Summer of 2007 is the opening for the Finding Nemo Submarine Voyage. They are using the same yellow subs, all refurbished, so it will have an air of familiarity.
Playing the Red Hot Chili Peppers on Space Mountain and California Screamin’ is one of those off-season things they do to entice the locals. It ends in April.
Yeah, that’s pretty much all WDI does nowadays.
/I’ll be here all week
//try the mouse
///tip your waitress
Playing the Red Hot Chili Peppers on Space Mountain and California Screamin’ is one of those off-season things they do to entice the locals. It ends in April.
Do they still play Dick Dale on Space Mountain. I seem to recall they had Dale compose a song that worked with the ebb and flow of the ride.
You saying they replaced it with Chili Peppers? That sucks.
It’s just temporary. You get “Higher Ground” on Space Mountain, not sure what was playing on California Screamin’ because I was too busy, well, screamin’.
It was a remix of “Around the World”.
Cally Adv is okay if you have a park hopper pass to go back and forth. Really there’s only 4 good rides at CA, Screamin, Soarin, Tower and the Water Rapids ride. And there’s really only so many times you can do each. The 3D Muppets show is good, too.
Disney, though, has Haunted Mansion, matterhorn, Star Tours, Pirates, Splash Mountain, Space Mountain, the Buzz Lightyear shooting game ride, and Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride (it’s for the kids! You end up in Hell! Fun!).
Sadly, the last 4 years I’ve ended up there in the fall, when the Haunted Mansion becomes the Nightmare Before Christmas mansion. It’s a sweet ride, but I’d like to just do the regular Haunted Mansion for old time’s sake.
Oh, and the Thunder Mountain ride is better at night.
I agree on California Adventure. This past January was the first time I ever went, and you’ve hit the few reasons to go. It seems more like an overgrown “Californialand” than anything. It has always been criticized for having too many shops and not enough rides. Pacific Wharf still has no rides at all, just shops & restaurants. It also has no transport but walking, so no easy monorail, train, horse trolley, etc. to the more distant areas. You can get alcohol in California Adventure, though.
I don’t care for the Nightmare Before Christmas version of the Haunted Mansion either. It was back to its regular self in January, but I was there the previous November and it was still converted. I do like all the Holiday decorations in the park.
Being an old grump, there are a few changes they made that always bug me. The slowed down the ghouls that jump up from behind grave stones in the Haunted Mansion. They switched around the pirates chasing the women in Pirates of the Carribean, and added in all the Johnny Depp models. They tightened the teacups so they can’t spin as fast. They took the rocket ride off the tower & ground-mounted it. My kids will never know the difference though, so I just shut my yap & have a good time anyway.
I agree with you, you’re not alone!
Man, this hasn’t ben updated since 2007??
Okay, here comes the info-dump.
Construction on Disneyland’s 14-acre “Star Wars” themed area will begin in 2016. The new land will be built in the northern part of Frontierland. Big Thunder Ranch (the BBQ place, the petting zoo, and the jamboree stage) are closing permanently. The Fantasmic! show, Mark Twain Riverboat, Sailing Ship Columbia, Davy Crockett Explorer Canoes, Pirate’s Lair on Tom Sawyer Island and all four stations along the Disneyland Railroad will temporarily close for a year during the construction.
According to CEO Bob Iger, the expansion will have two signature attractions, including a ride where fans can take the controls of the Millennium Falcon “on a customized secret mission,” and an experience that drops attendees into “a climactic battle between the First Order and the resistance.”
In addition to the themed “Star Wars” land, other enhancements from the franchise are coming to Disney World in Florida and Disneyland in California, including Star Tours – The Adventures Continue, which will update the Star Tours experience with locations and characters from “Star Wars: The Force Awakens,” giving guests a new adventure in a galaxy far, far away.
Additionally, a new interactive experience called Star Wars Launch Bay will take guests into “Star Wars: The Force Awakens,” with special exhibits and a look behind-the-scenes, including opportunities to visit with new and favorite “Star Wars” characters, and purchase special merchandise and food offerings. Star Wars Launch Bay will be located in the Animation Courtyard at Disney’s Hollywood Studios, and in Tomorrowland at Disneyland park. Star Wars Launch Bay will share the space with the reimagined Super Hero HQ at Disneyland.
