Orange County health officials are warning of another possible measles exposure after a confirmed case visited Disneyland last month.
The OC Health Care Agency on Saturday said an individual who was infectious with measles visited Disneyland Park on Thursday, Jan. 22 from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m., and Disney California Adventure Park from 3 p.m. until closing.
Anyone who was at those locations during the listed times may be at risk of developing measles symptoms between seven and 21 days after exposure, officials said.
The warning follows a measles exposure notice issued last week involving an international traveler who passed through Los Angeles International Airport and later visited Disneyland Park and Disney California Adventure Park on Wednesday, Jan. 28.
Health officials urged people who are not fully vaccinated or who are unsure of their immunity status to contact a healthcare provider about receiving the measles, mumps and rubella vaccine.
“There are populations who cannot receive the measles vaccine — whether due to age, health conditions or allergies,” said Dr. Anissa Davis, Orange County’s deputy health officer. “Those individuals may face significantly higher health risks when exposed to the virus.”
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 733 measles cases have been confirmed across 20 states nationwide this years as of Feb. 5.
Symptoms typically include fever, cough, runny nose and red eyes, followed by a rash that begins on the face and spreads to the body, the agency said.
Health officials advised anyone who develops symptoms to stay home and call a medical provider before seeking care to avoid exposing others.
Disneyland’s award-winning Napa Rose is booked solid for the month of February and deep into March even before the California wine country-themed restaurant reopens to the public following a 10-month renovation.
Napa Rose has no reservations available from when the fine dining restaurant in Disney’s Grand Californian Hotel returns on Friday, Feb. 6 through March 10, according to the Disneyland website.
Advance reservations are highly recommended for the main dining room and chef’s counter that will feature $188 to $250 fixed price seasonal menus with optional wine pairings at $150, $300 or $500.
Disneyland has hosted a series of media previews over the past week that have helped boost anticipation for the returning restaurant.
The Napa Rose bar and lounge during a media preview following a 10-month renovation at the fine dining restaurant in Disney’s Grand Californian Hotel. (Photo by Brady MacDonald, Orange County Register/SCNG)
It’s still possible to make a reservation for two or four on select weekdays a month from now: March 11, 16, 17, 19, 23 and 25 and April 2 and 6. But those are going fast.
Larger groups are completely out of luck. There are no reservations available for parties of six or eight through April 6 — the last date currently open for booking.
The refreshed Napa Rose menu at Disney’s Grand Californian Hotel. (Courtesy of Disneyland)
Occasionally, a table pops open briefly due to a cancellation, but it disappears almost as quickly.
Curiously, the restaurant will be closed on Feb. 16 — just 10 days after the grand reopening.
The Napa Rose bar — offering small bites a la carte alongside wine, beer and cocktails — will not require reservations and will take walk-ins based on availability.
An emphasis on microtransactions and questionable cost cutting are among their concerns. Photo: Handout/Getty Images
You can exhale now, Bob Iger. This week, Disney named Josh D’Amaro as its next CEO, and he will be taking the Mickey mantle in March. As we noted earlier this week, the future head of a multibillion-dollar company making TV shows and movies has “no real experience making TV shows and movies.” He has, however, worked at Disney for 28 years, most recently as chairman of Disney Experiences, so in some ways, D’Amaro is Mister Experience. Crowning the guy who runs Disney’s theme parks, cruise ships, and hotels to head the entire company telegraphs how the megacorporation envisions its future; it is one of the last major Hollywood studios, but it might see other arms of its business as bigger priorities. You would think theme-park heads would welcome the news, but on Reddit and Twitter, Disney adults are raising concerns. If D’Amaro is going to run the Studios the way he runs the Parks, then it’s worth looking into why, exactly, fans of Disney World and Disneyland might be upset.
For decades, Disney Parks’ FastPass system was free to all theme-park guests, allowing them to nab passes (first paper, then digital) to wait in shorter lines for rides and attractions. It was a perk available to all who could get past the learning curve. In 2021, one year into D’Amaro’s tenure and following COVID shutdowns, Disney did away with FastPass and introduced a confounding and very costly series of pay-to-skip passes, which require timing advanced booking of limited slots in these formerly free-to-enter shorter lines. Lightning Lane Multi Passes, for example, can cost over $40 a day to skip the lines on certain attractions sorted into different tiers, excluding the best and busiest ones, which will require a Lightning Lane Single Pass (those range from $12 to over $20 per attraction). If the thought of staring at your phone all day at Disneyland, frantically booking ride slots like you’re using Resy, sounds horrible, you can now also buy a Lightning Lane Premiere Pass, which ranges from $129 to $449, per person, per day, plus tax, on top of your park tickets. On the busiest days, such as holidays, at the most popular parks like the Magic Kingdom and Disneyland, these baseline tickets can now cost over $200.
Now imagine doing this for a family of four on a three-day vacation. And imagine how expensive that vacation already is, as over the past few years, Disney has stripped away additional perks like the airport bus service and extended park hours, in favor of more points of purchase and labor-cost savings. The emphasis on microtransactions makes it so that the wealthy can afford to skip lines, creates hours-long waits for everyone else, and incentivizes even more people to pay up out of desperation and to make their limited time in the parks “worth it.” Defunctland has a brilliant video about how this experience is ruining theme parks for visitors, although it’s clear to see why Disney loves this model. Could D’Amaro be planning to apply these extractive pricing strategies to more products at the company? It’s not a stretch to imagine Disney+ adding an upcharge to stream Andor during “peak hours” or something.
Last year, Disney made the decision to tear down Jim Henson’s final completed work, a testament to the American pioneer’s humor and innovation, Muppet*Vision 3D, to replace it with a Monsters, Inc.–themed ride, despite there being so much underused space in that particular theme park, Disney’s Hollywood Studios. D’Amaro has since voiced his commitment to the Muppets, but it will be hard to overcome him overseeing this moment of betrayal to the Muppet community. The past few years have seen Imagineers’ artistic vision and thematic cohesion stripped away from parks like Epcot and Animal Kingdom in the name of making room for more profitable IP, in less thoughtfully executed attractions. Along the way, Disney’s attention to detail and historic trust in Imagineers like Joe Rhode has been decimated, and does not bode well for how much free rein Disney will or will not allow its creatives across divisions.
Whatever kind of slump you think the Marvel Cinematic Universe is in, Marvel’s Disneyland Universe has it worse. Under D’Amaro, Disney opened Avengers Campus in Disney’s California Adventure, and it is the sorriest concrete wasteland ever seen in a theme park: It demonstrates a callous cost-cutting approach in how Disney builds new major projects from the ground up — slapping logos on architecture that resembles an industrial business park. Under D’Amaro’s tenure, it wasn’t about creating a delightful atmosphere so long as the profitable IP was represented in the most perfunctory way possible. You can see the same turn away from ambition and whimsy in the newest Disney Resort hotels and in sad, airport Holiday Inn–level renovations of their existing hotels, compared to the mad creativity and beauty of the Michael Eisner era.
To be fair, D’Amaro is not single-handedly responsible for any of these Disney Parks’ problems. But it is hard to point to particularly amazing things that have happened in Disney Experiences under his reign: The two new coasters that have opened in Walt Disney World in the past five years are excellent additions, and they’ve vastly expanded the cruise-ship fleet, if that’s your speed. But do those wins say anything about how he will run such a vast entertainment company?
He did get Michael Eisner’s seal of approval, as the Old Master declared D’Amaro to be a “wise pick” and cautioned him to “keep close the words of Walt Disney: ‘We love to entertain kings and queens, but the vital thing to remember is this — every guest receives the VIP treatment.’” I will take that as subtle Lightning Lane shade. Eisner also points at the promotion of Dana Walden to president and chief creative officer as great news for the company. If the new CEO and his leadership can heed this advice, maybe the future of Disney still holds a great, big, beautiful D’Amaro.
For the last few years, the question of who would succeed Bob Iger hovered over Disney. Entertainment executive Dana Walden’s decades-long career in television, her reputation as a talent-whisperer, and her close relationship with Iger made her the obvious choice from Hollywood’s perspective: “The word about succession is that it’s all Dana all the time,” a top agent told VF in 2024. Her biggest competition was Josh D’Amaro, the silver-haired head of Disney’s parks and resorts division, who had a devoted following inside and outside the company. When he showed up at Disney theme parks, visitors often lined up to meet him.
The company finally ended its executive bake-off Tuesday with the announcement of D’Amaro as its new CEO. Disney shied away from the historic choice of appointing a first woman to top the company, though a new position was created for Walden: She’s been named President and Chief Creative Officer, giving her oversight of both film and television at Disney.
