AntSol Travel

Hello everyone! There are so many new things happening at the Disneyland Resort over the last month, so it is time for your August update!

It is hot out there! With high temperatures of 90F/32C. Make sure to stay cool with light clothing, sunscreen, and refillable water bottles. You can refill water bottles at water stations throughout the parks. Make sure to take breaks indoors with air conditioning when needed, and make sure to reapply sunscreen.

To start the day, I parked at Pixar Pals parking garage, which is off Magic Way, you need to get there before 10:30 am as they cut off parking off Magic Way by then. I got there at 10:30 am and we were sent up to the sixth-floor parking, where I got amazing views of Downtown Disney, along with views of the Pixar Place Hotel, formerly the Paradise Pier Hotel & the new Disney Vacation Club tower at Disneyland Hotel. Both buildings are coming along well but still need work on both of them.

On the second floor of Pixar Pals, you can either take the tram or walk on the footbridge & path to the former ESPN Zone entrance, which is a .3 mile walk, then another .4 miles to the Disneyland entrance.

When I walked to downtown Disney, I saw that the monorail is under refurbishment, along with work on the former ESPN Zone & AMC theater. The former AMC theater, which Disney only announced Din Tai Fung for that plot of land at D23, has walls and structures up already, however, other tenants are to be announced.

Splitsville now has the Alley, an outdoor patio to play games, live bands perform, and an outdoor space to eat & drink. It seems like this is more for the evening crowds since no one was there in the afternoon and it was 90 degrees. For the upcoming Centrico, at the former Catal restaurant, it looks like the whole upper deck is getting a new exterior since the walls are taken out.

Upon scanning my magic band at Disneyland, I was greeted by the Disneyland Railroad train just pulling into Main Street Station! This reminded me of my first objective, getting the Disneyland Railroad popcorn bucket! The line by the Main Street flagpole was long, thankfully, there was a second cart by the Partners statue with the buckets that only had a few guests in line.

Costing $32.50 for the locomotive popcorn holder and a box of popcorn, the train rolls, make a sound, carried by a shoulder strap, and it holds a square box of popcorn in the train engineer cab with a Mickey hanging out of it. The smokestack is removable so you can use it as a train whistle! I forgot to put it back on when I took a picture with the partner’s statue in California Adventure. Walt Disney’s childhood love of trains was the inspiration for the Disneyland Railroad. I was stopped by a few guests and even a cast member in downtown Disney to talk about it. It is really cool, it makes the Disney & Trains nerd in me really happy! However, it is kind of bulky and can easily run into other guests while in line, in crowds, or making a sudden rotation. I recommend putting it in a backpack when you walk around the parks and not holding a box of popcorn.

Just announced on July 27th, Disneyland Park is breaking their dry drink policy by allowing alcoholic drinks to be served at three restaurants, according to the Orange County Register. Starting September 12th the Carnation Cafe, River Belle Terrace, and Cafe Orleans, will serve wine, cocktails, and beer. Before this, Club 33 had always served drinks since Walt Disney started the Club in the 1960s, Olga Cantina has a full bar when it opened in 2019, and Blue Bayou with a cocktail maker & taps in 2021.

When I went to Blue Bayou back in July 2022, I took a picture of the wine bottle dispenser, and the taps for the beer and pre-made cocktails. Serving drinks the restaurants will probably be in a premade manner as well if they don’t have room for a full bartender, which none of these places do have. Having drinks at sit-down restaurants is better than serving at a stand like Karl Straus’s stand at Pacific Wharf since guests are eating & drinking to soak up the alcohol, and the guests will have more time to digest before heading out. However, results may vary.

Splash Mountain is getting plenty of exterior work done, to become Tiana’s Bayou Adventure, along with French Market to be Tiana’s Palace, which looks almost done.

Fantasmic will be closed until Spring 2024 due to the Maleficent dragon fire, which the dragon is confirmed to not come back due to extensive fire damage.

At California Adventure, the Pacific Wharf is being transformed into the Big Hero 6-inspired San Fransokyo Square! Most of the new area murals are done, however, it won’t be until the end of August until everything is done. The San Fransokyo bridge is still being worked on and looks like the construction cast members signed the suspension tower. The meet & greet areas and merchandise stores are still behind construction walls.

Updated menus for Cocina Cucamonga & Lucky Fortune Cookery are now posted. The main difference for Cocina Cucamonga is the San Fransokyo-style street corn. Lucky Fortune Cookery now has Yaki Udon either with or without chicken, beef baria ramen, Karaage-inspired crispy chicken sandwich, Baymax macarons, Thai tea, and lychee tea & cocktail. Rita Blenders to become Rita Turbine Blenders & Pacific Wharf Cafe to become Aunt Cass Cafe, with menu conversion for both at the end of August with more Japanese-inspired recipes.

Karl Strauss Brewery cart, an independent brewery based in San Diego, now has its own storefront next to the Cucina Cucamonga, as the Port of San Fransokyo Cerveza, Spanish for brewery. The beer selection is the same. Now they have a snack mix of garlic & pinwheel chip mix.

For lunch, I got the new items from Luckey Fortune Cookery: Thai Tea, Yaki Udon, and a Baymax Macaron! The tea was sweet with sweeteners, a fair amount of tapioca balls, then half filled with ice, and overall it was okay. The Yaki Udon was good with spices & vegetables and with the udon noodles on the bottom of the bowl. The Baymax macaron has hazelnut spread in it, making it really sweet, in stark contact with the spice-heavy udon.

Lastly, was the summer showing of Rogers: the Musical, a thirty-minute musical about Captain America! It was inspired by a musical number in the Hawkeye mini-series in the first episode about 13 minutes in as a campy musical about the Avengers saving the city.

The initial run is going to be until the end of August. To get in a seat, you can do a virtual queue by getting priority seating on the Disneyland app for the orchestra section. Or you can just do standby as well and most likely get mezzanine and balcony levels.

The screenplay was written about Steve Rogers wanting to enroll in the US Army during World War II, however, he was not physically fit enough to be sent to war & was jealous that his friend, Buckey, who was enlisted & got a girlfriend. Then one of the US Army scientists helped him to become a super soldier by injecting Steve with a super strength serum. Steve fell in love with the scientist’s assistant Peggy Carter. Steve rallied citizens to buy war bonds as Captain America and set up a date with Peggy Carter, but then sent to war. Then during a mission in the Arctic, was frozen for seventy years to the modern day, and was woken up by Nick Feary for Steve to become Captain America with the Avengers! Then the production gets campy with the musical number with the Avengers to save the world through the Avengers series of movies, which was the inspiration from the Hawkeye show. After fighting with the Avengers, Steve Rogers went back to his nonsuper soldier timeline, then in time to have a date with Peggy Carter back in the 1940s.

Rogers the Musical was a good stage production and was surprised it became a full-on thirty-minute production from that one Avengers musical number. If you are coming in August, you should definitely try to see it. Hopefully, the show gets renewed for a longer run.