Disneyland Reporter Conner Purzycki return us to the Disneyland Resort this week to see all of the latest happenings. The Tower of Terror is quickly vanishing, Star Wars land is quickly appearing, and 2 new sneak preview attractions are being offered. Let’s take a look:
Star Wars Land Construction
With the warped Tower of Terror off in the distance, work continues on the Star Wars themed land for Disneyland Park.
One of the portals into the land taking shape already.
While it may appear that the Disneyland version is ahead of Hollywood Studios, all of the additional work required to transition out of the other lands in the park and to separate the new land from the Rivers of America is all far more intricate than any transition will be at Walt Disney World. Guests will not to to enter through tunnels in Florida.
The massive “Battle with the First Order” attraction is being excavated. It reportedly will be the largest single attraction Disney has ever built.
The new waterfront for Rivers of America and new staging area for the updated Fantasmic! will need to be ready by next summer, so they are much further along than anything else in the project.
Downtown Disney Anaheim
Well it looks like Sprinkles isn’t going over here, between Starbucks and Disney Vacation Club.
A number of Food Trucks are currently available to guests at Downtown Disney.
If you were betting the Something Silver location would be home to Sprinkles, it seems unlikely that space could be converted by November.
It seems highly likely that this space between the other Starbucks and Jamba Juice is where Sprinkles will end up.
The facade work on the World of Disney store continues while the store is open.
Welcome to Disneyland
The canon moved to its new home recently, now just behind a fence in the planter. It’s nice to see Disneyland trying to fix the Main Street crowding issues where they can without removing history.
Christmas lights are already reinstalled on the hub trees.
This and That
Work continues to get the Rivers of America and Fantasmic! back in action for Summer 2017.
While Disney is trying to hide them from us, we can clearly see projectors for new projection mapping effects in Fantasmic!
They are kind of big and hard to hide in fairness.
Obligatory duck photo.
Rolling refurbishments in Critter Country are now taking place through November 3rd, everything but Splash Mountain opens on weekend during that period.
Star Wars Land as seen from Critter Country.
The facades work on Peter Pan’s Flight was completed and the building looks great.
Now let’s Trolley on over to Disney California Adventure, shall we?
Doctor Strange and Fixing the Backlot
The Doctor Strange sneak peek has moved in at the Sunset Showcase.
The backlot stage is finally coming down after 6 years, hopefully the Sorcerer Mickey fountain will be returning.
The lighting rigs in front of the former Hollywood and Dine are already gone.
The Tower of Terror Breaks Out
Tarps have now expanded to the front of the Tower of Terror facade. It’s hard to believe it is open, but Disney would hate to lose Tower of Terror for the busy holiday season. If all goes according to plan, they would like to have Guardians of the Galaxy: Mission Breakout open by late-May.
Interestingly enough, Disney is not using FastPass for the attraction currently. This combined with the demand of guests to see it one last time is making for some crazy wait times.
I would be lying if I said the Tower of Terror at DCA has had an 85 minute wait on a regular basis at any point in its existence. For all the people who knock the advent of FastPass, this is why it exists. It deters people from getting in line all at once by giving them another option.
Moana Sneak Peek
The Moana sneak peek has moved in at the “it’s tough to be a bug” theater.
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I had a Fastpass to Tower of Terror a few weeks ago. The ride broke down and I was later allowed to use it. I’m sure breakdowns are quite common today. Ride capacity went down since one shaft is not used to allow for rolling renovations. I read elsewhere they are re-cabling the shafts. I think the changes are bigger than many are lead to believe.
Your statement about Fastpass reducing waits is wrong, Fastpass does nothing for capacity
It spreads people out throughout the day, it certainly helps distribute the wait evenly.
Well that technically works assuming that everyone is getting fastpasses and going to higher capacity attractions or shopping like management would prefer. What really affects wait times are the guests that insist that the line isn’t really an hour and a half and get in line until it becomes a 3 hour wait and refuse to get out of line because they’ve already waited X amount of time. Also the guests that think that a fastpass gets you on immediately and they expect you to instantly stop loading standby guests to accommodate them. Otherwise fastpass is great!
Your conclusion is wrong. The right conclusion is Ride Capacity affects fastpass use, particularly if it’s an unplanned loss of Ride Capacity.
JimV is correct in his appreciation when he said Capacity went down because of breakdowns together with limited baseline Ride Capacity. Most likely the reason why FP’s are not being offered/used, as the Author wrote.
This ride shall be renamed Guardians of the Galaxy: Mission Breakdown