I hate to admit it, but the holidays are coming to a close, and a whole decade with it! But right now, Disneyland is seeing traffic unlike anything else this year. People are flocking from all over the world to experience the last few days of the holiday season at the Disneyland Resort. But that doesn’t mean there isn’t news from Disneyland. The parks are getting ready for a big new year with tons of construction and updates around the Resort for new attractions and a whole new land! And there’s a little green alien who took us by surprise this week. Plus, we have a guide for those of you thinking about spending New Year’s Eve at the Resort. Let’s take a look around the parks in the last Disneyland Update of the decade!
Epic Crowds – Did Project Stardust Work?
This weekend was absolute insanity. On one hand, it’s endearing to see how many people love Disney enough to visit during the most overcrowded week of the year. On the other, it’s frustrating to experience the parks filled to the brim with harried guests.
The queues for the ticket booths were fully backed up and there were plenty of Disneyland’s infamous tape queues to help extend the lines. For a period on Friday, Disneyland had to stop selling 1-day Disneyland tickets and parkhoppers because Disneyland was full. Unblocked annual passes and previously purchased tickets were still allowed entrance at the Main Gate, but there were quite a few disgruntled guests that did not want to purchase a ticket just for Disney California Adventure.
Although tickets were not being sold for Disneyland, they were still letting people through the Main Gate, though not quickly. Despite the entry lines stretching into the Esplanade, not all of the turnstiles were open.
We made the mistake of showing up during the afternoon parade. Once we got past City Hall and redirected towards Disneyana, it was a throng of people shoulder to shoulder all trying to push their way through the parade while simultaneously trying to enjoy it.
It’s hard not to watch a parade that’s headed towards you, but if you stop in the middle of the walkway, be prepared to get run over by other parkgoers and yelled at by Cast Members.
Busy days at Disneyland can really bring the worst out in people. Strollers become battering rams, families holding hands slow down entire walkways, and people’s patience runs thin quickly. I was unapologetically hit from behind by massive strollers (they were out in full force this weekend) at least a dozen times.
But compared to last Christmas season, things flowed much better this year. Why? Disneyland spent a tremendous amount of time and money this year to expand walkways, remove obstructions, and lower curbs. “Project Stardust” was intended to combat the expected massive Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge crowds, but those crowds never materialized. So this week has really been the first major test of Disneyland’s new crowd-flow plans. . . it worked. That isn’t to say the park wasn’t miserably packed, trash cans overflowing, restaurants and bathrooms with excessively long lines . . . but at least you could walk through Adventureland and Tomorrowland without getting stuck. The one exception is New Orleans Square, which is still a nightmare on busy days.
We headed out of Disneyland around 4:30 pm and Main Street still looked like this:
But when we exited the park, the entry gates into Disneyland were wait-free. Likely, the result of messages on the Disneyland app, info boards, and social media about Disneyland being at capacity (even though that was only true for a short period of time).
Tomorrowland Happenings
The land of the future has finally started to see progress on its construction projects. Plus, say goodbye to Hyperspace Mountain.
Construction
At the entrance of Tomorrowland, the mural walls of Star Tours and Buzz Lightyear have been wrapped in construction scrims for months, but new progress has been made at long last. The concrete design has been removed from the walls and has been replaced with a plastic siding in the same pattern.
The new panels are even shinier than they appear in the photo.
The Buzz Lightyear side is still wrapped.
Spaced Out
Hyperspace Mountain goes down on January 7, 2020 to be converted back to regular Space Mountain. Hyperspace has been running since May; it’s almost hard to remember the regular version of the ride.
Waits on Friday reached upward of 140 minutes for this attraction!!! That’s insane. In my opinion, no ride is worth a wait like that. Get a Fastpass, use single rider, or save it for another visit.
The Space Mountain Emergency Exit project is finally progressing as well. But because wait times were so long this week, we did not get in the queue to shoot photos. But you can get a taste of the project below.
