Disneyland Resort Update: Refurb-a-mania
Disneyland Resort, Anaheim, CA
Welcome back to the Disneyland Resort for another look at what’s happening around the parks (and Downtown Disney!). Spring Break has been in swing for the past few weeks, but the parks are still undergoing their annual “offseason” refurbishments, spiffying up to get ready for the start of the busy summer season, which unofficially starts next week with the return of the Main Street Electrical Parade, Disneyland Forever fireworks, and World of Color.
That means there’s still a fair number of construction projects happening around the Resort, some longterm, others close to wrapping up. So lets zoom through Disneyland, Disney California Adventure, and Downtown Disney to see what’s happening this month!
Main Street, U.S.A.
With the conclusion of Women’s History Month in March, the Minnie Mouse floral is back to Mickey Mouse. Elsewhere, a few minor refurbishment projects have wrapped up along Main Street proper, though the souvenir stand on the right side of the entrance, next to the railroad, has been blocked off. Main Street will look great in time for the 475th return of the Electrical Parade next Friday, April 22nd, though!
Return of the Eggstravaganza Easter egg Hunt
This month, the Eggstravaganza Easter egg hunt has returned. Guests can purchase a game board and go on a scavenger hunt around the park to find assorted Easter eggs that have been hidden on building facades. This is a fun activity that’s especially great with kids, and guests who complete the task can come back to the redemption station next to the Plaza Point Holiday Shoppe (or Elias & Co. at California Adventure or World of Disney or Pin Traders at Downtown Disney) and get their prize!
Fantasy Faire
Sticking around The Hub, the Royal Theatre at Fantasy Faire has reopened after a bit of time down to make the structure look nice and colorful. The structure has a greener hue now instead of only pinks and purples and looks quite nice. Inside, the vaudeville-esque shows haven’t returned yet. Instead, socially distanced character meet-and-greets are taking place. Disney did recently announce that up-close character meets will begin returning starting next Monday, April 18th, but this may not occur [everything] everywhere all at once.
Tarzan’s Treehouse
Tarzan’s Treehouse continues its extended refurbishment, except now it’s covered again. No word on how much later this will take.
FANTASMIC! Prep
FANTASMIC! won’t be reopening with the rest of the nighttime spectaculars next week, but it’s return is only one month later, so work continues on the projection rigs and other technology and visual effects. The front of Tom Sawyer Island has also been blocked off to work on the FANTASMIC! stage area.
New Orleans Square Refurbishments
Pirates of the Caribbean has gone down for refurbishment, with the queue receiving some extensive work also. We won’t post photos over the work walls showing how construction is progressing and then include some clickbait, sensationalist headline about how shocking the conditions are—as though we’ve never seen a construction site and known that things are messy and torn up at a construction site. We’ll just say that the ride is receiving a fair share of touch-up work both inside and out.
In addition, work walls have popped up around New Orleans Square, either as part of more pavement replacement like what’s been happening at many other locations in the parks or as part of a rumored ADA improvement project that will level some of the tiered walkways that were created when FANTASMIC! first opened, in order to remove the pedestrian bottlenecks that those caused during the daytime on busy days when Pirates of the Caribbean’s queue spilled out onto the main walkways. We’ll see which it is next month, as this work would need to wrap up before FANTASMIC! reopens to accommodate the crowds that will be returning for the show as well.
Mickey’s Toontown Closed
Last month, Mickey’s Toontown officially closed for the rest of this year to allow for improvements throughout the themed land in preparation for next year’s debut of Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Railway. Work walls now block off the entrance to Mickey’s Toontown under the Disneyland Railroad, and only a bit of the show building structure sticking up between the trees can be seen.
Tomorrowland Updates
Over in Tommorrowland, Finding Nemo still remains closed and seems to be out longer than Lakers guard, Kendrick Nunn. It was supposed to “resurface this winter,” but those signs have been removed. In other news, Space Mountain will be receiving its Hyperspace Mountain Star Wars overlay again this summer. Because rather than actually make substantive improvements, Chapek’s Disney is all about synergy and relying on superficial nostalgia and hyping up the return of basic amenities to attract guests these days.
Buena Vista Street Pavement Work
We noticed some pavement replacement on Buena Vista, by the Red Car Trolley stop, when we entered Disney California Adventure.
Hollywood Land Pavement Work
The pavement repairs at Hollywood Land are mostly complete, with only the back portion of Hollywood Boulevard remaining.
Grizzly Peak Updates
Over at Grizzly Peak, Grizzly River Run has reopened after its annual winter refurb. With warm weather coming with summer, it will soon be a popular destination once again!
The Scene at Pacific Wharf
The Christmas buoys were finally removed at Pacific Wharf a few weeks ago. These guys are normally only around during the holiday season, but they stuck around much longer than in past years!
Also, we’ve noticed that the Avocado Time Festival Marketplace booth has had the consistently shortest lines at the Food & Wine Festival. We figured this would have been the California Dreams booth tucked back by Grizzly River Rapids, since that’s less out of sight. But maybe because of Avocado Time’s polarizing Frozen Guac dish plus a returning Impossible Slider that wasn’t anything exciting, this booth has had very few people in line to order or pick up every time we’ve walked by. If you want to use a booth to order from, then pick up at other booths, this is probably the best bet.
World of Color Prep
Work is wrapping up on the upgraded projection booths along the back of Paradise Bay, by the Pixar Pal-A-Round. The temporary floating scaffolding is starting to be removed, and we look forward to seeing how much sharper the improved projectors will provide for the show!
Moon Knight Debuts at Avengers Campus
Last but not least from DCA, in tandem with its premiere on Disney+, Moon Knight has arrived at Avengers Campus. During the evening time, he can be seen by the Quinjet in full superhero regalia, looming and lurking and looking mysterious. The Mr. Knight persona can also be seen on the ground as part of a photo op meet-and-greet. It’s pretty neat that Marvel has utilized the Avengers Campus environment to integrate advertising for their Disney+ shows with character interactions.
Downtown Disney Demolition
Over at Downtown Disney, demolition of the AMC Theaters building (along with Earl of Sandwich and the Starbucks shop and Sugarboo store) has been occurring over the past several weeks. The structures were completely leveled during this photo stop, and they will be making way for a renovation of the western part of Downtown Disney into something that will feature a more unified and mid-century aesthetic. The former ESPN Zone and Star Wars Trading Post remain untouched for now.
And that’s the news from Disney. The next time we cover the parks, it will be to highlight the return of its nighttime shows. Most of the work around the parks is pretty typical stuff, so the Disneyland updates certainly won’t be coming with the frequency that they did back when Galaxy’s Edge or Avengers Campus was under construction.
With that, hope everyone has a great week!
Architect. Photographer. Disney nerd. Haunt enthusiast. Travel bugged. Concert fiend. Asian.
