Dateline Disneyland: Mercury Climbs, Crowds Thin, and a Musical Tradition Returns

Summertime is heating up at Disneyland!  The heatwave over the weekend brought scorching weather to the parks which resulted in canceled park reservations and somewhat smaller crowds. After a two-year hiatus, the All-American College Band has returned! This summertime tradition is celebrating 50 years and brings its vibrant, youthful energy to Main Street, U.S.A.  Meanwhile, ongoing refurbishment and construction projects continue across the resort as we reach the half-way point to the holidays. 

We’ve got a fun summertime update for you this week…

Update: The return of Finding Nemo Submarine Voyage has been announced and the refurbishment section has been updated to include new information

Welcome to Disneyland!

Even with temperatures in the 90s, it was beautiful at Disneyland when we visited over the weekend.  

Below, enjoy a song from the Straw Hatters.

All-American College Band Returns

Disneyland’s summertime tradition has returned and the All-American College Band is back on Main Street, U.S.A. following a two-year hiatus.  

The group, made up of college students from across America, has been a Disneyland summertime staple since 1971 and is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year.  We made sure to catch them on Friday, during their opening weekend in the park.

Enjoy their full Town Square set with our video below:

Summer Heat, Smaller Crowds

It’s a tale as old as time… as the heat rises, the crowds thin out. And 90º+ temps over the weekend made for surprisingly smooth sailing in the parks for those who could handle the heat.  We were greeted at the entry turnstiles with long lines, which had us worried the parks would be packed.  The park entry process has been taking a bit longer than usual these days with more tourists (who require pictures taken at the front gate) and fewer Magic Keys (many passes are blocked) but once you’re in, the parks were a breeze.    

Park reservations were available day of for most of the weekend. 

With lower crowd levels, Genie and Lightning Lane didn’t have as much trouble keeping attraction queues out of walkways. And that’s certainly helped make the park feel less crowded lately. For summertime, attraction wait times in both parks weren’t terrible over the weekend… though extreme waits can pop up at any time at individual attractions under this new system. 

With guests seemingly spread out more evenly around the parks, wait times for many popular attractions hovered around 30 minutes. And as you might expect, hit rides like Rise of the Resistance and water rides like Splash Mountain had the longest wait times.

Add in more and more live entertainment, including the new version of “Tale of the Lion King” show and there’s so much more to keep guests busy these days.  

Let’s get a good view of Friday afternoon crowds on Main Street, U.S.A. from the top of the Disneyland Omnibus!

Halfway to the Holidays

Last week, Disney celebrated “Halfway to the Holidays,” and announced some of the returning attractions and shows for Disneyland’s upcoming holiday season.  Among the returning offerings will be Disneyland’s classic “Believe… In Holiday Magic” fireworks spectacular and Disney California Adventure’s “World of Color: Season of Light” show.  

But eagle-eyed fans noted that A Christmas Fantasy Parade was not mentioned. It could just be that they wanted to focus on nighttime entertainment and more info will be coming later about parades and other entertainment… but… it could also be that they are toying with moving the parade to the after-hours special ticketed Merriest Nites events to fuel ticket sales and extra nights. After-hours events have become a major revenue stream for Disneyland since the parks reopened.  

Don’t miss our Halfway to Holidays article for full coverage of Disney’s announcements here and at Disney Parks around the world: First Look at Disney Parks Holiday Season 2022

Broken Show

MiceChat’s team has been chronicling the ongoing maintenance issues at major attractions across the parks.  The problems continue at many attractions, with no end in sight.  For many attractions, it’s harder to excuse away how bad the show has deteriorated. With multiple animatronics not operational in Radiator Springs Racers, the finale boulder being completely inoperable in Indiana Jones Adventure, and the exciting recoiling cannons in Rise of the Resistance now stationary; it’s hard to imagine even new visitors are walking away believing these rides are running correctly. 

