What started out as an average Spring Break season at Disneyland has suddenly gotten really interesting with a wave of news. Join us for a look around the Disneyland Resort as we ponder the return of Hyperspace Mountain, a new character in Avengers Campus, and the big return of traditional character meet and greets with hugs, autographs and selfies. Plus, some secret Disney projects, a new way to get to DCA, and more. Lot’s of park updates and photos we need to show you, so lets get to it…
Normal Disneyland Character Meet & Greets Return
Since reopening the theme parks almost a year ago, Disneyland has kept character experiences at a distance, with your favorite Disney pals remaining behind barriers. Although many enjoyed seeing the characters and not having to wait in line for them, there was a real longing by some (kids in particular) for hugs, autographs, or even the occasional fist bump.
That will be changing very soon as traditional one on one character meet and greets will begin returning as soon as April 18th!
Though, with current character experiences out in the open and generally in highly visible areas, the parks have felt like they’ve had more characters than ever. We’ve enjoyed that.
Having fun conversations with the Citizens of Buena Vista Street will be a little more magical when the are freed from the stage behind the planters at Carthay Circle Park.
The Carthay Circle fountain has been turned off when characters and performers are on stage. Hopefully the fountain will be running again and the area accessible to guests soon.
Big Al is a favorite from the old Country Bear Jamboree. He uses some of the best props. Perhaps he’ll be allowed to wanter around the Grizzly River area.
Over on the Disneyland side, Characters have been stationed behind ropes and fences as well. Bert is often out with the Pearly Band, dancing and directing the musicians up on the parade viewing platforms along Small World Mall. It’s been a nice touch, but it makes conversations with the characters difficult.
Many guests have expressed that they miss the personal interaction and autographs from their favorite characters. The return to traditional meet and greets is one of the final big steps to bringing the parks back to nearly normal operation.
At the end of the evening, characters gather at the Main Street Depot in Town Square to wave goodnight to guests. Even the banners that hang from the decorative iron fences have goodnight written in various languages. Many guests gather at the bottom of the steps to get those last minute shots of the characters. This is something we hope sticks around as it allows the multitude of guests leaving the parks to all enjoy seeing the characters without waiting in line.
Over in the Royal Theater, Princesses have been greeting guests from behind a rope instead of in the Royal hall next door. This has been another interesting tradeoff. You can’t get that closeup selfie, but you also don’t need to wait half an hour in line to see your favorite princess.
But the main reason we are looking forward to the princesses moving back into the Royal Hall is so performances of Tangled and Beauty and the Beast can return to the Royal Theater stage. We understand that the park is hard at work already preparing for the return of those shows!
But there is one potential change we aren’t looking forward to at all. Walt Disney World recently added select character meet and greets to Genie+ and Lightning Lane, effectively putting Mickey Mouse behind a pay wall. That makes it much more likely that something similar could happen at Disneyland as well. It’s one thing to watch guests paying extra stream into rides without waiting, but another entirely to explain to a small child why you can’t afford to pay extra for them to see their favorite character while the wealthier child breezes right in.
We’re curious about your thoughts on all of this. Are you glad that traditional meet and greets with hugs and autographs are returning? Did you prefer the characters at a distance? Would you pay extra to see a popular character via Lightning Lane?
BIG NEWS – Character Meet & Greets Available with Genie+ Access Soon
For more info on the return of traditional character meet and greets, check out our article from this past week.
Welcome Back, Floral Mickey!
The floral garden at the main entrance of Disneyland has been reverted back to the traditional Mickey head. Minnie was certainly a nice touch to help celebrate Women’s History Month at the Resort.
As you can see, all they needed to do was pull out Minnie’s bow and plant more purple flowers to fill in Mickey’s ears. But Mickey’s ears are now in an awkward phase with the ghostly remnants of Minnie’s bow in green as the new plants mature.
Crowds?