“Reading the tea leaves for at least the past six months or so, there was a sense that Josh was out in front,” says a veteran Hollywood producer who has worked with Disney. “If you want the most experienced executive in a tumultuous financial environment that’ll give confidence to Wall Street, then Josh is your guy.”
D’Amaro’s appointment might shock those who remember the disastrous, short, and disastrously short tenure of another former parks chief—Bob Chapek—whom Iger handpicked to be his successor in 2020. Among other things, Chapek enraged Hollywood talent by messing with Scarlett Johansson over her Black Widow contract and pissed off a sizeable proportion of Disney fans by flip-flopping on Florida’s “Don’t Say Gay” bill.
Things got so bad that Iger raced back to the boardroom in 2022 to clean up the mess, spending the next four years deliberating on the best choice to take the company forward into a complicated future. He offered ongoing guidance to his top candidates, who were said to be educating themselves on all elements of the business.
Walden seemed perfectly placed as Iger’s protege. They both rose through the ranks of the television business, lived near to each other in LA’s Brentwood neighborhood, and were often spotted taking walks together. Walden was riding particularly high in 2024: that’s when she lured her good friend Ryan Murphy to Disney from Netflix, a streaming era coup. (“Dana, like Bob [Iger], is a real star,” Murphy told me back then.”When they walk into a room, the energy changes.”) And it looked like Kamala Harris, Walden’s pal for more than 30 years, might become president, giving her a hotline to the White House.
Of course, Trump won the presidency instead—and soon, the vibe shifted heavily in D’Amaro’s favor. After paying $15 million to settle a defamation case brought against ABC by Trump, yanking a trans storyline from a Pixar streaming series, and fighting a high-stakes battle over Jimmy Kimmel and free speech, Disney seemed eager to remove itself from the crosshairs of the culture wars and the current administration. Perhaps 2026 suddenly didn’t feel like good timing for the company’s first female CEO.
Foodies will be flocking to the Disneyland resort this weekend for the kickoff of the festival season and a chance to sample a dozen new food and drink items from the Lunar New Year menu with a Sip & Savor pass.
The 2026 Lunar New Year event will run on Friday, Jan. 23 through Feb. 22 at Disney California Adventure.
The Asian-inspired food festival pays tribute to Chinese, Vietnamese and Korean traditions with a lineup of multicultural live entertainment and Disney characters dressed in festive attire.
The six festival marketplace booths will once again include Bamboo Blessings, Wrapped in Love, Lucky 8 Lantern, Red Dragon Spice Traders, Prosperity Bao & Bun and Longevity Noodle Co.
Sip & Savor passes available during the 2026 Lunar New Year food festival at Disney California Adventure. (Courtesy of Disneyland)
DCA restaurants offering new Sip & Savor menu items during the Lunar New Year festival will include Aunt Cass Cafe, Boardwalk Pizza & Pasta, Cozy Cone Motel, Hollywood Lounge, Lamplight Lounge, Lucky Fortune Cookery, Paradise Garden Grill, Smokejumpers Grill and Studio Catering Co.
The 2026 Sip and Savor pass with six digital coupons good for individual items at marketplace booths and select restaurants throughout the festival will cost $49 ($46 for Magic Keyholders).
Mulan’s Lunar New Year Procession during Lunar New Year at Disney California Adventure on Tuesday, Jan. 23, 2024, in Anaheim, CA. (Photo by Jeff Gritchen, Orange County Register/SCNG)
Let’s take a closer look at all the new food and drinks available with the Sip and Savor pass during Disney’s Lunar New Year festival.
Marketplace Booths
Sip & Savor passes can be used for most of the new and returning food and nonalcoholic beverages at the Lunar New Year festival marketplace booths along the DCA parade route.
This year’s festival marketplace menu lineup will be dominated mostly by returning favorites — with only two new food items and one new nonalcoholic drink.
Five-Spice Popcorn Chicken available at Bamboo Blessings marketplace booth during the 2026 Lunar New Year food festival at Disney California Adventure. (Courtesy of Disneyland)
Bamboo Blessings
Five-Spice Popcorn Chicken with sweet chile-garlic sauce
Guava Dragon Fruit Sparkler made with lemonade, sparkling mineral water, guava and dragon fruit syrups and a frozen dragon fruit garnish
Japchae Noodles available at Longevity Noodle Co. marketplace booth during the 2026 Lunar New Year food festival at Disney California Adventure. (Courtesy of Disneyland)
Longevity Noodle Co.
Japchae Noodles with kalbi short rib
DCA Restaurants
Festival-goers looking for something new to eat with their Sip & Savor passes will have to try the tasting-size portions at select restaurants and vending carts throughout DCA.
Crispy Fried Chicken Bao available at Cozy Cone Motel during the 2026 Lunar New Year food festival at Disney California Adventure. (Courtesy of Disneyland)
Cozy Cone Motel
Cars Land
Crispy Fried Chicken Bao coated in sweet chile sauce with cucumbers, carrots and sesame seeds served in a soft bao bun
Tteokbokki Rice Cakes available at Hollywood Lounge and Studio Catering Co. during the 2026 Lunar New Year food festival at Disney California Adventure. (Courtesy of Disneyland)
Hollywood Lounge and Studio Catering Co.
Hollywood Land
Tteokbokki rice cakes with gochujang sauce topped with cheese, sesame seeds and green onions
Grilled Lemongrass Pork Belly Skewers available at Paradise Garden Grill during the 2026 Lunar New Year food festival at Disney California Adventure. (Courtesy of Disneyland)
Paradise Garden Grill
Paradise Gardens Park
Grilled Lemongrass Pork Belly Skewers served with fried garlic rice, pickled carrots and daikon radish with a side salad
Bulgogi Fries with marinated beef, kimchi, cucumber, mozzarella cheese and gochujang aioli topped with sesame seeds and green onions
Bulgogi Fries available at Smokejumpers Grill and Paradise Garden Grill during the 2026 Lunar New Year food festival at Disney California Adventure. (Courtesy of Disneyland)
Smokejumpers Grill
Grizzly Peak
Bulgogi Fries with marinated beef, kimchi, cucumber, mozzarella cheese and gochujang aioli topped with sesame seeds and green onions
Pandan Cheesecake available at Boardwalk Pizza & Pasta during the 2026 Lunar New Year food festival at Disney California Adventure. (Courtesy of Disneyland)
Boardwalk Pizza & Pasta
Paradise Gardens Park
Pandan Cheesecake with brown butter graham crust, coconut whipped topping and strawberry jam
Strawberry Green Tea Bread Pudding available at Aunt Cass Cafe during the 2026 Lunar New Year food festival at Disney California Adventure. (Courtesy of Disneyland)
Aunt Cass Cafe
San Fransokyo Square
Strawberry Green Tea Bread Pudding with green tea creme anglaise and whipped topping
Almond Cold Brew with orange cold foam
Mango Milk Tea available at Lucky Fortune Cookery during the 2026 Lunar New Year food festival at Disney California Adventure. (Courtesy of Disneyland)
Lucky Fortune Cookery
San Fransokyo Square
Mango Milk Tea with brown sugar tapioca spheres topped with pineapple cold foam
The Feng Li Su Churro available at the Hollywood Land Churro Cart during the 2026 Lunar New Year food festival at Disney California Adventure. (Courtesy of Disneyland)
Hollywood Land Churro Cart
Feng Li Su Churro rolled in shortbread sugar topped with pineapple jelly and cherry-flavored popping pearls
Spicy Pork Belly Grilled Cheese available at Studio Catering Co. during the 2026 Lunar New Year food festival at Disney California Adventure. (Courtesy of Disneyland)
More New Food
A handful of new Lunar New Year food items will not be available with the Sip & Savor pass.
Chef’s Special with Mongolian Beef (Lamplight Lounge)
Coconut Pandan Donuts (Lamplight Lounge)
Vietnamese Coffee Roulade (Paradise Garden Grill)
Year of the Horse Bread (Aunt Cass Cafe, Cozy Cone Motel and Boudin Bread Cart)
Guava Cocktail available during the 2026 Lunar New Year food festival at Disney California Adventure. (Courtesy of Disneyland)
Cocktails & Beer
The rest of the new items on the Lunar New Year menu will be filled out with several dozen cocktails, spiked coffees, beers and seltzers. Sip & Savor passes can’t be used on alcoholic drinks.
Last week, almost seven years after Galaxy’s Edge opened at Disneyland, Lucasfilm and Disney Parks announced sweeping changes to the land that by and large amounted to a singular conclusion: Disney was throwing its hands up and going, “Fine, have the Star Wars you know.”
