Rock Your Disney Side 24 hour party kicks off busy summer season at Disneyland

Disneyland kicked off its busy summer season with another 24-hour party that encouraged guests to rock their “Disney Sides” by “Disney Bounding” and wearing costumes to the parks. The popular 24-hour event included special entertainment, dining, characters and more to keep guests entertained throughout the day and night. Today we fill you in on the highlights from the Rock Your Disney Side event as well as bring you up-to-date on the current refurbishment and construction projects in both theme parks.

Don’t miss your weekly Disneyland Resort crowd forecast — provided by our friends at MouseAddict — in the Weekly News and Information Roundup at the end of today’s update!

Get a closer look at today’s update! Click on any photo in today’s blog to see a larger, high-resolution version.

A big thank you to our friend Izabelle for some extra help with character photos in today’s update!

Let’s get started!

Welcome to #Disney24!

Disneyland kicked off its big Rock Your Disney Side 24-hour party early Friday morning with a fireworks countdown from actor, and voice of Olaf from “Frozen,” Josh Gad.

The Olaf sand sculpture in the Main Entrance Plaza greeted guests throughout the weekend

Welcome to DisneyParks

Long lines of overnight guests moved into the parks and for the first few hours of the day the parks felt relatively empty as crowds spread out.

Most attractions have reopened after a busy spring refurbishment season.

Guests entering the parks got free buttons promoting Disney’s upcoming “Maleficent” movie

Twelve “Rock Your Disney Side” photo ops/signs were scattered throughout each park.

Traditional patriotic bunting is now up along Main Street for the summer season.

Wait times around 10 am.

A stage and big screens in front of Sleeping Beauty Castle featured a hostess that announced special entertainment and info for the 24 hour day

Guests could submit photos on social media posing with the Rock Your Disney Side signs and be featured on the screens.

Over at Disney California Adventure, Buena Vista Street is dressed up in its patriotic bunting as well for the summer season.

Wait times late Friday afternoon after crowds really started getting heavy

Back at Disneyland, crowds around 5 p.m. Friday evening

Guests got into the spirit of the event and “rocked their Disney sides” with costumes and by Disney bounding.

Lots of Social Clubs out for the event

The parks offered a variety of unique special dining opportunities for the event.

Special treats available at the candy shops

Special merchandise for the event

A special edition of the Buena Vista Bugle was released for the 24 hour party

Frozen singalong screenings in DCA’s Muppet Theater were held throughout the day along with a Marvel movie marathon in Tomorrowland’s Magic Eye Theater

A few special characters made appearances including dapper Minnie Mouse on Buena Vista Street.

Disney also debuted a new Maleficent face character based on the upcoming movie starring Angelina Jolie. The character appearance was a surprise announcement made via Disney social media and guests had to obtain a special ticket at the Blue Sky Cellar to meet Maleficent late Friday night in front of the 3D movie preview entrance. Our good friend Izabelle’s (@izkosti on Twitter) shared these photos with us from the special meet-n-greet.

You can see more of Izabelle’s great Disney photography on Flickr.

Pretty cool to see a new take on Maleficent in the parks.

Overall, the 24 hour party seemed like a typical busy Friday in the park with a couple small special offerings here and there. It wasn’t until after the evening fireworks show that the party really started and the parks turned into giant dance parties.

I can understand wanting to change the atmosphere in the parks for special events like this but it’s one thing to create a party atmosphere after dark but turning the hub into a huge dance party with songs like “#SELFIE” blasting lyrics like “After we go to the bathroom, can we go smoke a cigarette? / I really need one / But first, let me take a selfie.” The atmosphere went from traditional Disney to a giant Grad Nite-like event for adults, unfortunately turning the parks into pretty family-unfriendly places.

Kingdom Construction

[center]Members Only[/center]
In New Orleans Square, construction continues on the big Club 33 expansion.

Work continues on the New Orleans Square rooftops

Royal Street now dead ends into construction walls as Orleans Street in New Orleans Square is mostly blocked off now due to the ongoing construction

Of course, the gift shops are still open for business

Cristal d’ Orleans’ Orleans Street entrance is blocked now due to construction

Orleans Street is open only enough to allow guests to access Cafe Orleans and Mlle. Antoinette’s Parfumerie.

[center]Reopenings[/center]
Pirates of the Caribbean has reopened after its refurbishment

Over in Fantasyland, “it’s a small world” has reopened after receiving all of its Cal/OSHA fall safety additions.

Hopefully the facade will eventually get a refurbishment as well

[center]Alice in Blunderland[/center]
Meanwhile, Alice in Wonderland’s fall safety construction continues on that ride’s outdoor ride track portion.

