Our first photo report of 2018 brings us to Disney’s Hollywood Studios…
Welcome to Hollywood
Work on the new parking entrance for the park continues…
A new, bright yellow tram has appeared in the parking lot.
Even a dreary, overcast day can seem bright with a little Streetmosphere.
The AT-AT popcorn buckets are available any multiple locations throughout the park. They cost $25.00 each.
Disregarding the Christmas decorations, there are new planters near Voyage of the Little Mermaid that look like jellyfish and feature plastic bubbles.
Toy Story Land
Work on the Walt Disney Presents building appears to be nearly completed as the scaffolding is all gone.
I don’t really understand how this transition will work, but guests will walk between these sound-stages and be transported to Andy’s Backyard.
The Walt Disney Presents facade could use one more color of paint to match the other buildings nearby.
Painting doesn’t appear to be complete on the other side either.
While we wait for the Wrinkle in Time preview to arrive, Walt Disney Presents is showcasing costumes from Saving Mr. Banks.
Galaxy’s Edge’s Edges
The tunnel portal to Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge was recently completed and now offers guests a photo-op with concept art of the Millennium Falcon attraction.
California State icons adorn the top of the tunnel.
Grand Avenue is finally finished, with the last of the fake shops unveiled.
The Grand Lofts directory actually works and features names of many Disney executives and Imagineers as tenants.
Imagineer Kathy Mangum…
Vice President of Disney’s Hollywood Studios, Phil Holmes…
Imagineer Jon Georges…
And then there is this one. I think it is a Seinfeld reference as Kramer (K.) was mistakenly referred to by this nickname in a famous episode where he receives the wrong vanity license plates. That or someone has a really unfortunate last name.
A new merchandise stand near the tunnel is selling all of the recently released Galaxy’s Edge merchandise.
The annual pass holder exclusive pin and the regular pin are also available behind the register.
The Muppets fountain is back in front of the attraction, albeit a bit neutered.
The moving parts and many characters were removed during the work and sadly will not be returning.
What I don’t really understand is why this planter exists. Instead of turning the corner at the brick wall to go to Star Tours, you have to walk all the way around this giant planter. When this corner of the park gets busier in 2019, guests aren’t going to have an easy time getting to Grand Park and MuppetVision 3-D with all of the Star Wars traffic.
At least it looks nice and now there are zero construction walls on this side of the park.
Recently used as a store for Galactic Nights, the front section of Stage 1 Company Store is likely becoming a character meet and greet in the weeks ahead.
Nothing But Star Wars…
The Last Jedi has taken over the Animation Courtyard and Star Wars Launch Bay.
The Preview Gallery at the exit of Launch Bay is now featuring items from The Last Jedi.
The Launch Bay film was recently updated to include items from The Last Jedi, but also now includes a new preview of Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge. The video below was filmed at Disneyland, where filming of the movie is allowed:
More photo reports of the parks. Your site use to be filled with them, not as much now. Still enjoy the site but please more photo reports.
Things don’t change everyday sadly, so we wait to do these once enough content for a full post is available.
I don’t mind just seeing photos of what the parks look like on a normal day. I’d still click on the photo reports with no special hook.
Just to play Disney Advocate, I’ll suggest that the planter was put there to hide above ground utilities. That maybe where they branched into their water/electric to feed Star Wars land and the new hotel. That’s a lot of mason work just for aesthetics
I’m sure they could figure out an opening that doesn’t bottleneck thousands of people
Its hiding utilities. You can see a fire hydrant top in one of the pictures. The branch out to it and the wall is probably the theory when mass chaos is happening, the fire fighters have a direct route for the most part to the hydrant.
Does the Assman really live on Grand Avenue?
The Pith of the Jedi theater should play the Wrinkle in Time preview, instead. I’m sick of them interrupting the OMD film. The rumored S1 new area I would hope for a new meet with either the stars of Star vs the Forces of Evil(Star/Marco are the show’s main two heroes) or the new DuckTales(Scrooge McDuck in his red coat)(both as seen on Disney XD), and would possibly sign books for the kids, instead of handing out cards like they do with Olaf’s meet at CS, which he’s overstayed his CS appearance a bit, don’t get me wrong, I don’t hate him, he’s very likable, but the meet’s backdrop and a new featured character can easily change overnight and the line queue is plain and rather tinseltownly), or Good Ol’ Oswald the Lucky Rabbit in his public Floridian debut
It’s about time they built a moument to my glorious LA freeway! This is what people want to see and no Red car trolly running even better. Modern LA is great
The “California state icons” are actually the seal of the city of Los Angeles.