It marks the final slash in what has really been a death by a thousand cuts since Galaxy’s Edge made big promises to deliver more than just the Star Wars we knew: a whole theme park land experimenting with storytelling ideas and theming to make audiences feel like they were whisked away to the galaxy far, far away for real, instead of simply going to Star Wars Land. Some of those cuts came in the ideation process, planned ideas and interactions that never made their way to opening day. Some came in drips and drabs, like the acquiescence to providing the food and drink in the land with more plain names compared to the Star Wars names they launched with, or less use of Star Wars terminology in interactions between cast members and the public.
Then there was the arrival of characters from The Mandalorian and The Book of Boba Fett, only for things to get more explicitly weird when the Mandalorian version of Luke Skywalker started showing up. As time went on, and Galaxy’s Edge‘s setting between The Last Jedi and The Rise of Skywalker became less of a contemporary moment, the way the continuity and story of the land—and the planet Batuu that was created for it, fleshed out in reams of comics, novels, and games—started being treated less as its own thing and more as a snapshot in time that could, in turn, open Galaxy’s Edge to having different eras of Star Wars exist within its setting at a given moment, at the expense of the unique story and worldbuilding Galaxy’s Edge had put at its core.
In many ways, this was always something of an inevitability. When I first visited it in late 2019, I was struck by both how excellently Galaxy’s Edge felt like it had created something that was like stepping into a different world with its heady mix of sound design, architectural tricks, and commitment to the theme, and by how utterly unsustainable that commitment was going to be, given the expectations the average Disney parks visitor was going to have of a Star Wars theme park land. If anything, it’s a miracle that it’s taken Disney almost seven years to restrain itself from shoving Darth Vader in there, that it held on so long to the land’s original vision, even as that vision was slowly carved away and diminished in time.
But something that was an inevitability can still suck when it finally happens, and it really sucks to see the experimental edge of Galaxy’s Edge give way to broad nostalgia for a singularly specific kind of Star Wars. And it especially sucks that Disneyland is going about that process in what feels like the most half-hearted way possible.
Although still significant in what they represent, much of what’s being done to transform Galaxy’s Edge to a celebration of the original movies is broadly cosmetic. Only Rey will remain out of the current crop of sequel-era characters that roam Galaxy’s Edge; although Chewbacca and R2-D2 currently appear with her, they will now be transferred to the original trilogy crop of characters, including the aforementioned Vader and Imperial Stormtroopers, and Luke, Leia, and Han, who will wander Galaxy’s Edge‘s primary thoroughfares—leaving Rey isolated on the fringe of the area near the queue for Rise of the Resistance. Much of the land’s original soundtrack and ambience, which included new work composed by John Williams and is pumped throughout the land to make it feel like a more lived-in space, will be replaced by Williams’ classic compositions from the original trilogy.
Only one of Galaxy’s Edge‘s storefronts—the awkwardly fascistic merchandise hub of First Order Cargo, home of the Disneyland-branded roleplay handcuffs—will be updated with the change, rebranding as “Black Spire Surplus,” a military salvage store that now sells items from the Galactic Civil War. The TIE Echelon parked beside it, unique to the park and developed by early teams working on what would become The Rise of Skywalker? That’s now been hand-waved as suddenly being an Imperial-era ship, part of his grandfather’s legacy that Kylo Ren was obsessed with, so now it’s totally fine if Darth Vader stands near it instead.
There will be no significant changes to the land itself when the transition begins at the end of April; neither will there be immediate changes to either of its rides, which will remain themed around the sequel trilogy (for a little while, at least—Millennium Falcon:Smugglers Run will eventually receive a new ride story inspired by The Mandalorian and Grogu that will replace the original theming, timed with the release of the film on May 22). It’s equal parts an almost complete demolition of what Galaxy’s Edge was as its own, unique place in the Star Wars universe as it was first envisioned, and yet also somehow lackluster, like Disney is simply ignoring the intentionality of what came before it and shoving original trilogy characters into it and calling it a day.
Sure, it’s not entirely reasonable to expect Disney to close down Galaxy’s Edge so it can demolish a bunch of things and bring in some more original trilogy designs (although it wouldn’t be surprising if it made some tweaks eventually, like swapping the Falcon‘s radar dish back or replacing the Resistance-era starfighters with their Alliance counterparts) now that it’s been open to people for years. And at the very least, canonically speaking, having the original trilogy characters wandering around will be set up by a new comic book series from Marvel, Echoes of the Empire, exploring what brought the Empire and Alliance to Batuu decades prior to the Resistance and First Order’s interest in the planet.
Even then, what Galaxy’s Edge has lost over the years—and will lose even more significantly when these changes come in—isn’t so much being destroyed but more being painted over, with a small acquiescence to the original and innovative ideas that were once envisioned in it pushed to the edge. For all the fanfare that the changes will see Galaxy’s Edge embrace all eras of Star Wars, it’s clear the embrace will now be much tighter around the familiar and the nostalgic, rather than the new.
Either way results in a loss of that experimental commitment that made the whole idea so captivating in the first place, and maybe that would sting less if Disney had simply decided to level it entirely and start over.
You’ve heard of blue milk. You’ve seen green milk. You thought that was it. However, starting this week, Disney is introducing a third milk to its Star Wars theme park selection. One that would make the cast of Mean Girls proud.
Yes, that’s right. It’s pink. Pink milk will be on the menu starting Thursday, January 8, at the Milk Stand inside Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge exclusively at Disneyland in California. No word on what this specific drink’s flavor profile is, but thankfully, we won’t have to wait long to find out. (We’re guessing something more citrus-y, like pink lemonade, though.)
Pink is officially our mood. 🥛🌌 Pink milk will be arriving at Milk Stand in Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge at @Disneyland on Jan. 8💗 pic.twitter.com/OJKP1ZynIM
Now, we know what you must be thinking. “No one drinks pink milk in Star Wars. Where is this coming from?” Well, that’s only sort of true. According to Wookieepedia, pink milk was briefly introduced in the 2023 Marvel Comics book Sana Starros #1, which followed the exploits of the would-be wife and smuggler friend of Han Solo. In that book, the pink milk comes from animals called po’acksters. And before you ask, yes, that comic (and every comic released now) is canon. Pink milk is real.
From there, a few additional questions remain outside of the taste. Will pink milk be a permanent thing? Will it show up at the Milk Stand at Galaxy’s Edge in Hollywood Studios in Orlando? (A Disney Parks spokesperson confirmed that it’s just in Disneyland “at this time.”) And, most importantly, where will it rank among the other milks? Personally, I prefer blue milk on a hot Disneyland day. io9 editor James Whitbrook prefers green milk, just like Jedi Master Luke Skywalker on the shores of Ahch-To. Could pink milk rival either of those?
And while this is a relatively minor change in terms of what’s happening at Galaxy’s Edge, a much bigger one is coming in a few short months. In May, the ride Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run is getting its first, long-awaited, new mission. Previously, and until then, fans have been able to fly the Falcon to Corellia, inspired by Solo: A Star Wars Story. But in May, you’ll go on a new mission alongside the Mandalorian and Grogu, inspired by the new movie The Mandalorian & Grogu,both opening on May 22. Will there be pink milk on this mission? We’ll find out soon.
Disneyland is ready to start work on a new parking structure for the influx of visitors flocking to see the new Avatar themed land, Marvel attractions and Coco boat ride debuting at the Anaheim theme park resort over the next five years.
Disneyland has filed a pair of building permits with the city of Anaheim for new commercial construction of a 3.2 million-square foot, 8-level parking structure as part of the $1.9 billion DisneylandForward project.
The permits also call for the installation of electrical, plumbing and mechanical services in addition to 300 electrical vehicle chargers at the East Parking Structure.
The new 6,000-space Eastside parking structure and transportation hub would push the existing Disneyland bus drop off/pick up area along Harbor Boulevard to Disneyland’s Manchester employee parking lot that backs up to the I-5 Freeway.
A pedestrian bridge would connect visitors by foot between the existing Disneyland bus drop off/pick up area on the west side of Harbor Boulevard and Disneyland’s Manchester employee parking lot on the east side of Harbor Boulevard.
Concept art of the Disneyland pedestrian bridge over Harbor Boulevard set to begin construction in Fall 2026. (Courtesy of Disney)
Work is set to begin in fall 2026 on the multiyear construction project on the east side of the Disneyland theme park resort.
The new garage and bridge are an essential first step as Disneyland plans to build four new attractions at Disney California Adventure over the next five years as part of the DisneylandForward plan.
