Various reports have said that Monorail Orange arrived in the Pongo lot approximately an hour ago. Now we’re not sure if it really did arrive or not, however our new on the spot reporter Chris Lastrapes will be at the Resort tomorrow, & he’ll try find out the latest on the Monorails & the rest of the happenings around the Disneyland Resort!
Disney has put up a interactive countdown to Halloween Time at the Disneyland Resort. It has the same old descriptions as seen from year to year, & also has an old Official Disneyland Resort podcast on Halloween Time linked to. The only really interesting thing is that Golden Screams is not listed, which pretty much confirms that the show will not be returning this year. Could that mean that construction on Little Mermaid will begin this fall? Likely.
Stay tuned to Disneyland News Today for coverage on Disney’s Halloween Time, as well as the conversion of Golden Dreams to The Little Mermaid attraction.
The Disney Auditions website is listing an audition for the 5 Disney Fairies characters, to be held this Sunday (August 17th), which ironically is the same day that Ariel’s Grotto is supposed to close.
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”
What is interesting, is that this audition isn’t just for meet ‘n greets, but also for shows & parades, which while adding extra strength to the ever gaining rumor that Tinker Bell will get the role of the opening float in Disney’s Electrical Parade, which perhaps may feature the other 4 Fairies as well, it could also mean a pre-parade float to Walt Disney’s Parade of Dreams tied into the movie, much like was done with Ratatouille, Enchanted, & The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian.
Hat tip goes to the OC Register…
We have a little update for you on the planned changes to Disney’s Electrical Parade. Sources are reporting that the Snow White & the Seven Dwarfs Diamond Mine unit, as well as the entire Pinocchio unit, that was used in the parade when it was at Disneyland Park, will arrive backstage at the Resort sometime soon. Several small effects are being tested with the floats currently in use at the moment. Various reports are saying that the new Tinker Bell float has been ordered for the parade, so it’s now pretty likely to replace the Blue Fairy as the opening float of the parade.
Stay tuned to Disneyland News Today for up-to-date information on these new additions to Disney’s Electrical Parade!
According to our friends over at Screamscape, Mark VII Monorail Orange should be arriving at the Pongo parking lot sometime between Wednesday & Thursday this week. From there it will be moved via a crane into the Monorail Roundhouse early Friday morning. However, various other reports have said that Monorail Orange won’t be arriving at the Disneyland Resort until 2009, so it’s really anyones guess on this one.
Stay tuned to Disneyland News Today for the latest on Monorail Orange!
Various sources around the internet, including Laughing Place, have said that new versions of Star Tours & Soarin’ Over California have been given the go-ahead internally by Disney, but of course not yet officially announced.
The movie for Star Tours 2.0 should be about complete, seeing as it has been said that the attraction should be announced in the fall, for a grand re-opening in Summer 2009. Disney has applied for permits to shoot the new Soarin’ film, which should be a world based theme, & work should begin this fall for a late 2009 premiere. Both new films will be going to both Disneyland & Walt Disney World.
Disney hopefully should make an official announcement on both of these projects soon, so stay tuned to Disneyland News Today for the latest!
UPDATED @ 11:00AM
We have a few more updates for you to the attractions refurbishment list. First up, over in Entertainment, for the week of August 25th, both Disney’s Electrical Parade & Fantasmic! will not be offered on the Monday through Thursday, due to a lot of kids being back at school. The following week, both will go on hiatus. Fantasmic! will return on November 7th, & Disney’s Electrical Parade will return in mid December.
August 17th will be the last day for the lovely Ariel’s Grotto meet ‘n greet. Work will then begin on changing over that area to Pixie Hollow for Tinker Bell & her fellow Fairies. So if you want your picture taken with Ariel in her Mermaid form, August 17th will be your last day to do it until 2010!
