“Disneyland will never be completed. It will continue to grow as long as there is imagination left in the world.”- Walt Disney
https://tomorrowsociety.com/disneyland-will-never-completed/
Things are always changing & evolving by the week at Disneyland, like Walt Disney’s quote, Disneyland will never be complete and something will always be added or discontinued, this week is no exception!
On this episode of Disneyland Update! Magic Key Holder’s Magic Bands are already gone, San Fransokyo is fully open by replacing Pacific Wharf, Tiana Palace opens for business by replacing the French Market, Halloween is in full swing with decorations & Oogie Boogie Bash at DCA, and much more. All of this will be captured as well on my GoPro on a backpack shoulder strap mount for a point of view perspective from my shoulder height. Powered by the tourism journalism of AntSol Travel!
Depending on how long I want to be at Disneyland, I would jog or bike if I just want to be there for a few hours in daylight since I live a couple of miles away. If I want to spend most of my day past sundown, I drive over since it is not too safe to walk or bike back at night. Using my Belive tier Magic Key pass, I get 50% off parking, so it works for me to occasionally park if I am staying past sunset.
Driving in from Katella Ave at 10:30 a.m., there was still plenty of parking in the Pixar Pals parking structure, and I did my intro from there.
After that, I walked over to the former ESPN Zone security station at Downtown Disney, and then inside there was pavement work was done. The former AMC Theater site was coming along well, along with the former UVA Bar & Catal to be Paseo Lounge & Centerico respectively.
At Disney California Adventure, it’s home to Oogie Boogie Bash, the family-friendly Halloween party for all ages, taking place on Sundays, Tuesdays, and Thursdays. This also closes the park at 6 p.m. for non-event guests. My mom thankfully got my family & me party passes later in the month with footage about the party then since it will be cooler than it is now. The recording date was Thursday, September 8th, so DCA closed at 6 p.m. with early party access at 4 p.m. Therefore, I should get DCA finished first.
You’ve seen me post about it for the last few months and now it is completed, the refurbishment from California Adventure’s Pacific Wharf, a Monterey cannery/Fisherman’s wharf-themed food court area, to now San Fransokyo Square. The refurbishment is based on the Disney Marvel 3D animated movie and TV series, Big Hero 6.
The Pacific Wharf has not been touched theming-wise since the opening day of California Adventure in 2001 as a food court. This refurbishment breathes new life into a tired area.
The movie is set in an alternate universe where Japanese immigrants had much more influence on the architectural redesign of San Francisco after the great 1906 earthquake that destroyed most of the city from the quakes and fires. In the present day, Hiro, a robotics genius, teams up with his brother’s friends & healthcare care robot, Baymax to save the city from evildoers as the Big Hero 6.
The most notable change is the repaint of the simple blue box bridge to the recreation of the San Fransokyo Golden Gate Bridge, which is designed after a Torii gate. All the buildings have been repainted with new designs & murals, taking notes from the movies such as the characters, areas of the city, sports teams, and even the DJ who programmed the area’s background music. The background music is now modern Japanese pop music, vs. easy listening music from around the world when the area was the Pacific Wharf.
Restaurants stayed the same for the most part as Lucky Fortune Cookery & Cocina Cucamonga, but with new Japanese-inspired dishes. Pacific Wharf Cafe was renamed to Aunt Cass Cafe, named after Hiro’s aunt who runs a cafe in the Big Hero 6 series. Sourdough bread production remains by Boudins and the bread factory tour. Rita Blenders, which served margaritas, was rebranded to be Rita Turbine Blenders as there is a koi fish turbine on top.
The Karl Strauss beer cart was relocated into a portion of Cocina Cucamonga building as a permanent stand, known as Port of San Fransokyo Square Cervicia (Spanish for brewery.) Past the Cocina is the San Fransokyo Makers Market, the Big Hero 6 merchandise store with phone cases, plushies, t-shirts, mugs, and more.
In the former beer cart spot is the meet & greet area with Hiro & Baymax, however, they do occasionally switch out, so you could get one or both at any time.
Overall, it was great that Disney decided to refurbish the Pacific Wharf as it breathes new life into an area that barely has been touched theming-wise since opening day with refreshed menus, stores, and meet & greetings.
In the Paradise Gardens next to Goofy’s Sky School is Plaza De La Familia, a celebration of El Dia De Los Muertos, the Day of the Dead, through the movie Coco. I also happened to catch the Storytellers of the Coco movie on the main promenade.
From there, I looped around Pixar Pier, saw the Toy Story Green Army Men do their drills, got slo-mo footage of the Incredicoaster launch, went on the Little Mermaid attraction, through San Fransokyo Square, and into Cars Land. Since I had time, I went on Radiator Spring Racers, which broke down for ten minutes right before the attraction started and then came up again. Since the attraction started up again, I was in the front row and had my phone in my hand, might as well record it since it was safe to film on. After that, I headed Guardians of the Galaxy Mission Breakout.
(Not filmed, blog only) During Halloween time for the Guardians of the Galaxy Mission Breakout, at 3 p.m., cast members clear the line to swap the ride program for Monsters After Dark. After the events of Mission Breakout, Baby Groot is left behind and Rocket comes back to rescue him. However, the monsters are still on the loose through Tavens Collections. You help Rocket with the security clearance to rescue Groot through the scary collection of monsters.
My group was last to board for the regular Mission Breakout at 2 p.m., as it was the last call before the cast member swapped the ride systems over to Monsters After Dark. I got cool pictures of no one else behind us in line, giving it a liminal space kind of vibe as it looked like we were the only other guests in a forbidden space. In the last gantry lift, there were only eight of us, all the other guests sat in the front row, while I sat in the back row!