Concept art of the Avatar themed land proposed for the Disneyland resort. (Courtesy of Disney)
Disneyland After Dark will include 70 Years of Favorites, Sweethearts’ Nite, Disney Channel Nite, Star Wars Nite, and Pride Nite with dates being announced for all.
Disneyland recently announced the dates and initial details for all five of the 2026 Disneyland After Dark events, including new themes, new events, and fun new perks. Disneyland After Dark is a separately ticketed event held at Disneyland on select nights from January to June. The events take place from 9 pm-1 am, but admission includes a pre-party mix in allowing guests into the park as early as 6 pm. The purchase of tickets also includes unlimited digital downloads of Disney Photopass photos, and a commemorative event guide map, and a keepsake. 70 Years of Favorites, Sweethearts’ Nite, Disney Channel Nite, Star Wars Nite, and Pride Nite have been announced as the five themes for this year’s Disneyland After Dark.
Sweethearts’ Nite
The night is dedicated to celebrating love for all sweethearts, whether spouses, family, or friends will be returning this year. With nine nights, including January 22nd, 25th, 27th and February 3rd, 5th, 8th, 10th, 12th, and 7th, it is a good way to kick off the year. Bringing back the same environment as past years, the nights will also include a few new events and items.
Entertainment will include:
The “Celebrate Love Cavaclade” as it glides down Mainstreet, USA (new)
“Once Upon A Dream – A Musical Journey Through the Disney Songbook” featuring live singers and culminating in a nighttime ball beneath the stars (new)
A Valentine’s Dance Party at Tomorrowland Terrace featuring Donald Duck and Daisy Duck
Disney Duets Festive Karaoke in the Golden Horseshoe (new)
Photo Backdrops staged throughout the park referencing all your favorite films like “The Aristocrats”, “Tangled”, “Aladdin”, and “Lady and the Tramp”
Specialty food will include:
A Triple Berry Slushy with a Mickey-Shaped Glow Cube at Galactic Grill (new)
Surf N’ Turf loaded fries at Red Rose Taverne
Mickey Shaped Strawberry Cream Puff at Rancho Del Zocalo Restaurant
Additional specialty items are available at table-service restaurants like Café Orleans, River Belle Terrace, and Carnation Café, but reservations are recommended
Sweethearts’ Nite will also feature Mickey Mouse and Minnie Mouse ear headbands, trading pins, T-shirts, zip-up hoodies and tumblers for sale.
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70 Years of Favorites
One of the new themed nights is 70 Years of Favorites, celebrating the seven decades of unforgettable moments at Disneyland park, in honor of Disney’s 70th anniversary. There will be just two nights, on March 3rd and 5th. Events will include:
Swing dancing at the Royal Theatre in Fantasyland
A Videopolis Dance Party at Tomorrowland Terrace, featuring a live DJ and ‘80s tunes in a throwback setting
Line dancing at The Golden Horseshoe, paying tribute to “Woody’s Round Up” show, a staple on the Frontierland stage in the late ‘90s and early 2000s
Photo opportunities thrown back to past entertainment like “Mad T Party”, “Main Street Electrical Parade” and Club Buzz
Encounters with “Long Lost Friends” including those from Disney Afternoon, “Mother” and “Father” from Carousel of Progress, Merlin, Flik and Atta, and the Fantasmic! Monkeys
And as with all Disneyland events, special food will be featured as well, including:
Mushroom Philly Sandwich (plant-based) and Maple Bacon Cinnamon Roll at Jolly Holiday Bakery Cafe
Birria Mac and Cheese in a Bread Bowl at Refreshment Corner
Gaston Brew at Red Rose Tavern
Additionally, Blackened New York Steak and Prawns will be available at River Belle Terrace, but reservations are recommended
Disney Channel Nite, Star Wars Nite, and Pride Nite are all returning themes for Disneyland After Dark, with further details about their entertainment and specialty foods to be announced early in 2026. Disney Channel Nites will be a blend of entertainment, characters and music, celebrating the beloved eras of the iconic TV channel will take place April 12th, 14th, and 16th, followed by Star Wars Nites on April 28th and 30th, as well as May 4th and May 6th. The two Pride Nites will take place during the month of June, Pride month, on the 16th and 18th to celebrate and bring together allies and members of the community for a festive evening featuring rainbow projection, lively decor, and dazzling entertainment.
Tickets for the 70 Years of Favorites and Sweethearts’ Nite go on sale to the general public on December 11 at 9 am. Magic key presale holders can get tickets on December 9th if they are Inspire Key holders, while All-Key holders get access to tickets on December 10th. Sale dates for the other three nights will be announced along with their other details in 2026. These nights will be full of magic and fun so don’t miss out.
Enter for your chance to win a four (4)-pack of Disneyland®Resort 1-Day, 1-Park tickets and enjoy Holidays at Disneyland®Resort!
Holiday magic returns with the beloved “A Christmas Fantasy” Parade at the Disneyland® Park with dancing gingerbread cookies, toy soldiers and more. Over at Disney California Adventure Park, Festival of Holidays fills the air with diverse cultural celebrations, festive bites, and joyful entertainment. For reservations and planning guides visit here.
Holidays at Disneyland® Resort ticket giveaway runs from November 17, 2025 – November 28, 2025.
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The Merc With a Mouth will return to Avengers Campus this fall to kick off the holidays at the Disneyland Resort, spreading holiday cheer and sassy jokes among the Deadpool faithful.
This year, the merry Marvel Studios feature at Disney California Adventure Park will be reimagined as The Story Time with Deadpool Holiday Special. With that nostalgic broadcast show twist, we’re expecting special guests will surely pop in and out of the multiverse to get in the hot seat for jolly ol’ DP. We’re thinking definitely Wolverine, as he was a fun co-star in the park’s initial run of the live entertainment show during the promo period for Deadpool & Wolverine.
Avengers Campus has had its fair share of fun festive shows, including a Hawkeye holiday action stunt-heavy performance and that short run of Rogers: The Musical. Hey, we’d be happy if that came back; the Hyperion theater is just sitting there!
There will be no shortage of Christmastime chaos from Deadpool, as Disney foodie fans will be delighted to hear about the chimichangas. That’s right, Pool’s fave food is making a debut at Pym’s Test Kitchen in Avengers Campus. And it looks so delicious. The Marvel-themed chimichanga is set to include seasoned beef, charred poblano, refried beans, and shredded cheese on a pool of Guajillo sauce with a pico de gallo side salad. All of that needs to get in our belly posthaste.
While it’s particularly exciting to see more of the MCU dig into the spirit of the season with characters and themed food, it’s so awesome to see the unique ways this year’s offerings are gearing up to be a blast at the Disneyland Resort. Even with the Disney icons, we’re interested in side-questing for the Mickey’s Christmas CarolFeast dining experience, where you can meet the version of Mickey and friends, including Goofy in Jacob Marley ghost form. You can book that Storyteller’s Cafe at the Grand Californian hotel.
Fall marks the start of the holiday season at theme parks, and with it come seasonal food and drink offerings tied to their Halloween events.
Every Halloween, theme parks offer tasty tricks and treats for grown-ups, from slasher-themed Five Nights at Freddy’s slices at Halloween Horror Nights to haunted rum-based cocktails inspired by Pirates of the Caribbean. As a theme park insider, there has been so much I’ve enjoyed on my own trips throughout this Halloween season at Disneyland, Knott’s Scary Farm, and Halloween Horror Nights, even after trying some of them at food reveals and media events at Universal Studios Resorts, Disney Parks, and Six Flags.
So far 2025 is a really good year for tasty, sometimes terrifying eats. Read on for the best spooky season foodie finds of Halloween 2025 around your favorite theme parks!
Five Nights at Freddy’s Cupcake – Halloween Horror Nights Orlando
Chica’s cupcake companion from the Five Nights at Freddy’s universe gets a tasty variant at Halloween Horror Nights Orlando. It tops the version at HHN Hollywood, as the East Coast dessert comes filled with delicious cannoli filling at the core and a raspberry dollop within the pink cream top. The tasty flavor combo makes you feel like it would be the kind of fun menu item at a real Freddy Fazbear’s Pizza you’d expect for a birthday surprise—along with the animatronic band coming to life.
