Disneyland Resort: Guardians of the Fantasyland

Disneyland Resort, Anaheim, CA

Today brings us part of this week's Disneyland Resort construction update.  If you missed yesterday's part one, you can catch up in the aforementioned link.  Today, we take a trip across the Esplanade to see the Guardians of the Galaxy ride in basically it's final exterior iteration before it opens to the public--since the work walls have come down.  Also, we pass through Fantasyland to see some updates to a few attractions in the area. 

Guardians of the Galaxy - Mission: Breakout!

We're coming upon the final stretch, and the exterior of the new Guardians of the Galaxy attraction looks just about complete.  The work walls have been taken down, and only a few barriers remain to block off the entrance and the old Tower of Terror signage and photo op.  In addition, the ride has received testing and adjustments for its nighttime lighting scheme, which is... Christmas color-y? 

Here's one last recap of the building facade before it opens.  Crazy to think that the Imagineers and construction workers were actually able to pull off this transformation in just little more than half a year.  Regardless of your opinion on the replacement (and most people probably have the same less-than-enthused reception), that is an incredible undertaking.

Are you excited for the new Guardians of the Galaxy ride??

This remodel has certainly inspired a lot of... "spirited" discussion about the direction of Disney attractions and intellectual properties.

The exterior has certainly undergone a radical makeover.

The interior will be a unique experience too.

There is, of course, the fact that the Twilight Zone plot will be replaced by an adventure with the Guardians of the Galaxy.

Guests will help break out Rocket Raccoon and his friends from their imprisonment inside Taneleer Tivan's Collection inside his fortress.

There will be six unique experiences for guests who ride, each tied to its own soundtrack from the franchise's fantastic music collection.

Each experience will be tied to its own different drop sequence.

Regardless of how people might feel about the exterior, the actual ride experience should be pretty fantastic.

Here's a look at the entrance.  The MaxPass towers are on the right half.

Not so Pueblo Deco anymore, is it?

Now, all of the preceding information is what Disney has released publicly.

However, we, here, the responsible journalists at the prestigious Bulitzer Prize winning Westcoaster have uncovered details on the new ride experiences, and we're excited to share them with you!

The six ride sequences will each feature a different Guardian of the Galaxy as the lead.

But wait, that's only five, you say.  Well, Yondu has been added too, due to his popularity.

Those following Rocket will see him rig the ride carriages to careen out of control to literally smash out of the fortress.

Peter Quill's adventure sees riders placed into a dance contest with galactic baddies.

Zamora's ride sees a fierce battle with a Hutt-like creature also housed inside the Tivan Collection.

Drax's sequence is littered with the muscle-bound alien hurling obtuse and insulting observation to the audience, plus a lot of yelling at how awesome the entirechaotic and out-of-control experience is.

Groot's experience is simply Groot repeating that he is Groot at every single floor of the Collector's Fortress.  Because of course.

As for Yondu?  Well, the drop tower experience is tailor made for a simulation that allows everyone to be Mary Poppins, y'all.

These experiences are being exclusively reported here and are under absolutely no circumstances completely made up for the sake of absurdity or anything.

Not at all.

Another not completely made-up fact: those satellite dishes are part of the new guest Wi-Fi network being tested out around the parks.

So the great news is that internet access should be getting easier in the future.  But guests will have to flock to Guardians Tower for the strongest signal.

It's all part of a ploy to force people to love the new Guardians of the Galaxy ride.

Pretty dastardly brilliant, right?

Here are more detail shots of the tower.

How do you think the paint studies at WDIwent on this building?

This the best glimpse inside that one can get.

Panning off to the left side of the tower.

Colors are a little more muted here.

This is one of two podiums on either side of the main entrance that looks to be used for figures that have not yet been installed.  We have it on high authority that they will be a pair of Rod Serling statues weeping.

As alluded to earlier, Guardians Tower will have FastPass and MaxPass.

A warning to guests about the ride experience.

The MaxPass towers can be seen outside the main entry.

