Disneyland Resort Update: Rise of Marvel Land

Disneyland Resort, Anaheim, CA

Welcome back to part two of our latest Disneyland Resort update, started last Friday! Today, we’re strolling through Downtown Disney to check out more from its latest opening, plus happenings at Disney California Adventure—include some different angles of the next big project at the Resort (which already started last year). It’s a great time of transition at the Disneylands, so kick off your week with a bit more from DtD and DCA!

Black Tap Craft Burgers & Shakes Opens

As our intern indicated in his last update, Black Tap Craft Burgers & Shakes finally opened a couple of weeks ago. A couple of notes here… I legitimately thought that it might open after Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge did, so good thing I didn’t take the bet on that. Secondly, for the longest time, I’ve been labelling it as “Black Tap Craft Burgers & Beer,” so I was confused why it was suddenly “& Shakes.” Well, I found the original Disney Parks Blog announcement post a year-plus ago, and it did call it “Burgers & Beer.” Guess Disney opted for a more family-friendly title upon opening.

In any case, we checked out Downtown Disney’s newest eating digs last weekend. It’s a casual sitdown restaurant where ordering and paying occurs first before guests are seated. Food is only availbable inside, but guests opting for a select offering of shakes can order them from the take-out window (sitdown offers the full line-up).

Black Tap is definitely an offering in excess. The burgers are outrageous and messy and pretty tasty (though I’d argue that better quality can be found at places like Umami Burger, and for cheaper), while the shakes are an exercise in how many desserts can be crammed into one serving. They are definitely for sharing, exceptionally high in sugar, and worth trying—though they might also leave you feeling a little disgusted with yourself for all the right reasons.

Though the line was lengthy when we arrived at mid-afternoon, it moved relatively quickly. The bottleneck was the number of cashiers—only two—but this appears by design to manage the number of available seats. Food came by in a satisfactorily quick amount of time, though in our case, our burgers appeared to be still dripping with raw meat sauce (good or bad depending on the temperature you liked your burgers cooked) and thus not so structurally sturdy. The prices are on the high side, in my opinion—another example of the upcharge that all the new or refurbished resort restaurants have experienced. Overally, I thought Black Taps was a fun eating experience and well worth trying, but I’m not necessarily clamoring to go back soon.

Welcome to Black Taps!

There’s an express take-out window for those who want shakes only. But it doesn’t offer all the shakes that the actual restaurant does.

The place has been popular so far in its short opening.

Here’s the menu. The prices are the same as everywhere else in Downtown Disney of equivalent cuisine.

Some of the Crazy Shakes—the confections they’re known for!

Lets check out the interiors.

Of course, there’s a bar.

You order upon entering.

Crazy Shakes making station.

Some of the sweets and topping used in the shakes.

Mmmmmm…diabetes…

A couple of the finished products.

The interiors has an industrial feel that celebrates the urban environment of the restaurant chain’s New York roots.

The graffiti art look is pretty prevalent.

See?

There’s an outdoor seating component too.

Little theming bits.

It’s pretty pleasant. The place has character.

The Greg Norman is a Wagyu burger, though not necessarily a high grade Wagyu to make a noticeable difference. The fries are pretty good, though!

The Mexican is pretty flavorful and carries a Southwest flavor, with chipotle mayo, onion rings, and pepperjack cheese.

Here’s the Churro Choco Taco Crazy Shake, which features the Choco Taco ice cream treat, two curros, creme de leche, whipped cream, and ice cream, and of course, diabetes.

The Cake Shake, which is basically a birthday cake in shake form. Almost literally!

And I think this might have been the Brooklyn Blackout, though I can’t remember for sure.

Pixar Pier Progress

A year and a half after the transformation of Paradise Pier to Pixar Pier began, construction is still ongoing. Inside Out: Emotional Whirlwind continues to progress and more noticeably, as the ride vehicles are up, and the queue canopies are starting to get work. The attraction is scheduled to open sometime this summer.

Mickey’s Silly Symphony Swings is still under refurbishment, but the tower is back, and the ride looks like it should be back open relatively soon. Its scheduled reopening is this Friday.

