It’s once again time for a photo report from Mrs. Myrna Litt. She visited the Disneyland Resort yesterday as Christmas decorations have started to be put up:
Anyone know why there was a conductor in this restaurant’s train?
Christmas decorations have started to be put up in Sunshine Plaza.
Scaff-holding is up around the Sun Wheel.
I absolutely love these construction walls at the bottom of the picture! An absolutely fantastic design choice.
According to various reports, the Courtyard of Angels in New Orleans Square, as previously rumored, has been transfered over to a Christmas time store, selling what else but Christmas merchandise.
We will try to get pictures of this new store for you later this week, so stay tuned.
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!
We’ve heard from various sources that the Court of Angels in New Orleans Square (which is located near the exit of Pirates of the Caribbean) will soon be home to New Orleans Square’s Christmas Shop. The current Christmas store is located right next door to the Court of Angels, & this would be an expansion of that store. A canopy will be put up, with Christmas merchandise hanging everywhere, & of course cash registers will be added.
There’s no word one if this will be seasonal or year round just yet, & if this even will be happening, but be sure to stay tuned to Disneyland News Today for the latest updates!
Rumors are abound that McDonalds may be pulling out as a Disneyland sponsor. McDonald’s currently operate 2 fry carts over in Frontierland & New Orleans Sqaure, & the Burger Invasion restaurant over in Paradise Pier. Each restaurant sells a limited McDonalds menu, so I think it’s safe to say that they wont be missed.
Another company ready to butt out of a sponsorship deal is Carnation. Carnation has been involved with Disney pretty much since the opening of Disneyland. Back in 1984, Nestle acquired Carnation, & it’s become one of their lesser known brands. As Al Lutz of MiceAge explains it…
… Nestle’ contract as a whole is on the rocks, after meeting up with legal headaches regarding some of the beverages it sells that compete directly with Coca-Cola’s expanding reach into coffee and beverages besides soft drinks. As it stands now, Coca-Cola wants to have a sponsorship presence at Disneyland and other Disney parks more desperately than Nestle’ does, and as push comes to shove with the lawyers it looks like it is Nestle’ and its family of different brands who will likely leave the park.
Just so long as Coca-Cola makes it financially lucrative, Disneyland may even be removing decades old signage around the park like that found at Carnation Plaza Gardens, the sight of a long gone snack bar that served up its last milkshake a decade ago.