Five Nights at Freddy’s “Why Not Have Both Pizza & Pasta” – Halloween Horror Nights Orlando
While Horror Nights Hollywood opted to just put an ordinary personal-size pizza in a Freddy Fazbear box, the food team in Orlando got a bit more creative. At first, I thought there was no way pasta on pizza would work, but after screaming through a few houses and needing a carb refuel, it really hit the spot. The cheese holding the thin spaghetti along with meatballs is a dementedly delicious delight on a slice. From a FNAF fan standpoint, I can also see Afton putting this on the menu to slow down any potential victims, so it’s grim yet satisfying.
Terrifier “Starry Night Spritz” Cocktail – Halloween Horror Nights Orlando
The Terrifier “Starry Night Spritz” at Horror Nights Orlando’s Clown Cafe is a tart gin-based drink that evokes the works of Art the Clown and is way better than, say, the West Coast’s charcoal black concoction that looks like him. The blood-red cranberry and bubbly prosecco really make it easy and refreshing to drink in between houses, plus I loved the Clown Cafe photo ops where the drink is available. Pro-tip: you might run into Santa Art here.
Terrifier “Sunflower Glasses” Cookie – Halloween Horror Nights Hollywood
This cookie is a playful callback to Art the Clown living his best life before taking a life at a costume shop in Terrifier 2. The sunflower shape is held by a fruity mousse that is tart like Art! It tastes great and is not the kind of sculpted treat that you’d toss after taking an Instagram snap and a single bite. The lemon flavor provides a great balance for a cookie that’s not overly sweet and is tasty as a snack on its own.
Jason Universe “Camp Creamy Gouda Fondue” – Halloween Horror Nights Hollywood
The snacks at Halloween Horror Nights Hollywood are absolutely redeemed by this inspired snack straight out of Camp Crystal Lake. The Jason Universe booth’s best-kept secret is a sourdough bowl filled with warm gouda dip that’s infused with Angry Orchard apple cider. It works so well and comes with a side of sliced apples that are a crisp dipping addition (alongside the demolishable bread)—and so you can tell yourself you’re being somewhat healthy. If this was my last meal before getting got by Jason, it would be so worthwhile. I want to go back to Horror Nights Hollywood just for more of this before the season is over; it’s that good.
“Ursula’s Enchanted Waffles” – Disney’s California Adventure
The best hidden gems at the Disneyland resort right now are the seasonal themed waffles at Schmoozies, the milkshake window at Disney California Adventure. The walk-up quick service stop is one of the few places you can order the classic Mickey-shaped waffles past breakfast. If you’re an all-day breakfast fan, you’ll be excited to know it’s been theming the waffles to the parks’ seasonal events. For the 70th Anniversary, it had a birthday cake and sprinkles flavor, for example. For Halloween, though, the theming went all out in a very special way with Ursula’s Enchanted Waffles. Inspired by the Disney villain, the flavor profiles evoke the sea witch’s colors of purple through an ube custard filling and black with a dark chocolate waffle exterior. It’s my favorite waffle yet, with a perfect balance of sweet and dark! I would sign my voice away to her to keep this on the menu.
The Galactic Grill’s iconic dessert parfait returns to Tomorrowland at Disneyland. It’s layers of silky smooth and sinfully rich chocolate on chocolate that I can’t get enough of. I promise it’s not overkill; the pudding on the red velvet with chocolate cake and Oreo crumbles differentiates the kinds of chocolates you get all the way down for a tasty variety. It’s not too on the dark side, thankfully, and it’s still the best of all the Star Wars parfaits it has done.
Indiana Jones and Halloween Drinks at Jock Lindsay’s Hangar Bar – Walt Disney World
The Disney Springs watering hole inspired by Indiana Jones’ trusty pilot is pouring out spooky spirits this season at Jock Lindsay’s “Halloween Bar.” Three of the offerings hit the mark, evoking the mystical and deadly energy of our daring archeology professor’s side hustle adventures. As pictured above from right to left, if the “Scarab Beetle Essence” is a sweet, colorful, pineapple- and rum-forward poison, then I’d say the color-changing, ginger- and gin-strong “Cauldron Cooler” is the perfect antidote. The variety of flavors really works here, as they exotically capture flavors you’d expect to find travelling the world with Indiana Jones. However, it’s the “Spike Trap” that comically nods to the traps from the Lucasfilm franchise, complete with a spiked ghostie marshmallow, while the drink itself wins as a sweet, fizzy, and misty cocktail that tastes like inhaling boozy vanilla Halloween fog.
Pirates of the Caribbean Drinks at Beak and Barrel – Walt Disney World
This is actually an all-year-round location, but Beak and Barrel, the Magic Kingdom’s Pirates of the Caribbean immersive bar, opened its doors just in time for Halloween in a moment of serendipity. The experience really feels like you’re living the pirate’s life, complete with its space feeling like ship quarters; one booth is styled like the jail cell from the ride, there’s a parrot mascot animatronic, and there are activations of certain effects such as shipwrecking storms hitting the decks (in that imagineering projections and sound effects way, like on the ride). However, the drinks easily make this such a treasure to escape to. In particular, I love the nod to the iconic attraction and movie franchise’s skull with the sweet blackberry-leaning “Plunderer’s Punch,” a Kraken Black Rum-based libation that’s served in a pirate skull mug. My personal favorite is the “Salty Seas mARRRgarita,” which has ube-infused blanco tequila and is, of course, salty like the sea.
Pastrami Pizza – Six Flags Magic Mountain Fright Fest
Pizza slices that have no right being this good because they’re food mashup abominations abound! At Six Flags Magic Mountain’s Fright Fest, which did not have the Conjuring Universe drinks I was hoping for, I still quite enjoyed the monster pastrami pizza. Truly, pastrami baked into mozzarella with pickles on pizza drizzled with mustard is cursed, but I dug it.
“The Enchanted Elixir” and “Pickle Hitchin’”- Knott’s Scary Farm
Knott’s Scary Farm’s “The Enchanted Elixir” is another gin-based, color-changing drink I loved that tastes like a spellbinding spirit the Green Witch brewed herself. While you had the option to potion bottle it up and carry it with you, I much preferred it iced in the cup, which featured Knott’s Scary Farm’s legendary icon, because it brought out the fresh notes of citrus—but you do miss out on the color-changing effects. At least the cup lights up! You can get it at the medicine wagon next to the Boogeyman bar at Scary Farm, which also has the best under-the-radar drink of the season, “Pickle Hitchin’.” Picture it (because taking a good snap of it was nearly impossible in the dark hole in the wall shack): half a theme park pickle snack but hollowed out to be filled with whiskey and pickle juice—it’s a drink and a snack that’s filling and will take the edge off screaming your face off all night.
Disney decided then that this was the perfect time for some Disney resort-wide price increases. It’s never a good time to get the news that Disney Parks are getting more expensive, especially in this unprecedented economic times. Variety recently reported that one-day, single-park tickets to Disney World or Disneyland now cost more than $200 for the first time ever during peak vacation times during the winter holidays. That’s a 5% increase for the Orlando resort and up 8.7% at Anaheim’s original park. It’s a headache to see the pricing get more expensive the more days you add to a vacation or if you want to opt-in on tickets that will let you go park to park on the same day.
And with a packed park comes the option to add Lightning Lane passes, yet another additional fee beyond your entry ticket, which now runs a whopping $34 per pass at Disneyland. Lightning Lane pass prices also increased across the parks at Disney World, with multipasses increasing between $4 and $6, and individual ride passes increasing a couple of dollars depending on the ride.
Similarly, the theme park’s annual passes, known as Magic Keys at the Disneyland Resort, have also seen a price increase for their top-tier options. Variety also mentioned that Disneyland’s most expensive pass, the “Inspire Key,” now costs $1,899 (an increase of $150) and the “Believe Key,” which has more blockout dates in comparison (days where it’s not admissible for park entry), went up $100 to $1,474.
Weirdly, the lower-tier passes, “Enchant” and “Imagine,” did not see an increase, remaining at $974 and $599, respectively. Sadly, that reinforces the public belief that these moves are to price out middle- and lower-class families during the holidays in favor of folks with deeper pockets who can spend more during those peak times or for pricier-tiered pass holders who they want to give more access to the parks compared to the average park-goer.
That wasn’t the only unfortunate news Disney found itself dealing with this week. Entertainment Weekly reported today that a guest at Disneyland was found unresponsive at the end of Haunted Mansion, one of the park’s most popular rides, and declared dead at a local Orange County hospital near the theme park. The cause of death has not been determined as of yet. This passing follows the death of another park guest at Orlando’s Epic Universe, where a young man was found unresponsive after riding Stardust Racers, a new coaster at Universal Studios’ recently opened theme park.
