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GardenTalk
Another lodging project delayed, but not shelved, are the two
planned hotels at GardenWalk to be operated by Disney. When we broke
that story last year that Disney was negotiating a deal to brand and
operate the hotels for a third party owner, folks in Anaheim and Burbank
were furious about the leak. But now the hotel plan is on shaky ground
because the mall owners are shopping the entire facility around and want
to sell it off.
Hotel location at GardenWalk
That type of thing doesn't necessarily mean an end to GardenWalk
expansion, particularly the important missing piece of the two hotels
originally meant to be there on opening day, but it's certainly putting
current negotiations on ice while the details are figured out. Jay
Rasulo's master planning team is treading carefully, although the
current goal is still to add a lot more Disney hotel rooms to Anaheim
over the next five years.
At the same time, TDA is moving full speed
ahead with plans to build another massive parking structure on the
current Pumbaa surface lot directly north of GardenWalk. If things go
well, that new structure will be open and parking thousands of cars per
day by the time Radiator Springs Racers opens in 2012.
Pumbaa lot as seen from GardenWalk
All of these delays and temporary setbacks that have cropped up over
the last 60 days may be discouraging to Disneyland fans. And yet it's
still important to remember that we really should not have had formal
confirmation from Disney about all of this stuff for another year or
two. The Billion dollar makeover for DCA really was announced about 18
months earlier than it should have, and only because the political
climate of October 2007 still had Anaheim's city council willing to
change the intent of the Resort District for some easy money from a
housing developer.
Disney's hand was forced very early in the game by
Anaheim, much to the delight of all the fans online.
That's why some of the plans released to the public last October have
already gone under the knife or been axed entirely, as the DCA makeover
project was simply not ready for prime time when Jay Rasulo was forced
to put on a dog and pony show for the press.
For that reason, Disney no longer needs to fess up to their plans for
GardenWalk or the existing Anaheim hotels until they are good and ready
and the bulldozers are moving in. And yes, as we mentioned earlier, the
original plan to revamp each tower of the Disneyland Hotel one by one is
still on hold. Those old 1960's towers are proving more trouble than
they are worth, and TDA is now trying to strategize a five year plan
where the entire hotel is rebuilt from the ground up. But how do you
make up for 1,000 missing hotel rooms in the meantime?
In Gear
But it's also important to remember that while some aspects of the
parks and resorts business are heading into choppy financial water, like
the softening DVC sales and the murky future for existing and
future hotels, the vast bulk of the DCA makeover is still right on track
and fully funded. If anything, the biggest and splashiest features of
that massive plan have only gotten bigger and splashier with big budgets
solidly behind them.
The entry plaza makeover is moving full steam ahead
with all of the eye candy and vintage red cars still in the plan. The
new World of Color show is going to be massive and showcase ground-breaking
technology. The Little Mermaid ride looks to be the sleeper
hit of the park, with the most sophisticated animatronics available. And
the sprawling Cars Land expansion is shaping up with one of the most
innovative and amazing E Ticket dark rides since the Indiana Jones
Adventure.
The bulldozers are set to arrive later this year, and with
some luck so will the Preview Center, that is certain. But since we were
all let in on the plans via the Internet and a Jay Rasulo press
conference 18 months before we normally would have, it can seem as
though nothing is happening and the whole plan is doomed. Nothing could
be further from the truth.
Wet Paint
Other good news can be found this summer in the continuing stream of
TLC and cosmetic refurbishments that Disneyland continues to receive.
The hard work of the 50th Anniversary preparations has all been
maintained, and Michael O'Grattan, the new Senior VP in Anaheim, has kept the
focus on maintaining the old standards. Lots of painting and repair
work continues to happen around the Resort, even in areas that will go under the
knife in a few years.
Finally Donald's Toontown boat gets paint
O'Grattan continues
to impress everyone in the Parks by continually being seen out and about
and preaching to the choir about the importance of Disneyland to the
Disney Company. Everything that Ed Grier appears to not be, Michael O'Grattan is. While it may not be as nifty as having the one-two punch
of Matt Ouimet and Greg Emmer around during the 50th, at least O'Grattan is visible to the Cast Members.
Where's Eduardo?
