Disneyland Construction Update: January 2016
In early January 2016, Disneyland closed a number of attractions around Rivers of America to begin construction on Star Wars Land, and to make layout changes to the park to accommodate this huge new land. Once the project gets going, it will be larger than any construction in decades, perhaps approaching the makeover and reboot of Disney California Adventure a few years ago. While this project won’t be as disruptive to guests as DCA 2.0 (after all, they rerouted the park entrance then!), Disneyland is much busier of a park, so it could have a greater impact on guests.
Because of that, some readers have asked for information about construction progress, impact, and the construction timeline so they can plan their visits. While I can’t provide the last bit of information since I simply don’t know it, I did head to Disneyland yesterday to capture some photos documenting the current progress that convey how the park presently looks, how the construction walls affect guests, and other random stuff.
I’ll probably continue to do this about once per month so long as people are interested in seeing and continue reading my thoughts on the updates. That is, unless I lose interest in taking photos of construction walls. As far as photo subjects go, they aren’t exactly the most exciting. Although, maybe this series will finally earn me my first (long overdue, if you ask me) Peabody Award?!
This post contains 75+ photos across 3 pages of text detailing the state of Disneyland and Disney California Adventure as of January 26, 2016. The first page features photos of traffic flow and the current state of the construction walls. Page 2 assesses my thoughts on the impact of the refurbishments on the park and includes photos of the alternate entertainment. Page 3 covers other random changes and photos.
Oh, before we get started, how about a moment of silence for The Goats of Disneyland Park® at the Disneyland Resort® in Disney Big Thunder Ranch® Presented by Brawny®, aka Goat Galaxy. Big Thunder Ranch permanently closed to make way for Star Wars Land, so the goats are gone. You will be missed, my beloved Goat Homies.
Aside from Big Thunder Ranch, every other closure is temporary. The attractions on the list below that are along the Rivers of America are down for over a year. My best guess as to when they reopen would be Memorial Day 2017, but that’s just a guess.
Here are current Disneyland refurbishments, along with anticipated re-opening dates:
- Disneyland Railroad
- Fantasmic!
- Pirates Lair on Tom Sawyer Island
- Sailing Ship Columbia
- Mark Twain Riverboat
- Davy Crockett’s Explorer Canoes
- Soarin’ (Closed weekdays; reopening TBD)
- ‘it’s a small world’ (Reopening February 4, 2016)
- Jungle Cruise (Reopening May 5, 2016)
- Autopia (Reopening April 28, 2016)
Alright, now let’s take a stroll around the parks. We’ll start with what I presume most of you care about: CONSTRUCTION WALLS!
First stop, Adventureland. There’s only one explanation for this wall: social experiment to determine the tipping point for guests to go insane encountering random walls throughout Disneyland. Expect new walls up next week as the experiment continues. (Unlikely alternate scenario: bridge refurbishment.)
Big Thunder Trail is closed off as work is preparation for Big Thunder Ranch’s removal and subsequent foundational work.
We’ll become pretty familiar with this wall over the next couple of years…
Looking past the wall, you can almost hear the faint bahs of the spirit of Goat Galaxy in the distance.
Signs in Fantasyland advise guests of the Big Thunder Trail closure.
Some random walls in New Orleans Square. The signage here might lead you to believe they’ve installed a bridge so the ‘it’s a small world’ dolls could deliver beignets from the train station to the Mint Julep Bar without being trampled by guests (safety first!), but this is actually to support temporary electric while refurbishments to the permanent structures take place.
On to Critter Country…
Walls are up all along the entrance to the Canoes, with signage. While Disneyland has indicated that all Rivers of America attractions will return, I wouldn’t be shocked to see these canoes go. I hope they come back–and signage acknowledging their existence is promising–but I could see this as an opportunity to quietly kill a minor attraction.
Cool attraction posters on this wall, including one for Nature’s Wonderland. Props on that.
Next up, Hungry Bear Restaurant. I have it on good authority that this is Bob Iger’s favorite restaurant in the entire world.
The Rivers of America-facing side of the restaurant upstairs is covered by scrims depicting fall foliage along a river. It looks rather nice, but it’s super-easy to see through when the sun isn’t directly overhead.
