Disneyland Resort Photo Report for September 2, 2012.
Welcome Back to the Disneyland Resort
With Labor Day in the rearview mirror, expect light crowds this week. TouringPlans.com can help you navigate the parks with our per-park Crowd Calendar, Lines – Mobile Wait Times App that gives access to current and estimated wait times for attractions, and Touring Plans detailing the best plan of attack for hitting the attractions. Now more than ever, it’s a good time to subscribe to TouringPlans.com to plan your strategy to avoid the crowds!
Below are the predicted resort-wide crowd numbers for select days generated by the TouringPlans professional statisticians as measured for the upcoming week. For the access to the full year and per-park crowd level predictions, visit our Crowd Calendar.
|
|
|
| Day |
Resort Crowd Prediction
|
| Tues, September 4, 2012 |
1 out of 10
|
| Weds, September 5, 2012 |
1 out of 10
|
| Thurs, September 6, 2012 |
1 out of 10
|
| Fri, September 7, 2012 |
4 out of 10
|
Here are some quick-hit notes that we hope you’ll find helpful as you prepare your visits for the week:
- Expect this to be one of the lightest weeks of the year.
- Partial blockouts on Saturday and Sunday.
- Disneyland (park) is a 1.1 on Thursday.
- Due to its incredibly low capacity, consider riding Luigi’s Flying Tires standby right after starting your day by grabbing a FASTPASS for Radiator Springs Racers.
See Disneyland crowds for the next 365 days.
Get Disneyland wait times on your iPhone, Android, or Smartphone.
Do more. Wait less.
Glow with the Show Lights Up Fantasmic
This week the Rivers of America came alive with color, as Disneyland held an annual passholder preview for the debut of Glow with the Show Fantasmic!. The special Glow with the Show Mickey Ear Hats utilize infrared technology which allows Disney to control the light up ears of each hat. The result is a sea of glowing lights which change color and flash in unison causing waves of colors to flow through the crowd. Disney first debuted the technology in June as an enhancement to the World of Color.
Aside from interacting with World of Color and soon Fantasmic!, the Glow with the Show Mickey Ear Hats also interact with different areas of Cars Land, the Mad T Party and even other hats. These specialized mickey ears are sold in various locations at Disneyland and Disney California Adventure and the Downtown Disney District.
Video courtesy of Asianjma123 used with permission
Pirates League
Installation continued on Friday on the Pirate make-over location which has commandeered the Court of Angels in New Orleans Square.
Compared from the photos from last week, you can see that TDA is still had some tweaking to do with the set up for the Pirates League.
Lisa Robertson who writes the Babes in Disneyland Blog, recently took her boys for a preview makeover. You can read all about the experience here.
The pirate makeovers started September 1st and will continue through October 31, 2012
Decking the Halls – Haunted Mansion Holiday
The Haunted Mansion closed early last week to begin installation of the Haunted Mansion Holiday.
Jack Skellington’s annual transformation of the popular mansion is scheduled to open on September 14th, along with the rest of Halloween Time at the Disneyland Resort.
Refurbishments and Safety Upgrades
Disneyland fans and guests of the future will just have to get use to new safety upgrades, no matter how much they change the look of certain attractions. Following a few mandated requirements from Cal OSHA such as at Alice in Wonderland, as well as a reported effort by Disneyland President George Kalogridis to preempt such mandated upgrades, Disneyland is planing to target locations which may pose a safety concern to Cal OSHA and guests in the event of attraction closures or evacuations.
The Alice in Wonderland fix had to be done in such quick fashion that we were left looking at an ugly, un-Disney like facade, which has now been in place for over two years.
Casey Jr. Circus Trains, and Indiana Jones Adventure will be the next two attractions to be visited by the safety patrol.
According to an OC Register article, the Casey Jr. Circus Trains, and Storybook Land Canal boats will be closed Sept 4 – Nov 15 so that, “so crews can install safety enhancements”. Specifically walkways along the track and handrails to the bridges.
Disneyland’s attempt is get these these safety enhancements completed before a government agency mandates them and we are left with an ugly fix. But I believe what upsets most Disneyland enthusiasts is that in order to do so, they are altering historical attractions, some of which were supervised and approved by Walt himself.
Also closing this week will be Indiana Jones Adventure, Temple of the Forbidden Eye.
According to MousePlanet, Disney will be widening the bridge in the large show room of the attraction.
Indiana Jones Adventure will close Sep 4th – Dec 7th.
Among other refurbishments, Disney is reported to be widening this bridge.
