Disneyland celebrates 69 years of entertaining fans of all ages this week. And how is the old girl doing? We’ll take a look. It’s certainly hard to believe that nearly seven decades have passed. And while we have lots of beautiful photos to share, there are also some very troubling signs that we sincerely hope will be addressed before the big 70th anniversary next summer. Today’s update is packed with helpful information, the latest construction photos, a larger-than-we’d-like collection of issues, and the threat of a worker strike!
Broken & Uncrowded at 69
Disneyland turns 69 years old on July 17th. In many ways, the park looks fantastic for an attraction of its age; however, there are also signs of trouble. Disneyland has been plagued with ride breakdowns and low attendance this summer. While the breakdowns likely result from understaffed and overworked maintenance teams, the attendance issues are mostly the result of high ticket prices and Magic Key blockout dates. Most dates this July have been in the range of $169 to $194 for a one-day one-park ticket. Last Tuesday was a rare $154 day and it was noticeably busier than other days so far this summer.
But the high-price bubble is about to burst, and a slew of lower-priced days and the unblocking of some Magic Keys are ahead in August. We’re placing bets that the parks will start filling up promptly upon the return of reasonably priced tickets and pass holder availability.
Starting August 6th, prices start dropping to $154. And by August 19th, they fall all the way to $104 a day!
Add to that the unblocking of the two lower Magic Keys and we should be in for some busy days in the second half of August (but Saturdays remain expensive and blocked out by most passes)…
When I arrived at Disneyland early afternoon on Friday, there were at least 8 attractions temporarily down (Space Mountain, Rise of the Resistance, Alice in Wonderland, Radiator Springs Racers, The Little Mermaid, Golden Zephyr, Luigi’s Rollickin’ Roadsters, and Goofy’s Sky School). Although some of them came back up quickly, others didn’t. In addition, these attractions were followed later in the day by Monster’s Inc., Matterhorn, and Mickey and Minnie’s Runaway Railway. Even Small World had downtime. Resulting in a bad day for attraction reliability. And it wasn’t caused by heat as the park had blissful summer weather in the low 80s.
While all theme parks have ride breakdowns, Disneyland has seen a dramatic uptick in unreliability in the last few years, signaling that ride maintenance has gone off the rails.
You’d think all those rides being down at the same time would have caused wait times to swell at the other rides (and it probably did impact them), but waits were still relatively short for summertime.
As Disneyland prepares for its 70th anniversary next year, it needs to address more than new advertising, banners, merchandise, and sentimental displays; infrastructure and ride reliability must also be addressed. With $60 billion just waiting to be spent by Disney Parks head Josh D’Amaro, perhaps some of that money should be spent on fixing what Disney already has and adequately staffing the parks.
If you’re curious about Disneyland’s 69th-anniversary plans, expect a modest celebration that’s typical of off years. At 12:15 PM on July 17th, there will be a Cavalcade featuring characters and music, but beyond that, we don’t expect much else.
Labor Troubles
Speaking of staffing, Disneyland has some growing labor troubles. While recent Union negotiations have resulted in higher wages for restaurant workers and performers… many of Disneyland’s other workers are now looking to get a bump as well.
On April 24, 2024, Disney’s largest bargaining unit in California (Disney Workers Rising Bargaining Committee), which represents about 13,000 cast members at Disneyland, Disney California Adventure, Downtown Disney, and the Disney hotels in roles ranging from custodians and ride operators to candy makers, merchandise clerks, parking attendants, costumers, and ticket takers entered into negotiations to fight for fair wages, a fair attendance policy, seniority increases, and safe parks for cast members and guests.
The committee represents four unions:
- The Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers, and Grain Millers (BCTGM) Local 83
- The Service Employees International Union-United Service Workers West (SEIU-USWW)
- The Teamsters Local 495
- The United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) Local 324
In a statement released to the media on July 9, 2024, the committee said the following:
“Our goal for negotiations has always been to reach an agreement with Disney — one that provides cast members with wages they need to live in Southern California, the respect they deserve for the years they’ve dedicated to the company, and an attendance policy that works for everyone while keeping park guests safe.”