After being open for less than a year, the Incredibles fountain has been under refurb the past few weeks.

Meanwhile, the Silly Symphony Swings are nearing recompletion.

Tower’s back up and all.

That’s good progress from a couple weeks prior.

Swings weren’t quite in place yet, but they should be this week.

From the walkway.

Meanwhile, in the world of Inside Out…

The Emotional Whirlwind is really starting to take shape.

The ride vehicles are mostly in place.

Just one missing when viewed from above, though again, by this week, it should be in.

Each is a memory orb.

The canopy structures have gotten painted in their colorful pattern too.

And the park has also been refurbishing the railings on this side.

Marvel Land Construction

It’s been seven years since I’ve ridden Mickey’s Fun Wheel to take construction update photos. In fact, it’s been so long, it’s not even called that anymore. But last weekend, I climbed into a non-swinging carriage to get some aerial angles of Marvel Land for your viewing pleasure. Don’t ever say I don’t do anything for you!

A noticeable uptick in work has been happening over in the former Bug’s Land recently, as steel has gone up in front of the old It’s Tough to Be a Bug attraction to expand the building its upcoming Marvel changeover. It’s going to be more prominent from Cars Land from what A Bug’s Land was, which should be interesting to see handled. In the back portion of the site, closer to the Guardians of the Galaxy ride, the land has been cleared out and consists of mostly a lot of piles of dirt. Steelwork for the building expansion pushes back there as well, significantly increasing the size of the show building of the upcoming attraction. The more visible progress means Marvel Land is about to get a little more exciting. I guess we’ll need to focus on something after Star Wars opens…

After months of dusk photos of barely anything there over in Marvel Land, the area has recently exploded visible activity.

A bunch of steel has gone up over the past few weeks.

It expands the footprint of the former It’s Tough to Be a Bug by a notable portion.

And it looks like the building will have at least two floors, or at least a double-height floor.

The steel work stretches toward Hollywood Land and turns the corner too.

So things are starting to get exciting, because things are starting to get visible above the construction walls.

Ditto from Mater’s.

Maybe it’ll soon be Marvel’s Junkyard Jamboree? Just kidding.

But the steel is being erected (teehee) at a pretty good clip!

Should be interesting to see what this becomes.

OMG, it’s been seven years since we posted a Disneyland Update photo from here.

Yes, even though Dan and I swore off ever riding Mickey’s Fun Wheel after Cars Land was done, I’ve gone back and ridden it to get Marvel Land photos.

We can see land clearing in the back over there.

And either a new building put up or I think the remnants of the Bug’s Land toilet building (tough to gauge exactly based on perspective).

Here, the extent of how much the It’s Tough to Be a Bug building is expanding becomes apparent. It’s pretty sizeable!

Decking is already in place, with another level to go!

Flowers

It’s springtime, and over at Paradise Park, the roses are in bloom. In fact, a lot of flowers throughout the park are in bloom this time of year, so I figured that posting a bunch of flower photos would be a… thing… to do. So for all you floral aficionados, enjoy!

This was literally an excuse to post photos of roses for funsies.

Because they were in impressive bloom a week and a half ago.

Pretty, pink roses everywhere.

EVERYWHERE.

Like all the wheres.

See? This where.

And that where.

The Disney horticulturists really know how to cultivate flowers!

The Paradise Park roses are gorgeous!

The foxgloves at the obelisk are lovely too.

Nice and colorful!

As are these guys.

My flower knowledge ends here.

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There are even these white guys in the same planter at the towering marker at the corner of Paradise Park.

And at Buena Vista Street, near the park entrance, these orange roses have bloomed in nicely as well.

Just appreciate them.

APPRECIATE!!

That concludes our Disney California Adventure and Downtown Disney update for the day. As you can see, with old projects wrapping up, new projects are taking their place. Disneyland will always be in flux, and that’s what keeps things interesting. And us busy. Job security, I suppose. Except for the lack of pay part. Ah well. It’s a labor of love, and the circle of live, and it’s what moves us all.

Wait, where was I again? Um… bloo bah!