DBJ

Thanks for the info on the VR experience! Good use of the arcade space I think. I hope they don't remove the sky cabin. I think there are some good possibilities for the attraction if they remodel and enhance the structure.

Thanks for the photos! Nice to see the attraction progressing right along. I am glad SFMM is moving into adding more diversity into their line-up for the attraction roster. A good first step for them. Probably going to be an uptick in theme park tourists in 2019/2020 coming to socal, great time to go all in on a DC universe. Also happy Apocalypse is being worked on, pretty great in it's early years. They should probably flip the theme to Doomsday or to "Apokolips" to be , to tie it into the DC theme. Ride already looks sun bleached and desolate as it is, not much painting required.

That is great news, the removal of Boomerang. They have a nice sized plot of land to use extending past through Hammerhead's grave and can rework that entire side of the boardwalk area. Lot of great possibilities for 2018 and beyond.

It opens May 27. That is not a lot of time, less than 80 days away. I miss the ride, looking forward to see how they changed the experience. I wonder for example, if each member gets their own video segment?

Love the update, great photos! I am not of fan of the exterior of GOTG, man it is not attractive in person. I am hopeful that there are random video segments like Star Tours. Oddly enough, there are rumors of DCA being the Halloween Time park this year, which is amazingly bad timing given that TOT is no more. I suppose with all the dead space in the unused Hollywood section they have more available space. Another bad planning move this year was AP days. Cramming it into 1/2 of the former Starcade building was just dumb making the land even more crowded, consider the top half of Innoventions building is unused (unless they are building something there for this summer?). There really is not a reason the AP day events space can't be spread over both parks in the vacant areas. Instead of a celebration of the AP customer, seemed more like a tolerance test of what the local AP will endure. On a positive note, the Red Rose tavern is a great addition. I hope it becomes permanent, as the menu is a vast improvement over the hot garbage they used to serve. Would be nice to see Beauty and The Beast represented somewhere in the park as a permanent addition. Looking forward to Food and Wine this year as well. Great weather for the start of it this weekend.

That would be very cool to see them enhance the view and ambience. Would be great for both the restaurant and the ride. Once we sat near the front of the entrance, so our view ( as pictured above) was not that unfortunately. It is nice when you can score one of those tables to take in the view of the cabin without looking over other guests.

That would be very cool to see them enhance the view and ambience. Would be great for both the restaurant and the ride. Once we sat near the front of the entrance, so our view ( as pictured above) was not that unfortunately. It is nice when you can score one of those tables to take in the view of the cabin without looking over other guests.

I am not sure they put any view blocking scrims in Blue Bayou, I would guess not as the view from the restaurant more or less shows the boarding area and not much else. It might be even more pleasant actually without the noise from the ride operating. I would call and ask just to make sure the view is still not blocked, and if not, ask for table near the water. My favorite in park restaurant is Carthay Circle at DCA. Also, if you are going with Blue Bayou, you could do the MSEP dining package, which gives you a reserved area for the parade. I think you catch a window right before the Food & Wine starts, and AP days is over (?) by that point. Without those two rides, it indeed does impact the rest of the park. I would say get there at opening, maximize the FP program, and it will be a good time.

I like the idea of the boat system. Makes traveling to each of the locations feel more like a journey, a little extra magic if you will.

That is very cool! Perfect for a lot of parks really. Anywhere you tuck in another roller coaster in a small footprint is good news.

So, is it Avatar in 2017, Toy Story Land in 2018, and then Star Wars in 2019 for Florida? That is an incredible run of new lands for guests to explore. For California, not quite as grand, refurbishments/remodeling in 2017, 2018 kind of blank so far, 2019 Star Wars land, and 2020 is rumored Marvel land. Although I think "Marvel land" attractions will remain highly staggered. GOTG remodel 2017, Marvel Coaster 2020 as rumors suggest. The muppet/monsters dead zone in Hollywood will be around for awhile. I read a summary of their quarterly results , and the parks/resorts are a nice bright spot for the company, only ESPN weighing them down still.

The is the Nite Inn, which is close, and Tilt, which is nearby. In studio city, which is close by, there is Studio City Courtyard - cheapest -Mikado, Sportmen's Lodge, Comfort Inn (N. Hollywood). Also, the Hilton is next door, but next door so the price might be worth it.

I hope they do a stress test on that app though. I have been in the park a few times last year when the app didn't load the map properly. Can't imagine the frustration to pay to use it for a day, then not being able to access the app at the ride entrance. I like that it will cut down the running around between parks too. It will be very handy to book the 3 rides at DCA while over at Disneyland. Did it say how many mobile FP you can do in a day? I think it would be pretty amazing to be able to schedule out the entire day via the app.

Great pics! Looks like a lot of fun.

I don't think it is too far off from what is going to happen with the new Fastpass system. I think what is going to happen is that the new FP system, much like Florida's, will let guests pre-book their rides/meals all in advance, so essentially, it becomes an appointment based park. What might happen is that during the very busy days, the park will sell out just from FP users who book in advance, and there will be no walk up tickets available, except to DCA. Or say, Star Wars Land will be so popular that there will be no standby line at first, just pre-booked FP guests. I am actually looking forward to having the ability (hopefully), to schedule my day with the attractions I know I want to see. Also, to be able to see if the attractions I like are completely booked for the day, to choose to go on another day instead of showing up and being irritated by the crowd levels.