See? I wonder if another layer will be added to the river-side to deter weird bloggers like me from documenting construction progress.
Downstairs, the walls are solid, making for a dark atmosphere. Perfect for naps!
There are some great posters lining this wall, and the origins of some of these posters are beyond me. Obviously, the above is the Mark Twain attraction poster…
But what’s the source of this? Port Orleans Riverside? EuroDisney?
A few Google searches revealed nothing, but I’d be shocked (and really impressed) if these posters were designed solely for the refurbishment.
All of the posters have lights above them, except this one. Presumably because New Mexico is an awful place, and SHOULD GO BACK TO MEXICO WHERE IT BELONGS BEFORE WE BUILD A WALL AROUND IT.
Whatever the source, these posters are great, and it’s nice to see Disney giving some life to the walls, with the attraction posters outside, foliage scrims upstairs, and location posters downstairs.
This is a nice explanation of the Rivers of America, and I thought I recalled reading it somewhere, but couldn’t recall where. The Google Machine revealed there was a Disney Parks Blog post with the same info. I assume this is the internal WDI backstory for the Rivers of America, but really have no clue.
This is the type of exposition that couldn’t be posted along the Rivers of America normally, but is a perfectly fine “breaking of the fourth wall” during a refurbishment. Hopefully it gives some guests a greater appreciation for the Rivers.
Let’s be real: if a bear is hungry, he’s eating whatever rodent this is, not that burger. Let’s not glamorize the soulless killing machines that are bears.
If I haven’t already bored you to death, click here to read page 2.
There, I’ll start by offering my thoughts on the walls (you’re on the edge of your seat, aren’t you?!) and continue with photos of the alternate entertainment at Disneyland during the construction…
That New Orleans poster is from an awesome co called Anderson Design Group. I have their postcards up all over my office: https://www.andersondesigngroupstore.com/poster_american-cities_new-orleans-cathedral_anderson-design-group.html
Love the site!
I was going to mention that some of those looked like Anderson Design Group–thank you for validating! I just ordered some of their National Parks collection art for my son’s nursery. Love seeing their designs incorporated into Disneyland.
I am bringing my family over in October for our very first Disney trip and we all use your site for up to date news, info and tips. Thanks for the time and effort you put in to your blog! Can’t wait for the new soarin, luigis ride and everything else at dl! Apart from Halloween, is there anything else that is a little bit special around October 2016 at Disneyland! We are so excited! 255 days until we arrive!!!!
Great update! I love seeing the updates on construction and the explanation of where it is.
One additional photo is the view of the river. I know you said that there aren’t any walls blocking the view from New Orleans Square or Frontierland but maybe a shot of where the walls begin in half the frame and a view out into the river in the other half? I hope that made sense, as I’m not sure I articulated that correctly.
Anyway, good work as usual!
I really appreciate the commentary….I’ve actually audibly laughed a few times.
Thanks!
Great shot review – page 1. The Mark Twain poster with the red ink was offered as a paper or canvas print during the hey day of Print on Demand through the kiosks in what is now 20th Century Music on Main St. I have one waiting for a prominent spot on the wall. The RoA went through a refurb and reimagining when the blog post was done – where they made significant story elements and a definitive telling of the four rivers along the journey. Tony Baxter was very excited about some of the elements they brought in at the time (like the bald eagle’s nest at the point where the Potomac ended and Rio Grande started.
I too miss the swirls on the soft serve! I order them to return. And finally – Tom your eye for very great image subjects for photos is great. I think if you incorporated just that with some text behind it – whats new (or new to you), maybe about things happening in your travel, what you find out in the parks – its all good as long as you keep taking pics!
LOVE YOUR WORK!!!!
I read every article, I have no hope of seeing a park in 2016 but I love reading all your reports
thanks to Sarah too love her IG
Thanks for your updates and photos. I’m the crazy Australian who stopped to ‘chat’ on Sunday at Critter County. It was lovely to meet you. Thanks for your blog and photos. They are beautiful work and I look forward to new updates regularly.
It was lovely to spend some quiet days in the parks with relatively short wait times. My family was visiting from
Australia for a week and were really saddened that World of Colour was down for 2 weeks, and many other favourite attractions closed. Our Summer vacation time seems to match up with the refurb schedule of Disneyland – but the low crowd numbers were welcomed.
