Disneyland News and Rumors August 2015

Some major announcements were made at the D23 expo last week. For those who are not familiar with the D23 expo, it is the expo that Disney holds every year in Anaheim to update fans on the happenings of all things Disney. The past 4 years had been rather uneventful as it relates to additions to the Disneyland. But not so this year.

The Force Will Be With Us Soon!
For starters Bob Iger, Disney's CEO, announced that both Disneyland and Disney World will be building Star Wars Lands at each of their properties. A video of the announcement can be seen below:

The crowd erupted as Bob Iger announced the Star Wars Land in Anaheim. I'll have to admit, I got a little teary-eyed as I saw the excitement on Mr Iger's face as he was getting ready to make the announcement followed by the audience's reaction.

Two hours after Bob Iger made the announcement, it was Bob Chapek's turn to give further details on the project. Unfortunately not much in the way of details was given other than some small tidbits about the 2 news rides that will be coming to the Land. The first will allow guests to fly the Millennium Falcon on a "customized secret mission." The second ride will "put you in the middle of a climactic battle between the First Order and the Resistance." Both rides and the much of the new land will be based on the new trilogy coming out, with the exception of some old trilogy characters making appearances here and there from time to time and a possible Cantina eatery which, according to theverge.com, Bob Iger was quoted as saying, "...there will be one." Three artists depictions of the new Star Wars Land are posted below:

 Not mentioned either is weather Star Tours will move into the new Star Wars Land or if it will stay where it has been for the past 30 years in Tomorrowland.  No completion date or even a date when construction will get underway was given but the expansion will take place in the northern reaches of the park as shown in the below picture:

Update: Although it was originally thought that Mickey's Toontown would be a casualty of the new Star Wars Land, the official @DisneylandToday said this on August 16th- "It is not replacing Mickey's Toontown. It will be in the Big Thunder Ranch area, inclusive of some backstage locations." So the Star Wars Land boxed area in the picture above is close to being accurate except Toontown is safe and additional storage buildings to the north need to be added into it.

The total expansion will be 14 acres. To give a little perspective, Cars Land in California Adventure was almost 12 acres. It sounds like the only existing part of Disneyland that will be removed for the makeover will be The Big Thunder Ranch.

In other Star Wars News, the bottom level of the Innoventions building in Tomorrowland is currently under construction to become Star Wars Launch Bay - an interactive attraction that will allow guests to see props from the upcoming movies. Here is the official statement from Disney on the new Launch Bay:

This interactive experience will take guests into the upcoming film, Star Wars: The Force Awakens, with special exhibits and peeks behind-the-scenes, including opportunities to visit with new and favorite Star Wars characters, special merchandise and food offerings. Star Wars Launch Bay will be located in the Animation Courtyard at Disney’s Hollywood Studios and in Tomorrowland at Disneyland park. Also at Disneyland park, Star Wars Launch Bay will share the space with the reimagined Super Hero HQ, featuring opportunities to meet and take photos with super heroes like Captain America and Thor, as well as experience the returning Iron Man Tech Presented by Stark Industries. Both experiences will be available for guests later this year.

As described in the statement, the top portion of the Innoventions building is getting a Marvel makeover. Also Micechat reports that the old Captain EO building is rumored to be getting outfitted with a new movie preview for The Force Awakens.  The target completion date for this temporary "mini" Star Wars Land in Tomorrowland is mid-November 2015. Also rumored for November 2015 is a new sequence to be added to Star Tours based on The Force Awakens.

Another interesting bit of news to add to the new Tomorrowland equation is reported by Change.org. They report that as of September 25, 2015 bands will no longer play at Tomorrowland Terrace. Weather this is related to the makeover that Tomorrowland is getting is speculative, but it's hard to imagine it's completely unrelated.

Disney's Property Acquisitions.
Over the past year or so, Disney has been buying various building around the Disneyland area. Two such places they bought last year are 1515 and 1585 S Manchester Ave, next to the freeway. One of the office buildings is 160,000 square feet. Another property they purchased is the Carousel Inn. According to the Orange County Register, it was purchased on March 23 for $32 Million. Suzi Brown, a Disneyland spokeswoman confirmed the purchase and added that the current management group that is running the Carousel Inn will continue to run it. In essence, Disneyland is not going to add the Carousel Inn to it's list of Hotel properties, but rather is probably going to use it as a part of a future parking expansion. Micechat reports that Disneyland is planning on building a major parking structure, to be complete by 2018 in space across Harbor Blvd and behind the many hotels there. That is where the Carousel Inn comes into play. Again, according to Micechat, the Carousel Inn will be demolished and a sky bridge will be constructed above Harbor Blvd allowing safer passage from the new parking structures to Disneyland. A view of what this will look like can be found below:

Carousel Inn is marked with the star. 

Adding the new parking structures will help ease the burden of the current parking problems at Disneyland and, depending on the capacity of the structures, may allow for future expansion of Disneyland as well.

Luigi's Rollickin' Roadsters
Last but not least, the Disney Parks Blog is reporting that the new ride that is currently under construction replacing Luigi's Flying Tires, will be called Luigi's Rollickin' Roadsters. According to the blog:

Luigi has invited all of his cugini (cousins) from his hometown of Carsoli, Italy, to visit his Casa della Tires. To help celebrate Race Day in Radiator Springs, they will demonstrate the dances of their village with Cars Land guests when the all-new Luigi’s Rollickin’ Roadsters opens early next year.

That's all the news for now. For my latest News and Rumors update, click here