Can you believe it’s the last day of August?! I feel like the summer just started, and now we’re already moving onto fall. Even though the month of August flew by, Disneyland still managed to pack in tons of construction, announcements, events, and some attraction mishaps. Let’s take a look back at this month at the Disneyland Resort.
50 YEARS OF HAPPY HAUNTS
50 years ago, the Haunted Mansion first opened its gates to Disneyland visitors, and the park has never been the same. A while back, I wrote about the park’s after-hours celebration, which gave visitors the chance to party with 999 happy haunts until the early morning hours.
Source: Laughing Place
The most exciting part of the party, not previously announced, was the addition of actors into the Mansion. Observant riders spotted the living souls in the ballroom scene, down the never-ending hallway, and hanging out with the hitchhiking ghosts. And, of course, the Cadaver Dans were on hand to celebrate the occasion.
Source: LA Times
WALLS GO UP, STRUCTURES COME DOWN
The Galaxy’s Edge construction seemed to drag on forever, and now that it’s over, Disneyland can take a break from all of those temporary walls, right? Wrong. Across the park, visitors noticed some major work happening at the entrance of Tomorrowland.
Source: MiceChat
Say goodbye to the jagged rocks marking the entrance to Tomorrowland. The rocks are being ripped out, root and stem, to clear a major congestion point and create a new entryway off the central hub.
Over in California Adventure, construction on the Avengers Campus continues, but not much is visible from outside the walls. But in Hollywood Land, construction wrapped up on the re-configuring of the Mickey’s Philarmagic entrance, moving the marquee from the backlot section of the land to the main street.
Source: Laughing Place
At night, the marquee looks even better.
Source: MiceChat
A VISIT FROM THE GOLDBERGS
If you visited Disneyland on August 14, you may have felt like you were walking through a movie set. ABC’s The Goldbergs filmed on location for an upcoming episode!
Source: Spencer Stevenson
REDEEMING A 30-YEAR-OLD PRIZE
To mark Disneyland’s 30thanniversary, way back in 1985, the resort gave away tons of prizes, from memorabilia to park passes. One winner, Tamia Richardson, received free park tickets. She was just a teenager when she won the prize, but she managed to save the tickets for 34 years, finally redeeming them this month for a trip to the park with her two daughters.
Source: LA Times
OTHER UPDATES
In the early morning hours of August 6, the Matterhorn had its own version of an avalanche. A chunk of the exterior rock (plaster) the size of a door fell off the side of the mountain, though officials did not specify where. The piece did not cause any damage to the attraction or surrounding landscape, though the ride closed one side for the rest of the day.
On August 11, the Disneyland Railroad experienced a mishap when the train broke down in Frontierland. The engine stopped on one of the bridges over the entrance to Galaxy’s Edge, forcing engineers to evacuate riders. The next day, the Railroad reopened with normal operations.
A West Covina family suffered a terrible tragedy this month when 37-year-old Javier Jimenez died working on behind-the-scenes at Disneyland. Jimenez was working in a construction zone “backstage” when a crane accidentally knocked a steel plate into him. Cal/OSHA is currently investigating the incident to determine if Disneyland had any safety violations contributing to the accident.
And finally, this month marked the return of Disney’s most anticipated event: D23. I covered the event in three different posts, which you can find here: Day 1, Day 2, and Day 3.