The tower has also been lit up at night.

This is a little more saturated than in person.

That's thanks to the help of some long exposure.

Every little while, the lighting will switch to a pulsating "red mode" that's kind of interesting.

Everything opens publicly the Saturday before Memorial Day.  Soft opens could happen too, but those are never guaranteed.

Snow White's Grotto

For the past few months, work walls have also surrounded Snow White's Grotto, beside Sleeping Beauty Castle, as the area has received extensive refurbishment.  Well, this past week, the grotto reopened, and the display looks significantly newer than it did.  There's a bit of a sheen that might be a little too nice looking, and Dopey's statue looks a little too much like its namesake, but the overall scene is pretty much the same--just with new statuettes.

The display that is an exercise in forced perspective is back.

The statuettes look to have been replaced.

They are particularly shiny.

An indirect demonstration of the forced perspective used: when isolated, Snow White doesn't look particularly life size.  In actuality, she's the same size as the dwarfs.

This close-up of Happy shows the sort of plastic texture to the figures.

Here's Grumpy and Sneezy.

The log looks like it received some touch-up too.

But overall, it looks nice!  It's good to have this and the Wishing Well back.

The Matterhorn Bobsleds

The Matterhorn Bobsleds has reopened with Fastpass installed.  Early results seem to show the same FastPass effect as elsewhere--a net standby line increase in wait time, to allow FastPass users the convenience of strategic reservations.  On Friday, I saw the wait grow as long as 75 minutes.  Even after 11:00pm, the queue was broadcasting a 45 minute wait time.  Both times were about twice the amount of normal.  Although some amount of this can be attributed to fans flocking to the ride after its significant refurbishment, I would expect wait times overall to be longer than they were before FastPass for equivalent conditions.

The waterfall is on, which means Disneyland's first roller coaster is back open!

Evidence of an abominable snowman.

Have you seen Harold?

A bobsled pair races through an alpine slot.

The permanent FastPass stations do not appear to have been constructed yet.

I'm assuming that these work walls by the old Fantasia Gardens area of the Motor Boats Cruise are concealing the permanent stands.

It's interesting that these weren't done when the ride reopened, but ah well.

Instead, portable FastPass dispensing machines are currently being used.

What's nice is that they only require a bar code scan instead of a ticket insertion--a feature that Disney parks everywhere else in the world have had for years.

And that's what that looks like!

Castle Holiday Shoppe

Remember that old sword shop in Fantasyland?  It closed a few months ago, and there was some speculation as to whether it might become part of Peter Pan's extended queue or be repurposed into a meet-and-greet, or turned into some other function.  Well, turns out it was just transformed into a different type of store, taking the leftover Christmas decorations from part of the Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique and relocating them here.  So, there goes any speculation there.

New shop, new sign.

There are some tributes to the shop's prior life in the storefront.

The knight figures and decorations harken to when it sold swords and cutlery.

But now, it sells Christmas, which means Jim and Dan will never step foot in here again.

Christmas is kind of expensive!

I suppose that for those who love the holiday all year, it's a nice boutique to wander into.

So if that's your thing, have at it!

Miscellaneous

We'll close out this update with some random tidbits.  Not photographed--there's an extended preview of Cars 3 available at the It's Tough to Be a Bug Theater in A Bug's Land.  It joins the Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales preview in Hollywood Land.

Over at the construction site for Splitsville, you'll see... absolutely nothing!!

The Indiana Jones Adventure is closed for refurbishment.  A bit late, might I add.  So I don't expect this to last long, since summer is around the corner.

The "Star Wars" Land cranes are now visible from pretty much everywhere in the park. 

At least it's not directly behind the castle.

This is still a lovely sight.

That is it from the Disneyland Resort this week.  Some pretty noticeable updates seem to happen when we skip a week's visit.  Soon, it will be the summer season, and with that, more crowds.  And before you know it, the Rivers of America attractions and FANTASMIC! will be back.  And those will be welcome returns for all Disneyland fans.

Until next time...