Disneyland Resort was doused with rain over the weekend, but not enough to dissuade Valentine’s hearts on Main Street. Perhaps it helped rinse away the remnants of a small fire that broke out backstage last week, plunging Adventureland and part of Main Street USA into darkness. Meanwhile, it’s “refurb-land” as large portions of the park are covered in construction scrims as attractions are prepared for the busy spring/summer season. And because of the rain, some of those scrims were removed just long enough for us to get you some interesting progress updates! Let’s get started . . .
Fire Breaks Out on Main Street
On Friday, February 7, fire broke out backstage behind Main Street and Adventureland. The small blaze spread to the bamboo trees in the Jungle Cruise but was quickly put out and no one was injured. Unfortunately, it plunged a big chunk of the park into darkness. Guests were ushered out of Adventureland due to a lack of lighting, and the entire west side of Main Street USA was closed as well. Readers who follow MiceChat on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram were able to follow the incident live. You can read more about it here:
Love is in the Air
Valentine’s Day is right around the corner and the annual festive decor has finally made its way into the park! Compared to Christmas and Halloween, Valentine’s Day is not shown as much love by the park. Nevertheless, there is a small amount of decor to be found.
The Main Street photo-opportunity has returned from last year and offers a great place to snap a quick photo with your significant other!
Candy Palace has a small Valentine’s Day display that can be found right at the entrance to the store. It is a cute arrangement, but unfortunately, it’s one of the only ones that exist.
With how much effort Disney put into other holidays, it is surprising to see Valentine’s Day take a backseat spot.
Kid-Friendly “Creatures of Batuu” Exploration Guide
It is no secret that Galaxy’s Edge lacks activities for children and has faced heavy criticism since its opening last May. This week, Disney finally added something kids can enjoy with “Bina’s Guide to the Creatures of Batuu.”
The FREE (yes, we said “free”) interactive adventure book can be found at any one of the marketplace stalls. Just ask one of the merchants working the stall for the guide. The guide invites guests of all ages to explore Galaxy’s Edge in search of creatures hiding throughout the land. Sure, this guide might be geared towards the younger members of your party, but adults can enjoy it as well!
As each creature is found, a stamp is given to check it off of your list! After completing the book, a cast member will give you a sticker marking your achievement.
It is a simple concept, but one that could resonate with young families who are looking for something to do in Galaxy’s Edge. This is a drop in the bucket compared to what needs to be added for children in the new land, but it is certainly a step in the right direction!
What would you like to see added to Galaxy’s Edge?
FASTPASS ADDITIONS
Fastpass is coming to two more attractions at the resort and is being added to both Autopia and Monsters, Inc. Mike & Sully to the Rescue! Autopia used to have FastPass, but it was removed back in 2015. Monsters, Inc. on the other hand never had FastPass and isn’t nearly busy enough to justify adding it. If it’s Disney’s goal to simply artificially inflate queue length by adding FastPass, this is certainly an unfortunate way to accomplish that goal.
It isn’t too surprising to see FastPass return to Autopia, but Monsters, Inc.? Let us know your thoughts. Will Fastpass simply balloon wait times as it has for every other attraction it’s been added to? Is FastPass needed on these attractions? Does the addition of FastPass to lower-tier attractions simply deprive guests of attractions to ride while they are waiting for their E-Ticket FastPasses to mature? Let us know your thoughts below!
Rain!
If it rains at Walt Disney World, no one even bats an eye. It’s expected. But when it rains hard at Disneyland, it’s a big deal! The California parks just aren’t made for any weather other than beautiful . . . which we are blessed to have more often than not.
But the real reason we love the rain are reduced crowds and amazing construction reveals . . .
Refurbishments
Disneyland has several active construction projects currently in progress. Let’s see what changes (if any) have been made!
Haunted Mansion
Work continues on the Haunted Mansion as the holiday overlay is removed and extensive maintenance is conducted throughout the attraction.
The attraction has been wrapped in a printed scrim.
Due to the rain yesterday, the scrim was rolled down, revealing that some of the exterior detail has been removed, many windows are missing, and even the tombstones have been temporarily moved to the central lawn until construction is completed.
King Arthur’s Carrousel
There’s some extensive refurb work happening at the carrousel. Much of the top of the attraction has been disassembled.
Snow White’s Scary Adventure
More tall scrims cover the entire exterior of the attraction. Most of the work is taking place inside, so visual progress will be hard to see.
While it was raining yesterday, scrims had to be pulled down, letting us peek at the exterior of the building.
The attraction has no set reopening date, but we expect it to open sometime before the ride’s anniversary in July.
Tomorrowland
Work on the Tomorrowland entrance murals has been finished, and both the left and right sides are looking better-than-ever after the refresh!
The left mural has been unveiled and the scaffolding removed. With rumors swirling of an eventual Tomorrowland re-model, it seems as if these historical landmarks will survive the changes.
The never-ending Space Mountain exit stairs project continues. As each week goes by we are more and more puzzled as to why this particular project continues to drag on.