The committee claims Disney has engaged in “unfair labor practices,” prompting a vote by cast members represented by those unions on whether to authorize a strike. The contract for many of these cast members expired June 16, 2024 (most of them Disneyland workers; the contract for most of the Disney California Adventure and Downtown Disney cast members won’t expire until Sept. 30, 2024).
The results of a strike authorization vote are expected to be announced by July 20, 2024, but if Disney doesn’t settle quickly, plans surrounding the upcoming D23 Day at Disneyland on August 8th (coinciding with the D23: The Ultimate Disney Fan Event on August 9th, 10th, and 11th) could be messy as cast are very likely to authorize a strike.
While a worker strike would be difficult for park management, we’ve heard managers are planning to fill as many empty positions at Disneyland as possible with workers from California Adventure since their contract isn’t up for negotiation until September.
But many guests and service providers won’t cross picket lines, and Disney doesn’t want guests to cancel vacations, especially given the weak attendance this summer. In the end, Disneyland will undoubtedly reach a settlement with the Unions. Unfortunately, recent increases in pay for entertainment cast was met almost immediately with cuts to performances throughout the parks (which will continue at least into fall). We certainly hope Disney won’t further degrade the park experience for guests in an effort to squeeze more savings out of employee pay and slashed services.
Playing The Blues
It’s always challenging for us to write about maintenance issues in the parks. As a team that profoundly loves parks, we also want to see them looking their best, so it’s concerning when we start noticing deteriorating conditions at Disneyland without proper fixes. We encountered a number of issues in the parks this week beyond the obvious ride breakdowns we already mentioned, some of which have been going on for months on end.
Fountain Fail
This fountain in Downtown Disney seems to be losing more tiles every week and looks very sad. We’ve been reporting on its decline for months. On the bright side, the fountain is still somewhat operating, with the flower shooting water up in the air from time to time. Disney has filed a permit for the removal of a fountain in Downtown Disney. Given the apparent neglect, we believe it will be this one.
Missing Lights
Light poles have been disappearing throughout the Disneyland Resort for months as Disney attempts to address aging infrastructure (there were incidents of falling fixtures, which left some guests with injuries). Some of the light fixtures are starting to return, but many more are still missing.
Most of the lights have been temporarily blocked with trash cans. It’s truly a shame that Disney didn’t have a better plan in place to repair and replace the fixtures and instead needs to leave trash cans in the middle of walkways for months on end.
The Direction of Neglect
The compass in front of Sleeping Beauty Castle was recently restored. Huge ugly boxes were placed over the letters of the compass. However, once the boxes were removed, we can see they didn’t do a very good job of restoring anything. Let’s take a look at the compass just a few weeks after the work was completed.
The new brass is discolored, cracked in places, and disfigured in others.
And beyond the brass, pavement is cracked and broken throughout the area.
Nearby, it appears that a work truck ran into one of the decorative light supports, creating quite a crack… which hasn’t been repaired.
On the other side of Central Plaza, we noticed a brick was taped into place at the entrance to Tomorrowland. For safety reasons, we hope this was fixed over the weekend. If they are using trash cans to alert guests to safety issues, this would have been a good spot to put one.
Train Troubles
On the Disneyland Railroad, it appears that part of one of the rail cars had a recent repair, but the weld looks ugly. The welder even burned a hole in the canopy! This leaves us with some quality control concerns. Not only is the weld poorly done, but it also wasn’t painted to prevent rust on the new repair.
It’s shocking to see things like this in full view of guests when there are so many train cars in good shape that can be used while this one is properly repaired.
Rust to Rust
Over in California Adventure, we noticed a lot of worn paint and rust. It feels like the paint department is overwhelmed with important projects that just can’t be completed
Elsewhere in the Hollywood Backlot area, the stage area has only been halfway painted.
They painted what they thought you might notice, and left the rest to fade and rust away.
Lights Out
During the holidays, we mentioned that many of the lightbulbs on the roof of Fantasy Faire Gifts by “it’s a small world” were burned out. That situation has only gotten worse, even though it should be one of the easiest issues to fix. The gift shop is in no way show-ready and looks horrendous. At what point should someone in Operations simply have the lights on the roof unplugged so guests don’t see this level of neglect?!
This isn’t just a few burned-out bulbs… there are nearly as many lights out as there are lit! 
Entertain Me!
