Theme Park Update: Disneyland, Knott's Berry Farm & Universal Studios

Well, it's time for another Disneyland Resort update, but today I will be including a brief Knott's Berry Farm and Universal Studios update as well.

The latest news from Disneyland is the big celebration that has been planned in honor of the 75th Anniversary of "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs." During the celebration, a special "Snow White Sandwich" (served on white bread, and with apple slices instead of fries) will be available at select restaurants throughout the park. To promote the special menu item, Snow White can be found in a new "meet 'n greet" over at Carnation Gardens along with Dopey and Grumpy, who will be wearing special costumes created just for the promotion.



And speaking of Snow White and food, Disney fans have been demanding that the new Carthay Circle Theater in Disney's California Adventure be a restaurant, but Disney said "No, we insist on making this recreation of the Carthay Circle Theater a tribute to our first feature-length animated film and the man behind it's creation, Walt Disney!"



So now, the latest plans are for an "E" ticket-quality dark ride to go into that space. Here's a sneak peek at the Audio-Animatronic figures currently being installed in the attraction.



Meanwhile, across the esplanade at Disneyland, Peter Pan's Flight recently had it's official last day of operation and is now being converted into "The Many Adventures of the Absent-Minded Professor."



The overhead track will stay in place, but brand new sets will be installed as a part of the attraction's re-theming. Replica's of Professor Brainard's Model-T will also be replacing the old pirate ship ride vehicles.



Instead of flying over London, the new vehicles will now fly over a miniature version of Washington D.C.



The Audio-Animatronic figures of Fred MacMurray and his faithful canine companion are going to be state-of-the-art.



Let's jump back over to Disney's California Adventure. I forgot to mention the new exhibit in the Blue Sky Cellar. Exit surveys have been showing that guests are not very excited about the "Lush New Park Planned Just For YOU!" that was going to replace the Maliboomer.



So management has decided to rebuild the Maliboomer in it's former Paradise Pier location. This time however, it will have just one tower instead of three, but that single tower is going to be five times taller than it's predecessor. The new attraction will be called, "Fun Mickey's Fun Tower of Fun." A model of the reworked attraction is currently on display in the Blue Sky Cellar exhibit.



Now we will venture up north to Universal Studios Hollywood. Based on their exit surveys, which were showing just how much the old King Kong Audio-Animatronic has been missed by guests, they have decided to replace the newer 3-D projection of Kong with another giant-sized Audio-Animatronic figure. This new A.A. figure will also be state-of-the-art and is currently being constructed off-site. Work is expected to be completed soon and they are hoping for a mid-summer opening date.



And last but not least, over in Buena Park....Knott's Berry Farm has just announced the closing of their recently reopened "Sky Cabin," but the good news is, they are bringing back the old "Sky Jump" parachute attraction. This time around, instead of standing up in open-air baskets, riders will be seated in enclosed gingerbread houses that hold up to four people. This is part of a plan to give the Boardwalk section at Knott's a new "Nursery Rhyme" theme. The new name for the area has not yet been announced, but it will include a brand new dark ride, "Knott's Fair-y Tales" which will go into the old Kingdom of the Dinosaurs space. The area will also feature new versions of old favorites such as, "Jack and Jill's Perilous Plunge" and "The Boy Who Cried Wolf's Supreme Scream."



Well, that concludes this special "April 1st" theme park update. Happy April Fool's Day, everyone!

Roller Coaster!

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Today, we will continue with this month's theme of non-Disney parks. This is also a follow-up to my April Fool's Day/Disneyland Trip Report post. I had a record number of hits with that post, but surprisingly, nobody asked me where those photos were taken, and at least one reader believed they were actually taken at Disneyland...and I apologize for that! I did go back and add "Happy April Fool's Day" at the end of the post to hopefully clear things up. Well, just in case anyone out there was wondering, the photos in that post were all taken at Hanayashiki Park in Tokyo Japan, with the exception of the Sleeping Beauty Castle construction photo.

Hanayashiki Park opened in 1853 as a flower park and in 1872, the first rides were installed. The oldest roller coaster in Japan can be found at Hanayashiki (seen below.) It was built in 1953 and was considered to be the most "modern" roller coaster at that time. What is the name of this historic attraction, did you ask? It's simply named, "Roller Coaster." I think I would have at least put an exclamation point after the name, but that's just me.

