Contributing photographer Jason of disneygeek.com sends us these photos from his trip to the parks on Friday, February 3, 2012. He includes video of the new Valentine’s Day tag to “The Magic, the Memories, and You”.
Setting up a mesh around the La Brea Bakery as the remodel/expansion moves along.
In Disney California Adventure, Grizzly River Run is undergoing its annual refurbishment.
The Miner 49ers were performing, their act is being retired.
The Redwood Creek Challenge Trail has reopened. You could smell the new paint/stain/sealer whatever you want to call it.
Nothing really new or different jumped out at me on my quick walk-through.
Dug was out for pictures.
Moving on down the trail scaffolding up as they are working on the building and the lift hill for Grizzly River Run.
The rock face overlooking the Pier is nearing completion. Notice anything missing here? They have removed the safety line and poles that went across the top of the range.
More painting along the Pier.
The facade work on the shops is moving along. What a difference.
A check in on Cars Land. The toothpicks are being removed on the rock face.
Scaffolding is up on the back side of the range. They are working their way around covering it up.
All five Cozy Cones are painted now.
A closer look. You can see the backstage wall taking shape behind the cones. I like the detail. That looks like an A/C unit below the window.
Looks like the frame for a backstage gate being assembled behind the cones. Also looks like one of the Red Car garage doors is open.
The pavement work in front of the Little Mermaid sure looks done. I was surprised the walls are still up.
More scaffolding is down on the radiator cap.
The Ellis Island Boys performing at Paradise Gardens
Work has begun to transform the tortilla factory to the Ghirardelli shop.
Due to the work on both sides it is a very narrow walkway to the first aid/baby care center.
A closer look down the street. The large pile of landscaping dirt has been distributed.
Tires on the roof of the shack now.
Looking down toward Buena Vista Street palm trees have sprung up along the Carthay side and another view of the trees around the fountain.
Walls in Bugs Land. Appeared to be around the water fountain area. This made a narrow walkway even narrower.
The fountain on Buena Vista Street was on today. As you can see the water was being blown around a bit.
A closer look at the detail work emerging on Buena Vista Street. This is above the ice cream store.
An Elias and Company sign taking shape.
Over to Disneyland. Some painting going on.
Valentines day decorations up around Town Square.
More painting.
The waits around 3:30.
The coffee cart is behind walls.
No signs of work at Plaza Gardens yet… really seems like something should be going on.
The moon was visible already.
Some signs have gone up on the Matterhorn construction walls.
A ride on the Monorail to check out Buena Vista Street. Notice the Elias and Company sign on the left.
A closer look reveals something taking shape. Is this the base for the Walt and Mickey statue?
A second ride on the Monorail, looking north now.
The Red Car station is starting to take shape I think (the bricks in the foreground/left of this shot).
In Downtown Disney the Lego Store is behind walls as work is getting under way to remodel and enlarge it.
Get it.. one block down….
They have moved into the old Island Charters space during construction. There are only a couple aisles inside. It felt a little cramped and odd to take pictures inside so I did not.
As you can see the store itself is vary bare bones since it is temporary. And a very small space.
Moving on, the work outside Catal is wrapping up in this area.
A little further down still an open trench.
Back at Disneyland the Soundsational parade greeted me on Main Street.
New Orleans Square is decked out for Mardi Gras which is going to be celebrated for five weekends this year starting February 10.
In an effort to ease traffic congestion they have moved the entrance to Cafe Orleans to the other side of the building.
A closer look at the beads on the light.
The new entrance for Cafe Orleans.
“it’s a small world” has reopened after removal of the holiday overlay.
Looks like the clock can use some TLC.
The queue area was blocked so you walked out near the parade route/extended queue.
And back to DCA in the evening…Some lights on the fountain on Buena Vista Street.
Next up Cars Land. Guessing we have to be getting close to final lighting in some areas.
Ramones was lit up this evening.
A closer look.
Back to Disneyland and the Small World Mall for the Magic, the Memories, and You! Featuring a new Valentine’s Day segment. Video of the show. The new segment starts at 7:01 in this video.
Gone with the Wind will be showing at the AMC Theaters in Downtown Disney on Valentine’s Day weekend.
Walked through the Disneyland Hotel on the way out. They are continuing to add details to the Fantasy Tower lobby. The entrance area was behind curtains. Looked like a permanent display/mural/something is going in.
New chandeliers in the lobby & chairs in the waiting area.
The far area is a kids waiting area.
Hope you enjoyed this highlight tour of the Disneyland Resort. For additional photos and details from this trip you can check out the full Disneyland Update I posted on my site, http://disneygeek.com
Can’t tell you how much I appreciate the update. We are going in Summer 2012 and the pictures (as opposed to the Disney simulation) are great. Particularly liked the pix of Valentine’s Day and Mardi Gras–maybe we will plan a future trip during those times. Great info–thanks again!!!
Amanda,
All the major projects (Cars Land and Buena Vista Street) are slated to wrapped up for the summer season this year, so by October we will just have the regular off season sets of walls to look at but nothing on the scale of what we have seen for the past several years.
Do you know any estimated dates of completion for all this work? We are hoping to visit again in October and I would love for most of the “walls” to be down!
Thanks for the update! We are going at the end of February but haven’t been over there since last June. It looks like there have been so many changes, I’m glad I’ll be prepared for the shock of the different look at DCA! Thanks again!
Thank you for the photo updates of Disneyland!! I live in NH so I only get a chance to visit every 5-7 years. I appreciate seeing the parks and the changes taking place from a fan’s perspective.