It’s Getting Cold Outside

As we head in to this holiday week, here are a few interesting happenings going on around the Disneyland Resort:

  • The Sleeping Beauty Castle Walk-through is currently planned to open this Wednesday, November 26th. While this date could definitely change at any time, this is the most concrete date we’ve seen thus far.
  • Air conditioning has finally been installed in the indoor portion of the queue for Toy Story Midway Mania. This will really improve the circulation in there during the hot summer months. Too bad they installed it as it starts getting cold!
  • Quite interestingly, Disneyland is currently running 2 different pre-parades to A Christmas Fantasy. The Narnia pre-parade from back in May is running in front of the 3:30 parade, & the new Bolt pre-parade is running in front of the 6:30 parade.

Wishing Star Crystals

About a month ago, the Three Magic Fairies “magic crystal” store in Sleeping Beauty Castle closed, to be replaced with the disabled room for the soon to re-open Sleeping Beauty Castle Walk-through. It had been rumored that it would be moving to the old home of Gepetto’s Holiday Workshop. Well that is now come true, & the new crystal store opened yesterday (with a Pinocchio theme of course) as Wishing Star Crystals.

We’ll have pictures of this new store later in the week, so stay tuned!

Some Very Interesting Rumors…

The latest Disneyland Update on MiceAge as always provides a great look at what could possibly be coming to the Disneyland Resort in the near future. Let’s take a look through some of the more interesting details brought up in this update:

  • Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln could very well be coming back in 2010, for Disneyland’s 55th anniversary, but with some very drastic changes. Some changes would be made to make the show very similar to the new version of the Hall of Presidents that will debut this July in Walt Disney World, that being the addition of George Washington & Barrack Obama with speaking roles, even though the attraction will still be just Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln. The exit & entrance would be switched around so that guests can exit out into an expanded Disneyland/Walt Disney memorabilia exhibit. And the new location of the Disney Gallery is rumored to be connected next door in the current home of the Bank of Main Street, with the AP Processing center that is currently housed in the bank moving over to the Plaza Pavilion.
  • It’s a Small World Holiday will be opening officially this Friday, with soft openings planned to happen tomorrow & Thursday. The attraction will basically be the same overlay as it has been for the past 11 years, with-out the Disney characters or the new Americana room (that area will be covered in black drapes as always). The only change for this year’s holiday overlay will be the addition of the characters from the old Rainforest room to the South Seas room off in one corner of that room. The attraction will then close from January 5th to February 14th where the Americana scene will be unveiled & the Disney characters will be added. Apparently there are plans to incorporate these 2 new additions into next year’s holiday overlay.
  • Even though we here at Disneyland News Today have heard strong rumors that the Sleeping Beauty Castle Walk-through would be opening at the beginning of Holidays at the Disneyland Resort this Friday, it’s now more likely that it won’t open until Thanksgiving at the absolute earliest, maybe even later.
  • Disney is thinking of adding another parking structure to Resort on the site of the current Pumbaa parking lot, that will be desperately needed if attendance really does pick up at DCA. This structure is currently planned to open sometime in 2011, if all goes according to plan.
  • It seems Disney has finally nailed down a good plan on just how to refurbish the Disneyland Hotel. The plan at the moment is to first build a completely new 4th tower on a currently un-used site, & once that is complete, tear down 2 of the current towers & rebuild one from that, & then finally tear down & rebuild the 4th tower.
For more information on the topics above & plenty more, check out the Disneyland Update.