At least it’s not all bad for the Disney Parks division, which is still largely holding it down for the company as holiday season travel is meant to kick up despite the government shutdown (though airports need air traffic controllers stat). Today the company also confirmed that The Muppets Rock n’ Roller Coaster is set to open next summer at Disney’s Hollywood Studios.
Before that, one of the quieter attraction refurbishments, Zootopia Better Zoogether!, will be opening up November 7. The new show will be taking over the space Pixar’s It’s Tough To Be A Bug occupied under Animal Kingdom’s Tree of Life. I’m already endeared to the neat animatronic Clawhauser that will host the “4D” show that centers on the residents of Zootopia’s many biomes preparing for Zoogether Day.
Speaking of animatronics, Frozen Ever After at the Epcot Norway Pavilion is finally getting the good animatronics—just like the new ones seen at World of Frozen over in the international parks. Gone will be the outdated animatronics with the haunted-looking digital screen faces that looked washed out on a good day and on a bad one would glitch out in really nightmarish ways. Whether or not they’ll be worth eating the extra prices on tickets to get in and see them, however, remains to be seen.
Disney said on Wednesday that the entertainment giant is raising admission prices for its theme parks, effective immediately.
Some types of entry to the Walt Disney World Resort in Orlando, Florida, and to Disneyland Resort in Anaheim, California, will cost more, the company told CBS News. On some of the most popular days of the year to visit the two parks, a single-day ticket will cost roughly $199, currently the most expensive pass.
The price hikes come amid growing demand to visit Disney’s park on certain days, like New Year’s Eve. For the week of Thanksgiving, from Nov. 24 to Nov. 29 the cost of entry to Disneyland will rise from $199 to $224, according to Disney’s website. Prices will rise by the same amount for the holiday period between Dec. 20 and Jan. 3.
At Disneyland Resort, pass prices are also increasing. It offers seven different ticket tiers, five of which are increasing by 3% or less, Disney told CBS News. The lowest-priced ticket will remain unchanged at $104.
Disney’s Inspire and Believe Magic Key Passes — its highest-tier passes — will increase in price by $150 and $100, respectively. The Inspire Key now costs $1,899, and the Believe Key costs $1,474. The Enchant and Imagine passes will not rise in price, the company said.
At Walt Disney World, the lowest- and highest-priced tickets on sale through October of 2026 remain unchanged.
“Disney Parks offer a full day of experiences each day, with ticket, hotel and dining options designed to suit a wide range of needs and budgets for all who visit. Our commitment to creating magical experiences for everyone remains at the heart of what we do — and that will never change,” Disney officials said in a statement.
Megan Cerullo is a New York-based reporter for CBS MoneyWatch covering small business, workplace, health care, consumer spending and personal finance topics. She regularly appears on CBS News 24/7 to discuss her reporting.
For as difficult as it would be for Angelenos of the present to imagine a world where the Beverly Center didn’t exist at the corner of Beverly and La Cienega, it was even more unfathomable for the Angelenos who lived in L.A. between the years of 1943 and 1974 to imagine a world without Beverly Park. Because, for thirty-one years, the “Kiddieland” (as those types of parks were once generically called) dominated that intersection, capturing the hearts and imaginations of children all over the county. And eventually, thanks to its influence on Walt Disney, the hearts and imaginations of children all over the globe.
That Beverly Park arrived around the end of World War II was not a coincidence. And perhaps more than many other towns in the U.S., Los Angeles felt the dark pall cast over the nation by the war. Starting with its close (or close enough) Pacific proximity to Pearl Harbor, the “instigating incident” that finally prompted Franklin D. Roosevelt to enter the war officially. Or the fact that Hollywood celebrities getting involved in promoting the “war effort” (e.g., the Hollywood Canteen) were just a stone’s throw away from the mere mortals of the city.
And while Hollywood might have done its best to keep things “light” (relatively speaking), there was no denying that the yearning for a return to normalcy (the phrase many learned again so well during and after the Covid pandemic) was in the air. This being a key aspect as to why there was such an uptick in the building of amusement parks after the war. In other words, it was time to have fun again and stop thinking about death, doom and destruction all the time (even if bomb shelters were about to become all the rage). Plus, the baby boom was bound to furnish an amusement park boom, too—offering a place where parents could take their children to unleash all that excess energy.
Beverly Park was just one such place, emerging from the rural-looking fairgrounds (plus a baseball field) then owned by a company called Arden’s Milk. Located next to Ponyland, a property owned by Leo and Viva Murphy, it seemed like a perfect spot for the Frock & Meyer (as in Elden Frock and William Meyer) Amusement Company to establish another Kiddieland after the one they had built near Watts in 1941. But just two years after their second park was built in ’43, Meyer sold it to Dave Bradley after Frock died of a heart attack.
The sale was kismet for Bradley, who had been considering a life in amusement parks ever since traveling around the country with saxophonist Freddy Martin and his band (Bradley served as the manager), with many performances done outdoors in venues like fairs and parks. Getting a feel for that type of setting, it appeared to activate the dormant fascination within Bradley that had begun ever since seeing those rides at the Venice Pier when he himself was just a child. Besides that, he had long had an itch to put his skills in the fields of entertainment and mechanics to good use. And what more highly specific way to do that than operating an amusement park?
However, even the most talented people need a partner in crime, which is where Bradley’s wife, Bernice, came in. In fact, she actually left her job to help him run Beverly Park. No small ask considering she had a rare gig (particularly for a woman in that era): leading the story research department at Disney Studios. Therefore, it was her link to Walt Disney that ended up “aligning” these two men together. After hearing about why Bernice left the job, Walt started going to the park regularly in the late 1940s, as research for what would become Disneyland started to ramp up. And Disney would grill the kids at Beverly Park as much as he did Bradley, asking them what kind of rides they liked and what else they would want to see at an amusement park. Bradley’s counsel, in addition to making the park like a second office to Walt (Disney Studios was right nearby), was indispensable to the eventual final product that would become Disneyland.
So indispensable, in fact, that Walt even hired him as a consultant, sending Bradley off to Europe to gather more intel on various theme parks, taking plenty of photos for reference along the way. It was also Bradley who suggested two key theme park innovations that would become staples of all theme parks going forward: 1) that there be a “Main Street” of the park and 2) that themed photo opportunities were offered to patrons.
While some might insist that Disney exploited Bradley or “ripped off” his idea entirely, it can’t be emphasized enough that Bradley was a willing and eager participant in helping the animation mogul birth a new breed of theme park. A theme park that, to this day, remains in a competitive class all its own. As for its blueprint, provided by Bradley, it can be said that inspiration is a cycle. One inspiration begets another, and so and so forth. That much was made clear by the fact that Bradley himself was inspired by the rough-hewn version of an “amusement park” at Venice Pier when he was child.
In 1974, shortly after the 1973 oil crisis that plagued L.A. in particular (see: Licorice Pizza), the Beverly Oil Company announced to Bradley that they were raising the price of the lease. Bradley, both unable to afford the higher price and lacking the same enthusiasm for the park as he once had, did not renew. And it marked the end of an era in L.A.
But while the Beverly Center might have Beverly Park beat in terms of amount of time in existence, it’s the latter that will remain forever in the hearts of people not just in Los Angeles, but all over the world. For Beverly Park is what forged the foundation of Disneyland (though, to be honest, not everyone is grateful for that).
Featured image credit: Jay Jennings, author of BEVERLY PARK: L.A.’s Kiddieland, 1943-74
The 2,000-pound Walt Disney animatronic at Disneyland weighs 10 times as much as the average American man and a thousand pounds more than the 9-foot-tall Frankenstein’s monster animatronic that just debuted at Florida’s Epic Universe theme park.
“It’s a lot of machinery,” according to Walt Disney Imagineering’s Jeff Shaver-Moskowitz. “It’s 2,000 pounds of an Audio-Animatronic figure that steps and rises during its performance.”
Shaver-Moskowitz revealed the new details about the “larger than life” Walt Disney Audio-Animatronic figure at Disneyland during “The Happiest Story on Earth” special on ABC’s “20/20” newsmagazine TV show.
The $5 million “Walt Disney — A Magical Life” animatronic show debuted in July in the Main Street Opera House as part of Disneyland’s 70th anniversary celebration.
Imagineering vowed to create the “most life-like animatronic ever” and succeeded with the world’s first robotic figure of Walt Disney.
“That was a huge feat for the team to accomplish,” said Shaver-Moskowitz, an Executive Creative Producer at Imagineering.
