Update for April 17-23, 2006
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News and Views
MouseAdventure
Registration is now open for the spring MouseAdventure event on April 30. For more details and registration information, see our MouseAdventure page (link). With details having now been released making it clear that April 30 will also be the first weekend of the new Food and Wine Weekends (see next items), if you’re considering visiting the park for that, we’d like to encourage you to consider making it a double bill and also trying out MouseAdventure.
For those who are registered, we’d also like to announce a hotel room deal for that weekend. If you call Howard Johnson – Anaheim and mention MousePlanet, you will get a 20% discount on whatever room type you’d like to reserve. To take advantage call 1-800-422-4228 and select option 1 for in-house reservations.
Sub lagoon progress
The last week saw some exciting changes in the submarine lagoon. Last Monday, the lagoon pretty much looked like it has for the last couple months.
The view of an empty lagoon has quickly become familiar to everybody, though the new loading platforms look nice. Photo by David Michael.
A lone submarine could be seen in the sub tunnel. Photo by David Michael.
And then things quickly changed. By Wednesday the lagoon had been refilled with water and the entire fleet of eight submarines had been moved out into the lagoon. Seven of them are moored at the loading docks and the eighth is being used to perform various tests. The water will remain in the lagoon for a couple of weeks then all of the submarines will be moored at the loading platforms while the lagoon is again drained to allow for continuing installations. The submarines need to be removed from the tunnel to free up the space for work that needs to be done in the tunnel and storage sheds.
The lagoon looks a little plain with no sea life, but for a couple weeks it will be prettier than it has been in a while. Photo by David Michael.
The new show building that is only a couple weeks old gets its first experience with water. Photo by David Michael.
For a day, before the subs moved out this was the view of the loading platform. Photo by David Michael.
The eight sub is initially parked outside between the new show building and the tunnel for some tests. Photo by David Michael.
The other seven submarines are parked at the loading platforms. All of the subs are wrapped up to protect them from the elements. Photo by David Michael.
Special floating equipment is being used to perform checks on submarines and show effects. Photo by David Michael.
Disney train hits the road
If you are a train buff (or if you just need a Disney fix without paying for admission), you may want to note on your calendar that Engine No. 2 on the Disneyland Railroad will be hitting the road to make a celebrity appearance at the Fullerton Railroad Days on May 6 & 7.
The E.P. Ripley steam engine (the original worked on for Disneyland by Walt Disney) will be taken offline at Disneyland and put on static display at the event in downtown Fullerton, CA. While you can’t ride it anywhere it will provide an opportunity for a much closer inspection than from behind the rail at Disneyland.
Disney Yearbook
The new Disney Insider Yearbook annual is now available for advanced purchase. The inaugural volume will recap the year 2005 in the world of Disney. You can find information about this, including a video preview, here. The plan is that each year a new volume will be released, which could make for a very nice keepsake collection after many years.
Supplies are limited (and placing a pre-order is no guarantee you’ll get one) and the book is available in two editions. The hard-cover edition is $49.95 and comes with a color lithograph and a DVD containing interviews and video clips. The soft-cover edition is $24.95 and all you get is the book.
One thing to be very aware of is that when you purchase the hard-cover edition of the book you are actually becoming a “charter subscriber” to the Disney Insider Yearbook. This means that unless you specifically stop them, they will automatically charge you for and then ship the 2006 book when it becomes available next year. According to the FAQ, they will notify you of this by email before doing so, but if they don’t hear back from you, you will be charged.
At this time it appears that they will only ship the book to addresses in the United States and Canada.
DVD players sold in parks and elsewhere recalled for burn hazard
A recall was announced last week for the battery packs that came with about
102,000 Disney-branded DVD players sold between April 2005 and March 2006 in
the Disney theme parks, through the Disney Catalog and DisneyShopping.com and
at discount and electronics stores nationwide. The DVD players, which come in
five themes—Princess, Fairy Flowers, Mickey Classic, Mickey Mouse and
Power Rangers—are about 6.5 inches by 5.5 inches and have a 3-inch display,
and were recalled because the battery packs sold with the players can overheat
and possibly burst when recharging, posing a risk of burns.
The battery packs included with these DVD players were voluntarily recalled by
the manufacturer due to a burn hazard.
Those with the DVD players should stop using the battery pack supplied with
the players immediately and contact the manufacturer for a replacement rechargeable
battery pack. The manufacturer, Memcorp Inc. of Weston, Fla., can be reached
by phone at 800-326-0315 between 8:30 a.m. – 8:00 p.m. ET weekdays and
8:30 a.m. – 5:30 p.m. ET Saturdays ; an online form is also available at
their web site (link).
