“Do or do not, there is no try” – Yoda
The force is strong. The shops, restaurants and one of the attractions of Galaxy’s Edge are all now ready for guests. Cast member previews of Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge begin this week, with expanded previews and media access continuing through next week. Then, the galaxy opens to the public on May 31st. That leaves Disneyland with just a few days to clean up all the construction throughout the park before the eyes of the whole world are cast upon The Happiest Place On Earth.
There is no single icon at Disneyland more iconic than Sleeping Beauty Castle. After months of refurbishment, the wraps are now down, revealing a bold new look. Elsewhere in the park, Stardust projects are finishing up rapidly and the new parking structure is nearing completion.
You might need a strong cup of coffee, this is a long update. Cue the music . . .
Waking Sleeping Beauty
This weekend saw the removal of the scrims shrouding Sleeping Beauty Castle, giving our first good look at the new color scheme. While the lower construction walls won’t be going away until next week, we’re really happy to see the park icon again.
The old girl boldly shines at the end of Main Street USA once again. The new colors help the classic core of Disneyland hold its own as the new Galaxy’s Edge opens.
Disney doesn’t just want potential tourists to think of a galaxy far, far away, they want you to remember the magic. That’s why Stardust isn’t just about widening walkways, it’s about making the core of Disneyland sparkle like new and adding guest enhancements such as Tropical Hideaway, shaded queues on popular rides that didn’t have them (Dumbo, Small World, Space Mountain), and making the facades of Main Street look like new.
The walls around the castle are expected to come down on the 24th.
We have an article about the new look of the castle which is based on a walk we took through the historic structure with Disney Imagineer Kim Irvine:
One of the most noticeable features of the castle, other than the new blue hues, is the sprinkle of stardust on the central roof.
The back of the castle feels more pink than the front.
Few things at Disneyland are unintentional. The gardens around the central hub seem to be perfectly selected to look good in the foreground of castle photos.
Imagineer Kim Irvine’s color design uses darker colors near the bottom of the castle and lighter ones near the top to convey a sense of height. As you can see with the highest tower, the blue is very light and the purple takes a much lighter, almost pink color.
But it’s the details which make the castle pop. The bits of gold add elegance to the chunky castle. And the spires haven’t sparkled like this in a very long time.
The lights that hang above the entrances on the sides of the castle have yet to be re-installed. One had a nice piece of tape on it, but the other had some dangling electrical wire.
The roof over the Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique is finished. The rockwork was painted with the new scheme and the tower was repaired.
We do have some remaining questions, one being if the stardusting will continue past the main castle complex into the village portions, where several of the Fantasyland dark rides are. Some of the roofs could really use some help.
Sleeping Beauty Castle Walkthrough is coming back and also received some refurbishments, but the sign hasn’t been re-installed yet.
Even the Sleeping Beauty water fountain received the new color enhancements with stone and gold accents.
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Sugarboo Opens in Downtown Disney
An eclectic new store has opened next to the Starbucks on the west end of Downtown Disney. While there weren’t a lot of items that I felt I needed to own, it is a fun space and different than what’s offered elsewhere in the mall.
If you find something you can’t live without, but not sure how you’ll get it home, purchases over $59 ship for free.
Stardust Wrapping Up
Most of the park-wide stardusting is being finished up right now. Every day between now and the media events (beginning on the 28th) will bring major progress.
Main Street USA
The facade work on the Main Street Mad Hatter shop was finished this week.
The seating area reshaping near the Jolly Holiday Bakery is still ongoing.
Across the street near the Plaza Inn, the gardens were reshaped a bit to improve guest flow. Some half-circle cut-outs were added so Castmember’s can stand out of the way to direct crowds on busy days.
They can also be used for trash cans (as they’ve done with one half of the walkway)
The walkway reshaping along the Adventureland and Frontierland bridges is still ongoing.
The new digital Guest Relations time board has yet to arrive.
Tomorrowland
The facade work for Red Rockett’s Pizza Port Pizza Planet is ongoing, but we were about to get a nice look at some of the changes to the facade, and the giant Moonliner rocket which now sports a Pizza Planet logo.
The fin above the entry is also getting a Pizza Planet redo. We expect the whole thing to invoke more of the color language of the Pizza Planet seen in the original Toy Story.
The restaurant itself was open for most of the refurbishment but is now closed.
Outside of the Path of the Jedi, the work continues on cutting out the planter that served as the queue separator.
Fantasyland
The Peter Pan queue has moved into the space that was carved out of a planter. It’s not a whole lot, but it does pull some of the chains out of the tight walkway.
Frontierland
Near the Big Thunder Trail bridge, walls have been erected on a corner space. Looking inside, it seems like they’re shaping some space for an outdoor vending cart. This wouldn’t be a bad spot for one considering it’s near the entrance to Galaxy’s Edge.
I also noticed a sign I hadn’t seen before. The Rainbow Ridge Post Office is the small facade across from the defunct smoking area, right on the corner of the entrance to Galaxy’s Edge. There aren’t many signs pointing to specific non-functioning elements around the park so I’m guessing this is here as an aid to guests looking for Galaxy’s Edge. An instruction from a cast member telling you to “go past Big Thunder Mountain and take a left at the Rainbow Ridge Post Office” makes sense to me.
