Welcome back to the “Happiest Place on Earth!” It has been a quiet week around the Disneyland Resort as we dried out a bit between a series of heavy rain storms moving through the Southern California region. You know what they say, “heavy showers bring spring flowers,” so let’s not lily-dally any longer. There’s a lot of Disneyland news springing up…
Parade Unionization
In and around the Disneyland Resort, Cast Members work day in and day out to help create the magic we guests expect. Most Cast Members around the resort are members of local unions that help represent the cast members’ needs. These include many cast members from departments like attractions, maintenance, stage shows, food services, housekeeping, etc. One such group that has not been represented is Character and Parade Entertainment Cast Members.
This group of Cast Members (surprising to me as well) are not represented in Anaheim by any union body at the moment. But that could soon change. They are working together to create a campaign titled “Magic United,” which will be represented by the Actors’ Equity Association. Magic United aims to represent the 1700 Cast members at the Disneyland Resort who work both on the front line and behind the scenes to help bring the magic on stage.
Magic United has several reasons why they want to Unionize:
Magic United is working to gather enough signatures on Union Authorization Cards distributed to Cast Members. Once enough cards have been collected, Disney will either have to recognize the Union voluntarily or the group will continue their fight to be recognized with the National Labor Relations Board hearing their claims.
Over at Walt Disney World, the Teamsters Union has represented this group of Cast Members since 1990, while the Actors’ Equity Association represents Stage Shows. If you want to learn more about how to help these Cast Members unionize, you can check out Magic United’s website. We doubt Disney will fight unization too hard this time around since they are also trying to get the city of Anaheim’s approvals for a major Resort expansion (see DisneylandForward news HERE) and has been engaging the various Resort unions to help get it pushed through.
Change in the Seasons
Yesterday, February 18th, was the final day for California Adventure’s Lunar New Year Celebration. It was a real great festival this year and we’ll miss it. But with the year of the dragon now packed away, another celebration stands in the wings, ready to start.
The 2024 Food and Wine Festival starts just a week and a half from today, and we are looking forward to all the delicious goodness ahead.
Check out our guide to all of this year’s food and beverages:
Eat This! Disney California Adventure Food & Wine Festival 2024 Food Guide
Beyond the extensive line-up of food & entertaiment, the Food & Wine Festival brings the return of one of my favorites, Soarin’ Over California! The original attraction film will operate for a limited time in “California”-mode during the festival running March 1st through April 22nd.
It’s the highlight of the festival for me, what about you?
Disney After Dark Alert
Disneyland is making a potentially beneficial change to its special event ticket system.
For the upcoming ticket sale for Disney After Dark: Star Wars Nite, once guests enter the virtual queue, they will have the option to enter their email address and be notified when it’s their turn to purchase tickets.
An email with a personal link will be sent, allowing the user 10 minutes to return and make their purchase. Ticket sales begin tomorrow at 9 AM for Inspire Magic Key holders and on Wednesday and Thursday for all Magic Key holders. On Friday, tickets will be available for the general public.
While the change sounds like a positive one, we would like to see one additional feature added: being notified via text message. An email can be an easy thing to miss, your server can take awhile to send the message, or for many other reasons; a text message will ping your phone almost immediately and is much more noticeable and reliable. We would hate for guests to miss their chance at a ticket sale because of a slow email server or message being sent into the black hole of a spam folder. We’re also curious how non Inspire Key holders will feel about playing 2nd fiddle. Let us know your thoughts on the changes and ticketing priority.
Read more about the new online “notify me” system here:
Disneyland Construction
While the clouds were away, the construction crews were finally hard at play.
Main Street
Disneyland’s City Hall building is back behind scrims. Work continues on rejuvenating the facade.
Guests waiting to talk to a Guest Relations Cast Member wait along the construction wall.
The construction wraps around both ends of the building, including closing off the Disneyland Fire Department. But the bathrooms and interior of Guest Relations remain open.
Astro Orbitor
Making our way down Main Street, we can see work has progressed on the reassembly of the Astro Orbitor. The tower has reached a new height and many of the upper decorative elements on the pole have returned as well. The attraction is scheduled to return to service on March 15th.
We hope the planets will rotate once again once the ride reopens. The last time the attraction was extensively refurbished, the planets only worked for a few months before becoming static again.
The planetary orb that sits closest to Hub looks to sporting some new paint.
Mark Twain Riverboat
The Mark Twain Riverboat, a staple for Frontierland, has been wrapping up its extended annual refurbishment. The ship is afloat once again again (the water around it had been drained during much of the refurbishment). The vessel is gleaming across the water with its brand-new coat of white paint.
The riverboat is expected to be back in operation next weekend, on the 24th, and will be making trips around Tom Sawyer’s Island on the regular. This also means we are one step closer to the return of Fantasmic returning late this spring.
Haunted Mansion
Major construction continues on the Haunted Mansion’s exterior remodel. The long stretch of walls do have some nice historical and concept art featured on them, but they still take up much of the area in and around New Orleans Square.