The Future is . . . Crowded
Not only was Space Mountain at in excess of a two-hour wait, but Star Tours had a fully extended queue as well. If you haven’t seen the new Rise of Skywalker inspired destinations for this attraction, put that on your bucket list. In the meantime, you can read more about it HERE: Star Tours Adds New Destinations.
You Want Me To Wait How Long For Pizza?
We saw a line in front of Pizza Planet that stretched almost to Starcade. We thought it was for Space Mountain . . . but it was really for Pizza Planet.
It was a confusing cluster of people with no crowd control and no one trying to help guests figure out which line was for pizza and which was for a thrilling, high-speed ride into space.
The virtual Fastpass machines in Tomorrowland had a major real-world test this week. With only 4 machines to book Fastpass for all of the Tomorrowland attractions, the system worked pretty well. They could perhaps have used one additional machine, but waits weren’t too bad to book a spot. And the large reader board (previously used for the Galaxy’s Edge Boarding Passes) makes it very easy to see what the current wait times and return times are.
Failure to Launch . . . Bay
Unfortunately, the end of the Skywalker Saga didn’t merit any updates to Star Wars: Launch Bay. Launch Bay received new props, video elements and character meet and greets after the two previous films. We hope something is still on the way, as 42 years of Star Wars films deserves a little something at Disneyland. Plus, this attraction is feeling VERY stale.
It’s All About The Child (Baby Yoda Alert!)
Yes, we know he’s not really baby Yoda, but that’s what he looks like and “The Child” is a terrible name, so go with us on this one until Disney gives him a name. The Startrader in Tomorrowland added new Baby Yoda merchandise this week and our article about it immediately became one of our top ten highest traffic days of the year. There was really some pent up demand. Too bad the line isn’t more inspired, but it is a start. Let us know what’s missing that you’d still like to buy!
There are additional items that aren’t really Baby Yoda related, but they look close enough that Disney has placed them near “The Child.”
What do you think of the new Baby Yoda merch and what’s still missing that you’d love to see Disneyland sell? Should there be a Baby Yoda meet and greet somewhere? Launch Bay perhaps?
ToonTown
The land of Mickey and friends is getting a big new ride. While we only have a few tiny glimpses, it was also a week of humongous crowds.
The lines for Mickey and Minnie’s houses were longer than I’ve ever seen them.
Even Roger Rabbit had a 65-minute standby wait.
Lines for food were long, but not nearly as bad as the rest of the park.
And here’s a tip. There wasn’t a single person in line for the frozen drinks near ToonTown park. It’s really too cold this time of year for this stand. Not sure why they don’t offer hot chocolate and coffee at this time of year. But it is your opportunity to get a drink without much wait.
Runaway Railway construction
Mickey and Minnie will be taking guests on new adventures in 2022. Construction is underway just behind the North side of ToonToon. We can’t see much of the construction site, but some large backstage buildings were cleared and major construction will start soon.
Fantasyland
It’s crowds, crowds, crowds in Fantasyland as well. And though Project Stardust helped in the areas around the Carousel, they still back up in the pathway that leads to the parade route and the Matterhorn.
Every attraction in the area had a significant wait, and even Dumbo shot up to 60 minutes!. Can you even imagine waiting that long for a simple spinner ride?
Matterhorn was a total maze of switchbacks extending well past its usual queue.
Attractions that usually have short or modest waits (like Storybookland) had queues overspilling into the walkways.
It was a steady flow of traffic coming from every direction.
Snow White saw an influx of riders for the weekend. The queue had temporary extensions set up (see that tape on the ground) which led all the way around the corner by the entrance to the Castle Walk-through!
One unusual thing we saw was that Peter Pan’s wait wasn’t anything too out the usual from a normal day, only 60-minutes. For some reason, Peter Pan is always one of the attractions with a crazy wait that everyone has become accustomed to. Considering the spike in traffic for every other attraction in the park, this seemed odd to us. But the line still looked insane, so that probably kept many folks away.
Over at Small World, the queue was completely filled to the brim with people. All the switchbacks were in use, with people lined up all the way to the parade gates. Small World is one of the highest capacity rides in the park and still had a 65+ minute wait mid-day on Friday.
