When you visit Disneyland in the off season, you get the benefit of smaller crowds. But the downside is that some of the main rides are closed for refurbishment. This fall, several attractions across Disneyland and Disney California Adventure will close for maintenance before the busy holiday season begins.
Safety Improvements
The most prolonged closures will be the Indiana Jones Adventure, Casey Jr. Circus Train, and Storybook Land Canal Boats. Disney is making some modifications to increase safety on these rides in case of an evacuation (improved fall protection, better walkways along the ride tracks, and possibly dock modifications to make loading/unloading safer). Disney will also use the time for the standard refurbishment tasks of improving lighting, touching up painting, and maintenance on the animatronic figures.
The Indiana Jones Adventure wil reopen December 7. Storybook Land Canal Boats and Casey Jr. Circus Train both reopen November 15, in time to show off their seasonal overlay of holiday decorations.
Holiday Makeovers
Several Disneyland attractions close this time of year so that Disney can add seasonal decorations for Halloween and Christmas. Big Thunder Ranch Petting Farm and Space Mountain will close for seasonal makeovers Sept. 10-13. Space Mountain will transform into Ghost Galaxy, with spooky space monsters.
Over at Disney California Adventure, the Muppet Vision 3D theater will close Sept. 10-13 so crews can prepare for sneak peeks of the upcoming Tim Burton movie “Frankenweenie.” From Sept. 14 to Nov. 5, visitors will see the regular Muppet Vision movie during the day and the 4D “Frankenweenie” preview at night. “Frankenweenie” opens in theaters Oct. 5.
On a side note, the fact that Disney is swapping out the Muppet film like this is telltale sign that the attraction’s days are numbered. If the ride was more popular, Disney would not be able to close it down halfway through the day. When an attraction’s popularity wanes, it is just a matter of time before it is replaced with something else.
And speaking of Tim Burton, Disneyland’s Haunted Mansion will is closed through Sept. 14 so it can be decorated for the “Nightmare before Christmas” overlay. “it’s a small world” will close October 22 – November 8 for the seasonal holiday installation.
Routine Maintenance
Several of Disneyland’s river attractions will briefly close for routine maintenance:
- Davy Crockett Explorer Canoes, Sept 17-18
- Sailing Ship Columbia, Sept. 18-20
- Mark Twain Riverboat, Sept. 25-28
Planning Your Visit
One of the challenges with planning your Disneyland visit is that refurbishment information can be difficult to find on Disneyland.com. You have to go into the vacation planning calendar section and then search by your individual planning dates. Disney only publishes information about 60 days in advance, which isn’t great for those of us who plan vacations several months in advance.
Touring Plans is one of the more reliable sources for advance refurbishment calendar information. The site also has some good calendars that project crowd levels on a given day. I consider it the Farmer’s Almanac of Disneyland crowd levels. There is a small fee to access some of the info, but when you’re planning to invest a substantial sum into a vacation, it can be worth spending a few dollars more to get a sense of what to expect when you get there.
Photo via Wikipedia
Source, OC Register
That’s quite a few rides that will be closed over the next few months. There should be a rule that they can’t close more than one major ride without having to lower the prices.