The lengthily refurbishment of Indiana Jones Adventure is a welcome one to most park guests. The popular attraction is one of the most expensive to maintain at all of the Disney parks, and is also one of the most complex. This ride sees a lot of down time due to unexpected closures, just as it was when I went to take these photos. A lengthily refurbishment will hopefully address some of these issues.
10 Disney attractions closing for rehab
From the OC Register
ANAHEIM – Indiana Jones Adventure and two Fantasyland rides will close for most of the fall to undergo renovations as summer crowds dissipate at Disneyland.
That park and neighboring Disney California Adventure will shut down 10 venues in September for refurbishment, after the record-breaking summer season wraps up with Labor Day.
The longest closures, which begin Tuesday, will be Indiana Jones Adventure, Casey Jr. Circus Train and Storybook Land Canal Boats. Patricia Ortiz, a spokeswoman for the state Department of Industrial Relations, said none of the projects are prompted by state orders.
Indiana Jones Adventure will undergo “show modifications to enhance lighting, paint, figure animation and other effects,” said Kevin Rafferty Jr., a Disneyland Resort spokesman, in a statement. The project for the 17-year-old ride runs through Dec. 7.
Indiana Jones, which takes visitors on a Jeep ride based on the movies, is among the most expensive attractions to maintain at the Disneyland Resort. MousePlanet.com, an unofficial Disney fan blog, reports that Disney plans to widen the bridge in the big room of the ride, as well as add show features.
Casey Jr. Circus Train and Storybook Land Canal Boats will close through Nov. 15 so crews can install safety enhancements. Both rides travel around the same miniature versions of Disney-animated movie scenes, either by train or boat. Disney is adding walkways to the sides of the train track and handrails on the bridges to protect employees from falling, Rafferty said.
Some attractions are about to shutter to prepare for Halloween Time:
Fantasy Faire Construction Progress
The Princess Fantasy Faire construction site is reaching new heights this week.
Steel frame work for the main facade can now be seen.
Disneyland Half-Marathon Weekend and Health and Fitness Expo
For the seventh year, the Disneyland Resort hosted the Half Marathon this past weekend.
Aside from the main 13.1 mile race on Sunday, the weekend consisted of a 5k, kids fun races and a Health and Fitness Expo at the Disneyland Hotel.
2012 Disneyland Half Marathon Weekend
Sunday’s half marathon race is only part of the weekend activities, which includes kids races, a 5K and a weekend long Health and Fitness Expo. The Health and Fitness Expo will be held at the Disneyland Hotel Exhibit Hall and will feature vendors, guest speakers and exhibits to help you prepare for the race, as well as keep you training all year long. The Health and Fitness Expo will also serve as the check-in location for the races.
The collection of metals for all the different race finishers.
The Disneyland Half Marathon finisher metal
The finish line was behind ESPN Zone, near the main entrance to the Disneyland Hotel.
Jimmy Grabow, from Running Springs, CA, shattered the previous Disneyland Half Marathon race record by nearly two minutes with a amazing race time of 1:05:29!
The women’s title went to Cindy Lynch of Cardif, CA with a finish time of 1:24:45.
Congratulations to all the race finishers!
(Race photos ©Disney)
Around the Resort
The Resort park flags, Buena Vista Street seen below, remained at half staff in respect following the death of Neil Armstrong.
Last week we showed you photos of the Refreshment Corner archway covered. We presumed that it had been covered for a standard refurbishment, but this week the arch has been completely removed.
The archway as it appeared prior to the removal.
Planters cover the ground where the victorian archway once stood. It is not clear if the arch will return, so we’ll keep and eye on this project for you.
Ghost Galaxy projectors and speakers can be seen around Space Mountian.
The attraction will close Sept 10 – 13 for the installation of Ghost Galaxy.
The Voices of Liberty, an 8-part a cappella group which was initially brought to Disneyland this summer for a “limited engagement” , will be staying through this Holiday Season. Citing a Disney source, MouseInfo.com, reported the news this week.
We don’t have any other news or sources regarding this announcement, but we are delighted that they will be staying with us beyond this summer.
Select Halloween Merchandise is now also available on Buena Vista Street at Julius Katz & Sons
That’s going to do it for this week’s update. You can see the past updates here.
All Current Resort Closures & Special Event Information
Make sure to follow us on Twitter, Facebook & Google + for breaking news all week long.
See You At Disneyland!
This week’s Photo & News Report was brought to you by:
(Coke Corner archway photo: cc: Wendi Dunlap on Flickr)
