Disneyland News and Rumors February 2014

Much has changed since my last update, and unfortunately not much of it is good news...Many of the refurbishments and new rides have been put on hold at Disneyland due to questionable decisions by the Brass to invest in sterile technology over at Walt Disney World in Florida, as reported by Micechat.

For the past 2 years, Disneyland has pulled in larger profits than expected which allowed the Imagineers to create concepts and rides in Disneyland and California Adventure. But while Anaheim was turning in unexpected profits, Walt Disney World Florida was busy creating the MyMagic+ program which as of yet has yet to reap the projected rewards. The MyMagic+ program includes the Magic Band - the ticketless entry in to all the parks in Florida - a reservation booking system, and Fastpass+ programs, to name a few. The MyMagic+ programs continued to require more time and more money and quickly fell behind schedule. Instead of putting the projects on hold, WDW decided that they had already invested such a large financial commitment to the programs that they would continue on with them despite being well over budget and behind schedule.

The end result is that while Disneyland Anaheim was doing extremely well financially, the new programs in Florida weren't paying off as they were supposed to by fiscal year 2014. But not only are the programs not profitable now, they will require additional funds in 2015 to help iron out the bugs the system has in it. Additionally, the MyMagic+ concept was originally sold to the operations team in Burbank, CA as being able to be duplicated in Anaheim at Disneyland, thus making all the expense easier to swallow. But because of logistics and different demographics in Anaheim, the program suddenly looks much less likely to work there. So with this in mind, the budgeted numbers for the project suddenly look even worse considering the MyMagic+ ultimately will probably only be used in the Florida property.

With all this in mind, Bob Iger (the CEO of the Walt Disney Company) and all of Disney's top Executives met in mid November to discuss the MyMagic+ (NextGen) programs. While the exact conversations might not be known, the end result had Mr Iger returning to Burbank and telling WDI (Imagineering) to halt all major projects at all American parks, Disneyland Paris, and Hong Kong Disneyland. All plans for the 60th anniversary at Disneyland have also been put on hold and the Imagineers that were assigned to creating the Star Wars ride and concepts in Tomorrowland were reassigned to Shanghai Disneyland (which conveniently has its own budget) until at least the end of February.

The following is a status report on various projects or refurbishments as reported by micechat:

Star Wars in Tomorrowland - ON HOLD
Originally Star Wars was to be introduced into Tomorrowland in two phases. The first phase was to remodel some of the buildings and shops to make them look more "Star Wars-ish" and to replace Captain EO with another Star Wars related attraction before the 60th Anniversary in 2015. The second phase was to begin in late 2015 with the construction of the Speeder Bike ride, the Ewok forest where Autopia currently is, the Millenium Falcon walk-through where the People Mover platform is, the removal of the People Mover track, the removal of the Astro Orbiter from it's current location and relocation of it to the top of Space Mountain, and the remodel of the Tomorowland Terrace to look like the Cantina on the Star Wars planet of Tatooine. All of these projects have been placed on hold indefinitely in Anaheim and cancelled altogether in Disney Hollywood Studios in WDW Florida.


Monstropolis in California Adventure - CANCELLED
The concept was to take the underutilized corner of California Adventure in Hollywood Land and create a new thrill ride, restaurant, and re-theme the entire area. This project has been cancelled outright, and many think that the plans will never see the light of day again.


Fantasyland Dark Ride Renovations - ON HOLD
While the plans for the reconstruction of the Alice in Wonderland outdoor track are still scheduled to get underway as soon as Thunder Mountain Railroad reopens in February, the rest of the re-Imagineering of all the dark rides has been placed on hold. The one hope that we Disney fans can hold to is that Disney Imagineering pushed back the refurbishment of Alice in Wonderland from January to February so they could buy some time to save as much of the dark ride improvements as possible for the 60th.


Soarin' Over California in HD - IT'S A GO!
The original plans for the conversion of Soarin' to HD were for it to close down for 4 months from February 24th to June 6th. A new version of the film will be created and will culminate with scenes which are being filmed via flyovers of Disneyland and California Adventure on March 12. It has officially made Disneyland's Refurbishment schedule so I think it is safe to say that this is a go!


Plans for the 60th Anniversary at Disneyland in 2015 - STILL A WORK IN PROGRESS...
The 60th Anniversary in 2015 looks like it might be a smaller event than previously planned. The budget has been trimmed significantly. One idea being thrown around is to have a theme of nostalgia. At one time there were plans to create a whole new night time parade,  but with the budget as it now is, that won't be happening. The current working idea is to bring back the Main Street Electrical Parade. I, for one, hope that is the case! I have such great memories of viewing that parade as a child with my mom. Nothing will ever quite top the magic that the Main Street Electrical Parade brings to Disneyland. For the Holiday season, Disneyland is considering bringing back the Christmas Star on top of the Matterhorn, which was used from 1961-1972. The Golden Horseshoe Revue is also slated to come back to Frontierland. So aside from the Electrical Parade's return which appears to be the center attraction of the 60th Anniversary celebration, there will also be a few nostalgic odds and ends here and there.

On a final note, we all might have stepped on to the Submarine Ride for the last time - the Submarine's have apparently been shutdown for good. While the official refurbishment schedule has them down until September of this year, Micechat reports that they won't open until January 2015 if at all. The plan now is to drain the lagoon and save the money that it costs to run the attraction (it is by far the most expensive attraction in Disneyland to operate) while Disney waits to hear the future of Star Wars in Tomorrowland. If Star Wars get's the green light, the Submarine ride will have already sailed into Yesterland. If Star Wars stays on hold, it is a possibility they will bring it back for one final year in 2015 (remember, the 60th Anniversary theme is nostalgia) and then start construction on Star Wars attractions toward the end of the year.

For the latest news and rumors, see my newest update here