As I left California Adventure, guests coming early for the Oogie Boogie Bash were clamoring to get into the park, however, they had to wait another hour before they could be let in. Then I headed over to Disneyland where Halloween decorations were up only in Main Street USA.
At Disneyland, I saw that Indiana Jones Adventure had a really short line for an estimated queue time of 30 minutes, so might as well go. Due to the high thrill level nature of Indiana Jones Adventure, it is not safe to film unless the camera is security mounted to something. However, in my case, I was able to safely film it as I put my backpack on the bag hook, and face the backpack strap with my GoPro facing outwards on the left-hand side. GoPros don’t work well in darker or evening settings, so you won’t be able to see too much, but you will get whatever is well-lit, which a couple of scenes were on the attraction.
You also saw me post the last few months about the refurbishment of the French Market to Tiana’s Palace, it just reopened on Thursday, September 7, 2023, as part of the Tiana’s Bayou Adventure refurbishment of Splash Mountain.
Tiana’s Palace retains the quick service style of French Market with a new interior and exterior. In The Princess & the Frog, Tiana is a hard-working black woman with dreams of buying an abandoned warehouse and opening her dream restaurant Tiana Palace. This refurbishment of Tiana’s Palace is the physical equivalent of the dream restaurant in the heart of New Orleans Square sometime after the events of the movie. This goes in hand with the Splash Mountain refurbishment to Tiana’s Bayou Adventure, where the restaurant is getting ready to open and she sends guests on a fetch quest for ingredients in the bayou.
At Tiana’s Palace, the exterior has been repainted with brick wall design, and a steamboat wheelhouse on top as the building’s steeple. Next to the main entrance is the mobile order pick-up window if you don’t want to sit at the restaurant. The seating is still outdoors with the same white & blue chairs and the table is still the same with white iron legs & yellow marbled table top.
The inside has been redesigned with yellowish-white wall paint, the center has a deep blue skylight-like ceiling like it was nighttime, and the iron design around the skylight resembles a gazebo. I did not capture it, but the Disney Parks videos show many design torches referencing the movie like the clothes on the coat rack, lily flower wall lamps, and lily pad designs on the serving area.
Tiana’s Palace still retained the quick service style of French Market’s cafeteria ordering system. When you enter the restaurant, there are two cafeteria-style lines. When you get to a cafeteria side area, you get to see the house ice box overnight beignets being filled with lemon cream and topped with lemon icing. To get the food, you have the menus that you want, which I want to get the beignet, house gumbo, and chicory spiced cold brew iced coffee. The beignet & cornbread is set out so you just grab it and put it on the trey. For the entree, you ask a cast member to take orders about which entree you want to get, I asked for the gumbo, however, the chicken was finished being prepared for the gumbo, so I waited for a moment to be ready. When the gumbo was ready, I got it from the cast member and put it on my tray. You order drinks right before the cashier and I ask a cast member for the cold brew coffee. Lastly, I paid for my order. Then I went to the outdoor dining area to find a table, which I found a spot of wandering around for a moment. How’s the food?
In the Disney Parks video with the chef, the menu was mostly the same but reworked a bit with varying levels of spiciness. My entree was the house gumbo ($16.99) with rice, chicken, and Andouille sausage. It was really good, however, the andouille sausage was spicy. If you don’t like spicy food, just put the sausage on the side. To drink, I got a Joffrey’s Coffee cold brew coffee with chicory & sweet cream ($5.99). It was really good, chicory added a bit of spice, and sweet cream made it creamy & easy to drink. Lastly is the house-filled beignet ($4.49), it was lemony with lemon pie filling and topped with lemon icing.
Overall, the refurbishment of the French Market to Tiana’s Palace was good with good tweaked recipes, new beignet, and new interiors & exteriors.
After that, I hit all the points I wanted to cover, so it was time to enjoy the rest of the time at the parks. I winded through Disneyland through Fantasyland, Toontown for Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Railway. Then I darted to Tomorrowland before the 6:30 p.m. parade for Matterhorn, which hurt my back, and then Autopia when I got perfect sunset pictures.
At 6 pm, as I was leaving Toontown, all the regular park guests were kicked out of DCA due to Oogie Boogie Bash, who would either head out or park hop to Disneyland. This caused a huge crush of DCA guests to Disneyland, along with local Magic Key holders from post-school & work rush for a quick evening fun & dinner. By 7 p.m. after Autopia, the fairly short lines grew astronomically, so be aware of your timing on bash nights. Also on party nights, there aren’t any fireworks at Disneyland, instead it is only a projection show so the noise of the fireworks won’t bleed into DCA.
At 7:26 pm, it was the last of the sunlight before the full nightfall, I made a mad dash to Sleeping Beauty’s castle for a beautiful picture of the castle at last light. Then I headed to Tomorrowland to take the monorail back to Downtown Disney and then walk back to Pixar Pals parking garage. Before the monorail pulled into the Downtown Disney station, I got a brief glimpse of the construction progress of the former AMC theater to be Din Tai Fung & more unannounced tenants.
The editing process, video was minimally processed, due to the length of the video of two hours & fifteen minutes, which was edited & rendered on Blackmagic Design’s DaVinci Resolve free video editing software. It is free to use as the costs of their camera equipment & pro versions of their software subsidize the free software, and could persuade amateurs to buy their equipment & software down the road, which I am not there anytime soon.
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