This is the monthly news, rumors, and refurbishments update for Disneyland Resort for the month of January 2015.
Here are the three biggest developments from Anaheim from the past 30 days:
1. MyMagic+ is heading to Disneyland Resort
Originally (and formally) announced exactly two years ago and since having been rolled out to nearly every nook and cranny of Walt Disney World Resort, MyMagic+ is an overarching collection of programs that Disney has spent some 10 years and $1 billion on creating, with the intention of eventually exporting the initiative out to all of its parks and resorts across the globe.
And in a recent interview with the Orlando Sentinel, Tom Staggs, the chairman of Walt Disney Parks and Resorts, has made official what has been rumored these past few years: that Disneyland Resort will be the first stop on the expansion list. He also confirmed what many industry pundits and enthusiasts have been assuming – that a number of modifications to the Floridian model will need to be made in order to accommodate the idiosyncrasies of the Californian location.
Chief among these is the window of time that guests are able to make their online FastPass+ reservations in. At Disney World, on-site visitors are given the privilege to do so two months in advance, while day guests and annual passholders are limited to just one month. This is more feasible in Orlando, which sees the bulk of its traffic come from out-of-state or -country tourists, but in Anaheim, where a significant portion of patrons are passholders, it’s an entirely different story that all but demands an entirely different outcome.
Add in the fact that most annual passholders like to make last-minute or otherwise impromptu trips to the parks – which is, of course, the antithesis of MyMagic+’s meticulously-planned-out nature – and one can start to see where a great deal of culture clash may ensue.
(Possible solutions floated by the Orlando Sentinel piece include changing the length of the reservation time period or limiting the number of attractions, parades, and shows that will support FastPass+.)
Other potential tweaks that will need to be made include Disney World’s park-hopping limitations – an individual’s initial three FP+ reservations need to be all at the same theme park, which obviously wouldn’t be as practical for the right-next-door Disneyland and California Adventure – and the ability to keep adding on individual FP+ slots once the first three have been used up, a recent concession Disney made in Orlando that, according to Staggs, has been remarkably underutilized.
In Orlando, meanwhile, the company is busy continuing to fine-tune the service in an effort to win over more support from guests (privacy concerns regarding the track-your-every-move technology have been prevalent over the past two years) and to try and keep its customers on-property for as long as humanly possible. Staggs has listed several new features that his division is currently working on, including a store search function to locate specific merchandise, a bus arrival schedule for the on-site resorts, and the ability to ship souvenirs to either guests’ hotel rooms or directly to their homes.
It’s doubtless that at least some of these additions will be heading to Disneyland, but it’ll be interesting to see whether these will be available right from day one; Team Disney Anaheim might have learned something from its Orlando counterpart’s attempts at biting too much off all at once.
While there is no official word on when to expect MyMagic+’s arrival on the West Coast, Len Testa, the head of the incomparable Touring Plans, told the Orange County Register that he fully expects to see the service arrive sometime in 2016.
2. Expansions and construction sweep the resort
The start of a new year means not only the standard onslaught of closed attractions for seasonal maintenance, but also, in 2015’s particular case, the advent of new construction activity as Disney attempts to pivot its original park to a bright and shiny future (and one filled with the likes of recently-acquired properties Star Wars, Marvel, and Pixar).
Luigi’s Flying Tires
The first part of our lengthy report on Luigi’s Flying Tires has come true this month: Disney has announced that the much-maligned ride will close for a lengthy refurbishment, from February 2 to December 1, which will, obviously, take it out of commission for most of the year.
Given that most rehabs only last for a fraction of this time period, it’s looking more and more likely that the second part of our article – that Luigi’s Flying Tires will be transformed into the European-flavored Luigi’s Festival of the Dance (ostensibly from Cars 2) – will also be coming to fruition. Knowing Disney, expect a grand reveal sometime soon if this does, indeed, turn out to be true.
Soarin’ over California
On the other side of California Adventure, the long-rumored upgrade of Soarin’ over California has finally commenced this month, upgrading its projection system to keep abreast with the ever-increasing HD capabilities of modern tech.
What wasn’t necessarily expected, however, was a general redesign of the attraction’s land, Condor Flats. Originally a tiny sub-section of the larger Golden State area (along with Grizzly Peak and Pacific Wharf), this little sliver of real estate was spun off into its own entity as part of the park’s reboot in 2012 – although no work was ever done to increase its comparatively lackluster theming. Disney is looking to rectify that oversight now, transforming the 1940s desert airstrip into Grizzly Peak Airfield, making it an extension of the neighboring land’s ‘50s-inspired national state park setting.
(Another possible reason for the move? Soarin’ over California is believed to be making way for Soarin’ over the Horizon, an upgraded and expanded version of the ride that incorporates several global landmarks, sometime next year. A spruced-up surrounding area would be the perfect complement to the beefed-up flagship attraction.)
Soarin’ (the only ride in the land) is currently expected to re-open on May 14, with Taste Pilots’ Grill (the only restaurant) planned to return a little earlier, on March 12.
Star Wars Land
Just this past week, Screamscape reported that a fleet of height-test balloons – which are raised to the height of a proposed building in order to assess how sight lines from other areas of the park will be impacted before construction begins – were deployed early in the morning throughout several sections of Disneyland. The site goes on to speculate that their exact positions were above Toontown, Tomorrowland (specifically, Autopia and Finding Nemo Submarine Voyage), and the backstage Circle D Ranch – all areas that have been rumored at one point or another to be the recipient of a Star Wars Land makeover.
If accurate, the timing makes a great deal of sense: with Star Wars: Episode VII – The Force Awakens due to release this December, and with Disney already admitting that it wants to incorporate as much from the new film (and all its successors over the next several years) into its new theme park land as possible, construction would need to be gearing up sometime soon.
(Can’t wait to see what a Star Wars Land may entail at Disneyland? Check out our predictions – both good and bad – for what may be in store.)
