Let’s take a little walk around Disneyland and check out what’s under construction at the park.
Stepping into the park, City Hall is getting a facelift on Main Street USA. Change at City Hall? Hey, when was the last time there was an election at Disneyland? Who is the mayor of this place, anyway?
The big project is the transformation of the former Splash Mountain into Tiana’s Bayou Adventure. Construction here appears to be several weeks behind the same project at Walt Disney World’s Magic Kingdom. Disney has yet to reveal an opening date for “The Princess and the Frog”-themed flume ride, save to say that it will open late this year.
Next door, the Haunted Mansion has closed for an extended refurbishment that will see Disney building a new, expanded queue and exit gift shop for the classic dark ride. The new queue, back in the old Fastpass distribution space, should help keep the line of people waiting for Mansion from merging with the one for Tiana’s.
Across the New Orleans Square pathway, the Mark Twain riverboat is in dry dock for its refurb. We will see the Twain as the finale for the return of Fantasmic! on May 24.
The Twain’s refurb means that the Sailing Ship Columbia now is taking guests around the Rivers of America. Look for the Columbia as the setting for the return of Peter Pan to Fantasmic! in May.
Over in Tomorrowland, Disneyland is rebuilding the Astro Orbiter.
And I also should note what feels like the longest construction project in Disneyland history, at this point - that long-promised, yet still incomplete, new Tomorrowland entrance planter.
Outside the parks, Disneyland is putting the finishing touches on the renamed Pixar Place Hotel, which opens officially next Tuesday.
I will be there for that grand opening, so keep following for all that news.
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I’ll be amazed if Tiana actually manages to open this year. When you think about how much work they have to do inside the show building, it seems like it’s going to be a race to the finish.
@thecolonel - What are they supposed to do? They have to pull down HM to remove the Nightmare overlay, so that's at least 2 weeks of downtime. It makes perfect sense to take that opportunity when the attraction has to go down to perform improvements to the queue and eliminate one of the biggest issues with the attraction which is the queue spilling out into the walkway. There are plenty of other great attractions available at Disneyland.
So because they have to shut down Haunted Mansion for two weeks they're going to shut it down for _most of the year_, while another of the E-ticket rides is shut down? You ask "what are they supposed to do," and the answer is obvious: wait until they're done refurbishing one of the major rides until they shut down another. Basic common sense, basic customer service.
It would seem that Disney makes decisions based on what would undermine the guest experience MOST. Not only have they closed two E-tickets at the same time, for months on end, but they've saddled their biggest people eater, Pirates, with the godforsaken G+, which more than doubles the standby wait. Because it's good for guests? No, because otherwise people might not buy G+ with two major rides offline. Putting G+ on Pirates is basically blackmail--pay it, or you'll wait twice as long for the ride than you've ever waited in your life. Disney is hateful toward their guests.
Heaven forfend Disney for trying to make park improvements whenever thecolonel wants to visit. Just throw out Walt's promise that "Disneyland will never be completed. It will continue to grow as long as there is imagination left in the world." Send your old ticket books to thecolonel and let them visit the Fantasyland in their mind.
Thecolonel is giving big Veruca Salt vibes...
Oh boo hoo, Russell, does it upset you that I'm critically minded? Maybe I should be more like you and gleefully swallow whatever big corporations are feeding me. Chugalug, pooh bear!
Matthew, I gave your mom big vibes last night.
As a masochist, I like that Disney hates me so much.
Hahah, well played James. I think that's their business model these days.
Colonel, everyone deserves love. Good for you. And her.
Opening soon 202x - haha
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It's beyond baffling to me that they would choose to close Splash Mountain and Haunted Mansion at the same time for months on end. Couple that with the hateful addition of Jafar+ to Pirates, driving the standby line to twice what it's ever been in my lifetime, and Disneyland is looking like a big old pain in the booty.