You Could Be Tinker Bell!

WDWNT Author on August 13, 2008

The Disney Auditions website is listing an audition for the 5 Disney Fairies characters, to be held this Sunday (August 17th), which ironically is the same day that Ariel’s Grotto is supposed to close.

Seeking females with engaging personalities to portray Disney Fairies, the newest members of our character family. Face Character Look-alikes perform before thousands of guests each day in “meet and greets”, parades and stage shows across the Disneyland® Resort. We are actively seeking performers of all ethnicities!

Roles:

Tinker Bell: 4’11”–5’2”
Iridessa, Rosetta, Silvermist, Fawn: 5’2”–5’5”

What is interesting, is that this audition isn’t just for meet ‘n greets, but also for shows & parades, which while adding extra strength to the ever gaining rumor that Tinker Bell will get the role of the opening float in Disney’s Electrical Parade, which perhaps may feature the other 4 Fairies as well, it could also mean a pre-parade float to Walt Disney’s Parade of Dreams tied into the movie, much like was done with Ratatouille, Enchanted, & The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian.

Hat tip goes to the OC Register…

Electrosynthomagnetic In The 21st Century

WDWNT Author on August 12, 2008

We have a little update for you on the planned changes to Disney’s Electrical Parade. Sources are reporting that the Snow White & the Seven Dwarfs Diamond Mine unit, as well as the entire Pinocchio unit, that was used in the parade when it was at Disneyland Park, will arrive backstage at the Resort sometime soon. Several small effects are being tested with the floats currently in use at the moment. Various reports are saying that the new Tinker Bell float has been ordered for the parade, so it’s now pretty likely to replace the Blue Fairy as the opening float of the parade.

Stay tuned to Disneyland News Today for up-to-date information on these new additions to Disney’s Electrical Parade!

Refurb Season Is Coming!

WDWNT Author on August 11, 2008

UPDATED @ 11:00AM

We have a few more updates for you to the attractions refurbishment list. First up, over in Entertainment, for the week of August 25th, both Disney’s Electrical Parade & Fantasmic! will not be offered on the Monday through Thursday, due to a lot of kids being back at school. The following week, both will go on hiatus. Fantasmic! will return on November 7th, & Disney’s Electrical Parade will return in mid December.

August 17th will be the last day for the lovely Ariel’s Grotto meet ‘n greet. Work will then begin on changing over that area to Pixie Hollow for Tinker Bell & her fellow Fairies. So if you want your picture taken with Ariel in her Mermaid form, August 17th will be your last day to do it until 2010!

The New Orleans Square Railroad Station will close on September 2nd for repaving of the station & surrounding area (including the area in front of the Haunted Mansion). Trains will just go straight through that station, & continue on to Toontown. It’s due to re-open on October 17th.

Big Thunder Ranch will be closed from September 15th to the 25th (it originally was planned to be closed until the 27th) so they can add the Woody’s Halloween Round-up overlay. It will then be closed from November 3rd until the 20th for the Santa’s Reindeer Round-up overlay.

The previously planned Pirates of the Caribbean refurbishment that was to of gone from October 13th to November 14th seems to have been completely removed from the list.

A second Mark Twain Riverboat refurbishment will happen in November (the first is from August 25th-29th), from the 3rd to the 5th.

Finally for Disneyland Park, the new store, replacing New Century Timepieces will open September 30th, & the It’s a Small World Toy Shop will open before the attraction on September 28th. And over at It’s a Small World itself, the new flume has been painted.

One quick thing over at DCA, the Hyperion Theater refurbishment that starts on September 2nd, finally has an end date, that being December 18th.

Stay tuned to Disneyland News Today for updates on all attraction refurbishments. And for up-to-the-minute information on the various refurbishments, be sure to check our Attraction Refurbishments page!

Electric Screams of Color: The Musical, This Christmas

WDWNT Author on August 4, 2008

Screamscape have posted a few interesting rumors from through-out the Resort, some of which we have already reported, but they give extra backing to what we have already said:

Some improvements are slated to be made to the Electrical Parade for Summer 2009. First off it seems that the California parade will import a couple of floats from the old Paris parade, namely a new Pinnochio float and the Diamond Mine float. Meanwhile we’ve heard that the Blue Fairy float is likely to be on the way out and will be replaced with a brand spankin’ new Tinker Bell float that will serve as the new lead float for the parade. Apparently the float itself will still use the old-school style lights like the rest of the parade, but Tink herself will be covered in new LED lights instead. Speaking of LEDs… apparently the plan is to install a few new LED effects in all the floats so that Tink can create some kind of magic effect at the start that will travel back through the rest of the floats in the parade.

While the improvements to the parade are likely to happen, the only question is if it will be in DCA or Disneyland.

In a disappointing twist, it seems that the real world Wall-E may not be coming to California Adventure after all. If the rumors are true something may have gone amiss with the first robot that we’ve all seen clips of already, that may be caused them to drop or delay plans to bring one to the park. Also due to construction on the Little Mermaid ride, there will not be another Golden Screams show held this fall. They may come up with some kind of replacement Villains concept in the Hollywood Backlot instead. And the fun news is that the new DCA Preview Center that will show off all the proposed changed coming to the park may be ready to open sometime this fall.

