Hello and welcome back to Theme Park Wizard where today we are going to check in on the Hong Kong Disneyland Castle Refurb and Expansion. Several months into construction we can see the castle is at least halfway done by now and is looking rather excellent. The final product will look like the concept art down below!
I love the new look of the castle and did not like that the original castle was a carbon copy of Disneyland’s castle here in Anaheim. Now each Disney park has its own unique castle and I think that is fantastic, but what do you guys think? Do you like the look of the new castle? Do you think Hong Kong getting a new castle is a waste of money? Let me know in the comments below!
Well we know at least some of the work going on at Tomorrowland inside Disneyland. Part of the work going on beside the Tomorrowland Theater is the installation of a new digital Fastpass kiosk that will include fastpasses for Star Tours, HyperSpace Mountain, and Buzz Lightyear.
This new digital kiosk is a test to see how guests react to the new system and if it becomes popular and guests find them easy to use then all fastpasses kiosks will become digital. Guests will have to link their ticket to the Disneyland app to be able to use this new kiosk since their will be no slot to insert your ticket or annual pass.
I happen to love this new idea of getting rid of the paper reminder tickets, but what do you think of this new kiosk? Potentially too confusing for you? Or do you like that Disneyland continues to evolve to the future with less paper and more in-app and digital kiosk type stuff? Comment your thoughts down below!
A beautiful new Tomorrowland sign has been installed outside Tomorrowland in the Magic Kingdom. The look of this sign is very clean and modern and points to a futuristic new Tomorrowland that seems to be coming to the Magic Kingdom in small stages leading to the opening of Tron in two years.
I have been following the entrance work at Tomorrowland here at Disneyland as well and our sign and rock work is removed too for the time being. I hope we get an entrance sign as awesome as the new one at Magic Kingdom.
Speaking of Disneyland, here is a construction update from Fresh Baked on how the removal of the rock work is coming along.
Photo courtesy of Fresh Baked Disney on Youtube
This was taken from the Astro Orbitor last Saturday and as you can see the rocks from one side are completely gone and the other side looks like it is about to follow suit. I am really hoping that this means sometime next year Tomorrowland will being its massive refurb and something hopefully will be announced in the coming months. There is other work currently happening in Tomorrowland right now as well such as some work at the Space Mountain exit and the Star Tours facade.
What do you think of the new Tomorrowland sign at the Magic Kingdom? Disneyland’s rocks removed? Tomorrowland enhancements coming to both parks? Comment your thoughts down below!
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Well Disney has finally listened to my suggestion of moving the entrance to the Sunset Showcase theater off of Hollywood Blvd so that it can be easily accessible and visible to guests. When Mickey’s Philharmagic opened a few months ago, not many guests were venturing in to see the new show and that is something that continues to be true to this day. The two times I saw the show the theater had a maximum of fifteen to twenty people inside.
One of the reasons that I was thinking had to do with the very low attendance is that guests simply did not know the show had existed and they could not find the entrance to the Sunset Showcase Theater. The theater is tucked away in the back-lot of Hollywood Land and guests really only see it if they are venturing out to go ride Monsters Inc. As for Philharmagic itself, there was absolutely no advertising by Disney in places such as the Esplanade or even in Hollywood Land itself to let people know that there was a new show back there.
Luckily, this summer Disney has been correcting this problem by re-configuring the Award Wieners seating area and queue for Sunset Showcase to have a direct entrance off of the main thoroughfare in Hollywood Land which is Hollywood Blvd.
New Sunset Showcase entrance, All photos courtesy of WDWNT
So what do you think of the new marquee and entrance? Will you now be going to see Mickey’s Philharmagic? Did you know the show or theater existed before this article? Comment your thoughts below!
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So today some rather breaking and shocking news came out regarding Sony and Disney’s Spiderman deal. It was widely being reported that Sony and Disney were renegotiating the Spiderman deal and that Disney wanted a 50/50 partnership for future Spiderman movies compared to the 5% they get now per movie.