The Mark Twain
The famous Mark Twain Riverboat was still under refurbishment yesterday. It has taken a few more days than anticipated.
Onward Sneak Peek
Disney/Pixar’s latest film, Onward, has made its way into Tomorrowland. Guests looking to catch a sneak peek at the movie can find it in the Tomorrowland Theater. There’s a hilarious voice cast and Pixar has a great track record, so this may be a film you want to add to your radar.
Onward opens nationwide on March 6th, 2020. Is this movie on your “must-see” list?
Pirates of the Caribbean Line Changes
Adjustments have been made to the Pirates disabled guests entrance location. ADA access is now on the left side of the queue instead of merging near the entrance to 21 Royal. As a result of the loss of the courtyard capacity, it’s causing the stand-by line to spill out into New Orleans Square.
Is this a permanent change? It is hard to tell. It’s not uncommon to see the queue extend into New Orleans Square, which is normally the cause of above-average crowds.
Hopefully, Disney has some long-term permanent solutions for this queue. Nothing they’ve tried has been able to keep the line from spilling into the tight walkways of New Orleans Square.
We hope that whoever is conducting this test also reverts back to the old system to compare the impact on New Orleans Square before making this change permanent.
AVENGERS CAMPUS
Summer inches closer and closer as each day goes by, and Disney is hard at work preparing Avenger’s Campus for its grand opening!
The exterior of the Spider-man attraction looks nearly complete. It is hard to believe that a new land will be opening in just a few months!
A themed scrim has been added to help hide the work happening on the new backstage building behind Luigi’s.
Construction walls remain up in front of Mission Breakout as work continues on and around the trolly tracks. This project is taking quite some time to complete.
Grizzly River Run
Grizzly River Run is closed in order to receive its yearly maintenance and is scheduled to reopen on February 14th. The cool weather makes this the perfect time to get the attraction ready for those busy summer days.
Soarin’ Over California Returns
In case you missed it, Soarin’ Over California will fly back into DCA from February 28th through April 21st! The return coincides with the Food and Wine Festival and should help boost attendance throughout the spring season.
Get more info on the attraction’s return here:
Soarin’ Over California Returning to Disney California Adventure
Popcorn Bucket Fatigue?
Disney introduced a new “annual pass-holder exclusive” Steamboat Minnie popcorn bucket to the resort this week, and the lines were surprisingly calm for the latest collectible.
The bucket retails for $20.00 and can be found at almost any popcorn cart throughout the resort. Other popcorn bucket releases have brought heavy crowds and long wait times for guests hoping to purchase one, but things were different this time around.
Is this a sign that the popcorn bucket craze is on its way out? Or was this merchandise drop a rare exception?
New “Junior Conductor” Button
A new “Junior Conductor” souvenir button is available at Main Street Station! It is a cute keepsake for any young train enthusiast visiting Disneyland. Ask a cast member working at the station to see if they are available!
And the Oscar Goes To…
An Oscar’s Pop-up materialized in Downtown Disney in an effort to create excitement for the big show. Complete with a red carpet photo opportunity and music by DJ Wendy, the exhibit was flashy to catch the guest’s attention.
The booth also offered something not found anywhere else in the Disneyland Resort, free popcorn!
It was no surprise to see the Oscars appear on Disney property, the Academy Awards were broadcast on ABC, a Disney-owned network.
Speaking of . . . Toy Story 4 won best animated picture, but Frozen 2 wasn’t even nominated. Do you think it should have been the other way around?
Toy Story Parking Lot Construction
Work continues over in the Toy Story Lot as Disney expands the number of spaces. A new pedestrian walkway is being drawn through the middle of the Woody Lot to help easier access to the new bus stops.
Meanwhile, over at the old bus stops… the old bus loop has now been completely demolished and paved over as the Jessie Parking Lot is expanded.
This and That
We noticed there’s a little bit of scaffolding up on the top of Small World.
Outside of Docking Bay 7, they’ve added some more seating out front overlooking the Millennium Falcon. Not a bad spot to eat lunch.
Maintenance issues . . . We’ve been watching a few attractions struggling to keep all their elements running for a while. This week we felt we should point out two, starting with Pirates of the Caribbean.
The Captain’s Quarters in the cave scene has been missing its harpsichord for a while. . . though the music plays on.
Quite possibly the most disappointing problem is the blown-out audio in the battle scene. It was rather tinny sounding for a while, but now it’s entirely out. Barbossa sounds like he’s yelling into a shoebox.
The pirate above the tunnel into the jail has now returned and looks better than ever. His booze is now on fire too, a nice touch!
Jack Sparrow’s mouth hasn’t moved for a while. Maybe it’s time to update this scene again. Considering the return of the audio talking about “cursed treasure” in the caves, it doesn’t make sense that Jack is just enjoying cursed treasure with no consequences. Is it time to remove Jack entirely? And would you like to see any of the new technology and projections from the Shanghai Disneyland version of the attraction make their way to Anaheim?
Over at Star Tours, even simple things like C-3PO’s eyes aren’t working. R2-D2 was making noise, but not moving, either.
