Protestors upset with recent Anaheim Police-involved shootings marched at Disneyland‘s doorstep this weekend in an effort to call attention to their cause. The protests prompted increased police presence around Disneyland’s Harbor Boulevard pedestrian entrance but the peaceful demonstrations never escalated and Resort guests were largely unaffected. Meanwhile, Disneyland is preparing to soon close the Fantasyland Theater and temporarily relocate the princess meet-and-greets currently housed in the venue while a permanent home for the princesses is constructed next to Sleeping Beauty Castle. In California Adventure, big crowds continue to hit the new Cars Land area.
Get a closer look at today’s update! You can now click on any photo in today’s column for a large, high-resolution version of the image.
Inside Dateline Disneyland
Welcome to Disneyland!
Touring Plans crowd forecast
Tragic Kingdom
Anaheim protestors move demonstrations against Anaheim police to Disneyland’s doorstep
Fantasyland Faire-well
Fantasyland prepares to move popular princess meet-and-greets
Guest-proofing the Jungle
Jungle Cruise gets new nets and bumpers
Welcome to Disney California Adventure
California Adventure crowd update
Downtown Disney
Earl of Sandwich construction progresses
Weekly News and Information Round-Up
Weekly theme park hours, closures and refurbishments
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WELCOME TO DISNEYLAND!
Disney California Adventure will continue to see high crowd levels again this week. TouringPlans.com can help you navigate the parks with our per-park Crowd Calendar, Lines – Mobile Wait Times App that gives access to current and estimated wait times for attractions, and Touring Plans detailing the best plan of attack for hitting the attractions. With summer crowds here, it’s a good time to subscribe to TouringPlans.com to plan your strategy to avoid the crowds!
Below are the predicted resort-wide crowd numbers for select days generated by the TouringPlans professional statisticians as measured for the upcoming week. For the access to the full year and per-park crowd level predictions, visit our Crowd Calendar.
— Fred Hazelton, Statistician, TouringPlans.com
Resort-Wide
Crowd Calendar Prediction
Crowd Tips
Tues., July 31
10 /10
Here are some quick-hit notes that we hope you’ll find helpful as you prepare your visits for the week:
Southern California Annual Passports are now blocked out through August 19.
Full blockouts on Saturday.
Disney California Adventure is a 9.9 on Thursday.
Due to its incredibly low capacity, consider riding Luigi’s Flying Tires standby right after starting your day by grabbing a FASTPASS for Radiator Springs Racers.
Wed., Aug. 1
10 /10
Thu., Aug. 2
10 /10
Fri., Aug. 3
10/10
Crowd levels are based on a scale from 1 to 10, with 1 being the least crowded conditions and 10 being most crowded.
See Disneyland crowds for the next 365 days.
Get Disneyland wait times on youriPhone, Android, or Smartphone.
Do more. Wait less.
TRAGIC KINGDOM
Outside Disneyland’s main gate, Harbor Boulevard saw groups of protestors, and at times a very visible police presence in response to recent community outcry over two fatal shootings by Anaheim Police.
The OC Register had details on the protestors at the Disneyland Resort:
50 Protesters gather outside Disneyland
Visitors to Disneyland are used to spectacle, but tourists at the park’s main entrance on Saturday saw something unusual: Protesters with signs criticizing the Anaheim Police Department.
The protesters, whose numbers grew to about 50 by late afternoon, came to take issue with the recent spate of fatal officer-involved shootings in Anaheim. City officials have called for state and federal investigations into the incidents.
Protesters carried signs, chanted anti-police slogans and engaged in conversations with any Disneyland Resort visitors curious enough to approach them.
Motorists driving by on Harbor Boulevard occasionally honked their horns and raised their fists in solidarity. Otherwise, it was a peaceful protest that had started out with members of the media who were covering the gathering nearly outnumbering the dozen or so protesters who had arrived around noon.
A silent “peace walk” is scheduled for noon Sunday, starting and ending at Anaheim City Hall. A posting on Facebook under the heading “WE are Anaheim, SOMOS Anaheim” asks those who come to wear white shirts and bring “positive signs” along with “a Positive and Pacifist mind-set.”
Many of the protesters at Disneyland were from Los Angeles, and were part of Mexica Movement, an indigenous rights group that considers “Hispanic” and “Latino” as pejorative, “Eurocentric” labels.
Others came from Anaheim, Santa Ana, Costa Mesa and other parts of Orange County, and said they had participated in the protests earlier in the week that had turned ugly. Some of them brought their children and grandchildren.
Gabriela Hernandez of Costa Mesa, a 32-year-old social worker who counsels families, had witnessed the beginning of the violence Tuesday night near Anaheim City Hall. She left when things began to get out of hand. On Saturday, she stood with her two daughters, 11 and 12, holding signs as part of the protest outside Disneyland.