Critter Country
Shade is being added to Hungry Bear’s extended patio. This is the sort of stardusting that is very much appreciated.
The supports are already up and ready to take some fabric topping and lighting.
The long log will likely have a sign hung from it.
Adventureland
With the old Adventureland sign gone, traffic has been flowing a bit better on the Adventureland bridge.
We did notice that some elements are starting to arrive for the new sign, we assume the boxes will be where the supports will go.
Birthdays Don’t Last Forever
Mickey’s Get Your Ears On celebration will end May 27th. Get your treats, merchandise, and photos while you still can.
Galaxy’s Edge
The grand opening of Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge is only a little over a week away now. MiceChat has been covering Star Wars land since well before it was ever announced. Along the way we’ve brought you wave after wave of breaking news and information from the edge of the galaxy. In the days ahead, we have full opening day and preview coverage for you. If you haven’t already, please follow us on FACEBOOK, INSTAGRAM, and/or TWITTER and bookmark our Galaxy’s Edge landing page HERE. MiceChat is your single stop for all things Galaxy’s Edge.
With the opening coming soon, the barricades on the entrances have been removed and movable objects are now blocking the paths.
What are you guys doing to prepare for the opening? There are a few pieces of literature available now to learn about a little bit of the backstory, and I’ve been listening to the audiobooks. I’ve already gone through Pirate’s Price which follows Hondo’s adventures with the Falcon, Han, and Chewie from his location on Batuu and now I’ve moved on to Thrawn: Alliances which follows different stories of Grand Admiral Thrawn’s time on Batuu with Anakin Skywalker and a future visit with Darth Vader.
I would like to mention that no one seems to have an agreement on how to pronounce some of the more alien words. Jim Cummings, who reads Pirate’s Price (as Hondo), pronounces Batuu as BUH-TWO and Marc Thompson, who reads Thrawn: Alliances, pronounces it as BAH-TWO. The Thrawn book doesn’t mention Oga’s Cantina (it mentions the cantina but not that it is Oga’s), but Cummings pronounces Oga as AH-GAH. I wonder how pronunciation is going to work in a theme park setting where guests are already fairly confused.
If you’re looking for something to wear for your jump to lightspeed, check out the MiceShop, which is now filled with items inspired by a galaxy far, far away. Check them out at the MiceShop.
Pixar Pals Parking Structure
Work on the Pixar Pals Parking Structure is getting close to completion. We’re hoping it will finish by the time the reservation period is over at Galaxy’s Edge on June 23rd; it looks like they just might make that.
A lot of the plaza brickwork is finished.
The hanging planters are still awaiting horticulture.
On the street side, they’ve already got a lot of work done on the pedestrian bridge that will take guests to Downtown Disney.
Vertical construction is going well on the structures that will hold up the bridge.
If I had to guess, this will likely be where you’ll turn into 2nd parking lot entry. To speed parking, Disney is adding a 2nd entry to all of their lots.
Splitsville
The bowling alley/restaurant in Downtown Disney has started a few promotional discounts for annual passholders and hotel guests in an effort to increase traffic.
With the recent additions of Ballast Point and Black Tap, Splitzville seems to be having trouble filling seats.
To be honest, the food at both of the new restaurants next door is better and more interesting. Splitzville is going to have an uphill battle, their prices are high and they’ve got a HUGE space to fill.
This and That
Marceline’s Confectionery in Downtown Disney recently removed their sign and replaced it with a temporary one. It was falling apart, so we’re happy that they’re refurbishing it.
Ahhh, feel that? We can breathe again. That’s what Dusty and I were saying as we were passing the defunct Big Thunder Trail smoking area. This is just about where you’ll enter Galaxy’s Edge as well.
The Storybook Land Canal Boats and Casey Jr. Circus Train are currently down for refurbishment.
If you ever see Disneyland really struggle, it’s when multiple E-tickets go down at the same time. When we were there on Thursday, the park was moderately crowded, but we found that Thunder Mountain, Star Tours, and Indiana Jones were all down at the same time, which shot Hyperspace Mountain’s wait time up to 150 minutes.
Traffic patterns at the park are weird, man.
The downed E-tickets also seemingly caused an interesting backup at Roger Rabbit’s FastPass line. Even on a busy day we rarely see this.
Checking out the rest of ToonTown, no guest-visible construction has started on Mickey and Minnie’s Runaway Railway.
The future entrance of the attraction is expected to be here:
We are wondering with the inevitable changes to the rest of ToonTown, if something will be done to hide Galaxy’s Edge. Standing near the entrance of the land, you can see it clear as day.
We’ve been graced with a few Disneyland Rumor Updates lately covering projects that are in consideration for after the opening of Galaxy’s Edge. With the crush of crowds, Disney will need to bring their A-game to retain guests after the initial hype dies down; it sounds like they’re planning just that. We thought we’d show you just how massive the plot of land proposed for the Tomorrowland and Fantasyland expansions really is. First, the Star Wars Launch Bay plot, which is an incredibly large building.
Second, Autopia and the small area between it and Small World.
And third, the submarine lagoon.
Doing a rough measurement on Google Maps, that’s about 10 acres of land and that’s not even the entirety of what is expected to be used for the expansion project.
Disneyland Rumor Update: Construction Blues and Fantasyland News
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That’s it from the Disneyland Resort!
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