Disneyland News and Rumors, January 2018

I thought we better start off the New Year right with a little Disney news! Although I've blogged about a couple of these items in the past, more details have emerged about them and, in some cases, some of the rumors have been confirmed by Disney through the Disney Parks Blog. Lets take a look at some of the news:

Pixar Pier

Paradise Pier will be closing down at the end of day on January 7th, 2018 to be remade into Pixar Pier. The entire area won't be affected, however. The attractions on the north end of Paradise Pier will remain the same and this area will be renamed Paradise Park. This includes Ariel's Undersea Adventure, the Silly Symphony Swings, the Golden Zephyr, Jumpin' Jellyfish and Goofy's Sky School. The affected attractions will be California Screamin', King Triton's Carousel, Games of the Boardwalk, Mickey's Fun Wheel, and the Ariel's Grotto and Cove Bar eateries.

The games in Games of the board walk will now feature characters from such Pixar movies as A Bug's Life, Wall-E and the Pixar short film, "La Luna."

The 24 gondolas on Mickey's Fun Wheel will feature different pairs of Pixar characters on them, although Mickey's face will still appear on the center of the Fun Wheel.

California Screamin' will be re-themed into the Incredicoaster, featuring the characters from the Inclredibles movies. The loading area will be enhanced to include a new mid-century-modern-style building based on the Parr family home that will be seen in the Incredibles 2 which opens in theaters June 14th, 2018. You can view a video on the creation of the new Incredicoaster by clicking this link.

There will be a new spinner ride on the western end of Pixar Pier that will be based on the Inside Out characters. It looks as though this ride might just be Flicks Fliers moved and re-themed. Although the rest of Pixar Pier will be opening Summer 2018, this attraction will be opening later in the year.

Toy Story Midway Mania will remain unchanged.

Parades

Beginning April 13, 2018, the Pixar Play Parade will move to Disneyland and the Paint the Night Parade will return to California Adventure. The Pixar Play Parade will feature three new floats which can be seen in the pictures taken from the Disney Parks Blog below:

This is expected to be the opening float in the parade - the iconic Pixar lamp and ball.

Also newly added will be a float from the movie "UP."

Inside Out will also join the fun!

The Paint the Night Parade is also rumored to be getting a new float to replace the Elsa Ice Castle float which is said to be getting the ax due to it's size and the low hanging cables in California Adventure. I hope this isn't the case, as the Ice Castle is truly an amazing float, and one of my kid's favorites!

New Hotel

Construction on the yet-to-be-named hotel starts in the summer of 2018 and the hotel will open in 2021. The location of the new hotel is an odd one. It will be jammed in between the Disneyland Hotel and the Monorail platform on the west end of Downtown Disney on the current location of the AMC Theater and the ESPN Zone. The four star hotel will add an additional 700 rooms to the Disneyland Resort. The hotel will make use of the existing Monorail platform, which will now be located inside the hotel and will transport guests directly to Tomorrowland.
I found it interesting that the Disney Parks blog also mentions that it will bring in $25 Million in taxes to Anaheim's general fund - a fact that most casual readers interested in Disney news wouldn't care about. In my estimation, this is an obvious play to publish, for the Anaheim City Council, the monetary benefit that Disney brings to Anaheim. As reported in my previous blog posts, Disney needs the council's approval for the Eastern Gateway project which the City Council has refused to give thus far, citing an unneeded hardship on the local businesses on Harbor blvd. So Disney is trying to play a typical political game by posting the monetary benefit in a blog targeting Disney fans that don't know the whole story of the project.

Below is a look at the concept art of the new hotel as published by the Disney Parks Blog:

The new hotel will act as a sort of funnel to funnel guests staying on the West side of the resort into the new security checkpoint. 

A link to the Disney Parks Blog article about the new Hotel can be found by clicking on this link:

Parking Garage

Construction on a new parking garage is set to get underway in February 2018 and should be finished within a year, in time for the opening of Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge. The new structure will contain 6500 parking spaces and will be located just south of the Mickey & Friends parking structure on the west side of Disneyland.

That about wraps up the major news from the Disneyland Universe. With Pixar Pier opening in 2018 and Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge opening in 2019, this is a busy time for Disneyland!