Spring Break has traditionally been one of the busiest times of year for the parks, but this year seems to not be as wild as in the past. While wait times are definitely inflated due to Lightning Lane, it’s been fairly pleasant walking through the parks most days. By that, I mean it hasn’t felt any busier than it was before Spring Break. Particularly nice at Disneyland Fridays through Sunday as most Magic Keyholders are blocked. But that can make weekdays feel more crowded than weekends!
Here’s a look at the reasonable wait times at Disneyland on Friday night around 7pm:
For now, it seems that gone are the days of shoulder to shoulder walking through the parks. That’s one good thing about park reservations.
Easter Egg Hunt
The family-friendly Eggstravaganza has returned to the Disneyland Resort. This fun little game puts you on the hunt for easter eggs hidden throughout the resort. There are three games, one in each park and one in Downtown Disney.
It’s easy to play. Just buy a card ($9.99) and place a sticker in the spot for the egg you find. Once you’ve found them all, redeem the card for a little plastic Easter egg with a character on it.
The cards tell you the general area to look for the eggs.
But, whether you complete the game board or not after purchasing it, you can redeem it for a collectible Easter egg when you bring your game board back to a redemption point. So everyone’s a winner.
There are also several cute photo props you can use to help commemorate your fun!
There are multiple locations to buy the cards, but the easiest to find are the ones at Holiday Point in Disneyland (the Christmas shop by the corn dog cart at the end of Main Street), in front of Five and Dime on Buena Vista Street at DCA, and World of Disney (across from the Starbucks) in Downtown Disney.
One of MiceChat’s youngest readers says “It’s eggstra fun!”
Hyperspace Mountain Returns
Space Mountain will be closing for a day on April 28th and will return the next day as Hyperspace Mountain (on April 29th). This limited time offering is in conjunction with May the 4th activities, Star Wars after hours parties, and Star Wars Celebration at the Anaheim Convention Center. It’s also another sign of normalcy returning to the resorts as this is the first Space Mountain overlay since the park reopened last year.
The overlay takes you into an X-Wing battle with the Empire. Special effects are added to the lift tubes, as well as projections and audio.
For more information on this guest favorite overlay, check out our article from last week.
The Force Is Strong With the Return of Hyperspace Mountain at Disneyland!
Our question when Hyperspace Mountain returns is how long will it run for? And would you like to see Ghost Galaxy return for Halloween this year as well?
We didn’t include Rockin’ Space Mountain in the poll below because Disney has abandoned it.
Moon Knight at Avengers Campus
Disney+ has dropped a new Marvel series about the comic book character Moon Knight, who was first developed by Doug Moench and Don Perlin way back in 1975. This six episode series launched on March 30 and the titular character appeared the SAME DAY in Avengers Campus at Disney California Adventure.
As with all of the other characters at Avengers Campus, Moon Knight is very dramatic. His actions and postures tell a lot about this character. He only shows up after dark and remains on the top of the Avengers Headquarters and is only out for a few minutes at a time.
He looks cool, but time on stage fairly boring. Take a look:
For a full review of the series, check out our article on the show!
Disneyland Resort Construction Update
We’ve noticed significant changes in the various construction and refurbishment projects around the Disneyland resort this week. Let’s take a look and see what’s reopened, what’s still closed, and what’s going down soon for refurbishment.
Subs
Originally, Disney said the Finding Nemo Submarine Voyage would be “resurfacing in Winter of 2021,” but as the end of the year approached, they removed the “21” and the signs read simply “Winter.” Then, in early March, the sign had been removed entirely as work to refurbish the attraction stretched into spring.
We are seeing progress as plants are starting to reappear in the lagoon. but there are no signs of animatronics having returned yet. The box in the photo below, is where the crabs sit.
The subs have been painted and have a fresh look to them with no signs of rust.
We can see that crews are in the process of repainting the track that guides the submarines around the lagoon.
The freshly painted coral is back in place around the lagoon. The track is covered so the paint won’t overspray onto the coral and other show details.
