[Disney California Adventure] Placemaking: Pixar Pier, Buena Vista Street, Hollywood Land, Condor Flats

Petit retour en arrière: http://www.yesterland.com/sunshine.html

The new Carthay Circle pump house appears to be nearing completion. Signage and canvas awnings have been added.


MiceChatter Low Saturn was able to snap some sneak peek photos of the construction behind the walls. Rules weren't broken to obtain these photos; Low Saturn is just tall enough raise their arm up to snap photos.




The new Red Car Trolley wig wag at the Carthay Circle trolley stop has been installed




The new maroon awning indicates that the new trolley stop will also house a new information booth. Rumor has it that the pump house and information booth will be open to the public soon, likely with a wait board, much like the one in Disneyland's Central Plaza.


The Buena Vista Street shops are beginning to take shape. The former California Zephyr shops are being expanded.






The former Greetings from California shop, future home of Elias and Co.






The old Candy Shoppe's facade will be repurposed as a side entrance to the Elias and Co. department store.


http://micechat.com/blogs/dateline-disneyland/3164-buena-vista-wigwag-emporium-reopens-hundred-acre-upgrades-cars-land-work-more.html

The steel framework for the new Buena Vista Street facades are going up at the old Sunshine Plaza restroom and locker complex.









The new facade construction has pushed the walls out a bit more at the start of the park's temporary entrance corridor.


Looking back towards the new facade work from the entrance corridor.




The old Greetings from California store




The new Carthay Circle fountain can be seen peeking over construction walls. It looks really nice, another good sign for the project.


http://micechat.com/blogs/dateline-disneyland/3186-getting-ready-holidays-main-street-menus-building-buena-vista-more.html

Et aussi http://disneyparks.disney.go.com/blog/2011/10/red-car-trolley-at-disney-california-adventure-park-will-be-a-ride-back-in-time/

http://disneyparks.disney.go.com/blog/2011/10/an-inside-look-at-buena-vista-street/

BUENA VISTA STREET
As the holidays move in to both parks, construction continues at full speed on Buena Vista Street. You can see the new facades beginning to take shape behind the green tarps












The backside of construction (probably not as cool as the backside of water, but potentially more interesting!)


Future home of the Elias & Co. Department Store






Some new signs on the construction walls point the way to alternate shopping while Buena Vista Street construction continues




Disney recently tried to block the view of Buena Vista Street construction with walls along the track that passes through California Adventure, but you can still catch a glimpse.


http://micechat.com/blogs/dateline-disneyland/3196-happy-halloween-seasonal-snow-cars-land-courthouse-hotel-progress-train-art-more.html

The new Carthay Circle Red Car Trolley stop (the pump house) was unveiled on Friday. It's great to get this sneak peek at this little corner of Buena Vista Street. It's a great taste of what Buena Vista Street will offer when it opens in 2012 and it's really pretty exciting.





The Condor Flats transitional theming with the dinosaur fossils survived the area's remodel. They seem to blend in nicely and give the area some added visual interest.









Et d'autres photos sur http://micechat.com/blogs/dateline-disneyland/3203-parade-taping-carthay-pumphouse-unveiled-lighting-up-holidays-toon-trees-more.html

http://disneyparks.disney.go.com/blog/2011/11/inside-blue-sky-cellar-at-disney-california-adventure-park/

BUENA VISTA STREET
A look at upcoming Buena Vista Street shops and public areas that guests will see on their right hand side immediately after entering the park.


On the other side of the street, the future home of Oswald's Gas & Oil.





http://micechat.com/blogs/dateline-disneyland/3236-expanding-caribbean-cars-land-progress-disneyland-hotel-lobby-holidays-more.html




Looking towards the Cathay Circle theater.

http://micechat.com/blogs/in-the-parks/3240-disneyland-updates-dca-construction-transformers-harry-potter-news-uni.html

BUENA VISTA STREET
Work continues on the new Buena Vista Street facades.


Further down Buena Vista Street, a good portion of the new Carthay Circle Theater facade has been revealed.


It looks pretty fantastic, showing care in detail and craftsmanship that the former Sunshine Plaza could only dream of.




Great wrought-iron details!






A look at the future home of Elias and Co. Department Store


Carabelle's Hand-Scooped Ice Cream and Fiddler, Fifer and Practical Cafe


Views from the Monorail:




The entrance of the park...