Readers have been telling us for weeks that Indy doesn’t look right, so Dusty headed over to the attraction to check it out. While aboard, the attraction broke down. So he went around again to find that among lots of smaller broken effects, some big things aren’t working on this popular attraction. The door you enter at the beginning of the ride is now always the center door (the walls haven’t moved in a very long time). Then you’ll find that the snake doesn’t strike. He looks like a statue. The rats on the mist screen have never really worked well, but were missing. But the big issue is that the climax of the ride has been broken for weeks… the boulder spins in darkness and never rolls toward you… which means that there’s no real point to the scene. No tension. And there really isn’t a good “B-Mode” for this scene. Perhaps if they simply put strobes on the boulder it would make it appear menacing instead of something vague in the darkness. But right now, this attraction is in rough shape.  

Here’s Dusty’s video of the breakdown followed by a full ride-through. See how many broken effects you can spot…

Another attraction that has been struggling lately is Radiator Springs Racers. Many of the animatronics and props are not functioning properly.  However, this one still delivers on the main punch… the race! So it feels much more like a complete experience than Indy does.  

This isn’t an example of Disneyland simply not caring.  Unfortunately, manufacturing and supply issues continue to impact the resort and its overworked maintenance teams.  To put it simply: Disneyland simply can’t get the custom parts (and even some off-the-shelf items such as projector bulbs, motors, and tires) they need to fix so many of the broken effects and animatronics around the resort.   

While not Disneyland’s direct fault, it is an increasingly bad look as the parks are now charging for line-cutting Lightning Lane services. A $20 Lightning Lane for Rise of the Resistance or Radiator Springs Racers are hard pills to swallow.  Selling Lightning Lane for these attractions on top of full-price admission might make you assume you are getting the full show… but in many cases, you are paying extra for broken rides.

But there is something Disney ‘could’ do… If the rides aren’t working properly, they could suspend Genie+ or individual Lightning Lane sales until the attractions are once again operating properly.  But, charging guests even more to see broken-down rides is just bad show in my opinion.

On top of show issues, you may experience more frequent attraction breakdowns as well. When we visited on Sunday morning, several attractions in Disneyland were down at the same time and Space Mountain remained closed for hours. 

Refurbishment Roundup

Let’s take a look at current refurbishment and construction projects across the resort. 

Resurfacing very soon

Update: Disneyland has announced that Finding Nemo Submarine Voyage will be returning July 25. This section has been updated with additional information about the attraction’s return.

In Tomorrowland, the Finding Nemo Submarine Voyage is now testing subs!  We did see submarines cycling through the lagoon on Friday morning and Cast Members were spotted on the dock.  This is a great sign that the attraction is finally nearing the end of its refurbishment and will reopen again soon! This morning, Disneyland announced that the subs will be resurfacing next month on July 25.

Check out our video of the latest progress at the attraction 

And it has finally been announced what has been hiding under the mysterious covered rock. Disneyland shared an image of Hank the octopus from Finding Dory as the new feature for the attraction. While Dusty and Mike had been speculating it was the seals from the same movie, we’re glad to finally know what that hidden element was. 

This is who has been hiding underneath:

Disney shared a behind-the-scenes look at the attraction refurb in this video.

Adventureland Treehouse

The Adventureland Treehouse remains behind scaffolding and tarps.  The attraction’s entry stairs and bridge are now history but the treehouse remains… we’re now waiting on Disney to announce what will become of this classic attraction.

But traffic now flows much more easily through this formerly congested area. 

New Orleans Square work

In New Orleans Square, the Pirates of the Caribbean refurbishment is nearing completion.  The attraction is set to reopen this week, Friday, July 1.  

A major part of the refurbishment included removing and replacing the trees in its outdoor queue, which had become diseased.  This required extensive root removal, and subsequently a complete rebuilding of the outdoor queue area.

Nearby, repaving has mostly wrapped up on Royal Street, near the exit of the Pirates attraction and the entrance of the Blue Bayou restaurant. 

