled.
It looks like they’re doing some brickwork around the escalators of the current structure as well.
Hopefully, the escalator signs will get some work, they’re starting to fade and peel off.
This and That
Ralph Breaks the Internet is still previewing to an empty theater for a film that has long since come and gone. What should Disney do with this problematic space?
On Friday, Pirates was down, but not for refurbishment. For whatever reason, it was closed all day.
Something that flew under the radar during the Get Your Ears On Celebration for me was this Lobster Pot Pie Soup at the Harbor Galley. Have any of you given it a try?
Strangely, though, the restaurant was also selling this Jack Skellington Key. It’s not food related so I’m wondering why it was here specifically.
Do you think that if Country Bear Jamboree had stayed, it would be more popular today than the Winnie the Pooh attraction that resides in the space now?
I’m not quite sure when this happened, but the Pinocchio stained glass windows in the Red Rose Taverne lobby were removed, as was the curtains that covered them.
Here’s a little something weird out in the esplanade. The abandoned Info Booth (which had been used by Haagen Dazs) sits closed up, while a DVC cart has been wheeled out and is plugged into the power inside the booth. I wonder why they don’t just use the booth itself?
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That’s it from the Disneyland Resort for now. Are you happy that World of Color is back? Ready to get your Food and Wine on?
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