Disneyland Update and News: Just A Heads Up

In the World of Disney this week, many things have been happening. Many things have also been happening behind the scenes of this blog (more info on that later). In my last post, I explained about Summer Nightastic! and it's offerings. Well, many no that, much like Disneyland, it's premiere night was not very good. I'll tell you where Disney is right now regarding Summer Nightastic! and how it's going thus far. Also, many of you already heard the big announcement about Hong Kong Disneyland, and I'll recap it here, too. At the end of this post, I will explain to you the changes that will go on in this blog. In the meantime, let's get going with the Disneyland News!

Summer Nightastic!: Looking Back

Famtasmic! has had one disaster after another. As reported last month, the brand new Fatasmic! dragon injured it's neck and could not be used. Well, Fantasmic! has been going on as schedueled sans said dragon. Things got even worse when the Mark Twain caught fire last week due to a pyro mishap. Many people used this as evidence that Summer Nightastic was a horrid disaster.

They could not be more wrong. I know there are many people on the internet who think that everything Disney has been doing is wrong, and only Walt Disney could do something that worked. To that, I offer te Opening Day of Disneyland as evidence to the contrary. But no matter.

Summer Nightastic! has done just what it was supposed to do: get people into Disneyland. If any of you have gone to Disneyland recently, you have seen the crowds. Fantasmic! has been so crowded there have been 3 showings a night. But, because of the crowds, there have been many complaints about the crowds and the Summer Nightastic! "glitches". To that I say "Stop complaining. You chose to go."

People have been especially complaining about the Magical Fireworks show. For a few days, Tinkerbell and Dumbo have not been flying. Granted, they have been flying recently, which have quited many of those complainers down. No, it's currently unkown if Tink and Dumbo didn't fly due to weather, high winds, saftey precautions, glitches, or something else. I've heard the most likely reason was to windspeeds and saftey precautions. If that is really the case, then i offer an option to those who complain: if you really want to see Tink or Dumbo fly, why don't you go up there?

But things are looking better. Crowds are dying down. Some APs are being blocked out. Meanwhile, the Fatasmic! dragon's neck as been repaired, however, many people at Disney are worried about the dragon's neck snapping again. So, in response to this, Fatasmic will be going on without the dragon for a while until WDI is sure that it will not snap again.

Now, I do have only one problem with Summer Nightastic! and that has to do with the Electrical Parade. Now, yo have to understand that the Electrical Parade is my earliest memory of Disneyland. I always loved it, especially the music. I do love the changes, especially Tinkerbell, because it just suits it more for Tinkerbell, the person you always see in front of the castle before movies, to lead the parade. But the music- not good. It's too frilly and fantasy-y, if that make sense. Just listen to it, and you might understand. I miss the regular Baroque Howdown. If I could, I would have the Baroque Howdown remain the same and just add a ochestrated version of the Disney songs into the mix. Hopefully, this won't remain for long.


Hong Kong Disneyland Expansion

Yep. That's it. (Click on the Image for a bigger picture). After a few years, HKDL will be going under a massive expansion. New Areas include:
-Grizzly Trail: This area will most resemble Frontierland, but themed to a Grizzly Peak-like forest. The main attractionis most like Expedition Everest, in wich you will go through a mountain littered with animal Audio-Animatronics, and go down it backwards.
-Mystic Point- Think New Orleans Square, but in a rain forest. The highlight of this land will be a Huanted Mansion like ride called Mystic Manor. This ride will feature the trackless ride system used in such TDL rides like Pooh.
-Toy Storyland- Think Paradise Pier-type rides. Remember the Army Man parachite drop for DCA? That will find residence here, as well as a coaster and a few other things. This whole land is themed to the pesrpective of a Toy, much like A Bug's Land.
Now. these new lands, as you can see in the above map, have pretty much destroyed the hub concept of HKDL. Also, many people are branding this as original ideas, however I see nothing original in any of this. However, I do like the changes, minus Toy Storyland. I really hope this is good for HKDL, I really want to see it grow into a realy nice park. But time will tell.

Changes in my Blog
As you can see, in this update, I have combined 2 very different topics together. After a few months of doing this, I have decided to more or less abandon the idea of the Disneyland News. Now, there will still be DL news each month, however, it'll mostly deal with park hours, ride closings, and that sort of stuff. The realy juicy stuff, like DCA and HKDL expansions, park rumors, and ride construction will be posted here when I hear of it. So, in 2 weeks, this new system will start. There will also be a few cosmetic changes to the blog, wich i look forward to unvieling.

Until then, this is PirateGuy 815 with the Disneyland News!