At this point, we believe most of the queue and everything from the Mansion’s front stairs to the New Orleans Square Train Station has been completely removed. Disney is making the entire queue ADA-compliant to speed up the queue. This means, in part, that the new queue width accommodates wheelchairs and ECVs throughout.
As we mentioned in our 2024 Disneyland Resort Project Tracker, the Mansion is expected to return this fall with a newly designed exterior queue, a new fountain in the queue garden, a new exit gift shop, a new exit elevator for disabled guests, a refurbished Graveyard scene inside the attraction, and with a sprinkle of new pixie dust in and around the attraction (we aren’t talking just any old dust and cobwebs).
With no solid timeline for the completion of this project, we cannot wait for the construction walls to come down around the queue area to get some much-needed breathing room in New Orleans Square. With Fantasmic returning at the end of May, crowd-flow in this area is going to be a challenge.
Tiana’s Bayou Adventure
Continuing down the bayou and into Critter Country, work continues on the remodel of Splash Mountain as Disney prepares to take guests on a new adventure with Tiana.
A solid opening timeline has not been announced for the Anaheim version of the attraction, but Disney World has set a summer opening for their version of the ride. With Disneyland’s version closing six months behind Magic Kingdom’s, we expect the California version to open in late 2024.
This week, WDI gave a preview of one of the Tiana Audio-Animatronic figures heading to the pair of attractions. Tiana appears to have a big head with giant eyes and a smaller body. It’s a ‘cute’ take on the character:
@disneyparks FIRST LOOK 👀 at one of the new Audio-Animatronics figures coming to Tiana’s Bayou Adventure ✨💚 #Disney #DisneyParks #DisneyWorld #Tiana #TianasBayouAdventure #DisneyNews #MardiGras #Technology ♬ original sound – Disney Parks
There will be dozens of new Audio-Animatronics figures in the new attraction and I’m really excited to see what Imagineering has been cooking up.
Around the mountain salt mine, we can see workers busy cleaning up the exterior and getting ready to install the many new “fake” plants into every crevice of the building.
Down in the return trough heading back into the building, we can see holes cut into the walls of the attraction, we expect to see new lighting and audio speakers take up residence in said holes before new wire mesh is placed to hide them from view.
With two major attractions in this area down for the majority of this year, construction walls run nearly from the New Orleans Square train station all the way to the very back of Critter Country. It’s almost as bad as the “Great Wall of DCA” back in 2010 when much of what is now Paradise Park was being torn apart and rebuilt to accommodate The Little Mermaid attraction and World of Color.
You can check out all the exciting details about Tiana’s Bayou Adventure in our article below:
GUIDE: Everything You Need to Know About Tiana’s Bayou Adventure!
Toontown Troubles
Back in Micky’s Toontown, construction fences continue to surround the Donald’s Duck Pond splash pad. In the YEAR the revised land has been reopened, this attraction has yet to open to guests.
At some point, it might be time for WDI to just add some additional play equipment to expand Goofy’s Playhouse and give up on the problematic splash pad.
Grizzly River Run
Moving over to DCA, Grizzly River Run begins to wrap its annual refurbishment as the attraction returns just in time for DCA’s Food & Wine Festival on March 1st.
Outside the construction walls, the big Grizzly statue is sporting a fresh coat of paint. How fresh? Still wet when we took this photo…
Much of the major work has already been completed, and we expect to see boats back in the canal next week with lots of testing occurring during the overnight hours.
Smaller Projects
It’s not all big construction and refurbishments. There are lots of little projects as well…
Stage Door Cafe
Work continues in Fronteirland on Stage Door Cafe as the exterior gets a light touch-up.
Small World Lamp Post
Several weeks ago, we reported a small construction box was sitting around a lamp post along the Parade Route (across from Small World). Work has now concluded and a grid of new bricks lies around the pole.
Grizzly Peak Restrooms
Back over in DCA, work continues on refreshing the facades of both Humphery’s shop and the adjacent Grizzly Peak restrooms. Both are still open during the refurbishment.
Blue Sky Cellar
Work also continues on the remodel of the Blue Sky Cellar as this walk-through attraction is being converted into a DVC lounge and sales center.
Hyperion Theater
As reported last week, the scaffolding adorning the Hyperion Theater’s south face has been removed. The steel trestle frame that runs along the building features a new coat of blue paint. The Hyperion Theater Courtyard continues to be inaccessible to guests as the construction walls sill run along the walkway into Avengers Campus.
Esplanade Guest Services Building
Outside the park, the Disneyland-side Esplanade Guest Services building and restroom continue to have the facade worked on. All services are available during the refurbishment.
Upcoming Refurbishments
We have three notable refurbishments coming up that may affect your upcoming visits:
Radiator Springs Racers
The world-famous Radiator Springs Racers attraction has a short upcoming refurbishment scheduled from February 26th through March 1st.