I have been hearing that they will actually close Golden Dreams as Golden Screams as soon as Halloween is over & then they will start work on the Little Mermaid. Although if you look at Disneyland’s official page for Halloween Time 2008, Golden Screams doesn’t appear to be listed. Time will have to tell on this one.

Early 2010 – Toy Story: The Musical – Rumor – (8/3/08) While I don’t know what the short-term plan is for the Aladdin show, we’ve heard that Toy Story: The Musical is now scheduled to open in early 2010 as a replacement. So I guess the question remains as to when exactly the current Aladdin show will close down.

2010 – Wonderful World of Color – Confirmed – (8/2/08) Sometime in very early 2009 I’ve heard that we may see the park drain the lagoon to do some of the extensive work needed for the upcoming World of Color night show.

And moving quickly over to Disneyland…

For the Holiday season we’ve heard that the park may add the “light up” snow effect to cover the front and back of the castle this year as well as expand it into the trees and garland in the hub and main street areas as well as the Town Square Christmas Tree. I’ve also been told that a new Toy Factory float will be added to the Christmas Parade to replace the old float.

I did once hear that what Screamscape is talking about might even be expanded to the Matterhorn, but I highly doubt that would happen. However, if the lighting effects do expand to the back of the Castle, that will make the whole thing look even nicer, & more complete!

The next few years at the Resort are going to be really exciting, & if even one of these rumors come true, I’ll be happy!

Let The Good Times Roll!

WDWNT Author on July 21, 2008

Construction is about to begin at Disney’s California Adventure, according to Blue Sky Disney. Come this August, construction walls will be up all through-out Paradise Pier & other area of the park will follow.

Also while construction is underway in Paradise Pier, the parade route will be shortened & will only run from Sunshine Plaza to the gate in between the Mission Tortilla Factory & the Bountiful Valley Farmers Market.

Let The Good Times Roll!

Buy Three Nights, Get Two Nights and a New Fireworks Show Free!

WDWNT Author on January 1, 1970

A press release for an excellent new vacation deal holds more to it than just that deal:

Get Two More Days & Nights FREE, When You Buy Three at the Disneyland Resort

It’s an offer as exciting as summer itself! You can get two extra hotel nights — plus two extra days of Theme Park admission — FREE with the purchase of a 3-night or longer Walt Disney Travel Company package to the Disneyland® Resort. That gives you extra time to enjoy all the classic shows and attractions in both Parks by day, then see the night in a whole new light with this summer’s electrifying lineup of after-dark entertainment:

  • A bigger, brighter and bolder Fantasmic! ignites the night
  • Disney’s Electrical Parade, where a twinkling Tinker Bell brings new sparkle to a dazzling classic
  • Magical, the new fireworks spectacular, illuminates the sky with Disney magic

This offer is valid for travel April 1 through Sept. 26, 2009, but must be booked by Aug. 11, 2009.

Plus, book before May 31, 2009, and kids fly free on Alaska Airlines from select cities through June 15, 2009.

Hopefully you picked up on the last of the 3 entertainment offerings described, which is supposedly Disneyland’s new fireworks show, simply called Magical. The title is all that is known at this time, but stay tuned to Disneyland News Today as we get more in on this breaking news story.

July 4th Trip Planner

WDWNT Author on January 1, 1970

To prepare everyone visiting the Disneyland Resort during this holiday weekend, I wanted to go over the entertainment schedule for July 4th, as well as the park hours, to make sure everyone can successfully see what they want to see:

  • Disneyland will be open from 8:00am to 12:00am all weekend.
  • “Celebrate! A Street Party” will be performed every day at 3:30pm and 6:30pm.
  • The special fourth of July holiday fireworks show, “Disney’s Celebrate America! A Fourth of July Concert in the Sky”, will be performed at 9:25pm starting tonight and running through Sunday night. According to D23, the shows on July 2nd, 3rd, and 5th will be a condensed version, only 8 minutes long, compared to the full show on July 4th which is 13 minutes long and will have much more pyro. The regular fireworks show, Magical, will return on Monday.
  • Fantasmic will have three performances on July 4th, at 9:00pm, 10:30pm, and 11:30pm.
  • Suburban Legends will be performing through-out the night on July 4th at the TLT Dance Club, beginning at 7:00pm.
  • Disney’s California Adventure will be open from 10:00am to 10:00pm on July 4th.
  • The Pixar Play Parade will be performed as usual at 5:15pm.
  • Disney’s Electrical Parade will also be performed at its usual time of 8:45pm.

If you are planning to visit the Disneyland Resort this weekend, be aware crowds will be massive. Disneyland may even be closed in the afternoon due to the park reaching capacity, and you’ll be re-directed to DCA. Parking may also be an isssue, as I explained in this recent post. For the full entertainment schedule on July 4th, which includes smaller entertainment venues around the parks, click HERE.

DLR Photo Report – 7/6/09

WDWNT Author on January 1, 1970

I’m back from a wonderful evening trip yesterday to the Disneyland Resort. Even though I visited both parks, this photo report only covers Mickey and Friends and Disney’s California Adventure. So let’s get to this photo report:

Some work going on at the Mickey and Friends Tram Station. The tram only loads on the right side at the moment

As I got into DCA, the Pixar Play Parade started, so here are some photos

The Ratatouile unit has finally returned to the parade

Read More about DLR Photo Report – 7/6/09