Electrosynthomagnetic In The 21st Century

WDWNT on August 12, 2008

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!

Soarin & Star Tours 2.0 Almost Announced

WDWNT on August 12, 2008

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!

Refurb Season Is Coming!

WDWNT on August 11, 2008

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!

Fun Wheel, Silly Swings, & Pixie Hollow All Official!

WDWNT on August 9, 2008

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!

Electric Screams of Color: The Musical, This Christmas

WDWNT on August 4, 2008

Screamscape have posted a few interesting rumors from through-out the Resort, some of which we have already reported, but they give extra backing to what we have already said:

Some improvements are slated to be made to the Electrical Parade for Summer 2009. First off it seems that the California parade will import a couple of floats from the old Paris parade, namely a new Pinnochio float and the Diamond Mine float. Meanwhile we’ve heard that the Blue Fairy float is likely to be on the way out and will be replaced with a brand spankin’ new Tinker Bell float that will serve as the new lead float for the parade. Apparently the float itself will still use the old-school style lights like the rest of the parade, but Tink herself will be covered in new LED lights instead. Speaking of LEDs… apparently the plan is to install a few new LED effects in all the floats so that Tink can create some kind of magic effect at the start that will travel back through the rest of the floats in the parade.

While the improvements to the parade are likely to happen, the only question is if it will be in DCA or Disneyland.

In a disappointing twist, it seems that the real world Wall-E may not be coming to California Adventure after all. If the rumors are true something may have gone amiss with the first robot that we’ve all seen clips of already, that may be caused them to drop or delay plans to bring one to the park. Also due to construction on the Little Mermaid ride, there will not be another Golden Screams show held this fall. They may come up with some kind of replacement Villains concept in the Hollywood Backlot instead. And the fun news is that the new DCA Preview Center that will show off all the proposed changed coming to the park may be ready to open sometime this fall.

I have been hearing that they will actually close Golden Dreams as Golden Screams as soon as Halloween is over & then they will start work on the Little Mermaid. Although if you look at Disneyland’s official page for Halloween Time 2008, Golden Screams doesn’t appear to be listed. Time will have to tell on this one.

Early 2010 – Toy Story: The Musical – Rumor – (8/3/08) While I don’t know what the short-term plan is for the Aladdin show, we’ve heard that Toy Story: The Musical is now scheduled to open in early 2010 as a replacement. So I guess the question remains as to when exactly the current Aladdin show will close down.

2010 – Wonderful World of Color – Confirmed – (8/2/08) Sometime in very early 2009 I’ve heard that we may see the park drain the lagoon to do some of the extensive work needed for the upcoming World of Color night show.

And moving quickly over to Disneyland…

For the Holiday season we’ve heard that the park may add the “light up” snow effect to cover the front and back of the castle this year as well as expand it into the trees and garland in the hub and main street areas as well as the Town Square Christmas Tree. I’ve also been told that a new Toy Factory float will be added to the Christmas Parade to replace the old float.

I did once hear that what Screamscape is talking about might even be expanded to the Matterhorn, but I highly doubt that would happen. However, if the lighting effects do expand to the back of the Castle, that will make the whole thing look even nicer, & more complete!

The next few years at the Resort are going to be really exciting, & if even one of these rumors come true, I’ll be happy!

Refurbishment Updates

WDWNT on August 4, 2008

We have a couple more updates to the attractions refurbishments list. First up, it looks like the Harbor Galley, Conostoga Wagon, & Burger Invasion refurbishments wont last as long as we originally thought. The refurbishments will start on September 2nd & end on September 26th. It looks like they’ll all just get new menus, & have all McDonalds references removed. So it seems we’ll have to wait a little while longer for a Burger Invasion re-theme.

Also, last week it had looked like Disney moved back the refurbishment of the Hyperion Theater to start on September 29th, but that is no longer true, & will start as originally planned on September 2nd.

Finally a little update on It’s a Small World… The new flume apparently has apparently been installed, & the attraction will be going through a 10 week test & adjust phase, & if all goes according to plan, it will re-open on November 29th.

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!

The Vineyard Room Closing?

WDWNT on August 3, 2008

Various reports have been going around saying that the Vineyard Room restaurant in the Golden Vine Winery section of Disney’s California Adventure may possibly be closing, permanently or not, on August 31st.

Please do keep in mind that this is in no way confirmed, & it just pure speculation at the moment, but we’ll be sure to keep you posted on whether the Vineyard Room truly will be closing or not.

DisneyGeek DLR Update

WDWNT on August 3, 2008

Let’s take a look at some of the various things going on through-out the Disneyland Resort from the latest DLR Update on DisneyGeek:


The sign, minus the logo, is out from behind tarps, which brings me to something interesting…


On the left is the sign as it was before the refurb, on the right the sign as it was yesterday… Notice a new color scheme?


The “mini dolls” appear to be missing from the boat


Apparently the tarps on the train track, blocking the view of Small World, are down… So here are a few of DisneyGeek’s shots of the Small World construction progress


And on an unrelated note, the water playground at the Bountiful Valley Farm seemed to be either not working, or just turned off

Midway Mania Olympics

WDWNT on August 1, 2008

Days before heading to Bejing for the Olympic Games, members of the USA volleyball team tested their competitive skills at Toy Story Mania! — a new attraction at Disney’s California Adventure, in Anaheim.

Teammates Ryan Millar, a BYU graduate from Palmdale, CA., and Scott Touzinsky, from Long Beach State and St. Louis, Mo., rode the attraction on July 29, racking up points with their spring action shooters. They each surpassed 135,000 points, but Touzinsky outscored Millar in a close contest.

Team USA, which trains at the American Sports Centers in Anaheim, CA., aims to score many more points as they shoot for a medal at the 2008 Summer Olympic Games, which begin Aug. 8. The U.S. men won their first FIVB World League title this summer, defeating Serbia in the gold-medal match in Rio de Janeiro.

I’m Lovin’ It!

WDWNT on July 24, 2008

A whole load of new refurbishments during September & October have been announced. There’s so many, that I’m just gonna bullet them bellow:

  • French Market – 9/2/08-9/19/08
  • Sailing Ship Columbia – 9/2/08-10/25/08
  • Conostoga Wagon – 9/2/08-????
  • Fantasmic – 9/2/08-????
  • Harbour Galley – 9/2/08-????
  • Big Thunder Ranch – 9/15/08-9/27/08
  • Pirates of the Caribbean – 10/13/08-????
  • Jungle Cruise – 10/20/08-10/22/08
  • Gadget’s Go-Coaster – 10/20/08-????
  • Burger Invasion – 9/2/08-????

It’s interesting to note that all 3 McDonalds locations in the Resort (Conostoga Wagon, Harbour Galley, & Burger Invasion) will be closed starting September 2nd, for an undetermined amount of time. Could this be the end for McDonalds at the Disneyland Resort?

Also, the Hyperion Theater refurbishment has been pushed back to start on September 29th, instead of September 2nd. We still have no information on when it will end, but it should be in time for the Christmas season.

Finally, I just want to remind everyone of the already announced refurbs:

  • Plaza Pavilion – 1/11/08-10/10/08
  • It’s a Small World – 1/22/08-11/28/08
  • Mark Twain Riverboat – 8/25/08-8/27/08
  • The Haunted Mansion – 9/8/08-9/25/08
  • Flik’s Flyers – 9/2/08-9/12/08
  • Sun Wheel – 9/11/08-????

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!