You can see the structure for Oswald's Filling Station taking shape.



HOLLYWOOD LAND
Back in the Hollywood Pictures Backlot, the walls that were up around the Red Car Trolley tracks next to the Tower of Terror have been removed. The work was for loop sensor installation along this portion of the trolley route.





http://micechat.com/blogs/dateline-disneyland/3251-carthay-uncovered-junkyard-friends-mary-moves-water-slide-woes-crowds-more.html

Un article très intéressant sur l'évolution de l'adhésion au Club 33 de Disneyland alors que son "petit frère" va ouvrir dans le Carthay Circle Theater l'an prochain.

Clubbed...

It was with the Niche Revenue Markets mindset in mind that TDA jumped on the chance to make some changes to the long-standing perks and benefits of Club 33, prior to launching the club’s first satellite location beyond Disneyland’s berm. When the original Imagineering plan from 2007-08 fell through to use the Carthay Circle Theater as a history attraction or Walt Disney Museum-like space, TDA latched on to the facility as a dining location with an eye towards that very long Club 33 waiting list. The original plan to use the majority of the restaurant space as a separate membership-club fell apart when the economy remained lousy through 2011 and the initial studies found that a new DCA club separate from Club 33 had little appeal to those on the Club 33 waiting list.

We’ve been filling you in on that evolving story over the past two years here, and regular readers know that only the smaller of the two ground floor cocktail lounges in the Carthay Circle Theater will be used as a membership club. But instead of branching out with a separate club, the small lounge to the right of the entrance doors will become a de facto satellite location of Club 33, hidden from sidewalk view by wood paneling and guarded by a hostess at a velvet rope.

It’s that evolution in operation for the 45 year old club that pushed TDA into making several key changes to the membership contract. Some of the changes are things that Anaheim leaders from both the parks and hotels have wanted to fix for years, some are simply profit-driven initiatives to mine the famously long waiting list under the Niche Revenues Market banner, and some of the changes are simply for needed administrative and tax purposes.

The changes to parking privileges for Club members, wherein any Club 33 member had access to 365 days of free valet parking at the Grand Californian Hotel regardless of whether they were actually going to the club that day or not, is meant to rein in a perk that the hotel executives wish they’d never agreed to in the first place a decade ago when the Grand Californian first opened. That was an agreement arranged after Club 33 lost its dedicated parking spots up near the front gate (Bambi section) when DCA was still the Disneyland parking lot.

But now that the Grand Californian Hotel consistently runs at the highest occupancy rates of the three Disney hotels in Anaheim (yes, even in this economy), and since the DVC wing opened in 2009 increasing the room count to nearly 1,000 but not adding much to the parking stock, the valet parking operation at the Grand often can’t find enough space to valet park the big-spenders staying in the hotel or coming for dinner at Napa Rose. With often dozens of Club 33 members a day taking up valet space with no guarantee they are actually going to Club 33 or even setting foot in Disneyland, the hotel management was often pulling their hair out wishing they had enough space for the people actually staying and dining in their hotel. By limiting Club 33 members to their free valet parking privilege only on days they actually have a dining reservation at the club, it’s hoped that additional valet space will open up for hotel guests, even if it’s only just an extra couple dozen parking spaces per day.

Similarly, the change from offering unlimited free park hopper tickets for guests of Club 33 members, even if the member is not dining with their guests and just reserves them a table, is an attempt to scale back what could only be seen as rampant abuse by a growing number of them. Routine audits of the records for all club members was showing a growing number of members were distributing hundreds of complimentary park hoppers per year to friends, extended family, and business acquaintances. And that same audit showed that the members themselves were only dining at the club a handful of times per year. At the current price of $101 per person for a park-hopper, the monetary value of all those free tickets was quickly surpassing the annual dues being collected by the club member passing them out to their friends, neighbors, clients, dentist, golf caddy, manicurist, etc.

While that laundry list of tweaks and changes to the club rules impacts only club members, plus the blatant grab for more money by the increase in annual dues and a phase out of the lower-level gold memberships, it was the recent posting of a change in ownership liquor license on Disneyland’s front gate that raised eyebrows amongst Disney fans whether or not they belonged to the club. And yet that change to club operation is really the most mundane and harmless, even though they unfortunately had to use the sinister sounding “Disney Parks” moniker on the filing with the liquor control board. It should be a warning flag here for the marketing group that the bland corporate Disney Parks title is now widely seen amongst fans as something to fear, not something to celebrate.