The photo below is one gigantic switchback. No way I would EVER get in a line like this.
Don’t get me wrong, I love Small World, but I just don’t know if I could stand waiting for so long with so many people in a crowded switch-back situation. On the bright side, this weekend had very fair weather conditions in the 60-degree range. If it were summertime highs of 90+ degrees, this would be hell on earth.
Over by the entrance to ToonTown there was row upon rows of strollers that stretched all the way to the train tracks.
Fantasyland Attraction Refurb
Starting in January, there will be several attractions throughout Disneyland that will be going down for extended periods for refurbishment.
As we’ve written about before, the Scary Adventures of Snow White will be toned down to be less scary, and with a much happier ending. The attraction is going to begin its renovation on January 7th and will last for an unspecified amount of time. For more information about Snow White’s changes, read the article below.
NEWS – Snow White’s Adventures to Be Less Scary at Disneyland
Also, there will be another extended refurbishment on another classic Fantasyland attraction. The King Arthur Carrousel will be closed for an unspecified amount of time starting January 21. These refurbishments generally involved the dismantling and rebuilding of the attraction.
Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge
For the first time this since the previews, Star Wars land felt truly crowded this week. There were lines out the door for every shop, stall, and attraction.
Every section of the land had a huge crowd surrounding it. Even the empty backchannel of the Marketplace had a constant stream of people walking through. To try to keep the traffic from stopping, there were two Stormtroopers on the catwalk above the speeder garage telling guests to “keep moving.”
However, at the Resistance Outpost, Chewie was doing the complete opposite. The little “show” they have with Chewie coming out to work on the X-Wing drew a large crowd expecting to see some form of entertainment. Instead of some enthralling show, they were given a display of his inability to fix the ship and watch him eventually storm off without a definite conclusion. We overheard a lot of confusion about what was happening on the stage with Chewie and the X-Wing, and after a while of watching Chewie tinker around with the ship people just started leaving the area.
Over at the Millennium Falcon, the massive queue was having a hard time keeping people in line. When we got there, the queue was backed up and spilling into the Falcon photo op area.
Over at Dok Ondar’s, we saw something we hadn’t seen since the land’s public opening in May: lines out the door and a cast member letting people into the shop in groups.
One interesting thing to note, despite the swarm in attendance in the land, Ronto Roasters had a very little wait. I’ll admit it’s in a weird location behind the podracer engine, which makes it easy to miss, but the food is delicious. It’s a shame that more people aren’t going. I tried the Ronto-less Wrap on this trip. Loved it.
Not even a 5-minute wait on a day like this.
With that said, it’s a very inhospitable area to eat food. The podracer engine is very loud if you’re eating at the standup counter and there’s only a handful of tables with chairs available. So this isn’t a very enjoyable spot for prolonged periods of time. Take your food with you and eat it on the go.
Virtual queuing for Rise
Rise of the Resistance is just a couple of weeks away. The attraction has already opened at Walt Disney World and we have reviews for you Here and Here. It’s going to be a VERY popular attraction to be sure. To manage the massive expected anticipation, Disneyland is working on a virtual queuing system not unlike the one used for the opening of the attraction at Walt Disney World or the opening of Galaxy’s Edge over the summer.
It should work similarly to the Boarding Groups that were originally planned for the land. For more info about the Boarding Groups, read the article below.
OPENING! Rise of the Resistance at Disney’s Hollywood Studios
Dianoga Surprise
Surprise, no dianoga. Last week, we mentioned that the dianoga special effect inside the Marketplace’s water fountains was broken. We’re very interested to see how long it will take for the monster to be back up and surprising guests.
Every Crew Needs a Uniform
We spotted some new merch at Jewels of Bith for the Millennium Falcon. It appears to have been designed by an intergalactic designer for industrial workwear. There’s an emphasis on the Falcon’s schematics and a hat that wouldn’t look out of place in a body shop.
There’s also another shirt that’s got a little bit more of a feminine touch.