This one really gives us the blues, but it’s such a sorry situation that we are giving it its own section. Disneyland Entertainment seems to be in a death spiral.
Empty Stages
The Hyperion, Backlot Stage & Golden Horseshoe are all now abandoned.
The empty stage at the Golden Horseshoe is a badge of shame for Disneyland management. This location was near and dear to Walt’s heart, but current park management doesn’t seem to know or care about that, nor the long history of this beautiful space. They just see the cost of the entertainment—even though they make money from the quick-serve counter here. Is Disneyland failing so badly that they can’t afford a piano player or singer… much less a full variety show which was the mainstay of this location. Perhaps we should start a Go Fund Me campaign to help poor Disneyland pay the rent on the Golden Horseshoe.
And, once Pixar Fest ends after August 4th, the Fantasyland Theater will also be empty.
The Pixar Fest parade at DCA, Better Together, will also be ending on the 4th. We expect Magic Happens to end around the time Halloween starts at the end of August. And that will leave the Disneyland Resort with just the neutered Fantasmic, World of Color One, Together Forever fireworks (through August 22nd) and Halloween Screams starting on August 23rd with projections every night and fireworks on select nights (mostly weekends).
Of course, if you have Oogie Boogie Bash tickets, there will be a wonderful but short Halloween parade during the special event.
And that’s the sad but true story of Disneyland’s abandonment of big entertainment. Smaller acts remain for now, including the Citizens of Buena Vista Street, some of the bands and groups on Main Street and New Orleans Square, and the characters you see wandering around. But, if you enjoy the parades and are disappointed that there are no big stage shows, be sure to lodge a complaint at Guest Relations and tell any Disneyland management you see how disappointed you are in their lack of delivering true Disney entertainment.
Constructionland
We have a flurry of projects to share this week.
The Path of Resistance
One significant crowd-flow issue that parkgoers should be aware of is the temporary closure of the walkway connecting the Hungry Bear restaurant and Galaxy’s Edge. The pathway, and all of Critter Country, was closed to accommodate the final phase of construction on Tiana’s Bayou Adventure and the redo of the surrounding area.
Most of the old pathway has been removed and is currently dirt.
The Briar Patch shop is being rethemed and the windows have been boarded up. The old Splash Mountain Fastpass distribution area. has been removed.
We also spied a new, very different barn door at the entrance to Tiana’s Bayou Adventure.
The Hungry Bear restaurant is taking advantage of the area closure to complete a major refurbishment. Scaffolding and scrims are already up.
Concrete on the bridge area above the big plunge on Bayou Adventure is being torn out right now.
The closure of this part of the park has left a dead end that limits access to Galaxy’s Edge and forces guests to walk all the way around the Rivers of America to the other two entrances along the Big Thunder Mountain Trail.
If you’ve made it to Harbor Galley, you’ve reached the end of the line.
On the New Orleans Square side of the dead-end, there are few signs that point to the detour (and they’re very easy to miss). With such a wide area to cover, there really needs to be a large sign on the construction wall that states there is a dead-end ahead. The app should also be updated because it still shows the path as open:
As of Friday, the only signs we saw were at the border between Adventureland and New Orleans Square, but there is nothing guiding guests past that point.
A member of our team was sitting at the Harbor Galley (the end of that dead-end) and noticed about 75 guests (in a 15-minute period) looking for a way into Galaxy’s Edge. However, no signage on the wall tells you you’ve reached a dead end. You just have to figure it out for yourself.
In contrast, on the other side of the blocked path, in Galaxy’s Edge, there were Cast Members, umbrellas, and signs giving plenty of warning that the path ends ahead.
Haunted Mansion Ghosts Await
There’s progress on the Haunted Mansion’s new queue garden. The good news is that since work on the attraction’s interior has been mostly completed, the Mansion could reopen later this month, but with a virtual queue since the exterior garden project has yet to be completed.
A new shop will soon rise at the exit of the Haunted Mansion.
Pounding Pavements
While Critter Country and Mansion construction takes most of the spotlight this week, let’s tour the rest of the resort to see what’s happening.
At the Disneyland Entrance, large areas have been blocked with construction walls as brickwork is completed in front of the main gates. Don’t worry though. It does not appear that the engraved paver stones throughout the Esplanade are being removed, just that the bricks that surround the paver stones.