Deeper in the queue, the luggage security droid hasn’t had an image of bags to check for a while, just a black screen. Fortunately, the terminal “window” in the back of the room is working again, with all your favorite aliens, droids, and Jedi walking by.
All over the resort, we’ve been seeing more specialty churros. In an odd turn of events, most of the carts that have them just have signs that say “ask about our specialty churro!” They might be trying to get rid of leftover ingredients, which is fine by us. We stopped by the cart outside of Star Tours to try the toffee churro, which wasn’t bad, but not incredibly special. If you’re in the market for a churro, make sure to ask if they’re selling a specialty one. Our current favorite is the fluffernutter at DCA’s Buena Vista Street.
Another curious food choice is the Hollywood Lounge selling the Studio Catering Co’s tacos from their stand in Hollywood Land.
It’s an odd choice, but it sort of makes sense. You can come here and order your booze and then take your receipt over to pick up some tacos over at the Studio Catering Co truck. Looks like they’ve removed all their Marvel items and are serving a handful of different tacos and nachos now as well.
MiceChat Anniversary/Gumball Rally
This past weekend was the MiceChat Anniversary and Gumball Rally! We began the weekend at the Bowers Museum with a jam-packed set of panels, starting with a presentation from the Disney Archives about their upcoming 50th anniversary exhibit at the Bowers Museum.
Robert Maxhimer, Exhibitions Manager and Head Curator for the Walt Disney Archives, brought a very special surprise. The audience was in tears when it was revealed that the Mickey Mouse they were looking at was the original one Walt used in his famous Disneyland Railroad photoshoot for the opening of the park.
Next up were Bill Farmer and Daniel Ross, the voices of Goofy and Donald Duck. What a riot these two were! They spoke for nearly an hour and we didn’t want it to end!
Keeping the laughs going, Mike and Patty Peraza gave a presentation on some of the projects they worked on at Disney. Plenty of hilarious stories of the kinds of antics they got themselves into with the original Disney animators and Imagineers. If these two aren’t on the shortlist for Disney Legend status, they should be!
At about 6am the following morning, teams met at the Anaheim Hotel to begin competing in the Gumball Rally for this beautiful trophy celebrating the 60th anniversary of the Matterhorn, Monorail, and Submarines.
For those unacquainted, the MiceChat Gumball Rally is a full day adventure through Disneyland Park to see how many attractions you can ride in a single day.
Hundreds of teams of 2 to 4 individuals were sent into the park around 7:15am, to ride as many attractions as possible!
Throughout the day, each team was tasked with questions to help save the Gumball Child with the help of IG-11, his tough nurse droid.
They had to be quick, though. As the rally started to come to a close at 7pm, all the teams headed back to the finish line!
Here are the top five winners:
#5. The ARIELists!
#4. Guten Tag! It’s Our Princesses!
#3. Coolant Runnings & #2. Junior Society of Explorers and Adventurers
#1 – And all the gumballs went to our top team: Gumball Yzma Poison.
Full results will be shared in a separate post a little later this week!
Thanks to all who came out this weekend and made it one of our best events ever!
Next year is the 20th anniversary of Disney California Adventure, you won’t want to miss how we celebrate the occasion.
Get yourself in the loop! To be added to our event information list, please enter your email below:
2020 Spring Ticket Savings
There are two Disneyland ticket offers you should be aware of if you are planning a vacation.
Kids Spring Sale
For a limited time, Get Away Today is offering savings of up to $86 on 3-Day Disneyland Tickets for kids ages 3 – 9. Valid on travel now through May 21, 2020, this deal is good on all 3-Day tickets, including 1-Park per Day, Park Hopper and tickets with Disney MaxPass. Tickets must be used within 13 days of use or on May 21, 2020, whichever comes first. It is the lowest price you’ll see on child tickets this year!
Best of all, these savings can be combined with other offers! Include a hotel with your vacation package and you can use code MICECHAT for an additional $10 in savings.
Southern California Resident Offer
This Spring, Southern California residents can save up to $106 on adult 3-Day Disneyland tickets for travel now through May 21, 2020. For residents who reside in zip codes 90000-93599, 3-Day Disneyland tickets for both adults and children can be purchased for less than $67 per day – that’s LESS than purchasing directly with Disney and includes downloadable coupons a free Chatbooks photo book. Or, upgrade to Park Hopper tickets with or without MaxPass. Either way you’ll save $106 per adult and $86 per child.
These tickets can be used any time between now and May 21, 2020. Come for Rise of the Resistance and Disney California Adventure Food and Wine Festival. Consider adding a discounted hotel stay and enjoy a fun-filled and affordable staycation. Get this deal HERE for a limited time.
Let’s Hear From You!
Do you enjoy a day in the rain at Disneyland? What is the maximum number of attractions you’ve been able to ride at Disneyland in a single day? Although Disney is conducting massive refurbishments at Haunted Mansion and Snow White, are there nonfunctional animatronics and props on other attractions that have caught your attention? Let’s hear your comments below.
