PIXAR Play Parade: The Magic Revealed!

WDWNT on February 26, 2008

A Parade Support friend of mine told me some information regarding the new PIXAR Play Parade, debuting March 14th at 5:15pm.

The parade has 9 main units and smaller themed parade elements. With the units and parade elements, there is a total of about 18 elements in the parade. These are listed as follows (not in any specific order):

Main Units:

  • Bugs Life
  • Toy Story (2 units, Buzz and a main unit)
  • Finding Nemo
  • Incredibles (Gyromonster from the movie)
  • Cars (Lightning McQueen and Mater)
  • Ratatoullie (large sink with dishes)
  • Monsters Inc (Opening Drum Unit)

Smaller Elements:

  • 5 Hover craft things for Toy Story
  • An Alien push cart for Toy Story (2 AA aliens and a costumed Alien)
  • Roz (pushed like the Cones from Block Party Bash)
  • Blow Fish Bike
  • Toy looking puppet for Toy Story

Wall-E in Animation Academy

WDWNT on February 22, 2008

A new pre-show of sorts has been added to the Animation Academy in Disney’s California Adventure. It’s a preview look at the new Disney-PIXAR movie Wall-E, hosted by Andrew Stanton of PIXAR.

Also, Dopey has been added to the characters that you could draw in the Animation Academy, as a tie in to the Snow White 70th Anniversary event going on elsewhere in Disney Animation.

Playhouse Disney – Live on Stage Annual Passholder only preview

WDWNT on February 20, 2008

In addition to a Annual Passholder only preview for the PIXAR Play Parade, there will also be a few AP only previews for Playhouse Disney – Live on Stage on March 13th, 2008. There will be 3 showings, at 10:30am, 12:30pm, & 3:15pm. To get in, you just need to show a valid Annual Pass.

2008 California Food & Wine Weekends

WDWNT on February 20, 2008

Disney have released details on this year’s California Food & Wine Weekends. The signature event tickets are now on sale. And a new addition this year is that some parts of the event will not be restricted to weekends. The Taste of California Marketplace, as well as the festival wine and gift shops, will be open every day from April 11 to May 5, 2008.

Bellow is some more specific information on the event from the press release:

Taste
Date: Saturday, May 3, 2008
Time: 6:30 p.m. to 9:30 p.m.
Location: Stage 17, Hollywood Pictures Backlot, Disney’s California Adventure Park
Price: $125 per person (tax and gratuity included, no discounts apply)

Celebrity Chef Dinner with Guy Fieri
Date: Sunday, April 27, 2008
Time: 6:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m.
Location: Napa Rose Restaurant at Disney’s Grand Californian Hotel and Spa
Price: $185 per person (tax and gratuity included, no discounts apply)

Winemaker Dinners
Dates:
April 11 – Chappellet Winery – Phillip Titus, Winemaker
April 18 – Twomey Cellars – Daniel Baron, Winemaker
April 25 – Nickel & Nickel Single Vineyard Wines – Darice Spinelli, Winemaker
May 2 – Pride Mountain Vineyards – Steve Pride, Proprietor
Time: 6:30 p.m. to 9:00 p.m.
Location: Steakhouse 55 at the Disneyland Hotel
Price: $125 per person (including tax and gratuity, no discounts apply)

Napa Rose Cooking School
Dates: Saturdays, April 12, April 19, April 26 and May 3
Time: 10:30 a.m. to 1:00 p.m.
Location: Napa Rose Restaurant at Disney’s Grand Californian Hotel and Spa
Price: $400 per person (including tax and gratuity, no discounts apply)

Festival Wine Receptions
Dates: Friday and Saturday, April 11, April 12, April 18, April 19, April 25 and April 26
Time: 7:30 p.m. to 9:00 p.m.
Location: Lower Patio of the Golden Vine Winery
Price: $55 per person (including tax and gratuity, no discounts apply)

Taste Wine Like An Expert with Michael Jordan, M.S.
Dates: Sunday April 13, April 20, April 27 and May 4
Time: 1:00 p.m. to 3:00 p.m.
Location: Napa Rose Restaurant at Disney’s Grand Californian Hotel and Spa
Price: $45 per person (including tax and gratuity, no discounts apply)

PIXAR Play Parade Annual Passholder only preview on March 13th

WDWNT on February 17, 2008

We’ve received word from one of our correspondents, that the PIXAR Play Parade will have an Annual Passholder only preview on March 13th at 5:15PM. Also, on cold days, instead of squirting water at guests, bubbles will fill the air through-out the WHOLE PARK! The bubbles will also be there on the warmer days too!

