When Toy Story Land opens in 2018, PIXAR Place will close for an entirely new guest flow in Disney’s Hollywood Studios. Guests will go around what is now PIXAR Place to access the park’s two new lands come next year. In preparation, the wall of landscaping that will seal off PIXAR Place from guests is now in place.
This green barrier can be seen in the Toy Story Land model. PIXAR Place and the alley behind it will be a cast member access road no longer accessible to guests.
PIXAR Place will likely close next Summer when Toy Story Land opens to guests.
Our latest photo report brings u back to Disney’s Hollywood Studios as it prepares for a transitional Holiday season, offering up a new lineup that Disney hopes will fill the void left by the Osborne Lights over the last two years.
Christmas Shopping
Plenty of blown-glass ornaments for sale at Celebrity 5 & 10, including a new Monorail ornament.
They’re a little pricey at $19.99 each, but they are pretty cool.
Some new holiday apparel for sale.
A few new Beauty and the Beast ornaments have joined the existing collection this year, including this light up rose ornament.
Mickey and Minnie Mouse have both received their own action figures of sorts, exclusive to the Disney Parks. They retail for $14.99 each.
The new Mickey Mouse ear baseball cap is already out.
Sunset Seasons Greetings
As the park prepares for the new Sunset Seasons Greetings offering, a whole lot of new infrastructure is going into place on Sunset Boulevard. The old, white lights for the palm trees have been replaced with these beauties, capable of color changing for show elements.
Some extra hardware was also installed on the star lights, likely to be used to integrate them into the show.
The Fantasmic billboard is likely gone for good as a new billboard that can be projected onto will go in its place. Maybe it will return in some form down the road.
Behind the billboard hides the infrastructure for the projectors that will turn the Hollywood Tower Hotel into a number of holiday items during the shows.
The projectors sit on the stands you can see behind these windows.
People seem confused about a new Paradise Pier billboard that appeared recently at the Studios. I don’t see the confusion as both lands exist in roughly the same time period. Sadly, Paradise Pier will become PIXAR Pier, but this will be a nice nod to the past.
Dirt Street U.S.A.
Construction continues on Two Story Land, opening Summer 2018.
The remnants of the catwalk above the soundstage waits to be sealed in.
On the other side, we still have no idea what this weird, tall section of building is supposed to be.
A dirt wall now seals PIXAR Place, which eventually will be no more once Toy Story Land opens and the entrance to Toy Story Midway Mania moves there.
Just before this dirt wall will lie a cast access road, with PIXAR Place then becoming a backstage area.
The construction walls behind Muppet Vision 3-D expanded outward, now coming into the attraction’s exit.
Here we see the building for the “Battle Escape” attraction in Star War’s Galaxy’s Edge.
This and That
Sunset Showcase courtyard was open, being used for extended queue for Rock ‘N’ Roller Coaster, as well as some character meet and greets.
The show building for Rock ‘N’ Roller Coaster was recently repainted blue to blend into Toy Story Land better. It’s too bad it now doesn’t blend with anything on this side of the park. Why is every “soundstage” building a different color?
Work on Echo Lake continues, with the “logs” under the water now repainted.
With the Coco preview coming soon, the final room of Walt Disney Presents is pretty barren at the moment. The stickers on the walls were taken down and only on display case remains in use.
OK, this one sounded far-fetched when I first heard it a few weeks ago, but it seems to be gaining a lot of traction…
So, it seems the reason that Wandering Oaken’s Trading Post and Frozen Funland is on the move is to free up Soundstage 1 next door to Toy Story Midway Mania. Since 2008, that location was the rumored location for the proposed Monsters Inc. Door Roller Coaster that will now likely never see the light of day based on the disappointing box office and merchandise sales (at least in Disney’s eyes) from Monsters University. Well, the plan as it now exists would see a third, separate track for Toy Story Midway Mania constructed inside of Soundstage 1, perhaps to be used as a FastPass+ guest only track. This would add 50% more capacity to the ride which has been overburdened pretty much since the day it opened. Toy Story Midway Mania was supposed to be a solid ‘B’ or ‘C’ ticket attraction for the park, but exceeded all expectations with its continued popularity.
It is certainly no secret that Hollywood Studios will see major changes in the coming years and a Star Wars Expansion of the park is sure to take place following the beginning of the new trilogy in late-2015, so making sure the capacity around the rest of the park is higher is a priority. Other minor PIXAR attractions could also be constructed around the area where the Backlot Tour entrance and Studios Catering Company currently stand, but we’re only guessing that at this point. Who knows, we even may still see Cars Land take over more of the space down the road as the land expands south in the park.
Your Toy Story Mania wait time may be a lot shorter soon…
The rumors emanate from some Studios cast members who have heard rumblings about the changes, as well as several guests who have spotted Toy Story Mania vehicles being pieced together outside of Walt Disney World Central Shops behind the Magic Kingdom, so this seems like a real possibility at this point.
I know it sounds crazy, but the PIXAR Place expansion maybe happening, it just might be very different from how we envisioned it…
Likely coming to the park are some of the small, flat-rides developed for Toy Story Playland at Disneyland Resort Paris and Toy Story Land at Hong Kong Disneyland including RC Racer, Slinky Dog Zigzag Spin, and the Toy Soldier Parachute Drop. The attractions possibly on the chopping block take up much more room than these small rides would, so chances are the remaining space would be used for Cars or Monsters Inc. attractions.
Toy Story Land at Hong Kong Disneyland, also being built for Shanghai Disneyland and exists at Disneyland Resort Paris
Operating hours calendars released to cast members currently have only a few days of October hours for many of the offerings in that area, including the Monsters Inc. meet and greet, the Studio Backlot Tour, the Honey, I Shrunk the Kids Movie Set Adventure, the Coke Bottle food stand, Studio Catering Company, and High Octane Refreshments next door. All of these attractions have no dates posted past October 11th. So, in short, all of these offerings might be closing on October 11th, one week after the closure of Maelstrom at Epcot. All other attraction operating hours are listed through January, so you can see why it’s awfully suspicious that all of these items in one area are not listed after a date in mid-October.
These operating hours combined with rumblings among Disney employees all seem to point at a PIXAR Place expansion, but nothing is set in stone quite yet and some of this post is pure speculation based on what we have heard so far. We will certainly keep you posted as more develops in this story, but it truly seems like after 25 years that we will see the end of the Studio Backlot Tour.
What do you think? Are you excited for these possible changes?
Just a few days ago, we showed you video of the Mr. Spell prop near Toy Story Midway Mania at Disney’s Hollywood Studios actually displaying text. Well, now there is some audio to go along with it. It still isn’t exactly working properly, but it seems we are getting closer and closer to a fully operational Mr. Spell:
WDWNT Reporter Zach Larson visited Disney’s Hollywood Studios and the Magic Kingdom on Sunday and has a few newsworthy photos to share with us from his trip:
Almost all of the scaffolding is down from the Tower of Terror