But the transition of ownership of the Club 33 liquor license from the club itself over to the Disney Parks monolith does not mean that Orlando executives who are clueless as to the unique culture of Southern Californians that revere Walt Disney and his own Disneyland will be getting their hands on Club 33. What it does mean, however, is that TDA is finally getting a property-wide liquor license strategy that works for the 21st century, instead of the patchwork quilt of limited and temporary liquor licenses they had left over from the 20th century.

When Club 33 opened in 1967 it was granted its own liquor license not related to Disneyland, and it maintained that license as a separate entity for decades as any upscale restaurant would out in the real world. The original Club 33 alcohol storeroom exists to this day, housed behind the second-story windows above the French Market restaurant in New Orleans Square, where locked climate-controlled cages house hundreds of bottles of fine wine, expensive champagne, and very pricy liqueurs and cordials for Club 33 diners.

Disneyland would have to apply for temporary liquor licenses good for one day only if a private corporate party was ever held after-hours in the park, and that old-fashioned process continued through the 1990’s and 2000’s with big events like Liz Taylor’s 60th birthday, the four huge Pirates movie premieres, or lavish parties bankrolled by wealthy companies like Microsoft. Only in 2009 did Disneyland finally apply for and secure a standing license to serve alcohol anywhere inside Disneyland at any time, although that practice is still reserved only for special after-hours events. But the new Disneyland license did not cover Club 33’s license on the books since ’67.

When DCA opened in 2001 it received its own specific license that was good parkwide, but the bureaucracy of the liquor control licensing process meant that any alcohol stock served inside DCA could not be moved around property to be served under the separate licenses maintained by the hotels or Club 33. Likewise, if the hotel banquets team helped with any event serving alcohol inside DCA, temporary exemptions had to be filed with the liquor board to move any liquor stock around property and work within the patchwork quilt of licenses Disney had in Anaheim. But with Club 33 now opening a satellite location inside DCA, the club’s current license would not permit the movement of supplies of top-shelf liquor and expensive wine between New Orleans Square and Buena Vista Street, making the ordering and receiving of supplies for the smaller location in DCA particularly difficult.

The overall changes coming to Club 33, its membership benefits and it’s new satellite location inside the Carthay Circle Theater, finally forced TDA into scrapping the circa 1967 liquor license and re-apply for a new license for Club 33 that brings it under the property-wide operation in Anaheim. Unfortunately, that license had to be titled on the public posting as a “Disney Parks” entity which understandably scares folks, particularly those who revere the distinct Club 33 culture.

Just a few notes from yours truly on this, I got a lot of e-mail, lots of phone calls and was stopped by several club members at the park, all wanting to fill me in on the problems they had with these changes. Basically I heard two distinct types of concerns, the first was the complaints about reduced perks (parking in particular) and the dramatically increased pricing, the second was more focused on the reduction in quality of offerings and service at the club over the years.

More than a few members in the first group for the most part either were unaware or uninformed about current Park management and their mandates, but I won't go into further detail. The second group that was concerned more about quality seemed to me to have a better point about the recent changes for the club. No matter what the group, the fear of getting booted out if they complained also plays into this, as well as a lack of any kind of organization as a group (particularly with a charitable focus) hurt their efforts.

Disneyland on the other hand never should have let the quality of service and food decline as it did. Club 33 should have always been, and should always be, a step above the Napa Rose or any other establishments on the property. We'll see if we increased dues means that increased service and quality follows. Lord knows the members certainly are paying for it.

http://miceage.micechat.com/allutz/al122011a.htm

Vivement la fin des travaux

Condor Flats

The gas pumps in front of the Fly 'n' Buy store in Condor Flats, across from Soarin' Over California, were replaced last week. The new pumps are clean and new in the 1930s-style, whereas the old pumps looked abandoned and dirty.


This appears to be the first (small) step in abandoning the hip-and-edgy contemporary theme for this area of the park. Eventually, you won't feel like you're in a desert airstrip in the early 2000s; instead Condor Flats will represent a bustling, working airstrip of the 1930s. Thematic changes to help the park transport guests to different places and times have already been made at Grizzly River Run and in various places along Paradise Pier.


Hopefully this transition in Condor Flats will lead to new period-themed signage for Soarin' Over California and an overhaul and new name for the nearby Fly 'n' Buy shop and Taste Pilots Grill restaurant.



Buena Vista Street




Nearby, the steelwork for the circular main entrance facade at Elias and Co. Department Store has gone up.




http://micechat.com/blogs/dateline-disneyland/3260-paving-road-radiator-springs-jolly-holiday-bakery-elias-co-progress-more.html


Hurry guys! 6 months to show time!


Inside the Buena Vista Circle, more trees have appeared close to the buildings.



The new facades on what was once the California Zephyr train facade

http://micechat.com/blogs/in-the-parks/3264-merry-christmas-disneyland-california-adventure-knotts-berry-farm.html

In this shot of the Buena Vista Circle, you can notice the curbs for the street being built at bottom right. The curved double wooden form is where the curbs will be.


A variety of facades forming.

http://micechat.com/blogs/in-the-parks/3270-parks-micechat-socal-theme-park-awards-disneyland-knotts-dca.html

Quelle plaisir de voir le Carthay Circle Theater presque terminé ! Vraiment dommage que le vrai ait été détruit !

moi aussi j'adore , ça permet de le ressusciter avec une touche disney aussi ^^

Petite question, quand est prevu la fin des travaux ainsi que l'ouverture de Cars Land.
Car petit passage par LA en Septembre prochain et ca serait tout de meme dommage de louper l'ouverture de tout cela a quelques jours de notre venue....

C'est prévue pour l'été et ca sera bien terminé avant septembre de toute facon.

Cars Land aussi? Parce que pour les deux chantiers du parc, je trouve qu'il y a encore tant a faire pour que tout soit ok pour l'été.....!!!

Oui, Buena Vista Street et Cars Land sont bien prévus pour le début de l'été.

CarsLand devrait même ouvrir en premier ...

Photos de la semaine dernière à voir sur http://micechat.com/blogs/in-the-parks/3275-parks-micechat-socal-theme-park-awards-results-jolly-holiday-bakery-more.html (milieu de page). Nouvelles photos ci-dessous...

Construction continues on Buena Vista Street...
















The tile roof is starting to go up at the Carthay Circle Theater.




Wrought-iron marquee


Back on Paradise Pier, the awfully tacky Midway Shops unexpectedly started disappearing behind construction walls last week. The Man Hat 'n' Beach shop facade and the side of the Sideshow Shirts facing the former Maliboomer area were the first sections to go, with their garish neon and pun-riddled signage quickly removed.


The obnoxious clown-faced jack-in-the-box facade is finally history!

All that remains is the yellow starburst.


The side of the Sideshow Shirts building is behind walls, too. It'll be interesting to see what is changed here. Pretty much anything should be an improvement over the plain stucco walls and simple neon "waves" that were here before.


The ATM has been moved to the front of the shop for now. All of the shops remain open during construction.


http://micechat.com/blogs/dateline-disneyland/3279-main-streets-jolly-holiday-three-kings-day-bye-bye-bobsleds-pier-changes-more.html

Je trouverais ça vraiment chouette si on pouvait entendre cette musique d'ambiance dans la future Buena Vista Street : La bande son de "Who framed Roger Rabbit" du génial Alan Silvestri.




Merci beaucoup J. Thaddeus TOAD de nous retranscrire toutes les infos sur l'évolution de DCA !!!

Petit aperçu des futures boutiques du côté est de la rue (à gauche en entrant dans le parc): Oswald's, Los Feliz Five & Dime, Big Top Toys, Elias &Co..

http://disneyparks.disney.go.com/blog/2012/01/looking-down-the-street-in-disney-california-adventure-park/

Nouveau merchandising pour DCA: http://disneyparks.disney.go.com/blog/2012/01/gearing-up-for-new-disney-california-adventure-park-merchandise/

Further inside the park, the new Carthay Circle fountain is now running behind construction walls.




The backside of the theater has now emerged from tarps and scaffolding


Et d'autres photos à voir sur http://micechat.com/blogs/dateline-disneyland/3286-matterhorn-main-street-refurbs-alice-hollywoodland-flos-v8-more.html





Et d'autres photos à voir sur http://micechat.com/blogs/in-the-parks/3294-matterhorn-down-dca-constructed-seaworld-huntington-gardens-more.html