New Orleans Square
Another large construction (or destruction) projects is the New Orleans Square area of Disneyland. With Pirates closed and numerous construction walls in place, this area hasn’t been horribly congested this week. The fence along the river hasn’t been crowded with strollers. While we miss Pirates and the beautiful landscape of New Orleans Square, it’s been nice to stand at the river’s edge and watch the ships go by.
With Pirates down for a long refurbishment, the walkways haven’t been jam packed.
On Friday at about 11:30am, Cafe Orleans wasn’t open yet. We aren’t sure why, but just like the Blue Bayou, the beautiful view is blocked with the construction walls for now. A big part of these dining experiences are the views and ambiance.
The walls have photo ops celebrating the 55th anniversary of Pirates of the Caribbean. But the park closed the attraction the week before the actual anniversary. Strange timing. But what are all those walls hiding? The large viewing platforms for Fantasmic are being lowered to ground level to ease congestion in the area when long lines for Pirates meet thousands of guests waiting to see Fantasmic.
And to keep the area from being swamped with guests while the walls are up, the park has taken this opportunity to do some maintenance on Pirate’s of the Caribbean.
In the courtyard queue area of Pirates, two diseased trees have been removed and the concrete has been torn out. We really hope they put in new trees for ambiance and shade. We are quickly coming up on the hot months and the shade is an absolute necessity. The fountain and the decorative iron railings remain in place, and the railings close to the ground level are covered to protect them.
In the distance, we can see scaffolding over the rooftops of New Orleans Square.
Fantasmic!
Over the last few weeks, the fountain pits around the Fantasmic stage had been completely covered. But there was some significant progress over the last week. The pit in front of the Tom Sawyer Island raft dock has been flooded so rafts can once again use the dock to get to the island.
That also means that the rafts to Tom Sawyer Island are now back on the normal course to the main dock and no longer make a trip all the way around the island.
We can see a brand new mist screen pump on the platform across from the Mark Twain dock, but the fountains are missing. The center and right side screen pits are still being worked on.
The stage area on the island is still closed with scrimms and protective guard rails up.
Sailing Ship Columbia
The Sailing Ship Columbia is now back in service after its refurbishment. It looks great.
Tarzan’s Treehouse
There is still no word on this attraction. The scrims are back up and on Friday we could see workers on the bridge and hear the sounds of impact tools. We are hoping that this very long-term project wraps up soon.
Toontown
We can’t see into Toontown right now, but what we can see is that the signs that were on the railroad bridge have now been removed. No more welcome to Toontown sign.
Downtown Disney Reimagining Project
The old AMC movie theater complex that housed the Theater, Earl of Sandwich, Sugarboo, and the small Starbucks has now been completely demolished.
All that is now left of the building are some smaller piles of concrete, rebar, and metal.
Looking back, we can see how big this area actually is. It’s quite large!
World of Color
Over on the California Adventure side of the resort, work continues on the World of Color projection towers. But unlike last week when they were all propped wide open, this week they were mostly closed.
Sidewalk Repaving on Buena Vista St. and Hollywood Blvd.
There are also still several small sidewalk projects happening on Hollywood Blvd. and Buena Vista Street.
Constructions walls have popped up in front of the Red Car Trolly station by the front gate.
Upcoming Refurbishments
Luigi’s will be going down for a refurbishment on April 11th and returning on the 14th.
Mater’s Junkyard Jamboree will be down for refurbishment from May 9th – the 12th.
Downtown Disney Starbucks Unionizing
The Starbucks of Downtown Disney has sent a letter of intent to Unionize, to Howard Schultz, the CEO of the popular coffee company. In the letter, the employees state that while they respect the company and the potential they have, they are unable to reach that potential because of poor communication and lack of resources.
Long Term Disneyland Cast Members Retire
After over 28 years of service to Disneyland, the beloved Maynard Smith retired on April 1st. He is well known for his crazy stories and antics around the park. On Friday, he said his last goodbyes and was escorted out by his manager. We wish Maynard the absolute best in his future projects.