On the flip side, Ed Grier seems to have gone into hiding since
Michael arrived. While Ed has been notoriously absent from the parks,
now that Michael is the hand picked face of TDA's executive team, Ed has
totally disappeared and only seems to materialize for major policy speeches or
public media events. It's almost spooky how little of an impact Ed Grier
has on people working in Anaheim.
Ed spent an evening
recently visiting the park with his family, and he had a senior manager escort him through the exit to avoid waiting in line
at Indiana Jones. It seems he forgot the lesson Walt used to teach his
execs about that sort of thing, and Ed also fails to realize that he is
being watched by every CM working a ride when he sneaks in via the
exits like that. CM's still tell stories about Matt Ouimet waiting in
line with the tourists on a Saturday afternoon, earning him all of the
respect he truly deserved.
Shows to Go-Ya
Now that the summer is underway and Midway Mania is
open, the rest of calendar year 2008 and into the winter of '09 is going
to be spent spiffing up a lot of the big entertainment found in both
parks.
First up this September, the Disneyland Entertainment department
will send Fantasmic! down for yet another refurbishment for more
technology upgrades. After getting a very thorough upgrade to all of the
lighting and audio this past winter, this September and October will be
spent replacing the original 1992 film projectors with high
definition digital projectors. This multi million dollar change is
planned to dramatically improve the clarity and color of the images
projected on to the mist screens, with all of the original 1992 film
media converted to a much clearer and remastered digital format. This
same digital technology will be used in the DCA World of Color show as well,
on an even bigger scale.
Fantasmic! will return in mid November for the busy holiday weeks,
and then the show will go down yet again in January for several
more months. The second phase of the Fantasmic! rehab this winter will
replace the old dragon and the lift effects. The huge open pit
underneath the stage on the end of Tom Sawyer Island will be deepened
and expanded, and a larger and more realistic remote controlled dragon
will take up residence there. By next spring Fantasmic! will be
practically all new from start to finish when it comes to the technology
behind the show.
Disneyland fans really shouldn't take all of this TLC
for granted either, as the WDW version of the show still isn't planned
to receive any of these recent and future upgrades that Disneyland gets.
As if it was tough enough for them to have a show missing the
dramatic Peter Pan scene on the Columbia, and featuring a finale'
riverboat that looks like it was made in the neighbors garage, the
stagecraft technology used for WDW's Fantasmic! is still stuck in the
1990's.
Hyperion Theater
Also getting a freshening and upgrade this fall will be the Aladdin
show in the Hyperion Theatre. The facility will be closed this September
and October while lighting and stage equipment is replaced and
refurbished. There's a longer term plan to replace the Aladdin show with
something new, but that is slotting in for the 2011 timeframe for DCA's 10th anniversary. In the meantime, after five years of packing the
house with a few more years still left, the Aladdin show gets a little
rest while the theater gets an upgrade.
And no, there are still no
immediate plans to replace Princess Fantasy Faire in Fantasyland. That
offering is wildly popular, and is likely going to stick
around through the 55th anniversary in 2010. And if the Pixie Hollow
project replacing Ariel's Grotto with a Tinker Bell meet n' greet also
proves popular this fall, look for a bigger more sprawling version
to be built in the old Motorboat Cruise loading area by the 55th
anniversary as well. The numbers behind Tinker Bell merchandise keep
growing, and it has TDA salivating enough to devote a big chunk of park
real estate to the little imp.
Parade of Dreams photo: David
"Darkbeer" Michael
Finally there's the repaving project on the Disneyland parade route
this winter to prepare for the big new Wonder parade coming for '09,
while the Parade of Dreams gets packed up and sent out to Florida to
mercifully replace the creaky old parade performing at the Magic
Kingdom. And yes, they still want to bring the Electrical Parade
back over to Disneyland as part of next year's still vague Magical Celebrations
marketing campaign. With the new Wonder day parade, the Electrical
Parade, and the refreshed Fantasmic!, the big push is on to visit
Disneyland in '09 to see "all the fabulous entertainment."
For locals
trained to await the next new ride, that may not be the strongest of
arguments, but we'll have to see how the campaign is executed by those
Yellow Shoes folks. Let's just hope they at least learn to admit which
theme park the new stuff is in.
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