This week's park update is pretty abbreviated as I write it between bouts of reminding myself that alcohol and fireworks (even the extremely lame ones that we are limited to these days) do not mix.
The park is quickly settling down into a post-party slumber following the premiere of Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest and the debut of the new Pirates of the Caribbean ride. By the middle of last week all the risers, bleachers, and mess associated with the premiere had been removed and the Rivers of America returned to the standard summer schedule.
Long lines for the completely officially open Pirates of the Caribbean began forming first thing Monday morning following another press moment for the morning television news shows to kick it off. At one point the line extended all the way down Main Street to City Hall where it was, for a brief moment, unusually easy to file a complaint about long lines.
The massive capacity of the ride proved itself, however, and the real wait time was never much longer than two hours and the line moved very quickly. The only real source of complaint, however, was the difficulty in keeping the ride running so that all of those people could get on.
The purpose of the lengthy soft openings is to work out the kinks that crop up when operating under full load. So it is isn't suprising that the insistence on secrecy before the movie premiere seems to be resulting in regular and sometimes lengthy closures of the ride. As the week went on, the number of incidents seemed to decline but several issues have come up that should be kept in mind:
In other Pirate news (is it really possible that there is other pirate news still?) you'll probably want to try to fit in a ride on the Sailing Ship Columbia if you visit the park this summer. In addition to walkaround pirate characters in New Orleans Square during the day, each sailing of the Columbia will be overtaken by a pirate scheming to find hidden gold. Along the way, passengers will learn about being a pirate. There will also be a pirate stage show on a somewhat-temporary new stage near French Market.
A new stage has been set up in New Orleans Square for performing pirates through at least the rest of summer. Photo by David Michael.
Disneyland will be decorated for the Fourth of July, of course, but what else can you expect? In general, not a whole lot in the nature of "events." The evening's performance of the Remember...Dreams Come True fireworks will conclude with a special Fourth of July finale. If you're in the Town Square end of Main Street near sunset you will probably be able to see a beefed-up version of the daily flag retreat. Otherwise you can expect to see plenty of patriotic merchandise throughout the resort.
...If you're a user of Anaheim Resort Transit (ART), you may want to be aware that new routes have been added that include Disneyland. For complete schedule, fair, and route information visit the Ride ART Web site (link).
Main Street, U.S.A. is decorated for the Fourth of July. Photo by David Michael.
...Main Street Mad Hatter is once again open following its redesign and expansion. As previously mentioned, hand-embroidery is no longer available at this location, but rather, computer-operated machines are now in place. They will eventually be replaced everywhere, but hand-stitching is still available at other Disneyland and Disney's California Adventure park embroidery locations. The physical expansion ended up reducing the Opera House exit from a lounge area into a something more like a corrider with a new permanent wall constructed. Of course, they also changed it so that now you can't get out of the Opera House without going through the Mad Hatter store; surely that was an unintended consequence... right?
As part of its redesign, Main Street Mad Hatter physically expanded into much of the space that was formally an lounge at the exit to the Opera House. Photo by David Michael.
...Over at Disney's California Adventure, it appears the powers that be are trying a new tactic for getting crowds (heck, to be honest, they'd probably be happy with a loose congregation of people escaping the heat) into the Golden Dreams theater. New banners have gone up emphasizing rather strongly that the show stars Whoopi Goldberg. It isn't clear, however, that there is much star power in that and the audience size seems unchanged.
New banners at Golden Dreams seem to indicate Whoopi Goldberg might be involved. Photo by David Michael.
If you know of any events, official or unofficial, that should be listed here, let us know.
DL: Disneyland
DCA: Disney's California Adventure
Annual Pass blockout dates:
| Sun | Mon | Tues | Wed | Thurs | Fri | Sat |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 6/26 | 6/27 | 6/28 | 6/29 | 6/30 | 7/1 | |
| DL: 8a–Mid |
DL: 8a–Mid |
DL: 8a–Mid |
DL: 8a–Mid |
DL: 8a–Mid |
DL: 8a–Mid |
|
| 7/2 | 7/3 | 7/4 | 7/5 | 7/6 | 7/7 | 7/8 |
| DL: 8a–Mid |
DL: 8a–Mid |
DL: 8a–Mid |
DL: 8a–Mid |
DL: 8a–Mid |
DL: 8a–Mid |
DL: 8a–Mid |
| 7/9 | 7/10 | 7/11 | 7/12 | 7/13 | 7/14 | 7/15 |
| DL: 8a–11p |
DL: 8a–11p |
DL: 8a-11p |
DL: 8a-11p |
DL: 8a-11p |
DL: 8a–Mid |
DL: 8a–Mid |
Visit our Annual Passholders Blockout Dates 2006 page to see more dates. You can see future calendar schedules at Disneyland. As always, specifics are subject to change without notice (or occasionally, without us noticing) so when information conflicts between what is presented here and that presented by Disney, it is best to assume Disney's information is correct.
Entertainment schedule: Go directly to the Disneyland Resort schedule for this week at Disneyland.com here.
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