More Details Emerge For DCA Entrance Makeover

WDWNT Author on December 22, 2010

From the LA Times:

An intense, 16-month construction project designed to transform the Disney California Adventure entryway from a nondescript strip mall into a circa-1920s Los Angeles streetscape will begin in earnest Jan. 4.

As part of an ongoing, $1.1 billion makeover, the sweeping and extensive reimagineering will wall off 4 acres of the main entrance between the C-A-L-I-F-O-R-N-I-A letters, Sunshine Plaza, Grizzly Peak and Hollywood Studios Backlot. The remade entryway, dubbed Buena Vista Street, will be designed to evoke the era when a young Walt Disney first arrived in Los Angeles.

After the winter holiday season ends, construction walls will go up around the iconic C-A-L-I-F-O-R-N-I-A letters Jan. 4 so that crews can turn the plaza area into Streamline Moderne turnstiles modeled after the former Pan-Pacific Auditorium in Los Angeles.

Read on over at the LA Times Website…

2011 and 2012 Food and Wine Festival Canceled

WDWNT Author on November 3, 2010

Sad news today from the Disney Parks Blog:

As many of you know, we are in the midst of a multi-year expansion of Disney California Adventure park. Our first key milestone occurred this past June with the premiere of “World of Color,” and next year, we’ll open The Little Mermaid ~ Ariel’s Undersea Adventure. As we shared with you last Friday, Cars Land is well on its way to opening in 2012, and we’ll continue to share news and take you behind the scenes throughout the expansion here on the Disney Parks Blog.

While we are extremely excited with all of the progress to date, we have had to make some changes to accommodate our growth, and today we want to let you know we will not be hosting the 2011 and 2012 Disney’s California Food & Wine Festivals in Disney California Adventure park. This was not an easy decision, but expansion work over the next two years in some areas of the park present significant logistical challenges around scheduling the hundreds of festival offerings. This work includes transforming the park’s entry plaza as well as the hub area where the event main stage has been located. When the work is completed, it will be reminiscent of the Los Angeles that Walt found when he arrived in the 1920s, complete with Red Car Trolleys. Below is a rendering that we’ve not yet released on the Blog that shows what the area will look like when completed.

Rendering of Los Angeles in the 1920s

We realize the festival has been a guest favorite but feel it’s most important to ensure our park experience is the best it can be during this exciting time. After the expansion is completed and we open Cars Land in 2012, we will continue to look at opportunities for special events and festivals. Please stay tuned to the Blog for the most up-to-date information.

New DCA Refurb Project Dates

WDWNT Author on May 6, 2009

The DCA Project Tracker has some new information on upcoming refurbishments at Disney’s California Adventure:

  • Construction walls will go up around Golden Dreams on May 26th, as work finally begins on The Little Mermaid: Ariel’s Adventure. On June 1st, those walls will spread down to Souvenir 66, Corn Dog Castle, and Dinosaur Jack’s Sunglass Shack, the last of which closes on May 26th and will become an extended queue for Goofy’s Sky School.
  • After the Orange Stinger closes for its refurbishment on July 27th, the next re-do will be for Mulholland Madness, which is scheduled to close in January 2010. Also scheduled for January 2010 is work finally beginning on Buena Vista Street.

These dates are far from official and are always scheduled to change, so stay tuned to Disneyland News Today and our Refurbishments page for the latest.

TLT Renovation

WDWNT Author on May 1, 2009

D23 has put up a couple of interesting things today that I want to share with everyone. First up, a great look at the Disney’s California Adventure renovation is provided in the Summer issue of Disney twenty-three magazine:

In the summer issue of twenty-three, Steven Clark and Jeffrey Epstein take readers on an exciting walk into the future of Disney’s California Adventure, revealing what Imagineers have in mind for park over the next four years. As you might expect, spectacular plans are unfolding — everything from a brand-new entryway and the majestic Carthay Circle Theatre to the spectacular World of Color nighttime extravaganza, the calypso under-the-sea beat of the new Little Mermaid attraction and an entirely new themed land that will be home to Lightning McQueen and his four-wheeled friends! Happy browsing!

Secondly, they have an interview with Disneyland Entertainment Productions Senior Show Director John Addis about the upcoming TLT Dance Club coming to the Tomorrowland Terrace this summer as part of Summer Nightastic:

If a hot nightspot inside Disneyland featuring today’s most popular music sounds like a familiar concept, you have something in common with Disneyland Entertainment Productions Senior Show Director John Addis.

“I opened Videopolis back in ’85,” John says, referring to the vibrant video dance club that once stood where the Princess Fantasy Faire now resides. “They packed the place. Kids would go and learn dances together.” John says they wanted to bring the concept into 2009, and the Tomorrowland Terrace, which has frequently featured contemporary performances throughout the years, was the perfect spot for the new TLT Dance Club (skywalkers-in-training, have no fear, Jedi Training Academy will continue during the day — TLT will heat up nightly from 7–11 p.m. starting June 12). “We’re going to have plasma screens in the venue, and you can actually text and your text messages will go up on the screen… I’m not quite sure how they’re going to police that,” he says with a laugh. Guests will also be able to text in their favorite song to a posted number. “At 8 o’clock at night they do ‘Celebrate at 8,’ and they will take all of the songs that everyone wants to hear and they’ll do a countdown to the No. 1 song.”

John also notes there will be a host who will keep the night grooving with games, trivia and trademarked Disney fun. Music, of course, will be the heart of TLT, with DJs from Southern California radio stations and local bands keeping things lively. “The asks are out, as they say,” jokes John about possible performers and DJs. “But I haven’t heard anything definite. I’m excited about the live music. Friday through Sunday we’re going to have live bands.”

The bands, notes Disney Entertainment Productions Producer Ray Coble, may be familiar to Disneyland-ers. “We’re welcoming bands that we use and know are very successful like the 80z All Stars and also looking at some new ones.”

Adds John, “I’d love to expose people to new groups. It’s great to have a new group come in, people follow them and suddenly… they’re Rascal Flatts!”

Does that mean Miley may turn up at TLT? “We’re looking into Hollywood Records and Disney Channel emerging artists — and maybe even some established recording artists — coming down during that Friday to Sunday time,” John hints. “What we’ve done is taken an area that needed to have some fun, and I think it’s going to!”