Little Mermaid Construction Starting This Fall?

From Screamscape:

Late 2010 or Early 2011 – Voyage of the Little Mermaid – Confirmed – (7/3/08) According to the latest rumors Little Mermaid may have been pushed up a bit to either open in mid to late 2010 now. Meanwhile full construction on The Little Mermaid ride is now expected to begin sometime this fall if all goes well.

If all this goes according to plan, they’ll most likely transfer Golden Dreams over to Golden Screams for one last time this Halloween, & then begin construction on Voyage of the Little Mermaid.

Mickey’s Fun Wheel Is On Its Way!

We’ve just been informed that the Sun Wheel’s re-theme/refurbishment will start on September 11th, 2008. The re-theme will include the new 1930’s style Mickey Mouse face, re-working of the queue, a re-paint, & the new name, Mickey’s Fun Wheel!

Also planned to take place during this time is the re-theming of the Games of the Boardwalk & California Screamin’s queue, but we don’t have any solid information on that just yet.

Article Mania!

Here are 3 articles from the OC Register with information on the Innoventions Dream Home, Wall-E in the parks, & an incident in New Orleans Square:

The Innoventions Dream Home is still closed and will possibly open to the public next week, according to Disney Spokesman John McClintock.

Last week Disney pulled back the curtain on the new Innoventions Dream Home, but the attraction was only open for limited hours and only to annual passholders.

McClintock said today that Disney workers are “making sure that all the technology in the home is working perfectly” before opening the Dream Home to the public. He said that the goal is to open the home to the public next week.

Currently, the second floor of the Innoventions building is open. Just the first floor, the Dream Home level, is closed.

We’ll keep everyone updated on this blog about when the Dream Home will open to the public.

Disney’s Wall-E character debuted in theaters yesterday, but don’t expect the little robot in the Disneyland Resort any time soon.

A Disney Backstage Pass newsletter mailed to Disneyland Annual Passholders a few weeks ago included thata three-foot-tall Audio-Animatronic model of Wall-E would be visiting people in Disney’s California Adventure this summer

But, Disney Spokesman John McClintock said the robot is not expected to be in the park for a few months.

“We don’t expect Wall-E to be in the Disneyland Resort any time soon, especially during the summer,” McClintock said.

treebranchphoto2Update: New photo on the left sent in by someone who was in the park when the tree branch fell. Right click and click view image on either photo to see an enlarged image.

A tree branch broke and fell onto a pathway last night near the French Market restaurant in the New Orleans Square area of Disneyland.

A Disney spokeswoman said it was one branch and that it did not fall directly on anybody. She said that no more than five people were near the branch when it fell. She said those people had minor scrapes.

Irvine resident Vicki Munsell was at the park yesterday when the branch fell. She was there with her family celebrating her and her husband’s 14th wedding anniversary.

Munsell and her family were eating at the Cafe Orleans restaurant when they heard someone shout and she turned around in time to hear the branch cracking and see it fall on a pathway.

She said people ran over right away to help. While Disney said the tree did not fall on anyone, Munsell said people were pulled out from underneath the tree. Still, Munsell agreed that she did not see anyone injured with more than a few scratches.

branchfallsatdisneyland

Munsell took the photo that you see at right with her camera phone, and she sent it to The Orange County Register. After the branch fell, she said the area was blocked off by Disney cast members who removed the branch and checked on people nearby.

This is not the first time trees have fallen on people in theme parks. On Aug. 1, 1997, a large tree limb at Knott’s Berry Farm broke and fell onto four visitors near the Montezooma’s Revenge ride, causing minor injuries to three and leaving the fourth hospitalized. And on May 5, 2001, Jeanne Gill, 73 suffered a broken hip, and 27 others are injured when a 20-foot oak tree falls in Frontierland at Disneyland.

MintCrocodile’s 6/26 DLR Update

Staff Photographer MintCrocodile was also at the Disneyland Resort yesterday, & he managed to find a few things that I didn’t snap:


The golden apple is back at the entrance to Snow White’s Scary Adventures


The new menu at the French Market


A new wait time sign outside Pirates of the Caribbean


First High School Musical, now this!

More of Mint’s pictures from yesterday can be found here!

DLR Pictorial – Part 1: 6/23

I’m back from a wonderful 4 day trip to the Disneyland Resort, which included checking out the Indiana Jones Summer of Hidden Mysteries, & of course Toy Story Midway Mania. Let’s start this pictorial off with my pictures from Monday:

Sign for Toy Story “Midway” Mania in the Esplanade


The Adventure Roadmap was handed out at both Mickey & Friends as well as Timon (more on this tomorrow)


The latest DCA maps


Now on to my first ever ride on Toy Story Midway Mania!