Thanks so much for the update! I have been reading the blog for awhile, but never commented! We are heading down in 17 days, staying for 8 days and I can’t wait for a relaxed trip, despite construction. And one who grew up in Northern California, and spent summer vacations in Disneyland each year, I don’t mind the closures of some attractions for minimal crowds. Which is why DCA 1.0 will always be nostalgic for me. As a 13 year old going into California Adventure and riding SuperStar Limo, Mulholland Madness, California Screamin’, Soarin’ for the first time I loved every moment of it.
That being said, I love the new changes they made, especially Buena Vista Street. Glad the park has a grand entrance instead of the cheesy Golden Gate Bridge, big huge sun with sunglasses, even though my 13 year old self thought it was super cool!
Thanks,
From Seattle 🙂
Thank you! We live in the Central coast and make it down to DL a few times a year. Our next trip is in April and it’s awesome to get a peek at what awaits us. I’ve been reading your blog for awhile now and it tides ke over between trips 🙂 I vote for… more construction updates AND random tidbits! I just can’t get enough of your DL pictures – definitely inspires me to do more photography at the parks. Thank you again!
Thanks for the update! We are headed to Disneyland for our first trip this summer after many, many trips to Disney World. It is sad to see that so many things will be closed while we are there.
Great updates. I very much appreciate the amount of photos you post! Wonderful photography!!
Hi Tom! I have an update about autopia. I took the walk in Walt’s footsteps tour earlier this week. There were only 3 of us on the tour so we got some extra off the script info. Honda IS converting the cars to electric but the timeline is 2018 for all of the cars to be replaced.
I love reading all your updates. One of the things you do best, Tom, is that your writing automatically transports readers to Disney with you, and we can share in that magic just for a little while as we experience Disney vicariously through you. I’d love to hear about how the construction progresses further, or just other random thoughts and observations on your future visits. Thanks for your devotion to this blog!
Thanks for the updates Tom. Moving forward, I’d love to keep seeing the progress and impact of construction, as well as any new “lemonade” entertainment to counter the walls’ increased presence. Maybe comparison photos somehow if it seems like large areas have been enveloped?
Also, it would be interesting to hear if Sarah has any differing take on the construction and predictions for the future. Thanks for all your hard work!
Thanks for this update and the always-awesome photos. And please continue these type of updates, as it gets me excited for my March visit!
Thank you, thank you, thank you! I really appreciate the updates. I’m glad to see you can still do some stuff with the railroad and riverboat right now. Hopefully it’s still that way and the a river of America is still full when we’re there.
Couple of questions if you don’t mind… How are the Soarin lines since it’s only open on weekends? How was RSR yesterday? We’ll be there several days next month and I’m stoked for that ride. If they’re very manageable I think it’ll be very good.
I may have more as I reread this post over the coming weeks, but that gets me started.
I can’t speak to Soarin’ as it was closed yesterday (presumably for Shanghai Disneyland testing and programming), but RSR had a 40-50 minute wait the times we looked. For comparison, Space Mountain was a 30 minute wait in the afternoon. Not too bad.
I went to DCA this past Saturday. At rope drop I walked right on to Soarin. It didn’t have a line the 1st hour the park was open. But half way through the day the line got up to 100 min.
Thanks for the info!
Great update! Your humor, knowledge of the parks, and of course amazing photos are why I keep reading your blogs.
Nice update! It would be great to go when it was less crowded, I was there over New Years. It was really fun but so crowded!
Pretty much since last May, Disneyland has been really crowded, and unbearably so during busy times. It was such a relief to return yesterday and find a peaceful park!
I think I should only read your updates now over Dateline. THE PHOTOS ARE AMAZING.
Great update!
Thanks, but I think Dateline Disneyland is still the gold standard for updates. Andy does great work with that, and I don’t have his eye for that type of update nor the patience to do it on a weekly basis. Hopefully my updates bring something *different* to the table.
True. In case the author of Dateline Disneyland is reading this, no offense meant. I just love seeing this type of update with your style of photos. 🙂
Great update. Liked your commentary. Keep it up!