An Audio-Animatronics of Walt Disney greets visitors to the Main Street Opera House during “Walt Disney – A Magical Life” inside Disneyland on July 14, 2025, in Anaheim, CA. (Photo by Jeff Gritchen, Orange County Register/SCNG)
The impressive Walt animatronic appears to walk toward the audience as he puts his hands on the edge of the desk, leans forward and takes a couple steps.
The Walt animatronic weighs more than five times as much the 375-pound Shaman of Songs animatronic in the Na’vi River Journey at Disney’s Animal Kingdom and more than twice as much as the 800-pound Frankenstein’s Monster animatronic in Universal’s new Monsters Unchained dark ride.
An Audio-Animatronics of Walt Disney greets visitors to the Main Street Opera House during “Walt Disney – A Magical Life” inside Disneyland on July 14, 2025, in Anaheim, CA. (Photo by Jeff Gritchen, Orange County Register/SCNG)
The 2,000-pound robotic Walt is by no means the heaviest animatronic ever built.
The 8,000-pound Yeti animatronic in the Expedition Everest roller coaster stopped operating shortly after debuting in 2006 at Disney’s Animal Kingdom. At the time, the 25-foot-tall Abominable Snowman was the largest and most complex animatronic figure ever built by Disney, according to Orlando Park Stop.
The temperamental Maleficent animatronic dragon in Disneyland’s “Fantasmic” nighttime spectacular — mockingly nicknamed Murphy by fans after Murphy’s Law — weighed 18,000 pounds before it was destroyed in a spectacular fire in 2023.
The 55,000-pound King Kong animatronic made by Italy-based EOS Rides is the centerpiece of a 2018 spinning roller coaster at Carthageland in Tunisia, according to Blooloop.
The new “Walt Disney — A Magical Life” animatronic show will initially run solo before playing in rotation with “Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln.”
The original Abraham Lincoln animatronic created for the 1964 New York World’s Fair weighed 140 pounds, significantly lighter than the 180-pound U.S. President, according to a memo from WED Enterprises, the precursor to Imagineering.
Seasonal and promotional ride overlays are now ways to draw in more people to revisit beloved attractions at Disney’s parks or give passholders a reason to come back over and over. Over time some have had more longevity than others, as the most popular overlay continues to be Disneyland’s Haunted Mansion Holiday, which has Jack Skellington and friends take over the West Coast haunt with his spooky Christmas shenanigans. Meanwhile, the haunted version of Space Mountain: Ghost Galaxy seems to have exorcised its spirit—it just might have been a tad too scary, while Star Wars: Hyperspace Mountain stays beating out the rest.
Here is a compilation of some of the most out-there and unique Disney experiences overlays, along with their current statuses at the parks.
Tron Lightcycle Run (NIN Tron: Ares Collaboration)
io9 recently got to experience the Tron: Ares overlay at the Magic Kingdom’s Tron Lightcycle Run coaster (Walt Disney World admission and Lightning Lane were provided), which for the first time features the actual score from the new movie. When we covered the opening of the ride back in 2023, Disney creatives revealed that the on-ride music was a new arrangement based on Daft Punk’s score for Tron: Legacy made specifically for the purposes of the attraction. You can, however, still hear the iconic Daft Punk tracks featured throughout the coaster’s queue and exit areas. Inside the ride itself, the usual Tron blue hue is swapped for Ares‘ crimson aesthetic as part of a new narrative of the ride, as we’re tasked with seemingly working with a program-gone-rogue before deleting it to preserve the grid (perhaps giving us a hint at what Ares will be about).
With the release of Tron: Ares, the coaster transforms into Nine Inch Nails: The Ride in the best way, with their signature industrial instrumentals, which fit perfectly in the world of the Grid gone rogue. It really works as a tonal opposite companion to the Team Blue track that usually plays. If the ride were ever built elsewhere, it would be such a cool dual coaster utilizing both instrumentations. At night the Ares theming looks incredible, to boot.
The Haunted Mansion Holiday is what happens when The Nightmare Before Christmas’s popularity gets out of hand (thanks, Hot Topic). Don’t get me wrong, we love the film and Jack Skellington’s frightful festive branding, but we believe it takes over the Haunted Mansion too early. The Christmas-themed overlay goes up in September for Halloweentime at the Disneyland resort, even though the Haunted Mansion is the perfect ride for Halloween. Its ghosts and scares make more sense to continue until the end of October! But I guess those of us in the camp that thinks this incredible overlay of holiday cheer should start in November are in the minority, because the queue for it is always over an hour or even longer during its fall and winter run.
Space Mountain (Rockin’ Space Mountain, Ghost Galaxy, Hyperspace Mountain)
Space Mountain at Disneyland (sorry, Magic Kingdom, and your sad Christmas music overlay) is hands down the champ of seasonal theming. What began with Rockin’ Space Mountain when the coaster got a Red Hot Chili Peppers soundtrack has only glowed up from there. For a while, it was the home of a space specter that might have been too scary during Halloweentime’s Space Mountain: Ghost Galaxy. I can attest from my personal experience that I am still haunted by the memory of the thrilling, creepy music and jump-scare projections of being chased through dead space by a very angry fiery ghost with hollowed eyes. It hasn’t held up residence in the coaster since 2018, though it has gone over to Hong Kong Disney’s Space Mountain variant.
However, Space Mountain’s current reigning seasonal offering is Hyperspace Mountain, where you zoom through the Star Wars galaxy in a dogfight between X-Wings and TIE Fighters, all set to the films’ legendary John Williams score. Its debut predates the opening of Galaxy’s Edge and remains a better experience than Smugglers Run because we want that hyperspeed thrill of being in the fights we grew up watching. You can usually catch it in the spring during Disneyland’s Season of the Force events in the run-up to Star Wars Day.
It’s a Small World at Tokyo Disneyland recently received new pint-sized guests thanks to Baby Groot and friends. Earlier this year, Avengers fans were able to see Earth’s mightiest and tiniest figures throughout the attraction at the Asia park. Along with Groot, it included Ms. Marvel, Thor, Hulk, and Black Panther, among others. Yet, there’s no word if either of the states’ versions of the ride would ever get this. Perhaps Walt Disney World’s Magic Kingdom version could, since it definitely needs some love.
It would be too crammed at Disneyland’s original ride, as it currently has more of a permanent addition in the form of iconic characters being given the original ride artist Mary Blair treatment within their corresponding countries. For instance, you can find Cinderella in France, and new for this year, they added Pixar’s Coco heroes Miguel and Dante to the Mexico section of the ride.
Guardians of the Galaxy: Mission Breakout (After Dark)
For Halloween at Disney California Adventure, Guardians of the Galaxy: Mission Breakout gets infested by monsters after dark. The drop tower attraction overlay is a current Halloweentime staple at the Disneyland resort for those who want to get even more terrified. The storyline takes a turn when various creatures from the collection are let loose, leaving riders to go into a dark monster house version of the Collector’s fortress to rescue Groot.
Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind (September, Holiday Remix)
Speaking of the Guardians, over in Disney World, the Epcot attraction Cosmic Rewind gets a few cute variants. From September 21 through the 30, the ride only plays Earth, Wind & Fire’s “September,” which is usually one of the songs that plays on random rotation from the ride’s usual mixtape, a nod to the Awesome Mixes from the James Gunn movies. It’s such a silly nod to the meme-fication of your parent’s fave disco-era track, but endearing nonetheless. I still haven’t gotten this song on my rides of the mixtape-based coaster and missed this guarantee by a few days recently! I did, however, get to experience the holiday overlay on it, Holiday Remix, which only lasted one year in 2022 and was set to the tune of “Run, Run, Rudolph” but parodied as “Run, Run, Rocket”. Cute!
The Jingle Cruise is missed at Disneyland. It felt as if nostalgic vintage holidays threw up on the riverboat ride. It’s more of a chaotic added theme that the skippers use as fodder for their Jungle Cruise bits on the fly, as you can see the animals on the ride appear to have gotten into some Christmas cargo. And the holiday puns are always top tier! Every year I wish it would return to Disneyland (it ended on the West Coast in 2017), but thankfully it is still operating during the holidays at the Magic Kingdom’s Jungle Cruise in Walt Disney World.
Lastly, Epcot’s sustainable garden and farming zen ride, which is a favorite to decompress on, gets a lovely holiday lights tour overlay during the winter. It makes the relaxing and educational voyage away from the overstimulating bustle of the park even more wondrous to behold as festive key ingredients of holiday dishes from around the world are nerdily described over the course of the attraction. It’s theme park ASMR and chill holiday vibes. I hope Disney never changes this, because this little gem is something completely unexpected yet comforting to bask in at Epcot during Disney World’s busiest times.