She’s a uniter (of ghosts and pirates)
Disneyland found itself unexpectedly swept up in the political aftermath of Hurricane Katrina over the weekend. Kimberly Williamson Butler is one of a couple dozen candidates seeking to replace Ray Nagin as governor of the Crescent City and generally isn’t seen as a serious contender for the race (seeing as she’s had some interesting recent brushes with the law).
It isn’t surprising that she’d try to present a utopian view of New Orleans; her vision of what the city once again can be. But take a close look at her official Web site (link). Isn’t that a nice scene of a French Quarter back street up at the top of the page?
A little bit too nice, as it turns out. That is actually Disneyland’s New Orleans Square behind the candidate. While it is most likely the case that some graphic designer just wasn’t paying attention when putting together the Web page for her, it is interesting that the Blue Bayou sign that hangs over the entrance of that restaurant seems to have been edited out of the picture.
Jim Hill of JimHillMedia seems to have started the spread of the story last Wednesday evening (link) and credits the story to a blog called This Justin (link). Since then the story has stormed around the Disney Web sites and eventually began to hit the big name political blogs and has since appeared as a story on several of the cable news shows. Amazingly, four days after this first came up the image is still on the Web site. Ms. Williamson Butler is no doubt very busy since she filed a lawsuit against two New Orleans judges over the weekend but this seems like an easy fix.
A spokesman for Disney has acknowledged the story and says it has been referred to Disney legal. Don’t expect anything to come from that, however, unless for some reason the image should remain in place. The next question the Web designer is going to have to answer will be why exactly that graphic is embedded in the Web page as a Flash file. Now that makes no sense.
This and that…
…In an unusual move, at least some of the loot for the July 6 Pirates of the Caribbean merchandise event has already been made available at the Disney Gallery Web site (link). It is likely that more event merchandise will be posted as the event nears but what is there can give an indication of the size of the event. The official event pin has an edition size of 1,000 pins and that would tend to indicate that registration is open to fewer than 500 people total.
…A quick update on the pre-sale of Mickey’s Halloween Treat tickets for this fall at DCA. We had reported that they were available to Annual Passholders. While this is correct, it appears that anybody with a Disney Visa credit card can also prepurchase the tickets for the same price. For those who already purchased tickets and received them in the mail, make sure you know the correct time for your event (Disney has also mailed a letter out correcting information). If your tickets are for the Monday, Tuesday, or Thursday session then it will say 7:30 p.m. to 11:30 p.m. The correct time for those days is 6:30 p.m. to 10:30 p.m.
…We’re a bit late in getting the word out on this but the Come Out and Trade pin-trading sessions at Disneyland have been put on indefinite hiatus. These were regularly scheduled events where cast members would meet with pin traders. There is currently no word on when and if these events will return but this is not the first time they’ve gone on hiatus.
…It looks like the Web sites with information about show changes in Haunted Mansion were correct (as we suspected but couldn’t confirm on our own). Though no major show changes were in place by Easter, late last week saw tarp covered additions to the attick scene. As of Saturday afternoon, however, whatever is hidden under the tarps was not yet on display.
Don’t keep it to yourself! Send us your news tips, rumors, and comments. E–mail us here.
Current Refurbishments and Attraction Closures
Disneyland
- Pirates of the Caribbean closed March 6 – June 26, 2006, for major refurbishment and show updates. Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest will premiere at Disneyland on June 24. Ride may be available to public on June 25.
- Blue Bayou Restaurant closed March 6 – June 26, 2006, for the duration of the Pirates of the Caribbean closure.
- Cafe Orleans Restaurant closed March 13 – June 9, 2006, for redesign into full service restaurant.
- Fantasmic! dark June 17 – June 28, 2006, for activities surrounding premiere of Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest.
- Disneyland Park opens and closes early June 24, 2006, for premiere of Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest. Will open at 6:30 a.m. and close at 5:30 p.m. DCA will be open two hours later than usual until 11:00 p.m.
- Parade of Dreams dark June 24, 2006, for red carpet arrivals to premiere of Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest.
- Golden Horseshoe closed May 15 – June 15 for refurbishment and kitchen changes.
- River Belle Terrace rumored to close in September or October 2006 for complete redesign into larger two-story restaurant.
- Bengal BBQ rumored to close permanently in September or October 2006 to provide room for expansion of River Belle Terrace.
- Finding Nemo Submarine Voyage is currently under construction and will open sometime in 2007.
