Disneyland Resort

The talking Mickey we wrote about in May of this year will begin making regular appearances at Disney’s California Adventure park as part of a new show. This is the first time that the “enhanced” Mickey character, which has a moving mouth and blinking eyes, will routinely appear in front of visitors at Disneyland Resort as he plays a central role in “Disney Dance Crew” that debuts Friday at California Adventure.

September 7 is the date that Disney has announced its plans to close the Bountiful Valley Farms area in California Adventure. This to make room for Mater’s Junkyard Jamboree, one of the new attractions coming to Cars Land, an all new land based on the Pixar animated film – Cars. The area between the farm and the Pacific Wharf area will become the new entrance into Cars Land.

As the continued process of re-themeing and enhancing takes place in Disney’s California Adventure park, Mulholland Madness is next on the list of attractions to receive an update. The family coaster, which has been called “unimaginative” in the past, will get a Goofy’s Sky Skool “refreshing” as part of the $1.1-billion effort to add a heavy dose of Mickey Mouse and friends to the under-performing theme park.

If you are like me and not one of the fortunate few who will be able to attend Disney’s “World of Color” premier on June 10th at Disney’s California Adventure Park, here’s good news for us all. Disney will now livestream the premier of their newest attraction on Ustream, allowing the whole world to watch as it happens.

With an official opening date of June 11th, the newly re-themed Silly Symphony Swings began “soft opening” runs last Friday morning. What was formerly known as the “Orange Stinger” has been re-themed to the 1935 Mickey Mouse short feature “The Band Concert,” with the music of Rossini’s “William Tell Overture.”

Disney Parks Blog has come out with some additional exciting details surrounding the current makeover portions of The Disneyland Hotel are receiving. They include enhancements to the pool area as well as the addition of two new dining establishments. The Dreams Tower (to be renamed Adventure Tower) has already been under renovation and is scheduled to be completed in 2010.

Along with the long-awaited debut of the June 11th launch of the ‘World of Color’ Water Spectacular at Disney’s California Adventure, the resort has announced their line-up of Sumner Nightastic! activities which are scheduled to run from June 11th – August 29th.

It’s an exciting list of shows and activities designed to draw crowds to the resort during the summer season.

Disneyland’s Matterhorn Bobsleds was down for a brief refurbishment last week. During the downtime, a new prototype of bobsled (ride vehicle) was spotted. Unlike the current “cuddle” seats in the current sleds which typically accommodate two people per car, these new sleds holds three passengers per car in individual seats.

However don’t expect to see them right away as a cast member was reported as saying that last week’s goal was simply to test the prototype sleds, and that there is still “a lot” of work to be done.