The New Orleans Square Railroad Station will close on September 2nd for repaving of the station & surrounding area (including the area in front of the Haunted Mansion). Trains will just go straight through that station, & continue on to Toontown. It’s due to re-open on October 17th.
Big Thunder Ranch will be closed from September 15th to the 25th (it originally was planned to be closed until the 27th) so they can add the Woody’s Halloween Round-up overlay. It will then be closed from November 3rd until the 20th for the Santa’s Reindeer Round-up overlay.
The previously planned Pirates of the Caribbean refurbishment that was to of gone from October 13th to November 14th seems to have been completely removed from the list.
A second Mark Twain Riverboat refurbishment will happen in November (the first is from August 25th-29th), from the 3rd to the 5th.
Finally for Disneyland Park, the new store, replacing New Century Timepieces will open September 30th, & the It’s a Small World Toy Shop will open before the attraction on September 28th. And over at It’s a Small World itself, the new flume has been painted.
One quick thing over at DCA, the Hyperion Theater refurbishment that starts on September 2nd, finally has an end date, that being December 18th.
Stay tuned to Disneyland News Today for updates on all attraction refurbishments. And for up-to-the-minute information on the various refurbishments, be sure to check our Attraction Refurbishments page!
Various reports are stating the planned repaving of Main Street USA this winter will now last only 2 weeks, as opposed to the originally planned 2 months. Instead of repaving the whole of the street, only areas in dire need of work will be fixed up. Also, Walt Disney’s Parade of Dreams may be getting new show stop music, as well as a few changes to the beginning of the parade to accommodate the new promotion for 2009.
Stay tuned to Disneyland News Today to find out what happens with Main Street’s pavement & Walt Disney’s Parade of Dreams!
Disney officials have confirmed 3 new “attractions” for the Disneyland Resort, according to the OC Register. Mickey’s Fun Wheel (the re-theme of the Sun Wheel), Silly Symphony Swings (the re-theme of the Orange Stinger), & Pixie Hollow (replacing the Ariel’s Grotto meet ‘n greet) are all now officially coming to the Resort!
MICKEY’S FUN WHEEL: A Disney Imagineering official confirmed tonight that the Sun Wheel will join the attractions being changed in the Paradise Pier area of Disney’s California Adventure. The main change expected will be removing the current sun face in the middle of the wheel and replacing it with a Mickey Mouse face. The Mickey Mouse face is planned to be a classic wide-eyed Mickey Mouse.
SILLY SYMPHONIES: The Orange Stinger will join in planned changes for the pier-area — expected to change from the current Orange Stinger theme to a Silly Symphonies theme. Currently, the attraction is a swing ride inside a giant orange sitting lakeside and plans show that the building’s foundation will remain the same, while the orange and even round building are planned to change. The attraction will be based on the classic “Silly Symphonies” animations done by Walt Disney’s animation studio in the 1930s. The band leader, Mickey Mouse, is expected to be part of the ride.
TINKERBELL: A change is also planned for Disneyland, the Imagineering official said tonight. The current Little Mermaid meet and greet next to the Tomorrowland entrance is planned to be replaced by a fairy and Tinkerbell meet and greet. The area, as currently planned, will make guests feel like they’ve shrunk down to fairy-size and the path will be filled with pixie dust.
Disney did not give any official dates on when these refurbishments/additions are planned to take place. However rumors going around show that the Sun Wheel will close on September 11th, to be re-opened by the end of the year as Mickey’s Fun Wheel. Ariel’s Grotto should also close in September, & be re-opened as Pixie Hollow by mid-October, in time for the Tinker Bell DVD release. No strong rumors have surfaced yet on when the Orange Stinger re-theme will take place, but it should be sometime next year.
Stay tuned to Disneyland News Today for the latest up-to-the-minute information on these & all new refurbishments & attractions!
The latest Dateline Disneyland article on MiceAge reveals that work has begun to move the old crystal shop from Sleeping Beauty Castle into the old Geppetto’s Holiday Workshop store:
