Happy Leap Day! I hope you’re using your extra day to do something fun. I’m using mine to look back at this month’s happenings at one of my favorite places – Disneyland! February at the resort included rare character sightings, some new offerings, and a scary fire impacting two lands. Let’s dive right in.
FAST PASS OFFERINGS EXPAND
The big news this month centers around fast pass. Three new attractions have joined the fast pass system: Smuggler’s Run, Autopia, and Monsters, Inc. All three have fast passes available at kiosks or through the MaxPass system.
Source: Disneyland Resort
This change has been a little controversial on social media, and I for one have mixed feelings about it. For attractions like Smuggler’s Run, with consistently long wait times, it makes total sense to me to have this kind of offering. But this has severely impacted Monsters, Inc. On weekdays in the winter, I wouldn’t expect wait times for this attraction to ever exceed 30 minutes. Recently, standby wait times have been as long as 90 MINUTES, sometimes longer than the wait times for Mission Breakout. Though I’m not a fast pass system hater generally, I’m not in favor of adding it to slow-loading, low-capacity attractions like Monsters. Let me visit Monstropolis in peace!
FIRE…BY THE FIRE STATION
On February 6, park visitors were in for a bit of a scare when a fire broke out in a backstage area between Main Street USA and Adventureland.
Main Street is on fire @disneyland pic.twitter.com/RhMYoS9O3k
— isabel (@isabel_roseee) February 7, 2020
A temporary generator in the backstage space caused the fire, and the incident caused no damage to any attractions or main buildings. Main Street, Adventureland, and parts of Frontierland experienced temporary power outages, but the park resumed normal operations by the end of the night.
SWEETHEARTS NITE CELEBRATES RARE CHARACTERS
What event is better suited for Valentine’s week than Sweethearts Nite? This after-hours event celebrates love at Disneyland, offering specialty merchandise, dance parties, and romantic photo ops.
Source: Laughing Place
But the best part of the event? All the rare characters! Of course park regulars like Rapunzel, Flynn, and Tiana were mingling with guests, but rarely seen characters like Naveen, Milo and Kida, Mulan and Li Shang, and Hercules and Megara joined the party too.
Source: Laughing Place
OTHER UPDATES
The new Magic Happens parade finally debuted yesterday! I’ll have pictures and thoughts to share on the parade very soon.
Excited about Pixar’s new film, Onward? Ian and Barley Lightfoot are the newest characters to join the parks, starting March 5 at Pixar Nite. Starting March 6, the brothers will also be meeting guests in Pixar Pier during regular park hours.
Good news for “Impossible Burger” fans: the company just announced a strategic partnership with Disneyland. The Food & Wine Festival will launch “Impossible” offerings at the parks, and though we don’t have a ton of details yet, there will undoubtedly be even more options coming soon to different restaurants around the resort.
And finally, this month Disneyland hosted its annual Celebrate Gospel event in Hollywood Land. I was disappointed to see Disney didn’t announce much about this event – not nearly enough even for a blog post. California Adventure has hosted Celebrate Gospel for 11 years now, and it deserves a lot more promotion, fanfare, and performances.
Source: Disneyland AP