The amazing Mr. Potato Head


He can remove his ear (if you didn’t already know)!


A few of the posters in the queue for TSMM, giving tips on game-play & the individual games


Here’s where you pick up your 3D glasses


The start of the ride


The ride vehicles


The back of Mr. Potato Head’s toy box


My score on my first ride… Contrary to what Tom Corless says, I don’t think it’s that bad of a score!


Top scores from Monday & the month


A lovely little display thingy at the exit of the attraction


The new seating for Award Wieners


The Honda Pilot display outside of the entrance to DCA


Over to Disneyland with the new Disneyland Park map cover


Still not much visible progress at Small World


Donald’s Boat has returned from its refurbishment


As of today (Thursday 6/26) the Innoventions Dream Home is still closed


The walls are down however, so I managed to snap a few pictures


Club Penguin has joined Toontown & Pirates of the Caribbean Online in Innoventions


The bungee rats are back in the Ratatouille float in the Pixar Play Parade


Also back is the back end of the a Bug’s Life float


Also worthy to note is that the Ratatouille & a Bug’s Life floats have switched around with each other


And the acrobats are back on the Toy Story float


The new, & amazingly themed Churro cart across from Toy Story Midway Mania


A look at the queue for Toy Story Midway Mania


The new Hot Dog Hut (also quite nicely themed)


Clever


Banners advertising Toy Story “Midway” Mania in Downtown Disney


And to end off Part 1 of my pictorial, me with Cinderella

Stay tuned tomorrow for the rest of my DLR Pictorial, covering Tuesday through Thursday. Also tomorrow, we’ll have bigger versions of the pictures from this post in the Image Galleries!

Pixie’s Anyone? Or How About an Arabian Adventure?

After speculation on the net arose stating that Aladdin: A Musical Spectacular would not be returning after the 3 month Hyperion refurb starting in Sept, I found auditions for the show on the Disney Auditions website.

There are 3 listed.

One for singers, actors and puppeteers on July 21, 2008 at 10am at the Screenland Studios in N. Hollywood.

One for dancers on July 23, 2008 at 2pm at Screenland Studios

And one for Singers and Actors on July 29, 2008 at 10am at the Chelsea Studios-New York, NY

Now we all know about the new Tinker Bell Meet N’ Greet that will be taking over and replacing Ariels Grotto at Disneyland Park, but I have found an audition for Disney Fairies listed on the same site.

Face Character Look-alikes – Disney Fairies
For: Disneyland Resort
Audition Location: Disneyland Resort – Anaheim, CA
Looking For: Face Characters
August 17, 2008
09:00 AM
Pacific Time (US & Canada)

Seeking females with engaging personalities to portray Disney Fairies, the newest members of our character family. Face Character Look-alikes perform before thousands of guests each day in “meet and greets”, parades and stage shows across the Disneyland® Resort. We are actively seeking performers of all ethnicities!

Roles:

Tinker Bell: 4’11”–5’2”
Iridessa, Rosetta, Silvermist, Fawn: 5’2”–5’5”

Requirements:

  • Must be at least 17 years of age and a graduating senior
  • Wear non-restrictive clothing; tennis or dance shoes are required
  • Current Disneyland® Resort Cast Members should bring a completed and approved transfer application
  • New applicants are encouraged to complete a job application prior to the audition date by visiting the Casting Center at Team Disney Anaheim
  • This audition may last a full day; bring snacks or money for vending

Location:

Disneyland Resort – Team Disney Anaheim
700 W. Ball Rd.
Anaheim, CA 92802

Park in the Team Disney parking structure off Ball Road and Cast Place, and proceed to the Security area. Bring a picture ID to be admitted backstage.

TSMM Single Rider Line

It seems that the Single Rider line for Toy Story Midway Mania has been set up earlier than we original thought. We’re not sure if it’s being used yet, but it’s definitely there.


Picture by BCC

DCA News

We have a couple of pieces of news from the 2 newest DCA Pixar attractions to go over.

First off, the Pixar Play Parade has returned to its (almost) original form. The entire a Bug’s Life float is now completely back. However, the order of the floats has changed slightly. The Ratatouille & a Bug’s Life have switched with each other, due to one of the Chefs on stilts slipping due to the water & bubbles from the Finding Nemo float before hand.

Secondly, Toy Story Midway Mania will be gaining a Single Rider line in around 2 weeks. Not much more to say on that, but we’ll let you know when it debuts.