Disneyland Hong Kong first opened 20 years ago, and to celebrate, the company showed off concept for what’s coming in the future.
Concept art below shows teases for attractions based on Marvel and Pixar. For the superheroes, one art features the Avengers headquarters, while another shows Spider-Man with Doctor Strange, Black Panther, and Thor in Asgard around a pod of parkgoers dropping through the Bifrost Bridge. This concept art—and a previously released art of Spidey holding a pod while fighting Doctor Octopus near a portal—suggest a drop ride in the vein of “Mission Breakout.” Disney hasn’t given this ride an official title, but teased it’d be “a team-up with the Avengers for an unexpected adventure!”
This’ll be Marvel’s third addition to the Hong Kong’s Stark Expo in Tomorrowland, and was first announced back in 2024. At the moment, it’s unclear if this attraction is still focused on Spider-Man with some guest stars, or has fully converted into an Avengers attraction that also features the wall-crawler.
Meanwhile, the Pixar art shows Mike, Sully, and others Monsters Inc. workers moving doors around in front of a crowd with Boo hanging around in the background. Like the Marvel attraction, there’s no official name for this, or what it’ll entail; the description for this one promises other Pixar characters will participate in “an all-new immersive theatrical experience celebrating the joy of friendship and the power of play.”
No release window for either so far, but we’ll have more on what’s to come for Disneyland Hong Kong as information comes out.
Disney has announced a new way to skip the lines at its parks. But depending on where you go and when, you might have to spend over $400 a day per person to take advantage of the new Lightning Lane Premier Pass.
Disney’s New Post-Apocalyptic Anime Proves The Mouse Has Good Taste
On Wednesday, Disney announced its plans to roll out a new tier of Lightning Lane, a pre-existing program that lets visitors pay extra to skip the lines for certain rides in Disney World and Disneyland. Previously, Lightning Lane Multi Passes, which let you skip the line on multiple rides, cost $32 a day per person, though the price could increase for various reasons. These passes forced guests to select a time to arrive for their “line skip,” which could cause problems if you were late. This newly announced tier of line skipping, Premier Pass, does away with that restriction, but at a steep cost.
As spotted by GameSpot, the new “Premier” pass—which will be available later this month—will cost up to $450 a day per person at Disney World. The price varies depending on the park and when you go, with Disney saying that the highest prices will be found on a “limited number of days over peak travel periods.”
Here are the prices for each park, but keep in mind that you still need to buy a ticket to the park, and at Disney World, only folks staying in Disney World hotels on property will be eligible to buy these new, limited passes.
Disney’s Animal Kingdom: $129 to $199
EPCOT: $169 to $249
Disney’s Hollywood Studios: $269 to $349
Magic Kingdom: $329 to $449
Meanwhile, at Disneyland, the Premier pass will cost $400 per person until December 31. In 2025, the pass will drop to $300 to $400 a day per person, based on what dates you visit.
In 2023, Disney CEO Bob Iger said that the massive company had been “too aggressive” about increasing prices at the parks and wanted to make them more “accessible.” This, uh, doesn’t seem like a good way to do that. And sure, you can argue that people don’t need to buy these passes, that they can just wait in line, but ride queues can get quite long and waiting sucks. Besides, the big appeal of Disney World and Disneyland is the rides! And making it more expensive to actually enjoy them seems like the opposite of making your parks more accessible to more people.
A 35-year-old man died after crossing the finishing line of a Halloween half marathon at Disneyland over the weekend, officials said.The Disneyland Halloween Half Marathon Weekend, Sept. 5-8, occurred as a triple-digit heat wave engulfed the Anaheim area and greater Southern California. The runner, who was identified by the Orange County Coroner’s Office as Bobby Graves, died after the race Sunday. Graves was known by his middle name, Caleb, according to his social media.Graves crossed the finish line at approximately 7 a.m., grasping his chest and subsequently collapsing, Matthew Sutter, a spokesperson for the Anaheim Police Department, told SFGATE. Medics and fire crews attempted to treat Graves at the scene, and he was transported to a local hospital while in full cardiac arrest. After being treated for an hour, Graves was later pronounced dead at the hospital, Sutter said. “We are deeply saddened by this tragic loss, and our hearts are with Caleb’s family and loved ones during this difficult time,” Jessica Good, Disneyland Resort spokesperson, told SFGATE.Officials from Disneyland Resort did not answer SFGATE’s additional questions about the heat wave or if they would consider moving the annual race to a cooler time of year.Sunday was a “toasty” day for Anaheim, Casey Oswant, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service, told SFGATE. The lowest temperature was 75 degrees at 6 a.m., and the temperature during the warmest part of the day, around 2 p.m., reached 107 degrees. Temperatures have risen to at least 100 degrees every day since Wednesday, she added.The Anaheim area is under an excessive heat warning, first issued by the weather service on Sept. 4. It expires Sept. 10 at 8 p.m., Oswant said. September to early November are usually the hottest months of the year for the Anaheim area, and extreme temperatures can be dangerous for some individuals sensitive to heat. “Heat is one of the more dangerous weather hazards that occur, and specifically the way heat affects you kind of varies from person to person,” Oswant said. “It is usually recommended to avoid doing strenuous activities during the hottest part of the day and to make sure you’re remaining hydrated.”Sutter said Graves did not have any known existing medical conditions. And according to Graves’ TikTok account, which has more than 19,000 followers, he often ran long-distance races. Graves dedicated his account, @calebgtravels, to creating Disneyland and Disney World vlogs, which show him running several other Disney races in the past. He ran a full marathon at Walt Disney World earlier this year and a half marathon at Disneyland, according to his account. Just a day before Sunday’s race, Graves posted a video saying he had passed out from heat exhaustion after walking his dog outside.“I really hope I get through the race tomorrow morning,” he said. His comments are now flooded with hundreds of followers’ condolences. The coroner’s office told SFGATE that Graves’ cause of death has not been determined. In 2019, a runner died after collapsing during a Walt Disney World Wine & Dine race in Florida.See more coverage of top California stories here | Download our app | Subscribe to our morning newsletter
ANAHEIM, Calif. —
A 35-year-old man died after crossing the finishing line of a Halloween half marathon at Disneyland over the weekend, officials said.
The runner, who was identified by the Orange County Coroner’s Office as Bobby Graves, died after the race Sunday. Graves was known by his middle name, Caleb, according to his social media.
Graves crossed the finish line at approximately 7 a.m., grasping his chest and subsequently collapsing, Matthew Sutter, a spokesperson for the Anaheim Police Department, told SFGATE. Medics and fire crews attempted to treat Graves at the scene, and he was transported to a local hospital while in full cardiac arrest. After being treated for an hour, Graves was later pronounced dead at the hospital, Sutter said.
“We are deeply saddened by this tragic loss, and our hearts are with Caleb’s family and loved ones during this difficult time,” Jessica Good, Disneyland Resort spokesperson, told SFGATE.
Officials from Disneyland Resort did not answer SFGATE’s additional questions about the heat wave or if they would consider moving the annual race to a cooler time of year.
Sunday was a “toasty” day for Anaheim, Casey Oswant, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service, told SFGATE. The lowest temperature was 75 degrees at 6 a.m., and the temperature during the warmest part of the day, around 2 p.m., reached 107 degrees.
Temperatures have risen to at least 100 degrees every day since Wednesday, she added.
The Anaheim area is under an excessive heat warning, first issued by the weather service on Sept. 4. It expires Sept. 10 at 8 p.m., Oswant said. September to early November are usually the hottest months of the year for the Anaheim area, and extreme temperatures can be dangerous for some individuals sensitive to heat.
“Heat is one of the more dangerous weather hazards that occur, and specifically the way heat affects you kind of varies from person to person,” Oswant said. “It is usually recommended to avoid doing strenuous activities during the hottest part of the day and to make sure you’re remaining hydrated.”
Sutter said Graves did not have any known existing medical conditions.
And according to Graves’ TikTok account, which has more than 19,000 followers, he often ran long-distance races.
Graves dedicated his account, @calebgtravels, to creating Disneyland and Disney World vlogs, which show him running several other Disney races in the past. He ran a full marathon at Walt Disney World earlier this year and a half marathon at Disneyland, according to his account.
Just a day before Sunday’s race, Graves posted a video saying he had passed out from heat exhaustion after walking his dog outside.
“I really hope I get through the race tomorrow morning,” he said. His comments are now flooded with hundreds of followers’ condolences.
The coroner’s office told SFGATE that Graves’ cause of death has not been determined.
In 2019, a runner died after collapsing during a Walt Disney World Wine & Dine race in Florida.