The oldest existing attraction in Hanayashiki is the "Surprising House," which was built in 1949. It was the Three Little Pigs themed structure seen in that April 1st post. The guide describes this attraction as "A mysterious house that spins around." I did not go inside at the time that photo was taken, but on a recent trip back to Tokyo and Hanayashiki Park, I did venture inside. Basically, you sit on a long suspended bench seat, which then begins to rock forward and back while the room you are sitting in does 360 degree flip flops around you. The room is "finished" with painted windows, hanging pictures, light fixtures and the real door that you entered through, so it really does a number on your head. It made me think of the 1951 Fred Astaire movie, "Royal Wedding," where he dances up the wall and onto the ceiling. (As a side note, that movie set was supposedly a real room that rotated along with the camera, as Mr. Astaire literally danced "around" the room.) This attraction was definitely not for people prone to motion sickness. I think it's kind of neat that the attraction still exists and continues to entertain people 60 years after it's debut at the park.

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Below, is a view of the Sky Ships attraction boarding area. Gee, I wonder where they got the idea for flying pirate ships? If you look off in the distance and to the right, you will see a hellicopter on a track below the blue Sky Ships rail. That attraction follows the same route as the Sky Ships, but the helicopter vehicles ride on top of their track. The attraction is similar to the Sky Trip ride at Tokyo Dome City, but you don't have to pedal these vehicles yourself!

Here is a photo showing both a Sky Ship and a Hellicopter vehicle passing each other. In the background is the "Kiddy Ferris Wheel" and in the foreground is the park's Merry-go-round.

Last up for today is a full view of Hanayashiki's Merry-go-round.

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I may do one more non-Disney park post just to finish out the month (perhaps another Knott's post) and then we will get back to Disney stuff. I did visit Tokyo Disneyland and Tokyo DisneySea during my recent Tokyo trip, so I will definitely be posting some current photos and items from those two parks!

Disneyland Trip Report

Today, we are at Disneyland in Anaheim. Walt Disney once said that Disneyland would never be completed....and to this day, the company strives to uphold this wish. Yes, Disneyland is always changing and growing, and it only seems to get better and better. Since I had not been to the park for quite some time, I figured it was time to grab my camera and head on over there to check things out. Here are some of the recent changes that had been made to the park, as well as some of the future projects that were under construction.


Since Fantasyland had not undergone any kind of major renovation since 1983, I guess it was time to update it and give it a fresh new look. After the success of the Sleeping Beauty Castle walk-thru, the company has decided that there will be many more "walk-thru" type attractions in the future. Of course, we know that these also cost much less to build than an actual "ride." The first entirely new attraction of this type to open, is the Three Little Pigs walk-thru. Management however, decided to use only one of the pigs in this attraction, citing that it would be too costly to include the other two. They have chosen Practical Pig and designed the show building to resemble his house made of bricks. Note the Big Bad Wolf on the roof in the photo below.


Overhead is the new Peter Pan's Flight. The company also decided that it was too costly to keep up with the interior and exterior maintenance of this aging dark ride, so they eliminated all of the interior sets.....and removed the exterior walls too! They figured that this will also satisfy all of the fans that complain about missing the Skyway attraction. Now once again, guests can get a bird's eye view of Fantasyland.....as well as Tomorrowland! The attraction has been extended in length and renamed Peter Pan's Flight to Tomorrowland...unless you board it in Tomorrowland and then it is called Peter Pan's Flight to Fantasyland. Of course, these are both "one way" trips only. And management will no longer have to worry about people being able to see the rooftops of the Fantasyland darkrides, because eventually all of their rooftops will be removed.... along with their walls too!

Disney recently announced that Walt Disney World's Hall of Presidents attraction will be permanently closing due to the high cost of staffing and maintaining it. Unfortunately the new Barrack Obama figure had already been completed and was just about to be installed when this announcement was made. Fortunately for Disneyland however, the figure has been sent to Anaheim along with the other 43 presidential audio-animatronic figures, where they are now being installed in pairs, at the bow of each Peter Pan ride vehicle. The photo below shows the first completed vehicle featuring both Obama and former president Bush. Of course these figures will no longer be audio-animatronic. They are the first of a new generation of figures called non-audio-statics.

Last up for today, is a shot of the newly extended Peter Pan attraction going over the redesigned Tomorrowland Autopia. In the background is the "Matterhorn Lofts" construction. It seems that Disney has never been happy about the exorbitant cost of maintaining the Matterhorn attraction. That, coupled with the recent success of the Disney Dream Suite, led management to ask themselves why they should allow only a select few to spend the night inside the park and most importantly, why they should let them do it for free. So they came up with the idea of converting the Matterhorn into lofts and letting guests pay for the privilege of spending the night in the park. It's a brilliant marketing idea, really.

Well, that's it for this trip report. Who knows what you'll find on YOUR next visit to the park. I hear they have plans for replacing the Haunted Mansion with a 3-D movie about a Haunted Manison. Sounds like fun!

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Happy April Fool's Day everyone!