That charming ramp that once looked like leaves is now significantly widened with permanent railing going up soon. The mild thrill of zipping down that ramp and feeling like you might fly off as your caterpillar comes dangerously close to the edge will likely now be entirely lost. Hopefully the new ramp will turn out to at least look nice.

[center]Out to Dry[/center]
The Submarine Lagoon is still dry as its refurbishment continues through the fall.

Still not really too much to see

[center]Pierfecting…[/center]
Over in Disney California Adventure, work continues on Paradise Pier’s wood rot issues…

[center]Dry Run[/center]
And Grizzly Peak is still down for refurbishment through later next month.

Merch Madness

A new line of World of Color merchandise recently hit the shelves in California Adventure…

Dateline Disneyland is sponsored by our good friends at the Howard Johnson Plaza Hotel & Water Playground. A short walk from the park, HoJo Anaheim is conveniently located next to Matterhorn Mountain at Disneyland with nearby dining, freeway access, FREE parking and FREE Wi-Fi. For more information on HoJo Anaheim, room rates, or to book your stay today, visit HoJoAnaheim.com/MiceChat MiceChat.com and Annual Passholder Discounts Available Every Day! The HoJo Anaheim is now offering deeper discounts for Disneyland Resort Annual Passholders! On select nights, Disneyland Resort Annual Passholders can get rooms for as low as 30% off, plus tax. For more information visit the HoJo Anaheim Innsider Boards which features an up-to-date listing of available nights, or call (714) 776-6120 and ask for In-House Reservations to book. If your date isn’t listed, the HoJo Anaheim still offers rooms for 20% off their best available rate if you call (714) 776-6120.

Weekly News & Information Round-Up
Weekly Theme Park Hours May 26 — June 1, 2014
[B]Disneyland Park[/B]	[B]California Adventure[/B]
Monday: 8 am – 12 am Tue.-Thur.: 9 am – 11 pm Fri.-Sat.: 9 am – 12 am Sunday: 8 am – 12 pm	Monday: 8 am – 10 pm Tue.-Sat.: 9 am – 10 pm Sunday: 8 am – 10 pm
[CENTER]For a complete listing of theme park hours, visit the Disneyland.com Theme Park Calendar[/CENTER]
[center]Closure and Refurbishment Schedule[/center]
[b][center]Disneyland Park[/center][/b]
[B]Space Mountain:[/B] Closed May 27 through July 3 for refurbishment. [B]Alice in Wonderland:[/B] Closed through July 3, 2014 for enhancements and safety redesign of outdoor portion of ride track. [B]Matterhorn Bobsleds:[/B] Closed August 25-November 13 for refurbishment. [B]Finding Nemo Submarine Voyage:[/B] Closed through September 26, 2014 for major refurbishment.
[b][center]Disney California Adventure[/center][/b]
[B]Grizzly River Run:[/B] Closed through June 19, 2014 for refurbishment. [B]Blue Sky Cellar:[/B] Listed as reopening July 1, 2014 on Cast Member document.
[b][center]Downtown Disney and Disneyland Resort Hotels[/center][/b]
None.
May 26 – June 1, 2014 MON TUE WED THU FRI SAT SUN Grad Nites this week are Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday. Grads will be taking over California Adventure starting at park closing, but expect an influx of students to swamp security checkpoints as their buses begin to arrive. With the recent ticket price increases, blockout tickets have been eliminated. This means that passholders must now purchase a full-price ticket on blocked days. We expect this to slightly reduce crowding this weekend. The spate of refurbs is finally beginning to abate, but Space Mountain is scheduled to close on Tuesday, reopening in mid-July. For next week’s crowd projections, check out the Tomorrowplan feature in the Mouseaddict app. The free Mouseaddict app for iPhone and iPad features more than five dozen categories of searchable resort information, weather forecasts, park and show schedules, the latest news and articles from MiceChat, and more. Download free on the App Store or at mouseaddict.com.
[center]Headline Roundup A quick look at noteworthy Disney theme park headlines from around the web.[/center]
Long-delayed $250 million indoor water park resort is set to open in Garden Grove by late 2015. (OC Disney)

Alright, that’s it for this week’s update. Did you stay for all 24 hours on Friday? Let us know what you thought of this year’s 24 hour party in the comments section below! Dateline Disneyland is only here because of you. We’ve been able to bring Dateline Disneyland to you each week because of your generous donations. Consider helping us out by donating via PayPal, click here! For more Disneyland news, be sure to read MiceChat’s weekly In the Parks blog. And be sure to check out our sister blog, Dateline Disney World – a fantastic weekly photo blog covering Walt Disney World in Orlando, Florida! Thanks for reading. See you at Disneyland! [B]- Andy[/B]

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FTC-Mandated Disclosure: Promotional consideration for this edition of Dateline Disneyland was provided by the Howard Johnson Plaza Hotel & Water Playground.