Spiderman is Sony’s biggest and arguably only franchise so it would make sense that Sony would want to keep most of the financial gain from Spiderman to keep the studio afloat. With that in mind, Sony quickly rejected Disney’s initial offer and is currently negotiating a new deal or is threatening to take back full control of Spiderman putting the future of the MCU as it is right now at risk. It is also putting Marvel Land at risk because the headlining attraction is of course the Spiderman ride.
Lets say the deal falls flat and Sony gets back Spiderman, let’s talk about the potential implications of Marvel Land. So let’s say that Sony says that Spiderman cannot be a part of any attractions in Marvel Land, what will Disney do? Well for one I can definitely tell you the ride will be delayed by a few months to possibly a year because Disney will have to change it to a new Marvel character (I vote Captain America or Doctor Strange) as well as re-film all of the scenes and change out psychical sets to match the new story of the attraction. That would be quite the blow to California Adventure as it definitely needs continued investment and rather quickly. It would also be a blow to the Disneyland Parks Panel at D23 because the main announcement for Disneyland is Marvel Land as well as a model showing the land.
So what do you think about this developing story and how it will impact the theme parks? Comment below your thoughts I would love to know them!
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Welcome! Today am I going to list my top 5 rides at the Disneyland Resort! I would love for you to comment below whether you agree or disagree with this list. This top 5 is from both Disneyland and California Adventure so let’s get started right now!
5. Hyperspace Mountain
I absolutely love this version of Space Mountain. It is my favorite version that is offered at the Disneyland Resort and it takes you on the same track as the classic Space Mountain, but with special effects and music themed to Star Wars. This version is currently being offered at Disneyland right now and an end date is not known at this time.
4. Radiator Springs Racers
Arguably the best themed attraction Disney ever made is 4th on my list because the other three rides ahead of it are more thrilling, but mark my words this is a MUST DO attraction while your at the Disneyland Resort. This attraction and Cars Land itself are a reason to get a park hopper ticket alone. This masterpiece of a ride is half dark ride (with incredibly impressive animontronics with mouths that move on some of them) and half thrill ride implementing a Test Track like system that propels the vehicles on a racing track to the finish line. Not only is the ride amazing, but its showbuidling is among the best out there. Cadillac Range is so beautiful you forget you are at Disneyland and think you are in the deserts of Arizona.
3. Incredicoaster
This thing is an absolute thrill machine for Disney standards and I absolutely love it! Blasting off from 0-55 mph in 4.2 seconds is such an amazing feeling and going up and down through drops and twists and turns is exhilarating. Then of course there is the iconic loop over the Pixar Pier logo that can be nauseating at first if you suffer from motion sickness, but riding it again and again eases it considerably. In terms of theming, I feel Disney could have done a lot better inserting the Incredibles theming in there and I feel they went cheap with all static figures and Jack Jack hanging on a stick. If you are a thrill seeker, then definitely ride this when you visit California Adventure.
2. Splash Mountain
Personally, I think Splash Mountain is better here at Disneyland than at the Magic Kingdom because I like our style of the music and the style of logs more over at Disneyland. I also love that our indoor drop is a roller coaster style “U shaped” drop. Splash Mountain is so iconic because of its theming, songs, animatronics, and family fun atmosphere. This is really a ride you can take the entire family on and pose for the picture at the end.
Number One: Guardians of the Galaxy Mission Breakout!
Here we go the absolute best Disney ride in the world in my opinion. Yes, people will probably completely disagree with me and hate me for it, but I really love the ride system of this drop tower whether it is Tower of Terror or Mission Breakout. Mission Breakout is definitely more thrilling and I love the selection of songs they chose for the ride. It is even more exciting that it will be anchoring an entire Marvel Themed land next year so it won’t look so out of place in the future.
Well that is my list of top 5 rides, what’s yours? List them in the comment section below and lets compare and contrast!
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