New Orleans Square
Everywhere in the park was busy, but there was no place quite as gridlocked as New Orleans Square.
There’s something magical about New Orleans Square. Not only is it well themed and lovely, but it also has the park’s best restaurants and two of the most popular attractions. Unfortunately, the multi-tier walkways built for Fantasmic viewing also make this area of the park prone to traffic-flow issues on busy days when both Pirates of the Caribbean and Haunted Manson overflow their queues and spill out into the walkways of New Orleans Square.
When you get to New Orleans Square, it’s hard to miss all the people. You’ll be in stop and go traffic to get anywhere, and this is NOT a good place to find a restroom if you need one quickly. The queue for Pirates of the Caribbean stretches the entire length of the land. If you saw Small World and thought that was bad, just take a moment and look at the horror that is the Pirates queue. Really let it sink in, and be grateful you’re far away from there.
Thankfully, Pirates is a fantastic people-eater, so although the queue looks horrendous, it moves more quickly than you might imagine.
Although, that can’t be said for all the attractions in the area. The Disneyland Railroad is notorious for how inefficient it is when it comes to getting people onto the train. When we visited the park, the New Orleans station had a 100-minute wait.
Even though the Disneyland Railroad is ultimately one of my favorite attractions, I wouldn’t wait for more than two train loads. Certainly not more than 10 train loads.
Haunted Mansion Construction
The other main attraction in New Orleans Square also saw lots of love this weekend. With waits remaining at over 90+ minutes, Haunted Mansion Holiday was a major people-eater for the park.
The queue for the Haunted Mansion stretched out of the attraction’s walls and switched throughout the garden. It appears that people want to ride it as much as they can before it goes down for an extended refurb at the end of January.
Although the refurb isn’t supposed to begin until January 21, 2020, a portion of the attraction is already behind a construction scrim. The side of the Mansion nearest to Splash Mountain has a scrim spanning the entire height of the building.
Adventureland
Indiana Jones was so backed up that the Fastpass return was located past the Tarzan Treehouse and used part of the Pirates of the Caribbean queue area!
The Tiki Room was a good place to escape all the commotion happening in the park. While crowded, this was one attraction you could do without a long wait.
To help combat the general insanity of the crowds, the Dole Whip Stand was in B-mode where it only serves as mobile order pickup. It’s hard to imagine that there was a time mobile order didn’t exist and the Dole Whip Stand took all the business it could. Thank god for the Tropical Hideaway!
Yes, Christmas is over. But, can we just take a second to admire this found-item Christmas tree from Jungle Cruise Skippers? One of my favorite decorations in the whole park.
Disney California Adventure
Across the way, DCA was also experiencing some increased traffic.
We went to DCA around 5pm on Friday, and by that time things had drastically settled down around the Resort. DCA had never been barred for ticket sales that day, but it was nonetheless very busy.
That’s not to say it wasn’t crowded, because it was still quite full of guests. But the crowds didn’t have the same impact on DCA compared to Disneyland. Beuna Vista Street opened to a mass of guests that were coming and going, but it never felt difficult to navigate.
Avengers Campus
Construction continues for the next major expansion at the Resort. It appears that more exterior finishing has been completed on the industrial style being applied to the old Bug’s Life Theater.
It’s hard to believe how different this whole section looks now that Bug’s Land has been torn down. This new land is set to open this summer.
A view from the Guardians Tower construction side.
When looking at Avengers Campus construction near the Guardians Tower, you can see that it’s still very much an active construction zone filled with supplies. In the center of the picture, there are stacked pavers on pallets.
At the moment, Guardians is a bit of a mess. The entrance is now partially obstructed by construction walls (for repaving the Red Car Trolley tracks) and somewhat difficult to locate, and they have a Cast Member out front of the construction walls guiding traffic into the attraction.
When we were there on Friday, the wait was 115 minutes!
Festival of Holidays
While the parks were very busy, we were taken aback by how drastically the Festival of Holidays was overlooked by park guests.