In other news, Disney continues its war on locals that purchase the annual pass and “freeload” on rides, clog up the lines, and don’t buy expensive concessions. The price for the annual pass is going up to $849 for the limited pass, and $1000 for the “Signature Plus” pass.
My wife really wants me to get the family a season pass since we are 15 minutes from there. I’ve never been! I have been to Disneyworld once, like 25 years ago or more. Holy crap $849? For one person? Egads. My son is only one.
Disney continues its war on the poorer kids whose parents can’t afford the ridiculous prices they charge. Local rich folks are just fine. It’s just sickening but you know, got to keep the poor from being able to afford it so they don’t clog those lines. Keep buying the toys, watching the shows, but please don’t come to the parks, ok?
"…our new selection of annual passes will help us manage strong demand and continue to deliver a world-class experience [for our wealthier guests], while providing more choices for [poorer] guests to select the pass that best meets their [limited] needs,” said Suzi Brown, a Disneyland spokeswoman.
The whole family (me, wife, and two kids) went to Disneyland about six years ago. We spent four days there and the kids loved it. We stayed at the nearby convention center Hilton which put us about a half-mile down the street from the front entrance. Just far enough that you got away from the bustle of that area, but close enough that you could jump on a shuttle in the middle of the day. Which we did. We’d go to the park when it opened, jumped on all the rides sans lines, then left at about 1PM when it started getting really hot. We’d eat somewhere cheap outside of the park, relax, maybe take a nap in the hotel, then head back at 3PM and stay until it closed.
We all had fun, but it was expensive. As we told the kids, “Enjoy this now, because we probably aren’t coming back anytime soon.”
It’s a business and a luxury. Rich people are always going to come out on top for situations like that. I’m not really sure why you’re so outraged.
From a business perspective, they really have to balance the locals (those most likely to shell out for the annual pass) and those that spend considerable expense to travel to a resort. A family (wealthy or not) that flies out to a Disney park and ends up waiting in too much in lines is really going to be disappointed.
What exactly do you propose that they do to respond to overcrowding? They could potentially create two different sets of “rights” (e.g., no fass passes) for those that come in via annual pass and those that don’t, but that obviously has its own issues.
You bring up a good point, but Disney is faced with increased demand with the economy rebounding somewhat. And once the Star Wars stuff starts opening up it’s going to be (even more) insane. We went to DisneyWorld this year after school let out (while a lot of the country still had a week or two left) and it was already very, very crowded. I worked there (in monorails) back in 92 during the summer, and I don’t remember the crowds being that bad, although I’ll fully admit I might looking through the lens of someone older and less tolerant of crowds.
I do agree that it’s not fair to the poorer families, but I don’t know how else they can try to spread the load throughout the year. I do remember wondering to myself back in February (or whenever they last raised the tickets over $100) what Walt would have thought about how crazy expensive it had gotten.
“Dammit, no, now ONLY the Jews will be able to come!”
One other thing to keep in mind, at least for DisneyWorld, is that they do seem to be offering some lower cost annual passes now that are a bit more reasonable if you’re willing to accept some blackout dates. Gold is blacked out Christmas/New Years and Easter/Spring break fro $549 (resident) and Silver is blacked out same as Gold + peak summer vacation period for $389. I don’t think they had options at those price points in prior years.
If Disney really cared about the guest experience then they’d have a lower number of guests as the threshold for closing the gates. But nope, the solution is always to raise the prices.
I worked for Disney for 11 years (accounting, never at the Parks though) so I’ve been in the Disney culture, saw behind the scenes, etc, so my viewpoint is definitely affected by it. It’d be different if the company didn’t portray itself as such a family-oriented entity.
Gate closures are a big deal. Someone flies out from wherever to visit a Disney park and gets turned away at the gate? That’s a big problem. They’d have to, at a minimum, switch over to tickets having a set visit date or some sort of reservation system with penalty for no-show/cancellation. And of course, gate closures cost them money.
Again, I don’t get why you’re acting like Disney park admission is some sort of universal right. It’s luxury goods and Disney is a business.
I never said it was a right - I basically said Disney doesn’t care much for non-rich people.
Sure, but what’s worse - you get turned away at the gate and can to find another way to amuse yourself and your family that day, or you get into the park and everything has an hour plus wait and you have a miserable day doing very little? I guess either way nobody is really happy but with one at least Disney gets your money so I guess I answered my own question.