Aloha, Maynard. #Disneyland pic.twitter.com/rVrFhfDXZO
— MiceChat (@MiceChat) April 2, 2022
PhotoMatt captured Maynard’s final moment before he flew the coup:
Beloved #Disneyland cast member Maynard would like to share a few words with his fans. pic.twitter.com/kMObe8y7GN
— MiceChat (@MiceChat) April 2, 2022
Another iconic cast member called it quits last week after 42 years of service. Plaza Inn’s chef Chris Justesen will be missed.
New Back Entrance into Disney California Adventure
When Disney California Adventure opened in 2001, there was a special entrance into the Paradise Pier area of the park for Paradise Pier Hotel guests. However, budget cuts and the eventual expansion of the Grand Californian Hotel caused the closure and removal of the gate.
A new back entrance is now under construction for guests of the Paradise Pier Hotel near the driveway into the Grand Californian Hotel. The hotel was slated for a minor retheme when Paradise Pier became Pixar Pier, that project will finally begin soon, and guests of the hotel will have the perk of easier access to the section of the park it is named after.
Currently, guests entering the Grand Californian Hotel from Disneyland Drive will note the right hand lane is blocked with construction gates and barricades. This is the approximate area where the new entry pathway will begin for the DCA alternate gate.
As long as we are on the subject of the Paradise Pier Hotel, we have received many complaints from guests about high prices and a complete lack of services. ALL of the hotel’s restaurants, its bars, and its pool are all closed. There is a gift shop which offers bottled water and packaged snacks, as well as some vending machines.
The hotel booking services all show the following amenities, I’ve put a red box around the ones that are no longer offered but still listed everywhere:
This recent review of the hotel on Tripadvisor really explains the problems with the hotel, and how it hurts the Disney brand for the company to pretend there’s a “Disney difference” but deliver quality lower than the average Best Western.
A hotel which regularly charges between $350 and $450 a night and has the “Disney” name on it should offer more services than this. We hope that restaurants and lounges will return when the renovations are complete, if not sooner. Until then, buyer beware! Just because Disney puts their name on something is no guarantee you are going to get good service.
This & That
Yes, there’s more Disney news and photos for you!
Rain at the Disneyland Resort
Last week Southern California experienced some heavy (for us, at least) rain and it made for some wonderful photo opportunities around Disneyland. MiceChat photographer Brian Pinsky was there to enjoy the reflective look of the wet park and capture some shots for your enjoyment.
Photos from around the resort
Every week, we enjoy bringing you the latest photos from around the resort, and this week is no different. Spring has been in full swing and the parks are certainly showing that. I hope that if you’re not able to head to Disneyland as regularly as I am, these bring a little bit of joy to you today.
Disney Invests in Workforce Development Initiative
Disney has committed $4 million to local non-profits and supporting them with the direct involvement of Disney “VoluntEARs.” The local workforce development project focuses on mentorship, career skills development and community program support.
Of course, all of this benefits not just the local community but Disney as well since an expanded and capable labor market helps Disney keep its parks staffed.
A Walk in the Park with Dusty!
Have you taken a walk in the park with Dusty Sage? If not, take some time and hit play on the video below. Dusty doesn’t just flood you with information on what’s happening in the Disneyland Resort, he shares stories, history, and his feelings about how things are going. Even if I’m already in the park when he begins broadcasting, I’ll stop to watch his videos because I learn so much. You’ll feel like you just took a trip to the park yourself…
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Let’s Hear From You
Thank you for joining me on this week’s trip to the Disneyland Resort. I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did. Are you excited for the return of regular character meet & greets? Will you be checking out Moon Knight in Avenger’s Campus? Is Hyperspace Mountain the ride that you’re looking for this spring? And how do you feel about a high priced Disney hotel offering no food and beverage service? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.
If you enjoyed today’s article, be sure to share it on social media, because sharing is caring! Have a great week and don’t forget to check the site every day for your Daily dose of Disney.
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