Based on our day at Disneyland, we were expecting to see long lines at the Festival of Holidays booths. That wasn’t the case at all. In fact, every booth we passed had empty lines and we only saw a handful of people eating food from the Festival.
The Festival was certainly more crowded earlier in it’s run.
I’ll be honest, we brought a nearly full Tasting Card with us to use this trip, and we didn’t use it once. It isn’t because we “Festival-ed” ourselves out, it’s just that there wasn’t anything we thought was worth having again (for the third time).
With all that said, the Festival of Holidays does add a certain vibrancy to the park with its seasonal foods and a wide assortment of live entertainment.
Carthay Circle Refurbishment
Beginning January 6, 2020, the Carthay Circle Restaurant and lounge will be closed for a kitchen refurbishment.
It’s only a quick update and will be open and ready for business again on January 31, 2020.
It’s always a shame to see this beautiful patio space go unused. The weather was perfect for lounging outside with a drink and a few appetizers. But alas, it was empty.
The Club 33 location at DCA, 1901, will also be closed during Carthay Circle’s renovation.
Happy Hannukah!
One of the few Jewish details in Disney California Adventure is this window on Buena Vista Street for Julius Katz. The watchmaker is celebrating Hannukah, and today is the last day of the holiday.
Mr. Katz is enjoying a spread of Hanukkah foods at his desk, including sufganiyot (jelly donuts), matzo ball soup, and potato latkes.
I appreciate that they’ve been lighting the menorah every day during Hanukkah.
Holiday Merchandise
Although the Christmas season is rapidly approaching its end, the merchandising team at Disney wants to ensure they can get as much holiday products sold before the holidays are packed away in early January.
I wonder how much longer we’re going to be seeing holiday-wear at the parks. It makes me wonder what they do with all the leftover holiday merchandise. I know that they’re trying to make as much profit as possible before moving in the next set of merch. But, the things that are left over will be moved into Company D and sold at a steep discount to Cast Members. Or will be saved for the next Christmas season and resold.
All in all, this year’s holiday merch was pretty cute. But it looks like they’ve still got quite a lot left on hand.
Why doesn’t Disney just put all this stuff on sale after Christmas so they can make guests happy and get rid of this soon to be out of date merchandise?
Refurbishment Calendar
With the holidays soon to end, there are a ton of refurbishments on the way.
Currently Under Refurbishment:
- Red Car Trolley: April 1st, 2019-Summer 2020
- Jamba Juice (Downtown Disney): November 4th, 2019-Spring 2020
Upcoming Refurbishment:
- Carthay Circle Restaurant and Lounge: January 6th-30th
- 1901: January 6th-30th
- Space Mountain: January 7th
- Snow White’s Scary Adventures: January 7th-Summer 2020
- Mark Twain Riverboat: January 7th-31st
- it’s a small world holiday takedown: January 7th-January 16th
- Haunted Mansion Refurbishment: January 21st-Spring 2020
- King Arthur Carrousel: Starting January 21st
- Grizzly River Run: Starting January 21st
- Rushin’ River Outfitters: Starting January 21st
- The Bakery Tour: Starting January 21st
- Sailing Ship Columbia: February 3rd-6th
- Indiana Jones Adventure: Spring 2020-TBD
This and That
Now that we’ve covered all the big news around the Disneyland Resort, let’s take a look at some of the smaller happenings this week.
The vineyard near the Trattoria has been pruned for the winter. 
Asian Eats in Downtown Disney will be opening very soon. When we visited, they had employees stocking food items in this glorified food truck.
End of Year Disneyland Crowd Tips
If you find yourself at the Disneyland Resort between now and the first few days of the new year, these tips might come in handy.
Popular attractions are going to be packed. Unless you have a Fastpass, consider the following alternate attractions:
- Visit Movie-Based Attractions such as Path of the Jedi and PhilharMagic. Huge capacity and rarely any line at all.
- Take Advantage of Entertainment – Shows and parades have massive capacity. Mickey’s Magical Map Princess Faire, Frozen
- The Tiki Room is a fantastic attraction that allows you to bring your Dole Whip with you inside. You’ll rarely have to wait longer than one show cycle and you’ll be able to sit and rest inside.