We will have more info on this & other developments surrounding the PIXAR Play Parade as it becomes available.

DCA Preview Center plans changed again

WDWNT on February 16, 2008

It looks like plans have changed again for the California Adventure Preview Center. Originally, it was to be in the un-used San Francisco buildings, next to Golden Dreams. The plan was then changed for it to be in the Esplanade. But according to the latest Annual Passholder newsletter, the Preview Center will now be inside the park. The only question is where:

“Walt’s California” is Coming to Disney’s California Adventure® Park

Imagine that you are an ambitious young animator back in the roaring 1920’s. Step off a gleaming steam train and take in the beauty of a sun-soaked California paradise that promises to make all your dreams come true.
That’s the way it all began for Walt Disney, and soon it will be the way it begins for everyone who enters the re-imagined entry plaza at Disney’s California Adventure® Park.

“The creative evolution of Disney’s California Adventure® Park will connect Guests to Walt’s own California adventure and reflect the place that he found when he first arrived with a cardboard suitcase in his hand and a head full of dreams,” said Jay Rasulo, Chairman of Walt Disney Parks and Resorts.

Beyond the new entry plaza, Guests will discover exciting new attractions, fantastic new entertainment, unique new stores and delicious new dining opportunities, including:

  • A major new attraction based on the animated Disney classic “The Little Mermaid”
  • An amazing nighttime spectacular that plays out on the sparkling waters of Paradise Bay
  • Toy Story Mania! — a new attraction that combines the fun of classic boardwalk games and the Disney*Pixar “Toy Story” films.
  • A 12-acre “Cars” Land that recreates the town of Radiator Springs, complete with three amazing new attractions featuring characters from the hit Disney*Pixar film “Cars.”

Work on some of these enhancements has already begun, and the rest will follow in phases. It’s expected that everything will be completed within the next five years.

Be sure to keep an eye out for a special preview center opening soon inside Disney’s California Adventure® Park — and check back here for updates!

DCA Phase II

WDWNT on February 14, 2008

The Blue Sky Disney blog has some interesting information on what could possibly be coming during Phase II of the DCA expansion. Keep in mind that these are all rumors. One idea is to…

… take the Pacific Wharf area and turn it into the San Francisco area of the park. It’s one of several proposals that are being pitched for the Wharf area in the Second Phase.

Golden State will go from being “extreme sports/rafting” themed to a sort of national park type theme. Animatronic creatures will be added to Grizzly River Run, & a E-Ticket locomotive type ride may replace the Redwood Creek Challenge Trail.

The Hollywood Backlot area will be themed more toward the 30’s Hollywood that they abandoned in the early design phase of the park. There is a proposal to take all the area around the TOT attraction that is used for the road access to the Timon parking lot and transform it into the Golden Era of Hollywood with several ventures and areas that evoke the time when Walt Disney started to make motion pictures and buckle the system. Just as the new front entrance will give visitors a look at what Los Angeles was like when Walt came here in the late 20’s, the Hollywood section will continue on that by focusing on the glory of Hollywood in the 30’s. The area around the Hyperion Theater will finally become the grand entrance that it was deprived of under Pressler. At least one E-Ticket will be going into the Hollywood section but right now the Bothans don’t have credible evidence as to what direction narratively it will go.

The entrance to the area right past the HBL will lead to the jewel of D(C)A… Carsland. The land which will take up 20 percent of the park will have 3 attractions upon opening four years from now… Radiator Springs Racers, Mater’s Junkyard Jamboree and Luigi’s Roaming Tires. But the new land was designed to hold at least two more attractions. By the Second Phase we should see at least one more D-Ticket or a plussed C-Ticket at the least. The Paradise Pier area will get another E-Ticket during the Second Phase, most likely one of several that have been pitched for the helix next to the entrance of Screamin’ or it will have an entrance there with an attraction behind the stage. Should enough money be available expect Goofy’s Sky School to be taken down and a true E-Ticket put in its place. And the proposals so far include one attraction that is an original thrill ride and another that is based on a classic character.