An original Disney Parks character will be making her United States debut as part of Disneyland's 70th anniversary celebration.
That's just one of the announcements that the Disneyland Resort made this morning in advance of the start of its big birthday party, which kicks off May 16.
In the daytime, Disneyland will celebrate its birthday with "The Celebrate Happy Cavalcade" along the park's parade route. Joining Mickey and Minnie will be less-seen Disney characters such as Clarabelle Cow and Max. Also joining the party will be ShellieMay from the Duffy and Friends character group. This will be ShellieMay's first appearance at a U.S. theme park. Duffy also will returning to the Disneyland Resort for the cavalcade - his first appearance at the resort in years.
At the D23 event last summer, Disney Parks Chairman Josh D'Amaro announced that a Coco-themed boat ride would be coming to Disney California Adventure. We have not heard any more about that new attraction since then, but we are now getting Coco on a boat ride at the Disneyland Resort, nevertheless. It's just not a DCA, but on It's a Small World, instead.
Disneyland will add Miguel and Dante from the Disney/Pixar film to the boat ride when it reopens April 25. (Okay, so this one is jumping the gun on the 70th. Consider it an early present?) These are the latest Disney characters to be added to the attraction, which started including them in 2009.
For the first time since its initial run in California, the Frozen-themed float will be returning to the Paint the Night parade. The parade first appeared at Hong Kong Disneyland in 2014, making its U.S. debut for Disneyland's 60th anniversary the next year. A Frozen-themed float, with Anna, Elsa and other characters, was part of the line-up then. But Disneyland dropped the float from the line-up when it moved Paint the Night over to Disney California Adventure in 2018. (The float was too tall to pass under the Red Car Trolley's overhead lines. RIP Red Car Troller ride.)
Now that the Paint the Night is returning to Disneyland, the Frozen float will be back, too.
Fans can enjoy the 70th Celebration with a new ticket deal, announced today. Going on sale March 11, the Disneyland Anniversary Ticket Offer will include three- or four-day tickets, starting as low as $100 a day for the four-day ticket with one park per day. There's no fuse on the tickets, so the days can be used from May 16 through August 14, subject to reservation availability.
Whenever Disneyland puts out one of these offers, be sure to check out our partner's Disneyland tickets page, because they almost always have that offer available for less money than Disneyland is charging on its website. You can save yourself a few bucks while helping support Theme Park Insider at the same time. Again, this deal goes on sale March 11, so check the webpage then.
Disneyland also is offering an anniversary sale on stays at the Disneyland Hotel, The Villas at Disneyland Hotel, Pixar Place Hotel and Disney’s Grand Californian Hotel & Spa. You can save up to 30% on select stays of four or more nights from May 16 through September 26, but you must book by May 15. To do that, please contact our travel agent for a free, no-obligation vacation quote.
Disneyland also announced today that The Muppets will star in a pre-show for the new World of Color Happiness show at Disney California Adventure. Also in that show, Boyz II Men will sing "Rainbow Connection," and Fitz will sing an original song for the production, "Makes Me Wanna Move."
Also at Disney California Adventure, Toy Story Midway Mania! will be getting special 70th Anniversary target overlays for the celebration.
Finally, Disneyland released new concept art for some of the decor that will appear around the resort for the anniversary, including a 50-foot sculpture inspired by Sleeping Beauty Castle in the esplanade between the parks.
We also got a look at the outfits that Mickey and Friends will be wearing for the 70th Celebration.
As previously announced, Disneyland Resort 70th Celebration will include the return of the Wondrous Journeys nighttime spectacular to Disneyland and Better Together: A Pixar Pals Celebration parade to Disney California Adventure. A new projection show, Tapestry of Happiness, also will debut on the It's a Small World facade.
The Disneyland Resort 70th Celebration starts May 16 and continues indefinitely. For more theme park news, please sign up for Theme Park Insider's weekly newsletter.
I agree that the Hyperion and Fantasyland Theaters have been dark without major productions for too long. Filling them needs to be a resort priority for Thomas Mazloum as he comes on board as DLR President.
And as much as I like the idea of the character cavalcade, I would prefer to see Disney run Magic Happens in the day and Paint the Night after dark, as well. Hey, I'm a greedy Disney fan.
Those outfits look so mid 90s…. Videopolis returns?
They can overlay TSMM?? I heard it runs on Windows Server 2008 and Windows XP, operating systems that haven't been updated or supported in years. I'd be scared to death to modify or change that sensitive ecosystem. Of course, in an enclosed loop environment, updates or upgrades fall into the "if it's working, don't touch it" ethos. It seems overlaying it would be "touching it"!
"I heard it runs on Windows Server 2008 and Windows XP, operating systems that haven't been updated or supported in years."
Oh wow. I hope the network is air gapped. Can you imagine someone hacking that ride? We'd get something like Banksy's Midway Mania, which ... sounds pretty cool, actually.
I think this is fine for a 70th anniversary. If you do something huge every 5 or even 10 years, it loses its specialness. They are so close to the 75th anniversary, which should be a huge celebration. If not on par with the 50th, it should be at least on par with the 25th, but for the modern era. So better to save the major celebrations for then.
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I have little doubt that the Pandemic derailed potential plans for the 70th Anniversary of the park that would have likely included at least one new attraction, but even with that in mind, this is pretty disappointing. I mean, they couldn't even come up with a show for the Hyperion or Fantasyland Theaters (or heaven forfend the outdoor stage near the main WoC viewing area)? I feel like someone looked at the calendar last fall and said, "Hey guys, next year's a "big" anniversary year, do we have any ideas"?
I know Disney loves to do these every-five-years "celebrations" as a way to draw more guests to the parks, but this just feels like they're phoning it in this time. Again, I wouldn't be surprised if the long term planning had a major new attraction slated to open over the next year that was probably cancelled or delayed, but this "celebration" is so minimal that I feel that they would be better served not doing anything new and saving those ideas and money to plow into DL75, which, assuming Disneyland Forward can at least deliver something of major substance by 2030, should be an anniversary truly worthy of celebration.