- It’s Always a Good Time for a Pseudo-Attraction. Why wait in line for a ride when you can walk through one without waiting at all? Pseudo-attractions like Tarzan’s Treehouse, Sleeping Beauty Castle, Star Wars Launch Bay, and the Bakery Tour at DCA are all fun in a pinch and a great alternative to waiting endlessly elsewhere.
Need a drink or quick snack? Fruit stands are your Friend! When the parks get crowded, one of the first things to gain a massive line is any eatery. However, you’ll notice that the fruit stands throughout the parks have very little wait.
- If You’re Craving Dole Whip, Head to Tropical Hideaway – It’s been ingrained in most Disneyland fans that Dole Whip is found at the Tiki Room. But, that stand often gets overloaded with too many guests and will shut down walkup service during heavy traffic periods. HOWEVER, Tropical Hideaway has a much smoother operation, as well as additional flavors of Dole Whip (and candied bacon if you ask for it!!). The line moves very fast here.
- Quick bites – Daisy’s, Pluto’s, and Clarabelle’s in ToonTown generally have shorter waits than other snack stands. You can get some quick bites at Tropical Hideaway as well.
- Use Mobile Order – If you want more substantial food, book it via Mobile Order. However, do so earlier than you might normally look for food. The system can be overwhelmed and certain restaurants will pull out of the system if they become overloaded with orders.
- Need a Clean Restroom? – The worst restrooms in the park are in New Orleans Square and ToonTown. But all the park facilities become overwhelmed on a busy day. However, there are exceptions. The new restrooms in Galaxy’s Edge tend to have more capacity and are kept cleaner than other restrooms on property. Also, there are large restrooms in Tomorrowland near the train station. But your best bet are the clean and under-used restroom facilities on both sides of the Esplanade. Thre’s one next to the picnic area next to the Disneyland entry and another by the DCA entry.
MiceChat Anniversary & Gumball Rally
MiceChat/MiceAge turns 17 years young next year and will be celebrating with a weekend of celebrities and events at the Disneyland Resort February 7th through 9th, 2020. While our celebrity events have yet to be announced, tickets are already available for our world-famous Gumball Rally on February 8th. The Rally is a race through Disneyland to see who can ride the most attractions in a single day. It’s absolutely the most fun you’ll ever have in the parks.
Gumball Rally Tickets and Information HERE
Join over 500 of your fellow Disney fans to see who’s got the best strategy for riding the attractions. Compete in teams of 2 to 4 individuals and have the time of your lives.
For more information about the event and to register, visit the Gumball Rally Info Page HERE.
HURRY – $99 Disney Vacation Layaway Sale Extended!
We’ve got some great news for you. Our partners at Get Away Today are helping you save money on Disney theme park tickets and travel packages. AND, through the end of the year, they’ve got some great ways for you to gift Disney trips for a reduced deposit:
For Discounted theme park tickets and travel packages, always start HERE: Get Away Today (When calling, always mention MiceChat so you get your special rates and deals!)
Layaway Plan Sale Extension: Due to how popular the $99 Layaway Plan has been, Get Away Today has extended the sale through December 31, 2019. You can hold a Southern California vacation for just $99 down with final payment due just five days before travel. It’s the easiest way to plan a 2020 Southern California vacation!
Layaway Plans can be used for any of our Southern California vacations and can be combined with any of our specials – like Extra Day Free Tickets and Extra Night Free Hotel Specials.
Book something amazing to look forward to – HERE
Let’s Hear From You
This week has been absolutely packed at the Disneyland Resort. If you stayed home, are you glad to have avoided the crowds? If you did go to the parks, what were the conditions like when you were there? Will you head to the parks to celebrate the new year? What do you think of the new Baby Yoda merchandise? And what tips do you have for folks visiting the parks at this insanely busy time of year?
Happy New Decade Everyone!
Be sure to follow along all week for fun articles about the year past and the year (and decade) ahead! Plus fun contests and giveaways!
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