Some random bits of trip advice. 1.) The Disneyland app is great for checking out wait times for attractions. It will save you a lot of time. 2.) One great way to see the World of Color: SOL at DCA, is to do the dining packages. That way, you don't have to bother trying to get a FP for the show. The Carthay Circle is a very good place to eat. 3.) Likewise, they offer a Paint The Night dining package for Disneyland. It is a great way to see the parade, but odds are once you are on that side of DL at night, it would be difficult to get to Main Street to see the fireworks in time if the two events are back to back. I would ask them where the reserve area is for PTN with the dining package, if not on main street, forget it. 4.) I would say to catch the smaller theatrical/music shows while waiting for your FP return time. For example, catching the Magical Map show while waiting out the Rodger Rabbit FP. Or catching the show at Golden H., while waiting for Big Thunder. 5.) Hyperspace MT. is hyper popular, always best to try to hit that first thing in the am. 6.) On the FP itself, there is a return time listed. But there is also another time listed, the time when you can get another FP for a different attraction. So it's possible to carry two FP at a time. 7.) The monorail is a great way to get into the park. We take it out of the park to hit Rainforest Café or Earl. 8.) The caste has a nicely done walk through attraction about Sleeping Beauty. And if you want a random place to sit, check out the handicap accessible experience. 9.) A cheap and good fried dough snack are the beignets at the Mint Julep Bar. They should be offering a holiday flavor during your visit.

Very curious to see where they fit this expansion in at USH, lower or upper?

Looking at HKDL concept art, I wonder how much of that will influence the direction of the DCA's future "marvel" land? I am wondering if for example that the 2023 attraction replacing Autotopia at HKDL will be the same attraction going behind the GOTG tower? I would think that mystery marvel attraction plus the known Iron Man attraction could be the anchors of the new area. Or Disney could send the purists into a meltdown and replace Star Tours with Iron Man (place it in SW land), Buzz with Ant-Man, Space Mt. with GOTG/Capt. Marvel, Path of Jedi w/ any Marvel short ride film, etc. Side note: Part of the reason the park feels crowded even with the 10% attendance drop is because of things like the theater that houses Path of The Jedi used to be an actual attraction. Imo, if they put actual attractions into the Carousel/Innoventions building, used the theater, used the Starcade, at least removed the footers of the Peoplemover that are in the pathways, when the train re-opens there might be some congestion relief around the park. And with the Frozen concept art for both HKDL an TDS, would be nice to see that stateside. Epcot in particular could expand the Norway area to include that ice skating flat ride. I could see Disneyland shrinking the ride footprint and reconfigure Autopia, the smoking area, figuring out a way to hide the monorail, in order to place Arendelle with two rides in that general area.

That is some very impressive concept art! The redesign of their Castle is quite impressive. Like the concept art for the Frozen section. I am not a Disneyland purist, the hub does a redesign for the crowd flow.

I agree it would make a great fit at SFMM (or Knott's), or enclosed at USH. All parks need unique flat rides, and this kind of attraction blurs the lines between coaster and flat. Would make a great neighbor to Full Throttle at SFMM. And at 800 pph, line would move faster than FT.

Thanks for the link to the ride catalogue. I see several flats I would like to see put in at our local parks.

I like the ride. Glad they are looking at bringing more exciting flat rides. I hope the concept excluded a shade structure just to show the ride. Just putting up a purple fence in fiesta village is not a "theme". The village happens to be one of the better themed areas of the park, would be good to have it blend in with the surroundings.

What makes it the world's first ever flying theater? Curious how it is different than say Soarin'.

If they are going to clone from within the empire, I would say for an attraction based Dr. Strange. Bring over Everest from AK, modified to fit into the space behind GOTG. Part of Dr. Strange does take pace in a similar location after all, and personally would love to see another large coaster for the resort.

I attended Sat night. Here is mini-review. Our group started with the pre-scare boo buffet. Very glad we did. Even though our time was at 6pm, after being in traffic for two hours down from LA, they were kind enough to let us in at 5:20. Props to the customer service for that, totally unexpected. Much to our surprise, they let us onto Ghostrider at 6:15, we were able to get 2 rides in before they opened the gates for the mazes. We opted to skip Voodoo and hit the other back 3 mazes - Trick Or Treat, Tooth, and Paranormal. Wrapped those by 7, and went straight to Infected. I missed out on this last year. The line was long when we joined, but moved more quickly than I expected. I thought it was a very effective set up, and this was a highlight of the night. We flew over to Iron Reef, walked on. One gun wasn't working, unfortunately. By this point, the sell out crowds were flooding in, and we got into line for Supreme Scream, not too bad at 30 min wait. Had to pass on Xcel., crazy slow ops. The grave of Riptide is a pumpkin patch. Be nice to see the area developed for 2017. After that, kind of milled around. The longest line by far was Shadowlands. I liked the presentation, some effective scenes, ideas, and great style throughout. Enjoyed the Elvira show. I think instead of pure dance breaks, be nice to see a magic act in addition. In the past, did enjoy the Ed Alonzo years. From a review standpoint, I think it still is the best overall haunt attraction going. Considering it was a sell out night, our group managed to see almost everything we wanted too. We opted not to do the skeleton key rooms, glad we did not. Some big lines for those. Only a few drawbacks, by the time we reached Sierra Sidewinder, closed. Silver Bullet, huge line, but to be expected. And MZ Revenge was closed. On a critique standpoint, I think they could make use of some of the empty stages, like the Wagon Camp and Birdcage theater just to absorb some percent of the crowds.