Although we wish the attraction would receive a lengthier refurbishment to give the maintenance crews time to work some pixie dust throughout the attraction, it’s nice to give those racers a break so the crews can hit the more pressing issues. With this being one of DCA’s most popular attractions, we can understand why Disney is so hesitant to put construction walls up around it.
Incredicoaster
The Incredicoaster is scheduled for a two-week refurbishment from March 4th through the 14th. We would say this one threw us for a loop, but it is to be expected from a 20+ year-old coaster.
Redwood Creek Challange Trail
The Redwood Creek Challenge Trail has a pending refurbishment starting March 4th. We are likely to see many of the ropes, nets, and interactive elements refurbished or replaced. With this attraction used more during the Fall and Winter seasons with Villans Grove and DCA’s Santa Meet-and-Greet, its annual refurbishment is now pushed late into the winter and into early the spring season.
Disneyland Resort Refurbishment Calander
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- Splash Mountain: Conversion to Tiana’s Bayou Adventure: May 31st, 2023-Late 2024
- Mark Twain Riverboat: September 17th, 2023-February 23rd, 2024
- Astro Orbitor: November 27th, 2023-March 14th, 2024
- Grizzly River Run: January 8th-February 29th
- The Haunted Mansion: January 22nd-TBA
- Paradise Garden Grill: February 19th-29th
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- Sailing Ship Columbia: February 26th-29th
- Radiator Springs Racers: February 26th-March 1st
- Incredicoaster: March 4th-14th
- Redwood Creek Challenge Trail: March 4th-TBA
Downtown Disney Construction
Outside the park, the major overhaul to Downtown Disney continues.
Centrico, Paseo, and Tiendita
At the center of Downtown Disney, construction walls surround Paseo, Centrico, and Tiendita as work progresses toward the completion of these three restaurants.
Centrico, the outdoor bar in the middle of the walkway, is coming together quickly now as the main structure work is completed. Many of the electrical elements will be added to the frame shortly.
Across the walkway, the downstairs portion of the former Catal Restaurant will become Tiendita, a quick-service restaurant, while upstairs will feature Paseo, a fancy upscale restaurant. All three restaurants will feature Mexican cuisine from Michelin-starred Chef Carlos Gaytán and are all operated by the Patina Group.
On the day of our visit, we could see active work along Paseo’s balcony and inside.
Din Tai Fung
At the west side of Downtown Disney, work continues to move quickly on Din Tai Fung, the world-renowned Chinese restaurant chain.
The walls are currently being enclosed.
Parkside Market
Across the plaza from Din Tai Fung, the Parkside Market continues to make headway.
Tortilla Joe’s
With new additions coming soon, an old Downtown Disney favorite is getting ready to close for good. Tortilla Joe’s, a downtown Disney staple, will serve their final margarita on March 31st. Their quick-service walk-up Taqueria will remain operational until April 13th.
This restaurant is operated by Pantia Group. With their Paseo/Centrico/Tiendita concept opening just a few steps away, the closure of Tortilla Jo’s was inevitable. It’s sad to see this icon go to Yesterland but we’re still waiting to hear what’s coming next to this location.
Want more details about all the changes coming to Downtown Disney? Check our article below:
Downtown Disney Transformed: Updates on New Restaurants & Shops!
DISNEYLAND LIVE
We have a special treat for you this week. Scott Solo shares the latest from Disneyland while Dusty Sage takes us to EPCOT and shows us what’s new! It’s an epic coast to coast Disney extravaganza. And… there’s a special kiss goodnight as we watch EPCOT’s latest lagoon show!
Be sure to follow along every Friday at 5 pm (Pacific) on the MiceChat YouTube or Facebook Page (Like/Subscribe/Follow so you don’t miss it)
This & That
A little bit of this and a dash of that…
Fantasyland Theatre
Heading into the spring season, we see the Fantasyland Theatre is just sitting there. Not much activity. Currently, the theater is hosting Celebrate Gospel on the remaining Saturdays in February, but we wonder what will become of the old theater. Will Disney bring back Tale of the Lion King for another run? Will entertainment start production on a new show? We hope to hear more soon because Disneyland guests deserve a good show!
We hope the theater doesn’t go back into mothball mode as the busy Spring Break and Summer seasons are just around the corner.
The Troubadour Tavern continues to remain operational for the mid-day lunch service.
MiceShots
I just wanted to wrap up this week’s update by sharing my evening shots. Disneyland is the absolute best at night. The cool air rushes in as the heat of the day dissipates. One of the things I notice is how people seem to move through the park like a stream of water, almost nobody takes a straight line but they all seem to move through the path to get to where they want to go by waving together.
Another thing is how light and color seem to splash everywhere as rides move and create a kaleidoscope of color that you only just need to change your perspective to see.
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Let’s Hear From You!
Thank you all for joining me for another MiceChat Disneyland Update. I haven’t done a Monday Update in a while so it’s fun to get a chance to cover my favorite park. Let us know what you think of all the construction around the resort or your favorite time of day at Disneyland.
Will you miss Tortilla Jo’s? Ready for Food & Wine? We love to hear your thoughts and comments below…