Hernandez said she wants people to know that the protesters include hard-working professionals like her who are not interested in violence but want to see justice done.
“This has been ongoing,” Hernandez said of what she called police brutality allegations and “bad apples” in the Anaheim Police Department. “This is nothing recent.” [ FULL STORY ]
While the community outcry here is worthy of discussion, the protesting at Disneyland and signage suggesting Disney is responsible for the Anaheim Police Department seems unfair. It probably isn’t appropriate to protest at Disneyland’s doorstep for a matter that Disney has no involvement in.
Despite the protestors, the Disneyland Resort remained largely unaffected by weekend protestors. The Resort remains busy and as safe as it has been all summer and we encourage you to not let the recent protests interrupt your vacation plans. We were at the Resort throughout the weekend and experienced very little protestor impact. If you are concerned, avoid the Resort’s Harbor Boulevard pedestrian entry point.
FANTASYLAND FAIRE-WELL
Back inside Disneyland, work continues on the new Fantasy Faire princess meet-and-greet area in the former Carnation Plaza Gardens.
Still not much visible progress can be seen
Back in Fantasyland, the current Princess Fantasy Faire meet-and-greet in the Fantasyland Theater is now set to close as early as August 12 to begin its conversion back into a proper theater.
With the Fantasy Faire in the Central Plaza not yet open, the closure of the Princess Fantasy Faire in the Fantasyland Theater is coming earlier than expected. The princesses won’t be evicted without a place to go; instead, they’ll relocate to $42,000 temporary homes along Small World Promenade until their new Fantasy Faire village area opens early next year.
New show expected in Disneyland Fantasyland
Disneyland is making plans to produce a new show in Fantasyland after nearly seven years without a theatrical production.
The Princess Fantasy Faire, a meet-and-greet, is set move out of the Fantasyland Theater and re-open next year in a new location that is under construction.
The new faire will run where the Carnation Plaza Gardens used to be at the end of Main Street, U.S.A. near Sleeping Beauty Castle. Jon Storbeck, vice president of Disneyland, said that Disney officials plan to bring in a “brand new show” and that they were working on a “concept” for the theater.
Disney has yet to announce details of the replacement show.
[ . . . ] Disney declined to confirm that closing date. “There’s no announcement at this time,” said Kevin Rafferty Jr., a Disneyland Resort spokesman, in a statement.
The princesses are expected to move near by the “it’s a small world” ride.
This week, the city issued a building permit for the construction of “Fantasy Princess meet and greet structures” for the mall near “it’s a small world.” The cost is $42,000. [ FULL STORY ]
It’ll be great to see this facility be used for a real stage show once again.
There’s always a long line here
Of course a large retail space is present.
Lots of high-priced princess costumes
Face painting, too
Princesses will relocate here
You can currently meet Merida from “Brave” in a small portion of this area
GUEST-PROOFING THE JUNGLE
The Jungle Cruise is currently closed and will reopen Wednesday after installing new safety bumpers to jungle boats to help close the gap between the boats and the dock where guests load.
Details from the OC Register:
Disneyland’s Jungle Cruise closes for week
Disneyland is making it easier to hop aboard the Jungle Cruise [ . . . ].
The popular attraction is closing for a week to undergo a project that will shrink the over-the-water gap between the dock and the boats where visitors board and leave the ride, said Kevin Rafferty Jr., a Disneyland Resort spokesman.
Bumpers will be added to the boats.
The ride is closed Thursday through Wednesday.
“The (refurbishment) is a safety enhancement that is meant to allow our guests to enter and exit the vehicles with greater ease,” Rafferty said.
Disney did not say if anything prompted the refurbishment.
Over 2009 and 2010, the state investigated 10 reports of injuries or medical problems suffered on the Jungle Cruise. It was one of 10 rides with 10 or more reports at Orange County theme parks those years. [ FULL STORY ]
Nearby at Aladdin’s Oasis, a sign has been posted to help encourage guest traffic to the empty space that is currently being used as overflow guest seating and a small character meet-and-greet.
The space that formerly housed the Tahitian Terrace restaurant and Aladdin’s Oasis theater show sits largely unused and while it’s nice to have it open to guests this summer, it would be nice to see a new restaurant or at least a new show here.
Shortest meet-and-greet lines you’ll see in the park.
WELCOME TO
DISNEY CALIFORNIA ADVENTURE
At Disney California Adventure, no visible progress has been made at finishing the western side of California Adventure’s main entrance that was formerly the temporary entrance path for the park during construction.
The dedication plaque at the base of the Buena Vista Street flagpole has been replaced.
Below, a look at the plaque as it appeared on California Adventure’s June 15th grand re-opening:
Buena Vista Street’s new Red Car Trolley continues to operate regularly during park hours but the trolley wigwag crossing signals have been mostly been non-functional so far this summer.