Back by Small World, construction walls have been removed from around the old ticket booth where vending carts have traditionally been stationed. The new groundwork appears to be a very odd fit in comparison to the bricks that are laid throughout the rest of the area. It looks very out of place. Perhaps all of the bricks will soon be replaced with more of this new scored concrete with large pebbles in it. Which do you like better?
Downtown Disney
On the west end of Downtown Disney, fences and scrim are being removed along the new walkways.
But the Parkside Marketplace building is now going under scrims as the building is enclosed.
This & That
There’s a little bit of this and a little of that still left to share…
D23 Expo Panel Reservations
If you are attending D23: The Ultimate Disney Fan Event (we still just call it the Expo), don’t forget to make your panel reservations. You can start booking them today, July 15th. And while we are on the topic, make a point of visiting the MiceChat booth in the Collectors Emporium for a chance to win a luxury theme park vacation from our partners at Get Away Today travel.
First Gasp of Halloween
Halloween is sneaking in early at the Disneyland Resort. These couples shirts have been spotted at Elias and Co, in DCA. The Mickey and Minnie-style ghosts are charming. We’d really like to see other Disney characters in this style.
More Halloween soon. The season starts on August 23rd this year, and merchandise always starts at least a month earlier.
UPDATED – more spooky season merchandise has arrived. Check it out:
UPDATED! Disneyland Halloween 2024 Merchandise Puts a Spell… On Our Wallets!
Actual Dresses In The Dress Shop
The Disney Dress Shop in Downtown Disney has finally brought some dresses back. While there are only two dresses in the shop at the moment, Cast Members are hopeful that more will return soon.
There is also a new painting in the Wonderground Gallery depicting Belle and Beast with the rest of the characters in shadow.
Single Rise-er
Walt Disney World is trialing single rider on Rise of the Resistance… which has us wondering if it should come to Disneyland as well. Having single riders fill up empty seats does increase the ride capacity, but really only benefits those willing to be split up from the rest of their party. And since they fill seats that would otherwise be dispatched empty, they don’t make the line any longer for those in the general standby. We’d love to hear your thoughts on single rider for Rise of the Resistance.
One thing we have heard about the single rider queue in Orlando is that it skips past the pre-show (Rey’s message) and the experience in the transport ship before emptying out into the Star Destroyer hangar, so definitely not a great option for first-time riders.
Disneyland Live
We have a very special Disneyland Live for you this week. Dusty and Mike were joined by our good friend Julie Tremain from the SF Gate for a walk through DCA and Disneyland. We discussed the latest news, examined the crowd situation, explored the path of most resistance, and waltzed right onto Pirates of the Caribbean since there was no line. You don’t want to miss this one…
MiceShots
We understand we’ve been critical of the Disneyland Resort lately. Maintaining a balanced approach is challenging when there’s so much going on that isn’t all positive; however, in journalism, it’s not always lighthearted. Of course, the parks have numerous wonderful things, and we also enjoy sharing those as well.
If you joined us on Friday at 5 p.m. for our weekly live stream, you could ride Pirates of the Caribbean with us. We got pretty wet, but a good time was had by all…
As we were walking through Fantasyland, we just happened to notice this view from the Casey Jr. queue. While we’ve seen it so many times, the colors and light just stood out to us.
There are always flowers in bloom at the resort. It doesn’t matter the time of year.
It’s also always wonderful to run into characters in the parks. That is a big part of what makes Disney…Disney.
Even on a hot, humid day, the river is a great place to take a break and rest those weary feet. The sights around the river are beautiful, and to some degree, they take us back to Disneyland’s early days. The simplicity and enjoyability of this iconic attraction is definitely underappreciated.
Discount Disney Tickets and Travel
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Let’s Hear From You
What do you think folks? Has Disneyland finally surpassed the maximum amount guests are willing to pay for a summer visit? What do you think about a late summer and fall with no stage shows and no parades? Are attraction breakdowns just something to live with, or should Disneyland take a more proactive maintenance approach to combat the growing problem? And should single rider be added to Rise of the Resistance? Let us know your thoughts on what’s going on at the Disneyland Resort.
Finally, we’ll leave you with a little bit of theme park zen. Take a slow, deep breath, exhale, and press play.