For a week when the parks are closed, there sure has been a lot for us to share with you. Today’s Disneyland Resort Update focuses on the final days in Disney’s California Adventure and Downtown Disney. A massive new land is now on the rocks. There are signs of a new reality for theme parks that Disney is already contemplating. And there’s a lot of merchandise stuck on shelves until god knows when.
This is part 3 of our weekly Disneyland Update. If you need to get caught up, parts 1 and 2 are linked below:
Now, let’s see what was cooking at DCA right up until the hammer came down.
Food & Wine Arrested
California Adventure was in the middle of a popular festival. Right up until the end, there were guests willing to get in line for chicken and waffle sandwiches, monkey bread, and yummy loco moco.
But by afternoon, the crowds began to dissipate. Many folks, like us, left with unused tabs on our Sip and Savor passes. But we don’t begrudge Disney for that. None of us could have foreseen the Festival, or the parks for that matter, closing so suddenly.
With the festival and everything else now canceled, Disney has sent all the unused perishables to a local food bank. And that food is going to be extra needed as more and more people throughout the region are let go as attractions, hotels, restaurants and shops shut down. There’s a dual crisis developing not just of health, but of economy and human rights as well.
Sadly, 3rd party vendors at the Festival, like the maple syrup sellers, will be sent home with lots of unused product. Having to ship twice will take a lot of profit out of the experience for them.
New App, New Opportunities
When Rise of the Resistance opened, Disney launched a new way to manage crowds, virtual queuing. With a new Spider-Man ride on the way to Avengers Campus, it makes sense that Disney would want to do the same here. But there’s more to it. The latest update to the Disney Parks app makes it possible for guests to manage more virtual queues.
In light of recent events, could this also be a way for Disney to prepare for a post-crisis world and reassure guests that the won’t be packed into tight queue lines?
Avengers Assemble & Freeze
Disney had JUST announced a July 18 opening date for Avengers Campus, their new superhero land in California Adventure, before closing down the Disneyland Resort. While Disney took an early lead in taking advantage of guests not being in the park by speeding up maintenance and construction, all of that appears to have been suddenly halted. What does that mean for the opening date of the new Avengers Campus? Time will tell, but the longer this shutdown lasts, the less likely Disney will get the whole land open in time, and the more likely that Phase 2 will be delayed indefinitely.
That big red Spider-man building it starting to get its red paneling (again).
The red panels had been installed about a month ago and then removed. We think the concern was warping on the panels. But you can see a great deal of crunching on the new panels as well.
The exteriors on this building are nearing completion.
The attraction page for WEB SLINGERS: A Spider-Man Adventure on the Disneyland website is live. Here are some of the additional images of the attraction. It definitely looks like it’ll be entertaining, to say the least.
Aside from Spidey’s ride, the rest of the land is quite far from being complete. This is the area we question Disney being able to finish by mid-July, especially if the park closures linger.
Workers were everywhere on the final days.
While on the Guardians of the Galaxy side of the tower, the new paving is in, but construction has popped up on the walls and planters on either side of the entry to the area.
There were Hollywood Land plaques here on stone pillars.
Luigi’s building
In Cars Land, a large building is going up backstage behind Luigi’s. It will eventually be themed on the park side to match the Luigi exterior.
Those rings you see at the roofline will become tires.
Refurbs
Hollywoodland Mural
The scaffolds were coming down at the Hyperion. This was done pretty quickly by Disney standards.
Tow Mater’s Junkyard Jamboree
One of the sides of Mater’s ride was still shut down. While last week many of the vehicles had been returned to the platform. This week they were removed again.
The Cozy Cone refurbishment was wrapping up. The cones have been painted. The awnings still needed to be reinstalled.
Grizzly Peak Waterfall Walkway
There has been work going on in the trail area for a couple of weeks. Much of the equipment was under the lift hill of the River Rapids.
Stage 17 Exterior Refurbishment
Downtown Disney
What’s still open? Downtown Disney was originally announced to remain open. On Friday, we stopped in many stores to ask if they would be open this week. All of them said that they were on a day to day status.
But over the weekend, things starting to tighten up. Disney announced they would close all of their establishments in the shopping district. Patina closed all of its restaurants and bars. And one by one the shops have closed or announced they were about to do so. Ralph Brennan’s Jazz Kitchen still has a statement saying they are taking precautions in health and food safety – but do not yet have a closing announcement. However, as of March 17th, restaurants in Orange County are supposed to offer takeout and delivery only, no dine-in or public gatherings of any kind. So that likely means the closure of just about everything in Downtown Disney, since there would be very few guests in the area to support such an operation.
Mulan Merchandise
Disney’s live-action Mulan has been delayed due to recent events. However, the new merchandise was in stores. Since the World of Disney and all of the physical Disney Stores nationwide are now closed, you can find many of the items below on the shopDisney website.
You’ll see a mix of animated and live-action inspired items.
There’s even a Mushu (who is not in the film) that sits on your shoulder.
The ears are really cute.
Speaking of merchandise. Over the weekend, crews rushed to plastic wrap the displays in the shops. In some places, whole walls were plastic wrapped to protect the merchandise until the parks are ready for you again.
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Not the End – Just a See Ya Real Soon
With that, we come to the end of our final set of photos at the Disneyland Resort. It breaks my heart to say those words. I know these have been difficult times for most of you. In just one week our whole world has flipped upside down. But we aren’t going anywhere. We’ll be right here to help you scratch your Disney itch and help you take your mind off of things.
In fact, don’t miss our new DAILY SERIES called Ten Minutes of Magic, which puts you right in the middle of your favorite theme parks for ten minutes. We’ll publish every afternoon at 3 PM (Pacific). Here’s a link to our first episode yesterday:
“You’re braver than you believe, and stronger than you seem, and smarter than you think.” – Winnie the Pooh