I’m at the park often multiple times every week and have only seen the wigwag operating once at Buena Vista Street station. Functionally-speaking, the wigwags appear to be largely unreliable and a detail that most guests don’t get to see.
It seems Disney is working on the problem and trying to get the wigwags working. Below, we caught the Carthay Circle Station wigwag working Sunday afternoon. Unfortunately, the Buena Vista Street Station wigwag was still not functional.
A look at wait times mid-day Sunday.
Crowds were present in full-force this weekend in Cars Land.
Radiator Springs Racers overflow queue spilled onto Cross Street Sunday afternoon
DOWNTOWN DISNEY
In Downtown Disney, work continues on the Earl of Sandwich restaurant.
In front of the new Earl of Sandwich restaurant, the old Compass Books Newsstand will soon be removed, according to the Orange County Register:
Downtown Disney kiosk set for removal
The Downtown Disney kiosk has sold cupcakes and magazines to T-shirts and make-your-own art. But soon the kiosk will be gone.
A permanent, white kiosk between the ESPN Zone and the former Compass Book Store and Café, is scheduled to be taken out in the next few weeks.
Melissa Britt, a Disneyland Resort spokeswoman, said the kiosk will be removed “to allow for better guest flow.”
Crews are constructing an Earl of Sandwich restaurant inside the former Compass Books, which closed March 31. The sandwich shop is set to open later this summer.
Earl of Sandwich, with ties to the inventor of the sandwich, has a strong following in other locations and is expected to draw crowds.
The kiosk had been used by Compass Books to sell mostly magazines and convenience items to tourists.
But in recent years, a myriad of businesses have rolled in and out of the kiosk, including the Surf N Rags T-shirt stop. [ FULL STORY ]
The Surf ‘n Rags t-shirt shop that most recently occupied the old newsstand has been relocated to a new kiosk neat Apricot Lane
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WEEKLY NEWS & INFORMATION ROUND-UP
Weekly Theme Park Hours
July 30 – August 5, 2012
Disneyland Park
California Adventure
Daily:
8 am – 12 midnight
Daily:
8 am – 11 pm
For a complete listing of theme park hours,
visit the Disneyland.com Theme Park Calendar
Expected Crowd Levels
presented by TouringPlans.com
Disneyland Park
California Adventure
HIGH
8.4—9.2 out of 10
HIGH
9.9—10.0 out of 10
Crowd levels are based on a scale from 1 to 10,
with 1 being the least crowded conditions and 10 being most crowded.
For crowd predictions for the next 365 days, visit
Closure and Refurbishment Schedule
Disneyland Park
Jungle Cruise: Closed to install safety bumpers to jungle dock. Closed through August 1.
Princess Fantasy Faire at the Fantasyland Theater: Princesses will relocate to Small World Promenade in August allowing the Fantasyland Theater to close and prepare for a new show.
Alice in Wonderland: Closes early September to install permanent safety rails to outdoor portion of ride track.
Fantasy Faire: New princess-themed meet-and-greet area in former Carnation Plaza Gardens is under construction and expected to open in early 2013.
Disney California Adventure
No closures at this time
Downtown Disney and Disneyland Resort Hotels
Earl of Sandwich: Former Compass Book store and cafe will reopen as the new Earl of Sandwich restaurant summer 2012.
Famous fried chicken restaurant moves to Disneyland area
From the OC Regsiter’s Fast Food Maven blog:
Roscoe’s House of Chicken coming to O.C.
Legendary Los Angeles restaurant, Roscoe’s House of Chicken ‘n Waffles, is planning to open its first Orange County location.
The restaurant, about a half-mile from Disneyland, is taking over the closed Chubby’s Diner space at 2110 S. Harbor Blvd. near Orangewood Avenue.
I’ve been chasing rumors of this news for a few weeks but haven’t been able to confirm the deal until today.
The chain, famous for its Harlem-inspired chicken and waffles, mac n’ cheese and hot water cornbread, recently sealed a deal to buy the 5,000-square-foot building.
Once it opens, it will be Roscoe’s largest restaurant, said Mohammad Jalilian, a construction manager at Roscoe’s.
By sheer luck, I ran into Jalilian when I drove to the location this morning. He said he “just put up the coming soon” sign Tuesday.
Once Roscoe’s gets its building permits from the city, he said the restaurant should open in three months.
“It will be themed as a Southern plantation,” Jalilian said of the chain’s first Orange County location.
Full story: OC Register: Roscoe’s House of Chicken coming to O.C.
That wraps up this week’s edition of Dateline Disneyland. Were you at the parks this weekend? How did the Anaheim protests affect your visit? Let us know in the comments section below.
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