Fresh ground!

A small box of construction walls on the side of Cafe Orleans is still up.

This seems to wrap up the extensive repaving work that swept through New Orleans Square this spring.

While we’re here, the Blue Bayou is back on the reservation system now after operating for about a couple of weeks as a walk-up-only location.  The construction walls are down inside, as well, and diners can once again enjoy that classic view of the bayou.

And just a reminder that this location offers a Fantasmic dining package. Ask your server about Fantasmic seating options ($89 per adult and you can choose a salad, entree, dessert, and drink from the regular menu or a special Fantasmic menu). Reserved Fantasmic seating for this restaurant gives you the best view of the show in our opinion. You’ll be seated in the center section closest to the river railing.  Doesn’t get much better than that.  

Here’s a sample view of the Blue Bayou section from re-opening night: 

Mickey’s Toon Town

The facade of the El CapiTOON Theatre continues to take shape.  The Theatre will be the home of the new Mickey and Minnie’s Runaway Railway attraction and will have differences and improvements from the Walt Disney World version of the attraction. 

You can see the Toon Town hills backdrop covering the attraction show building are all in place now, awaiting paint.

Red Car Trolley returning soon?

Over in Disney California Adventure, it looks like the Red Car Trolley may be getting ready to return.  The merchandise cart that was sitting on the tracks at the Carthay Circle stop has been removed… hopefully meaning we’ll see the Red Cars again soon!

Ding ding!

The ATM structure by the Buena Vista Street restrooms and trolley stop is behind walls.  

 

California Changes

Over in Avengers Campus, the PYM Test Kitchen outdoor seating area has reopened after being behind barriers recently.  We have no idea why it took them so long just to put tables with umbrellas here. 

The temporary dining location next to the Avengers HQ building is now gone.

Over by Pixar Pier, the Seaside Souvenirs merchandise stand is still closed… but the construction walls have been removed. 

Downtown Disney expansion

Meanwhile, the dirt lot in Downtown Disney’s west site remains untouched.  No word yet on when construction will finally get underway here.

Below, video of the construction site as seen from the Monorail:

Downtown Disney Silletas

If you haven’t been to Downtown Disney in the last couple of weeks, the gardens have been transformed with new “Encanto”-inspired floral arrangements.   

Take a tour of all of the silletas in our video below:

 

Last week Dusty expressed in the Monday Update that he thought the displays felt like elaborate funeral flower arrangements. While I think the silletas are quite lovely, I definitely see where he is coming from. 

The silletas are beautiful and the meaning behind them is wonderful.  Unfortunately, only the guests who have read the Disney Parks Blog article on these floral arrangements will understand their meaning and cultural reference.   

Below, the SHALOM silleta celebrates Jewish Cast Members.  

The COMPASS Silleta honoring the Asian-American and Pacific Islander employee group is gorgeous but who visiting is really going to know the background here? 

The big issue is context — there is none.  And it’s a shame because these floral displays are here for a great reason: to celebrate and honor the diverse and inclusive communities of Cast Members.   And all of this would be fixed easily with some simple signage explaining the cultural reference to Colombian silletas, and signage explaining the employee groups being represented at each arrangement.  The learning opportunity has been completely overlooked. 

Hopefully Disney can remedy this quickly and put up some signage that explains these wonderful, colorful additions to Downtown Disney.  They deserve the context and recognition! 

Around the Parks

Let’s wrap up this week’s update with some summertime glamour shots from around the parks.

Let’s Hear From You

Alright, that wraps up this week’s Disneyland update.  Are you excited for the return of the subs?  Are you an All-American College Band fan?  Should Disneyland only charge extra for Lightning Lane when the attractions are working as intended? Let us know your thoughts on the latest news from Disneyland in the comments below! 

Looking for more? Dusty takes you on a walk through the park this week and focuses on the three main options for securing a Fantasmic dining spot as well as current park conditions: 

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